BOOK III. CHAP. Vr. 561 



To thefe varioufly compounded, according to the particular judge- 

 ment of the manufafturer, and other circumftances, the melalTes is 

 added during their fermentation in the ciRerns, and in the propor- 

 tion of about fix gallons of melaflijs to every hundred gallons of 

 liquor. 



Sometimes it is made wholly of crude cane-liquor and melafles, 

 run into fermentation together. 



So that not only the ingredients are various and differently com- 

 pounded i but the melaffes, which is the principal or only fubftance 

 ufed in Britain and North- America, bears in Jamaica but a very fmall 

 proportion to the other ingredients, being only as 6 to 100, or 

 thereabouts. 



8. The fpirit, when meliorated by union with thefe corredive 

 fubflances, and by age, is reduced to a mild and gentle flatej and, 

 when taken in modcratio?i, is not only fafe and wholcfome, but even 

 in fome cafes falutary and medicinal. 



Its aftringency, when duly reftrained, renders it invigorating and 

 cordial -, a:id its power of checking the animal ferments, renders it 

 opponent to a putrid difpofition. In hot countries, therefore, it 

 prevents that extreme relaxation which is generally fo incommo- 

 dious and debilitating i and, by its antifeptic power, that tendency 

 to a putrid habit, which induces the moft fatal difeafes. 



§ The eflential points, to make it become medicinal and vvhole- 

 fome, are then, ift, the keeping it to a due age ; 2dly, the ufing it 

 in moderate quantity. Theufeof it in the Weft-Indies, under thefe 

 precautions, is fo far from being injurious, that it adapts the body 

 to fuftain the heat of the climate with lefs inconvenience, and checks 

 the humours from running into putrefcency. This feems confirmed by 

 obfervation, and the cuftomary pradice of the inhabitants in hot 

 climates. 



Among the Spaniards at Carthagena, the ufe of fpirits is fo com- 

 mon that the moft regular and fober perfons never omit drinking a 

 fmall glafs every forenoon about eleven o'clock, alledging that it 

 ftrengthens the ftomach, weakened by copious, conftant perfpiration, 

 and (harpens the appetite. Hcicer las once. To do the ckvrn; that is, 

 to drink a glafs of fpirit, is the ordinary invitation. But this cuf- 

 tom, which is not efteejned pernicious when ufed with moderation., 

 Vol.. II. 4 C has 



