A philosophical and statistical history of the inventions and customes of ancient and modern nations in the manufacture and use of inebriating liquors : with the present practice of distillation in all its varieties: together with an extensive illustration of the consumption and effects of opium, and other stimulants used in the East, as substitutes for wine and spirits / By Samuel Morewood.

  • Morewood, Samuel.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A philosophical and statistical history of the inventions and customes of ancient and modern nations in the manufacture and use of inebriating liquors : with the present practice of distillation in all its varieties: together with an extensive illustration of the consumption and effects of opium, and other stimulants used in the East, as substitutes for wine and spirits / By Samuel Morewood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    vineyards above the foriim Appii, Ccecuban fell into disrepute, and Setine was preferred for its various medicinal virtues. Amongst all the wines of Italy, the Falernian, so much celebrated by Horace, was in the greatest repute, and by Martial pronounced immortal, and justly so, when we consider that its praises have been sung by im- mortal bards. It was so very strong and rough, that Horace called it a fiery wine, and it was not drank till it had been kept ten years. Galen says it was in its best condition between the tenth and twen- tieth. To correct its roughness, it was either mixed with honey or wine of a weaker nature, by which it was rendered delicious—some- times it was diluted with water to moderate its strength. Faler- nian may be said to have been amongst the ancients what Tokay is amongst the moderns. The Faustian wine, a species of the Faler- nian, was of so spirituous a nature, that it would burn with a pure and light flame. The Alban, or wines of Alba, made near the City of Rome, are ranked by Pliny as only a third rate wine, but praised by both Horace and Juvenal—when new it was luscious and of a thick consistency; and in about fifteen years considered in its best state. The Surrentine wines, the produce of Aminean grapes, said by Tiberius Caesar to be so much recommended by phy- sicians, were, from their acidity, called by him generous vinegar—but those wines were liked by Caligula. The Massic is a wine described by Martial. The Fundanian, or wine of Signia, was so rough and astringent as to be mostly used for medicine. The Mamertine was a light wine from about Messina in Sicily, and that which was ordered by Julius Caesar to be used in the feasts of the city; and the Potulane wines were so called, from the first planters of the vine from which they were produced. The wines of Tuscany, the Praetutian, the Ancona, the Palmesian, from the vines growing up the palm or date tree; Cesenation and Mecsenatian wines; the Rhaetian, within the territory of Verona, spoken of by Virgil, and ranked by him next to Falernian; the Lateniensian, the Graviscan, and Statonian wines ; the wines made between the Pyrenean hills and the Alps, were with various others, celebrated, and many of them in great demand in Pliny's day. From the foregoing particulars, it may be inferred, that the abundance of wines amongst the Romans, rendered every other description of intoxicating drink unnecessary; and that the distilla- tion of spirituous liquors was wholly unknown to them. Neither the ruins of Herculaneum nor Pompeii, afford any vestige of the knowledge of such an art, wlule the Amphorae, which held the wine, are yet found in the cellars of several of the houses, after a lapse of nearly two thousand years.