Brown sugar changes under atmospheric influences, and loses its sweetness.
This change is attributed to the lime it contains. The best grade of brown
sugar is nearly dry, of yellowish color, and emits less odor than the
lower grades. It consists of cane sugar, vegetable and gummy matter,
tannic acid, and lime. Put your hand into a barrel containing damp brown
sugar, press a quantity, and suddenly relax your grasp, and it moves as
though it was alive. It is alive! Place a few grains under a powerful
microscope, and lo! you see organized animals, with bodies, heads, eyes,
legs, and claws!
Poor people, who purchase brown sugar in preference to white, miss a
figure in their selection, by the sand, water, and other foreign
substances which the former contains.
Brown sugar is not so wholesome as the refined. I have attributed several
cases of gravel that have come under my observation to the patients'
habitual use of low grades of brown sugar.