SU(iAK. A rilOFITABLE ANIMAL. 



481 



I hold troops, and their handsome appearance docs 

 I honor to their food mid to ihiiir royiil muster. In- 

 I deed, in Cochin-China, rice and Siijar is the ordina- 

 I ry breakfast of pooplo of all as(!s and stations ; and 

 I they not only preserve all their fruits in ^^ugar, Ijiu 

 I even the greater part of their leanniinous vejreUiblcs, 

 gourds, cucumbers, radishes, artichokes, the grain of 

 the lotus, and the thick Hcshy leaves of the aloes. I 

 have eaten in India, after a six months' voyage, mut- 

 ton killed in Leadenhall Market,- preserved in a cask 

 of Sugar, and as fresh as the day it was placed in the 

 Ehamblcs. In the curing of meat, a portion of Sugar 

 is ofien mixed with the salt and saltpetre. The Kan- 

 dyans of Ceylon preserve their venison in earthen 

 jjots of honey, and after being thus kept for two or 

 three years its flavor would delight Epicurus himself. 

 In tropical climates, the fresh juice of the cane is the 

 most cflicient remedy for various diseases, while its 

 healing virtues are felt when applied to ulcers and 

 sores. Sir John Pringlc says the plague was never 

 known to visit any country where Sugar composes 

 a mateiial pait of the diet of the inhabitants. Drs. 

 Rush. CuUen, and other eminent physicians, are of 

 opinion that the frequency of malignant fevers of ali 

 kinds is lessened by the use of Sugar ; in disorders 

 of the breast it forms an excellent demulcent, as also 

 in weakness and acrid dettuxions in other parts of 

 the body. Dr. Franklin found great relief from the 

 sickening pain of the stone by drinking half a pint of 

 synip of coarse brown Sngar before bedtime, which 

 he declared gave as much, if not more relief, than a 

 dose of opium. That dreadful malady, once so prev- 

 alent on shipboard, scurvy, has been completely and 

 instantaneously stoi)ped by putting the afflicted on a 

 sugar diet. Ilie diseases arising from worms, to 

 which children are subject, are prel'ented by the 

 use of Sugar, the love of which seems implanted by 

 Nature in them. As to the unfounded assertion of 

 its injuring the teeth, let those who beheve it visit the 

 sugar plantations and look at the negroes and their 

 children, whose teeth are daily employed in the 

 mastication of Sugar, and they will be convinced of 

 the absurdity of the statement.* 



Dr. Willis imputerl a corrosive quality to Su- 

 gar; but in disproof of this notion. Dr. Slare has 

 related, in the Philosophical Traimaciions, No. 

 337. that his grandfather had, all bis lifetime, 

 been in the habit of eating, at his breakfast, a 

 great quantity of Sugar spread upon his bread 

 and butler, and that he used also to put Sugar 

 into his ale and beer, and even into the sauce he 

 ate with his meat. When eighty years of age, 

 he had all bis teeth strong and firm, able to 

 crunch the hardest crust, and free from all pain or 

 soreness in his gum.s. In his eighty-second year 

 one of liis teeth dropped ont, and, soon after, be 

 lost another, which was one of the front teeth : 

 in fact, all his teeth dropped out in two or three 

 years; but, ^vhat is most remarkable, they were 

 replaced by the growth of a perfectly new set. 

 His hair was at that lime of a very white color, 

 but it now became much darker. He enjoyed 

 good health and strength, and died iu the ninety- 

 ninth year of his age. 



The Frencb people are great eaters of Sugar. 

 al\\ays carrj-ing some of it about with them in 

 their pockets and reticules, and generally put- 

 ting; five or six large lumps into each cup of 

 cofTee. 



M. Cho.s.sat reports that Sugar, when used as 

 the e.rchmive or principal article of diet, pro- 

 duces quite opposiie effects in .some per.sons, 

 according to the differences in their system ; for, 

 while it fallens some, it creates bile which in- 

 duces a diarrha'a and a wasting of the solids in 

 other persons. The celebrated Holivar had. by 

 fatigue and privations, so injured the lone of bis 

 stoir.ach, thai be \%as unable at limes to lake 



• History of the British Colonics, vol. ii. 

