latham spaw in lancashire with some remarkable cases and cures effected by it : together with a farther account of it as may conduce to the publick advantage with ease and little expence. borlase, edmund, d. ? approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) latham spaw in lancashire with some remarkable cases and cures effected by it : together with a farther account of it as may conduce to the publick advantage with ease and little expence. borlase, edmund, d. ? [ ], , p. printed for robert clavel ..., london : . dedication signed: e. borlase. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng health resorts -- england -- early works to . mineral waters -- therapeutic use -- england. -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion latham spaw in lancashire , with some remarkable cases and cures effected by it ; together with a farther account of it ; as may conduce to the publick advantage with ease and little expence . london , printed for robert clavel , in cross keys court in little britain . . to the right honourable charls earl of derby , lord lieutenant of the county palatines of cheshire and lancashire , chamberlain of chester , and lord of man , and the isles , &c. my lord , springs tend not more naturally to the ocean , than this treatise to your lordship , the rise and original of it . what i have collected , the faults excepted , hath been much out of your own observations , writ in a stile , your lordship must pardon , that it may live . when i first visited your spaw , i approacht its avenues with some prejudice , being not convinc't of the efficacy of waters ( though i have observed some , and read of more ) in comparison of a well order'd method in physick , which i still favour : though in pertinacious obstructions , and diseases , that must be long hewing down , native to those parts through which the waters may pass , incline much to their use , especially if patients ( nauseating variety of medicines ) can comply with these , as more natural and obvious to their constitutions . and here by the way , i cannot approve of such fictitious waters , as some by a pretended skill , in opposition to natural spaws , say they can apt to this or that distemper . no , i am not convinct that art ( though in some great masters of it , it may arise to a wonderful excellency ) can yet ever so deliciously compose medicines as to equal the refin'd spirits , which god and nature hath with so much curiosity mixt in the bowels of the earth . a truth fallopius seems to deny , hac ratione ductus , quod ob eorum soliditatem ( speaking of concrete minerals ) nihil ab iis abradi possit ; which julius caesar claudinus in his ingressu ad infirmos ( p. . ) clearly confutes , aswell from their first as their second qualities ; with whom our learned jorden in his discourse of baths , and mineral waters ( p. . ) agrees , that before minerals have their full consistence , whilst they are in solutis principiis , as earth , juice , or vapours ( afterwards indeed they will need some medium , or corrosive to unite them with the water ) they may be communicated with water , non qua talia sunt ( to inforce claudius his words ) secundum suam substantiam , sed per soluta sua principia , terras ( scil . ) succos & vapores . and hence i account the waters of israel better than abanah and pharpar rivers of damascus ; god having on those bestowed a blessing , he denied these , his hand having more immediately in those divinely temper'd , what art in these can but grosly imitate . and ▪ yet i do not deny that from the family of minerals , many powerful and noble medicines may , and are daily by art fram'd to eradicate distempers ; in which particular none certainly was ever happier than our learned willis , the atlas and strength of physical improvements , which being mixt with common water , as a vehicle to carry them off , may effect good cures , so alcoholiz'd ; but not with like facility , and so little disgust as your lordships and other spaws pro●●●e : the abuse of which have many times prophan'd their use : so that they , who would effectually drink of spaws , must also consult judicially about the manner , there being ( as the lord verulam excellently observes ) many medicines which by themselves would do no cures , but being orderly applyed produce great ones , nat. hist. p. . and here i would not be mistook , as if by a judicial consulting of the manner of drinking these spaws i insinuate such a necessity of advising alwaies with physicians , as no dose could effectually be took without them : no , that were to supply the defect of practice by the commendation of the spaw , to foment distempers , and then allay them : an artifice too mean , and dis-ingenuous , however so specious and practicable . i know the poor ( for whose relief these spaws seem providentially to be found ) may resort hither beneficially on small preparations , having robust bodies , natures which with a little help , can work out potent diseases ; and the rich ( coming advised by their physicians ) may likewise receive infinite good , according to the qualifications prefac't ) unless extraordinary symptoms arise , which in some measure too , they may be prepar'd for ; that water being weak , and poorly impregnate , if not inficiously , which ever and anon requires medicines to actuate its vertues , or to remove bad effects . i know , medicinal springs were never more pretended to than of late ; nor shall i deny such their content , qui ipsos inflatis buccis orbi commendant . that which i have more to add , as to your lordships spaw , is only , that i believe time , the mother of experience will commend it to posterity , especially whilst your charity accommodates the poor , as your example animates others . i mention not time , as if the experience of years in the general , as well as four years particular observation , were not sufficient to evidence the virtues of your lordships spaw ; but that a greater concourse to it may ( without the nicety of any ) set a larger seal on its power and energy . more might be insisted on , but i fear i have trespast too long on your lordships patience , a virtue i would not further wound . long may you live , the glory of your family ! your countrys preservation ! and your soveraigns repose , and confidence ! that at length , though late , you may be crown'd with martyrs , and the immarcible reward of loyalty , and a good conscience ! i am , my lord , your lordships most obliged and humble servant e. borlase . latham spaw ; how it is situated , what conveniences may be there had for strangers , whence it proceeds , its vertues , and some account of the cures wrought by it . in the mannour of latham in lancashire , within a quarter of a mile of latham-house ( the antient and magnificent seat of the earls of derby , which too sharply bears the character of her lords loyalty , and the miseries of more than a civil war ) is a notable medicinal well , commonly called maudlen well , in the tenancy of thomas hulmes of slade , named the west-head , erecting its spring much higher than the road adjacent to ormeskirke , the noble burying place of the stanlies , earls of derby . the happy effects of which well i having observed the last summer , attending the commands of the right honourable the earl of derby and his lady there , who have equally ( with many in their numerous family ) received much benefit thence ; i cannot , without injurie to the publique , but obey his lordship in this brief but just account , though it be more sutable to my inclinations to indulge my retiredness than to expose it . this spaw ( by the care and nobleness of the earl of derby and his lady mutually assistant to the health of their neighbours ) is wall'd in with a good free stone , and defended from the violence of weather with a well ordered and decent ▪ covering , set on a necessary , though no curious fabrick of wood , ordered more to secure it from rain , than the raies and power of the sun , which have still a sufficient influence upon it ; whence this spaw being intire , it preserves ( without the affronts of accidents ) its own pureness and efficacy , issuing forth its stream ( through a well pav'd channel ) into the road where the neighbourhood and common people ( who are alike free , coming at seasonable hours ) drink of it there , and convert much of the water ( running into the road ) to their necessary uses of washing , brewing , and the like with no little advantage ; it being observed that the people thereabouts are of healthier constitutions , and not so subject to the epidemical distemper of this year , which hath so miserably infected most places ; though i will not say ( as abheers of the german spaw ) that vix annosiores homines sub nostro coelo , quàm spadanos inveneris , it is sufficient they have not like distempers at present as elsewhere . the water ( in its descent beating on the pavement ) dies it with a rusty iron colour , one argument of what it is impregnant with . not far from the spaw there are many able tenants sufficient to receive the best persons with all accommodations and respective conveniencies . the spaw is set about with trees which yield a pleasant shade , and there are two competent seats about it for the patients repose , and attendants . adjoyning to it , there is a large field ( of late repurchased by the earl of derby for the freer access of all comers thither ) by nature cast into such order , as men and women may have a full conveniency for their walks and evacuations , without trespassing on eithers modesty , and that with diversity of entertainment too , there being shrubs , plants , and young trees of sundry sorts and uses . a fathom scarce sounds the bottom , where there is laid a large mill-stone , through the hole of which the spring forces its passage , casting up ( within a foot of the surface ) a cleer silver sand , mixt with such variety of little thin cockle-shells , and some periwinkles curiously filed by the penetrable quality of the vitriol , as the finest glass is not more perspicuous , more smooth , that were a microscope set to inlarge their minute bodies , what figures , what improvement , what objects might thence captivate the eye ? more and no less i am perswaded than mr. hooke in his book hath improved to admiration , evincing ( as dr. power in his preface to his experimental philosophy hath it ) the dull world how curiously the minutest things are wrought , and with what signatures of divine providence they are inrich't , which ( as it is excellently observed in the beauty of providence ) doth not daily fall under our sense and observation : and yet none of these , or any of the sand ever mixes with the stream , though it issues ( through a large hole in the side of the cistern ) with a current flux bubling in several places at once , and is of that strength , that if one try the deepness of it with a stick , it immediately buoys it up . some ( from the cockle-shells and periwinkles found in this water ) conjecture , that this spaw may be fed by subterraneous veins from the sea , whose shore is commonly stored with such shells ; nor is the opinion wholy to be exploded , though the earth ( in its matrice ) may also have such a plastick vertue , as ( from its prolifick ferment actuated by the sun ) it may produce such shells , which , as the case stands , is hard to determine . mr. childrey in his britannia baconica ( a good piece ) page . mentions cockle shells , and periwinkles found at alderley neer severn in glocestershire ; but so as he rather allows them attempts of nature failing in her workmanship for want of fit matter , than such in reality , which those we speak of are in figure and other similitudes exceeding like , though very minute , and without the least substance found in them ; though in a close hard by , there are like shells which have full fishes in them ; ours ( as mr. childrey's ) are not found neer the surface of the earth , but in the body of the sand cast up by the force of the spring . this spaw ( by its effects and the separation of its parts ) seems impregnate with vitriol and some allum out of iron , and not in the least saturated with any ill quality . that allum is an ingredient , not the main principle , nothing discommends the spaw ; as by forestus and others we shall hereafter more fully evidence and cleer . and here before i proceed , i must ( from all whom i have discoursed with ) insert , that if this spaw proves slow , in getting off with some , it is but with a few , and that through their want of advice first , whose distempers have such a nicety of complications as may ( in prudence ) require advice , ( which i think ought regularly to be taken by such . ne fortè aqua noxios humores incurrens , eos secum rapiat , inventamque obstructionem augeat , as abheers observes ) or if it comes off slow , it is through the irregularities of others in taking the water too late in the day , and dining too early and plentifully after , indulging besides a more than ordinary freedom ; yet none ever complained that it prejudiced them in the least . i have heard that dr. spratling ( a person worthily respected in lancashire , for his endowments , though somewhat morose and cloudy ) commended this spaw to mrs . fleetwood of penwerden , and others , as singularly good . and this testimony i have from a reverend prelate , one of the most ingenuous and intimate sons of the inmost recesses of nature , that he hath a very good opinion of this spaw , though he drank but one morning of it : in which opinion is dr. pope , one of the councel of the royal society ; and dr. howorth of manchester ( my honoured friend ) a person whose desert intitles him to no mean credit , writes to me , that he lately viewed and drank of the latham spaw , and perceived it to be as deeply impregnate with the tincture of the iron and vitriol minerals as any water in lancashire , or the yorkshire spaw : adding further , that the greatest test now must be from those , that by experience make further discovery of its usefulness and benefit it affords , which he believes may answer the hopes and expectation he hath of it . and old spaw drinkers , of which i met some at this spaw , told me cheerfully , that a less quantity effected their business than at tunbridg , epsom , barnet , and other spaws , of which ( in an ingenious persons case here following ) you will have a notable proof , which cannot but be an excellent quality , considering thereby that the hypochonders are less stretched , obstructions are more powerfully opened , the filth of the stomach impacted in its folds and wrinckles is sooner fetcht off , especially if an easie vomit of sa● vitrioli albi , which as well astringendi vi , strengthens as evacuates the stomach in robust and obstinate bodies , precedes , and the membranous parts ( by the speedier comming off of the water ) are easier reliev'd , especially if this spaw be a little acuated ( as i have advised some ) with salt of vitriol , or steel , or cakes of cream of tartar , the german way prepared , freely bestowed by the countess of derby , who obliges ( by her great indulgence ) her neighbours thereby . there is an ingenuous person , one of a quick and through apprehension , who coming ( more out of a complacency than complaint ) to this spaw , drank of it with others some daies successively , but seldom more than three pints at a time , yet made within an hour and an half two chamber-pots full of urine ; which clearly demonstrates its celerity and vertue . and that he might not be without a blessing ( though the healthfulness of his constitution knew not what he might desire ) he yet found much gravel , to which his parents are addicted , evacuated by it , and himself freed of an ebullition of blood , which critically ( about midsummer ) had expressed its virulency in small pimples , for some late years , with much offence . this spaw i have throughly tried as to the turning its colour with the powder of galls , oak leaves , the boyling it with milk , the bearing of soap , which ( as the lord bacon observes , nat. hist. p. . ) hungry water will not admit of , such kills the unctious nature of the soap . as likewise i have tried other experiments ( frequent in the like case ) and i find few spaws , if any sooner answer all their tests than this . less than a grain of the shavings of gall will immediately tincture a considerable glass full of the water , first purple , then inky . nay , i have experienced that after some of this spaw had been kept seven weeks in a bottle , it yielded to the gall a full colour , though indeed , it putrifies soon , being out of its body , which argues highly the fineness of its spirits , they being thin and aerial , and is an evincing token of its vertue , in the judgment of the lord verulam , paulus aegineta , oribasius and others . and that i might be yet fuller informed ( desiring to lay no fucus on a wither'd face ) i caused three pints of this water ( after it had been carried seven miles ) to be distilled in a lamp still , excellently performed by my lords apothecary in the house : the first four or five spoonfuls of which so distil'd , i turn'd ( as i had done the rest from the well ) with a little gall , though what was afterwards distil'd never altered in the least , notwithstanding how much gall soever i put in , but remain'd insipid and clear . i put also into a glass of spaw water , at the spring a few drops of the volatile spirit of harts-horn , which made a white separation , with a strong scent , not of the faetor of the harts-horn , but the spaw , as if it had drawn all its spirits into a narrower compass , which a few drops of the oyl of tartar reduced to its clearness and scent . the scent of this spaw is not loathsom , somewhat it is like ink , more ( in my apprehension ) like the sea-shore when the tide 's gone out , brackish and subtile . further , i exactly weighed a glass of fresh spring-water with as much to a drop , as we could measure it , of spaw water , which in three ounces ( so much the glass contain'd of spring-water ) the spaw water came short of the spring-water a full half ounce , which demonstrates the levity of its parts , and the subtilty of its spirits , which in the opinion of the lord verulam ( nat. hist. pag. . ) makes much for the better : though i must confess too with heurnius , that learned and intire physician on hippocrates his aphorisms . l. . non lance semper aestimanda est aqua , sed si non gravis sit hypochondrio , verùm si ea subito pervadat , nec ibi cunctando putrescat , is the best quality , which i have already manifested are extant in our spaw . this spaw hath a blewish cream , or skin which swims upon the water after it hath stood a very little while , instar iridis , vel caudae pavonis in aquae superficie , to use hadrianus a mynsichts expression in his anima vitrioli , a medicine of admirable use , as this spaw , ( for this reason ) may be in many of the like cases , especially when obstructions are the original of such distempers . i know coal waters , and others which are not without some ill quality ( as standing lakes and the like ) have the same coloured scum , but not from the like principle , the one being from putrification , this the innate vertue of the minerals . abheers ( who in concerns of this nature leaves nothing unsearcht ) believes this various colour'd fat , or skin in the superficies of the spaw to be liquid amber , though others think it sulphur : but whether from the one or the other , certainly much vertue is specified by it , both being ingredients active and effectual . this spaw works several waies , most by urine , often by urine and stools , sometimes by vomits , but least free that way , unless the stomach be before foul and nauseous . the spaw at first drinking , is exceeding cold ; to avoid the inconveniences of which falling suddenly on the stomach , a sensible part and the bowels , i advise , as is usual in the like case , fennel seeds , coriander seeds , lemmon or orange pills , angelica roots , or roots of enula campana candied , to be taken with it , which brings off the water gratefully : and if some few drops of that noble and generous medicine elixar proprietatis be taken in a draught of the water now and then , i am perswaded it may further its excellency , as the earl of derby fully experienced when he took the water in reference to an indisposition on his stomach , which this spaw hath happily removed , begetting besides an excellent appetite . some ( claud. p. . not without authority ) admit of a spoonful of salt in their first cup , ut facultatem intestinorum irritent , ac alvum subducant , which in robust bodies replete with gross humours , i shall not forbid according to avicen and mesue cited by dr. jerden , p. . though it is too severe , and harsh for finer contextures , having such tenuity of parts as may fret the guts and bowels . in the weaker and finest bodies manna may be sufficient , rhubarb with cream of tartar , or tartarum vitriolatum , or my deobstructive powder , which i have observed hath done singularly well . some have been for drinking this spaw warm ( as they were they say the first examples of that course at other spaws ) the stomach being apt to suffer by the contraction the water may make on the nerves through its active quality , the nerves enduring no cold , in pursuance of the lord verulams advice for warm drinks , ( hist. life and death p ) which may be in some constitutions more proper at meals than in a course of physick , and i believe his lordship means so , for so drunk in a course of physick it makes it more nauseous , diminishes its spirits , renders it less penetrable , and gives it another quality , though in weak bodies the water with good effect may be taken warm , yet if such who desire to take it so would either drink it in their bed , or go to bed soon after they have drunk their dose ( as with some is usual at other spaws ) all inconveniencies of its chilness would be easily prevented , especially if the former rules of taking some gentle correctives with the water were faithfully observed , or a little white wine drunk with it , ut si vestigium aliquod frigiditatis ventriculo ab illis communicatum fuerit , ab his deleatur . claud. p. . for though this water ( as abheers observes of his spaw , p. . ) actu est humida , potentia potentèr exsiccat & calefacit , sicque ventriculi , & cerebri vitia emendat . and that it affects the stomach by its coldness with no ill effects , is evident from the appetite it raises in all that take it , signally remarkable even to the repairing of some appetites prostrate before , constringendo enim ventriculi orificium excitat suctionem , as hollerius in his praxis , p. . observes from our supream master , when he calls cold water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vorax . the right honourable the countess of derby when she first began to drink of this spaw ( three or four years since ) was forc't to take cardamum seeds with it , now a few fennel seeds , sometimes without any thing , the spaw passes off with much ease and benefit . exercise ( whilest the spaw is in drinking ) is most necessary : light walking is good , but in that the body is apter thence to sweat , than distribute the water , the matter of which is much spent by sweat , especially if the motion be violent , whereby the strength being drawn into a narrow room , the spirits become more sharp , and predatory , i commend riding , shooting , bowling , or what may make the water more easily descend , and inlarge its distribution ; and if some easie exercise to warm the bowels be had before one drink the water , i conceive it may make way for the water to proceed with less prejudice . what diet ( in this case ) is most necessary , is very obvious , viz. meats of easie digestion , all fruits of the season must be avoided ; early rising , going to dinner when the waters are come off , and soon supping is most requisite ; yea lipsius his advice to lessius from the spaw in his epistles is excellent , vix quandocunque venietis coenulam vobis paratam apud me scitote ex legibus spadanis , tenuem frugalem cum fame dimissuram : so is a cheerful spirit , moderate exercise , and all temperance , and the body by art , if the water effects it not , is constantly to be kept open . in what cures this spaw hath been most happy i shall in brief run over some ; time , which matures all , and my leisure , ( at present somewhat disturbed ) being to enlarge further as there is occasion . in facilitating the passage of the stone and gravel , and abstersing its sordes and minera , i find it very successful . one cropper in the mannour of latham hath ( for these twenty years ) found , ( as to the stone and gravel ) much benefit by this spaw in great violence and extremity . major henry nowell deputy governour of the isle of man , drinking of this spaw , found ( as i am informed ) infinite relief by it , voiding thereupon much gravel and many stones . john lingley a poor man , miserably afflicted with a continued pain about his reins , and his bladder , especially when he would make water , drank freely ( after he had been gently purged ) of this spaw , by which he immediately found such ease , that the membrum virile ( swelling priapismi instar , constantly before when he endeavour'd to make water ) grew orderly , and he voyded the next morning a stone with two discoverable branches . a gentleman of a fair estate , and an ancient family nigh to , and in leverpool ( one of the most encreasing and flourishing sea-towns now in england ) having , but ineffectually , long experienced the ablest advice in london for an ulcer in his right kidney , at length repaired to this spaw , of which for some daies ( indeed too few to make a through cure ) he drank freely , and with that effect , as ever since he is restored to such a competency of health and strength , as he travels in his new chariot with ease , and walks without the least disturbance , who for some years before could not stir without stooping and much pain . strange success it hath had on most sturdy obstructions , and annual pains . richard dinton ( at present coachman to the earl of derby ) was long held with an excessive pain about his stomach , flushing heats in his head , and a streightness at times about his heart . several months successively ( for two daies together in a month , and no more ) he had an intermitting tertian , with a regular type , and a sharp stitch in his right side ; for which he tryed much means , but in vain ; at length he drank freely of this spaw , taking some daies a little rhubarb and salt with it ( the medicine is of the lord bacons approbation , hist. of life and death , p. . ) and is now in good health . a gentlewoman of good note washing her knees and hams morning and evening with this water ( she drank of it too ) eased her self thereby of infinite pains and aches in those parts . here i must insert a case of great importance , elizabeth holden wife to one of the keepers of latham park , a woman of good years , and grave , having for a long time suffered under intolerable pains about her stomach , back , and belly , principally towards the matrix , and in her groins : and fearing by the bigness of her belly , that she might fall into a dropsie , drank orderly of this spaw , being tired out with variety of churlish medicines before . after a day or two , the spaw wrought so effectually with her , as first it mitigated her pains , then lessened her belly , and at length , oh numen aquarum ! it brought away such bladders , as many of them equall'd a pigeons egge , which being broke , with some noyse , yeilded a spoonful of limpid liquor somewhat jellying : before the voiding of which , pains , not unlike throws , pressed her in her belly , groins , and lower parts . i had ( by the favour of the earl of derby ) one of those bladders , the last i think , she ever voided , sent to me , whose outward tunicle was not unlike a swines bladder , but without fibres or veins ; within it was smooth , and had adhering to its sides a slimy blewish jelly substance . upon discourse with her , of which afterwards she assured me , that she had not voided less ( since she took notice of them ) then two hundred , each with pain and trouble , though the last with least . what to think of these i am somewhat uncertain ; that there are monsters in physick , as in nature , is no late exclamation . ludovicus nonnius , a learned physician of antwerp , in an epistle to the most ingenious beverovicius of dordrecht , inserted in his treatise de calculo , writes that as in the yard caruncles may be generated , which inclose urine , so the like substance may be bred in the body of the bladder : and zacutus lusitanus , that admirable observer of especial cases , p. . gives an excellent evidence , that multa monstrosa in vesica innasci , & membranae nerveae globi crystalli formes , incredibilis quantitas pituitae , & alia mira quae intus corercita deinde excernuntur cum urina . nor is sennertus , that learned and excellent man less observing in his chapter , de vermibus & aliis praeter naturam in vesica natis . and none of our books , treating of preternatural accidents , but are plentifully stored with strange productions from the womb ; concessions much strengthening our present case though they clear not the reason of it : nor do i believe the reason is easily found out . multa tegit sacro involucro natura . though till i am better convinc't , i must suppose these bladders voided by our patient to be bred in her bladder , if there , or in her womb , as aposthumes , of which there are great varieties arising from choice of matter , as sennertus well observes , disseminated through the whole body , some of them inclosed in a proper tunicle , receiving form and matter from the place they are generated in . i have been lately assured by a person worthy to be credited , that having had some years since , discourse with an eminent physician in these parts , whose infirmities generally tyed him to his chamber , he was then told by him that he once had a patient , a gentlewoman of good quality , who on her urine had a fat scum with various colours in it , under which swam many bladders , the bigness of a large pins head , very clear , which being broke afforded a slimy water , which he conceived were the effects of some apostumated matter in the reins , and not improbable , so various is nature in the discharge of her burden . but that which sways most , next to what may be imputed to the irregularities of the womb , is the opinion of a learned physician , whose deserts challenge more than is paid to his years and merits . he conceives these bladders come from the mesentery , and are the involucra and cystes of scrophulous tumors generated there , there being , as vigo maintains , the focus and seminary of the scrophula expelled thence , as schenckins observes of other evacuations , per ductus occultos ; and hence forestus in his treatise of chirurgical observations ( lib. p. . in º ) from arnoldus observes , that aquae minerales aluminosae non solùm infernos hos strumosos , ac pituitosos abscessus , sed externos quoque & summa corporis occupantes imminuunt , ac discutiunt ; from whence this patient received so much benefit : but to our intent . the collick seldom here misses of a cure ; holmes who had lately the ground in lease , gives an excellent testimony of this , as others whilest i was on the place . since , mr. william blackbourn of billings , a young gentleman , having some sharp heats breaking forth in his body , went the last autumn to holywell , in hopes the coldness of that well ( certainly a clear and fresh one ) would have relieved him ; but washing there , returned notwithstanding with the same heats increast , and some days after had the collick so extreamly , as it tormented him much ; whereupon coming to this spaw , he drank plentifully of it , and was that day cured of his collick , and mended immediately of his itch . this spaw hath wrought good effects on long obstructions , of which something hath been took notice of in dintons case . the countess of derby being sensible of a more than ordinary indisposition on her right hypochonder , applyed her self , two years since , to the drinking of this spaw ; the spaws in germany , ( those of ardenne , as that of wilong in the territories of the lantgrave of hesse , famous for the dutchess of longaveile , sister to the duke of conde , proving afterwards with child ) having been no strangers to her palat and observations , which incouraged that excellent and discerning person to hope well of her own spaw at latham , in tast and trial not unlike . upon drinking of which she found so notable an improvement of her health , languid and impair'd before , that her appetite return'd , the rawness and crudity of her stomach before mentioned , wore off , her flushings and heats grew less , and her liver ( till then stretcht immoveably to her ribs ) grew loose and plyable , and all upon drinking this water , this admirable vehicle imbib'd with such active qualities as wasting the pertinacious humours , adhering to the parenchyma , and vessels , before rebellious to ordinary solutives , and medicines , restored her ladiship to the excellent health she now enjoys . the lady colchesters gentlewoman complaining , through a long indisposition , of much pain inher head , and stomach , with a strange averseness to meat , & a vomiting afterwards , drank orderly ( after some small preparations ) of this spaw , and in few days grew well , and so continues . in old aches , and inward and outward sores , this spaw is of good effect . thomas holmes of slade , about years old , having been troubled several years last past with a pain about his midriff , which though not altogether , yet in great measure hindred his daily labour , contracted by a strain , lifting a great weight neer years since , the last may began to drink of this spaw ( not constantly and regularly , but as he thought fit , and business permitted him ) in quantity about two quarts at a time , and is now not only freed of his pains , but can daily do more work than he could possibly reach to for some years before . his servant also , about christmass was twelve-month got a strain in his back , lifting more than he could well master , which disinabled him much ; in june last he drank of this spaw , for the most part , twice a day for some weeks , whereby he is now lusty and follows his labour close , without the least sense of his former complaints . henry maudesley ( within the mannour of latham ) being in very great pain at his heart , in his thighs , legs , feet , and head ( you must accept of his own expressions ) for which he had tryed what help boulton and the country afforded ( eminent men in some places ) but in vain , came , or rather , with much ado , crawled to latham spaw , with a strong confidence , where in the morning , he drank thereof freely , and getting a bottle , carried it full home of the same water , and drank of it when he went to bed ; next morning he found himself ( amaz'd at the deliverance ) in a very good condition , and both his thighs broken out with pimples , out of which issued much water , whereupon he immediately grew perfectly well , and so continues . alexander parr , one of the keepers of latham park , on a bruise , vomited much blood , and thereupon grew weak , and short-winded , but drinking of this spaw recovered strength , grew hearty , and spat no more blood . thomas aiscough , one of an athletick constitution , upwards of . every winter ( for some years last past ) being troubled with a severe cough , together with a shortness of breath , complaining withall of such exquisite pains in his shoulders and over his brests , as the anguish of them would sometimes cloud his reason . quibus etsi non tollitur lumen illud , ut sic dicam , mentis : tamen interdum offuscatur , & velut nubeculâ serenitatem ejus subducunt ; to make use of dear lipsius his words to prunius , then his pains would descend to his stomach , where they would be more tolerable , and afterwards settle , with much virulency , in his thighs , having in their walk pain'd his hips , so as to turn them black , and in the end determine in his great toes , with blisters pouring forth ( for some weeks ) freely thick and putrid matter , as herc. sax. p. . observes in the like case , humours descended , ad pedes , in quibus fiunt tubercula & sic solent solvere abscessus : for the cure of which he had much advice , but finding it ineffectual , resorted to this spaw , which after due preparations by bleeding , vomits , purges , and an orderly diet , which of himself he was not much inclin'd to , wrought so powerfully on him , every way , as he found exceeding relief thereby , and is now returned to the isle of man , ( where he usually lives ) with much comfort , and satisfaction : though such a habit of distempers will necessarily need , spring and fall , some evacuation more than natural . monsieur pelate , gentleman of the horse to the countess of derby , one well verst in chymistry , and a sober person , who in his own country had often visited the waters of bourbon , and the most reputed spaws , acknowledges this , in its kind , to be nothing inferiour to any of them ; it having effected a most signal cure on him , who , being much indisposed , and stiff in his limbs , inclinable , as he suspected to a palsie ( a scorbutick one i conjecture ) drank orderly of this spaw , and within a short time recovered his limbs , with a constant good habit of body , before much indisposed , and obstructed through a sedentary life in his more retired years . the last summer he went to holywel , and with others bathed himself there . upon which ensued a great indisposition on his limbs , and his whole body ; the spring being too cold and piercing ( though it must be own'd , for its rise and purity , one of the excellentest of that nature ) as it discompos'd him much , so much as he hath exprest his resentment ingeniously , fecit indignatio versus : since he hath recovered his health by drinking again this spaw . john thorp of chester , years old , having been for several years , if not since his birth , exceeding scrophulous in his face , arms , body and legs , so violent there , as to have eight bones at once took thence , underwent all usual means for his recovery , but finding little good thence the year . the humour broke forth very violently in his arm , thighs and back , in his back so violently as it ran extreamly distempering his whole body , sufficient indeed , and more than sufficient to make him an object of great charity ; which the earl of derby considering , ordered ( about the midst of july last , ) that he should be brought with much care to this spaw from chester , of which he drank freely , it agreeing ( after two or three daies ) excellently with him , working by stools , and urine , very kindly , so kindly as after six weeks stay there , observing an orderly course , both as to physick and diet , his ulcers mended to admiration without any other application whatsoever , than the spaw water ; his pains , before intolerable , vanisht , his strength ( neer exoluted ) increast , and his mind ( dejected through the loathsomeness of his distemper ) grew serene , so that at this day he stands a miracle of restoration , being able to walk cheerfully , that lately could not move without anguish , and complaints , though i suspect ( unless the next spaw season perfect his recovery ) his distemper , through its violence hath so impoverisht nature , that he will at length fall under his complaints , through the decay of some parts , ( without the recovery of which ) nature cannot well subsist , though at present , exceedingly relieved . john stephen of newgate in holland near latham , years old , having ( near the vertebrae of the loins , within somewhat more than an inch of the back bone , upon the first of the spurious ribs ) a great tumour which for six months was gathering to suppuration , but could not be brought to it , notwithstanding the most usual effectual pultises , cataplasms , and plaisters , till by the advice of a country woman , a colts secundine , which was stretcht ( according to their custom ) on a board , and by pieces applyed to the tumour so ripen'd , and easily brake it , as at the first running it yielded some quarts of laudable quittor , the next dressing almost as much , and every day after , for four weeks , the aposteme wetted three or four napkins each dressing , not unlike to what herculius saxonius observes , p. . of one he opened , qui excernebatur pus album eo die ad libras octo , & sequentibus diebus ultra decem libras ; which comes the nearest i read of to our patient , who being thereby brought very low , and finding no benefit by what he had been advis'd to for his recovery , he with much difficulty repair'd to latham spaw , where ( after he had took a dose of the apozeme prescribed for the former scrophulous patient , he drank orderly of that spaw ; as her. sax. in the former chapt. advises in curatione ulceris post abstersionem : utilitèr enim , says he , administrantur omnes aquae thermales , & intemperie calidâ conveniunt frigidae , in minus calida aluminosae , nam exsiccant & mutant intemperiem partes , as forestus in his chyrurgical observations p. . also advises , by which the patient in few daies gathered strength , with such a stomach , as his sores ( he had two ) ran kindly , grew sweet , and by the fistula injection , which the countess of derby ( excellent in those things ) ordered , out of her charity and knowledge , is now in such a condition , as he can without pain ride , nay go many miles , who before could scarce hold up his back one step , and might easily have the wound healed , if there were not more danger lupum auribus tenere ; some recidiva's remaining , which ( for fear the vertebrae of the back should be foul , or the cartilage , and the tendons of the joynts be thereby impair'd , the aposteme being long in gathering ) i cannot yet but indulge doctor reads caution , not to heal the orifice too soon . before he came to the spaw , oftentimes the orifice in his side would be shut up , upon which he would breath extream short , and spit up exceeding bitter matter in great quantity , ready to suffocate him ( the matter being translated to his lungs ) which , after drinking a day or two of the spaw , turned it's course to the wound , never reversing it's order since : so happy hath this spaw been to this poor neighbour . some in dropsies have repaired happily to this spaw . the lord strange's nurse , a woman of a full body , cheerful , and of a wholesom complexion , being exceedingly swolen in her belly , thighs and legs , nay almost all over , afflicted too with violent pains in her head , and a troublesome asthma , seriously betook her self to drink of this spaw , and without any considerable preparation ; which , in few months cur'd her dropsie , remedied her head-ach , and freed her , as it hath done some others lately , of her asthma , that at this time she enjoys much health . i know a divine about years old , a graceful preacher , and reverend , much afflicted with the scurvy , and many of its languishing symptoms , besides miserable swoln legs , who drinking of this spaw but a few daies , returned home infinitely eas'd of his complaints , and cured of his swoln legs . in the worms , nothing proves more effectual . the house-keepers wife of cross-hall ( a sweet retirement of the earl of derbys ) maintains it , that one of her children being very ill , and as she thought at the point of death , and she her self too , at that time , indisposed and ill , drank both of this spaw brought to them in a bottle , by james holmes the husband , and immediately they both grew well . the mother thereupon voiding two , and the daughter three worms indeed the neighbourhood , as i am informed , drinks it often upon that score , and with much benefit . mistris elizabeth nowel , being troubled with the palpitation of the heart from the womb , and spleen , drank some days of this spaw , and found not relief only , but ( for ought i yet hear ) a cure. in womens diseases , viz obstructions of the womb , critical evacuations , hysterical fits , &c. the whites with all the symptoms arising thence , the spaw produces excellent effects , too apparent here to insist on , that through the whole , glance only at some cures ; as also in loosenesses , bloudy fluxes , fluxes of the liver , this spaw effects considerable cures , and that not so much as some suppose , by a restringent , and thickning quality condensing the prodigality of humours preying on nature , thereby disabled to act in her own vigour , as by an opening , and discussing vertue , precipitating the morbifick cause of these and the like fluxes , whereby nature ( being rid of her superfluities ) she recovers her pristine strength , as abheers p. . excellently well observes to this effect . the same may be affirmed of the gonorrhea , and all the diseases incident thereto : of which you may take two examples , one of a young man about years , who having run through a course of physick , not less terrible than the disease , drinking of this water , was speedily cur'd of a notable flux of bloud in the frenum with its consequents . the other was of a man about . who having a consumption in his back , drank freely of this spaw , and in few daies gathered strength , such as ( if a quartan , which hath seiz'd on him this winter , do not again impair his strength exceedingly ) may restore him to a healthful condition . i may here likewise mention one ( related to him that looks to the well ) who having spent much in the cure of a dysentery , was by his friends advised to come from manchester , where he lived , and lack't not advice of learned and eminent men , to drink of this spaw , which he did , and in a short time returned cur'd . nor is it any wonder that this spaw impregnate with sufficient virtue , should have such an effect on the diseases last mentioned , since ( as sennertus observes of the taking of the aquae thermales , in the dysentery , the reason of which cure is also pregnant for the rest ) that cùm una opera pluribus scopis satisfaciant , acres ( scil . ) humores diluant , & deturbent , sordes ulcerum detergant & ulcera ipsa egregiè consolident , so my author in his ch. de dysenteria , p. . º which , as a conclusion to this hasty discourse , is not impertinent to insert : and though i might now add more , each day during its season , raising up some passage worthy an observation ; yet with the shutting up of the spaw in winter , we will also leave the rest to flourish with this spring , if what we have writ , we judge not more than sufficient . finis . memoriae sacrum illustrissimi paris conjugum , viri quidem nobilissimi d. d. caroli comitis derbiae , et junctae illi lectissimae foeminae d. dorotheae helenae , operam conferentium ut aquae acidulae lathamenses , omnium visui obviae & usui expositae essent . anno à fonte saliente plus minus xlxx . aera christi mdclxxii . a further account of lathamspaw , as it may conduce to the publick advantage , with ease and little expence , under the favour of the illustrious persons , the proprietors of it , whose charity exposes it to all , as their countenance gives life and encouragement to it . many having been encouraged by the success , which they and their friends have found on their repair to latham-spaw , to enquire further after its effects , and the times and customs to be observed there ; ( too cursorily glanc'd at in the first treatise of this subject ) i cannot , but in order to the approaching season , so far yield to the importunity of truth , and the publick benefit ; as briefly to affirm what the most knowing and ingenious testifie , that the excellency of that water far excell'd the attempt of its praise and vertue : though it being remote from the business of the nation , the access to it may not be so universal , as is observ'd in other places weaker impregnated with the minerals , iron , vitriol , and sulphur . nor were the effects more visible on the plebean , than the patrician , as hereafter may be more particularly expressed ; though some circumstances in their cases , are more remarkable , than a short time may well comprehend ; to which at present ( intending few notes only , not a tract ) i am narrowly confin'd . hence for their clearer information , who shall repair thither , for the opening of obstructions , either of the liver , spleen , or mesentery , the inn of slow fevers , and other contumacious effects ; freeing the uriters of gravel , stone , or phlegm , restoring the appetite , clearing the vessels of the gall and curing the diseases incident thereunto , also the suppression of urine , painfulness , &c. the rectifying the womb , furthering conception , menstrual evacuations , and rectifying other infirmities of women ; dissipating hypocondrick vapours , or melancholy , removing old pains , scorbutick affections , with its prodigal and virulent progeny , dropsies , asthmas , morphew , distempers of the reins , worms , reliques and proper fuels of intermitting fevers ; healing old sores , sore mouths , inflam'd eyes , inveterate dysenteries , laskes , and fluxes , with many diseases lodging in the channels , through which the water passes . i shall add some directions , observing ( to the prophanation of this great blessing ) how irreligiously , how brutishly most flock thither , ( as to other spaws ) without discrimination , or rules to be bounded by in their drinking ; as if the water were a spell , not a medicine : whereas the influence even of the pleiades , and orion , have not their natural effects , but as the bodies ( they work on ) are capacitated to imbibe their energie . in pursuance of which , so grateful to the most illustrious indulgers of this spaw , whose interest is never so well advanced as in the community of good , i shall set down some canons which ( observed ) may make the waters ( influenced from above ) truely healing and beneficial ; not here only , but where ever the like are drunk , so as these rules may prove a general benefit summ'd up in a narrow room : in publishing of which , i comply rather with their charity , ( diffusive as their vertues ) then seek my ease or repose . first , as to the time , though some are of opinion , waters may be drunk in winter as being stronger then : yet the air being then cold , the pores are more condensed , whence the passages are not so relax ; and commonly one is driest in the summer months , so more inclin'd to drink freely , a good expedient to carry them off readily ; in which respects , i conceive the fittest time to repair hither , is , from the end of may to august , inclusively . some ( so the constitution of the season disswades not ) commend august most , though generally then the first rains begin , and that ( according to the proverb ) discovers the poverty of nobility : the trees thence forward casting their livery , whence people cloathing themselves warmer imply waters ( afterwards ) are ill visitors of the inward parts : but this circumstance may be ore-rul'd according to the seasonableness of the year , no maxim being truer than that , change of seasons principally begets diseases . certainly the hottest season , and clearest air , are fittest times to drink waters in : the air ( a vehicle by which diseases are conveyed to us ) being much indisposed by the contrary , consequently waters , and we by them , in case wind , rain , or air prove unwholsom ; yet i have known those , whom the strongest medicines could not move , the waters ( though in winter ) have wrought on effectually ; but such patients are not sufficient to make the rule general . secondly , let such ( as would drink these waters ) advise with their physician , whether the cause ( for which they would apply themselves hither ) be probable to be relieved here : siloe was not for all ; since luxury , complicate diseases have flown in upon us . nothing is so soveraign which ( in some respect ) may not be attended with an inconvenience , though i havebeen so strict , in my observation of this water , that i cannot charge the least ill upon it ; who were fit to drink it ; who have took it orderly , that have not been spent with age , or whose heat or vital parts have not been asleep . thirdly , having rightly discovered the disease ( for one may emulate a●other , and yet is not to be cured by the same means ) let them carefully pursue rules , drink orderly , and keep within the compass of a sober dyet . rules consist first in purging , either by vomit , or stools , of which more in the larger treatise on this subject , it being impossible to apt medicines to every ones necessities , though ( in general ) the nauseous may help their stomachs by hiera picra , in pills , from half a drachm to a drachm , or take it in its species , with syrup of wormwood , and strengthen their stomach afterward with zedoary , galinga , china-ginger , sweet calamus roots candied , and the like . the costive may do well to take diacassia cum manna an ounce , cremor tartar a scruple , made into a bolus the night before , or some of the lenitive electuaries with a little hiera picra , which by morning may relax the belly . . let the patient drink the water early , on an empty stomach , and walk , jump , ride , swing the arms , shoot at butts , or exercise gently after , also a little before ; the better to relax the passages , and excite natural heat : weak persons may drink them in their bed , some what warm , but never too much at once , least driving obstructive matter into the uriters , the waters find not a current flux ; or ( the stomach being overcharg'd ) the patient be forced to vomit : not that a vomit the first or second day may be inconvenient , though the custom of it may effeminate the stomach , and divert the course more natural and intended . hence i disallow drinking in the afternoon , unless a cup or two , four or five hours after dinner , that the chylus diluted may be the better distributed ; but then i am against such as would sleep upon it , for that ( as some well observe ) the water lying longer in the stomach , than at other times , and gathering heat , it sends up vapours apt to oppress the brain . . after the water begins to come off kindly , the patient may drink thin veal or mutton broth altered with asparagus , fenel , parsley roots and the like , with tops of young wheat , succory , chervil , and seasonable herbs , the better to warm the stomach and open the passages . . dine not till the water be come off : a little white or rhenish wine ( in a glass or two of the water ) furthers that ; sometimes a pipe of tobacco , also elecampane or angelica roots candied , orange pills , tablets of aromaticum rosa●um , and the like , mentioned under the first head ( strengthening the stomach ) help concoction , then which nothing can bring off the waters sooner . . as one ascends by degrees to his dose , ( which is impossible to assign positively to any , for that the water works not alike with all ) so let him descend gradually ; and if he will not admit of other physick , let him , at least , take a glister in conclusion , that ( what the waters have thrown into the bowels ) it may cleanse and relieve ; else after evacuations , ( sometimes torments ) may ensue very prejudicial : indeed glisters ( and those of the spaw water ) may ( in case of costiveness , or obstinate obstructions ) be of excellent use through the whole course . . feed on meats easie of disgestion , such as may rather satisfie than whet the appetite ; the belly 's cheaply fed : especially avoid the crude fruits of the season , viz. cherries , cucumbers , millons , pease , peaches , or what may raise the least satiety ; the fertile parent of divers complicate inexplicable diseases . . spend the vacant time in gentle exercise , as before is specified , also in mirth , and good company , that together with the body , the mind may be relieved . . get convenient sleep in the nights , rarely in the day , unless the patient be very weak , and that sleep may be taken with advice ; and in case you sweat kindly in the night , check not favourable dews ; although such i am against , in the act of drinking ; for that it spends much of that matter which is more natural to come away by urine , so , infeebling the spirits , it much indisposeth the patient . . less then fourteen or twenty days ( a respect being ever had to the habit of the patient , and his strength ) cannot well serve to run the course in : in the strict observance whereof , some times headach , maziness , and the like ( by reason of vapours ) affect the patient . in others the pains of the hemorrhoids prove offensive : and the waters get off difficultly with others . all which may thus probably be remedied . first , the patient ( having been seasonably purg'd ) may take a tablet of sugar of roses , preserv'd quinces , or the like , mentioned in the first head under the rules to be observ'd , which , gratifying the brain , repells the grosness of the vapours . secondly , the hemorrhoids may be prevented by a glister ( in a little quantity the better to retain it ) of common oyl , or oyl of violets and butter , injected a convenient space before the patient drinks the water ; or make an oyntment of oyl of violets , mucillage of psylly seeds ; and a little wax , wherewith ( as also with oyl of eggs , well beaten with the yolk of an egg ) the part may be well anoynted . thirdly , as to the difficult coming off of the water , sharp glysters may be excellent , yet in respect there is some doubt of those as not sufficiently reaching the parts most burthened , caesar claudinus his bolus sylvius , his electuarium hydragogum , a neat compounded medicine , or the deobstructive powder mentioned in the first treatise , pag. . may do well in a draught of white wine early in the morning . nay the same powder taken ( sometimes from a drachm to a drachm and a half with the water ) may be a ready means to bring it off , or to prepare the body at first , as hath been long experienced : though if the body still proves obstinate , it s better to desist , then force nature to what she will not readily yield to . and yet i have found , nor are others without the same notion , that where these , or the like waters come not off readily , they often spend themselves ( even some months after ) in beneficial sweats , or large salivations , nay ( not seldom ) in great quantities of urine ; that it hath amazed some , where the treasures of these waters should be so long deposited without further prejudice , which ( as observations very important ) i could not but insert , that where the waters are slow , hopes may not be cold . some complain of sharpness of urine , after drinking the waters , though others are certainly cur'd ( even of this complaint ) by their orderly government herein ; to remedy which , emulsions of the greater cold seeds , white poppy seed , and almonds sweeten'd with sugar of pearl , syrup or sugar of althea , may contribute much : though i have long experienc'd , that a draught of florid wine well defecated hath not had less happy effects on this complaint , than it hath found in the dysury , or strangurie , proceeding from cold indistempers fomented by refrigerating accidents ; of which , and the other heads i might say more , the field being spatious , but so these rules ( with the rational deductions that may favourably be gathered thence ) may be well observed , i see not why brevity to the reader as well as to my self may not be an advantage . farewell . castalios latices decantavere poetae , at lathamensis tutior haustus aquae . mens vatum lymphata furit , corpusque tabescit ▪ ast hinc mens sano corpore sana viget . printed in the year . newes out of cheshire of the new found well g. w., fl. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) newes out of cheshire of the new found well g. w., fl. . [ ] leaves by f. kingston for t. man, imprinted at london : . dedicatory epistle signed: g.w. signatures:a-d⁴[-d ]. with woodcut title vignette. 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should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng cheshire -- description and travel -- early works to . mineral waters -- england -- cheshire -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - pip willcox sampled and proofread - pip willcox text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion newes ovt of cheshire of the new found well . imprinted at london by f. kingston for t. man. . newes out of cheshire , concerning the new found well , as it is contained in a letter lately sent from a cheshire man , to a gentleman a deere friend of his in north-hampton-shire . heartie commendations prefixed . you earnestly desire me in your last letters to impart vnto you a true report of the new found well here in cheshire , whereof you haue so many incredible reportes in that countrey , as it would greatly satisfie you to heare that which were vndoubtedly true . that which in so short a time i could gather and set downe for your satisfaction herein , i haue sent you inclosed . the matter it selfe would require to be handled by some man of great learning and iudgement , not one of my small vnderstanding , and to be published to the world in a graue and iudiciall discourse , not barely reported in a plaine vnlearned letter : but syth you desire it , i will aduenture to deliuer you my knowledge and opinion touching this new vvell . if the length of my letter be trouble some to you , you may thanke your selfe for vrging me to write of a matter which my skill serueth not to containe in the limittes of an ordinarie letter . now i haue vndertaken it , i can be no briefer , then first to preamble it a little : then to tell you the place , the situation , the description of the vvell , then some of the effectes and cures it hath wrought , the credit and opinion it daily winnes , and to doe you all the pleasure that i can in this intelligence i haue with my penne drawne a true plot and scite of the vvell as it is placed : so i desire to be heartily remembred to all my good friendes at stoke lodge . chester the . of august . . your brother in law euer assured . g. w. newes out of cheshire concerning the new found vvell . it is a well knowne trueth , that the giuer of all good blessings doth diuersly bestowe the same vpon mortall creatures here on earth , and in the bestowing thereof , hath alwaies obserued a distinction or difference of persons , times , and seasons , as reuealing some at one time and some at another , and how some which haue been hidden and vnknowne to all ages heretofore past , haue been shewed to men of latter daies . among all other benefits extraordinarilie throwne downe from that bountifull hand , what hath oftener been felt in mans comfort , than the finding of remedies against diseases , and medicines against the fraile infirmities of our corruptible bodies ? the proofe hereof is the well knowne inuention of so many new deuised easements and helps for all manner of maladies , and we see that as new and new distempers doe from age to age still bring forth infirmities , not seene nor heard of former times ; so men haue been inspired euermore with giftes and graces of that excellencie , whereby they haue found out , vsed and applied profitable remedies , neuer formerly inuented nor prescribed . and of all things in the world found to be medicinable and helpfull to mans health , no one thing may challenge so great a preeminence ( as an instrumentall cause ) as water , wherein euen from the worlds beginning hath euer been found most excellent soueraigntie of preseruation and recouerie of mens decaied health , and remedie against seuerall diseases . and as the vnspeakeable prouidence created water at the first to be one of the chiefe meanes to nourish and feede the bodies of such creatures as were to liue by food and sustenance : so hath he miraculouslie at diuers times indued speciall waters to be effectuall against mens infirmities : a thing most apparant in all , both sacred and humane stories and testimonies . naamans washing him seuen times in iordan at the prophets commandement , to be healed of his leprosie , implieth the fitnes of water in the curing of so grieuous a disease , and albeit the almightie power , who indeede performed that cure miraculouslie , could as well haue done it by the vse of any other matter , yet herein was shewed the fit vse and application of water aboue all other things , for the effecting of that glorious worke : and may not the like be affirmed touching that lame cripple in the gospell , which had lyen so long by the poole , wanting meanes to be put into it , whereof he was still preuented by those who thrust in before him for recouerie of infinite infirmities ? besides the peculiar graces bestowed on some speciall waters vpon extraordinarie occasions , what simple iudgement cannot obserue that the vse of pure and good waters hath in all ages , at all times , in all places , and with all persons been of such estimation , that ( to speake nothing , that nothing medicinable or needfull can serue mans necessitie without some necessarie helpe of water ) bathing and washing hath been as the common and readiest , so the most effectuall and soueraigne preseruatiue of health and remedie against infirmities ; and hath thoroughout the whole world been practised not alone by vulgar people , or young vnlearned feeble , sicke , or poore persons , but by men most wise , learned , mightie , rich ; yea , kings , emperors , and greatest monarkes of the earth . to what purpose ( will it happilie be asked ) is this far fetcht preamble placed in the front of so slender a discourse ? truly , not that i would here trouble my selfe to proue a matter that perhaps is not doubted of , or which no man meanes to make question of , but onely to this ende : euen that hauing prepared the mindes of such to whom these newes shall be imparted , to yeeld to this reason , and remember it as a truth , that extraordinarie remedies are often euen wonderfullie reuealed to mankinde for helpe of their diseases , and that the most excellent instrument which hath most oft conuaied that soueraigne good to men , hath been and is , some speciall water ; they may with better approbation conceiue the report of our newes of the new-found vvell , and with gentler credulitie imbrace the benefit , and beleeue the trueth . the famous countie palatine of cheshire can boast of many excellencies , wherein a countrie either for profite or pleasure may be tearmed happie . among other the ornaments thereof , i cannot but greatly commend a most stately , large , and as i may so tearme it , a princely forrest ( though there be others also within the shire ) situate euen in the chiefest and best knowne parts of the countie , called the forrest of delamere , belonging to her maiestie . the same bordering towards the west and northwest side , neere to merzey , an arme of the ocean , in many old records of this countie , is called the forrest of mare mondiam , but is best knowne , and hath been very auncientlie called by the name formerlie mentioned . giue me leaue a little to describe vnto you the same forrest , because in it is the well whereof i intreate . there are about the middest of the forrest certaine ruinous walles of stone , some inclosures , and the prints of an auncient situation , which as well common report of the countrie , as also the testimonies of the best writers of englands antiquities doe affirme to haue been a citie ( and it should seeme indeede to haue been a walled towne ) there founded and built by eadelfleda a queene of merceland : and the place to this day is called eades burie , whereof the whole hundred ( being a seuenth part of the shire ) reteyneth still the name . the borrough or towne being now vtterly decaied and gone ; there remaineth onely vpon the top of the vtmost height within that situation , a proper built lodge , called the chamber , and hath been for the most part maintained and inhabited by a famous race of gentlemen ( the dones ) of whome for certaine hundreds of yeares , knights and squires of that surname ( hauing still by inheritance been masters of the game or chiefe forresters there ) haue left good remembrances of their worthes and great reputation to all posteritie : and is now possessed by a worshipfull gentleman , iohn done esquire : whom the rather i am bolde here by name to mention , because of his charitable disposition and gentlemanlike furtherance of the benefit of this well , to the reliefe of all sorts of people that seeke for helpe by it . about a mile and halfe from the chamber toward the southwest side of the forrest is situate the newfound vvel . all the westerly and southerly side of the forrest is mountanous , and full of vaste vneuen hilles , scattringly beautified with many okes ( yet most of them shrubby and of low growth ) and not fewe queaches & thicks of hull and hauthornes , the hils themselues for the most part distinguished by galles and gutters made by waters falling from springs and other places , which in continuance of time haue worne and eaten deepe passages . in the side of one of these hilles , whose declining lyeth almost full vpon the north and north-east , ariseth the spring , head , and fountaine it selfe now called the new found well : the same insensibly issuing from firme ground at the roote or foote of a shrubbie hull or hollintree , yet so as the same hull standing at the south-west corner of the well there is some twentie inches distance betweene them . the well or cesterne being bordered with three or foure flagge stones ( as the compasse of it without breaking any earth about it would giue leaue ) is almost foure square , conteyning south and north about . inches , west and east about . inches . whether the spring issue vpright from the bottome , or from the one side , or from all sides , it is not perceiued . i rather iudge it comes at the south side ( which is the backe of it , and beares against the descent of the hill . ) if it should bubble forth at the bottome ( as in many other welles i haue seene ) this water being so cleare it might be easily perceiued , especially the spring being free , and yeelding continuall issue in a good proportion . i haue seene indeed many orderly springes farre exceede it in strength and bignesse of gush , yet haue i not known any to keepe a more certain and vniforme course , nor deliuer his water in so close and vnperceiueable manner , as this well doth . the force or streame which the spring is well able to maintaine , is about so much water as you may imagine would continually runne at ful through a pipe or tronke , whose concaue or hollow were three or foure inches compasse . the descent of the hill beneath the well northward is steepe , and the waste water falling north from the fountaine hath both of it owne course , and shortly meeting with some other rilles , worne the ground to a great hollow dingle , which carrieth them downe to a brooke at the foote of the hill , by which they are conueyed to a great poole of sir iohn egertons neere little budworth , which serueth olton milles : so that , albeit the spring sendeth his water at the first northerly , yet within lesse then one quarter of a miles labour it windeth about the hill skirte , and then holdeth his course full southerly . what the vaines of the earth about it may be , or from what manner of mixture the spring should issue , i dare not take vpon me to set downe , hauing neither skill to iudge of such matters , nor hauing had meanes as yet to procure search made to finde the nature of the mould whence it springes , which i know would be greatly materiall to such as haue skill and knowledge how to iudge of the power and efficacie of the water thereby . all that i can say in this respect , is that the vpper part or face of the earth there seemes to be a stiffe clay , insomuch that the resorters thither hauing made some one or two slender weake dammes to stay the water , halfe a dozen yards or more beneath the fountaine , there are by that meanes two small lakes or pooles , wherein poore people , when they are disposed , do bathe and wash themselues . which pooles though they be verie vnfit for that purpose , being verie vnhandsomely , thicke & muddy with the clay and soyle of the earth , yet they shew the fitnesse and commodious means how cesternes or some handsome prouisions might be made , either open or close , for the people of all sortes to vse their best benefit , and that so farre from the head of the spring , and so much beneath the bodie and seate of the fountaine it selfe , that there were no perill by breaking or digging the ground , to worke anie annoiance or hinderance to the vertue of the spring or water thereof . there be many that at their first taste of the water , doe confidently affirme they feele as it were some relish or smacke of an allome-like composition ; and not a fewe i haue heard censure , that there seemes to them a little resemblance of the tast of licoris ; some compare it to some other things : for my part ( because i am purposed to auerre nothing herein , but what i am verilie perswaded to be true ) as i can allow of no mans taste to be authenticall in this point , vnlesse i could also find it in mine own , so truly i must confesse that it is a water different from manie other spring waters in taste , and the most pleasantest in drinking of anie that i haue euer tasted , onely the relish is to me of no especiall thing that i can name , and the operation such as in my iudgement , and by experiment vpon mine owne and manie others bodies , it neuer offendeth with cold or heauy weight in a mans stomack , as the most sorts of waters vsually doe . it is one thing most notorious and worthie to be so , that no persons of anie sort whatsoeuer , which take it in anie good quantitie , but can and do report that they find difference in the operation of it from other waters , and most cōmonly it is obserued that to such as are vnhealthfull , and grieued with some infirmitie , they are sure by the water to finde in themselues some alteration : to such as are healthfull and verie sound of bodie , it either worketh no motion at all , or if anie , it looseth the bellie , and giueth most gentle and hurtlesse purgations . that there may be some alluminous mixture within the ground , by which the spring hath his passage , one reason may be that quick piercing nature which is found in it , both in the inward receipt of it , and the outward application to greene wounds and cuts , vpon which with wonderfull speed it worketh effectually . and besides , though i neuer made triall my selfe , the generall report is that by reason of a secret sharpe tartnesse that is in it , the water will turne or breake milke , whereinto it is put immediately . an other reason of the same efficacy may be this , which i can well testifie vpon mine owne knowledge , that it skowreth and cleanseth anie thing which is washed in it , more then anie water that i haue knowne , insomuch that it is of exceeding vse for the keeping white and faire the face and handes , better and more pleasing to many then the vse of sopes , washing balles or such other mixtures , neither so wholsome nor so pleasant as this naturall pure spring water . this may be sufficient for the situation and description of the well , will you now heare the manner of finding it . in the ende of the last winter quarter , and beginning of this spring time nowe past , here in these partes ( as i thinke elsewhere ) there raigned an extreame contagion of sicknesse , not infectious , yet so generall , as few escaped without some or other touch of vnhealthfulnesse . among other sorts of infirmities , many were tormented with hot burning agues and feuers of all kindes , which agues the vulgar people here ( especially when they light on children or young folkes , or that they hold them but intermissiuely , so that the patient lies not by it ) call it the fittes . one iohn greeneway of vtkinton an honest substantiall countriman of good credit and well reputed , being about fiftie yeeres of age or somewhat more , was about the end of march last past troubled with the fittes ; he tried such ordinarie remedies as the countrie experience would offer , but found no abatement of his disease , at length he cals to mind an experiment , that sixteene or seuenteene yeeres now past in the like necessitie had relieued him : and this it was . being at that time vexed with the fits , and finding no ease nor remedie for it , he thought good to repaire to a learned phisition at that time lying at the citie of chester , which is about sixe or seuen miles distant from greenwaies house . the phisition tooke good regard of the mans infirmity and being a man both learned and conscionable prescribed to him , that he should get him home , keepe him warme , vse good diet , and not to omit to walke forth in the mornings , to finde out some good pure spring water , to drinke of it , to bathe and wash himselfe with it , and herein he doubted not he should recouer his health shortly . i haue hereat not a little beene troubled in mine owne opinion to resolue in any probable appearance , what to deliuer touching the phisitions direction , as whether he might speake this of an excellencie of knowledge , or hauing before that time either read in some vnknowne memoriall , or had vnderstanding of peculiar vertue to be in that or some other water thereabout , or that he spake in generalitie , meaning that anie pure spring water were good for that mans infirmitie ; or whether the great guider of al mās inuention for general benefits did not herein vse the phisitions prescription , as a meanes of that future benefit he meant to bestow vpon poore destressed creatures : which last surmize , i verily hold most answerable to my owne satisfaction , yet so , as i leaue it with the rest to each mans particular choice and approbation . howsoeuer it were , greeneway being well acquainted with the springs & al other commodities of the forrest , had soone found out this prettie purling foūtaine , both for puritie and situation ( as he thought ) fittest to answere the phisitions direction , and there by drinking , washing and accomplishing what he was commaunded , in verie shorte time hee was of his ague throughly cured . since that time till this present yeere he hath liued healthfull and sound , but being againe surprized with the same griefe , necessitie then enforcing the remembrance of his former helpe , he repaired to his auncient medicine againe , where a short triall had soone taught him , that this was a remedie of greater regard then he formerly made of it : and thereupon tooke better notice & aduisement of it then before he had done . it happened within the space of one moneth after this , that one of his sonnes , and afterwards a second , and then a third were successiuely taken with the fittes , and each of them seuerally eased and holpen by the vse of this well , according to their fathers direction , as he himselfe had done before them . the neighbours neere vnto him hearing and finding the truth of this successe , began to resort to the well , as either the same sicknes or anie other griefe gaue them cause , and when the experience of many confirmed the vertue thereof to extend to giue helpe and ease , not onely to agues and other inward diseases , but also to be medecinable to al manner of outward grieuances and sores , it drew people in verie great numbers to repaire thither , and the more trials were put in execution , the more credit and account it hath euer since gotten . if i thought it not a thing both ridiculous and in some sort infamous , to spread in peoples eares vaine tales and incertainties , i would then haue stuffed this discourse with such surmises , as perhaps would go more currant and plausible to many , then a bare recitall of the truth touching the finding of the new found well . and vpon this conceit i haue thought fit to omit the laying forth of sundrie opinions , as they nowe are deliuered among common persons , and some others of good note touching the same . i spare to discourse vnto you what couiectures are daily cast abroad , that the same well should haue beene of knowne , and notable vertue in the daies of the afore named queene eadilflede , and vsed by her meanes and maintenance to the generall reliefe of people in those daies , but afterwards in the outrages and oppressions which the conquering danes made in the countrey , it was closed and stopped vp to preuent the benefite which that common rigorous enemie might haue receiued by it : but because i finde no such thing recorded in any remembrance that i reade or heare of , i leaue the credit thereof to such proofe as they can make , who would perswade the world that it is so . i haue heard likewise some persons of no meane account report , that there are within this countie some credible recordes which might be produced , wherein mention is made of an auncient well , within the precincts of delamere , that many yeares past was esteemed of great vertue and efficacie , insomuch as the same being dedicated by the first christians which had vse thereof to holy saint stephen , the same still beareth name ( in the said records ) of saint stephens well , and by circumstances therein gathered , it is said that this late found well may be likely to be the same : whereof hauing no farther proofe , then as yet i can attaine vnto , i leaue it as doubtfull as the former . but i will proceede with the further explication of the late effects of this water , which since the great repaire and concourse which people of all sorts haue made vnto it , is found to bee profitable , not onely against agues , which was the first virtue reuealed in it , but also against all manner of coldes , stoppings , grypings , gnawings , collicks , aches , ruptures and inward infirmities , and no lesse soueraigne against sores and outward anguishes , wounds , swellings , vlcers , festers , impostumes and hurts of the seuerall ioynts and members ; besides that , it hath done no small number of straunge cures , against sorenes of eyes and eares , blindnesse , deafenesse , lamenesse , stifnesse of sinnewes , numbnesse , weakenesse and feeblenesse , all which i am able to auerre and proue , by vndeniable demonstration from the seuerall effects of infinite numbers of people , that haue giuen witnesse thereof in these three or foure moneths now last past . i call them infinite numbers , because indeede the resort thither immediatlie after the first rumour of the well , grew vncountable , and the people as well of cheshire , as all the bordering shires thereabouts , trauelling thither daily in greater and greater multitudes ( euen till they amounted by estimation to more than two thousand in a daie ) master done euen then at the first , although it were great disturbance to her highnesse deere in the forrest , & occasion of much other inconuenience to the countrie , yet in regard of the notable comfort that sicke and diseased , and pleasure that healthfull and sound persons receiued by it ; hath been contented to allow free accesse , and permitted all manner of meete prouision to be brought vnto it , with most carefull and worshipfull foresight and heede , as well that no money nor see should be exacted for the vse of the water which god had freelie bestowed on poore and rich , as also that there should be order and gouernment warilie taken ouer all such as resorted thither , so that no manner of misdemeanor , or disorder should growe in that place , whereunto such great assemblies are apt and prone enough , if good heede and preuention be not vsed . to which purpose it happened well that the well it selfe falleth within the limits of a walke in the forrest , which hath long time been kept and watched by one iohn frodsham the keeper of that walke , who as he was a very fit and meete person , both for his good discretion and estimation to take the gouernment and ordering of people of the inferiour sort , and for the entertainment of the better sort as they resorted thither , so hath he taken great paines and care in discharging the trust in him reposed , for satisfaction of all manner of resorters thither , and daily endeuoureth himselfe by all waies and meanes possible , that his masters good and forward inclination to doe all both poore and rich equall furtherance in their desires , may honestly and respectiuely be accomplished . now by that which hath been before set downe , it appeareth what diuersitie of cure this well water hath made vpon sundrie persons , as shall be more largely proued to such as make doubt of the trueth of these reports . for as it consequently followeth that ( these things being graunted ) then is this water found beneficiall and medicinable against more seuerall sorts of diseases and infirmities , then any one remedie that hath been commonly knowne heard of , or experimented ( which report is indeede wonderfull , and scarcely to be beleeued to such as haue not been eye-witnesses thereof ) so were it a great boldnesse and an enterprise of a very brainsicke disposition in me , that should affirme the same , vnlesse i were warranted by the experience of so many , so credible , so wise , so graue , so sufficient persons , both in cheshire , lancashire , darbishire , staffordshire , shropshire , flintshire , denbighshire and others , from whence men , women and children hauing resorted hither in such abundance , there is not any but haue giuen ample testimonie that they found some extraordinarie pleasure by drinking , or other vse of the water ( especially those who vpon any cause of griefe haue receiued it ) as more at large i might very well make manifest , if i thought it conuenient or much necessarie for me to publish that approbation and testimonie vnder their seuerall names , which many of the best ranke of the inhabitants of these adioyning countries , haue and doe freely and trulie giue of it . and least it should be expected that i should insist vpon some particular instances , or otherwise suspected i dealt not plainelie , but sought to beguile persons remote and farre dwellers , with words whereof i had no proofe , i thinke it not impertinent to set downe the particulars of some of the cures made vpon diuers diseases , in diuers persons , of diuers habitations : which though they be skant an hundreth part of those which might be registred to haue receiued benefit by the well , yet it shall be sufficient to any reasonable minde , to take viewe and note by these of what power and force the water is found to be : wherein i cannot in any sort be conuinced of lying or misreporting , because they are testimonies taken from the confession of all the parties themselues , and witnessed by the beholders , being many scores , yea hundreds of people of all these countries , who haue seene the proceedings as here is deliuered . first , for the curing of agues there is none within any reasonable distance from the place , but know what numbers haue been , and are dailie cured of that infirmitie , especiallie of such as dwell neere the well , or haue staied a competent space to take benefite by the water in the best kinde : which is to receiue it fresh from the fountaine it selfe : let it suffice to name these fewe for example . the aforenamed iohn greenwaie , vvilliam , thomas and ralphe his sonnes , all honest young men and credible persons . one vvilliam iohnson a seruant to ralphe smethers , extreamelie vexed with an ague , was vpon may day last , speedily and perfectly restored to his health by drinking that well water . one master haworth of congerton , an honest gentleman , deliuered from the fits within once or twice washing and drinking . one ioan gorst a substantiail honest mans daughter , likewise perfectly cured of an ague , which had handled her in such extremitie , that through weakenes she could not be brought on horsebacke , butas she was staied and held vpon the horse , she recouered health by three or foure times drinking and washing . for sorenes and blindnes of eyes , consider these fewe reports . hugh rowe of darnall , a man of good wealth and very honest credit , hauing been quite depriued of the sight of one eye for three yeares space , by washing oft in this water , hath welneere recouered sight in the same againe , a cure that among the rest hath much confirmed both mine and many others beleefe of the effectuall operation of this water , being well acquainted with the losse of his sayd eye , and knowing well the mans worth of credit in that behalfe . thomas leonard , borne at salisburie , and latelie blind for the space of two yeares , hath with washing in this water about twelue dayes receiued sight againe . ralphe hichenson a poore labourer fallen of late yeares very blinde , as hath been well knowne to many of the worshipfull gentlemen in the countrey , who thereupon haue caused reliefe and prouision for him according to the statute , hath by the vse of this water recouered sight againe , which serueth him well to goe without leading , which before he could not doe . one robert bradley , who came out of darbishire the . of iuly , being borne at chappell in the frith , was led hither blind , hath here recouered sight , and the fourth of august is gone home without leading . one of edge in cheshire hauing had a pearle fifteene or sixteene yeeres in one eye , by this water got remedie for it . cures of aches and griefes in the ioints and body haue beene such as follow . one anne the wife of william wield of rushton hauing such paine in her backe and hippes , that she was altogether vnable to go , is by vsing this water become perfectly sound , and goeth well . one anthony bigges a souldier late in the regiment of sir samuell bagnall came forth of ireland verie lame , sicke , and feeble , not able to mooue farther then he was supported by crouches , on the . of iuly began to vse this water , & the . of the same had recouered strength , and went lustily homeward toward somersetshire with onely a walking staffe in his hand . roger nickson a substantiall man , now maior of ouer confesseth himselfe to be cured of a sore paine he had in one of his legs . one ralph lightfoot of the same corporation saith he had a certain griping in his body which would take him three or foure times a day , and almost plucke him to the ground , and in short time now hath beene fully cured thereof . george blacamore of the same society saith , that by twice washing he was cured of an issue of water which came from his knee by a cut with an axe , which before would haue drenched through nine-fold of cloth in lesse then a quarter of an houre . one iames kelsall cured of a legge which had beene sore for many yeeres before , and would be holpen by no meanes till now . one edward billington of middlewich parish , hauing a straunge disease in his body , that he was not able almost to mooue himselfe , is now able to go to the well with ease , being almost foure miles distant . one mistres drakeford of congerford was here cured of some infirmities in her bodie , as by her husband was credibly reported . one hugh fairechild of prescot parish in lancashire , affirmeth himselfe to be hereby cured of a rupture . one randol phitheon of warmincham yeoman , was long time benummed by a poyson , that he could almost hold nothing in his hand , auoucheth that he hath receiued great comfort by this water . robert hall of the parish of whitegate wheelewright had of late a disease fell into one hand , which brake and issued at fifteene or sixteene holes , and is with this water made fish whole , witnessed by the sight and knowledge of the vicar of ouer , a very honest gentleman . one master vvilliam iohnes a gentleman of worth and good reputation , dwelling neere wrixham in denbighshire came very sicke and lame to this well , where recouering health and soundnes , he left testimonie there vnder his hand-writing of the great benefit he receiued to this effect . viz. that where he was exceeding lame of his knees and feete , and grieuously pained in his head , necke , shoulders , and sides , that from easter weeke till the . of iune , he was not able to go without the helpe both of the crouch , and one to hold him by the other arme , vsing this water at his house one fortnight , he found himselfe able to trauell to the well , where he continued in all twelue daies , and found such good thereby , that he was able to go onely with the helpe of a little sticke in one hand , and to get vpon his horse without helpe , and in token of the benefit he receiued there , he hath left his crouch in the hollin there behind , this second of august . the same crouch with diuers others being there indeed reserued as oft as anie haue cause to leaue them . one peter nightgale was by this water likewise cured of a rupture in his bodie . one ioane bromhall of the middlewich lame of one arme and one hand , as is known and affirmed by men of good worship , by this water hath gotten helpe , and hath perfect vse of her arme and hand againe . iohn olton of wettenhall the younger , an honest credible man , hauing a rupture many yeeres , and not able to go without the helpe of a steele girdle which he wore continually , hath heereby gotten remedie , and goeth now lustily without his girdle . i may not omit among these some that haue beene eased of the gout and such like aches : as one george iohnson of northwich , long time diseased in that sort , so that he was not able to goe , is by this water holpen and well amended . christopher bennet of wiruin much eased and holpen of a gout , and sorenesse besides , called a wildfire in one of his legges . one master iames hocknell sonne to iohn hocknell esquire , being not able to goe , but was brought to the well on horsebacke three or foure times , and became perfectly amended . one elizabeth bradshaw of northwich had sore legs twentie two yeeres , and hath here by this water gotten helpe . the straungest cure to my iudgement that proceedes from this water , among all the rest , is the helpe that it giues to some of the hardnesse of hearing , wherof there are no few testimonies giuen by many , one that is knowen to be benefited therein is randal wield a young youth of vtkinton . this i know vpon my owne knowledge that a gentleman here in the countrey , one master d. c. being so deafe that he cannot heare the report of a gunne discharged verie neere him , hauing of this water infused into his eares , it presently drew forth much corruption beyond all expectation , what further benefit will insue towards the amendement of this deafnes restes in gods hands , but there is good hope . i haue purposely spared to remember a worshipfull knight of lancashire , who hath oft visited to his owne great ease and comfort this well , and as well himselfe as other gentlemen of good account , and some learned of his companie haue giuen very great approbation to the truth of the welles efficacy . one notable vertue it hath not to be forgottē , which is soueraignty in curing and helping the stone , which was notorious in that one cure it did vpon iames okenthorpe of eaton , who was tormented both with the stone and strangulion , and hereby receiued remedie . no man can better confirme the credit of this , that the water helpeth the stone and other hurtfull obstructions , then one master iohn vvyttur of torporleigh a very substantiall freeholder , who of late was of the stone together with a colde and certaine gryping torments in his bodie brought euen to deaths doore , and through helpe ( as he thinketh next vnder god , of this water ) is verie well restored to his former health . i heard an other very sensible wise gentleman professe and openly auerre , that hee verily beleeued , if he had not had ease by the water of this well , the disease of the stone had surely killed him , the gentleman is toward sir h. harrington , and will confidently auouch it . it hath had no fewe reports of doing good to some such as haue beene there to seeke for remedie against falling sicknesse , apoplexies , epilepsies , letargies , giddinesses and other straunge symptomes : but eyther i suppose these proofes are sufficient , or infinite cannot serue . i hold it therefore a needlesse and vnprofitable labour to trauell further in these recitals of cures : neither doe i labour hereby to spread an opinion beyond trueth of the vertue of this well , which to do were no way to me worth my labour . that i should endeuour to deceiue and beguile mens eares with a straunge report , would more displease me to thinke my selfe so gulde in mine owne folly , then pleasure me to thinke there were a pleasure in illusions , to labour to draw men the faster to frequent the place and come to see the well , i protest before god i know not how that may any way benefit me one farthing . only my desire is to satisfy my friends and others of the truth of that , whereof now there grow many doubts and disputations among men . they which dwell farre remote rest doubtfull , whether the large and ample fame thereof spread , deserue credit or not . some that dwell neere the place argue and debate whether or how it is possible such straunge and admirable effects should be produced from a cause so simple , poore , easie and common as the water of a little spring . of the first sort those that be generous , gentle and well disposed , i suppose these confirmations will worke very farre for their satisfaction : because i know not how any thing may be proued , if it be not a good proofe which is drawne from the approbation of worshipfull , wise , learned , rich , poore and altogether , and that not of one , but of many shires : and i will neuer beleeue prouerbe more whilest i liue , if the prouerbe be not in this cause somewhat auaileable which saith , it must needs be true which euery man saith . for those that doubt of each thing they see , because they presently apprehend not the reason of it , i holde them not worthie of satisfaction , because their peruerse opinions are incapable of instructions of the true acceptation of any benefits eyther diuine or naturall . these are like to the neighbours of some excellent and skilfull phisition , who in enuie and hatred do vsually disable his skill , and cannot endure to see other men flocke to him for helpe and remedies : yet if griefe , paine , or sicknes sease vpon themselues , they then are glad to sue for his helpe , then for necessitie sake they honour the phisition : not the wise man which gaue this precept , but necessitie it selfe teacheth them to do him his due reuerence . endlesse were the labour a man might haue that would go about to answere the obiections which the curiositie of some braines will still brue , and fling in his face that shall commend any truth whatsoeuer , neither will i enlarge this discourse with so tedious a purpose as to conuince that by way of argument , which no equall mind will much doubt of . the scepticke inquirers which professe doubtfulnes in all things though neuer so manifest , and aske why fire is fire , or why heat is heat , why white is not called blacke , and why blacke is not called blew : what answere deserue their friuolous demaunds , but silence the reward of foolish questions ? they that aske why the water of that well should be so holsome aboue an other water , eyther on this side or beyond the same place , eyther on one this side the hill , or one the tother , are they not like to those which contēned the prophets prescription touching naaman , and asked if abanah and pharpar , riuers of damascus , were not as fine waters as that of iordan ? why was not this precious water ( say some ) found out before this time ? or how comes it to passe , that in an element so bare , void of mixture , and so meerely nothing almost differing from other water , there should be operation so diuers , as to be medicinable against such diuersitie of diseases , wherof no doubt the causes proceed some contrary one to another ? questions sottish & contemptible . haue not all notable benefits had their seuerall beginnings ? and cannot men tell you of the inuention and first finding of tenne thousand publike admirations , whereof some haue lien hid and vnreuealed euen till our daies ? and is it any new thing that waters should effect so strange , and so diuers operations ? what meane scholler hath not read of the well in gnarsborrough forrest , which cōuerteth leaues , flesh and such like into hard stone ? of the well in glocestershire , which turneth oke rootes as they grow into hard stone , of an other neere stonie stratford , conuerting stickes and the like , into the like hardnes of stone ? are not these straunge operations ? and can a man prefently giue a reason hereof . knowes any man the reason why that lake in snowdon which carrieth the mooueable iland , should bring forth eeles , perches and trouts with onely one eye a peece in their heads , which no other water beside doth ? or why that well in wales , six mile from the sea , or another in darbishire . miles distant from the sea , should rise and fall iust with the ebbing and flowing of the sea ? we are to wonder at , not examine all the secret workings of nature , and giuing praise to the great guider of nature , and ouer-ruler of naturall causes , to receiue the good benefits we find with thankfull humilitie . i could heartily wish that some learned and experienced man of ability and iudgement ( rather a skilfull phisition then any ) would take paines , iudicially to approue and publish to the world the vertues and vse of this good water , as hath heretofore been done by our best bathes in other parts of the realme . perhaps some famous doctor turner , or learned master iones could well satisfie the curiosity of the narrowest inquirers why this should be , and that should be ; they could iudge of the nature of the water , of the colour , of the vaines of the earth , of the situation of the climate , of all the collaterall causes which make it beneficiall . if our well worke the like or as strange effects as bath , buxtons , saint vincents or hally well , what aduantage haue they of it , sauing that good fortune hath found them out such men ( as those before named ) to publish their vertues . the first of which named welles ( i meane the bath ) i must needs with great reuerence giue due admiration vnto , in respect of the great fame and antiquitie , it is knowne to be of . and because it exceeds all the rest as in heat , so in the sensiblenes or manifest apparance of phisicall or medicinable curing , i hold it great reason it should retaine the preheminence ouer all the rest . and where our wel wanting that sensible heat may perhaps in that respect be disallowed the name of a medicinable water : i answer nothing but that which master iones writeth of buxtons well , that being not so hot , as the water of bathe , it healeth more temperately and effectually . thus farre ( bro. b. ) as my haste and slender abilitie would permit , i haue laboured to impart vnto you the newes of the new found vvell . if you please you may commit it to further view , if it be not well reported , or the newes not well accepted , or my meaning not well construed , i can say no more but this , i would all were well . finis . a briefe discourse of the hypostasis, or substance of the water of spaw; containing in small quantity many pots of that minerall water verie profitable for such patients, as cannot repaire in person to those fountaines, as by perusing this discourse, it will plainly appeare. translated out of french into english, by g.t. this abouesaide hypostasis, or substance of the water of spaw, is to be sold by doctor hieronimus seminus, italian, dwelling in s. paules alley, in red-crosse-street. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a stc estc s this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a briefe discourse of the hypostasis, or substance of the water of spaw; containing in small quantity many pots of that minerall water verie profitable for such patients, as cannot repaire in person to those fountaines, as by perusing this discourse, it will plainly appeare. translated out of french into english, by g.t. this abouesaide hypostasis, or substance of the water of spaw, is to be sold by doctor hieronimus seminus, italian, dwelling in s. paules alley, in red-crosse-street. fuchs, gilbert, - . de acidis fontibus sylvae arduennae, praesertim eo qui in spa visitur, libellus. g. t. [ ], , [ ] p. printed by william jaggard, [london : ?] partly based on the french version of "de acidis fontibus sylvae arduennae, praesertim eo qui in spa visitur, libellus" by gilbert fuchs, referred to as "gilbert lembourgh" on b r. printer's name supplied and publication date conjectured by stc. the first leaf is blank. reproduction of the original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng seminus, hieronimus. mineral waters -- therapeutic use -- early works to . mineral waters -- belgium -- spa -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - celeste ng sampled and proofread - celeste ng text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a briefe discourse of the hypostasis , or substance of the water of spaw ; containing in small quantity many pots of that minerall water . verie profitable for such patients , as cannot repaire in person to those fountaines , as by perusing this discourse , it will plainly appeare . translated out of french into english , by g. t. this abouesaide hypostasis , or substance of the water of spaw , is to be sold by doctor hieronimus seminus , italian , dwelling in s. paules alley , in red-crosse-street . a briefe discourse of the hypostasis , or substance of the water of spaw , conteyning in small quantitie many pots of that minerall water . whereas the singular effects that are yearely experimented , by drinking the water of spaw , doe cause the concourse of sundry persons of diuers countries and nations to those fountaines : whereunto many more patients would willingly repaire , were they not letted , either by extraordinary defect of health , or ordinarie want of wealth , or such other impeachments , as dayly occurre in the course of this transitory life . in consideration whereof , it hath seemed verie expedient to some , who haue disposed their studies and labours , to the good of others ; and whose residences are not farre from those fountaines , nor themselues estranged from the ensearch of naturall things , to deuise the meanes , that such as are absent , may be made partakers of those minerall waters ; and consequently , of those healthfull effects , that by the drinking of them are produced . the accustomed course hitherto taken , hath beene to fill numbers of bottles with the water of the vpper or the lower fountaine , and to conueigh those bottles ( being closely stopped ) vnto their designed places ; as to france , england , italy , germany , polonia , moscouia , and other farre distant places . but this way is found by experience , no lesse troublesome , then chargeable in the carriage ; considering , that a huge quantity of water , containeth but a very little of the minerall substance , wherein the vertue of the water consisteth ; and the saide substance being so thinly diuided into a great quantity of water , looseth much of the force and vertue , before it can bee brought into so farre distant places ; the which hath beene the cause , why the persons before insinuated , haue employed their studye and trauaile , to reduce the pure hypostasis or substance of the saide minerals , into so little a quantitie , as that one pot may supply for farre more then an hundred pots ; and withall , that no part of the force or vertue of the saide minerals should bee impaired . and to the end the reader may receiue some kinde of satisfaction , who perchance is curious to looke into the practise heereof ; or at lest , into the speculation of this maistry , three points hee is then to obserue . first that the extraction of the saide minerall essence bee made in sommer ; in which season , those waters are of more efficacie : and if the extracter bee himselfe present at the fountaines , it is so much the better . secondly , that he finde out the secret how to part the minerall substance from the vvater , without distillation , ( for that would not quite the cost ) but by precipitation , whereby the minerall powder falleth downe , and setleth it selfe in the bottome of the glasse , depriuing the vvater of all minerall taste and operation ; which secret , is soone performed by a skilfull artist . thirdly , when he hath a sufficient quantity of that precipitated powder , hee must not dissolue it with any corasiue , but with a competent measure of such liquors as are agreeable vnto the health of man : and in these three obseruations the whole practise consisteth . it followeth now , to declare in what quantitie this hypostasis or extraction dissolued thus into a liquor , is to bee taken ; which must bee as followeth . take a dram weight of this liquor , which is the eight part of an ounce ; and contayneth as much in quantity , as will fill a great thimble ; poure this into a glasse or stone bottle , & poure thereunto fifty ounces of the best and clearest water that is to be had ; whether it be fountaine water , riuer water , or well water : this water is to be put vnto the dram weight of the other liquor , at the time that the patient is ready to drinke it , and not before ; not that any inconuenience may ensue thereof , but because the fresher the water is , the more grateful it is vnto the taste , and the minerall substance in length of time , will descend vnto the bottom of the glasse : and albeit it may bee newly stirred and mingled with the water , and so taken ; yet will it notwithstanding , be more to the liking of the patient , as before is noted , to haue his water brought fresh from the spring , &c. this quantity of fiftie ounces of water to a dram of the minerall substance , is the ordinary and best proportion , which hetherto by practise hath beene tried , being also lesse distastfull vnto the drinke ; yet , in some diseases , as in retention of vrine , or in quenching the heats of agues , it will stand the patient in better steede to followe this proportion , then to take it in lesser quantitie of water . and this is spoken vpon proofe and experience : how be it , if the learned physitian shall thinke it expedient , that in some diseases the quantity of the water be diminished , the matter is referred vnto his graue iudgement , consenting with the philosopher , that frustra fit per plura , quod potest fieri per punciora . the water being in the former proportion prepared ▪ the patient may drinke thereof according to the quality of his disease ; as for example . for the stone and grauell , or heate of the raynes , he may take euery morning fasting fiftie ounces at seuerall times , and hee must abstaine from meate two houres after , and if within that space he be in plight to walke , or to vse some other moderate exercise , it will worke the better . heere is also to bee noted , that albeit such as drinke the spaw water , to take . . or more ounces in a morning . yet this notwithstanding , these-fiftie-ounces will be of as great efficacie , because there is more pure substance conteyned in those fiftie ounces , then in a far greater quantity of spaw water . thus much taken in a morning , will be sufficient the first weeke for the whole day . the week following , so much more may be drunken in the afternoone , about three or foure of the clocke , if it shall seeme good to the learned and expert phisition , to whose discretion and direction are referred , these and sundry other particular circumstances that may happen ( which in schooles are tearmed hic & nunc ) in sundry diseases , and in the diuers dispositions of different patients : in which occurrences all purgations and other preparations that mny be prescribed , are to goe before the taking of this water , as in like sort the prescription of dyets , and the like heedfull and healthfull obseruations , as when or how often the patient may drinke the water alone , or mingled with wine , at meates or at other times . these and other circumstances must in all reason be referred to the discretion of the learned phisition . in the retention of vrine it will be needfull to take those fifty ounces euery morning , and as much more in the afternoone , vnlesse the partie finde amendment , and in that disease to walke , and vse some exercise , will bee of great importance . the same quantity may bee prescribed in the dropsie , morning and euening , especially after the first weeke , and if the disease haue not taken very deepe roote , the patient will finde sencible amendment , and his strength day by day verie much to encrease . in tertian and quartaine agues , the patient must drinke euery morning . ounces on his good dayes ; but on the dayes of his fit , hee may take before the accesse . ounces , and in the heate of the fit , thirty ounces . the like obseruations may bee vsed in quotidian agues , to wit ; that . ounces be taken before the fit , and ●o . in the heate thereof , if it shall seeme good to the physitian , whose iudgement is also to be vsed concerning the time and quantity , when and how much of this water may bee vsed in continuall agues . in pestilentiall agues , there hath not ( as yet ) any assured triall bene made . in all obstructions , as the greene sicknes , and the like , the physitian may prescribe it in place of the powder of steele , it being vndoubtedly far more secure , and of more effectuall operation . in the weaknesse of the stomacke and heate of the liuer , it is a singular water , being dayly taken in the aforesaide quantity of . ounces . in the flux , and in the abundance of vvoment courses it may also bee taken ; and beeing mingled now and then with red wine , it will bee the better . in womens infirmities ( as aforesaid ) if this water bee mingled with distilled plantine water , it will worke the better . for other diseases , the reader may see what is added in the end of this discourse , which is taken out of the treatise of the vertues of the waters of the forrest of arden , and principally of those of spaw , written some yeares since in the french tongue , by the learned m. gilbert lembourgh , doctor of physicke , & dedicated vnto the prince of liege . obseruing neuerthelesse by the way , that as the said fountaines of spaw do not benefit euery one in particular ; so is it not promised , that this hypostasis thereof shall worke infallible cures in all kinde of diseases , and vpon all persons , as though one saddle should fit euery horse ; for diuers persons haue diuers constitutions of body ; and the same medicine which is auaileable to one , is not alwayes profitable to another , as reason and experience dayly sheweth . wherefore to conclude , the ordinary proportion as before hath bin said , is to mingle fifty ounces of pure water to a dram of this mineral hypostasis or substance of the spaw water ; not that there is any danger if one should drinke one dram onely with an ounce of common water , but for the more efficatious working : this ordinary quantity is found to be more conuenient , hauing therein some resemblance with the copious abundance of the spaw water . heere also the patient may obserue , that it shall not he needfull for him alwayes to weigh the water ; for hauing weighed it once , and put it into a glasse of conuenient greatnesse , hee may see to what fulnesse of the glasse his fifty ounces of water do reach , and so vse that measure for the saide weight . the patient may moreouer mingle the water with wine , in all such diseases as are not hot . they do vse at the spaw to make brewesse or sops of that water , boyling it with butter , which they finde both toothsome and wholesom ; in al which particularities it will alwayes be good ( as before is saide ) to follow the aduice of a learned expert and vnpassionate physitian . of sundry diseases , which principally are cured by the vse of drinking the water of spaw , taken out of the treatise of the vertues therof , written by m. gilbert lembourgh , doctor of physicke , and consequently of the hypostasis of the saide water being mingled with pure common water , as in the precedent discourse is declared . the drinking of this water doth mightily quench thirst , and it bringeth the hot liuer vnto a good temper , as also the kidneyes . it strengthneth the stomacke , and giueth it appetite thorough the astrictiue vertue that it hath , but for an extreame cold stomacke it is not so good . it is greatly profitable against all obstructions , and debility of the milt , for it doth dissolue and cure the cause thereof . it deliuereth the kidneyes and bladder from grauell , and is aidefull against all defluctions of those parts . it correcteth rheumes and cararrhes , in what part of the body soeuer they descend ; as in the breast , the stomacke , the kidneyes , sinewes , on muscles . it cureth dropsies , how be it such as in whom this disease is confirmed by length of time , and that the forces of the patients are thereby much weakened , are verie hardly cured . and so are also such dropsies as proceede of a hardnesse of the liuar , which galen saith , are incureable . experience also sheweth , that such dropsies as come of drinesse of the stomacke , and of long resolution and humidity of the intestine parts are not easily cured . but among such as the beginning of this disease commeth of the ilnesse of the milt , the other parts not naturally well , many persons haue bin perfectly cured . it helpeth greatly the parts that are softned & resolued by defluctions , as the sinews , muscles , &c. it strengtheneth the matrix that i● subiect to too much humidity , and disposeth it in such sort that it retaineth the conceiued fruite , and so expelle●h barrennesse . it aydeth against strangulations and suffocations of the matrix . as touching such as are verie leapers ; if it do not wholly cure them , yet doth the continuall vse thereof , impeach and hinder their disease from any more increasing . as for the curing of agues , the reader may note what hath bin saide in the precedent discourse . the reader is lastly to be aduertised ; that whereas the most vsuall taking of the vvater of spaw is in sommer , it is chiefly because of the abundance of raine and snow that falleth into those fountaines in winter , which weakneth the force of them ; and so is the force also weakened in sommer in rainy weather ; as contrary-wise in winter , in frosty and dry weather , the water hath his perfect force . in which respect , this hypostasis thereof being mingled with pure vvater , in such quantity of the one and the other , as before is mentioned , may aswel be vsed in winter , as in sommer . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e vt in morbis in quibus humiditas perualet . till the water is past by the belly , or by the vrine meatus : & that the stomack is empty for the paines of the spleen , hardnesse and swellings therof . a treatise of the nature and use of the bitter purging salt contain'd in epsom and such other waters by nehemiah grew. grew, nehemiah, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng mineral waters -- therapeutic use. saline waters -- great britain. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - john pas sampled and proofread - john pas text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a treatise of the nature and use of the bitter purging salt contain'd in epsom , and such other vvaters . by nehemiah grew , m. d. fellow of the college of physicians , and of the royal society . london , printed in the year . advertisement . that this salt is made and sold in greater or lesser quantities , by francis moult chymist , at the sign of glaubers-head in watling-street ; and this translation at no other place . 〈◊〉 to the reader . the reason of my publishing this book in english is , the general use i observe to be made of the bitter purging salt in this town and elsewhere , by all sorts of persons , and that promiscuously , in all cases , as peoples fancies or humours prompt 'em , without any advice beyond publick fame , or the good woman that last visited . the sellers of this salt are likewise such as use to dispose of other catholick or universal medicines , who neither know how to direct the buyer , nor care what becomes of the taker , so as they attain their end , their part of the profit . there is indeed this difference ; that other medicines that have grown popular were always usher'd out with printed directions , or certificates of it's virtues and numberless cures , as daffy's elixir , spirit of scurvy-grass , atkins 's oil for the gout , &c. nay , the very disciples of ponteus afford for publick benefit a printed encomium for a voucher to the twelve-penny packet . this i thought sufficient to vindicate my translation of dr. grew's nature & use of the bitter purging salt , which i intend to give to those who buy any quantities of the salt. and i 'd have the reader take notice , that this is no quack-bill , no boasting rhodomontado of any ignorant pretender , no guilded bush to set off bad wine , but the observations of an ingenious physician , fellow of both societies , and publish'd by him in latin , for the information of the practicers of physick , and for no private interest or profit . but , i can scarce believe the doctor ever foresaw the consequence of his commendations wou'd be the pushing every body upon the use of it hand over head ; therefore i doubt not his pardon for my translating it without his knowledge , my design being not to discover the secret method of its preparation , but to prevent by these directions the mischiefs he tells us may ensue the abuse of so good a medicine . farewell . part the first . of the nature of the bitter purging salt. chap. i. how the bitter purging waters were first discovered . the mineral waters arising near epsom in surrey , the chief of all the bitter purging waters , were found out by a country man , in or about the year . for near , the first ten years , none but the country people made use of them , and they only to wash external ulcers . afterwards the lord dudley north , father to francis the late lord-keeper , labouring under a melancholy disposition , for which he had formerly drank the spaw-waters in germany , was resolv'd to try the vertue of these epsom waters flattering himself ( i suppose ) that he had found chalybeate-waters at his own door . however , tho' they answer'd not his desire and expectation as to their nature , yet he did not repent of his experiment , but from that time drank these purging waters , as a medicine sent from heaven , with abundance of success . many others , encouraged by his example , try'd the operation of these waters ; and amongst the first , maria de medicis , mother to the wife of king charles i. the right honourable george lord goring , earl of norwich , and many other persons of quality . these , and all others , who drank the epsom-waters , came not for pleasure but health , and therefore always consulted their own , or some neighboring physician , for the rules they were to observe . in a little while physicians came of their own accord to these waters by whose authority they acquir'd so great a reputation , that persons have been there in one day , to drink or divert themselves . about years since , many of the inhabitants of london , whose business or poverty obstructed their going to epsom , had the waters sent to them . thus the ice being broke , others brought great quantities to town , which they sold as well to sick persons as apothecaries , and continue still to do so . no wonder then that so few sick people go to these waters , 't is not that the modern physicians esteem them less , but because the numbers of such as drink at home , and at other wells of the same nature , do every day mightily encrease . for a few years after the discovery of the epsom-waters was publish'd , others of the same sort ( found out by enquiry or chance ) grew into tolerable repute and use . the names of the principal are , barnet in hertfordshire . north-hall in hertfordshire . acton in middlesex . cobham in surrey . dullidge in surrey . strettham in kent . besides these , the curious and inquisitive may discover very many more to us unknown , especially if they take along with them this direction , that sweet waters generally arise from the tops of hills , but these from the bottoms . chap. ii. of the nature of the bitter purging waters . these waters have no taste , but a moderate bitterness , which is very sensible . some that have travelled into syria and egypt , mention bitter waters in those countries ; and st. james , in his epistle , takes notice of sweet and bitter waters , as very common things in the eastern parts ; all which bitter waters , 't is probable , are of this sort . these fountains are not of an equal strength nor vertue , but some are much stronger than others ; with the strongest dullidge is justly reckon'd with the gentler epsom . these waters in their springs are without smell , but kept some days or weeks in vessels close stopp'd , they putrifie and stink , especially in summer time ; which will happen to all waters , and sometimes also to the clearest spring water , as we are told by those that sail near the equator . pour a little of this water to sirrup of violets , and 't will remain blue and unchang'd , as if 't were mix'd with common spring-water . by the adding lime water , it gives a whitish muddy colour , as if some drops of milk were mix'd with it , and the white parts will , in about an hours time , subside in the form of a cloudy curdling , produc'd from the union of the chalky lexivial , and the acidity of the cathartick salts . all these waters will curdle milk , if it be added to them when they are hot , or boiling , but not at all if mix'd when they are cold . the waters of any of these wells , evaporated in a glazed earthen , or any other proper vessel , will yield a kind of a cream a top , and a sediment at the bottom of the vessel , of both together , , , or drams from a gallon . this cream is of an ash colour , stony substance , and resembles plaister , but certainly not at all lixivial , for every one knows that the lapis calcarius , or lime-stone , calcin'd , altho' actually cold , will grow very hot by pouring water upon them , and emit a very great and thick fume , and that apply'd to any part of the body 't will burn . therefore chirurgeons use it for a potential cautery ; but the fore-mentioned cream calcin'd in a crucible , and water pour'd upon it , causes neither smoak nor heat , nor does it acquire any the least pungency . sometimes , as in acton-waters , the thin minute particles of which it consists will be very resplendent and brittle , and wholly insipid , tho' calcin'd as aforesaid , yet by the pouring on any acid liquor , chiefly by spirit of nitre , an ebullition , with a sensible heat , will be excited . the lesser part of this sediment is like in substance to the before-describ'd cream ; the remainder is purely saline , but compounded of two kinds of salts , one a muriatick or sea-salt , the other a salt proper or special to these waters , whose nature and vertues i here design to treat of . in epsom-waters , the muriatick salt is about the th part of the whole saline composition ; it is something more in dullidge , and in most of the fore-mentioned springs . in its biting tast , as well as in the figure of its chrystals , 't is not unlike common salt ; whence it is that waters , in which there is less of this muriatick salt , purge not so strongly as others . the other salt , as we have said before , is the proper , or peculiar salt of the purging waters ; 't is made after the same manner as all lixivial salts , viz. by evaporating , filtring , and chrystalizing , calcination only excepted . in this preparation , the earthy or plaistery part , is first to be separated from the saline ; then the muriatick salt , and a yellow and thick liquor from the proper salt of the waters . chap. iii. of the nature of the bitter salt , peculiar to the purging waters . this salt , if it be rightly prepar'd , is of a delicate whiteness equal to new fall'n snow . this bitter salt is much more evident in the salt it self , in a dry form , than in the water , and smites the tongue with a very penetrating pungency , but without any acrimony . if you dissolve a dram of this salt in a pint of common water , which is its natural proportion , 't will have the same property of curdling milk , and be ennobled with the same bitter tast and purging vertue peculiar to its mineral water . and therefore 't is not improperly distinguish'd from the sal mirabilis , ( made of oil of vitriol , and common salt ) and from all other salts , by the name of the bitter purging salt. this bitter purging salt , from the different manner of evaporating its water , or degree of cold , to which 't is afterwards exposed , and other circumstances , will shoot into crystals of a greater or lesser magnitude . but let the dimensions be what they will , the figure is the same ; for most of their crystals , if they shoot not too thick , are small rectangular prisms , with four parallel sides ; the two opposite sides something flatter than the other . sometimes they have two more sides , and are sexangular ; but these are so small that the naked eye can hardly discover ' em . their length is about half an inch , but their thickness not above a fith , sixth or seventh part of their length ; their basis , a lump of the same ; the summit very different , having sometimes three , but for the most part four sloping plains , and with the fore-mention'd parallel sides make obtuse angles , or pointed , or oftener sharpned , like a pen knife : one of the sloping plains is generally bigger than the other three taken together , and of a pentangular or sexangular figure ; the opposite to this quadrangular or pentangular ; the other two triangular and less ; the last , sometimes invisible , without a microscope . these cristals , in their oblong figure , do most resemble salt-petre ; in their rectangular they come nearest to sea-salt . this bitter salt , dissolv'd in common water , and standing some days in a glass vessel , shoots into branches like little trees round the sides of the glass : to the producing this figure , the before-describ'd cristals of this salt and of sal nitre ( the points of which are terminated sometimes into right , sometimes into acute angles ) are very proper ; the sloping plain of one cristal joyning to the parallel plain of the others . which i have also demonstrated to be done in the generation of leaves , by the figure of their proper salts . plant. ang. . lib. . p. . c. ult . where note by the way , that in that discourse i have set down the figures of sal nitri and other salts , not altogether as they appear to us , but , probably , as they do exist in the plants themselves . five drams of this bitter purging salt , mixt in a vial with half an ounce of common water ; and shaken together , by that agitation only and the gentle heat of the hand in winter , will all presently dissolve , except a few grains ; by which you observe it to be more dissolvable than any other salt. 't is distinguish'd also by its specifick gravity from all other salts ; 't is heavier than allom , lighter than common salt , and than nitre , as we shall hereafter prove in the fifth chapter . a dissolution of this salt , and salt of tartar , and any other urinous or lixivial salt , will generate a white coagulum , or a nuetral salt , of the taste of neither , but something styptick . strong and new oil of vitriol , poured upon this salt , will cause a moderate ebullition ; from whence we may conclude it to be of an alkaline principle , and in some manner lixivial . but if you add any other liquor that i know of , either acid or alkali , to this salt , 't will neither ferment nor grow hot . this salt in a crucible , with a strong fire , will melt and swell like allom into a white porous and boiling calx . but this calx will ( except about a th part of the whole ) dissolve in a sufficient quantity of common water , which the lapis calcarius , or lime-stone , will not . this calx , in a crucible , with a vehement fire for an hour , will be as hard as alabaster , nor will it afterwards be softned by the air : much otherwise 't is with the lime-stone , which calcin'd , and expos'd to the air , falls to powder . altho' by this calcination it loses some part of its weight , yet its bitterness continues , and is rather increas'd . the calx of the bitter purging salt , by the affusion of spirit of salt , or any other acid , will presently ferment , which is more or less conspicuous according to the strength of the aforesaid spirit ; from whence also we may allow it to be in some sort lixivial . from a pound of this salt distill'd in a glass retort well luted , with a rever-beratory fire , you 'll have in the receiver a little above half a pound of an acid spirit in smell and tast , every way equal to common spirit of salt. oil of vitriol pour'd upon common spirit of salt , yields a dark and smoaky vapour , which will likewise happen , if you drop the same oil very strong into the spirit of the purging salt. 't is very well known , that all the chalybeate waters will change to a purple , by the addition of galls , as will white-wine vinegar , tho' more obscurely ; but the infusion of galls will be in no wise alter'd by the spirit of the purging salt , tho' an acid , nor by the spirit of 🜍 , or oil of vitriol , from whence , as well as many other ways , the different nature of these , and other acids , may be shown . i took glass bottles of river-water , and with some drops of sirrup of violets colour'd them all blue alike ; one of which i let stand without any thing else added to it . to a d i put a little sal nitri ; to a third some of the bitter purging salt ; to a fourth a little lime-water ; to the fifth a dissolution of the calx of the purging salt ; to the sixth an infusion of white tartar ; to the seventh the distill'd spirit of the purging salt ; to the last , a little of both lime-water and the purging salt. in the three first , the cerulous colour remain'd only a little faded . in the th and th , the cerulous colour was converted to a manifest green ; in the former turbid and paler , in the latter like a smarag'd , very deep and clear . in the th and th it turn'd purple ; in the first obscure , but the latter was like a true amethyst . the green colour , in the th and th , vanish'd in about hours , but the th was much deeper , and more durable . from this manifold experiment we may observe , that as nitre , although by accension it will yield a fix'd lixivial salt , and by distillation an acid spirit , yet has neither a lixivial , nor acid tast , therefore gives neither green nor purple colour to the sirrup ; so we may conclude the purging bitter salt to consist of like principles , that is not solely acid , but also alkalious , and a little lixivial . but it may be evidently demonstrated , that its principles do partake of both , by the acidity of its spirit , and the green colour ; its calx gives sirrup of violets like aqua calcis , and other lixivial liquors . in the last bottle the colour was deeper and more durable , by the combination or union of the twofold alkalious salt , the bitter purging salt , and the calcarious , as ink is made by the union of two astringents . and 't is very plain , that the existence of these salts , and their efficacy in altering colours , depends not on the fire , because the infusion of white tartar will , like the spirit of the purging salt , die the sirrup of a purple colour . lastly , take notice that i call the alkaline principle in this purging salt potentially , and after a sort lixivial . for , as we have observ'd in this chapter , you can perceive no lixivial tast even in the calx of this salt , which does not hinder , but that an alkaline principle may be in this salt , as appears from the fore cited experiments , tho' it has never endured the fire , but after calcination it is prov'd to be i know not how lixivial . i call it lixivial , tho that , nor any other name in use that i know of , is justly adapted to its nature , for there is a want of proper words to express our meanings in nothing so much as in philosophy , such as should lead us through the footsteps of nature , and intelligibly express its admirable variety . chap. iv. of the difference between the bitter purging salt , allom , and the muriatick salt. from the fore-cited experiments , and those we shall now mention rightly understood and compar'd , 't will evidently appear that the purging bitter salt , tho' it may have some qualities common to other salts , does differ in its nature and species from all other salts . very many have confidently affirm'd it to proceed from an aluminous minera , but inconsiderately , for from whence is it they prove it , but because they coagulate milk , which is no reason at all , for by the same ridiculous argument , vinegar , wine , beer , and whatever curdles milk , must be aluminous . nor does it appear from hence , that like allom , when melting , it swells and rises in bubbles , for borax melted will have the same elevation , but borax does not curdle milk , therefore is not aluminous , nor from thence can the bitter purging salt be so . moreover , from an ounce of allom calcin'd half an hour in a crucible , there will remain half an ounce of calx . to this pour a sufficient quantity of common water to dissolve the saline parts , and there will remain about grains of an insipid and simple earth at the bottom of the vessel , which is six times as much as the like quantity of the calx of the bitter salt will leave behind it . nor is the spirit of allom distill'd with a strong fire any thing like the spirit of this salt , for the first has a greater acrimony , and much less grateful tast ; and which is worth observation , a fetid smell very like to the spirit or gass of sulphure . the tast likewise of this bitter purging salt and allom is so different , that nothing can be more ; for that of allom is austere and has no bitterness , the other no manner of austerity but wholly bitter . besides , they are evidently distinguish'd by their natural figures for the chrystals of allom , the factitious at least considering its altitude are something flattish , and consist of planes ; two , viz. those at top and bottom , sexangular and parallel : the greater and less sides of these planes are so placed alternately , that the greater answer to the less . about these are plac'd quadrangular planes with unequal sides and angles , the greater bending towards the centre of the chrystal , and the less accordingly how very unlike this is to the before-describ'd figure of the purging salt , may easily appear by comparison . nor can this bitter purging salt with more justice be reckon'd amongst the muriatick or common salts , which well purify'd has a very different tast from the purging salt , and also from allom ; its figure is likewise as different , for it shoots not long ways , but contracted almost in the form of a cube . besides , the purging salt calcin'd in a crucible , with a strong fire , emits no visible vapour , nor loses more than half of its weight ; but common salt thus calcin'd , as 't is much more fluid , so it ascends in thick smoaky vapours , leaving scarce an th part of the whole in the crucible . neither ( which may seem strange ) does the spirit of common salt distill'd , as the spirit of the purging salt , coagulate milk , unless added to it when 't is boiled . to be certain of this , i try'd the following experiment . to a pint of river water , impregnated with a dram of the bitter purging salt , and boiling , i threw in or spoonfuls of milk , and let it boil again ; presently the curdled milk swam upon the water . it did the same with as much of the spirit of the bitter purging salt. lastly , instead of the spirit of the purging salt , i us'd the spirit of common salt , and that much stronger than the former spirit , in the same proportion and method , but the milk remained fluid in its natural state without any coagulation . chap. v. the difference of the bitter purging salt from nitrous and calcarious salts . nor does this salt differ less from all kinds of nitrous salts ; from which , by its bitter tast alone , it s enough distinguish'd . nor less by its figure , for the chrystals of nitre shoot not into four corner'd parallel planes , but always into six ; nor into right angles , but obtuse , and their tops seldom terminate in sloping planes , but mostly in , and sometimes in , and those more equal than in the purging bitter salt. the purging bitter salt thrown into the fire is not at all inflamable but nitre burns with a bright flame and roaring noise , till the most part of it evaporates . i have said the most part of it , nor do i retract my assertion , for in the d chapter we have observ'd about a th part to remain after the deflagration , which is in no wise nitrous , but lixivial , from wood-ashes mix'd with it by the nitre-makers . but further , the bitter salt in a spoon , held over the flame of a candle , will melt in a moment , and bubble up as if thrown in to the fire ; but nitre , with such a heat ; will scarcely melt , but take up at least times the space of the other , and emits a most resplendent flame . on the contrary , tho' nitre melts with difficulty , 't is when melted much more fluid , for in a crucible , in a strong fire , it boils not like allom , or the bitter salt , but flows like rosin or melted metals . from nitre melted in a crucible arise thick exhalations , which you never see from the bitter salt , tho' in the strongest fire . add likewise , that they differ from one another in their power of coagulating milk. for half a dram of the purging salt , thrown into half a pint of milk , will turn it very gray ; but nitre mix'd after the same manner , tho' in much greater proportion , has no such effect . the solubility of nitre , as we have before prov'd , is two parts in three less than the purging salt , for half an ounce of common water will , in the winter , by agitation and a warm hand , dissolve not above a dram and half of nitre . it s gravity is likewise very different , which appears by the following experiment . i put oil of turpentine into a cylindar to the height of fingers ; i then put in two ounces of the purging salt , which rais'd the oil a finger higher , but from an equal weight of depurated nitre , the oil was elevated not higher than fourths of a finger ; therefore the bitter purging salt is a th part lighter than nitre . but water impregnated with the purging salt occupies a less space , its bulk considered , than the same quantity with as much sal nitri dissolved in it . that is , water instead of oil mix'd with the salts in a vial ; when they are dissolv'd , the former subsides lower than the latter . lastly , i distill'd dantzick vitriol , sal armoniack , and a like quantity of the bitter salt , instead of nitre , in order to make the aqua regia . now if this had been a nitrous salt , this water wou'd , like aqua regia , have dissolv'd gold , but we could find no such power in this water . nor is it the nitre of the ancients , for 't is nothing like that of the egyptians so often mention'd by hypocrates ; something like which is describ'd by dioscorides and pliny to be of a purple colour and biting ; nor that of etius , like earth calcin'd and quench'd with wine . nor , lastly , can it be reckon'd with the sal calcarius ; for the purging salt , or water only , coagulates milk with a much harder curd , and greater plenty of serum , than the lime water will. and , if that power of coagulation were equal , how many liquors have we mention'd that curdle milk , which are neither calcarious nor aluminous . spirit of nitre , dropt into the cream that swims atop of the lime-water , or upon lime it self , will cause a visible ebullition ; but the same spirit will have no such effect upon the purging salt. there can be no where more difference in the taste of things , than between the purging salt and the calcarious ; for the one is lixivial and sweet ; the other , as it were cold and bitter . lime will , by pouring a little water upon it , presently fall to powder . on the contrary , the calx of the purging salt powder'd , will , by the same means , run immediately into a hard substance , and in a few moments be like a stone . lamb's-conduit water , mixt with lime-water , will in a very little time grow white , with a dark clowdy curdling ; as it will with the purging waters : but , if you mix it with water impregnated with the calx of the purging salt , no muddiness nor colour will follow . common water impregnated with this salt , and afterwards evaporated , will restore you the whole quantity you dissolv'd , without any waste ; but lime-water evaporated , the salt is for the most part transmuted into a stony and tastless substance : the cause of which is , that the saline parts of the aqu. calcis do so intimately imbrace and unite with any other aerial salt , that they make a third nurtral salt ; as in oil of anisseeds and vitriol , shaken together , you have a refine , properly so call'd , which , if you wash , will yield you no manner of taste . this may be illustrated by the following experiment . i kept lime-water in a glass close stopt with a cork , and as much in an open vessel , for a week or longer ; that in the stopt vial had no cream upon it ; but that in the open vessel where the air could freely arrive at the water , was cover'd with an insipid and stony cream . but water , in which the purging salt is dissolv'd , kept in an open vessel , and many days expos'd to the air , will have no cream at all on its surface : and that which appears in boiling the purging waters , is not in the least calcarious , as we have formerly prov'd . add also the very different solubility of these salts ; for half an ounce of the bitter purging salt will be easily , and without heat or much agitation presently dissolv'd in six times its quantity of water . but to the dissolution of so much of the calcarious salt , is required two gallons and a half of water , which is times its weight . for so much common water is necessary to edulcorate an ounce of calx vivens ; which done , there remains in the bottom of the vessel about half an ounce of pure white and insipid calx . but the bitter purging salt is eminently distinguish'd from the fore-mention'd ( if there were no other way ) by its medicinal virtues , as we shall evidently demonstrate , in the latter part of this tract , where we speak of its use . in the mean time , we do not deny a small portion , as well of nitre and common salt , as of a stony substance , may be contained , not only in the purging waters , but even in the salt it self . and , indeed , 't is probable that no body , existent in nature , is purely simple . silver , every one knows , is mixt with copper or lead ; gold , with silver in the same mine vein ; nay , and metallick mass : but it does not follow , that silver and copper , or gold and silver , do hereby constitute a third species ; but the two , or more , separable metals exist together . nor , can we inferr an identity of bodies from their agreement in some qualities ; for lead and gold do so agree ; both are solid , opacque , ductile , fusible , heavy bodies , &c. and therefore are both metals ; but nothing is gold , that has not all the qualities of gold. for gold does not differ more ways , nor in a more eminent manner from lead , than the bitter purging salt is distinguish'd from all other salts ; and therefore is in its own nature the most noble . chap. vi. some additional observations of the nature of the bitter purging salt. the most special qualities of this salt , that we have already describ'd , are a taste gently and almost simply bitter ; and of all sorts , that we know , most resembling the crystals of silver in similitude of taste . for these , indeed , are bitter , but very much so , and not without some austerity joined with it . i have in another place observ'd the lapis calaminaris to have some qualities common with silver , therefore i dropp'd into the powder of this stone some drops of spirit of nitre ; and the fermentation over , i wash'd the mixture with common water . this water , like the chrystals of silver , is not only very styptick but bitter , and is the only bitter mineral that i know of , except the salt of luna , and the purging salt. but whether the purging salt do arise from any silver minera , wholly or in part so , or from the lapis calaminaris , or rather from any other , i leave undetermined , being never able to get any of the true minera of this salt. but this is very plain from the forementioned experiments , that the bitter purging salt is compounded of some parts in their nature acid , and others alkaline , and a little lixivial . in salts compounded of various principles , the proportion , the nature and the union of those principles are to be consider'd . some acid particles are frequently found in lixivial salts , but in a small proportion . but in tartar , which is the salt of wine , the saline parts are much lesser than the acid , which exist in a much greater proportion . and 't is almost the same in the bitter purging salt , with this difference only , that in the former the acids are actually mix'd with the alkaline , but in the latter potentially . moreover , all lixivial salts are acrimonious , but those commonly call'd testaceous are not without reason accounted the more gentle . as likewise are some acid liquors , such as the juice of wood-sorrel , a dissolution of the cream of tartar , &c. but the purging salt is gentler than any of these . indeed , by distillation it gives an acid spirit , but this acid taste is not perceptible till its principles are intimately dissolv'd and divided by a most violent fire . for the salt it self has neither acrimony nor acidity . nor is it tastless , but very subtle and biting , and therefore a most efficacious medicine . it s admirable subtilty will appear by its penetrating any earthen vessel , if not very well glaz'd about the bottom ; of which , on the outside , there will be a woolly or hoary concretion in colour like an amethyst . the principles of this salt are also more closely united than in tartar , and afford many other remedies . for the union is so firm , that one of its parts , viz. it s acid , cannot be above the one half of it separated from the other , and that not without a reverberatory fire . whence 't is , that when other gentle purges frequently elude the physicians expectation , this does very seldom or never deceive him . for such medicines do work most upon the humours of the body , which are least alterable by those humours : in the number of which this salt , and other minerals , are to be accounted . last of all ; this salt , tho' it does consist of different principles , is very pure , if rightly and diligently prepar'd ; insomuch that it does not retain the thousandth part of any extraneous body with it self . for , if you evaporate destill'd water , impregnated with an ounce of this salt , 't will yield not a particle of any heterogeneous salt , stony sediment , or cremor , but the very same ounce of most pure salt. the end of the first part : part the second . of the use of the bitter purging salt. chap. i. of the more general use of the bitter purging salt. the use of the purging waters of epsom , &c. is so excellent and manifold , and so very well known to london physicians , that no body can doubt of it . for in many grievous diseases , experience has prov'd 'em a most efficacious remedy , endued with no unwholsom quality ; which , rationally prescrib'd , i never knew attended with any unexpected ill effect . one objection there is brought against these waters , with some shew of reason ; 't is , that the waters in boiling separate a stony cremor : from whence we may fear a matter may be supply'd , fit to generate the stone in the body . this objection is answer'd by two experiments ; one before-mention'd ; and the second drawn from physical observations . for 't is plain , from what we have before prov'd , that this stony cremor does not arise upon the purging waters , nor upon aqua calcis , unless expos'd to the air , and in an open vessel ; and therefore no stony substance can be generated by the waters in the body . but , say they , the air is mixt with the humours of the body . we grant it ; and likewise with waters ; as may be demonstrated by the air pump . but waters cannot petrifie without the free and open influx of the air. add likewise , that the air cannot enter the body , but as it were through a strainer . secondly , practice contradicts this , for 't is notoriously known , not only to me , but to many other physicians , that after drinking these purging waters plentifully , by intervals , for to years together , persons have been always free from the gout or stone in the kidneys or bladder , and enjoy'd a perfect health . and the fore-mention'd lord north , who drank both epsom and barnet waters , live'd free from those distempers to years of age. and this lime-waterm , which so suddenly proceduces a stony substance by the admission of the air , is frequently and safely given by physicians . and our sugar-refiner use it in the purifying their sugar ; by which means the treacle is better seperated from the concrescible part ; and it acquires a greater fineness and whilteness . but , if the purging water is a good medicine , how much more is the salt to be accounted so ? for , if we should , for arguments sake , grant what is objected against the waters ; yet that will make not at all against the salt , depurated from its stony substance . moreover , if the water you take do abound with plenty of the muriatick salt , sometimes it may purge too violently ; but the purified salt , which is freed from it , is of all purging medicines the most gentle . 't is likewise totally free from the malignant quality of most catharticks ; it does never violently agitate the humours , nor cause sickness , faintings , or pains in the bowels . it never fails a physicians design in purging the patient ; nor ever puts him in fear of a hypercatharsis . besides , the strength of the waters is not at all times alike ; for 't is either encreas'd by a dry season , or diminish'd by a wet ; 't is stronger in summer , weaker in winter ; and 't is common for those that fell them , upon occasion , to mix 'em with common water : from whence the physician , prescribing the usual dose , frequently fails of success . but the salt of this water , purely and rightly prepar'd , is every particle alike , and endued with the same purging virtue . add to this , that the london physicians do not prescribe the waters crude , but , for the most part , boiled : for taken this way , the dose being lessen'd , and the strength increas'd , they slip easier through the stomach and guts . in summer you boil to the consumption of a third , but in winter to half the quantity ; which will require two or three hours . but the purging salt of the water , dissolv'd in any convenient liquor , and once boil'd , is a medicine always in a readiness ; accommodated to apothecaries , chiefly to sick persons , who , in urgent cases , suffer much pain and uneasiness while the waters are so long a boiling , and may often times be in danger . the last , tho' not the least , considerable is , that the water kept a little too long , especially in summer or hot weather , will stink ; but the salt of this water , neither age nor place can corrupt . but some , i foresee , will question the wholsomness of this salt , from the acid spirit it yields in distillation ; but this objection does as much oppose the use of the water , as of the salt contained in them : for the same reason , we may as well pretend to leave off the use of honey , sugar , or white-bread ; every one of which , by the help of fire , will yield a distill'd spirit violently acid and biting . wine also , and the wholsomest food , when its principles are let loose by fermentation , or any other way , do obtain noxious , and sometimes poysonous qualities . nay , even the food of infants , their mothers milk , will in a warm place presently turn acid ; but by dissolving the purging salt in a proper vehicle , its principles are neither deprav'd nor divided , but 't is given in its compact body , or united essence , as we are fed with the forementioned eatables . for as the salt it self , so also the water we drink , from which this salt is prepar'd , is sensibly , tho' moderately bitter , and without any mixture of acidity . chap. ii. of the method of prescribing the bitter purging salt. this salt may be taken dissolv'd in any vehicle agreeable to the palate , or grateful to the taste of the patient ; such as spring-waters , barley-water , water-gruel , posset-drink , whey , &c. i do most commonly prescribe common water boil'd , and aromatiz'd with a little mace , to two , three , or four pints ; of which i add half an ounce , or an ounce , or a greater dose of the salt. as for example : take of spring-water two quarts , mace a dram , boil a little and strain it ; then dissolve in the strain'd liquor an ounce or drams of the salt for an apozem , to be taken in the morning in the space of two hours , hot , warm , and sometimes cold , with a little exercise . this apozem you may give by it self , or during the working of other purging physick . it is proper also , when there is occasion , to add senna , manna , or both , to the mace , to promote the efficacy of the salt , in this or the like form : take spring-water four pints , mace a dram , senna three drams , boil them gently , and add of the bitter purging salt an ounce , flakey-manna an ounce and half , or two ounces , and strain it . the lord dudley north was the first that drank the purging-waters with milk , which did not at all agree with his stomach , because he mix'd them cold ; but physicians afterwards altered the waters , by adding milk when they were boiling , which way , if you please , you may also most safely take the salt it self . for example : take of the salt an ounce or drams , dissolve it in pints and half , or , of common water , and when it boils pour in half a pint of milk , and strain the curd from it . in the summer , when medicinal waters are every where frequented , the chalybeate , or the purging-waters , taken immediately from their springs , is the best vehicle . a dram , or a dram and half of this salt , taken in or of the first glasses of tunbridge , or any other chalybeate water , for the three or four first days , will render the humours and first passages better prepared for the design of drinking . chalybeate-waters do frequently bind , which will be prevented by a small quantity of this salt dissolv'd in the first and last glass . but 't is best of all taken in its own waters , for a dram of it , dissolv'd in every draught , does purge with more certainty and a less quantity of water , and by consequence is less burdensom to the stomach ; 't is sometimes also very proper in glisters , to mix or drams of it instead of sal gem. chap. iii. of the more particular use of this salt , and first of all of its use in diseases of the ventricle . what i shall now insert of the purging-waters and their salt , is not from uncertain conjectures , but is demonstrable by the daily experience of other learned men as well as my own ; all whom have us'd both the salt and the water , in the following diseases , with happy success . and first of all , this purging-water , or its salt , is a most amicable medicine to the stomach , exciting an appetite , and promoting a good digestion ; which it does partly by its acid principle , partly by the bitterness of the whole , or its alkaline mixture . but chiefly from the former , because it affords a spirit in some sort analagous to the spirit of the salt , with which all meats are season'd ; and also from the latter , for we do every day experience the stomach to be strengthned by this , and most other bitters . 't is also well known , that the appetite is chiefly strengthned by the use of compound salts , for almost all pickles are prepar'd not with salts alone , but with salt and vinegar . french red-wine we allow to be very wholsom with our food , because of its tartarous salt , of all others , the most compound ; and salt of steel , a very compound salt , is as famous among stomach-medicines . the two universal digestives , bread and spittle , do one of them contain an acid , and the other an alkaline salt , and mix'd supply the place of a compound salt. and the natural ferment of the stomach consists of acid and alkaline particles ; the first from the arteries , or the blood , the latter from the nerves , or the excrement of the animal spirits , which may be prov'd by very many arguments not here to be insisted upon . therefore while there is the natural proportion of either salt in the stomach , concoction is duly performed , but when either prevail , sometimes the acid , sometimes the alkaline , are necessary to restore it to its office. when the concoction of the stomach is vitiated by too much , or improper meat and drink , vomiting often follows ; for the quieting which , the bitter purging salt , or waters , is a most excellent remedy , for the same reason that the salt of wormwood , and juice of lemons , is so famous , tho' this salt is highly preferrable to it , with one stroke destroying and carrying off the peccant salts . also in the cardialgia , or heart-burning , and other pains of that kind , no medicines can be more safe and efficacious , nor in a hot hypocondriack disposition . in the fore-mentioned cases , i have sometimes prescribed the purging waters , or salt , without any other medicine , but more often with the assistance of other remedies , as bleeding , vomiting , and the like ; for 't is not the part of a prudent physician , in dangerous diseases , to trust his patients health , and his own reputation , to one only medicine , tho' never so famous . remedies of this kind may be infinitely varied according to the indications . some forms of which i shall here add . for a lost appetite . take of spaw , or any other chalybeate-water , or if not to be had , spring-water aromatiz'd with mace , a quart , or three pints , of the bitter salt half an ounce six drams , or an ounce ; drink it warm and fasting . and all sorts of chalybeate-waters may be drank warm , which is better , and without the loss of its subtile spirit , by dipping a bottle close stopt into hot water for a few moments , and after pouring out a glass , stopping it as before . while you take these waters an hour before dinner , take also , , or drops of elixir proprietatis , in a spoonful of sherry or hock , and wormwood , and continue their use every day , or every other day , for four , five , or six times . or , take of the conserve of roman wormwood two ounces , garden-scurvy-grass an ounce , candid-ginger half an ounce , aromatick-powder of cloves a dram and half , of winters bark , of the true salt of wormwood , of each a dram ; with sirrup of cloves make an electuary , and take the quantity of a nutmeg every night going to rest ; and of a small wall-nut every day an hour before dinner , with a little wormwood-wine , if the patient be not subject to the head-ach . or , take of the filings of steel new and shining ounces , roman wormwood half a handful , roman cypress-roots , calamus aromaticus , of each a dram , galangall the less ; cinnamon and saffron , of each half a dram , white-wine or sherry a quart , digest in a vessel close stopt , with a gentle heat , for days , shaking the glass every day , and take two or three , or four spoonfuls , two hours before dinner . in vomitings . take of any chalybeate-water , or maced-water , three or four pints , and dissolve in it six , eight , or ten drams of the purging salt , to be drank in the morning , hot or cold , as you please ; and repeat it three or four days following ; or every other day , if there be occasion . and to this joyn the use of the following pills . take of red roses , of cinnamon , of each a dram , cloves , salt of steell , of each a scruple , saffron half a scruple , chimical oil of mint eight drops , with sirrup of steell ; make pills . take three every day two hours before dinner , and at night going to rest . sometimes a fomentation of red wine , with venice treacle , red roses , and mint infus'd in it hot , is very profitable . in a bastard collick . take senna two drams , macea dram , boil in spring water to three or four pints . add to the strain'd liquor six , eight or ten drams of the purging salt. take this apozem as there is occasion , either with or without senna , and by it self , or with the following pills . take of stomach pills with gums grains , of steell-filings powder'd ten grains , with syrup of steel ; make four pills , to be taken going to rest , and the apozem as above , the following morning , and repeat 'em for three days successively , or longer . sometimes 't is necessary to mix extract of gentian , or some other bitter with the pills , and also a little laudanum , if the pain be violent . in a hot hypocondriack distemper . take of any chalybeate-water three or four pints , dissolve in every draught half a dram or a dram to eight times , and drink it cold . or , instead of chalybeate-waters , use simple milk-water , or distill'd from borrage or pimpernel . in the heart-burning . in this disease the salt , taken as in the former , will have very good success . chap. iv. of the use of the bitter purging salt in diseases of the intestines and parts adjacent : and first of the collick . in this disease there is no need to advise the learned and experienc'd physician in the first place to let blood , and seldom or never to omit it . then 't is most advisable to give this or the like glister . take of the common decoction for glisters one pound , with the addition of drams , or half an ounce of senna ; to the ingredients to it strain'd , add half an ounce , or more , of the bitter purging salt , species of hiera picra a dram and half , or two drams , brown sugar two ounces from the use of these , and the like glisters , chollick pains are often dissipated ; at least , by their passing up the intestines , the way is opened . oftentimes pill rudii one scruple , or half a dram , with a grain of laudanum , is given with good success . and sometimes crude mercury , if the patient will swallow a sufficient quantity ; that is , four , five , or six ounces : especially , if taken with two ounces of the tincture of hiera picra in white-wine , or any other proper purging medicine . but the most noble , of all remedies , is the purging water , or the salt taken in this , or the like manner . take of spring or river water , aromatiz'd lib. iij , chamomile flower , or mint-water six ounces , bitter purging salt an ounce , or ten drams , flakey-manna an ounce and half , or two ounces ; make an apozem , and let the patient take about ounces at a time , hot , so often that the whole may be taken in an hour , or an hour and half ; yea , tho' some part of it be vomited . the force of this medicine may be sometimes increas'd by the addition of the following . take one or two spoonfuls of the tincture of hiera picra , before every draught of the apozem . in worms . this salt , if the nurse give the child a dram and half , or two drams , in its pap , 't will exterminate the worms , especially if the physician will give before it , in any proper vehicle , a grain or two , or three , of mercurius dulcis , according to the age of the patient , or chrystals of silver . or if the purging salt be given in bitter glisters , in the stone , here also , as well as in the chollick , we must begin with bleeding , which very often requires a repetition . to this , a vomit is properly added of the vinum benedictum , or salt of vitriol , especially if the patient has a nausea ; by the force of which , the stomach , generally the offending part , is not only unloaded , but the whole nervous body continuous with the kidnies , and in this case very much affected , is mightily reliev'd . then give the following glister , especially if no stool succeeds the vomit . take of chamomile-flowers a handful , seeds of cummin , sweet-fennel , parsley bruis'd , of each an ounce ; marshmallow-roots , cut and bruis'd , two ounces ; boil these in common water to a pint , in the strained liquor dissolve venice-turpentine an ounce , the bitter purging salt half an ounce , syrup of althea three ounces . if the pain encreases , add to the glister or drops of laudanum . these , or the like glisters , will frequently bring away the urine , either with , or without a stone , or stoney matter , and the pains vanish . but if the pain continues stubborn , we must have recourse to the following apozem , as a most powerful remedy . take of barley-water maced or pints , of the bitter purging salt or drams , syrup of althea or ounces , take this warm in an hour and halfs time , more or less , altho' the patient does vomit some part of it . in heat of urine . the above-mentioned apozem is effectual , whether it proceed from the acrimony of the blood , or from a venereal taint . in suppression of urine . which happens either without a stone , or with so great a stone as to stop the urinary passage . but if this disease has continued for some days , bleeding , and that plentifully , is the first thing necessary ; then a sharp glister , with syrup of buckthorn , and the purging salt , must be administred , and while it works , drink the fore-mentioned apozem , or some draughts of it , and expect success , especially if before every draught you take a spoonful of the following mixture . of fennel , and saxifrage water , of each an ounce and half ; salt of ambera dram , tartar vitriolated a scruple , millepedes prepar'd two drams , syrup of althea an ounce mix. in a diabetes . in which most dangerous kind of disease , if there be need of a medicine that will gently purge , and cool very much , this is the safest of all purging medicines , and , indeed , the almost only one ; by the help of which , and the constant use of the chalybeate-waters , i have recovered some young persons from the very gates of death . in the jaundice . also in this disease , bleeding is seldom to be omitted , but sometimes to be repeated if the patient be feverish . vomits are here very useful , for as much as they exterminate the morbifick sordes of the stomach , as well as press out the boil stagnating in its vessels ; and therefore , if there be occasion , it ought to be now and then repeated ; but if the use of these , or other remedies , prove unsuccessful , we may suspect the biliary passage is stopp'd , either by the bigness , or number of the stones generated there : therefore we ought to persist in this method prudently , and with courage . in any sort of jaundice , calculous or simple , the purging water , or its salt , is an excellent medicine , given in this or the following manner . take pill ruffi half a dram ; rhuburb , volatile salt of urine , of each half a scruple , with syrup of wormwood ; make pills , and take them at night going to rest . the morning following take this apozem : shavings of hartshorn two ounces , boil them in or quarts of water , to two ; then add mace and turmerick of each a dram , boil a little , strain and add an ounce of the bitter purging salt , as much syrup of steell , and make an apozem , to be taken as above directed . if the physician sees fit , in the place of the pills give the following draught . take of the tincture of hiera picra an ounce and a half , or two ounces of syrup of cichory , with rhuhurb an ounce , tartar vitriolated half a scruple ; mix and take it at six or seven in the morning : two hours after drink the foregoing apozem , and repeat these medicines at least every other day . if aloeticks are too hot , give in their place the infusion of rhuburb . chap. v. of the use of the purging salt in cephalick diseases : and first in madness . vvhere , besides bleeding and frequent vomits , chephalick unguents , setons in the neck , vesicatories , especially to the leggs , catharticks and other remedies are frequently us'd . but to quicken the working of all , even the helleborate purges , nothing is more proper than the purging water , or its salt , prescrib'd after the following manner : take of bawm and borrage of each a handful , infuse 'em in four or five pints of boiling water , in a vessel close stopt , for half an hour . to the infusion strain'd add of the bitter salt ten drams or less , syrup of violets three ounces ; mix and make an apozem , to be drank by it self ; or , instead of posset-drink , with any other convenient purge . or , take drams of the salt in draughts of the spaw , or other chalybeate water , in a morning fasting . in the intervals of other catharticks , especially in the summer , 't is very beneficial , taken in the preceding method ; for it wonderfully quiets the raging disorders of the humours and perturbations of the spirits . in the head-ach . in which distemper , especially arising from a hot cause , or in a hot constitution , i have never found any thing so efficacious as the following method : in the first place bleed a sufficient quantity , and from such veins as the circumstances of the patient do indicate . this done , give a vomit , if the strength will permit : after , let the patient take the following medicines : of scammony powder'd , rhubarb powder'd , mercurius dulcis , each half a scruple , or grains , with syrup of buckthorn , make five pills , to be taken at four or five in the morning , and sleep after 'em : three hours after drink the following apozem : of water aromatiz'd with mace or pints , of the purging salt drams , or an ounce , syrup of violets two ounces ; mix and take it , keeping your chamber . repeat this apozem and pills every d or th day , and without the pills in the intervening days ; and continue this method for a fortnight or three weeks , if the case require it . in a virtigo . here also we must begin with bleeding in the arms , especially if the disease be the consequence of too much drinking . then apply cupping glasses with scarification to the shoulders and hinder part of the head. for in this disease , as well as in the former , and for inflamations of the eyes , i do always prescribe 'em to that part rather than another , and with better success . these things premis'd , take the following pills , &c. of mastick pills two scruples , chymical oil of marjoram drops . take 'em at night going to rest , and next morning the following apozem . of spring water aromatiz'd a quart or three pints , distill'd water of sage four ounces , of marjoram two ounces , of the bitter purging salt drams or an ounce , mix and make an apozem , to be taken as afore-mention'd . sometimes 't is good to take before every draught a spoonful of the following mixture . of marjoram and sage of each two drams , roots of gentian , species of hiera picra , of each two scruples , white-wine four ounces ; digest hours in a close vessel , and clarifie the express'd tincture by settling . chap. vi. of the use of the bitter purging salt in some other diseases : and first in hysterical fits. in this disease , after the most terrible symptoms are quieted by opiates , ten or twelve drams , or two ounces of the tincture of hiera picra in equal parts , white-wine and hysterical-water may be given , with very good success . but , if the physician thinks fit to purge with a more temperate medicine , the bitter salt may be properly and safely taken ; especially , if , in the room of the aromatiz'd water , you use the spaw or bawm-water , as a vehicle for the salt. in the wandring gout , vulgarly , but erroneously , call'd the rhuematism . for this seises the muscular parts only , and that none but the joynts . 't is a stubborn disease , and frequently eludes the force of many medicines . bleeding must begin , and be repeated at least every other day , to four times ; and , if occasion , to five or six . after the first or second time , a vomit is very proper ; for , as long as the stomach is disordered , it daily transmits a new supply of morbifick matter to the blood and joynts . but catharticks , and of the strongest , sometimes for several days together are never to be omitted ; for one strong purge does often weaken this disease , more than bleeding or times repeated . but the operation of the purging waters , by the help of their salt , when the patient is feverish , ( as they almost always are ) is much more gentle , and performed without any fermentation of the humours , if taken in the following manner . of the powder of resinous jallap half a dram , scammony prepar'd six grains , calamelany half a scruple , with syrup of buckthorn ; make a bolus to be taken at five in the morning , sleeping after it two or three hours ; and then drink the following apozem . of pearl-barley an ounce and half , currance three ounces ; boil in spring-water to a quart or pints , adding towards the latter end mace half a dram , and when it is strain'd , of the bitter salt an ounce , flakey-manna an ounce , or an ounce and half . if the patient be difficultly wrought upon , and other indications require it , add to the first draught six drams , or an ounce of the syrup of buckthorn , and repeat the bolus and apozem every d or th day , as the physician shall advise , or with longer intervals , till the patient be perfectly recovered . in the beginning and increase of the disease , at least every other night , and always after a purge , let a proper opiate be given to prevent any new ebullitions of the humours , and their influx upon the joynts . when purging must be forborn , because of a fever , or the weakness of the patient , vesicatories are apply'd above or below the joynt with very great benefit . and sometimes the serous latex of the blood is so very hot and fiery , that it will not yield to the united strength of the foremention'd remedies , without the help of blisters , to separate some part of it from its remaining more balsamick and gentle . in this disease , sweats , tho' very plentiful , seldom profit , but diureticks very much ; and therefore the apozem , with the purging salt , is very proper , working at the same time both by urine and stooll . in the time of the cure , abstain from all wine , vinous and malt drinks ; posset-drink is , of all liquors , the most proper for their constant drink . in a scorbutick itch , not contagious , but arising from the scurvy , and affecting sometimes the whole body ; at others a particular part , as the pudenda , &c. i have often cur'd with the apozem alone , without any other purgings ; and some perfectly tired out and tormented with perpetual scratching . i 've blest with a happy deliverance , especially if you join with the use of the apozem the chalybeate-waters , and drink them daily and plentifully instead of malt drink . this apozem is likewise very profitable when the small-pox are dry'd off , and may very properly be drank with common catharticks instead of posset-drink . lastly , 't is good for travellers , who by much riding , especially in the summer , are generally costive ; but two or three drams of this salt , in a draught of spring-water , will cool and relieve them . chap. vii . of the abuse of the bitter waters and their salt. 't is the duty of a physician , not only to shew the use of remedies , but also to admonish the reader of their abuse , by which he prevents a treble injury to himself , to the patient , and the medicine ; therefore this salt must not at all be us'd in some diseases , and in others with particular respect had to the causes and symptoms . in all hydropicks 'tis hurtful doubtless , because the natural heat of the blood is decayed , and the spirits contain'd in the grumous part of it are very poor . moreover , in such persons , the use of moist things , tho' in their food , do increase the influx of the serum of the blood into the morbid parts . 't is also improper in a synochus , where tho' the cause of the disease must be sometimes lessen'd by purges , yet such must be moderately hot , as the bitter potion , pill ruffi , and the like , by which the concoction of the humours may , at the same time , be promoted ; and therefore all things that cool too much ought to be avoided . nor is it good for such as labour under intermittent fevers . nor in a chlorosis , or green-sickness , where warm fermentations must be excited ; and because the humours are too acid , they must be alter'd with stronger alkalies . this salt is also forbidden to all that spit blood , lest by its exquisite subtilty , and penetrative force , it should tear open the mouths of the arteries . and in the cholera morbus , where violent wastings of the spirits do attend , as sudden evacuations . to the quieting such turbulent and over-hasty motions of nature , cordials and opiates are to be given by intervals ; but , after the disease is tamed , if evacuation be needful , the patient of a bilious constitution , whether natural or accidental , he may take this salt with a good prospect of success . 't is not proper for paralyticks , lest it more enervate the muscles , already destitute of their native heat and vigour . but , if the disease arise from a hot cause , as wine , or vinous liquors , this salt may be given safely and profitably to the patient . 't is not to be given women with child , without a great deal of caution . nor in a suppression of urine , before you certainly know it does not proceed from an ulcer of the bladder , or a large stone ; for in both cases the patient ought to abstain from all diureticks . otherwise we have given it with admirable success ; i mean , for the forcing away of urine and stones of no little magnitude . finis . the natural history of the chalybeat and purging waters of england with their particular essays and uses : among which are treated at large, the apoplexy & hypochondriacism : to which are added some observations on the bath waters in somersetshire ... / by benjamin allen ... allen, benjamin, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing a estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the natural history of the chalybeat and purging waters of england with their particular essays and uses : among which are treated at large, the apoplexy & hypochondriacism : to which are added some observations on the bath waters in somersetshire ... / by benjamin allen ... allen, benjamin, - . [ ], , [ ] p. printed and sold by s. smith and b. walford ..., london : . errata: p. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng mineral waters -- england. