Mercury without a great deal of circumspection I therefore heartily advise our new-coyn'd Physitians since they must be dabbling not too much to Idolize Monsieur Mercury nor fond too much of their late skill in Salivation those that know it full out as well as they must tell them by way of friendly advice that it ought to be given to none but such as are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And now good Reader I have even wearied thee out and therefore will hasten to my matter and conclude this Preface with Hippocrates Qui vocat medicinam omnium artium nobilissimam sed propter ignorantiam eorum qui eam male exercent esse omnium vilissimam fundamentum enim quo pedem figunt non habent de quibus etiam Seneca semper distant nunquam ad veritatem perveniunt and the reason is because they have no guide for direction they are so enthusiastically wise they scorn a Master to instruct them methodically in the true fundamentals of Physick but shooting at random with all their industry nothing is produced but rudis indigestaque moles And the same Author going on tells us Ignorantia est quae omne malum in medicina generat adeo ut medicus nunc passim ludibrio expositus comicis in facetias mundo in proverbium ivit And beside the ignorance of some the malicious detractiâ—ns of others even among our selves â—ender us contemptible which very â—hing occasions a good Galeno-Chymiâ—al Author to break out into exclamaâ—ion thus Ubi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quam tanâ—opere commendat Hyp. nostro seculo unus vilipendit alterum dicta facta taxat rixatur à tergo conâ—radicit quae non intelligit seipsum apud ignaram plebem extollit sordida spe lucelli Pardon this Paâ—ergy I shall expatiate no more upon â—o sordid a subject what I am now to say shall be Observations from Experiments and therefore ought to force a faith as to matter of Fact if the manner be but any way well it is well so farewell Thine E. W. SPADACRENE Dunelmensis CHAP. I. Of simple Water its qualities and use THat there is naturally pure simple water to be found without any heterogenial admixture at all is paradoxical therefore by simple water I only mean such as hath a proper colour taste smell weight and consistence thin light cold and moist and no other thing discernable either by senses or effects And 't is requisite that water should have these qualities in regard of the many and necessary uses of it both for Men Beasts Vegetables and Minerals in so much as there is no living for any Creature where there is no water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 begins Pindar's Olymp. Od. 1. It was our first drink to quench thirst and by its tenuity distributes our nourishment as a Vehicle nay after the invention of Wine it was usually mixed therewith as Virgil saith of Bacchus Poculaque inventis Acbeloia miscuit uvis I could heartily wish that even Bacchus himself might herein become our President especially since in other things he hath taught our too docil world as v. g. by the same purity and tenuity of the parts of water how to make Beverages of sundry sorts The Aegyptians have their Zythum the Spaniards their Cerea the Turks their Coffee and we our Ale and Beer all extracted by water the fittest Menstruum for receiving the Faculties of all Medicaments and nourishment especially the second qualities of mixt Bodies and for this reason was it called Panspermia That simple water is cold is without question for being heated accidentally it soon returns to its natural coldness the cause of heat being removed but whether it be colder than Air is much to be doubted I shall not now undertake the determining whether Air be bred of water originally or whether it be not a distinct substance of it self and receives only watery vapours and after mature condensation in the middle Region exonerates it self by Rain Hail Snow c. Only thus much I dare affirm that the Sun beams are of much more force to elevate substances from the Earth than most imagin and consequently those that hold the materiality of the Air to be from water are not in opinion altogether paradoxical but verisimilitudinary And to prove this vigorous extraction of the Sun from sublunary Bodies give me leave to give you an instance of what Athanasius Kircherus whose company much honour'd me from Marseilles to Rome most faithfully relates in Magicae Parastaticae Parastisi I Naturae thus Morgana Rheginorum In the midst of Summer when the Sun boils the Tyrrhene Ocean with most fervent rays then is it that wanton Nature entertains the wondering Eyes of the Inhabitants of Rhegium a Town in Calabria most ancient and no less famous for having been the Seat of many Philosophers with a prodigious Spectacle in the Air. There may you whether with more delight or wonder is not soon determined behold a spatious Theatre in the vaporous Air adorned with great variety of Scenes and Catoptrick Representations the Images of Castles Palaces and other Buildings of excellent Architecture with sundry ranges of Pillars presented according to the Rules of Perspective This Scene withdrawn upon the Sayling