37 
chap, ii.] WEST INDIES. 
Ihe great obstacle at this season to the progress 
of such of the planters as are not happily furnished 
with the means of grinding their canes by water, 
is the frequent failure or insufficiency of their mills; 
for though a sugar-mill, whether worked by water, 
wind, or cattle, is a very simple contrivance, great 
force is nevertheless requisite to make it overcome 
the resistance which it necessarily meets with. It 
consists principally of three upright iron-plated rol¬ 
lers, or cylinders, from thirty to forty inches in 
“ 3 d! y* The plague has never been known in any country where 
sugar composes a material part of the diet of the inhabitants. 
N.B. Dr. Rush quotes this last observation from Sir John Prih- 
gle and adds his own opinion, that the frequency of malignant fevers 
of all kinds has been lessened by the use of sugar. 
“4thly. In disorders of the breast, sugar is the basis of many agree- 
able remedies ; and it is useful in weaknesses and acrid defluctions 
upon other parts of the body. The celebrated Dr. Franklin had 
taken large quantities of black berry jam for the pain of the stone, and 
found benefit from it, but discovered at length, that the medicinal 
part of the jam resided wholly in the sugar. From half a pint of a 
syrup prepared by boiling brown sugar in water, and taken just before 
he went to bed, he declared, that he often found the same relief that he 
did from a dose of opium. 
“ It has been said that sugar injures the teeth, but this opinion does 
not deserve a serious reflection.” Am. Phil. Trans, vol. 3. 
Mr. Hughes, the historian of Barbadoes, observes, that there is a 
saponaceous quality in cane juice capable of resolving viscid concreti¬ 
ons 5 to which he attributes, in a great measure, the surprising quick 
recovery of those sickly negroes who drink freely of it. 
