The gourd is of a cold and humid nature, loosens the bowels, and gives
little nourishment. The pompion is altogether a fruit of bad juices,
cold, humid and emetic; and, when not properly digested, it occasions
cholera. The seed of it is diuretic, breaks down stones in the kidneys,
and is altogether very detergent. The squash has all the properties of
the pompion in an inferior degree. The cucumber is of a less cold and
humid nature than the pompion, but is more diuretic; it is difficult
to digest, and its chyme is bad even when digested. Upon the whole,
all this class of fruits are of a cold and humid nature, supply little
nourishment, and that of a bad quality.
* * * * *
COMMENTARY. Galen explains that the Fructus Horæi are those fruits which
grow up about the middle of the dog-days. He says that they all contain
unwholesome juices, which, if they spoil in the bowels, are apt to become
deleterious poisons. Mnesitheus says that all these fruits supply little
nourishment, but that what they give is of a humid nature, and does not
disagree with the body. (Athenæus, ii.)
The gourd (κολοκύνθη), according to Galen, is the most innocent of this
class of fruits; and yet, when it spoils in the stomach, it engenders
bad juices. Diphilus, as quoted by Athenæus, says of it that it supplies
little nourishment, is apt to spoil, dilutes the system, is readily
discharged, contains good juices, and is more savoury when taken with
water and vinegar, but more wholesome when pickled. Apicius gives many
receipts for cooking gourds. By one of these we are directed to eat them
boiled, with pickle, oil, and wine. Most of the other receipts contain
a liberal allowance of spices and aromatics. Simeon Seth calls them
digestible and wholesome, but not nutritious.
The pompion (πέπων), according to Galen, is juicy, detergent, diuretic,
and laxative. Seth recommends persons of a pituitous habit of body to
drink old wine with it, but such as are bilious to eat acid food. He
remarks that it is apt to excite nausea. Actuarius says that, when
digested, pompions form a thin watery blood. Apicius directs us to eat
them and melons with pepper, pennyroyal, honey, or raisin wine, pickle,
and vinegar; to which assafœtida may be added. Hippocrates calls them
laxative and diuretic, but flatulent.
Galen says of the melopepon, or squash, that its juices are not so
unwholesome, nor so diuretic, nor so laxative, as those of the pompion.
He adds that, although far from delicious, it is not so nauseous as the
pompion. On the melopepon, see Harduin’s notes on Pliny (H. N. xviii,
5.) Perhaps some of the authorities may have meant the melon by the
melopepon.
Galen says that some persons, from idiosyncrasy, readily digest the
cucumber (σἴκυος); but he insists that it is impossible that good blood
can be formed from it, and therefore he warns against the frequent use of
all such fruits. Actuarius says that it forms a crude chyme, and is of
a cold, humid, and indigestible nature. Celsus says that its nutritive
powers are feeble. Avicenna says that its juices are bad, and prone to
putrefaction.
Melons are said by Averrhoes to be of a cold nature, juicy, detergent,
and diuretic.
Owing to the lax signification in which the names of the summer
fruits are often applied by the Greek and Roman writers, we have felt
considerable difficulty in distinguishing the articles treated of in
this chapter. This confusion is of very ancient date, for one of the
_Deipnosophists_ of Athenæus complains of the difficulty he found in
comprehending the proper application of these terms, from their having
been differently used by the authors who had treated of them. (ix, 14.)
We have been obliged for once to abandon the guidance of Sprengel, but
have done so with the greatest hesitation, and not until we had compared
the descriptions of all the Greek, Latin, and Arabian authorities.
Schneider points out the confusion about the use of these terms, but does
not sufficiently clear it up in his Index to Theophrastus. Ludovicus
Nonnius may likewise be consulted with advantage. He supposes that the
pepones of the ancients were our melons; and he is also inclined to
believe that the melopepon was a species of the same. (De Re Cibaria,
i, 16.) For want of a better term, we have ventured to translate it the
squash, although we are uncertain whether the Greeks were acquainted with
this fruit, now so common in the East and in America.