by of the Cloud there succeeds another wherein by way of excellent Landskip were exhibited spatious Woods Groves of Cypress Orchards with variety of Trees but those artificially planted in uniform rows like a perfect Phalanx large Meadows with companies of Men and herds oâ— Beasts walking feeding and couching upon them And all these with so great variety of respondent colours so admirable a commixture of light and darkness and all their motions and gestureâ— so counterfeited to the life thaâ— to draw a Landskip of equal perfection seems to humane Naturâ— altogether impossible Now to our purpose This parastatical Phantasm was not causeâ— in the Cloud from any reflected appearance of any such things eitheâ— on the shore or adjacent fields because no such thing was there which indeed increased the ardouâ— of curiosity in renowned Kircher tâ— cross over from Messina to Rhegiuâ— at the usual time of the apparition where he detected the Causes of the whole Phaenomenon observing first the Shores subjacent to the Mountain called Tinna as also the bottom of the Sea to be covered with shining Sand being the fragments of Selenites Antimony and other pellucid concretions devolved from the eminent parts of the Land and contiguous Hills that are richly fraught with Veins of those Minerals Then he observed that these translucid Sands being together with Vapours from the Sea and Shore exhaled into the Air by the intense fervour of the Sun did coaless into a Cloud in all points respondent to a perfect polyedrical or multangular Looking-glass the various superficies of the respondent Granates making a multiplication of the Species and that these being opacated behind by gross and impervious Vapours directly facing the Mountains did make reflection of the various Images of Objects respective to their
various positions to the eye The several rows of Pillars in the Aerial Scene are caused by one single Pillar erected on the Shore for being by a manifold reflection from the various superficies of the tralucent particles opacated on the hinder part by dense vapours in the speculary Meteor it is multiplied even to infinity no otherwise than if one single Image posited betwixt two polyedrical Looking-glasses confrontingly disposed is so often repercussed or reflected from superficie to superficie that it exhibiteth to the eye almost an infinite multitude of Images exactly consimilar Thus also doth one Man standing on the Shore become a whole Army in the Cloud one Beast a whole Herd and one Tree à thick set Grove Some perhaps may judge this assertion of the elevation of those shining Grains of Vitreous Minerals into the Air by the meer attraction of the Sun and the coalition of them there with the Cloud of Vapours to be too large a morsel to be swallowed by any throat but that cormorant one of credulity If so all we require of them is only to consider that Hairs Straws grains of Sand fragments of Wool and such like festucous Bodies are frequently found immured in Hailstones which surely are sufficient arguments that those things were first elevated by the Beams of the Sun recoiling from the Earth into the middle Region of the Air and then coagulated with the Vapours condensed into a Cloud and frozen in its descent The truth hereof is evicted by the conspiring testimonies of many other Authors whose Pens are not dipt in the fading Ink of an unjustifiable Tradition nor their Minds deluded with the affectation of fabulous wonders Now to reassume the debate I shall only give my judgment of the temperature of the Air as to heat or cold and that it is of its own nature cold is most manifest though Aristotle concluded the contrary from its efficient cause which rarified it The Stoicks were also of this opinion because they made the matter of Air to be water and this is also confirmed by its return to coldness as formerly was said of water in case it be accidentally heated and we know that under the Zona torrida so long as the Sun is within their Horizon and strikes the Air with its perpendicular Beams 't is exceeding hot but after Sun-set the Air reassumes its natural coldness 'till Sun-rise again nay though Aristotle thought it uninhabitable because of the extremity of heat yet being the days and nights are there of the same length Josephus Acosta concludes that the only Paradise upon Earth is under or near the Aequinoctial neither can there any other reason be given why the Mountains which reach the middle Region of the Air are continually cold and mostly covered with Snow but because they wanting the reflection of the Sun-beams the Air doth then enjoy its natural qualification As for that whimsey of an Antiperistasis in the middle Region from the Element of Fire above and the reflection of the Beams beneath it 's an equal phantasm with the Man in the Moon who would have hot sitting if Elementary Fire were immediately under him But this opinion is exploded and if such Fire were it would rather heat than cool the Air. Is not the Air most cold near the Poles where the long absence of the Sun and its oblique Beams when present give way to its natural coldness