Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-06-20
A HISTORY OF SUGAR.
GENERALIZATION FROM JUICES BY
ANCIENT RACES.

Theories of Its introduction.
Heredotus, one of the earliest writers of
whose works there is any record, informs
us that tribe in Africa called the Zygan-
ties had, ''besides honey Of bees, a much
greater quantity made by man" 1t also
stated that Nearchus, the chief admiral of
Alexander the Great, discovered concern
ing canes that they make honey without
bees" Very ancient races, therefore, were
acquainted with the fact that certain canes
yield sweet juices, and being ignorant OF
any methods of purifying these juices,
their sugar could not be got to crystalline
and resembled honey in consistency as well
as in taste Megasthenes, however, writes
much later concerning ''the India stone,
sweeter than figs or honey" SO that by this
time some rude method Of crystallizing OF
solidifying the juice had been discovered.
The early Jewish historians make no men
ton of sugar, the only sweet substance
habitually used by the Hebrews being hon
ey; but Isaiah speaks of ''sweet cane" and
there is a disputed alIusion to it in the
Song of Solomon.
1t was not until about the commence
ment of the Christian era that sugar was
spoken of by an appropriate name. "In In
dia and Arabia Felix" writes Dioscorides
"a kind Of concrete honey is called saccha-
ron" This term is evidently adapted
from the Arabic assokar or shuker, which
itself is derived from the Sanscrit shar-
kara. Speaking Of names, it is rather ode
that the Hebrew word for being intoxi-
Gated is shacar a word which is evidently
closely connected with the Arabic. 1t is
interesting, too, when we remember the
ready conversion of sweet liquids into al
cohol. There seems to be little doubt that
the origin of the manufacture of sugar
must be sought for in India and Arabia.
AMONG THE ANCIENTs.
Apart from the evidence of Dioscorides
we are always disposed to trust Pliny, tc
whom we are indebted for so much infor
nation concerning the manners and Gus
toms of the ancients In Hollands trans
lation, book 10, chapter s, we read: GAS fol
sugar, there is of it in Arabia, but the best
cometh out of India. A kind of homie ii
is, gathered and candied in certaine canes
white this is, like gunme (Arabicke)
and brittle betweene a mans teeth. The
CRANES hereof, when they are at the biggest
exceed not a filberd Mute, and serve fo1
physicke."
Sugar, as known to the ancients, was
doubtless far less palatable than it is now.
In preparing it the canes and the roots
were frequently boiled, so that certain bit
ter and aromatic principles must needs
have been extracted. The quality impart
ed to the sugar by this process might have
determined its use for medicinal purposes
It is certain that sugar was only regarded
as a sort of medicine for several centuries
and confirmation of this statement may be
found in the fact that it is rarely men
toned, except by physicians and learned
men, nor with tolerable precision except
by the former.
The Greeks and Romans used sugar as
medicament almost entirely, and it is occa
sionally alluded to by the physicians of the
Augustan age. During the Seventh cen
fury the empire of the Saracens was scarce
ly inferior to that of Rome in the times Of
her greatest prosperity and, we may add
rapacity. The conquered western Asia
overran northern Africa and carried thei.
arms into the south of Europe. To thes,
semi-barbaric Saracens Europe was indebt
ed for the manufacture Of sugar-a com
modify the consumption Of which may
now almost be taken as measure of ma
TONS civilization.
DID THE CRUSADERS INTRODUCE IT?
There are many who attribute the intro
duction of sugar to the Crusaders. But
sugar has undoubtedly been cultivated il
Spain for near 900 years, and it has been
asked, since the Crusaders were collected
from all parts of Europe, how is it that
Spain was the only country favored with
this valuable commodity? Of course the
Crusaders did find sugar in Syria, and they
may have assisted in making it better
known ON their return to Europe. We read
in the history of the second crusade that
Richard Ceur de Lion captured seven
camels laden with sugar, and that his
knights found "sweet honied cannes called
zuera." These they gathered and sucked
and were much pleased with the sweet
taste thereof, with which they could scarce
ly be satisfied"
1t was long before the mechanical arts
were applied to the preparation of sugar
and longer still before any method of clar
flying the juice of the cane was discovered
The use of alkalies is believed to be an in
vention of the Moors who settled in Spain
Sugar appears to have been very little
known in England till the Fourteenth cen
tury In 1929 the Lord Chamberlain OF
Scotland speaks of loaves of sugar, which
were sold at one ounce of silver per pound
a price equivalent to about 81 of our money
The manufacture was not carried on in
Great Britain at this time, but small sup
plies were imported from Venice, where
sugar refining had already become an i'm
portant industry. Although old Harrison
the chronicler, speaks of sugar and wine as
being common drink among the upper
classes during the Sixteenth century, it is
probable that sugar did not become an ar
ticle of ordinary consumption until the
middle of the Seventeenth century.
AS AN INDUSTRY.
The sugar industry was started in Bar
bados by some English merchants in 1913
1t is commonly supposed that the cane was
introduced into the Western hemisphere
by the Portuguese and other early Euro
pean settlers, but it is decidedly stated by
the first explorers in these regions that the
aborigines of Virginia and other parts Of
America prepared sugar from the maple
Juice and also from native variety of sugar
cane The Spaniards did, however, trans
plant the cane, which they cultivated il
their own country, and to them must Ger
tainly be ascribed the introduction of the
sugar industry into Madeira and the
Canaries.
The history of sugar cultivation is one
of successive migrations westward, due
chiefly to the rapid exhaustion of the sol
inseparable from the cultivation of the
cane with slave labor, and to an ignorant
carelessness in the treatment of the land
The opening up of new highways of com
merce, the facilities of communication and
| intercourse among nations, the more sci
entific methods Of cultivation and pro
cesses of manufacture, and the fresh
sources from which sugar can now be de
rived, have all contributed to the phenom
email development of trade in and consump
| ton of this commodity which has charac
terized the present century.
Great ~ Br tai WIFI was 600 tons in 1900 # hai
| L. Ton xxrl,ilo In 1Q2S thc