third Autumn and the last quarter like Winter What is said concerning Air I hope will not displease for Air is of great concern in most diseases thousands have been freed from deplorable diseases by change of Air only yet change of Air may do harm as if one goes out of a good Air into a bad one Next is Meat and Drink whose substance affords good or bad juice is of good or bad Concoction little or much nourishment to preserve or recover health Meat of good juice is very necessary for Diseases are produced from Meats of bad juice light food and Spices beget thin Blood which weakens and exhausts the substance of the Spirits gross begets clammy blood oppresses our natural heat and begets fulness and bad humours For Quality hot cold moist dry meats do affect us with their qualities the quality of Food when in health must be correspondent to the temper and age of the body the Region and time of the Year but in sickness contrary to reduce it For Quantity we ought never to eat more than nature requires fulness is the Parent of all bad humours and fasting or a spae Dyet wasts the humours and innate heat and all manner of Dyet is either thin or sparing or gross or a mean the first diminishes our faculties the second augments the last preserves them Custome is to be kept for 't is a second nature For Rusties who are us'd to gross meat as strong Beef and Bacon better concoct it than tenderer meats which are rather apt to corrupt in their Stomach therefore things we are accustomed to though worse are better than what we are not A regard should be had to the Order of Dyet so that Meats that are easie are to be eaten before those of hard Concoction so moist Meats are to be taken before dry Meats are not to be taken out of Time those in health are to eat after exercise and when their former meat is concocted and generally at an accustomed hour to stay longer fills the Stomach with sharp bad humors and to eat before creates crudities Neither neglect the Time of the Year in Winter 't is best to eat more and drink less let your meat and drink be hot and drying as Roast-meat and stronger drings in the Spring eat less but drink more and smaller drinks and eat Boyl'd meats rather then Roast and hotter than in Summer in Summer eat little and often in Winter otherwise let the sickly feed sparingly for cold dulls weak Stomachs the same is to be said of the Region and Age for we must eat more sparingly in an hot then in a cold Country so Young men require more Meat than Old so Childrens Dyet must be moist lest their growth be hindred by a dry one to Boys hot and dry a cold Dyet will be best Boyl'd meat rather then Roast much drink but not strong Young men from 14 to 25 of a temperate Constitution require a temperate Dyet But here comes a question How oft we are to eat in a day which I think in general cannot be decided because of so numerous variety of tempers for Phlegmatic people who are best able to fast once a day may be enough the Coleric who easily is hurt by fasting he may eat oftner but little they may Breakfast Dine and Sup but soberly let the Sanguine keep a mean in all things let the Melancholic may take something thrice a day whereby they may moisten their dryness Most certain our fore-fathers were far more sparing than us and so prolong'd their lives and were active strong beautiful tall But yet we must not believe they fed only on Acorns as Poetical Fables relate but all manner of Fruits Pulles and flesh for Holy Writ tells us after our first Parents were cast out of Paradise they tilled the Earth and sacrific'd Victims whose flesh and intrails they probably fed upon And 't is most certain that Intemperance is the Nurse of Physitians and that more perish by Gluttouy than the Sword Our Ancestors says Galen more rarely were sick because they liv'd more temperately Hippocrates says Women and Eunuchs were not troubled with the Gout but neither are free from it now because of their Gluttony Wherefore 't is best to observe that Golden precept of Socrates we ought to eat to live and not to live to eat Again At which repast is most to be eaten Dinner or Supper This question hath been formerly so much contended for that some of the Italian Physicians have written whole books thereon I am of opinion that it is more healthful to sup sparingly First because of the frequent experience of almost an infinite of men who have receiv'd the greatest benefits from a light Supper the Stomach is least burden'd and so sleep must be more pleasant Secondly the matter is prevented whereby they are obnoxous to Defluxions Rheumatisms Gouts Dropsies Vertigoes c. that eat large Suppers Thirdly from a sparing Supper follows more alacrity the next day and concoction is better perfected and so grevious obstructions are prevented with many more diseases Another question may be Whether Meals are to begun with Meat or Drink Liquids or Solids And here I am of opinion that we should begin with Liquids because they are soonest concocted and then the concoction of Meat in the Stomach is performed after the manner that crude Flesh is in the pot whece the Prince of Philosophers Aristotle compares this first coction to the boyling of Meat in the Pot but we first put water into the Pot then flesh which is to be understood of Broths and such liquid things not Wine or strong Ale or Beer for they offend the