8 DiJJertation on the Hi/lory of Sugar. 



year becomes more woody, and lofes its beft juice. Befides, 

 he thinks it probable that the juice might exude from the 

 canes more eafily and more trequently in the warm regions 

 of Arabia Felix and Indollan than in the iflands of India, 

 which are more expofed to rains. 



There are, however, (till other caufes of doubt ; for even 

 if we allow that the iugar cane fometimes produces concre- 

 tions, yet it is not probable that they poflcl's the fame pro- 

 perties as thofe which the antients afcribe to theirs. For 

 example, thcfe concrete drops, on account of their melleous 

 j,iiature, ought, according to every appearance, to be rather of 

 a vifcid and fticky nature than brittle; and this doubt appears 

 to me of more importance than that propofcd by fouie learned 

 men who have compared the medical properties of the antient 

 and modern fugar. For though fome afcribe the fame qua- 

 lities to our fuaar as thofe for which the antient phyficians 

 extolled theirs, yet many aflert that there is fo great a differ- 

 ence, that they believe the two fubftances to have been to- 

 tally different *. But, in my opinion, there muft ncceffarily 

 be a great difference between frefli fugar formed fpontane- 

 ouflv, and juice expreffed by great force, and afterwards in- 

 fpiffated by the help of lire, and purified by the addition of 

 vario.us fubftances. Many, particles are no doubt deftroyed 

 by boiling, and many are thro\A'n out with the fcum, as the 

 juice cannot otherwife be formed into a cryftaljine mafs, 

 lince the particles, which are too mucilaginous and oil}^, and 

 in the feparation of which confifts the refining of futrar, op- 

 pole cryltallization too much. It is indeed not poffible in 

 any other manner to produce our common white fugar, 

 which is forced to cryftallize; but the cryftals are exceed- 

 ingly fmall, and, by their cohefion, form a continued mafs. 

 Befides, all thofe who have made experiments on the nature 

 of new fuirar found in it all thofe medical virtues f extolled 



fo 



* Dicfcor. lib. r. Efl ?£ sukc;:>.«v, iv^oy.a.-^Cfi, Jie&ev iJan xai 'E'sS'eV »<})£>,otivy.D?-iv 

 X£x«;tai^£viv k«! vtifpeuj. y.a9aipii it xai ra ra? xopa; EW.ffxoTCuvTa E7ri;^fi«/ixivov. 

 Ell lace lunim a!vo idonc-uiti ct Itomacho urilc, fi aqua diiutuni binatur; 

 vcxatse vero veficae renibulque auxiliatur ; quin et illitum ea dil'cutit quae ' 

 pupillis tenebras oflfundunt, 



Galfiius, lib. c. Sisccharum alfimiles meili vires obiinens, quod ad 

 abftergt.ndum, deficcandum et digerendum attinet ; porro quatenus nee 

 inimicum ftoniaci o eft, ceu noftras, nee fitim afftrcns,ea tenus abiilofub- 

 ftaiuia dirtert. Conf.- Galeni Menbodin MeJendi, lib. vjii. c. 4. edit.Char- 

 teiii, vol. X. p. 1 1^1. 



t See Foffius ad Melam, p. 271, where may be found the following quo- 

 tation from Julius Landus : — Arundints incola; (puto, in infula S. Tho- 

 mae) inaturas et rccentes comedunt jejuni, voluptatis gratia, ac etiam his 

 dc caullis, ut inqu'unt, quod /olvunt ventrem, jecur refrigerant, fitim 



auftruut. 



