Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	heat_n	humour_n	1,740	5	7.9862	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96797	Scarbrough Spaw, or, A description of the nature and vertues of the spaw at Scarbrough in Yorkshire. Also a treatise of the nature and use of water in general, and the several sorts thereof, as sea, rain, snow, pond, lake, spring, and river water, with the original causes and qualities. Where more largely the controversie among learned writers about the original of springs, is discussed. To which is added, a short discourse concerning mineral waters, especially that of the spaw. / By Robert Wittie, Dr. in Physick.	Wittie, Robert, 1613?-1684.	1660 (1660)	Wing W3231; Thomason E1830_2; ESTC R204108	73,129	263

not bottemed by the Earth as naturalists averre The Water being a lighter Element lib. 2. met cap. 3. it 's proper place is to be above the Earth so as the greater part by far of the superfices of the Globe is covered with water notwithstanding which the higher places of the Earth stand out of the Water 2 Pet. 3.5 and appear above it giving bounds to the Water which it cannot pass over as the Scripture saith Psal v. 9. and so are become habitable for men and beasts It 's Nature Sea Water is Salt and hot in operation binds and dryes the body if it be drunk as do all salt waters according to the judgment of Hippocrates De aere aquis locis which he sayes are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De remed l. 2 c. 53. indomicable and hard it rather increases then quenches thirst and hath been found deadly to such as have drunk of it being exceeding thirsty as saith Paulus Aegineta I would not be so understood as if I thought all salt waters were to be r●j●cted from inward use or as if no salt waters would purge the body The Sulphur Well at Knaresbrough a gallon whereof being vaporated away yields two ounces of salt is dayly used inwardly with very good success in many cases and purges the body as I know by experience and as Dr. Dean and Dr. French do both witness in their Books upon that Subject This Spring does the same and hath some salt in it Notwithstanding if salt waters do loose the body it is from other minerals of which they do participate and not from the salt on which account they rather dry up the humours and are singular good even in hydropick constitutions especially in the beginning the truth whereof I have proved by good experience in an Honourable Lady to whom I commended the use of the Sulphur Well before mentioned in the Dropsy with good success Hence it is that Hippocrates in the place afore cited blames them for their ignorance that upon any slight occasion use salt waters inwardly expecting to loose the body with them they having from the salt no such vertue but rather stay the belly and cause the body to break out in Scabs and make the fundament and lower parts troubled with checks De simpl c. 4. as Rasis saith The Sea water hath indeed some sweet parts in it which are thinner and lighter then the substance of the water is from whence it comes to pass that the flesh of those fishes that live in the Sea is as fresh as those that are taken in fresh waters If one distill Sea water in a cold Still it yields fresh water And I have read an experiment in Gamillus Flavius which is worthy a tryal Paraph. in Hip. de aq p. 43. and may be of use to such as go on long voyages and want sometimes fresh water He saith that if a bottle bee made of Wax and the mouth of it be close stopped so as no water can run into it and it be cast into the Sea and made to sink in a few dayes it will be found to have fresh water in it very pleasant and wholsome to be drunk I have inserted this for the Seamens sake to whom it may be beneficial Sect. 4. In the next place I come to treat of Rain water with it's original and qualities Of Rain the product or original is thus The Sun and the rest of the Heavenly bodies do by their heat exhale It s cause and draw forth out of the Sea and other moist bodies that are on the Earth the vapours which are the more rare and thin part of the water and bodyes these by their heat they do so rarify that through their levity they fly upward towards the upper region of the aire next to the Element of fire the proper place of such light bodies where they continue till according to the ordinary course of Providence by the influence of the Moon or some planetary Aspect out of signs of the watery Triplicity or some other cold and moist constellation they become more gross and moist and so by their weight descend into the middle region of the aire where by the excess of cold they are condensed into waters and now being become an heavy body do fall down upon the Earth in showers making thereby a kind of circulation in Nature through the ascent of vapours and descent of showers This I say is according to the ordinary course of Providence when notwithstanding without any of those previous influences of the Celestial bodies Almighty God who is a most free Agent and doth what he will in the Heavens and the Earth doth sometimes by a special Providence cause it to rain Exod. 9.18 and at other times also he doth so suspend the aforesaid influences Jam. 5.17 that it rains not at all Amos 4.7 as in the use of Elijahs prayer Thus as the Prophet observes he makes it to rain upon one City and not upon another and this he doeth that he may keep us in a constant dependance upon himself as upon the first and primary cause without whose concurrence secondary causes can produce no effects at all No this my judgment concerning the causes of rain is agreeable to what is writ upon that subject by the best Philosophers and Physicians the Scripture also being clear in it Amos 9.6 He calleth for the Waters of the Sea and poureth them out upon the face of the