This section is from the book "The Relation Of Food To Health And Premature Death", by Geo. H. Townsend, Felix J. Levy, Geo. Clinton Crandall. Also available from Amazon: Clean Food: A Seasonal Guide to Eating Close to the Source with More Than 200 Recipes for a Healthy and Sustainable You.
"Well, the rhubarb plant, including wine plant, is a stringy stalk containing a very large amount of acid and some gum."
"The acid of rhubarb is principally oxalic acid. When it is stewed a considerable part of it is dissipated. It is exceedingly stringy and objectionable on that account. Persons who have a tendency to an acid stomach should not eat rhubarb."
"All persons who have a tendency to the formation of gall-stones or stone in the bladder should avoid rhubarb, because it may unite mineral substances in the system and greatly aggravate the tendency. It is not a desirable food but its acid may be useful when no other can be obtained."
"Vegetable marrow is a vegetable that is not extensively cultivated but one which some people like very much. It is so near all water that it is not especially valuable as a food. It contains a small per cent of starchy material, and a considerable amount of waste. Not much can be said either for or against it."
"Doctor, I suppose you cannot say much good of the cucumber, because few people do, except that they like it."
"That is true. A great many people prefer it to any other garden vegetable. Its flavor, like many other vegetables is because of the aromatic oil it contains."
 
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