The fig and the grape hold the principal place among the autumnal fruits;
for their juices are of a less bad quality, and they are more nutritious
than the others.—Of these, the figs have the better juices and the more
nutritious; they are laxative, diuretic, and evacuate the kidneys, and
particularly the very ripe. In like manner also the dried; but they are
flatulent, and form blood which is not good; wherefore, when liberally
used, they engender lice. When grapes are not evacuated, neither are they
digested, but form a crude chyme; but if evacuated their effects are more
moderate. Dried grapes are warmer than the others, more stomachic, and
more nutritious, but not so laxative. The mulberry is of a moistening
nature, cools moderately, and loosens the belly when taken first, neither
does it disagree with the stomach, but is little nutritious.—Of cherries,
the sweeter kinds loosen the belly, but are bad for the stomach; those
which possess astringency are not so bad for the stomach, but do not
evacuate the belly. The same rule will apply to the grape, the mulberry,
and many other fruits; for astringents in general, when eaten or drunk
at the beginning before any other food, bind the belly; but they who
have their bowels constipated from atony, and have taken beforehand some
articles of food of a laxative nature, such as pot-herbs, fishes, or the
like, will find that astringents taken afterwards will, by strengthening
the bowels, evacuate downwards. The fruit of the pine called strobilus
has good juices and thick, is nutritious, but not of easy digestion. The
juices of the peach are of a bad quality, turn acid, and soon spoil; and,
therefore, ought to be taken first, that they may readily pass downwards,
and not spoil by remaining in the belly. The fruits called apricots are
superior to the peaches, for they neither turn acid nor spoil so soon,
and they are sweet. Of apples, the sweet are more heating, and easier
assimilated than the others, especially when roasted or boiled; the
acid are colder and more calculated to cut the humours in the stomach;
the austere strengthen the stomach and bind the belly, more especially
quinces. Of pears, the large and ripe are more nutritious than these; but
the pomegranates are cooling, and contain little nourishment. The medlars
and services are more astringent and fitted for a loose belly. Dates are
stomachic, unless very fatty they bind the belly, form thick and viscid
chyme, and occasion headachs. Of olives, the over-ripe (_drupæ_) injure
the stomach, and form a fatty chyme; those that are pickled and hung
(_halmades et colymbades_), when eaten beforehand, whet the appetite, and
loosen the belly, more especially if prepared with vinegar, or vinegar
and honey. Of nuts, those called royal (walnuts) are less nutritious
than the filbert, and more stomachic. The green walnuts are more juicy
and laxative; and, if you will strip off the inner membrane of dried
ones which have been macerated in water, they will become like the
green. Almonds have incisive and attenuating powers, and, therefore,
they evacuate the intestines and chest, and more especially such as are
bitter; and, in like manner, the pistacs, which are also more calculated
for removing obstructions of the liver. Damascenes loosen the belly when
eaten before food, either raw or boiled in honied water. The jujubes
are of difficult digestion, injurious to the stomach, and give little
nourishment. Carobs are of difficult digestion, bind the belly, and
produce bad chyme. Sycamores are decidedly of a cooling and a moistening
nature. Of the citron, the outer part is acrid and indigestible, but that
part which is as it were its flesh, is nutritious, and yet it is hard to
digest. The inner part, whether acid or watery, is moderately cooling.
Acorns are nutritious, no less so than corn, but of difficult digestion,
contain thick juices, and are slowly evacuated. Chesnuts are in every
respect superior to them.
* * * * *
COMMENTARY. It may be proper, in the first place, to discuss briefly the
question respecting the proper time for eating fruit. Galen, Rhases,
and Simeon Seth direct to eat fruit at the beginning of a regular meal.
It appears, however, to have been customary with the ancients, as it
is in Britain at the present day, to eat all manner of fruits at the
_mensa secunda_, or dessert, as we learn from many passages of Athenæus
and Macrobius. Horace was fond of concluding his banquets with fruit.
He speaks of finishing a frugal repast with hung grapes, nuts, and figs
(Sat. ii, 2); and in another place he says:
“Ille salubres
Æstates peraget, qui nigris prandia moris
Finiet ante gravem quæ legerit arbore solem.”
(Sat. ii, 4.)
We may mention, by the way, that Galen, on the other hand, positively
forbids to eat mulberries after other food, and that it appears to have
been the general rule in ages long after the time of Galen to eat figs
and grapes at the beginning of a meal. (Anonym. de Diæta, ed. Ideler,
t. ii, 198.) But what Celsus says respecting the proper time for eating
fruit is very much to the purpose: “Secunda mensa bono stomacho nihil
nocet, in imbecillo coascescit. Si quis itaque hoc parum valet, palmulas
pomaque et similia primo cibo assumit.” (i, 2.) Ludovicus Nonnius, a
great modern authority in dietetics, recommends us to eat the summer
fruits, and cherries, strawberries, plums, peaches, and the like, at
the beginning; but apples, pears, nuts, chesnuts, and the like, at the
conclusion of a meal; that is to say, at the dessert.
