RADIX REEL 493 



History^ — The Chinese appear to have been acquainted witli tlie 

 properties of rhubarb from a period long anterior to the Christian era, 

 for the drug is treated of in the herbal called Pen-kiwj, which is 

 attributed to the Emperor Shen-nung, the father of Chinese agriculture 

 and medicine, who reigned about 2700 B.C. The drug is named tliere 

 Huang-Hang^ yellow, excellent, and Ta-huang, the great yellow.* The 

 latter name also occurs in the great Geography of China, where it i^ 

 stated that rhubarb Avas a tribute of the province Si-ning-fu, eastward 

 of Lake Kuku Nor,^ from about the 7th to the 10th centuries of 

 our era. 



As regards Western Asia and Europe, we find a root called pa 

 or pPjovy mentioned by Dioscorides as brought from beyond the Bos- 

 phorus. The same drug is alluded to in the fourth century by Ammianu.s 

 Marcellinus,^ who states that it tcikes its name from the river Rha (tlit=» 

 modern Volga), on whose banks it grows. Pliny describes a root^termed 

 RJtacoiiLa, which w^heu pounded yielded a colour like that of wine but 

 inclining to saffron, and was brought from beyond Pontus. 



The drug thus described is usually regarded as rhubarb, or at^ least 

 as the root of some species of Rheum, but whether produced in the 

 regions of the Euxine (Pontus), or merely received thence from remoter 

 countries, is a question that cannot be solved. 



It is however certain that the name Radix pontica or Rha jooniicnm, 

 used by Scribonius Largus ' and Celsus,*5 was applied in allusion to 

 the reo'ion whence the drup; was received. Lassen has shown that 



Q^^^X -TXaV.*lV.V^ UX.^ Vii....^ 



trading caravans from Shensi in Northern China arrived at Bokhara as 

 early as the year 111 B.C. Goods thus transported might reach Europe 

 either by way of the Black Sea, or by conveyance down the Indus to 

 the ancient port of Barbarike. Vincent suggests ^ that the rha imported 

 by the fii*st route would naturally be termed rha-imiticiim, whde that 

 brought by the second might be called rha-harharum. 



We are not prepared to accept this plausible hypothesis. It receives 



no support from the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea 

 (circa A.D. 64), whose list of the exports of Barbarike « docs not mcludc 

 rhubarb ; nor is rhubarb named among the articles on which duty was 



levied at the Roman custom-house of Alexandria (a.d. 176-180). 



The terms Rheum harharum vel harharicum or Reubarbami 

 occur in the writings of Alexander Trallianus^^ about the middle ot the 

 6th century, and in those of Benedictus Crispus," archbishop oi Milan, 

 and Isidore^- of Seville, w^ho both flourished in the 7th century. Among 



e Arabian writers on medicine, the younger Mesne, m the early part 

 the 11th century, mentions the rhubarb of China as superior to the 



' For further particulars see Fltickiger, ^ Ihld., op. elf. ii. 390. 



'tarm. J.vi. flSTfi^ fifil ■ .also Prr><- Amrrie. " J^'id-, op. cd. "• l>?''- , 



Ph 



Phar 



'» Lib.'viii.'c. 3 (Haller's edition)._ 



Him, Ixxxix. 374. 



/ I'orm. Assw. 1876. l.SO, with fig. show- '" Lih. vni. c. •%^^^*"^' ;J ' 



»g Rheum officinale grown in a poor soil. » Mig"e, ^^^'f^^'^ The evnla- 



-'Eretschneider, Cldue.e Botanical WorJ:., -' }h&}e. ''^;- ^f;.'|^;i^';-ttit-'' i^r'^r- 



Foochow, 1870 2 nation given by Isidore is xns • ^\ ,^^^ 



* Pluckiir 7 r l>arum,Biye Reuponfkum : illuJ cjuod trans 



'^7^, ii. (1743) 511 (Amm. Marc. xxii. c. 8.) circa Fontum '^?}^f^l};''''''f^S^laU, 



i>« Co,nposinone Me,icam.Uorn., c. Beu autem r^ dicitur. _ i..«n ^^^ ^^ 



! 'f^ MrAldn,. lib. V. c. 23. 4"-^ «"'' ^"^f^^ ^"' '"'"" "" 



^ incent, Commerce and NavU/atlon of of such derivations. 



""' Andenf.9, ii. (1807) 389. 



