therefore exquisitly penetrative forcing its passage thorough the otherwise obstructed Meanders of the bowels notably opening the obstructions of the parts and thereby restoring the blood and other peculiar spirituous juyces of the genus nervosum to their primitive fermental vigor 3. For the better understanding of which we are to consider first the natural fermental digestions of the body next to that the depravations thereof by excrementitious parts and thirdly the Diseases thence depending and lastly the restoration of these digestions by removing the interrupting obstacles and redintegration of the blood and humours 4. First by the digestive ferments of the body I mean such alterative juyces as are ab origine implanted in such various principal parts as are adapted for the transmuting of the nutritive juyce of all aliment from one consistence colour and taste into another untill it hath run the whole circuit of alterations giving a proportionable nourishment to every part for growth of children in the way to maturity and for the supplying the deficiences contracted by constant transpiration in adult persons 5. These ferments are as the ingenious Helmont saith transmutationum parentes à priori indemonstrabiles the authors of all transmutations and cannot be demonstrated by any thing before them because they are primitively inserted ab ortu and so become radical principles 6. That of the stomach is certainly such a one as is scarsely to be parallel'd in rerum natura excepting the prodigious effects Helmont tells us of the grand Liquor Alkahest which makes every concrete fatiscere in suam primam materiam resolving them into their primitive juyces This acid ferment of the stomach is so powerful as no other extraneous acidity in the World can if in its native vigor resolve the hardest of aliments into a milky juyce and transmute several sorts of food as Beef Mutton Veal c. taken at the same time into one similar cremor which no other acidity we yet know of can do though assisted by as equal a digestive heat as we can imagine to be in the stomach or the parts adjacent 7. I shall not enter upon a large discourse of the Ferments being notably and fully discuss'd both by the noble Helmont and the ingenious Dr. Willis I shall only assume so much of that Doctrine as to illustrate what I intend viz. that these vital ferments being strong and vigorous make such alterations separations depurations exaltations and assimilations of the nutritive juyce as are convenient for health and the common functions of life 8. But if they become alienated and depraved by excrementitious parts accumulated through the inormities of living as by excess of meats or drinks which burden by out-proportioning the digestions as also by food which agrees not with the ferment of the stomach as also by unseasonable exercises and by passions of the mind all which together with the inclemency of the air c. have such an influence upon this and other parts of the body as that by perverting the ferment or precipitating the fermented mass doth so alter the function thereof as that thereby no small foundation is laid for the multiplicity of Diseases both acute and chronical but especially chronical whose deep roots are most what inserted in the seminals of the depraved ferment of the stomach 9. The Diseases thence proceeding are generally the Scurvy Dropsie Asthma Vertigo Nauseatings Vomitings Diarchea's and sometimes Dysenteries c. all which though when in their full state of symptomes and products indicate a vitiating of other ferments of the body and appear in other parts yet have their beginings from the perversions of the stomachical ferment 10. For no sooner is the ferment of the stomach vitiated by the foresaid or any other occasional cause but the nutritive juyce receives such different alterations according to the degree of the error of the ferment from what it should be as that either the crudeness or over acidness of the chile whilst yet in the stomach lays the begining of the seminaries of the foresaid Diseases which being transmitted thus raw or too pontick into the other digestions draw them likewise into consent and so vitiate one digestion after another until the Diseases appear in their full dimension and latitude of symptomes 11. Now if the ferments become debilitated by the accumulation of excremental impurities which in persons of weak constitutions in tract of time more easily happen than the alimental juyce proves not well dissolved and digested which passing the first digestion thus crude either before its transit through the pilorus causeth a flatus then a Nauseating Vomiting or Pain of the Stomach a Vertigo or lays the foundation of a Feaver either continual or intermitting if it pass the pilorus it vitiates the second digestion in the intestines and thence Worms Jaundice Obstructions of the Misentery c. 12. If this vitiated juyce pass thus uncorrected from the thoraeical vessels into the vena cava and so into the heart which I suppose to be the third digestion taking the second and third of Helmont's digestions to be but one which is done in the intestines and lacteal vessels The third to begin with sanguification viz. when the chyle hath passed the second digestion in the intestines and there receives a further depuration and separation into a more refined milky juyce whose receptacle are the glandules of the Mesentery and the Lumbazes is further carryed by the thoracical vessels into the jugular veins and there meeting with the blood is dasht with a rubicund colour and carryed into the ventricles of the heart and there undergoes the third ferment where it is elaborated into vital blood I say if the foresaid vitiated juyce come thus raw into this third digestion it terminates in Fevers both continual and intermittent 13. For the otherwise nutritive juyce coming so indigested to the vital ferment of the heart which is not able to master it or make any good arterial blood subverts the vital digestion thereof rouseth up a spurious febrile fermentation and intestine commotion of the blood hence the burning heat in Fevers and coming from an impure digestion in the stomach whose footsteps it yet retains thence the great thirst and from the same yet further vitiating the other digestions of the genus nervosum which is the Minera of animal Spirits proceeds Frenzies Deliriums c. and therefore according to the degrees of this vitiated juyce and consequenly of the intense or remiss disturbance of this vital ferment it causeth the paroxysmes of intermiting Fevers to come sooner and later thence the variety of Quotidian Tertian double Tertian Quartan Agues c. 14. If this depraved juyce arrive at the succus nervosus ubi spiritus animales cuduntur which I take to be the fourth digestion or depuration of nutritive juyce in its road to absolving the function of sense and motion thence a perturbation of those animal Spirits an inversion of their natural crasis whence Lethargies Epilepsies Apoplexies Convulsions
Quartan Ague and the Dropsie in both which the peculiar natural ferment of the blood is much vitiated in the first of which the blood losing its native balsamick sweetness becomes acid and pontick even in an high measure thence the great difficulty of its redintegration to its former eucrasia in the latter the blood becomes too much diluted drowning its rubicund balsamick tincture in a watery deluge having the latex regurgitated in too great a proportion into the vessels of the blood or other receptacles from an obstruction in the veins which should if well disposed separate from the blood an urinous latex and by other more abbreviate passages betwixt the stomach and it a great deal of the potulent parts taken in but being obstructed makes both regurgitate the one into the vessels of the blood thereby vitiating its ferment by too great a dilution which in the habit of the body causeth an Anasarcosis and the other in the cavities of the abdomen between the omentum and peritoncum swelling the belly causeth the Hydrops which with a flatus extending the membranous parts begets a Tympany 29. But if this spurious acidity reach the fourth digestion where the animal spirits are fabricated and there afflict the genus nervosum it causeth by vitiating the ferment scorbutick Palsies Apoplexies Spasms Convulsions and Cephalalgia's which prove inveterate and sometimes Epilepsies yet commonly this hostile acidity as solitary is not sufficient to beget these scorbutick Apoplexies Palsies and Epilepsies but also hath quid cadaverosum spirituale and therefore virosum some spirituous putrid and therefore poysonous matter to accompany it By which I mean such a portion of the nutritious juyce as not having received due fermentations in the several digestions but become more and more vitiated and putrid and being circulated from one digestion to another grows more putrid and penetrative and in continuance of time becomes so spirituous as to be able to insinuate into the more retired recesses of the vital principles for being by these rotations volatiz'd hath more easie ingress into the inward retirements of the vital and animal functions so that it becomes gradually exalted to a kind of virulency which joyning issue with this transmitted spurious acidity insidiantur vitae sits upon the skirts of life betrays it into the hands of these truculent Diseases Hence it is that the Palsie or Apoplexie prove suddainly mortal if not at the first yet commonly at the second or third paroxysm and from the same basis ariseth the causes of other kinds of suddain deaths for when this depraved circulated matter hath reached so far and be wheeled so often as to acquire a virulency or cadaverousness it then takes an occasion by the next exorbitancy of the digestions joyns hands with it and conspires the extinction of the vital flame 30. This fourth digestion as I conceive begins in the arteries and is complete in the nerves for when the alimentary juyce being dasht with blood in the vena cava receives a vital ferment in the heart and becomes elaborate in the tunicles thereof into a rubicund balsamick liquor which by the perspiration of the lungs in the bloods passage thorough the vena arteriosa and