4/2 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXIII. 



upon the people there. Milk, used as a beverage, strengthens 

 the bones, liquids extracted from the cereals nourish the 

 sinews, and water imparts nutriment to the flesh : hence it is 

 that persons who confine themselves to these several liquids as 

 a beverage, are of a less ruddy complexion than the wine- 

 drinker, less robust, and less able to endure fatigue. By the 

 use of wine in moderation the sinews are strengthened, but 

 taken in excess it proves injurious to them ; the same, too, 

 with the eyes. Wine refreshes the stomach, sharpens the 

 appetite, takes off the keen edge of sorrows and anxieties, 

 warms the body, acts beneficially as a diuretic, and invites 

 sleep. In addition to these properties, it arrests vomiting, and 

 we find that pledgets of wool, soaked in wine, and applied to 

 abscesses, are extremely beneficial. According to Asclepiades, 

 the virtues possessed by wine are hardly equalled by the ma- 

 jestic attributes of the gods themselves. 



Old wine bears admixture with a larger quantity of water, and 

 acts more powerfully as a diuretic, though at the same time it 

 is less effectual for quenching thirst. Sweet wine, again, is 

 less inebriating, but stays longer on the stomach, while rough 

 wine is more easy of digestion. The wine that becomes mel- 

 low with the greatest rapidity is the lightest, and that which 

 becomes sweeter the older it is, is not so injurious to the 

 nerves. Wines that are rich and black, 78 are not so bene- 

 ficial to the stomach ; but, at the same time, they are more 

 feeding to the body. Thin-bodied rough wines are not so 

 feeding, but are more wholesome to the stomach, and pass 

 off more speedily by urine, though they are all the more 

 liable to fly to the head ; a remark which will apply, once for 

 all, to liquids of every kind. 



Wine that has been mellowed by the agency of smoke is 

 extremely unwholesome a fraudulent method of preparation 

 that has been invented in the wine-lofts 79 of the retail dealers. 

 At the present day, however, this plan is adopted in private 

 families even, when it is wished to give the appearance of ma- 

 turity to wines that have become carious. 80 Indeed, this term 

 carious has been used very appositely by the ancients with 

 reference to wines ; for we find that in the case of wood even, 

 smoke exercises a caustic effect upon the carious parts, and 



78 The colour of our Port. 



' 9 ** Apothecis." fc " Curicm trahunt." 



