known, as was nitric acid, nitrous acid, and other nitrate and nitrite salts. Lavoisier named the acids and salts with his modern system of nomenclature, hut he called the element which formed the compounds azote (Greek, without life). Because Cavendish produced nitre by sparking "azote" and oxygen in the presence of potassium hydroxide, Chaptal (1790) proposed the name nitrogen for the element, meaning "nitre-forming," by analogy with oxygen (acid-forming) and hydrogen (water-forming) ( 1 1 ). Thus two important elements, which differ in their chemistry and history, share an etymological path through various civilizations from an origin in the deserts of Egypt. Literature Cited I11 Mulfhsuf,
K.P., "The O~ieinsof Chemistry: Franklin Wattn,
New Yurk, 1967, p.
16) Mullhauf.op. c i f . p. 33.
161 Cnmland, M. P.,"HisUrical Studies in the Languageof Chemistry,"Dwer, New York. 1978. p. 149.
878 1 Journal of Chemical Education
(7) Ihde, A. J.,"The Develspmenloi Modern Chemistry," Harper and R w New Ynrk, 1911.o. 142. r f . o. 116.
Another Derivation for Barbituric Acid In response ro the recent articl~." A d d f w n B n q w nnd the Naming of Harbiruric Acid" IG. H. Kauiiman, J . C'HEhI. EDIIC.. 37. 222 t 19RO1l. Dr. John F.\ V h l d h i e rhe School of ~he&is&y,~nivers;tyof Bristol, England, has called to our attention another possible derivation: "Baeyer's paper does not disclose the reason for the choice of the name barbituric acid but so stresses his conceotion of this substance as the kev compound in the series of related ureides as to suggest thk derivation from the German word Schlusselbart (the bit or "beard" of a key, from L. barba, beard) plus uric acid" (Fieser, L. F., and Fieser, M., "Organic Chemistry", D. C. Heath and Co., Boston, 1944, p. 247).
