550 JAMAICA. 



foil, are frequently incrufted over with a palpable integument of wliite 

 fugar, concreted on their rind, and hardened by the fun. How bene- 

 volent and n-racious is this ample provifion of fo wholefome and ne- 

 ceflary a fubftance, which is fo copioufly lodged in the foil, to be im- 

 bibed, prepared, refined, and duly adapted, by all thefe vegetable pro- 

 ductions, for the ufe, fuftentation, and health, of the inhabitants! The 

 fugar prepared from the cane contains thefe virtues in abftraft, which 

 are found lefs copioufly diftributed to the culinary roots, and efculent 

 fruits; it therefore prefents itfelf as a portable remedy, always at hand, 

 to fupply the occafions of thofe perfons who are not able to procure 

 other vegetable produftions, endowed with the like properties; or to 

 be mixed with thofe aliments, which contain too little, or none at all, 

 of them ; it feems therefore peculiarly of ufe, as a neceflary part of fea- 

 ftore, for the ready fervice of thofe, who are too diftant from the land 

 to come at frefli vegetables, and the nature of whofe flefii diet requires 

 fuch a conftant correftor. The warrant and petty officers on board a 

 fleet are fcarcely ever feized with acute putrid difeafes, excepting by 

 meer infedion ; and they are very feldom known to become fcorbutic 

 in any violent degree, unlefs the general caufe (excefllve molfture) be 

 of a remarkably long continuance. The diet of this clafs of men is, in 

 general, the fame with the refl: of the crew, but they are well clad for 

 the moft part, and never want a little ftore oi fugar. 



The expence of allowing fugar, or melafles, as a part of fea pro- 

 vifions, even taking it at the highefl:, is too trifling, when put in 

 competition with preferving fo valuable a part of the community as 

 our feamen, at leaft, for all that they might have occafion for, when 

 at fea. 



The efficacy of this medicine, in preferving the health of fea- 

 men, is far from being a recent difcovery ; fo early as the reign of 

 Charles the Firft fugar had been found eminently ufeful in fcorbutic 

 cafes, as appears by IFoodalPs Treatife, re-publiflied in 1639. But 

 Great Britain had at that time no colonies to fupply her with a fuffi- 

 cient quantity of it ; and it is worthy remark, that the plague almofl: 

 uninterruptedly raged in London till towards the Revolution, when 

 confiderable remittances of fugar began to arrive from Barbadoes, Ne- 

 vis, Jamaica, and other iflands, belonging to Britain. This affluence 



rendered 



