The explanation given by one of Rhases’ authorities is to the same effect. He says: “Since our bodies are in a continual state of waste from the surrounding atmosphere, and the innate heat which is within, it behoved them to have nourishment to supply the part which is melted down; and, as all the food which is taken is not assimilated, it was necessary that there should be passages for the discharge of the superfluities.”
Hippocrates, Aristotle, Galen, and Musonius (ap. Stobæi Sentent. 18) remark that the stomach is to animals what the earth is to vegetables.
Our author’s general remarks on the properties of food are condensed from Galen’s work. (De Prob. p. Al. suc.) Horace agrees with Galen and our author in condemning the mixture of various articles of food. (Satir. ii, 2.) The arguments for and against this practice are very ingeniously stated by Macrobius. (Saturn. vii, 5, 6.) It appears that Asclepiades maintained the opinion that a multifarious diet is most easily digested. (Celsus, iii, 6.)
The ancients had the following meals during a day corresponding to those now in use: breakfast, jentaculum, ἀκράτισμα; dinner, or rather lunch, prandium, ἄριστον; soirée, merenda, ἑσπέρισμα; supper, cœna, δεῖπνον. To these may be added the commissatio, κῶμος, which was a sort of jollification after the great meal or supper. See Athenæus (lib. i); Jo. Bruyer (de Re Cibar. iii, i); Lambinus (in Plut. Truculent, ac. i, sc. 7, l. 16); Potter (Arch. Græc. iv, 16.) The common hour of breakfast was about 7 o’clock a.m., of dinner about 3 p.m.; and of supper about 8 p.m. The practice, however, of taking so many meals appears to have been disapproved of by the physicians and savans: for we find Actuarius discussing the question whether it be proper to eat twice or only once in the day; and Galen decidedly recommends people not to take food in general oftener than twice. Cicero even forbids to take two full meals in a day. (Tuscul. Quæst. v.) Hippocrates speaks with disapprobation of the practice of eating a full dinner. (De Vet. Med.) Suetonius makes it a reproach to Domitian that he dined fully. (In Domit.) Haly Abbas enters into a full examination of the question with regard to the number of meals. Some, he says, eat only once in the day, some twice, and others three times. He advises those persons who are actively employed not to dine, because, if obliged to take exercise immediately afterwards, the body will be loaded with half concocted chyle. Upon the whole he prefers supper to dinner. (Pract. i, 13.) Alsaharavius considers one meal in the day not sufficient for persons of a gross habit of body. He advises persons not to change even a bad regimen too suddenly. Rhases remarks, that to take another supply of food before a preceding meal is digested, will prove highly prejudicial to the health.
From the views of domestic life given in the Greek novels we are inclined to think that the supper was the only meal which all the members of a family of the better class partook of together. See in particular Achilles Tatius (pluries.) The breakfast and dinner were light meals, consisting of bread or cheese dipped in wine. (Apul. Metam. and Martial Epigr.)
The ancient physicians attached great importance to the proper regulation of the diet. Galen seriously admonishes his readers not to eat thoughtlessly, like brute beasts, but to consider attentively what kinds of food and drink they find from experience to be prejudicial to them. (De Sanit. tuenda, vi, 13.)
According to Athenæus, a good physician ought to be a good cook. (Deipnos. vii.) Upon the authority of Daphnus, the Ephesian physician, he decides that night is the most proper time for taking the supper or principal meal, because, says he, the moon promotes putrescency, and digestion is a species of putrefaction. (vii, 2.)
The processes which food undergoes in the body from its first introduction to its complete assimilation are stated in a very scientific manner by Macrobius. In the first place, he says, it is dissolved in the stomach, as much of it at least as is digestible, and that which is not soluble passes down to the intestine, while the chyme, or portion which has been dissolved, passes to the liver, there to undergo the second process of digestion, namely, sanguification, or conversion into blood. It then passes into the arteries or veins, where it undergoes its third species of digestion, namely, purification, by having its recrementitious particles sent off in the form of bile and urine. It is then conveyed to the different parts of the body where the fourth process of digestion is accomplished, namely, assimilation, by which it is converted into the different substances of which the body is composed. (Saturnal. vii, 4.)
The lettuce is manifestly refrigerant and moistening; it is therefore soporific, and, compared with other pot-herbs, nutritious, forming blood of a very good quality. The endive is refrigerant and moistening, but less so than the lettuce. The mallows cool but not obviously: they rather moisten and thereby loosen the belly; and this they do by means of the viscid juice which they contain. The beet is detergent, and thereby softens the belly; but when eaten in great quantity it occasions pain of the stomach: it removes obstructions of the liver and spleen. The cabbage, when twice boiled before it is eaten, binds the belly, but when only once boiled for a short time, it rather loosens, if eaten with oil, sauce, or salts; as its juice, still more than the dried lentil, is of a purgative quality; and in particular the sea-cabbage is laxative of the belly, being manifestly saltish and bitter. The sea-purslane tree, possessing stronger saline qualities, loosens the belly, and agrees better with the stomach than the cabbage, from having a moderate astringency; it is also fitted for forming milk and semen. The blite and orache (atriplex hortensis) and such like are succulent and laxative, but not nutritious. All the thorny tribe, such as the cardoons, the atractylis, and such like are stomachic, except the cinara, for, being hard, it forms bad chyme; and, therefore, it is best to take it boiled with oil, fish-sauce, and coriander. The parsley, the horse-parsley (smyrnium olusatrum), the water parsnip, and the allsander, are diuretic; but the allsander is aromatic, and more acrid, diuretic, and emmenagogue, whereas the parsley and horse-parsley are sweeter, and, therefore, agree better with the stomach. The rocket (brassica eruca) is hot, and forms semen; and, therefore, rouses to venery and occasions headachs. The cress, basil (ocimum), and mustard are hot and acrid, particularly the cress; but all are of difficult digestion, injure the stomach, and supply unwholesome juices. But the nettle is attenuant, laxative, and of little nourishment. The toothpick-fennel is like the shepherd’s needle, possessing astringent and bitter qualities in no small degree; it is beneficial to the stomach, so that those who have lost their appetite may eat it with advantage in vinegar; but it supplies little nourishment to the body. All the wild pot-herbs, as they are called, contain very bad juices. Capers, however, whet the appetite, remove obstructions of the liver and spleen, and evacuate phlegm. They are to be used with vinegar and honey, or with vinegar and oil, before taking any other food.