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the natural history of the chalybeat and purging waters of england . with their particular essays and uses . among which are treated at large the apoplexy & hypochondriacism . to which are added , some observations on the bath waters in somersetshire . dedicated to the right honourable the earl of manchester . by benjamin allen , med. bac. london printed ▪ and sold by s. smith and b. walford , at the prince's arms in st. paul's church-yard , . to the right honourable charles earl of manchester , baron of kimbolton , lord mandevill , and one of his majesty's most honourable privy council . my lord , that this treatise waited for a share in the ceremony of receiving your lordship from venice , arguments are not wanting ; for besides the interest that i bear by living within your influence , there is a common obligation to appear in the general train of those that gratefully attend your return from your embassy , from a just sense of the blessings these kingdoms receive from your employment , and your country by your return and presence . but that i inscribe it to your lordship's name , i am more necessarily ▪ induced , in that it is not easie to find so fit a patron and so great a judge : your greatness that impowers you to countenance a book , hath a brightness more than common to your own quality , and hath all the worth and beauty , that integrity , virtue and goodness can give it . as a judge how you are qualify'd , i shall not attempt ; but only observe your lordships excellent temper to be so great a help , as that just notions of things are not to be had without . as a character is better waved , justice being seldom done in dedications ; so i am happy that it is not the least part of your character , that your excellencies have a foundation above that of common applause . however you need it not , i had the honour to observe your lordships first years , possess'd of the esteem of one who had a fame for learning , among those that are acknowledged to be the greatest masters of it in europe ; and now your riper ones in the nearest imployment of the greatest of princes . the subject , my lord , gives you a right to it ; who accounts the noblest subject is to know a man's self , and who makes the practise of doing good your pleasure : and the touches i have given at humane nature , your lordship 's several travels abroad have given you a particular palate for . i have offer'd somewhat at the two grand problems , the mechanism of life , and use of respiration , and at the distinct notion of humane nature . but i own the thoughts are shatter'd , and not exact , what your good opinion supports , i shall set above the rate of common estimation ; so what your judgment condemns , shall lose all value and concern with me : however it gives me an opportunity to signifie , that i am , my lord , your honours most humble and devoted servant benjamin allen. the preface . the knowledge of the specifick seat , and nature of the disease , and energy of the remedy , as it gave the rise and increase to medicine , so is what the art of physick consists in , and its excellency depends on . this is evident in 〈◊〉 , and appears in every disease and every remedy ; the jaundies are known to physicians to admit of a various cure , as trouble , obstruction of the catamenia , feavers ; or an indisposition of the intestines may produce them . the exactness requisite to this , is further seen in the ill success that attends the empirical vse of the cortex in pthises and feavers , without distinction of the nature of the symptom , and propriety of the medicine . howfar the best methodists fall short , that sit down short of this inquiry , is experienced in feavers , wherein , the taking indications indiscriminately , without respect to the nature of the cause , could never be made consistent with success , by the most judicious and happy practicer which that method hath yet produced . the present subject is one of the noblest in physick , not only for its generosity and vniversality , but for their extraordinary virtue in some , and those very many and various diseases , wherein they are the most constant and sole remedy : and that these waters are liable to the same inconvenience , i have been induced to believe , by their frequently ineffectual and improper vse , and the neglect of so certain a remedy , which i have observ'd in some diseases , wherein the patients must be supposed to have drop'd for want of them : instances of which i shall have occasion to glance at presently . i shall therefore make no apology for my advancing somewhat towards so great a desideratum . as to what hath been done on this subject , by the inquiries which some of our greatest naturalists who have engaged themselves 〈◊〉 it have made , i need only say , that neither their principles have been discover'd , nor the nature of the salt or spirit of each water have been distinctly examin'd , whereby as they have been wide from either , so they advanced only loose conjectures at some unknown principle ; the most particular inquiry by the very accomplish'd physician and industrious naturalist dr. martin lister , to whom the world is obliged for what he hath publish'd , and my self what he was pleas'd civilly to communicate to me , of the condition of the scarburgh spring , takes notice of the condition of the wells so far , as to observe the efflorescence of their earth , and their ferreous stone , which he observes to be an attendant on all our mineral springs and baths , as i remember without distinction , and tho' rightly judging the salt a native of the soyl where it is found , yet on the same account neither arriv'd at the nature of the principles of this salt , nor its differences , nor traced its reason and derivation . the chalybeat waters which were reducible to a few general heads , i have given only samples of , to both i have preserved their experienced virtues , and to the purging ones , suggested some from their nature ; and in this account i find one benefit that results , that besides helping to the distinct nature of each water , i have discover'd , or at least made useful , some waters of the same virtues with the justly celebrated ones , whose distance made them still wanting to other parts of the kingdom , as those of scarborow and knaresborow are . my account of the reason of the operation of the waters , is so wild and imperfect , as to be nauseous to my self , and afford me no other satisfaction , than that i have hinted what ought to be done ; yet because an insight into this , promotes the understanding of the nature of the diseases , and in what their cure must consist , and so the true place of the vse of the waters ; the hints i give being somewhat informing , instead of troubling the reader with the reasons of so great negligence , i shall choose to induce him to forgive it , by giving them a little light here , that may a little clear my sense in this matter . both the chalybeat and purging waters have some virtues in common to restore the appetite , remove nauseousness of the stomach , pains of that and the head , to cool , to allay flatulencies , and the cramps and disorderly motions in the body , and flatness of the spirits that attends them : and this the nature of the principles well accounts , which are thus far the same ; for as water , the common vehicle in both , demands consideration , as being most unfermentative , and so a great assistant in suppressing flatulencies from ill concoction , and other failings of the parts occasion'd by fermented liquors ; so the main principle of the purging waters , i have detected to be a chalybeat juyce . these waters , where they can reach and pass , and suit by their grossness , seem to answer the specifick nature of the chalybeat in some measure . on this account these sometimes succeed in the cure of a diabetes , as my honoured friend , and learned and compleat physician , dr. clopton havers inform'd me , upon a case i consulted him in ; and as the learned dr. grew hath recommended them ; which is 〈◊〉 peculiar province of the light chalybeat ones , as being a disease of the glands , which else these are unserviceable in . the purging waters by their grossness , have therefore their effect chiefly on the viscera and first ways , which their salt qualifies them to cleanse and exterminate . thus they are found to cure head-achs , vertigo's , cramps , colicks , and the jaundies , when their cause or fomes is in the stomach or bowels , or is hypochondriacal . they are suited to the diseases likewise that attend the grand climacterick , as i call that of , by joyning , correcting and exterminating the faeces of the chyle , which then is grosser and more alkalisate and wants discharge : as to differences of the salts of these waters , as well of the heavy chalybeats , experience made them of weight with me ; having , beside what i mention in its place , observed the jaundies cur'd more generally by those whose salt was affine to common salt , and that elder persons receiv'd most benefit from those that were chalybeat , and that the particular constitution requir'd a distinct regard to the salt : of what power unheeded differences of salts are in our bodies , besides experience , i found it so reasonable , in that vi●rioline , and common salt , and niters , precipitate each other , that it farther proved it self by the successful use this directed me to make of it in fluxes of blood , immoderate flux of the catamenia , and some other diseases of this year , which by many reasons i judged to be nitrous , wherein i found chalybeat preparations to be the only effectual remedies , which were so unlikely , as commonly in the chlor●sis promoting such a flux , that i found it pretty hard to perswade some to the use of it . and the proper use of the more acid chalybeat waters in fluxes of blood make them a peculiar . the virtues of those and the atramentous , appear in their place . the last of these are least efficacious and most numerous , the instances of that at leez place , and at the much honoured sir edward southcot bar. his seat , are sufficient for examples . the light chalybeats are the most abstracted of this kind , and so fit to the recesses of nature which the others cannot reach , and to shew the power of the mineral . the virtues of these in various affects of body and mind , and hypochondriacism which produceth them are constant : the diseases are so odd which these and only these do cure , that they ought to be specified , and shall be done under these heads ; the first drawn from the part affected , which is the glands , and this rule is so extensive , as to hold in all diseases of the kidneys , and glands of the joynts . their happy use in the first , i receiv'd information of from the before mentioned dr. havers , which i found confirmed by this surprizing effect upon their very first taking , that , instead of passing , they stop'd their vrin , which was little to be expected from so powerful a diuretick as they else are found to be : and the perfect cures of the gout by these waters are frequent , and have been well attested to me . a second mark or head , the diseases they are specifick in , is characterised by the nature of the waters , and diseases they cure , as the waters clear , depurate and suppress exorbitant fermentations , and as diseases are produced by the luxury of the feculency of the chyle , and effort of fermented liquors , among which are the diabetes and the gout , which are often produced by the use of fermented liquors , which by how much the staler the beer is , the more sure the mischief , and are incurable , without altering the drink in great measure : to which i may add , that the gout is said never to have assaulted any drinker of water ; and many indispositions are under this head , which are thus pointed at by the cause . a third consideration that points at the cases these waters are proper in , is the occasion and time of the disease , and brings us all the diseases at the climactericks . a fourth regards the spring and part of its origine , which is the brain and mind , and indicates all diseases of any kind , produced by trouble and grief . the cure of the fistula and feavers may make other heads , and give a rise to greatly improveable thoughts . now in order to the just and ready use of these waters , that promptuary of experience can only be certain that nicely digests observations , and specifies the cases ; this only can readily point out the remedy , and hinder their improper administration , and discover cases wherein they are effectual , which may be so remote to our sense of them , as never would encourage our attempting the application of the only proper remedy . and this i insist on the more , because i have had reason to believe , this escape to have been even from the generality of physicians . this may be particularly instanced in a dropsie , wherein the waters are very improper , and often hasten the end of the patient ; and yet in the same disease , when it proceeds from grief of mind , they are a reasonably certain , and the only remedy ; i say in this i have more than once known a patient dye under the fruitless application of a regular course of physick ; for a dropsie , when the successful use of the waters in the same case oblig'd me to conclude the ill success to be owing to the want of distinguishing the disease , and knowing the proper remedy , next under that providence that disposed the concealment : besides diseases from this cause are irregular and various , and not bear any other method of discovery or cure. distempers of the climactericks are as numerous , and their cure seems to depend as much on the same discovery ; and i have often seen consumptions at and cur'd by the dexterous application of chalybeats , the waters chiefly in the cure of which by common methods and intentions their physicians had labour'd unsuccessfully : and as this helps us to the knowledge and cure of many diseases that else lye conceal'd from us , so it assists our judgment in making due and true prognosticks : and i have been pleas'd with the evidence of art , when i could not readily cure a disease , viz. an epilepsie that came on at in the true prediction of its declining and departure at ; and of the diseases that assaulted at , superceded at . the apoplexy which is cured by the more acid chalybeats , and reliev'd by the light ones , transcends the common notions of the other glandular diseases , as it is an affection of the very root of life it self , and requires a particular consideration in order to inform us how and where this remedy is proper ; for although it is evident , that it is an affection of the medullary part of the brain , whence sense and life is distributed ; yet with submission to better judgment , i conceive the accounts of this disease are at a loss about the production of it , when they come to the immediate cause , and the long excursion this enquiry demands , as it is unavoidable , so is so seasonable also , by reason of the increase and frequency of this disease here especially in the country , where this year it has insulted more than ever , that i question not but the acceptableness of the disquisition will excuse it . i shall distinctly view the nature of an apoplexy , and disposition it consists in ; the causes of it ; the differences ; and lastly , the suitable intentions and indications . the general phaenomenon upon dissection of those that dye of this distemper , being an effusion of blood upon the brain , authors do generally agree in placing the production of this disease , in an obstruction made at the brain , and must be allow'd to be produced in the cortical part , and conceive this to be made by some congestion in the blood-vessels , and which the learned dr. cole supposes may be of viscous or serous matter , as it is either in quantity , or freshly excited , or else polypous concretions , or any other obstructing matter , to admit which , the brain is pre-dispos'd by its laxity or openness ; in which likewise , the bare distention of the arteries may suffice to produce it . i shall with all deference to those great authors , and particularly the last , humbly offer my conception , though more grosly , yet as it appears to me , and best explains the benefit of the mineral waters in this case , thus , that an apoplexy is a disease of the cortex cerebri , not founded in any obstruction , though often attended by them , but consisting in the ruin of its mechanical crasis and temper , which is such as steel restores , and niters destroy , the causes and nature of which , is common to other glands , and produceth a paroxysm , by a hamorrhage or admission of flatulent parts consequential to this ; which distemper the suicus nutritius may arrive at , either by age or qualities contracted upon congestion , and grossness of the chyle , or receive by particles communicated from the air , or all joyntly ; besides violent causes , and so may truly be said to be seated not in the sanguinary vessels , but glandular ducts . but as they wrongfully charge the blood-vessels with the cause , in that an apoplexy may be produced without any of this , as is clear from dr. willis's instance ; so they seem incumbred in the explaining the reason of the abolition of sense and motion ; and in the place and nature of this congestion ; the mistakes in the nature of this distemper , seem to me to be owing to the ill notion of animal mechanism , and use of the brain , wherein they suppose a circulation or passage of animal spirits , so necessary to life , as that the interruption of them sufficeth to abolish it . the difficulties of which way of solution , are taken notice of by all the writers on this subject , rather than explain'd . my sense in this matter i shall give , by considering , first , the inconveniencies the brain can suffer without this deprivation . ly , the vital mechanism of the brain : and ly , the necessary cause or reason of its production , as appears in the brain . and to be brief , first , it appears from the dissections in wepfer , willis , and others , that all the passes of the animal spirits , at once , cannot be obstructed ; nor a compression of the brain and cerebel , nor an inflammation of the brain , or its meninges , produce it ; there are as just exceptions lye against plenty of blood ; nor is it from stones generated . abounding serum may be without it , and water beap'd within the cranium and ventricles . and plater's instance proves , that a carnous , schirrhous and fungous tumour on the corpus callosum , produced stupidity and death without an apoplexy . ly , i shall consider the grand design of the brain , and its vital mechanism , of which , though it be inextricable in its private and more recluse motions , yet thus much appear . although animal mechanism is compound , and respiration is necessary to the motion of the blood , to which the lungs are accordingly framed , and upon which motion life depends ; yet as the pulse of the heart is perform'd by the nerves , so the air atmospherical , upon whose obstructing or fixing , so as to hinder its elasticity , life so suddenly ceaseth in some animals , seems to act only on the nerves , as in those that have membranous lungs , where no more blood circulates in their lungs , than is necessary for the supply of the part ; whereby the air seems to serve the circulation in other animals , for greater force and greater heat ; for those animals first nam'd , are colder , and live long without food , and so both air ; and the niter of it , is useful with equal pace , and in equal degree , to the motion necessary at the lungs , to the fury of the circulation of the blood , and to the nourishment to be consum'd ; and it is observable , that the par vagum and intercostal nerves , which are the instruments of involuntary motion , serve both lungs and ventricle . the use then of this heat in the blood , seems to prepare a due elasticity in the chyle , that is , to serve the brain or parts of it , be it the spirituous part in what sense soever , being accommodated to some disposition of the brain ; for in the external air there is , besides all this ( but answerable to this ) a due degree of elasticity , or quantity of elastick parts , or compressure of them necessary to life , which is proportion'd to the coldness of the animal perhaps , but certainly adapted to the spring of life in the brain , as is seen in fish which live by the air , yet dye in the open air ; and is confirm'd in whitings which swim deep in the water , a●d so with us are not liable to be taken by nets , and dye instantly upon being taken out of it . the brains of animals are accordingly adapted to this use , those who use the greatest force of the air , as birds , have the cortical part vastly larger in proportion than men , no doubt to separate the air , and perhaps corroborate the brain , and their lungs fix'd accordingly ; and fish have least brain and cortex too . the nature of life , and use of the brain , being thus stated to consist in the justice of a spring ; it is easie to conceive , that the enlarging of the elasticity in the brain , as well as without , is enough to destroy the mechanism of life . now though we know not the work of this within the brain , yet it is difficult to believe , and not agreeable to experience , to allow any other cause that deprives life so suddenly as some elastick parts , that can communicate too large a degree or scope to it , which the blood conveighing so much air may easily do , which the difficulty of respiration thereon depending evidences . by this alone may we understand , to account for the appearances of the disorders of the brain upon dissection , which now come to be consider'd : as this will reach and account for those apoplexies that shew no stoppage , nor irruption at the brain , as those of old age , and gives a reason why they attend the old and not the young : so we shall find those instances wherein the brain is forced by the blood , confirm this account . it is observable from the dissections of all , that the confirm'd apoplexy is produced by the effusion of blood at the basis of the brain out of the carotid artery , especially the anteriour branches of it , and at which place all that have time complain : and though generally the effusion of blood is large on this occasion , yet it is observable to my purpose , that the breaking in of the blood only on one side should take away life ; and which is more , that the quantity of two spoonfuls of blood at the base of the brain should as well effect it ; in both which instances or cases , the effusion supposing a stoppage of the spirits , could not so soon have produced it . and as the last named case of fernelius came upon a stroke on the eye , so the like hath happen'd on a stroke on the neck by a fall , in that history of wepfer . and although this consideration of the vital spring in the brain , doth not exclude other ways by which it may suffer , beside the giving it too much scope , which i here assign , yet i see no reason to entertain any other , since other causes are either impossible , or not constantly produce this disease ; and since ( excepting the case of old age , which requires a distinct explication ) it is ever produced by a rupture of the vessels , as an imperfect one by admission only of unfit and rapid but small parts . again , to proceed further in the inquiry into the nature of this disease , by informing our selves how this rupture comes to pass , we are to consider , that it appears that the condition the blood-vessels receive , by the stoppage of the canal by the grumous blood , or ●ccidental hardness or cl●sure of it barely consider'd by nature , are render'd ineffectual to be the occasion of this disorder ; the reason therefore of it , is to be had without , as the vessels may be joyntly respected or affected where they are more minute . the nature of this is to be sought from what the compages and affection of the part afford : now how truly the brain , understood as a gland , accounts for this , must be prov'd by the disorders those bodies suffer , and the analogy they bear to each other . that the affections are common , it evident from the calculi , varicous knots and hydatides , found in apoplectick brains at the secretions , as at 〈◊〉 plexus choroides . the justness and genuineness of this account , appears farther in the part and cause of this disease , in that the rupture it made principally at the anteriour branches of the carotid arteries nearer the origin of the brain , where accordingly those that are seiz'd complain ; and that the ruptur'd vessels are those that have gone a compass , and descend from the anfractus of the brain . the reason of this last , is to be understood by the observations of bellini and malpighius , who inform 〈◊〉 that the winding of glandular vessels , and so of the anfractus of the brain , is to give the blood time to stop and separate through the glandular pores . and 〈◊〉 ●his solves the reason partly , why the rupture is not , where the blood comes , with greater force ; so the imbecility of the part hath hence a reason , and points at the occasion of it , in that it is where the greater part in proportion of the chyle , or nutritious iuyce , must therefore be deposited , which when weigh'd together , with the consideration that the error of the chyle induceth all diseases , and allows the effects of the air , and that the fit so often seizes after full meals , and that this disease keeps pace with the affectio hypochondriaca , if not increas'd in time together with it ; and that it s so often being induced by trouble of mind , evidences the same analogous cause and reason , are natural , and to me convincing arguments . how this rupture of the arteries comes upon an obstruction or heaping of chylous parts in the glands , comes next to be examin'd : it is observ'd by wepfer , in his second dissection , that the brain there was much intenerated , where the effusion of blood was made ; but whether the laxity of the brain , or openness of the pores , of the tabuli , or siphons , that receive the chylous part of the blood , rendred the brain liable to this irruption , is questionable and not to be answered ; so provided we know the nature of the parts that occasion this , is not material . i own the vses of the blood in joynt-service with the nervous parts to be another inquiry . the delatoryness of the glands , when obstructed in producing a rupture of the blood-vessels , be it in the iaundies , asthma , or dropsie , and the liableness of the glands to alteration , especially upon exclusion of new saline parts from the blood , to preserve as well as supply them , induce me to believe much herein to be owing to some quality they may conceive , if not sufficient to corrode the artery , at least to destroy their own crasis . accordingly i shall now consider the cause without us , that induceth this disposition to this disease , as sufficient to direct us , which is the air. though i have some reasons that draw me to an opinion , that the particles which compose , or are bore in our atmosphere which variously affect our bodies , are so gross , as to allow a conception of their operating , on the score that they are effluvia , either of the constant or new produced bodies in the earth , but owe their energy to some quality depending on the various figure or disposition , or other alteration they are liable to receive in the atmosphere : yet not to argue from so questionable principles , i shall rather indeavour to demonstrate the nature of the parts of it by their effect , and as they appear the occasion of this disease . and this distemper making so extraordinary insults at particular times , it is reasonable to examine the disposition of the air , whereon depended the increase of the disease , and wherein it consists . the grand increase of it upon the great frost , appearing sufficiently by the bills of mortality , lead the learned dr. cole to do so good service to this inquiry as to observe it , and makes it a phaenomenon , the solution of which is no small direction . but as i think the constipation or obstruction made by admission of the nitrous particles not satisfactory , without accounting for the new capacity they have obtain'd beyond what they have in other frosts , and the difficulties of admitting them ; so it seems evident to me , that the rise of this disease or first increase is of a longer date . and to offer my sense of this matter , the apoplexy seems to me to be one of the fix'd temporary diseases , which as they result not from the immediate changes of season and weather , so are rooted in some more subtile parts of the air , which weather and season may assist by giving them a liberty of exerting themselves , and likewise a supply . and because i never yet observ'd any sudden leaps ordinarily , though i nicely observ'd the air as i could , made in the production of new diseases ; i was ready to judge from the rise of this at the declension of the rickets , that the actors of both were parts of equal subtilty , and not much differing in nature . and i confess the experiment of the marbles seem to favour a notion , that there is differing degrees of subtilty in our atmosphere it self , and so in the parts lodg'd in it . i shall not attempt determining , though there is great reason to believe the matter to be nitrous by its effect , and its cure. the reason of this disease , and nature of the condition of the air producing it , is probably more clearly to be seen in the observation of the particular times of the grand efforts of the air in producing it ; in which we ought to observe the general effects of the air on all bodies , and carry on the inquiry by the effects and power it exerts on animal ones . and because this evidence or detection of the parts affecting is liable to exception , that differing diseases are produced often at once by differing parts or distinct qualities in the operating body , and especially in so mix'd a one : and again , as the more subtile cause is unknown , so if we discover the particles of the air , or disposition of it , that conveighs the pa●●ss , we have small advantage . i must observe , that i am of opinion , that the nature of the air , and the disposition of it , to which diseases owe their rise , are more discoverable , than they at first thought give hopes of , and that in so great a measure , as to make the knowledge serviceable in the known diseases . and any man , i think , will be reconcil'd to my opinion , that will take the trouble of tracing diseases in conjunction with the air and seasons ; for the difficulties are in great measure solv'd , by barely distinguishing between the diseases produced by single seasons , and observing the constant tenour of the humour or diseasy matter , and how it receives alterations from variety of seasons , and that as the place of the disease is partly or chiefly owing to the first , so the nature to the last of these . that the present case depends on these evident causes , may reasonably be concluded , not only from the increase of it joyntly with these , but also that it traced in its containing and procatarctick causes , which require no more to explain , than what the common effects of the air in other diseases exhibit , and the nature of the air thus consider'd accounts for . the first time to be consider'd , and which assists us in the discovery of the cause of this distemper from the occasion of its increase extraordinary , is the great frost . to avoid prolixness , i shall only observe , that as that can never determine the matter to the brain , nor account for the increase of this disease at so great a distance , and is contradicted by experience ; so the incidence of such a season may give a lift to this disease , on other considerations than the conveighing of the frosty and grosser nitrous parts , and that may be of more subtile or distinct parts , that may be contain'd or mix'd with them , that may better account for this phaenomenon , which must be suppos'd to be vastly supply'd by so great a frost , which may be allow'd either to feed the more subtile , or increase them by the precipitation and congestion of the parts they bring , and separate and leave . indeed the grand continuation of the increase , makes this deduction necessary , both of its subtilty and nature . the last of these must most disclose it self at the time of its abounding in the highest degree , and this must be fix'd at this present year , the reason of which i shall now examine ; that i rightly fix the inundation and exorbitancy of the invading matter on this , or this and the last year , i need not indeavour to evince , being so extraordinary , as that the like number of apoplecticks were never yet observ'd in this or past ages ; and indeed by the generality of the vertigo's that have invaded , which must be referr'd to the same assault , may be said truly to be epidemical . that the matter concern'd in this is nothing obscure , or besides what is evident and obvious appears , in that first the other distempers raging at the same time were uniform , and differ'd only in place , the matter of which is plainly enough nitrous , but particularly ( because the nature of that differs ) its qualities consist in acidity , such as will not preserve from but promote putridness , subtilty to penetrate , and liquibility to flow with the juyces ; which qualities appear easily in the effects in both the chronical and acute diseases of those years last past : it much illustrates this account , to observe the steps made in the producing this general disposition in the air , which i must here but touch at , without explaining . it is very notable that a glandular acidity attended the diseases in ; epilepsies in children , and nervous rhumatisms in the grown , advanced with the great mealdews in , both seated in the membranes and at the head. in remarkable for sudden changes of heat and cold , rag'd epilepsies , vertigo's , and lax tumours and vlcers of the throat , that came as colds . through the subtilty and increase of this matter , which seem'd fitted to weaken the containing parts ( the unseasonableness of the preceding year reasonably assisting ) it obtain'd admittance at the latter end of the year ( which was wet and windy ) to the interior glands , as i call those that serve life it self . and now appears an odd distemper , that seiz'd with faintness , and inquietude , and deliquiums , and a yellowness of the skin , and dry cough . vpon dissection of one of these bodies , i discover'd a recluse abscess in the lungs , invested with a tough coat , and containing thick pus , without any opening external , or into the bronchiae , but was fed by a small duct from the largest gland of the lungs , which gland was grumous , and look'd and felt like powder'd chalk . the pancreas was in the same state , which occasion'd the yell●●●ess as i conceive , and the thymus emaciated . and by this insight i cured others of the same disease by emulsions of alkalys , first to remove the acidity , and then by a sudorifick decoctum amarum , and closing the course with chalybeats . at the very same time apoplexies insulted in a strange degree , and colds affecting the head : these all held in , which ending in a long and gentle frost , upon this in . this disease became epidemick , in that it seiz'd so frequent , and was the issue of other diseases , and from the general invasion of vertiginous cases . acute diseases of this year proved to me the matter to be an acid nitre dispos'd to corrupt and exulcerate , by which the diseases seiz'd usually with a catarrh , and ended with some abscess . putrid feavers began with the spring and catarrhal , yet reigning from the declining summer ; great fluor of the blood appear'd at the same time , with dysenteries , gripes , and ill-natured putrid pains in the sides : to all which the cures happily succeeded that were directed by this reason of them , and confirm'd to me , that the matter in the air was advanced to that nature , as to be more dispos'd to putridness and corrosiveness , which i therefore assert to be the nature of the air in the present case ; in many these vertigo's and pains in the head blinded the sight almost ; my opinion that in this the nature of the niter consisted , and that it flow'd together with grosser parts of the air , was favour'd by the observation of the retinue of his excellency the earl of manchester in their return from venice this spring ; who upon their passing the sene , suffer'd from the wind which blew in their face , an unusual effect of common cold , which was a tumor of the whole face , and universal scabbiness agreeable to the before observ'd qualities of it . i shall only add one particular more , which is , that i have observ'd that those places that have been most troubled with apoplexies , have been level and moist , so as in one village so situate , these that dy'd went off mostly on a sudden . having thus asserted the containing cause of this disease , and shewn the procatarctick to proceed from a congestion of chyle in this as in other glands , and to consist in the spoiling of its due temper and crasis , by inducing a corrosive and nitrous quality : the disposition to this distemper , appears likewise to be contracted by replentia and otium , and which ruins the tone and temper of the glands the same way , but soonest thick fermented liquors , especially the stalest : the dexterous effect of these in all diseases of the whole glandular kind , is sufficiently known . how much by this observation we may hope to have this disease within our power , though we cannot mend the air , may be understood by considering that the air hath no power to change our bodies , but as it hath a delinquent chyle to work on , as i note afterwards . but as this plainly exhibits the best method to prevent , so also that the chalybeat waters are the best cure. their power in diseases of the glands , to remove obstruction , and restore the due crasis and temper of them , i have shewn ; and as the steel is the only proper body to do this , which mechonically serves our life , at least in preserving this tone and crasis , which alkalys and niters destroy : so it seems to affect the glands only , since in a chlorosis it is not easie to conceive the so sudden raising the blood by so small quantity of even a tincture of steel otherwise , but to keep to experience as it appears that in these distempers of the glands , the chalybeat waters are the only remedy ; and as the light sort deobstruct best , so the more acid sort are peculiar in this disease , more powerfully resisting and correcting the nature of the chyle , and rendring it more fluxile and suppressing haemorrhage , and to strengthen and make firm the brain , which is observable in their virtues recited . but to remove a disposition to this disease , the time , or state , or cause of it , may either make the use of these waters exceptionable , or require a particular regard either before , or in conjunction with them , i shall consider the differences thence arising , and the distinct regard they claim ; that these may be distinguish'd with some certainty , and may be of use to direct us , there is the highest reason to believe , that since in all the cures recited by authors , the nature of the disease is ever found answerable . now considering that an apoplexy consists in the admission of parts to the brain , that either are aerial , as is what the blood conveighs , or elastick and flatulent , as is the matter in the aged ; and that the admission of both is owing to the crasis and temper of the brain , as of the other glands destroy'd or degenerated ; which is perform'd in the chyle by the air , or degeneracy of the juyce by other means , as may abundantly be prov'd to be the case of hemorrhages in general ; we are hereby help'd to understand the reason of the variety of the remedies that have been observed to set aside apoplectick fits. and although in a case of such danger , applications are justly made of universal intention , yet they usually succeed as they attend the state and nature of it , as well as are commanded by the strength of the part ; and intentions are thus best urg'd , that respect the matter as confirm'd when old : ly , when capable of revulsion by bleeding , when that confines it , as in the plethorick , by vomits in full feeders : ly , by promoting the secretion by catharticks , as in the phlegmatick blisters , &c. ly , by thinning and lessening the flatulency of the matter , and driving it forward either into the secretory vessels , or at worst through the brain , on which strong apoplectick waters are observ'd to effect , when the fit is without a procatarxis , or changes into a hemiplegia , being small in quantity . again , bleeding may be the only remedy which ought to be urg'd , from the nature of the disease impelling , joyning and indicating , as a disposition to haemorrhages , or stopping of one ; and thus i have more than once , by bleeding chiefly , made an apoplexy remove , and change it self into a gout in the foot. lastly , some cures have been perform'd by medicines that regard only the nature of the matter , by resisting the flatulency and coldness of it , and perhaps by strengthning the brain withal . and that is to be further and more nicely considered ; for beside the general intentions which the state of the matter requires to be particularly insisted upon , with reference to the fit , either to be remov'd or prevented ; there are also some conditions of this disease , particularly to be respected in curing a disposition to it , which it receives from the constitution of the part , confirmedness of the matter , quality of the matter , and lastly , the causes original or concurring of this distemper : for although these waters are experienced a compleat if not sole remedy in the two common cases of apoplectick persons , a haemorrhagious disposition , and a sanguinary plethora , as likewise in a total intemperature producing them ; yet a preparatory course , or medicines conjunctly applied , may be necessary : first , in old age , by warming cephalick medicines , or moisture of the brain , in which astringent chalybeats , as crocus martis astringens , recommended by dr. cole , or ens veneris , which i more use . secondly , if inveterate , or from confirm'd hypochondriacism , where the brain may be calculous by a previous course of the light chalybeat waters . thirdly , the matter may be cold and flatulent , as the case recited by sennertus , in which rotulae of ol. carui and nuc . moschat . succeeded , if we consult the genius of the humour in the advanced degree of it of this present time , it may be proper to take off the acidity by alkalys , in which coral ought to have a share joyn'd with carminatives and discussers of flatus ; and to back these with astringents and purgers interpos'd . which i may confirm by an observation i have made in some that i have cured ; that upon the first removal of the fit , the humour remov'd into some other part as the feet , and appear'd in a puffy cold humour . and in others i have found an apoplexy to proceed from the bare translated matter of the rheumatick pains , and thus in most of those that are taken ; and as this accounts well why cold should increase them , so that the cause is the same , appears in that this catarrhal matter , when it falls on the lungs or bowels , hath usually produced blood , as i find daily . and this i observe the rather , because it clears my proof of the matter to be natural , and that the increase of this disease is owing to an increase of the same matter in the air , it s subtilly coldness , flatulency , and corrosiveness , which the coldness and moisture of this and the preceding years favour . the last regard is to the causes concurring to the production of it , as the chlorosis , stopping of wonted flux or haemorrhages . the course to be applied in all these appears in authors , and need here only to be intimated . where none of these are coincident , besides general evacuation to be premitted , only good detersives may be recommended ; the most successful of which , that i have observ'd , i have nam'd afterwards . the affectio hypochondriaca , which i have observ'd to be reliev'd by them all , but when confirm'd to be cured by the light chalybeats , and secur'd by the more acid , to which the purging waters elected according to the requisite qualities ought to precede , needs no address to shew their place beside the reciting their symptoms . what is necessary to contribute to the cure or continuance of it , being a change of the course of living to a more natural one , instead of particularizing i choose to illustrate , by shewing the antecedent causes of it , and that it is a disorder of the recrements of the chyle . as this is a cardinal distemper , of them , i have enlarg'd the thought not unusefully to the other turns these receive at the several grand points of man's life , and the diseases thereon depending : and though i could not be particular in the explication of this , yet the mistakes about humane nature are such , even of seemingly sound persons , but are very unhappy in the hypochondriacal ; i have offer'd somewhat notwithstanding at the general reason of the distemperature of body and mind , and the universal efficacy of this congested matter . i am of opinion that by this thought , more of a just notion of our nature may be retrieved , and of the efficacy of mineral acids in contradistinction from others , how they confirm our nature , and particularly why steel , and how and on what account , and what the temper of the glands , and so of the brain , consists in . the nature and qualities of the air , prov'd by its effects , both ought and might be , i fancy , better clear'd , and the truth and excellency of this method be prov'd in the acute diseases likewise , wherein . i have found it of happy vse ; which i hint , to encourage the prosecution of it , because i have observ'd feavers themselves to have enough of their reasons appear to distinguish the success of the observer of them ; but as these either want place or room here , so instead i am oblig'd to excuse the whole discoursive part of this book , and particularly the impertinencies and imperfections of it , being only casual , and written raptim , and much of it never read over by me till printed ; and were design'd but as hints , and beside the design of the history ; so that the great precipitation with the impediments , made much or all of it so far from being exact , as to be thoughtless almost : in which part i reckon the enumeration of the sentiments of authors of apoplexies , and the distinction of soms symptoms : and in what i offer to the learned dr. cole , of the seat of the disease , it is oscitanter , and is submitted to his judgment ; my intent being to explain and carry on the inquiry , not to oppose . in my examining the waters i was exact to the best of my skill , and had it perform'd at the springs , trusting only to the procuring barnet , stretham and upminster , the last of which was sent me by the unquestion'd hand of mr. jefferys of brentwood . and least an objection should lye against the cleanness of my account of the pyrites found in the purging wells , in that the common copperas stone should be found mix'd with them at harwich at the base of the loamy cliff , i must observe that they are only found among the gravelly lays that fall from the top , and that be it , however it sufficeth to my purpose , that these stones are only a common base of this sort of earth , as well where are no purging springs , as where there are , and so not of a forreign original . lastly , why i publish any thing so loose and unaccurate , i can only say , that the discourses which were written off hand , had not the leisure for thought , that the experimental part had ( which was in good measure done before i left cambridge , and so before i enter'd on practise ) neither had i a prospect of an opportunity to perfect . and all my thoughts i offer no otherwise , than with submission to better judgment to correct . a supplement to page . for particularly , besides the arguments drawn from the excellency of our own mineral waters , and their more distinct appositeness to several cases , which recommend the use of our waters in their lieu , as being more abundantly useful to us , so there are some objections that lye against the use of the german spa with us , which it is not amiss to advise the reader of . for not only the waters suffer so much by their long passage , as at best to retain but a diminish'd proportion of their virtue equal to their tincture of steel ; but also that water , which by reason of its long retaining the tincture , is sent abroad , and is medicinally drank with us , if it did retain its chalybeat power ( which it seldom doth till it is used ) is of the heavy and less effectual sort in the more nice cases , and its salt approaching to an alkaly , and scarcely curdles with soap or liquid salt of tartar , not so much as our gravelly pump-water , nor disturbs a solution of fine silver in spirit of niter so much : and to this agrees the observation of the french academists . all which i offer to be consider'd and examin'd by physicians , who may get it more fresh than mine were , and observe their use. errata . page . line . observ'd by , add dr. lower . p. . dele quin. p. . for pents read pends . where mr. simson is mentioned , read symonds . p. . at the bottom before unacquainted dele not . p. . l. . after at one , insert end . p. . for fessil read fissil . p. . l. . after hand , add except salts a little more mix'd , as those of kensington and woodham-ferrys . p. . l. . after acidity , for of read and. p. . l. . for camellae read lamellae . to the class of north-hall water , where the nature is determin'd to resemble spirit of salt , add , and to partake of spirit of vitriol , and may be a peculiar in the stone and stoppage of vrine . the colchester selenites was found in a bed of blewish clay , as my worthy friend mr. john luffkin of that town since informed me . and other escapes may be , that the reader may easily correct . the natural history of the chalybeat and purging waters of england . the introduction . the method which i thought reasonable to take , to get an account of these waters , and which affords the minutes of this history , was the examining the several wells and particular matter of them , and tracing their earths and springs by the help of their proper signs , and then to add to these the essays of the waters : and the universality and accuracy of this inquiry have distinguish'd it , by the success of a clear discovery of their principles . i am not ignorant that this history , as it is an exact examination of the nature and origin of waters so much in use , and as it may advance and he helpful to a general history of mineral waters , needs nothing to recommend it ; yet use being the design of this treatise , and because to give the reader a view of the benefits proposed by it may facilitate the understanding of it , i shall shew that the usefulness of this inquiry is fully proportioned to the difficulty of attaining it . for besides the satisfaction to the drinkers of them , which ariseth from the knowledge of their principles , the effects of the chalybeat and purging waters of england are so great , and the cures perform'd by them in obstinate and the less understood distempers are so very extraordinary , that ( were their natures better understood ) we must expect no inconsiderable advantage from the proper use of so noble a remedy : since this would direct us not only to the more certain use of them , but advance our understanding to the discovery of other distempers , in which they might succeed and help us to avoid all that ill success that attends their improper administration . how necessary such exactness is to the understanding their natures , will appear sufficiently if we consider what vastly different qualities are found to be in the waters reputed of the same species , which yet may be owing only to the variety of the salts with which they may be impregnate ; of which variety i shall give some particular instances , because it is of great consequence , and hath hitherto been unheeded . the vertues of the chalybeat waters have been as yet so much attributed to the metalline parts or steel , that ( setting aside the vehicle of water , the benefit of which is taken notice of by some ) in the choice of these nothing usually is consulted but the quantity of steele evidenc'd in the depth of its tinging with galls , and yet in this so uniform a species , it is easie to discern that variety of nature and effects , that will oblige him who observes it , to allow so much to the menstruum of it , or the salt that is added ( either in its quantity or quality ) as is sufficient to constitute medicines of a quite different nature . hypochondriacal cases ( in which the intention seems most general ) the light sort claim as their province to relieve ; and i never knew the heavy ones used in , but with the ill success of aggravating the distemper with an uneasie heat , and with very little of the good effects that attend the light ones . the propriety of these waters in some other distempers , as obstructions of several parts , upon the account of their lightness and thinness , and particular sort of spirit , appears likewise in the chapter of their vertues . the heavy waters that have more of the mineral of iron , but clogg'd with salt , have different references according to the differing nature of the salt , and quantity of mineral they bear , whereof the nitrous ( for such some prove to be ) regard properly that heavy and black crasis of the blood of the melancholick ; for i distinguish the melancholy , properly so call'd , which hath its root in the constitution , from the affectio hypochondriaca : the other , which have a salt of the same vitriolick nature with the spirit , are a peculiar in those cases which i call climacteric of elder persons and some others , which require the enriching of the blood , and the help of a salt more effectual , gross , and lasting , than is the light spirit . and as some cases may require the same vitriolick salt to help the appetite and restrain flatulencies , where the blood as it needs not , so bears not much of the body of the steele , [ for such is the case in some persons past fifty , of a florid complexion , and who breed blood fast ] so a water that is thus qualified , of which i have given an instance , may be reputed another species , and for its real use deserves well to be distinguish'd . the salts which these weighty waters extract from the soil , it is likely may vary very much , yet having not found any of them to contain salt-petre , and the difference of their virtues depending chiefly on their being more or less alkalisat , i ●ay not so muc●●●ight on those lesser qualities , as to distingu●● 〈◊〉 waters by them , though i take notice of the● 〈◊〉 the essays of the waters : but there are other qualities that waters may derive from the places where they run , which are less sensible , and may lye in some motion or texture ( rather than in any accession of particles ) that a particular distemper or constition , besides what a tender one might , may receive an impression from ; these are coldness and hardness : and these are so considerable , as to be allow'd by some physicians rationally enough , to have been the cause of an epilepsie , that seiz'd a gentlewoman , whom i knew , upon drinking for a chlorosis a water that issues from a stone quarry . again , as the waters have d●●●erent effects from their different qualifications , so they have some effects in common from their common , or general , or more essential ones . that which i shall take notice of here , is the prevention of the generation of the stone ; because their pretention that makes them here competitors , is a propriety of this kind of mineral waters , which is explain'd in this history , and confirms it , and was never before discover'd or understood . the purging waters owing their virtues wholly to their salts , are much more various in their nature , and the ignorance of the different nature of these salts , has made their different effects unquestion'd , and so hitherto to escape observation ; and though the subtilty and fluxilness of some of these salts , and not of others , may seem to most men too slight to deserve consideration , and has neither been observ'd nor inquir'd into ; yet it is most certain , that those very qualities give the waters a different capacity . epsom and acton ( which both bear only this kind of salt , that neither admits of christallizing , nor abides the warmth of a temperate hand ) on this account , as they are more effectual in grosser bodies , so in leaner in the very same cases prevail not , nor agree : and on the same score , i have found them effectual in some old cholicks and cramps , where the passages and vessels that wanted cleansing were very small , or the matter glutinous or viscous . the same qualifications which these waters have for deterging , and are conspicuous in the galling of the arcus and urinary passage , that attends often the operation of these waters , above what is usually observ'd in drinking the others , may reasonably enough have an advantageous use likewise in ulcers of the kidneys in a cautious and judicious hand ; and they often have been by me observed to be successful in some obstructions of them ; which together with the inconvenience of an ischuria , that sometimes attends their improper or unseasonable use , makes this consideration to merit our attention , and besides , the softness of the salt i am speaking of , may give rise to a thought , that some emollient or relaxing quality may be communicated in some cases , as in melancholy for example , above what other waters can be expected to exert . but besides the qualities now consider'd , this history will inform us of differences of the salts of these purging waters in more essential qualities ▪ and that these are almost as many as the waters ; whereof some few stand at such a distance , as alkalys and sea-salt ; and their virtues are so proportionably distant , that till i consider'd , that the knowledge of the first , assisted me in the observation of the latter , i was apt to wonder how so frequent instances should slip the regard of even the most considerable men , it is familiar for scorbutick indispositions , to be relievd by one water and aggravated by another . i have known instances of a scorbutick scabies , and a leprous disease , each increas'd by drinking the water of brentwood-weal , which abated upon the use of woodham ferrys . and this is the clearer and fairer example , because both these diseases have been effectually cured by lambeth water . and i may observe , that this makes much for the validity of this account , that the discoverable qualities of the salts of these waters , so justly correspond with their experimented virtues ; for which reason in treating of those waters now nam'd , i have oppos'd or compar'd the qualities of them to each other . indeed , though the clear and convincing detection of their differences , and of the salts they bear relation to , be only subject to nice essays ; yet they confess to the bare taste wide differences , some being bitter , more saline some , some sweet , some insipid , or near the taste of common water , some have a vitriolick sweetness , some are austere , &c. which hitherto has escap'd observation : so that mineral waters seem one of the greatest as well as the most useful branches of the materia medica . in sum , it is by the understanding their origine and nature , that we can ascertain rules and distinguish errors in taking them , readily discover their proper uses , and by directing to other cases and distempers in which they may be applicable on the same reason and account , may improve and advance their virtues : and besides , the least piece of service this does in the recording their uses , and giving those signs , that may direct the discovery of other wells , with the advantage of an example to direct the proving them , is not inconsiderable . the benefit of all this , that i may not seem to abound in my own sense , i shall give in the words of the philosophical transactions of the royal society . all which being consider'd , we cannot but add , that whoever discovers such healing waters , and publickly prescribes the safe and right use of them , does really distribute larger and nobler alms , than if he built and endow'd a savoy ; for this prolongs life , and restores health ( which is sometimes better than life ) both to rich and poor , to natives and strangers , to neighbours and travellers . according to this design , the history of these waters will come under these three heads ; the general history of them ; the essays of the several waters , and then their uses . i shall treat of these two kinds of waters distinctly , and observe that order , that repetition may be avoided , and the former parts of the discourse may enlighten the latter . of the nature of common water . there are many questions , which seem to lye in my way to be discuss'd , as of the origine of springs , nature and origine of mineral juyces and vitriols ; of the causes of the heat of the earth , &c. which the following history makes to disappear . i shall therefore avoid the prolixity caused by such disputes , and only make some remarks on the affections and nature of simple or common water , which may help us to the better conceiving of the nature of mineral ones . . waters receive their salts of the earths they wash . . common water holds no metalline parts , nor will receive any ; mineral acids being necessary for vitriols : and though gravelly waters , just at their eruption , will take so much of an iron as with galls will make ink , yet that the acidity belch'd up at those places is a distinct thing , and not of the same original , is evident , in that the water looses that quality a few yards from the spring , and then ceases to take any discoverable parts or qualities from either iron , or copper , or brass . . all waters flow on a loam , or fat heavy earth , such as tiles are made of , and there is a dead heavy sort of it , known by its blackness , weight and stonyness , which is the common floor of springs , and is therefore call'd in norfolk the pan of the earth , beyond which no pump-maker expects to find water , or attempts to dig for it : all the earth above this approaches to a nitre , being so much the more nitrous , by how much more it is wrought on by the sun and air : nitre being receiv'd as a name for any native salt of the superficial earth , by the sun and air produced or separated , which is void of metalline parts and nature , and in differing climates is advanc'd toward an alkalisat or urinous salt , in proportion to the heat of the country , and situation of the soil . and i never found any metalline bodies or juyces yet , but what were embrac'd in stone or loam , and not in clays . . hence waters that wash this upper soil , or rivers and springs that lye in clays , are saline ; gravelly waters yield little besides some stony parts , unless they have wash'd off some salt from neighbouring soils ; which discovers its original in the essays . . not to take notice of the qualities of humecting or moistning , &c. the most considerable affection of water is , that it is void of elasticity and igneous particles , and unapt to fermentation . yet these observations of mine , i offer not otherwise , than to submit them for better judgment and experience to inquire into . the waters under examination are the saline , namely , the purging ones , and the acidulae or chalybeat ones : of these first . part i. of the chalybeat waters of england . the chalybeat waters are preferable not only for antiquity of discovery , but also for virtue , being an effectual refuge for many deplorable diseases that no other remedy prevails in : they are quick springs , ever flowing in a sand or gravel . i shall first state their characteristicks , or signs by which they are distinguish'd from other waters ; and then explain those circumstantial signs , and their reasons , in an account of their nature . their characteristicks are , . to shew the mineral they bear ( which is steele ) in their taste , and with galls , to evidence it in the blew or purplish black colour proper to vitriols of iron , as also by dropping a ferrugineous ocre at the spring . . the second is , the lightness of the spirit that holds the tincture , which vanishes upon exposing to the air , and leaves the water without the mineral tincture . the lightness of this spirit so affects those waters of this kind that are more void of salt , as to render them lighter than rain-water distill'd . . the spring ever proceeds from a rock usually consisting of gravelly stones cemented together . . if it joyn any other common water immediately near the fountain , it thence incrusts the stones and sticks , which it washe● , with a mortar-like crust the notice of this incrustation has made many learned men , and particularly dom● panarolus , erroneously to entertain an ill opinion of the water , because ( as he observed in that four miles from rome , extra portam hostiensem vulgo s. pauli ) of the stony matter the water leaves where it passes , and this through the mistake that this matter is in the water at the spring . . to bear an oyly or bituminous film on it like a scum. . to give a green upon the mixture of syrup of violets . these waters differ on account of the salt of the water , in the quantity or quality of it , or proportion of the steel they bear ; and so may not have the second qualification which is proper to the simple ones . for the nature and reason of these waters , we must examine these particulars , not only since most of them are the indexes , but also are effected by the essential properties of these waters ; and shew the metalline parts , and the nature of the menstruum or spirit . the metal is evident from the blew black they take with galls , from the taste , and lastly the okar which it casts out at the opening of the spring , which calcin'd with salt , and expos'd to the air , shews none of the verdigreese colour that hungarian vitriol gives upon the same trial. the menstruum , or spirit , is a distinct thing from the salt of them , and of a differing original , being contrary in nature , not held by it , and being found in those waters that want the salt , for the salt of those that have any , is wash'd from the earth by the water , and the spirit is only a steam that comes along with the gravel . the spirit , or menstruum , that bears this tincture , is volatile , and continues not with the water many hours , ( scarce well one in the light sort ) though well cork'd up . what effect hermetick seal might have , i never had encouragement to attempt , as never believing that a fair trial , where the power of the fire came so near and so naked , and the chalybeat waters that abound with salt are often nitrous , and so may mortifie the spirituous acid , which may make it in vain look'd for in the receiver : this i mention for caution sake ; for that this spirit is volatile , yet that it can be detain'd by a cover of oyl for ten days , i lately try'd with a light chalybeat at felstead . the original of this vapour is pointed out to be low , and to proceed with all gravel ; as is evident in free springs , that upon laying iron at the eruption of them , will tinge with galls , which power the water loses at a rods distance ; but in these it is less in quantity . the nature of this spirit is vitriolick : they disturb not a solution of sublimate in fair water , and with lignum nephriticum thicken a little with a cloud , but do not the least change yellowish as pump-water and nitrous , but near that of a solution of vitriol , or its spirit upon the same , though scarce so clear , because all these waters have a touch of the salt of the soyl , as appears in the green with syrup of violets . they all likewise render a solution of sal saturni in fair water milky , by which the spirit is distinguish'd from saltpetre or its spirit . note , that though these tryals are fairly made , only in the lighter simpler waters , in order to make a judgment of them , yet they hold in the heavier waters , except that tryal with lignum nephriticum , in which they discover their salt , by the yellow colour they give . now the nature of salt of vitriol appears upon examination , to differ very little from common salt ( if any thing ) more than in the qualities impress'd in it by the metal ; and it is worth our notice , that vitriols and nitres precipitate each other , being the product of two several regions ; which will enlighten to the understanding the next particulars observ'd to attend these waters . the earth and soyl of these springs , is ever a sand or gravel , and the water issues from , or rather makes , a rock of cemented stones , which are never to be found , but where the water is vitriolick . this sort of rock is open to view at tunbridge , and has never yet fail'd , where the ground in which these springs are found has been open'd , as at notly , felstead , and other lesser springs . i am apt to think that iron may have a particular qualification for the cementing of earth and stone , but that i may follow my subject more closely , i shall only consider it as the next particular illustrates it . these waters , when they joyn another water , at least a gravelly one , e'er they have ran so far as to lose their spirit , precipitate a mortar-like substance , wherewith they incrust the stones and sticks they pass over . that this stony matter is precipitated out of other waters which flow into it by the virtue of this water , and proceeds not from the chalybear water it self , beside the argument that may be drawn from the lightness in weight of the chalybeat , appears fully demonstrated at many springs , indeed ▪ at all , where the rill of common water runs along the side of the soyl whence the chalybeat issues , especially when it is in a meadow ( as it was at felstead where i first observ'd it ) no incrustation or precipitation of stony matter being to be found either in the meadow where the chalybeat lyes , or above before the other water joyns it . the water i now nam'd , is one of the light sort , being near ten grains in seven ounces lighter than common water , and the water that joyns it a hard gravelly one , which with tincture of logwood gave a rasberry red as acids , which is not amiss to mention . the reason which i intimated above , to be from the differing natures of nitres and vitriols , may help make this intelligible . the lightness in weight of the chalybeat waters , that as they are void of salt , may properly enough be said to be more simple , is owing to the same cause , and proves the same thing , being not from difference of the season , as is usually judg'd , which can never make it lighter than even that rain-water distill'd , that must render it so ; but from the depuration it has receiv'd by the precipitation of the earthy parts : and the property is the same by which these waters even in human or animal bodies cure the stone , by removing the disposition to it , as well as early precipitation of the matter ; and this virtue in the waters is so constant , as to have made them famous in this particular . the last considerable sign and attendant of these waters , is the bituminous scum appearing on them , how far the fatness of the earth of these waters is assisting in separating this spirit , or whether it is the effect of it , is not plain , nor very material to learn : that it is of the nature of common salt , to assist in the separation of oyly parts , is evident in pickling roses , and distilling oyls , but whether it be from this , or the putridness of the soyl and earth , i shall submit , and leave . these waters differ not only in degrees of hardness and coldness , which is best taken notice of in the examination of each water , but may be distinguish'd into these two heads . . the light ones , which have more of the spirituous parts of the vitrioline spirit , and more simply . . the heavy ones , that contain a salt approaching to a nitre , or is nitrous . of the heavy ones first , and then i ascend to the lighter , which thereby may be illustrated . the first class . chalybeat waters that contain a nitrous salt , and equal at least common water in weight . the salt of these waters i conclude to be owing to the soyle , because it is found to be of the same nature , and has some differences , but those being small , i omit , and forbear insisting upon them . in the general design of the use of chalybeats , these nitrous waters are not so effectual , and the more nitrous the worse , by which i mean , the more alkalisat ; which is easily prov'd , by the early precipitation of the black , and the change towards a green , which is the effect of alkalys with ink , though at first they change the blew black into a purple . the characteristick notes of these waters , beside the weight , are , to drop the inky colour they receive with gall , to take a high colour with lignum nephriticum , and when the water has stood to be effete , it will not precipitate silver out of spirit of nitre . i have not found any of this kind so fully nitrous or alkalisat , as to trouble a solution of sublimate , much less to precipitate it yellow , ( both which indeed are inconsistent with vitriols ) nor any that bear a salt of the nature of saltpetre . a water in a field adjoyning to the right honourable the earl of manchester's place , at leez in essex . this spring is in a gravel , and is so small as to be considerable , only in that it is in a breeding pond . this water disturbs not a solution of sublimate in fair water , it render'd milky a solution of sal saturni , by which it distinguish'd it self from saltpetre , but yet not much more than saltpetres second salt does . with lignum nephriticum it gave a pale yellow and not fine , exactly the colour of small beer , which at four days end precipitated so as to leave just the top of the liquor clear . the water kept till it had lost its spirit , and with that its power of striking black with gall ( which was hours ) essay'd with gall , was thick and dirty white , which precipitated in the former experiment , shewing an affinity with common salt , in this with nitrous . it is much of the weight of common water , and takes a blew black with galls . the water at witham in essex , in sir edward southcot's ground . with gall a deep purple turning to ink , not very clear ; and with lignum nephriticum a faint dull reddish . i judged this to have more of the nature of the salt of common water , and that the spirit of this water to be a little finer than the other sort , which give a direct black with gall , because distill'd acids give this red. the red that alkalys give turns greenish upon standing , these waters are all inclin'd to the same . the chalybeat water of knarsborough in yorkshire . knarsborough water , as dr. french relates , is of a vitrioline taste and odour ; the water riseth in a moorish boggy ground ( within less than half a mile from which , there is no considerable ascent ) and springeth directly up from the sandy bottom . it is of the same weight with common spring water : the colour with syrup of violets is much the same as in the chalybeat waters at islington and hamstead ; not so intense as in tunbridge or the german spa , as the learned dr. tancred robinson , my informer , prov'd it at the spring . and as this colour is not so deep as that made by vitriols , so the residuous dark colour'd earth , after evaporation , was insipid . the pitch of the volatility of the spirituous part of this water is observable , in that it tinctur'd with powder of galls at two days end , and suffer'd not by warming , yet lost that quality wholly in distilling . neither does this water coagulate milk : the redness that this water takes with galls , is effected by spirituous or distill'd acids , unmix'd with gross salt , of the soyle of a forreign nature , which would disturb the colour ; and the larger proportion of the acid to the steel , or the very small quantity of the last may effect it . but the quantity of the acid spirit must be judg'd here to be considerable . for the nature of the acidity , i have before distinguish'd it by the effects , and so need here only observe it to be vitrioline , or of the nature of spirit of vitriol ; which is essential to the precipitations . marks-hall water in essex . this water joyning another in crusts , as do the rest , it is much the same with the preceding , containing little steel , but a large share of an acid not so fugitive , as where it is in less quantity or ill coupled with a salt : it gave a bright red a very little purplish , not so deep as the preceding . the colour it advanc'd with gall , it lost again two days after , without precipitation of any ferrugineous parts , in which it differs from other chalybeats . it rendred a solution of sal saturni troubled , but not very milky , much as the rest ; and it tinctur'd a high yellow with lignum nephriticum as do nitres , and a little clouded : it weigh'd likewise as the other , just the weight of common water . ilmington water in warwickshire . this water of ilmington being of the same heavy kind , and which ( as i observe above ) require less accuracy , i shall give the examination of it , out of dr. derham's account of it : with syrup of violets it turned green ; with galls purple , like martial vitrioline waters : it exceeded common water in weight near half a dram in a pint , being weigh'd in a dry season . indeed it is much the heaviest of this kind in england , ( for it purges not as he informs us p. . but by urine . ) however , that it cannot vie with the lighter chalybeats in virtue , i shall explain in treating of their virtues . the water in an open bottle drop'd its ocre , and with that its power of tinging with galls in twelve hours time ( that is ) a great part of it , which it did not begin to do in a bottle well stop'd under a fortnight , p. . it yielded a salt of an irregular shape , upon the residue after distilling acid spirits , wrought with great effervescence , and not alkalysat , p. . the salt was pale , and would not flagrate , p. . nor coagulate milk , p. . the earth like red ocar , and is contain'd in great quantity , a quart yielding near a spoonsul . it appears hence , that the salt of this water is of an alkalisat nature , and that it differs from the salt of fat , mellow or loamy earths , which purge , as we shall find in the latter part of this history . aylesham water in the county of norfolk . this water is in a gravel , it has prevail'd in fame and resort over oulton water in the same county , which is a lighter and far more effectual water , partly from the more convenient situation of the place , and partly from the wrong estimate that is made of chalybeat waters , by those that jndge of their goodness by the depth of their tinging with galls . it is heavier a little than ordinary gravel water ; with galls or oken leaves takes a blew black , and makes a direct ink ; as do those waters whose salt has somewhat of the nature of common salt. that the metalline parts of these waters are purely chalybeat , i inform'd my self not in all but in some , as that at leez , and some other smaller ones , by exposing to the air the subsident okar , lightly calcin'd with sea-salt , which would discover copper if any were in it ; and besides by the colour they give upon tryals with gall , the blew black colour being proper to vitriol of iron . the lesser springs of this kind are very numerous , in gravelly countries scarce a village without one ; upon the preceding instances of them , i shall make observation of their differences , and the classes they must be reduc'd into , whereinto yet i did not adventure to digest them , lest in the sense of others the difference should appear only gradual . these weighty waters are either , . the more pure and simple acidulae , which bear less of the steel ; retain their acidity longer , and have not their colour with gall dark or disturb●d , as the other sort , nor contain any salt collectible ; of this sort seems knaresborough , and ( which is yet the higher of this kind ) marks hall water , which gives a thin and bright red with gall , scarce beyond a rasberry , and loseeh its quality of tinging without precipitation of okar , is of a pleasing acid taste , as it were winy , and yet gives not the proof with lignum nephriticum that vitriols do , or spirit of salt , but thickish reddish and cloudy , as the seminitrous salt shot in cellars . or ly atramentous , which give a full black with gall , and with respect to the colour they give , they are either blewish or reddish ; the reddish , as that at wittham , kept a week , will be thickish and turbid with gall , but disturb not a solution of fine silver in spirit of nitre , which the leez water ( which gives a blew black ) being more related to common salt , did in a great measure precipitate . another difference that is considerable in these waters , is the bulk or quantity of salt they contain , as the illmington water proves , which is not only much heavier than other waters , but varies in its effects , and equally to the grossness of the salt , neither reaches the recesses of nature so far , nor passes so well . to obviate some objections , i shall observe , that the reason why these waters , which are equally with the other sort capacitated to precipitate the earthly parts out of gravelly water , are not likewise equally qualified with lightness by the same vitrioline spirit , is , because the salt of these waters is so far vitrioline , as to be apt to joyn a chalybeat acid and consist with it ; but yet to be separated by heat ; and is in some small measure of nature , the same with that which is an ingredient in vitriols ; for the liquor of vitriols , if boyl'd with too great a fire , will precipitate their ferrugineous parts , which the boylers cure by adding more iron to it : and these waters , after they have drop'd the okar , and cease to tinge galls , with iron will become atramentous again , the first alteration being chiefly perform'd by the mortification of the esurine salt by the nitrous : for besides the argument drawn from the not abiding of the steel in these waters , the nitrous nature of the salt is conspicuous in its high colour it takes with lignum nephriticum which vitriols give not ; nor do the light chalybeat waters , that proceed from a ground where the soyl is fat and bituminous , as i observ'd that at felstead to be , and which yields little or no salt. of the waters that are light and purely chalybeat . i have clear'd the reason of the lightness of these waters , and with that have asserted the nature of the spirit to be vitrioline ; since all those waters are found to be so , where these incrustations are found . and as the weighty waters take a full high yellow tincture from lignum nephriticum , so this light sort take no slain with the same wood , but retain their colour , only disturb'd with a light white cloud flying in it . lignum nephriticum makes no alteration in a solution of vitriol , nor in water sharpened with oyl of vitriol . these waters do not well conserve their virtue two hours , which yet will scarce be lost in ten days , if headed with oyl . they all give a purplish red with galls , which , upon standing a while , turns to a purplish black. tunbridge water in kent . this water gives a deep green , with syrup of violets , as vitriols do ; and in the quantity of about seven ounces and a quarter , weigh'd ten grains lighter than a river-water near me , ( which was lighter than spring-water ) and as much lighter than rain-water , and about four grains lighter than the german spaw , to which it is preferable on that account . the ground above and about this spring , is a cemented rock ; and the spring is large , of long use , and much celebrated and frequented . wellenborow vvater in northampton-shire . this water weigh'd at the spring eighteen grains lighter than common water , in a quantity of about twelve ounces ; with a few drops of tincture of logwood , gave a black ; with syrup of violets , a deep green ; with syrup of cloves , blackish ; with galls a violet . islington vvater . this water , as the rest , makes no alteration in a solution of sublimate , and with sal saturni dissolv'd in fair water became milky a little , and a little curdled , and not clear as with a saltpetre ; with lignum nephriticum it remain'd pale , but clouded a little with a thickish dusky white , near a rain-water , and weigh'd two grains lighter than tunbridge water in the same quantity , which i thought might be owing to the difference of the season . felstead vvater in essex . this water lies in a moor , the bottom whereof is a cemented rock , the earth where the spring rises , is fat and bituminous , or unctuous and very ferrugineous , no incrustation in the boggy hole where the water stands , but the water that passes through the meadow begins to incrust as it touches this ground : it is of the same weight exactly with tunbridge , it becomes milky with a solution of sal saturni , and with lignum nephriticum suffer'd no stain , but only a milky cloud swimming in it . this is but a small spring , scarce more than a land-drain . of the virtues of the chalybeat vvaters . the virtues of steel are so very great and large , and in many cases so contrary , as not to be explain'd by what are grosly call'd the first , second or third qualities ; but to help us to a notion of them , we must consider the essence of this mineral in its affections , that are apparent . and thus we may conceive of it , as a hard body of the mineral kingdom , and so qualifi'd with firmness , which is apt to enrich the blood , being easily convertible into fat or sulphur , the nature of whose sulphur , is to preserve fluid bodies , and the temper of whose acid spirit , is such as raises , and yet restrains or rather adjusts the fermentation of our stomach , soluble , friendly to our nature , and some-how correspondent to the mechanism of the air we live in by its magnetism ; and then we may intelligibly add the more simple , and other evident qualities , as cooling , potential heat , drying , balsamick or healing quality , &c. which i shall take notice of under these heads , in these waters . . they invigorate the blood and juyces as a chalybeat . . they astringe . . they incide and attenuate by their acidity . . the acidity is connatural , and agreeable to the ferment of the stomach , and other offices , which these waters promote . . on the same account , and partly in that it is sulphurous , it is a fraenum , or curb , to fermentations and flatulencies , and performs more effectually what oxycrate does in the vapours in women , and spirit of sulphur or vitriol in men , whence the acid seems adjusted to the temper of our bodies , which can preserve the just fermentations , as it destroys or reduces exorbitant ones . . they depurate the juyces of forreign or grosser parts , lodg'd with the nourishment in the body , as is evident in the stone ; which is but the same thing which they effect in gravelly waters at their springs . . the acid being spirituous , passes where other medicines cannot , and so are diuretick and exterminate , and discharge the offensive matter by urine ; and the rest it volatilizes . . the vehicle of this mineral and spirit , is not apt to elasticity or fermentation . and on the account of these qualifications , the chalybeat waters warm , strengthen , heal , open obstructions , absterge , invigorate , and thus are capacitated to stop fluxes of all sorts , and remove many diseases , among which the stone and affectio hypochondriaca stand at the head. but although all the sorts of chalybeat waters have some qualifications in common , as to invigorate the blood , and cleanse the viscera ; yet as they differ in their salt , so likewise in their virtues ; which i shall particularly treat of . the virtues of the acidulae . which name i would make proper to those waters that are lightly chalybeat . these have a fine acidity , not collectible into a salt , the residue upon distilling , being an insipid ferrugineous earth ; and as i said before , give only a claret red with gall. that which is proper to this sort of the chalybeat waters , is , that they are free of any gross salt , and have plenty of a vitrioline acid , with little of the body of the steel , and that acid more fix'd than in the light chalybeats . in order to understand the benefit of this , i shall observe that there are cases that require a water so qualifi'd , either on the score of the distemper , or constitution of the patient , such as we commonly call complexion ; in which a quantity of steel may do more harm , than the vitrioline spirit can do good . and this must be allow'd me , to be in all cases and persons , where the blood offends in quantity , floridness and fluxilness , by every one that observes the power steel has to heat and invigorate the blood in the chlorosis . and when i consider the opposite nature of chalybeat acids , and nitrous salts , as i observed before , i fansie i have a clear reason for all this . one case that the body of steel agrees not in , is that indisposition of fresh-colour'd florid-complexion'd persons , about the last grand climacterick , as i call that of , who are liable to fluxes of blood , or great tumultuations of it . it is very easie to discover the alkalisat state of the blood in aged persons , by only tasting the urine , which in those grows almost caustick . the diseases that this sort of water is a peculiar in , are apoplexies , phrensies and fluxes of blood ; and because the first of these is a distemper that has strangely rag'd of late , and extraordinarily this last winter , beyond what has been observ'd perhaps ever before , to explain the reason of it , so much as to give light to the effect of these waters , may be no unacceptable a digression . of the apoplexy . the reason of an apoplexy , and the cause of so sudden a deprivation of life , that great judge , the prince of physicians , hippocrates , resolves into a stagnation or station of the blood , whereby all motion and action of the spirits is taken away ; understanding the blood to be spirituous , and as not only supplying matter to the animal spirits , but continually cherishing and preserving them in their natural disposition . and he supposes this station of the blood in an apoplexy , to be in the vessels of the neck and breast chiefly , and that its motion is stop'd either by sharp humours , or a plethora , or an afflux of cold humours ; the last of which he makes not so sudden . the sense of the greeks and the arabians , i shall give in the words of avicenna , transcrib'd out of joh. jacob. wepferus . apoplexia reddit membra sensa & motu carentia , propter angustiam afficientem ventriculos ( seu medium & imum ; utrumque enim vocabulum arabicum significat ) cerebri , & canales spiritus sensitivi & moventis . et paulo inferius : angusta haec fit vel propter compressionem seu incubationem , vel repletionem , compressio autem , fit , si corripiatur eo quod ipsum , sc. cerebrum vel dolore afficit , vel laedit , seu molestia aliqua vexat , vel contrahit , seu constringit , sive sit qualitas ei adjuncta affixave celeriter spissans medicamentorum , sive frigus vehemens . repletio autem est vel cum tumore , vel sine tumore . repletio cum tumore est , si contineatur illic materia , occludatque partini extensione , partim repletione . haecque est ex speciebus apoplexiae gravissimae ac ejusdem notae , sive illa , sc. repletio à materia calida , sive frigida eveniat . quae est sine tumore , contingit vel à superfluitate in ipso cerebro , aut cavitatibus ejus , aut in propinquis canalibus spirituum ex cerebro ; estque haec superfluitas humor sanguineus subito in ventriculos effusus , aut humor phlegmaticus , atque haec , superfluitas nempe , est frequentior & potior : vel accidit in canalibus spirituum ad cerebrum , dum interdum venae & arteria ex vehementi repletione & abundantia sanguinis obstruuntur , nec spiritus , sc. vitalis , transitum habet , noc cunctatur , seu cessat indignari , seu turgere & effervescere : acciditque hoc , quod in ligatura arteriarum duarum carotidum , seu soporalium , cum amissione sensus & motus , contingit , & quando 〈◊〉 simile obtingit a causa primitiva , seu interna , effectum eundem producit . the physicians for many ages since then , in an apoplexy , accus'd only the straightness and coarctation of the ventricles of the brain , distorting the sense of the ancients , and cherish'd their opinion with the fancy , that the use of the ventricles , was either to generate , or collect and distribute the animal spirits . but after that the varolian method in cutting the brain began to be practis'd , the ventricles were discharg'd from these uses , by platerus , bauhi●● ▪ spigelius , and others ; but most happily by d. caspar hoffmannus , and had assign'd to them only the office of receptacles of the excrements . against him , the former uses of them , the famous anatomist joh. riolanus fil . endeavour'd to maintain : the ground that his argument proceeds upon is , that the animal spirit is made out of the vital , and that this is deduced by the carotid arteries to the basis of the brain ; and then that the ventricles are aptly situate to this end , to receive and conveigh the spirits into the fourth ventricle as a cistern , that thence they may be distributed into the nerves . and so he carries it on , at nervorum septem conjugationes propagantur ab illis eminentiis quat ●●r , quarum duae majores formant clauduntque latera ventriculorum anteriorum ; aliae duae constituunt latera quarti ventriculi , cujus tectum partesque anticas & posticas efformat duplex scolicoidis apophysis . and for the conveyance of the blood thither , a reti mirabili numerosam sobolem ramorum arteriosorum , undequaque per durum matrem spargi , qui sanguinem suum depo●ant in sinum tertium : ab eo sinu depromi innumeros rivulos , qui sparsi per exteriores anfractus cerebri , roris instar , destillent sanguinem arteriosum superne deorsum : praeterea per torcular , venam magnam galeni , seu sinum quartum sanguinem & spiritus ad ventriculos deduci . but all this with a violent strain to reason and anatomical truth , much indistinctness and inconsistency with himself ; what means the destilling of the blood , the sponginess of the eminencies that conveigh the spirits to the nerves ? the spirits sometimes confin'd to the ventricles ; sometimes diffus'd to the whole brain . what else is his allowing the ventricles to receive the excrementitious moisture , which he had separated for a nobler use ; his deriving the blood into the plexus choroideus , from the sinus quartus , with the pernicious consequence that would attend it if it were so . with other slips of like nature , et quie praeterea spirituum animalium opifex esset in corpore , ex minutissi●is venulis & arteriolis tenuissima membrana & exiguis glandulis composito ? vnde suppeteret mattria ? qua via distribuetur spiritus in nervos null● modo ipsi continuous , quibus sedibus includetur , ubi necessarium , huc illucve depromendus ? but of the office of the ventricles , and seat of animal spirits , we receive better information from ho●●mannus , who against him argues . . ibi fit spiritus ubi actio . at vero in corpore fit . corpus enim agit non accidens . . spiritus si agere debet , oportet sub imperit anim● maneat , sc. in vasis . . ventriculi cinguntur interius pia matre . . ab exitu spirituum in palatum . . ventriculos cum nervis non esse continuos , sed cum corpore . . ventriculos habere aliud officium & incongr●um . the arguments are fairly laid down at large in wepferus ; and are nevertheless valid ; though i see no reason altogether to be satisfied in the uses here and generally assign'd the ventricles , since as it is observ'd by that curious anatomist dr. ridley , no water can be express'd from the glandula pituitaria , nor has it any aperture discoverable into the palate , which confirms this , that he never found water in the infundibulum , either in the sound or unsound . for besides that , there is a parity in the reasons of the use of them by him assign'd , or that well can be assign'd , the vesicae found in the ventricles of vertiginous cattle , and the great quantity of water , in puero integrè mentis munia obeunte , mention'd by tulpius , and cited by the foresaid author , evacuate the nobility of their office. and galen , whose notion in this matter is not consistent , yet relates , adolescentem smyrnensem ad alterutrum ventriculorum usque vulneratum , semet oculato teste , superstitem permansissie . and again observes , in soporibus & epilepsia ventres magis , corpus cerebri minus affici solet ; in apoplexia vero corpus magis . and this easie to be clear'd in the formation of brains of brutes . wepferus , by the help of dissections , detects the seat of this disease in the brain it self , considering the whole compage in contradistinction only to the ventricles , and asserts a true apoplexy to be generated , ab effuxu spirituum totali ad instrumenta sensus & motus praepedito , quod fiet ob principii omnium nervorum vel obstructionem vel compressionem subito factam , unde denegatis spiritibus animalibus , quamvis abundent ●●●les , apoplexia sequitur . and this stoppage , according to him , may be either at the pores of the medulla that admit the arteries , or are open to them ; or those through which they are distributed into the nerves . this hypothesis labours under many difficulties , suggested both from reason and experience ; for as it is necessary that the seat of the animal spirits should be exempt from any forreign intrusion , so nature seems to have secur'd it , like the palace of princes , by previous passes . neither does the brain appear lyable to the inconveniencies that other secretory glands are from their own acidity , or admission of less prepar'd or grosser juyces , which procure their obstructions . and accordingly we do not find , that a colluvies of serum , or a scrumous brain to have induc'd this distemper : and even in that plainer case , which is allow'd , where an apoplexy proceeds from a plethora , and a weakness of the brain , i have always found some farther explication necessary ; as to account why so sudden , why not in all ages and seasons , and the like . and on the other hand , that the brain cannot want a sufficient afflux of blood , nature , as in other parts , so here , hath made provision , as by anatomy appears . our great dr. willis hath in my judgment clear'd this point , by two instances , one of an obstructed artery , without an impediment to the course , or at least a sufficient afflux of the blood ; the other of an apoplexy , without any appearance of obstruction or disorder in the brain : and more closely tr●cing the seat of this distemper to the origin● of sense and motion , hath fix'd it in the medit●llium cerebri . and besides that , there is the spring of life , there is good reason to excuse the cortical part , since instances are frequent , in authors unquestionable , of portions of it taken out at wounds of the head , without any pernicious consequence . and therefore whereas dr. cole is pleas'd to suppose , that the seat of the distemper , as where the cause that influentially occasions the defection of natures due actings first fixes it self ; i do not see it essential to this distemper , to be an affection of this part ; but with deference to that very learned and excellent physician , must observe that the enemy sometimes escapes this secretion , without leaving any marks of its footing ; and therefore am inclin'd with dr. willis to place it in aut prope cerebri meditullium , upon the entrance of which it exerts its power . but if he pleases to consider the cortical part as it is secretory , and as it is first affected in a gradual or habitual apoplexy , i think that must be allow'd . dr. willis then proceeds to induce a profligation of the spirits , to solve the sudden and light assault of this distemper . an apoplexy he distinguisheth into accidental and habitual , which he considers sine procatarxi , or with an antecedent cause . the causa conjuncta & proxima aut est magna solutio continui alicubi intra aut prope cerebri meditullium contingens , propter quam , poris obstructis aut compressis , emanatio omnis supprimitur , vel est ingens as subita spirituum in cerebro degentium profligatio aut extinctio . [ another species that may be temporary , he supposes an affection of the cerebellum . ] the solutio continui is either from blood , an aposthem , or ly , a serous colluvies . the reason of an extemporaneous apoplexy , he assigns in the conjunct causae , in paroxysmo materiam congestam in ambitu cerebri prius aggestam & dispersam demum in meditullium ejus d●scendre , ibidemque spiritus omnes adoriri & in ipso emanationis suae fonte supprimere & prosternere , et si non plane constat , utrum illud efficiat aut medullae poros tantum infarciendo , aut spiritus istos profligando iisque narcosin infligendo , verisimile utroque modo . his procatarctic . sanguis in vitio vel cerebrum in crasi imbecillum & secundum poros & meatus ejus laxum & solutum nimis , materiam morbificam absque repudio admittit . that happy author , the above-mentioned dr. cole , in his treatise occasion'd by the late frequency of apoplexies , by his inquiry into the materiae morbificae indoles , hath not a little illustrated the cause of this distemper . his sense , as i understand it , is this , from observation made of the weekly bills of mortality , he dates the aera of their increase from . upon which substratum he naturally deduces the cause of this distemper from cold , and observes that to account for it very well . in order to the understanding the nature of cold , he reduces the notion of it to these considerations . . that sensible qualities , though they are not among the general affections of matter , as motion , rest , bulk , figure , &c. yet are consequent to it , but determin'd by these , and associated to somewhat that has perception . . as cold makes an impression on our sensories , so it requires motion ; and it is not motion simply , but consider'd with some adjunct , viz. motion in such or such a degree , and with relation to sensitive beings that constitutes heat . . the transmission of these impressions to the soul , requires a motion in our organs , but such a one as may keep up a due crasis in both the fluid and consistent substances , that make up the organ for the performing the functions appointed . . that these congenial motions seem not properly objects of our perception , but rather instruments of transmission of those others from without , which recede from these degrees , or are otherwise circumstantiated : though these deflecting from their due proportion , may , by affecting the soul differently from what they use to do , excite her to take notice of them too . . that these mean motions are to us a standard of all others . from all which , our author deduces cold to be a check of that degree , which belongs to the parts of , and fluid substances in our sensories of touching ; and heat to be an acceleration ; and the bulk and figure of the bodies that cause either to be considerable . the retardation which makes the nature of cold , may be occasion'd by increase of bulk and change of figure , by adhesion . by altering the due contexture of the vessels . . if the affecting bodies be of such a figure and texture as to be flexible . . by interposing they may fill the spaces , and may be the present case . now as conical or pyramidal figures solve this phaenomenon best , so he gives the nitrous parts of the air those figures , from des carte's notion , and lewenhook's microscopical autopsy . to enquire how our bodies and brain are affected by these , he observes the air to affect as liquors . . the blood , into which it is admitted by the stomach , by the lungs and pores of the skin ; and on which it operates partly by the insinuation of its elastical and other irregular particles , partly by the interposition as well as lancination of the nitrous ra●ous parts , which promotes the comminution of it , whereby the crasis of it may be alter'd , if such air be admitted as shall over-check this agitation . . the nervous juyce , which he supposes lyable to impressions , in some degree analogous to what are made on the blood from substances mix'd with it . he supposeth some of the admitted substances of the air may be deposited into the nerves at their original ; or that it must communicate with the blood , in receiving some of the viscous parts produced in it by the air ; and that some more subtile particles must be admitted through the pores . to which the same worthy author adds , that he conceives them in some due proportion necessary to the due spiritualization of this juyce . again , the solid parts are lyable to the same inconvenience , and to retain them longer . lastly , the brain may be affected not only by the mediation of the blood , but also by the airs affecting the mammillary processes , or the ears , or the extremities of the nerves in all parts of the skin . and this pressure of the air may be unequal , some part of it being mov'd with greater violence , where is greater dilatation , or a part kept warmer : and this injury of air , tenderness and ill digestion , through want of exercise , makes the body obnoxious too . and thus the brain may suffer in that continuity , due confirmation and repletion of its parts , wherein this author supposes the tone of the parts to consist . so that in the author 's own words , as well as sense , the part affected may either be the whole brain , or any considerable part of it , and either the cortical or medullar , but especially ( or at least first ) the cortical , from whence the disaffected matter is transmitted to the parts of it which lye deeper , where the animal spirits principally exert themselves ; the nature of the distemper to consist in the sudden abolition of the due excrasie and distribution of th●● thence ; the immediate cause , most usually ( when unavoidably fatal ) an effusion of blood out of its vessels upon the substance of the brain . though i conceive ( says he ) a bare 〈◊〉 of the arteries there may occasion it , as also may perhaps a congestion of viscous or serous matter , when it comes to a considerable degree , and becomes freshly excited ; or else polypous concretions , or ( if we can suppose it ) any other obstructing matter deposited in it , may at last produce it ; and the pre disposition of the brain to it , to consist usually in the more than ordinary laxity or openness of it . and whatsoever either first causes a congestion of blood , or ly , otherwise so indisposes it , that it cannot readily and duly circulate through its usual vessels in the brain ; or ly , disaffects the brain , whether by weakning its tone , or altering the figures of its passages , or straitning them too much , may occasion apoplexies : and the greater urgency or violence of such antecedent causes , may introduce a greater frequency of them than ordinary . thus i have given the notions of this distemper distinctly , for these reasons ; . it sets the distemper , as we do a picture , in all lights , to try which way we may see it best . and , . as it prepares to the understanding of apoplexies , so in my further inquiry , in many particulars , repetition will be sav'd , and less intelligible parentheses avoided . . we may , by this means , observe the specifick symptoms of this distemper , and what hints they gave these authors . information being not to be gain'd by controversie , i shall not inspect the particulars of these accounts , in which they are not satisfactory , as why , after that frost , and not preceding ones , why the aera should be then fix'd , and yet the increase began long before . why the head should be affected , and not other parts rather ; it being necessary to account for the reason , why air afflicts one part particularly , as we see the fauces and throat at the alps , the lungs at rome . so likewise of the changes of the distempers which are temporary , and many other things ; but shall offer some observations , which i submit to the judgment of the last cited author and others , which , if approv'd , give a more natural account , and may carry on the inquiries ; and they are such as answer two questions or inquiries . . of the reason of the sudden and accidental death . . that may inform us of the indoles of the morbifick matter , and how much is observable in the air that can answer for this . my notion , as to the first of these , is deduced from these considerations . . that the motion of the blood is necessary to life . . that this is owing to respiration . . that respiration is necessary to life . . both motion of the blood , and necessity of respiration , consist in the elasticity of the air. . i observe , that besides the atmospherical air , that is exhausted by a pneumatick engine , there is a finer elastick air or matter contain'd in this atmospheric air , which in an exhausted receiver hindred the parting of the marbles , which is elastick too , the pressure being ad modum , or in proportion to the force that is capable to separate the cohering bodies , and may be surmounted by a force superi●●● to it . . there seems to be a nitre in the air , necessary to maintain and share in produci● the elasticity of the grosser atmosphere , which being consum'd , an animal dies . . there are certain termini & fines of the tenuity and grossness of the air , on this side of which , or beyond , the air becomes 〈◊〉 for the respitation of animals . thus fish that die in an open air , yet are choak'd for want of it , if a pond freeze ; and accordingly are provided with pipes , that strain the 〈◊〉 matter , and are stronger , and not lyable to the inconvenience from the force and weight of the water . and lastly , as the matter drawn is finer , so there is no need of the contraction and opening , or conquassation of the air , to get the matter out they want , which is strain'd by the water . . i observe , that animals which have a crasis of blood , to which less nitre is requisite , as they can be long without food , so can live a considerable time without air , as tortoises , adders , &c. and therefore have membranous lungs , in which no more blood circulates , than is required for their nourishment , and so not the whole blood , as in those that have fleshy lungs . . this elasticity is requisite to life , as it keeps in a springy motion , and so life ceases , either upon a stoppage of the air externally , as in a glass , or internally , as we see is the effect of damps , which by some , and those great men , have , by mistake , been conceiv'd to contain poysonous matter , and to perform it on that account , but the contrary is evident , since in pump-wells the water is wholsome , and a new built house , from the lime and mortar , shall have the same . . on the same reason , animals dye in the exhausted receiver , upon the unbending the spring , by exhaustion . and it is worthy remark , that animals taken out before expiring , are not recover'd by admission of the air , which affects not soon enough the lesser or remoter springyness . acad. del cimento . . that the parts and juyces of animals are elastick , appears to me asserted in the experiments of the honourable mr. boyle . . that air is admitted to the blood , i need no other argument , but that the blood continues to follow upon bleeding . . that the air is not admitted to the brain and nerves , or to any of the specifick juyce of the animal , i argue again from the like reason . from all which i deduce , that an apoplexy is produced by the admission of air , or elastick parts , to the medulla or corpus callosum of the brain and that this air and lethiserous parts are admitted by the mouth , and so by the way of the stomach , appears plainly , in that the fits usually seize immediately upon plentiful feeding . for the glutinous parts of the chyle are a fit vehicle , as being , if ill concocted , flatulent and elastick , as i shall farther demonstrate , when i come to the affectio hypochondriaca . and i must take notice of the consistency of this notion , which is confirm'd by that affection so often passing into this distemper . that this sudden death comes not from the other causes i named , is evident from many reasons , which i have not room here for : the most difficult phoenomenon to be solv'd , that appears to me , is the apoplexy seizing faemellae upon the difficulty of eruption of the catamenia , at the second septenary . to which we can only say , that the plethora is apparent , and the weakness of the brain , though we see not how the brain , and genus nervosum , is concern'd in this , nor know its motion ; for i allow the antecedent causes of a turgid blood , and a weak brain , to have place in this distemper . this my hypothesis , i think , naturally consequent to the just notions of the air and brain , and well accounts for the spuma at the nostrils and mouth , and for the difficulty of breathing , or cessation of respiration attended with an entire pulse , which thus may be carried on , and the main design of respiration cease . this gives the reason of the distention of the lungs in the apoplectick that is mention'd by wepferus , if the elasticity of the internal parts of the lungs , can but be supposed to do the same that the removing of the incumbent atmosphere in an exhausted receiver did on some animals , in which the academy del cimento observ'd the lungs to swell , and to forth at the mouth : and thus we may solve the difficulty observ'd by the ancients , why this distemper affects only the chest or breast . the only thing that we want to be satisfied of is , secondly , what that is in the air that induces this distemper now to be so rise , whence we may come at the indoles materiae morbisicae . and that i may not enter into that vast field , of the cause of seasons , and the like effects , which are taken into the hand of god's particular providence to manage , i shall confine my self to be guided by these few remarks : . that no affections of the air , or qualities in it , depend on any mixture of mineral vapours , because they precipitate immediately ; neither do we find the places where are large eruptions of them , any whit sicklier , or affected , otherwise than other places : and then , all distempers are otherwise solvable . . that the qualities of the air , that affect our bodies , consist not in , nor always with ; those that may be supposed to belong to the grosser air of our atmosphere . i have known animals frequent some years in a hard frost , which would be suppos'd to be pernicious to them ; and not only my self , but that most extraordinary naturalist , and universally great man , and my honoured friend , mr. ray , hath observed , that some years the hardest frost hath not hindred the papilio's from coming out of their chrysitis , which in some mild springs , shall not be found abroad so soon . this is the more fit instance to prove what i say , must be acknowledged by any that have observed the necessity of heat , and how much it contributes to the production of this change. . that there are some qualities in the air always , which are owing to the parts more intimately mix'd with it , than is the nitre , that affects us with cold , and which passeth where the grosser is not admitted . this is observable in the effects it has on liquors , which the managers of them are forced to have recourse to , for the reason of the disposition to ferment , or fret , or incapacity of either , acidity and the like . all which some years , liquors , especially cyder , is propense to , be the weather what it will. . that heat and cold , wetness or dryness of seasons , assist in inflicting a disease , as they may help admit these particles . . that i have observ'd these qualities of the air to be temporary , and the diseases effected by the air to be so too , and that in their continuation and variation they usually observe the direction of both causes , the nature of the humour in succeeding distempers being usually traceable , as the variation of it is likewise accountable . now although i can by no means maintain , that the hypothesis of that learned and ingenious man , agrees with the rise and continuance of this distemper , or is sufficient to explicate it , nor can answer for the non-appearance of the distemper before upon the same occasion . yet that it was a fair offer at the truth , and affords a good hint , is remarkably to be taken notice of , in that this winter , in which more have died apoplectick , and that in the country , than ever was taken notice in man's memory , or deliver'd to have been in any age ; i say that this winter should be , though not the hardest , yet remarkably long , does seem to make the nitrous air a sharer in the cause . but as i except against the explication of this distemper , by bare obstruction or stagnation from cold , as not sufficient , so i come now to inquire , what farther knowledge of this the air will afford us , assisted by the preceding considerations , and to see how they answer here , and how far the footsteps and changes are discoverable . and as truth is not surely to be laid hold on , but when pursued by a natural method , so i wave all hypothesis , and only propose this maxim or rule to direct me , which i take to be too necessary a deduction , to be deem'd a begging of the principle . the air that is productive of a distemper , must produce some other effects in differing or less prepar'd constitutions , and not hit only where it can fully execute ; and the disposition , particles , or qualities of the air may reasonably be inquir'd of these effects , as prints of its footing . the diseases then that have been inflicted by the air this winter , have been feavers [ which i shall say nothing more of , than that the heat was gentle , that they were putrid , and had putrid pains in the sides and limbs , and that they affected the head ] or ulcerating colds , so i name them , being of two sorts , the first violent fluxes of the alvus , and catamenia , the other ophthalmys , which wore off in three weeks time by suppuration . and lastly , the small pox , which appears here a mixture of the preceding distempers , or qualities in the air ; for the air here gives these remarkable dispositions , . to corrode , . to attenuating , whereby the parts seem to pierce to the eyes and bowels . . to flatulency , all which include a tendency to flow . which qualities , as with many reasons i concluded to be nitrous , so vitriols mortified or resisted ; and even those fluxes of the catamenia , which in another reason steel is observ'd to raise and increase , submitted only to the force of the same mineral ; which i was directed to by some further observation of the air , which is too long for this discourse : though the increase of some fluxes of this kind , upon the taking sal prunellae , which usually gives a present check , is enough to advance such a hint . the last year , viz. . entred attended with a particular sort of colds , that induc'd an irregular feaverishness ; with milinary pimples spreading upon some particular places of the body , so close and so small , as to resemble a stain of claret or other scarlet liquor ; which superceded by tumour of other parts , and sickness , in some prov'd mortal . at the same time another distemper was found invading , though sparsim only , which began about the michaelmas preceding , and continued to the middle of the last year , which first invaded the patient with want of rest only , and unaptness of the brain for it , wherein the patient that was entirely well up , and had no complaint , but upon lying down and disposure to slumber , was sensible of such distraction and uneasiness of the head , as oblig'd him to fly up immediately . this distemper continuing , brought a cough without raising , and a sort of an icteritia , with shortness of breath , and frequent and sudden apprehensions of a deliquium . the year enter'd with the same sort of colds , and with the spring brought epileptick distempers , which wore off with scabbiness ; and many people , young and old , were surpriz'd with vertigo's ; and others with tumours in the throats , and corroding ulcers , curable by astringents only that were vitrioline . in deliriums were frequent . in feavers that seem'd to have their seat in the glands , and were attended with great acidity of the saliva or liquor of the tonsillae . and from three years before reign'd nervous rheumatisms , a distemper very unusual , from the acuteness of the pain ; the mortal consequence of them , and the puffiness of the tumours , very remarkable : this disease hath continued hitherto , but abating . i engage not my self to solve or account for all these changes of diseases , or the reason of them ; it is sufficient that none of these cases were attended with any apparent feaver , the matter was in all seated in the membranes , the part affected in all was puffy , the distempers frequently chang'd one into another , affected the head and nerves , cur'd by the same means , which were vitriolick , and were admitted by a wet constitution of the air. so without making inquiry into the origine and commencement of this disposition , and reason of it , it is sufficient that i illustrate the seat and nature of this distemper , and i think i must be allow'd that these diseases proceeded from the same common cause and humour , and were transferrible into each other , and have liberty to conclude first , that this peccant humour was seated in the membranes . . that it was flatulent , and had a flatulent acidity . . that the matter was nitrous . neither think i my self oblig●d , to account for the determination of the seat of this humour , or the reason of taking cold , but shall from the evident causes , matter and seat of it , inferr , that an apoplexy is a sudden deprivation of life , by admission of airy elastick parts into the caudex cerebri , together with thick and turgid chyle , and is owing to a corrosive nitrosity and fluor of the blood , and weakness of the vessels , or containing parts of the caudex effected by cold , the way being firs forced in the anterior part of the cortex . i think this a sufficient notion of it as a disease , but contradict not the difference that must be made of apoplexies inflicted by force , as drinking , &c. or gradual ones . having thus fix'd the nature of the distemper , the intentions of cure are drawn from the morbid dispositions , which are , . nitrosity of the blood , which indeed is the reason it is so very florid in apoplexies ; and to this is owing its fluidity . . the weakness of the vessels from cold received by them , and by this i understand a clog of a disabled serum , considering the nature of cold in gross , as separating the juyces , and so mortifying them , as to put them past reduction . . the exorbitancy of chyle , that maintains and conveighs elastick flatulent parts . all which indicate the astriction , and other qualities i observ'd before to be in vitrioline waters , and the requisites that capacitate them for all this , are in full virtue only found in this ●pecies ; where the astriction is strongest , and the quantity of steel not so considerable , as to increase the heat or turgency of the blood , in both which this kind exceed the other two ; though i cannot but judge , that a premission of the thin light sort , may in some cases assist in more effectual preparatory cleansing the brain , and be very properly directed to precede . indeed the hypochondriaca affectio does so often dispose to this distemper , that as it will confirm much this account , so will much recommend this method . it does not belong to this history , to deliver an entire process or method of cure , nor am i so opinionated of my own ability , as to prescribe it to others of my faculty ; yet because this discourse may come into other mens hands , that may judge this digression fruitless , without some improvement of it , i shall , for the sake of the fury and suddenness of this distemper , give some observations of mine , that may help to occurr or prevent it , or assist , at least , in shortning the process , and fit it for an extemporany occasion . and though as cases may much differ , so a plethora sanguinis , colluvies serosa , or viscous phlegm , obstruction of the catamenia , and the like , is to be consulted when they are in the cause ; yet the checking the fury of the blood , as well as clearing the passages to the brain , is best performsd by chalybeats , and to more good effect , than by bleeding , &c. and differ not so much in the cure , as they seem to do in the cause ; and my observations i shall deliver briefly thus . . that for prevention ( besides the removing any known cause or occasion ) the best deobstruents are such as joyn and mix with the matter they are to exterminate ; of this sort is sapo venet , and vrines humane , or perhaps of other animals ; and these to be promoted to the use of chalybeat astringents , where these waters claim their place . only i must mind the reader , that if such a relaxation of the vessels of the brain attend it , as appears by preceding vertiginous warnings , i must after the use of the waters , dismiss the patient to mr. boyle's ens , which in the preceding distempers of the membranes of the brain , i have experienc'd to be most effectual . . as the other method is to prevent and restore , so for the present relief in the assault , emeticks and catharticks usually distinguish themselves : the other general and particular evacuations fall not under my cognizance , writing a system being not my design , yet sternutatories must not escape my reflection , which i have ever observed to hasten the approaching death , to which the nature , as well as the violence of the motion made by sneezing , dispose them ; and are fit only to put the patient past remedy with speed . and as this monition is necessary here , so a due caution about diet , which forbids eating pork , or eggs , 〈◊〉 meat of thick , high and flatulent nourishment , is necessary to be observ'd with respect to prevention . other particulars that regard the constitution of the patient , or predisposition to this distemper that the physician is to judge of , lye not here before me . thus much as to the apoplexy . there are many other distempers , wherein a water of this kind is peculiarly proper to master and remove flatulent and viscous matter , and to curb the turgescence of a florid blood , as in the cephalick disorders of elder women , &c. and that i may not proceed upon suggestions of reason only , i shall recite the virtues of knaresborow water from the observation of dr. french , in his words . this water cools and moistens actually , heats and dries potentially , and according to other qualities , second and third , it cuts , dissolves , attenuates , abstergeth , viscous tartarous humours in the stomach , mesentery , hypochondries , reins , bladder , &c. penetrates , corroborates , astringeth , &c. it allays all acid , gnawing and hot humours , and cures all such symptoms as proceed from thence , as agues , consumptions , quinsies , tumours , imposthumes , ulcers , wounds ; it stops bleeding , the over-flowing of choller , the dissentery , and such like fluxes . it corroborates the brain , nerves , &c. and prevents or cures the apoplexy , epilepsie , palsie , vertigo , inveterate headach , and madness ; and all such symptoms as proceed from the weakness , coldness , heat , dryness or moisture of the same . it corroborates the stomach , and causeth good digestion , consumes crudities , which are the causes of obstructions , and breed ill blood and infirm flesh , or an ill habit of body ; it maketh the fat lean , and the lean fleshy ; cureth and preventeth the cholick and worms . it strengthneth and openeth the lungs , liver , spleen , mesentery , and cureth difficulty of breathing , the asthma , the dropsie , melancholly and fearful passions , hypochondriacal wind and vapours ( offending the head and heart ) which most women and many men are afflicted withall . it doth also upon this account chear the heart , cure and prevent the palpitations and passions thereof , as also all faintings . it purifieth the blood , cures the scurvy , even in those whose teeth are ready to drop out of their heads , by reason of the extremity thereof ; also the foul venereal disease , leprosie , jaundies yellow and black , and for the more perfect effecting of these cures , it doth in many open the haemorrhoids . it provoketh urine , and cureth the suppression , and allays the sharpness thereof ; it diminisheth the stone in the bladder , by dissolving the soft superficial parts thereof , and evacuating that mucous slimy water in which it is involved , and by this means also it prepares it for cutting , for sometimes this stone cannot be felt , by reason of that slimy mucous , which mucous it self doth also sometimes , by its torments , counterfeit the stone , where it is collected in a great quantity , being of an acid tartarous nature . it forceth out from the kidneys and bladder abundance of sand and small stones to a great number , and sometimes such as are as big and as long as long pepper . and as it cures all ulcers and wounds in the body , so especially , and much sooner , in the reins and bladder ; suppressing also the pissing of blood , and the gonorrhaea . it cures the gout , aches , cramp , convulsion in what part of the body soever , and giveth ease therein suddenly . it openeth all obstructions , and suppresseth all manner of over-flowings in women , strengthneth , cureth the mother , maketh the barren fruitful , and is a great preventative against miscarryings , and rectifies most infirmities of the vterus . note , that this water doth not help all parts , cure all these infirmities , after one and the same manner , some being reliev'd by consent , or by removing obstructions of other parts . it is also used by way of insession in griefs of the womb , and by way of injection into that , as also into the bowels and bladder , where all the qualities act immediately upon those parts ; allay the sharp and hot distempers , mitigate the pains thereof , healing and corroborating the same . it may moreover be used by way of fomentation and losson in external wounds , ulcers , itch or scabs , and being drop'd into sore eyes wonderfully cooleth , dryeth and cleareth the same . in a word , if any intentions in a medicinal way , be to be perform'd by allaying distempers , opening obstructions , evacuating superfluous morbifick humours , and corroborating all the parts of the body , those are effected in a very good measure , if not fully and perfectly , by this water . and i my self have seen many of the aforenam'd diseases cured by the help thereof ; and for other cures effected thereby , i have been assur'd by them themselves who receiv'd the benefit , or by others who have been eye-witnesses of the same . thus far dr. french. to the right understanding and due use of all which , i shall observe , that the cure of the foul disease can be suppos'd to be put partial ; unless that distemper be taken in a less strict sense ; and passing the notion of diminishing the stone , which i had rather express by the preventing the increase of its growth , i shall for the fixing experience right , make this remark , which may be usefully apply'd to all the waters , which is , that in some distempers ( as dropsie , convulsions , jaundies and gout ) constant success and entire cure is not to be expected , without regard to the state of the disease , the age and firmness of it , the cause of it , and the distempers complicated with it . thus a dropsie may not submit to this remedy , not only from the firmness of the obstruction , but also from the constitution and laxity of the patient , from the nature of the disease , ( which i have observ'd sometimes to be from a weakness of the membranes , by flatulent matter contain'd in them ) or from the disease inducing it . convulsions here have remedy only adequated to the cause , be it a flatulent putrid matter ( which usually gives the distemper the denomination of worms , from the effect of it , ) or be it from melancholy hypoch . and vapours hysterical : but if seated in the brain , or supervening an ague , or in a cold constitution , i think here can scarce have a proper remedy . so the jaundies i acknowledge have been often cur'd by these waters , and some of the purging ones , when it ow'd its rise to an obstruction of the catamenia , a clog of phlegm , or uncocted chyle , or melancholy , but i must not allow these , or any waters , to cure this disease de essentia . i think this caution necessary to the understanding the proper use of these and all waters , which by the help of this may be distinctly known , and is of the greater importance , since upon many accounts empirical use of these , and all other remedies , is found to be of fatal consequence . the virtues of the atramentous waters . these waters , though they have the same virtues with other chalybeat waters in some degree , and create an appetite , and wash the viscera , yet penetrate not so far , open not obstructions so well , but are apt to raise a heat in the blood , disagreeing to the design'd effect , have not that acidity , nor calm astringence . these inrich the blood , and where that is necessary , and obstructions remote do not contraindicate , may happily be us'd ; and in the stone are competitors with others . agricola concludes these effects , as in common with other vitrioline waters . to cure corroding ulcers , ulcers of the bladder and kidneys , in the mouth , weakness of the nerves , a weak stomach they help : and they may be used internally and externally . but in gout , stone , or in obstruction of the glands , and smaller vessels , are not to be used without danger or inconvenience , so not in hypochondriacal cases . these are valuable in proportion , as they are rich of steel , keep it long , and have little bulk of salt. the virtues of the light chalybeat waters . the extraordinary virtue of this sort consists in , that as the chalybeat principles are in these most clean , so the spirit most thin , and the water both light and thin . and so we have their virtues not only most full here , but somewhat differing : they invigorate the blood without heating , penetrate farther without inconvenience , volatilize , attenuate more , and their acidity goes off without leaving impression behind it preternatural . thus as the heavy waters that contain less of the steel , and whose acidity is of a more fix'd nature , have a peculiarity of astringing without heating ; so this sort are extraordinarily qualify'd for opening obstructions , but seem not to have the same power of astringing in an equal degree : and on this account they do not mortifie a scorbutick , leprous humour or itch so well , nor are so powerful to stop fluxes of blood. i think fit to observe these different effects , which being remark'd , i refer the reader for the reputed virtues of these chalybeats , to the virtues of the knaresborow water . i shall therefore pass on to examine what obstructions they remove , which i shall do , by exhibiting only histories of my own observation ; and from thence further to enlighten the use of them . among the cures of this kind , none is more familiar than that of the stone , by removing the disposition to the generation of it , and restoring a good habit , as well to the whole body , as to the parts immediately concern'd . and although this cure is perform'd by a timely precipitation of the earthy parts out of the latex and juyces of the parts , and restoring their natures ; and so is owing to the qualities that these chalybeat waters seem to enjoy in common ; yet the fineness and penetration of this sort of them , must be allow'd an extraordinary qualification . but the obstructions that i principally intend here , are such as yield to no other remedy , so constantly at least ; and whose fatal consequence gives these waters an inestimable value . of this sort , i reckon first an obstruction of the glands of the mesentery ; wherein , beside the sign of chylous excrements , and rejection of food an hour or two after eating , the patient complains not of want of appetite , discernable feaver , or pain , or other disorder , till feaver , cough , and want of rest ( which last often precedes ) proceed with the emaciation upon the continuance of this disease . of this i have found tunbridge water an effectual remedy , and most canstant , never failing those that i have known to have try'd it , who have been not a few . and the small spring at felstead , i find avail with equal success . an obstruction of the thymus , which discovers it self by pain at the breast , chiefly upon the foods arrival at the place of its seat ; which upon the increase of the tumour of this gland , resists the passing of the food into the stomach , and makes the patient reject it , at least as soon as the oesophagus is a little fill'd , is a disease of equal consequence with the other , and which i have known these waters speedily cure . another disease from glandular obstructions cured by these waters , is the dropsie , a cure of which is taken notice of by mr. boyle ; but the design of these observations , being to form an experience , that may be distinct , clear , and not fallacious , i must add , that the effects of the waters in this distemper , fall not under so single a consideration as in the other , but that there are so many requisites in the cases where these are proper , as make a good judgment necessary in the use of them , and ●orbid the drinking of them without good advice . for although i have reason to believe them to be constantly effectual , timely taken , by those whose constitution was broken by trouble , and perhaps to be the only remedy ; and likewise in a phlegmatick constitution ; yet not only the seasonable and timely taking of them is to be consulted , but a crasis of blood , that needs not invigorating , does sometimes receive damage by them . and this i speak not by rote , but have known some quin faeminae quinquagenariae , florid and lively , that the drinking of these waters have affected with a beginning dropsie , the nature of these waters ( being to invigorate the blood , and produce the catamenia ) was so differing in effect . and in a dropsie that proceeds upon an asthma , in a person of a florid sanguine complexion , either a chalybeat water of greater astringency , as the knaresborow , and that has least steel ; or else a chalybeat that purges , as scarborow water , is much more proper . i proceed to remark next , the like extraordinary effect of these light waters in distempers of the stomach , the pain by which they discover themselves is most exquisite . a painful tumour of many months at the pit of the stomach , and reputed scirrhous , i knew reliev'd and quite remov'd by tunbridge waters . i might instance in other flatulent distentions of the stomach , and question not but they might be used with success in ulcers of the stomach , though in them i have not known these waters made tryal of . but the most common distemper , or rather symptom of the stomach diseased , is known only by the name of pain . it is necessary to distinguish the kinds of this more nicely than is usual , and i shall not inquire here into the particular seats of it , but mind the reader in general , that by the name of this distemper , i understand an affection of the stomach or ventricle , from matter lodg'd in or near it , excepting those affections of it , per consensum , from the head , or in acute diseases ; and so it includes the primary distempers of that region , that produce pain in the ventricle . i fansie a syllabus of all the affections and symptoms of this kind , would be useful , and might be instituted after this manner . though the pit of the stomach has the greatest sense of the pain , yet this pain may be all over the stomach . so an obtuse pain with faintness and sickness , and an hemicrania , signifies a watry vapid state of the blood , as in a chlorosis . the same with sickness attends a full dropsie . a rending pain with weakness , follows great evacuations in weakly bodies , as suckling . shooting to the back , denote the matter to be windy , be it in the cavity or elsewhere , and cholicks vary . to say nothing here of ulcers . moving a rheumatism there fix'd , and increases immediately upon eating . pain moving and fixing in spots , with most exquisite pain , coldness , and convulsive nippings , and working off with a loosness , and coming some six or seven hours after , eating a nervous rheumatism , or rather membranous . this last again increases or assaults upon cold taking , and is sometimes seated in the coats of the stomach , and sometimes in the membranes adjoyning , or both ; so in some i have observ'd it to strike from the stomach in a vein , as they call it , upward , side-ways , or the like ; and not to bear a position of the body that pents it , for the part afflicted always seems pent . an obtuse pain contracting the stomach , such as is usually express'd by knitting , attends hysterick fits. an obtuse pain without this , an obstruction of the catamenia ; or a plethora sanguinis in hot weather chiefly . the ventricle may be affected near its upper orifice at the pit of the stomach only , with a nipping pain , or a knitting pain , attending the hypochondriacal ; and an obtuse pain , with a sense of weight in trouble and melancholly . the sense of pentness accompanies wind , the sense of fullness , water or humour . so i might proceed to soreness , coldness and acuteness , faintness , &c. there are other pains near the stomach , as in the jaundies , about the bottom toward the right side , so in a distemper'd spleen or liver , or pancreas , may be known by their situation . thus judgment is to be made of the proper use of these waters , from the cause or nature of the disease ; and of what means may reasonably be used together with them . for an obstruction of the catamenia may make that remedy necessary that a plethora forbids . a chlorosis in a phlegmatick constitution is better cured with other chaiybeats , and a pain from weakness requires another intention . so that the use of these waters is to be confin'd chiefly to pains convulsive in the melancholy and hypochondriacal , and to other collections of wind or phlegm from any obstructions . and although these chiefly arise from the affectio hypochondriaca ; and so are curable in the general intention , yet greater accuracy is necessary both to the discovery of the distemper , and assigning a remedy , and without which , sure observation can never be made . another disorder of the stomach , is want or loss of appetite , which though it is restor'd by other waters and means , yet not only is more fully recover'd by these , but its cause more perfectly remov'd . but there are other distempers cur'd by these waters , which are less understood , and over which these reign alone . i shall instance in two . the one is a fistula , which though of many years standing , i have known effectually cur'd in six weeks , by the sole drinking of tunbridge water . the other which appear'd to me as extraordinary , was a periodical feaver and cough , which i knew a gentlewoman cur'd of by the same waters , who for many years had never escaped an assault about october , before she was freed by this remedy . obstructions of the pancreas i should have named before . the virtue these have of chearing the spirits , and relieving a heart oppress'd with trouble , or tumultuated with any passions , is as extraordinary as any of the former ; as being indeed the cause and producer of the glandular obstructions , which together with cephalick distempers , as giddiness , pain , &c. come under the affectio hypochondriaca , which therefore i shall consider now distinctly in all its symptoms . the affectio hypochondriaca , has very numerous symptoms , and counterfeits all distempers , and upon continuance brings almost as many . i shall consider the symptoms , and then the reason of them , or seat of it . the signs enumerated by authors are , a flatulent stomach , ill appetite and concoction , vomiting glewy petuitose matter , the stomach flatulent , not well after food ; upon which came a rejection of food by vomiting ; lipothymia , giddiness , turbulent flatus's and cramps , convulsions , tremors , ructus's : aquositates & flatus inter binas tunicas seu membranos mesenterii ; ventriculi dolores vehementes adsunt , qui nonnullis ad dorsum usque procedant , & ab aegris incautisque pro nephriticis hab●antur ; concoctis cibis quiescunt , mox aliis ingestis cibis eodem modo revertuntur , qui interdum jejunos , interdum etiam à caenâ molestant ; & non cessant priusquam aegri evomunt cibos crudos & phlegmata subamara & caleda aut acida ; alvus adstricta ; aestus in hypochondriis ; vrinatenuis ; anxietas ventriculi ; pulsus varii ; cordis palpitatio ; animi deliquium ; pulsatio in sinistro hypochondrio ab intemperie calidâ ; palatum lingua & os exsiccantur ; & sitis levis excitatur ; respiratio difficilis ; dolor quidam & constrictio in pectore persentitur . transit quandoque in melancholiam & epilepsiam , aut apoplexiam abit ; quandoque caeci evadunt ; symptomata paralysi & convulsioni similia ; lassitudo ; cerebrum exsiccant vapores & vigiliae adsunt ; insomnia or vain frightful and distracting dreams suddenly and often disturbing the sleep . night-mare , or sense of oppressing weight ; tension of the hypochondries , but that is a sign , nor constant , nor peculiar to their distemper ; obstruction of the oesophagu● or swallow ; periculum suffocationis conqueru●●tir ; dolor in anteriore parte pectoris ; stupor & dolor formicans nunc in dextro nunc in sinistro ; caligo ; dolor in brachio vel digito hoc vel illo ; sudor frigidus , & de graviori morbo sibi metuunt . and at last the part where the humour lodges has its symptoms , as stomach , spleen , liver , &c. which are then affected most six or seven hours after eating . whence these flatus's proceed , the sense of sennertus is , magis consentaneum est istos flatus contineri in illâ cavitate in sinistro hypochondrio sub diaphragmate ex ventriculi , omenti , coli & viscerum connexu ortâ , & exitum non habente , sed ita conclusâ ut aquam & flatus continere possit . and for the beating in the left hypochondry , says he , ad quam rem faciunt glandulae in mesenterio plurimae & praecipue magna illa , quae in centro ejus primae vasorum distributioni addita est . but the more difficult part of this distemper to understand , is , that it not only affects and distempers the brain , but likewise the mind it self is a sufferer in it ; which it chiefly or first afflicts with fear and despair ; and freeing the passions from the government of reason , makes way to all the extravagant actings , that an abused imagination can give colour to ; and every object receives its weight from the standard of the ruling passion . the extravagant dotages of this kind are numerous in history , and either are ruled by the impressions of the last stage , or age of life , or drown us in the present ; or which is most common , distract between the sense of both ; and make us lose the use of our judgment , if not of our reason . now this distemper is effectually cured in all its symptoms , by these light chalybeat waters , and to inquire into the nature of this distemper , and on what account they do it , may not only be agreeable to enlighten the disease , but teach us the full scope of the virtue of the remedy . if we seek into the cause and seat of this distemper , we may observe it to be induced by despiriting , and may have its original either in the mind , or the body ; and as it naturally is produced in our bodies , i observe , . that it is a flatus , as gross , crude , unconcocted , and vapid . . that the fit usually comes six hours after eating , or as soon as the chyle is digested , and the spirit of it spent . . it is occasion'd by diet , yielding a thick and plentiful nourishment , and flatulent , and by thick fermented liquors as ale. . a working active life that preserves the concoction , and duly forceth on the nourishment , and cleanseth the body , joyn'd with a spare and more simple diet , is little affected with this distemper . . sower belchings , not signs of acid in the body , as is commonly judg'd erroniously , but only the effect of rich liquors despirited , and effete or changed . . the time of its accession is remarkable , which is at the turn of life to its declive , or at years , though may be put off longer in some , but begins then , when the body begins to be despirited , when whereas before we see every thing through the eyes of hope , we now are apt to view with despair . . it joyns hand with the scurvy . . is cured by acids , as spirit of vitriol or sulphur in some measure , and kept off by drinking common water , which is void of fermentation , or elastick turgescence . all which marks inform us , that this distemper is seated in the chyle , which when effete and tumultuating , produceth these effects ; and as it may be discharg'd and slung , may induce more terrible ones in earnest , which as it is moving , it only represents by lighter touches : and as the grand cardo of our life at the climocteric before named , gives opportunity for this insult ; so the strength of these turgid parts of our nourishment , is discernable in other states of life , though the violence is most apparent at the meeting of differing habits . for that all these irregularities are owing to our nourishment , and that we admit our dispositions to passion and vice by our throat , and only then when we take more than is necessary or requir'd by nature , we are taught not only in men where we see the effects of ease and luxury , only when it is in an high degree ; but the power of differing nourishment and manner of living , is most conspicuous in other animals , especially the more tender . these animals that live hard ( that is ) use great labour to get their food ; and that mild and unfermented , are free from three dispositions that domestick animals , as those that dwell near towns , or have opportunity of living easie , are lyable to . the first is , change of colour in coat or feathers . . inconstancy to their mate , and intemperance in passions . the last is , distemperature of body , and lyableness to diseases . no wild animal was ever observ'd by naturalists , to have been seiz'd by those diseases which afflict them when kept ●tame . hens i have seen epileptic , magpyes are often afflicted by the same distemper when housed , but who ever found them fallen in the fields ? the same may be observ'd of other animals , as bull-finches , and many quadrupids , which can scarce bear housing , without peril of some disease or other . which seems to imply , that a distemper'd air can make no impression , but upon a vitiated nourishment . and this gives me a rise to add , that as the efforts of our passions , that are owing to our intemperance , are more silent in other seasons of our life , so it is observable , they have not been distinguish'd by any inquirers into humane nature , through want of well understanding humane nature distinctly , or in its simplicity . and here i find a late excellent author much wanting to himself , in not examining the fountains of idea's , which would have helped him to have uncompounded them , who , might by this means have discern'd practical idea's ; a principle of justice being as difficultly erased , as that of self-preservation . for ( to wave questioning the hypothesis of idea's ) since judgment is made of objects , as they lye in the imagination , it must needs be , that , as on the one hand the undue examination of things may make a notion imperfect , so the strain of imagination by our passions , must render our judgment unjust . and this we see in our grosser passions , as fear , anger , love or aversion , but cannot discern it so well in the lesser emotions of our temper , which seem more quiet , wherein yet it is equally discoverable , that the inequality of our temper sways our judgment , and is often before-hand in the cause , where it appears only in the sequel , and seems to proceed from the determination . indeed we may usually see in any error the stamp of that temper that form'd the argument , or of a rapid and unheedy apprehension , that inform'd the understanding ; so necessary to right thinking and due notions of things is a due temper , by how much our passions have a share in adjusting , if not forming , our idea's . i might here observe the mistake of those that refer the illness of their nature , to the necessity of their make , and how natural the account is , of man's first defection : but to keep close to my subject , i shall only mind , that the debility of our mind , as well as the infirmities of our bodies , is owing to the irregularity of our living , and vice of our nourishment . an instance of this , is the distemper in hand , not only in the distracting fears , and tumultuating passions , that attend it ; and the innumerable delirous fancies that are consequent to it , but in the diseases of the body , as obstructions of the parts before mention'd , with cephalick diseases , as convulsions , epilepises , apoplexies , &c. the last nam'd of which , is so often owing to the pre-disposition of this distemper , as much confirms the account i have before given of it . now although the reason of the hypochondriac affection , as it gives a reason of the effect of these waters , may make this account satisfactory enough ; yet it is farther serviceable , in discovering the cure more clearly and perfectly , and by giving a right notion of it , may assist in setting the understanding to rights , and help those that are afflicted , to make a true judgment of their disturbances , as well as incourage them to a cure. with respect to a cure , we may observe the benefit of exercise , and a moderate diet , without fermented liquors ; and that action and attention are required , to health of body and mind . that action is necessary to due thinking , all studious men may and do observe , and the reason is , that the tumults of the chyle , or stoppages of the vessels by it , are remov'd by the hurry of the blood ; which , together with steadiness of mind , which i call attention , gives our engine its free exercise and working . and as the same thing , that exercise doth with moderate living , is effected artificially by these waters , so the pleasure of an even life , void of these hurries and inconveniencies , recommend a preventional method of this way of living , for its rectitude and generosity , before the flights and extreams of the other , that must seek for remedies to art. and it is to be noted , that as this distemper , in all its symptoms and consequences , is effectually cured by these waters ; and as it is moderated by the foremention'd means , so all that are affected with it , find their error in drinking wine and strong fermented liquors , as an artificial support , by the great sinking of their spirits , if not other symptoms ; likewise about six hours after , and by the increase of the distemper by that means . to which i may add , what may be no small information , and hath not been taken notice of by physicians usually , that the distempers that seize the body at the climactericks , if they be moderated , so as to be kept from making any mortal breach , will usually in two or three years time , depart of themselves upon moderate living . i could give many instances of epilepsies themselves , as well as giddinesses , convulsions , a beginning phthisis , &c. that abated without any means two or three years after . but as this remedy , viz. these waters , relieve variety of diseases , that are induced by the power of distemper'd chyle or nourishment , and weakness of constitution at the cardines of our life or climactericks ; so the observation of this may turn to account , if we consider , that many distempers that are not usually distinguish'd , are of this original : for the enlarging therefore of this benefit , we may observe , that the affectio hypochondriaca , is , in this respect , but a species of distempers , which we may call climacteric or cardinal . for the better understanding of my sense in this matter , i must take notice , that though i cannot admit the receiv'd notion of them fully , either as to their fatality , or superstitious original from numbers , yet that at the septenaries , or near the body , receives its changes , is not to be denied ; and that then many diseases have their original , which may execute not fully till some years after . but although every septenary may be in some sort considerable , yet i judge from experience , that some may be reputed cardinal , and that not from the efficacy of number , which runs the grand climacteric upon . those that i find reason to name cardinal , are those on which our life receives a considerable change of state ; and though the fourteenth year , on this account , cannot be excluded , yet observation of distempers , or mortality , makes me , with respect to diseases , to make or name three grand climactericks , and to fix them on those years , when the body receives its grand alterations in its cuspis and declension , and these are , and . the diseases of the first are hemorrhages and consumptions , which are frequent at that age to enter the constitution , and not to yield to remedies till two or three years after , though the prevention of exulceration render it curable . the distempers of the second are cephalick , nervous and flatulent . those of the third again are phthises , gouts , stone , hemorhagies , rheumatisms , and other inflammations , that proceed from an over alkalisat crasis of the blood , as hot , burning or smarting running pains , and the like . in all which cases these waters may be expected to be highly serviceable , by the same qualifications that capacitate them to relieve the hypochondriacal , viz. by astringing , deobstructing , invigorating , and taking off either the orgasm or degeneracy of the chyle . and i speak not this without some instances that favour it : but from hypochondriacal distempers , i pass on next to ulceration of the kidneys , which i have known cured in more than one by tunbridge waters , which i must make this remark on , that they were women of the last cardinal or grand climacterick . but yet must not this confine the use of these waters to that case only , or forbid their proper use in like ulcers in other ages . thus according to my design , i have recited what i have experienced of their virtues , but i must not pass the cure of periodical annual colds and feavers ( which i mention above ) without this useful observation , that as it is the peccancy of the chyle , or faeces of it , that makes the body obnoxious to the effects of the air , so it may be reasonable to expect the use of the same remedy to be successful in some other distempers that come under this consideration . of some general directions to be observ'd in the vse of the chalybeat waters . the directions that emerge from the nature of the waters , and of the distempers they are used in , vary in some measure with the constitution of the drinker , the state and nature of the distemper , and season they are drank in . and although the choice of the species of water is directed by the distemper , yet nice or infirm and cold constitutions , make exactness necessary in choosing those that have least coldness ; on which account some have found , in the light sort , wellenborow and islington less safe to be drank , or to require more caution , from their ill effects on those that have drank them when out of temper . the season that one would wish to drink these waters in , is a dry time , and summer , the waters being then strongest , and the season favouring their exerting their astringency , and inspiriting qualities ; yet as distempers do not wait always for the conveniency of the remedy , so the waters have been found effectual at all seasons likewise . and the incommode of the season may be help'd , by a glass of somewhat more generous , after the waters are run off , as gentian wine , or the like ; or chalybeat wine in the afternoon , which i have ●ound to be very helpful , where the moisture of the season , or weakness of the constitution made it necessary ; but not to be continued longer than it was so . the difference of the water makes some difference in the rule of drinking , the heavy ones not allowing so long a continuation of drinking , and often admitting , if not requiring , purging , during the course , which six weeks may well determine ; whereas the light sort may safely , and ought to be continued longer , to prevent return of the disease , and establish the constitution : else the chalybeat waters require the same common rule , which is to be observ'd before , in the time of , and after the drinking . before the drinking , that the foulness of the first ways may not be carried farther , and at least clog the remedy , and that nature may be more light and easie , that must be removed , before the drinking of the waters is entred upon . and although it cannot be supposed , that the proper purges for particular cases , can here be consulted , yet that emeticks , in cephalick diseases , are best and fittest to answer all the ends necessary , is an intimation i cannot allow my self to pass . catharticks ought to be doubled at about two days distance , the first to regard the cleansing the first ways , may be by a bole of lenitive electuary , and as much resina jallopii as may quicken it to desire , or pills , or draughts of infusion of sena and rhubarb ; in both which forms , i admire the additions of salts either of wormwood or tartar , that may make them more detersive , and occur any unnatural or exorbitant acid. the latter purgation ought to regard the disease , as lenitive electuary with p. diasenae , and dialtheae , or manna for gravel . in colicks , and where the wind afflicts the bowels , hiera picra . in cephalick distempers , or where there is a disposition to be aguish , gentle emeticks . where wind afflicts the more remote passages , or in the blood , afflicting the muscular parts , infusions of purging ingredients , as sena and rhubarb , with a handful of chamomel flowers , or the weakness of the stomach may require the decotum amarum made purging , or pills of rudii and ruffii mix'd , and two or three drops of oyl of cinnamon . the dropsical succus ebuli in the quantity of cochl . vel is most proper for , in my judgment : in the melancholick constitutions , an infusion of sena and salt of tartar , among others , is one of the first rate : the scurvy , bitter decoctions . the three last diseases , these waters , as other chalybeats , serve , by strengthning , invigorating , and carrying off the offending matter ; and therefore those need a due preparatory course , as is sufficient to bring the blood and vessels into such a state as may be fit for these waters . but yet beginning dropsies , and other obstructions from trouble of mind , admit these waters as the only remedy , and require no course but this general preparation . excepting dropsies , and distempers that are attended with old obstructions , and apoplectick dispositions in phlegmatick brains , i say , setting aside these , the purging waters are the best preparative , washing more universally , and leaving the body in the temper that is most fit ; and sometimes prevents the necessity of these chalybeat waters ; the proprieties of which , will appear in a table at the end of their history . but because pains of the stomach often happen to be so violent , as not to allow the use of these waters ▪ before they are abated , and sometimes require a particular evacuation , it seems incumbent on me , to give some information , how that symptom may be reliev'd : they are usually one of these three sorts , first , a convulsive nipping pain at the pit of the stomach , that holds for some weeks , and soon upon eating is exacerbated : this usually readily gives way , either to an infusion of baccae juniperi in whitewine , or ol. terebinth taken inwardly , the last drops at a time in beer . another is a pain all over the stomach , though sometimes gathering more to one part of it , and is more violent and racking , and goes off with a looseness , being from a congestion of watry matter ; this yields to the common domestick glysters often repeated , and is check'd by ens veneris , and sometimes by chalybeat wine . the pain that attends a chlorosis by ol. caryophyllorum taken in sugar ; if from a depauperate blood , by vinum chalybeatum . phlebotomy here comes under consideration , which , although some asthma's , and other cases , may render it necessary , yet , where not necessary , is to be avoided , as an ill prepara●ivee for drinking of water ; and must be referr'd , together with other preparations in partic●●● distempers , to the judgment of the physician that knows the distemper , and consults the constitution . of drinking i purpose not to prescribe either time or quantity , which vary with the disease and constitution of the drinker ; but only shall note , that as rising gradually ▪ to a full quantity , is required not only by the body , that it may the better bear it , but by the distemper'd part too : so the vessels , that they may be cleansed and strengthned in their own tone and tension , require a gradual decrease . but though the continuation of this remedy must be prescrib'd by the nature of the disease , yet that a caution is necessary , that the drinking them be not left off too soon , appears in that in my own observation , many having suffer'd a relapse , for want of continuing the remedy some time after the cure. and this is so general , that i may peremptorily assert , that less than three months is not generally sufficient to the drinking of them , though they take effect in half the time . it is not convenient to drink these waters too early , nor without some preceding walking to empty the body ; neither is it safe to lye down upon them , especially in cephalick distempers ; nor to allow any business to take place in the thoughts ; on which score the distance of the wells , and the resort , recommends the drinking these waters at their springs . but the most material rule , which the very design of them require , is , that during the course , the drinker use exercise , avoid all flatulent diet , and that of gross and much nourishment , and drink as little fermented liquor as he may . and here especially drinking much wine is to be condemned on a double account , for beside that the inconvenient temper that the wine gives , renders them unfit for drinking the waters the morning following , it opposes the remedy , and renders it ineffectual , by supporting the morbid state ; and for this reason , as generous liquors are not to be omitted at the beginning of the drinking , so they ought wholly to be set aside when the course is well enter'd ; without which , hypochondriacism , which is the most general case , will not admit of any entire conquest . neither is the course of living to be ended with the course of drinking the waters , but that the use of them may be effectual ; a spare diet , and the same abstemious living , with exercise , ought to be continued for two months , in which time the body may be suppos'd to be a little confirm'd . and for the same reason , though some distempers , as stone , jaundies , and melancholy , particularly , may require some other intentions to be satisfied , and so make a course of physick necessary at the same time , yet the use 〈◊〉 the waters is so much the less beneficial , by how much it is disturb'd by purging , or any other medicines , and therefore reason and experience place this means last . but in apoplexies , and some watry distempers , as dropsie and chlorosis , an astringent more potent is very necessary to close and strengthen the parts . the most proper and powerful of this kind . i intimated above , to be the ens veneris of mr. boyle , which , if it succeed , the waters , as the other detersives and purgers , are to precede , make an entire course in the surprizing distemper that i there apply it to ; and in the room of it , i have sometimes used chalybs preparat . with equal success , if the apoplectick symptoms were mild . these waters , as they suffer by warming , so are apt to bring some disorders , especially in an ill season or constitution , as cold , nauseousness , difficulty of urine and giddiness , which are usually provided against by drinking a glass of wine after every three or four glasses of water , for the first few mornings . but because the two last symptoms do sometimes prove more considerably obstinate , i shall take notice , that it is good for those that are obnoxious to cephalick diseases , to provide against the giddiness procur'd by these waters , by chewing of nutmeg , and indeed bisket , or a crust of bread chew'd do the same , the motion of the jaws seeming as necessary as the warming the stomach . and for the stoppage of urine , shall acquaint the drinker , that where it is not occasion'd by the stone , though glysters and purgers may be requir'd sometimes , yet it may soon be remov'd without usually , only ol. terebinth . guttis iij. in umbilicum instillatis : and the same i have known done by a plentiful glass of rhenish . but in all these rules , i must make this reserve for the heavy chalybeat waters , that purging is absolutely necessary during the taking of those , which are not so clean , nor pass so well , and may bind the body too much . i have nothing more to add , but for a conservative of health , to recommend the drinking of tunbridge waters with wine in winter , to the hypochondriacal , which are easier to be had than the german spaw , and are as much better than those , by how much they are lighter , and which , in flasks headed with oyl , will keep well . the natural history of the purging waters of england , with their uses . part ii. the purging waters of england , for their pleasantness , easiness of working ; and extraordinary effects in many distempers have been justly celebrated ; but as their original hath not been yet prov'd , but remains a question among learned men ; so the varieties of their natures , not having been examin'd , have rendred the differences of them unuseful . the due examination of both , i shall therefore propose , with their uses , which we shall find great , and very distinct . the method i shall use , shall be to set apart their principles , and then inquire into them , and then make essays of the waters . in order to this , i shall distinguish their characteristicks and proper signs , and trace their original . and that we may proceed surely , i have examin'd the waters at the wells , and the earths of the several wells , my self , except those that i had as sure a conveniency of inquiring into , by some accurate and unquestion'd friends . the purging quality of these waters then , resides in the salt , which is peculiar to wells that have these qualifications . these purging waters are all found above the dead loam , in a loamy clay , that is the same continued to the foundation , or dead loam . this i have found common to the selenitical waters , as well as others ; and in this loamy clay , the water hath only a level spring : and though the waters , by the surface , may seem to be in a gravel , as those of richmond , yet the earth , as i was there inform'd by those that sunk the well , proves to be a continu'd clay , and without mixture of gravel down to the dead loam . the scarborow waters , by an exception against this , being a running spring , and in a gravel , but the earth of all others , that have had a gravelly surface , proving upon inquiry a loamy clay , as that of richmond , and that near colchester , it is reasonable to allow me it here , where the spring is not lyable to enquiry ; and since in my examination of that spring , i shall prove it a complicated one , of a saline water , as the rest , joyn'd with a chalybeat water , which sort are ever running springs . . a nitre ever appears on the earth , about the springs where it is expos'd to the air , so at scarborow , woodham-ferrys , acton , &c. at epsam it shews it self like a white incrustation ; yet these nitres all differ from the salts contain'd in the waters . . the matter impowering these waters , is a salt , of which they contain a great quantity , some in a dry season , affording near a dram in a pint : the quantities may be collected from the weights of the waters ; and this salt not volatile . . they have universally one common index , that is , a stone , form'd out of , and bearing the face of loam within when broken . at epsam it is more mellow , from the quantity of chalk that that soyle affords ; else it is naturally hard , as i observ'd it in all the other wells , almost to striking of fire with steel . at alford ( my friend inform'd me ) the stone would strike fire , but not strong enough to kindle tinder : this stone is is a sort of pyrites , as the great naturalist , and learned physician , dr. martin lister , rightly names it ; but that being a name of a genus of marcasites , and so too large an appellative , i shall particulary describe this , which is peculiar to this sort of mineral waters . this stone then ( which is found in these wells , at the bottom near the dead loam where the water ooseth ) in outward crust resembles a pibble , and as unform'd , and as differing in bulk , most amounting to the size of a man's head ; and more of them are found bigger than less . it is heavy and very hard ; when broke , it appears coated , with flakes of gypsum , some white , some yellowish , some alabastrine , not exceeding in thickness the eighth of an inch ; and from its breaking , and thready composition , is distinguish'd by naturalists by the name of trichitis . this coat invests some wholly , some are cased here and there only , some this passing into , divides into parcels : the matter or body of these parcels too , differ in hardness , and some in colour , containing iron , either of the natural colour as in most , or rushy , as in richmond ; but most of these stones are pure loam hardned . richmond stone had this peculiar to it , that the stone was invested with gypsum , b●t not divided by it as the rest , and was of a lighter colour , near that of ashes not high burnt . the stone of dulwich again resembled the rest , but had many shining particles appearing , as in marcasites : their differences and different reasons follow by and by in their essays , and will be found agreeable to the account of the waters ; where they will be found to have no essential difference , from any metalline parts or other , besides what the differing nature of their salts import , which from their differing depth , and remoteness from nitre , makes the stone proportionably marcasitical , or vary with the soile : the shining of some of these stones , i referr'd to the marcasitical nature of the juyce , and found the same particles natural to the dead loam , whence this juyce seems to be deriv'd , which seem'd to imply , that the difference of this juyce , consisted not in any accession of mineral parts , but difference of digestion , and the qualities the different region may give it . i observ'd , among my other essays of these stones , that when by fusion with fine glass , i endeavour'd to discover any mineral tincture , though i discover'd not any , yet the dullwich stone in the same fire , and at the same time , pierc'd the vessel it was melted in , which was of tobacco-pipe clay , and made it break smooth and shining like china earth , which the other stones did not effect . the gellying of these stones in 〈◊〉 , to me imported the same , it being the ●●ture of differing marcasites , to form a butter with the same salts ; from which yet these differ'd , in that these afforded it not by sublimation , which i try'd . and from the nature of this juyce , the dullwich water seems to derive the unkindliness of its effects , which bears not drinking with the same freedom as others , being more cold and heavy on the stomach . the further inquiry into the nature of these stones and juyce informing them , and how they have reference to these waters , comes in its place . the harmlesness of this juyce , appears in the epsam stone , which is more lax and open , being not harder than a chalk , which shew'd its original , but not the essence of its purging , to require the unalter'd juyce : that the epsam stone is the same with the other appear'd , in that some parts of it , as well as some parts of the gypseous earth , would gelly in aqua fortis as well as the other ; especially those parts where the selenites shot . else the infusion of this stone gave a green , with syrup of violets , which the others gave not . having thus found the constant mineral qualifications of these wells , and indicia of the waters , it will be satisfactory now , to observe more closely the waters , and in what or how they agree . and these power to be the same in original and nature further , . that the taste is common to the waters , as well the selenitical , or wherein the selenites are form'd , as the other sort which are found in a constant loamy clay and even , and this in all its differences . for the smooth taste of richmond waters , is match'd by the colchester ; the bitterness of epsam , in dullwich , and a little in brentwood-weal . besides there is somewhat of a common taste to all ; so that may assist us in discovering their principles . . the salt , though it differs , some being figur'd , and some not , ( of the latter sort being epsam and acton ) some melting difficultly , some easily , with the heat of a temperate hand , as the salt of the same waters do ; yet it agrees in its nature , between a nitre and a vitriol , joyning with vitriols , and not precipitating them , freedom from any corrosive qualities and temper , in which is a union of acidity and nitre , and working a little both with acids and alkalys , and having these qualities , the same with the salts , they are affine to . . in their virtues , not only in the faculty of purging , but in helping the appetite , allaying hypochondriack flatus , and the like effects which are vitrioline . now the purging wells are of two sorts , the first affording a stone , call'd by naturalists the selenites , which is shot in the clay where the water issues ; and these wells always afford veins of putrid iron , together with the selenites , and some quantities of pleasant acid juyce , like spirit of sulphur or vitriol , in a condens'd coagulated form , or mix'd with the earth , and lying in yellow or ferrugineous veins . thus both at epsam and woodham-ferrys i found it , by examining the wells when new dug . the other sort have no differing face consisting of an uniform loam to the bottom . i shall first give a short view of the proofs , by which we may be sure we are rightly fix'd upon the true ingredients or principles , and then examine their nature , and reason of their production . that the matter which these wells exhibit to our view , are the very principles of the purging salt of these waters , and parcels of the matter , is proved by these following particulars . . the nature of the purging salts varies as these vary , as may be observed by the comparing the essays of the waters , with the tryals of the stones , and by softness of the salt of the selenitical . . the same ingredients and matter found in all , and account for what they differ in , and from the preceding uniformity . . it is not of a deeper original , because where-ever these ingredients are found , there is likewise the purging water ; but beyond these marks , is never any thing found but a dead loam , unpassable to water , and unopen to yield salt : and this is clear in the selenitical water at epsam , where neither water nor selenites are found lower , though attempted some feet lower to enlarge the spring , which proved only common dead loam . . not of a wider derivation , none of the same waters lying in the neighbouring earth , whence these springs may be suspected to descend ; nor any of the indexes of them , nor any metals or mineral bodies . nor indeed are these earths found lying over any mines , constant at least , as these signs are . . another most evident sign , that the principles are here rightly fix'd , is , that the species of these waters which afford the selenites , we have a clear and good account of from all naturalists , to proceed only from a mixture of loam and chalk-stone , and perhaps a little iron ; and never to be found over any mine , but over quarries of chalk or stone . which is a sufficient argument , and the more considerable , in that they never took notice of the purging qualities of the waters . . the signs and qualifications of these wells before recited , are proper to them only . . another argument is to be drawn , from the disposition of this earth to produce a salt , as is seen in its efflorescence . . from the softness of the salt of the selenitical waters , which will be understood and compar'd in the following account . . their innocence , regular variation , and that these principles account for all their phaenomena , prove the salt of these waters to be the genuine and natural product of these principles . to all which add , that the purging and medicinal qualities resides in the salt ; and that the open nature of clays , would discover any mineral or metal concern'd , and not conceal more than we may observe . that we may understand whence , or to what is this salt owing , the original of the salt , and nature both of the earth and juyces concern'd in the production of it , i proceed now to examine the principles . the principles or ingredients that impregnate the purging waters , examin'd . having thus traced the production of this salt , and determin'd it to the earth , through which the wells are sunk , and mineral stone or juyce contain'd in these stones ; we come now to examine these , their nature , and what parts of these enter the composition , or how they are concern'd in the production of this salt. and upon due essays of these earths and stones , we shall find in general an earth rich of salt , chalybeat or ferreous parts , a mineral juyce out of which this salt seems form'd ; and we may observe the salt of the upper soile somewhat concern'd in , and that on the varieties of the two last , the varieties of the waters do depend . and these i shall enquire into , as to their original and nature . the earth in which these wells are , and which yields this salt , is a loamy clay , more mellow , and more of a clay toward the surface , but more loamy toward the bottom . the inner earth is such as our tiles are made of ; at richmond at epsam , they dig both brick and tyle , earth too , as i remember , out of the hill yielding these springs . so i need not describe the earth , it being known that the ponderous close and fat is used for tiles , and the looser for bricks . the colour of these earths vary a little , and though usually brown , yet in some that colour is brightned near a gray . the earth of these springs is sound of these two kinds constantly , either a meer clay of the same face to the bottom , as are the wells where the salt is christalliz'd , or firm and figur'd , or the same clay mix'd with veins of iron , and pleasantly acid juyce , like spirit of vitriol , and interspersed with selenites , which are form'd in it . the wells where they dig , only a pure loamy clay , ever toward the bottom ( which is seldom more than twelve feet , and i think never more than twenty in depth ) receives the water from the sides issuing from between the stones before describ'd ; and nothing besides is observable in these wells . now not only the face and figure of the salt , but its nature likewise , acknowledge this earth as its natural patent , and all is confirm'd in the manner of its production . the form of the salt of the wells , usually resembles the salt shot about them upon the surface of the earth , which at some is in stiriae , at some appears only like a soft mould . the nature of it is middle between a nitre and a vitriol , which agrees well with the earth it is form'd of , nitrous earths requiring slackning in the open air. and the manner of the production of this salt , is fully as agreeable to this account , for it is not only at these wells , that this sort of earth shoots this nitrous efflorescence , but at all other places it is observable , as frequently in ditches , and where-ever it is cast up by the tile makers ; and which is worth a remark , as discovering the reason or manner of its production , it is to be noted ▪ that this efflorescence , appears only where the air is moist or damp , and confin'd . this i observe , not only to account for the production of this salt in subterraneous channels , but also for the difference of the salt of the water , from that shooting on the surface , that the salt of the water is more fusil , and retains more of the acid part of the salt , which is collected in proportion to the closeness , and the moistness or coldness of the place . and as a further illustration and proof of what i assert , i shall give the reader one or two essays of loam taken from common pits for the making of tiles , which prove that this earth contains a salt that may be extracted , and hint the manner of its extraction . for although no loam yields any salt to an infusion of boyling water , yet i found that water sharpened with oyl of vitriol , or common salt , or spirit of salt , would extract a salt ; and which is yet more , that lime water would slacken it , and make it yield one . i shall give the examen of loam , opened by spirit of nitre , and spirit of vitriol . loam water made by infusion of common water , sharpned with spirit of nitre , gave with tincture of logwood , a pale dusky tawny . gall , a faint blewish black , not thick syrup of cloves , a dusky red and palish . sal absynthii , a white curdle , which easily dissolv'd in washing , and left little earth . syrup of violets , a bright red. it differ'd little in taste , from what the spirit of nitre gave . loam water two pounds , with spirit of vitriol two drams , infused a week , had the ma●kish taste of the purging waters . with tincture of logwood , a sooty dusky colour , a little reddish . syrup of cloves , a red not bright . sal absynthii , a white curdle , not easily soluble . syr. of violets , a purplish red. sublimate water , no alteration . loam water made with common salt. with tincture of logwood , a bright red. the salts of these infusions were collected by evaporating . i shall note , that these infusions will detect some ferrugineous parts in loam , and which seem separated in the selenitical earth , rather than added . the salt that these loamy clays yield , as it is of a common origine with that of common earth , or upper soile , so it seems to vary much on that account with the neighbouring earth ; but that this should be so very rich in generating , it must be from the more saline nature of this earth , or from plenty of some menstruum to extract it ; the first may be from the continuation of this earth with the grand matrix , which in others in intercepted by lays of gravel , or the like : the latter may be from juyce , which is in a sort vitrioline : and the closeness of this clay , does much contribute to this collection , as well as the coldness of it . but the nature of this juyce comes next to be examin'd , under the essay of the stones , which are parcels of this loamy earth . the stones then , which are the proper index of these wells , and which , from their nature , are apt to receive mineral or metalline parts , must be supposed to contain part of the ingredients at least of this salt. the stones i prov'd severally from the several wells , whence i took them my self , the hydrostatical weight of which , with some other essays , i shall more conveniently place at the end of this account . i proved them by ustion or roasting , by calcination , by sublimation , by precipitations : by ustion , to separate the salt : by the second , to open the body , and discover mineral or marcasite : the third , 〈◊〉 discover any sulphurous body or steam . lastly , by precipitations , both out of a lixivium , and of the wash'd stone out of aqua fortis : by all which , as well as by fusion with fine glass , the stones prov'd void of any metalline or mineral mixture . but instead of these , their particular nature appear'd , to consist in the juyce or salt of them , saving only a little iron which woodham-ferrys afforded , and which will be found to agree well with the constitution of those waters which are chalybeat . this particular sort of juyce , or salt , appear'd in their forming a jelly with aqua fortis , which would not become liquid under some days standing ; and the parts i prov'd to be in some of the earth at epsam , that lay among the selenites , though the stones by the mixture of chalk did not . this quality not attending loam , suggested somewhat different from that to be concern'd in it ; and knowing that antimony , auripigmentum , and perhaps some other marcasites , with the mixture of some salts whence aqua fortis is made , would yield a butter by distillation ; i essay'd this jelly by sublimation in like vessels , but fail'd of my expectation , and then consider'd that this jelly , not only differ'd in being produc'd without heat or sublimation , but had not the least caustick qualities of the other marcasitick butters , but rather mortify'd the acid spirit . but all these suggestions and doubts 〈◊〉 clear'd to me , by examining the origin●● of this stone , when i understood it to be form'd of a loamy clay ; in conjunction of a vitriolick juyce . for this i was first taught at harwich , where i found the same stones exactly , nothing differing , either in face when broke , or whole and invested with the same gypsum or trichitis , and with the same mixture of iron . these stones there lye plentifully on the shore , and stuck in the bank at the bottom of the cliff , and only at the foot of that spot of the cliff that is a continued loam . this production i refer'd to a vitrioline juyce in conjunction with the loam , because the common coporas stones are plentifully found on that shore , and i observ'd children employ'd there to collect them ; but whereas they lye thick where the cliff is gravelly , where the cliff was loamy , and the shore floor'd with these stones , i found no coporas stones , nor did the children seek there for them , though they pick'd close by it , where the bank begins gravelly . so that these stones seem produc'd in the loam , as the other in the gravel by the same juyce . and since i have understood of several of our diggers for tile-earth , that the coporas stone is only found in those clays that have a gravel mix'd with them . so that at harwich this bed of stones was the foundation of the loamy cliff , where the cliff has been wash'd away or cut : for the harbour or channel there , is artificial , and of no old date , the current having been formerly on the other side of languard fort , which then stood in essex . the not understanding this , made the gentleman in cambden to mention them as petrifactions made by the sea. and from this undoubtedly proceeds that bed of shells that covers the cliff at perhaps fifty feet hight , which must be carried thither at the making of the harbour , or clearing of it , how else could the petrify'd clay bed , which contains the shells , lye a top , and no petrifaction lower , till you come again to the bottom ? i think that they must originally have been the same lay , and that it is inconsistent to suppose otherwise . having thus arriv'd at the origin of the stones , i shall make one farther observation , which is , that these stones yield the same salt in a lixivium , which the waters contain : from all which i conclude , them parcels of the materials , whence these purging waters have their salt , and wherein the particular nature and genius of the concrete juyce is to be had . all this is confirm'd by the nature of the salt of these waters , which being a mean salt , between vitriol and nitre , requires such an earth , and such a place for its production , for lower it had prov'd vitrioline , and superficial nitrous , which , with the difference of the salt keeping pace with the varying of the stone , and with the corresponding nature of the salt , produced in moist cavities , as in cellars , to that sort of it which is soft , as presently appears , confirms fully this account , as agreeable both to reason and experience . of the purging waters wherein the selenites is found . this sort of waters have the same taste with the other , and the like variety in the tasts of the several waters , and purge alike . what they agree in is deliver'd above , i shall therefore now consider their differences , and the difference of the principles , and compare the reason of these , with the nature of the others . these wells , upon inquiry , afford no fresh principles , or mineral ingredients , but what the addition of a calcarious salt produces , which rather affects these waters as a menstruum . i proceed to observe the difference and account for it . these are ever in a loam , but this loam partakes of a lime-stone , this is evedent from all accounts of the selenites ; and at epsam the blew loam lyes in streaks in the hill , and a quarry of chalk limits the town at both ends . to this is owing the laxness of the loam here above the rest , and some differences it shews upon tryals , as its clearness of iron , which salt of chalk and lime precipitat ▪ and where the chalk is not found , as at woodham-ferrys , the water there is chalybeat . the pyrites , or hard stone , is to be found here , but why it is perfect at woodham-ferrys , and more lax at epsam , is owing to the same reason . for those two wells were , what i could examine , being new dug , when i visited them , to view and examine the earth cast out . the differences of the earth of these waters , from the other kind , were common to both these wells . at epsam , the earth cast out of the well ( i mean simps●n's ) near the parcels of selenites , had some tenderer or more brittle earth of several colours , but all near a lemmon colour , or of iron rust . all these upon examination , both with burning , and without , by bare washing , afforded iron which obey'd the loadstone , and a salt , or rather juyce , that was pleasingly acid , and not caustick , but the taste differ'd a little , as the colour differ'd : the lemmon-colour'd was exactly of the taste of spirit of vitriol , without any odd taste ; only note , that this i first burnt ; and the same acidity i discover'd in some white flakes of the stone , without any metalline taste . i shall not be particular in the sublimation of these mineral earths ; inasmuch as all the ways i attempted to try them , discover'd nothing but pure earth besides . at woodham-ferrys , i observ'd the same colour'd earths exactly , and discover'd only iron , and the juyce or salt mix'd with it ; and as at epsam , so here , the earth clear'd of these , was loose and open , and was but common earth , as appear'd by weighing it hydrostatically . the particulars , see in the account of the wells . hence i was apt to think , from the nature of the juyce approaching to that of spirit of vitriol , and upon the slackness of the earth of these wells , that the disposition towards an alkaly of the admix'd earth , had detected and separated these juyces , which seem lock'd up in the loam of the other : but the pureness of the vitrioline juyce in these , make me suspend that opinion ; and , as i intimated before , hence epsam water remains clear with a mixture of galls , whereas the other gives a dark purple . i shall , for clearness sake , inquire now into the origine of the selenites , and determine the species of them these waters belong to , which are a species of the purging kind . for the salt of these waters differ from that of the other , as well as the ingredients , in that the salt here is unfigur'd , soft , and melts in the warmth of a hand : in their operation they are accordingly more penetrating , and gall the parts of their excretion , or near it ; which , that it is owing to the softness of the salt , and calcarious nature of it , appears , in that woodham-ferrys does it not so as epsam and acton . the different virtues shall be taken notice of in their place , as the differences of the salt shall be in the examen of the waters . now i observe , all waters that afford the selenites ( at least of this kind and figure ) to be purging ; and because the wells that afford them , are capable to be proved beyond dispute , as at kettering , and in oxfordshire , it will much conduce to the clear proof of the ingredients and principles of these waters , to give a good account of these which are a member of them . at the places now named , the selenites are found in a blew loam over a stone quarry , as i am inform'd by those that have brought me the account from kettering ; and of oxfordshire by dr. plot : the circumstances of which ( considering the salt is not volatile ) do evince , that the ingredients of these waters do not lye lower , since these stones are so usually found to have the same foundation , and constantly the same matrix ; for these selenites never being found the index of any metal or mineral , nor hard enough to be a spar ; but being observ'd to agree universally in constant materials , which are the same with the other sort of my waters that is a loam : and the mixture of a lime-stone accounting for the production of the selenites , i conclude my account genuine , and clear of them all . the selenites of these wells is form'd near the bottom in the loam , at the water , as they ever are , and the spring small ; some are found of all sizes , from the largest to so small , as scarce allow their figure to be observ'd ; and the loam i found figur'd like the stones , and lying in clusters in like manner . the figures of them i found much differing , those at acton rhomboid : at epsam many rhomboid , many imperfect ones , or like frustula of them , but most of them columns of six sides only , each side was a parallelogram inequilateral with a pointing ( which is comprehended under as many triangles ) and their commissure or origine unequal ; some of them were more conical ; but mostly their position was , as that of those found by dr. plot at cornwell and hanwell , many being fix'd like radii to one center . thus i found them at simpson's well at epsam , with this note , that where-ever they stood thus , the earth adjoyning to it had much iron in it , fusil , and pleasantly acid mostly . at woodham-ferrys some ●ew were rhomboid , but most of them at one of the lozenge figure , and resembling the rhomboid , at the other round and flat , and sharp ; the two larger opposite surface declining , till they meet at an edge , which was semicircular . the selenites found at colchester were thin and flat , and bent a little , consisted of schiz● or flakes , and are of no distinguishable shape . i observe , that where i could get a view of any quantity of the earth , cast out of any of these wells , there were some of them always rhomboid , as the more genuine figure ; but others to differ , with the salt , as i judged , and sometimes to be ruled by the quantity of iron , and receive the figure that metal usually christallizes into . what the selenites owes its origine to , i refer my self to the sense and observations of naturalists , who were not unacquainted with this qualification of the water in which they are generated . that most accurate learned and curious naturalist dr. plot , in his natural history of oxfordshire , cap. . par. . speaking of the selenites . georgius agricola differs from them all , and makes it a product of lime-stone and water . gignitur ( says he ) ex saxo calcis cum paucâ aquâ permisto . and thus i find it to grow here with us at heddington , in a blew clay that lyes over the quarry , whose outermost crust is a hard lime-stone . for clearness sake , this stone may be distinguish'd into these four sorts . . those selenites that are really fissil , into tough flexil plates , which is more properly the glacies mari● , or lapis specularis . muscovy glass . . those that consist of brittle plates , or flakes , which are not easily separable , at least entire ; an unform'd sort of these are found in flat plates not very thick near colchester at the north end , at a publick-house half a mile from the town , and in some wells in the town . the formed ones usually consist of six sides , the breadth being more than the thickness , make the two level surfaces broader than the rest . in this they generally agree , but the rhomboid have their ends form'd in like manner to make that figure , so as to have ends and sides alike ; whereas those that are longer and narrower , vary in the