Chap. 25.] 
PITCH A^TD RESIlSr. 
265 
All the above juices are liquid and of a resinous nature only, 
but that of the cedar is comparatively thick, and of a proper 
consistency for making pitch. The Arabian resin is of a 
pale colour, has an acrid smell, and its fumes are stifling to 
those employed in boiling it. That of Judsea is of a harder 
nature, and has a stronger smell than that from the terebinth'-^ 
even. The Syrian-^ resin has all the appearance of Attic 
honey, but that of Cyprus is superior to any other ; it is the 
colour of honey, and is of a soft, fleshy nature. The resin of 
Colophon^^ is yellower than the other varieties, but when 
pounded it turns white ; it has a stifling smell, for which 
reason the perfumers do not employ it. That prepared in 
Asia from the produce of the pitch- tree is very white, and is 
known by the name of spagas." 
All the resins are soluble in oil some persons are of opi- 
nion also that potters' chalk may be so dissolved I feel 
ashamed '^'^ to avow that the principal esteem in which the 
resins are held among us is as depilatories for taking the hair 
off men's bodies. 
The method used for seasoning wines is to sprinkle pitch 
in the must during the first fermentation, which never lasts 
beyond nine days at the most, so that a bouquet is imparted 
to the wine,^^ with, in some degree, its own peculiar piquancy 
of flavour. It is generally considered, that this is done most 
eifectually by the use of raw flower of resin, which imparts 
a considerable degree of briskness to wine : while, on the 
other hand, it is thought that crapula itself, if mixed, tends 
19 See B. xiii. c. 11, and B. xvi. c. 21. Not the cedar of Lebanon, 
probably, which only gives a very small quantity of resin, but one of the 
junipers. 
'■^0 Fee suggests that this may have been the resin of the Arabian tere- 
binth. 
21 See B. xxiv. c. 22. 
22 Perhaps from the Pistacia terebinthus of Linnseus. 
23 This was made from the terebinth : hut the modern resin of Colophon 
is extracted from varieties of the coniferse. 
25 See B. xxiv. c. 22. 
26 Earths are not soluble in oils. 
2^ As being a mark of extreme effeminacy. 
2s The greater the quantity of alcohol, the more resin the wine would 
be able to hold in solution. 
See B. xvi. c. 22. 
20 Crapula" properly means head-ache, and what is not uncommonly 
known as " seedness." Resined wine was thought to be productive of 
