SUGAR AND SYRUPS. 665 
varieties of these organisms, both poisonous, and neutral, teem by 
myriads in the mouth; some thereof forming a source through 
which serious, and even fatal diseases occur. More than a 
hundred different species of such organisms have been isolated, 
and cultivated. Highly important, therefore, is it to keep the 
mouth (within its enclosure) pure, free from carious teeth, and 
suppurating gums, and disinfected as to its decomposing shreds, 
and fragments of food-matters. We are by no means certain 
that the use of artificial teeth by the old is an unmixed blessing. 
The fact is worthy of notice that almost all the old people who 
live to an advanced age in country villages, (and it is here the 
greatest age is reached,) rely on their toothless gums for sufficient 
mastication ; and the absence of teeth in very old persons may 
possibly be an indication of the necessity to return then to the 
simple diet of childhood. Artificial teeth may do harm, too, 
by encouraging old folk to eat more food than is good for them, 
and of a kind unsuited to their years. Horace Walpole, writing 
from Strawberry Hill (July, 1871), says: “ To-day the wind is 
again in the dolorous corner; for these four days I have been 
confined with pain, and swelling in my face. The apothecary 
says it is owing to the long drought; but as I should not eat 
grass were there ever such a plenty, and as my cows, though 
starving, have no swelled cheeks, I do not believe him. I humbly 
attribute my frequent disorders to my longevity, and to that 
Proteus, the gout, who is not the less himself for being incog.” 
SUGAR and SYRUPS. 
THERE are several sorts of Sugar, all belonging chemically to 
carbohydrate constituents of food, and which include Cane 
Sugar, Grape Sugar (or Starch Sugar, which is glucose), Sugar 
of Milk (or lactose), and a Sugar found in the juice of asparagus 
(as well as in some of the muscular bodily tissues), which is 
‘‘inosite.” Fruit Sugar (fructose) is discovered, together with 
some Grape Sugar, in almost all sweet fruits. The same can be 
made chemically from Cane Sugar when fermented, or if boiled 
with acids, and the Cane Sugar is then said to be “ inverted.” 
This Fruit Sugar is more slow to ferment (with yeast) than is 
Cane Sugar ; it is also called “ /evulose,” because having a leit- 
hand rotary relation to polarized light under the microscope. 
On the contrary, Grape Sugar is “ deztrose,” because having a 
