B U T T 
ly ufed at prefcnt in the greater part of Europe, was not 
known, or known very imperfectly, to the ancients. The 
ancient trandators <jf the Hebrew writers teem however to 
have thought that they found it mentioned in Icripture : 
but thole bed acquainted with biblical criticifm unani- 
niotitly agree that the word chamea dignities milk or cream, 
or tour thick milk, and at any rate does not mean butter. 
The word plainly alludes to fomething liquid, as it ap¬ 
pears that chamea was tiled for waffling the feet, that it was 
drunk, and that it had the power of intoxicating; and 
we know that mare’s milk, when four, will produce the 
like effe< 5 t. We can readily imagine dreams of milk, but 
not dreams of butter. This error has been occationed by 
the feventy interpreters, who tranflate the Hebrew word 
by the word hoviyrcn. '1 hefe trandators, who lived two 
hundred years after Hippocrates, and who retided in Egypt, 
might, as Mr. Michaelis remarks, have been acquainted 
with butter, or have heard of it; but it is highly proba¬ 
ble that they meant cream, and not our ufual butter. 
Thole who judge from the common tranllation, would 
naturally conclude that the patfage in Proverbs, ch.xxx. 
deferibes tlie preparation of butter by (baking or beating; 
but the original w ords tignify fqueezing or prelling, prejjio 
friftio mulgentis educit lac ; to that milking, and not making 
butter, is alluded to. 
The olded mention of butter, though it is indeed du¬ 
bious and obteure, is in the account given of the Scythians 
by Herodotus. “ Thefe people (fays be) pour the milk 
•of their mares into wooden vetlcls, caufe it to be violently 
llirred or lhaken by their blind (laves, and feparate the part 
that arifes to the lurface, as they confider it more valuable 
and more delicious than that which is collected below it.” 
The author here certainly fpeaks of the richeft part of the 
milk being feparated from the reft by thaking; and it ap¬ 
pears that we iiave every reafon to fuppofe that he alludes 
to butter, efpecially as Hippocrates, who was almoft co¬ 
temporary, mentions the fame thing, but in a much clear¬ 
er manner. “ The Scythians (fays the latter) pour the 
milk of their mares into wooden vetrels, and thake it vio¬ 
lently; this catifes it to foam, and the fat part, which is 
light, riling to the furface, becomes vviiat is called butter. 
The heavy and thick part, which is below, being knead¬ 
ed and properly prepared, is, after it has been dried, known 
by the name of hippace. The whey or ferunt remains in 
the middle.” This author (peaks here very diftinCtly of 
butter, cheefe, and whey. It is probable that the Scy¬ 
thians may have flattened the feparation of the cafeous 
part from the whey by warming the milk, or by the addi¬ 
tion of Come fubftance proper for that purpofe. Thefe 
paftages therefore contain the firft mention of butter, which 
occurs feveral times in Hippocrates, and which he pre- 
feribes externally as a medicine; but he gives it another 
term (pikerion), which teems to have been in ute among 
the Greeks earlier than the former, and to have been af¬ 
terwards negledfed. That this word fignitied butter, and 
was no longer employed in the time of Galen, appears 
from his mandating it, in his explanation of the oblolete 
■expreftions of Hippocrates, by the word boutyron. it was 
even before that period explained in the fame manner by 
Erotian, in his didionary of the vyords ufed by that Greek 
phyfician ; and he remarks, from an ancient writer, that 
the Phrygians called butter pikerion, and that the Greeks 
deemed to have borrowed the word from thefe people. It 
however occurs very feldom, and is to be found neither in 
Hefychius, Suidas, nor Pollux. 
The poet Anaxandrides, who lived foon after Hippo¬ 
crates, deferibing the wedding of Iphicrates, w ho married 
the daughter of Cotys, king of Thrace, and the Thracian 
■entertainment given on that occafion, fays, the Thracians 
ate butter, which the Greeks at that time confidered as a 
wonderful kind of food. It is very remarkable, that the 
word butter does not occur in Ariftotle, and that he even 
fcarcely alludes to that fubftance, though we find in his 
works fome very proper information refpeffing milk and 
cheefe, which feems to imply careful obfervation. At 
Vol.III. No. 147. 