The fig was a great favorite with the ancients. Galen states that it is
decidedly nutritious, but that the flesh formed from it is not firm and
compact, like that from pork and bread, but soft and spongy, like that
from beans. He says that figs increase the urinary and alvine discharges.
Averrhoes says that they are of a hot and humid temperament, and that
they loosen the belly and strengthen the stomach. See, in particular,
Athenæus (Deipnos. iii); Macrobius (Satur. iii, 20); and Haly Abbas. Haly
says that the fig is the most digestible, nutritious, and wholesome fruit
of this class. Galen speaks doubtfully of dried figs.
Pliny devotes a whole book to the consideration of the grape and its
productions. Galen says that, like figs, grapes are nutritious, but that
the flesh formed from them is deficient in firmness and durability. He
remarks that their stones pass through the bowels wholly unchanged.
Simeon Seth states that the grape consists of four different substances,
namely, the membrane which surrounds it, the fleshy part, the juice, and
the stones. Of these, he says, the outer coat and the stones ought to be
rejected, because they are indigestible. Plutarch and Macrobius exert
their ingenuity to explain how it happens that must, or the fresh juice
of the grape, does not intoxicate like wine. The “pensilis uva,” or hung
grape, is mentioned by Horace as an article of the dessert. (ii, 2.)
Galen gives mulberries the same character as our author does. Aëtius
says that the proper occasion for them is when the stomach is hot and
dry. According to Athenæus, the Siphnian Diphilus said that they possess
moderately wholesome juices, and that they afford little nourishment, but
are savoury, and of easy evacuation. Haly Abbas recommends them cooled in
snow for heat of the stomach.
According to Pliny, cherries were first imported to Italy from Pontus,
by the famous Lucullus, and in his (Pliny’s) time they had become
naturalized even in Britain. This story, however, is not very probable,
as they had been described more than a century before by Theophrastus;
and further, Athenæus mentions that they had been noticed long before
Lucullus by the Siphnian Diphilus. He speaks favorably of them as an
article of food. Servius, the commentator on Virgil, states that there
were wild cherries in Italy before the days of Lucullus. Simeon Seth says
that they are of a cold and humid nature, and open the bowels. They are
useful, he adds, when the stomach and constitution are hot and dry.
Galen states that the fruit of the pine contains thick and wholesome
juices, but that they are not easily digested. The Siphnian Diphilus, as
quoted by Athenæus, says that the strobili are very nutritious, smooth
asperities of the trachea, and purge the breast. Mnesitheus, as quoted by
the same author, says that they fatten the body, and do not impair the
digestion. (Deipnos. ii.) Celsus holds them to be stomachic.
Our author’s remarks on the persica are taken from Galen. Seth calls them
rhodacina, a term which is generally applied to them by the Byzantine
writers, and also by Alexander Trallian. Seth says that they are cooling,
diluent, and laxative, but difficult to digest. If not the same as the
modern peach (which the commentators suspect), the persica was evidently
a fruit nearly allied to it.
It is highly probable, but not quite certain, that the præcocia,
duracina, and armeniaca, were varieties of the apricot. Galen does not
use the second of these terms, and mentions, that many held the first and
the last to be exactly the same fruit; and he, himself, in another place,
forgets the distinction which he had endeavoured to establish between
them. Simeon Seth describes them by the name of βερίκοκκα, which appears
to be a corruption of the Latin præcocia. See Geopon. (x, 73, and the
note of Needham); Harduin (Notes on Pliny); J. Bruyer (de Re Cibaria,
xi, 13); C. Avantius (Notæ in Cœnam); Baptist. (Fier. p. 6); Ludovicus
Nonnius; and Sprengel (Dioscor. i, 165.) Seth says that they are fruits
which soon spoil, and form bad blood.
Mala was used by the ancients as a generic term, comprehending many
species of fruit. See an interesting account of them in Pliny (xxiii, 5);
Macrobius (Saturn, iii, 19); and Athenæus (Deipnos. iii), where Diphilus
thus states their general characters as articles of food: “Green and
unripe apples are unwholesome and unsavoury, swim in the stomach, form
bile, and occasion diseases. Of the ripe, such as are sweet are more
wholesome and more laxative from having no astringency; the acid are more
unwholesome and constipating, but such as have also a certain degree
of sweetness become more delicious, and are at the same time stomachic
from having some astringency.” The ancients appear to have been well
acquainted with the methods of making cider, perry, and the like. See
Macrobius (Sat. vii, 6), and Pliny (H. N. xiv, 19.) The Arabian authors
in general speak rather unfavorably of apples.
