By the term sugar, is here meant the ordinary refined sugar, or loaf sugar of the table, which requires no description. it is dissolved in half its weight of cold, and in all proportions of hot water; and its solution, when of a certain strength, is called syrup. Though nearly insoluble in pure alcohol, it is dissolved to a considerable extent by officinal alcohol, and freely by ardent spirit or diluted alcohol. it melts with heat, and, at a somewhat higher temperature, is decomposed, giving out an agreeable odour, with a black residuary substance called caramel. When crystallized from its watery solution, it is named sugar-candy. Suddenly cooled from a state of fusion, it assumes the translucent but amorphous state, in which it is called barley-sugar. it has the important property of preserving organic matters from decomposition, and the singular effect of preventing the peroxidation of iron.

Medical Effects and Uses

Sugar has a low grade of nutrient power, which adapts it, as an article of food, to states of inflammatory and febrile excitement. But nature seems not to have intended that it should be a chief constituent of diet; for, taken largely, it cloys and oppresses the stomach, and, when digestion is feeble, is apt, even in moderate quantities, to undergo conversion abnormally into acid matter; which in the sick-room, sugar is often advantageously employed to correct foul odours, by being placed upon burning coals in a shovel, and thus carried around the apartment. I have noticed often, that it does not seem to act merely by covering disagreeable scents by its own agreeable odour, but that it permanently corrects them; from which it may be inferred, that some of the products of its decomposition exercise a chemical influence upon the unpleasant and unwholesome emanations, and that sugar may consequently be a real prophylactic agent.

* The various saccharine substances, in solution, have been demonstrated by Dr. Louis Mandl, of Paris, to possess extraordinary osmotic properties, which render them exceedingly fatal to the lower forms of organized beings, and in various ways influential in the animal economy. This subject, however, will be more appropriately considered when sugar is treated of among the parasiticides. (Note to the third edition.) proves irritant both to the stomach, and sympathetically to the brain. Hence, it should be given to the sick only in small quantities, and, as a general rule, in conjunction with other nutritive and demulcent substances, which it flavours agreeably.

Sugar is supposed to be laxative; and in its impure forms undoubtedly is so; but pure, as now considered, it has little if any effect of the kind. it is, however, decidedly demulcent, and is used in various modes in reference to this property. in the state of barley-sugar, candy, or other form of confectionery, or incorporated with gum in the form of gum pectoral, it is frequently used to quiet cough, and obviate dryness and irritation of throat in angina, by being held in the mouth, and allowed slowly to dissolve; and it certainly often contributes to the comfort of patients in this way. Dissolved in water, so as to be agreeable to the taste, it is given as a demulcent drink in febrile and inflammatory diseases, especially among the French, with whom eau sucre is held in no light estimation. More frequently, however, it is conjoined with other demulcents, as gum, flaxseed mucilage, and the different amylaceous substances.

Sugar, though in general so bland, appears to have the property of highly irritating certain tissues in a morbid state. if admitted into the cavity of a carious tooth, it not unfrequently brings on a violent attack of toothache; and it was at one time thought to contribute directly to the destruction of the teeth; but this notion has, I believe, been satisfactorily disproved.

In pharmacy, sugar is used in the formation of many syrups, in the preparation of confections, as a flavouring and suspending medium in mixtures, and as an excipient in the pill mass.

Syrup (Syrupus, U. S., Br.; Syrupus Simplex, Ed., Dub.) is prepared by dissolving two pounds and a half of sugar in a pint of water. it may be used for most of the purposes above mentioned.

Syrup of Gum Arabic (Syrupus Acacias, U. S.) is a solution of gum arabic and sugar, in which the latter ingredient greatly predominates; the proportions being two ounces of gum, fifteen of sugar, and eight fluidounces of water. Sufficiently diluted with water, this may be given as a demulcent drink; but it is more employed as a pharmaceutical agent in forming pills, and for the suspension of insoluble substances in mixtures. Half a fluidounce of it may be used in the preparation of a mixture of six or eight fluidounces.