hardens that Stone and makes it unfit to give any Solution in Water and then the actual Fire loosneth it and makes it yeeld it self more readily to a Solution by moisture To illustrate which we can as easily apprehend that the Air doth harden these natural Lime-stones which while succulent are soft and in the form of a white Earth or Marl by its continual access in a long tract of time as we can imagine the same Air to harden a blew Clay found upon the Banks in Lincolnshire which being exposed to the Air doth in continuance of time harden into a sort of Stone like a blew Marble For Workmen generally observe that all manner of Stone yea even Marble it self which they dig out of the Ground becomes more and more hard by being long exposed to the Air which to me seems to give no small grounds of reason for the possibility of the Liquor Alkahest or Universal Solvent for seeing all bodies are but concretions and as I may say hardnings of their primitive Juyces under various disguises generally performed by the efficiency of Air Therefore to prepare a Menstruum by Art which may work wonders in this kind is no more as I apprehend then to make such a one as may soften these Concretions made by Air and by taking away their hardness may reduce bodies into their first jucy Liquors for what is the shell of an Egg but a soft film or membrane hardned and petrified by the influence of the Air and as easily reduceable into its first membranous softness by being boyled a while in Vinegar What are the Bones of Animals but Spermatick Juyces hardned and consolidated And were it not for the perpetual circulation of the Juyces of the body constantly transpiring through the pores thereof we should either become petrified and walk about like so many movable but sensless Statues or we should be incircled with a Bark and appear like so many Plant-Animals or sensitive Plants What are all Vegetables from the Hysop or Rosemary of the Wall to the tallest Cedar but seminal Juyces congealed into those bulky substances which are presented to our eye Lastly What are all Mineral and Mecalline Marcasites Stones c. but the primitive liquid succulencies concreted into more solid bodies by a hardning ferment or what other name we may call it by aequipollent to the Air And amongst all these what are the Marcasites of Lime-stone but a hardned concretion of its first imbred Juyce or soft marly Earth whose Minera whilst thus in solutis principiis is one of the chiefest Juyces in the Fabrick both of hot Baths and sulphureous Waters That this is the chief cause of hot Baths is confirmed by that Experiment made by that Noble Person the Lord Fairfax of a piece of a white Marcasite found about the place of those hot Springs in Sommersetshire which put into Water gives a heat not but that there may be other causes of hot Waters as from the coincidence of two Springs impregnated with different Mineral Salts and Juyces which before union are probably both actually cold and yet by a fermentation caused by their mutual contact may cause a considerable heat which can no better be resembled then by supposing a current of Water indued with a lix vial or volatile Salt to meet another saturated with an esurine acid Spirit or Salt though these before union are both actually cold yet forthwith upon their mutual contact they make a strong ebullition and fermentation which produceth a heat sufficient to warm those Liquors which are or pass through where the contest is made not to say that an other cause of some hot Baths may be from some Marcasites contracting a heat by moisture let into their Minera by some crevices of the Earth which may give heat to some Springs that pass over them nor to insist upon any other cause viz. of some Salts which in the Minera of Sulphur may cause such a fermentation as may cause hot Springs witness Dr. Rech his Experiment Yea that this natural Lime-stone may be reckoned amongst the chief causes of hot Baths is further confirmed by a lixivial Salt though small in quantity which I have by evaporation of Buxton hot Water found left behind that it is an alkalizate or lixivial Salt appears both by its salty taste its easie solution per deliquium and lastly The Ebullition it makes with an acid Spirit all which are demonstrative Arguments of its alkalizate nature for Buxton Bath consists of Water which by distillation ariseth insipid over the Helm and therefore contains no volatile Minerals and of an inconsiderable quantity of a solution of the Alkali of the natural Lime-stone where plenty of the Lime-stone hardned by the Air is found in the Countrey thereabouts And that this Minera of Calx Vive is the chief if not the sole apperient that opens the body of Sulphur in its Minera for the making sulphurous Waters is evident from