262 plint's NATURAL HISTOBY. [Book XIV. 



None of these wines, however, will keep beyond a year, 96 

 with the sole exception of those which we have spoken of as 

 requiring age ; many of these, indeed, there can be no doubt, 

 do not improve after being kept so little as thirty days. 



CHAP. 22. (18.) TWELVE KINDS OE WINE WITH MIKACTTLOUS 



rilOPEKTIES. 



There are some miraculous properties, too, in certain wines. 

 It is said that in Arcadia there is a wine grown which is 

 productive of fruitfulness 97 in women, and of madness in men ; 

 while in Achaia, and more especially in the vicinity of Cary- 

 nia, there is a wine which causes abortion ; an effect which is 

 equally produced if a woman in a state of pregnancy happens 

 only to eat a grape of the vine from which it is grown, although 

 in taste it is in no way different from ordinary grapes : again, 

 it is confidently asserted that those who drink the wine of 

 Trcezen never bear children. Thasos, it is said, produces two 

 varieties of wine with quite opposite properties. By one kind 

 sleep is produced, 98 by the other it is prevented. There is 

 also in the same island a vine known as the " theriaca," 99 the 

 wine and grapes of w r hich are a cure for the bites of serpents. 

 The libanian vine 1 also produces a wine with the smell of 

 frankincense, with which they make libations to the gods, while, 

 on the other hand, the produce of that known as " aspendios, 2 " 

 is banished from all the altars : it is said, too, that this last 

 vine is never touched by any bird. 



The Egyptians call by the name of "Thasian," 3 a certain 

 grape of that country, remarkable for its sweetness and its 



96 Our medicinal wines will mostly keep longer than this, owing probably 

 to the difference in the mode of making the real wines that form their 

 basis. 



91 There is little doubt that this is fabulous : wine taken in excess, we 

 know, is productive of loss of the senses, frenzy in the shape of delirium 

 tremens. 



9lJ This is not unlikely ; for, as Fee remarks, the red wines, containing 

 a large proportion of alcohol, act upon the brain and promote sleep, while 

 the white wines, charged with carbonic gas, are productive of wakefulness. 



99 Or healing vine. See B. xxiii. c. 11. 



1 "Iibanios." Probably incense was put in this wine, to produce the 

 flavour. 



2 From a, " not," and airkpinv, " to make libation." 



3 See c. 9 of this Book. It was introduced, probably, from Thasos. 



