place is not to be neglected many very significant things to be known and studied by a Physitian as after the praeliminary helps of the Tongues and Natural Philosophy the structure and uses of the parts of the body the virtues of Plants the compositions of Medicines the Nature Causes and Signs of Diseases not to mention the knowledge at least if not the practice of Manual Operations with some Pyrotechnical Endeavours All these vast dominions in themselves a Son of Art to make bold with one of their expressions should in some measure command So that I have in my thoughts sometimes resembled a Compleat Physitian to the draught of a Man standing on the two Legs of Anatomy Herbary Operating if need be with the hands of Chyrurgery and Pharmacy having a Chymical Head and the bulk of his body made up of the Nature Kind and Cures of Diseases which we may not improperly term a Body of Physick But these Agytrae and Quacksalvers are as far from these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They for the most part know no other tongue then their Mothers and are as destitute of Philosophy as a rational method Every Plant to them is All-heal and every trite Medicine a Panpharmacon The Body of Man they think contains no other parts then what they see in a Harselet and the fire is as dreadfull to them as to the burnt Child Yet they will sometimes make bold to use the Lancet and dextrously wound the Heart through the Arm. In brief they meddle with what they do not understand and are the spots and stains of the Faculty to which they most injuriously pretend but to resign those Juglers to their Ignorance and Self-Conceit and those that are willing to die at a cheaper rate to their cruel mercies and confident Undertakings I shall give what account I can of the Author of this Book a man of a temper quite different from the former what alterations have been made in it As to the Author whom I had not the happiness to know otherwise then by this his Picture being at the time of his death and some years after in an incapacity of knowing any thing unless only a knowledge of Praexistence yet I understand he was a Gentleman of a good Family◠and being a younger Brother was by his Father designed for a Profession for which when he had accomplish'd himself by a convenient Course of Studies in his own Country I think at Oxford travelled abroad to see the manners and customs of the Universities beyond Sea and having spent some time there especially at Padua where he took his Degree of Doctor in Physick returned home became an eminently solid and rational Philosopher and Physitian and one of that famous and learned Society The Kings Colledge of Physitians there In his Travels undertaking in the company of some zealous Jesuites the defence of the Protestant Religion he so much troubled their patience that they resolved to terminate that dispute of his in a perpetual Silence which they had effected had not his Countryman one of the number but more mercifull then the rest by awaking him out of his natural sleep preventing the sleep of death informed him of their design to be put in execution that night whereupon he presently withdrew and left not only the House but the Place and escaped the cruelty of these blood-thirsty Religioso's who shortly after his departure brake open his door entred his Chamber and approached his Bed with a full resolution to have acted their execrable Tragedy He had a great natural inclination to Mineral Works and was at very great Charges about the ordering of Allum which succeeding not according to expectation he was thereby much prejudiced in his Estate of which he complains in the 4◠page of the following Discourse He was much respected by King James who committed the Queen to his Care when she used to Bathe and gave him a Grant of the Profit of his Allum Works but upon the importunity of a Courtier as I am informed afterwards revoked it whereupon the Doctor made his application to the King but could not prevail though the King séemed to be more then ordinarily sensible of his Condition Whilst he practised in London there was one Anne Gunter troubled with such strange and unusual Symptomes that she was generally thought and reported by all that saw her to be bewitch'd King James hearing of it sent for her to London and pretending great pitty to her told her he would take care for her relief in which thing he employed Doctor Jorden who upon examination reported to the King that he thought it was a Cheat and tincturing all she took with harmless things made her believe that she had taken Physick by the use of which she said she had found great benefit The Doctor acquainting his Majesty that he had given her nothing of a medicinal nature but only what did so appear to the Maid and also that though when he repeated the Lords Prayer and Creed in English she was much out of order yet at the rehearsal of the same in Latine she was not concern'd the King was confirmed in what he had suspected before and the Doctor had suggested Whereupon the King dealing very plainly with her and commanding her to discover the Truth unto him the maid though at first very unwilling to disclose the Juggle yet upon the Kings importunity and promise to her of making up what damage should accrue from the discovery confessed all and his Majesty received from her own mouth this Account That sometime before there happened a difference between a Female Neighbour of her Fathers and himself and having in his own apprehension no better way to be avenged of her then this impiously caused his Daughter on the receiving of the Sacrament to engage to imitate one bewitch'd and ascribe it to that woman which she did and acted this part in so exact and wonderfull a manner that she deceived all the Countrey where she lived who thought it to be a truth After Which Confession she was very quiet the King giving her a Portion she was afterwards married being by this subtle artifice perfectly cured of her mimical Witchery His Wife was a Gentlewoman of a Name differing but in one letter from his own Daughter to one Mr. Jordan a Wiltshire Gentleman which came to pass after this manner The Doctor being on a Journey benighted on Salisbury Plain and knowing not which way to ride happened to meet a Shepherd of whom he made enquiry what places were near where he might have entertainment for that night the Shepherd telling him there was no place near enough for him conveniently to reach in any seasonable time the Doctor asked what Gentleman lived thereabouts the Shepherd replyed there was one Mr. Jordan not far off a man of good quality and a great estate Presently the Doctor looking on this as a good Omen resolved on his house where he was so kindly entertained and so well
former and more rare Qnick silver was not well known to Galen for he confesseth that he had no experience of it and did think it to be meerly artificial and not naturally bred in the earth Dioscorides makes no mention of the temperature of it but holds it to be a pernitious venome and to fret the entrails although Matthiolus affirms that it is safely given to women to further their deliverance and we find it so by often expcrience both in that cause and in Worms and in the French Disease and Leprosies if it be skilfully prepared and with judgement administred Fallopius holds it to be one of the miracles of nature Those that take upon them to determine of the qualities of it are much distracted fome reckoning it to be hot and dry and some cold and moist and both in a high degree But in this account they consider not the qualities of the ingredients in the preparation whether it be sublim'd or precipitated For my part I know not how to reduce 〈◊〉 to the Elementary qualities neither am I ashtmed of mine ignorance in it seeing no man hitherto hath given true satisfaction herein And if it be true that the elements do not concur to the generation of mixt bodies as I shall shew cap. 11. we need not marvail if we find theâ— not where they be not But for our own use where reason fails us let us be guided by experience We find by experience that it cuts attenuates penetrates melts resolves purges both ad centrum a centro heats cools c. and is a transcendent beyond our rules of Philosophy and 〈◊〉 monster in nature as Renodaus faith For our purpose it is enough to know whether it will imprâ— any quality to water which Fallopius Baceiâ—â— Solinander Banbinus and Felix Platerus do acknowledge But it gives no taste to it neither have we many examples of Baths which continâ—â— it In Serra Morena in Spain near the Village Almedien is a Cave where are many Wells iâ—fected as is thought with Quick-silver because much of that mineral is extracted from thence out of a red stone called Minium nativum About fifty miles from thence in V alentiola then is another fountain called La Nava of a shaâ— taste and held to proceed from Quick-silver and these waters are found wholsome So are 〈◊〉 waters at Almagra and Toletum and others by the River Minius which are hot There are man venomous springs attributed to Quick-silver 〈◊〉 the red fountain in Aâ—thiopia others in Boetia Caa in Trigloditis Stix in Arcadia Stix in Thessalia Licus in Sicilia c. which perhaps are from other minerals feeing we find some from Quick-silver to be wholsome For Mines of Quick-silver we read of many in Baetica Attica Ionia out of a stone which Pliny calls Vomica liquoris aterni In Germany at Landsberg at Creucenacbum Schenbach Baraum above Prage Kunningstien c. In Scotland three miles beyond Barwick I found a red stone which I took to be minium nativum seeing Agricola makes mention of it in Scotland but by a mischance could not try it Sulphur attracts contracts resolves mollifies discusses whereby it shews a manifest heat though not intense yet the sume of it is very sour and therefore must cool and dry and I perswade my self that there is no better sume to correct venomous and infectious air than this of Sulphur or to remove infections out of rooms clothes bedding vessels c. We must acknowledge differing parts in all compounded bodies as Rhubarb hath a purgative quality in the infusion and an astrictive in the Terrestrial substance where the salt hath been by infusion extracted The substance of Sulphur is very fat Sulphure nihil pinguius faith Felix Platerus and this is the cause of his easie taking of fire and nor any propinquity it hath with fire in the quality of heat for if it were very hot Dioscorides would not comment it purulenta extussientibus the next door to a Hectick Also Galen faith that fat things are moderately hot and are rather nutriments than medicaments Now for Sulphurous Baths they are very frequent and if we should believe some there are no hot Baths but participate with Sulphur but they are deceived as shall appear hereafter when we come to shew the true causes of the heat of Baths Neither are all sulphurous Baths hot Gesner reports of a Bath by Zurich very cold and yet sulphurous Agricola of another by Buda in Pannonia In Campania by the Leucogaean Hills are cold Springs full of Brimstone Also there are hot Baths without any shew of sulphur that can be discerned as the Baths of Petriolum in Italy the Baths Caldanelloe and de Avinione in agro Senensi de Gratta in Viterbiensi de aquis in pisanis collibus Divi Johannis in agro Lucensi in Alsatia another not far from Gebersallerum c. All which are very hot and yet give no sign of Sulphur either by taste or smell or effects And yet no doubt there are many Baths having a sulphurous smell from other minerals as from Bitumen Vitriol Sandaracha Allum c. which are hardly to be discerned if at all from Sulphur So we commonly say if a house or a tree be fet on fire by lightning that it smells of Brimstone when there was no Brimstone there Mans things combusted will yield a nidorous smell not discernable after burning what the things were But there are divers truly sulphurous Baths which contain Sulphur although not perfectly mixt with the water without some medium but only confused for perfect Sulphur will not dissolve in water no more than Bitumen The spirit of Sulphur may be communicated to water and so may the matter of Sulphur before it hath attained his perfect form and consistente otherwise it is only confufed with water and alters it into a milky colour Sulphurca Nar albus aqua Nar with Sulphurous water white At Baia are divers hot fulphurous Baths and every where in Hetrnria in Sicily in Diocesi Panormitana the Baths of Apono as Savanarola Muntagna and Fallopius avevs although John de dondis denieth it the Bath of Astrunum of Callatura S. Euphemie Aquisgran Brigenses thernmae in V alesiis Helvetiorum Aqua sancta in Picenis and an infinite number every where Baccius reckons our Baths of Bath among fulphurous Baths from the relation of Edward Carne when he was Embassador to Jnlius tertius and Panlus quartus I will not deny some touch of Sulphur in them seeing we sind among bituminous coals some which are called metal coals with certain yellow vains which are Sulphur But the proportion of Sulphur to Bitumen is very little and therefore I do not hold them Sul-phurous pradominio This is enough for Sulphur Concerning Arsenick it is a venomous mineral and therefore I need speak noth ng of the Baths which proceed from it but that we take heed of them It is likely that those venomous waters and vapours which
