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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50420	Moffet-well, or, A topographico-spagyricall description of the minerall wells, at Moffet in Annandale of Scotland translated, and much enlarged, by the author Matthew Mackaile ... ; as also, The oyly-well, or, A topographico-spagyricall description of the oyly-well, at St. Catharines Chappel in the paroch of Libberton ; to these is subjoyned, A character of Mr. Culpeper and his writings, by the same author.; Fons Moffetensis. English	Mackaile, Matthew, fl. 1657-1696.	1664 (1664)	Wing M148; ESTC R17306	83,120	201

may excite such as are more experimented in this art to essay an inquiry into the natures of the rest of the mineral Wells with which our Country is abundantly furnished and much adorned they giving no small ground to suspect that the earth is replenished with variety of minerals And seing the earnest desire I have after promoving the knowledge of truth and the good of others did obstetricat these first labours into the world I do earnestly intreat for a cheerfull acceptance of them and that you would swadle them in a favourable construction and not expose them to the brumal sharpness of mockery or detraction For they contain the rudiments of that nature-imitating-art Chymie being only taken from the resolutory part which is subservient to medicine and make no mention of the Transmutation of Mettals Potable Gold and the Philosophers Stone c. Concerning which many things which are false ridiculous and inconsistent with reason have been spoken by some and with which others did and yet do egregiously deceive the world For which some have been deservedly forced to finish their dayes upon Gibbets And this is the reason for which Artists are by some called d●ceivers and by others fools as appeareth in Florentius Schoonhovious his Emblem concerning Chymists to which he subjoyneth this verse Dum certis incerta sequor rem prodigus omnem Converti in fumos miseros cincres That is Whil'st that by things most sure such as uncertain are I seek by smoak and ashes I 'm deceived far And in its commentary in these words Alchymie that amiable madness whose sure companion is poverty and labour in vain familiar to the curious its vanity doth hence appear ev'n in promising such things as nature can neither suffer nor attain unto whilst it laboureth to over-turn the natures of things by making a Philosophers Stone as they call it which will forth with change all bodies into Gold or Silver at their touching it The miserable Alcumist who hath spent all his dayes in trying of experiments when all that he had is spent and converted into smoak and ashes in his old age he becometh raged covetous alwayes favouring of Sulphur and Paralytick through his continual handling of Mercury getting nothing but painfull and sorrowfull sighs because his labours hath produced nothing but errour loss and shame But I hope that it shall afterwards clearly appear to all Momus and Zoilus only excepted how wrongously these things are asserted concerning all Alcumists Lastly seing we do not profess our selves to live without the confines of humane fallibility we do humbly intreat all such as know any things of greater worth and more consonant to truth than what we have set down hereafter for two eyes or moe will see better then one that they would upon the same account communicat them unto others If thus our labours shall work upon such we shall possibly be thereby excited to set about some other task no less profitable to others For we believe that all good endeavours are praise-worthy although their events be uncertain Fare-well Mome favere decet prodesse volentibus ergo Carpere vel noli nostra vel ede tua That is Mome it doth become thee well To favour such as would do well Then either give to others yours Or cease to carp and censure ours Ad Lectores Omnibus haec animae conamina prima modestae Grata superveniant quos nova scire juvat That is I. W. These first essayes which the modest mind hath offert Accepted be by such as novels covet To his most accomplished Friend and worthy Comrade Mr. Matthew Mackaile upon his elaborat description of the Moffet and St. Catharines Wells INgenious soul who 'll not admire thy skill Who thus anatomisest with a quill Dame natures hidden cabin and displayes Treasures beyond the conquest of the bayes Such soveraign wealth as miracles performs Restoring death to life and calming storms Rais'd by intemperance Thy water-brooks Refresh the panting heart and fainting looks Of anxious valetudinaries thou Constrain'st the Peasant rude to make a vow And from earths hidden cavern then dost bring Him health and strength to pay his vow and sing Thy Lynx-cy'd intellect receives no stop From intermedes but thou that well stor'd-shop Survey can'st in a minut and from thence Bring soveraign Antidotes with