Or Secondly These Fermentations are to be considered in the further progress and closer interweavings of the principles whereby they become to be more quick and high the Sulphur gradually softening and sweetning their connate acids and thence the bodies wherein those Fermentations happen becomes more pregnant with Spirits being now more plentifully ingendred and more easily set at liberty by the power of Fermentation then before And this is evident in all things brought on to maturity and becomes sensibly apparent chiefly in all odorous Plants and Fruits Or Lastly They are to be considered in the more sensible brisk conflicts of the principles even after the bodies they work in are brought to maturity one dulcifying the other by the concurring causes of solar heat c. the principles I say being yet kept on in motion in all fermentable juices and grains do produce the greatest plenty of Spirits which being set at liberty are all those we call vinous Spirits in animals those we call animal Spirits the genuine product of vital and animal Fermentations and in minerals their Spirits in some places after heating transient waters for hot Baths appear in volatiz'd Sulphurs otherwhere in subtile acids as the causes of some aciduloe and elsewhere in apporrhea steams c. as elsewhere we have shewed Thus in all fruits brought on to maturity and all grains ripened for the harvest the principles in their mutual Collisions are so pregnant as that by being put nearer together which happens by their being juiced or malted they are thereby set a work into a sensible Fermentation as appears in all fermentable juices and malted grains the immediate result of both which are vinous Spirits Thus in all natural animal Fermentations of their juices requisite for circulation of the blood nourishment of the body and for the performing other functions peculiar thereto the animal principles are so pregnant as in their continual wrestlings and inward collisions incessantly to produce such a stock of Spirits a being rightly disposed and carryed in their proper Conduits the Nerves are sufficient to thâ— absolving the functions of sense and motion And the like in their kind may be said of minerals concerning which viz. the origin of animal Spirits from the foresaid Fermentation we may elsewhere largely discourse We shall only say at present that as the natural Fermentations in animal bodies are produced from the intestine collisions and inward struglings betwixt the native acid of the Stomack fortified perhaps by some connatural acidum in the aliment and the acquired Sulphur of nutritive concretes separating Hetrogenities and graduating themselves by successive depurations till they in their proper juices perform those circulations requisite to the peculiar funcitons of the body So likewise from the Catastrophe of the natural and superinduction of other not congenial acids may be made such mortifications precipitations and depravations of the genuine ferments and such new complications betwixt the recent acid and the Sulphur in the otherwise natural fermenting juices as to lay a foundation of new spurious Fermentations the causes of Feavers of all sorts Not to say here how most yea for ought I know all sorts of Feavers are nothing else but spurious Fermentations of the blood and other juices of the body distinguishable or if I may say specificated by variety of acids not congeneal but wholly disagreeable gradually heightening the natural and otherwise slow pac'd genuine Fermentations whose various degrees of Feavers are most what differenced or specificated from the low or high slower or quicker degrees of spurious Fermentation or to speak in a more plain dialect how Feavers are various sorts or different degrees of inflamations of the blood and other juices For an inflamation according to our Hypothesis is nothing else but a heightening of Fermentation from a more strong collision of the principles whereby from their mutual wrestlings they arrive to the height of causticks which as we shew elsewhere differ from corrosives onely from the difference of their acids such I mean as in a lower degree pleurising from an inflamatory transposition of the fiery particles of the blood upon the pleura and in a higher degree as are the plague and pestilential Feavers which are Feavers in their highest inflamatory and siery degree witness the Anthrases Carbuncles and other pestilential badges which shew perfect Eschars upon the skin as if perform'd by cauteries Lixivial or fiery which are with due caution to be cured by such ways and methods as allay that furious fiery Ebullition by Phlebotomy and gentle breathing Sweats but here we must cut short intending as this finds acceptance a fuller and more free discourse of the nature of Feavers how essentially specificated and what methods accordingly they best yield too concerning which we may Deo dante treat in another place Onely this by the by we would observe that amongst animal juices those from vegitables made by animal Ferments suppose Milk by the various actions of the innate or adventitious acids upon their inbred Sulphurs happen different products First therefore as to the coagulations and alterations to be made from the inbred acidum thereof Thus Milk while in an equal temperature of its constituent ingredients undergoes no separation of parts remaining in an uniform Liquor but being expos'd to the Air after a while the innate acidum of the Milk being acuated by that of the Air makes a spontaneous separation of a cremor from the more thin part which Cream having some acidum in it as we elsewhere prove that all Cremors Oyles Fatts Axungia's c. are but different disguises of animal Sulphurs have their implanted acids by keeping grows more sour this by concussion of the parts in that motion we call Churming undergoes a Fermentation of its kind from whence happens another sort of separation viz. into Butter which is Sulphur in another form then before and a more serous part call'd Butter-milk And as Milk after the separation of Cream by longer standing comes to a thick and almost gellyed consistence by Countrey people call'd Loppard and by a little heat splits into Curd and Whey so Butter-milk if kept long will come to the like consistence but if heated the acidum presently coagulates the Curdy part if that coagulation be made in heat after the mixture of New-Milk the acidum in the Butter-milk coagulates both the Curdy parts of its own as also Butirous and Curdy parts of the New-milk into that sort of sour coagulum call'd hatted Milk which is more or less sour according to the prevalency of the acidum or more or less affusion of New-Milk And Lastly As the foresaid alterations are made from the various coagulations of Milk from its implanted acid So likewise other sorts of coagulations thereof are produced from additional acids Thus any Fermentative potable Liquor as Wine Ale Beer Syder c. mixed with Milk the acidum in such Liquors coagulates the Sulphurous parts into a Curd separable from the serus Liquor the like will
Snow Hail Meteors and other apparances common to and peculiarly obvious in the Atmosphere So here I would take an occasion from the nature of the foresaid Fermentation to insist a little upon the two grand Phoenomena's of heat and light found in concrete bodies from the same principles CHAP. VI. I Shall not here by climing so high insist upon the causes of heat and light in that great and inexhaustible Fountain thereof the Sun whether its perpetual Spring and incessant emanation may not consist in a peculiar Fermentation of its own set a work by the divine Fiat and kept a foot by a continual circulation of aethereal matter concerning which we may elsewhere modestly propound our thoughts nor shall I descend so low as to treat any further of the causes of heat in those known subterraneal Vulcano's But shall at present make it my task in short to shew First That Fermentation is made from the mutual struglings and intestine combatings of Acid and Sulphur in all juices and concrete bodies where it is evident And how heat is produced from Fermentation in all such bodies where it is found Secondly To shew how from the same principles and after what manner light is made That Fermentation and Ebullition in mineral juices whether naturally or artificially prepared proceed not from the contrariety of Salts as many worthy persons urge is evident because there is no such Ebullition amongst Salts but what are from the contrariety and struglings of Acids and Alcalies whereas no man ever yet could make it appear that those minerals either in succo or in actual concretion contain'd any sort of Alcalies either fixed or volatile But on the contrary its most certain from irresragrable experiments that Sulphurs and Acids are separable from them all And as before we have shewed the Fermentation of minerals to consist in the collision and intestine wrestlings of their Acid and Sulphur as the causes of hot Baths c. So the Fermentation in animals is no less observable to proceed from the like inward struglings of their imbred Acid and Sulphur continually till they dye kept on foot in the body of animals and that will appear if we consider their implanted acid juices the very foundation of all Ferments and the daily occurrence of such sort of Food in whose texture both Acid and Sulphur chiefly Sulphur doth reside in order to the keeping those Ferments at work for the nourishing and upholding the fabrick of those bodies The first wheel as I may say of these Ferments or the primordial Stamina of acids in animal bodies after their formation are placed in the Stomack where the Fermentation begins from the native acidum acting upon the acquired Sulphur of nutritive food and is carryed on into the second digestion into the intestines where a fresh gentle acidum from the pancreatick juice and a Sulphur from the Gaule sent thither by the ductus biliaris promote and assist a further Fermentation and thence carryed into the blood where the same principles of Fermentation together with a volatile Salt complicated with the Sulphur and Acidum are still at work and undergo new separations and depurations as also acquire new helps of volatization from the continually inspired Air into the Lungs through which the blood passeth which still promotes the begun Fermentation in order to the circulation thereof and nourishment of the whole So that the native acid juice of the Stomack is not in a strict sense a Ferment till such times as it finds some Sulphurous food upon which as its proper subject it begins to work and then upon its action collision and mutual strugling with the Sulphur in the assum'd aliment begins the Fermentation which being vital we suppose to be the very first spring of heat in the animal body after it hath passed its Embrio-state Yea all the rest of the Fermentations in the body are but the continuations of this Fermentation begun in the Stomack for the blood is made up of that Chyle which by Fermentation is wrought in the Stomack retaining so much of its first principles of Acid and Sulphur mixed in a just temperature assisted with the pancreatick and bilous juices as may be sufficient to keep that Liquor still in a Fermentative motion such as may help to supply with a new off-spring of animal Spirits the very product of that Fermentation as also to fill up the interstices of that matter or those parts which are continually upon the wheel winding off through the perspirable Portals of the body as we may elsewhere God willing take an occasion further to discourse How powerful a menstruum this Stomachial acid the first efficient of heat is doth appear both by the great force of working upon and dissolving all alimentary things which are all of them such as wherein Sulphur whether vegitable or animal is more or less complicated and cujus intuitu viz. for the sake of which all the rest wrapt up in the same concrete are also dissolved as likewise doth appear from those strong vellications of the Nerves and Tunicles of the Stomack upon hunger being a nothing else but that aforesaid acid menstruum preying upon the next adjacent parts through the want of some Sulphurous subject to work upon That Sulphurous concretes whether animal or vegital are the proper Subjects for the native acidum of the Stomack to work upon in order to Fermentation is clear because neither Stone Clay Earth Marle Wood nor such like wherein are no Sulphurous parts or at least such as are not congenial to the foresaid acidum can become capable of being food inasmuch as no genuine Fermentation essentially necessary to the upholding the fabrick of an animal body can thence be made Not now further to shew how Fermentation begun in the Stomack and carryed on in the blood and other humours is not onely the efficient cause and effectual source of heat but also of all animal Spirits carryed thence by the conduit-pipes of the Nerves into the habit of the body in order to the performing those peculiar functions of sense and motion both viz. heat and animal Spirits being the immediate products of animal Fermentations We say that in the circle of natures operations throughout her triplicity of bodies there is no such thing as Spirits separable but what are the immediate results of Fermentation For however among some Physiologists they are reputed inter principia corporum yet according to our Hypothesis they are no principles but the posterior products of Fermentation and appear in bodies according to the slow or quick low or high degrees of Fermentation from whence proceed their threefold order in the productions of concretes For either these Fermentations are to be considered in their primordials or first workings in bodies in order to the fabrick thereof and so the Spirits which thence result are in a low depressed state deeply immers'd in corporeal bulk as appears in vegitables c. in their state of Infancy and Crudity
other Apporrhea the Sulphurous especially the Acido-Nitro-Sulphurous are not the least which mustering in long-droughts when the Clouds ride high being born up at those seasons by a stronger elasticity of the Air upheld by strong and long Colums thereof and one Cloud being higher then another by its own weight and wanting stress of Air to bear it up falls upon the subsiding which by the sudden percussion of the Air makes that explosive motion or crack we call Thunder together with a rushing wind which usually attends those Thunder-claps which is nothing else but a pressure of Air circulating from the coincidence of the two Clouds Now by the sudden allision of the foresaid Clouds upon the Acido-Nitro-Sulphurous-complications floating in the Atmosphere as aforesaid heightens them into a quick vibration and momentary flagration we call Lightening which although it be done in the very same moment with the crack as proceeding both from the same causes with different respects yet because luminous percussions do more quickly make their transits through the medium therefore it is sooner seen then the other heard as might further be illustrated if I would now insist upon it So that Lightening owes its causes to the sudden percussions or attritions of the Acido-Nitro-Sulphurous apporrhea in the Air made by the sudden falling of one Cloud upon another which we cannot better represent by similitude to our understanding then by the observation of a sudden flash of Fire or Light struck from the allision of a Flint and Steel For the thin Acido-Nitro-Sulphurous textures are in that part as well as in others of the Atmosphere which is comprehended betwixt two Clouds and the percussion of the Air as also of those foresaid minute effluvia wheeling in the Air make them to appear in a sudden flash as happens from the foresaid allision of Flints and Steel Not here to insist upon the reasons why according to our Hypothesis Lightening is sometimes so penetratively powerful as to kill men or other animals without the least appearance of any bones broke or breach of skin How so piercing and liquifactive a caustick as to melt a Sword in the Scabbath which sometimes has been known while the Scabbath it self has remain'd safe Why it comes with such force and fury as sometimes to tear up by the Roots the strongest Oaks and other Trees of mighty bulk and other-while breaks and splits the bodies of huge Trees throws down Houses overturns Wind-Mills and causeth other the like Catastraphies dismal and frightful to behold witness amongst