1847 Oxford night caps (4th edition)

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supply the place of wine in resisting putrefaction, especially if drank cold with plenty of sugar ; it also promotes perspiration : but if drank hot and immoderately, it creates acidity in the stomach, weakens the nerves, and gives rise to complaints of the breast. He further states, that after a heavy meal it is improper, as it may check digestion, and injure the stomach f . Rennie states, that he once heard a facetious Physician at a public hospital prescribe for a poor fellow sinking under the atrophy of starv- ation, a bowl of Rum Punch. Mr. Wadd gives us a prescription " Rum, aqua dulci miscetur acetum, et fiet ex tali foedere nobile Punch." He also states, that Toddy, or Punch without acid, when made for a day or two before it is used, is a good and cheap substitute for wine as a tonic, in convalescence from typhus fever, &c.

f Fielding mentions a Clergyman who preferred Punch to Wine for this orthodox reason, that the former was a liquor no where spoken against in Scripture.