FOOD. 



more abundantly in the former. In many of the 

 products already noticed, the saccharine principle 

 forms no unimportant item, though not in such 

 proportion as to be considered characteristic. We 

 now come to consider it as a distinct principle, 

 and as an article of vast dietetic importance. 

 Sugar, as a vegetable product, is found in con- 

 siderable quantity in such dried fruits as the 

 currant, raisin, fig, date, tamarind, and so forth ; 

 and these are now pretty largely consumed in 

 Britain. Thus, figs yield about 60 per cent, of 

 sugar; tamarinds, 12; prunes, 16; and dates, 35; 

 and there can be no doubt that these, as well as 

 many of our ripe fleshy fruits, owe their chief ali- 

 mentary value to its presence. It is, however, as 

 a separate and prepared article that we have now 

 to do with it as a substance obtained by art from 

 the sugar-cane, the maple, the beet, the palm, and 

 other plants yielding it in abundance. Though 

 procured from the maple in America, from the 

 beet on the continent, and from the palm in the 

 East Indies, it is chiefly from the sugar-cane of the 

 tropics that Britain obtains her supply, amounting 

 annually to about 710,000 tons. When the canes, 

 of which there are several varieties, have attained 

 a certain height and age about twelve or thirteen 

 months the cuticle having become smooth, dry, 

 and brittle, they are cut, stripped of their leaves, 

 and crushed between rollers, to express the juice, 

 which is mixed with lime, to neutralise the free 

 acid present, and render more liquid and separ- 

 able the uncrystallisable portion, known as 

 molasses or treacle. The juice is now heated 

 in vacuum pans to the temperature of 130, and 

 separated from the scum, and again heated several 

 times, and at length allowed to drain, for the 

 separation of the molasses and the crystallisation 

 of the sugar. The raw or brown sugar thus 

 formed is again purified, by being acted upon by 

 lime and bullock's blood : the one serving to 

 neutralise the acidity of the liquids ; the other, 

 by the coagulation of the albumen, effecting the 

 clarification and mechanical separation of any 

 foreign insoluble matters. Reduced to a certain 

 sirupy consistence, the sugar is poured into 

 moulds, and agitated for a certain time, to pre- 

 vent the formation of large crystals, and secure 

 a compact mass of closely adherent, small, and 

 glistening grains. This constitutes loaf-sugar, 

 the quality of which depends greatly on the low- 

 ness of the temperature at which the boiling has 

 been effected. When sugar thus refined has been 

 again dissolved, and left to crystallise slowly at a 

 somewhat elevated temperature, in boxes crossed 

 with threads, to form centres of crystallisation, 

 sugar-candy is formed ; or if sugar so dissolved is 

 made to cool more quickly, a transparent solid is 

 obtained, known as barley-sugar. Sugar in one 

 or other of these states constitutes the basis of 

 almost all confectionery, as acidulated drops 

 (sugar and tartaric acid), toffy, hardbake, comfits, 

 lozenges, and the like. It forms also an excellent 

 antiseptic, and for this purpose is used as a sirup 

 for preserving fruits, roots, &c. as well as for the 

 curing of meat and fishes. 



In whatever form sugar or the saccharine 

 principle may be made to appear in commerce or 

 in diet, its ultimate composition, when pure, is 

 carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen; or more simply, 

 carbon and the elements of water. It contains no 

 azotised principle, and thus its chief functions in 



the animal economy are to supply heat and form 

 fat. It is generally supposed that sugar acts in- 

 juriously upon the teeth, but this is not a neces- 

 sary effect of its consumption in large quantity ; 

 for Dr Wright informs us that ' no people on the 

 earth have finer teeth than the natives of Jamaica.' 

 When, however, saccharine substances are freely 

 indulged in by those who live a more civilised, 

 and probably therefore less healthy, life, gastric 

 disorder is very likely to be produced, and, as a 

 consequence, the quality of the secretions of the 

 mouth is so modified that they act injuriously 

 upon the teeth. 



Honey, though, strictly speaking, obtained 

 through the medium of the animal kingdom, may 

 with little impropriety be considered in this 

 place. Although elaborated by the bee, it is found 

 ready-made, if we may so speak, in the flowering 

 apparatus of many plants. It consists chiefly of 

 grape-sugar, containing a greater or less amount 

 of cane-sugar the former being non-crystalline, 

 while the latter is crystalline. Besides these two 

 sugars, honey also contains a free acid matter not 

 yet well understood, mucilage, sometimes a little 

 wax, together with colouring and aromatic matter. 

 These adjuncts differ, according to the kind of 

 flowers on which the bees feed ; and occasionally 

 honey has been known to possess narcotic and 

 poisonous properties. Its dietetic properties are 

 thus spoken of: Like treacle, honey often acts as 

 a laxative, and to a greater degree. But, like all 

 other concentrated forms of saccharine matter, 

 the digestibility of honey is only a comparative 

 question ; and, although honey may be much less 

 apt to derange the functions of assimilation than 

 cane-sugar or treacle, it is, nevertheless, by no 

 means easily digested when the stomach is either 

 weakened or otherwise less equal to its duties ; 

 and should always be used cautiously by the 

 dyspeptic, if used at all by them. With some 

 constitutions it by no means agrees, and has to be 

 carefully avoided. 



The fleshy fruits, as the apple, pear, plum, 

 peach, and the like, though generally consumed 

 during their seasons, cannot be regarded as a 

 staple of food, though they are all more or less 

 nutritious. About 80 parts in 100 are water, the 

 rest consists of sugar and peculiar acids, asso- 

 ciated with more or less gluten. According to 

 Johnston, the perfectly dry gooseberry is about as 

 nutritive as ordinary wheaten flour. Some, as the 

 pear and apple, are employed in the manufacture 

 of beverages ; and as to their acid properties, 

 these will be considered under the principles of 

 MEDICINE. 



ANIMAL FOOD. 



Animal, like vegetable substances, arc re- 

 solvable into ultimate and proximate principles. 

 The ultimate elements of 100 parts ox-blood, for 

 example, are 51-95 carbon, 7-17 hydrogen, 21-39 

 oxygen, 15-07 nitrogen, and 4-42 insoluble mineral 

 matter. Again, 100 parts beef yield 52-59 carbon, 

 7-89 hydrogen, 19-00 oxygen, 15-22 nitrogen, and 

 3-30 insoluble ingredients. Comparing this with 

 what has been said of vegetables, the vast pre- 

 ponderance of nitrogenous or plastic matter will 

 be readily perceived. The proximate principles 

 of animal food are fibrin, or the fleshy fibre of 

 meat when boiled to rags; gelatine, or animal 