Mineral Bathes which besides the former uses are also medicinal and very soveraign for many Diseases consisting of wholsome Minerals and approved for many hundred years of many who could not otherwise be recovered At the least wise if we do not beautifie and adorn them yet we should so accommodate them as they might serve for the utmost extent of benefit to such as need them For there is nothing in our Profession of Physick more useful nor in the works of Nature more admirable man only excepted which Plato calls the great miracle then Natural Bathes and Mineral Waters The nature and causes whereof have been so hard to discover as our antient Authors have written little of them holding them to be sacred or holy either for that they judged them to have their virtue immediately from God or at least from the celestial Bodies from whence both their actual heat was thought to be kindled by lightnings or such like impressions and other admirable Virtues and sometimes contrary effects derived which appear in them Also divers miracles have been ascribed unto those Natural Bathes to confirm the opinion of a supernatural power in them as Guaynerius reports of the Bathes of Aque in Italy and Langius out of Athenoeus concerning the Bathes of Edepsus which both lost their vertue for a time The one by the Magistrates prohibiting poor diseased people to use them the other by imposing a taxation upon them but upon the reformation of those abuses were restored to their former virtues again I need not herein averring the opinion of Divinity which was held to be in Bathes make any mention of the Pool of Bethesda written of by Saint John and Nonnus the Poet nor of the River Jordan which cured Naaman the Syrian of his Leprosie being indeed true miracles and done by a supernatural power â— yet it is likely that those and such like examples bred in the minds of men a reverend and divine opinion of all Bathes especially where they saw such strange effects as they could not well reduce to natural Causes And this hath been the cause that in old time these mineral fountains have been consecrated unto certain Deities as Hamon in Lybia unto Jupiter Thermopilae unto Hercules by Pallas among the Troglodites another to the Sun c. And at this day we have divers Bathes which carry the names of the Sun Moon and Saints and many Towns and Cities named from the Bathes in them as Thermae in Macedonia and Sicily Thermidea in Rhodes Aquae in Italy Aquisgraue in Germany Baden in Helvetia and our antient City of Bathe in Somerset-shire in honor whereof I have especially undertaken this labour and I perswade my self that among the infinite number of Bathes and Mineral Waters which are in Europe there are none of more universal use for curing of Diseases nor any more commodious for entertainment of sick persons then these are Besides this sacred conceit of Bathes wherewith in antient times the minds of men were possest we may adde this that the nature of Minerals was not so well discovered by them as it hath been since and therefore we finde very little written of this argument either in Aristotle or Hypocrates or in Galen who wrote most copiously in all other points of Physick yet concerning this hath little and never gave any of these waters to drink inwardly although he acknowledgeth that they were in use and for outward uses held them all to be potentially hot After these Grecians the antient Latines and Arabians succeeded Plinie Celsus Seneca Lucretius Avicen Rhasis Seraphio Averrhoes it whom we finde some small mention of natural Bathes and some use of Salt and nitrous and Aluminous waters but nothing of worth towardâ— the discoverie of the natural causes of them Iâ— is likely they did pass it over slightly either by reason of the difficulty in searching out the cause of them or that they judged them meerly metaphysical But in later times the nature and generation of minerals from whence the Baths proceed and from whence the whole doctrin of them both for their qualities and differences originals and use must be derived being better looked into and observations taken from such as daily labour in the bowels of the earth for the search oâ— Mines or such as afterwards prepare them for ouâ— necessary uses we have attained to better knowledge in this kinde than the Antients could have although in all new discoveries there wilâ— be defects for succeeding ages to supply so falls out in this Dies Diem docet Aipham Bâ—ta corrigit And although Agricola Pallopius Baccius Mathetsious Solinander Libavius c. have added much unto that which was formerly known in this point and reformed many errors and mistakings in former writers yet they have left many things imperfect doubtful obscure controverted and perhaps false as may appear in the discourse following I do reverence all their worths as from whom I have learned many things which else I could hardly have attained unto and I acknowledg them to have been excellent instruments for the advancement of learning yet I hope it may be as free for me without imputation of arrogancie to publish my conceits herein as it hath been for them or may be for any other Hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim We both this leave Give and receive My end and studie is the common good and the bettering of this knowledge and if I shall bring any further light to increase that I shall be glad otherwise my intent being to search out the truth and not to contradict others it will or ought to be a sufficient protection for me wherefore I come to discourse of Mineral waters CHAP. II. Definition of Mineral Waters The nature where of cannot be understood except first consideration be had concerning simple water Of which in this Chapter are shewed the qualities and use MIneral waters are such as besides their own simple nature have received and imbibed some other qualitie or substance from Subterranâ—an Mynes I say besides their own nature because they retain still their liquidness and cold and moysture although for a time they may be actually hot from an external impression of heat which being gone they return to their former cold again I say imbibed to distinguish them from confused waters as earth may be confused with water but not imbibed and will sink to the bottom again whereas such things as are imbibed are so mixed with the water as it retains them and is united with it being either Spirits or dissoluble juyces or tinctures I say from Subterranean Mynes to distinguish them from animal or vegetable substances as infusions or decoctions of herbs flesh c. Seeing then that the Basis of these Bathes or mineral fountains is water we must first consider the nature of simple water and from thence we shall better judge of Mineral Waters and their differences By simple water I do not mean the Element of water
for that is no where to be found among mixt bodies but I mean such water as is free from any heterogeneal admixture which may alter either the touch or taste or colour or smell or weight or consistence or any other qualitie which may be discerned either by the senses or by the effects This water therefore must have his proper colour and taste without savour or smell thin light cold and moist if any of these properties be wanting or any redound it is mixed and infected Cold and moisture do abound in water For cold appears by this that being heated by any external cause it soon returns to his cold nature again when the cause of the heat is removed And whereas Air is held by the Stoicks to be most cold and confirmed by Seneâ—a and Libavius yet the reason they give for it doth seem to prove water to be more cold because they make the matter of air to be water and to have his coldness from thence But Aristotle holds the air to be hot from the efficient cause which â—rarified â—it being of more validity to make it hot than water the material cause to make it cold Galen is of neither side for he doth not judge it to be hot neither doth he ever pronounce it to be cold but by reason of his tenuity apt to be altered either by heat or cold I will not here undertake to determine whether all be bred of water or whether it be not a distinct substance of it self and only receiveth watry vapours into it being agreeable in cold moisture tenuity c. with it and so lets them separate in rain and so exonerate it self of these vapours as also of dry exhalations by winds thunder c. or whether air be only the effluâ—â—um of the inferiour globe being within the orbe of his virtue as all Dominion hath not only a place of residence and Mansion but also a vergâ— and territory where it exercifeth his authority and government so the inferior globe of the earth and water hath his dominion beyond his own globe as likewise may be thought of all other globes of the Planets c. But these points are impertinent to my purpose It is enough for me to shew what I judge of the temperature of the air concerning heat or cold And to me it seemâ— most probable that the air of it self should be cold as may appear by this that it is only heated by external causes which being removed the aâ— returns to his former coldness again So we seâ— that within the Tropicks in Zona torrida as long as the Sun is within their Horizon and beats thâ— air with his perpendicular beams it is exceeding hot especially in the vallies where the reflection is most insomuch as Aristotle held those parts of the World to be inhabitable in regarâ— of the extremity of heat But after the Sun is setâ— the air returns to his natural coldness until the Sun arise and heat it again Josephus Acosta urâ— geth this argument against Aristotle about the habitableness of the torrid Zone that the daieâ— and nights being there equal the presence of the Sun in the day-time may well heat the air bâ—â— his absence for twelve hours more in the night reduceth the air to a better temper and upon this and divers other arguments and experiences which cannot be denied concludes that if there be any Paradise upon earth it is under or near the equinoctial The like reason may be drawn from the coldness of mountains which being near to the middle region of the air and wanting that reflection of the beams of the Sun which is in the valleys are continually cold and often covered with snow which would not be if the air were hot As for the conceit that the middle region is made cold by an Antiperistasis the element of fire being above it and the reflection of the beams of the Sun beneath it it is an idle conceit For these heats on both sides would rather heat than cool the middle region by their working upon it Also take away the element of fire from under the Moon which is an opinion now exploded by the best Philosophers and then what becomes of your Antiperistasis But I shall speak more of this Antiperistasis cap. 13. And as for the reflection beneath it is a weak thing and will hardly extend to the top of a steeple wherefore this coldness of the middle region is not from any Antiperistasis but from the nature of the air which there is not altered either by any influence from above or by any vapours or reflection from beneath Neither would it be so cold neer the Poles if the air of it self were hot But the long absence of the Sun in those parts and the oblique beams when it is present do permit the air to enjoy his natural coldness And as the airis of it self and in his own nature cold so is it probable that it is more cold than water seeing it hath a greater power of condensation than water as we see it congeals water into ice snow hail c. which the water cannot do of it self For in the bowels of the earth where the air cannot freely pass water is never found to be congealed unless it bâ— compasled by some other substance equivalent to air in coldness as Quick-silver Nitre c. where cold is drawn into a greater compendium than in water by reason of the density of their substances and in ice and snow the cold maâ— be greater by reason of the admixture of air Iâ— is likewise probable that earth is more cold that water if we consider it as it is in it self and noâ— mixed with other heterogenities For as motioâ— causeth heat and levity and rarity so want oâ— motion which is in earth causeth coldness density and ponderosity But it is enough for oâ— purpose to prove both air and water to be cold As for moisture Aristotle holds the air to be mosâ— moist and water most cold Galen holds wateâ— to be most moist Aristotles reason for the predominance of moisture in Air is because it is moâ— hardly contained within his bounds but the termination of things proceeds from their opposite qualities as moisture is terminated by dryness and dryness by moisture and dryness doth aâ— easily terminate moisture as moisture doth terminate dryness And this difficulty of termination in air may more properly be ascribed to hiâ— thinness and tenuity of parts than to his moisture For dry exhalations will extend themselves aâ— well as moist vapours and as it is density that compacts so it is rarity that extends Fire it self is more hardly bounded than air and yet not moist Those that would reconcile these differences do alledge that Galen speaks as a Physitian and meant that water was bumidissimum medicamentum Aristotle as a Philosopher meant it to be humidissimum elementum But this reconciliation gives little satisfaction For how