the rest the late sad and dreadful calamity which happened from Lightening and Thunder the last year in several Citties in Holland but chiefly in Vtrecht which although that and the like be Judgements from GOD yet are not without their natural causes And from the foresaid Acido-Sulphurous effluvia passing through the Sea and sometimes gliding upon the surface thereof happens those sudden flashes of Fire or Light taken notice of by some Sea-men by them seen in Storms upon the Sea shining in the Night like Fire being struck up by sudden percussions betwixt Air and Water from the furiousness of Storms whose corruscation is observ'd in more plenty during the collisions of Clouds Winds and Seas whence Storms and Tempests then at any other season The like may be said as to the causes of those luminous but narrow-siz'd Meteors which in great Storms at Sea are seen by Mariners to cleave to the Masts and Sterns of Ships anciently called Castor and Pollux by our Sea-Men Corpus-ants in both which the foresaid apporrhea whether floating in the Sea or Air conterminous to the Sea being agitated the one into a Fermentative flagration or thin-woven flame the other into a figur'd Meteor in both I say the foresaid Acido-Sulphurous effluvium is struck up into a luminous flame by the fore-nam'd attritions and percussions Which last I mean the Corpus-ants are very probably as my ingenious Friend J. R. well observes the very same Meteor upon the Land we call ignis fatuus which seemeth to run before people and is sometimes in Storms seen to cleave to Horses Maines which I say is very likely to be carryed by Storms ashore to inland places and that too at remote distances from the Sea which ignis fatuus or noctivagus is observ'd in greater plenty in or upon Storms and more rare in a clear and serene Skie And lastly to name no more we may reckon that sort of Light to be from the same causes with that of Meteors which my foresaid ingenuous Friend whose unsuspected veracity in matter of fact is sufficiently obliging to me to be credulous of his relation has observ'd to appear in dark Nights upon walking on the Sea-shore in every impression of his Foot upon the lifting up his Heel he espied a Light or sparkling brightness with which being surpriz'd and desirous to know what and whence it was fetch'd a Lanthorn and Candle took up in his hand some of that matter which gave the Light which he found to be a mucid matter fere instar pituitae and that he had often seen this matter which was a pellucid recrement cast off upon the Shore from a boyling Sea aestuating with Storms So that it should seem as if by the percussions and attritions betwixt Wind and Seas made by Storms upon the mutual collisions of the aforesaid principles or effluvia whether in Water or Atmosphere or both not onely the foresaid sudden appearances of Meteors happen but also by the estuating of the Seas a mucilaginous matter is ingendred wherein as a sperme those forenamed luminous effluvia I mean such as are struck up by percussion and attrition fix themselves which sometimes is hovering in the Air and cleaves to Masts or other parts of Ships other while is carryed off by Storms upon the Sea-Coasts and thence further in Land gives those appearances of ignis fatuus and the like and sometimes or in part is rejected upon the Shore and gives cause for that foresaid Phoenomenon of Light in the impressions or footings upon the Sands after Storms are over and may contribute to the making some sorts of Fish upon their putrefactive resolutions give that usual appearance of Light according to the account we have given thereof above We might here take an occasion of insisting upon other sorts of Meteors as Mill-dews Blastings c. all which proceed from the same Acido-sulphurous effluvia floating in the Atmosphere and struck up by the mutual attritions and collisions of winds clouds and the like being carryed in certain Channels or Peroledi of the Air to the producing their usual effects but shall now wave any further discourse thereof CHAP. XIV NExt to which we come to enquire into the reasons of Light from precious stones of which there are three sorts which will give light first such as shew their native lustre by shining in the dark without any previous excitation of which sort are native Carbuneles Secondly Such as need a
previous frication to the exciting their Light and Lustre of which are some peculiar sorts of Diamonds Or lastly Such as are magnetical by a preparatory calcination of which sort is the Bononian stone As to the first viz. That of Carbuncles the cause of whose luminous rayes we can no otherwise attribute then to the irradiation of a glaurious incombustible Sulphur disseminated through its whole body imbibed in and fixed to a most defecate matter imbib'd I say whilst that exquisitely pure petrifick matter was yet in its pristine juice through which that highly graduated tincture or Philosophick Sulphur is incessantly vibrated concerning which we have discours'd more at large in our Lithologia Physica The same we may say of some sorts of Diamonds onely with this difference that these to shew their Lustre require a gentle excitation by a previous frication whereby the foresaid luminous incombustible Sulphur gets more at liberty and darts forth the better Now that some particular sort of these do by a gentle frication shew their lustre in the dark I have from the autopsie of my worthy Friend Mr. Shippen Yea that some sorts of Diamonds are not onely luminous but also electrical of a Needle after a previous excitation by frication I am assur'd by the honourable Boyle who acquainted me he has had one of that sort As also that the King as he told me has one that will do the same very remarkably As to the cause of Light in those which by a foregoing calcinatory preparation become magnetical of Light of which sort is the Bonian stone and perhaps others might be found out that by the like artifice would perform the same It depends I say on and proceeds chiefly from the peculiar texture of such sort of Stones so wrought upon and altered by the Fire as not onely to imbibe as it were the rayes of the Sun but also for a time to fix them suffering them leisurely to go off again and so become by fresh impregnation capable of performing the like emissions of Light ad Lubitum concerning which Light issuing from the three foresaid noble petrifick bodies we insist more largely in our Lithologia Physica to which when extant we refer the Reader And as to the Light of subterraneal Lamps although those be generally reputed and that too by very learned and intelligent persons amongst Chymera's suppos'd to be merely fictitious yet I am not altogether of their opinion but do think there is a possibility in nature for them to have been really performed Now the reason why it is generally concluded in the negative is taken from the defect of Air in those close caverns inasmuch as all sorts of vulgarly known Fire need the access of Air to the keeping up that rapid motion in combustable bodies which being secluded those Fires thence depending of necessity must dye But we suppose and in part know that there is lodged in most especially in some particular bodies an incombustible Sulphur known chiefly to the Adepti to whose invigorating actions and enlivening operations the outward Air of our Atmosphere doth not at all contribute yea during some particular seasons of working ought wholly to be excluded To confirm the possibility in nature of such kind of Fire that may be maintained and perpetuated without Air I might add that I have with my own Eyes seen a Flame or Fire in the cavity of a Glass which as soon as the Stopple was taken forth became contrary to the Genius of all vulgar Fires immediately extinguished So why might not those sorts of Lamps recorded in History to have been performed by the Ancients viz. amongst the Romans who might probably have the Art from the Grecians and those from the Aegyptians have been Fed with such kind of Fire even in the greatest seclusions of Air and upon their being expos'd thereto when found might as easily and speedily extinguish concerning which we may probably elsewhere further inlarge Lastly as to the perpetual Light preparable by the Philosophers exuberate Mercury graduated by circulation and cohobation as also a luminous Liquor demonstrable by Art upon which we shall not now insist both because we do not pretend to be a Master of any such thing as also because we have touched thereon in our Lithologia Physica CHAP. XV. THus having compendiously run through the great varieties of Fermentations in the threefold Kingdom of Nature and shewed the various Phoenomena of Light in different bodies in that part of the Scene of visibles we converse with solvable by our principles from different causes put into various motions Now it remains to conclude this Doctrine of Fermentation first by elucidating our principles from collateral authority Next by shewing how from the great vdriety of Acids acting upon Sulphurs may divers other Phoenomena be naturally solv'd As to the first viz. to confirm and illustrate our principles to be in all concretes throughout the triplicity of natures Empire besides what we have in brief said and reserve also for a further discourse we might here bring in the Authority of the great Hypocrates and some others of the Ancients to shew how this concordia discors the principles I mean of Acidum and Sulphur contracted into Seedlings are interspers'd in the seminals of all things whence by such kind of Fermentation as aforesaid all things vegetate come to their acme and decline yea from which the whole Scene of visible concretions are by a certain sâ—â—â—gling from their central Fires brought into action lively pourtray'd upon the Stage of the World But because we take an occasion in our Epistle to touch thereon we shall forbear and at present onely add the authority of the intelligent learned and worthy Borichius who in his late piece de Hermetis Aegyptiorum Chymicorum sapientia a tract highly valuable and worthy the perusal by all ingenuous persons in one place as if measuring forth our principles saith to this purpose viz. Nullum animal ostendi potest p. 413. ex quo oleum hoc est animalium Sulphur educi nequeat nullum ex quo nihil aciduli possit seperari nulla planta quae non vel oleum vehat vel spiritum admoto igne flammantem nulla quae non pressu succum profundat si sibi permittatur in acidum quiddam sponte abiturum Metallica ut robustioris temperamenti Sulphure Mercurio non carent equidem hoc primum illis cum animalibus plantis commune est quod rara minera illa sit quae Sulphur verum flammaturum solicite inquirentibus non offerat nulla quae ingeniose in alkohol tenuata aeri si opus est tantillum exposita distillatione non spiritum acidulum expromat Not here to insist on what the learned Dr. Willis saith in this matter in his Doctrine of Fermentation who as he urgeth ob salis fluorem how rightly let others judge so we De Ferm p. 10. ob acidi predominium vinum lac sanguis
finds admittance into the World may give incouragement to publish more And here I might take the liberty to assure the World that nothing doth give a man a fairer prospect into the inward recesses and secret retirements of Nature nor doth offer a better view into Natures Land-skips nor doth more open the Cabbinet of her choicest rarities then that most admirable Mistress of Arts and Sciences the noble Chymia that clavigera arcanorum naturae which gives admittance into the surprizing Arcana of Nature whose entertaining Phoenomena in her genuine encheiresis are such as may strike admiration not to say amazement in the Artist I mean not here that spurious brood of swarming Chymists those fumivenduli who fill the World full of Smoak and Noise who are but indeed the blemishes of that noble Mistress the spots in that solar Beauty the soils that set off the Lustre of the legitimate Sons of Art who will shine with an oriental Lustre amidst such empty Clouds He indeed that would be a diligent searcher of Nature thereby to become useful in his generation must not disdain the soiling his Fingers with Coals nor think it below him to converse with the meanest of mechanicks but may take time to wipe his Fingers while he is refining his notions and rectifying his contemplations by remarking the obvious Phoenomena of his or others works If this Essay hold good as its probable in the main it may it will in great likelyhood be as an introduction to further and more clearer discoveries in the knowledge of the hidden mechanical agents imploy'd by the divine hand in the fabrick of all bodies and gives great probability of being an in-lett into a better understanding of the causes and efficients of Diseases and their Cures then at the first can easily be apprehended and in general may be as a foundation towards further improvements in all manner of Physiology or Natural Philosophy We would not presume to say that all other Hypotheses ought to truckle far be it but shall leave the Peripateticks quadriga of Elements with their first and second qualities their matter and form c. The Epicurcan or Corpuscularian Doctrine founded upon Matter Figure and Motion the Figures depending upon those of round quadrate acute cylindrical striate c. of Atoms making a pleasant Methematical Scheme adorn'd by the curious notions of Cartesius and others The quinary of the late Spagyrists The ternary of the Chymists although that in a genuine acceptation is the most plausible The Binary of the Tachenians c. But shall I say leave each of the foresaid to the judicious to compare with this and to judge of according to their worth and intrinsick value And onely shall refer to the computation of the unbyass'd Reader whether an ingenious person may not be inabled to take a further prospect into the nature of things and be capable of making better inspections into the insides thereof and of taking larger measures towards a further and future improvement then from any other yet extant where although I should be found wandering yet would not Candid Reader despair of thy favourable aspect and that upon the very foresaid reasons viz. both of the uncothness and untractedness of the path having neither guid nor leader yea scarce any Land-marks but what was set up by the industrious labours of the Spagyrical Science whose ne plus ultra Pillars are beyond our hopes of ever reaching I would here once for all say that I onely propound my Hypothesis as a modest Essay towards the further improvement of that noble Doctrine of Fermentation For not being satisfied with any thing I have yet seen extant upon that Subject has given me occasion to search further into the nature and causes thereof not being content with a bare ipse dixit or to sit down under the dogmatical placets of Authors at the foot of such Gamaliels gave my self scope to trace nature if I could in her more hidden paths and secret tracts And indeed the onely right way of establishing any sort of Hypothesis is first to procure a sett of paralel experiments and to be furnished with a competent stock of mechanical Trials which are so well to be contriv'd as to accord amongst themselves in their most remarkable appearances and this is to be observ'd in the erecting any Hypothesis whether Physicks Medicks or any material branch of either as the true basis to build upon consulting in the one the experiments in the other the observations of ingenious persons in order to the raising such a structure as will not easily fall and of confirming such a Theory as will abide the test of after ages Now how ours of Fermentation square herewith I must appeal to the judicious Reader For after we had laid a great many of experiments together and had found where in their most observable Phoenomena they hit and concentred by an induction I say of which particular experiments conspiring in the reasons and causes of their main solutions we began to propose to our selves an Hypothesis which might best suit therewith and most genuinely result therefrom and found from its congenialness to the principles of Nature not onely to hold good in those which at first fell under our consideration but also in others which afterwards occurr'd to our thoughts and that from the consonancy and consistency of Nature to her self in all her actions both in the genesis and analysis of bodies And now kind Reader that I may conclude thou hast viewed the front and pass'd the Portal if thou has taken any pleasure therein and art at leisure my advice is that thou forthwith enter and I would lead thee by the hand into the building it self consider the materials look at the foundation pry though not too narrowly into the cement pass through every Room observe the proportion and symmetry of the parts and if thou canst not otherwise come to a resolve in thy judgment yet at least guess at the design from the contrivance of the plot if thou say it wants finishing work we confess it by acknowledging it to be the first and therefore more rude draught if thou say our Lights are too much shaded we say so too owning our weakness in that Art if that our Fires which should warm dry and do other offices to the Natives are too much clouded with fumes we will not contend onely beg of thee by putting things into a just ballance to weigh them well before thou pass thy severest judgment and thou wilt oblige him to concern himself further in the like matters who remains Thine W. S. BIBLIOPOLA-LECTORI Gentle Reader THe Authors more earnest occasions not permitting him time to wait upon the Press hath occasioned some literal mistakes and although small ones yet will not the exact curiosity of the Author pass them by but that I must lay them open to thy view and crave thy Correction But more especially I beg yours and the Authors excuse for a
