83 QUALITIES OF SUGAR. 



viscera are sheer quackery. Sugar is much boiled in barley water in 

 England, and hence called barley sugar. Other candies are similarly 

 prepared. The mode is to boil till brittle, cast it on a stone anointed 

 with oil of almonds and then twist it into sticks; saffron, oils and es- 

 sences, &,c. are added, to suit the taste, and herbs, frequently, for colds, 

 hoarseness, &c. 



Syrup is a solution of sugar in water, and is often flavored with ve- 

 getable substances, anil hence the many varieties of the shops. It is 

 formed by dissolving sugar in \ its weight of water. It keeps well in 

 close vessels, but if considerably diluted, it changes rapidly, if exposed 

 to air, and becomes sour and mouldy. 



Molasses is much used in this country for various domestic purpo- 

 ses, for making brown candy and for the manufacture of spirits. The 

 latter use, however, has greatly diminished, most happily, within a few 

 years; for the liquor commonly made of it is vile stuff; and. Jlav ored 

 with the pernicious druss known to be used, it is destructive and 

 abominable. Molasses, by the addition of yeast, undergoes the acetic 

 and vinous fermentations. Some of the molasses is converted into 

 coarse soft sugar called bastard. It is used in large quantities here 

 and in Europe, by bakers and in confections, in the preparation of 

 tobacco, in preparing preserves, &c. A large amount is imported from 

 the West Indies into the United States for these purposes. $2,910,791 

 worth was imported in 1840 and Great Britain imported 650,055 cwt. 



The qualities of sugar are widely known. It preserves both animal 

 and vegetable substances from putrefaction and is a principal ingredi- 

 ent in the preparations of all vegetable food. It is nutritious in mo- 

 derate quantities, but is not apt to agree with the weak and dispeptic. 

 With other approximate nutritive principles, it increases their value as 

 food. Its effect on the negroes is remarkable. The children and 

 even the cattle and dogs on the plantations grow fat during the sugar 

 season. Animals fed on sugar alone, however, soon manifest feeble- 

 ness and disease. The fondness of children for sugar is doubtless in- 

 stinctive, as the milk on which they subsist when young is composed 

 in part of it. Its effect on the teeth of children are mostly ideal and 

 generally a device of economical mothers. No people in the world 

 have finer teeth than the negroes, much fed with it on sugar planta- 

 tions. It is a mild vermifuge and is of the greatest advantage in most 

 medicinal prescriptions, in beverages, and liquors of most kinds. 



Sugar is the important element in vinous and panary fermentations 

 and is an active agent in most chemical changes in vegetable organic 

 bodies. It is composed of water, sugar, gum, green fecula, extractive, 

 gluten, acetic and malic acids, acetates of lime and potash, super-malate 

 and sulphate of lime and lignia. The common sugar contains a por- 

 tion of lime, tannic acids, glutinous and gummy substances, &c. ; but 

 the process of refining removes these. One cwt. of raw sugar, af- 



