SUG SUG 548 ) are gradually heated to the 50° of Reaumur, are taken out and canied to a flove, where they (64° of Fahrenheit,) in order to diffipate any After remaining in the ftove 8 days, they are ta moisture which may be ftill confined in them.. ken out; and after cutting off all difcolouring fpecks, and the head if ftill wet, they are wrapped in blue paper, and are ready for fale. The fe veral fyrups collected during the different parts of the procefs, treated in the fame manter which we have juft defcribed, afford fugars of inferior quality; and the laft portion, which no longer affords any fugar, is fold by the name of melaffes. The beauty of refined fugar, when formed into loaves, confifts in whitenefs, joined to a smallness of grain; in being dry, hard, and fomewhat tranf parent. The procefs which we have defcribed above refers to fupar once refined; but some more labour is neceffary to produce double re fined fugar. The principal difference in the ope ration is this, the latter is clarified by white of eggs instead of blood, and fresh water in place of lime-water. affiftance of the heat, the animal matter which was thrown in coagulates, at the fame time that it attracts all the folid feculent and earthy matter, and raises it to the furface in the appearance of a thick foan of a brownith colour. As the feculer. cies are never entirely removed by a firft process, a fecond is neceffary. The folution is therefore cooled to a certain degree by adding fome water; then a freth quantity of blood, but lefs confiderable than at firft, is poured in. The fire is renewed, and care is taken to increase the heat gently as before. The animal fubftance feizes on the impurities which remain, collects them on the surface, and they are then skimmed off. The fame operation is repeated a 3d and even a 4th time, but no addition is made to the liquor except water. If the different proceffes have been properly conducted, the solution will be freed from every impurity, and appear tranfparent. It is then conveyed by a gutter into an oblong basket about 16 inches deep, iined with a woollen cloth; and after filtering through this cloth, it is received in a ciftern or copper, which is placed below. The folution being thus clarified, it undergoes a fecond general operation called evaporation. Fire is applied to the copper into which the folution was received, and the liquid is boild till it has acquired the proper degree of confiftency. A judgment is formed of this by taking up a small portion of the liquid and drawing it into a thread. When, after this trial, it is found fufficiently vifcous, the fire is extinguifhed, and the liquid is poured into coollers. It is then stirred violently by an inftrument called an ear, refembling the oar of a boat. This is done to diminish the vifcofity, and promote what is called the granulation, that is, the forming of it into grains or imperfect cryftals. When the liquid is properly mixed and cooled, it is then poured into moulds of the form of a fufar leaf. The moulds are ranged in rows. The fmall ends, which are loweft, are placed in pot; and they have each of them apertures ftopped up with linen for filtering the fyrup, which runs from the moulds into the pots. The liquor is then taken out flowly in ladiefuls from the coolers, and poured into the moulds. When the moulds are filled, and the contents ftili in afluid ftate, it is neceflary to ftir them, that no part may adhere to the moulds, and that the fall cryftals which are juft formed may be equally diffused through the whole mafs. fugar is completely crystallized, the linen is taken When the away from the apertures in the moulds, and the fyrup, or that part which did not cryftallize, defcends into the pots in which the moulds are placed. After this purgation the moulds are removed and fixed in other pots, and A ftratum of fine white clay diluted with water is laid on the upper part of the loaf. The water defcending through the fugar by its own weight, mixes with the fyrup which ftill remains in the body of the loaf, and washes it away. When the clay dries, it is taken off, and another covering of moift clay put in its place; and if it be not then fufficiently washed, a third covering of clay is applied. After the loaves have food fome days in the moulds, and have acquired a çonfiderable degree of firmness and