Homoeopathy has become very difficult as a therapeutic method because of the vastness of its materia medica and different interpretations of its laws of practice. Many of the young graduates are at a loss. Its proof is that very talented allopathic converts and homoeopathic masters have written so. On the other hand, it is one of the easiest arts of healing to practice because of the simplicity of the law of similars. Its proof is not only the number of amateur practitioners or so-called quacks but also the height to which some of them reached as practitioners, authors or editors. Due to the encouragement given by the professional stalwarts to laymen and intellectuals in the practice of this art as a part-time philanthropic vocation a class of unqualified practitioners have grown in Homoeopathy almost since its inception. This class of institutionally unqualified practitioners have not always been the bane of this system, but have sometimes proved to be its boon. Homoeopathy has a vast literature by and for unqualified practitioners and also by and for qualified physicians. The series of books like Family Guide, Domestic Physician, Before the Doctor Comes, etc., have been written for the lay public by the stalwarts of Homoeopathy. On the other hand, the books by Boenninghausen and Hahnemann's other contemporary disciples, and homoeopathic masters who were not qualified institutionally like Dr. Boenninghausen, Dr. J.T. Kent, Dr. S.C. Ghosh., Dr. N.M. Chowdhury, Nilmoni Ghatak Dr. J. D. Castro, but their writings and teachings were latter on appreciated and approved as textbooks in homoeopathic academies, have also thrived and survived. Not to be left behind the pride institution for Research and Standardization in homoeopathy, Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy also has published a book for domestic and quack practice. But in one respect, that of the standardization of the literature, this unqualified practice has cast its longest, if not the darkest, shadow. In fact, of all therapeutic methods, a large number of homoeopathic medicines are derived from natural resources, such as animals, plants, minerals, etc. These animals, plants and minerals are known to the people of their areas of availability by their local or regional or vulgar or common or vernacular names. Deane B. Swingle said [A Textbook of Systematic Botany, p. 217 ]. "Probably all nations and tribes have given names to plants (or animals or minerals) each in its own language. Such terms are learned in childhood and handed down from generation to generation."

B. N. Sanyal, & A. K. Chatterjee,: [An Introduction to Biology, Part - I, p. 495] have written "Thus, before the middle of the 18th century, plants and animals were known by local or vernacular names." The local or vernacular names of plants or animals or chemicals are usually known as common names, or vulgar names.

These local or Vernacular or common names vary from language to language and in the same country or in some language from place to place. In multilingual and multicultural countries like India and Russia , there are too many names and the same name is applied to different species of plants or animals. The a book said authors (p. 496) wrote further, "For instance Paddy is known as dhan in West Bengal, as chaval in U.P. and M.P., dhana in Orissa, nellu in Tamilnadu, bhatta in Karnataka." B. C. Kundu, & Suhita, Guha in their : A Textbook of Biology, p. 294 have written. "In parts of West Benga1 , the pied crested cuckoo (Clamator jaconinus) is called chaatak, while in some other parts of West Bengal another bird iora (Aegithina tiphia) is called by the same name."

Mangifera indica is the scientific name by which mango is known internationally to scientists irrespective of the languages they know and speak; but to the laymen it is known as mango in English, manguin in French, mangobaum in German, aam in Hindi and Bangla, amb in Sindhi, ambo in Gujarati, amba in Marathi, mamidi in Telegu, mampalam in Tamil, and mvu in Malayalam.

The common people and non-botanists or non-zoologists, whether educated or illiterate, know the plant by its common name. Thus the people who cultivate any particular plant, i.e. the cultivators and the people living in the region, know, cultivate, procure, purchase or sell and supply the plant or its fruit by its local or regional or vernacular name. Similarly, people know chemicals, animals or its parts by their local or common name and use it in dealing with their source of acquirement or supply.

Demerits of Common Names:

(1) Deane B. Swingle: [A Textbook of Systematic Botany, pp. 218-219] wrote "Although the common names are fairly definite if the plants have no closely similar relatives, as cowparship, white sweet clover, basswood and sassafras, but are loosely applied among plants having many similar kinds in a group, such as the grasses, willows, huckleberries and golden rods, the same name is applied to all plants supposed to be of the same kind. No attempt is made to name each individual plant except in case of unusual specimens-mostly trees of sentimental value."

