particular Species is very improbable The heat of the Sun is no more apt to breed a Nettle than a Dock Brimstone than Salt c. For it cannot give the essence to any thing heat being only a quality which can breed no substance and such a quality as can only segregate heterogeneral substances and thereby congregate homogeneal Whereas in all generations there must be a further power and virtue to proportion the Elements fit for every Species if they will have all things made of the Elements and to bring the Species form a potential being to an actual giving to every thing his proper shape quantity colour smell taste c. and to unite them which before were of different natures It must be an internal and domestical agent and efficient cause which must perform this and such a one as is not common to all Species alike but proper to that which it produceth otherwise there would be no distinction of Species And therefore Moses saith of Plants that they have their seeds in themselves according to their seyeral kinds Neither can any external cause give an essential form to any thing which form must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inbred in the thing it self and not adventitious And therefore Scaliger saith Formae non Solis est quantitatem terminare and Aristotle Calore natura utitur tanquam ministro aut instrumento non tanquam opifice aut legislatore Wherefore we will grant the Sun to be an adjuvant cause and by his heat to foster and cherish inferiour generations but not to be a principal and begetting cause And so Zabarella doth mollisie the harshness of the former opinion and doth acknowledge that the Sun doth further generations only as an instrument of another superiour power whereby in minerals it may make the matter more apt to receive the form but it makes no minerals no more then it makes blood in our bodies Others make the Elements to be the principal causes of all species by their qualities For the matter of the Elements being a passive matter cannot be an efficient cause of generations These qualities must be heat or cold for the other two are passive and attend rather upon the matter of generations then upon the efficient Fire therefore by his heat is thought of all the Elements to have the greatest hand in all generations being most active and superiour to all the rest of the Elements together for the generation of every Species and rank them in due order proportion weight measure c. This is he than must reconcile the differences which are in their natures and bring them to union This must attract nourishment and prescribe the quantities dimensions parts figures colours tastes savours c. of every thing A large Province he hath to govern with one naked and simple quality which can have but one simple motion Simplicibus corporibus simplices tantum motus congruunt Heat can but heat and the effects of this heat are by separation of different substances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to congregate those that are alike 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But in this work we make heat to unite differing substances for all generation is of differing substances united into one Again fire having but one quality to work withall whereby he must unite the other three Elements what shall bring and unite fire unto them This must be another power superiour to them all for we must not imagine that they meet by chance as travellers do And therefore Aristotle explodes this efficient of fire and attributes it to the forms of natural things As for cold in the other Elements it is far more unlikely then heat to perform these offices being rather a distructive then a generative quality and is not called in by any Author to this work before the species have received his form by heat and then it is admitted only for consolidation but how justly it is doubtfull for heat doth consolidate as well as cold by drying up moisture But we will not grant this to either of them as principal Agents but as they are instruments attending the forms of natural things The Alchymists make Sulphur to be the principal efficient of all minerals especially of metals and Mercury the matter If they mean common Sulphur and Mercury which are perfect Species in their kinds they are much deceived and this opinion is sufficiently confuted by all that oppugne them But it seems they understand some parts in the seminary of metals which have some analogy with these and so their opinion may be allowed For the spirit which is the efficient in these generations doth reside in a material substance which may be resembled to Sulphur or Oyle as some other part may be resembled to Mercury For all generations are framed of different parts united by this Spirit Thus much of the different opinions concerning the efficient of all generations and in particular of minerals The matter whereof minerals are bred is attributed chiefly to the Elements as the general matter of all animate and inanimate bodies insomuch as both the heavens and the very souls of men are made to proceed from the Elements Concerning the Heavens it hath been the ancient opinion of the Platonicks Pythagoreans and Epicureans that not only these inferiour bodies but also the coelestial have been framed out of the Elements Plato speaking of the heavens saith Divini decoris ratio postulabat talem fieri mundum qui visum pateretur tactum Sine igne videri nil potest fine sulido nil tangi solidum sine terra nibil Wherefore holding the heavees to be visible and solid they must be made of the Elements The Pythagoreans and the Brachmanni of India held the same opinion of the Heavens where Apollonius Tyanaeus was instructed in all the Pythagorean Doctrine as Philostratus reports The Epicureans also were of the same opinion as appears in Virgil where he brings in Silâ—nus one of the sect and one of Bacchus his crew singing in this manner Namque canebat uti magnum perinane coacta Semina terrarumque animaeque marisque fuissent Et liquidi simul ignis ut his exordia primis Omnia ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis Silenus sung how through the Chaos vast The seeds were set of Earth of Air of Seas Of purest fire how out of these at last All things have sprung and also out of these The infant world was moulded Of this opinion also was Lucretius Philo Jidoens Valesius c. although Valesius doth make more pure Elements for the Heavens then ours Aristotle forsook his Master Plato in this point and frames the Heavens of a quintessential substance But howsoever the Heavens may participate with elementary qualities and be subject to generation and corruption in their parts yet me thinks they should exempt our soals from this original and not make them out of the fragment of the Elements Scaliger inveys against