our lately proposed Experiment for all sulphureous Waters as I hinted before are either such as have a sulphureous or bituminous matter swimming upon them witness the instance aforesaid or they are such whose bodies being opened by proper Solvents do then easily give forth their volatile odors and sapors to Water which may be made evident by the addition of acid Salt or Liquor And now that we have found out what the first Menstruum is which opens the body of Sulphur in the Marcasites found near the Sulphur Well Let us now consider what these Marcasites are I find them to be a spongy or porous Stone hard and wrought with a kind of Net-work which in it self contains both Vitriol and Sulphur besides a body of Colcothar and that it doth so appears by exposing some of these Marcasites to the Air till they be covered with a hoary sweet vitrioline Floscule which then being washed gives a vitrioline Solution that being filtred and evaporated to a cuticle shoots into a green Vitriol These Marcasites thus washed we set before the fire to dry so long till they began to send forth a sulphurous fume then being pounded grosly we distilled or rather sublimed them in an Earthen Retort what would arise by degrees of fire we so placed a Receiver with Water in it as that the fumes were thrown upon the surface thereof which first swam like Oil upon the Water then by degrees hardening fell down to the bottom which when the sublimation was over we washed dryed and then melted it and in small lead Pipes cast it into Magdaleons in colour and inflammabity exactly resembling the common Sulphur of which at one distillation I got near half a pound That they contain a Colcothar or Metalline Crocus is evident by burning the Sulphur of one of these Stones in the fire and when cold it will be red just like the Colcothar of the Vitriol of Iron The Caput Mortuum left after the sublimation of the Sulphur from the Marcasites is very like those Cinders or Scoria
of Iron which is melted from the Iron-Mass in the Forge where Iron is made out of its Minera From what hath been already said there seems to be no small incouragement towards prosecuting a further discovery of the nature of this Water by digging the Spring and following it to the fource or original where it receives the first impregnation with Sulphur for I see nothing yet to the contrary that may perswade why it should not be found to be a hot Spring at that place where the first imbibition of Sulphur is especially if the succus Laâ—â—is calcari or Minera of Calx Vive be found with it which for ought I know might be found quivalent in vertue to the Aqua Aponensis that â—â—mâ—d hot Bath near Padua so much discoursed by â—â—lopius whom I find to enumerate the very same mineral Ingredients in that which I find by Experiment aforesaid to be in ours before its precipitation by an aluminous acid Juyce for he saith Certò tellegi illa tantum tria i. e Sal copiosum succum lapidis calcarii vaporem sulphureum in illâ Apounsi aquâ conteneri and saith further Est aqua ferventissima dum calida est sapit sulphur â—itumen refrigerata neutrum per se fert and speaking on of hot Waters saith Aquae Thermales quae actu frigidae scatent in suâ origine esse ferventes and that onely happens from the distance of space betwixt the impregnation of Waters first with their Minerals and their place of breaking forth And as Dr. Jordan saith That all hot Waters are not Sulphurous witness the Baths of Caldenella and Avenian c. which are all hot and yet give no sign of Sulphur proceeding rather from the Minera of Calx Vive or from other the like causes of hot Waters as aforesaid nor are all sulphurous Waters hot and that because of the distance of the Minera where the Water first receives heat from the eruption of the Spring-head Amongst these sulphurous Springs as some are replenished with a common Fossil Salt witness the Sulphur-Well we discourse of So there are found others no less sulphurous in taste and smell which yet have not the least specimen of any such Salt for instance One of the Springs which is in the black Bog where the Marcasites are got and one at Braughton not far from Skipton in Craven as also one I found in Ferndale upon Blacomore all which are caused by a combination of a mineral Sulphur and a natural Lime-stone the one opening the body of the other without the addition of any common Salt onely these Springs having imbibed these Minerals meeting afterwards with an acid Juyce of the Alom-Salt make a precipitation of the body of Sulphur and onely leaves the Water perfumed with the odor thereof That this Sulphur Water should coagulate Milk if boyled therewith proceeds from a sleight touch of the acid Juyce of Alom which although in the coagulation of the Sulphur it also precipitates a