Commentary. Athenæus remarks that the use of pot-herbs, as articles of food, appears to have been very ancient, since several of them are mentioned by Homer. (Deipnos, i, 29.) Diphilus says, “all pot-herbs in general contain little nutriment, are attenuant, engender bad juices, swim in the stomach, and are of difficult digestion.” (Deipnos, ii, 28.) Actuarius states, that pot-herbs in general form a thin and watery blood, compared with that from thicker articles of food.
The ancients ate their pot-herbs with much oil, and generally a liberal allowance of hot spices. See Apicius (iii.) A sauce from pickled fish, vinegar, or old wine, was often added to the preparation. The poet Juvenal makes mention of a miser who ate his cabbage with the oil from lamps. (Sat. v, 87.) Celsus remarks of such things, “Quodcunque ex olio garove estur olus alienum stomacho est.”
We now select from the dietetical writers a few remarks on the most important articles of this class.
Galen strongly recommends the lettuce as a cooling, moistening, and soporific herb. He relates that he cured himself of morbid insomnolency by eating liberally of lettuces. The soporific property of lettuces is mentioned by Dioscorides, Pliny, Athenæus, Rhases, Haly Abbas, Simeon Seth, and most of the other authorities. It is even said by Simeon Seth and Florentinus (Geopon. xvii, 13), that the juice of it when rubbed upon the forehead induces sleep. We need scarcely remark, that the lettuce was lately restored to its place in the Materia Medica as a soporific. Martial directs the lettuce to be eaten at the beginning of a feast (xi, ep. 53); Athenæus at the end.
Athenæus mentions that mallows are praised by the poet Hesiod. (Op. et Dies. i.) He adds, “Diphilus relates that mallows have good juices, smooth the trachea, are easily evacuated, and prove moderately nutritious.” Damogeron says that when eaten with fish sauce and oil, they loosen the belly. (Geopon. l. c.) Galen and Aëtius state that they lubricate the intestines more than lettuce, but are not so refrigerant. In a word, mallows were in great repute with the ancients, as being inferior to none of the oleracea. Horace calls them “gravi malvæ salubres corpori.” (Epod. ii.) The poet Martial mentions them as being laxative. (x.) Different species of mallows were probably used by the ancients for food, but more especially the Malva rotundifolia L.
Galen states that the juice of the beet is thinner and more detergent than those of the lettuce and mallows. He says that, when twice boiled it becomes astringent. Apicius recommends boiled beet to be eaten with mustard, a moderate proportion of oil, and vinegar. Beet-root, according to Actuarius and Simeon Seth, is difficult to digest, flatulent, and laxative. Dioscorides and Diphilus, however, state that beet contains better juices, and is more nutritious than cabbage. Athen. (Deipn. ix.) Galen recommends its pickled roots as deobstruent in infarction of the liver and spleen. (De Alim. Facult. ii.)
The wild succory and the endive or garden succory were much used by the ancients as pot-herbs. Galen briefly states, that in properties they resemble lettuces, but are less delicious. According to Simeon Seth, they are slightly cooling and moistening. The endive, he says, when boiled with vinegar is astringent. Rhases praises it as a deobstruent in affections of the liver. Apicius directs it to be dressed with fish-sauce and oil. Its boiled roots were also prepared as a pickle.
The brassicæ, or cabbages, were great favorites of the elder Cato. (De Re Rust.) Horace states correctly, that such as grow in the country are better than those which are raised about towns. (Sat. ii, 4.) According to Galen, their juices are laxative, but their solid parts astringent. Brocoli, says Rhases, when not pickled are not heating, and being flatulent they engender semen: those that are pickled are more heating, occasion thirst, supply bad nutriment, and inflame the blood. Is brocoli an Italian word, or an Arabian, formed from caulis with a prefix?
The halimus, according to Sprengel, is the atriplex halimus L., called by Miller the sea purslane; but by others it is referred to the salicornia fruticosa L. Dioscorides says that its leaves when boiled are used for food. (i, 120.)
Rhases and Haly Abbas state that spinach is laxative and wholesome. The Greeks and Romans appear to have been unacquainted with it.
The atractylis is supposed by Sprengel to be the carlina lanata L. a woolly carline thistle. Dioscorides and Pliny recommend it as an antidote against poisons; but it seems to have been little used as a pot-herb.
The nettle (either the urtica dioica or pillulifera) is mentioned as a pot-herb by Theophrastus (H. P. vii, 7), and most of the medical authorities. Psellus calls it laxative.
The scandix, or shepherd’s needle, was in little repute as an article of food; and hence Aristophanes makes it a subject of reproach to Euripides, that his mother sold not good pot-herbs, but scandix. (Achar. act. ii, sc. 4; Pliny, H. N. xxii, 38.)
Galen says that the gingidium is eaten in Syria, like the scandix in his country. It has been supposed, by Bruyer and others, to be the chærophyllum or chervil; but, according to Ludovicus Nonnius, this is a mistake. We are inclined to refer it to the daucus gingidium L., or pick tooth.