more considerable mistake by me committed in returning to the Printer a wrong Paragraph in page 11. an attonement for which I have endeavoured to make by giving you the corrected one which you will find Printed at the end of this discourse VALE PAge 17. l. 13. minglable p. 30. l. 2. viride aeris l. 7. incorporated p. 37. l. 21. hewing p. 42. l. 10. cork'd p. 44. l. 28. patent p. 51. l. 7. bilious p. 36. l. 17. are pleurisies l. 28. before gentle add seasonable p. 61. l. 27. maternal p. 62. l. 1. invigorating l 25. turns p. 63. l. 3. cuellings l. 5. vitali l. 17. leffas p 69. l. 24. temper'd p. 71. l. 13. of r. upon l. 23. barm p. 72. l. 17. Bye l. 22. your r. yea p. 73. l. 20. their r. the p. 74. l. 29. fat r. fall and florid r soft p. 76. l. 20. maturations l. 24. neutral p. 77. l. 1. there r. thereof p. 79. l. 15. wood r. woad p. 80. l. 2. Urinous p. 85. l. 21. with r-which p. 87. l. 17. Tabes p. 88. l. 4. dele world l. 28. closing p. 98. l. 4. after closing add with p. 105. l. 6. intence'd dele d. p. 113. l. 7. spring r. syringe p. 118. l. 5. intromission p. 121. l. 12. breath'd p. 123. l. 18. globuli p. 139. l. 24. dyscrasie p. 142. l. 6. tinge Sulphur-Bath p. 25. l. 11. solvent A Philosophical Discourse OF FERMENTATION CHAP. I. WE shall not here ravel into the opinion of others concerning this great doctrine of Fermentation which whether we look upon in a more large sence as the very Basis of Natures workings in the formations and transformations of Bodies or in a more strict limiting it as some Authors do to the bare confinements of some animal and vegitable juices If the former it might come in competition with all other sorts of Principles laid down in the various kinds of Hypotheses by divers Physiologists whether Peripateticks Epicureans Cartesians which is but the latter polisht Paracelsians Helmontions Willesians Tachenians c. and so might require a larger discourse then here we intend If the latter we stint and straiten Nature in her more ample work of generations making her square to our strait-lac'd and byassed notions We shall in neither sence I say take an occasion to examine the Opinions and Judgments of others referring that task to another place But shall without any unnecessary Prologue fall to our intended work Only we would premise that whereas the Corpuscularians who are now the most recent Physiologists suppose matter under the consideration of motion and figure to be the competent Elements and Principles of Bodies we shall anon shew that by the power of Fermentation one part of matter mechanically indivisible may for ought we know be splitt and sub-divided by a subtile comminution into 1000. perhaps 10000 parts now whatsoever figure these not almost but altogether unimaginable minute parts have or may be supposed to have yet can signifie nothing in the fabrick of Bodies till they jump together again or coincide into a stricter compage So that such parcels of matter as come nearest to a mechanical division or at least come nearest to be perceptable to the acutest Organs of our Sense fortified by artificial contrivances are such as we ought chiefly to look after and to consider as principles in order to the genesis and analysis of Bodies Nor are we to look at the Elements of Bodies as confin'd to such narrow limits that thence of necessity they should be pent and thrust up into indivisible figur'd points So that matter under the notion of figure as of round square cubes c. in Physically indivisible points cannot truly and in a genuine Physiological sence be reputed the Elements of bodies For the reason suppose of extension of matter in the concretion of Bodies consists we conjecture chiefly if not solely in a coagulating texture of plyable parts of matter wrought up before while in Succo Soluto by Fermentation and not only extension but divisibility of matter previous to extension in the production of concretes we ascribe to the same cause so that whatever the Corpuscularians attribute to motion divisibility and figure or size of particles of matter in order to make up the Elements of Bodies we see no other cause but to ascribe to matter viz. water or watery particles set into a Fermentative motion which without any more ado performs the whole business as we shall in the sequel of this discourse illustrate this being premis'd The Method we intend to insist upon and to trace in order to the right understanding and towards prosecuting the due improvements of the doctrine of Fermentation according to our Hypothesis will be first to explain what we mean by Fermentation giving as concise a definition as the nature thereof will admit next to signifie of what large extent it is in the whole round of Natures workings which will be elucidated by an induction of particulars viz. how the Phoenomena of hot Baths the production of Minerals the origin of some Acidulae or Spaw waters the grand apparances of Heat Fire and Light throughout all Concretes whether in the familie of Minerals Animals or Vegitables also how many other sorts of Phoenomena obvious in the large field of Nature may without straining be solv'd from the true principles thereof consonant to Nature in all her workings In the handling of the first we may take leave to say That Fermentation in the true genuine sence thereof is nothing else but an intestine Collision or mutual wrestling betwixt Acidum and Sulphur put together by Nature or by Art in imitation of Nature and set in a combating motion in order to the production of some Concrete or to some other equivalent end whereby if not interrupted in liquid juices heterogenities are separated whose first on-sets are sometimes especially in the Embrio-state of some things slow and indecernable motions whilst in other Stades they pass through they arrive at more brisk frettings and yet heightened may sometimes arise to actual flagration as we shall shew afterward And that nature as we shall anon shew useth these two as the grand mechanical principles in the productions of all concretes whether mineral animal or vegitable and that too not onely in their concretions but reductions in their genesis but analysis evolutions and revolutions weavings and unweavings windings on and off in all Bodies Only First with this difference in the threefold Kingdom of Nature that tho the acids of vegitables be different from those of animals and both from those of minerals retaining a specifical difference amongst themselves whereby they constantly keep up the bad e of their distinction in their several Classes yet all are in a true and not metaphorical sence acids the like may be said of their Sulphurs which are truly and not analogically Sulphurs And Secondly with this difference amongst the same Acids and Sulphurs as they are considered under
in vapors or steams insensibly till arrested by some particular bodies it settles and sticks thereto Thus the foresaid Author observed That walking about one day in the lower Bath at Baden and leaning over the Ballisters perceived that his Buttons and what else he wore that was Silver were all turned yellow of a fair Gold colour although he was at some distance from the Water whereupon he tryed this Experiment viz. of hanging money over the Bath at a foot distance or at a greater and found it coloured in a minutes time and that which was nearer in half a minute Next we are to consider how these Thermae or hot Baths differ amongst themselves which as we conceive chiefly proceeds from the difference and great variety of Sulphurs or Mineral Bodies wherein are wrapt up a diversity of Sulphurs through which they pass and with which they are impregnated together with some other mineral parts which they take in either at the place of Fermentation or afterwards in their passage For Sulphurs which we suppose to be chiefly concerned in all mineral Fermentations differ much amongst themselves common Brimstone being different from that of Antimony and that from the Sulphur of Vitriol Pyrites and other mineral Marcasites all which are yet different from Arsenical Sulphurs and from bituminous matters one sort or other of which are most what the predominant ingredient and mineral principle of these hot Baths Hence it is that some of these Sulphurous waters may with good success in order to the cure of some diseases be taken inwardly others not Those that may not are generally such whose Sulphurs are Antimonial Arsenical or Bituminous or at least border upon such minerals as are allyed thereto of which are the generality of hot Baths and in particular those of our own Nation of which the Sommerset-shire being the hottest are found altogether unfit for inward uses are not safely to be drunk inasmuch as they are impregnated as I conceive with antimonial or perhaps bituminous Sulphur or the Sulphur of some Pyrites or other Marcasite a kin to Antimony or Bitumen which lodgeth in the bowels of those great Mountains at the Foot or Center of which those hot Baths break forth for the acid which concurs necessarily as we shall shew afterwards to those Fermentations as an indispensible principle opens the body of those Sulphurs or detains them whilst in fieri in their crude nature and thereby renders them wholly noxious for inward use as we could further illustrate but that we hast Nor is Buxton Bath in Darby-shire from the same cause although in a remiss degree fit for taking inwardly inasmuch as that according to all probability partakes of a bituminous Sulphur and that I gather from the plenty of a bituminous or oylie substance got out of the very Clefts of the Stones in the Peake yea this bituminous or oylie matter is found in the very Pores Clefts and Cavites of the Stones themselves as was communicated to me from the judicious and my worthy Friend Mr. Jossop whose Father as he acquainted me got two Spoonfuls out of one crevice in a Stone which bituminous matter is lodg'd not only in those stones but also in a sort of light lithanthrax which rub'd being a smooth polite body is Electrical as I have found by trial which distilled yields an oyle and acid Spirit almost like that of Amber as the ingenious Mr. Fisher inform'd me he found by trial yea the same bitumen is imbib'd into a fungus matter which Dr. Lister supposeth and that very likely to be rotten wood long buried in the earth into which this oylie matter or bitumen hath sunk which keeps as I have found continually moist tho kept in a dry place I say it s very probable that the Sulphurous principle of Buxton Bath hath its determination from this sort of bitumen And as to those Sulphurous waters which may safely be taken inwardly are chiefly the Sulphur-well at Knarsbrough of which we shall further discourse in a Chapter by it self afterwards And as to the different degrees of heat in Baths may proceed either from the more remiss or intense Fermentation of mineral juices or from the different place of Fermentation as it may be deep within the bowels of the Earth or near the place of its Exit thus if the Fermentation happen to be far within the Earth and so remote from the place of Erruption that the Sulphur therice become much what precipitated or left in the colander or filter of Sand through which it passeth and the acidum thereby so dinted as to become very languid if at all perceptable in the Water and yet by reason of its closeness from the air may retain somewhat of its first conceived warmth of which sort are those Sulphur Baths near Villock in Carinthia which are gently warm as the learned Dr. Browne notes in his book of Travels as also as I suppose Buxton Bath in Darby-shire whilst in other parts of the earth the foresaid Fermentation may be strong both from the plenty of the two combating principles as also from their nearness to the place of breaking forth of which sort are those at Glass-Hitten Eisenbacke both not far from Schemnitz in Hungary where are silver mines also those of Stubn near Newsol in the same Countrey those at Baden in Austria and especially ours at the Bath in Sommerset-shire We say also that Fermentation of mineral juices is most necessarily requisite to the producing of all hot Baths and consequently all hot Baths depend thereon because hereby is made a comminution of Sulphurous or other bituminous juices which thence become communicable to and dissolvable in ordinary spring-water for hereby the Sulphur is sever'd into volatile parts easily permeating the body of water The paralel of what is produced by Fermentation in vegitables to what is performed by the same amongst mineral juices in order to the making hot Baths is not inconsiderable whether we look at the agents or at Fermentation its self or lastly at the effects as to the agents which here are requisite to perform mineral Fermentations we shall demonstrate afterwards to be no other then mineral acids and mineral Sulphurs intoris mineralibus That also Acids and Sulphurs to wit of their own kind are the true agents in the performing all vegitable Fermentations we may elsewhere ex instituto discourse as to Fermentation it self which whether in minerals or vegitables is nothing else but an intestine motion of the essential constituent principles of Acidum and Sulphur which is in a more remiss or intense degree and the heat consequently more or less according to the slower or more brisk on-sets and inward struglings of those combitant principles Lastly the paralel will hold good in the effects of Fermentation Thus as the effects of the sensible Fermentation in all vegitable Fermentative Liquors is the comminution and volatization of their Sulphurs as that what before such sensible Fermentation was separable in the form of an
