[2958] In B. xx. c. 39. It is still employed in medicine; but the statements here made, as Fée says, do not merit a serious discussion.
[2959] See B. xiv. c. 21. The modern oxymel, as Fée remarks, consists of honey dissolved in white vinegar, and bears no resemblance to the monstrous composition here described, and which no stomach, he says, could possibly support.
[2960] See Lucan’s Pharsalia, B. ix. ll. 723, 776.
[2961] Fée thinks that there may be some foundation for this statement, as vinegar acts efficaciously as a remedy to the effects of narcotic poisons. Mistletoe, as already stated, is not a poison.
[2962] Grape-juice boiled down to one-third. See B. xiv. c. 11.
[2963] See c. [18] of this Book. The account here given of the medicinal properties of sapa is altogether unfounded.
[2964] A worm that grows in the pine-tree, the Phalæna bombyx pityocampa of Linnæus.
[2965] A mere absurdity, of course. See c. [18] of this Book.
[2966] The lees of wine are charged with sub-tartarate of potash, a quantity of colouring matter more or less, and a small proportion of wine. They are no longer used in medicine. Under the term “fæx vini,” Pliny includes the pulp or husks of grapes after the must has been expressed.
[2967] In consequence of the carbonic gas disengaged before the fermentation is finished, asphyxia being the result.