Galen, Aëtius, and Simeon Seth speak of the cinara as an unwholesome pot-herb. It may be eaten, however, Galen says, with oil, fish-sauce, and wine and coriander. Many of the authorities have referred it to the artichoke, but it seems to be now settled that no ancient writer has noticed it, with the exception of Columella, who has given a very striking description of it. (x, 237.) We cannot decide positively what the cinara was.
Dioscorides says, that the scolymus is eaten like asparagus. (iii, 16.) It is the scolymus Hispanicus, or Spanish cordoons.
The hipposelinum appears to have been the smyrnium olusatrum. See Harduin’s note on Pliny (H. N. xix, 48), and Sprengel (ad Dioscor. iii, 71.) Dioscorides says it is used as a pot-herb, like parsley, its root being eaten boiled or raw, and its stalk and leaves boiled, either alone or with fish. It is not to be confounded with the smyrnium of the ancients, which is the smyrnium perfoliatum. Dioscorides says that the latter, when pickled, is used as a pot-herb, and is astringent.
Galen says that the blite and orache are watery pot-herbs, and almost insipid. Seth, and the other authorities who notice it, agree that the latter is cooling and laxative. The blite is still much used as a pot-herb in Spain and Italy. It is the blitum capitatum.
Xenophon mentions that the ancient Persians lived very much upon cresses, using them as a seasoner to their food. (Cyroped. i, 2.) According to Aëtius and Simeon Seth, they are calefacient and desiccative. Seth calls them aphrodisiacal. On the aphrodisiacal powers of the cresses and rocket, see Section xxxvi.
The sion was probably the sium nodiflorum, procumbent water-parsnip. It was used as a substitute for the cress.
Dioscorides says that the root of the dracunculus, or dragon-herb, is sometimes eaten as a pot-herb, both when boiled and raw. He mentions that the inhabitants of the Balearian Isles mix its root with honey, and use it at their banquets in place of cakes. (ii, 16.) Simeon Seth notices it by the name of tarchon, being a corruption from Tarragona. He calls it flatulent and unwholesome, and says that its leaves only are to be used along with mint and parsley. Galen and Rhases likewise mention it as an article of food. The aron was a plant nearly allied to it, but one which it is difficult to determine accurately.
Mustard, as Hippocrates remarks, is of a hot and purgative nature. Seth says that it promotes the digestion and distribution of the food. Rhases forbids it to be eaten, except along with thick articles of food.
Pliny mentions the ocymum or basil in very unfavorable terms.
The dock, rumex L., is sometimes mentioned as a pot-herb, but does not appear to have been much in use. Horace alludes to its laxative properties. Galen says some women affected with pica and bizarre children eat the oxylapathum (rumex acutus L.) raw, but that it is still less nutritious than the lapathum.
Capers, says Aëtius and Seth, consist of different qualities, as bitterness, which renders them detergent, purgative, and penetrative; acrimony, which makes them calefacient, discutient, and attenuant; and sourness, which renders them astringent. Serapion says that, when pickled with vinegar, they strengthen the stomach and whet the appetite. When pickled with salt, he says, they are bad for the stomach. Galen recommends pickled capers in obstruction of the liver and spleen.
The buglossum, or borage, is frequently mentioned as a herb which, when eaten, imparts gladness to the soul. Ludovicus Nonnius informs us that the Belgians still fancy that it possesses this property, and look upon it as the Homeric nepenthes.
We have had occasion to mention in another place that the ancients were fully persuaded of the aphrodisiacal properties of the eruca, or rocket.
The strychnos has been generally supposed to be some species of solanum. It is mentioned as a pot-herb by Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Galen, but was in little repute. Several other plants are mentioned as pot-herbs by the dietetical writers, such as fennel, anise, dill, hyssop, and wild thyme, but they are of little importance.
Blites, lettuces, orachs, mallows, and beets have the plant juicy, but the shoot dry. The turnip, mustard, radish, cress, pellitory, cabbage, and other hot things, have the plant of a dry, but the shoot of a juicy nature. The shoots of the bushy shrubs, both the marsh and garden, and that of the bryony, are stomachic and diuretic, but of little nourishment, yet when digested they are more nutritious than those of pot-herbs. Such also are the shoots of the ground-bay.
Commentary. See Suidas (in Voce); Galen (de Alim. Facult.); Humelbergius ad Apul. (de Med. Hist. 84.) Our author’s account of the Asparagi is abridged from Galen. He remarks that the young shoots of the cabbage, called cymæ, are particularly tender. Apicius directs them to be prepared with cumin, salt, old wine, and oil; to which pepper, borage, and the like may be added.
On the Asparagi, see Athenæus. (Deipnos. ii.)
The plant now commonly known by the name of asparagus is said by Simeon Seth to be so nutritious that it deserves to hold an intermediate place between pot-herbs and flesh. He remarks, that it is diuretic, and imparts its smell to the urine. The wild asparagus is called corruda by Cato, Columella, and Pliny.
The bunias or turnip, when eaten after being twice boiled, is nutritious, no less so than other herbs, but when frequently taken it engenders thick juices. The bulbi are astringent and detergent, whet the appetite, strengthen the stomach, and evacuate the viscid humours contained in the chest. When twice boiled, they are more nourishing, but less expectorant, having lost their bitter principle. They are productive of semen, and aphrodisiacal when liberally used, and occasion flatulence and griping. When eaten with fish-sauce and oil, they are very sweet, do not create flatulence, are nutritious and digestible. The garden and wild carrot and the caraway have roots which are less nutritious than turnip, but hot, decidedly aromatic, and diuretic. But when used too freely, they supply bad juices, and become of difficult digestion, like other roots. Some call the wild carrot daucus; it is evidently more diuretic than the other. The radish is of an attenuant and heating nature; but may be eaten before other food along with vinegar and fish-sauce, to loosen the bowels, but by no means after a meal. The onion, garlic, leek, and dog-leek (ampeloprason), being of an acrid nature, warm the body, attenuate and cut the thick humours contained in it; when twice boiled, they give little nourishment, but when unboiled they do not nourish at all. The garlic is more deobstruent and diaphoretic than the others; and the dog-leek, being wild, is drier than the common leek. Regarding pot-herbs in general, the raw, when eaten, furnish worse juices than the boiled, as they have more excrementitious juice. But those which are prepared for pickles with brine or vinegar and salt are stomachic, and whet the appetite, and discuss crude humours; but are of difficult digestion, and supply bad juices when too freely taken.
