Foreign Vegetables. 423 
Food without Injury fince we have no alimentary 
Compound, wherein this acid Principle is not to be 
met with. Is not the fame Acid found in Muft and 
Wine, and even more copioufly ? Is it not likewife 
contained in Barley and in Beer, in Wheat and 
Bread, and in all Fruits whatfoever, difcovering 
itfelf evidently by Fermentation, or the Action of 
Fire ? And are thefe Aliments, for this Reafon, 
fuppofed to have bad Qualities, or accounted inju- 
rious to Health ? By no Means. An inflammable 
Spirit, is drawn from Sugar duly fermented, |as from 
other vegetable Juices *, but it is not therefore the 
worfe Food : Nay, on the contrary, by this fame 
Spirit the moft powerful, corrofive, acid Liquors 
are tempered and foftened. • In Sugar then, as in 
Milk, and other Aliments derived from Vegetables, 
the Acid is fo intangled and enveloped in oily and 
earthy Particles, that from their Mixture refults a 
moft agreeable falutary Food, or Seafoning ; and 
not a corrofive pernicious Subftance, as fome Au- 
thors (who otherwife have rendered good Service to 
Phyfick) have a little too inconfiderately advanced. 
Dr. Slave commends it on many Accounts. He ex- 
tols it as a bechick and ftomachick Medicine, cheer- 
ing the Heart and Brain * which is alfo ophthalmick, 
fternutatory, vulnerary, and adontalgick. He rub- 
bed his Teeth with nothing but the whiteft Sugar, 
which preferved them found and white for many 
Years, contrary to the Notion of thofe who aflfert, 
that it difpofes the Teeth to corrupt and canker. 
He attributes to it a balfamick Virtue, whereby.it 
preferves the Bowels from Putrefa&ion, as by the 
fame Property it keeps Flowers, Roots, Fruits, 
and the other Parts of Vegetables, or Animals, a 
long Time entire and uncorrupted. Thefe extraor- 
dinary Virtues he confirms by two remarkable Ob- 
fervations : The one concerning the Duke of Beau - 
E e 4 forty 
