bituminous vapours Ob. What is the reason that seeing this water hath passed lately through the bituminous burnings as it appears by its fresh odour of the same should be cold and not hot as hot Baths are Sol. 1. It was the opinion of Fallopius that such kind of waters proceed from a remote fire but passing through narrow passages retain their full odour and tast which cannot be vanished by the way any otherwise than smoak through a Chimney or pipe although by the length of its passage it may loose its heat 2. Though the fire be near to the superficies of the earth where this water breaketh forth yet it is very probable that the coldness thereof may proceed from a mixture of a cold spring before the breaking forth thereof Neither let it seem strange to any that cold springs and hot may be so near together in the bowels of the earth for just above the head of this Sulphur-well there arise two cold Springs which meet and run down within a few feet of the head of the same And Mr. Jones in his treatise of Buck-stones Bath in Derbishire saith that the cold Springs and hot Springs are so near that a man may put one finger in the cold and another in the hot Having in some measure declared unto you the cause of this Sulphur-well viz. of its saltness bitterness and sulphurious odour I shall in the next place give an account of some experiments and observations which I made and they are these viz. 1. If Silver be put into this water it is thereby tinged first yellow and then black but Gold is not all discoloured thereby 2. If this water be a little boiled it looseth its tinging property and also stinking odour 3. It coagulates milk if it be boiled therewith 4. The distilled water thereof looseth its odour and doth not coagulate milk 5. If the water be boiled it will still coagulate milk though it looseth its odour 6. Seven gallons yield by evaporation a pound of Salt which though at first black I have made as white as snow 7. This Salt coagulates milk also 8. This water kills worms and such kind of creatures presently if they be put therein 9. I filled two Vial glasses with this water in wet weather and stopt the one but the other I left open The water in that which was stopt within an hour or two became white and thick and within two or three dayes deposited a white sediment and the sides of that glass were furred the water in the other glass altered not 10. I filled two Vial glasses in fair weather whereof the one I stopt but the other left open the water in neither of them turned colour any whit considerably onely a kind of a thin whitish matter after two or three dayes fell to the bottom the water continuing very clear The water of that glass which was stopt retained its odour most 11. A pint of this water weighs two scruples i. e. fourty grains more than a pint of common Spring-water Note that the reason of its tinging white metals is not from any bodily Sulphur or bitumen mixt with it for the substance of them will not mix with water but swim on it as in the Spring at Pitchford in Shropshire and in Avernia in France and in divers other places but from the vapours or the subtile atomes efluvia's thereof which are mixed with the water and in boiling are evaporated The reason of its coagulating property is from some occult acidity in the Salt thereof which to sense is not perceptible onely by effect Out of the Salt is drawn a very good spirit of excellent vertue as I shall declare in the next Chapter Before I conclude this Chapter it will be worth taking notice that about 240 yards above the head of this Sulphur-well is a bog of about twenty yards diameter in which I digged a mineral kind of substance like the finders of Iron but almost rotten being corroded with some acid spirits of which that bog is full as also other places This mineral substance being cast into the fire burns blew and smels like Sulphur It is in tast like Vitrial and out of it Vitrial may be drawn nay in time it will be almost all resolved into Vitrial For I washed it and set it in a Cellar for two or three dayes and it was covered over with a white sweeetish Vitrial which I dissolved in water and set the said substance in a Cellar again and it contracted the like I did as before still reiterating this work till it was almost all turned to Vitrial In the said bog I found three or four sorts of waters viz. a Sulphur and Vitrioline and of each two sorts This was done the last day of my abode there and therefore I had not time to make any further search onely some of that mineral substance I took with me with which I tried the aforesaid experiments If any Gentleman would be pleased to expend some costs in digging up this bog and erecting some new Wels there he would prove an acceptable benefactor to his Countrey and it may be some new kind of water might be discovered hereby having yet more vertues than any of the former Note that the stink of this Sulphur-well is perceived afar off especially in moist and cold weather CHAP. XV Of the vertues and uses of the Sulphur-well together with directions and cautious for the taking of it THe use of this water is either inward or outward It being taken inwardly incideth abstergeth attenuates and resolves viscous thick humours and irritates every vessel of the body to expel whatsoever humours are offensive in them It openeth and removes those strong and obstinate obstructions whether in men or women that would not yield to any other Medicine whatsoever It doth oftentimes evacuate by stool great lumps of viscous slimy matter which was certainly whilest it was in the body the cause of some great distemper oppressure gripings tensions c. and which could hardly any other way be removed It heateth and quickneth the stomack bowels liver spleen bloud veins nerves and indeed the wholy body in so much that it consumes crudities rectifieth all cold distempers in all parts of the body causeth a good digestion cures the Dropsie Spleen Scurvy Green sickness Gout Cramp Epilepsie head-ach Vertigo Kings evil and all such Symptomes as proceed either from crudities cold viscous slimy or corrupt humours which obstruct distemper the stomack Bowels Messentery Liver Veins Brain and Nerves and these though of long continuance It killeth worms infallibly Note that this water must be begun by degrees and the full proportion be taken not at once but at several times exercise intermediating as in the taking of the Spaw The full dose or quantity to be taken must be proportioned according to the constitution strength of the party his bearing of it as also the humour offending the predominancy of the distemper and the aptness of the
