It is pleasantly supposed that sugar is the basis of all candies; and
originally this was doubtless true.
It would be better for the rising generation if the original prescription
was still carried out, and nothing of a more injurious nature than sugar
was added to it, in the innumerable varieties of confectionery which are
daily sold in our shops, or in richly decorated stores, "gotten up
regardless of expense," over elegant marble counters, and from tempting
cut and stained glass jars, or from little stands upon the street corners,
to our children, old and young.
Sugar, pure and in moderate quantities, is a very harmless confection.
Professor Morchand and others affirm that a solution of pure sugar has no
injurious effect upon the teeth, the popular notion to the contrary
notwithstanding. Neither is pure or refined sugar, taken in moderate
quantities, injurious to the blood, or the stomach, _unless the stomach be
very weak_. In order to cure my children of an inordinate appetite for
sugar, I have repeatedly obtained a pound of pure white lump, and set it
before each, respectively, allowing it to eat as much as it chose.
Failing, in one case out of three, to surfeit the child with one pound, I
purchased six pounds in a box, and taking off the cover, I placed the
whole temptingly before her. This cloyed her, and now she does not take
sugar in her tea.
[Illustration: A CONFECTIONERY STORE.]
I have never known serious results accruing from children eating large
quantities of purified sugar; yet I would not advise it to be given them
in excess, excepting for the above purpose, viz., "to cure them of an
inordinate appetite for sugar."
Now try to break the child of an excessive appetite for candy by giving it
large quantities at once, and nine times out of ten you will have a sick
or dead child in the house for your rash experiment.
Hence your candies, "nine times out of ten," will be found to contain
injurious or poisonous substances.