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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40451	The York-shire spaw, or, A treatise of foure famous medicinal wells viz. the spaw, or vitrioline-well, the stinking, or sulphur-well, the dropping, or petrifying-well, and S. Mugnus-well, near Knare borow in York-shire : together with the causes, vertues and use thereof : for farther information read the contents / composed by J. French, Dr. of Physick.	French, John, 1616-1657.	1654 (1654)	Wing F2176; ESTC R42037	61,290	136

bituminous vapours Ob. What is the reason that seeing this water hath passed lately through the bituminous burnings as it appears by its fresh odour of the same should be cold and not hot as hot Baths are Sol. 1. It was the opinion of Fallopius that such kind of waters proceed from a remote fire but passing through narrow passages retain their full odour and tast which cannot be vanished by the way any otherwise than smoak through a Chimney or pipe although by the length of its passage it may loose its heat 2. Though the fire be near to the superficies of the earth where this water breaketh forth yet it is very probable that the coldness thereof may proceed from a mixture of a cold spring before the breaking forth thereof Neither let it seem strange to any that cold springs and hot may be so near together in the bowels of the earth for just above the head of this Sulphur-well there arise two cold Springs which meet and run down within a few feet of the head of the same And Mr. Jones in his treatise of Buck-stones Bath in Derbishire saith that the cold Springs and hot Springs are so near that a man may put one finger in the cold and another in the hot Having in some measure declared unto you the cause of this Sulphur-well viz. of its saltness bitterness and sulphurious odour I shall in the next place give an account of some experiments and observations which I made and they are these viz. 1. If Silver be put into this water it is thereby tinged first yellow and then black but Gold is not all discoloured thereby 2. If this water be a little boiled it looseth its tinging property and also stinking odour 3. It coagulates milk if it be boiled therewith 4. The distilled water thereof looseth its odour and doth not coagulate milk 5. If the water be boiled it will still coagulate milk though it looseth its odour 6. Seven gallons yield by evaporation a pound of Salt which though at first black I have made as white as snow 7. This Salt coagulates milk also 8. This water kills worms and such kind of creatures presently if they be put therein 9. I filled two Vial glasses with this water in wet weather and stopt the one but the other I left open The water in that which was stopt within an hour or two became white and thick and within two or three dayes deposited a white sediment and the sides of that glass were furred the water in the other glass altered not 10. I filled two Vial glasses in fair weather whereof the one I stopt but the other left open the water in neither of them turned colour any whit considerably onely a kind of a thin whitish matter after two or three dayes fell to the bottom the water continuing very clear The water of that glass which was stopt retained its odour most 11. A pint of this water weighs two scruples i. e. fourty grains more than a pint of common Spring-water Note that the reason of its tinging white metals is not from any bodily Sulphur or bitumen mixt with it for the substance of them will not mix with water but swim on it as in the Spring at Pitchford in Shropshire and in Avernia in France and in divers other places but from the vapours or the subtile atomes efluvia's thereof which are mixed with the water and in boiling are evaporated The reason of its coagulating property is from some occult acidity in the Salt thereof which to sense is not perceptible onely by effect Out of the Salt is drawn a very good spirit of excellent vertue as I shall declare in the next Chapter Before I conclude this Chapter it will be worth taking notice that about 240 yards above the head of this Sulphur-well is a bog of about twenty yards diameter in which I digged a mineral kind of substance like the finders of Iron but almost rotten being corroded with some acid spirits of which that bog is full as also other places This mineral substance being cast into the fire burns blew and smels like Sulphur It is in tast like Vitrial and out of it Vitrial may be drawn nay in time it will be almost all resolved into Vitrial For I washed it and set it in a Cellar for two or three dayes and it was covered over with a white sweeetish Vitrial which I dissolved in water and set the said substance in a Cellar again and it contracted the like I did as before still reiterating this work till it was almost all turned to Vitrial In the said bog I found three or four sorts of waters viz. a Sulphur and Vitrioline and of each two sorts This was done the last day of my abode there and therefore I had not time to make any further search onely some of that mineral substance I took with me with which I tried the aforesaid experiments If any Gentleman would be pleased to expend some costs in digging up this bog and erecting some new Wels there he would prove an acceptable benefactor to his Countrey and it may be some new kind of water might be discovered hereby having yet more vertues than any of the former Note that the stink of this Sulphur-well