BOTTLE, (derived from the dim. botellu.s, Lat.) a name given to certain small vessels, differing in size and form, and composed of different materials. We find them square, circular, and cylindrical ; some with short, and others with long necks. We have bottles of wood, stone, glass, and leather ; all of them used either for ripening or preserving liquors. Ac cording to the Mem. ?ead. Scienc. 1'104, the glass used in bottles has been sometimes found to affect the liquors put into them. Common bottles are made of a coarse green coloured glass. When a finer sort is employed, and the exterior of the vessel has been wrapped about with straw or wicket, it gets the name of flask. By this covering, it is rendered less brittle, and is much used by travellers. Glass bottles were unknown to the ancients., at least the know ledge of them has not been traced to a period earlier than the 15th century.
The amphora vitrea, described by Petronius, were large wine jars, very different from our glass bottles, both in shape and magnitude. Among the paintings of IIerculaneum were found several figureA not unlike a pitcher, wide mouthed, with handles, but none that bore any resemblance to a flask or a bot tle. Those of their vessels, which in form approach the nearest to our bottles, are the Syracusan wine flask, and some of the funeral urns. In place of glass bottles, the ancients made use of cups, into which they drew off as much liquor only as was necessary for immediate consumption. According to Sallust, B. T. 96, the Roman cater was made of leather, ex coriis pecudum; so also were the Greek co-xoc. We read in Homer of wine being brought ev vf in a bottle made of goat thin. Iliad, lib. iii. v. 245 : and in Herodotus we find this expression, "cci-41,es ome," having filled skin bottles with wine. Lib. ii. v. 121. Most nations have employed vessels of this mate rial for containing liquors, and, in particular, the eastern nations, the Arabians, Indians, Persians, and Syrians, who still retain the use of them. Maun drell, speaking of the Greek convent at Bellmount, in Syria, informs us, " that the same person, whom he saw officiating at the altar in his embroidered sacerdo tal robe, brought them the next clay, on his own back, a kid, and a goat-skin of wine, as a present from the convent." The country people of Persia never go a journey without carrying, by their side, a small lea thern bottle, in which to keep their water. The
Spaniards still use them under the name of Borrcichas. They are convenient, likewise, as the best means of preserving other substances, such as butter, cheese, and honey. These vessels being smeared over with grease, have been always found to keep their contents more fresh, and to secure them better from the in trusion of dust and insects, than any other mode of conveyance. The manner of preparing them is thus. described by Chardin : the animal is killed, they cut off its feet and its head, and draw it in this manner out of the skin, without opening its belly. They afterwards sew up the places where the legs were cut off, and the tail, and when it is filled they tie it about the neck." It is certain, that bottles of skin were universally employed as wine vessels among the ancient Jews. To persons not aware of this cir cumstance, cur Saviour's allusion to the common practice of putting new wine into new bottles would appear altogether unintelligible. Skin bottles would be stretched, and in some degree weakened, by the action of the fermenting liquor. By exposure to the air, also, they become parched and. brittle,. and in this state would be more in danger of bursting, than such as were still soft and elastic. The word nnx, abuth, which occurs in Job xxxii. 19, is there evidently em ployed to express bottles of skin ; and seems to be applied to these vessels, from their possessing, so re markably, the property of swelling or distention. We cannot admit the supposition of Chardin—that the bottle was of skin, which Abraham gave to Hagar. Though this notion is, in some degree, sup. ported by the corresponding terms of the Septuagint and Vulgate, yet the original word mnn, chenzeth, has every where a quite different signification, and properly denotes " an earthen vessel hardened by heat." This interpretation agrees better with the idea expressed by the root, which in Niph. signifies to be heated.
We may here notice the Abyssinian Girba,tbough; it does not properly rank under the term bottle. It is made of an ox's skin, squared and stitched together so closely as to be water tight, and will contain about 60 gallons. See Beckmann's History of (v)