VINEGAR, Acetum. Vinegar is made of Wine, Beer, Cyder, and even of Water. The Wine of the Palm-tree turns into Vinegar, if it be kept but two or three Days. The Ancients had several kinds of Vinegar, which they made use of for Drink. The Emperor Pescennius Niger gave Ordersa that his Soldiers should drink nothing but Vinegar on their Marches: Neminem in expeditione vinum bibere, sed aceto universos esse contentos. Ruth ii. 14.Booz told Ruth, That she might come and dip her Bread in Vinegar, along with his People: Intinge buccellam tuam in aceto: At meal-time come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. Harvesters made use of this Liquor for their Refreshment. Aceto summa vis in refrigerendo,Plin. l. 23. c. 1. says Pliny. There is great Probability that the Vinegar which the Roman Soldiers offered to our Saviour at his Crucifixion, Matth. xxvii. 48.was the Vinegar they made use of for their own drinking. Constantine the Great allowed them Wine and Vinegar alternately, every Day.
This Vinegar was not of that sort that we make use for Salads and Sauces, but a small Wine called Pesca, or Sera, of which the Authors De re Rustica,1 have given us the Composition. They make great use of it in Spain and Italy, in Harvest-time. They use it also in Holland, and on Ship-board, to correct the ill Taste of Water. The Scripture forbids the Nazarites to use Vinegar,2 and all sorts of Liquor that come from the Vine, and which are capable of inebriating. The Hebrew has it, Vinegar made of Wine, and Vinegar made of Secar, or the Wine of the Palm-tree. Pliny speaks of several sorts of Vinegar which might be drank.
It must be allowed however that there was a kind of strong Vinegar, which was not proper for drinking, or which was not used till it was well diluted. The Psalmist complains, that his Enemies had given him Vinegar to drink; Et in siti mea Psalm lxviii. 26.potaverunt me aceto. And Jesus Christ, to fulfil this Prophecy in his own Person, would not drink the Vinegar that was offered to him. And Solomon, in his Proverbs; As vinegar to the teeth; and as Prov. x. 26.smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him. Vinegar then was looked upon as a Liquor that was very agreeable to drink; but, as said before, we must distinguish between that Vinegar, or small Wine, which was used as a Drink, and in which the Harvesters dipt their Bread, and that Vinegar that was made use of in Sauces. The same Solomon says, in another Place, Prov. xxv. 20. As vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy Heart. Nitre dissolved in Vinegar increases its detersive Virtue, and makes it fitter to take away Spots from the Skin, or Grease or Dirt from Linnen. To sing Songs before a Man of a corrupt Heart, is to increase his Corruption; ‘tis to inflame the Fire of his Passions; and Tunes that are moving and passionate, are so far from curing him, that they make him worse.
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