ON THE NOMENCLATURE OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS. 131 



Mr. Morley has described a product of an analogous kind derived from 

 the distillation of metacetonic or propionic acid, which he calls propione, 



C6 H* OS 

 leaving C O^ 



Q5 jj5 O' propione, 



Kane indeed has referred acetone to the class of alcohols, regarding it as 

 the hydrated oxide of his hypothetical radical mesytyle ; but the mode of its 

 formation keeps it apart from the alcohol series, to w^hich indeed it would 

 be difficult in the present state of our knowledge to refer the other members 

 of this division, so that it would seem advisable that this name should be 

 retained for the entire class of organic compounds which are framed in the 

 manner represented. 



Glycerides. — This is another series of organic compounds which deserves 

 our notice, including most of the fixed oils. They are essentially composed 

 of some acid of the description called fatty, and of the oxide of a base called 

 Glycerine. 



Although they are in fact neutral salts, yet the peculiarity of their phy- 

 sical characters, and their frequent occurrence throughout both kingdoms of 

 organic nature, appear to render a distinct term for them advisable. 



Neutral Bodies. — I do not know that chemical writers have as yet suc- 

 ceeded in establishing any other well-defined groups for the multiform pro- 

 ducts of the vegetable world, except it be that extensive one consisting of 

 bodies commonly designated as neutral or indifferent, and composed of car- 

 bon with a certain number of atoms of water, or at least of oxygen and 

 hydrogen in the proportions that form that fluid. 



These in consequence possess much of a common character, and are often 

 convertible one into the other, the diiferences between them being rather 

 structural than chemical, and their affinities being less intense than those of 

 bodies which belong to any of the preceding classes. 



Part II. 

 On the Terminations of the Words designating the Members of each Class. 



Most chemists have found it convenient to denote bodies which belong to 

 the same class by words terminating alike, although Gerhardt in his classifi- 

 cation of organic compounds has neglected this principle, inasmuch as he 

 gives to the general terms indicative of classes the same termination, and 

 moreover places under each head bodies terminating very differently. 



Of the terminations commonly understood to designate the members of 

 particular classes, the most unexceptionable perhaps are, — 1st, the termina- 

 tion yle for the compound radicals, methyle, ethyle, amyle, benzoyle, &c. ; 

 and as the above has been assigned to the bodies possessing the atomic con- 

 stitution assigned to the organic radicals by Liebig, namely C® H^ with the 

 superaddition of two or more multiples of C' H', it may prevent confusion 

 to adopt the termination ene or en for those hydrocarbons with an equal num- 

 ber of atoms of carbon and hydrogen which Dumas used to regard as the 

 real organic radicals ; thus etherene will be a compound of C* HS methylene 

 of C* H-, and other compounds with an analogous constitution will terminate 

 in the same manner. 



The termination ine is reserved for the vegetable alkalies, or for bodies 

 possessing properties of at least an analogous nature. 



Thus strychnine, morphine, nicotine, as well as isotine, aniline, and even 

 kreatinine, cholesterine, &c. belong to this group. 



K 2 



