glass and easily dissolved into an oil. This is a great secret in the conservation of timber so that it may never decay and may be protected from worms. For if sulphur be prepared as aforesaid, and turned into an oil, it afterwards tinges the timber which has been anointed with it so that it can never be obliterated. Many other things, also, can be conserved and preserved from decay in this oil of sulphur, especially ropes and cables in ships and on the masts of ships, in chariots, fishing-nets, birdcatchers' and hunters' snares, and other like things which are being frequently used in water and rain, and would otherwise be liable to decay and break; so also with linen cloths and other similar things.
The conservation of potable things, too, should be noticed, under which we comprise wine, beer, hydromel, vinegar, and milk. If we wish to keep these five unharmed and in their virtue, it is necessary to know their chief enemy. This is none other than unclean women at the time of their monthly courses. They corrupt these things if they handle or have anything to do with them, if they look at them, or breathe on them. The wine is changed and becomes thick, beer and hydromel turn sour, vinegar is weakened and loses its acidity, milk also becomes sour and clotted.
This, therefore, should be well known before anything is said specially about the conservation of one of these things in particular. Moreover, the chief preservative of wine is sulphur and oil of sulphur, by means of which all wine can be preserved for a very long time, so that it neither thickens nor is in any way changed.
The means of conserving beer is by oil of garyophyllon, if a few drops of it are put in, so that one measure has two or three drops. Better still is the oil of benedicta garyophyllata, which preserves beer from acidity. The preservative for hydromel is the oil of sugar, which must be used in the same way as the oil of garyophyllon or the benedicta.
The preservative of vinegar is oil of ginger, and of milk the expressed oil of almonds. These two must be used as described above.
The preservative of cheese is the herb hypericon or perforata, which protects all cheeses from worms. If it be placed against the cheese and touches it, no worm is produced in it, and if some have been already produced, they die and drop out of the cheese.
Honey has no special preservative, only it must be protected from its enemy. Its chief enemy is bread. If ever so small a quantity of bread made from flour be put or fall into it, the whole honey is turned into ants, and perishes entirely.
