On Regimen In Acute Diseases   

15. Hydromel, when drunk in any stage of acute disease, is less
suitable to persons of a bilious temperament, and to those who have
enlarged viscera, than to those of a different character; it increases
thirst less than sweet wine; character;the lungs, is moderately
expectorant, and alleviates a cough; for it has some detergent quality
in it, whence it lubricates the sputum. Hydromel is also moderately
diuretic, unless prevented by the state of any of the viscera. And
it also occasions bilious discharges downwards, sometimes of a
proper character, and sometimes more intense and frothy than is
suitable; but such rather occurs in persons who are bilious, and
have enlarged viscera. Hydromel rather produces expectoration, and
softening of the lungs, when given diluted with water. But unmixed
hydromel, rather than the diluted, produces frothy evacuations, such
as are unseasonably and intensely bilious, and too hot; but such an
evacuation occasions other great mischiefs, for it neither
extinguishes the heat in the hypochondria, but rouses it, induces
inquietude, and jactitation of the limbs, and ulcerates the intestines
and anus. The remedies for all these will be described afterwards.
By using hydromel without ptisans, instead of any other drink, you
will generally succeed in the treatment of such diseases, and fall
in few cases; but in what instances it is to be given, and in what
it is not to be given, and wherefore it is not to be given,- all
this has been explained already, for the most part. Hydromel is
generally condemned, as if it weakened the powers of those who drink
it, and on that account it is supposed to accelerate death; and this
opinion arose from persons who starve themselves to death, some of
whom use hydromel alone for drink, as fancying that it really has this
effect. But this is by no means always the case. For hydromel, if
drunk alone, is much stronger than water, if it do not disorder the
bowels; but in some respects it is stronger, and in some weaker,
than wine that is thin, weak, and devoid of bouquet. There is a
great difference between unmixed wine and unmixed honey, as to their
nutritive powers, for if a man will drink double the quantity of
pure wine, to a certain quantity of honey which is swallowed, he
will find himself much stronger from the honey, provided it do not
disagree with his bowels, and that his alvine evacuations from it will
be much more copious. But if he shall use ptisan for a draught, and
drink afterward hydromel, he will feel full, flatulent, and
uncomfortable in the viscera of the hypochondrium; but if the hydromel
be taken before the draught, it will not have the same injurious
effects as if taken after it, but will be rather beneficial. And
boiled hydromel has a much more elegant appearance than the
unboiled, being clear, thin, white, and transparent, but I am unable
to mention any good quality which it possesses that the other wants.
For it is not sweeter than the unboiled, provided the honey be fine,
and it is weaker, and occasions less copious evacuations of the
bowels, neither of which effects is required from the hydromel. But
one should by all means use it boiled, provided the honey be bad,
impure, black, and not fragrant, for the boiling will remove the
most of its bad qualities and appearances.
16. You will find the drink, called oxymel, often very useful in
these complaints, for it promotes expectoration and freedom of
breathing. the following are the proper occasions for administering
it. When strongly acid it has no mean operation in rendering the
expectoration more easy, for by bringing up the sputa, which
occasion troublesome hawking, and rendering them more slippery, and,
as it were, clearing the windpipe with a feather, it relieves the
lungs and proves emollient to them; and when it succeeds in
producing these effects it must do much good. But there are cases in
which hydromel, strongly acid, does not promote expectoration, but
renders it more viscid and thus does harm, and it is most apt to
produce these bad effects in cases which are otherwise of a fatal
character, when the patient is unable to cough or bring up the
sputa. On this account, then, one ought to consider beforehand the