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Show SUGAR-=CANE, SUGAR-CANE. 50 came used in diet as well as medicine it met with the most vio» yposition. , ere = Theophilus Garencieres, who wrote in 1647, speaking sugar, declares,— ~~ Suir andall kinds of sweetmeats ‘are very ee . ae sumption of the lungs; and, as I conceive, the So Ce use of these things tends much to create that disease; and it is not to be wondered at that consumptive complaints are so common in England. *¢ In respect to the predominant quality of sugar, I contend that it is heating, although hidden ; and, as a proof it, it excites thirst. neko ¢ This heating quality of sugar renders it not a little injurious to the lungs, which are in themselves very hot; moderately cooling things are therefore most agreeable to their nature, but heat. ing things easily inflame them. ‘¢ But the most important consideration is, that sugar is not onlyinjurious to the lungs in its temperament. and composition, but also in its entire property; which, I believe, no sensible person will deny: when, from its excessive sweetness, itis seit metrically opposite to the bitter principle, it must follow, if bitter things, according to universal suffrage, absorb and deterge superfluous humours, expel putrefaction, and preserve bodies sound for a great while, that sweet things, from their opposite qualities, must be the fruitful parent of putrescence; and which must necessarily be more active in their effects when a part is attacked not endowedwith the power of concoction, and from which afterwards it is not possible to remove the disease. ‘¢ It is certain there is no fermentation, or verylittle, produced between things which agree in their qualities, as sugar and flesh, on account of the sweetness and balsamic quality of sugar and the sweet essence of flesh, which assimilate with each other; for, if a picce of raw meat be put in sugar, it soon be- comes putrid, unless the sugar should have been first boiled until all its sweetness is consumed, and it has acquired a bitterness ; but when the meat is put into salt, it will be kept from putrefying for a great length of time, from that property in thesalt which is acrid, and the balsam of the meat which is sweet, causing a kind of fermentation from the Opposition of their qualities ; after which fermentation a certain hew temperament arises. “ The same also appears in sugar, which, though it so soon “¢ In confirmation of the preceding observ ations, it is not to be omitted, that in the island ofSaint Thoma s, under the equator, the inhabitants feed their hogs with canes, aud the refuse of the cane-juices from which they are said to fatten, and ac. quire such wonderful tenderness, that their fles!h equals in good. ness the Spanish kids, and is commonly given to people with weak stomachs, on account of its easin ess of digestion. “From hence we mayinfer, that if suga r possesses the power and property of converting hog’s flesh , the t oughest almost of any animal’s, to so great gr a degree of tendertess, for the same reason it must accelerate the decay and sphac elation of the Jungs, when they are of such a soft and spon gy substance as to require styptics and astringents to preserve them, ‘* It is therefore clearer than the light that sugar is not a nourishment, but an evil 3 not a preservati ve, but a destroyer ; and should be sent back to the Indies, befor e the discovery of which, probably, consumption of the lungs was not known, but brought to us with these fruits of our enterprise .” Willis, who wrote in 1674, says ,— {so much condemn all things that are preserved with sugar. Bary or have much sugar mixed with them, that I consider the inven. tion and immoderate use of it, in this present age, to have very much contributed to the immense increase ofthe scurvy. ** For it plair ily appears, by the chemical analysis of sugar, that this concrete consists of an acrid and corrosive salt, but tempered with a portion of sulphur. “* Sugar, distilled by itself, yields a liquor scarcely inferior to aquafortis ; but, if it be dilut ed plentifully with wate r, and then distilled, although nofixed salt will ascend, yet there will come a] iquor like the sharpest brandy, hot, and highly pung ent. “¢ Therefore it is very probable , that mis ing sugar with almo st all our food, and taken to so great a degree, from its daily use, renders the blood and humo urs salt and acrid, and cons equently Scorbutic. ce A certain eminent author * attributes the cause of the fren. e = f Sa * Garencieres, E2 Pee UC SE SeNCERS pr onar 51 corrpts flesh, yet will preserve acid fruits from putrefaction for a long time ; becauseits sweetness ferments with the acidity or sharpness of the fruits, from which a new unifo rm tempera. ment is produced. a |