4/8 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXIII. 



from turnips 12 is good for recruiting the exhausted strength, 

 after exercises in arms or on horseback ; and, not to speak of 

 other preparations, they attribute a similar effect to wine of 

 juniper. 13 "Who is there, too, that would think of looking 

 upon wormwood wine 14 as superior in its effects to wormwood 

 itself? 



I shall pass in silence the rest of these preparations, and 

 among them palm wine, 15 which is injurious to the head, and 

 is beneficial only as a laxative to the bowels, and as a cure for 

 spitting of blood. We cannot, however, look upon the liquor 

 which we have spoken of 16 under the name of " bion," as being 

 an artificial wine ; for the whole art of making it consists merely 

 in the employment of grapes before they have arrived at ma- 

 turity. This preparation is extremely good for a deranged 

 stomach or an imperfect digestion, as also for pregnancy, faint- 

 ing fits, paralysis, fits of trembling, vertigo, gripings of the 

 bowels, and sciatica. It is said, too, that in times of pesti- 

 lence, and for persons on a long journey, this liquid forms a 

 beverage of remarkable efficacy. 



CHAP. 27. VINEGAR: TWENTY-EIGHT REMEDIES. 



Wine, even when it has lost its vinous properties, still re- 

 tains some medicinal virtues. Vinegar possesses cooling pro- 

 perties in the very highest degree, and is no less efficacious as 

 a resolvent ; it has the property, too, of effervescing, 17 when 

 poured upon the ground. We have frequently had occasion, 

 and shall again have occasion, to mention the various medicinal 

 compositions in which it forms an ingredient. {Taken by itself, 

 it dispels nausea and arrests hiccup, and if smelt at, it will 

 prevent sneezing : retained in the mouth, it prevents a person 

 from being inconvenienced by the heat 18 of the bath. It is used 

 as a beverage also, in combination with water, 19 and employed 



12 This would be a vigorous liquor, Fee thinks, and a good tonic ; 

 similar, in fact, to the modern antiscorbutic wines. 



13 Fee queries whether this was made from the fermented berries, or 

 from an infusion of them in wine. In the former case it would bear some 

 slight resemblance to our gin. 



14 Apsinthites." See B, xiv. c. 19. 



15 See B. xiii. c. 9. 16 In B. xiv. c. 10. 



17 The vinegar of the present day does not appear to have any such 

 property. 18 Celsus says the same thing, B. i. c. 3. 



19 " Posca," or vinegar and water, sometimes mixed with eggs, was the 

 common drink of the lower classes at Rome, and of the soldiers when on 

 service. 



