The seven books of Paulus Ægineta, volume 1 (of 3) : $b translated from the Greek: with a commentary embracing a complete view of the knowledge possessed by the Greeks, Romans, and Arabians on all subjects connected with medicine and surgeryPaulus, Aegineta
History
The seven books of Paulus Ægineta, volume 1 (of 3) : $b translated from the Greek: with a commentary embracing a complete view of the knowledge possessed by the Greeks, Romans, and Arabians on all subjects connected with medicine and surgery
Paulus, Aegineta
Medicine; Medicine, Arab; Medicine, Greek and Roman
the most delicious are the Alban and the Falernian. The Adrian is a
diffusible, diaphoretic, and safe wine. (i, 25.) According to Galen, the
cæcuban, so frequently mentioned by Horace, was not any one sort of wine,
but a general name applied to all generous and old wines. (De Succ. bon.
2.) Old wine was much sought after: Galen says everything is impaired by
age but wine. (De Antidot.) The Falernian was reckoned best from ten to
twenty: the Surrentine was not thought good until twenty-five. (Athen. i.)
According to Actuarius, the thick wines are most nourishing and form the
thickest blood, but are apt to occasion visceral obstructions; while, on
the other hand, the thin wines are more stomachic and less nourishing.
The sweet are the contrary; but the white are less hot than the others;
the gold-coloured are more hot; and then the red.
Wine, says Simeon Seth, is not only nutritious, but promotes in a
great degree the distribution of the food over the body, rousing, and
at the same time increasing the vital heat, and with it the urinary and
other secretions. It suits best, he says, with persons of a cold and
dry temperament; and, therefore, it is most proper for old men. He adds
that the immoderate use of wine dissolves the vital tone, depresses
the natural heat, and occasions apoplexy, epilepsy, and tumours of the
body. Macrobius attempts to trace a resemblance between the effects
of habitual intoxication and those resulting from exposure to extreme
cold. “Quæcunque nimium algentibus, eadem contingunt ebriis. Fiunt enim
tremuli, pallidi, graves; et saltu tumultuantis spiritus artus suos et
membra quatiuntur. Idem corporis torpor ambobus, eadem linguæ titubatio.
Multis etiam morbus ille quem παράλυσιν Græci vocant sic nimio vino,
et multo algore contingit.” In like manner, a modern writer, Andreas
Baccius, maintains that some wines are of a cold nature.
Haly Abbas gives nearly the same characters of wine as Seth. His account
of all the wines, natural and artificial, used in his time, is most ample.
Alsaharavius forbids wine to be taken when the stomach is quite empty,
or after a full meal. When taken seasonably, he says it improves the
appetite, increases the vital heat, nourishes the body, and clears the
senses.
Avicenna, with his usual judgment and industry, collects all the
information of preceding authors, to which he adds his own opinions. He
remarks that the immoderate use of wine induces disease of the liver and
brain, and debilitates the nerves.
Wine, says Rhases, warms the stomach and liver, and dispels flatulence,
promotes digestion, provokes the urinary and alvine discharges, and
gladdens the mind.
Serapion copies mostly from Galen in delivering the general characters of
wine. He disapproves of wine made with salt water. For an account of it,
see Pliny and Athenæus, (l. c.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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