SUGAR, j;]5 



planted in Europe on the return of his army. 

 Strabo informs us that Nearchus, who was 

 admiral of Alexander's fleet, discovered the 

 sugar-cane in the East Indies.* 



Lucan relates, that an Oriental nation in 

 alliance with Pompey used the juice of the 

 cane as a drink. 



" Quique bibunt tenera dulces ab arundine succos. 



Lib. iii. 237. 



This would naturally be the first use of so 

 delicious a juice ; and as sugar will ferment 

 liquors, so will it cause intoxication. The 

 Encyclopedia Britannica says, " If any credit 

 be due to etymology, it confirms the opinion 

 that Kent from the Hebrew, denotes the 

 sugar cane ; for the Latin word carina, and 

 the English word cane, are evidently derived 

 from it. It is also a curious fact that sachar 

 or shekel^ in Hebrew, signifies inebriation, 

 from which the Greek word aax%ap, sugar, is 

 undoubtedly to be traced. 



Varro, who was Pompey's lieutenant in his 

 piratical wars, and who lived in the century 

 before the Christian era, describes this sweet 

 in a fragment quoted by Isidorusj as a fluid 

 pressed from reeds of a large size, which was 

 sweeter than honey : — 



# Lib. xv. t Lib. ivii. c. 7. 



