Quartan Ague and the Dropsie in both which the peculiar natural ferment of the blood is much vitiated in the first of which the blood losing its native balsamick sweetness becomes acid and pontick even in an high measure thence the great difficulty of its redintegration to its former eucrasia in the latter the blood becomes too much diluted drowning its rubicund balsamick tincture in a watery deluge having the latex regurgitated in too great a proportion into the vessels of the blood or other receptacles from an obstruction in the veins which should if well disposed separate from the blood an urinous latex and by other more abbreviate passages betwixt the stomach and it a great deal of the potulent parts taken in but being obstructed makes both regurgitate the one into the vessels of the blood thereby vitiating its ferment by too great a dilution which in the habit of the body causeth an Anasarcosis and the other in the cavities of the abdomen between the omentum and peritoncum swelling the belly causeth the Hydrops which with a flatus extending the membranous parts begets a Tympany 29. But if this spurious acidity reach the fourth digestion where the animal spirits are fabricated and there afflict the genus nervosum it causeth by vitiating the ferment scorbutick Palsies Apoplexies Spasms Convulsions and Cephalalgia's which prove inveterate and sometimes Epilepsies yet commonly this hostile acidity as solitary is not sufficient to beget these scorbutick Apoplexies Palsies and Epilepsies but also hath quid cadaverosum spirituale and therefore virosum some spirituous putrid and therefore poysonous matter to accompany it By which I mean such a portion of the nutritious juyce as not having received due fermentations in the several digestions but become more and more vitiated and putrid and being circulated from one digestion to another grows more putrid and penetrative and in continuance of time becomes so spirituous as to be able to insinuate into the more retired recesses of the vital principles for being by these rotations volatiz'd hath more easie ingress into the inward retirements of the vital and animal functions so that it becomes gradually exalted to a kind of virulency which joyning issue with this transmitted spurious acidity insidiantur vitae sits upon the skirts of life betrays it into the hands of these truculent Diseases Hence it is that the Palsie or Apoplexie prove suddainly mortal if not at the first yet commonly at the second or third paroxysm and from the same basis ariseth the causes of other kinds of suddain deaths for when this depraved circulated matter hath reached so far and be wheeled so often as to acquire a virulency or cadaverousness it then takes an occasion by the next exorbitancy of the digestions joyns hands with it and conspires the extinction of the vital flame 30. This fourth digestion as I conceive begins in the arteries and is complete in the nerves for when the alimentary juyce being dasht with blood in the vena cava receives a vital ferment in the heart and becomes elaborate in the tunicles thereof into a rubicund balsamick liquor which by the perspiration of the lungs in the bloods passage thorough the vena arteriosa and arteria venosa receives a volatizing ferment from the air conducing much to its circulation is thence by the systole of the left ventricle carryed into the aorta and other arteries where the blood begins to be further elaborated for the producing of spirits which may be subservient for the animal functions of sense and motion where from the continual elixation of the blood in these vessels it begins to sublime or distil into more pure refined spirits which pass directly into their proper Receivers or Conduits the Nerves to complete their digestion and absolve their function of sense and motion for as much as every Arterie hath a vein and a nerve annexed to it the one to carry away these volatile spirits the other to bring back the blood after it hath been exhausted of these spirits and spent its other balsamick parts in nutrition in the habit of the body to recive a fresh impregnation by the vital ferment in the heart again in its return out of the solid parts by capillary veins into larger vessels untill it come to the vena cava it meets with fresh nutritive juyce coming from the jugular and thoracical vessels which thence pass along together into the heart to become freshly replenisht with the vital balsam 31. So that these animal spirits are made in every part of the body while the arterial blood is fraught with a vital ferment out of which the Archeus by a further volatization hews forth these spirits here the hermetical adage is most true id quod inferius est sicut id quod superius vice versâ for the vital agents if not interrupted are alwaies and in every part at work nunquam feriatur uatura therefore sensation and motion are alwaies and in every part except some interrupting cause break the links of this noble chain 32. Now any disturbance in this digestion such as by a conflux of the foresaid spurious hostile acidity cadaverous virulency c. may confound and so blunder the texture of these spirits as thence all the various exorbitances and different anomalous products with all the heteroclite symptomes of the genus nervosum are reducible which I shall not now take the time further to illustrate But pass on 33. This exotick acidity coagulating the blood in the Matrix in women is the author of most of their uterine infirmities for in women who are not with child or give not suck if all be well with them the blood attempts to make a lunar evacuation which it doth by separating a portion thereof at the critical season into the vessels of the Womb which according to the intent of nature is for the nourishing of the Foetus after conception being a precursory provision for that end if no conception be as in Maids Widows c. then nature endevevours to separate and carry away that superfluous blood by vessels fitted for that purpose where it receives a fetid menstrual virulent ferment which gives the uncleaness not to say more to that evacuation 34. Now when the superfluous blood is proscribed into the remote vessels ready to be expel'd is there robb'd of the vital balsam its Crasis perverted and becomes infected with an acid virulent alumenish tincture Nam lintcum menstruo tinctum ut Helmontius loquitur si demergatur in aquam bullientem maculam contrahit inposterum indelibilem quae tertiâ saltem elotione excidit è linteo foraminato non secus ac si spiritu sulphuris acido aut tincturâ aluminosa corrosum foret which depraved virulent acidity is not transmitted from other digestions but is innate and connatural to the place like the stercorary ferment to the cacum and rectum of the Guts 35. If this virulent aerimony with which the separated menstrual blood is vitiated becomes
them They so much enfeebled him as that he lost the use of his limbs for a time after and almost weakened him to death The Medicines I ordered him were chiefly volatile Spirits viz. Spiritus Salis Armoniaci to smell at and Spiritus Sanguinis to take inwardly together with a Plaister of Mustard Seed and Vinegar anointed over with the Balsam of Antimony Amber Turpentine c. applyed to the shaved crown of his head The volatile Spirits had a very remarkable operation for so often as he held the bottle to his nostrils which he would do a long time together having an eager desire of receiving benefit by what was ordered him he could after a while feel it run sensibly down the vertcbrae of his back disperse it self into his loyns and upon those parts to bring a fine gentle warmth which before usually were very cold and then run down to his very feet also to run along his arms to his very fingers ends with a dindling and pricking as it run along but he had not this sense of this operation of the volatile Spirits he smelt to at the first till he had several times taken inwardly the Spiritus Sanguinis which usually brought him into a moist sweat thereby opening obstructions of the genus nervosum after the use of these for awhile he found a stiffness in the sinewy parts of his joynts then began the shaking and trembling of his joynts upon endevouring to stand or to go a little which before frequently troubled him to go away and that stiffness brought strength from the sinews into the musculous parts so that he could after the use of these awhile go a little alone upon the house-floor and begun to get the sense and use of his hands so that he can now not only serve himself but cut his own meat which he never could do before since the Distemper seiz'd upon him also can put on his own cloaths From all which duely weighed results these following considerations First hence appears the reason why Patients do not usually reap that expected benefit from volatile Spirits in these and such like Diseases for these Spirits whether inwardly or outwardly administred or both are neither palatable nor pleasant to the smell but being nimble and quick do ferire nares after a smart manner which many people too much indulging their sense and palat will not have the patience to undergoe but boggle and fly back at the first onset of such penetrative Medicines and consequently deny themselves the expected efficacy thereof Secondly That sense and motion are the products of life and not the life it self for this Patient sometimes lay void of any visible sense or motion and that once or twice after he came out of his Baths and yet life was present so that all vital functions whether fermentations heat motion sense c. performed by organical parts are but the sequels and posterior products of the anima sensitiva Thirdly That sense and motion are different modifications of the animal Spirits in the genus nervosum and membranous parts of the body For it is not enough that nervous vessels be replete with so many of the animal Spirits as to give motion to the muscles and those to the joynts I say to have such store of these Spirits in those vessels as to cause motion is not enough also to cause sense unless these Spirits retain their natural sting and acuteness by which they communicate that we call sense to all the membranous parts of the body as happened to this Patient and so vice versâ The Spirits may be acute enough and give their vibration to all the membranous parts so as to cause sense and yet the motion of those Spirits may be so intercepted and dull'd in the nervous vessels of some parts of the body as to cause a defect of motion in the same parts which happens in the generality of paralytick and apoplectick persons only with this difference that the virus cadaverosum viz. the putredinous anodynous circulated recrement which is with the explosive incoercible flatus thence arising the efficient cause of all the Diseases of the genus nervasum whether Palsies Apoplexies Epilepsies Convulsions c. The foresaid anodynous recrement is I say more or less according to whose graduated accumulation the Disease becomes more or less mortal For if this recrement be ultimately carryed and settled in the membranous parts of the body then becomes the sense deprav'd as happened in this Patient but if it seize upon the animal Spirits in their current glidings along their own vessels it becomes their remora mortifies them in some parts thence comes the depravation of motion and all symptomes accompanying the common sort of Palsies Apoplexies c. Fourthly Hence it also appears that the volatile Spirits in the blood are of the same family with those of the genus nervosum and membranous parts only in their own vessels they receive a more natural determination to their proper functions of sense and motion For unless the blood give being to the animal Spirits they are not and unless they were a kin to those saline Spirits in the blood the Patient could not upon the use thereof I mean of the volatile Spirits of blood have perceived his joynts to have become more stiff and strong than before Fifthly That there is a concatenation of the vessels of the genus nervosum and anastomosis of one into another through the texture of the whole body was apparent in that the Patient felt sensibly the volatile Spirits which he strongly smelt at to pass through the processes of the medulla spinalis down the vertebrae into his loyns and so down to his feet also along his arms to his hands and to his very fingers ends Whence also it is more than probable that the springy motion of the animal Spirits in the nervous kind have their original in the brain for as the heart is the spring of all the Arteries the liver of all the Veins so likewise the brain of all the Nerves Which yet doth not infringe our doctrine of the generation of the animal Spirits from the Spirits of the blood being the pure defecate essential parts thereof ingendred from all parts of the Arterial blood becomes exquisitely elaborated in their own vessels and at length receive a determination of motion in the brain Sixthly That the head is not the chief seat of the Palsie was evident in this Patient for all the senses of his head were untouch'd save a weakness as I said of his eyes so that the animal Spirits in what part soever of the body are the subject matter upon which the cadaverous recrement seizing gives being to the Diseases of the genus nervosum And that without respect to the head unless the same efficient cause be there and then indeed it gives original to the Epilepsie Catalepsie Convulsions c. of that part More observations I could make but am not willing to prosecute them to
