Asafetida
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Asafetida. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
as'a-fet'i-da, a drug obtained from a plant of the parsley family, native to Persia and Afghanistan. In early spring the leaves are torn off and the soil is removed from the parsnip-like root, until it is exposed for an inch or two. A few weeks later a horizontal slice is cut from the top of the root. A milky juice then oozes up and dries into the gum-resin like lumps in which asafetida is brought to market. The drug has so disagreeable an odor that the Germans call it "devil's drug." It is not a welcome article of freight among western nations, but in India, Persia, and even in France it is used like garlic to flavor food. In Anglo-Saxon countries, asafetida is considered a valuable remedy in cases of hysteria, infant convulsions, etc. See Drugs ; Medicine 2026 Editor's Note: The 'devil's drug' the Germans loathed is a treasure in Indian kitchens, where a pinch of ' hing ,' cooked in hot oil, loses its reek and lends dishes a deep onion-garlic savor — invaluable to cooks who avoid onion and garlic. In the 1918 flu pandemic, Americans even wore bags of it around the neck as a folk charm. (Ed: BR 2026-06-18)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ASAFŒTIDA, or AS- SAFŒTIDA, the English name of two if not more, plants growing in Persia and the East Indies, the ferula asafœtida and the F. persica. They belong to the order apiaceæ, or umbellifers. The word is also applied to the drug made from them. Old plants being cut across, juice exudes from the wound. This being scraped off, is exposed to the sun to harden it, and is sent in large irregular masses to this country for sale. It is a useful medicine in hysteria, asthma, tympanites, dyspnea, pertussus, and worms; it is sometimes given also as a clyster.