(seq. 33)

24

Materia Alimentaria

Sugar

honey &c to prevent putrefaction. The antiscorbutic properties of
sugar have been fully proved by Beecher he immersed whole
pigs in melted sugar and found they were preserved from
putrefaction. It is said to prevent and cure scurvy, it is
certain that scurvy is infrequent in the West Indies or
other places where sugar is used in great abundance. Dr
McBride was in the habit of recommending Wert in
this disease, but probably without knowing that it
cured by the sugar it contained, it was used with success
by Dr Trotter, the external use of sugar I have found
efficatious in the cure of the Scorbutic gums, the
following case seems very much to invalidate the opinion, that
a vegitable diet and one merely sacharine will cure scurvy.
Dr Stark took Eight ℥ [ounces] of sugar with forty ℥ [ounces] of Bread and
continued this diet for two weeks, at the end of which time
his mouth became sore and ulcerated, his gums flaccid
and after sometime purple spots appeared upon his
shoulders he then left it off, and returned to a generous diet
and wine, during the time he lived on sugar he had
three or four loose stools a day, this case clearly proves that