RHUBARB. 115 



died the following year, 1536, at Nice,) men- 

 tions rhubarb as a sovereign cure for the 

 evil of the newly discovered world. Joseph 

 Acosta, a provincial of the Jesuits in Peru, 

 mentions it about the same period, in his 

 Natural and Moral History of the Spanish 

 Settlements. This author states, that those 

 who use it for the purpose alluded to " may 

 eat all manner of food, either flesh or fish, 

 without hurt to themselves, or to the ope- 

 ration of the medicine ; that it was taken as 

 a decoction, two ounces of rhubarb being 

 boiled with half an ounce of parsley in two 

 quarts of water, until reduced to a third ; 

 this drink was taken cool several times in 

 the day." 



The Portuguese were the first who brought 

 rhubarb by sea from Canton ; but the Dutch 

 soon obtained a part of this trade. In their 

 first embassy to China, in 1655, we find it 

 thus described by Nieuhoff, steward to the 

 ambassadors. " The province of Xansi pro- 

 duces many incomparable medicinal roots 

 and herbs, especially rhubarb, which does 

 not grow wild, as many report, but, on the 

 contrary, is raised and increased with great 

 care and diligence ; the leaves thereof in 

 some sort resemble those of our cabbages, 



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