21(5  CONCENTRATED  WINE  OF  ASSAFETIDA. 
would,  on  the  neutrality  principle,  be  called  bideutosulphate  of 
mercury ;  on  the  equivalent-composition  principle,  quadrisul- 
phate  of  deutoxide  of  mercury. 
Salt  having  the  formula,  Fe03,3N05.  The  name  of  this  salt 
on  the  neutrality  principle  is  ternitrate  of  iron ;  on  the  equiva- 
lent-composition principle,  ternitrate  of  teroxide  of  iron.  In 
the  paper  commented  on,  it  is  alleged  that  the  nomenclature 
objected  to,  which  is  that  advocated  in  this  note,  would  lead 
almost  inevitably  to  the  confounding  the  salts,  expressed  by  the 
formulae,  Fe03,3N05,  and  Fe203,3N05.  Now,  according  to  the 
nomenclature  advocated  in  this  note,  these  salts  would  have 
names  sufficiently  distinct ;  for  the  former  would  be  called  terni- 
trate of  teroxide  of  iron,  and  the  latter,  ternitrate  of  sesquioxide 
of  iron.  On  the  neutrality  principle,  they  would  be  called 
ternitrate  of  iron,  and  sesquinitrate  of  iron.  Here  it  is  seen 
that  the  word,  ternitrate,  is  used  in  different  senses,  according 
as  the  one  or  the  other  plan  of  nomenclature  is  adopted  ;  but 
it  may  be  asked  whether,  in  these  nitrates,  the  prefix,  ter,  is  not 
more  appropriate  to  mean  three  equivalents  of  nitric  acid,  than 
to  mean  three  equivalents  of  oxygen,  united  with  one  equivalent 
of  iron. 
In  the  paper  under  notice  it  is  asked  whether  the  term,  per- 
sesquichloride  of  iron,  is  correct  for  Fe2Cl3.  It  certainly  is  not ; 
for  the  prefix,  per,  is  redundant.  A  chemist  may  say  with  pro- 
priety that  the  higher  chloride  of  iron  was  formerly  called  per- 
chloride  of  iron  ;  but  that  at  present  it  is  more  precisely  called, 
in  view  of  its  admitted  composition,  sesquichloride  of  iron. 
Philadelphia y  March  29th,  1855. 
CONCENTRATED  WINE  OF  ASSAFETIDA. 
By  Henry  N.  Rittenhouse. 
Every  pharmaceutist  must  have  experienced  the  inconvenience 
and  delay  of  preparing  the  assafetida  mixture  (or  milk  of  assa- 
fetida  as  it  is  commonly  called)  of  the  U.  S.  Pharmacopoeia, 
when  it  is  suddenly  called  for  in  small  quantities,  and  as  it  is  the 
best  of  all  the  preparations  of  this  drug,  especially  for  infantile 
cases,  it  should  be  carefully  made,  and  not  as  is  often  the  case, 
(with  those  whose  object  is  to  save  time  and  avoid  a  little  trouble, 
