Terminations are well adapted to express definite systematic relations, such as those of chemistry, but they must be employed with a due regard to all the bearings of the system. Davy proposed to denote the combinations of other substances with chlorine by peculiar terminations; using _ane_ for the smallest proportion of Chlorine, and _anea_ for the larger, as Cupr_ane_, Cupr_anea_. In this nomenclature, common salt would be _Sodane_, and Chloride of Nitrogen would be _Azotane_. This suggestion never found favour. It was {341} objected that it was contrary to the Linnæan precept, that a specific name must not be united to a generic termination. But this was not putting the matter exactly on its right ground; for the rules of nomenclature of natural history do not apply to chemistry; and the Linnæan rule might with equal propriety have been adduced as a condemnation of such terms as Sulphur_ous_, Sulphur_ic_. But Davy's terms were bad; for it does not appear that Chlorine enters, as Oxygen does, into so large a portion of chemical compounds, that its relations afford a key to their nature, and may properly be made an element in their names. This resource, of terminations, has been abused, wherever it has been used wantonly, or without a definite significance in the variety. This is the case in M. Beudant's Mineralogy. Among the names which he has given to new species, we find the following (besides many in _ite_), Scolexer_ose_, Opsim_ose_, Exanthel_ose_, &c.; Diacr_ase_, Panab_ase_, Neopl_ase_; Neocl_ese_; Rhodo_ise_, Stibicon_ise_, &c.; Marcel_ine_, Wilhelm_ine_, &c.; Exit_ele_, and many others. In addition to other objections which might be made to these names, their variety is a material defect: for to make this variety depend on caprice alone, as in those cases it does, is to throw away a resource of which chemical nomenclature may teach us the value. APHORISM XXII. _When alterations in technical terms become necessary, it is desirable that the new term should contain in its form some memorial of the old one._