Fig. 598. Kinds of Rhubarb (1-3)

            It hath happened in this as in many other foreign medicines or simples, which though they be of great and frequent use, as Hermodactyls, Musk, Turpeth, &c. yet have we no certain knowledge of the very place which produces them nor of their exact manner of growing, which hath given occasion to divers to think diversly, and some have been so bold as to counterfeit figures out of their own fancies, as Matthiolus: so that this saying of Pliny is found to be very true, Nulla medicinæ pars magna incerta, quam quæ ab alio quam nostro orbe petitur.["There is no medicine whose nature is more uncertain, than that which is brought from a different part of the world."] But we will endeavour to show you more certainty of this here treated of than was known until of very late years.

The Description.

            1. This kind of Rhubarb hath very great leaves, somewhat snipped or indented about the edges like the teeth of a saw, not unlike the leaves of Enula campana, called by the vulgar sort Elecampane, but greater: among which riseth up a straight stalk of two cubits high, bearing at the top a scaly head like those of Knapweed, or Iacea maior: in the middle of which knap or head thrusteth forth a fair flower consisting of many purple threads like those of the Artichoke; which being past, there followeth a great quantity of down, wherein is wrapped long seed like unto the great Centaury, which the whole plant doth very well resemble. The root is long and thick, blackish without, and of a pale colour within: which being chewed maketh the spittle very yellow, as doth the Rhubarb of Barbary.

            2. This other bastard Rha, which is also of Lobel's description, hath a root like that of the last described: but the leaves are narrower almost like those of the common Dock, but hoary on the other side: the stalk grows up straight, and beareth such heads and flowers as the precedent.

            3. I have thought to present you with a perfect figure and description of the true Rha Ponticum of the ancients, which was first of late discovered by the learned Prosper Alpinus, who writ a peculiar tract thereof, and it is also again figured and described in his work de Plantis Exoticis. Our countryman Mr John Parkinson hath also set forth very well both the figure and description hereof, in his Paradisus terrestris. This plant hath many large roots diversly spreading in the ground, of a yellow colour, from which grow up many very great leaves like those of the Butterbur, but of a fresh green colour, with great and manifest veins dispersed over them. The stalk also is large and crested, sending forth sundry branches bearing many small white flowers, which are succeeded by seeds three square and brownish, like as those of other Docks. Dr. Lister one of his Majesy's physicians was the first that enriched this kingdom with this elegant and useful plant, by sending the seeds thereof to Mr. Parkinson. Prosper Alpinus proves this to be the true Rha of the ancients, described by Dioscorides, Lib. 3. Cap 2., yet neither he nor any other (that I know of) have observed a fault, which I more than probably suspect to be in the text of Dioporides in that place, which is in the word melana which I judge should be melie that is, yellow, and not black, as Ruellius and others have translated it: now melinos is a word frequently used by Dioscorides, as may appear by the chapters of Hieracium magnum, parvum, Conyra, Peucedanum, Ranunculus, and divers others, and I suspect the like fault may be found in some other places of the same author. But I will no further insist upon this, seeing the thing itself in all other respects, as also in yellowness shows itself to be that described by Dioscorides, and that my conjecture musf therefore be true. And besides, the root wherto he compares it is Rubescens, [turning red] or rather ex flavo rubescens [turning from yellow to red], as any versed in reading Dioscorides may easily gather by divers places in him. Now I here omit his words, because they are in the next description allcgcd by our author, as also the description of our ordinarily used Rhubarb, for that it is sufficiently described under the following title of the choice thereof. Mr. Parkinson is of opinion that this is the true Rhubarb used in shops, only less heavy, bitter, and strong in working, by reason of the diversity of our climate from that whereas the dried Rhubarb brought us usually grows. This his opinion is very probable, and if you compare the roots together, you may easily be induced to be of the same belief.

Fig. 599. Dried Rhubarb of Pontus (4)

            4. The Pontic Rhubarb is lesser and slenderer than that of Barbary. Touching Pontic Rhubarb Dioscorides writeth thus: Rha that divers call Rheon, which groweth in those places that are beyond Bosphorus from whence it is brought, hath yellow roots like to the great Centaury, but lesser and redder, and without smell (Dodonæus thinks it should be well smelling) spongy, and something light. That is the best which is not worm-eaten, and tasted is somewhat viscid with a light astriction, and chewed becomes of a yellow or Saffron colour.

The Place.

            It is brought out of the Country of Sina (commonly called China) which is toward the East in the upper part of India, and that India which is without the river Ganges: and not at all Ex Scenitarum provincia, [from the province of the Syrians] (as many do unadvisedly think) which is in Arabia the Happy, and far from China: it groweth on the sides of the river Rha now called Volga, as Amianus Marcellus saith, which river springeth out of the Hyperborean mountains, and running through Muscovia, falleth into the Caspian or Hircan sea.

            The Rha of the ancients grows naturally, as Alpinus saith, upon the hill Rhodope in Thrace, now called Romania. It grows also as I have been informed upon some mountains in Hungary. It is also to be found growing in some of our choice gardens.

The choice of Rhubarb.

