volatile as not the least of it discernable in any body of Sulphur or otherwise nay though one should distil it with never so much curiosity of exactly fitting and joynting Receivers yet would nothing of a Sulphur become apparent but would be gone insensibly as happened to a solution of above a pound of thrice calcined Salt which upon the affusion of water did exactly resemble the Sulphur Well as I said which filtred and placed over the fire to evaporate before one half was gone it had lost all its embryonative Sulphur being so volatile as it took wings by the assistance of so much heat and left no footsteps of its presence 8. Thirdly I conclude that such a solution of the Sal Marine together with its embryonated Sulphur in a sabulous Spring having received that previous digestion in the intrails of the Earth as to make apparent its Embryo Sulphur may be nearer the Primum Ens Salium then a coagulated Salt and may be better taken in order to the preparation of that great Solvent the Sal circulatum And my reason is partly grounded upon a sentence of the grave and long experienced Helmont where he saith In Sulphure sunt fermenta fracedines odores sapores specifici seminum ad quasvis transmutationes that is In Sulphur are ferments hogo's smells specifick tasts of seeds fit for all transmutations so that in the bosom of Sulphurs lyeth the main wheel of all transmutation the beginnings to which are also putrefactions which those Embryo-Sulphurs may much promote For all bodies that are capable of resolution into Heterogeneities their texture is subverted by the working of ferments upon the Sulphurs of such bodies whereby they may be readily analyz'd or taken in pieces 9. Lastly That Spirits such I call the Primum Ens salium before they are coagulated upon Minerals or other bodies are but in Embryo or in their infancy as I may call it or nonage and therefore coagulable upon bodies to the impairing of their own activity by locking themselves up in the textures of bodies and so require a resolution from their coagulation before they can be brought to that purity and simplicity they were in when they found bodies to dwell in viz. before incorporation 10. Hence it is that Paracelsus giving an hint concerning the preparation of his grand Liquor Alkahest which I do not remember he calls by that name in all his Writings save De Viribus Membrorum Cap. De Hepate but by Sal circulatum Primum Ens salium c. saith à coagulatione resolvatur iterum coaguletur in formam transmutatam that is as I apprehend That seeing we can scarcely find the Primum Ens salium in its pure spirituality and naked simplicity but as it is infolded in the arms of a Mineral body and so coagulated into many shapes of Salts as Marine Vitriol Allom Nitre c. which are several bodies wherein this hidden Spirit or universal embryonative Solvent appears to our view in divers corporeal dresses putting on Proteus like new shapes according to the Mineral vestment wherewith he is cloathed requires therefore if we would have him appear unmasked to be resolv'd from his coagulation till then we cannot expect him capable of performing much in the way of a penetrating Master-Solvent but acts according to the freedom of his keepers 11. And though this Spirit or Primum Ens salium while it is in its infancy or embryo be so weak as to clasp hold of every body that comes near it and prostitute it self to every woer in many strange Mineral bodies so as to dibilitate it self before it arrive to those more mature and masculine functions of penetrating and dissolving bodies without being contaminated with their touches or debilitated and baffled by their re-re-action I say notwithstanding this weakness of the Spirit before coagulation yet if after the the resolution it becomes set at liberty from its bonds divorced from its first consort and then exalted and fortified in its own purity by a gradual process becomes so noble and virile a liquor as that it acts upon all Mineral Animal and Vegetable Concretes dissolving them into their Primum ens or seminal Crasis whereby their medicinal virtues are at hand and that without the least re-actions of those bodies upon this universal Solvent Liquor But to return 12. This Spaw as to medicinal use is not of much more efficacy than so much Trencher-salt dissolved in such a proportion of water answerable to that of the Sulphur-Well which both alike would much-what have the same operation only the foetid embryonate Sulphur doth somewhat provoke nature and therefore extimulate the expulsive faculty of the stomach purging either upward or which the rather downward 13. The plenty of the Salt wherewith it is strongly saturate preserves much against Putrefaction and Diseases thence proceeding viz. against worms and wormatick corrupt matter in the stomach and intestines which so much common Salt as I said dissolv'd in fair water would effect the same The blackish Salt which remains after the boyling up of the water hath no more virtue against worms for