great part of its own body yet so much thereof remains as doth make it capable of curdling Milk for the Sulphur doth not in as much as it retains that coagulating property after the sulphurous odour being evaporated yea the very Salt left after distillation or evaporation will do the same nor may the common Salt the chief Ingredient of that Water do it because we see the contrary in putting Salt to Water and Milk which doth not curdle it therefore it must be from some small imbibition of the Alom-Salt which yet is so little in quantity as doth not alter the cubical figure of the common Salt And to try whether we could separate the common Salt from the body of the Sulphur Water and the Water only to retain the odour thereof I took of the sandy Earth which lies upon the Bank opposite to the Well wherewith I caused a tap'd Vessel to be filled upon which I ordered the Sulphur Water to be poured and about two hours and a half after during which time I was digging in the Bog above I caused some of it to be let forth at the Tap into a Glass and found its brackishness not only much diminished but that also it lost its sulphurous odor quite having not the least smell or taste thereof From which experiment may probably be confirmed these two Suppositions first That the breaking forth of this Spring is not far from the place of its imbibed Minerals for although it be so far as the first contracted heat is lost in its passage yet it 's not so far but that it retains its odor after the precipitation of the most part of the Sulphur by the acid aluminous Juyce Next That if this Sulphur Water had been carried through a longer tract of a supposed Strainer before its eruption it would not only have been diminished in its Salt but also its sulphurous odor would have been very weak if not wholly spent That the Earth about the Sulphur Well is replenished with variety of Mineral Glebes is evident from the diversity of Waters found thereabouts for near the Sulphur-Well there is not more then ten or twelve yeards distant upon the Banck on the other side of the current of Water a Spring which drills out of a small Alom Rock which leaves a red Sediment behind it and runs forth with so great a disadvantage as to the saving any of it clear that I could not that little time I had to stay procure any clear Water to make tryal thereof but it promiseth much for an Alom Spaw And in the black Bog about two hundred and forty yards above the head of this Well where the Marcasites are chiefly found are several slow Springs all which I have caused to be digged further that which lies on the North side of the Bog is that which the Water-women call improperly an Alom-Water this with a little Gall strikes a deep purple and in taste is very strong of the Vitrioline Marcasites yea the most of the Earth digged up is Vitrioline That Spring towards the West hath a both sulphurous odor and taste also but not very brackish this I caused to be digged a little depth to find out the Marcasites where we found many little metalline Stones perforated and corroded into Shells or Scales and worn as I may say into Sceletons I found in the Earth lying along the current of the Spring a bright Floscule which runs in streaks very thin and almost impalpable which lay much in Veins I look upon it as a crude mercurial Juyce which with its connate embryonative Sulphur was as a Seed laying a foundation for a mineral or metalline production the Spring by digging proved more large and fluent the Earth about it was a black soft marly Ground very unctuous and appeared as if it were much impregnated with Mineral Juyces the Earth grained dryed and burnt gives a Brimstone-like smell Those Marcasites we found were below the current of the Spring and therefore it
filtred we dropt some little solution of Alom Salt for I knew Vinegar would do it as is usual in the making of Sulphur Auratum Antimonii and it forthwith separated the Sulphur of Antimony with a strong sulphureous odor not unlike that of the Sulphur-Well and being filtred was the same in taste and smell by which I learned what that was which precipitated the body of Sulphur after its first solution in the Water from its native Minera viz. That it was an Alom Juyce in which I am confirm'd in as much as I find a Bed of Alom within the space of ten yards from the breaking forth of that Well from the surface of whose Stones I have taken a Salt which dissolv'd in fresh Water I found would strike a deep tincture with Galls yea the very Stone it self being put into fresh Water will with Galls give the very same colour of which very thing I have not met with any that have taken notice either those who have wrote of or others who have frequented the Spaws and though I found hereby what was the second Juyce which