Women great with child Sol. 1. As to the first although the heat of children be soon destroyed by cold yet this water may safely be given to children of a year old if the water which they drink exceed not the strength of their stomack or if their stomack can bear it And H. ab Heer 's saith he saw a sucking child drink of the German Spaw with good success and some children very young have taken of ours not without benefit 2. As to the second It is true that their heat also is very little and soon extinguished by cold yet if the strength of their stomacks be able to carry it off without a manifest dejection of the appetite it may safely to them also but not in so large a quantity as to others be administred 3. And as to third It is true it is diuretical and may seem dangerous for them to take it yet it hath been observed that many have taken it securely enough some when they have been very young with child and others when near the time of their bringing forth I shall not give too much liberty neither shall I lay too great a restraint upon them Onely I say it is safest for them to take it in the fourth fifth and sixth moneth and Hippocrates himself will admit of purgation at that time But if any be very defirous to take it before or after by reason of some griefs urging them thereto let them use it cautiously and in less quantity and withall take something every night to prevent the inconveniencies thereof as Pearl Corall pouder of hartshorn or the like 〈◊〉 Q. It may be demanded whence it is that the excrements upon the taking of this water become black Sol. This blackness is not from the mixture of black melancholy humours as many will have it for if the soundest healthiest body in the world who can in no wise be suspected to have any adust black choller in him his excremēts will also be tinged black therewith Besides we do not find that one mans body in twenty that are dissected have any such black humours in it nay although he were the most melancholly man in the World therefore to impute it to a mixture of this is a great errour Neither do I impute it to Iron onely as H. ab Heer 's who because Iron did the like would not ascribe it to any thing else But it seems he had not as it appears by his own words observed that Vitrial would do the like and that either of Iron or Copper and that although Iron being taken inwardly the excrenents are tinged black it was by the Vitrial which was made in the body by the acid spirits thereof resolving the esurine Salt of the Iron and corroding it into a Copperas he I do suppose never considered and the reason he gives to prove that Vitrial doth not discolour the excrements is because oyl or spirit of Vitrial will not But herein he argues a conjunctis ad disjuncta and therefore his argument is of no force For here is but a part of the Vitrial viz. one part abstracted from the other and that not without the destruction of the species Now if the species could be conserved it might be done although it were volatile and more spiritual as the Vitrial is in this Spaw for the truth is the same species may be fixed and yet become volatile and more spiritual and yet all this while the species be conserved Note here by the way upon what account it is that Iron or Steel opens obstructions and it is this viz. There being a great affinity betwixt the esurine Salt in Iron and all acid unspecificated spirits the acid spirits in the body which are the cause of fermentation and coagulation and by consequence of obstructions do presently forsake those parts and humours where they are seated and betake themselves to the Iron which they endeavour to dissolve and so be united to the aforesaid Salt that is in it to which union they have a natural propensity and so being therewith united are with the same ejected together with the obstructive humours which at the same time are ejected viz. when nature is strongly irritated to expel the Iron as being very offensive to her CHAP. IX Of some general directions to be observed before in the time of and after the taking of the Waters THere are seldom any distempers or diseases that occasion people to go to the Spaw that are without peccant excrementitious obstructing humours which must of necessity be removed before the drinking of the waters attempted and that either because those crude gross humours in the greater vessels will be by the force of the waters carried down into the narrower passages and there cause greater obstructions and by consequence Feavers Dropsies Gripings c. and also hinder the free passage of the waters to the endangering of many unthought of inconveniences and symptomes as also because nature being thereby disburdened of the load of grosser humours will be the better able with the assistance of the waters to overcome digest and evacuate the thinner and those that are left behind and the sooner recover its natural vigour and sanitude Now for the Medicines to be administred they must be elected suitable to the humour offending and proportioned to the strength and constitution of the patient I do in most cases very much approve of vomits because they do effectually cleanse the stomack and the primas vias and instead of them where they cannot be safely and conveniently used biera picra comes next in place for absterging and cleansing the stomack bowels messentery and making free passage for the water to pass to the Liver And after either of these some proper lenitive for the opening the passages through the Liver Ureters Kidnies and into the Bladder Phlebotomy also or letting of bloud is in many cases to be considered of viz. if the veins and other adjacent vessels be oppressed with bloud or any peccant humours for thereby they will be made more fit for the waters to pass through them and the virtues thereof into them Also in case of very obstinate obstructions I advise that a chalybiate course of Physick be run through for a certain time that thereby the waters may with the less resistance act their parts and sooner easier and more perfectly effect the intended cures Now after such preparation is made and the patient come to the Spaw let him also then take some easie vomit as of Oxymel or wine of Squils or the like or some hiera picra the first day after he is come thither and the next morning after that some Lenitive as Lenitive Electuary Cassia Manna Tamarines infusion of Sene Rhabarb syrop of Roses or the like according to the humour that is to be evacuated and then let him cheerfully and confidently begin to drink these waters with a resolvedness to observe all such rational directions as he shall find in this and the next