(2) They may be quite indefinite.

(3) They are restricted to the people of one language or even one part of a country.

(4) They are not regulated by any constituted authority.

(5) They are too vague for scientific usage.

(6) A person will have to learn many sets of names of a single plant or animal.

(7) Swingle said further "There is no court of last appeal to settle controversies concerning the accuracy of common names."

(8) B. C. Kundu, & Suhita, Guha : [A Textbook of Biology, p. 294] pointed out "Common or local names of plants or animals are not used in scientific classification."

(9) Sanyal & Chatterjee: [An Introduction to Biology, p. 496] explained "They become a chaos in scientific study and become great barriers in the exchange of scientific knowledge throughout the world."

In order to overcome these inaccuracies and inadequacies of common names, scientific names as binominal nomenclature was initiated by Carl Linnaeus or Carl von Linne (1707-1778), a Swedish physician and botanist, during 1735-38 and since then plants or animals have been properly classified and a fixed scientific name has been given to each of them. Thus, animals and plants are known to the zoologists or botanists by their scientific names and to the lay public by their common names.

The branch of zoology or botany concerned with the identification, nomenclature and classification of animals or plants is known as Taxonomy.

Sanyal, & Chatterjee [An Introduction to Biology , p. 492] defined "Nomenclature is the application of distinctive names to each of the groups recognised in any given classification."

Lawrence [George H. M. Lawrence Taxonomy of Vascular Plants , p. 4] wrote, "Nomenclature is concerned with the determination of the correct name of a known plant according to its nomenclatural system. Once the plant has been identified it becomes necessary that it have a scientific name. The naming of a plant is a subject of international importance. It is a function of Taxonomy which is regulated by what are known as the International Rules of Botanical Nomenclature. These rules direct the procedure to be followed for the determination of the name to be applied to a particular plant, or to be followed in situations requiring the selection of a name for a new plant."

Lawrence (on page 192 of his book) said again "Scientific names are the names accepted or given to a chemical or plant or animal species by the scientific bodies constituted by international consent and through these names the species are known universally by scholars and students throughout the world." The scientific or botanical or zoological name must be in Latin, but as Lawrence pointed out "the scientific names of the plants are not based on the Latin language, known universally by scholars and students. Descriptions of plants are not written in the classical Latin of Cicero or of Horace, but in the linguafranca spoken and written by scholars during the Middle Ages. This was a development of the 'popular' or 'vulgar' Latin spoken by ordinary people in classical times, and written by all but a handful of poets and literary men."

Kundu & Guha [B. C. Kundu, & Suhita, Guha : A Textbook of Biology , p. 294] explained - "The scientific name of a plant or an animal consists of two parts; "first partrefers to the Genus and second partto the Species, e.g., the scientific name of the common pea is Pisum sativum, of which P isum is the genus and sativum is the species."

Briton, N. L.: Illustrated Flora , vol. I, 1st ed. (1896); on page viii of Introduction wrote, "it is admitted that some species have been given from ten to twenty names and for about 200,000 known species of plants there are no fewer than 700,000 names." "By the rules of botanical nomenclature a plant or group can have but one valid scientific name, and no two groups can have the same name. For various reasons, however, many species have received two or more names." In such cases methods have been devised for determining the one valid name and all the others are aced synonyms According to certain usages, term synonym is applied to both the valid names and the nonvalid ones.

In the nomenclature of homoeopathic medicines scientific names have been used for majority of the medicines, e.g. Aconitum napellus, Kalmia latifolia, Lachesis trigonocephalus, Tarentula hispanica, etc. but many of them have been called by their common names, e.g. Alfalfa, Ergot, Opium, Ratanhia, Yerba santa, Amla, Mutha, Kousso. These errors and anomalies have been allowed to remain in the books titled Pharmacopoeias and in official Pharmacopoeias.