arteria venosa receives a volatizing ferment from the air conducing much to its circulation is thence by the systole of the left ventricle carryed into the aorta and other arteries where the blood begins to be further elaborated for the producing of spirits which may be subservient for the animal functions of sense and motion where from the continual elixation of the blood in these vessels it begins to sublime or distil into more pure refined spirits which pass directly into their proper Receivers or Conduits the Nerves to complete their digestion and absolve their function of sense and motion for as much as every Arterie hath a vein and a nerve annexed to it the one to carry away these volatile spirits the other to bring back the blood after it hath been exhausted of these spirits and spent its other balsamick parts in nutrition in the habit of the body to recive a fresh impregnation by the vital ferment in the heart again in its return out of the solid parts by capillary veins into larger vessels untill it come to the vena cava it meets with fresh nutritive juyce coming from the jugular and thoracical vessels which thence pass along together into the heart to become freshly replenisht with the vital balsam 31. So that these animal spirits are made in every part of the body while the arterial blood is fraught with a vital ferment out of which the Archeus by a further volatization hews forth these spirits here the hermetical adage is most true id quod inferius est sicut id quod superius vice versâ for the vital agents if not interrupted are alwaies and in every part at work nunquam feriatur uatura therefore sensation and motion are alwaies and in every part except some interrupting cause break the links of this noble chain 32. Now any disturbance in this digestion such as by a conflux of the foresaid spurious hostile acidity cadaverous virulency c. may confound and so blunder the texture of these spirits as thence all the various exorbitances and different anomalous products with all the heteroclite symptomes of the genus nervosum are reducible which I shall not now take the time further to illustrate But pass on 33. This exotick acidity coagulating the blood in the Matrix in women is the author of most of their uterine infirmities for in women who are not with child or give not suck if all be well with them the blood attempts to make a lunar evacuation which it doth by separating a portion thereof at the critical season into the vessels of the Womb which according to the intent of nature is for the nourishing of the Foetus after conception being a precursory provision for that end if no conception be as in Maids Widows c. then nature endevevours to separate and carry away that superfluous blood by vessels fitted for that purpose where it receives a fetid menstrual virulent ferment which gives the uncleaness not to say more to that evacuation 34. Now when the superfluous blood is proscribed into the remote vessels ready to be expel'd is there robb'd of the vital balsam its Crasis perverted and becomes infected with an acid virulent alumenish tincture Nam lintcum menstruo tinctum ut Helmontius loquitur si demergatur in aquam bullientem maculam contrahit inposterum indelibilem quae tertiâ saltem elotione excidit è linteo foraminato non secus ac si spiritu sulphuris acido aut tincturâ aluminosa corrosum foret which depraved virulent acidity is not transmitted from other digestions but is innate and connatural to the place like the stercorary ferment to the cacum and rectum of the Guts 35. If this virulent aerimony with which the separated menstrual blood is vitiated becomes
by a retrograde motion revulsed into the veins or arteries where the vivid balsamick blood circulates which is done sometimes by unseasonable cold contracted at the crisis of evacuation or by too much blood spent in venesection or by symptomatical enragements of that furibund animal the Matrix or by what other cause soever is I say the effectful cause of direful Diseases proper to that soft sex viz. Syncop's Palpitations Convulsions and horrible strangulations 36. For this exotick revuls'd virulency assaulting the blood and vital spirits therein begins to ferment strongly smites the heart or at least those balsamick spirits which received vitality from the heart thence immediately Swoonings whereby for a time happens a suspension of the vital offices the pulse ceaseth or is weak the spirits flag the circulation of the blood is torpid and all the vital powers shaken sometimes it strikes the heart with a palpitation or trembling viz. the vital spirits stand amazed as if imitten with a thunder-clap from the uterine toxicum also it afflicts with Convulsions making the animal spirits run counter whirling them in oblique gyres to the contortion of the musculous parts 37. And further by an influential manner it causeth terrible strangulations by suddainly stopping the pores of the Lungs and that too though the Lungs be never so sound whence all suspicion of any corrupt matter being there to cause the obstructions is taken away as also the same is evident in that after the cessation of the strangulating paroxysm many times no invisible evacuation follows and this it doth I say by contracting the pores of the Lungs whereby all respiration is intercepted and consequently no pulse nor circulation of blood during that time sometimes this acrimonious virulency hath access to the hypochonders and there especially when it is acuated and grows more virulent by circulation it causeth Frenzies and Madness which sort Mania's prove difficult to cure because they are not generally right understood what is the true effective or efficient cause 38. Thus in short of the cause of these terrifying Diseases of the female sex Now there are other more common but less if at all virulent Diseases which happen frequently to women from the redundancy of blood which not having been brought so far as to be proscribed into the vessels where usually it receives the foresaid menstrual virulency but is because superfluous ready to be transported into the common cloaca yet by obstructions in the Matrix is sent back into the mass of blood where it stuffs the vessels restagnates in some parts causeth swellings and coming too plentifully to the Heart so as not being sufficiently volatiz'd by the respiration of air stuffs the Lungs causing short-windedness heaviness of spirits which in young women causeth the Green-Sickness in others indigestion of stomach Pains Gripings Head-aches and other various symptomes all which are curable by removing the foresaid cause of obstructions by aperient Medicines together with the breathing of a vein which in these Diseases of an inferior order from the bare obstructions and recursions of blood as blood is not impertinent but of use which in the other case of the revulsion of the virulent menstrual ferment into the blood is dangerous but especially at that time when the critical evacuation happens for then it becomes one of the chief causes of the retrogradation thereof into the blood and of all the symptomes issuing thereupon 39. Lastly if an exotick acidity be transmitted from the other previous digestions into the fifth or last or become actually ingendred and fostered therein then it becomes the cause of many Diseases found in those parts for in the ultimate digestion all assimilation of the nutritive juyce is made so that every part according to the innate ferment thereof turns the one similar aliment into its own likeness whence then utrition of all though different parts from one and the same nourishment 40. But if this ferment of any part become alienated from an inbred or transmitted acidity or sowrish saltness it forthwith depraves the nourishment thereof and causeth Aposthumations Fistula's Ulcers Tumors the Evil Tetters Inflammations c. and sometimes rouseth up the paroxysms of the Gout or Sciatica for we see that in Fistula's Ulcers or any other running Sores if the Patient prove exorbitant in his Diet either in eating saltish meats or drinking too much strong drink or to petulant in venereal exercises is easily discernable by the flux of the wound which argues that the almentary juyce made from the food taken in retains some footsteps of its primitive nature which it carries through all the digestions and therewith vitiates the very last and according to the degree of the depravation of the ferment and rawness of the nutritive juyce the different sorts of Ulcers c. proceed 41. That the paroxysm of the Gout may be roused up from the exorbitancy of a spurious acid ferment in the ultimate digestion is not uneasie to apprehend if we consider how some sorts of French Wines Goose salt Meats c. easily excite a fit of the Gout to those who are inclinable thereto which they do either by retaining a specifical ferment through all the digestions untill they come to the synovia of the Joynts and there display their hostileness to the parts by proritating the Gout or rather they vitiate the alimentary Juyce provoke a spurious ferment in the Stomack incense the Archeus at whose beck all the digestions and ferments are subservient who presently impresseth a fermental acidity upon tender synovia of the joynts thence the Gout and all its attendants begin to keep court 42. Now the Gout is a seminal or Ideal Disease inserted into the very initials of life and therefore hereditary which can lie long rooted in the very vital principles ere it make it's first assault and between one fit and another is as really present in its morbid character as when cloathed with all its symptomes only wants an acid ferment and a beck of the Archeus to transmit it into the proper Matrix which it no sooner hath but is podagra omnibus numeris absoluta a complete Gout 43. But an objection meets me which is this viz. That seeing this spurious acidity in the alimentary juyce as it passeth along from one digestion to another becomes the material cause of so many Diseases how comes it that the Diseases it causeth are not terminated in the first second or third digestion seeing that in those places by its action on the ferments and their reaction upon it oftentimes it loseth its acrimony and assumes some other property which it carries into the subsequent digestions and consequently if it be carryed into the last digestion to make Diseases there it must first in its passage through the primary digestions cause Diseases belonging to those parts whereas experience evinceth the contrary 44. To which I return first by saying That all acidities in subsequent digestions of the chyliferous juyce are not always transmitted