Oyle by bare infusions and distillations in ordinary water is now by the comminution of previous Fermentation so divided sub-divided and volatiz'd as that these vegitable Sulphurs will not only arise by the gentlest heat but will also easily dissolve in any water or common vehicle As we plainly see that any vinous Spirit made from vegitables by Fermentation will easily mix with ordinary water which the oyles of those vegitables separated before Fermentation would not do So likewise the effects of those sensible at least by their heat Fermentations in mineral Fermentative juices is no other then the comminution and volatization of their otherwise crude Sulphurs For what is it would I ask that can render Sulphur and bituminous juices capable of incorporating with Spring-water Seeing that neither fire which what that is in a true Physiological sense according to our Hypothesis we may elsewhere declare in the vulgar notion thereof nor Salts I mean fixed or volatile can alone perform that work For by fire if in open Vessels Brimstone being burnt it ariseth with a fume condensible into an acid Sulphurous Liquor witness the oyle of Sulphur per Campanam made by flag ration and in close Vessels it makes no alteration arising only in Flowers which are nothing else but the entire body of Brimston unaltered or opened and as to fixt vegitable Salts those indeed open the body of Common Sulphur or Sulphur of any of the minerals so as to make them more capable of dissolving in those congenial menstrua's of Oyle or vinous Spirits but do not at all procure their solution in common water for water being poured to any of the foresaid solutions of Sulphur made either with Oyles or vinous Spirits by fixt Salts do forthwith lactescere causing a precipitation of the very body of Sulphur in a milkie form call'd lac Sulphuris So that it remains that nothing else short of acid juices can perform this great work of dissolving mineral Sulphurs so as to make them mingable with water which is performed one of these three ways viz. either by bare solution distillation or Fermentation in all which the acidum must have the preheminence before such sort of alteration upon Sulphur can be made thus as it is ex intuitu Sulphuris that all metals are dissolvable in the Stiâ—ian or other proper menstrua which being taken in pieces by acids together with their congenial Sulphurs the mercurial and other parts complicated in the texture of that body doth colliquescere So likewise it is ex intuitu acidorum that all mineral Sulphurs or Sulphurous Concretes do either dissolve in water or are capable of distillation into Liquors or lastly do undergo Fermentation and the products thereof First As to solution in water thus vitriol or vitriolin marcasites which contain plenty of Sulphur do either per se or expos'd to the air become capable of dissolving most what in water and that from the prevalency of their acids above their Sulphurous principle whereby the Sulphur lurks under the mask of the acid Secondly As to their distillation I mean of Sulphurs in the form of Liquors that happens also from the powerfulness of their acids assisted by the acidum of fire us'd in such distillations whereby the Acidum and Sulphur do colliquescere into a corrosive Liquor as appears in Oyle of Vitriol And Lastly This Acido-Sulphurous-Liquor and others of the like nature prepared as aforesaid by distillation if diluted by the addition of a little water or of any oylie Liquor or vinous Spirit be mixed therewith the Sulphur is presently set upon by the acid from whose mutual assaults ariseth a strong Fermentation making the Glass intensely hot and thereby sometimes comes near to an actual flagration So that it is the acidum variously treating the Sulphur whence all these varieties of operations proceed And by this last work of Fermentation the Sulphur is more comminuted volatiz'd and altered then by either of the two former It s true indeed that fixt alcalies or Calx vive being analogous to the former doth so work upon the body of common Sulphur or Sulphur of some minerals and thereby opens it so as meeting with an acid juice may make a resemblance of some Sulphur waters as we have elsewhere largely discourst in our Hydrologia Chymica concerning the Sulphur-well at Knarsbrough which is without doubt I mean the precipitation by the supervening acid the cause of the strong smell of this and some other the like waters Amongst the causes assigned by divers Authors of the heat in natural Baths those of subterraneal fires are not the least which because we have by sufficient arguments at large exploded in our Hydrologia Chymica shall now therefore wave But the great and most authentick opinion is that of Dr. Jordens in his book of natural Baths which by many learned persons hath and that not unworthily the kind acceptance and the most general applause which is grounded upon a Fermentation from a seminary Spirit of minerals in the bowels of the earth meeting with convenient matter from which Spirit acting upon the matter in generation of minerals is caused that heat which perpetuates hot Baths It would be too tedious a task for this intended short tract now to wade into a deep examination of the Hypothesis of this learned man I shall only say leaving the rest of that doctrine in its own worth that had that judicious person been better acquainted with the understanding of the true and genuine sense of Fermentation would no doubt have polish'd his notions much better then we find them and would have told us wherever Fermentation was found in whichsoever of the triplicity of natures Kingdoms that there necessarily must concur the principles of Fermentation and that Sulphur or Bituminous matter being a kin to Sulphur must be one of those principles as to the mineral Kingdom and consequently be an indispensible ingredient in all hot Baths For Fermentation can no more exist without its own principles then fire can without combustible matter or the principles of firing nor then animal bodies can be sustained without their peculiar Ferments which what analogy these viz. vegitable and animal juices in their Fermentations as to their constituent principles bear to those of minerals we may elsewhere give an account Onely here we shall take occasion to answer that grand objection the foresaid ingenuous Author makes against Sulphur being the cause of heat in Baths For though we do not assert that Sulphur singly considered is the cause of Fermentation or Heat but that it is one of the principles of Fermentation yet we judge that objection toucheth upon the Verge of our Hypothesis and therefore worthy our solution The Objection is That if Sulphur can give actual heat to our Baths it must burn the like he saith of bitumen that unless it be kindled it can yeild no heat to our Baths I answer That hereby it is obvious that the foresaid Author did not throughly understand the
true efficients of Fermentation in mineral juices for if he had the question had been beyond dispute for though Sulphur or common Brimstone in its concrete substance is not the Sulphurous principle nature useth in the producing of Fermentation in the primary disseminate juices where such things are in Embrio or in solutis principijs yet even that very concrete body whether in the form of Brimstone or complicated within the texture of other minerals Pyrites c. is by the supervening of a powerful acidum capable of Fermentation and thence of imparting its more subtile apporrhea or steame by the comminution of the foresaid Fermentation and susceptable of the virtues thereof So that it appears that Sulphur may be one of the efficients of heat in Baths and yet its flagration not requisite at all the same we may safely say of Bitumen Now as we have endeavoured to prove Sulphur whether in succo soluto in the very primordial shapings or generations of minerals or the same reduced from mineral concretions by the superinduction of congenial acids to be one of the two ingredients or mechanical Organs nature useth in mineral Fermentations This therefore leads me to our second position viz. CHAP. III. THat there is no Fermentation amongst mineral juices wherein an acid is not concern'd Or thus That an acid is necessarily requisite in all mineral Fermentations By acidum here I mean one of these two sorts viz. are such as are imbred in the same mineral concretion whilst in succo soluto c. in the beginings of its generation Or Secondly a superinduc'd acidum which is powerful in the reductions of minerals already concrete so that if we have our eye upon Fermentation from mineral concrete bodies which have already past their Embrio-state and are come to the solidity of compleat bodies then by acidum we do not mean such a one as is intrinsick connatural to and implanted in all Brimstones and mineral Sulphurs more or less for no Sulphur nor Sulphurous body as such can alone be the cause of Fermentation or heat in the Earth but an extrinsick supervening acid which must by reduction set those minerals by a kinship or consanguinity of parts into Fermentation de novo Now therefore it remains to prove that there are acid juices in the bowells of the Earth and that these are either embryonative to the same mineral where the Sulphur is or else peculiar to some other bodies by which the transient waters become acuated which if the former then the Acidum and Sulphur being natives of the same mineral do more easily by their mutual contact and intestine struglings cause a Fermentation even whilst the minerals are in solutis principijs which being constant those waters which pass through them must as certainly and constantly be heated So that from the unerring rules of nature from perpetuating the cause the effect must be no less The acid which causeth the latter sort of Fermentation we shall shortly touch upon First then the acids of the former classis will be apparent to us if we consider that there are no minerals produced in their peculiar beds in the intrails of the Earth without a previous Fermentation from their congenial principles of Acidum and Sulphur For our Hypothesis concerning the generation of minerals is grounded upon Acid and Sulphur from which foundation we say that these two being actually put into motion by the mineral seed in Embrio distinguished according to the lubet of the divine fiat in the great wheel-work of generation do by their mutual innate wrestlings cause a Fermentation and this to be one yea the chief cause of heat in natural Baths These in-dwelling acids I say are manifest and easily discoverable to us a posteriori from their not difficult separations out of the bodies of most known minerals thus we see plenty of an acidum separable from common Brimstone by bare flagration and the sleight artifice of condensing those fumes witness the Oyle of Sulphur per Campanam which is acid Thus also we have separated an acidum from Saturn Ore and know how to do the same from Antimony both which are perform'd two manner of ways viz. First By separating their Sulphurs which I have done both from the Ore of Saturn as also from the minera of Antimony which by flagration like common Brimstone yield an acid Secondly By distilling the foresaid minerals I mean Lead Ore and Antimony per se in close Vessels by a peculiar way may be drawn an acid Thus likewise out of both Vitriol and Alom as also from common fossil which is all one marine Salt and Nitre by bare distillation in close Vessels are frequently acids drawn which are singly or joyntly thence preparable witness Spirit or Oyle of Vitriol Aqua fortis Spirit of Salt Spirit of Nitre c. all of them sufficiently acid Thus out of all the Pyrites may an acid be separated yea further out of bitumens amber jet which is kennel coal and other sorts of Lythanthrax may by distillation an acid Spirit or Liquor be easily separated Thus my ingenious Friend Mr. Fisher hath separated an acidum out of a concrete bitumen got out of Lead-mines in the Peake in Derby-shire not far from Buxton hot Bath which is an Electrical Concrete as also hath done the like from the rest of the last recited mineral bodies And the like acidum hath been drawn from a bituminous fungus found in those parts Now come we to treat of our second sort of acidum which is one of the chief ingredients or principles of our latter sort of Fermentation to be numbred amongst the causes of some hot Baths and that is a superinduc'd acidum viz. the current of a living Spring as such are called in its subterraneal passages meeting with some Salts in Embrio or Bed of Earth impregnated with acid juices of which sort are all or most of the mineral Salts whilst in fieri before they by a further maturity reach the state of concretion I say passing through these Beds becomes by reason of its facile imbibition of such juices acuated therewith and then falling into a bed of Brimstone or other minerals or pyrites c. impregnated with Sulphur begins a solution thereof so raiseth a Fermentation betwixt the Sulphur and the supervening acid which gives heat to the water and becomes more or less hot according to the more or less powerfulness of the Acid and Sulphur as it passeth As also according to the nearness or remoteness of the waters exit from the source of Fermentation which acid dividing subtilizing and volatizing the Sulphur doth brake it into such small parts as that it becomes I mean as to the purest part thereof dissolvable in water according as we have more largely explain'd above and thence it is I mean from the Fermentation made from Acid and Sulphur whether perform'd the former or latter way that all hot Baths have somewhat of Sulphur in them more or less This last sort
Aqua fortis sets upon it whereby a strong Fermentation is presently raised which wanting room breaks all in pieces before it Thus Thirdly by pouring Aqua regia upon Antimony or the Spirit of Nitre upon butirum Antimonij put into Glasses or the strongest of Vessells and close stopt up would break them though never so strong into many pieces and that from the foresaid Fermentation which happens from the acidum in the menstruum and the Sulphur either in crude Antimony or the Butter thereof many more of which sort of experiments we further illustrate in our Halologia Chymica Thus also from the aforesaid experiments may without any more ado an account be given of many subterraneous Eruptions for I have by them at once given a sufficient demonstration as I think both of the reasons and causes of Earth-quakes and also of Eruptions inasmuch as that Fermentation from mineral juices made in straight meanders of the Earth when it cannot find vent if moderately strong they only cause terra tremor but if very violent even nigh an actual flagration then the greater the weight of Earth Rocks or other matter is which lieth upon it the stronger and more hideous are the Eruptions breaking in pieces all before it So that I suppose all Eruptions and subterraneal belchings to proceed from one of these two causes viz. either from subterraneal fires of Sulphurous minerals actually but accidentally kindled witness those Vulcano's of Aetna Visuvius Strongilo c. of which we have discoursed in our Hydrological Essayes or else from subterraneal Fermentations amongst which some may possibly rise so high and strong from the great plenty of Sulphur and Acids set into an actual Ebullition as that they may by the air which may probably reach them through some small crevices actually take fire and burn Thus besides the foresaid instances if Spirit of Wine be mixed with Spirit of Nitre or be added to a mixture of Oyle of Vitriol and Spirit of Nitre maketh an exceeding strong Fermentation even almost into an actual flame and the Glass will be intensely fiery hot as that ones hand may as long endure a hot cole as it which if pent up would for want of room to expand it self in its Elastick power would I say by its explosive force break all before it In the next place we shall endeavour to demonstrate how from the premised Doctrine of mineral Fermentations may also not onely Brimstone or other mineral concrete Sulphurs be generated de novo in some parts of the Earth but likewise how many of the fontes acidi may thence take their original As to the generation of concrete Sulphurs we suppose it thus viz. when or where a strong Fermentation happens from mineral juices whilst in Embrio and that there is no immediate current of water to carry off the looser part of the principles as they ferment as happens in all hot Baths as we have before sufficiently declared which not being pent up as happens in the most usual Earth-quakes and Eruptions as aforesaid but finding room enough in the most potent places of the Earth percolates some more loose bed of Earth and thereby leaves that Sulphur which was carryed up along with the fermenting steam as it were in the filter For that the acidum being prevalent in the foresaid Fermentation may in those steams it ariseth with the Sulphur in some peculiar colanders of the Earth desert its former companion may somewhat appear to us by pouring Oyle of Vitriol upon Antimony or the minera thereof and distilling it thence The Sulphur in the Oyle after Fermentation becomes separated and as it were percolated by the body of the Antimony while the acidum ariseth more simple leaving the Sulphur behind which afterward by a stronger fire is carryed up in the form of Brimstone taking along with it through the congenialness of parts some of the Sulphur of Antimony Next to which how many of the fontes acidi may from the foresaid Fermentation of mineral juices take their original we shall thus explain viz. by supposing that in some mineral Fermentations whilst in Embrio and where no current of waters nor strait passages happen for causes aforesaid the Ebullition from their Acidum and Sulphur may be so intense as that thereby a fresh acidum may be ingendred or the former multiplyed vires acquirit eundo with deserting