figures that the depressions at the ends make . some are imperfect rhomboid in one half , and of an irregular figure , the other half as at epsam , &c. or thinning to an edge , as at woodham-ferrys . all these agree in an uniform glassy surface . . rhomboid and in the flakes , of which it is compos'd , resembling the other ; but the superficies is divisible into strings , the marks or lines of which , appear in the surface . perhaps these may be formed only where they are produced at a stone-quarry ; for of this kind is that at heddington in oxfordshire , and that of kettering in northamptonshire , and so may be distinguish'd in its name as a species of talc , selenites talceus . a th sort have a cubico-rhomboideal form ; these are constantly hexaedra , of equal obliqueangular sides , or oblique-angled parallelepipeds ; are fessil into thick plates , or indeed consist of cubick pieces of the same figure ; such as at slindon in staffordshire , mention'd by the same great author , natur. hist. of staff. cap. . part . dug in marle pits . these are less transparent , and as a species of gypsum ; may be called selenites gypseus . to the second sort ( which i take only to be the proper selenites ) belong those of these purging wells . this distinction i think necessary to be observed ; for though i am inclinable to believe , that the waters wherein the others are found may purge , yet the selenites , as they are related to another sort of stone , and have some variety in the matrix , may vary ( reasonably enough ) in their qualities , as the talceus being produced at a stone-quarry , the waters can scarce be supposed to want the coldness or hardness such quarries are wont to communicate . and so of the rest . the origine of the salt of these waters , appears most evidently in the salt of this species , or sort of them , which i shall therefore inquire into , by examining the reason of their production , and compare with the salt that is nearest in resemblance . the salt contain'd in the waters which i call selenitical , hath these qualities or properties peculiar to them , to be soft , and melt in the warmth of a hand ; to be unfigur'd , and ●ret the parts of excretion ; besides the middle nature of it , and its being void of corrosiveness , which are common to the other sort . in its softness and fluxilness , nature and manner of production , it exactly resembles the salt , that damp cellars produce , and is fix'd in the middle to cobwebs , being the steam of the earth , and more liquid part of what is extracted from it , and flows in the moist air there condens'd : and no known salt in nature hath the quality of running in so easie a heat , beside the selenitical , but that . and as this confirms its original , so the reason it further complies with this account : for this soft salt in these wells , is the flowing part of the matter produced in them , the more solid particles , and figurable , being detain'd at the loam , and employ'd in forming the selenites ▪ now that the lime-stone which is concern'd in this production , naturally effects this separation by shooting the more dense parts , is evident in the use of it to precipitate metalline parts , but more plainly in boiling sugars . the slackning quality of this chalky or limy salt , i hinted before to agree with the earth of these wells ; and it is to be noted , that the salt of the selenitical , is accordingly more uniform , not so thickning with gall , nor varying so much towards nitres and vitriols as the others do , but nearer the spirit . so i conclude the salt of these purging waters , of a middle nature between nitres and vitriols , and form'd out of the loam , by the help of a vitrioline juyce or liquid salt , and collected in moist cavities . the tryal of the stones . the stone which i have before describ'd , and is common to all the wells , hath , when broke , the loam hardned , and is invested with a gypsum , or trichitis . richmond stone is of a light colour and pale , near an ash-colour , not divided by the gypsum , but coated with it , some ferrugineous stains were in one piece : in the air weigh'd two ounces and grains ; on the water , one ounce , two drams and grains . epsam a more lax stone , like a hardned clod , incrusted with a grey chalky coat , which acids wrought on with ebullition , but did not slack in the water , weigh'd in the air two ounces and grains ; in the water one ounce , one dram and grains . dulwich a darker stone and very hard as flint , and inclin'd to a greenish in the body of it , in several places , and the cellulae , smaller than woodham-ferrys or harwich , or any yet observ'd by me ; where not greenish , it had many sparkles of shining small particles , and when beaten fine , was whiter than any . in the air two ounces and grains ; in the water one ounce , two drams and grains and a half . woodham-ferrys cells as the former but larger , the body oft greenish where expos'd to the air , else loam-like , but the gypsum seem'd to have penetrated the body of the stone . in the air two ounces and grains and a half ; in the water one ounce , two drams and grains . common loam in the air weigh'd two ounces and grains ; in the water one ounce and grains . chalk in the air two ounces and grains , and in the water one ounce , one dram and one scruple , besides four or five grains lost by its s●ackning . the salts extracted from the stones , they all smelt lixiviat in boyling . richmond stones lixivium with lignum nephriticum , took the colour of rhenish or white-wine , or near a buff-colour . with tincture of logwood , a red tawnyish . gall , a faint tincture of red but clear . turnsole liquor , sharpned with spirit of vitriol , it brightned the red a little . oyl of tartar per deliquium , no alteration , but did not readily mix . the lye of the roasted richmond stone , with tincture of logwood , brighten'd the red higher than pump-water . with turnsole preserv'd the red. with gall a high lemmon colour and clear . lignum nephriticum clear and not colour'd , as spirit of vitriol does . oyl of tartar p. d. thick large curdle . the lye exceeded not pump or common water in weight . aqua fortis wrought violently on this stone , but extracted no tincture , but jelly'd , but not so firmly as the other ; no precipitation could be obtain'd from the jelly . no efflorescence when mix'd with common salt , and expos'd to the air some time , as mineral bodies do . dulwich raw stones lixivium remain'd thickish , white , and of taste brackish ; with lignum nephriticum a deep malaga sack colour , and not very clear , as alkalys . redded the tawny of tincture of logwood deep , as alkalys , though not so purplish , but near that of acids . gall yellow like small beer , and very thick , did not precipitate , though it stood a night , the cloud gather'd upward , and at bottom more clear , like common salt. tunsole it dull'd as alkalys toward a blew . liquid salt of tartar it curdled large and precipitated , as sal marine : upon the whole it resembled common salt , especially with a little of the nature of sal gem , or withall somewhat allkalisat . the lye of dullwich stone roasted . with tincture of logwood a dull ale-colour , as cellar-salt and ●laubers salt. gall , a pale red , not more cloudy than the lye. liquid salt of tartar a thick curdle . syrup of clove gilliflowers took away the red , and rendred it durty and dark , as alkalys effect . with lignum nephriticum a pale yellow and clear , which grew thicker upon standing six or eight hours , like spirit of salt. solution of sublimate , no alteration as vitriols . about six drams with an ounce and half of aqua fortis , made considerable effervescence , and thickned in two or three hours to a jelly , of a grey dirty colour , the powder of the stone not settling to the bottom . aqua fortis on chalk wrought thickned a little , but not jelly'd ; on common loam did not work . brick earth only a small effervescence ; cimolia purpurascens alter'd not . i essay'd tinore , cellar-salt , and lapis calaminaris , which last communicated only a dry ●aste more corrosive . half the jelly dissolved in a great quantity of fair water , precipitated not any heavy powder , the dirt flying about in it light . the other half distill'd , sent over a liquor near the scent of spirit of salt , but no butter . the earth expos'd to the air , had no efflorescence . dullwich stone melted with glass , did not tinge the glass , but penetrated the vessel it was melted in , which was of tobacco-pipe clay , which broke smooth like china ; an effect which the other stones , melted at the same time , had not . woodh●m-ferrys stones lixivium tasted sweetish ; redded tincture of logwood near a claret , but deeper and darker : with gall whitish and turbid as nit●es ( note ▪ that this was made of the burnt stone ) but with some gall flying in it and curdled , which is the effect of sal●petre . lignum nephriticum it took a clear tincture from , and of a canary colour . the stone wash'd , jelly'd in aqua fortis , from which nothing could be separated by sublimation or precipitation ; no efflorescence upon the exposing it to the air , nor was any metalline tincture discover'd by fusion with glass . epsam stones lixivium with oyl of tartar per deliquium grew white and thick , with gall a fine and clear yellow . with tincture of logwood a dull pale tawny . it slack'd not in water , it jelly'd not in aqua fortis , the powder remaining heavy and close at the bottom . i boyl'd some of the stain in lye , and in water sharpen'd with spirit of nitre , i infus'd some , but from neither could make any discovery by colour or precipitation . so now i come to the essays of the waters , and nature of the salts therein contain'd . selenitical waters . ebbisham commonly epsam water in surry . epsam water was the first of the purging kind discover'd in england , viz. , or soon after . the hill is a clay of a brown colour and reddish ; and where the wells are more grey . the well is about twelve foot deep ; the earth where the spring is , afforded the selenites plentifully , at a private well they were columns , the sides and superficies of which were inequilateral parallelograms posited with their edges downward , and their ends meeting in the centre : in a well a few feet distant , and at the publick well , they were rhomboid . at both ends of the town is ch●lk dug , and the hill here and there hath veins of blew loam . of the private well which was newly sunk , i inform'd my self by examining the earth cast out of it , which i receiv'd of the owner mr. symonds , together with this account . the upper earth , for two spit deep , was the same ; then they came to a harder and loamy , which lasted about seven feet ; then to a looser , which sparkled with small selenites , as at the publick well ; this held for two feet , where they came at the stones and water together : the water in summer-time flow'd in at the rate of an ale-barrel in hours . below the selenites they came at a dead heavy earth and black , partaking of iron , under which was the common dead loam , or cortex of the mineral region : and though they dug three or four feet deeper , yet neither was water or the former signs found . as the selenites had somewhat of the shape of vitriol of iron , so where they lay , were veins of iron and colour'd earth ; the iron was pure , and obey'd the load-stone ; the earth , which was either of a brimstone colour , or that of iron rust ; i prov'd by washing to be the same , only joyn'd by an acid juyce like spirit of vitriol , which in the yellow had no taste of the iron , but a distinct pleasant acid ; which with the jellying of some parts of the earth in aqua fortis , especially of the whiter part of it where the selenites lay , is what i observed there . i shall not therefore repeat my tryals of the earths , which were fruitless . the water is moderately clear , of taste bitter , together with a muakish saltishness , not manifestly lixiviat , but a little of the taste of the second salt of salt marine , and of that cellar salt that is gather'd by things hanging in the middle of cellars , and not what fixes to the walls . epsam water precipitated not vitriol dissolv'd in it , but promoted its atramentous quality , as doth the salt , not precipitating the colour , as salt of lime or chalk , nor turning it red , as some others , particularly salt of cellars . notwithstanding this , it agreed with that sort of alkaly particularly which is calcarious , in that it restor'd the blew of tincture of turnsole sharpen'd ; it took a purple with a tincture of logwood in common water lively and full , not dull red a little purplish and dusky as salt of tartar made with saltpetre , and alkalys produce ; nor tawny as salt of cellars . further , as salt of chalk , it troubled a solution of sublimat in fair water , and sent down a white precipitate , which alum doth not . with syrup of violets a grass-green , as the same salt. yet it peculiarly differ'd from the salt of chalk , and all grosser salts , in taking a high yellow , and clear tincture from gall , which is peculiar to spirit of nitre , it being not of the nature of saltpetre , which is the only salt that takes a pale but clear tincture . with syrup of cloves it became dark ●ooty and greenish , as do alkalys and fuligo of vitriol , that adheres to places where the fume of boyl'd coporas comes . ☞ the peculiar nature of the salt of this water is , to be calcarious , yet agreeing with vitriols , and particularly to resemble spirit of nitre , rather than nitre it self ; yet to resemble the salt of chalk , in precipitating a solution of sublimate , which spirit of nitre will not . the acidity that came over in distilling , was little and pleasant . the salt grey near a white , and unfigur'd , or uncapable of christallization , but soft like barbadoes or lisbon sugar . it did not cast up a scum till it was near boyled up , and the salt precipitated in boyling . this salt was wrought on by acids , yet it coagulated salt of tartar rendred liquid , called ol. tartari per diliq . it did not inflame with sulphur , but blister'd on a hot iron , and was not caustick either burnt or unburnt . the earth of this salt was white , and dissolv'd in part in distill'd vinegar , and was about an eighth of the salt. the salt of the water which is said to amount in some dry seasons to the proportion of seven drams in a gallon , scarce then exceeded the half of that quantity after a wet one , when i had it , indeed not so much . the salt purged pleasantly in the quantity of half an ounce as i try'd it , but it seems to require a very gentle evaporation to the due preparation of it , that acidity of alkalisatness may be preserved entire . this salt dissolv'd in some of its own water , deepned the yellow colour of galls to a pink , and at last to a red or very near , as spirit of nitre does upon long infusion , but thickish as embody'd salts . i saw some salt boyl'd up in copper , without any verdigrease tincture , so mild is the acid. acton water in middlesex . the earth of this well afforded rhomboid tale , as a gentleman that liv'd at the place , and inform'd me , express'd it : much nitrous efflorescence appears in the clay about the well . the spring opens northerly ; is reputed one of the strongest purgers about london : it is noted to occasion a great soreness of the intestine and fundament , which is reasonably refer'd to the quantity of salt they wash from the body , but the penetration of the salt of the water , may make it more pungent and keen . the water was whitish , not so clear as epsam , not saltish , but rather to me seem'd sweet , with a little of the bitterness of epsam : it curdled with soap , as do all . the salt of this water is soft , and not christalliz'd , wherein it agrees with epsam salt , though i thought scarce so soft . the distinct nature of this water , or salt of this water , consists in , that this salt is more calcarious , or of the nature of salt of lime , for the water , boyl'd high , disturb'd a solution of sublimate in fair water , whence it precipitated a yellowish sediment , a little more yellow than the water , which it left white . and this salt is likewise more nitrous , or hath more of the nature of the salt of the upper soyle , as appears , in that it takes a pale yellow from gall , but dusky and disturb'd , as common salt doth effect ; not so dirty , nor so apt to precipitate , as sal calcarium . with syrup of violets it took a green , with tincture of logwood made with brandy a deep red and purplish , as nitrous salts do with cold tincture of logwood , which hot would give a full purple . the salt did not precipitate fine silver out of spirit of nitre , which common salt would . a pint and half of the water yielded forty eight grains of salt , in which was six grains and a half of reddish earth , on which acid spirits wrought . the earth precipitated in boyling . colchester water from the north end in essex . the water boyl'd meat without discolouring the flesh , which it rather whiten'd . the water was much the same with acton , giving with tincture of logwood a purplish red a little tawny ; and with gall a clear yellow and pale , but in half an hour grew turbid , with a whitish cloud : but with lignum nephriticum it became a little darkish but clear , a little toward what spirit of vitriol does . woodham ferrys in essex , being a chalybeat , is reserv'd to that class . the water at 〈◊〉 . this water clai●s the princip●l place , being made illustrious 〈…〉 , in which his majesty hath 〈…〉 his mansion palace . the 〈…〉 at this well , hath much the 〈…〉 cluster'd columns form'd at 〈…〉 this difference , that this at kensington is depress'd and flat on one side , as they are prominent on the other ; and at the base or flat side are more truly separable than the s●●●nites of these waters usually are , and so nearer resemble the ●uscovy glass . the pyrites which i received from this well was very hard , of a greenish gray or hazel colour ; and 〈◊〉 it differ'd from all in wanting the crust of gypsum or trichitis , so upon infusion of aqua●ortis it did not coagulate into a jelly , but yet after the working of the aqua fortis , which was very violent , the powder settled not , but remain'd of a yellow or iron rust colour , fl●ing or turbid , though it stood some days : the mineral matter therefore being re●●iv'd , or taken up by the 〈…〉 with fair water , and 〈…〉 , and not much 〈…〉 ●●rrosive acidity . this liq●or which remain'd 〈…〉 the settlement of the powder or dust , upon further diluting sent down no mineral parts , but upon mixing a little powder'd gall , turn'd immediately of a blew black , as is the property of iron to produce . distill'd vinegar on this stone made no effervescence , yet extracted the chalybeat parts , as appear'd in the taste . the weight of this stone was one ounce and one grain in the air , and just six drams in the water , which was the weight of the piece which i had . the water was clearer than these usually are , and less bitter than epsam , but of a more manifestly saline taste . in the quantity of nine ounces and five drams , and grains , it outweigh'd common water grains . it s alkalisate nature appear'd , in giving a red in●lin'd to a purple with tincture of logw●●● in that spirit of nitre did not disturb it , in that it troubled and rendred milky a solution of sublimate in fair water , and sent down a white precipitate as salt of chalk doth , and in giving the same green with syrup of violets . it became dark and sooty with syrup of cloves as alkalys , yet not so much alkalisate as to turn greenish , nor indeed to lose all the red. it had an acidity , in that it curdled spirit of harts-horn , and the same it produced with the lixivium of salt of plants . with gall it became thick and white , as the salts of earths that are not perfectly nitrous , but of a mix'd nature , or where the acid and salt disturb each other or oppose , earths , as they approach to nitres , or are more alkalisate , darken this white . with lignum nephriticum it took a deep yellow , or orange , and clear as alkalys produce . with iron and gall it took a reddish black and rusty , as alkalys , and not apt to hold it without precipitation . i found in two quarts about grains of earth , light , leafy and gray , which distill'd vinegar wrought on . the salt was soft and unfigur'd mostly , but had some stiriae form'd in it , flat and not pointed , at least most of them . this salt melted not easily as epsam salt , but bore a good heat , and had a much greater quantity of earth in it , the hardness of which was felt on the tongue in tasting the salt. much earth precipitated in boyling as others , but it bore not readily a scum , till near boyl'd up , at least as in making other salt , till the falling of the salt. i judged this salt of the nature of an alkaly , and of kin to epsam , but yet to differ , being not so resembling the spirit of nitre , in the tryal with gall ; and accordingly that water increas'd ink-making without turning it red ; so that this seems more related to the gross or embody'd salt , which accordingly makes it disturb a solution of gall. this water differs from the rest , in that it troubles but very little a solution of sal saturni in common water , in which it resembles more saltpetres , which doth not disturb it at all . the salt of the water did trouble a solution of fine silver in spirit of nitre , which in a long time precipitated , the precipitation was neither so quick , nor so full , nor in so large curdles as common sea-salt or rock-salt doth it . puring waters in an even loamy clay , more simple and not variegated . richmond water in surry . this water is a level spring ; the wells are on the side of the hill a few rod from the river thames , in a brown leamy clay , which are about nine feet deep to the bottom of the water , as the digger inform'd me there . there is a tile-kill adjoyning to the ground where the wells are . this water was first discover'd about , the account that the possessor of one of the wells , mr. brown , gave me , was , that the earth was an even loamy clay , that the water issued into the well from the side , among the stones , whereof i brought away as many pieces as i could dispose of . no selenites found here . the loam and clay about the well● had a nitrous efflorescence ; the earth above , and about richmond , a gravel . this water purgeth well , but i think scarce so much as epsam and acton , but more smoothly . the water is smooth on the tongue , scarce any appearance of bitterness , salutes the palat with the taste of common water , but leaves a farewel a little nauseous and sharp . the water curdled milk , but not so hard or strong as others ; with syrup of violets a mild green , not so deep as vitriols make ; it resembled common salt or a vitrioline , in that spirit of nitre drop'd into it , made no alteration , though the water was boyl'd half away : spirit of sal armoniack rendred it thick , white and curdled , and sent down a large precipitate . spirit of harts-horn made a small curdle and precipitate . spirit of salt no alteration . with galls it grew immediately turbid , white and thick , not milk-white , like what salt of hungarian vitriol produceth , not dark as alkalys , not coloured as common salt , not clear as saltpetre , nor reddish as chalk , nor dark , and ready to precipitate the colour as spirit of vitriol . the water standing a while on pieces of iron , with gall , chang'd dark with a reddish cast , as alkalys render ink in both these it resembled salt of cellars● yet differ'd in giving a wan dusky red with 〈◊〉 of clove gilly flowers as common salt , and ●●●ding tincture of logwood ●s acids . ☞ the salt of this , water hence appears to be acid , of a vitrioline nature , yet to be a little alkalisate or nitrous , ●ot so deeply as alkalys , but resembling the salt embodying vitriols , or the uniting of vitrioline salt with the salt of common earth , and which our common water contains . richmond water distill'd in a glass retort , yielded a water which was acid enough to redden a little the colour of syrup of violets , and to give a faint red with tincture of logwood , but took no quality from iron ; and it was very light in weight , equal to tunbridge and the light chalybeats . the salt was gray and figur'd like the bacilli of nitre , flat and long , and many of the s●iriae were pointed like needles , some prisms , some camellae ; it melted not easily , yet i thought sooner than vitriols . it chang'd not the colour of salt of tartar , but curdled its deliquium ; inflamed not with sulphur . the earth was smaller than in most waters , was gray , and acid spirits as of salt ; aqua fortis and spirit of nitre would not touch it : it alter'd not in the fire , but made a small decrepitation or spitting , i judged a little more than allum . the salt of this water did not disturb nor change the colour of sublimate water , which alkalys and salt of cellars does . it was a little sweetish , and not cold as saltpetre is . the stone found in this well resembled loam : the loam cast up for tiles in the ground joyning to this well , had a nitrous efflorescence . the stone had a tincture of iron . the tile-earth in the ground adjoyning , i infus'd in warm water sharpned with oyl of vitriol . this water gave a green with syrup of violets , and with tincture of logwood a sooty dusky colour a little reddish . dullwich water has its name from the town near it , but the wells are in lewisham parish in kent : the wells are in the foot of a hill , about twelve in number : the hill and ground adjoyning , is a stiff clay with some wood upon it : these are next in antiquity to epsam , being discover'd about the year ; the hole dug is about nine feet deep as i judg'd , and the water about half a yard deep , being usually emptied every day : the bottom is a loam as is the hill ; and where the water issues in , is found the lapis lutoso-vitriolicus , which glitters with vitriolick sparkles , and is divided into parcels by the trichitis . this water purgeth very quick , and are not to be drank by a body out of temper , or heat by walking without inconvenience . i was there iuly after some wet days . this water is bitter like epsam ; it curdled with soap or milk much more than richmond , and equal to epsam . taken the same day with richmond in the quantity of nine ounces and near a quarter , was grains heavier than common water , and grains than richmond . with gall it turn'd ●st yellow and clear , then thick and muddy , white and a little yellowish , in which it resembled common salt ; and with that it agreed in making no alteration in a sol●tion of sublimate , and in making an 〈◊〉 with spirit of nitre , and in not disturbing spirit of salt. it agreed with acids , in not relieving the red of tincture of turnsole sharpned , in curdling spirit of 〈◊〉 very much , but spirit of sal armoni●●● 〈◊〉 little , or rather in a more fine cu●●le : in which trial this resembles common salt more than richmond , which curdles th● last most , and in giving a red with tinct●re of logwood . the particular nature is somewhat pointed at , in that this water after an infusion some hours on points of nails , with gall became dusky and thick of a foot colour , which precipitated and left the liquor yellow ; in this it differ'd from 〈◊〉 salts . the stone prov'd it self to have much of the nature of rock-salt , such as is brought from the west of england near chester . the salt shot into stiriae , which being heat , blister'd and lost much by a hot fire , so as to have only grains remaining of , but this was done in earth ; the more fix'd parts remain'd angular and flat like sea-salt . the stone melted , pierced the clay readily , and made it break like china . the calx of the salt remain'd gray . though i must not adventure to determine the particular nature of the salt of this water , which made the stone sparkle , yet i may say it is marcasitical , and that it contains no fresh or new metal or mineral , but that it varies in the salt ( as the gravels and loams meeting and joyning , produce the common vitriol stone ) which here seems of kin to that of common gravels , and that it has some cold nature proportionable to such an original , but fluxile withall , being apt to set the blood flowing . the salt i conclude by the essays , to resemble common salt , and to be of kin to mineral salt , as is our rock salt , but yet to differ in its being more penetrative and fluxile , and not of the nature of common salt , which precipitates not vitriols . north-hall water in hartfordshire , weigh'd heavier than epsam , and pleasant , not so nauseous to taste . it preserved the blew of syrup of violets , which nitres and alkalys chang'd to a green . it disturbed not a solution of sublimate in common water : it was not acid enough , nor alkalisat enough , to give either a red or dirty brown with tincture of logwood , but gave it a yellow which grew paler upon standing , as i judged somewhat like glaubers salt , which is made of common salt and spirit of vitriol , and which likewise purgeth : it took very little yellowness from galls , and what it took it would not hold , but suffer'd to precipitate presently : the first being the effect of spirit of salt ▪ the last of spirit of vitriol . it curdled soapy water in large curdles , and ol. tartari per deliquium the same ; and upon shaking , this water rais'd a great froth , which it kept a great while . i judged therefore this water to contain a salt resembling common salt , and that part of it which is condens'd and christalliz'd through cold in a humid as in cellars , the coagulation with liquid salt of tartar being not so universal , as with the other part of common salt. lambeth nearer well in surry . this water , beside the virtues which it hath in common with other purging waters , has the property of caring leprosies , and cleansing and clearing scorbutick scurss and spots ; which how the nature of the salt accounts for , is worth observation . this water try'd at the well after a dry season was clear , but not so limpid as common spring water , having somewhat of the colour of rain-water ; it was of the taste of saltpetre , or nearer saltpetres second salt , but left a vitriolick brackish or nauseous taste on the palat. half a pint and half an ounce of this water , exceeded common water in weight grains ; it made no alteration in a solution of sublimate in fair water , which nitres and alkalys disturb ; it agreed with common salt , in changing the red of syrup of clove gilliflowers into a cloudy pale colour , in which the red upon hours standing was wholly lost , but was restored by a drop of spirit of nitre ; it had the effects of the same salt in curdling strongly with ol. tartar ▪ per deliquium , in giving a pale yellow not very fine with gall ; and with tincture of logwood a brown , exactly resembling ale that is not fine , a little browner ( if any thing ) than what common salt produceth . but in this it agreed with saltpetres second salt , and it disturb'd a solution of sal saturni in fair water , just to that degree that saltpetres second salt does ; and with lignum nephr●ticum gave a whitewine yellow and clear quickly as saltpetre does ; common gravelly spring-water gives near the colour but upon longer standing . it agreed besides only with glaubers salt in the essay with gall and logwood . the water standing on iron hours , gave with gall a reddish purple , which turn'd inky , and although the grosser parts precipitated , as where there is a mixture of nitre , and in the vitrioline waters impregnate with the salt of the upper soil , yet the colour remain'd in the clear liquor much deep●● than a violet , though it stood open some days . this one drop of spirit of nitre turn'd ●●een as it doth ink made with english 〈◊〉 . a drop or two of this in common 〈◊〉 a gravel resumed the red. this water precipitated fine silver out of spirit of nitre , but not so quick and strongly , i thought , as rock-salt and sea-salt . this water accordingly changed not the colour of syrup of violets , neither doth common salt. thus the salt of this water agreeth with common salt , but comes not up to its power of precipitating or coagulating , which properties would rather set and fix the humour , and so promote the distemper , as appears in the effects of bay-salt to produce the scurvy , which property is observ'd to lye in the hardness of the second or less coagulable part , and not to be found in the salt when purified . it agrees in some tryals with saltpetres second salt , which is not wholly differing from common salt. but because salts differ , i examined the water more nicely . it disturb'd a solution of hungarian vitriol which common salt did not , rock salt very little , but the second salt of saltpetre readily effected likewise , but scarce in so high a degree , for this sent down a yellowish precipitate forthwith ; yet it did not trouble a solution of mercury sublimate as sal gem. nor precipitate it as do the nitres and lime-salt of a yellow , or as salt of chalk and marle white . the salt was gray near white , mostly near cubes , or in thick plates as common salt , some scurfie light parts with it , which was the scum which precipitated in boyling , no stiriae or pointed parts could i observe . the water did early raise or bear a scum. the salt readily ran per deliquium , and le●t a leafie earth and grey about grains out of a quart of water : this leafy earth was very light , and made a very small effervescence with distill'd vinegar , nor would it wholly take away its acidity . this salt precipitated fine silver out of spirit of nitre in hard large curdles ; saltpetres second salt only whitens and disturbs the solution which at last precipitates it . ol. partari per deliquium works on it , but does not precipitate the silver : but this salt , i thought , did scarce so fully precipitate the silver as rock salt. ☞ i therefore refer the nature of the salt of this water to that of common salt , whose power it hath even to the depurating a solution of vitriol , but without either so gross and strong an earth , or so severe and coagulative an acidity . the diseases that have been cur'd by these waters , as i found them registred in a table at the well , were as i remember , leprosie , scurvy , vertigo's , jaundies , worms , stone and colick . to understand on what account this water exerts its power , beside worms , which every one knows to be destroy'd , and the flatulent putrid matter suppress'd by sea-salt , i think the leprosie may well illustrate . to have a notion of the nature of this disease , it is not necessary here to inquire into the particular juyce it is seated , in , and vessels serving it ; it is sufficient that the nature and genius of the humour or salt is toward an alkali , exulcerating and dry , seated or produced by too thick and luxuriant chyle , in too nitrous or scorching a climate : that the cure of this disease consists not only in som● qualities that mortifie it , but in some pungent parts that can retain their nature , and are apt to separate the grosser parts , we are taught by the success of vipers in this disease , which have a faculty of separating tartar from canary in which they are infus'd , which else yields none . on which , by the way , i must observe the error in choosing that wine for the infusion , on which the virtue of the vipers is in so much measure lost , proportionably to the demand of the thickness of the liquor . if this be conceded , i think it must be allow'd , that as the nature of this salt is disposed to mortifie alkalys , and to penetrate without corruption , so its being void of that severe coagulum may qualifie it to separate and discharge . and that i beg not much in this notion , will appear in the opposite salt of brentwood-weale , which i have experienced to encourage and increase this disease . the water of the farther well at lambeth . this water in taste came nearer common pump water , agreed with the other water in every tryal , as well by weight as otherwise ; only syrup of cloves did not wholly lose its red , neither did a drop of spirit of nitre restore it , as it did in the other : whence it appears to be of a less vitrioline nature , or not so affine to sea-salt ; and so may be more fit for general drinking , though not so satisfactory to the particular intention . the purging water of alford in somersetshire . this water is of kin to the other : the acidity not volatile or alterable . gall and lignum neph●●ticum gave it a very pale yellow , but the lignum nephriticum somewhat deeper than the gall or saltpetre does . with tincture of logwood an amber colour like glaubers salt and salt of cellars , and not far from that of saltpetre . with gall and iron it gave a right purple colour , as mineral acids , and which saltpetre does : it differ'd from saltpetre , and seem'd between that and common salt. the water of brentwood-weal in essex . as lambeth water and woodham●ferrys , i have experienced specifically proper and effectual in leprous diseases , so this is considerable in its opposite nature , which i have likewise experienced . this water is of taste lixiviate , with a little bitterness , and not free of the maukish taste of the rest , but not so nauseous as epsam . with syrup of violets it gave a full green as alkalys , with which it agreed in giving a dusky gold colour near that or malaga sack with lignum nephriticum , in tur●ing thick and dark with iron and gall , not black or blewish as vitriols , common salt and salt-petre ; and which precipitated as the bla●ks made with alkalies . and lastly , in not precipitating fine silver out of spirit of nitre , more than fair water will. it distinguish'd it self from vitriol and alum , in growing thick and whitish with gall , as nitres of a mix'd nature do , or vitriols and common water ; the same standing became a pale yellow , which precipitated as it would in a solution of saltpetres second salt , or near the effect of common salt : it gave a red with tincture of logwood ( as cellar-salt but more red ) which vitriol blackens and alum purples . with syrup of cloves it gave a dull pale with a blewish cast , as alkalies do , but more like to saltpetres second salt. with a solution of sublimate no alteration ; nor any change or precipitation or disturbance in a solution of hungarian vitriol , in both which it agreed with a vitriolick salt , as almost if not altogether all these do . with a deliquium of salt of tartar it coagulated extreamly hard like stone , as the second salt of salt-marine . a solution of salt saturni this salt rendred white and thick like milk , in which it differ'd from saltpetre , which doth not disturb it , and from saltpetres second salt , which disturbs it but a little . this water in boyling threw up much of the salt in the scum , as sal gem. doth , and had some gross earthy white flakes precipitated . the salt was white , and shot in very small stiriae or flat bacilli , most of them pointed , some not ; these did not readily melt . the earth too was white and in great quantity , being near a fourth part . some part of the salt was stain'd yellow , having some of the soyl in it . some part of the salt which was the last , was not shot so discernably , but was in hard lumps , and seem'd to consist of a second salt , that is of a somewhat differing nature . this did differ from the other in making a greater precipitation of fine silver out of spirit of nitre , and a greater coagulation of the liquor of salt of tartar. the salt wherewith this water is impregnate , appears to be a full alkali ( and the deep red with tincture of logwood made with spirit of wine does not contradict it , alkalies giving not much deeper with that tincture ) joyn'd with a hard coagulating acid not of the nature of common salt , but rather of saltpetres second salt. and according to this nature of it , this water will not keep sweet four days , whereas the others will near three times that time . that this should be injurious in leprous cases , is very 〈◊〉 telligible , from its alkalifateness to raise the blood and ulcerate , and its coagulative acidity . and it is observable , that the lambeth water is exactly of the contrary nature , containing a salt affine to sea-salt , but without the severity of the acid or coagulative quality . this water of brentwood i have experienced beneficial in hypochondriacal cases , particularly at the beginning . but the difference of the constitution of the patient is necessa●● , to be consulted , in order to the due prescription of these , as well as other waters , since either the different nature of the salt of the blood , or a peculiar mechanism of the body , may make it lyable to receive great alterations according to the nature of the salt. this is clear in the present instance , for whereas the melancholy and dull crasis of this patients blood , made this a suitable remedy , yet i observed in another gentlewoman of the same years , but of a florid sanguine complexion , this water to be of so differing an effect , as to cause violent flushings of the body and face , and an obstruction of the catamenia , all which the nature of the salt accounts for . upminster water in essex , was very clear , of taste bitter , with a sweetish nauseous taste . in the quantity of nine ounces six drams and six grains , out-weigh'd common water grains : the water curdled oleum tartari per deliquium , but not very large nor very quickly ; curdled spirit of harts-horn strongly ; its alkalisate nature appear'd in thickning a depurated solution of english vitriol , and much sooner a solution of hungarian , and making a large precipitation : in taking a high yellow tincture with lignum nephriticum near an orange ; with gall a turbid dark and greenish , which precipitated , leaving the liquor yellow ; in making an effervescence with oyl of vitriol ; in giving a claret-red with a tincture of logwood in fair water mix'd without heat ; in taking a dark sooty thick colour with syrup of cloves . in the verdigreese green with syrup of violets , and in troubling a solution of silver in spirit of nitre , not so effectually as common salt : it differ'd from saltpetre in rendring a solution of sal saturni milky : it differs from alkalies , in that it makes no alteration in a solution of sublimate made in fair water . barnet water in hartfordshire , was very clear , had much the taste of common pump water , but with an addition of bitterness , though less than in the other ; in the quantity of ten ounces , this water , taken in summer-time , as were the others , surmounted common water in weight near a dram , or within a grain of a dram. the salt of this water exactly answer'd a salt alkalisate , particularly that of chalk in all tryals ; with gall it became thick , disturb'd , and whitish , not free of the yellow tincture ; with syrup of violets a deep verdigreese green ; with syrup of cloves a sooty dusky colour ; with tincture of logwood cold an orange tawny ; with lignum nephriticum yellow and clear : it rendred a solution of sal saturni in common water milky : it rendred a solution of mercury sublimate milky : it disturb'd and made thick a clear solution of hungarian vitriol ; and did not precipitate fine silver out of spirit of nitre : the same in all these doth salt of chalk only . moreover this curdled the deliquium of salt of tartar , and also spirit of harts-horn , but both fine . stretham vvater in surry , of odour sweetish ; of taste it was nauseous and saline , not so bitter as barnet , taken at the same time ; and was lighter by ten grains in seven ounces and a half : it answered the same ess●ys with barnet water , only with syrup of cloves a little more blew , like common salt , or saltpetres second salt ; when near boyl'd up , the salt on the sides in the cold , shot in long and flat bacilli , not ready to melt in heat , and had the cold taste of saltpetre , but with a sweetness . the bottom had three sorts , some being flat , broad , and grained like common salt , and some soft , like epsam , which had flakes in it ; four scruples of salt had about eighteen grains of earth ; the earth and flakes were white and clearish , they burnt white , and distill'd vinegar wrought on it , but did not take up any considerable quantity of it . the purging chalybeat vvater of scarbourgh in yorkshire . scarbourgh water is chalybeat and purges , it has qualifications of a purging water , the salt of it is figur'd , approaching to a nitre , and which is really nitrous , and the earth over the spring shews the nitrous efflorescence , that at other purging waters is an index of the earth whence the salt is derived . as chalybeats , it is a running spring , and proceeds from a gravel , and expos'd to the air , some days loses its power of making a black with gall , the salt remaining being purely nitrous . it has the virtue of both waters , and is sufficiently celebrated by the frequenters of it . and i hence conclude it to be either two waters joyn'd , or a chalybeat water washing a nitrous vault . the spring is upon the sea-shore , and flows from or near an alum mine : it is observable , that other springs that flow over alum mines here in england , yet differ not the least from common water ; the black slaty stone not yielding the least aluminous taste before ustion . i shall clear it from partaking of alum or sea-salt by tryals , which will confirm my account of the other waters , since it is clear of participating any thing with the mine over which it runs , and the mine would probably discover any other minerals joyn'd , if such there were ; and the same nitrous earth here sound , that is common to the others , makes this more plain . the proportion the nature of this salt bears to the nitre of common water , and true nitres , is discoverable by the quantity of time the water retains its ink-making quality , alkalies , and so the true nitre of the ancients precipitate their dirty black presently . the 〈◊〉 was examin'd at the spring , at my direction , by the accurate hand of my worthy friend and ingenious gentleman mr. edward carter of scarbourgh , in whose own words i shall deliver their tryals of them , only adding to each a corollary of the use i make of them . quest. . what colour nutgall gives it , and whether turbid or clear ? answ. a grain of gall strew'd upon the surface of eight or ten ounces of the water , doth without any farther mixing , immediately strike a deep reddish purple colour , which presently becometh turbid ; if you let the same stand all night , the water will in a manner recover its pristine clearness , and a powder of the colour of colcothar will precipitate to the bottom in a large quantity . or if a few drops of spirit or oyl of vitriol be instill'd into the foresaid tincture , it will presently be clear as at first , without the precipitation of any powder . the reddish purple is effected by alkalisate parts united to the acid , distill'd acids to the like ; but that the salt of this water is nitrous , is observable in its turbidness , but chiefly in the precipitation of the colour upon standing , which precipitation spirit of vitriol prevents , though it destroys the colour . quest. . has the water any scum or bituminous film . answ. when it stagnateth in any place , or stands a few hours in an open glass , there is an azure colour'd bituminous film or scum upon it , and if the same be expos'd to the air for about a week , there is one riseth up much like that which swims upon lime-water . the first is common to chalybeat waters , which appears upon the separation of the nitrous and vitrioline parts by the air , but the latter a peculiar of the salt , which being not calcarious , i judge to be of such a quality as complies with the corruption of the water , so far as to suffer its grosser parts to be thrown up , which lime-water does by the motion of its own active salt ; so far it differs from those of the nature of common salt which preserve liquors . weal water has the same disposition . quest. . what colour the water kept three days in an open glass will take with nutgall turbid or clear ? answ. galls give it a colour then much as before , yet something more remiss , but if it stand longer , as about a week , they cause no such alteration , changing it only into a milky colour , like barly water , as salt of common earth does , which is not alkalisate . quest. . what colour with syrup of violets ? answ. a light green , which may be turn'd into a reddish purple , by adding some spirit or oyl of vitriol . to these remarks i have added some ( which perhaps may not be unacceptable ) touching the quantity of salt and stone powder contained in those waters , its taste , odour and figure when christallized . according to my nearest computation , it hath about an ounce in four gallons , and almost as much of the stone powder , which is of the colour of sand made use of in hour-glasses . i never could discover any of the blew clay , which some pretend to have found . the salt hath a very remarkable bitterness , and when newly made , a strong sulphurous smell . the christals are very clear and transparent , comprehended under eight plains , two of which are sexangular , and the other six are rectangular parallelograms , which are disposed after this manner , the sides are constituted of the two sexangular planes , alternately interpos'd to two of the largest parallelograms , each side standing at right angles with the other : the ends are terminated by the four lesser parallelograms inclining to each other , from the extremities or lesser sides of the lateral parallelograms , as the two lines mark'd with the points and dash . thus i have described the form of it as intelligibly as i can in words , but because a figure will help to explain what hath been said , and be a means to represent the idea better to the understanding , i shall endeavour to give you the best delineation i can . half of the planes or surfaces may be represented thus , but the other which are opposite , must be supplied by the imagination . a exactly represents one of the sexangular planes , which hath another like it directly opposite . c , b , d , do shew the proportions of the greater and lesser parallelograms , but they cannot be represented rectangular in the scheme , as indeed they are as was mentioned above , the sides a and b do stand at right angles , and so do the sides opposite to them . thus ● b. thus far is the account received in the gentleman's letter dated scarbourgh , june . . some christals of the salt of this water , with the earth or stony powder of it , i received since from the same hand . the salt was clear and uniform or single , and not an aggregate , consisting of bacilli or columns , nor plected as the alum there produced appears , the figure was the same now describ'd , only one of the ends was not so exact , being a little broken ; and the christal in bulk hardly amounted to half the measure of the figure . this salt precipitated not fine silver out of spirit of nitre , as sea-salt , and our rock-salt does do , yet disturb'd not a solution of sublimate , which alkalies and nitres do , and which alum thickens and whitens : a few drops of this salt dissolv'd in fair water , rendred a solution of sal saturni white as milk , which saltpetre does not disturb : it curdled ol. tartari per deliquium , but not so strongly as epsam salt. the salt inflam'd not upon a hot iron , though with brimstone added , nor was very fluxile . ☞ in sum : the salt partakes not of either alum or sea-salt , but is nitrous , not of the nature of saltpetre or its second salt , nor so alkalisate , as to discover it self in sublimate water , or to give a deep green with syrup of violets , but which allows a mixture with vitriols , and is not so alkalisate or full of nitre as to precipitate ; but near that imperfect one of our common earth , and which is not so fix'd , as to keep in one state or solution of it in water ; but hinders not , if not promotes , the fermentation or intestine motion of the liquor , which it clears by throwing up a scum. for as far as appears to me , salts that have a solidity , and yet a disposition to fermentation , that in burning throw up a scum rather than precipitate , as the salt of weal ▪ water , and that that stagnates on rich common earth , does among the nitrous sort . it would be advantageous to the discovery or distinguishing of the nature and virtue of this salt , to put some up in a bottle with sack ( which is a wine that makes no tartar ) to observe whether a precipitation would result , only to fine it , or a fermentation or disturbance would be renewed . the propriety of this water consists in the middle nature of the salt , which keeps thick with galls , as the salts that vitriols embody with effect , which are not purely of the nature of common salt ; yet is so familiar to vitriol , as not to disimbrace soon ; beside the chalybeat parts , and its less volatile acidity . the chalybeat purging water of woodham-ferrys in essex . the earth cast out of this well contain'd many discolour'd parcels of mellower earth , the colours of which were two , that of brimstone and a ferrugineous ; and which yielded iron upon essay when only well wash'd . and as at epsam these veins attend the selenites , so the same stone is plentifully found here ; most of them were in one half resembling the rhomboid , the other had a differing figure , by the declining of the two opposite grand planes , till they determin'd at an edge , which was semicircular , as in the figure . in parcels of this loam inclos'd , i found great plenty of vermicular bodies which were mere iron ; of which metal one tubulus marinus and several pieces i brought away with me and reserve . the stone or imperfect marcasite , which i call lapis lutosovitriolicus here , had many shining particles in it , and consisted of parcels divided by a thin wall of gypsum or trichitis , and precipitated some iron when dissolved in aqua fortis , and diluted with fair water . the water was clear , of taste chalybeat , but had more of the nauseous sweetish taste of the purging waters not void of bitterness ; with gall a thick purple , as saline chalybeats . in the quantity of nine ounces five drams and grains , exceeded common water in weight thirteen grains . it chang'd not the colour of syrup of violets , it took not away the colour of syrup of cloves , which alkalies do , by inducing a sooty or green , and common salt , by rendring it pale and cloudy . it agreed with vitriols and common salt in making no alteration in a solution of english and german vitriol , nor in a solution of mercury sublimate ; yet curdled not much or large with spirit of sal armoniack , and less with spirit of harts-horn ; and with spirit of nitre suffer'd no alteration ; with logwood infus'd a purple , but more toward a red or murry . note , i used in this experiment , the water when boyl'd high toward a salt. the salt differ'd from saltpetre , in rendring a solution of sal saturni milky ; it precipitated a solution of fine silver in spirit of nitre immediately as common salt , yet made with liquid salt of tartar but a fine curdle ; with lignum nephriticum a pale yellow , and thick as common salt ; with iron and gall infus'd , a right blew ink , and which did not precipitate . the kensington water gave a more red black , and which soon fell ; and with lignum nephriticum a clear high yellow near an orange . this water of woodham-ferrys did not precipitate any ferrugineous parts or okar , upon its losing its power of tinging with galls . then the water with gall took a yellow tolerably clear , but not purely clear of disturbance , near the effect of common salt. the salt of this water comes near common salt ( bay salt with gall giving a reddish cloudiness ) as the other a vitrioline or mix'd one . the simplicity of the salt appears in the colour and clearness with gall. it precipitated a ruddy earth in boyling , which distill'd vinegar wrought on with great effervescence . the salt seem'd of two sorts , the first being hard , not readily flowing in heat , and grain'd , and crackling a little in the fire and leaping . some flat shoots like saltpetres bacillis . the earth contain'd in two quarts , was about forty grains . the water retain'd its power of tinging with galls many days in glass-bottles only cork'd . it did not readily raise and bear a scum in boyling . the virtues and vse of the purging waters . the original and genius of the salt of these waters being thus arrived at , their successful effects in distempers , and how these are agreeable to the nature of the salt , comes now under consideration , that hence we may be directed to the right and proper use of them . diseases or more truly symptoms are so various in their causes , that , without the knowledge of these , observation and experience it self will be uncertain and unserviceable . now the diseases which are observed to be help'd by purging waters , as ill concoction , pain at the stomach , heart-burning , lost appetite , vomitings , cholical pain of the stomach , cholick , iliaca passio , worms , nephritick pain , gout , rhumatism , heat of urine , or suppression of it , scurvy and its symptoms , as itching , pustles , and the like . jaundies , vertigo , headachs , hysteri●k and hypochondriacal passions , are all cured by the waters , only as they fall under this notion and consideration , that they proceed from a vitiated or delinquent chyle , and want of due ferment of the parts , and that the matter is seated in the first ways , or larger secretory vessels . it is so very material to observe this , as not only to improve the use of them in other cases , but may likewise help us to avoid the misfortune of the empirical use of them in cases where they are ineffectual . errors of which kind i have observed in the use of the waters , and indeed of all other medicines , as the jesuits bark and the like . that the matter ought to be fit for exterminating , i might prove in almost all the distempers these are proper in , the jaundies are often cured by the waters , when they have proceeded from melancholy , or have been otherwise produced by the foulness of the viscera , or are a symptom of obstructed menses , or a plethora , but when essential , can be as little expected to have a cure from these waters , as when it is symptomatical of a feaver , or a venenate disease . vertigo again may proceed from melancholy , a flatulent foul stomach , or tough flegm in the blood , as in the rhumatism , or from the nature of the salt of the blood , as in scurvies , and in that crasis which attends women chiefly at the grand climacterick of , or from a plethora , and so may be subject to the reach of these waters ; else in cephalick distempers , such as apoplexies , dispositions to lethargies , palsies , and even in dropsies , purging waters in a general consideration , can never be supposed to be applicable . from the same chylous recrements , convulsions often take origine , and may have place among cures of this kind , and pains in the head , but ought to be mark'd with the same proviso . accordingly cautions against the use of them in a chlorosis , feavers , cholera morbus , and suppression of urine from stone or confirm'd obstruction , our reason readily suggests ; which too forbids the use of them in women with child . the qualifications that give these waters an extraordinary capacity for these cures , are their acidity agreeable to that of the stomach , and which indeed is vitrioline , their abstersive salt , of a middle nature between vitriol and nitre , quantity of liquor , and not only their purgin , but as it is easie without sickness or griping , or other flatulent disturbances raised usually by other purgers , and which hinder those calm effects that are necessary to the relief of some distempers ; to which some would add coldness , and agreeable bitterness , but this holds not in all . from all which we may reasonably expect success , when a preternatural salt is to be wash'd away , the ferment of the stomach to be restored , viscera to be cleansed , or cooling is necessary . indeed the purging waters , or their salts , are much the finest purgers in nature , and in many of the preceding cases often perform cures alone . they are the best preparatives to the chalybeat waters , and the only purge proper to intervene in the use of them , where purging is expedient , because these do it without disorder , and are of like nature . of what general use these qualities make this purge , i need not discourse , especially for prevention , since so near all diseases are owing to the vice of the stomach , or recrements of the chyle . but besides this general nature of the salt of these waters , it is found of some specifick qualities in many of them , which frequently differ from each other , and to have distinct virtues accordingly . that besides the purging quality , and what that can contribute , there is so much in the nature of the salt , as may give the waters the force of a medicine , may be very easily believ'd by any who will consider of what energy the qualities are , that these salts differ in . the second part of sal marine is known by sea-men to produce the scurvy , and a salt nearly affine to nitre the itch. it is known that nitre and vitrioline or common salt precipitate each other , and must be allow'd to do as much in the body , and may be observed in the reason of the different cures wrought by these waters . alkalisate salts and nitrous , produce a fluor of the blood , and in the present state of the air , which i intimated to be nitrous or alkalisate , i have found fluxes frequent i mean sanguinary , and have as certainly found chalybeats and vitrioline salts effectual , and observed sal prunellae to increase them , when used by the less thinking administrer . you may observe in lambeth water a common salt , without the severe coagulum which accounts for the virtues . in weal a particularly opposite nitrous one . in kensington near a saltpetre . in dullwich a salt related to common salt , but very penetrative and fluxile , fit to command a stubborn antagonist , but mischievous to a tender and over-heat body , and accordingly i have observed it . i might go through all the waters . the good effects of the chalybeat purgers in asthma's , a dropsie make them a peculiar over and above what their salt would . and in salts of the same nature as nitres , some we shall here find of a more open nature , approaching a calcarious one , and so more apt to correct acidities in the first ways , some more lock'd , and so fit to reach them when digested and remote . in weal water i find an alkaly joyn'd with a severe coagulating acid , the first raising the floridness of the blood , the last apt to fix the humour and obstruct ; and may have a good use to those complexions that need both these qualities , as those do that are pale and inclinable to be loose body'd . and although in passing of right judgment , the consideration of the constitution and complexion of the patient is necessary , and as tunbridge water doth in some provoke the menses , in some stop them , so this water might produce the obstruction before named in a person of a sanguine complexion on that account , which is a natural effect of a plethora ; yet it must be allowed to be but answerable to the quality of the salt. epsam salt hath a qualification of softness to penetrate farther than others without obstruction , of the nature of spirit of nitre , and so can both incide and mellow what it meets with . the searching quality of this salt , i have known universally complain'd of , as raking and so heating by lean persons , both men and women , but upon the same reason it is the most extraordinary purge for grosser bodies . to know rightly the intentions these salts satisfie , requires a good understanding of the nature of the disease , which here cannot be insisted upon , only i shall give you one instance in the use of epsam water in melancholy , whether natural melancholy be not produced by the formation of the vessels and complication , rather than by the nature of the juyces , i dispute not , nor how the brain is concerned : the disease effectively demonstrates it self to consist in the due separation or discharge of the excrements of the body hindered , and through want of that salt that should be separated with them to promote their expulsion , whence their spittle is fresh and stinking , their body bound , and which is perhaps the original of all this , the blood allows not of a due separation of choler , and other parts that nature alots to be amended . in all these intentions epsam water or salt recommends it self by its calcarious salt , to advance the heat and florid state of the blood , and mix with it ; by its acidity to penetrate and incide , yet not of power to precipitate and harden ; but above all by its softness and liquibility in heat or moisture , it is disposed not only to cleanse , but to render the blood fluid and mellow , and leave the vessels lax . and that i am right here , and not wide from experience , it may be proper to inform the reader , that i have known this disease cured by this water only , in those persons who have taken the other waters , as well as other medicines , ineffectually . and as nitrous or alkalisate salts raise the fermentation of the blood , which is the same effect which they have on liquors , so acids correct and suppress it : the effect of one is ever discernable by flushing heats , and the happy effects they have in malignant feavers , and the power of the last in correcting the heat of the blood , and putting the salt in condition for a discharge , is evident in the use of acids , in those feavers that are attended with exanthemata . and this i mention , because in the choice of a purging water for prevention of sickness as they are often drank , the nature of the feaver on foot ought to be consider'd . i wave that , and proceed to the classes of the waters , and their several virtues . the waters agree in general to create or restore an appetite , suppress wind , and relieve hypo●hondriacism . but the virtues that result from their specifick nature , both from my judgment and experience in many of them , stand thus . . a water containing a salt , somewhat of the nature of salt of chalk , but more resembling the spirit than body of nitre , and not corrosive . of this kind is epsam , whose salt is unfigur'd or ungrain'd , and melts in the warmth of a hand . the cases a salt of this nature is adequate to , are melancholy , cholicks and cholical pains in the stomach , obstructions of the glands , and accordingly heart-burning , pains in the sides , and any parts of the body , if not too confirm'd , scurvy , vertigo ; it cleanses gross bodies , and safely lessens fatness ; relieves redness of the face ; relaxes a costive disposition ; and cleanses the kidneys , and perhaps in ulcers of the kidneys , or other parts , may fitly precede chalybeats . . a water more calcarious , and whose salt is more of the nature of the nitre of the earth than of the spirit ; such are acton , barnet and stretham waters , these i judge proper in the stone , gout , diseases of the lungs without inflammation , and for heart-burning ; and where-ever the intention of sweetning the blood is required , or raising the warmth and heat of it , this may be a suitable purge ; and are good in melancholy , wherein acton claims the next place to epsam : they restore a good colour to the face , and remove or cure the falling away of the flesh , and promote fatning . . a water whose salt is alkalisate , and resembles salt of tartar , and the sulphurous salts of vegetables , though not perfectly ; and as is vpminster , may be supposed to have the power of sweetning acidities in remoter parts of the body , strengthens the stomach , checks vomiting , and where alkalies suit , is a good diuretick , and is a proper purge where the body has a disposition to agues or dropsies , only here the salt is preferable to the water , as it may be taken in a more proper vehicle . . a salt alkalisate , with a very hard coagulating acidity , namely , brentwood-weal , hath the advantage of an alkaly to sweeten the blood , but with astriction , it increases flushing heats , scurfyness , and leprous humours , but is beneficial in any fluxes through coldness and weakness , and to the hypochondriacal , whose natural temper is such ; checks the catamenia , and may be good to prevent abortion , back'd with chalybeats . . a salt alkalisate approaching a saltpetre , is that of the water of kensington , the virtues of an alkaly appear before ; as relating to saltpetre , it may be more diuretick , it tempers choler , allays thirst , suppresseth inflammatory and putrid heat , and easeth pain . the earth contained in this water , is so much in quantity , and the leafy hard parts so many , that i should think the salt of this water to be preferable to the water it self . or else the water ought to be boyl'd till half be evaporated , and then depurated by suffering the grosser parts to subside . all the waters following partake of the nature of a vitrioline or common salt , or sea-salt , and so resist putrifaction , make a strong concoction , are proper in worms , may cure a jaundies when it comes upon a colick , mortifie scabs , and remove scurfyness , and kill several humours , as tetters and the like eruptions ; their particular natures are as follow . . waters which bear a salt related to common salt , but clear of the muriatick part , are alford in somersetshire , and colchester . to restore an appetite , for worms and mortifying eruptions , and hypochondriack flatus . . a salt more fully of the nature of common or sea salt , in its power of mortifying preternatural salts in the body , without the severity of coagulating , is found in lambeth waters , whereof the nearest well is the most perfect . the virtues see in the examination of that water . only observe that these are used outwardly as well as inwardly . . a salt of the nature of that part of common salt which christallizes in the cold , is found in north-hall water , and may be beneficial in the scurvy , beyond any others , as likewise in rhumatisms , and in what cases soever that are attended with putrefaction . . a salt of the nature of common or sea-salt , yet not having an acidity agreeing with iron , but fluxile , penetrative and marcasitical , is that of dullwich ; it mortifieth scabby humours , and such as are the effects of luxury , but promotes the flux of the menses and haemo●rhoids . these require regular drinking , work very m●ch , and that churlishly on those that either drinking or walking hath put out of temper . . salt of the nature of salt of english vitriol , that is of iron , and seem a result of the uniting of vitriol and nitre , or salt of common earth , whose characteristick is to give a white clouded liquor with gall , and not so high a colour with lignum nephriticum as alkalies give : this is the salt of richmond water , and the two chalybeats , and recommends the use of these waters , in the cure of scurfs , is most safe in dropsies , in ulcers in any part ; in hypochondriacal cases exceed the rest : and the benefit of a purging water that is chalybeat is extraordinary great , it not only answering the design of both waters , but under the consideration of a purging water , is made thereby specifically proper in asthma's and beginning dropsies , and without which qualification , it could be administred neither so safely , nor with so good effect . according to my method before , i shall deliver the virtues of the chalybeat purging waters , from observation of the learned dr. witty at the spring at scarbourgh , the happy successes of which make him lift it above all the waters in europe ; he recommends in it these qualities , crassos lentosque humores attenuat incidit , & dissolvit in ventriculo , mesenterio , intestinis , renibus & vesicâ ; diluendi item & detergendi virtutem nacta , eos per vesicam & intestina promptissimè expellit , prout ab eorum positione videantur magis inclinari . and presently names the venae lacteae , the portae and liver ; and he makes a remark at the diuretick quality , that notwithstanding two thirds presently run off by urine , it purges so much , and at both in their lessening the bulk and weight of the body . he enters his observations with a cure of a scurvy , attended among other symptoms with pains in the joynts , and difficulty of breathing ; and of a gout in the same gentleman , so considerable abated by it , that in a letter he there acknowledges , he never after that suffered any symptom of moment . the diseases further recorded by dr. witty to have been cured by the same water , and of which he produceth instances , are , diverse distempers of the head , chiefly arising from the consent of the stomach and hypochondries , affections of the nerves , and spasm , vellicating the coats and nerves of the stomach ; or caused by worms or sharp and bilious humours . palsies that from their accompanying scurvy are called scorbutick . a vertigo assaulting upon the least motion or heating of the body . a vertigo with a cold sweat , intermitting pulse , and stiffness of the neck remaining after the cure of a spasmus cynicus , and which he judg'd to be scorbutical . a spontaneous weariness and weakness of the nerves , especially upon going forth in cold weather , remaining after the cure of a scorbutick palsie , that at first had seiz'd the patient upon a journey , and taken away reason , sight , strength and motion . an epilepsie from a hot vapour which the patient felt to rise from the hypochondries , and suddenly to strike his head and joynts , and which had frustrated many remedies . in stoppages of the breast he observed it to promote expectorating , spontaneous weariness , and difficulty or shortness of breath . a phthisical asthma , that suffered not the patient to lye down , or sleep , or keep his food , and scarce allow'd him to drink , mended in ten days time , and at last cured , so as to recover his flesh , and vanquish the symptoms . an obstinate catarrh . gout , a fit of which he freed himself from by drinking the waters two days , as soon as he felt it certainly coming ; in which too he practised bathing in salt water , and sweating upon it . in morbis ventriculi , anorexia , cardialgia , eructatione perpetua , nauseâ , & singultu . hypochondria●ism , with pains of the stomach after eating flesh , distention and hardness of the stomach and torsions of his right side in one patient ; and with a joyn'd pain of back and stomach , with a schirrous tension of the ventricle and liver , continual disposition to vomit , and a jaundies supervening every fit , in another patient , who could not lye on the right side , nor bear the region of the liver to be touch'd . oppilations of the mesentery , liver and spleen , preventing a dropsie . another instance of its power in reducing the belly after child-birth , which remained tumid . scurvy , hypochondriack melancholy , and worms ; fluxes dysenterick and lienterick . hot intemper of the kidneys , in wearing a new stone , and expelling it with the tartareous matter . also in a fresh lues venerea safely and quickly stopping a gonorrhaea , and carrying off the relicks , after the cure of an old one . in morbis uterinis & suffocatione matricis , chlorosi , fluore albo mensium fluxu inordinato . abortionem praevertit & conceptionem promovet . and strengthens the natural parts . i affix this register exactly , because when so nicely done , is the only true way of adjusting their virtues ; and is so much the more useful , as it is equally applicable to scarbourgh and woodham-ferrys , which are both the same . rule of drinking these waters in general , is the same which the chalybeats require , viz. chearfulness and exercise , and a mild diet , they are not to be slept upon without danger , nor doth the benefit of them consist with a temper disordered by drinking , either in the use of them , or immediately before . the repetition of drinking purging waters three or four times , sufficiently answers the general design of washing the body , though the more stubborn disorders of some bodies , make a longer use of them necessary . but when the nature of the distemper , or its obstinacy , require the use of them specifically , they ought to be continued as other remedies for many weeks , though with intermissions at discretion . the use of the salts of the purging waters is very advantageous for persons that are distanced from them , and in the winter , especially in cases wherein the milk , which is usually added to make them agreeable by turning them into posset clarified , is not allowable , as in itches and salt eruptions . the use of which both in glysters and purges , when dissolved in water , or convenient apozems , is most kindly , and may be properly applied , as the learned dr. grew hath introduced it . some observations on the bath water in somersetshire . the smallness of the quantity of the bath water , which i could procure at so great a distance , did not allow me scope to try the earthy and saline parts collectible by evaporation . the water was clear , and coldish to taste , not wide of the taste of common water . it did not gild silver , or make it yellow , as it doth at the spring . i could discover little alkalisate in it : it thickned and became milky with oyl of tartar and curdled : it did not precipitate sublimate dissolved in common water considerably , which upon standing some time became only a very little whitish . the salt contained in this water , appeared fully to be saltpetre , in that it did not the least disturb a solution of sal saturni in fair water ; but shewed a little of the nature of common sa it more than saltpetre hath , in giving a pale yellow with lignum nephriticum with a dark cloud which settled ; and in taking a dull ale colour , not fine with tincture of logwood , the red it took languish'd more and more : and in precipitating a solution of fine silver out of spirit of nitre in a hardish curd , more than saltpetre doth . those that know the nature of both salt-petre and sulphur , which are the principles that impregnate this water , must allow them to be produced by the heat of the earth , and not to be the cause of it . if we enquire into the cause and original of this heat , the nature of the salt evidenceth it not to be produced by any calcarious quarry , nor the effervescence of contrary salts and acids : subterranean fire is groundless , and hath invincible absurdities ; it may reasonably be supposed to be maintained by the heat of the earth ; for as a considerable heat is required to the concoction and preparation of metals , and is sensibly proved in the mine-chambers ; so that crust of dead loamy earth that assists to maintain it , separates it from us ; and though we find no such extraordinary heat , yet the heat of the mines do not only prove a heat , but imply a much greater to be where the metal is prepared , than where it is separated . the eruption of it at places , i pretend not to account for , but that it is different often in places not many rods distant , is beyond doubt . the virtues of these minerals well account for the cures wrought by the bath , the most which i have observed or known , having been in tumours or palsies from tough phlegm ; not to take notice of their external use in scabby diseases : and those that have been within my knowledge , have been all performed by pumping the diseasy part , and not by bathing . now the qualities that authors take notice of in sulphur to heat and dry , incide , open and provoke . sweat , and resist putrefaction , consider'd with the power of the other to ease pain , penetrate , discuss , and temper inflammation , sufficeth to the performing all this . but to bring it nearer to sense , i shall take notice what any person may prove , that a bath made of salt-petre , sea-salt and brimstone , is the most happy dissolvent of oedematous tumours even in the legs , that hitherto i have observed . it is much to be suspected , that this water must lose much of its power , if not the best part , by carriage , together with its power of tinging silver yellow , especially for inward use . i shall conclude all with this useful remark , that as the waters are a powerful and extraordinary remedy , so to have success in the use of them , it is necessary to form just and due observations of them , by distinguishing , . what cures are wrought by the waters on a general account , and what by the nature of the distinct salt. . what are proper and may effect in light cases , but seldom avail alone . . some that avail , but fail in confirm'd cases , as the purging chalybeats in hypochondriacism . . what distempers they cure , with regard to a particular cause , and not universally . and lastly , what they may be trusted to for , as in inveterate and confirm'd obstructions . the light chalybeat waters may , and perhaps in asthma and scurvy the purging chalybeats , &c. some observations on the water of queen camel in somersetshire . the trial of this water i annex to the bath water , because this is likewise a sulphurous one and might illustrate that ; at least having it by me i thought worth preserving . it is a cold spring of a faetid smell , in which , as well as in taste , it resembled that of a foul gun , as my honoured friend the reverend mr. samuel adamson , who made the experiments for me at the spring , inform'd me . it tingeth the stones black on which it falls . the use of this water is inwardly and outwardly in the kings-evil , and other ulcers and scabbiness , in which the success is frequent , and purgeth little of any thing , but hath produced eruptions if drank without occasion , by a body whose constitution they disagreed with . it hath the reputation of proceeding from a copper mine , for which my friend could discover no ground , as neither do the trials , unless some pyrites there found may give the occasion . this water prov'd upon tryal to contain a calcarious salt , yet not so open as to answer with gall and lignum nephriticum , and a sulphur differing from common brimstone , and more amicable to alkalys , and not to be precipitated by acids ; and to contain no metalline parts , at least openly so . with gall it took a very pale yellow , and upon standing a week a little deeper colour , and a little thicker . with lignum nephriticum , upon hours standing , a little deeper than with gall ; in both which it resembled neither vitriols , which take less colour , nor as alkalys , which give a deeper , but nearer saltpetre , or rather common pump-water . like alkalys it curdled not milk. with a solution of sublimate , drops in ounces , a bright brass colour , and upon addition of drops more , curdled and precipitated of a feuille mort colour , as alkalys and salt of lime . oyl of tartar p. del . drops in ounces , made it more limpid and inclinable to a bright copper , which vinegar would not precipitate . the water , when it had stood a week , with a solution of sal saturni , turn'd white like milk as alkalys , but when fresh , with drops of the solution , took a dark brown colour , and look'd thick . the sediment , which is small and dark colour'd , would not burn , nor would it communicate a colour to aqua fortis , nor to common salt upon standing , as mettals and copper especially will. for various reasons i must excuse any inimical mineral from a share in this , especially arsenick or copper , but judge it rather near to common sulphur , but less remote from an alkaly : but to know this more nicely , the pyrites ought to be prov'd . as this may shew the reason of its good effects in the king's-evil , and why it agrees not in a scorbutick disposition , so it may help to drect its proper place in acid tumors , as milk sores , or where the chyle is curdled , which if observ'd , might make the waters more useful . this water gilds silver as doth the bath water , and as doth common sulphur . the figure of the scarborow water salt referr'd to at page . the figure sent me and there referr'd to . the figure of the salt sent me . finis . a second essay of the bath water . having some reason to be dissatisfied with the former essay of it , i procur'd some more new : i found the taste a very little nauseous and saline . the salt of it resembled common salt , the water not disturbing a solution of german vitriol : nor a solution of sublimat , and taking but a pale dull red with syrup of cloves , and very little colour from lignum nephriticum , and with gall pale and curdled . with a solution of salt of lead it curdled strongly , but whitened not the liquor so much as pump water . besides this strong precipitation it had this peculiar , not to praecipitate silver , so readily or so much as common salt : and it made a white curdle with spirit of harts-horn , but did not disturb spirit of sal armoniac : this differing effect , of these two spirits , is only found in a decoction of common salt and common sulphur , and sulphurous bodies ; for i observed near the same , to succeed with an infusion of orpiment and spirit of vitriol diluted . this odd phaenomenon is in dulwich water , which hereby is illustrated to be owing to the sulphurousness of the pyrites , and perhaps depth of the water . a table of the waters here examined . acton water in middlesex page alford in somersetshire aylesham in norfolk barnet in hartfordshire bath water in somersetshire & brentwood-weal in essex colchester in essex dulwich water in lewisham in kent epsam in surry felstead in essex ilumington in warwichshire islington near london kensington near london knaresborough in yorkshire lambeth farther well in surry lambeth nearer well in surry marks-hall in essex north-hall in hartfordshire oulton in norfolk queen-camel in somersetshire richmond in surry scarborow in yorkshire stretham in surry tunbridge in kent upminster near brentwood in essex wellenborow in northamptonshire wittham in essex woodham-ferrys near danbury in essex an index of the virtues and properties of the waters . a. acidity of the stomach , as heartburning and all acid humors to sweeten and carry off . the purging waters that are alkalisate or calcarious . apoplexies to prevent and cure. knarsborow and marks-hall . asthma . scarborow and woodh . b. against barrenness . scarborow and knarsb . perhaps both successively used . bleeding at any part . knarsborow and marks-●● c. catarrh . scarborow and woodham-f . cholicks . all the purging waters , those of common salt best , but if inflamatory epsam . cholour of the face to mend . if from a chlorosis the purging chalybeats , else the alkalisate , and principally epsam . consumption . if climacterick , the light chalybeats , but if introduced by a haemoptoe , the acid. cramps and convulsions . knaresborow . d. dropsie . if hypochondriacal , the light chalybeats . diabetes . all the waters are received to cure , but the most certain the light chalybeat , as tunbridge , &c. e. epilepsie hypochondriacal . scarborow . f. fatress and grossness to lessen . epsam . fistula . the light chalybeats . fluxes dysenteric . scarborow : fluxes of all sorts in women . knaresborow . fluor a●bus . scarborow . all fluxes of blood. knaresborow . g. giddiness . the purging waters , if old chalybeat , that is , the light ones , and to confirm the cure by the acid chalybeats . gout . all the chalybiates but the nitrous . gonorrhea . scarborow and knaresborow . h. heat of the face or at the stomach . epsam . hypochondriacism . purging waters and chalybeat successively : the first according to the constitution , as in the gross epsam ; the chalybeat , i● the diseases affect the head or glands , the light sort ; and the cure to be confirm'd by the acid , as is knarsb . and marks - i. jaundies . if originally from the vice of the ventricle and intestines , the purging waters that partake of common salt ; if upon melancholy , or obstructions , the chalybeat . k. kings-evil . queen-camel . l. leprosie . knaresborow and lambeth . see scurfs . m. melancholy . all the alkalisate waters , but most effectual epsam . against miscarrying . scarborow and knaresborow . o. obstructions . the light chalybeat . p. running burning pains . the purging waters , especially the chalybeat . for pilegmatick constitutions . brentwood-w . pissing of blood. knarsborow . s. schirrous tumours of the stomach . the light chalybeats and scarborow . scabs . knaresborow . scurf and scurvy . scarb. and woodh . stone . agreeable purgers , north-hall and lambeth , or the purging chalybeats , cured by the light sorts . swelling of the belly continuing after child-birth . scarborow . to sweeten the blood and juyces . the alkalisate . t. tumours of the spleen , mesentery and liver . scarborow . teeth to fasten . knaresb . and marks-hall . v. vertigo . scarb. vlcers . the chalybeats . heat of vrine . knaresb . w. worms . the purging waters bearing common salt. white fluor . see fluor . weakness of the nerves , scarb. spontaneous weariness ; scarb. the end of the index . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e numb . . part . obj. . ☞ a relation of some notable cures accounted incurable as followeth. faber, albert otto, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing f estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a relation of some notable cures accounted incurable as followeth. faber, albert otto, - . p. s.n., [london : ] caption title. signed: albertus otto faber. imprint suggested by wing. reproduction of original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng mineral waters -- therapeutic use -- early works to . health resorts -- germany. bad schwalbach (germany) - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - jason colman sampled and proofread - jason colman text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a relation of some notable cures accounted incurable , as followeth . ens primum 〈◊〉 germania . whereas the vertue of the ens primum acidularum germaniae , that is ( as it were ) the quintessence of the ( swalbacher ) sower-springs in germany , hath by its good effects to mens health been made known in and about london , and in several counties of england , and many people desirous to be helped , being stil ignorant of it : the multitude of such as vaunts themselves ( under the name of doctors and physicians ) with store of placards affixed about the streets , having by such a manner , ( that prostitutes its masters to a vulgar discredit , and over-scrupulous contempt , in prejudice upon the innocent art of physick ) made for a long time a stop to any farther intimation concerning the said ens primum : yet upon the earnest desire of several persons , the cures hereafter mentioned , being in truth effectively performed ; it hath been resolved , hereby once more to give publick notice of it , and its particular virtues , according to late experience , since that general account given of it about . years past . by the blessing of god it is an universal preserver of mens bodies & every sublunar creature whatsoever , against all kind of putrefaction , corruption and infection ; more particularly , the ens primum has been found beneficial to many that wanted appetite and digestion . also it has been found good in the stopping of the stomach , in consumptions , in agues , in vomiting , surfeit , ulcers , scurvy , feavers , worms , cough , spleen , flux of blood , shortness of breath and stitches , great colds , colick , fits of the mother , obstructions , convulsion-fits : in the small-pox it hath been very effectual , and exceeding successful ; it is also a good preservative against the gout , and hath been administred in many other diseases , restoring some persons to perfect health that were given over by physicians . women subject to barrenness and miscarriage , and also those whose children after birth usually dyed , having taken of the ens primum all the time of their being with child , brought forth sound children , not subject to the rickets or scab because as it purifies the whole body from all corruption , so consequently the womb. oleum de lapide butleri . that this oyle is an universal medicine as well as the stone it self , is publikely known by the writings of van helmont : and therefore having for many years tried divers things concerning it , i have of late found something near it , whereof the oyle into which this stone is dipped , hath given these proofs , viz. by annointing the limbs it has cured the running gout : and by annointing the feet it gave present ease to a painful gout : it hath cured the kings-evil , lameness of long continuance , apoplexie , spleen , melancholly , strange pains in the body : also a great imposthume , that after many applications in five years was not cured , was rendered curable . another in a consumption , having a hard lump on the side of her belly , and all over her body , as it were an entire scab , was perfectly cured in a short time with the said oyle . a hand as it were venomed , and swelling up to the shoulder with blew spots , being annointed , the pain immediately ceased , and the swelling asswaged . a great swelling on the head and face , neck and shoulders with much pain , and the kings evil , was eased and advanced to a cure by this oyle . feet swelled and very sore , and lameness on the huckle-bone , have been cured . a man overtaken with a painful distemper over all his body , for the space of five days , not knowing what it was , was cured immediately . another being brought very low , first he was afflicted with knobs in a strange manner , and his flesh was much consumed of a sudden , and his appetite quite lost , presently after he had touched this stone twice on the tip of his tongue , the knobs fell in a wonderful manner ; and using it in the same manner days , his flesh came again , and he grew pretty strong . likewise many being troubled in mind , and many troubled with head-ach have been soon refreshed with some few drops upon the tongue . a very dangerous and desperate fistula entring into the body , was brought to a cure with the same , &c. epilepsia , hydrops , pustulae & podagra . paracelsus ( in sine libri ii. de praeparationibus ) is declaring something concerning the cure of the falling-sickness , dropsie , morbus gallicus ( vide paracelsum in chirurgicis , libr. . de pustulis ibi : de pustulis seu morbo gallico ) and the gout , exalting the excellency of the true spirit of vitriol in the diseases made mention of ; but he there speaks of the making of that spirit according to the philosophical manner . however i may say in truth , that a woman aged . years , having had the falling-sickness sixteen years in a most cruel raging manner , had been wholly cured by this medicine within six weeks . another woman . years of age ▪ being afflicted with the falling-sickness for years , hath been cured by the same within eight weeks . a boy of twelve years being taken with this disease half a year after he was born , insomuch , that when the fit was upon him , he must be holden by two or three men ; & when he felt the fit was coming , in a strange manner he would seek to avoid it , sometimes by offering to run into the water , sometimes into the fire , sometimes against the wall , so that it was an exceeding great misery to behold such a poor creature ; he was at last cured within . weeks by this medicine , and is still in good health . another maid of . years of age , had often such fits three hours long , was restored within four weeks . also a woman being constantly afflicted with the falling sickness whensoever she was with child , was perfectly cured by the use of this medicine , and not troubled any more therewith . thus it is manifest by such proofs , that paracelsus is true in his promise or assertion concerning the excellency of that wonderful spirit of vitriol : and therefore we may safely conclude , that the said paracelsus speaks truth also , concerning the cure of the gout , dropsie and french-pox , with the self same spirit of vitriol ; which whether it be so or not , might be experienced without any harm , because this spirit of vitriol is not hurtful at all to the nature of man , as being freed from all corrosiveness , that is ordinary to such like mineral spirits , its virtue and nobility being as it were derived from an astral influence , by its artificial and secret preparation , which paracelsus loco citato , describes under the figure of the ninth alembique . as concerning pustulas , or the french-pox , which paracelsus makes mention of , my book in print , entitled , a paradox of the shameful disease , may give larger satisfaction to him that desireth more information of it , together with its cure , under a parable in the second part of the same , wherein i have more particularly disclosed paracelsus ground , whereof the said medicine of that disease doth arise according to his intention . calculus vesicae , or stone of the bladder . hath been from age to age a very hard trial to physicians , of which the cure by inward means , finally grown desparate , hath caused the cutting of the bladder-stone . mercatus and capivaccius do confess they were ignorant of any remedy for it . erastus is perswaded , that by no means the bladder-stone is curable inwardly . nevertheless the most authorized philosophers do afford its cure by their experience . basile valentine hath performed the said cure with his lapis ignis , so called ; paracelse with his ludus , of which van helmont declareth something more plainly concerning its preparation , viz by the alcahest . and so always such as being fitly qualified , have sought in a right manner , have found somewhat . a boy of six years pitifully tormented with the stone of the bladder night and day , i verily certifie , that he was cured entirely with a medicine , whether according to basilius by the lapis ignis , or according to paracelsus by the ludus , i think needless to express more particularly , curiosity being not satisfactory in this respect . another boy of a bigger age was cured of the same , viz. stone of the bladder , after some years affliction therewith by this medicine alone . so that i am convinced , philosophers are true in their writings concerning this cure . rupture . i say more , an old man of ● years having a rupture on both sides , to the bigness of a mans fift , was restored by the self-same medicine within ten weeks . another about the same age burst at the one side alone , was restored to his health by the same within eight weeks , and this beyond all expectation . these things i thought fit to publish for the common good , that i might not by my silence be the cause , that any who may & would be helped , should perish , knowing not , that there was a remedy provided for his distemper under the blessing of god. given forth at london , in thames-street , over-against baynards castle , at the bottom of adlin-hill , . of ber . sub protectione regis . by albertus otto faber , medicus regius exercit. suec . a short and plain account of the late-found balsamick wells at hoxdon, and of their excellent virtues above other mineral waters, which make 'em effectually cure most diseases, both inward and outward with directions how to use 'em / by t. byfield, m.d. byfield, t. (timothy) approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a short and plain account of the late-found balsamick wells at hoxdon, and of their excellent virtues above other mineral waters, which make 'em effectually cure most diseases, both inward and outward with directions how to use 'em / by t. byfield, m.d. byfield, t. (timothy) [ ], , [ ] p. printed, and are to be sold by christopher wilkinson ..., thomas fox ..., and john harris ..., london : . reproduction of original in cambridge university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng mineral waters -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - john latta sampled and proofread - john latta text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a short and plain account of the late-found balsamick wells at hoxdon . and of their excellent virtues above other mineral waters ; which make 'em effectually cure most diseases , both inward and outward . with directions how to use ' em . by t. byfield , m. d. london , printed and are to be sold by christopher wilkinson , at the black-b●y against st. dunstons church in fleetstreet , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , at the angel in westminster-hall , and john harris at the 〈◊〉 against the church in the poultrey . . to the proprietors of the late-found balsamick wells , at the golden-heart , in hoxdon-square . gentlemen , although so great a vein of medicine be put into your hands , i presume you neither intend to commence doctors your selves , or give degrees to others at those wells . i confess that to be in any measure intrusted with the general health of so populous a city , whether for its preservation or recovery , is no small blessing , if rightly manag'd . and that you are made trustees by the providence of god , for the publique good , in this affair , seems better order'd , than if it had fell into the hands of physicians themselves , who are too apt to monopolize , and make arcana . i did last year observe how freely , and on what easie terms you set open those salutiferous fountains , so that none cou'd complain for want of their benefit . i likewise took notice of a great deal of mis-management in the vse of those waters . least therefore such wholesome springs should not be us'd aright , and so have their just value abated ; i have kindly vndertaken to give some account of their nature and virtues . to which others , or my self ( after further experience of 'em ) may add a fuller character , adorn'd with the observations of various cures . i have also directed a proper method for their medicinal use , in shewing what care is requisite in the drinking of ' em . but how the body is to be prepar'd , and the method of 'em discreetly carried on , that the waters may become more effectual to so many various distempers , and different constitutions , recourse must be had to physicians . now altho' i have play'd the hydrotomist with these balsamick-wells , and by the rules of art in my laboratory strictly examin'd their principles ; so that i am tollerably furnish'd with a fair account of so new a discovery ; yet i will not post my self at the wells , or expose an apothecary's shop , as many may do , to get rid of some old medicines , &c. but reserve at my own house those few medicines i judge fit both to prepare the body , and accompany the vse of the waters variously design'd . for i wou'd have every industrious physician qualifie himself for real service , and then 't is pity but he shou'd be heard . and i hope this my vndertaking will candidly be accepted by all , and escape the abusive censures of some physicians , who are not willing to be at so much pains , yet shall think their merchandize hereby obstructed . i hope , gentlemen , you will be very industrious to keep open these balsamick springs , that they may long flow to the advantage of many : and that the other accommodations may be so dispos'd , as to be only serviceable to this great and good design ; that no disrepute may be cast on the wells , nor sobriety offended by contriving the entertainment of luxury and needless diversions , and so become an unhandsome rendevouz . but i doubt not but under your prudent conduct , their medicinal virtues will raise 'em to such a general good esteem , that they 'll become the metropolitan fountain . that these rivulets may joyn together , and become one lasting spring ; and that the love of so great a blessing may unite proprietors and physicians , in contriving 'em the best way to be serviceable to the publick good , are the vnfeigned wishes of , gentlemen , your real friend and servant , t. byfield . from my house in new-street , by shoe-lane , near the five-bells . a short and plain account of the late-found balsamick wells at hoxdon , &c. chap. i. of water in general . since i am about to demonstrate the advantages of medicinal waters , and to shew how fit a vehicle this element is to convey medicine to the inmost recesses of the body ; i think it not besides my business if i a little touch upon the excellency of water , which was created for the universal drink of all creatures , and the health and long life of the first ages of the world , may commend its wholesomness . but if we examine its nature , we shall find it consist of those qualities which denote its salubrity , as clearness , thinness , lightness , softness , &c. which cool , moisten , attenuate , refresh , allay thirst , and are a pabulum or recruit to fretted spirits , and a proper liquor to convey and distribute other aliments . some of the ancients call'd it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . the seed of all things : but i shall not here discourse of the productions from waters ; what vegetables , minerals and animals are generated by it . neither shall i treat of the various kinds of water , as river-water , rain-water , pump , lake , pond-water , &c. that is the best and most wholsome which is void of taste or odour , and is clear , pure , most light , soon heated , soon cold , and in which flesh is soonest boyl'd . the living spring i judge most valuable for drinking , and that nearest the head of it the best . for those living principles which actuate all bodies , and keep 'em not only from putrefaction , but qualify 'em for recruits and sustenance to other bodies , are in proportion in waters , which denote 'em of such and such a strength and purity , and may be us'd in quantities accordingly . and 't is no small advantage that they are capable of being receiv'd in such large quantities , without fuming or disturbing the brain , to irrigate and soften the whole body , and bedew the fiery spirits with their supple vapours : and when those airy brisk particles do extricate themselves from these soft lodgments , they are again entangled with more , to prevent their leaping out , or firing one against another : and such a pretty bustle or ferment in nature raises that general efflorescence and vigor , which plumps , exhilerates , and makes gay a well-temper'd healthy body . the dispensing either of food or physick in a clear , thin , soft , and gentle vehicle , must make a better digestion , and a more equal distribution of it , then in a fiery chariot , which precipitates nature , and hurries the crude parts through those strait and slender passages beyond their natural emunctories , and lodges 'em where neither nature can expel 'em , nor art reach 'em ; and that causes gout , and other diseases . whenas the milder liquors make such easie gradations , that nature can secern by her peculiar cleansing ducts , those feces and crudities , which timely and orderly expel'd , prevent innumerable obstructions and distempers to the body . i wish for my own particular , who am sometimes afflicted with stone and gout , that i had earlier studied these things . but what i can't prevent in my self , i 'm willing to do for others . but to shew how excellent a vehicle water is , for the distribution of generous and restorative medicines , is no difficult task , if its nature be considered , as is before mentioned : for by searching out the minutest passages of the body , it promotes a general dispensation of the design'd matter to all parts of it . and i am of the opinion that fine chymical medicines should be deliver'd to bodies in soft gentle vehicles ; yet i wou'd not have 'em convey'd in their own terrestial bodies ( as galenical physick is ) for they are so fitted there in their position , that our bodies ( especially when sick ) are not able to extricate the benign useful parts from the intricate meatus's of a tough compositum , and raise its living principles from their domiclis so stifly munited and secured . yet when by great art and labour these lively particles are set loose and defecated , they are beneficially deliver'd in another body , where they can't so soon shape a retirement : and if in thin , light , cooling liquors , nature can with ease gradually fetch out theit help and refreshment , without any fierce assault from 'em , and this vehicle admits of quantity enough for a general and equal distribution of such generous medicines as are usually contracted into very slender quantities . — but i design brevity . chap ii. of mineral waters . in the mineral kingdom through which the veins of water glide , are amass'd mighty treasures , from whence may be extracted greater relief for the necessities of mankind , than is by most imagined . excellent medicines are gained by the due management of fire from several minerals and semi-minerals , &c. but to come to my purpose : by playing the hydrotomist , the great account of mineral waters may be display'd , which receive their medicinal qualities from subterranean mines and oars . it may be considered that few mineral waters are simple , i mean impregnated only with one mineral , but compounded as the minerals and marcasites lye confused in the bowels of the earth ; and those who have been curious to search into the nature of medicinal springs , have always discovered a mixture , though perhaps some of 'em have not been so lucky as to assign their virtues to the proper minerals , &c. in the mineral kingdom i place salt , nitre , vitriol , allom , &c. for in the salts of many bodies lye their chief virtues , either for purging by stool or urine , or for cleansing , cooling , drying , stimulating , opening of obstructions , attenuating of gross humours , or for astriction , corroboration , &c. according to the nature of the body . the learned helmomt saith , ( p. . ) semina salium cuncta in aquis sita sunt , attamen nondum saporem induerunt nisi corporum principia consentanea vterosque terrae debitos repererunt , &c. viz. that all the seeds of salts are placed in water , yet are not endued with taste , unless they find agreeable principles of bodies and sutable matrices of the earth ; then , and not till then they manifest their saltness , and become determined in a saline body ; in one place into allom ; in another sal-marine , in a third nitre . &c. to which he adds , quocirca notandum , sal quoddam existere hermaphroditicum metallorum quod defectu nominis esurinum sive acetosum re et nomine vocari capit , generale equidem & ad omnia metalla accommodabile : ( viz ) that there is a certain hermaphroditical salt of metals , which for want of another name is call'd an esurine or acid salt , which is a general sort of salt , and accommodated to all metals . so that this esurine salt , while such , is no more then salt , and not a vitriol : but if it become a vitriol , it must espouse a mineral or metalline body . he further saith , vitriolum praestantissimum naturaliter crescit fodinis , quibus natura istad sal esurinum peperit , venam aeris feracem , corrodens , & fontis labentis liquore dissolutum ; ( viz ) that the best vitriol is most naturally brought forth in those mines where nature hath begot that esurine salt , corroding a strong vein of copper , becomes dissolv'd in the gliding current of a spring . but should i here inlarge in an account of nitre , vitriol , allom , &c. i should exceed my present intention , and prevent a future design . yet i think it necessary to my present business , to say thus much of nitre and vitriol : that the esurine salt discover'd in the air , if it meet with a fat unctuous glebe , and be preserv'd from rain and sun , that it spend not its strength in the production of vegetables , breeds great store of nitre : for 't is observ'd that in these fat earths there is at first no nitrous taste , neither can any nitre be extracted from 'em : but after their continuance a while in the cool air , its magnetick power from a nitrous principle opens the unctuous body of the fat glebe , a fit receptacle for the esurine spirit , and is therewith coagulated and envellop'd : and after this manner is the nativity of nitre . 't is commonly observ'd , that in cold weather the appetite is more keen , and the thirst little ; which proceeds from the great store of nitre that is in the air. vitriol i take to be an esurine acid salt , corroding the sulphureous parts of metals or marcasites , by an acid subterraneal spirit , ( whereof there is great quantity in some mines ) corroding the veins of iron , copper , &c. from whence are the varieties of vitriol . sometimes from a vitriol loam , or clay diluted with water , and set in a cold cellar , may be gather'd an alluminous efflorescence , which shews there may be a mixture of allom with vitriol . but the differences or varieties of impregnations arise either from the difference of the quantity of the acid spirit , corroding the veins of copper or iron , or from the greater or lesser continuance of the course of the water through those metallick veins . it need not seem strange to any that there is such acidity in water and air ; from whence else doth iron and copper , being put into water , or standing long in the air in a cool cellar , contract such a rust as they do ? is it not from the acid spirit of air and water uniting with the esurine salt in those metals , exciting its corrosive power to destroy the texture of the metal ? and this rust being boiled in rain-water , will yield a vitriol . there are many ways of making artificial vitriols : but i shall pass beyond my intentention if i now discourse of ' em . 't is obvious what beds of minerals lye in the bowels of the earth , on which the currents of water wash in their circulating veins , from which they are impregnated with their medicinal qualities . but before i dismiss this chapter , i think fit to add this , that there is a universal common salt of nature , the first ens of salts , which is specificated according to the diversity of nature , and receives various forms . god , the original founder of all beings , hath implanted in the superficies of the earth , that great variety of vegetable seeds , which propagate themselves in their species : so that very vegetable at its proper season , by the instigation of the heavenly insluences , setting at work its seminals , and by stirring up its innate power , begins to shape it self a body according to the laws of creation , every plant in its kind , till they have made up that wonderful variety which so richly adorns the earth . in like manner are disperst the mineral and metalline seeds in the bowels of the earth , determin'd for specification , and to become prolifick by the embryonate sulphur , according to the purity or impurity of the terrestrial matrix . and thus the metallick order is compleated by the perfected metals , while the imperfect and middle minerals arrive but slowly to metallization . chap. iii. of the balsamick wells at hoxdon . having premis'd thus much of water in general and of mineral waters , the better to explain my essay of these new discover'd balsamick wells . i shall now give a short and plain account of their constituent principles , which upon a strict examen ▪ many ways in my laboratory , i have discover'd to be only these following , ( viz. ) the first ens or mother of salts , which runs thro' and is shut up in all specificated salts ; tho' it is not easily made appear : for it requires a laborious and skilful hand to resolve the compage of a mineral or metal . the balsamick principle is a sulphur well digested and purified by the volatile salt , and retains in it a great deal of the embryonate sulphur . but 't is brought to that height and volatility in the bowels of the earth , that were it not for the third principle , the vitriol of mars , to give 'em fixation , i believe they would not have been retained in water alone . but this being of a more fixt nature , and a salt , has magnetically caught and entangled the esurine spirit with the first ens or mother of salts , and that fragrant tender sulphur in her belly . so that when the metalick oar is unloosed , and you come near to the original of salts , then you 'l find the tender sulphur close lockt up in it , which when 't is long digested by nature or art , becomes most grateful , and withal so volatile by the unition of it with a sublime salt , that it will imbody it self without much shew , save that of a pleasing gummous smell : for all odour is from sulphur . but before i pass any further , i think fit to explain what i mean by an embryonate sulphur , and that is , a fragrant gas or breath containing the beginnings and impressions of sulphur which are not yet imbodyed , but like the first rayes of an embrio in the womb , before it has gathered much matter . now that our waters do contain these principles , and in so great purity , it may thus appear : for where there is no floating oyl , as in one of the wells there is but very little , there is nevertheless a most pleasing scent from the sulphur that is incorporated with the waters . now wherever there is such an embryonate pure sulphur , there must be a volatile salt of the highest nature , to attenuate this sulphur , and carry it on its wings through the whole body . and thus it is in our waters , which upon ordinary experiments you 'll find contain these volatiles : for by evaporating some of the water , you 'll perceive it lose most of its grateful sulphureous odour , because so tender and volatile : nay , though you shou'd distil 'em with never so much curiosity , in glass vessels exactly fitted and luted , yet wou'd your sulphur fly away insensibly , and leave no footsteps of its presence . but besides these , we are as forward as any other mineral waters : for we have a pure vitriol of iron , depurated and cleansed by nature from a dangerous aerugo , or ironish rust , which may be precipitated in some mineral waters . this shews it self to every one by the common experiments made on any chalybeate waters ; as by the powder of gauls , the leaves of an oak , or tea , &c. besides the blackish colour it leaves on the ordure : not to mention here all the excellent medicinal qualities , which are a cloud of witnesses for it . this specificated vitriol entangles the fine salt and sulphur , whereby it enriches it self , and retards those volatiles , and so become all together digested , and more easily dissolv'd in the vein of a spring . and the further they pass together in the meanders and sabulous or gravelly streiners of the earth , they become the more purged from the terrestrial and sulphureous feculencies they contracted in their solution . a parallel to these waters i believe is not discover'd . the more i examine 'em , the more i wonder , to see such life in waters , from themselves so pure . 't is usual , especially in the bowels of the earth , for the principles of life to contract great impurities ; or at least , to become so heavy loaded , and disappearing , that they seem either not to be , or stifled , beyond smelling of 'em out by any grateful odours . where there are any sulphureous spaws , as in yorkshire , and other places , their oils ( by report ) stink like rotten eggs in the stomach , &c. — but there is no unwholesome glebe , or any dangerous mineral or metal , that casts one unhappy ray into this healing fountain . so that it appears to be a most excellent composition , ( viz. ) no less than the original purity of salt and sulphur , digested with the finest vitriol of mars . now as i can discover by my art no other principles in this water , so i hope there is no other : for i can't imagine what is wanting to render 'em highly valuable , and promising the greatest benefits to humane bodies , if rightly used . 't is true , they are not far-fetch'd , therefore may be disesteem'd by some . but i have sound out a way to make 'em grateful even to such persons : since then we can't remove the wells to germany or tunbridge , if they will but remove thither , and so send for 'em , or come once a year to 'em , that squeamish distemper will be cur'd . chap. iv. of the virtues and excellency of these waters . now what great things , and truly too , can i say for these fountains ? they seem to be a lively alkali , or come nearer to it than any thing i know by nature to be so . i 'm apt to think 'em able , with a little help , to reccver a decay'd mass of blood , and to dissolve in some measure tartarous coagulums , such as stone and govt : but it must be by a well-govern'd method in the use of 'em , directed with a great deal of skill . by the help of the volatile salt and embryonate sulphur , i believe a deep-rooted scvrvey may be cur'd ; in restoring those decay'd principles which a scorbutic fret of blood has almost eaten out . but before i proceed any further , 't will be necessary to make a little digression of the nature of the scvrvey , and its cure , the better to explain other distempers . the scurvey then is , when the due temperament of the blood is broke up by the raging of the fixt salts , and their preying on the true sulphur or oleity in man eat it out , and subjugate the pure volatile spirit to their own dominion , and so becomes a corrosive fiery spirit . while this is doing , many symptoms appear , as scorbutic frets , and feaverish intermissions , &c. but because it is done by degrees , and in some time becomes natural , a man loses a good habit of body he knows not how . now when this fixt salt has in good measure destroy'd the other vital principles , it sets up a corrosive sharp spirit , which ( for want of the other principles to purifie it ) contracts a foul nasty humour , which by some is call'd bitturn ; 't will look blackish , green , and yellow . by this time a man 's come to a pretty pass , and fit to complain he 's ill ; for every thing about him begins to tell him so : but 't will be too tedious to mention symptoms here . now the common cure for this , ( after purging and bleeding ) is , testaceous powders , crabs eyes , pearl , coral , amber , steel , milk-water , asses milk , going into the countrey , and then to the grave . i say that no dead alkali will cure the scurvey , when come to a height : it will palliate , that is , obtund the sharp particles of the blood , and lick 'em up for a while ; but then the corrosive scorbutic spirit breaks through again , unless suffocated : just as the spirits will disentangle themselves from an opiate , unless over-power'd . but a lively alkali will beget a new mass of blood ; 't will enter into the fixt salt , open its body , and raise a new stock of principles , and ferment off the course salts with its bitturn . now these indeed are true medicines , which alas too few yet know ; yet the scurvey every body knows and cures . but i must not digress too far ; tho' i cou'd not well avoid this short imperfect touch at it ; because 't is the radix of most diseases . indeed 't is the m●ster that cuts out ; for most other diseases do but finish its work . and since few dye of the scurvey , strictly so called ; therefore many will pretend they cure it . for it shifts into another distemper , and the doctor shifts it off too , and gives out he cur'd him of the scurvey ; for the dy'd of a consumption , &c. now whatever contains a pure spirit , seated in a soft volatile salt and a gass of embryonate sulphur , is this lively alkali ; and such our waters do in some degree : therefore i may pronounce them an anti-scorbvtick ; which , rightly considered , is a proud medicine . and that such a medicine is good against stone and govt , both my reason and experience can affirm ; for 't will bid fair for the resolving of tartarous concretions . and that such medicines will open obstructions , dissolve congelations , and the manifold thicknings of the juyces up and down the body , is equally manifest by reason and fair practice . for coagulums are the common effect of the scurvey : and most of the diseases of the body are caus'd by the acid corosive spirit , which will inspissate juyces ; just as acids turn milk to curds and clottedness . all imposthumations , schirrus's , ulcers within the body and without , are from this scorbutick sharp salt. from this topick i could go through with most diseases , and give the best account of their cause . — but i must forbear . these waters from their pure sulphur can't but be excellent for all inward vlcers and decayes , and to supple the spirits fretted by many distempers . from their impregnation with the vitriol of mars , they are embled for all those excellent operations , which tunbridge and other chalybeat waters perform . but because they are so commonly known , i will in this short lecture omit ' em . it may therefore for the present suffice to mention the virtues of these waters from their principles united . they cleanse , cool , stimulate , open obstructions , dissolve and attenuate all gross humours , and are abstersive of viscous , tartarous , and other humours in the stomach , mesenteries , hypochondries , reins , womb , bladder , joints , &c. they create a great appetite , by recovering and strengthening her tone . they cleanse , strengthen , and contract the womb , which must be of great use to such as are subject to miscarriages , weakness in those parts , and are unapt to breed . but because i think not fit here to particularize , i 'll once for all say , they are of excellent use for ladies in all their distinguishing circumstances from men : but not to be used by those with child . for particular direction herein , a physician shou'd be consulted . and here ( in a parenthesis ) let me say , 't is requisite to the health and happiness of every person to have recourse to a spiritual and physical guide , and that in times of seeming health , to provide against those evils , which the height of a distemper and the hour of death make unseasonable for any considerable ministration . principiis obsta , &c. these waters are powerful in all cachectical and obstinate diseases . like an alkali , they imbibe the acidity and sowerness of the blood , and consequently dulcify the same : for by a natural propensity uniting magnetically with the salts , they are ejected together with the obstructive humours , by a strong irritation of nature ( from these waters ) to expel ' em . and from their diuretick nature , after they have attenuated , cut , resolv'd , and so alter'd the mucous and tartarous humours of the body , and prepar'd 'em for excretion , they then carry them off by urine , which is the most safe and effectual conveyance ( for all sharp and saline humours ) of all sorts of evacuation whatever . this water , enrich'd by my tinctura regalis , and some powders that are lively alkali's , search such latent passages , and abstruse retirements of the body , as other medicines cannot reach ; and after a discovery made , doth not only dispossess what is preternatural of its usurped power , but also by corroborating and reinforcing nature , so firmly intitles her to her former right of inheritance , that scarce any thing but an act of hostility or old age , can cut off the entail . they so correct and amend the juices of the body , by expelling watery , sharp , sower , gnawing , hot , foul humours , &c. that they cure the scurvey , , even in those whose gums and teeth , as well by spots as other signs , shew it to have deep rooting . admirable against dropsies , especially in such as have those humours fluctuate up and down , by falling into the legs and returning again , which prevents sore legs , &c. they are justly recommended against the jaundice , yellow and black , melancholy and fearful passions , cholick , diarrhaea , and dysenteria , and the distemper call'd , vapours offending head and heart . they open , cool , cleanse and strengthen the lungs , consequently good against asthma's , coughs , and consumptions , if not too far spent . they are abstersive and mealing ; therefore consolidate lungs decaying by exulcerations : likewise vlcerated kidneys , they cleanse 'em of mucous foul matter , the duelech , sand , gravel and stones . i may likewise commend 'em to those subject to head-aches , vertigo , megrim , &c. and for gonorrhea's , and the fruitful improvements on that graft ; especially if taken in method , with a few other things ; to speak modestly , they will answer expectation . 't is too tedious to enumerate so many distempers as authors have found hard words for . the preserving the blood in , or restoring it to a good temper ( without any more adoe ) cuts off a thousand diseases . i 'll only add , that these waters are of use to such as are afflicted with wounds , vlcers , fistula's , sores , itch , scabs , sore-eyes , sore-legs , leprosie , &c. chap. v. directions to be observed before , in , and after the taking these waters . to them who intend the use of these waters for the removing of any considerable distemper , i advise that they prepare their bodies as shall be thought most proper by their physicians . to those who carefully keep their bodies from any glut of humours , and design onely to take 'em for pleasure , or to remove slighter indispositions ; or if it be but to dilute and temper the blood and preserve it from decay , or to create a good stomach , &c. i advise but a slighter preparation , by a gentle infusion , or a few stomach pills , &c. to clear the first passages . but what i have furnisht my self with , requisite to be given before and with these waters , &c. i shall keep at home , for such who resort to me . for i wou'd willingly avoid all offence ; not coveting any mans employ . and thus i hope i shall easily demonstrate my care to prevent obloquy , and satisfie any i design not to monopolize . if prejudice prevent not , these waters may be prescribed by physicians in method to their patients , to the full as well as other medicinal springs : and by their skill may become useful vehicles for the distribution of such generous and noble medicines as our art directs . these waters are to be taken alone , from one quart to two ; or five pints at most . the rules to be observed in the taking of 'em , are common to other mineral waters , and so generally known , that almost every one can prevent me in those few and easie directions that are requisite . they are to be taken in the morning fasting , and before the body is heated with exercise : therefore come to these wells early , and as easily as you can . they are not to be drank too quick , nor too slow : but convenient distances are to be allotted ; as once in half an hour a pint , or rather less , as your stomach can bear 'em and pass 'em , till you have taken the quantity you design . but to sickly persons i advise but half a pint at a draught ; and a little warm'd in cold weather , by setting a bottle in a skillet of cold water close stopt , and so let it warm with the water . after you have taken two or three draughts , 't is best to use some very gentle exercise , to promote 'em by urine . whilst you walk , ride , &c. you may eat orange-chips , citron-peels , carraway-confects , elicampane-roots candy'd , &c. when your waters are almost return'd , then you may increase your exercise ad ruborem , non ad sudorem ; till you be pretty warm , but not sweat. 't is not fit to dine till the waters are past ; and half an hour before dinner ( for some persons ) a glass of rhenish , white-wine or clarret , i think not amiss . i shall not here prescribe the quality of your diet : every one knows that mutton , veal , lamb , chickens , rabbits , &c. are good fare . my care is to caution you as to quantity , and that the rather , because these waters rightly used , give a great appetite : 't is better both to dine and sup moderately , then to overcharge at once . temperance prevents and helps to cure many diseases . he that desires to eat much , must eat little ; for by eating little at a time , he lives long , and so makes it up . all intemperance in drink shou'd at all times be avoided ; but excess in this method may be dangerous : nevertheless i commend to some persons , a little good wine towards night with discretion . and here i think it kind to insert this note ; that the dilutive cup , or evenings draught so much in use , is generally taken too late : for to fill the body with liquor and presently to bed , causes many diseases . 't is fit it shou'd as to the greatest part be passed first , which wou'd prevent gravel , stone , gouts , dropsies , and many diseases of the head , &c. the use of these waters is to be continued as need shall require , and as you are advised by your physicians . a fortnight or three-weeks together is long enough without intermission . for 't is better to omit 'em two or three weeks , and then take 'em again , then to continue one long course of 'em together ; for fear of a diabetes , or other injuries . now if in this short tract i have not given some satisfactory account of these balsamick wells , as to their virtues and use , i shall be ready to give further direction to any that are pleas'd to require it . finis . the contents of the chapters . chap. i. of water in general . page . chap. ii. of mineral waters . page . chap. iii. of the balsamick wells at hoxdon . page . chap. iv. of the virtues and excellency of these waters . page . chap. v. directions to be observed before , in , and after the taking these waters . page . finis . the artificial spaw, or, mineral-waters to drink imitating the german spaw-water in its delightful and medicinal operations on humane bodies, &c. / by t. byfield. byfield, t. (timothy) approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the artificial spaw, or, mineral-waters to drink imitating the german spaw-water in its delightful and medicinal operations on humane bodies, &c. / by t. byfield. byfield, t. (timothy) [ ], p. printed by james rawlins for the author, and are to be sold by matthew keinton, london : . reproduction of original in the cambridge university library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng mineral waters, artificial. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - robyn anspach sampled and proofread - robyn anspach text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the artificial spaw , or mineral-waters to drink : imitating the german spaw-water in its delightful and medicinal operations on humane bodies , &c. by t. byfield , m. d. fellow of the college of physicians at dublin . london , printed by james rawlins for the author , and are to be sold by matthew keinton in little-britain , . to the right worshipful sir william jennings knight . honored sir , the encouragement these waters receiv'd last year from your own experience and commendation of 'em to others , did in part naturalize 'em ; by gaining such repute , that they were prescrib'd by several physicians in town to their patients , and that with good success . for they alone wrought several cures , as by the testimony of the doctors does appear . i have bin therefore very industrious to keep open these salutiferous springs , that they may flow to the advantage of many . and i doubt not but under your patronage their medicinal virtues will raise 'em to such general good esteem that they 'l become the metropolitan fountain . 't will not be difficult ( besides experience ) to make it appear from reason , that medicinal waters thus by art prepar'd , will excel the natural . but that being part of the ensuing tract , i 'le not here forestal the matter . but acknowledge your obligations in permitting a rivulet of this fountain to have its eruption among your ingenious useful vndertakings , which that they may continue to prosper , are the unfeigned wishes of honoured sir , your most humble servant , t. byfield . from my house in new-street by fetter-lane near the five bells . the artificial spaw , or mineral-waters to drink , &c. chap. i. the improvement of arts and sciences is the great design os all industrious men. i have therefore in imitation of such bin at pains , and cost too in making some useful improvements within my own sphere of physick , of which at present i shall only discourse of one , viz. the making of artificial mineral waters equal to , if not exceeding , the natural , as to their medicinal qualities . for i have so strictly examin'd with what minerals , marcasites and nitrous glebes the healing fountains are impregnated , to make 'em such ; that by preparing , purifying and exalting their medicinal virtues , i shall be able not only to imitate nature , but herein excel ; by defecating and expelling those gross terrestrial parts , and often unwholsome , that are commixt with minerals : from which to extricate the benign and useful parts , great diligence and curiosity is requisite . this boast i hope may be very well allow'd within the bounds of modesty , since i have brought my undertakings to perfection . and since things natural ( especially as to the materia medica ) are greatly improv'd , in regard to their usefulness , by learning and industry , why may not this mineral preparation , among the innumerable store of others , be allow'd to challenge the credit it deserves . it has pleas'd god , for our imployment , to make those things that minister food and physick , capable of improvement by us , and our labour and industry in their preparation necessary e're we can receive due benefit and refreshment from 'em : whenas in those only which serve for delight and pleasure , as rich fruits and flowers , &c. he has shown his infinite skill and excellence ; which when we tamper with we only damage . so that no artist is so vain and impious to vye with nature , but only pleas'd when he can diligently and curiously perform that labour and culture assign'd him by his maker . but i must not digress ; how high therefore this way of physick is in vogue , or like to be , shall not be so much my concern to recount , as to make the usefulness and conveniency of it appear . for if persons can with little expence and trouble be prevail'd upon to make a harmless trial of those things that are productive of great good , such insinuations are no ways culpable . 't is obvious how many perish for want of timely care , permitting slenderer indispositions ( which might soon be remov'd ) to run to some high distemper , and that too often suffer'd almost to have mischiev'd the body , e're they will look out for remedy : being deterr'd from the use of means , either because the methods are harsh and unpleasing , or because they are expensive and too chargeable ; none of which our medicinal waters can be taxed with . the theoretick part of physick being of late so richly adorn'd with accurate anatomical dissections and a refin'd philosophy ; i conceive it likewise requisite that the practice should bear some proportion to it , otherwise the ornament of languages , and all other embellishments , are but gilded nothings to the great art of preserving and restoring a sound and healthy constitution . for to live long and in health , as 't is the best thing belonging to this world , so 't is most desir'd , tho' the methods conducing thereto are much neglected , 't is not only furnish'd with delights in it self , but it gives a gust to all others ; for without it all their excellencies are imperceptible . but this is a blessing most relish'd and best valu'd by those who sometimes are without it . 't is a great misfortune of humane nature not to discern wherein her happiness and delights consist , which often are nearer her than she 's aware of ; and the farther she wanders in pursuit of 'em , she 's at the greater loss . for the methods to be taken for a happy life are not so difficult , nor to be so far fetcht , as are by most imagin'd . but it being my business chiefly to direct to that part which conduces to preserving and restoring a healthy body , i shall only concern my self in what tends thereto . how nice and delicate a thing it is to keep the body in a just and due mixture of principles , and to recover those decaying , is not soon apprehended . for the subtile vital breath , or the volatile invisible spirit of man's body , deservedly nam'd mercury , nourisheth , feedeth and preserveth himself by the oleity of man's suphur , which is predominant in the blood ; besides these there is a salt lying in the juices , flesh and bones ; this ministers its noblest part for nourishment to the blood , and preserveth man's body from putrefaction , and is that vinculum whereby the other two are kept and dwell together . for in the salt there lyeth a spirit which protects and preserves the balsoms in their worth and purity , it savoureth all the rest , and is inexhaustible , unless it dye quite : for the air which supports the spirits with its vital breath , does carry in it a nitrous spirit , which tempers the whole nourishment , and prevents the unruly disorders of the other ingesta . thus is preserv'd and kept a due temperament of principles ad justitiam , which is the great skill of a physician . but lest i make too large a digression , designing at present to discourse only of the excellent uses of medicinal waters , and of my imitation of the ultramarine spaws ; i shall rather now say somewhat of water in general and its usefulness . chap. ii. of water in general . since i am about to demonstrate the advantages of medicinal waters , and to shew how fit a vehicle this element is to convey medicine to the inmost recesses of the body ; i think it not besides my business if i a little touch upon the excellency of water , which was created for the universal drink of all creatures , and the health and life of the first ages of the world may commend its wholsomeness . but if we examine its nature , we shall find it consist of those qualities which denote its salubrity , as clearness , thinness , lightness , softness , &c. which cool , moisten , attenuate , refresh , allay thirst , and are a pabulum or recruit to fretted spirits , and a proper liquor to convey and distribute other aliments . some of the ancients call'd it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seed of all things : but i shall not here discourse of the productions from waters ; what vegetables , minerals and animals are generated by it : neither shall i treat of the various kinds of water , as river-water , rain-water , pump , lake , pond-water , &c. that is the best and most wholsome which is void of taste or odour , and is clear , pure , most light , soon heated , soon cold , and in which flesh is soonest boil'd . the living spring i judge most valuable for drinking , and that nearest the head of it the best . for those living principles which actuate all bodies , and keep 'em not only from putrefaction , but qualifie 'em for recruits and sustenance to other bodies , are in proportion in waters , which denotes 'em of such and such a strength and purity , and may be us'd in quantities accordingly . and 't is no small advantage that they are capable of being receiv'd in such large quantities , without fuming or disturbing the brain , to irrigate and soften the whole body , and bedew the fiery spirits with their supple vapours : and when those airy brisk particles do extricate themselves from these soft lodgments , they are again entangled with more to prevent their leaping out , or firing one against another : and such a pretty bustle or ferment in nature raises that general efflorescence and vigour , which plumps , exhilerates , and makes gay a well-temper'd healthy body . the dispencing either of food or physick , in a clear , thin , soft and gentle vehicle , must make a better digestion , and a more equal distribution of it ; then in a fiery chariot , which precipitates nature , and hurries the crude parts thro' those strait and slender passages beyond their natural emunctories , and lodges 'em where neither nature can expel 'em , nor art reach ' em . whenas the milder liquors make such easie gradations , that nature can secern by her peculiar cleansing ducts those feces and crudities , which timely and orderly expell'd , prevent innumerable obstructions and diseases to the body . i wish for my own particular , who am sometimes afflicted with stone and gout , that i had earlier studied these things : but what i can't prevent in my self , i wish i may in others . but to shew how excellent a vehicle water is for the distribution of generous and restorative medicines , is no difficult task , if its nature be considered , as is before mention'd : for by searching out the minutest passages of the body , it promotes a general dispensation of the design'd matter to all parts of it . and i am of the opinion that fine chymical medicines should be deliver'd to bodies in soft gentle vehicles , but by no means in their own terrestrial bodies ; for they are so fitted there in their position , that our bodies are not able to extricate the benign useful parts from the intricate meatus's of a tough mineral , and raise its living principles from their domicils so stiffly munited and secur'd . yet when by great art and labour these are got out and defecated , they are beneficially deliver'd in another body , where they can't so soon shape a retirement : and if in thin light cooling liquors , nature can with ease gradually fetch out their help and refreshment ; whenas those too hot fiercely assault nature , and admit not of quantity enough for their equal distribution . chap. iii. of mineral waters . in the mineral kingdom thro' which the veins of water glide , are amas't mighty treasures , from whence may be extracted greater relief for the necessities of mankind than is by most imagin'd . but to come near my purpose , excellent medicines by the due managementof fire , have bin obtain'd from several minerals and semi-minerals , &c. but to come yet nearer ( by playing the hydrotomist ) the great account of mineral waters may be display'd , which besides their own nature , receive medicinal qualities from subterranean mines . it may be consider'd that few mineral waters are simple , i mean impregnated only with one mineral , but compounded as the minerals and marcasites lye confus'd in the bowels of the earth ; and those who have bin curious to search into the nature of medicinal springs , have always discover'd a mixture of minerals ; tho' perhaps some of 'em have not bin so lucky as to assign their virtues to the proper minerals , &c. in the mineral kingdom i place salt , nitre , vitriol , allom , &c. for in the salts of many bodies iye their chief virtues , either for purging by stool or urine , or for cleansing , cooling , drying , stimulating , opening of obstructions , attenuating of gross humours , or astriction , corroboration , &c. according to the nature of the body . the learned helmont saith , ( p. . ) semina salium cuncta in aquis sita sunt , attamen nondum saporem induerunt nisi corporum principia consentanea uterosque terrae debitos repererunt , &c. ( viz. ) that all the seeds of salts are plac'd in water , yet are not endued with taste , unless they find agreeable principles of bodies , and suitable matrices of the earth ; then , and not till then , they manifest their saltness , and become determined in a saline body ; in one place into allom , in another salmarine , in a third in nitre , &c. to which he adds , quocirca notandum , sal quoddam existere hermaphroditicum metallorum quod defectu nominis esurinum sive acetosum re & nomine vocari capit , generale equidem & ad omnia metalla accommodabile , ( viz. ) that there is a certain hermaphroditical salt of metals , which for want of another name is call'd an esurine or acid salt , which is a general sort of salt , and accommodated to all metals . so that this esurine salt , while such , is no more than salt , and not a vitriol : but if it become a vitriol , it must espouse a mineral or metalline body . he farther saith , vitriolum praestantissimum naturaliter erescit fodinis , quibus natura istud sal esurinum peperit , venam eris feracem , corrodens , & fontis labentis liquore dissolutum ; ( viz. ) that the best vitriol is most naturally brought forth in those mines where nature hath begot that esurine salt , corroding a strong vein of copper , becomes dissolv'd in the gliding current of a spring . but should i here inlarge in an account of nitre , vitriol , allom , bitumen , arsenick , &c. i should exceed my present intention , and prevent a future design . yet i think it necessary to my present business to say thus much of nitre and vitriol . the esurine salt discover'd in the air , if it meet with a fat unctuous glebe , and be preserved from rain and sun , that it spend not its strength in the production of vegetables , breeds great store of nitre : for 't is observ'd that in these fat earths there is at first no nitrous taste ; neither can any nitre be extracted from 'em ; but after their continuance a while in the cool air , its magnetick power from a nitrous principle , opens the unctuous body of the fat glebe , a fit receptacle for the esurine spirit , and is therewith coagulated and envellop't , and after this manner is the nativity of nitre . 't is commonly observed , that in cold weather the appetite is more keen , and the thirst little , which proceeds from the great store of nitre that is in the air. vitriol i take to be an esurine acid salt corroding the sulphureous parts of metals or marcasites by an acid subterraneal spirit ( whereof there is great quantity in some mines ) corroding the veins of iron , copper , &c. from whence are the varieties of vitriol . sometimes from a vitriol loam or clay diluted with water , and set in a cold cellar , may be gather'd an alluminous efflorescence , which shews there may be a mixture of allom with vitriol : but the differences or varieties of impregnations , arise either from the difference of the quantity of the acid spirit corroding the veins of copper or iron , or from the greater or lesser continuance of the course of the water thro' those metallick veins . it need not seem strange to any that there is such acidity in water and air : from whence else doth iron and copper being put into water , or standing long in the air in a cold cellar , contract such a rust as they do ? is it not from the acid spirit of air and water uniting with the esurine salt in those metals exciting its corrosive power to destroy the texture of the metal ? and this rust being boil'd in rain-water , will yield a vitriol . there are many ways of of making artificial vitriols : but i shall pass beyond my intention if i now discourse of ' em . 't is obvious what beds of minerals lye in the bowels of the earth , on which the currents of waters wash in their circulating veins , from which they are impregnated with their medicinal qualities . but before i dismiss this chapter , i think fit to add this , that there is a universal common salt of nature , the first ens of salts which is specificated according to the diversity of nature , and receives various forms . god the original founder of all beings , hath implanted in the superficies of the earth that great variety of vegetable seeds , which propagate themselves in their species : so that every vegetable at its proper season , by the instigation of the heavenly influences , setting at work its seminals , by stirring up its innate power , begins to shape it self a body according to the laws of creation ; every plant in its kind ; till they have made up that wonderful variety which so richly adorns the earth . in like manner are dispers'd the mineral and metalline seeds in the bowels of the earth , determin'd for specification , and to become prolifick by the embryonate sulphur according to the purity or impurity of the terrestrial matrix : and thus the metallick order is compleated by the perfected metals , while the imperfect and middle minerals arrive but slowly to metalization . now when water impregnated with a spirit , or vapour from the accensed body of sulphur , passeth through a salsuginous glebe , already endow'd with the common salt of nature , it produceth salt , when through nitrous veins , nitre ; when through alluminous , allom ; when through a copperas , white vitriol ; when through a silver mine , blew vitriol ; and when through an ironish glebe it shares of some particles of iron , and produceth green vitriol , &c. but these are more or less , according to the proportion of the waters acidity , and the fertility of the veins through which they pass . so that waters ting'd with this acid spirit , become a proper menstruum for the opening of the ramenta , and extraction of the excellent qualities of minerals and marcasites . but to demonstrate the artificial performance of this , is the business of the next chapter . chap. iv. of our artificial waters . a physician must learn to anatomize all things in nature , as well as humane body , to know what they contain within and without , to separate the poyson from the medicinal quality : he must know how to dissolve , separate , exalt and prepare fully metals , minerals , vegetables and animals : for receipts found in other mens writings , cannot sufficiently instruct a man to the practice or improvement of physick . the field of nature is very large , 't is round and endless , affords room enough for every industrious man , so wisely has the great creator contriv'd us all imployment , that none need envy or assault anothers labours , but may go out and provide for himself ; and did he know the treasures that lye undiscover'd , 't would make him of a busie mind . minerals as they yield the noblest and choicest medicines , so they are of greater difficulty , and require greater skill in their preparation than either vegetables or animals . i have therefore ( out of a desire of useful rarities ) apply'd my self of late to hard labour in the mines ; from whence i hope to produce great benefit to others , and a little to my self , which shall suffice . and having now exactly compleated by the necessary laws of alchymy my mineral healing waters , i judge it neither empirical , covetuous , or any ways base to permit 'em ( on such easie terms as i do , for general good ) to break up like a publick fountain , to which every one may resort : yet i do not impose 'em on any , let 'em fare according to the success they obtain . i have made 'em exactly resembling the ultramarine spaws ; by selecting those minerals and marcasites which give 'em their excellent medicinal qualities ; and i think the artificial preparation of 'em in selecting the useful parts , and rejecting those more unwholsome with the dregs , cannot but be of great advantage to the rendring these waters more effectual and certain in their operation , than the natural . for instance in antimony , how churlish and unsafe is it , if given without any artificial preparation : but if dissected , separated , defecated , and by the rules of alchymy prepared , what useful , safe , and noble medicines does it yield ? there is as great reason to except against white bread , because 't is the flowers of the wheat separated from the grosser matter of the corn , and by the baker's skill made chymical bread ; as there is against medicinal preparations , because discharg'd of their feces and useless or hurtful parts . if then the natural medicinal waters receive their virtues from minerals and marcasites unprepar'd , only by washing on 'em as they pass through the caverns and veins of the earth , and are esteemed of so great use : of how much more certainty then in their operation and usefulness must the artificial waters be , which have their minerals purg'd and cleans'd from all their foul and noxious parts , and those that are medicinal exalted and made ripe for the service of nature . there is much in the world yet to be discover'd , which time and industry may bring to light . the circulation of the blood , how long lay that hid from wise men and great physicians , though those streams were always flowing about 'em ; which when discover'd , it seem'd strange they could be so long ignorant . the late great improvement of making salt water fresh , brought to that perfection that it serves all the intentions of natural sweet fountains , has greatly encouraged me in the prosecution of this design , which is brought too to that perfection , that it bears all the tests of those natural medicinal waters it imitates , as the german spaw , &c. and its operations are of greater certainty and more manageable . for our minerals , &c. are selected from all other , whether unwholsome , or not serving a medicinal intention , and are open'd , separated , purify'd , &c. hereby we know exactly the doses , especially being freed from all the gleetings of other springs and rain-water . and the advantages of having 'em daily made fresh are not inconsiderable , nor the conveniencies of contracting the entire medicinal dose to what quantity of water or other vehicle you please , by the help of our tincture ; besides many more , which 't is not necessary to enumerate . chap. v. the virtues and vse of our waters . i think it not requisite to give an entire account of all the virtues of those minerals , marcasites and nitrous glebes , with which duly prepar'd , our waters are impregnated : for 't would make too early a discovery of my art , since it required so much labour and cost to compleat it . nevertheless , because i would give a rational account of all my undertakings ; i 'le say thus much further with the learned kircher , basis unica & absoluta origo omnium aciditatum mineralium est a spiritu sulphuris acido . 't is apparent that there is a spirit of sulphur in mineral glebes , from the acid taste in minerals . our waters having a vitrioline ironish taste and odour , which appears from their sharp and piercing pungency somewhat harsh , shews they are acuated with a sulphureous acidity from the embryonate sulphur of the minerals and marcasites . but more plainly , i have carefully prepar'd my menstruum , that by the gentle heat of a digester , i so open the bodies of my minerals , &c. that i can with no less pleasure than labour extricate their volatile salubrious atoms , from their gross and unwholsome mixtures ; and as easily preserve and convey 'em to the design'd vehicle . i give this account , because i can in glass vessels hermetically luted , sublime all the medicinal particles from their water , which shews their purity and aptness for the service of nature . whenas if you deal with the natural mineral waters which soon evaporate their strength and good qualities , especially if kept a while from their living springs , you may precipitate a vitrioline ironish rust , like powder , but apt to sement and petrifie , which taken altogether into the body , is there precipitated , and by large quantities of potulent matter distributed into the remote parts of the body , and becomes fit minera or seedlings both for stone and gout . for the materies morbifica of both is one and the same , the difference only is in the scituation : though i know rheumatick and scorbutick pains are often ignorantly call'd arthritick symptomes : and such who are afflicted with either of these , and take these mineral waters not cleans'd from that sediment , which i can separate from 'em , in all probability minister much more fewel than relief to their distempers : and though they may by large draughts wash away some sand and gravel , and now and then expel some stones ; yet the question is , whether they don't lodge as much or more of this matter in the body , as they thus drive through ; which if , what divertisement is it thus to be employ'd ? i 'me sure i know by sad experience what hard labour preambles to the birth of a stone . but to return , our artificial waters are so finely prepar'd , that they afford no sediment : yet they answer all the tests and intentions of the most refin'd spaw , they tinge of a pale clarret colour , and a deep purple with a little scrapings of gall , and discolour the ordure , &c. they cleanse , cool , dry , stimulate , open obstructions , dissolve and attenuate gross humours ; and are abstersive of viscous , tartarous , and other humours in the stomack , mesenteries , hypochondries , reins , womb , bladder , and evacuate them sometimes by stool , largely by urine , and other dischargers of nature . they create a great appetite , when the stomack 's cleans'd , by recovering and strengthening her tone : the like they do by the womb , which must be of great use to such who are subject to miscarriages , weakness in those parts , and are unapt to breed . but because i think not fit here to particularize , i 'le once for all say , they are of excellent use for ladies in all their distinguishing circumstances from men : but not to be us'd by those with child , unless by the advice of their physician : and if further direction be requisite for any , 't is fit they should have recourse to their own physician . and here in a parenthesis , let me say , 't is requisite to the health and happiness of every person to have recourse to a spiritual and a physical guide , and that in times of health , to preserve , and provide against those evils , which the height of a distemper , and the hour of death , make unseasonable for any considerable ministration . principiis obsta , &c. these waters are powerful in all cachectical and obstinate diseases : like an alkali they imbibe the acidity and sowreness of the blood , and consequently dulcifie the same : for by a naturul propensity uniting ( magnetically ) with the esurine salt , they are ejected together with the obstructive humours , by a strong irritation of nature ( from these waters ) to expel ' em . and from their diuretick nature , after they have attenuated , cut , resolv'd , and so alter'd the mucous and tartarous humours of the body , and prepar'd 'em for excretion , they then carry them off by urine , which is the most safe and effectual conveyance ( for all sharp and saline humours especially ) of all other sorts of evacuation whatever . this water thus enrich'd by my tincture or essence , searches such latent passages and abstruse retirements of the bowels and other parts , as other medicines cannot reach , and after a discovery made , doth not only dispossess what is preternatural of its usurped power , but also by corroborating and re-inforcing nature , so firmly intitles her to her former right of inheritance , that scarce any thing but an act of hostility or old age can cut off the intail . they so correct and mend the juices of the body by expelling watry , sharp , sowre , gnawing , hot , foul humours , &c. that they are of excellent use to purifie the blood , cure the scurvey , even in those whose gums and teeth , as well as by spots and other signs , shew it to have deep rooting . admirable against the dropsie , especially to such where the humours fluctuate up and down , by falling into the legs and returning again , which demonstrates 'em capable of expulsion by stool and urine by things appropriate ; and by thus doing , sore legs may be prevented . they are justly recommended against the jaundice yellow and black , melancholy and fearful passions , cholick , diarrhaea , and dysenteria , and the distemper call'd vapours offending head and heart . they cheer the heart , prevent palpitations , passions and faintings . they open , cool , cleanse and strengthen the lungs , consequently good against asthma's , defluxions , coughs and consumptions , if not too far spent . they are abstersive , cleansing and healing , therefore consolidate lungs decaying from exulcerations ; and likewise ulcerated kidneys , they cleanse 'em of mucous foul matter , the duelech , sand , gravel and stones . i may justly commend 'em to those subject to head-aches , vertigo , megrim , &c. and for gonorrhea's and the fruitful improvements upon that graft ; especially if taken in method with but a few other things , to speak modestly they will answer expectation . 't is too tedious to enumerate so many distempers as authors have bin pleas'd to assign names to . the preserving and restoring the blood to a good temper , cuts off a thousand diseases . and so the juice of nerves rightly purg'd , purify'd and enrich't prevents many there , as does the preserving a good mass of blood. i 'le only add , they are of use to such as are afflicted with wounds , ulcers , itch , sores , scabs , sore-legs , leprosie , &c. chap. vi. directions to be observ'd before , in , and after the taking our waters . to them who intend the use of these waters for the removing of any considerable distemper , i advise that they prepare their bodies with some gentle vomit or purge , which shall be thought most proper by their physician . to those who carefully keep their bodies from any glut of humours , and design only to take 'em for pleasure , or to remove slighter indispositions ; to dilute and temper the blood and preserve it from decay or putrefaction in any measure , or to create a good stomach , &c. i advise but a slighter preparation , ( and that only before the first taking of 'em ) by a few stomach-pills to clear the first passages , or by some gentle purging tablets , which will finely prepare the body , eating a few early in the morning before you drink the waters . but i leave every one to have recourse to their own physician for such as these . what i have furnished my self with requisite to be given before and with the waters , &c. i shall keep at home for such who resort to me : for i would willing avoid all offence , not coveting any mans employ . and thus i hope i shall easily demonstrate my care to prevent obloquie , and satisfie any one i design not to monopolize . if prejudice prevent not , these waters may be prescrib'd by physicians in method to their patients as well as the natural medicinal springs ; and by their skill may be made in every respect a capable and useful vehicle for the distribution of such generous and noble medicines as our art directs . the waters are of excellent use , and serve many intentions taken alone from one quart to two , or three at most . and the rules to be observ'd in the taking of 'em are common to other mineral waters , and so generally known , that almost every one can prevent me in those few and easie directions that are requisite . they are to be taken in the morning fasting ( unless a few tablets , or some such slight physical thing preamble ) not when the body is heated with exercise . they are not to be drank too quick , nor too slow : but convenient distances are to be allotted , as once in half an hour a pint , or less , as your stomach can bear 'em , and rid 'em , till you have taken the quantity you design ; after you have taken two or three draughts 't is best to use some gentle exercise ad ruborem only , not ad sudorem , till you be pretty warm , but not sweat . whilst you walk or ride , &c. you may eat orange-chips , citron-peals , carraway confects , elicampane roots candied , &c. but if you are advis'd that it be convenient to pass any of these waters by stool , the purging tablets taken with 'em will finely assist , and serve very well in the room of the confectionary , and much better on medicinal accounts . 't is not fit to dine till the waters are passed , and half an hour before dinner a glass of rhenish , white-wine or clarret i think not amiss . i shall not here prescribe the quality of your diet ; every one knows that mutton , veal , lamb , chickins , rabbits , &c. are good fare . my care is to caution you as to quantity , and that the rather , because these waters rightly us'd , give a great appetite . 't is better both to dine and sup moderately , whilst in this method , than to overcharge at once . temperance prevents and helps to cure many diseases . he that desires to eat much , must eat little ; for by eating little at a time , he lives long and so makes it up . all intemperance in drink should at all times be avoided , but excess in this method may be of danger : nevertheless i commend a little good wine , or beer and ale with discretion , especially an hour or two before you go to bed. and here i think it kind to insert this note , that the dilutive cup , or evenings draught so much in use , is generally taken too late : for to fill the body with liquor and presently to bed , causes many diseases . 't is fit it should as to the greatest part be passed first , which would prevent gravel , stone , gouts , dropsies , &c. those who take drops , powders , and several physical preparations in these waters , or in method with 'em , are to observe stricter rules than others , according to the nature of their distempers and of the things they take , which as 't would not be convenient , so neither can they be here prescrib'd , recourse must be had to such as shall dispense their preparations . the use of these waters is to be continu'd as need shall require , or while they please you . they may be taken by some with great advantage mixt in their wines , if they drink white , rhenish , or clarrets : for they finely dilute the wine , cool and temper the body : and very much promote the passing of the wines by urine , which will be of good use to them especially who frequent the taverns , and sit there a while . these waters will be made fresh every day upon the best and choicest springs that can be got . i shall make it great part of my business to see all those necessary rules strictly observ'd that are requisite to their exact preparation . and if in this short tract i have not given some satisfactory account of 'em , as to their virtues and use , i shall be ready at seasonable times to give further direction to any that are pleas'd to require it . chap. vii . of our spaw-tincture and its excellent uses . the advantages of our tincture are not few or mean , if the power be consider'd that 's put into every ones hands . for here you have the medicinal qualities of the wholsome natural spaws , by much care and art separated and cleans'd from their gross terrestrial parts . hereby any one never so remote , may have the entire benefit of the natural medicinal waters . any one upon travel or retirement may with this tincture furnish himself with these waters , and make 'em just as he takes 'em , and to what quantities he pleases . he may contract or dilate his vehicle and yet have an entire dose of the virtues , by the ordering of his drops . and those that drink of my waters may augment the dose of the medicinal part by this tincture to what degree they judge fit , or are advis'd to for their particular circumstances : or the tincture may be dropt into wine as you drink it to make it pass the better by urine . to those who frequent tunbridge , or other mineral fountains , this tincture may be of excellent use to enrich their virtues , and to make them more certain in their operations : for by uniting with their mineral principles it will stimulate 'em to a brisker discharge ; and by this help , the great quantities usually taken may be contracted , which will be of great use to weak stomachs , and otherways infirm bodies . and the dangers from the ill passing of those waters may be prevented , and better by this tincture , agreeable to their own nature , than by any opposite physick . persons unable to frequent the wells through a low fortune are here accommodated at their own houses : those unable through sickness , and whose circumstances require , yet cannot take the quantities , or it may be not water , may use this tincture in appropriate vehicles . 't would be too tedious to enumerate half the benefits of this tincture ; and from these already mention'd every one may supply many more conveniencies , especially they whose necessities require , will be inventive . about twenty drops of our tincture makes a bottle of water to that strength our waters are of : now any one may add fewer or more as he desires , and make what quantities he pleases . for the improving our waters or tunbridge , &c. half the dose of drops to a quart may be us'd , because they are already impregnated with minerals . unless you design to contract your quantity of water , then you must increase proportionably , , or drops may be added to each quart of mineral waters , and so advance daily , till you arrive to what pitch you purpose , and then abate by degrees . 't is not easie to commit any error , for as he that drinks three bottles makes 'em more potent in operation than he that drinks but two , so 't is with the tincture . and now i 'm come to fix the prices , with which i would rather give content , than consult my own benefit . i have therefore deliberated well on 'em , desiring they may be without exception in every particular , and so obtain a good esteem , and be of general use to answer their designation . i hope therefore at six pence a quart our water will not be accounted dear ; nor our tincture at five shillings the bottle , which computed by doses is much about the rate of the waters ; for one bottle of tincture will make ten or eleven quarts of water to that strength ours are of . and if any ones occasion requires the increase of the dose , he must be content to be at the extraordinary expence , which being but little , i hope success will make him restitution . they that send for the waters seal'd up in our bottles , are desir'd to send d. for each bottle , the odd d. being allow'd for the bottle . these waters and tincture are to be had only at the dukes bagnio in long-acre . and near the royal-exchange , as will be directed on two tables at the south and north entrance . and at my own house in new-street by fetter-lane near the five bells . finis . on monday last died at his house in salisbury court , the famous dr. byfield , well known by 〈◊〉 medicine call'd , sal volatile oleosum . the learned and pious dr. byfield , sen. fellow 〈◊〉 the college of physicians in dublin , departed 〈◊〉 life the th of october ( not at his former house 〈◊〉 salisbury court , as has been publish'd ; but ) at 〈◊〉 house in great new-street , near fetter-lane ▪ 〈◊〉 he has lived about years , 〈◊〉 where his 〈◊〉 continues to make the sal volatile , which the 〈◊〉 prepared with her own hands , near years . short memoirs for the natural experimental history of mineral waters addressed by way of letter to a friend / by robert boyle. boyle, robert, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng mineral waters -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - derek lee sampled and proofread - derek lee text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion short memoirs for the natural experimental history of mineral waters . addressed by way of letter to a friend . by the honourable robert boyle , fellow of the royal society . london , printed for . samuel smith at the prince's arms in st. pauls church-yard . / . advertisement of the publisher . i find by some discourse i lately had with the author , that his design in drawing up his memoirs , being to set down what had occurr'd to him of his own observation and experiments , he purposely forbore to consult the authors that have professedly written upon medical waters , he would by no means have it thought , that he undervalued those learned writers that he forb●●e to cite , because he had them not at hand , as well as because his design did not require he should transcribe from them . and therefore he desires , that his readers should not be kept , by any thing he has written , from consulting other writers that have treated of mineral waters , especially the late ingenious exercitations , of the learned doctor lister de fontibus medicatis angliae ( after mentioned by our author , ) and the curious little tract of the french mineral waters , that was brought our author in english , after his memoirs were come to him from the press , publish'd by the virtuosi of the famous royal academy , of sciences at paris , especially where they curiosly examine the saline and earthly . residences of waters , which our author has not done to the remains of our english acidulae , of which liquors he had for the most part such incompetent quantities as concurr'd with another reason to discourag'd him from publishing his tryals on them . yet i may safely say what he offers here to the reader is far beyond any thing that has been publish'd in this kind ; for the virtuosi as well as the water-drinkers may reap no small benefit by the perusal of this learned treatise , as containing a great number both of useful observations , and unusual experiments . advertisement . the author of the following papers had thoughts of reviewing and inlarging them before he parted with them ; and at least , of an annexing notes to several of those titles of the historical platform , that are yet left untouch'd . but , besides his want of health and leisure , he was , by the supervening of some urgent occasions , oblig'd abruptly enough to lay aside this work he was about , and apply himself to others , that concern'd him more than the scrutiny of mineral waters could . wherefore considering , that he had already made annotations , though but short ones , upon most of the considerablest titles or topicks of inquiry , enumerated in the second and principal part of his schemes above them , he was content to give the ensuing writing unfinished as it was , to the solicitations of some vertuosi , who rather than tarry till he should have an opportunity , which he knows not how long he shall want , were desirous to take what they sound ready , with all its imperfections . which pressingness of theirs he could not deny to be the more excusable , on this occasion , because the communicated writing is not pretended to be a full and methodical history of mineral waters , but only a bundle of short memoirs , contributed towards the compiling of such a work. these , that they may be the more conveniently cited or referr'd to , i thought sit to divide into six sections ; where of the first is introductory , and and contains some general considerations about the occasion , the subject , and some other things relating to those memoirs . the second contains only a set of titles for the first part of the proposed work , because urgent occasions kept me from making , as i intended , some marginal notes , upon several of the particular articles . the third exhibits a scheme of titles for the second part of the propos'd work , viz. the way of experimentally exploring portions of a mineral water sever'd from the spring or receptacle . and because the second part is that which i mainly design'd , i have referr'd to it two other sections , one , which is the fourth , containing a collection of experiments and observations relating to the usual way of examining mineral waters by galls , as a specimen given on the th title of larger annotations on the titles of the second part ; and the other consisting of less copious annotations , and sometimes much shorter notes on divers other articles of the same second part. to which lastly is subjoyn'd the sixth section , consisting only of a set of articles , referrable to the medicinal use of mineral waters ; together with a conclusion address'd to the ingenious dr. that set me upon this task . in prosecuting of which i desire it may not be thought strange , that i have not cited authors that have written of thermae or of acidulae . for in the disadvantageous circumstances wherein i wrote , i should have been kept from consulting them , if i had had them at hand . and i thought it enough for for me at that time , to impart to my friends , what my own experiments and thoughts had furnish'd me with , how little or mean soever that was . which advertisement is therefore the more fit to be here given , that i may not divert any from studying those more elaborate pieces , that have within no long time been publish'd by skilful men , and especially by the very learned , dr. lister . the most material heads contained in the foregoing treatise . . the advertisement to the reader , containing the division , method and scope of this present treatise . . the occasion of this treatise , and its importance . page , . that the best way of discovering the qualities of mineral waters , is a long and sufficient experience . . what may encourage us to undertake the natural history of mineral waters ? . what things are fit to be taken notice of by him that would give an historical account of mineral waters . , . that the author hath both qualified practical and speculative physicians by this treatise . . what hindred the author from illustrating all the sets of titles with a kind of rationale . . wherefore the author hath proposed so many different inquiries about mineral waters . , , , . vpon what account the examin of the properties of mineral waters is of so great importance . , . that men should make search both after subterraneal springs and wells , and their operations upon humane bodies . , . titles for the natural history of a mineral water proposed considered as being gilt in its channel or receptacles , being the first or mineralogical part of the designed work. . titles for the natural history of a mineral water proposed consider'd as drawn out of the spring or receptacle , being the second or physico chymical part of the designed work . . an appendix containing paralipomena , and a chaos of observations and experiments . . the powder of galls fitter to produce a new colour in mineral wa●●●● than their infusion . . the parts of the infusion of galls that produce the new colour with ferruginous waters are apt to fly away ; neither the tincture nor the powder must be stale . , . the best way for producing of new colours with mineral waters is to make the infusion of galls with a certain weight of the powder in a determinate weight of water . , . oaken leaves , dryed red rose leaves , the juice , the peel of pomegranates , the blossoms called commonly callaustia , and some other astringent vegetables may be substituted to galls . . the eye must be judge of the impregnation of the water by the infusion or powder of galls . . the way of trying mineral waters by the change of colours that galls produce in them , is neither of that extent , nor of that certainty 't is vulgarly presumed to be of . there are divers metalline oars , and other mineral bodies , which not particpating of iron , will not be discoverable by the infusion of galls . ib. . a body of a metalline nature and not participating of iron , may , with infusion of galls , afford a very dark colour . . 't is not certain if all the liquors impregnated with iron will be discovered to be so by the colour they afford with galls . ib. . that it is a mistake generally taken for granted , viz. that the infusion of galls will certainly discover by becoming black , or purple of a mineral water that is mix'd with it be to vitriolate . . an odd kind of whitish earth to be found in the northern countreys of england where there come divers mineral waters . . galls being cast into the solutions of several metals produc'd no blackish colour , except with the solution of gold. . a sulphureous liquor proclaiming notable changes of colours with several solutions of metals . ib. . 't is fit , if not necessary , that the experimenter look upon the change of colours made by galls both while'tis a producing , and where'tis produced in a good light , and with a heedful eye . . that there may be a kind of physiognogmy of natural bodies , as well as of humane faces . ib. . a way to vary the shades and other phoenomena of colours produc'd with mineral liquors . . another way somewhat differing from the former . . 