D'l/Jertation on the U'ljlory of Sugar. 5 



This is all that the antients have left us in their writings 

 rd\)^di\ng foccharum. It is indeed {hort and defeiSlive, but 

 let us try what certain information can be drawn from it. 

 The name itfelf is of no importance in determining the quei- 

 tion, for antient names have often been applied to new things 

 with which the antients were unacquainted. For this reafon 

 then, though the name be the fame, there mav be a great 

 difference between our fugar and that of the antients. Nor 

 can any arguments be adduced from the origin of the word, 

 ■fince it is altogether unknown, and as there are fome who 

 'believe, and not without reafon, that this appellation was 

 given to various vegetable juices found naturally in a con- 

 crete ftate on the plants which produced them *. 



The plant which produces our fugar, as well as that which 

 produced the faccharum of the antients, may, in fome mea- 

 fure, be referred to that clafs of plants called in general reeds 

 {arundines), and grows in the fame parts of the Eaft Indies 

 and Arabia from which the antients procured theirs. But 

 their faccharum was not formed from the exprefled juice, as 

 is the cafe with that which we ufe at prefent, but was col^ 

 lefted, in the manner of a gum, upon the reeds themfelves. 

 This circumftance, however, may even be called in queftion 

 by thofe who wifh to fearch only for truth, and to feparate 

 what is certain from what is doubtful. For Galen himfelf 



turn gummium tnodo, candidum, dentibus fragile, ampliflimum nucis avel- 

 lanae magnitudine, ad medicinse tantum ufum. 



Dicfiorides dc Mcdka Materia, lib. ii. c. 104, edit. Saraceni, p. 112:— 

 KaXEtrai Js ti xai a-aLiC)(ji^W, E(Jo? m jUEXito? ev IvJitt iriitriyoTot; ttm rr, EuJai^acvi Apa- 

 f I*, lufio-aofxivm etti tsjV KaT^afAoiv, ofA.eiiov Tn e-v^tttrii aXs-i, xai ^favofAS^m vtto to(5 

 •Soutri xaSaTTEp oi a^E;. Eft et quoddam niellis concreti genus, quod faccha- 

 rum nominatur, quodqne in India et Feiici Arabia in arundinibus repe- 

 ritur, confiftentia iali fimile, ac dentibus etiani lalis modo fragile. 



Gali:!!us de Sirn/'l. Mddic. Fucvltnt. lib. vii. c. 9. edit. Charterii, vol. xiii. 



p. 207: Kai TO o-axyap xaXoUjUEVov OTTEp E? IvJiaf t£ xat T)jc Et.'S'ai,wovof ApaSia; xc/xiJ^ETai. 

 nEp.T^j/vuTai |«£v iiq <pa<ri, xaXaf*oi?, ig-i Je ti xai auTO fxiXrcj^ EiJo?. nrToi' f*£» 

 ew E5-1V, 1 TO •srap ^/xiv j-Xuxo. Sfd et laccharum, ut vocant, quod ex India 

 atqiie Felici Arabia convchitur, concrefcit quidcm, ut aiunt, circa calamos, 

 et ipfum mellis eft fpecies minus certt noftrate dulcis, fcdaifimiles ei vires 

 obtinens, &c. 



Arr'uvii Periplus Maris Erythrica, edit. Stuckii, p. 5 : E|apT«(£Tat Je ff-uvuflajj, 

 xai airo touv Ee-») roiraiv T«f Apiaxf,; xa> Bapyya^nv, ei? Ta avTct, ra OTEpav E^-ripia, 



■ym -E-pop^ttipoi/VTa otto twv tottuv s-iTo;.xa( ofu^a. xat ^aeXi to xaXa^uivsv, to Xe- 



-/iuvm arax;^apj. Ex intimis locis Ai iaces et Barygazorum, in liac cadem 

 ulteriora empoiia ex more folito devehuntur \ariae res, ut frumentura 

 oryza — et me! arundincum, quod faccharum dicitur. 



• The celebrated I'laz, in I'rogram. de Saccharo, Lipfis 1763, adduces 

 the opinion of Reiike rcfpefting the name Jucrar, viz. that ii is of Perfian 

 or Indian and not Arabic extradtion ; and that it was brought, together 

 witli the thing fignificd, from India to Arabia. 



A 3 fcema 



