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.