Some encomiums upon the excellent treatise of chemistry by Berzelius : also objections to his nomenclature, and suggestions respecting a substitute, deemed preferable, in a letter to Professor Silliman / by Robert Hare.

  • Hare, Robert, 1781-1858.
Date:
[1834]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some encomiums upon the excellent treatise of chemistry by Berzelius : also objections to his nomenclature, and suggestions respecting a substitute, deemed preferable, in a letter to Professor Silliman / by Robert Hare. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    to that now generally used, with such improvements as may seem to me consistent with its principles. 1 will proceed to state my objections to the Berzelian nomen- clature, and to suggest the language which I would prefer. I should be glad if the promulgation of my opinions should call forth remarks which may enable me to correct in due season, any errors into which I may have fallen. I regret the necessity of making a final election, before submitting my objections to Berzelius him- self, whose disapprobation it would grieve me much to incur. My apology-will be found in the adage—Amicus Plato, sed magis arnica Veritas. Besides, if my opinions are incorrect, they will only react upon their author. The productions of Ber- zelius stand deservedly too high in public favour to be reached by ill founded criticism. The most striking feature in the nomenclature of Berzelius, is the formation of two classes of bodies; one class called halo- gene or salt producing, because they are conceived to produce salts directly; the other called amphigene or both producing, being productive both of acids and bases, and of course indirectly of salts. To render this division eligible, it appears to me that the terms acid, base, and salt, should, in the first place, be strictly de- fined. Unfortunately there are no terms in use, more broad, vague, and unsettled in their meaning. Agreeably to the common accep- tation, chloride of sodium is pre-eminently entitled to be called a salt; since in common parlance, when no distinguishing term is annexed, salt is the name of that chloride. This is quite reason- able, as it is well known that it was from this compound, that the genus received its name. Other substances, having in their ob- vious qualities some analogy with chloride of sodium, were, at an early period, readily admitted to be species of the same genus; as, for instance, Glauber's salt, Epsom salt, sal ammoniac. Yet found- ing their pretensions upon similitude in obvious qualities, few of the substances called salts, in the broader sense of the name, could have been admitted into the class. Insoluble chlorides have evi- dently, on the score of properties, as little claim to be considered as salts, as insoluble oxides. Luna cornea, plumbum corneum, butter of antimony, and the fuming liquor of Libavius, are the ap- pellations given respectively to chlorides of silver, lead, anti- mony, and tin, which are quite as deficient of the saline character as the corresponding compounds of the same metal with oxygen. Fluoride of calcium (fluor spar) is as unlike a salt as lime, the oxide of the same metal. No saline quality can be perceived in the so- luble haloid salts, so called by Berzelius, while free from water; and when a compound of this kind is moistened, even by contact with the tongue, it may be considered as a salt formed of an hy- dracid and an oxybase, produced by a union of the hydrogen of the water with the halogene element, and of the oxygen with the radical. It is admitted by Berzelius, vol. 3, page 330, that it can- not be demonstrated that the elements of the water, and those of an haloid salt, dissolved in that liquid, do not exist in the state