small expence And from things despicable like the Bee Sweet remedies prepare strange industry And yet more strange the bounty of thine hand To straw such treasures up and down our land And in such form that every vulgar Eye From hence may learn profound Philosophy Whereas their sole Monopoly were able To bring thee fame and wealth inestimable What inspiration moved thee to make Poor mortals of their Makers skill partake I' st not enough that they His foot-stool tread But must they also know how He it made Sure providence reserv'd hath these displayes To give them life in these our halcyon dayes And hath designed thee likewise to be Her message-bearer to posterity O may thy virtuous soul receive the fruit Of those the labours and of thy wit acute And may each barking Momus blush to see The lustre of thy ingenuity That so thy nimble Pen may never sall Till myriads of pens thy loss bewail In amoris testimonium sic conatus est I. A. THE PREFACE THat the following description of Moffet-wells may be the better understood we thought it necessary to premise some things concerning the elements of Chymie 1. There are six simple though Physically of the four elements composed bodies whereof every Animal Vegetable and Mineral body is composed and into which they are resolved by destillation and calcination and they are these 1. Earth 2. Phlegme or the insipide Liquor 3. Mercury or the acide Spirit 4. Sulphur or the combustible Liquor 5. Volatile-salt which cannot endure the fire but flyeth from it 6. Fixed-salt which resisteth the strongest of Vulcan's fury his vitrifying heat only excepted without any damage The last four only are called Elements by way of excellency above the rest because they only are endued with medicinal virtues 2. The foresaid bodies are called simple because they connot be resolved into heterogeneal parts by destillation without the adding of a heterogeneal body 3. Mercury Sulphur Salt-volatile and Fixed-salt are called the elements of all the foresaid Bodies because they are composed of them but not because all of them can be extracted out of any body and made obvious to the senses for there can but a little Volatile-salt be extracted out of some things and very little Fixed-salt out of others In the Original we asserted that there can no Volatile-salt be extracted out of man's Blood but having since attained a more exact manner of destilling the blood of Animals and separated some Volatile-salt which attacheth it self to the sides of the recipient like Spiders webs from them we do retract that assertion having in the Epistle to the Reader professed that we did not live without the confines

promise to our selves that our not understanding how actuall cold and an effectually cooling quality can consist with radical heat will avert from us the odious attribute of presumption and conciliat a favourable construction to this our singularity and non-adherence to Antiquity because that distinction never was nor could be applied to any without controversie hot body not salinous as to the spirit of Wine Oyl of Cloves Cinnamon Mustard c. any of which being mixed with the most cooling liquor will without controversie diminish its frigidity 2. Aqua fortis the spirits of Vitriol and Brimstone the spirit of common Salt the Oyl of Tartar by deliquation which is the Salt of Tartar dissolved into a liquor by the humide air in a cold or subterrancal place the Oyl of common Salt by deliquation c do extinguish the fire as doth the coldest water Therefore they are in their first qualities heterogeneal to fire for such bodies only are and ought to be vulgarly called homogeneal to fire in their first qualities which do contain some matter which becometh nourishment unto fire Salts and Salinous bodies only excepted and that is only Sulphur it from if it be almost insipide as the Sulphur ●r Oyls of sweet Almonds Olives c. before they become rancide then the body which containeth it is not called hot but temperat in heat but if the Sulphur b● very sapide and do affect the taste much the body wherein it doth reside is called hot and its degree● of heat are commensurat by the degrees of its sapidity Now every pure Salt is altogether destitute of such matter Moreover the frigidity of bodie● which are estimat cold should likewise be measure● by their different degrees of sapidity as Cichory is colder than Lettice and the juyce of a Limon is colder than either and the spirit of Vitriol is the coldest of all the four c. Neither is this contrary to the common saying of Ph●losphers viz. that water is the coldest of all bodies for that is only to be asserted of the pute elementary water which is not to be found amongst us and unto which without all controversie frigidity in the highest degree is as proper as siccity humidity and calidity are unto the Elements of Earth Air and Fire So that it is more then probable