For the better passing of the waters let the first glass be mixed with Sugar Syrrup of Liquorish or de quinque Radicibus or Nitre or Spirit of Salt or Vitrial Salt of Tartar or a glass of white wine in the midst of the water or mixed with three or four of the first glasses or two or three glasses of the Sulphur Well in the midst of the Spaw-water or a good draught of the decoction of Fennel or Parsley-roots be taken half an hour before the water Note that some of the aforesaid things are penetrative and so force their way and some are sweet and therefore are sooner attracted to and by the Liver and so the more speedily evacuated In case of the necessity of any of the aforesaid mixtures it will be convenient and necessary that some experienced Physitian be first consulted withall And if you meet with none at the Spaw that you can confide in York and other places are not far where you shall find such Gentlemen that are able to advise you as concerning this so also in any other case and especially if any unexpected accident should fall out whilest you are drinking the waters In case in the taking of the waters sumes and vapours fly to the head as oftentimes they do even to inebriation let none be disheartned thereat for either they are the spirits of the water themselves alone which will do the head much good or else there is a mixture of wind from the stomack for when that is filled with water the wind that was in it must of necessitie be forced up to the head but there it continues but a very short time And as there is no necessity of preventing it so neither can it be well prevented but yet for some satisfaction let Nutmeg and Coriander seed being beaten together into a gross pouder be taken after every fourth part of the water for the gratefull vapour thereof will also be carried up to the head with the force of the other vapours from the stomack and withall somewhat corroborat and close the mouth of the stomack Q. It may be demanded whether or no the rednes and hot pimples of the face may be cured by the inward use of this water and it is the more questioned because it dries and heats the Liver Sol. It is true that for the most part the rednes of the face is increased by the use of this water but yet notwithstanding it may in a great measure be cured with the help thereof with the observing of certain rules and cautious which do much conduce thereunto The patient that is thus affected his body being well prepared by medicaments phlebotomie must in the first place drink of this water ten or twelve mornings together for by this time it will in some considerable measure remove those obstructions of the messentery Liver which are the chiefest cause of the aforesaid distemper then let him be purged with some cooling lenitive and then because the continual use of the water should not as doth steel heat the bloud too much or rather by its strengthning the inward parts drive outwardly the heated corrupt humours of the body too fast I advise that he do for seven or eight dayes together drink clarified whey made with cooling moist and diuretical herbs and medicaments as Borage Lettuce Seangreen Endive Grasroots Parsly and Fennel-roots Nitre Tamarines Liquorish and such like and withall have a vein breathed if nothing contradict it and then return again to the use of the water for another fortnight and after that again to cooling purges and the cooling and clarified whey as before for a moneths time Note that withall that some topical Medicines are to be applied to the place affected as oyl of the yelks of Eggs oyl of Tartar juice of Lemmon and Salt unguentum alhum but above all flores sulphuris dissolved in oyl or the like By such kind of means with the use of the Spaw-water I would undertake to cure almost any red pimpled face whatsoever CHAP. XI Of the necessity and manner of exercise in the use of the waters EXercise is whilest the water is in the body very necessary as being good to laxate the passages of the body to excite the natural heat for the better digestion of the waters if as I said before we may properly call it a digestion for by this means saith Archigenes as also Aetius the internal vessels being heated will more strongly attract and expell Some kind of exercise is if strength permit to be continued from the first glass to the evacuation of the whole proportion taken Now for exercise in particular riding on a trotting horse or in a Coach are the best because thereby the muscles of the abdomen being pressed do intend the expulsive faculty of the Ureters and bladder And where those cannot conveniently be had and used I commend walking bowling pitching of the bar and leaping and the like all which must be used so moderatly as not to provoke sweat for by sweat the water will be drawn into the habit of the body to the endangering of a dropsy and such like symptomes They that are not able to walk nor have the accommodation for riding must take the waters in their bed for the warmeth of the bed doth as I said before serve very well instead of exercise and answers to the intensions thereof Sleep is very hurtfull because in sleep all exceptions or evacuations of excremently except sweat which is thereby promoted and for the aforesaid reasons to be prevented are suppressed Sitting on the ground is hurtfull and also standing in the Sun and walking late in the evening CHAP. XII Of the time of the year and day when the Spaw is chiefly to be taken IN frosty weather the water is strongest because the mineral spirits thereof are by the binding of the earth suppressed and prevented from evaporating through the superficies thereof as they do at other times by which means the water becomes the more strongly impregnated therewith But by reason of the inconveniency of journying and of the uncertainty of the frost I prefer the Summer viz. from the beginning of May to the end of September and before and after if the season be dry Ob. Some may object against the use of the Spaw in the Canicular or Dog dayes because say they Hippocrates in the fifth of his fourth book of Aphorismes saith {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} forbiding thereby purgations and evacuations and these being forbidden say they how shall we prepare our bodies for the taking of the waters Sol. This aphorisme having been these many years grosly mistaken hath been the occasion of the deaths of thousands I say mistaken because purgations are not here at all forbidden but onely intimation given that in that season by reason of that usual extremity of heat the humours being drawn outwardly towards the habit of the body are not so easily retracted and evacuated by way of purgation as