precipitated the body of Sulphur and had made its Apporrhea or volatile odor to appear yet was I still at a loss what this Sulphur was or from what body and by what solvent it first became loosened or prepared for all Sulphurs whether in their own Earth or wrapt up in mineral or metallick Veins till they be opened by some particular and proper Solvents are not fit to give forth their volatile parts nor to strike the nostrils with their odor And that Water impregnated with Sal marine is not sufficient to open the body of a mineral Sulphur and consequently not adapted for a Menstruum is apparent by this following Experiment viz. I took a pint of Spring Water and dissolv'd two or three dragms of Sal marine therein which is the quantity at the most which the Sulphur-Well contains of the body of Salt into which I poured three ounces of the Marcasites of Vitriol aforesaid then stirred the mixture very well after that I poured off some of the Liquor and filtred it which would neither tinge Silver nor yeeld a sulphureous odor but to try whether Sal marine would at all open the body of Sulphur in the Marcasites as some suppos'd I added to the filtred Liquor a solution of Alom Salt as I had done for the precipitation of the Sulphur of Antimony out of the solution of Hepar but found no precipitation coagulation nor alteration of that Sulphur either in colour or smell nor would it at all tinge Silver all which it would have done to an opened and prepared Mineral Sulphur This Menstruum of the Sal marine had indeed made such a solution of the Vitrioline parts of the Marcasites as rendred it capable of receiving a tincture from Galls but had not at all touched the sulphureous parts thereof But before I deposite my own Thesis of the true native Ingredients of this Spaw which shall be clearly demonstrated by Experiment I would first take off what Dr. French opinionates thereon who saith thus As for the stinking odour thereof speaking of the Sulphur-Well that I suppose is caused from the vapours of the burning Bitumen and adust terreness therewith and therefore he judgeth it to be hot in its original source in the manner of Hot Baths who supposeth subterrestrial fires sed with a bituminous or sulphureous matter not only to cause hot Springs or Baths but also to give being to the faetidness of such sulphure ous Waters Now this is I confess an Opinion that not only he but Falopius Empedocles Agricola Casius Kircher and others hold for by two wayes they did suppose all Waters to be heated Nam aquarum according to Empedocles aliae calefiunt quia transeant per saxosa loca quibus subjectus fit ignis ardens in metallo sulphureo vel bituminoso aliae incaloseunt quia transeant per ipsum metallum ignitum ardens as thought Agricola Nor was Falopius much otherwise minded who treating de aquis Patavinis whose sulphureous odour is not much unlike that of our Sulphur-Well saith Ques halitus sulphuris Patavinis iste aqua habent non ideo quia bullient in metallo ipso sulphureo sed quoniam transeant supra loca sub quibus ebullit sulphuri ex quo efferuntur vapores ad cuniculos cum aquâ miscentur from whence he grounds his Opinion that the difference of Hot Baths viz. That some are intensly hot others moderately some tepid and subtepid others cold proceed from these two viz. Paucitas distantia ignis The scarcity and distance of the fire In answer to which Opinions I thus return viz That although I cannot deny but that there are Subterraneal Fires which being once inkindled feed upon sulphureous Minerals witness the Eruptions of Aetna Vesuvius Strongilo and other Vulcanian Mountains yet do not I see causes sufficient to convince me that these give being to all our Hot Baths or that their Vapours gives faetidness to sulphurous Waters That there may be some hot Baths adjacent to those sulphurous burnings which probably may be heated by passing over those places in cuniculis under which a bituminous matter burns I shall not deny witness that in Apulia called Tribulus where is plenty of Ashes and calcin'd Stones and those about the Lake Lucrinus and Avernus and that in Agro Valaterano according to Falopius Yet we scarce read of any in in Campania where is the Hill Vesuvius nor in Sicily where Mont Gibello belcheth forth flames nor in other places where these Eruptions are do Hot Baths more frequently appear then in those places where there is found not the least suspition of any Forge of Vulcan That these Subterranean Fires are not the causes of our hot Mineral Waters or sulphureous Springs in general will be evident if we consider first that it 's more then probable that a subterraneal fire is no more naturally implanted in the bowels of the Earth then the imaginary elementary fire is to be found sub concavo Lunae which though it may