Sulphur its companion in the colander of some Earths may be sublim'd and carryed in steams as a thinner and more subtile acidum at a great distance from the Source where afterwards touching upon and irroreating some Earth or some Stammina of the mineral beds of Iron or Alom-stone impregnates them to further uses So that where a current of water toucheth either upon that Earth and afterwards upon either of the foresaid minera's or doth touch upon those minera's impregnated with the aforesaid acidity I say either way are made vitriolin or aluminous waters or spaws Now that an acid may after the foresaid manner thus ascend from fermenting juices barely from the Ebullition of the principles even without any extrinsick heat will appear from this following mechanical experiment viz. I poured six Ounces of rectified Spirit of Wine upon half a pound of Spirit of Nitre which I put into a double bolt head with a pretty long neck after a while as soon as the vinous Sulphur in the Spirit of Wine had set the Acidum and Sulphur of the Spirit of Nitre a work they caused such a furious Fermentation that it drive up the stopple and forc'd it self forth up to the top of the Room whereby a great part was lost whereas if the Glass had been very close stopt it would without doubt have broke the Glass into shivers to what was sav'd I added of the same ingredients of each four Ounces it began after a while to fall into a strong fermenting Ebullition so boyl'd and bubled forth very fiercely and sent forth a strong fume which heated the Glass so intensely as I could not hold the very top of it in my hand then I set a small Glass-head over the Glass to condence some of the fumes which I found gave a very smart acid Spirit not but that there are other causes of some of the foresaid acidulate Spaw-waters concerning which we have at large discoursed in our two books of Hydrologia Chymica and its Vindication And now that I have laid down my Hypothesis of the causes of hot Baths branch'd into many sorts subterraneal Damps Earthquakes Eruptions Regeneration of some Sulphurous concretes and of the original of some of the fontes acidi all from the Fermentation of mineral juices as aforesaid which how well grounded and how further improveable I shall leave to the unbyassed reader to examin and judge as also to consider whether from the same Hypothesis or supposition of causes may and that not impertinently be solved the Phoenomena of the diversity of Winds the vicissitudes of heat and cold the reasons of
a few drops of any acid juice do whether vegitable or mineral as of Vinegar Vitriol Sulphur Salt c. yea the runnet which is made up of Milk coagulated by the Stomichal acid of an animal which by keeping sours yet more and is made up with Salt to preserve it from decaying by the addition I say of the foresaid acid ferment or animal Runnet to Milk especially in heat is made that coagulation of the Sulphurous and Curdy parts out of which our Cheese is usually made So that from the different actions of the acid whether native or additional upon the Sulphur are produc'd those usual coneretions or rather coagulations of Butter and Curds separable from the more liquid serum which Butter has also its connate acid which is the cause of its liquidity in heat and coagulation in cold as we could sufficiently demonstrate the liquidity and coagulation of such the succulency and concretion the softness and hardness of other sort of bodies chiefly to depend upon the various modes of acids either considered in Fermentation or Concretion and as assisted by other concurring causes chiefly of the Air which we now with difficulty and chiefly for brevity sake refer to another place We might if willing to inlarge take an occasion here amongst animal Ferments to insist upon the causes and reasons of those strangely surprizing effects resulting from the invigorated Ferments of some venemous animals and shew that all their poysonous properties consist chiefly and solely in the Ferments of their juices which may be invigorated to that height as to become poysonous Fires which by a bite or the like getting admission into the blood of a humane body will according to the degrees of their exasperation make their transits in the bearing down and mortifying our animal Spirits Hence those fiery Serpents we read of were probably such whose Fermental principles was by exasperation wrought to that height as to become a venemous Fire by whose least entrance into the blood by their sting or the like did presently mortifie the Spirits of those who were bitten whereby they were suddenly killed And to shew that as the strength of our bodies depends upon the energie of the animal Spirits the product of vital Fermentation according to whose remiss or intense degrees of depuration sublimation and eradiation in their proper Channels the Nerves the weakness or vigour yea the whole crasis of the body subsists Diseases generally prevailing upon us from their various assaults which are made upon these in their original source of production I mean in the fermentable juices of the body so likewise the Spirits of venemous animals the product also of the Fermentation peculiar to their juices being by exasperation so subtiliz'd as that they are highly in vigorated and beyond imagination Spiritualiz'd do by their sudden fiery vibrating motion if admitted make their transits quasi ictu oculi through our Fermenting juices presently arrest our Spirits and by coagulations and other manner of mortifications suspends their generation and motion which being precipitated and born down and the future vibrations of the vital Acidum and Sulphur mortified must needs bring on death which is nothing else but a period put to the mutual collisions of the vital principles Where we might shew that the deleterious properties of venemous Animals as Vipers Adders Snakes Scorpions c. reside not at all in their flesh because they may and are frequently eaten not onely without harm but also in some cases with good success but in their peculiar Ferments consisting according to our supposition of Acidum and Sulphur of their kinds which being capable of exasperations and heightenings are also as lyable to have their Spirits invigorated insomuch as the more those animals are angred as I may say the stronger the Fermentation and the more subtile the Spirits are yea the more mortal their fire which bearing the character of their material principles have the foresaid sudden mortifying influence upon our vital juices and the Spirits thereof We might also shew how those sorts of Ferments in their strong inveterating motions do sometimes fix themselves upon some peculiar matter or coagulated juice in their bodies where the Ferments lurk as in a seminary and this is the reason why that matter vomited by some sort of venemous Scorpions If I mistake not called Gecco upon their being whipt and hung up thereby having their Ferments exasperated is used by the Indians as a speedy death to their malefactors by pricking the skin under one Nayle of the hand and applying a little quantity thereof to it which immediately thereby getting entrance into the blood presently suspends the Fermentation thereof mortifies the Spirits killing them presently yea at Macassar a Town in the Island Celebes belonging to the Molucco Islands there is a sort of poyson whether made by the foresaid artifice from inraged venemous animals I know not which the King of that place uses for expeditious killing those he would dispatch out of the way by applying it to any breach of the skin it immediately from its Fermental corrosive poyson not only kills but burns the whole body into a corruptive putrilage concerning which and many other things of the like nature we now for brevity sake willingly desist to inlarge CHAP. VII HAving in brief thus signified the causes of the Fermentations in animals to consist in a brief but suitable intestine dwellings betwixt the two principles Acid and Sulphur which coincide in puncto vitalo according to our Hypothesis and that their heat is immediately thence produced In the next place let us consider whether the same Hypothesis may not hold good in the due explicating the Phoenomena in that other kingdom of nature I mean the vegitable where besides what we have already said vegitation in our account is no other then a gentle vibration and slender collision of the Vegitable Acid Sulphur from which two principles put into a wrestling motion in every seed after the loosening its body or husk in the lessas terrae is begun the vegitable Fermentation which ceaseth not till the body shap'd according to the form of those minute Types wrapt up in the seedlings and in some obvious to the eye assisted by good microscopes is brought in all its pourtrayings upon the visible Stage of the World And from this Fermentation set afoot in the very primordials seedlings and first hewings of vegitable forms are deducable all the observable Phoenomena of vegitables for not onely vegitation it self consists in a slow-pac'd motion of the foresaid principles set into a slender easie Fermentation but also their colours sapours odours also other medicinal qualifications and their propagation by Seeds and their future Fermentations as of Corn Grapes and Fruits c. in order to our Bread and Drink are referrable to the various intestine wrestlings of the inbred Acid and Sulphur First As to Vegitation it self we have already hinted how it s performed by a secret Fermentation from
the inward combating of their peculiar Acids and Sulphurs Secondly What are Colours but the ludicra Sulphuris the sportings of vegitable Sulphurs from whose interweavings and coagulations upon their genuine acids are struck those beautiful colours which so gratefully salute our Opticks and that by making such alterations in the texture of the parts as to admit those various reflections and refractions of Light and causing such mixtures of Shades and Lights as lively to represent those amiable and no less admirable appearances of Colours to our Eye Thirdly What are their Sapours but the deductions of Plants by their peculiar vegitative Fermentations to any equal temperature whereby they become pleasant or ungrateful to the Palate and whereby those that are for food become nutritive whose grateful gust in all especially Fruits brought on to maturity signifie the soft sweetnings of their Acids by the ripenings of their Sulphurs whereby they become sit objects for the Ferment of the Stomack to turn into nutritive juices quod sapit nutrit is from this ground most certainly true Fourthly Again what are all odours of Vegitables but the efflor scence of their Sulphurs from vegitative Fermertations whereby from the continual hits and incessant touches of the native acid upon the Sulphur the Sulphur thereby becomes in part so comminuted and volatiz'd by that gentle Fermentation as to pass off especially in the more odorous Plants in a sensible apporrhea able to smite the Nostrils at a great distance So that Vegetable odours are the immediate products of intrinsick Fermentation which by how much the nobler the specifick Sulphur is and by how much the higher graduated the more gratefully are we accosted by it odour and at the greater distance it is carried Fifthly How much the medicinal properties of vegetables depend upon the foresaid Fermentation will not be unaptly represented by observing their chief dependance upon their Sulphurs For what is it in most vegetables that we seek after or that doth the work but the Sulphurous and Oylie principle which is no otherwise brought on to maturity but by the uninterrupted collision and inward wrestlings with its connate acid whereby it sweetens the Acid is it self volatiz'd and graduated and most what complicated with a volatile Salt the product thereof Sixthly As to the propagation of vegetables by Seeds how that also is performed by the foresaid Fermentation will be evident if we consider That as Fermentation in vegetables begins in a seminal punctum wherein is delineated all the organical parts if I may so say the whole plant-Embrio being by the great and most skilful contriver of nature epitomiz'd into a punctum mechanically indivisible onely discoverable to the Eye in some Seeds by the help of good Glasses according to the excellent and curious micro-scopical observations of the worthy Malpigius So I say it ceaseth not till it terminates in a new seminal punctum it s set afoot in the very first motions of Seed and ends not till it have by the same wrestlings of Acid and Sulphur produced a new Seed or rather a new Cloathing for the Seed nor doth it then cease to be a Ferment onely lies dormant close shut up as in a Prison in the husk of the Seed till it be set awork again by being put into a proper matrix or analogous moisture and then the compage of its body is loosed the Prison doors are set open and the Embrio Captive set at liberty yea if Fermentation of vegetables was duely understood and carefully attended it would never cease to act during the world for if when by Fermentation the two principles concenters themselves in puncto shaping a new domicil for their retirement a while till other assisting causes according to the appointment of God conspire at their due seasons should then immediately be committed to its proper matrix the Fermentation would keep onwards in its pace which being continually observ'd would never cease to act But because God the great Builder of all things hath limited the Fermentations and Productions of all vegitables to certain seasons therefore do the principles take sanctuary for a time in those visible â—rains and husks we see which husks although to us they seem new Seed yet they are but new Cloathings at the best to that inward Seed which ceaseth not and from this Fountain it was that Paracelsus and Helmont truly tell us that essentiae rerum non pereunt And indeed we cannot but look upon Seeds or Seminary principles in all things thence producible as Embrio-Ancherites concentred and thrust up by the great skilful Builder and Contriver of all things into small parcels of matter which at least in some are mechanically I dare not nor indeed can say Phisically indivisible Now that these Plant-Embrio's are so minute in most as to escape any mechanical division and in some so inconspicuous as not to be discernable by the most curious assisted by the best and most skilfully contriv'd Glasses is very evident to those who are very inquisitive herein And yet these so minute points mechanically indivisible which is worth our remarking being put into their proper matrix or having a competent moisture allowed them do by a slow Fermentative motion compitible to all vegitation begin to make intestine collisions and inward wrestlin's of their inbred principles of Acid and Sulphur whereby that little parcel of matter so small as not to be obvious at least in some to the Eye assisted as aforesaid is by the power of its implanted Ferment capable of being split and subdivided into plenty of yet more minute parts Lastly for at present we only design transient sleight touches upon each That the Fermentations of vegetables as of Corn Grapes Fruits c. in order to the preparing our Bread and Drink depends upon the foresaid collision and inward struâ—lings of the two principles Acid and Sulphur is hence evident because if the Acidum of Paste Must Wurt or the like Fermentable Liquors be by the addition of any other thing precipitated altered or mortified then will those Liquors never Ferment Thus if quick-lime coral Crabs Eyes or any sort of fixt livial Alcalies be added thereto either before it begin will prevent or if while Fermenting will cause the Fermentation to cease Ferments are so obvious in the preparing our Bread and Drink as that usually Fermentation through the defect of the right understanding the nature and due improvement thereof hath been imputed to few other things The brisk effervescence of Wines which work without any additional Ferments owe their Fermentative motion to no other then to the quick struglings and inbred collisions of their native Acid and Sulphur a great part of whose superfluous Acidum and Sulphur complicated with a volatile Salt together with other Heterogenities are during Fermentation rejected and precipitated in the form of Tartar of which more in our Halologia The rest from a genuine wrestling of the principles compose an equal temper and generous potable Liquor viz.
