THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE. 



I. A Dijfertatlon on the Hijiory of Sugar, ^y Profejfor 

 Beckman*. 



JL HOUGH Sauniaife, Voffius, Deufingf, and other 

 learned men have written on the hiftory ot fugar, yet no 

 one who has read and examined the opinions, dilputes, and 

 arguments of thefe authors will deny that it is ftill very de- 

 fefiive and obfcure. For this reaion, and as no article of 

 commerce, whether we confider the immenfe quantity of 

 it ufed in different parts of the world, the great number of 

 perfons employed in the cultivation of it, or in preparing 

 and felHng it, or the large funis expended annually in the 

 purchafe of it, feems more worthy of having the hiftory of it 

 cleared up, I refolved to try whether, after the attempts of 

 fo many writers, I could produce any thing new or certain 

 on the fubje6t; efpecially as many new obfervations, which 

 may have efcaped thefe authors, can now be drawn from 

 books of travels, and works on natural hiftory. It may alfo 

 happen, that what the antients have faid on the fubjeft can 

 be rendered clearer and more intelligible by a new revifion ; 

 for the hiftory of fugar has been involved, by learned men, 

 in fuch a contufion ot words and things foreign to it, that it 

 cofts no littU; time and labour to fcparate truth from proba- 

 bility. 



As our fugar is the eflential fait of that plant called by 

 hoizn\[\^ faccharu7n offlcinarum, or arundo faccharifera, the 

 qucftion whether this plant was indigenous in that part of 



■^ From tlie TruiifaHions of the Royal Society »f G'ittingen, vol. v. 



+ Salinafii Excrcitationes Plinianae, p. 716. 916.; and Excrcitationes 

 de Homonyi'nis, p. 109. 



If. VolFii Obfcrvationes ad Porapon. Melam : Hagat Cornlt. X658. 410. 

 p. a6ft. 



Antonii Dcufingii Fafciculus Differcatwnvim : Croni>tg^ ibCo. iimo. 

 p. 479. Theoplirafti Hid. Plantarym illuftrata a Joh. Bodeo a Staptl. 

 AniJlcloJaini 16&4, p. 109. 



A3 the 



