| Title: | Molasses |
| Original Title: | Mélasse |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 10 (1765), p. 311 |
| Author: | Unknown |
| Translator: | Nathan D. Brown [Furman University] |
| Subject terms: |
Materia medica
|
| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0004.078 |
| Citation (MLA): | "Molasses." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Nathan D. Brown. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2021. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0004.078>. Trans. of "Mélasse," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 10. Paris, 1765. |
| Citation (Chicago): | "Molasses." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Nathan D. Brown. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0004.078 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Mélasse," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 10:311 (Paris, 1765). |
Molasses is the fatty and oily, but liquid matter that remains from sugar after its refinement and which can, by burning it off, be given a consistency stiffer than syrup; for this reason, it is also called sugar syrup .
This molasses properly speaking is the base liquor of sugar, or the sugar starch that could not be crystalized, or shaped into a loaf.
Some people make this base liquor into a spirit that is very unhealthy.
It has happened that some empirics [1] have made use of this supposed syrup for different maladies, which they distributed under a borrowed name, which has made this an in vogue treatment for quite some time.
Country folk on the outskirts of cities where sugar is refined, often use this sort of syrup ; they eat it; they mix it into water; they make a type of wine with it, and they use it instead of sugar; some grocers doctor their spirits with it See Sugar.
1. Note that empiric is defined as a synonym for charlatan in the article, “Empiric:” “But the word empiric is understood odiously in a figurative sense to mean a charlatan, and is given to all those who treat maladies with supposed secrets, without having any knowledge of medicine.”