Commentary. Galen thus delivers the general character of these substances: The roots of pot-herbs which are acrid, such as those of onions, leeks, garlic, radish, and carrot, contain bad juices; but those of turnips, rapes, and caraways hold an intermediate place between things of good and of bad juices.
It is well known that the Romans had two kinds of herbs with esculent roots, called the napus and rapum, and that they are generally admitted to have been two species of the turnip. See Columella (de R. Rust. ii, 10); Pliny (H. N. xviii, 13) and the note of Harduin; Sprengel (R. H. H. t. i.) The term bunias occurs first in Nicander; and that it was synonymous with the gongylis is declared by Galen and our author; and, further, that it was the brassica napobrassica L., or wild navew, is admitted by all the late authorities on classical botany, with the exception of Dierbach, who most unaccountably contends that it is the B. oleracea. Galen says that unless well boiled it is indigestible, flatulent, and bad for the stomach. Seth assigns it the same qualities as our author. All account it diuretic and aphrodisiacal. Apicius directs the rapa and napi to be eaten with cumin, rue, vinegar, oil, &c. (iii, 13.) Cato the Censor was very fond of turnips, and used to prepare them with his own hands. It appears from Athenæus that the ancients frequently ate their turnips roasted. They also ate turnips prepared as a pickle with vinegar and mustard at the commencement of a feast, as whetters. (Deipnos. iv, 11.) According to Diphilus, in this state they are more attenuant than in their natural state. (Deipnos. ix, 8.)
It is not well ascertained what the esculent bulbi of the ancients were. Harduin conjectures that they were a delicious kind of onions. Matthiolus and Nonnius are wholly undecided. Sprengel inclines, with Dalecampius and Sibthorp, to think that they were a species of muscari, or musk hyacinth. The account given of them by Serapion, who calls them capæ sine tunicis, agrees better with the conjecture of Harduin. Eustathius likewise says that the bulbus was a wild onion. (Ad Iliad. xiii, 589.) Columella, Varro, Apicius, and Martial call them aphrodisiacal.
The staphylinus was probably the carrot, or daucus carota, but we are inclined to think that it also comprehended the parsnip. See Athen. (Deip. ix, 2.) Apicius, among other methods of dressing it, directs it to be done with salt, pure oil, and vinegar.
The sisarum was probably the garden parsnip, pastinaca sativa L.
The carus seems indisputably to have been the carum carui L. Dioscorides says that its boiled root may be eaten like the carrot. Seth praises it as being carminative, diuretic, and astringent. Apicius mentions it frequently along with spices and other aromatics.
The characters of the onion, garlic, and leek are taken from Galen. Celsus calls them calefacient, and ranks them with things having unwholesome juices. Actuarius prefers the leek to the onion and garlic. The latter is warmly eulogised by Galen, as being the rustic’s theriac. Horace had not so much favour for it. (Epod. iii.) Galen calls the ampeloprason the same as the wild leek. (De Fac. Simp. vi.) Dioscorides describes two species of the porrum, namely, the capitatum and sectivum.
The asphodel (asphodelus ramosus) is mentioned as an article of food by the poet Hesiod. Galen, however, speaks of its being eaten only in times of scarcity.
Galen directs radishes to be eaten before dinner, as a laxative. He justly expresses his surprise at the practice of certain physicians, and other persons of his time, who ate radish after dinner to promote digestion. The wild radish was called armoracia by the Romans, as we are informed by Dioscorides.
The truffle (tuber) forms chyme devoid of qualities, but cold and thick. The mushrooms called mycetæ, being of a cold nature, form phlegm and bad chyme. Of these, the boleti are devoid of qualities, and are safer than the others when boiled properly. The amanitæ are of the second order. The other mushrooms ought not to be tasted, for many of them are mortal poisons; and even the boleti, when eaten without being properly boiled, have often proved dangerous.
Commentary. Diphilus says “Fungi are grateful to the stomach, laxative, and nutritious, but of difficult digestion, and flatulent.” (Athen. Deipnos. ii, 19.) He adds, “the nature of truffles is, that they are difficult to digest, supply good juices, and are laxative; but some of them, like the fungi, occasion suffocation.” (Ibid. 51.) Galen says that they contain cold, viscid, and thick juices. Serapion says that they engender gross humours. According to Avicenna they are apt to super-induce apoplexy and paralysis. Simeon Seth says that truffles occasion crude and depraved humours. He directs them to be steeped in water for some hours before boiling them; and prepared with pepper, marjoram, salt, and rue, to correct their bad properties. Rhases, in like manner, recommends us to eat truffle boiled in water, with salt, marjoram, oil, and assafœtida. He also recommends wine, honied water, or the theriac after mushrooms. Apicius directs fungi to be eaten with pepper, oil, salt, &c. Horace points out the best kind of fungi.
The poets make frequent mention of mushrooms as a delicacy at the tables of gourmands. See in particular Juvenal (Sat. v, 145.)
Apicius directs us to preserve truffles, by laying them in a vessel along with alternate layers of sawdust, and then covering up the mouth of the vessel with parget. On the mode of raising them, see ‘Geopon.’ (xii, 41.) In the days of Juvenal, the Roman gourmands appear to have attached more importance to the truffles than the corn which they were supplied with from Africa:
Ludovicus Nonnius confesses himself unable to determine what species of mushroom the amanitæ of our author were. Seth makes no distinction between them and the mycetæ. See further Athen. (Deip. ii, 7, ed. Schweig.)
