when they are mixt by such a kind of confusion the Waters of the Quarry are not all one neither are they truly mixt for one may separate one from another sometimes lastly they are mixt not because of the substance of the Quarry is mixt with Water but only vapors elevated from the matter are permixt And since it happens as you may understand that mixtion is perform'd by these three manner of ways 't is no wonder if Water mixing it self in several Veins shall attract and contract to it self the faculty of one more than another As for example if Water that shall be perfectly mixt in one Quarry with another confusedly only and with another with the vapors only and not with the substance it shall retein much more of the nature of that wherewith it is perfectly mixt than the other CHAP. III. Of the Waters of Bath and their Causes COncerning which there are likewise divers opinions Now these Waters being of so hot a Nature that throw but a Fowl therein and it shall immediately deplume it put Fish and Eggs therein and it will presently concoct them that these Waters are so hot of their own nature I cannot believe for all Water is always and of its own Nature cold in quality and if it become hot by accident take but away the heating cause thereof and it shall return to its prestine cold temper of its own accord without any thing of an altering nature being adhibited For there are Rivers in hot Countries that are not very hot from the heat of the Sun So that I conclude these Waters to be hot in the Caverns of the Earth from an outward cause which that it may be made more plainly manifest we shall briefly inspect into the causes of Baths Concerning their efficient Causes their are likewise various opinions omitting the whimsical frothy conceits of the Chymists let us see what the more sound and solid sort of Learned Philosophers say to the business some ascribe this virtue to the Rays of the Sun with Thermophilus who held that the Sun penetrating the pores of the Earth for certainly the Earth is porous and Spungy was in its bowels there fortified and made more active in heat so that like Fire it heats Water and what ever it meets with and even burns what it meets with combustible but if this were so these Baths would be so hot in Summer only not in Winter or at least it would follow that these Springs would be less hot in Winter than in Summer contrary to all experience for every Idiot can tell you the Springs c. are hotter in Winter than Summer the cause whereof of the Learned Philosophers ascribe to that they call Antiperistasis that is in plain English the Earth is hotter within in Winter when the Sun 's absent than in Summer and so they 'll tell you that their Sellars are hot in Winter and cold in Summer Secondly I cannot conceive how the Sun should penetrate into such deep Caverns of the Earth as by force of its heat to make the Waters therein to become so hot where we see it cannot effect the same on Lakes in any hot Region Then 3ly We know that there are Baths found in the most cold Countrys as Islind c-Some with Mileus will have a Wind or a Spirit vehemently toss'd and mov'd up and down and so penn'd up grows hot and so coming to fall upon the Waters overheats them Democritus says they receive their heat from Ashes and Lime others think these Waters grow hot by reason of vehement motion and beating against the Rocks and not a few there are which say that the matter through which they pass heats them which they say is the reason that some smell so strongly of Sulphur because they flow from Sulphury Veins Others o' th other side will have the cause to be an extream heat within the Earth in those places which overflow with hot Waters and Learned Dr. Jordan our Countryman if I mistake not thinks they derive their heat from the sermentation of Metals in their Generation to which is required an actual heat with a certain humidity and some affirm that Thunder heats the Waters as may be seen from Manlius Suni autem cunctis permixti partibus ignes Qui gravidas habitant fabricantes fulmina nubes Hac penetrant Terras Aethnamque imitantur Olympo Et calidas reddunt ipsis in fontibus undas Lastly the Chymists will have the Waters to wax hot from a mutual combat and conflict of divers Salts or Mineral bodies after the same manner as we see in the conjunction of Spirit of Vitriol or Salt of Tartar as from the two fires the Glass becomes so hot Vt multo accensis fervore exuberat undis Clausus ubi exusto liquor indignatur abeno Now among so many disagreeing opinions when there can be but one i th' right on 't Aristotle the great searcher into the Secrets of Nature in my opinion hit the Nail o' th head who following Empedoeles the Disciple of Pythagoras when he saw these Therm or Baths so call'd from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Calidus to be so hot thought they could become so no other way than from a most fervent cause because all Waters of their own Nature are cold and could think the efficient cause to be no other then Fire