Chap. 24.] MALADIES IN WHICH WINE IS USEFUL. 4/5 



of which has been reduced by the strainer ; 06 for we must bear 

 in mind that wine is nothing else but juice of grapes which 

 has acquired strength by the process of fermentation. A mix- 

 ture of numerous kinds of wine is universally bad, and the 

 most wholesome wine of all is that to which no ingredient has 

 been added when in a state of must ; indeed, it is still better 

 if the vessels even in which it is kept have never been pitched. 97 

 As to wines which have been treated with marble, gypsum, 

 or lime, 98 where is the man, however robust he may be, that 

 has not stood in dread of them ? 



Wines which have been prepared with sea-water" are par- 

 ticularly injurious to the stomach, nerves, and bladder. Those 

 which have been seasoned with resin are generally looked 

 upon as beneficial to a cold stomach, but are considered unsuit- 

 able where there is a tendency to vomit : the same, too, with 

 must, boiled grape-juice, 1 and raisin wine. New wines sea- 

 soned with resin are good for no one, being productive of 

 vertigo and head-ache : hence it is that the name of " cra- 

 pula" a has been given equally to new resined wines, and to 

 the surfeit and head-ache which they produce. 



The wines above mentioned 3 by name, are good for cough 

 and catarrh, as also for cceliac affections, dysentery, and 

 the catamenia. Those wines of this sort which are red 4 or 

 black, 4 are more astringent and more heating than the others. 

 Wines which have been seasoned with pitch only, are not so 

 injurious ; but at the same time we must bear in mind that 

 pitch is neither more nor less than resin liquefied 5 by the action 

 of fire. These pitched wines are of a heating nature, promote 

 the digestion, and act as a purgative ; they are good, also, for 

 the chest and the bowels, for pains in the uterus, if there are 

 no signs of fever, for inveterate fluxes, ulcerations, ruptures, 

 spasms, suppurated abscesses, debility of the sinews, flatulency, 



96 " Sacco." A strainer of linen cloth. See B. xiv. c. 28, and B. xix. 

 c. 19. While it diminished the strength, however, it was considered to 

 injure the flavour. 



97 In that case, Fee says, they would differ but little from the wines of 

 the present day. See B. xiv. c. 25. 



98 See B. xiv. c. 24. " See B. xiv. co. 9, 10. 

 1 " Sapa." 2 See B. xiv. c. 25. 



3 Surrentine, Alban, Falernian, &c. 



4 The colour of Tent and Burgundy. 4 * The colour of Port. 

 3 See B. xiv, c. 25. 



