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APPENDIX D.

WINES, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

That intoxicating wines, both fermented and drugged, were in extensive use in ancient times, is what no one disputes. It would be rank folly to do so. On the other hand, it is equal folly to affirm,-what multitudes nevertheless constantly do,that unintoxicating wines were unknown in antiquity, or regarded with little favor by the wise and good. To set this matter at rest, we have prepared a series of extracts and translations from ancient and modern authors, showing that the class of substances known under the name of WINE, in various ages and countries, comprehended, not only fully fermented wines and drugged potions, the 'poison of dragons,' but a large variety of drinks from the grape-juice, carefully prepared so as to keep fermentation at its minimum, to pure or boiled grape-juice absolutely free from all taint of fermentation or alcohol. In our Preliminary Dissertation and Appendix C, the mere word question is settled by induction—here we have only to do with things-things practically and theoretically quite contrasted with port, sherry, and tent. To deal alike with wines so varied and different, would be a case of unparalleled fanaticism.

I.

ORIGINAL AUTHORITIES ON ANCIENT WINES.

In the absence of precise knowledge of the nature of the wines and other 'liquor of grapes,' which the ancient Jews in Palestine were in the habit of using, an approximation has been sought among those in ordinary consumption by the Greeks and Romans. Since garbled citations have often been furnished from classic authors, no apology need be offered for more extended quotations and careful translations, with comments interspersed for the illustration of a subject which, though familiar enough to the farmer and peasant in the southern lands of the vine, must unavoidably be obscure even to the educated classes of Britain and America. Pliny devoted the whole of the 14th Book of his Historia Naturalis (A. D. 60) to the consideration of potable liquors, and his concluding observations convey a clear conception as to their universal use in vine countries. (We cite from Jahn's Leipsic edition.)

Duo sunt liquores humanis corporibus gratissimi, intus vini, foris olei, arborum e genere ambo præcipui, sed olei necessarius. Nec segniter in eo vita elaboravit. Quanto tamen in potu ingeniosior adparebit, ad bibendum generibus centum ectoginta quinque, si species vero æstimentur, pæne duplici numero excogitatis, tantoque paucioribus olei-"There are two liquors most grateful to the human body, wine for internal use, oil for outward application, both of them principally from some kind of tree, but oil a necessity. The life of man has been employed, and not sluggishly, in their invention. Yet how much greater is the amount of ingenuity

bestowed on the drink, will be apparent from there having been 185 kinds invented for drinking, which, if species were counted in the number, would be nearly doubled, but of oils there be fewer by far."

The distinction as to genus and species will appear from an extract (xiv. 6. 2) concerning fashionable wines:-Secunda nobilitas Falerno agro erat, et eo maxume Faustiniano "The second rank belonged to the Falernian district, and in that most of all to the Faustian." The Faustian was a subordinate district in the Falernian, and after describing minutely (by reference to a bridge, the left hand, a village, and distances by miles) the locality of each, he continues:-Nec ulli nunc vino major auctoritas; solo vinorum flamma accenditur—“No district has greater note in the matter of wine; by it alone of all wines, a blaze is lighted up." Tria ejus genera, austerum, dulce, tenue. Quidam ita distingunt: summis collibus caucinum gigni, mediis Faustinianum, imis Falernum-"There are three kinds, the rough, the sweet, and the thin.* Some persons distinguish them thus:-the Caucinum is produced on the highest range of hills, the Faustinium on the middle, and the [true] Falernian on the lowest."

Thus when the Patrician host promised his guests Falernian,' they might, according to his reputation for an excellent cellar or otherwise, expect the best or the worst of the three species.