plentiful exhalations as those must be which procure lightning and thunder and the vanity of their Antiperistasis to kindle these exhalations as hath been she wed before it is a sufficient refutation to take away the subject of the question that is all subterranean fire as I hope I have done and then we need not dispute about the means of kindling it c. these momentary meteors being produced only to kindle and not to maintain this fire From the water no man will derive this fire being a cold and moist Element and apt to quench it unless it be by dilating the seminary spirits of natural species and then they concur with us and renouncing the actual fire do confirm our heat of fermentation From the earth some have imagined an inbred heat ingenitum terrae calorem whereby it seems they had some glimmering of this light which we have given but have left it in as great obscurity as the Antipenstasis or Antipathy and earth being a cold and dry Element cannot be the cause of this heat as it is earth So as it is manifest that naturally the Elements cannot procure this heat of Bathes and by violent motion they can do as little For the earth being immovable cannot be stirred by any violent motion and the other three Elements as Fire Air and Water being thin and liquid substances can procure no heat by any motion or collision either upon themselves or upon the earth especially in the bowels of the earth where all is quiet and no room or scope for any such motion as this must be So that neither the other three Elements nor the earth either in the whole or in the parts can be the cause hereof by any violent motion From mixt bodies if this heat come it must be from animals vegetables or minerals Animals are not so plentiful in the earth as to cause this heat of Bathes either alive or dead We read of subterranean animals which have both motion and sense and understanding in Vincentius in speculo naturali in Lactantius in Agricola de animantibus subterraneis in Bellonius Ortelius Paracelsus c. who calls them Gnomi the Germanes Bergmaenlin the French Rabat the Cornish-men Fairies The Danes are generally perswaded that there are such creatures But if any such living creatures be able to procure this heat it cannot be by their hot complexions but it must be by violence and striking of fire Perhaps Democritus hath hired them to make his lyme there or some other to erect forges for thunder lightning and such like fire-works Brontesque Steropesque nudus membra Pyracmon But these opinions deserve no confutation From dead animals in their putrefaction some heat may appear but such as neither for the degree nor for the continuance can be answerable to our Bathes For vegetables there is the same reason as for dead animals neither doth the earth breed such plenty of these in her bowels as to procure a months heat to a tun of water in one place Wherefore we have nothing to ground upon but mineral substances whereof the earth affords enough For there is no part of the earth but is replenished with mineral seeds And although some may think that because minerals are not found or not wrought in all places and that some waters are also found which do not participate of the virtues of minerals that therefore our hot Bathes proceed not from the fermentation of minerals but from some other cause they are mistaken For although metals are not frequent in some places or at the least not discovered yet a man shall hardly dig ten foot deep in any place but he shall find rocks of stone which have their generation as well as other minerals or some of the Salts or Bitumina or Spirits or mean metals c. And how can Bathes receive mineral qualities but from minerals Therefore where Bathes are there must be Minerals although where Minerals are there are not always Bathes But perhaps they are not so accumulated as by their contiguity they are able to yield any manifest heat their matter being dispersed as grains of corn sown in a field which by reason of their lying single do not shew a sensible heat in their fermentation or most metals breeding between a Hanger and a Lieger which Agricola calls pendens and jacens are seldome above a foot thick and therefore cannot yield much heat to our waters And this is the cause why we have so few Bathes from Gold Silver Tin Lead c. But where much matter is accumulated together the very contiguity one part lying upon another will make a manifest heat untill it grow to a corpus continuum when the generation is perfected and then the heat is extinguished Or perhaps they have not water so plentifull as may yield a living spring although they may have sufficient for the use of their generation Or perhaps where they break forth they meet with desart sands as in Arabia China Africa c. Which drink up the water and hinder the eruption of it And whereas there are some hot springs found which do not shew any mineral quality in them the reason of this may be the want of concrete juice which as I have said before is the medium of communicating mineral qualities and substances with water For without them water is as unapt to imbibe minerals as it is to unite with oyle So as water may of it self receive actual heat from the fermentation of minerals but not their qualities without the mediation of some of the concrete juices as contrariwise we find some Fouutains that receive mineral qualities and yet are cold whereof I have given many examples The reason whereof is either for that they have passed a long way and by many Meanders from the place of generation to the place of their eruption and so have lost their heat or else the concrete juices which will dissolve in water without any heat being impregnated with other minerals do impart them to water and yet without heat But to say that there is any earth without mineral seeds is to make a vacuum in rerum natura and to destroy the use of the Elements It is true that the seeds do do not alwaies meet with opportunity to display themselves and sometimes they are fain to serve under other colours which are more predominant but there is no part of the earth without some seeds or other And from hence we must derive the original of the actual heat of Bathes for nothing else in the world will serve our turn to procure so lasting and so uniform a heat unto them and that not by kindling any actual fire about them for most of our minerals whereof our Bathes consist and from whence they receive both their actual heat and virtues will not burn neither have any actual heat in themselves being all cold to the touch but receive it by a fermenting heat which they have in their generation without which there