Bread or other such Food CHAP. VIII NOw that there is some gentle warmth in all vegetable Fermentations undiscernable to our senses is apparent because the same principles of Fermentation being invigorated in their brisk intestine duellings may become sensibly hot witness the heat of steep'd Barley laid on a heap in order to Maltin which if neglected for want of turning and ventilation by Air will become so hot as one cannot induce his hand long in it Yea and from the same principles yet heightned in their inward Collisions may an actual burning Fire be produced Witness Corn wet laid in heaps in Chambers if neglected will take Fire Also Mows of Corn laid up too moist and close have been Fired So likewise a Rick of Hay is sometimes burnt to Ashes from the violent and furious Fermentations of its principles and that from its moistness and closeness setting its principles of Acids and Sulphur into a violent motion so as to break forth into aciual Flame Not to say here how Acids are sweetened by Sulphurs and sometimes coagulate into a neutral body For although all Fermentation is certainly at least according to our Hypothesis caus d from the Collisions and inward combatings of Acids and Sulphurs in the production of things yet as Acids amongst bodies as I have before and may more largely hereafter shew differ amongst themselves so they make different assaults and are variously reacted by Sulphurs whence both by their mutual actions undergo various changes and different modifications amongst bodies in their transformations And as some Acids ferment with their Sulphurs in an inward wrestling the Sulphurs afterwards as they predominate upon the wheel of operation softening sweetening and ripening their Acids making gentle coagulations in their naturations both amongst animals vegitables yea and Minerals too although more obvious in the two former so likewise some Sulphurs ferment with some Acids while with others they combine in a natural texture to confirm which we shall onely because in hast give this single mechanical example which shall be in Mercury or Quick-silver to which if a Spirit of Nitre or Aqua fortis be added the mixture presently ferments from the collision of the Sulphur in the Mercury and the Acids in the Menstruum whereby the compage there is broken from the intimate commixture of the Sulphur with its Mercurial parts whence a solution of the whole But if in lieu of that corrosive Menstruum the dry Salts of which that Menstruum by a colliquating fluor with their inbred Sulphurs by Fire is made be mixed and sublimed together there happens no Fermentation but arise in a corrosive sublimate to which if such a due proportion of fresh Mercury be added and re-sublim'd they coagulate and sweeten each other into a solid concretion of a neutral texture which is that trite preparation we call Mercurius dulcis in which the acid Salts of Vitriol and common Salt is so dulcified by their interweavings with the Sulphur of the Quick-silver as that it will not coagulate Milk and so becomes being well prepared a very harmless and innocent Medicine whilst the same sublimate thus sweetened by the Sulphur of its Mercury freshly added if therewith Antimony in lieu of Quick-silver be mixed the same acid Salts meeting with a different Sulphur in Antimony then in Mercury falls into a colliquation and fretting Fermentation causing a great heat and becomes a strong corrosive And as from the difference of Acids amongst themselves and their various assaults upon their Sulphurs cause various changes in the geuesis and transformations of Bodies both in the texture of Liquors and the concretions of Bodies So from various modes of aggression of our principles justleing differently according to various applications are produc'd varieties of effects which are discoverable from the difference of Spirits thence separable which in some at least upon rectification smite our Organs of sense with great variety as will appear these following ways Thus First If the principles are set awork in the seminals of things in a generative way as suppose in Vegetation here the principles by an evolution expand themselves in a slow but genuine Fermentation whose effects I mean their Spirits most what guise themselves in the minute effiuvia of odours especially in odorous Plants and that chiefly in the opening of the Flower though in many through the whole plant when the Sulphur is by circulation as I may say so subliliz'd by its connate acid as to pass off in a subtile Steam for hereby the acid not onely strikes the colour according to the varieties of Acids acting upon their proper Sulphur but also causeth an expansion and emanation of subtile parts Secondly If this Fermentative Vegetation be carryed on to the maturation of Fruits and in their Juices the foresaid principles be again set awork they then make different assaults combining in other manner of collisions then before as is evident from the vinous Spirits thence easily separable which partake much of the volatiz'd Sulphur Thirdly Thus if during Fermentation any quantity of a plant suppose Wormwood Mugwort Tansey c. should be gathered and laid together in heaps Here the principles make new and different collisions then before making retrograde motions which tend to a putredness of the Plants the product of which Fermentation is a volatile Vrinous Spirit as appears by Distillation thereof which is so strong in some Plants as that it doth very discernable ferire nares as I have felt in the Glastum or Wood prepared by that artifice of putrefactive Fermentation yea the workers thereof told me that when after a previous preparation by Grinding and exposing to the Air in Cakes they are laid in heaps the Fermentation is so very strong as the Vrinous Spirits thence issuing are searce tolerable to those that are near it which last named Spirits are as much a product of that sort of Fermentation as the two former are of theirs and therefore as we are not to guess at the quantity of vinous Spirts separable by that Fermentation peculiar to those Fermental juices as if pre-existent nor of Odours in Plants as aforehand in their minute seedlings before the openings of those powers by their own vegitative Fermentation so neither indeed ought we to esteem those vinous Spirits pre-existent in the Plants before putrefaction And as the different modes of the principles aggressions and collisions cause various sorts of Fermentations and different kinds of Spirits thence separable in the Vegital so likewise with some variation they do the like in the animal Family I mean that according to the viâ—ious methods of the principles mutual 〈◊〉 different sorts of Spirits thence result thus from the intestine struglings betwixt the native Acidum of the Stomack and the Sulphur in the Food begun in the Stomack carried on by the intermediate Ferments and compieated in the blood are produced those sorts of Spirits we call animal Thus from the same principles acting upon each other in a
in the concretions and maturations of Fruits but in the Fermentations of potable Liquors Thus as to the First Fruits while upon the Trees by the help of the Sun have their vegetative Fermentations compleated by the Sulphurs sweetening and maturating their Acids the like is done though nothing nigh so well in Fruits taken off the Trees before they be ripe and laid by in Straw Hay or the like whereby the warmth of the Air there formerly begun Fermentation is in some measure carryed on to maturation whereas if exposed to a more warmth or a greater degree of heat if done in Water they are Codled if before the Fire they are Roasted In both which although somewhat sweetened from what they were yet are far short of the pleasant gust and delicate colour they arrive at by their more natural and gentle maturating heat Thus if any Grain suppose Barley c. be steeped and afterwards laid in heaps till it contract a spontaneous heat this very heat transcending that which is peculiar to its own vegetative Fermentation suspends or rather indeed perverts the intention of nature whereby it will never so vegetate afterwards as to go on to a propagation by Seed but onely if permitted by neglect of turning will shoot forth a spurious branch call'd vulgarly an Acrespire Thus as to the last Fermentative Liquors if they have any other heat but what results from the collisions of their own active principles or at least in degree is congenial thereto then the intention of nature is perverted by the dissipations of the principles of Fermentation or at least by the graduations of the Acid above the Sulphur as appears in heating the Fermentative Liquor too much or in putting it up too warm in the Vessels the like happens I mean a dissipation of the Fermentative agents or an exorbitancy of the Acidum in hot seasons or with the percussions of the Air by the noise of Guns or Thunder or from insolation or the like In all which the crasis of Fermentable Liquors are perverted and the Acidum by overpowering the Sulphur grows exorbitant subverting the temperature of the whole CHAP. IX HAving thus sleightly for brevities sake run through the reasons and causes of Fermentation from the lowest to the highest degree thereof in all natural productions throughout the threefold kingdom of Nature and shewed those from the genuine causes and natural principles to be the fountain of Heat in and amongst bodies Now come we to consider of some other sorts of Heat that seem to arise either from other manner of Fermentations or from other causes of which are all Fermentations or Ebullitions made betwixt Acids and all kinds of Alcalies whether lixivial or alcalizate fixed or volatile the Fermentation and Heat obvious in quicklime made by the affusion of water heat also caus'd from the collision and attrition of solid bodies For indeed from a due examination I find there is no Heat produc'd amongst bodies I mean from their own intestine principles what sort soever it be but what is referable of one of these two viz. either Acids and Sulphurs or to Acids and Alcalies The first is the natural cause of Heat as thence springing from its genuine source which admits of degrees even to actual flagration The other is artificial and never arrives to the height of the former I found therefore upon due consideration that the foresaid Fermentations and Heat reckoned amongst those which arise betwixt Acids and some sorts of Alcalies might be soly'd from one of these two causes viz. either from our deposited principles of Acid and Sulphur or from a mutual fretting betwixt Acids and urinous Spirits Thus we suppose and elsewhere in our Lithologio Physica illustrate in all Petrifick concretions somewhat of a Sulphurous principle lockt up in the strickt texture of the petrifying native Alcaly which when an acid menstruum comes to terebrate finding the Sulphur its proper object closeth therewith and from their mutual struglings happens the solution of the body thence proceeds the Ebullition and consequently in some where it is strong Warmth For we suppose a Sulphur or Sulphurous principle to be as a cement to bind up the petrifick Alcali in all or most of stony concretions Thus also we suppose in all fixt lixivial Alcalies or fixt Salts as they are vulgarly called a Sulphurous principle to be close shut up in the texture thereof and that every fixt lixivial Alcali is a new compage of the same prae-existent principles produc'd and bound up by the Acidum of Fire where the Acidum and Sulphur are so interwoven with a volatile urinous Spirit or Salt as that by force of Fire they do colliquescere melt down into a body dissolvable per deliquium which is generally esteemed a simple Salt but having discourst largely thereof in our Halologia shall now wave it and onely say that these fixt Alcalies vulgarly reputed solitary Salts being new textures of the intrinsick principles do by that neutrality of Essence they are wrought into by the Fire from new complications I say do make different assaults upon Acids then before Hence it is that upon a double account as I said that Acids mixed with these Alcalies may cause an effervescence viz. either as meeting with the Sulphur close bound up with the Acid and urinous Spirit or Salt in the compage of the Alcali and so to cause an Ebullition and Heat according to our foresaid principles or as meeting with the volatile urinous Salt close rivetted with the Sulphur and Acid may either way cause an effervescence Onely this difference which is considerable is to be noted betwixt these Fermentations made between Acids and Sulphurs as they happen in petrifick concretions and fixt lixivial Alcalies from those which happen in the general course of nature inasmuch as Fermentations which are set awork amongst animals vegetables yea and many minerals do produce a quite different effect from those lately cited as appears in animal Fermentations their effects are the production of animal Spirits c. In vegetable Fermentations their effects are either such which immediately result from the slow pac'd motion of the principles viz. Vegetation Volatization of their Sulphurs Odours c. or are the effects of the more sensible Fermentations in all vegetable juices in order to potable Liquors which are vinous Spirits or the effects of mineral Fermentations which if done in the bowels of the Earth where no current of water happens are the productions of mineral concretes c. If where waters have their Channels in their great circulation their effects are hot Baths c. Or Lastly if the Fermentation be from mineral bodies and corrosive menstrua the effects are stifling fumes c. All which in their different classes happen from the looseness of the compage of their Sulphurs and from their facile inclination to volatization But in the late cited effervescences betwixt Acids and Alcalies whether in Petrifick or lixivial Salts their Sulphurs being naturally
the implanted principles of Acid and Sulphur being by percussion allision or attrition put into a speedy Fermentation For the better understanding whereof we are to consider both the nature and temperament of those bodies as also the manner of the production of Heat or Fire therefrom as to the first they are all of them such in whose texture our principles of Fermentation viz. Acid and Sulphur lye scattered and interspers'd what are Flints and other Pyrites but stony concretions who have a Sulphurous principle for their cement which lyeth close shut up in their bodies especially in some of them the flagrable Sulphur is so fast locked up as that it appears not by any usual manner of way unless either by attrition of other bodies wherein an Acid and Sulphur hang more loosely viz. Iron or Steel or by the solution of some powerful menstruum such as the grand solvent the Alchahest whilst others of them have their Sulphur more easily extricated of which last sort it is G. Fabricius speaks when he saith that out of any the Pyrites equo excutitur ignis excoquitur etiam Sulphur What is Iron or Steel the latter being but the former hardened but a metal wherein eminently above the rest of metals doth appear an Acidum witness it s easie mouldering into Rust being a natural calcination thereof by the bare acid moisture of the Air For what Fire by its Acidum doth to Iron loosening the innate acidum thereof by actual calcination the same in a longer tract of time doth the connate acidum of the Air to the inbred acid of Iron which then working upon the native Sulphur doth unhinge it and so together taketh in pieces the whole body into a crocus And although Copper hath also an implanted acidum the chief cause of its contracting an erugo in the Air yet it is not so easily extravertable by the acidum in the Air and therefore defends it self the better from the injuries thereof Lastly not now to name any more what is Wood whether in a sappy Branch or dry but firm stick but the more strong concretions of vegetable juices wherein the foresaid principles of Acid and Sulphur are in the one freshly acting in the work of vegetation and in the other lye dormant under the bonds of coagulation So that if the same principles be actuated and accelerated in their motions as they are by sudden collisions and attrisions they may thereby be put into stronger Fermentations and at length be invigorated to that height as actually to take Fire which according to our Hypothesis is the very reason why a Green Branch or Stick by strong and frequent attritions one part upon another will Fire also why the Axis Staves or Wheels of Coaches Wagons and Mills will from strong and violent motions and attritions take Fire and burn The like may be said concerning all the other foregoing Subjects as to the causes or manner of their striking Fire which now we shall insist no longer upon only this by the by I would take notice of before I have done with this matter that frications which are sleight attritions of the parts of the body which by the Ancients were much in use towards the assisting the cure of many Diseases whose peccant matter lay much in the habit of the body were grounded upon this very reason viz. that they thereby help'd the Fermentation of the blood and other dormant juices which lay coagulated in the outward parts of the body benumbing the Nerves Muscles and other outward parts and that if Physicians would now more frequent the use thereof might probably find an advantage thereby in order to the Cure of Diseases by invigorating those dorming Ferments putting them into action whereby the offending matter might the better be discuss'd and evaporated CHAP. XI THus having as compendiously as we could run through the causes of Heat and Fire as the result from all sorts of Fermentations in the triplicity of natures Empire and shewed Heat to be Fire in a remiss and Fire Heat in an intenc'd degree or if you will a slow or more quick motion of the principles I mean Fermentations solves both and shewed also these Fermentations to proceed from a wrestling of Acidum and Sulphur excepting those made from an intestine strugling of Acidum and a fixt Alcali or Acidum and Vrinous Spirits Now come we to the last thing we propounded and that is how from our deposited Doctrine of Fermentation to solve that other grand Phoenomena viz. Light Not now to treat of Light as it is communicable to us from the great Fountain thereof the Sun which as we suppose consists in an illumination of Air by a perpetual emanation or eradiation of solar beams springing from an incessant but peculiar Fermentation in the body of the Sun and fostered by an unwearied circulation of Aethereal matter Light and Heat as proceeding from the great scuree thereof we conceive to differ only in this viz. That Light is the bare illumination of the medium the Air by a direct progressive motion of Aethereal matter from the foresaid Fermentation as the proper object of the Eye and by which all other things are seen while heat is the reflection or reverberatory motion of the same luminous beams proceeding from the said Fermentation from the Earth or other solid bodies affecting by that Fermentative motion our Organs of feeling concerning which we may elsewhere modestly propose our opinion Our design at present is onely to discourse of the nature and manner of such sort of Lights which we find amongst bodies we usually converse with upon the Earth and within the verge of our Atmosphere which are as followeth viz. the Light of culinary Fire I mean of most usual combustable concretes the Light of all Sulphurous matters whether in the form of mineral Sulphurs Gumms Rosins Turpentine Axungia's c. or in liquids of Bitumen Oyles vinous Spirits c. The Light of rotten Wood long dry'd Fish as Codds c. who have an incipient putrefaction The Light of Glow-worms Cats-Eyes Light from attrition of Wood green or dry which have thereby taken Fire from the attrition or percussion of Steel and Flint or any Pyrites from the frication or pectation of animals such as are Light from the Combing a Womans head as sometimes hath been known Light struck in the currying of a Horse and that Light I have seen from a sudden frication upon a Catts-Back of some Liquors the Light of subterraneal Lamps the perpetual Light preparable by the exuberate Mercury of the Philosophers graduated by circulation and cohobation according to our English Anonymus who had seen it done The Light of some precious Stones as Carbuncles some sort of Diamonds magnetical of Light as the Bononian-stone prepared by an artificial calcination Lastly The Light of meteors amongst which may be reckoned Lightening flashes of Fire or Light seen in Storms upon the Sea also those luminous meteors which in great Storms at Sea