substance Maginus makes mention of a Lake in Ireland in the bottone whereof if you put a staff it will being pulled out some moneths after be turned into Iron viz. that part which stuck in the mud and that part which was in the water into a whetstone Aristotle mentions a certain Fountain in Sicilia into which if living creatures being before killed were put they would become alive again Athenaeus saith that the fish of the River Clitoris have a certain voyce Solinus speaks of a Fountain that is in Boeotia which helpeth the memory Isidorus saith the like of the River Lethe which causeth forgetfulnes Scaliger saith that the River of Juverna is of that nature that the leaves of a certain tree hanging over falling into it become living fishes Pliny reports that in Agro Carrinensi in Spain is a certain Fountain which makes all the fish that live in the water of it seem to be of a golden colour Agricola affirmes that fishes live in the hot Sulphur-waters of the lower Pannonia neer Buda Varro and Solinus affirm that there is a Fountain in Arabia which if the sheep drink thereof changeth the colour of their fleeces and maketh the white to become black Pliny reports that the water in Falisco maketh the Cattle that drink thereof to become white He also saith that in Pontus the River Astaces watering the fields makes the Mares that feed therein to yield a black milk which feeds the Countrey It is reported that in Ulcester in Ireland there is a Fountain in which he that washeth himself shall never become gray I could recken up many more waters of very strange natures but whether they or these already mentioned be all certainly true I will not undertake to affirm onely thus much I will say that some of them I my self have seen other some I am assured of from those whose unquestionable worth may justly command mine and other mens faith to their indeniable testimony and for the rest we may believe them according to the reputation of the Historian These here I mentioned that it might not seeme strange to us how capable waters are of receiving diversity of qualifications from the earth and although some of them may seem magical and supernatural yet may they upon a profound enquiry be made to appear truely natural CHAP. IV. Of the nature and vertues of simple Waters I It will be necessary for the better conceiveing of the nature and vertue of mineral waters in particular to speak something of the nature and virtues of water in generall or of simple water which is an element as saith Sendivogius most heavy full of unctuous flegme and is more worthy in its kind than the earth it is without volatile but within fixed cold and moist attempered by air It is the Sperm of the world in which the seed of all things is preserved and it is the keeper of every thing It is called by the ancients {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Thales as saith Aristotle called one and the same water the beginning of all things Empedocles also believed that of water were all things made Hippon also saith Aristotle called it the soul of things as if it were the life of them which made Hippocrates say that water and fire were the principles of life and especially water for saith he many animals may want fire but none can well live without water Theophrastus affirms that water is the matter of all things And indeed if water were accurately anotamized you should clearly see that both vegetables minerals and animals are generated of water but of this I have treated more largely elss where I shall not now stand to repeat especially since my purpose here is chiefly to speak of the medicinal virtues of water Now we must know that water is twofold for either it is simple or mineral which we more usually call medicinal Water is called simple not according to its own nature but to our sense or being compared with that which is mineral and of this there are five kinds viz. rain fountain pit river and standing water I shall not here stand to prove whether or no water be nutritive or be onely a vehiculum of aliments as Galen would have it because in another treatise I have cleerly shewed how vegetables animals and minerals are generated of and increased by water which hath such strange dissimilary or heterogeneal parts as can scarce be believed by those who never saw the spagyrical anatomy thereof or curiously examined the production of all natural things I shall insist onely upon the medicinal use thereof as being administred either to prevent or cure the distempers of the body Simple water which cooles and moistens is either taken inwardly or used outwardly It is taken inwardly either warm or cold The vertues of warme-water taken inwardly are these which follow viz. 1. It doth by reason of its warmth cause nauseouseness and it is drank in a greater quantity to cause vomiting in head-ach proceeding from drunkenness and in any other ilness of stomack but with this caution that they that have very cold weak and laxated stomacks must abstain from this kind of vomit because warm water doth moisten very much and so by consequence would laxate tht stomack more than it was before Also it is not to be administred to those that are accustomed to drinking of water for them it will not move to vomit but remain in the body and weaken the vessels upon the aforesaid account of its extream moistening 2. It allayes sharp acid and gnawing humours and cureth such symptoms as proceed from thence as saith Galen also it represseth the ebullition of choller and helps the inflammations of the throat and mouth caused thereby as saith Aetius 3. It cures the inflammation of the reins by altering of them if it be taken before meals Note that if warm water be given to cause vomiting it must be administered to the quantity of a pint or two or of as much as will be sufficient thereunto But if it be used for qualification it must be taken to the quantity of a cup onely which may not cause nauseousnes The use and vertues of cold water are these viz. 1. It conduceth to long life in regard it condenseth the spirits saith the Lord Virulam And indeed water was the usual drink of the ancients who lived long 2. It repels by reason of its coldness and is thefore effectual against divers distempers it forceth crudities out of the stomack and as saith Aetius promotes the operation of any medicine that is taken and works not besides it suppresseth the fuming of vapours to the head as saith Dioscorides and Mesues and being drunk at bed-time causeth quiet rest as saith the Lord Virulam in his learned treatise de vita et morte by suppressing the ascent of vapours to the head 3. It allayes extream hot distempers whether they be in any particular part as in the stomack liver c. or in the