A DISCOURSE OF Natural Bathes AND Mineral Waters WHEREIN The Original of Fountains in general is declared The nature and difference of Minerals with Examples of particular Bathes The Generation of Minerals in the Earth from whence both the Actual Heat of Bathes and their Virtues proceed By what means Mineral Waters are to be discover'd And lastly of the Nature and Uses of Bathes but especially of our Bathes at Bathe in Somerset-shire By EDW. JORDEN Doctor in Physick The Third Edition revised and enlarged with some Particulars of the Authors Life To which is added An Appendix concerning Bathe wherein the Antiquity both of the Bathes and City is more fully discours'd with a Brief Account of the Nature and the Virtues of the Hot Waters there By THOMAS GUIDOTT M B. Imprinted at London and are to be sold by Thomas Salmon Bookseller in Bathe 1669. Imprimatur Sam. Parker RRmo Domino ac D no Gilberto Archi-Ep Cantuar. a sacris domesticis Ex aedib Lambeth Novemb. 7 1668 TO THE Right Honourable FRANCIS Lord COTTINGTON Baron of Hanworth Chancellour of the Exchequer and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council THE profitable use of Bathes both for necessity and comfort is such and so well confirmed from all antiquity as I need not labour to illustrate it more only it hath been the ill hap of Our Countrey Bathes to lie more obscure then any other throughout Christendome although they deserve as well as the best because very few have written any thing of them and they either have not mentioned or but slightly passed over the main points concerning their causes and originals contenting themselves with an emperical use of them This hath made me through the instigation also of some of my worthy friends to attempt somewhat of this kind which if it give not satisfaction according to my desire yet may be a provocation to some others to perfect that which I have begun And seeing I do it for the use of my Country I have neglected curious ornaments to garnish it withall but have clad it in a plain Sute of our Country Cloath without welt or gard not desiring it should shew it self in forain parts Mea cymba legat littus But in this mine undertaking I find my self exposed to many censures both concerning some Paradoxical Opinions in Philosophy which notwithstanding I deliver not gratis but confirmed with good grounds of reason and authorities as also concerning the reformation of our Bathes which do daily suffer many indignities more wayes then I have mentioned under the tyranny of ignorance imposture private respects wants factions disorder c. so as they are not able to display their virtues and do that good for which God hath sent them to us and all for want of such good government as other Bathes do enjoy I blame not our City herein unto whose care the ordering of these Bathes is committed the disorders and effects being such as are out of their verge and neither in their power nor in their knowledge to redress For they have sufficiently testified their desire of reforming all such abuses when they voluntarily did joyn in Petitioning the late King James of blessed memory to that end by whose death this Petition also died And they knew well that it must be a superior power that must effect it In these respects I have need of some noble and eminent Patron to protect both me and my Bathes whose cause I take upon we to plead and to advance according to their due desert but especially for the Bathes sake which I desire may flourish to the utmost extent of benefit to the people and to have all impediments removed out of their way which may hinder them in the progress of their virtues This is the cause Sir why I presume to dedicate these my labours to your Honour who having observed in forrain parts the uses and governments of all sorts and being both by the favour of his Majesty well able and by your noble disposition well inclined and willing to maintain good order and discipline will I doubt not excuse this boldness and pardon my presumption Consider Sir that this is your native Countrey which naturally every man doth affect to advance and these Bathes are the principal Jewels of your Countrey and able to make it more famous then any other parts of this Kingdom and in advancing them to advance your Name to all posterity wherefore howsoever my self deserve but small respect from you yet I beseech you respect the Bathes of your Countrey and me as a wellwisher unto them And as the common opinion of your great worth and abilities have moved me to this boldness so the particular favours of your Noble Lady and the encouragement of your learned Physitian Doctor Baskervill mine especial Friend who hath spurred me on to this work have removed out of my mind all suspition of misconstruction But that as mine intent hath been meerly the enlarging of the knowledge of those points concerning Bathes and more especially of our Bathes in Somerset-shire so you will be pleased to accept of this publick invitation by me to do your Countrey good and your self honour which I wish may never be disjoyned And to me it will be no small encouragement to devote my self and my best endeavours to your service So I humbly take my leave this 23. Aprilis 1632. Your Lordships most humble servant ED. JORDEN A Preface TO THE READER THE ensuing Discourse of Natural Bathes and Mineral Waters of the learned Author Dr. Jorden having found so kind an entertainment in the World as to have passed the Press twice in a Year and the Copies of both Impressions at this time so few as not to answer the Enquiries of persons desirous to peruse them a third Edition was necessary the Care of which together with some Additional Enlargements being requested of me I thought it might be a thing acceptable to many to view the Work and revive the memory of so worthy a Person Especially in this loose and quaking age of ours in which Empericks and juggling Medicasters do so much abound that t is almost as hard a matter to meet with a regular and well accomplish'd Physitian now as it was in former times for Diogenes to find an honest man The great occasion of this general abuse of Physick I observe to be mens beginning usually at the wrong end For the most supposing the Practice of Physick to be a mere Trade and Medicines the Ware to furnish themselves withall make what haste they can to get though upon Credit a Pack of Receits which they cry up as the most effectual and Triarian Remedies and having made a shift to truss up with the former fardle of Common Receits some few Specificks presently set up for eminent Physitians when to give them their due they deserve nothing less then that Honourable Name being indeed but Pedlers in the Faculty For there are besides the use of Medicines which in its proper