Nervous parts of our bodies and so cause Gouts and Scurvey humours and fluctuations in the Stomach whence is all coction disturb'd for this it was that Galen would have meat precede drink Broths first then some solid substance then to drink that all may be equally mixt in the Stomach remembring what Schola Salerni says Inter prandendum sit saepe parumque bibendum But not to eat any crude Fruit after Meals as 't is too common but either boyl'd roasted bak'd or preserv'd may be moderately taken As for Drink that appeases Thirst and is the Vehicle of Food if it be purely drink as Water it may be liberally drank if the bodies be strong and firm but if weak sparingly and the oftner We here in England drink small Beer generally and the poor fort i th' Country drink Whey and Butter-milk c. of which hereafter Thus far of Dyet in General now in particular the first thing that occurs s Bread the best is made of Wheat leven'd better then unleaven'd Now as there are several sorts of Wheat so the Bread is of different nature whereof it is made that which is made of the pure meal is best the next is that with Meal and Bran that made of all Bran is for Dogs always remember to put a convenient quantity of Salt into your
skilful Physitians have both experienc'd and left describ'd as Galen Dioscorides Paulus Aegineta Aetius Oribasius c. who have very much nobilitated it it heats binds drys kills broad Worms helps against Toad poyson preserves moist flesh and drys up humors drives away Putrifaction roborates the inward parts outwardly it binds purges Ulcers causes Wrincles like Alum with whom it hath relation But besides these excellent qualities Vitriol hath also its bad ones for it is ill for the Stomach acrimonious corrosive and vomitous and therefore ignorant Quacksalvers and Women give it sometimes in Wine and sometimes in Rose-water in uncertain weight against Quotidian and Quartane Agues and many other Diseases and indeed the Fever is often resolv'd by vehement Vomiting but this Medicine being unskilfully Administred proves most often more formidable than the Disease Alum is as it were the Brine of the Earth whereof Dioscorides makes three sorts the Round the Liquid and the Jagged or Scissile the last is often call'd Plumeous for they are so like in form that they can scarse be distinguish'd yet they differ both in nature and qualities for the Scissile is manifestly binding and may be burnt but the other is Acrimonious and suffers not by fire Mathiolus says he saw and tasted a Liquid Alum of which he asserts that he never found any thing more Astrictive Now when Alum is simply mention'd we mean Roch-Alum which is a saltness of a Mineral Earth of a Leadish nature consisting of an acid spirit and a caustick Earthy salt and all Alum is of Crass parts binds much whence 't is call'd Stypterion in Greek because it is Styptical it heats cleanses amends putrid Ulcers dryes humid ones absumes superfluous flesh takes away itching cures the Scab and very useful in many Medicaments made for the Cure of Ulcers Bitumen which the Greeks call Asphaltes is as it were the fatness of the Earth swiming above the Waters which being cast upon the shoar thickens and becomes hard tenacious and inflamable As long as it swims on the water 't is soft but when 't is off it becomes thicker and harder and resembles dry Pitch yet easily melted at the fire Many Lakes are bituminous but especially one in India thence call'd Asphalites and the dead Sea because of its vastness and because its Water remains almost immoveable not stormy but heavy salt thick and stinking wherein neither Plants nor Animals breed neither doth it nourish such as are put into it or admit them into its bowels All Bitumen is not solid and hard but some is perpetually fluid and liquid call'd Naptha which is the streining of Babylonian Bitumen white of colour and most capacious of Fire for Fire and this are so near a kin that it will presently leap into it when near it There is also black Bitumen For its Virtues all Bitumen discusses mollifies glutinates defends from inflammation by olfaction suffumigation or imposition mends the strangling of the Womb. Naptha extenuates incides digests penetrates absumes frigid and thick humors in all parts of the Body and cures the Resolution of the Norues Palsies and diseases in the Veins and Arteries from cold cause Nitre of the same nature with the Salts Gypsum is a kind of Talk of the nature of Lime whose hot fiery caustic quality every one knows Ratsbane or Arsenic is between a Salt and a Sulphur 't is of such an acrimonious corroding hot quality that it will burn to a crust dissolving destroying and preying upon the Principles of Life malignant and an Enemy to all Natural parts and to the Radidical moisture and innate heat and therefore was very ill advis'd of Nich. Alexanarinus to prescribe it for an Ingredient in the great Athanasia says the great man of skill in the Materia Medica Johannes Renodeus for by permixtion with other Medicaments it doth not depose its malignity The Learned Schroder says 't is one of the highest Poysons for besides its acrimony it is an Enemy to our Natural Balsam of Life so that it brings strange symptoms not only tataken inwardly but apply'd outwardly as Convulsions numness of Hands and Feet cold Sweats Palpitations Faintings Vomitings Corrosions