offers it self How comes it That when we drink plentifully of strong Drink we become stupid and inebriate therewith is it not from the vapours of the strong Drink ascending into the head that makes a man drunk The Answer is no. For strong Drink is no sooner taken if in an excessive quantity but the subtle inebriating Sulphur thereof begins to act upon the Spirits whether animal or vital communicable with the brain by the nerves of the sixth conjugation and every where at work in all parts of the body so that there is neither need of ascending nor descending the Spirits which are overcome by the toxicum of strong Drink are every where present and as easily oppress'd in the stomack by the inebriating Sulphur of vinous Spirits as in any place 25. But before I go from the figment of a Catarrh I shall give you some account how I apprehend that defluxion of Rheume to happen which I have denied to proceed from vapours ascending from the stomack It is therefore a spurious depravation of the Latex which runs along with the blood and is every where while in the channels of the veins and arteries one with it under a ruby colour but upon any injury inflicted upon any part is almost at hand at the beck of the Archens ready to be separated from its boon companion the blood and to assist towards a washing of that stain impress'd upon the weakned part 26. So that if any injury of Cold become as a Thorn to prick or offend any part which is the same as is meant by taking of Cold presently the Latex which upon all such occasions is ready at hand is commanded away to bring what speedy help may be to the injured part but not being able to perform that work by reason of the prevalency of the thorny impression if I may so call it becomes rather tainted thereby receiving an exotick ferment from the injured part becomes thereby the Patron of all those exorbitant defluxions which are accompanied with pains inflammations or the like This falling upon the Larynx already alienated from an injury of Cold is sometimes turned into a copious mucous matter frequently expell'd by a Coughing 27. But if the Larynx happen to be debilitated through a continual defluxion thereof then it falls upon the Lungs where it perverts the alimentary juyce of that part turns it into a putrelaginous corrupt matter which as worm'd up by the force of a Cough still increaseth as fast so as at length fretting upon the spungy substance of the Lungs wears them away hence Ulcers of the Lungs Tabes or Consumption 28. If the Ossa Ithmoeida in the Nostrils be the parts affected from an injury of the cold Air or smoke of Coals or other bad offensive fumes thence a Coryza viz. a Disease we should all be troubled with in case that vapours actually ascended from the stomack to the head If the eyes be the parts offended thence an Ophthalmia viz. a defluxion of Rheums with an accompanied inflammation If the teeth or nervous parts therein be offended and that from the injury of the Air reaching thither through the hollowness thereof thence an Odontalgia viz. Tooth-ach with a defluxion of Rheum or portion of Latex showring down that way 29. Besides the exotick quality the Latex gets from injured parts to which it is carried by the next adjacent glandules to wash away the things offending or the impression it hath left behind as if a Mote injure the Eye a great quantity of Latex will presently flow to it to wash it out and that too from the soundest of bodies The like happens if any volatile acrimonious Spirits as of vinous Sal armoniack or Harts-horn smite the Nostrils presently an insipid Latex runs to the affected part and makes the Nose run The like also if any unwonted taste offend the Palate what a spitting doth it cause which is nothing but an insipid Latex which hasts away to wash off the impression the offensive thing hath left so a thorn pricking any fleshy part presently the adjacent Latex is sent away which endeavouring to wash off the impression the Thorn hath left but cannot thence upon a further conflux of more Latex comes a tumour and a pulse a pain and inflammation c. which being vitiated by the perverted ferment of the part turns sometimes to an Ulcer 30. I say besides the hurtful quality the Latex gets from the injured parts it also sometimes becomes depraved and badly qualified from some inbred cause even in the very vessels of the blood or in the lympheducts often tinctured with an hostile sharp pontick saltish acrimony which upon that very account is often proscribed from the oeconomy of life into some external parts quibus poenas luit whom it punisheth with its own crime tainting them with that they knew not before If this by the motion of nature be thrown upon any part it actually weakens it by impressing its own character thereon Hinc tincturae ac impressiones venenosae in vitam durabiles if it be thrown upon the Lungs it certainly causeth a phthisis Tabes or Consumption wears away the life insensibly 31. If upon the menninges of the brain hence inveterate and most obstinate head-aches not bending unless to the best of Arcana's If upon the Eyes it causeth Opthalmia's of most difficult cure If upon the Gums it ulcerates them loosening the Teeth together with intolerable pains If upon the Palate it ulcerates and mortifies them and in the French Disease it is that spurious Latex which retains the venomous properties for wherever it settles it ulcerates when tainted with the venom of that Disease It is also the author of Scorbutick and other cacoethical Ulcers 32. The waters of the Spaw may I confess at the long run and with continual use for a competent time help to dint the acrimony of this spurious Latex if it be not too much graduated nor hath not too immoderately weakned the parts for then nothing short of noble Chymical Arcana's that are enriched with a penetrative and restorative Balsom will effect the cure such as are the Spirit of Salt of Tartar the prepared Sulphur of Vitriol the tinctura lilii c. 33. Now as the forenamed Diseases are not curable by the Spaw so neither are Fevers especially continued for a Fever is a spurious fermentation of the blood from a depravation of the Elementary juyce coming too crudely into the third digestion where it should be elaborated into vital blood but by reason of its rawness or other alienated properties it perverts the natural ferment of the heart causeth a preternatural working and boyling in the blood by reason of plenty of Heterogeneities that are heapt up with the nutritive juyce 34. Now whatever hinders the natural fermentation of the blood from purifying it self by separation of Heterogeneities that I say rather aggrayates than abates a Fever but such is the coldness of the water Cold being the great enemy to the ferments of
purifying Medicines answer that which some ingenuous Wine-Coopers perform by putting some peculiar thing into the Wines which will leasurely put a stop to the overworking of the Wines but the skill of such persons is shewed herein that what they put into the Wines doth so specifically if I may call it stay the overworking of the Wines as that no prejudice succeeds upon the radical principles thereof so as they are not liable thereby to decay or degenerate so likewise by the skill of the Physitian such noble Arcana's whether Specificks or such as are more universal in their depurating operation are to be administred as may not only leasurely put a stop to the overfermenting of the blood but restore it to its equal temperature and proportional poysure of principles thereby renewing its eucrasia and fortifying the balsam of life But frequent Phlebotomizing doth rob the blood of a great share of those remaining volatile balsamick Spirits and therefore not proper for the restoration of its eucrasia 42. Hence those that recover under their hands do it with much lingering and tediousness because of the great enfeebling of their Spirits by loss of blood the very Weapon in the hand of Nature to manage its encounters with Diseases which is strangely snatched out of its hands by many of its pretended Friends the Physitians who without pity see her bleeding upon the spot and cry out yet with flinty hearts Blood blood yet more blood Nay after a ternary of bleedings and as often vomitings and purgings in an obstinate Fever which would neither bend to this severe method nor the life make its exit thereby One able Physitian being asked What he would now do after all this To which he ingenuously answered That unless he run the same round again he was at a stand what to do further The Querying person returned That he did believe if he run but the same round over again from the beginning to the end the Patient would by that time be perfectly cured of all Diseases 43. I grant That the single breathing of a vein or artery or a moderate Phlebotomy may and doth sometimes help in a Fever where nothing of Malignity is suspected and that chiefly upon the account of the ventilation of the blood by which I mean a setting at liberty that incoercible flatus which is the product of the febrile fermentation in the vessels of the blood for this uncoagulable Spirit or wild Gas which alwayes results and is the sequel of a spurious fermentation if it be not dinted or let forth either by breathing a vein or by Diaphoreticks which opening the pores let it go at so many minute portals then it runs too and again in the vessels of the blood and causeth erratick pains restlessness and unquietness of Spirits 44. Therefore we find upon the ventilation of the blood by a moderate Phlebotomy that pains are abated whether pluretick or others which the Galenists observing take encouragement of arguing à minori ad majorem viz. That if a little blood taking away give some ease of pains then surely the taking away of a great deal must give more ease