of its volatile, sulphureted oil.
"It is employed in Germany for this purpose by cutting off the top, and
then making a hole within the root, which hole is filled with treacle,
or honey, and allowed to stand thus for two or three days; afterwards a
teaspoonful of the medicated liquid is to be given two or three times in
the day, with a dessertspoonful of water, when required."

I am not acquainted with the "black radish," but mothers might do worse,
in cases of whooping-cough, than give their children the juice of
pounded radishes mixed with pure honey.

_Raspberry._

Raspberries are excellent against the scurvy, and, like the blackberry,
good for relaxed bowels. They are a very wholesome fruit, and should be
given to those who have "weak and queasy stomachs."

_Rice._

The chief medicinal value of rice lies in the quickness with which it
is digested. One authority says that "it can be taken four times a day
and the patient still get twenty hours' rest." It is consequently of
great value in digestive and intestinal troubles. But it should be
_unpolished_, otherwise it is an ill-balanced, deficient food. It should
likewise be boiled in only just enough soft water to be absorbed during
the cooking. One cup of rice should be put on in a double saucepan with
three cups of cold water and tightly covered. When the water is all
absorbed the rice will be cooked.

The large-grained, unpolished rice sold at "Food-Reform" stores at 3d.
per lb. absorbs the water and cooks much more easily than a smaller
variety sold at 2d. I have found the latter most unsatisfactory.

_Rhubarb._

Rhubarb is a wholesome and cooling spring vegetable, and may well take
the place of cooked fruit when the latter is scarce. But it is
generally forbidden to rheumatic and gouty patients on account of its
oxalic acid. This oxalic acid is supposed to combine with the lime in
the blood of the gouty person, and to form crystals of oxalate of lime,
which are eliminated by the kidneys. At the same time the general health
suffers. "Dr. Prout," writes Dr. Fernie, "says he has seen well-marked
instances in which an oxalate of lime kidney attack has followed the use
of garden rhubarb in a tart or pudding, likewise of sorrel in a salad,
particularly when at the same time the patient has been drinking hard
water. But chemists explain that oxalates may be excreted in the urine
without having necessarily been a constituent, as such, of vegetable or
other