that as the refrigerating cold of some springing waters doth hugely surpass the same quality in common fountain water so likewise the frigidity of the elementary water doth surpass that of the spirit of Vitriol and springing water as far as the strength of Aqua fortis doth the strength of the juice of Limons in dissolving of Pearls both which do operat after the same manner only dissolving them into pouder without 〈◊〉 I roying their natural temperaments which five doth when it dissolveth them or any thing 〈◊〉 all which do undeniably evince this that Corrosives are not of a fiery and hot temperament 3. Every Fixed-salt doth naturally attract those things which are cold and humide as Water and Air therefore it is in its first qualities frigidity and humidity homogeneal to them Moreover as the action of the spirit of Wine Aqua-vitae c. upon Oyls whereby they dissolve them and unite them unto themselves doth argue the Oyls viz. of Cinnamon Anise c. and spirits to be homogeneal so likewise we do most probably conceive that the dissolution of Salts by water doth demonstrat the homogeneity of their natures For no natural body which is in its natural estate doth naturally appetize or attract its contrary Nor is it contrary unto this that an animal whose stomach is distempered with calidity and siccity naturally desireth a humide and refrigerating body because that stomach is not in its natural estate neither is it the stomach but the Animal whose the stomach is which desireth the curation of the morbifick distemper by a humide and refrigerating body You would here take notice that the cause of Thirst which is by Aristotle in his second Book of the Soul called a desire after a humide and frigide body is two-fold external and internal each whereof is either hot or corrosive and cold For corrosives are really different from such things as are hot as shall afterwards appear from what hath been and is to be said 1. The internal hot cause of thirst is a hot distemper of the whole body as in a Feaver or of some part of it as of the Stomach Liver c. 2. The external hot cause of thirst is the radical heat of meat or drink existing in their sulphureous parts which produceth a hot distemper in the stomach c. 3. The internal corrosive cause of thirst is a bilious salt and corrosive humor which corrodeth the skin of the stomach and by motion in the solution of continuity conciliateth heat in the corroded part only whereas the heat of meat and drink do sometimes produce a hot distemper in the whole body each of whose parts after the concoctions it permeateth 4. The external corrosive cause of thirst is the corrosive salts of meat and drink which do corrode the stomach as before For the cure of thirst proceeding from a hot cause whether external or internal a body radically and actually cold and humide is necessarily required But for the cure of thirst proceeding from a corrosive cause a humide body radically only though not actually cold is sufficient wherein the Salts may be dissolved which being done in a copious humide body they become so debilitat that they cannot any more corrode the skin of the stomach for disjoyned virtue or strength is weaker Now this solution is more easily effectuat in a humide body which is actually hot than in one which is cold This sort of thirst is curable also by Pearls Coral c. For when such things are put into the stomach the Salt of the corrosive humor doth affix it self to the atoms of the Pearls Coral c. and so the humor is dulcified as is Vinegar when affused to Corals Red-lead c. and loseth its corrosive quality and then the thirst ceaseth Here we cannot but inquire after the cause and cure of that common and troublesome distemper vulgarly called the Heart-scade We conceive that it is caused by acide and corrosive humors which being congested into the stomach do irritat its expultrix faculty so that they are constrained to mount upwards to the throat where the greatest pain and trouble is found because the corrosive humor having excoriat the Oesophage or Wezand it is still most sensible of the mordication of the humor which is most active upon the uppermost part upon which it beateth with violence So this may be called an imperfect vomiting because there is but little or nothing expelled at the mouth the humor descending again into the stomach The cure of this turbulent distemper consisteth 1. either in the evacuation of the peccant humor which is the perfect cure or 2. in the correcting of its