included in the inmost parts of the Earth and there as it were primogeneally residing of which the Epicurean Poet and Philosopher Principio tâ—llus habet in Corpora prima Unde mare immensum vo ventes flumina fontes Assidur revomunt habet ignes unde oriaâ—tur Nam multis suâ—â—ensa locis ardent sola Terrae Now that there is Fire under the Earth besides the hot fiery water Springs the Lime Ashes c. which are vomited and dug out of the Earth may confirme and persuade us as being the genuine effects of fire to say nothing of Smoak and Soot breaking out of the Earth and in some places fire it self therefore Subterranean fire which Kirkerus calls pyrophylacia i. e. a Prison for Fire is the most certain cause of the heat of the Waters For while those Springs of Waters upon the Mountains are carryed by the Veins and Sinewy bendings of Metalls in manner of Dragons and Chaldrons in the Baths of the Antients writhed and twisted with circles of Brass like a Meander and from thence artract the Virtues and Vices as I may so say of Metalls wherewith the Water is tinctur'd they wax hot from the natural fire Subterraneous to those windings even just as Water in a Pot is heat by Fire and Bartholine says expresly that Fire doth not heat the Water after the manner above related from Aristotle and Empedocles but that the Pipes or Veins of the Earth contein Fire it self within them Now the VVater becomes more or less hot here and there First as the matter is found more or less apt for heat Secondly as that Fire is nigher or farther off the
VVater whence in some places Fire breaks out together with VVaters in some places VVater without Fire to be seen Thirdly as there is a present quantity and proportion of matter as for example a great quantity of VVater would extinguish a little Fire so that we see no River to be so hot much less a Lake least of all the Sea But since so much and lasting a Fire cannot continue without some food or maintenance therefore it must necessarily have some Matter to nourish and renew it Now this matter must be something that will burn either dry or oleagenous Lands taken from the Fens and dryed they call it roasted cannot be the fires continual matter for it is soon consum'd by the Fire and it burns only by reason of the Roots and Herbs and Grass which it contains wherefore it must be oyly fat matter Now the fatty things which are begot in the Bowels of the Earth are chiefly Marle Bitumen and Brimstone now Marle burns not nor any Earth unless it be Sulphurous or Bituminous so that we may certainly conclude that Bitumen and Brimstone and Oyls are the material cause of the hot Baths hence Baths are call'd Sacred because they abound with Sulphur with which the Ancients us'd to exprate their offences whence the Grecians call it Theion i. e. Divine For whatsoever is annointed with Oyl or Bitumen and Brimstone it presently takes fire For moist and fatty by consent of the Philosophers is the genuine food of Fire As for the nature of our Baths in Somersetshire Physitians are divided among themselves some saying one thing and some another Dr. Turner who hath wrote concerning them says they consist of Sulphur and Copper mixt together Dr. Jorà an and Dr. Venner Practitioners at the Bath will have them impregnated with Sulphur Nitre and Bitumen Dr. Venner because he judges Sulphur to have the dominion but Dr. Jordan is for Bitumen Others will have them consist of neither as Lossius who in his counsel concerning these Baths when he had given his opinion that the material cause of Baths in general was Sulphur Oyl and Bitumen tells you afterwards that the Baths in Somersetshire contein neither Brimstone nor Bitumen as having neither taste nor smell of either and says if you distill them in a Glass Alembec you will not find the least sign of either but a certain substance like Salt such as is found in Pipes through which Water runs into Cysterns and this he takes to he a kind of Nitre wherewith that ground be says doth much abound mixt with a portion of Vitriol and the Learned Dr. Meara in a Letter to Dr. Prujean before Lossius wrote concerning the cause of the Heat in these Waters tells him as a certain person of Quality was riding out of the City one day to take the Air he by chance espies a certain kind of Chalk or Marie as white as Snow springing out of the Earth like Mole-hills brings some of it home and shews it to him and Dr. Maplet which he says was of a crumbling nature and almost turning to Powder of its own accord affording a manifest sharp sowr taste without astriction but biting and begetting an inflammatory choking or stopping in the Throat that he did not doubt but that it abounded with much Vitriol and that it was not altogether void of Arsnic put into cold water it presently produc'd an ebullition as if it had been Quicks Lime and the water by degrees grew vehemently hot and since this Marle or Chalk was found in the neighbouring parts of Bath he very probably was induc'd to believe that the Bath water grew hot from this Fire And