which it is frequently used than a like quantity of common Salt for it hath no specifical difference from common Salt especially when depurated by solution filtration and evaporation then it is exactly the same 14. And though there be a Marcasite or stone of Vitriol to be found about Sixscore yards from this Well which will fall in the Air in a moist place and by solution filtration and evaporation will become a transparent green Vitriol as an ingenuous Friend of mine for tryal sake made I say though this be found near it yet doth not in the least partake thereof neither in taste nor virtue Concerning the Original of Hot Springs IT is not the least amongst Chymical Enquiries to know the true original cause of heat whether in Vegetables Animals or Minerals amongst which the cause of hot Springs is not inconsiderable seeing that in them are found many medicinable virtues useful for the help of Man Where I shall proceed first to shew That hot Springs or Baths are from Mineral Salts next How Mineral Salts upon the contact of one another or of Mineral bodies are the efficient causes of heat in those Springs and thirdly How artificial Baths may be made analogical in virtue and operation to the natural and Lastly shall shew the efficacy of hot Springs and Baths whether natural or artificial As to the first That hot Springs or Baths are from Mineral Salts is evident because no Mineral or Metalline body is dissolvable or alterable in the bowels of the earth without the concourse of Salts for in the Mineral and Metalline Kingdom there are but two Agents which makes the great alterations amongst those bodies and those are Fire and Salts by Fire I mean not only the external and elementary fire by whose force Metals and Minerals become separated from their connate Heterogeneities and brought to the best but also the
Spasms c. all which depend upon the depravation of the spermatick juyce of the genus nervosum 15. But if it reach to or be depraved by the fifth or last digestion viz. the assimilative ferment of the solid parts of the body thence Abscessus Aposthumations Fistula's Ulcers Tumors Prurigoes c. all which depend upon the vitiating of the ultimate digestion in the habit of the body 16. I look upon the alimental juyce in its way to nutrition to undergoe many alterations from specifical ferments placed in different parts of the body to suffer many separations and to pass through many Colanders or Streiners where it is percolated and depurated each ferment after other while a symmetrie in the occonomy of parts inricheth it with new and more balsamick tinctures enlivens it with more elaborate spirituous particles adapted for the clarity of sensual functions as a more depurate diaphanous vehicle for the soul to act in 17. I say these Spirits which are almost the ultimate result of all the digestions have their constitution and daily supply from the succulent parts of the aliment which passeth various fermentations and are at last fabricated out of the purest parts thereof according therefore as the vigour of these ferments are and the depurations of the nutritive juyce more or less so are these Spirits in their Crasis more pure and serene or dull and opake whence the soul which sees and acts by these organical Spirits either becomes lightsome and cheerful in the outward fancy and portals of the external senses thence the sanguine and colerick complexion Or becomes dark dull and heavy and as it were incarcerated in the dungeons of the senses and sensual fancy the cloudiness of those Spirits darkens the soul and makes up the melancholy complexion which with a little variation makes the phlegmatick 18. I look upon the Spleen and the ferment thereof to contribute very much to the Crasis of these Spirits for if the ferment thereof be deprav'd so as a due separation of the blood is not made which yet ought to be and that which should be separated is yet retained thence obstructions in the very parenchym of that bowel a darkning and cloudiness of the Spirits a melancholy vaporous steam soyls the channels of the animal Spirits and obscures the function of those nimble agents inverts their order breaks their ranks and brings a sad catastrophe upon the animal powers 19. The soul while in the body hath these airy Spirits for its Vehicle having thereby an influence upon all and every part is not determined to any particular place neither in the glandula pinealis of the brain according to Des Cartes nor yet in the membranous tunicles of the stomach according to Helmont though I do not deny but in the one it may have its peculiar residing place for the regulating the culinary digestions and in the other its turret to take in the sensible impressions from outward objects to look about it through the casements of the senses yet is essentially in every part and where ever it finds any hostile enemy which impugneth the texture of those Spirits there the sensitive soul by which I mean the vital and animal Spirits which yet are but one and that the