Part 34

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.

SECT. LXXIX.—ON PULSE.

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.

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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.

SECT. LXXX.—ON THE SUMMER FRUITS.

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.

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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.

SECT. LXXXI.—ON THE FRUIT OF TREES.

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.

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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: