I04        Notes  on  Pronunciation  and  Orthography J^^^'^-J^^"-J^\^^' 
Guaiac,  sometimes  written  guiac, 
Italian  (it-taF-yian)  often  pronounced  I^-tal-ian. 
Jamestown  weed,  vulgarly  known  as  jimson  weed. 
Naphtha,  sometimes  written  naptha. 
Net,  much  better  English  than  nett. 
Ochre,  often  spelled  ocher. 
Pareira.  As  this  word  is  derived  from  the  Portuguese  parreira^  a 
vine,  it  ought  properly  to  be  sounded  pa-ray'-ra,  in  like  manner  as 
Janeiro  (ja-nay^-ro).  The  German  pronunciation,  pa-ri'-ra,  should 
be  abandoned. 
Pharmacopoeia  becomes  pharmacopoea  in  connection  with  the  phrase 
Pharmacopcea  Germanica. 
Platinum  (plat^-i-num),  often  pronounced  plat-i^-num. 
Process  (pros'-es),  much  more  elegant  than  pro-cess. 
Prussian,  Prussiate,  Prussic  and  Russian  are  frequently  sounded  with 
the  u  long,  while  there  is  better  authority  for  u  short  in  all  of  them  ; 
and  it  is  certainly  more  elegant. 
Pumpkin  (pump^-kin),  vulgarly,  though  almost  universally,  pro- 
nounced punk'-in. 
Retort  (re-tort^),  sometimes  accented  on  the  penultimate  syllable, 
re^-tort. 
Rhubarb  (ru^-biirb),  occasionally  pronounced  rhubarb ;  while,  prop- 
erly, the  a  should  be  sounded  as  in  far. 
Senna  (sen'-na),  often  called  seen^-na. 
Stramonium,  occasionally  spelled  strammonium,  for  which  there 
seems  to  be  no  shadow  of  authority. 
Taraxacum,  derived  from  the  Arabic  tarakhshagun^  is  sometimes 
erroneously  written  taraxicum. 
Tragacanth  (trag^-a-canth),  almost  constantly  pronounced  tra'-je- 
canth,  which  appears  but  little  better  than  the  still  more  vulgar  corrup- 
tion to  gum  dragon. 
Troche  (tro^-ke),  much  more  frequently  pronounced  with  the  soft 
sound  of  the  ch. 
Turmeric,  sometimes  written  tumeric. 
Vermilion,  often  written  vermillion. 
I  have  endeavored  to  call  attention  only  to  those  subjects  concerning 
which  some  druggists  themselves  appear  to  be  at  fault.  It  would  be 
quite  unprofitable  to  enumerate  the  perversions  and  mistakes  of  the 
illiterate  portion  of  the  public.  I  have  also  disregarded  changes  of 
names  caused  by  the  new  chemical  nomenclature,  as  very  many  of  our 
