For the past few weeks, I've been researching the death of my husband's great-great grandmother, Hannah Cooper Heywood. She was the first wife of Zimri Brewer Heywood, and according to her death notice, she died as a young wife/mother in 1835 in Milltown, St. Stephen, Charlotte Co., New Brunswick. That brief death notice contained the mysterious phrase, "sugar poisoning," as the reason for her death, with no explanation about what that meant. Quite by accident, I ran across what I believe to be the explanation. I'm sharing it with this mailing list, since it apparently affected a large number of residents of New Brunswick and adjacent Calais. If any of you have ancestors who were similarly affected, I would surely like to hear about them, as I believe expanded knowledge of that unfortunate event will enrich many family histories. Here's what I found in Rev. I.C. Knowlton's Annals of Calais, Maine and St. Stephen, New Brunswick.....publ. 1875 [page 118]: "...Early in 1835, a strange sickness, baffling all medical skill, broke out in Calais and St. Stephen. The symptoms were pain, weakness and constipation, loss of appetite and sleep, partial paralysis, nausea, etc. During February, March and April, hundreds were sick in the same way; the best treatment did little good; and some twenty or thirty persons died. No age or class was exampt from the malady. At length poison was suspected in an invoice of sugar imported by James Frink, from Barbadoes. It was a nice looking article, and being sold at retail, it was used in many families and freely taken by the sick, in their food and medicine; but on being subjected to analysis by a Boston chemist, it was found to contain a fatal per cent of lead! The secret was divulged. The people ceased using the sugar, and the strange sickness slowly disappeared; though some have suffered from its effects to the present day. Subsequently, Dr. Cyrus Hamlin while visiting Barbadoes to regain his health, traced the sugar to the plantation where it was manufactured. On investigation he found that some of the syrup from which the sugar was made, had remained in lead-coated cauldrons until it fermented, in which state it decomposed and absorbed the poison lead...." Does anyone on this list have ancestors who passed down information about this event and its effects on the population? I wonder if there are newspaper articles, diary/journal entries, letters or other sources of information about it. Thanks for any additional insight. Jean