ABSTRACT
‘ The people of the United Kingdom spend 30,000,000l. and upwards of their income on sugar,’ so reports mr. Giffen to the board of trade in July, 1884. But for ages the inhabitants of this country used honey for sweetening purposes. The sugar-cane, cultivated from time immemorial in India and Arabia, became known to the Western world through the conquests of Alexander. And subsequently Lucan mentions, as among the Eastern auxiliaries of Pompey, the sugar-drinkers :—
Quique bibunt tenera dulces ab arundine succos.