shall most wilingly acknowledge an errour in the interim In magnis voluisse sat est That is In things of great excellency Let the endeavour satisfie And upon this account we will plead for pardon for there is no man ΑΠΑΝΤΑ ΣΟΦΟΣ I. E. Omniscient AN APPENDIX Concerning the saltness of the SEA c. THat the truth of what hath been said may shine more clearly we must refull some opinions of D. John French who in the 2. Chapter and 22. page of his Book entituled the Yorkshire Spau asserteth That there can no other reason be given for h●t springs than the fire which burns in the very cavities and caverns of them the cavities themselves consisting of or rather being replenished with a Bituminous matter For Bitumen and these things which are made of it being kindled burn in water as Camphire also doth a very long time which could not be unless it were fed by the moisture of the water which it did attract and convert into its own nature And in the 14. Chapter concerning the putid● Sulpher-well about the middle of page 107. The stinking odour thereof I suppose is caused from the vapor● of the burning Bitumen and adust terreness mixt therewith which lye nor far from the head of the Will And page 106. the ●aliness of the Sea proceedeth from the Salt of the burnt Bitumen which is dissolved in the water that ran̄ through these veins of the earth wherein it was which page 106. and 107. he confirmeth by the example of the Lake called Asphaltites And in the beginning of the 108. page he asserteth That it cannot be rationally conceived that the whole Sea received all its salt into its self at one time after a natural way and therefore being such a great body must become sultish by little and little even insensibly The falsehood of these opinions will manifestly appear by considering 1. That it is more like an untruth than a truth● that there is a perpetual subterraneal fire of burning Bitumen which doth naturally heat the wawater 1. Because it is not probable that there was ever so much Bitumen in any subterraneal place as would by it● flame have heated the waters which do every where spring out of hot fountains 2. Neither is it probable that there is so much air in any cavity of the earth as would necessarily for to avoid the penetration of dimensions give place to so much flame as would hear so much water 3. If the inflamed Bitumen did produc● the foresaid heat then the fire would change 〈◊〉 place when it followeth its aliment and so the water of the fountains would not be alwaies impregnat with the same degree of heat because the fire which heateth them would not alwaies be equidistant from the fountains In the 25. page of the forementioned Book the Author answereth to this argument saying that flame is nourished two wayes 1. When it followeth its food as in the burning of wood 2. When the food followeth the flame as doth Oyl in a Lamp and thus saith he is the flame of the Bitumen nourished neither is this falsified by the flame of Brimstone which followeth the mater For saith he the Bitumen is melted by the great heat and so it followeth the flame and continueth the flame in the same place But I reply 1. That flame doth alwaies follow its food neither doth Oyl follow the flame in a Lamp but one part of the Oyl being continuous to another doth follow it whilst it is a consuming by the flame That you may the better understand this you would take notice of the reason why some sulphureous bodies as Camphire Turpentine c. do of themselves take and conserve flame when others as Tallow Bees-wax Oyl of Olives c. do neither take nor conserve it but by the help of others as of Linnen cloath Paper Rushes c. The cause of these things we conceive yea affirm to be this that the first sort are bodies which contain much Salt for they are very sapide which doth still detain the Sulphur even when it is converted into flame and the last sort are bodies almost void of Salt because insipide almost which do not take flame because they cannot conserve it unless they be associat to the Sulphur of another body containing much Salt which detaineth its proper Sulphur and so take flame with it From these things it doth appear that flame doth alwaies follow its food especially seing the threeds of the Candle and Lamp do wast and consume by the flame whilst it followeth the Sulphur of the threeds which is its food whose consumption is retarded by the Tallow in the Candle and Oyl in the Lamp which do nourish it 2. It is not probable that all the Bitumen is liquified 1. Because the flame of the kindled Bitumen liquifieth only the parts which are nearest to its self as happeneth in a Candle Brimstone red Wax c. 2. Whosoever will say that the Bitumen followeth the flame because it is melted he must also confess that there is some other sire beneath or above the Bitumen which melteth it and this would infer the absurd progress in infinitum 3. Nor can the flame of the kindled Bitumen by heating the caverns of the earth liquifie the rest of the Bitumen because as was said it is not probable that there is a place in the bowels of the earth which would contain so much flame as would by its heat liquifie all the Bitumen which is within four five or six miles unto it the contrary whereof must of necessity be confessed by him who will