Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  1 
Feb.,  1875.  / 
Notes  on  Some  Indigenous  Drugs, 
53 
duplicated  form,  is  the  derivation  olFered  by  Chambers'  Encyclopaedia 
from  the  Persian  asa,  translated  as  stick,  staff,  baton,  or  bludgeon.  Un- 
supported as  this  seems  to  be  by  other  authorities,  and  in  view  of  it 
being  in  direct  opposition  to  the  fact  that  both  Persian  and  Arabic  dic- 
tionaries render  the  same  term  into  English  with  a  single  consonant,  we 
cannot  attach  any  importance  whatever  to  this  assertion.  As  an  in- 
evitable deduction  from  the  facts  which  have  been  stated,  we  feel  con- 
scientiously bound  to  insist  on  the  expunction  of  the  barbarism  assa 
from  pharmaceutical  literature,  used  either  as  a  Latin  or  as  an  English 
word,  and  to  recommend  its  exclusive  substitution  by  asa. 
Philadelphia,  January  I'^th,  1875. 
P.S. — Since  the  reading  of  the  above  paper,  I  have  been  favored  by 
Prof.  Maisch  with  a  very  elaborate  monograph  on  those  ferulace^e  of 
the  Aralo-Caspian  desert,  which  possess  importance  in  pharmacy.  The 
document  emanates  from  the  Imperial  Academy  of  Sciences  of  St. 
Petersburg,  to  which  it  was  presented,  Aug,  17th,  i860,  by  EL  Bors- 
zczow.  The  author  uses  asafcetida  throughout  as  a  Latin  word,  de- 
riving it  from  the  Laserp'itium  of  Pliny.  He  follows  in  this  respect  a 
writer  of  the  i6th  century,  Gargia  ab  Orta,  who  published  the  "Aro- 
matum  Historia."  The  derivation  from  the  Persian  word  assa^  staff, 
is  also  mentioned,  but  refuted  by  the  fact  that  Kampfer,  who  was  well 
versed  in  the  Persian  language,  when  discoursing  on  the  name  asa  fcetida^ 
does  not  allude  to  any  such  word.  On  the  contrary,  in  his  classic  de- 
scription of  the  plant  furnishing  the  drug,  Kampfer  explicitly  states 
that  he  does  not  know  the  origin  of  the  name  asa  foetida  current  among 
the  Europeans. 
NOTES  ON  SOME  INDIGENOUS  DRUGS. 
{^Abstracts  jrom  Essays  -presented  to  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Pharmacy.) 
Bitter  Principle  of  Wild  Cherry  Bark.     By  John  L.  Williams,  Ph.  G. 
— The  author  did  not  succeed  in  completely  isolating  the  bitter  prin- 
ciple of  wild  cherry  bark.    The  following  process  gave  the  most  satis- 
factory results  : 
An  aqueous  infusion  of  the  bark  was  concentrated,  filtered,  mixed 
with  an  equal  volume  of  alcohol,  and,  after  standing  for  twelve  hours, 
filtered.  The  liquid  was  treated  with  milk  of  lime,  the  filtrate  evap- 
orated to  a  syrupy  consistence,  a  large  quantity  of  alcohol  added  and 
the  filtrate  evaporated.  The  residue  was  exhausted  with  boiling  alco- 
hol, which  on  spontaneous  evaporation  yielded  a  transparent  brownish 