't is convenient to use besides galls or oaken-leaves , for the producing of new colours with mineral waters , red-roses , balerustium , leolewood , brasil , and other astringent pigments . . a way of making a liquor which will turn black with a solution either of martial or capreous vitriol . . . many waters may partake of sulphur , without being taken notice of to do so . . that copper that hath been melted into a body , may be so subtilised and disguised , as to have a multitude of its metalline parts made ascend with others in the form of a transparent liquor like common water , and yet by putting to it another substance , as volatile and colourless as it self , it will presently discover the copper it contain'd by turning as blew as saphire . . experiments discovering the inexistence of arsenick in water , and somewhat of the nature of that dangerous mineral . . the deleterious nature of arsenick consists not only , or mainly in a transcendently acid , nor in a lixiviate causticle quality , but in a corrosiveness sui generis . ib. . an useful way for water-drinkers , of examining a mineral water suspected to contain arsenick . . why the author hath insisted so much upon the thirteenth article of the set of titles . . to what the knowledge of the degree of coldness in the water , especially if it be extraordinary may be useful . . divers ways of estimating the degrees of coldness , and heat in the water . . the usefulness of the knowledge of the specifick gravity of a mineral water . ib. . the difficulty of weighing exactly liquors . . the most exact way of measuring the weight of waters . . the determinate weights of most mineral waters , and others about london , as likewise of the german spaw-water . . how to discover the kind of soil through which the water hath passed . . no difference observed between mineral waters , and common water look'd upon through good microscopes . . that the little creatures we discover through magnifying glasses in water , wherein pepper has been infused , are not inanimate concretions , but really living creatures . . where the scent of several mineral waters are best judged of . . that there are some springs of ●●l viny odour . ib. . that men are apt to take all stinking waters for sulphureous , whereas sometimes they are bituminous , tho the spring may sometimes partake both of sulphur and bitumen . . that there is a manifest difference in reference to transportation in such ferruginous waters as are lighter than common water . . how we may ghess at the saltness of waters . . that it is not easy to discover the accidity of liquors . . by what waies we may know the predominancy of acidity in the salt proposed ? . how we may know the predominancy of an alcaly in the salt of a mineral water . . salt afforded by the famous waters of bourben in france found to be alcalisate . . several ways of discovering vitriol to be predominant in the saline part of a mineral water . ib. . what salts our english waters are impregnated with , and from what salt the purgative vertue that is found in many of them , as in epsom , barnet , and acton waters , &c. does proceed . . that two bodies , which are neither of them cathartick , may by change of texture wrought in one another , compose a third body , that is briskly purgative . . how great an inequality may be sometimes met with in the proportion that the same quantity of two differing mineral waters bear to the caput mortuum , they respectively afford . . that a small quantity of matter of which perhaps not one half is saline , or metalline ( the rest being terresstrial ) may impart a manifest vertue to a great proportion of water . . a spirit richly , impregnated with volatiliz'd sulphur , produceth with vitriol , in a trice whether in the form of a powder , or solution , a very dark , or blackish colour . . titles for the natural history of a mineral water propos'd consider'd as a medicine being the third part of the design'd work . . a short discourse of the author relating to this present treatise . . if the fall of rains weakneth the vertue of the mineral waters . , . short memoirs for the natural and experimental history of particular mineral waters , address'd to his learned friend , dr. s. l ▪ sect . i. so many years , sir , have past , since i had occasion to consider mineral waters , and opportunity to make tryals on them with any application of mind ; that , tho' since that time some virtuosi have been pleas'd publickly to declare , that they found some directions they received from me not unuseful to the examen of such waters ; yet having sorgotten many of my past thoughts , and lost on mislaid most of my memorials about matters of fact relating to those liquors , i fear i shall not be able to satisfy either you , or my self , by what i now write about them . but how ever , since you will needs have me say something upon this subject since it is a noble one , as that where in the health of thousands is concern'd ; since 't is of late grown to be more priz'd and discours'd of , than ever ; and since i have observed mens curiosity about it to have been confin'd to very narrow limits , most men contenting themselves with the discoveries they can make by the infusion of galls ( or their body , ) and perhaps a slightly improv'd evaporation : since , i say , i have these invitations to obey you , i am content to offer you my advices , such as they are , for the drawing up of such a natural history of a mineral water propos'd as , being comprehensive of many inquiries and wayes of indagation that even physicians have either not known or overlook'd , may probably afford a more reaching notice , and inlarg'd knowledge of the subject treated of . upon which account i have , i confess , a desire and an aim , tho' no great hope , that this rude essay may , by your improvements and those of your learned friends , be made of some service to the publick . . but here i must ingenuously own to you , that notwithstanding the many wayes i propose , of discovering the natures or qualities of mineral waters , yet i think the surest way of knowing them , is a long and sufficient experience of their good and bad effects . for i strongly suspect , and it may be partly know , that there are , beneath the surface of the earth , divers mineral substances , some fix'd , and some volatile , some in the form of hard bodies , some of soft ones , some of liquors , and some of fumes , divers of which the generality , even of learned men , are altogether strangers to ; besides those that , tho' some men may chance to have seen , have their natures so little known , that they have not so much as names assign'd to them . so that when i consider , that of the ingredients we are unacquainted with ( to pass by all the rest that the earth may conceal ) the proportions wherein they are mingled may be numberless , and the qualities resulting from these commixtures may be very differing from those of the separate ingredients , i am apt too look upon the difficulty , of securely determining the effects of mineral waters à priori , as little , if at all , less than insuperable to humane understandings . . but this difficulty is not such , as ought to make us think it useless , to have a good project of the natural history of a mineral water . for 't is no small advantage , to know what particulars are fit for our inquiry , to be furnish'd with a sett of heads , to which one may conveniently refer whatever he tries , or observes , about the subject propos'd . and ( which is yet more considerable ) to be furnish'd with variety of methods or ways , to make tryals fit for investigating the nature , or examining the qualities , of the propos'd water ; since by the number and variety of purposely and fitly devis'd experiments , he that makes them may , as it were , view his subject on all sides , and be much assisted to conjecture , what saline , or other minerals known to us , and what quantities of them , do impregnate the water he examines , and consequently what effects they are like to produce in humane bodies . . though there be three sorts of things , fit to be taken notice of by him that would give an historical account of a mineral water , whether cold or hot , yet contenting my self to treat but very cursorily of those that belong to the first , and to the third of the three sorts , i have made a more full and particular enumeration of the titles that peculiarly belong to the second sort of observables , namely those that mention the various tryals , chymical and mechanical , that are to be made with the water after 't is taken out of the spring . this i purposely did , chiefly because 't was only of this sort of particulars that you desir'd my thoughts , and partly also because they are most wanted and desir'd by naturalists and physicians , and are like to prove the most instructive to them ; having also this to recommend them , that , to make the greatest part of them by far , it is not necessary that a man repair to the place where the spring rises , but he may at leisure examine the water at home , where he may be accommodated with furnaces , vessels , and other conveniences , to make his tryals upon it . . a much less discerning reader , than you , may perceive that in sorming the insuing project of a natural history , i aim'd much more to assist practical physicians to find the vertues and effects of mineral waters , than to insorm speculative naturalists of their causes and manner of being generated . but yet a heedful peruser may find , that i have so endeavour'd to gratify physicians that i have not been altogether ●anting [ especially in the first part , which is almost wholly mineralogical , ] to the curiosity of philosophers , as it relates to all sorts of mineral waters : tho' you may easily enough discern , and readily confess it , that the following paper does much more regard those cold ones , that from the acid tast that is found in most of them are call'd acidulae , than those other waters , that from their heat are commonly styl'd thermae , because the former sort of mineral waters is that , which i have had the opportunity to be the more conversant in , as well as that , about which alone you have desir'd my observations . . i had once thoughts of illustrating the following setts of titles with a kind of rationale , briefly declaring the reason of their order and their number ( sor both these were considerately pitch'd upon , not lighted on by chance . ) but i was obliged to omit it , when i sound ( as i quickly did ) that i had too little leisure and health , to imploy much of either upon a troublesom work of no greater importance . and therefore , knowing your perspicacity to be more than sufficient to make you discern some reason for the order wherein i have marshall'd the articles of the last sett of titles which fall under the cognizance of your own profession , i have not been solicitous to assign that reason . and i presume 't will be no great harm , if my hast have made me also omit to perform at present the intention i had to make here and there some brief marginal notes upon some of the articles of the first part. and i thought it sufficient ( if not also capable of making some amends for the newly mentioned omissions ) to make them somewhat numerous , and some of them large annotations upon the titles or articles of the ii part : this being indeed the chief that i design'd to insist on , and present you . . i expect it will be wonder'd at , that so many inquiries should be propos'd , and so many things directed to be taken notice of , about a subject that hath been thought so barren , that men are wont to think their curiosity great enough , if they inquire what colours the mineral water will strike with galls , or oaken leaves ; and do observe what kind and quantity of salt will remain after the evaporation of the liquor : and i much fear , that some , even of your profession , will think i cut them out a great deal too much work , by so many troublesome queries and tryals . but i confess that nature or long experience having made me , tho'not a sceptical , yet a suspicious and diffident philosophiser , i think my self obliged , on difficult occasions , to ask more than ten questions before i presume to answer one . nor do i think that the slightness of anothers curiosity dispenses me from industriously exercising mine . i might on this occasion represent , that tho' the greatest naturalists , and physicians among the ancients , did not only mention , but admire and discourse of the loadstone ; yet our gilbert thought fit to examine it further , and was thereby able to discover far more numerous phaenomena , than all them put together had taken notice of . and i might add other instances to the same purpose ; but to answer more closely , and directly , i say , that , to discover the nature of mineral waters , being a thing far more difficult than those , that have not try'd , do imagine , i think we ought to view the subject in as many differing lights as we can expose it to , and take in as many helps to discovery as we can ; since a great many particulars , that singly , or at the first view , seem not very pertinent , if they be survey'd in conjunction , and be skilfully apply'd , may much conduce to the desir'd end . and perhaps hereafter it will be found useful , if not necessary , to make large additions to the topicks , whose number is now thought redundant : for the more qualities and other particulars , we are acquainted with in any subject , the better grounded , and the more enlarged knowledge we have of it . as for the trouble it may cost , to make the proposed enquiries and tryals , it may be said , . that they are not all necessary ( though useful ) nor yet of equal moment , and therefore the omission of some , that are less important , may not disappoint the main searches . . i have purposely made most of the tryals as easy and short , as the matter and scope will permit ; and those , that will not undergo some trouble in seeking an useful truth , do not deserve to find it , especially since , in the chase of noble discoveries , as in hunting the nobler game , the toyl oftentimes makes a part of the pleasure . and i have made the less scruple , to be somewhat ample in the enquiries i propound , because divers observations have perswaded me , that physicians ought to consider very well both the nature of the waters they ordain , and to what persons , for what diseases , and in what manner , they prescribe the use of them : for tho' many look upon them as such innocent medicines , as , if they do no good , can at least do no harm , yet the effects , that have too often insu'd the unskilful use of them , especially when it was long continued , allow me not to look upon the drinking of mineral waters as a slight thing , that may safely be plaid with , but as that whereby we have seen , as very much good , so a great deal of mischief , done , especially some time after the operation is thought to be quite over , and perhaps almost forgotten . . i look upon the examen of the properties , and other qualities , of mineral waters , as a thing that is therefore of the greater importance , because i am apt to think , upon probable grounds that , by a diligent inquiry , there may be discover'd in england ( and in divers other countries too ) a far greater number than is yet imagin'd of mineral waters , especially ferruginous ones ; which i therefore guess will be found very numerous , because , by some uncommon wayes of tryal that i have imploy'd , i have found that divers minerals that either men knew not what to make of , or by reason of their passing under other names did not suspect to be martial , did yet partake of , and perhaps abound with , parts of a martial nature . and i shew in another paper [ about the magnetism of the earth ] that kindly provident nature , or rather its divine author has , under various disguises , furnish'd our globe with a far greater plenty and variety of iron ores and minerals , that partake of that metal , the most useful by far to mankind , than of any other metal . and as martial minerals do thus abound in the earth , so they are more dispos'd , than one would suspect such hard bodies could be , to impregnate even such liquors as are not manifestly acid , and seem unlikely to be able to work upon minerals far less hard than they . to make this probable , we took not iron ore , or embryonated mars , but pure steel it self , the same as needles were made of ; and upon the minute filings of it , we put some tincture of galls made with common water , and filtred through cap-paper , that the present colour of the liquor , and the change we expected to be made in it , might the better appear : and by this tryal we found that , in less than an hour , the transparent infusion of galls was so alter'd , as to be grown not only opacous , but of a dark and almost inky colour , which it retain'd even after filtration ; and this tho' the vial , that contain'd it , was very slender . a not unlike effect was produc'd by small filings of steel , but somewhat slow : lier in the red tincture of brazil , and in that of logwood , made with common water . . i know not whether it may not be fit to be represented , on this occasion , that , in countries manifestly abounding with metalline and other minerals , it may perhaps be worth while , that mens curiosity descend much lower than the superficies or turf of the ground , and make search both after subterraneal springs , and wells , and their operations upon humane bodies . for i have upon inquiry been assur'd , by those that in several places have visited mines , that they have met with in them , and sometimes at very great depths , running , as well as stagnant , waters , of differing tasts , and sometimes other qualitie ; and that the diggers , venturing to make use of them to quench their thirst , as they found some of them mischievous ( as corrosive , petrific , ) &c. so they met with others that were not only innocently . potable , but medicinal . of both these sorts we have instances in our tin-mines of cornwal in devonshire . and of the latter sort i receiv'd from an ingenious gentleman , that has the oversight of some cornish water-works , this memorable answer to an inquiry i sent him . the strangest account , saies he , of mineral waters that i have yet had , was of that in the bottom of a tin-work call'd karnkey , wrought above fathom [ that is foot deep ; ] the mineral being a mixture of tin and iron , and the water red and puddle , yet drunk was cool and not nauseous , and would pass by urine , near as red as it was drunk , as i have been inform'd by those that drunk of it whilst it [ the mine ] was working , being now struck out , [ that is , the vein of ore being degenerated , or lost . ] however i believe experiments might yet be made with water much of the same nature . thus far he , from whom notwithstanding the remoteness of the place he lives in , i hope to get some of this liquor , to make tryal of ; which if i do , i design you an account of the effects . i could enlarge upon the subjects of these two last ( the th and the th ) numbers . but after so long an introduction to short memoirs , 't is high time that i come at length to set down the topicks themselves that i design to propose . sect . ii. titles for the natural history of a mineral water propos'd , consider'd as being yet in its channel or receptacles : ( being the first or mineralogical part of the designed work . ) he that would draw up the history of a mineral water . [ to have its qualities some examin'd and some investigated , ] should , in my opinion , make three sorts of observations about it . for first he ought to take notice of those particulars that relate to it whilst 't is yet under ground , or in its native receptacles ▪ next he is to examine the properties and other qualities of it , when 't is drawn up by men at the springhead or other receptacle : lastly he is to consider the operations and effects of it upon humane bodies , whether sick or sound , according to the several ways and circumstances made use of in administring it . to the first of these three sorts of observations may be referr'd such heads or titles as these . . in what climate and parallel , or in what degree of latitude , the mineral water do's spring up , or stagnate ? . whether the spring-head , or other receptacle , do chiefly regard the east , the west , the north , or the south ? . whether the water be found in a plain or valley ? and if not whether it arise in a hillock , a hill , or a mountain ? . and whether it be found at or near the top , the middle , or the bottom , of the rising ground . . whether the waters leave any secrement , or other unusual substance , upon the stones , or other bodies that lie in the channels they pass through as they glide along , or the receptacles that contain them ? . whether there be beneath or near the medicinal water , any subterraneal fire , that hath manifest chimney's or vents and visibly ( by night only , or also by day , ) burns or smoaks , either constantly , or at certain periods of time ? . whether at or near the mouth , or orifice , of the abovementioned chimneys or vents , there be found either flowers of brimstone , or a salt like sal-armoniac , or some other mineral exhalations in a dry form ? . whether there be under or near the course or channel of the water , any subterraneal aestuary , or latent mass , of hot , but not actually , or at least visibly , burning matters ? and whether such aestuary afford an uniform heat as to sense , or have periodical hot fits , as it were ; and if so , whether these come at certain and stated times , or uncertainly or irregularly ? . whether it be observed that over the aestuary , or in some other neighbouring part of the place , where the mineral water springs , there arise any visible mineral fumes on smoak , ( which when they do appear are wont to do it early in the morning , or late in the evening , ) and if such fumes ascend , how plentiful they are , of what colour and of what smell ▪ . what is the more obvious nature of the not manifestly metalline , nor marcasitical part of the soil , which the medicinal water passes through or touches ? and what are the qualities of the neighbouring soil , and the adjacent country ? as whether it be rocky , stony , clayish , sandy , chalky , &c. . whether there be any ores , marcasites , or earths , ( especially highly colour'd ones ) impregnated with mineral juices , to be met with in the course of the medicinal spring , or in the receptacle of the same water stagnant ? and what these minerals are , whether copperish , ferrugineous , marcasitical , &c. and whether the ores do , or do not , abound in the metalline portion ? as also with what other ingredient as spar , cauke , sulphur , orpiment , arsenick , &c ( whether innocent or hurtful ) they are mingled , or else compacted together ? . whether it can be discover'd , that the spring of the medicinal water was common water before it came to such a place , or part of the soil it runs through , & there begins to be manifestly impregnated with mineral bodies ? . and whether in this case , it makes any effervescence , or other conflict , with the mineral it imbibes , or with any other water or liquor that it meets with in its way ; and whether the conflict produce any manifest heat or no ? . whether , if the mineral water propos'd be manifestly hot , or extraordinarily cold ; the springs it flows out at , or the receptacle it stagnates in , have near it ( and if it have how near ) a spring , or well of water , of a contrary quality , as 't is observ'd in very neighbouring springs in some few places of france , and elsewhere ? . whether , when the water appears in the spring or receptacle there appear also , either floting at the top , or lying at the bottom , or swimming between both , any drops or greater quantity of oyl , ( like naphta or petroleum , ) or some other bituminous & inflammable substance . . whether the water be considerably altered in quantity or quality , bythe different seasons of the year , as summer , winter , &c. by the much varying temperatures of the air , as to heat , coldness , drought , &c. by the plenty , or paucity , frequency , or unfrequency , of falling rains , or snows : and what may be the bounds , and measures of these alterations of the mineral water ? . whether any thing considerable can be certainly discover'd , or any very probable conjecture made of the nature and qualities of the substances , that impregnate the water , by chymically and mechanically examining the mineral earths , through which it flows , or in which it stagnates ? and particularly , by observing their colour , whether native , or acquir'd by being kept in the fire ; their specifick gravity ; their affording , or not affording , any salt , or other soluble substance , by decoction ; their being soluble , or indissoluble , in particular chymical menstruums of several sorts , as aqua fortis , spirit of salt , &c. and their being committed to destillation in vessels of differing sorts , and various degrees of fire , with care to receive separately the differing substances they afford , whether in the form of liquors , or of flowers ; and by examining these substances by fit and proper wayes as also the cap. mort. by calcination , elixiviation , and ( if it will bear such a fire ) vitrification ? sect . iii. titles for the natural history of a mineral water propos'd , consider'd as being drawn out of its spring or receptacle : ( being the ii. or physico chymical part of the designed work . ) that this scheme of titles may be the better understood , and the more instructive and useful tho' i have not time to write an ample com ment upon it all , yet i thought fit to illustrate most of its particular articles by such notes as may either explicate the meaning of what is but briefly couch'd , or deliver some of the practical ways of tryal , that i make use of , on occasion of the subject mention'd in the title or article , whereto the notes belong . these being divers of them too large to be conveniently plac'd the margin , are all of them set down together after this sett of titles . title . . of the actual coldness or heat of the mineral water propos'd . . of the specific gravity of the mineral water propos'd . . of the transparency , the muddiness , or the opacity of the mineral water . . whether the mineral water will , by slading for a competent time , let fall of it self any oker , or other earthy substance , especially tho' the liquor be kept from the air. . whether any thing , and if any thing , what can be discover'd in the mineral water by the help of the best microscopes adapted to view liquors ? . of the colour or colournes of the mineral water . . of the odour of the mineral water , as acetous , winy , sulphureous . bituminous , &c. . of the tast of the mineral water , as acid , ferruginous , vitriolate , lixivial , sulphureous , &c. . whether any change will be produc'd in the transparency , colour , odour , or tast of the mineral water , by its being taken up at the spring-head or other receptacle , or remov'd to some distance , by its being kept stop'd or unstop'd for a greater or lesser space of time ; and by its being much warm'd or refrigerated , and also , by naturally or artificially , produc'd cold , turn'd into ice , and thaw'd again ? . of the thinness or viscosity of the mineral water . . whether the mineral water be more easy to be heated and cool'd , and to be dilated and condens'd than common water ? . whether the mineral water will of it self putrify , and if it will , whether sooner or later than common water , and with what kind or degree of stink and other phaenomena ? . of the change of colours producible in the mineral water by astringent drugs , as galls , pomgranate-peels , balaustium , red roses , myrobolans , oakenleaves , &c. as also by some liquors or juices of the body . . whether any thing will be precipitated out of the mineral waters by salts or saline liquors , whether they be acid , as spirit of salt , of niter , aqua fortis , &c. or volatile alcali's , as strong spirit of urine , sal-armoniac , &c. or lixiviate salts , as oyl of tartar per deliquium , fixt niter , &c. . how to examine with evaporation , whether the mineral water contain common salt , and if it do , whether it contains but little or much ? . how to examine , without evaporation , whether the mineral water have any acidity , tho' it be but very little . . of the liquor or liquors afforded by the mineral water by destillation in balneo , and other wayes . . of the residence , cap. mort. of the mineral water , when the liquor is totally evaporated or distill'd off ; and whether the cap. mort. be the same in quantity and quality , if produc'd by either of those wayes ? . whether the propos'd water , being in glass-vessels exactly luted together slowly and warily abstracted to a thickish substance ; this being reconjoin'd to the distill'd liquor , the mineral water will be redintegrated , and have again the same texture and qualities it had at first ? . whether a glass-full of the mineral water , being hermetically seal'd and boil'd in common water , deep enough to keep it always cover'd , will have its texture so alter'd as to suffer an observable change in any of its manifest qualities ? and if it do , in what qualities , and to what degree of alteration ? . of the proportion of the dry cap. mort. to the mineral water that affords it . . of the division of the cap. mort. into saline and terrestrial and other parts not dissoluble in water , in case it contain both or more sorts . . of the proportion of the saline part of the cap. mort. to the terrestrial . . of the fixity or volatility of the saline part in strong fires . . whether the saline part will shoot into crystals or no ? and if it will , what figure the grains will be of ? and if it will not whether , being combin'd with a salt that will ( as purify'd sea-salt peter &c. ) it will then chrystallize ; and if it do , into what figures it will shoot , especially if any of them be reducible to those of any species of salt known to us ? . to examine whether the saline part be , ex praedominio , acid , alcalizate , or adiaphorous ? . of the observables in the terestrial portion of the cap. mort. as besides its quantity in reference to the saline , its colour , odour , volatility or fixity in a strong fire ; it s being soluble , or not dissoluble by divers menstruum's , as spirit of vinegar , spirit of urine , oyl of tartar , &c. . whether , and ( if any thing ) how much the mineral waters earth looses by strong and lasting ignition ? what changes of colour , &c. it thereby receives ? whether it be capable of vitrification perse ? and what colour , ( if any , ) it will impart to fine and well powder'd venice glass if they be exactly mix'd , and flux'd into a transparent glass ? . of the oeconomical , and mechanical uses of the mineral water , as in brewing , baking , vvashing of linnen , tanning of leather , or dying of cloth , callico's , silks , &c , as these may assist in discovering the ingredients and qualities of the liquor propos'd . . of the imitation of natural medicinal waters , by chymical and other artificial wayes , as that may help the physician to guess at the quality and quantity of the ingredients that impregnate the natural water propos'd . an appendix containing . paralipomena , or things directly belonging to the history and pretermitted in it . . a chaos of observations and experiments , remotely or indirectly referable either to one or more of the foregoing titles , or to the common subject of them all . sect . iv. experimental remarks upon the ( usual ) way of examining mineral waters , by the help of galls : deliver'd by way of larger annotations upon the xiii . article of the ii. part. since the change of colour that mineral waters produce in the infusion or tincture of galls , is the most usual way that many physicians , and the almost only that some of them , endeavour to discover or examine mineral waters by ; it may be worth while , in this place , to set down some remarks , that i have made about this way of probation ; & the rather because it may , mutatis mutandis , be not unusefully apply'd to the exploring the quality's of mineral waters by colorations , tho' made with other materials than galls . first then it may be observ'd , that one need not make an infusion or tncture of galls in common water , to try if by their means a new colour will be produc'd . for i am wont to beat them to powder , and keep them in a glass ( not too big ) exactly stop'd , by which means i have them alwaies in readiness to mingle with the mineral water , and alter the colour of it , if galls be able to do it , almost in atrice : whereas to draw the tincture of galls with simple water , often takes up several hours , and the tinging parts are much weakn'd by being diluted by the menstruum . if you would have a tincture , the powder of galls , ty'd up close in a ragg , and with it hung in the liquor , makes the infusion less muddy . if you be in hast , and have none of the powder at hand , you may scrape as much of a gall-apple , as you need into the mineral water . . i have observ'd those parts of the infusion of galls ( especially it made by heat ) that produce the new colour with ferruginous waters , to be more apt to fly away than one would think , the infusion becoming often unfit to alter the colour of the martial waters , whilst yet it self appears sufficiently high colour'd . upon which account , i choose to make a tincture of galls not long before i mind to use it ; and if i imploy dry galls , to take powder that is not stale . . 't is no safe way , and may be very erroneous , that is usually taken in mixing galls or their infusion with the water to be explor'd so carelesly , as is wont to be done . for those that are curious to make good ink , will easily believe , that much of the deepness of the colour depends upon the proportion of galls to the other ingredient ; and accordingly that by putting a much greater , or a much lesser , quantity of galls , into such a quantity of the mineral water , the resulting colour may be more or less intense . to obviate which inconvenience , i take this course when the occasion deserves it ; i make my infusion of galls with a certain weight of the powder in a determinate weight of water . as for instance i put about five gr . of powder'd galls , to sleep for so many hours in an ounce of water . but if i make use of the dry powder , then i am wont to put three or four grains into an ounce of the liquor to be examin'd ; which is a way far more certain than the common , wherein the ingredients are aestimated but by guess . i have have mention'd various proportions of powder'd galls to the same quantity of liquor , because i have observ'd that there is really a great inequality among the mineral vvaters in which it may be put ; and i have found by tryal , that in an ounce of the german spaw , a single grain of powder would immediately produce a sufficiently deep purple colour . 't is an inconvenience , that not only galls , but the other drugs hereafter to be mention'd , impart a high tincture of their own to the common vvater they are infus'd in ; and therefore it were to be wish'd , and is fit to be endeavour'd , that we had some drugg , that without imparting a colour to the common vvater it impregnates , would afford an infusion fit to strike a blackish or a purple colour with martial vvaters . though it be useful , yet 't is not necessary , to imploy galls to produce a colour in the mineral vvater propos'd . for besides that 't is known that usually , ( tho' not alwayes , as i have try'd , ) the same thing may be done , but somewhat more faintly , with oaken leaves , we may successfully enough substitute , for the same purpose , some other astringent vegetables , as dry'd red-rose leaves , the peel , and , ( as we have try'd ) the juice of pomegranates ; and ( what i find to be a notable stiptick ) the blossoms of the same plant , ( which are vulgarly call'd in the shops ballaustium . ) to which may be added myrobolans , logwood , and some others that need not now be mention'd , whose strong infusions have yielded me a tincture very dark and blackish with some martial liquors . . in regard that the galls , or other drugs , to be infus'd in common vvater , are not alwayes of the same goodness or strength , 't is adviseable not so to trust to any determinate proportion of the pigment to the vvater , as not to take in the help of the eye , to judge by the colour of the tincture , whether the liquor be duely ( and not too much or too little ) impregnated . . whereas there is an intimation in the close of this thirteenth article of the present sett of titles , that animal liquors may be imploy'd to produce new colours with mineral vvaters , i gave that hint , not only because 't is usually observ'd in martial vvaters , such as those of tunbridge the spaw , &c. that the gross excrements of the lower belly are blacken'd by a commixture of their metalline parts ; but in tunbridge vvaters particularly i have observ'd , that after the drinking of larger doses of them , the root of the tongue , and perhaps some neighbouring parts , would also acquire a dark colour , by the operation of the transient liquor . though the way of trying mineral vvaters , by the change of colours that galls produce in them , be useful and recommended by being easy , cheap , and expeditious , yet i do not take it to be either of that extent , or of that certainty , that 't is vulgarly presum'd to be of : for its main , if not only considerable , use is , to discover by striking , or not affording , a black or blackish , or at least a purple or a purplish , colour with a mineral water , to manifest the liquor to be , or not to be , either of a vitriolate , or a ferruginous nature . but there are divers metalline ores , and other mineral bodies , which not participating of iron , will not by this way be discoverable and yet may strongly impregnate the vvater propos'd : as for example , to try whether if arsenic were mingl'd with vvater , galls would discover it by producing with it a dark colour , i put some of the powder of them into a decoction of arsenic , but did not perceive that it gave the liquor any deeper colour , than it would have done to common vvater . and as the extent of this explorer of vvaters is not very great , so neither do i find the informations it gives us to be so certain , as they are presum'd . for , if i much misremember not , i long since found upon tryal purposely made that another body of a metalline nature , and that did not partake of iron , would with infusion of galls afford a very dark colour , that might easily , among ordinary beholders , pass for the colour produc'd by a martial vvater ; and i do somewhat doubt , whether so much as all liquors impregnated with iron , will de discover'd to be so , by the colour they afford with galls ; for i have sometimes made such a liquor with no mineral substance in it , save steel or iron but i did not find it would turn the infusion of galls either blackish or purple , which made me suspect , that these colours are afforded only by such martial vvaters , as have been wrought upon more or less by some acid salts or fumes . . unto these things i shall add , that i found that to be a mistake , which is generally taken for granted , viz. that the infusion of galls will certainly discover , by becoming black , ( or purple , ) if a mineral water , that is mix'd with it , be vitriolate ; for , tho' it be true that if , in the vitriolated vvater , iron be the only or predominant mineral , or be at least considerably participated by the liquor , yet if the dissolv'd vit riol be altogether copperish , i found by several tryals purposely made with a strong solution of roman vitriol , ( wherein copper is affirm'd to be the only , or to be very much the predominant , metal , ) that it would not with insusion or tincture of galls , afford either a black or a blackish colour , but only a thick and muddy one , that was not so much purplish . it comes into my mind upon this occasion that from one of the northern countreys of england , where there are divers mineral vvaters , there was brought me by a virtuoso , a good quantity of very whitish earth , which he suspected to be of a peculiar nature , but could not tell of what . this odd earth being examin'd , i concluded it to contain a considerable proportion of lead ore , corroded by some mineral salts , and imbody'd with the soyl ; so that if it had been in a place where people had sought for mineral vvaters , 't is probable that , finding some peculiarity in the tast of those that pass'd through this earth , they would have taken it for a mineral water , but had been at a great loss to determine what mineralit did partake of ; and perhaps , in endeavouring to resolve the doubt by drinking it , they would have found very bad effects of it . but probably the sulphureous spirit to be ere long describ'd in this paper would have inform'd them , that the water was impregnated with a body of the nature of vitriol , but not of common vitriol . for tho' galls do not give a black , or very blackish , colour with a solution of saecharum saturni , ( which is indeed the vitriol of lead ) resolv'd in distill'd or rain water . yet i found by tryal , that this volatile sulphur did manifestly and presently do it ; which tryal i was fain to take up with , because when i had occasion to consider this matter i had not at hand the ores of lead , copper , &c. and therefore was fain to content my self with the solutions of the metals themselves in their proper menstruums ; it being probable , that the metalline parts of the ores would have afforded either the same solutions , or some very like them , in the same menstruums ; which consisting of niter , sea-salt , & vitriol , bodies that abound in diverse places of the earth through which springs flow , the impregnated water would afford phaenomena of the same kind . i made tryals also upon a somewhat fine solution of refin'd gold made in an aqua regalis , and upon a solution of common running mercury , made with aqua fortis , and in a clear solution of tin , made , not with either of the foregoing menstruums ( for i have not found them to dissolve it genuinely ) but in a peculiar solvent , ( which i have communicated in another paper , ) that does not only dissolve it readily , but keep it permanently dissolv'd , as aqua fortis do's silver , but not tin. to these solutions i put galls , without obtaining any blackish colour except from that which contain'd gold. but with our sulphureous liquor we produc'd notable changes of colour , and those in all the solutions but one a dark one or tending to blackness , and tho' for that reason a careless eye might judge them indiscriminately to be blackish ; yet since i well remember that the degrees , or some other modification , of the same dark colour seem'd plainly enough not to be the same in all of them , i do not think it impossible but that a very heedful beholder ( which when i made those tryals i had no great motive to be ) may discern between those obscure colours some little differences , that may much assist him to guess , what metalline substance is contain'd in the liquor , or at least is predominant in it , if it be a compounded one . and i particularly remember , that the colour that sprang from our sulphureous liquor and solution of tin , was manifestly distinguishable from those produc'd in that of any of the other solutions , being not black or blackish , nor so much as purple , but of a kind of brownish yellow . though i am content that the things , i come from mentioning , should make men cautious and diffident , yet not only i do not despise or slight the use of galls , &c. even as it it is vulgarly practis'd , but i am apt to think that the way of exploring mineral waters by the changes of colour , that may be produc'd in them or by them , when they are mingled with convenient drugs or additaments , may be made of greater extent and use than he , that has read what i have written in the foregoing number , will perhaps be forward to expect . but to make the way of exploring mineral waters by colorations , of somewhat more general use and less uncertainty , i would recommend these things to the experimenter , ( . ) it seems very fit , if not necessary , that he look upon the change of colours , both while 't is producing , and when 't is produce in a good light and with a heedful eye . for by this means he may discover several shades or varietys of the more principal colours , and some other circumstances that he could not else take notice of ; and which yet may afford good hints ( in reference to other minerals , as well as martial ones , ) to a sagacious observer . and i have sometimes fancy'd , that there may be a kind of physio gnomy of many , if not most , other natural bodies as well as of humane faces , whereby an attentive and experienc'd considerer may himself discern in them many instructive things , that he cannot so declare to another man , as to make him discern them too . ( . ) the attention here encourag'd may perhaps be made more instructive , by a way that i have sometimes practis'd to vary the shades , and other phaenomena of colours produc'd with mineral liquors . this way consists chieflly in preparing sheets of white paper by drenching them in a strong infusion of brasil , log-wood , or some other convenient dying stuff , and then letting them dry leasurely in the air , which may give some of them , as i have observ'd , a colour differing enough from that of the liquor look'd upon in a vial or drinking glass . upon this dry'd paper ye may let fall , but not all on the same place , some drops of the mineral liquor to be examin'd , especially if it be of a saline nature , and by the changes of colour , effected by these drops on the parts of the paper , they fell and spread themselves upon , a heedful observer may be assisted to guess , what kind of mineral impregnates the liquor , and how much it does so ; especially if on the same sheet of paper some other fit mineral water or idoneous liquor be likewise dropt , that the changes of colour produc'd by the two fluids , may be survey'd and compar'd together . i also practis'd another way somewhat differing from this ; as the main part of which we prepar'd white paper , by rubbing well upon it , with a hares foot or some such thing , some idoneous powders , especially that of vitriol ( whereof for this purpose english seem'd the best ) lightly calcin'd in a gentle heat till it became of a grayish colour and friable between the fingers . by this means 't was easy to make the paper fit for our turn . for the finer parts having lodg'd themselves in its pores , without much discolouring it when the supersluous dust was struck off , it became capable of affording a variety of colours , or rather shades , some deeper and some fainter , when i let fall on it some drops of differing martial liquors . but of the examen of the materia medica , by the changes of colour produc'd in it or by it , more is said in another paper ; and therefore , instead of transferring that hither , i shall here briefly intimate , that divers variations of colour may be made , either by infusing or otherwise mixing , as i have sometimes done something in the mineral water before the tinging stuff be put to it : or by putting somewhat in the infusion or powder of galls , before it be mix'd with the mineral water , or else by dropping fit liquors ( such as spirit of salt sirst ; and then spirit of urine , or oyl of tartar ) into the blackish or purple mixture of galls and the medicinal water to be examin'd . for by these means diverse variations of colours may be observ'd ; which , together with some other wayes that i have made use of to multiply them , i have not now leisure to set down . ( . ) it is not convenient to confine ones self to the use either of galls or oaken leaves , but to make use also of red roses , balaustium , log-wood , brasil , and other astringent vegetable pigments . for , though some of these give a deeper tincture than galls yet , by the diversity of colours produc'd by them in mineral waters , an attentive beholder may , as was lately intimated where i mention'd diversity of lights and shades , discover some things that he would not be informed of , or receive any hints of , by the help of galls of oaken leaves alone . nay i would not have our experimenter imploy none but vegetable substances about his colorations , but sometimes make use of animal ones , and ( more often ) of minerals : since by this means he may much diversify his tryals , and increase the number of phaenomena , some of which he may probably find instructive . besides astringent plants i have found , and sometimes devis'd , other substances that will turn black as well as galls , with vitriolated water ; and that not only with those that are richly impregnated with iron , but also with those wherein copper alone abounds , as in roman vitriol . and tho' , for certain reasons , i must not now set down a way i have , to discover in a trice both these vitriols , without any liquor or tangible body , yet i shall subjoin , as a kind of succedaneum that may suffice for the present occasion , the way of making a liquor that will presently turn black with a solution either of martial or cupreous vitriol . take equal parts of pure salt of tartar , and either flowers of sulphur , or at least sulphur finely powder'd , and good sal-armoniac , reduce the first and the last to powder separately , melt the sulphur over a gentle fire , and by degrees put to it the salt of tartar , stirring them well , to make them incorporate and grow red ( or reddish . ) then put this mixture pulveriz'd into a glass retort , or a cucurbite , and pour on it the sal-armoniac dissolv'd in fair water , and closing well the junctures , distill all in sand by degrees of a moderate fire , shifting the receiver once or twice , because the liquors will be differingly ting'd and strong ; and that which ascends last , may bring over but very little of the sulphur , whose volatile tincture is yet the main thing we aim at in this operation . ( . ) i do not despair but that he , who were able to make a skilful use of the several drugs and other body's , vegetable , animal and mineral , that may produce new colours in or with mineral waters , ( or in some cases with the substances that impregnate them , ) may by their means be also inabled to discover the presence or inexistence of divers other minerals , some of them salubrious , or at least safe , and some others either hurtfull , or at least dangerous , that are not taken notice of by those that content themselves to imploy galls and oaken leaves , in the exploration of the waters they examine . for some of these liquors contain salts , that having not corroded either martial or cupreous ores or marcasites , do not betray themselves by producing either an inky or a fainter degree of blackness , or else a purple , with the drugs made use of to change their colours . ofthese salts i have met with more than one sort , which may be more properly take notice of , when we consider the mineral water and its contents . . i think it likewise very possible , that industrious men should find wayes to discover , by the help of the change of colours , whether orpiment or native arsenick , or the like poisonous minerals , do so impregnate the water propos'd , as to make it very hurtful or dangerous , thô not absolutely pernicious . and as for sulphur , there may be several waters that partake of it , without being taken notice of to do so . for i remember , that i have sometimes purposely made a liquor , that was limpid and colourless like spring water , and which would totally fly up , even with a gentle heat ; and yet this liquor was richly impregnated with a mineral sulphur , as i convinc'd several virtuosi by manifest and ocular proofs . so that if sulphur chanc'd to be combin'd with any salt or mineral , of those many subterraneal ones that nature hath hid from us , that can suppress or disguise its peculiar odour , the water may be considerably , and yet unobservedly , impregnated with it . and yet 't is like this may easily be discover'd by the change of colour , producible in such a sulphureous liquor by vitriolate bodies , and , other appropriate additaments : which may be thought the more probable , because , thô the spirit lately describ'd be very transparent and totally volatile in the form of a liquor sometimes pale enough , yet common english vitriol , as also that of danzick which is venereal , will presently turn it of a black or very dark colour . and to add here something more difficult to be perform'd , i have devis'd a way , which i elsewhere deliver , whereby it may appear that even copper , that hath been melted into a body , may be so subtiliz'd and disguis'd , as to have a multitude of its metalline parts made to ascend , with others , in the form of a transparent liquor like common water : and yet by putting to it a little of another substance , as volatile and colourless as it self , it would presently disclose the copper it contain'd by turning blew as a saphire . . because arsenic is a very pernicious drug , and yet has been suspected to be clandestinely mingled with some mineral waters , which i thought the less improbable , because some of the marcasitical bodies by which some mineral waters pass , are judg'd not to be devoid of arsenic , for these reasons , i say , and for this other which makes the mention of it pertinent in this place , that galls did not ( as i elsewhere note , ) discover at all the inexistence of this poysonous drug in water , thô the liquor were copiously impregnated with it , i thought fit to make some trials , that seem'd to me likely to discover at once the in existence of arsenic in water , and somewhat of the nature of that dangerous mineral . happening some years ago to tast arsenic , not without some little danger and inconvenience , the tast of it did not seem to me to favour the vulgar supposition , that its poysonous nature consists in a highly acid salt ; whereas its tast agrees well with my conjecture , who suspect it to be of an exceeding corroding or fretting nature , but whose corrosiveness is sui generis , that is , of a peculiar kind . having then made a strong solution of arsenic in common water , [ which does not without some skill easily dissolve it , ] we mix'd a small proportion of it with the german-spaw water , and then dropping into this mixture some highly dephlegm'd spirit of urine , we perceiv'd a light lactescence to be produc'd , and a whitish precipitate very slowly to subside . we found also that a little ( excellent ) oyl of tartar per deliquium , being drop'd into some of the lately mention'd solution of arsenic , produc'd a heavy whitish cloud , which presently settled at the lower part of the glass . we also put oyl of vitriol , as one of the strongest acids we know , into the solution of arsenic , but did not perceive , that the oyl made a precipitation , or wrought much otherwise on it than it would have done upon common water . and by these three tryals one would suspect , that arsenic is , at least ex praedominio , an acid body . but not content with these , we put some of the arsenical liquor upon some syrup of violets , and found it to change the syrup , thô but slowly , rather to a green than a red or purple colour . we put , to another portion of the same liquor , some of our volatile sulphureous spirit , but took notice of no precipitation that ensued . for a severer examen we imploy'd a tryal that we successfully make use of ( and have deliver'd in another paper ) to discover such slight degrees of acidity in liquors , as by ordinary tryals are not discoverable ; but we could not by this way discern the least acidity in our arsenical solution , but rather a manifest token of an urinous or lixiviate quality . with the former experiment agreed very well that which we aftewards made , by putting some of the arsenical liquor into a strong solution of common sublimate made in fair water . for by this means we had a copious precipitate , such as might have been expected from an alkaline precipitant . and this was not brick-colour'd , as fix'd alcali's produce with dissolv'd sublimate , but white , such as urinous or volatile alcalies , ( as they call them , ) are wont to make with the same liquor . the forgoing tryals having been made at one time , when i was in hast , and not at all fond of having to do with arsenic ( for which reason i caus'd the solution to be presently thrown away to prevent dangerous mistakes ; ) thô what i have hitherto try'd seems very favourable to our propos'd conjecture ; that thô arsenic be a very corrosive body , and perhaps upon that score poysonous , yet its deleterious nature does not consist only or mainly in a transcendently acid , nor in a lixiviate caustick quality , but in a corrosiveness sui generis , i mean peculiar and distinct : yet i shall forbear to be positive in this conjecture till further tryal , pretending only , by what has been said , to shew the need of examining the vulgar supposition by further inquiries , and to give some hints towards the finding of antidotes against this cruel poyson . i shall now add that , for the sake of water-drinkers , i cast about in my thoughts for some way that might be of some use , thô of no certainty , in examining a mineral water suspected to contain arsenic . to which purpose , for reasons which hast forbids me to mention , i pitch'd upon vitriolate bodies and found that if a little solution of dantzick vitriol were put to a convenient quantity of arsenical liquor , there would presently insue a great change of colour , and a dark substance would by degrees precipitate it self and settle in the lower part of the glass . the like effect we found , when we put english vitriol , which ( having no copper added in the making , as that of dantzick has , ) is either altogether or almost totally martial , into a considerable proportion of the arsenical solution . i fear i shall be thought to have dwelt by far too long upon this one ( ) article of our sett of titles : but i was tempted to do it , partly , because i thought the subject seem'd both to merit and to need it , partly , because i thought fit to give an instance that may shew that even that part of the exploration of mineral waters , that is judg'd to be the most cultivated , hath been but superficially enough consider'd . and partly , too , because my want of health , and my preingagement to some subjects that i am more concern'd for then i am for that i now treat of , permitting me to make few other than shorter notes upon the particular articles and clauses of this scheme of titles ; i thought it not amiss , by referring all the foregoing observations and tryals to the same topick , to give one specimen ( thô but an imperfect one ) of those that , for distinctions sake , i style large annotations . and though the title , these belong to , be the thirteenth in the scheme ( of the ii part , ) yet i thought fit to premise these notes to all the rest ? though divers of them be on titles antecedent to the thirteenth , because one or other , of the many particulars refer'd to this last nam'd title , may probably be of use to you in considering many of the other articles of this scheme , whether they follow the thirteenth , or precede it . marginal notes for the ii. or physico-chymical part of the natural history of a mineral water propos'd . notes on the first title . i. . the article mentions actual coldness and heat , because we do not here consider that which the schools call potential . . the knowledge of the degree of coldness in the water , especially if it be extraordinary , may somewhat assist the examiner to guess , whether the spring come from some notable depth under ground before it ascends , or whether it runs through a soyl abounding with salt-peter or sal-armoniac , or some such very refrigerating substance . . the degree of coldness or heat may be estimated several wayes as , if the water be cold , by its having , or not having , the power to coagulate essential oyl of anis seeds , or that of fennell seed ; & if it be that , by its being , or not being , able to melt bodies of somewhat differing dispositions to fusion , as butte , tallow , bees-was , &c. or to coagulate the whites of eggs , or to boyl eggs in the shell , &c. but the best way is to plunge into the water propos'd , or least the whole ball or globulous part of a good hermetically seal'd thermoscope , whereon the degrees of cold and heat are carefully mark'd . notes on the second title . ii. the knowledge of the specifick gravity of a mineral water , may be of great use to him that endeavonrs to discover its nature , not only as this knowledge inables him to distinguish the propos'd water from others , but because it may afford him a considerable and double information . for , by comparing the weight of the propos'd liquor with that of common water , he may be , in case the former be heavier ( as it usually happens to be ) assisted to estimate what proportion of salt , or martial , or other mineral substance , it is impregnated with . and if it be very light , and much more if it be lighter than common water , he may probably conclude that the substance , that impregnates it , is either very small in quantity or proportion , or is not near so gross as is to be found in other mineral waters , but of a spirituous and volatile nature which is a discovery of no small moment in this affair . and thó that may seem a paradox which i here suppose , that a water impregnated with a metalline or mineral substance should be as light or even lighter than common water . yet upon tryal carefully made i have found some mineral waters , as particularly that of tunbridge well taken up , and ( thô they be somewhat less light ) that of the german spaw , and of some of the islington springs , to be manifestly lighter than common water , and some taken up at tun bridge i found to be lighter than common water , even purified by distillation . and thô it be very hard to conceive , yet i think it not impossible , that a subterreneal substance , that impregnates water , should be lighter in specie than it : but yet i would not refer this surprizing levity , in all cases , nor all of it in most cases , to the admixture of lighter corpuscles , because some tryals justify'd the suspicion i had , that much of the comparative lightness proceeded from this , that the mineral water was imbued with a smaller quantity of vulgar or culinary salt , than common water uses to contain . but yet these tryals did not satisfy me , that this paucity of common salt was the sole or adequate cause of the lightness of the mentioned waters . but , to discover such minute differences , one must have good instruments , and indeed , to speak freely , there are few , upon whose reports i durst confidently relye , for the specific gravity of mineral waters . for to weigh liquors any thing exactly there is requisite more heedfulness , and more skill , and better instruments , than are easy to be met with together , and than we usually imagine . and , when physicians and others weigh mineral waters , they are wont to do it in some apothecary or other trades ▪ mans shop , where , if the ballances be small , the vessels and the water are commonly too heavy for them , and oftentimes wrong them . and if , as is usual , the bottles or other vessels be great , they require far better ballances than are usually imploy'd in the shops of apothecaries or grocers , whose ballances a critical examiner will too often find to be far from being accurate , insomuch that usually , without at all altering the weights , thô perhaps not great ones , he may easily make which scale he pleases manifestly preponderate , and continue in that position , and may as easily afterwards give the other scale the same advantage : the diligent and experienced mathematician mersennus much complains of the difficulty he found to weigh liquors exactly , even by the help of his nicer instruments . the accuratest way , i know , is by comparing the differing weights that the same sinking body has in common water , and in the liquor propos'd . but this way ( which i elsewhere circumstantially deliver ) requiring , besides good instruments , skill in hydrostaticks , is practicable but by few . and the way of comparing waters , by the greater or lesser sinking of the same cylinder or other swiming body into them , is scarce accurate enough . wherefore i chose to make a very skilfull artist blow , at the flame of a great lamp , a thin round vial with a flattish bottom , that it might stand upright , and be very light , and this was furnish'd with a neck as large as a goose quil drawn very even into a hollow cylinder of above inches long , and fitted at the top with a little gap , that hinder'd the water from ascending above the due height . this glass contain'd ℥ iiiss and grains of common water , and yet when empty , weigh'd but ʒvi+ grains : so that i could use it , when full of liquor , in such a ballance , that the addition or detraction of half a grain , or less , would make either scale preponderate . the length and evenness of the stem was design'd for uses not needful to be mention'd here ; where it may suffice for my purpose to say , that this glass was judged capable of holding water enough for not uncurious tryals , and yet not to be , thô well fill'd , too heavy for a tender ballance . in this vessel herefore we carefully weighed several liquors ( whose gravity belongs not to this place ) and among them diverse mineral waters , some of which , at least known here at london , were found to be of the annexed weights . the glass being fill'd with several liquors to the same height , and weighed in the same ballances .   ounces dr . gr . common water was found to weigh common water distill'd acton water ½ epsom water dulledge water straton water barnet water north-hall water the german spaw water tunbridge water islington water from the musick house islington water from the vault with steps islington water from the cellar by this short account it may appear , that , as divers mineral waters ( that contain salts in them ) are considerably heavier than common water , so some , especially ferruginous waters , are impregnated with so fine a substance , as to be lighter than common water . notes on the fourth title . iv. this article may , in divers cases , give some light to the discovery of the kind of soyl , through which the water has pass'd ; and is also useful to distinguish the spontaneous residence , if i may so call it , that the liquor le ts fall by meer standing , from that which they call the caput mortuum , that remains after the total evaporation of the water ; by which means also the weight of this last residence may be more truly known . besides some other mineral waters , i found that the german spaw waters , brought very well stop't to london , afforded by long standing a pretty quantity of terrestrial substance , that look'd almost like yellow oke● , and perhaps was of great affinity to it in nature . . that clause in the article , thô the liquor be kept from the air , was therefore set down , because i had found by tryals , that some liquors , by being expos'd to the free air , would have copious , and sometimes surprizing , substances separated from them ; as if the air contain'd some precipitating salts , fit to work on the liquors , so as to make in them such notable separations . notes on the fifth title . v. an accidental weakness i had , in my eyes , when i had the best opportunity to endeavour satisfying my self about this inquiry , forc'd me to leave the prosecution of it to others . only two things i shall take notice of on this occasion : one is that , having caus'd one that had young eyes , and was accustom'd to make use of such microscopes as are mention'd in the article , to look upon some mineral waters through them , he said he could discern no difference between them and common water . notwithstanding which the tryal ought to be repeated by various persons , on several waters , with differing engyscopes , and in differing lights , and other circumstances . the other is , that whereas it is by divers learned men objected , against the goodness of these magnifying glasses we now make use of to look on liquors , that the little bodies that the ingenious , mr. lewenhoeck , and since him divers other virtuosi , have observ'd in water wherein pepper has been infus'd , are not , as he pretends , living creatures , but little inanimate concretions , that are casually form'd , and carry'd to and fro in the liquor : to convince these doubters , of whose number i was my self at first inclin'd to be , i devis'd the following experiment : having laid , upon the magnifying glass , a part of a drop of water , wherein i could see store of these little animals frisking up and down , we put to the liquor , with a bristle or some such very slender thing , part of a drop of spirit of salt , which , as was expected , presently kill'd these little tender creatures , and depriving them of their animal motion , left them to be carry'd so slowly to and fro in the liquor , as to make it visible that they were then dead and had been before alive . notes on the seventh title . vii . the odours of divers mineral waters are best judg'd of at the spring head or other receptacle , whence some of them being remov'd scarce afford any odour at all ( perceptible by us men . ) . perhaps the sulphureous scent , that is sometimes , perceiv'd in tunbridge and some other waters in their sources , may in part proceed from loose exhalations , that casually happen to be mingled with the waters , but do not constantly belong to it . . the winy odour is mention'd among others : because i am credibly inform'd that , in france , there is a mineral spring , if not more or less than one , that has such a smell . . i mention the bituminous odour , distinctly from the sulphureous because men are too apt to confound them , and take all stinking mineral ▪ waters for sulphureous , whereas divers are manifestly bituminous ; as may be gather'd , to omit other signs , not only from their proper odours , but from more or fewer drops of petroleum , or a kind of course naphtha , that are found swimming upon the water . . i think it also not unlikely , that sometimes a spring may partake both of sulphur and bitumen , mingl'd together by the subterraneal heat , since i have found that i could easily enough melt and incorporate these two substances here above ground . notes on ninth title . ix . . this is an almost necessary article because many persons , that drink mineral waters , cannot well , either for want of strength or conveniency , repair immediately to the spring head , but are oblig'd to drink them in their beds or their lodgings , and perhaps to have them transported to a great distance , or even to another country . . many purging waters are found to retain their laxative vertue , and that perhaps for a considerable time , thô they be transported to places distant from those they rise in . . in such ferruginous waters , as are lighter than common water , i found a manifest difference in reference to transportation : for most of them , even such as will bear removing , have something of freshness and quickness at the spring head , ( perhaps from some spirituous and fugitive exhalations , that there arise with them , but presently vanish , ) that they have not any where else . and some do not only lose this briskness by being remov'd , thô in vessels well stop'd , but they lose also the power of producing , with the powder of galls , a purple colour , as i found by tryal purposely made in more than one of these mineral waters , which , to prevent fraud , i sent for to the springs themselves by servants of my own : for thô these carryed their glass bottles along with them , and had no other errand there but to fill and stop them carefully yet , by being transported less than one league , i found them so alter'd , that they would no longer make a purplish colour with powder'd galls , but a deep reddish one ; whereas the german spaw waters did almost alwayes here in london afford me , with the same powder of galls , a rich purple colour . and tunbridge waters afforded me the like , but not so deep a one . when i receiv'd them at london very well stopt . . this last clause was not to be omitted , because the exact or negligent closing of the vessels , wherein such waters are transported , is a circumstance of great moment . for more than once i receiv'd at london , waters sent me from tunbridge by physicians themselves , ( who us'd at least a moderate care in putting them up , ) which yet would by no means afford with galls a purplish colour . and i found that even the german spaw-water would almost presently lose its capacity of being made purple by galls , if it were considerably heated . . but the same spaw-water being , in summer time , kept all night in an open vessel , did the next morning till it was late , if not till noon , retain a disposition to be made purple by the admixture of galls ; but that disposition it lost before the next day . notes on the fifteenth title . xv. . because it often happens , that men have not the leisure and the conveniency totally to evaporate the proposed mineral water , it may be an useful thing , to be able without evaporation to discover , whether it contain any common salt and , if it do , to make some estimate , how copiously or sparingly the liquor is impregnated with it . this might easily be done , with nicety enough , if i were not by very just reasons restrain'd , for a while , from communicating that way of examining the saltness and freshness of waters , of which i did , by the kings command , show his majesty some proofs , whereof mention was presently after made in the printed gazets . but till it be free for me to impart that way to the publick , i shall only intimate , that some guess may be made at the saltness of waters , by observing , whether they will lather with wash-balls or soap , and , if they will not , what quantity of curdled matter they will produce ; as also , whether the waters will serve for washing of linnen , and will boil peas tender ? which two are the most usual wayes that many sea men take to examine the goodness of unknown waters by . in divers purging waters this way may be difficult to be practis'd with certainty , because of other salts that may be predominant in them ; but in the examen of lightly ferruginous springs it may be more rely'd upon . . it may not be unworthy observation that , when i made use of my own way of examining the saltness of mineral springs , i did not find even the lightest sort of them devoid of common salt ; which i found , but not in equal proportions , to be contain'd , not only in the several waters of islington , hamstead vvater , and , if i misremember not , in some others , but also particularly in tunbridge vvaters , and those of the german-spaw , which i did not much wonder at , because i had long known , that more or less of common salt is very usually harbour'd , thô not observed , in many soils , through which all sorts of springs , and consequently mineral ones , have their course . notes on the sixteenth title . xvi . thô acidity be so usually a manifest quality of mineral waters , that authors are wont to divide them into acidulae and thermae , yet i have found , by several tryals , that 't is not near so easy as men presume , to find a manifest acidity in all mineral waters , that are not sulphureous or hot. for several ferruginous waters , having probably spent the acidity they had upon the iron ore , which they dissolv'd in their passage , retain so little acidity , that 't is hard to discover they have any , either by their working upon coral , or by any conflict with spirit of urine , or the like , or by mixing them with syrup of violets , to change the colour of it ; insomuch that sometimes i should have concluded some such waters to have no acidity at all , if i had not had a way of discovering a far less degree of it , than i could discern it to have by other tryals . the circumstances , that made this way of examining so critical , will cost me too many words to set down here , and i have done it in another paper expresly written , of the way of discovering the qualities of divers bodies , by changes of colour made in or with them : and therefore i shall here but briefly tell you , that i discover the acidity of liquors by their operation upon the colours of an infusion of lignum nephriticum made in lympid water , ( and order'd after a certain manner . ) by this means i found the german spaw water to retain a little acidity , even here at london ; but more than one of our own ferruginous springs did not , even upon this tryal , appear to have any . and ( which some may think strange ) i did not find even some of the purging springs , particularly that of acton , to have any discernible acidity . notes on the twentieth title . xx. the scope of this inquiry was twofold : the first , to discover whether a change of texture would notably alter the qualities of the liquor , when the hermetical seal hinder'd the avolation of any saline , ferruginous , or spirituous parts : and the other was , to see whether such an agitation , by heat , as in the open air would , as i had found , deprive the spaw water of the vertue of making a purple colour with galls , would cause any manifest separation of parts in the liquor , and make any grosser substance to precipitate or subside . but thô we did twice ( not without difficulty ) make the experiment with spaw water , yet we made it without success . for the first time the glass broke at the bottom , before the water we immers'd it in was near boyling hot . and thô the other glass resisted longer , and indur'd a greater heat , yet in not very many minutes that also broke at the bottom . which disappointments a faithful historian ought as little to conceal , as better successes . and i chuse to leave this th article of inquiry in its place , among the rest of the titles , because possibly some other may be more happy , than i was , in endeavouring to answer it . and i hold it not amiss , in drawing up platforms of natural history , to set down what questions we think fit to be propos'd to nature ; because we cannot be sure , before endeavours for tryal be us'd , whether the thing to be attempted be practically performable or not . notes on the twenty sixth title . xxvi . . divers wayes may be propounded to discover which of the qualities , mention'd in this article , is predominant in the salt to be examin'd ; but i confess i somewhat doubt , whether these waies of tryal be so certain , as many will be forward to think them . . if acidity be guess'd to be predominant in the salt propos'd it will probably appear by such waies as these . by the tast , odour , or both : by working upon coral or crabs eyes finely powder'd : by curdling of milk ; by making syrup of violets reddish : by the power of destroying the blew colour of the infusion of lignum nephriticum : by not being precipitable by potent acid liquors as oyl of vitriol , spirit of salt ; and by being precipitable by oyl of tartar per deliquium , as also by strong spirit of urine , and other volatile alcaly's , as they are call'd . but , as i was noting above , i doubt whether these proofs be absolutely certain ; for , if i mistake not , i found some purging mineral waters that would not give even so slight a proof of acidity , as to destroy the blewness of the nephritic tincture : which yet would curdle milk , and turn it to a kind of posset ; and , on the contrary , i found that some german spaw water would not curdle milk , & yet would readily deprive the newly mention'd tincture of its ceruleous colour ; which yet i did not find that some of our english ferruginous waters were , at least when brought me to london , able to do . . the predominancy of an alcaly , in the salt of a mineral water , may be probably discover'd by such waies as these . by the lixiviate tast , smell , or both ; the former of which may be observ'd in the true niter of the ancients , ( which i have had brought me from aegypt , and a neighbouring country , whose name i do not now remember : ) by the turning of syrup of violets green : by the precipitation of solution of sublimate made in spring-water : by an effervescence or conflict with some potent acid , as aqua fortis , or well dephlegm'd sprit of salt : by heightning the red tincture of logwood or brazil , drawn with common water , to which , may be added a nicer way or two that i have elsewhere mention'd . but i propose these waies but as appearing rational , upon the score of my having successfully try'd them with other saline bodies that were alcalisate . for as to those mineral waters , i have had occasion to examine , i do not remember i have yet met with any , wherein an alcaly was predominant . . but perhaps farther inquiry will discover to others here in england , what i have not yet met with : and i doubt not but that there are , in divers places of the earth , salts of an alcalisate nature . and i presume that , if the egyptians were any thing curious of such things , they would find , among their springs or wells , divers waters impregnated with them . for i found by tryals , purposely made upon latron , as some knowing men call the true egyptian niter , presented me by an inquisitive ambassador who came out of the east , that the native salt exhibited divers of the same phaenomena that other factitious alcali's do . and some salt , afforded by the famous waters of bourbon in france , being brought me thence , with a desire that i would examine it , i found it to be evidently alcalisate ; insomuch that it would make a conflict with acids , and presently turn syrup of violets green . . if we suspect vitriol to be much predominant in the saline part of a mineral water , we may endeavour to discover it by such wayes as these . by its blackning a solution of galls : by its vomitive operation upon the drinkers , thô this may sometimes be an uncertain way especially because an invisible permixture of arsenic , or or perhaps arsenical fumes , may give the water they impregnate an emetic quality : by putting alcali's to a strong solution of the suppos'd vitriol , and observing whether it will afford a yellow or yellowish precipitate , if salt of tartar or spirit of urine be dropt into it . by taking notice , whether a sulphureous spirit , especially ▪ such an one as i formerly told i had made thô not here describ'd , will make a blackish or a very dark colour with it , as i first guess'd , and then found it would do with several vitriolate liquors , and even with one , to make which we had dissolv'd but one grain of a natural vitriolate substance in above four or five thousand times its weight of syrup or water . but in the parts about london i remember not that , in any of the waters i have made tryals on , i have found vitriol to be predominant , or to be so much as a manifest ingredient : which seem'd to me the more remarkable , because several parts about this city are not destitute of marcasites , the parents or wombs of vitriol . since the writing of these papers , being casually visited by a discerning stranger , who had a particular occasion to take notice of the residences of many of the mineral waters of france , his native country ; he answer'd me that he never met with any that was manifestly vitriolate ; and he seem'd to be of opinion , that no vitriolate spring had yet been discover'd , among the many mineral ones that are known to be in that country . . since we so rarely meet with either manifestly acid , or evidently alcalisate , salts in our english mineral waters , it may deserve a serious inquiry , what other salts they may be impregnated with ; and especially from what salts , the purgative vertue , that is found to belong to many of them , as epsom , barnet , acton , &c. do's proceed ? common salt indeed , as is already noted , i have found tokens of in the german spaw water ; and in all the english mineral waters , i had occasion to try , not one that i remember excepted . but i did not find that common salt was so copious in any of them , as to disclose it self by chrystallizing in cubical grains . and the way , i made use of , to examine the saltness of the water without crystallization , is not equally certain in all sorts of them . and because i had not store enough of these liquors , to evaporate them in large quantities , thô i could not discern , in the clear salts they afforded , either vitriol , or salt peter , or allom , or even common salt , by their peculiar and genuine figures ; yet i dare not confidently say , that none of our english mineral springs abounds with any of those salts . but as far as i can guess , by the tryals that i have hitherto had opportunity to make , i am apt to think that the salt , that is found in our purgative waters , and and in some of them copiously enough , dos not belong to any one known sort of salts , but is either of a sort , for which as for many other minerals , we have yet no name : or , which seems more probable , is a salt of a compounded nature , made up by the coalitions of some or all of the salts above mention'd , and perhaps of some other , as yet nameless , subterraneal salt that the spring inssolves in its passage , that two bodies , which are neither of them cathartic , may , by a change of texture , wrought in one another , compose a third body , that is briskly purgative , i have shewn in another paper . besides having formerly had occasion , in order to the resolution of a certain doubt i had entertain'd , to burn salt of tartar with about a double weight of common sulphur , i thence obtain'd , as i expected , a neutral salt , that had peculiar qualities differing from those of the bodies imploy'd to make it up : and talking of this salt with an ingenious empyrick , he told me it had a quality i had not mention'd , and that a very useful one , since in the dose of half a dram , or in some bodies , being taken in wine or broth , it would considerably , and yet gently and without gripings , purge . and without the help of salt of tartar have sometimes made out of common sulphur , a chrystalline salt of a somewhat vitriolate tast , the like to which might possibly be made under ground , where there are subterraneal fires , tho perhaps not observed nor suspected , since we made this salt without adding any thing to the sulphur , only by the help of fire and common water . and i remember that a great virtuoso , several years ago , brought me , in order to an examen he desir'd i should make of it , a certain salt afforded by a spring in or near his land , which i remember was in the west of england , tho i have forgot the name of the county : which salt no body knew what to make of , but i quickly told him , i took it to be of the nature of the sal mirabile glauberi , and predicted that in such tryals it would afford such and such phaenomena , which accordingly came to pass . and i thought that , if opportunity had not been wanting this salt would have appear'd purgative , as some factitious salts that resemble it in transparency , colourlesness , and figure have been observ'd to be . notes on the twenty seventh title . . 't is surprizing to observe , how great an inequality one may sometimes meet with in the proportion that the same quantity , of two ▪ differing mineral waters , bear to the caput mortuum they respectively afford : for a pound , for instance , of one may , after evaporation , leave behind it perhaps more drams of dry substance , than a pound of the other will leave behind it grains . but because i have no notes of the considerablest instances of this kind , that came to my knowledge , i shall add only by and by the product of a more recent tryal . . as far as i have hitherto observ'd , those ferruginous waters , that are not heavier than common water , and in most drinkers prove but diuretick , afford but very little caput mortuum , or dry substance upon the total evaporation of the liquor , whereas mineral waters , that are purging and manifestly more ponderous in specie than common water , leave , upon evaporation , a considerable quantity of residence , thô some far less than others . . at once to explain , and partly prove , what i have been saying , i shall here recite that , from a pound of barnet vvater ( which is known to be purgative ) slowly evaporated , we obtain'd a dram of vvhite powder . but from the like quantity of tunbridge vvater , we obtain'd but about one grain of caput mortuum : and , if i misremember not , we had but about a grain and a half from . ounces of the german spaw water . . it may seem scarce credible to many , that so small a quantity of matter , of which perhaps not one half is saline , or metalline , ( the rest being teresstrial , ) should impart a manifest vertue to so great a proportion of vvater . but this difficulty did not much trouble me , who have purposely made divers experiments , to discover how small a proportion of mineral matter may suffice , when dissolv'd , to impregnate common vvater . i remember i took one grain of iron stone , casually found near the springs at islington , ( from which mineral 't is probable those vvaters derive their vertue , ) this being open'd by the fire , and dissolv'd as far as it would be in a little spirit of salt , we let fall a drop or two of the yellowish solution into a great proportion of infusion of galls , to which it presently gave a deeper colour than tunbridge water , or even the german spaw vvater , was wont to give here at london , with the powder of galls : so that we guess'd that , if we had then had at hand a competent quantity of the infusion , the remaining part of the martial solution would have been able to colour ten times a greater quantity of the infusion , than our tryal was made upon . this will be easily believ'd by him , that shall consider an experiment , we afterwards made to the same purpose , which was this , vve dissolv'd a half grain of a good marcasite , taken up not far from london , in a small quantity of spirit of niter , ( which for a certain reason i made choice of , thô other acid menstruums , as aqua-fortis , and spirit of salt would have dissolved the mineral . ) this small solution we put into a pound of pretty high tincture of galls , made by infusing them in common water , and finding , as we expected , that this mixture , grew very dark , we fill'd a vial with it , and emptying that vial into a larger glass , we fill'd the same vial three times with common water to dilute it ; notwithstanding which this new mixture , being put into one of our usual glasses , appeared of a colour much deeper than that which the water of tunbridge , or the german spaw , had formerly given with the powder of galls : so that probably , if another vial of common water had been added , it would yet have afforded a purple colour , if not a deeper ; so that one part of dissolv'd marcasite communicated a tincture to ( ) sixty one thousand four hundred and forty parts of infusion of galls . and that which makes this experiment more considerable is , that this small quantity of marcasite was not it self all martial or metalline : for from our english marcasites , as well as others , i have obtain'd a pretty quantity of sulphur like common sulphur ; besides that they afford a not despicable quantity of terrestrial substance , about whose nature i have not yet satisfy'd my self . . i shall now add this reflexion that , since the marcasite impregnated so much water with its corporeal parts , if i may so call them , obtain'd by bare dissolution , it seems highly probable , that the same quantity of liquor may be impregnated by a far less quantity of mineral matter , attenuated into a kind of spirituous slate , by being rais'd in the form of fumes or exhalations ; and that imperfect or embryonated iron may be so , will scarce be deny'd by them that consider the way that i have , in another paper , deliver'd to make iron manifestly emit copious fumes , without the help of external fire . and if it be with some such spirituous and volatile exhalations , that a mineral water , as that of tunbridge or of islington , is impregnated , 't is not hard to conceive that they may easily lose their chief vertue , by the avolation of most or many of their fugitive parts , upon their being remov'd to a distance from the spring head . and to make it probable , that vitriolate corpuscles may be made to ascend , without losing their nature , i shall here mention an experiment , that i devis'd to give some light in this matter . i had often found by tryal , that a spirit , richly impregnated with volatiliz'd sulphur , would with vitriol , whether in the form of a powder or a solution , produce in a trice a very dark or blackish colour ; and guessing that , in mercury turn'd by the addition of salt and vitriol into corrosive sublimate , many of the vitriolate corpuscles might ascend with the mercurial ones , i took such a volatile sulphureous tincture as i have been mentioning , ( which for this purpose ought to be deep , ) and having dropt it upon good sublimate , i found it turn presently of a very opacous colour . to show also that , to make a great dilatation or dispersion of the martial corpuscles of an ore or mineral , there needs no spirit of salt , or the like distill'd menstruum , i procur'd from a copperas-work , ( or place where vitriol is made by art , ) some of the liquor they imploy , before they cast in iron , that being corroded by it , it may increase the weight , and give solidity and some other qualities to the designed vitriol . now thó this liquor be made , without any chymical menstruum , barely by rain or snow-water , that impregnates it self with saline or metalline particles in its passage through beds of marcasites , that lye expos'd to the sun and air ; yet in this water such numbers of martial corpuscles are dispers'd that , having shaken four drops of it into ounces and a half of common water , this liquor , as i expected , was thereby so impregnated , that with powder of galls it presently produc'd as deep a colour as good tunbridge water would have done . so that , supposing a drop of this liquor to weigh about a grain , ( as by some tryals purposely made we found it to do , ) it appears that one part of the vitriolate water was able manifestly to impregnate parts of common water . and yet of these drops or grains of vitriolate liquor , a considerable part may very probably be concluded , from the way of its production , to have been rain water , as will easily be granted when i shall have added , that , to examine this supposition or conjecture , we slowly evaporated some ounces of the vitriolate liquor , and found that the remaining dry substance did not fully amount to the th part of the weight of the whole . at which rate 't was easy to conclude , that one grain of vitriolate substance would have been sound capable of so impregnating six thousand times its weight of common water , as to make it sit to produce with galls a purple tincture . we afterwards found , upon tryal purposely and warily made , that the experiment will hold , thô the proportion of the water , to the grain of tinging substance , should exceed that lately mention'd , by the weight of some hundreds of grains . titles . for the natural history of a mineral water propos'd . consider'd as a medicine . ( being the iii. part of the designed work . ) sect . vi. though the effects of a mineral water upon humane bodies , as well as upon other subjects , may challenge a place in the natural history of it , yet because the titles of this third part of this scheme , for the most part , directly regard the cure or prevention of diseases , which are held to be the proper offices of physicians as such ; i forbore to make any comments upon the particular titles of this part of our historical idea , contenting my self , for the sake of those that are strangers to platforms of natural history , to have set down a series of titles , which may point out to them what particulars may be fit for their inquiry , and furnish them with heads whereto they may refer , and receptacles wherein they may lodge what , upon tryals or otherwise , they shall meet with worthy of observation . and so the accounts , that shall be given on these subjects , may be somewhat more distinct , and less incompleat . to what temperaments and constitutions the mineral water propos'd is the most proper , to what less proper , and to what noxious or inconvenient ? in what stated diseases , and in what particular cases , the mineral water is proper , or to be suspected of being dangerous , if not certainly hurtful ? what difference there is , if any , between the water taken up and presently drunk at the spring it self or other receptacle , and that which is carryed to some distance off , whether in open , or in well stop'd vessels ? of the manifest operations of the water in those that take it , whether it be by vomit , by seige , by urine , by several , or by two , or all of these waves . whether any , occult vertues , or other hidden qualities , can be discovered in the mineral water ? and if any , what ? what variation , in the effects of the mineral water , proceeds from its being drunk all of it quite cold , or hot , or lukewarm , or one part when 't is in one of those tempers , and the rest when in another ? of promoting or facilitating the operation of the water , in some by taking it in bed , and in others by moderate exercise . what assistance may be given to the operation of the water , by giving with it , especially in the first draught , something to make it pass the better , or to correct its crudity , or to strengthen the stomach and bowels ? what advantages may accrue , from preparing the patients body before he enters upon his course of drinking the waters ? and what inconveniences may attend the neglect of such preparation especially in gross , foul , or much obstructed bodies ? of the assistance the water may receive by gently purging medicines , discreetly given from time to time . of the best dose , or quantity of the water , to be taken at once ; of the compass of time wherein it should be all drunk ; and of the gradual increasing and lessening the dose at the beginning , and sometimes before the end , of the whole space of time appointed for the taking it . how much the greater or lesser length of time , spent in taking the water , conduces to its good effects ? and what is the fittest measure of time to continue the drinking of it , respect being had to the patients strength , disease , the time of the year , the accidental temperature of the air , and other considerable circumstances . whether the drinking of the mineral water , for several years together , be found almost necessary , or more beneficial than to intermit it sometimes for a year or two , or perhaps longer , and then to return to the use of it ? of the diet , as to meat , drink , exercise , sleep , &c. that ought to be observ'd by those that take the water , and of the inconveniences that are wont to follow the neglect of it . of the signes that declare the water to work kindly and effectually , and of the tokens of not doing so , and those of its being already hurtful or likely to prove so . of the inconveniences or unwelcome accidents ( if there be any , as usually there is ) that have been observ'd to happen , during , or some time after , the drinking of the mineral water , especially to persons of such constitutions , or that are in such and such circumstances , and of the waies to prevent or remedy such inconveniences . whether there be any necessity , or great use , of taking physick after one has done drinking the water ? and if there be , what are the fittest times and medicines to be imploy'd for the prevention of any bad effects of it , and what is the danger of neglect to make use of them ? vvhether and how the mineral vvater may be usefully given by being simply commix'd with other liquors or bodies , as by boiling meat in it ; or by receiving , together with the additament , a further preparation , as when the vvater is mingled with vvine , or some other drink ; when with milk 't is made into posset drink ; when brewed with mault alone , or with that and hopps , 't is turn'd into ale or beer ? vvhether any such saline , or other , substance may by evaporation inspissation , calcination , &c. be extracted , or obtained , from the mineral vvater , as being given in a small dose , may be substituted , as a succedaneum to large quantities of the water as nature affords it ? of what uses ( if of any ) the mineral vvater is , when outwardly apply'd , as by washing sore eyes or ulcers , bathing in it , &c. and whether the mud , or sediment it leaves , where it passes or stagnates , being externally apply'd , have the same or other medicinal vertues , and , if so , how the mud is to be administred to make it exert them . of some mechanico-medical trials , that may be made upon animals , to help us to guess at the qualities of the mineral vvaters , as by injecting it into the veins of a dog , to try whether it will coagulate his blood , or make it more fluid , or operate powerfully by vomit , siege , or urine : as also by keeping a dog very long without allowing him any other drink at all than the mineral vvater . but i propose such particulars , as are mention'd in this article , but as analogous experiments , or succedaneums to tryals that should , but cannot well , because of the worthiness of the subject , be try'd in living humane bodies . and indeed all the titles of this third part of our design'd history , belong porperly to physicians ; many of whom ( at least if they resemble you ) are far better qualifi'd , to cultivate this medicinal subject , than i , who being as little desirous , as fit , to incroach upon their province , shall not inlarge upon this third member of our history , but willingly resign it into their , and especially into your own , more skilful hands . the conclusion . and now , sir , it may be seasonable to put an end , at least for the present , so this rhapsody of papers , by telling you , that theforegoing idea or platform of a history of mineral vvaters , being a draught of , or a first essay upon , so difficult and and uncultivated a subject , as i have ventur'd to treat of ; as i know you are too iudicious to expect any thing of exactness and compleatness , in what i now present you , so i hope you will be so equitable , or so favourable , a reader , as to forgive those omissions and other imperfections , that i cannot doubt , but you , ( and even i my self upon a review , ) shall discover in the first edition of the foregoing papers . and thô , if hereafter they shall be thought worthy of a second , i may possibly be able , if god be pleas'd to grant me health and leisure , to rectify some oversights , and supply some omissions ; yet , to deal freely with you , i much fear , that it will be very difficult for far skilfuller pensthan mine to deliver such histories of mineral vvaters , as the curious would wish , and those criticks , that have never made tryal of the difficulty of attempts of this nature , will be forward to require . and this difficulty will , i presume , be found a great one , not only , ( as i have already noted , ) by him that shall undertake to give a good account of mineral vvaters á priori , but to him also that shall take in all the help he can obtain à posteriori . for there are so many circumstances , of seasons , vveather , place , and a multitude of contingencies , that may vary the phaenomena and effects of mineral vvaters , that 't is extreamly difficult , either to comprize so many different things at once , and as it were survey them at one view , or without having such a comprehension and multitude of various regards , to be able to pronounce with certainty about the nature , the medicinal operations , and the other effects , of a subject that may be influenc'd and diversify'd by so many causes and accidents , as a mineral vvater may . and therefore , till further disquisitions and tryals shall have better clear'd up the subject , i shall , without pretending to more , think the past discourse not altogether useless , if it can well perform the office of the virgula divinatoria ; which , ( supposing the truth of what many chymists and metallists deliver , ) of how little value soever it be of it self , is fit to point at mineral treasures , and show men the places where they are to seek for them . farewel . this belongeth to the th title of the first part. 't is known , that the drinking of ferruginous waters , such as those of the german-spaw and our tunbridge , is usually prescrib'd for many weeks , during which time it often enough happens , that the fall of rains makes men doubt whether the mineral water be not so much diluted , as to be spoil'd in its medicinal capacity . and indeed i have more than once observ'd , that some such martial waters , after considerable rains lost their power of producing the wonted colour with galls . and therefore it may in some cases be of good use , to be assisted to conjecture , whether or no the rain have made the mineral water unfit for drinking . in order to this i shall take notice , that usually a small rain does little or no harm to the medicinal spring . and sometimes even a moderate rain , especially after a long drought , may , instead of weakning it , increase its vertue , by washing down into its channel some salts , that during the dry weather , were concreted in the pores of the ground , and perhaps also by heightning the water in the channel , so as to dissolve some salts concreted there , which it could not reach before . but if the rain have long continu'd , the estimate may best be made , partly by the greater or lesser depth of the spring beneath the surface of the ground , and partly and indeed chiefly , by the peculiar nature or strength of the mineral water . for some springs are much more copiously impregnated than others , and therefore will bear a greater dilution by rain-water , of which i shall give you this notable instance . that , whereas i found ( as i lately noted ) that more than one of our english martial springs , especially those near london , were too much weakned by the water that rained into them ; i had the curiosity to try , how much of that kind of liquor , some german-spaw-water , that came to me to london very well conditioned , would bear . in pursuit of which design i warily made some tryals , which showed , ( what probably will be 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. rolfinchius de purgantibus , ▪ — ordo & methodus med. specialis . — conoilia med. sacra eleusinia patefacta , . schonckii histde humor , totius corporis , ▪ salamandrae descriptio , . sylvii opera med. schorkii pharmacopeia . — hisi . moschi . ang. salae opera med. . swammerdam miraculum natura . vigerii opera med . versaschae de apoplexia . waltheri sylva medica ▪ welschii decades x. med . wedelii opiologia . — physiologia med. — pharmacia . — de medicam . facultatiam ▪ — de medicam . compositione . — amaenitates materiae med. . weidenfeld de usu spir. vini lulliani , ▪ wepfericicut● aquatica . zwelferi pharmacop . octavoc● . bartholini de ductu salivali , . bruelis praxis med. bontekoe de febribus , . tho. bartholini hist . anatomica . becke de procidentia uteri , . borelli observat . med. briggs de oculo . barthol . anatomia . beck . experimenta , . beckeri physica subterr anea cum supplemento , . brunneri experimenta nova circa pancreas , . camerarii sylloges memorabilium m 〈…〉 vol. . deckeri exercitationis med pract . dodonai praxis medica . franchimont lithotomia med. . funerwalfi anatomia . gockelii concilia & observat . med. . de graaf opera . grulichius de hydrope , . — de bile , . grimm compend . med. chym. . guiberti opera med. hartmanni praxis chymiatrica , . heide anatome inytuli & observat . med. . hippocratis opera , vol. juncken chymia experimentalis , . — medicus prasenti seculo accom . . juventa a nova antiqua med. . le mort pharmacia & chimia , . lossii concil . med. . lister de fontibus med. angliae . — de insectis , . liseri culter anatomicus : marchetti anatomi : meekren observat . med. chyruri : mereti pinax : plateri observat . med. peonis & pythagor . exercit. anat. & med. : plot de origine fontium , : riverii institutiones : — praxis , vol. — observat . rulandi curationes emperica , . sydenhami opera universa londini , . straussii isagoge physica , . schroderi pharmacopeia : sculteti chyrurgia cum append. sthal aetioiogia phys . chym. . tilingii lilium curiosum , : tilingii prodromus , med . — de laudano opiato . versaschae observat . med . welsch rationale vulnerum lethalium , . wepferi de apoplexia : witten memoria medicor . zypaei fundamentu med . : twelves . bayle tract . de apoplexia . — dissertationes physicae . — dissertationes medicae . — problemata physica med. blondel thermarum aquis granen . & porcet , descript . . barbetti chyrurgia : — praxis cum notis deckerii : barthol . de ovariis — de unicornu : — de pulmonum subst 〈…〉 : beughen bibliographia med. & physica , : beguini tyrocinium chymicum : comelini catalogus plantarum , : drelincourt praeludium anat. — experimenta anat. . guiuri arcanum acidular . : glissoni opuscula , vol. van helmont . fundamenta med. : hoffmanus de usu li●nis , &c. : harvey de gener. animal . — de motu cordis : hoffman de cinnabari antimonii , . ab heer fons spadanus & observ . med. . kirchim de peste , . kirckring ▪ in basil valent. currum triumph . kunckelii observat . chymiae , : le mort compendium chymicum , . muralti vade mecum anat. . mysteria physico-medica , . maurocordatus de motu pulmonum , . macasii promptuarium materiae med. matthaei experimenta chymica , . muis praxis chyrurgica duabus partibus , . morelli methodus perscribendi formulas remedior . primerose ars pharmac . pecket anatomia : redus de insectiss reidlini observ . med . rivinus de peste lips●ensi . : riverii arcana . st. romani physica , . recueil de curiositez en medicine , . smitzii compend . med . : stockhameri microcosmographia , swalve quarelae ventriculi : — alcali & acidum : tilingius de renum structura . verla anat oculi : vigani medulla chymiae : du verney traite de l'organe de l'ouie , spon observations sur les fieures , . wedelii theoremata med. — de sale volat. plantarum . advertisement . that these afore mentioned books in physick and chymistry , with many other forreign books , are sold by samuel smith , at the prince's arms in st. pauls church-yard ; and that he will furnish himself with much variety of new books in that kind , from time to time , as they shall come from franckfort mart ; and likewise he can procure such other books for gentlemen , whichperhaps are not to be met with here , from his correspondents , if to be had , beyond sea. books printed for , and sold by samuel smith . the philosophical transactions published by the royal society monthly , beginning january : jo. goedartius de insectis in methodum redactus cum notalurum additione opera m. lister , item appendicis ad hist . animalium angliae , cum figuris aeneis illustrata , . enquiry after happiness by the author of practical christianity , . r. boyl's memoirs for the nat. history of human blood , especially the spirit of that liquor , . price s. — experiments and considerations about the porosity of bodies , in two essays , . price s. — d. — of the reconcileableness of specifick medicines to the corpuscular philosophy , is now in the press . tuta an efficax luis venerea , ●sepe absque mercurio ac semper absque salivatione mercuriali curandae methodus authore d. a. m. d. . de variatione , ac varietate ppulsus observationes , accessit ejusdem author is nova medicine tum speculativae , tum practicae claevis . sive ars explorandi medicas plantarum ac corporum quorumcumque facultates ex solo sapore q . the whole art of the stage , &c. translated out of french : in quarto , price . s. a new history of ethiopia , being a full and accurate description of the kingdom of abessinia , vulgarly , though erroneously , called the empire of prester john in four books ( illustrated with many copper plates ) and also a new and exact map of the countrey , and a preface she wing the usefulness of this history ; with the life of gregorius abba , &c. by the learned job ludolphus councellour to his imperial majesty and the dukes of saxony , and treasurer to his highness , the elector palatine , in fol. . price . s. guideon's fleece , or a vindication of the colledge of physlcians in answer to a book intituled the conclave of physicians . by dr. harvey , in quarto , . pr. . 〈◊〉 an anatomical account of an elephant which was lately dissected in dublin , june , in the year . by a. m. med. of trinity colledge near dublin , illustrated with cuts , in quarto , . price . s. swammerdami ( johan . ) amst . m. d. miraculum naturae . in octavo . a philosophical account of the hard frost , with what effects it may probably have upon human bodies , as to health and sickness , in quarto . d. stitcht . the true method of curing consumptions . by s. h. med. d. . price . s. a discourse about bagnio's , and mineral baths , and of the drinking of spaw water , with an account of the medicinal vertues of them , and also shewing the usefulness of sweating , rubbing , and bathing , and the great benefit many here received from them in various distempers . by s. h. med. doct. . miracles , works above and contrary to nature ; or an answer to a late translation out of spinosa's tractatus theologice-politicus , mr. hobs leviathan , &c. in quarto , . price . s. a treatise of self examination , in order to the worthy receiving the holy communion . by monsieur john clade minister of the reformed church at paris : translated from the french original , in twelves , . protestancy to be embraced ; or a new and infallible method to reduce romanists from popery to protestancy . . pr. . s. the art of divine converse , being a new years-gift , directing how to walk with god all the year long , in twelves , pr. . d. the councils of wisdom , or the maxims of solomon , in twelves , . pr. . s. the ten pleasures of marriage . in twelves . the dutch rogue : or gusman of amsterdam , traced from the cradle to the gallows , . in twelves . dr. thomas smith's sermon about frequent communion , . mr. fish's sermon on the th of may , . history of the original and progress of ecclesiastical revenues , by the learned p. simon , . contra hist . aristeae de lxx interpretibus dissertatio , sive responsio ad d. isaac vossium de septuaginta , &c. per h. hoddy a. m. . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e a paper refer'd to contain ; observations , about the salubrity and insalubrity of the air , under whose th proposition this process is rang'd . the irish spaw, being a short discourse on mineral waters in general with a way of improving by art weakly impregnated mineral waters ... / by p. bellon ... belon, p. (peter) approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing b estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the irish spaw, being a short discourse on mineral waters in general with a way of improving by art weakly impregnated mineral waters ... / by p. bellon ... belon, p. (peter) [ ], p. printed by j.r. for m. gunne ... and nat. tarrant ..., dublin : . reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng health resorts -- ireland. mineral waters -- therapeutic use. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - emma (leeson) huber sampled and proofread - emma (leeson) huber text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the irish spaw ; being a short discourse on mineral waters in general . with a way of improving by art weakly impregnated mineral waters . and a brief account of the mineral waters at chappel-izod near dublin . with directions for the taking of mineral waters , either strong , weak , by themselves , or with additions . by p. bellon , dr. in physick . dublin printed by j. r. for m. gunne at the bible and crown in castle-street , and nat. tarrant at the king's arms in corn-market . . to the illustrious prince james duke of ormond , lord lieutenant of ireland . may it please your grace , springs tend not more naturally unto their center , then this discourse to your grace , through whose courteous invitation i have left my native soil , to end the remainder of my days , in the service of my most gracious king , in this his kingdom , under your graces favour and protection . this nation , my lord , which is so sensible in its whole and in each individual parts of those vast and innumerable benefits and advantages which it has receiv'd from the benign'd influences of your graces wise , prudent , and most politick government , that in a due sense of gratitude sends up its daily prayers to heaven for your graces preservation . that i might not remain useless during my stay in this city , till your grace were pleas'd to appoint me a fix station , where i might be most serviceable in my capacity , i thought it convenient to employ my hours of leisure in some particular , which might tend to a general good . the crudities of the river waters in these parts might have been a proper theme to insist upon : but it requiring peradventure a further scrutiny then the spare time which i may enjoy here would permit me to enter upon ; i diverted my thoughts on a spring of mineral waters , at a small distance from this place , the subject of this discourse . be pleased , my lord , to protect , these few sheets under your graces favour , together with their subject the spring by encouraging the search after some other head , so much elevated above this , as may place it beyond the encroachment of common waters on its prerogatives ; that amongst all the wonderful goods and advantages which this nation has receiv'd at your graces hands , there may be added your graces miraculous production of a spring of health , from the midst of insalubrious waters . if in this first attempt , i am so happy as to please your grace , i have my end , which shall never presume beyond the bounds of being ( may it please your grace ) your grace's most obliged , most humble , most obedient servant , p. bellon . the irish spaw ; with a short discourse on mineral waters in general , &c. having been informed that neer unto this city there is a spring of mineral waters , of which divers persons have drank with good success , as to the cure of some particular diseases ; i thought this a fit subject on which to entertain my thoughts during my stay in this city , in order to discover its particular virtues and use , by the anatomising of its parts , and by a chymical examination of those metals & minerals , from whence it derived its virtues . in this design i transported my self upon the adjacent places to this spring , and there examin'd the soil , situation , distance from fresh and salt waters , its sediment in the spring , the most proximate hills . next i considered the water it self , its colour , odour , tast , brightness , weight , and softness ; and what skin , film or skum it did afford on the superficies . having made some immediate observations on all these circumstantial accidents , i applied my self unto such persons as might give me , what further observations they could , as to the strength of the water , when it was first found , the causes and proportions of its decay , and its effects , both internal and external . to this i added those observations which i made during the divers tryals and examinations , which are usually performed with galls , oak-leaves , oaken-vessels , allum , spirit of harts horn , distill'd vinager , oil of vitriol , oil of tartar , mixing , heating , and boyling of it with milk , and the like ; all which tryals standing good ( though weak ) but having no effect at all on milk. in the next place i entred upon the more judicious and philosophical way of examination , by fire , after a more particular method then is common , whereby the gass silvester , or wild volatile spirits are so preserv'd that judgment may pass upon them , as well and with as much advantage as on those more gross and terrene parts , which are rendred visible , not only through common distillation , but by precipitation also . by these examens i was inform'd of the minerals with which it was imbued , though not to that degree that i could wish , through its late mixture with common waters . having found that though this mineral water is tinged with such minerals as other efficatious mineral waters are , yet in so small a proportion as would not raise any great hopes of success in the cure of obstinate chronical diseases , but that like unto other weakly impregnated mineral waters in other parts , it would require some stimulator , to add more virtue unto its weakness ; i thought it convenient to give here a short account of mineral waters in general , to mention the inconveniencies which usually attend weakly imbued waters , and to offer at the means to supply those defects , and to render them not only equal to the most powerful natural mineral springs , but even to surpass them . which i will endeavour to perform with the greatest brevity that i can possible , considering the large extant of this subject ; after which i shall fall upon this particular water , which is the theme of my discourse . that there is a universal spirit , or spiritus mundi , which god hath established for the continuation of the species , which spirit gives a life to all beings , is a truth long since agreed upon by the learned ; but how , and through what conveyers , this spirit is communicated , and distributed into every individual being , is that point unto which i would come as neer , as this subject does require , without amplification . springs have been placed and appointed by a divine providence , in the earth , for the same use , as is the air , on the surface of it , to be the vehicles by which this universal spirit of the world should be communicated to all the parts thereof ; yet with this difference , that whereas in the air that uncontroled spirit acts more in its purity ; in the waters it is attracted by matter , and so becomes adherent to it . the chief attracting matter of this spirit , is by the philosophers esteemed to be vitriol , in which is contained that subtle acid juice of the earth , the sole cause of that universal fermentation which precedes all natural productions ; this its external green and azurine colours , its internal acidity and its magnetick property testifies ; its sulphur being that which attracts to it self the universal spirit , that opens , unites , gathers and coagulates the subterraneous vapours , and forms them into mineral and metallick substances . without dispute venus is most apparent in this mineral ; and therefore most ingeniously feigned ( by those poets that were philosophers ) to be the principle or mother of all natural production , which is manifested by its internal redness ; that generative blood of nature , with which she ferments all her seeds , and of them produces such varieties of minerals , vegetables and animals , according to the nature of their respective matrix . this animated vitriol is dissolv'd in the waters as they pass thorough subterraneous concaves , and thence distributed throughout the whole globe , that from thence , all things might receive their being , nurture and conservation . but as these waters in their progress , sometime do run through the veins and over the beds of minerals and metals , so they are more or less impregnated with the medicinal properties of the said minerals , according to the time of their stay upon them , and the compactness or flexibility of their natures , whence arising to the surface of the earth , they flow in continual streams of health . it was some reflections on this which gave occasion to a philosopher to say , fontes definire arduum est , cum praeter aquam quam habent naturalem , & in sitam , spiritum etiam habeant mundi , ex quo omnia producuntur cujus solius fontes sunt delatores per universam terram , ut hinc omnia desumant & esse suum , & alimentum , & conservationem . it is difficult , says he , to define springs , which ( beside their natural innated water ) have the spirit of the world also , of which all things are produced , and preserved ; the conducts of which springs are throughout the whole earth , that from thence all things may receive their being , nurture and preservation . by what has been said it is easily conceived that springs are not only of a bare simple waters , but of such as are impregnated with a spirit of power to work wonderful effects . this spirit ( as we have said ) is mixed and incorporated into every mix , which makes it yield with more facility to that water which is impregnated with the same spirit ; so that thereby it attracts the virtues out of the minerals , and appropriates them to it self , which a simple and unspirited water could not do , and then it may be thus defined . a mineral water is that which has its passages under ground , through the veins of one or more , of crude , and sometimes digested minerals or metals , by which , through the assistance of that acid ferment which it carries along with it , it is first insinuated into , and then impregnated with some proportion of their salt , sulphur , or mercury , in which three , all the qualities and virtues of every mix do reside . but above all they are tinged and imbued with the most fix of these three substances ( yet of a dissoluble nature ) namely the salt , in which is contained , according to the opinion of the learned , the most essential qualities of every compound . mirum est certè amoris divini symbolum maximum , &c. it is for certain a wonderful argument of the divine love ( cries out a philosopher ) that in all the parts of the world there should be sound springs endowed with such signal and admirable virtues for the cure of all diseases ! that god of nature , who to manifest his infinite love towards man , has not only ordained an infinite number of animals , plants , trees , and minerals also , not to be reckoned , for the cure of diseases , but moreover hath commanded the springs to pour out continual streams of health in all parts . but to give the reader a farther inspection into the constitution of a mineral water , i must say that in the family of minerals , some are of a more easie and yielding nature then others , the more perfect , are the more fix , and not so easie to give their tinctures , such are metals , amongst which gold and silver are the most compact , and concentred within themselves , copper , tinn , lead and mercury , more yielding , and iron the least locked up of the seven , by reason of its abundance of crude and undigested sulphur , which is not of power to secure the salt from dissolution in the bare open air , as the rust which is so constantly annexed to unhandled iron doth daily testifie : but minerals being of a less perfect existance then metals ; are therefore more yielding to any menstruum or liquor , in which they are immerged . now since that even from metals may be expected a yielding tincture , full of virtue & power to cure some particular diseases ; iron being dissolved with the most ease , though not esteemed by some of so cordial a virtue as gold and silver , yet endowed with divers excellent qualities , it may reasonably be expected to be proper against most diseases proceeding from obstructions , iron being esteemed by all authors , without contradiction , to be the most powerful opener of all obstructions , in what part soever settled ; wherefore i do prefer that water which is impregnated with iron before any other . but all mineral waters are not impregnated alike , some more , some less , according as they are animated with the acid ferment beforemention'd , proportionable to the yielding or compactness of the mineral they pass over , and answerable to their stay upon them ; care must be had of chusing such waters as are most impregnated , which may be known by these following marks . contrary to the best quality of common waters , which consists in their lightness , the most heavy and ponderous , the most clear , of a dark greenish colour , of an acid and brackish taste , of a sulphureous smell , and which is the easiest evaporated , is the best . for its weight denotes a good proportion in it of that which only gives weight to all things , namely salts in general . it s clearness shews it free from heterogenious parts , except such as are annexed to all waters , which in the evaporation of them is found in the bottom of the vessel , not much unlike a slimy mudd , in looks , smell , and taste , as well as in consistency , in which ( though of such a contemptible aspect ) lurks the essential salt. but how to order that earth either before , during the evaporations , and after , so as to extract that salt without any detriment of its qualities , hic labor , hoc opus . however i have found these terrestrial particles divested of the salt , to be of a stiptick and astringent nature , which could not but retard the virtue of the essential salt , and sometimes create new diseases in lieu of curing those already contracted , when the water is overcharged with them , which does frequently happen when they are drank too soon after great showers of rain , before they are perfectly settled and clear . it s dark colour shews its impregnation with a vitriolick or martial salt , mixed with some sulphur , which sulphur is also denoted by its odour . by its activity and aptness to be evaporated is more at large manifested the considerable proportion of the said essential salt ; which by his native heat , joined with that of the culinary fire , the humidity or flegm is therewith the easier rarified . besides these the dark green colour which it receives from a competency of this vitriolick salt of iron , is an infallible sign of a water apt to yield a good proportion of that essential salt , and consequently very medicinal . moreover , that water which is rough to the palate , which at the first relish discovers some acid , that terminates into a kind of an austere bitterness of a bituminous odour , that dyes the excrements black , and sometimes the urines of a greenish colour , of an easie digestion , quick conveyance through the smallest vessels , though taken in a small quantity , is to be preferred . but a mineral water so qualified in all respects , is not to be found in all places , in this our age , whither through that general decay of nature , ( which in the opinion of some is very remarkable ) i shall not now insist upon ; but thus much i here assert , that for want of such waters , the sick are frequently obliged to make use of such as are less impregnated , which being not powerful to cure and eradicate formed diseases , yet are generally known , and used with some success in the removing of recent obstructions , and in preparing the body for the reception of specifick medicines , ordained by skilful physicians , according to the nature of the diseases . which waters might also be happily us'd in confirmed diseases , were they not to be taken then in such large quantities ( for want of sufficient impregnation ) to make them pass by the pressure of their own weight , from which there frequently follows an unusual extension of the tunicles of the stomach , and an extinction of its natural heat , from which two accidents do commonly proceed hysterical passions , convulsions , cramps , palsies , apoplexies , and the like , and sometimes immediate suffocations , which inconveniences by taking too large quantities of weakly impregnated waters , i shall further insist upon from these four particulars , quantity , quality , time and place . first as to quantity . a gallon of water is the usual height , to attain unto any benefit by them , though sometimes six quarts , nay two gallons , have been devoured , which quantities are usually taken within the space of an hour , or two , at the most ; the half of this vast quantity to be contained at once , sometimes in a stomach which has been debilitated , either by the violence or duration of the morbifick matter , the tedious persistance in a fruitless course of physick , or both ; disenabled from digesting and distributing a small proportion of a good nutriment , much more incapable of dealing with such a large quantity of a crude liquor , so that it frequently happens that the waters remain in the stomach , not passing at every fourth or fifth glass , as might be expected , and consequently not to be voyded again but by vomit , except ( as i have already said ) they be pressed down by their own burden ( a very dangerous thing to trust to ) : for when they chance to go off so on a suddain , it is with such an impetuous course , that the weight and quantity meeting with some obstructions in the smaller vessels and passages , thereby are caused great inflamations in the meseraick veins , kidnies , uriteries , bladder , &c. with so great a dilatation of the vessels , to force it self out , that swounding fits , cold sweats , and sometimes , without a singular suppliment of nature , sudden death has followed , notwithstanding the use of common salt , carminative seeds , mixtures of other liquors with the waters , taking of them in bed , laying of warm clothes and down pillows over their stomachs , the use of cream of tartar , the heating of the waters , and the like ; which last renders them less , powerful , by the loss of their most subtle parts , which are thereby evaporated ; the waters remaining more crude and indigestible then before . secondly , if the quantity is so nocent , well may the quality . to have at once , in a weakned stomach , the forementioned quantity of water , in which the virtual substance doth not exceed the weight of six or eight grains , ( all the rest being of a cold , raw , and undigestible nature ) must needs be a wrack to our nature , who is contented with a little . thirdly , the sick are limited to such particular seasons of the year , wherein as the proverb says , they must make hey while the sun shines , and frequently in the midst of their course , are impeded by some great fall of rain , which mixing with the already too crude waters , does instantly extinguish that small portion of virtue which they had , and so are deprived for that time from all kind of operation , by which accident the poor patient is wholly disappointed of his hopes , and abandoned to the cruel tyranny of a conquering and merciless enemy . lastly . and here i must except these waters , near so great a place of all manner of accommodation , as is this city of dublin , as well as others so advantagiously situated . i say , that there are no persons who have seen the great inconveniencies which attend most of the places of drinking the mineral waters , but are already convinced of the great want of better accommodations , i mean in reference to the poor , weak , languishing , sick creatures , which inconveniencies most chiefly happen by the great concourse of people where there is such a scarcity of conveniencies . for sick persons being , at the best , fitted , not as their nice and peevish humours would require , but as well as they can , though when in their own habitations , being transported to those cold and bleek , places , in danger of having added to their other distempers , colds , coughs , agues ; in a word , exposed to all the injuries of a piercing air , besides the stirring up of humours , raising of vapours , there confined into some scanted cottage , streightned of such necessary refreshments as are requisite for them , must of necessity prove , if well examined , more prejudicial in general , then those mineral waters can do good . i speak not of such whose plentiful fortunes can render all places alike commodious to them , but of the generality . thus much as to mineral waters in general , and the many inconveniencies which attend the taking of weak impregnated waters . now if such accidents do usually attend the use of weakly impregnated waters , is it not a charitable act to endeavour the removing of all these forementioned impediments ? it is well known that this has been already done in england and elsewhere ; and no question but that it may be also performed in this kingdom , in supplying the weakness of these waters , by joining unto a small proportion of them , the essential salt extracted out of others more strongly impregnated waters , of the same nature & operation with these . whereby they will be rendred more powerful in their operations , enabled to carry themselves through all obstructions , and that , not by the violence of their own weight , but by gently insinuating themselves , and by their penetrating qualities , piercing through the most remote opilated and obstructed parts of the body . this , i humbly offer for the publick good of this nation , unto which i have been lately called , until i find some opportunity of being more serviceable . namely , an essential vitriolick salt of mars , extracted out of mineral waters , so far to be prefer'd before most of mineral waters , as a strong rectified pure spirit of wine before a weak flegmatick brandy , or a chymical extraction before a meer galenick potage . for any person that is not prepossessed with prejudicate opinions , against the scientifick art of chymistry , or too much byassed with his own interest , but will confess upon tryal that this essential salt , in which the virtues of the waters reside , being-first disengaged from that large proportion of flegm , in which it lay drowned , and after mixed with a less proportion of the same or with some other idoneous vehicle , will thereby be rendred , more convenient and easie to be taken , and received in the stomach , and there once received , more powerful and active both in it self , and its commixture , to operate upon the peccant ferment , to mix with the chyle , and to be convey'd with more facility and quick dispatch , even to the most remote digestions . for this essential salt is hot , piercing , searching , opening , and driving from the center to the circumference , by which qualities it doth powerfully resist all putrid and indigested humours , the results of evil fermentations , which produce such a variety of obstructions , in all parts of the body , by attenuating with its piercing heat their viscous and tenacious parts , which choak up the small passages of the veins , arteries , and nerves , by which the free and natural circulation of the natural , animal and vital spirits is impeded . by its dissolving quality liquifying and mixing it self with the crude humours , and by its dilating faculty insinuating it self into the most remote and last digestions , there aiding nature to overcome whatsoever is offensive to her ; nay , if timely taken , preventing all obstructions , first caused by ill digestions in the stomach , which at such a time produces a viscous flegm , in lieu of a laudible chyle ; for errors in the first digestion , are not rectified in the second or third . thus waters so qualified either in themselves , or through the addition and assistance of such a salt , mix themselves with the natural ferment , aid and enable it to oppose , combat and suppress , all preternatural fermentations , disingage the stomach from all crudities , cause the generation of a good chyle , attend it to a perfect sanquification , circulate with the blood , and driving forth all serossities , and other impurities they are instrumental in the creation of quick and active spirits ; so that by these means they may with justice deserve the glorious title of universal restorers and preservers , by cleansing , correcting and strengthening all the natural faculties , which being vitiated are the causes of all diseases . and natura corroborata est omnium morborum medicatrix . in the just commendations of arightly impregnated mineral waters , i could enlarge my self at pleasure on every particular ; but my intention being more to inform in the matter of fact , then to amuse with multiplicity of notions , i shall conclude this part of my discourse , and proceed to the other , which has respect to the ways and methods of using them both , as to the prevention and the extirpation of diseases . i have said that all diseases proceed at first from a deviation of the functions of the stomach : if therefore any persons are sensible of sick intervals , weakness , oppressions , rawness , gnawings , burning in the stomach , a dog-like appetite , or a nauseating of food , and the like ; to intercept all diseases that would follow , let them by way of prevention , suppress those evils in their buds with the use of mineral waters , in this following method . first let them apply themselves to some learned able physician , to have the humours well prepared , according to the constitutions of the bodies ; for that maxim proemisis universalibus is always to be regarded . from the omission of this caution do ordinarily proceed all the errors , and ill consequences , which follow the unruly taking of any mineral water , though never so good , if you will add the faults of the patients , and ill diets , which is the bane of all the ill begun , and worse prosecuted , cures . according to the natural strength and vigour of the waters you drink , or the proportion of essential salt you add to them , so must your doses be ; and this learned by experience the first day . never begin to drink till the sun be a little high , after the drinking of each glass of half a pint , walk or ride moderately , till the liquor begins to pass , either by stool or by urine ; but those that are not able to perform either of those two exercises , are to be easily agitated in a coach. increase daily by one glass , till you come to two quarts , for strong and vigorous bodies , which is the most that any must ascend to . when you are come to the tolerable quantity , stay in it during or days , according as you find your self able . when you are near bidding the waters farewel , decrease for four or five days , till you come to your first proportion . all that is to be drunk every day , must be done at the furthest within an hour . when you walk or otherwise exercise , let it be moderately , resting by intervals , and use not a superfluous toil , which doth not awaken , but rather choak up nature , and hinders the free expulsion . put off your dinner till you find that the best part of the water is past , and to that purpose , when the waters work only by urines , as those of tunbridge , you must measure your urine in glasses of equal dimensions to the former ; but where the waters work both ways , a sign that the most are passed , is when the urine doth come again to its natural yellow colour . let your dinner be light , and your supper lighter , of one or two sorts of meats , at the most , young , tender , of easie digestion , and good juicy substance , roasted , and not boiled . no fruit , no milk nor cheese : no veneson , tarts nor spices ; no fish . use well baked white bread , good middling beer or ale , clear , ripe , and well settled , and good french white wine , or small rhenish , as baccarach . all mixtures of drinks , and adulterated wines are most dangerous . you will do well to weigh your selves every morning before you drink , and after , to know what alteration there is made by stools and sweats , if you have any . i forbear mentioning here any digestive powders , cordials , or the like , to fortifie the stomach , because that having a water sufficiently strong of it self , or made so by the addition of the essential salt , it has heat sufficient in it self , to assist the stomach withal . now a word to those that use weakly impregnated waters ( for want of better , or not having the essential martial salt ) for the opening of slight obstructions , and new found distempers . let them consult their physicians in order to have such digestive powders and cordials , in readiness , as will best suit with their constitutions , to prevent all inconveniencies . the ordinary remedies are the use of mace , cardamome , anise , foenel and caraway seeds grosly beaten to powder , and mixed with four times as much of loaf-sugar in powder , of which , they take half a spoonful after meal ; this for the digesting powder . their cordials made of cold mint and balm-water , with a little wormwood , cardamome , hot waters , and sweetened with syrup of clove-july-flowers . they use also to take betwixt each pinte glasses some anise or caraway comfits , candied orange-peels and the like . the best way of mixtures or heating of the waters is thus . first to mingle with the first and second glass , one or two spoonful in each of pure rich canary , secondly to have hard by the well a kettle full of water with fire under , to heat it , in which kettle put divers stone bottles full of the mineral waters taken within the well , very well stopped , and when the water is moderately warm ; take out of one quart bottle but two glasses at the most , leaving the sediment behind . thirdly , they may be taken in bed , a little warm , bearing upon the region of the stomach a down pillow ; when the whole quantity hath been taken , and by the warmth of the bed , the water begins to pass , then the patient must go to his moderate exercise , of walking , riding on horseback or in a coach , according to the strength of the body and his conveniency . these and the like miserable shifts are such glad to use , which drink too weakly impregnated waters . to drink but few days the waters of any sort , is to no purpose , the shortest time , if nothing intervenes is one month , if the waters pass currantly , and the patient find a good effect towards the romoval of some old chronical disease , he may go further . by all means if rainy weather comes forcibly leave off drinking , except you have at hand some of the essential salt , to revive the waters . and from the beginning after three or four days tryal , if the waters remain in the body , and are not voided , leave off . some persons are costive during the drinking of such waters , as only purge by urines ; those , if they refuse clysters , may take every third or fourth day stomachal purging pills , a quarter of an hour before supper , as those de ammoniaco , mastichinae fernellii , stomachicarum cum gum mis , de hyera , or the like . when arriv'd to the end of this task , to draw out of the body all that might be lodg'd in the veins , or elsewhere , one , two , or three purgations , if needs be , are not to be omitted , which done , nothing remains , but every one to make much of himself , returning little by little to his ordinary manner of life , within the rules of art and mediocrity . now to come to this particular mineral water , near to chappel-izard ; i say in the first place , that as it is now situated , it is impossible to preserve it long in its puris naturalibus , and without some mixtures of common waters by all the means imaginable . but with care and industry it may be traced unto the foot of the neighbouring hill , some two or three yards high , from whence undoubtedly it proceeds , and there guarding it round with good strong clay , then walling it in , and fixing a bason over its rise , there it may be kept from all dangers , but a suddain fall of waters , unto which inconveniences all mineral waters are liable . but so long as it remains on such a flat bottom , so near to a running stream , liable to be overwhelmed upon every glut of rain , it will never be of any significant use , for the cure of any chronicall diseases , though it may succeed with some in the opening of slite recent obstructions . for though i deny not but that in divers places mineral springs have been overflowed through their proximity to rivers , & low situations ; and yet presently upon the retreat of the flouds have remained as strong and vigorous as before , by reason that the strongly impregnated waters have kept them stations , by the weight which they received from their own salts , not admitting , but of a very slight and superficial mixture , with the intruding liquor ; yet when other waters break under ground in to the course of the mineral waters , and so roll together for some space , they are so mixed per minima , and so wholly enervated that no good can be expected from them . though i am not of a humour to content my self with pythagoras his scholars bare ipse dixit , yet here i have been forced to take divers things upon trust , through the late accidental weakness of the mineral waters near chappel-izard . but as to what has fallen under my inspection , upon those tryals which i have made , thus much i can say , that when i mixed some powder of galls with it in a glass , it turned purple ; adding a little alum , it turned blackish : oak-leaves in powder have made it of a subrufus brown , which has turned blackish with a little distill'd vinagre . with spirit of harts horn , i caus'd a white separation to be made with some little sulphurious or bituminous odour , which was reduc'd again to its natural clearness , with some few drops of oyle of tartar. with oak-leaves , or galls being tinged , some few drops of oyl of vitriol have caused a separation of a black sediment . this sediment being examined , proves to contain a vitriolick salt of mars . it s being mixed with equall parts and boyled with milk makes no alteration . in the precipitation of it i have found a subtle gass or sharp fume to arise somewhat sulphurious , which speaks it to partake also of sulphur . in the distillation in close glass vessels , it has afforded a small proportion of this acid wild spirit , which has been turned red with powder of galls that were placed in the receiver . in the bottom of the glass-vessel i found a black sediment , not much unlike mudd , out of which i have extracted some few grains of a vitriolick salt of mars . all which examinations and tryals make me conclude that this mineral water is imbewed with a slender proportion of iron , vitriol , sulphur and alum ; which answers very properly to its effects , and to the soil adjacent to it ; and it is my opinion that it partakes of nitre also , though i found none . i have been credibly informed , that when it was first found out , it had over it a very thick scum of rust , which denoted its passage through some iron mine , how remote from its rise , it matters not . it had under that scum , a thin skin or film , cauda pavonis , or rainbow commonly called , for the variety of its colours , which it borrowed either from the sulphur of mars , or of common brimstone , which last i am more apt to believe , because that then it had a strong bituminous odour and taste . no great observations can be made upon the soil through which it passes ; it is like unto most of the earth about this place mix'd with small pieces of a glittering stone , which , by chewing in my mouth i scaled so thin , that no talk could be more finely split , nor yield a more glorious lustre and whiteness ; this , and some small particulars of a kind of courser talk , call'd lapis entalis , which schroder mentions , together with a common grayish sand , and a dust of the same colour , is the compound of that earth nearest to it , which would give me occasion not to despair of finding some aluminous mine , or talk veins in the neighbouring hills , if some pains were taken about it . the qualities and virtues of the minerals wherewith this water is impregnated , are these . mars , or iron , is hot , dry , internally red , it consists of a double mercury , burning and black , of a red sulphur and an impure earth . it is piercing , opening and corroborating ; good against all obstructions , debility of the stomach , all fluxes : it is an alkali , therefore a great dulcifier of the blood , &c. vitriol , there are divers sorts , and of various colours ; it is commonly white , blue , and green ; i have seen some in poland that was yellow , and some red . it abounds in a combustible sulphur , and a corrosive acid ; it contains a sweet anodine oyl , difficult to be had ; it is internally red . it is stiptick , emetick , detersive , hot and drying : it partakes of the virtues of mars and venus ; it is good against all inflamations , especially of the eyes . alum , of alum there are divers sorts also , and divers comprehend vitriol under the nature of alum , of which it only differs in a metallick sulphur ; it is void of tincture . paracelsus does attribute the names of salts unto external ulcers , according to the diversity of the congelations of salts ; if it is a red ulcer , he calls it vitriolick : if without redness , aluminous ; and because there are divers sorts of alum in respects of tasts , and some that are wholly insipid , as the alumen entalis , plumosum , &c. there are likewise insipid tuberous ulcers . it is stiptick , drying , cooling , coagulating , and dissolving ; it most powerfully resists putrefactions , precipitates evil ferments , allays the inflamations of the bowels , and stops a gangraine . sulphur , it is called the rosin , the lungs of the earth , the second acting principle , existant in mixt bodies : from it whatsoever is combustible either liquid or solid is called sulphur , or sulphurious . there are two sorts , one that is combustible , and another that is incombustible . the combustible is that which is burnt , and yields no smoke , but is inflamable : the incombustible yields no flame , but remains fix and permanent : sulphur is found either coagulated , or liquid , in the form of a bitumen ; as it is found in the mines before it is separated by fusion from its earth it is called , living . it differs from vitriol only in the external form , and each may easily be transform'd into the other ; therefore they have much the same qualities and virtues , only this last is more inflamable , and a particular friend to the lungs . thus much as to the nature of those minerals that have embued these waters , from whence may be gathered the reasons why it cures recent obstructions , cleanseth the reins , uriters , and bladder : aids dropsical persons , cases the pains of the gout and rhumatisms , procures an appetite , fortifies the tone of the stomach , and corroborates the visceras . now as to this essential vitriolick salt of mars which i have mentioned , to be used to add strength and energy to those waters that are but superficially embued with mineral tinctures ; it may seem strange to some persons , and i expect that some will be sound amongst the ignorant mobile , that will deride my proposition ; but hos oblatrantes caniculos cum contemptu praetereo . i address my self to the learned only , and to them i further add , that besides the extraction of this essential salt from mineral waters , and the rejoyning of it to others of the same nature , or to its former vehicle , in a larger proportion then before . i say , that of late days all mineral waters , either for drinking or bathing , have been by some ingenious artists so exactly imitated , after some philosophical speculations used on the natures of the natural springs ; nay , i may say , outdone , that by those factitious mineral waters , as great cures have been performed in the patients particular habitations , as any have been by the natural springs upon the place ; and what is more , the artificial baths brought to those several degrees of heat , as the natural ones have at the baths , without the aid or assistance of any culinary fire ; to which have been added all the other accidents , of odours , tasts , colours , and of tinging silver into a curious solar tincture . all which things were once pretended to , at the place which goes under the notion of the dukes balneo in longaore , london : but how performed , i leave to all ingenious persons to judge , that have used those baths , and drank of that water . the art of chymy has a multitude of well-wishers , as many pretenders to , and more that court her designedly : but ex quovis ligno , non fit mercurius . there are but few that make use of those two things which galen reckons as necessary concurrants to the attaining the perfect knowledge of arts and sciences , or the nature of any simple medicine , viz. experience and reason , from which there arose in his time two sects of physicians , the one called empiricks , the others methodists . the empirick did only observe the operations and effects of medicines , and never troubled themselves concerning their natures , or the reasons of those effects , but used all medicaments promiscuously , to the prejudice of many . the methodists were not satisfied with the bare finding out of the virtues of medicaments , but added to the oti the aloti , diving into the nature of the same . these he termed the two legs of a true physician , upon which he would have him to stand and walk . it is an easie matter to pretend to things , and after the picking here and there some mouldy receipts , and terms of art , to cant , especially in chymy , before the unthinking multitude , but first to entertain philosophical notions , and then to reduce them unto mechanical real demonstrations , belongs but to a few . and now that my reader may not put me in the number of the great talkers and litle doers , as to what i have in this discourse proposed , i offer to produce , after a month or six weeks time , sufficient quantity of the essential vitriolick salt of mars , extracted from mineral waters , to supply this city , every season of drinking the waters , or all the year long , at the same reasonable rates that any true and genuine essential salt of mars can be prepared . i could make larger proffers yet ; but i forbear , lest it should be thought i were byassed by interest , or blown up with ostentation . the curious learned i shall ever be ready to serve , in giving them all the satisfactory demonstrations that i can possible , in every particular which i have mentioned in this discourse , or in any thing else that i am capable . mean time , if they please to spend som hours in the tryals of such chymical preparations as i have faithfully delivered to the publick in my intruduction to the french author , in a treatise , called , a new mystery in physick , discovered by curing of feavers and agues with the jesuits powder , printed for william crook , at the green dragon without temple-bar , . there they will find , wherewith to satisfie their curiosity , till they command me further . in meliorem partem interpretari debemus quae nobis dubia sunt . postscript . i had but just ended this precedent discourse , when word was brought me , of a new mineral spring found , in the road that leads to the first , near the gate ; i immediately went to examine it upon the place , and caused some of the water to be brought home to me for further inspection . but after all sorts of examens , i found these last much less impregnated then the others , though they participate of the same minerals with the first . in both a vitriolick salt of mars predominates ; they have so weake a tincture of alum , that neither of them has the power to turn milk , though for a long time boyled together in equal proportions , which speaks these waters to be alkalies , and consequently dulcifiers of acids . this last found spring has , within less then a foot of it , another of fresh common water , which peradventure does commix with it , and may be the cause of its weakness ; and in my opinion , neither of these waters can last long untainted , except care be taken to trace them , on some more eminent ground , where they may be secured from the insultations of violent rains , flouds , and springs of common waters . to conclude , considering the visible decay of either of these waters , though removed but to the city from their springs , especially the last , which would scarce afford any tincture at all with galls , it were very requisite that these waters should be drank upon the place . to which purpose i could wish there were better accomodations and conveniencies , sutable to the occasions of the more modest of the modest sex. to this purpose , if rows of tents were pitched on each side of the green , proportionable to the concourse of people , and a large walk left between , it would supply in some measure the natural conveniences , which a multitude of shrubs & bushes , besides some winding dales betwixt close hills , in other places of the like resort , do afford . to which might be added , according to the laudable custom of foreign nations ( which has been taken up of late in some parts of england also ) the divertisement of musick , bowling , pins , lotteries , shooting , or any other pastimes , to disingage the mind from too serious or melancholick thoughts . ut sit mens sana in corpore sano . finis . spadacrene anglica or, the english spavv-fountaine. being a briefe treatise of the acide, or tart fountaine in the forest of knaresborow, in the west-riding of yorkshire. as also a relation of other medicinall waters in the said forest. by edmund deane, dr. in physicke, oxon. dwelling in the city of yorke. deane, edmund, ?- . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) spadacrene anglica or, the english spavv-fountaine. being a briefe treatise of the acide, or tart fountaine in the forest of knaresborow, in the west-riding of yorkshire. as also a relation of other medicinall waters in the said forest. by edmund deane, dr. in physicke, oxon. dwelling in the city of yorke. deane, edmund, ?- . [ ], p. 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anglica . or , the english spaw-fovntaine . being a briefe treatise of the acide , or tart fountaine in the forest of knaresborow , in the west-riding of yorkshire . as also a relation of other medicinall waters in the said forest . by edmund deane , dr. in physicke , oxon. dwelling in the city of yorke . london , printed for iohn grismand : and are to be sold by richard foster , neere the minster gate in yorke . . to the physitians of yorke . though it was my fortune first of all to set a new edge on this businesse ; yet my iourneyes to this fountaine haue not been made without your good companies and association , nor the seuerall tryals had there , and at home , performed without your worthy helpes and assistance : nor this little treatise begun without your instigations and incitements . therefore i find none so fit and meet to patronize it , as your selues ; being able out of your owne knowledge and obseruation to defend it against all malicious detractions . to extoll it aboue the germaine spaw , may be thought in me either indiscretion , or too much partiality ; but why i may not parallele them ( being in natures and qualities so agreeable ) nor i , nor you ( i suppose ) know any inducing , much lesse perswading argument . wherefore being thus confident , i thought it no part of our duties , either to god , our king , or country , to conceale so great a benefit , as may thereby arise and accrue not onely vnto this whole kingdome and his maiesties louing subiects , but also in time ( after further notice taken of it ) to other foraigne nations and countries , who may perhaps with more benefit , lesse hazard and danger of their liues , spoiling and robbing , better partake of this our english spaw fountaine , then of those in germanie . it were to be wished , that those two famous physitians , dr. hunton and dr. bright had beene yet liuing , to haue giuen testimony of the great good hopes and expectation they conceiued of it . the former of which did oftentimes request me to publish it to the world : and the other was resolued ( in case hee had longer liued ) to haue done it himselfe . so carefull were they both to promote their countries good , and ●udious to procure the health of their countrimen . i am as briefe and plaine , as possibly i may , to the end the reader may not be wearied , nor the patient deluded ; and if for these causes i may seeme to bee censured , yet i am well assured , that to your selues breuity and perspicuity cannot , but bee acceptable . so wishing you all happinesse , i shall euer rest and remaine from my house in yorke , this th of april . . your assured friend , edm : deane . the english spaw . chap. . of the situation of the towne of knaresborow . gnaresbrugh ( commonly called knaresborow ) is a very ancient market towne in the west-riding of yorkeshire , distant miles from the city of yorke ; where the pole is eleuated degrees , and odde minutes . on the south-west part thereof is that faire , and goodly fort , so much renowned , both for the pleasant situation , and remarkable strength , knowne by the name of knaresborow castle , seated on a most ragged and rough rock ; whence ( as learned mr. camden saith ) it is so named . both the castle and towne are fenced on the south and west parts with the riuer nid : which is beautified here with two faire bridges of stone , which lead from the towne into the forest adioyning , as also vnto a large empaled park of his maiesties , called bilton parke , well stored with fallow deere : part whereof is bordered with the said riuer . the towne it selfe standeth on a hill , hauing almost on euery side an ascent to it ; and about it are diuers fruitfull valleyes well replenished with grasse , corne , and wood . the waters there are wholesome and cleare ; the ayre dry and pure . in briefe , there is nothing wanting , that may fitly serue for a good and commodious habitation , and the content and entertainment of strangers . many things are very obseruable in this place , which because they rather do appertaine to the volumes of geographers , & antiquaries , then to the purpose intended in this little treatise , are here omitted . chap. . of the seuerall earths , stones , and mineralls , found neere and about this place . although there are in sundry places of this kingdome as many , or moe seuerall kinds , and sorts of earths , quarreyes of stone , minerals , and mines of mettalls , then in any other realme whatsoeuer ; notwithstanding no one place hath beene obserued to haue them either in such plentie , or variety in so small a distance , as this . for here is found not onely white and yellow marle , plaister , oker , rudd , or rubricke , free-stone , an hard greet-stone , a soft reddish stone , iron-stone , brim-stone , vitreall , nitre , allum , lead , copper , ( and without doubt diuerse mixtures of these ) but also many other mineralls might ( perhaps ) be found out by the diligent search , and skilfull industrie of those , who would take paines to labour a little herein . all which do manifestly demonstrate , that nature hath stored this little territorie with a greater diuersitie of hidden benefits , then great and spacious countries otherwise abounding in outward natiue commodities , and that the fountaines , or springs of water hereabouts cannot otherwise then participate of their seuerall natures , and properties . chap. . of the fountaines , of pure and simple waters neere , and about the towne . as generally most parts of the west riding of yorkeshire ( especially the hilly and more mountaineous places thereof ) are stored with fountaines and springs of cleare , limpide , and pure simple waters ; so likewise the territorie here abouts is not without plenty of them . two whereof haue gotten and purchased that reputation , as to be saincted : the one called by the name of saint magnus , or mugnus-well : th' other , that of saint roberts . these , formerly for a yeere , or two , haue beene in great request in these parts amongst the common sort , much sought vnto by many , and great concourse of people haue daily gathered and flocked to them both neare , and a farre off , as is most commonly seene , when any new thing is first found out . fama enim crescit eundo , euen vnto incredible wonders and miracles , or rather fictions , and lyes . all which commeth to passe as wee may well suppose , through our ouermuch english credulity , or ( as i may better say ) rather superstition . for to any such like well , will swarme at first both yong and old ( especially the female sexe , as euer more apt to bee deluded ) halt , lame , blind , deafe , dumbe , yea , almost all , and that for all manner of maladies and diseases , both inward and outward . but for as much , as these are springs of pure , and simple waters meerely , without any mixture at all of minerals , to make them become medicinable , it is verily thought , that the many & seuerall cures , which haue bin attributed vnto them in those times , when they were so frequented , were rather fained , and imaginary , then true , and reall ; and that those , who then visited them , were desirous ( either to vphold , and maintaine the credit , and reputation of their saints , or else , to auoyd the scorne and derision of their owne delusion ) to haue others likewise deceiued . time hath quite worne all their strength , and consumed all their vertues ; so that nothing of worth now remaines with them , sauing onely their bare names and titles : sic magna suâ mole ruunt . wherefore to omit these , as scarce worthy the mentioning ; those are chiefly here to be described , which doe participate of minerall vertues , and faculties . chap. . of fiue fountaines neare vnto the towne , which doe participate of minerall vertues . ovt of the diuers fountaines springing hereabouts , fiue are worthy the obseruation of physitians . the first whereof is very neare vnto the riuer banke , ouer against the castle , called by the name of the dropping-well , for that it droppeth , distilleth , and trickleth downe from the hanging rocke aboue . the water whereof hath a certaine quality or property to turne any thing , that lieth in it , into a stony substance in a very short space . three of the others ( being all of them much of one , and the same nature ) are termed by the country people thereabouts the stinking-wels , in regard they haue an ill , and fetide smell , consisting most of sulphure-viue , or quicke brimstone . one of them , and that which hath the greatest current , or streame of water , is in bilton park . the other two are in the sayd forest ; one is neare vnto the towne ; the other is further off , almost two miles from it , beyond a place called haregate-head , in a bottome on the right hand of it , as you goe , and almost in the side of a little brooke . the fift , and last ( for which i haue principally vndertaken to write this short discourse ) is an acide , or tart fountaine in the said forest , commonly named by the vulgar sort , tuewhit well , and the english spaw , by those of the better rank , in imitation of those two most famous acide fountaines at the spaw in germany , to wit sauuenir , and pouhon : whereof the first ( being the prime one ) is halfe a league from the spa , or spaw village ; the other is in the middle of the towne . chap. . a more particular recitall of the first foure wells . i purpose to speake somewhat more in this place of the firs● foure springs mentioned in the former chapter , in regard the consideration of them may perhaps giue some light to those , who shall hereafter search further into the secrets , which nature may seeme to afford in the country hereabouts . the first is the dropping-well , knowne almost to all , who haue trauelled vnto this place . the water whereof distilleth and trickleth downe from the hanging rocke ouer it , not onely dropping wise , but also falling in many pretty little streames . this water issueth at first out of the earth , not farre from the said hanging rocke , and running a while in one entire current , continueth so , till it commeth almost to the brim of the cragg ; where being opposed by a damme ( as it were artificiall ) of certaine spongy stones , is afterwards diuided into many smaller branches , and falleth from on high in manner aforesaid . it is therefore very likely , that mr camden in person did not see this fountaine , but rather that hee had it by relation from others ; or at least wise ( if he did see it ) that hee did not marke , and duly obserue the originall springing vp of the water , when in his britannia he saith thus : the waters thereof spring not vp out of the veines of the earth , &c. concerning the properties and qualities thereof , i haue nothing more to write at this time ( there being formerly little tryall had of it ) sauing that diuers inhabitants thereabouts say , and affirme , that it hath beene found to bee very effectuall in staying any flux of the body : which thing i easily beleeue . the other three are sulphureous fountaines , and cast forth a stinking smell a farre off , especially in the winter season , and when the weather is coldest . they are all noysome to smell to , and cold to touch , without any manifest , or actuall heat at all ; by reason ( as may most probably be thought ) their mynes , and veines of brimstone , are not kindled vnder the earth ; being ( perhaps ) hindred by the mixture of salt therewith . those , who drinke of their waters , relate , they verily thinke there is gunpowder in them , and that now and then they vomit after drinking thereof . the waters , as they runne along the earth , doe leaue behind them on the grasse and leaues a gray slimy substance ; which being set on fire , hath the right sauour of common brimstone . they are much haunted with pigeons , an argument of much salt in them ; of which in the euaporation of the water by fire , wee found a good quantity remaining in the bottome of the vessell . one thing further was worth obseruation ; that white mettall ( as siluer ) dipped into them , presently seemeth to resemble copper : which we first noted by putting a siluer porrenger into one of these ; vnto which sir francis trapps did first bring vs. which tincture these waters giue by reason of their sulphur . touching their vertues , and effects , there may in generall the like properties be ascribed vnto them , as are attributed vnto other sulphureous bathes actually cold , participating also of salt . the vulgar sort drinke these waters ( as they say ) to expell reefe , and fellon ; yea , many , who are much troubled with itches , scabs , morphewes , tetters , ring-wormes , and the like , are soone holpen , and cured by washing the parts ill affected therewith . which thing they might much more conueniently , and more commodiously doe , if at that in bilton parke were framed capacious bathes , the one cold , the other to be made hot , or warme , by art , for certaine knowne howers a day . chap. . a more particular description of the fift , or last fountaine , called the english spaw . this , being the principall subiect of this whole treatise , is in the said forest , about halfe a league , or a mile and a halfe west from the towne ; from whence there is almost a continuall rising to it , but nothing so great , as the ascent is from the spaw village to the sauuenir . this here springeth out of a mountainous ground , and almost at the height of the ascent , at haregate-head ; hauing a great descent on both sides the ridge thereof ; and the country thereabouts somewhat resembleth that at the spaw in germany . the first discouerer of it to haue any medicinall quality ( so far forth as i can learn ) was one mr. william slingesby , a gentleman of many good parts , of an ancient , and worthy family neere thereby ; who hauing trauelled in his younger time , was throughly acquainted with the taste , vse , and faculties of the two spaw fountaines . in his latter time , about yeeres agoe , it was his good fortune to liue for a little while at a grange house very neare to this fountaine , and afterwards in bilton parke all his life long . who drinking of this water , found it in all things to agree with those at the spaw . whereupon ( greatly reioycing at so good and fortunate an accident ) he made some further tr all and assay : that done , he caused the founta ne to be well , and ar●●●cially walled about , and paued at the bottome ( as it is now at this day ) with two faire stone flags , with a sit hole in the side thereof , for the free passage of the water through a little guttered stone . it is open at the top , and walled somewhat higher , then the earth , as well to keepe out filth , as cattle for comming and approaching to it . it is fouresquare , three foot wide , and the water within is about three quarters of a yard deepe . first we caused it to be laded dry , as well to scoure it , as also to see the rising vp of the water , which we found to spring vp onely at the bottome at the chinke , or cranny , betweene two stones , so left purposely for the springing vp of the water at the bottome : which as yliny obserueth in his booke of his naturall history , and the third chapter , is a signe aboue all of the goodnesse of a fountaine . and about all ( saith he ) one thing would bee obserued , and seene vnto , that the source , which feedeth it , spring and boyle vp directly from the bottome , and not ●ssue forth at the sides : which also is a maine point that concerneth the perpetuity thereof , and whereby wee ●y collect , ●hat it will hold still and be neuer drawne drye . the streame of water , which passeth away by the hole in the side thereof , is much one , and about the proportion of the current of sauuenir . the aboue named gentleman did drinke the water of this fountaine euery yeare after all his life time , for helping his infirmities , and maintaining of his he●lth , and would oftentimes say and auerre , that it was much better , and did excell the tart fountaines beyond the seas , as being more quicke and liuely , and fuller of minerall spirits ; effecting his operation more speedily , and sooner passing through the body . moreouer , doctor timothy bright of happy memory , a learned physitian , ( while hee liued , my very kind friend , and familiar acquaintance ) first gaue the name of the english spaw vnto this fountaine about thirty yeares since , or more . for he also formerly had spent some time at the spaw in germany ; so that he was very able to compare those with this of ours . nay , hee had furthermore so good an opinion , and so high a conceit of this , that hee did not onely direct , and aduise others to it , but himselfe also ( for most part ) would vse it in the sommer season . likewise doctor anthony hunton lately of newarke vpon trent , a physitian of no lesse worth and happy memory , ( to whom for his true loue to mee , and kind respect of mee , i was very much beholden ) would often expostulate with mee at our meetings , and wi h other gentlemen of yorkeshire , his patients , how it came to passe , that i , and the physitians of yorke , did not by publi●e writing make the fame and worth thereof better knowne to the world ? chap. . of the difference of this fountaine from those at the spaw , to wit , sauuenir , and pouhon . this springeth almost at the top of the ascent ( as formerly hath beene said ) from a dry , and somewhat sandy earth : the water where of running south-east , is very cleare , pure , full of life , and minerall exhalations . we find it chiefly to consist of a vitrioline nature and quality , with a participation also of those other minerals , which are said to be in the sauuenir fountaine ; but in a more perfect , and exquisite mixture and temper ( as wee deeme ) and therefore to be supposed better and nobler , then it . the difference betweene them will be found to be onely secundum maius & minus , that is , according to more , or lesse , which maketh no difference in kind , but in degrees . this partaketh in greater measure of the qualities , and lesser of the substances of the minerals , then that doth ; and for that cause it is of a more quicke and speedy operation ; as also for the same reason , his tenuity of body , and fulnesse of minerall spirits therein contained , it cannot be so farre transported from its owne source , and spring , without losse , and diminution of his strength , and goodnesse . for being caried no further , then to the towne it selfe ( though the glasse or vessell be closely stopt ) it becommeth somewhat weaker : if as farre as to yorke , much more : but if or miles further , it will then bee found to be of small force , or validity , as we haue often obserued . whereas contrariwise the water of the lower fountain at the spaw , called pouhon , is frequently and vsually caried and conueyed into other countries farre off , and remote , as into france , england , scotland , ireland , diuers parts of germany , and some parts of italy ; yea , and that of sauuenir , ( which is the better fountaine , and whose water cannot be caried so farre away , as the other may ) is oftentimes vsed now adayes at paris , the chiefe city of france . but this of ours cannot be sent away any whit so farre off without losse and decay of his efficacy , and vertue : so ayrie , subtill , and piercing are its spirits , and minerall exhalations , that they soone passe , vanish , and flye away . which thing wee haue esteemed to be a principall good signe of the worthy properties of this rare fountaine . so that this water , being newly taken vp at the well , and presently after drunke , cannot otherwise , but sooner passe by the hypochondries , and through the body , and cause a speedier effect , then those in germany can . whereby any one may easily collect , and gather , that this getteth his soueraign faculties better in its passage by and through the variety of minerals , included in the earth ( which only afford vnto it an halitious body ) then those doe . if then wee bee desirous to haue this of ours become commodious either for preseruing of our healths , or for altering any distemper , or curing any infirmity ( for which it is proper and auaileable ) it ought chiefly to bee taken at the fountaine it selfe , before the minerall spirits bee dissipated . chap. . that vitriol is here more predominant , then any other minerall . vve haue sufficiently beene satisfied by experience and trialls , through what minerals this water doth passe : but to know in what proportion they are exactly mixed therewith , it is beyond humane inuention to find out ; nature hauing reserued this secret to her selfe alone . neuerthelesse it may very well be coniectured , that as in the frame , and composition of the most noble creature , man ( the lesser world ) there 〈…〉 of the foure elements rather adjustitiam ( as philosophers say ) then ad pondus ; so nature in the mixture of these minerals , hath likewise taken more of some , and lesse of others , as shee thought to be most fit , and expedient for the good and behoofe of mans health , and the recouery ●nd restitution of it decayed ; being indeed such a worke , as no art is able to imitate . that vitriolum ( otherwise called chalcanthum ) is here most predominant , there needs no other proofe , then from the assay of the water it selfe ; which both in the tart and inky smack thereof , ioyned with a piercing and a pricking quality , and in the sauour ( which is somewhat a little vitrioline , ) is altogether like vnto the ancient spaw waters : which according to the consent of all those , who haue considered their naturall compositions , doe most of all , and chiefly participate of vitrioll . notwithstanding , for a more manifest , and fuller try all hereof , put as much powder of galls , as will lye on two-pence , or three-pence , into a glasse full of this water newly taken vp at the fountaine , you shall see it by and by turned into the right and perfect colour of claret wine , that is fully ripe , cleare , and well fined , which may easily deceiue the eye of the skilfullest vintner . this demonstration hath beene often made , not without the admiration of those , who first did see it . for the same quantity of galles mingled with so much common water , or any other fountaine water thereabouts , will not alter it any thing at all ; vnlesse to these you also adde vitrioll , and then the colour will appeare to be of a blewish violet , somewhat inkish , not reddish , as in the former , which hath an exquisite and accurate coniunction of other minerall exhalations , besides the vitrioline . but this probation will not hold , if so be you make triall with the said water being caried farre from the well ; by reason of the present dissipation of his spirits . chap. . of the prop●rties , and effects of vitrioll , according to the ancient and moderne writers . the qualities of vitrioll , according to dioscorides , galen , aetius , paulus aegineta , and oribasius , are to heate and dry , to bind , to resist putrefaction , to giue strength and vigour to the interiour parts , to kill the flat wormes of the belly , to remedy venemous mushromes , to preserue flesh ouer moyst from corruption , consuming the moysture thereof by its heat , and constipating by his astriction the substance of it , and pressing forth the serous humidity . and according to matthiolus in his commentaries vpon di●●orides , it is very profitable against the plague and pestilence , and the chymicall oyle thereof is very auaileable ( as himselfe affirmeth to haue sufficiently proued ) against the stone and stopping of vrine , and many other outward maladies and diseases , ( andernacus and gesner adde to these the apoplexy ) all which , for auoyding of prolixity , i doe here puposely omit . neither will i further trouble the reader with the recitall of diuers and sundry excellent remedies , and medicines , found out and made of it in these latter times , by the spagyricke physitians , and others : in so much that ioseph quercetanus , one of those , is verily of opinion , that out of this one indiuiduall minerall , well and exquisitely prepared , there might be made all manner of remedies and medicines sufficient for the storing and furnishing of a whole apothecaries shop . but it will ( perhaps ) be obiected by some one or other in this manner : if vitrioll , which as most doe hold , is hote and dry in the third degree , or beginning of the fourth , nay , of a causticke quality , and nature ( as discorides is of opinion ) should here be predominant , then the water of this fountaine must needs bee of great heat and acrimony ; and so become not onely vnprofitable , but also very hurtfull for mans vse to be drunke , or inwardly taken . to which obiection ( not to take any aduantage of the answer , which many learned physitians doe giue , viz. that vitrioll is not hot , but cold ) i say : first , that although all medicinall waters doe participate of those mineralls , by which they doe passe , yet they haue them but weakly ( viribus refractis ) especially when in their passages they touch , and meet with diuers other minerals of opposite tempers and natures . secondly i answer , that in all such medicinall fountaines , as this , simple water doth farre surpasse and exceed in quantity , whatsoeuer is therewith intermixed ; by whose coldnesse it commeth to passe , that the contrary is scarce , or hardly perceiued . for example , take one proportion of any boyling liquor to . or more , of the same cold , and you will hardly find in it any heat at all . suppose then vitrioll to be hot in the third degree , it doth not therefore follow , that the water , which hath his vertue chiefly from it , should heat in the same degree . this is plainly manifest not onely in this fountaine , but also in all others , which haue an acide taste , being indeed rather cold , then hot , for the reasons aboue mentioned . chap. . of the effects , which this fountaine worketh , and produceth in those , who drinke of it . experience sheweth sufficiently , besides reason , that this water first , and in the beginning cooleth such , as vse it : but being continued , it heateth and dryeth ; and this for the most part it doth in all , yet not alwayes . for ( as we shall more fully declare afterwards ) it effecteth cures of opposite , and quite contrary natures , by the second and third qualities , wherewith it is endowed ; curing diseases both hot , cold , dry , and moist . those waters ( saith - renodaeus ) which are replenished with a vitrioline quality , as those at the spaw , doe presently heale , and ( as it were ) miraculously cure diseases , which are without all hope of recouery ; hauing that notable power , and faculty from vitrioll ; by the vertue and efficacy whereof , they passe through the meanders , turnings , and windings of all parts of the whole body . whatsoeuer is hurtfull , or endammageth it , that they sweepe and carie away : what is profitable and commodious , they touch not , nor hurt : that , which is flaccid , and loose , they bind and fasten : that , which is fastned , and strictly tyed , they loose : what is too grosse and thicke , they incide , dissolue , attenuate , and expell . more particularly , the water of this fountaine hath an incisiue and abstersiue faculty to cut , and loosen the viscous and clammy humours of the body , and to make meable the grosse : as also by its piercing and penetrating power , subtilty of parts , and by his deterging and desiccatiue qualities to open all the obstructions , or oppilations of the mesentery ( from whence the seeds of most diseases doe arise and spring ) liuer , splen , kidneis , and other interiour parts , and ( which is more to be noted and obserued ) to coole , and contemperate their vnnaturall heat , helping , and remouing also all the griefes and infirmities depending thereupon . besides all this , it comforteth the stomacke by the astriction it hath from other minerals , especially iron , so that ( without doubt ) of a thousand , who shall vse it discreetly and with good aduice ( their bodies first being well and orderly prepared by some learned and skilfull physitian , according to the states thereof , and as their infirmities shall require ) there will scarcely be any one found who shall not receiue great profit thereby . moreouer , it clenseth , and purifieth the whole masse of blood contained in the veynes , by purging it from the seresity peccant , and from cholericke , phlegmaticke , and melancholike humours ; and that principally by vrine , which passeth through the body very cleare , and in great quantity , leauing behind it the minerall forces , and vertues . their stooles , who drinke of it , are commonly of a blackish , or darke greene colour , partly because it emptieth the liuer and splen from adust humours , and melancholy , or the sediment of blood ; but more especially , because the mineralls intermixed doe produce and giue such a tincture . chap. . in what diseases the water of this fountaine is most vsefull and beneficiall . over and besides the peculiar and specificall faculties , which this fountaine hath , it sheweth diuers and sundry other manifest effects and qualities in euacuating the noxious humours of the body , for most part by vrine , especially when there is any obstruction about the kidneyes , vreters and bladder : or by vrine and stoole both , if the mesentery , liuer , or splen , chance to bee obstructed . but , if the affect or griefe be in the matrix or womb , then it clenseth that way according to the accustomed and vsuall manner of women . in melancholicke people it purgeth by prouoking the haemorrhoides , and in cholericke by siege , or stoole . if it causeth either vomit or sweat , it is very seldome and rare . see here a most admirable worke guided by the omnipotency and wisedome of the almighty , that a naturall , cleare , and pure water , should produce so many and seuerall effects and operations , being all of them in a manner contrary one to another , which few medicines composed by art can easily performe without hurt and dammage to the party . wherefore being drunke with those cautions and circumstances necessarily required thereunto , it is to be preferred before many other remedies , as not onely procuring these euacuations ; but also ( which is more to be noted ) staying them , when they grow to any excesse . for seeing that here are minerals contained both hot , cold , dry , aperitiue , astringent , &c. there is none so simple but must needs thinke and grant , that it cannot otherwise bee but good and wholesome in grieuances , and diseases , which in their owne natures are opposite . but i may instance in some few , for which it is good and profitable , and therein obserue some order and methode ; it dryeth the ouer moist braine , and helpeth the euils proceeding therefrom , as rhumes , catarrhs , palsies , cramps , &c. it is also good and auaileable against inueterate head-aches , migrims , turnings , and swimmings of the head and braine , dizzinesse , epilepsie , or falling sicknesse , and the like cold and moist diseases of the head . it cheereth and reuiueth the spirits , strengthneth the stomacke , causeth a good and quicke appetite , and furthereth digestion . it helpeth the blacke and yellow iaundisse , and the euill , which is accompanied with strange feare and excessiue sadnesse without any euident occasion , or necessary cause , called melancholia hypochondriaca . likewise the cachexy , or euill habit of the body , and the dropsie in the beginning thereof , before it be too farre gone . for besides that it openeth obstructions , it expelleth the redundant water contained in the belly , and contemperateth the vnnaturall heat of the liuer . it cooleth the kidneyes or reynes , and driueth forth sand , grauell , and stones out of them , and also hindreth the encrease or breeding of any new , by the concretion , and saudering of grauell , bred of a viscous and clammy humour , or substance . the same it performeth to the bladder , for which it is also very beneficiall , if it chance to haue any euill disposition either in the cauity thereof , or in the necke of it , and shutting muscle called sphincter , whereby the whole part , or member is let and hindred in his office and function . moreouer , if there chance to be any vlcer in the parts last specified , or any sore , or fistula in perinaeo through an impostume ill cured , this water is a good remedy for it , in regard of its clensing , cicatrizing and constringing power , and vertue ; and for that cause it is very proper and commodious for the acrimony and sharpnesse of vrine , and against the stopping and suppression of vrine , difficulty of making water , and the strangury . although it is very auaileable against the stone in the kidneyes , and against the breeding , and increase of any new there ; yea , and against little ones , that are loose in the bladder ; yet notwithstanding it will afford little or small benefit to those , in whom it is growne to bee very great and big in the bladder : because nothing will then serue to breake it , as brassauolus saith , but a smiths anuile and hammar . neuerthelesse , if in this case incision be vsed , it will be very commodious both for mundifying and consolidating the wound , made for the extraction of it . it shall not bee needfull to speake much of the profit , which will ensue by the fit administration of it in the inveterat venereous gonorrhaea , causing it to cease and stay totally , and correcting the distemper , and the euill vlcerous disposition of the seed vessels , & the vicine parts . there are very few infirmities properly incident to women , which this water may not seeme to respect much . the vse whereof , after the aduice and councell had of the learned physitian , for the well and orderly preparing their bodies , is singular good against the greene sicknesse , and also very commodious and behoouefull to procure their monthly euacuations , as also to stay their ouer much flowing ; as well to correct , as to stay their white floods ; as well to dry the wombe being too moist , as to heat it being too cold , through which causes and distempers conception ( for the most part ) is let and hindered in cold northerne countries , as england , and the like . for by the helpe of it these distempers are changed and altered , the superfluous humidities and mucosities are taken away , the part is corroborated , and the retentiue vertue is strengthned . this hath beene so much , and so often obserued at the ancient spaw , that it cannot otherwise , but bee also verified at this in after times , when it shall bee frequented ( as those haue beene ) with the company of ladyes , and gentlewomen : diuers whereof , hauing beene formerly barren for the space of ten , twelue yeares , or moe , and drinking of those waters for curing and helping some other infirmities , then for want of fruitfulnesse , haue shortly conceiued after their returne home to their husbands , beyond their hopes and expectations . besides all this , it is good for those women , who , though otherwise apt enough to conceiue , yet by reason of the too much lubricity of their wombes , are prone to miscarry and abort , if before conception they shall vse it with those cautions and directions requisite . also it respecteth very much the hard scirrhous and cancarous tumours , and the grieuous soares , and dangerous vlcers of the matrix all these excellent helpes and many moe it performeth to women with more speedy successe , if it be also receiued by iniection . but here by the way , all such women , who are with child , are to be admonished , that they forbeare to vse it during that time . in children it killeth and expelleth the wormes of the guts and belly , and letteth and hindreth the breeding and new encrease of any moe . i will here forbeare to write any thing of the benefits which it affordeth against old and inueterate itches , morphewes , leprosies , &c. in regard the other three sulphurous fountaines , before mentioned , doe more properly respect such like grieuances . neither will i now spend any more time in shewing what vertues it hath in the cure of the indian , commonly called the french ; or rather spanish disease : because experience hath found out a more certaine and sure remedy against it . chap. . of the necessity of preparing the body before the vse of this water . it is not in most things the bare and naked knowledge or contemplation of them , that makes them profitable to vs ; but rather their right vse , and opportune and fit administration . medicines are not said to be deorum manus , that is , the hands of the gods , ( as herophilus calleth them ) or deorum dona ; that is , the gifts of the gods ( as hippocrates beleeued ) till they be fitly applyed and seasonably administred by the counsell and aduice of the learned and skilfull physitian , according to the true rules , and method of art. temporibus medicina valet , data tempore prosunt , et data non apto tempore vina nocent . that is , medicines auaile in their due times , and profit is got by drinking wines in timely sort ; but in all reason they doe offend , drunke out of season . therefore to know th' originall mineralls , faculties , and vertues of this worthy acide fountaine , will bee to no end , or to small purpose for them , who vnderstand not the right and true vse , nor the fit and orderly administration of it . for not only physicke or medicines , but also meats , and drinks taken disorderly , out of due time and without measure , bringeth oftentimes detriment to the partie ; who otherwise might receiue comfort and strength therby : so likewise this water , if it be not drunke at a conuenient time and season , in due fashion and proportion , yea , and that after preparatiues and requisite purging and euacuation of the body , may easily 〈◊〉 hurt those , whose infirmities otherwise it doth principally respect . for medicines ought not to be taken rashly , and vnaduisedly , as most doe hand ouer head without any consideration of time , place , and other circumstances ; as that ignorant man did , who getting the recipt of that medicine , wherewith formerly he had been cured , made triall of it againe long after for the same infirmity without any helpe or good at all ; whereat greatly maruailing , receiued this answer frō his physitian : i confesse ( said hee ) it was the selfe same medicine , but because i did not giue it , therefore it did you no good . to the end therefore , that no occasion may hereafter be either giuen , or taken by the misgouernement , or ouerrashnesse of any in vsing it to calumniate and traduce the worth , and goodnesse of this fountaine , i will briefly here sh●w , what course is chiefly to be followed and obserued by those who shall stand in need of it . first then , because very few men are throughly and sufficiently informed concerning the natures , and causes of their grieuances , it will be necessary that euery one shold apply himselfe to some one , or other , who either out of his iudgement , or experience , or both , may truely be able to giue him counsell and good aduice concerning the conueniency of this fountaine . and if he shall be auised to vse it , then let the party ( in the feare of god ) addresse himselfe for his way to it , against the fit season of it , without making any long and tedious daies iourneys , which cause lassitude , and wearinesse . then , being come to the place , he ought after a dayes rest , or two , to haue his body wel prepared , & gently clensed with easie lenitiues , or purgatiues , both fit , and appropriate , as well to the habite and constitution thereof , as also for the disease it selfe , and as occasion shall require , according to the rule of method , which teacheth that vniversall or generall remedies ought euer to precede and goe before particula●● . now what these are in speciall , to fit euery ones case in particular , is impossible either for me here , or any else to define precisely . ars non versatur circa indiuidua . we may see it true in mechanicall trades . no one shoomaker can fit all by one last : nor any one taylor can suite all by one , and the selfe same measure . yet in regard it may perhaps bee expected that something should be said herein , i say , that in the beginning ( if occasion serue ) some easie clyster may very fitly bee giuen , as well for emptying the lower intestines from their vsuall excrements , as for carying away and clensing the mucose slimes contained therein . after that , it will be conuenient to prepare the body by some iulep or apozeme , or to giue some lenitiue medicine to free the first region of the body from excrements . for otherwise the water might peraduenture conuey some part of them , or other peccāt matter , which it findeth in his passage either into the bladder , or to some other weake , and infirme member of the body , to the increase of that euill disposition , which is to be remoued , or else to the breeding of some other new infirmity . some perhaps will here obiect and say , that the time of the yeere , in which this fountaine will be found to bee most vsefull , will be the hottest season thereof ; or ( if you list so to call it ) the dog-daies , when it will be no fit time to purge at all . to this i answer and say : first , the purging medicines here required are not strong , and generous , but gentle , mild and weake , such as are styled benedicta medicamenta : which may with great safetie and profit bee giuen either then or at any other time of the yeere without any danger , or respect of any such like like circumstance at all . secondly i answer ; although this obseruation of the dog-dayes might perhaps be of some moment in hotter countries , as greece , where hippocrates liued , who first made mention of those daies : yet in colder climates , as england , and such like countries , they are of little or small force at all , and almost not to be regarded any whit , either in vsing mild & temperate purgatiues , or almost in any other ; or in blood-letting : though very many , or most doe erroniously say and thinke the contrary . so that ( if there be cause ) they may as well and safely then purge , as at any other time : or , if occasion shall vrge , as in plethoricall bodies , and many other cases , a veine may safely ( or rather most commodiously ) be then opened , and so much blood taken away , as the skilfull physitian shall thinke in his discretion and wisdome to be needfull and requisite . let no man here think , that this is any strange position , or a new paradoxe ( for the learned know the contrary ) or that i am studious of innouation , but rather desirous to roote out an old and inueterate errour , which in all probabilitie hath cost moe english mens liues , then would furnish a royall army , in neglecting those two greater helpes or remedies , to wit , purging , and blood-letting in hot seasons of the yeare ; which in all likelihood might haue saued many of their liues , while expecting more temperate weather , they haue beene summoned in the meane time , or interim , by the messenger of pale death to appeare in an other world . wherefore let all those who are yet liuing , bee admonished hereafter by their examples , not obstinately and wilfully to eschue and shunne these two remedies in hot seasons , and in the time of the dog-dayes , ( much lesse all other manner of physicall helpes ) not once knowing so much as why , or wherefore , and without any reason at all , following blind and superstitious tradition , and error , haply first broched by some vnworthy and ignorant physitian , not rightly vnderstanding hippocrates his saying in all likelyhood , or at least wise misapplying it . which hath so preuailed in these times , that it hath not onely worne out the vse of purging , but also of all other physicke for that season , because most people by the name of physicke vnderstanding purging onely , and nothing else . as though the art and science of physicke was nothing else , but to giue a potion or purge . then we rightly and truly might say , filia deuorauit matrem . but for as much as most people are altogether ignorant of the true ground or reason , from whence this so dangerous an error concerning the dog-dayes did first spring and arise , giue me leaue a little to goe on with this my digression , for their better instruction , and satisfaction ; and i will briefly , and in few lines shew the case , and the mistake somewhat more plainly . hippocrates in his fourth booke of aphorismes , the fift , hath these words : sub canicula , & ante caniculam difficiles sunt purgationes . that is , vnder the canicular , or dog-star , and before the dog-star , purgations are painfull and difficill . this is all that is there said of them , or brought against them for that season , or time of the yeare . a great stumbling-blocke , against which many haue dashed their feet , and knockt their shinnes , and a fearfull scar-crow , whereat too many haue nicely boggled . here you doe not find or see purging medicines to bee then prohibited , or forbidden to be giuen at all ( much lesse all other physicke ) but onely said to be difficill in their working : partly because ( as all expositors agree ) nature is then somewhat enfeebled by the great heat of the weather ; partly because the humours being then , as it were , accended , are more chaffed by the heat of the purging medicines ; partly , and lastly , because two contrary motions seeme then to be at one and the same time , which may offend nature ; as the great heat of the weather leading the humours of the body outwardly to the circumference thereof , and the medicine drawing them inwardly to the center . all which circumstances in our cold region are little , or nothing at all ( as formerly hath beene mentioned ) to be regarded . for as iacobus hollerius , a french physitian , much honoured for his great learning and iudgement , hath very well obserued in his comment vpon this aphorisme ; hippocrates speaketh here onely of those purging medicines , which are strong , and vehement , or hot and fiery ; and that this precept is to take place in most hot regions , but not in these cold countries , as france , england , and the like . ouer and beside all this , those churlish hot purging medicines , which were then in frequent vse in hippocrates his time , and some hundred of yeares after , are now for most part obsolete , and quite growne out of vse , seldome brought in practice by physitians in these dayes ; because we haue within these last six hundred yeares great choice and variety of more mild , benigne , and gentle purgatiues found out by the arabian physitians , which were altogether vnknowne vnto the ancients , to wit , hippocrates , dioscorides , galen , &c. which haue little heat , and acrimony , many wherof are temperate , and diuers cooling , which may most safely be giuen either in the hottest times and seasons of the yeare , or in the hottest diseases . let vs adde to these the like familiar and gentle purging medicines more lately , yea , almost daily newly found out since the better discoueries of the east and west indies . so that henceforth let no man feare to take either easie purgatiues , or other inward physicke , in the time of the canicular , or dog-dayes . the same hollerius goeth on in the exposition and interpretation of the said aphorisme , and confidently saith : ouer & besides that we haue benigne medicines , which we may then vse , as cassia , &c. wee know and finde by experience no time here with vs more wholsome and more temperat ( especially when the etesian , or easterly winds do blow ) then the canicular dayes : so that , wee finde by obseruation , that those diseases which are bred in the moneths of iune and iuly , doe end in august , and in the canicular dayes . wherefore , if a disease happen in those dayes , we feare not to open a veyne diuers times , and often , as also to prescribe more strong purging medicines . wherefore away henceforth with the scrupulous conceit , and too nice feare of the dogge-dayes , and let their supposed danger be had no more in remembrance among vs. and if any will yet remaine obstinate , and still refuse to haue their beames pulled out of their eyes , let them still be blinde in the middest of the cleare sun-shine , and groape on after darknes : and let all learned physitians rather pitty their follies , then enuy their wits . chap. . at what time of the yeare , and at what houre of the day it is most fit and meet to drinke this water . to speake in generall tearmes , it is a fit time to drinke it , when the ayre is pure , cleare , hot and dry : for then the water is more tart , and more easily digested , then at other times . on the contrary , it is best to forbeare , when the ayre is cold , moist , darke , dull and misty : for then it is more feeble , and harder to be concocted . but more specially , the most proper season to vndertake this our english spaw dyet , will be from the middest or latter end of iune to the middle of september , or longer , according as the season of the yeare shall fall out to be hot and dry , or otherwise . not that in the spring time , and in winter it is not also good , but for that the ayre being more pure in sommer , the water also must needs be of greater force and power . notwithstanding it may sometime so happen in sommer , that by reason of some extraordinary falling of raine , there may be a cessation from it for a day or two . or if it chance to haue rained ouer night , it will then be fit and necessary to refraine from drinking of it , vntill the raine bee passed away againe : or else ( which i like better ) the fountaine laded dry , and filled againe , which may well be done in an hower , or two at most . touching the time of the day , when it is best to drinke this water , questionlesse the most conuenient hower will be in the morning , when the party is empty , and fasting , about seauen aclocke : nature hauing first discharged her selfe of daily excrements both by stoole and vrine , and the concoctions perfected . this time is likewise fittest for exercise , which is a great good help , and furtherance for the better distribution of the water , whereby it doth produce its effects more speedily . chap. . of the manner of drinking this water , and the quantitie thereof . those who desire the benefit of this fountaine , ought to goe to it some what early in the morning , & , if they be able and strong of body , they may doe very well to walke to it on foot , or at least wise some part of the way . such , as haue weake and feeble leggs may ride on horsebacke , or be caryed in coaches , or borne in chaires . as for those , whose infirmities cause them to keepe their beds , or chambers , they may drinke the water in their lodgings , it being speedily brought to them in a vessell or glasse well stopt . it is not my meaning or purpose to describe here particularly , what quantitie of it is fit and meet for euery one to drinke : for this is part of the taske and office , which belongeth to the physitian , who shall be of counsell with the patient in preparing and well ordering of him : who is to consider all the seuerall circumstances , as well of the maladie or disease it selfe , as of his habite and constitution , &c. neuerthelesse i may aduise , that at the first it be moderately taken , increasing the quantitie daily by degrees , vntill they shall come at last to the full height of the proportion appointed , and thought to be meet and necessary . there they are then to stay , and so to continue at that quantitie , so long as it shall be needfull . for example , the first morning may happely be or ounces , and so on by degrees to . . . . . or moe , in people , who are of good and strong constitutions . towards the ending , the abatement ought likewise to be made by degrees , as the increment was formerly made by little and little . here by the way every one must be admonished to take notice , that it is not alwayes best to drinke most , lest they chance to oppresse and ouercharge nature , that would rather be content with lesse . it will therefore be more safe , to take it rather somewhat sparingly , though for a longer time , then liberally and for a short time . but , indeed , the truest and iustest proportion of it , is euer to be made and esteemed , by the good and laudable concoction of it , and by the due and orderly voiding of it againe . it will not be here amisse to adde this one obseruation further : that it is better to drinke this water once a day , then twice , and that in the mornings , after that the sunne hath dryed vp & consumed the vapors retained through the coldnesse of the night , &c. as is formerly declared . after drinking it , it will be needfull to abstaine from meat & other drinke for the space of three or foure dayes . but if any one , who hath a good stomacke , shall be desirous to take it twice a day ; or if any shall bee necessarily compelled so to doe for some vrgent cause , by the approbation of his physitian , let him dine somewhat sparingly , and drinke it not againe , vntill fiue houres after dinner be past , or not vntill the concoction of meat and drinke in the stomacke be perfected : obseruing likewise , that hee content himselfe in the afternoones with almost halfe the quantity he vseth to take in the mornings . chap. . of the manner of dyès to be obserued by those , who shall vse this water . the regiment of life in meats and drinks , ought chiefly to consist in the right and moderate vse of those , which are of light and easie digestion , and of good and wholesome nourishment , breeding laudable iuice . therefore all those are to be auoyded , which beget crude and ill humours . there ought furthermore speciall notice to be taken , that great diuersity of meats and dishes at one meale is very hurtfull , as also much condiments , sauces , spice , fat , &c. in their dressing and cookery . i commend hens , capons , pullets , chickens , partridge , phesants , turkies , and generally all such small birds , as liue in woods , hedges , and mountaines . likewise i doe approue of veale , mutton , kid , lambe , rabbets young hare or leuerits , &c. all which ( for the most part ) are rather to be roasted then boyled . neuerthelesse those , who are affected with any dry distemper , or those , who otherwise are so accustomed to feed , may haue their meats sodden ; but the plainer dressing , the better . i discommend all salt meats , beefe , bacon , porke , larde , and larded meats , hare , venison , tripes , and the entrailes of beasts , puddings made with blood , pig , goose , swan , teale , mallard , and such like ; and in generall all water-fowle , as being of hard digestion and ill nutriment . amongst the seuerall kinds of fishes , trouts , pearches , loaches , and for most part , all scaly fish of brookes , and fresh riuers may well bee permitted . moreouer smelts , soales , dabs , whitings , sturbuts , gurnets , and all such other , as are well knowne not to be ill , or vnwholesome to feed on . all which may be altered with mint , hyssope , anise , &c. also cre-fishes , crab-fish , lobsters , and the like , may bee permitted . cunger , salmon , eeles , lampries , herrings , salt-ling , all salt-fish , sturgion , anchouies , oysters , cockles , muscles , and the like shell-fish are to be disallowed . white-meats , as milke , cruds , creame , old cheese , custards , white-pots , pudding-pyes , and other like milke-meats , ( except sweet butter , and new creame cheese ) are to be forbidden . soft and reer egges we doe not prohibit . raisons with almonds , bisket-bread , marchpane-stuffe , suckets , and the like , are not here forbidden to be eaten . let their bread be made of wheat , very well wrought , fermented or leauened ; and let their drinke be beere well boyled and brewed ; and let it bee stale , or old enough , but in no wise tart , sharp , or sower : and aboue all let them forbeare to mixe the water of the fountaine with their drinke at meales ; for that may cause many inconueniences to follow , and ensue . let me aduise them to eschew apples , peares , plumbs , codlings , gooseberries , and all such like sommer fruits , either raw , in tarts , or otherwise : also pease , and all other pulse ; all cold sallets , and raw hearbs ; onions , leekes , chiues , cabbage or coleworts , pompons , cucumbers , and the like . in stead of cheese at the end of meales , it will not bee amisse to eate citron , or lemon pils condited , or else fenell , anise , coriander comfits , or biskets and carawayes , as well for to discusse and expell wind , as to shut and close the stomacke , for the better furthering the digestion of meats , and drinkes . and for that purpose , it would bee much better , if the physitian , who is of counsell , should appoint and ordaine some fit and proper tragea in grosse powder mixed with sugar , or else made into little cakes or morsels . likewise marmalade of quinces , either simple or compound , ( such as the physitians do often prescribe to their patients ) may be vsed very commodiously . after dinner they ought to vse no violent exercise , neither ought they to sit still , sadly , heauy , and musing , nor to slumber , and sleepe ; but rather to stirre a little , and to raise vp the spirits for an houre or two , by some fit recreation . after supper they may take a walke into the fields , or castle yard . chap. . of the symptomes or accidents , which may now and then chance to happen to some one or other in the vse of this water . although those who are of good and strong constitutions , obseruing the aforenamed direction , doe seldome or neuer receiue any hurme , or detriment by drinking this water : notwithstanding it may sometime so fall forth , that some of the weaker sort may perhaps obserue some little , or small inconuenience thereby , as retention of it in the body : inflation of the bellie : costiuenesse , and the like . wherefore to gratifie those , a word two of euery one shall suffice . first then , for to cause a more ready and speedy passage of it by vrine , it will not be amisse to counsel the partie after his returne to his lodging to goe to his naked bed for an houre or two , that thereby warmnesse , and naturall heat may be brought into each part of the body , the passages more opened , and nature by that meanes made more fit and apt for the expulsion of it . during which time it will be very requisite to apply hot cloathes to the stomack : but not so as to prouoke sweat . or else , to cause it to voyd and evacuate either by vrine , stoole , or sweat , exercise will be a good helpe and furtherance ; if the party be fit for it . but if neither of these will preuaile , then a sharpe glyster ought to be administred . the inflation or swelling of the belly hapneth principally to those , who haue feeble and weake stomacks ; who may do very wel to eate anise , fenell , or coriander comfits at the fountaine betweene euery draught , and to walke a little after ; or else some carminatiue lozenges , made with grossepowders , spices and seeds for breaking of wind : or what other thing the learned physitian shall deeme to be most fit and proper in his wisdome , and iudgment . but if the inflation chance to be very great , then a carminatine glyster must be ordained . such as shall be very costiue may doe well to eat moistning meats , and to vse mollifying hearbes , raisons stoned , corants , damascene prunes , butter , or the yolkes of egges , and the like in their broths , or pottage . if these will not be sufficient , then let a day be spared from drinking the water , and let the party take some lenitiue medicine , as laxatiue corants , or some such like thing ; whereof the physitian hath euer great choice and variety , wherewith he can fit directly euery one his case ; to whom present recourse euer ought to be had , when any of these , or the like accidents doe happen , as likewise in all other cases of waight and moment . