BUTTER. 



optr>tion of chuniiiig, it then becomes an uniform foft 

 mafs. 



Mcffrs. Parmnitier and Deycux, in a memoir on milk, 

 (Mt-m. qui a rcmpurte le premier prix, &c. Paris, 1791)1 

 inllitiitcd fcveral experiments to afct-rtain whctlur butler 

 rcaliy cxifts in the cream, and is merely feparated by agita- 

 tion, or by the acl of ch'irning, or whether this proccis ef- 

 fcftuates a chemical change. They incline to the latter 

 opinion ; bccaufe they found that the feparation of the par- 

 ticles of butter could not be produced in any other manner ; 

 cream lift in tlic milk yields fat cheefe, but not butter. 

 The oily parts do not rife into butter by cxpofure of cream 

 to heat, nor by boiling it. The application of acids by fe- 

 parating the chcefy matter blended with the cream, inllead 

 of facilitating, retards the fermentation of butter. Half an 

 ounce of oil was mixed with four ounces of cream ; this was 

 gently agitated and expofcd to moderate heat ; part of the 

 oil fwam on the furface, without uniting with the buttery 

 particles in the cream ; the other part rendered the fermen- 

 tation of butter more difficult, and its confidence fofter. 

 Thus, whether folvcnts were applied to attach the buttery 

 or cheefy particles of the cream, agitation was ilill necef- 

 iaxy, and the change into butter was rendered more diffi- 

 cult. 



Different methods are employed in obtaining and prepar- 

 ing this fubftance from milk as well as in managing and pre- 

 fcrving it for ufe. See Dairying. 



Butter, ll^hey, an inferior fort of butter made from 

 whey in cxtenlive cheefe dairies. It is prepared in different 

 methods in different dairy-diftrifts. See Dairying. 



Bi;tter, Hijlory of. The word butler is formed from /3aTu- 

 {«», a compound of /Sa;, co'w, and lufo;, cheefe ; q. d. coiv's- 

 ehiefe. Some authors, from a regard to this etymon, affeft 

 to write the word buttyr and hiUyr. This is the etymology 

 idopted by the Grecian and Roman authors. Cheefe was 

 knoM'n to them at a much earlier period than butter : and it 

 is therefore poflible, that, at firll, they might have confider- 

 ed the latter as a kind of cheefe, fince it appears that xf^o; 

 once fignified any kind of coagulated fubllance. But to the 

 fird fyilable of the word, it has been objefted, that the 

 Greeks ufed the milk of fheep and goats much earlier than 

 cow's milk ; and, for this reafon, lome have conjedlured, 

 that this fird fyilable was added, agreeably to the cuftom of 

 the Greeks, in order to magnify the objcA, or to exprefs a 

 fupcrior kind of cheefe. Varro, dc Re Ruftica, II. 5. p. 274. 

 Vigerus, de praecipuis Graeca; Diftionis Idiotifmis, Lugd. 

 Bot. 1684. p. 40. Others liave fuppofed, that tlis name 

 $>fiv^m is not originally Greek, but that it might have been 

 introduced into Greece from fome foreign country, toge- 

 ther with the theory which it expreifes. Accordingly, the 

 term has been thought to be of Scythian extraftion. 



Butter, though commonly ufed at prefent in mod parts 

 of Europe, was not known, or very imperfcftly known to 

 the ancients. The ancient trandators of the Hebrew 

 writers, however, feem to have thought, that they found 

 it mentioned in fcripturc, (Bochart Hierozoicon, II. 41;. p. 

 47i-) Accordingly, they have referred to the following 

 palfages: Gen. xviii. 8. Deuteron. xxxii. 14. Judges v. 

 25. 2 Sam. xvii. 29. Job xx. 17. xxix. 6. Prov. xxx. 

 33. Ifaiah vii. 15. 22. But biblical critics agree, that 1 he 

 word riNJ2n> chameah, fignifies milk or cream, or four 

 thick milk ; and fome of them who doubt or deny the early 

 ufe of butter among the E;iftern nations, will not allow that 

 It denotes butter. SeeMiehatl's Suppl. ad. Lexic. Heb. 

 pars. I. p. S07. The word, it is faid, plainly alludes to 

 fomethmg that is liquid ; and it appears, that 'chameah was 

 ulcd ior walhing the feet, that it was drauk, and that it 



8 



had the power of producing intoxication ; and it Is known, 

 that m.ire's milk, when four, will produce the like effeft. 