Vehicle of the immortal Soul acts ad nutum rallies up all its forces incounters the Disease and at length si vires ferent plucks out the morbid thorn and all is well again 20. So that all the digestions and ferments the separations and depurations thereunto belonging are but to prepare and so elaborate the nutritive juyce as thence a continual supply may come in for the preservation of these animal Spirits the Vehicle of the soul whose different Crases make different complexions and whose different alterations by various depravations of intermediate ferments cause no small off spring of Diseases 21. Now as the crudity of the alimental juyce first made so for want of a due fermentation in the stomach and passing on uncorrected from one digestion to another lays the foundation as I said of several Diseases so in like manner the over acidness or spurious ponticity of the stomachical ferment which is also a depravation of the ferment thereof gives begining to several other Diseases 22. For though the genuine ferment of the stomach be specifically acid and as such doth so temper dissolve and equally mix the meat and drink we take as to bring it to a chyliferous cremor and that as a necessary preparation to the succeeding digestions yet if it become too exorbitant even while in the stomach working up to the upper mouth thereof causeth Cardialgia's Heart-burnings and sowr belchings That a spurious acidity is the cause thereof appears by their Cure which is done by such things as have power to correct by diluting and sweetning such superfluous acidities viz. by any fixed salt of Vegetables or any concretes which contein a fixt Alkali in them as Crabs Eyes Corals Pearl c. 23. This spurious acidity transmitted into other digestions cause other Diseases extra suos lares saith Helmont in alienam messem transmissa evadit hostile venis arteris c. for if it be sent into the second digestion it causeth sometimes the Colick Gripings Iliack Passion with Spasms and Convulsive motions of the Guts and sometimes from an acid flatus or sowrish gas fretting upon the spermatick parts of the intestines causeth Gripings Disenteries which grating upon the tender tunicles thereof liquates the blood from them and the adjacent parts at every tormenting liquation puts nature upon the rack makes the tender parts confess their weakness to so powerful a fretting agent 24. Where by the way take notice that in a complete digestion of the stomach where there is no more than a proportionable acidity the cremor comes somewhat acidulate to the second digestion which by the ferment of those parts is transmuted into another taste viz. as Helmont saith it becomes of a saline taste I say though it come somewhat acidulate yet is conquerable by the ferment of the next digestion so that unless the acidity be beyond the natural proportion it causeth no alteration as to the foresaid Diseases 25. If this exorbitant acidity be carryed to the third digestion in the heart it becomes hostile to the arteries subverts the Crasis of the blood by altering the sweet balsamick soft natural temper thereof impressing an austere sowre property sometimes causeth Fevers but mostwhat lays the foundation of a depraved scorbutick ferment by perverting the sweet temperature of the blood inclining it to a sowr saltishness which precipitating the balsamick parts and giving fluidity to the saltish and sulphureous parts of the blood in the same sowrish property hinders the natural fermentation of the blood and in lieu thereof begets this scorbutick ferment 26. This pervertion of the genuine ferment of the blood proves a remora to its circulation making it at sometimes to restagnate in some of the arterial or venal chanels in
can turn Mineral substances into Water and every whit as easily reduce them into what they were before 7. For he hath given a positive resolve of the Quere of transmutation having absolutely determined that these Salts do perfectly turn into Water according to his own words a little Water being put to them which through resolution of the point is totally exclusive of either his magis or minus so that according to his opinion Salt put into Broth becomes Broth and Sugar dissolv'd in White-wine or Sack becomes White-wine or Sack whereas any of these Liquors evaporated or distill'd he will find besides the whole body of the waterish part saved in the receiver the body of Salt or Sugar left entire in the distilling vessel the very same as before 8. This peripatetick notion I look upon no otherwise than that other analogous to it where in the same Sect. he saith that Water would evaporate into Ayr supposing a transmutability of Elements as if Water when evaporating were not as really Water though its parts undergo a large extension as when the parts are united in a fluid body in that texture of parts which the body of Water makes up for save in a receiver that which he imagines evaporates into Ayr and you shall find and so shall he too that it is no way distinguishable from