Earth to which add that in Job 36.27 28. He maketh small the drops of water they poure down rain according to the vapour thereof which the clouds do drop And that the rain doth falls or is with-held from us in ordinary providence according to the influence of the celestial bodyes is deducible from another place in Job Chap. 38. v. 25. and so forward where God expostulating with Iob concerning his mighty works of providence reads a Lecture to him concerning the Meteors of Rain Lightening Thunder Dew and Frost with their causes and in the 31. Verse he hath this question to him Canst thou bind or restrain the influence of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion with other expostulatory questions The meaning thereof is this Canst thou stay the rain and hinder it from falling or canst thou loose the frost and make it thaw The Pleiades being a moist constellation in the shoulder of the sign Taurus which brings wet and Orion a dry constellation in the last decade of Gemini arising in the evenings in the beginning of the Winter causing frosts I might enlarge concerning Mazaroth viz. the 12. signs and Arcturus which are mentioned in the 32. vers but I hasten Nor is this my own private interpretation but it 's agreeable to the judgment of the most learned Interpreters upon the place and particularly of those that were Members of the late reverend Assembly of Divines in that their excellent exposition upon the

distempers of the Nerves as the Palsie and Convulsion and is good to be put into the Bread of such as are troubled with the Palsie of the tongue If any require further satisfaction concerning the vertue of Nitre let them consult Galen Dioscorides P. Aegineta Oribasius Aetius and Serapio Salt or Melch as the Arabians call it is of two sorts ●alt viz. Fossile such as is digged out of Mines and Marine such as is made of the Sea-water or other brackish water the former is of a more gross earthy and compact substance then the latter yet they are both of one nature of a detersive cleansing resolving purging quality drying up superfluous humours and preserving from putrefaction kills all manner of worms and being heated becomes bitter in taste Many other vertues are reckoned up by Galen Serapio Dioscorides and others to be in Salt to whom I will rather ●efer the learned Reader then trouble him with a large recital at present because there is not much Salt in our Spring yet some there is which I think it receives from the Sea rather then from any salt Mineral It sufficeth to have said somwhat concerning the nature of these Minerals severally doubtless there must some qualities arise from their mixture and that with water which was not before in any one particular I shall now therefore hasten to Treat concerning the nature effects of this most excellent compound Mineral water and then say something concerning preparation to it and right ordering of the body in drinking and so conclude Sect. 13. Of the Spaw THe Spaw water according to its manifest qualities is cold moist and being drunk doth immediatly cool and moysten the body and quench thirst having those qualities which simple water hath as I have reckoned up at large in the second Section may indifferently be used for it Although having imbibed the aforesaid Minerals of Vitriol Iron Alom Nitre Salt it is impregnated with the qualities natures of the said Minerals consequently is hot and dry in operation being found by due and daily use thereof to correct cold moist bodies and cure such diseases as proceed from the excess of cold and moysture It s nature Nor let any startle at this assertion that I affirm this Spaw water to be cold and moist and also hot dry which are contrary qualities since it is cold moist actually in the instantaneous use of it but doth heat and dry virtually in process of time Who knows not that wine though it be cold moist actually yet is potentially hot dry the ordinary use whereof doth heat dry the body Now as all bodies incline to a preedominancy of these four qualities and most diseases consist in the excess of some one or more of them each quality so exceeding is tempered by its contrary in the water so as nature which is ever sollicitous for its own preservation closes with those qualities in the water as also in all other remedies which correct its own excess and arms it self unless it be very feeble against those other qualities that might increase its malady hence it is as D. French well observes that a distemper will rather be altered by its contrary then increased by its like But because these four first qualities are found in this water but in a remiss degree the heat and dryness being so corrected with cold moisture and the contrary that a forcible operation in respect of any of them cannot be expected from it I think sitter means may be found out for those intentions As if a man would only cool and moysten it may be better done with simple water which has no potential heat or dryness in it and may be found in every village or if he would only heat and dry up humors it may better be performed by other Medicines that are more eminently hot and dry then by this cold moyst water so as no man need goto Scarbrough for these intentions I therefore pass on to the other qualities of this water in which it doth eminently excell through its participation of the aforesaid Minerals An operation It is of thin parts peircing into the most narrow and secret passages of the body is excellent in opening obstructions which are the causes of most diseases It doth attenuate cut and dissolve viscous lentous clammy flegm in the stomack bowells mesentery reins and bladder and is also cleansing and deterging casting them forth both by siege and urine as it findes them by their position most to encline For such humours as are in primis viis