SUGAR: THE OUTLOOK IN THE COLONIES. 131 



have often seen old, scabby, wasted negroes crawl from the 

 hot-houses apparently half dead in crop time, and by suck- 

 ing canes all day long they would soon become strong, fat 

 and sleeky." ^ 



Edwards in his history of the West Indies observes 

 that " the time of crop in the sugar islands is the season of 

 gladness and festivity to man and beast. So palatable and 

 salutary is the juice of the cane that every individual of the 

 animal creation drinking freely of it derives health and 

 vigour from its use. The meagre and sickly among the 

 negroes exhibit a surprising alteration in a few weeks after 

 the mill is set in action. The labouring horses, oxen and 

 mules, though almost constantly at work during- this 

 season, yet, when indulged with plenty of green tops of 

 this noble plant, and some of the scummings from the 

 boiling house, improve more than at any period of the 

 year ; even the pigs and the poultry fatten on the re- 

 luse. 



It may be objected that the raw juice of the sugar- 

 cane is very different from prepared sugar, and this is 

 perfectly correct. While the sugar-cane may be ad- 

 vantageously eaten as a fruit, quantities of raw sugar are 

 not likely to prove so wholesome. On the other hand 

 it has been demonstrated that, at the moment of muscular 

 action, grape sugar is fed to the muscle cells by the blood 

 and oxidised." 



A practical test of the value of sugar as a muscle 

 maker has lately been supplied by Dr. Vaughan Harley, 

 who gives his results in a paper read before the Royal 

 Society.' Dr. Harley's experiments were conducted upon 

 himself with Mosso's "ergograph," and great care seems to 

 have been taken to obtain accurate results. He first of all 

 determined the value of sugar when taken alone in the 

 production of muscular work, and, on a fasting day, in- 

 creased his capacity for work by 61 to 76 per cent. He 

 next proved that the addition of sugar to normal diet had 

 a marked effect in retarding fatigue. Seven ounces of 



1 Lunan. - Chauveau and Kaufmann. ^ Vaughan Harley. 