folidity, they 0 in the new chemical nomenciature is called Acetite (14.) SUGAR OF LEAD, OF SALT OF LEAD, of Lead. See CHEMISTRY, and PHARMACY, Indexes; and SACCHARUM SATURNI. (15.) SUGAR OF MILK. See MILK, N° II, § 2. PFRTIES OF. Sugar is foluble in water, and in a (16.) SUGAR, QUALITIES AND CHEMICAL PROfmail degree in alcohol. When united with a fmall portion of water, it becomes fufible; from which quality the art of preferving is indebted for many of its preparations. It is phosphoric and combuftible; when expofed to fire emitting a blue flame if the combuftion be slow, and a white flame if the combuftion be rapid. By diftillation it produces a quantity of phlegm, acid, oil, gas, and charcoal. Bergman, in treating fugar with the nitrous acid, obtained a new acid, now known by the name of the exalic acid: but he omitted to mention the principles of which fugar is compofed. Lavoifier, however, supplied this omission ; and after many experiments has affigned three principles in fugar, hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. If the juice expreffed from the fugar-cane be left to itself, it pafles into the acetous fermentation; and during the decompotition of the fugar, which is continued for 3 or 4 months, a great quantity of glutinous matter is feparated. This matter when diftilled gives a portion of ammonimentation, a wine is obtained analogous to cyder. If the juice be exposed to the fpirituous ferIf this wine, after being kept in bottles a year, be diftilled, we obtain a portion of eau de vie. ac. (17.) SUGAR, QUANTITY OF, USED IN Eution of the Weft Indies, and the great fource of ROPE. As the fugar-cane is the principal productheir riches; as it is fo important in a commercial view, from the employment which it gives to feamen, and the wealth which it opens for merchants; and befides is now become a neceffary of life-it may juftly be esteemed one of the most valuable plants in the world. The quantity con. fumed in Europe is estimated at nine millions Sterling, and the demand would probably be greater if it could be fold at a reduced price. In the Portuguete inland of St Thomas in 1624, there were were 74 fugar ingenios, each having upwards of 200 flaves. The quantity of raw fugar imported into England in 1778 amounted to 1,403,995 cwts.; the quantity imported into Scotland in the fame year was 117,285 cwts.; the whole quantity imported into Great Britain in 1787 was 1,926,741 cwts. (18.) SUGAR, VARIOUS OTHER PLANTS WHICH AFFORD. There are feveral other vegetables raifed in our own country which afford fugar; as beet-roots, fkirrets, paifneps, potatoes, celeri, red-cabbage ftalks, &c. b. fides the fhoots of Indian wheat. The fugar is most readily obtained from thefe, by making a tincture of the fubject in rec. tified fpirit of wine; which, when faturated by heat, will depofit the fugar upon ftanding in the cold. (19.) SUGAR, USES OF, IN MEDICINE, DIET, &c. The ufes to which fugar are applied are indeed numerous and important: It can be made fo folid as in the art of preferving to receive the moft agreeable colours and the greateft variety of forms. It can be made so fluid as to mix with a ny soluble substance.—It preserves the juice and fubftance of fruits in all countries and in all feafons. It affords a delicious feafoning to many kinds of food. It is useful in pharmacy, for it unites with medicines, and removes their disagreeable flavour: it is the bafis of all fyrups. M. Macquer has shown in a very fatisfactory manner how useful fugar would be if employed in fermenting wines. Sugar has also been found a reinedy for the fcurvy, and a valuable article of food in cafes of neceflity. M. Imbert de Lennes, firft furgeon to the late Duke of Orleans, publish ed the following ftory in the Gazette de Santé, which confirms this affertion. A vefiel laden with fugar bound from the Weft Indies was becalmed in its paffage for feveral days, during which the stock of provifions was exhaufted. Some of the crew were dying of the fcurvy, and the reft were threatened with a ftill more terrible death. In this emergency recourfe was had to the fugar. The confequence was, the symptoms of the fcurvy went off, the crew found it a wholefome and fubftantial aliment, and returned in good health to France."Sugar (fays Dr Rufh) affords the greatest quantity of nourishment in a given quantity of matter