that it was before Water still and not Ayr so Salts Sugars or what else dissolvable in Water are the same as at the first though appearing under the form of Water 9. For whatsoever is dissolv'd in Water if upon the superfusion of any other Liquor of a different property the parts of the first dissolvable begin to alter their position they either precipitate speedily or make the Liquor opacous and in time precipitates leaving the water either partly acuated with the additional Liquor or else insipid having all the saline parts coagulated one upon another which being wash't or dulcified gives you the very same dissolvable Concrete you first took in hand 10. As for instance Dissolve Vitriol in water filter it so as it become a clear solution upon which pour a Lixivium of salt of Tartar and you shall find immediately the first dissolvable viz. the vitrioline colcotar together with part of both the salts i. e. the acid connate salt of the vitriol and lixivial salt precipitated after precipitation the supernatant Liquor contains in it a neutrum or tertium quid from both the foresaid salts which it will make to appear by filtration and evaporation in the form of a Tartarum vitriolatum the Sediment which was precipitated gives the Terra vitrioli or metalline earth of vitriol all which happen from a complication of heterogeneous parts in the first dissolvable viz. vitriol having in it a metalline earth only to be made apparent in the form of a metal by force of fire and an essurine acid salt which salt meeting with a lixivial salt le ts go its first dissolvable and coagulates it self upon the last 11. But take a single salt as suppose salt of Tartar or the fixt salt of any vegetable dissolve it in water upon which strong solution pour distilled Vinegar Oyl of Vitriol Spirit of Nitre or Spirit of Salt or any of them or the like acid saline Liquors and you shall find that after a strong ebullition and boyling which they cause by fretting one upon another causing a very intense heat that in the mutual and as it were hostile action of the salt one upon another they precipitate each other to the bottom and leave the supernatant Liquor in a manner insipid But to return 12. He concludes this last manner of solution in confusion by an example of the Spaw water five quarts whereof being evaporated over the fire there will be found in the bottom of the Vessel an ounce of an ash-coloured blackish Sediment a considerable part whereof is Nitre Allom and Salt the rest the substance of Iron and Vitriol This is according to his last Hypothesis confusion in good earnest for here all the Ingredients are confused and jumbled together and by what Art the Doctor will learn to separate them that they may indeed appear to be so many as he speaks of I know not I think it would puzzle all his method to extricate them 13. One Argument more I shall produce against his two Ingredients in the body of Iron and Vitriol and this shall be instar omnium as being demonstrative and confirm'd by Autopsia An ingenious Friend of mine whom I shall not otherwise name than the Chymical Apothecary of York had a parcel of this ash-coloured Powder which remained in the bottom of the Vessel after the distillation or evaporation of the water of this Spaw given him by Dr. WITTIE himself This he put into a crucible and gave a very strong calcining fire as strong as for the calcining of Vitriol into Colcotar and that for the space of almost three hours and all this while without the least appearance of any red colour or the least footstep of either Colcotar or Vitriol or Crocus of Iron it became fixt and permanent in the fire and lost little of its weight it also became whiter in colour 14. Now for certain if there had been any thing of Vitriol or Iron in it the discovery would have been made and it forc't to confess its nature by its yellow red or purple colour with so great force of fire 15. This fixt Powder having thus indured the highest degrees of heat was dissolved filtred and evaporated which when dry became a most pure white clean Salt that part of it which would not dissolve and consequently not pass the filter being dryed was an almost insipid ash-coloured Powder somewhat whiter than that which was first taken Thus we discard these two Pillars of his Spaw viz. Vitriol and Iron as to the body of them SECT 6. 1. AFter the Doctor hath declar'd these several wayes whereby Waters are impregnated with Minerals and we as closely followed him to see whether it were so or no He proceeds to tell us the nature and virtue of these Minerals first of Vitriol he saith it is eminently hot of a biting and adustive quality and yet is also stiptick and astrictive and therefore dries up superfluous humidity c. according to the account that he receives from Galen Diascorides Serapio Paulus Oribatius Aelius Actuarius Fernelius enough to tire one in the naming it is a very short abreviary from so great a number of Authors concerning that Mineral which well understood and the Remedies thereof neatly prepared would make up as Paracelsus saith a fourth Column of Medicine 2. But methinks the Doctor 's long experience in re medica should ere this have furnished him plenty of observations of the worth and virtue of so noble a Mineral unless inopem se copia fecit he hath such store that he knows not where to begin These biting and adustive stiptick and astrictive qualities of Vitriol must surely belong