seem as a Paradox to some yet duly considered it will not appear irrational for the materia substrata of all inflammable concretions whether in the Cavities of the Earth or upon the supersicies thereof or in the common expausum of the Air must be a combustible matter common to them all and that must be bituminous unctuous or sulphureous al◠which whether in Subterraneal Caverns or upon the Surface of the Earth or in the Aereal Region may I say take flame and burn from some one of these three Causes viz. either from Motion Corruscation or Lightning or flamma de flammâ one fire inkindling another to which we may add a fourth which yet may be included in one of the three viz. from some Mineral Marcasites acuated by air and moisture instance Alom and Coperous Mines being in parcels broken exposed and moistned will gather an actual heat and produce
much more of those Minerals then else the Mine would yeeld as the learned Dr. Jorden in his Discourse of Natural Baths and the ingenious Dr. Power in his Micros obs Confirmes yea and that Brass lumps which are a sort of Marcafite being laid in heaps and exposed to the moist Air or sprinkled with Water will smoke and grow exceeding hot and sometimes take fire and burn all that is about it as the foresaid Dr. Power proves So the Mines of Tin-Glass exposed after the same manner to the moist Air will become very hot and Quick-Lime will do the same The like Dr. Jorden observes in those Stone Coals called Metal Coals which are mixed with a Marcasite containing some Mineral Juyce which receiving moisture doth dilate it self and grow so hot as oftentimes great heaps of those Coals are kindled thereby and burnt before their time as hath been seen at Puddle-Wharf in London and at Newcastle although these last I account do not much differ from the aforesaid Coperas Marcasite Now seeing that all combustible Concretes may contract a heat yea may actually take flame and burn from some of the foresaid causes witness the heating and firing of a Coach-Wheel by too rapid a motion the burning of Houses Trees Men c. by Lightning and Thunder the taking flame of one combustible matter by another and lastly the self-inkindling of a Ryck of Hay or Corn which hath been laid up too moist and the taking fire of several Marcasites by being exposed to the moist Air as aforesaid Therefore I see no reason why a Meteor or Comet which suppose brought to that body of sulphurous Exhalations and taking flame from its own motion or from Lightning or from what other cause should less be reputed an Elementary Fire sub Concavo Lunae then those subterraneal fires kindled according to all probability occasionally not to say accidentally quoad nos from some of the foresaid causes should be accounted native to the Earth or naturally implanted therein for the production of all Mineral and Metalline bodies so that as the one is irrational and is exploded by our modern Philosophers so consequently the other may seem as irrational if we do but further consider First How impossible it is for actual fire to become the cause of generation of Minerals or Metals as some suppose who imagine the Fire as a Native born in the Earth seeing fire I mean flaming or glowing fire is by the gravest of Philosophers so far rejected from amongst the causes of Generation as it is rather justly to be reputed mors rerum artificiosa the death or destroyer of all things committing actual rapine upon all the Seminary Principles of bodies which fall under its tyranny dispersing and dissipating those Concretions suddenly which Nature helped by a generative heat working upon imbred Seminals had taken a long time to compile together making havock of the neat Structures of Bodies Secondly How unlikely it is for Water to be so disposed in the Earth in what Vessels can it be imagined to lodg Yea how these fancied Hydrophylacia can be so well placed as they may best be capable to receive the fires from the as much fancied Pyrophylacia without danger of the Waters falling upon the fires and quenching them so as to make the heated Hydrophylacia the cause of Hot Baths for cannot Water as easily descend or slip down those small Chinks and Cranies and smother that Demigorgon as the fire could ascend to heat these Cisterns of Water unless we imagine the Water included in some vast Kettles and so was heated by the playing of the flames about and then we must be forced to think of a Vulcan to be before his Fires who must first hammer out these large Caldrons preparing empty Vessels for us to fill with our watery conceits Thirdly If we should grant the possibility of these actual Subterraneal Fires as connatural to the Earth why should we not find Minerals and Metals melted instead of being generated and why we should not where these fires