of any fubftance in nature; of courfe it may be preferved in lefs room in our houfes, and may be confumed in lefs time, than more bulky and lefs nourishing aliment. It has this peculiar advantage over most kinds of aliment, that it is not liable to have its nutritious qualities affected by time or the weather; hence it is preferred by the Indians in their excurfions from home. They mix a certain quantity of maple fu gar, with an equal quantity of Indian corn, dried and powdered, in its milky ftate. This mixture is packed in little baskets, which are frequently wetted in travelling, without injuring the fogar. A few fpoonfuls of it mixed with half a pint of spring water afford them a pleasant and ftrengthening meal. From the degrees of ftrength and nourishment which are conveyed into animal bodies by a small bulk of fugar, it might probably be given to horses with great advantage, when they are ufed in places or under circumftances which make it difficult or expensive to support them with more bulky or weighty aliment. A pound of fugar with grais or bay has fupported the ftrength and fpirits of a horfe during a whole day's labour in one of the Weft India Inlands. A larger quantity given alone has fattened horfes and cattle, during the war before laft in Hifpanioia, for a period of feveral months, in which the exportation of sugar, and the importation of grain, were prevented by the want of hips. The plentiful ute of fugar in dict is one of the beft preventives that has ever been difcovered of the difeafes which are produ. ced by worms. Nature feems to have implanted a love for this aliment in all children, as it were on purpose to defend them from those diseases. I knew a gentleman in Philadelphia, who early a dopted this opinion, and who, by indulging a large family of children in the ufe of fugar, bas preferved them all from the difeafes ufually occafioned by worms. Sir John Pringle has remarked, that the plague has never been known in any country where fugar composes a material part of the diet of the inhabitants. It is probable that the frequency of malignant fevers of all kinds has been leffened by this diet, and that its more general ufe would defend that clafs of people who are most fubject to malignant fevers from being fo often affected by them. In the numerous and frequent diforders of the breaft, which occur in alt countries where the body is exposed to a variable temperature of weather, fugar affords the basis of many agreeable remedies. It is useful in weaknefies, and acrid defluxions upon other parts of the body. Many facts might be adduced in fayour of this affertion. Upon my inquiring of Dr Franklin, at the requeft of a friend (fays Dr Rush,) about a year before he died, whether he had found any relief from the pain of the ftone from the blackberry jam, of which he took large quantities, he told me that he had, but that he believed the medicinal part of the jam refided wholly in the fugar; and as a reafon for thinking fo, he added, that he often found the fame relief by taking about half a pint of a syrup, prepared by boiling a little brown fugar in water, juft before he went to bed, that he did from a dofe of opium. It has been fuppofed by fome of the early phyficians of our country, that the fugar obtained from the maple-tree is more medicinal than that obtained from the Weft India fugar-cane; but this opinion I believe is without foundation. It is preferable in its qualities to the Weft-India fugar only from its fuperior cleanliness. Cafes may occur in which fugar may be requi red in medicine, or in diet, by perfons who refufe to be benefited, even indirectly by the labour of flaves. In fuch cafes the innocent maple fugar will always be preferred. It has been faid, that fugar injures the teeth; but this opinion now has fo few advocates, that it does not deferve a ferious refutation.” *To SUGAR. v. a. [from the noun.] 1. To impregnate or season with sugar.Her breast, 2. That ever bubbling spring, the sugar'd neft Of her delicious foul. Craftaw. The SUG ( The icy precepts of respect, but foliowed SUG 550) beech, hemlock, white and water afh, the cuShak. cumber-tree, linden, afpen, butter nut, and wild cherry trees. They fometimes appear in groves covering 5 or 6 acres in a body, but they are Fairfax. more commonly interfperfed with fome or all of His glofing fire his