Of the frumentacea, the chondrus is nutritious, and forms viscid chyme; but a watery preparation is unwholesome, because, as it thickens quickly, it remains raw and unconcocted; but the juice of it is better when it is properly boiled whole, like a ptisan. The alica, in other respects, resembles the chondrus, only that it binds the bowels more. Wheat, when boiled and eaten, is of difficult digestion and flatulent; but if digested it proves a very strong food. When made into bread, its indigestible and flatulent properties are removed by the leaven and salt which are added. The most nutritious of all the kinds of bread is that made from siligo; next, that from the similago; and, third, that which is composed of the entire grain. Coarse bread is less nutritious, but more laxative than the other kinds. Starch gives little nourishment, like washed bread. Barley is of a cold nature and detergent: when boiled like a ptisan it humectates; but when toasted, as in polenta, it dries. Polenta in summer, drunk with water before the bath, quenches thirst. Barley-bread is dry and of little nourishment. The pudding (maza) is of more difficult digestion, and more flatulent than barley-bread, and when it receives a little honey is laxative. Oats are heating and of little nourishment. Millet and panic are cold and dry, contain little nourishment, and bind the bowels. But the millet is in every respect superior to the panic. Rice is of difficult digestion, contains little nourishment, and binds the bowels. A ptisan is prepared, by adding one part of it to fifteen parts of water, then mixing a moderate quantity of oil, and after it swells up, some vinegar. When properly boiled, a small quantity of salt is to be thrown in, and sometimes leeks or dill may be added. Oats and chondrus may be prepared in like manner as a ptisan.
Commentary. On the cerealia consult in particular Theophrastus (H. P. iii); Dioscorides (ii); Galen (de Aliment. i); Pliny (H. N. xviii); Serapion (de Simpl.); and of the modern authorities see, in particular, Harduin (Notæ in Plin. l. c.); Paucton (Metrologie); Dickson (Husbandry of the Ancients); Sprengel (R. H. H. and Notæ in Diascor. l. c.); Ludovicus Nonnius (de Re Cibaria, i); and J. Bruyerinus Campegius (de Re Cibaria.)
Among the cerealia, wheat, as Galen states, deservedly holds the first place, being in most general use and containing the most nutriment within a small bulk. He remarks, that it is the most glutinous of all the articles of this class.
Haly Abbas likewise states that wheat is the most nutritious of all articles of food. Pliny asserts the same thing of it. He calls the siligo the deliciæ tritici. Galen explains the siligo and similago in much the same terms as our author. The third species, or the autopyrus, he says, consists of all the parts of the grain, the bran not being excluded. Actuarius, on the other hand, says that the bran only is rejected. Is not the text of the latter corrupt? Bran, Galen adds, is detergent, and contains little nourishment. Modern commentators have been greatly puzzled to determine what the siligo, similago, and autopyrus of the ancients were. It appears impossible to reconcile all the different descriptions of them given by ancient writers, and therefore we cannot but suspect that some of them must have written from an imperfect acquaintance with the subject. Upon the whole, we are inclined to think that we shall not be far from the truth if we set them down as varieties of flour or bread, as regards quality, corresponding in a great measure, to the kinds of bread now distinguished by the names of the white, the wheaten, and the household. At all events the autopyrus is certainly analogous to the last. The furfuraceus, or panis cibarius of Celsus, was made solely from bran.
Theophrastus mentions that the lightest wheat imported to Greece in his time was the Pontic. It is curious to remark that Odessa wheat still retains its ancient character. The heaviest, he says, was the Sicilian, which, however, was lighter than the Bœotian. Pliny says that the lightest wheat brought to the Roman market was the Gallic, and then that imported from the Chersonese. The first in excellence, he adds, are the Bœotian, the Sicilian, and next to these the African.
Galen gives an interesting account of bread. The best kinds, he says, are such as contain plenty of leaven, have been properly pounded, and exposed to a moderate heat in the oven. When exposed to too strong a heat, he properly remarks that a crust is burned on the outside, while the inside is left raw or improperly concocted. Unleavened bread he wholly condemns. Celsus appears to have had a better opinion of it, for he ranks it first among those substances which do not spoil on the stomach. Of bread, in general, he correctly remarks, “Siquidem plus alimenti est in pane quam in ullo alio.” Pliny and Galen describe a soft spongy kind of bread, which would seem to have resembled that which we call buns. Pliny adds, that some nations prepare their bread with butter. He mentions a kind of bread called artolagani, which, according to Dr. Arbuthnot, answered to our cakes. Seth gives an interesting account of bread, but it is mostly extracted from Galen. Haly Abbas says, that the best kind of bread is that which is made from wheaten flour and salt, and is fermented, and heated in an oven to such a degree as not to burn the outer crust. Rhases disapproves entirely of unleavened bread. Serapion states that old bread is astringent. Avenzoar prefers newly-made bread, provided it has been cooled. Hippocrates condemns the eating of bread before it has been properly cooled. (De Diæt. i.) He mentions only two kinds of bread, the fine and the coarse—autopyrus. (De Vet. Med. 14.) According to Actuarius, the lightest kinds of wheat form the best bread for indolent persons, but persons actively employed require the weightiest kinds. Unleavened bread, he says, is very indigestible. Bread prepared with oil, he adds, is very nutritious, but requires a strong stomach to digest it. See an interesting account of the various kinds of bread in Athenæus (Deipnos. ii, 26.) He makes the remark that the worst kind is the most laxative. Among the kinds of bread described by ancient authors may be noticed the oxylipus mentioned by Galen (Meth. Med. viii, 5), which, as Manardus remarks, was prepared with vinegar. Another kind, called νάστος, was fermented with honey, dried grapes, &c. See Tzetzes (ad Lycoph. Casan. 640.) It is to be borne in mind that the ancients generally used leaven to ferment their bread. Pliny, however, mentions that the Gauls and Spaniards were in the practice of using yeast. (H. N. xviii, 7.)
