The tricks of the trade in the adulterations of food and physic : with directions for their detection and counteraction.

Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The tricks of the trade in the adulterations of food and physic : with directions for their detection and counteraction. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    DKT7GS. griping pain and heat in the abdomen, with vomiting purgmg, ptyalism, a febrile condition of the system’ headache, giddiness, somnolency, delirium, and stupor’ (Dr. Pereira's Materia Medica, ii. 1407.) The usual medicinal dose is from three to seven grains. Rhubarb.—This medicinal, purgative root is im- ported into this country from Eussia, China, and the East Indies. The rhubarb grown in this country, and so extensively used for making pies and preserves is of Asiatic origin, and indeed the same as that cultivated in 1 artary; but, in the transplanting into Europe it has lost its medicinal properties. It is a high-priced and much-used drug, and consequently offers great temptation to the unprincipled dealer to' adulterate it with worthless and cheap ingredients. A substance purporting to be “the best Turkey rhubarb” is ma- nufactured largely m this country. Mr. Eobert War rmgfcon states that, in the neighbourhood of Banbury there is a grower who vends upwards of twenty tons’ of English rhubarb m a year, to wholesale druggists, xhe price of the best Eussia rhubarb is eleven shil- lings and sixpence per pound, whilst the British is oury fourpence Before being sold, this inferior sub- stance is usually covered with powdered Turkey rhu- ? has a lerut&m medicinal effect, but to produce it, the dose must be enormous. * What is styled Turkey rhubarb is not grown in Turkey, but on the declivities of the great chain of mountains which separates Tartary from Siberia The sale of it is a monopoly of the Eussian Government sentouLVsfpTt61’ °f are allo^d to be sent out ot >bt. Petersburg annually. Large quanti- tms of this drug are also imported from China q The powdered rhubarb sold at the inferior chemists’ shops is frequently adulterated with flour, turmeric and the root of the Curcuma lonqa which viCd • -i n ’ tiful bright yellow colour, and^islher poun? appe™Ce to the adulterated com- pound. Mr. Thomson states that he has frequently