Spasms c. all which depend upon the depravation of the spermatick juyce of the genus nervosum 15. But if it reach to or be depraved by the fifth or last digestion viz. the assimilative ferment of the solid parts of the body thence Abscessus Aposthumations Fistula's Ulcers Tumors Prurigoes c. all which depend upon the vitiating of the ultimate digestion in the habit of the body 16. I look upon the alimental juyce in its way to nutrition to undergoe many alterations from specifical ferments placed in different parts of the body to suffer many separations and to pass through many Colanders or Streiners where it is percolated and depurated each ferment after other while a symmetrie in the occonomy of parts inricheth it with new and more balsamick tinctures enlivens it with more elaborate spirituous particles adapted for the clarity of sensual functions as a more depurate diaphanous vehicle for the soul to act in 17. I say these Spirits which are almost the ultimate result of all the digestions have their constitution and daily supply from the succulent parts of the aliment which passeth various fermentations and are at last fabricated out of the purest parts thereof according therefore as the vigour of these ferments are and the depurations of the nutritive juyce more or less so are these Spirits in their Crasis more pure and serene or dull and opake whence the soul which sees and acts by these organical Spirits either becomes lightsome and cheerful in the outward fancy and portals of the external senses thence the sanguine and colerick complexion Or becomes dark dull and heavy and as it were incarcerated in the dungeons of the senses and sensual fancy the cloudiness of those Spirits darkens the soul and makes up the melancholy complexion which with a little variation makes the phlegmatick 18. I look upon the Spleen and the ferment thereof to contribute very much to the Crasis of these Spirits for if the ferment thereof be deprav'd so as a due separation of the blood is not made which yet ought to be and that which should be separated is yet retained thence obstructions in the very parenchym of that bowel a darkning and cloudiness of the Spirits a melancholy vaporous steam soyls the channels of the animal Spirits and obscures the function of those nimble agents inverts their order breaks their ranks and brings a sad catastrophe upon the animal powers 19. The soul while in the body hath these airy Spirits for its Vehicle having thereby an influence upon all and every part is not determined to any particular place neither in the glandula pinealis of the brain according to Des Cartes nor yet in the membranous tunicles of the stomach according to Helmont though I do not deny but in the one it may have its peculiar residing place for the regulating the culinary digestions and in the other its turret to take in the sensible impressions from outward objects to look about it through the casements of the senses yet is essentially in every part and where ever it finds any hostile enemy which impugneth the texture of those Spirits there the sensitive soul by which I mean the vital and animal Spirits which yet are but one and that the Vehicle of the immortal Soul acts ad nutum rallies up all its forces incounters the Disease and at length si vires ferent plucks out the morbid thorn and all is well again 20. So that all the digestions and ferments the separations and depurations thereunto belonging are but to prepare and so elaborate the nutritive juyce as thence a continual supply may come in for the preservation of these animal Spirits the Vehicle of the soul whose different Crases make different complexions and whose different alterations by various depravations of intermediate ferments cause no small off spring of Diseases 21. Now as the crudity of the alimental juyce first made so for want of a due fermentation in the stomach and passing on uncorrected from one digestion to another lays the foundation as I said of several Diseases so in like manner the over acidness or spurious ponticity of the stomachical ferment which is also a depravation of the ferment thereof gives begining to several other Diseases 22. For though the genuine ferment of the stomach be specifically acid and as such doth so temper dissolve and equally mix the meat and drink we take as to bring it to a chyliferous cremor and that as a necessary preparation to the succeeding digestions yet if it become too exorbitant even while in the stomach working up to the upper mouth thereof causeth Cardialgia's Heart-burnings and sowr belchings That a spurious acidity is the cause thereof appears by their Cure which is done by such things as have power to correct by diluting and sweetning such superfluous acidities viz. by any fixed salt of Vegetables or any concretes which contein a fixt Alkali in them as Crabs Eyes Corals Pearl c. 23. This spurious acidity transmitted into other digestions cause other Diseases extra suos lares saith Helmont in alienam messem transmissa evadit hostile venis arteris c. for if it be sent into the second digestion it causeth sometimes the Colick Gripings Iliack Passion with Spasms and Convulsive motions of the Guts and sometimes from an acid flatus or sowrish gas fretting upon the spermatick parts of the intestines causeth Gripings Disenteries which grating upon the tender tunicles thereof liquates the blood from them and the adjacent parts at every tormenting liquation puts nature upon the rack makes the tender parts confess their weakness to so powerful a fretting agent 24. Where by the way take notice that in a complete digestion of the stomach where there is no more than a proportionable acidity the cremor comes somewhat acidulate to the second digestion which by the ferment of those parts is transmuted into another taste viz. as Helmont saith it becomes of a saline taste I say though it come somewhat acidulate yet is conquerable by the ferment of the next digestion so that unless the acidity be beyond the natural proportion it causeth no alteration as to the foresaid Diseases 25. If this exorbitant acidity be carryed to the third digestion in the heart it becomes hostile to the arteries subverts the Crasis of the blood by altering the sweet balsamick soft natural temper thereof impressing an austere sowre property sometimes causeth Fevers but mostwhat lays the foundation of a depraved scorbutick ferment by perverting the sweet temperature of the blood inclining it to a sowr saltishness which precipitating the balsamick parts and giving fluidity to the saltish and sulphureous parts of the blood in the same sowrish property hinders the natural fermentation of the blood and in lieu thereof begets this scorbutick ferment 26. This pervertion of the genuine ferment of the blood proves a remora to its circulation making it at sometimes to restagnate in some of the arterial or venal chanels in
by a retrograde motion revulsed into the veins or arteries where the vivid balsamick blood circulates which is done sometimes by unseasonable cold contracted at the crisis of evacuation or by too much blood spent in venesection or by symptomatical enragements of that furibund animal the Matrix or by what other cause soever is I say the effectful cause of direful Diseases proper to that soft sex viz. Syncop's Palpitations Convulsions and horrible strangulations 36. For this exotick revuls'd virulency assaulting the blood and vital spirits therein begins to ferment strongly smites the heart or at least those balsamick spirits which received vitality from the heart thence immediately Swoonings whereby for a time happens a suspension of the vital offices the pulse ceaseth or is weak the spirits flag the circulation of the blood is torpid and all the vital powers shaken sometimes it strikes the heart with a palpitation or trembling viz. the vital spirits stand amazed as if imitten with a thunder-clap from the uterine toxicum also it afflicts with Convulsions making the animal spirits run counter whirling them in oblique gyres to the contortion of the musculous parts 37. And further by an influential manner it causeth terrible strangulations by suddainly stopping the pores of the Lungs and that too though the Lungs be never so sound whence all suspicion of any corrupt matter being there to cause the obstructions is taken away as also the same is evident in that after the cessation of the strangulating paroxysm many times no invisible evacuation follows and this it doth I say by contracting the pores of the Lungs whereby all respiration is intercepted and consequently no pulse nor circulation of blood during that time sometimes this acrimonious virulency hath access to the hypochonders and there especially when it is acuated and grows more virulent by circulation it causeth Frenzies and Madness which sort Mania's prove difficult to cure because they are not generally right understood what is the true effective or efficient cause 38. Thus in short of the cause of these terrifying Diseases of the female sex Now there are other more common but less if at all virulent Diseases which happen frequently to women from the redundancy of blood which not having been brought so far as to be proscribed into the vessels where usually it receives the foresaid menstrual virulency but is because superfluous ready to be transported into the common cloaca yet by obstructions in the Matrix is sent back into the mass of blood where it stuffs the vessels restagnates in some parts causeth swellings and coming too plentifully to the Heart so as not being sufficiently volatiz'd by the respiration of air stuffs the Lungs causing short-windedness heaviness of spirits which in young women causeth the Green-Sickness in others indigestion of stomach Pains Gripings Head-aches and other various symptomes all which are curable by removing the foresaid cause of obstructions by aperient Medicines together with the breathing of a vein which in these Diseases of an inferior order from the bare obstructions and recursions of blood as blood is not impertinent but of use which in the other case of the revulsion of the virulent menstrual ferment into the blood is dangerous but especially at that time when the critical evacuation happens for then it becomes one of the chief causes of the retrogradation thereof into the blood and of