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e obiect . answ . . . the baths of bathe: or, a necessary compendious treatise concerning the nature, vse and efficacie of those famous hot vvaters published for the benefit of all such, as yeerely for their health, resort to those baths: with an aduertisement of the great vtilitie that commeth to mans body, by the taking of physick in the spring, inferred vpon a question mooued, concerning the frequencie of sicknesse, and death of people more in that season, then in any other. whereunto is also annexed a censure, concerning the water of saint vincents rocks neere bristoll, which begins to grow in great request and vse against the stone. by to. venner, doctor in physick in bathe. venner, tobias, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a stc estc s this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the baths of bathe: or, a necessary compendious treatise concerning the nature, vse and efficacie of those famous hot vvaters published for the benefit of all such, as yeerely for their health, resort to those baths: with an aduertisement of the great vtilitie that commeth to mans body, by the taking of physick in the spring, inferred vpon a question mooued, concerning the frequencie of sicknesse, and death of people more in that season, then in any other. whereunto is also annexed a censure, concerning the water of saint vincents rocks neere bristoll, which begins to grow in great request and vse against the stone. by to. venner, doctor in physick in bathe. venner, tobias, - . [ ], p. printed by felix kyngston for richard moore, and are to be sold at his shop in saint dunstans churchyard in fleetstreet, london : . engraved portrait of author inserted after a . also issued as part of stc : tobias venner. via ad vitam longam, second edition, enlarged, published in . reproduction of original in the central library (bristol, eng.). created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng mineral waters -- england -- early works to . bath (england) -- description and travel -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the baths of bathe : or , a necessary compendiovs treatise concerning the nature , vse and efficacie of those famous hot waters : pvblished for the benefit of all such , as yeerely for their health , resort to those baths : with an aduertisement of the great vtilitie that commeth to mans body , by the taking of physick in the spring , inferred vpon a question mooued , concerning the frequencie of sicknesse , and death of people more in that season , then in any other . whereunto is also annexed a censure , concerning the water of saint vincents rocks neere bristoll , which begins to grow in great request and vse against the stone . by to. venner , doctor of physick in bathe . london , printed by felix kyngston for richard moore , and are to be sold at his shop in saint dunstans churchyard in fleet-streete . . effigies tobiae venner med. dr. anno dom : . aetatis suae . serenissimae principi mariae , angliae , scotiae , franciae , et hiberniae reginae , hoc de thermis bathoniensibvs opvscvlvm hvmillimè dedicat & consecrat tho. venervs med. dr. to the reader . good reader , seeing in the few yeeres that i haue exercised physicke at the baths , the yeerely concourse in the spring , and fall , of people of all sorts , and from all parts of this kingdome , to those famous waters , and the little benefit that many after great expence and trouble receiue thereby : i was induced to publish this ensuing treatise , wherein i haue very briefely shewed the nature and efficacie of those waters , touched the causes that many finde not comfort , but oftentimes rather hurt , that resort to them ; with such aduertisements concerning the vse of the said waters : which if they be rightly obserued , i am perswaded , few will hereafter complaine that they haue beene at the baths in vaine , and so the waters regaine that esteeme which in respect of their singular vertues they are worthy of . but here you must take from me this one aduertisement , which is , that sickenesse is a symptome of sinne : and therefore first , poenitentiam agendo , before your departure from home , make peace betwixt god and your conscience , and then repaire to the baths , quò te faustum ducat , atque sanum reducat , qui solus id potest . vale. the baths of bathe . bathe , so called from the baths in it , is a little well-compacted cittie , and beautified with very faire and goodly buildings for receit of strangers . although the site thereof , by reason of the vicinity of hills , seeme not pleasant , being almost inuironed with them ; yet for goodnesse of ayre , neerenes of a sweet and delectable riuer , and fertilitie of soyle , it is pleasant and happy enough ; but for the hot waters that boyle vp euen in the middest thereof , it is more delectable and happier , then any other of the kingdome . there are in it foure publike baths , so fairely built , and fitted with such conueniencie for bathing , as the like ( i suppose ) is not else-where to be found ; besides a little bath for lepers , called the lepers bath . they all haue the originall of their heate from one matter , namely , sulphur , burning in the cauities of the earth , thorow which the waters flowing receiue their heate . they partake of no other minerall that i can finde : what may lye hid in visceribus terrae , i know not : of this i am sure , that such diseases as cannot receiue cure else-where , here doe . these baths as they differ in their heate , so in their operations and effects . the kings bath is the hottest , and it is for beautie , largenesse , and efficacy of heate , a kingly bath indeed , being so hot as can be well suffered . this bath is of strong-heating , opening , resoluing , attracting , and exiccating facultie , and therefore onely conuenient for cold and moist bodies , and for cold and moist diseases . next to the kings bath for efficacy of heate , is the hot bath , and the difference in their heate is so little , that it is scarcely to be discerned . this bath is good for the same infirmities that the kings bath is , and for the effects which it worketh , i cannot finde it to be inferiour vnto it . they are two excellent baths for cold and moist diseases , and for very cold and moist bodies . the queenes bath is a member of the kings bath , a wall onely going betweene them , with a passage therein to goe from one to the other . this bath is not altogether so hot as that , and therefore the vse of it is conuenient for them that cannot well endure the heate of the kings bath . the crosse bath is for heate the mildest , being very temperately warme : it is a dainty bath for young , weake , and tender bodies , that cannot endure the heate of the hotter baths , or for whom the hotter baths may not be conuenient . it is an excellent bath for temperate bodies , by way of preseruation , because such the hotter baths may soone distemper , and occasion hurt : neither is this bath good onely for such as are of a temperate state and constitution of body by way of preseruation ; but for them and others also by way of curation , in some cases , where the hotter baths are not fit to bee vsed . this bath , by reason of the mildnesse of its heate , is of a notable mollifying and relaxing facultie : good therefore in contractions of any member , in obstructions of the brest , spleene , liuer , and kidneys ; and effectuall also for aches , when it is in its prime and vigour of heate , especially for such , whose temper or habit of body shall prohibit the vse of the hotter baths . this bath attaines not to its perfection of heate , till the weather grow to be constantly hot , and when the other baths , by reason of the feruor thereof , cannot be vsed , but by such whose diseases , and state of body are impensiuely cold . i cannot , in regard of the diuersity of bodies , insist vpon euery particular in the vse of these baths : wherefore i will onely for your better instruction and direction herein , giue you some speciall aduertisements , and thereupon leaue you to some learned physician , that can accordingly guide you in the vse of them . these famous hot waters are of singular force , not only against diseases gotten by cold , or proceeding from a cold and moist cause , but also bring , in time of health , exceeding comfort and profit to all cold , moist , and corpulent bodies : for they open the pores , resolue , attenuate , digest , consume , and draw forth superfluities , and withall strongly heale and drie the whole habit of the body . they are of excellent efficacy against all diseases of the head and sinewes , proceeding of a cold and moist cause , as rheumes , palsies , epilepsies , lethargies , apoplexies , cramps , deafenesse , forgetfulnesse , trembling , or weakenesse of any member , aches , and swellings of the ioynts , &c. they also greatly profit windie and hydropicke bodies , the paine and swelling of any part of the bodie , so that it proceed not from an hot cause , the sluggish and lumpish heauinesse of the body , numnesse of any member , paine in the loynes , the gout , especially the sciatica , cold tumors of the milt and liuer , the yellow iaundies in a body plethoricke or phlegmaticke . they are also very profitable for them that haue their lungs annoyed with much moisture ; and to make slender such bodies as are too grosse , there is nothing more effectuall , then the often vse of these waters . wherefore let those that feare obesitie , that is , would not waxe grosse ; bee carefull to come often to our baths : for by the vse of them , according as the learned physician shall direct ; they may not onely preserue their health , but also keepe their bodies from being vnseemingly corpulent . they are also singularly profitable to women ; for they helpe them of barrennesse , and of all diseases and imperfections of the matrix , proceeding of a cold and moist they also cure all diseases of the skin , as scabs , itch , old sores , &c. all which to bee true , wee daily find with admiration , to the exceeding great comfort of many , who with deplored diseases , and most miserable bodies , resort to these baths , and are there , by the helpe of wholesome physicke , and vertue of the baths , through the blessing of almighty god , recouered to their former health . but baths naturally hot ( as these our baths are ) to bodies naturally hot and drie , are generally hurtfull ; and so much the more , as the body is drier , and the bath hotter , because it distempereth and consumeth the very habit of the body , and maketh it carrion-like leane . wherfore seeing that these our baths are not indifferently agreeable to euery constitution and state of body , i doe aduise , that not any one goe into them rashly , or vpon a preposterous iudgement ; but that he bee first aduised by some faithfull , iudicious , and expert physician ; and to him expose the state of his body , whereby he may vnderstand , whether or no it may be expedient for him to attempt the same . and whereas there are in bathe diuers baths , as i haue shewed ; and they differing in their heate , and accordingly in their effects , he must also from the learned physician be directed in which to bathe : neither must he only vnderstand which bath to vse , as most conuenient for his state of body ; but also when and how often to vse the same , and how long to abide therein at a time . besides this , he must take speciall care , not to goe into the bath without fit preparation , ( which is a grosse error of many ) but must be first purged , as his state of body shall require ; and be also directed in other things how to order himselfe , before he goe into the bath , while he is in the bath , and after that he is come out of the bath , and when hee leaueth the bath : and must also with his bathings and sweating vse such physick-helpes , as may worke with the baths , according as his disease and present state of body shall require ; not relying wholly vpon the vse of the water for his cure , as many ignorantly , and some basely doe , to saue their purse . the neglect of all these , or of some of them , either through ignorance , or voluntarie wilfulnes , is the cause , that some that take great paines to come to the baths , are not by them healed of their infirmities , but oftentimes neuer returne to their homes againe ; or if they doe , it is most commonly with new diseases , and the old worse then euer they were : whereas of a generous and religious vnderstanding , vsing the true helpes of physick with the baths , are of their diseases perfectly cured . here i may not omit a special reason , why many receiue little benefit by the baths , but oftentimes much hurt ; and that is , because they take not the aide and directions of a physician present , in the vse of the bath ; but bring their physicke and directions with them from some physician in the countrey where they abode ; perhaps , one that well vnderstands not their state of body , much lesse the nature and true vse of the baths . but admit that they haue their directions from an vnderstanding physician , yet i must tell them , that many accidences fall out oftentimes in bathing , that require the helpe of a present physician . another speciall reason why many find little good by the baths , is , because they make not such stay at them , as in regard of their infirmities , or state of body , is meete : for some goe away before the bath ( in regard of a dense habit of body ) hath wrought any manner of effect at all on them : others euen then when the bath begins to shew its force and efficacie on their bodies : and some too soone vpon much benefit receiued : by meanes whereof they easily incurre a relapse . wherefore my counsell herein vnto you is this , that you limit not your stay at the baths , before you depart from your homes ; but in that bee aduised and ruled by your physician , when you are at the baths , according as hee shall find to bee meete for your infirmities , and state of body : and thinke not to receiue in foure , fiue , or sixe weekes an absolute cure for an infirmity , which perhaps you haue borne two or three yeeres , notwithstanding all the helpes and meanes you haue vsed for the same in your owne countrey . wherefore let your abode at the baths bee , as it shall bee requisite for your state of body , and limit not the time , no , not to a spring , or a fall ; for it may bee needfull for you to reside there the whole yeere , it may bee more : for otherwise by your vntimely departure , you may lose the good that you haue gotten by the bath , before the time come that you shall thinke to be fit for the vse of the baths againe . but here i know you will obiect against me , saying , is it good to make vse of your baths in the summer and winter ? are not those times by all learned and iudicious physicians prohibited for bathing in hot baths ? whereupon grew the custome of frequenting them in the temperate seasons of the yeere , namely , in the spring and fall ? whereunto i answer , and first , that bathing in our baths in summer ▪ taking the coole of the morning for it , if the season shall bee hot and summer-like , brings much more benefit to the body , the disease being of a cold nature , and proceeding from a cold and moist cause ( for so you must conceiue me ) then in the spring or fall , when oftentimes the coldnesse and variablenes of the aire takes away the benefit of your bathing : for cold , or vaporous aire entring into your body after bathing , the pores being open , doth not onely very greatly annoy the spirits , and principall parts , occasion winde and tortures in the bowels , but also induce oftentimes irrecouerable effects to the sinewes and ioynts . but if seasons that are constantly warme , be best for bathing in our baths , and cold times hurtfull , why should any reside at them in the winter ? i answer , that it is good for thē that are in the way of cure , by reason of their former bathings ; and that the waters are in their nature as effectually hot in the winter , as in any other time of the yeere ; onely the superficies , or vpper part of the bath is cooled by the windes . but in the winter there are some calme dayes , in which the diseased body lying neere to the baths , may well and safely bathe , without any offence or danger in taking of cold after : for hee may keepe himselfe in a warme chamber , hauing nothing else to doe , or take care for , but for his health . and heere i cannot but reprehend the error of most people , that at the end of may depart from our baths , and after that moneth , i know not out of what preiudicate opinion , altogether refraine to come to them , till the fall : perhaps they doe this , supposing , that after the spring , till the fall come againe , the baths lose their vertue . i must tell them , if this bee their conceit , that they are in a great error ; for the waters lose not their vertue at any time , only the disposition of the ambientaire may make them lesse fit to be vsed at one time then at another . but i would haue you to know , and as i haue afore-shewed , that our baths , may as profitably be vsed in summer , as in the spring , and most commonly with farre better successe in the whole moneth of iune , then in any of the former moneths , and that in regard of the constant temperature of this moneth , and the variable disposition of the moneths preceding . i am perswaded , that this vntimely going from the baths at the very approach of summer , hurts many , and ouerthrowes the good they haue receiued by them . wherefore my aduertisement herein is this , that they which resort to the baths for preuention of sicknesse , or such hereditarie diseases , as they feare will befall them , depart from the baths about the end of the spring : but such as goe to them for diseases already fixed , abide there the whole summer , and longer too , if there shall be occasion . and admit that after the moneth of iune the weather be too feruently hot to bathe in the hotter baths ; yet the crosse bath , which for heat is the mildest , being , as i haue said , in its nature temperately hot , attaines not to its efficacie and perfection , till the weather be constantly warme , which for the most part happens not till towards the end of may , or the beginning of iune . the vse of which bath is of excellent efficacie , not onely in the moneth of iune , but after also , yea , all the summer , according as the state of the body , and disposition of the season shal permit : wherein i leaue you to the counsell and direction of some learned physician resident at the baths . and now also i must aduertise such , as in the declining , or fall of the yeere , which we call the autumne , shall for the health of their bodies repaire to our baths , that they deferre not their comming till the middle of september , or after , as many ignorantly doe ; but that they rather bee there shortly after the middle of august , that they may haue time sufficient for bathing , before the aire grow to be too cold , as commonly it is in october , especially towards the end thereof . but , perhaps , some out of an ignorant timorousnes will obiect ; that to come to the baths before the dogge-dayes are gone , or too soone vpon them , is hurtfull ? herein they are more scrupulous , then iudicious : but to yeeld them some satisfaction , i answer ; besides the alteration of seasons from their ancient temperature , in this decrepit age of the world , that though the middle part of the day in the latter part of august shall be hot , yet the mornings and euenings ( which are the times for bathing ) begin then to be cold , and decline to a temperature ; and the heate of the day growing on vpon the bathing , is that which we specially respect for the health of our patients , for whom we approue the vse of the baths . wherefore such as for the health of their bodies repaire to our baths , shall ( if they be there in the latter part of august ) receiue a double commodity : for first , they shall haue the whole moneth of september very conuenient for bathing , and physicke also , as shall bee occasion ; yea , and part of october , as the disposition of the season shall permit : next , sufficient time for their returne to their homes , before the aire grow too cold , or the weather distempered : for to take cold betwixt the bathings , or to expose the body to trauell in foule and intemperate weather , vpon the vse of the baths , induceth ( the pores being open ) besides feuerous distemperatures and ventosities , oftentimes very great and dolorous affects of the braine , brest , sinewes and ioynts . i may not let passe how certaine accidences now and then befall some in their bathing ; as weakenes and subuersion of the stomake , faintnes , and sometimes swounings ; and these the physician must take speciall care to preuent , which maybe occasioned by meanes of the sulphurous vapours of the bath : yet i must tell you , that these , or the like accidences our baths doe seldome occasion , especially the crosse bath , but in them that are weake by nature , that are subiect to swouning , or goe into thē preposterously , without fit preparation and direction . and the reason is , because our baths being large , & hauing not sulphur in them , not in the cauities neere adioyning , the vapours are the lesse noysome , not so grosse and adusted ; and therefore not quickly offensiue , but to them that are very weake by nature , or as i haue said , goe into them without fit preparation , or make longer stay in them then is meete . and heere i cannot but lay open baths technologie , with such as for the health of their bodies resort to those baths , wherein i am sure to gaine little thanke . but i passe not for it , my purpose being to discharge a good conscience , and to doe my countrie good . the thing therefore that i would haue you to take notice of , is , how the people of that place that keep houses of receit , and their agents ( for such they haue in euery corner of the streets , and also before you come to the gates ) presse vpon you , importuning you to take your lodging at such & such an house , neere to such and such a bath , extolling the baths neere which they dwell , aboue the rest , respecting altogether their owne gaine , not your good or welfare . and when they haue gotten you into their houses , they will be ready to fit you with a physician ( perhaps an emprick or vpstart apothecary , magnifying him for the best physician in the towne ) that wil not crosse them in remouing you to another bath , though the bath neere which you are placed , be altogether contrary to your infirmities and state of body , or at least , not so conuenient as some other . and this is also a special reason , why many oftentimes receiue rather hurt then good by the vse of the baths . my counsell therefore to the learned physicians shall be this , that they so tender the good of their patients , and their owne worth and reputation , as that for base gaine they subiect not themselues to these kind of people , in hope to get patients by their means ; and to the patients , that they fall not by any meanes into the hands of empericks , who , by their ill qualified physicke , will spoile their bodies , and by reason of their pragmaticall nature , perswade and put them to vnnecessary and preposterous courses , which cannot but produce disastrous effects . but seeing that no calling is more disgraced , then by the men of the same calling , i wish all professors of physicke to carrie themselues worthy of their calling , to be faithfull and honest in their courses , not to insinuate with any , or after the manner of our bath-guides , presse vpon them to be retained . if an empericke or mountibanke seeke about for work , i blame them not ; let them deceiue those who wil be deceiued ; but for such as are graduated in the noble faculty of physicke to doe so , it is fiddler-like : a note , if not of some vnworthines in them , i am sure , of a base mind . let those therefore that are physicians indeed , striue to maintaine the reputation of their art , and not by a base insinuating carriage , or mountibank-like tricks , to get a note and repute , vilifie their owne worth , or disgrace so noble a facultie . but to draw to an end , when you shal for your health repaire to the baths , be cautelous , and suffer not your selfe to be taken vp by such as will presse vpon you ; but rest your selfe at your inne , and be well aduised by a physician that knowes the nature and vse of the baths , and can well iudge of your infirmities and state of body , what bath shall be fitting for your vse , and then vp your lodging accordingly : which course if it were obserued , and the physician carefully and learnedly performe his part , i am perswaded that many mo then now doe , would , for their infirmities , finde remedie at the baths , to the great honour of the place , and that scarcely any would depart thence , but much eased and bettered in their state of body . thus much i thought fitting to aduise and publish , concerning the nature and vse of our baths , and the rather , that such as preposterously vse them , as the greater part , i suppose , doe , that resort vnto them , may not erroniously detract from the admirable vertues of them : for vnto vs it doth yeerely appeare , by the miraculous effects they worke , of what excellent efficacie they are , if they be rightly and iudiciously vsed . and seeing that in the true vse of them , there are many things to be considered ; i doe therefore againe aduise all such as are respectiue of their health , that they enterprize not the vse of them , without the counsell and direction of some honest and learned physician resident at the baths : which if they doe , the incommodum may be maius commodo . and so i conclude this treatise . an advertisement of the great vtilitie that commeth to mans body , by the taking of physick in the spring , inferred vpon the insuing question . the spring being the most reuiuing , flourishing , and temperate season of the yeere ; whence is it , that sicknesses are more frequent in the same , and people sooner dye therein , then in any other season ? there may bee two reasons yeelded for the same : the one taken from the winter preceding , which , by reason of its moisture , filleth the body with crude and excrementall humors , and by its coldnesse , thickning , and compacting the same , quieteth them from fluxion . but the heate of the spring approaching , and working on those humors , rarifieth and dissolueth them ; which thereupon fluctuating and putrifying in the body , are the cause of sicknesse , vnlesse they are expulsed by the force of nature , or timely helpe of physicke . the other reason may be taken from the inconstancie of the spring it selfe , which sometimes is cold , sometimes hot , sometimes moist , and sometimes drie : which sudden alterations cannot but produce feuerous distemperatures , and other infirmities , according to the disposition of the matter congested in the body , the winter preceding . from which it may be concluded , that the sicknesses and death of people , which happen more frequently in the spring , then in any other season of the yeere , are not so much to be attributed to the spring , as to the winter which hath filled the body with superfluities , and prepared it for sicknesse . wherefore whosoeuer will bee so prouident , as by the timely helpe of physicke , to free his body , as his state and constitution shall require , of the superfluities congested in it by meanes of the winter going before , he shall be sure to be farre more liuely , healthy , and free from sicknesse in the spring , then in any other season of the yeere , so as he erre not ouermuch in other things . and this purging of the body , and purifying of the bloud in the spring , will not onely preserue from sicknesses that commonly raigne in the spring ; but also be a meanes to keepe the body in a perfect integrity the whole yeere after : and therefore i commend the taking of physicke in the spring to all generous people , to them that leade a geniall sedentary kinde of life , especially to such as are subiect to obstructions or any yeerely disease . you may here demand of me , what time of the spring is fittest for physicke by way of preuention ? i answer , that for them that are wont to bee affected with sickenesse in the spring , and whose humors are too cholericke and thinne , and consequently subiect to fluxion , it is best to take physicke at the very beginning thereof ; but for others , about the middle , or after , especially if the precedent time shall be cold , and not spring-like . you may also here demand of me , whether it be not so necessary to take physick in the autumne , which we commonly call the fall , as in the spring ? whereunto , in regard of a generality , i must answer no : because the summer prepareth not the body for sicknesse , filling it with superfluities , as doth the winter ; yet for some bodies it is , as for them that naturally abound with crude and phlegmaticke humors , that are subiect to obstructions , to cold winterly diseases , or any melancholicke affects , as necessary to take physicke by way of preuention in the fall , as in the spring ; and that for auoiding the superfluities before the winter , for opening the obstructions , and freeing the body of superfluous melancholy , which then , by reason of the season encreaseth . and the fittest time for the doing thereof , for such as are subiect to melancholy and autumnall diseases , is soone after the beginning of the fall ; but for others , towards the middle thereof . but here i must aduertise you that you expose not your body to the vnlearned empericke , that can neither finde out the peccant humors , nor parts affected ; but to such as are learned in that art , that can well iudge of your state of body , and accordingly prescribe you remedies , as your constitution and affected parts shall require . many men thinke , yea some of a generous note , wherein they bewray their carelesnesse , if not their stupiditie to , that whilst they are in health , they may for preuention , take physicke from any one , it matters not from whom it bee , nor what physicke it bee , so it worke with them . i must tell you that many ouerthrow their bodies hereby , and that there is no lesse art and iudgement required for preseruing the body in health , then for curing of it being sicke , if they did but know how the foure humors are or ought to be proportioned in their bodies , for enioying according to their constitutions a sound and healthy state , they would , i am perswaded , be more cautelous then to commit themselues into the hands of the vnlearned , who , by their inconsiderate courses , take humors from them at an aduenture , so well those which are not offensiue , as those which are , to the vtter subuersion of the oeconomie of the body : whereof though , perhaps , in regard of their strengths , they are not by and by sensible , which is that which onely cloaketh the errors of empericks , and as a vaile , masketh many mens eies and vnderstanding herein : yet they will , as i haue in diuers obserued to their perill , by little and little incurre a lapsed state of body . it is strange to see the ignorance of most people , how backward they are to giue to the learned professors of physicke their due , ready to lay scandals vpon them ; but forward to magnifie empericks , their physicke , their honesty , their care , willing to excuse and passe ouer their grosse slips and absurdities . o mira hominum stupiditas ! but proceeds this altogether out of ignorance ? i suppose no : for doubtlesse many seeke vnto them , and magnifie their physicke , because it is cheape : but such are fooles and gulles indeed , for they wrong , and euen poyson their bodies with grosse and ill-qualified physicke , to saue their purse . but to answer the reasons , or rather the words which they produce and alledge in the fauour and behalfe of empericks : to what purpose is the working of that physicke which respecteth not the peccant humors nor parts affected , but to the ouerthrow of the body ? what is a supposed honesty in a physicion without learning , but a snare wherein the ignorant doe voluntarily entrap themselues ? i say supposed : for i cannot thinke that man to be honest , that vsurps a calling , which with a good conscience he is not able to discharge . or to what purpose is the care that empericks take about their preposterous and ill-composed medicines , but to the vtter ruine of the patients body , as it too too vnluckely happened of late to a gentleman of good worth and note , who taking physicke by way of preuention of a pil-boasting surgeon , in a short space , by his ill-qualified and preposterous physicke , incurred an incureable and mortall lapse of his stomacke and liuer , being in his constant age and perfect strength of body . vaine therefore and very absurd is that conceit , which many haue in fauour of empericks , viz. if they doe no good , they will doe no harme . admit that sometimes by their triuiall pettie medicines , they doe no harme ; yet neuerthelesse for that , i must tell you that they doe much harme : for the sicke body relying vpon their skill , and they being not able to direct and execute such courses as shall be fitting and effectuall to impugne the disease , while there is time fitting for the same , the sicknesse gets the masterie , and then ( perhaps ) when the strengths are too much weakened , and the disease become incureable , they seeke helpe of the learned physician . so basely verily are most of our people affected to their health , that vntill some practicall minister , parish clarke , apothecary , chirurgeon or the like , haue done their vtmost hurt , they seeke not to the physician . and here to vindicate our art from calumnie , i cannot but taxe the most sort of people , that being affected with any great or difficult disease , which by reason of the nature thereof , or contumacy of the peccant humors , will haue such progresse , as that it cannot in a short time , by the medicines and best endeuors of the learned physician , how forceable so euer , be euicted , will reiect their physician , and betake themselues , which is an absurdity , super omnem absurditatem , to some ignorant sottish empericke , and euery good wiues medicine , to their great hurt , and oftentimes vtter ouerthrow . but if it happen , that they recouer thereupon , they lay an imputation vpon the physician , and grace their emperick with the cure ; whereas in very deede the matter of their disease was wholy , or at least the greatest part therof , eradicated by such fit and powerful remedies , as the learned physician had formerly administred vnto them : wherevpon the residue of the cure was effected by the force of nature , not by the weake endeuors of the empericke , or triuiall medicines of any other whatsoeuer . i haue of purpose enlarged this aduertisement , and doe leaue it for a memoriall and caueat to all posteritie , especially to the gentlemen of this our age , who , for the most part of them , very greatly wrong their iudgements and vnderstanding , in taking physicke of the vnlearned ; and wherein they doe not only wrong themselues , but also giue occasion of hurt vnto others : for the meaner sort of people following their example , do the like , whereby it comes to passe , that in all likely-hood , more vntimely perish ( which i beleeue to be true in the westerne parts of this kingdome ) vnder the hands of empericks , then die otherwise ▪ such as will not take notice hereof , in empericorum manus incidant . and if any asinus cumanus , or terra filius shall obiect , that diuers recouer vnder the hands of empericks ; i answer in a word , that the recouery is not to be attributed to their physick , but to the strengths of nature , that beares vp , both against the disease , and their preposterous courses . a censvre concerning the water of saint vincents rocks neere bristoll , * which begins to grow in great request and vse against the stone . this water of saint vincents rocke , is of a very pure , cleare cristalline substance , answering to those cristalline diamonds and transparent stones that are plentifully found in those clifts . it is no lesse commendable for smell and taste , then delectable for colour and substance , and for its temperature , excels any other of this kingdom , being almost of a meane betweene heate and cold : i say almost , because it is a little more inclined to cold , then to hear , which maketh it the more effectuall for allaying the burning heat of the bowels , and yet by reason of its good temperature , not quickly offensiue to the stomacke , if it be not lapsed by cold . but before i deliuer my censure and opinion concerning the nature and vse of this water , it is fitting that i declare vnto you the matter frō whence it receiues its medicinable faculties , and that is ( for i haue twice made probation therof ) from sulphur and niter , and from both but in a small measure : for the water at its issuing forth , carrieth with it but an obscure heat , being scarcely lukewarme , and the reason thereof is , because the heat of the water , & strength of the sulphurous vapors are qualified and abated in the passages thorow the earth ; or else it is , because this water issueth but from a small veine of sulphur . and the note that it hath but little niter in it , besides the probation therof , is , because it can hardly , or not at all in the taste bee discerned , but by a curious and skilfull pallate for the purpose , i suppose that this water partakes of other good minerals : but i leaue that for a farther search , or to such , as shall hereafter liue more conueniently for that purpose , then i doe . but whatsoeuer minerals shall lie hid in the passages of this water , it is sufficient , that it partakes of two so good as sulphur and niter , and that in such a mixture , as it makes it to be of an excellent temper , and medicinable faculty in potable vses for diuers cases , as shall be hereafter shewed . it were to be wished , that the water issued forth in a more conuenient place , aswell for accesse vnto it , as for conseruing the heate thereof . this water is frequented for no other vse , but for the drinking of it against the stone : it hath also other excellent faculties ; but i suppose ( such is the vanity of our time ) that the fame thereof wil not long hold , but wil in a short time haue an end , as some other waters of good force and efficacy against sundry infirmities , in diuers places of this kingdome haue had , and that by reason of the absurdand preposterous vse of it : for vpon notice and experience that this water hath done some good against the stone , people of all sorts repaire vnto it , so wel such as haue not the stone , as those that haue , or stand in feare thereof , and abundantly glut and fill themselues therewith , till they vomit and strout againe , scarcely one of fifty , i dare say , hauing the opinion of a iudicious physician for the taking of the same , or preparing their bodies for it as is meete ; which cannot but bring a disgrace to the water : for admit that a few chance to receiue benefit thereby , some will not , but many much hurt . neither can the water be good for all bodies that are troubled with the stone , or subiect thereunto : and therefore i would haue you to know , that the ill and preposterous vse thereof will weaken the stomacke , subuert the liuer , annoy the head and brest , occasion cramps , paine in the ioynts , breed crudities , rheumes , coughs , cachexies , the dropsie it selfe and consumption . but i will proceed to shew you the faculties and true vse of the water . it notably cooleth the inflammations of all the inward parts , and yet , as i haue said , not quickly offending the stomacke , as other waters doe ; and it is withall of a gentle mundifying facultie . it is therefore very effectuall against the burning heate of the stomacke , inflammations of the liuer and reines , and adustion of the humors , being taken with fine sugar in this proportion , as halfe an ounce of sugar or thereabout to a pinte of the water . in such as haue had hot liuers , red pimpling faces , and adusted humors , i haue caused a tincture of roses and violets to be taken therewith , and that with singular successe . it may be giuen with other good conuenient adiuncts , which will not onely make it the more gratefull to the stomacke , but also more effectuall for the cases aforesaid , which i leaue to the physician to finde out , and direct as shall be best fitting for his patients body . in inflammation and siccity of the intestines , it is good to giue with this water , syrrup or mel viol. sol. in inflammation of the kidneys with obstruction also in them , i haue giuen it to such as had withall hot liuers , with chrystallo minerali , with wished effect : for the distemper of the kidneys was not onely quickly allayed therewith , but also abundance of sand and other drossie matter stopping in them purged forth . that this water is good against the stone , strangury , and purulent vlcers of the kidneys and bladder , it is euident , by reason of its mundifying and clensing faculty , to be taken with sugar as aforesaid , or with some good and effectuall adiunct , for the speedier carriage of it to the affected places , &c. which by reason of the diuersity of bodies , i cannot here describe , but must leaue you therein to the aduice and counsell , not of a vulgar , but of some learned iudicious expert physician , and that with this caution , that if you bee not sure of the accurate iudgement and skill of your physician , that you take the water onely with sugar , without any other mixture with it . this water is also good in the vlcerations of the intestines , with this prouiso , that it be taken with some conuenient adiunct , as mel rosat . &c. to occasion the passage thereof thorow the belly , diuerting it from the veines . as concerning the vse of this water , and first , for inward inflamations : the time of the yeere best for taking thereof by way of cure or preuention , is in the moneths of april , may , and iune , and that in the morning fasting , the body being first prepared thereunto , that is , gently purged , according as the constitution thereof shall require ; but in case of necessity , it may be taken at any other time , respect being had of the season , age , and present state of the body . as for the quantity that is to be taken euery morning , and how long to be continued , in that , because of the diuersity of bodies , i must leaue you to the discretion and iudgement of your physician . as for the taking of this water against the stone , tenne rules are to be obserued in the vse thereof . the first is the preparation of the body , that is , that it be exquisitely purged , before you attempt the vse thereof : for the passages being cleared , and the ill matter diuerted by stoole , the water will the more freely , and with greater force penetrate vnto the reines . the second is , that it be taken in the morning fasting , the excrements of the belly being first deposed , and that at diuers draughts , allowing betwixt euery draught or two draughts taken the one after the other , the space of a quarter of an houre , or some what more , till you haue taken the whole portion of water that is intended to be taken each morning , walking and stirring gently your body betweene euery taking : for that will cause the water to be the sooner distributed thorow your body , refraining to goe abroad in the aire betweene and vpon the takings thereof , if the weather shall be any thing cold ; for cold will hinder the distribution of the water . the third is , the quantity of the water that is to be taken euery morning , which must be directed by your physician that knowes your age and state of body . the fourth is , how many mornings together it is to be taken , as eight or tenne more or lesse , according to the abilitie of the stomacke , strenghts and state of body , wherein you must likewise be directed by your physician . the fift thing to be obserued in the taking of the water , is , to take it so neere as you can , in the same temper of heate as it issueth forth , or else so hot as you shall be well able to drinke it : and herein euery one may gratifie his owne stomacke . but seeing that the place is vnfit for the taking of it , and that the water seems , by reason of the rawishnesse of the place , to be colder at its issuing forth then it is otherwise : for being taken into a stone iugge , it warmeth the same ; i aduise that the water bee taken into stone iugges , or other conuenient bottles , and the iugges or bottles to bee immediately stopped , to keepe in the vapours , and so the water to be taken while it reserueth its heate ; but if the water shall waxe cold before you take it , you may heate the iugge in a kettle of hot water , till it shall bee so hot as you shall like to take it , keeping the iugge close stopped all the while : and so you may doe such mornings when you cannot haue the water , it being all ouercouered by that part of the seuerne that floweth to the cittie . if you demand of me , whether the water loseth any thing of its vertue , being so kept ? i must answer you , that it is likely that it loseth somewhat , of its sulphurous , but not any thing of its introus qualitie , and therefore it may be well referued , and vsed in manner as aforesaid . the sixth is the time of the yeere that is best for the taking of this water , and that is , in a season that is not cold , or rainy ; but hot , or inclining therevnto , as from the beginning of may , to the middle of september ; but after that , in regard of the alterations of the aire , and winter approaching , this water is not good to be taken , because it will weaken the stomacke and liuer , annoy the brest , breede crudities , coughs , &c , as i haue already shewed . the seuenth is the diet , that is to be obserued all the time of the taking of the water , which is , that it must bee but slender , and that of meats of good iuice , and easie digestion , the dinner not to be taken , till the greater part of the water be auoided , and the supper must be alwaies lesse then the dinner , that the stomacke may be the next morning emptie for receiuing of the water againe . the eight is , that the body be purged immediately after the taking of the water , that is , when an end is made of taking it , for auoiding some reliques thereof , which perhaps may abide in the body after the vse of it , which the physician must be carefull to do with a fit medicine . afterwards a moderation in diet and all other things is to be obserued . the ninth is , that it be not giuen to children that are subiect to the stone , vnder twelue yeeres of age , vnlesse they shall be naturally of a very hot constitution , and that , to them in quantities proportionable to their age . neither is it to be admitted to them , that are entered within the limits of old age , because it will abbreuiate their life , calorem innatum extinguendo . the tenth and last thing to be considered in the vse of this water , is , that it be not giuen to such , as by reason of the smalnesse and streightnesse of their veines , cannot extreate and passe it away by vrine , though the infirmities of the stone , stranguries , &c. may otherwise require the vse thereof . neither is to be giuen to such , as haue cold stomackes , weake liuers , feeble braines , and subiect vnto rheumes ; in a word , not to phlegmaticke , not to any that abound with crudities , or haue a cold and moist habit of body : for in all such it will soone infringe the naturall heate , breed rheumes , annoy the brest , occasion cramps , and diuers other infirmities , as i haue afore shewed . the same obseruations must be kept in taking of this water against the strangurie and vlcerations of the bladder and kidneys , as is directed in taking thereof against the stone . in which affects it is good to giue therewith some lubrifying , cleansing extract , or the like . and heere note , that if the water in all the aforesaid cases be giuen with a fit and conuenient adiunct , it will not onely be the more effectuall , and sooner conueied to the affected parts , but lesse quantities also may serue to be taken ; and then the stomacke will not be so ouerprest and charged therewith , as it is in the common manner of taking it . but if it bee at any time fit to ouercharge and presse the stomacke therewith , it is in cases of the strangurie and purulent-vlcers of the bladder and kidneys . i may not omit to giue you notice , that diuers symptomes or perillous accidences may happen oftentimes in the vse of this water , which , because they cannot be well rectified or preuented without the presence of a physician , i here omit to nominate or treat of , and in stead thereof , as also for diuers reasons afore nominated , doe aduise you not to aduenture the drinking thereof , without the aduice and presence of a iudicious physician ; which if you doe , you may haply in stead of the good you expect thereby , receiue much hurt . as for outward vses , this water may sometime asswage the itch , mundifie and palliat old sores ; but no matter of moment is to be expected from it this way . and thus much concerning the nature and vse of this water , whose vertues will be better knowne , if people make a right and good vse thereof . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e kings bath . hot bath . queenes bath . crosse bath . the vertue of the baths in generall . hot baths hurtfull to hot and drie bodies . as not to goe thereinto vpon a full stomake , &c. baths technologie with them that resort to those baths . bathe being a place , in regard of the baths , that many resort vnto for cure of infirmities , that cannot receiue helpe elsewhere ; it were to bee wished , that empericks , and all other whatsoeuer they be , being not graduates in the faculty of physick , were vtterly prohibited to practise in the city , or neere to the consines thereof , idque sub poena grauissima . notes for div a -e the vtilitie of physick taken in the spring . what time of the springbest for physicke . whether it be so requisit to take physicke in the fall , as in the spring . aduertisement to beware of empericks . notes for div a -e * vrbs pulchra , & emporium celebre . the substance and temperature of the water . from what minerals it receiues its medicinable faculties . the hurst that are occasioned by the vnaduised vse of the water . the vertue and faculties of the water . the vse of the water for inward inflammations . tenne rules to be obserued in taking of the water against the stone . for what bodies the vse of the water not conuenient , but hurtfull . callirhoe, the nymph of aberdene, resuscitat by william barclay m. of art, and doctor of physicke. what diseases may be cured by drinking of the well at aberdene, and what is the true vse thereof barclay, william, ?- ? approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) callirhoe, the nymph of aberdene, resuscitat by william barclay m. of art, and doctor of physicke. what diseases may be cured by drinking of the well at aberdene, and what is the true vse thereof barclay, william, ?- ? [ ] p. printed by andro hart, [edinburgh] : anno dom. . place of publication from stc. signatures: a b⁴ (-b ). reproduction of the original in the british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng mineral waters -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion callirhoe , the nymph of aberdene , resvscitat by william barclay m. of art , and doctor of physicke . what diseases may be cured by drinking of the well at aberdene , and what is the true vse thereof . printed by andro hart , anno dom. . to the right worshipfvll sr. robert keith of benholme rnight . william barclay doctor of physicke wisheth health . right worshipfull , demades , an orator of athens was wont to say to the people , that they neuer treated of peace , but in their mourning garments , when the enemie had killed their principall kinsemen . so the people of this realme enter neuer in consideration of their health , but when they are ouerthrowen with diseases . i would haue your worship to shunne this blame , being so ciuill , so circumspect , so carefull in all your other adoes : it were a blotte to the worth of your many vertues , to neglect the remembrance of your health , euen in the perfect possession of your health , that you may prevent the battell of diseases , when you are in the the other side . first then i diuided so much of the land as i choosed to consider , in high-land and low-land : and i found the high-land to nourish strong , rude , cruell , long liuing , laborious , and lecherous men : and that by reason of their food : milke , cheese , butter , fleshes , oate bread , much exercise . ( i wil remit the matter of aqua vitae to another place . ) and as i mused on these highland men , i remembred that in our historie of scotland it is reported , that no diseases were knowne to this holy iland in time of our fathers , but the grauell , the cold , which physicians call catarrhus . for proofe of which was there neuer a man in strethspey vexed with the tertian ague , while the yeere . yeeres : when that disease became in murray and sundrie other parts of this realme epidemicall or contagious . but leauing these high-land diseases to their impostors , and barbarous leeches . i returne to our low & ciuill pa●ts : where the inhabitants being more delicatly trained vp , as subject to greater diseases , the situation of the soyle being toward the north & lying open to the east : the ground which they labour , must be colde and moyst : the diseases of their bodies , catarrhes , grauels , diarrhaees , guts ▪ colickes , apoplexies , paralysies , & such like : and because the winds are boysterous and colde , the maladies of their minds are much worse then the diseases of their bodies , pride , anger , hatred , enuie , crueltie , inhumanitie , inconstancie : neither will i procede farder in this matter , reseruing without flatterie the true cōmendation of aberdene , whose inhabitants beyond the nature of their soyle , & in spight of aeolvs & all his winds , doe so ciuilize their burgh , with the continuall practise of vertue & learning , & so replenish their hearts with courteous behauiour , that if their soyle were not more barren and barbarous then their soules , euen a french man himselfe might judge aberdene to be the lutetiola , or litle paris of this septentrionall corner of north britanne . the third thing which a physician should consider , is the water , which within the limits that i haue chosen for to examine , is not so farre from the best waters of the world , as it is frō the worse : and in most parts of this north , it is wholsome and good , & needeth not to be ashamed to abide the triall of hippocrates rule . but leauing to treat more largely of this common suall vwater , i will lauell in my discourse , at the medicinall water which not only orneth the towne of aberdene , but blesseth the territorie about it with a treasure of health , more worth thē the wealth of craesvs . i will not report the antiquitie of such physicke , neither shall i reckon the number of such famous fountaines as haue had vertue to cure innumerable diseases : but i will in few tearmes describe the nature and vertues of the well which springeth at aberdene . and before i enter to dye my lippes in that sacred liquour , i will make a sute to that more sauoury water then the poeticall castalian● fountain : that as i wish all people to haunt & honour thy streams , so dasecura tui , sit mihi sana suis. and i being preserued by thy vertue from such diseases , as i am perswaded thou canst cure , tu fueris musis pegasus unda meis . thus hauing premitted my protestation to that aberdonian nymphe , i will beginne to reueile the secretes of her birth , and digge vnder that hill , that i may discouer the originall of her spring . i will set downe ( that my discourse may carrie a method ) the true nature of that water , howe to know if that water haue such specificke and magneticall vertues as i alledge : and what are the effects of that water : and lastly , in what maner that water should bee vsed and drunken . i lay then as a ground , that of all liquours , there is none more apt then water to receiue the qualities and vertues of any simple : for which cause the physicians most ordinarily make their infusions and decoctions in water : the reason of this is , because water of it selfe is voyde of taste , and so much the more fit to receiue both the taste ▪ and all other second qualities from all simples : yea , not onely second qualities , which are manifest and knowne by the senses , but also hidden and occult qualities , of which , some doe alter the taste : as the infusion of rheubarbe : some doe not alter the taste , as the infusion of antimonium , or the decoction of golde . notwithstanding that water be a fitte subject to receiue the impression of diuerse tastes , yet doth it not receiue so commodiously the diuersitie of odours : and in that respect the perfumers doe not infuse their sweete odoriferous drogges in water , but in oyle , which we call oleum balaninum , which oyle is as voyde it selfe of all odours , as water is of sapours : this is the reason also why the daintie , delicate & sawcie victuallers or cookes in their restoring and venerian pasties put the roote called petatos , which of it selfe is tastelesse and vnsauourie to receiue the temper and pickle of all the other spices & nourishing aliments . hauing then settled as a principle in physicke that water is a cōmodious matter to receiue the accidentall formes of all simples , i conclude that this water of the wel of aberdene hath receiued qualities & vertues frō such minerals as it floweth thorow : which are iron and vitriol : for the effects do argue the mixtiō of these two . in so much that i dare affirme this aberdonian nymphe to be sister germane to the well of forges in normandie , and may well worke as many worthy cures as it , if it were as wisely vsed , and as frequently . there is no dogmaticke physician in europe , which doth not allow the vse of iron & vitriol in the cures of many diseases : so that nature her selfe in this water hauing intermingled so prudently the qualities of these two simples , it standeth with reason that this water beeing embrued with the moste thicke slimie humours , the passages of the liuer ditted with indigest chyle , it were a rash and carelesse boldnesse to hazarde our health , seeing this water runneth through the channell of our veines , with such impetuositie that it carrieth with it , whatsoeuer cruditie it encountreth in the way . — non alius per pinguia culta , in mare purpureum violentior instuit amnis . no water naturall or artificiall can passe more swiftly through mans body to the bladder , where the sea of all our humidities are collected , than doeth this vitriolicall liquour . but hereafter shall be declared by what meanes the patient shal dispose and prepare his body , that is , to craue aide and reliefe at the handes of this courteous and cristaline aberdonian nymphe . for better vnderstanding of the following discourse , i will premit two things . first , that there is no dis●ase that chanceth to mans body , that can receiue any great detriment from the right vse of this water , except it be the diseases of the lights : because this water mooueth the cough , and increaseth the dolor to the pulmonickes . secondly , this water is a present and sure remedy against all obstructions , which are the mothers and authors of most part of our diseases . nowe i call obstruction a ditting or stopping of any passag● of the body , which obstruction commeth most ordinarily in the small veines of the mesentere and liuer , in the passages of the gall , in the vreters or passages of the bladder , in the veines which open towardes the matrix or mother , through which ditted and obstructed wayes this water pierceth without any harme or detriment by a detersiue and penetrant vertue , and taketh away the slimie , thicke , glewie , teugh matter , which sticketh to the banckes of the channels , while this water as another nilus washeth away those corrupted excrements from this hidden interior aegypt of our bowels . this water worketh not with euery one after one sort : for if the matter be in the neires , the vreters or bladder , it expelleth the humours by vrines : if the cause of the disease be in the melt , in the mesentere or the liuer , this water worketh by the passage of the stoole : if the matter be in the matrix , the water worketh by the ordinarie purgation of that parte . and yet albeit this water be such a justiciar , as executeth her sentence against the diseases of euery part , by banishing the materiall causes , through their owne passages , yet she disburdeneth the greatest parte of all the morbificke causes by the vrines . i haue seene sundrie men and women cured of great and tedious diseases by vomiting after the drinking of this water . this nymphe beyond the custome of all her sexe , refresheth and augmenteth the wearie and dull spirits of any patient , she corroborateth and an arte . i sawe at london in the late queene elizabeths dayes an impostor hanged , because he auouched that hee was the sonne of god , and had sent his supposed prophets through the countrie , to vaunt of his comming . this irlandish impostor doeth imitate that pseudochrist , and sendeth through the countrie , his prophets to abuse the people with a false rumor . i protest before god , i enuie not his estate , but i would wish that he could doe the thing that hee sayeth : but i cannot abide such abuse of that arte , wherein i haue spent many yeeres vnder the discipline of the most learned physicians of france . yet albeit this water cannot dissolue such a stone , it doeth much good to those that are vexed therewith : for it fortifieth the bladder , and washeth away the slime which is about the stone , the which slime maketh the stone greater then it is indeede , and riueth the wound too much at the cutting . the second question is , whether this water hath any vertue to cure the hydropsie or not . to which i answere , first that of all remedies this is the surest to preuent the dropsie , and to correct the disposition from whence the dropsie proceedeth : which ordinarily is weaknes of the liuer , through exorbitant heate : i know that hydropsie floweth at times from a cold liuer also , but the most frequent cause is hote . doctor martine at paris , one of the most learned men of europe , not in physicke onely , but in languages and all other sort of literature , finding himselfe inclined to hydropsie , postponing all other sort of medicament , hee tooke resolution to passe to the well of forges , not farre from rouvan in normandie , which well is sister germane to our nymph , with hope to returne from thence in health , or then neuer to see paris againe , and in this resolution he tooke leaue from threscore of physicians his collegues , and went to forges where he recouered his health , and liued many yeeres thereafter , i answere secondly , that a man beeing perfectly hydroped , his hydropsie being caused of an obstruction and hote intemperie of the liuer or melt : this water will cure him , or nothing els will cure him , because it correcteth the intemperie , it openeth the obstructions , and it voydeth water out of the bellie . the third question is , whether this water hath any force to helpe those that are subject to the arthritis or generall or particular gout . for by this discourse it appeareth that this water openeth the passages , and giueth place to the serous and watrie humours , to goe to the joyntes and lithts , where the gout is formed : for it is called the gout , because the watrie humours guttatim cadunt in articulos . i answere that this water openeth the passages of the mesentere , the liuer , the melt , the reines , but i thinke that it taketh no leasure in the body , to goe to the joynts , because it passeth so suddainely through the first and second region of the body , that it stayeth not to goe to the third region , and albeit it did goe , it fortifieth the wayes : for it hath not onely an opening force , but a roborating vertue also , and besides that , draweth water out of the joynts , rather then filleth them with water , and because a hote intemperie of the liuer , is the originall cause of arthritis , this water curing that intemperie , it must of force cut away the spring of that disease . at last now i thinke expedient to declare how the patients should behaue themselues towardes this nymphe , to the effect they haue no just occasion to thinke euill , either of her or me : the meetest time to drinke of this water is , when the weather is hotest and driest , as it is in iune , iuly , and a parte of august , because then the water is lightest , and of easiest digestion , the superfluous vapours beeing drawen out of the earth by the heate of the sunne . before wee enter to drinke of this medicinal water , it is meetest that our bodies bee prepared and purged by the aduise of some learned physician , and when i say a learned physician , i seclude barbarous apothecares , highland leeches , impostors , and montbankes , mercuriall medicines , that is to say , rubbers with quicke siluer , and all those which can giue no reason of their calling . amongst the lacedemonians he was accounted the most gallant man that could steale most , prouiding that he were not apprehended flagranti delicto . in brittaine hee is esteemed the best physician , who killeth most , prouiding that hee bee not accused . but if there were such search heere as is in france or italie , the people would be better serued , and the king haue more subjects . i sawe a weighty matter pleaded before the court of parliament at paris . the historie was this , a physician had prescribed to a noble man a certaine quantitie of confectio alchermes , it chanceth that the patient died within a little space . this confectio alchermes had coloured all the chyle in his stomacke like skarlet , which should be white . the chirurgian which bowelled the man , alledged that the patient was poysoned , the parents accused the physician , so it went to the barre . and at last both parties heard , and all alledgance ponderate and considered , the physician was absolued , and the chirurgian condemned as ignorant , and to pay a fine , and to restore the physician to his honour againe . but returning to our purpose againe : whosoeuer disposeth himselfe to drink of this water , his body must be prepared by the counsel & aduise of some learned physician ▪ by taking clysters & some purgatiue medicines : i will not here prescribe the formes , because i will not minister occasion to ignorant leeches to the abuse of mens health . in the meane space that they are drinking this water , it were meete to keepe a good dyet , and eate such meate as leaue no cruditie , and doeth resist melancholy : their drinke at their ordinare may be white wine , moderately drunken , mixed with water , and not with the water of this well , as sundrie doe to their owne hinder and prejudice : because this water vsed with their meate , helpeth to carrie the meate to the neares and bladder before it be perfectly digested . after dinner and supper it shall not be amisse to vse a digestiue powder for to dissipate the winde , and close the stomacke . also it is sufficient to drinke euery day once of this water , and that in the morning some two or three houres after the rising of the sunne . as concerning the quantitie which ought to be drunken , it should be according to the disease and nature of euery one : at the beginning they should vse moderately , and euery day ascend while they arriue at the highest of that which they may drinke , neither hath it bene found , that the drinking of foure or fiue pounds haue done any harme , albeit there be many men and women , that can not reach to that quantitie . alwayes it is better to drinke longer and lesse , then to drinke a great quantitie in few dayes . this is the summe of that which may be saide concerning the nature and vse of that water , neither will i wearie the lector with any longer discourse , beseeching him onely to heare mee patiently in few tearmes rander thankes to god , which for the benefite of our poore diseased persons in this i le hath reuealed this secrecie , and that in such a parte , that the ingine of man could not haue deuised it better : not in the higlands and wildernesse , not in some countrie beggerly village , as spae and forges are , but amongst the most ciuile , and courteous , and charitable people of this realme , where the poore may bee assisted with almes , and with physicians , where the rich may be harboured , according to their estates , and where all sort of ranckes may haue fit companie , honest recreation , good example , great pietie , and all kind of eases and commodities that any man or woman can desire , blessed and honoured be that omnipotent and beneficiall father , author of all health , and the first of all physicians . finis . the virtues and uses of the queen of hungary's water puech, david. approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page image. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing p a estc r this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the virtues and uses of the queen of hungary's water puech, david. sheet ([ ] p.) s.n., [london : ?] imprint from wing cd-rom, . at end: "amongst the several distillers of the water in montpellier, where by the confession of all men it is best prepared, james puech apothecary and perfumer dwelling in the said city, doth make it with all the exactness and care imaginable; and is sold here in london by his son david puech, living in [blank] at the sign of the true perfumer on montpellier.". reproduction of original in the william andrews clark memorial library, university of california, los angeles, california. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng mineral waters -- therapeutic use -- england -- early works to . broadsides - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the virtues and uses of the queen of hungary's water . the queen of hungary's water , being of a hot nature , and very subtle ; it strengthens the heart , brains and stomach , digests all manner of crudities , dissolves phlegm , and repairs the dissipations of the spirits ; in so much that one may use it for all the indispositions of the brains and stomach , which may proceed from colds , and to expel winds and cholicks . to use it rightly , you must mingle half a spoonful ( more or less , having respect to the age or indisposition of the party that is to take it ) either in a little broth , or some other liquor , for to temper its virtues : it may be taken several days together , or else two or three times a week . one may also use it outwardly , for all manner of pains in what part of the body soever ; for those that are troubled with a weakness in their sinews , to fortifie the joynts ; for the palsie , gout , burnings , contusions , and in the decline of an erezipelus , or saint anthony's fire . it must be used by fomenting and bathing the parts affected , warming it a little if desired . for a weakness of sight , and the headach , you must rub the forehead and the eyes . it is also very good for deafness , in dropping it into the ear , and stopping it with a little wool. the ladies use it for their fa●es , it makes the skin smooth , and a fair complexion , by taking away scurfs or witherness ; you must wash your self twice or thrice a week by mingling it with a little spring-water , especially those that are of a swarthy complexion . amongst the several distillers of this water in montpellier , where by the confession of all men it is best prepared , james puech apothecary and perfumer dwelling in the said city , doth make it with all the exactness and care imaginable ; and is sold here in london by his son david puech , living in at the sign of the true perfumer of montpellier . a letter concerning some observations lately made at bathe written to his much honoured friend sir e.g., knight and baronet, m.d. in london / by thomas guidott ... guidott, thomas, fl. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing g estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a letter concerning some observations lately made at bathe written to his much honoured friend sir e.g., knight and baronet, m.d. in london / by thomas guidott ... guidott, thomas, fl. . greaves, edward, sir, - . [ ], p. printed by a.c. for henry brome ..., london : . reproduction of original in british library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng mineral waters -- england -- bath. bath (england) - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - david karczynski sampled and proofread - david karczynski text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a letter concerning some observations lately made at bathe . written to his much honoured friend sir e. g. knight and baronet , m. d. in london . by thomas guidott , m. b. facilius ducimur , quàm trahimur . senec. london , printed by a. c. for henry . brome at the sign of the gun at the west end of saint pauls . . a letter concerning some observations lately made at bathe . honoured sir , i know you ( as well as other ingenious and inquisitive persons ) are somewhat concern'd , and desirous to understand what success my late enquiries have had into one of the grand mysteries of nature , i mean the bathes of this city : considering especially that you were pleased the last summer to afford me the honour of your company and particular acquaintance , and to express a more than ordinary desire of my proceeding in this thing . concerning which i must tell you , that as i have not been wanting , either to pains or pay , in my proceedings hitherto ; so i have had the good hap ( which hath been my encouragement ) to meet with many considerable discoveries . and though the main body of the matter , collected touching this affair , be not yet ripe for the launcet , but will require a longer time to digest ; yet some observations i shall now communicate which will give a little satisfaction to an earnest desire , and make , in some measure , appear that we have been lame and defective hitherto in a rational account and true understanding of the nature of these waters . it hath been indeed the ill fortune of these bathes ( which i may truly say are as good if not better than any bathes in the world ) to lie a long time in obscurity , and not so much as to be mentioned among the bathes of europe by any forreign writer , till about the year . when that excellent person sir edward carne , sent ambassadour by queen elizabeth to pope julius the third , and paul the fourth , made some relation of them to that famous writer andreas baccius , then at rome ; and writing his elaborate book de thermis , into which he hath inserted them , upon his relation , lib. . cap. . though somewhat improperly ; among sulphurous bathes . about the same time also one john jones , an honest cambro-britain , frequenting the bathes for practise , composed a little treatise of them , which he calls bathes aid , in which are some things not contemptible , though in a plain countrey dress , and which might satisfie and gratifie the appetite of those times , which fed more heartily and healthily too then , upon parsons fare , good beef and bag-pudding , than we do now upon kickshaws and haut-gusts ; yet nothing of the true nature is there discovered , only , as almost in all former writers of bathes , chiefly catholick , a strong stanch of sulphur , and a great ado about a subterranean fire , a fit resemblance of hell , at least of purgatory . our countrey-man doctor william turner i confess was more particularly concern'd to give a better account , then i find is done in his discourse of english , german , and italian bathes . but whether want of opportunity , or any other impediment was in cause , i know not ; but i find that at this stay they stood till the famous doctor jorden took pen in hand , about the year . to whom i thought fit to make some additions , at my first entrance on this place , some five years since , and although that learned and candid physitian had chiefly and more especially an intent to enlarge the knowledge of our bathes in somerset-shire , as he declares to my lord cottington , in his dedicatory epistle ; and hath performed more then any man before him ; yet what was first in intention , was last in execution , and how small a part of that treatise is spent upon this subject , how short he is in some material points , and what objections may be framed against his opinion , i may sometime or other , with due respect , more largely treat off , and for the present shall here , with good sem and japhet cast a garment over the nakedness of this my father . what hath been done since ( except in some particular pieces of other tracts , to the authors of which the bathes are also indebted for their kindness and good will ) is not worth the mentioning . the old saying's true , little dogs must piss , and what is writ upon an ale-bench claims the greater affinity to the pipe and the candle ; especially if the best wine at the feast ( which is usually kept till last ) be but a silly story of tom coriat , and an old taunton ballad new vampt ( the creatur's parts lying that way ) abusing the dead ghosts of ludhudibras and bladud , with a nonsensico-pragmatical , anticruzado-orientado-rhodomontado . untruth-le grand , which we westerly moderns , call a grote lye , in to the bargain . a pretty artifice in rhetorick , to cry a thing up , and besmere , and shed plentifully on the founder ordure , both humane and belluine . rode caper , vitem , tamen hic cúm stabis ad aras in tua quod fundi cornua possit , erit . goat , barke the vine ; yet juice enough will rise to dreanch thy head , when made a sacrifice . i have industriously omitted doctor johnson , doctor venner and some others , in regard it would be improper here to write more historically which i resolve to do if my leisure permit , on another occasion . i shall therefore now let you know not so much what hath been done by others , as what further discoveries have been made by my endeavours , assisted by the careful pains of mr. henry moor an expert apothecary and chymist of this city . and here at first i cannot but take notice how that opinion hath so much prevailed as to be accounted orthodox , and not only received by tradition as certain but printed as such , that the body of the waters is so jejune and empty , as to afford little or nothing at all whereby to make a discovery of its nature , and that what impregnates the bathes is not substantially , materially or corporally there , but potentially , virtually and formally , or to use the authors own words , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with much more canting after this manner in a small discourse in latin written by an itinerant exotick ; when as a slight operation will soon evince it , though white and transparent of it self , being taken immediately from the pump , to contain a considerable quantity of a dusky , gritty , and saline matter , with many transparent particles intermixed with it , to the proportion , ( as near as i can calculate , sometimes more and sometimes less ) of two drams to a gallon of the water . and this i can ascertain , having had several ounces of it done in earth , iron , bell-mettle , and glass , and have at this time three or four ounces by me , untoucht , beside what i have made use of in other experiments . but the thing i shall more peculiarly insist on , at this present , is , that by gods blessing , on my industrious search , i suppose i have lighted on the main constituent , of the vertues of the bath , in which alone resides what benefit can be expected from the use of these waters , and lodgeth in a saline substance , in a very small proportion to the body of the waters , so that as they are now , not much more then fourty grains is contained in a gallon , in so much that this little soul , as i may so term it , is almost lost in so gigantick a body , and cannot animate it with that vigour , and activity as may be rationally expected , were a greater quantity of the salt contained in a less proportion of the water . the remainder , which is not saline , being as i judg , two parts of three of the bulk of the contents , is partly whitish , gritty , and of a lapideous nature , concreting of it self , into a stony consistence not easily dissolvable ; partly more light , and dirty , resembling clay , or marle , and discovers it self by an apparent separation from the saline and gritty part mentioned before . now the chief vertue of the bath as i conceive consisting in the salts , which appear by undeniable experiments , to be nitrous , and i believe vitrioline ( bitumen and sulphur being not primarily , as these salts , but secondarily concern'd , which consisting of unctuous particles , cannot be supposed capable of mixing with the body of the waters , and therefore no way observable in the contents ) and no small proportion of other things blended with it , the best way to make it most serviceable i conceived to be ; to free it from those incumbrances and allays it hath from the other ingredients , and prepare it as exactly as may be performed by art , for the benefit of those especially who are willing to drink the waters with greater success in a lesser quantity ; which they may now do , and have more of the vertue of the waters , in a quart , three pints , or a pottle , then they formerly had in two or three gallons , did they drink as much ; which will be besides other conveniencies , a great relief to the stomach , which certainly must be relaxed , and the tone of it injured by that vast quantity of water which is usually taken diluting its ferment overmuch , and distending its membranes beyond all the bounds of a reasonable capacity . besides , what is separated only by an artificial extraction will better unite again , and mix with the waters , as much more familiar , than the extraneous salts of sal prunella , cream of tartar , &c. which are usually dissolved and drunk with the waters ; so that a great part of the operation may be ascribed to that ; and the waters being , as we say , between two stools , that of it self , and the dissolvent in it , hath not attained to that degree of reputation as they have deserved , and may be procured with much more advantage , if nothing but the same be spent upon the same , a way of improvement altogether equally beneficial to fluids and solids , to the wet as to the dry . again , whereas it is a custom here as in all other places of the like nature , when persons are not willing , or have not conveniences to come to the fountain head , to send for the waters to the places of their residence , not thinking much material whether mahomet go to the mountain , or the mountain come to him , whereby the virtue of the waters is much impaired , though stopped and sealed up with never so much care ; this defect may be supplyed by the addition of a quantity of the same ingredients , which may repair the loss that hath been sustained by evaporation in the carriage , or other way of dammage , and restore it again , as near as may be , to its pristine virtue , and genuine advantage . not to mention that if need require , and the poorer sort cannot procure or pay the fraight for the waters , they may take a shorter course , by mixing the salt , which they may have at reasonable rates , with spring water , brought to a proportionable degree of heat at home , and expect more advantage , for ought i know , than those that drink the waters themselves at so great a distance ; i have therefore ordered convenient doses of the salt to be prepared and kept , by mr. william child alderman , and mr. henry moore , two apothecaries in bathe , to whom any one may resort that shall have occasion . and because i am now fallen on this subject i shall crave leave to remind you of what you well enough understand already , that not only dulcius but vtilius ex ipso fonte , &c. and waters especially impregnated with volatile spirits , such as most acid are , and peculiarly vitrioline , to avoid the inconvenience and expence , not so much of money as virtue , in the carriage , must be drunk on the place where they are , which in some kind resembling children , that must live by sucking , if once removed from their mother , or nurse , by degrees dwindle away , and at last die . it is observable in these vvaters , that with four grains of galls injected into a pint glass of vvater , or the vvater poured on it , immediately turns of a purple colour , which in short time after , as the vvater cools , abates much of its vividity , and becomes more faint : if the vvaters be suffered to cool , and be quite cold before the galls are injected , no alteration happens upon a much greater proportion of galls superadded , and what is more remarkable : if the vvater , which is permitted to cool , be recruited by the fire , and the same tryal reiterated , it offers no greater satisfaction in change of colour , than the second experiment . consonant to what andreas baccius , a veterane and experienced souldier in this militia , hath formerly observ'd , who in his second book de thermis , cap. . pag. , hath these words , nulla balnei aqua , eodem cum successu , ac laude bibitur , longe exportata , quod ad fontem proprium maxima enim pars ex ipso fonte haustae ac delatae , amittunt omnem virtutem , multae non servantur per hyemem : dilutae pluviis , & quae utcunque servantur delatae a propriis fonticulis , fieri non potest , quin amittunt , cum calore suo minerali , vivificos illos spiritus , in quibus omnis juramenti vis consistit , quae semel amissa , nullo postea extrinseco calore restituitur . quod est valde notandum . i have been the more particular in this , in regard it is a very useful and practical discovery , and may procure more real advantage to mankind , than the vain and unattainable attempts of the philosophers stone , making glass malleable , and the quadrature of a circle . some other observations i shall also mention , of a less magnitude , and more contracted circumference , as the dying of the bath-guides skins , the bathers linnen , and the stones in the bottom of the bath , of a yellow colour , and the eating out of the iron rings of the bath , the iron bars of the windows about the bath , and any iron infused in it ; in so much as i have now by me a gad of iron by accident taken up among the stones of the kings bath , so much eaten out , and digested by the ostrich stomach of these waters , that the sweetness extracted what remains resembles very much a honey-comb , a deep perforation in many places being attempted , and the whole gad it self reduced to a thing very much like a sponge . the first , viz. the tincture i have discovered to arise from an ochre , with which the bath abounds , and hath aforded me a considerable quantity , so that now i have near a pound by me , and with an infusion of that in warm water , tinge stones as exactly of the bathe colour , that they are not discernable one from another . it is further observable that the nearer the place of ebullition , where the springs arise , the deeper and finer is the yellow colour , so that in some places , about the cross in the kings bath , and at the head of the great spring , at the southwest corner thereof , it is almost made a natural paint , being laboured together by the working of the springs , and a continual succession of new matter coming on , free from those impurities it contracts in other places , which makes it distinguishable into two or three sorts according to its mixture with , or freedom from , more adulterating matter . the clouts also and woollen rags , which the guides use to stop the gouts withal , besides the walls , slip-doors and posts , when the bath is kept in a considerable time , as in the winter season it useth to be , are all very much tinged with this yellow substance , and if at any time they chance to lye unwash'd or not thrown away , they send out so ungrateful a sent , that a man had rather smell to a carnation , rose , violet , or a pomander , then be within the wind of so unwelcome a smell , it being the greatest policy to get the weather-gage in this encounter . the same thing i have experienced in vessels at home , where after it had stood some time , in a common infusion of warm water , i have the same reverence for that as pictures , and do aver it to be true , e longinquo reverentia major . one thing more is to be noted before i leave this particular , that although so much of this yellow matter is continually bred , with which the neighbouring ground is sufficiently replenisht , as i have found by digging in some places not far distant , yet nothing of that colour is discovered in the contents , a probable argument it either evaporates , to which i am more inclin'd , in regard i find it much more copious where the steam of the bath meets with any resistance , or else perhaps which is less probable , turns colour by the fire in evaporation that way ; less probable , i say , because for further satisfaction , i have decocted the ochre more then once , and find that it rather gets then loses in its colour . the greenish colour ariseth from another cause . the eating out of the iron i conceive must proceed from something corrosive , and till any one can assure me t is something else , i shall judge it to be vitriol , and that it may appear not to be caused by the bare steam , as rust is bred upon pot-hooks and cotterels ( as some imagine ) besides the difficulty to conceive how the steam should operate under water , as in the case of the gad before mentioned , i made a lixivium of the contents of the water , and in it infused iron , but a very small time , and found it do the same as in the bath it self , considering the time of infusion ; and the very knives , and spatules , i put in to stir some residence in the bottom , were almost as soon as dry , crusted over and defended with a rusty coat . i have other arguments i suppose will contribute something more to the confirmation of this opinion ; as that with the help of the sand of the bath with water , and galls , i make good writing ink , which in a short time comes to be very legible ; but the infusion of the contents in common water , or the lexivium thereof ; with an addition of an inconsiderable proportion of the decoction of galls makes it tolerably legible , on the first commixture , only the first viz. that made with sand , casting an eye of decayed red from a mixture of ochre conteined in the same . neither is it altogether to be slighted , that the water it self hath been heretofore used by the best writing masters for the making of ink , who observing by their experience , that ink made with bath water , and the other usual ingredients had a better colour , and was more lasting then any other , preferred this water before any other for this use , as i have been informed by some credible persons . also having not long since occasion to pour warm water on the contents of the bath , in order to the making a lixivium , some of the water happened by an accident , to fall on a bazil skin i sometimes use , and immediately turned the red into black more then the bredth of an ordinary hand , with as much facility as any curriers liquor , allum i know will do the like , but i find no necessity to assert , that , which had it any thing to do here , must make the water much rougher , whiter and sourer , then i find it to be . to which i may add that many judicious persons , my patients , and some intelligent and eminent physicians also have assured me that they have perfectly discerned by the tast a mixture of vitriol , and that i need not doubt , but that was one principal ingredient . 't is also not very inconsiderable , that the bath water alone will coagulate milk , though not after the usual way of making a posset ; for after the milk and water are put together , it must boil pretty smartly , else the curd will not rise . i may likewise subjoyn as a further probability , that on the relenting of the salt extracted into an oyl per deliquium , there is a very sharp stiptick and vitrioline tast perceived in the gross deliquium , as also in the cleer oyl , and the salt it self ; not to mention its shooting into glebes , of which i have some small assurances by some tryals i have made , not yet sufficiently satisfactory , and therefore i dismiss this part for the present , with the greatest probability , till a further inquiry shall make me positive . but as to nitre , there can be no question made about that i suppose ; for besides the quick acrimonious cooling , and nauseous tast , most apparently discoverable both in the infused contents , the salt and the oil ( the latter of which , viz. the nauseous tast , i take more particular notice of , in regard it is most predominant , and assigned by fallopius to nitre , and the waters impregnated with it , which , he says , sometimes do subvertere stomachum , & facere nauseam , de therm . aq. & met. cap. . besides , i say , these probable conjectures ) what will set it beyond all contradiction is that it hath the true characteristick of nitre , and shoots in needles , as long and firm , to the quantity i have , as any i have seen in the shops , of which i have now lately shot above twenty stiriae , some near an inch in length , which i keep in a glass ready by me to give any one satisfaction that desires to see it , besides what i have parted with to some friends abroad . i the rather mention this , in regard it hath been my good hap to bring this thing to perfection and autoptical demonstration which hath been in vain attempted by some industrious persons ; not that i am , in the least , willing to arrogate to my self , or derogate from them , more than what is fitting , but to confirm this truth , that there are some mollia tempora fandi ; some opportunities , when nature will give willing audience , without much ceremony or ado , confessing more by fair perswasions , than racks and torments , and greater importunity . and that we ought to be very cautious how we affirm a thing not to be upon the failure of a single or some repeated experiments . in fine , lest i should too much exceed the bounds of a letter , what concerns the cause of the heat of the waters , i say little of here , only tell you that when i shall come to discourse of that subject , of which i intend , god willing , a large disquisition in another language , i believe i shall find my self obliged not so much to depend on a subterrean fire , as to expect greater satisfaction from another hypothesis . many more experiments i have made upon the sand , scum and mud of the bath , with some observations drawn from the natura loci , or ground hereabouts ; but , i fear , i have been too tedious already , and therefore , without further ceremony , shall release you out of this purgatory , with the subscription of , sir , your most faithful and much obliged servant tho. gvidott . finis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e n. b. car. claromont . de aer . aq : & loc : t. a. pag. . the york-shire spaw, or, a treatise of foure famous medicinal wells viz. the spaw, or vitrioline-well, the stinking, or sulphur-well, the dropping, or petrifying-well, and s. mugnus-well, near knare borow in york-shire : together with the causes, vertues and use thereof : for farther information read the contents / composed by j. french, dr. of physick. french, john, - . this text is an enriched version of the tcp digital transcription a of text r in the english short title catalog (wing f ). textual changes and metadata enrichments aim at making the text more computationally tractable, easier to read, and suitable for network-based collaborative curation by amateur and professional end users from many walks of life. the text has been tokenized and linguistically annotated with morphadorner. the annotation includes standard spellings that support the display of a text in a standardized format that preserves archaic forms ('loveth', 'seekest'). textual changes aim at restoring the text the author or stationer meant to publish. this text has not been fully proofread approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. earlyprint project evanston,il, notre dame, in, st. louis, mo a wing f estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. (eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) the york-shire spaw, or, a treatise of foure famous medicinal wells viz. the spaw, or vitrioline-well, the stinking, or sulphur-well, the dropping, or petrifying-well, and s. mugnus-well, near knare borow in york-shire : together with the causes, vertues and use thereof : for farther information read the contents / composed by j. french, dr. of physick. french, john, - . [ ], , [ ] p. printed for nath. brook .., london : . reproduction of original in the bodleian library. eng mineral waters -- england -- yorkshire. mineral waters -- therapeutic use -- early works to . health resorts -- england -- yorkshire. a r (wing f ). civilwar no the york-shire spaw, or a treatise of foure famous medicinal wells viz the spaw, or vitrioline-well; the stinking, or sulphur-well; the drop french, john c the rate of defects per , words puts this text in the c category of texts with between and defects per , words. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - jonathan blaney sampled and proofread - jonathan blaney text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the york-shire spaw , or a treatise of foure famous medicinal wells viz the spaw , or vitrioline-well ; the stinking , or sulphur-well ; the dropping , or petrifying-well ; and s. mugnus-well , near knare borow in york-shire . together with the causes , vertues , and use thereof . for farther information read the contents . composed by j. french , dr. of physick . london , printed for nath : brook , at the angel in cornhill , . celeberrimo viro , theodoro de mayerne , equiti aurato , triumque monarcharum archiatro {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} cui nisi medicorum monarchae , monarcharumque medico dicare liceat opellam hanc de eo elemento elucubratam , guod germanum jovis , ac nepotem saturni ingeniosa finxit antiquitas , cunabula rerum depictura ? hanc dextrâ omnibus porrectam si tua passim celebrata claritas sereniore fronte decorari dignetur , nubilosa momorum supercilia non est quod vereor . tenera quidem proles est , sed si coruscantes phoebei tui laminis radios irretortè contueri polleat , non dubitandum est , quin genuina agnoscetur , nec ut adulterina a medicinae mystis abdicabitur , nec a me illius susceptore abnegabitur , repudiabiturve . et quid tibi philosophorum cynosurae justius deferri poterit , cum universi penè philosophorum , sive flores , sive faeces , hoc argumentum meum extitisse primam materiam , ex qua exoriuntur universa , nec contradicente plebeculâ , & imbiberunt , & tradiderunt ? quid enim creatum complectitur natur a rerum non ex aqua humectante , & coalescente adultum , & animatum ? ignem quid humoris expers pabulatur ? aërem verò nuncupari attenuatam aquam quilibet cerdo se explorâsse gloriatur . terram quoque exuccam in pulverem redigi , & fatiscere omnis tressis agas● deblasterat . quid spirat , vernat , crescit , consistit sine suo fluore ? animalia , plantas , lapides , metalla testor . sed haec prolixius tuae eruditioni multifariae philosophari , perinde est ac noctuas ad athenas deferre , & cramben bis coctam apponere , vel capulam unde in oceanum ( {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} velut viror ab effectu dictum ) instillare satagere , quibus minutiis supersedere consultius autumo . digneris itaque in hisce nostris scaturiginibus , dulcibus , salsis , & mediocribus , in oceanum , veluti tuae censurae influentibus , candoris tui tridentem intingere , ut , tejubente , effluant puriores , hydropotisque gratissimae . hoc mihi votum si dederis concessum , ad majora ibo alacrior , quae tuae tutelae ( si cui ) commendare gestiam , & interim ipse audire tuae amplitudini devotissimus joh. french . londini maii o . o . to the reader . reader , i being the last year commanded by my occasions down to the spaw in yorkshire , was desirous to improve my time in applying my self to experiment , & observation : to the one for the discovery of the true causes of those famous medicinal waters of knares-borow : to the other , to be convinced what real effects they wrought upon the drinkers thereof . and this i had leasure , beyond expectation , to do , being prevented from my intended , and speedier return , by reason of the then northen distractions . now my experience herein i do freely and faithfully present to the world a publick account of ; as for a more full satisfaction of those of mine own profession , ( especially some worthy drs. in the south , who first excited me hereto ; ) so also for the better direction , and greater success of those that shall make use of those waters . in my observation i perceived that these waters , although very effectual in themselves , yet many times proved the contrarie , and that by reason , first of a want of a due preparation ; secondly of intemperance in dyet ; thirdly of a prejudice against the use of all manner of physick in the taking thereof , which should promote the full operation of them , and prevent the symptomes , which are oftentimes occasioned by them ; fourthly by reason of mistaking the proper water ; & lastly by not observing a just proportion suitable to the constitutions & maladies . now for the prevention of whatsoever shall occasion the ineffectual operation of those waters i have published these few lines , which are made up , not of ▪ obscure , dark , and such as the vulgar might not understand , but of words plain , and as clear as the glasses themselves wherein the waters are drunk , that every one may see what it is he drinks , clearly seeing therein the true causes , vertues , and use of them . i do not desire that any should adhere to my judgement herein any further , than they see it consonant to reason ; for to that , as also to the candid censure of the learned drs. of york-shire , long experienced in these waters , and to all other , who shall rationally , and civilly convince me wherein i have erred , i subject it . reader , approve of me according as herein thou findest me thy friend j. f. chap. i. the place together with the nature of the same , where four famous medicinall springs are discovered , in york-shire . about fourteen miles from york , southwest , is situated the ancient towne of knaresborow , formerly famous for the invincible castle thereof built upon a craggy rocke , but now remarkable for four famous medicinall springs , which in these latter years have bene discovered near the same ; the names of which are viz. the dropping or petrifying well , the sulphur , or stinking well , the spaw , and st. mugnus well . in naming onely four , i speak as to the species , or kinds of them , but doctor deane in his treatise of the said waters mentions five , which in effect are but three , for he speaks as to the individuals , and names three sulphur wells , which indeed differ not at all , the one from the other , and if at all , yet onely gradually ; and withall he rejects st. magnus as an ineffectual superstitious relique of popery , which notwithstanding ; because it hath of late regained its reputation ( as i shall afterwards declare ) which it had lost in the account of some , i thinke worthy of a place amongst the four famous wells of knaresborow . the nature of that country , especially south-west is very rocky , yet moorish , & heathy , consisting of an unctuous bituminous earth , which the country people cut at a certaine time of the year , making turfe , and peate thereof , which being dryed make good fewell . in that place are found several sorts of earth , stones , minerals , and veins of metals . doctor dean observed white , and yellow marle , plaister , oker , rud , rubrick , free-stone , hard greet-stone , ( which broken in the middle doth oftentimes very much resemble loaf-sugar , ) a soft reddish-stone , yron-stone , brimstone , vitrial , nitre , allume , lead , copper , and divers mixtures of these ; to which i shall add alabaster , and a glittering sand , which yields some gold : and certainly many more than these might be discovered , if the experienced artist would make a diligent search . chap. ii. of the original of springs in general . before i speak any thing of the nature of springs , or fountaines in particular , it will be necessary , as conducing to the better understanding of them , to premise something concerning the original of them in general ; and the rather , because there have been great controversies betwixt the stoicks and peripatetickes about the causes of them . now the several opinions concerning the original of lasting springs , ( which are called fontes perennes ) may be reduced to three heads : for either they proceed from rain-water , or they are generated in the bowels of the earth , or else they must of necessity flow from the sea through subterraneal channels . if any shall object as some have done , and say they may come from subterraneal lakes , let me demand of them whether those sakes proceed not from some of the three former , and whether they would not in time be exhausted if otherwise . arguments for the first opinion alleadgedand answered . arg. they that contend for the first opinion , such as are albertus magnus , georgius agricola , &c. affirme , that in those countreys where there falls but little rain , the springs are few and small , and that in winter time all springs flow more plentifully , than in summer , and that by reason of the wetnes of the season : and what becomes say they of all the rain , if it sinks not into the earth , and there maintains springs ? sol . the assertion concerning the increasing of springs in winter is not universally true ; for st. mugnus well in york-shire ( as i was most credibly informed by the woman that hath looked to it , and been the keeper of it for these many years last past ) begins to rise high about may , and to fall low about october ; besides divers , more springs which in several counties of this nation are dryed up all the winter , and flow a new towards the summer . and pliny makes mention of a certain spring in cydonia before lesbon , that flows onely at the spring : many more of this nature might be produced if there were occasion . . if that were granted to be true which they say , yet it doth not follow that rain is the material cause of springs , although at that time they break forth , which were before dryed up ; for their drying up was not occasioned for want of rain to supply them , but by reason of the dryness of the earth towards its superficies which attracts to it self , and drinks in for the satisfaction of its drought the water of the springs , which it doth again let go , when it hath drunk plentifully of the showers from heaven . now that the dry earth will drink a great quantity of water , you may see by the drying up of rivers in a long drougth by the drynes of the earth , although the fountains , which are the heads of those rivers , flow plentifully at the same time as some do , although others some be dryed up . and as for those springs which break forth onely after great rain , they are caused from the rain which is drunk up by some boggie , spongious earth , and is drained from thence , or which is sunk into some caverne , or hollow place , near the superficies of the earth through some secret passage thither , and there being collected in some considerable quantity imitates a spring as long as it lasts . . the gratest part of showers of rain falling upon high places run down from thence into plains , and from plains through small channels or trenchs into rivers , and that rain , which falls upon any place from whence it cannot in some such manner be conveyed away remains upon the superficies of the earth , till it be exhaled by the sun , as we see in divers places : besides it cannot be imagined that rain sinks so far into the earth as to supply springs ; and that because it is generally observed by all that dig in the earth , that rain wetts not the earth above ten feet deep : and the reason hereof seneca the philosopher gives in his third book naturalium quaestionum chap. . where he saith , that when the earth is satiated with showers , it then receives in no more , and this we see by dayly experience . besides , when wee dig a well , although it be in a soft place , wee dig sometimes one , two or three hundred feet deep , before wee come at quick springs , and that the rain should sink so deep , it is no way probable ; nay , although there were hallow veins and chinks in the earth , through which many would have it passe to a great depth ; for who cannot easily conceive that those veins and crannies ( which yet are not granted to be in every place where there are springs ) are easily stopt with dust , or dirt , which the rain carryes with it when it is fallen on the earth ; or swelled up , and contracted , as we see they are in summer time with rain after a long drougth ? arguments for the second opinion alleadged and answered . arg. they that contend for the second opinion , such as seneca &c. affirme that springs are generated cheifly of earth changed into water , and that because all elements are mutually transmutable into one the other . and some , as aristotle , and h. ab heer 's , that springs are generated of the aire shut up in the earth and by the coldnes thereof condensed into water . sol . it is more probable according to reason and experience , that by reason of the density of the earth water should more easily be converted into earth , than the earth into water . . it is to be wondred at , that seeing that ten parts of air ( if not many more ) serve for the making of one part of water conteinable in the same space there should be so much space in the earth for the containing of so much air as serves for the making of such a quantity of water , as springs dayly out of the earth : besides so much air being spent , there would of necessity follow a vacuum , for where should there be so many , and great crannies , or holes to let the air into the earth fast enough ? but if there were , yet how is it possible that so much air can be corrupted in such a moment , the whole elementary air being of its owne nature most subtile , and not being sufficient to make such abundance of water as all the springs of the earth will amount to ? now although this answer be according to the sence of common philosophers , and sufficient for the satisfaction of this objection , yet helmont will not admit of any such supposition , viz. that air and water can at all be mutually transmuted into one the other . it is true , saith he , that water can easily be turned into a vapour , and the said vapour into water again ; but this vapour is nothing els materially , and formally but a congeries of atomes of water sublimed , & air will not in cold or heat yeild water any more then it contains in it the vapour , viz. of rarefied water . for saith he , if those two elements were so mutually convertible , one species must be transmuted into another , and the air that is made out of water , may be again reduced into the same numerical waterwhich it was before its rarefaction : but this cannot be unless you will grant that which all philosophers deny , viz. that a privatione ad habitum datur regressuc : lastly for the confirmation of his opinion , he brings in an experiment : viz. air shut up in an iron pipe of an ell long may be compressed by force , that it will be conteined within the space of five fingers , which , when it expands it selfe , drives out the pellet ( with which it was stopt at the one end ) with a sound like to that of a gun , which would not be , if the air thus compressed could have been turned into water by the coldnes of the iron . arguments confirming the third opinion , and objections made against it , answered . the third opinion is the most ancient of all , and was held by plato , and thales himselfe one of the first philosophers in greece , and not so only , but is also asserted in sacred writ , viz. eclesiastes chap. i. vers. . where the wisest of men affirmes , that all the rivers run into the sea , and yet the sea is not full , unto the place from whence the rivers come , thither they return again . the reason for the confirmation of this opinion are many , but the chiefest are these two : first , because there is not any body besides the vast ocean , that can afford neer such an abundance of waters as spring from the earth . secondly , because the sea it selfe is not increased by that multitude of waters that flow dayly into it , as it must of necessity be , unless they did by occult cavities of the earth return to their fountaines , as is declared in the fore cited place by the wisest of philosophers . neither is aristotle's imputing the wasting of the sea to the sun and winds , of any force to perswade to the contrary ; for although this kind of wasting may be granted in part , yet if it should be according to his judgement , his whole element of water had bene long since consumed . obj. seeing the sea according to its situation is lower than springs ( for the course of water is downward ) how then doth the water thereof ascend so high as the heads of springs , especially those in high mountains , and hills ? sol. i shall first shew after what manner it doth not ascend , according to the opinion of some , for there are divers opinions concerning the causes of its ascent . . it is not forced upward by a spirit , or breath that is in the water it selfe , as pliny , and vallesius supposed . for if it should be granted that there were any such intrinsecal impulsive spirit , or breath in waters , as it can not rationally be ( for it is not observed that the sea is moved any other way but by tempests sometimes , and the moon by way of tide ) yet that could not ( though assisted extrinsecally by strong winds blowing contrarily , and that in an open sea , ) force them to the height of springs , much lesse could it alone in subterraneal crooked channels . . neither doth the weight of the earth force it up , as was the opinion of bodinus , and thales : for the earth , seeing it is a solid . and firme body , doth not lye upon , and presse the water , but contrarily , the water the earth : neither is the earth held up by the water , but the water by the earth , as you may see in all rivers , lakes , pits , and the water of the sea it selfe , when it is in channels of the earth . for if they should not at any time be quite full , as it sometimes happens , the upper part alone proves empty , which would not be if the waters were pressed by the earth , but contrarily . . neither doth the weight of the sea force it self up as was the opinion of seneca , who supposed that the greatest part of the water of the sea is out of its place , viz. above its place in the place of the air , and so above the heads of springs , towards which it forceth it selfe by its natural descent , and so riseth up again as high as the level of the water from whence it came ; but he proves it not , onely he asserts it . but doctor jorden in his treatise of baths being of the same opinion as touching the seas being higher than the earth ( though he holds that the natural place of the waters is above the earth ) seemes to give some plausible account of it : for saith he , although neer the coasts it be depressed , and lower than the shoare , yet there is reason for that , because it is terminated by the dry , and solid body of the earth , as wee see in a cup or bowle of water filled to the top wee may put in a great bulk of silver in pieces , and yet the water will not run over , but be heightened above the brims of the bowl , the like , saith he , we may see in a drop of water put upon a table , where the edges , or extremities of the water being terminated by the dry substance of the table are depressed , and lower than the midle like a halfe globe : but take away the termination by moistening the table , and the drop sinks even to an evennes . and whereas we see , saith he , that rivers run downward toward the sea per declive , it doth not prove the sea to be lower than the land , but onely neer the shoar where it is thus terminated , and in lieu of this it hath scope enough assigned it to fill up the globe , and so to be as high as the land , if not higher . now if i should graunt that the sea were higher in the midle than the highest place of the land , yet it is very improbable that it should force it selfe to the tops of mountains sooner than into rivers which are far lower than the head of springs , and more open than the narrow channels , and veines of the earth , through which it must passe to the springs . and for that similitude of his concerning the termination of water by drynes , it will not hold water , nay it rather makes against him , than for him , for he saith that this termination is taken away by moisture , now let me demand of him , or of those of his judgment , whether or no many great rivers terminated in the sea be not a sufficient moisture for the taking away of the termination of the water made by the dryness of earth , and so to make the globous sea to sink to an evennes ? . and as the water is not elevated by any of the three foregoing wayes of impulse , or forcing , so neither is it by any of these two wayes of attraction , viz. by the power of the planets , or by the earths sucking it in , as a sponge doth water , from beneath , and sending it to higher places ; for the first , there can be no such attractive vertue demonstrated ; and if there were , it would as well , and promiscously extend a like to valleyes , and low countreyes where wee see few fountains , as well as to high mountains , and hills , from whence proceed the greatest springs . as to the second , an attractive vertue , if there were any such here , attracts to this end , that the subject wherein it is , might consume , retain , or enjoy what is attracted , and over and above that , none , or at least not so much as would suffice for the making of springs . . neither are there such veins , in the earth through which the water should passe , as cloth wine through crooked pipes or cranes which wine-coopers , and vintners use for the drawing of wine out of one vessel into an other , through which the wine being once sucked , runs continually till all be run forth : for the veines in the bowels of the earth are not wholly , and throughout full , as of necessity they must be before water will ascend through them for preservation of its continuity and the avoyding of a vacuum . . neither is the water raised to the superficies of the earth by helmonts sabulum , or virgin-earth , which he saith is a certain sand continued from the center of the earth in divers places , even to the superficies of the same . and to the tops of some mountains , which sand hath in it a vitality , and in which as in a vital abode , and natural place , the water , whilest it remains , is living , and enjoyes common life , and knows neither superiority , or inferiority of place , any otherwise than the bloud in the veines which flowes upward to the head , and downward to the feet : but moreover he adds , that when this water is let out of its natural abode , viz. the virgin earth , as bloud out of a veine , it then doth like a heavy thing hasten to its center , or iliad , viz. the sea . now for the confirming of this vitality in water , he brings in this distich of the poēt — — — — — undas spiritus intus alit , vasti quoque marmoris aequor ; mens agitat molem totam diffusa per artus . and he further adds that the sea hath in it a kind of life , because though the winds cease , yet it hath its spontaneous motions , and observes its tides according to certain observations that it hath of the course of the moon , as if it would rise to meet her . now let us observe the weight of helmonts arguments ; and that indeed is little or none as i conceive , for first he doth not any way demonstrate that continuation of his virgin-earth from the center to the superficies of the earth , much less the vitality thereof : secondly for the vitality of water he onely quotes a poeticall fiction : and thirdly for the spontaneous flowing of the sea , it is noe more a demonstrative reason for the vitality thereof , than the loadstones attracting iron a reason of the vitality of the same . neither is it rais'd upon that account of condensation , & rarefaction , which the learned docter flud , endeavours to demonstrate by the experiment of his weather-glass . the air , & water , saith he , fill up all the cavities of the world , so that in what hemispheare the air , by reason of cold is condensed , there the waters are rarefied , and swell , as may be seen in the weather-glass , where the water is rarified , and raised highest , when the air is with cold most condensed ; as also in the swelling of springs in frosty-weather . now although this his experiment of the aforesaid glass doth prettily illustrate the busines of condensation , and rarefaction in close vessels , yet it doth not demonstrate sufficiently the raising of waters from the deep subterraneall channells to the superficies of the earth , for it is apparent , as i have shewed in the former part of this chapter , that some springs swell more in summer than in winter ; secondly if springs do rise higher in time of frost than in hot seasons , it is onely either because some subterraneall vapours , which could not evaporate by reason of the earth being constringed with cold , are condensed into water , and so make for the present some small addition to springs , or because the subterraneall waters are rarified , and swell by that heat which is occasioned through the aforesaid binding of the earth , for we see by experience that springs are hotter in frosty weather than in summer . and thirdly because the water of that weather-glass if it were open at the top as the veins of fountains are , would not observe the nature of the season so , as to rise or fall accordingly , for that in a close glass it ariseth onely ad evitandum vacuum ; and now rather than nature should suffer a vacuum by the airs being condensed , vapours and fumes would proceed out of the earth , nay the next adjacent warm air would come in as a supply to prevent a vacuum , sooner than water in the bowels of the earth could be rarified , which would not in an open glass be raised at all , though the weather were never so cold . by these seven negatives it appears how the waters in the earth do not ascend , i shall endeavour to demonstrate how they do ascend to the heads of springs . it is absurd to think ( being the same which aristotle himself and his followers graunt ) that the waters should not be elevated from the bottom of caverns , to the heads of springs after the same manner as water is elevated from the sea to the midle region of the air . now this elevation is done by the force of heat resolving the water into vapours . and if so , why then may not the other be done after the same manner , viz : by heat : neither is it any matter whether that heat be above , or beneath the waters , if so be it forceth them into vapours , and maketh them ascend as high as is requisite they should . but it may be said that the middle region of the air is very cold , and it is coldness that condenseth vapours into water : but now the earth , through which these vapours pass , is warm , as is agreed by most . to this i answer , that it is not necessary that there must be cold for the condensing of vapours into water , it is sufficient if there be a more remiss degree of heat , as you may see in the head of an alembick , and the cover of a seething pot , the interior superficies thereof being full of drops , whilest they themselves are warm . now for the making of a vapour of any liquid matter , heat is altogether , and absolutely necessary , according to the opinion of all , and for much vapour there is much heat , and a considerable proportion of humour required . but seeing abundance of water comes from the sea into the bowels of the earth , the subterraneall heat , which must be in like proportion , being the chiefest cause of the generations of springs , is next , and diligently to be inquired into . now that the earth is hot , it is known by daylie experience . and lucilius baldus saith , that the earth being newly digged is hot , & smoketh , and that out of deep wells is drawn warm water , and especially in winter season by reason of the cold binding the earth , and keeping in the heat : but how this heat comes to be in the earth , he speaks like a stoick , and saith it is in it as naturally , as vitall heat is in animals . but this opinion is not so probable as that of the peripateticks , who say that the earth is of it self , and naturally cold , because dense and heavy , but hot accidentally onely . now the great question will be from whence this heat of the earth doth proceed . i will first shew from whence it doth not proceed , and thereby confute the opinion of some . . it proceeds not from the sun , as many imagine , supposing that all heat in the world comes from thence , and that the earth being beat upon by the sun-beames , doth thereby receive into it self a certain heating vertue . but this is very improbable , seeing that they , that digg in the bowells of the earth , observe that the heating power of the sun , although in most hot seasons doth not penetrate the superficies of the earth above six feet deep : do not we see how a thin wall , or boughs of trees in an arbour keep off the heat of the sun , though never so great ? to say nothing of the earths being colder two feet deep in summer than in winter . . it proceeds not from an antiperistasis of the cold air in the superficies of the earth , for this hath place no further than the heating power of the rayes came . besides the naturall cold of the solid , and dense earth must of necessity have greater power to repell upwards , than the adventious of the soft , thin , and light air to force downwards the heat of the sun , which , indeed in all reason should , being generated but a little way within the earth of its own accord being very light ascend upward through the passage made by the sun : and this we know that after a long summers day , it is before the next morning almost vanished though never so great , much less will it be preserved till , and through the winter . it must then of necessity be another kind of heat , & it is such , that towards the superficies of the earth is colder , as being more remote from its original , or beginning , and is in summer-time by reason of the suns opening the earth , and making vent easily , expired , and is therefore less perceived , but in winters frost is restrained from exhaling , and is condensed , as may easily be perceived in deep wells now to know from what principle this heat hath its original , or rise , we must examine whence proceeds the heat in hot baths , for there the subterraneal heat offers it self more conspicuous and apparent to our view . but concerning the original of the heat of subterraneal waters , there is as much doubt , as of the generation of those waters themselves . and therefore i shall in the first place endeavour to prove how heat doth not come , thereby confuting the opnion of some , and in the next place to shew which way it may proceed probably . . it is not caused by the heat of the sun , and that partly for the reasons above mentioned , as also because then , those waters would be hotter in summer-time , than in winter . . it is not from the agitation of winds in the channels of the fountains , for if so , then they being vented forth , the heat would presently be extinguished . . it comes not from sulphur , calx viva , ( as is the opinion of many learned , as seneca . &c. ) and that because neither doth sulphur at all heat unless it be actually hot , nor calx viva , unless whilest it is dissolving in water : to say nothing of that vast quantity , which would in a little time be resolved , and the sudden remarkable change that would be in hot springs . . it proceeds not according to doctour jordens opinion , from the fermentation that is in the generation of metals , and minerals caused by the agent spirit acting upon the patient matter , and so producing an actuall heat ( for ex motu fit calor say all philosophers ) which serves as an instrument to further this work of generation ; for if it were so , then the heat in bathes would in time cease , for he himself saith that this fermenting heat continues no longer till the generation of them be finished , which is done in some determinate time , but we see that the hot baths continue for ever . neither doth it suffice that he saith that generations of metalls are not terminated with one production , but the mineral seed gathereth strength by enlarging it self , and so it continually proceeds to subdue more matter under its government , so as where once a generation is begun it continues many ages , and seldom gives over , as we see in the iron mines of illua , the tin mines in cornwall , the lead mines at mendip , and the peak , which do not onely stretch further in extent of ground , than hath been observed heretofore , but also are renewed in the same ground , which hath been formerly wrought , i say his saying thus doth not suffice , for though it be so as i do not deny but it may , yet notwithstanding he doth not say , that generation of metals continueth in one place , except any ground be digged first ; and so space and place left for new mattter to come , as is not in our baths , and so by consequence the flowing of hot water would cease in that place , where the said generation is not continued ; and if that generation be extended further yet so also and accordingly is the heat diminished , unless it break forth continually in new places : but we see hot springs continue many years together in one place at a constant heat . besides if this opinion were true , then where we see metals , and minerals generated , there also must of necessity be hot baths , but we see it is not so . i shall now moreover demand of him , how that crude metalline matter is before any the said fermentation sublimed from the central parts of the earth towards the superficies thereof , if not by a subterraneall fire ? all these being excluded , it remains now that we consider of a subterraneal fire onely , for it seems impossible that so great , and durable a heat should be caused , or preserved by any other power whatsoever , than that of fire , and of this opinion was empedocles an ancient greek philosopher , and also seneca , but both these differ amongst themselves as to the manner of the heats proceeding from this fire , and indeed from other authours that seem to be more anthentick . the one is of opinion that it is sufficient if the fire be under the place , through which the waters run , and so like fire under a still force up the water by way of a vapour : the other that the heat proceeds from some occult remote burning and passed through the veins , and fibres of the earth where it meets with the waters , and distill them up to the heads of the fountains . but agricola excepts against these two ways as being very impropable ; the first , because the earth , where the fire is , could not endure the fire so long , being of a calcinable , & cumbustible nature : the second , because by this way such a quantity of water could not be so heated as to be turned into a vapour so suddenly , by so small a degree of heat . there can therefore no other reason be given for these hot springs , than the fire which burns in the very cavities , and caverns of them , the cavities themselves consisting of a bituminous matter . for bitumen , and these things which are made of it being kindled burn in water , by which also the said fire is cherished : this you may see in naphtha , which is a kind of bitumen , for if you put but a drop thereof into water , and put fire to it you will see it burn , and continue burning so long , that you would wonder at it , which could not be unless it were fed by the moisture of the water , which it did attract , and transmutes into its own nature ; the like you may see in champhir , and other kind of bitumen . pliny also affirms that these are some certain burnings in the earth , which sometimes cast out bitumen , and are increased by raine . and fallopius saith that in the territories of mutina is a short plat of ground , out of which comes fire and smoke , and the ground is all like dust , which if you kindle , you cannot quench again with water : so that these kind of fires are perpetual , and very long lasting in waters . and hath it not been observed that a fiery bituminous matter doth sometimes flow out of hot springs ? pliny makes mention that in the city somosata of comaganes a certain lake sent forth burning mud : and plato makes mention of the like concerning a spring in sicilia : and agricola reports another upon his credit . fallopius also saith that in many places where the earth is digged deep , there are ashes , and calcined stones , which are the effects of fire , and that in the territories of modena , bolonia , florence , and other places , as in italy &c , there are found springs and several places casting out fire . but as to springs , this happens onely where the bituminous ▪ matter is very near the spring head , and as high , and where the veins are more open . now then the manner of springs being caused by this bituminous fire is this , viz : seeing art doth for the most part imitate nature , the thing is even the same in a hot spring , as in a distilling vessell , or a seething pot covered with a lid ; onely there is this difference , that to the bottom of these the fire is put on the out side , but here the fire is within the cavern it self through which the water passeth , and that either lying in the bottom , or sticking to the sides thereof . as therefore in these artificial vessels the water being by the heat of fire resolved into a vapour is forced upwards to the covers or heads thereof , where by reason of some less degree of heat it is condensed into drops , and returns to its self , and into its own nature again : so even after the same manner water in the caverns of the earth being heated by the bituminous fire , with which it is mixed , is by the heat thereof forced into a great quantity of vapours , which ascending through the cranines , veins , and fibres of the earth being there for the greatest part turned into water , doth with the rest of the vapour yet very hot break forth in fountains viz : very hot , and very full of spirit , so that it seems to boyle , if the fountains be near to the caverns , or onely warm , if more remote . and as these springs differ in their heat according to their nearness , or remoteness to their fire , so also in their bituminous odour ? and tast . for as in distilled waters their empyreuma vanisheth in length of time , so in these in length of course : so that these fountains , which are very remote from this bituminous fire , are neither , hot , nor have any bituminous odour . and as by this natural distillation water is the best way procolated from its sea saltness ; so also doth it become thereby less obnoxious to putrefaction : for we know that distilled waters last longest . ob. it may be objected , that if the matter preserving this fire were bitumen , then it would follow , that almost the whole world should be bitumen , because ever since , and before the memory of man these hot baths were , and are like to continue for ever , and therefore there must be that element for ever which must preserve that fire . sol. it doth not follow that there must at present be so much bitumen as will maintain the fire so long , for it is perpetually generated , and as long as there shall be sic city , and humidity in the earth , there will be bitumen generated : and do not we see that metals are generated a new in the same places , out of which they have formerly been digged ? witness the profit which fallopius saith the duke of florence hath by it ; and the testimony of learned sendivogius , who saith that there have been metals found in mountains where formerly there have been none . if so , then much more may sulphur and bitumen be generated a new . ob. if it should be granted that bitumen is generated a new , yet , if that were the aliment of the fire , the fire would change its places , because the bitumen is consumed one part after another , and so by consequence the baths would not be so equally hot as before , the fire being by this means more remote from the fountains sol. the flame is fed two ways , either when the flame follows the matter , as when the fire burns wood , or when the matter follows the flame , as in a lamp , in which the oyle follows the flame , not the flame the oyle ; and so it is in the earth , and therefore the fire is always in one place . neither doth that withstand it , which we see by experience in sulphur which is burnt part after part , the fire following of it : for you must know that in the earth where there is a great heat , the bitumen and sulphur are melted , and by this means follow the flame , as i said before of oil. ob. if bitumen feed the fire of these baths , then the waters thereof would have the odour , tast , and colour of bitumen ; but it appears that they have not . sol. though all baths are heated by bitumen , yet some immediatly , as those which do pass through the place where it burns , & these onely have the tast , and odour of the same : and some mediately , as those that pass through places , as rocks , &c. heated by bitumen , burning under them , as was the opinion of empedocles and vitruvius . neither do i by this distinction contradict what i said before , concerning the waters being distilled up by that fire onely which burned in the caverns , and veins of the earth , through which they pass : for in this place i speak onely of the waters being heated , this mediate heat not being sufficient to distill them to any considerable height . ob. it is very improbable that any subterraneal fire can burn within the bowels of the earth by reason of the want of air , as we see in cupping glasses , where as soon as they are applyed , the fire goeth out ; besides the fuliginous vapours would recoil and choak the fire , for there are few , or no vents and exhalation seen . sol. there is not any such great want of air in the earth , nay there is such a plenty of it there , that many learned philosophers were , nay , aristotle himself of opinion , that all springs were generated of subterraneal air . . air is not the aliment of fire , for saith the lord bacon in his treatise de vita & morte . flamma non est aer accensus , flame is not kindled air ; nay , but unctuous vapours , which arise from the matter that is burnt , so that whereas without air fire goeth out , and is extinguished , the reason is , because the fuliginous vapours wanting evaporation , do recoil upon the fire , and choak it . now this bituminous fire is not , being of a sulphureous nature , very fuliginous , and besides what smoak or sumes or vapours there come from it are subtile , and penetrating , and either evaporate through the superficies of the earth insensibly , or incorporate themselves with some sutable subject that is in the earth , or els are of themselves condensed into some unctuous matter adhearing to the sides of the caverns into which they are elevated . so that according to the fuliginousness of vapours more or less recoiling , the fire is more or less choaked . nay if we will believe historians , there have been burning lamps closely shut up in glasses for fiftheen hundred years together in old sepulchres ; now they burnt without air , & were not extinguished by reason the aliment of it was a naphtha , or bituminous matter , which was so pure that it bred no fuliginous vapours to choake the fire thereof . . where this fire is very great , there is a great vent , and exhalation , but where but little , little is the vent , and insensible . and in most places the fire is not great extensively , but intensively , because it is kept within a narrow compass , as in small caverns and veins of the earth . q. how comes this bitumen to be kindled in the earth ? sol. it is agreed by all that are of the opinion that bitumen is the matter of the subterraneal fire , that hot and dry exhalations in the bowels of the earth being shut up , and not finding any place to break forth , are agitated , attenuated , rarified , and so inflamed , and being inflamed kindle the bitumen . now lastly let no man wonder that there should be so great a force of fire conteined in the earth as to be sufficient for the generation of so many springs that flow from thence daylie , seeing pliny and many other philosophers wonder so much on the other side , when they considered of the subterraneal fire , and brake forth into an exclamation , saying , it is the greatest of all miracles that all things are not every day burnt up . and cannot the burnings of the aetnean , visuvian , nymphean mountains convince us a little of this ? but for the further confirmation of this opinion , let us a little consider whence the winds proceed , and what they are . and are they not a hot and dry exhalation ? now that this proceeds from , and out of the earth , most agree : and that it entered not first into the earth is very probable : for how can a hot , dry , light exhalation , whose nature , and property is to ascend , descend into the earth in such a quantity , as to cause such great and lasting winds , as many times happen ? it must therefore be in the earth originally , and be stirred up by some great heat in the same . and what shall we think of the dry exhalation or spirit which is shut up in the caverns of the earth in great quantities , and endeavouring to break forth through obstructed passages causeth great earth-quakes whereby cities , towns , and countries have been overthrown , to say nothing of those dreadfull noyses sometimes in the bowels of the earth ? whence i say these great exhalations ( i say great , because i confess that some little quantity of them may be caused by certain fermentations in the earth ) should be raised , if not from some great heat of fire within the earth , never any one yet could rationally determine . and caesius affirms that at a certain village called tripergulus about an hundred and twenty years since after fiftteen dayes earthquake the earth opened , and winds , smoak , and very great fires brake forth out of the same , also pumice-stones , and abundance of ashes , in so much as they made a mountain , and about that place were many hot springs . also in apulia is a hot bath called tribulus , where there is abundance of ashes and calcined stones ; and about the lake lucrinus and avernus are the same . but if any should yet doubt that winds proceed from the earth or from the occult fires of the earth , i shall make it yet further to appear by propounding to their consideration some observations concerning the sea . for it is observed that wind doth proceed from the sea , after a more apparent , and violent manner , than from the land , and that more certain signes of an ensueing wind are taken from the sea , than from the land . for when a calme sea makes a murmuring noyse within it self , it signifies that then the exhalations , which is the matter of the wind are rising out of the earth , and bottom of the sea ; and this the fishes perceiving , and being affraid of it , especially dolphins , play above the water , and the sea-urchins fasten themselves to rocks : the sea a little swelling sheweth that the exhalation is endeavouring a vent ; then boyling sheweth that it hath penetrated to the superficies , but as yet in a little quantity : but then the eruptious of the exhalations following upon the waters mounted up aloft , make wind , and a tempest ; such as marriners have often experience of , when as they perceive that the wind blows from no other place , but ariseth at themselves . now why waves or billows should preceed wind , let any man if he can give any other reason . also i have been informed by some marriners that a little before a great tempest there is seen a great quantity of an unctuous shineing matter floating on the top of the sea , and that this is an infallible signe of an ensuing storme . the reason of this is because wind breaking forth out of the earth , forceth up with it self that bituminous matter from the place where it self was generated . but now why winds should arise from the sea more apparently than from the land , is because there is more plenty of fire in the gulfes of the sea , for there it hath more aliment or fewel , viz. water , which as i said before , is the aliment of that bituminous fire . and whence are those great mountains of stones and minerals , and those islands , which do sometimes arise up anew from the sea , but from a subterraneal fire , which forceth them up from thence ( according to the judgement of learned sendivogius , and experienced erker ) and those chasmes , and gapings of the sea ? much more might be alleadged for the confirmation of this opinion , as the manner of the generation of minerals , and metals and many such like subterraneal operations , which can not rationally be ascribed to any other cause , than fire within the earth ; but all the premises being seriously weighed , & impartially considered , i suppose there are but few but will conclude , that as all springs proceed from the sea through subterraneal channels and caverns , so also are distilled up to the heads of fountains by a subterraneal bituminous fire . and as for those that are not yet satisfied let them consult with the treatise of our late , and learned countryman mr. thomas lydyat , entituled disquisitio physiologica de origine fontium , and there they shall find this opinion rationally discussed , and solidly confirmed : but if yet they shall be left vnsatisfied , let them produce a more rational account of any other opinion , that will hold water in all respects better than this of mine doth , and i shall thanke him and embrace it . and thus much for the original of fountaines in general , i shall now proceed to treat of the nature of springs in particular . chap. iii of the strange variety of fountains , and other waters . nature hath not discovered her selfe so variously wonderful in any thing as in the waters of fountains , rivers , &c. some of which strange waters i shall reckon up , hat it may be the better conceived how variously subterranealls communicate their vertues to this element . now the wonderfulnes of waters that i shall mention , consists either in the strangeness of their colours , tasts , odours , sounds , weight , observation of time , & effects . . srange colours . athenaeus makes mention of a lake of babylonia , that in summer-time for some few dayes is red . he also saith that the water of borysthenes is blew in summer-time . pausanus mentions a certain water at the town joppe and in astyris , that is yellow . cardanus speakes of a white water in the river radera of misena . he also sayes there is a green water in the mountain carpatus . he makes report of a black water in allera , a river of saxonia . scaliger reports that the fountain job in idumea changeth colours four times in a year . . srange tasts . agricola makes mention of sweet water in cardia neer dascylus , and puteolana neer the cave called syhill . aristotle relates of a water in sicania , of sicilia , which is used insteed of vinegar , and pickle . rulandus also makes a report of a soure water in mendick and ponterbon . caesius speakes of a bitter and salt water in palastina in which fish can not live , of the same tast is the sulphur well in york-shire . caussinus saith that the river hyspanis is as sweet as honey in the beginning , and acide at the end . pliny relates that in the country of the troglodytae , there is a spring called fons solis , ( i. e. ) the fountaine of the sun , which alters its tast according to the rising , and setting of the sun . mutianus saith that the fountain diotecnosia in the isle andros hath the tast of wine . salt waters in york-shire , spain , italy , sicilia , and divers other places . nitrous water in l●ti● of macedonia , and at epsome , and scarborow , &c. astringing waters , as alluminous , and vitrioline almost every where . corroding water is in the river styx , the water whereof being put into a silver , copper , or iron vessell , corrodes its way through the same . fat waters as they are tastable may be mentioned in this place , and many of this sort saith caesius are in germany , italy , macedonia , and other places . . strange odours . pausanus saith that in peloponnesus is a water that hath a very fragrant smell . he also saith that in the town of elis the water of the river aniger is of such a horrid smell , that it kills both man , and beast . aristotle makes mention of a water not far from the river aridanus , which is hot and sendeth forth such a stanch the nothing can drink of it , and kills all birds that fly over it . caesius reports of arethusa a river of sicilia , that it smells like dung at certain seasons . the sulphur-well in york-shire smells like the scouring of a gun that is very fowl . strange sounds . pliny makes mention of a fountain of zama in affrica , that makes mellodious sounds . vitruvins reports that a fountain in maguesia , hath a tunable sound . . strange weight , and that either in relation to themselves as being heavy , or light , or to other things put into them . plutarch makes mention of a river called pangeus , a vessel of the water whereof weighs twice as heavy in winter as in summer . strabo saith that the water of the river euleus is fifteen times lighter than any other water . seneca writes that in syria there was a lake called asphalites , in which no heavy thing could sink . caesius saith that the lake alcigonius in lerna is of that nature , that if any go into it to swim , he should certainly be drowned . strabo writes that amongst the indians in a mountainous countrey there was a river called silia , on which nothing could swim , which river saith caussinus is an emblem of ambition , because it will suffer nothing to be above it . some rivers run over lakes and will not mix with them , as marcie over fucinus , addua over larus , and divers other there are of this nature . some rivers run under the bottom of the sea , and will not mix with it , as lycus in asia , erasinas in argolica . atheneus saith that in teno is a fountain that will not mix with wine : but will fall alwayes beneath it . . strange observations of times . cardanus mentions a spring called fons sabbaticus , that flowes all the six dayes of the week , but is dryed up the sabbath day . caussinus relates that the fountain vmbria , flowes onely against a time of famine . ovid writes that the water of pheneus is unwholsome by night , but wholsome by day . solinus reports that in helesinâ regione , a fountain otherwise still and quiet doth at the sound of a pipe rejoycingly exult and leap up . ovid saith that the fountain of jupiter hammon is cold by day , and hot by night . . strange effects . the river styx kills all them that drink of it , as is agreed by all historians . strabo writes that in palestina the lake gardarenus makes the nails , horns , hair , fall off from those beasts that drink thereof . pomponius mela saith in insula fortunata is a water that makes them that drink of it to laugh to death . pompeius festus reports that the fountain salmacis inclines men to venery . vitruvius relates that the fountain clitorius makes them that drink of it to abhor wine . ovid saith that the fountain lyncestis makes men drunk . pliny makes mention of a fountain that makes men mad . pliny reports that the dodonean fountain will quench lighted torches , but kindle those that are extinguished . heurnius saith that he saw amongst the eugeneans a certain fountain that would turn divers things to stone , that were cast into it : h. ab heer 's , and doctor jorden reckon up many of this nature , whereof some will couvert things into stone in a short time , and some in a longer , and some onely crust over things as that dropping well at knaresborow , unles it sinks into things , as leaves , mosse , and all those it converts to a stoney substance . maginus makes mention of a lake in ireland , in the bottone whereof if you put a staff , it will being pulled out some moneths after , be turned into iron viz. that part which stuck in the mud , and that part which was in the water into a whetstone . aristotle mentions a certain fountain in sicilia , into which if living creatures being before killed , were put , they would become alive again . athenaeus saith that the fish of the river clitoris have a certain voyce . solinus speaks of a fountain that is in boeotia , which helpeth the memory . isidorus saith the like of the river lethe which causeth forgetfulnes . scaliger saith that the river of juverna , is of that nature , that the leaves of a certain tree hanging over , falling into it , become living fishes . pliny reports that in agro carrinensi in spain is a certain fountain , which makes all the fish that live in the water of it seem to be of a golden colour . agricola affirmes that fishes live in the hot sulphur-waters of the lower pannonia neer buda . varro , and solinus affirm that there is a fountain in arabia , which , if the sheep drink thereof , changeth the colour of their fleeces , and maketh the white to become black . pliny reports that the water in falisco maketh the cattle that drink thereof , to become white . he also saith that in pontus the river astaces watering the fields , makes the mares that feed therein to yield a black milk , which feeds the countrey . it is reported that in ulcester in ireland , there is a fountain , in which he that washeth himself shall never become gray . i could recken up many more waters of very strange natures , but whether they , or these already mentioned be all certainly true , i will not undertake to affirm , onely thus much i will say , that some of them , i my self have seen , other some i am assured of from those whose unquestionable worth may justly command mine , and other mens faith to their indeniable testimony , and for the rest we may believe them according to the reputation of the historian . these here i mentioned that it might not seeme strange to us , how capable waters are of receiving diversity of qualifications from the earth : and although some of them may seem magical , and supernatural , yet may they upon a profound enquiry be made to appear truely natural . chap. iv. of the nature , and vertues of simple waters . i it will be necessary for the better conceiveing of the nature , and vertue of mineral waters in particular , to speak something of the nature , and virtues of water in generall , or of simple water , which is an element , as saith sendivogius , most heavy , full of unctuous flegme , and is more worthy in its kind than the earth ; it is without volatile , but within fixed ; cold and moist , attempered by air . it is the sperm of the world , in which the seed of all things is preserved , and it is the keeper of every thing . it is called by the ancients {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} . thales as saith aristotle called one and the same water the beginning of all things . empedocles also believed that of water were all things made . hippon also saith aristotle called it the soul of things , as if it were the life of them , which made hippocrates say that water and fire were the principles of life , and especially water , for saith he , many animals may want fire , but none can well live without water . theophrastus affirms that water is the matter of all things . and indeed if water were accurately anotamized you should clearly see that both vegetables , minerals and animals are generated of water , but of this i have treated more largely elss where : i shall not now stand to repeat , especially since my purpose here is chiefly to speak of the medicinal virtues of water . now we must know that water is twofold , for either it is simple or mineral , which we more usually call medicinal . water is called simple , not according to its own nature , but to our sense , or being compared with that which is mineral , and of this there are five kinds , viz. rain , fountain , pit , river , and standing water . i shall not here stand to prove whether or no water be nutritive , or be onely a vehiculum of aliments , as galen would have it , because in another treatise i have cleerly shewed how vegetables , animals and minerals are generated of , and increased by water , which hath such strange dissimilary , or heterogeneal parts as can scarce be believed by those who never saw the spagyrical anatomy thereof , or curiously examined the production of all natural things . i shall insist onely upon the medicinal use thereof , as being administred either to prevent or cure the distempers of the body . simple water which cooles , and moistens , is either taken inwardly , or used outwardly . it is taken inwardly either warm , or cold . the vertues of warme-water taken inwardly are these , which follow , viz. . it doth by reason of its warmth cause nauseouseness , and it is drank in a greater quantity to cause vomiting in head-ach proceeding from drunkenness , and in any other ilness of stomack ; but with this caution , that they that have very cold , weak and laxated stomacks must abstain from this kind of vomit , because warm water doth moisten very much , and so by consequence would laxate tht stomack more than it was before . also it is not to be administred to those that are accustomed to drinking of water , for them it will not move to vomit , but remain in the body , and weaken the vessels upon the aforesaid account of its extream moistening . . it allayes sharp , acid , and gnawing humours , and cureth such symptoms as proceed from thence , as saith galen ; also it represseth the ebullition of choller , and helps the inflammations of the throat , and mouth caused thereby as saith aetius . . it cures the inflammation of the reins by altering of them , if it be taken before meals . note that if warm water be given to cause vomiting , it must be administered to the quantity of a pint or two , or of as much as will be sufficient thereunto . but if it be used for qualification it must be taken to the quantity of a cup onely , which may not cause nauseousnes . the use and vertues of cold water are these viz. . it conduceth to long life in regard it condenseth the spirits saith the lord virulam . and indeed water was the usual drink of the ancients who lived long . . it repels by reason of its coldness , and is thefore effectual against divers distempers ; it forceth crudities out of the stomack , and as saith aetius , promotes the operation of any medicine that is taken , and works not : besides it suppresseth the fuming of vapours to the head as saith dioscorides , and mesues , and being drunk at bed-time causeth quiet rest , as saith the lord virulam in his learned treatise de vita , et morte , by suppressing the ascent of vapours to the head . . it allayes extream hot distempers . whether they be in any particular part , as in the stomack , liver &c. or in the whole body , as in continual , and burning feavers . it is upon this account commended by galen against an inward erisipelas . i know some that account it , especially rain water , as a great secret against ulcers of the reins . note that cold water is prohibited from a cold temper either of the whole , or of principal parts , also from old age , because it is very feeble , and from child-hood because it is subject to convulsions as saith galen , and from a thin habit of body extenuated by reason of scarcity of bloud , which is a great , and the principal safeguard against cold things . winter also , and a cold , crass slimy morbifick , or a hot impact matter , as also great obstructions of the vessels , and cold inward tumours forbid the use of cold water . as for the time when cold water is to be drank , note that it is never to be administred in feavers , unless concoction do first appear , as saith galen , for although it be a remedy for a feaver as it is a feaver , yet it is not a remedy against the humours which cause a feaver , but as it evacuates them by urine stool , or sweat . but these cannot safely be expelled before they be concocted . now we must not notwithstanding expect a perfect and full concoction , but it will suffice if it be moderate and in good part performed , for else there will be a danger of the feavers turning into a hectick . also it must not be taken on the critical day , for then saith hippocrates we must not move the humours , because we do not certainly know which way nature will attempt an evacuation . but for a more particular time of the feaver it is to be taken most conveniently in the fit , or in the very hour of the ebullition of the humours , because then the inward parts do burn most , and need most then to be qualified , besides coldness is then least offensive ; because the greatness of the heat is a safeguard against the offensiveness thereof . as for the quantity to be drunke , note that if the repelling , or suppressing vertue thereof be required , it is to be taken to the quantity of half a pint , more or less as things may be considered . but if the altering or allaying vertue , as in a feaver , then it is to be taken in such a quantity as may be drunk at one breath , or as much at the sick party needs for satisfaction , or elss can well bear . but the greatness of the distemper , the age , time of the year , custome , and strength is also to be considered . but it will be demanded which is the best water , and most wholsome ; and for answer hereunto , i say that is the best which is void of taste or odour , is clear , pure , most light , is soon heated , and soon cooled , and in which flesh is soonest boyled , and in particular as saith galen rain water is the best , but yet not any , but such which falls in summer-time when the heaven is in great part serene , and especially with thunder , being that which consists of thinner vapours , elevated and purified by the heat of the sun and lightning . and next to this is that pit water , which flows from the next fountain , or river especially through a sandy earth , because if the said earth partake of no other quality , it is percolated , made more thin , and becomes more depurated than other water . and in defect of these two , fountain and river water may be used , being indeed very good and wholsome , and indeed are by many accounted the best : but the worst of all is standing water as lakes , pooles . now in case there can be got no good water , but onely what is bad , than galen would have that to be boyled , and cooled again , and so to be used . thus much of the use and vertues of cold , and warm water administred in wardly . it remaines now that i speak two or three words of the external use of water both warm and cold , and of the effects thereof . now water is used outwardly saith julius caesar claudinus first by way of balneum , or bathing the whole body , secondly by way of insessus or sitting in water up to the navel thirdly by way of aspersion or affusion ( i. e. ) sprinkling or pouring on , fourthly by way of stillicidium , dropping or distilling . fistly by way of fomentation , and lastly by way of lotion or washing any part . bathes are either hot , or cold . cold bathes were by ancient and modern philosophers , and physitians ordeined for divers uses . many used them onely by way of exercise as for swimming in them , which the lord verulam in his learned treatise de vitâ & morte reckons up as one of those robust exercises , as he calls them , which makes the flesh hard , and compact , conducing to long life . they are used also for the astringing of the body , and condensing the same , also as saith the a foresaid learned vicount for the closing of the pores of the body that are too open , whereby the hot air excluded from preying upon the body , besides they unite the calidum innatum , corroborating the same by an antiperistasis wherby by cōsequence it doth beget a good appetite , cause a good digestion , excite the expulsion of excrements , represse a canine appetite , & other ill symptomes caused by the exolution of the skin , stop bleeding , the overflowings in women , and the gonorrhea , cure the hydrophobia which is a symptome occasioned by the biting of a mad dog , and many sorts of seavers both intermitting , and continual ; if the party make use of them when that fit is approaching , and there continue an houre or two . note that the use of cold baths is not for youths , because they hinder their growth , nor for old men , because that little heat which they have is thereby suffocated , nor for cold and thin women which have delicate bodies , because the cold penetrates too much into their solide parts , nor to any that be sick , unles they be of strong natures ( for as cold baths doe wōderfully corroborate the calidum innatum , or naturall heat if it be strong , so doe they on the contrary overcome it if it be weak ) and the humours appeare to be concocted and fit for evacuation , and no principal part , or bones , nerves , brain ill affected , and the body free from convulsions . note also that when the intension is to be formed by cooling onely , and there is no need of moistening , then as saith the aforesaid authour of the history of life and death , the body is to be annointed with oyle , with spissaments or thickeners that the quality onely of the cooler be received , and not the substance . yet we must in such cases have a care that the pores of the body be not thereby stopt too much , for when any extrinsecal cold obstructs the body too much , it is so far from cooling it , that it stirs up the heat the more , by suppressing perspirations . baths also of hot or heated water are of great use ; but before i declare the uses and effects thereof , wee must consider that they are of three sorts , for either they are tepid , ( i. e. ) luke-warm , or moderatly hot , or very hot water . a bath that is very hot dryes rather than moistens , contracts the skin , condenseth the pores thereof , so that neither any external humidity can be received in , or internal superfluities expelled forth thereby . so that there is no great use thereof , onely it serves for the contracting of the skin where it needs contraction , & where the use of a cold bath may not be admitted safely for that intension . a bath that is moderately hot serves for divers uses , and is very necessary in several cases . it draws from remote internal parts , and causeth hot humours to be digested into vapours , and openeth the pores , that the offensive humours , and vapours may be evacuated by sweat , and perspirations . it moisteneth a dry body and therefore , is very good in a putrid and hectick feaver , in the itch , and scab , &c. attracts nourishment to the extreame parts , where before by reason of some defect it came not , allayeth the sharpnes of humours in the habit of the body , and upon all these accoūts serves as effectually , if not more , for most intensions , that almost any physick is prescribed for . i shall onely add to these the great vertues that columella attributes to baths of hot water ; for saith he , we do concoct our crudities by the use of baths . and for this end they were much used by the ancient romanes , who used a crude kind of dyet as of hearbs , and raw fruits , which bred crude humours in their bodies , and therefore needed some such help to concoct them , and by this meanes they became very healthfull , and of delicate bodies . but they must be used for the concocting of crudities with this caution , viz. that there be no feaver present , for then insteed of concocting of them they will become by being stirred , more putrid , and by being attracted to the habit of the body , as of necessity they must by the use of hot baths , obstruct the pores thereof , to the increasing of the feaver ; and in case of a feaver , hot baths must be used in the declining thereof as when concoction appeares , and after purging of the grosse humours , abound in the first vessels , but in other cases hippocrates commends bathing as a preparative to purgations . a tepid bath cools as well as heats , and heats as well as cools , and serves for the same uses as a hot bath doth but more remisly . note that if the patient that is bathing be subject to faint , he must hold cold water constantly in his mouth , and drink ever and anon a draught of cold beer or water . i might here prescribe many rules and directions for bathing , or for the ordering of ones self before , in , and after bathing , but it was not my purpose to make a full , and large discourse of this subject , onely to touch it by the way , referring those that stand in need of bathing to their skilful physitians for their directions , to this kind of bathing , viz. with hot water , i might add the manner of bathing by vapour , which is when a vessel of seething water close covered hath proceeding from it a long pipe , which is fastened into a bathing tub , into which the hot vapours come upon the patient there sitting : but of this i have treated more largely in another discourse , and will not now repeat . the second way of using water outwardly is called insession or sitting in water up to the navel , and this is used when the weakness of the body cannot bear a bathing of the whole body , and particularly it is made use of , if warm , for laxating , & mollifying the hardness of the belly , for provoking of urine , the mitigating of the pains of the stone , and chollick , &c , and if cold , for the performing of the same intensions for the lower part of the body , as a cold balnenm doth for the whole . the four last ways of using water outwardly , as aspersion ( i. e. ) sprinkling , or affusion , stillicidum ( i. e. ) dropping or distilling , fomenting , and lotion respect parts , with the like operations upon them ( although with some kind of variety of application ) as baths do the whole body . they that will understand more these external uses of cold and hot water , let them read claudinus his treatise de ingressu ad infirmos , and galen de tuenda sanitate . note that that water is best for outward uses which will bear sope best , and make the greatest some therewith . and thus much for the vertues , and inward , and outward use of simple water , whether hot or cold , and that in brief , for i would not dwell upon this subject , as not being the chiefest that i propounded to my self to discourse of in this treatise , taking it in onely by the way and for order sake , and the better illustrating of that which follows , and is principally to be here treated of . chap. v. of the several kinds of mixtures in mineral waters . it is graunted by all that there is some kind of mixture in all mineral waters : & indeed there are four kinds of things that are usually mixed with these kinds of waters , viz. metals , minerals , stones , and earths ; and of some of these , . sometimes the vapours onely are mixed , viz. such as arise from the fermentation , and dissolution of metals , and minerals , and are mixed with the water that passeth by them through the veins of the earth . and concerning this , saith aristotle , that the vapours of minerals keep the tast , and odour of the minerals from whence they proceed : but of this more fully in the chapter of the spaw . . sometimes the juice onely of them , viz. whilest they are in principiis solutis . and indeed gold can be mixed with waters no otherwise , because it cannot be corroded with the acid spirits of the earth , as other metals can , having in it self when concocted , and perfected none of that esurine acid salt , which a subterraneal aciditie will resolve and set at liberty to corrode the metal with which it is per minima together with the embrionated sulphur of the same conjoyned . . sometimes the substances , and that after a threefold manner , for some are mixed with water so very close together , that from the mixture of them there results but one forme , neither will they ever or scarcely be seperated , and such are those that will not vapour away faster than the water it self is evaporated , neither remaines in the bottom , but is all evaporated with the water . some are mixed confusedly , such as subside or fall to the bottom , if the water be put into any vessel , that it may stand still . and lastly some are mixed in a way betwixt both , as salt ; for salt and the water continue to be in one and the same form , but yet the salt will subside and remain in the bottom after evaporation of the water . now the cause of this variety of mixtion is either the difference of the heat that should unite , or of their abode together , or else of the aptness of the things , to be mixed , for mixtion . this being premised , i shall proceed to relate where these springs , and waters are found , which are impregnated with the aforesaid four kinds of ingredients . . of metals gold is said to be found mixed with balneis ficuncellensibus , fabariis , piperinis , &c. silver , in a certain spring in hungarie , and in the bath at bol. &c. copper , in the bath of saint mary's in flaminia in thermis cellensibus in suevia , and in many places in germany . &c. yron , in springs in agro lucensi in asatia , in agro calderiano and divers in england . lead , in lorayne , whence a certain bath there is called balneum plumbaceum . quick-silver , in serra mordena in spain , near the village almediea in a cave , where they say are many wells infected therewith . . of minerals . sulphur is said to be found in thermis puteolanis , aponitanis , & badensibus in helvetia , and those at knaresborow . antimony , in germany , and in a certain spring at meldula , as also in divers other purging waters . arsenick , and auripgimentum in the lake avernus . bitumen , in the wells at baia mutina and those at knaresborow called the sulphur-wells . salt in balneis agri pistoriensis , & volaterrani and in the sulphur-well at knaresborow . nitre , in agro puteolano of campania , in aegypt and divers other places where the waters are very nitrous . allum , in balneis agri senensis , & lucensis , and in some springs in the north of england . vitriol , in agro volaterrano , and those spaw-wells in germany , and these in england . . of stones . plaister , in a spring of the mountain grotus in agro pataviano . lime-stones , in springs of chalkie countries , where the water sometimes runs forth white . marble , in a bath in agro agnano . . of earth . potters clay , in a bath of the mountain orthonus . rubrick , or a certain red earth ( for so sometimes it signifies ) in aquis calderiani● . marle , in oaxes a river of scythia , &c. but of all these by the way onely and for method sake , and also for the better understanding of what is behind , and indeed is the chiefest subject of this present treatise . chap. vi . of the original of vitriol , and the causes of vitrioline waters , or spawes , difference of them the one from the other , and the reasons of their different operations . in the first place i shall give a description of vitriol ( in which shall be declared the causes thereof ) and explain the terms thereof , difficult and not obvious to every ones apprehension , as being not usual in common natural philosophy . 