and Torments Thirst c. Cadmia Metallic 't is the Stone out of which Brass is drawn and is call'd Brass-Ore which Artificers use in making Yellow Brass which the Shopmen call Aurichalcum or Orichalcum and 't is probable this is the Stone which Albertus Magnus calls Didachos or the Devils-stone Cadmia disiccates gently absterges and helps humid and putrid Ulcers and draws them to scars Schroder says 't is Caustic and that it ulcerates the Hands and Feet of the Miners and taken inwardly kills all Creatures Antimony or Stibium or the seventh Metall which some say is Mercury others Ambar but neither of these are more than in a potency to be Metalls a grand Alchymistical Quacksalving Idol the sole Empyrical Chymical Cathartic whereby they boast to cure all Diseases but it most devilshly disturbs mens Ventricles by moving upwards and downwards others it miserably torments by vigorous Purging some it kills and restores very few to perfect health One Cornelius Gemma a Physitian of Lovain relates how a Paracelsian English Quacksalver being himself and his Wife sick of a Fever took himself and gave to his Wife that which they call prepared Antimony whereupon she fell quickly distracted and changed her Life yet valid with death and he complaining of Dreams and continual Watchings seven days after his Dejection began to Rave from that he became Epileptical from his Epilepsie he fell into a Lethargy being therewithal somewhat Apoplectical when he had been three days in that sopor he fell again to his raving and was so agitated with fury that not long after he expir'd and pass'd from his conjugal Bed to his conjugal Tomb and howsoever the Chymists cry up their Preparations of Antimony yet as able Physitians as any in the World forbear to exhibit them because they have much better Medicaments wherewith they may more securely cure any Disease And I could give a large account of the dismal Accidents that I have known happen by the administring of Antimony and my ever honoured Master Dr. Patin Regins Professor in Physick in the Famous University of Paris wrote a Book which he call'd the Martyrology of Antimony Chrysocolle which the Shopmen following the Barbarous Mauritanian Idiome call it Borax is found in the Golden Silver and sometimes Brazen Mines in Armenia Macedonia and Cyprus it heats checks supersluous flesh and is mordacious it produces Ulcers to sanity but taken at the Mouth 't is perillous says Renodeus Ochre is a kind of Yellow Earth much commended in Affrica not lapideous but friable clayey and sinooth it binds corrodes discusses Tumors and represses Excrescences Gold is the greatest Cordial in the Pocket most certainly for omne cordiacum debet esse Bumidum Calidum aurum autem est frigidum sicum i.e. every Cordial ought to be moist and hot but Gold
when they are mixt by such a kind of confusion the Waters of the Quarry are not all one neither are they truly mixt for one may separate one from another sometimes lastly they are mixt not because of the substance of the Quarry is mixt with Water but only vapors elevated from the matter are permixt And since it happens as you may understand that mixtion is perform'd by these three manner of ways 't is no wonder if Water mixing it self in several Veins shall attract and contract to it self the faculty of one more than another As for example if Water that shall be perfectly mixt in one Quarry with another confusedly only and with another with the vapors only and not with the substance it shall retein much more of the nature of that wherewith it is perfectly mixt than the other CHAP. III. Of the Waters of Bath and their Causes COncerning which there are likewise divers opinions Now these Waters being of so hot a Nature that throw but a Fowl therein and it shall immediately deplume it put Fish and Eggs therein and it will presently concoct them that these Waters are so hot of their own nature I cannot believe for all Water is always and of its own Nature cold in quality and if it become hot by accident take but away the heating cause thereof and it shall return to its prestine cold temper of its own accord without any thing of an altering nature being adhibited For there are Rivers in hot Countries that are not very hot from the heat of the Sun So that I conclude these Waters to be hot in the Caverns of the Earth from an outward cause which that it may be made more plainly manifest we shall briefly inspect into the causes of Baths Concerning their efficient Causes their are likewise various opinions omitting the whimsical frothy conceits of the Chymists let us see what the more sound and solid sort of Learned Philosophers say to the business some ascribe this virtue to the Rays of the Sun with Thermophilus who held that the Sun penetrating the pores of the Earth for certainly the Earth is porous and Spungy was in its bowels there fortified and made more active in heat so that like Fire it heats Water and what ever it meets with and even burns what it meets with combustible but if this were so these Baths would be so hot in Summer only not in Winter or at least it would follow that these Springs would be less hot in Winter than in Summer contrary to all experience for every Idiot can tell you the Springs c. are hotter in Winter than Summer the cause whereof of the Learned Philosophers ascribe to that they call