the could water be humidissimum medicamentum if it were not humidissimum elementum For the simple qualities are more intense in the Elements then in mixt Bodies caeteris paribus We speake of the proper operation of water according to his natural quality and not as it may work by accident Thinness and levity are two other qualities of simple water which Hypocrates commends and adds this experiment in another place that it is quickly hot and quickly cold Galen adds another experiment in the quick boyling of Peason and Beans And whereas Galen produceth the boyling of Beans as a familiar example to shew the tenuity of water we may gather that the use of Beans was common in those dayes although the Pyâ—hagorean sect did then much flourish which were thought to forbid the use of them But I find that here hath been a great mistake For Aristoxenus who wrote of the Life and Doctrine of Pythagoras affirms that he did delight much in that kind of food and our Physitians commend them for loosing the Belly and drying of Rheums But it seems the cause of this mistake was a Verse of Empedocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O miseri a fabulo miseri subducite dextras Thrice wretched men from Cyams keep your hands As if he had forbidden the use of Beans poor occasion to pronounce them miserable which used them But he meant it of continency and abstinence from venery as Aulus Gellius doth intérpret it where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are understood to be testiculi Cicero mentioneth the the same of the Pythagoreans but in another sense because Beans were thought by their flatulency to disturb our Dreams and so to hinder the divination which might be gathered from them as also Middendorpius judgeth But tâ— return to water And it is requisite that waâ—e should have these qualities in regard of the manifold and necessary uses of it both for Mâ—â— and Beast and Plants insomuch as there is nâ— living for any creature where there is no wateâ— It was our first drink to quench our thirst anâ— to distribute our nourishment as a vehiculuâ— which it doth by his tenuitie and after the invention of Wine it was mixed therewith â— Virgil saith of Bacchus Pocâ—laque inventis Acheloia miscuit â—vis And he that first found out the Vine Mix'd some Water with his Wine Where by Acheloia he means not only tâ— water of the River Achelous in Etolia butâ— other waters as Macrobius proves out of Aâ—â— stophanes and Ephorus and Scaliger saith thâ— the Greeks called all waters by that name froâ— the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And since the planting of Vine yards seeing all Countries could not beâ— Grapes Bacchus also taught the world to make vinum è frugibus with water as Diodorus Siculus reports from whence the Egyptians had their Zithum and Curmi the Spaniards their Cerea the Turks their Cowset and we our Ale and Beer all which are extracted out of Corn by the pureness of and tenuitie of water By means whereof we have our Broths Syrups Apozemes c. extracted with it as a fit menstruum to receive the faculties of all medicaments and nourishments especially the second qualities and therefore it was antiently called Panspermia besides the manifold uses in washing dying c. where that water is accounted hest which lathers most being mix'd with Soap of which I will not discourse farther Levity is another note of pure water alledged by many and serves well to distinguish it from many mixed waters whether we respect the weight of it or the molestation which it breeds in the bowels This difference of weight is hardly discerned by ballance both because simple waters do very little differ in this point and also many mixt waters if they be only infected with Spirits and not corporal substances retain the same proportion of heaviness with simple water and also because it is hard to have great Ballances so exact as a small difference may be discerned by them yet Agricola reports that a cotyle of the water of Pyrene and Euleus did weigh a dram less then the water of Euphrates or Tigris and therefore the Kings of Persia used â—o drink of it and held it in great account as also the water of the River Coaspis Thus much for the qualities which simple water should have for such as it should not have I shall not need to spend time in discourse being either such as the Senses will discover if it be in taste colour smell or touch or the effects if it be purgative vomitory venomous c. CHAP. III. Of the three Originals of Simple Waters NOW it followeth that we shew from whence these waters have their Original which is no other then of the mixt waters saving that the mixt waters do participate with some Minerals which are imbibed in them They haue three several Originals the one from moist vapours congealed by cold in the air the second from the earth the third by percolation from the Sea For the first it is certain that our Springs and Rivers do receive great supply of waters from the Air where vapours being congealed by cold do fall down upon the Earth in Rain or Snow or Hail whereby the ground is not only made fertile but our Springs are revived and our Rivers increased As we see the Rhine and Danubius to swell more in Summer than in Winter because then the Snow which continually lyeth upon the Alpes doth melt by the heat of the Sun and fills those Rivers which have their Originals from thence up to the brinks Also we see daily after much Rain our small Lakes and Rivers to be very high Also upon much dryth our Springs fail us in many places which upon store of Rain do supply us again with water And this is the cause that in most parts of Africa near the Equinoctial where it rains little they have little water and many times in two or three dayes journey can hardly find to quench their thirsts and their Camels Leo Africanus speaks of an Army wherein were many Camels which in their marching coming to a River perhaps it was but a Brook did drink it dry So that we must acknowledge that the Earth receives much water this way But how this should serve the Bowels of the Earth with sufficient for the generations there and for perpetual Springs is very doubtfull whereas Seneca faith that these waters do not pierce above ten foot into the Earth neither if there were passages for it into the Bowels of the Earth can the hundred part of it be imployed this way but is readily conveyed by Rivers into the Sea Wherefore although much water be yielded to the superficies of the Earth by Rain and Snow and Hail from the Air yet not sufficient to maintain perpetual Springs seeing many times and in many Countries these aerial supplies are wanting or very spare and yet the Springs the
