OCR Text |
Show Bae —— 7 a2, a ees = sie SUGAR*CANE. 60 nature, particularly with people unaccustomed to it; and somes times it operates as an active purgative, anddisorders the bowels, This happens frequently to Europeans, whoarrive in the sugar countries just at crop-time, and, allured byits grateful novelty, take it to excess.” In support of this opinion wehave also the concurrence of the famous Dr. Cullen. ‘¢ The second kind of vegetable matter which we have said may be supposed to bealimentary, is sugar. Whetherthis in its puresaline state, and taken byitself, without any mixture of oleaginous matter, can prove alimentary, seems to me very doubtful; but that even when approaching very nearly to a sa- line state, as it is in the Sugar-cane, it may prove alimentary, is presumed from what happens to the negroes upon our sugar plantations, who are observed to grow plump and fat when during the expression of the canes they take a great deal of the cane-juice. “¢ ‘The same conclusion may be drawn likewise from this circumstance, that the people of warmer climates live very much upon fruits, whose substance, in a great part, consists of sugar; and I think it evidently appears that- these fruits are more nourishing in proportion as they contain more of sugar. That sugar enters for a large share into the nourishment of men, we may knowparticularly from hence, that figs, a verysaccharine fruit, were anciently the chief food of the athlete, or public wrestlers. ‘* That the roots of these vegetables, that are especially’ alimentary, contain a great deal of sugar, we learn from Margraaf’s experiments, which show that a great deal of pure | sugar may 1 be extracted from them; and it can hardly be doubted that a great part part 0 ofthet the r nutritio riti us powe 7 r depe y nds; uponthis is ingr i or edie nt in their composition. ‘¢ The best proof, however, of the nutritious gualit of sugar. or of its being a chief part of alimentary substances,f is, that oana great proportion of sugaris cont ainedin all farinaaceous matter. T : : ; his appears from its being evolve d in the most part of thefariveo us seeds bytheir ge ‘mination naceo or malting, And lastly, that all alimentary vegetables do for a great part consist of sugar, we may presume, from their bein g universally liable to a vinous or acetous fermentation, the subject of which js probably in all cases a sugar. €¢ 61 SUGAR-CANE. ait tt. heen ihe ailin ity bet ween sacchari® ne and fari . naceous matter ap- mm pears particularly from this, that several fruits which at a cer. tain period of their maturation are chiefly saccharine, are in their further progress often changed to a farinaceous state. The germination of seeds, therefore, and the maturation of certain fruits, fully prove the mutual convertibility of sugar and farina into each other. ‘s While we thus endeavour to show that farinaceous substances contain a large proportion of saccharine matter, it is to be observed that the farinaceous seeds are of all other vegetable matters the most powerful and nourishing to men, as wellas to domestic animals ; and hence the Farina alibilis of Haller. The nutritious quality he indeed imputes to a mucilaginous or gelatinous matter which appears in them upontheir being diffused in water, andit is possible that their nutritious quality may depend upon this; but at the same time, from what we have just nowsaid of the composition of farinaceous matter, it will appear that this vegetable mucilage or gelatina consists for a great part of sugar, which therefore maystill be the basis of its alimentary part.” Sugar is sometimesused surgically. The refined sugar, pounded fine, is blown through a quill to remove specks on the cornea of the eye. It is mentioned also as singularly efficacious in the cure of sordid ulcers of the leg*. As far as my opinion goes, it is very favourable to the free use of sugar, especially for children, though in some constitutions it is apt to ferment and turn acid on the stomach. But in general it agrees well. It however blunts the desire for other food, as a little of this goes a great way, and therefore is said * Exarundinibus saccharum extrahimus, non solum id incorruptibile, sedaliis preestat ne corrumpantur ; vulneribus injectum a putrefactioneliberat; ex eo solo ingentia vulnera sanari vidimus. Phytognomica, lib. v. cap. i. p. 201, anno 1560, by Baptista Porta. “* Sugar, extracted from canes, is not only incorruptiblein itself, but preserves all other things from corruption ; sprinkled upon woundsit keeps them from mortifying. I have seen very large wounds cured only with sugar.”” The method of treating fresh wounds among the Turks, is, first te wash them with wine, and then sprinkle powdered sugar on them. The celebrated monsieur Belloste cured obstinate ulcers with sugar dissolved in a strong decoction of walnut leaves. This I have found to be an excellent application, |