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Don’t fail to put your best foot forward. Otherwise you won’t have a chance to use the other foot. Note the construetion of the news story in any first-class paper. It is built up on the same logical system as the symphony or opera. The opening paragraph gives in succinct fashion the main point of interest, the gist of the story, just as the first movement or overture of a musical composition expresses the main theme
or motif Don’t expect the editor to explain why he rejects your manuscript. He is probably right in his verdict, but if you make him
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No.
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At zero hour-to use the military term for the time set for the beginning of an offensive-the barrage-that is to say the line on which the artillery fire is directed-was raised and the poilu-this is a French slang term for soldier meaning “hairy,, and corresponding to our “roughneck”-and the doughboythis is an American slang term for infantryman derived either from the round buttons worn in the civil war, or the dobe huts inhabited in the Mexican war or the pipeclayed belts of the Revo~utionarywar-sprang Over the top-that is to say surmounted the parapet of the entrenchments-sticking their bayonets-a weapon invented a t Bayonne, France, in 16.5into the boche-a COntemptUOUS term referring t o the Germans, probably an abbreviation of caboche or blockhead originally applied to Alsatians,
give a reason for i t he will have to invent one and it would probably be wrong. EDWIN E. SLOSSON~ Don’t say you can’t find anything to write about. This number of the Journal of Industrial and Engineering ChemistryCHEMICAL NOMENCLATURE and every other-contains a t least $15 worth of good popular The resolution2 passed by the Division of Organic Chemistry science stuff. Chesterton says: “There are no uninteresting a t the Cleveland meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, subjects, there are only uninterested people.” in which the use is encouraged of “the pure English terms Don’t regurgitate undigested morsels. It is a disgusting habit. ‘benzene,’ ‘toluene,’ and ‘xylene,’ including all of their derivaDon’t refer to notes or books while writing. Read up on the tives, in place of the hybrid forms ‘benzol,’ ‘toluol,’ ‘xylol,’ subject as thoroughly as you can, and take as many notes as etc.,” suggests a few remarks. The recommendation is worthy you need. Then put away all your notes and books out of reach to be heeded by all English-speaking people, as it appeals to and next day, or a t least an hour later, lay a clean sheet of paper me, not so much because the discredited forms are used by the on a clean desk and write out what you know about it in your Germans, although an appearance of aping the German is of own way. Afterwards, preferably next day, read over your course distasteful to us all, but because the forms favored are manuscript critically, verify your facts, correct your data, regood English chemical nomenclature. As is well known, in vise your English, and add any essential points you may have careful usage the endings in the names of chemical compounds forgotten. But don’t expect the reader to be interested in what often have special meanings. They designate classes of comis so uninteresting to you that you cannot keep it in mind a pounds. The “-01” ending in organic nomenclature, e. g., is single hour. Don’t define a hard word by a harder one. Vladivostok reserved for hydroxyl derivatives of hydrocarbons (alcohols) and the “-ene” ending is used for certain classes of hydrocarbons. is a hard word, but when the war correspondent arrives a t The unsuitability of the name “benzol” for CoH8 is obvious. Vladivostok he says so and goes right on inland without stopping Although “benzene” is a good English word, as shown by usage, t o explain that “this is a city south of Khabarovks and east of and by its conformity to approved nomenclature rules, i t is Tsitsikhar.” So you, if you want to say “calorie” say it but interesting to note that it, as well as “benzol,” was first sugdon’t make it worse by “explaining” it as “the quantity of heat gested as the name for CeHa by a German. “Benzol” is Liebig’s necessary to effect a rise of temperature of one degree centigrade name; Hofmann suggested “benzene.” of a cube of water, each dimension of which is one tenth part Both in Great Britain, where, by the way, efforts have also of the length of a bar of platinum and iridium alloy lying in been made to discourage the use of “benzol” in favor of the observatory of St. Cloud if it has not been smashed up by a shell from the Big Bertha.” If you think you must define “benzene,” and in the United States the use of “benzol” has been more common among industrial men. The fact-is signifithe calorie say casually that 100 calories of energy can be derived cant that these men are more frequently speaking not of the from four lumps of sugar (Hoover size) or from a one inch cube pure compound C6He but of the commercial mixture of hydroof butter, or explain that a man needs to expend a hundred carbons of the benzene series obtained in the refinement of coal calories an hour all day to keep his body running and 160 tar. There is some question as to whether or not it is suitable calories if he is working hard. to give this mixture, which