and so if they would yet hold on their argument the taking away of all the blood will give perfect ease not only from pains but from all diseases Would they go no further than to argumentation the Patient might very well bear with them but they come to put this into action they bleed once it s very well I wish they would second it with a Specifick they stay not here but go to it a second and a third time to the great loss of Spirits and enfeebling of the Patient and oftentimes the disease as much if not more to cure than ever and the Patient left less capable of it 45. I confess I never order Phlebotomy oftner than once in a Fever and that too with reluctancy bemoaning my self That I have not yet attained to a Medicine that will answer all Indications thereof for it is only our poverty of noble Arcana's which makes us stoop to so low and trite a method and yet I may be bold to affirm That I have been instrumental to cure Fevers of that nature where the Galenists suppose most necessity of Blood-letting even Plurisies by Specificks without Phlebotomy Nay further I have been with some Patients who in Pluresies have undergone a Galenical method of twice blooding c. ready for the third time and the Fever yet as high as at first whom after all this I have by the blessing of God cured with a diaphoretick Specifick once or twice repeated and sometimes one single Dose thereof hath so abated the pains and allayed the feverishness as that very little more hath been requisite to the cure Demptâ spinâ pleurae infixâ per diaphoreticum cessat ipsa pleuresis 46. As for the third and last Indication viz. the fortification of the digestions and vital Spirits Phlebotomy doth diametrically oppose and that because it robs the blood of part of its treasure surreptitiously stealing away its balsam and therefore as I said actually debilitates the vital Spirits making them loure their Topsails upon a fresh incounter of the Disease so that though seemingly the Disease may not assault so strongly as before it is not altogether through the abating the former force of the Disease as it is from the weakening of the vital powers who are not able to make as forcible an attempt to expel the malady as before and therfore flags before its enemy 47. As in acute so in Chronical Diseases the frequent use of Plebotomy is not commendable nor proper and that because in long Diseases the digestions being deprav'd the blood whose eucrasia depends upon the vigor thereof becomes degenerated from its sweet balsamick rubie essence into an austere sharp pontick or saltish liquor which growing old for want of due fermentation and circulation restagnates in the vessels makes hetrogeneous coagulations whence Pains Tumors Ulcers inward and outward the common product of Chronical Diseases 48. So that what remains to be done in these chronick Diseases is rather to super-induce a new reviving ferment into these old decayed wines the blood that thereby new volatile Spirits might be ingendred and the sweet balsamick essence be restored then yet further to weaken by Phlebotomy the sinking vital Spirits which if they could speak it would be Vox querebunda manibus quorundum Medicorum tyrannicis gemens Hinc lachrymae viz. Faint cold sweats into which agony poor languishing Nature is often thrown having both its strength first weakned by the continuance and prevalency of powerful Diseases and at last by the hand of its Physician who should if rightly so be its helper to have its little stock of vital balsamick Spirits wasted by a palpable weakner Phlebotomy 49. Amongst the most obvious symptomes and to the Patient most urging is that of thirst which because it is not natural the more they drink the more they would This according
being strongly fired becomes fixt and is edulcorated by repeated distillations of rectified Spirit of Wine from it to ten times and then becomes sweet and is also called Aurum horizontale of which he saith Omnem san it febrem unicâ potione Hecticam intra Lunae decursum oretenus enim sumptus curat carcinoma lupum quodlibet est hominum cacoethes ulcus sive externum sive internum itemque hydropem Asthma Morbum quemcumque Chronicum complet solus desideria medentum tam in Physicis quà m Chirurgicis defectibus by all which it may certainly be concluded to be a Panacea in as much as according to what he affirms it cures all acute and Chronick Diseases Sed nobis non licet esse tam disertos 57. I do not here pretend to it but doubt not of the veracity of that noble Philosopher who wrought Thirty Years in the search of Natures choicest Secrets whose Master-piece was the Liquor Alkahest Precipitatus Diaphoreticus Arcannm Corallinum Tinctura lilii Sulphur Vitrioli Metallus masculus Elementum Lac perlarum the Spirit of Salt of Tartar Elixir Proprietatis c. all which conspire the restitution of the integrity of health though disturbed from what occasional cause soever For the Life or Spiritus impetum faciens is but one receives the influences of Diseases into it self which according to the variety of occasional causes becomes differently affected and disturbed whence the multiplicity of Diseases which by an highly graduated Medicine reaching the very radical principles of this Archeus or regent Spirit of Life corrects the enormities and irregularities thereof and by abstersing the offending occasional causes restores it to its pristine integrity Vita vis ejus est unica integra nisi a caussis alienis degeneretur tum tanquam serpens saevit in seipsum Morborum evadit Matrona quâ restitutâ eadem ut antea est vitae integritas What noble effects these generous and universal remedies may have upon the vital Archeus in order to its restitution from the burden of Maladies may not uneasily be apprehended by those who do but see the efficacy of their substitures whether in Chronical or acute Diseases SECT 9. 1. THus having run through the Diseases or at least most of them to the Cure of which the Spaw contributes little help Now come we to those Diseases where the efficacy of the Spaw is most discernable viz. the Scurvy Dropsie Stone or Strangury Jaundise Hypocondriack Melancholy Cachexia's and Womens Diseases proceeding from the obstructions of the Menses all which faving that of the Stone and Womens Diseases as they have their first Springs from the irregularity of the ferment of the Stomach Spleen and some next succeeding digestions so they are thereby more capable of receiving the virtue of the Spaw which chiefly operates upon the stomach abstersing the sordes thereof whence it becomes very proper against frequent and immoderate Vomitings Heart-burnings from an over-acidity grating upon the upper mouth thereof Pains of the Stomach from the like cause c. 2. First as to the Scurvy which Disease at its full state though it ultimately vitiate the whole habit of the body and brings on a Cachexia yet the first seminaries thereof are found in the Stomach where the nutritive juyce being not well concocted by the ferment thereof for no solitary heat but a ferment is the agent of concoction the first stone is there laid towards the building of the Scruvy this first alienation of the alimentary juyce being not corrected nor amended in the subsequent digestions comes crudely into the third into the mass of blood ready to receive the vital ferment in the heart which finding many untameable hetrogeneities cannot sub jugum trahere bring it into conformity whence the crasis of the blood becomes perverted from its sweet balsamick essence into a sourish saltish and at the height of the Disease vapid liquor 3. Now the essurine alumenish salt of this Spring doth notably absterse the feculencies of the stomach and thereby strengthens the ferment thereof which to Persons who have not or if they have but in a remiss degree the Water may be of use to prevent the Disease and to those who have it in an intense degree it will abate the first spring or feeding cause thereof and by the penetrating Mineral Salt in the Water may insinuate the limen of the third digestion where especially if helped by the addition of some restorative balsamick Medicines it may in continuance of time overcome that Dyscrasie of the blood by removing that which is superfluous may replenish the blood with its wonted vital ferment and by dinting the spurious saltness thereof may restore it to its primitive sweet balsamick nature 4. The Spaw Water together with the change of air is pertinent to the aforesaid purpose especially as I said if seconded by other penetrating Medicines which hath a power to dint the scorbutick ferment Of which sort are the tincture of Antimony the right prepared Spirit of Salt the Volatile Salt of Harts-horn the Spirit of Salt of Tartar the Volatile Spirit of Scurvy-grass Ens Veneris all which as a balsamick condiment season the nutritive juyce separate exotick heterogeneities therefrom by their proper emunctories sweetens the blood by renewing its former volatile balsamick Spirits and restores it to its pristine Eucrasia which done the scorbutick products whether Pains Tumors Ulcers sore and swelling of the Gooms looseness of Teeth and the like ceaseth and the Scurvy is Cured 5. Secondly The Dropsie may be helped by the Spaw which to affirm though at the first sight it may seem unreasonable and contradictory because in this Disease the blood is already too much diluted with a waterishness yet if we consider the efficient cause which is chiefly an obstruction of the Reins the strangeness will be taken away for although there be a real vitiating of the ferment of the stomach and an aedust Alkalizate sordes impacted in the tunicles thereof whence a Feverishness and a pressing thirst constantly attends Dropsical Persons which Fever is not primary but symptomatical 6. I say though the ground-work of this as of most Diseases be in the stomach yet is the main cause an obstruction of the Reins which being the principal emunctory of the potable parts of the nutritive juyce whether being separable from the mass of blood by the emulgent veins or by any other nearer passage to the Reins if through the congestion of some mucous recrement the small vessels are obstructed as usually in this case happens then is the superfluous liquid latex ready for separation regurgitated either back into the mass of blood and thence into the habit of the body whence that species of the Dropsie called Anasarcasis which by the Anastomasis of the vessels sometimes lets a part thereof fall into the legs swelling them especially towards night and at other times swallows them up again into the former vessels and the legs become unswell'd again
