SECT. XV.—ON DELICIOUS AND OFFICINAL POTIONS.

Of delicious officinal potions, some are composed of wine, having certain articles added to it, such as pepper, wormwood, sowbread, and many other things, from which they sometimes receive their appellation, sometimes having honey mixed with them and sometimes not; and some are composed from water in which have been boiled apples or roses, with certain juices, such as those of unripe grapes, pomegranates, and myrtles.

On this account the finest scummed honey is mixed with them for the sake of preservation, sweetness, and sometimes of utility. The austere and vinous hydromel brought from Cebyra in small vessels is an exception; for I have known it formed without honey, as the apomel is made from honey alone and water, without any other substance. But those things which are prepared from wine, which are called propotions (or “whets”?) receive sext. j of scummed honey to four of wine and are made without being boiled. Those which are prepared from water and juices, if boiled, receive one part of honey to three of the liquor, about two parts of which are consumed in the boiling; but if they are not boiled they receive one part of honey to two of the liquor. Those things which are not boiled are to be isolated for a sufficient time, and particularly the omphacomel. Those from water require to be boiled, because from their weakness they are readily changed. They are all to be laid up in small pitched earthen vessels, which are to be carefully covered up and deposited in situations above ground until they are concocted. They are to be used as attenuants, and well mixed with water. But the omphacomel after being boiled like must, and settling, is to be covered up. Those composed from wine we use principally in cases which are free from fever, or for the relish only (with the exception of those which are prepared from scammony, the granum Cnidium, or the like purgatives); or in such affections as when we would use the medicines which are the ingredients of them by the mouth. Those prepared from water, or the juices we use in febrile cases, or as sweeteners, when the disease does not admit the use of wines, and sometimes as agreeing with the affections, as apomel for a sialogogue, diuretic, laxative of the bowels, or attenuant of humours; and hydromelon and hydrorosaton in cases of thirst, ardent fevers, resolutions, and derangements of the stomach; and omphacomel, myrteton, rhodostacton, and rhoita, in cæliac and dysenteric cases, and for vomitings and other defluxions. They are frequently used as washes in affections of the mouth.

The hydromelum from the juice of apples. Of the juice of clean quinces bruised, sext. ij; of honey, sext. iij; of water, sext. vj. Boil, scumming it until it be reduced to a third part. Another.—Of clean quinces cut into pieces, lb. v. Boil in sext. j of well-water until they become soft. Then removing them from the fire, after they become cold, strain, and having filtrated the apples throw them away. Having measured the water, mix with it half the quantity of honey, and boil again, scumming it until the eighth part be consumed. Some compose the hydromelum in like manner from sweet apples.

The composition of the hydrorosatum. Of roses deprived of their nails (the white parts of the leaves), lb. iv; of water, sext. v; of honey, sext. ij.

The preparation of the Rhodomelum. Of the juice of quinces, sext. j; of roses, lb. iij; of honey, sext. iij; of water, sext. v. But since the apples are not found at the same season with the roses, these are to be added to honey at the proper season, and when the apples appear, the composition is to be completed.

The preparation of the omphacomel. Of the juice of unripe grapes, sext. iij; of honey, sext. j. Having mixed, expose it to the sun for forty days, or boil.

The preparation of Myrteta. Of the juice of myrtles, sext. iij; of honey, sext. j. Boil till the third is consumed.

Apomel from the works of Phalagrius. Of white honeycombs filled with honey, lb. j; of spring water, lb. iiiss; having broken down the comb and united them, boil the water with the honey until the scum of it and the waxy part swim on the top and is separated, then cool and cover it up carefully.

The composition of rhodostactum. Of the juice of roses without their nails, sext. ij; of honey, sext. j. Boil, scumming it, until the fourth part be consumed.

The preparation of rhætes. Of the juice of pomegranate, sext. iij; of honey, sext. j. Boil to a third part.

Commentary. We shall in the first place give some account of the Propoma. It was a draught generally containing wine, which was taken at the commencement of the supper, or principal meal of the ancients. Horace alludes to it in the following lines:

“Anfidius forti miscebat mella Falerno,

Mendose: quoniam vacuis committere venis

Nil nisi lene decet: leni præcordia mulso

Prolueris melius.”—(Lib. ii, Sat. 4.)

Catius here condemns the practice of using strong wine for the composition of the Propoma. Old Falernian wine was thought the best. Thus Macrobius says of it: “Mulsum quo probe temperes, miscendum esse novo Hymetto et Falerno vetulo.” (Saturn. vii, 12.) “To the Propoma,” says Athenæus, “were added pepper, Indian leaf, myrrh, cyperus, and Egyptian ointment.” (Deip. ii, 25.) A long list of receipts for Propomata is given by Myrepsus (§ 38.) Most of them contain wine, honey, and aromatics. See a learned Dissertation on the Propoma by Casaubon (in Athen. Deipnos. ii, 17); also Lister (in Apicii Op. i, 1.)

It will be proper here to give some account of the medicated wines, or, as we would now call them, the Vinous Tinctures, of the ancients. Dioscorides details the composition of them very fully in the fifth book of his ‘Materia Medica.’ The following is his prescription for the wine of squills: Take a mina of squills, and having pounded it, sift, and bind it in a thin piece of linen; then put it into 20 sextarii of good fresh must, and allow it to macerate for three months; afterwards strain the wine into another vessel, and cover it up carefully. The wine of quinces is to be prepared by putting 12 minæ of quinces, deprived of their seeds, into a cadus of must, and allowing it to remain for thirty days. Wines from other kinds of apples, such as medlars, services, and pears, may be prepared in like manner. He afterwards gives similar directions for preparing the following medicated wines:

Wine ofwild vine.
pomegranate.
roses.
myrtles.
lentisk.
turpentine.
palms.
figs.
sycamores.
resin.
cone of the pine.
cedar or juniper.
cedar-rosin.
pitch.
wormwood.
hyssop.
germander.
cassidony.
betony.
tragoriganum.
bunium.
dittany.
horehound.
thyme.
savoury.
marjoram.
calamint.
fleabane.
aromatics.
myrrh, pepper, and iris.
elicampane.
spikenard.
asarabacca.
wild nard or valerian.
carrot.
sage.
panacea.
sweet-flag.
parsley.
fennel and dill.
hellebore, wild cucumber, or scammony,
for procuring abortions.
spurge-flax.
mezerion.
ground-pine.
mandrake.
hellebore.
scammony.

The preparation of these factitious wines is also described by Pliny. (H. N. xiv, 19.) To this class we may refer the Vina condita of Apicius. (Cap. i.) See also in particular Aëtius (iii); Myrepsus (§ 27); Haly Abbas (Pract. x, 21); Serapion (vii, 35); Actuarius (Meth. Med. v, 7.) Actuarius gives the following prescription for preparing a vinous tincture of poppies, which he recommends for coughs, cholera, and such like complaints: Of poppy-heads, c; of liquorice-root, lb. j; of sodden must, lb. c.