124 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



the turbancd vendors of this root, in filling 

 up the worm-holes with certain mixtures, 

 and by colouring the outside of the damaged 

 pieces, it may not be unacceptable to men- 

 tion the marks of good rhubarb. It should 

 be firm and solid, but not flinty ; it should be 

 easily pulverible, and the powder should be 

 of a bright yellow colour ; the smell slightly 

 aromatic; its taste sub-acrid, bitterish, and 

 somewhat astringent ; on being chewed, it 

 should impart to the spittle a saffron tinge, 

 without proving slimy, or mucilaginous in 

 the mouth. 



All medical men acknowledge two virtues 

 in rhubarb, that of evacuating bilious hu- 

 mours, and that of fortifying by its astrin- 

 gency the fibres of the stomach and intes- 

 tines; it therefore proves useful in diarrhoeas, 

 and disorders proceeding from a laxity of the 

 fibres. It is a mild cathartic, which operates 

 without violence or irritation, and may be 

 given, it is said, with safety, to pregnant fe- 

 males and children. Rhubarb in substance, 

 operates more powerfully as a cathartic than 

 any of the preparations of it. 



Lord Bacon says, " Rubarb has manifest- 

 ly in it parts of contrary operations : parts 

 that purge, and parts that bind the body : 