Cornels, or the fruit of the _cornus mascula_, were in little request as
articles of food, and yet Pliny mentions that they were sought after in
his time.
The cydonia or quinces were in great repute, not only as articles of
food, but as medicines. When unripe they are very astringent and contain
much acid, and hence they were used in such cases as those in which the
mineral acids are now generally administered. (Pliny, H. N. xxxiii, 6.)
They appear to be the “cana mala” of Virgil. Columella and Pliny describe
three varieties, namely, the chrysomala, struthea, and mustea. These have
not been satisfactorily determined. Some modern commentators have taken
“the golden apples” of Theocritus and Virgil for oranges, but it is much
more probable that they were a species of quince. No ancient author has
noticed the orange.
Pears, according to Simeon Seth, are of a cold and desiccative nature.
They are compounded, he says, of astringency, sweetness, and sometimes
of acidity; and some have a moderate degree of heating and desiccative
properties. Averrhoes gives exactly the same account of them. Of
pomegranates, he says, that some are sweet and some are acid; that all
of them moisten, but that the sweet are of a more hot and humid nature.
Homer enumerates the pomegranate among the fruits which were suspended
over the head of Tantalus to tempt his appetite. (Odyss. xi, 588.) We may
suppose, therefore, that the poet held it to be a most delicious fruit.
Dioscorides says that the sweet pomegranates are stomachic; but that they
are prejudicial when there is fever.
Galen, who gives medlars and services much the same characters as our
author, recommends them only in very small quantities. Aëtius and Seth
say that ripe medlars are somewhat heating, but that the unripe are cold,
astringent, and constipating. Actuarius calls them excellent astringent
medicines, but bad articles of food. Dioscorides describes two species of
medlars, the aronia, and setanium. The first species is called azarollo
by the Italians, and the other is the common species of medlar.
See an interesting account of dates, or the fruit of the palm-tree, in
the ‘Hierobotanicon’ of Olaus Celsius. The date, according to Galen, is
a fruit possessing a variety of characters, but having always a certain
degree of sweetness and astringency. He says, it is indigestible and apt
to occasion headachs. Simeon Seth says that dates form an impure blood;
and Ruffus, as quoted by him, affirms that they prove injurious to the
bladder. Serapion, Rhases, and Mesue agree that the date is a cold,
astringent fruit. Herodotus, Xenophon, and Athenæus make mention of a
wine prepared from dates. Erotian says that a species of bread is made
from dates, flour, and water. (Lexicon Hippocratis.)
The olive, as Pliny remarks, consists of four parts, the kernel, the oil,
the flesh, and the lees. The drupæ, mentioned by our author, were the
olives quite ripe and ready to fall from the tree. The colymbades and
halmades were olives pickled with salt, &c. See Harduin (ad Plin. H. N.
xv, 3.) The Siphnian Diphilus, as quoted by Athenæus, says of them that
they supply little nourishment, occasion headachs; that the black injure
the stomach, and bring on heaviness of the head; and that the pickled
prove more stomachic and astringent of the belly, Galen mentions that
olives were often eaten with bread before dinner in order to open the
belly. Simeon Seth says that ripe olives are moderately hot, but that the
unripe are cold, desiccative, and astringent. Serapion, in like manner,
says that unripe olives are astringent. Plutarch mentions a pickled olive
as a whetter of the appetite. (Sym. vi.) The ancients marked strongly
their estimation of the olive when they set it down as being the emblem
of peace, and sacred to the Goddess of Wisdom.
The Siphnian Diphilus, as quoted by Athenæus, states that walnuts
occasion headach, and swim on the stomach; but such as are tender and
white contain better juices, and are more wholesome; and that such as
have been toasted in a furnace afford little nourishment. (Deipnos. ii.)
It appears, from Macrobius, whose account of them is very interesting,
that they were eaten at the dessert. He states decidedly that the royal
nut of the Greeks was the juglans or walnut. (Sat. iii, 18.) Simeon Seth
says that, when taken before other food, they are apt to prove laxative
or emetic. Averrhoes says the like of them. He adds that filberts are not
so apt to produce this effect. According to Rhases, they are apt to prove
injurious to the stomach and liver.
The Siphnian Diphilus says that almonds are attenuant, diuretic,
purgative, and afford little nourishment; that the green contain bad
juices, and are possessed of stronger medicinal properties; but that the
dried are more flatulent, and apter to swim on the stomach. He adds that
such as are tender, full, and are whitened, contain milky juices which
are more wholesome. Simeon Seth says that bitter almonds are hotter, more
attenuant, and more incisive than the ripe. He adds that filberts are the
most nutritious of the nuts but difficult to digest.
