SUGAR. 253 



An Englishman who has been to Paris, and witnessed the 

 furious consumption of eau sucree by persons of both sexes 

 and all ages ; who has learned from experience, perhaps, the 

 amount of demolition a young French lady can achieve on a 

 corbeille of bonbons in a given time, may well be excused for 

 coming to the conclusion that the French are a more sugar- 

 eating race than ourselves. Statistics do not prove it. While 

 English people consume on an average, per mouth per 

 annum no less than thirty-four pounds of sugar, French 

 people only consume fourteen. 



Sugar did not attain its conquest of British affection with- 

 out some trouble. There was a strong opposition to its use at 

 first. It would destroy the teeth, corrupt the body, weaken 

 the intellect, I know not what besides. Amongst medical 

 men there were saccharine and anti-saccharine declaimers. 

 Conspicuous amongst the former was a Dr. Slare, who flour- 

 ished in the beginning of the last century. He vindicated 

 sugar from all the aspersions that had been cast upon it. He 

 not only ate sugar, but took it as snuff, finding advantage 

 therein. He recommended sugar as a diet peculiarly appro- 

 priate to ladies. The only disadvantage attending the use of 

 it by the fair sex, according to Dr. Slare, is a tendency to 

 fatness ; but, as a set-off, he bids the doubting fair ones to 

 take no heed of that ; inasmuch as such defect, if any, is 

 more than countervailed by an excellent sweetness of disposi- 

 tion, very charming and delightful.* 



* Vide his book, entitled ' Experiments and Observations upon Oriental 

 and other Bezoar Stones, which prove them to be of no Use in Physick. 

 Gascoin's Powder, distinctly examin'd in its Seven Ingredients, censured 

 and found imperfect. Dedicated to the Royal Society. To which is an- 

 nexed a Vindication of Sugars against the charge of Dr. Willis, other phy- 

 sicians, and common prejudices. Dedicated to the Ladies. Together with 

 further Discoveries and Remarks. By Frederick Slare, Fellow of the Col- 

 lege of Physicians and of the Royal Society. 1715.' 



Amongst the most violent declaimers against sugar we must number the 

 celebrated Dr. "Willis ; he wrote of it as follows : ' Saccharo condita, aut 

 plurimum imbuta, in tantum vitupero, aut illius inventione ac usu immodico, 

 scorbuti in nupero hoc seculo immani augmento, plurimum contribuisse 