he says though he is not ignorant that Authors every where ascribe the heat of the Bath waters to Brimstone and Bitumen and though it cannot be deny'd but that there is great plenty of Bitumen in those Springs and that they are abundantly impregnated therewith as the Cure of Scabs Leprosy Ulcers c. may convince yet he doubts whether either of them has the nature of a Ferment apt to heat the Waters since both are destitute of Acidity the chief promoter of Fermentation neither can either of them cast into water produce Fermentation or Heat and whenas they are of a clammy consistence and especially the Bitumen so that the Water cannot insinuate or penetrate it self into their particles it must be concluded that they are unapt for such a Fermentation whenas the contrary is seen in that crumbly powdry and not gummy consistence of the Marle and so concludes leaving it wholly to Dr. Prujean to be judge in so obscure a case And I likewise shall not trouble the Reader with tedious Philosophical disputes upon this subject being as I told thee at first I intended a plain and practical and not an hard difficult contemplative discourse and so shall pass on in the next Chapter to shew you the use of these and other Waters or as I may say their Virtues and Vices But something first of the preparing the Body CHAP. IV. Of the manner of preparing the Body of such as intend to drink the Waters BUt most Peoples intention of going to the Waters being as I suppose to cleanse their Bodies and free them from Obstructions Stone and Gravel c. and put their Bodies in good temper and order I would advise them by all means to Prepare and Purge their Bodies before they take any of these Waters either Tunbridge Empsom Dullege or any other hereabouts or at other places as likewise at the Bath c. for if they go thither with gross foul Bodies and gorge themselves with the VVaters before they have unloaden themselves of their overfulness of Blood or bad humours they had better stay at home than to make work for the Physitian and damnifie themselves in Body and Purse Now if thou art troubled with too much blood which thou mayst know by the fulness of the Veins and heaviness and dulness of thy Body thou hadst best take away some blood to the quantity of 6 9 12 ounces according to the strengh of thy body age sex c. or thou mayst do it at twice then Purge with this or the like Take from half an ounce to an ounce of the best Sena and from a Scruple to a dram of Cream of Tartar infuse them all night in some White-wine or Ale Posset-drink strein it drink it off early in the morning or thou mayst have Electuaries or Pills at the Apothecaries if thou hadst rather a Scruple of Stomach Pills taken at night going to bed or after thy first sleep will work finely the next morning made into three or four Pills and you may go about your lawful occasions or Lenitive Electuary Catholicon and Diaprunes of each two drams taken after the same manner then you may venture to drink the VVaters any of these taken twice first If thou beest of a Choleric nature prepare thy body by boyling some Sorrel Borage Bugloss Chichory Dandelion Endive
skilful Physitians have both experienc'd and left describ'd as Galen Dioscorides Paulus Aegineta Aetius Oribasius c. who have very much nobilitated it it heats binds drys kills broad Worms helps against Toad poyson preserves moist flesh and drys up humors drives away Putrifaction roborates the inward parts outwardly it binds purges Ulcers causes Wrincles like Alum with whom it hath relation But besides these excellent qualities Vitriol hath also its bad ones for it is ill for the Stomach acrimonious corrosive and vomitous and therefore ignorant Quacksalvers and Women give it sometimes in Wine and sometimes in Rose-water in uncertain weight against Quotidian and Quartane Agues and many other Diseases and indeed the Fever is often resolv'd by vehement Vomiting but this Medicine being unskilfully Administred proves most often more formidable than the Disease Alum is as it were the Brine of the Earth whereof Dioscorides makes three sorts the Round the Liquid and the Jagged or Scissile the last is often call'd Plumeous for they are so like in form that they can scarse be distinguish'd yet they differ both in nature and qualities for the Scissile is manifestly binding and may be burnt but the other is Acrimonious and suffers not by fire Mathiolus says he saw and tasted a Liquid Alum of which he asserts that he never found any thing more Astrictive Now when Alum is simply mention'd we mean Roch-Alum which is a saltness of a Mineral Earth of a Leadish nature consisting of an acid spirit and a caustick Earthy salt and all Alum is of Crass parts binds much whence 't is call'd Stypterion in Greek because it is Styptical it heats cleanses amends putrid Ulcers dryes humid ones absumes superfluous flesh takes away itching cures the Scab and very useful in many Medicaments made for the Cure of Ulcers Bitumen which the Greeks call Asphaltes is as it were the fatness of