may contain less than 50 per cent of Don’t think you must leave out all technical terms. Use c ~ H ~ the , Same name as given to the pure compound; them, whenever necessary, without apology and, if possible, favor the use of “benzene” for the compound and “benzol” without formal definition. People are not so easily scared by for the commercial mixture. (The ‘‘-ol,~ ending rule only applies strange words as you may think. They rather like ’em. Kipling to definite compounds.) In the office of Chemical Abstracts is read with delight by old and young, Yet his Prose and verse we recognize that there are arguments for such a differentiation .are crammed with technical terms. Having exhausted the and for a while tried to apply the two accordingly, but military, nautical, and mechanical vocabularies he invented we have finally decided in favor of the use of “benzene91in a new and unknown for his story “with the both cases, with such modifications as crude, go per cent, 50 Night Mail.” In his “Just-So’’ stories for the kiddies he sticks per cent, in suitable cases. This has seemed better particuin long names like plums in a pudding. A Kipling dictionary larly in view of the fact that the rather common use of both has been published but even the editors could not run down all for the pure compound would lead to confusion. the Peculiar words Kipling has Picked UP. But the ordinary There are other chemical words and names more or less cornreader does not need the dictionary. He gets the meaning manly used incorrectly in the United States. M~~~ of the infrom the run of the story, for the story is So written that he Will correct are corruptions due to German influence, often get the meaning. Observe that the war correspondent writes bad translations; this makes them seem particularly undesirable without hesitation : now, but there are other better reasons for avoiding them. Good At Zero hour the barrage was raised and the Poilu and the nomenclature is important for its own sake. A correct name doughboy sprang over the top, sticking their bayonets into the of a compound frequently serves to tell the nature of the boche. compound and often its structure also. Correct usage avoids And the man in the street reads it without batting an eye alconfusion and aids in indexing. In scientific matters it is imthough the sentence contains half a dozen words not to be found portant to be exact in words and phrases used just as it is imi n his vocabulary four years ago, or in the dictionary yet. But 1 Literary Editor of T h e Independent and associate in the School of i f this sentence was being written by one of our conscientious Journalism, Columbia University. scientists he would word it in this fashion: 2 THIS JOURNAL, 1 0 (1918), 944.
Jan., 1919
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Salts of organic bases with hydrochloric acid should be called portant to be exact with figures. Our experience in editing hydrochlorides (not hydrochlorates nor chlorhydrates). SimiChemical Abstracts proves this assertion over and over again. larly hydrobromide and hydriodide (not hydroiodide) are prefGood English in chemical literature, particularly in naming erable. ,compounds, needs cultivation. Sucrose is preferable to saccharose or cane sugar. A rather common practice among American chemists and one The Organic Division chose a good time to start a movement for better nomenclature and i t seems to me that while correcting which does not seem good is the use of the word body when chemical comfiound or chemical substance is meant. It is de.ourselves in regard to the benzene hydrocarbons we would do sirable to distinguish between a physical body and a chemical well to give thought t o other needed reforms. It seems as substance or compound. The fact that the Germans rather though such a statement should be accompanied by some specific frequently use “Korper” for “chemical compound” has probably recommcmdations. I am not an authority, but possibly the influenced this not incorrect but undh-able use of “body” in English. accumulated experience from the constant effort which has been OHIOSTATEUNIVERSITY . E. J. CRARE made in the office of Chemical Abstracts to keep the abstract COLU~WSUS, OHIO journal an example of good nomenclature justifies the statement ‘of a few preferences. The subject has been carefully studied, AN INTERNATIONAL SUGAR SCALE particularly by those who preceded the present editor and later Editor of the Journal of Industrial a,nd Engineering Chemistry: in connection with the Decennial Subject Index,’ and the advice As one whose regular work calls for frequent use of the polari,of those who seemed best able to help has often been sought. I believe that there will be no disagreement concerning the scope, I wish to express my approval of the proposition made by C. A. Browneinyourissueof November I , that this is an opportune preferences stated below although frequent divergence from them is observable. They are abridged from “Directions for Assistant time to adopt an international sugar scale and that the Sidersky Editors and Abstractors of Chemical Abstracts.” The nomencla- and Pellet scale based on a normal weight of 2 0 g. instead of the ture rules in these directions have come to be known, it seems, French and German scales now in use. The arguments ad.as representing the forms approved by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL