He who has taken the subject of health into consideration ought also to
be acquainted with the powers of wine. Wine in general is nutritious,
but that which is red and thick is more particularly so; but its juices
are not good. The sweet also is nutritious, but not stomachic. The
astringent is stomachic, but is distributed with difficulty to the parts
of the body, and nourishes less. The white nourishes less still. Wine of
a yellow colour is the best of all. That which is old is more heating
and desiccant than the new. Such, in the main, are the properties of
wine. But wine in general resuscitates the natural heat within us, and
therefore it improves digestion, and forms good blood. And being of a
penetrating nature, it diffuses the nourishment all over the body, and
therefore it recruits those who are emaciated by disease, for it gives
them an appetite for food. It attenuates phlegm, clears away the bile
by urine, and imparts a good colour. To the soul also it communicates
gladness and pleasure, and improves the strength. Such are the good
effects of the moderate use of wine. But its immoderate use produces
just the reverse; wherefore, those who are drunk become changed, are
delirious, and disposed to heavy sleep. On that account, such an
immoderate use of wine ought to be avoided; but at greater intervals
it may be drank liberally, for it promotes the discharges by urine
and perspiration. But it is better in such cases to vomit, by taking,
beforehand, of honied water, so that one may not be injured by it.
When one has drunk largely, it is not proper to take much of any other
food; but while drinking, one should eat boiled cabbage, and taste some
sweetmeat, particularly almonds. These things relieve headach, and are
not difficult to vomit. It is also very proper to take the infusion of
wormwood before drinking, for of all things it is the best preservative
from surfeit. If one experience any painful effects from wine, one should
drink cold water, and the next day again the infusion of wormwood; and by
using exercise, friction, the bath, and restricted food, in this way get
restored to health.
* * * * *
COMMENTARY. The opinions of the ancients on this interesting subject may
be best learned by consulting Hippocrates (de Diæta, ii, 22, et alibi);
Celsus (ii); Pliny (H. N. xiv and xxxiii, 22, 26); Dioscorides (v); Galen
(de Sanit. tuend. v, 5, and de Alim. Facult. iii); Oribasius (Med. Col.
v, and Euporist. i, 12); Aëtius (i); Athenæus (Deipnos. i); Macrobius
(Saturnal.); Actuarius (de Diæta, 8); Simeon Seth (de Alimentis);
Serapion (de Simplicibus, &c.); Haly Abbas (Theor. 30, and Pract. i, 8);
Avicenna (i, 3, 2); Rhases (ad Mansor. iii, 5, and Continen. xxxvii);
Alsaharavius (Theor. xiii, 2.) Stobæus gives an interesting collection of
the opinions of the philosophers and poets. (Sermo xviii.)
For an ample account of the ancient and modern wines, the reader is
particularly referred to the late ingenious and classical publication of
Dr. Henderson. See also Barry (on Ancient Wines), and Canonherius (de
Admirandis Vini Virtutibus.)
From the works of Moses and Homer, we learn that the art of converting
the innocent juice of the grape into wine must have been a very early
invention. Eustathius informs us that, in very ancient times, the
wines were all of a dark colour; and hence Homer applies to the sea
the epithet of _wine-coloured_, ὄινοπα πόντον. (Comment, in Iliad. I.)
Achilles Tatius makes the same remark regarding the ancient wine, (ii,
67, ed. Salmasius.) However, in the time of Hippocrates, they had wines
of all colours, as well as characters. He thus describes their general
properties: Black and austere wines are of a drying nature, and are not
laxative, nor diuretic, nor sialogogue. It is their heat that renders
them desiccative, by consuming the humidity of the body. The soft dark
wines are of a more moistening nature, and are more flatulent and
laxative. The sweet dark wines are of a more moistening nature, but they
are heating and flatulent by imparting humidity. The white austere wines
are heating, but are rather diuretic than laxative. The new are more
laxative than the old, as being a nearer approach to the fresh juice of
the grape, and they are nutritious; and the fragrant wines than those of
the same age which have no _bouquet_, because they are better concocted;
and the thick than the thin. But thin sweet wines are more diuretic,
laxative, and moistening, and form weak blood.
Celsus ranks the “vinum dulce vel lene” among the “res boni succi.” Sharp
austere wine he places among the things which are most suitable for the
stomach.
Dioscorides delivers very judiciously the different characters of wines.
He concludes with remarking that, although habitual intoxication be
prejudicial to the health, a moderate indulgence in wine for some days,
especially after drinking water, is beneficial, by proving an alterative
to the system, purging the secretions, and promoting the insensible
perspiration.
