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

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

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies locus declivis or a steep place Yet I deny not but there may bee some Springs which at some small distance have a supply of water from the Sea but this makes nothing for their opinion concerning the supply of Springs at great distance and upon the high mountains lib. 2. c. 56. Pliny tells us of a Spring in the Gades which observes the Seas motion in ebbing and flowing and I am credily informed there is another in the Peak in Derbyshire which ebbs and flowes every twelve hours So the Spring at Giggleswick in Yorkshire ebbs and flowes many times a day even to the admiration whether that of Plinies may have any correspondence with the Sea or no I know not Lib. ● Nat Q●●st I am sure the other two have not and I had rather with Seneca look on such as these as wonders of God then trouble my selfe curiously to enquire into their causes that are too hard for me Se●●●l concet●s But these that are of opinion of the Seas percolation to be the cause of Springs are not all for this way of conveyance they say the water of the Se● is conveighed by transcolation into huge Caverns in the body of the earth indeed but then they differ again in finding its passage to the Spring heads each propounding a way according to their fancy Of agitation by subtterraneall winds as Socrates in Plato In Phoed. Compulsion by a Spirit or breath that is in the water as Pliny and Valesius Pl. l. 2. c. 65. of compression De sac phil c. 1. 63. and that either through the weight of the Sea it self Nat. Qu. lib. 3. a great part whereof he supposes to be out of its place in the air as Seneca ib. 2. The at nat Or of the earth as Bodinus and Thales Or rarefaction and condensation as Dr. Fludd and Mr. Carpenter Geograph Or rarefaction and condensation as Dr. Fludd and Mr. Carpenter Or attraction by the heat of the Sun and the heavenly bodies as Thomas Aquinas held Or Belmonts Sabutum or Virgins earth Ag in Sum. p. 1. q. 69. all which as they seem at the very naiming to be nothing more then empty conceits besides the disagreement that is among themselves tenders it the more questionable so they are sufficiently confu●ed some of them by Mr. Carpenter in his Geography Lib. 3. Nat. Qu. and the rest by Dr. French in his discourse upon the Spaw of Knaresbrough There is another account given by Empedocles an ancient Greek Philosopher Spaw p. 21. 22. c. as also Seneca for theebullition of Springs to which Gabriell Fallopius lib 1. de aquis medicatis c. 3. Mr. Carpenter Mr. Lydiat and Dr. French adhere the last taking a great deal of pains to make it out and that is by heat wheareby he will have the water which is conveyed from the Sea into the Caverns of the Earth to be elevated to the heads of Springs after the same manner as from the Sea to the middle region of the air and that is by resolving the water into vapors Dr. French opinion nor matters he whether that heat be above or beneath the waters if so be it turneth them into vapours and maketh them ascend as high as is requisite they should And this heat he will have maintained by subterraneall fires that are kindled and fed by Naphtha or some bituminous matter And he makes two degrees of heat one more intense in the deep Caverns to rarefie the waters in the Caverns into vapours the other more remiss nearer the superficies which must condense them again into waters which he illustrates by the head of an Alimbyck and the cover of a boyling pot whose more remisse degree of heat turns the vapours into water Although Aristotle who also will have water to be generated in the Earth L. 1. Meteor c. 11. says it is condensed by cold and the Philosopher seems as much to bee believed especially since its more agreeable to their own parallell of the middle region where certainly the vapours are condensed by cold That there are bituminous fires our own reason besides the testimony of good Authors doth sufficiently evince Sol. they being the efficient cause of hot Springs such as are those mentioned by Plato and Pliny the one in Sicily the other at Somosata and our own at the City Bath in Somersetshire besides many others from whence also are those burning mountains Aetna and Vesuvius besides others that we read of in Athours But first Dr. French supposes great Caverns of waters to be in the earth which come from the Sea pag. 16 17. pag. 23. the heat also to be of like proportion with the water what a conflict this would make in nature wee may easily judge when these two enemies fire and water must be so immured together I wonder the water being of like proportion which the fire doth not quench it or that the fire consumes not the water and so in both cases we should want water in our Springs and the world would be destroyed but it seems they do better agree and combine to bring about his end and he tells us how they both dwell together in the Caverns Secondly L. 1. meteor c. 10. this supposes the earth to be almost nothing but Caverns for if that be true that Aristotle saith concerning Springs that if all water that runs out of them in one year could bee kept in a vessell it would almost equalize the whole bulk of the earth and Dr. French tells us there is a like proportion of fire and water in the Caverns and reason tells us that fire cannot be kept in without a greater quantity of air which it continually consumes then what may wee judge concerning the Caverns Thirdly this implyes the Earth to be almost nothing but bitumen or Naphtha nor will his new generations be enough to maintain the expence Fourthly this supposes all the Earth to be on fire since almost in all places there are Springs and consequently contradicts the whole suffrage of Philosophers who call the Earth Elementum Frigidissimum Fifthly the Earth would in time be consumed by so many fires as saith Agricola it being of a calcinable and combustible matter Sixtly If it were so then the water would have a bituminous taste or smell which we know it hath not ordinarily it not differing in quality from those waters which are wont to break in the manner of Springs after great rains of which sort we have many break out yearly on the Wolds in York-shire commonly called by the name of Gypsies Lastly it s not probable that there are so many fires in the earth because those that dig in Mines in several Countries do meet usually with water which molest them but no fires But to proceed if the percolation of the Sea were the cause of Springs then we should usually have the most