The zea, typha, and olyra of the Greeks, and the far and adoreum of the Romans, were all varieties of spelt, a species of grain bearing some resemblance to wheat; in short, it was the triticum spelta L. Actuarius calls it a light, and not very nutritious grain. The chondrus was prepared from spelt, by first separating the husks, and then breaking it down into granules. The alica was the same as the chondrus, with only the addition of a small quantity of chalk; and, indeed, almost all the writers on Dietetics, except our author, use them as synonymous terms. A more complicated method of preparing them is described by Pliny, and in the ‘Geoponics’ (iii, 7) Sprengel says that chondrus is what is called perlgraupen by the Germans. It was therefore nearly the same as the pearl-barley of this country, only that it was prepared from the grain called spelt, triticum spelta, and not from common barley. Galen, like our author, explains that a gruel, or decoction from it, is unwholesome, as it thickens before it is properly concocted.
Starch, according to Galen and Oribasius, is lubricant, and not calefacient like bread. They say that it is not very nutritious. Serapion gives the same account of it.
Galen, Rhases, Haly Abbas, and, in fact, all the authorities, agree that barley is of a colder nature, and less nutritious than wheat. Polenta was prepared by first steeping the grain in water, and afterwards drying it at the fire, and grinding it down to meal. It was therefore a sort of malt. Galen, like our author, remarks that barley-meal sprinkled on wine and water, or water alone, makes an excellent beverage. Actuarius recommends barley-water as a diluent drink in fevers. Ptisan of barley was thus prepared: Barley was boiled until it swelled; it was then dried in the sun, and afterwards pounded and freed of its husk, and again pounded but not ground. This flour was boiled with fifteen parts of water, to which a small quantity of oil, and, when it swelled, some vinegar were added. Salt also was often added to it. It was either used as thus prepared, or it was strained, when it got the name of the juice of ptisan. (Hippocrates de Regim. in acut.; see Galen’s treatise de Ptisana.) A long-lived race of people in Chaldea are said to have subsisted principally upon barley-bread. See Lucian (Macrobii). Galen states that it is very deficient in nutritive properties. (De Re Alim. i, 10.) According to Athenæus barley-bread was among the worst kinds of it.
Galen says of oats that they are the food of horses and not of men. Aëtius and Simeon Seth call them refrigerant.
Galen, Dioscorides, Simeon Seth, and Serapion agree that rice is astringent, and recommend it for ulcers of the intestines. Galen reckons the bread prepared from it next in quality to that from wheat. Simeon Seth calls it nutritious. Celsus ranks it with things of a weak nature.
Galen and Serapion say that millet and panic being devoid of oily matter are desiccative, and therefore useful in defluxions of the belly. Simeon Seth says that the millet is of difficult digestion, and not nutritious. Rhases directs panic to be eaten with fresh milk, butter, and sugar. Pliny mentions a sweet species of bread prepared from millet. Galen says that it is not possessed of much nourishment. He says it was only used for bread in times of scarcity. The panic was merely a variety of the millet, i. e. of the panicum Italicum. It was looked upon as inferior to the common millet.
The maza, as Zeunius explains it, consisted of the flour of toasted barley pounded with some liquor, such as water, oil, milk, oxycrate, oxymel, or honied water. Galen calls it flatulent and unwholesome food. Hesiod recommends the maza, or cake prepared with milk, as an article of food during the heat of the dog-days. (Opera et Dies, 588.) In the Prytoneum or House of Refuge, at Athens, persons were fed on it. (Athen. Deipnos. iv.)
The bellaria, called also placentæ, liba, and crustulæ, by the Romans, and by the Greeks πέμματα, ἴτρια, and πλάκουντες, were cakes of various kinds, prepared with flour, water, oil, honey, and sometimes fruits. See Athenæus (Deipnos. xiv.) They were served up towards the conclusion of a banquet, as appears evident from Matron’s Parody, (in Athenæus iv. 5.) The obelius panis, mentioned by him in the 3d book, is supposed by Ludovicus Nonnius to have been a species of pastry. According to Schweighäuser the French oublie is derived from it. (Ad Athen. iii, 76.)
The bucellatum, mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus and Ælius Spartianus, was a species of bread used by the Roman soldiers, and appears to have resembled our ship-biscuit. (See Not. Gronovii, in Amm. Marcell. xvii, 8.) This kind of bread was called δίπυρος by the Greeks (see Hesychius), that is to say, bis coctus, and hence the English biscuit.
Of pulse, the lentil forms a bad chyme and melancholic humours; but especially it, when twice boiled, binds the bowels; yet its soup, when drunk with oil and sauce, is rather laxative. But savory or pennyroyal ought to be added to it because it is flatulent. The common bean is light, flatulent, and detergent; but the Egyptian bean is much more succulent and excrementitious than ours. The pea is spongy, but not so flatulent. The chick-peas are flatulent and detergent, promote the formation of semen, are aphrodisiacal, and lithontriptic; when toasted, they part with their flatulence, but are of difficult digestion. Lupines are difficult to digest and evacuate, and produce a crude chyme. The fenugreek warms and loosens the bowels when taken before a meal. Tares and fasels, having been previously macerated in water so as to shoot out roots, are laxative of the bowels when taken before a meal with sauce; and are more nutritious than the fenugreek. But the fasels called dolichi, when eaten green with their husks, are more excrementitious.
