The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-10 00:00:00

UTILITY OF SUGAR.

While most other tastes are acquired by early habit,
lung custom, and often originate in necessity or the
caprice of fashion, the love of sweets is natural not
only to man but to animals that are not carniverous.
Fowls, reptiles, and insects seek greedily for the
saccharine particles of vegetables. The American
parroquet taps with its beak the maple tree to obtain
its sugar ; the fly pierces for the same purpose the
Turkey fig ; the bee hunts for the nectar of flowers:
and our oxen fatten in sweet pastures. Sweets are
among the blessings of the promised land. " I will give
you a land flowing with milk and honey." When
the Israelites murmured for want of bread, the Almighty
gave the manna, and the taste of it was like wafers
made with honey: "And Moses said unto them, this is
title bread which the Lord has given you to eat ; and
the children of Israel did eat manna forty years."
Lord Bacon observes, " There are three things in use
for sweetness—sugar, honey, and manna." He adds,
" Sugar was scarce known to the ancients, and in little
use." We may safely conclude thet the sweetness of the
cane was discovered and appreciated many ages prior to
the making of sugar. The sweet cane is mentioned in
the Old Testament in a manner which suggests that
this kind of sweet was not altogether unknown to the
ancient Jews, but that it formed a part of the costly
rarities used in their religious ceremonies and sacrifices.
`loses was commanded to make the holy anointing oil
of pure myrrh, sweet cinnamon, and sweet calamus.
The prophet Jeremiah says, " To what purpose cometh
these to me, incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane
from a far country." " Thou hast bought me no sweet
cane with mon"v. neither bast thou filled me with the
fat of thy sac atom"
From these accounts it appears certain that the sugar
cane has been known from the most ancient time in
Asia, and that during the greatness of Rome it appears
to have been imported into Europe, principally us a me-
dicine, and by a very circuitous channel. In the pro-
gress of the subsequerit ages the plant itself became
known in Europe, and was cultivated in Sicily and 'in
Spain previously to the discovery of America.
We have already observed that sugar was first used
as a medicine iu Europe, it next became a snbstitute for
honey, and we are informed that before kitchen gardens
became known in Europe' (which was about the year
1509), sugar was eaten with Meat to correct its
putrescency. Gerard, after stating the medicinal virtues
of sugar'says, "of the juice of the reede is made the
most pleasant and profitable sweet, called sugar, whereof
is made an infinite confections, confectures, soupes, and
such like, as also praseruing, and conseruing of sun-
drie fruits, herbes, and flowers as roses, violets, rose-
mary flowers, and such like, which still retain with them
the name of sugar, as sugar of roses, sugar of violet," &c.
Sugar is now. scarcely deemed a luxury, even by the
cottager ; habit has made it one of the necessaries of life,
ant few, if any; civilized people would be content to live
without it, ; for in addition to the quantity consumed at
our tea-table, and in our confectionary and pastry, it
forms the basis of all our made wines, is often used as a
composition in our malt liquors, and the distillers draw
great quantities of spirits from it. The farmer often
uses it to fatten his Christmas ox, and its use has even
descended to the blacking of our shoes.
Sugar, says Dr. Rush, "affords the greatest quantity
of nourishment in less quantity of matter of any sub-
stance in nature ; of course it may be preserved in less
room in our houses, and may be consumed in less time
than more bulky and less nourishing aliments. It has
this peculiar advantage over most kinclS of aliment,
that it is not liable to have its nutritious quali-
ties affected by time or the weather ; hence
it is preferred by the Indians in their excursions
from home. They ' 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 spoons-
ful of it mixed with half a pint of spring water, affords
them a pleasant and strengthening meal."
From the degree of strength and nourishment which
are conveyed into animal bodies by a small bulk of sugar,
it might probably be given to horses with great advan-
tage, when they are used in places or under circum-
stances which make it difficult or expensive to support
them with more bulky or weighty aliment. A pound of
sugar, with grass or hay, has supported the strength
and spirits of a horse during a whole day's labour, in
one of the West India islands. A larger quantity, given
alone, has fattened horses and cattle during the war
before last is Hispaniola, for a period of seven months,
in which the exportation of sugar and the importation
of grain were prevented by the want of ships. In crop
time every negro on the plantation, and every animal,
even the dogs, get fat. This sufficiently prover the
nourishing and healthy qualities of sugar.
A vessel laden with sugar, bound from the West
Indies, was becalmed in its passage for several days,
during which the stock of provisions was exhausted.
Some of the crew were dying of the scurvy, and the rest
were threatened with a still more terrible death. In
this emergency recourse was had to the sugar ; the con-
sequence was, the symptoms of the scurvy went oil; the
c.-ew found it a wholesome and substantial aliment, and