is perceived afar off especially in moist and cold weather CHAP. XV Of the vertues and uses of the Sulphur-well together with directions and cautious for the taking of it THe use of this water is either inward or outward It being taken inwardly incideth abstergeth attenuates and resolves viscous thick humours and irritates every vessel of the body to expel whatsoever humours are offensive in them It openeth and removes those strong and obstinate obstructions whether in men or women that would not yield to any other Medicine whatsoever It doth oftentimes evacuate by stool great lumps of viscous slimy matter which was certainly whilest it was in the body the cause of some great distemper oppressure gripings tensions c. and which could hardly any other way be removed It heateth and quickneth the stomack bowels liver spleen bloud veins nerves and indeed the wholy body in so much that it consumes crudities rectifieth all cold distempers in all parts of the body causeth a good digestion cures the Dropsie Spleen Scurvy Green sickness Gout Cramp Epilepsie head-ach Vertigo Kings evil and all such Symptomes as proceed either from crudities cold viscous slimy or corrupt humours which obstruct distemper the stomack Bowels Messentery Liver Veins Brain and Nerves and these though of long continuance It killeth worms infallibly Note that this water must be begun by degrees and the full proportion be taken not at once but at several times exercise intermediating as in the taking of the Spaw The full dose or quantity to be taken must be proportioned according to the constitution strength of the party his bearing of it as also the humour offending the predominancy of the distemper and the aptness of the

substance Maginus makes mention of a Lake in Ireland in the bottone whereof if you put a staff it will being pulled out some moneths after be turned into Iron viz. that part which stuck in the mud and that part which was in the water into a whetstone Aristotle mentions a certain Fountain in Sicilia into which if living creatures being before killed were put they would become alive again Athenaeus saith that the fish of the River Clitoris have a certain voyce Solinus speaks of a Fountain that is in Boeotia which helpeth the memory Isidorus saith the like of the River Lethe which causeth forgetfulnes Scaliger saith that the River of Juverna is of that nature that the leaves of a certain tree hanging over falling into it become living fishes Pliny reports that in Agro Carrinensi in Spain is a certain Fountain which makes all the fish that live in the water of it seem to be of a golden colour Agricola affirmes that fishes live in the hot Sulphur-waters of the lower Pannonia neer Buda Varro and Solinus affirm that there is a Fountain in Arabia which if the sheep drink thereof changeth the colour of their fleeces and maketh the white to become black Pliny reports that the water in Falisco maketh the Cattle that drink thereof to become white He also saith that in Pontus the River Astaces watering the fields makes the Mares that feed therein to yield a black milk which feeds the Countrey It is reported that in Ulcester in Ireland there is a Fountain in which he that washeth himself shall never become gray I could recken up many more waters of very strange natures but whether they or these already mentioned be all certainly true I will not undertake to affirm onely thus much I will say that some of them I my self have seen other some I am assured of from those whose unquestionable worth may justly command mine and other mens faith to their indeniable testimony and for the rest we may believe them according to the reputation of the Historian These here I mentioned that it might not seeme strange to us how capable waters are of receiving diversity of qualifications from the earth and although some of them may seem magical and supernatural yet may they upon a profound enquiry be made to appear truely natural CHAP. IV. Of the nature and vertues of simple Waters I It will be necessary for the better conceiveing of the nature and vertue of mineral waters in particular to speak something of the nature and virtues of water in generall or of simple water which is an element as saith Sendivogius most heavy full of unctuous flegme and is more worthy in its kind than the earth it is without volatile but within fixed cold and moist attempered by air It is the Sperm of the world in which the seed of all things is preserved and it is the keeper of every thing It is called by the ancients {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Thales as saith Aristotle called one and the same water the beginning of all things Empedocles also believed that of water were all things made Hippon also saith Aristotle called it the soul of things as if it were the life of them which made Hippocrates say that water and fire were the principles of life and especially water for saith he many animals may want fire but none can well live without water Theophrastus affirms that water is the matter of all things And indeed if water were accurately anotamized you should clearly see that both vegetables minerals and animals are generated of water but of this I have treated more largely elss where I shall not now stand to repeat especially since my purpose here is chiefly to speak of the medicinal virtues of water Now we must know that water is twofold for either it is simple or mineral which we more