ENGLISH  MEDICINAL  RHUBARB    AND  HENBANE.  555 
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 
my  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  qualities  to  English  rhu- 
barb, and  it  is  consumed  in  some  important  public  establish- 
mens,  and  is  held  by  very  high  medical  testimony  to  be  an  ex- 
ceedingly 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  ex- 
tent, 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  lis.  per  pound 
on  the  one  side  and  4d.  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  qua- 
lity, the  maximum  of  one  was  set  up  against  the  minimum  of  the 
other,  as  I  was,  at  the  very  time  the  evidence  was  taken,  enter- 
ing English  rhubarb  for  shipment  at  2s.  per  pound  to  Messrs. 
Taylor,  Brothers,  Mark  Lane. 
A  great  error,  almost  invariably  committed  in  passing  judg- 
ment 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  principle.  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  proper- 