testimonium defectuum naturalium signaque in fronte gerunt aliquid amplius in venis ac arteriis adesse Whence sometimes Pustules in the Face Redness of Eyes with a swelling of the circumjacent veins whence also Tumors in several parts of the body Pain in the head and other parts and many other Diseases which owe their original to no other than this essential cause 27. All which indicate a Plethory or Turgescence through overmuch plenty of blood whence the mass of blood through a distention of the membranes of the vessels doth as it were restagnate therein especially in the Bronchy's of the Lungs where the blood setting as the vulgar word is and the motion of the Diaphragme being unproportionable towards its agile transmission into other parts and that by reason of the Laxation and flagging of the membranes thereof over-charged with too great afflux of blood Whence an Indisposition Dulness and Sluggishness of the body Shortness of Breath an oppression of the Praecordia or upper mouth of the stomach c And in a further degree of this restagnation or setting of the blood proceeds sometimes Syncopes Palpitations and Suffocations yea at length Death it self And all this from a bare solitary restagnation of the blood in the vessels through a retention of that which should naturally be separated at its due critical season 28. Now further if the blood upon these retentions restagnate about the mouths of the vessels of the Matrix especially if tainted with any virulency from the reflux of some corrupt Menstrual blood whose current hath been stopped by cold passion or the like at the very time of Critical evacuation thence the Archeal Regimen of the Matrix that Animal furibundum becomes rouz'd up which acts at a distance viz. in other remote parts of the body by that manner of operation which Helmont calls a Blass alterativum which I cannot nearer compareto any other than to the spiritus sylvestris or flatus incoercibilis mentioned before yet is not formally the same 29. It is an influential manner of acting which I judge to be Identical with that whereby the Soul acts upon the Body by passion darting a Raye here or there upon this part or the other ad lubitum for this influential Blass or what other name we may give it so it comprehend the nature of the thing it exerciseth its tyranny on remote parts viz. the Hypochonders Stomach Lungs Brain c. as by violent forcible motions and tensions of the Hypochonders enough to require the strength of two or three men sometimes to keep down and by causing the blood to restagnate in the Lungs and Heart whence a cessation of the Pulse and circulation of the blood also an instantaneous Asthma together with a cespitation of the animal Spirits accompanyed sometimes with a contorsion of some musculous parts whence Convulsions and the like in the conclusion it puts a stop to all the digestions and functions of the body save its own and that irregular 30. These Hysterical paroxysms are often occasionally brought on by passions in those women inclinable thereto which like as a Feverish Delirium imitates the narcotick Sulphur of Opium or rather as the animal Spirits are identically wrought upon by a Fever as by a large Dose of Opium both working the same effect perverting the imaginative faculty causing wandring irregular Phantasms and sudden irrational Idea's with preposterous glances the operation of the one scarce distinguishable from the other So in like manner the uterine Archeus or Spiritus impetum faciens connatural to that part is equally irritated and provoked by a passion of the mind as by a virulency from regurgitated foetid Menstrual blood recurring upon the innocent mass thereof in those I mean inclinable to these Hysterical Fits 31. This uterine Faber takes a like occasion from both to become furious and to act by its alterative Blass upon other distant parts and that à vi regiminis as the noble Helmont calls it whereby it equally from the one cause as from the other stretcheth the Hypochonders by a furious incoercible flatus which if it should proceed from a windiness of the Matrix according to the vulgar Galenical notion the part had need to be charged with wind like a gun yea and ramm'd too which how they will be able to make forth I know not and after every discharging the wind or air must be forcibly attracted by the mouth or posteriors to make a fresh charge for a new fit which forcible attraction hath never yet that I ever heard of been observed only if the Paâ—ient get a rift the incoercible flatus gets vent and she is better until the next arbitrary Blass or flatus stretch the parts again 32. This flatulent Blass of the uterine Archeus is far more prevalent than the Elastick power of the air for if the trite notion were true That the Fits of the Mother were from a bare windiness of the Womb which rowls up the Abdomen to the Hypochonders puffs and swells up the parts then must the Womb be supposed as a Pneumatick Engine out of which the air being exhausted how or by what means I know not the air of the convex part must of necessity have a strong pressure or Elastick force to return into the concave thereof to supply the forced vacancy so that the pressure would not be so much from the Womb as towards it unless at the time of the suction of the air Which suppose we grant yet would the external pressure of the air be as strong to return into its vacant and deserted cavity and thereby force the membranous parts of the Matrix to give way flag and falk before it till it came to an equal poyse again and so no forcible wind would thence press the adjacent parts to any such injury as ordinarily the uterine flatus doth 33. So that let them contrive all the ways imaginable how to solve all the urgent Phoenomena's of this Hypothesis grounded upon a solitary flatus which according to the ordinary acceptation is only a latio or motus aeris and we shall find a flaw in them for as such though forced with Engines in the body which we know not how they can prove yet cannot perform neither with that clerity nor force what the otherwise violent operative Blass of the Matrix can suddainly display even ictu oculi For as a blast or malignant influence in the chanels or peroledi of the air doth suddainly smite and wither branches of Trees or other Fruits of the earth or Faces of People where they hit so quanquam hand passibus equis where this malevolent influential Blass or incoercible flatus of the Womb hits those parts are afflicted with the raging force thereof But to return 34. Now as obstructions and regurgitations of the Menstruals and passions of the mind are the Procatartick or occasional causes of Hysterical Fits and concomitant symptomes thereof so as I said are debilitudes of the Placenta
of earth dried in an Oven having put them in earthen vessel he moistened it with Rain-water after five years the Tree weighed One Hundred Sixty nine pound three Ounces and the earth being dried was of the same weight as at first Now Whence should proceed the great addition of weight to the Tree of no less than One Hundred Sixty four pounds unless from water than which it had no other additional The wood of which Tree I suppose no man will deny to be different from any other wood of the same species and therefore upon Distillation must yield a sowre Spirit an Oyl Phlegm and Salt if burnt and separated into soot and ashes that soot again would yield a velatile Salt Oyl Spirit Phlegm and Earth all which are but the products of water as by the Experiment is demonstrable To the like purpose the most ingenuous Robers Boyl Esq hath an Experiment which was thus In a weighed quantity of digged earth baked in an Oven and put into an earthen pot he set the seed of a Squash this he ordered to be watered only with Rain or Spring-water I did not saith he without much delight behold how fast it grew though unseasonably sown which was about the middle of May the hastening Winter hindred it from coming to its wonted magnitude About the middle of October it was taken up whose weight with the stalk and leaves was two Pound twelve ounces the earth he baked as formerly and found it the same weight The like Experiment he had of Cucumbers he had two fair ones the weight of which were ten pounds and an half the branches with the roots weighed three pounds fourteen ounces then baking the earth twice and its weight was decreased one pound and an half which twice baking might somewhat minorate the weight of the earth Now Whence should proceed that great bulk both in the Squash and Cucumbers unless from water which was the only matter additional thereto And what happens to these planted in earth and fed with water whose increase is found to be simply from water The same I say doth more than probably happen to all other Vegetables springing up from their innate Seeds or transplanted into other Soyls and that the Earth is only a receptacle or Matrix where the variety of Seeds conceive in the common Mercury Water or Leffas Terrae and bring forth a Salt and Sulphur from whose acting one upon another in the source of corruption ariseth the Vegetation and in that the formation of the Plant according to the Idea wrapt up in the bosom of the Seed for these two active secondary Principles being hewed out from the seminal Archeus work themselves extensively downward but chiefly upwards cloath themselves with a body from the primary Element of Water and shoot forth into stalks leaves flowers fruits seeds c. shapes the body according to the platform of the seminal Idea extraverteth the properties thereof whence the variety of colours odours sapours and other specifical qualities flowing from the essence thereof better known to the humane Archeus by assisting it against many Diseases than apparent to the reason of man As we have demonstrated Vegetables to have their