usually call medicinal Water is called simple not according to its own nature but to our sense or being compared with that which is mineral and of this there are five kinds viz. rain fountain pit river and standing water I shall not here stand to prove whether or no water be nutritive or be onely a vehiculum of aliments as Galen would have it because in another treatise I have cleerly shewed how vegetables animals and minerals are generated of and increased by water which hath such strange dissimilary or heterogeneal parts as can scarce be believed by those who never saw the spagyrical anatomy thereof or curiously examined the production of all natural things I shall insist onely upon the medicinal use thereof as being administred either to prevent or cure the distempers of the body Simple water which cooles and moistens is either taken inwardly or used outwardly It is taken inwardly either warm or cold The vertues of warme-water taken inwardly are these which follow viz. 1. It doth by reason of its warmth cause nauseouseness and it is drank in a greater quantity to cause vomiting in head-ach proceeding from drunkenness and in any other ilness of stomack but with this caution that they that have very cold weak and laxated stomacks must abstain from this kind of vomit because warm water doth moisten very much and so by consequence would laxate tht stomack more than it was before Also it is not to be administred to those that are accustomed to drinking of water for them it will not move to vomit but remain in the body and weaken the vessels upon the aforesaid account of its extream moistening 2. It allayes sharp acid and gnawing humours and cureth such symptoms as proceed from thence as saith Galen also it represseth the ebullition of choller and helps the inflammations of the throat and mouth caused thereby as saith Aetius 3. It cures the inflammation of the reins by altering of them if it be taken before meals Note that if warm water be given to cause vomiting it must be administered to the quantity of a pint or two or of as much as will be sufficient thereunto But if it be used for qualification it must be taken to the quantity of a cup onely which may not cause nauseousnes The use and vertues of cold water are these viz. 1. It conduceth to long life in regard it condenseth the spirits saith the Lord Virulam And indeed water was the usual drink of the ancients who lived long 2. It repels by reason of its coldness and is thefore effectual against divers distempers it forceth crudities out of the stomack and as saith Aetius promotes the operation of any medicine that is taken and works not besides it suppresseth the fuming of vapours to the head as saith Dioscorides and Mesues and being drunk at bed-time causeth quiet rest as saith the Lord Virulam in his learned treatise de vita et morte by suppressing the ascent of vapours to the head 3. It allayes extream hot distempers whether they be in any particular part as in the stomack liver c. or in the

ensuing Chapters prescribed But for poor people or they that loath all that bears the name of Physick drink three or four mornings of the Sulphur-well for that will in a good measure effect the same When any one is resolved for the Spaw let him then first apply himself to some experienced Physitian who shall be able to understand his constitution distemper and the nature and use of the waters themselves that accordingly as cause shall require the more succesfull preparatives may be administred and the more effectual directions given This I advise the rather because there be divers Physitians in the Nation who never saw tasted scarce read of the waters or conversed with those that know them yet send their patients such as they account incurable and desperate thither giving them such directions for the drinking the waters as the very Spaw-women themselves laugh at A due preparation being premised let him that drinks the waters begin with four or five or six half pint glasses more or less as his stomack can well bear and so by degrees proceed to two or three glasses more every day until he come to the height and his full dose which will be when he can take no more without a manifest oppression and nauseousness Some will drink twenty some thirty of these glasses in a morning and some can not take half so many In the morning before the water be drunk let first all excrements be evacuated either by nature or art as by glysters suppositories or some pills or lenitive taken the night before at bed-time for the retaining of the excrements hinders the concoction of the waters if I may call it a concoction and by consequence their passage through the body whereby are caused pressures fluctuations tensions gripings and sometimes cold sweat Betwixt every two or three or four or five glasses let some exercise be used of which more largely in the Chapter of exercise And for the better passing of the waters comforting the stomack and preventing of nauseousness let some good cordial stomachical spices seeds and roots be taken betwixt while as Annisseed Caryoway and Coriander confects Citron or Lymon pilled candied or dried Pepper lossenges Cardamums but above all I prefer Elecampany root candied or for want thereof Angelica root or seeds for they especially Elecampany as the Lord Virulam saith breed a robust heat and I am sure promote the passage of the water most eminently and comfort all the vessels through which the