〈◊〉 vitrial therefore is but an esurine acid salt , of the embrionated sulphur of copper , or iron , which attracting an acidity from air , or water is thereby opened , and resolved , and then corrodes the parts of the said metals , with which it is connate , the body of which compound , consisting of pure metal ? and superfluos sulphur , and salt , being thus opened is dissolved in water passing through the veins thereof : and this water thus impregnated is boiled to a vitrial . the difficult terms hereof i thus explain . . by embrionated sulphur i understand a superfluous sulphur , which is not the matter of the metals , but connate onely with them for the embrional conservation of them , and after the perfection of the metal is cast off in part by nature , and more fully by the refiners fire . paracelsus explaines it by a familiar example of a nut. a nut saith he per se is onely the kernel , which is not generated by it self , but together with the shell , and shales , which are superfluous ▪ and serve onely for the embrional conservation of the nut , that is . , of it whilest it is in an embrio or imperfect . and here by the way note that as every mineral , metal , and vegetable hath its distinct sulphur embrionatum , so every sulphur embrionatum is distinct from the true genuine thing generated , with which it is connate , as much as a form , essence , substance , and corporality differ the one from the other , and is but an impurity of its embrio , and as it were as helmont calls it , the secundine thereof . . by esurine salt i understand in this place ( not the acid spirit of air , water , and subterraneal sulphurious vapours , not yet coagulated or specificated , which also are sometimes called an acid or esurine salt , but ) a certain acid vapour applicable to all metals and minerals , and connate with them in their principiis solutis , and embrioes , and especially to those that abound with sulphur , as iron , and copper , and with them congealed into a saline principle , giving consistency to the compositum , as sulphur doth coagulation , and is by hel-mont for want of another name called the esurine salt of an embrionated sulphur . ( but any one may call it what he please , if so be he understand it ) and is resolved , and unloosed by an acid spirit conteined in air , and water , which spirit is indeed the seed of salt ( for in them viz in air and water , are the seeds of all things , in the former as being therein imagined , as saith sendivogius , as in the male , and in the latter , as being afterward by a circulative motion cast forth into the same as into their sperm ( for he makes a subtile distinction betwixt seed , and sperm ) wherein they are conserved , taking not upon them the nature of any specifical salt , untill they meet with some corporeal principles that are consentaneous to them ) and is , when it meets with any saline corporeal principle in its resolving of it coagulated together with the same into a distinct species of salt , viz : into this or that according to the nature of the compositum ; where this solution , and coagulation is made . i shall for the better illustration of this nativity of salts , briefly shew how two of the four said salts , viz. nitre and vitrial are made artificially , because this artificial process is performed in imitation of the natural production of them . . the process therefore of making nitre artificially is this , viz. sprinkle distilled vineger upon fat earth , as fullers earth , bole , marle , &c. beaten small , and let it stand for a few dayes in a cold place , and you will see pure nitre produced from thence . or take any one of the aforesaid earths , and beat it small , and set it in a cold moist place for some weeks , and you will see the same effect . now this latter way seems as much natural as artificial , and indeed it is just in imitation of nature : for we see that any fat earth , if it be covered from rain , and the sun , so as it spendeth not its strength in producing of hearbs and plants , breedeth plenty of nitre . now note that in these kinds of fat earths there is at first observed no nitrous tast , neither can there from thence be extracted any nitre , but after they have continued a certain time in the cold air , do by a certain magnetick power of a nitrous principle , or saline unctuosity which is in them , attract an acidity , or rather acid spirit , which opens the bodies of those fat earths , and resolves the said saline unctuosity , and is therewith coagulated , ( for the solution of the one , is the coagulation of the other ) and after this manner is the nativity of nitre . . the process of making artificial vitrial is manifold , i shall speak of onely two , and they are these . . cast sulphur into melted copper , and there let it burn till it cease to burn any more , then presently cast the melted copper into rain-water , which will thereby become green . this do so often till all the copper be dissolved in the water : then evaporate the water , and you shall have a good vitrial . note that it is an acid spirit in the sulphur , which opens and resolves the esurine salt in the copper , whereby the copper it self is corroded , and fit for dissolution in the water . . take copperas stone , which is a certain sulphurious glittering marcasite , break to pieces a good quantity of them , and lay them in air , and rain , upon sticks over wooden vessels , and in a certain time the stones will be resolved by an acid spirit in the air , and water , and washed down into the said vessel with the rain-water , which will thereby become green , and yield upon evaporation a good green vitrial : and after this manner do we make our vitrial , or copperas in england . now let it not seem strange to any one , that there is such an acidity in water , and air ; for whence else doth iron , and copper , being put into water , or standing long in the air , especially in a cold cellar contract such a rust as they do ? is not this rust from the aforesaid acid spirit , viz. of the air and water , resolving the erusine salt in those metals , and making it thereby more corrosive , and more powerfull to corrode part of the metals themselves , with which it is mixed per minima ? and will not this rust being boiled in rain-water yield a vitrial ? ob. but some will object , and say , that this rust is caused not from the acidity , but onely from the humidity of the air , and water , resolving thereby the said esurine salt . sol. this i will solve with a relation of two experiments , viz. . take the above named copperas stones broken to pieces , weigh them exactly , and lay them in a cold moist place , ( but so that no rain come at them to wash away the salt thereof , as it is resolved by the acidity of the air , ) and after some moneths they will , by a certain magnetical power , attract a certain saline humidity , and fall into a black pouder , which being well dried , and then weighed , will prove far more ponderous than before , which implies that there is an addition of something else than a meer quality , viz. the humidity of air , and water . . take a pound of salt of tartar , make it red hot , and weigh it exactly , then put upon it two pints of rain-water distilled , and evaporate it , then put on more , and evaporate that also , and then make the salt red hot again , and weigh it , and you shall find it far heavier than before , which is caused by the said salts attracting to it self that occult acid saline spirit , which was in the water , and fixing of it into its own nature ; and not by assimilating the water it self , which will never be converted into salt any otherwise than as it contains a saline acid spirit , which is the onely thing coagulable in it . ob. some again will object , although they do admit of this acid spirit in air , and water , & say that in case the said acid spirit do corrode and dissolve the metals , it doth not follow that there is any such esurine salt in those metals , as distinct from the pure mercurial , or other sulphureous part of them , but say that it corrodes onely the said mercurial , and sulphureous part thereof , as we see aqua fortis doth silver , and mercury , and aqua regia doth gold , and so becomes coagulated into a saline nature , and consistency . sol. the said acid spirit of the air , and water , can not corrode , or putrifie the pure metalline part of metals , for we see that mercurie is not corroded , and reduced into a saline nature thereby , and that gold doth never rust , and that because it is purified from all the said acid saline principle , and is not at all corroded , but by an aqua regia ; and silver contracts but little rust , and that according to the small quantity there is in it of the said salt . and for the superfluous embrionated sulphur , that neither can be corroded by the said acid spirit , any otherwise than it contains in it that esurine salt , for if we put pure sulphur extracted from sulpbur vivum into aqua fortis , it will not be corroded thereby , much less then by the aciditie of air , and water , nay ▪ theophrastus saith , that if woods , and cords be smeered over with an unctuous oyl , which he prescribes to be made out of sulphur , they will be preserved from putrifaction for ever , though they continue in the air , water , or earth : and the truth is , nothing can open and resolve sulphur but oyl , being of a like unctuous nature with ' it , as i have oftentimes tried . there must therefore be another corporeal principle , viz. of a consentaneous , suitable , and saline nature , that is apt for to be corroded and resolved , and to coagulate the said spirit . . vitrial is made artificial after this manner , viz. take an ounce of spirit of sulphur , or vitrial , and put it into a gallon of rain-water , stir them well together , then put into this acid water half a pound of the filings of iron , or copper , and within a few hours the metal will attract the said acid spirit to it self , be dissolved it self thereby , and coagulate that . this being done decant the water , and calcine the said mixture in a crucible , and being poudered , put it into rain-water seething hot , stirring them together , and then all that being settled to the bottom ▪ that will settle , powr off the clear green water , and evaporate it , and you will have a pure vitrial . like unto this is the making of vitrial , by sprinkling a considerable quantity of distilled vinegar upon the pouder of steel , or copper , and letting of them stand till the mixture grow very hot by fermentation , and be again cooled , and then putting it into rain-water seething hot , and proceeding as in the foregoing process . almost after the same manner is verdigrease made , viz. by hanging plates of copper or brass over the hot vapours of vinegar . now these three processes of making artificial vitrial being seriously considered , will clearly illustrate the nativity of natural vitrial , which is as i conceive after this manner , viz : by an acid subterraneal spirit ( whereof there is great quantity in some mines ) corroding the veins of iron , or rathe copper , which being thus resolved , and opened are by the water that passeth through them , dissolved , after which , this liquor is boyled to a vitrial ; and thus is made the vitrial in dansick , hungarie , &c. note that any of the said vitrials , if they be made out of copper , whether natural , or artificial , being distilled in a forceing furnace , yield oyle , and spirit , and the caput mortuum thereof dissolved in rain water yields a pure vitrial , and the colcothar that falls to the bottom of the said water , yields upon a refiners tast most pure copper like to very gold ; as doth verdigrease , the metalline parts thereof being purified from their feculencies by means of the foresaid corrosion and dissolution . the nativity of vitrial being thus promised , it will most evidently appear what are the true causes of spaw water , viz. of their vitrioline tast , and odour . it will not now be a thing irrational to grant that all spaw waters partake either of the corporeal , or spiritual parts of vitrial . they that partake of the substance of vitrial are such , as when they are evaporated , leave behind them a vitriol at the bottom , and such are the sevenir , paubon , and geronster springs , the two former of which helmont said , he carefully distilled , and found nothing in them but the vitrial of iron , and like to this was a certain spring within two miles of knaresborow , the water whereof i distilled , and found in the bottom a vitrial of iron . moreover , betwixt these wells , which are impregnated with a corporeal vitrial , there is a considerable difference ; for some work upon the bowels mostly , and by stool , if not sometimes by vomit , and such are they that contain in them much vitrial , whether of copper , iron , or both mixed together , as geronster , and are more gross and corpulent , and the operation of these is much after the same manner as that of steel , which for the most part doth , the first dayes it is taken , cause a nauseousness in the stomack , and passeth away by stool all the time it is taken , and by reason of the harshnes it hath , is seldom attracted to , or passeth through the vessels of the second concoction : but they that contain little of the substance , but more of the spirit as doth serenir , do pass the stomack , liver , and other vessels far sooner , and with less disturbance than do the other . and they that partake of none of the substance , but onely of the spiritual part , or vertues , such as the spaw-well at knaresborow , of which particularly in the next chapter , &c. are far more efficacious in many cases , especially where obstinate humours , and confirmed obstructions betwixt the stomack , and liver , are not the causes of the distempers , for in such cases , such a medicine must be administred , which way more strong irritate these vessels to eject those obstructing tartareous , and viscous humours , or at least dissolve and attenuate them , thereby making them to yield to more benigne purgatives . note also that these waters may , the more they are impregnated with the said corporeal substances , the further be carried without loss of their strength . the water of sevenir is carried many miles , and into other countreys without loss of its vertues , but that of pauhon much further , and into further countreys ; we have it transported into england very frequently . now the water of the spaw in york-shire cannot be carried near so far ; but yet further than most believe , as i shall declare in the next chapter . now these differences , or varieties of impregnations arise either from the difference of the quantity of the acide spirit corroding , the difference of the fruitfulness of the vein of copper , or rather iron corroded , or the greater or lesser continuance of the course of the water already impregnated , through veins of the said metals , whereby it becomes long yet more impregnated , if the course be continued . note that the veins of the said impure metals contain in them more esurine salt , and yield more natural spirits than they themselves when melted , and therefore communicate far more efficatious vertues than they do , i mean in many cases . chap. vii . of the spaw-well near knares-borow . about a mile and a half from the said town , west-ward , in a moorish , boggie ground , ( within less than half a mile from which there is no considerable ascent ) ariseth a spring of a vitrioline tast and odour , resembling much those ultramarine spaws . the water of this fountain springeth directly up from the sandy bottom ; and this is no otherwise than that water doth , which passing through pipes in the earth ( serving for the conveying of water , from a fountain to a house or town ) doth break the pipes if they be obstructed , or force it self through them , if already broken , upwards through the superficies of the earth , and flows in the manner of a spring . for in this place the subterraneal veins , through which the water passeth , are either ( if not there terminated ) obstructed , or too infirm to contain the water of the spring , passing forcibly through them , and making a vent where it can . as for the vitrioline , and ironish tast , and odour of this water , i need ( in regard i have in the preceeding chapter declared more at large the causes of all spaws ) speak the less in this place . but for more particular satisfaction , the aforesaid tast and odour may be imputed , partly to those vapours that proceed from the fermentation , that is in iron , or copper mines ▪ and thus aristotle , and h. ab heer 's , would have it to be , affirming , that vapours retain the tast and odours of their minerals , and the water with which these vapours are mixed become thereby impregnated , though in a more remiss degree , with the same qualities : partly to the long abiding , or continuing of the water with the iron , or copper mine viz. in some great cavities in the midst of the veins thereof , whereby it contracts their odour and tast , as we see it doth in iron , or copper vessels , if it stand long there , especially if excited by heat , or acuated with any acidity , and as doth white wine standing long with scales , or filings of steel , or iron : or partly to the water acuated with some subterraneal sulphurious acidity , and passing swiftly through some hungry barren vein of iron , which it corrodes lightly resolving thereby some of the spiritual , and subtile parts thereof onely , which it becomes it self impregnated with . and hence it acquires the nature of a spaw-well . now for the better understanding of the nature of this spaw , i made divers experiments thereof , which are these . . i distilled it , supposing that if i could draw off the mineral spirits by themselves , i should discover a great secret , very advantageous for diseased people , but the water , yea , the two first spoonfuls , which were distilled , and the rest undistilled that remained , utterly lost , both the tast and odour , which they had before , neither would they become any otherwise tinged with galls than common spring-water , although the water undistilled with the mixture of the pouder of galls , became as red as a well coloured clarret wine . now it is hard to conceive the true reason of this , especially since i distilled it in a glass still , and luted or closed up very carefully the joints thereof , so that spirit of wine could not evaporate out thereat . i impute it to the subtilty of those spirits , which are so volatil that they are sooner sublimed than the water it self , therefore becoming to be unbodied ( for before they were incorporated with the water ) and by consequence wonderfull spiritual , penetrate even the glass it self , or the lute , and i believe that neither glass or lute can hold them . . i took two viol glasses , and put into them a just equal quantity of the spaw water , i put one of them into a skillet of warm water , and just took the cold off from it , than i put an equal quantity of the pouder of gals into each of those two viols , and that water which was cold received no deeper tincture than the other as i could perceive . . i filled two viol glasses with this water , and stopt one of them very close with wax , and the other i stopt not at all , and at two dayes end they yielded a tincture with the pouder of gall , little less than that which is newly taken out of the well , but that less , which was left unstopt . how much it will loose this tincture by carrying far , i do not know ; it were worth while to trie , and thereby to be the better assured how much of its strength is wasted , for according to the spending of its spirits the tincture fades . . a glass of this water stood seven dayes close stopt with wax , and than yielded a tincture with gall , like to small beer . . this water doth not coagulate milk as do the german spaws , and another vitrioline spring in the same moor , which yieldeth a vitrial of iron upon evaporation as i said before . now the reason of this is not because it is not acide enough , for it is far more acid than the water of the dropping well , which coagulates milk , if it be boiled with it , but because the acidity thereof is not permanent , or fixed enough , but so volatile as to evaporate before the milk boils . . this water kils worms and frogs , if they be put therein , and such kinde of creatures as these . . it being evaporated , leaves nothing at all of vitrial behind , but onely an insipid pouder of a darkish colour , like unto which pouder will that blewish cream or skin , which swims upon the said water after long standing , be when it is dried . now note that the aforesaid skin swimmeth upon all such mineral waters , and as saith h : ab heer 's , being put upon the fire is inflamed , and yields a sulphureous odour . it is also called by hadrianus mynsicht , anima vitrioli . . i weighed this water , i think exactly to a grain , and it weighed neither heavier nor lighter than simple spring water . . it is observed generally , and i tooke especial notice of it , that it is almost an infallible signe of an ensuing rain , when glasses filled with this water continue not clear , but are covered all over as it were with a mist , contrary to what is observed in glasses full of simple common water . now the reason of this i conceive is from the mineral subtile spirits giving , as nitre doth , activity to the coldness of the water , whereby the glasses themselves become more cold , and so cold as eminently , and apparently to condense the humid vapours of the air , with which it abound before the rain . to these experiments , and observations i shall add this observation also , viz. that this spaw water is strongest , viz. with the mineral spirits in winters frost , by reason of the earth being the more bound up , and the said spirits being thereby kept from perspiration : and weakest in rainy wet weather by reason the water sinks into the veins of the springs , viz. those that lye nearest to the superficies of the earth , for it cannot sink above ten feet deep though the rain be never so much . also this water is in summer-time stronger in the morning than at noon , because the coldness of the night doth somewhat bind the earth , and the heat of the sun openeth the same , thereby making it the more easie for the mineral spirits to evaporat out thereby . to prevent the inconveniencies of rain , it were to be wished that there were a very deep trench ( yet not so deep as to cut a sunder any of the veins through which the water passeth , if any should lye within six , eight , or ten feet of the superficies of the earth , as it is possible some may ) made round the well , and bridges , made over some places of the same , for as by this means the rain would be carried away , so also the water in the boggie ground adjoyning to it , which may perhaps sink into the veins of the spring , and corrupt the same , would be dreyned away , and the well by this means much improved , for the ground about it is spongious , and drinks in water apace , the uppermost part thereof to the depth of a foot , consisting of that hollow earth of which is made pete and turfe , and that beneath it being sandy , and also hollow . chap. viii . of the vertues of the spaw-well , to whom , and in what cases profitable , or hurtfull . i shall not stand here to reckon up all , and the several vertues of vitrial , as not properly conducing to our present purpose , because the varities of its operations depends upon the variety of the forms , in which it is administred , or used ; for the salt thereof hath one operation , the colcothar another , the corrosive spirit another , and that subtile acide penetrating spirit , ( which theophrastus cals his great secret , or arcanum against the epilepsie , and other such symptomes , because of its wonderfull penetrativenes leaving no part or places of the body unsearched ) another , and with this hath the spirit of the spaw water great affinity , & is therefore so much the more excellent , as being so much the nearer to it , primum ens as helmont calls it . now note by the way , that although this spirit cannot be by it self extracted out of this water , yet it may be extracted out of vitrial , yet by a very expert artist . this water according to its first qualities cooles and moistens actually , heats , and dries potentially . and by these four qualities , the distempers of the body consisting in the excess either of heat , cold , driness , or moisture , are tempered , every quality altering its contrary , and reducing it into its natural temper . and indeed it is worth taking notice of , that in such cases a distemper will rather be altered by its contrary , than increased by its like . as for exemple , if the distemper consists in heat , the heat will be allayed by the coldness of the water , and not be made more intense by the heat thereof ( although the heat continue longer than the coldness , for the water is quickly warmed in the stomack , and then the potential heat is reduced into act , and continues ) and so on the contrary , i mean if the water be taken regularly , and cautiously , or otherwise such happy success may not be expected . now according to other qualities , viz. second , & third it cuts , dissolves , attenuates , abstergeth viscous , tartarous humours in the stomack , messenterie , hypochondries , reins , bladder , &c : and evacuateth them by urine , as being indeed very diuretical , and by consequence opens the obstructions of the said parts , which are the occasions of most distempers , and diseases . it penetrates also through every narrow , occult passages of the body , where other medicines cannot come . moreover it corroborates , astringeth , and laxateth , and divers such as these , and the former contrary operations hath it upon the body of man . now note that although its operations are thus contrary , and the cures effected thereby , of so contrary natures , yet this is no other than what consists with , and conduceth to the preservation of nature , for if by its astriction any retention is caused , yet nothing is reteined , but what should not be evacuated , and if by its laxating , evacuation is promoted , yet nothing is evacuated that should be retained . it dries nothing but what it finds too moist , and flaccid , and so on the contrary , and it heats nothing , but what before was too cold , and so on the contrary also . i speak now as to the generality of its operating , and do not deny but there may accidently something happen contrary to general observations . but as for most exceptions that are , or can be made , either they may easily be answered , or any accidental or casual prejudice be easily prevented , and the credit of the spaw maintained . if any shall object and say by its coldness and moisture it weakens the liver more than by its heat and driness it coroborates it , and thereby occasioneth a dropsie , where before was none , and where it finds it , increaseth it . to this i answer , viz. if the body be well prepared first , and the water pass freely ▪ and other such directions and cautions observed as should be , and i have praescribed in the following chapter , it doth not onely prevent , but cure the dropsie by heating , drying , and corroborating the liver . and if any shall object that it astringeth and bindeth the bodies of some , so much that there is no ejection of their excrements by stool for two or three dayes together , i answer , that it is true , this may happen sometimes , and it may be oftentimes by reason that those humours which should irritate the bowels to expel and eject their excrements are diverted through the ureters , by which means also the bowels become more dry , and dull , but yet this inconveniency may easily be remedied , and prevented , by taking every night at bed-time a little cassia , or some such lenient medicament , and sometimes a glister , or suppositorie . many such like observations , and exceptions may be made against mine aforesaid positions , but they may as easily be answered ( salvâ adhuc famâ aquae spadanae ) as made . now the manifold vertues , and various operations of this spaw ( as effecting cures of a contrary nature ) being premised , it will i hope , be easie to conclude , what distempers , symptoms and diseases it is effectual against . it allayes all acid ▪ gnawing , and hot humours , and cures all such symptomes as proceed from thence , as agues , consumptions , quincies , tumours , impostumes , ulcers , wounds ; it stops bleeding , the over flowing of choller , the dissentery , and such like fluxes . it corroborates the brain , nerves &c. and prevents or cures the apoplexie , epilepsie , palsie , virtigo , inveterate head-ach , and madness , and all such symptoms as proceed from the weakness , coldness , heat , dryness , or moisture of the same . it corroborates the stomack , and causeth good digestion , consumes crudities which are the causes of obstructions , and breed ill bloud and infirm flesh or an ill habit of body ; it maketh the fat lean , and the lean fleshie , cureth , and preventeth the chollick , and worms . it strengtheneth and openeth the lungs , liver , spleen , messentery , and cureth difficulty of breathing , the asthma , the dropsie , melancholly and fearful , passions hypochondriacal wind , and vapours ( offending the head and heart , ) which most women and many men are afflicted withall . it doth also upon this account cheer the heart ▪ cure and prevent the palpitatious , and passions thereof , as also all faintings . it purifieth the bloud , cures the scurvy , even in those whose teeth are ready to drop out of their heads , by reason of the extreamity thereof , also the foul veneral disease , the leprosie , jaundise , yellow , and black , and for the more perfect effecting of these cures , it doth in many open the hemorrhoides . it provoketh urine , and cureth the suppression and allayes the sharpnes thereof , it diminisheth the stone in the bladder , by dissolving the soft superficial part thereof , and evacuating that mucousslimy water ▪ in which it is involved , and by this means also it prepares it for cutting , for sometimes this stone cannot be felt , by reason of that slimy mucus , which mucuus it self doth also sometimes by its torments counterfeit the stone , where it is collected in a great quantity , being of an acid tartarous nature . it forceth out from the kidnies , and bladder abundance of sand , and small stones to a great number , and sometimes such as are as big and as long , as long pepper . and as it cures all ulcers , and wounds in the body , so especially and much sooner in the reins , and bladder , suppressing also the pissing of bloud , and the gonorrhea . it cures the gout , aches , cramp , convulsion in what part of the body whatsoever , and giveth great ease therein suddenly . it openeth all obstructions , and suppresseth all manner of over-flowings in women , strengtheneth the womb , cureth the mother , maketh the barren fruitfull , and is a great preventative against miscarryings , and rectifies most infirmities of the womb . note that this water doth not help all parts , cure all these infirmities after one , and the same manner ; for some part of the body , it helps per se , as we call it , and some per accidens : per se , it helps those , through which it passeth and toucheth , and that either by its crass substance , as the mouth , jaws , stomack , messentery , liver , reins , bladder , &c. or by its spiritual parts , which do penetrate the whole body . per accidens it helps those which are distempered by consent , or by the obstructions of other parts , and this by removing the obstructions thereof . it is also used by way of insession in griefs of the womb , and by way of injection , into that as also into the bowels & bladder , where all the qualities act immediatly upon those parts , allay the sharp , and hot distempers , mitigate the pains thereof , healing and corroborating the same . it may moreover be used by way of fomentation , and lotion in external wounds , ulcers , itch , or scabs , and being dropt into soar eyes wonderfully cooleth , drieth , and cleareth the same . in a word , if any intensions in a medicinal way , be to be performed by allaying distempers , opening , obstructions , evacuating ▪ superfluous morbifick humours , and corroborating all the parts of the body , those are effected in a very good measure , if not fully and perfectly by this water . and i my self have seen many of the aforenamed diseases cured by the help thereof , and for other cures effected thereby , i have been assured by them themselves who received the benefit , or by others who have been eye witnesses of the same . some may demand whether this water may be administred to children , old , men , and women great with child . sol. . as to the first , although the heat of children be soon destroyed by cold , yet this water may safely be given to children of a year old , if the water which they drink exceed not the strength of their stomack , or if their stomack can bear it . and h. ab heer 's saith , he saw a sucking child drink of the german spaw with good success , and some children very young have taken of ours , not without benefit . . as to the second , it is true that their heat also is very little , and soon extinguished by cold , yet if the strength of their stomacks be able to carry it off , without a manifest dejection of the appetite , it may safely to them also but not in so large a quantity as to others , be administred . . and as to third ▪ it is true it is diuretical , and may seem dangerous for them to take it , yet it hath been observed , that many have taken it securely enough , some when they have been very young with child , and others , when near the time of their bringing forth . i shall not give too much liberty , neither shall i lay too great a restraint upon them , onely i say , it is safest for them to take it in the fourth , fifth , and sixth moneth , and hippocrates himself will admit of purgation , at that time . but if any be very defirous to take it before , or after by reason of some griefs urging them thereto , let them use it cautiously and in less quantity , and withall take something every night to prevent the inconveniencies thereof , as pearl , corall ▪ pouder of hartshorn , or the like . 〈◊〉 q. it may be demanded , whence it is that the excrements upon the taking of this water become black . sol. this blackness is not from the mixture of black melancholy humours as many will have it , for if the soundest healthiest body in the world , who can in no wise be suspected to have any adust black choller in him his excremēts will also be tinged black therewith . besides , we do not find that one mans body in twenty , that are dissected , have any such black humours in it , nay , although he were the most melancholly man in the world , & therefore to impute it to a mixture of this , is a great errour . neither do i impute it to iron onely , as h. ab heer 's , who , because iron did the like , would not ascribe it to any thing else . but it seems he had not , as it appears by his own words , observed that vitrial would do the like , and that either of iron , or copper , and that although , iron being taken inwardly , the excrenents are tinged black , it was by the vitrial which was made in the body by the acid spirits thereof , resolving the esurine salt of the iron , and corroding it into a copperas , he , i do suppose , never considered , and the reason he gives to prove , that vitrial doth not discolour the excrements , is ▪ because oyl , or spirit of vitrial will not . but herein he argues a conjunctis ad disjuncta , and therefore his argument is of no force . for here is but a part of the vitrial , viz. one part abstracted from the other , and that not without the destruction of the species . now if the species could be conserved it might be done , although it were volatile and more spiritual as the vitrial is in this spaw ; for the truth is the same species may be fixed , and yet become volatile , and more spiritual , and yet all this while the species be conserved . note here by the way , upon what account it is that iron , or steel opens obstructions ; and it is this , viz. there being a great affinity betwixt the esurine salt in iron , and all acid unspecificated spirits , the acid spirits in the body which are the cause of fermentation and coagulation , and by consequence of obstructions , do presently forsake those parts , and humours where they are seated , and betake themselves to the iron , which they endeavour to dissolve , and so be united to the aforesaid salt that is in it , ( to which union they have a natural propensity ) and so being therewith united , are with the same ejected , together with the obstructive humours , which at the same time are ejected , viz. when nature is strongly irritated to expel the iron , as being very offensive to her . chap. ix . of some general directions to be observed before , in the time of , and after the taking of the waters . there are seldom any distempers , or diseases that occasion people to go to the spaw , that are without peccant , excrementitious , obstructing humours , which must of necessity be removed before the drinking of the waters attempted : and that either because those crude , gross humours in the greater vessels will be by the force of the waters carried down into the narrower passages , and there cause greater obstructions , and by consequence feavers , dropsies , gripings , &c. and also hinder the free passage of the waters , to the endangering of many unthought of inconveniences , and symptomes ; as also because nature , being thereby disburdened of the load of grosser humours , will be the better able with the assistance of the waters to overcome , digest , and evacuate the thinner , and those that are left behind , and the sooner recover its natural vigour , and sanitude . now for the medicines to be administred , they must be elected suitable to the humour offending , and proportioned to the strength and constitution of the patient . i do in most cases very much approve of vomits , because they do effectually cleanse the stomack , and the primas vias , and instead of them , where they cannot be safely , and conveniently used , biera picra comes next in place for absterging , and cleansing the stomack , bowels , messentery , and making free passage for the water to pass to the liver . and after either of these , some proper lenitive for the opening the passages through the liver , ureters , kidnies and into the bladder . phlebotomy also , or letting of bloud is in many cases to be considered of , viz. if the veins and other adjacent vessels be oppressed with bloud , or any peccant humours , for thereby they will be made more fit for the waters to pass through them , and the virtues thereof into them . also in case of very obstinate obstructions , i advise that a chalybiate course of physick be run through for a certain time , that thereby the waters may with the less resistance act their parts , and sooner , easier , and more perfectly effect the intended cures . now after such preparation is made , and the patient come to the spaw , let him also then take some easie vomit , as of oxymel , or wine of squils , or the like , or some hiera picra , the first day after he is come thither , and the next morning after that some lenitive , as lenitive electuary , cassia , manna , tamarines , infusion of sene , rhabarb , syrop of roses , or the like , according to the humour that is to be evacuated , and then let him cheerfully , and confidently begin to drink these waters with a resolvedness to observe all such rational directions , as he shall find in this , and the next ensuing chapters prescribed . but for poor people , or they that loath all that bears the name of physick , drink three or four mornings of the sulphur-well , for that will in a good measure effect the same . when any one is resolved for the spaw , let him then first apply himself to some experienced physitian , who shall be able to understand his constitution , distemper , and the nature , and use of the waters themselves , that accordingly , as cause shall require , the more succesfull preparatives may be administred , and the more effectual directions given . this i advise the rather , because there be divers physitians in the nation , who never saw , tasted , scarce read of the waters , or conversed with those that know them , yet send their patients , such as they account incurable , and desperate , thither , giving them such directions for the drinking the waters as the very spaw-women themselves laugh at . a due preparation being premised , let him that drinks the waters begin with four , or five , or six half pint glasses , more or less as his stomack can well bear , and so by degrees proceed to two or three glasses more every day until he come to the height , and his full dose , which will be when he can take no more , without a manifest oppression and nauseousness . some will drink twenty , some thirty of these glasses in a morning , and some can not take half so many . in the morning before the water be drunk , let first all excrements be evacuated , either by nature , or art , as by glysters , suppositories , or some pills , or lenitive taken the night before at bed-time ; for the retaining of the excrements hinders the concoction of the waters ( if i may call it a concoction ) and by consequence their passage through the body , whereby are caused pressures , fluctuations , tensions , gripings , and sometimes cold sweat . betwixt every two , or three , or four , or five glasses , let some exercise be used , of which more largely in the chapter of exercise . and for the better passing of the waters , comforting the stomack , and preventing of nauseousness , let some good cordial , stomachical spices , seeds , and roots , be taken betwixt while , as annisseed , caryoway and coriander confects , citron , or lymon pilled candied , or dried , pepper lossenges , cardamums , but above all i prefer elecampany root candied , or for want thereof angelica root , or seeds , for they , especially elecampany , as the lord virulam saith , breed a robust heat , and i am sure promote the passage of the water most eminently , and comfort all the vessels through which the water passeth , and withall make the water more effectual for the opening of obstructions , and corroborating infirm parts . i approve not of taking the waters too fast , or alloting too short a time for the drinking of the full dose , or proportion . i conceive that for the generality it will be most convenient for to take at first a quarter of the proportion , and then exercise half an hour , and then another quarter , and exercise till the water begins to be evacuated , and then a third quarter , with exercise half an hour more , and then the last part with exercise , till it be all passed out of the body . but if any cannot bear the drinking of a fourth part at a time , then let them take the eighth part , with a quarter of an hours exercise betwixt every while . to drink the waters too fast causeth for the most part nauseousnes , oppresseth the natural heat , and compresseth the passages and vessels , that the water cannot pass so freely through them as otherwise it would do , and also causeth divers symptoms , as tensions , gripings , cold sweats , dejection of appetite , and the like . if a great quantity of water be cast upon a fire at once it extinguisheth it , but if by degrees , it maketh it burn the more furiously , and intends the flame thereof . ryetius is therefore in my judgement very erroneous , as to this point , who would have the whole proportion be taken in half an hours time . the time for the continuing the taking of the waters must be proportioned according to the greatness of the disease , and profit received by it . in case any one after a due preparation , and upon a carefull observation of such directions as are required , shall not be able to bear the waters , and drink them without a manifest and eminent oppression , and nauseousness after several assayes , let him cease presently from the taking of them : but if upon the taking of them , he can take them without any such inconveniency as should cause him to desist , & yet perceive no benefit thereby ; let him not presently give over the use of them , as despairing of any further benefit , but continue the use of them a moneth , or two , or longer , if the disease require it . in germany they drink of the spaw , not onely a quarter of a year together , but sometimes half a year , and sometimes a whole year if it be requisite , and at last they receive the benefit thereof , by being cured of most desperate diseases , which otherwise were in the vulgar account incureable . it is a great errour amongst us english , to allot but two or three weeks time , or a moneth at the most , for the taking of the spaw , let the disease be what it will , and hence it is , that many miss of those happy cures , which by a longer continuance might have been effected , and this to the prolonging of their own misery , and defamation of the spaw it self . i do admit of the use of purging physick , to be taken every eight , or tenth day , for the evacuating of crudities , which for the most part are bred in that time , & also some grosser humour loosened by the water , or those which become crass , or thick by the waters themselves , carrying away the thinner part first ; for these remaining in the body , would else be carried down into the smaller vessels , and cause obstructions , and thereby many other great inconveniences and symptomes , retarding also , if not utterly preventing the intended cure . now the medicaments i approve of most in these cases , are hiera picra simplex galeni , rhabarb with crystal of tartar , and such like , to be taken one , or two dayes together , as there shall be occasion , and some lenitive , as cassia , or lenitive electuary , or the like to be taken the next day after that , for the moistning of the bowels , and the better preparing the passages betwixt the stomack , and bladder , against the next repeating the use of the waters , which i advise may begin the next morning after . and in some cases physick may be taken every day , nay , mixt with the waters themselves , as in germany . now i know it is a common , though absurd opinion , that physick is very prejudicial to those that take it , whilest they are in a course of drinking the waters , and therefore is most irrationally decried . now the chief ground of this errour , as far as i ever could understand is this , viz. some certain years since , some famous doctors attending upon persons of great quality , their patients , to the spaw , did prescribe them the use of some physick , with the waters , and it succeeded ill . this might be true , but what then ? might not those physitians , though otherwise knowing enough , be ignorant of the right use of the waters themselves , and of the preparations requisit for the taking of them with success ? or might not they be willing to bring the spaw out of credit , because it might happily cure their patients too soon , and thereby be prejudicial to them ? or might not their patients be unwilling to drink the water regulary ; or disorder themselves in respect of diet , exercise and the like ? now whether either of these , or all these might be the cause of the aforesaid unsuccesfulnes , i cannot determine , onely this i know , that the use of physick is not onely not unsafe , but very necessary in the use of the waters , nay , and in many cases to be mixed with the waters themselves , as in the next chapter i shall more particularly give you to understand . three or four dayes before giving over the waters , they must be abated by degrees , as at the beginning increased by degrees . after the ending of the waters , immediatly , even before you return from thence , some such purging physick will be necessary as may evacuate all the water that shall remain secretly in the body , as oftentimes it doth , and withall comfort and strengthen the stomack , and liver , and moisten the bowels if there be any feaver , of too great astriction of body afterwards . also a very spare diet will be very necessary for a moneth after , for by this means nature will become master of the bodily infirmities , all crudities being removed , and prevented . chap. x. of particular directions , and cautions in particular cases , and of preventing and curing such accidents and symptomes , which sometimes happen in the taking of the waters . they that have a very good digestion may in the afternoon about five , or six hours after dinner , take half the quantity which they did in the morning , but with this caution , that they eat a very light supper after it ; and as for those that have a very bad concoction , let them altogether forbear it in the afternoon , or at most drink but a glass for the diluting , and better distributing of the chylus , if already perfected . if any shall drink of the water for the curing of an ague , let them so observe the time for the taking of it , that it may be all passed through them before the coming of the fit , because otherwise nature will be distracted in her motions , viz. evacuating the water by urine , and the morbifick humour by sweat . and as for those that have a continual feaver , let them forbear it altogether , unless the humours be concocted and fit for evacution , either by sweat or urine , as i have more at large declared in the fourth chapter , concerning the taking of cold water inwardly , in case of a feaver . my advise is that they that have very weak and cold stomacks , should take the water a little warm'd first ( i. e. ) the cold being just taken off . the truth is , the coldness of the waters doth very little good at all , unless it be to allay a very great heat , and drought . so great a quantity thereof as is usually taken cold , must of necessity diminish the natural heat in cold constitutions . a glass of cold water cast upon a fire , though but small , may make it burn the more strongly , but if ten , or twenty be cast upon it , they , if they do not quite extinguish it , yet will so far check it , that it will a long time labour under the destructive contrariety thereof . and actual heat is far more suitable to nature , & if so be the vertue of the water is not dimished thereby , ( as it is not , as i have demonstrated by the second experiment in the foregoing chapter ) far more effectual , the potential heat thereof being sooner reduced into act without any checking , or oppressing the natural heat . the stomack being a nervous part , and of exquisite sense , must needs be offended with that , which is actually cold . this made the ancient grecians and romans drink most of their water , and wine hot , as we find in salmuths collections . the lord virulam wonders that calidum bibere is so much grown out of use . if to drink an ordinary quantity of drink cold , were not approved of by the ancients , with what face shall i commend the taking of gallons of cold water every morning for certain weeks together ? i do therefore seriously advise those that have cold and effeminate stomacks to take off the cold from the water before they drink it . if upon the taking of the water , it pass not through the body freely , but is retained , it is to be considered in what place of the body it is at a stand , that accordingly some appropriated means may be administred for the evacuation of it . for if it be retained in the belly , or hypochondries ( which will appear by its rumbling , wind , tension , oppressure ) a glyster will evacuate it ; if in the stomack , which appears by a disposition to vomit , hiera picra , or rhabarb will be convenient for the opening , and cleansing thereof and making free passage for it from thence . if it be retained in the habit of the body and veins , which appears by oppressure , and a chilness over the body , without the aforesaid rumbling , tension , wind , &c. i approve of hiera picra , with jollap , mechoacan , or the like hydragogal medicaments . they , that when they have taken the waters , cannot evacuate them for want of exercise , as being to feeble to stir much , or walk , and not having the conveniencies of horses , may either drink all their proportion of water in the bed , or take some part at the well , and then go to bed , and there take the residue . i have oftentimes observed that the water would freely pass through many , when they were in bed , but would not otherwise , and the reason of it was as i conceived , because the passages of their body were contracted by going into the air , but more open by the warm'th of the bed . now for the rendering the water more effectual , it will be necessary , as is the course in italy , to make use of some specificks with the drinking of it . h. ab heer 's , allowes of the decoction of sanicle , pimpernel , scabions , &c. to be drunk in case of spitting of bloud , inward impostumes ulcers , wounds , and infirmities of the breast , and lungs , the benefit whereof he experienced by many years practise . and why may not we do the like in several cases , as to allow of a spoonfull , or two , of the juyce of saxifrage , or the like to be taken in the first glass , in case of the stone , or gravel , or to take turpentine pills , or a bole with turpentine and cassia the night before and in case of very great obstructions , dropsie , and cold moist stomacks , or the like , to mix some sugar of steel , or steel wine with the first glass ? but note that in such cases , they are to be taken half an hour , or a whole hour , before the taking of any more of the water . for the better passing of the waters , let the first glass be mixed with sugar , syrrup of liquorish , or de quinque radicibus , or nitre , or spirit of salt , or vitrial , salt of tartar , or a glass of white wine , in the midst of the water , or mixed with three , or four of the first glasses , or two or three glasses of the sulphur well in the midst of the spaw-water , or a good draught of the decoction of fennel , or parsley-roots , be taken half an hour before the water . note that some of the aforesaid things are penetrative and so force their way , and some are sweet , and therefore are sooner attracted to , and by the liver , and so the more speedily evacuated . in case of the necessity of any of the aforesaid mixtures , it will be convenient and necessary , that some experienced physitian be first consulted withall . and if you meet with none at the spaw , that you can confide in , york , and other places are not far , where you shall find such gentlemen that are able to advise you , as concerning this , so also in any other case , and especially if any unexpected accident should fall out whilest you are drinking the waters . in case in the taking of the waters , sumes , and vapours fly to the head as oftentimes they do , even to inebriation , let none be disheartned thereat , for either they are the spirits of the water themselves alone , which will do the head much good , or else there is a mixture of wind from the stomack ; for when that is filled with water , the wind that was in it must of necessitie be forced up to the head , but there it continues but a very short time . and as there is no necessity of preventing it , so neither can it be well prevented : but yet for some satisfaction , let nutmeg , and coriander seed , being beaten together into a gross pouder , be taken after every fourth part of the water ; for the gratefull vapour thereof will also be carried up to the head , with the force of the other vapours from the stomack , and withall somewhat corroborat , and close the mouth of the stomack . q. it may be demanded whether or no the rednes , and hot pimples of the face may be cured by the inward use of this water , and it is the more questioned , because it dries , and heats the liver . sol. it is true , that for the most part the rednes of the face is increased by the use of this water , but yet notwithstanding , it may in a great measure be cured with the help thereof , with the observing of certain rules , and cautious which do much conduce thereunto . the patient that is thus affected ( his body being well prepared by medicaments , & phlebotomie , ) must in the first place drink of this water , ten or twelve mornings together , for by this time it will in some considerable measure remove those obstructions of the messentery , & liver which are the chiefest cause of the aforesaid distemper , then let him be purged with some cooling lenitive , and then because the continual use of the water should not , as doth steel , heat the bloud too much , or rather by its strengthning the inward parts , drive outwardly the heated corrupt humours of the body too fast , i advise that he do for seven , or eight dayes together drink clarified whey , made with cooling , moist , and diuretical herbs and medicaments , as borage , lettuce , seangreen , endive , grasroots , parsly , and fennel-roots , nitre , tamarines , liquorish , and such like , and withall have a vein breathed , if nothing contradict it , and then return again to the use of the water for another fortnight , and after that again to cooling purges and the cooling ▪ and clarified whey , as before , for a moneths time . note that withall , that some topical medicines are to be applied to the place affected , as oyl of the yelks of eggs , oyl of tartar , juice of lemmon and salt , unguentum alhum , but above all flores sulphuris dissolved in oyl , or the like . by such kind of means with the use of the spaw-water , i would undertake to cure almost any red pimpled face whatsoever . chap. xi . of the necessity , and manner of exercise , in the use of the waters . exercise is , whilest the water is in the body , very necessary , as being good to laxate the passages of the body , to excite the natural heat , for the better digestion of the waters ( if as i said before , we may properly call it a digestion ) for by this means , saith archigenes , as also aetius , the internal vessels being heated will more strongly attract , and expell . some kind of exercise is , if strength permit , to be continued from the first glass to the evacuation of the whole proportion taken . now for exercise in particular , riding on a trotting horse , or in a coach are the best , because thereby the muscles of the abdomen being pressed , do intend the expulsive faculty of the ureters and bladder . and where those cannot conveniently be had , and used , i commend walking , bowling , pitching of the bar , and leaping , and the like , all which must be used so moderatly , as not to provoke sweat , for by sweat the water will be drawn into the habit of the body , to the endangering of a dropsy and such like symptomes . they that are not able to walk , nor have the accommodation for riding , must take the waters in their bed , for the warmeth of the bed doth as i said before , serve very well instead of exercise , and answers to the intensions thereof . sleep is very hurtfull , because in sleep all exceptions , or evacuations of excremently except sweat , which is thereby promoted , and for the aforesaid reasons to be prevented , are suppressed . sitting on the ground is hurtfull , and also standing in the sun , and walking late in the evening . chap. xii . of the time of the year , and day when the spaw is chiefly to be taken . in frosty weather the water is strongest , because the mineral spirits thereof are by the binding of the earth suppressed and prevented from evaporating through the superficies thereof ( as they do at other times ) by which means the water becomes the more strongly impregnated therewith . but by reason of the inconveniency of journying , and of the uncertainty of the frost , i prefer the summer , viz. from the beginning of may to the end of september , and before and after , if the season be dry . ob. some may object against the use of the spaw in the canicular , or dog dayes , because , say they , hippocrates in the fifth of his fourth book of aphorismes , saith , {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} forbiding thereby purgations , and evacuations , and these being forbidden , say they , how shall we prepare our bodies for the taking of the waters ? sol. this aphorisme having been these many years grosly mistaken , hath been the occasion of the deaths of thousands . i say mistaken , because purgations are not here at all forbidden , but onely intimation given , that in that season by reason of that usual extremity of heat , the humours being drawn outwardly towards the habit of the body are not so easily retracted , and evacuated by way of purgation , as being more remote from the medicament , and also in a contrary motion . besides , who is ignorant of the great difference betwixt the climate hippocrates lived in , and ours , as also betwixt his medicine and ours , which are both far milder and temperate than his ? and who doth not know ( being the same also which , heurnius saith of the seasons of his countrey ) that may & june prove oftentimes far hotter moneths then july and august ? it is needles to enter upon any long confutation of the vulgar opinion , which is weakly grounded upon the said aphorism , and hath a long time been absurdly maintained , and the rather , because it begins to be generally exploded : and indeed , it is good for men to grow wise by others harms . in extream wet weather the water becomes far weaker than before , and the reason is , because the rain , although it doth not usually sink above ten feet deep yet may into some of the veins of the said spring , which lye towards the superficies of the earth . in such a season the water may best be omitted , ( as having but little , or no strength in , at most ▪ not enough to qualify the coldnes ▪ and moisture thereof ) unless it be corrected and amended with sugar of iron ▪ made out of the very mine of iron , or with spirit of vitrial , for want of the other . the fittest time in the morning , is betwixt six and seven of the clock , for those that be of a strong digestion . but as for those that are very sick with a nauseousness in their stomacks , in case they rise early ; i advise that they lye longer in their bed , and sleep for the better digestion of those crudities , for otherwise they will be carried down with the water into the narrower passages , and cause great obstructions , and the water thereby become more impassible . as for the taking of the waters in the afternoon , i have occasionally declared my judgement with the reasons thereof , in the tenth chapter , page . chap. xiii . of the dyet to be observed by spaw-drinkers . the greatest reason why many receive but little benefit , and some none by the spaw , is ▪ because of their intemperancy in respect of dyet . this water for the most part begetteth a very great appetite , by reason whereof many forget themselves at table , putting in more than nature can dispose of , and hence are crudities , the nursery of all diseases ; and it is true what galen saith , affirming , that no man shall be vexed with sicknes that is not oppressed with crudities . and whence crudities , saith hippocrates , but from fulnes , affirming also , that to eat without fulnes is the rule of health ? he also saith , that what diseases so ever are cured by evacuation , are caused by repletion : and do not we see that all diseases are cured by evacuation , viz. vomiting , purging , bleeding , sweat , and urine ? when the chylus is ill concocted , or rather corrupted ( for aristotle calls it {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , not {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} corruption , not concoction ) it passeth crude through the whole body , for the second concoction doth not amend the first , nor the third the second , so that hence of necessity great obstructions , the occasion of tensions , gripings , all manner of hypochondriacal distempers , stone , gravel , distemper of the head , heart , liver , stomack , bowels , limbs , and indeed of all parts . there is an italian proverb , that he that will eat much , must eat little , that is , by eating little he shall live long and so eat much . a sober dyet , as it prevents , so also cures many infirmities , and distempers by diminishing crudities already bred , and reducing all the humours of the body to the government of nature . let such dyet be used , as may not hinder the effects of the spaw , being of a good laudable nourishment , of easie digestion , and may freely pass through the vessels , serving for the distribution thereof . let not the meat be dressed , or sauced deliciously , so as to prolong appetite , beyond the satisfaction of natural hunger , and thirst , thereby causing a greater quantity to be taken in , than otherwise would , or nature requires , or can digest . for the most part meat offends more by its quantity than quality . in more particular manner i forbid all flesh that is very salt , and fat , bacon , pork , neatsfeet , tripes , tame ducks , geese , gizards of poultry , all salt fish , eels , and all things that come from milk ( except butter , whey , milk , pottage , chees-curds ) also leeks , onions , parsnips , cabbage , muskmillions , cucumbers . helmont forbids nothing , onely excess , saying , that nature hates curiosities . i could reckon up divers other things that i should forbid , but because they are never used at the spaw , it will be needles to mention them . i disapprove not of beef , if it hath been salted but a week , especially for those that love it . i allow for those whose bloud , and livers are hot , pears , apples , plums , cherries , rasp-berries , ripe goose-berries and raw sallets , but with this caution , that they be eaten a little before supper , and also sparingly , and one glass of white wine drank after them , for they do temper the bloud , and promote the curing of the distemper thereof . i forbid much variety of meats , because of the unequalness of their concoction , and because nature is ( although the pallate be not ) best satisfied with simplicity of dyet . and excellently doth macrobius discuss this point . as for drinks ▪ i commend beer , or ale , that is neither too small , or too new . they , whose stomacks are very cold ▪ may drink beer , or ale as strong as can be made , and also a glass , or two of sack with a rost put into it , which they may eat ; and these do much further , and help concoction . i approve of the drinking of pure , thin , well refined white and rhenish wine , but not at meals ▪ unless in a very little quantity , because they are very diuretical , and penetrative , carrying down with them to the liver , and through the narrow vessels , the crude juyce of the meat , before it be concocted , thereby endangering obstructions ; but let them be drunk a little before supper . the time of eating must be considered according to the passing of the water through the body , for when the urine begins to change its colour , passing from white to a higher colour , then is it a sign that the water is passed through , and then something may be eaten and not before , unless when good part of the water , although not all , hath passed through freely , and then ceased for an hour , or two , and then also it is time to eat something , for it may be that nature hath disposed of the residue that is left behind , & retained , for some other uses , as to moisten some dry parts of the body , or the like . they that are first ready to eat , may stay their stomacks as we call it , with a mess of broth , which commonly is there made very good , and then have so much good fellowship and civility to wait for their dinners till all the good company of the house be ready for the same . let the supper be larger , than the dinner , because in the evening the stomack is less laxated , and languid , than at noon , and can therefore concoct a greater quantity of meat . yet the supper must not be very large , neither greater than what the stomack can be well able perfectly to concoct before the next morning . let it be ready at six at least , if not seven hours after dinner . i advise that all , whether it be at dinner , or supper , that they lerve with an appetite , & eat not half so much as the spaw drinkers usually do , indulging their pallates , and gratifying their stomacks according to the measure of their appetites , which many times is rather adventious , or preternatural , then natural . i utterly disapprove of mixing of the spaw water , with either wine , or beer , but yet i allow of the drinking of a glass of it self at bed time , for the corroborating and closing of the mouth of the stomack , and suppressing of vapours , which would otherwise disturb the brain from quiet sleep . chap. xiv . of the sulphur-well . this is called the sulphur-well ; by reason of its sulphurious odour , although besides this , it hath two other qualities , viz. saltness , and bitterness . i shall in the first place endeavour to prove , whence it contract its saltness , and thereby i shall the better make to appear the cause of it stanch and bitterness . now , because the salt , which this water yields upon evaporation , is of the same nature with , & cannot be distinguished either in odour , or tast ( the stanch being lost in the evaporation ) from common black sea-salt , i shall first declare what is the cause of the saltness of the sea , which is no other than that of this water . and first i shall shew what is not the cause of it , thereby confuting the opinion of many ancient philosophers , and their followers . . the saleness of the sea , is not caused by the suns exhaling the sweeter parts out of it , as was the opinion of aristotle ; for this supposeth that there was the same saltness in the sea before ▪ but was not , but upon this account manifested , but this can not be , for then , why are not other waters , as rivers , ponds , lakes , &c. made saltish also by the suns exhaling their sweeter vapours . . the sun doth not boil into the sea , by the vehemency of its heat , that saline tast , according to pliny being almost of the aforesaid opinion , for then , why doth not the sun work the same effect , upon a pond , or vessel of water , on which it may work more vigorously , by heating more vehemently , viz. ( because it is less resisted , by reason of the small quantity of water in them ) than on the ocean ? . this saltnes is not caused ( as scaliger would have it , ) by rain , mixt with hot , dry , and terrene exhalations ; for the rain it self would also then be saltish , which indeed is most sweet , and if it were saltish , then why are not pits , rivers , &c. which are many times filled with rain-water , saltish also ? now the weakness of these opinions , viz. ( the chiefest that have usually been embraced ) being detected , i shall shew from whence very probably this saltness of the sea may proceed . we must therefore in the first place consider that the sea is not simply saltish , but saltish and bitter together , that is , it hath a tast made up of bitterness , and saltness : for which cause , as saith , our learned countrey-man , mr. lydyat , in his disquisitio physiologica de origine fontiam , chap. . de salsedine maris , the latines gave these two names to it , viz. mare , quasi amarum , & salum , quasi salsum . and this aristotle himself consents to , giving the reason of those two tasts in general , and of them in the sea in particular , where he saith , that all kinds of tasts arise from a kind of terreness more , or less adust ; but bitterness from a terreness , very much elaborated by a fiery heat in the burning bowels of the earth ; and saltness , where that heat is somewhat remitted . if so , then let us consider whether there be not abundance of terrene adustness in the bowels of the earth , and gulfs of the sea where a bituminous fire is alwayes burning , being fed by water ( as i declared more at large in the . chap. viz. of the original of springs in general ) and that whether we may not probably conclude , and especially because bitumen is bitter , and very full of salt , that the burning of the bitumen together with the terreness therewith mixed in the gulfs of the sea be not the cause of the saltness thereof . moreover , that bitumen hath a great power to communicate to , and beget a bitter , and saltish tast in water , is confirmed , by that which geographers write concerning the lake of palestina , which is called in greek {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} , i. e. bituminous . for say they , the lake is so bitter , and saltish , that no fishes can live therein , and it is called in sacred writ the salt sea {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} {non-roman} . and historians say of it , that if a man be cast into it bound hand and foot , he cannot be drown'd ; and the reason of this is the saltness thereof , for we see that waters bear the greater burdens , by how much the salter they are , witness the difference betwixt the sea , and fresh rivers , and our boiling of brine till an egg swim thereon , and will not sink . this being premised , it will be easie to conclude from whence the saltness , and bitterness of the sulphur-well proceeds . and as for the stinking odour thereof , that i suppose is caused from the vapours of the burning bitumen , and adust terreness mixt therewith , which lye not far from the very head of the well . ob. if there be the same reason for the saltness of this spring as there is of the sea , then why is there not the same reason for the sulphurious odour of the sea as of this , and why doth not the sea receive , and retain the same odour as this doth ? sol. i do not deny , but the same odour may be communicated to the sea , as to this water , together with the saltness thereof ; but because the saltness thereof was communicated to it by degrees , viz. from some certain gulfs of the sea , so also this odour ; for it cannot be rationally conceived , that the whole sea received all its salt into it self at one time after a natural way , and therefore being such a great body must become saltish by little and little even insensibly . and accordingly the sulphurious odour also is imparted to it insensibly , and although the saltness may continue by reason that the salt it self is of a fixed substance , yet the odour being of a subtile volatile nature , is exhaled by the sun , and so lost . but now the case is far otherwise in the water of this sulphur-well , for this is at once fully impregnated with the said saltness and sulphurious odour , and immediatly passeth away through narrow channels● , and veins of the earth , without any vanishing of the odour ( by means of the sun , or otherwise ) which it contracted from the bituminous vapours . ob. what is the reason that seeing this water hath passed lately through the bituminous burnings , as it appears by its fresh odour of the same , should be cold , and not hot , as hot baths are ? sol. . it was the opinion of fallopius , that such kind of waters proceed from a remote fire , but passing through narrow passages retain their full odour , and tast , ( which cannot be vanished by the way any otherwise , than smoak through a chimney , or pipe ) although by the length of its passage , it may loose its heat . . though the fire be near to the superficies of the earth , where this water breaketh forth , yet it is very probable that the coldness thereof may proceed from a mixture of a cold spring before the breaking forth thereof . neither let it seem strange to any , that cold springs and hot may be so near together in the bowels of the earth : for just above the head of this sulphur-well there arise two cold springs , which meet and run down within a few feet of the head of the same . and mr. jones in his treatise of buck-stones bath in derbishire saith , that the cold springs and hot springs are so near ▪ that a man may put one finger in the cold , and another in the hot . having in some measure declared unto you the cause of this sulphur-well viz. of its saltness , bitterness , and sulphurious odour , i shall in the next place give an account of some experiments , and observations which i made , and they are these ▪ viz. . if silver be put into this water , it is thereby tinged first yellow , and then black , but gold is not all discoloured thereby . . if this water be a little boiled , it looseth its tinging property , and also stinking odour . . it coagulates milk , if it be boiled therewith . . the distilled water thereof looseth its odour and doth not coagulate milk . . if the water be boiled , it will still coagulate milk , though it looseth its odour . . seven gallons yield by evaporation a pound of salt , which though at first black , i have made as white as snow . . this salt coagulates milk also . . this water kills worms , and such kind of creatures presently , if they be put therein . . i filled two vial glasses with this water in wet weather , and stopt the one , but the other i left open . the water in that which was stopt , within an hour , or two , became white , and thick , and within two , or three dayes deposited a white sediment , and the sides of that glass were furred , the water in the other glass altered not . . i filled two vial glasses in fair weather , whereof the one i stopt , but the other left open , the water in neither of them turned colour any whit considerably , onely a kind of a thin whitish matter , after two , or three dayes fell to the bottom , the water continuing very clear . the water of that glass which was stopt , retained its odour most . . a pint of this water weighs two scruples , i. e. fourty grains more than a pint of common spring-water . note that the reason of its tinging white metals is not from any bodily sulphur , or bitumen mixt with it , ( for the substance of them will not mix with water , but swim on it , as in the spring at pitchford in shropshire , and in avernia , in france , and in divers other places ) but from the vapours , or the subtile atomes & efluvia's thereof , which are mixed with the water , and in boiling are evaporated . the reason of its coagulating property is from some occult acidity in the salt thereof , which to sense is not perceptible , onely by effect . out of the salt is drawn a very good spirit of excellent vertue , as i shall declare in the next chapter . before i conclude this chapter , it will be worth taking notice , that about yards above the head of this sulphur-well is a bog , of about twenty yards diameter , in which i digged a mineral kind of substance , like the finders of iron , but almost rotten , being corroded with some acid spirits , of which that bog is full , as also other places . this mineral substance being cast into the fire burns blew , and smels like sulphur ; it is in tast like vitrial , and out of it vitrial may be drawn ▪ nay , in time it will be almost all resolved into vitrial . for i washed it , and set it in a cellar for two , or three dayes , and it was covered over with a white sweeetish vitrial ; which i dissolved in water , and set the said substance in a cellar again , and it contracted the like , & i did as before still reiterating this work till it was almost all turned to vitrial . in the said bog i found three or four sorts of waters , viz. a sulphur , and vitrioline , and of each two sorts . this was done the last day of my abode there , and therefore i had not time to make any further search , onely some of that mineral substance i took with me , with which i tried the aforesaid experiments . if any gentleman would be pleased to expend some costs in digging up this bog , and erecting some new wels there ▪ he would prove an acceptable benefactor to his countrey , and it may be some new kind of water might be discovered hereby having yet more vertues than any of the former . note that the stink of this sulphur-well is perceived afar off , especially in moist and cold weather . chap. xv . of the vertues , and uses of the sulphur-well together with directions and cautious for the taking of it . the use of this water is either inward , or outward . it being taken inwardly incideth , abstergeth , attenuates and resolves viscous thick humours , and irritates every vessel of the body to expel whatsoever humours are offensive in them . it openeth , and removes those strong and obstinate obstructions , whether in men , or women , that would not yield to any other medicine whatsoever . it doth oftentimes evacuate by stool great lumps of viscous slimy matter , which was certainly , whilest it was in the body , the cause of some great distemper , oppressure , gripings , tensions , &c. and which could hardly any other way be removed . it heateth , and quickneth the stomack , bowels , liver , spleen , bloud , veins , nerves , and indeed the wholy body , in so much that it consumes crudities , rectifieth all cold distempers in all parts of the body , causeth a good digestion , cures the dropsie , spleen , scurvy , green sickness , gout , cramp ▪ epilepsie ▪ head-ach , vertigo , kings ▪ evil , and all such symptomes as proceed either from crudities , cold , viscous , slimy , or corrupt humours , which obstruct & distemper the stomack , bowels , messentery , liver , veins , brain , and nerves , and these though of long continuance . it killeth worms infallibly . note that this water must be begun by degrees , and the full proportion be taken not at once , but at several times , exercise intermediating ▪ as in the taking of the spaw . the full dose , or quantity to be taken must be proportioned according to the constitution & strength of the party & his bearing of it , as also the humour offending , the predominancy of the distemper , and the aptness of the body to be wrought upon . in cold , dull bodies more may be taken than otherwise may . in general , let the proportion to be taken ▪ be such , as may cause four , six , or seven stools , without auy manifest inconveniency of the fewness , or multiplicity thereof . note that in many bodies this water works very quickly , and indeed too soon , and in such a case my advise is , that two , or three glasses of the spaw-water be first drunk , for that will somewhat impede the sudden operations thereof , & cause it to continue longer in the body , for the better performing of its operation therein before it pass through it . note also that after the full proportion is taken , and in a good measure passed through the body , four , or six glasses of the spaw-water may be drunk for the prevention of the excoriation of the bowels and fundament , especially in hot cholerick bodies . they that cannot drink this water by reason of its stinking odour , and yet stand in great need of the effects thereof , may boil it a little while , till it hath lost its odour , and then drink of it , for although some vertue vanisheth with the odour thereof , yet the greatest and most effectual vertues which are in the salt , and aforesaid subtile acidity thereof do yet continue as i have often tried , or if they please , put some salt thereof into the spaw-water , and so drink it , for indeed as i said before , the chiefest vertue lies in the salt . the salt also thereof being rightly made , & put into any common spring-water , doth in good measure perform the same effects . the spirit of this salt is of excellent vertue , if a drop , or two thereof be put into every glass of the spaw-water , for it makes it far more penetrative , and indeed far more effecutal against all distempers , and diseases , as the dropsie , gravel , stone , and suppression of urine , &c. i advise , that they that have any inflammation , or excoriation in their bowels , abstain altogether from the taking of this water , because it will inflame them more ; also they that have ulcers , and inflammations in their kidnies , and bladder , and are troubled with a sharpness of urine . such directions for exercise , and diet , as i have prescribed for the spaw drinkers , i prescribe also to sulphur-water-drinkers for the general ; onely this liberty i grant them , viz. that these may exercise less , and feed a little more liberally than spaw-drinkers . this water used outwardly dissolves hard tumours , cures old ulcers , the scab , the itch , the scurff , leprosie , and all such breakings out whatsoever , if the parts ill affected be washed , and bathed therewith , for it dries , consumes all corrupt humours in the habit of the body , and prevents all putrefaction of humours in the same . it being used by way of a warm bath for the whole body , is of the same efficacy , as paracelsus saith , that his liquamen salis , i. e. brine is of , and that is to consume all humid distempers , whether hot , or cold , as the dropsy , gout ▪ hard tumours , swellings of the legs leprosy , and the like , also it makes the falean , and reduceth them into a natural dry , firm , healthy habit of body , but it must cautiously be done with the observing of such rules and directions , as i prescribed for bathing in warm water , as in chapter the . i wish there were more conveniencies , as fit vessels for bathing , at this well , than are , for i believe that after a time , baths with this water would grow more in use , and become as famous as those hot baths in sommersetshire for many uses . the spirit of the salt rubbed into any parts swelled , or pained onely , cures them presently . and as the waters themselves are outwardly used for cleansing ▪ and healing , so also there is a kind of slimy bituminous mud below the sulphur-well ▪ which will burn like sulphur , and is of great efficacy for mollifying , digesting , and resolving hard tumours , and for corroborating weak infirm parts , and allaying of pains , and aches in the limbs , of what nature so ever , being outwardly applied . as i am silent in particularizing cures , yet one strange cure i cannot but mention ▪ viz. a certain youth came the last year to these waters from the more remore northern parts , having on each finger a horn , covering the top thereof , and also a horny substance on his wrests , and face ▪ which with the inward , and outward use of this sulphur-water did in a little time , being loosed thereby all fall off . if such excrescenices may be loosened and made to fall off thereby , then attendite cornigeri ! en vobis medelam ! chap. xvi . of the dropping , or petrifying-well . over against the castle of knaresborow , the river nide running betwixt , ariseth a certain spring , in the manner of other springs in a high ground , which running a little way in an entire stream , is at the brow of a descent by a dam of ragged stones , divided into several trickling branches , whereof some drop , and some stream down , partly over ▪ and partly through a jetting rock , and this spring is of a petrifying nature , for of it was the rock , from which it distils , wholly made , and is by it daily increased , notwithstanding the cutting off great pieces from it . this water also generates stones where it fals , and likewise where it runs , but not all the way it runs , but near the place onely where it fell , the reason of which i shall presently shew . if any stick , or piece of woodlye in it some weeks , it will be can died over with a stony whitish crust , the inward part of the wood continuing of the same nature as before . but any soft spongie substance , as moss , leaves of trees , &c. into the which the water can enter , will thereby in time become seemingly to be of a perfect stony nature , and hardness . now the cause of this petrifying property is , as philosophers call it , succus lapidescens , i. e. a stony matter which is in its principiis solutis , for indeed the principia soluta of all things , whether animals , vegetables , metals , or minerals are in a liquid form , and are concreted by degrees ▪ by a natural heat separating from them all accidental humidities , and fixing them into their proper species . when the water , with which this succus lapidescens is mixed , is in part wasted by the sun and air , it doth then deposite it , as being too heavy for it any longer to bear it . and when that is deposited , or fallen down , it doth by a continued addition , and concretion in time amount to a considerable stony mass . for the better understanding the true nature , and causes of this water , i made these three experiments . . i evaporated away the water , and in the bottom was left a stony pouder ▪ very like to the pouder of the stones of the rock . . a pint of it weighs ten grains heavier than a pint of common spring water . . it coagulates milk if it be boiled therewith , and the reason of this is , because for the principiis solutis of all minerals , nature hath provided some sulphurious acidity for the better fermentation , and digesting them into perfection . the chief vertues of this water are to allay acid , gnawing , and hot cholerick humours , and to stop all fluxes proceeding from thence ; it is also good against burstness , pissing of bloud , all overflowings in women , and strengthens the back . they that take this water , except in case of looseness , must every other day take a glyster , or some lenitive as cassia , manna , &c. every other night , in case it binds too much . this water in many cases is better than the syrup of coral , and the pouder of the rock , or rather the pouder that remains upon evaporation maybe used for coral ; for the truth is , ( as is the opinion of many philosophers ) that coral is a certain vegetable , fed and nourished with a succus lapidescens . the proportion of the water to be taken is from half a pint to half a gallon , according to the age , constitution , distemper , and place of the distemper . the quantity of the pouder is from ten grains to a dram , according to the aforesaid considerations . chap. xvii . of st. mugnus well . whether magnus , or mugnus be the true , and original name of this well i could never yet be ascertained ; it is usually called by the latter . now whether this well was sainted from its real vertues , or onely supposed vertues attributed to it , because first sainted , i will not stand now to dispute , but i rather believe the former . dr. dean , will not have any greater vertues attributed to it , than to common springs , allowing it onely a bare name , and title . it seems the dr. was no catholick , or if he were st. mugnus , must not be his intercessour . now the reason why he will ascribe no other than common vertues to this water , is because , as he saith , it hath no mineral vertues , and faculties , i suppose he means perceptible . but to this , answer might easily be made , viz. that waters oftentimes are impregnated with mineral vertues , and spirits to , although insensibly . who would have thought that the dropping-well would have yielded a stony pouder upon evaporation , and coagulate milk ? besides if upon experiment nothing could be found perceptible to sense in waters , must we alwayes judge of things by sense , and not sometimes by effects ? in many mineral waters the substance of minerales , and metals is mixed , in other some the gross , perceptible vapours onely , and in other some , the subtile insensible spirits , or rather atomes , and effluvia's . in this well the last onely , and they are the effluvia's of either lead , or tin mines ( as is the opinion of some philosophers , concerning such kind of springs ) which being mixed with the water , do not onely give activity to its coldness ( as do cold atomes of the northen wind to rain congealing it into snow , which will with much handling , heat the hands , and make them even to burn ) but also a kind of fermenting nature to it , so that when the water hath a little entered into the pores of the body , it causeth a kind of light fermentation amongst the humours , and by consequence stirs up a heat in the habit of the body , and withall draws out the natural heat into the same . and this is apparent , for if any one enter into this water to bathe , or wash himself , and abide there but a quarter of an hour , or little more , he will as soon as he comes forth , presently become very hot ( his body being all over red ) and so continue a long time , although he walk in the cold air ; nay , although he put not on his clothes . nay , many times tender women , who dare scarce wash their hands in cold water , will adventure to go into it , although it be colder than ordinary water , with their linnen about them , and when they become forth , go to the next houses , and lye in their wet linnen all night , and towards morning begin to sweat , and by this means are cured of many old aches , in what part of the body soever they are , and of swellings , and hard tumours , and agues , and indeed many outward distempers and symptomes caused either by cold , or hot humours , the latter being cured by an actual coldness , viz. if it be a bare distemper of heat only , for which alteratiō onely will be sufficient ; the former by the heat of the body , being drawn outward & increased , whereby humours offending are digested , attenuated , & discussed , or evaporated by sweat . also such distempers as are caused by too much chilness , and tenderness , are hereby recovered . and upon this account it is , that they that are very tender in their heads , and wear many caps , and subject to take cold upon every slight occasion , are cured of this tenderness by washing their heads , two or three times in a day in cold water : for hereby the open pores , which let in the cold , & through which the natural heat did too much transpire , are closed , and stopt . before any attempt the use of this cold bath , let them first consult with some able physitian ; and if they please , observe such directions for the ordering of themselves , as i have given in the fourth chapter , concerning bathing in cold water . this well is square , with a high wall about it , and a howse adjoyning to it , where people make themselves ready for bathing , going immediatly out of it into the bath . this spring riseth high about may , and fals low about september ▪ now if any shall not approve of my hypothesis , concerning the nature of this well , let them tell me of one that is more rational , and i shall not be ashamed to learn that , which i am convinced i did not know , or else let them embrace mine . the reason inducing me to declare this of mine is , because i know it is the unanimous consent of most sound philosophers , that waters running through tin , lead , and silver mines , or minerals of a cold nature , may contract some imperceptible medicinal vertues from them , ( and therefore h. ab heer 's . and helmont say , that many medicinal springs are called fontes acidi , from their effects , not sensible acid mineral tast ) and also because i know that this countrey yields almost all manner of metals and minerals , which an expert artist , assisted with a good purse , would easily discover . i believe that many other springs of this nature might in that countrey , and other such mineral countries be found out upon examination , and triall . now for the conclusion of all , let not any one judge me to be a catholick by this my approbation of this sainted well , for i am none , and as none my self , so neither do i hate those that are , or those of any other heterodox judgement whatsoever . their living according to their own light , and within the bounds of civility , is a sufficient ground , for me to exercise good will , and love to them . and as i do not out of any superstitious account attribute any medicinal vertues to this sainted well , so neither do i do it out of any affectedness to contradict d. deane's judgement . the reason of my vindication of it , is grounded upon some notable cures , which i' have seen effected thereby . and the doctor himself acknowledgeth , that it hath , formerly been very much frequented by all sorts of infirm people : if so , then certainly not without some cause . now if it were but their faith in the water , and strong imagination , ( as some may say ) that cured them , yet let them use this water , or any lawfull means else that may exalt their imagination , if that may promote their cures . finis . a table of the contents of this treatise . . the place together with the nature of the same , where four famous medicinal springs are discovered in yorkshire . pag. . . of the original of springs in general . pag. . . of the strange variety of fountains , and other waters . pag. . . of the nature , and vertues of simple waters . pag. . . of the several kinds of mixtures in mineral waters . pag. . . of the original of vitriol , and the causes of vitrioline waters , or spaws , the difference of them , the one from the other , and the reasons of their different operations . pag. . . of the spaw-wel near knaresborow . pag. . . of the vertues of the spaw-well , to whom , and in what cases profitable , or burtfull . pag. . . of some general directions to be observed before , in the time of , and after taking of the waters . pag. . . of particular directions , and cautions in particular cases , and of preventing and curing such accidents and symptomes , which sometimes happen in the taking of the waters . pag. . . of the necessity , and manner of exercise , in the use of the waters . pag. . . of the time of the year , and day when the spaw is chiefly to be taken . pag. . . of the dyet to be observed by spaw-drinkers . pag. . . of the sulphur-well . pag. . . of the vertues , and uses of the sulphur-well , together with directions and cautious for the taking of it . pag. . . of the dropping , or petrifying-well . pag. . . of st. mugnus well . pag. . finis . the colde spring of kinghorne craig his admirable and new tryed properties, so far foorth as yet are found by experience. written by patrik anderson d. of physick. anderson, patrick, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a stc estc s this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text is available for reuse, according to the terms of creative commons . universal . the text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. early english books online. 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[ ] p. printed by thomas finlason, printer to the kings most excellent majestie, edinburgh : . running title reads: the cauld spring of kinghorne craige. signatures: pi² a-d⁴ (-d , blank?). the aberdeen university library copy on umi microfilm is actually one of the national library of scotland, edinburugh copies. reproduction of the original in the national library of scotland, edinburgh. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database 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-- kinghorn -- early works to . - tcp assigned for keying and markup - aptara keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion the colde spring of kinghorne craig , his admirable and new tryed properties , so far foorth as yet are found true by experience . written by patrik anderson d. of physick . disco orbi , quod quisque sibi . edinburgh , printed by thomas finlason , printer to the kings most excellent majestie . . psalme . vers . and . the lord claue the rocks in the wildernesse , and gaue the people to drinck , as of the great deepes . . hee broght floodes also out of the stonie rock , so that hee made the waters to descend like the rivers . . yet they sinned still against him , and provoked the highest in the wildernesse . kinghorn crag wisedome of solom . cap. . when they were thristie they called vpon thee , and thou gaue them water out of the high rock , and their thirst was quenched out of the hard stone . aa to the right noble and illustrious lord , iohne erle of mar , lord erskine and garioch , &c. lord high thesaurer of scotland , knight of the most noble ordor of the garter , and one of his maiesties most honorable privie counsell , of both kingdomes . my singulare good lord , and patrone . right noble lord , thought water bee but a wairsh and taistles subject , whereof manie lyke litle to heare , far less to taist ; yet is it of great worth and so necessare an element , that without it the most eminent could not well consist . the great emperour of persia welcomed hairtlie one of his meane subjects , who in his progresse propyned him with a drinck of cold water , having no other riches whereby hee might acknowledge his prince . and i hope your l. as willinglie will accept from your owne servand not a drinck , but a discourse of that rare water , which long hide , hath beene of lait discouered for the good of manie . but perhaps i haue vndertaken a warre when i this way aduentured to thrust my selfe into a printers presse , ad praelum quasi ad praelium , a plaine discouerie , perchance , of my owne ignorance . for to speake in print is to vndergoe a publick censure . yet i hope that such as mislyke it , shall either judge fauorablie , or produce a better as speedilie , why may not meane wits in their folies haue equall paines with learned clerks in their fancies ? apollo yeelded oracles as well to poore men for prayers , as to princes for their propynes ▪ starres haue their lightes and heires their shadowes ; and meane scholars haue even high mynds , although low fortunes . but being loath to wearie your l. with a long letter , i am thus emboldned to recomend this vnworthie pamphlete to your honours patronage . for that a greater motiue then that you are your selfe , needeth not to encourage mee to this dedicatioun , so far is my loue engaged to your l. most honourable & auncient house . if it appeare presumptioun in mee to show my loue , my duetie vrgeth mee to it . but setting a part neidlesse feare , and resoluing couragiouslie vpon your wounted and vndeserued fauour , i would euen but request your l. to receaue that which is not , for that which i would it were , letting my insufficiencie bee measured be my goodwill : that so weghing the mynd and not the matter , my simple abilities may thryue vnder your l. protectioun , and happilie lead mee on to some worthier attempt . take it then my noble lord , in good pairt ; it being from one who honoureth your worth , oweth you his loue , and hath altogidder so resolued , and vowed him selfe to doe your l. and all yours , true seruice all the dayes of his lyfe . and thus from my hart wishing your l. and your most noble ladie a great portion of methusalems yeeres for this lyfe , and after it , eternall lyfe . i humblie rest from my house at edinb . the . of october . your l. most willing physition , and obedient servitour ▪ p. anderson d. the cavld spring of kinghorne craig his admirable and new tryed properties , so far as yet are found true by experience . hard by the shore syde of kinghorne , within a bow-draught or more to the heaven of prettie-cur where the botes arriue , direct west the sands , is a great round steip rock , whose fore-front lying so oppen to the sea , and opposite to the weather , is so beatten therewith , as that his superficiall parts are become so friable , and as it were rotten to everie light twitching of ones hand . all this whole craig from the top to the foundation , is so seamed , and as it wer embroydered with a number of whyte veines much resembling a soft & bruckle alabast , & in many places glaūcing in the night , not vnlyk to cristall or some bastard diamāt . this white spar is accompanied ( although but poore ) with some mixture of sundrie starnie metalls , whereof the greatest pieces aboundes of a certaine glauncing , cleir , & skelflie stone called gypsum , wel knowne of the apothecareis , yea and is verie ponderous and weghtie . upon the east syde of the same rock , in a hollow corner is perceived a certaine white cleir congealed water snotting through the moyst clifts of the craig ▪ much resembling the geile of fishe , or representing the stryne of ane evill rosted egge , called of those who are skilfull in metalles , sperma , seu mater metallorum . ☞ out of the broade face of this foresaid rock , springs most plesandly a verie cleir , & delicate cauld vvater , which being drunk in great measure is neuer for all that , felt in the belly . this faire spring ( albeit but laitlie knowne ) is approved by the people which drink thereof , to be one of the most rare remedies for the stomach in the world , gives a good appetit to meate , maketh one that loaths of his meate to be hungrie , and is the onlie remedie for chronick , & lingring disseases , specialie in those who having spoilled their stomach by superfluous drying of cuppes . it is a most confortable & refreshing drink in all hote fevers , pestilential agues , & where drouth most abounds . it refresheth and cooleth a hott distemper of ye lever , helpes all disseases proceeding therethrough , dryeth vp the youk , and vniversall skab , purgeth & correcteth all salt flegme , abaiteth and tempereth the heat of the reines , a great cause of confirmed stones : and is a most soveraine remedie for the paines of the back , proceeding of gravell or sand , causing the patient to pisse out many small stones , and making them to discend without paine . to some it louseth the belly verie freelie , but not at the first . others thinks it bindeth them . yet it seemeth to louse moe then it bindeth . i haue knowne some vomit therewith , but that i suspect proceedeth of surfet : for that the people doe as yet vse it , without rule or praescription . it helpeth many that haue a dimme sight , for being wel put in the eyes , it is more sharpe and byting thē commoun water ; & is a singular remedie for those which are molested with lippitudo or bleir-eyed , & stayeth itching and heat . no liquor hath been tryed more excellent for itching , and heat of the face with plouks , & pustuls then this water , it being both drunck and put thervpon . and is also good for singing of the eares . it is powerfull in helping extenuat and leane persons who are troubled with difficultie of drawing their brath : gives vigour and strength to vithered and debilitat members ; and is the onlie last remedie for all debilities which haue long vexed the body through a hote distemper of the lever , such as a hote gutte ; it allayeth all inflamations inward & outward . guarisce encora il cancaro , i caruoli , i porri fighi della verga , & la scolatione virolenta di rene , ambasciatori certi del mal francese , ma non val niente a i tenconi , overo panochie nell inguinaglia . the geallie water , that sweateth out of the craig coolleth & dryeth being gathered at tymes when it falleth , and the hands & face rubbed therwith , doth procure a verie faire & beautiefull skinne . these bee the physical properties of this faire spring , so far foorth as the disseased haue as yet tryed by experience , & in whose companie i was somtimes present my selfe . now , what should bee the physicall and naturall cause of those wonderfull effects , diverse of the learned are of diverse judgments . for my owne part , because i was the first of my profession that crossed the forh to that spring , being moved partlie to satisfie the desire of my freinds and acquaintence , & partlie to content my owne curiositie in naturall things , wherunto from my youth i haue euer bein bent , as weell at home as abroad : i will onlie write my opinioun without contentioun , reserving the resolution thereof to my most learned colleagues , much more judicious than my selfe . i , at the first , as also many others , thought it but ane idle toy , & a conceit of the people , and as some think it yet . others , thought it a trick devysed by the ferriers onlie for gaine . but seeing the fame thereof incresse and that not by the meanest , but euen of those of best credit , who long disseased , wonderfullie recovered their vnexpected health in their owne persons . at length i begoud to think that albeit it was no vncouth thing in others countreyes to haue such minerall waters , yet rare & but of laite knowne amongst vs. and althogh i call this a minerall water : yet my meaning is not to conclude that it proceedeth of metall alone : for that as appeareth is very poore in this craige : notwithstanding that al those riches of goulde and silver which are come into spaine since the west indies were discovered , haue beine drawne out of such barrane places which are full beare and fruitles , as this rotten rock seims to bee . yea all the ponderous spar inclyneth rather towards the bottome , a signe doutles which argueth no rich metall . for it is found be experience that where minerals are most ryfe , the higher the veines bee to the superfice of the earth , the more rich they find it , and the deiper it goeth , the poorer it is . further , if this water produce such physicall properties be reason of metals , then all springs taking their course through the richest metals should far excell this , which runneth but through a verie poor metall by appearence : yea that wholsome & cauld spring of the brayes of arthrey , perteining to the right honourable the earle of montrose should far excell this of kinghorne . i haue drunk of both waters , and in my opinion the one , might by the like tryall prove as good as the other , & perhaps better . for there , ( no doubt ) is a riche metall whose seame and greate bodie reacheth directlie vpward to the superfice of the mountaine , and there visiblie vncovers it selfe towards the south , the seame whereof is neere a foot and ane halfe in breadth , & consisteth in my judgement of iron , copper , and vitrioll , and no doubt of some silver , accompanied also with aboundance of a weghtie whyte spar , togidder with that glancing and emplastie stone called gypsum , verie vsuall amongst the learned for externall ruptures : which minerall spring ( for no doubt it is one amongst diverse others in this land ) if it ran as pleasandlie from the rock as that of kinghorne , would be in as great request ere it were long . i must confesse that all springs having their course through stōnie grounds and rocks , minerals & privie veines of the earth , cannot but contract & participat of one phisicall qualitie or other , resembling the nature of the mettall through which it runneth . neither needeth any man of solid judgement to doubt , but that all springs of water taking their ishue and race through a hard rock , are to be preferred to any other water , taking way throgh a muddie earth : so consequentlie all springs passing through a minerall rock , ( by reason ) must farre excell that of no minerall , i meane for curing of disseases : for such waters are no wayes fit for dressing of meates , much lesse to bee mixed with wine , because no minerall water feedeth the bodie . now that mettals haue beene of old used for physick , & yet are wonderfull in curing disseases , is no new thing , as lykewise the infinite works of learned physitions yet extant doe testifie . for iron , or steell rightly prepared , then mixed either in liquid or solid forme , and given at convenient houres , and tymes , after due preparation of the bodie , opneth all obstructions , opilations , & stoppings of the noble parts , speciallie when the meseraick veines , betwix the lever , gall & splen , are stuffed with a tuich , gla●●use & vilccus flegme : and is a most soveraine medecin , recomended of all the learned by long experience , for the vnplesand peale coloures in virgins , and other such lyke whatsomever , either in widowes or maried wyfes . iron , or steell haue also power to stop the lask or dysenterie and to heale inward apostumes . and what i haue said of iron or steel , the lyke effects are to bee vnderstude of all springing waters running through the same . springes of vitrioll , helpes too greate moysture of the stomach , being moderatlie vsed stayes nausea a continuall preasse to vomite , and vomiting it selfe : but being vsed in larger measure , provoketh vomite , and cleingeth the stomach of whatsomever noysome humors . it healeth stranguria , a painefull and faschious dissease , when one cannot pish but by drope and drope . springes of silver , doe coole and drye . springs of bruntstone are hote and whytish , smelling thereof , and the water boyleth hote . they ease cold disseases , heats the sinewes , consume humors betwix the skinne and the flesh . they cure the host . helpe those who haue the falling siknesse , heale scabbes , resiste venome , awaik men of the sleeping evill , and doe helpe the gutt and palsie . they cure inveterat vlcers , the hardnes of the melt , lever , and matrice . but springs of bruntstone be not good for the stomach . brassie springs are not so wholsome , but they are good for disseases of the eyes , vlcers of the mouth , palate , or rufe thereof . copper springs are good for dolors of the gutte , short braith , doloures of the reins , and doe heale vlcers . alume springs , doe stay the spitting of blood , stay vomiting , stoppes immoderat flowing of the hemorrhoides , and hinders weomen to part with chyld . springs of tinne or lead , doe heale all cancerous vlcers , schirrs or hard tumoures , and are most proper for all disseases of the skinne . that tinne or lead be in this craig i greatlie dout , because tinne nor lead worke no such effects as this water doeth , neither are they so wholsome taken inwardlie as are any of the other , notwithstanding their cooling and detersive qualities externalie vsed , wherein verely they wōderfully excell . and althogh it hath beene ane old custome to make springes of water runne through spoutes of lead , & that tin bee lesse hurtfull , yea , neerer the qualitie of silver , yet neither tin nor lead are vsuallie taken at the mouth , as most of other metals bee , graunting that it participat some-what of mercurie , whereof it is never a graine the better , but rather the more pernicious for this pourpose . heurnius a man of great experience , thoght never much of water whose course was through lead , & speaking de potu communi these bee his words , at quae per tubulos plumbeos invehuntur pessimae habentur nam plumbi vim perniciosam corpori invehunt , vnde viscerum gravitates & dysenteria : etiam columella prohibet gallinas potari ex plumbeis vasis . and citing galen who componing a medicine ex capitibus papaveris , aquam pluvialem commendat quae non per plumbeos tubulos fluxit : quòd recrementa quaedam plumbi illi immittantur , vnde inquit , eo utentibus dysenteriam adfert , cerussam enim habet . hinc malè medici eliquant remedia per plumbea vasa : etenim galenus stannea vasa vitat ad conservationem remediorum . thus far heurnius . and fallopius ane italian phisition who verie skilfull of metals in his tyme , in his most learned and philosophicall discourses of minerall waters , sayeth cleirlie that leaden springs ar no wayes wholsome taken inwardlie : dicimus , ( inquit ) in vniversum omnes illas aquas , quae habent in se metallicum aliquid noxium , esse omnino ineptas in potu , cujusmodi sunt quae habent plumbum , quales sunt thermales aquae in germania plumbeae vel plumbares vocatae , quae in potum nullo modo sunt exhibendae , quia periculum est ne naturae plumbi conversa vel in lithargyrum , vel in aliud simile , vt solet , hominem enecet , & ideo caveatis a potu talium aquarum , quae habent in se plumbum , & quae tamen ad purgandos morbos exteriores & insanabiles sunt praestantissimae , ita vt nihil reperiatur praestantius . & cap. . si velletis cognoscere quae sit substantia aquae plumbeae , & stanni , qui sapor , quique odor , & reliqua , possetis gustare , & videre , aquam illam frigidam & non medicatam . sed nuncquid & aqua medicata reperiatur , quae haec in se contineat , equidem prorsus ignoro . but least i digresse too far , i say that this water cannot but participat of mo metalles than one : for where ever one mettall is found , there is also some other with it . and althogh it seeme poore to our eyes without due tryall : yet the whole craige being of a straunge and vncouth mixture , and the sparre so ponderous and weghtie , might perchance after exquisit tryall , prove more heirin then is looked for . wee reade these words in the book of that holy man iob , that stone being molten with heat , is turned into copper . finalie metals ar of diverse colours which seeme to such as knowe them not , to bee stones of no value . but the miners doe presentlie know his qualitie and perfection , by certaine signes & small veines they find into them . now because ( as i said before ) the scaircetie of this metall ( as appeareth ) is not liklie to communicate such physicall faculties to this water alone , without some more helpe than the metall . what then ? i take it to bee rather a kynd of doulce nitruse & semi-minerall mixture , wherwith these crystalline and glauncing stones are obscurelie possessed , naturalie inherent & engendred , by long protract of tyme , within the whole bowels of the craige , from the top to the bottome . this nitre in substance , differs but litle from our salpeter , and oftymes vsed in physick the one for the other , the proofe whereof i haue often had . and it is of sundrie kynds , whereof one is minerall , one other artificiall , * aphronitrum or spuma nitri , flos parietis & flos salis : galen maketh mention of nitrū bernicum , vsed of old in bathes , which hath great power to extenuat thick and viscous humors , * and so doeth our refined salpeter . hee speaketh also of a red nitrum , whereof if any such bee in this rock , i dar not affirme : onlie i see in a great hollow caue neer to the spring , a red moyst tincture wherewith the vault within is all coloured , which appearantly cannot proceed from tinne . luminare majus speaking of the kynds of nitrum calleth them species baurach , & minerae ipsius sunt sicut minerae salis : nam ex eo est admodum aquae fluens , deinde petrificatur , & ex eo est quod est in minera sua sicut lapis , & ex eo est rubeum , & ex eo est album , & pulverulentū , & multorum colorum . this craig is also indued but with a soft crystall . the reason hereof i conjecture to bee the low situation thereof lying too warme , and often opposite to the sunne , the speciall cause of the same . garcias ab orta a curious & learned spainyard , speaking of the true crystall , writeth thus : amat inquit crystallus loca frigida qualia sunt alpes , germaniam ab italiâ separantes . and as another of the learned sayeth : gignitur ex humore omnium purissimo in terrae visceribus condito ; necnon marinorum metallorum fodinis germaniae &c. so that crystall is made of water materiallie , and that water of it selfe is fleeting : but by vehement cold is made stedfast crystall . for so it is writen in ecclesiasticus . cap. . the north wind blew & made crystall to frize . the experience whereof , wee may often see in water dropped from a rock or other high place , which turneth into stones of diverse colours , caused by vertue of the vre and cold in that place , frizing the water the materiall substance of such stones . a number of visible proofes heirof wee haue at home amongst our selfes ; such as in rattray cave in the barrnie of slains perteining to the right honourable the earle of erroll , high l. constable of scotland . the lyke also i remember this present yeere , by accident , visiting that rare peece of architecture , the old chappell of rosline , nothing inferiour to the old roman worke , it was my good luck there , to meet with that honourable & auncient baron , who ( although vnacquented ) amongst other courtesies , shewed me the double vaults of his castell most curiouslie hewed out of a solid rock ; where admiring the work , i beheld the water by dropping congealed into hard stones ; a thing no lesse commone than true , as wee l at home as abroad . also in peru where the mines of quick-silver bee , their is a fountaine that casteth foorth hote water , which presentlie turneth into a rock , wherwith the people of that land doe build their houses . this stone is soft , and is cutte as wode with iron . and if either men or beasts drinck thereof , they die , because it congealeth in their intralls and turneth into a stone . in a farme neere cusco , springeth a foūtane of salt , which as it runneth , turneth into salt verie whyte & exceeding goode . the waters which run in guajaquell in peru , almost vnder the equinoctial lyne , are wholsome for the frensh pocks and such lyke , by reason of the aboundance of sarsa-parilla growing in that place , and the people come thither a far off to be cured . at the bathes of ingua is a cou●se of water which runneth foorth all boylling , and joyning to it is ane other as cold as yee . they vse to temper the one with the other . at dunbritone castle vpon that monstrous steep rock , there bee two fountaines , distant two or three fute the one from the other . the vppermost course wherof springing from north to south , is a verie salt water . the other springing from south to north as appeareth , is a faire fresch water : a straung thing to see springes of contrarie qualities so neere others . morouer betwix the two great rocks within the said castle , is a lake or standing pond of water , distant neere . fadoms from the sea , yet no man seeth from whence it commeth . a wonderfull thing in nature , although wee l knowne amongst vs. and in boetia are two springes , the one helpeth the memorie , the other ingenders forgetfulnes . in cicilia are two springs , the one maketh weomen barren , the other able to conceaue . in idumea is a spring which chaungeth colour foure tyms a yeere : for three moneths it seemeth troubled : three moneths red as blood : three moneths green : and three moneths blewish . the cuntrye-men ther call it iobs well . and haue wee not heere neere by our chiefe citie of edinburgh , the oylie well , called s : margarits well , the fatte whereof is almost equall to naturall baulme , and whose power healeth all aching of the bones , & all kinds of outbreaking of the skinne . one of the rarest things in this island . also in siloa at the foote of mont syon , is a well , which runneth not alway , but certaine dayes and houres . and many moe springes drawing their medicinall and divers qualities from the vaines of minerals , or semi-minerals wherethrough they tak their course : now hote , now cold , some binding , some lowsing , others smelling of bruntstone , some troubled , some cleir , some sharp , some sweet , or of no taist the most wholsome water of all these waters ar not lyk the superstitious or mudearth wells of menteith , or lady well of strath-erne , and our ladie well of ruthven , with a number of others in this cuntrie , all tapestried about with old rags , as certaine signes & sacraments wherwith they arle the divell with ane arls-pennie of their health ; so subtile is that false knaue , making them beleeue , that it is only the vertue of the water , and no thing els . such people can not say with david , the lord is my helper , but the d. now after this long digression , having first examined the materiall substance of this rock : nixt declared the tryed power of this water . and thirdlie as i promest giuen my opinion of the metall , or semi-minerall wherwith this rock seemeth to bee spirituallie tempered . no thing resteth now , but to show by probable conjctures , how this sweet saltish nitrositie , may agrie with the late effects of this cold spring . to cleir this then , our disccurse shall be vpon crystall , gypsum , & nitrum : because in this rock litle more is seene , & i feare the italian proverb be true , tutto quell ' che lucè non è oro , it 's not all goulde that glisters . the crystall & gypsum is visible . the nitre is occult & not seene : yet all three concurring & most sensiblie felt in operation : but somewhat different in their particular qualities , yet litle or nothing by their mutuall cōmunication to this water ; and so this way mixed , turneth all to one effect . crystall after the learned is naturally cold , with a drying & binding facultie , almost lyke vnto gypsum , ( but more wholsome ) and doeth all what cold thing may doe . it helpeth against thrist & burning heat in fevers . a button of crystall holden in the mouth when the tongue is hask and dry in fevers , presentlie cooleth & moystneth the same , the experience whereof is tryed in this water . it helpeth the dysenterie or bloodie flux , given with old red vine . it stoppeth & dryeth vp the faschious q. f. in weomen a greate lett to conception . the lyke doeth this water skilfullie vsed . it engendreth milk in nurses breasts ▪ and tempereth the hote qualitie thereof , chaiffed by toomuch drincking of vnnecessarie licour which is a nurses cōmoun fault , & the death of many young infants . gypsum is a skelfie , cleir , & whyte emplasticke stone , verie commonlie found in minerall rocks of copper , and iron , and is of a verie binding and drying qualitie onlie for externall things . it helpeth the rupture of the bowells when they fall doune , it stayeth great sweatings , and all defluxions falling doun vpon the eyes in opthalmia . nitre after the auncients , hath beene a warsh & sweetish salt , differing litle or nothing from our most refined salpeter . and howbeit some of our * neotericks haue beene somewhat scrupulous to vse the one for the other : yet by cōmoun experience in our dayes wee haue observed neither danger nor difference , but that salpeter most exquisitlie refined , may wee l serve for the same . it is of a detersiue , scouring , and drying qualitie , inclined somewhat to heat , which notheles mixed with cooling and refreshing things , worketh many cold effects . it extenuateth and cutteth flegme , purgeth grosse and clāmie humors , even some tyme by vomite , evacuateth crude and raw humors cleeving fast to the entrals , and is verie good to giue for the colick , & grinding of the belly through wind . penotus à portu , à learned and famouse chymist , amongst his other philosophicall extractiouns , so vseth this nitre , as that hee maketh it a salue for al sores . hee calcineth it , prepareth it , draweth the oyle of it , and fixeth it . jn end , hee concludeth with these words . nitrum inquit ad haec omnia praestantissimum remedium esse experimento constat , sive fumatur internè , sive adhibeatur in fomentationibus , balneis , seu emplastris dividit , discutit , subtiliat , laxat , rarificat , ampliat , extenuat , aperit , lubricat . and besyde all this , so far doeth hee extoll it for procuring of a good appetite , ( a power proclaimed peculiarlie to this water ) that hee is not aschamed to prescryue it for this same purpose , to bee given to a horse . to bee short , there is no propertie which the ancients hath attribute to nitre , which with the helpe & cooling qualities of crystall , & gypsum , may not bee appropriat to this cold spring : for what can this water doe as yet , which is not in them ; or what can these simples doe , which in some measure this water doeth not performe . is niter , deulie prepared , good to expell gravel and sand both from the reines & blader ? so is this water . is it good being disolved to apply outwardlie and for heat in those parts ? this water doeth even the same . hath not n●tre a diaphoretick power , and maketh some to breck out ? so also proveth this water but in some . and doeth niter composed and applyed to the stones , stay their inflammation ? no lesse power hath this water . is it not good for the hydropsie , the colik and iliack passion ? is it not good , i say , for the duretie of the splen or milt given with steiled water , for oppilations or obstructions of the lever , paines of the stomach , and suffocations of the lungs or lights ? so no doubt may this water bee found . i heare also this cold spring hath helped paralytick members , the stupiditie , and inhabilitie of the sinewes , contractions of the nerves in the fingers , and such lyke , by bathing and drinking thereof . and that it hath a coroboratiue power to strenthen all the nervall and ligamentall parts of the bodie , moving also a gentle diaphoretick & evaporatiue sweat , which ( maketh me yet suspect that the rock is possessed with some silver , althogh but litle to our eyes ; for silver even philosophicallie prepared , is likwayes diaphoretick , ) confirmeth also weried & feble members , yea & hath ane occult propertie to stay much sweating in tabide and consumed bodies , and that because of his mixt qualities with gypsum , both cooling and drying , and which two qualities to this effect are verie requisite . further , hath it not vnstopped the lunges to many persons , and helped a short braith ? how many people haue beene helped this same last yeere there with , and oppenlie affirmed against all those who say the cōtrarie ? now why may not niter doe all this ? and what simple or miner all doeth so much agree with these properties as niter ? and who doubteth what refreshing power this cold spring hath in hote fevers , in thirst , and in all internall and externall inflammations ? and may not water taking his course through cold crystalline stones , haue more cooling & refreshing qualities than commoune water , may it not coole , i say , all inflammations and heat of the lever ? and doeth not common water even coole & ease inward paines ? then let vs see if the words of that imperiall physition crato bee true , speaking de doloribus renum : multi ( inquit ) post primum somnum , jam perfecta coctione , hauriunt aquam frigidam , & in signe juvamentum percipiunt . and ane italian physition sayeth by his common practick in nephretick dolours , illud nunquam è memoria excidat , nihil praestantius pro arcendis renum calculis esse , quam aqua tepida quinque vel sex vnciarum mensura , immediatè ante cibum mane , & vesperi modicè calidum potatum . and a litle after speaking of thirst , hee sayeth a pastu ventriculo valde sitiente & astuante gelide modicè binas tantum vel ternas ad summum vncias bibere licebit . morover , common water tempereth great heat , and conserveth the naturall humiditie of the body : for which cause hippocrates calleth water , the bodies temper . and auncient histories sufficientlie testifie , that water was the first drinck that men vniuersalie vsed of old , & wherewith they contented them selues a long tyme , to vse it onlie for quenshing of their thirst ▪ but afterwards when voluptuousnes seased vpon mens appetites , they invented & set before them diuerse sorts of drincks , because they thoght water but a taistles and vnsavorie thing . and yet if wee will giue credite to experience and heare but what the writes of the learned doe say , that water not onlie groweth the bodie , but euen maketh men to liue longer , & in better health , yea , and to haue a quicker fight , than wine . but now a dayes our queasie stomaches are become so tender , and so kitle , that if wee but ones in a yeere taiste water , wee are in danger to catch the colick ; no , we must haue a litle seck and sugger , or else our stomach is gone ; let manoahs wife drinck what shee pleaseth , the bellie now a dayes hath no eares for such grammer rules . and yet to speake the truth ; cold water is as vnfit for a woman with childe and for such as are accustomed with frequent birth , as strong wine is vnmixed . then seing that cōmoun water , either cold or hote , hath such evident , and anodine properties : what shall wee thinck of the best sort of these waters correspondent in all respects to the true nottes which dioscorides hath left vnto vs ? and what accompt shall wee make of this crystalline or semi-minerall water , which not onlie is answerable omni-modo to the best ? but also excelleth so far footth as the qualities of these forsaid mixtures may mak it . but to returne to our purpose concerning niter . who then thincks that these nitrous qualities , for the most part doe not agree competentli with this faire spring ; hath not well remarcked the observations of the disseased : for how oppenlie is it known to expell sand , and bring doune small stones both from the reines and bladder , to coole the heate of the back , burning of the vrine , and to aswage all paines thereabout ? experience of the people can testifie , and which aperitiue and diuretick power belongeth both to crystall , and niter . i haue knowne it to helpe sciatick dolours given warme in a clyster with salt. to helpe sore eyes , clenge a dimme sight , to aswage the paines and singing of the eares , and to scoure them from filth : all which doe well aggree with niter . it helpeth the dolour of the head drawen vp as an errhin at the nose , & clengeth the teeth more then cōmoun water , maketh the haire faire and cleene , healeth a reiffie and leprouse skine , and in a word , maketh even ladyes faire . why may not then , i say , such detersiue and scouring qualities appeare rather to proceed of a drying and saltish nitrositie , than of any apparent mettall in that place ; in respect it not onlie purgeth , and clengeth the bodie , as well inward as outward , but also clengeth and purgeth tasches and spottes , both from linning & wollen , and which detersive power doeth more agree with the vse of niter , than with any metall that can bee found in a rock . monavius ane expert and learned physition writing of the qualities of salt , sayeth thus : salem ( in quit ) detergere , & salsa nitrosa omnia , non solum intra corpus sumpta , sed & extra admota , praeter experientiam quotidianam in eluendis sordium strigmentis , etiā vnanimis medicorum consensus testatur . the which also the holie scripture approveth by the mouth of the prophet saying , etiamsi laveris te nitro , & multiplicaueris tibi herbam borith , tamen signata est iniquitas tua &c. but which is worse of all , i heare it hath swelled the bellie of cacochymick and vnwholsome people , and stopped their water : so doeth niter takē before the bodie bee well prepared and purged . and hath it done good to one , and evill to another ? so will any good thing doe , ( although good in it selfe ) if it bee not vsed with rule and moderation ▪ yea & to some also , one man's meate is another man's poyson , a proverb cōmoun amongst vs. and hath it constipat some , and loosed others ? no wonder , for the spring is possessed with contrarie qualities , a vertue proper to best medecines : for if it did not bind , it could not helpe the lask & dysenterie : and if it did not loose , it could not remoue their causes . hath it not cured some without preparation , and others which physitions could not cure ? let them thank god and sing , te deum laudamus : vna enim hyrundo non facit ver : then blesse the spring with a famous report , and say , beatus medicus qui venit in fine morbi . then to conclude , i perceiue my verie lerned frend and old parisien acquentance m r vvilliam barclay , wold haue all the effects of this water to proceede from tinne : which effects , sayeth hee , the paracelsians ascryue to saturne , and so concludeth , sacharum saturni to bee the salt of tinne , confounding two metalls in one , as if iupiter were saturne , and saturne iupiter : stannnm plumbum , and plumbum stannum . tinne to bee lead , and lead to be tin , which ouersight i can not think to haue proceided of ignorance , because i know him to bee more lerned than my selfe . i suspect it may bee imputed to his haist ( as hee writeth to the printer ) in making for the tyde . or else it may bee that hee thinketh the difference betwix stannum & plumbum to bee so litle , that propter similitudinem in ardore scribendi , hee might vse the name of the one for the other without scruple , because of their affinitie ; which if so bee , as it is liklie , i think there is no oversight at all . finalie amongst all the wholsum qualities where with this water seemeth to bee so secreitlie indued , the corroboration of the stomach is not the least : a great ayde in curing of all disseases , and a power so oppenlie knowne in this water to steir vp lust to meate , that few or none haue as yet retourned with out the proofe heirof . but that springs taking their course through tin or lead , can giue appetite to the stomach , i cānot beleeue : nether hath any of the learned ever as yet remarked such a thing . for fuschius the most learned german physition in his dayes , recompting the physicall properties of minerall waters both into france and germanie , writeth thus of the plumbiers or leaden baines of loraine . * in lotharingiae , inquit montanis , balnea sunt quae plumbiers , quasi plumbea , ob nimirum copiosam plumbi mixturam , vocantur . constant ex plumbi , sulphuris & aluminis commixtione . auxiliatur malignis & curatu difficilibus vlceribus cancro , phaged●nis , fistulis , elephantiae recens caeptae , & omnibus cutis vitiis . heir is no mention made of the stomach , much lesse of other inward infirmities this way cured , either by tinne or lead . how then can it bee any thing , but a detersiue & drying semi-minerall nitrositie , which this water seemeth to haue spirituallie contracted , whose naturall & sweetish scharpnes is so tempered by communication of the refreshing qualities of crystall and gypsum , and whose qualities are also detersiue and drying . the effects whereof bewrayeth it selfe more in bellifying , and skouring the superficiall deformities of the skinne , ( then in curing of vlcers proper to tinne or lead ) such as are pustules , red plowks of the face , ytching , and roughnes of the skinne , proceeding of a dry melancholious & salt blood , tetters , ring wormes , and that sort which the frensh men call les dartres de naples , the graecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , the latines impetigines , and with our selfs is a dry ytching scruffe , or hote fla , oftymes chancing on the face , or on the back of ones hand , which ( as paulus , aegineta testifieth ) turneth to those of an ill dyet , into a scabbe or leprosie . the which also that most eloquent and learned physition fernel , hath well remarked in the properties of niter , in these wordes nitrum , inquit , quanquam vehementer tergit , non tamen vlceribus , sed lepris , alphis , impetiginibus , aliisque cutis vitiis expurgandis aptum . and old plinius who was so curious in naturall things , sayeth , it heateth , biteth , and vlcerateth . which affects , say our chyrugions , are no way fit for vlcers : & therefore may be the cause , perchance , why tabide or cōsumed people by an vlcer of the lungs , after the immoderat vse of this water , became daylie worse and worse by too muche loosing of thee bellie ( a power proper in this water to some , albeit vnproper for tabides ) phthisici enim per alvum rarò aut nuncquam purgandi . now because that some may object : if this water had any nitrous qualitie , it wold ( no dout ) bewray it self , either in taist , colour , or savour ? to which i answer , that physicall waters possesse either spirituall qualities , or substantiall quantities , & as there bee diverse kynds of salt , so are they diverse kynds of saltish waters , which differ in their qualities by degreis . for some be stronger , others mylder , some sharper , and some sweeter , & others so insipide that skairslie are they felt on the tongue . and least i shuld seeme to bee alone of this opinion without warrand of the learned , heare what fallopius sayeth of this same subject : nitrum quidem ipsum , gustu cognoscitur : difficile tamen est ex gustu discernere , an aqua habeat in se nitrum , quia nitri sapor in ejusmodi aquis frigidis , non discernitur . item visu nec olfactu vllo modo cognoscitur aquam habere nitrum . tactu autem aliquo modo , quia aquae nitrosae detergunt nec relinquunt aliquam asperitatem . againe hee sayeth in an other place : saepe enim sal & alumen sunt cum aquis ita commixta vt impossile sit per dissolutionem naturalem ipsa cognoscere . item nitrum non cognscimus in aliqua aqua esse , nisi insit ipsamet nitri substantia . to bee short then let none think , but springs of waters may bee indued with diverse physicall properties , minerall or semi-minerall qualities , althogh they nether bewray them selfes in taist , colour , nor savour . but how the , say others , can waters possessed with saltish and nitrous faculties , refresh , moysten , and coole ? i answer that a thousand effects in naturall causes , may also proceed of cōtrarie qualities : for there be many exceptions even in naturall rules , so that sometymes wee see by experience subtile nature so to ouerreach and surpasse the skill of arte in these kynds of mixtures , that simples , natuallie hote & dry of them selfes , by the companie of others which coole and refresh , are sensiblie felt to excute colde ffects . iosephus acosta a worthie and judicious spanyard in his naturall and morall historie which he writeth of the east and west indies , discoursing vpon the naturall qualitie of the sea , writteth in these termes : althogh , sayeth hee , the water bee salt , yet it is alwayes water , whose nature is ever to coole , and it is a remarkable thing in nature , that in the midst of the deepe of the oceane , the water is not made hote , by the violent heat of the sunne , as in rivers : even as salpeter ( sayeth hee ) althogh it bee naturallie salt ) hath a propertie to coole water , even so wee see by experience , that in some ports and heavens , the salt water refresheth , which wee haue observed in that of callao in peru , whereas they put the water or wyne which they drinck into the sea in flaggons to bee refreshed , whereby wee may vndoubtedlie beleeue , that the ocean hath this propertie , to temper and moderat the excessiue heate : for this cause wee find greater heat at land then at sea , ( caeteris paribus ) and cōmonlie countryes lying neere the sea , ar colder thē those that ar foorther off . but to illustrat this by many examples , wer no lesse needlesse then endlesse : for the mater is cleer of it selfe : and therefore i will ende this colde discourse , contenting me onlie with the experience of that famous & learned empyrick rulandus in his tract at which hee writeth de curatione luis hungaricoe , whose words are these : inflamationi inquit , scabritieique faucium & confinium parcium extinguendae , tum aestui restinguendo nullum efficatius remedium nostrates putant insequenti . cape nitri puri albiss . q. v. pila munda in tenuem pulv . comminuito : adsit sartago aenea fundi crassiss . hanc prunis impone , donec incanduerit tota : injice nitri tusi m. vnum . ilico liquatur aquae limpidiss . instar , & dum ita bullit , injice sulphuris puri & triti , zs. elicies flammā . caerulei coloris : quae vbi evanuerit , & tertio bullire nitrum videris , repete sulphuris adjectionem , & hoc ter tium reiterato . demum pilae mundae , aut vasi figulino pedetentim infundito , exsurgent albi trochisci seu rotulae coagulatae . has denno terito in pulverē tenuiss . vsus conserv . rosar . cochleari pulveris adde triplum ejus quanto satis ovo satiendo adhibetur . praebeatur aegro aestu fere enecto , quoties voluerit . nostratum quidam multis in aqua fontana frigid . dissoluti hujus ex nitro remedii portiunculam , iterum atque iterum exhibendo , multos se sanitati restituisse pristinae gloriantur , parantes idem remedium & secretum sibi imaginantes . minimè aspernandum est remedium nobis nec aliis esse debet , nisi nitri qualitates ignorantibus : modo ritè administretur & curandi methodus potior non susque deque habeatur . goe then with boldnesse , & drinck of this wholsome and physicall water , and say not to your selfs , the physitions envyeth it , speaketh against it , they approve it not , and it hindereth their gaine . onlie but carie with you these few directions following . and so faire yee well . ☞ what wee shoud obserue , before wee goe to drinck of such waters . that none drinck of such waters , who haue their back and reines verie hote , and the stomach and whole habite of the bodie cold . for that were euen as much to destroy a whole ludging , for the gaine onlie of one cōmodious chamber . that no disseased person drinck thereof , before his bodie bee well prepared and purged , for by this meanes no man shall haue harme therby , and it is the counsell of the learned . but aboue all things , and which most importeth , that none drinck of the same w●th a bund bellie : for i haue not obserued it as yet , to doe harme to any so much as to those . to he●pe this then , and for such as can take no physick , no thing is more excellent or more reddie for this pourpose , then to carie with you a box of grana angelica , and to swellou viij ▪ or ix . of them hid in a vere or potched egg , which you may doe without harme at any tyme a day , but especiallie at meate in the beg●nning or mids of dinner or supper : for then they work best the next day therafter , and make not the bodie seike , & is a most familiare & soueraine remedie for all disseases proceeding of constipation . it is not good to take it cupe , for cupe , without intermission but to walk moderatlie vp and doune , betwix each draucht , and that yee grow nether hote nor sweat . it wold bee onlie taken in the morning fasting , and not at mea●es , as many er●oniouslie doe , for it is diuretick . it is not so good being caryed a farr of , as taken from the rok althogh it bee tryed to keep longer vncorrupt then other water . the seike should drinck it seaven dayes togidder at least , and some longer as the di●●ease requyreth , eating in the meane tyme meat o● easie digest●on . it wold be onlie taken ( as the learned doe prescriue ) in the hotest moneths , specialie in iune , iulie , and august : yea euen in the verie tyme of our dogg-dayes , so much regairded of amongst vs without cause . the reason of this is not onlie because the water is best then : but also for that it is requisite , the whole habite of the bodie bee patent and oppen , that such cold springes may haue the more frie passage without stoppe , which opning & free ishue in our bodies ( as the learned say ) is not but in hotest moneths and seasons , and which heate with vs is but a temperat heat in regaird of that of other nations . to the courteous reader . gentle reader , this discourse hath beene the birth of my idle houres this last vacance , which i penned more for your particular vse , then for any gaine to my selfe . if you haue found any thing heerein to your content , think well of the author for his paines . if nothing which you haue red hath lyked you , my luck hath beene naught : for in nothing , there can bee no great thing . an other before me hath writen his opinion , and so haue i. if i haue erred & said amisse , i am but a man. if not well ynough , i wish it were better . but if well and truelie , god bee praised , i deserue no blame . i haue done offence to none , but showne my mynd , for the which i craue no man pardon , nor further freindship then i deserue , nor greater thankes then may requyte goodwill , who wisheth well to you all that are well mynded , crauing onlie your courtesie to comend what yee think worthie , and not to disdaine without desert . so if i haue offended in any thing that the wyse can mislyke , i am reddie to make a mends accordinglie , and shall godwilling drinck to you at the well the nixt somer , with a promesse also to doe you greater service heir after , and so i end . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e ioseph acesta hist. natur . and moral . lib. . cap. . institut . med. cap. . de ther. met. ios. acosta lib ▪ cap. chap. . idem lib . ● . nitre * pars est nitri opt. natura producta & non at te parata 〈◊〉 falso putavit mes. * auicenn . antidotar . arab. bau●ach absolute dicitur . borax non excoct . nitri genus est fossile . hist. simp. apud indos nascent . . andern . rattray cave . roslin chap. roslin castel acosta hist. natr . & mor. lib. . cap. dunbritone . ma●g . philos. crystall . matheol . & andern . w●●ker . antid . de lap. ●●g . ca. . gypsum ▪ hernel . meth . med . lib. cap. . dioscorides . * tag●●t . & vve●ker . &c. mes. lib. . cap ▪ . dioscorides lib. . cap . lib. de vera prepar . nitri . penotus de viribus nitri . dioscorides lib. . cap , . p 〈…〉 fallo● . vv●●ker . ●●nsil . med . ex schol. . ze●chil conf . med. cap. . ro●e● . a fon● lusitan . de tuend . valetu . cap. . i●dg . cap. . lib. . cap. . epist. med . craton . . i●●●● . cap. . saponaria . fallop . de foss . atque metal . cap. . de cōpo●● . med cap. * baignes of loraine . lib. . meth . med . cap. . hippocrates . cap. . de therm . atque metallis . idem . idem . cap. , natur hist. cap. . trochis . de nitro ●ord● . notes for div a -e fallopi●s de th 〈…〉 c. . idem . idem . idem . idem . idem . a discourse of natural bathes, and mineral waters wherein, the original of fountains in general is declared, the nature and difference of minerals with examples of particular bathes, the generation of minerals in the earth, from whence both the actual heat of bathes, and their virtues proceed, by what means mineral waters are to be discover'd, and lastly, of the nature and uses of bathes, but especially of our bathes at bathe, in someerset-shire / by edw. jorden, doctor in physick. jorden, edward, - . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; oxford (uk) : - (eebo-tcp phase ). a wing j estc r ocm this keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the early english books online text creation partnership. this phase i text 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a discourse of natural bathes, and mineral waters wherein, the original of fountains in general is declared, the nature and difference of minerals with examples of particular bathes, the generation of minerals in the earth, from whence both the actual heat of bathes, and their virtues proceed, by what means mineral waters are to be discover'd, and lastly, of the nature and uses of bathes, but especially of our bathes at bathe, in someerset-shire / by edw. jorden, doctor in physick. jorden, edward, - . guidott, thomas, fl. . appendix concerning bathe. the third edition, revised and enlarged, with some particulars of the authors life ; to which is added, an appendix concerning bathe wherein the antiquity, both of the bathes and city, is more fully discours'd with a brief account of the nature, and the virtues of the hot waters there by thomas guidott, m.b. [ ], , [ ], , [ ] p., folded leaf. and are to be sold by thomas salmon, bookseller in bathe, imprinted at london : . errata: [ ] p. at end. "an appendix concerning bathe" has special t.p. and separate paging. reproduction of original in huntington library. created by converting tcp files to tei p using tcp tei.xsl, tei @ oxford. re-processed by university of nebraska-lincoln and northwestern, with changes to facilitate morpho-syntactic tagging. gap elements of known extent have been transformed into placeholder characters or elements to simplify the filling in of gaps by user contributors. eebo-tcp is a partnership between the universities of michigan and oxford and the publisher proquest to create accurately transcribed and encoded texts based on the image sets published by proquest via their early english books online (eebo) database (http://eebo.chadwyck.com). the general aim of eebo-tcp is to encode one copy (usually the first edition) of every monographic english-language title published between and available in eebo. eebo-tcp aimed to produce large quantities of textual data within the usual project restraints of time and funding, and therefore chose to create diplomatic transcriptions (as opposed to critical editions) with light-touch, mainly structural encoding based on the text encoding initiative (http://www.tei-c.org). the eebo-tcp project was divided into two phases. the , texts created during phase of the project have been released into the public domain as of january . anyone can now take and use these texts for their own purposes, but we respectfully request that due credit and attribution is given to their original source. users should be aware of the process of creating the tcp texts, and therefore of any assumptions that can be made about the data. text selection was based on the new cambridge bibliography of english literature (ncbel). if an author (or for an anonymous work, the title) appears in ncbel, then their works are eligible for inclusion. selection was intended to range over a wide variety of subject areas, to reflect the true nature of the print record of the period. in general, first editions of a works in english were prioritized, although there are a number of works in other languages, notably latin and welsh, included and sometimes a second or later edition of a work was chosen if there was a compelling reason to do so. image sets were sent to external keying companies for transcription and basic encoding. quality assurance was then carried out by editorial teams in oxford and michigan. % (or pages, whichever is the greater) of each text was proofread for accuracy and those which did not meet qa standards were returned to the keyers to be redone. after proofreading, the encoding was enhanced and/or corrected and characters marked as illegible were corrected where possible up to a limit of instances per text. any remaining illegibles were encoded as <gap>s. understanding these processes should make clear that, while the overall quality of tcp data is very good, some errors will remain and some readable characters will be marked as illegible. users should bear in mind that in all likelihood such instances will never have been looked at by a tcp editor. the texts were encoded and linked to page images in accordance with level of the tei in libraries guidelines. copies of the texts have been issued variously as sgml (tcp schema; ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng health resorts -- england. mineral waters -- early works to . bath (england) - tcp assigned for keying and markup - spi global keyed and coded from proquest page images - judith siefring sampled and proofread - judith siefring text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a discourse of natural bathes , and mineral waters . wherein , the original of fountains in general is declared . the nature and difference of minerals , with examples of particular bathes . the generation of minerals in the earth , from whence both the actual heat of bathes , and their virtues proceed . by what means mineral waters are to be discover'd . and lastly , of the nature , and uses of bathes , but especially , of our bathes at bathe , in somerset-shire . by edw. jorden , doctor in physick . the third edition , revised and enlarged ; with some particulars of the authors life . to which is added , an appendix concerning bathe , wherein the antiquity , both of the bathes and city , is more fully discours'd ; with a brief account of the nature , and the virtues of the hot waters there . by thomas guidott , m , b. imprinted at london , and are to be sold by thomas salmon , bookseller in bathe . . imprimatur sam. parker rrmo domino , ac d no gilberto archi-ep . cantuar. a sacris domesticis . ex aedib . lambeth . novemb. . . to the right honourable , francis lord cottington , baron of hanworth , chancellour of the exchequer , and one of his majesties most honourable privy council . the profitable use of bathes , both for necessity and comfort , is such , and so well confirmed from all antiquity , as i need not labour to illustrate it more ; only it hath been the ill hap of our countrey bathes to lie more obscure then any other throughout christendome , although they deserve as well as the best , because very few have written any thing of them , and they either have not mentioned , or but slightly passed over the main points concerning their causes and originals ; contenting themselves with an emperical use of them . this hath made me , through the instigation also of some of my worthy friends , to attempt somewhat of this kind : which if it give not satisfaction according to my desire , yet may be a provocation to some others , to perfect that which i have begun . and seeing i do it for the use of my country , i have neglected curious ornaments to garnish it withall , but have clad it in a plain sute of our country cloath ; without welt or gard : not desiring it should shew it self in forain parts : mea cymba legat littus . but in this mine undertaking , i find my self exposed to many censures , both concerning some paradoxical opinions in philosophy , which notwithstanding i deliver not gratis , but confirmed with good grounds of reason , and authorities : as also concerning the reformation of our bathes , which do daily suffer many indignities more wayes then i have mentioned , under the tyranny of ignorance , imposture , private respects , wants , factions , disorder , &c. so as they are not able to display their virtues , and do that good for which god hath sent them to us ; and all for want of such good government as other bathes do enjoy . i blame not our city herein , unto whose care the ordering of these bathes is committed , the disorders and effects being such as are out of their verge , and neither in their power , nor in their knowledge to redress . for they have sufficiently testified their desire of reforming all such abuses , when they voluntarily did joyn in petitioning the late king james of blessed memory , to that end : by whose death this petition also died . and they knew well that it must be a superior power that must effect it . in these respects i have need of some noble and eminent patron to protect both me and my bathes , whose cause i take upon we to plead , and to advance , according to their due desert : but especially for the bathes sake , which i desire may flourish to the utmost extent of benefit to the people ; and to have all impediments removed out of their way , which may hinder them in the progress of their virtues . this is the cause sir , why i presume to dedicate these my labours to your honour , who having observed in forrain parts , the uses and governments of all sorts , and being both by the favour of his majesty well able , and by your noble disposition well inclined and willing to maintain good order and discipline , will , i doubt not , excuse this boldness , and pardon my presumption . consider sir , that this is your native countrey , which naturally every man doth affect to advance , and these bathes are the principal jewels of your countrey , and able to make it more famous then any other parts of this kingdom , and in advancing them , to advance your name to all posterity . wherefore howsoever my self deserve but small respect from you , yet i beseech you respect the bathes of your countrey , and me as a wellwisher unto them . and as the common opinion of your great worth and abilities , have moved me to this boldness , so the particular favours of your noble lady , and the encouragement of your learned physitian , doctor baskervill , mine especial friend , who hath spurred me on to this work , have removed out of my mind all suspition of misconstruction . but that as mine intent hath been meerly the enlarging of the knowledge of those points concerning bathes , and more especially of our bathes in somerset-shire ; so you will be pleased to accept of this publick invitation by me to do your countrey good , and your self honour , which i wish may never be disjoyned . and to me it will be no small encouragement to devote my self and my best endeavours to your service . so i humbly take my leave this . aprilis , . your lordships most humble servant , ed. jorden . a preface to the reader . the ensuing discourse of natural bathes , and mineral waters , of the learned author , dr. jorden , having found so kind an entertainment in the world , as to have passed the press twice in a year ; and the copies of both impressions at this time so few , as not to answer the enquiries of persons desirous to peruse them , a third edition was necessary , the care of which , together with some additional enlargements , being requested of me , i thought it might be a thing acceptable to many , to view the work , and revive the memory of so worthy a person . especially in this loose , and quaking age of ours , in which empericks , and juggling medicasters do so much abound , that t is almost as hard a matter to meet with a regular and well accomplish'd physitian now , as it was in former times for diogenes to find an honest man. the great occasion of this general abuse of physick i observe to be , mens beginning usually at the wrong end . for the most supposing the practice of physick to be a mere trade , and medicines the ware to furnish themselves withall , make what haste they can to get , though upon credit , a pack of receits , which they cry up as the most effectual , and triarian remedies ; and having made a shift to truss up , with the former fardle of common receits , some few specificks , presently set up for eminent physitians , when , to give them their due , they deserve nothing less then that honourable name , being indeed but pedlers in the faculty . for there are , besides the use of medicines , which in its proper place is not to be neglected ; many very significant things to be known and studied by a physitian ; as , after the praeliminary helps of the tongues , and natural philosophy , the structure and uses of the parts of the body ; the virtues of plants ; the compositions of medicines ; the nature , causes , and signs of diseases ; not to mention the knowledge , at least , if not the practice of manual operations , with some pyrotechnical endeavours . all these , vast dominions in themselves , a son of art ( to make bold with one of their expressions ) should in some measure command . so that i have in my thoughts sometimes resembled a compleat physitian to the draught of a man , standing on the two legs of anatomy & herbary , operating ( if need be ) with the hands of chyrurgery , and pharmacy , having a chymical head , and the bulk of his body made up of the nature , kind , and cures of diseases , which we may not improperly , term a body of physick . but these agytrae , and quacksalvers , are as far from these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . they for the most part , know no other tongue then their mothers , and are as destitute of philosophy , as a rational method . every plant to them is all-heal , and every trite medicine a panpharmacon . the body of man , they think contains no other parts then what they see in a harselet , and the fire is as dreadfull to them , as to the burnt child . yet they will sometimes make bold to use the lancet , and dextrously wound the heart through the arm. in brief , they meddle with what they do not understand , and are the spots , and stains of the faculty to which they most injuriously pretend . but to resign those juglers to their ignorance and self-conceit , and those that are willing to die at a cheaper rate to their cruel mercies , and confident undertakings , i shall give what account i can of the author of this book ( a man of a temper quite different from the former ) & what alterations have been made in it . as to the author ( whom i had not the happiness to know otherwise then by this his picture , being at the time of his death , and some years after in an incapacity of knowing any thing unless only a knowledge of praexistence ; yet ) i understand he was a gentleman of a good family● and being a younger brother , was by his father designed for a profession , for which when he had accomplish'd himself by a convenient course of studies in his own country ( i think at oxford ) travelled abroad to see the manners and customs of the universities beyond sea ; and having spent some time there , especially at padua ( where he took his degree of doctor in physick ) returned home , became an eminently solid and rational philosopher and physitian , and one of that famous and learned society , the kings colledge of physitians there . in his travels , undertaking in the company of some zealous jesuites , the defence of the protestant religion , he so much troubled their patience , that they resolved to terminate that dispute of his in a perpetual silence , which they had effected , had not his countryman , one of the number , but more mercifull then the rest , ( by awaking him out of his natural sleep , preventing the sleep of death ) informed him of their design , to be put in execution that night ; whereupon he presently withdrew , and left not only the house , but the place , and escaped the cruelty of these blood-thirsty religioso's ; who shortly after his departure , brake open his door , entred his chamber , and approached his bed , with a full resolution to have acted their execrable tragedy . he had a great natural inclination to mineral works , and was at very great charges about the ordering of allum , which succeeding not according to expectation , he was thereby much prejudiced in his estate ; of which he complains in the ● page of the following discourse . he was much respected by king james , who committed the queen to his care , when she used to bathe , and gave him a grant of the profit of his allum works , but upon the importunity of a courtier , as i am informed , afterwards revoked it ; whereupon the doctor made his application to the king , but could not prevail , though the king séemed to be more then ordinarily sensible of his condition . whilst he practised in london there was one anne gunter , troubled with such strange and unusual symptomes , that she was generally thought and reported by all that saw her to be bewitch'd . king james hearing of it sent for her to london , and pretending great pitty to her , told her , he would take care for her relief , in which thing he employed doctor jorden , who , upon examination , reported to the king , that he thought it was a cheat ; and tincturing all she took with harmless things , made her believe that she had taken physick , by the use of which , she said , she had found great benefit . the doctor acquainting his majesty that he had given her nothing of a medicinal nature , but only what did so appear to the maid , and also , that though when he repeated the lords prayer , and creed in english , she was much out of order , yet at the rehearsal of the same in latine she was not concern'd , the king was confirmed in what he had suspected before , and the doctor had suggested . whereupon the king dealing very plainly with her , and commanding her to discover the truth unto him , the maid , though at first very unwilling to disclose the juggle , yet , upon the kings importunity , and promise to her of making up what damage should accrue from the discovery , confessed all , and his majesty received from her own mouth this account . that sometime before there happened a difference between a female neighbour of her fathers and himself , and having in his own apprehension , no better way to be avenged of her then this , impiously caused his daughter , on the receiving of the sacrament , to engage to imitate one bewitch'd , and ascribe it to that woman , which she did , and acted this part in so exact and wonderfull a manner , that she deceived all the countrey where she lived , who thought it to be a truth . after which confession she was very quiet , & the king giving her a portion , she was afterwards married , being by this subtle artifice perfectly cured of her mimical witchery . his wife was a gentlewoman of a name differing but in one letter from his own , daughter to one mr. jordan , a wiltshire gentleman ; which came to pass after this manner . the doctor being on a journey , benighted on salisbury plain , and knowing not which way to ride , happened to meet a shepherd , of whom he made enquiry what places were near , where he might have entertainment for that night ; the shepherd telling him there was no place near enough for him conveniently to reach in any seasonable time , the doctor asked , what gentleman lived thereabouts ; the shepherd replyed , there was one mr. jordan , not far off , a man of good quality , and a great estate . presently the doctor ( looking on this as a good omen ) resolved on his house , where he was so kindly entertained , and so well accepted , that mr. jordan understanding him to be a batchelour , bestowed hi● daughter on him , with a considerable fortune . after he had practised some time in london , he came hither , and setled a● bathe , where living many years , his conversation was so sweet , his carriage so obliging , & his life so answerable to the port & dignity of the faculty he professed , that he had the applause of the learned , the respect of the rich , the prayers of the poor , and the love of all . i hear but of four children he had that attained to any maturity of age ( besides one who perished by that , which by the blessing of god , and the assisting help of proper remedies , hath prolonged the life of many , the bath . ) two sons , and as many daughters . edward the elder , being an officer in the unhappy design of the lsle of rhee , was there unfortunately slain , making his colours , he managed , his winding sheet . the younger , benjamin , or rather benoni , the son of his affliction , a man more profuse and extravagant , desiring to try his fortunes in the world , died in obscurity . elizabeth his eldest daughter was married to mr. thomas burford , an apothecary in bath , and mayor of the city ; and mary his youngest daughter died in her virginity , before her father . the doctor also living a studious and sedentary life , which might encourage his two grand distempers he laboured under , the stone and the gout , in the same year in which this treatise was printed , to which he imparted his last breath , departed this life , in the great climacterical year of his age . and of our saviours nativity , . leaving behind him the name of a judicious , honest , and sober physitian , and the excellent example of a pious christian ; on whom i should have thought it no trouble to have spent more ink , could my diligence which was not wanting in this thing , have procured me sufficient information . but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the doctor is dead , and this child of his survives the rest , which happening to fall into my hands for a review , i could not but use it with all the tenderness and respect , confessedly due to the justly celebrated off-spring of so deserving a parent , whom it so very much resembles . and , i hope , as i have here done the doctor right , so i have not elsewhere done his discourse any wrong , which i had some intentions at first to enlarge much more , but on second thoughts i judged it more convenient , only to draw up a table of the minerals he mentions , with the addition of some few marginal annotations , and to subjoyn the greatest part of what i had to adde of mine own , by way of appendix ( though some things there are of a different nature from his design ) which i intend hereafter , as opportunity shall serve , to augment and amplifie into an history of bathe . by the performance of which , though i shall not be so bold with some , on a more trivial account , to say , i shall oblige mankind ; yet i think i may this , that i shall then , in any mans judgement , have done enough , to deserve a civil respect , from that is concern'd , supposing it now a sufficient honour to bear up the train of my learned predecessor . t. g. libellum istum de aquis medicatis a doctissimo jordano antiquissimo collega● nostro scriptum multiplic● eruditione & novarum subtilitatum varia supellectile refertissimum , legimus , & qui ab omnibus tam philosophis quam medicis legatur dignissimum judicavimus . johannes argent collegii medicorum londinensium praesidem johannes gifford . simon bas kerville . thomas ridgeley . in laudem operis . parve alacri passu liber , liber , ibis in orbem ; dentesque spernes lividos . authores pandit , sua dat jordanus , & usu quaesita multo protulit . aera qui totus , flammas msditatur , & undas , terram , metalla discuit . quicquid in his veteres , docuit quicquid noviu author , celeri notavit pollice . at sua dum exponit , lucem dat , operta recludit , pennaque fertur libera . perge liber ; gratus gratum volveris in avum , lymphae calentes dum fluent . ed. lapworth , m.d. in laudem authoris . numine divino jordan medicalile flumen dicitur , è gelido licet illud frtgore constet : tu jordane decus medicorum , candide doctor , lumine divino gnarus discernere causas aegris corporibus nosti depellere morbos ; intima seclusae ●enetrasti viscera terrae , thermarum vires aperis , reserasque metalia : de gremio telluris aquas manare calentes qua ratione doces , nobis prius abdita pandis strutando physices arcana indagine mira , nio caperis fama , nec inane laudis amore , ut patriae prosis , dignaris promere lucem : qui memoraverunt , vel qui modo balnea tractant , non sunt te melius meriti , vel j●dice momo . jo. dauntsey . ad authorem . si foelix , rerum potuit qui noscere causas , inter foelices tu prope primus eris . sunt , quaecunque tulit vel terra , vel unda , vel aer , singula nota tibi , singula certatibi . omnigenae tibi vena reperta , resecta metalli , nullaque te in quovis corpore vena latet . non tu no●●inibus veterum terreris , ut umbris , nec tibi , ce● multis , quae nova sola placent . et docta & just a ratione singula lance libras● , quae veteres , quaeque tulere novi . nec causas tantum scrutans tu negligis usum : utilis est liberi pagina quaeque tui . hoc unum doleo , quod non sint anglica nostra balnea , per calamum facta latina tuum : cresceret ut gentis per te si● gloria nostrae in lengos celebris per locae cuncta dies . come hither reader , bathe thy tender eye● in jordans streams which out of bath do rist they 'l clear thy sight , and make thee clearly se● choice secrets , which in earths deep bosom be closely laid up , and choicely secret kept , where unobserv'd they many ages slept . here come & bathe in jordans streams thy mind thou there a strange yet certain cure shalt find , of old ore-spreading errors leprosie , which these clear streams do sweetly mundifie . here are two miracles of nature met , here are two miracles of england set ; our english bathes , our english jordans streams are gathered here as natures choicest creams , produc'd by her , by learned art refin'd for th● universal good of humane kind . may much good hence be rais'd , & may it raise as well first authors as inventors praise . nicol. stoughton , of stoughton , esq bis duas gaudes numerare causas ( nam tot authores varii dederunt ) unde thermarum calor ortum haberet ( candide doctor ) tu tenax , nulla , tamen acquiescis ex iis ●ausis : mihi dic ( amice ) cur tibi soli via singularis perplacet ista ? arrogans forsan nimis ipse multis qui viam linguis , videare , tritam : zoili & nigro vocitere vanus ore philautus . sed cul candor tuus innotescit , qui tuos mores bene novit ; is t● litis osorem vocet , & serenae pacis amantem . sint licer plato socratesque amici , tu licet doctos verearis omnes , veritas major tamen est amica , quae tibi cordi est . rob. pierce bach. in theologia . to the author . shall i presume to write in praise of him whose work hath taught the world more wit and art , and shall i not mine own dispraise begin , to undertake and cannot reach in part his worth , his wit , his learning which confounds grave antients in their long tradition grounds ? celsus could brag homunculos to make man to preserve a thousand years or more , yet on himself he did so much mistake , he could not hold his life till full threescore : before he made , his maker him did mar , in this his words and works came short by far . but modest jorden void of these conceits . hath clear'd obscurest points from darkness soul , his learning , judgement , body , soul all waits . life to preserve in all ; his life 's chief soul being learning , knowledge , and the love of truth , he hath made men himself perpetual youth . i. st . ages in former doubtfull errors night from many worthy stars have borrowed light . our sun adorns our daies , whose radiant beams no heat , but truth add to our bathing streams . a fit work for an artist , whose pen bleeds to death-receiv'd opinions : shews the seeds of earth-intombed minerals , which lend heat by their birth to fountain nymphs , who spend their pious tears in pity to regain strength to the frozen nerves , sweet case from pain . who would not strive to celebrate that quill , which doth no fretting gall , but milk distill to foster truth ; being so concise and terse . for to comprise the protean universe . in this small volume : which who disapprove , snarling express neglect of lending love to learning , tenant in this worthy pile , where natures works are polish'd by arts file . 't is strange in dayes of ruffling impudence , which pamphlets spue of faction fearing sense , art should be bashfull ; if you search , you 'l meet it valid in each page , shrouded in each sheet ; asham'd of their rude folly , whose mouths swell to slander worth they nere shall parallel . i 'le venture natures tell-tale him to call , and judge my verdict's not apocryphall . heaven and earth seldom such conceal'd births steal , but he the cause can publish , means reveal . take then a true survey , his lines descry , more trusted fables , then the truth did try ; and pay machaon as a friendly fee for purging of diseas'd philosophy , the tribute of thy praise , though folly fret , such as it made wise will repay the debt . purge foul mouths ( bathe ) that all applaud his pains , who purgeth bodies , and refines the brains . bartholomew man. on the sight of dr. jorden's picture . this faint resemblance shews the seat where once dwelt art and learning great ; but vail'd with such a modest meen , that 't was not easie to be seen . 't is skill in artists to conceal ; the load-stone's strongest cap'd with ste● thrice happy painter , and more , if thine art could lend him breath , as life . that balks with thine , all humane power if but requested for an hour . 