SUGAR. 245 



year 1509) sugar was eaten with meat, to 

 correct its putrescency. Gerard, after stat- 

 ing the medicinal virtues of sugar, says, 

 " Of the juice of the reede is made the most 

 pleasant and profitable sweete, called sugar, 

 whereof is made infinite confections, conjec- 

 tures, sirupes, and such like, as also preseru- 

 ing and conseruing of sundrie fruits, herbes, 

 and flowers, as roses, violets, rosemary flowers, 

 and such like, which still retain with them 

 the name of sugar, as sugar of roset, sugar 

 violet," &c. 



Lord Bacon observes, that " Sugar hath 

 put down the use of honey, insomuch as we 

 have lost those observations and preparations 

 of honey, which the ancients had when it was 

 more in price." This author adds, " There 

 is brought into use a sugar mead (for so we 

 may call it), though without any mixture of 

 honey ; and so brew it and keep it stale, as 

 they used mead, for certainly, though it 

 would not be abstersive, and opening, and 

 solutive a drink as mead, yet it will be more 

 grateful to the stomach, and more lenitive, 

 and fit to be used in sharp diseases." 



The use of chocolate, which was intro- 

 duced in this country in 1520, must have 

 added to the demand for sugar, and that of 