Antiperistasis that is in plain English the Earth is hotter within in Winter when the Sun 's absent than in Summer and so they 'll tell you that their Sellars are hot in Winter and cold in Summer Secondly I cannot conceive how the Sun should penetrate into such deep Caverns of the Earth as by force of its heat to make the Waters therein to become so hot where we see it cannot effect the same on Lakes in any hot Region Then 3ly We know that there are Baths found in the most cold Countrys as Islind c-Some with Mileus will have a Wind or a Spirit vehemently toss'd and mov'd up and down and so penn'd up grows hot and so coming to fall upon the Waters overheats them Democritus says they receive their heat from Ashes and Lime others think these Waters grow hot by reason of vehement motion and beating against the Rocks and not a few there are which say that the matter through which they pass heats them which they say is the reason that some smell so strongly of Sulphur because they flow from Sulphury Veins Others o' th other side will have the cause to be an extream heat within the Earth in those places which overflow with hot Waters and Learned Dr. Jordan our Countryman if I mistake not thinks they derive their heat from the sermentation of Metals in their Generation to which is required an actual heat with a certain humidity and some affirm that Thunder heats the Waters as may be seen from Manlius Suni autem cunctis permixti partibus ignes Qui gravidas habitant fabricantes fulmina nubes Hac penetrant Terras Aethnamque imitantur Olympo Et calidas reddunt ipsis in fontibus undas Lastly the Chymists will have the Waters to wax hot from a mutual combat and conflict of divers Salts or Mineral bodies after the same manner as we see in the conjunction of Spirit of Vitriol or Salt of Tartar as from the two fires the Glass becomes so hot Vt multo accensis fervore exuberat undis Clausus ubi exusto liquor indignatur abeno Now among so many disagreeing opinions when there can be but one i th' right on 't Aristotle the great searcher into the Secrets of Nature in my opinion hit the Nail o' th head who following Empedoeles the Disciple of Pythagoras when he saw these Therm or Baths so call'd from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Calidus to be so hot thought they could become so no other way than from a most fervent cause because all Waters of their own Nature are cold and could think the efficient cause to be no other then Fire included in the inmost parts of the Earth and there as it were primogeneally residing of which the Epicurean Poet and Philosopher Principio tâ—llus habet in Corpora prima Unde mare immensum vo ventes flumina fontes Assidur revomunt habet ignes unde oriaâ—tur Nam multis suâ—â—ensa locis ardent sola Terrae Now that there is Fire under the Earth besides the hot fiery water Springs the Lime Ashes c. which are vomited and dug out of the Earth may confirme and persuade us as being the genuine effects of fire to say nothing of Smoak and Soot breaking out of the Earth and in some places fire it self therefore Subterranean fire which Kirkerus calls pyrophylacia i. e. a Prison for Fire is the most certain cause of the heat of the Waters For while those Springs of Waters upon the Mountains are carryed by the Veins and Sinewy bendings of Metalls in manner of Dragons and Chaldrons in the Baths of the Antients writhed and twisted with circles of Brass like a Meander and from thence artract the Virtues and Vices as I may so say of Metalls wherewith the Water is tinctur'd they wax hot from the natural fire Subterraneous to those windings even just as Water in a Pot is heat by Fire and Bartholine says expresly that Fire doth not heat the Water after the manner above related from Aristotle and Empedocles but that the Pipes or Veins of the Earth contein Fire it self within them Now the VVater becomes more or less hot here and there First as the matter is found more or less apt for heat Secondly as that Fire is nigher or farther off the
humane sagacity First then he says the Sea-water because 't is heavy cannot ascend to such an height as the tops of Mountains but to this have been several refutations some ascribing this motion to the operations of the Celestial bodies and they say this motion is not violent though it be contrary to the private inclination of its proper form if the Potentia obedientialis be considered whereby inferior Bodies are made to obey their Superiors c. Others say there is a certain insite attractive faculty in the Veins of the Earth whereby it sucks Water out of the Sea as the Veins of Animals suck Blood others there are but too long for this place and wholly Philosophical and so not easily to be understood by ordinary capacities and so I omit them Then Secondly he says before the Water could reach the Mountains out of the Sea there 's no reason to be given but it would break forth But the Earth hath passages in some places and in some none Then whatsoever he assigns to be the original of Fountains it may be queried why in some places and Mountains there are Fountains and Rivers and in some none Then Thirdly he says if it were so Rivers would never be less but it may be answered Rivers sometimes grow less from what portion is lost which comes from falls of Showers and Snows and when part is suckt up by the dryness of the Earth