Hippocrates, the father of physic, recommends a cheerful glass; and
Rhases, an ancient Arabian physician, says, no liquor is equal to good
wine. Reineck wrote a dissertation "De Potu Vinoso;" and the learned Dr.
Shaw lauded the "juice of the grape." But the stoutest of its medical
advocates was Tobias Whitaker, physician to Charles II., who undertook
to prove the possibility of maintaining life, from infancy to old age,
without sickness, by the use of wine!

It must, however, be remembered, that Whitaker was cordially attached to
wine, and a greater friend to the vintner than to the apothecary, having
as utter a dislike to unpalatable medicines, as the most squeamish of
his patients; therefore, Dr. Toby's evidence must be taken with caution,
independently of the courtly spirit that might have led him to adapt his
theories to the times.

It has been questioned whether the use of wine was known to the
antediluvian world; but there can be do doubt, in the corrupt state of
man, that wine would have its share in his debasement, and it may be
very strongly inferred, from the circumstance that Noah planted a
vineyard, and, moreover, "that he drank of the wine, and was drunken,"
(Gen, ix. 20.)--a sad stain in the character of a man who was "perfect
in his generation;" and which also proves that, in the earliest period
of the world, the very best of men were liable to fall into error and
excess.

But the antiquity and propriety of wine-drinking is not matter of
question. The archbishop of Seville, Antonio de Solis, who lived to be
110 years old, drank wine; and even that wonderful pattern of propriety,
Cornaro, did the same: but the question is about quantity. Sir William
Temple was pleased to lay down a rule, and limit propriety to three