 (lOO.-.j 31 



any older food than Sugar, w liich, in Ws case, 

 was easy of digestion. His personal friends as- 

 sure us that in some of his last campaigns lie 

 lived for weeks together upon sugar alone as a 

 .solid, with pure water as a liquid ; but, proba- 

 bly, in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out 

 of a tliou.sand. this diet would soon have brought 

 the per.'-on adopting it to his grave ; for, on those 

 whose digestion is feeble, a large or exclusive 

 allowance of Sugar adds to their grievance, be- 

 cause the excess of nutriment, not being gene- 

 rally ab.sorbed by their weakened system, be- 

 comes converted to bile, and causes great de- 

 bility and wasting of the body- In seventeen 

 experiments made on dogs, M. Cho.?.sal observed 

 that, when the sugar diet fattened them, there 

 was a general tendencj' to constipation incnn- 

 while ; and, on the contrary, when it produces 

 an excess of bile in other dogs, their bowels 

 were relaxed. Why Eiigli.sli children .suffer in 

 their digestion after eating largely of sugar- 

 plums, comfits, &c. is chieHy owing, however, 

 to those delicacies being compo.?ed of the refu.se 

 of starch-works, mixed with plaster of Pari.s, 

 pipe-clay, or chalk, and baving, indeed, as little 

 Sugar as will suffice to give them a palatable 

 sweetness, and they are often colored with 

 gamboge, and sometimes with red lead, verde- 

 gris, and other mineral poisons. 



Everywhere, the bea.sts of the field, the birds 

 of the air, the reptiles, fish, and in.secls, are 

 found to have a great liking for Sugar and 

 boney. Mr. Martin sajs be bas tamed the most 

 savage and vicious horses with Sugar, and has 

 seen the moct ferocious animals domesticated by 

 being partly fed upon it. The tamers of lions 

 and tigers owe their power over llieni chiefly to 

 a judicious use of Sugar and other sorts of 

 sweets, and al.so of lavender-water, and various 

 other perfumes, of which feline animals are re- 

 markably fond. In the sugar sea.son, in the 

 West Indies, the horses, mules, and cattle soon 

 acquire plumpness and strenglli by partaking 

 of the leavings of the sugar cane.s, after the 

 manufacturer has done with them. In Cochin- 

 China, the elephauLs, buffaloes, and horses are 

 all fattened with Sugar. We learn from the 

 "Memoirs of Dr. Edward Cartwright," (1843,) 

 that that ingenious man used to fallen sheep on 

 Sugar. To birds this diet proves so nourishing, 

 that the suppliers of the European poultry- 

 markets find that Sugar, along with hemp-seed 

 and boiled wheat, will greatly fatten ruffs and 

 reeves in the spffce of a fortnight. 



[Jour, of Highland andAg. Soc. of Scotland. 



A Profitabi-e Ani.mat,. — The celebrated 

 heifer Myrtle, the properly of the Duke of Dev- 

 onshire, was purchased by His Grace at the 

 Royal Agricultural Meeting at Derby, at which 

 meeting she won the fir.st prize of jClOasihe 

 best yearling short-horned heifer. The same 

 animal also gained the first prize of £I0 at the 

 Yorkshire Agricultural Meeting, at Doncaster, 

 in 1843, as the best yearling heifer; and the 

 first [irize of £I5 at the lloyal Agricultural 

 Meeting at Southampton, in 1H44. as the best 

 ivvo-ycar old heifer. This beautiful animal waa 

 never surpassed at any exhibilion, and is now 

 only three years and nine months old ; she bos 

 produced "iwo calves at separate births, for 

 which, logetlicr with the dam, 300 guineaa have 

 been offered and refu.sed. 



[Midland Counties Uerald. 