and heat of the Sun c. Fourthly he says the Sea would not satisfy so many Rivers when the greatest part of Waters vanish by the heat of the Sun But it may be answered that the Sea receives only as much as it gives forth as Salomon says Rivers flow to the Sea that they may flow out again then if the greatest part of Water should vanish the Sea would long agone have been wasted but the extracted vapors are recondens'd into Water which either flows into the Sea or falls upon the Earth to augment the Rivers which at length unburthen themselves into the Sea Fifthly He says there can be no reason given why it should flow from one Mountain and not from another But the answer to his second Objection solves this Lastly He says Fountains and Rivers would tast saltish and brackish But to this is answer'd that Sea-water whilst it passes through various Veins Sinews and Meanders of the Earth and so being as it were strein'd it sensibly deposes its saltness and bitterness Hence the more remote Fountains are from the Sea the sweeter they are If any shall say that the Water was more likely to contract a bitterness by reason of the Exhalations it receives from the Earth it may be answered that they are not any sort of Exhalations that produce bitterness but only adust ones and all are not such in the intrals the Earth Therefore now Cardan we may conclude I hope hath not got any thing by contradicting Solomon CHAP. II. Of the Division of Fountains and of Mineral and Metal Waters HAving in the former Chapter given the Reader a plain account of the Matter and Origine of Fountains we should in the next place see how many sorts of Fountains there are but because 't is the work of Natural Philosophers and Hydrographers and nothing of an advantage to our present purpose we shall wholly omit it and only speak of Mineral and Metallic Fountains as being the subject of our present Discourse Now those I call Mineral and Metallic Waters which participate of the nature and faculty of that Metall or Mineral through which they pass in the Caverns and Veins of the Earth The which are either 1 Salt 2 Vitriol 3 Allumn 4 Bitumen 5 Naptha 6 Nitre 7 Gypsum 8 Arsenic 9 Cadmia 10 Antimony 11 Chrysocolla 12 Ochre 13 Lime 14 Ashes 15 Pummice-stones 16 Gold 17 Iron 18 Brass 19 Lead 20 Brimstone and 21 Quicksilver Now as I said the Minerals through which Waters pass bestowing upon them in their journey a considerable part and portion of their good and bad qualities I thought it very requisite before I discours'd of the use of the Waters themselves to say somthing of the Natures and Properties of the Metals and Minerals they are mixt with that thereby you may be the better able to judge of the nature of the Waters proceeding from them then we will begin with Salt The faculties of Salt are great many and very useful to man but not so necessary in Physick as many think such as your Quacking Chymists who predicate many wonderful and vain stories of Salt reduced by their Chymical Art for they audaciously assert that their is a Purgative faculty in Medicaments because of Salt and when they have got some Extract from any Medicament then they presently aver that they have got its Salt forsooth but these being things above the vulgar capacity I shall say Salt is very Conservative of an Astringing Absterging Purging Discussing Repressing Extenuating quality and vindicates the Body from Putrefaction yet some Salt is better then others but us'd immoderately produces very bad effects as sharp salt corroding humors all over the Body Scabs Leprosie the Stone and other dire Diseases as Dulness of sight disorderly Fermentations in the Blood rendring it thick and earthy by burning it Schroder thinks thus of the Original of Salts the Macrocosm he says as the other two Kingdoms i. e. the Vegetable and Animal is susteined and lives by its food in this abounds a salt answering to the salt Excrements in the Sweat Urine and Dejections in Animals now the Salt of the greater World congregated into the inferior Glob is of a dverse kind according to the variety of its Matrix even as the salt Excrement in Animals is different hence Common Salt Salt Gem Salt Nitre Alum c. The Greeks call that Calcanthum which the Latines from its blackness call Attramentum Sutorium or Shooe-makers Ink and from its spendent vitreous Nitre Vitriol Dioscorides a man of profound Judgment in the Materia Medica reckons three sorts thereof two Native and one factitious one sort of the Native is found concreted in the bowels of the Earth another is collected in form of a Water out of some Mine which put into a Vessel soon coagulates into Vitriol as for the factitious we have nothing to say to that here the Native or Fossile Vitriol participates of Calcitis Misy and Sory the Native and White is prefer'd in the Medicinal uses which the Metallicolous Alchymists say is produc'd by their Sulphur and Mercury as of Sperm which they indiscriminately exhibit to all affections out of which they draw a certain acid Liquor a few drops whereof mix'd with Syrup of Violets acquire a most elegant colour and taste But Oyl of Sulphur will do the same and a few drops of one or both of them insused in the Syrup of Roses will make the whole Liquor red which they call forsooth Tincture of Roses Now Nature 't is true hath enrich'd Vitriol with eximious faculties which