16 
REPORT ON RHUBARB. 
ART. IV.— REPORT ON RHUBARB. 
Extract from the Minutes of the Trustees of the College of Pharmacy, 
New York. Feb. 2d, 1843. 
In accordance with the resolution of the Board of Trus- 
tees, passed at the meeting in January, the Committee of 
Inspection offer the present report on the specimen of Rhu- 
barb then laid before the Board. 
The very respectable house in whose possession the 
parcel was said to be, was waited upon by two of the mem- 
bers of the committee, and from one of that firm the follow- 
ing information was obtained. That the rhubarb in ques- 
tion was received by them direct from Canton, in half picul 
cases. That another house of equal respectability received 
another parcel by the same vessel, and that they had every 
reason to believe that it was the produce of China; that the 
whole quantity amounted to about thirty cases, and that a 
portion of it had been sold at various prices, from 30 to 45 
cents per pound. 
As there can be no doubt as to the channel by which it 
found its way to this market, the only question is whether 
it may be French or English rhubarb, which may have 
been sent to Canton, with an intention to deceive by a re- 
shipment from that port, or whether it is really the produc- 
tion of China. The strong resemblance in appearance, odor, 
and taste, which it bears to poor samples of the root of Eu- 
ropean growth would naturally lead to the former conclu- 
sion, but it must be borne in mind that all the seeds from 
which rhubarb has been cultivated in Europe have original- 
ly been derived from China, and it is very possible that 
from a desire to preserve the market to themselves, the 
Chinese may have furnished to the Russians the seeds of a 
plant growing in that country of the same family, butnot of 
