52  Orthography  of  Asafcetida.  {^""-^^^l'^^^!^' 
specially  quoted.  Gray's  Supplement  to  the  Pharmacopoeia  revised  by 
Redwood,  uses  only  asafoetida.  The  "  Pharmacographia  "  of  Fluckiger 
and  Hanbury,  which  has  just  been  published,  also  makes  use  of  asa.  This 
testimony  is  particularly  valuable,  since  etymology  seems  to  have  re- 
ceived special  attention  from  these  authors,  as  shown  by  the  recent 
discussion  in  the  ^'  Pharm.  Jour."  on  the  spelling  of  Chondodendron  or 
Chondrodendron.  In  opposition  to  this,  Worcester  prefers  assa^  but 
enumerates  and  defines  also  asafoetida,  thus  showing  that  he  considers 
it  nearly  or  quite  as  well  authorized  as  the  other  form. 
In  German,  the  equivalent  name  asant  is  invariably  written  with  the 
single  s.  In  Spanish,  Russian  and  Portuguese,  asa  is  used  to  the  en- 
tire exclusion  of  assa. 
The  French  dictionaries  give  assa^  yet  in  opposition  to  this,  Gui- 
bourt,  in  "  Histoire  Naturelle  des  Drogues  Simples,"  and  Dorvault,  in 
"  I'Officine,"  use  asa-fetida  only,  and  the  "  Dictionnaire  des  Drogues," 
by  A.  Che\'allier  and  A.  Richard,  Paris,  1827,  says  :  Assa  ou  mieux 
asafoetida''  A.  Andouard,  in  his  "  Nouveaux  elements  de  Pharmacie," 
Paris,  1874,  also  uses  asafoetida. 
The  corruption,  if  it  may  be  so  termed,  of  asa  into  assa  was  adopted 
into  the  "Edinburgh  Pharmacopoeia"  in  1805*,  as  that  issue  contains  a 
table  in  which  the  word  assafoetida  is  mentioned  as  having  been  changed 
from  asafoetida  of  the  former  editions.  A  somewhat  similar  tendency 
appears  to  prevail  among  some  of  the  theologists  in  regard  to  the  iden- 
tical word  under  consideration,  occurs  in  the  Bible  as  the 
T  T 
proper  name  of  two  different  individuals,  the  more  important  one  being' 
the  third  King  of  Judah.  Although  in  both  instances  spelled  and 
pointed  in  precisely  the  same  manner,  it  is  variously  rendered  into 
Greek  by  Josephus,  the  "  Septuagint  "  and  the  "Alexandrian  Codex  "  as 
Aod^  'Jadi^o:^  '  Oaad  and  'Jcrcrd. 
We  are  consequently  forced  to  conclude  that  neither  the  derivation 
from  the  Latin  laser  nor  that  from  the  Semitic  dsd  justifies  the  use  of 
the  double  consonant.  We  also  find  asa  to  be  in  use  in  the  greater 
number  of  languages.  In  addition,  we  have  shown  that  the  best  and 
most  accurate  writers  in  those  few  languages  which  sanction  the  use  of 
assa^  show  a  decided  preference  for  as.i. 
The  only  argument  which  we  have  been  able  to  find  in  favor  of  the 
*  Assa  Fcetida  is  used  in  the  new  London  Dispensatory,  of  which  we  have  an  edi- 
tion (without  title-page)  printed  in  1676. — Editor  Am.  Jour.  Phar. 
