176 Chemical and WRneralogical Nomenclature, 



bert, who ailerts that the new are more exaft, fonorouS* 

 and fignificative ; for any term is exact and fignificative 

 when it denotes, without obfeurity or ambiguity, the thing 

 iigniilcd ; and as In found, it may deferve attention in poetry, 

 bui furely, if not exceedingly uncouth, it deferves none in 

 feienee. He acknowledges that thefe alterations may caufe 

 fome erabarraflment to the prefent race of men, but thinks 

 that fucceedincr generations will blefs thofe that introduced 

 them. I think on the contrary that they will curfe them, for 

 obliging ihem to learn boti; the new and the old denomina- 

 tions under the penalty of not underftanding Stahl, Henckel v 

 Margraf, Lemery, GeolTrov, Duhamel, Macqner, Bergman, 

 Scheele and many others of the higheft merit. Can any one 

 be fo arrogant as to pretend that thefe immortal authors can 

 become unintelligible without prejudice to the feienee? Is 

 it pofllble that, muficians fliould judge more fhrewdly than 

 thole whoprofefs to be philofophers r Yet thefe have rejected 

 all the modern alterations of notation that have been propofed 

 to them, though attended with fome advantages, from the 

 finrrle confideration that, if new mode.- were adopted, the in- 

 imitable cornpofitions of the laft and prefent age would either 

 foon become unintelligible, or the arduous tafk of learning 

 both methods of notation would be impofed on all fucceeding 

 rations. I am not however for the total excluuon of the 

 term fulpSiiret; let it be employed to denote the composition 

 of fulphur with any baf-s in general, whether alkaline, 

 earthy, metallic, oleaginous, fpirituous or carbonaceous j in 

 ibis moil extenfive fenfe the old nomenclature fupplied no 

 term, and vet fome name was wanting; in this fenfe there- 

 fire it may be retained. 



Another general maxim advanced by M. Mor.eau is, that 

 '•' the denomination of a chemical compound is neither clear 

 nor exact except it exprefles by names conformable to their 

 nature the ingredients that enter into that compound." This 

 maxim, unhappily too eafily adopted by the French fchool, 

 t n \- to the fubverfion of the received language of all fciences, 

 and even of common life. By this rule we arc to banifh 

 the name water, and iniiea*} of it fubftitute its component 



Kj/icdicnta 