vanced in favor of the proposed scale are convincingly stated SOCIETY, Requests for information as to the forms so ap- and certainly no more favorable time can arrive than the present critical time for the proposed change. proved a.re not infrequent. To make our list of nomenclature I would suggest that no time be lost in bringing the matter t o rules, perhaps after modification, more authoritative, or to formulate a new one and to settle points of disagreement (a the attention of polariscopists in Great Britain, Prance, and Italy. Would it not be an advantage to have every polariscope number of other preferences could be stated but the chances of disagreement would be greater with reference t o them), i t would equipped with both the angular scale and the sugar scale, with seem t o me that a revival of the Society’s dismissed Committee the outer edge of the vernier reading on one scale and the inner on Inorganic h’omenclature and its Committee on Organic No- edge fitted to read fractional parts on the other? The expense menclature would be opportune. Such a suggestion will be made. would not be serious. Now that many polariscopists are using as a standard light In naming a compound so as to indicate that oxygen is replaced by sulfur the prefix thio and not sulfo should be used filter a bichromate of potash filter in which the thickness in (sulfo denotes the group SOsH); thus HCNS, thiocyanic acid; centimeters multiplied by the percentage of crystals = g, we H ~ A s S thioarsenic ~, acid; NazSzOa,sodium thiosulfate; CS(NHZ)Z, have a standard of approximately monochromatic light which fhiourea. Note particularly that thiocyanate is preferable t o is more conveniently reproduced than the sodium flame, now sulfocyanide for salts of HCNS. The word hydrate should not be used for a kompound with that electric lights are in use everywhere. It should not be SOH;it is reserved for compounds with HzO. Thus, chlorine difficult to secure standard glass plates whose absorption as .hydrate, Clz.1oHp0; barium hydroxide, Ba(0H)z. filters would equal in every respect that of the bichromate filter. Salts of chloroplatinic acid are chloroplatinates (not platiniWith the new scale, the standard light filter, and the standard chlorides). Similarly salts of chlorauric acid are to be called quartz control plate adopted universally, international polarichloraurates. Hydroxyl derivatives of hydrocarbons are to be given names scopy would seem to have been placed on a very desirable footing. ending in -01, as resorcinol, pinacol (not pinacone), mannitol REGINA,CANADA W. W. ANDREWS (not mannite). There may be objection t o the form glycerol h’ovember 15, 1918 rather than glycerin because the latter is so well established. German names ending in it should be translated -ite rather than -it; as permutite. If it seems desirable to retain the origi- THE 1918 DIRECTORY-AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCLETY nal form of a trade name it should be placed in quotations, as The 1918 Diiectory of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY is “permutit.” Alcohols such as CaHs(0H)e (German Dulcit = now available for members. It contains 422 pages as compared dulcitol) are exceptio:;. The German ending -carbonsaure” should never be translated with the 1916 Directory’s 289 pages, and i t exceeds by ap“-carbonic acid.” proximately 4,000 the number of members listed in the 1916 It is desirable that in the case of organic compounds the connective o be used invariably in such names of substituent issue. The Directors have voted that i t may be obtained by members from the Secretary on payment of $I .oo to cover radicals as amino-, bromo-, chloro-, cyano-, and iodo-; thus bromobenzene, chloroacetic, nitroaniline. This conforms to the partial cost of printing and upon their written statement that demands of euphony and also makes for uniformity in indexing. it is desired for their personal use only and will not be loaned The use of this connective makes for better English; its omission is German-like. There are a few apparent exceptions to this or disposed of to any firm with which they may or may not be connected or to any individual t o be used for advertising purrule as cyanamide, chloraurate. The names of the groups NHz, NHR, NR2, NH, or NR should poses. end in -id0 only when they are substituents in an acid group, CHARLESI,. PARSONS WASHINGTON, D. C. otherwise in -;no; thus MeC( :NH)OEt, ethyl imidoacetate; December 10, 1918 NHzCHZCH~COZH, 0-aminopropionic acid (not amidopropionic acid) ; NHPhCH2CH2C02H, P-anilinopropionic acid; CHaC( :NH)COzH, a-iminopropionic acid. RAMSAY MEMORIAL FUND Hydroxy-, not oxy-, should be used in designating the hyOver $3,000 has been contributed t o the Ramsay Memorial droxyl group; as hydroxyacetic acid, CHz(0H)COsH, not oxyacetic acid. Keto- is to be preferred t o oxy- t o designate the group Fund in the United States up to date. The committee will be -CO-.. This is a case in which it is particularly bad t o follow glad to receive further American subscriptions. Checks should German practice. The term ether should never be used for compounds which be made payable and sent to the Ramsay Memorial Fund Committee, W. J. Matheson, Treasurer, z I Burling Slip, New York are properly called esters. City. 1 See Patterson and Curran, J . Am. Chem. Soc.. 39 (1917) ,1623-38.
