The Use and Misuse of Nomenclature

Nomenclature is the tool by which chemists describe their compounds to one another. Like other tools it can be used in several ways and it can be misused. 

Chemists need to describe compounds for various purposes. According to the occasion, a scribbled structural formula, That substance , or compound (II) is sometimes the most suitable designation. The computer memory, which stores structures rather than names, wiU increasingly take over some of the functions of a list of names. But lists will continue, for trade and abstracts indexes and lexicons, and they wiU require descriptive names and, of course, names are essential, too, for many research papers or reports, for textbooks, and for most chemical conversation. 

The nomenclature that is regarded as correct follows from the consensus of users opinions. It is written in rule form by the Commissions of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, who try to see nomenclature as a whole, codifying existing practice and occasionally suggesting novelties they accept the useful practices of specialists within their own fields but reject what they consider to be unnecessary aberrations from general principles. 

It would be simpler if theue were only one correct name for a substance. In practice, particularly in organic chemistry, this is not so. There are two reasons. First, large compilations such as Beilstein s Smdhuch and Chemical Abstracts often use differing principles, and fundamental changes would bring 

In some cases, therefore, alternative names are prescribed as equally correct in the international rules. Then one country. Society, journal, or compendium may exercise its own preference. Within reason, each individual chemist has the same choice, though in practice he may be limited by his Society, editor, or publisher. In most cases there is one name which is correct for a particular purpose an author may use one of the alternatives, or even an incorrect name, if it is essential for his theoretical arguments, but not just because of his personal preference the authorized version will, with a little ingenuity, suffice for almost all purposes. 

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