whole body as in continual and burning feavers It is upon this account commended by Galen against an inward Erisipelas I know some that account it especially rain water as a great secret against ulcers of the reins Note that cold water is prohibited from a cold temper either of the whole or of principal parts also from old age because it is very feeble and from child-hood because it is subject to convulsions as saith Galen and from a thin habit of body extenuated by reason of scarcity of bloud which is a great and the principal safeguard against cold things Winter also and a cold crass slimy morbifick or a hot impact matter as also great obstructions of the vessels and cold inward tumours forbid the use of cold water As for the time when cold water is to be drank note that it is never to be administred in feavers unless concoction do first appear as saith Galen for although it be a remedy for a feaver as it is a feaver yet it is not a remedy against the humours which cause a feaver but as it evacuates them by Urine stool or sweat But these cannot safely be expelled before they be concocted Now we must not notwithstanding expect a perfect and full concoction but it will suffice if it be moderate and in good part performed for else there will be a danger of the feavers turning into a Hectick Also it must not be taken on the critical day for then saith Hippocrates we must not move the humours because we do not certainly know which way nature will attempt an evacuation But for a more particular time of the feaver it is to be taken most conveniently in the fit or in the very hour of the ebullition of the humours because then the inward parts do burn most and need most then to be qualified besides coldness is then least offensive because the greatness of the heat is a safeguard against the offensiveness thereof As for the quantity to be drunke note that if the repelling or suppressing vertue thereof be required it is to be taken to the quantity of half a pint more or less as things may be considered But if the altering or allaying vertue as in a feaver then it is to be taken in such a quantity as may be drunk at one breath or as much at the sick party needs for satisfaction or elss can well bear But the greatness of the distemper the age time of the year custome and strength is also to be considered But it will be demanded which is the best water and most wholsome and for answer hereunto I say that is the best which is void of taste or odour is clear pure most light is soon heated and soon cooled and in which flesh is soonest boyled and in particular as saith Galen rain water is the best but yet not any but such which falls in Summer-time when the heaven is in great part serene and especially with thunder being that which consists of thinner vapours elevated and purified by the heat of the Sun and lightning And next to this is that pit water which flows from the next fountain or river especially through a sandy earth because if the said earth partake of no other quality it is percolated made more thin and becomes more depurated than other water And in defect of these two fountain and river water may be used being indeed very good and wholsome and indeed are by many accounted the best but the worst of all is standing water as lakes pooles Now in case there can be got no good water but onely what is bad than Galen would have that to be boyled and cooled again and so to be used Thus much of the use and vertues of cold and warm water administred in wardly It remaines now that I speak two or three words of the external use of water both warm and cold and of the effects thereof Now water is used outwardly saith Julius Caesar Claudinus first by way of Balneum or bathing the whole body secondly by way of insessus or sitting in water up to the navel thirdly by way of aspersion or affusion i. e. sprinkling or pouring on fourthly by way of stillicidium dropping or distilling Fistly by way of fomentation and lastly by way of lotion or washing any part Bathes are either hot or cold Cold Bathes were by ancient and modern Philosophers and Physitians ordeined for divers uses Many used them onely by way of exercise as for swimming in them which the Lord Verulam in his learned treatise de vitâ morte reckons up as one of those robust exercises as he calls them which makes the flesh hard and compact conducing to long life They are used also for the astringing of the body and condensing the same also as saith the a foresaid Learned Vicount for the closing of the pores of the body that are too open whereby the hot air excluded from preying upon the body besides they unite the Calidum innatum corroborating the same by an antiperistasis wherby by cōsequence it doth beget a good appetite cause a good digestion excite the expulsion of excrements represse a canine appetite other ill symptomes caused by the exolution of the skin stop bleeding the overflowings in women and the gonorrhea cure the Hydrophobia which is a symptome occasioned by the biting of a mad dog and many sorts of seavers both intermitting and continual if the party make use of them when that fit is approaching and there continue an houre or two Note that the use of cold baths is not for youths because they hinder their growth nor for old men because that little heat which they have is thereby suffocated nor for cold and thin women which have delicate bodies because the cold penetrates too much into their solide parts nor to any that be sick unles they be of strong natures for as cold baths doe wōderfully corroborate the Calidum innatum or naturall heat if it be strong so doe they on the contrary overcome it if it be weak and the humours appeare to be concocted and fit for evacuation and no principal part or bones nerves brain ill affected and the body free from convulsions Note also that when the intension is to be formed by cooling onely and there is no need of moistening then as saith the aforesaid authour of the History of life and death the body is to be annointed with oyle with spissaments or thickeners that the quality onely of the cooler be received and not the substance Yet we must in such cases have a care that the pores of the body be not thereby stopt too much for when any extrinsecal cold obstructs the body too much it is so far from cooling it that it stirs up the heat the more by suppressing perspirations Baths also of hot or heated water are of great use but before I declare the uses and effects thereof wee must consider that they are of three sorts for either they are tepid i.