Nay 't is very probable that it is colder than water since we see by a condensative faculty it congeals water into Ice Snow Hail c. which certainly is from the Air being that under-ground where the water is not freely ventilated with Air there 's no congelation neither do I think other but the great coldness that 's in Ice and Snow depends meerly upon the mixture of Air which being per minima interwoven with Salnitrous particles is heightened to such a degree of coldness as makes it vigorous for producing a congelative effect That water is most moist is the opinion of Galen and very probably true notwithstanding Aristotle's reason to the contrary concluding Air to be most moist because it 's hardly contained within its bounds which indeed is by reason of its tenuity and incontiguity of parts being that dry exhalations extend themselves as well as moist vapours and as density compacts so rarity causeth extension I shall need say no more of the qualities which simple water ought to have being such as are every where obvious in Authors and the senses will discover either by taste colour smell or touch or else the effects will make manifest CHAP. II. Of the Original of simple Waters and Springs in general GReat controversies have been betwixt the Stoicks and Peripateticks and are yet amongst the Moderns concerning the original of true Springs which are no other than those of mixt waters All difficulties and arguments touching this grand Debate are reducible into three heads for either our perpetual and lasting Springs called Fontes perennes proceed from vapours congealed by cold in the second Region of the Air and so fall down upon the Earth in Rain Snow or Hail or they are ingendred in the bowels of the Earth or they are percolated through sandy subterraneal channels from the Sea For the first it may be granted that divers Springs and Rivers receive supply of waters from the Rain as we see our Rivers do the Rhine and Danubius swell upon the dissolution of Snow and in much drought our Springs fail us but those are such as materially depend upon the fall of Rain or Snow and these surceasing the Springs also become dry they being principally ordained by Nature for fertilizing and irrigating the Earth in its production of Herbage Fruit c. for the benefit of Mankind but such are only Land-springs and in no sort to be called perpetual Springs which notwithstanding the want of Rain or Snow for a long time are still the same and though great Rivers may almost be dried up by a long and lasting discontinuance of wet by the driness of the superficies of the Earth imbibing it in its passage for the satisfaction of its drought being elementum siccissimum yet the heads of those Rivers flow plentifully at the same time so that another causality must be found out than Aerial supplies and supposing there were which some wittily contend for certain commissures chinks and hollow veins in the Earth to receive much Rain that falls yet what sinks into those clefts and caverns bears no proportion at all with that plenty which hurries headlong into Rivers and thence conveyed into the Sea and consequently very improbably proposed to be in a manner the adaequate causation of lasting Springs there being also subterrraneal generations which for their production require also a continued supply of water The second opinion seems much less plausible than this for if the cause be ingendred in the bowels of the Earth then it either proceeds from Earth it self changed into water as Seneca
which being a thing against all reason and experience and back'd by no other authority than his own needs no other confutation than pretermission or which is more probable these Springs are made of Air pent up in the caverns of the Earth and by the coldness thereof condensed into water this likewise by Master Aristotle's good leave who here philosophiseth after his manner abstrusely and metaphorically exceedeth all rational belief for how is it imaginable that there are so vast and so many empty spaces in the Earth as to contain so much Air for the making such a quantity of water and that in a moment as springs daily out of the Earth nay how can so much Air be allowed as to furnish such aboundance of water without exhausting the whole stock and consequently make a Vacuum not only disseminatum which according to some is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and natural but also coacervatum and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wit such as is totally repugnant to the fundamental Constitutions of Nature this I say cannot be granted especially being that very many parts of Air serve for the making of one part of water containable in the same place as Dr. French hath well observed neither can any such transmutation of Elements be granted for though according to Helmont water is convertible into vapours and the same vapours into water again yet are these vapours nothing else but rarified water materially and Air will yield no more water that it contains vapours but Air taking it purely of it self quatenus Air is meerly Aetherial without any mixture