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One of the quotations the author effectively employs to introduce each chapter, a snippet from David Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, states, "Nor has Rhubarb prov'd always a Purge, or Opium a Soporific to everyone who has taken these Medicines." Foust uses this quotation to illustrate the fact that rhubarb's pharmacologic action depended in large part on the species and dosage to be administered. But this statement from Hume also captures in a broader sense what Foust's Rhubarb: The Wondrous Drug is all about, because this is more than a story about the use of rhubarb in medicine. Rather, this
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