all the symptomes issuing thereupon 39. Lastly if an exotick acidity be transmitted from the other previous digestions into the fifth or last or become actually ingendred and fostered therein then it becomes the cause of many Diseases found in those parts for in the ultimate digestion all assimilation of the nutritive juyce is made so that every part according to the innate ferment thereof turns the one similar aliment into its own likeness whence then utrition of all though different parts from one and the same nourishment 40. But if this ferment of any part become alienated from an inbred or transmitted acidity or sowrish saltness it forthwith depraves the nourishment thereof and causeth Aposthumations Fistula's Ulcers Tumors the Evil Tetters Inflammations c. and sometimes rouseth up the paroxysms of the Gout or Sciatica for we see that in Fistula's Ulcers or any other running Sores if the Patient prove exorbitant in his Diet either in eating saltish meats or drinking too much strong drink or to petulant in venereal exercises is easily discernable by the flux of the wound which argues that the almentary juyce made from the food taken in retains some footsteps of its primitive nature which it carries through all the digestions and therewith vitiates the very last and according to the degree of the depravation of the ferment and rawness of the nutritive juyce the different sorts of Ulcers c. proceed 41. That the paroxysm of the Gout may be roused up from the exorbitancy of a spurious acid ferment in the ultimate digestion is not uneasie to apprehend if we consider how some sorts of French Wines Goose salt Meats c. easily excite a fit of the Gout to those who are inclinable thereto which they do either by retaining a specifical ferment through all the digestions untill they come to the synovia of the Joynts and there display their hostileness to the parts by proritating the Gout or rather they vitiate the alimentary Juyce provoke a spurious ferment in the Stomack incense the Archeus at whose beck all the digestions and ferments are subservient who presently impresseth a fermental acidity upon tender synovia of the joynts thence the Gout and all its attendants begin to keep court 42. Now the Gout is a seminal or Ideal Disease inserted into the very initials of life and therefore hereditary which can lie long rooted in the very vital principles ere it make it's first assault and between one fit and another is as really present in its morbid character as when cloathed with all its symptomes only wants an acid ferment and a beck of the Archeus to transmit it into the proper Matrix which it no sooner hath but is podagra omnibus numeris absoluta a complete Gout 43. But an objection meets me which is this viz. That seeing this spurious acidity in the alimentary juyce as it passeth along from one digestion to another becomes the material cause of so many Diseases how comes it that the Diseases it causeth are not terminated in the first second or third digestion seeing that in those places by its action on the ferments and their reaction upon it oftentimes it loseth its acrimony and assumes some other property which it carries into the subsequent digestions and consequently if it be carryed into the last digestion to make Diseases there it must first in its passage through the primary digestions cause Diseases belonging to those parts whereas experience evinceth the contrary 44. To which I return first by saying That all acidities in subsequent digestions of the chyliferous juyce are not always transmitted
offers it self How comes it That when we drink plentifully of strong Drink we become stupid and inebriate therewith is it not from the vapours of the strong Drink ascending into the head that makes a man drunk The Answer is no. For strong Drink is no sooner taken if in an excessive quantity but the subtle inebriating Sulphur thereof begins to act upon the Spirits whether animal or vital communicable with the brain by the nerves of the sixth conjugation and every where at work in all parts of the body so that there is neither need of ascending nor descending the Spirits which are overcome by the toxicum of strong Drink are every where present and as easily oppress'd in the stomack by the inebriating Sulphur of vinous Spirits as in any place 25. But before I go from the figment of a Catarrh I shall give you some account how I apprehend that defluxion of Rheume to happen which I have denied to proceed from vapours ascending from the stomack It is therefore a spurious depravation of the Latex which runs along with the blood and is every where while in the channels of the veins and arteries one with it under a ruby colour but upon any injury inflicted upon any part is almost at hand at the beck of the Archens ready to be separated from its boon companion the blood and to assist towards a washing of that stain impress'd upon the weakned part 26. So that if any injury of Cold become as a Thorn to prick or offend any part which is the same as is meant by taking of Cold presently the Latex which upon all such occasions is ready at hand is commanded away to bring what speedy help may be to the injured part but not being able to perform that work by reason of the prevalency of the thorny impression if I may so call it becomes rather tainted thereby receiving an exotick ferment from the injured part becomes thereby the Patron of all those exorbitant defluxions which are accompanied with pains inflammations or the like This falling upon the Larynx already alienated from an injury of Cold is sometimes turned into a copious mucous matter frequently expell'd by a Coughing 27. But if the Larynx happen to be debilitated through a continual defluxion thereof then it falls upon the Lungs where it perverts the alimentary juyce of that part turns it into a putrelaginous corrupt matter which as worm'd up by the force of a Cough still increaseth as fast so as at length fretting upon the spungy substance of the Lungs wears them away hence Ulcers of the Lungs Tabes or Consumption 28. If the Ossa Ithmoeida in the Nostrils be the parts affected from an injury of the cold Air or smoke of Coals or other bad offensive fumes thence a Coryza viz. a Disease we should all be troubled with in case that vapours actually ascended from the stomack to the head If the eyes be the parts offended thence an Ophthalmia viz. a defluxion of Rheums with an accompanied inflammation If the teeth or nervous parts therein be offended and that from the injury of the Air reaching thither through the hollowness thereof thence an Odontalgia viz. Tooth-ach with a defluxion of Rheum or portion of Latex showring down that way 29. Besides the exotick quality the Latex gets from injured parts to which it is carried by the next adjacent glandules to wash away the things offending or the impression it hath left behind as if a Mote injure the Eye a great quantity of Latex will presently flow to it to wash it out and that too from the soundest of bodies The like happens if any volatile acrimonious Spirits as of vinous Sal armoniack or Harts-horn smite the Nostrils presently an insipid Latex runs to the affected part and makes the Nose run The like also if any unwonted taste offend the Palate what a spitting doth it cause which is nothing but an insipid Latex which hasts away to wash off the impression the offensive thing hath left so a thorn pricking any fleshy part presently the adjacent Latex is sent away which endeavouring to wash off the impression the Thorn hath left but cannot thence upon a further conflux of more Latex comes a tumour and a pulse a pain and inflammation c. which being vitiated by the perverted ferment of the part turns sometimes to an Ulcer 30. I say besides the hurtful quality the Latex gets from the injured parts it also sometimes becomes depraved and badly qualified from some inbred cause even in the very vessels of the blood or in the lympheducts often tinctured with an hostile sharp pontick saltish acrimony which upon that very account is often proscribed from the oeconomy of life into some external parts quibus poenas luit whom it punisheth with its own crime tainting them with that they knew not before If this by the motion of nature be thrown upon any part it actually weakens it by impressing its own character thereon Hinc tincturae ac impressiones venenosae in vitam durabiles if it be thrown upon the Lungs it certainly causeth a phthisis Tabes or Consumption wears away the life insensibly 31. If upon the menninges of the brain hence inveterate and most obstinate head-aches not bending unless to the best of Arcana's If upon the Eyes it causeth Opthalmia's of most difficult cure If upon the Gums it ulcerates them loosening the Teeth together with intolerable pains If upon the Palate it ulcerates and mortifies them and in the French Disease it is that spurious Latex which retains the venomous properties for wherever it settles it ulcerates when tainted with the venom of that Disease It is also the author of Scorbutick and other cacoethical Ulcers 32. The waters of the Spaw may I confess at the long run and with continual use for a competent time help to dint the acrimony of this spurious Latex if it be not too much graduated nor hath not too immoderately weakned the parts for then nothing short of noble Chymical Arcana's that are enriched with a penetrative and restorative Balsom will effect the cure such as are the Spirit of Salt of Tartar the prepared Sulphur of Vitriol the tinctura lilii c. 33. Now as the forenamed Diseases are not curable by the Spaw so neither are Fevers especially continued for a Fever is a spurious fermentation of the blood from a depravation of the Elementary juyce coming too crudely into the third digestion where it should be elaborated into vital blood but by reason of its rawness or other alienated properties it perverts the natural ferment of the heart causeth a preternatural working and boyling in the blood by reason of plenty of Heterogeneities that are heapt up with the nutritive juyce 34. Now whatever hinders the natural fermentation of the blood from purifying it self by separation of Heterogeneities that I say rather aggrayates than abates a Fever but such is the coldness of the water Cold being the great enemy to the ferments of
