frit the aperture at the apex of the mould is ftopped up, but as the fugar concretes, it is opened, in order that the fyrup or melaffes may drain off. By this draining of the fluid part, the cone of fugar fhrinks at the bafe below the edges of the mould, which, to render the loaf ftill whiter, is filled up with moift clay clofely applied to the bafe of the fugar cone: laftly, the cone is placed upon its base, taken out of the mould, wrapped in paper, and dried or baked in a close

oven.

• Solutions of brown or white fugar, boiled down until they begin to grow thick, and then removed into a very hot room, fhoot upon fticks placed across the veffels for that purpofe into brown or white crystals of candy (faccharum cryftalinum).

Sugar, as an article of diet, is fo well known as not to require any defcription of it here: it is manifeftly a neutral faline fubftance, the acid of which Bergman firft taught us to feparate by means of the nitrous acid *: and it fince appears that feveral other fubitances, both vegetable and animal, contain an acid fimilar to that of fugar+. The other conftituent parts of fugar feem to be an oily and mucilaginous matter; and though it is not yet fatisfactorily explained how a combination of thefe fubitances fhould produce on the organs of tafte a fenfation of sweetness, yet as it is known that the ftrong vitriolic acid becomes fweet by uniting it to fpirit of wine, we may eafily conceive that the sweetness of fugar may be effected in a fomewhat fimilar way.

From the known properties of fugar, it has been fupposed to unite the unctuous part of the food with the animal juices, and hence it has been thought to increase corpulence or fatnefs; others however have thought that a contrary effect would be produced by this quality of fugar, viz. by preventing the feparation of the oily matter from the blood, which forms fat. Profeffor Murray, who has treated this fubject very elaborately 1, thinks that by the fermentation which fugar undergoes in the ftomach, and by its relaxing refolvent fap naceous qualities, as well as by the acid which it contains, it rather tends to emaciate than to fatten the body; and in this opinion he obferves that he has the authority of Boerhaave, who says if this sweet be taken in large quantities it produces emaciation by diffolving too much of the animal oil. He is therefore much furprised, that Mr. John Hunter fhould lately recommend fugar and honey as the best restoratives to those suffering from great debility by a long courfe of mercury . What may be the effects of fugar in this refpect in its refined ftate may be difficult to determine; but in its crude ftate there can be no doubt of its affording a confiderable share of nourishment, both as combined in various vegetable matters, and as feparated by art. Those animals,

* See his Diff. de acido facchari, published in 1776.

See Berthollet in Mem. de l'Acad. Sc. 1780. p. 120. Alfo Scheele in Vet. Acad. Handl. 1785. p. 23. Sq.

See App. Med. vol. 5.

He fays, "Miror ideo, quod adhuc nuper Cl. J. Hunter (Treatife on the Venereal disease, p. 354. fq.) faccharum tanquam optimum reftaurans in hominibus diuturno jejunio debilitatis vel mercurii ufu emaciatis propofuerit, &c." L. c. p. 410.

L3.

which

which wholly feed upon it in the fugar islands, become remarkably corpulent; and the negro children, whofe diet happens fometimes for a feason to be confined to melaffes, are easily diftinguished from others by their fuperior bulk; they are however more difpofed to fuffer by worms, and are likewife lefs active and healthy.

Sugar however appears by the experiments of several writers to prove deleterious to various kinds of worms, either by immerfing them in a folution of fugar, or fprinkling it upon their bodies +; and twenty grains of lump fugar forced into the ftomach of a frog, produced immediate torpor and death, which followed in the courfe of an hour ‡; it alfo proved fatal to pigeons, and to the gallina kind, but not to fparrows; and with fheep and dogs it had no other effect than that of a cathartic II.

Sugar may certainly be taken into the ftomach in pretty large quantities without producing any bad confequences, though proofs are not wanting of its mifchievous effects, in which, by its attenuating and diffolving the fluids, and relaxing the folids, debility and difeale are faid to have been produced. Stark § for many days took from four ounces of fugar to eight, ten, fixteen, and even twenty, with bread and water, by which naufea, Hatus, ulceration in the mouth, with rednels and tumefaction of the gums, oppreffion, purging, pain, and redness of the right noftril, bleeding at the nofe, and livid ftreaks over the right fcapula, were produced. We are alfo told that a boy who was much affected by acidity of the ftomach, in a fhort time greedily ate a large quantity of lump fugar; foon afterwards he was taken ill, and the next morning found dead in his bed. Upon examining his body, red fpots, and other marks of a diffolved ftate of the blood were difcovered. What degree of credit ought to be given to these and other cafes of the like kind, we leave to the judgment of our readers; but that the liberal ufe of fugar to many ftomachs has greatly impaired the digestive powers, and laid a foundation for various complaints, is highly probable. At the fame time we must admit, that feveral indulge largely in this article, if not with advantage, at leaft with impunity.