see in a cup or bowl of water filled to the top we may put in a great bulk of silver in pieces and yet it will not run over but be heightened above the brims of the bowl The like we see Ãn a drop of water put upon a Table where the edges or extremities of the water being terminated by the dry substance of the Table are depressed and lower than the middle likeâ— half globe but take away the termination by moistening the Table and the drop sinks 〈◊〉 this be evident in so small a proportion we may imagine it to be much more in the vast Ocean and our Springs being commonly at the foot oâ— Hills may well be inferior to the Globe of thâ— Sea if any be higher they may perhaps be feâ— from rain and snow falling upon the Mountains But if Josephus Acosta his assertion be true thâ— the Sea towards the Equinoctial is higher thaâ— towards the Poles then the level of the Sea mâ—â—â— be much higher than the top of our highest Hillâ— but this is a doubtful assertion yet I dare believe that if it were possible to immure a Sprinâ— without admission of air which might break thâ— continuitie with the Sea our Springs might bâ— raised much higher At Saint winifrids Well iâ— Flint-shire though there be no high land neer iâ— yet the Springs rise with such a violence and iâ— plentifully that within a stones cast it drives â—â— Mill. It is likely that this Spring might be raised much higher And whereas we see that Riverâ— do run downwards to the Sea per decline it doth not prove the Sea to be lower than the Land but only near the shore where it is terminated and in lieu of this it hath scope assigned it to fill up the Globe and so to be as high as the Land if not higher For if a measure should be taken of the Globe of the earth it must be taken from the tops of the Mountains and from the highest of the Sea and not from the Valleys nor from the Sea-coasts This conceit of mine I was fearful to publis h and therefore had written unto Master Brigges mine antient friend for his advice in it being a point wherein he was well studied but before my Letter came to Oxford he was dead But now I have adventured to publish it to stir up others to search out the causes hereof better than hath yet been discovered Exorsipse secandi fungor vice cotis Anothers edge though blunt I set And with the Stone that 's dull I whet CHAP. IV. Division of Mineral Waters Minerals descrâ—bed Their kinds recited Of Earth simplâ— and mixed Whether it give any medicinablâ— qualitie to Water And so of the rest in thâ— following Chapters THus much of simple waters and their originals which may serve as Polycletus hiâ— rule to judge mixed and infected waters by Galen in many places speaks of an exact and sound constitution of body as a rule to disceâ—â— distempered and disproportionated bodies Anâ— thus much in explication of the Genâ—s in the definition of Mineral Waters Now I come to Mineral Waters and to the other part of the definition which we call difference c. from Subterranean Mynes by Imbibition These Mineral waters are either simple oâ— compound simple which partake but with some one Subterranean Mineral compound which partake with more than one And theâ—â— waters partake with Minerals either as they aâ— confused with them or as they are perfectly mixed Also these mineral waters whether simple or compound are actually either hot or cold the reason whereof must proceed from some Subterranean cause as shall be shewed hereafter Wherefore we must first know the nature oâ— these Subterranean Minerals and their generation A TABLE OF MINERALS WITH THEIR QVALITIES 1. Earthly Simple Dry Cold Astringent or mixed with Nitre Fullers Earth Marle Abstergent Allum Coperas All sorts of Boles Astringent and Desiccative Turfe Bitumen Pex c. Fat and Unctuous Vid. p. 24 25 26 2. Stone vid. p.27 3. Bitumina Solid Terra â—mpelis Succnum Gaâ—aâ—es Amâ—a Canphora Boneo Châ—a Titantrax five Carbo fosslis Liquid Petroleum Naphtha Potentially Hot and Dry in the 2. or 3. Degree Except Camphir concerning the Nature and Qualities of which Authoâ—sdisagree Vid. pag. 34. 4. Concrete Juyces Salt Astringent Detergent Purging c. Vid. pag.47 Nitre Sal Amnoniacum Borax Altincar Vid. pag. 44.51 Allum Vitriol Very astringent and cold Vid.p. 57 58. 5. Spirits Quicksilver Various in it Qualities vid.p. 61 62. Sulphur Moderately Hot and Dry and somewhat Cooling vid. p.63 Arsenick Auripigmentum Risagalum Sandaracha Rusma c. Venomous vid. p.65 Extreme hot and putrifying p. 66 Cadmia Natural Liquid Dangerous and a strong Corrosive Factitious Moderately hot and cleansing vid. p. 66. 6. Mean or half Metals as Bismutum or Tin-glas Qualities not mentioned vid. p.67 Antimony purgeth vidently upward and downward ib. Bell-metall not used n Physick vid. p.68 7. Metals Perfect Gold Qualities unâ—ertain vid. p. 69. 72. Silver Esteemed Cold Dry Astringent Emollient vid p. 69. 74. Imperfect Hard Iron Opening and Astringent vid. p.70.74 75 76. Copper Temperate in heat less Astringent and morecleansing than Iron vid. p.70.77 Soft Tinn Cold and Dry yet moving Sweat P. 72.77.78 Lead Cold and Dry vid. p.72.78 79. Place this between page 24 and 25 where the 4th Chapter of Minerals begins â—â—â—om whence Mineral waters receive their â—â—â—rence from common simple water before â—â—â—n judge of the nature and quality of them â—er Actual or Potential â—â—â—y Minerals we understand all inanimate â—â—â—ect bodies bred in Mines within the bowels â—â—â—e earth I dare not undertake to muster these â—â—â—ue order by Dichotomies seeing neither â—icola nor Fallopins nor Libavim nor any â—â—â—r that I know have exactly done it nor satisfied either others or themselves in it and seeing there are divers Minerals lately discovered perhaps more may be hereafter which have â—een known in former times and therefore mentioned as Calaem in the East-Indies â—â—â—ma and Terra ghetta in Turkey c. Whereâ—â—â— I will make bold to reckon them up as they â—â—â—e to hand in seven ranks The first shall be earth Earth whether it be bred ab exbalatione sicca Earth â—â—â—igerata or ex mistis per putredinem in fimum â—â—â—versis or ex lapidibus sole aut â—alore cockis â—â—â—de aqua solutis c. It is all inconcrete As â—â—â—tle water gleweth it together in Lutum so a â—â—â—t deal dissolves it But this is no proper disâ—â—â—tion but only a disjoyning of parts by Imâ—â—â—ng the moisture which conjoyned them into greater proportion of water for waters do â—â—â—urally run together like drops of quick-silver melted metal Wherefore seeing the moisture â—â—ch is in the earth is not natural but advenâ—â—â—ous not united essentially but only mixed â—â—â—identally it may well be called an inconcreteâ—â—â—stance â—â—â—stance whose moisture is easily drawn from it being ready to unite it self with other moisture and
it will kindle by reason tâ— fire extends further then it is visible being a pâ— lucide and transparent body and thinner then 〈◊〉 air it self And this is held to be the cause wâ— it is not visible under the Moon And where without air fire goes out and is extinguished 〈◊〉 reason is because the fuliginous vapours wantâ— evaporation do recoyle upon the fireand choâ— it This is evident in cupping-glasses and making of Char-coal where if the air be altog ther excluded the fire goes out if but in pâ— then although the flaming be hindred yet 〈◊〉 fire doth penetrate the fewel and so converâ— to coals which by reason of the fuliginous pours are commonly black Bellonius sâ— that Char-coals made of the wood of the Oâ— cedar tree are white which must be ascrib as I think to the small quantity of fuliginâ— vapours which that wood doth yield or 〈◊〉 that those vapours are rather sulphurous then any other combustible substance As wee that Tinby Coals will not black linnen be hanged in the smoak of them but rather whiten it by reason of the drying and penetrating quality of Sulphur which will make red Roses white But what shall we judge of those Lamps which have been found burning in old Sepulchres some of them if we may believe Histories having continued 1500 years together as that which was found in Paulus the third his time of Tullia Ciceroes Daughter and another of Maximus Olibius near unto Padua as Bernardinus Scardco reports It seems here was no air to maintain the Lamps being closely shut up in glasses and therefore they burnt without air and were not extinguished by reason they bred no fuliginous vapours to choak them Now whether these Oyles which fed the Lamps were made by Art out of Gold as some think and I hardly believe or rather out of some pure kind of Naphtha which is most probable I leave to others to judge only I judge it to be the purity of that Oyle which yielded no fuliginous vapours to choak the fire If air had maintained the flame it had not continued two minutes for it would have been spent and wasted by the fire Wheresore ignis non est aer accensus If other concrete juice be mixed with Stone as Salt Allum Vitriol c. it makes them to relent in water or moist air and these Stones are never good to build withal But let us take Stone as it is in it self without the admixture of other Minerals and we shall find it to be indissoluble and invincible either by fire or water Metallurgians Refiners and Assay Masters may make use of this for their Shribs Tiegles Muffels Copels Tests Hearths Crucibles Furnaces c. where they desire a defensible substance against fire But it requires a preparation to cleer it from all combustible and dissoluble admixture as they may easily do after they have powdred their Stone to calcyne 〈◊〉 and wash it well This work being often repeated will make it fit for their purpose anâ— they may use it either alone in the same manneâ— as they do bone-ashes or they may mix it with their lome brick-dust gestube c. Also theâ— may make Bricks of it for their Furnaces which will hardly receive any injury from fire Talcuâ— also is a Stone invincible of it self by fire andâ— Bricks made of Clay that is full of it as thâ— Guendern Clay in Cornwall will hardly melâ— with any heat Stones are naturally dry anâ— cold and astringent like a concrete earth Simple Stones which have no other Mineral mixed with them and are come to their perfection being indissoluble either by fire or water can yield no quality or virtue to Bathes anâ— therefore he that seeks to draw any virtue froâ— stone into water doth lapidem lavare that is labour in vain But by reason of admixtures they may or whilest they are in succo lapidescerte before they are concreted For if it be certain that Metals may yield virtue to Bathes being alike indissoluble by water there is no reason but Stones also may Fallopius is againâ— it in both but contradicted by Julius Caesar Clandinus and divers others yet he confesseâ— that Balncum montis Grotti hath Gyps 〈◊〉 and Gesner affirms the same of the Bathes of Eugesta Also he finds ramentdâ—mdrmoris in Balneo Corsenae Agnatio blit he judgeth that they receive no quality but from the juice and I doubt not but he is in the right And for succus lapidescens we have many examples in Agro Pisano Lucensi in Italy in Avernia in France where this juice is so plentifully brought by a clear Spring that after it is congealed the people dig the stones and have made a great Bridge of them Also neer Vienna in Savoy in a Village called Giret is a clear Fountain which turns to stones as hard as flints Pliny makes Tnention of the like Springs in Eubea which are hot and Vitruvius of the like at Hieropolis in Phrygia Also Josophus Acosta of the like hot Springs in Guaniavilica in Pern which turns to stone whereof they build their houses Anthonio de Herreza cap. 20. tells of the same Spring at Guainia at Velica which turns to stone as it riseth and kills those that drink of it Also this Succus lapidescens is observed in the Bathes of Apono where it is converted into stone upon the sides of the Bath Also in the Bath of Rancolani where this juice is not confused but perfectly mixed with the water and being imbybed by Plants it hardens them like stone Baccius tells us of a Cave by Fileg in Transilvania which turns water into stone The like is found at Glainstayns in Scotland as Hector Boetius reports In England also we have many Fountains which turn wood into stone which must be by reason of this Succus lapidescens mixed with the water Coral also being a Plant and nourished with this juice turns to stone so doth the seed of Lithospermon or Gromel Thus much of Stone CHAP. VI Of Bitumen His kinds qualities Of Campliâ— in particular That Bitumen is predominanâ— in the waters of Bathe NExt I come to those Minerals which we cal Bitumina which are mineral substance that burn and waste in the fire without metallinâ— fusion or ingression The greatest affinity they have is with Sulphur but this hath ingression into metal and therefore I rank it among the Spirits and Bitumen hath none Of this kind some are solid and some liquid Solid as Succinum Gagates Ambra Camphora Terra Ampellâ— Lithanthrax sive Carbofossilis c. Liquid 〈◊〉 Petroleum and Naphta All these are great fuel to fire especially those that are liquid which are thought to draw fire unto them if it be within their effluvium So Pliny reports that Medlâ— burnt Creusa by anointing her Garland with Naphtha and Strabo tells how Alexander Bath-master Athenophanes had almost burnâ— Stephanus a Boy in the Bath by sprinkling Naptha upon him
have imagined that metals and minerals were created perfect at the first seeing there appears not any seed of them manifestly as doth of Animals and Vegetables and seeing their substances are not so fluxible but more firm and permanent But as they are subject to corruption in time by reason of many impurities and differing parts in them so they had need to be repaired by generation It appears in Genesis that Plants were not created perfect at first but only in their Seminaries for Moses Cap. 2. gives a reason why Plants were not come forth of the earth scil because as Tremelius translates it there had as yet neither any rain fallen nor any dew ascended from the earth whereby they might be produced and nourished The like we may judge of minerals that they were not at first created perfect but disposed of in such sort as they should perpetuate themselves in their several kinds Wherefore it hath ever been a received Axiome among the best Philosophers that minerals are generated and experience hath confirmed it in all kinds Our Salt-peeter men find that when they have extracted Salt-peeter out of a floor of earth one year within three or four years after they find more Salt-peeter generated there and do work it over again The like is observed in Allum and Copperass As for metals our Tinners in Cornewall have experience of Pits which have been filled up with earth after they have wrought out all the Tin they could find in them and within thirty years they have opened them again and found more Tin generated The like hath been observed in Iron as Gaudentius Merula reports of Ilva an Island in the Adriatick Sea under the Venetians where the Iron breeds continually as fast as they can work it which is confirmed also by Agricola and Baccius and by Virgil who saith 〈◊〉 it Insula inexhaustis Chalybum generos a matallis Brave Ilva Isle whose teeming womb Breeds Iron till the day of Doom The like we read of at Saga in Lygiis where they dig over their Iron-mines every tenth year John Mathesius gives us examples almost of all sorts of minerals and metals which he hath observed to grow and regenerate The like examples you may find in Leonardus Thurneiserus Erastus affirms that he did see in S. Joachims