at all or the least atoms of vapour such as is only above the Atmosphere and wholly unfit for respiration or a pabulum for sustaining the flame of Life which necessarily must have a Niter therein for that intent The third opinion is most ancient and most true being also a divine Epiphonema of Ecclesiastes Omnia flumina intrant in mare mare non redundat ad locum unde exeunt flumina revertuntur ut iterum fluant All Rivers saith Solomon run into the Sea and yet the Sea overflows not into the place from whence the Rivers come thither they return again Some one Man desirous to prove all Springs to be from Rain and Snow puts a strange gloss upon this evident place of Scripture proving all Springs to have their original from the Sea and he tells us that the question is not about Rivers but Springs and therefore Solomon's asserting the Rivers to come from the Sea makes out nothing for that of Springs Quasi verò as if Rivers were not from Springs and if Rivers then by necessary consequence Springs also are from the Sea The same Assertor tells us also that Solomon speaks of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea in great Rivers into which the Tide runs they being near the Sea which truely is but too great a stress put upon the Text first because he tells us that all Rivers as well such as admit of Ebbings and Flowings of the Sea as those where no such thing is come from the Sea and secondly it cannot be imagined that the whole bulk of water which is running continually into the Sea comes up again with the Tide since the fresh is many Miles distant from the Tide and no more of the River comes back again by tiding than what the Sea forc'd up at the time of its tiding which shortly after at ebbing is again by the current of the River hurried back from whence it came How then is it possible that the wisest of Men should positively affirm all Rivers to come from the Sea since 't is evident that the whole River can in no sense be called the Tide no more than the Tide can be called the whole River Surely such as venture thus to paraphrase upon so plain Texts must either conclude the Writers of the Holy Writ endowed only with natural ratiocination and not inspiration or which is as bad they must admit in Divinity what 's now in Physick a legality or promiscuous toleration as to Scriptures interpretation But of this no more Let us proceed now in proving the Seas sole sufficiency of affording so great and lasting a supply of water for feeding of Springs This Assertion certainly is of a most indubitable truth being we see in almost innumerable places waters bursting out of the Earth not after the manner o◠boiling Fountains but like vast impetuous Rivers which in no probability can be granted to arise either from the condensation of Air or Rain and Snow falling or any such like imaginary causation Bu◠to make good the truth of this Hypothesis by evidencing the manne◠how the Springs are at such distances deduceable from the Sea even to the tops of highest Hills Hi◠labor hoc opus est I imagin the only difficulty herein consists as I have said in this that the adverse party cannot conceive granting the Sea to be lower than the tops of Mountains how it should contrary to its natural propension be elevated to such a height For the better solving of which doubt I will first tell you that not only Tully and Aristotle but many solid Divines hold that the Sea is as high if not higher than the highest Mountains otherwise the Sea and Land make not up one global figure and if so the motion of the Sea to the tops of Hills is natural and not at all beyond its level but I go not about to defend this opinion Granting therefore the Sea to be lower I then argue thus that 't is not unknown to any that this Terrestrial Body especially the bottom of the Sea hath innumerable meatuses and is perforated with sundry voraginous inlets and patent mouths into which and through which as so many hydragogical channels water may freely pass otherwise why do winds proceed more apparently and after a more violent manner from the Sea than from the Land they being caused by the eruption of exhalations from those fissures in the bottom of the Sea which being granted 't is no hard matter to allow the afflux and reflux of the Sea pressing the other water with their exceeding great weight to exalt the same through those subterraneal channels even to the tops of highest Mountains for the water being thus pressed with the adventitious access of water either drawn thither by the Moon or caused as some think by the Earths motion must needs force it self downward spontaneously and finding those patent passages is as I may well say thrust into those hydrophalacia of the highest Mountains where seeking out an exit being thus burdened with weight bursts forth into Springs and Rivers If it should be objected that the flux of the Sea and Tides are spent in their course into Rivers I answer that these subterranean caverns will be first served as being more immediately under the weight and what is to spare only runs into Rivers it being natural to all heavy bodies even having no force put upon
