ANTIQUITIES. f4s7 
that, is brittle when chewed. It 
is beneficial to the bowels and sto- 
mach, if taken dissolved in water; 
and is also useful in diseases of the 
bladder and kidneys. Being sprin- 
kled on the eye, it removes those 
substances that obscure the sight. 
The above is the first account | 
have seen of the medicinal virtues 
of sugar. 
Galen appears to have been well 
acquainted with sugar, which he 
describes, rearly as Dioscorides 
had done, as a kind of honey, call- 
ed Sacchar, that came from India, 
and Arabia Felix, and concreted 
in reeds. He describes it as less 
sweet than honey, but of similar 
qualities, as detergent, desiccative, 
and digerent. He remarks a dif- 
ference, however, in that sugar is 
not like honey injurious to the sto- 
mach, or productive of thirst. 
“Tf the third book of Galen, ‘* Up- 
on medicines that may be easily 
procured,’”? be genuine, we have 
reason to think sugar could not be 
a scarce article, as it is there re- 
peatedly prescribed. 
Lucan alludes to sugar, in his 
third book, where he speaks of the 
Sweet juices expressed from reeds, 
which were drank by the people of 
India. 
Seneca, the philosopher, like- 
wise speaks of an oily sweet juice in 
reeds, which probably was sugar. 
Pliny was better acquainted with 
this substance, which he calls by 
the name of Saccaron; and says, 
that it was brought from Arabia 
and India, but the best from the 
latter country. He describes it as a 
kind of honey, obtained from reeds, 
of a white colour, resembling gum, 
and brittle when pressed by the 
teeth, and found in pieces of the size 
of a hazel nut. It was used in me-~ 
dicine’ abe 
Salmatius, in his Plinianz Hxer- 
citationes, says, that Pliny relate 
upon the authority of fuba 
historian, that some reeds grew in 
the Fortunate Islands, which in- 
creased to the size of trees, and 
yielded a liquor that was sweet and 
agreeable to the palate. This 
plant he concludes io be the sugar 
cane; but I think the passage in 
Pliny scarcely implies so much,— 
Hitherto we have had no account 
of any artificial preparation of 
sugar, by’ boiling or otherwise ; but 
there is a passage in Statius, that 
seems, if the reading be genuine, 
to allude to the boiling of sugar, 
and is thought to refer immediately 
thereto by- Stephens in ‘his The, 
saurus. 
Arrian in his Periplus of the Red 
Sea, speaks of the honey from 
reeds, called Scechar (Saxze) as 
one of the articles of trade between 
Ariace and Barygaza, two places 
of the hither India, and some of 
the ports on the Red Sea. 
es in his Natural History, 
speaks of a kind of honey, whi ch 
was pressed from reeds, that grew 
among the Prasi7, a people “that 
lived near the Ganges. 
Tertullian also speaks of sugar, 
in his book De Jduirio Dei, asakind 
of honey procured ‘rom canes. 
Alexander Aphrodiszeus appears 
to have been acquainted with su. 
gar, which was, in his time, re- 
garded as an Indian production. 
He says, ‘¢ that what the Indians 
called sugar, was a concretion 
of honey, in reeds, resembling 
grains of salt, of a white colour, 
and brittle, and possessing a deter- 
gent and purgative power like to 
honey, 
