<blockquote>Among wines one kind is white, another yellow, another dark. As for the white, it is by nature thinnest, diuretic, and heating; while it is a digestive, it makes the head hot; for this wine is heady. Dark wine, if not inclined to be sweet, is very nutritious, also astringent. But the sweet varieties, both of white and yellow wines, are the most nutritious. For sweet wine smooths the tract through which it passes, and by thickening the humours more, tends to incommode the head less. In fact, the quality of sweet wine causes it to remain in the hypochondriac regions and induces salivation, as Diocles and Praxagoras record. And Mnesitheus of Athens says: “While dark wine is most favourable to bodily growth, white wine is thinnest and most diuretic; yellow wine is dry, and better adapted to digesting foods.” Wines which are more carefully treated with sea water do not cause headache; they loosen the bowels, excite the stomach, cause inflations, and assist digestion. Examples are the Myndian and the Halicarnassian. The Cynic Menippus, at any rate, calls Myndus “salt-water drinker.” The wine of Cos also is very highly treated with sea water. The Rhodian, also, has, to be sure, a smaller share of the sea, but most of it is useless. The island wine is naturally well adapted for drinking-bouts and not unsuitable for daily use. Cnidian wine produces blood, is nourishing, and causes easy relaxing of the bowels; but when drunk too copiously it weakens the stomach. The Lesbian has less astringency and is more diuretic. The pleasantest is the Chian, especially the variety known as Ariusian. There are three kinds of it; one dry, another rather sweet, the third, a mean between these two in taste, and called “self-tempered.” Now the dry has a good taste, is nourishing and more diuretic; the sweet is nourishing, satisfying, and laxative; the “self-tempered” is mid-way between them in useful effects. Speaking generally, Chian wine promotes digestion, is nourishing, produces good blood, is very mild, and is satisfying in its rich quality. “
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