purifying Medicines answer that which some ingenuous Wine-Coopers perform by putting some peculiar thing into the Wines which will leasurely put a stop to the overworking of the Wines but the skill of such persons is shewed herein that what they put into the Wines doth so specifically if I may call it stay the overworking of the Wines as that no prejudice succeeds upon the radical principles thereof so as they are not liable thereby to decay or degenerate so likewise by the skill of the Physitian such noble Arcana's whether Specificks or such as are more universal in their depurating operation are to be administred as may not only leasurely put a stop to the overfermenting of the blood but restore it to its equal temperature and proportional poysure of principles thereby renewing its eucrasia and fortifying the balsam of life But frequent Phlebotomizing doth rob the blood of a great share of those remaining volatile balsamick Spirits and therefore not proper for the restoration of its eucrasia 42. Hence those that recover under their hands do it with much lingering and tediousness because of the great enfeebling of their Spirits by loss of blood the very Weapon in the hand of Nature to manage its encounters with Diseases which is strangely snatched out of its hands by many of its pretended Friends the Physitians who without pity see her bleeding upon the spot and cry out yet with flinty hearts Blood blood yet more blood Nay after a ternary of bleedings and as often vomitings and purgings in an obstinate Fever which would neither bend to this severe method nor the life make its exit thereby One able Physitian being asked What he would now do after all this To which he ingenuously answered That unless he run the same round again he was at a stand what to do further The Querying person returned That he did believe if he run but the same round over again from the beginning to the end the Patient would by that time be perfectly cured of all Diseases 43. I grant That the single breathing of a vein or artery or a moderate Phlebotomy may and doth sometimes help in a Fever where nothing of Malignity is suspected and that chiefly upon the account of the ventilation of the blood by which I mean a setting at liberty that incoercible flatus which is the product of the febrile fermentation in the vessels of the blood for this uncoagulable Spirit or wild Gas which alwayes results and is the sequel of a spurious fermentation if it be not dinted or let forth either by breathing a vein or by Diaphoreticks which opening the pores let it go at so many minute portals then it runs too and again in the vessels of the blood and causeth erratick pains restlessness and unquietness of Spirits 44. Therefore we find upon the ventilation of the blood by a moderate Phlebotomy that pains are abated whether pluretick or others which the Galenists observing take encouragement of arguing à minori ad majorem viz. That if a little blood taking away give some ease of pains then surely the taking away of a great deal must give more ease and so if they would yet hold on their argument the taking away of all the blood will give perfect ease not only from pains but from all diseases Would they go no further than to argumentation the Patient might very well bear with them but they come to put this into action they bleed once it s very well I wish they would second it with a Specifick they stay not here but go to it a second and a third time to the great loss of Spirits and enfeebling of the Patient and oftentimes the disease as much if not more to cure than ever and the Patient left less capable of it 45. I confess I never order Phlebotomy oftner than once in a Fever and that too with reluctancy bemoaning my self That I have not yet attained to a Medicine that will answer all Indications thereof for it is only our poverty of noble Arcana's which makes us stoop to so low and trite a method and yet I may be bold to affirm That I have been instrumental to cure Fevers of that nature where the Galenists suppose most necessity of Blood-letting even Plurisies by Specificks without Phlebotomy Nay further I have been with some Patients who in Pluresies have undergone a Galenical method of twice blooding c. ready for the third time and the Fever yet as high as at first whom after all this I have by the blessing of God cured with a diaphoretick Specifick once or twice repeated and sometimes one single Dose thereof hath so abated the pains and allayed the feverishness as that very little more hath been requisite to the cure Demptâ spinâ pleurae infixâ per diaphoreticum cessat ipsa pleuresis 46. As for the third and last Indication viz. the fortification of the digestions and vital Spirits Phlebotomy doth diametrically oppose and that because it robs the blood of part of its treasure surreptitiously stealing away its balsam and therefore as I said actually debilitates the vital Spirits making them loure their Topsails upon a fresh incounter of the Disease so that though seemingly the Disease may not assault so strongly as before it is not altogether through the abating the former force of the Disease as it is from the weakening of the vital powers who are not able to make as forcible an attempt to expel the malady as before and therfore flags before its enemy 47. As in acute so in Chronical Diseases the frequent use of Plebotomy is not commendable nor proper and that because in long Diseases the digestions being deprav'd the blood whose eucrasia depends upon the vigor thereof becomes degenerated from its sweet balsamick rubie essence into an austere sharp pontick or saltish liquor which growing old for want of due fermentation and circulation restagnates in the vessels makes hetrogeneous coagulations whence Pains Tumors Ulcers inward and outward the common product of Chronical Diseases 48. So that what remains to be done in these chronick Diseases is rather to super-induce a new reviving ferment into these old decayed wines the blood that thereby new volatile Spirits might be ingendred and the sweet balsamick essence be restored then yet further to weaken by Phlebotomy the sinking vital Spirits which if they could speak it would be Vox querebunda manibus quorundum Medicorum tyrannicis gemens Hinc lachrymae viz. Faint cold sweats into which agony poor languishing Nature is often thrown having both its strength first weakned by the continuance and prevalency of powerful Diseases and at last by the hand of its Physician who should if rightly so be its helper to have its little stock of vital balsamick Spirits wasted by a palpable weakner Phlebotomy 49. Amongst the most obvious symptomes and to the Patient most urging is that of thirst which because it is not natural the more they drink the more they would This according
Spirit of Urine Alkalies mille pedes aliaeque insectae quae abster gunt secundam digestionem 16. Now come we to Hypocondriack Melancholy A Disease when deeply seated puzzles the Spaws and the best method of usual Medicines The place of its nativity is probably the Spleen whose ferment if vigorous is not only to make a separation of some impurities of the blood not separable by any other part but also as a specifical ferment to add some new and noble qualities to the blood making it more pure and spiritous by separating the feculencies thereof promoting the clarity of the Regimen of the animal Spirits that Looking-glass of the Soul which if pure and polite gives pleasure and solace to the Soul in the Body causing generous reflections and shaping perspicacious Idea's helping acuteness of fancy solidity of judgement and tenaciousness of memory 17. Whereas if the fermental elaboration of the blood in the Spleen be deficient and thereby the sordes become unseparated thence a steam ariseth which soyls the vessels and muds the animal Spirits darkens the imaginative part and with a melancholy vapour clouds the fancy Hence all the irregularities and disturbed fancies of Hypochondriack Melancholy 18. The Spleen and the regiment thereof is Vulcan's Shop where the materials lie for forging of all Idea's if the materials be good and artificially handled a sound structure of fancy may well be raised but if a wrong cast happen either through the indisposition of the materials I mean the blood or through the error of the work-man I mean the ferment the structure will prove accordingly viz. the fancy will be inverted and the Idea's thereof become preposterous 19. Now the meat and drink we commonly take together with the exorbitancies thereof have no small influence upon the Spleen and its oeconomy and consequently upon the animal Spirits and the Soul Corpus onustum Hesternis vitiis animum quoque praegravat unâ Atque affigit humo Divinae particulam aurae For if a good orderly Diet be observed of wholesome food with much temperance and moderation Chronical Diseases cannot have power to exercise that tyranny they usually do nor can the irregularities of the digestions prove so irreducible as they do by excess of living in as much as all the digestions take their nutritive juyce in order one from another so as if the first prove a glutton overcharging its ferment the rest share with the excess and communicate it one to another till it hath gone the round and in the conclusion reach those Spirits whose fine texture makes them nearer the Soul by which it also becomes affected 20. The Spaw hath power to help the carrying of the dreggy parts left after the digestion of the stomach is over and thereby helps the refining of the vessels so as the nutritive juyce may not come replete with crudities to the other subsequent digestions and so subducts from the Disease by hindring the affluent cause for so far as the virtue of the Essurine Salt in the water can reach especially in the common passages towards the bladder it doth pretty well cleanse and therefore proves effectual in those Diseases native to those parts but doth scarce throughly penetrate those more abstruse recesses where the main concerns of animal Spirits and the forging of Idea's are transacted This is left for the other more penetrating Medicines to perform which perhaps one with the other may the better complete the Cure 21. The Medicaments of use in this case are such as are abstersive of a penetrating nature oppose a flatus by allaying the spurious fermentation and can dulcifie the blood and humours by all which composing the Spirits and settling every thing in order of which sort are a Tartarum vitriolatum not such a one as is vulgarly made in the Shops with Oyl of Vitriol but with the Essurine Salt of Vitriol that hath not undergone any force of fire readily dissolvable in any Vehicle which the other will not The Essential Salt of Tartar the Sal Chalybis the Spirit of Salt of Tartar the Spiritus Veneris Coral and Crabs-Eyes and probably above all the Aurum Horizontale or fixt Mercury which being a Panacea answers all Indications 22. Now come we to discourse of Womens Diseases and of the virtue of the Spaw in the Cure thereof whose Diseases proceed chiefly from obstructions in the Matrix whereby the redundant blood flows back or from a debilitude of the Womb whereby the blood becomes dreyn'd away in too great quantities whence Lypothymia's Faintings and Swoonings c. 23. As to the obstructions of the superfluous blood which should be carryed away by the vessels of the Matrix in form of the Menses We must know therefore that the Menstrua are a certain portion or efflorescence of the blood granted by God in nature for proper ends viz. both for yielding matter and corporeal bulk to the foetus or embryo in the Womb as also for nourishment of the same until it come to the birth It is I say a certain portion of the blood remaining after a full refection of the body ingendred within a Lunar Moneth and sequestred from the rest of the mass to the foresaid end this matter destined to the generation and nutrition of the foetus long foreseen of Nature which never acts in vain quoad intentionem in the female is the main drift and aim of the Menstrues 24. The manner of their generation is thus viz. The blood in the intermitting time encreaseth in its bulk in the Veins and Arteries so that one part thereof being supposed to supply the deficiency of what is daily spent by transpiration the superfluous part increaseth the mass of blood and at length stretcheth the containing vessels with its plenty whence a tungescence and plethory of the vessels 25. Then Nature not unmindful of its office endeavours at the next critical Lunar season to employ a little the turgid vessels by certain passages and Anastomoses from the vessels they run in before into the secundines or chanels of the Matrix This nisus or endevour is done two wayes viz. both by an apertion of the Anastomosis from some vessels into others as also by an innate contraction of the fibres of the sanguinary vessels by which they endevour to free themselves annuente natura from the oppressing Plethora for there is a certain contraction or compression proper to the Veins and Arteries by which the circulation of the blood and nutrition of the solid parts succeeds the better so that those vessels have a kind of connate Systole by which they compress themselves and after their wonted manner become free from the stifling plenty of blood 26. That there is a Turgescence of the vessels about the time design'd by Nature for the critical evacuation is manifest in Virgins Widows c. to whom such a compression of the veins and such an apertion of the Anastomoses of the vessels are at the critical menstrual season denyed oculare praebent