in the bowells it purges out by siege and such as lye in the mesentery veins or venae lacteae porta liver reins or bladder it cleanses by urine and both ways so plentifully as if all the humours went but one way for it purges so well as if it would leave nothing to pass by urine and yet passes so plentifully by the bladder as if it found no vent by stool performing these two operations the more plentifully by reason of the quantity that is to be drunk And of such working it doth very rarely fail nor scarce ever unless in exceedingly constipated bodies although it be taken without any preparation as very many do though not so safely as shall be said in the next Section and this it doth without any griping at all casting forth plentifully both it selfe and the excrementitious humours wch I have often experimented both in my self and others An in●●ance I drank one morning without taking any preparative at all three quarts of the water factâ prius retrogradatione matutinâ pro solito having also weighed my self before I drank that I might discern what alteration it would make in my weight I drunk a pint every halfe hour walking about betwixt one draught and another till I had taken all the three quarts After I had taken three pints it began to work and so continued an evacuation both ways viz. seven times by siege liberally within eight hours I also measured the quantity of Urine which I had kept by it self so as within the space of five hours I had made a pottle of Urine within less then halfe a gill as clear as the Spaw Water it selfe having neither smel nor tast like Urine I took the Urine and evaporated it all away that I might try whether it had yet remaining in it any of the substance of the Minerals but it afforded nothing but a filthy slimy Sediment of a sandy colour Hence it may appear how diuretick this water is when two third parts or near hand should in so short a space passe through those secret crannyes of nature by Urine and yet at the same time work by siege so freely as I could not have expected from Pil. Coch. dram one Herein exceeding if I mistake not most of the waters of Europe not excepting the German Spaws some of which passe very well and

And yet in these also regard is to be had of the constitution of the body for some are of such tender slippery bodies especially such as have been subject to frequent abortions that they can endure nothing notwithstanding some causes of abortion may be cured by the Spaw Herein I advise them to consult some prudent Physician before they drink of it But certainly in ordinary bodies if there be a redundancy of Gacochymick humours it is a most proper and safe medicine and may serve either to cure or prevent distempers that proceed from thence in any month of their reckoning And thus not onely the Spaw water but some other purging remedies we find may safely be administred to them in such a case if need be in any month Lib. 4. de morb mul. c. de reggravid as also saith Dr. Primrose yet it must be done by a wise hand although more safely in the middle months for the reasons abovesaid Sect. 14. IT now remains that I give some directions concerning the use of this Spaw water Drections for the use of the Spaw and that in reference to a preparation of the body for it right management during the time of drinking it and what may bee requisite to bee done after it I know many go to Spaws not for necessity but pleasure to withdraw themselves a while from their serious imployments and solace with their friends such are but whets not lets to business Such as ●●●in ●●●●th ●●●ed no ●●●paration and like the whetting of a tool which sharpens it and makes it cut the better If such do drink without any preparation it matters not onely let them not drink too much at the first till it hath found passage which perhaps it may do in an ordinary body within three or four hours it being a sure working water I have often drunk my self not for need but company and ●●●●r took preparatory and yet never failed of working the first day both by seige and urine a touch whereof I have given in the foregoing Section It may do good even to those that find no need in regard there may be some latent obstructions in the body or some lurking humours that may breed distempers afterwards upon the accesse of some procatarctick or externall cause which being taken away by this water may prevent a disease And it is very ordinary in corpulent bodies especially to have such humours and obstructions for whom this water is very proper although they find no sensible need at all for as much as such as are near to a disease or sickness Sect. 1. Aph. 3. as Hippocrates saith and do need purgation But as for such as find some decay of their health by reason of some distemper hanging on them there may be need of preparation and that with reference to the nature of the malady whether simple or complicated the parts principally affected the age and constitution of the Patient the time of the disease whether in its growth height or declination and the time of the year The fickly must take advice all which are considerable My advice is that no man go to the Spaw in such a case but that he first know what be goes for by a right understanding of his condition and a due comparing the disease and the remedy together that he may have some grounds to hope for good and so drink cheerfully and not doubtingly for questionless it is not good for all things some diseases as also some bodies not admitting of such evacuation as they must expect that drink of this water The best is therefore to advise with some learned Physician who understanding the nature of the malady and of the water will bee able throughly to instruct him whether it be a proper remedy or no for his condition For though the water will not probably hurt any