The pistachio nut has been long very celebrated in the East and in
Sicily. See Celsus (Hierobotanicon), and Brydone (Tour through Sicily.)
Galen says that it possesses a certain degree of bitterness and
astringency, and that it proves useful in obstructions of the liver, but
that it affords little nourishment. He adds that it is neither beneficial
nor injurious to the stomach. Simeon Seth remarks that the moderns looked
upon pistacs as stomachic. Averrhoes speaks highly of them. Rhases says
they are of a hotter nature than almonds. Avicenna also says of them that
they are of a heating nature. Theophrastus describes the pistachio tree
as a species of turpentine, and it is now acknowledged as such.
Galen states that the best damascenes are such as are large, spongy,
and astringent. He adds that taken with sweet wine they tend to open
the bowels. Oribasius says that they afford little nourishment, but may
be useful for moistening and cooling the stomach. Martial calls them
laxative. It appears certain from Isidorus, that the coccymela and myxæ
were the same as the pruna or plums. The principal variety is the _prunus
insiticia_, or bullace plum.
Galen says of jujubes, that they suit best with the intemperaments of
women and children; but that they give little nourishment. Haly Abbas
states that they are cold and humid, of slow digestion, and apt to form
phlegm. They are the _serica_ of Galen, who, however, also applies the
other term (_zizypha_) to them. (De Alim. ii, 38.)
Abu’l-fadli, as quoted by Olaus Celsius, says of the siliquæ or carobs,
that they are sweet astringent fruit. Horace speaks of them as being an
inferior kind of fruit. “Vivit siliquis et pane secundo.” (Ep. ii, 1.)
And so, also, Juvenal (Sat. xi, 59), and Persius (iii, 55.) Galen says
of them that they are woody and consequently indigestible. Aëtius says
that they are of a dry and very desiccative nature, but possess some
sweetness. Pliny mentions that a sort of wine was prepared from carobs.
Galen says that the sycamores hold an intermediate place between
mulberries and figs. He says, further, that they are sweetish, and of a
diluent and cooling nature. Dioscorides and Serapion speak unfavorably of
them as being articles of food which are only used in times of famine.
The citron, or “felix malum” of Virgil (Georg. ii, 126), was greatly
esteemed by the ancients. Galen calls it fragrant, aromatic, and pleasant
to the taste as well as the smell. From Theophrastus downwards, it is
much celebrated as an antidote to poisons. See some curious information
respecting it in Athenæus (Deipnos. iii), and Macrobius (Sat. iii, 19.)
Simeon Seth says that if taken in moderation it is beneficial to the
stomach, but that in large quantity it proves indigestible. Serapion
recommends after eating citrons to take of anise, mastich, and wine. No
Greek or Latin author has noticed the lemon. Avicenna, we believe, is the
first author who mentions it.
Galen says, in general, of the wild kinds of fruit, that they supply
little nourishment, and that they are injurious to the stomach. The
acorns, he says further, are the best of this class, being no less
nutritious than the cerealia; he adds, that in ancient times men lived
upon acorns; and that the Arcadians continued this practice after the
cerealia were used in all the other parts of Greece. Simeon Seth says
that, although nutritious, they are difficult to digest and form crude
humours: and hence he recommends to abstain from them. It is well
ascertained that it was the acorns of the _quercus ilex_ which the
ancients used for food.
Galen’s opinion of chesnuts agrees with the account given by our author
of them. Simeon Seth says that they are very nutritious, but are hard
to digest and evacuate from the body; and that they are flatulent and
astringent. Haly Abbas describes them as a proper article of food. At the
present day, whole nations of mankind live upon chesnuts. The opinion
of Mnisitheus regarding them, as quoted by Athenæus, appears to be very
judicious; he says they are difficult to digest and flatulent, but
sufficiently nutritious if digested.
The strawberries, or fraga, are mentioned by Virgil (Ec. iii), and Ovid
(Metam. i); but they are wholly unnoticed by the Greek writers.
We consider ourselves here called upon not to pass over unnoticed the
fruit of the lotus tree, which is so celebrated in ancient poetry, and
is also mentioned by the historians and writers on science. It is now
well ascertained that the lotus-bread is produced by various trees in
the country surrounding the great desert of Africa. The most celebrated
of these trees, or rather shrubs, is the _celtis australis_. Rennel and
Park agree that its fruit is very wholesome. On the lotus, see further,
Eustathius (in Odyss. p. 337, ed. Rom.); Dionys. (Geograph.); Schweigh
(ad Athen. Deipnos. xiv, 65.)