SACCHARUM. 



717 



which ought to be prepared with the good white sugar called cafetin,^ 

 a name alluding to the peculiar shape of the loaf which was not un- 

 common at that time.^ 



The importance of the sugar manufacture in the East was witnessed 

 in the latter half oi the 13th century by Marco Polo ;^ and in 1510 by 

 Barbosa and other European travellers ; and the trading nations of 

 Europe rapidly spread the cultivation of the cane over all the countries, 

 of which the climate was suitable. Thus its introduction into Madeira 

 goes back as far as A.D. 1420; it reached St. Domingo in 1494/ the 

 Canary Islands in 1503, Brazil in the beginning of the 16th century, 

 Mexico about 1520, Guiana about 1600, Guadaloupe in 1644, Martinique 

 in 1650/ Mauritius towards 1750, NataP and New South Wales, about 

 lSo2y while from a very early period the sugsx cane had been propa- 

 gated from the Indian Archipelago over all the islands of the Pacific 

 Ocean. 



The ancient cultivation in Egypt, probably never quite extinct, has 

 heen revived on an extensive scale by the Kliedive Ismail Pasha. 

 There were 13 sugar factories, making raw sugar, belonging to the 

 Egyptian Government at work in 1872, and about 100,000 acres of land 

 devoted to sugar cane. The export of sugar from Egypt in 1872 

 reached 2 millions of kantars, or about 89,200 tons/ 



The imperfection of organic chemistry previous to the middle of the 

 IBth century, permitted no exact investigations into the chemical 

 nature of sugar, Marggraf of Berlin' proved in 1747 that sugar occurs 

 in many vegetables, and succeeded in obtaining it in a pure crystallized 

 state from the juice of beet-root. The enormous practical importance 

 of this discovery did not escape him, and he caused serious attempts to 

 be made for rendering it available, which were so far successful that 

 the first manufactory of beet-sugar was established in 1790 hy A chard 

 at Kuncrn in Silesia. . . ., 



This new branch of industry ^^ was greatly promoted by the pro- 

 hibitive measures, whereby Napoleon excluded colonial sugar from 

 almost the whole Continent ; and it is now carried forward on such a 

 scale that 640,000 to 680,000 tons of becfc-root sugar are annually pro- 

 duced in Europe, the entire production of cane sugar bemg estimated 



at 1,260,000 to 1,413,000 tons.^^ . . , ^ . 13 rr-'A,A u 



Among the British colonies, Maurltius,^^ British Guiana, Tnnidad, 



Ordonnances dea rois de France, ii, 

 (1729) 535. 



■ . ^*^^'^^^1 other varieties of sugar occurring 

 m the mediieya] literature are explained m 

 the Docianente (quoted at pa^'e 40-4, foot- 

 note 7} p. 32. ^ ^ 



**Yule, Booh of Scr Marco Polo, ii. (1871) 

 '9. 171. 180. &c. 



Letters of Christ. Columbus (Hakluyt 

 Society) 1S70. 81-84. 



^ De CaudoZIe, G<io</K hotanique, S3(>. 

 Ihe value of the sugar exported from 

 ■Natal in I87I reached the astonishing 

 i^mount of £180,496 and £135,201 in 1876. 

 Jt et owing to the gold discoveries, the 

 Pj^^pagAtion of the cane in Australia was 

 Aittle thought of until about 18GG or 1SG7, 

 ^^ hen small lots of sugar were made. 



^Consul Uogers, Report on^ Trade of 

 Cairo for 1S72, presented to Parliament. 



^i.iX.V«^.i %m^^ues faUes dans k 

 desseinde Hrer un viable sucre d^ ihver^<'s 

 ;ZL qui croimnt dam nosco.tr^ par 

 kr Marggraf, traduit du atin~^^(. ^e 



kttres. annoe 1747 Berhn 1^49) ^9-90. 



lo^id also that of milk sugar, v.'lnchw^'^ 

 then much used on the Coutinent to aduUe- 



'""upZuTmrHs Review, March 28, 



1^2 255,249 quintals (one quintal = 108 



Ih. avd».)in 1876. 

 13 120,030 hhds (one hogahead = l,*irj 



lb.) in 1870. ^^^, . ^_. 

 ini4,968,3S4 lb. m 18*6. 