man that is in perfect health yet it may do harm to such as are sickly if it be not used aright And its hard nay almost imp●ssible for me to lay down rules that may sute every mans particular case there being as great variety difference among them almost as there are men Amongst these some perhaps will need no preparation at all before they drink of the Spaw to wit such whose bodies are fluid or humours not many the malady lying perhaps in intemperie Or at least some gentle eccoproticks may serve the turn being given the night before the Patient begin to drink Others whose obstructions are rebellious and humours tenacious or nature dul and slow may need some course of Physick or at the least some strong cattarticks to make way for the water for want of a right understanding whereof some have got more harm then good and have bought repentance at too dear a rate especially such whose bodies have been weak and tender for whom purging was not ●a fit remedy Again whereas I commend this water in severall cases as in diseases of the head brest or lower belly Other medicines needfull I mean not as if it were to bee used alone and nothing else It may be requisite many times to furnish the Patient with some specisick remedies that relate more peculiarly to the partaffected with reference it may be to some complication of maladies which I cannot so perfectly discribe without making this swell into a voluminous bulk which I intend not Let blood In some cases also it may bee fit to let blood either before or after some few days drinking especially in plethorical bodies or hot distempers without which many times obstructions will not yield to remedies All these cannot bee so well predetermined but are best judged of by view and conference with the party It wil be sufficient to the wise that I have said so much of the nature and operation of this medicinall water as that Physicians that never saw nor heard of it before may be able well to judge of it and give good advice to such as consult them with reference thereto The due manner of drinking These things being premised let such as drink of the water bergin with it in the morning by six of the Clock or seven at the furthest taking two glasses of halfe a pint a piece intermitting a little space of time betwixt one and the other after which let the Patient walk about upon the sands halfe an hour by degrees or otherwise ride on horseback or in a Coach till he finds his stomack is a little emptier the water being passed down into the bowells then let him drink two glasses more and so walk again which will help to warm the water in the stomack and further both its concoction and descent or let him use some gentle exercise so as he do not provoke sweat because that throws the water into the habit of the body and hinders its passage through the bowells And then after he finds his stomack capable of receiving more let him drink other two glasses as before

of men And hereby the way I intend nothing concerning distilled waters which are make out of green plants nor to dispute whither they have in them the vertue of the plant out of which they are distilled as Fernelius and Quercitanus think De abdit rer caus l. 2. Pharm restituta or whether they partake nothing of their virtue especia●ly such as have nothing of the sinell or taste of the plant but are onely the flegmatick juyce of them and of the same vertue with our common water and to be used indifferently in stead of it as my learned and intimate friend Doctor Primerose thought it sufficeth that wee have them always ready and at hand in our Apothecarys Shops to be a vehicle to others medicines which we have occasion to use for present indications when wholesom common water would many times bee far to seek Nor do I intend to trouble the Reader or my self with a Phylosophicall discourse concerning the Element of water lib. 2. de gen c. 8. which is one of the four principles which Aristotle saith do necessarily concurre to the making up of every compound body and into which it is to be resolved in it's dissolution whether it be animate or inanimate Neither indeed can that be found any where not being obvious to the externall senses or capable of attaining its qualities of cold and moysture without loosing its form Instead of it we have our common water whose proper place is the superficies or convex part of the earth and is encompassed with the air being also very near of kin to the Elementary water although not the same 1 De Element de simpl med fac l. 1. Parac de Elem. ag as Galen and Paracelsus do assert it being of the number of those bodyes which Aristotle calls imperfect mixed bodyes in his book of Meteors It hath also the same qualities of cold and moisture in which yet it is capable of alteration especially in the former from external causes without any formal diminution This is called by Paracelsus the mother of all generations Param l. 3. de pest tract 1. and the matrix of all the creatures without this there would be no procreation of animalls or vegetables above the earth or of mineralls within the bowells of the earth This perhaps made Empedocles be of the opinion that all things were made of water But water is not only necessary by way of principle and so an ingredient in the constitution of our bodyes but also in Order to nourishment for the conservation of them in their being and growth And therefore Plato called it of all liquors the most precious In Euthydemo although it may be had at a cheap rate Lib. 2. Dypnos c. 2. I know Galen Actuarius and other learned men deny any nutritive quality to be in water although Athenaeus is of a contrary judgment because some creatures feed on nothing else as Grashoppers and so we see Horseleaches that are put into water in our Apothecaryes-shops will grow bigger But as for