_Olives_ are preserv’d with Water and Salt, and then they become pleasing to the Taste; the Reason is, because the Liquor of Brine causes a little Fermentation in the _Olives_, by the Help thereof the Salts free themselves by degrees of the earthy Parts that do retain them; and afterwards with more Lightness and Delicacy prick the nervous Fibres of the Tongue. “The Brine produces another good Effect in the _Olives_; for by its saline Parts it stops up the Pores of this Fruit, and prevents the Air from ent’ring too much into it, and thereby cause a considerable Fermentation therein, which destroys the Fruit, and soon rots them. _Olives_ well preserv’d create an Appetite, by gently pricking the Sides of the Stomach, not only by their acid Salts, but also by those communicated to them by the Pickle. They also bind up and fortify the Stomach by their earthy Parts, which swallow up the over-abounding Moistures that relax the Fibres of that Part. The _Picholines_ are _Olives_ cut in several Places, and then steep’d in Pickle; they are sooner in a Condition to be eaten than others, because that by the Help of the Incision made in them, the Brine or Pickle is sooner and more effectually communicated to their whole Substance. Oil of _Olives_ is much us’d in Ailments; it’s of a qualifying, mollifying, anodine, dissolving and detersive Nature, good for the Cholic and Bloody-flux, and is prepar’d in this Manner. They get together in _November_ or _December_, a great Quantity of full ripe _Olives_, and lay them by for a Time in some Corner of the House, where they are heated, and thereby become purified of their watry Moisture; then they grind them in a Mill, and put them into Rush or Palm Frails, plac’d on the Top of one another Pressways, and the first Oil that comes from them, is called _Virgin’s Oil_. They sprinkle the _Olives_ with warm water, and by pressing them a-new, and still the more, there comes a good Oil from them. This done, they stir the _Olives_ again, and sprinkle them with hot Water, from which, thus order’d, there proceeds another Oil full of Dregs, and not so good as the rest. These Oils are easily separated from the Water, because they swim a top, but they find a Kind of Lees to the Bottom, which the Ancients called _Amurca_.