As a medicine, fugar cannot be confidered to poffefs much power, Dr. Cullen claffes it with the attenuantia; and Burgius states it to be faponacea, edulcorans, relaxans, pectoralis, vulneraria, antifeptica, nutriens. In catarrhal affections, both fugar and honey are frequently employed: it has alfo been advantageously used in calculous complaints; and from its known power in preferving animal and vegetable fubftances from putrefaction, it has been given with a view to its antifeptic effects. The candy, by diffolving flowly in the mouth, is well fuited to relieve tickling coughs and hoarfenefs. The ufe of fugar in various medicinal compofitions is too obvious to require being particularly pointed out.?

*In Afia, Elephants and other animals are fed upon fugar. Abridgement of Evidence on Slave Trade.

+ See Redi obf. de animalcul. vivis in corp. viv. p. 166. Sq. Carminati Opufc. Therap. vol. i. p. 113.. || Carm. I. c.

Sce

Vide Clinical & anatomical obfervations with experiments dietetical ftatical.

Rezia in Carminati, l. 6. p. 129.

Το

To the former of thefe volumes is prefixed a catalogue, in which all the plants compofing the Materia Medica, as referred to by the colleges of London and Edinburgh, are arranged according to their botanical affinities or natural orders, adopted by Profeffor Murray; and in the latter volume is given the arrangement of the Materia Medica, as published by Dr.Cullen; to which is added a catalogue of the vegetable Materia Medica, according to that arrangement. The work is concluded by a general index in Latin and English in the Latin index, the officinal names are diftinguished by Roman letters, and the fyf tematic by Italics.

ART. IV.

Memoirs of the Kings of Great Britain of the House of Brunswic-Lunenburg. by W. Beifham. 8vo. 2 vels. pp. 769. 10s. 61. Boards Dilly. 1793.

ISTORY, (according to a very just and celebrated definition of it,) is philofophy teaching by example; and the great purpose to be antwered by a refearch into the records of pal ages, is to learn how to avoid thofe errors which have been injurious to human happiness, and by what means the general welfare may be most certainly and effectually promoted. If history be not written, and if it be not read likewife, in this fpirit, and with this view, the romantic tales of an Amadis or an Orlando may be ftudied with as much advantage as the memoirs of Great Britain or France. From increase of knowlege we have a right to expect increase of happiness; and to whatever temporary obstruction the progrefs of mankind to that perfection of which their nature and condition are fufceptible, may be liable, the grand affociation of knowlege, virtue, and happiness remains in the moral order of the universe, affuredly fixed and indiffoluble."

Such are the juft and elevated fentiments which we find at the conclufion of the volumes now under our notice. The enlightened and ingenious author appears to have entered on his talk under a ftrong impreffion of thefe ideas, and never to have loft fight of them through the whole courfe of his work. Juftly eftimating the value of the Revolution in 1688 by the degree of perfection and itability which it gave to the grand fabric of liberty; and conuidering it as the chief glory of the British nation, that it has established, by general confent, a fyftem of government which has for its bafis the unalienable rights of man, and which protelies to purfue, as its grand object, the happinefs of the people; Mr. Beltham makes it the leading defign of his memoirs to fhew, by an impartial delineation of the interesting events of the fucceeding reigns, how far this end

L. 4

end has been kept in view, how far there have been deviavions from it, and in what refpects the general fyftem of freedom is ftill fufceptible of enlargement and fecurity. As an introduction to thefe memoirs, a brief but maftefly furvey is taken of the course of political and military events, from the Revolution to the death of Queen Anne. This introduction is copied, with little variation, from the author's former work, "Effays philofophical, hiftorical, and literary," Vol. II *.