to the darksom Region of meerly conjectural Speculation If therefore I have erected any verisimilous conjecture concerning the causation of Springs and their derivation from their proper Originals and given but any probable Solution of that abstruse Phaenomenon I hope others as well as my self will rest contented CHAP. III. Of the true Essence and constituent Principles of Vitriol GReat pregnant and teeming Constitutions and such as are constellated unto knowledge think they come short of themselves if they outgo not others and indeed they may well think they do nothing 'till they outdo all But my Minerva bids me say Nos numeri sumus and I shall think I have done well if in the disquisition of the true nature of Vitriol I hold the stirrop to Pyrotechnical Philosophy and so urge nothing but what Autoptical experience reason and authority shall illustrate First then I define Vitriol to be a Mineral Body generated in the Bowels of the Earth from a sulphureous Spirit Water and the Mineral either of Iron or Copper or both and that these are the material Ingredients of its composition appears from hence because its acidity and caustical acrimony it necessarily hath from the Spirit of Sulphur its clarity and fluidity from Water and its colour and metalline taste either from the Mineral of Copper or Iron and of these three viz. Spirit of Sulphur Water and an Ironish or Copper Glebe is Vitriol composed which is also called Atramentum Sutorium and by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some notwithstanding will have it composed of Allum and Sulphur because say they take a Vitrioline Loam or Clay and dilute it with water and upon standing in a cold Cellar you may gather thence an alluminous Efflorescence to which I yield so far as that there may be a mixture of Allum with Vitriol in regard of their affinity but it follows not thereupon that Allum makes up its composition of parts for though as all other Minerals have their acidity from Spirit of Sulphur and are both under that general notion of Salt and Concrete Juyces yet cannot they Vitriol especially be called purely and properly Salts but make up specifick differences of such Salts Others deny Sulphur to be an ingredient because in the calcination of Vitriol there 's no smell of Sulphur as is when Antimony Orpin or Marcasites are calcin'd though these be far more compact solid Bodies but the reason of this is because it partakes only of the Spirit and more subtil parts of Sulphur the others of the grosser substance Now to shew you how Vitriol becomes a specifick Salt I must first premise this general Hypothesis that there is a common Salt of Nature and Water which diffuse themselves throughout all the particles of this Geocosm and being considered in themselves are indifferent Subjects for the reception of various forms accordingly as they meet with diversity of Glebes in the bowels of the Earth therefore when Water impregnated with Spirit of Sulphur or a Vapour from that accensed Body of Sulphur passeth thorough a salsuginous Glebe already endowed with the common Salt of Nature it produceth Salt when thorough nitrous Veins Niter when thorough alluminous Allum when thorough a Copperas white Vitriol when thorough a Silver Mine blew Vitriol and lastly when thorough an Ironish Glebe it shares of some particles of Iron more or less according to the proportion of the Waters acidity and the fertility of the Vein and produceth green Vitriol So that if Water be thus tinged with this acid Spirit it becomes the true and proper Menstruum for the dissolving of all sorts of Glebes whatsoever and this Liquor thus replenish'd v. g. with the raments of Iron is condensed into this Vitriol which now I speak of And that I may further declare some genuine Effects of this Vitriol I say that 't is caustical and eateth into and corrupts all sorts of Metals excepting Lead which it cannot penetrate by reason of its Mercurial parts which resisteth and represseth its activity But to analize it more intrinsically this Vitriol consisting of the aforesaid three sustances yieldeth spagyrically seven several Medicaments first there is extracted from it per Balneum vaporosum Water which is called Ros Vitrioli because of its Aerial lightness and partakes least of all of the Spirit of Sulphur this corroborates the Bowels mitigates the inflammation of the Blood and strengthens the Brain with its heat and siccity Secondly there 's another Water drawn per arenam and this partakes more of the Spirit of Sulphur and is called the second Water of Vitriol it purgeth the Reins opens obstructions in the passage of Urine and helpeth all internal corrosions if taken in Veal Broath fasting Thirdly there 's extracted another substance of Vitriol which is the most subtil portion of Sulphur and called the Spirit of Vitriol a most admirable Prophylacticon or preservative against all sorts of Diseases for whatever it finds in the Body putredinous poysonous or apparently disposed to any capital Disease it presently incides attenuates and wastes it purifies the Blood from all fuliginous damps prevents the