Earth up to the Clouds and from thence down again to the Earth but that the moysture in the Air should be reputed Air transmuted into Water viz That which falls upon stone-walls in moyst seasons is so absurd as it 's enough to confute it to name it So that we may conclude that the moysture in the Air which settles it self upon the Walls and floors of Stone-buildings neither is nor ever was Air and that the transmutability of Air into Water in the bowels of the Earth is impossible and lastly that Springs viz. the fontes perennes have not their Original from Rain and Snow 36. Thus I have run through the most considerable things which the Doctor offers in order to the confirming his opinion of Rain and Snow Water to be the Original of Quick-springs and all along I think have probably if not demonstratively overturn'd his Opinion together with the grounds arguments and reasons thereof I might I confess multiply more words in prosecuting at large his whole discourse but studying brevity I have couch'd all he hath to say that is any way pertinent to his purpose saving the story he relates out of Dr. Heylin concerning the Island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea which without reflection on that worthy Author who as well as other Historians may probably take many things upon trust which I say as to the verity of matter of fact I should very much scruple viz. That a drought should continue so long as thirty six years so as all the Springs Torrents or Rivers were dried up and that in the dayes of Constantine the Great It 's very probable he had it by Tradition which many times to wing Fame makes large plumes That an Island so near the Mediterranean Sea should want rain for 36 years together would certainly put an ordinary credulity upon the Tenter-hooks and stretch a Thomas beyond his ordinary pitch for of all places Islands are the most frequented with Showers And that it should be done designedly by God upon a miraculous divine account I do not well understand because that has its ends and aims for the punishing the Natives where judgements are brought forth which done they frequently cease but here according to the story they were forc'd to forsake the Island and to seek for new habitations so that probably it may pass for a drought in Utopia 37. And lastly the two Rarities he mentions that are to be found upon the Castle-Hill in Scarborough viz. the deep Well which reacheth to the bottom of the rock which hath no water and the spring-Well which is within half a yard of the edge of the rock towards the Sea which never wants water which he saith doth somewhat illustrate the point in hand The first of which seems to me onely to be a Well digg'd within whose compass no Chanels have happened and therefore it is dry for so narrow a compass as a Well is may sometimes happen to miss of subterraneal Chanels And as for the other which is so neer the edge of the Rock towards the Sea which never wants Water I look upon it as supply'd from the same cause that other digg'd restagnant Wells are viz. from Land-springs which are feed from Rain or Snow-Water which yet makes nothing in reality towards the confirming his Thesis for it is no current Spring to the best of my remembrance which yet suppose it were it will not be uneasy to conceive the manner and way of its supply when I have propounded what I have to say in order to the establishing a new Thesis which will be positive to the point in hand 38. And that is as I hinted before from a circulation of Water in the Terraqueous Globe by the mediation of Subterraneal Channels along the Sabulum bulliens from Sea to Sea yea and from the Sea to the Heads of Springs and from them into Rivulets and those into Rivers and thence into the Ocean and so circulates round which also includes an other circle of Rain and Snow which first arising by exhalation from the Sea and Earth is carryed down again upon the Earth and Sea joyning Issue with rivulets from Springs swell Rivers which again discharge themselves into the Sea 39. So that a Circulation of water is as justly requisite according to the order and appointment of the primitive Cause for the upholding the Symmetry of parts and intirenes of the whole terraqueous Globe as the Cirulation of blood is necessary for the preservation of life and vital functions in the Microcosme or body of man The earth can no more produce Vegetables or Minerals without this connatural circulation of water replenish'd with Celestial influences than the blood in the body of man can produce Vital or Animal Spirits requisite for absolving the functions of life without its inbred circulation which concatenation of parts in the circulation thereof gave cause to some Philosophers of old to call the world a great Animal either because that animarum omnia plena viz. that the Seeds of all things are at hand and at the beck of the primitive Fiat alwayes at work or because of the great Symmetry of parts or coordinate circulations of the constituent Particles of the World whose proportions were so exact and actions upon each other in the circle of nature so uniform as if actuated by some Panspermion or universal operative Spirit Spiritus intus alit totumque infusa per orbem mens agitat molem 40. Not to say how Analogous the Sea and Hydrophylacia those great Cisterns of Water and Springs of the Deep that in Noah's Food joyn'd Issue with the Cataracts of Haven for drowning the World are to the heart of the Microcosme nor how Analogous the Channels of the Quellem or Sabulum bulliens which cary the Waters into the uttermost circle of the Earth for the supply of Mineral Glebes Minerals themselves and Vegetables upon the Green Carpet thereof are to the Arteries in the body of man by which the blood circulates from the Heart for the nourishment of the whole nor yet to determine the analogy of these circulating Waters further drawn up by Solar exhalations which clime up the slender Threds of Aereal Syphons into the Capitol of the Air to be impregnate there with Coelestial influences or Animal spirits if I may so call them which cohobated upon their own body promote vegetation yea and animation too by becoming that cibus occultus in aere of which the Cosmopolite and other Hermetical Philosophers discourse at large I say not to determine the Analogy of these Waters replenish'd in their circuit with Heavenly influences with those Animal spirits in the little World Man which in the Head receive a determination for obsolving the functions of sense and motion 41. Nor lastly to determine thoroughly the Analogy of water whilst circulating in the bowels of the Earth along the Channels of the Sabulum to the blood whilst circulating in the Veins and Arâ—â—ries of the humane body though
irrational as the former for to call the decoctions of these Diaphoreticks forenamed drying decoctions implies no less than a palpable contradiction for the operation of these Diaphoreticks are drying only à posteriori by carrying through the pores of the body by insensible transpiration or sweat that superfluous latex which cumbers the blood and not that they actually dry by a positive quality 15. But that I may give you one sleight hint concerning the manner of the operation of Iron in the Cures of the formerly named Diseases and that without taking cognizance of any drying or stiptick qualities it is thus First we must presuppose there are several digestive ferments in the body which if regular and uninterupted in their functions are the Authors of transmuting edible food from one manner of juyce or liquor into another until it terminate in nutrition coming for a supply of the continual wasting and transpiring spirits which so long keeps an occonomy and harmony of parts subservient to the health and vivacity of the body 16. If these digestions by any occasional cause of inordinacy of living perturbations or passions of the mind ex in equale partium robore ab origine nato or any other essential or accidental cause of Diseases become irregular degenerating from their primitive intentions perverting their original juyces thence a spurious acidity becomes exorbitant although a chiliferous acid ferment is peculiar to that digestion of the stomach extra lares suos fertur in alienam mensem reliquarum digestionum fluctuates in the vessels being too much heightened or decocted in the stomach it self causing Heart-burnings Pains and Gripings and sometimes Vomiting descending into the intestines causeth the Collick and Illiack Passion this getting into the veins and arteries becomes the intrinsick Minera of Feavers mortis inopinati 17. The same vitiating the spirituous Liquor of the genus nervosum gives the seminary of Apoplexies Palsies Spasmes and Convulsions also coagulating it self upon the bowels causeth obstructions thence oedematous and scirrhous tumours of the Spleen or Liver and lays the ground-work for Aposthumations in other parts the same acting diversly upon different parts vitiates their spermatick elementary Liquor distends the fibres of the parts beyond their natural tone perverting their peristaltick motion whereby the superfluous watry parts should be percolated from the Blood by Urine Sweat and insensible transpiration which distention and sometimes flagging of the fibres having original often from the same dilutes the Blood by retaining what should be separated thence whence come Dropsies 18. The same spurious acidity or Salresolutum vitiating several digestions defedates the Blood and floteing in divers parts too and again gives the beginings to the Scurvy causeth also obstruction of the Menses and having vitiated the most of the digestions produce a Cachexia or a totally corrupted and vitiated habit of body concerning which the noble Helmont saith Cujus viz. salis excrementii sive uterus hepar lien renes panchreas mesenterium vel stomachus fodina sit ingentes parere laborantibus molestias Which premiz'd 19. We say that Steel sometimes given in filings or in the form of Crocus Martis may precipitate and coagulate this Tartarum resolutum or Sal excrementitium I mean this spurious acidity that had fastened it self in the bowels of the Spleen and Liver altering the tone of the Fibres diluting the Blood letting forth the potulent part of the Blood not by the natural way of Urine Sweat and Transpiration but either by an unnatural back-door thrusting it between the Peritonium and Omentum whereby restagnating in the Abdomen swels the belly of hydropical Persons or running along the Vessels with the Blood into the habit of the body amongst the small capillary Veins which are subservient for the last digestion viz. Nutrition or Assimilation restagnates there being carryed in greater Vessels swels the legs but being amongst the lesser cause that sort of Dropsie we call Ascites 20. I say the manner of operation of Steel whether filings Crocus or Sugar of Steel is by coagulating this excrementitious Salt which because acid is therefore partly Mineral for as soon as Steel aforesaid enters the stomach and so passeth from the first to the second digestion in the intestines as it passeth along the spurious Salt runs head-long towards it to dissolve it but instead thereof is coagulated thereon spending its activity upon the Steel loseth its accuteness or sting and so is carryed away with the Steel by Stool hence the excrements of those that have taken Chalibeat Medicines are black and that for no other reason but that the corrosive fretting Spirits and spurious acid juyces of the body those grand authors of pains and torments are precipitated upon the Chalibeate body which by coagulation thereon grows black 21. Hence it is that those corrosive fretting pontick and acid juyces which vellicate and prick the Nerves in whatsoever part of the body they are found and twinge the Fibrous parts of the Membranes throughout the whole body utpote patrones dolorum ac torminum are I say