BUTTER. 



nefs of this latter pafTage is doubted, as Ariftotle, Pliny, and fucli as are now ufed ; he fays it was covered, arid that in the 

 jEllaii fay that thtfe animals iifrd oil for this purpofe. jEliiiii, lid there were holes. Whether Tacil us by " lac cortrttum," 

 indeed, (lib. xiii. c. 7.) fays, tliat the Indians anointed the (Do Moribus Gcrmanoriim, cap. 2j.), which, accoiding to 

 wonnds of their elephants with butter. Phiiarch, (Adverfns h;in, was the moll common food of the Germans, meant 

 Cololeni, apjd Op. t. ii. p. iioy. ed Xyland.) informs ns, checfe or butter, is not eafily determined, 

 that a Spartan lady paid a villt to Berenice, the wife of From what has been above fiid it appears, that butter is 

 Deiotarus, and that the one fmelltd fo much of ointment, not a Grecian, much lefs a lloman, invention ; but that the 

 and the other of butter, that neither of them could endure Greeks were made acquainted with it by the LSevthiann, the 

 the other. Diofcorides, about the year .j 3 B.C. (Mat. 1'hracians, and the Phrygians, and the Romans by the peo- 

 Mcd. ii. Si. p. 107.), fays, that good butter was prepared pie of Germany. It appears alfo, that when they had 

 from the fattcll milk, fuch as that of fhecp or goats, by learned the art of making it, they employed it only as an 

 fliaking- it in a vefTel till the fat was feparated ; and he af- ointment in their baths, and particularly in medicine. Colu- 

 cribes the fame ertefts to it, when applied externally, as thofe mella, (1. vi. i z. p. 5S2.) and not Pliny, is, as VofTius thinks, 

 produced by our butter at prefent. Diofcorides is the firll the lirR Latin writer, who makes life of the word " bntyrum." 

 writer who obferves, that frclh butter might be melted and Pliny (I. xxviii. c. 19.) recommends it mixed with honey to 

 poured over pulfe and vegetables inllead of oil, and that it bt rubbed on children's gum?, in order to eafe the pain of 

 might be employed in paltry in lieu of other fat fubllances. teething, and alfo for ulcers in the mouth. The Romans, 

 From him alio we learn, that a kind of foot was prepared in geiieral, feem to have ufed butter for anointing the bodies 

 from butter, for external applications, and that it was ufed of their children to render them pliable ; and we arc told by 

 in curing inflammation of the eyes and other diforders. For Sidonius Apollinaris (carm. 12.) that the ancient Burgun- 

 this purpofe the butter was put into a lamp, and, when con- dinns befmeared their hair with it. Clemens Altxandrinus 

 fumed, the lamp was again filled, till the defired quantity of (Pxdag. i. p. 107.), informs us, that the ancient Chriftians 

 foot was collefted in a vefTel placed over it. Galen, who of Egypt burnt butter in the lamps at their altars inllead of 

 dillinguidies and confirms in a more accurate manner the oil ; and the Abylflnians have retained a fomewhat finiilar 

 healing virtues of butter, obferves, that cow's milk products praftice. It is certain, from the above detail, that butter 

 the fattcft butter ; that butter made frcmi fheep's or goats' was ufed neither by the Greeks nor Romans in cookery, or 

 milk is lefs rich ; and that alTes' milk yields the poorell but- the preparation of food. It is never mentioned by Galea 

 tcr. He exprelfes his allonilhment that Diofcorides Ihould and others, as a food, though they have fpokcn of it as ap- 

 fay, that butter was made from the milk of fheep and goats ; plicable to other purpofes. No notice is taken of it by 

 he alTures us, that he had feen it made from cow's milk, and Apicius ; nor is any thing faid of it in that refpeft by 

 that he believes it had thence acquired its name. De Sim- the authors who treat on agriculture, though they have 

 plic. Med. Facuk. 1. X. p. i^i.td. Bafil ii. p 134. "But- given particular information concerning milk, cheefe, and 

 ter," fays he clfewhere (De Aliment. Facult. iii. cap. 15. oil. Indeed, the ancients had ufually accullomed themfelves 

 p. 54. cd. Bafil. iv. p. 340 ) may be Vf-ry properly employed to the ufe of good oil ; and butter in later times has been 

 for ointments ; and when leather is befmeared with it, the very little employed in Italy, Spain, Portncal, and the 

 fame purpofe is anfwtred as when it is rubbed over with oil. fouthern parts of France, where it has been fold in the fliops 