answer first by observing to you that if you put the powders of Pearl Coral c. into a glass upon which pour distilled Vineager or the like you may observe that though the powder lie in the bottom and the Liquor only touch it superficially and therefore according to the form of the Objection should only alter and sweeten those very parts only which they touch yet in a little time we see it sweetens the whole mass of Liquor and that upon this reason as I apprehend viz. because the nature of water consisting in fluidity is always in motion so that in a little time all the parts of water whirl and circle about so long till they have all touch'd the powder and all thence received a like dulcification so in like manner the juyces of the body being liquid do so circulate about by reason of their fluidity that in a little time there be few parts of the body through which the fluid juyces have not circulated and so consequently meet with those bodies if any such thing be inwardly taken as may rob them of their sowrish sharpness which being extra lares prove hostile to the Nerves Veins Arteries c. 26. Another instance let Silver be dissolv'd in Aqua fortis there the corrosive Menstruum hath totally though not radically dissolv'd the body of the Metal upon which it is also coagulated although in a liquid form if into this somewhat diluted with water you put plates of Copper as Refiners sometimes do for the separating of Silver you will find the Silver desert the Aqua fortis precipitating upon the cuprous plates and will thereby be totally separated from the Menstruum and that too notwithstanding the plates as they always do lie constantly in the bottom of the Vessel 27. You will ask how comes the upper part of the restagnant Menstruum which hath an equal proportion of Silver in it as well as the lower part thereof to be acted upon by the plates at such a distance to which as before I reply That the liquid parts of the Menstruum being in a constant motion of fluidity and carrying the dissolved Metal in it doth in a little time circulate all the parts of the Vessel as far as the upper superficies thereof one place constantly changing places with another till they have at length all glided along the surface of the plates which by a peculiar Metallick assimilation put a stop to its current in the Menstruum and hooks it to it self which is one of the best and most thorough separations of Silver that is commonly known 28. The like is done if Copper be dissolv'd in Aqua fortis if plates of Iron be put therein separating the Copper from the Menstruum and that by the great affinity or likeness of texture of parts of those two Metals 29. Thus in like manner when any good preparation of Steel of Pearl of Coral and Crabs Eyes are given though they themselves pass actually no further than into the first and second digestion and so proceed yet being all the juyces and liquors of the body are in a constant fluid motion and always circulating therefore of course they must in time touch upon these forenamed fixed concretes which if they touch they lose their pontick sharpness by which they become hostile to nature and have laid the foundation of many Diseases which thus being dulcified the juyces do redire in gratiam and circulate as good companions as ever 30. Steel our now present subject operates by separating this corrosive acidity which had coagulated it self upon the bowels viz. the Spleen Liver Matrix c. which spurious sowrness meeting with a body to which it claims more affinity then to the parts it had settled it self upon joyns with it and becomes coagulated thereon and so the bowels become set at liberty from their former obstructions and the circulation of the blood and humours become thereby more florid the exorbitant latex which before was extravasated runs in its own chanels again and what was superfluous that would not redire in gratiam Nature finds some peculiar manner of exclusion or other either of Stool Urine Sweat or insensible Transpiration 31. Thus the Dropsie and Scurvy Cachexia defectus Menstruorum c. become Cured besides which we might name many more Diseases which by a skilful managing and ordering of these Medicines might by the blessing of God be Cured as the Hypocondriack Melancholly which chiefly proceeds from a coagulation of this Tartarum resolutum this Sal excrementitium we are now treating of upon the Spleen whereby its proper digestion or peculiar function of seperation of some heterogenious parts from the blood is vitiated which digestion of the Spleen so promoting the blood in its tincture and