The early chemists, working in several countries countries and speaking different languages, wanted to tell each other about their new discoveries. They wanted to find out what other scientists were thinking and what kinds of experiments they were doing. They needed a way of writing about elements, compounds, and chemical reactions that scientists throughout the world could understand.    Some of Dalton's symbols for elements and compounds--> Scientists found that Dalton's system was difficult to use.

You may wonder why the symbols for the elements are based on their Latin names. These elements occur in nature in almost pure form. So they are easy to seperate and identify. An example of such an element is gold (aurum in Latin), whose symbol is Au.    Some English words are related to the Latin name for elements. For example, the Romans used lead pipes in their water systems. The Latin word for lead is plumbum, so people who work with pipes and water systems today are called plumbers.