[93] Miss Acton’s ‘Modern Cookery,’ Longmans, 1860{?}, p. 104.
ASPIRATOR. An apparatus for drawing a stream of air through a tube or other vessel. There are several forms of aspirator; that invented by Brunner is perhaps one of the most convenient. It consists of two equal cylindrical vessels placed one above the other, and communicating by tubes which can be opened or closed, so that when the water has run from the upper to the lower vessel, the apparatus turning for the purpose on a horizontal axis may be inverted so as to bring the empty vessel to the bottom and the full one to the top; the water may then again be made to flow without the trouble of refilling. See Air, Analysis of.
ASS (ăss). Syn. As′inus, L.; Ane (âne), Fr.; Esel, Ger. The e′quus as′inus (Linn.), a well-known animal found almost everywhere.
ASSAFŒTIDA. [L. and Eng.] Syn. Assafetida, Devil’s dung, Eng.; Assafœtida gummi, L.; Stinkasand, Stinkender asand, Teufels-dreck, Ger. A gum resin exuded
from the excised root of narthex assafœtida (B. P.); from ferula assafœfida, and probably from ferula Persica. It yields its virtues to alcohol, and forms a clear tincture, which becomes milky on the addition of water. It is imported into Europe from Persia, viâ Bombay, in cases, mats, and casks.
Comp. Assafœtida contains from 4 to 5% of a peculiar volatile oil, and from 50 to 60% of resin of a whitish colour, turning rose-red and reddish-brown by exposure to the air, and giving a greenish solution with concentrated sulphuric acid. Brande resolved this resin into two others—one soluble in ether; the other insoluble in that menstruum.
Pur. The assafœtida of the shops is generally in masses of a whitish, reddish, or violet hue, formed principally of adhering tears or grains, possesses a peculiar fœtid, alliaceous odour, and forms an emulsion with water in all proportions. Hot sulphuric acid blackens it and forms a dark blood-red liquid, sulphurous fumes being evolved. This solution diluted with water, and then saturated with potassa, has a blue colour, which is most visible by reflected light. Digested first in alcohol, and afterwards in weak spirit-and-water, the residuum should not exceed 16%. Sp. gr. 1·325 to 1·330. It is frequently adulterated with inferior gums, and with chalk, clay, sand, &c. The purest and best is that which is clear, of a more or less pale-red colour, full of white tears, and very fœtid.
Prop., Uses, &c. Assafœtida is stimulant, antispasmodic, emmenagogue, expectorant, aphrodisiac, and anthelmintic, and is the most powerful of all the fœtid gum-resins. It is administered with advantage in several uterine diseases, hysteria, chorea, flatulent colic, hooping-cough, infantile convulsions, spasmodic asthma, and some other affections of a spasmodic and convulsive character.—Dose, 5 or 6 to 30 gr.; in pills, or preferably made into an emulsion; as an enema, 2 dr., with warm water, q. s.—Dose for Animals. Similar to Assafœtida. Some oriental nations esteem it highly as a condiment. The Brahmins use it against flatulence, and to correct the coldness of their vegetable food. In Persia the leaves of the plant are eaten as salad; and the root, after being roasted. In cookery it is now frequently employed as a substitute for garlic. “I am assured by an experienced gastronome that the finest relish which a beef-steak can possess may be communicated by” (slightly) “rubbing the gridiron on which the steak is to be cooked with assafœtida.”[94]
[94] Pereira, ‘Mat. Med. & Therap.,’ 4th ed., iii, 177.
ASSAFŒTIDA, PREPARED. As Ammoniacum, prepared.