138 Skt'U/} of the Hyfory of Sugni: 



facchar (-a^aj) as one of the articles of trade between Ariace and Barygaza, two places of 

 the Hither India, and fome of the ports on the Red Sea. 



' ^lian *, in his Natural Hiftory, fpeaks of a kind of honey, which was prefled from reeds 

 that grew among the Prafii, a people that lived near tlie Ganges. 



Tertullian f alfo fpeaks of fugar, in his book De Judiclo Dei, as a kind of honey procured 

 from canes {a). 



Alexander Aphrodlfxus (i)t appears to have been acquainted with fugar, which was 

 in his time regarded as an Indian produdion. He fays, •' that what the Indians called 

 •' fugar, was a concretion of honey, in reeds, refembling grains of fait, of a white colour, 

 " and brittle, and poflefling a detergent and purgative power like to honey ; and which 

 " being boiled, in the fame manner as honey, is rendersd lefs purgative, without impairing 

 " its nutritive quality." 



Paulus jEgineta (c) § fpeaks of fugar as growing, in his time, in Europe, and alfo as 

 brought from Arabia Felix ; the latter of which he feems to think lefs fweet than the fu- 

 gar produced in Europe, and neither injurious to the flomach nor caufing third, as the 

 European fugar was apt to do. 



Achmet [cl), \\ a writer who, according to fome, lived about the year 830, fpeaks familiarly 

 of fugar as common in his time. 



Avicenna {e), t the Arab phyfician, fpeaks of fugar as being a produce of reeds ; but It ap- 

 pears he meant the fugar called Tabaxir or Tabarzet, as he calls it by that name. 



It does not appear, that any of the above-mentioned writers knew of the method of pre- 

 paring fugar, by boiling down the juice of the reeds to a confidence. It is alfo thouc'ht, 

 the fugar they had was not procured from the fugar-cane in ufe at prefent, but from ano- 

 ther of a larger fize, called Tabarzet (f) by Avicenna, which is the Arundo Arbor of Cafpar 

 Bauhin, the Saecar Mambti of later writers, and the Arundo Bambos of Linnaeus. This 

 yields a fweet. milky juice, and oftentimes a hard cryftallized matter, exadly refembling 

 fugar, both in tafte and appearance. 



The hiftorians of the Crufades make the next mention of fugar of any that have fallen 

 under my obfervation. 



The author of the Hiftoria (^)**Hierofolymitana fays, that the Crufaders found in Syria 

 certain reeds called Cannameles, of which it was reported a kind of wild honey was made ; 

 but does not fay that he faw any fo manufadtured.. 



(a) McUa viridanti confragrant pinguia canna. TeituUian. de Judicio Dei, 



(*) Alex. Aphrodifaei lib. ii. Probl. 79. 



(e) Paul. jEginela Vox Mc!. MiXi. p. 632. Medic. Art. Princ. Ed. Henrici Stephani, 1567. 



(4) Vide Meurfii Gloff. Graec. Barb. & Du Cange GloiT. ad Script, med. & inf. Grsecitatis. 



(e) De Zuccaro. Lib. II.Traft. II. De Melle. Lib. IL Traft. II. 



(f) Some of the writers fay, that it was fo called from the name of a place !«;{<<{ TaSaffa;, two; b7»i na.x~ 

 uivnii! Zujiav. Conftantinus a Sccretis, MS. quoted from Du Cange Gloff. Graec. The word Tabarzet figni- 

 fies white, and is tranflated, by Du Cange, Saccar Album. Herbelot fays, that the Perfians called by thiit 

 name the hardeft and moft refined fugar. Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 810, 



(g) Par* fecunda, p. 595• 



• A. D. circ. 145. + A. D. 195. JA. D. 212. 



»5 A. D. circ. 400. vel fecundum Friend multo pofterior. Hift. Medic. 



B A. D. 830, fl A. D. sSo.natus. iioo. 



Albcrtisa 



