CHAPTER XXVIII 



SUGAR 



THE sugar cane must have been known from very ancient times 

 as it is mentioned in Isaiah (Chap. 43, v. 24) and Jeremiah 

 (Chap. 6, v. 21), but the production of sugar as an article of food 

 probably belongs to a much later period. It is mentioned in 

 some Greek and Roman writers as used in medicine. The 

 cultivation of the cane seems to have come from the East, and 

 the extraction of sugar practised in early Christian times then 

 passed into Sicily and later into Spain and Portugal. About 

 the fifteenth century the manufacture was established in the 

 West Indies and in Brazil. Hawkins brought sugar to England 

 from San Domingo in 1563, and about this time English 

 planters were prospering in Barbadoes. 



It is a little difficult to realise the conditions under which our 

 remote forefathers before this time arranged a dietary with no 

 direct sweetening agent except honey. The sugar which is now 

 consumed in such large quantities is a remarkable example of a 

 practically pure chemical compound which serves as an impor- 

 tant food-stuff, and is very rapidly assimilated when taken into 

 the stomach. 



Common sugar exists in the juices of a great many plants and 

 fruits, but the chief supplies of the world are derived from two 

 sources, viz. the sugar cane, which is a tropical plant, and the 

 sugar beet, which is cultivated only in temperate climates. 

 Small quantities of sugar for local purposes are obtained from 

 several species of palm in India and the East, and pass into 

 commerce under the name joggery. Another source of sugar is 

 the sugar maple (Acer saccharinum) which grows in some abun- 

 dance in the northern states of America and in Lower Canada. 



To give an idea of the large quantities of sugar used as food 

 the following figures taken from the Annual Statement of the 

 Board of Trade for the year 1913 show the extent of the imports 

 into the United Kingdom from foreign and colonial sources. 

 These do not include molasses, invert sugar, glucose, jams, or 



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