 It is further faid, that we may conceive of dreams of milk, 

 but not dreams of butter. The error has been afcribed to 

 the LXX interpreters who have tranflated the Hebrew 

 term by the word /3hti/^o», boitlyron. Thefe tranflators who 

 lived 200 years after Hippocrates, and who refided in 

 Egypt, might, as Michaelis fuggells, have been acquainted 

 with butter, or have heard of it ; but it is highly probable, 

 that they meant cream, and not our ufual butter. Accord- 

 ing to the common tranflation, indeed, it may be concluded, 

 that the padage in Proverbs, ch. xxx, dcfcnbes the piepa- 

 tion of butter by diaking or beating ; but the original words 

 ^'^pl y ,'2> chaleb metz, fignify fqueeziug or preinng, friaio 

 iriu/^enlis educit lac ; fo that milking and not making is fup- 

 pofed to be alluded to in this padage. It was late before 

 the Greeks appear to have had any notion of butter. Ho- 

 mer, Theocritus, Euripides, and the other poets, make no 

 mention of it : and yet they frequently fpeak of milk and 

 cheefe ; nor does Arillotle, who has coUedled feveral cu- 

 rious particulars relating to the other two, fay any thing of 

 butter. At fird, indeed, he gives milk only two compo- 

 nent parts, the watery and the cafeoiis ; and he remarks 

 afterwards, for the fird time, and in a place where it would 

 be little expefted, (Hid. Anim. iii. 20. p. jS8.) that in 

 milk there is alfo a fat fubdance, which, under certain cir- 

 cnmdances, is like oil. Herodotus is the mod ancient wri- 

 ter, who, in his account of the Scythians, (1. iv. 2.) 

 particularly defcribes the procefs ufed among them for 

 making butter ; and this circumdance affords a prcfump- 

 tion, that butter was not then in tife among the Greeks, 

 and that they mud have acquired it from the Scythians. 

 The word Btitv^ot firft occurs in Hippocrates, (De Morbis, 

 1. iv. ed. 1^95. fol. 5. p. 67.) who was almod contem- 

 porary with Herodotus, as both of them flouridied in 

 the 5th century before Chrid. " The Scythians," fays 

 Hippocrates, "pour the milk of their mares into wooden 

 vedels, and (liiike it violently ; this caufes it to foam, and 

 the fat part, whic.i is light, rifing to the furface, becomes 

 what is called butter, (0 /Sstujov KaXtacri.) The heavy and 

 thick part, which is below, being kneaded and perfcftly 

 prepared, is, after it has been dried, known by the name of 

 " hippace." The whey or fcrum remains in the middle." 



In this padage the author fpeaks very diltinftly of butter, 

 cheefe and whey. Butter is often mentioned by Hippocrates, 

 and he prefcribes it externally as a medicine under the appel- 

 lation Tix.mm, pilerlon, which feems to have been in earlier ufe 

 among the Greeks than the term /St/Iujov, or butter. In the 

 time of Galen this term p'derion, which the Greeks ^eem to 

 have borrowed from the Phr)'gian=, had ceafed to be in afe ; 

 and It is not to be found in Hefychius, Suidas, or Fohux. 

 The poet Anaxandrides, who lived foon after Hippocrates, 

 (fee Fab. Bib, Gnec. i. 666, 740.) defcribing the weddii g 

 of Iphicrates, who married the daughter of Cotys, king of 

 Thrace, and the Thracian entertainment given on that oc- 

 cafion, fays, that the Thraciansatc butter, which the Greeks 

 at that time confidered as a wonderful kind of food. Athe- 

 nsei, Deipiiof. 1. iv. p. iji, and Cafaubon. Anlmadv. in 

 Athen. 1. iv. c. 3. p. 248. Strabo, in three paflages (viz. 

 l.j.vol.i. p. 233. 1. XV. vol. ii. p. 1031. and 1. xvii. vol. ii. 

 p. 1176.) refers to butter. In the former, he fays, that the 

 Lulitanians ufed butter indead of oil; and in the la'l he 

 mentions the fame circumdance refpeding the ^Ethiopians, 

 who, as Ludolfus informs us, (Hid. vEtiuop. l.iv. 4. i j.) 

 were acquainted with butter; and in the third Strtbo re- 

 lates, that elephants, when wounded, drank this liquid in 

 order to make the darts fall from tlicir bodies. The geuuine- 



nefs 