dinted softned and sweetned by the taking in such fixed bodies of the Metalline compage of Steel or of animal or vegetable Stones or petrefied concretions in whose texture is wrapt up a fixt Alkaly viz. for instance Crabs Eyes Coral and Pearl 22. All which petrefied animal or vegetable concrete juyces as also testacea quaevis together with the body of Steel being taken into the humane body do coagulate the preternatural acid juyces upon themselves and do so alter the texture of the whole mass of humours that whereas before by their fretting nature they caused the floting to and again through the body divers Pains Swellings Indispositions c. they are now become sweet and circulate in the body in a due proportion proper for the functions of the several digestions 23. Even after the same manner as we sensibly perceive that when they are put into any sort of acid Liquors as Vineager or the like though their powders fall to the bottom yet they give not over working one upon another until the acid Liquor hath become sweet viz. insipid robbing it thereby of its sowrness the like doth almost any Metal dissolv'd in an Aqua fortis which thence separated by distillation or precipitation becomes most what debilitated so that it shall not be able to make another the like solution 24. Hence we may throughly resolve that seeming objection which might stare us in the face at the very first proposal of this Hypothesis viz. that seeing the Metalline body of Steel or petrefied concretions of Coral Pearl and Crabs Eyes being yet in the stomach or on their passage through the second digestion along the intestines do even there sweeten the acid juyces of the body whereas they themselves viz. the acid juyces may be in more remote parts and at a great distance how comes it therefore that these remote corrosive pontick juyces become dulcified at a distance 25. Which we
answer first by observing to you that if you put the powders of Pearl Coral c. into a glass upon which pour distilled Vineager or the like you may observe that though the powder lie in the bottom and the Liquor only touch it superficially and therefore according to the form of the Objection should only alter and sweeten those very parts only which they touch yet in a little time we see it sweetens the whole mass of Liquor and that upon this reason as I apprehend viz. because the nature of water consisting in fluidity is always in motion so that in a little time all the parts of water whirl and circle about so long till they have all touch'd the powder and all thence received a like dulcification so in like manner the juyces of the body being liquid do so circulate about by reason of their fluidity that in a little time there be few parts of the body through which the fluid juyces have not circulated and so consequently meet with those bodies if any such thing be inwardly taken as may rob them of their sowrish sharpness which being extra lares prove hostile to the Nerves Veins Arteries c. 26. Another instance let Silver be dissolv'd in Aqua fortis there the corrosive Menstruum hath totally though not radically dissolv'd the body of the Metal upon which it is also coagulated although in a liquid form if into this somewhat diluted with water you put plates of Copper as Refiners sometimes do for the separating of Silver you will find the Silver desert the Aqua fortis precipitating upon the cuprous plates and will thereby be totally separated from the Menstruum and that too notwithstanding the plates as they always do lie constantly in the bottom of the Vessel 27. You will ask how comes the upper part of the restagnant Menstruum which hath an equal proportion of Silver in it as well as the lower part thereof to be acted upon by the plates at such a distance to which as before I reply That the liquid parts of the Menstruum being in a constant motion of fluidity and carrying the dissolved Metal in it doth in a little time circulate all the parts of the Vessel as far as the upper superficies thereof one place constantly changing places with another till they have at length all glided along the surface of the plates which by a peculiar Metallick assimilation put a stop to its current in the Menstruum and hooks it to it self which is one of the best and most thorough separations of Silver that is commonly known 28. The like is done if Copper be dissolv'd in Aqua fortis if plates of Iron be put therein separating the Copper from the Menstruum and that by the great affinity or likeness of texture of parts of those two Metals 29. Thus in like manner when any good preparation of Steel of Pearl of Coral and Crabs Eyes are given though they themselves pass actually no further than into the first and second digestion and so proceed yet being all the juyces and liquors of the body are in a constant fluid motion and always circulating therefore of course they must in time touch upon these forenamed fixed concretes which if they touch they lose their pontick sharpness by which they become hostile to nature and have laid the foundation of many Diseases which thus being dulcified the juyces do redire in gratiam and circulate as good companions as ever 30. Steel our now present subject operates by separating this corrosive acidity which had coagulated it self upon the bowels viz. the Spleen Liver Matrix c. which spurious sowrness meeting with a body to which it claims more affinity then to the parts it had settled it self upon joyns with it and becomes coagulated thereon and so the bowels become set at liberty from their former obstructions and the circulation of the blood and humours become thereby more florid the exorbitant latex which before was extravasated runs in its own chanels again and what was superfluous that would not redire in gratiam Nature finds some peculiar manner of exclusion or other either of Stool Urine Sweat or insensible Transpiration 31. Thus the Dropsie and Scurvy Cachexia defectus Menstruorum c. become Cured besides which we might name many more Diseases which by a skilful managing and ordering of these Medicines might by the blessing of God be Cured as the Hypocondriack Melancholly which chiefly proceeds from a coagulation of this Tartarum resolutum this Sal excrementitium we are now treating of upon the Spleen whereby its proper digestion or peculiar function of seperation of some heterogenious parts from the blood is vitiated which digestion of the Spleen so promoting the blood in its tincture and height of spirituosity wherewith the Spleen inriched with that plenty and complication of Arteries seems to be destin'd to being no doubt thereby replete with a noble ferment which should exalt and spiritualize the blood by a kind of Chymical separation of some innate impurities restagnant in the blood until it come to partake of the exalting digestive ferment of that part which to me seems to be the very proximate ferment of the blood before the converting thereof into those nimble spirituous parts or animal spirits which flote along the Brain cerebel medulla spinalis and so in the cavities of the Nerves becomes Liquor Spermaticus nervorum the agent of all operations attributable to the genus nervosum 32. I say this fermental digestion of the Spleen becomes obstructed and vitiated by a coagulation of the foresaid spurious acidity which consequently vitiating its next product the nimble animal spirits the very immediate corporeal Organ of the Soul which spirits if I may so call them are the immediate corporeal reflecting glass of the Soul which it useth for the receiving and contemplating all visible objects and being vitiated by such an obstructive coagulative Salt in the Spleen according to the strength and degree of the obstruent is the blood perverted in its prolifick off-spring of animal spirits which become irregular and altogether erroneous thence making false representations of things to the Soul whence strange fancyful apprehensions arise which excrementitious Salt radicated in the Spleen hath commonly a flatus concomitant which therefore is called flatus hypochondraicus 33. Not but that this Disease may be inserted in the very semnials of the natural constitution and as also some others become hereditary in whom the Ideae dementes cuduntur in ipso viscere splenis vitiato those madeling fancyful impressions or erring apprehensions being forg'd from the disturbed oeconomy of the Spleen vitiating those animal spirits which lodge in the Brain or genus nervosum here these extravagant and erratick idea's feign to themselves strange pains in a moment make quick and speedy transits are always upon the wheel of uncertainties 34. But now at length returning to view the Doctors qualities methinks they begin to play least in sight and
being strongly fired becomes fixt and is edulcorated by repeated distillations of rectified Spirit of Wine from it to ten times and then becomes sweet and is also called Aurum horizontale of which he saith Omnem san it febrem unicâ potione Hecticam intra Lunae decursum oretenus enim sumptus curat carcinoma lupum quodlibet est hominum cacoethes ulcus sive externum sive internum itemque hydropem Asthma Morbum quemcumque Chronicum complet solus desideria medentum tam in Physicis quà m Chirurgicis defectibus by all which it may certainly be concluded to be a Panacea in as much as according to what he affirms it cures all acute and Chronick Diseases Sed nobis non licet esse tam disertos 57. I do not here pretend to it but doubt not of the veracity of that noble Philosopher who wrought Thirty Years in the search of Natures choicest Secrets whose Master-piece was the Liquor Alkahest Precipitatus Diaphoreticus Arcannm Corallinum Tinctura lilii Sulphur Vitrioli Metallus masculus Elementum Lac perlarum the Spirit of Salt of Tartar Elixir Proprietatis c. all which conspire the restitution of the integrity of health though disturbed from what occasional cause soever For the Life or Spiritus impetum faciens is but one receives the influences of Diseases into it self which according to the variety of occasional causes becomes differently affected and disturbed whence the multiplicity of Diseases which by an highly graduated Medicine reaching the very radical principles of this Archeus or regent Spirit of Life corrects the enormities and irregularities thereof and by abstersing the offending occasional causes restores it to its pristine integrity Vita vis ejus est unica integra nisi a caussis alienis degeneretur tum tanquam serpens saevit in seipsum Morborum evadit Matrona quâ restitutâ eadem ut antea est vitae integritas What noble effects these generous and universal remedies may have upon the vital Archeus in order to its restitution from the burden of Maladies may not uneasily be apprehended by those who do but see the efficacy of their substitures whether in Chronical or acute Diseases SECT 9. 