assert that the flame of the kind led Bitumen changeth not its place by following its food 2. It is most fal●… that Bitumen Camphire and such like which burn in water do retain their flame longer than if they were out of the water because they convert it into their own nature by which means it becometh food to the flame but the cause of their longer burning in the water is rather because their external supersices the uppermost only excepted are humected by the water which prohibiteth the flame to seize upon all their external parts as happeneth when they are inflamed out of the water and so they burn longer because a few only of their parts are inflamed No man who will be at the pains to put a little inflamed Camphire into water will question the truth of this For he will see the flame excavat the Camphire and at length extinguished when it penetrateth unto the external parts into which the water hath insinuat it self 3. Although the flame of Bitumen were in the veins of the earth yet its vapors could not communicat any putide smell unto the water 1. Because of the fore-mentioned reasons when we wrote of inflamed Brimstone 2. Because they contain no terrestrial adust matter For 1. no such matter capable to communicat such a smell doth ascend from any body whilst it is a destilling and far less therefore

subterraneal passages of water As to the first of these opinions we cannot embrace it because of these reasons 1. It is most improbable that there are such large caverns in the earth as will contain so great a quantity of vapors and air as being condensed would afford so much water as doth daily scaturiat in springs which are upon high mountains For ten Gallons of air will scarcely afford one Gallon of water as all will acknowledge We will make use of this argument not only in relation to such springs as proceed from the tops of high mountains but also in relation to some which are in lower places and environed with mountains one whereof we will instance which perpetually every moment yieldeth many Scots quarts of water and it is that known Well in Carrick at the Wel-tries near to Maybol unto which Well no man who knoweth the Country betwixt it and the Sea westwards will deny its original to be from thence 2. If the water which doth scaturiat from or near unto the top of an high mountain doth proceed from vapors which have been condensed in the caverns of the same mountains these caverns being of necessity below the caverns from which the water issueth it seemeth impossible that the water can naturally ascend from the lower unto the higher parts of these caverns which are at the tops of the mountains because water doth naturally ascend no further than it did descend We will notwithstanding acknowledge 1. that there may be some springs upon or near unto the tops of some mountains which do not proceed from the Sea immediatly but rather from some Logh whose superfice is more distant from the Centre of the earth than the springs and whose water cometh from the Sea immediatly after that maner of which you shall be informed afterwards 2. When water issueth slowly from the lower part of a mountain as from St. Authonies Well at Arthurs seat it may proceed from vapors and air which have been condensed in the caverns of that same mountain which are above the place out of of which it issueth The second opinion is no less improbable because it is incredible that the Rain-water which doth at sometimes only fall upon mountains and valleys can be the only water which doth perpetually scaturiat in all fountains and that as abundantly from some after a long summers drought as after the greatest abundance of brumal showers We will here likewise admit that there be many springs issuing from mountains which are furnished with no other water than the bottles of the clouds do afford unto some valleys whose superfices are further from the centre of the earth than the foresaid springs whose waters are perpetually increased by Rain and diminished totally sometimes by drought But these are not the springs concerning the original of whose waters we are inquiring and therefore all arguments which are or may be taken from them can conclude nothing against Solomon his forementioned assertion The third opinion which as was said is founded upon Solomon his assertion is also dubitable because it doth necessarily infer this improbable conclusion viz. that the supersice of the Sea is higher that is further distant from the centre of the earth than the orifices of these subterraneal veins from which its water is alledged to issue forth upon or near unto the tops of mountains though never so high and that because of the fore-mentioned Axiom viz. Water doth naturally ascend no further then it did descend as is ordinarily demonstrat by a stroup of white Iron which is bowed at the middle The verity of the opinion and validity of the