Grashoppers for ought I know they may feed as other insects do of green plants and it 's probable they do and as touching the growing of the Horseleaches I think the water while it 's new and uncorrupt pines them and makes them hungry not affording them any nourishment till it putrefyes which it doth the sooner by their being in it and so they are nourished aswell as bred by putrefaction which the water hath contracted and not by simple and pure water it self N●t n●urishing Now the reason why it adds nothing to the ●ourishment of our bodyes I conceive to the this That which is to nourish the body is in proximâ potentiâ to be blood and in remotâ a member whereas water because of it's super-abundant coldness as also because it is a simple body is not capable to become either the one or the other and therefore it cannot have any nourishing vertue Yet necessa●y u●to nourishment Notwithstanding there is nothing more necessary unto nourishment it being the best vehicle of nourishment without which those gross meats which we daily eat could not be assimilated and turned into our substance For how should that chyle which the stomack makes by concocting the solid meats which we daily feed on be able to pass into those small veins in the mesentery and from thence to the Liver if it had not a moist watery humidity mixed with it for it's vehicle as saith Galen lib 4. de usu part c. 5. Ob. Sol. If any object that Wine or Beer will serve for this end as well as water I answer Wine and Beer do it by their watery and thin substance which they have from their abundant participation of water besides water is more generally used in the World both by men and beasts then either Wine or Beer and doth better serve for other inward common ends And as for Wine Beer or Ale the more they do recede from the nature of Water the worse and more unwholsom are they to be used for ordinary drink The use of wat●● By the help of Water or what is made out of it is our natural heat kept in a mean and our radical moisture repaired so as the latter is not exhausted by the excess of the former Also with this nature is satisfyed and refreshed as much when we are thirsty as it is with meat when we are hungry yet without any addition or increase of the substance of our bodyes as I said before The first common drink This was the common drink both of man and beast during the first age of the World from the Creation till the Flood for above 16. hundred years when mens lives were prolonged to almost a thousand years Not that I think the drinking of water was the cause of their so long living but rather the good pleasure of God for the more speedy propagating of mankind upon the earth was the cause and their temperance a great help a vertue almost lost in this declining age of the World yet cert●inly it was the most proper drink which man could use in order to the lengthening of his dayes and preserving his health otherwise God would have shewn him a better And if circumstances be weighed we shall see that after the invention and use of wine which the Scripture attributes to Noah after the Flood the age of man began to be contracted to near a tenth part Psal 90.10 and yet still became shorter so as in Moses his time it was accounted but threescore and ten Nay long after Wine came to be known I find water was in ordinary use The ancient Romans used it Julius Frontinus saith that the Romans were content with water as their only drink for the space of 440. years from the building of Rome Yea even to this day not only the common sort of Citizens drink nothing else but the wealthier also delight in it

exceedingly keeping it in Earthen Vessels under the Earth and in their coolest Cellers that they may have it alwayes at hand Strabo saith l. 15. Geogr. c. ult that the Kings of Persia drank the water of the River Eulaeus constantly with whom it was in so high esteem that it was forbidden any of his Subjects to drink of the water of that River Lib. 1. Herodotus tells the same Story but calls it Choaspes which saith he flowes by the City Susa where the Kings of Persia were wont to keep their Courts in winter And Agath●eles in Athenaeus further describes it l. 12. Dypn c. 3. although he names not the River it seems to have been a small one whose water was called by the Persians aqua aurea So the Persian King● or the golden water which was fed by 70. Spring-heads of which it was treason and punished with death for any man to drink except the King and his eldest Son Water was accounted by the Ancients the fittest drink for all ages and Sexes However in this age of ours it is fallen under contempt Hence those Laws which Plato mentions that young men should not so much as taste any Wine till they were 18. years of age and women never which was observed by the Roman Matrones with very great devotion as saith Valerius Maximus Lib. 1. they usually drinking nothing but water or sometimes a drink called passum which is made of Raisins boyled in water when they are not well Athenaeus tells of a custome among the Roman women l. 10. Dypn c. 13. that they were wont at the first meeting with any of their husbands kindred to salute thē with a kiss who not knowing how soon they must meet some of them did drink no Wine at all least they should smell of it and so be discovered and have their names set up that woman being accounted to want no fault that would drink Wine And thus also the Italian Women drink nothing but Water Italians Ibid. concerning which I find a pretty Story mentioned by Athenaeus out of Alcuinus Siculus an old Italian Writer He saith that Hereùles as he was once travailing on the way towards Croton being thirsty turned into an House near the way side desiring some Wine to drink to quench his thirst now it happened that there was a Vessel of Wine in the House which