dale silver grown upon a beam of wood which was placed in the pit to support the works and when it was rotten the workmen coming to set new timber in the place sound the silver sticking to the old beam Also he reports that in Germany there hath been unripe and unconcocted silver found in Mines which the best workmen affirmed would become perfect silver in thirty years The like Modestinus Fachius and Mathesius affirm of unripe and liquid silver which when the workmen find they use to say We are come too soon But I need not produce any more proofs for this purpose as I could out of Agricola and Libavins and others seeing our best Philosophers both antient and modern do acknowledge that all minerals are generated The manner of generation of minerals and metals is the same in all as is agreed upon both by Plato and Aristotle and â—heophrastus And as the manner of generation of minerals is alike in all so it differs from the generation of animate bodies whether animals or vegetables in this that having no seed they have no power or instinct of producing other individuals but have their species perpetuated per virtutem seu spiritum semini analogum by a spiritual substance proportionable to seed which is not resident in every individual as it is in aimals and plants which Moses saith have their seeds in themselves but in their proper wombs This is the judgement of Petrus Severinus howsoever he doth obscure it by his Platonical grandiloquence And as there is not Vacuum in Corporibus so much less in Speciebus For that the Species are perpetuated by new generations is most certain and proved bofore that it is not out of the seeds of individuals is evident by this that if minerals do not assimulate nourishment by attraction retention concoction expulsion c. for the maintenance of their own individual bodies much less are they able to breed a superfluity of nourishment for seed And how can they attract and concoct nourishment and expel excrements which have no veins nor fibres nor any distinct parts to perform these Offices withal Moreover they are not increased as Plants are by nourishment whereas the parts already generated are extended in all proportions by the ingression of nutriment which sills and enlarges them but only are augmented externally upon the superficies by super-addition of new matter concocted by the same virtue and spirit into the same Species Thus much for the manner of all mineral generations which is not much controverted the chief difference is about the efficient and the matter About the efficient cause of generations for we must handle them all together there are divers opinions as there are divers causes which concur to all generations of animals vegetables or minerals But there must be one principal efficient cause to give the form to all Species as thee are other adjuvant and attending causes The principal cause and agent in this work is by most attributed to the influence of the Planets especially to the Sun who either by his light or by his heat doth frame the species of all things and so of minerals but chiefly in regard of his heat This heat working upon apt matter is thought to produce the several species which we see As for the motion of the Planets it is certain that they move continually in a constant order and the World could not subsist as it doth without it so as it may be cans a sine qua non a very remote cause as there may be a hundred more causes of that nature So likewise the light which the Peripateticks make the instrument of coelestial effects can do as little to the furtherance of generations seeing they proceed as well by night as by day and for minerals it is perpetual night with them the density of the earth and rocks not suffering the light to pass Wherefore they insist chiefly upon the heat of the Sun but Moses tells us that Plants were created with their seeds in themselves upon the third day before the Planets which were not created till the fourth day the shew us that Plants and terrestrial substances depend not upon Planets for their generations nor for their virtues but have the prin cipal causes of them in themselves The same we may judge of minerals being terrestrial substances and propagated by seeds as Plants are and likely to be created upon the same day with Plants seeing there is no other mention of their creation in Moses Now for the heat of the Sun no doubt it is an universal fosterer of all inferior substances but that it should beget
particular Species is very improbable The heat of the Sun is no more apt to breed a Nettle than a Dock Brimstone than Salt c. For it cannot give the essence to any thing heat being only a quality which can breed no substance and such a quality as can only segregate heterogeneral substances and thereby congregate homogeneal Whereas in all generations there must be a further power and virtue to proportion the Elements fit for every Species if they will have all things made of the Elements and to bring the Species form a potential being to an actual giving to every thing his proper shape quantity colour smell taste c. and to unite them which before were of different natures It must be an internal and domestical agent and efficient cause which must perform this and such a one as is not common to all Species alike but proper to that which it produceth otherwise there would be no distinction of Species And therefore Moses saith of Plants that they have their seeds in themselves according to their seyeral kinds Neither can any external cause give an essential form to any thing which form must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inbred in the thing it self and not adventitious And therefore Scaliger saith Formae non Solis est quantitatem terminare and Aristotle Calore natura utitur tanquam ministro aut instrumento non tanquam opifice aut legislatore Wherefore we will grant the Sun to be an adjuvant cause and by his heat to foster and cherish inferiour generations but not to be a principal and begetting cause And so Zabarella doth mollisie the harshness of the former opinion and doth acknowledge that the Sun doth further generations only as an instrument of another superiour power whereby in minerals it may make the matter more apt to receive the form but it makes no minerals no more then it makes blood in our bodies Others make the Elements to be the principal causes of all species by their qualities For the matter of the Elements being a passive matter cannot be an efficient cause of generations These qualities must be heat or cold for the other two are passive and attend rather upon the matter of generations then upon the efficient Fire therefore by his heat is thought of all the Elements to have the greatest hand in all generations being most active and superiour to all the rest of the Elements together for the generation of every Species and rank them in due order proportion weight measure c. This is he than must reconcile the differences which are in their natures and bring them to union This must attract nourishment and prescribe the quantities dimensions parts figures colours tastes savours c. of every thing A large Province he hath to govern with one naked and simple quality which can have but one simple motion Simplicibus corporibus simplices tantum motus congruunt Heat can but heat and the effects of this heat are by separation of different substances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to congregate those that are alike 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But in this work we make heat to unite differing substances for all generation is of differing substances united into one Again fire having but one quality to work withall whereby he must unite the other three Elements what shall bring and unite fire unto them This must be another power superiour to them all for we must not imagine that they meet by chance as travellers do And therefore Aristotle explodes this efficient of fire and attributes it to the forms of natural things As for cold in the other Elements it is far more unlikely then heat to perform these offices being rather a distructive then a generative quality and is not called in by any Author to this work before the species have received his form by heat and then it is admitted only for consolidation but how justly it is doubtfull for heat doth consolidate as well as cold by drying up moisture But we will not grant this to either of them as principal Agents but as they are instruments attending the forms of natural things The Alchymists make Sulphur to be the principal efficient of all minerals especially of metals and Mercury the matter If they mean common Sulphur and Mercury which are perfect Species in their kinds they are much deceived and this opinion is sufficiently confuted by all that oppugne them But it seems they understand some parts in the seminary of metals which have some analogy with these and so their opinion may be allowed For the spirit which is the efficient in these generations doth reside in a material substance which may be resembled to Sulphur or Oyle as some other part may be resembled to Mercury For all generations are framed of different parts united by this Spirit Thus much of the different opinions concerning the efficient of all generations and in particular of minerals The matter whereof minerals are bred is attributed chiefly to the Elements as the general matter of all animate and inanimate bodies insomuch as both the heavens and the very souls of men are made to proceed from the Elements Concerning the Heavens it hath been the ancient opinion of the Platonicks Pythagoreans and Epicureans that not only these inferiour bodies but also the coelestial have been framed out of the Elements Plato speaking of the heavens saith Divini decoris ratio postulabat talem fieri mundum qui visum pateretur tactum Sine igne videri nil potest fine sulido nil tangi solidum sine terra nibil Wherefore holding the heavees to be visible and solid they must be made of the Elements The Pythagoreans and the Brachmanni of India held the same opinion of the Heavens where Apollonius Tyanaeus was instructed in all the Pythagorean Doctrine as Philostratus reports The Epicureans also were of the same opinion as appears in Virgil where he brings in Silâ—nus one of the sect and one of Bacchus his crew singing in this manner Namque canebat uti magnum perinane coacta Semina terrarumque animaeque marisque fuissent Et liquidi simul ignis ut his exordia primis Omnia ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis Silenus sung how through the Chaos vast The seeds were set of Earth of Air of Seas Of purest fire how out of these at last All things have sprung and also out of these The infant world was moulded Of this opinion also was Lucretius Philo Jidoens Valesius c. although Valesius doth make more pure Elements for the Heavens then ours Aristotle forsook his Master Plato in this point and frames the Heavens of a quintessential substance But howsoever the Heavens may participate with elementary qualities and be subject to generation and corruption in their parts yet me thinks they should exempt our soals from this original and not make them out of the fragment of the Elements Scaliger inveys against
Alexander Aphrâ—disiensis for this opinion and saith that he had poysoned our Philosophy herein Venenavâ—â—hanc Philosophiae partem So both he and others derive the sense motion understanding growth and the natural faculties of our souls and the peculiar properties of every thing from this original turpissimo errore as Severinus saith And Scaliger in another place concerning this Dâ— intelleclu ratione ipsaque anima quae â—ontaminarunt istoe nebuloe Aphrodisienses pudet dicere piget meminisse I am ashamed to speak and grieved to think how this Aphrodisiensis hath polluted our reason and understanding and our very souls with his foggy doctrine in ascribing all these unto the Elements By the same reason they may ascribe the barking of Doggs the singing of Birds the laughing and speech of men to the Elements Their opinion is more probable which hold animam ex traduce and to be communicated as one light to another as Timoth. Bright proves in Physicam Scribonii and not to ascribe it to the Elements nor to miracles or new creations But there is far more reason to derive from the Elements the tastes colours smells sigures numbers quantities orders dimensions c. which appear more in corporal substances and yet these are not from the Elements For how can they give these affections to other things when they have them not themselves Si non est ab elementis gustare quare sit gustari What taste have any of these Elements Fire or heat which is the most active Element hath none And whereas it is thought that bittterness proceeds from heat we find that many sharp and tarâ—fruits being also very bitter before they are ripe as Olives for example yet let them hang upon the tree till they be ripe and they lose their bitterness and also their sharpness by reason of their better concoction by heat The like difference wefind between our oleum omphacinum and therpe oyle So likewise opium which is held to be very cold yet it is extream bitter so as the cold parts in it are not able to master the bitterness but this is still predominant wherefore heat can be no cause of bitterness unless it be in excess or defect as Scaliger confesseth Wormwood is very bitter being hot and dry in the second or third degree if heat were the cause of it then all other simples which are hot and dry in the same degree should be also bitter As I have said of tastes so I may say of all the other affections of natural things that they proceed not form the Elements but from the seeds and forms of every thing So for fat and unctuous substances as Sulphur Bitumen Oyle Grease c. unto what Element shall we ascribe them Not unto fire because this is extream hot and dry that is temperate in heat and very moist Moreover fire would rather consume it then generate it and Physitians judge the generation of fat in our bodies to proceed rather from cold