E R. 553 
firft he gives milk only two component parts, the watery 
and the cafeous; and he remarks afterwards, for the ; firft 
time, that in milk there is alto a fat fubftance, which, un¬ 
der certain circunirtances, is like oil. In Strabo there are 
three paftages that refer to this tubjetft, but from which 
little information can be obtained. This author fays, that 
the Lufitanians tiled butter intlead of oil ; he mentions 
the fame circumftance retpecting the Ethiopians; and he 
relates in another place, that elephants, when wounded, 
drank this fubftance in order to make the darts fall from 
their bodies. 1 1 feems doubtful whether the ancient Ethio¬ 
pians were acquainted w ith butter, though it is confirmed 
by Ludolfus. It ought to be remarked alto, that, accord¬ 
ing to Ariftotle, the elephants, to cure themfelves, did 
not drink butter, but oil. In this he is followed by Pliny ; 
and /Elian (ays, that for the above purpofe thefe animals 
tiled either the bloom of the olive-tree, or oil it (elf; but 
Arrian, who lived a hundred years after Strabo, and who 
has related every thing refpeding tlie diteates of the ele¬ 
phant and their cures, in the tame order as that author, 
lias omitted this circumftance altogether. Is the patfage 
of Strabo, therefore, genuine? /Elian however fays, in 
another part of his book, that the Indians anointed the 
wounds of their elephants with butter. 
The remarks made by Diofcorid.es and Galen, feem 
much more clear and authentic. The former fays, that 
good butter was prepared from the fatteft milk, Inch as 
that of llteep or goats, by thaking it in a veflel till the. fat 
was feparated. To this butter he afci ibes the fame effects, 
w hen uted externally, as thofe produced by our butter at 
prefent. He adds alto, and he is the firft writer- who 
makes the obfervation, that freftt butter might be melted 
and poured over pulfeknd vegetables intlead of oil, and 
that it might be employed in paftry in the room of other 
fat fubftances. A kind of foot likewife was at that time 
prepared from butter for external applications, which was 
tiled in curing inflammation of the eyes and other difur- 
ders. For this purpofe the butter was put into a lamp, 
and, when confumed, the lamp was again filled till the 
detired quantity of foot was collected in a veflel placed 
over it. Galen, who diftingnifhes and confirms in a 
more accurate manner the healing virtues of butter, ex- 
prefsly remarks that cow’s milk produces the fatteft but¬ 
ter; that butter made from (beep’s or goat’s milk is lefs 
rich; and that ats’s milk yields the pooretl. He exprelTes 
Ills aftonifhment, therefore, that Diofcorides ftiould fay 
that butter was made from the milk of fheep and goats. 
He affiires 11s, that lie had feen it made from cow’s milk, 
and that he believes it had thence acquired its name. 
“ Butter (fays he) may be very properly employed for 
ointments; and, when leather is befmeared with it, the 
fame purpofe is anlwered as when it is rubbed over with 
oil. In cold countries, which do not produce oil, butter 
is ufed in the baths; and that it is a real fat may be rea¬ 
dily perceived by its catching fire when poured over burn¬ 
ing coals.” What has been here faid is fufficient to lliew.- 
that butter muff have been very little known to, or ufed 
by, the Greeks and the Romans in the time of Galen, 
that is, at the end of the fecond century. 
The Roman writers, who give an account of the ancient 
Germans, all relate, that they lived principally on milk; 
but they difagree in one thing, becaule many of them tell 
us that they ufed cheefe, while others affirm that they 
w'ere not even acquainted with the method of preparing 
it. Pliny, on the other hand, fays, that they did not make, 
cheefe, but butter, which they ufed as a moft pleafant kind 
of food. He aferibes to them alfo the invention of it; 
for it is highly probable, that under the exprefiion ‘ barba¬ 
rous nations’ lie meant the people of Germany ; and his 
defeription of butter appears fo very clear, that it can 
fcarcely be doubted. He remarks, that, in order to make 
butter in cold weather, the milk ought to be warmed, but 
that in fuminer this precaution is not neceffary. The vef- 
fel employed for making it (cents to have had a great like- 
nefs to thofe ufed at prefent; we are told at lead that it 
7 B was 