Some wines, it seems, had a prestige on medicinal grounds, similar to that in the present day for old Port, London stout, or bitter beer, founded on some 'opinion of the faculty,' in the acquired taste of the individual, or its apparent want of positive disagreement with his system. Pliny, after noticing with disgust the discordant recommendations of the faculty as to wine for persons in health, pursues the subject with reference to cases in which health was impaired (xxiii. 2. 24). Nunc circa agritudines sermo de vinis erit. Saluberrimum liberaliter genitis Campaniæ quodcunque tenuissimum: volgo vero quod quemque maxume juverit validum. Utilissimum omnibus sacco VIRIBUS fractis. Meminerimus sucum esse qui fervendo VIRIS musto sibi fecerit. course upon wines shall now be with reference to conditions of disease. the gentry the very thinnest Campanian will be the most wholesome; but to the common people any full-bodied wine that would most support the person. The most useful for everybody is that which has its STRENGTH broken by the filter. We must bear in mind that there is a juice [sucus] which, by fermenting, would make to itself viris out of the must." The sucus represents the gluten, the detention whereof in the sackcloth while straining the 'must,' prevents it from fermenting and acquiring the viris so dreaded, but the filter could never stop it after it had once generated.

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This related to ordinary wines, which must not be confounded with such as were purposely compounded with medicinal intent. The Romans being ignorant of distilled liquors, and in the habit of using wines in general of small alcoholic power, had no need of the powerful tinctures prescribed in the present day, but made thin common wines, and even more frequently grape syrups, the vehicle for the administration of drugs.

Of wormwood and hyssop, Pliny says (xiv. 16. 5):-Ex ceteris herbis, fit absinthites in xl. sextariis musti absinthi Pontici libra decocta ad tertias partis, vel scopis absinthi in vinum additis... Similiter hyssopites e Cilicio hyssopo unciis tribus in duos congios musti cojectis aut tunsis in vinum. "From other herbs,

Athenæus (i. 48) says, "Galen is represented as saying that the Falernian is fit to drink from its fifteenth to twentieth year, but after that, is apt to give headaches, and disturbs the nervous system.”

wormwood-wine is made by boiling down to one-third a pound of Pontic wormwood in forty sextarii of must (a sextarius was nearly a pint and half), or two scopi (say handfuls) of wormwood added to wine. In like manner hyssop wine, by throwing three ounces of Cilician hyssop into two congii of must (a congius was hardly a gallon), or crushing it into wine." Thus, whether must or fermented wine were used, one of them formed the basis of the compound, and its quantity was to be in large proportion to that of the drug.

Of myrtle (xiv. 16):—Myrtiten Cato quem admodum fieri docuerit mox paulo indicabimus, Græci et alio modo. Ramis teneris cum suis foliis in albo musto decoctis, tunsis, libram in tribus musti congiis deferve faciunt, donec duo supersint.— "A little further on we shall show how Cato would have instructed for the making of myrtle-wine. But the Greeks had another method. They beat the tender twigs with their leaves, put them into white must that had been boiled down, a pound to three gallons of must; they caused it to be boiled down until two remained." Of such wine Columella says, lib. xii. c. 38:—Vinum myrtiten ad tormina, et ad alvi proluviem, et ad imbecillum stomachum sie facito—"After this manner make myrtlewine, for the gripes, and for a purgative of the bowels, and for weakness of the stomach."*

Of hellebore all that Pliny says is (xiv. 16. 5):—Sic et helleboriten fieri ex veratro nigro Cato docet.-" In this way also Cato instructs how hellebore wine is to be made from the black veratrum." On turning to Cato's own work (cxv) his recipe is found to run thus :-In vinum mustum veratri atri manipulum conjicito in amphoram. Ubi satis efferverit de vino manipulum ejicito; id vinum servato ad alvum movendam—“Throw a manipulum [a handful] of black hellebore into new wine in an amphora [full]. When it shall have fermented sufficiently, throw the manipulus out of the wine; keep that wine for moving the belly [as an aperient]." The chapter of Pliny which contains these three recipes, relates to artificial wines, and it is apparent that each composition was intended for a medicine rather than a beverage. The last of the three must have been about as nauseous as a modern black draught. t Wormwood might have been used in very small doses by the glutton, as a provocative to eating.

