Now Heraclides the Tarentine asks this question; “Whether it is best to drink warm water or cold after the eating of figs?”And he says, that those who recommend the drinking of cold water do so because they have an eye to such a fact as this,—that warm water cleanses one's hands more quickly than cold; on which account it is reasonable to believe that food in the stomach will be quickly washed away by warm water. And with respect to figs which are not eaten, warm water dissolves their consistency and connexion, and separates them into small pieces; but cold coagultes and consolidates them. But those who recommend the drinking of cold water say, the taking of cold water bears down by its own weight the things which are heavy on the stomach; (for figs do not do any extraordinary good to the stomach, since they [p. 134] heat it and destroy its tone; on which account some people always drink neat wine after them;) and then too it quickly expels what is already in the stomach. But after eating figs, it is desirable to take an abundant and immediate draught of something or other; in order to prevent those things from remaining in the stomach, and to move them into the lower parts of the bowels.
Athenaeus. The Deipnosophists. Or Banquet Of The Learned Of Athenaeus. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1854.
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