an escar and the preserving from putrifaction are arguments of driness and not of heat For as heat and moisture are principal agents in generation and corruption so cold and driness in preservation Also I should impute the purgative and detersory qualities in Salt rather to the tenuity of parts and the stimulation which iâ— hath from thence then to any heat for then 〈◊〉 Sennertus faith all hot things should purge Instit lil 5. part 1. cap. 11. Vuleriala in Gâ—â— de constit artis pag. 447. And Mesne Canâ— universal cap. 1. rejects all elementary qualities temperaments similitudes or contrarietioâ— of substances c. in purging thedicines All Tamarinds Myrabolans and Antimony 〈◊〉 purge and yet are cold Venustus pag. 13â— But the purgative faculty of Medicines is froâ— stimulation of the expulsive faculty of the stomach and guts and not from attraction bâ— heat of peculiar humours as hath been imagined Heat may serve as an instrument to actuâ— stimulation as cold doth dull and benumb 〈◊〉 faculties but neither heat nor cold are principal agents in this work And whereas Rhubâ— is thought to purge choller only Sena and Polipody melancholy Agarick flegme c. because we see the excrements tincted with the same colours it is a deceit for these purgation do colour humours in that manner Yet I do not deny a distinction to be made of Purgations in other respects And our antient Physitians through long experience have found out the right use of purging medicines and their true distinctions for several uses for mens bodies as that some do purge gross humours and some thin some are strong and some weak some are comfortable to the Stomach or Liver or Spleen c. and some hurtfull to some of those parts some are too hot in some cases and some temperate c. but they have not discovered the true cause of this purging quality some attributing it to a celestial influence some to a hidden quality which is as much as if they bad said nothing some to a Sympathy Antipathy c. For my part I hold the purgative quality of mixt bodies to lie principally in the terrestrial part of them which is their Salt and therefore the Chymists use to acuate their purging extracts with their proper Salts It were much better if they could make their Salts without calcination for then they should retain the taste of the Simples which lyeth in the Salt and much other virtue which the fire consumes in calcination It were a delicate thing to have all our vegetable salts to retain the taste of the herbs and simples from whence they are drawn as of Wormwood bitter of Sorel sour of Licoris sweet c. There are in mine opinion three several wayes for it although they be laborious The one is by precipitation when the juice or strong decoction of any simple is precipitated by the addition of some appropriate liquor which will strike down all other parts in the juice or decoction but the Salt which is in it will not easily precipitate but will remain in the liquor and must be severed either by evaporation or by roching But in this work we must make choice of such a precipitator as may not infect our Salt with any strange quality Another way it to make an extract of the simple which we desire to work upon and when we have made it so dry as it will be powdred then pour upon it pure spirit of Wine which will dissolve no Salt if it be without flegme By this means throngh often repetitions of new infusions untill the extract will yield no more tincture unto the spirit of Wine you shall find the Salt in the bottome as a substance which the Spirit of Wine will not work upon nor dissolve A third way as I conceive may be in manner of the working of Salt-Peeter by putrifying great quantities oâ— the herbs untill they become earth and theâ— by infusions with water to extract the Salt which will not putrifie with the herb but will remain in the earth The second course I have tryed the other wayes are very probable In these salts do lie the chief virtues of many simples either for purging by stool or urine or for cleansing cooling drying stimulating opening oâ— obstructions attenuating of gross humours astriction corroboration c. according to the nature of the simples whereas the other Salt which are made by calcination have lost these virtues by the violence of fire and cannot be distinguished the one from the other Nitre is a volatile substance which doth dry and attenuate more then Salt and although it hath not so much astriction as Salt is said to have yet it seems to cool more then Salt perhaps because it is of thinner parts and penetrates more and that is the reason that it serves better for the dissolution of Metals In Physick we find our Sal Nitrum which is a kind of it to cool the body mightily and therefore used in Juleps These Nitres also are apt to move sweat especially those that are drawn artificially from mixed bodies as from Boles Cordial Herbs Bones Horns Teeth Claws Hoofs c. which are drawn by sublimation And these parts of Animals are found to be very soveraign against venome and maligne humours The reason of it I take to be not only the drying quality they have whereby they resist corruption of humours but also principally by reason of their volatile Salt or Nitre whereby they move sweat and expell from the center of the body For all their Salt is volatile as may appear by this that you can never make any lixivium out of any of these animal Medicines by calcination as you do out of vegetables their Salt being altogether evaporated by the fire This volatile salt being taken into our bodies and actuated by our natural heat is commonly very Diaphoretick and this is it which makes our Bezoar Stones Contrae-yerva Ungula del Bado and supposed Unicorns Horn to be in such esteem SAl Ammoniacum is also a kind of Nitre and volatile and so is Borax and Altincar but these are commonly mixed with Sal Alcali and Urin or Vinegar and so made more fix There is also a natural Fix Borax found in the Isle of Lamlay neer Dublin in Ireland which perhaps the Sea water hath fixt Allum and Vitriol are much alike but that Vitriol hath a garb from Copper or Iron These are very astringent and without doubt cold whatsoever hath been held of them The waters or slegms distilled from them do exceedingly cool in Juleps as Quercitan and Claudius Dariot have observed and we also by daily experience do find true by reason of the intense acidity they have being distilled from their Terrestrial parts Also those Acidula which the Germans call Saurbrun proceeding from these Juices are much used to quench the heat of fevers It may be objected that they are corrosives and will eat into metal and therefore must be hot
