Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-06-16
A HISTORY OF SUGAR.
GENERALIZATION FROM JUICES BY
ANCIENT RACES.

whose works theirs Is any record, informs
us that a tribe in Africa called the ZyRan-
ties had, besides honey Of bees, a much
greater quantity made by man" It 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 crystallize
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 or
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 disputed 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. en- In
dis and Arabia Felix" writes Dioscorides,
"a kind of concrete honey is called saccha-
rom" This term Is evidently adapted
from the Arabic aasokar or shuker, which
itself is derived from the Sanscrit shar-
kara. Speaking Of names, 1t is rather odd
that the Hebrew word foF 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 ANCIENTa.
Apart from the evidence Oh pioscorides
we are always disposed to trust Pliny to
whom we are indebted for 80 much infor-
nation concerning the manners and Gus
toms of the ancients In Hollands trans
lation, book 10, 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 ceFtaine canes
white, this is, like gumme [Arabicke),
and brittle betweene mans teeth. The
CRANES hereof, when they are at the biggest,
exceed not tllberd nutte, and serve for
physicke."
Sugar, as known to the ancients, was
doubtless far less palatable than it is now.
In preparing it the canes and the roots
We're 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
1t 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 their
arms into the south OF Europe To these
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 a ma,
TONS civilization.
DID THE CRUSADERS INTRODUCE ITP
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 1t 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 hn hiCfnru Qf ha l,ot
Richard Ceur de Lion captured seven
camels laden with sugar, and that his
knights found Hsweet honiei cannes called
Euere." These they gathered and sucked
and were 'much pleased with the sweet
taste thereof, with which they could scarce
ly be satisfied"
It 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
fury. In 1929 the Lord Chamberlain Of
Scotland speaks Of loaves OF sugar, which
were sold at one ounce of silver per pound,
price equivalent to about "a 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 inn
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 164a
1t is commonly supposed that the cane waa
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 in
their own country, and to them must GER
tainly be ascribed the introduction of tho
sugar industry into Madeira and the
Canaries.
The history of sugar cultivation is ons
Of successive migrations westward, due
chiefly to the rapid exhaustion of the soil
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
entiflc methods Of cultivation and pro-
ceases 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.
In 170O the amount Of sugar consumed In