errand daily said, Flatt'ry ftill in sugar'd words betrays. Denb. the foreft trees which have been mentioned. SUGAR-BAKER. n. s. (sugar and baker.] One who bakes fweetmeats; a confectioner. (1.) SUGARCANDY. n. s. [sugar and candy Sugar candied or cryftallifed. (2.) SUGAR-CANDY is the true effence of the cane formed into large cryftals by a flow procefs. When the fyrup is well clarified, it is boiled a lit. tie, but not so much as is done for the proof mentioned in the procefs for making common fugar. It is then placed in oid moulds, having their low. er ends ftopped with linen, and crofled at little diftances with fmall twigs to retain the fugar as it cryftallizes. The moulds are then laid in a cool place. In proportion as the fyrup cools cryftals are formed. In about 9 or 10 days the moulds are carried to the stove, and placed in a pot; but the linen is not removed entirely, fo that the fy. rup falls down flowly in drops. When the fyrup has dropped away, and the cryftals of the fugarcandy are become dry, the moulds are taken from the ftove and broken in pieces, to difengage the fugar, which adheres ftrongly to the fides of the moulds. If the fyrup has been coloured with cochineal, the cryftals take a flight taint of red; if Indigo has been mixed, they allume a biuifh coJour. If it be defired to have the candy perfumed, the effence of flowers or amber may be dropped into the moulds along with the syrup. SUGAR-CANE, 22. f. in botany. See SACCHARUM, No. 1. and SUGAR, $5-10. SUGAR-HILL, a rugged hill of New York, which overlooks Ticonderago, and commands its whole works: near the junction of Lake George with Lake Champlain, oppofite to fort Independent, in Vermont. On this hill General Burgoyne made a lodgment, which the Americans efteemed inacceffible; and thus forced Gen. Sinclair to abandon the fort in 1777. SUGAR ISLAND, an island in the S. Pacific Ocean, abounding with fugar-canes, (1.) SUGAR-LOAF, n. f. A quantity of fugar, nade up into a conical or piramidal form for fale. (2.) SUGAR-LOAF, a hill in Scotland, in Sutherlandfhire; 8 miles SE. of Afsynt. (3.) SUGAR-LOAF BAY, a bay on the NE. coaft of the island of Juan Fernandes; 300 miles W. of Chili. (4,5.) SUGAR-LOAF HILL, GREAT and LITTLE, high conical mountains of Ireland, in Wicklow, Leiner; near Bray, mid-way between Wicklow and Dublin: 12 miles N. of Wicklow and S. of Dublin. The SUGAR MAPLE, ACER SACCHARINUM of Linnæus, (See ACER, N° 10.) as well as the fugar-cane, produces a great quantity of fugar. This tree grows in great numbers in the western Counties of all the middle states of the American mpion. Thofe which grow in New York and Pennsylvania yield the fugar in a greater quantity than thofe which grow on the waters of Ohio.Thele trees are generally found mixed with the From 30 to 50 trees are generally found upon an foils, and frequently in ftony ground. Springs of acre of ground. They grow only in the richelt They are, when fully grown, as tall as the white the pureft water abound in their neighbourhood. and black oaks, and from 2 to 3 feet in diameter. They put forth a beautiful white bloffom in fpring before they show a fingle leaf. The colour of the bloffom diftinguishes them from the ACER RUBRUM, (See ACER, No 9.) or the common maple, which affords a bloffoin or a red colour. The wood of the fugar maple-tree is extremely inflammable, and is preferred upon that account by hunters and furveyors for fire-wood. Its finall branches are fo much impregnated with fugar s to afford fupport to the cattle, hofes, and sheep of the first fettlers, during the winter, before they are able to cultivate forage for that purpofe. Its alhes afford a great quantity of potafh, excec led by few, or perhaps by none, of the trees that grow in the woods of the United States. The tree is supposed to arrive at its fuil growth in the woods in 20 years. It is not injured by tapping; the contrary, the oftener it is tapped, the more op is obtained from it. In this respect it follow> 1 law of animal fecretion. A fingle tree had not only survived, but flourished after 42 tappings in discharge of sap from the tree, in improving and the fame number of years. The effects of a yearly perior excellence of thofe trees which have ocen increafing the fap, are demonftrated from the fuperforated in 100 places, by a small wood-pecker which feeds upon the fap. The