thereof dissolved in rain water yields a pure Vitrial and the Colcothar that falls to the bottom of the said water yields upon a refiners tast most pure Copper like to very gold as doth Verdigrease the Metalline parts thereof being purified from their feculencies by means of the foresaid corrosion and dissolution The nativity of Vitrial being thus promised it will most evidently appear what are the true causes of Spaw water viz. Of their Vitrioline tast and odour It will not now be a thing irrational to grant that all Spaw waters partake either of the corporeal or spiritual parts of Vitrial They that partake of the substance of Vitrial are such as when they are evaporated leave behind them a Vitriol at the bottom and such are the Sevenir Paubon and Geronster Springs the two former of which Helmont said he carefully distilled and found nothing in them but the Vitrial of Iron and like to this was a certain Spring within two miles of Knaresborow the water whereof I distilled and found in the bottom a Vitrial of Iron Moreover betwixt these wells which are impregnated with a corporeal Vitrial there is a considerable difference for some work upon the bowels mostly and by stool if not sometimes by vomit and such are they that contain in them much Vitrial whether of Copper Iron or both mixed together as Geronster and are more gross and corpulent and the operation of these is much after the same manner as that of steel which for the most part doth the first dayes it is taken cause a nauseousness in the stomack and passeth away by stool all the time it is taken and by reason of the harshnes it hath is seldom attracted to or passeth through the vessels of the second concoction But they that contain little of the substance but more of the spirit as doth Serenir do pass the stomack Liver and other vessels far sooner and with less disturbance than do the other And they that partake of none of the substance but onely of the spiritual part or vertues such as the Spaw-well at Knaresborow of which particularly in the next Chapter c. are far more efficacious in many cases especially where obstinate humours and confirmed obstructions betwixt the stomack and Liver are not the causes of the distempers for in such cases such a Medicine must be administred which way more strong irritate these vessels to eject those obstructing tartareous and viscous humours or at least dissolve and attenuate them thereby making them to yield to more benigne purgatives Note also that these waters may the more they are impregnated with the said corporeal substances the further be carried without loss of their strength The water of Sevenir is carried many miles and into other Countreys without loss of its vertues but that of Pauhon much further and into further Countreys we have it transported into England very frequently Now the water of the Spaw in York-shire cannot be carried near so far but yet further than most believe as I shall declare in the next Chapter Now these differences or varieties of impregnations arise either from the difference of the quantity of the acide spirit corroding the difference of the fruitfulness of the vein of Copper or rather Iron corroded or the greater or lesser continuance of the course of the water already impregnated through veins of the said Metals whereby it becomes long yet more impregnated if the course be continued Note that the veins of the said impure Metals contain in them more esurine salt and yield more natural spirits than they themselves when melted and therefore communicate far more efficatious vertues than they do I mean in many cases CHAP. VII Of the Spaw-well near Knares-borow ABout a mile and a half from the said Town West-ward in a moorish boggie ground within less than half a mile from which there is no considerable ascent ariseth a Spring of a Vitrioline tast and odour resembling much those ultramarine Spaws The water of this Fountain springeth directly up from the sandy bottom and this is no otherwise than that water doth which passing through pipes in the earth serving for the conveying of water from a Fountain to a house or Town doth break the pipes if they be obstructed or force it self through them if already broken upwards through the superficies of the earth and flows in the manner of a Spring For in this place the subterraneal veins through which the water passeth are either if not there terminated obstructed or too infirm to contain the water of the spring passing forcibly through them and making a vent where it can As for the vitrioline and Ironish tast and odour of this water I need in regard I have in the preceeding Chapter declared more at large the causes of all Spaws speak the less in this place But for more particular satisfaction the aforesaid tast and odour may be imputed partly to those vapours that proceed from the fermentation that is in Iron or Copper mines and thus Aristotle and H. ab Heer 's would have it to be affirming that vapours retain the tast and odours of their minerals and the water with which these vapours are mixed become thereby impregnated though in a more remiss degree with the same qualities partly to the long abiding or continuing of the water with the Iron or Copper mine viz. in some great cavities in the midst of the veins thereof whereby it contracts their odour and tast as we see it doth in Iron or Copper vessels if it stand long there especially if excited by heat or acuated with any acidity and as doth white wine standing long with scales or filings of steel or iron or partly to the water acuated with some subterraneal sulphurious acidity and passing swiftly through some hungry barren vein of Iron which it corrodes lightly resolving thereby some of the spiritual and subtile parts thereof onely which it becomes it self impregnated with And hence it acquires the nature of a Spaw-well Now for the better understanding of the nature of this Spaw I made divers experiments thereof which are these 1. I distilled it supposing that if I could draw off the mineral spirits by themselves I should discover a great secret very advantageous for diseased people but the water yea the two first spoonfuls which were distilled and the rest undistilled that remained utterly lost both the tast and odour which they had before neither would they become any otherwise tinged with galls than common Spring-water although the water undistilled with the mixture of the pouder of galls became as red as a well coloured Clarret wine Now it is hard to conceive the true reason of this especially since I distilled it in a glass still and luted or closed up very carefully the joints thereof so that spirit of wine could not evaporate out thereat I impute it to the subtilty of those spirits which are so volatil that they are sooner sublimed than the water it self therefore