then from heat Air if it have any ingenerate quality as some do make doubt out of Aristotle it is cold and moist as I have shewed before cap. 2 5. and therefore as it cannot agree with fire nor be a fuel to it so it cannot be any material cause of fat or oylie substance being more agreeable to water from whence it is thought to be made by rarifaction and into which it is thought to be reduced by condensation Wherefore being of a watry nature it cannot agree with oyle or fatness nor be the matter of it The like we may judge of water which doth terminate both water and air and therefore must be opposite to them both As for earth being cold and dry and solid it cannot be the matter of this which is temperate and moist and liquid Neither can all the Elements together make this substance seeing there is no unctuousness in any of them and they can give no more then they have So as I cannot see how this oylie substance which is very common in all natural things and wherein the chief faculties of every thing doth reside as their humidum radicale should be from the Elements So likewise for the substance wherewith every thing is nourished and increased and into which every thing is resolved it appears not how it should be from the Elements Hypocrates of whom Macrobius saith Nec fallere nec falli pâ—tuit hath two notable axioms for the clearing of this point The one is Vnumquong in id dissolvitur unde compactum est Every thing is dissolved into that whereof it was made The other Iisdem untrimur ex quibus constamus we are nourished by such things as we consist of Aristotle also hath the same If this axiom be true as I hold it to be and I know none that contradict it then we must consist of such things as we are nourished withall But we are not nourished by the Elements and therefore we consist not of them Fire nourisheth nothing water nourisheth not as Physicians conseâ—s Air is too thin a substance and Earth to thick And as they do not nourish them when they are single so being compounded they can do as little Aristotle saith that some Plants are nourished with water alone some with earth alone and some with both together But if earth and water be mixed for our nourishment they making but mud would make us have muddy brains We will grant the Elements to be matrices rerum naturalium the wombs and nurses of natural things but we will not grant them to be material causes Neither can we attribute more dignity unto them then we do to our Mothers who depart from their substance whereof they consist as flesh bones sinews veins arteries c. to the nourishment of their Infants but only prepare blood for them from the nutriments which they receive And all the Elements in the world cannot make this blood neither as the matter nor as the efficient But as the Mother is furnished with blood to nourish the Infant and with convenient heat to foster it withall so are the Elements stored with all manner of matter sit for all generations so as the seeds or forms of natural things will never want matter to nourish them nor will ever want forms So that it is manifest that if natural bodies be not nourished by the Elements they are not compounded of them but being nourished by other substances then the Elements they must be compounded of the like Simile simili nutritur composit a composâ—â— constant nutriuntur Thus much for the Genesis or generation and naration of natural things that thereby we cannot gather that they are either mad or nourished by the Elements Now let us examine whether by the Analysis or dissolution of them we may find the four Elements according to the former axiome that every thing is dissolved into that whereof it was made and is made of than whereinto it is
dissolved as Aristotle Hypocrates and Galen do affirm So that if the Elements enter into the composition of natural things especially as the principal materials whereof they consist they must needs appear in the dissolution of them This dissolution is either natural or artificial In the natural dissolution of all things Hypocrates observes three distinct substances calidum humidum sive fluidum siccum five solidum according to the three Elements or principles where of they are framed His instance is principally man but he â—ffirms it to hold in other animate and inanimate bodies These Elements he termeth continenâ—â—a contenta impetum facientia as Galen exbounds it Those which he calls continentia 〈◊〉 bones nerves veins arteries and from â—hence muscles c. Contenta are humida or humores blood flegme choller melancholy which after death are cold and congeal being beated as Galen saith from the heart in living bodies Impetum facientia are spirits animal vital and natural These three Elements Galen acknowledgeth to be the nearest but the other which are more remote to be most universal Bat Hypocratesâ—aith â—aith that heat and cold c. are very powerless Elements and that sharp bitter sweet c. are more powerfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that these are the three Elements whereof â—ll things do consist and into which they are â—aturally resolved and these do seem to reâ—emble the four Elements but are not the same For heat may resemble fire although this heat be â—â—ocured by motion in every thing whilest it liveth and not extrinsecally Moisture may resemble water and air Driness may resemble earth cold appears in them all after the heat or spirit is departed In the artificial Analysis of natural bodies the Alchymists tells us that they find three Elements and no more whereof every thing doth consist and whereinto it is resolved namely Vaporosum inflammabile fixum which they call Mercury Sulphur and Salt and they seem to agree with Hypocrates For their Mercury may well resemble Hypocrates his spirits or impetâ—â— facientia Sulphur his humour or flu dum or â—â—tenta and Salt his siccum or densum or coninentia These they say are found in every thing animal vegetable or mineral and no other And as for the four common Elements seeing they are distinct in place and scituation and therefore cannot concurre and meet to the generation of every animal Plant and Mineral c but by violence the earth being sometiâ—â— carried upwards and the fire downwards coâ—trary to their natural motions and this not one for all but daily and hourly it is not likely tâ—â— these substances can be bred of the Elements 〈◊〉 be maintained in a perpetual succession by a viâ—lent cause And therefore it is no marvel these Elements be not found in the dissolutions natural bodies Thus much in general conceting all generations that hereby we may the â—â—ter judge of the particular generations of Mnerals which differ not from the rest but 〈◊〉 in this that their seeds are not in every indiâ—â—dual as the others are but are contained â—â— matricibus in their wombs and there they are furnished with matter to produce their Species not out of the Elements no otherwise than ex matricibus as the child in the mothers womb but have their matter and nourishment from the seeds of things which are agreeable to their species which seeds wanting means to produce their own species do serve others and yield matter and substance unto them Now let us come more particularly to the generation of minerals wherein we will first examine Aristotles opinion as most generally received then I will presume to set down mine own CHAP. XII The generation of Minerals examined the Authors opinion herein A Ristotle makes the humidity of water and the dryness of earth to be the matter of all minerals the dryness of earth to participate with fire and the humidity of water with air as Zabareila interprets it so that to make a perfect mixt body the four Elements do concur and to make the mixture more perfect these must be resolved into vapour or exhalation by the heat of fire or influence from the Sun and other Planets as the efficient cause of their generation but the cause of their congelation to be cold in such bodies as heat will resolve This vapour consisting partly of moysture and partly of dryness if all the moysture be spent turns to earth or salt or concrete juyces which dissolve in moysture if some moysture remain before congelation then it turns to stone if this dry exhalation be unctuous and fat and combustible then Bitumen and Sulphur and Orpiment are bred of it if it be dry and incombustible then concrete juyces c. But if moysture do abound in this vapour then metals are generated which are fusible and malleable And for the perfecting of these generations this exhalation is not sufficient but to give them their due consistence there must be the help of cold from Rocks in the earth to congeal this exhalation So that here must be two efficients heat and cold And for the better effecting of this these exhalations do insinuate themselves into stones in the form of dew oâ— frost that is in little grains but differing from dew and frost in this that these are generated after that the vapour is converted to water whereas Minerals are generated before this conversiâ—â— into water But there is doubt to be made of frost because that is bred before the conversioâ— of the exhalation into water as may appear Mâ—teor 1. According to this assertion there must be two places for the generation of minerals the one a matrix where they receive their effence by heat in form of an exhalation and from thence they are sent to a second place to receive theâ— congelation by the coldness of Rocks and froâ— this matrix come our mineral waters and noâ— from the place of congelation This is the generation of minerals according to Aristotle but it is not so clear but that leaves many scruples both concerning the matter and the efficients For the matter it seems not probable that water and earth should make any thing but mud and dirt for you can expect no more from any thing than is in it the one is cold and dry the other cold and moyst and therefore as fit to be the matter of any other thing as of particular minerals And water whereof principally metals are made to consist is very unfit to make a malleable and extensible substance especially being congealed by cold as we may see in ice But some do add a mineral quality to these materials and that simple water is not the chief matter of metals but such as hath imbibed some mineral quality and so is altered from the nature of pure water This assertion doth presuppose minerals in the earth before they were bred otherwise what should breed them at the first when there was no mineral
quality to be imparted to water Again this mineral quality either gives the water or the vapour of it the effence of the mineral and then it is not the effect of water but of the mineral quality or the potential facâ—â—lty to breed it If the effence then this metall 〈◊〉 water or vapour must have the form of the metal and so be fusible and malleable If it have only the power and potential faculty then the generation is not perfected but must expect further concoction This concoction is said to be partly by heat and partly by cold if by heat it must be in the passages of the exhalation as it is carried in the bowels of the earth for afterwards when the exhalation is setled in the stones the heat is gone Now if the concoction be perfected before the exhalation be insinuated into the Stones as it must be if it be like dew then it is perfect metal and neither is able to penetrate the Stones nor hath any need of the cold of them to perfect the generation If by cold it is strange that cold should be made the principal agent in the generation of metals which generates nothing neither can heat be the efficient of these generations Simple qualities can have but simple effects as heat can but make hot cold can but cool c. But they say cold doth congeal metals because heat doth dissolve them I answer that the rule is true if it be rightly applyed as we see ice which is congealed by cold is readily dissolved by heat But the fusion of metals cannot properly be called a dissolution by heat because it is neither reduced to water or vapour as it was before the congelation by cold nor is it permanent in that kind of dissolution although after fusion it should be kept in a greater heat than the cold could be which congealed it For the cold in the bowels of the earth cannot be so great as it is upon the superficies of the earth seeing it was never observed that 〈◊〉 was any ice bred there Also this dissolution which is by fusion tends not to the destruction of the metal but doth rather make it more perfect as it should do according to the former rule rightly applyed And therefore this dissolution by fusion doth not argue a congelation by cold which being in the passive elements doth rather attend the matter than the efficient of generations for it is apt to dull and hebetate all faculties and motions in nature and so to hinder generations rather than to further any It is heat and moysture that further generations as Ovid faith Quippe ubi temperieâ—â— sumpsere humorque calorque Concipiunt When heat with moysture's temper'd well Then 't is their bellies 'gin to swell And thus much for Aristotles generation of minerals where his vapours or exhalations do rather serve for the collection or congregation of matter in the Mines than for the generation of them as Libavius doth rightly judge Agricola makes the matter of minerals to be Succus Lapidescens Metallificus c. and with more reason because they are found liquid in the earth Gilgill would have it Ashes Democritus Lime but these two being artificial matters are no where found in the earth The Alchymists make Sulphur and Mercurie the matter of metals Libavius Sulphur and Vitriol But I will not stand upon discoursing of these materials because it makes little to my purpose It is enough for my purpose to shew the manner of these generations which I take to be this There is a Seminarie Spirit of all minerals in the bowels of the earth which meeting with convenient matter and adjuvant causes is not idle but doth proceed to produce minerals according to the nature of it and the matter which it meets withal which matter it works