Part 31

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.)

SECT. LXXIV.—ON POT-HERBS.

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.

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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.