the Earth swiming above the Waters which being cast upon the shoar thickens and becomes hard tenacious and inflamable As long as it swims on the water 't is soft but when 't is off it becomes thicker and harder and resembles dry Pitch yet easily melted at the fire Many Lakes are bituminous but especially one in India thence call'd Asphalites and the dead Sea because of its vastness and because its Water remains almost immoveable not stormy but heavy salt thick and stinking wherein neither Plants nor Animals breed neither doth it nourish such as are put into it or admit them into its bowels All Bitumen is not solid and hard but some is perpetually fluid and liquid call'd Naptha which is the streining of Babylonian Bitumen white of colour and most capacious of Fire for Fire and this are so near a kin that it will presently leap into it when near it There is also black Bitumen For its Virtues all Bitumen discusses mollifies glutinates defends from inflammation by olfaction suffumigation or imposition mends the strangling of the Womb. Naptha extenuates incides digests penetrates absumes frigid and thick humors in all parts of the Body and cures the Resolution of the Norues Palsies and diseases in the Veins and Arteries from cold cause Nitre of the same nature with the Salts Gypsum is a kind of Talk of the nature of Lime whose hot fiery caustic quality every one knows Ratsbane or Arsenic is between a Salt and a Sulphur 't is of such an acrimonious corroding hot quality that it will burn to a crust dissolving destroying and preying upon the Principles of Life malignant and an Enemy to all Natural parts and to the Radidical moisture and innate heat and therefore was very ill advis'd of Nich. Alexanarinus to prescribe it for an Ingredient in the great Athanasia says the great man of skill in the Materia Medica Johannes Renodeus for by permixtion with other Medicaments it doth not depose its malignity The Learned Schroder says 't is one of the highest Poysons for besides its acrimony it is an Enemy to our Natural Balsam of Life so that it brings strange symptoms not only tataken inwardly but apply'd outwardly as Convulsions numness of Hands and Feet cold Sweats Palpitations Faintings Vomitings Corrosions and Torments Thirst c. Cadmia Metallic 't is the Stone out of which Brass is drawn and is call'd Brass-Ore which Artificers use in making Yellow Brass which the Shopmen call Aurichalcum or Orichalcum and 't is probable this is the Stone which Albertus Magnus calls Didachos or the Devils-stone Cadmia disiccates gently absterges and helps humid and putrid Ulcers and draws them to scars Schroder says 't is Caustic and that it ulcerates the Hands and Feet of the Miners and taken inwardly kills all Creatures Antimony or Stibium or the seventh Metall which some say is Mercury others Ambar but neither of these are more than in a potency to be Metalls a grand Alchymistical Quacksalving Idol the sole Empyrical Chymical Cathartic whereby they boast to cure all Diseases but it most devilshly disturbs mens Ventricles by moving upwards and downwards others it miserably torments by vigorous Purging some it kills and restores very few to perfect health One Cornelius Gemma a Physitian of Lovain relates how a Paracelsian English Quacksalver being himself and his Wife sick of a Fever took himself and gave to his Wife that which they call prepared Antimony whereupon she fell quickly distracted and changed her Life yet valid with death and he complaining of Dreams and continual Watchings seven days after his Dejection began to Rave from that he became Epileptical from his Epilepsie he fell into a Lethargy being therewithal somewhat Apoplectical when he had been three days in that sopor he fell again to his raving and was so agitated with fury that not long after he expir'd and pass'd from his conjugal Bed to his conjugal Tomb and howsoever the Chymists cry up their Preparations of Antimony yet as able Physitians as any in the World forbear to exhibit them because they have much better Medicaments wherewith they may more securely cure any Disease And I could give a large account of the dismal Accidents that I have known happen by the administring of Antimony and my ever honoured Master Dr. Patin Regins Professor in Physick in the Famous University of Paris wrote a Book which he call'd the Martyrology of Antimony Chrysocolle which the Shopmen following the Barbarous Mauritanian Idiome call it Borax is found in the Golden Silver and sometimes Brazen Mines in Armenia Macedonia and Cyprus it heats checks supersluous flesh and is mordacious it produces Ulcers to sanity but taken at the Mouth 't is perillous says Renodeus Ochre is a kind of Yellow Earth much commended in Affrica not lapideous but friable clayey and sinooth it binds corrodes discusses Tumors and represses Excrescences Gold is the greatest Cordial in the Pocket most certainly for omne cordiacum debet esse Bumidum Calidum aurum autem est frigidum sicum i.e. every Cordial ought to be moist and hot but Gold