upon like a ferment and by his motion procures an actual heat as an instrument to further his work which actual heat is increased by the fermentation of the matter The like we see in making of Malt where the grains of Barley being moistned with water the generative Spirit in them is dilated and put in action and the superfluity of water being removed which might choak it and the Barley laid up in heaps the seeds gather heat which is increased by the contiguity of many grains lying one upon another In this work natures intent is to produce more individuals according to the nature of the Seed and therefore it shoots forth in spires but the Artist abuses the intention of Nature and converts it to his end that is to increase the spirits of his Malt. The like we find in mineral substances where this spirit or ferment is resident as in Allum and Copperas Mines which being broken exposed and moistened will gather an actual heat and produce much more of those minerals then else the mine would yield as Agricola and Thurneiser do affirm and is proved by common experience The like is generally observed in Mines as Agricola Erastus Libavius c. do avouch out of the daily experience of mineral men who affirm that in many places they find their Mines so hot as they can hardly touch them although it is likely that where they work for perfect Minerals the heat which was in fermentation whilst they were yet breeding is now much abated the Minerals being now grown to their perfection And for this heat we need not call for the help of the Sun which a little could will take away from us much more the body of the earth and rocks not for subterranean fire this inbred heat is sufficient as may appear also by the Mines of Tinglass which being digged and laid in the moist air will become very hot So Antimony and Sublimat being mixed together will grow so hot as they are not able to be touched If this be so in little quantities it is likely to be much more in great quantities and huge rocks Heat of it self differs not in kind but only in degree and therefore is inclined no more to one Species then to another but as it doth attend and serve a more worthy and superiour power such as this generative spirit is And this spirit doth convert any apt matter it meets withall to his own species by the help of heat and the earth is full of such matter which attends upon the species of things and oftentimes for want of fit opportunity and adiuvant causes lies idle without producing any species but is apt to be transmuted by any mechanical and generative spirit into them And this matter is not the Elements themselves but subterranean seeds placed in the Elements which not being able to live to themselves do live to others Sic Roma crescit Albae ruinis the Death of one is the life of another From this confluence of seeds arise all the varieties and differences and alterations which are observed in the generation or nutrition of natural things as in their colours
tastes numbers proportions distempers c. Also from hence proceed the Transplantations which we find in animals vegetables and minerals In animils these Transplantations are not very frequent yet all our monsters may be referred hereunto as also the issue which comes from Dogs and Wolves Horses and Asses Partriges and Hens c. Some do think that the destruction of Sexes is a Transplantation and that all seeds in themselves are hermophroditical and neither masculine nor feminine but as they meet with strong and weak impressions from supervenient causes From hence come our Androgyni or masculine women such as Horace speaks of Sabellis docta ligonibus versare glebas That dig the ground themselves stout Jades Managing well Sabean Spades Among those Animals which we call Insecta these Transplantations are more frequent because their seeds are more equivocal and easily transmuted from one species to another as we may see in Worms and Flies and most evidently in Silk-worms called Cavallieri In Vegetables these Transplantations are very frequent when one species is grafted upon another as Virgil faith Et steriles platani malos gessere valentes Castaneae fagos ornusque incanuit albo Flore pyri glandemque sues fregere sub ulmis The barren Planes did Apples bear The Beeches Chesnuts th' Ash a Pear And Hogs did under Elm-trees Acorns tear Thus by commixtion of several species the first seeds do oftentimes being forth other fruits then their own Miranturque novas frondes non sua poma And stand admiring double mute To see new leaves and stranger fruit But all as Hypocrates saith by divine necessity both that which they would and that which they would not So likewise Wheat is changed into Lolium Basil into Thyme Masterwort into Angelica c. In Minerals we find the like transplantations as Salt into Nitre Copperass into Allum Lead into Tin Iron into Copper Copper into Iron c. And this is the transplantation whereupon the Alchymists ground their Philosophers stone This Seminary Spirit is acknowledged by Aristotle Continent inquit semen in se cujusque faecundit atis suae causam and by most of his Interpreters and Morisinus calls it Elphesteria not knowing how to attribute these generations to the Elements And this is the cause why some places yield some one vegetable or mineral species above another Quippe solo natura subest Non owsnis fert omnia tellus It is the nature of the ground Not in all Soils are all things found This seminary spirit of minerals hath its proper wombs where it resides and is like a Prince or Emperour whose prescripts both the Elements and matter must obey and it is never idle but alwayes in action producing and maintaining natural substances untill they have fulfilled their destiny donec fatum expleverint as Hypocrates saith So as there is a necessity in this depending upon the first benediction crescite multiplicamini and this necessity or fatum is inherent in the seeds and not adventitious from the Planets or any other natural cause And this is the cause of uniformity in every species that they have all their proper figures dimensions numbers of parts colours tastes c. most convenient and agreeable to each nature as Moses saith that God saw that every thing was very good and Galen saith Deus in omnibus optimum eligit And this I take to be the meaning of his Lex Adrastia which he alledgeth against Asclepiades For it he should mean it as commonly it is understood of punishment which alwayes follows sin nemâ— crimen in pectore gestaet qui non idem Nemesiâ— in tergo No man though privately commits a fault but is degg'd by revenge in this sense he could not apply it to the confuting of Asciepiades There are also other laws in nature which cannot be altered both Mathematical in Arithmetick and Geometry and Logical in the consecuting of arguments c. But these serve not for Galens purpose in this place He must mean it of a natural necessity or fatum or predestination that frames every member part of the body to the best use for the creature And therefore where Asclepiades propounds an inconvenient frame of parts he confutes him by this inbred law of nature which he saith no man can alter or avoid nor any subtility elude as also Aristotle saith Thus much for the generation of Minerals and other natural substances CHAP. XIII Of the causes of actual heat and medicinal virtue in Mineral Waters divers opinions of others rejected NOW I come to shew how our mineral waters receive both their actual heat and their virtues I joyn them together because they depend upon one and the same cause unless they be juices which will readily dissolve in water without the help of heat other minerals will not or very hardly This actual heat of waters hath troubled all those that have written of them and many opinions have been held of the causes of them Some attribute it to wind or air or exhalations included in the bowels of the earth which either by their own nature or by their violent motion and agitation and attrition upon rocks and narrow passages do gather heat and impart it to our waters Of their own nature these exhalations cannot be so hot as to make our water hot especially seeing in their passage among cold rocks it would be much allaied having no supply of heat to maintain it Moreover where water hath passage to get forth to the superficies of the earth there these exhalations and winds will easily pass and so their heat gone withall and so our waters left to their natural coldness whereas we see they do continue in the same degree and tenor many generations together If by their agitation and violent motion they get this heat because no violent thing is perpetual or constant this cannot be the cause of the perpetual and constant heat of water Besides this would rather cause earthquakes and storms and noyses in the earth then heat our springs Moreover we daily observe that exhalations and water are never heated by motion or agitation as in the Cataracts of the Rhine by Splug the agitation and fall of water upon rocks is most violent and makes a hideous noyse yet it heats not the water though it be very deep in the earth Neither can any attrition heat either air or water or any soft and liquid thing but rather make it more cold Others attribute this actual heat of Bathes unto the Sun whose beams piercing thorow the pores of the earth do heat our waters If this heat which heats our Bathes be caused by the beams of the Sun then either they bring it intirely from the Sun as a quality proceeding from thence or they make it by their own motion If it come from the nature of the Sun the Sun must be extream hot that can heat these inferiour parts at such a distance especially the
beams which must carry it passing thorow the middle region of the air which is alwayes extream cold and cannot but cool those beams before they come to us And if they were able to pass that region without losing their heat yet they cannot but warm that region being nearer to their fountain of heat as well or better then they can warm our waters in despite of any Antiperistasis But it is doubtfull whether the Sun be hot of his own nature or no. The Peripateticks hold it to be hot and dry moderately yet it must be extream hot if in this manner it do heat our Bathes And if the Sun be capable of heat they must also make it capable of cold elementary qualities and then they make celestial bodies obnoxious to generation and corruption which they are not willing to grant Although in this respect they need not fear the decay of the Sun no more then of the globe of the earth which though it suffer in his parts many alterations yet the whole remains firm and perpetual as Mr. Doctor Hakwell proves in his learned work upon that argument and will so do untill it be dissolved by that omnipotent power which framed it If they make this heat to come from the motion of the Sun we must consider how the Sun by motion may get such a heat The Sun is either moved by his own motion or as he is carried in his Sphear wherein he is fixed If by his own motion it must be either by volutation upon his axis which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by circumgyration which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 round about the globe of the earth and this is the common opinion which if it be so he must be carried more swiftly then a bullet out of a peece of Ordnance I read in the Turkish History at the siege of Scodra of a bullet of twelve hundred weight called the Prince and it seems a great matter But to have such a bullet as the globe of the Sun which is held to be 166 times bigger then the globe of the earth to be carried in a swifter course and that perpetually is a monstrous furious and mad agitation insaâ—â—motus as one termeth it The like may be said of the motion of the Sphears but I will leave the confutation of this to others But admit it to be so and that this violent agitation is not repugnant to the perpetuity of the Heavens and that it is able to breed an extream heat in the Sun and celestial Spheres notwithstanding their tenuity c. which is unapt to breed heat by motion or collision for that is proper to solid substances yet this heat must be conveyed to us by the same beams of the Sun and must be subject to the former impediments Wherefore the beams of the Sun by their motion must make this heat by the collection a many beams together For if they be dispersed no fire will be kindled but only some moderate heat as we see in a burning-glass which will heat a white paper or cloth but not burn it Other things it will burn which are apt fewels but the whiteness of the paper or cloth it seem disperseth the beams But no doubt the Sun by his light and beams do warm these inferiour parts especially where they have free passage and reflection withall and it is to be judged that the heat not being essentially in the Sun is an effect of the light by whose beams it is imparted to us So that where light is excluded heat is also excluded And if we can exclude the heat of the beams of the Sun by the inâ—rposition of a mud wall or by making a Celâ—r fix foot under the ground how is it likely that these beams can pierce so deep into the earth as to heat the water there as Lucretiusâ—aith â—aith Qui queat hic subter tam crass corpore terram Percoquere humorem calido sociare vapori Prasertim cum vix possit per septa domorum lâ—sinuare suum radiâ—s ardentibus aestum Under this massie bulk of earth how shall The Sun boil water and there raise a steam Whereas we see it scarce can pierce a wall And through't into a Chamber dart a beam And if the beams of the Sun be not able to heat a standing Pool in the midst of Summer how should they heat a subterranean water which is alwaies in motion especially in the winter time Again if this heat come from the Sun then in the Summer when the Sun is hottest the waters should be so also and in winter cold because of the absence of the Sun but we find them always alike Also why should the Sun heat some few Fountains and pass over an infinite number of others which are left cold And why should there be hot Fountains in cold Climates where the Sun hath little power to heat either by reason of his oblique beams or by reason of his long absence and yet in hot Climats they should be so â—re wherefore it is very improbable that our Springs are heated by the Sun Others have devised another cause of this actual heat of Bathes more vain then the former which they call Antiperistasis where by reciprocation or compression any quality is intended and exalted to a higher degree As where heat or cold are compassed by their contrary quality so as the vapours or effluvium of it is reflected back again the quality thereof is increased Hypocrates gives us an example of it in our own bodies where he saith ventres hiâ—calidiores our stomachs are hotter in Winter then in Summer by reason the ambient air being then cold doth stop the pores of the skin and repell those fuliginous vapours which nature would breathe forth and so our inward heat is increased whereas in the Summer by reasoned too much eventilation our natural heat is diminished and therefore we concoct better iâ— Winter then in Summer And although it be not simple heat which concocts and makes ebylus in the Stomach Blood in the Liver Seed is the Spermatick Vessels or Milk in the Breast c. as Joubertus saith yet heat attending upon the faculties of those parts doth quicken them as cold doth benumb them But if we examine this example aright we shall find a great difference between this and our hot Bathes For the heat in our bodies is continually fed and maintained from the Heart by his motion that a Bathes hath no such supply according to their doctrine from any cause to make or continue this heat And therefore the repelling of vapours cannot make water hotter then it is and being naturally cold and without any heat where heat is not how can it be pend in or repelled Again in Hypocrates his example there is an interstitium our skin between the fuliginous vapours and the external air which keep them from uniting but in our Bathes there is nothing to hinder the
