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CHAP. 53.—HONIED WINE: SIX REMEDIES.

As to honied1 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 sweet2 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,3 asked him by what means in particular he had retained such remarkable vigour of mind and body.—"Honied wine within, oil without,"4 was his answer. According to Varro, the jaun- dice has the name of "royal disease"5 given to it, because its cure is effected with honied wine.6

1 "Mulsum."

2 "Dulci." Fée thinks, but erroneously, that by this word he means "must," or grape-juice, and combats the assertion. Honied wine, he says, is used at the present day (in France, of course,) as a popular cure for recent wounds and inveterate ulcers. As a beverage, it was very highly esteemed by the ancients. See B. vii. c. 54.

3 "Hospes." It may possibly mean his "guest," but the other is more probable.

4 "Intus mulso, foris oleo." The people of Corsica were famous for being long-lived, which was attributed to their extensive use of honey.

5 "Regius morbus."

6 Honied wine being considered so noble a beverage, Celsus says, that "during its cure, the patient must be kept to his chamber, and the mind must be kept cheerful, with gaiety and pastimes, for which reason it is called the ' royal disease,'" B. iii. c. 24. In the text Pliny calls it "arquatorum morbus." the "disease of the bow-like," if we may be allowed the term. The origin of this term, according to Scribonius Largus, is the word "arcus," the rainbow, from a fancied resemblance of the colour of the skin, when affected with jaundice, to the green tints of the rainbow.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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