consequence will evidently appear by proving the conclusion to be a certain truth for the doing of of which take these undeniable Propositions from which we shall manifestly infer that the waters of the most part of springs do come from the Sea through the subterraneal veins because of the altitude of its superfice beyond that of the highest mountains from which water springeth Proposition 1. In the evening of the first day of the worlds creation the four elements did surround one another that is the water did compleatly surround the earth Psal 104.5,6 the air surrounded the water end the earth and the element of fire if there was or is such a thing did contain within its concavity all the three The truth of this is evident from Gen. 1.1,2 For in the first verse it is expresly said that in the beginning that is in the first day of the creation as ver 5. God created the heaven and the earth and in the second verse the earth was without form and void that is the form of the earth did not appear because it was compleatly covered with the waters which upon the third day of the creation God did gather unto one place that the dry land might appear as ver 9. Proposition 2. Before the gathering of the waters unto one place the earth and the waters did constitute one rotund Globe and never since but when God commanded them for drowning of the world to return unto that their first position or ●ituation wherein their superfice was fifteen cubits above the top of the highest mountain Genes 7.19.20 And that 1. through the fountains of the great deep Gen. 7.11 or veins of the earth as Job 38.8 the latter half of which verse doth without controversie relate to the floud of Noah 2. Through the bottles of the clouds unto which they had ascended into vapors and from which they did descend for malaxing of the hard earth that the subterraneal waters might the more easily conciliat a more facile egress unto themselves by new passages through the superfice of the same Proposition 3. From the third day of the worlds creation untill the floud of Noah and since that after the floud the waters returned from off the face of the earth Gen. 8.3 and the dry land appeared ver 5.11,12 the middle of the superfice of the Ocean which we conceive most probably to be beneath the Arctick or North-pole hath been and is further distant from the centre of the earth than the top of the highest mountain This Proposition is undenyable for if when the waters surrounded the whole earth their superfice was fifteen cubits higher than the top of the highest mountain far more is it higher now and hath been ever since they returned from off the earth and that no doubt unto one yea their former place unto which they were at first gathered Gen. 1.9 Moreover its truth is clearly evinced from Job 38.10 I brake up for it my decreed place and set bars and doors ver 11. And said hither to shalt thou come and no farther and here shall thy proud waves be stayed For these verses and the first words of ver 8. of the same Chapter and Job 28. ver 11. He bindeth the flouds from over-slowing c. do no doubt relate unto the third day of the creation whereon God did gather the waters

unto one place Gen. 1.9 or unto the returning of the waters from off the earth Gen. 8.3 or both which is most probable This third Proposition is also proven by Psal 104.5 Who laid the foundations of the earth that it should not be removed for ever ver 6. Thou covered'st it with the deep as with a garment the waters stood above the mountains ver 7. at thy rebuke they fled at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away ver 8. they go up by the mountains they go down by the valleys uno the place which thou hast founded for them ver 9. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over that they turn not again to cover the earth ver 10. he sendeth his springs that is permitteth the springs to pass among the hills And Prov. 8.28 When he strengthened the fountains of the deep ver 29. when he gvae to the Sea his decree that the waters should not pass his commandment Seing it is most evident from these places of Scripture especially from Psal 104.9,10 and Job 28.11 and 38.8.10,11 that the Sea hath a natural and perpetual inclination unto turning again to cover the earth whereby all the parts of its supeefice may be equidistant from the centre of the earth and that by the omnipotency only of God it is detained in that situation wherein now it is we do from them and the foresaid propositions conclude that the waters of all springs even such as do scaturiat upon the tops of the highest mountains which run perpetually do proceed from the Sea through the subterraneal veins For further probation of this opinion consider that if the superfice of the Sea where any of its water doth enter into the veins of the earth by which it is conveyed to the tops of high mountains were not