original material Principles from water so also Animals have water for their constitutive Element For all Animals I mean superterrestrial have their nourishment either immediately or mediately from Vegetables and Water immediately as all manner of Cattle proper for the food of Man mediately as Man who feeds upon the flesh of Beasts and sometimes immediately upon Herbs themselves so that in Beasts that feed of Grass and Corn Water becomes once more remov'd from its primitive simplicity undergoes a further transmutation by an Animal Ferment that whereas before it had received a simple transmutation or coagulation into plants and fruits of the earth it now by Beasts feeding thereon suffers a second alteration and by the Ferment of an Animal is turn'd into a Chyle Chyme Milk Blood Urine Flesh Bones c. and all these different one from another according to the difference of the Species Now these Creatures or parts thereof are further transmutable by the Ferment of other Animals that feed upon them as for instance the flesh of Beasts or milk therefrom which is water twice remov'd by the Medium of Ferments is by the Ferment of an humane stomach altered again into a Chyle Chyme Milk Blood Flesh Bones Urines c. wherein the specifical Salt and Sulphur do act variously upon each other which in sound persons by the assistance of the Ferment of the heart work each other into a ruby balsamick Animal Elixir and that coagulated in the capillary vessels becomes Flesh And we see if Blood be distill'd the greatest portion thereof is Phlegm or Water so that above two thirds thereof is an Elementary water in like manner Urine is most part of it separable into a waterish Phlegm and Milk distill'd ariseth the most of it in an insipid water in the distillation of the flesh of an Animal a great part thereof ariseth into water amongst which the flesh of Eeles if distill'd as that great Naturalist Squire Boyle witnesseth yield a very great proportion of water in which while distilling they seem to boyl as in a pot of water or like Dantz Vitriol in an earthen pot placed in the fire seemed to be nothing else but water so these to be nothing else but Phlegm coneal'd To which purpose Helmont tells us Anguium Carnes pisces Mucilago semel glaciata eo ipso mucaginem amittunt in aquam redeunt itam emnis Terrae Mucilago qua aliàs facilè in vermes vertitur for that Izinglass Flesh Fish c. should by being frozen lose their form and thereby be reducible into water is no less than an evident Argument of what I am proving viz. That water is the primary subjective Principle of all Vegetable and Mineral Concretes And that Seed together with the potential Ferments thereof are the Authors of all transmutations by the operation of which Water becomes differently coagulated and specificated according to the variety of the Seed and the innate Ferments thereof into this or the other formal Concrete or part thereof which Ferments being connatural with the Seed is more powerful than fire and therefore fitter Agents for transmutation than fire and that because fire can only burn Stones into a Calx as the most profound Philosopher Helmont saith and wood or Vegetables are thereby turned into ashes than which unless by addition of Sand it may further make glass the solitary fire can operate no further and yet these very Calx-stones and ashes may by a Ferment in the earth be transmuted into the Succus or Leffas Terrae and thereby fertilize barren grounds and so assume the shape of Grass and Corn which a while before was in the form of Stones Dung Ashes c. and that which was lately Grass and Corn presently by the Ferment of an Animal becomes Blood Milk and Flesh of
come in places pregnant with a petrefying seed become congealed into a stone from which lapidifying Juyce all Stones whether Rocks Quarryes Marcasites or what Stones soever within or upon the surface of the earth had their concretion originally Hence is the reason why some Animals are found inclosed in some Stones or other Mineral concretions as for instance that a Toad should be found alive in the midst of a Stone or that a Spider or other Insect should be found in a peice of Amber It is I say because these Animals are there whilst these Stony or other Mineral Concretions are in Succo for Amber is of late found to be a Mineral and no product of the Sea as it was usually suppos'd There is lately a Mine thereof found in Germany which brings in a great profit to the Duke of Brandenburg It consists chiefly of a sulphur and a Salt as we find by the distillation and rectification thereof Now all Minerals are or have been at some time or other in suis Principiis in their first Succulencies in which at the time of Concretion if any other thing happen to be there it 's wrap't up together with it which keeping the inclosed bodies from the air and consequently from any Analytical putridness are as a constant defensive Balsam preserving them perpetually from corruption All Mineral Seed is invisible and to make themselves visible according to the appointment of God in nature having got sutable Matrixes begin by a Subterraneal heat peculiar to the place to work upon the Element of water which it impregnates and transmutes into a Mineral Juice in which Juyce the Seed begins to work it self into a Mineral Mercury and Sulphur and in some places into a Mineral Salt Now according to the purity or impurity Volatility or fixity of the Sulphur so becomes the Mineral more or less pure retaining a Specifical difference from the first Ens of the Seed Amongst which some have their Mercurial parts stained with a malignant Arsenical Sulphur viz. Realgar auripigmentum Antimony c. but if the Sulphur be so strong as in its union with the Mercury it rejects the most Heterogeneities which usually in Mineral productions adhere thereto then doth this combination of the Sulphur and Mercury arise to a Metalline Compages For The first specification of the Mineral Spermatick Mercury is into Quicksilver or Metalline Mercury the next coagulation of Mercury after the rejection of some Heterogeneal Sordes by Sulphur is Saturnine where the Mineral Seed first puts on a Metalline form which is called Saturn or Lead whose Mineral is Antimony when or where this Sulphur becomes more depurated it coagulates the Metalline Mercury into Jupiter or Tinn But if the sulphur attain a Solar tincture and yet retain many permiscible Heterogeneities it coagulates the Metalline Mercury into Mars or Iron If this Sulphur in its Solar tincture receive a depuration of some of the aforesaid Heterogeneities it coagulates into Venus or Copper which comes nigh in tincture but is farr short in Pondus of Sol or Gold for as Basil ius Valentinus saith that in Mars and Venus lodge Solar tinctures which graduated by Nature or Art are deducible into Sol and that because the soul or seed of Sol is found therein and not onely in them but in their Minerals where they are nearer to their Primum ens in which also by the way doth lodge the Sulphur Philosophorum But if this Sulphur be so far graduated as that there is a through-separation of all Heterogeneities and that the Sulphur hath almost inseparably united it Self with the Mercury then they are coagulated into Luna or Silver which though it come short both in Tincture and Pondus of Sol yet because there is a total separation of Heterogeneities it lies in the direct road by further maturation to both and thereby to become Sol it self which is Apex Metallorum the prefectest of Metals whose Sulphur and Mercury are inseperably united and by maturation graduated in tincture and pondus to this unary perfection of the best of Metals Thus we see how Water the primary Element by the spermatick efflorescence of a Mineral Seed becomes wrought into a Mineral Juyce and that by a peculiar fermentation is turned into a Mercury and Sulphur and those again by maturating or ripening each other according to the degrees of the purity of the Sulphur rejection of Heterogeneities and union together become transmuted or rather exalted into metalline Bodies where at length water by the concentration of the metalline Seed puts on the Pondus and tincture of Metals As the Seeds of Minerals are invisible so likewise are the Seeds of Vegetables and Animals as for Vegetables indeed the grain or husk which is improperly called Seed we see but the prolifique part thereof which is truely the Seed cannot be discerned by the most acurate artificially contriv'd Mieroscropes being as the Cosmopolite saith his manner of computation I know not but the 820th part of the visible grain however they are so minute as not to fall under the sense of our Opticks though helped with the best contriv'd glasses and although some plants are propagable otherwise then by Seed I mean then by the husk where usually the Seed works as Rosemary Mint Sage c. whose tops or slips set in the ground take from whence they grow and increase yet in such as also in the Scions Imps and Grafts of fruit Trees the seed or prolifique part is dispersed almost though the whole body of the Plants and Trees whose manner of assuming a body from the leffas terrae and of that from the Element of Water I have already described And as I have shewed the progress of Vegetable and Mineral Seed from Water into all the visible clothings of their bodies so now I would observe to my self how the Animal Seed works upon that which originally is Water and from that doth shape it self according to the appointment of God into a body consisting of Blood Flesh Bones Sinews Nerves Arteryes Head Stomach Heart Spleen c. First then the Sperme it self is nothing else originally but Water altered by the several Ferments of the body and circulated in the Seminal vesels till it becomes impregnate with an efflorescence of the whole body which indeed is the Seed or prolifique part thereof for the Sperm is onely the receptacle or vehicle of that Seed Now when the efflorescence becomes maturated For a Child Chicken c. whilst such are not capable of prapagating their like and that the Spermatick liquor is throughly digested in the vessels adapted for that purpose then begins that Titillatio that sixth sense according to Scaliger or Prurigo Venerea by which being conveighed into a proper capacitated Matrix the efflorescence of the Masculine Seed doth impregnate or breath upon for I know not how better to express it then by a kind of occult breathing the Female passive Seed which is a Juyce preparable from all the Ferments
