RADIX RHEI. • 49 



while Kiachta and the opposite Chinese town of :\raimatchiu became the 

 staple depots of rhubarb. 



The root was subjected, to special control as early as 1G87-1697 by 

 tiie Russian Government, who finally monopolized the trade about 170-t. 

 Caravans fitted out by the Crown alone brouo-ht the drug to Moscow, 

 until 17()2, when the caravan-trade was for a while thrown open. It 

 was not until this period that the export of rhubarb became consider- 

 able, although the stringent regulations, established in 173G, were still 

 maintained. The surveillance of rhubarb was exercised at Kiachta in a 

 special court or ofBce called the Brulr^ under instructions from the 

 Kussian Minister of War, by an apothecary appointed for six years, the 

 object being to remove from the rhubarb brought for inspection all 

 mfcrior or spurious pieces, and to improve the selected drug by trim- 

 nimg, paring and boring. It was then carefully dried, and ])acked in 

 chests,^ which were sown up in linen, and rendered impervious to wet 

 by being pitched and then covered with hide. The drug was dis- 

 patched, but only in quantities of 1000 puds (40,000 lb.), once a year 

 by way of Lake Baikal and Irkutsk to Moscow, whence it was trans- 

 mitted to St. Petersburg, to be there delivered to the Crown apothe- 

 caries^ and in part to be sold to druggists. 



We are indebted for these accounts chiefiy to Calau,^ an apothecary 

 •ippomted to supervise the examination of rhubarb, and wlio resided a 

 long time at Kiachta. An exact account of the remarkable policy of 

 the Russian Government in relation to that drug was also given by Von 

 Schroders'in ISG'l 



So long as China kept all her ports closed to foreign commerce 

 except Canton in the extreme south, a large supply of fine rhubarb 

 found its way to Europe by way of Russia. But the unpleasant 

 accompaniments of the Russian supervision, which was exercised with 

 unsparing severity," and the extreme tediousness of the land-transport, 

 made the Chinese very ready to accept an easier outlet for their goods. 

 Accordingly we find that the opening of a number of ports in the 

 north of China exerted a very depressing influence on the trade of 

 Kiachta, which was augmented by the rebellion th:it raged in the 

 interior of China for some vears from 1852. 



On these accounts Russia in 1855 removed certain restrictions ou 

 the trade, though without abandoning the Rhubarb Office. She with- 

 drew in 18G0 the custom-house to Irkutsk, and declared Kiachta a free 

 port, while by the treaty with China of November ISGO, she insisted on 

 that country abandoning all restrictions on trade. 



But the over-land rhubarb trade had already been destroyed : tlie 

 ^hmese, tempted by the increased demand occasioned by the new 

 trading-ports, became less careful in the collection and curing ot the 

 root, while the Russians insisted with the greatest strictness on the 

 «;;ug being of the accustomed quality. Hence it happened that froni 

 18G0 hardly any rhubarb was delivered at Kiaclita, either for the 



' From the Genuan word Braclce, the » Canstatf s Jahresberkht for 18G4. I 



"ameapphed to persons appomtcd for the 35-42. _ ,^^^ „ p • , ^^^^piip,! 

 examination of merohandiie brought to the ' " Thus in ISCO the ^^.^f '^"^ ,*= W"^'^ 

 ports of tho Baltic the Chinese to burn oOOO lb. of rhubarb, 



^Ganger's liep.fur Pharm. und Chanh^, on the pretext that it was too mmlU 



J04Z 402-457; Pharm. Jounu ii. (1S43) 60S. 