frequent Fluxes of the belly and strengthens the bowells expells all sorts of worms and vermine out of the body and the matter of which they breed It is very good against diseases of the skin cures the Itch and the Scab and helps such as are wont to break out into Botches It it peculiar against the Inflammation and Vlcer of the Reins corrects the heat Sharpness of Vrine dissolveth the Stone in the Kidneys expelling it in gravell and the mucous matter of which it is bred by Urine cleanses all the passages of Urine It furthers expulsion of the Stone in the Bladder without pain if it be not too big for the passage and the tartarous matter of which it is bred which of times causeth the same symptomes with the stone in the bladder when yet there is no stone at all it helpeth the pissing of blood and the Gonorrhaea and strengthens the seminall vessells It is good against many disea of the Womb opening the obstructions thereof and cures the Green Sickness in Maids it cures the overflowings thereof both white and red and helps those that are subject to abortions and Fits of the Mother takes away some causes of barrenness and strengtheneth the Womb amends the complexions of Women making them look with a ruddy fresh colour In some of these distempers it should be used by way of incession or injection according to the nature of the malady and the judgment and advice of some learned and prudent Physician and then all i●s qualities act more immediately upon the parts and so it better corrects hot and sharp humours and is more cleansing and healing It is good for such as are wont to Bleed often and for the inflamations of the eyes an● sudden flushings in the face correcting the heat and acrimony of the blood It is very beneficiall to be used by such as through obstructions or abundance of viscous humours have incorrigible bodies that will not be moved by anordinary Dose of Physick as also for such as have been long detained in a course of Physick for the cure of some rebellious and Chronicall disease to consummate the cure In a word if any intentions be to be performed in a medicinall way by allaying or mitigating some hot distemper opening obstructions evacuating morbifick humours by Urine or Seige and strengthening the inward parts of the body it may be fully and compleatly effected by this water wherein it operates so safely as I have very rarely observed any ill Symptomes to arise nor have I scarce named any distemper of which I have not made particular observation and most of them many times over or been certainly informed by credible Authors Spaw at Malton Of like vertue with this is the Spaw at Malton within fourteen miles North East from York but it is not so pleasant to the Palate and also nauseous to the stomack by reason of a muddy taste it hath being a very flow Spring not affording water enough for many drinkers although in operation it is as quick and strong as this If it be demanded whether Children old people Quest and women with child may drink of this Spaw water or no. To the first I know H. ab Heer 's saith he saw a sucking child drink of the Germane Spaw with good success Solut. and Dr. French allowes that at Knaresbrough to bee given to children of a year old but I think it to no purpose to trouble them with it so young Children since either they wil not drink at al or not above a spoonfull or two which can make no operation at all more then by cooling and moystning which may be done as wel by other Spring water But if a child be of four or five years be troubled with the stone or gravell or some such distemper and will be perswaded to drink of it it may be very beneficiall as I know by experience in several that at four or five years old have been enticed to drink a quart of it in a morning with good success and so continued for severall days Nevertheless if a younger child will drink of it it will do no harm at all Old peple 2 As for old people they are to be judged of according to the temper constitution of their bodies especially the stomack and bowells for some are more vigorous then others that are younger by much and of such there needs no scruple but if any old people do labour under a very feeble stomack and a cold distemper of the bowells and that upon triall made they find their stomack not able to receive it without a manifest dejection of appetite or some other ill Symptome they shal do well to refrain but for such as find no inconvenience they may go on to drink onely in a lesse quantity and somewhat warm But as for those that labour under the incurable Symptomes of decrepit old age whose naturall heat is small let them not meddle with it but content themselvs with a good dyet and a warm bed and such cordialls or Kitchin Physick as may help to repair their feeble Nature Women with child Touching women with child difference is to be made according to the time they are gone with childe as also according to the constitution of their bodies For the water being both purgative and diuretick it seems not to be so safe for them yet it is well known that many have drunk of it without the least detriment some of whom have been young with child and others many moneths gone even neer the time of their delivery I intend not here to enter into the controversie whither at all or how far women with child may be purged Aph. 1. Sect. 4. Aph. 29. Sect. 5. Hippocrates forbids it in the three first and three last moneths but allows it in the three middle moneths And elsewhere he says Aph. 34. Sect. 5 that if a great Lask happen to a woman with child it puts her in danger of miscarrying which we find true in our daily experience Now I conceive purging must hurt them because of the great agitation of the humors which is caused thereby and the expulsive faculty of Nature which is then irritated especially if it be caused by a Medicine that hath an acrimonious or malignant quality and thus Hippocrates tells of one that in her second moneth having taken a Pill of Elaterium fell into a violent Flux and died But this water makes no such agitation of the humours nor causes griping nor hath any acrimonious or Malignant quality to give any ground for such fears Nevertheless because in the first moneths of gravidity Natures cords are tender and so easily broken and in the last moneths the motions of the childe are more strong frequent and violent and like fruit that is neer ripe which soon f●lls if the Tree be but a little shaken I conceive it safest in the middle months to wit in the fourth fifth and sixth

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