cerevisia edulia prius grata dulcia quando corrumpi incipiunt ingrate acescunt To which we shall add the suffrage of the industrious Tachenius a consideration highly worth his own due and well-weighing inspection Lac saith he sponte acessit Hip. Chym. p. 90 91. sicut reliqui succi tum vegitabilium quam animalium cum in putrifactionem tendunt imo nil putrere neque generari potest novi nisi praecedat aciditas As to the last thing propounded in order to the concluding this discourse we might say that Acids in order to the concretions and reductions coagulations and liquifications condensations and rarifactions solidity and fluidity and other various modifications of bodies differently denominated according to the different impressions they make upon our sensual Organs I say Acids in the solving the foresaid appearances of bodies in the main fall under a double consideration viz. either as active and fluid or passive and consistent Under the first viz. while its active and so its succulent liquid or fluid after which manner it appears in all actual Fermentations whence immediately result those grand distinctions of concrete bodies known to us under the notion of animals vegetables and minerals which Fermentation is previous to all manner of concretions in the triplicity of natures workings as we have in the foregoing discourse briefly illustrated For while vegetation amongst Plants animation in the composure of juices and thence of the structure of animal bodies and mineralization in order to Hot-Baths are perform'd the Acids concern'd must I say of necessity be fluid and actually succulent otherwise a stop or lett would immediately be impos'd upon the workings of nature in the formations and transformations of bodies and consequently would cease to propagate themselves For no growth or accretion of parts in the genesis of natural bodies is perform'd without a succulent Fermentation where an Acid is in an actual yea fluid motion From which succulency of Acids together with intermediate coagulations and hardenings perform'd at due seasons all concrete bodies in the threefold Kingdom of nature are produc'd and from these two viz. Acids in succis solutis working upon their inbred Sulphurs by a natural Fermentation and from the concretions of these juices by the help of the ambient Air always in the genoration of bodies conspiring to such effects I say from the motion of liquid acid juices and their weavings by concretion seasonably perform'd it is that from very minute seedlings Plants are brought on to great bigness Thus from Oak-Seedlings call'd Acorns whose seminal part lyeth in a very small and inconsiderable compass may be produced too and is daily growing to be great bulkie Oaks So that when we see a vast spreading Oak and look at a small seedling whence such in process of time is produc'd if we consider what has been done and which way nature has so busied her self as to bring forth so disproportionable a bulk to the little plant Embrio compriz'd in the seedling we cannot I say chuse but view the inward agents set at work in the epitomiz'd Oak in a fluid state which by the expansive motions of their juices in their natural Fermentative vegetation as they come to the Air become thereby woven into Stems and Leaves and by further hardenings are condenced and incrustated in part into Wood and Bark So that by the concretions of the Sap wherein the principles are in a liquid state or Fermentation carryed up betwixt the Bole and Bark are made considerable increase in Bulk till at length it swell to that huge stature we see many of them grow too As to the bulk it self of an Oak Ash c. it oweth its original as well as all other concretions do materially to water But that water should be form'd coagulated and put on the shape of an Oak Ash c. that is wholly ascribable to the intrinsick agents or intestine principles of Acid and Sulphur set in the seedling into a Fermentative motion displayed into that figure by the manuduction and evolution of the contracted and shut up Seed carryed up and conveyed by their proper Vessels whether by the names of veins arteries c. with their accompanyed Air Vessels according to the ingenuous Malpigius and our Countrey-man Dr. Grew What we have said of an Oak is compatible suo modo to all other vegetables Then as to the other consideration Acids fall under in order to the fabrick of bodies whether in the form of natural or artificial concretions viz. as it is passive or becomes consistent so it stands in opposition to fluidity or rather is the complement thereof determining it into solid bodies For we see no other cause to which natural concretions coagulations incrustations consolidations congelations c. comprized under the notion of binders up of bodies can or ought to be more genuinely refer'd then to Acids under this consideration what I pray are Stalks Leaves Husks Grains c. of Plants or lesser vegetables but the Acidum woven and condenc'd with some Sulphurous parts into those forms by the access of Air what are the bole bark and branches of Trees or larger siz'd vegetables but the concretions and hardenings of the native Acid juices together with the inclosure of some Sulphurous parts by the co-operation of external Air what the Fruits of Trees but the coagulations of Acids sweetened by their Sulphurs thereby brought on to maturity and thence made fit for other Fermentations in order to potable Liquors What amongst animals is flesh and musculous parts but the coagulation of the blood and other humours to whose constitution a genuine Acidum in a due proportion is essentially requisite What the Bones but parts consolidated from implanted Acids in whose coagulation or condensation some Sulphurous parts are also taken in And as in the natural constitution of the body and eucrasie of the humours Acids are chiefly concern'd in the concretions coagulations and consolidations of the parts so likewise in the dycrasie of animal juices and preternatural concretions and indurations c. of the body Acids are primarily concern'd Thus what are Fistula's but callosity and obdurate hardness of the inward parts viz. the veins arteries c. being hardened by a spurious Acidum lodg'd in those particular parts What are the podagrical Tophi and Nodi but the Synovia of the Joints hardened and congealed by a gouty Acidum fixing it self by coagulation upon those parts What are hard tumours but swellings from Scorbutick Acids or from Acids of some badly cured Disease lurking in its Acid seminary for a time till other concurring causes sets the spurious Ferment more a work and by the predominant Acidum the general faber of pains and dolours the Vessels are obstructed and the humours of some particular parts coagulated into those obdurate swellings Lastly What is the Stone in the Gaul Bladder or other parts of a humane or other animal body but chiefly an Acidum fixed upon a petrifick Earth and urinous
Alcali or volatile Salt taking in some Sulphurous parts but espcially as I say bound up or knit together by the vinculum of an Acid Of which further in our Lithologia Physica Amongst Minerals What are all fossil and other mineral Salts but concretions chiefly perform'd by the power of Acids in the bowels of the Earth In particular what are Sal marine Vitriol Alom and Nitre but concretions of acid juices And indeed what are the generality of artificial Salts or such as are made by mixture but such in whose texture Acids are chiefly and primarily concern'd and without which scarce any saline concretion at all doth appear What are Stones made in the bowels of the Earth but liquid subterraneal juices of alcalizate or other proper matter arrested by acid steams arising from some Fermentation of mineral juices which together pass into those petrifick concretions as we sufficiently and that de industria demonstrate in our Lithologia Physica and Halologia Chymica What are Minerals themselves being immature Metals having the principles of Metals but after a crude volatile imperfect manner such as Brimstone Antimony Pyrites Auripigmentum c. but Sulphurous concretions bound up by their intrinsick acids taking into their compage other Heterogenities as we have in short above declared and may more at large God willing in another place Yea to go higher what are the Metals but a metallick Sulphur bound up by a peculiar implanted Acidum in the mercurial juices whose mixture being not perfect through a complication of some heterogenities makes the imperfect but those being removed by a closer bond of the metallick principles gives the perfect Metals unseparable and unalterable by the power of the strongest culinary Fire We might go yet further and ask what is the Philosophers Elixir if such there be in rerum natura but such a close weaving of metallick principles whose Acidum is intimately and inseparably united all so highly graduated as to become a fixt coagulated tincture of so extensive a nature as to be able to make quick transits through and thereby to hinge into its own fixity and purity other imperfect metallick bodies So that upon a serious inquiry with our Eye directly levelled into the works of nature we cannot but conclude First That all manner of coagulations congelations condensations salifications petrifications yea all sorts of concretions of bodies or of juices into bodies are primarily ascribable to Acids as their grand faber of which we discourse largely and demonstrate we think clearly in our two foresaid Tracts Secondly That by these foresaid coagulations salifications petrifications and other concretions the connate Acidum doth so combine with the Sulphurous parts it closeth with as that both pass into a quid tertium or neutral result partaking of both and yet distinguishable by neither insomuch as the Acidum by such sort of coagulations and concretions looseth its Sting and becomes thereby altogether unperceptable And hence is the reason why although Acids be the very foundation of all coagulations other concretions of bodies yet are themselves as to our gust in many things the least discoverable which because we cannot easily get to the insides of bodies in their natural productions shall therefore endeavour to demonstrate and ellustrate by artificial mixtures resembling the natural Thus in mixing the Runnet or usual Ferment to New-Milk upon heat or while warm after Milking the acidity of the Runnet not only makes the Milk split into Curds and Whey but is it self so coagulated with the Curds as not to become perceptable at all so that Cheese is nothing else but a neutrum or neutral result from an Acid and curdling parts of Milk coagulated together while Cream is the Sulphurous parts of Milk and Butter is the coagulum of that Cream separated by a slender Fermentation procured by the motion of Churming which very coagulation of Butter is from a combination of some small quantity of Acidum with the Sulphurous parts Thus also from the Acidum in Wines of all sorts in Ale Beer Syder c. being poured upon warm or boiled Milk from the Acidum I say in any of the foresaid Liquors it is that the Milk separateth into Curds and Whey or posset-drink the former of which are made lighter or stiffer according to the difference of the Acids and various manner of application of the ingredients in which Curds the acidum of the Fermentable Liquor is wholly coagulated which is a good way of mortifying or correcting all sorts of fretting Acids whether in bad Wines or other Liquors which all fix if there be Milk enough in the Curd and yet that Curd is a neutral and the Acid not at all perceptable therein yea in case of bad Wines or other Drinks where the Acedum is too eager and fretting to those who do not care for Posset-drink and yet would not loose their Wines or other Liquors I would being prompted from the foresaid cause propound as an expedient to put a spoonful or two of boyling Milk upon a Pint or Quart of such sort of Liquors stir it about if the Curd rise to the top to skim it off if not to run it through a filter whereby it will become clear and so you have corrected your Wines c. and made them fit for drinking or in lieu of that to put a tost of old Wheat bread therein which will imbibe much of the superfluous Acidum and make the Drink thereby more wholsome From the foresaid cause of Acids it is also that Fat congeals in animals which is but the Sulphur of the blood congealed by its own or at least acquired Acidum of the Air which after melting by heat whereby the Acid becomes fluid congeals again in cold into that consistence called Saem or Tallow and from the facile congelation of the Sulphurous parts of the blood in some animals from the acidum under either or both considerations viz. of native or acquired from the Air it is that for instance Conies and Field-fare become Fatter in Frosty weather and from the like cause the Fat of Land-animals is hard as the ingenuous Dr. Grew notes in his discourse of mixture while that of Fish is very soft and in great part runs to Oyle viz. because the first sort are expos'd to the acidum floating in the Air and thereby continually to proper ends inspired and the latter being always immers'd in water is much what depriv'd of that congealing acreal acidum And as Acids are remarkable in the various concretions of animals viz. in the coagulations into Flesh consolidations into Bones congelations into Fat c. whereby they shew their different operations upon various juices of animal bodies and thereby also combine into neutral results as aforesaid so likewise the same is evident amongst vegetables Thus express'd Oyles especially when the innate acidum so prevails by some acquirements from the aereal do by keeping grow rancid and thick as also is further apparent in the mixture of acid