the good Wife had broached for her own tooth her husband not knowing of it The Master of the House hearing when Hercules called for Wine bade his wife go and broach the eask and give him some the good Wife not being willing her Husband should know that it was already broached pretending what a deal of trouble it would be to them both did churhshly bid him drink Water Which Hercules standing at theh Door all the while hearing called the Husband to him and commended him for his good will and shewed him the womans deceit and the cask which now was turned into a stone This story is well known among the Italians and the stone is to be seen at this day saith my Author as a warning against the womens drinking of Wine Likewise at this day in France French it is accounted a foul crime for Virgins to drink any thing but water only their ancient women will mix a little wine with it which is called by some although with too much liberty of speech vinum baptizatum It were well if it were more in use in England especially among the younger sort as that drink which nature first assigned it would prevent drunkenness which Athenaeus calls the metropolis of all mischiefs lib. Dypn c. 1. ●5 de invent rev l. 3. c. 3. and Polydorus Virgilius the most filthy debauchment of the life of a man and the original of 600. other vices I suppose he intends a certain number for an uncertain and indeed is the shame of our Nation I know it is objected Ob. that the waters in England in regard of the coldness of the climate are more crude and not so pure and wholsome as those in Spain France and the hot Countries I confess great care ought to be had concerning the goodness of water Sol. of which by and by But certainly there is no cause for the objection since there is no Country but it affords wholesome water The waters of England are good even the most frozen Country of Greenland as I have heard from our Seamen of Hull who yearly continue there m●● moneths and use it wiho●● any the least harm I know the Objection arises from this that they think because of the coldness of our climate the water is not so well concocted with the heat of the Sun and so is hard of digestion 1. But they must know that the Sun by it's heat pierces no● far into the bowels of the earth in the hot Countries where they suppose the best water to be the heat thereof piercing not above 10. foot deep into the earth according to the judgment of the best Philosophers the Springs arising much deeper as we shall shew anon 2. Again the Sun and the Planets have an influence into the bowels of the earth where neither their heat nor their light can penetrate to the concocting of minerals that are above 100. fathome deep as I might manifest at large from the judgement of good Authors and therefore we need not doubt concerning water which perhaps lyes nearer the superfices and requires less concoction 3. Moreover water I mean Spring water which is in most ordinary use hath it's concoction and preparation according to the temperature of heat and cold that is in the earth Now if we may believe Philosophy which teaches that the earth is warmer in Winter in the low cavernes of it then in Summer because of the cold aire and frosts that shut the pores of it which is also ratifyed by our own experience that the Springs are warmer in winter frosty weather then in an hot Summer then it follows a pari that in our cold climate the Earth must be warmer then in those hot climates and consesequently the water rather better concocted 4. Besides it is a wrong to the God of nature whose beams of Divine love are equally extended in his common providence for the preservation of mankind throughout the whole universe as if we in England or they in other more Northern Countries had not as good a provision of water a thing so absolutely and generally necessary as they in the more Southern climates have For my own part I believe that our waters are as wholesome for our bodies as theirs are for them in those hot climates and much more then theirs would be for us and I think that fluxes and calentures which happen to Englishmen that travail into those hot climates do proceed rather from the ungreeableness of the waters to our bodies then from any other one cause that can be assigned 5. Again these medicinal waters with

Book of Iob. Now from the consideration of what bath been said concerning the concurrent cause of Rain It s nature and quality it will follow that Rain-water is the most light of all others clear and of thin parts and agreeable with the description of the best water before laid down being also most ethereal and having the fewest terrestrial or earthly parts of all waters whatsoever Hence is it that Hippocrates prefers Rain-water before any other Lib. 6. epid de aq especially that which falls in Summer out of white and thin clouds and with Thunder or Winde which do help to purify it more but he discommends that which falls out of thick and black clouds and in a storm nevertheless he would have it boyled before it be used because of all other waters it is most apt to putrefy and become corrupt It soon corrupts Nor let any startle at it as that therefore it should be the more unwholsome because it is subject to corrupt so soon this being rather a token of it's goodness in that it is so easily altered according to the judgment of Paulus Aegineta Oribasius and others although this also may be helped if it be kept in a cool place and in a pure stone Cistern Only let me give this caution that it be not long kept before it be used least being corrupted it causes hoursness and difficulty of breathing and breed Cholerick humours in the stomack and weaken it's retentive faculty Rasis saith it is ill for those that are subject to Fevers when it hath been long kept And so Aetius is of the same mind