The memoirs commence with the following important obfervations, refpecting the grounds on which the present Royal Family were called to the throne:

George-Louis, Elector of Hanover, and head of the Houfe of Brunfwic-Lunenburg, derived his defcent from the blood-royal of England by his mother Sophia, daughter of Frederic, Elector Palatine and King of Bohemia, who married Elizabeth of England, only daughter of James I. It is evident therefore, that the title of this Prince was founded folely on the choice of the Parliament, i. e. of the people or nation; and that the ufual order of fucceffion was entirely fuperfeded. For admitting the male line of the Houfe of Stuart to have been extinguifhed in the perfon of James II. the right of blood refted in the Houfe of Savoy, defcended from Henrietta Dutchefs of Orleans, daughter of Charles I. And the Princefs Sophia herself being the youngest daughter of the unfortunate Palatine, more than fifty defcendants of that Prince prior in the order of fucceffion were paffed over in the Act of William, which fettled the Crown of England on the House of Hanover. So that the rights of the people were not only afferted but exercised in their full extent: And the family upon the throne is indifputably an elected family, though the general law or rule of fucceffion remains unaltered.'

The state of parties at the acceffion of the Houfe of Hanover is thus defcribed:

The kingdom might at this time be confidered as divided with great nearness of equality into the two adverfe factions of Whigs and Tories; the latter of which, from the egregious indifcretion of the Whigs in the fatal bufinefs of Sacheverel, had recently acquired a great addition of ftrength and vigour. But it muft not be imagined that all who were included in the appellation of Tories, who detefted the principles, civil and religious, maintained by the Whigs, as deftructive of the antient constitution and orthodox faith, and who hated still more the perfons of the Whigs than their principles, as their perpetual and implacable rivals for power, diftinétion, and popularity, were therefore attached as a party to the exiled family. Doubtless a great majority of them would have been feriously alarmed at any attempt to restore the fon of the late King James to the throne, at least while he remained a Papift; and his notorious bigotry precluded almoft every hope or expectation of his converfion to Proteftantifm. Previous to the æra of the Revolution, the fpeculative line of difcrimination between the

See Rev. vol. ii. p. 1. et feq. New Series.

two

two grand factions of the State, now gradually fading into obfcurity, was clearly and strongly marked. The Whigs maintained civil government to be an inftitution of human origin and appointment, confonant indeed to the divine will, as effential to the order and happiness of the moral and rational creation. The powers vefted in the civ magiftrates they regarded therefore as a delegation or truft from the people And it was a neceffary confequence of this doctrine, that the individuals entrusted with these powers, were ultimately responsible to the people for the exercife of them, and liable to be degraded and punifhed for the abuse of them. They afferted that there were unalienable rights inherent in human nature, for the prefervation of which, government was originally inftituted; amongit the chiefest and most important of which, they accounted the right which every man poffeffes of worshipping God, not according to a decree of the State, but to the dictates of his own confcience. In other words, they maintained the principle of Toleration, not as a matter of favour, but of justice. And this principle was confidered by them as violated, not only by laws profeffedly penal, but by any exclufion from the common rights and privileges of citizenship, founded not on any fpecies of civil delinquency, but the mere unavoidable diverfity of religious opinions. The Tories, on the other hand, rejected thefe doctrines with vehement indignation and abhorrence, as fubverfive of the welfare, and even of the existence, of civil fociety. They afferted that government was exprefsly ordained of God, from whom alone Princes derive their au thority, and to whom alone they were refponfible for their actionsthat to refift the will of the Sovereign, was in effect to refift the will of God-and that although, when the commands of the Sovereign were directly oppofed to the commands of God, an active obedience could not be lawfully yielded; yet even in thefe extreme cafes, it was the duty of the fubject quietly to fubmit to all the confequences of his noncompliance: And that paffive obedience and non-refiflance were at all times and in all cafes right and obligatory, where active obedience became either criminal or impracticable. They were far from denying that it was the duty of the Prince to confult and provide for the welfare and happinefs of the people, as the great end of his government; but for any neglect or contempt of this duty, there was, as they afferted, no lawful remedy but humble petition and remonftrance. That the people had rights, they admitted; but these rights were not to be defended by force: In the number of these rights, however, they did not include the right of private judgment in religion. They conceived it to be the duty of individuals to acquiefce in that formula of doctrines, and to conform to that mode of worship, which the wif dom of the State had provided; that to oppofe private to public opinion was in all cafes prefumptuous and unwarrantable; and in matters of religion more especially dangerous, and doubly culpable, as a contemptuous defiance of the united authority of church and state *.'

The

That this delineation of the principles by which the two great parties in the State were distinguished is accurate and juft, may be demonftrated by an appeal to that perfect ftandard of Toryifm and