192 



A DISCOURSE 



BOOK I. Bruscum is more intricately crisped, the Molluscum not so much ; 



■''^'V'"^'' "and had we trees large enough to saw into planks for tables, it 

 " would be preferred before Citron ; but now they use it only for small 

 " table-books, and, with its thin boards, to wainscot bed-testers with. 

 " The Bruscum is of a blackish kind, with which they make tables." — 

 Thus far Pliny. And such spotted tables were the famous Tigrin and 



a diet consisting of a plentiful mixture of sugar, has otiier advantages to recommend it, 

 wliicli I shall briefly enumerate. 

 " i. Sugar affords the greatest quantity of nourishment, in a given quantity of matter, of any sub- 

 stance in nature; of course it may be preserved in less room in our houses, and may be con- 

 sumed in less time, than more bulky and less nourishing aliment. It has this peculiar 

 advantage over most kinds of aliment, that it is not liable to have its nutritious qualities 

 affected by time or the weather: hence it is preferred by the Indians in their excursions 

 from home. Tiiey mix a certain quantity of Maple-sugar, with an equal quantity of Indian 

 corn, dried and powdered, in its milky state. This mixture is packed in little baskets, 

 which are frequently wetted in travelling, without injuring the sugar. A few spoonfuls 

 of it, mixed with half a pint of spring-water, afford them a pleasant and strengthening meal. 

 From the degrees of strength and nourishment, which are conveyed into animal bodies 

 by a small bulk of sugar, 1 conceive it might be given to horses with great advantage, when 

 they are used in places, or under circumstances, which make it difficult or expensive 

 to support them, with more bulky or weighty aliment. A pound of sugar, with grass or hay, 

 I have been told, has supported the strength and spirits of a horse, during a whole day's 

 labour in one of the West-India Islands. . A larger quantify given alone, has fattened horses 

 and cattle, during the war before last, in Hispaniola, for a period of several months, in which 

 the exportation of sugar, and the importation of grain, were prevented by the want 

 of ships. 



" 2. The plentiful use of sugar in diet, is one of the best preventatives that has ever been 

 discovered, of the diseases which are produced by worms. The Author of Nature seems 

 to have implanted a love for this aliment in all children, as if it were on purpose to defend 

 them from those diseases. I know a gentleman in Philadelphia, who early adopted this 

 opinion, and who, by indulging a large family of children in the use of sugar, has preserved 

 them all from the diseases usually occasioned by worms. 



"3. Sir John Pringle has remarked, that the plague has never been known in any country 

 where sugar composes a matetial part of the diet of the inhabitants. I think it probable, 

 that the frequency of malignant fevers of all kinds has been lessened by this diet, and that 

 its more general use would defend that class of people, who are most subject to malignant 

 fevers, from being so often afifected by them. 



" 4. In the numerous and frequent disorders of the breast, which occur in all countries, where 

 the body is exposed to a variable temperature of weather, sugar affords the basis of many 

 agreeable remedies. It is useful in weaknesses and acrid defluxions, upon other parts of the 

 body. Many facts might be adduced in favour of this assertion. I shall mention only one, 

 ■which from the venerable name of the person, whose case furnished it, cannot fail of com- 

 manding attention and credit. Upon my inquiring of Dr. Franklin, at the request of 

 a friend, about a year before he died, whether he had found any relief from the pain of the 

 stone, from the Blackberry jam, of which he took large quantities> he told me that he had. 