trees, after Laving been wounded in this way, diftil the remains of their juice on the ground, and afterwards acquire a black colour. The fap of these trees is much fweeter to the taste than that which is obwounded, and it affords more fugar. From 23 tained from trees which have not been previously hours from only two of those dark coloured trees, gallons and one quart of fap, procured in 24 Arthur Noble, Efq; of the ftate of New York, A tree of an ordinary fize yields in a good season obtained 4 lb. and 13 oz. of good grained fugar. made from 5 to 6 lb. of fugar. Samuel Lowe, from 20 to 30 gallons of fap, from which are Efq: a justice of peace in Montgomery county, bie, Efq; that he had made 20 lb. and 1 oz. of in the ftate of New York, informed Arthur Nofugar between the 14th and 23d of April, in 1789, from a fingie tree that had been tapped for feveral fucceffive years before: and that he had tree. But fuch inftances are uncommon. once obtained 23 gallons in one day from a fingle the influence which culture has upon forest and other trees, it has been supposed, that by tranfFrom planting the fugar maple-tree into a garden, or by deftroying fuch other trees as fhelter it from the rays of the fun, the quantity of the sap might be increafed, and it's quality much improved. A farmer in Northampton county, in Pennsylvania, planted a number of thefe trees above 30 years ago SUGARY. n. f. adj. [from sugar.] Sweet; tafting of fugar. With the fug'ry fweet thereof allure SUGER,Abbé, a French pricft, and prime minifter of France, who flourished in the 11th century, and died in 1152. His reputation was fo great, that after his death it was thought fufficient to infcribe on his tomb, Cy git l'abbe Suger. Here lies the Abbe Suger. Of confequence we know no more of him. David Hume was influenced by a fimilar piece of vanity, when he ordered his name and no more to be inscribed on his monument. * To SUGGEST. v. a. [ fuggero, fuggeftum, Lat. fuggerer, Fr.] 1. To hint; to imitate; to infinuate good or ill: to tell privately. What fpirit fuggets this imagination? Shak. -I could never have fuffered great calamities, by denying to fign that juftice my confcience fuggeted to me. K. Charles.-Thefe Romish cafuifts speak peace to the confciences of men, by furgeing fomething to them, which thall fatisfy their minds, notwithstanding a known, actual, avowed continuance of their fins. South.--Some ideas are fuggefted to the mind by all the ways of fenfation and reflection. Locke.-Reflect upon the different ftate of the mind in thinking, which thofe inftances of attention, reverie and dreaming, naturally enough suggest. Locke.— ago in his meadow, from 3 gallons of the fap of which he obtained every year a pound of fugar. The fap diftills from the wood of the tree. Trees which have been cut down in winter for the fupport of the domeftic animais of the new fettlers, yield a confiderable quantity of fap as foon as their trunks and limbs feel the rays of the fun in the fpring. It is in confequence of the fap of thefe trees being equally diffused through every part of them, that they live 3 years after they are girded, that is, after a circular incision is made through the bark into the fubftance of the tree for the purpose of destroying it. It is remarkable that grafs thrives better under this tree in a meadow, than in fituations expofed to the conftant action of the fun. The feafon for tapping the trees is in Feb. March, and April, according to the weather which occurs. Warm days and frosty nights are most favourable to a plentiful discharge of fap. The quantity obtained in a day from a tree is from 5 gallons to a pint, according to the greater or lefs heat of the air. There is always a fufpenfion of the discharge of fap in the night if a froft fucceed a warm day. The perforation in the tree is made with an axe or an auger. The latter is preferred from experience of its advantages. The auger is introduced about of an inch, and in an ascending direction (that the fap may not be frozen in a flow current in the mornings or evenings,) and is afterwards deepened gradually to the extent of two inches. A fpout is introduced about half an inch into the hole made by this auger, and projects from 3 to 12 inches from the tree. The fpout is generally made of the fumach or elder, which usually grows near the fugar trees. The