't is he that adam made of dust , and eve out of his rib , he must inspire atomes , by his might , mans breath would scatter , not unite . yet a thing like him thou hast made , and we as well as it , are shade . t. guidot● of natural bathes , and mineral waters . chap. i. explication of the word bathe . the scope and argument of this book . the ancient use and esteem of bathes among the romans . the modern use of them among the turks . of medicinal bathes , and mineral waters . hom esteemed by the greeks , latines , arabians , and other nations . the word bathe or balneum is of larger extent then i purpose to discourse of : for it being the name of a form of remedy applyed to the body , it may be framed either out of liquid things , or solid substances , or vapours . liquid substances are water , milk , must , wine , oyle : solid substances are sand , salt , pressed grapes , corn , &c. vapours are stuphs and hot houses . my intent is only to treat of waters , and principally of those which be called mineral , whether they be used in bath or in potion , &c. these kind of watry and vaporous bathes have been in use from all antiquity , and held in great esteem , both for pleasure , and for preservation of health . for there is no form of remedy more comfortable to mans body , or which easeth pain and weariness more speedily , and more effectually . and whereas hypocrates commends those remedies which do cure cito , tuto , & jucunde , speedily , safely , and with comfort ; these bathes perform all these intentions : and besides , may be used to all sexes and ages , and temperatures , without hurt or inconvenience , insomuch as the antient romans had them in very frequent use : their diet being liberal , and upon variety of meats , especially upon lettuce , coleworts , asparagus , raw fruits , and such like , which bred crude humours in their bodies , and had need of some such help to digest them : as columella faith , quotidianam cruditatem laconicis excoquimus : we concoct our crudities by the useof bathes . we read in plinie , that agrippa built in rome publick bathes for common use , and pancirollus tells us of in rome at one time , and all of them most sumptuous and magnificent buildings , especially the anthonin and dioclesian bathes : the walls whereof were of admirable height , with an infinite number of marble pillars , erected for ostentation , and not to support any thing , seats to sit in ; their caldaria , tepidaria , frigidaria , most sumptuous and stately : the whole fabrick so large and spacious , as they resembled rather cities than houses : and so it might well be , when as there were imployed for the building of the dioclesian bathes , as baccius faith . men , but salmuth faith , for some years together . they were placed where now the church of saint angelo stands . the turks at this day retain that antient custome of the romans , and are in nothing more profuse , then in their temples and bathes , which are like unto great pallaces , and in every city very frequent . and yet both the romans and the turks used those bathes chiefly for pleasure and delicacy , and cleanliness : the romans going bare-legged , and their wayes dusty , had need of often washing ; and the turks lying in their cloaths , subject to lice and worms , if it were not for their often bathing . moreover , the diet of the turks , though it be more sparing then that of the romans , yet it is little better : namely , upon herbs , roots , raw fruit , &c. and their drink , for the most part water , being prohibited the use of wine by their religion , must needs breed many crudities in their bodies , yet by their often bathings , they do not only overcome them , but get a good habit of body , their women being accounted as delicate creatures as any in the world , who duly twice a week resort to the bathes . now if those nations would bestow so much upon their bathes of delicacy and pleasure , which were only of pure water ; we have much more reason to adorn our mineral bathes ; which ( besides the former uses ) are also medicinal and very soveraign for many diseases , consisting of wholsome minerals , and approved for many hundred years , of many who could not otherwise be recovered . at the least wise if we do not beautifie and adorn them , yet we should so accommodate them , as they might serve for the utmost extent of benefit to such as need them . for there is nothing in our profession of physick more useful , nor in the works of nature more admirable , ( man only excepted , which plato calls the great miracle ) then natural bathes , and mineral waters . the nature and causes whereof have been so hard to discover , as our antient authors have written little of them , holding them to be sacred or holy , either for that they judged them to have their virtue immediately from god , or at least from the celestial bodies ; from whence , both their actual heat was thought to be kindled , by lightnings or such like impressions , and other admirable virtues , and sometimes contrary effects derived , which appear in them . also divers miracles have been ascribed unto those natural bathes , to confirm the opinion of a supernatural power in them , as guaynerius reports of the bathes of aque in italy : and langius out of athenoeus , concerning the bathes of edepsus , which both lost their vertue for a time . the one by the magistrates prohibiting poor diseased people to use them , the other by imposing a taxation upon them : but upon the reformation , of those abuses were restored to their former virtues again , i need not herein averring the opinion of divinity which was held to be in bathes , make any mention of the pool of bethesda , written of by saint john , and nonnus the poet : nor of the river jordan , which cured naaman the syrian of his leprosie , being indeed true miracles , and done by a supernatural power ● yet it is likely that those and such like examples bred in the minds of men a reverend and divine opinion of all bathes : especially where they saw such strange effects as they could not well reduce to natural causes . and this hath been the cause that in old time these mineral fountains have been consecrated unto certain deities : as hamon in lybia , unto jupiter : thermopilae , unto hercules , by pallas : among the troglodites , another to the sun , &c. and at this day we have divers bathes which carry the names of the sun , moon , and saints : and many towns and cities named from the bathes in them : as thermae in macedonia and sicily , thermidea in rhodes , aquae in italy , aquisgraue in germany , baden in helvetia : and our antient city of bathe in somerset-shire , in honor whereof i have especially undertaken this labour , and i perswade my self , that among the infinite number of bathes and mineral waters which are in europe , there are none of more universal use for curing of diseases , nor any more commodious for entertainment of sick persons , then these are . besides this sacred conceit of bathes , wherewith in antient times , the minds of men were possest , we may adde this , that the nature of minerals was not so well discovered by them , as it hath been since : and therefore we finde very little written of this argument , either in aristotle or hypocrates , or in galen , who wrote most copiously in all other points of physick , yet concerning this hath little ; * and never gave any of these waters to drink inwardly , although he acknowledgeth that they were in use : and for outward uses , held them all to be potentially hot . after these grecians , the antient latines and arabians succeeded plinie , celsus , seneca , lucretius , avicen , rhasis , seraphio , averrhoes , it whom we finde some small mention of natural bathes , and some use of salt and nitrous , and aluminous waters , but nothing of worth toward● the discoverie of the natural causes of them . i● is likely they did pass it over slightly , either by reason of the difficulty in searching out the cause of them , or that they judged them meerly metaphysical . but in later times the nature and generation of minerals ( from whence the baths proceed and from whence the whole doctrin of them both for their qualities and differences , originals and use , must be derived ) being better looked into and observations taken from such as daily labour in the bowels of the earth , for the search o● mines , or such as afterwards prepare them for ou● necessary uses ; we have attained to better knowledge in this kinde , than the antients could have , although in all new discoveries there wil● be defects for succeeding ages to supply , so falls out in this : dies diem docet : aipham b●ta corrigit . and although agricola , pallopius , baccius , mathetsious solinander , libavius , &c. have added much unto that which was formerly known in this point , and reformed many errors and mistakings in former writers : yet they have left many things imperfect , doubtful , obscure , controverted , and perhaps false , as may appear in the discourse following . i do reverence all their worths , as from whom i have learned many things , which else i could hardly have attained unto ; and i acknowledg them to have been excellent instruments for the advancement of learning : yet i hope it may be as free for me without imputation of arrogancie to publish my conceits herein , as it hath been for them , or may be for any other : hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim . we both this leave , give and receive . my end and studie is the common good , and the bettering of this knowledge : and if i shall bring any further light to increase that , i shall be glad : otherwise my intent being to search out the truth , and not to contradict others , it will or ought to be a sufficient protection for me , wherefore i come to discourse of mineral waters . chap. ii. definition of mineral waters . the nature where of cannot be understood , except first consideration be had concerning simple water . of which in this chapter are shewed the qualities and use . mineral waters are such , as besides their own simple nature , have received and imbibed some other qualitie or substance from subterran●an mynes . i say , besides their own nature , because they retain still their liquidness and cold , and moysture , although for a time they may be actually hot from an external impression of heat , which being gone , they return to their former cold again . i say , imbibed , to distinguish them from confused waters : as earth may be confused with water , but not imbibed , and will sink to the bottom again : whereas such things as are imbibed , are so mixed with the water , as it retains them , and is united with it : being either spirits , or dissoluble juyces or tinctures ; i say from subterranean mynes , to distinguish them from animal or vegetable substances , as infusions or decoctions of herbs , flesh , &c. seeing then that the basis of these bathes or mineral fountains , is water , we must first consider the nature of simple water , and from thence we shall better judge of mineral waters , and their differences . by simple water i do not mean the element of water , for that is no where to be found among mixt bodies , but i mean such water as is free from any heterogeneal admixture , which may alter either the touch or taste , or colour , or smell , or weight , or consistence , or any other qualitie , which may be discerned either by the senses , or by the effects . this water therefore must have his proper colour and taste , without savour or smell , thin , light , cold and moist ; if any of these properties be wanting , or any redound , it is mixed and infected . cold and moisture do abound in water . for cold appears by this , that being heated by any external cause , it soon returns to his cold nature again , when the cause of the heat is removed . and whereas air is held by the stoicks to be most cold ; and confirmed by sene●a and libavius , yet the reason they give for it , doth seem to prove water to be more cold , because they make the matter of air to be water , and to have his coldness from thence . but aristotle holds the air to be hot from the efficient cause which ●rarified ●it , being of more validity to make it hot , than water ( the material cause ) to make it cold . galen is of neither side , for he doth not judge it to be hot , neither doth he ever pronounce it to be cold : but by reason of his tenuity , apt to be altered either by heat or cold . i will not here undertake to determine whether all be bred of water , or whether it be not a distinct substance of it self , and only receiveth watry vapours into it , being agreeable in cold , moisture , tenuity , &c. with it , and so lets them separate in rain : and so exonerate it self of these vapours , as also of dry exhalations by winds , thunder , &c. or whether air be only the efflu●●um of the inferiour globe , being within the orbe of his virtue : as all dominion hath not only a place of residence and mansion , but also a verg● and territory where it exercifeth his authority and government ; so the inferior globe of the earth , and water hath his dominion beyond his own globe , as likewise may be thought of all other globes of the planets , &c. but these points are impertinent to my purpose . it is enough for me to shew what i judge of the temperature of the air concerning heat or cold . and to me it seem● most probable , that the air of it self should be cold , as may appear by this , that it is only heated by external causes , which being removed , the , a● returns to his former coldness again . so we se● that within the tropicks in zona torrida , as long as the sun is within their horizon , and beats th● air with his perpendicular beams , it is exceeding hot , especially in the vallies , where the reflection is most ; insomuch as aristotle held those parts of the world to be inhabitable , in regar● of the extremity of heat . but after the sun is set● the air returns to his natural coldness , until the sun arise and heat it again . josephus acosta ur● geth this argument against aristotle , about the habitableness of the torrid zone , that the daie● and nights being there equal , the presence of the sun in the day-time may well heat the air , b●● his absence for twelve hours more in the night reduceth the air to a better temper : and upon this and divers other arguments and experiences , which cannot be denied , concludes , that if there be any paradise upon earth , it is under or near the equinoctial . the like reason may be drawn from the coldness of mountains , which being near to the middle region of the air , and wanting that reflection of the beams of the sun , which is in the valleys , are continually cold , and often covered with snow , which would not be if the air were hot . as for the conceit that the middle region is made cold by an antiperistasis , the element of fire being above it , and the reflection of the beams of the sun beneath it , it is an idle conceit . for these heats on both sides would rather heat than cool the middle region by their working upon it . also take away the element of fire from under the moon , which is an opinion now exploded by the best philosophers , and then what becomes of your antiperistasis ? but i shall speak more of this antiperistasis , cap. . and as for the reflection beneath , it is a weak thing , and will hardly extend to the top of a steeple : wherefore this coldness of the middle region is not from any antiperistasis , but from the nature of the air , which there is not altered either by any influence from above , or by any vapours or reflection from beneath . neither would it be so cold neer the poles , if the air of it self were hot . but the long absence of the sun in those parts , and the oblique beams when it is present , do permit the air to enjoy his natural coldness . and as the airis of it self , and in his own nature cold , so is it probable that it is more cold than water , seeing it hath a greater power of condensation , than water , as we see it congeals water into ice , snow , hail , &c. which the water cannot do of it self . for in the bowels of the earth , where the air cannot freely , pass , water is never found to be congealed , unless it b● compasled by some other substance equivalent to air in coldness , as quick-silver , nitre , &c. where cold is drawn into a greater compendium , than in water , by reason of the density of their substances : and in ice and snow , the cold ma● be greater , by reason of the admixture of air , i● is likewise probable that earth is more cold that water , if we consider it as it is in it self , and no● mixed with other heterogenities . for as motio● causeth heat , and levity , and rarity , so want o● motion , which is in earth , causeth coldness , density , and ponderosity . but it is enough for o● purpose to prove both air and water to be cold . as for moisture , aristotle holds the air to be mos● moist , and water most cold . galen holds wate● to be most moist . aristotles reason for the predominance of moisture in air is , because it is mo● hardly contained within his bounds : but the termination of things proceeds from their opposite qualities , as moisture is terminated by dryness and dryness by moisture : and dryness doth a● easily terminate moisture , as moisture doth terminate dryness . and this difficulty of termination in air , may more properly be ascribed to hi● thinness and tenuity of parts , than to his moisture . for dry exhalations will extend themselves a● well as moist vapours ; and as it is density that compacts , so it is rarity that extends . fire it self is more hardly bounded than air , and yet not moist . those that would reconcile these differences , do alledge that galen speaks as a physitian , and meant that water was bumidissimum medicamentum : aristotle as a philosopher meant it to be humidissimum elementum . but this reconciliation gives little satisfaction . for how the could water be humidissimum medicamentum , if it were not humidissimum elementum ? for the simple qualities are more intense in the elements , then in mixt bodies , caeteris paribus . we speake of the proper operation of water according to his natural quality , and not as it may work by accident . thinness and levity are two other qualities of simple water , which hypocrates commends , and adds this experiment in another place , that it is quickly hot and quickly cold . galen adds another experiment in the quick boyling of peason and beans . and whereas galen produceth the boyling of beans as a familiar example to shew the tenuity of water , we may gather that the use of beans was common in those dayes , although the py●hagorean sect did then much flourish , which were thought to forbid the use of them . but i find that here hath been a great mistake , for aristoxenus who wrote of the life and doctrine of pythagoras , affirms that he did delight much in that kind of food : and our physitians commend them for loosing the belly , and drying of rheums . but it seems the cause of this mistake was a verse of empedocles , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o miseri a fabulo miseri subducite dextras . thrice wretched men , from cyams keep your hands . as if he had forbidden the use of beans , poor occasion to pronounce them miserable which used them . but he meant it of continency and abstinence from venery , as aulus gellius doth intérpret it : where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are understood to be testiculi . cicero mentioneth the the same of the pythagoreans , but in another sense , because beans were thought by their flatulency , to disturb our dreams , and so to hinder the divination which might be gathered from them , as also middendorpius judgeth : but t● return to water : and it is requisite that wa●e should have these qualities , in regard of the manifold and necessary uses of it , both for m●● and beast , and plants : insomuch , as there is n● living for any creature , where there is no wate● it was our first drink to quench our thirst , an● to distribute our nourishment as a vehiculu● which it doth by his tenuitie ; and after the invention of wine , it was mixed therewith , ● virgil saith of bacchus , poc●laque inventis acheloia miscuit ●vis , and he that first found out the vine , mix'd some water with his wine . where , by acheloia , he means not only t● water of the river achelous in etolia , but● other waters , as macrobius proves out of a●● stophanes and ephorus : and scaliger saith th● the greeks called all waters by that name , fro● the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and since the planting of vine yards seeing all countries could not be● grapes , bacchus also taught the world to make vinum è frugibus with water , as diodorus siculus reports , from whence the egyptians had their zithum and curmi , the spaniards their cerea , the turks their cowset , and we our ale and beer ; all which are extracted out of corn , by the pureness of and tenuitie of water . by means whereof we have our broths , syrups , apozemes , &c. extracted with it , as a fit menstruum to receive the faculties of all medicaments and nourishments , especially the second qualities , and therefore it was antiently called panspermia : besides the manifold uses in washing , dying , &c. where that water is accounted hest , which lathers most , being mix'd with soap , of which i will not discourse farther . levity is another note of pure water , alledged by many , and serves well to distinguish it from many mixed waters , whether we respect the weight of it , or the molestation which it breeds in the bowels . this difference of weight is hardly discerned by ballance , both because simple waters do very little differ in this point , and also many mixt waters , if they be only infected with spirits , and not corporal substances , retain the same proportion of heaviness with simple water : and also because it is hard to have great ballances so exact , as a small difference may be discerned by them , yet agricola reports that a cotyle of the water of pyrene and euleus , did weigh a dram less then the water of euphrates , or tigris , and therefore the kings of persia used ●o drink of it , and held it in great account , as also the water of the river coaspis . thus much for the qualities which simple water should have ; for such as it should not have , i shall not need to spend time in discourse , being either such as the senses will discover , if it be in taste , colour , smell , or touch ; or the effects , if it be purgative , vomitory , venomous , &c. chap. iii. of the three originals of simple waters . now it followeth that we shew from whence these waters have their original , which is no other then of the mixt waters , saving that the mixt waters do participate with some minerals which are imbibed in them . they haue three several originals : the one from moist vapours congealed by cold in the air the second from the earth ; the third by percolation from the sea. for the first , it is certain that our springs and rivers do receive great supply of waters from the air , where vapours being congealed by cold , do fall down upon the earth , in rain , or snow , or hail , whereby the ground is not only made fertile , but our springs are revived , and our rivers increased . as we see the rhine and danubius to swell more in summer than in winter , because then the snow which continually lyeth upon the alpes , doth melt by the heat of the sun , and fills those rivers , which have their originals from thence up to the brinks . also we see daily after much rain , our small lakes and rivers to be very high . also upon much dryth our springs fail us in many places , which upon store of rain do supply us again with water . and this is the cause that in most parts of africa , near the equinoctial , where it rains little , they have little water ; and many times in two or three dayes journey , can hardly find to quench their thirsts and their camels . leo africanus speaks of an army wherein were many camels , which in their marching , coming to a river , ( perhaps it was but a brook ) did drink it dry . so that we must acknowledge that the earth receives much water this way . but how this should serve the bowels of the earth with sufficient for the generations there , and for perpetual springs , is very doubtfull ; whereas seneca faith that these waters do not pierce above ten foot into the earth : neither if there were passages for it into the bowels of the earth , can the hundred part of it be imployed this way , but is readily conveyed by rivers into the sea. wherefore although much water be yielded to the superficies of the earth by rain and snow , and hail from the air , yet not sufficient to maintain perpetual springs ; seeing many times , and in many countries these aerial supplies are wanting , or very spare , and yet the springs the same . wherefore aristotle his opinion , which attributes all to aerial water and vapours from thence , is justly rejected by agricola , and by our countrey-man mr. lydiat . so that we must find out some other originals , or else we shall want water for the manifold uses the earth hath of it . from the earth they make another original of perpetual springs and rivers , seeing the first seems to be ordained by nature only for the irrigation of the superficies of the earth , which else would be in most places destitute of water , where springs are not , and so would be barren , plants and trees wanting due moisture for their nourishment . wherefore for the perpetuity of fountains , and for subterranean generations , which cannot proceed without water , they have imagined a generation of water within the earth ; some holding that the earth it self is converted into water , as elements are held to b● mutable and convertible , the one in the other , as ovid faith of the conversion of elements : resolutaque tellus , in liquidas rarescit aquas , &c. the earth likewise , when once unty'd is into water rarify'd . but we must grant ovid his poetical liberty and not tye his words to such a strict sense , although scaliger in his criticks would not pardon a philosophical errour in the first verse of his metamorphosis , for saying that forms are changed into new bodies . but unless there be some reciprocation between water and air , the other elements are not convertible the one into the other . for neither fire will be converted into any other element being superiour to the rest , and not to be mastered by cold , which only must be the agent of the conversion of it by condensation : neither will the earth be converted into water , or any other element , as pla●● thinks in timoeo and aristotle . de coelo cap. . for either heat or cold must convert it . heat cannot do it , although it rarifie and attenuate , both for that it consumes moysture , and also because water is cold , which it should not be , if it were made by heat ; for every natural agent works to that end that it may make the patient like it self : and heat may convert earth into sume and dry exhalations , but not into water , for all water which is not eternal , is from cold ; likewise cold cannot convert earth into water , because cold doth congeal , condense , and congregate , and indurate , and not dissolve and attenuate , &c. as we see in amber and gumms . neither will water be converted into earth . for by heat it turns to vapour and air , by cold into ice and stone ; wherefore the elements are not changed the one into the other , unless it be water and air , which have more affinity and more neighborhood than the rest . and yet it is doubtfull , as i have said in the former chapter : but this generation of water from the earth is impossible . others will have great receptacles of air within the earth , which flying up and down , is congealed by the coldness of rocks into water , to supply all wants . others imagine huge lakes and cisterns , primarily framed in the earth , and supplyed with water , either from vapour or air , or from the sea ; which water either by agitation , by winds , or by impulsion from the sea , or by compression of rocks , is elevated to the superficies of the earth : or else vapours from thence , made by attenuation , either from the sumand starrs , or from subterranean fire kindled upon sulphur and bitumen ; which was pours ascending to the tops of mountains , are there congealed into water by the coldness of the rocks ; where there must be other cisterns or castles in the air to feed the inferiour springs . others will make the earth to be an animal , and to suck water by veins , to serve his turn for generations and nutritions . but why should it suck more than it hath need of ? and how shall it cast it forth beyond the place of use to the superficies of the earth ? unless they will say that the mynes which suck it , do puke it up as infants do when their stomachs are full , which is absurd to say . these and such like devices are produced for the maintaining of their original ; which as they are all insufficient to afford such a proportion of water as is requisite , so most of them are so improbable , and full of desperate difficulties , as i am unwilling to spend time in the rehearsing of them , or their authors , much more unwilling in the confuting of them , to trouble my self , and offend my reader , only the point of subterranean fire which hath taken deepest impression in most mens minds , i shall speak of hereafter , when i come to shew the causes of the actual heat of springs . the third original is from the sea , a sufficient storehouse for all uses , and whereunto the other two may be referred . for that which falls from the air , and that which is bred in the earth , do proceed principally from the sea. agricola for fear of wanting water for his springs , is contented to admit of all these originals , although he relyeth least upon the sea , because he knows not how to bring it up to the heads of his fountains , but is contented it should serve for lower places near the sea-cos● . as i remember i have seen in zeland at westcapell , fresh springs colated from the sea , through banks of sand . but i make no doubt but that the sea-water may serve all other springs and rivers whatsoever , although both far remote from the sea , and high in situation . neither shall we need to flye for help to those monstrous conceits of agitation , compulsion , compression , suction , attraction by the sun , &c. but holding the sacred canon of the scriptures , that all rivers are from the sea , &c. i perswade my self , that there is a natural reason for the elevating of these waters unto the heads of fountains and rivers , although it hath not yet been discovered . for those opinions formerly mentioned , will not hold water . my conceit therefore is this , that as we see in siphunculis , that water being put in at one end , will rise up in the other pipe , as high as the level of the water ( whether by his weight , or by the correspondence with his level , i will not dispute ) so it may be in the bowels of the earth ; considering that the passages there are more firm to maintain the continuitie of the water with the sea , than any leaden pipes can be , being compassed on every side with many rocks : as we see in venis , fibris & commissuris saxorum . now although perhaps this water enters into the earth very deep , yet the level of it must answer to the superficies of the sea , which is likely to be as high as the superficies of the land , seeing the natural place of waters is above the earth . and although neer the coasts it be depressed and lower than the shore , yet there is reason for that , because it is terminated by the dry and solid body of the earth : as we see in a cup or bowl of water filled to the top , we may put in a great bulk of silver in pieces , and yet it will not run over , but be heightened above the brims of the bowl . the like we see ín a drop of water put upon a table , where the edges or extremities of the water being terminated by the dry substance of the table , are depressed , and lower than the middle , like● half globe : but take away the termination by moistening the table , and the drop sinks . * 〈◊〉 this be evident in so small a proportion , we may imagine it to be much more in the vast ocean and our springs being commonly at the foot o● hills , may well be inferior to the globe of th● sea , if any be higher , they may perhaps be fe● from rain and snow falling upon the mountains but if josephus acosta , his assertion be true , th● the sea towards the equinoctial , is higher tha● towards the poles , then the level of the sea m●●● be much higher than the top of our highest hill● but this is a doubtful assertion : yet i dare believe that if it were possible to immure a sprin● without admission of air , which might break th● continuitie with the sea , our springs might b● raised much higher . at saint winifrids well i● flint-shire , though there be no high land neer i● yet the springs rise with such a violence , and i● plentifully , that within a stones cast , it drives ●● mill. it is likely that this spring might be raised much higher . and whereas we see that river● do run downwards to the sea per decline , it doth not prove the sea to be lower than the land , but only near the shore where it is terminated , and in lieu of this it hath scope assigned it to fill up the globe , and so to be as high as the land , if not higher . for if a measure should be taken of the globe of the earth , it must be taken from the tops of the mountains , and from the highest of the sea , and not from the valleys , nor from the sea-coasts . this conceit of mine i was fearful to publis ; h , and therefore had written unto master brigges , mine antient friend , for his advice in it , being a point wherein he was well studied : but before my letter came to oxford , he was dead . but now i have adventured to publish it , to stir up others to search out the causes hereof , better than hath yet been discovered . exorsipse secandi , fungor vice cotis . anothers edge , though blunt , i set , and with the stone that 's dull , i whet . chap. iv. division of mineral waters . minerals descr●bed . their kinds recited . of earth , simpl● and mixed . whether it give any medicinabl● qualitie to water . and so of the rest in th● following chapters . thus much of simple waters , and their originals , which may serve as polycletus hi● rule to judge mixed and infected waters by : galen in many places speaks of an exact and sound constitution of body , as a rule to disce●● distempered and disproportionated bodies . an● thus much in explication of the gen●s , in the definition of mineral waters . now i come to mineral waters , and to the other part of the definition which we call difference , &c. from subterranean mynes by imbibition . these mineral waters are either simple o● compound ; simple , which partake but with some one subterranean mineral ; compound which partake with more than one . and the●● waters partake with minerals , either as they a● confused with them , or as they are perfectly mixed . also these mineral waters , whether simple or compound , are actually either hot or cold the reason whereof must proceed from some subterranean cause , as shall be shewed hereafter . wherefore we must first know the nature o● these subterranean minerals , and their generation a table of minerals with their qvalities . . earthly . simple , dry , cold , astringent or mixed with nitre fullers earth marle abstergent . allum coperas all sorts of boles , astringent and desiccative . turfe bitumen , pex , &c. fat , and unctuous . vid. p. , , . stone , vid. p. . . bitumina . solid terra ●mpelis . succnum . ga●a●es . am●a canphora . boneo . ch●a . titantrax , five carbo fosslis . liquid petroleum . naphtha . potentially hot and dry , in the . or . degree ; except camphir , concerning the nature and qualities of which autho●sdisagree , vid. pag. . . concrete juyces . salt , astringent , detergent , purging , &c. vid. pag. . nitre . sal amnoniacum . borax . altincar . vid. pag. . . allum . vitriol . very astringent , and cold , vid.p. , . . spirits . quicksilver ; various in it qualities , vid.p. , . sulphur ; moderately hot and dry , and somewhat cooling , vid. p. . arsenick auripigmentum risagalum , sandaracha , rusma , &c. venomous , vid. p. . extreme hot and putrifying , p. . cadmia natural , liquid dangerous , and a strong corrosive , factitious , moderately , hot and cleansing , vid. p. . . mean , or half metals ; as bismutum , or tin-glas ; qualities not mentioned , vid. p. . antimony , purgeth vidently upward and downward , ib. bell-metall , not used n physick , vid. p. . . metals perfect gold , qualities un●ertain , vid. p. . & . silver , esteemed cold , dry , astringent , emollient , vid p. . & . imperfect hard iron , opening and astringent , vid. p. . , , . copper , temperate in heat , less astringent , and morecleansing than iron , vid. p. . . soft tinn , cold and dry , yet moving sweat , p. . . . lead , cold and dry , vid. p. . . & . place this between page and , where the th . chapter of minerals begins . ●●●om whence mineral waters receive their ●●●rence , from common simple water , before ●●●n judge of the nature and quality of them , ●er actual or potential . ●●●y minerals , we understand all inanimate ●●●ect bodies bred in mines within the bowels ●●●e earth . i dare not undertake to muster these ●●●ue order by dichotomies , seeing neither ●icola nor fallopins , nor libavim , nor , any ●●●r that i know , have exactly done it , nor satisfied either others or themselves in it : and seeing there are divers minerals lately discovered , perhaps more may be hereafter , which have ●een known in former times , and therefore mentioned ; as calaem in the east-indies , ●●●ma and terra ghetta in turkey , &c. where●●● i will make bold to reckon them up as they ●●●e to hand in seven ranks . the first shall be earth . earth , whether it be bred ab exbalatione sicca earth . ●●●igerata , or ex mistis per putredinem in fimum ●●●versis , or ex lapidibus sole aut ●alore cockis & ●●●de aqua solutis , &c. it is all inconcrete . as ●●●tle water gleweth it together in lutum , so a ●●●t deal dissolves it . but this is no proper dis●●●tion , but only a disjoyning of parts by im●●●ng the moisture which conjoyned them into greater proportion of water ; for waters do ●●●urally run together , like drops of quick-silver , melted metal . wherefore seeing the moisture ●●ch is in the earth , is not natural , but adven●●●ous , not united essentially , but only mixed ●●●identally , it may well be called an inconcrete●●●stance ●●●stance , whose moisture is easily drawn from it , being ready to unite it self with other moisture and leave his old body as it found it , that is dust : yet so as that water retains with it soo● taste or qualitie which it received from the ear●● agric●de nat , fossil . lib. . cap. . this dust is neither a simple body , as elements are , nor permanent in one and the sam● kind : but as it is thought to participate with an●mates vegetables , and minerals , so to be tran●muted into any of them , being both mother and nurse to all terrestrial bodies . simple earth , if it be not mixed with other substances , is dry and cold , and astringent . b●● if it be mixed , as commonly it is , it altereth h●● qualitie according to the mixture . mine inte● is to write of it as it is simple , and so of the rest . simple earth yields but a muddie water of self , and of no use in physick , but if it be mixed with other minerals , it makes , the water to participate with the qualitie of those minerals also as if it be mixed with nitre , as in fullers eart● and marle , it makes the water abstergent like soap . if with allum or copperass , astringer and more desiccative , as in all sorts of boles . with bitumen , fattie and unctuous , as in tu● and peate , &c. we have divers examples all sorts . the bath of mount otbon in italy full of clay , which is a kind of bole. the ba● caldaria , full of ocre . the bath of saint pet● full of a yellow earth , tincted belike with som other minerals . wherefore these are to be judge of according to the several minerals which the contain . but seeing earth it self makes little impression into water , neither do we make any physical use of waters , which contain nothing but earth , i need not spend any time about them . chap. v. of stone . the second shall be stone . stone is another mineral substance , concrete and more heavy than earth , and our mineral men confound themselves much in the definition of it . wherefore fallopius implores the help of marcus antonius janna about it , as one of the most difficult points in philosophie : but in the end , defines it by his want of dissolution , either by heat or moysture . and whereas it is manifest that some stones will melt , he imputes it to the admixture of some metal , among which he reckoneth glass . others define it by his hardness , wherein commonly it goeth beyond others minerals . but you shall have some stones softer than some of those , and therefore the definition is not good . others by this , that being broken or calcin'd , they will not be consolidated again into their former consistence or shape . but for breaking , the reason of that , is want of fusion ; for without fusion or ignition , which is a kind or degree of fusion , metals also being broken , will not be consolidated into the same masse again . and there is no more difference in nature or essence , between a whole stone and a broken , than there is between a mass of metal , and the powder or filings of the same . as for calcination , other minerals may be so far calcin'd , and brought to a crocus by fire , as they will be irreducible , therefore this is not proper to stone . wherefore i am of fallopius his opinion in this point , and the rather because otherwise there would seem to be a species in nature wanting , if there were not mineral species wanting , dissolution by heat or moysture , as well as there are , having such dissolution . and this vacuum which nature abhors , is not only to be understood of a local vacuity , but also of a want b● such species as are in natures power to produce , for the ornament of the world. for if it be a natural passion to be dissolved , it is likewise a natural passion not to be dissolved : and if some things will be dissolved both by heat and moysture , as salts , why should there not be other substances which will be dissolved by neither of them . and this must be stone , for nature affords none other . moreover , according to aristotle 〈◊〉 quoe concreverunt a frigido & a calido , a null●●storum dissolvuntar ; those things which come together by heat or cold , are dissolved by neither of them : of this kind are stones which could never attain to such purity as many of them have , if they were not congealed by heat as well as by cold . also under what species shall we comprehend diamonds , talcum , black-lead , which some think to be pnigitis , magnetis , glymmer , katzensilber , pyrimachus , amiantus , alumen plumosum , saxum arenarium mortnum , &c. if not among stones ? yet these are confessed to be invincible by fire or water . also all pretious stones , the more noble and pretious they are , the more they resist dissolution either by fire water : for this quality sheweth the perfection of their mixture . true it is that some stones will be dissolved by fire or water , and therefore pliny and agricola divide stones into fusible and infusible : but this is in regard of other substances bred in the stone ; which if it be metal , the fusion will be metalline : if nitre or mean minerals , it will be vitrificatory . as pliny reports of the invention of glass by certain merchants , who melting nitre upon the sand in syria , where with clods of nitre they had made a furnace for their necessary use ; found that clear metal which we call glass , ecce liquato nitro oum arenis visi sunt rivi fluxisse nobilis liquoris . behold , with the sand , when the nitre was melted , ran streams of a noble liquor . if sulphur , as in pyrite , it will likewise melt and strike fire . and whereas the striking of fire out of a flint or pyrites , or any other thing that will strike fire , is held by all men to proceed from the kindling of air , by the collision of two hard substances together , they are mistaken . for then diamonds , chrystal glass , &c. should strike fire as well as flints ; but it is the sulphur contained in them : and g. fabricius in his observations , although he observes not the reason of this fire , yet he confesseth that out of any pyrites è quo excutitur ignis , etiam ●xcoquitur sulphur ; out of which fire is struck , sulphur also is to be had . pliny gives the reason of the name , quia inest illi ignis ; because fire is in it . the like we observe in indian canes , and some woods that are unctuous , and ●ull of oyle , which yield fire by frication , or collision , not by kindling the air thereby , but inflamable oyle in them . for air being cold and moist , as hath been proved before , hath no agreement with fire , no more then oyle hath with water . and therefore flame is not the kindling of air ( ' slamma non est aer accensus ) but of fub ginous vapours , which have some unctuousness 〈◊〉 them , and arise from the mater of fewel , and ha● some inflamable parts remaining in them : whi●● neer unto the matter of fuel , do cause a manife● flame : but farther off , no flame doth appear : y● so as if you hold flax near unto the flame , thou● it touch it not , yet it will kindle , by reason t● fire extends further then it is visible , being a p● lucide and transparent body , and thinner then 〈◊〉 air it self . and this is held to be the cause w● it is not visible under the moon . and where without air fire goes out , and is extinguished , 〈◊〉 reason is , because the fuliginous vapours want● evaporation , do recoyle upon the fireand cho● it . this is evident in cupping-glasses , and making of char-coal : where if the air be altog ther excluded , the fire goes out ; if but in p● then although the flaming be hindred , yet 〈◊〉 fire doth penetrate the fewel , and so conver● to coals : which by reason of the fuliginous pours , are commonly black . bellonius s● that char-coals made of the wood of the o● cedar tree , are white ; which must be ascrib as i think , to the small quantity of fuligin● vapours which that wood doth yield : or 〈◊〉 that those vapours are rather sulphurous , then any other combustible substance . as wee that tinby coals will not black linnen , be hanged in the smoak of them , but rather whiten it , by reason of the drying and penetrating quality of sulphur , which will make red roses white . but what shall we judge of those lamps , which have been found burning in old sepulchres ? some of them ( if we may believe histories ) having continued years together , as that which was found in paulus the third his time , of tullia , ciceroes daughter : and another of maximus olibius , near unto padua , as bernardinus scardco reports . it seems here was no air to maintain the lamps , being closely shut up in glasses , and therefore they burnt without air , and were not extinguished , by reason they bred no fuliginous vapours to choak them . now whether these oyles which fed the lamps were made by art out of gold , as some think , and i hardly believe , or rather out of some pure kind of naphtha , which is most probable , i leave to others to judge : only i judge it to be the purity of that oyle , which yielded no fuliginous vapours to choak the fire . if air had maintained the flame , it had not continued two minutes , for it would have been spent and wasted by the fire . wheresore ignis non est aer accensus . if other concrete juice be mixed with stone , as salt , allum , vitriol , &c. it makes them to relent in water or moist air ; and these stones are never good to build withal . but let us take stone as it is in it self , without the admixture of other minerals , and we shall find it to be indissoluble and invincible , either by fire or water . metallurgians , refiners , and assay masters , may make use of this for their shribs , tiegles , muffels , copels , tests , hearths , crucibles , furnaces , &c. where they desire a defensible substance against fire . but it requires a preparation to cleer it from all combustible and dissoluble admixture : as they may easily do , after they have powdred their stone , to calcyne 〈◊〉 and wash it well . this work being often repeated , will make it fit for their purpose : an● they may use it either alone in the same manne● as they do bone-ashes , or they may mix it with their lome , brick-dust , gestube , &c. also the● may make bricks of it for their furnaces , which will hardly receive any injury from fire . talcu● also is a stone invincible of it self by fire : and● bricks made of clay that is full of it , as th● guendern clay in cornwall , will hardly mel● with any heat . stones are naturally dry an● cold , and astringent like a concrete earth . simple stones which have no other mineral mixed with them , and are come to their perfection , being indissoluble , either by fire or water : can yield no quality or virtue to bathes , an● therefore he that seeks to draw any virtue fro● stone into water , doth lapidem lavare , that is labour in vain . but by reason of admixtures they may , or whilest they are in succo lapidescerte , before they are concreted . for if it be certain that metals may yield virtue to bathes , being alike indissoluble by water , there is no reason but stones also may . fallopius is again● it in both , but contradicted by julius caesar clandinus , and divers others ; yet he confesse● that balncum montis grotti , hath gyps 〈◊〉 and gesner affirms the same of the bathes of eugesta . also he finds ramentd●mdrmoris in balneo corsenae & agnatio blit he judgeth that they receive no quality but from the juice , and i doubt not but he is in the right . and for succus lapidescens , we have many examples in agro pisano & lucensi in italy , in avernia in france , where this juice is so plentifully brought by a clear spring , that after it is congealed , the people dig the stones , and have made a great bridge of them . also neer vienna in savoy , in a village called giret , is a clear fountain which turns to stones as hard as flints : pliny makes tnention of the like springs in eubea , which are hot : and vitruvius of the like at hieropolis in phrygia : also josophus acosta of the like hot springs in guaniavilica in pern , which turns to stone , whereof they build their houses . anthonio de herreza , cap. . tells of the same spring at guainia at velica , which turns to stone as it riseth , and kills those that drink of it . also this succus lapidescens is observed in the bathes of apono , where it is converted into stone upon the sides of the bath . also in the bath of rancolani , where this juice is not confused , but perfectly mixed with the water , and being imbybed by plants , it hardens them like stone . baccius tells us of a cave by fileg in transilvania , which turns water into stone . the like is found at glainstayns in scotland , as hector boetius reports . in england also we have many fountains which turn wood into stone ; which must be by reason of this succus lapidescens mixed with the water . coral also being a plant , and nourished with this juice , turns to stone : so doth the seed of lithospermon or gromel . thus much of stone . chap. vi of bitumen . his kinds , qualities . of campli● in particular . that bitumen is predominan● in the waters of bathe . next i come to those minerals which we cal bitumina , which are mineral substance that burn and waste in the fire without metallin● fusion , or ingression . the greatest affinity they have , is with sulphur : but this hath ingression into metal , and therefore i rank it among the spirits , and bitumen hath none . of this kind some are solid , and some liquid . solid , as succinum gagates , ambra , camphora , terra ampell● lithanthrax , sive carbofossilis , &c. liquid , 〈◊〉 petroleum and naphta . all these are great fuel to fire , especially those that are liquid , which are thought to draw fire unto them , if it be within their effluvium : so pliny reports that medl● burnt creusa by anointing her garland with naphtha : and strabo tells how alexander bath-master athenophanes , had almost burn● stephanus , a boy in the bath , by sprinkling naptha upon him , if it had not been suddenly quenched . and this is that juice or thick water which plato in times reckons among fires and which the egyptians used in their sacrifices , and was hidden by the jewish priests in a dty● pit for years , and afterwards found by nebemi●h . but whereas it is a common received opinion , that some of these bitumina will burn in water , i cannot believe it ; although . pliny and agricola , and most that have written since , out of them do averr it , and bring arguments and examples to prove it . for although water were a fewel to fire , as oyle is , yet there can be no fire without air , and water excludes air ; and so doth oyle , if the fire be beneath it , and covered with it : as for their arguments , they say that bitumen being sprinkled with water , burns more , and therefore water is a fewel to it : as wee see that smiths cast water upon their sea-cole in their forges : but the reason of this is , because their coal being small like dust , the water makes it to cake and bake together , where otherwise the blast would blow it way : also it hinders the quick burning of it , and so makes it continue the longer : so in a vulcano after rain , they find the fire to burn more , when the bitumen is smal , and in dust . although this may be a reason of it , that the lyme which hath there been calcined , being by rain dissolved , increaseth the fire . and whereas they say that water will kindle bitumen , and quench sulphur it is not so : neither doth their example of wild-fire prove it . for in wild-fire , besides bitumen and camphir , there is a double proportion of quick lymes , which by reason of the sudden dissolution of his salt , by the effusion of water , is apt to kindle any combustible matter ; not by reason of any bitumen in the lyme , as some imagine , nor of any empyreuma which the fire hath left in it , a● fracasturius thinks : for , how can there be any bitumen left in the lyme ( if there were any 〈…〉 first , ) after calcination : the fire would have consumed that before any thing else . and as fo● any empyreums , it is certain that the more any thing is burnt , although the fire leave an adustio● in it , the less apt it is to burn again , especially being burnt and calcin'd ad calcem aut cinere● where all the combustible matter is spe●● wherefore it must needs be by the violent motion which is in the sudden dissolution of the s● in it , as appears by the crackling it makes : 〈…〉 ex motu fit calor ; and motion causeth heat the like we observe in pyrite sterili , where● they make vitriol , which being broken an● laid up in heaps , and moistned with water , w● gather heat , & kindle any combustible matter p● to it . the like we find also in allum mines , &c where those mineral juices being concrete in th● mine , when they come to sudden dissolution d 〈…〉 grow hot , and will kindle fuel . and as for th● example of the salt lake whereof agrico● writes , between strapel● and seburgh , which burns the fishermens nets if they be put near th● bottome : and of the lake sputa , in medi● mentioned by strabo , which burns cloths put into it : i take that to be by reason of th● corr●sive quality of the salt which frets them being stronger near the bottome ; and not fro● bitumen , as agricola thinks . the like i judg of the lake by denstadt in turingia . and is very probable that salt being heavier the water , will be most towards the bottome : as is reported of the fountain achilleus in mileto , whose water is very sweet and fresh above , and very salt towards the bottom . so is the water of agnano in italy , as m. sandys reports in his travels . and the more heavy and terrestrial any sait is , the more corrosive it is : and so contratywise , the more corrosive , the more heavy . aristotle asfirms the sea-water to be more salt at the bottom than above : and so doth pliny , who likewise makes mention of the lake ascanius in chalcide , whose top is sweet , and bottom nitrous . baccius writes the like of a well near toletum in spain , the water whereof is sweet above , and corrosive beneath ; which he judgeth to be from quick-silver . fallopius is also of opinion , that bitumen doth not only burn in water , but is nourished by water , because it makes the fire to last longer . but i have shewed the reason of that before . and for the burning in water , he should have said upon the water ; for there it will burn as long as it swimmeth ; but dip it under the water , and it is presently extinguished . and whereas some report that queen ann of blessed memory , being in our kings bath , there arose a flame of fire like a candle from the bottom of the bath to the top near unto her , they must give me leave not to believe it , but rather to think they were mistaken : for , i am not bound to believe any thing against reason , which god hath given me to be my guide . it might have been some bubble of wind which is frequent in our baths , or some bituminous matter not dissolved in the water , did arise , and being at the top , dissolve it self upon the surface in the form of a circle ; but it could not be kindled . and if it might be kindled in the water ( which were impossible ) yet in all likelyhood it would have burnt better above the water than within it , and not be presently extinct , as they report . these bitumina ( excepting camphir ) are potentially hot and dry in the second or third degree ; but concerning camphir there are two doubts . first , whether it be a bitumen or a gum. secondly , whether it be hot or cold . the arabians aff●● it to be the gum of a huge tree with white leaves , under whose shadow many wild beasts may lye and that after earth-quakes there is great plenty found ; that it is in quality cold and dry in th● third degree ; some late writers follow them i● their opinion of a gum , as mathiolus , amat● lusitanus , garcias ab borto , &c. plateareus hold it to be the juyce of an herb . but we must consider that they make two sorts of camphir , th● one of borneo , the other of chyna . for that 〈…〉 chyna they confess it is adulterated with bitumen : and that is the only camphir in use with us . but that of borneo to be a simple gum , and that a pound of this is valued as dear as an hundred pound weight of the other . so that all th● doubt lieth in this camphir of borneo ; which whether it be a gum or no , is still in controversie . for the arabians not trading into those parts had the notice hereof only from others , as serapio and avicen do confess : and amatus lusitanus faith the inhabitants will not suffer stranger to come ashore to see it . so as we have been kept in ignorance a long time from the true knowledge of it . and garcias ab horto tells us that all his knowledge of it , is but by relation ; himself not being able ●●trável to see it , partly by reason of his age , and partly for his continual imployment about the viceroy , yet be faith , that that he had a piece of the wood given him : on●ly edvardus barbosa reports that he did see the place in borneo , and found it to be of a mineral nature . but barbosa his testimony is not authentical , having failed much in other of his relations : as where he reports that the purcelan of china is made of oyster-shells , &c. he is contradicted by consalvus mendosa a man employed in those parts by the king of spain , for such discoveries , and also by hugo a linschoten , a man of great observation , and both of them of far better credit than he . i procured some of that camphir to be brought from thence by my worthy friend captain best , but whether it be a gum or a bitumen , by the view i cannot discern . but if it be a gum , faith solinander , why should it abound more after earth-quakes ? and why should it burn and not dissolve in water ? no gums will burn , and all gums will dissolve in water : and earth-quakes make no trees fruitful , but may cast forth minerals . that there is a natural bituminous camphir , i make no doubt : and agricola proves it sufficiently : and the bath in remandiola near rhegium shews it . also the well by muntzbach , where tabernomontanus faith there is mineral camphir , averroes faith , it is affinis bitumini . i confess that when i published my first edition , i was perswaded by solinanders judgement , to think all camphir to be a bitumen , and namely that of borneo , but since upon better enquiry , i find it otherwise . for● captain best , beside● the relations made unto him in the indies , concerning this camphir , that it was from a tree , hath also procured me the testimony of master andrew gogganel , under his own hand , that both the camphir of borneo and sumatra , are gum● of a tree , and no bituminous matter , himself having been at the gathering of it , and at the cutting down of some of the trees . he hath also traded much in that commodity , and vented it a● japan ; where it seems , as also at chyna , they mix and adulterate it with some other matter , to increase the substance , and abate the price ; which mixture perhaps may be some bituminou● substance . this master cogganell hath lived ● years in those parts , and speaks the usual language , and hath been often upon that island o● borneo . now for solinanders reasons , they are easily answered : no gums , faith he , will burn , and all gums will dissolve in water . i grant it , if you take the word gum in a strict sense , for wa●ry gums , as tragacanth , arabick , &c. but we use the word gum in a more general sense , comprehending under it all rosins , turpentines , pitches , &c. which being unctuous and oily , will readily burn , and will not dissolve in water . among these gums or rosins , we reckon camphir , and so that argument is answered . as for his other argument drawn from earth-quakes , mentioned by the arabians , after which there is commonly more plenty of camphir : this doth not prove it to be a mineral ; for earth-quakes are as apt to cast up fresh mould , whereby trees are made fruitful , as minerals . wherefore let us subscribe to the antient arabians , although they were not eye-witnesses hereof , and to the later observations of spaniards and others ; especially now that we have a countrey-man of our own , who hath had as good means to learn the truth of this , as any european ever had ; who is yet living , and able to give satisfaction to any that are curious in these points . now for the qualities of it , the most general and truest opinion is , that it is cold and dry . matthiolus judgeth it to be hot for three special reasons . first , because it burns , and is a great fuel to fire . if this argument be good , then flax , and straw , and paper , and touch-wood , and spunck should be hot ; for they are apt fuels to fire . secondly , because it is , odorata , and he holds all odorata , to be calida : galen is of another opinion , and holds the judgement of simples by favour to be uncertain . and as for camphir , galen knew it not . avicen faith expresly of camphir , that although it be o●●●ata , yet it is frigida . and if mattbiolus his rea 〈…〉 were good , then roses and violets , and vinega● should be hot ; for they are odorata . it is true that all favours arise from heat , as gal●n faith , and all compounded bodies have some hot parts : but we speak of the predominancy in the subject , and of the operation it hath upon mans body . thirdly , because it bites the tong●e . so doth juice of lemons , and barberies , and vinegar , &c. and yet they are cold . wherefore i conclude our camphir to be in quality cold and dry , and of very subtil parts . these bitumina being unctuous and oily , dissolve not of themselves in water , without the help of some mineral juice , but may be confused with it . and we have many fountains and lakes which participate with them . in shro● shire at pitchford , is a spring that casteth for● bitumen swimming upon the water . the like w● read of in avernia in france , between clartmond and monferan , where the people gather 〈…〉 for their uses . in italy there are many fountains yielding bitumen ; at maianum , and sasso●● and salsa , and herculanum at the foot of the mountain vesuvium , at baia , and also at the cape of s. helena , and in the isle of woolfs there are fountains of pitchie bitumen , which are used to pitch ropes and tackling , as josepbus acost● reports . and we have that famous lake aspha 〈…〉 tites in jud●ea , so full of bitumen , that it hardly suffers any thing to sink in it . the river lipari● in cilicia , by reason of a spring near solos , is 〈…〉 full of liquid bitumen , as they which swim or wast in it , seem to be anointed with oyle . also there are bituminous springs in saxony at bruno , i● swevia the lake tegera , at gersedorf under the mount jurat , in asia by tralleis and nissa . also in the west-indies there are many found which they put to use for shipping . and this bitume● is the chief ingredient in our baths at bathe i● somerset-shire , although diluted with much nitre , which makes the solution the better , and the water more clear . that bitumen is predominan● in these our baths , may be proved by the effects , because we finde them exceedingly to comfort the nerves , supple the joynts , dry up theumes , cure palsies , and contractions , being distinctly used , tinct silver into the colour of gold , &c. also by the bituminous favour of them , and by the neighbourhood of cole-mines in those parts . all which do argue bitumen to abound in them . and whereas doctor william turner in his treatise of these baths , thinketh brimstone to be the chief mineral , and copper next ; i am not of his opinion . the actual heat is no argument of brimstone , as shall be shewed when i come to that point : neither doth the favour bewray it . but his reason for copper is very weak . he found a marchesit upon one of the hills , which he thought to hold copper : but marchesits although they shew yellow , yet they seldom hold copper , or any other metal . but his discourse hath perswaded john bauhinus to publish it confidently to the world. i shall have occasion to speak more of this hereafter . and thus much of bitumina . chap. vii . of mineral juyces concrete : called by the alchymists , salts . the four principal sorts of them ; salt , nitre , allum , vitriol . a fourth sort of minerals are concrete juyce● which are mineral substances dissoluble in water . these the alchymists call salts , and are the means of communicating all other minerals with water . for as water is apt to dissolve and extract vegetables , so are these concrete juyce● apt to dissolve and extract mineral substances . and although they are found sometimes liquid being dissolved by moysture ; yet we call the● concrete , because they will be concrete whe●● the adventitious moysture is removed . our mineral authors do make many sorts of these according to the several minerals which they imbibe : but in truth they may be all reduced to four heads ; salt , nitre , allum , and vitriol . and each of these hath divers species , as gebe● and casalpinus say of salt , quot genera calcium , tot genera salium . concerning vitriol there may be some doubt whether it be a distinct specie● from allum , and have received only some tincture from copper or iron , or from some of their brood , which are called excrements . for in distilling oyle of vitriol , the lute wherewith the glasses are joyned , will yield perfect allum . and vitriol being boyl'd , ariseth in bullas as allum doth , and shoots like allum in glebas ; as salt doth in tesseras , and nitre in stirias . the shooting or roching of concrete juyces , is worthy to be observed , seeing every kind hath his several manner or fashion of shooting , whereby a man may see the perfection of each kind . for example , if salt-peeter be brought you to examine whether it be perfect good or not , dissolve it in water , and set it to shoot in a wooden-dish , or with sticks of ash , or other porons wood : and if it shoot in needles , ( in stirias ) it is right . but if any of it shoot in squares or angles , or lumps , it is mixt , and unfit either for medicine or gunpowder . the common salt-peeter being prepared and cleansed with ashes , hath commonly much of the salt of the ashes mixt with it in the liquors , which being brought to shoot , will settle first upon the wood in squares , ( in tesseras ) and then the salt-peeter will shoot upon it in needles . these needles are good salt-peeter , but the squares are other salt , and weaken the saltpeeter in his operation ; the like you may judge of other concrete juyces . there are also certain stones which we call fluores , which do naturally shoot in divers forms : as christal into fix squares ( in sexagulos . ) sparr , which the dutch call sput or querts , shoots into points like diamonds , as we see in those cornish or bristol-stones : osteocolla found by darmstadt , in the palatinat , like bones : others like oyster or muscle-shells , &c. the reason of this several shooting in concrete juyces and other minerals , is hard to give . for if it did lye in the thinness or thickness , or clamminess of the matter whereof they were made , that difference were taken away when divers sorts are dissolved together in the same water , for one would qualifie the other . but we find that this mixt water will yield his several salts distinctly , and all at once . so that it seems , for the ornament of the universe , that nature hath so distinguished these species , as it doth plants ; among which some have thick leaves , some thin , some long , round , jagged , &c. some have bulbous-root● , some long , stringy , &c. so in their flowers , fruits , colours , smells , &c. every kind hath his own fashion . the reason hereof scaliger saith cannot be drawn from the elements , nor from the thinness , thickness , clammíness , heat , cold , dryness , moysture , plenty , scarsity , &c. of the matter but only from the form , anima , seed , &c. which frames every species to his own figure , order number , quantity , colour , taste , smell , &c. according to the science , as severinus terms it which every seed hath of his own form . so als● it is in minerals , which have their several and di●stinct species in nature , and their seeds to maintain and perpetuate the species . now that thes● concrete juyces are not bred commonly in thes● forms in the earth , the reason may be , either because they are often intermixt with other minerals in their generation , or that their matter being plentiful , and room scanty , they have n● scope to display themselves in their proper forms or perhaps they want water to dissolve then . but by artificial preparations , we find these d●stinctions : in which it is doubtful whether hot or cold , or dryness , do procure this shooting ● roching in concrete juyces , and whether the sam● causes procure it in all . for dryness it is certain that as moysture dissolves them , so dryness co●geals them ; but dryness being a passive quality , is , not sufficient ; it must be the action either of heat or cold , or both ; and the right ordering of these will open a door to the artifice of bay-salt , here in england , as well as in france or spain , or the isle of mayo . among these concrete juices , agricola reckons sulphur , bitumen , auripigmentum , sandaracha , chusocola , aerugo , myfi , sori , melanteria , &c. but if we examine , them aright , we shall find , that either they are not dissoluble in water as concrete juices should be , or they are some of those juices tincted or incorporated with other minerals . all these mineral juices are accounted hot and dry , and astringent , and detergent , some more , some less ; and we take it so upon trust . but this point requires further consideration and distinction . salt is a fixed substance , not volatile in the fire , astringent , detergent , purging , dispersing , repelling , attenuating , makes an escar , and preserves from putrifaction , as dioscorides informs us , and galen confirms the same , adding that it is hot . but we must understand galen with his limitation , lib. . cap. . that the more it is detersory , the less it is astringent . and all astringent things are cold , as he avoucheth , lib. . cap. . acida , acerba , & astringen●ia omnia frigida . now if salt be astringent , it must be cold by galens own rule , and it is not enough to say it hath warm parts in it , but being an uniform substance , we must determine of it expredominio . also galen lib. . sympt . cap. . comparing pure water with sea water , seems to affirm that sea waters , before it have received any great adventitious cold , may cool our bodies . and so this place is understood by anthonius maria venustus in consilio pro petro picardo . the repelling quality , and the making an escar , and the preserving from putrifaction , are arguments of driness , and not of heat . for as heat and moisture are principal agents in generation and corruption ; so cold and driness in preservation . also i should impute the purgative and detersory qualities in salt rather to the tenuity of parts , and the stimulation which i● hath from thence , then to any heat ; for then 〈◊〉 sennertus faith , all hot things should purge ; instit . lil . . part . . cap. . vuleriala in g●● de constit , artis pag. . and mesne can● universal . cap. . rejects all elementary qualities , temperaments , similitudes , or contrarietio● of substances , &c. in purging thedicines . all tamarinds , myrabolans , and antimony 〈◊〉 purge , and yet are cold , venustus , pag. ● but the purgative faculty of medicines is fro● stimulation of the expulsive faculty of the stomach and guts , and not from attraction b● heat of peculiar humours , as hath been imagined . heat may serve as an instrument to actu● stimulation , as cold doth dull and benumb 〈◊〉 faculties , but neither heat nor cold are principal agents in this work . and whereas rhub● is thought to purge choller only , sena and polipody melancholy , agarick flegme , &c. because we see the excrements tincted with the same colours , it is a deceit ; for these purgation do colour humours in that manner . yet i do not deny a distinction to be made of purgations in other respects . and our antient physitians through long experience have found out the right use of purging medicines , and their true distinctions for several uses for mens bodies : as that some do purge gross humours , and some thin , some are strong , and some weak : some are comfortable to the stomach , or liver , or spleen , &c. and some hurtfull to some of those parts : some are too hot in some cases , and some temperate , &c. but they have not discovered the true cause of this purging quality : some attributing it to a celestial influence , some to a hidden quality , which is as much as if they bad said nothing : some to a sympathy , antipathy , &c. for my part i hold the purgative quality of mixt bodies to lie principally in the terrestrial part of them , which is their salt : and therefore the chymists use to acuate their purging extracts with their proper salts . it were much better if they could make their salts without calcination ; for then they should retain the taste of the simples , which lyeth in the salt , and much other virtue which the fire consumes in calcination . it were a delicate thing to have all our vegetable salts to retain the taste of the herbs and simples , from whence they are drawn : as of wormwood , bitter ; of sorel , sour ; of licoris , sweet , &c. there are in mine opinion , three several wayes for it , although they be laborious . the one is by precipitation , when the juice or strong decoction of any simple is precipitated by the addition of some appropriate liquor which will strike down all other parts in the juice or decoction ; but the salt which is in it will not easily precipitate , but will remain in the liquor , and must be severed either by evaporation , or by roching . but in this work we must make choice of such a precipitator , as may not infect our salt with any strange quality . another way it to make an extract of the simple which we desire to work upon , and when we have made it so dry as it will be powdred , then pour upon it pure spirit of wine , which will dissolve no salt , if it be without flegme . by this means throngh often repetitions of new infusions , untill the extract will yield no more tincture unto the spirit of wine , you shall find the salt in the bottome , as a substance which the spirit of wine will not work upon , nor dissolve . a third way , as i conceive , may be in manner of the working of salt-peeter , by putrifying great quantities o● the herbs , untill they become earth : and the● by infusions with water , to extract the salt , which will not putrifie with the herb , but will remain in the earth . the second course i have tryed , the other wayes are very probable . in these salts do lie the chief virtues of many simples either for purging by stool , or urine , or for cleansing , cooling , drying , stimulating , opening o● obstructions , attenuating of gross humours , astriction , corroboration , &c. according to the nature of the simples : whereas the other salt which are made by calcination , have lost these virtues by the violence of fire , and cannot be distinguished the one from the other . nitre is a volatile substance which doth dry and attenuate more then salt , and although it hath not so much astriction as salt is said to have , yet it seems to cool more then salt , perhaps because it is of thinner parts , and penetrates more , and that is the reason that it serves better for the dissolution of metals . in physick we find our sal nitrum ( which is a kind of it ) to cool the body mightily , and therefore used in juleps . these nitres also are apt to move sweat , especially those that are drawn artificially from mixed bodies , as from boles , cordial herbs , bones , horns , teeth , claws , hoofs , &c. which are drawn by sublimation . and these parts of animals are found to be very soveraign against venome and maligne humours . the reason of it i take to be , not only the drying quality they have , whereby they resist corruption of humours , but also & principally by reason of their volatile salt or nitre , whereby they move sweat , and expell from the center of the body . for all their salt is volatile , as may appear by this , that you can never make any lixivium , out of any of these animal medicines , by calcination , as you do out of vegetables ; their salt being altogether evaporated by the fire . this volatile salt being taken into our bodies , and actuated by our natural heat , is commonly very diaphoretick : and this is it which makes our bezoar stones , contrae-yerva , ungula del bado , and supposed unicorns horn to be in such esteem . sal ammoniacum , is also a kind of nitre , and volatile , and so is borax and altincar : but these are commonly mixed with sal alcali , and urin or vinegar , and so made more fix . there is also a natural fix borax found in the isle of lamlay neer dublin in ireland , which perhaps the sea water hath fixt . allum and vitriol are much alike , but that vitriol hath a garb from copper or iron . these are very astringent , and without doubt cold , whatsoever hath been held of them . the waters or slegms distilled from them , do exceedingly cool in juleps , as quercitan and claudius dariot , have observed , and we also by daily experience do find true ; by reason of the intense acidity they have , being distilled from their terrestrial parts . also those acidula which the germans call saurbrun , proceeding from these juices , are much used to quench the heat of fevers . it may be objected , that they are corrosives , and will eat into metal , and therefore must be hot . but by the same reason , the juices of lemons , barberries , howsleek , &c. should be hot , for they will carve iron . to bite and eat as a corrosive , are not arguments of heat , but of piercing . wherefore hypocrates saith , frigus ulceribus mordax , cold bites ulcers ; and frigus est principium destructivum , ut calor generativum ; cold is a destructive principle , and heat a generative . and therefore it is more probable that these corrosives are more cold then hot . these two mineral juices are not so readily dissolved in water , as the other two , and wil be more easily precipitated by any opposite substance that is more familiar to water . i omit the several sorts or these concrete juices and their admixtures with other minerals , as impertinent to my purpose : wherefore i will shew some examples of each of them in natural springs . for salt springs , josephus acosta tells us of a rare spring at a farm neer cusco in peru , which as it runs , turns into very white salt , without any fire or art , in great abundance . in germany are many salt fountains , at luneburg , stafford , salt ●burgh , aldondorf , halstat , &c. in italy , in agro volaterano , &c. in sicily , at solinantia , is a salt well which is hot ; and so are the pegasaei fontes in caria . also the fountain by medon in traesen is both salt and hot . our wiches in cheshire are well known . there are also rivers of salt water by the caspian streights , and in spain , and caria , and in bactria , ochus and oxus . also there are salt lakes , as the terentine lake in italy ? the lake between strapela and seburgh ( mentioned before ) in germany , three lakes in sicily , and besides an infinite number in other countreys , the lake of lakes , the sea. all which receive their saltness from mines of salt in the earth , which are very frequent and huge in bigness , as may appear by the rocks of salt in bohemi● , in monte carpato , in polonia , within two miles of cracovia , in helvetia , and rhetia , where they have no other salt but from the rock . as also by the caspian streights , are great rocks of salt. but marous paulus venetus , tells us of a rock or mountain of salt in thaican , able to furnish all the world with salt. so that it is no marvail that the sea is salt , seeing it pierceth into the bowels of the earth , and discovereth many great rocks of salt which dissolve in it . and this is the true cause of the saltness of the sea. the other causes alledged for it , are very improbable . for whereas aristotle and his followers attribute the saltness of the sea , to the evaporation of the fresh and sweet parts of the water , by the sun , and to an adustion procured also thereby : i answer , that neither the one nor the other can breed a substance in the water , which was not there before . for qualities can breed no substance , and adustion is but a quality imprinted , and no substance . neither can evaporation breed any , but only discover that which was in it before , by taking away the thin parts , and leaving the terrestrial behind . but we see the sea water to contain in it the substance of salt , and most of the salt which we use is made of sea water and no man will deny that this salt is differing from water in his substance and generation , being a distinct species in it self . and whereas they alledge for confirmation of their opinion , that under the torrid zone , the sea is more salt then in other parts , the sun exhaling more there , and making a greater adustion ; i doubt it , both for the large & plentiful rivers which those parts afford , beyond any other parts of the world , and also for that the sea water there is not hot , neither are the beams of the sun so hot , but that men do endure them : and therefore not likely to breed an adustion in the sea water , which must first be hot , before it be adusted . also it may be that those parts do abound in rocks of salt , as we read of people in africa , called ammantes , who make them houses of rock-salt , and castles , as that in sin● geraico , which is five miles in compass , and all of salt : also the mountain oromenus in india is all of salt. moreover if the sun be able to do this in the sea , which is alwayes in motion , whereby it eludes the force of the beams ; why should it not do the like , and much more in standing lakes , as the lemanus and such like ? they answer that lakes are continually supplyed and fed with fresh water from springs . but so is the sea continually fed with fresh water , and in as large a proportion , caeteris paribus , as lakes are . for as the sea is not increased by the influx of fresh waters , no more are divers lakes , but keep the same fulness , and sometimes are lessened . and whereas they say that the upper part of the sea is more salt then the botome , they speak against all reason , salt being heavier then water , and against experience , as i have shewed in the former chapter . also aristotle in some places confesseth it . but if any man will take the pains to vapour away . tun if he will of fresh water , i do assure my self he will not find one grain of salt at the bottome , if it were not in the water before . this may be tryed also in any distilled water , which we are sure can have no salt in it , ( for salt will not arise in distillation ) and is as apt to yield salt as any other water , if adustion or evaporation would breed it . wherefore the saltness of the sea is not from evaporation or adustion , but must needs proceed from rocks of salt in the earth , which the sea doth , wash , and dissolve much of it . and considering the great use of salt , both for other uses , and for generations , nature hath provided enough of it , especially in the sea , which is more fruitful in that respect , the land. wherefore venus was called a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : est venus orta mari. nitre is seldome found in bathes alone , but mixt with other minerals , which it dissolves , and infects the water withall . yet we read of a nitrous lake called letis , neer cālestria in macedonia , where they use to make nitre , and vent it to all parts . so they do at the nitrarit in egypt . also the lake arethus● in armeniae , is full of nitre . at menis in phrygia is a spring of nitrous water which is hot : also in leonte is a hot nitrous spring . bellonius makes mention of a nitrous fountain neer belba , and of abundance of nitre upon a plain neer thereunto , which seems to be that which pliny calls halmariga . but he denieth that there is any mine of nitre under the earth , but that all i● bred out of the soyle as an efftorescens of the earth : baccius saith the same of salt-peeter . agricola saith , that as the true nitre is gathered upon the plains of media above the earth , so is salt-peeter found above the earth in many places of saxony : that nitre is gathered upon the plains of media , are plinies own words . exiguum fit apud medos canescentibus s●scitate convallibus ; there is a little to be found among the medes , where the valleys are white with drought . so that it seemeth , his opinion was , that nitre is not bred in a mine under the earth , as gesner also saith , epist . lib. . pag. . but in the earth it self , as the chief fatness it hath to further generations . and seeing earth is the mother of all terrestrial bodies , it is not left unfurnished with those mineral juices , nor ought else that is requisite for the production of species : it hath been observed by some , that nitrous water is the best soyle for ground , and brings all plants to perfection far sooner then any other dung , and therefore the egyptians water their coleworts with nitrous water , nitrosa viridis brassica fiet aqua . if you a colewort green would see , then let your water nitrous be . our salt-peeter men do find , that ●any fat earth be covered from rain and sun , so as it spendeth not his strength in producing of herbs or grass , it will breed plenty of salt-peeter , otherwise it will yield none . the difference between salt-peeter , and the antient nitre , appears in this , that a pound of nitre being burnt , will leave four ounces of ashes ; salt-peeter will leave none . salt-peeter is actually so cold , as being dissolved in water , it is used in rome and naples to cool their wine , and doth it as well as ice or snow . also we use it inwardly in cooling juleps , and therefore it seems also to be potentially cold , as bellonius judgeth . now i come to allum ( indignum vix ipsa jubet renovare dolorem ) the greatest debtor i have , and i the best benefactor to it , as shall appear when i shall think fit to publish the artifice thereof . in illua , a mile from rio , is an allum fountain : also there are divers in agro senensi , volaterano , lucensi , in italy : balneum de villa is full of allum ; and with us in shropshire at ●●kenyate , are allun springs , whereof the dyers of shrewsbury make use instead of allum . as for allum mines , they are frequent almost in all countreys , but the chiefest that are wrought , are at capsylar in thracia , at telpha neer civita vecchia in italy , at commato● by aussig in germany , and with us in york-shire . in ireland there have been allum works neer to armagh , as thurneiser reports : also at metelia in spain , at mazaron neer carthage , at hellespont , massa , montrond , piambin , volterra , campi●lia , &c. as beringaccio sienese reports . also there are divers earths yielding allum , as at guyder in carnarvan-shire , at camfurt in dorset-shire , and in the isle of wight . but i will contract my self for allum , and come to vitriol . vitriol , as i have said before , doth participate much with allum in the manner of shooting ●● roching , which is in glebas , in the hard dissolution and easie congelation , in their arising in bullas being burnt , and in their precipitation : insomuch as it is probable that the basis of vitriol is nothing but allum . it is found in mineral waters of two sorts . the one where the very bod● and substance is dissolved ; as in cyprus , which galen describes , where the water is green : also at smolnicium in hungary , in transilvania al● carpatum montem , at nensola , & c. in which places copper is ordinarily made out of iron by infusing it in these waters . i will not determine whether this be transmutation of one species into another , as some do hold , or rather a precipitation of the copper which was formerly dissolved in the water by means of the sharp vitriol which meeting with iron , corrodes it , and imbibeth it , rather than the copper , and so lets the copper fall , and imbraceth the iron in place of it . we daily see the like in aqua-sortis , which having imbibed one metal , will readily embrace another that is more familiar to it , and let fall the first . so allum or copperass-water having some strong lixivium of tartar or other calcin'd salt put to it , the allum or copperass will presently salt to the bottom , and precipitate and give place to the lixivium , as a thing more familiar to water , and of more easie dissolution . but as i said , i will not determine this question , because it is not much pertinent to our business . yet i will not omit the judgement of lazarus ercker the emperors chief mine-master in the kingdom of behemia who professeth that he was long of this opinion , but altered it upon this reason ; that by exact proof he found more copper stricken down this way by iron , than the water before did contain , and with the copper some silver . the other kind of vitriol water is , where not the body and substance of vitriol is dissolved , but the spirit or vapour , or quality communicated to the water : of this sort are our vitriol baths for the most part , and these are in themselves wholsome , and are sour , if the vitriol be predominant . such are most of our acidulae ; whereof we have many in viterbio & volaterano , balneum ad mor●um dictum , saurbrun by franckford ad oderam , &c. there are sour waters also from allum , but milder : also from sulphur , whose spirit or vapour being burnt , is little differing from the spirit of vitriol , but somewhat fatter . but the most part of our acidulae are from vitriol . this sour spirit of allum , vitriol or sulphur , libavius judgeth with thomas jordanus to be , in the terrestrial parts of these minerals , because it goeth not away by boyling or distillation , and therefore to be communicated with water by the corporal substance or juyce of them . but that holds not in mineral spirits which are heavier than water , as may appear by evaporation of any water made sour with spirit of vitriol or sulphur , where after long evaporation , that which remains will be more sour than before evaporation . so it is also in vinegar , being a vegetable juyce . the spirit of wine doth certainly arise first in distillation , and the first is the best , being more volatil than the vapour of water . but this spiritus acetosus which is in sulphur , allum , vitriol and vinegar , ariseth last ; and the more you distill away from it , the sharper it ariseth , and the sourer is that which remaineth . thus much for vitriol and concrete juyces . chap. viii . of mineral spirits ; quick-silver , salphur or brinsstone , arsenick , with his kinds , cadmia . afist kind of minerals are called spirits ; these are volatil in the fire , and have ingression into metals , but no metalline fusion . these are quick-silver , sulphur , arsenick , cadmia , rusma , &c. all which being volatil , will easily sublime , and being mixed with metals , as cadmia's ordinarily to make brass , will alter the colour of the metal , and make it less fusible , and less malleable . i will briefly run over the examples of these and their virtues or qualities , being more obscure , and in our baths less useful than the former , and more rare . qnick silver was not well known to galen , for he confesseth that he had no experience of it , and did think it to be meerly artificial , and not naturally bred in the earth . dioscorides makes no mention of the temperature of it , but holds it to be a pernitious venome , and to fret the entrails ; although matthiolus affirms that it is safely given to women to further their deliverance , and we find it so by often expcrience , both in that cause , and in worms , and in the french disease and leprosies , if it be skilfully prepared , and with judgement administred . fallopius holds it to be one of the miracles of nature . those that take upon them to determine of the qualities of it , are much distracted ; fome reckoning it to be hot and dry , and some cold and moist ; and both in a high degree . but in this account they consider not the qualities of the ingredients in the preparation ; whether it be sublim'd or precipitated . for my part i know not how to reduce 〈◊〉 to the elementary qualities : neither am i ashtmed of mine ignorance in it , seeing no man hitherto hath given true satisfaction herein . and if it be true that the elements do not concur to the generation of mixt bodies , ( as i shall shew , cap. . ) we need not marvail if we find the● not where they be not . but for our own use , where reason fails us , let us be guided by experience . we find by experience , that it cuts , attenuates , penetrates , melts , resolves , purges both ad centrum & a centro , heats , cools , &c. and is a transcendent beyond our rules of philosophy , and 〈◊〉 monster in nature , as renodaus faith . for our purpose it is enough to know whether it will impr● any quality to water ; which fallopius , bacei●● solinander , banbinus , and felix platerus do acknowledge . but it gives no taste to it , neither have we many examples of baths which contin●● it . in serra morena in spain , near the village almedien , is a cave where are many wells i●fected ( as is thought ) with quick-silver , because much of that mineral is extracted from thence out of a red stone called minium nativum . about fifty miles from thence in v alentiola , then is another fountain called la nava , of a sha● taste , and held to proceed from quick-silver and these waters are found wholsome . so are 〈◊〉 waters at almagra and toletum , and others by the river minius , which are hot . there are man venomous springs attributed to quick-silver , 〈◊〉 the red fountain in a●thiopia , others in boetia , caa in trigloditis , stix in arcadia , stix in thessalia , licus in sicilia , &c. which perhaps are from other minerals , feeing we find some from quick-silver to be wholsome . for mines of quick-silver , we read of many in baetica , attica , ionia , out of a stone which pliny calls vomica liquoris aterni . in germany at landsberg , at creucenacbum , schenbach , baraum above prage , kunningstien , &c. in scotland three miles beyond barwick , i found a red stone , which i took to be minium nativum , seeing agricola makes mention of it in scotland , but by a mischance could not try it . sulphur attracts , contracts , resolves , mollifies , discusses , whereby it shews a manifest heat , though not intense , yet the sume of it is very sour , and therefore must cool and dry : and i perswade my self that there is no better sume to correct venomous and infectious air , than this of sulphur , or to remove infections out of rooms , clothes , bedding , vessels , &c. we must acknowledge differing parts in all compounded bodies ; as rhubarb hath a purgative quality in the infusion , and an astrictive in the terrestrial substance , where the salt hath been by infusion extracted . the substance of sulphur is very fat ( sulphure nihil pinguius ) faith felix platerus , and this is the cause of his easie taking of fire , and nor any propinquity it hath with fire in the quality of heat : for if it were very hot , dioscorides would not comment it purulenta extussientibus , the next door to a hectick . also galen faith , that fat things are moderately hot , and are rather nutriments than medicaments . now for sulphurous baths , they are very frequent , and if we should believe some , there are no hot baths but participate with sulphur , but they are deceived , as shall appear hereafter , when we come to shew the true causes of the heat of baths . neither are all sulphurous baths hot . gesner reports of a bath by zurich very cold , and yet sulphurous , agricola of another by buda in pannonia . in campania by the leucogaean hills , are cold springs full of brimstone . also there are hot baths without any shew of sulphur that can be discerned , as the baths of petriolum in italy , the baths caldanelloe and de avinione in agro senensi , de gratta in viterbiensi , de aquis in pisanis collibus . divi johannis in agro lucensi , in alsatia another not far from gebersallerum , &c. all which are very hot , and yet give no sign of sulphur either by taste or smell , or effects . and yet no doubt there are many baths having a sulphurous smell from other minerals ; as from bitumen , vitriol , sandaracha , allum , &c. which are hardly to be discerned ( if at all ) from sulphur . so we commonly say , if a house or a tree be fet on fire by lightning , that it smells of brimstone when there was no brimstone there . mans things combusted , will yield a nidorous smell , not discernable after burning what the things were . but there are divers truly sulphurous baths which contain sulphur , although not perfectly mixt with the water without some medium , but only confused : for perfect sulphur will not dissolve in water no more than bitumen , the spirit of sulphur may be communicated to water , and so may the matter of sulphur before it hath attained his perfect form and consistente : otherwise it is only confufed with water , and alters it into a milky colour . sulphurca nar albus aqua , nar with sulphurous water white . at baia are divers hot fulphurous baths , and every where in hetrnria , in sicily , in diocesi panormitana ; the baths of apono , as savanarola muntagna , and fallopius avevs , although john de dondis denieth it ; the bath of astrunum , of callatura , s. euphemie , aquisgran , brigenses thernmae in v alesiis helvetiorum , aqua sancta in picenis , and an infinite number every where . baccius reckons our baths of bath among fulphurous baths , from the relation of edward carne when he was embassador to jnlius tertius , and panlus quartus . i will not deny some touch of sulphur in them , seeing we sind among bituminous coals , some which are called metal coals , with certain yellow vains which are sulphur . but the proportion of sulphur to bitumen , is very little , and therefore i do not hold them sul-phurous & pradominio . this is enough for sulphur . concerning arsenick , it is a venomous mineral , and therefore i need speak noth ng of the baths which proceed from it , but that we take heed of them ; it is likely that those venomous waters and vapours which kill suddenly , do proceed from arsenick , as at cicrum in thracia , font neptunius in terracina , at peraut by mompelier , the lake avernus . the cave of charon by naples . under arsenick we may comprehe . d auripigmentum , risagalum , sandaracha , rusma , &c. i hear of but one mine of rrsma in ciprus , from whence the turks have it to take off hair , and it doth it best of any thing known , as bellonius and platerus report , and i have made tryal of it oftentimes : the former sorts of arsenick are found in misia helltspontia in ponu , by the river hippanis , which is made bitter by it . in the lesser afta , between magncsia and euphesus in carmania , &c. it is accounted to be extreme hot and putrifying . cadmia is either natural or fictitious : th● natural is often dangerous in germany , as agricola saith , especially that which is liquid , whic● is a strong corrosive : the other is of the natu● of copper , moderately hot and cleansing . as especially good to clear the eyes , as calamina● and tntia . it is found in copper mines , and ● it self in ciprus , as galen saith by the city sol● also in agro senensi , vicentino , bergomensi , no● como , where they make brass with it . unde meadip hills there is much of it . the baths ● saint cnssian do participate with it , and cicp his baths neer baia. also the bath at zurich● helvetia , and grotta in viterbio . thus much for spirits . chap. ix . of mean metals , or half metals . bismutuin or tin-glass , antimony , bell-metal . asixt sort i make to be mean metals , or half metals , which are mineral substances , having metalline susion , but are not malleable , as metals are : and therefore being mixt with metals , do make them brittle . these are bismutum , or plumbum cinereum , antimony , bell-metal , which geber calls magnesta , in dutch speisscalaem also may be reckoned among those , which is a kind of white metalline cadmia , brought out of the east-indies , which hath both metalline ingression , and metalline fusion , but not perfectly malleable . these although they are more volatil than metal , yet by reason of their fusion into a king , are not so easily sublim'd as the spirits . bismutum is tnat we call tin-glass , differing both from tin and lead . candidins nigro , sed plumbo nigrins albo , whiter than black , but blacker than white lead . it was not known to the antients , and therefore we can say little of the qualities of it . it is found in england , and in misnia , and at sneberg in germany , and in very few places else . i read not of any waters that participate with it : neither can i say much of antimony , but that dioscorides saith it cools , binds , opens obstructions , &c. and galen , that it dryeth and bindeth , and is good for the eyes , &c. but of the purging quality they write nothing , although we find it to purge violently , both upwards and downwards : whereupon we may g● ther that all purging medicines are not hot , as ● have touched before . cambden faith there is ● mine of it in cumberland : it is found in italy in thinni montibus , in senensi agro in the county of s. flora , and in germany in many place but i read of no waters that participate with ● unless we should judge all purgative waters to be infected with it , as neer ormus , purchas write of such a spring which purgeth . sawanarola● balneis romandiolae , mentions a. spring at m● dula , which purgeth . also balneum tertutii ● agro pistoriensh , fallopio ; also the sour wat● of mendich and ponterbon do purge choler , rulandus saith . at none-such we have also a p● gative spring , which may participate with a● timony or nitre , or both : but purgative wa● are rare , unless it be ratione ponderis , by the we● and quantity , and so any water may purge , ● our bath-waters do purge in that manner , and the addition of salt , which gives stimulation ● it . this our bath-guides do ordinarily presc● to such as will be perswaded by them , not kno●ing how it agreeth with their griefs , nor ho● may do hurt in many respects , as oftentime● doth . bell-metal is thought to be a mixture of ●ward● and copper-oars , as kentman judgeth , an● found in our tin and copper-mines in c● wall . i read of no waters infected with it , no● any use it hath in physick . chap. x. of metals ; gold , silver , iron , copper , ti● lead . the seventh and last sort are metals , mineral substances , fusible and malleablé . these are commonly distinguished into perfect and imperfect ; perfect , because they have less impurity or heterogenity in them , as gold and silver . the rest are called imperfect , because they are full of impurities , and they are either hard or soft . hard , as those which will indure ignition before they melt , as iron and copper : soft , which will not , but melt at the first , as tin and lead . all these metals are found in his majesties dominions , and many of them i perswade my self , might be wrought to better profit , if our smelters were skilful , or were not hindred by si●ister respects . but especially we abound in the imperfect metals more than enough to serve our own use . and for the perfect metals , i have seen both in cornewall and at crayfordmuir in scotland , perfect gold ( which the dutch call gedigen ) in grains among sparr . also among other metals , it is ordinarily bred , as iron and copper , and tin. but from tin it is hardly separated without more waste of tin than the gold is worth . from iron and copper i see no reason but it might be separated with advantage . for silver , there is much lost for want of taking ●t forth of lead-oars : for whereas those oars which are rich in silver , are commonly hard of fusion ; our mineral men either neglect those oars , and work them not , or else they mix some s●●●ll proportion of them with their poor oars , which are easie of fusion , and so make the metal so poor , as it is not worth the refining . whereas if they were wrought by themselves , they would yield in silver upon every tun , some ounces , some , some , some , more o● less . for copper , whereas we fetch our pins an● tags of points from other countreys , yet n● doubt we might be furnished of our own , bo● for these and other uses . we have but one copper work that i hear of in all his majesties dominions , and that is at kesnick in gumberland but copper mines are found in divers other pa 〈…〉 as in cornwall at trevascus , and other places 〈◊〉 york-shire , scotland , ireland , &c. and no dou 〈…〉 many are concealed , by reason they are min 〈…〉 royal. if these were wrought , and wrought 〈◊〉 ter a good manner , it is likely they would bri 〈…〉 a good advantage to his majesty , and to 〈◊〉 kingdom . for iron , we have the oar in abundance , 〈…〉 it is pity that so much good wood should be w 〈…〉 sted upon it for so bad iron ; and yet the g 〈…〉 which it holds , is lost . many have propound 〈…〉 the melting of it with stone-coal , but perh 〈…〉 they have failed in their projects : yet this do not prove the impossibility of it . and for 〈◊〉 goodness of this metal , if it were rightly made , would melt as readily as other metal , and wo 〈…〉 be tough , and not so brittle as it is , and wo 〈…〉 not be so apt to rust . for these inconvenience happen to it for want of separation of the impurities which are bred with it . for tin , we have as good as any in the world , although it is not wrought to the best advantage . the countreys where it grows , are barren of wood , and they are fain to fetch it far off . now if it were wrought , as i know it may , by many experiments which i have made upon it , with stone-coal , there would be much saved , and the wood might be otherwise employed . the tin also would be as good as now it is , and the product not diminished . for lead , although for soft oars the ordinary course of melting at mondip and the peak , may serve well , and much better than their baling at alendale in hexamshire and at grass in the bishoprick of duresme : yet for hard oars ( which are commonly rich in silver ) there might be better courses taken , by common or proper agents . common agents are fire and water ; proper are dissolvents or additaments . by fire they might amend their working , if they did roast their oars well before melting , to breath away volatil and combustible substances which are mixed with their oars . by water , after calcination or roasting , they may separate all dissoluble juyces , &c. dissolvents do chiefly serve to separate the silver or gold out of the oars : as in the quick-silver work , or by lyes of nitre , allum , salts , &c. additaments are also of great use , whether they be segregatory for separation of spirits , or mean metals from our oars , and so to facilitate their fusion : or propugnatory to defend the oares from consuming or vitrifying . segregatory additaments are either such as are more easie of fusion than the oare , and so draw the oare into fusion with them , or such as will not melt at all , as geber saith , cujus intentio non sit fundi : which keeps the oar asunder from clodding , and giyes it a greater heat , like fire in his bosom . by these means well applyed and used , all lead oares might be wrought , be they never so stubborn , and none need to be neglected . hitherto i have digressed out of mine intended course , through the desire i have to advance mineral works . now i will return to shew the nature and qualities of these metals , as i have done of other minerals . gold of all metals is the most solid , and therefore the most heavy , as having few impurities or heterogeneal substances mixed with it . and therefore it is not subject to corruption , as other metals are , neither will it lose any of his substance , either by fire or water , although it should be held in them a long time : so as it is an idle and vain perswasion that many have , who think by boyling gold in broth , to get some strength from thence , and so to make the broths more cordial . the like i may say of putting gold into electuaries or pills , unless it be in case of quicksilver taken into the body , which the gold by touch may gather to it , otherwise it goes out of the body as it came in , without any concoction or alteration , or diminution . and if it be dissolved in strong water , it will be reduced again to his metalline substance , without diminution , much less will it be dissolved without corrosive spirits , to make aurum potabile , as some do undertake . crollius doth acknowledge , that there is but one menstruum in the world that may do it , and that he knows not . but if we had it dissolved , we are yet uncertain what the quality of it would be , or what use to make of it in physick ; only because it loseth none of his substance , we know it can do no hurt , and therefore we use it for cauteries , & to quench in beer or wine , &c. to warm it , or to give it some astriction from the fire . fallopius in these regards disclaims it in all mineral waters , as he doth all other metals : and will not believe that any metal doth impart any quality unto water . claudinus holds otherwise , and so doth baccius , savanarola , montagnana , venustus , solinander , and almost all that have written of bathes . for if we should exclude metals , we must likewise exclude stones , and bitumina and sulphur , and almost all minerals , except concrete juices . for none of these , after they have attained to their full consistence , will of themselves dissolve in water , without the help of some concrete juice , as a medium to unite them with the water . but before they have their full consistence , whilst they are in solutis principiis , as earth , juice , or vapour , they may be communicated with water . gold is so sparingly bred in the bowels of the earth , as in that respect it can hardly furnish a perpetual spring with any quality from it : yet some bathes are held to participate with gold , as ficuncellenses , fabariae , piperinae , de grottae in viterbio : sancti cassiani de buxo , &c. silver comes next in purity to gold , but is inferiour unto it , as appears by the dissolution of it , and by the blew tincture which it yields , and by the fouling of the fingers , &c. for the qualities of it , there is not much discovered . but as all other things of price are superssitiously accounted cordia● , so is this , especially in hot and moist distempers of the heart : for it is esteemed to be cold , and dry , and astringent , and yet emollient . we have no bathes which do manifestly participate with it : perhaps , by reason , nature doth hot produce it in sufficient quantity to infect waters . john baubinus thinks there may be silver in the bathes at boll : because he faith there was a pyritis or marchesit examined by doctor cadner , and out of fifty pound weight of it , he drew two drams of silver : a very small proportion to ground his opinion upon . iron is the most impure of all metals , as we have it wrought , and will hardly melt as metals should do , but with additaments and flusses . neither is it so malleable , and ductible as other metals are , by reason of his many impurities . yet we see that at damasco they work and refine it in such sort , as it will melt at a lamp , and is so tough , as it will hardly break . and this is not by reason of any special mine differing from other iron mines , for they have no mines of iron near to damascus , as bell●nius reports , but have it brought thither from divers other places , only their art in working and purifying it is beyond ours . so the spanish steel and iron is purer then ours , and we do esteem of bilbo-blades beyond others , which are quenched in the river bilbilis : as turnus his sword in virgil was quenched in the river styx . ensem quem dauno ignipotens deus ipse parenti fecerat , & stygia candentem extinxerat at unda . a sword the god of fire , of his own make , gave daune , turn's father , quench'd in stygian lake . but the hardning of steel lyeth not in this point : other waters no doubt may serve as well . but i perswade my self that our iron may be made much purer , and perhaps some gold extracted from it which it holds . concerning the temperature of iron and steel , galen reckons it among earth , and therefore it must be cold . manardus is absolutely of that opinion , and so are most of our physitians . only fallopius holds it to be hot , because scribonius largus prescribes it in ulcers of the bladder , which it doth cure , not in regard of heating , but drying ; for it dryeth and bindeth much , and therefore by galens rule it must be cold . astringentia omnia frigida ; all binding things are cold . i have observed in iron and steel two distinct qualities , the one opening , or deopilative ; the other astringent . the opening quality lyeth in a volatile salt or nitre , which it is full of , the astringent quality in the crocus , or terrestrial part . these two substances are thus discerned and severed . take of the fylings of steel or iron , and cast it into the flame of a candle , and you shall see it to burn like saltpeeter or rosin . take these fylings , and infuse them three or four times in water or wine , as we use to make our chalibeat wines , till the water or wine have dissolved all this salt , and then dry it and cast it into the flame , and it shall not burn , but the liquor will have a strong taste from this salt. and this is it which opens obstructions . the astringent quality lyeth in the terrestrial substance , as is evident , after either , by infusions , or by calcination , the volatile salt is departed from it , that which remains , is very astringent , and stayeth all manner of fluxes , &c. concerning bathes participating with iron , we have too many examples of them for fallopius to contradict . we may let him injoy his opinion of the calderiana , veronensia & villensia , lucensia ; although it be against the judgement of all other who have written of them , and it is hard for him to be confident in a negative . we have examples more then enough to prove the quality of iron in our mineral waters . balneum reginae in agro pisano is actually hot , and from iron . so is balneum sancti cassiani in agro senensi : so is balneum ficuncellae , de russellis , bora in agro florent . brandulae in agro regiensi , visicatoriae in tuscia , isenbrun by liege , forgense in normandy : the spaw-water , tunbridge-water , bristol-water by s. vincents rock : all which , some being hot , and some cold , participate with iron , as may be proved , not only by the consent of all writers , which have made mention of them , but by the mines from whence they come , or by their taste , or by their virtues . copper comes nearest to the nature of iron , but is more pure , and more easie of fusion , and will be almost all converted into vitriol . they are convertible the one into the other , as i have shewed out of erker , in vitriol . and by the practice at commataw and smolnicium : the like also hath been shewed in cornwall , at the confluence by master russel . aristotle also tells of a copper mine in thalia , an island of the tyrrhen sea , which being wrought out , turned into an iron mine : in this similitude of nature , we cannot but judge that there is a similitude in qualities , and that iron being cold , copper cannot be hot . temperate it may be , because less astringent then iron , and more cleansing : rhasis saith that it purgeth like a catharticum , and in his continent , prescibes it to purge water in dropsies . another argument that all purgatives are not hot : it dryeth exceedingly , and attenuates and digests . we have divers waters which participate with it , which if they be pure from copper it self , are very safe and wholsome : but if they be foul , and proceed from the excrements of copper , they are not wholsome to drink . balnea collensia sen ferina in martiana silva , do consist in copper and allum . the bath of faberia in rhetia , of copper and gold. aqua de grotta in agro viterbiensi , is full of copper ; so is aqua jasielli , balneum lucense in valesiis : marcus paulus venetus , tells us of a greenish fountain in persia , which purgeth exceedingly , and is held to come from copper . tin and lead are two of our staple commodities which our countrey yields plentifully , not only for our own use , but to supply other nations . tin is bred in cornwall , and part of devonshire , and in the isles of scilly , which from thence were called cassiterides . it is melted out of little black stones , which the dutch call zwitter , with great charge , because they cannot melt it , but with wood coals , which is brought them far off , and they are fain to run it over two or three times , before they can get out all the tin , and yet much of it is wasted in the blast . i doubt not but it might be done with sea-coal , if they knew the artifice , and with as great a product of tin. there is both silver and gold found in it , but without wasting of the tin , we know no means to sever it . it is in quality cold and dry , and yet moves sweat abuadantly , as i have proved . lead is melted commonly out of an oar common to silver and lead , as pliny saith called galena . and although agricola saith of the villachar lead , that it holds no silver , and therefore fittest for assayes ; yet lazarus erker contradicts it out of his own experience . our countrey abounds with it every where , especially at the peak in darbishire , and at mendip in somersetshire ; wales also and cornwall , and devon , are full of it , and so is yorkshire and cumberland . the qualities of it are cold and dry . but for these two metals , we find no waters which are infected with them . in lorain , they have bathes called plumbaria , which some think by reason of the name , to proceed from lead : but john bauhinus thinks they should be called plumiers , as pictorius writes it from the french word plumer , a deplumando , because they are so hot as they use to scald fowls in them , to take off their feathers . thus much for metals , and all other sorts of minerals , with their several natures and baths infected with any of them . as for mixed bodies , and flores , and recrements , &c. they are to be referred to the simple bodies from whence they proceed : as tutia , pompholix , minium , cerussa , sublimatum , praecipitatum , &c. chap. xi . of the generation of metals in the earth ; their seminary spirit , that it is not from the elements . now i must shew the generation of these minerals in the bowels of the earth , which of necessity we must understand , before we can shew the reasons how mineral waters receive either their actual heat , or their virtues . some have imagined that metals and minerals were created perfect at the first , seeing there appears not any seed of them manifestly , as doth of animals and vegetables ; and seeing their substances are not so fluxible , but more firm and permanent . but as they are subject to corruption in time , by reason of many impurities , and differing parts in them , so they had need to be repaired by generation . it appears in genesis , that plants were not created perfect at first , but only in their seminaries : for moses cap. . gives a reason why plants were not come forth of the earth , scil . because ( as tremelius translates it ) there had as yet neither any rain fallen , nor any dew ascended from the earth , whereby they might be produced and nourished : the like we may judge of minerals , that they were not at first created perfect , but disposed of in such sort , as they should perpetuate themselves in their several kinds . wherefore it hath ever been a received axiome among the best philosophers , that minerals are generated , and experience hath confirmed it in all kinds . our salt-peeter men find that when they have extracted salt-peeter out of a floor of earth one year , within three or four years after , they find more salt-peeter generated there , and do work it over again . the like is observed in allum and copperass . as for metals , our tinners in cornewall have experience of pits which have been filled up with earth after they have wrought out all the tin they could find in them ; and within thirty years they have opened them again , and found more tin generated . the like hath been observed in iron , as gaudentius merula reports of ilva , an island in the adriatick sea , under the venetians , where the iron breeds continually as fast as they can work it , which is confirmed also by agricola and baccius ; and by virgil who saith 〈◊〉 it , insula inexhaustis chalybum generos a matallis ; brave ilva isle , whose teeming womb , breeds iron till the day of doom . the like we read of at saga in lygiis , where they dig over their iron-mines every tenth year . john mathesius gives us examples almost of all sorts of minerals and metals which he hath observed to grow and regenerate . the like examples you may find in leonardus thurneiserus . erastus affirms that he did see in s. joachims dale , silver grown upon a beam of wood , which was placed in the pit to support the works : and when it was rotten , the workmen coming to set new timber in the place , sound the silver sticking to the old beam . also he reports that in germany , there hath been unripe and unconcocted silver found in mines , which the best workmen affirmed , would become perfect silver in thirty years . the like modestinus fachius , and mathesius affirm of unripe and liquid silver ; which when the workmen find , they use to say , we are come too soon . but i need not produce any more proofs for this purpose , as i could out of agricola and libavins , and others , seeing our best philosophers , both antient and modern , do acknowledge that all minerals are generated . the manner of generation of minerals and metals , is the same in all , as is agreed upon both by plato and aristotle , and ●heophrastus . and as the manner of generation of minerals is alike in all , so it differs from the generation of animate bodies , whether animals or vegetables , in this , that having no seed , they have no power or instinct of producing other individuals , but have their species perpetuated per virtutem seu spiritum semini analogum , by a spiritual substance proportionable to seed , which is not resident in every individual , as it is in aimals and plants , which moses saith have their seeds in themselves , but in their proper wombs . this is the judgement of petrus severinus , howsoever he doth obscure it by his platonical grandiloquence . and as there is not vacuum in corporibus , so much less in speciebus : for that the species are perpetuated by new generations , is most certain , and proved bofore : that it is not out of the seeds of individuals , is evident by this , that if minerals do not assimulate nourishment by attraction , retention , concoction , expulsion , &c. for the maintenance of their own individual bodies , much less are they able to breed a superfluity of nourishment for seed . and how can they attract and concoct nourishment , and expel excrements , which have no veins nor fibres , nor any distinct parts to perform these offices withal ? moreover they are not increased as plants are , by nourishment , whereas the parts already generated , are extended in all proportions by the ingression of nutriment , which sills and enlarges them : but only are augmented externally upon the superficies , by super-addition of new matter concocted by the same virtue and spirit , into the same species . thus much for the manner of all mineral generations , which is not much controverted : the chief difference is about the efficient and the matter . about the efficient cause of generations ( for we must handle them all together ) there are divers opinions , as there are divers causes which concur to all generations of animals , vegetables or minerals . but there must be one principal efficient cause , to give the form to all species , as thee are other adjuvant and attending causes : the principal cause and agent in this work , is by most attributed to the influence of the planets , especially to the sun , who either by his light , or by his heat , doth frame the species of all things , and so of minerals , but chiefly in regard of his heat . this heat working upon apt matter , is thought to produce the several species which we see . as for the motion of the planets , it is certain that they move continually in a constant order , and the world could not subsist as it doth without it so as it may be cans a sine qua non ; a very remote cause , as there may be a hundred more causes of that nature . so likewise the light , which the peripateticks make the instrument of coelestial effects , can do as little to the furtherance of generations , seeing they proceed as well by night as by day : and for minerals , it is perpetual night with them , the density of the earth and rocks not suffering the light to pass . wherefore they insist chiefly upon the heat of the sun : but moses tells us that plants were created with their seeds in themselves upon the third day , before the planets , which were not created till the fourth day ; the shew us that plants and terrestrial substances depend not upon planets for their generations , nor for their virtues , but have the prin cipal causes of them in themselves . the same we may judge of minerals , being terrestrial substances , and propagated by seeds , as plants are , and likely to be created upon the same day with plants , seeing there is no other mention of their creation in moses . now for the heat of the sun , no doubt it is an universal fosterer of all inferior substances : but that it should beget particular species , is very improbable . the heat of the sun is no more apt to breed a nettle than a dock , brimstone than salt , &c. for it cannot give the essence to any thing : heat being only a quality which can breed no substance , and such a quality as can only segregate heterogeneral substances ; and thereby congregate homogeneal . whereas in all generations there must be a further power and virtue , to proportion the elements fit for every species ( if they will have all things made of the elements ) and to bring the species form a potential being to an actual , giving to every thing his proper shape , quantity , colour , smell , taste , &c. and to unite them , which before were of different natures : it must be an internal and domestical agent , and efficient cause which must perform this : and such a one as is not common to all species alike , but proper to that which it produceth : otherwise there would be no distinction , of species . and therefore moses saith of plants , that they have their seeds in themselves , according to their seyeral kinds . neither can any external cause give an essential form to any thing , which form must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , inbred in the thing it self , and not adventitious . and therefore scaliger saith , formae , non solis est quantitatem terminare , and aristotle , calore natura utitur tanquam ministro aut instrumento , non tanquam opifice aut legislatore . wherefore we will grant the sun to be an adjuvant cause , and by his heat to foster and cherish inferiour generations : but not to be a principal and begetting cause . and so zabarella doth mollisie the harshness of the former opinion : and doth acknowledge that the sun doth further generations only as an instrument of another superiour power , whereby in minerals it may make the matter more apt to receive the form , but it makes no minerals , no more then it makes blood in our bodies . others make the elements to be the principal causes of all species by their qualities . for the matter of the elements , being a passive matter , cannot be an efficient cause of generations . these qualities must be heat or cold : for the other two are passive , and attend rather upon the matter of generations , then upon the efficient . fire therefore by his heat is thought of all the elements to have the greatest hand in all generations , being most active and superiour to all the rest of the elements together , for the generation of every species , and rank them in due order , proportion , weight , measure , &c. this is he than must reconcile the differences which are in their natures , and bring them to union . this must attract nourishment , and prescribe the quantities , dimensions , parts , figures , colours , tastes , savours , &c. of every thing . a large province he hath to govern , with one naked and simple quality , which can have but one simple motion . simplicibus corporibus simplices tantum motus congruunt . heat can but heat , and the effects of this heat are by separation of different substances , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to congregate those that are alike , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 : but in this work we make heat to unite differing substances : for all generation is of differing substances united into one . again , fire having but one quality to work withall , whereby he must unite the other three elements , what shall bring and unite fire unto them ? this must be another power superiour to them all , for we must not imagine that they meet by chance as travellers do . and therefore aristotle explodes this efficient of fire , and attributes it to the forms of natural things . as for cold in the other elements , it is far more unlikely then heat , to perform these offices , being rather a distructive , then a generative quality , and is not called in by any author to this work , before the species have received his form by heat : and then it is admitted only for consolidation , but how justly , it is doubtfull : for heat doth consolidate as well as cold , by drying up moisture . but we will not grant this to either of them , as principal agents , but as they are instruments attending the forms of natural things . the alchymists make sulphur to be the principal efficient of all minerals , especially of metals , and mercury the matter . if they mean common sulphur and mercury , which are perfect species in their kinds , they are much deceived , and this opinion is sufficiently confuted by all that oppugne them . but it seems they understand some parts in the seminary of metals which have some analogy with these : and so their opinion may be allowed . for the spirit , which is the efficient in these generations , doth reside in a material substance , which may be resembled to sulphur or oyle , as some other part may be resembled to mercury . for all generations are framed of different parts united by this spirit . thus much of the different opinions concerning the efficient of all generations , and in particular of minerals . the matter whereof minerals are bred , is attributed chiefly to the elements , as the general matter of all animate and inanimate bodies : insomuch as both the heavens , and the very souls of men are made to proceed from the elements . concerning the heavens , it hath been the ancient opinion of the platonicks , pythagoreans , and epicureans , that not only these inferiour bodies , but also the coelestial , have been framed out of the elements . plato speaking of the heavens , saith , divini decoris ratio postulabat talem fieri mundum , qui & visum pateretur & tactum . sine igne videri nil potest , fine sulido nil tangi : solidum sine terra nibil . wherefore holding the heavees to be visible and solid , they must be made of the elements . the pythagoreans , and the brachmanni of india held the same opinion of the heavens : where apollonius tyanaeus was instructed in all the pythagorean doctrine , as philostratus reports . the epicureans also were of the same opinion , as appears in virgil , where he brings in sil●nus , one of the sect , and one of bacchus his crew , singing in this manner , namque canebat , uti magnum perinane coacta semina , terrarumque , animaeque marisque fuissent , et liquidi simul ignis : ut his exordia primis omnia , & ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis . silenus sung , how through the chaos vast , the seeds were set of earth , of air , of seas , of purest fire : how out of these at last , all things have sprung , and also out of these the infant world was moulded . of this opinion also was lucretius , philo jidoens , valesius , &c. although valesius doth make more pure elements for the heavens then ours . aristotle forsook his master plato in this point , and frames the heavens of a quintessential substance . but howsoever the heavens may participate with elementary qualities , and be subject to generation and corruption in their parts ; yet me thinks they should exempt our soals from this original , and not make them out of the fragment of the elements . scaliger inveys against alexander aphr●disiensis , for this opinion , and saith that he had poysoned our philosophy herein : venenav●●hanc philosophiae partem . so both he and others derive the sense , motion , understanding , growth , and the natural faculties of our souls , and the peculiar properties of every thing , from this original , turpissimo errore , as severinus saith . and scaliger in another place concerning this : d● intelleclu & ratione ipsaque anima quae ●ontaminarunt istoe nebuloe aphrodisienses , & pudet dicere & piget meminisse . i am ashamed to speak , and grieved to think how this aphrodisiensis hath polluted our reason and understanding , and our very souls with his foggy doctrine , in ascribing all these unto the elements . by the same reason they may ascribe the barking of doggs , the singing of birds , the laughing and speech of men , to the elements . their opinion is more probable , which hold , animam ex traduce , and to be communicated as one light to another : as timoth. bright proves in physicam scribonii , and not to ascribe it to the elements . nor to miracles , or new creations . but there is far more reason to derive from the elements , the tastes , colours , smells , sigures , numbers , quantities , orders , dimensions , &c. which appear more in corporal substances , and yet these are not from the elements . for how can they give these affections to other things , when they have them not themselves ? si non est ab elementis gustare , quare sit gustari ? what taste have any of these elements ? fire or heat which is the most active element , hath none . and whereas it is thought , that bittterness proceeds from heat , we find that many sharp and tar●fruits , being also very bitter before they are ripe , ( as olives for example ) yet let them hang upon the tree till they be ripe , and they lose their bitterness , and also their sharpness , by reason of their better concoction by heat . the like difference wefind between our oleum omphacinum , and therpe oyle . so likewise opium , which is held to be very cold , yet it is extream bitter , so as the cold parts in it are not able to master the bitterness , but this is still predominant : wherefore heat can be no cause of bitterness , unless it be in excess or defect , as scaliger confesseth . wormwood is very bitter , being hot and dry in the second or third degree : if heat were the cause of it , then all other simples which are hot and dry in the same degree , should be also bitter . as i have said of tastes , so i may say of all the other affections of natural things , that they proceed not form the elements , but from the seeds and forms of every thing . so for fat and unctuous substances , as sulphur , bitumen , oyle , grease , &c. unto what element shall we ascribe them ? not unto fire , because this is extream hot and dry , that is temperate in heat , and very moist . moreover , fire would rather consume it , then generate it : and physitians judge the generation of fat in our bodies to proceed rather from cold , then from heat . air , if it have any ingenerate quality , as some do make doubt out of aristotle it is cold and moist , as i have shewed before , cap. & . and therefore as it cannot agree with fire , nor be a fuel to it , so it cannot be any material cause of fat , or oylie substance : being more agreeable to water , from whence it is thought to be made by rarifaction , and into which it is thought to be reduced by condensation . wherefore being of a watry nature , it cannot agree with oyle or fatness , nor be the matter of it . the like we may judge of water , which doth terminate both water and air , and therefore must be opposite to them both . as for earth , being cold and dry , and solid , it cannot be the matter of this which is temperate , and moist , and liquid ; neither can all the elements together make this substance , seeing there is no unctuousness in any of them , and they can give no more then they have . so as i cannot see how this oylie substance , which is very common in all natural things , and wherein the chief faculties of every thing doth reside , as their humidum radicale , should be from the elements . so likewise for the substance wherewith every thing is nourished and increased , and into which every thing is resolved , it appears not how it should be from the elements . hypocrates , of whom macrobius saith , nec fallere nec falli p●tuit , hath two notable axioms for the clearing of this point . the one is vnumquong ; in id dissolvitur unde compactum est . every thing is dissolved into that whereof it was made . the other . iisdem untrimur ex quibus constamus , we are nourished by such things as we consist of . aristotle also hath the same . if this axiom be true , as i hold it to be , and i know none that contradict it , then we must consist of such things as we are nourished withall . but we are not nourished by the elements , and therefore we consist not of them . fire nourisheth nothing , water nourisheth not , as physicians conse●s : air is too thin a substance , and earth to thick . and as they do not nourish them when they are single , so being compounded , they can do as little . aristotle saith that some plants are nourished with water alone , some with earth alone , and some with both together . but if earth and water be mixed for our nourishment , they making but mud , would make us have muddy brains . we will grant the elements to be matrices rerum naturalium , the wombs and nurses of natural things , but we will not grant them to be material causes . neither can we attribute more dignity unto them , then we do to our mothers , who depart from their substance whereof they consist , as flesh , bones , sinews , veins , arteries , &c. to the nourishment of their infants , but only prepare blood for them , from the nutriments which they receive . and all the elements in the world cannot make this blood , neither as the matter nor as the efficient . but as the mother is furnished with blood to nourish the infant , and with convenient heat to foster it withall , so are the elements stored with all manner of matter sit for all generations : so as the seeds or forms of natural things , will never want matter to nourish them , nor will ever want forms . so that it is manifest that if natural bodies be not nourished by the elements , they are not compounded of them : but being nourished by other substances then the elements , they must be compounded of the like ; simile simili nutritur : composit a compos●● constant & nutriuntur . thus much for the genesis or generation and naration of natural things , that thereby we cannot gather that they are either mad or nourished by the elements . now let us examine whether by the analysis or dissolution of them , we may find the four elements , according to the former axiome , that every thing is dissolved into that whereof it was made , and is made of than whereinto it is dissolved , as aristotle , hypocrates , and galen do affirm . so that if the elements enter into the composition of natural things , especially as the principal materials whereof they consist , they must needs appear in the dissolution of them . this dissolution is either natural or artificial . in the natural dissolution of all things , hypocrates observes three distinct substances , calidum , humidum sive fluidum , & siccum five solidum , according to the three elements or principles where of they are framed . his instance is principally man , but he ●ffirms it to hold in other animate and inanimate bodies . these elements he termeth continen●●a , contenta & impetum facientia , as galen exbounds it . those which he calls continentia , 〈◊〉 bones , nerves , veins , arteries , and from ●hence , muscles , &c. contenta are humida , or humores , blood ; flegme , choller , melancholy , which after death , are cold , and congeal , being beated as galen saith , from the heart , in living bodies : impetum facientia , are spirits animal , vital and natural . these three elements , galen acknowledgeth to be the nearest , but the other which are more remote , to be most universal . bat hypocrates●aith ●aith that heat and cold , &c. are very powerless elements , and that sharp , bitter , sweet , &c. are more powerfull , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . so that these are the three elements whereof ●ll things do consist , and into which they are ●aturally resolved : and these do seem to re●emble the four elements , but are not the same . for heat may resemble fire , although this heat be ●●ocured by motion in every thing whilest it liveth , and not extrinsecally . moisture may resemble water and air . driness may resemble earth ; cold appears in them all after the heat or spirit is departed . in the artificial analysis of natural bodies , the alchymists tells us that they find three elements , and no more , whereof every thing doth consist , and whereinto it is resolved : namely , vaporosum , inflammabile , fixum : which they call mercury , sulphur and salt , and they seem to agree with hypocrates . for their mercury may well resemble hypocrates his spirits , or impet●● facientia : sulphur his humour or flu dum or ●●tenta : and salt , his siccum or densum , or coninentia . these they say are found in every thing , animal , vegetable , or mineral , and no other . and as for the four common elements , seeing they are distinct in place and scituation , and therefore cannot concurre and meet to the generation of every animal , plant and mineral , &c but by violence , the earth being someti●● carried upwards , and the fire downwards , co●trary to their natural motions : and this , not one for all , but daily and hourly : it is not likely t●● these substances can be bred of the elements , 〈◊〉 be maintained in a perpetual succession by a vi●lent cause . and therefore it is no marvel these elements be not found in the dissolutions natural bodies . thus much in general conceting all generations , that hereby we may the ●●ter judge of the particular generations of mnerals , which differ not from the rest , but 〈◊〉 in this , that their seeds are not in every indi●●dual , as the others are , but are contained ●● matricibus , in their wombs , and there they are furnished with matter to produce their species : not out of the elements , no otherwise than ex matricibus , as the child in the mothers womb , but have their matter and nourishment from the seeds of things which are agreeable to their species : which seeds wanting means to produce their own species , do serve others , and yield matter and substance unto them . now let us come more particularly to the generation of minerals , wherein we will first examine aristotles opinion , as most generally received , then i will presume to set down mine own . chap. xii . the generation of minerals examined , the authors opinion herein . a ristotle makes the humidity of water , and the dryness of earth , to be the matter of all minerals : the dryness of earth to participate with fire , and the humidity of water with air , as zabareila interprets it ; so that to make a perfect mixt body , the four elements do concur ; and to make the mixture more perfect , these must be resolved into vapour or exhalation by the heat of fire , or influence from the sun and other planets , as the efficient cause of their generation : but the cause of their congelation to be cold in such bodies as heat will resolve . this vapour consisting partly of moysture , and partly of dryness , if all the moysture be spent , turns to earth or salt , or concrete juyces , which dissolve in moysture : if some moysture remain before congelation , then it turns to stone : if this dry exhalation be unctuous and fat , and combustible , then bitumen and sulphur , and orpiment , are bred of it : if it be dry and incombustible , then concrete juyces , &c. but if moysture do abound in this vapour then metals are generated which are fusible and malleable . and for the perfecting of these generations , this exhalation is not sufficient , but to give them their due consistence , there must be the help of cold from rocks in the earth to congeal this exhalation . so that here must be two efficients , heat and cold . and for the better effecting of this , these exhalations do insinuate themselves into stones , in the form of dew o● frost , that is , in little grains ; but differing from dew and frost in this , that these are generated after that the vapour is converted to water ; whereas minerals are generated before this conversi●● into water . but there is doubt to be made of frost , because that is bred before the conversio● of the exhalation into water , as may appear , m●teor . . according to this assertion there must be two places for the generation of minerals ; the one a matrix , where they receive their effence by heat in form of an exhalation , and from thence they are sent to a second place to receive the● congelation by the coldness of rocks : and fro● this matrix come our mineral waters , and no● from the place of congelation . this is the generation of minerals , according to aristotle ; but it is not so clear , but that leaves many scruples , both concerning the matter , and the efficients . for the matter , it seems not probable , that water and earth should make any thing but mud and dirt ; for you can expect no more from any thing than is in it , the one is cold and dry , the other cold and moyst ; and therefore as fit to be the matter of any other thing , as of particular minerals . and water , whereof principally metals are made to consist , is very unfit to make a malleable and extensible substance , especially being congealed by cold , as we may see in ice . but some do add a mineral quality to these materials , and that simple water is not the chief matter of metals , but such as hath imbibed some mineral quality , and so is altered from the nature of pure water . this assertion doth presuppose minerals in the earth before they were bred ; otherwise what should breed them at the first , when there was no mineral quality to be imparted to water ? again , this mineral quality either gives the water or the vapour of it the effence of the mineral , and then it is not the effect of water , but of the mineral quality , or the potential fac●●lty to breed it . if the effence , then this metall 〈◊〉 water , or vapour , must have the form of the metal , and so be fusible and malleable . if it have only the power and potential faculty , then the generation is not perfected , but must expect further concoction . this concoction is said to be partly by heat , and partly by cold ; if by heat , it must be in the passages of the exhalation as it is carried in the bowels of the earth : for afterwards , when the exhalation is setled in the stones , the heat is gone . now if the concoction be perfected before the exhalation be insinuated into the stones , as it must be , if it be like dew , then it is perfect metal , and neither is able to penetrate the stones , nor hath any need of the cold of them to perfect the generation . if by cold , it is strange that cold should be made the principal agent in the generation of metals , which generates nothing ; neither can heat be the efficient of these generations . simple qualities can have but simple effects , as heat can but make hot , cold can but cool , &c. but they say cold doth congeal metals , because heat doth dissolve them ; i answer , that the rule is true , if it be rightly applyed : as we see ice which is congealed by cold , is readily dissolved by heat . but the fusion of metals cannot properly be called a dissolution by heat , because it is neither reduced to water or vapour , as it was before the congelation by cold , nor is it permanent in that kind of dissolution , although after fusion it should be kept in a greater heat than the cold could be which congealed it . for the cold in the bowels of the earth cannot be so great , as it is upon the superficies of the earth , seeing it was never observed that 〈◊〉 was any ice bred there . also this dissolution which is by fusion , tends not to the destruction of the metal ( but doth rather make it more perfect ) as it should do according to the former rule rightly applyed . and therefore this dissolution by fusion , doth not argue a congelation by cold ; which being in the passive elements , doth rather attend the matter than the efficient of generations : for it is apt to dull and hebetate all faculties and motions in nature , and so to hinder generations , rather than to further any . it is heat and moysture that further generations , as ovid faith ; quippe ubi temperie●● sumpsere humorque calorque , concipiunt : when heat with moysture's temper'd well , then 't is their bellies 'gin to swell . and thus much for aristotles generation of minerals , where his vapours or exhalations do rather serve for the collection or congregation of matter in the mines , than for the generation of them ; as libavius doth rightly judge . agricola makes the matter of minerals to be succus lapidescens metallificus &c. and with more reason , because they are found liquid in the earth : gilgill would have it ashes ; democritus lime : but these two being artificial matters , are no where found in the earth . the alchymists make sulphur and mercurie the matter of metals : libavius , sulphur and vitriol . but i will not stand upon discoursing of these materials , because it makes little to my purpose .. it is enough for my purpose to shew the manner of these generations , which i take to be this . there is a seminarie spirit of all minerals in the bowels of the earth , which meeting with convenient matter , and adjuvant causes , is not idle , but doth proceed to produce minerals , according to the nature of it , and the matter which it meets withal ; which matter it works upon like a ferment , and by his motion procures an actual heat , as an instrument to further his work ; which actual heat is increased by the fermentation of the matter . the like we see in making of malt , where the grains of barley being moistned with water , the generative spirit in them is dilated , and put in action ; and the superfluity of water being removed , which might choak it , and the barley laid up in heaps ; the seeds gather heat , which is increased by the contiguity of many grains lying one upon another . in this work natures intent is to produce more individuals , according to the nature of the seed , and therefore it shoots forth in spires : but the artist abuses the intention of nature , and converts it to his end , that is , to increase the spirits of his malt. the like we find in mineral substances , where this spirit or ferment is resident , as in allum and copperas mines , which being broken , exposed and moistened , will gather an actual heat , and produce much more of those minerals , then else the mine would yield ; as agricola and thurneiser do affirm , and is proved by common experience . the like is generally observed in mines , as agricola , erastus , libavius , &c. do avouch out of the daily experience of mineral men , who affirm , that in many places , they find their mines so hot , as they can hardly touch them ; although it is likely that where they work for perfect minerals , the heat which was in fermentation , whilst they were yet breeding , is now much abated : the minerals being now grown to their perfection . and for this heat we need not call for the help of the sun , which a little could will take away from us , much more the body of the earth , and rocks ; not for subterranean fire : this inbred heat is sufficient , as may appear also by the mines of tinglass , which being digged , and laid in the moist air , will become very hot . so antimony and sublimat being mixed together , will grow so hot as they are not able to be touched : if this be so in little quantities , it is likely to be much more in great quantities and huge rocks . heat of it self differs not in kind , but only in degree , and therefore is inclined no more to one species , then to another , but as it doth attend and serve a more worthy and superiour power , such as this generative spirit is . and this spirit doth convert any apt matter it meets withall to his own species by the help of heat ; and the earth is full of such matter which attends upon the species of things : and oftentimes for want of fit opportunity and adiuvant causes , lies idle , without producing any species : but is apt to be transmuted by any mechanical and generative spirit into them . and this matter is not the elements themselves , but subterranean seeds placed in the elements , which not being able to live to themselves , do live to others . sic roma crescit albae ruinis ; the death of one is the life of another . from this confluence of seeds arise all the varieties and differences , and alterations which are observed in the generation or nutrition of natural things : as in their colours , tastes , numbers , proportions , distempers , &c. also from hence proceed the transplantations which we find in animals , vegetables , and minerals . in animils these transplantations are not very frequent ; yet all our monsters may be referred hereunto , as also the issue which comes from dogs and wolves , horses and asses , partriges and hens , &c. some do think that the destruction of sexes is a transplantation , and that all seeds in themselves are hermophroditical , and neither masculine nor feminine , but as they meet with strong and weak impressions from supervenient causes ; from hence come our androgyni , or masculine women , such as horace speaks of , sabellis docta ligonibus versare glebas . that dig the ground themselves ( stout jades ! ) managing well sabean spades . among those animals which we call insecta , these transplantations are more frequent , because their seeds are more equivocal , and easily transmuted from one species to another : as we may see in worms and flies , and most evidently in silk-worms called cavallieri . in vegetables these transplantations are very frequent when one species is grafted upon another , as virgil faith , et steriles platani malos gessere valentes castaneae fagos : ornusque incanuit albo flore pyri , glandemque sues fregere sub ulmis . the barren planes did apples bear ; the beeches chesnuts ; th' ash a pear ; and hogs did under elm-trees acorns tear . thus by commixtion of several species , the first seeds do oftentimes being forth other fruits then their own . miranturque novas frondes & non sua poma . and stand admiring , double mute , to see new leaves , and stranger fruit . but all , as hypocrates saith , by divine necessity , both that which they would , and that which they would not . so likewise wheat is changed into lolium , basil into thyme , masterwort into angelica , &c. in minerals we find the like transplantations : as salt into nitre , copperass into allum , lead into tin , iron into copper , copper into iron , &c. and this is the transplantation whereupon the alchymists ground their philosophers stone . this seminary spirit is acknowledged by aristotle : continent ( inquit ) semen in se cujusque faecundit atis suae causam : and by most of his interpreters : and morisinus calls it elphesteria , not knowing how to attribute these generations to the elements . and this is the cause why some places yield some one vegetable or mineral species above another , quippe solo natura subest . non owsnis fert omnia tellus . it is the nature of the ground . not in all soils are all things found . this seminary spirit of minerals hath its proper wombs where it resides , and is like a prince or emperour , whose prescripts both the elements and matter must obey ; and it is never idle , but alwayes in action , producing and maintaining natural substances , untill they have fulfilled their destiny , donec fatum expleverint , as hypocrates saith . so as there is a necessity in this , depending upon the first benediction ( crescite & multiplicamini : ) and this necessity or fatum is inherent in the seeds , and not adventitious from the planets , or any other natural cause . and this is the cause of uniformity in every species , that they have all their proper figures , dimensions , numbers of parts , colours , tastes , &c. most convenient and agreeable to each nature ; as moses saith , that god saw that every thing was very good : and galen saith , deus in omnibus optimum eligit . and this i take to be the meaning of his lex adrastia , which he alledgeth against asclepiades . for it he should mean it as commonly it is understood , of punishment which alwayes follows sin , nem● crimen in pectore gestaet , qui non idem nemesi● in tergo ; no man , though privately , commits a fault , but is degg'd by revenge : in this sense he could not apply it to the confuting of asciepiades . there are also other laws in nature which cannot be altered , both mathematical , in arithmetick and geometry ; and logical , in the consecuting of arguments , &c. but these serve not for galens purpose in this place . he must mean it of a natural necessity or fatum , or predestination , that frames every member & part of the body to the best use for the creature . and therefore where asclepiades propounds an inconvenient frame of parts , he confutes him by this inbred law of nature , which he saith , no man can alter or avoid , nor any subtility elude , as also aristotle saith . thus much for the generation of minerals and other natural substances . chap. xiii . of the causes of actual heat , and medicinal virtue in mineral waters , divers opinions of others rejected . now i come to shew how our mineral waters receive both their actual heat , and their virtues . i joyn them together , because they depend upon one and the same cause , unless they be juices which will readily dissolve in water , without the help of heat : other minerals will not , or very hardly . this actual heat of waters hath troubled all those that have written of them , and many opinions have been held of the causes of them . some attribute it to wind or air , or exhalations included in the bowels of the earth , which either by their own nature , or by their violent motion , and agitation , and attrition upon rocks and narrow passages , do gather heat , and impart it to our waters . of their own nature these exhalations cannot be so hot , as to make our water hot , especially seeing in their passage among cold rocks , it would be much allaied , having no supply of heat to maintain it . moreover , where water hath passage to get forth to the superficies of the earth , there these exhalations and winds will easily pass , and so their heat gone withall , and so our waters left to their natural coldness : whereas we see they do continue in the same degree and tenor , many generations together . if by their agitation and violent motion they get this heat , because no violent thing is perpetual or constant , this cannot be the cause of the perpetual and constant heat of water . besides , this would rather cause earthquakes and storms , and noyses in the earth , then heat our springs . moreover , we daily observe , that exhalations and water are never heated by motion , or agitation ; as in the cataracts of the rhine by splug ; the agitation and fall of water upon rocks is most violent , and makes a hideous noyse ; yet it heats not the water , though it be very deep in the earth . neither can any attrition heat either air or water , or any soft and liquid thing , but rather make it more cold . others attribute this actual heat of bathes unto the sun , whose beams piercing thorow the pores of the earth , do heat our waters . if this heat which heats our bathes be caused by the beams of the sun , then either they bring it intirely from the sun , as a quality proceeding from thence , or they make it by their own motion . if it come from the nature of the sun , the sun must be extream hot that can heat these inferiour parts at such a distance ; especially the beams which must carry it , passing thorow the middle region of the air , which is alwayes extream cold , and cannot but cool those beams before they come to us . and if they were able to pass that region without losing their heat , yet they cannot but warm that region , being nearer to their fountain of heat , as well or better then they can warm our waters , in despite of any antiperistasis . but it is doubtfull whether the sun be hot of his own nature or no. † the peripateticks hold it to be hot and dry moderately ; yet it must be extream hot , if in this manner it do heat our bathes . and if the sun be capable of heat , they must also make it capable of cold ( elementary qualities ) and then they make celestial bodies obnoxious to generation and corruption ; which they are not willing to grant . although in this respect they need not fear the decay of the sun , no more then of the globe of the earth : which though it suffer in his parts many alterations , yet the whole remains firm and perpetual , as mr. doctor hakwell proves in his learned work upon that argument ; and will so do untill it be dissolved by that omnipotent power which framed it . if they make this heat to come from the motion of the sun , we must consider how the sun by motion may get such a heat . the sun is either moved by his own motion , or as he is carried in his sphear wherein he is fixed . if by his own motion , it must be either by volutation upon his axis , which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or by circumgyration , which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , round about the globe of the earth : and this is the common opinion ; which if it be so , he must be carried more swiftly then a bullet out of a peece of ordnance . i read in the turkish history at the siege of scodra , of a bullet of twelve hundred weight called the prince , and it seems a great matter . but to have such a bullet as the globe of the sun , which is held to be times bigger then the globe of the earth , to be carried in a swifter course , and that perpetually , is a monstrous , furious , and mad agitation , insa●●motus , as one termeth it . the like may be said of the motion of the sphears : but i will leave the confutation of this to others . but admit it to be so ; and that this violent agitation is not repugnant to the perpetuity of the heavens ; and that it is able to breed an extream heat in the sun and celestial spheres , notwithstanding their tenuity , &c. which is unapt to breed heat by motion or collision , for that is proper to solid substances : yet this heat must be conveyed to us by the same beams of the sun , and must be subject to the former impediments . wherefore the beams of the sun by their motion must make this heat , by the collection a many beams together . for if they be dispersed , no fire will be kindled , but only some moderate heat : as we see in a burning-glass , which will heat a white paper or cloth , but not burn it . other things it will burn , which are apt fewels ; but the whiteness of the paper or cloth it seem disperseth the beams . but no doubt the sun by his light and beams do warm these inferiour parts , especially where they have free passage , and reflection withall , and it is to be judged , that the heat not being essentially in the sun , is an effect of the light by whose beams it is imparted to us : so that where light is excluded , heat is also excluded . and if we can exclude the heat of the beams of the sun by the in●rposition of a mud wall , or by making a cel●r fix foot under the ground ; how is it likely that these beams can pierce so deep into the earth , as to heat the water there , as lucretius●aith ●aith , qui queat hic subter tam crass corpore terram percoquere humorem , & calido sociare vapori ? prasertim cum vix possit per septa domorum l●sinuare suum radi●s ardentibus aestum . under this massie bulk of earth how shall the sun boil water , and there raise a steam whereas we see it scarce can pierce a wall , and through't into a chamber dart a beam . and if the beams of the sun be not able to heat a standing pool in the midst of summer , how should they heat a subterranean water , which is alwaies in motion , especially in the winter time ? again , if this heat come from the sun , then in the summer , when the sun is hottest , the waters should be so also , and in winter cold , because of the absence of the sun ; but we find them always alike . also , why should the sun heat some few fountains and pass over an infinite number of others , which are left cold ? and why should there be hot fountains in cold climates , where the sun hath little power to heat , either by reason of his oblique beams , or by reason of his long absence ; and yet in hot climats they should be so ●re ? wherefore it is very improbable that our springs are heated by the sun. others have devised another cause of this actual heat of bathes , more vain then the former , which they call antiperistasis : where by reciprocation or compression , any quality is intended and exalted to a higher degree . as where heat or cold are compassed by their contrary quality , so as the vapours or effluvium of it is reflected back again , the quality thereof is increased . hypocrates gives us an example of it in our own bodies , where he saith , ventres hi●calidiores ; our stomachs are hotter in winter then in summer , by reason the ambient air being then cold , doth stop the pores of the skin , and repell those fuliginous vapours which nature would breathe forth , and so our inward heat is increased : whereas in the summer , by reasoned too much eventilation , our natural heat is diminished ; and therefore we concoct better i● winter then in summer . and although it be not simple heat which concocts , and makes ebylus in the stomach , blood in the liver , seed is the spermatick vessels , or milk in the breast &c. as joubertus saith : yet heat attending upon the faculties of those parts , doth quicken them as cold doth benumb them . but if we examine this example aright , we shall find a great difference between this and our hot bathes . for the heat in our bodies is continually fed and maintained from the heart by his motion : that a bathes hath no such supply according to their doctrine , from any cause to make or continue this heat . and therefore the repelling of vapours cannot make water hotter then it is : and being naturally cold , and without any heat where heat is not , how can it be pend in or repelled ? again , in hypocrates his example there is an interstitium ( our skin ) between the fuliginous vapours and the external air , which keep them from uniting : but in our bathes there is nothing to hinder the meeting and conjunction of these qualities , and then the one must dull the other . moreover , we see that any thing that is naturally cold , as iron or a stone , if it be made hot accidentally by fire or otherwise , it is sooner cold in cold air , then in a warm place . so that the antiperistasis doth rather diminish then increase the heat of it . wherefore unless water were naturally hot , or the heat maintained by some continual cause , this antiperistasis can do no good , but by his opposite quality would rather cool it . nay heat it self cannot make any thing more hot , unless it be greater then the heat of the thing it self . but to ascribe the generation of heat to cold , and so to make it the cause of his contrary , is against the law of nature . no quality of it self is increased by his contrary . it is true , that a pot of water set over the fire , will be sooner hot , being covered , or otherwise the vapours kept in , then being open : but there must be fire then to heat it , and to continue the heat : otherwise the antiperistasis will do nothing , unless it make it more cold , and congeal it into ice , if the air ambient be more cold then the water . some may object , that they find some fountains warmer in winter then in summer , and to reak when they break forth into the air ; as i have seen at wercksworth and bakewell in darbyshire : and therefore this doth argue an antiperistasis . galen thinks that these waters do but seem so to our sense : our hands being hot in summer , and cold in winter , as our urins seem cold in a hot bath . but i will grant with valesius that many deep fountains may be so indeed , and not in appearance only , as partaking with some warm exhalations , especially in mineral countreys , as darbyshire is . moreover , if our bathes were heated by a● antiperistasis , then they should be hotter in winter then in summer ; but we find them alwayes alike . also if a cold ambient be able to make cold water hot , why should not a hot ambient make it more cold ? especially seeing the vapours are cold , which being repelled by heat , which doth terminate cold , should increase the coldness of the water . also if we should grant this antiperistasis , we must deny the reaction and resistance between the qualities of the elements : and so overthrow all temperaments which arise from thence : and also our composition of medicines were in vain . wherefore this antiperistasis is an idle invention to maintain this purpose . others attribute this actual heat to quick lyme , which doth readily heat any water call upon it , and also kindle any combustible substance put into it ; this is democritus his opinion . to this i answer , that lyme is an artificial thing , not natural , and is never found in the bowels of the earth . besides , if it were found , one fusion of water extinguisheth the heat of it , and then it lyeth like a dead earth , and will yield nor more heat , so as this cannot procure a perpetual heat to bathes : neither can the lymestones without calcination , yield any heat to water , nor will break and crackle upon the affusion on water , as lyme doth . wherefore this opinion is altogether improbable . others attribute this actual heat to a subterranean fire kindled in the bowels of the earth . let us consider how this may be . fire is a quality and the highest degree of heat , which cannot subsist without a subject ; for i define it to be intensissimus color in corpore cremabili : the highest degree of heat in a combustible body : and it is received into his subject either by propagation or coition , as when one candle lights another , or by motion , as collision , concussion , dilatation , comprission , putrefaction , fermentalion , reflection , &c. yet all motion doth not kindle fire although it heat ; neither are all substances apt to be heated by motion . air and water are rather colder by motion : but this rule holds in such things as are apt to receive heat by motion , as solid substances , combustible substances , &c. and the heat of animals , vegetables , and minerals , which they have for their generation and nutrition , is from motion : although this heat is not in so high a degree as fire is , for then it would consume them ; but as the motion is moderate , and agreeable to each nature , so is the heat . this motion in natural things proceeds from their seeds , or forms , and may be called internal or natural . external motions are violent agitations , concussions , &c. which commonly kindle fire in apt matter . as for the element of fire , which should be pure , not shining , and therefore invisible , and subsisting without a subject or fewel : let them find it who know where to seek for it . for my part i know no element of fire , unless we should make it to be that which is natural to all creatures and their seeds , causing their fermenting heat , whereof i shall speak anon . and this interpretation we may well make of hypocrates , where he faith , that all things are made of fire and water ; and that these two are sufficient for all generations ; fire giving motion , and water nutrition . and it is not likely that this fire should be fetched from : a remote place , and downwards , against the nature of fire , for every generation : but that it be near hand , and inbred in the seeds themselves , as the principal ingredient into every natural thing ; whereas if it were remote , what should bring it continually , and unite it with the other elements in these generations ? wherefore this is most likely to be the element of fire , our burning fire is all of one nature , not differing in kind , but only in degree according to the quality of the fewel . some fewels will make a manifest flame , as all thin and light substances , sulphur , liquid bitumen , oyle , fat , &c. some only a glowing coal , with little or no flame , as some forts of stone-coal . yet all fire doth send forth fuliginous vapours , which would choak it if there were not vent for them into the air : as we see in the making of char-coal , although they cover their fire with lome , yet they must leave some vent for the smoke ; though not so much as may make it to flame , yet enough to maintain the fire . of the first flaming fort there are divers degrees , as that of straw , brimstone , spirit of wine , naphtha , petroleum , &c. some of which will scarcely take hold upon other fewel : as one may wet a linnen cloath in spirit of wine , and being kindled , he shall hardly find the cloath scorched . the like hath been observed in that exhalation which is called ignis satuus , being of a very thin substance , for bitumen or naphtha . some reckon comets among these fiery exhalations : but i can hardly believe that they are any kindled substances . first because their flame is not pyramidal , as it is in all kindled substances . secondly , because if they be of a thin substance from sulphur and bitumen , the flame would be greater , seeing it must be plentiful , if it continue so long in burning , as we find them to do . or admit that this matter be kindled by succession , yet it is incredible that it should continue burning above a year together ; as that comet xiphian , which lasted a whole year : another , anno . under the constellation of cassiopaea , lasted a year and a half , others six months , others three , &c. if the sulphurous or bituminous matter be thick , it will melt in burning , and rain down brimstone and bitumen upon us . thirdly , if comets were kindled substances , what entertainment could they find above the moon , and among the spheres , where they say no corruptible or elementary substance can be indured . but many of our comets have been observed to have been above the moon , and some among the fixed starrs , as hath been observed by tycho brahe , and clavius : and upon due observation they could find some of them to admit no paralaxis , or diversity of aspect to any star in different climats . this argumnnt may be good against a peripatetick ; but a platonist , or a pytnagorean , who hold the heavens to be made of elementary matter , and subject to generation and corruption , will not allow it , no more will many of our divines . for glowing fires , we have none but they must be kindled , and then they must have vent for their fuliginous vapours , and they must be kindled either by propagation or coition from some other fire , or by violent motion able to kindle them , which we shall hardly find in the bowels of the earth , where all is quiet , and no space for any such perturbation . but they say there is an ignis subterraneus , which being kindled upon sulphur and bitumen , disperseth it self among other mines of the like nature , and sets them on fire . now we are come from heaven to hell , or to purgatory at the least , which pyhagoras calls materiam vatum falsique pericula mundi ; the dream of poets , and a forged fear . the largest description of it is in virgil : from whence both divines and philosophers derive much matter : and beccius doth believe that there is such a thing in the center of the earth . but if we observe virgil well , we shall find that he propounds it but as a dream : for in the end of that book he saith , sunt gemina somni portae ; quarum altera fortur cornea , qua veris facilis datur exitus umbris : altera candenti perfecta nitens elephauto , sed falsa ad coelum mittunt insomnia manes . dreams have two gates , the one is said to be of horn , through which all true conceits de flee ; the other framed all of ivory rare , but le ts out none but such as forged are . now saith he , when anchyses had led aeneas and sibilla through hell , he lets them forth at the ivory gate ( portaque emittit eburna : ) as if he should say ; all that i have related of hell , is but a fiction ; and thus ludovicus vives interprets it in his comment upon this place . i hope none will think that i deny a hell , but i approve not of the assignment of it to the center of the earth , or that that fire should serve as baccius would have it , to further all generations in the earth : and as others , to be the cause of fountains , winds , earth-quakes , vulcanoes , storms , saltness of the sea , &c. nor of the actual heat of our bathes , although it be the most common received opinion . first for the place , it is not likely that the center of the earth , whither all heavy things do tend , should be hollow , but rather more compact then any other part of the earth , as likewise valesius thinks ; but if there be any concavities , they are between the center and the superficies ; and these concavities being receptacles of water from the sea , cannot also receive fire . these two will not agree together in one place , but the one will expel the other : for whereas some hold that bitumen will burn in water , and is nourished by it , it is absolutely false , as experience shews ; and i have touched it among the bitumina . moreover , if the heat which warms our bathes did proceed from hence , there must be huge vessels above the fire to contain water , whereby the fire might heat it , and not be quenched by it . also the vapours arising from hence , must be hotter then water can endure , or be capable of ; for as they ascend towards the superficies of the earth , they must needs be cooled as they pass by rocks , or else they could not be congealed into water again : and after this congelation , the water hath lost most of his heat , as we find in our ordinary distillations of rose-water , &c. where we see our water to descend into the receive ; almost cold ; so that they cannot derive our hot bathes from hence . secondly , for the fire it self , although water and air may be received into the bowels of the earth , yet there is great difficulty for fire . for the other two need no nourishment to support them , as fire doth . if there be not competency of air to nourish the fire by venting his fuligious vapours , howsoever there be fewel enough , it is suddenly quenched , and such huge and flaming fire as this must be , will require more air then can there be yielded : a great part thereof passing away through the secret creeks of rocks , and little or none entring through the sea. and therefore daily experience shews , that our mineral men are fain to sink new shafts ( as they call them ) to admit air to their works , otherwise their lights would go out . although one would think , that where many men may have room enough to work , there would be space enough for air to maintain a few lights . the like we see in cupping-glasses , where the light goes out as soon as they are applied . also there are no fires perpetual , as hot bathes are , but are either extinct , or keep not the same tenor . wherefore fire cannot be the cause of this constant heat of bathes . it must be a continual cause that can make a continual hea● . also where fire is , there will be smoak , for as it breeds exhalations , so it sends them forth . but in most of our hot bathes we find none of these dry exhalations . moreover , fire is more hardly pend in then air ; yet we see that air doth break forth : wherefore fire should also make his way , having fuel enough to maintain it . so they say it doth in our vulcanoes at hecla in iseland , aetna in sicicy , vesuvio in campania , in enaria , aeolia , lipara , &c. but it is yet unproved that these eruptions of fire do proceed from any deep cause , but only are kindled upon or neer the superficies of the earth , where there is air enough to feed it , and means enough to kindle it by lightnings , or other casual means . whereas in the bowels of the earth , there is neither air to nourish it , nor any means to kindle it ; seeing neither the beams of the sun , nor wind , or other exhalations , nor any antiperistasis , nor lyme , nor lightnings can do it . for the same reasons that exclude the beams of the sun and exhalations , will likewise exclude lightnings . thirdly , for the fuel , there are only two substances in the bowels of the earth , which are apt fuels for fire , bitumen and sulphur . sulphur is in such request with all men , as they think there can be no not bath without it : nay many hold , that if water do but pass thorow a mine of brimstone , although it be not kindled , but actually cold , yet it will contract from thence , not only a potential , but an actual heat . but we do manifestly find , that neither all hot waters are sulphurous , nor all sulphurous waters hot ( as is said before in sulphur . ) the bathes of caldaneila and avinian in agro senensi , de grotta in viterbio , de aquis in pisano , divi johannis in agro lacenss , balneum geber suilleri in halsatia , &c. are all hot , and yet give no signe of sulphur , either by smell , or taste , or quality , or effect . contrariwise that all sulphurous waters are not hot , may appear by the bathes in zurich in helvetia , of buda in pannonia , at cure in rhetia , celenses in germany . in campania between naples and pateolum , are many cold sulphurous springs . at brandula in agro carpensi , &c. all which bathes shew much sulphur to be in them , and yet are cold . and no marvel , for if we insuse any simple , be it never so hot potentially , yet it will not make the liquor actually hot . wherefore this sulphur must burn before it can give any actual heat to our bathes ; and then it must needs be subject to the former difficulties , and also must be continually repaired by new generations of matter , which actual fire cannot further , but rather hinder . the fire generates nothing , but consumes all things . the like we may judge of bitumen , that unless it be kindled , it can yield no heat to our bathes ; as solinander reports of a bituminous mine in westfalia , in agro tremonensi , where going down into the grove , he found much water , having the smell , taste , and colour of bitumen , and yet cold . agricola imputes the chief cause of the heating of bathes , unto the fuel of bitumen ; baccius on the other side to sulphur . but in my opinion , they need not contend about it . for , as i have shewed before in the examples of mineral waters , there are many hot springs from other minerals , where neither sulphur nor bitomen have been observed to be . john de dondis , and julius alexandrinus were much unsatisfied in these opinions , and did rather acknowledge their ignorance , then that they would subscribe unto them . i need not dispute whether this fire be in alveis , or in canalibus , or in vicinis partibus , &c. because i think it is in neither of them . chap. xiv . the authors opinion concerning the cause of actual heat , and medicinal virtue in mineral waters . vvherefore finding all the former opinions to be doubtfull and weakly grounded concerning the causes of the actual heat of bathes ; let me presume to propound another , which i perswade my self to be more true and certain . but because it hath not been mentioned by any author that i know , i have no mans steps to follow in it . avia doctorum peragro loca , nullius ante trita solo . i travel where no path is to be seen of any learned foot that here hath been . which makes me fearfull in the delivery of it . but if i do err in it , i hope i shall not be blamed ; seeing i do it in disquisition of the truth . i have in the former chapters set down mine opinion concerning the generation of minerals , that they have their seminaries in the earth replenished with spirits , and faculties attending them ; which meeting with convenient matter and adiuvant causes , do proceed to the generation of several species , according to the nature of the efficient , and aptnes of the matter . in this work of generation , as there is generatio unius , so there must be corruptio alterius . and this cannot be done without a superiour power , which by moisture , dilating it self , worketh upon the matter , like a ferment to bring it to his own purpose . this motion between the agent spirit , and the patient matter , proceedeth from an actual heat ( ex motu fit calor ) which serves as an instrument to further this work . * and this motion being natural and not violent produceth a natural heat which furthers generations ; not a destructive heat . for as cold dulls and benumbs all faculties , so heat doth quicken them , this i shewed in the example of malt. it is likewise true in every particular grain of corn sown in the ground , although by reason they lie single , their actual heat is not discernable by touch , yet we find that external heat and moisture do further their spiring , as adiuvant causes ; where the chief agent is the generative spirit in the seed . so i take it to be in minerals , with those distinctions before mentioned . and in this all generations agree , that an actual heat , together with moisture , is requisite : otherwise there can neither be the corruption of the one , nor the generation of the other . this actual heat is less sensible in small seeds and tender bodies , then it is in the great and plentifull generations , and in hard and compact matter : for hard bodies are not so easily reduced to a new form , as tender bodies are ; but require both more spirit and longer time to be wrought upon . and therefore whereas vegetable generations are brought to perfection in a few months , these mineral generations do require many years , as hath been observed by mineral men . moreover , these generations are not terminated with one production , but as the seed gathereth strength by enlarging it self , so it continually proceeds to subdue more matter under his government : so as , where once any generation is begu● , it continues many ages , and seldome gives over . as we see in the iron mines of illua , the tin mines in cornwall , the lead mines at mendip , and the peak , &c. which do not only stretch further in extent of ground , than hath been observed heretofore ; but also are renewed in the same groves which have been formerly wrought , as our tinners in cornwall do acknowledge ; and the examples of illua and saga before mentioned , do confirm . this is a sufficient means for the perpetuity of our hot springs ; that if the actual heat proceed from hence , there need be no doubt of the continuance of them , nor of their equal tenor or degree of heat . now for the nature of this heat , it is not a destructive heat , as that of fire is , but a generative heat joyned with moysture . it needs no air for eventilation , as the other doth . it is in degree hot enough for the hottest baths that are , if it be not too remote from the place where the water issueth forth . it is a means to impart the qualities of minerals to our waters , as well as heat , by reason the minerals are then in solutis principiis , in their liquid forms , and not consolidated into hard bodies . for when they are consolidated , there are few of them that will yield any quality to water , unless they be the concrete juyces , or any actual heat , because that is procured by the contiguity of bodies , when one part lyeth upon another , and not when they are grown in corpus continuum ; as we see in malt , where by turning and changing the contiguity , the heat is increased , but by suffering it to unite , is quenched : but before consolidation , any of them may yield either spirit or juyce , or tincture to the waters , which by reason of their tenuity ( as is said before ) are apt to imbibe them . now if actual fire kindled in the earth , should meet with these minerals whilst they are in generation , it would dissipate the spirits , and destroy the minerals . if it meet with them after consolidation , it will never be able to attenuate them so , as to make them yield their qualities to water . for we never find any metals or minerals melted in the earth , which must be , if the heat of actual fire were such as is imagined : neither do we ever find any flores of metal sublimed in the earth . this natural heat is daily found by our mineral men in the mines , so as oftentimes they are not able to touch them , as agricola testifieth ; although by opening their groves and admission of air , it should be well qualified . whereas on the other side , it was never observed , that any actual kindled fire was ever seen by workmen in the earth , which were likely to be , if these fires were so frequent . wherefore seeing we see that mineral waters do participate with all sorts of minerals , as well metals as other , as hath been shewed in the particular examples of all of them : seeing also that few of them , unless mineral juyces , are able to impart their quality to water , as they are consolidated , but only as they are in solutis principiis , and whilst they are in generation , as is agreed upon by all authors : seeing also this natural heat of fermentation must necessarily be present for the perfecting of their generation , and is sufficient , in regard of the degree of heat to make our baths as hot as they are : seeing also that the other adventitious fire would rather destroy these minerals , than further them : seeing also we cannot imagine it either likely , or possible , without manifold difficulties and absurdities : i do conclude that both the actual heat of baths , and the mineral qualities which they have , are derived unto them by means of this fermenting heat : * which is still in fieri , not in facto esse , as the schoolmen term it : and therefore makes the heat continual . examples might be brought from all kind of generations , and from some artificial works , of this sermenting heat proceeding from the seeds of natural things . these seeds containing the species and kinds of natural bodies , are not from the elements , but are placed in the elements , where they propagate their species and individuals , according to their nature , and have their due times and seasons of appearing upon the stage of the world. animals have their set times when their spermatick spirits are in turgescence , some once , some twice a year , and some oftner : especially in the spring ; vere magis , quia vere calor redit ossibus ; as virgil speaks of mares : only man in regard of his excellency above other creatures , is not so confinde . vegetables have likewise their seasons of setting and planting , as they may have the earth and the season most convenient : yet at any time , if their seeds get moysture and heat to dilate them , they will ferment and attempt the production of more individuals : but oftentimes the artist doth abuse this intention of nature , and converts it to his ends : and oftentimes nature being set in action to proceed a potentia in actum , doth want convenient means to maintain her work : as when we see a rick of hay or corn which hath received moysture , burnt to ashes . so in the making of malt , or woad , or bread , or beer , or wine , &c. we make use of this generative spirit for our ends : that we may stir up , and quicken it . otherwise our bread would not be so favou●y , our beer would be but wort , our wine would be but must or plum-pottage , and want those spirits which we desire ; and which lie dead and benummed in the seeds , untill they come to fermentation . and in all these there is an actual heat , although it appear not in liquid things , so well as in dry : because it is there quenched by the abundance of moysture ; yet we may observe active spirits in it , by the bubling and hissing , and working of it . this is evident in artificial wines , which may be made of figs , da●es , dryed raysing , currants , slows , strawberries , bramble-berries , and such like , when they are infused in water . they will ferment of their own accord , by virtue of the seeds which are in them , and make as good and as natural wine as the juice of the green fruit , as i have often proved . the turks have a drink which they call couset or posset , which is made of barly after such a manner , as bellonius reports in his observations . it seems also that the scythians drink was made in this manner , which virgil speaks of . hic noctem ludo ducunt , & pocula laeti fermento atque acidis imitantur vitea sorbis . they dance and quaff , by the moon-shine , fermented juice of slows , like wine . and i perswade my self that we have not yet attained to a perfect artifice of our beer and ale , which stands upon the same grounds , and may be wrought in such a manner , if they would take the pains to try some conclusions upon it . it might save much fuel , and vessel , and labour , and perhaps with advantage in the product . for i see but two points to be observed in the working of it : the one is to extract the substance of the malt into water : the other to give it his due fermentation . and both of these may be done without boyling . but the artifice will differ somewhat from wine , and will require many conclusions to be tryed upon it , before it be brought to perfection . i do mention these artifices only to shew the power of this seminary and fermenting spirit , and how it may be drawn to other uses for our benefit . as this is found in vegetables , so likewise in minerals ; which as they have this generative spirit for the propagation of their species , as hath been shewed before , so they have this means of fermentation , to bring them from a potential quality , to an actual existence . and as their matter is more plentifull , and in consistence more hard and compact ; so these spirits must be more vigorous and powerfull to subdue it : and consequently the heat of their fermentation must be in a higher degree , then it is in other generations . now having shewed the erroneous opinions of others concerning this actual heat of bathes , and explain'd our own conceit of the true cause of it ; let us collect our arguments together , the principal whereof are here and there dispersed in this treatise , quem nos stramineum pro tempore fecimus , which for the present i have made of straw . hoping that hereafter some worthy pen may handle this argument more accurately , and give it a better flourish , et dare perpetuo caelestia fila metallo . and on firm metal lasting threads bestow . we must not imagine that the government and ordering of the world and nature in a constant course , is performed by miracle , but that natural effects have natural causes , and must be both under the same genus . wherefore following the ordinary distribution , seeing it comprehends all , and not questioning the celestial bodies , whether they be elementary or no , that is , subject to alterations , as intention and remission , generation and corruption , &c. we say that this heat must proceed either from the superiour and celestial bodies , as the spheres and starrs , or from the inferiour or sublunary . from the superiour spheres or globes it cannot proceed , seeing ( as is shewed before ) they are neither indowed with such a degree of native heat , nor can acquire it accidentally by their motion , being thin and liquid bodies ; neither , if they had it , can they convey it unto the earth , but by their beams , which are not able to retain it as they pass thorow the cold region of the air , nor able to warm that , although it be nearer to their fountain of heat . wherefore if these beams can any way do it , it must be by their motion and reflection upon the earth : and this is no constant heat , but varieth according as the beams are perpendicular or oblique , and according as the air is cleer or cloudy , & c.. and as they are not able to give this constant heat , so the earth in her bowels is not capable to receive it , being hindered by the density of the earth and rocks , and the heat of reflection taken away before it can come three foot deep . from the inferiour parts of the world if it proceed , it must be either from the elements , or from mixt bodies . from the elements it cannot come , but from fire ; for all the other elements are cold , as i have shewed , especially the earth where this heat is ingendred . and as for the element of fire , seeing we know not where to find it , neither , if it be any where , doth it perform the office of an element in production and nutrition of creatures ; as aristotle faith , ignis nil generat , and therefore nil nutrit ; nam nutritio fit ex iisdem ex quibus constat : therefore as it begets nothing , so it nourisheth nothing ; and so cannot be an element , nor as an element maintain this heat of bathes . but contrariwise if it have no power of begetting or nourishing any thing , it must have a power of destroying or hindering nature in her proceedings ; for nature will admit of no vacuum or idle thing . also seeing nature useth no violent means to maintain her self , this elementary fire cannot be pen'd in the center of the earth , being of a thin subtilnature , and naturally aspiring upwards : and if it have any place assigned unto it , it must be above the other elements , and then it cannot be drawn downwards against his nature , and that continually , without breach of the order and course of nature . and whereas they place the element of fire under the concave of the moon , being in it self lucid and resplendent , it is strange that it is not seen by us , neither makes our nights light . for although by reason of his transparency it doth not terminate our sight , yet it should remove the obscurity of our nights much better then the via lactea . moreover , if it were there , we must see the starrs through a double diaphanum , one of air , and another of fire , and so would make a double refraction : which is elegantly confuted by john pena and conr●dus aslacus . but there is another thing substituted in the place of this element of fire , and maintained by air , and by mineral substances in the earth ; which is neither an element , nor a mixt body , nor any substance at all , but a meer quality : and this is preferred by most to be the cause of the heat of our bathes . and this is our common kitchin-fire , which is kindled by violent motion , maintained by servel , without which it cannot subsist , and extinguished by his contrary . and although it may be derived by communication or coition , as one candle lights another , yet originally it is kindled by violent motion , and what violent motion can there be in the bowels of the earth to strike fire , or who shall be the fueller ? exhalations and lightnings cannot do it , being aereal meteors , and no more penetrable then the beams of the sun. and therefore although they may kindle a vulcano upon the surface of the earth , yet they cannot pierce deep , and their very reflection upon the superficies of the earth takes away their strength : so as they can neither kindle new fire , nor commucate that which is kindled to any other fuel . for if it be by communication or coition , that must be by touch , per contactum , and then in the earth it can make but one fire , and not many , being not distinct in place , and must increase in heat : and then it will not keep a constant tenor , as our bathes do . secondly for the nourishment of it , being a quality , it must have a subject , that is fuel , and it must have means to vent the fuliginous vapours which it breeds in the dissolution of the fuel , lest they recoyle and quench the fire ; as also there must be conveyance for the ashes which will fall down continually upon the fire , and quench it . moreover , by consuming such great quantities of sulphur and bitumen , and by mollifying and breaking of rocks , it would cause a great sinking of the earth in those places ; as we see in our vulcanoes , where whole mountains have been consumed and brought to even ground . thirdly , this fire being a quality , is subject to intention and remission , and to utter extinguishment , not only by want of fuel , which cannot be regenerated where this actual fire is , nor for want of vent , or choaking of ashes , &c. but also by reason of the abundance of water which the earth receiveth for