HIPPOCRAS  , an old medicinal drink or cordial, made of

wine mixed with spices—such as cinnamon, ginger and sugar—and strained through woollen cloths . The early spelling usual in English was ipocras, or ypocras . The word is an adaptation of the Med . Lat . Vinum Hip pocraticum, or wine of Hippocrates, so called, not because it was supposed to be a receipt of the physician, but from an apothecary's name for a strainer or sieve, "Hippocrates' sleeve " (see W . W . Skeat, Chaucer, note to the Merchant's Tale) .