ABSTEMIOUS, is properly underſtood of a perſon who refrains abſolutely from all uſe of wine.
The hiſtory of Mr Wood, in the Medic. Tranſ. vol. ii. p. 261. art. 18. is a very remarkable exemplification of the very beneficial alterations which may be effected on the human body by a ſtrict courſe of abſtemiouſneſs.
The Roman ladies, in the firſt ages of the republic, were all enjoined to be abſtemious; and that it might appear, by their breath, whether or no they kept up to the inſcription, it was one of the laws of the Roman civility, that they ſhould kiſs their friends and relations whenever they acceſted them.