water passeth and withall make the water more effectual for the opening of obstructions and corroborating infirm parts I approve not of taking the waters too fast or alloting too short a time for the drinking of the full dose or proportion I conceive that for the generality it will be most convenient for to take at first a quarter of the proportion and then exercise half an hour and then another quarter and exercise till the water begins to be evacuated and then a third quarter with exercise half an hour more and then the last part with exercise till it be all passed out of the body But if any cannot bear the drinking of a fourth part at a time then let them take the eighth part with a quarter of an hours exercise betwixt every while To drink the waters too fast causeth for the most part nauseousnes oppresseth the natural heat and compresseth the passages and vessels that the water cannot pass so freely through them as otherwise it would do and also causeth divers symptoms as tensions gripings cold sweats dejection of appetite and the like If a great quantity of water be cast upon a fire at once it extinguisheth it but if by degrees it maketh it burn the more furiously and intends the flame thereof Ryetius is therefore in my judgement very erroneous as to this point who would have the whole proportion be taken in half an hours time The time for the continuing the taking of the waters must be proportioned according to the greatness of the disease and profit received by it In case any one after a due preparation and upon a carefull observation of such directions as are required shall not be able to bear the waters and drink them without a manifest and eminent oppression and nauseousness after several assayes let him cease presently from the taking of them but if upon the taking of them he can take them without any such inconveniency as should cause him to desist yet perceive no benefit thereby let him not presently give over the use of them as despairing of any further benefit but continue the use of them a moneth or two or longer if the disease require it In Germany they drink of the Spaw not onely a quarter of a year together but sometimes half a year and sometimes a whole year if it be requisite and at last they receive the benefit thereof by being cured of most desperate diseases which otherwise were in the vulgar account incureable It is a great errour amongst us English to allot but two or three weeks time or a moneth at the most for the taking of the Spaw let the disease be what it will and hence it is that many miss of those happy cures which by a longer continuance might have been effected and this to the prolonging of their own misery and defamation of the Spaw it self I do admit of the use of purging Physick to be taken every eight or tenth day for the evacuating of crudities which for the most part are bred in that time also some grosser humour loosened by the water or those which become crass or thick by the waters themselves carrying away the thinner part first for these remaining in the body would else be carried down into the smaller vessels and cause obstructions and thereby many other great inconveniences and symptomes retarding also if not utterly preventing the intended cure Now the Medicaments I approve of most in these cases are Hiera picra simplex Galeni Rhabarb with Crystal of Tartar and such like to be taken one or two dayes together as there shall be occasion and some Lenitive as Cassia or Lenitive electuary or the like to be taken the next day after that for the moistning of the bowels and the better preparing the passages betwixt the stomack and bladder against the next repeating the use of the waters which I advise may begin the next morning after And in some cases Physick may be taken every day nay mixt with the waters themselves as in Germany Now I know it is a common though absurd opinion that Physick is very prejudicial to those that take it whilest they are in a course of drinking the waters and therefore is most irrationally decried Now the chief ground of this errour as far as I ever could understand is this viz. Some certain years since some famous Doctors attending upon persons of great quality their patients to the Spaw did prescribe them the use of some Physick with the waters and

the evening the stomack is less laxated and languid than at noon and can therefore concoct a greater quantity of meat Yet the supper must not be very large neither greater than what the stomack can be well able perfectly to concoct before the next morning Let it be ready at six at least if not seven hours after dinner I advise that all whether it be at dinner or supper that they lerve with an appetite eat not half so much as the Spaw drinkers usually do indulging their pallates and gratifying their stomacks according to the measure of their appetites which many times is rather adventious or preternatural then natural I utterly disapprove of mixing of the Spaw water with either Wine or Beer but yet I allow of the drinking of a glass of it self at bed time for the corroborating and closing of the mouth of the stomack and suppressing of vapours which would otherwise disturb the brain from quiet sleep CHAP. XIV Of the Sulphur-well THis is called the Sulphur-well by reason of its Sulphurious odour although besides this it hath two other qualities viz. saltness and bitterness I shall in the first place endeavour to prove whence it contract