Latin Texts & Translations

Next in the natural order come the lees of these several liquids. The lees of ^[Note] wine are so extremely powerful as to prove fatal to persons on descending into the vats. ^[Note] The proper precaution for preventing this, is to let down a light first, which so long as it refuses to burn, is significant of danger. Wine-lees, in an unrinsed ^[Note] state, form an ingredient in several medicinal preparations: with an equal proportion of iris, ^[Note] a liniment is prepared from them for purulent eruptions; and either moist or dried, they are used for stings inflicted by the phalangium, and for inflammations ^[Note] of tile testes, marmillæ, or other parts of the bolly. A decoction of wine-lees is pre- pared, too, with barley-meal and powdered frankincense; after which it is first parched and then dried. The test of its being properly boiled, is its imparting, when cold, a burning sensa- tion to the tongue. When left exposed to the air, wine-lees very rapidly lose their virtues; which, on the other hand, are greatly heightened by the action of fire.

Wine-lees arc very useful, too, boiled with figs, for the cure

of lichens and cutaneous eruptions; they are applied also in a similar manner to leprous sores and running ulcers. Taken in drink, they act as an antidote to the poison of fungi, and more particularly if they are undiluted; boiled and then rinsed, they are used in preparations for the eyes. They are employed also topically for diseases of the testes and generative organs, and are taken in wine for strangury. When wine-lees have lost their strength, they are still useful for cleansing the body and scouring clothes, in which case they act as a substitute for gum acacia. ^[Note]