From Pliny’s excellent statement of the medicinal and dietetical
properties of wine, we select the following remarks: “Vino aluntur
vires, sanguis, colorque hominum. Vino modico nervi juvantur, copiosiore
læduntur, sic et oculi. Stomachus recreatur; appetentia ciborum
invitatur; tristitia et cura hebetatur; urina et algor expellitur; somnus
conciliatur. Præterea vomitiones sistit. Vetus coposiore aqua miscetur,
magisque urinam expellit; minus siti resistit. Dulce minus inebriat sed
stomacho innatat; austerum facilius concoquitur. Stomacho minus utile est
pingue, nigrum, sed corpora magis alit. Tenue et austerum minus alit,
magis stomachum nutrit.”
The information supplied by Galen on this subject is most ample, but
in too diffuse a shape to suit our narrow limits. Upon the whole, he
states, thin wines are diuretic, but supply little nourishment, whereas
the thick are proportionally nutritious. He says that the Falernian,
especially the sweeter kind, is one of the most wholesome wines. Athenæus
gives an interesting account of the Falernian, upon the authority of
Galen. He says it is fit to be drank after it is ten years old, and
from fifteen to twenty; but that, when older, it occasions headach and
affects the nerves. He describes two kinds of it, the sweet and the
austere. The latter, he adds, is of a tawny colour, that is to say, a
colour intermediate between the white and black. Dr. Henderson concludes,
that the modern Madeira is a near approach to the ancient Falernian.
Brasavolus and C. Avantius compare it to a wine known in modern Rome
by the name of _greco di soma_. Galen gives very minute directions for
forcing this wine, or giving it premature age by heat. (De Antid. i,
and de Simpl. iv.) Vitruvius, for this purpose, gives directions for
building the wine-cellar close to the kitchen. (vi.) Athenæus says,
that wine digests the food, and, being of a subtle nature, promotes the
distribution of it. We learn from him that the ancients sometimes used
their wines cooled with ice. (Deipnos. iii, 99.) He thus describes the
different characters of the wines used in his time; that is to say,
about the middle of the second century, P. C. Of wines, some are white,
some tawny, and some dark coloured. The white is in nature the thinnest,
diuretic, and heating, and being digestible it inflames the head, for
it is a wine that has a tendency upwards. A dark-coloured wine, which
is not of a sweet nature, is very nutritious and astringent. Sweet
wines, whether of a white or tawny colour, are very nutritious; for they
lubricate the passage, and thickening the humours, prove less troublesome
to the head. The nature of sweet wines is to remain for a time in the
præcordia, and to prove expectorant, as Diocles and Praxagoras tell.
Mnesitheus the Athenian says dark-coloured wine is very nutritious,
the white very diuretic and very subtle, and the tawny dry, and of all
wines the one that most promotes the digestion of food. Wines carefully
prepared with salt water are not of an intoxicating nature, they loosen
the belly, occasion pains of the stomach, and produce flatulence, but
promote digestion. Such are the Myndian and the Halicarnassian. The Coan
is well prepared with salt water; the Rhodian has a less proportion of
it; the Cnidian engenders blood, is nutritious, and laxative, but when
drunk in large quantities it upsets the stomach; the Lesbian has less
astringency and is more diuretic; the Chian is a most delicious wine, and
especially the kind called Ariusian; but there are three varieties of
it, the austere, the sweet, and the intermediate.—Of the Italian wines,
the most delicious are the Alban and the Falernian. The Adrian is a
diffusible, diaphoretic, and safe wine. (i, 25.) According to Galen, the
cæcuban, so frequently mentioned by Horace, was not any one sort of wine,
but a general name applied to all generous and old wines. (De Succ. bon.
2.) Old wine was much sought after: Galen says everything is impaired by
age but wine. (De Antidot.) The Falernian was reckoned best from ten to
twenty: the Surrentine was not thought good until twenty-five. (Athen. i.)
According to Actuarius, the thick wines are most nourishing and form the
thickest blood, but are apt to occasion visceral obstructions; while, on
the other hand, the thin wines are more stomachic and less nourishing.
The sweet are the contrary; but the white are less hot than the others;
the gold-coloured are more hot; and then the red.
Wine, says Simeon Seth, is not only nutritious, but promotes in a
great degree the distribution of the food over the body, rousing, and
at the same time increasing the vital heat, and with it the urinary and
other secretions. It suits best, he says, with persons of a cold and
dry temperament; and, therefore, it is most proper for old men. He adds
that the immoderate use of wine dissolves the vital tone, depresses
the natural heat, and occasions apoplexy, epilepsy, and tumours of the
body. Macrobius attempts to trace a resemblance between the effects
of habitual intoxication and those resulting from exposure to extreme
cold. “Quæcunque nimium algentibus, eadem contingunt ebriis. Fiunt enim
tremuli, pallidi, graves; et saltu tumultuantis spiritus artus suos et
membra quatiuntur. Idem corporis torpor ambobus, eadem linguæ titubatio.
