3 6 HISTORY OF THE [book v. 
boiling-house, improve more than at any other pe¬ 
riod of the year. Even the pigs and poultry fatten 
on the refuse. In short, on a well regulated plan¬ 
tation, under a humane and benevolent director, 
there is such an appearance during crop-time of 
health, plenty, and busy cheerfulness, as to soften, 
in a great measure, the hardships of slavery, and 
induce a spectator to hope, when the miseries of 
life are represented as insupportable, that they are 
sometimes exaggerated through the medium of 
fancy.* 
# “ He (says honest old Slare the physician) that undertakes to 
ee argue against sweets in general, takes upon him a very difficult 
task, for nature seems to have recommended this taste to all sorts of 
il creatures ; the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, many rep- 
“ tiles and flies seem to be pleased and delighted with the specific re- 
lish of all sweets, and to distaste its contrary. Now the sugar- 
* c cane, or sugar, I hold for the top and highest standard of vegetable 
<< sweets.” Sugar is obtainable in some degree from most vegetables, 
and Dr. RUSH of Philadelphia, among the many advantages at¬ 
tending the use of it in diet, enumerates the following: 
“ i st. Sugar affords the greatest quantity of nourishment in a given 
quantity of matter of any substance in nature. Used alone, it has 
fattened horses and cattle in St. Domingo for a period of several 
months, during the time that the exportation of sugar and the impor¬ 
tation of grain were suspended from thp want of ships. 
“ 2dly. The plentiful use of sugar in diet is one of the best preven¬ 
tives that ever has been discovered of the diseases which are produced 
by worms. Nature seems to have implanted a love for this aliment 
in all children, as if it were on purpose to defend them from those dis¬ 
eases. 
