Subject: Re: sugar

From: [email-masked] (Julie Lim)
Date: 5 Aug 93 04:14:10 GMT

In an article, [email-masked] (Stephen Bloch) writes:
>
>David Adams <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>What medicinal uses did sugar have?
>
>McGee discusses sugar's use in medicine for a page or so, but doesn't
>mention any specific medicinal use except to hide the flavor of
>something nastier or to form electuaries (the method of administering
>medicines in tablets to be licked or sucked, like a cough drop).  He
>does say, however, that "sugar was used both as a drug in itself and
>as a material with which to bind up all the other ingredients and to
>disguise their taste."

       Apparently, when used to pack wounds, sugar can reduce swelling by 
osmosis. Unfortunately, I don't recall the name of the history of medicine in 
which I read this (the book is in a friend's grandmother's house on the other 
side of the Atlantic), but there's a anecdote of such usage in one of James 
Herriot's books.

       The Egyptians were said to have used an antibacterial dressing of 
powdered copper compounds mixed with honey. The honey's effect was as above; 
the copper compounds (malachite and verdigris are the ones I recall) killed 
the germies with heavy-metal poisoning. One wonders if this might be the basis 
for the legend (is it Biblical or from classical Greek myth?) of treating 
someone's wound with "rust" scraped from the blade used to make the wound. If 
the weapon had actually been bronze... well, hmm.

--
----Julie Lim: [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
If I look like I give a damn, please tell me. I would hate to be giving the
wrong impression. And if Merck agreed with my opinions, I'd be paid more.
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From: [email-masked] (Dave Platt)
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1993 00:20:38 GMT

>osmosis.

and the osmotic gradient that it creates, can also inhibit the growth of
bacteria to some extent.  I've read of honey being recommended as an
emergency field treatment for cuts and burns, if no other (more modern)
treatment is available.

-- 
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