l5 Tiiffertation on the tlijlory of Sugar » 



fwectnefs in it^ and that it approaches much nearer to amyli 

 than to fiigar or fait. 



In the laft place, whatever kind of fubftance the faccba- 

 rurJi of the antients mav have been, it was not well known 

 either to the Greeks or the Romans. It was not in common 

 •ufe, and employed only in medicine. Nor do we read of 

 any other i'wect fubltance being ufcd for feafoning food, 

 making fwectmeats, and preferving fruit, than honey, in 

 which apples of all kinds and even flefh were preferved *. 

 The antient phyficians alfo mixed honey with their medi- 

 cines in order to render them more palatable. But even 

 this circumftance feems fufficient to prove that they were 

 not acquainted with our fugar, which without doubt might 

 have been employed much more conveniently both for food 

 and in medicine. It is true, indeed, that many things ufed 

 for feafoning were employed firll in medicine, and were 

 then, after a long interval, introduced into cookerv. Thus, 

 fpirit of wine and grain were long recommended for the ufe 

 of medicine under the name oH aqua-v'ilee ; in the like man- 

 ner, coffee, tobacco, and many other things that now minifter 

 to the luxury of our tables, or are in common ufe, were firfl: 

 known as medicines. Even oranges were introduced into 

 cookery only at a late period among the Romans, and were 

 not commonly eaten. Oranges, faid Pliny f, are not eaten 

 but as- a remedy for polfon ; and they were put into ward- 

 robes with clothes in order to give the latter an agreeable 

 fmellj. Nor docs the ufe of oranges, which in modem 

 times are fo neceffarv in food, that the art of cookery would 

 be at a lofs could they not be procured, occur as feafoning 

 in the work of Apicius. We have reafon therefore to con- 

 jc6lure thsit J'accharum was known and ufed as a medicine, 

 but not as food. But as the antients prepared a beverage for 

 which they before ufed common honey or aerial honey, 

 called at prefent mamia §, why (liould they not have tried 

 faccharum in the fame manner ? for though they had not 

 faccharum altogether purified, yet it is evident that the tafte 

 of even impure fugar wtjuld have been more agreeable than 

 ' that of the above naufeous manna. Nor is it probable that 

 the antients, had they known fugar, would have abftained 



* Columella, \\h. fS\.c.\o: Illud in totum praecipiendum exirtimavi, 

 nullum cflfe genus pomi quod non poHit mclli feivari ; itaquc cum fit haec 

 res interdum aeijrotantibus faiufaris cenfco, &c. See alio Apicii lib. i, c. 8; 

 Ut carnes fine fale quovis tempore fim reccntes. 



i- Plin. Hift. Nat. lib. xii. c. 3. 



% Athcnseus Deipnof. lib. iii. c. 7. 



€ Athena;us, lib. xi. p. 500. . 



4 iroift 