its saltness and thereby I shall the better make to appear the cause of it stanch and bitterness Now because the Salt which this water yields upon evaporation is of the same nature with cannot be distinguished either in odour or tast the stanch being lost in the evaporation from common black Sea-salt I shall first declare what is the cause of the saltness of the Sea which is no other than that of this water And first I shall shew what is not the cause of it thereby confuting the opinion of many ancient Philosophers and their followers 1. The saleness of the Sea is not caused by the Suns exhaling the sweeter parts out of it as was the opinion of Aristotle for this supposeth that there was the same saltness in the Sea before but was not but upon this account manifested but this can not be for then why are not other waters as Rivers Ponds Lakes c. made saltish also by the Suns exhaling their sweeter vapours 2. The Sun doth not boil into the Sea by the vehemency of its heat that saline tast according to Pliny being almost of the aforesaid opinion for then why doth not the Sun work the same effect upon a Pond or Vessel of water on which it may work more vigorously by heating more vehemently viz. because it is less resisted by reason of the small quantity of water in them than on the Ocean 3. This saltnes is not caused as Scaliger would have it by rain mixt with hot dry and terrene exhalations for the rain it self would also then be saltish which indeed is most sweet and if it were saltish then why are not Pits Rivers c. which are many times filled with Rain-water saltish also Now the weakness of these opinions viz. the chiefest that have usually been embraced being detected I shall shew from whence very probably this saltness of the Sea may proceed We must therefore in the first place consider that the Sea is not simply saltish but saltish and bitter together that is it hath a tast made up of bitterness and saltness for which cause as saith our learned Countrey-man Mr. Lydyat in his disquisitio Physiologica de origine fontiam Chap. 9. de salsedine maris the Latines gave these two names to it viz. Mare quasi amarum Salum quasi salsum And this Aristotle himself consents to giving the reason of those two tasts in general and of them in the Sea in particular where he saith that all kinds of tasts arise from a kind of terreness more or less adust but bitterness from a terreness very much elaborated by a fiery heat in the burning bowels of the earth and saltness where that heat is somewhat remitted If so then let us consider whether there be not abundance of terrene adustness in the bowels of the earth and gulfs of the Sea where a bituminous fire is alwayes burning being fed by water as I declared more at large in the 2. Chap. viz. Of the original of Springs in general and that whether we may not probably conclude and especially because bitumen is bitter and very full of Salt that the burning of the bitumen together with the terreness therewith mixed in the gulfs of the Sea be not the cause of the saltness thereof Moreover that bitumen hath a great power to communicate to and beget a bitter and saltish tast in water is confirmed by that which Geographers write concerning the Lake of Palestina which is called in Greek {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. bituminous For say they the Lake is so bitter and saltish that no fishes can live therein and it is called in sacred writ the salt sea {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} And Historians say of it that if a man be cast into it bound hand and foot he cannot be drown'd and the reason of this is the saltness thereof for we see that waters bear the greater burdens by how much the salter they are witness the difference betwixt the Sea and fresh Rivers and our boiling of brine till an Egg swim thereon and will not sink This being premised it will be easie to conclude from whence the saltness and bitterness of the Sulphur-well proceeds And as for the stinking odour thereof that I suppose is caused from the vapours of the burning bitumen and adust terreness mixt therewith which lye not far from the very head of the Well Ob. If there be the same reason for the saltness of this Spring as there is of the Sea then why is there not the same reason for the Sulphurious odour of the Sea as of this and why doth not the Sea receive and retain the same odour as this doth Sol. I do not deny but the same odour may be communicated to the Sea as to this water together with the saltness thereof but because the saltness thereof was communicated to it by degrees viz. from some certain gulfs of the Sea so also this odour for it cannot be rationally conceived that the whole Sea received all its Salt into it self at one time after a natural way and therefore being such a great body must become saltish by little and little even insensibly And accordingly the Sulphurious odour also is imparted to it insensibly and although the saltness may continue by reason that the Salt it self is of a fixed substance yet the odour being of a subtile volatile nature is exhaled by the Sun and so lost But now the case is far otherwise in the water of this Sulphur-well for this is at once fully impregnated with the said saltness and Sulphurious odour and immediatly passeth away through narrow channels● and veins of the earth without any vanishing of the odour by means of the Sun or otherwise which it contracted from the