returned in good health to France.
The plentiful use of sugar in diet is one of the best
preventives that has ever been discovered for the diseases
which are produced by worms. Nature seems to have
planted a love for this aliment in all children, as if it
were on purpose to defend them from those diseases. Dr.
Rush knew a gentleman in Philadelphia who early
adopted this opinion, and who, by indulging a large I
family in the use of sugar, has preserved them all from
the diseases usuallyoccasioned by worms. It was for-
merly alleged that the eating of sugar destroys the
colour and spoils the teeth. This proves to be a mis-
take, for no people on earth could have finer teeth than
the negroes in Jamaica.
" In the West Indies," says Dr. Mosley, " the negro
children, from crude vegetable diet, are much afflicted
with worms. In crop time, when the canes are ripe,
these children are always sucking them. Give a negro
infant a piece of sugar cane to suck, and the impoverished
milk of his mother is tasteless to him. This salubrious
luxury soon changes his appearance ; worms are dis-
charged ' • his enlarged belly and joints diminish ; his
emaciated limbs increase ; and if canes were always ripe
he would never be disease. I have often seen old wasted
scabby negroes crawl from the bottom houses, apparently
half dead, in crop time, and by sucking canes all day
long, would soon become strong, fat, and sleeky. The
restorative power of sugar in wasted and decayed habits
is recorded by several physicians in different parts of the
world. I have known many persons far advanced in
pulmonary consumption recovered by the juice of the
sugar cane."
Mr. Edwards, in his " History of the West Indies,"
has very justly observed that the time of crop in the
sugar islands, is the season. of festivity to man and beast.
So palatable, salutary, and nourishing, is the j uice of the
cane, that every individual of the animal creation, drink-
ing freely of it, derives health and vigour from its use.
The meagre and sickly amongst the negroes exhibit a
surprising alteration in a few weeks after the mill is set
in action. The labouring horses, oxen and mules,
though almost constantly at work during this season, yet
being indulged with plenty of green tops of this noble
plant, and some of the scummings from the boiling-house,
improve more than at any period of the year. Even the
pigs and poultry fatten on the refuse.
After these observations lei the virtue of sugar, we
sae scarcely be surprised .it t he increased consumption of
this valuable article. It pre serves the juices and sub.
.tances of' fruits in all countnles and i 0 all seasons. It
affords a delicious seasoning zzo many kinds of food. It is
made into the most agreeable and ornamental decorations
for the table, being easily made transparent and of any
colour or shape, and retaining and giving taste without
losing the least of its sweetness. It is useful in phar-
macy, foritunites with medicine and greatly removes its
disagreeable flavour; it is the basis of all syrups, and
may be beneficially employed -in fermenting wine. It
preserves both animal and vegetable substances from pit-
tretliction in a much greater degree than the common
alimentary salt. Animal flesh. has been preserved by
sugar more than three years without taint or rottenness.
—Phillips's History of Cultivated Vegetables.
Sugar is very soluble in water, and is a good medium
for uniting; that fluid with oily matters. It is much
used for Somestic purposes, and appears on the whole to
be a valuable and wholesome article of food, the uses of
which, are most probably restricted by its high price.
This price, may, in a certain degree, arise from the na-
ture of the article and its original cost, but it is no doubt
in a great measure, owing to the inhuman and waste •
nil culture by slaves, and thg absurd principles of Eu-
ropean colonization duties, drawbacks, and bounties,
which save. the effect to create unnatural monopolies,
and to prevent commerce from finding its level.
This is eminently the case with regard to our West India
Islands and their produce.--Ure's Dictionary of
Chemistry.
Sugar has now become an essential part of the food
of Europeans. It contains, perhaps, a greater propor-
tion of nourishment than any other vegetable substance,
in the same- bulk. It has the advantage of most other
articles of food in not being liable to be injured by tittir
or by the weather. If we believe Dr. Rush, the plentif
use of it is one of the best preventatives of the disests es
occasioned by worms. It has long been supposed •,$) n-
jure the teeth, but the prejudice is now given tsp. It
has the property of preserving other vegetal..te sue b-
stances from putrefaction, and accordingly is often ea 1-
ployed for that purpose, ci)nstituting the be,se of cm 1-
serves, &c.—Thomson's Chemistry.
Sugar is said to contain' more nutriment in a ki,
hulk than any other substance. For this and of si er
reasonssit would be a fitting article, when corn is seal c e,
for feeding cattle, if Government would remit the duties .--
Purhe's ;Chemical Essays. • - •

The iheatrical performers at Bath are reduced , ;-to
such a state of destitution, owing to the total taw tof
the season; that it has been found necesgary to ht . a
play, and make an appeal to the public on their i'khaft
Mr. Charles Kean was applied to on the oceasi, ,ti, but
being unable to attend and act, as requested, liestlt
twenty pounds for their benefit.