But by the same reason the Juices of Lemons Barberries Howsleek c. should be hot for they will carve Iron To bite and eat as a Corrosive are not arguments of heat but of piercing Wherefore Hypocrates saith Frigus ulceribus mordax Cold bites Ulcers and frigus est principium destructivum ut calor generativum Cold is a destructive principle and Heat a generative And therefore it is more probable that these corrosives are more cold then hot These two mineral juices are not so readily dissolved in water as the other two and wil be more easily precipitated by any opposite substance that is more familiar to water I omit the several sorts or these concrete juices and their admixtures with other minerals as impertinent to my purpose wherefore I will shew some examples of each of them in natural Springs For salt Springs Josephus Acosta tells us of a rare Spring at a Farm neer Cusco in Peru which as it runs turns into very white Salt without any fire or art in great abundance In Germany are many salt Fountains at Luneburg Stafford Salt â—burgh Aldondorf Halstat c. In Italy in agro Volaterano c. In Sicily at Solinantia is a salt Well which is hot and so are the Pegasaei Fontes in Caria Also the Fountain by Medon in Traesen is both salt and hot Our Wiches in Cheshire are well known There are also Rivers of salt water by the Caspian Streights and in Spain and Caria and in Bactria Ochus and Oxus Also there are salt Lakes as the Terentine Lake in Italy the Lake between Strapela and Seburgh mentioned before in Germany three Lakes in Sicily and besides an infinite number in other Countreys the Lake of Lakes the Sea All which receive their saltness from Mines of Salt in the Earth which are very frequent and huge in bigness as may appear by the Rocks of Salt in Bohemiâ— in Monte Carpato in Polonia within two miles of Cracovia in Helvetia and Rhetia where they have no other Salt but from the Rock As also by the Caspian Streights are great Rocks of Salt But Marous Paulus Venetus tells us of a Rock or Mountain of Salt in Thaican able to furnish all the world with Salt So that it is no marvail that the Sea is salt seeing it pierceth into the bowels of the earth and discovereth many great Rocks of Salt which dissolve in it And this is the true cause of the saltness of the Sea The other causes alledged for it are very improbable For whereas Aristotle and his followers attribute the saltness of the Sea to the evaporation of the fresh and sweet parts of the water by the Sun and to an adustion procured also thereby I answer that neither the one nor the other can breed a substance in the water which was not there before For qualities can breed no substance and adustion is but a quality imprinted and no substance Neither can evaporation breed any but only discover that which was in it before by taking away the thin parts and leaving the terrestrial behind But we see the Sea water to contain in it the substance of Salt and most of the Salt which we use is made of Sea water and no man will deny that this Salt is differing from water in his substance and generation being a distinct species in it self And whereas they alledge for confirmation of their opinion that under the torrid Zone the Sea is more salt then in other parts the Sun exhaling more there and making a greater adustion I doubt it both for the large plentiful Rivers which those parts afford beyond any other parts of the world and also for that the Sea water there is not hot neither are the beams of the Sun so hot but that men do endure them and therefore not likely to breed an adustion in the Sea water which must first be hot before it be adusted Also it may be that those parts do abound in Rocks of Salt as we read of people in Africa called Ammantes who make them Houses of Rock-Salt and Castles as that in Sinâ— Geraico which is five miles in compass and all of Salt also the Mountain Oromenus in India is all of Salt Moreover if the Sun be able to do this in the Sea which is alwayes in motion whereby it eludes the force of the beams why should it not do the like and much more in standing Lakes as the Lemanus and such like They answer that Lakes are continually supplyed and fed with fresh water from Springs But so is the Sea continually fed with fresh water and in as large a proportion caeteris paribus as Lakes are For as the Sea is not increased by the influx of fresh waters no more are divers Lakes but keep the same fulness and sometimes are lessened And whereas they say that the upper part of the Sea is more salt then the botome they speak against all reason salt being heavier then water and against experience as I have shewed in the former Chapter Also Aristotle in some places confesseth it But if any man will take the pains to vapour away 100. Tun if he will of fresh water I do assure my self he will not find one grain of salt at the bottome if it were not in the water before This may be tryed also in any distilled water which we are sure can have no Salt in it for Salt will not arise in distillation and is as apt to yield Salt as any other water if adustion or evaporation would breed it Wherefore the saltness of the Sea is not from evaporation or adustion but must needs proceed from Rocks of Salt in the Earth which the Sea doth wash and dissolve much of it And considering the great use of Salt both for other uses and for Generations Nature hath provided enough of it especially in the Sea which is more fruitful in that respect the Land Wherefore Venus was called A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est Venus orta Mari. Nitre is seldome found in Bathes alone but mixt with other minerals which it dissolves and infects the water withall Yet we read of a Nitrous Lake called Letis neer CÄlestria in Macedonia where they use to make Nitre and vent it to all parts So they do at the Nitrarit in Egypt Also the Lake Arethusâ— in Armeniae is full of Nitre At Menis in Phrygia is a Spring of Nitrous water which is hot Also in Leonte is a hot Nitrous Spring Bellonius makes mention of a Nitrous Fountain neer Belba and of abundance of Nitre upon a Plain neer thereunto which seems to be that which Pliny calls Halmariga But he denieth that there is any Mine of Nitre under the earth but that all iâ— bred out of the soyle as an Efftorescens of the earth Baccius saith the same of Salt-peeter Agricola saith that as the true Nitre is gathered upon the Plains of Media above the earth so is Salt-peeter found
