Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 19, Scripture-SUG

S U G
.v5
Chemical
•qualities
©t' fugar. .
37.
Its ufes in
medicine,
&.C.
Sugar. ^ proper to fay a few tilings concerning its nature and its
ufes.
Sugar is foluble in water, and in a fmall degree in al¬
cohol, When united with a fmall portion of water, it
becomes fulible $ from which quality the art of preferv-
ingis indebted for many of its preparations. It is phof-
phoric and combuftible ; when expofed to fire emitting
a blue flame if the combuflion be flow, and a white
flame if the combuflion be rapid. By diitillation it pro¬
duces a quantity of phlegm, acid, oil, gas, and char¬
coal. Bergman, in treating fugar with the nitrous acid,
obtained a new acid now known by the name of the
oxalic acid; but he has omitted to mention the principles
of which fugar is compofed. Lavoili'er, however, has
fupplied this omiffion and after many experiments has
afligned three principles in fugar, hydrogen, oxygen,
and carbone. If the juice expreficd from the fugar cane
be left to itfelf it paffes into the acetous fermentation ;
and during the decompofltion of the fugar, which is con¬
tinued for three or four months, a great quantity of glu¬
tinous matter is feparated. This matter when diltilled
gives a portion of ammoniac. If the juice be expofed
to the fpirituous fermentation, a wine is obtained ana¬
logous to cyder. If this wine, after being kept in bot¬
tles a-year, be diflUled, we obtain a portion of eau de
vie.
The ufes to which fugar are applied are indeed nume¬
rous and important: It can be made fo folid as in the
art of preferving to receive the moll agreeable colours
and the greateft variety of forms. It can be made fo
fluid as to mix with any foluble fubftance It preferves
the juice and fubftance of fruits in all countries and in
•all feafons. It affords a delicious feafoning to many
kinds of food. It is ufeful in pharmacy, for it unites
with medicines, and removes their difagreeable flavour:
it is the bafis of all fyrups. M. Macquer has flrown in
a very fatisfaflory manner how ufeful fugar would be if
employed in fermenting wines. Sugar has alio been
found a remedy for the feurvy, and a valuable article
of food in cafes of neceflity. M. Imbert de Lennes,
firft furgeon to the late duke of Orleans, publifhed the
following ftory in the Ga%ette de Sante\ which confirms
this affertion. A veffel laden with fugar bound from
the Weft Indies was becalmed in its paffage’ for feveral
days, during which the ftoek of provifions was exhauft-
ed. Some of the crew were dying of the feurvy, and
the reft were threatened with a ftill more terrible death.
In this emergency recourfe was had to the fugar. The
confequence was, the fymptoms of the feurvy went off,
the crew found it a wholefome and fubftantial aliment,
and returned in good health to France.
“ Sugar (fays Dr Rufti) affords the greateft quantity
of nouriftiment in a given quantity of matter of any fub-
0t ftance *n nature » courfe it mav be preferved in lefs
inent of room in our houfes, and may be confumed in lefs time,
any kind than more bulky and lefs nouriftiing aliment. It has
this peculiar advantage over moft kinds of aliment, that
it is not liable to have its nutritious qualities affe£led by
time or the weather 5 hence it is preferred by the In¬
dians in their excurfions from home. They mix a cer¬
tain quantity of maple fugar, with an equal quantity of
Indian corn, dried and powdered, in its milky ftate.
This mixture is packed in little balkets, which are fre¬
quently wetted in travelling, without injuring the fugar,
A few fpoonfuls of it mixed with half a pint of fpring
. J
Sugar.
3»
Affords the
greateft
of food.
[ 805 ] S U G
water afford them a pleafant and ftrengthenirrg meal.
From the degrees of ftrength and nouriihroent which j \r-~-
arc conveyed into animal bodies by a imall bulk of ^ -tinns t the
gar, it might probably be given to horfes with great American
advantage, when they are uled in places or under cir- Fkilofopbiv
cumftances which m..ke it difficult or expenlive to fup-t0,| Society,
port them with more bulky or weighty aliment. A
pound of fugar with grafs or hay has fupported the
ftrength and ipirib of a horfe during a whole day’s la¬
bour in one of the Weft India iflands. A larger quan¬
tity given alone has fattened hol ies and cattle, during
the war be tore 1 aft in Hifpaniola, for a period of feveial
months, in which the exportation of fugar, and the
importation of grain, were prevented by the want of
fllips:... ..." 39 .
“ The plentiful ufe of fugar in diet is one of the beft An ^cel-
preventives that has ever beeiTdifcoVered of the difeaits ^
which are produced by worms. Nature fee ms to have worxnig
implanted a love for this aliment in all children, as if it
were on purpofe to defend them from thole difeales. Dr
Ruth knew a gentleman in Philadelphia, who early
adopted this opinion, and who, by indulging a large fa¬
mily of children in the ufe of fugar, has preferved them
all from the difeafes ufually occafioned by worms. 40
“ Sir John Pringle has remarked, that the'plague has P1-0]31-
never been known in any country where fugar compofes ^ pfa^uo
a material part of the diet of the inhabitants. Dr Rulh and other
thinks it probable that the frequency of malignant fevers malignant
of all kinds has been leffened by this diet, and that itsfever5,
more general ufe would defend that clafs of people who
are moft fubjeft to malignant fevers from being fo often
affeifled by them.
“ In the numerous and frequent diforders of the
breaft, which occur in all countries whero the body is
expofed to a variable temperature of weather, fugar af¬
fords the bafis of many agreeable remedies. It is ufeful
in weakneffes, and acrid defluxions upon other parts of
the body. Many fa&s may be adduced in favour of
this affertion. Dr Rulh mentions only one, which, from
the venerable name of the perfon whole cafe fuimiffied it, 41
cannot fail of commanding attention and credit. Upon Has given
my inquiring of Dr Franklin, at the requeft of a friend rellet fVom.
(fays our refpeffable author), about a year before he^^e°f
died, whether he had found any relief from the pain of ° U *
the ftone from the blackberry jam, of which he took,
large quantities, he told me that he had, but that he
believed the medicinal part of the jam refided wholly in
the fugar •, and as a reafon for thinking fo, he added,
that he often found the fame relief by taking about half
a pint of a fyrup, prepared by boiling a little brown fu¬
gar in water, juft before he went to bed, that he did
from a dofe of opium. It has been fuppofed by feme of
the early phvficians of our country, that the fugar ob¬
tained from the maple-tree is more medicinal than that
obtained from the Weft India fugar-cane j but this opi¬
nion I believe is without foundation. It is preferable
in its qualities to the Weft India fugar only from its fu-
perior cleahlinefs.
“ Cafes may occur in which fugar may be required in
medicine, or in diet, by perfons who refufe to be benefit¬
ed, even indire&ly by the labour of Oaves. In fuch cafes 42
the innocent maple fugar will always be preferred. It Not hurt-
has been faid, that fugar injures the teeth ; but this opi- ^ui t0 £^e
nion now has fo few advocates, that it does not deferve
a ferious refutation.”
In