tree is first tapped on the fouth fide; when the discharge of its fap begins to letlen, an opening is made on the north fide, from which an increased difcharge takes place. The fap flows from 4 to 6 weeks, according to the temperature of the weather. Troughs large enough to contain 3 or 4 gallons made of white pine, or white ath, or of dried water afh, afpen, linden, poplar, or common maple, are placed under the spout to receive the fap, which is carried every day to a large receiver, made of either of the trees before mentioned. From this receiver it is conveyed, after being trained, to the boiler. There are three modes of reducing the fap to fugar; by evaporation, by freezing, and by boiling; of which the latter is most general, as being the most expeditious. The profit of the maple tree is not confined to its fugar. It affords moft agreeable melaffes, and an excellent vinegar. The fap which is fuitable for thefe purposes is obtained after the fap which affords the fugar has ceased to flow, fo that the manufactories of thefe To SUGILLATE. v. a. (sugillo, Latin.] To different products of the maple-tree, by fucceed. beat black and blue: to make livid by a bruife. ing, do not interfere with each other. The me--The head of the os humeri was bruised, and laffes may be made to compofe the basis of a plea- remained sugillated long after. Wiseman. fant fummer beer. The fap of the mapie is also SUGILLATION, n. f. [from fugillate.) The li capable of affording a spirit. vid mark of a blow; the pots in malignant fevers. Ab. SUGAR-PLUMS. n. f. [sugar and plum.] Small confections of fugar, made round like plums. SUGAR-RIVER, a river of New Hampshire, which rifes from Lake Sunapee, runs 14 miles W. and falls into the Connecticut, at Clermort; oppofite to mount Afhcutney in Vermont. Search for fome thoughts thy own suggesting mind. Pope. 2. To feduce; to draw to ill by infinuation. Out of use. 3. When devils will their blackest fins put on, Shak. * SUGGESTER. n. f. [from fuggeft.] One that remindeth another. * SUGGESTION. n. f. suggestion, Fr. from suggest.] 1. Private hint; intimation; infinuation: fecret notification.-It driveth away those evil secret suggestions which our invifible enemy is apt to minifter. Hooker. Shak. One that by fuggeftion Arthur, they fay, is kill'd to-night Shak us fruits and has mines of iron, lead and antimony. The government is republican. (2.) SUGULMESSA, the capital of the above province, is 72 miles E. of Tafilet. It was known to the Romans, and was then calied Meffa. Lon. 55. E. Lat. 29. 40. N. (1) SUICER, John Gaspar, a learned German divine and lexicographer, born at Zurich, in 1620. He became profeffor of the Greek and Hebrew languages at Zurich; and compiled a learned work, entitled, Lexicon, five Thefaurus Ecclefiafticus, Patrum Græcorum: 2 vols fol. He died at Heidelberg, in 1705, aget 85. (2.) SUICER, Henry, fon of the preceding, was alio a learned writer. He became profeffor of languages, firft at Zurich, and afterwards at Heidelberg; where he died in 1705. (1.)* SUICIDE. n. f. fucidium, Lat.] 1. Self murder; the horrid crime of destroying one's feif. Child of despair, and juicide my name. Sav. -To be cut off by the fword of injured friendthip is the moft dreadful of all deaths, next to juicide. Clariffa. 2. A felf murderer. We make misfortunes, fuicides in woe. Young. (2.) SUICIDE is one of thofe crimes which are not common among favage nations. The firft inftances of it recorded in the Jewish history are thofe of Saul and Ahithophel; for the death of Samfon is not a proper exampie. It never became common among the Jews till their wars with the Romans, when multitudes flaughtered themselves that they might not fall alive into the hands of their enemies. But at this period the Jews were a most desperate and abandoned race of men, had corrupted the religion of their fathers, and reject ed that pure fyftem which their promised Meffiah came to Jerufalem to announce. We know not when it became remarkable among the Greeks; but it was forbidden by Pythagoras, by Socrates and Ariftotle, and by the Theban and Athenian laws. In the earlieft ages in the Roman republic it was feldom committed; though that republic owed its origin to the fuicide of Lucretia: but when luxury and the Epicurean and Stoical philofophy had corrupted the fimplicity and virtue of the Roman