tastes numbers proportions distempers c. Also from hence proceed the Transplantations which we find in animals vegetables and minerals In animils these Transplantations are not very frequent yet all our monsters may be referred hereunto as also the issue which comes from Dogs and Wolves Horses and Asses Partriges and Hens c. Some do think that the destruction of Sexes is a Transplantation and that all seeds in themselves are hermophroditical and neither masculine nor feminine but as they meet with strong and weak impressions from supervenient causes From hence come our Androgyni or masculine women such as Horace speaks of Sabellis docta ligonibus versare glebas That dig the ground themselves stout Jades Managing well Sabean Spades Among those Animals which we call Insecta these Transplantations are more frequent because their seeds are more equivocal and easily transmuted from one species to another as we may see in Worms and Flies and most evidently in Silk-worms called Cavallieri In Vegetables these Transplantations are very frequent when one species is grafted upon another as Virgil faith Et steriles platani malos gessere valentes Castaneae fagos ornusque incanuit albo Flore pyri glandemque sues fregere sub ulmis The barren Planes did Apples bear The Beeches Chesnuts th' Ash a Pear And Hogs did under Elm-trees Acorns tear Thus by commixtion of several species the first seeds do oftentimes being forth other fruits then their own Miranturque novas frondes non sua poma And stand admiring double mute To see new leaves and stranger fruit But all as Hypocrates saith by divine necessity both that which they would and that which they would not So likewise Wheat is changed into Lolium Basil into Thyme Masterwort into Angelica c. In Minerals we find the like transplantations as Salt into Nitre Copperass into Allum Lead into Tin Iron into Copper Copper into Iron c. And this is the transplantation whereupon the Alchymists ground their Philosophers stone This Seminary Spirit is acknowledged by Aristotle Continent inquit semen in se cujusque faecundit atis suae causam and by most of his Interpreters and Morisinus calls it Elphesteria not knowing how to attribute these generations to the Elements And this is the cause why some places yield some one vegetable or mineral species above another Quippe solo natura subest Non owsnis fert omnia tellus It is the nature of the ground Not in all Soils are all things found This seminary spirit of minerals hath its proper wombs where it resides and is like a Prince or Emperour whose prescripts both the Elements and matter must obey and it is never idle but alwayes in action producing and maintaining natural substances untill they have fulfilled their destiny donec fatum expleverint as Hypocrates saith So as there is a necessity in this depending upon the first benediction crescite multiplicamini and this necessity or fatum is inherent in the seeds and not adventitious from the Planets or any other natural cause And this is the cause of uniformity in every species that they have all their proper figures dimensions numbers of parts colours tastes c. most convenient and agreeable to each nature as Moses saith that God saw that every thing was very good and Galen saith Deus in omnibus optimum eligit And this I take to be the meaning of his Lex Adrastia which he alledgeth against Asclepiades For it he should mean it as commonly it is understood of punishment which alwayes follows sin nemâ— crimen in pectore gestaet qui non idem Nemesiâ— in tergo No man though privately commits a fault but is degg'd by revenge in this sense he could not apply it to the confuting of Asciepiades There are also other laws in nature which cannot be altered both Mathematical in Arithmetick and Geometry and Logical in the consecuting of arguments c. But these serve not for Galens purpose in this place He must mean it of a natural necessity or fatum or predestination that frames every member part of the body to the best use for the creature And therefore where Asclepiades propounds an inconvenient frame of parts he confutes him by this inbred law of nature which he saith no man can alter or avoid nor any subtility elude as also Aristotle saith Thus much for the generation of Minerals and other natural substances CHAP. XIII Of the causes of actual heat and medicinal virtue in Mineral Waters divers opinions of others rejected NOW I come to shew how our mineral waters receive both their actual heat and their virtues I joyn them together because they depend upon one and the same cause unless they be juices which will readily dissolve in water without the help of heat other minerals will not or very hardly This actual heat of waters hath troubled all those that have written of them and many opinions have been held of the causes of them Some attribute it to wind or air or exhalations included in the bowels of the earth which either by their own nature or by their violent motion and agitation and attrition upon rocks and narrow passages do gather heat and impart it to our waters Of their own nature these exhalations cannot be so hot as to make our water hot especially seeing in their passage among cold rocks it would be much allaied having no supply of heat to maintain it Moreover where water hath passage to get forth to the superficies of the earth there these exhalations and winds will easily pass and so their heat gone withall and so our waters left to their natural coldness whereas we see they do continue in the same degree and tenor many generations together If by their agitation and violent motion they get this heat because no violent thing is perpetual or constant this cannot be the cause of the perpetual and constant heat of water Besides this would rather cause earthquakes and storms and noyses in the earth then heat our springs Moreover we daily observe that exhalations and water are never heated by motion or agitation as in the Cataracts of the Rhine by Splug the agitation and fall of water upon rocks is most violent and makes a hideous noyse yet it heats not the water though it be very deep in the earth Neither can any attrition heat either air or water or any soft and liquid thing but rather make it more cold Others attribute this actual heat of Bathes unto the Sun whose beams piercing thorow the pores of the earth do heat our waters If this heat which heats our Bathes be caused by the beams of the Sun then either they bring it intirely from the Sun as a quality proceeding from thence or they make it by their own motion If it come from the nature of the Sun the Sun must be extream hot that can heat these inferiour parts at such a distance especially the
