As to honied[2731] wine, that is always the best which has been made with old wine: honey, too, incorporates with it very readily, which is never the case with sweet[2732] wine. When made with astringent wine, it does not clog the stomach, nor has it that effect when the honey has been boiled: in this last case, too, it causes less flatulency, an inconvenience generally incidental to this beverage. It acts as a stimulant also upon a failing appetite; taken cold it relaxes the bowels, but used warm it acts astringently, in most cases, at least. It has a tendency also to make flesh. Many persons have attained an extreme old age, by taking bread soaked in honied wine, and no other diet—the famous instance of Pollio Romilius, for example. This man was more than one hundred years old when the late Emperor Augustus, who was then his host,[2733] asked him by what means in particular he had retained such remarkable vigour of mind and body.—“Honied wine within, oil without,”[2734] was his answer. According to Varro, the jaundice has the name of “royal disease”[2735] given to it, because its cure is effected with honied wine.[2736]
CHAP. 54.—MELITITES: THREE REMEDIES.
We have already described how melitites[2737] is prepared, of must and honey, when speaking on the subject of wines. It is, I think, some ages, however, since this kind of beverage was made, so extremely productive as it was found to be of flatulency. It used, however, to be given in fever, to relieve inveterate costiveness of the bowels, as also for gout and affections of the sinews. It was prescribed also for females who were not in the habit of taking wine.
CHAP. 55.—WAX: EIGHT REMEDIES.
To an account of honey, that of wax is naturally appended, of the origin, qualities, and different kinds of which, we have previously made mention[2738] on the appropriate occasions. Every kind of wax is emollient and warming, and tends to the formation of new flesh; fresh wax is, however, the best. It is given in broth to persons troubled with dysentery, and the combs themselves are sometimes used in a pottage made of parched alica. Wax counteracts the bad effects[2739] of milk; and ten pills of wax, the size of a grain of millet, will prevent milk from coagulating in the stomach. For swellings in the groin, it is found beneficial to apply a plaster of white wax to the pubes.
CHAP. 56.—REMARKS IN DISPARAGEMENT OF MEDICINAL COMPOSITIONS.
As to the different uses to which wax is applied, in combination with other substances in medicine, we could no more make an enumeration of them than we could of all the other ingredients which form part of our medicinal compositions. These preparations, as we have already[2740] observed, are the results of human invention. Cerates, poultices,[2741] plasters, eye-salves, antidotes,—none of these have been formed by Nature, that parent and divine framer of the universe; they are merely the inventions of the laboratory, or rather, to say the truth, of human avarice.[2742] The works of Nature are brought into existence complete and perfect in every respect, her ingredients being but few in number, selected as they are from a due appreciation of cause and effect, and not from mere guesswork; thus, for instance, if a dry substance is wanted to assume a liquefied form, a liquid, of course, must be employed as a vehicle, while liquids, on the other hand, must be united with a dry substance to render them consistent. But as for man, when he pretends, with balance in[2743] hand, to unite and combine the various elementary substances, he employs himself not merely upon guesswork, but proves himself guilty of downright impudence.
It is not my intention to touch upon the medicaments afforded by the drugs of India, or Arabia and other foreign climates: I have no liking for drugs that come from so great a distance;[2744] they are not produced for us, no, nor yet for the natives of those countries, or else they would not be so ready to sell them to us. Let people buy them if they please, as ingredients in perfumes, unguents, and other appliances of luxury; let them buy them as adjuncts to their superstitions even, if incense and costus we must have to propitiate the gods; but as to health, we can enjoy that blessing without their assistance, as we can easily prove—the greater reason then has luxury to blush at its excesses.