THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY. 
FEBRUARY,  1875. 
ORTHOGRAPHY  OF  ASAFCETIDA. 
BY  ADOLPH   W,    MILLER,   M.  D.,  PH.  D.' 
[Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meetmg,  January  i()th.) 
The  duplication  of  a  single  letter  may  seem  to  many  to  be  a  very 
trivial  matter  indeed,  though  when  philosophically  considered,  it  is 
found  to  be  quite  worthy  of  attention  and  earnest  consideration.  As  is 
well  known,  the  majority  of  civilized  nations  use  the  Latin  language 
in  their  prescriptions,  and  for  the  purpose  of  expressing  many  scientific 
terms  pertaining  to  medicine.  In  order,  therefore,  to  guard  against  am- 
biguity, it  becomes  an  object  of  considerable  importance  to  preserve 
the  purity  of  this  tongue.  If  every  nation,  or  perchance  every  indi- 
vidual, were  to  .adopt  a  peculiar  orthography,  the  value  of  Latin  as  a 
common  scientific  language  would  be  utterly  destroyed  ;  thus  depriving 
both  physicians  and  pharmacists  of  this  convenient  international  me- 
dium of  communication. 
A  diversity  of  the  above  kind  seems  to  be  at  present  prevailing  in 
reference  to  the  spelling  of  the  Latin  noun  asafcetida — the  stercus  dia- 
holi  of  modern  nations,  the  cihiis  deoruni  of  the  ancients.     A  semblance 
of  authority  is  given  to  the     in  the  word  by  its  adoption  into  the  Brit- 
ish and  United  States  Pharmacopoeias  \  on  the  other  hand,  the  "  Phar 
macopcea  Germanicd"  and  almost  all  the  most  accurate  authors  write  it 
with  only  a  single  s.    As  the  Germans  are  generally  regarded  as  being 
in  advance  of  all  other  nations  in  profound  philological  knowledge,  it 
is  fair  to  presume  that  they  have  just  and  logical  grounds  for  employ- 
ing this  form.    In  addition  to  this,  the  text-book  of  the  German  em- 
pire is  invested  with  a  much  higher  authority  than  ours,  as  it  is  issued 
under  the  immediate  supervision  and  with  the  sanction  of  the  general 
government. 
If  we  may  credit  the  accounts  of  Murray,  the  word  asafoetida  seems 
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