Smelling forcibly at the same has occasioned similar effects upon some delicate people. Dr Blegny, who wrote in 1680, attributes considerable virtues to this fragrant odour, which he recommends to be breathed into the lungs, where it acts as a sedative, according to his own relation, producing sleep, and relieving pains of the head. Agreeable to Counsellor De Blegny’s experience, I know a lady, frequently troubled with a nervous head ache, who used to hold her head over a hot infusion of Tea, and thus receive the fragrant exhalation, which always affords her the most instantaneous and effectual relief. [82] Arboribus primum certis gravis umbra tributa est Usque adeo, capitis faciant ut sæpe dolores, Si quis eas subter jacuit prostratus in herbis. Est etiam in magnis Heliconis montibus arbos Floris odore hominem tetro confueta necare. LUCRETIUS, B. 6. [83] Vol. I. p. 282. Ed. 2. [84] In some parts of Scotland the common people give children large draughts of sugar and water to destroy worms. See also Boerhaav. Elem. Chemiae, Tom. II. p. 160. Historisch Verhaal. &c. inde Voorreeden Bezoar. London, 1715, 8vo. Slare de Sacchar. et lapid. Van. Swieten Commen. v. V. p. 586. Duncan, in his Avis Salutaire, frequently introduces sugar as an agreeable poison, though he offers no proof in support of this epithet. Dr. Robertson, in his History of Charles V. Vol. I. p. 401, 8vo. observes, that “some plants of the Sugar-cane were brought from Asia; and the first attempt to cultivate them in Sicily was made about the middle of the 12th century. From thence they were transplanted into the southern provinces of Spain. From Spain they were carried to the Canary and Madeira Isles, and at length into the New World. Ludovico Guicciardini, in enumerating the goods imported into Antwerp, about the year 1560, mentions the sugar which they received from Spain and Portugal as a considerable article of import. He describes that as the product of the Madeira and Canary islands. Deseritt. de Paesi Bassi, p. 180, 181. The sugar-cane was either not introduced into the West-Indies at that time, or the cultivation of it was not so considerable as to furnish an article in commerce. In the middle ages, though Sugar was not raised in such quantities, or employed for so many purposes, as to become one of the common necessaries of life, it appears to have been a considerable article in the commerce of the Italian States.” It is, however, well ascertained, that the Sugar Cane is indigenous to South America, and the West Indies. Moseley on Sugar, p. 29. [85] Granger’s Sugar Cane, 4to. p. 109. See also p. 9. Dulces bibebant ex arundine succos. LUCAN. Μελι καλαμινον το λεγομενον σακχαρι. ARRIAN. [86] Whytt’s Works, 4to. p. 642.