Stone purgeth the Reins and Bladder consuming all mucilaginous and tartarous viscosity whatever Fourthly being tortur'd with a further degree of Fire it gives a certain Oyl not so safe to be taken inwardly though some by reason that it 's a Narcotick use it in Maniacal Distempers but outwardly it is used for curing Imposthumes Fifthly a certain Vitriol is brought over the Helm which Chymists call Purificatum or Sal Vitrioli being only the remaining Dregs from the acid Spirit representing a purplish thin Earth and good externally used as aforesaid this is not Sal Vitrioli Vomitivi so much used at present being a repeated Solution of white Vitriol with frequent filtrations Sixthly all the Spirits being drawn off there remains a certain Aerial substance being a most subtil dust of Vitriol which may be called Ferrum or Aes Vitrioli being it may be reduced into either of them this cleanseth rotten Sores and is an Incarnative And seventhly and lastly all Distillation ended there remains in the bottom of the Retort or Reverberatory a Caput mortuum or Colcotar or Terra Vitrioli and inservient for mixing with cicatrizing Plaisters Thus have I to my weak ability analyzed the whole Body of Vitriol In quod quid resolvi potest ex illo necessario debet constare But before I advance further in my journy homeward I will instance only in one process of making artificial Vitriol for the better clearing and understanding the nativity of natural Vitriol which Dr. Browne as an Eye-witness saith in Hungary to be thus There is saith he a Vitriol Mine nigh the Golden Mine the Earth or Ore whereof is reddish and sometimes greenish infuse this Earth in water three days then poure off the water and boil it seven days in a leaden Vessel 'till it comes to a thick granulated whitish or greenish substance according as the Ore is either of Brass
Non ita deterremur saith that Object of the Worlds wonder Kircherus ut proinde nobis hastam abjiciendi animus sit est aliquid prodire tenus si non datur ultra Let us wish therefore we had Pliny's fontem Leontinum cujus aquas qui bibisset scientem evadere medicum recitat and being arm'd with this phantastical conceit take upon us to tell you that all waters are either mixed with different Glebes of terrestrial matter wherein we comprehend all species of Earth or with the different sorts of Salts which are called concrete Juyces and so there will be as many different species of waters as there are different sorts of Salts or they are adjoyned to the different species of liquid juyces such as are unctuous and fat as Bitumen or not unctuous as are all strong caustick waters or they are mixed with the Metalline Bodies and so invest themselves with the same nature they are ting'd withall or lastly they are imbodied with divers kinds of stony Seâ—inalities such as that at Knarsborough Out of the manifold complication of all which ariseth that admirable variety of waters which if you conjugate according to the principles of Art combinatory there will be according to renowned Kircher 479001600 different species that is four hundred seventy nine millions one thousand and six hundred sorts of waters Let none therefore wonder if we be not dogmatically positive in our Assertions concerning the Virtues of waters since no less than an approach to infinity can determin the various complications of Mineral Metalline and Saline Principles with which these are impowred yet so far as sensata experientia and natural Philosophy which is an experimental Chymistry and mechanical knowledge of things can carry us we may safely believe as one well observes Spagyria sola est speculum veri intellectus monstratque tangere videre veritatem I shall not therefore go about to obumbrate the Truth under the veil of obscure Appellations nor attach other Mens Reasonings of weakness nor sing Matins and Evening-song to my own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a sort of big and exotique expressions calling with Basilius Valentinus Hippocrates's Ignis and Aqua Gladiatores and Asa and Phalaia nor with Paracelsus shrowding the same Instruments of Nature under the names of divers Spirits Spiritus alter trahit alter protrudit idem autem uterque facit nor with Helmont stiling the animal vital and natural Spirits of the Ancients by that bugbear name of Archaeus which can be nothing else but the most fine volatile and Aetherial parts of the Blood contained in the Veins Nerves and Arteries But I shall endeavour clearly and spagyrically to demonstrate the true Principles and Constituents of this our Spaw in our following Discourse Soli illi docent qui per causas principia docent In the interim for more clearness sake I shall set down since the first qualities give us but an uncertain and conjectural rule of finding out the true Essences of waters a threefold manner of proceeding for discovering in general the genuine and true mixtures of all Medicinal waters I. The first is by Concoction thus Take a glass vessel or an earthen one glazed and boil therein your Mineral water 'till a third part be wasted afterwards let it settle well for three days