Commentary. Hippocrates, Rhases, and other of the ancient authors agree, that pulse, in general, are nutritious. All held that they are flatulent, excrementitious, and aphrodisiacal. According to Plutarch it was on account of their aphrodisiacal qualities that the Egyptian priests forbade the use of them. Some assign this as the reason why Pythagoras “ventri indulsit non omne legumen.” Apollonius Dyscolus says that he did so because they are flatulent, difficult to digest, and occasion disturbed dreams. (Hist. Mirab. 46.) This seems the most likely reason; but Plutarch, Iamblichus, and Porphyry think they see more recondite meanings in the Pythagorean interdiction. Actuarius remarks that all kinds of pulse are to be eaten in their green juicy state. In an ancient proverb, preserved by Athenæus, it is said that “figs are to be eaten after fish, and pulse after flesh.”
Galen speaks of lentils in much the same terms as Paulus. He particularly disapproves of the practice, which he says was common in his time, of eating them with sodden wine. Rhases says that they are of a cold, desiccative, and excrementitious nature. Actuarius calls them the worst of the legumina. Athenæus mentions that the Egyptians lived much upon lentils. (iv.) Martial, in like manner, speaks of them as an Egyptian food.
All the commentators are puzzled to determine what the ancient faba was. We are inclined to think, with Dickson, that Theophrastus’s description of it applies best to our small bean. The Egyptian bean, according to Sprengel, was the nelumbium speciosum. Galen mentions that beans were much used by the gladiators, for giving them flesh, but adds that it was not firm or compact. Actuarius states that they are nutritious, but dissuades from using them freely, because of their flatulence. According to Celsus, both beans and lentils are stronger food than peas. Seth agrees with Galen, that the flesh formed from them is flabby and soft. Galen directs beans to be fried or boiled with onions, whereby they will be rendered less flatulent. (De Alim. Facult. i.)
It is probable that the faseolus was the kidney-bean, or phaseolus communis L. Harduin calls it feverole in French. Rhases says that fasels are flatulent, and fatten the body. Pliny remarks that they are eaten with their husks. He alludes, we suppose, to the variety of them called Dolichi. Galen says that they are more laxative and nutritious, but not so flatulent as peas. Oribasius says that they hold an intermediate place between those substances which give much and those which afford little nourishment. Actuarius says they are the worst kind of beans, and that being heating and excrementitious they are apt to disorder the bowels. Tares, as Galen and Oribasius mention, were sometimes used for food during a famine.
All the authorities give peas much the same characters as Paulus does. Galen mentions the method of steeping chiches in water, and getting them to germinate before using them for food. Are the bons vivans of the present day acquainted with this method of making peas tender and soft? The ancients were also in the practice of preparing these seeds for sowing in much the same manner. (Geopon. ii, 36.) See also Pliny (xviii, 13.) We are inclined to think that Virgil alludes to this practice (Georg. i, 193); but Dr. Hunter has put a different interpretation on this passage. The species of pea which grows plentifully in Sicily, and is called pisum ochrys, is said to hold a middle place as to quality.
Rhases remarks that lupines, being bitter, are not properly articles of food, but medicines. They possess, he adds, little nutriment. Galen says that they are indigestible, and therefore apt to engender crude humours. When eaten, he directs them to be well sweetened.
Galen mentions that some took fenugreek, with fish-sauce, to open the belly. He says it may be eaten with vinegar, wine, fish-sauce, or oil. Some, he adds, use them as a condiment to bread. Rhases gives similar directions for using fenugreek.
Galen likewise makes mention of the lathyrus and aracus, two varieties of the chichling vetch. He says they resemble in properties the fasels. The common vetch was scarcely an article of food.
The sesame, that is to say, the sesamum orientale, or oily grain, as Galen remarks, is of an oily nature, and consequently heavy on the stomach.
Galen speaks of linseed as having been used for food by peasants in Asia, but adds, that it is not eaten by more refined persons.
The gourd is of a cold and humid nature, loosens the bowels, and gives little nourishment. The pompion is altogether a fruit of bad juices, cold, humid and emetic; and, when not properly digested, it occasions cholera. The seed of it is diuretic, breaks down stones in the kidneys, and is altogether very detergent. The squash has all the properties of the pompion in an inferior degree. The cucumber is of a less cold and humid nature than the pompion, but is more diuretic; it is difficult to digest, and its chyme is bad even when digested. Upon the whole, all this class of fruits are of a cold and humid nature, supply little nourishment, and that of a bad quality.
Commentary. Galen explains that the Fructus Horæi are those fruits which grow up about the middle of the dog-days. He says that they all contain unwholesome juices, which, if they spoil in the bowels, are apt to become deleterious poisons. Mnesitheus says that all these fruits supply little nourishment, but that what they give is of a humid nature, and does not disagree with the body. (Athenæus, ii.)
The gourd (κολοκύνθη), according to Galen, is the most innocent of this class of fruits; and yet, when it spoils in the stomach, it engenders bad juices. Diphilus, as quoted by Athenæus, says of it that it supplies little nourishment, is apt to spoil, dilutes the system, is readily discharged, contains good juices, and is more savoury when taken with water and vinegar, but more wholesome when pickled. Apicius gives many receipts for cooking gourds. By one of these we are directed to eat them boiled, with pickle, oil, and wine. Most of the other receipts contain a liberal allowance of spices and aromatics. Simeon Seth calls them digestible and wholesome, but not nutritious.
The pompion (πέπων), according to Galen, is juicy, detergent, diuretic, and laxative. Seth recommends persons of a pituitous habit of body to drink old wine with it, but such as are bilious to eat acid food. He remarks that it is apt to excite nausea. Actuarius says that, when digested, pompions form a thin watery blood. Apicius directs us to eat them and melons with pepper, pennyroyal, honey, or raisin wine, pickle, and vinegar; to which assafœtida may be added. Hippocrates calls them laxative and diuretic, but flatulent.
