62 THE RISK OF RHUBARB 



as one may do of apple-pudding, whereof the agreeable 

 flavour is derived from malic acid. 



In the English Midlands wine is, or used to be in my 

 schooldays, commonly brewed from rhubarb. Perhaps 

 in the foregoing remarks I have trenched unwarrant- 

 ably upon the science of medicine and chemistry, 

 wherein I have no skill ; wherefore I shall shield my- 

 self by quoting the letter of a medical man which 

 appeared in the Gardeners Chronicle so long ago as 

 1853. 



' However good the wine made from rhubarb may be, I take 

 the liberty of advising your readers not to drink it. It is 

 well known that the acidity of rhubarb stalks is owing to the 

 presence of an acid salt the binoxalate of potash a com- 

 bination of the poison oxalic acid, and the alkali potash ; this 

 salt does not exist in sufficient quantity in the rhubarb stalks 

 to produce its poisonous effects, and the same may be said of 

 the wine. But there is another danger attending its use in 

 the form of wine which ought not to be overlooked. All 

 hard water contains lime, and when mixed with the juice of 

 the rhubarb stalks the binoxalate of potash is decomposed 

 and an oxalate of lime is formed. Now this oxalate of 

 lime is the constituent principle in the mulberry calculus, 

 and there is a peculiar condition of the human body known 

 to medical men as the oxalic diathesis, which depends upon 

 the presence of this oxalate of lime in the blood (I use the 

 word blood for obvious reasons). This oxalic diathesis has 

 been proved by Dr. Golding Bird to be much more common 

 than was supposed before this gentleman brought the 

 microscope to assist him in his pathological researches. Such 

 being the case, it is obvious that any article of common use 

 which contains the oxalate of lime, or even the oxalic acid 

 or its salts, must be more or less injurious to health, more 

 particularly to those in whom there exists a pre-disposition 

 to assume the oxalic diathesis. It should be borne in mind 



