ENGLISH MEDICINAL RHUBARB AND HENBANE. 
84 
drugs, as of other things, was very conflicting and inconclusive. At the commencement 
of the second session occupied by the committee in this investigation I was summoned, 
on the 5th March, 1856, to give evidence on the long-vexed question of English rhubarb ; 
but both as regards my own and the evidence of other parties, which fully shows the 
importance of the question raised, I can do no more in this paper than refer the reader 
to the Blue-book for an exposition of the whole affair. But to show that my position 
was not damaged by the result, I quote the following words of the chairman of the 
committee at the close of ray examination:—“ If it be represented to the committee 
that English rhubarb is sold as an adulterating article, and is of a very inferior quality 
to foreign, that is a mistake; for medical men attribute very important medicinal quali¬ 
ties to English rhubarb, and it is consumed in some important public establishments, and is 
held by very high medical testimony to be an exceedingly useful medicine.” One of 
the public establishments referred to here is the London Hospital, where English rhubarb 
alone had then been used for a number of years. The inquiry carried on before the 
committee was kept alive, to a great extent, owing to what was represented to be the 
extreme difference in the money value between foreign and English rhubarb ; and it 
was on this point that I had to complain of some unfairness. One witness stated the 
difference as great as between 11s. per pound on the one side and id. on the other. 
Here the retail price of foreign was quoted, the average wholesale price of China rhubarb 
for the two months previous being only 5s. 6d., whilst as to quality, the maximum of 
one was set up against the minimum of the other, as I was, at the very time the evi¬ 
dence was taken, entering English rhubarb for shipment at 2s. per pound to Messrs. 
Taylor, Brothers, Mark Lane. 
A great error, almost invariably committed in passing judgment on any article of 
supposed inferiority, is to judge it by an improper standard. This has been strictly so 
in the present instance. To show that one sample is of bad quality is certainly not 
proving that another is good ; but when an attempt has been made to prejudice the 
public against the use of English rhubarb, it has sometimes been done by putting it 
into competition with the very choicest specimens of the foreign article ; and I believe 
that all the comparisons, including the testimonials also, have been made on this prin¬ 
ciple. If it is true that a great difference exists in samples of drugs generally, it is yet 
more so in those of foreign rhubarb. It is well known that but a very small proportion 
of imported rhubarb is of the best quality. This fact did not escape the notice of Dr. 
Pereira. He remarks that when China or East India rhubarb arrives in London, it is 
hand-picked, tared, and sorted into three qualities—bright and sound, dark and horny, 
and worm-eaten. He adds the following evidence on this point:—“In 1840, when 
China rhubarb was very scarce, a quantity of foreign rhubarb, imported from Calcutta, 
was sold, some at id. and some at Id per pound.” As the evidence arising from dis¬ 
similarity of price has been used as an argument to show the inferiority of English to 
foreign, the following facts deserve notice:—In the years 1846 and 1847, there was a 
very large quantity of foreign rhubarb disposed of, amounting to several tons weight, 
and such was its general quality and condition, that the terms made use of to designate 
it, with the prices realized, were as follows :—Old and bastard, at \d. to 1 \d. per pound ; 
old brown and rotten. Id to id .; rotten and damaged, 3d. to 5 d. ; brown, old, and 
perished, Id. to 3d. During these periods large quantities of English rhubarb were sold 
at from Is. to 2s. per pound. Thus it is seen, that if the maximum price of foreign 
is higher than English, the minimum price of English is higher than foreign. What¬ 
ever, therefore, may be supposed to be the relative difference between English rhubarb 
and the best specimens of foreign, it is clear that, owing to the very imperfect method 
of curing it in those countries where it is produced, there is invariably that strict uni¬ 
formity of character in the one which is as invariably wanting in the other. 
One leading question relating to this most important medicinal production yet remains 
to be solved at some future period, namely, whether the plant from which foreign 
rhubarb is produced is the best that could be selected ? Judging from the very great 
variety and very interesting specimens in the possession of Dr. Hooker, all of them 
distinctly differing from each other, it would appear doubtful if the foreign cultivators 
have made such researches and instituted such experiments as would lead to a judicious 
selection of the best sorts. It is also highly probable that, if off-sets could be obtained 
from a number of the several varieties of the plant produced in Tartary and elsewhere, 
we might acclimatize some yielding higher medicinal properties than any yet cultivated 
