Every chemist knows that trivial names are both useful and infuriating. Useful because they are brief designations for compounds whose systematic names may be very cumbersome, and infuriating because they seldom give the least indication of the compound's structure. One is thus forced to fall back on memory when one wants to correlate the name with the structural formula, or one must turn to a good reference work. Such a reference work has been available for the last few years in the form of the Trivial Name Card Filer"] which, if this new fifth batch is included, now contains more than 13000 entries. Like the previous cards, this fifth batch consists both of cards giving new names and of replacement cards that correct information given previously or bring it completely up to date. In the top left-hand corner each card bears the position number that applies on alphabetical arrangement of the cards according to the German spelling of the trivial names; in the top right-hand corner is the position number obtained by sorting arrangement according to American English spelling. Below these numbers are, respectively, the German and English trivial names. The center of the card is occupied by the structural formula with an indication of the stereochemistry, in the bottom left-hand corner is the molecular formula, and in the bottom right-hand corner are one or two references with the aid of which one can find the description of the compound in Chemischer Informationsdienst or Chemical Abstracts. The card file thus contains all that is needed for preliminary information about substances whose designations often sound truly exotic-no longer is one helpless in the face of pinseline, gentiakochianine, or colestipol; the contents d o not become outdated and thus the investment is worthwhile. One might even take the presence of this card file as a criterion of the quality of a chemical library.
H . Neithurd