353 
And surely Rhubarb merits some encouragement, if it be true that not 
less than 200,000 1 . is paid annually for what is imported into this country: 
especially if we consider the difficulty there may be of procuring this article 
from Russia, the inferiority of the Chinese Rhubarb, and the adulterations 
that are practised to render the foreign drug fair to the eye. There remains 
only to convince our countrymen that British Rhubarb is equal to the foreign ; 
or if it be a little inferior, that inferiority is owing merely to a want of skill 
in curing it, which skill will soon be attained by experience. 
The late excellent Dr. Hope, who with Sir Alexander Dick was indefa¬ 
tigable in cultivating the Rheum palmatum for medical use, relates in the 
year 1 / 84 , that most of the apothecaries in Edinburgh used no other than 
what is raised in Scotland; that for several years there has been no other 
employed in the Royal Infirmary; and that when a sound root is well dried, 
and properly dressed, it is in no respect inferior to what comes from Russia. 
The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Com¬ 
merce, has exerted itself for many years in promoting the cultivation of the 
Rheum palmatum in Great Britain, and with much success. 
Sir John Dick had the gold medal of the Society for a memoir on the 
culture and drying of it. Sir William Fordyce, so early as the year 1 / 80 , 
took up three roots, six years old, weighing when washed ten pounds six 
ounces avoirdupois. lie stripped off the bark from the smaller roots, and 
cut off most of it from the larger parts; and hung them up in festoons on 
packthread, three or four inches from each other, at a moderate distance from 
the fire. From these roots he made one pound four ounces of Rhubarb, as 
fit for the market as any imported from Russia, Turkey, or China: he ob- 
• _ 
tained likewise one pound, more fit for private use, or to be powdered. The 
roots should be cleared entirely of the rind; for the parts which are covered 
with it will be apt to turn mouldy. Large pieces should have a perforation 
made through the middle, that they may dry more perfectly, with less fuel 
and in less time. 
At the end of six or seven years, when the plant seems to arrive at its 
most perfect state, one pound of Rhubarb may be obtained from every five 
pounds of the green roots; besides an equal or larger proportion of roots fit 
for family use, or powder in the shops.* 
* Trans. Arts, Yol. II. p. 76. 
4 U 