space for separating its Faeces then take a gross thick Cloth fit for filtration and shape it in the form of an inverted Pyramis hang the pointed pyramidal end in the water and let the other extremity first being moistened hang down without the vessel and it will come to pass that the moistened end hanging without the vessel shall draw the water in the other extremity of the filter which was plung'd in the water and thus by little and little all the water and only the pure water shall be drawn out the sediment remaining which being expos'd to the Sun you may thence discover the mixture of the Minerals II. The second way of judging Mineral mixtures in Spaw waters is by evaporation thus Take a glass vessel with a large orifice place it midway deep in another earthen vessel full of sand and evaporate all the moisture and dry the sediment or Faeces in the Sun and you shall know the mixtures by the diversity of the Mineral particles the difficulty of this way of trial is that together with the water the Mineral Spirits flye away which happeneth not in the former nor in this following way of proceeding III. The third and indeed the securest way of finding out the nature of Mineral waters is by distillation because hereby not only the grosser particles of every Mineral but even the predominant spirits and vaporous are infallibly made known and it is thus Prepare a furnace with vent-holes and place therein a proper earthen vessel full of sand in this sand another vessel filled with water up to the middle v. g. a Cucurbita or glass still bottom with a prety strait mouth to this Cucurbita you must fit a Capitellum with a nose or an alembick rostrated being well luted that nothing can expire and to this nose of your Capitellum you must adapt another Fistula or glass pipe well luted which pipe must run through a wooden vessel full of cold water this done put fire to your furnace and draw off all the water and what remains of sediment expose to the Sun to be dryed which done for dissolving the several species of the Minerals proceed thus Expose the sediment upon a polish'd Iron Table red hot and being mixed with water the Chalk Marble and Gypsum or Plaister will not be burnt but after all the others are burnt they will remain more shining white than formerly the Gypsum presently but the Chalk and Marble require more time If there be Brimstone it discovers it self by its accustomed strong sent Salt and Niter sparkle Salt with crackling but Niter without any If Ceruss be there it is turn'd into an intense redness an evident sign of Lead Allum being melted turns white like Milk and Vitriol darkly reddish like Colcothar and this effect had the sediment of this our Spaw-water without any sulphureous smell at all the Faeces whereof I gathered both by Coction and Distillation but less remained of Faeces by Evaporation an evident sign of the spirituous subtilty of the Mineral mixture Now as to the discovery of Metalline tinctures in waters they are known by their proper excrements and corruption of their sediments therefore the manner of proceeding is thus If Metal be in waters infuse the sediment of the Metalline water in some Chymical corrosive water or in some generously sharp Vinegar and if you see an Ironish rust upon the sediment you may be sure of the mixture of Iron with the water and so of Brass Gold and all others Thus have I given some Remarques in general and hinted only by the by at my greatest concern the Constituents of our Spaw of which hereafter I shall now only
them to descend perpendicularly rather than in an oblique line Others may say that if the flux of the Sea or weight of accumulated waters should cause Springs then would our Springs cease running when the Tide or flux of waters is out from our parts and so the like of other parts of the world to which I reply that the Sea ebbs and flows every twelve hours over the face of the world where ever any such reciprocation is and therefore little or no time is left for such a surcease of weight as to alter the current of Springs and not only those that have the same Meridian as London and Dunbar though some Degrees different in Latitude have every twelve hours full Sea at the same time but also such as have a different Meridian and not the same in Longitude have notwithstanding the same returns as to space of time though not at the same time If any Seas be without these Tides as the Baltick Sea is said to be its being so near the Northern Pole and some part thereof within the Artick Circle where the Air is thick and gross may supply the want of Tides as to Springs Which that I may make good and thereby answer all other imaginable doubts and objections against this assertion I shall take occasion of producing a second reason perswading to this original viz. the mighty Tempests and turbinious Winds the descent of Vapours and chiefly the incumbency of the Air it self by all which the water is both pressed and expressed and for further manifestation hereof give me leave to illustrate as a most convincing argument the great weight of Air upon this terraqueous Globe which is apparently