meeting and conjunction of these qualities and then the one must dull the other Moreover we see that any thing that is naturally cold as Iron or a Stone if it be made hot accidentally by fire or otherwise it is sooner cold in cold air then in a warm place So that the Antiperistasis doth rather diminish then increase the heat of it Wherefore unless water were naturally hot or the heat maintained by some continual cause this Antiperistasis can do no good but by his opposite quality would rather cool it Nay heat it self cannot make any thing more hot unless it be greater then the heat of the thing it self But to ascribe the generation of heat to cold and so to make it the cause of his contrary is against the law of Nature No quality of it self is increased by his contrary It is true that a pot of water set over the fire will be sooner hot being covered or otherwise the vapours kept in then being open but there must be fire then to heat it and to continue the heat otherwise the Antiperistasis will do nothing unless it make it more cold and congeal it into Ice if the air ambient be more cold then the water Some may object that they find some Fountains warmer in Winter then in Summer and to reak when they break forth into the air as I have seen at Wercksworth and Bakewell in Darbyshire and therefore this doth argue an Antiperistasis Galen thinks that these waters do but seem so to our sense our hands being hot in Summer and cold in Winter as our Urins seem cold in a hot Bath But I will grant with Valesius that many deep Fountains may be so indeed and not in appearance only as partaking with some warm exhalations especially in Mineral Countreys as Darbyshire is Moreover if our Bathes were heated by aâ— Antiperistasis then they should be hotter in Winter then in Summer but we find them alwayes alike Also if a cold ambient be able to make cold water hot why should not a hot ambient make it more cold especially seeing the vapours are cold which being repelled by heat which doth terminate cold should increase the coldness of the water Also if we should grant this Antiperistasis we must deny the reaction and resistance between the qualities of the Elements and so overthrow all temperaments which arise from thence and also our composition of medicines were in vain Wherefore this Antiperistasis is an idle invention to maintain this purpose Others attribute this actual heat to quick Lyme which doth readily heat any water call upon it and also kindle any combustible substance put into it this is Democritus his opinion To this I answer that Lyme is an artificial thing not natural and is never found in the bowels of the earth Besides if it were found one fusion of water extinguisheth the heat of it and then it lyeth like a dead earth and will yield nor more heat So as this cannot procure a perpetual heat to Bathes neither can the Lymestones without calcination yield any heat to water nor will break and crackle upon the affusion on water as Lyme doth Wherefore this opinion is altogether improbable Others attribute this actual heat to a subterranean fire kindled in the bowels of the earth Let us consider how this may be Fire is a quality and the highest degree of heat which cannot subsist without a subject for I define it to be intensissimus color in corpore cremabili The highest degree of heat in a combustible body And it is received into his subject either by propagation or coition as when one candle lights another or by motion as collision concussion dilatation comprission putrefaction fermentalion reflection c. yet all motion doth not kindle fire although it heat neither are all substances apt to be heated by motion Air and water are rather colder by motion but this rule holds in such things as are apt to receive heat by motion as solid substances combustible substances c. And the heat of animals vegetables and minerals which they have for their generation and nutrition is from motion although this heat is not in so high a degree as fire is for then it would consume them but as the motion is moderate and agreeable to each nature so is the heat This motion in natural things proceeds from their seeds or forms and may be called internal or natural External motions are violent agitations concussions c. which commonly kindle fire in apt matter As for the element of fire which should be pure not shining and therefore invisible and subsisting without a subject or fewel let them find it who know where to seek for it For my part I know no element of fire unless we should make it to be that which is natural to all creatures and their seeds causing their fermenting heat whereof I shall speak anon And this interpretation we may well make of Hypocrates where he faith that all things are made of fire and water and that these two are sufficient for all generations fire giving motion and water nutrition And it is not likely that this fire should be fetched from a remote place and downwards against the nature of fire for every generation but that it be near hand and inbred in the seeds themselves as the principal ingredient into every natural thing whereas if it were remote what should bring it continually and unite it with the other elements in these generations Wherefore this is most likely to be the element of fire Our burning fire is all of one nature not differing in kind but only in degree according to the quality of the fewel Some fewels will make a manifest flame as all thin and light substances Sulphur liquid Bitumen Oyle Fat c. Some only a glowing coal with little or no flame as some forts of Stone-coal Yet all fire doth send forth fuliginous vapours which would choak it if there were not vent for them into the air as we see in the making of Char-coal although they cover their fire with lome yet they must leave some vent for the smoke though not so much as may make it to flame yet enough to maintain the fire Of the first flaming fort there are divers degrees as that of Straw Brimstone Spirit of Wine Naphtha Petroleum c. Some of which will scarcely take hold upon other fewel as one may wet a linnen cloath in Spirit of Wine and being kindled he shall hardly find the cloath scorched The like hath been observed in that exhalation which is called ignis satuus being of a very thin substance for Bitumen or Naphtha Some reckon Comets among these fiery exhalations but I can hardly believe that they are any kindled substances First because their flame is not pyramidal as it is in all kindled substances Secondly because if they be of a thin substance from Sulphur and Bitumen the flame would be greater seeing it
Lightnings can do it For the same reasons that exclude the Beams of the Sun and exhalations will likewise exclude lightnings Thirdly for the fuel there are only two substances in the bowels of the earth which are apt fuels for fire Bitumen and Sulphur Sulphur is in such request with all men as they think there can be no not Bath without it nay many hold that if water do but pass thorow a Mine of Brimstone although it be not kindled but actually cold yet it will contract from thence not only a potential but an actual heat But we do manifestly find that neither all hot waters are sulphurous nor all sulphurous waters hot as is said before in Sulphur The Bathes of Caldaneila and Avinian in agro Senensi de Grotta in Viterbio de aquis in Pisano Divi Johannis in agro Lacenss Balneum Geber suilleri in Halsatia c. are all hot and yet give no signe of Sulphur either by smell or taste or quality or effect Contrariwise that all sulphurous waters are not hot may appear by the Bathes in Zurich in Helvetia of Buda in Pannonia at Cure in Rhetia Celenses in Germany In Campania between Naples and Pateolum are many cold sulphurous Springs At Brandula in agro Carpensi c. All which Bathes shew much Sulphur to be in them and yet are cold And no marvel for if we insuse any simple be it never so hot potentially yet it will not make the liquor actually hot Wherefore this Sulphur must burn before it can give any actual heat to our Bathes and then it must needs be subject to the former difficulties and also must be continually repaired by new generations of matter which actual fire cannot further but rather hinder The fire generates nothing but consumes all things The like we may judge of Bitumen that unless it be kindled it can yield no heat to our Bathes as Solinander reports of a Bituminous Mine in Westfalia in agro Tremonensi where going down into the Grove he found much water having the smell taste and colour of Bitumen and yet cold Agricola imputes the chief cause of the heating of Bathes unto the fuel of Bitumen Baccius on the other side to Sulphur But in my opinion they need not contend about it For as I have shewed before in the examples of mineral waters there are many hot Springs from other minerals where neither Sulphur nor Bitomen have been observed to be John de Dondis and Julius Alexandrinus were much unsatisfied in these opinions and did rather acknowledge their ignorance then that they would subscribe unto them I need not dispute whether this fire be in Alveis or in Canalibus or in vicinis partibus c. because I think it is in neither of them CHAP. XIV The Authors opinion concerning the cause of actual heat and medicinal virtue in Mineral Waters VVHerefore finding all the former opinions to be doubtfull and weakly grounded concerning the causes of the actual heat of Bathes let me presume to propound another which I perswade my self to be more true and certain But because it hath not been mentioned by any Author that I know I have no mans steps to follow in it Avia Doctorum peragro loca nullius ante Trita solo I travel where no path is to be seen Of any learned foot that here hath been Which makes me fearfull in the delivery of it But if I do err in it I hope I shall not be blamed seeing I do it in disquisition of the truth I have in the former Chapters set down mine opinion concerning the generation of minerals that they have their seminaries in the earth replenished with spirits and faculties attending them which meeting with convenient matter and adiuvant causes do proceed to the generation of several species according to the nature of the efficient and aptnes of the matter In this work of generation as there is generatio unius so there must be corruptio alterius And this cannot be done without a superiour power which by moisture dilating it self worketh upon the matter like a ferment to bring it to his own purpose This motion between the agent spirit and the patient matter proceedeth from an actual heat ex motu fit calor which serves as an instrument to further this work And this motion being natural and not violent produceth a natural heat which furthers generations not a destructive heat For as cold dulls and benumbs all faculties so heat doth quicken them This I shewed in the example of Malt. It is likewise true in every particular grain of Corn sown in the ground although by reason they lie single their actual heat is not discernable by touch yet we find that external heat and moisture do further their spiring as adiuvant causes where the chief agent is the generative spirit in the seed So I take it to be in minerals with those distinctions before mentioned And in this all generations agree that an actual heat together with moisture is requisite otherwise there can neither be the corruption of the one nor the generation of the other This actual heat is less sensible in small seeds and tender bodies then it is in the great and plentifull generations and in hard and compact matter for hard bodies are not so easily reduced to a new form as tender bodies are but require both more spirit and longer time to be wrought upon And therefore whereas vegetable generations are brought to perfection in a few months these mineral generations do require many years as hath been observed by Mineral men Moreover these generations are not terminated with one production but as the seed gathereth strength by enlarging it self so it continually proceeds to subdue more matter under his government so as where once any generation is beguâ— it continues many ages and seldome gives over As we see in the Iron Mines of Illua the Tin Mines in Cornwall the Lead Mines at Mendip and the Peak c. which do not only stretch further in extent of ground than hath been observed heretofore but also are renewed in the same groves which have been formerly wrought as our Tinners in Cornwall do acknowledge and the examples of Illua and Saga before mentioned do confirm This is a sufficient means for the perpetuity of our hot Springs that if the actual heat proceed from hence there need be no doubt of the continuance of them nor of their equal tenor or degree of heat Now for the nature of this heat it is not a destructive heat as that of fire is but a generative heat joyned with moysture It needs no air for eventilation as the other doth It is in degree hot enough for the hottest Baths that are if it be not too remote from the place where the water issueth forth It is a means to impart the qualities of minerals to our waters as well as heat by reason the minerals are then in solutis principiis in their liquid