meet with Vitriol and Nitre or Vitriol and Salt find store of Aqua Fortis and meeting with Sulphur should not give us plenty of Oil of Sulphur tanquam per campanam being the winding Crevices of the Earth would do the like as Glass Bells for condenâ—ing the Vapours of fired Sulphur into a Liquor and meeting with Vitriol or Alom-stone should not calcine them to our hand so as instead of Vitriol we should find Colcothar and instead of Antimony we should find either stibium or regulus or the sublim'd flowers and so I could hold on to number up many more absurdities that would necessarily follow Fourthly If we consider how easily combustible Concrets in the bowels of the Earth where plenty of bituminous and sulphurous matter is found may and probably hath been kindled either by Lightning or by catching flame from some burning body or lastly by some of their Marcasites expos'd to the moist Air or to whom a moist Air hath had access for being once fired vires acquirit eundo it burns on as long as it finds Fuel and where store of combustible matter is as without doubt there is in all the Vulcano's there cannot but be plenty of Heterogeneous mixtures as of Stone Gravel Earth c. which together with the combustible matter is thrown up at the mouths of those subterraneous Furnaces which if they as by continuance of time may by constant burning so undermine the ground as at some times a vast quantity of Earth and other Rubbish fall upon it then being forc't to seek another passage forth and cannot suddenly or at least not so much as the force of the fire requires it being obstructed in its passage causeth Earthquakes but at last finding vent makes new Eruptions thrown forth in such abundance of Stones and Earth as sometimes is sufficient if it happen under the Sea to make a new Island witness what Kircher reports hapned Kirch Mund. Subter pag. 77. Anno. 1638. ad insulam Sti. Michaelis in Mari Athlantico Stimulantibus ignibus subterraneis tantum lapidum in medio Maris egestum fuit ut inde insula lapidibus in montes custervatis nata sese ad quinque milliarium latitudinem extenderit As also in Agro Puteolano Novus mons ex Mari unius noctis saevientis naturae subterraneae violentia protuberans also Vulcanus Liparitanus he further adds Tantum cinerum saxorum que ante annos circiter sexaginta speaking from the time his Book was writ ejecisse fertur ut juxta sese in medio Mari quem ideò vulcanellum veluti filium a patre genitum vocant produxerit which he confirms by his own Observation And to confirm further what we say concerning the occasional or accidental inkindling of combustible matter in the intrals of the Earth I shall call in a Testimonial Instance out of Mr. Burton's History of Leicestershire who saith That at Coal-Eaton in that County in the beginning of the
the Water in cuniculis propriis passeth according to Falopius yet not a few absurdities would hence follow as how these flames should burn under a Quarry of Stones when thereby intercepted from Air the life of Fire without which it exists not Next how these hot Baths should then become impregnated with the medicinal vertues of Sulphur seeing by this Supposition the Water would want both the flame and fume of Sulphur My second Reason why upon admission that though a flagrable sulphurous matter should be burning in the bowels of the Earth yet should it not be the cause of hot Baths is because then generally all hot Waters would have a strong Brimstone-like smell like the odor of Wine or Ale matched or fumed with Brimstone in Bottles or like the fumes of Sulphur which arise in the distillation of its Oil per campanam of which smell amongst all hot Baths I read of none which yeeld it My third Argument is grounded upon matter of fact in this following Experiment viz. Take a mineral Sulphur whether Vive or in a Marcasite as of Vitriol c. put it in pieces in an Earthen Retort and give degrees of fire under it in a Furnace where because the fire comes not actually to it it flames not urge this so as all the Fumes which are dry ones called Flowers shall pass through the Neck into a Receiver fill'd most-what with Water so placed as that these fumes all fall and condense upon the surface of the Water which they will do in an unctuous substance like Oil of Wax or Amber congealing by degrees and becoming harder they fall down to the bottom in bright flakes of Brimstone by which way I have got a Sulphur out of the Marcasites of Vitriol found in the Bog near the Sulphur-Well Now the Fire as I said drives forth the dry fumes or flowers these coming in a vapor condense upon the surface of the Water in the Receiver and yet which is what I aim at this Water hath neither taste nor smell like that of our Sulphur Well at Knarsbrough So that neither an actual or immediate