Earth up to the Clouds and from thence down again to the Earth but that the moysture in the Air should be reputed Air transmuted into Water viz That which falls upon stone-walls in moyst seasons is so absurd as it 's enough to confute it to name it So that we may conclude that the moysture in the Air which settles it self upon the Walls and floors of Stone-buildings neither is nor ever was Air and that the transmutability of Air into Water in the bowels of the Earth is impossible and lastly that Springs viz. the fontes perennes have not their Original from Rain and Snow 36. Thus I have run through the most considerable things which the Doctor offers in order to the confirming his opinion of Rain and Snow Water to be the Original of Quick-springs and all along I think have probably if not demonstratively overturn'd his Opinion together with the grounds arguments and reasons thereof I might I confess multiply more words in prosecuting at large his whole discourse but studying brevity I have couch'd all he hath to say that is any way pertinent to his purpose saving the story he relates out of Dr. Heylin concerning the Island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea which without reflection on that worthy Author who as well as other Historians may probably take many things upon trust which I say as to the verity of matter of fact I should very much scruple viz. That a drought should continue so long as thirty six years so as all the Springs Torrents or Rivers were dried up and that in the dayes of Constantine the Great It 's very probable he had it by Tradition which many times to wing Fame makes large plumes That an Island so near the Mediterranean Sea should want rain for 36 years together would certainly put an ordinary credulity upon the Tenter-hooks and stretch a Thomas beyond his ordinary pitch for of all places Islands are the most frequented with Showers And that it should be done designedly by God upon a miraculous divine account I do not well understand because that has its ends and aims for the punishing the Natives where judgements are brought forth which done they frequently cease but here according to the story they were forc'd to forsake the Island and to seek for new habitations so that probably it may pass for a drought in Utopia 37. And lastly the two Rarities he mentions that are to be found upon the Castle-Hill in Scarborough viz. the deep Well which reacheth to the bottom of the rock which hath no water and the spring-Well which is within half a yard of the edge of the rock towards the Sea which never wants water which he saith doth somewhat illustrate the point in hand The first of which seems to me onely to be a Well digg'd within whose compass no Chanels have happened and therefore it is dry for so narrow a compass as a Well is may sometimes happen to miss of subterraneal Chanels And as for the other which is so neer the edge of the Rock towards the Sea which never wants Water I look upon it as supply'd from the same cause that other digg'd restagnant Wells are viz. from Land-springs which are feed from Rain or Snow-Water which yet makes nothing in reality towards the confirming his Thesis for it is no current Spring to the best of my remembrance which yet suppose it were it will not be uneasy to conceive the manner and way of its supply when I have propounded what I have to say in order to the establishing a new Thesis which will be positive to the point in hand 38. And that is as I hinted before from a circulation of Water in the Terraqueous Globe by the mediation of Subterraneal Channels along the Sabulum bulliens from Sea to Sea yea and from the Sea to the Heads of Springs and from them into Rivulets and those into Rivers and thence into the Ocean and so circulates round which also includes an other circle of Rain and Snow which first arising by exhalation from the Sea and Earth is carryed down again upon the Earth and Sea joyning Issue with rivulets from Springs swell Rivers which again discharge themselves into the Sea 39. So that a Circulation of water is as justly requisite according to the order and appointment of the primitive Cause for the upholding the Symmetry of parts and intirenes of the whole terraqueous Globe as the Cirulation of blood is necessary for the preservation of life and vital functions in the Microcosme or body of man The earth can no more produce Vegetables or Minerals without this connatural circulation of water replenish'd with Celestial influences than the blood in the body of man can produce Vital or Animal Spirits requisite for absolving the functions of life without its inbred circulation which concatenation of parts in the circulation thereof gave cause to some Philosophers of old to call the world a great Animal either because that animarum omnia plena viz. that the Seeds of all things are at hand and at the beck of the primitive Fiat alwayes at work or because of the great Symmetry of parts or coordinate circulations of the constituent Particles of the World whose proportions were so exact and actions upon each other in the circle of nature so uniform as if actuated by some Panspermion or universal operative Spirit Spiritus intus alit totumque infusa per orbem mens agitat molem 40. Not to say how Analogous the Sea and Hydrophylacia those great Cisterns of Water and Springs of the Deep that in Noah's Food joyn'd Issue with the Cataracts of Haven for drowning the World are to the heart of the Microcosme nor how Analogous the Channels of the Quellem or Sabulum bulliens which cary the Waters into the uttermost circle of the Earth for the supply of Mineral Glebes Minerals themselves and Vegetables upon the Green Carpet thereof are to the Arteries in the body of man by which the blood circulates from the Heart for the nourishment of the whole nor yet to determine the analogy of these circulating Waters further drawn up by Solar exhalations which clime up the slender Threds of Aereal Syphons into the Capitol of the Air to be impregnate there with Coelestial influences or Animal spirits if I may so call them which cohobated upon their own body promote vegetation yea and animation too by becoming that cibus occultus in aere of which the Cosmopolite and other Hermetical Philosophers discourse at large I say not to determine the Analogy of these Waters replenish'd in their circuit with Heavenly influences with those Animal spirits in the little World Man which in the Head receive a determination for obsolving the functions of sense and motion 41. Nor lastly to determine thoroughly the Analogy of water whilst circulating in the bowels of the Earth along the Channels of the Sabulum to the blood whilst circulating in the Veins and Arâ—â—ries of the humane body though
I confess to illustrate this Point will not a little conduce to the solving some Phaenomina incident to our Thesis 42. And first we see that blood whilst circulating in its proper vessels knows no such difference as either going up or down For it to ascend the Aorta and from thence up into other Arteries which are carried into the Head and Arms is the same as to descend by other Vessels into the lower parts The nourishment the blood gives in the habit of the body whether carried upwards or downwards is the same yea it ascends with as quick a motion as it descends and that because it 's carried in its own proper vessels and mov'd by the Systole of the heart whose vibration to parts whether upwards or downwards is equal 43. Now in like manner Water whilst circulating from Seas and the Hydrophylacia and carried in its proper Subterraneal Channels along the Quellem is in its proper place and becomes the Mother of Mineral Earths Minerals Metals Stones and Marcasites and so long knows neither up nor down and can as easily whilst in these Channels climb up the tops of Hills and Mountains and there make Springs as break forth in Valleys and in the Level of Plains yea it can as well mount the tops of Hills and high Heaths as the blood in the Arteries can ascend into the head and all by the natural circulation of Water set on work by the Original Fiat for the upholding the functions of the Terraqueous Globe where if such a thing be in rerum naturá you may view the Perpetual motion 44. Now that the Quellem or Sabulum bulliens is the proper Conduit and Subterraneal Channel for water to circulate in whilst in the bowels of the Earth is hereby apparent That a true Quick-Spring never breaks forth but this sand also appears yea where ever any dig in the Earth for the said Springs they are not found but at the bottom or verge of the Fundus of Mineral Earth Clay or marly ground where sand is alwayes seen to break up with the living Spring which frequently breaks forth under the Channels and banks of Rivers whence it is that plenty of sand is wrought up in Rivers also in Plains Valleys Heaths Hills and Mountains or in any places thereof digg'd for Springs are found as I said store of this Sand. 45. And that there are Subterraneal Channels by which Sea 's at great distance communicate with each other will appear first if we consider the Ocean which is the whole bulk of waters that compass the Globe of earth is but one which receives different names according to various Regions it washeth as Oceanus Atlanitcus Germanicus Deucalidonius Septentrionalis Tartaricus Aethiopicus Mare Arabicum Mar di India Mar Del Nort Mar Del Zur or Mare Pacificum Archipelagus c. And there is no In-land Sea which receive Rivers and let none forth visibly but they communicate with the Ocean Thus the Mediterranean Sea is joyn'd to the Atlantick Ocean per Fretum Herculeum and to the Red-Sea by occult Subterraneal Channels as the Story related by Kircherus of the Dolphin first taken in the Red and soon after in the Mediterranean Sea So the Caspian by the mediation of Subterraneal Channels is annexed to the Euxine or black-Sea and this to the Aegean and that to the Mediterranean Thus these great Seas in