            The best Rhubarb is that which is brought from China fresh and new, of a light putplish red, with certain veins and branches, of an uncertain variety of colour, commonly whitish: but when it is old the colour becometh ill-favoured by turning yellowish or pale, but more, if it be worm eaten: being chewed in the mouth it is somewhat gluey and clammy, and of a saffron colour, which being rubbed upon paper or some white thing showeth the colour more plainly: the substance thereof is neither hard or closely compacted, nor yet heavy; but something light, and as it were in a middle between hard and loose and something spongy: it hath also a pleasing smell. The second in goodness is that which cometh from Barbary. The last and worst from Bosphorus and Pontus.

The Names.

            It is commonly called in Latin Rha Barbarum, or Rha Barbaricum: of divers, Rheu Barbarum: the Moors and Arabians do more truly name it Raued seni, a Sinensi provincia; from whence it is brought into Persia and Arabia and afterwards into Europe: and likewise from Tangut, through the land of Cataia into the land of the Persians, whereof the Sophy is the ruler, and from thence into Ægypt, and afterwards into Europe. It is called of the Arabians and the people of China, and the parts adjacent, Rauend Cini, Raued Seni, and Raued Sceni: in shops, Rhabarbarum: in English, Rhubarb, and Rewbarbe.

The Temperature.

            Rhubarb is of a mixed substance, temperature and faculties: some of the parts thereof are earthy, binding and drying: others thin, aereous, hot, and purging.

The Virtues.

            A. Rhubarb is commended by Dioscorides against windiness, weakness of the stomach, and all griefs thereof, convulsions, diseases of the spleen, liver, and kidneys, gripings and inward gnawings of the guts, infirmities of the bladder and chest, swelling about the heart, diseases of the matrix, pain in the huckle bones, spitting of blood, shortness of breath, yexing, or the hiccup, the bloody flux, the lask proceeding of raw humours, fits in agues, and against the bitings of venomous beasts.

            B. Moreover he saith, that it taketh away black and blue spots and tetters or ringworms, if it be mixed with vinegar, and the place anointed therewith.

            C. Galen affirms it to be good for burstings, cramps, and convulsions, and for those that are short winded, and that spit blood.

            D. But touching the purging faculty neither Dioscorides nor Galen hath written anything, because it was not used in those days to purge with. Galen held opinion, that the thin aereous parts do make the binding quality of more force; not because it doth resist the cold and earthy substance, but by reason that it carrieth the same, and maketh it deeply to pierce, and thereby to work the greater effect; the dry and thin essence containing in itself a purging force and quality to open obstructions, but helped and made more facile by the subtle and aereous parts. Paulus Ægineta seemeth to be the first that made trial of the purging faculty of Rhubarb; for in his first book, Chap. 43, he maketh mention thereof, where he reckoneth up turpentine among those medicines which make the bodies of such as are in health soluble: But when we purpose, saith he, to make the turpentine more strong, we add unto it a little rhubarb. The Arabians that followed him brought it to a further use in physic, as chiefly purging downward choler, and oftentimes phlegm.

            E. The purgation which is made with Rhubarb is profitable and fit for all such as be troubled with choler, and for those that are sick of sharp and tertian fevers, or have the yellow jaundice, or bad livers.

            F. It is a good medicine against the pleurisy, inflammation of the lungs, the squinancy or squincy, madness, frenzy, inflammation of the kidneys, bladder, and all the inward parts, and especially against St. Anthony's fire, as well outwardly as inwardly taken.

            G. Rhubarb is undoubtedly an especial good medicine for the liver and infirmities of the gall; for besides that it purgeth forth choleric and naughty humours, it removeth stoppings out of the conduits.

            H. It also mightily strengtheneth the entrails themselves: insomuch as Rhubarb is justly termed of divers the life of the liver; for Galen in his eleventh book of the method or manner of curing, affirmeth that such kind of medicines are most fit and profitable for the liver, as have joined with a purging and opening quality an astringent or binding power. The quantity that is to be given is from one dram to two; and the infusion from one and a half to three.

            I. It is given or steeped, and that in hot diseases, with the infusion or distilled water of Succory, Endive, or some other of the like nature; and likewise in whey; and if there be no heat it may be given in wine.

            K. It is also oftentimes given being dried at the fire, but so, that the least or no part thereof at all be burned; and being so used it is a remedy for the bloody flux, and for all kinds of lasks: for it both purgeth away naughty and corrupt humours, and likewise withal stoppeth the belly.

            L. The same being dried after the same manner doth also stay the overmuch flowing of the monthly sickness, and stoppeth blood in any part of the body, especially that which cometh through the bladder; but it should be given in a little quantity, and mixed with some other binding thing.

            M. Mesue saith, That Rhubarb is an harmless medicine, and good at all times, and for all ages, and likewise for children and women with child.

            My friend Mr. Sampson Johnson Fellow of Magdalen College in Oxford assures me, That the physicians of Vienna in Austria use scarce any other at this day than the Rhubarb of the ancients, which grows in Hungary not far from thence: and they prefer it before the dried Rhubarb brought out of Persia and the East Indies, because it hath not so strong a binding faculty as it, neither doth it heat so much; only it must be used in somewhat a larger quantity.