Multis etiam morbus ille quem παράλυσιν Græci vocant sic nimio vino,
et multo algore contingit.” In like manner, a modern writer, Andreas
Baccius, maintains that some wines are of a cold nature.
Haly Abbas gives nearly the same characters of wine as Seth. His account
of all the wines, natural and artificial, used in his time, is most ample.
Alsaharavius forbids wine to be taken when the stomach is quite empty,
or after a full meal. When taken seasonably, he says it improves the
appetite, increases the vital heat, nourishes the body, and clears the
senses.
Avicenna, with his usual judgment and industry, collects all the
information of preceding authors, to which he adds his own opinions. He
remarks that the immoderate use of wine induces disease of the liver and
brain, and debilitates the nerves.
Wine, says Rhases, warms the stomach and liver, and dispels flatulence,
promotes digestion, provokes the urinary and alvine discharges, and
gladdens the mind.
Serapion copies mostly from Galen in delivering the general characters of
wine. He disapproves of wine made with salt water. For an account of it,
see Pliny and Athenæus, (l. c.)
The ancients were scarcely more agreed respecting the intoxicating
properties of wine than they were as to the powers of the cabbage in
counteracting them. Old Cato the Censor, who was in the practice “of
warming his virtue with wine,” describes the following method of cooling
it: “Si voles in convivio multum bibere cænareque, ante cæenam esto
crudam brassicam quantum voles ex aceto, et item ubi cænaveris comesto
aliqua V. folia, reddent te quasi nihil ederis, biberisque, bibesque
quantum voles.” (De R. R. 156.) See a long dissertation on this property
of the cabbage in Athenæus (Deipnos. i, _ad finem_); also Pliny (Hist.
Nat. xx, 34); Pseudo-Dioscorides (Euporist. i, 24); Nonnius (14); Simeon
Seth (in voce Brassica); Geopon. (xii, 17); Avicenna, Rhases, and
Serapion give the same character of it. Plutarch affirms that almonds
also are a preservative from intoxication. (Quæst. vi.)
Before quitting this subject, we must notice certain peculiar modes of
preparing wine. The _mustum_ was wine newly made, or the fresh juice
of the grape. The _protropum_ was the juice which runs from grapes
without pressing. The _mulsum_ was a preparation of wine and honey.
Dioscorides recommends two parts of wine to one of honey; but there does
not appear to have been any fixed proportion. The _sapa_, called by the
Greeks _hepsema_ and _siræum_, according to Pliny, is must boiled to
a third; and the _defrutum_ the same reduced to a half. They are now
called robs, a term borrowed from the Arabians. The _carenum_, according
to Isidorus, is must reduced to two thirds. The _passum_ was a sweet
wine prepared from grapes which had been much dried in the sun. The
_passum creticum_, which is much praised by Pliny and Athenæus, and is
often mentioned by our author, the learned Andreas Baccius and Nonnius
believe to have resembled the modern malmsey. We have already mentioned
a peculiar species of wine prepared with salt water. The ancients also
gave artificial qualities to wine by adding rosin, pitch, and other
substances to the casks in which it was deposited. See ‘Geoponica’ (vii.)
Dioscorides gives receipts for preparing a great variety of vinous
tinctures. These were used only for medicinal purposes. (Mat. Med. v.)
It is scarcely necessary for us to remark that the ancients generally
drank their wines diluted either with hot or cold water. Hence the poet
Juvenal says: “Quando vocatus adest calidæ gelidæque minister.” (Sat. v,
63.) According to Pliny, Staphylus first introduced this practice (H.
N. viii, 56); but Athenæus refers it to Melampus (ii.) It would appear,
however, from some passages in the ‘Ecclesiazusæ’ of Aristophanes,
and from Eustathius’s Commentary on Homer (Iliad, ix, 203), that the
ancients often drank their wines undiluted. It was customary, during the
time of dinner, to drink off a cup of pure wine to “the good deity.”
See Athenæus (xv, 17), with the learned note of Schweighäuser. The
wine and water were commonly mixed together according to certain fixed
proportions, such as one part of wine and two of water, or two of wine
and three of water, or equal parts of both. (Eustathius in Odyss. vii.)
In winter it was the rule to drink equal parts of wine and hot water;
but in summer two parts of water were added to one of wine. (Anonymus de
Diæta ap. Phys. et Med. Min. ed. Ideler, p. 197.) It would appear that it
was a common practice to drink wine with other hot things in the morning
during the cold months of winter. (Hierophilus de Nutr. Meth. ed. Ideler.)