The existence of dry wines conceded, the taste for sweet wine, and the ingenuity employed in making it, may be best explained by the recipe left for it, premising, however, that the article does not correspond with that which the English now term 'a sweet wine.' The original is in Columella, De Re Rustica, (xii. c. 27)-— Vinum dulce sic facere oportet. Uvas legito, in sole per triduum expandito, quarto die meridiano tempore calidas uvas proculcato, mustum lixivum, hoc est, antequam prælo pressum sit, quod in lacum musti fluxerit, tollito, cum deferbuerit in sextarios quinquaginta iridem bene pinsitam nec plus unciæ pondere addito, vinum a fecibus eliquatum diffundito. Hoc vinum erit suave, firmum, corpori salubre—“ Gather the grapes in the bunches-spread them out in the sunshine for three days; on the fourth day, at the noontide hour, proculcato, tread out the grapes, calidas, while they are hot [by several hours' exposure to the sun's rays]; take the mustum lixivium, that is, such as should flow into the lake of must before it [the mass of

Mnesitheus, cited by Athenæus, (ii. 2) says of wine :-"A wholesome physic 'tis when mixed with potions; heals wounds as well as plasters or cold lotions." Why do not drinkers think of this sort of wine when citing the case of Timothy?

† Alcæus, quoted by Athenæus (ii. 2), says :—

"Wine sometimes than honey sweeter,
Sometimes more than nettles bitter."

Alexis, quoted by the same authority (i. 57), says :—“ Foreign wine was rare, and that from Corinth painful drinking.'

grapes] should be pressed by the beam; cum deferbuerit, when it shall have cooled down [the grapes having been trodden while hot], add to every fifty sextarii [of must] not exceeding an ounce of iris well pounded, rack off the wine by pouring it from the dregs [this being a more careful operation than straining]. This wine will be sweet [or smooth], sound-bodied, and wholesome to the body."

Columella knew experimentally what he was teaching, and his plan is theoretically and practically correct, in accordance with modern science. He first directs to gather the grapes in the clusters, a direction which might appear superfluous were it not known from other recipes that the ancients had also a method of gently twisting the stalks, and stripping off the leaves, so as to allow the grapes to wilter on the vine. He here bids you spread out the grapes to the heat of the sun long enough to thicken the juice to the degree known to prevent fermentation; though this was not the only plan, for sometimes the clusters were hung on poles and trellis. He next instructs to take the grapes up at noon, after they had been exposed for six or seven hours to a southern sun, and, while hot, have them lightly trodden, the naked feet being less likely than a huge wooden beam to break the little cells containing the gluten, i. e. the fermentable matter which, by action of the oxygen of the air, would proceed to ferment. It also more easily admitted of an adjusted pressure, by boys and girls instead of men. The heated state of the grapes was purposely chosen for treading, because the juice would flow more readily under gentle pressure than if the grapes were allowed to cool. This was the second precaution against fermentation. Then as much as fifty sextarii (nine gallons) of the must in the state of mustum lixivium, such as came flowing into the lake before applying the press, are to be taken, and some orris root to be put to it, finely pounded and not merely crushed, the quantity being carefully specified. For some reason not stated, but doubtless understood at the time, the juice was allowed to cool before the iris was mixed with it. Lastly, it was to be racked off, the mode of doing it being by pouring the wine off the top of the vessel, whereby it would come away much clearer than by straining, which tends to render even a clear wine muddy.

The Romans had, likewise, a very luscious wine, of a similar nature, distinguished by the name of passum, because made from uva passa, grapes partially dried. Pliny's description of the mode of making it, is intended rather for the general reader than the vine-grower (xiv. 9):-Passum a Cretica Cilicium probatur, et Africum et in Italia finitimisque provinciis. Fieri certum est ex uva quam Græci psithiam vocant, nos apianam, item scripulam. Diutius in vite sole adustis aut ferventi oleo. Quidam ex quacumque dulci, dum præcocta, alba, faciunt siccantes sole, donec, paulo amplius dimidium pondus supersit, tunsasque leniter exprimunt-" After the Cretan passum, the Cilician is the most approved, then the African, and [what is made] in Italy and the neighboring provinces. It is to be made with the greatest certainty from the grape which the Greeks call Psithiam, we Apiana, also from the scirpula [grape], the cluster being [either] partially dried in the sunshine for a longer time upon the vine [by being suffered to hang with the branch slightly twisted so as to cause it to wither], or else [by being immersed for a time] in boiling oil. Some make it out of any luscious grape, provided it be of the white and early ripe sort, drying the clusters in the sunshine until little more than half [the original] weight remains, and press out [the juice] by gently crushing [the clusters]." And Columella (xii. 39) gives at full . length the old recipe of Mago, for making passum optimum [the best passum], whereby he himself had made it, and which commences-Uvam præcoquem bene maturam legere, acina arida, aut vitiosa rejicere—“Gather the early species of

