THE CUBA REVIEW 



35 



CANE SUGAR AND HEART DISEASE 



{From the International Sugar Journal, London.) 

 Dr. Goulston, an Exeter medical man, has 

 been using cane sugar for the treatment of 

 certain kinds of heart disease for the past 13 

 3'ears with some very remarkable results. By 

 means of numerous clinical observations he 

 has now convincingly established that the 

 ingestion of sugar has a specific action on the 

 nutrition of the musculature of the organ, 

 wliich is of great value in certain cases of 

 UTegular, dilated, or feeble heart. Hundreds 

 of cases, most of which altogether failed to 

 respond to drugs, have been successful!}' 

 treated by Dr. Goulston and liis colleagues in 

 this way, and details of some of these, which 

 make most interesting reading, are here given 

 bj' him. As to the mode of treatment, none 

 could be simpler. Two to four ozs. (57 to 

 113 grms.) of sugar dissolved in warm water 

 are taken at suitable intervals during the day 

 with a light and nourishing diet and rest in 

 the open air. 



The theorj' advanced is in a few words that 

 a most frequent cause of heart trouble is mal- 

 nutrition of the musculature, this taking the 

 form of a lack of dextorse and levulose for the 

 formation of that store of glycogen which is 

 absoluteh' necessary. When sugar (sucrose) 

 is ingested it is first, inverted, partly in the 

 stomach, but mostly in the small intestine by 

 the intestinal invertase, and the dextose and 

 levulose formed enter into circulation and are 

 presented to the tissues, lieing then stored up 

 as glycogen, the reserve material to be used 

 later as required. All this is expounded in a 

 very lucid manner, and very fiill details are 

 presented. 



Curious, however, are Dr. Goulston's views 

 on commercial kinds of sugar, and his ideas 

 in tl;is direction are affirmed with a dogma- 

 tism that is difficult to understand. It is 

 necessary, he sa>-s, to avoid beet sugar, for it 

 is harmful. "Cane sugar (West Indian)" 

 only should be used, since it contains "some- 

 thing" not pre.sent in beet sugar. This "some 

 thing" is believed to be of the nature of a "co- 

 enzyme or activator." We may suggest a 

 possible explanation of the existence of this 

 mysterious "something." It is reasonable to 

 believe that an invalid taking as much as a 

 quarter of a pound of sugar daily would 

 naturally favor a palatable and luscious 

 Demerara as compared with even a highly 

 refined beet or cane sugar, and might prob- 

 ably add to this preference the popular pre- 

 judice against any sugar derived from the 

 beet. Here the psychological factor, of such 

 consequence in almost every mode of treat- 

 ment and with almost every patient, would 

 come into play. Notwithstanding these few 

 inexact and unscientific opinions on the nature 

 of commercial sugars, the publication of this 

 work should arouse much interest in medical 

 and also in lay circles, and will, we hope, re- 

 sult in Dr. Goulston's sugar treatment be- 

 comingly widely known. 



* Cane Sugar and Heart Disease. By Arthur Goul- 

 ston M.A.. M.D. Demv 8vo.; viii + 107 pages. 

 (Ball.iere, Tindall & Cox, London.) 1914. 



CUBAN SUGAR SHIPMENTS 



Under date of December 22, Consul R. M. 

 Bartleman reported that, including the 28,000 

 bags then being loaded on board steamer, 

 sugar shipment from the port of Cienfuegos 

 during 1914 aggi-egated 2,271,608 bags (of 325 

 pounds net weight each). 



The request of the Havana Chamber of 

 Commerce to make Cadiz a franchise zone 

 for the storage in bond of foreign merchan- 

 dise shipped to that port for distribution to 

 the markets of Europe at the close of the war 

 has been granted. 



The public highway between Remedios 

 and Cailiarien is to be repaired at a cost of 

 $4,000. 



The new sanitary ordinances of Havana, 

 effective in October last, seek to prevent the 

 erecting of skyscrapers in that capital by 

 limiting the height of buildings to one and 

 one-half the width of the street. 



^ The value of exports from the port of New- 

 York to Culjan ports during the month of 

 September, 1914, was $5,657,442, an increase 

 of $2,433,040 over the value of the ex-ports 

 for the same month of 1913. 



The sum of $150,000 has been appropriated 

 l),v the Cuban Congress for the completion 

 of the waterworks of Guines in Havana Prov- 

 ince. 



IRELAND NEEDS DRY SUGAR 



The need of drier sugar in moist climates 

 is set forth in a report by Consul Wesley 

 Frost of Cork, who says that American sugar 

 has been taken in Ireland in good quantities 

 since the outbreak of the present European 

 war. He says it has proved very damp for 

 the Irish climate. The Consul is of the 

 opinion that there is a fair prospect that if 

 the sugar were satisfactory it might hold the 

 market even after the termination of the war, 

 until the beet sugar areas become fully 

 productive again, since sugar-beet raising 

 in Ireland is officially pronounced not feas- 

 ible. The Consul concludes that American 

 sugar refiners and dealers might well take 

 pains to suit this market by providing a drier 

 sugar than that hitherto sent. The climate 

 of Ireland is exceedingly humid, and probably 

 the refineries should continue their processes 

 slightly longer than usual in order to produce 

 a very dry sugar. Dealers in Cork state that 

 they would be glad to dispense with the need 

 of buying sugar on account of this defect. 



Cable rates from New York to Cuba were 

 reduced January 20th. Messages may be 

 sent to Havana for eight cents a word and 

 to places in Cuba beyond Havana for twelve 

 cents a word. 



