1860 Oxford Night Caps

13

it is an excellent antiseptic, and ■well calcu lated to supply the place of wine in resisting putrefaction, especially if drank cold •with plenty of sugar; it also promotes perspira tion: hut 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 di gestion, and injure the stomach.® Hennie states, that he once heard a face tious phj'^sician at a public hospital prescribe for a poor fellow sinking under the atrophy of starvation, a bowl of Ruin Punch. Mr. Wadd gives us a prescription—"Rum, aqua dulci miscetur acetum, et fiet ex tali fmdere 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 convales cence from typhus fever, &c. ® 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.