ensuing Chapters prescribed But for poor people or they that loath all that bears the name of Physick drink three or four mornings of the Sulphur-well for that will in a good measure effect the same When any one is resolved for the Spaw let him then first apply himself to some experienced Physitian who shall be able to understand his constitution distemper and the nature and use of the waters themselves that accordingly as cause shall require the more succesfull preparatives may be administred and the more effectual directions given This I advise the rather because there be divers Physitians in the Nation who never saw tasted scarce read of the waters or conversed with those that know them yet send their patients such as they account incurable and desperate thither giving them such directions for the drinking the waters as the very Spaw-women themselves laugh at A due preparation being premised let him that drinks the waters begin with four or five or six half pint glasses more or less as his stomack can well bear and so by degrees proceed to two or three glasses more every day until he come to the height and his full dose which will be when he can take no more without a manifest oppression and nauseousness Some will drink twenty some thirty of these glasses in a morning and some can not take half so many In the morning before the water be drunk let first all excrements be evacuated either by nature or art as by glysters suppositories or some pills or lenitive taken the night before at bed-time for the retaining of the excrements hinders the concoction of the waters if I may call it a concoction and by consequence their passage through the body whereby are caused pressures fluctuations tensions gripings and sometimes cold sweat Betwixt every two or three or four or five glasses let some exercise be used of which more largely in the Chapter of exercise And for the better passing of the waters comforting the stomack and preventing of nauseousness let some good cordial stomachical spices seeds and roots be taken betwixt while as Annisseed Caryoway and Coriander confects Citron or Lymon pilled candied or dried Pepper lossenges Cardamums but above all I prefer Elecampany root candied or for want thereof Angelica root or seeds for they especially Elecampany as the Lord Virulam saith breed a robust heat and I am sure promote the passage of the water most eminently and comfort all the vessels through which the water passeth and withall make the water more effectual for the opening of obstructions and corroborating infirm parts I approve not of taking the waters too fast or alloting too short a time for the drinking of the full dose or proportion I conceive that for the generality it will be most convenient for to take at first a quarter of the proportion and then exercise half an hour and then another quarter and exercise till the water begins to be evacuated and then a third quarter with exercise half an hour more and then the last part with exercise till it be all passed out of the body But if any cannot bear the drinking of a fourth part at a time then let them take the eighth part with a quarter of an hours exercise betwixt every while To drink the waters too fast causeth for the most part nauseousnes oppresseth the natural heat and compresseth the passages and vessels that the water cannot pass so freely through them as otherwise it would do and also causeth divers symptoms as tensions gripings cold sweats dejection of appetite and the like If a great quantity of water be cast upon a fire at once it extinguisheth it but if by degrees it maketh it burn the more furiously and intends the flame thereof Ryetius is therefore in my judgement very erroneous as to this point who would have the whole proportion be taken in half an hours time The time for the continuing the taking of the waters must be proportioned according to the greatness of the disease and profit received by it In case any one after a due preparation and upon a carefull observation of such directions as are required shall not be able to bear the waters and drink them without a manifest and eminent oppression and nauseousness after several assayes let him cease presently from the taking of them but if upon the taking of them he can take them without any such inconveniency as should cause him to desist yet perceive no benefit thereby let him not presently give over the use of them as despairing of any further benefit but continue the use of them a moneth or two or longer if the disease require it In Germany they drink of the Spaw not onely a quarter of a year together but sometimes half a year and sometimes a whole year if it be requisite and at last they receive the benefit thereof by being cured of most desperate diseases which otherwise were in the vulgar account incureable It is a great errour amongst us English to allot but two or three weeks time or a moneth at the most for the taking of the Spaw let the disease be what it will and hence it is that many miss of those happy cures which by a longer continuance might have been effected and this to the prolonging of their own misery and defamation of the Spaw it self I do admit of the use of purging Physick to be taken every eight or tenth day for the evacuating of crudities which for the most part are bred in that time also some grosser humour loosened by the water or those which become crass or thick by the waters themselves carrying away the thinner part first for these remaining in the body would else be carried down into the smaller vessels and cause obstructions and thereby many other great inconveniences and symptomes retarding also if not utterly preventing the intended cure Now the Medicaments I approve of most in these cases are Hiera picra simplex Galeni Rhabarb with Crystal of Tartar and such like to be taken one or two dayes together as there shall be occasion and some Lenitive as Cassia or Lenitive electuary or the like to be taken the next day after that for the moistning of the bowels and the better preparing the passages betwixt the stomack and bladder against the next repeating the use of the waters which I advise may begin the next morning after And in some cases Physick may be taken every day nay mixt with the waters themselves as in Germany Now I know it is a common though absurd opinion that Physick is very prejudicial to those that take it whilest they are in a course of drinking the waters and therefore is most irrationally decried Now the chief ground of this errour as far as I ever could understand is this viz. Some certain years since some famous Doctors attending upon persons of great quality their patients to the Spaw did prescribe them the use of some Physick with the waters and