forbidding it also to be used in Cholerick constitutions and in the jaundice because it is easily turned into choler but commends it to be used in Eye waters to stop a flux of humours or to consolidate Ulcers of the eyes as being more astringent then Spring Water which yet I cannot believe because it is as I said before of thin and aerial parts and not so terrestriall as Spring Water is And for this cause I think it the best of all others to be used in a perient or pectoral Apozemes provided it be taken when it is new fallen and strained through a thick cloth or paper the body also open Only to that of Aetius I 'le add this that of all other waters that are drunk cold Rain water is the worst for cachectick constitutions which have an ill habit of body and for such as are Scorbutick for though it be of thin parts yet because it is more subject to putrefy then other waters and those bodies not so pervious as sound bodyes are it is to be suspected least it should soon corrupt before it can pass through the body and so encrease the maladyes This by it's admirable secundity refreshes the Earth and makes it to bring forth friut filling it's lap with variety of vegetables necessary for the sustentation of man and beast without which it could bring forth nothing at all and so would not be habitable And what falls more then is necessary for the production of vegetables sinkes further into the earth for the supply of Springs and subterreneall generations of mineralls and metalls concerning uwhich we shall have occasion to treat more anon Sect. 5. Like unto Rain is Snow and Hail especially in their original cause for they both proceed from the like vapours which are exhaled as I said before by the heavenly bodies out of the Sea and the terrestriall bodies elevated into the middle region of the ayr whereby a greater and more intense degree of cold then that which produceth rain they are condensed into Snow and hail only the hail is generated by a more remiss degree of cold then snow and therefore falls ordinarily in Summer whereas Snow never falls but in winter or very cold weather I find that snow was much in use among the Ancients who carefully preserved it all the year to mixt it with their wine to allay its heat and give it a pleasant coolness to the palate Thus Chares Mytilinaeus in his History of Alexander the Great tells how that in his Siege against Petra a City of Indiae he was exceedingly delighted with Snow mixed in his Wine and he relates his manner of preserving it viz. he caused many great and deep Trenches to be digged in the earth which he covered over with Oak boughs in which the Snow was laid being gathered when it was new fallen and preserved for the use aforesaid No less carefull are they at this day in Spain and Italy and other the hot Countreys of Europe in preserving Snow to mixt it with their Wine to give it a pleasant coolness laying it up in their lowest and coolest Cellars and covering it as before said and so they keep it till winter come again De simp● cap. 6. And thus the Arabians are wont also to put Snow into their Juleps for Acute Feavers in which case Rasis commends it very much And Pisanellus an Italian Writer tells that at Messana a City of Sicilie where the Climate is very hot De escud potul fac p. 162. the Inhabitants were every year in Summer troubled with a pestilential Feaver that swept away thousands till they found out the use of Snow mixing it with their drink and then it left them And hence it is become a custom among them that every man even the poorest of all besides other provision which they make for their Families are sure to provide Snow Notwithstanding which De Spir. anim nat cap. 8. that water which comes of Snow or Haile is accounted by all unwholsom to be drunk alone because of its exceeding coldnesse as Actuarius observes on which account he esteemes it the worst of all waters as also because of it's grosse parts for that which hath once been conjealed into Snow or Ice can never return to it's pristine estate for whatever thin sweet or subtle parts were in it before it was conjealed by the cold are now lost and gone and are turned into a vapour nothing remaining but the grosse and earthy parts and this is easy to be discerned by a Vessell full of water which if it hath been once turned into Ice and thawed again shall be found to have lost a good part of it's measure Now the thin parts being gone and evaporated away the gross body or caput mortuum becomes obstructive and so may produce many distempers besides the violence it offers the stomack and liver by it's excessive coldnesse lih de temper simpl and therefore Averrhoes forbids it especially to be drunk fasting while the stomack is empty with this expression let no man presume to drinke it fasting c. But they that mixe it with Wine do it safely and to very good purpose the Wine and the Snow correcting one another and so making up a wholesome composition Another Use of Snow is that while it lies upon the superfices of the earth