1. THus having run through the Diseases or at least most of them to the Cure of which the Spaw contributes little help Now come we to those Diseases where the efficacy of the Spaw is most discernable viz. the Scurvy Dropsie Stone or Strangury Jaundise Hypocondriack Melancholy Cachexia's and Womens Diseases proceeding from the obstructions of the Menses all which faving that of the Stone and Womens Diseases as they have their first Springs from the irregularity of the ferment of the Stomach Spleen and some next succeeding digestions so they are thereby more capable of receiving the virtue of the Spaw which chiefly operates upon the stomach abstersing the sordes thereof whence it becomes very proper against frequent and immoderate Vomitings Heart-burnings from an over-acidity grating upon the upper mouth thereof Pains of the Stomach from the like cause c. 2. First as to the Scurvy which Disease at its full state though it ultimately vitiate the whole habit of the body and brings on a Cachexia yet the first seminaries thereof are found in the Stomach where the nutritive juyce being not well concocted by the ferment thereof for no solitary heat but a ferment is the agent of concoction the first stone is there laid towards the building of the Scruvy this first alienation of the alimentary juyce being not corrected nor amended in the subsequent digestions comes crudely into the third into the mass of blood ready to receive the vital ferment in the heart which finding many untameable hetrogeneities cannot sub jugum trahere bring it into conformity whence the crasis of the blood becomes perverted from its sweet balsamick essence into a sourish saltish and at the height of the Disease vapid liquor 3. Now the essurine alumenish salt of this Spring doth notably absterse the feculencies of the stomach and thereby strengthens the ferment thereof which to Persons who have not or if they have but in a remiss degree the Water may be of use to prevent the Disease and to those who have it in an intense degree it will abate the first spring or feeding cause thereof and by the penetrating Mineral Salt in the Water may insinuate the limen of the third digestion where especially if helped by the addition of some restorative balsamick Medicines it may in continuance of time overcome that Dyscrasie of the blood by removing that which is superfluous may replenish the blood with its wonted vital ferment and by dinting the spurious saltness thereof may restore it to its primitive sweet balsamick nature 4. The Spaw Water together with the change of air is pertinent to the aforesaid purpose especially as I said if seconded by other penetrating Medicines which hath a power to dint the scorbutick ferment Of which sort are the tincture of Antimony the right prepared Spirit of Salt the Volatile Salt of Harts-horn the Spirit of Salt of Tartar the Volatile Spirit of Scurvy-grass Ens Veneris all which as a balsamick condiment season the nutritive juyce separate exotick heterogeneities therefrom by their proper emunctories sweetens the blood by renewing its former volatile balsamick Spirits and restores it to its pristine Eucrasia which done the scorbutick products whether Pains Tumors Ulcers sore and swelling of the Gooms looseness of Teeth and the like ceaseth and the Scurvy is Cured 5. Secondly The Dropsie may be helped by the Spaw which to affirm though at the first sight it may seem unreasonable and contradictory because in this Disease the blood is already too much diluted with a waterishness yet if we consider the efficient cause which is chiefly an obstruction of the Reins the strangeness will be taken away for although there be a real vitiating of the ferment of the stomach and an aedust Alkalizate sordes impacted in the tunicles thereof whence a Feverishness and a pressing thirst constantly attends Dropsical Persons which Fever is not primary but symptomatical 6. I say though the ground-work of this as of most Diseases be in the stomach yet is the main cause an obstruction of the Reins which being the principal emunctory of the potable parts of the nutritive juyce whether being separable from the mass of blood by the emulgent veins or by any other nearer passage to the Reins if through the congestion of some mucous recrement the small vessels are obstructed as usually in this case happens then is the superfluous liquid latex ready for separation regurgitated either back into the mass of blood and thence into the habit of the body whence that species of the Dropsie called Anasarcasis which by the Anastomasis of the vessels sometimes lets a part thereof fall into the legs swelling them especially towards night and at other times swallows them up again into the former vessels and the legs become unswell'd again
7. Or else the liquid potables coming by a shorter cut to the Reins by reason of their obstructions flows back and is heaped up between the Omentum and Peritoneum which stretching the membranes thereof bears up strongly against the Diaphragme thereby contracting the cavity of the Lungs makes the Patient short-winded as commonly they are 8. This congested potable latex accompanyed with a flatus gives being to a Tympany and hath no urinous Salt in it as that had which was about separating from the blood and by the obstruction of the Veins flowed back again into the mass and therefore those who are tapp'd for the Dropsie let forth an almost insipid liquor so that water which passeth from those who drinke plentifully of the Spaw has no urinous Salt and so neither tincture nor sapour 9. Now the Spaw water doth notably cleanse the stomach first by loosning and dissolving the close sitting sordes and that through the dissolving power of the alumenish Mineral Salt which gradually attenuates and thins the viscous recrements of the stomach after which solution of the otherwise fixt feculencies of the stomach the plentiful gulping of the water doth easily wash it away by stool besides which a great quantity of the water acuated with its Mineral Essurine Salt passeth the short way to the Reins I mean by those chanels that great drinkers of Wine and Strong Drink have to convey away suddainly the potulent parts of what they take in to the Reins whereby the penetrative power of the Essurine Salt which as a Solvent in the water dissolves the coagulated matter opens the obstructions and makes free passage both for it self and for the exit of the restagnating latex which before floted in the Abdomen and swell'd the belly 10. That obstruction of the Reins is the chief if not the essential cause of the super-abundant floting of the potable parts in the Abdomen is manifest because all Dropsical Persons piss very little and that often with difficulty so that the most part of that which should pass forth by urine through obstructions regurgitates back upon the bowels or else fills the bloody vessels with a dilating overplus latex whereas if the passages were open and the current kept clear all the superfluous watry parts would be dreined away by their natural and proper chanels and so all would be well 11. The Spaw therefore hath its efficacy in Cure of the Dropsie two ways viz. by abstersing the sordes of the digestions and by being a Diuretick not to say that in some obstinate Dropsies there may be an extravasated blood about the Reins which may so irritate the innate Spirit of those parts as to make a spontaneous occlusion of the vessels and resist all Medicines except the noblest of Chymical Arcana's 12. Those Medicines which chiefly relate to the Cure of the Dropsie are as I said such as are abstersive and diuretick together with such as have a restorative astringency communicable to the debilitated membranous parts of which sort are the lixivial Salts of Vegetables whether of Broom Juniper the Vine Wormwood or the like among which there is small difference wherewith the ordinary drink of the Patient is to be acuated also the Cinnabar of Antimony often resublim'd the Spirit of Salt of Tartar the saccharum Martis or Sugar of Steel Bezoardicum Minerale which is Riverius his Diaphoretick out of the Butter of Antimony the Pilulae lunares of which last I must confess I never found any considerable success and for the sake of the corroding Aqua fortial or nitrous Spirits shall for the future rather advise against than otherwise also the magistery of Wine which is the fixt Salt of Tartar so prepared as to dissolve in the most rectified alcool Spirit of Wine which being often purified by reduction is a noble Diuretick essential Salt of Tartar also the Precipitatus Diaphorcticus and Precipiolum Paracelsi the sappy liquor of the Birch c. For most of which Medicines if you consult the dispensatory you will be mistaken they are not attained to by idleness and meer speculation but by boldly handling the coals and putting our fingers into fire 13. The next Disease is the Stone and Strangury upon which the Spaw hath the more efficacy because a great part of the water glides through the Reins and Bladder the places where Gravel and the Stone have their nativity so that first by the abstersive virtue of the Essurine Salt in the water it hinders the encrease of growth of the bulk of the Stone by carrying away the recremental sordes of those parts also by often drinking and that too great quantities of the water it keeps the current open dilates the passages and takes the opportunity of slipping a Stone now and then with a stream of water through the sphincter of the Bladder 14. But as to a resolution of the Stone into a liquid juyce by a retrograde Analysis is not feasable either by this or any other Spring but only at least chiefly competible to the Alkahestical Preparation of the Ludus Paracelsi calculosorum Solamen magnum of which is the Alkahest distilled from the Ludus by which the Ludus is reduc'd into a Salt dissolvable in the Air into a Liquor this digested in a sealed glass until the Salt swim upon the top of the attracted moisture in the form of a greenish Oyl or Axungia of which Fourteen Grains sometimes repeated resolves the compage of the Stone of what magnitude soever and upon the solution is also expelled and thereby the Stone perfectly Cured according to the process of Paracelsus and Helmont who both as they say had it by which as Helmont reports not only the Stone was reduced into a liquid form and driven forth but also the inclinatio petrifica was taken away I have by a succedaneal Preparation so opened the body of the Ludus as that it would yield a deep saturate green tincture to Spirit of Salt as also to another liquor of Salt I have by me but what that will effect as to the Stone I have not yet tryed The well prepared Spirit of Salt Helmont highly commends for the Strangury and the Tinctura Aroph Paracelsi 15. The Jaundise if not too deeply graduated into that called the Black is also curable by the Spaw and that because this Disease proceeds from an error of Crudities in the second digestion transmitted into the fifth or habit of the body where that which should of due have been separated by the right fermentation in the second digestion was carryed into the last digestion and there discoloured the blood in the ultimate fibres through the whole habit of the body Now the Spaw as I said helps to separate that which of due ought to be separated by opening the obstructions of the second digestion and so may prevent the feeding of the Disease from its own original scource and by the help of specificks may thoroughly be Cured of which sort are Ens Veneris