character, then they began to feek fhelter in fuicide from their misfortunes, or the effects of their vices. The religious principles of the bramins of India led them to admire fuicide on particular occafions as honourable. Accustomed to abitinence, mortification, and the contempt of death, they confidered it as a mark of weakness of mind to submit to the infirmities of old age. The modern Gentoos, who ftiil in mott things conform to the customs of their ancestors, when old and infirm, are frequently brought to the banks of rivers, particularly to thofe of the Ganges, that they may die in its facred streams, which they believe can wath away the guilt of their fins. But the maxims of the bramins, which have encouraged this practice, we are affured by Mr Holwell, are a corruption of the doctrines of the Shaftah, which pofitively forbid fuicide. The practice which religion or affection has eftablished among the Gentoos, for women at the death of their husbands to burn themselves alive on the funeral pile, (See HINDOOS, § 6.) we do not think ought to be confidered as fuicide; for were we to extend it thus far, it would be as proper to ap. ply it to those who choose rather to die in battie, than cfcape at the expence of their honour. Thus we should condemn as fuicides the brave Spartans who died at Thermopyle in the defence of their country: we fhould alfo be obliged to apply the fame difgraceful epithet to all those wellmeaning but weak-minded Chrifti ns in this inland, who in the 17th century chofe rather to die as martyrs than comply with commands which they thought unlawful, though they were not morally wrong. According to the hiftorians of Japan, voluntary death is common in that empire. The devotees of the idol Amida drown themselves in his prefence, attended by their relations and friends, and feveral of the priests, who ali confider the devoted perfon as a faint who is gone to everlafting happiness. Such being the fuppofed honours appropriated to a voluntary death, it is not surprising that the Japanese anxiously cherish a contempt of life. Accordingly, fuicide is held as the most heroic of actions. A notion alfo prevailed among the ancient Scythian tribes, that it was pufillanimous for a man whose strength was wafted with difeafe or infirmity, to continue to live. It was reckoned an heroic action voluntarily to feek that death which he had the good fortune to meet in battle. The tribes of Scandinavia, who worshipped Odin, the "father of flaughter,' were taught, that dying in the field of battle was the most glorious event that could befal them. (See MYTHOLOGY, ODIN, and VALHALLA.) This was a maxim fuited to a warlike nation. Natural death being thus deemed inglorious, and punished with exclufion from Valhalla, the paradife of Odin, he who did not fall in battle was led to suicide, when fickness or old age began to affail him. In fuch a nation fuicide muft have been very common. fuicide prevailed much in the decline of the Roman empire, when luxury, licentiousness, profli gacy, and falfe philosophy, pervaded the world, fo it continued to prevail even after Chriftianity was eftablifhed. But the principles from which it proceeded were explained, fo as to appear more agreeable to the new fyftem which they had efpoufed. It was committed, either to secure from the danger of apoftacy, to procure the honour of martyrdom, or to preserve the crown of virginity. In modern times, we lament to find fo many inftances of fuicide among the most polished nations, who have the best opportunities of knowing the atrocity of that unnatural crime. The English have long been reproached by foreigners for the frequent commiffion of it; and the "gloomy month of November" has been ftigmatized as the feafon when it is most common. But this imputation may be justly attributed, not to the greater frequency of the crime in England than in other places, but to the cuftom of publishing in the newspapers every inftance of suicide which is known. Mr Moore was at great pains to obtain accurate information concerning the perpetration of this crime in different countries. Mercier, who wrote in 1782, fays, that the annual number of fuicides in Paris was then about 150. But the Abbé Fontana afferts, that more perfons put an end to their lives in Paris than in London. He had this information from the lieutenant of police. As Mr |