made out by Torricellius his Experiment in a Vessel of Quicksilver instanced by that truely Noble and Illustrious Gentleman Mr. Boyle thus Having prepared a Glass Tube and stopped up one of its extremities with a Seal hermetical fill it with Quicksilver and stop the other extream with your middle finger then having inverted the Tube immerge the extream stopt by your finger into a Vessel filled with Quicksilver not withdrawing your finger until the end of the Tube be at least three or four Inches deep in the subjacent Quicksilver for so you prevent all insinuation of Air. This done and the Tube fixed in a perpendicular position upon the subduction of your finger from the lower orifice you may observe almost half the Quicksilver contained in the Tube to descend speedily into the restagnant or subjacent Quicksilver leaving almost half of the superiour part of the Tube according to all appearance at least void and empty Now place this Vessel thus fitted upon the top of an high Hill for example where the Air is less weighty and incumbent than at the bottom of the Hill and you shall perceive the Quicksilver in the Tube to descend and that in the Vessel made higher whereas if you remove the Vessel to the bottom of the Hill where the Air is grosser and more incumbent that Quicksilver in the Tube will ascend and the other in the Vessel descend so that the variety of places where the Air is various makes a variety of motion higher or lower in the Quicksilver which cannot be from any other cause than the different gravity of Air in different places for the Air of its own nature is heavy and can be said to be light only comparitively or as it is less ponderous than Water or Earth nor can there be given any more manifest reasons for the Airs tendency upward from the convexity of the Earth than this that being in some degree ponderous in all its particles these descend from the upper Region of the Atmosphere and bear upon and mutually compel each other until they beat upon the surface of the Earth and are by reason of the solidity thereof repercussed up again to some distance so that the motion of the Air upward is properly a resilition not natural but violent Now whether this gravity be congenial and inherent in the Air or whether it be caused by a conformity to the magnetick attraction of the Earth matters not at all as to our present purpose being we have a depression amongst the particles of the Air in their tendency from the Atmosphere down to the surface of our Globe and the diameter of the Sphere of Air being much larger than that of the terraqueous Globe we have thereupon from the convex to the concave thereof a compressing weight upon the surface of waters equivalent to that upon the restagnant Liquor in the foresaid Vessel I shall further urge some Arguments de facto and tell you that Pliny writes of a Spring which punctually observes the Seas motion in its ebbing and flowing Antonius Vasconzello a Father of the Society in his Description of Portugal mentions a strange and remarkable Lake on the top of the Mountain Erminius whose nature is saith he ut aestuante oceano ipse pariter aestuans sit lacus that is punctually to observe the Seas reciprocation even as to its raging more or less with fourges luculentum sanè saith Kircher occulti cum oceano per hydragogos canales corresponsus signum an evident sign of the subterraneal correspondence this Lake hath with the Ocean through hydragogical conveyances and caverns And learned Kircher also assures us hereof when he saith Aliqui fontes fluxum refluxum maris aemulantur and in particular relates a lepid story of a Fountain or rather a River in Westphalia in a sabulous Plain breaking out with the Tides twice every natural day with such a violent force and noise whence 't is called Bollerbrum that it overflows all the circumference of that Valley and decreasing after the same manner as it increased at last hides it self totally in its head Bishop Theodorus saith he in media hujus superficie mensam opiparè lautéque construxit c. made a most magnificent Banquet in the middle of this Valley and thither invited and brought with him divers Ladies when on the sudden the River bursting forth whilst they caressed Nature and made merry did so wet them even more than mid-way up that they were forced to wade out when as those that were conscious to the design withdrew themselves by time and sufficiently derided the poor Females infortunity Interdum seria ludis è contra And thus much as far as we poor haggard Mortals can reach by the Light of Nature being Moles rather than Men ever since our first Fall whose weak and narrow Opticks lead us only to the inspection of the exteriour and obvious parts of Nature not perspicacious enough to penetrate her interiour and abstruse excellencies nor can we speculate faith Doctor Charleton her glorious beauty in the direct and incident Line of Essences and formal Causes but in that reflected and refracted one of Effects nor that neither without so much of obscurity as leaves an incertitude in our apprehensions and restrains our ambition of an Apodictical Science