A.m.  Jour.  Phariu. 
Jan.,  1894. 
Pharmacopoeial  Nomenclature. 
27 
standing  of  physicians'  prescriptions,  and,  above  all,  through  the 
international  use  of  like-sounding  names  for  the  medicaments. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  proper  naming  of  medicaments  is 
a  subject  of  great  importance,  and  that,  for  the  sake  of  convenience 
and  safety  (that  is,  the  avoidance  of  waste  of  time  and  of  errors),  the 
name  selected  should  be  : 
(1)  As  short  as  possible,  or,  in  other  words,  easy  of  application. 
(2)  Permanent,  or,  in  other  words,  not  changing  with  every  new 
theory. 
(3)  As  comprehensible  as  possible,  above  all  unembellished. 
(4)  Well-known  and  familiar  through  usage. 
Of  course,  scientific  names  should  have  the  preference,  providing 
they  conform  to  all  the  requirements  ;  beyond  that  the  only  weight 
given  to  science  should  be  that  the  name  to  be  chosen  expresses 
nothing  which  is  scientifically  false.  For  all  attempts  to  give  an 
idea  of  the  chemical  composition  of  the  medicaments  by  a  name 
which  did  not  accord  with  the  above  four  conditions  have  been 
futile,  and  totally  ignored  in  practice ;  the  name  could  be  found  in 
the  pharmacopoeias,  but  never  on  prescriptions.  However,  a  phar- 
macopoeia must  serve  actualities,  and  the  language  customary 
between  physician  and  apothecary,  based  on  materia  medica,  must 
be  one  of  easy  fluency. 
The  result  of  this  argument  is  that  in  the  compilation  of  a  phar- 
macopoeia, as  regards  the  nomenclature,  all  stiffness  must  be 
avoided,  and  a  compromise  made,  for  the  benefit  of  both  the  medical 
and  the  pharmaceutical  professions,  which  gives  proper  zv eight  to  both 
science  and  practice  in  the  right  place,  and  which,  while  giving  no 
room  to  the  objection  of  being  unscientific,  deserves  all  the  praise  of 
universal  practicability. 
It  will,  perhaps,  be  desirable  to  exemplify  what  has  been  said, 
and  thereby  give  some  hints  which  might  be  of  service  in  the 
future. 
First,  as  an  example  of  the  eminent  value  of  brevity  and  gen- 
eral familiarity  of  a  name,  even  when  that  name  is  not  adaptable  as 
a  title  in  the  Pharmacopoeia,  but,  nevertheless,  carries  with  it  the 
convincing  force  of  brevity  and  familiarity,  and  thereby  vouches 
also  for  the  greatest  safety  ;  the  name  "  sublimate,"  as  it  is  used  in 
the  medical-pharmaceutical  language.  To  whom  would  the  thought 
come,  at  the  mention  of  this  name,  that  a  sublimated  body  is  meant 