hour It was found out by accident about thirty four years ago and hath by degrees come into use and reputation not only among the inhabitants of the Eastriding and the ●own of Hull among whom I lived and managed my profession near eighteen years observing very much the operation and effects of this water but also it hath of late years been well known to the Citizens of York and the Gentry of the County who do constantly frequent it yea and to severall persons of quallity in the Nation who upon the large commendations of such as knew its opperration have made triall of it with whom it hath gained such credit that they come above an hundred miles to drink of it preferring it before all other medicinal waters they had formerly frequented Nay I have met with some that had been at the Germane Spaws both at Sauvenir and Ponhout who prefer this for its speedy passage both by seige and urine before them I having had a large opportunity for twenty 2. years last past to observe the effects of this medicinall spring not onely in my selfe but very many others whom I have known to drink of it in various cases I shall for the further benefit of my Country make out my experience and will therefore first treat concerning its parts and of what Mineralls it doth participate with the nature of them and then descend to its vertues and effects Galen saith there are two things that do necessarily concur to the finding out of Arts and Sciences Lib. 2. de Simp. med fac or any simple Medicine vid. Experience and Reason From whence did arise two Sects of Physicians in his days Empiricks and Methodists The former observed the operation of Medicines not troubling themselves to pry into the nature of them to find out the reason of those operations and were wont to use them promiscuously whom therefore he frequently chides and charges of folly The other though they had found out the virtue of a Medicine yet were not satisfied with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but proceeded to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diving into the nature of it that they might know from whence it had its virtue consequently the reason of its working These he calls the two leggs of a Physician upon which hee ought to walk and further adds that he that would hope to attain to any competent perfection in the Art of Physick must take care to use them both My design shall bee to follow his advice as well as I may and so to let the Reader know that Experience hath found out that this Medicinall Spring doth work exceeding well both by seige and urine and that it is found to bee effectuall in all diseases that require such evacuations But because I would not have the ingenious to Content himself with this experimēcal notion let him know that this water hath it's virtue from it's participation of Vitriol Iron allome Its. Mineralls Nitre and Salt the natures of which Mineralls I shall enquire into anon It is very transparent to the sight inclining somewhat to a Skey colour As qualities it hath a pleasant acid taste from the Vitriol and an inky smell If an equall quantity of boyling milk be put to it it coagulates it as do the Germane Spaws and makes a very clear Posset-drink If half a grain of the powder of Gal be put into a quart of this water doth immediately turn it into a Clarret colour or like unto sirrup of Violets mixed with water whereto some drops of spirit of Vitriol hath been put which if it be suffered to stand some hours after it is so turned with the Gall a red sand will settle to the bottome and the water will become clear and bright again I took 3. quarts of the Spaw water evaporated it all away upon the sire in a clean Skellet there remained in the bottom a brown saltish biterish sand to the quantity of three drams or near upon but because I thought the sediment might proceed from the mixture of sand arising with the water although I could not discern any with my eye I therefore took three quarts more which I filtrated through a double thick wollen cloth that I might be sure to have no mixture of sand and set it on the fire as before to evaporate all the water which when I had done there remained the same quantity of brackish sediment as before and of the same colour so as it plainly appeared it was not from any mixture of sand in the water Then I set on three quarts filtrated as before in a clean Skellet which after it had boiled a while I discovered a reddish sand at the bottome the very same that falls to the bottome when it hath been colored by the gall so I took it off the fire and powred it into another vessell the sand remaining behind which I found to be about a dram somewhat soft to the touch not sharp as sand which I take to be no other then Rubrick or Mater ferri or as Dr. French calls it Vitriol of Iron separated by the heat whose property it is according to Phylosophers congregare homogenea separare heterogenea it having a kind of S●iptick taste not saltish at all Then I set on the same water thus separated from the Rubrick to evaporate it as before cleansing off the scumme which arose and at the ●ottome there remained a whitish Sediment somewhat bitter and very sharp in tast to the quantity of two Drams which cleaved to the bottome of the Skellet as if it were parched meat not without difficulty to bee scraped off I observed when the water was almost all ev●porated and spent it rose up in Bullas making a bubbling noyse like the boyling of Allome in the Mines at Whitby within twelve miles of Scarbrough on the Sea c●st of which Sir Thomas Gower a very ingenious and learned Gentleman much delighted in Chimicall experiments thinks this Spaw doth eminently participate I think also it is from the Allome that it is so fixed and cleaves to the bottom whereas otherwise the nitre would shoot in stir●as and the Salt in tesseras as Naturalists observe and I take the greatest part of this sediment to be Nitre and Salt to be least predominant of all the rest of the Mineralls nor yet can they well be separated concerning all which I shall speak more at large in the twelfth Section There may perhaps be some other Mineralls in it but they are not discoverable however these being most eminently conspicuous I shall content my selfe with them and leave it to others to try experiments and make what new discoveries they can Now since Water is the Vetucle of the Vertues of all the aforesaid minerals Of water in general I think it proper for method sake to speak somewhat concerning Water ingeneral together with its severall sorts in particular and the effects thereof being taken inwardly into the bodies