NATURAL HISTORY. 



373 



rooted ; and to this source most of 

 them may be traced. Nor is this 

 very wonderful ; for to entertain 

 high expectations of rhubarb pre- 

 maturely taken up, is no less extra- 

 vagant, than to suppose the capacity 

 of a child equal to that of an adult ; 

 yet hithertoour market is a stianger 

 to any other than such a commo- 

 dity. ' 



Another cause may, I conceive, 

 arise (notwithstanding the length of 

 time since the introduction of the 

 palmated, or true, sort into this 

 kingdom, and all that has been 

 written, on the subject,) from the 

 little or no care that seems to have 

 been taken in selecting and plant- 

 ing it. As a proof of this, it is 

 not many days since I saw a con- 

 siderable quantity, and neither the 

 purchaser nor planter knew it to be 

 the rhapontic. Injustice, however, 

 to medical gentlemen in general, 

 but in particular to those I have 

 consulted upon this subject, I have 

 found them better informed, and 

 liberal to the greatest degree. They 

 entered at once into the views of 

 the society, and their assurances of 

 co-operation have been fully real- 

 ised. That I never expected to 

 introduce it into general practice 

 without opposition, is evident from 

 ray last papers in 1 798 ; for I there 

 remarked, that very probably, be- 

 fore this could be effected, certain 

 difficulties must be overcome, the 

 principal of which I apprehended 

 to be an almost universal preposses- 

 sion in favour of foreign commo- 

 dities. Moderation on the part of 

 the cultivator in the regulation of 

 his prices, and an unwearied atten- 

 tion to its quality, are the only 

 means likely to produce a counter- 

 action. To great attention to these 

 points I attribute all my success. 



Mere recommendation ought ever 

 in such a business as this, to be 

 placed out of the question. If 

 the article will not bear the tests of 

 examination and trial, it should not 

 be indebted to any thing else. 



Whenever I have submitted any 

 specimens to public examination, at 

 an hospital or elsewhere, my con- 

 stant language has been, " I have 

 no wish but that they may rise or 

 fall according to their own intrinsic 

 merit or demerit ; and, if worthy of 

 approbation, by this mean induce 

 their general adoption. That this 

 being, no doubt, the ultimate ob- 

 ject of the society of arts, who have 

 thought proper to honour me with 

 several distinctions, I feel myself 

 impelled to forward it to the ut- 

 most, and not remain contented 

 with its mere cultivation." I have 

 proceeded to state the great ex- 

 pense this country incurs by so large 

 an importation, and on this account 

 urged its general adoption, in order 

 to lessen the expense, on the score 

 of duty. That although I am in- 

 fluenced by such motives, and many 

 others, yet my own individual inte- 

 rest I have at the same time fairly 

 acknowledged to be among the 

 number ; and I have concluded 

 with expressing a hope; that while 

 pleading the general, as well as my 

 own particular cause, perhaps the 

 benefit of their institution may be 

 the necessary consequence of intro- 

 ducing a valuable and efficacious 

 medicine, at a comparatively tri- 

 fling expense. I have never yet 

 made this appeal in vain ; and the 

 society will, 1 dare say, receive 

 with much satisfaction the intelli- 

 gence that rhubarb of English 

 growth is now used at Guy's (I 

 mention the hospitals in the order of 

 its introduction,) St. Thomas's, and 



