SUGAR. 79 



falls to the bottom. It may be taken into the stomach in very 

 large quantities, without producing any bad consequences, although 

 proofs are not wanting of its mischievous effects, by relaxing the 

 stomach, and thus inducing disease. It is much used in pharmacy, 

 as it forms the basis of syrups, lozenges, and other preparations. It 

 is very useful as a medicine, to favour the solution or suspension of 

 resins, oils, &c. in water, and is given as a purgative for infants. 



Sugar is every where the basis of that which is called sweetness. 

 Its presence is previously necessary, in order to the taking place of 

 vinous fermentation. Its extraction from plants which afford it 

 in the greatest abundance, and its refinement for the common uses 

 of life, in a pure and separate state, are among the most important 

 of the chemical manufactures. The sugar-cane, however, yields 

 sugar in a proportion so much larger than that in which the same 

 matter is to be obtained from any other, that only this cane has 

 been as yet cultivated expressly for tbe purpose of affording sugar 

 to the extraction of the manufacturer. This cane has been from 

 the most ancient times known in Asia. Of its produce, some small 

 proportion appears to have been, during the greatness of ancient 

 Rome, imported by circuitous channels into Europe. In the pro- 

 gress of the subsequent ages, the plant itself became known in Eu- 

 rope, and was introduced into cultivation. Before the data of the 

 discovery of America, it was no uncommon cultivation in Spain : the 

 Spaniards carried out plants of the sugar-cane to America j but the 

 plant had been, even before, propagated in this hemisphere. They 

 had not long been seated in their new colonial territories before they 

 made sugar a principal article in their agriculture and manufacture. 

 It has continued ever since to be the principal produce of the Eu- 

 ropean colonial territories in the West India isles. It is produced 

 also in very large quantities in the East. The Anglo-Americans ex- 

 tract it from the maple-tree. The cane is a produce of all the South 

 Sea isles of late discovery. 



The following is the mode of its manufacture in the West Indies. 

 The plants are cultivated in rows, on fields enriched by such ma- 

 nures as can most easily be procured, and tilled with the plough. 

 They are annually cut. The cuttings are carried to the mill. They 

 are cut into short pieces, and arranged in small bundles. The mill 

 is wrought by water, wind, or cattle. The parts which act on 

 the canes are upright cylinders, Between these the canes are in- 



