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Show SUGAR-CANE, carbon, and 10:35 hydrogen; or, according to the original cal. culation, of 64 oxygen, 28 charcoal, and 8 hydrogen. Sugar is obtained from the Sugar-cane by baling down its expressed juice, with the addition ofa certain proportion of lime or potass, until the greater part is disposed to concrete ine brownish or yellowish crystalline grains. The lime or potass is added to saturate some malic acid, whose presence impedes the crystallization. The molasses, or that portion ofthe inspissated juice which does not crystallize, is separated from the raw sugar, which is sent to Europe to berefined. This is performed by dissolving it in water, boiling the solution with lime water, cla« rifying it with blood or white of eggs, and straining it through woollen bags. Thesolution, after due evaporation, is permitted to cool to acertain degree, and then poured intoc onical forms of unglazed earthen ware, whereit concretes into a mass ofirre. gular crystals. The syrup which has not crystallized runs off through a hole in the apex of the cone. The upper or broad end of the cone is then covered with moist clay, the water of which gradually penetrates into the sugar, anddisp laces a quantity of syrup, which would otherwise be retai ned in it, and discolour it. It is then carefully dried, and gets the name of loaf or lump sugar.. When the solution and other steps of the process are repeated, the sugar is said to be double refined, Sugar g ’ is sometimes made to assume a more regular form of cryst alliza- tion, by carrying the evaporat ion only a certain length, and then permitting the syrup to cool slowly. In t form it is called brown or white sugar.candy, according to the degree of its purity. Raw sugar varies very much in quality. It should be dry, rystallized in large sparkling grains, of a whitish or clear yellow lour, without smell, and of a sweet taste without any pecu liar flavour. Refined sugar should have a brill iant white colour, anda close npact texture. Itshould be very hard, but brittle, and brea k sharp, semi-transparent, splintery fragments, MEDICAL USE, ', from being a luxury, has now become one of the nese cessaries of life. In Europe sugar is almost solely used as @ condiment . But it is also a very wholesome and powerful arucie of nourishment; for duri ng crop time, the negroes in the SUGAR-CANE; Ad West Indies, notwithstanding their increased labours, always growfat. It is in this way also that its internal employment is useful in some diseases, as in sea scurvy ; for sugar produces no particular effect as a medicine , except that the coarser and im. pure kinds are slightly purgativ e. Applied externally it acts as an escharotic in spongy and unhealthy gran ulat ions ; and to abraded or inflamed surfaces it proves gently stimulant, In pharmacyit is principally emp loyed to cover bad tastes, to give form to, and to preserve, more active substances. In using it for the last purpose, we must always remember that, if the pro. portion of sugar employed be too small, it will promot e inst ead of retard the fermentation of the articles it was intended to pre. serve, Molasses or treacle is a very impure syrup. It is thick, vis. cid, of a dark brown, almo st black colour, and has a peculiar smell, and a Sweet, somewhat empyreumatic taste, HISTORY. The Sugar-cane is a native of Africa and Lower Asia, as the East Indies and Arabia Felix ; it is also said to grow spontaneously in the West Indies ; but others assert that it was there unknown until introduce d by the Europeans. Labat, vol. i. P. 226, is decidedly of opinion that the Sugar. cane is a native plant of the West Indies. But he says, it is to the Portuguese and Spania rds that Europeans are ind ebted for the art of making sugar, who learned the secret fro m the inhabitants of the East Indies , and returning thence put it in prac tice, first at the island of Madeira and the Canari es, and after. wards in the Brazils and NewSpain, about the end of the year 1580. Sugar, when first introd uced into every countr y, was used only medicinally, Pliny leaves no room for doubt onthis point. Even in A rabia, in Avicen na’s time, though Sugar was anarticle of commercefrom the Kast, there is no record of its being used in dietetic or Culinary purposes for several centuries after, MEDICAL US ES, Sugar was employed ori ginally to render unplea sant and nau. Seating medicines gra teful to the sick, esp eci all y to. children; and for syrups, electuaries, and conserves, As might be expected with every thing new, when sugar bee z |