are most vigorous and active for in the beginnings of Animals the Ferments are very languid especially I say in the Matrix and therefore the Transmutations they make are but very slender and tennious whence is the facil reduction of the minute Embryo into its first Spermatick Juyce or Elementary Liquor In Children the Ferments grow stronger but yet is very weak whence is their aptness to breed worms which proceed from a debilitude of the embalming Ferments as Children grow up in years the Ferments grow more strong and therefore they require stronger meat and the Transmutations of the Ferments are more vigorous whence the bones and flesh of young Men become more solid and firm and that increaseth till the body come to its full stature so that it is the vigour of the Ferments that gives flower and strength to the body and their defects give being to Diseases make the Spirits flag the sinews shrink and the flesh wast away by a lingring Tabes and that too oftentimes in the very spring of Youth even many times whilst we are upon the Meridian of our days occasionally from the assaults of many Diseases When we are once arrived to the Zenith of our Years that the florid strength of our bodies are demonstrable Indexes of the agil vigour of our Ferments and vital Functions we stay not long here but then begin to decline and to go down the hill our strength begins gradually to be impaired and that because our Ferments and Vital Powers when once mounted to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are labil and in continual Flux for so all mortal powers are they begin grow come to their full state decline and come to a Period either by a further transmutation or reduction into the first Hyle or primitive Chaos therefore they spontaneously decay and with them the Fabrick of the solid parts of the body so that old Men that live out the full number of days do but spin forth a longer consumptive thread than others they wear away with an insensible Tabes having their succulent parts dried up by the exiccating Blass of the Air and that through the deficiencies of the vital Ferments And thus Old Age performs that at the long run which a lingring Disease whose Seminals are deeply seated in any principal part as stomach lungs liver veins c. vitiating the Ferment thereof doth in a less time as perhaps in a year half a year three months or less viz. wear away the body by a continual wasting or Consumption until the parts are reduced to a Skeleton which being after entombed in the earth doth as all other bodies by the fracedinous odour thereof Fatiscere in succum suum primitivum legesque aquae subire turns into a sort of Leffas and that by a further reduction is nothing else but water not to say what a great quantity of effluvia or vapours which for the most part are materially water pass continually through the pores of our bodies perhaps if duly computed not much less than the one half of the weight of the food we take in and yet is nothing but water circulated in our bodies through various Fermentations and at length reduced to its primitive simplicity Thus we begin we grow we come to our full stature from the operation of Seed and Ferments upon water whose degrees of vigour upon the material stage thereof gives the various Stadiums of Life Then we bend to Diseases we decline we die when the vital Powers and formal Ferments march off the stage and have their exit into their primitive Hyle and the body then ultimately reducible into water by the Fracedo of the Grave Hence I conclude all bodies in the Mundane System whether Vegetable Animal or Mineral from water as the material Element and by Seed as the efficient Agent have not only the Beginning But THE END AN APPENDIX Concerning the ORIGINAL of SPRINGS 1. IT is not the least part of Dr. Wittie's Book to Discourse of the Original of Springs and therein to assert their original to be from Rain and Snow-water from the confluence of which two he supposeth all Springs to flow and that after this manner viz. the Snow and Rain falling from the Clouds in great abundance upon the Earth do by moistening the Superficies cause it to bring forth Vegetables which we grant viz. That the moisture exhal'd from the Sea and Earth carryed up into the Clouds becomes impregnated with an influential Nitrous Salt or Sal Hermeticum floting to and again in the Atmosphere And circulated or cohobated upon its Caput mortuum the Earth gives fertility to the ground and makes it apt to bring forth Vegetables 2. The remaining part saith he except what suddenly runs into Rivers sinks down by secret passages into the earth with which the Superficies doth abound and in rocky ground it runs through the clefts and by them is conveyed to the Subterraneal Chanels more or less deep in the earth where it is concocted by the earth and moves as blood in the veins c. We shall indeed admit thus far of what he saith viz. That Rain and Snow-water are the proximate cause of all Land-Springs and sudden Flouds silling the Porosities and Chanels of the Superficies of the Earth the remaining part restagnates till it find declive Currents out of Brooks and Ditches into other Rivulets and those again by further passages swell into Rivers and thereby cause inundations of low grounds till those Rivers empty themselves by other intermediate ones into the Sea it self But that the same should be the cause of the Fontes perennes viz. of Living Springs I altogether deny as shall afterwards be evinc'd more clearly 3. This Water saith he at length in its passage through the veins of the Earth finds vent and runs forth which place of eruption we call a Spring or Fountain And this springing forth or eruption of the water I conceive saith he to be made from its own natural inclination and tendency towards its proper place assigned to it by the Creator which is the convex part of the earth it not resting till it meets with its natural correspondent the Air under which it must needs lie because of its greater gravity as above the Earth by reason of its levity And this I think saith he to be the natural reason of its ebullition out of the Earth 4. Here the Doctor hath at once conceiv'd and brought forth the causes as he supposeth of all manner of Springs and their manner of issuing out of the Earth viz. from rain and Snow-Water and their tendency in the Channels of the Earth to their proper place the convex part thereof For he having numbred three general Opinions concerning the Original of Springs viz. first by percolation of the Sea secondly by transmutation of Earth or Air into Water within the Bowels of the Earth Or lastly by Rain or Snow with the last of which he closeth As for the second viz. the Opinion of the
I confess to illustrate this Point will not a little conduce to the solving some Phaenomina incident to our Thesis 42. And first we see that blood whilst circulating in its proper vessels knows no such difference as either going up or down For it to ascend the Aorta and from thence up into other Arteries which are carried into the Head and Arms is the same as to descend by other Vessels into the lower parts The nourishment the blood gives in the habit of the body whether carried upwards or downwards is the same yea it ascends with as quick a motion as it descends and that because it 's carried in its own proper vessels and mov'd by the Systole of the heart whose vibration to parts whether upwards or downwards is equal 43. Now in like manner Water whilst circulating from Seas and the Hydrophylacia and carried in its proper Subterraneal Channels along the Quellem is in its proper place and becomes the Mother of Mineral Earths Minerals Metals Stones and Marcasites and so long knows neither up nor down and can as easily whilst in these Channels climb up the tops of Hills and Mountains and there make Springs as break forth in Valleys and in the Level of Plains yea it can as well mount the tops of Hills and high Heaths as the blood in the Arteries can ascend into the head and all by the natural circulation of Water set on work by the Original Fiat for the upholding the functions of the Terraqueous Globe where if such a thing be in rerum naturá you may view the Perpetual motion 44. Now that the Quellem or Sabulum bulliens is the proper Conduit and Subterraneal Channel for water to circulate in whilst in the bowels of the Earth is hereby apparent That a true Quick-Spring never breaks forth but this sand also appears yea where ever any dig in the Earth for the said Springs they are not found but at the bottom or verge of the Fundus of Mineral Earth Clay or marly ground where sand is alwayes seen to break up with the living Spring which frequently breaks forth under the Channels and banks of Rivers whence it is that plenty of sand is wrought up in Rivers also in Plains Valleys Heaths Hills and Mountains or in any places thereof digg'd for Springs are found as I said store of this Sand. 45. And that there are Subterraneal Channels by which Sea 's at great distance communicate with each other will appear first if we consider the Ocean which is the whole bulk of waters that compass the Globe of earth is but one which receives different names according to various Regions it washeth as Oceanus Atlanitcus Germanicus Deucalidonius Septentrionalis Tartaricus Aethiopicus Mare Arabicum Mar di India Mar Del Nort Mar Del Zur or Mare Pacificum Archipelagus c. And there is no In-land Sea which receive Rivers and let none forth visibly but they communicate with the Ocean Thus the Mediterranean Sea is joyn'd to the Atlantick Ocean per Fretum Herculeum and to the Red-Sea by occult Subterraneal Channels as the Story related by Kircherus of the Dolphin first taken in the Red and soon after in the Mediterranean Sea So the Caspian by the mediation of Subterraneal Channels is annexed to the Euxine or black-Sea and this to the Aegean and that to the Mediterranean Thus these great Seas in Asia communicate with each other according to the mind of Scaliger Wendeline and Kircherus So the Baltick communicates with the German and Deucalidonian Seas by the two Arms Bosnicum and Finicum per Fretum Cymbricum 46. In like manner the Asphaltick Sea or Mare Mortuum in Palestine communicates with the Red-Sea by the same Subterraneal Channels and thereby are conveyed into the Ocean So the Lake Zaire in Aethiopia by the same manner empties it self into the Aethiopian Ocean And that great River in Aethiopia call'd Fluvius Niger flowing from the Lake of Nilus and being shut up by a Chain of Mountains in the Kingdom of Nubia where privately breaking forth of the Western part of the Mountains empties it self by Subterraneal Meanders where meeting with several other Rivers increase them and at length is carried into the Atlantick Ocean After the same manner the River Tigris in Mesopotamia being carried through the Lake Arethusa meets with resisting Caucasus thrusts down its head into a large den and after a great space of ground peeps up again where scarce passing the Lake Thospis but it is begirt again with other Mountains and hides it self again in Subterraneal Chanels and breaks forth 24 Miles on the other side of the Mountains then continues to flow and neer Babylon is let into Euphrates 47. Now I say that these In-land Seas Lakes and great Rivers do communicate with each other and at length are carried into the main Ocean and that this is done by Subterraneal Channels will be apparent as followeth First that the Caspian hath intercourse with the Euxine or black Sea by such passages is evident because it receives into its bosome a constant flux of great Rivers and lets none forth visibly by any arme into the Sea and and yet notwithstanding is not at all increased and Kircher guesseth that before the deluge it might be contiguous with the Ocean overrunning all the Sandy Desarts of Tartaria and afterwards was broke off by the Chain of the Mountains of Caucasus This is onely conjectural but however it appears as if it were a Lake shut up on all hands having Rivers let into it but none let forth and yet shews no footstep of inundation and therefore must of necessity have communication with other Seas by private Chanels The same is also further confirm'd by observation That has been made upon that Sea as Kircher reports by Paradia Persa in Geograph viz. that when ever the Eastern Winds have rul'd strongly over the Caspian at the same time in the Euxine Sea the boylings has been observ'd greater then wonted with a great agitation of the whole Sea And on the contrary when the Western Winds blew strongly upon the Euxine the like perturbations have been seen in the Caspian Sea and when the Caspian hath by the agitation of winds emptied it self into the Euxine it is again replenished by the like secret passages from the Persian Sea which is done by a kind of Charybdis or Vortex along the shore of the Sinus Persicus whereby the Sea seems to be sometimes drunk up with a notable decrease which by a fresh flowing of the Sea the Vortex is hid again So that the Caspian by Subterraneal Chanels receives a supply from the Persian Sea and by the like Chanels communicates with the Euxine Sea 48. That the Asphaltick or Mare Mortuum communicates by the same hidden passages with the Red-Sea is evident because upon the coasts of the Red-Sea which looks towards the Desarts of Arabia at the noted place call'd Eltor as the inquisitive Kircher relates where not far from the shore from the bowels of