Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
May,  1881.  j 
Editorial. 
265 
EDITORIAL  DEPARTMENT. 
The  Necessity  of  Synonyms. — On  a  former  occasion  (see  "Am.  Jour. 
Pbar.,"  1878,  p.  204)  we  have  called  attention  to  the  necessity  of  having 
officially  recognized  synonyms  which  the  physician  might  use  in  those 
•cases  where  the  patient,  for  some  reason  or  other,  objects  to  taking  a  med- 
icine the  name  of  which  he  can  decipher.  This  necessity,  it  seems,  is  being 
recognized  in  various  localities,  and  probably  is  felt  everywhere.  A  medical 
correspondent  writes  to  us:  "We  practitioners  frequently  have  the  chag- 
rining task  of  attempting  to  convince  patients  that  quinine  does  not  get 
into  the  bones;  that  strychnine  is  not  always  a  poison;  that  Tommy's 
amaurosis  is  not  due  to  the  chloral  you  gave  him  when  he  was  sleepless," 
«tc.  Every  pharmacist  of  experience  in  dispensing  prescriptions  will  be 
^ible  to  recall  instances  where  patients  were  loath  to  have  medicines  pre- 
pared for  similar  cogent  reasons.  In  Europe  the  old  names,  officially 
recognized  in  former  periods,  are  not  forgotten,  and  are,  in  cases  of  neces- 
sity, employed  by  the  j)hysician  in  prescription  writing  and  understood  by 
the  pharmacist  in  compounding.  A  number  of  these  names  are,  even  at 
the  present  time,  retained  in  some  of  the  pharmacopoeias  as  s^monyms,  as, 
for  instance,  meconium,  thebaicum  and  laudanum  for  oj^ium;  tinct.  the- 
baica  and  tinctura  meconii  for  tincture  of  opium  ;  oleum  palm^e  Christi  for 
castor  oil;  syrupus  domesticus  for  buckthorn  syrup;  vitriolum  album,  vit. 
€upri  and  vit.  martis  for  the  sulphates  of  zinc,  copper  and  iron,  etc. 
Recently  the  Medical  and  Surgical  Society  of  Baltimore  has  taken  action 
in  this  matter,  and  proposed  synonyms  for  a  few  drugs,  to  be  used  by  phy- 
sicians if  deemed  necessary  or  desirable,  while  those  who  do  not  feel  the 
necessity  may  continue  to  use  the  officinal  names  in  all  cases.  The  syno- 
nyms proposed  are, 
for  Chloral,  Liebreich's  crystals  ;  for  Morphia?  sulphas,  Sei'turner's  sulphate  ; 
"   Quinlae  sulphas,  Pelltier's  sulphate ;         "    Opium,  Thebaicum ; 
"  Strychnia,  Tetanum;  "    Zinc,  Speltrum. 
It  might  be  argued  that  the  synonyms  would  soon  become  as  commonly 
known  as  the  terms  they  represented,  but  we  believe  such  not  to  be  the  case. 
The  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia  now  recognizes  a  number  of  (English)  synonyms, 
sacli  as  black  drop,  Hoffman's  anodyne,  tartar  emetic,  kermes  mineral, 
turpeth  mineral,  red  precipitate,  calomel,  corrosive  sublimate,  etc.,  which 
represent  the  names  by  which  these  articles  are  commonly  known ;  but 
.  we  believe  that  these  substances  are  rarely,  if  ever,  known  to  the  laity,  also 
by  the  ordinary  pliarmacopoeial  designation  ;  or,  in  other  words,  medicines 
are  rarely,  if  ever,  known  to  the  laity  by  two  titles. 
It  seems  to  us  that  the  subject  deserves  attention,  particularly  of  the  phy- 
sicians, who  are  more  annoyed  by  the  want  of  generally  recognized  syno- 
nyms than  pharmacists,  and  the  present  time  would  seem  to  be  favorable 
for  the  introduction  of  at  least  a  few  imj^ortant  ones  into  the  forthcoming 
pharmacoj^oeia ;  for,  to  be  of  real  utility,  such  synonyms  should  be  under- 
stood by  all  pharmacists  and  physicians. 
Fifth  International  Pharmaceutical  Congress. — At  the  Fourth 
International  Pharmaceutical  Congress,  which  was  held  in  St.  Petersburg, 
