Aristotle states, that either by their natural consistence, or by boiling, or by adulteration, the wines of Arcadia were so thick, that they dried up in the goat skins. It was the practice to scrape them off, and to dissolve the scrapings in water. It is probable that the thick and fat wines of Chios, Thasos, Lesbos, and Crete, were of a similar description. In a succeeding chapter, these kind of wines will receive more special consideration.* The depraved tastes of the ancients led them to adopt singular methods to adulterate these wines. In the words of an old writer, they resorted "to such substances, as from their fragrant odour and agreeable pungency, were most likely to impart the desired properties;" ut odor vino contingat et saporis quædam acumina. Pulverized pitch or rosin, was sprinkled on the must during its first fermentation; after the completion of which, it was not unusual to infuse into it the flowers of the vine, the bruised berries of the pine or cypress, and the shavings of cedarwood, southern-wood, and bitter almonds.†

Columella gives minute directions concerning the mode of preparing and preserving wines in his day, and, in particular, those of an inferior quality. It was usual to prepare a kind of confection, made with the defrutum, or inspissated must, and various proportions of potent and medicinal ingredients. An example of this practice is given from the same writer.

To ninety amphora of must evaporated to a third part of its former consistence, were added ten sextarii of liquid nemeturican pitch, or tar, washed in boiled seawater, and a pound and a half of turpentine resin. After this liquor had been reduced to two thirds, six pounds of crude pitch in powder, were gradually mixed with it, in addition to a liberal allowance of various aromatic herbs, such as spikenard, fleur-de-lis, myrrh, cardamoms, saffron, melilot, cassia, and sweet-scented flag. Four ounces of this mixture was allotted to thirteen and a half gallons, or two amphora of wine, produced from a watery vintage; but in dry seasons, three ounces were considered sufficient for the purpose. These medicaments, however, were only employed in the preparation of inferior wines, and Columella cautions the wine-dealers not to make the artificial savour too palpable, lest their customers should thereby be deterred from the purchase of their wines. In a preceding chapter, the * Chapter on the Temperance of the Jews. † Geoponica, 7, 12, 20. De Re Rustica, xii. 20.

same writer observes, that "that wine which is capable of being preserved for years without any condiment, must be reckoned the best; and nothing ought to be mixed with it by which its genuine flavour may be corrupted and disguised; whatever pleases by its natural qualities, is to be deemed the most choice."* An accurate writer of the present day, in reference to these practices, makes the following judicious remarks: "At first sight, indeed, it seems difficult to explain, on any principles, consistent with a refined taste, how a predilection should come to be entertained for wines to which a quantity of sea-water had been added, or which were highly impregnated with pitch, rosin, turpentine, and a multitude of powerful aromatic ingredients; nor can we well imagine, that their strong wines, even when mellowed by age, could be rendered very exquisite by being exposed in smoky garrets, † until reduced to a syrup, and rendered so muddy and thick, that it was necessary to strain them through a cloth, in order to free them from impurities, or to scrape them from the sides of the vessel, and dissolve them in hot water before they were fit to be drank. But when we consider the effects of habit, which soon reconciles the palate to the most offensive substances, and the influence of fashion and luxury, which leads us to prefer everything that is rare and costly to articles of more intrinsic excellence and moderate price, we may readily conceive that the Greeks and Romans might have excused their fondness for pitched and pickled wines, on the same plea by which we justify our attachment to tea, coffee, and tobacco. It was long ago observed by Plutarch, that certain dishes and liquors which first appeared intolerable, came, in course of time to be reckoned the most agreeable, and surely the charge of indulging a perverted taste in wine, would proceed with an ill grace from the people of this country, where a notorious partiality exists in favour of a liquor, of which the harshness, bitterness, acidity, and other repulsive qualities, are only disguised by a large admixture of ardent spirits, but which long use has rendered so palatable to its admirers, that they fancy it the best of all possible wines."‡

* De Re Rustica, xii. 19.

Henderson alludes to a common practice of the ancients. Columella states, that it imparted to their wines a premature age; "Vina Celerius vetustescunt quæ fumi quodam tenore præcoquem maturitatem trahunt.”— Columella, lib. i. 6.