further distant from the centre of the earth than the tops of those mountains it could never ascend unto them no more than the water which issued from the top of an high mountain could move in a natural maner as it doth toward the Sea-shore if the place from whence it proceedeth were not further distant from the centre of the earth than the shore Here we cannot but take notice how Dr. John French in his York-shire Span chap. 2. pag. 10 11 12. denieth that the middle superfice of the Ocean is higher than the shore and that there are such veins in the earth as the water would pass through unto the tops of mountains where springs are because the veins in the bowels of the earth are not wholly and throughout full as of necessity they must be before water will ascend through them for preservation of its continuity and the avaiding of a vacuum as those crooked pipes are by which Wine-coopers use to draw Wine out of our vessel into another For answer in consideration of our former reasons we will as confidently affirm as he doth deny that the middle superfice of the Ocean is not only higher than the shore but also higher than the highest mountain and that these veins of the earth are wholly and throughout full of water because if they were not so the Sea-water could never scaturiat from the tops of high mountains The foresaid Author having as he thinketh sufficiently refuted that opinion which asserteth the ascent of the waters by the subterranea veins which are in the mountains though it be according to the express Word of God Psal 140.8 They go up by the mountains they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them setteth down his own pag. 15.16 which is this the water which proceedeth from the tops of mountains is only the vapors of the waters contained in the caverns of the earth which the subterraneal heat of the burning Bitumen as pag. 22. did elevat unto the heads of the springs where they are condensed into water a● water is elevated from the Sea unto the middle region of the air where it is condensed into water Having into our Appendix unto Moffet-Well shewed the improbability if not the impossibility of that his subteraneal fire for refuration of this opinion I shall only make use of the words of his own 2. Arg. pag. 2. whereby he refuteth the opinion of Seneca viz. That springs are generated chiefly of earth changed into water changing only the words air and corrupted and putting vapor and converted for them thus It is to be wondred at that seing ten parts of vapor if not moe serve for the making of one part of water containable in the same space there should be so much space in the earth for containing so much vapor as serveth the making of such a quantity of water as springs daily out of the earth how is it possible that so much vapor can be converted in such a moment Moreover as it is most probable as he there writeth that the whole elementary air being of its own nature most subtile and not being sufficient to make such abundance of water as all the springs of the earth will amount to so it is most like that though there were such a subterraneal fire occasioning the elevation of such vapors yet all these would not be sufficient to yield so much water as doth daily proceed from all the springs that are upon the earth Let us here applaud the most ingenious opinion of the most famous Philosopher Renatus Des Carres princip Philosoph parte 4. Parag. 65. Vt animalium sanguis in eorum venis arteriis sic aqua in terrae venis circulariter fluit Because thereby appeareth one great resemblance which is betwixt the Macrocosme and the choicest of Animals Man called the Microcosme Not that we think that the similitude holdeth in all things but that because of its reality the foresaid Author is much to be admired and respected for his ingenious observation In the next place we shall first give you that description of the Well which we find in J. Monipeny his Memorial of the rare and wonderfull things of Scotland at the end of his Abridgement of the Scotish Chronicles 2. We shall shew in what things this description is faulty 3. Describe the maner of collecting this Oyl and add such things as we have observed in the Well 4. Prove that the fore cited Author his opinion concerning the Oyl is most probable 5. Set down the maner of its separation from the Coals 6. Describe the Virtues which undoubtedly it hath or in probability may be ascribed to it 7. Propose and answer three questions As to to the first viz. I. M. his description of the Well these are his words In Louthian two miles from Edinburgh is a Well-spring called St. Catharines Well flowing perpetually with a kind of black fatness or Oyl above the water preceeding as is thought of the Parret coal bring frequent in these parts This fatness is of a marvellous nature for as the coal whereof it proceeds is judain to conceive fire or flame So