grape in the cluster when thoroughly ripe, throw aside those grapes that are either dry or rotten;" and goes on-furcas, vel palos, qui cannas sustineant, inter quaternos pedes figere, et perticis jugare-"Then fix at intervals of four feet apart forked sticks or posts, in order to support the reeds, and yoke them together with cross poles." Tum insuper cannas ponere, et in sole pandere uvas et noctibus tegere ne irrorentur "Then lay the reeds on the top, and spread out the clusters in the sunshine, and cover them every night, lest they should become wet with dew." Cum deinde exaruerint, acina decerpere, et in dolium, aut in seriam conjicere, eodem mustum quam optimum, sic ut grana submersa sint, adjicere—" When by this process they shall have become dry, pluck off the grapes and throw them together into a dolium or a seria [vessels holding from sixty to seventy-five gallons]; throw to it so much of the very best must that the grains may be drowned under it." Ubi combiberint uvæ seque impleverint, sexto die in fiscellam conferre, et prælo premere, passumque tollere—“When the_grapes shall have thoroughly imbibed and filled themselves [with the must], on the sixth day [from the gathering] put them together into a frail, and squeeze them with a press, and take away the passum." Further on is the recipe for passum alluded to by Pliny:—Uvam apianam integram legito, acina corrupta purgato, et secernito; postea in perticis suspendito, perticæ ut semper in sole sint facito; ubi satis corrugata erunt, acina demito, et sine scipioni. bus in dolim conjicito pedibusque bene calcato-" Gather the Apiana grapes in the cluster without injuring them; pluck off the rotten grains [berries], and set them aside; after this, hang up [the clusters] on poles; manage so that the poles may be always in the sunshine [a variation from Mago's plan of spreading them out on reeds or straw]; when they have been sufficiently wrinkled throughout, strip off the grapes, and throw them together, without the stalks, into a dolium, and tread them well with the feet." Ubi unum tabulatum feceris, vinum vetus conspergito, postea alterum supercalcato et item vinum conspergito; eodem modo tertium calcato et infuso vino ita superponito ut supernatet, et sinito dies quinque—“When you shall have made one layer, sprinkle it well with old wine; after that, tread it lightly, and a second time sprinkle it thoroughly with wine; after a third similar treading and infusion of wine, heap it up so that [the mass of grapes] may float on the top, and leave it for five days."

The Romans imported wine from other countries, and sometimes even took the pains to fabricate imitations. Here is Columella's recipe for an ancient Greek wine (xii. 37):-Vinum simile Græco facere. Uvas prcæcoquas quam maturissimas legito, easque per triduum in sole siccato, quarto die calcato, et mustum quod nihil habeat ex tortivo, conjicito in seriam, diligenterque curato, ut cum deferbuerit, feces expurgentur: deinde quinto die cum purgaveris mustum, salis cocti et cribrati duos sextarios, vel quod est minimum, adjicito unum sextarium in sextarios musti xlix. Quidam etiam defruti sextarium miscent: nonnulli etiam duos adjiciunt si existimant vina notam parum esse firmam-“To make Wine like the Greek, gather the early ripe grapes as thoroughly ripe as may be, and dry them in the sunshine for three days; on the fourth day tread [them], and throw the must-which should not have a particle of that produced by the press-all together into a seria, and use every diligence and care when it shall have cooled down, that the dregs may be cleared off; then, on the fifth day, when you shall have cleared the must, add to it two sextarii of baked and sifted salt, or at the very least one sextarius to forty-nine sextarii of must. Some mingle a sextarius of defrutum; a few even add two [sextarii], if they consider the wine has too little body."

This was for making a large quantity; and although the exact measure of the seria i; not known, it must have held the forty-nine sextarii, or about nine gallons,

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