the evening the stomack is less laxated and languid than at noon and can therefore concoct a greater quantity of meat Yet the supper must not be very large neither greater than what the stomack can be well able perfectly to concoct before the next morning Let it be ready at six at least if not seven hours after dinner I advise that all whether it be at dinner or supper that they lerve with an appetite eat not half so much as the Spaw drinkers usually do indulging their pallates and gratifying their stomacks according to the measure of their appetites which many times is rather adventious or preternatural then natural I utterly disapprove of mixing of the Spaw water with either Wine or Beer but yet I allow of the drinking of a glass of it self at bed time for the corroborating and closing of the mouth of the stomack and suppressing of vapours which would otherwise disturb the brain from quiet sleep CHAP. XIV Of the Sulphur-well THis is called the Sulphur-well by reason of its Sulphurious odour although besides this it hath two other qualities viz. saltness and bitterness I shall in the first place endeavour to prove whence it contract its saltness and thereby I shall the better make to appear the cause of it stanch and bitterness Now because the Salt which this water yields upon evaporation is of the same nature with cannot be distinguished either in odour or tast the stanch being lost in the evaporation from common black Sea-salt I shall first declare what is the cause of the saltness of the Sea which is no other than that of this water And first I shall shew what is not the cause of it thereby confuting the opinion of many ancient Philosophers and their followers 1. The saleness of the Sea is not caused by the Suns exhaling the sweeter parts out of it as was the opinion of Aristotle for this supposeth that there was the same saltness in the Sea before but was not but upon this account manifested but this can not be for then why are not other waters as Rivers Ponds Lakes c. made saltish also by the Suns exhaling their sweeter vapours 2. The Sun doth not boil into the Sea by the vehemency of its heat that saline tast according to Pliny being almost of the aforesaid opinion for then why doth not the Sun work the same effect upon a Pond or Vessel of water on which it may work more vigorously by heating more vehemently viz. because it is less resisted by reason of the small quantity of water in them than on the Ocean 3. This saltnes is not caused as Scaliger would have it by rain mixt with hot dry and terrene exhalations for the rain it self would also then be saltish which indeed is most sweet and if it were saltish then why are not Pits Rivers c. which are many times filled with Rain-water saltish also Now the weakness of these opinions viz. the chiefest that have usually been embraced being detected I shall shew from whence very probably this saltness of the Sea may proceed We must therefore in the first place consider that the Sea is not simply saltish but saltish and bitter together that is it hath a tast made up of bitterness and saltness for which cause as saith our learned Countrey-man Mr. Lydyat in his disquisitio Physiologica de origine fontiam Chap. 9. de salsedine maris the Latines gave these two names to it viz. Mare quasi amarum Salum quasi salsum And this Aristotle himself consents to giving the reason of those two tasts in general and of them in the Sea in particular where he saith that all kinds of tasts arise from a kind of terreness more or less adust but bitterness from a terreness very much elaborated by a fiery heat in the burning bowels of the earth and saltness where that heat is somewhat remitted If so then let us consider whether there be not abundance of terrene adustness in the bowels of the earth and gulfs of the Sea where a bituminous fire is alwayes burning being fed by water as I declared more at large in the 2. Chap. viz. Of the original of Springs in general and that whether we may not probably conclude and especially because bitumen is bitter and very full of Salt that the burning of the bitumen together with the terreness therewith mixed in the gulfs of the Sea be not the cause of the saltness thereof Moreover that bitumen hath a great power to communicate to and beget a bitter and saltish tast in water is confirmed by that which Geographers write concerning the Lake of Palestina which is called in Greek {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. bituminous For say they the Lake is so bitter and saltish that no fishes can live therein and it is called in sacred writ the salt sea {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} And Historians say of it that if a man be cast into it bound hand and foot he cannot be drown'd and the reason of this is the saltness thereof for we see that waters bear the greater burdens by how much the salter they are witness the difference betwixt the Sea and fresh Rivers and our boiling of brine till an Egg swim thereon and will not sink This being premised it will be easie to conclude from whence the saltness and bitterness of the Sulphur-well proceeds And as for the stinking odour thereof that I suppose is caused from the vapours of the burning bitumen and adust terreness mixt therewith which lye not far from the very head of the Well Ob. If there be the same reason for the saltness of this Spring as there is of the Sea then why is there not the same reason for the Sulphurious odour of the Sea as of this and why doth not the Sea receive and retain the same odour as this doth Sol. I do not deny but the same odour may be communicated to the Sea as to this water together with the saltness thereof but because the saltness thereof was communicated to it by degrees viz. from some certain gulfs of the Sea so also this odour for it cannot be rationally conceived that the whole Sea received all its Salt into it self at one time after a natural way and therefore being such a great body must become saltish by little and little even insensibly And accordingly the Sulphurious odour also is imparted to it insensibly and although the saltness may continue by reason that the Salt it self is of a fixed substance yet the odour being of a subtile volatile nature is exhaled by the Sun and so lost But now the case is far otherwise in the water of this Sulphur-well for this is at once fully impregnated with the said saltness and Sulphurious odour and immediatly passeth away through narrow channelsâ— and veins of the earth without any vanishing of the odour by means of the Sun or otherwise which it contracted from the