Spirit of Nitre with Oyle Olive whereby the vegetable Oyle is coagulated and made consistent being congealed thereby into a white Fat or Butter as Dr. Grew observeth And as nature produceth Rosins and Gums in Plants and Trees congealing the juices of wounded Stems Boles Stalks Heads c. by the acidum of the Air according to the disposition and genius of the Plants whence Rosins as of Turpentine Scamony c. Gums as Camphire Opium c. so in like manner Art in imitation of Nature and from the same principles can produce somewhat equivalent thereto Thus if the acid Oyle of Vitriol be mixed with the Oyle of Anise-seeds the vegetable Oyle is immediately by the acidum in the mineral distill'd Liquor congeal'd into a perfect Rosin Yea and by the addition of Acids to some vegetable Oyles may be resembled the production of Turpentines Thus Oyle of Vitriol added to the distill'd Oyles of Turpentine Nutmegs Juniper c. after Fermentation become of a consistence altogether emulating usual Turpentine without the least appearance of Oyle swiming on them nay although Spirit of Wine be afterwards added yet will it cause no separation of any of the Oyle But the contrary happens if you add Spirit of Wine to an essential Oyle before mixture with the Oyle of Vitriol for then the Spirit of Wine and Oyle of Vitriol unite and reject the essential Oyle to the superficies So that the reason why distill'd Oyles by the foresaid artifice subside in the form of a liquid Turpentine is because that upon Fermentation from the foresaid mixture the Oyles receive such an alteration by suffering their volatile parts to go off as that what remains combining with the Acidum of the Vitriol becomes thence more a Turpentine then an Oyle and consequently as heavier must subside although Spirit of Wine be put thereto which otherwise would swim above it So that from the premisses it will naturally follow that Turpentines are indeed but liquid Rosins and Rosins no other then concrete Turpentines and further that Turpentines are Oyles incrassated or condenced by addition of Acids yea all but several disguises of Sulphur altered according to different degrees of Acids and their various assaults upon Sulphurs It s worth by the by our observation that even from the mixture of some Acids and Sulphurs sanguification I mean as to its tincture may as well be imitated and shadowed forth unto us as from those of volatile Alcalies and Sulphurs Thus the acid Oyle of Vitriol mixed with the essential Oyles either of Turpentine Juniper Nutmegs or Amber Strikes besides the Fermentation and intense heat they cause a deep blood red colour as I have tryed And I do not know yet but that even Alcalies whether fixt or volatile may from the same reason of their hidden and shut up Acids intend the colours of Sulphurous vegetables concerning which Acids we elsewhere touch yea and from the same operation of the genuine Acids upon their proper Sulphurs in the great work of vegetative Fermentation are struck those various and no less admirable colours in the great field of vegetables as we have hinted before And to conclude as we have shewed water to be the material principle of all concretions so the distinction and specification thereof depends upon Fires or Ferments lodg'd and hid in the inwards of Seeds which Fires or Ferments are differenced from the great variety chiefly of Acids not onely in Fermentation but Concretion in Fluidity but Solidity and consistency of bodies For what 's the tapestrey of vegetables in their peculiar verdure spangled with an amicable lustre but so many central Fires or Ferments at first hid in their seminals and afterwards by the co-operation of other conspiring causes displayed into almost infinitely variety of Plants branching themselves in their different delicate and beautiful colours And what are animals but vital Lamps burning in bodies and yet those bodies no otherwise consum'd but by the glowing dwindling and at last extinguishing of those vital tapers whereby not onely animals but also vegetables are apt besides their common putrilage from plenty of moisture to spend themselves by the declining of the foresaid Ferments in hecticks and wearing marasmes which vital Ferments are more noble then the vegetable because working in greater varieties of Vessels and therefore the more highly by circulation sublim'd and graduated into animal Spirits the ultimate product of vital Ferments yea in humane bodies is the very vinculum of the rational Soul that Heaven born Creature to the body being its vehicle here a large Field is open where I could freely let my thoughts and pen run but shall at present set up my staft and content my self although unwilling in drawing the Curtaine over the rest and indeed at length after many conclusions make an End FINIS This following Paragraph is to be inserted instead of that in page 11. line 29. HEnce it is that some of those Sulphuroushot-waters may with good success in order to the Cure of some Diseases be taken inwardly others not Those that may are generally such whose Sulphurs are either from Common Brimstone Vitriol or Antimony or from Marcasites and Pyrites bordering thereon of which sort among the rest are those of the Bath in Somerset-shire which take their original from such kind of Minerals or Mineral juices lodg'd in the bowels of those great Mountains at the foot or centre whereof those Baths break forth which although of late are found to be successful in the Cure of ome Diseases yet it s very suspicious they injure other persons who without good advice drink those waters so that as to a universally medicinal water they come far short of the Sulphur-water at Knarsbrough in York-shire And indeed these hot-Sulphur-Bath-waters ought to be drunk with a great deal of caution and but by some persons and that too in extraordinary cases yea in no wise to be drunk as a general healing water Those Sulphurous hot-waters which are altogether improper for inward use are such as are impregnate with the Sulphurs of Bitumen Arsneck Risogalla c. or with the Minera's thereof or at least with such Marcasites as participate therewith they are such as we elsewhere name Now the acidum which necessarily concurs to those Fermentations as an indispensible Sulphur opens the bodies of those Sulphurs and thereby either detains them while in fieri in succis solutis or from concretions reduce them to such by either way renders some wholsome and healing others noxious for inward use according to the difference of the foresaid Sulphurs An Advertisement to the Reader THere is now published a Second Part of the Catalogue of Chymical Books in English to be added to the First Part formerly Printed with the Philosophical Epitaph together with a Third Part of the Chymical Catalogue or a Collection of such things published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society as belong any way to Chymistry or the study of Nature by Art in the Animal
Vegetal and Mineral Kingdoms which Catalogues with most of the Books contained in them with many others of that Subject in Latin a large account of which Borellus hath given in his Bibliotheca Chymica are to be Sold by William Cooper at the Pellican in Little-Britain London A DISCOURSE OF THE Sulphur-Bath AT KNARSBROUGH IN YORK-SHIRE BY WILL. SIMPSON M. D. LONDON Printed for Will. Cooper at the Pellican in Little-Britain 1675. A Discourse of the Sulphur-Bath at Knarsbrough concerning its Causes and Virtues THat I may not be injurious to what I have already writ in my two former Books entituled Hydrologia Chymica and Hydrological Essays concerning the Sulphur-Well at Knarsbrough as a mineral water of great use in its virtues inwardly taken But now designing an account thereof as a Bath for outward use shall therefore in order to the better understanding of what I aim at here resume so much of my former discourse concerning the Essential ingredients and necessary principles of that Water together with an addition of some more recent observations as may serve to illustrate what I now intend to be my present task Our method will be as followeth 1. To lay down the constitutive ingredients or mineral principles of that Water 2. To shew the process as near as we can apprehend Nature useth in the preparing this excellent water 3. To shew the difference betwixt this and other natnral Hot-Baths as in their original and inbred principles so also in some sort as to their virtues 4. To shew how and by what means the Sulphur as the chief mineral ingredient in this water is so opened as to become not only so subtile as thence to be solvable odore tenus therein but also so volatile as to pass off in a continual steame and insensible effluvium 5. How this Sulphur-water comes not much short as to its original principles nor is much if at all inferiour in its efficacy to some other Sulphur-waters which are Hot-Baths inasmuch as this is lately found to be successful for outward applications as well as those by late observation are remark'd for inward use 6. To shew that the artificial heating of the Sulphur-water bears some analogy to the inbred heat of other Baths as they come hot out of the Earth 7. To shew how Art may imitate Nature but yet from the same principles in the resemblance of most Baths viz. how to prepare such Baths artificially as are natural Lastly To inquire how and after what manner this Sulphur-water performs those expected helps as a Bath where in short will be illustrated its various virtues in order to the help of several Maladies First As to the constituent ingredients or mineral principles of this water We say they are compriz'd in these three viz. 1. A marine or fossil Salt 2. A Sulphurous Apporrhea or steam of Sulphur Lastly A little aluminous acidity As to the first viz. Salt is apparent both from its brackish taste as also from what remains upon its distillation or evaporation of which we find betwixt one and two drams in a quart thereof as we further shew in our Hydrologia Chymica c. 2. As to the Sulphrous principle that 's manifest 1. From its Taste and Smell as also from its hogo upon the riflings and regurgitations of the Stomack after taking thereof 2. From its colouring of Silver dipt therein which it doth as readily as the solution or washings of crocus metallorum from the Sulphur of the Antimony or as the solution of common Brimstone in the preparing Lac Sulphuris both being made from the Acids of alcalizate Salts as will appear although a paradox more clearly anon And lastly from its colouring of Silver by its very Steams as we shall shew more afterwards Now the question may be ask'd whence this mineral water has its Sulphur I answer that there are plenty of vitriolin Marcasites well saturate with Sulphur out of which I have by an artifice taught in my Hydrological Essays separated perfect Brimstone which melted into magdalions or rolls are not distinguishable any manner of way from the common besides which Marcasites found not far off this Spring the very adjacent Earth is full of Brimstone Lastly As to the ingredient of Alom its discoverable these ways following first from the Alom-Bed through which this water at last passeth or at least toucheth upon as is obvious to any eye that will look at it being close adjoyning to the exit of the water 2. By its acidity in the water as is evident from its curdling of Milk for the Salt separated from the Sulphur-water being put into boyling Milk will make it shil into Curds and Whey as if some acidum was poured thereto which common Salt will not do for we try'd both and that in the same proportion and found the Sulphur Salt to cause a speedy separation and that in great quantity and the common Salt made a little separation of a lighter coagulum but did not make it shil or alter the seeming colour or consistence of the Milk And lastly if the powder of Coral or Crabs-Eyes be put thereto they imbibe or mortifie the acidity of the Alom and cause a Milkieness from the volatile Sulphur And as the three aforesaid ingredients are found to be the constitutive principles of this water so that neither vitriol nor nitre however some imagine the contrary are contain'd therein is evident first as to vitriol which gives the most suspition from the plenty of its Marcasites found not far from the Well because it will strike no tincture with Galls as we shall shortly further evince And as to Nitre there is not the least suspition either from what is separable from the water nor from any mineral glebe adjacent thereto that we have yet discovered Secondly As to the process Nature useth in the preparing this excellent mineral water or the manner of her mixing the foresaid ingredients by her Chymistry in the bowels of the Earth in order to the making up the forenamed Sulphur-Bath In short thus a water Spring suppose passing through or by a minera of fossil Salt part of which it dissolves and afterwards in its current either meeting with some acid juice whether of vitriol or of other mineral glebes becomes impregnate therewith and obviating or rather supervening a Sulphurous Mineral from the concourse of which two happens a Fermentation or else this Saline Solution comes upon a minera whether that of vitriol or what other soever it be in the meanders of the Earth whose principles are yet crude and onely embrionative whereupon it sets those native and congenit principles awork into a Fermentation either way I say it becomes capable of raising that intestine motion we call Fermentation and thence of so subtilizing and volatizing the Sulphur as to make it solvable in water as we have illustrated more demonstrably above in our Doctrine of Hot-Baths But not staying here because of the continual afflux and pressure of water at
natures works I saw that she perform'd the fa e solutions of mineral Sulphurs in some parts of the bowels of the Earth by her own menstrua of Acids prepared by her dextrous Art of Chymistry the very foundation and exemplar of all we call Artificial as she did in other actions reputed amongst most Authors Heteroclites and was the same in the latter as the former and from hence I saw that reputed causticks I mean fixt lixivial Alcalies were no other then Acids viz. of the Fire fixt upon bodies so that I found nature symbolical in all her actions and always consonant to her own principles And that I might improve this notion the better not taken notice of by any other Author I know I began to make a strict scrutiny into the nature of fixt Alcalies I considered First That the more Fire they endured and the higher they were calcin'd and the sooner us'd after calcination the stronger and more fiery Causticks they were 2. That they would never calcine to a strong Salt unless perform'd in open Vessels or Crucibles where the Fire might more immediately touch upon them and concentre its own acidum 3. That if after they were cold and kept from the Air and then Spirit of Wine or Water was put thereto thence a heat was presently produc'd which as I conceive was from no other cause then this viz. That either of those Liquors sets the acidum contracted from the Fire and the Sulphur or volatile Alcaly in the Salt into a sudden Fermentation dissolving and so putting them into an intestine collision 4. And fourthly I considered That the longer these Salts were expos'd to the Air even to a solution per deliquium the more mild and soft in operation they become loosing thereby gradually their Acids imbibed from the Fire insomuch as by often solution per deliquium the compage of that Salt from the vinculum of the fiery Acid is taken off as that the whole may thence be reduc'd into an insipid Water and Earth and no Arcauum neither Lastly That although these fixt lixivial Salts do make strong Ebullitions with Acids put to them yet that happens either betwixt the additional acid and the Sulphur in the Salt or betwixt it and the volatile alcaly bound up in the artificial concretion That there are Sulphurs in those Salts or new textures of Plants appears from their lixivial or saponary property and that there are also volatile alcalies is evident from their precipitating faculty and from their intestine strugling with acids To which may be added this observation that after fixt alcalies have lost the acidum contracted from Fire which they do by keeping and sometimes exposing to the air together with the addition of somewhat which dints the foresaid Acidum may then by Art be made to split into Oyle and urinous Spirit or volatile Salt As to that great objection against the acidity of fixt lixivial Alcalies viz. the precipitation of such solutions made with Alcalies by Acids inasmuch as it is generally observ'd that what solutions Alcalies make are most promptly precipitated by Acids I answer First That although what more simple I mean volatile Alcalies do dissolve are precipitated very readily by Acids vice versa yet where Alcalies are more complicated and interwoven with other essential parts there the precipitation by Acids of what those already have dissolv'd are in no wise wholly ascribable to them as alcalies but equally compitible to other parts in the concretion And in the next place I answer that even some acids are capable of precipitating what others have dissolv'd to prove and illustrate which I try'd this following instance viz. I took a clear solution of saccharum Saturni which I had prepared with distilled Vinegar which no man will deny to be an Acid upon which I poured a pretty smart Spirit of Vitriol whereupon it presently became Milkie and caus'd a precipitation of a pure white calx of Saturn which precipitation may also be done with Spirit of Salt The same likewise will Spirit of Salt do poured upon a solution of refin'd Silver made in double its weight of Aqua fortis in preparing that admirable anomolous neutral concretion call'd Luna Cornea mentioned by the honorable Boyle in his origin of forms and not onely Spirit of Salt but also Oyle of Vitriol will cause the like precipitation Whence its obvious to any eye that what some Acids dissolve others may precipitate from the congenealness of the solvend to one solvend more then another For both those wherein the solutions of the metals were made viz. Spirit of Vinegar and Aqua-fortis are as undoubtedly acids as those which cause the precipitations viz. Spirit of Vitriol and Spirit of Salt So that the precipitation of bodies depend not upon acid or alcalizate Liquors as such but upon the consanguinity if I may so say of bodies or solvends to liquors or solvents viz. whilst an acid having dissolv'd one body meeting with another akin thereto le ts the former fall and from an abstruce affinity of parts dissolves the latter From whence it need not seem heterodox although to the most it may as yet a paradox to say that fixt Alcalies open the bodies of mineral Sulphurs as they are acido-Sulphurous Salts and that chiefly as they partake of the acidum of Fire assum'd by calcination and that precipitations of the same folutions may be perform'd and that too without the least absurdity in Philosophy by other supervening Acids as we have even now demonstrated As I observ'd all fixt Alcalies made out of Vegetables to work upon Mineral Sulphurs on the account of their being Acido-Sulphurous-Salts so I could not otherwise whilst I look'd upon the matter with a very intent eye judge of calx vive whose manner of operation in opening the bodies of Brimstone and other Mineral Sulphurs I could not charge to any other then its Acid which it had contracted from the Fire in the very calcination of that sort of Stone call'd Lapis calcarius viz. Free-stone or Lime-stone which that it chiefly partakes of the Acidum of Fire and thereby performs not only that but various other effects we have already in short demonstrated and shall further in Lithologia Physica From the premisses it will easily appear in eonfirmation of our former Doctrine that all solutions of Mineral Sulphurs in the bowels of the Earth are made by their peculiar Acids and that other solutions made by Art are but from the same principles under other disguises Therefore that which opens the body of Sulphur in these Mineral Marcasites through which this water we treat of runs must of necessity be an Acidum which afterwards is precipitated by another Acid of the Alom-bed through which at last it passeth As to that experiment we gave to illustrate the cause and manner of making that water by opening those vitriolin Marcasites with quick-lime in our Hydrological Essays although we there imputed it to the alcali yet now from second and