72 System of Chemistry, by Prof. Berzelius. 



borico potassique,^' T would designate as a fluoborate of the fluoride 

 (or fluobase) of potassium, or for the sake of brevity, fluoborate of 

 potassium. " Fluorure silico potassique," would by the same rule, 

 be called fluoscilicate of potassium. 



The illustration thus given in the instance of potassium, renders it 

 unnecessary to furnish other examples, as it would only require that 

 the name of any other metal should be substituted for that of potassi-. 

 um, in order to modify these appellations, so as to suit every case. 



Pursuant to my fundamental definition, ferroprussiate of potash, 

 cyanure ferroso potassique in the Berzelian nomenclature, should be 

 considered as a compound of cyanoferric acid, and a cyanide or cy- 

 anobase of potassium, and would of consequence be a cyanoferrate 

 of potassium. Or if the iron be in two different degrees united with 

 cyanogen, as the names cyanure ferroso potassique, and cyanure fer- 

 rico potassique indicate, we should have both a cyanoferrite and a 

 cyanoferrate of potassium ; and of course cyanoferrous and cyano- 

 ferric acid for their respective electronegative ingredients. " Cyan- 

 ure ferrique acide" would be exchanged for cyanoferrate of hydro- 

 gen, being a case analogous to that of the " fluorure potassique acide" 

 above considered and provided for. 



If I am justified in my impression above stated, water, and the 

 compound formed by fluorine with hydrogen (" hydrofluric acid" or 

 fluohydric acid as I prefer to call it) should be severally designated 

 as acids when they act as acids ; as bases, -when they act as bases. 

 In other cases the one might be designated as an oxide, the other as 

 a fluoride, of hydrogen. In the case of a compound so well known 

 as water, I would adhere to the common name, resorting to the sci- 

 entific names only as definitions. Thus water would be defined as 

 an oxide of hydrogen, which in some combinations, acts as an ox- 

 ybase of hydrogen, in others as hydric acid, or the oxacid of hy- 

 drogen.* 



After designating as metalloids all non-metallic bodies, Berzelius 

 alleges (page 203, vol. 1st,) that they are divided into oxygen, and 

 bodies which are combustible, or susceptible of combining with oxy- 

 gen ; in which process, the greater part display the ordinary phe- 



* The use which I have made of the terminations in ide, in fluoride of hydrogen, 

 or oxide of hydrogen, to signify a compound of hydrogen with fluorine, or oxygen 

 generally, without conveying the iJea of its being either a base or an acid, illus- 

 trates the advantage which would result from the use of that termination in that 

 broad sense. 



