2Z Dijferfafloti on (he Htftory of Sugar. 



which differed neither in colour nor fubftance from common 

 fah, and which was faid to be endowed with a melleous talte, 

 many men of learning have been induced to believe that this 

 fait is the fame as that called jaccharum by Diolcorides, 

 Pliny, and others. But, even if we allow this to be true, we 

 learn nothing from it that can illuilrate Pliny's account of 

 Jacchariun; for the Indian fait is recommended by Paulus 

 ^gineta only to thofe whofe tongues are rough and foul, to 

 whom I do not know \\hether any fweetnefs can be of fer- 

 vice, whether procured from reeds or from any other plant. 



It now remains that I fhould confider that fweet liquor 

 which the Indians are faid to have made from the roots of 

 reeds. This beverage is mentioned by various authors both 

 Greek and Latin. Solinus, indeed, tells us that this reed 

 was of a prodigious fize; but Voffius very properly obferves, 

 that the fize which he afcribes to the Indian reeds or canes 

 could not be that of our fugar cane. It is therefore probable 

 that Solinus either committed a miftake in afcribing to thefe 

 large canes a juice which in reality was exprefled from a 

 much fmaller kind of reeds, or that the liquor alluded to was 

 the produce of a plant quite different from that which pro- 

 duces fugar. But fome verfes of Varro extolled by Ifidore *, 



and 



he favs — Archigenes et fal Indicum hutc ufui adhibuit, quod fane co- 

 lore et fubftaiitia nihil a communi fale diflidet, faporc vero meliteum eft; 

 Icntis vero ejus falis maunitudo, vel ad fummum falxe quantitas comefta, 

 affatim atque protule humtdare prodcft. — The iame author, lib. vii, p. 388, 

 fays: Q^in etiam faccar quod vocant mel, quod ex Felici Arabia inve- 

 hirur, non tarn dulce quam noftras eft, fed aiquales ci vires poftidet, neque 

 fiomacho moleftum eft, neque fiiim conciliat. Avicetnia, fen. i. can. 4. 

 traft. 2. c. 231. fpeaking of foulnefs of the tongue in fevers, follows 

 Paulus jEgineta : Aut ttneat in ore falem qui afportatur de India, et eft 

 in colore falis, et dulcedine meilis; et fumat dc eo, fccundum quod dixit 

 Archigenes, quatititatem fabae unius. 



* Ificlor. Oiigin.Wh. y^n, c. 7: In Indicis nafci arundines calamique 

 dicuntur, ex quorum radicibus exprelTum fuccum bibunt, unde et Varro 

 ait; 



Indica non magna nimis arbore crefcit arundo: 

 Illius e lentis premitur radicibus humor, 

 Dujcia cui nequeunt fucco concedtre mella. 

 Nobody acquainted with Latin will deny, fays VoiTius, that there is 

 foinething here in the firft line which muft offend every ear not vitiated. 

 Saumaife increafes inftead of curing the fault, when he reads Indica nam 

 magna. Volfius thinks that the reading ought to be: 



Indica non magna minus arbore crefcit arundo. 

 To the fame fubjett belongs the following line of Lucan, Pharfal. iii. 

 p. 237: 



Quique bibunt tenera dukes ab arundine fuccos. 

 I fliall fubjoin a!'.b the words of Pomponius Mela, lib. 3. c. 7 : — Tam 



