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LETTER II. 



[From Dr. Hope, Edinburgh.] 

 Sir, 



T 



HIS day I received your letter of the nth of March, 

 with two parcels of rhubarb. 



Your learned and well-informed Society know, that the 

 rHubarb which we receive through Ruflia, formerly called 

 the Turkey rhubarb, is the root of the rheum palnutum, 

 and different from the rhubarb received fiom China: we 

 have been in pofleffion of this fpecies of rhubarb above 

 twenty years. 



Moft of the apothecaries here ufe no other than what is 

 raifed in Scotland. For feveral years tliere has been no 

 other ufed in the Royal Infirmary. IVhen a found root of 

 this is well dried^ and properly drejfed., it is in no refpeSl inferior 

 to what comes from Ruff a. The point therefore before me 

 is, the ftate of prefervation of the two parcels fent, of which 



I fhall give you my opinion without relerve. 



I beg leave to premife, that as your letter is dated the 



I I th of March, the roots, from having lain in damp places, 

 and from other caufes, may have fuffered. 



The parcel No. I. confifted of two pieces of roots of a 

 moderate fize. I cut each into four parts, by crofs inci- 

 fions; one of them was the crown of the root, and evi- 

 dently unfound in the heart, though not to any great de- 

 gree; the other was found throughout. 



No. II. confided of a fmall branch, which was foft, flexible, 

 and not fufficiently dried, and of a larger piece of the body 



of 