by warming and comforting the cold part And Oribasius doth ingeniously confess that the nature of these Baths was not then perfectly discovered and therefore they were all held to be not only dry but very hot although we find them not all so for Iron waters do cool and so do those of Camphir and Alluminous and Nitrous waters also But for our Bituminous and Sulphurous waters which Galen forbids in hot brains there is no reason to suspect them in cold affects of the brain and nerves in which cases we make especial choice of all things which either in tast or smell do resemble Bitumen as Rue Castorium Valeriana Herba Paralyseos Trifolium Asphaltitis c. which both by his warming quality and by his suppling and mollifying substance is most proper and convenient for those parts The like I may say of Sulphur in which nothing can be excepted against but his sharp spirit which is made by burning and we have none of that in our waters nor I hope any fire to make it withal The other parts of Sulphur are hot and dry and very unctuous As for Nitre it cleanseth purgeth both by stool and urine and helpeth the incorporation of the other Minerals with the water and qualifies the heat of them and gives them better penetration into our bodies In regard of these Minerals together with the actual heat we find that the bathing in our Baths doth warm the whole habit of the body attenuate humors open the pores procure sweat move urine cleanse the matrix provoke womens evacuations dry up unnatural humors strengthen parts weakned comfort the nerves and all neutrous parts cleanse the skin and suck out all salt humours from thence open obstructions if they be not too much impacted case pains of the joynts and nerves and muscles mollifie and discuss hard tumors c. Wherefore this bathing is profitable for all palsies apoplexies caros epilepsies stupidity destuctions gouts sciaticaes contractions cramps aches tumors itches scabs leprosies cholicks windyness whites in women stopping of their courser barrenness abortions scorbuts anasarcaes and generally all cold and phlegmatick diseases which are needless to reckon up In all which cureâ— our Baths have a great hand being skilfully directed by the Physitian with preparation of the body before and addition of such other helps as are needfull And whereas without the help of such Baths these diseases could not be cured without tormenting the body either by fire of lancing or causticks or long dyets or bitter and ungrateful medicines c. In this course of bathing all is pleasant and comfortable and more effectual than the other courses and therefore it is commonly the last refuge in these cases when all other means fail I will not undertake to reckon up all the benefits which our Baths do promise but if we had a register kept of the manifold cures which have been done by the use of our Baths principally it would appear of what great use they are But as there is a defect in not keeping a Catalogue of rare Cures so many persons of the better sort would be offended if a Physitian should make any mention of their cures or griefs wherefore I must speak but generally CHAP. XIX The manner of bathing chiefly referred to the inspection and ordering of a Physitian Yet some particulars touched concerning the government of the patient in and after bathing the time of day of staying in the Bath of continuing the use of it The time of the year Of covering the Baths NOw for the manner of bathing I will not set down what the Physitian is to do but leave that to his judgement and discretion but what is fit for the patient to know for there are many cautions and observations in the use of bathing drawn from the particular constitutions of bodies from the complication of diseases and from many other circumstances which cannot be comprehended in general rules or applyed to all bodies alike but many times upon the success and the appearing of accidents the Physitian must exre nat a capere consilium and perhaps alter his intended course and perhaps change the Bath either to a hotter or cooler c. In which respect those patients are ill advised which will venture without their Physitian upon any particular Bath or to direct themselves in the use of it And this is a great cause that many go away from hence without benefit and then they are apt to complain of our Baths and blaspheme this great blessing of God bestowed upon us It is fit for the patient when he goeth into the Bath to defend those parts which are apt to be offended by the Bath as to have his head well covered from the air and wind and from the vapours arising from the Bath also his kidneys if they be subject to the Stone anointed with some cooling unguents as Rosatum Comitissae Infrigidans Galeni Santolinum c. Also to begin gently with the Bath till his body be inured to it and to be quiet from swimming or much motion which may offend the head by sending up vapours thither at his coming forth to have his body well dryed and to rest in his bed an hour and sweat c. A morning hour is fittest for bathing after the Sun hath been up an hour or two and if it be thought fit to use it again in the afternoon it is best four or five hours after a light dinner For the time of staying in the Bath it must be according to the quality of the Bath and the toleration of the patient In a hot Bath an hour or less may be sufficient in a temperate Bath two hours For the time of continuing the Bath there can be no certain time set down but it must be according as the patient finds amendment sometimes twenty daies sometimes thirty and in difficult cases much longer And therefore they reckon without their Host which assign themselves a certain time as perhaps their occasions of business will best afford For the time of the year our Italian and Spanish Authors prefer the Spring and Fall and so they may well do in their hot Countreys but with us considering our climate is colder and our Baths are for cold diseases I hold the warmest moneths in the year to be best as May June July and August and I have persivaded many hereunto who have found the benefit of it for both in our Springs and after September our weather is commonly variable and apt to offend weak persons who finding it temperate at noon do not susp ct the coolness of the mornings and evenings Likewise in the Bath it self although the Springs arise as hot as at other times yet the wind and air beating upon them doth do them much harm and also make the surface of the water much cooler than the bottom and therefore Clauidinus wisheth all Baths to be covered and Fallâ—pius finds great fault with the Lords of Venice that they do not