Asia communicate with each other according to the mind of Scaliger Wendeline and Kircherus So the Baltick communicates with the German and Deucalidonian Seas by the two Arms Bosnicum and Finicum per Fretum Cymbricum 46. In like manner the Asphaltick Sea or Mare Mortuum in Palestine communicates with the Red-Sea by the same Subterraneal Channels and thereby are conveyed into the Ocean So the Lake Zaire in Aethiopia by the same manner empties it self into the Aethiopian Ocean And that great River in Aethiopia call'd Fluvius Niger flowing from the Lake of Nilus and being shut up by a Chain of Mountains in the Kingdom of Nubia where privately breaking forth of the Western part of the Mountains empties it self by Subterraneal Meanders where meeting with several other Rivers increase them and at length is carried into the Atlantick Ocean After the same manner the River Tigris in Mesopotamia being carried through the Lake Arethusa meets with resisting Caucasus thrusts down its head into a large den and after a great space of ground peeps up again where scarce passing the Lake Thospis but it is begirt again with other Mountains and hides it self again in Subterraneal Chanels and breaks forth 24 Miles on the other side of the Mountains then continues to flow and neer Babylon is let into Euphrates 47. Now I say that these In-land Seas Lakes and great Rivers do communicate with each other and at length are carried into the main Ocean and that this is done by Subterraneal Channels will be apparent as followeth First that the Caspian hath intercourse with the Euxine or black Sea by such passages is evident because it receives into its bosome a constant flux of great Rivers and lets none forth visibly by any arme into the Sea and and yet notwithstanding is not at all increased and Kircher guesseth that before the deluge it might be contiguous with the Ocean overrunning all the Sandy Desarts of Tartaria and afterwards was broke off by the Chain of the Mountains of Caucasus This is onely conjectural but however it appears as if it were a Lake shut up on all hands having Rivers let into it but none let forth and yet shews no footstep of inundation and therefore must of necessity have communication with other Seas by private Chanels The same is also further confirm'd by observation That has been made upon that Sea as Kircher reports by Paradia Persa in Geograph viz. that when ever the Eastern Winds have rul'd strongly over the Caspian at the same time in the Euxine Sea the boylings has been observ'd greater then wonted with a great agitation of the whole Sea And on the contrary when the Western Winds blew strongly upon the Euxine the like perturbations have been seen in the Caspian Sea and when the Caspian hath by the agitation of winds emptied it self into the Euxine it is again replenished by the like secret passages from the Persian Sea which is done by a kind of Charybdis or Vortex along the shore of the Sinus Persicus whereby the Sea seems to be sometimes drunk up with a notable decrease which by a fresh flowing of the Sea the Vortex is hid again So that the Caspian by Subterraneal Chanels receives a supply from the Persian Sea and by the like Chanels communicates with the Euxine Sea 48. That the Asphaltick or Mare Mortuum communicates by the same hidden passages with the Red-Sea is evident because upon the coasts of the Red-Sea which looks towards the Desarts of Arabia at the noted place call'd Eltor as the inquisitive Kircher relates where not far from the shore from the bowels of
attenuating of Ayr by heat in an inverted oval glass the water seems to be drawn up by a kind of Suction as some would have it or to prevent a Vacuum as others think but most probably if not demonstratively it ascends gradually and sensibly for this cause viz That when the Ayr in the glass which before by heat was attenuated is either by cold reduced into its pristine form or having as so thinn'd but a languid pressure is therefore by a more strong Elastick force of Ayr upon the surface of the water forc'd up till it come to such a height as the pressure of Ayr within and that without the glass are brought to an Aequilibrium or equal poysure I mean till the springy power of the Ayr within and without the glass be of an equal force and there it stands till the springy power of the Ayr within the glass by heat becomes dilated and then it forceth down the water in the Tube and makes the water in the Viol rise higher proportionable to the degree of the attenuation of the Ayr. 57. That the Ayr receives a considerable alteration by heat is further confirm'd by the experiment of inverting a glass Cucurbit over a Candle fastened with tallow upon the bottom of a glass or earthen Bason wherein water is first poured to the height of two or three fingers breadths where the heat of the Candle doth so weaken the spring of the Ayr within the Glass that it wanting the help of the circulating Ayr always requisite to the perpetuating the motion of bodyes which is intercepted by the body of water that in stead thereof the Water it self circulates being forc'd thereto by the spring of the Air that presseth upon it from without and therefore it riseth up to a great height of the glass-body as I have sometime seen upon tryal thereof and puts out the Candle which Experiment seems somewhat to contradict the former of a Weather-glass though in reality it doth not for although there heat makes it descend but here it makes it ascend yet if we consider that in that of the Weather-glass the Air in it is first thinn'd by heat before the glass be put into water and therefore when it 's condensed by cold it draws up the water or rather the water is forced by the outward Spring of the Air and follows it to an Aequilibrium but in this last Experiment the glass is inverted into water without any previous alteration of the Air therein which being to supply the motion of a body viz. the burning of the Candle doth it for a while but wanting a fresh supply from other Air without to promote the Circulation thereof always necessary for the motion of bodies the want thereof makes the strong spring of the Air upon the surface of the water to force up the water it self into the glass-body From which Experiments result these following Corollaries viz. First That a Circulation of Air is requisite for the motion of all bodies the Candle in the glass we see extinguisheth for want thereof by forcing up the water in lieu of Air. Secondly That Air may be attenuated by the heat of the Sun whereby the same portion of Air may be made to extend it self over a larger space witness the heating the glass in the first of the two last Experiments Thirdly That this Air thus attenuated and extended by the heat of the Sun is the reason why culinary fire dies or goes out when the Beams of the Sun are cast upon it because they thin the Air and the Air is the natural Bellows of Fire which Fire burns according to the intenseness or remisness of the Air. Fourthly That the Air thus thinn'd makes way for water to ascend up the small veins thereof which are like so many slender Syphons by which it mounts from Earth Waters and Seas up into the Clouds for the supply of Rain and Snow which Syphons in droughty hot weather are mostwhat at work carrying it upward whereas in moist weather the water descends by the same Syphons and moisten the Ground with Dew and Walls or Floors of Stone-buildings in wet Seasons so that the reputed Exhalations of moisture by the Sun for the supply of Rain is no other than this gradual steaming up of slender Syphons whereby water mounts insensibly the uppermost part of the Atmosphere Fifthly That in great heat of weather many Diseases happen through the thinness of the Air for the Air in the Lungs is the Bellows of the vital Fire in the Heart which if it become attenuated either through a general heat in the Air whence ariseth frequently some Epidemical Disease or through the obstructions of the Lungs themselves whereby the Air for want of foundness of Organs becomes thinn'd before it come to volatize the Blood in its current from the right to the left Ventricle of the Heart causeth Faintings Lassitudes Candialgia's Asthma's Deliquiums and in Women Swoonings Palpitations rousing up the Spleen and Mother c. yea in fine makes the Lamp of Life burn dark and dimly whereas the Air by cold being reduc'd to its pristine form and the Lungs freed from obstructions quickens the vital Ferment sharpens the appetite makes the vital Fire burn clearly and makes evident that the Ferments of the several Digestions are vital for in cold weather we find our appetites more acuated our Ferments more vigorous and the Digestions more powerful But I will not though I might here further enlarge to shew how the Air in a due order contributes to the invigorating the Ferments and how much it conduceth in the change thereof towards the curing Diseases But I proceed Sixthly And which chiefly concerns our present purpose assert That the heat of the Sun contributes by thinning the Air towards the circulation of water from Seas to Springs and from water upon the earth to Clouds For the Sun whilst he is suppose in the Northern Signs especially towards the Tropick of Cancer casts his rays pretty powerfully upon those Places which are within the oblique position of the Sphere though not perpendicularly as it happens to those Places situated under the right position of the Sphere where the Aequator cuts the Horizon at right Angles whilst he is I say in the Northern Signs by his heat he thins the Air of those Regions especially as those Places fall under the Meridians as some Places must alwaies do the Sun in his supposed Diurnal Circuit making Twenty four Meridians the Air under these Meridians especially in those places where the Sun is or inclines to be Vertical being attenuated makes the Air circulate the more strongly towards the other Quadrants of the Terraqueous Globe causing there a stronger pressure upon the Surface of the Seas and this must be constantly done because the Sun really or apparently is alwayes in motion about the Earth who in his Circuit thins the Air of those Places which lie most directly under his Beams and so makes the Air as