the generations of minerals , which being opposite to fire , would quench it . wherefore we cannot rely upon any subterranean fire for the maintenance of our hot bathes . from the air this heat of bathes cannot proceed , seeing it is neither hot in it self , as hath been proved , nor can get any heat by motion , being of a thin liquid substance , which no attrition or collision can make hot . and as for aereal meteors , bred from exhalations , and kindled , as is imagined , by an antiperistasis : if they be bred in the air , they are not able to penetrate into the bowels of the earth , as hath been said before : if in the earth , besides the difficulty of finding room enough for such plentiful exhalations as those must be which procure lightning and thunder , and the vanity of their antiperistasis to kindle these exhalations , as hath been she wed before ; it is a sufficient refutation to take away the subject of the question , that is , all subterranean fire , as i hope i have done ; and then we need not dispute about the means of kindling it , &c. these momentary meteors being produced only to kindle , and not to maintain this fire . from the water no man will derive this fire , being a cold and moist element , and apt to quench it ; unless it be by dilating the seminary spirits of natural species ; and then they concur with us , and renouncing the actual fire , do confirm our heat of fermentation . from the earth some have imagined an inbred heat , ingenitum terrae calorem , whereby it seems they had some glimmering of this light which we have given , but have left it in as great obscurity as the antipenstasis or antipathy ; and earth being a cold and dry element , cannot be the cause of this heat , as it is earth . so as it is manifest that naturally the elements cannot procure this heat of bathes ; and by violent motion they can do as little . for the earth being immovable , cannot be stirred by any violent motion ; and the other three elements , as fire , air , and water , being thin and liquid substances , can procure no heat by any motion or collision either upon themselves , or upon the earth ; especially in the bowels of the earth , where all is quiet , and no room or scope for any such motion as this must be . so that neither the other three elements , nor the earth , either in the whole , or in the parts , can be the cause hereof by any violent motion . from mixt bodies if this heat come , it must be from animals , vegetables , or minerals . animals are not so plentiful in the earth as to cause this heat of bathes , either alive or dead . we read of subterranean animals which have both motion , and sense , and understanding , in vincentius in speculo naturali ; in lactantius ; in agricola , de animantibus subterraneis ; in bellonius , ortelius , paracelsus , &c. who calls them gnomi , the germanes bergmaenlin , the french rabat , the cornish-men fairies . the danes are generally perswaded that there are such creatures . but if any such living creatures be able to procure this heat , it cannot be by their hot complexions , but it must be by violence and striking of fire . perhaps democritus hath hired them to make his lyme there , or some other to erect forges for thunder , lightning , and such like fire-works . brontesque steropesque & nudus membra pyracmon . but these opinions deserve no confutation . from dead animals in their putrefaction some heat may appear , but such as neither for the degree , nor for the continuance , can be answerable to our bathes . for vegetables there is the same reason as for dead animals ; neither doth the earth breed such plenty of these in her bowels , as to procure a months heat to a tun of water , in one place . wherefore we have nothing to ground upon but mineral substances , whereof the earth affords enough . for there is no part of the earth but is replenished with mineral seeds . and although some may think that because minerals are not found , or not wrought in all places : and that some waters are also found which do not participate of the virtues of minerals , that therefore our hot bathes proceed not from the fermentation of minerals , but from some other cause ; they are mistaken . for although metals are not frequent in some places , or at the least not discovered ; yet a man shall hardly dig ten foot deep in any place , but he shall find rocks of stone , which have their generation as well as other minerals , or some of the salts , or bitumina , or spirits , or mean metals , &c. and how can bathes receive mineral qualities , but from minerals ? therefore where bathes are , there must be minerals , although where minerals are , there are not always bathes , but perhaps they are not so accumulated , as by their contiguity they are able to yield any manifest heat ; their matter being dispersed as grains of corn sown in a field , which by reason of their lying single , do not shew a sensible heat in their fermentation ; or most metals breeding between a hanger and a lieger , which agricola calls pendens and jacens , are seldome above a foot thick , and therefore cannot yield much heat to our waters . and this is the cause why we have so few bathes from gold , silver , tin , lead , &c. but where much matter is accumulated together , the very contiguity ( one part lying upon another ) will make a manifest heat , untill it grow to a corpus continuum , when the generation is perfected , and then the heat is extinguished , or perhaps they have not water so plentifull as may yield a living spring , although they may have sufficient for the use of their generation . or perhaps where they break forth , they meet with desart sands , as in arabia , china , africa , &c. which drink up the water , and hinder the eruption of it . and whereas there are some hot springs found which do not shew any mineral quality in them , the reason of this may be the want of concrete juice , which , as i have said before , is the medium of communicating mineral qualities and substances with water . for without them , water is as unapt to imbibe minerals , as it is to unite with oyle . so as water may of it self receive actual heat from the fermentation of minerals , but not their qualities , without the mediation of some of the concrete juices : as contrariwise we find some fouutains that receive mineral qualities , and yet are cold : whereof i have given many examples . the reason whereof is either for that they have passed a long way , and by many meanders from the place of generation to the place of their eruption , and so have lost their heat ; or else the concrete juices , which will dissolve in water without any heat , being impregnated with other minerals , do impart them to water , and yet without heat . but to say that there is any earth without mineral seeds , is to make a vacuum in rerum natura , and to destroy the use of the elements . it is true that the seeds do do not alwaies meet with opportunity to display themselves , and sometimes they are fain to serve under other colours , which are more predominant : but there is no part of the earth without some seeds or other . and from hence we must derive the original of the actual heat of bathes : for nothing else in the world will serve our turn to procure so lasting and so uniform a heat unto them ; and that not by kindling any actual fire about them , for most of our minerals whereof our bathes consist , and from whence they receive both their actual heat and virtues , will not burn , neither have any actual heat in themselves , being all cold to the touch , but receive it by a fermenting heat which they have in their generation : without which there is no generation for any thing . and this heat continues so long as the work of generation continues : which being once begun , doth not cease in many ages , by reason of the plenty of matter which the earth yields , and the firmness and solidity thereof . and although after that the minerals have attained to their perfection , this heat ceaseth , yet the generation extends further then where it first began , and enlargeth it self every way , the works of nature being circular : so as the water which was heated by the first generation , cannot avoid the other succeeding generations , but must meet with them either behind or before , beneath or above , on the one side , or on the other ( especially seeing no generation can proceed without water : ) and yet keeps the same tenor and degree of heat , according to the nature of the minerals fermenting , and to the distance from the place of eruption . and this is a far more probable cause of the continuance of our bathes , then any subterranean destructive fire can be , or any other of the supposed causes can yield . i do not deny but that hot bathes may cease and become cold ; as aristotle saith of salt fountains which are cold , that they were once hot , before the original of their heat was extinct : which i interpret to be when the work of generation ceased , and the salt brought to his perfection . but i do not read of any hot bathes that have ceased : unless near onto some vulcano , where either the sinking of rocks hath altered the course of them , as at tripergula and baia , or the flaming fire which heated them at their eruption being extinguished , as in the aeolian islands . these vulcanoes are far more subject to decay then our generative heat , because they consume their fuel ; this doth not , but increaseth it daily , viresque acquirit eundo . of the other ovid saith , nee quae sulphureis ardet fornacibus aetna ignea semper erit ; neque enim fuit ignea semper . aetna with its sulphureous flames will dy , and as a kindling had , will want supply . but of this we can hardly bring an instance of any that have decayed ; because where a generation is begun , there seldome or never wants matter to propagate and enlarge it . and seeing minerals have not their seeds in their individuals , as animals & vegetables have , but in their wombs , as hath been shewed before ; it were to be feared that there would be a decay of mineral species , and so a vacuum left in nature , if these generations should be no more durable then the other . animals are propagated by begetting of their species , the power whereof is in every individual , which , no doubt , will not give over this trade as long as the world lasteth . vegetables are also fruitfull in their kinds , every one producing , or perhaps seeds of individuals yearly , to perpetuate their species . minerals have no such means , but only have their seeds in their wombs , whereby they are propagated : and if these generations , being longer in perfecting of their species , were not supplyed with a larger extent for their productions ; nature had been defective in not providing sufficient means for their perpetuity , as well as for others , and might easily suffer a decay , and a vacuity of mineral species ; which agrees not with the providence of nature , and the ornament of the world . the necessity hereof depends upon the first benediction , ( crescite & multiylicamini ) which , no doubt belongs as well to minerals in their kinds , as it doth to animals and vegetables , and by vertue hereof we see that they are propagated daily , as i have proved before , cap. . and this is that necessity whereof hypocrates speaks , and that fatum naturale inharens rebus ipsis , natural fate inherent in things themselves , as lipsius faith ; and that lex adrastiae mentioned by aristotle and gal●● , locis aute citatis , so firmly established , as nothing can contradict it . arithmetick , geometry , and logick , which are but attendants upon nature , have their principles so firmly grounded , as nothing can shake them ; and shall we think that nature it self is grounded upon weaker foundations ? wherefore we need not doubt of the perpetuity of these generations , but that as some parts attain to their perfection , so other puts will be alwayes in fieri or in via ad generationem : whereby our bathes will never fail of their heat or their virtues . this i hope is susficient for the confuting of other opinions , and the clearing of mine own from all absurdities concerning the degree of heat , which is as much as the nature of water can endure without utter dissipation : concerning the equal tenor of the heat , the duration of 〈◊〉 , the participation of mineral qualities , &c. the other kind of confirmation which we call apodeictical , is also here and there dispersed in this discourse : as that all minerals have their continual generation : that this generation is not without heat and moysture , which do necessarily attend all generations : that few mineral substances or qualities can be imparted to water , but whilst they are in generation , and yet we find them much impregnated with them : that our miners do find an actual heat , and in a high degree , in the digging of minerals , where the fermentation is not throughly extinct : that we observe the like course of nature in the generations of animals and vegetables : that we are led to the acknowledgement hereof by many artificial conclusions and artifices , &c. wherefore i forbear to make any larger repetition hereof . and this is in brief ( though plainly delivered ) my opinion concerning the actual heat of baths , and of the mineral qualities which we find in them ; which i refer to the censures of those that be learned . there are two other motions which resemble this fermentation : the one is motus dilatationis , the other antipatheticus . motus dilatationis is evident in lime , in allum , in copperass , and other concrete juyces , whereby the affusion of water , the salt in the lime , or the concrete juyces being suddenly dissolved , there is by this motion , an actual heat procured for a time , able to kindle any combustible matter put to it . the like we observe in those stone coals , called metal coals , which are mixed with a marchesit containing some mineral juyce , which receiving moysture , doth dilate it self , and grows so hot , as oftentimes great heaps of those coals are kindled thereby , and burnt before their time ; as hath been seen at puddle-wharf in london , and at newcastle . but this is much different from out fermentation . another motus resembling this fermentation , is that which is attributed to antipathy , when disagreeing substances being put together , do fight , and make a manifest actual heat ; as antimony and sublimat , oyle of vitriol and oyle of tartar , allum liquor and urine , lees , chalk , &c. but the reason of this disagreement is in their salts , whereof one is astringent , the other relaxing ; the one of easie dissolution in water , the other of hard dissolution , &c. where one mineral hinders the dissolution or congelation of another ; and not by reason of any antipathy : for it is not likely that nature would produce two contrary substances mixed like atomes in o● subject , but that in their very generations the o● would be an impediment to the other . so in vegetables where one plant sucks away the nourishment from another , we call it antipathy . b●● if we examine aright what this sympathy and antipathy is , we shall find it to be nothing but a refuge of ignorance , when not being able to conceive the true reasons of such actions & passions in natural things , we fly sometimes to indefinite generalities , and sometimes to this inexplicable sympathy and antipathy ; attributing voluntary , and sensitive actions and passions to insensible substances . this motus also is much different from fermentation , as may easily appear by the former description . and thus much for this point of fermentation , which i hope will give better satisfaction then any of the former opinions . chap. xv. by what means it may be discovered what minerals any water containeth . the nature of minerals and their generations being handled , and from thence the reasons drawn , both of the actual heat of bathes , and of their qualities : now it is fit we should seek out some means how to discover what minerals are in any bath , that thereby we may the better know their qualities , and what use to make of them for our benefit . many have attempted this discovery , but by such weak means , and upon such poor grounds , as it is no marvail if they have failed of their purpose : for they have contented themselves with a bare distillation or evaporation of the water , and observing the sediment , have thereby judged of the minerals , unless perhaps they find some manifest taste , or smell , or colour in the water , or some unctuous matter swimming above it . some desire no other argument of sulphur and bitumen , but the actual heat : as though no other minerals could yield an actual heat , but those two : but this point requires better consideration ; and i have been so large in describing the natures and generations of minerals , because without it , we cannot discern what minerals we have in our waters , nor judge of the qualities and use of them . our minerals therefore , are either confused or mixed with the water . if they be confused they are easily discerned : for they make the water thick and pudly , and will either swim above , as bitumen will do , or sink to the bottom , as earth , sulphur , and some terrestrial juices ; for no confused water will remain long unseparated . if they are perfectly mixed with the water , then their mixture is either corporal , where the very body of the mineral is imbibed in the water , or spiritual , where either some exhalation , or spirit , or tincture is imparted to the water . corporally there are no minerals mixed with water , but juices , either liquid , as succus la●idescens , metallificus , &c. before they are perfectly congealed into their natural consistence , or concrete , as salt , nitre , vitriol , and allum , these concrete juices do not dissolve themselves in water , but oftentimes bring with them some tincture or spirit from other minerals . for as water is apt to recive juices , and tinctures , and spirits from animals , and vegetables ; so are concrete juices , being dissolved , apt to extract tinctures and spirits from minerals , and to communicate them with water . and there are no mines , but have some of these concrete juices in them , to dissolve the materials of them , for their better union and mixture : and there are few minerals or metals , but have some of them incorporated with them ; as we see in iron , and copper , and tin , and lead , &c. and this is the reason that water being long kept in vessels of any of these metals , will receive a taste or smell from them , especially if it be attenuated , either by heat , or by addition of some sour juice ; and yet more , if the metals be fyled into powder as we see in making chalibeat wine , or sugar of lead , or puttie from tin , or verdegrease from copper . there may be also a mixture of spiritual substance from minerals , whilst they are in generation , and in solutis principiis : the water passing through them , and the rather if it be actually hot , for then it is more apt to imbibe it , and will contain more in it , being attenuated by heat , then being cold ; as we see in urins , which though they be full of humours , yet make no great shew of them so long as they are warm , but being cold , do settle then to the bottom . these spiritual substances are hardly discerned in our bathes , but by the effects ; for they leave no residence after evaporation ; and are commonly as volatile in sublimation as the water it self : neither do they increase the weight of the water , nor much alter the taste or smell of them , unless they be very plentiful . wherefore we have no certain way to discover them , but by the effects . we may conjecture somewhat of them by the mines which are found near unto the bathes , and by the mud which is brought with the water . but that may deceive , as coming from the passages through which the water is conveyed , or , perhaps , from the sweat and strigments of mens bodies which bathe in them . the corporal substances are found , either by sublimation or by precipitation , by sublimation , when being brought to the state of congelation , and sticks of wood put into it , within a few dayes , the concrete juices will shoot upon the wood ; in needles , if it be nitre ; in squares , if be salt ; and in clods and lumps , if it be allum or coperass , and the other mineral substances which the waters have received , will either incorporate a tincture with them , or if it be more terr●strial , will settle and separate from it , and by drying it at a gentle fire , will shew from what house it comes , either by colour , taste , smell , or vertue : there is another way by precipitation , whereby those mineral substances are stricken down from their concrete juices which held them , by addition of some opposite substance . and this is of two sorts : either salts , as tartar , soap-ashes , kelps , urine , &c. or four juices as vinegar , lemons , oyle of vitriol , sulphur , &c. in which i have observed that the salts are proper to blew colours , and the other to red ; for example , take a piece of scarlet cloath , and wet it in oyle of tartar ( the strongest of that kind ) and it presently becomes blew : dip it again in oyle of vitriol , and it becomes red again . p●notus hath a strange precipitating water from tin , mercury alkali , &c. which separate any minerals pidr●●it p●●es authorem . these are the chief grounds of discovering mineral waters , according to which any man may make tryal of what waters he pleaseth . i have been desirous heretofore to have attempted some discovery of our bathes , according to these principles : but being thought ( by some ) either not convenient , or not usefull , i was willing to save my labour , which perhaps might have seemed not to be worth thanks ; and in these respects am willing now also to make but a bare mention of them . chap. xvi . of the use of mineral waters , inwardly , outwardly . in this chapter is shewed the inward use of them , first general ; then particuly of the hot waters of bathe . the nature and generations of minerals being handled , and how our mineral waters receive their impressions , and actual heat from thence ; and by what means they are to be tried , what minerals are in each of them . now we are to shew the uses of them ; which must be drawn from the qualities of the minerals whereof they consist ; which are seldome one or two , but commonly more . these qualities are either the first , as hot , cold , moyst , and dry : or the second , as penetrating , astringent , opening , resolving , attracting , cleansing , mollifying , &c. for the first qualities , it is certain and agreed upon by all authors , that all mineral waters do dry exceedingly , as proceeding from earth ; but some of those do cool withall , and some do heat . cooling waters are good for hot distempers of the liver , stomach , kidneys , bladder , womb , &c. also for salt distillations , sharp humours , light obstructions of the meseraicks , &c. heating waters are good for cold affects of the stomach , bowels , womb , seminary vessels , cold distillations , palsies , &c. for the second qualities , cleansing waters are good in all ulcers , especially of the guts . mollifying waters , for all hard and schirrous tumors . astringent waters , for all fluxes , &c. and so of the rest . now these waters are used either inwardly or outwardly . inwardly , either by mouth , or by injection . by mouth , either in potion , or in broths , juleps , &c. galen never used them imwardly , because he judged their qualities to be discovered by experience , rather then by reason . and seeing we find many of them to be venomous , and deadly , as proceeding from arsenick , sandaracha , cadmia , &c. we had need be very wary in the inward use of them . neptunes well in tarracina was found to be so deadly , as it was therefore stopped up . by monpellier at perant is a well which kills all the fowls that drink of it ; the lake avernus kills the fowls that fly over it ; so doth the vapour arising from charons den between naples and puteolum . so there are divers waters in savoy and rhetia , which breed swellings in the thro●● . others proceeding from gipsum do strang 〈◊〉 but where we find waters to proceed from wholsome minerals , and such as are convenient , and proper for our intents , there we may be bold to use them as well inwardly as outwardly : yet so as we do not imagine them to be such absolute remedies , as that they are of themselves able to cure diseases without either rules for the use of them , or without other helps adjoyned to them . for as it is not enough for a man to get a good damasco or bilbo-blade to defend himself withall , unless he learn the right use of it from a fencer ; so it is not enough to get a medicine and remedy for any disease , unless it be rightly used , and this right use must come from the physitian , who knows how to apply it , and how to prepare the body for it , what to add and joyn with it , how to govern and order the use of it , how to prevent such inconveniences as may happen by it , &c. wherefore , where we speak of any mineral water , or of any other medicine that is proper for such and such a grief , we must be so understood , that the medicine is not wise enough to cure the disease of it self , no more than a sword is able of it self to defend a man , or to offend his enemie , but according to the right and skilfull use of it . and as it is not possible for a fencer to set down absolute rules in writing for h●● art , whereby a man may be able in reading them to defend himself ; no more is the physitian possibly able to direct the particular uses of his remedy , whereby a patient may cure himself without demonstration and the particular direction of the physitian . it is true , that we have general rules to guide us in the cure of diseases , which are very true and certain ; yet when we come to apply them to particular persons , and several constitutions , these general rules are not sufficient to make a cure , but it must be varied according to substance . hereupon we daily find , that those patients which think to cure themselves , out of a little reading of some rules or remedies , are oftentimes dangerously deceived . and this is enough to intimate generally concerning the uses of our mineral waters . inwardly we find great and profitable use of such waters as proceed from nitre , allum , vitriol , sulphur , bitumen , iron , copper , &c. examples whereof i have set down before in the several minerals , referring the particular uses of each to such authors as have purposely described them . my intent is chiefly to apply my self to those baths of bath in summerset-shire ; which consisting , as i judge , principally of bitumen , with nitre , and some sulphur , i hold to be of great use both inwardly and outwardly . and i am sorry that i dare not commend the inward use of them as they deserve , in regard i can hardly be perswaded that we have the water pure , as the springs yield them , but do fear , lest where we take them , they may be mixt with the water of the bath . if this doubt were cleared , i should not doubt to commend them inwardly , to hear , dry , mollifie , discuss , glutinate , dissolve , open obstractions , cleanse the kidneys and bladder , ease cholicks , comfort the matrix , mitigate fits of the mother , help barrenness proceeding from cold humors , &c. as tabernomoutanus affirms of other bituminous baths . also in regard of the nitre , they cut and dissolve gross humors , and cleanse by urine . in regard of the sulphur , they dry and resolve , and mollifie , and attract , and are especially good for uterine affects proceeding from cold and windy humours . and i would wish these waters to be drunk hot as they are , for better penetration , and less offence to the stomach . the antient grecians and romans did drink most of their water and wine hot , as we find in many authors , which salmuth hath diligently collected : and anthonius percius hath purposely written a book of it , entitaled dei bever caldo castumato da gli antichi . we find also that it is in use at this day , both in the east-indies and in turkey , where they have a drink called capha , sold ordinarily in taverns , and drunk hot , although in the summer . verulamius doth marvel that it is so much grown out of use , and adviseth to drink our first draught at our meals , hot . there is great reason for it , both for preservation of health , and for cure of many diseases . the stomach being a nervous part , must needs be offended by that which is actually cold : and being the seat of natural appetite , and of the first concoction ( whose errors and defects are not amended in the other concoctions ) had need to be preserved in his native vigour and strength , that it may breed good nourishment for the whole body . but the much use of cold drink , although it seem to refresh us for the present , by dulling the appetite and the sense of thirst and hunger , as a stupefictive narcotick will do : yet it destroys the faculties of the stomach , which are maintained and quickned by heat : and thereby breeds crudities in our bodies , from whence many diseases proceed . the east-indans are seldome troubled with the stone or the gout , and it is imputed to their warm drink : the like we may judge of obstructions , cholicks , dropsies , rheumes , coughs , hoarsness , diseases in the throat and lungs , &c. in which cases , and many more which proceed from ill concoction and crudity of humors , no doubt it is an excellent preservative to drink our drink warm . i know a worthy gentleman of excellent parts , who in his travels observed the benefit hereof , and for many years hath used to take his drink hot : and being now above years old , enjoyeth his health of body , and vigour of spirits , beyond the ordinary course of men of his age . likewise in the cure of diseases , i perswade my self it would prove very profitable , if it were in use . for example in feavers , i see no reason but it would do more good than our cold waters , juleps , posset-drinks , &c. which i approve well of , but if the patient did drink them hot , the stomach would be less offended thereby , the moysture ( which we chiefly desire in them ) would penetrate more , and the eventilation by sweat or insensible transpiration , would not be hindred . hypocrates is very plain in this point , and reckons many inconveniences of cold drinks , to the teeth , bones , nerves , brest , back , lungs , stomach , &c. i will not insilt longer hereupon , being a practical point of physick : only i thought good to intimate it to our learned physitians to contemplate upon , for the benefit of our patients . our bath guides do usually command the drinking of this water with salt to purge the body , perswading the people that the bath-water hath a purging quality in it , when as the same proportion of spring-water , with the like quantity of salt will do the like . our baths have true virtues to commend them , so as we need not seek to get credit or grace unto them by false suggestions . the bitumen and nitre which is in them , although it serves well for an alterative remedy , yet it is not sufficient for an evacuative : and therefore we must attribute this purgative quality , either to the great quantity of water which they drink ( and so it works ) ratione ponderis ) or unto the stimulation of salt which is dissolved in it , or unto both together . our common salt hath a stimulating quality , as is shewed before , chap. . and erastus saith that it purgeth much . bulcasis gives it to that purpose from ij to iiij . mesue also prescribes it to purge gross humors , and so doth avicen . wherefore there is no doubt but salt will purge of it self , being dissolved in our bath-water . but i should like much better to dissolve in it some appropriate syrup or other purgative , for this purpose , as manna , tartar , elaterium , syrups of roses , of cichory , with rhubarb , augustanus ; or to move urine , syr , de . rad . bizantinus de limonibus , sambuclnas , de altzhca , &c. and this course is usual in italy , according as the physitian sees most convenient , but with this caution , that when they take it in potion , they must not use the bath , because of contrary motions . inwardly also bath-waters are used , for broths , beer , juleps , &c. although some do mislike it , because they will not mix medicaments with aliments : wresting a text in hypocr . to that purpose . but if we may mix diureticks , deoppilatives , purgatives , &c. with aliments , as usually we do : i see no reason but we may as well use mineral waters , where we desire to make our aliments more alterative by a medicinal quality , alwaies provided that there be no malignity in them , nor any ill quality which may offend any principal part . and thus much for the use of them by mouth . by injection they are used also into the womb , to warm , and dry , and cleanse those parts ; into the passages of urine , to dry and heal excoriations there ; into the fundament for like causes , as also for resolutions of the sphincter , and bearing down of the fundament , &c. and thus they are used either alone , or mixed with other medicines , according as the physitian thinks most sit , and we daily find very good success thereby in uterine affects , depending upon cold causes . thus much for the inward use of our bath-waters . chap. xvii . of the outward use of the the hot waters of bathe ; first , the general use of them to the whole body in bathing : secondly , the particular use of them by pumping , bucketing , or applying the mud . outwardly our bath-waters are principally used , because they are most properly for such affects as are in the habit of the body , and out of the veins : as palsies , contractions , rheums , cold tumors , affects of the skin , aches , &c. and in these cases , we use not only the water , but also the mud , and in some places the upour . the water is used both for his actual and potential heat , as also for the second qualities of mollifying , discussing , cleansing , resolving , &c. which the minerals give unto it . the use hereof is either general to the whole body , as in bathing ; or some particular to some one part , as in bucketing or pumping , which antiently was called stillicidium . the italians call it duccia . the general use in bathing , is most antient : for our bathes were first discovered thereby to be wholsome and soveraign in many diseases . nechams verses concerning the use of these bathes , are four hundred years old . bathoniae thermas vix praefero virgilianas confecto prosunt balnea nostra seni : prosunt attritis , collisis invalidisque , et quorum morbis frigida causa subest . which i will english out of dr. hackwels learned work of the perpetuity of the world . our bains at bathe with virgils to compare ; for their effects , i dare almost be bold , for feeble folk , and crazie good they are , for bruiz'd , consum'd , far spent , and very old , for those likewise whose sickness comes of cold . we have antient traditions ( famae est obscurior annis ) that king bladud who is said to have lived in the time of elias , did first discover these bathes , and made tryal of them upon his own son , and thereupon built this city , and distinguished the bathes , &c. but we have no certain record hereof . it is enough that we can shew the use of them for years , and that at this day they are as powerful as ever they were : cambden gives them a more antient date from ptolomy and antonine , and the saxons : and saith they were called aquae solis , and by the saxons , akmanchester , that is , the town of sick people , and dedicated to minerva , as solinus faith . the opinion that the bathes were made by art , is too simple for any wise man to believe , or for me to confute : and necham in his verses which follow after those i have mentioned , doth hold it a sigment : you may see them in cambden . we have them for their use in bathing , distinguished into four several bathes , whereof three have been antiently ; namely the kingsbath , the hot bath and the cross bath . the queens bath was taken from the springs of the kings bath , that being farther off , from the hot springs , it might serve for such as could not endure the heat of the other . we have likewise an appendix to the hot bath ; called the leapers bath , for unclean persons . we find little difference in the nature of these bathes , but in the degree of heat , proceeding no doubt , from one and the same mine . yet as the mine may be hotter in one p●●tthen in another , or the passages more direct from it , so the heat of them may vary . some little difference also we find among them , that one is more cleansing then another , by reason ( is i take it ) of more nitre . for in the cross bath we find that our fingers ends will shrink and shrivel , as if we had washed in soap-water , more then in the other bathes . the kings bath , as it is the hottest of all the bathes , so it is the fittest for very cold diseases , and cold and phleg●●●ck constitutions : and we have daily expe●●ence of the good effects it worketh upon pal●es , aches , sciatica's , cold tumors , &c. both by ●scuation , by sweat , and by warming the parts facted , attenuating , discussing , and resolving the mors . also in epilepsies and uterin affects in ●e scorbute , and in that kind of dropsie which ●t call anasarca . the hot bath is little infe●●r unto it , as next in degree of heat , and ●full in the same cases . the queens bath , ●d cross bath are more temperate in their heat , ●d therefore fittest for tender bodies , which are ●t to be inflamed by the other , and where ●●e is more need of mollifying and gentle ●ming , then of violent heat and much evacuam by sweat . and in these bathes they may dare longer without dissipation of spirits , then in the other : the queens bath is the hotter of the two , but temperate enough for most bodies . the cross bath is the coldest of all , as having but few springs to feed it : yet we observe it to supple , and mollifie more then the rest , both because they are able to stay longer in it , and because ( as i said before ) it seems to participate more with nitre , then the rest , which doth cleanse better , and gives more penetration to the other minerals . wherefore in contractions , epilepsies , uterin affects , convulsions , cramps , &c. this bath is very useful , as also in cutaneal diseases , as morphews , itch , &c. thus much for the nature and difference of our bathes , and the general use in bathing . they are used also to particular parts by pumping or bucketing , or applying the mud . pumping or bucketing are not used in that fashion , as we use them in any other bathes that i can learn , but only the duccia or stillicidium but i hold our fashion as good as that . the water comes more plentifully upon the part , and may be directed as the patient hath occasion . o●● bucketing hath been longest in use : but finding that it did not heat some sufficiently , being take● from the surface of the bath , we have of lat● erected pumps , which draw the water from th● springs or near unto them , so as we have it muc● hotter from thence , then we can have it by buc●keting . a worthy merchant and citizen 〈…〉 london , mr. humphrey brown , was perswade by me to bestow two of these pumps upon the kings and queens bath , whereby he hath do● much good to many , and deserves a thankfu● remembrance . the like also i procured to be done at the other bathes , although that of the crossbath is not so useful , by reason it wants heat , unless for yong children . also we have a pump out of the hot bath , which we call the dry pump , where one may sit in a chair in his cloaths , and have his head , or foot , or knee pumped without heating the rest of the body in the bath ; and devised chiefly for such as have hot kidneys , or some other infirmities which the bath might hurt . this we find very usefull in rheums , and cold brains , and in aches and tumors in the feet . for these pumps we are beholding unto the late lord archbishop of york , and to mr. hugh may , who upon my perswasions were contented to be at the charge of them . it were to be wished that some well disposed to the publick good , would erect the like at the kings bath ; † where , perhaps , it might be more usefull for many , in regard of the greater heat which those springs have . the lute of bathes is in much use in some places , where it may be had pure , both to mollifie , and to resolve , and to strengthen weak parts . but we make little use of it in our bathes , because we cannot have it pure , but mixed with strigments . in divers other places either the springs arise a good distance from the bathing places , or else there be other eruptions from whence it may be taken . but our springs arising in the bathes themselves , it cannot well be saved pure . besides , we have not those means of the heat of the sun , to keep it warm to the parts where it is applyed : so as growing cold , it rather does hurt then good . wherefore it were better for us , to use artificial lutes , as the antients did , of clay , sulphur , bitumen , nitre , salt , &c. or unguents of the same nature , as that which they call ceroma . but the best way is to referr the election of these remedies to the present physitian , who will fit them according to the nature of the grief . chap. xviii . in what particular infirmities of the body , bathing in the hot waters of bathe is profitable . to come more particularly to the use of bathing , we must understand , that there are many mineral waters fit for bathing , which are not fit to drink : as those which participate with lead , quicksilver , gypsum , cadmia , arsenick , &c. also those that contain liquid bitumen , are thought to relax too much : but those that proceed from dry bitumen are permitted , and prescribed in potion by paulus aegineta , and trallian : sulphur also is questioned , whether it be fit to be taken inwardly by potion , because it relaxeth the stomach , and therefore aetius forbids it : yet trallian allows it , and so do others , if the sulphur be not predominant . but for outward bathing there is no question to be made of these minerals , nor of any other which are not in themselves venomous . and whereas oribasius , aegineta , actuarius , &c. are suspitious of sulphur and bitumen for the head : they must be understood of hot distempers there , and not of cold rheumatick brains ; where by daily experience we find the profitable use of them , both by evacuation in bucketing , and by warming and comforting the cold part . and oribasius doth ingeniously confess , that the nature of these baths was not then perfectly discovered ; and therefore they were all held to be , not only dry , but very hot ; although we find them not all so : for iron waters do cool , and so do those of camphir , and alluminous , and nitrous waters also . but for our bituminous and sulphurous waters which galen forbids in hot brains , there is no reason to suspect them in cold affects of the brain and nerves , in which cases we make especial choice of all things , which either in tast or smell do resemble bitumen : as rue , castorium , valeriana , herba paralyseos , trifolium , asphaltitis , &c. which both by his warming quality , and by his suppling and mollifying substance , is most proper and convenient for those parts . the like i may say of sulphur , in which nothing can be excepted against , but his sharp spirit , which is made by burning : and we have none of that in our waters , nor i hope any fire to make it withal . the other parts of sulphur are hot and dry , and very unctuous . as for nitre , it cleanseth , purgeth both by stool and urine , and helpeth the incorporation of the other minerals with the water , and qualifies the heat of them , and gives them better penetration into our bodies . in regard of these minerals , together with the actual heat , we find that the bathing in our baths doth warm the whole habit of the body , attenuate humors , open the pores , procure sweat , move urine , cleanse the matrix , provoke womens evacuations , dry up unnatural humors , strengthen parts weakned , comfort the nerves , and all neutrous parts , cleanse the skin , and suck out all salt humours from thence , open obstructions , if they be not too much impacted , case pains of the joynts and nerves and muscles , mollifie and discuss hard tumors , &c. wherefore this bathing is profitable for all palsies , apoplexies , caros , epilepsies , stupidity , destuctions , gouts , sciaticaes , contractions , cramps , aches , tumors , itches , scabs , leprosies , cholicks , windyness , whites in women , stopping of their courser , barrenness , abortions , scorbuts , anasarcaes , and generally all cold and phlegmatick diseases , which are needless to reckon up . in all which cure● our baths have a great hand , being skilfully directed by the physitian , with preparation of the body before , and addition of such other helps as are needfull . and whereas without the help of such baths , these diseases could not be cured without tormenting the body , either by fire , of lancing , or causticks , or long dyets , or bitter and ungrateful medicines , &c. in this course of bathing , all is pleasant and comfortable , and more effectual than the other courses , and therefore it is commonly the last refuge in these cases , when all other means fail . i will not undertake to reckon up all the benefits which our baths do promise ; but if we had a register kept of the manifold cures which have been done by the use of our baths principally , it would appear of what great use they are . but as there is a defect in not keeping a catalogue of rare cures , so many persons of the better sort would be offended , if a physitian should make any mention of their cures or griefs : wherefore i must speak but generally . chap. xix . the manner of bathing , chiefly referred to the inspection and ordering of a physitian . yet some particulars touched concerning the government of the patient in and after bathing ; the time of day , of staying in the bath , of continuing the use of it , the time of the year . of covering the baths . now for the manner of bathing , i will not set down what the physitian is to do , but leave that to his judgement and discretion : but what is fit for the patient to know : for there are many cautions and observations in the use of bathing , drawn from the particular constitutions of bodies ; from the complication of diseases , and from many other circumstances which cannot be comprehended in general rules , or applyed to all bodies alike : but many times upon the success , and the appearing of accidents , the physitian must exre nat a capere consilium , and perhaps alter his intended course , and perhaps change the bath either to a hotter or cooler , &c. in which respect , those patients are ill advised which will venture without their physitian upon any particular bath , or to direct themselves in the use of it : and this is a great cause that many go away from hence without benefit , and then they are apt to complain of our baths , and blaspheme this great blessing of god bestowed upon us . it is fit for the patient when he goeth into the bath , to defend those parts which are apt to be offended by the bath : as to have his head well covered from the air and wind , and from the vapours arising from the bath : also his kidneys ( if they be subject to the stone ) anointed with some cooling unguents ; as rosatum comitissae , infrigidans galeni , santolinum , &c. also to begin gently with the bath , till his body be inured to it , and to be quiet from swimming , or much motion , which may offend the head by sending up vapours thither : at his coming forth , to have his body well dryed , and to rest in his bed an hour , and sweat , &c. a morning , hour is fittest for bathing , after the sun hath been up an hour or two ; and if it be thought fit to use it again in the afternoon , it is best four or five hours after a light dinner . for the time of staying in the bath , it must be according to the quality of the bath , and the toleration of the patient . in a hot bath , an hour or less may be sufficient : in a temperate bath , two hours . for the time of continuing the bath , there can be no certain time set down , but it must be according as the patient finds amendment , sometimes twenty daies , sometimes thirty , and in difficult cases much longer . and therefore they reckon without their host , which assign themselves a certain time , as perhaps their occasions of business will best afford . for the time of the year , our italian and spanish authors prefer the spring and fall ; and so they may well do in their hot countreys ; but with us , considering our climate is colder , and our baths are for cold diseases ; i hold the warmest moneths in the year to be best ; as may , june , july , and august , and i have persivaded many , hereunto who have found the benefit of it ; for both in our springs , and after september our weather is commonly variable , and apt to offend weak persons , who finding it temperate at noon , do not susp ct the coolness of the mornings and evenings . likewise in the bath it self , although the springs arise as hot as at other times , yet the wind and air beating upon them , doth do them much harm , and also make the surface of the water much cooler than the bottom : and therefore clauidinus wisheth all baths to be covered , and fall●pius finds great fault with the lords of venice , that they do not cover their bath at apono . we see also that most of the baths in europe are covered , whereby they retain the same temperature at all times . and it were to be wished that our queens bath , and cross-bath , being small baths , were covered , and their slips made close and warm . by this means our baths would be useful all the year , wh●● neither wind and cold air in winter , nor the sun in summer should hinder our bathing . moreover , for want of this benefit , many who have indifferently well recovered in the fall , do fall back again in the winter before the cure be perfectly finished : and as this would be a great benefit to many weak persons , so it would be no harm to this city , if it may be a means of procuring more resort hither in the winter time , or more early in the spring , or more late at the fall. i desire not novelties , or to bring in innovations , but i propound these things upon good grounds and examples of the best baths in europe , and so i desire to have them considered of , referring both this point , and whatsoever else i have said in this discourse , to the censure of those who are able to judge . i do purposely omit many things about the virtues and uses of our baths , which belong properly to the physitian , and cannot well be intimated to the patient without dangerous mistaking . for as galen faith , our art of physick goes upon two legs , reason and experience ; and if either of these be defective , our physick must needs be lame . experience was first in order : per varios usus artem experientia socit , exemplo monstrante viam . from much experience , th' art of physick ●●●e , directed by example to the same . reason followed , which without experience , makes a meer contemplative and theorical physitian . experience without reason , makes a meer emperick , no better than a nurse or an attendant upon sick persons , who is not able out of all the experience he hath , to gather rules for the cure of others . wherefore they must be both joyned together : and therefore i refer physitians works unto physitians themselves . finis . an appendix concerning bathe : wherein the antiquity both of the bathes and city is more fully discours'd ; with a brief account of the nature and vertues of the hot waters there . by tho. guidott , m. b. practising at bath . 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pythag. apud stob. serm. . nunc te marmoreum protempore fecimus : at tu , si fatura gregem suppleverit , aureus esto : virg. ecl. london ; printed for thomas salmon book-seller , living in bath . . to my honoured and learned friend , john maplett , doctor in physick . sir , having bad the happiness in a strange place to light on so good an acquainance as your self ( whose sober , candid , and ●npassionate temper receives an additional ● its native lustre from the perfunctory , disbliging , and illiterate genius of others : ) i ●ould not but take the first opportunity to te●ifie my respects ; and the rather , because having fallen on a subject in which you may claim some right ; i thought it not safe to enter your ground without your leave . besides , we are told by solinus ( whose assertion admits a further probability from the epithetes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 &c. given her by pausanias , plutarch , aristides , mentioned also in hesychius , suidas , harpocration , and others , of which i have * elsewhere more largely treated in another language , that minerva was formerly the patroness of these baths ; and what fitter person could i find out to address this brief discourse of baths unto , than him . — tritonia pallas , quem docuit , multaque insignem reddidit arte . i have joyntly discours'd of the baths and city , which seem to me to resemble the two parts of a compositum , body and soul : and as there is a more than ordinary respect due to the body , on the account of its being the case and cabinet of that pearl of great price , out more noble and diviner part , the soul ; so i thought it my concern to make some reflections on the city also , as well as the waters , by which i think it doth in some measure appear , that it cannot justly be said of the baths , what was once of the wit of galba the roman emperour lodg'd in a deformd body , that they have a bad habitation . if i have not here drawn the baths to the life , it may be considered that it was intended only for a rough draught , and ( what is more ) that i had not your pensil . the thing it self , as to the composure of it , is the hasty product of less than daies , and those too in the middest of , and stollen from my other employments ; what therefore is wanting now , i hope hereafter to supply . in the mean time , sir , i humbly offer to your kind acceptance this small acknowledgement of my real respects , as to one whose higher se●so● with academical studies , together with the helps and advantages of travel , hath made a pillar of your faculty , which your courteous dispos●ion and civil deportment , hath so nearly polish'd that you seem to have attain'd , if we believe the poet , the utmost perfection , having in you that which doth at once , both delight and profit . as for those that are meer husks and outsides of physitians , that desire to be thought to be what they are not , and are nothing less than what they seem to be ; whose empty heads serve for no other use than rattles , only to make a pretty noise to please children , whose mouths also are open sepulchres , and they themselves little better than painted ones . non tali auxilio , nec defensoribus istis , &c. we may well spare , or rather not spare them , as being not the true sons , but the by-blows of aesculapius . sir , i beg your pardon for giving you this trouble , and assure you , that i am your very affectionate friend , and humble servant , thomas guidott . bath , oct. . . the contents . chap. i. of the antiquity of the bathes of bath● genealogie of bladud , and time when he liv'd , contemporary to the prophet elias . these baths not discovered by julius caesar . names of bath , bathancester , hat bathan , akmanchester , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aquae solis , badiza examind . brittish names , yr ennaint , caer badon , caer palladdur , minerva patroness of bath , nechams verses . chap. ii. of the antiquity of the city of bath , and things relating thereunto . bath called first caer blaeidin , afterwards caer bath , and badon : when inhabited . coill and edgar , ( whose statues stand at the end of the council house ; ) who , and when they flourish'd . bath besieged by the saxons ; relieved by king arthur . offa's church , hospitals , free-school . the author of the history of the worthies of england censured , and some of his mistakes discovered . chap. iii. of the church of saint peter and paul. an account of the church of saint peter and paul in bath , from its first foundation to the time it was finish'd : a latin poem on the same subject , written to bishop mountague , with the answer of the bishop . chap. iv. of the roman antiquity of bath . roman antiquities of bath divided into three sorts : an enumeration and explication of them . many read , and understood otherwise than by mr. cambden . some additions . roman coins . chap. v. of the nature and virtues of the baths . bathes of bath much of the nature of the thermae aquenses in germany : certain parallels between bath and akin . bladud , and the baths vindicated . chap. vi. of the baths in particular here. of the three hotter baths ; namely , the kings , queens , and hot bath ; but chiefly of the kings , and in what distempers bathing therein is profitable . chap. vii . of the cross-bath , and its virtues . a brief discourse of bath . chap. i. of the antiquity of the baths of bath . genealogie of bladud , and time when he lived . contemporary to the próphet elias . these baths not discovered by julius caesar . names of bath ; bathancester , hat bathan , akmanchester , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . aquae solis ; badiza examin'd . brittish names , yr ennaint ; caer badon , caet palladdur . minerva , patroness of the baths . minerva's temple in bath . nechams verses . i shall not here treat of the antiquity and nature of baths in general , nor put you in mind of the pool of bethesda , or river of jordan , but intending a brief discourse concerning bath , both as to the city , and hot waters there , shall , without any further preface , begin with the waters , afterwards proceed to the antiquities of the city ; and last of all , give a taste of the nature and virtues of the baths . that the baths , or hot waters of bath in somerset-shire , are of great antiquity , cannot be doubted by any one who hath in the least cast an eye on antient records . many are the opinions and conjectures about the time of their discovery , which i shall as briefly as i may examine . and because there is very frequent mention made of king bladud , and the prophet elias , the one as the founder , the other as being discovered in his time : i think it may be for the satisfaction of some , if i give a particular account who this bladud was , and upon what score the prophet came to be concern'd in this business . the substance of which i take out of a latine manuscript intituled brutus abbreviatus , being an epitome of a larger history , not concerning my self much in the truth of the relation , but leaving it to the judgements of those that shall peruse it , to determine of it as they shall think fit . my rise i must take from brutus , who after the destruction of troy , is said to have come into this island , then called albion , about the year before our saviours nativity . where finding none but gigantick inhabitants possessing the hills , and seeing a fruitful soil , and full of delights , was pleased one day to call his company together to offer a solemn sacrifice to diana , by whose guidance and direction he had lighted on so pleasant an island . but as they were all at meat , thirty mighty giants came down upon them , and in a short time slew as many of brutus his men , yet were all afterwards quell'd by brutus and the surviving company , except one that was greater than the rest , whose name was gogmagog . now brutus had a companion related to him called corineus , who being not only like saul from the shoulders upwards , but from the waste higher than his brethren , was designed to undertake gogmagog , in which combat gogmagog brake two of corineus his ribs , who notwithstanding grasping the giant in his arms , wasted him along the sea-side , and threw him down a precipice , where he was dashed in pieces , whence that place now bears the name of gogmagog's leap . on this corineus , brutus bestowed the adjacent countrey , which he after his own name , called cornwall . for the first arrival of brute was at totness in devonshire , so named quasi tout en ease , i. e. totus in quiete , from the great delight and recreations that place afforded . afterwards , finding a more fruitful and noble place on the thames , built there a city years before that of rome , which he called the city of new troy , in memory of that troy whence he and his progeny came : and having reigned here years , he dyed , and was honourably buried at new troy , or troia nova , now london . brutus had three sons , loegrius or lo●rinus , albanactus , and camber , between whom he parted this island , viz. the northern part , to wit , scotland , he gave to albanactus ; the southern part wales , to camber ; and england to loegrius . after some time , humbardus king of humlandia , came into scotland with a great army , and slew albanactus ; which his two brethren , locrinus and camber hearing of , came with a considerable force to find him out , and coming upon him whilst he was making merry , put him so to it , that having no way to escape , he drowned himself in the river humler , to which he gave name . humbardus had a daughter called estrilda , whom locrinus having taken captive in a ship , had a mind to make his wife , although he was before married to gwenthlea daughter to corineus , which accordingly he did , and left gwenthlea . gwenthlea being thus repudiated , returned into cornwall , and as heiress to her fathers right , took possession of all the places there , and received homage from the inhabitants ; and raising an army in her own defence , made war upon her husband locrinus , cut off him with his army , and took prisoners estrilda and her daughter avana ; and drowning them in the river severn , caused her self to be crowned queen . she had one son by locrinus , named mahan , whom when he was of age , she made king , her self retiring into cornwall , died there , and was interred with great pomp and magnificence . mahan , the son of locrinus and gwenthlea , had two sons , memprice and manlinus , who fell out about the crown . manlinus treacherously slaying his elder brother memprice , aspired to the throne , a wicked and lewd man , who sharing with cain in the sin of murdering his brother , partook also with him in his punishment , in being a vagabond , dying wandring too and fro in the woods and deserts . ebranc the son of manlinus succeeded his father , and with great rejoycings was crowned king , a prudent and valiant man , who conquered france , and with treasure brought thence , built the city , eboracus or york , bearing his own name : he built also the castle called maiden-castle , now edenburgh . by several wives he had sons , all slout and war-like lords , and his daughters stately ladies . he reigned years . after the death of ebranc , the government of the kingdom was devolved on his son bentgrevestheld , a wife man and good souldier , who built the town carlyle , where after he had reigned years , he was buried . in his time solomon governed in jerusalem , to whom came the queen of sheba , sibilla by name , to understand his wisdome , and those things that were spoken of him . ludhudebras after the decease of his father bentgrevestheld , built the city of canterbury and winchester , and was buried at winton . bladut the son of ludhudebras was next in succession , a great necromancer , who as 't is said in his acts , made the hot waters in bath by the art of magick . but this is rather to be ascrib'd to nature , since there are baths in other places hotter than these : but i have read , that when the prophet elias desired it mignt rain , then three springs of hot water arose in that city , useful for the cure of diseases of men . he had a son named leir , who built leycester . thus far the author of the manuscript , whose rougher latine phrase , i have smoothed what i could , by a paraphrastical version . from what hath been delivered may be collected that bladut ( or bladud as he is commonly called ) was the eighth king of the britains from brute , and that his line was thus . brute , locrinus , mahan , manlinus , ebranc , bentgrevesheld , ludhudebras , bladut . now brute being said to have come hither years before christ , allowing to the seven preceding kings ( of which some reigned more , some less ) thirty years a piece for their reign , one with another , it follows that bladud lived near years before christ was born . he is sometimes called blaeydin cloyth , that is blaeydin the magician . as to the prophet elias , the time when he desired rain , falls out to be according to computation , in the year of the world . nine hundred , and some odd years before christ ; so that this prophet and king bladud were contemporaries , and the antiquity reaches no higher on the account of the later opinion then the first . and this is the highest pitch of antiquity i find assigned to the bathes ; as for the periods asserted by others , they come much short of both the former ; some ascribing their inventions to julius caesar , fifty years , or thereabouts , before christ , which the learned antiquarian , † mr. 〈◊〉 , thinks not so probable , because solinus , who lived in the time of titus vespasian , years after , or years after christ , was the first of the romans that made mention of them . to which may be added , that perhaps julius caesar came not so far up in the land. for whatever some flattering poets and historians may faconiously deliver ; certain it is that julius caesar made not so great a conquest here , as some do imagine . whence tacitus writes , that he discovered only , not delivered unto the romans , britain . his words in the life of julius agricola , are these : primus omnium d. julius cum exercitu britanniam ingressus , quanquam prospera pugna terruerit incolas , ac littore potitus sit , potest videri ostendisse posteris , non tradidisse , horace also calls the britan before augustus , untouch't . and mr. cambden faith , that it is so far off from being true , which patereulus reports , bis penetrata britannia à caesare , that caesar passed twice through britain , that he scarce made entry into it . for many years after this entrance of caesar , this island was left to the free government of their own kings , and used their own laws . the saxon names of bathancester , hat bathan , and akmanchester , are of later date , the saxons not arriving here till the time of theodosius the younger , about the year of christ , according to the most probable computation of venerable bede , . nay , the later name of akmanchester was not given till some few years after the year of christ , when from a mean condition , to which this city was then reduc'd by war , it again recovered strength and great dignity , and from the great concourse of diseased people , that came for cure , was called akmanchester , that is , the city of sickly folks . neither can their antiquity be much advanced by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , or hot waters , in ptolomy ; aquae solis , or waters of the sun of antonine ; or badiza of stephanus , ( more recent then the former ) but that which seems to come the nearest to the forementioned opinion of bladud and elias , is the british names of y● ennaint , caer badon , and above all caer paladdur , that is the city of pallas , or minerva's water ; especially since solinus affirms minerva to have been the patroness of these bathes , of which no doubt , he writes in these words , in britain there are hot springs very curiously adorned , and kept for mens use , the † patroness of which is the goddess minerva : there being also a tradition that there was formerly a temple dedicated to minerva , where now the church of st. peter and paul , commonly called the abbey church , stands . i have read also in an author that wrote of these bathes almost years ago ; and the first that wrote any thing considerable concerning them ( dr. turner , in his discourse of the english , german , and italian bathes , making little better then a bare mention of them ) that the chief spring of bathe was in the church-yard then dedicated to minerva , and after constituted to the abbey of the monks of the order of st. benedict . erected first by blaeidin cloyeth , or bladudus magus that wife magician , a britain , the ninth king after brute , about the year of the world , according to the scripture account before the incarnation of christ † . helisaeus prophet then in israel , but although i have some reason to distrust this genealogie of bladud , which he , acccording to the custome of his countrey , drives as high as may be , even unto adam , making bladud the thirtieth man , in a direct line from him ; yet i cannot but in some measure , commend his chronologie , as being not much different from the account given before . and whereas he affirms bladud to have been the nineth king from brute ; i find , by comparing other histories , that leill ( if the same with him whom the author of brutus abr●viatus calleth leyr ) was not son to bentgrevesheld , but great grand-child , being son to bladud , his , that is bentgrevesheld , grand-childs son : and so leill , whom he maketh father to ludhudebras , not to come in before , but after bladud , as being his son , and he the ninth king from brute , and not his father . yet on the other hand , i must say thus much , that the name carlyle , a city said by the author i fellow , to be built by bentgrevesheld , dissonant from the custome of those times , wherein the founders usually called places after their own names , and many of those especially to which they added caer , doth somewhat incline me think there might have been one leill , son to bentgrevesheld , as some historians mention , and founder of that place ascribed to his father . however , the matter is not great whether bladud was the eighth king from brute , as my author supposes , or the ninth , or tenth , as others ; i inferring no more from the preceding history then this , that bladud lived near years before christ ; since of the exact time of his flourishing , more then by conjecture , by reason of the confusion and disagreement among historians touching the number , and succession of the kings , and time of their reign , we have no certain account . but to be as particular as i may , because some years passed between the birth of those seven kings mentioned before , and the begining of their reigns , and also because gwenthlea , or guendoloena , and leill , are said by other historians to have reigned years ( viz. the former , the later ) which are not there accounted for , the surer way will be to take our account from the year of the world. now brute being reported to have entred albion a.m. , and bladud to have begun his reign a.m. , the difference between these two numbers is which being taken out of ( the year before christ , in which brute came hither , answering to the year of the world ) the remainder will be ( the year before christ , answering to the year of the world ) so that according to this computation , bladud began his reign over the britains , just years before christ was born , and reigning years , died in the year ante christum , i know fabian the author of polychronicon , and others , differ somewhat in their chronologie concerning bladud from that i have given , but i look on this to be as probable as any . alexander necham a poet of our own , somewhat above years ago ( with whom , as to the antiquity of the bathes , dr. jorden contents himself ) wrote these verses on the bathes . bathoniae thermis vix praefero virgillanas , confecto prosunt balnea nostra seni , prosunt attritis , collisis , invalidisque , et quorum morbis frigida causa subest . praevenit humanum stabilis natura laborem , servit naturae legibus artis opus . igne suo succensa quibus data balnea fervent aenea subter aquas vasa latere putant . errorem figmenta solent inducere passim . sed quid ? sulphureum novimus esse locum . which i thus made english ; bathes bains with virgils i compare , usefull for antient folk they are ; bruis'd , weak , consum'd , as well as old . and in al griefs whose source is cold . nature mans labour doth prevent and art again serves her intent . there 's fire under-ground , some say , that thus makes bathes great pots to play . fancy doth often error breed . but what ? from brimstone these proceed . chap. ii. of the antiquity of the city of bath , and things relating thereunto . bathe called first caer blaeidin , afterwards caer bathe . when inhabited . coill and edgar ( whose statues stand at the end of the council-house ) who , and when they flourished . bathe besieged by the saxons ; relieved by king arthar . offa's church . difference between the mayor and covent . hospitals . free-school . the author of the history of the worthies of england censured , and some of his mistakes discovered . it is not i think , to be doubted , but that the bathes were before the city , and gave name to it : sick people , in all probability that came hither for relief , first making small cottages for their conveniences , which were afterwards improved into fairer buildings . so that now in this particular , there are few places in england that exceed it . that this place was built , or rather begun , by king bladud , is the opinion of some , and that he called it by his own name caer blaeidin , which sometime after came to be caer bathe . that it was inhabited in the time of the britains , at least years before christ , appears from the names they gave it of caer badon , and caer palladdur ( of which before ) unless it be said that these names might be given by some britains , in the romans or saxons time , which seems not to carry any great probability . nay , i find it recorded , that in the year ante christum . sisillus , or , after some . writers , sylvius brother of gurgustus , was made ruler over britain , and reigning years , was buried at caer badon , or bath . however , many roman monuments there are , inscriptions and images in the city walls , and elsewhere , ( of which chap. . gives a particular account ) which evidently prove its being frequented before the year of christs incarnation , about which time ( or as others account , ) the roman jurisdiction ceased in this island . the statues also of coill a british king , and edgar a saxon ( who are said to have given charters to this city ) placed at the end of the town-hall , or council-house , are arguments of its antiquity . coill ( that i may speak somewhat briefly of him ) was an earl in the time of asclepiades ( whom the britains after the death of lucius , being wearied out with a bloody intestine war , which lasted more than years , were at last conftrained to elect their king , ) about the year of our lord . afterwards aspiring to be greater , and building a town which from himself he called colchester ; asclepiades began to fear him , and raising an army , met him in the field , in which battle , aselepiades was slain , and shortly after coill chosen king , who governed the britains with a great deal of honour ; and having married his daughter helena to constantius , sent from rome into britain to demand tribute , not long after dyed , and was buried at colchester : yet some there are who ascribe the building of this town to coilus , son of marucis , and father of lucius , king of the britains , a. d. . edgar , one of the later kings of the saxons , bestowed on this city ( as mr. cambden reports ) very many immunities , the memory of which thing , even in his time , the citizens yearly with solemn playes , did celebrate . he was a stout man , and is said to have had none like him on this side arthur , bearing this stile about the year . the monarch of all albion ; or , as it is elsewhere more largely express'd , king of english-men , and of all the kings of the islands of the british ocean , and all the nations contained in britain , emperour and lord. a souldier he was in the camp of cupid as well as mars and is noted for this , that having a mind to estrilda the wife of athelwold , he placed him ( as david did uriah ) in the front of a battel against the danes , in the defence of york ; where athelwold being slain , edgar married his widdow , but was so severely check'd by saint dunstant , that he ever after lived a religions life ; and having reigned years , bid adieu to the world , and was buried at glastonbury . edgar began his reign about the year of christ . but was not crowned till years after , a.d. . which was done , according to some writers , at bath , to others at kingston by dunstan arch-bishop of canterbury ( who , some say , was banished at that time ) and oswald arch-bishou of york : his coronation was deferred , because of his impetuous inclinations to the female sex , and especially to one wilfride , who to avoid the kings caresses , took on her the habit of a nun , but in vain ; for he had his pleasure , and got on her a daughter named edith ; for which offence he was enjoyned seven years penance , and lived not long after his coronation . about the year , or years after their arrival here out of germany , the english saxons besieged this city , with whom king arthur fought a great battel on mons badonicus , now called bannesdowne , and slew so many of them , that they had little heart to make any further attempt for a considerable time , but left it to the quiet possession of the britains . ninnius writeth , that the of king arthur's battels against the saxons , was at the hill or town of bath , where many a one was slain by his force and might . bath was also in the time of king arthur , by whom it was relieved , besieged by cheldericus king of almain . the story as mine author relates it , was thus ; eodem rempore venit cheldericus , &c. at the same time ( speaking of the reign of king arthur ) came cheldericus a valiant king out of almaine , and landed in scotland with ships : arthur hearing of this at the siege of colegrin near york , left the siege , and coming to london , sent letters into britain the less , to king hoel his sisters son ; who in a short time came into england with a great army , and was met by arthur at winchester with great rejoycings . these two going both to nottingham ( which cheldericus had besieged , but not taken ) arthur came upon him unawares , and made a great slaughter among his men ; cheldericus himself fied into a wood , where arthux finding him , he swore , that if he and his souldiers were permitted to depart , he would never more for the future trouble his kingdom : arthur condescended hereto , but the wind proving cross when they were on the sea , they came back again , and landing at totness , did a great deal of mischief , destroying the countrey as far as bath . they of bath shutting their gates , made a stout resistance : but when this was known to arthur then in the marches of scotland he came to the relief of bath , fought with cheldericus , and discomfited his army , &c. yet in the year . on a strong siege , and strong battery by the saxons , it yielded , but afterwards grew into great repute , and got a new name , viz. akmanchester . not long after the year . ceaulmus king of the west saxons fought with the britains , and took from them the cities of bath , gloucester and worcester . a. d. . osbrich founded here a nunnery , and not long after , off a king of mercia built a church , both which in the time of the danish wars were demolish'd ; out of the ruines of those two arose the church of saint peter , in which edgar was crowned ( as is mentioned before ) but of the church , more in its place . this offa was brother to oswald , surnamed christianissimus , and is said to have spent much of his time at bath . offa ( saith the author of brutus abbreviatus ) frater oswaldi ; iste offa , multum morabatur bathoniae . in the time of edward the confessor , bath flourished exceedingly , the king having there burgers , and burgers of others ; the city paying tribute according to hides , which amounts to about yard land . in the reign of william rufus , robert mow-cambden . bray , nephew to the bishop of constance , sack'd br. p. . and burnt it . the industrious mr. prynne ( to whom i am obliged for some marginal remarks ) in his brevia parliamentaria rediviva , and fourth part of a brief register of parliamentary writs , hath given an account of citizens returned to serve in parliament for this city , ever since the th . year , of king ed. . about a. d. . it is also recorded , that in the year , in the time of h. . there arose a contest between the religious persons , john telyford prior , with his covent , and the mayor about ringing of the bells , which lasted some , years , but was aftewards composed , and brought to a good issue . in bath are three hospitals ( it self , indeed , being but one great one ) st. johns , bellots , and the bimburies , sometimes called st. katherines ; besides a free-school erected , ( as by the inscription over the door it appears ) in the time of king ed. . the hospital of st. johns was founded a. d. . by . reginald fitz joceline , a lumbard , bishop of bath and wells , and afterwards translated to canterbury , but before he was possessed of his new honour died , and was buried at bath . it was valued at the yearly rent of l. s . d . since which time its revenues are much encreased ; he gave it this name , as i suppose , from st. johns in the savoy , where he was consecrated bishop after his return from beyond sea , by richard arch-bishop of canterbury . where , by the way , i cannot but take notice that this hospital is said to be built by joceline of wells , and hugo bishop of lincolne in the late account of the worthies of england . in which history ( besides the confusion of joceline de wells , with reginald fitz , joceline ) the author is guilty ( that i may say no worse ) of many mistakes ; to give an instance or two instead of a larger catalogue that might be produc'd ; he affirms , that joceline of wells was the first man that fixed on the title of bishop of bath and wells , and transmitted it to all his successors , when 't is manifest out of bishop godwins catalogue of bishops , that robert bishop of wells was the man , the th . bishop of that see , and not joceline who was the . he writes also , ( which is a thing i confess of no great moment , but yet a mistake ) that the famous dr. harvey was never married , when his wife is mentioned by himself . and to instance in no more now ( because i would not digress too far ) he avers the same person , though living a batchellor , to have left behind him three children , which he calls his three books , viz. de sanguinis circuitu , de generatione , & de ovo ; whereas the doctor that ever i could find ( who possibly have made as diligent a search after the writings of that modest , ingenious , and ( however the ignorance and envy of some have endeavoured to traduce him ) learned physitian , ( whose memory i deservedly respect and honour ) as any other can , i say dr. harvey ( that ever i could understand ) never printed any thing besides his treatise of the circulation of the blood , and his exercitations concerning the generation of animals , the historian making two books of de generatione , & de ove , when indeed they are but one . i acknowledge he mentions many things intended for the publick ; as . exercitations about respiration of animals . . a treatise of the love , lust , and gendring of living creatures . . of nutrition . . medicinal observations . . physiologia , with some others , wherein no doubt that excellent person had made many rare and considerable discoveries , which we are so happy now to enjoy ; but that any thing else , save the two forementioned treatises , was permitted , or any other book de ovo , composed by dr. harvey , besides that de generations animalium ( wherein he ingeniously observes the primordium , or first beginning of all living creatures to be either an egg , or something analogical to it . ) i should be very glad to be informed . bellots hospital was built by thomas bellot esquire , one of the executors of the lord cecill , in the time of king james , of whom we shall speak more largely in the next chapter of the church , to which he was a great benefactor . as for the bimburies , i can learn no more concerning it , than this , that it was built by seven sisters , who left this hospital behind them , as a monument to posterity , both of their charity and name . chap. iii. of the church of saint peter and paul. an account of the church of st. peter and paul , in bathe , from the first foundation to the time it was finished . a latin poem on the same subject , written to bishop mountague , with the answer of the bishop . the church of st. peter and paul , commonly called the abbey church , as now it is , is a neat , and curious fabrick ; of which , that i may give some account , from its original , many periods , and great alterations it hath undergone , as far forth as my observation , information , and what records i have seen will reach . the first church i find mentioned since the temple of minerva , ( which some place here ) was that built by off a king of mercia , and brother to oswald ( of which before ) in the year after christ . which was afterwards destroyed by the danes , and in the year , re-edified by elphegus , who being a man of great parentage , and prior of glastonbury , left that place , and betook himself to bathe , where living a very strict and exemplary life , even to admiration , he was chosen abbot , and in the year bishop of winchester , and a. promoted to the arch-bishoprick of canterbury , in which time he new built this church , four years after his coming to that see. but the fabrick he erected stood not long ; for years after , or a.d. . both it , and almost the whole city , was consumed by fire , by robert mowbray , nephew to the bishop of constance , in the first year of william rufus . the next year following , viz. a.d. . appeared john de villula , a french-man , born at tours , and sometime practitioner in physick , or to speak more plain , an empirick ( such as now almost every place doth abound withall , we having just cause to renew the complaint made by hypocrates in his time , that there are now adays , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . many , by a sort of people , their own creatures , much admir'd , but what artists they are is easily to be said ) for the historian brands him with this character , that he was usu , non literis , medicus probatus , a man practised more by rote , then any great cunning , and if he chanced at any time to do any good , it was more to be attributed to the strength of nature , and his good hap , then to any art in the man , or accountable virtues in his medicines . this man however , although not for his reach in physick , was to be commended in this that he had a good liking to the abbey , and though a poor physitian , was a rich man , and a great benefactor to the church , which he building from the ground , and augmenting the revenues from a small mater to a considerable proportion , may seem to deserve the name of the first author , and founder of it . he lived not to see it finish'd , being prevented by death , which happened the th . of december , , and was buried at bathe , in the church he built . this john was bishop of wells , but upon some dislike † removed his episcopal chair to bathe , and was known by the title of bishop of bathe , renouncing that of wells , and bought this city of william rufus , ( or , as some say , h. . ) for marks , which continued in the bishops hands till the th . year of rich. . about a.d. . at which time saverick , first arch-deacon of northampton , afterwards bishop of bathe and wells , a german , and kinsman to the emperour , in order to the more speedy effecting his design of being bishop , to the performance of which , among other things , as conditions of the kings release , ( being taken prisoner by leopold arch-duke of austria ) the emperour had engaged him ) returned the possession of the city to king richard the first . in the year july , years after the death of john de villula , the church he lately built was consumed by fire , and re-edified by robert , a monk of lewes , born in normandy , but by parentage a flemming , then bishop of that see. he not only made good what the fire had destroyed , but carried on the work to a greater perfection . in the troubles between maud the l●mpress , and king stephen , he suffered a long and a close restraint at bathe , from the king , and after his enlargement , endeavoured an accommodation between the two churches of bath and wells , which had differed many years about the episcopal see , and at last , with consent of both parties , made this agreement , that the bishops hereafter should be called bishops of bathe and wells ; that each of them should by commission appoint electors , the see being void , by whose voices the bishop should be chosen ; and that he should be installed with both of these churches . the second of which articles was not long observed , for a.d. . in the th year of hen. . the monks of bathe , refusing to joyn with the chapter of wells , chose of themselves one † roger for bishop , which occasioned a long suit in law between the two churches , composed afterwards by the bishop , who died not long after , and was buried at bathe . the condition of which compos ; ition was this ; that they of wells must be satisfied for the present , and they of bathe promise performance of the agreement made by robert , for the future , which was done accordingly . this structure erected by robert , continued till the time of henry the th ; when oliver king , the d bishop after the union of bathe and wells , pulling down the old church built by robert , not john de villula ( which was burnt , as mr. cambden affirms ) began the foundation of a fair and sumptuous building , but left it , by reason of his death , whatever the lately mentioned historian relates , very imperfect . for besides the cost bestowed on it by cardinal hadrian de castallo , chosen bishop a. d , . which i think , was not great ; william bird , the last prior of the abbey , undertook it , and partly of himself , and partly by the help of others , almost brought it to perfection , when in a short time after the dissolution of religious houses ensuing in the time of henry the eighth , it was again demollish'd . in memory of this prior bird , there is in the chappel , on the south side of the quire , at the east end , a coat of armes in stone , a cheveron between three falcons , their wings and members-displai'd ; on a chief , a rose between two pretious stones , and for a crest a miter and crozier . and in the out-side of the chappel wall , southward , a w. and a bird. neither are there wanting memorials of the name of the foresaid oliver . for in the front of the church , on both sides , on a pillar , are placed two elephants about an olive tree , and an inscription engraven in stone under it , in allusion to the parable of jotham , of which this is part , trees going to chuse their king said , be to us the oliver king ( which in the late times caused some to suspect it for a prophesie ) with a miter over all . this oliver king was doctor of laws , of kings colledge in cambridge , principal secretary to three monarchs of this land , edward the th , edward the th , and henry the th . register of the knights of the garter , bishop of exeter , and thence translated hither , novemb. . . died jan. . . and is thought to lie buried at windsor , where he was sometime canon . the death of bishop king obstructed this structure ( as a reverend doctor is pleased to quibble ) so that it stood a long time neglected , which gave occasion to one to write on the church wall with a char-coal . o church i wail thy woful plight whom king , nor card'nal , clark , nor knight have yet restor'd to antient right . alluding herein to bishop king , who began it , and his four successors in years , viz. cardinal hadrian mentioned before , who sat bishop years , and was afterwards deprived of this , and all other promotions , for conspiring with some other cardinals , the death of pope leo the th . cardinal wolsey , who held the bishoprick in commandam four years , and was then translated to durham . bishop clark , who sate years , and died in the end of the year , being poysoned , as was supposed , in germany , when he went ambassadour to the duke of cleve , to give a reason of the kings divorce from the lady anne of cleve , his sister ; and bishop knight . these four contributing nothing considerable to the finishing thereof . also one cassadore , a popishly affected person , wrote a prophesie of this church , to be seen in fullers worthies , with what he thinks is the meaning of it . upon the dissolution of the abbey , the church was uncovered , the lead taken away , and the walls much ruin'd , and so continued for some time . but since its last demolition , in the reign of king henry the th , it hath thrice been attempted to be re-edified ; first in the time of queen elizabeth , by a general collection , by which the work was not much advanc'd . the second , in the beginning of the reign of king james , a. d. . in whose time it met with many benefactors ; the principal whereof to this second work was thomas bellot esquire , steward of the house , and one of the executors of the right honourable , william lord barkley , sometime lord treasurer of england , who made some entrance on this work in the reign of queen elizabeth , and last of all , about the middle of king james's reign it was finish'd and brought to perfection , as by the munificence of noble men , knights , gentlemen , and others , whose names are on record , so especially by the liberal hand of dr. james mountague , sometime bishop of this diocese , who at one time gave pounds toward its reparation , and lies buried in the body of the church , deceased july . . it appears also from the memorials of the church , that before the first of these three last attempts to repair it , there was little of the church standing , save the bare walls , and those too , in many places , much impaired , which being then , as it was , decayed in the hands of edmund colethurst esquire , was by him bestowed on the city , though uncovered , and much ruin'd , as it had long stood after the dissolution ; and therefore he bears the name of the principal benefactor to the first work . the particulars of the reparations , with the names , and sums of the benefactors from the time of queen elizabeth downwards ( which are not for me here distinctly to mention ) are recorded in a book kept for that purpose in the library belonging to the church , begun by bishop lake , and augmented by some others , but yet stands in need of the helping hands of more benefactors . and although i have said so much concerning this church already , yet i shall crave leave to add as a conclusion to this matter a poem , which accidentally came to my hands by the means of mr. john parker , citizen of bathe , a lover of antiquity , and my good friend ( to whom i acknowledge my self engag'd for the assistance he afforded me in my search after the antiquities of the the city ) found in the study among other papers , of that learned knight , sir john harrington , whether made by himself , as some imagine ( who well might do it , having a great genius to poetry , and called by dr. fuller , one of the most ingenious poets of our nation ) or some other , i know not ; written , and as it seems , spoken to bishop mountague , at his first coming to bathe , and sight of the church ; which i should have translated , but that the substance of it , as much as is necessary to be known for history , is contained in the foregoing account . however , to preserve it from perishing , and to gratifie the lover of antiquity , ( to whom i chuse rather to incur the censure of being prodigal , then any way nice , in with-holding any thing i think may deserve their acceptance ) i shall insert it here , in latin , as i found it . the title thus , conditionis variae ecclesiae sancti petri & pauli bathoniensis , a primis fundamentis , actis an . . ad annum decurrentem , . historico-poetica 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deque faelicissima ejusdem ecclesiae restauratione vaticinium . ad reverendissimum in christo patrem , jacob . providentia divina , dignissimum ecclesiae bathoniensis & wellensis episcopum , bathoniam primo faeliciter invisentem , & visitantem . macte , bonis avibus ; recidivi limino templi ( in christo reverende pater ) gratissimus intras . macte , sed haud pigeat prius aequa mente parumper pristina delubri perpendere fata miselli . temporis elapsi studio monumenta revolvens attento , invenies hujus fundamina templi , prima off am , priscum regem , jecisse ; secunda ephegum , regni primatem ; tertia tandem ( cum duo danorum rabies , ignisque priora vastasset ) sumptu posuit majore johannes de villa , natu gallus , non infimus artis professor medicae , wellensi ingratior aedi ; qui , postquam variis viguisset episcopus annis , sedem thermopolin cathedralem transtulit illinc . urbe hac , quingentis marcis , a rege coempta , pulchrius antiquis fanum construxit : at ipsum aevo combussit pariter jovis ira sequenti . structorem celebris misit normannia quartum , officio monachum , roberlum nomine , molem subversum toties qui restauravit ; & inter presbyteros , litem , de sedis honore , diremit , exornans titulis utramque aequalibus orbem . tandem post seriem numerosam , munificamque , infignis praesul pietate , vicesimus atque tertius , hunc sequitur ; qui faustum nominis omen , expressit factis , oliver king dictus , olivam et regem vere referebat , ad instar olivam pacis erat populo , simul ubertatis & author . at magis hoc retulit regalis munere regem , quippe opus incultum rodberti sustulit , atque illius , extemplo vice , fundamenta locavit , ista ; dedit solidis speciosa pleromata muris . tecta superstruxit sublimibus alta columnis , areolas soleis tongas substravit & amplas , omnia ad hanc pulchram structuras caetera formam , et fundis , dubio procul , instructurus opimus , morte immortales subito est arreptus ad arces . tantae molis erat tam clarum condere templum ! ne tamen his tantis perfectio debita caeptis deforet , huic operi colophonem attexuir , almus abbatiae rector gulielmus birdus , at eheu ! sanctis stare diu fatis ( proh fata ! ) negatum est . horrida de innocuis fertur sententia famis ; abbatiae pereunt , fpoliantur templa , rapinis tecta patent , reditus , fundi , sacraria ; quid non ? ( unde nefas tantum zeli fautoribus ? ) una iste , vel in cunis , insons discerpitur infans . impete diripitur violento haec fabrica ; praestant saxa , vitrum , plumbum , campanae , ac omnia praeter hoc miserum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tantae at quae causa ruinae ? num pietatis amor an amor sceleratus habendi ? hic amor exitio est templis , templique ministris , hic amor extinxit clarissima lumina regni . nec sinit hic amor haec extincta resumere lucem , nemo bonum templi , templi bona quisque requirit . hinc haec cimmeriis , per tot , tam turpiter , annos , maxima lux urbis , latuit suppressa tenebris , sed pater omnibonus , cui provida cura suarum est , hanc piceam nuper , caelesti campade , noctem dispulit e multis sanctorum cordibus , unde accendere suo nostrum de lumine lumen . sic tamen , ut quivis magis hinc sibi luceat ipsi , ut tanto ad praesens reliquos veneremur honore , vivida quos totum celebravit fama per orbem , nobile bellotti sidus , sic emicat , omnes inter nutritios templorum jure colendos , plena velut stellis praefulget luna minutis . singula quae cernis pulchrae ornamenta capellae , area , porta , solum , subsellia , rostra , fenestrae , bellottum unanimi compellant ore parentem . bellottum sonitu reboat campana canoro , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sonant bellottum , balnea , vici , compita , bellotti jactant ad sidera noman , quod christi est cultor simul excultorque sacrorum . vaticinium . desine plura : sat est veterom , peragenda peractis succedant ; meliora bonis , majora minutis . auspiciis huc misse sacris ( sanctissime praesull ) sensibus hoec imis superum consulta repone , quae tibi fatidico dispandit carmine vates , laeta ruinoso proclamans omnia templo . quo decet , haenc specta , vultu , sine nube , sereno , faecundam laudum segetem sine fine tuarum . molliter ossa cubant offae , ac elphegl , oliveri rodberti , ac birdi , merito celebrentur honore ; debita bellotto reddatur palma benigno . pet-pius extento bellottus floreat aevo . non equidem invideo , laetormage , gratulor illi . quod si tam celebrem mereatur guttula laudem , praemia quae referet largos qui funditat imbres ? tantum at honorisico cedes , bellotte , jacobi , effuso tenuis quantum imbris guttula cedit . bellotti guttis rorata capella virescit , imbribus assiduis divi madefacta jacobi integra quam laetos diffundent templa racemos . nec tamen haec aqueo vitis cupit imbre rigari : aureolo hanc danaem saturabis , jupiter , imbre , hinc quae spreta diu languenti ecclesia morbo intabuit ; vitam , te te medicante resumit , ut redit infuso flaccescens vena lyaeo , hujus sint alii fautores , sydera , fani ; cynthia bellottus ; solus tu 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , apollo . haec tu vivifico reparabis membra calore ; haec tu magnifico decorabis tecta nitore . aspice surgenti laetentur ut omnia templo . grandaevum videor mihi prospectare jacobum , aspectus virtute tui , torpore solutum , atque reornato scandentem climate caelos . ut renovat vires , ut concipit aethera mente ; insuper alatos , ultroque citroque meantes coelicolas video , bona climacteribus illis nuncia portantes superis : ac gaudia divum inde renarrantes terris de praesule tanto ; teque cohortantes ( propria sat sponte citatum ) euge ! opus hoc mirae pietatis perfice praesul . te nempe ad decus hoc peperit natura , replevit dotibus eximii sdeus , ars perfecta polivit , in gremio reforet ter magni gratia regis : ditavitque bonis tanta ad molimina natis . huc opulenta tibi sua fundit viscera tellus , huc tua te virtus , sorte ancillante , propellit . euge l opus hoc mira pietatis perfice praesul● aggredere aeternos , servit tibi tempus , honores his petitur caelum scalis , hac itur ad astra . nec mora , fervet opus , structor , lapicida , peritus gypsator , sculptor , fustor , vitrarius : omnes artifices instant ardentes . moenia surgunt , dissita quae fuerant loca concamerantur erismis , extima plumboso velantur tegmine , pulchris intima caelantur laquearibus : omnia miris sunt decorata modis : respondent omnia vatis . nec deerunt mystae , celebrent qui sacra , frequentes . sed numerosa brevi totam quae compleat aedem . pompa sacerdotum , psalmodorumque decano producente chorum , cantabit grata jehovae cantia , tantorum fonti , authorique bonorum . haec mihi praesagit meus non ignara futuri . corpore ( quis neget hoc ? ) specioso haec templa jacobus donavit praesul ( pia nam decreta bonorum aequivalent factis ) animam rex ipse jacobus ( hoc quoque quis dubitat ? ) tribuet . deus alme jacobi , decretis benedic factisque utriusque jacobi : o fortunatam nimium , bona si tua noris , thermopolin , tali fruenis quae praesule , rege l funde deo summas ex imo pectore grates , et cola , perpetuo pietatis honore , jacobos . quo pede caepisti , praesul dignissime , pergas . episcopi responsio . cupivi dilu has ruinas , & haec rudera videre , & contemplari , has vero ruinas , & haecrudera videre , & contemplari jam dolet . ingrediar tamen , sed hoc animo , ut nunquam hoc more sim reingressurus , priusquam isthaec melius tecta videro . the bishops answer . i have long desired to see and contemplate these ruines and rubbish , and now it grieves me to behold them . however , i will enter , but with this intent , never to re-enter , till i see them better cover'd . chap. iv of the roman antiquities of bathe . roman antiqulties of bathe divided into three sorts . an enumeration and explication of them many read , and understood otherwise , then by mr. cambden . some additions . roman coins . the roman antiquities , inscriptions and images , in the walls and elsewhere of this city , were taken notice of by mr. cambden at his being here , and inserted into his britannia : yet because some alterations have hapened to some of them since his time , and others seem to me to be read and understood otherwise , then he hath there represented them ( not to mention what i have added , not to be found in him ) i shall give a brief account , and what explication i can , of them all , in order as they stand . i shall distribute them into three sorts . tbo●● that are between the south and west gates , those that are between the west and north gates ; and those in the garden , formerly robert chambers's , now belonging to william burvurd . the first , of the first fort we meet withall , ( not taken notice of by mr. cambden ) is the draught of a great face , ( which yet i cannot affirm to be truly roman ) about a foot in bredth , and near as much in length , much resembling the moon , as it is usually drawn . whether this was a memorial of the idoll of some pagan ( which it not very likely ) or rather set up in memory of some gyagntick person , whose parts were proportionable to this face ( which is more probable ) i know not . sure i am that england hath had those sons of anack as well as other countries , as , besides histories , the prodigious bones digged up in several places thereof , do witness ; and particularly ( seeing we are apt to suspect things done many years ago , relations of this nature being not like pictures , quibwè longinquo reverentia major ) the entire bones of a man of unusual dimensions , found not years since , in glocester-shire , in a field , between over , and thornbury , do sufficiently evince . this sceleton ( as i heard it related by a credible author , who had it from an eye-witness ) was inclosed within the body of a massie stone , so artificially cemented together , that the joynts were indiscoverable . in the middle thereof ( as it were in a vault ) sate the bones of two persons , one very great , and the other less . the scull of the greater was half an inch thick , and the ulna , as big as the gentlemans wrist , who saw it ( who yet is a corpulent man , and hath none of the least ) and as long as from his shoulder to his fingers ends . there were inscriptions also , and some coins , both silver and brass , about , and in it , but what they were , i cannot yet learn , having not hitherto had the opportunity to see either the one , or the other . since the relation of the former person , having occasion lately to ride into that part of gloucester-shire , where the bones were found , i received a confirmation of it from two of the sons of the gentleman , in whose ground , and at whose great charges , they were discoverd , the father being dead some fout years since ; only with this difference , that whereas the former relator intimated the bone , mentioned before , to be the ulna , or the radius , they apprehend it rather to be to the os humeri , or bone from the soulder to the elbow , which they affirmed to have been as long as from the elbow of any ordinary man to his fingers ends , or the length of that bone usually and half the ulna or radius . also , that both the sceletons were of extraordinary dimensions but one bigger then the other , & not both in one sepulch●e or vault , but two distinct ones , distant about yard each from other . the vault of the greater was not above five foot long , in the form , ( according to their resemblance ) of a jews-harp , narrow at the feet , and broader about the seat : so that this body must sit , being judged by some intelligent persons that saw it , to have been a man of nine foot in heighth . the other was longer , and the bones supposed to lie at length , yet very little within the ground ; having both great stones about and over them , in the manner of a tomb. after i had received their information , they were pleas'd for my further satisfaction , to accompany me to the place , about a quarter of a mile from their house , in an inclosure , hard by the high-way side , now made meadow ground , where i saw one stone , which was at the entrance of the vault of the greater sceleton , standing in the same place it was first set , about foot above the ground ; to which the other stones did answer : so that the length being five foot , and the heighth four , confirms the conjecture of the stature of the body mentioned before . the tomb-stone that lay over the greater person , of an uneven , and ( as i may term it ) mazzardy surface , was so vast and weighty , that it was a business of great difficulty and labour to remove it ; of a grayish colour without , but reddish within , and in many places studded with a bright shining stone , somewhat resembling the stones ot st. vincents rock near bristow . i cannot understand by them there were any inscriptions , and but two or three coins , one having a falcon ( as they called it ) which might be a roman eagle ; another a caesars head , with a wreath of lawrel about it , supposed to be the head of claudius the emperour . the common report there is , that it was the tomb of off a , king of mercia , who yet was one of the middle kings of the saxons , and lived neer years alter the romans departed out of britain , of whose extraordinary stature , i know no historian that takes any notice . it seems to have been a golgotha , or common place of burial , in those times , the ground thereabouts , in a round , or rather an oval figure , for neer half an acre , affording great plenty of other bones , and the place bearing the name of bone-hill . the time of it's discovery was about the year . whether this great person were a roman , or a saxon , is not very easie to determine ; if a roman , 't is much they should here , contrary to their common custom , both preserve the bones , and leave no inscription , and if saxon , 't is as different to solve the phaenomenon of the roman coins , being hot accidentally found among other rubbish , but in the sepulchre it self . however , whether roman , saxon , or other , which i shall not at this time any further dispute , it is enough for my present purpose that it was a body of more then ordinary dimensions , and exceeding the heigth of an ordinary man in those times by foot , that is higher by the half then most men now . . a foot-man with a spear . . a foot-soldier brandishing his sword , and bearing out his shield . . two kissing and clipping one another , which by the crook in the right hand of one , seems to be the remembrance of the kindness of a shepherd to his mistris . . a naked man laying hold of a soldier , which may represent an insulting roman , apprehending a poor , distressed , and captivated britain . . upon a stone , with letters standing overthwart , this inscription : ilia ilia this seems to have been part of the monument of some strumpet , ilia , if i erre not in my conjecture , being the relict of ivlia , wife to sèptimus severus , of whose lewdnes aelius spartianus gives an account in the life of that emperour ; and ilia to be understood of ilia the mother of romulus , concerning whom ( omitting ovid , juvenal , and others ) that make mention of her chastity ) i shall content my self with the single testimony of horace , who brings in lydia , his courtezan , making him this reply ; dones non aliae magis arsisti , neque er at lydia post chloen , multi lydia nominis romana vigni clarior ilia , id est , whil'st to thee none else was dear and thou to me didst not prefer , cloe , then i great of name did outstrip the roman dame. vibia ivcvnda h. s. e. it being by them accounted somewhat absurd , that those who had so great a name whil'st they liv'd , should be destitute of one , when dead . another thing that inclines me to this opininion also , is , a hare , a venereous creature , and embleme of lust : witness that question in the comaedian , tute lepus & : pulpamentum quaeris ? unto which these letters were formerly annexed ; for in mr. cambdens time it was here running , but since this light-foot is run quite away . . two roman heads , one within the cope of the wall , and another in the outside thereof , hard by , whereof that within the cope of the wall , hath an ear standing up , somewhat like the ear of horse . iii. vs . isa. is . vxsc. . as for medusa's head , with hair all snakes , i cannot upon the best , enquiry i can make , find it out , unless mr. cambden meant that little image close by the west-gate , which seems now rather to be one , with hands listed up , and meeting above the head , as it were rejoycing . . neither doth ophiucus occur to me , which i am apt to think that learned antiquarian , in haste , might mistake , for something between the loving couple and the naked man , like a rose , with a branch about it , resembling a serpent . vrn iop . . the next is a monument of one of the children of two romans , mulus & victisarina , with a longer , and exactly roman inscription , in a sepulchre table , between two little images , whereof the one holds the horn of amalihaa , the other flourisheth a banner . the inscription which i read somewhat different from mr. cambden , is this : d m svcc : petroniaevix ann. iii.m.iii.d.ixv.to mvlvs·etvictisarina : fil. kar·fec : i.e. to the dead ghost of succ. petronia , who lived years moneths , and daies , mulus & victisarina , in memory of their dear child , made this . what that eo at the end of the second line is , unless put for et mo , and signifies et moritur , i cannot at the present conjecture . . hercules bearing his left hand aloft , with a club in his right hand . yet i leave it to others to judge , whether it may not something resemble one of those little images mentioned but now . . the last i observe , and neerest to the north-gate , is a memorial of a roman senator of the colony of glocester , a city built by the romans , who also placed there a colony called colonia glevum . the inscription after this manner . dec . coloniae glev. vixit an. lxxxvi i.e. decurioni coloniae glevi , vixit an. . yet in the stone , after the figures lxxx . i observe a q , in this sort , lxxx●vi . which seems to be without some signification . if i may be allowed the liberty of a conjecture , i suppose it might be put for quluque , and ought to be read lxxx●vinq . there being room enough for , and as it were the marks of two other letters , n and q , and the party aged , not . and whereas i render decurio a senator , i pitch on this signification of the word , as most proper here , of which rosenus gives the reason ; senatores in coloniis , ut etiam in municipiis , decurionos vocabantur , eam ob causam , quod pomponio ●c . auctore , decima pars corum qui deduocrentur , publici consilii gratia , sit solita conseribi . i know festus mentions another , and more usual signification of the word , to wit , an officer over ten horse-men . decuriones , inquit , appellantur , quis denis equitibus praesunt ; of which , if any one please to understand it , he shall have my leave . . as for leaves folded in , and hercules streining two snakes , i cannot be so fortunate yet , ( though my search hath been particular ) to light upon it . the antiquities in the garden are only two inscriptions in two grave-stones , with their urns : the one an epitaph of cains murrius , of the tribe called arniensis , ( the tribe among the romans , so called from arnus , a river in tuscany , as car. sigonius , and on. panvinius relate ; a modest pleader in the julian court , a souldier of the second legion , and continuing in pay years . the inscription as follows . c. murrivs c. f. arniensis foro . ivli. mo destvs . mil leg . ii. ad. p. f. ivli. secvndi . an. xxv . st●● h ● . the other , an epitaph of marcus valerius , a latin , ( for so i read , and not eatinus , as mr. c. a souldier of augustus his legion ( if not the xx ) years of age , and years in pay . the true copy thus : dis . manibvs mvalerivs . m. sol. latinvs . c. eq miies . leg . monogram resembling v imposed on inverted v an. xxxv . stipen . xx. h· s· e· where it may be noted by the way , that this man had some favour to be admitted at years of age , when as the usual time of listing souldiers was not till . also , whether c. eq . be to be read , as some would have it , cohortis equitum , i somewhat doubt , the copia pedestres , or foot , commonly among the romans , being divided in cohortes , manipulos & centurias , the equestres , or horse , in turmas & decurias . many roman coins are also found in these parts two of which i have by me , digged up at walcott ( whence the two last inscriptions came ) in the same house with the inscription of vibia before-mentioned . the one neer years old , being a brass-piece of vespasians , in which all the letters on the face side are decayed , except aes . ves , and some marks of pas . on the reverse , pietas augusti ( as i think ) the three former letters of pietas being very obscure ) with an image between s c. signifying senatus consultum . the second , some years after , bearing the name of carausius , who in the time of dioclesian and maximian emperors , took upon him the imperial ensigns , and seized britian . the circumscription thus : c. caravsivs p.f. avg. on the other side , pax avg. and under an image , mlxx. which i suppose to be the year ab hrbe condita . chap. v. of the nature , use , and virtues of the baths . baths of bath much of the nature of the thermae aquenses in germany . certain parallels between . bath and akin bladud in some measure vindicated . i come now to speak something of the nature , use , and vertues of the baths . and here it cannot be expected i should say much , because my experience of them as yet hath been but little , and the observations i have made seem fitter , ( as they are intended ) for a foundation to a greater work , ( which time , and variety of experiments must compleat ) then , at the present to be communicated to the publick . and to make some compensation for my brevity in this thing ( which is justly deemed the most material of all other ) i shall take the boldness to engage , as soon as time and opportunity shall permit , to make a through search into the cause of the heat , nature , and efficacious operations of the baths , and perhaps give a more satisfactory account of the former , than yet hath been given by any ; and for the later , i shall not build on the hay and stubble of the talk and relations of persons byass'd and concern'd , but on the solid basis of reason , observation and experience . in the mean time , as i would not seem ridiculous to some , treating too largely of what i have not yet made a clear inspection into , so i would not be accounted absurd by others , in wholly waving the principal part of my subject . to offer then a course bit to the eager appetite , till time shall favour us with a better treat ; i conceive that the baths of bath come very neer the nature of the aqueuses in germany , the knowledge of which may be a great help to the better understanding of our own . i shall therefore , out of the succinct , but pithy discourse of these waters , composed by the learned and judicious physitian fran. fabritius ruremundanus , sometime physitian there , take notice of some parallels between that place and bath , in which , besides many pretty remarkable coincidences , the nature of the countrey , and parts adjacent , is in some measure discovered . the first is , that histories relate , that the hot waters there were found out by a prince , one granus , brother , as t is said , to nero the roman emperor ; who first discovering these baths , among the mountains and woods , built a castle , and dwelt there , of which , in the authors time , there was a monument standing , called turris grani. secondly , that the city was called by the name of the waters , to wit , aquae granis , which some improperly call aquisgranum . ab incolis aquoe grani appellatae sunt , cum thermae , tum locus ipse , deducto scil . nomine ab aquis calidis , & grano repertore , mansitque appellatio postea & urbi , nisi quod quidam non satis apte immuta inflexione , aquisgranum appellent . the inhabitants saith ruremundanus , call the place , as well as the waters , aquae grani , by a name drawn from the hot waters , and granus the founder , which name afterwards the city had , but that some , not so properly , changing the termination , call it aquisgran . thirdly , that the city is sita in valle , & monlibus circumquaque cincta , seated in a bottom , and encompassed about with hills . that the hills ( besides wood for fire and timber ) contain quarries of stone for building . that cold springs arise within & without the city in great abundance . that at some distance off is found lead , and a bituminous earth , which mine author calls terra nigra , foco culinaria aptissima . that in the city are two chief bathes , the one called the kings , the other the cornelian . in the suburbs , not far from the south gate , are more hot springs , called , from the abundance of hogs that are there about , the porcetan bathes , which being not so powerfull as the rest , are less used . and lastly , that i may mention something that would be advantageous to both , and both do want , viz. a navigable river , which saies rurem . would compleat its happiness . nibil , inquit , ad faelicitatem deesse videtur , quam navigabilis fluvius . now to give you the counter-part of the parallel : 't is obvious to observe , that to the first corresponds the history of king bladud , which seems not to be so fabulous , as many men imagine . for , probably , many relations we have of persons , and things , and of those elder times , when ignorance so much prevail'd , and men had little subtilty in their actions , and less politeness in their speech , may have much of truth in them , though they now seem odd , and rediculous to us . and i am apt to think , that many old realities do suffer much , on no other account then to the temper , and genius of those times . just as 't is reported of some old women in lancashire , that they go for witches , meerly because they look like such . not considering , that a great deal less time then years , hath made considerable alterations , in the manners , lives , and customs of men . and whereas king bladud had the name of a magitian , i look upon it as a greater argument of his more then ordinary learning , then note of reproach , the wisest men in those times , and long after to , being reputed such , and he recorded a wife and eloquent philosopher , and mathematian , accomplish't ( as the times then would bear ) with treasures of forrein , and domestick knowledge , having spent in study , ( as is reported ) besides many , doubtless , afterwards , in his own countrey , eleven years in his minority , at athens , of whom that you may receive a more particular account , i shall not think much to give you the english of what j. bate in his book de scriptoribus anglicis , writeth of him . bladud surnamed the magician , the th king of the britains , was sent in his youth , to the famous city of athens in greece , there to be instructed in philosophy , and the liberal sciences . and when he had there studied a certain time , hearing of the death of ludhudebras his father , he returned home again , bringing with him four expert masters in many sciences , not thinking it meet that his countrey should lack any longer such singular ornaments of learning as they were . these philosophers , as merlin writeth , he placed at stamford , in a very pleasant soyl , and made schools for them , to the intent they should there read the liberal sciences , where they had many times a great audiences . he was a man very cunning and skilfull , as well in prophane sciences of the gentiles , as in all wisdom and knowledge that the graecians excelled in ; but especially studious and very well seen in the mathematical arts and sciences , whereupon one of the sybils , that lived in his time , wrote and dedicated unto him a book of prophesies . some affirmed that the same bladud built the city of bathe , and therein made by a wonderfull art , certain hot bathes , for the use and commodity of the people , which do yet remain to this day , committing the conservation thereof to the goddess minerva , in whose honour be caused a temple to be there erected , to the intent , that being preferred by so mighty a goddess , they should never fail , but continue for ever , they write also , how that he read and taught necromancy throughout all his realm . but these things i suppose are seigned matters . to the second particular answers the name of bathe , taken from the waters . for this name , as is noted before , was given to the city , some time after its foundation , when the hot waters came into greater request , being called first , after the name of the founder , caer blaeidin . to the third , agrees the situation of bathe , being exactly the same . to the fourth , the quarries of stone , upon claverton down , horse-comb , &c. to the fifth , the springs of cornwall in wallcot-fields , beechenclift , &c. to the sixth , timsbury , burnet , ( and though the distance be somewhat greater ) mendip-hills . to the seventh , the kings bathe , with its apperdage , the queens and cross-bath . to the last , the horse-bath , without the south-gate , doth in some measure , answer , though it hath no hot springs of its own , but is supplyed by the overplus of water coming from the kings bath . and whereas it is recorded , that these bathes are not wholsome at all hours , being from of the clock in the morning , to three in the afternoon , scalding hot. it is clear , that the inequality of the heat proceeds not so much from the waters ( which in themselves , are observed to vary very little from a constant , and equal degree of heat , both winter , and summer ) as from the beating of the beams of the sun in hot weather on the surface of them , which being more troublesom to the bathes , and mornings and evenings more convenient for bathing , the middle part of the day is not made use of , though the waters then are as wholsome as ever . but we may well pardon this learned and industrious person , if he hath not in this , and some other particulars , done the bathes right , in regard the vastness of his designe , and urgency of his occasions , might hasten him hence , so that , haply , he could not throughly inform himself in things of this nature . to conclude this chapter , i shall mention some parts of the description of that city , mentioned before , in the authors own words , and compare them with what description dr. venner hath given of this of bathe . aquae grani appellatae sunt ab incolis , cum thermae , tum locus ipse , deducto scilicet nomine ab aquis calidis &c. haec urbs tametsi in valle sita , & montibus circumquaque septa sit , incredibili tamen gaudet aeris salubritate . in proximo urbis ambitu lata fere planities est , in qua & pascua sunt , alendo pecori commodissima , & agri pingues . nec desunt funtes , tam feris pascua irrigantes , quam intus diversis urbis locis , publice in plateis scaturientes . ad orientem rhenum , ad occidentem habet mosam . sed alias dotes ●mnes , meo quidem judicio , vincunt aquarum calidarum uterrimi simul ac saiuberrimi fontes . the words of dr. venner , as neer the english of the former as may be , are these . bathe , so called from the bathes in it , is a little , well compacted city , &c. although the site thereof , by reason of the vici●ity of hills , may to some seem not pleasant , being almost environed with them , yet for goodness of air , neerness of great and delectable rivers , pleasant meadows , and plenty of excellent water , brought down from the adjacent hills into the streets , it is pleasant , and happy enough ; but for the hot waters , that boyl up even in the midst thereof , is more delectable , and happier then any other of the kingdom . chap. iv of the bathes in particular here . of the three hotter bathes , viz. the kings , queens , and hot bathe . but chiefly of the kings , and in what distempers bathing therein is profitable . having thus far drawn the parallel between bathe and akin which , as they cannot be conceived to agree in every punctilio , ( no comparison , as they say , running on four feet ) so it seems they cannot correspond in some of those particulars before recited , without a communication also in the waters of many of the same medicinal vertues . having done this , i proceed to a light gast and relish , of the vertues , and usefulness of every bath in particular . and here taking it for granted , till better information , what the very learned and incomparable doctor jorden hath observed , that there is very little difference in the nature of the bathes of bathe , but in the degree of heat , they all proceeding from the same mine , which according to the intenseness or remissness of its heat in divers parts , and the directness or indirectness of the passages from it , may cause this variation ; and also , that the minerals impregnating the bathes in general , are bitumen , nitre , and sulphur , i shall run the parallel a little further , and speak something in particular of all the bathes ; and first of the kings . the kings bathe exceeds the rest in heat and dimensions , being the hottest , and largest of all . and whereas there is another that for some time hath , i know not how , apprepriated the name that is common to them all , and therefore gives most people occasionto imagine the heat to be more intense there then any where else , i conceive , at present , the heat of that bath , to come as much short of that of the kings , as the cross bath , in that instance , yields to the queens . this bath , as to its vertues , much resembles the kings bath at akin , that is , consists of the same minerals , though probably , not in the same proportion ; the german kings bath being accounted chiefly sulphurous ; this of bath , bituminous . which , yet notwithstanding considering the great affinity bitumen hath with sulphur , and the slender difference in their qualities , being bothsupposed moderately hot and dry , and therefore must both ( according to the common notion ) attract , resolve , mollisie , and discuss , will not alter much the case , not to mention that baccius and bauhinus , and ( what is more natural ) two of our own countreymen , doctor turner , and doctor venner , do all agree , that they are chiefly sulphurous . and whereas rurem . faith of the kings bath at akin ; refert haec aqua modis omnibus naturam sulphuris , cum admissione nitri modici ; making mention of sulphur and nitre , but omitting bitumen , i question not , but upon examination , it would be found that bitumen also was concern'd in that bath , as well as the cornelian in the same city . and the catalogue of diseases , for which this bath is profitable , suggests as much : bituminous waters being of a heating , drying nature , and suppling the nerves . the encomium he gives of this bath , and the diseases he affirms it to do good in , ( which for the most part agree to this of bath also ) are as fellows . this bath is profitable for many distempers , especially cold and moist : for it heats powerfully , dries , drives the humors from the inward parts to the outward , discusses , attenuates , abstergeth , and that i may speak more particularly , good chiefly in affections of the nerves , as convulsions , palsies , as well alone , as accompanying an apoplexie , in defect of sense or motion , or both . it helps stiff , benumm'd , and trembling limbs , does good in the several sorts of gouts , especially hip and hand-gout . discusseth tumors : relieveth those that are streightened about the midriff : those that have a cachexy , or ill habit of body : the dropsie ( especially the anasarca ) and jaundice . those that are troubled with a cold distemper of the stomach , liver or spleen . excites and restores appetite . easeth pains in the sides ( without a favour ) bowess or loins . helps cold and moist distempers of the womb ; furthers conception , provokes the terms , giveth ease in uterine pains ; takes off weariness as well spontaneous , as by excessive labour and travel , &c. most proper for those of a cold constitution , and somewhat corpulent , and not so convenient for dry and entenuated persons . to which may be added lethargies , epilepfies , cramps , deafness , forgetfulness , aches , and many others of the like nature , with the scorbute , ( provided the body be duly prepar'd before , and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that distemper well corrected ) and the extremity of the pains of the spleen . the hot bath is somewhat cooler , and profitable in the like cases ; and dr. venner hath observed most essicacious for any weakned and relaxed limb . the queens bath is the next for heat , and hath the same virtues with the kings , out of which it was taken , having no hot springs of its own , but is supplyed out of the kings , where the water standing as it were in a cooler , is made more temperate , and fitter for tender bodies , that cannot well endure such a degree of heat , as in the kings bath . chap. vii of the cross bath , and its virtues . the cross bath , as to its degree of heat , abating somewhat of the queens , is the coolest of all , of which i may say , as a stranger sometime did of this city , that it is e minimis pulcherrimum , and though it be little , is not on that , nor any other account despicable ; inest sua gratia parvis . this bath is thought by dr. jorden to participate more of nitre than the rest , and therefore is observed to supple & mollifie somewhat more , receiving a greater degree of cleansing and penetrating from the nitre ; consonant to which 't is said of the cornelian bath in akin . aqua hujus balnei sulphurea quidem est , sed salis non paruns habet admistum , quin & bitaminis nonnihil in esse certis indiciis deprehenditur ; quo fit ut haec aliquanto valentiore sit exiccandi , extennandique potissimum facultate , quam aliae , discut it , abstergit , ac mollit , i.e. the water of this bath is indeed sulphurous , but hath a considerable quantity of salt mixed with it , and some bitumen ; wherefore this hath a more powerful drying , and attenuating faculty than the rest , discusses , cleanses , and mollifies . and whereas instead of nitre , he mentions salt , the difference , though something i confess , cannot be great , since many of the same vertues are both by him and others attributed to saline waters , as nitrous ; nitre it self being a kind of salt. from the mixture of the sulphur and bitumen , it heats , discusses , and supples ; from the nitre , it receives an addition of cleansing , and penetrating . this bath then must be of excellent use in all contractions , indurations , and resolutions of nervous parts , disperse , and dissipate cold tumors ; relieve cachectick , hydropick , and corpulent persons ; oppose the sciatica , cramps , convulsions , defluxions , barrenness , and the whites in women ; usefull in cutaneous distempers ; as the itch , scabs , morphew , and leprosie . good for fleshy , cold , moist bodies ; and not so proper for hot , and dry constitutions . and here i must crave leave to add , that the reason i conceive why the cross bath comes not up to the heat of the rest , is partly on the account of its being served by four springs , but chiefly proceeds from the greater proportion of nitre it contains , which being of a cooling nature , may more allay the heat arising from the sulphur and bitumen there , then in the other bathes . and that nitre doth more abound in that bath , then in the rest , may probably be collected , as from other reasons , which i here forbear to mention , so partly from this , that it sooner penetrates the body , and hath an easier , and quicker ingress into its passages and pores , to the great relief of some , though it seems paradoxical , in nephritick distempers . but i hope i may be excused on the score of my former engagement , if i am not more particular at this time , in things of this nature , till a just amassment of observations and experiments , and a rational deduction of conclusions from them , ( which i hope in some time to accomplish ) shall either confirm me in the opinion i now have of the nature and vertues of the baths of bathe , or supply me with a better . atque haec hactenus . finis . sphalmata typographica . pref . page . line . read review . l. . r. quacking . p. . l. . for only , r. with . p. . l. . for the fig , . r. . p. . l. . r. from the place . epist . ded. page . in the marg . against galba , insert ingenium galbae male habitat . appendix . page in margent , for hunesey , r. hunes . p. . in marg . r. manlius . p. .l. . r. fawningly . p. . l. .r. names in l. . for is , r. are . l. . blot out to . p. . l. . r. me to th . p. .r . marius . p. . l. r. along siege . p. .l. . r. printed . p. . l. . for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 , r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . l. r.a man that pr. p. .l. . for burkeley , r. burghley . p. .l. . r. jactis , l. . r. limina . p. . l. . r. rodb . l. .r . urbem . l. .r regalis . l. ult.r . pteromata . p. . l. . r. longas . l. . r. fanis . l. . r. prostant . p. .l. .r . suorum . l. .r . lampade . p. .l. .r . mi●ae . l. .r. fusor . l. . r. votis . l. .r . praeducente . l. .r . cantica . p. . l. . r. diu . p. . l. . r. septimius . p. . in marg . r. merry vib. p. . l. . r. qui. for rose , rosin . p. . l. . r. grani. l. . r. immutat ● . p. .l. .r . preserved . p. .l. .r . material . p. .l. .r . fevour . l. .r . exten . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e de deper litis pag. de deper litis pag. . bellonius observat . lib . . . prosper alpinas de medicina aegyptiorum . cap. ● epist . . lib. . de tuenda sauit . lib. . cap. . * see the reason of this in iones his bathes aid , fol. . b. where also he proves the inward use of mineral waters among physicians , as well before , as since the time of galen . notes for div a -e libavius de judicio aquarum ●●i●er . cap. . ●●accius ●i● . . cap. . solinander lib. . cap. . solinander lib. . cap. . quaest . nat . . libav . pyrotceh . cap. . meteor . de usu partium lib. . cap. . daneus phis . christ part . cap. . aristol . . meteor cap. : davaeus philos . christ . p. .c. . cardan . de subtil . lib. . valesius contr . lib. . cap. . conradus assachus de triplici coelo lib. .cap. . laurent . valla , &c. arist . . meteor . cap. . de ortu & inter , lib. .& moteor . .cap. . & . gal. de simpl . med . sac . lib. . cap. . item de elementis . valesi●s co●t . lib. . cap. . de aere , aquis & locis . de morbis pop●lar . lib. .sect. . bruerinus de re cibaria . platerus in praxi . n●●t . attic. lib. . cap. . de divinat . . in aristaeum quaestione . brerinus de re cibaria lib. . cap. . saturnal . lib. . cap. . rerum antiquar . lib. . c. . bacciusl . ● . c . ● . de nat . eo● . que cffl . è terra li. . cap. . langius epist . lib. . epist . . notes for div a -e baccius lib. cap. . . agric. de ortu & causis subter . lib. . cap. , , , , , , , , . solinander l. . cap. . & lib. . cap. . from the air. quoest . natur● lib. . cap. . meteorol . & . . deortu & causissubt . l. . ● . . de orig . font . cap. . a. from the earth . metam . . aristotel . . meteor . cap. . & ultimo . valesius de sacra philosoph . passim . from the sea. 〈…〉 ortu & causiss●●ter . lib. . cap. ● & . ecclesiastes . arist . metroyol . cap. ultimo lib. * this way of arguing is questioned by dr. french , who supposeth the many great rivers terminated in the sea to be a sufficient moisture for the taking away the termination of the water made by the dryness of the earth , and so to make the globous sea sink to an evenness . vid. french yorksh . spaw . p. , , . notes for div a -e minerals reduced to seven heads : earth . agric. de nat . fossil . lib. . cap. . baccius lib. . cap. . notes for div a -e de metallis cap. . verulamius de vita & morte , pag. . & . do neglecta stirpium culturâ problem . . erastus disput . part . . p. . in ingressu ad infirmos p. . venustus in consilio pro petro picardo . baccius ●tym . lib. . ● . . notes for div a -e machab. . . de sympath . & antipath . c●. . de nat ●●y . q. efslu . è te●●a . l. . ● . . metcor . . lib. . ● . ii. de thermis . c. of camphir . seyaphio de ●imp . m. d.c. . avicen . lib . i. tract . . c.z. item . l. . tract . . cap . . item . de med . cordial , tract . z. cap. . in dioscoridem cap. de mastich . lib. i. cap. . de nat . fossil . lib. . cap. . thesaur . aqu lib. i. cap. z. co 〈…〉 divs . . . tha. nemico . de simpl . med . facult . l. .c. . lib. i. tract c. . bellonius de naphtha c. . agric. de nat . cor . quoe cfflu . è terra l. .c. . bitumen predominant in the bathes of bath . de thermis boll . l. .c. . notes for div a -e libavius in syntagm . p. in lib. de plantis aristoteli ascriptum lib. . passim . caesalpinus de metallisc . .l. . salt. diosc . l. .c. . de simpl . med . sa●ult . l. .c. . & l. .c. . three wayes to make vegetable salts to retain the taste of the herbs from whence they are drawn . . three wayes to make vegetable salts to retain the taste of the herbs from whence they are drawn . . three wayes to make vegetable salts to retain the taste of the herbs from whence they are drawn . . nitre . sal ammoniack . in pestis alexic . dariot de praparat . med . tract . . cap. , . lib. de humi●orum usu . salt springs . lib. . the true cause of the saltness of the sea. aliquid aquae admixtum arist . . meteorol . cap. . meteor . . c. . nitrous wateys . observat . l. . c. , . lib. . c. lib. . c. . martial . allum spring● pyrotech . l. . c. . vitrioline waters . simp. med.facul . l. . c. . libav . in symag . . part . l. . item singularium part . . lib. . von . kupffer ertz . . baubinus de th●r . nis l. .c. . de judicio aqu . niner . p. . . notes for div a -e simpl. med . facult . . . . . vidus vidius turat . generat . p. . sect . . . . c. . fallopius de petallis . . quick-silver not reducible to the elementary qualities sulphur . arsenick . cadmia . notes for div a -e bismutum , or tin-glass . part , . pag. . notes for div a -e fallop . de metallis cap. . libav . de nat . metall . part . . cap. . gold. silver . copper . iron . tin. lead . nature and qualities of gold. bascius lib. . cap. . basilica chimia pag. . de thermis cap. . in ingressu ad infermo , pap . . of silver . theod tabernomonta●us , p. . cap. . of iron and steel . aenead . simpl. lib. . libs . epist . . de motallis cap. . simpl. l. .c. . two distinct qualities in steel . solinander , pag. . ve●ustus , pag. . b●●cius lib. . cap. . s 〈…〉 rola . rea 〈…〉 eus pag. . quality of copper . libav . de nat . metall . c. . of tin. of lead . pag. . notes for div a -e fallop . de metallis cap. . libav . de nat . metal . cap. . agricola de ortu & causis sub● . lib . . c. . lib. . c. . 〈◊〉 : lib . in sarept . co●●● . . ii. &c. in alchimia magna . de metallis pag. . & . von probier●ng der crtze . in sarept●● . sebast . for●●● l. .c. . scverinus c. . p. . caesalpinus de metal . lib. . c. . cap. . erast . disput . part . . p. . the principal efficient cause of the generation of minerals , not the sun. dorn . phisica geresis . gal. de maraes . de catore . neither the elements . de anima item . cap. . trismegistus in asclepio cap. . plato . in timco in dialogo de natura . in vita apollo●ci . elcoga . desacra philosoph . cap. . cap. de mixtie●● . m●teo●ol . . item de mundo ubi dicit aerens comparatum esse ad aliam & aliam ●●turam inducedam . in som . scipionis cap. . de nat hominis . de gen . cap. . item libde s●●su & sensibile . de gen . animal . cap. ultimo . ifagoge cap. . de elementis cap. . de veteri medi●ina . notes for div a -e erastus , carerius , casal●inus , marti●u● , mo●ista● , foxias , magyrus , liba●ius . met●or . c.ult. caesalp . l. . . . libav . de nat . metall . c . . carerius . septal. in hipp. de aëre , aqu . &c. valcsius sacra philosoph●● . . singularium lib. . part . . de nat . metall . cap. . the authors opinion concerning the manner of the generation of minerals . mussetus in dialogo apologetics . carm. lib. . od . . georg. . de dieta . de gen . animal . lib. . foxius , m●rtinus , moris●aus , magyrus , libavius , vel●uri● , valesius , carerists , erastus , &c. de dieta lib. . de usu partium ● . . & . erasmus in adagi●s . de mund● . c. ult . notes for div a -e causes of heat in mineral waters not . wind , air , exhalations in the earth . agitation and violent motion . valeseus centre . lib. . cap. . solinand . l. . cap. . the sun. † it may be so in former times , but few , i think , do doubt it now ; i am sure not those who hold the sun to be a flame . his apology . gilbertus de magnete lib. . taurellus de primis rerum principiis . conrad . aslacus de triplici coelo . lib. . antiperistasis . in paradoxis . simpl. medic . facult . cap. . valesius contro . lib. . cap. . magyrus lib. . cap. . quick lyme . subterranea● fire . d : ditca lib. . comets , probably not k●ndled substances . metamorph. . aenta● . . agricola . bacciusl . . cap. . douatus de aquis lucensibus lib. . cap. . gesaer . epist . lib. . pag. . lib. . cap. ult . notes for div a -e * what dr. french hath said against this opinion , may be seen if the , , & . pages of his yorkshire spaw . thurneiser alchimia magna lib. . c. . * the cause of the heat in bath , assigned by dr. rouzee , is their motion and agitation in the bowels of the earth , falling from cataracts and broken concavities in the same . but afterwards , lighting on this opinion of dr. jordens , he is so far from disliking , that he apdeservedly plauds it , and callls this work learned and elaborate . vid. lud. rouz . tr. of tunbr . water , p. , . & . in margine . martin . de prima generations . lib. : cap. . georg. . a brief collection of the the authors arguments against the opinions of others touching the actual heat of bathes . . de gen . animal . . de gen . animal , cap. . in praefat . in opticum euclidis . de triplici caelo lib. ● . c. . meteorol . c. ; trism●gistus in asclepio . c. . in pimandro cap. . lib. de constat . notes for div a -e de tuenda sanitat . cap. . baths of bath consist principally of bitumen with nitre , and some sulphur . thesauri aquarii pag. cap . . is pancirollum de deperditis pag. . prosper . alpinus de medic . agyptioiuml . . c. . de vita & marte pag. . warm drink commended . i.w. lib. ae humi●o●um usu . simpl. cap . . lib. . sum . tract . . s lib. . tract . . cap. . baccius lib. . claudiaus p. . de aere , aquis & locis . notes for div a -e † this is now done , and a dry pump there erected in the year . at the city charge , by the procurement of mr. iohn ford , apothecary , then mayor of the city . notes for div a -e tetrah . serm . cap. . trallian . l. . cap. . orib . l. . c. . aegin . l. .c. . actu . l. .c . . cap. . hypoc . de aere ; aquis , & locis . ● . de tuenda sanitate cap. . notes for div a -e do compos . med . s . locos . . c. . notes for div a -e * in historia aesc la●ii , 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . omne tulit punctum , qui miscuit utile dulci. her. de art. poet. notes for div a -e g. m. nephew , as some write . supposed to be the fall of dover by some ; by others , the haw at plimmouth . called therefore by the w●lch , loygar , & ●●g●ors . called by other writers , hu●ys or hunnys , king of hunesy or scythia , receiving the name of humber or humbardus , after his comeing into scotland . others write she was daughter to a king of almaine , and brought with two others thence by humbardus . alias 〈◊〉 . otherwise called habre● . alias madan , & madian . some make mempricc to have slain his younger brother manlinus ( as he is sometimes called ) and ebranc to be the son of memprice . or part of germany , as others . caer ebranc . others write he had wives , of which he begat sons , and daughters . alias brut. -greveshield , and brut●grenshield . alias lud , ludhurdebras , rudibras : he is said by others to be the son of leill . called sometimes bladud and baldud . † 〈◊〉 malmsb . 〈…〉 epod. . by. p. . cambden by. p. . † this is also mentioned by bale , de script . aug. in his account of bladud . vid. insra cap. . io●cs bathes aide p. . b. bede . basil . bale . † others , . by bale he is said to be the tenth king of the britains . cap. . notes for div a -e mat. westm . engl. chron. lanquet . ant. br. ab. ms. alias aselepiodatus . others . britannice caercolyn . br. p. . anglorum basilcus omniumque regum irsularum oceani quae britanniam circumjacent cunctarumque nationum quae infraeam includuntur impeytor & dominus . henr. spelm. co●c . tom. . p. . & seldenus in mar. clans . militat omnis amans , & habet sua castra cupido . ovid. an. . mat. westm . cambden ubi supra . yet n. aut. br. abb. ms. cambden . br. p. . concerning his supposed tomb , and place of bursal , see chap. . domesday-book . cambden , br. p. . p. . p. . libell . rub. de bath . ms. god● . cat. p. . p. . de gen. an. exer● . . p.m. . notes for div a -e l. de leg . gul. mal asb . † the charters of william rufus and h. . for translating his see to bathe , and the manner thereof , may be seen in mr. dugdales monast . augl . pp. , . † he was confirmed bishop ● by king hen. . his patent , ad instantiam demini papae , de gratia regis speciali , salve jure regis , & ecclefiae wellensis . p. . h. . m. . intus . br. p. : judges . d.f. so●●ers . p. . historia . . . . agyrta . . . notes for div a -e ad . lib. . here lies mary vibia . 〈◊〉 b● . ● p. . ant. rom. l. . c. ● . al. ab . alex. gen. dier . l. . c. . cat. si●on . de jur. rom. l. . c. . rosc . ant. rom. . x. c. . ca●bden . br. p. . caius . carausius . pius . falix . augustus . notes for div a -e p. carbl●us br. pag. . ru●ewuad . de baln . aq. p. . . &c. 〈◊〉 bath●●● . notes for div a -e de baln . aq. p. . notes for div a -e cap. . rurem . de bal. aq. p. . therme nitrosae omnino easdem facultates habent , quas salsae , &c. fuch . inst . med. lib. ● s. . c. . thermæ redivivæ, the city of bath described with some observations on those soveraign waters, both as to the bathing in, and drinking of them, now so much in use / by henry chapman ... chapman, henry, fl. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) thermæ redivivæ, the city of bath described with some observations on those soveraign waters, both as to the bathing in, and drinking of them, now so much in use / by henry chapman ... chapman, henry, fl. . 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng mineral waters -- england -- bath -- early works to . bath (england) -- description and travel. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - celeste ng sampled and proofread - celeste ng text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion thermae redivivae : the city of bath described : with some observations on those soveraign waters , both as to the bathing in , and drinking of them , now so much in use . by henry chapman , gent. london , printed for the author , and are to be sold by jonathan edwin at the three roses in ludgate-street , . to the most august and serene prince charles ii. of great britain , france , and ireland , king , &c. dread and royal sir and soveraign , it hath been all along ( i praise my god ) my inclination as well as my duty , to serve my prince and countrey the wars in your ever renowned fathers time ( wherein i had the honour as well as the misfortune ( as carrying with it the sacrifice of a competent estate ) to be , shall testifie for the one , as this small tract for the other ; as i am a native of this place ; so also for the better part of twenty years , i was not a stranger to many near and remote regions , but never could i meet with , or hear of any such waters as this your city yields , in reference to the perpetual constancy of their quantity and quality ; on which reason , i have an ambition and desire to publish this to the world , what continual and inexhaustible treasures , are stored up here in the bowels of the earth , scarce ever made known ( at leastwise made use of ) till these very late years , the publication whereof , will sans-peradventure , advance your majesties kingdoms interest , as conducing so much , to the longaevity and health of the nations : rendring them more numerous and hardy , ( our air will make them valiant ) and this being granted , as being an indisputable maxim the consequence is , cum multis manibus grande levatur opus . may the good god , keep your majesty , here ( long after our age ) in the highest degree of honour and health , and when you change , give you an incorruptible for a corruptible crown , which hath , is , and shall be the daily and incessant prayers of your majesties , most humble , loyal , and obedient subject and servant hen. chapman . bath , . novemb . . to the ever renowned nations of , and in great britain and ireland . i am not ignorant , that there are many ( and that learned too ) treatises abroad , concerning something i am now in hand with . dr. jordan is extant , and so is an appendix to it , discoursing profoundly , from what minerals these waters may proceed with the nature of bitumen sulphur , and the like ; yet all this while , there wants a plain , and cheap ( not scholastique ) divulgation to the world , of the present use of these waters , both as to the bathing in , and drinking of them , the latter of which having not been much in use till within this two or three years , is not ( i conceive ) sufficiently made known to the world , wherefore that these soveraign waters which are so much approved of , by those many , that have made use of them , as having wrought so many and so admirable cures ; may lye no longer in obscurity ( in default of an abler pen ) i have in this small treatise adventur'd it my self , in which the reader cannot ( considerato authore ) reasonably expect , any other then plain ordinary english , the whole aim and scope being to report them to the world , and ( because of their singular virtues . ) to encourage the use of them . h. c. sun in bath , nov. . regi gregi victoria copia . the city of bath described . the city of bath is seated in the north north-east part of somersetshire , environ'd ( almost ) all ) round with pleasant and fruitful hills full of excellent springs of waters , in so much as 't is observed that on many of their sumits , there are rare christal waters , gushing out especially in one village adjoyning to the southwards of it , there are near fifty ( if not more ) habitations , where scarce one house makes use of that water that served another , each one enjoying a particular to its self . the valley in which it stands , in any place extends ( hardly ) it self to half a mile in bredth , in most places less ; it is very pleasant and fruitful , and therein hardly ever seen any pools , loughs , or meery places ; for as soon as any inundation is over , the waters totally drein away with it , which doubtless contributes much to the salubrity of the air. from two of these hills , the city ( by pipes of lead ) is not only plentifully served into the common conduits , but also not few of the private houses are supplyed with it within their own doors , such a convenience , and at such easie rates , that few places enjoy the like ; and this being carried through most streets , lanes , and by-wayes , is not only for within-door occasions , but in case of fire , is very ready to be made use of . the streets , most of the narrowest size , especially that near the center called cheap-street , the greatest eye-sore of its beauty and cumber to its accommodation , it is walled all round , with a time-defying stone , the buildings ( by strong supposition ) mounted much higher then in former ages ; for walking round the walls , it is perceivable , the city stands on a batch ( as we call it ) in a bottom , from fifteen to twenty foot higher then the surface without ; neither is it without suburbs , the fourth part supposed to be so , and all together , computed by some that pretend to have calculated its dimensions , takes not up much more then fifty acres , in such a narrow compass is this ancient , famous , little pretty city contained ; which being in such a bottom , hath such a variety of prospects , and landskips , that few places parallel it , whereas places scited on levels , seldom please the eye far , deprived by the interposition of the next pale , wall , or hedge , whereas , this raising it self higher then the adjoyning gardens and meadows , hath full and free passage , nor do the hills so strengthen the prospect , but that the eye may even surfeit its self with variety of objects ( in some places ) for at least three miles , at once beholding the meander-aven semi-circling the city , then the low meadows , in several small and great partitions , the pasture grounds above them , then the corn fields , so gradually ye come up to the downs , on which particularly launsdown is an excellent coarse of above two miles , at the end whereof may be seen the city of bristol , with the counties of somerset , wilts , glocester , worcester , hereford , and menmouth ; but this has made me endanger the out-running my intended discourse , seldom farther then the little city or its prospect , but this digression ( i suppose ) may not be much out of order , when the gallantry and youth of the nation , may be made acquainted , what recreation the vicinity of the place affords , especially when it is accompanied with hunting , setting , &c. the wall is in compass not a full english mile , and were the city not in such a bottom , and so over topped by neighbouring hills , by the opinion of col. b. ( once governor thereof ) and some others , that may understand fortifications ) might be made tenable , for indeed the whole , is but one entire rampart , a coffin fill'd with earth , on which the buildings are ; then the springs so near the superficies , that no approaches can be made but with great difficulty , there are large discourses already extant of several statues , figures , as gorgons serpents , &c. in it , in which i shall not meddle , but leave every man to his view , and belief , but certainly this , it is a noble ancient wall therein appearing many antiquities , as also four gates , having their several denominations from the four cardinal winds , which every night are order'd to be lock'd up , and a watch itinerant , sworn not to enter any house till four in the morn , which how duely observed , some of them who have been caught tardy , and put into wooden bastile , for their pains can satisfie you . the government is by a mayor , aldermen , and twenty councellors or citizens . the mayor and aldermen ( on solemn dayes ) are in scarlet , the number ( by charter ) may not exceed eleven , nor under five ; to these is added a recorder , who there with the mayor is justice of the peace and quorum , having the precedence of the two other justices ; also a town clark , who every leet-day ( twice in the year ) calls the court , and it is kept in his name , although mayor , aldermen , &c. present . and here ( i conceive it will not be improper , no sally from the purpose , to observe the care here taken for the poor , of which quality ( i suppose ) there are fewer then in any place ( for its bigness ) in the kingdom , the yearly rate for the three parishes , being under l. per ann . which to some strangers , hath , not being acquainted with the custom and method here taken ) seem'd wonderful , most people conjecturing the city to be poor , ( as indeed it cannot vaunt of many notoriously rich ) yet providence , with the beneficent munificence of some of our english monarques hath sufficiently provided for it , thereby they owing as little to their backs and bellies as any place i know of , yet no stupid gormandizers neither ; for such care is taken that the wealthier sort eat their own morsels , free from such importunate clamours and outcries as are too frequently seen in other places , that have a higher celebration for riches , this principally arising ( without doubt ) from magistratical care , at every quarter-sale day wherein the poorer sort are not only kindly used ( beyond comparison ) but are also so tyed up , that they cannot squander away their good bargains , but are reserved in case of necessity to their needy families . it is supplied and adorned for the service of god with three churches , dedicated to st. james , st. michael , and st. peter and paul , the later justly challenging to its self the preheminence , for lightsomness , stateliness , and elegance of structure , of all the parochial churches in the kingdom , the tower whereof is foot high , in the upper loft whereof , is a noble taunting , and musical ring of bells , whose loud peals have been distinctly heard five , six , nay sometimes seven miles distant . the tenor is called hopton ; mostly the gift of that honorable family , what wanted in their bounty , was supplyed by the city ; to this tower are four several stair-cases , at each distinct corner one . this stately pile was begun in henry the sevenths time by one oliver king , the then bishop of the diocess , but never ( by the iniquity of the times partly arising by the several changes ) could it arise to any perfection , till about the year . god raised up bishop montague , mr. thomas bellot , and other pious and generous benefactors , by whose great bounty and good example it now enjoys its present splendor and glory . in the body whereof one thing is most remarkable , that although it be of a vast dimension taking its height , bredth , and length , and lying uncovered for above years , the windows so large , the walls so thin , ( that i presume many mansion-houses equal it ) yet this noble pile , notwithstanding it hath no sloaping buttresses , on the outside to support and strengthen it , which the great churches usually have , shews no flaw , crack , not settling , but stands firm and entire , evidencing thereby , not only the profound skill of the architect , but the goodness of the stone , whose quality is , when taken up green out of the quarry , of such a softness , that a pen-knife ( comparatively ) may work it , without turning its edge , but when exposed to any building in the open air , nothing more lasting , nothing more permanent , for neither age nor time can deface it , witness the whole pile , which notwithstanding it hath stood near two centuries , yet to this day , remains as firm and beautiful as at first , near the midst whereof , under an arch to the northward , lyes interred the noble and charitable benefactor bishop montague , on whom his executors ( his brothers ) men of great honor and places , rear'd a stately monument , answerable to the dignity of that honourable and religious prelate , over against this noble monument , the city in testimony of the respects they owed to the then rector mr. john pelling erected another to him , this reverend divine , notwithstanding he had a numerous issue ; yet was so indefatigably zealous in forwarding the reparation of this fabrick , that when at any time ( and that was not seldom in that generous and benefactory age ) any persons of honour offer'd to him , as to his private , refused it with his , non mihi sed ecclesiae , which occasion'd that motto over his tomb , which self-denyal ( its possible ) the good god hath ( secondarily paid into his own bosom , by a blessing on his posterity , who ( some of them especially ) notwithstanding the few mites they had to begin the world , have now the value of talents in their possession ; but this i take notice of , only for the readers satisfaction , not for other ministers imitation . in the south-east isle , is a pretty , somewhat stately , and doubt less conceited monument , all of free-stone , having originally no inscription , as to time , person , or quality , therefore vulgarly called the speechless monument , but now not so , for although the tenant was ( possibly ) not willing to have any , yet the will of the dead , as to that particular is sufficiently broken , for on the ground are many stones , curiously and artificially joyned together , these make the resemblance of a copped chest , and is in length , bredth , and height , sufficient to receive an ordinary corps ; but it seems it was not the receptacle , if you believe the scribled inscription . fancy may think one hid within this tomb , but reason sayes his grave was mothers womb. another . nameless not fameless , here one lyes , believe not me , believe thine eyes . that was answered thus , nameless then fameless , for how can fame attend that man that wants a known-by name ? anonymus here might very well share fame with alexander , bating but his name . harry spicer like to caesar and 't had nt spread , but caesar's living , and harry spicer's dead . then name makes fame , and nothing else for fame 's no more in sense then a recorded name . but to prevent all future defacings by such scribling and scratching , one ( it seems ) had been so far acquainted with the name and quality of the there interred , that for these many years he hath silenc'd such enormities by this divulgation to the world. if any man my name and life enquire , lichfield my name , my life was musicks hire . near over against this monument is a neat little chappel , under an arch between the isle and the chancel , ( where formerly sate persons of the greater quality ) some of which ( i suppose ) though much of it is not so ; for curiosity in stonework , is hardly to be match'd in england , 〈…〉 the last prior here , and left his fancy here in this chappel , in the abby-house , and in many other places in the city , being a bird in a w. if any man my name and life enquire , lichfield my name , my life was musicks hire . but since i am on fancies , i must not leave this church without a recital of some others in the windows , numbred in all to . most given by strangers benefactors ( of which and all other charitable donations there is a vellum-record on purpose kept in the library ) the great window in the chancel ( where there is a greater in all dimensions i am yet to seek ) was totally the gift of that worthy forenamed gentleman mr. thomas bellot fancying his name , being party-colour'd quarrels of glass laid bellot-wise one over and cross the other . there are three others ( though of smaller value ) one given by mr. malet of enmore , with his coat of arms and motto , malet meliora . another by mr. biss of spargrove , with his coat and motto , bis fee lt sis foelix bis : the third a citizen of london who although ( peradventure ) he was not so accoutred from his ancestors ; yet his generous liberality was equal in the charge to the others ( unless the coat made a difference ) for a window he gave of the same magnitude , with his fancy of william plumby , here i was , this i did . i must not omit speaking somewhat of the revenue of this church , which indeed is but small , and that which is and hath been the gifts of protestant benefactors , among whom , dame elizabeth booth the ancestors of that noble and fully accomplish'd gentleman the lord de la ▪ mere , exceeded all the sons and daughters of our israel , by whose pious bounty ( with some additions the city made ) there is purchased in land , to the yearly value of near l. per annum , this seems but a small maintenance for so great a building , yet with this , and with what else doth arise by breaking ground for burial places , and for monuments , it is as well kept in repair as any church i know of . but before i leave this church , i shall leave with you these few observations ; first , that not any one ( that i know of ) not of the religion professed and establish'd , gave one peny towards its reparation ; next for the honour of our fathers , they were the repairers , and that in the last place we their survivours may not be branded of having so much faith , that we have lost all good works , continue the reparation , and that not niggardly neither ; of which those famous battlements and pinacles , almost round , gives sufficient and pregnant evidence . and now having done your devotions , it is time i lead you to the kings bath , where as soon as you come down the great stairs , you may behold the stone-pavement and battlements quite round it , the bounty of sir francis stonor of stonor ; and for that i have had some reflections on protestant benefactors on the church to give each perswasion its due , this gentleman was a romanist , may not this therefore argue for them , that although they may be no friends to the church , yet they may be to the state ▪ and now behold one of the greatest miracles in nature : the universe ( by travellers general report ) not affording the like , whose waters , ( granted by all hands to be as old as the creation , keeping constantly one quantity and quality in the greatest drought , not one drop less in appearance , nor in the greatest flouds or innundation any the more , experimentally made true by this unquestionable evidence , the waters filling it up to the usual height , which when the sluces are carefully and exactly stopped , whether summer or winter , drought or floud , makes not one minutes difference ; so that dame luna , that puling piss-kitchin planet with her ebbings and flowings , her nepes and spring-tides , hath no influence at all here , and no more then reason , for these waters all along have been and are * aquae solis , so sol is solely predominant here , and lord paramount , whereby we are assured they partake of no other accidental increase , by any spring or soaking to contaminate , defile or dis-vertue it , which the cold waters of tunbridge , epsom , barnet , &c. cannot appropriate to themselves , if general report be true , they increasing and decreasing , according to accident and season ; but of this no more till i come to hint , and but to hint of them in another place . now the quantity of these waters arising in the kings bath ( there are none in the queens although they are contiguous ) may ( as is supposed ) very well drive an over-shot mill , and the quality is as constant as the quantity , the springs at their ebullitions , as hot in december as in june , and therefore may ( with some more care for prevention of taking cold ) be with much efficacy used in all seasons of the year , which is very fit should be taken notice of , to remove a vulgar error , that these waters are never useful nor seasonable but in the summer . among the many springs in the kings bath , there is a principal one called the hot-spring , which is received by its self ( without communication into a lead cistern , and that so close , that it is impossible any drop of the other waters can intermingle , over this spring and cistern , is ( by the order and direction of an honorable and famous physitian , a pump erecting , so that the waters from its single effluence shall by three several conveyances , be distributed abroad in wonderful quantities , insomuch , that although the three pumps should be in perpetual agitation , yet this noble , and exuberant spring will remain inexhaustible , the vertues whereof fame ( warranted by experience ) hath justly trumpetted forth to the world , insomuch , that they are not only made use of in the bath , the several places of the city , and neighborhood , but also in bottles and runlets at bristol , glocester , worcester , nay , london it self . among many its vertues , i shall give you an accompt of but a few , take your proportion in the morn , whether two , three , or more quarts , as may be prescribed you , for four , five , or six hours after you have drank them , you have no thirst , whereas formerly , when they were not taken inwardly , the bathers were so greatly afflicted with it , that many times weak heads have been near an intoxication in only endeavouring by taking in other potable liquor ( moderately ) to quench it , and all the times these soveraign waters are in your body , although they may give you several stools , yet it is without any rumbling in your body , or laceration of your guts , having a gentle and painless operation , both by urine and siege ; the concomitant whereof is an excellent stomach , much better'd by walking and stirring your body after the drinking them , and still as your body empties , you may continue drinking more , the waters being so innocent , that it is seldom or never heard , any complaint that a great quantity injured any one , and now ( as i said before ) they are never out of season , for that stately new erected cross in the kings bath is a defence and shelter as well from winters blasts as summers sun , and there are many convenient rooms for drinking of , and bathing in them , which may invite those that have occasion to make use of them at any season , especially since i shall give them this assurance , that although there may be to winter-bathers more expence in fuel , yet to recompence that , their lodgings will be cheaper , and the inhabitants are observed to be as active in their attendance , and as ready to take your money , in hoary december , as in fragrant june . this being granted , i have often wonder'd so much people have neglected a suddain repair hither , but to the loss of many of their lives , limbs , or both ; have delayed so long , and tamper'd so much , by taking undue courses in other places , that many times , when they come hither , they are so far past all hopes , that nothing but a miracle can cure them , whereas seldom or never , any part hence ( that make early application ) without some comfort , if not perfect cure or recovery . i cannot play the emperick to tell you all the maladies , and diseases by potion and lotion they are effectually good for , only this ( to my own knowledge ) they are ( in some constitutions ) good against , and for avoiding the very stone , of which there are proofs sufficient , among the many this one , the dearest relation of the author of these papers , was extreamly tormented with it for some years , never could she find any ease or comfort by any skill or direction of the ablest physitian , till the great physitian was pleased to put it into her head to make use of the bath ; which in three or four times using , by bathing and drinking , divers stones came from her , and that only in the time of her bathing , and drinking , some whereof as big as olive-stones are yet in my custody , and from that time to her dying day , ( which was some years ) was never troubled with it afterwards . for other ordinary diseases , as palsie , dropsie , sciatica , rickets , and the like , the numberless number of crutches that have from time to time been left behind , is a sufficient testimony , some whereof yet hung up , remain as trophies of gods mercies in their several cures . and now in this place ( according to my promise ) and purpose ) i shall speak somewhat of the cold waters of tunbridge , epsom , &c. so much celebrated and drank of in and about london , wherein because i may be thought partial , i shall speak the less , in which let me desire an observation whether or no since the drinking those waters have been so much in use . the griping of the guts , a not only painful torturing , but mortal malady , hath not been more frequent now then in former times , it is easily found to be so by examination of the weekly bills , which plainly evidences , that of late more have been cast over the perch , by this doleful disease in one year , then ( giving allowance also for the growth of the city too proportionably ) in former ages in seven , and those that will not appropriate that single disease , besides some others that may be attributed to those waters , are in their understandings ( i humbly conceive ) blind or wilfully obstinate , indeed how can it be otherwise but those cold and crude springs , with their nauseous soakings ( so averse to our english , and all northern constitutions ) lying so long in the stomach , but must oppress , chill it , and destroy the appetite , especially since it is granted there is many times a mixture of rain waters , soaking through the several crannies of the earth into them , adding an increase by urine and ordure , humane and belluine , plentifully shed thereabouts ; so that the physick makes the excrement , and ( vicissim ) the excrement the physick , certainly it is so , those springs being observed to be far more fluent in wet and cold summers , then in the hot and dry , then if compounded rain-waters , and such soakings are of such vertues i suppose they may be had nearer home , but it can never win belief with me , that the drinking them is the sole reason and occasion of the great resort thither ; no , doubtless there is something else in it meetings ; which if so , they that go thither on that errand , do not amiss , let them enjoy and solace themselves there , no hurt , but when they are there , to drink the waters in such a prodigious manner and measure through wantonness , custom , or example , can by no man wishing well to the nation be approved of . but si populus vult perire , quis vetet ? sure this i am , that not above two or three years since , some sixteen miles distant from this city at a place called alford , there was such another spring found out , as i now am discoursing of ; never was there a greater resort to any place ( considering the small quantities of waters it produced ) then thither so much reputation it had gained that much people had the patience to stay their turns ( for gods mercies were much seen in that it was a ( pitifully ) barren spring ) till they could be supplyed from the well . this was then ( for that year only , for never before , nor never after , that i ever could here of ( it having ( paid the drinkers off , sufficiently ) was it made use of ) the english bethesda , but it was not the angel of the lord that stirred those waters , but an evil one ; found so , by the diseases and mortality that seized on abundance of people , in a very short time after they had drank them ; insomuch , that ever since there is a lord have mercy written on the door of him that made merchandize of them . hinc subitae mortes atque intestatus senectus . and now i have done with the cold waters , when i have given you a sight of a valedictory bequest which a ( waggishly ) witty gentleman ( who in the time of the late wars , was with others rinsing his hypochondriacks ) bestowed on epsom . may all carouses on this green be health and more to th' king and queen ; but the squirt , and scent in field and city an oblation to the close committee . to conclude , what i have said of the king and queens baths , i would be understood as to their vertues ( conjunctim aut divisim ) to be said of all . only this , the springs of the cross bath are not so hot as the kings , nor so fluent ; neither those in the hot bath , the distinction being given it , in reference ( only ) that it is hotter the adjoyning cross bath ; all which baths are so surrounded with such noble buildings for reception , that they appear ( in respect of other places so remote from the metropolis ) rather petty palaces , then common lodgings , summ'd up in a pair of heroicks by the author hereof near an age since , and may now with candour seem no vain glory , or impertinence , to be inserted here , since they no wayes hyperbolize the convenience , gallantry , nor vertues of the baths , nor city ; and being both made on accident not design , vindicates the honour of our english tongue , having fewer letters in our own then the latine , and yet as full significant and expressive as that . balnea lympha forum sic templum maenia rivus talia tam parva , nusquam sunt urbe reperta . baths , church , rock-water , river , hall wall-round , such in so little a city , no where found . go and wash in jordan seven times , and thy flesh shall come again to thee , and thou shalt be clean . are not abana and pharphar rivers of damascus , better then all the waters of israel ? then went he down , and dipped himself seven times in jordan . and his flesh came again , like unto the flesh of a little child , and he was clean , kings cap. the appendix , without which a pamphlet now a dayes , finds as as small acceptance as a comedy did formerly , at the fortune play-house , without a jig of andrew kein's into the bargain , therefore to temporize ( i pray take that word in the best sense ) i here present you with a legendary one , and for caution , would not have you tye your faith too much on it , although ( i assure you ) it is parti-par-pale , as our west-countrey house-wives orders their puddings , with vatt and lean , this my countrey-man ( to my knowledge ) dyed in east-india , on whom padree hatch bestowed this epitaph , here lyes tom coriat , odcombe's pride , who came to surat , and here he dy'd . this famous person was not only a well-wisher to the mathematicks , but also a great aristotelian peripatetick , and co-temporary with the great gamaliel signieur crusado of chu le grande , in or before travails , having read much of * jeoffrey monmouth , especially in that which had reference to what was concern'd in the great table hung up against the wall in the kings bath ; dedicating it to old jeoffreys ghost , he bolts out in this poetical rapture , — ludhudibras a meazel voule , did zend his zun a graezing , who vortuend hither vor to cum , and geed his pigs sum peazun ; poor bladud he was manger grown , his dad , which zum call vaether , zet bladud pig , and pig bladud , and zo they ved together then bladud did the pigs invect , who grunting ran away and vound whot waters prezently , which made um vresh and gay . bladud was not so grote a vool , but zeeing what pig nid doe , he beath'd and wash'd and rins'd and beath'd from noddle down to toe . bladud was now ( gramercy pig ) a delicate vine boy , so whome he trudges to his dad , to be his only joy. and then he bilt this gawdy town , and sheer'd his beard spade-wayes , which voke accounted then a grace , though not so , now a days . two thowsand and vive hundred years , and thirty vive to that , zince bladud's zwine did looze their greaze , which we moderns cal vat : about that time it was alzo , that ahob's zuns were hanged , and jezabel their mam ( curz'd deel ) caus'd naboth be stone-banged . chee cud zay more , but c ham a veard , voke will account this vable , o invidels if yee woon not me , yet chee pray believe the table . miscenter saeria nugis . notes, typically marginal, from the original text notes for div a -e * anciently the cities name . notes for div a -e * the single author that bladud found out these waters and bath the city . a true and exact account of sadlers well, or, the new mineral-waters lately found out at islington treating of its nature and virtues : together with an enumeration of the chiefest diseases which it is good for, and against which it may be used, and the manner and order of taking of it / published for publick good by t.g., doctor of physick. guidott, thomas, fl. . approx. kb of xml-encoded text transcribed from -bit group-iv tiff page images. text creation partnership, ann arbor, mi ; 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(eebo-tcp ; phase , no. a ) transcribed from: (early english books online ; image set ) images scanned from microfilm: (early english books, - ; : ) a true and exact account of sadlers well, or, the new mineral-waters lately found out at islington treating of its nature and virtues : together with an enumeration of the chiefest diseases which it is good for, and against which it may be used, and the manner and order of taking of it / published for publick good by t.g., doctor of physick. guidott, thomas, fl. . 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ascii text with mnemonic sdata character entities); displayable xml (tcp schema; characters represented either as utf- unicode or text strings within braces); or lossless xml (tei p , characters represented either as utf- unicode or tei g elements). keying and markup guidelines are available at the text creation partnership web site . eng mineral waters -- england -- islington (london, england) mineral waters -- therapeutic use. - tcp assigned for keying and markup - apex covantage keyed and coded from proquest page images - mona logarbo sampled and proofread - mona logarbo text and markup reviewed and edited - pfs batch review (qc) and xml conversion a true and exact account of sadlers well : or the new mineral-waters lately found out at islington ; treating of its nature and virtues . together with an enumeration of the chiefest diseases which it is good for , and against which it may be used , and the manner and order of taking of it . published for publick good by t. g. doctor of physick . london , printed for thomas malthus at the sun in the poultry ▪ ▪ an exact account of the new well lately found out at islington . the new well at islington is a certain spring in the middle of a garden , belonging to the musick house , built by mr. — sadler , on the north-side of the great cistern that receives the new river water near islington , the water whereof was before the reformation , very much famed for several extraordinary cures performed thereby , and was thereupon accounted sacred , and called holy-well . the priests belonging to the priory of clarken-well using to attend there , made the people believe that the vertues of the waters proceeded from the efficacy of their prayers . but upon the reformation the well was stopt up , upon a supposition that the frequenting it was altogether superstitious , and so by degrees it grew out of remembrance , and was wholly lost until found out , and the fame of it revived again by the following accident . mr. sadler being made surveyor of the high ways , and having good gravel in his own garden , employed two men to dig there , and when they had dug , pretty deep , one of them found his pickax strike upon some thing that was very hard ▪ whereupon he indeavoured to break it , but could not ; whereupon thinking with himself that it might peradventure be some treasure hid there , he uncovered it very carefully ▪ and found it to be a broad flat stone ; which having loosened and lifted up , he saw it was supported by four oaken posts , and had under it a large well of stone arched over , and curiously carved ; and having viewed it , he called his fellow labourer to see it likewise , and asked him whether they should fetch mr. sadler and shew it him ? who having no kindness for sadler said , no ; he should not know of it , but as they had found it , so they would stop it up again , and take no notice of it ; which he that found it consented to at first , but after a little time he found himself ( whether out of curiosity or for some other reason , i shall not determine ) strongly inclined to tell sadler of the well ; which he did one sabbath day in the evening . sadler upon this went down to see the well and observing the curiosity of the stone work , that was about it , and fancying within himself that it was a medicinal water , formerly had in great esteem , but by some accident or other lost , he took some of it in a bottle , and carryed it to an eminent physician , telling him how the well was found out , and desiring his judgment of the water ; who having tasted and tried it , told him it was very strong of a mineral taste , and advised him to brew some beer with it , and carry it to some persons , to whom he would recommend him ; which he did accordingly . and some of those who used to have it of him in bottles , found so much good by it , that they defired him to bring it in roundlets . which was done most part of the last winter , and continued to have so good an effect upon the persons that drank it , that at the beginning of this summer dr. morton advised several of his patients to drink the water . which has so good an effect upon them , and operates so near tunbridg water , that it has obtained a general approbation . and great numbers of those who used to go thither , drink it , there are few physicians in london , but have advised some or other of their patients to drink it ; by which means it is so frequented , that there are five or six hundred people there constantly every morning . the water has a kind of ferruginous taste , somewhat like tunbridge , but not altogether so strong of the steel . it is no way offensive or unpleasant ; so that a man may drink more of it than he can possibly drink of any other liquor . it is not yet certainly known what minerals it runneth through , but is supposed to partake of several , and to have more of a nitrous sulphur than those of tunbridg , for which reason it moves the person who drinks it to stool at the first taking , & leaves the body open & cool , which the other does not ; and where it meets with a very foul stomach , provokes to vomit . it appears to be good for the following distempers ▪ first it effectually opens all obstructions , both of the liver , spleen and gall , and that better than any other physick whatsoever ; for in regard obstructions are generally very stubborn , and require a long course of physick to remove them , which is both loathsome , and chargeable to the patient , 't is common for people to grow weary of it before the physician have half run through the course , which is necessary for the removing of them ; which is the chief reason that so many are troubled with chronical , and lingering diseases ▪ which are not incurable in their own nature , but made so , either by the patients not being able , or willing to undergo such a course of physick , as is requisite for his recovery , or else some defect in the physician . but these waters being less chargeable , and after a little use no way troublesome , but the longer they are used , the pleasanter , may be taken in a larger quantity than other physick , and by that means effectually cure the most obstinate obstructions , and all other distempers proceeding therefrom ; to wit , the dropsy , black and yellow jaundice , swelling of the spleen , scurvy , green sickness , and other distempers incident to the female sex. secondly ▪ it excellently purges and sweetens the blood , and scowrs and cleanses all the urinary passages , which makes it exceeding good for those troubled with gravel and stone , either in the kidneys , ureters , or bladder , which it sometimes brings away in great quantities ; and being somewhat of a restringent , and healing faculty , it 's very good for inward ulcers , and those that make bloody urine . thirdly , it 's good against all inveterate dysenteries , or bloody fluxes , and extinguishes all inward inflammations , and hot distempers . fourthly , it is extraordinary good for those who are troubled with hypochondriacal melancholy , and makes those who drink it brisk and cheerful . fifthly , it procures a good appetite , and makes those who drink it , extream hungry , so that they can hardly forbear eating till dinner . but that those persons who drink them , may not fail of the good they expect from them , they must take heed that they be very careful and regular when they take them , and especially to observe the following directions . go to them early in the morning ; for the sooner they are drank , the better they operate . beware of walking too fast , lest you overheat your self , and if ye find your self hot when you come there , take a turn or two in the garden , till you are a little cooler , and then drink two glasses , after which walk two or three times round the garden , then drink a glass or two ; walk again as formerly , and so continue till you have drank your dose . you may adventure to drink four or five glasses the first morning , and increase two every day , till you come to or , or more , if you find your body will bear it . eat nothing till about twelve or one a clock , and then eat freely of any fresh meat ; but roast mutton , or lamb is best . those who please may eat carraways while they drink the water , and drink a glass of rhenish , or white-wine after them : and it is very convenient for those who smoke tobacco , to take a pipe or two whilest their waters work . which directions being observed , you may assure your selves , by the blessing of god , to reap great advantage by the use of these waters , if ye continue to drink them for any considerable time . finis .