es gate 
SECTION -¥. 
Many, from a fuppofition that Tea was dried in India 
on copper, have attributed its pernicious properties to this 
metal ; but we have already obferved (Part I. § vii1.), that, if 
Tea were tin@tured with the leaft quantity of copper, it might 
_eafily be detected by chemical experiments. 
Some have attributed the injurious qualities of this fafhionable 
exotic upon the ftomach to the fugar ufually drank with the — 
Tea; but I have had fufficient opportunities of obferving in 
the Weft Indies the good effects of drinking freely the juice of 
the fugar-cane, to obviate this objection. Ihave known feeble 
emaciated children, afflicted with*worms, tumefied abdomen, © 
and a variety of difeafes, foon emerge from their complicated 
ailments, by drinking large oe 3 of this fweet liquor, and 
become healthy and ftrong *- 
*€ While 
= r Th fome parts of Scotlint the common people give children large dimaghie of 
fugar and water to deftroy worms. See alfo Boerhaav. Elem. Chemiae, Tom. Il. 
p- 160. Hiftorifch Verhaal. &c. inde: Voorreeden Bezoar. London, 171 59 8vo: 
Slare-de Sacchar. et Japid. Van. Swieten Commen. v. V. p. 586. Duncan, in his 
Avis Salutaire, frequently introduces fugar as an agreeable poifon, though he offers 
no proof in fupport of this epithet. Dr. Robertfon, in his Hiftory of Charles V. 
Vol. I. p. 401, 8vo. obferves, that ‘* fome plants of the Sugar-cane were brought 
from Afia; and the firft eg to cultivate them in Sicily was rates about the 
middle 
