St. Landry democrat., 1890-07-05
A HISTORY OF SUGAR.
FROM JUICES BY Al
GENT

| NAsAt'1 ALAAAAliON FROM JUICES BY AN
GENT RACES.
Hersdotus one of the earliest writer's of
whose works there is any record informs
US that q tribe in Africa called the Zygan-
tes had, besides honey of bees, much
greater quantity made by man." It also
stated that Nearchus, the chief admired
of Alexander the Great, 'dscovered con-
corning canes that they make honey without
bees" Very ancient races, therefore,
were acquainted with the fact that certain
canes yield sweet juices, and being gno-
rant of any methods of purifying these
| juices, their sugar could not be got to crys-
talize and resembled honey in consistency
as well as in taste. Megasthems however,
writes much later concerning 'the India
| stone, sweeter than figs or honey" so that
by this time some rude method of CRYSTAL
| LIKING or solidifying the juice had been
discovered. The early Jewish historians
make no mention of sugar the only sweet
substance habituallv used by the Hebrews
being honey but Isaiah speaks of s'sweet
cane" and there is a dispute allusion 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
India and Arabia Felix" writes Dioscor-
ides, "a kind of concrete honey is called
saccharon," This term is evidently adap-
ted from the Arabic assokar or shuker,
which itself is derived from the Sanscrit
sharkara. Speaking of names, it is rather
odd that the Hebrew word for being intox-
icated is shacar, 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 Ara
bia.
| AMONG THE ANCIENTs.
Apart from the evidence of Dioscorides
we are always disposed to trust Pliny, to
whom we are indebted for so much infor-
nation concerning the manners and Gus
toms of the ancients In Hollands trans
lation, book H. chapter s. we read: Gas
for sugar, there is of it in Arabia, but the
best cometh out of India. A kind of homie
! it is, gathered and candied in certaine
canes-white, this is, like gumme CARA
bicke>. and brittle betweene a mans teeth.
| The grains hereof, when they are at the
| bige est, exceed not flberd Mute, and
serve for physicke."
Sugar, as known to the ancients, was
doubtless less palatable than it is now. In
preparing it the canes and the roots were
| frequently boiled, so that certain bitter
| and aromatic principles must needs have
been extracted The quality imparting to
the sugar by this process might have de-
| termined it's use for medicinal purposes.
1t is certain that sugar was only regarded
as 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
scarcely inferior to that of Rome in the
times of her greatest prosperity and, we
may add, rapacity. The conquered West
ern Asia, overran Northern Africa and
carried their arms into the South of Eu-
rope. To these semi barbaric Sarscens
Europe was indebted for the manu-
facture of sugar-a commodity the con-
sumption of which may now almost be
taken as measure of a nations civiliza-
ton
DID THE CRUSADERS INTRODUCE TIP
There are many who attribute the intro
duction of sugar to the Crusaders. But
sugar has undoubtedly been cultivated in
Spain for near 1000 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 commodity2 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 lacen 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 dis
covered. The use of alkalies is believed
to be an invention of the Moors, who
settled in Spain. Sugar appears to have
been very little known in England till the
fourteenth century. In 1929 Lord Cham
berlsin of Scotland speaks of loaves of
sugar. which were sold at one ounce of
silver per pound, price equivalent to
about 81 of our money. The manufacture
was not carried on il Great Britain at this
time, but small supplies were imported
from Venice, where sugar refining had
already become an important industry.
old Harrison, the chronicler,
speaks of sugar and wine being common
drink among the upper classes during the
century, it is probable that sugar
did not become an article of ordinary con-
until the middle of the seven
teenth century.
TNnrrcrpv
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 a native variety of
sugar cane. The Spaniards did, however,
transplant the cane, which they cultivated
n their own country, and to Them must
certainly be ascribed the Introduction Of
he sugar industry into Madeira and the
Janaries.
The history of sugar cultivation is one
If successive migrations Westward, due
chiefly to the rapid exhaustion of the soil
nseparable from the cultivation of the
,ane with slave labor. and to an ignorant
,arelessness in the trs atment of the land.
The opening up of new highways of COM
nerce, the facilities of communication and
Intercourse among nations, the more scien-
ific methods of guilty alton and processes
# manufacture, and the fresh sources
rom which sugar can now be derived,
lave all contributed to the phenomenal
development of trade in and consumption