the true cause of it let us collect our arguments together the principal whereof are here and there dispersed in this Treatise Quem nos stramineum pro tempore fecimus Which for the present I have made of Straw Hoping that hereafter some worthy pen may handle this argument more accurately and give it a better flourish Et dare perpetuo caelestia fila metallo And on firm metal lasting threads bestow We must not imagine that the government and ordering of the world and nature in a constant course is performed by miracle but that natural effects have natural causes and must be both under the same genus Wherefore following the ordinary distribution seeing it comprehends all and not questioning the celestial bodies whether they be elementary or no that is subject to alterations as intention and remission generation and corruption c. We say that this heat must proceed either from the superiour and celestial bodies as the Spheres and Starrs or from the inferiour or sublunary From the superiour Spheres or Globes it cannot proceed seeing as is shewed before they are neither indowed with such a degree of native heat nor can acquire it accidentally by their motion being thin and liquid bodies neither if they had it can they convey it unto the earth but by their beams which are not able to retain it as they pass thorow the cold region of the air nor able to warm that although it be nearer to their fountain of heat Wherefore if these beams can any way do it it must be by their motion and reflection upon the earth and this is no constant heat but varieth according as the beams are perpendicular or oblique and according as the air is cleer or cloudy c.. And as they are not able to give this constant heat so the earth in her bowels is not capable to receive it being hindered by the density of the earth and rocks and the heat of reflection taken away before it can come three foot deep From the inferiour parts of the world if it proceed it must be either from the Elements or from mixt bodies From the Elements it cannot come but from fire for all the other Elements are cold as I have shewed especially the earth where this heat is ingendred And as for the Element of Fire seeing we know not where to find it neither if it be any where doth it perform the office of an Element in production and nutrition of creatures as Aristotle faith Ignis nil generat and therefore nil nutrit nam nutritio fit ex iisdem ex quibus constat therefore as it begets nothing so it nourisheth nothing and so cannot be an Element nor as an Element maintain this heat of Bathes But contrariwise if it have no power of begetting or nourishing any thing it must have a power of destroying or hindering nature in her proceedings for nature will admit of no vacuum or idle thing Also seeing Nature useth no violent means to maintain her self this elementary fire cannot be pen'd in the center of the earth being of a thin subtilnature and naturally aspiring upwards and if it have any place assigned unto it it must be above the other Elements and then it cannot be drawn downwards against his nature and that continually without breach of the order and course of nature And whereas they place the Element of Fire under the concave of the Moon being in it self lucid and resplendent it is strange that it is not seen by us neither makes our nights light For although by reason of his transparency it doth not terminate our sight yet it should remove the obscurity of our nights much better then the Via lactea Moreover if it were there we must see the Starrs through a double Diaphanum one of air and another of fire and so would make a double refraction which is elegantly confuted by John Pena and Conrâ—dus Aslacus But there is another thing substituted in the place of this element of fire and maintained by air and by mineral substances in the earth which is neither an Element nor a mixt body nor any substance at all but a meer quality and this is preferred by most to be the cause of the heat of our Bathes And this is our common kitchin-fire which is kindled by violent motion maintained by servel without which it cannot subsist and extinguished by his contrary And although it may be derived by communication or coition as one candle lights another yet originally it is kindled by violent motion and what violent motion can there be in the bowels of the earth to strike fire or who shall be the fueller Exhalations and lightnings cannot do it being aereal meteors and no more penetrable then the beams of the Sun And therefore although they may kindle a Vulcano upon the surface of the earth yet they cannot pierce deep and their very reflection upon the superficies of the earth takes away their strength so as they can neither kindle new fire nor commucate that which is kindled to any other fuel For if it be by communication or coition that must be by touch per contactum and then in the earth it can make but one fire and not many being not distinct in place and must increase in heat and then it will not keep a constant tenor as our Bathes do Secondly for the nourishment of it being a quality it must have a subject that is fuel and it must have means to vent the fuliginous vapours which it breeds in the dissolution of the fuel lest they recoyle and quench the fire as also there must be conveyance for the ashes which will fall down continually upon the fire and quench it Moreover by consuming such great quantities of Sulphur and Bitumen and by mollifying and breaking of Rocks it would cause a great sinking of the earth in those places as we see in our Vulcanoes where whole mountains have been consumed and brought to even ground Thirdly this fire being a quality is subject to intention and remission and to utter extinguishment not only by want of fuel which cannot be regenerated where this actual fire is nor for want of vent or choaking of ashes c. but also by reason of the abundance of water which the earth receiveth for the generations of Minerals which being opposite to fire would quench it Wherefore we cannot rely upon any subterranean fire for the maintenance of our hot Bathes From the air this heat of Bathes cannot proceed seeing it is neither hot in it self as hath been proved nor can get any heat by motion being of a thin liquid substance which no attrition or collision can make hot And as for aereal meteors bred from exhalations and kindled as is imagined by an Antiperistasis if they be bred in the air they are not able to penetrate into the bowels of the earth as hath been said before if in the earth besides the difficulty of finding room enough for such
Lydia nominis Romana vigni clarior Ilia Id est Whil'st to Thee none else was dear And Thou to me didst not prefer Cloe then I great of Name Did outstrip the Roman Dame VIBIA IVCVNDA H. S. E. It being by them accounted somewhat absurd that those who had so great a name whil'st they liv'd should be destitute of one when dead Another thing that inclines me to this opininion also is a Hare a venereous creature and embleme of Lust witness that question in the Comaedian Tute lepus pulpamentum quaeris unto which these letters were formerly annexed for in Mr. Cambdens time it was here running but since this light-foot is run quite away 7. Two Roman heads one within the Cope of the wall and another in the outside thereof hard by whereof that within the Cope of the wall hath an ear standing up somewhat like the ear of horse III. VS ISA. IS VXSC. 9. As for Medusa's head with hair all snakes I cannot upon the best enquiry I can make find it out unless Mr. Cambden meant that little Image close by the West-gate which seems now rather to be one with hands listed up and meeting above the head as it were rejoycing 10. Neither doth Ophiucus occur to me which I am apt to think that learned Antiquarian in haste might mistake for something between the loving couple and the naked man like a Rose with a branch about it resembling a Serpent VRN IOP 2. The next is a Monument of one of the children of two Romans Mulus Victisarina with a longer and exactly Roman Inscription in a Sepulchre Table between two little Images whereof the one holds the horn of Amalihaa the other flourisheth a Banner The Inscription which I read somewhat different from Mr. Cambden is this D M SVCC PETRONIAEVIX ANN. III.M.III.D.IXV.TO MVLVS·ETVICTISARINA FIL. KAR·FEC i.e. To the dead Ghost of Succ. Petronia who lived 3 years 4 moneths and 14 daies Mulus Victisarina in memory of their dear Child made this What that EO at the end of the second line is unless put for Et mo and signifies Et moritur I cannot at the present conjecture 3. Hercules bearing his left hand aloft with a Club in his right hand Yet I leave it to others to judge whether it may not something resemble one of those little Images mentioned but now 4. The last I observe and neerest to the North-gate is a memorial of a Roman Senator of the Colony of Glocester a City built by the Romans who also placed there a Colony called Colonia Glevum The Inscription after this manner DEC COLONIAE GLEV. VIXIT AN. LXXXVI i.e. Decurioni Coloniae Glevi vixit An. 86. yet in the stone after the figures LXXX I observe a Q in this sort LXXXâ—VI which seems to be without some signification If I may be allowed the liberty of a conjecture I suppose it might be put for quluque and ought to be read LXXXâ—VINQ There being room enough for and as it were the marks of two other letters N and Q and the party aged 85 not 86. And whereas I render Decurio a Senator I pitch on this signification of the word as most proper here of which Rosenus gives the reason Senatores in Coloniis ut etiam in Municipiis Decurionos vocabantur eam ob causam quod Pomponio â—C Auctore decima pars corum qui deduocrentur publici consilii gratia sit solita conseribi I know Festus mentions another and more usual signification of the word to wit an Officer over ten horse-men Decuriones inquit appellantur quis denis equitibus praesunt of which if any one please to understand it he shall have my leave 5. As for leaves folded in and Hercules streining two snakes I cannot be so fortunate yet though my search hath been particular to light upon it The Antiquities in the Garden are only two Inscriptions in two Grave-stones with their Urns The one an Epitaph of Cains Murrius of the tribe called Arniensis the 25 tribe among the Romans so called from Arnus a River in Tuscany as Car. Sigonius and On. Panvinius relate a modest pleader in the Julian Court a Souldier of the second Legion and continuing in pay 25 years The Inscription as follows C. MURRIVS C. F. ARNIENSIS FORO IVLI. MO DESTVS MIL LEG II. AD. P. F. IVLI. SECVNDI AN. XXV STâ—â— H â— 2. The other an Epitaph of Marcus Valerius a Latin for so I read and not Eatinus as Mr. C. a Souldier of Augustus his Legion if not the xx 35 years of age and 20 years in pay The true Copy thus DIS MANIBVS MVALERIVS M. SOL. LATINVS C. EQ MIIES LEG AN. XXXV STIPEN XX. H· S· E· Where it may be noted by the way that this man had some favour to be admitted at 15 years of age when as the usual time of listing Souldiers was not till 17. Also whether C. EQ be to be read as some would have it Cohortis Equitum I somewhat doubt the Copia pedestres or foot commonly among the Romans being divided in Cohortes Manipulos Centurias the Equestres or Horse in Turmas Decurias Many Roman Coins are also found in these parts two of which I have by me digged up at Walcott whence the two last Inscriptions came in the same house with the Inscription of Vibia before-mentioned The one neer 1600 years old being a Brass-piece of Vespasians in which all the letters on the face side are decayed except AES VES and some marks of PAS on the reverse PIETAS AUGUSTI as I think the three former letters of Pietas being very obscure with an Image between S C. signifying Senatus Consultum The second some 200 years after bearing the name of Carausius who in the time of Dioclesian and Maximian Emperors took upon him the Imperial Ensigns and seized Britian The Circumscription thus C. CARAVSIVS P.F. AVG. on the other side PAX AVG. and under an Image MLXX. which I suppose to be the year ab Hrbe Condita CHAP. V. Of the Nature Use and Virtues of the Baths Baths of Bath much of the nature of the Thermae Aquenses in Germany Certain Parallels between Bath and Akin Bladud in some measure vindicated I Come now to speak something of the Nature Use and Vertues of the Baths And here it cannot be expected I should say much because my experience of them as yet hath been but little and the Observations I have made seem fitter as they are intended for a foundation to a greater work which time and variety of experiments must compleat then at the present to be communicated to the publick And to make some compensation for my brevity in this thing which is justly deemed the most material of all other I shall take the boldness to engage as soon as time and opportunity shall permit to make a through search into the cause of the Heat Nature and efficacious operations of the Baths and perhaps give a