firing of Sulphur as is done in the making its Oil nor a distilling or subliming of it by a Fire ab extra whereby Sulphur becomes separated from a Vitrioline Marcasite will give to Water either the like taste or odour with the Sulphur-Well and therefore we must conclude that it s faetid odour is not caused from any Vapors of burning Bitumen or Sulphur whether imagined to be done in open passages or close Caverns of the Earth Having thus far refuted and that I hope demonstratively the Opinions of Hot Baths and Sulphur Waters taking their Original from imbred subterraneal Fires I shall now propound my own Observation in the fabrick of the like Waters artificially performed in imitation of the natural I tryed therefore whether Sal Armoniack mixed with a Mineral Sulphur and so dissolv'd together in a distilled Water would at all open the body of Sulphur into which when filtred I poured some Solution of Alom-stone but it caused no precipitation nor made any discovery of any dissolv'd Sulphur also into a little of the clear Solution I poured some Oil of Tartar per deliquium and thereby found it raised a volatile Spirit out of the Armoniack which would smite the Nose but perceived not the least odor of Sulphur So that I observed that neither Sal marine alone or joyned with Nitre nor Sal Armoniack compounded of a Sal marine and Volatile Salts would any of them be sufficient to open the body of Sulphur in its Mineral Marcasites At length after various Experiments I hit upon that which answered my expectation and satisfied my curiosity and for the further improvement of ingenuity and as a Spur to the greater advancement of Mechanical Experiments shall communicate that to the World which all the Writers of those Sulphurous Waters which I have yet met with have been deficient in I took therefore a pint of Spring-water in which I dissolv'd betwixt one and two dragms of Sal marine in frigido for about that quantity the Sulphur Water contains of common Salt into which Solution of Salt in Water I added of Calx Vive and the Marcasites of Vitriol found near the Sulphur-Well grosly pulverised about two or three ounces which presently contracted a considerable heat I poured off some of the Water into which filtred I poured a little Solution of the simple Alom-Salt and it immediately caused a precipitation of a Sulphur and sent forth the very smell yea had the exact taste of the Sulphur-Well This Experiment thus succeeding gratified me for my pains in others less successful for that which I long'd to know was What that Menstruum should be which might so open the body of Sulphur in the Marcasites as might render it capable of a precipitation or coagulation by another second Menstruum or Acid Liquor seeing we could imagine no lixivial Salts could be found in the bowels of the Earth which commonly is used for the opening the body of Sulphur Therefore I thought it might possibly be from some natural Calx Vive seeing there are plenty of Lime-stones upon that Forrest which at Knarsbrough are burnt in Pits and so it proved for the Salt-Water passing through some natural Stone or soft Marcasite of Calx Vive becomes acuated thereby and then running over the Vitrioline Marcasites or passing through a Sulphureous Earth congeneal to those Marcasites opens the body of their Embryonative Sulphur which it carries along with it till it come on further to an Alom-Bed which I observed to be within ten yards of the breaking forth of that Spaw where the acid Juyce precipitates the Sulphur and sends forth the odour which being percolated through a streiner of Sand comes forth pretty clear That this Artificial Water is an exact resemblance and imitation of the natural is evident because it answers the natural in every circumstance for it hath the very smell and taste undergoes the very same precipitations by lixivial Liquors yea and lastly tingeth Silver yellow as readily as the Sulphur-Well and therefore without doubt the Operation of the Artificial would be found upon tryal equivalent to the Natural in other properties also The main Objection that offers it self against the identity or similarness of this Artificial with the Natural Sulphur Water is by querying how Calx Vive which is an artificial product of the Fire actually calcining those Lime-stones should be imagined to be naturally in the Earth or how Nature should find such a Stone calcined to its hand in the Entrals of the Earth as may be sufficient to open the body of these sulphurous Marcasites To which I Answer That it 's more then probable there is a natural soft Stone of Calx Vive where this Marcasite is in succo primitivo retaining the same Seminals and essential Properties in a remiss degree with that Stone brought on to maturity by Air and Fire for the Air first