 In cold countries, which do not produce oil, butter is ufed of apothecaries for medicinal purpofes. In warm countries it 

 in the baths ; and that it is a real fat may be readily per- has been found difficult to prcferve it for any length of time, 

 celved by its catching fire when poured over burning coals. In the Roman churches it was anciently allowed, during 

 From the circumllances above recited we may infer, that Chrillmas time, to ufe butter inllead of oil, on account of 

 butter mull have been very little known to, or ufed by, the the great confumption of it in other ways. Accordingly, in 

 Greeks and the Romans in the time of Galen, who wrote the cathedral of Rouen, there is a tower called the " butter- 

 at Rome and lived at the end of the fecond century of the tower," tour dii leurre, becaufe George d'Amboife, arch- 

 Chriftian Kra. bifhop of Rouen, in 1500, finding the oil fail in his diocefe 



The Roman writers, who give an account of the ancient during Lent, permitted the ufe of butter, on condition that 

 Germans, relate, that they livtd principally on milk. Some each inhabitant (hould pay fix deniers for the liberty, with 

 fay, that they ufed cheefe, whilll others affirm that they which fum this tower was erefted. There are other butter- 

 were unacquainted with the method of preparing it. Strabo, towers at Notre Dame, Bourgcs, &c. 



(lib. iv. vol. i. p. 305), fpcaking of the ancient Britons, fays. From the account of the method of making butter tranf- 



that fome of them were to igr.orant, that though they had mittcd to us by the ancients, we have reafon to fuppofe, 

 abundance of milk, they did not uiiderfland the art of making that they were not acquainted with the art of making it fo 

 a cheefe ; but by his mode ot exprefliou he intimates, that compaft and firm as that of more modern times ; but it 

 they were not all equally unacquainted with this art. Pliny, feeuis to have been in an oily, or almoft liquid ftate. Butter 

 on the other hand, fays, (N. H. lib. xxviii. c. 9. § 35.) that is fpuken of as fomewhat fluid. The moderns cut, knead, 

 the barbarous nations not only made cheefe, but butter, and fprcad butter ; but the ancients poured it out like oil • 

 which they ufed as a moll plcafant kind of food, and that it and it is reprefentcd by the Greek tranflators uf the fcrip- 

 diftinguifhed the rich from the poor; and to them he aferibes turc as flowing in ilreams. On this account the butter of 

 the invention of it. By " barbarous nations," this nuthor the ancients would not be long kept or eafily tranfported ; 

 mud commonly means the Germans and Britons, becaufe they and the ufe of it muft have been very limited. Sec Beck- 

 were not thoroughly fubjcfted to the Roman government, manii's Hift. of Inventions, vol. ii. 



nor intlrudcd in the Roman arts. He obferves, that butter In diiTerent ages and nations various proceffes have been 

 was commonly made from tlie cow, the tnttell from the (heep, ufed for making butter. In Barbary, the effeCl of the 

 and thnt it was alfo made from goats' milk ; that in co'd operation, which we call " churning," is produced by put- 

 weather the milk was warmed, but that m (umnur this ting the cream into a goat's fkin turned inlide out, which the 

 precaution was not ntceffary. The vcficl employed for Arabs lui'peiid in their tents, ai.d then prefs to and fro in 

 making it fcems, from his dcfcription, to have rcfcmbkd one uuiforai direftioii. Li this way they quickly occalion 



the 