Galen says of the melopepon, or squash, that its juices are not so unwholesome, nor so diuretic, nor so laxative, as those of the pompion. He adds that, although far from delicious, it is not so nauseous as the pompion. On the melopepon, see Harduin’s notes on Pliny (H. N. xviii, 5.) Perhaps some of the authorities may have meant the melon by the melopepon.
Galen says that some persons, from idiosyncrasy, readily digest the cucumber (σἴκυος); but he insists that it is impossible that good blood can be formed from it, and therefore he warns against the frequent use of all such fruits. Actuarius says that it forms a crude chyme, and is of a cold, humid, and indigestible nature. Celsus says that its nutritive powers are feeble. Avicenna says that its juices are bad, and prone to putrefaction.
Melons are said by Averrhoes to be of a cold nature, juicy, detergent, and diuretic.
Owing to the lax signification in which the names of the summer fruits are often applied by the Greek and Roman writers, we have felt considerable difficulty in distinguishing the articles treated of in this chapter. This confusion is of very ancient date, for one of the Deipnosophists of Athenæus complains of the difficulty he found in comprehending the proper application of these terms, from their having been differently used by the authors who had treated of them. (ix, 14.) We have been obliged for once to abandon the guidance of Sprengel, but have done so with the greatest hesitation, and not until we had compared the descriptions of all the Greek, Latin, and Arabian authorities. Schneider points out the confusion about the use of these terms, but does not sufficiently clear it up in his Index to Theophrastus. Ludovicus Nonnius may likewise be consulted with advantage. He supposes that the pepones of the ancients were our melons; and he is also inclined to believe that the melopepon was a species of the same. (De Re Cibaria, i, 16.) For want of a better term, we have ventured to translate it the squash, although we are uncertain whether the Greeks were acquainted with this fruit, now so common in the East and in America.
The fig and the grape hold the principal place among the autumnal fruits; for their juices are of a less bad quality, and they are more nutritious than the others.—Of these, the figs have the better juices and the more nutritious; they are laxative, diuretic, and evacuate the kidneys, and particularly the very ripe. In like manner also the dried; but they are flatulent, and form blood which is not good; wherefore, when liberally used, they engender lice. When grapes are not evacuated, neither are they digested, but form a crude chyme; but if evacuated their effects are more moderate. Dried grapes are warmer than the others, more stomachic, and more nutritious, but not so laxative. The mulberry is of a moistening nature, cools moderately, and loosens the belly when taken first, neither does it disagree with the stomach, but is little nutritious.—Of cherries, the sweeter kinds loosen the belly, but are bad for the stomach; those which possess astringency are not so bad for the stomach, but do not evacuate the belly. The same rule will apply to the grape, the mulberry, and many other fruits; for astringents in general, when eaten or drunk at the beginning before any other food, bind the belly; but they who have their bowels constipated from atony, and have taken beforehand some articles of food of a laxative nature, such as pot-herbs, fishes, or the like, will find that astringents taken afterwards will, by strengthening the bowels, evacuate downwards. The fruit of the pine called strobilus has good juices and thick, is nutritious, but not of easy digestion. The juices of the peach are of a bad quality, turn acid, and soon spoil; and, therefore, ought to be taken first, that they may readily pass downwards, and not spoil by remaining in the belly. The fruits called apricots are superior to the peaches, for they neither turn acid nor spoil so soon, and they are sweet. Of apples, the sweet are more heating, and easier assimilated than the others, especially when roasted or boiled; the acid are colder and more calculated to cut the humours in the stomach; the austere strengthen the stomach and bind the belly, more especially quinces. Of pears, the large and ripe are more nutritious than these; but the pomegranates are cooling, and contain little nourishment. The medlars and services are more astringent and fitted for a loose belly. Dates are stomachic, unless very fatty they bind the belly, form thick and viscid chyme, and occasion headachs. Of olives, the over-ripe (drupæ) injure the stomach, and form a fatty chyme; those that are pickled and hung (halmades et colymbades), when eaten beforehand, whet the appetite, and loosen the belly, more especially if prepared with vinegar, or vinegar and honey. Of nuts, those called royal (walnuts) are less nutritious than the filbert, and more stomachic. The green walnuts are more juicy and laxative; and, if you will strip off the inner membrane of dried ones which have been macerated in water, they will become like the green. Almonds have incisive and attenuating powers, and, therefore, they evacuate the intestines and chest, and more especially such as are bitter; and, in like manner, the pistacs, which are also more calculated for removing obstructions of the liver. Damascenes loosen the belly when eaten before food, either raw or boiled in honied water. The jujubes are of difficult digestion, injurious to the stomach, and give little nourishment. Carobs are of difficult digestion, bind the belly, and produce bad chyme. Sycamores are decidedly of a cooling and a moistening nature. Of the citron, the outer part is acrid and indigestible, but that part which is as it were its flesh, is nutritious, and yet it is hard to digest. The inner part, whether acid or watery, is moderately cooling. Acorns are nutritious, no less so than corn, but of difficult digestion, contain thick juices, and are slowly evacuated. Chesnuts are in every respect superior to them.
Commentary. It may be proper, in the first place, to discuss briefly the question respecting the proper time for eating fruit. Galen, Rhases, and Simeon Seth direct to eat fruit at the beginning of a regular meal. It appears, however, to have been customary with the ancients, as it is in Britain at the present day, to eat all manner of fruits at the mensa secunda, or dessert, as we learn from many passages of Athenæus and Macrobius. Horace was fond of concluding his banquets with fruit. He speaks of finishing a frugal repast with hung grapes, nuts, and figs (Sat. ii, 2); and in another place he says: