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LONDON
Chemical Society, December 2.—Dr A. W. Williamson, F.R.S., in the chair. Sir Roderick Murchison, Bart., F.R.S., Messrs. M. H. Cochrane, Edward Smith, T. Walton, M.R.C.S., G. M. Hopwood, John Wiggin, Thomas Gibb, and George Harrison were elected Fellows. A paper on some points of the Chemical Nomenclature of Salts by Mr. H. G. Maden was read. The author advocated the use of the prefixes “proto ” and “per” instead of the terminations “ous ” and “ic” in the nomenclature of salts, and expressed his preference for the systematic names formed from English words, as “copper sulphate.” Dr. Attfield recommended an adherence to trivial names like “calomel” and “corrosive sublimate,” when possible, as changes in theory necessarily led to inconvenient alterations in nomenclature. Dr. Williamson objected to Mr. Maden's proposal to revert to the use of the prefixes “proto” and “per,” on the ground that they had formerly produced great confusion, particularly in the nomenclature of the chlorides of mercury. He advocated an extension of the use of the terminations “ous” and “ic,” which indicated the places of compounds in a series without binding chemists to particular views of constitution. He thought Mr. Maden's preference for English words might be carried too far and produce such terms as “brimstonic acid” and “charcoalic oxide.” Mr. Vernon Harcourt expressed his general concurrence with the author. Dr. Odling pointed out that in certain names, such as “ferricyanide of iron,” it was advantageous to use both English and Latin names. Dr. Voelcker thought that the employment of different names for the same substance familiarised chemists with different views of constitution. A communication from Mr. J. Hunter on the analyses of sea-water from different depths was read. The author gave the results of observations made during the recent scientific expedition of the Porcupine.
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Societies and Academies . Nature 1, 173–178 (1869). https://doi.org/10.1038/001173b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/001173b0