Henderson on Wines, p. 60, 61.

These, doubtless, were the wines which were kept by the Romans to such an extraordinary age. Thus in Statius:

"Vinaque perpetuis ævo certantia fastis.'

Horace makes mention of wine nearly seventy years old —Marsi memorem duelli. This wine is said sometimes to have been drunk when 100 years old. The celebrated Opimian wines took their designation from the Consul of that name in whose time they were made. Pliny speaks of them being preserved until his time, that is, nearly 200 years, and that such was their excellence, that they could not be purchased for money. Other wines besides the Opimian were celebrated for their age and quality.

Ice was commonly used by the lovers of wine among the ancients, to cool the artificial heat occasioned by Bacchanalial indulgence. The practice is not unknown to lovers of pleasure in the present day. "To what a pitch," says Seneca, "have our artificial wants brought us, that common water, which nature has caused to flow in such profusion, and destined to be the common beverage of man and other animals, should, by the ingenuity of luxury, be converted into an article of traffic, and sold at a stated price. The Lacedemonians banished perfumers from their city and territory, because they wasted their oil. What would they have done if they had seen our shops and storehouses for snow, and so many beasts of burden employed in carrying this commodity, dirty, and discoloured by the straw in which it is kept. You may behold certain lean fellows, wrapped up to the chin to defend them from cold, and pale and sickly in appearance, who not only drink, but even eat snow, putting lumps of it into their cups during the intervals of drinking. Do you imagine this to be thirst? It is a true fever, and of the most malignant kind.” * Pliny also alludes to this practice in terms of reproach, and adds with some degree of truth, "Man is satisfied with nothing in the state that he receives it from the hand of nature."†

The ancients paid great attention to the cultivation of the vine. During the infancy of the Roman state, wine was rarely made use of, except on sacrificial occasions. In the time of Homer, in Sicily, and about the neighbouring shores the vine grew wild. In a thousand years afterward, the Italians could boast that of at least fourscore various kinds of wines then in use, more than two-thirds

* Quæst. Natural, iv. 13.

Hist. Nat. xiv. 4.

and simple diluents. Still we are not of the number of those who believe that the time will soon if ever arrive, when vinous and spirituous preparations can be wholly dispensed with in medicine. Articles which are always injurious in health, may and do prove, to be highly useful remedies in disease. It is so with arsenic, opium, and alcohol. Indeed it is this established fact, that alcohol is a medicinal agent, that proves its inadaptation to a state of health.-AM. ED.

PART III.

CHAPTER IX.

HISTORY OF INTOXICATING LIQUORS.

Man is the only animal accustomed to swallow unnatural drinks, or to abuse those which are natural; and this is a fruitful source of a great variety of his bodily and mental evils.-Rees's Cycloped. Art. Water.

THE History of Intoxicating Liquors, presents strong examples of the ingenuity and perseverance of mankind, in the pursuit of animal gratification.

In the countries so frequently the scenes of Scripture incidents, the fruits from which wine was made, were grown in great profusion and variety. Grapes in particular were remarkable for their size and delicious flavour. The spies sent out by Moses, found in the valley of Eshcol, a bunch of grapes which required two men to carry it. Doubdan, the traveller, while in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem, visited this valley, and was informed by some monks, that bunches were found which, even without the aid of cultivation, weighed from ten to twelve pounds.* Forster, was also informed by a person who had resided many years in Palestine, that bunches of grapes were found in the valley of Hebron, so large, that two men could scarcely carry one of them. Rosenmuller confirms this statement. Besides, he mentions, the large quantities of grapes and raisins, which are daily sent to the markets of Jerusalem, and other neighbouring places: Hebron alone, in the first half of the eighteenth century, annually sent 300 camel loads, that is, nearly three hundred thousand weight of grape juice, or honey of raisins, to Egypt.

The grape and other esculent and luscious fruits, form a very important part of human nourishment in those parts of the globe, where they are plentifully produced. The

• Voyage de la Terre Sainte, ch. 21.