height of spirituosity wherewith the Spleen inriched with that plenty and complication of Arteries seems to be destin'd to being no doubt thereby replete with a noble ferment which should exalt and spiritualize the blood by a kind of Chymical separation of some innate impurities restagnant in the blood until it come to partake of the exalting digestive ferment of that part which to me seems to be the very proximate ferment of the blood before the converting thereof into those nimble spirituous parts or animal spirits which flote along the Brain cerebel medulla spinalis and so in the cavities of the Nerves becomes Liquor Spermaticus nervorum the agent of all operations attributable to the genus nervosum 32. I say this fermental digestion of the Spleen becomes obstructed and vitiated by a coagulation of the foresaid spurious acidity which consequently vitiating its next product the nimble animal spirits the very immediate corporeal Organ of the Soul which spirits if I may so call them are the immediate corporeal reflecting glass of the Soul which it useth for the receiving and contemplating all visible objects and being vitiated by such an obstructive coagulative Salt in the Spleen according to the strength and degree of the obstruent is the blood perverted in its prolifick off-spring of animal spirits which become irregular and altogether erroneous thence making false representations of things to the Soul whence strange fancyful apprehensions arise which excrementitious Salt radicated in the Spleen hath commonly a flatus concomitant which therefore is called flatus hypochondraicus 33. Not but that this Disease may be inserted in the very semnials of the natural constitution and as also some others become hereditary in whom the Ideae dementes cuduntur in ipso viscere splenis vitiato those madeling fancyful impressions or erring apprehensions being forg'd from the disturbed oeconomy of the Spleen vitiating those animal spirits which lodge in the Brain or genus nervosum here these extravagant and erratick idea's feign to themselves strange pains in a moment make quick and speedy transits are always upon the wheel of uncertainties 34. But now at length returning to view the Doctors qualities methinks they begin to play least in sight and
water had before dissolv'd into it self fall to the bottom and that without the least perception either of Vitriol Iron or any other Ingredient SECT 2. 1. THus far I assented to Dr. WITTIE viz. that an alluminous salt from a Mineral acidity had dissolved a slight touch of the Minera of Iron and both dissolv'd in the current spring of water makes up the Spaw I asked him how he would demonstrate his other three Principles and first as to Vitriol he said that in the carriage of the water from the spring to remote places there was found to be a loss of spirits which he called Vitrioline spirits first that these were Vitrioline spirits and that they were lost remained to be proved that there was an alteration in the water by carrying to distant places I granted but that I told him I apprehended was from a quassation of parts which a wooden vessels might easily admit of an incipient putrefaction whence might really proceed an inversion of parts which would beget a great alteration in the texture of the water not to say what alteration may be made from oken vessels which by precipitation may make a great alteration 2. But an ingenious person being by asked the Doctor whether suppose the water was sealed up in a glass bottle hermetically and so carryed to a remote place whether it would be altered by carriage or no he answered he thought it would if so thâ—â— it was not from any volatility of parts because the glass was supposed sealed up therefore the alteration of the water was not from the loss of any volatile spirits and consequently not from the loss of the Vitrioline But the foresaid ingenious person put some of the Spaw water into a glass bottle and stopt it up from the air into an other glass bottle he also put of the same water but let it stand open the first he observ'd that though it was kept until the water suffered a little putrefaction did yet give a tincture to Gauls he tryed another bottle after the very same maner which yet did not give the tincture as the other did but the bottle that stood open to the air within two or three days lost its tincturing property so that though we should grant there are volatile parts which take wing in the air yet are they not Vitriol because though kept in closely stopt vessels yet in time they lose themselves which if a body of Vitriol was there would be permanent it is therefore an apporrhea mineralis whether Vitrioline or Alluminous 3. But being he mentions this loss of Vitrioline spirits which by agitation of the water in carrying it at distance evaporates I wonder seeing those are so considerable according to his own supposal making the water act more lively why I say in his experimenting the water he did not set upon the distilling of it and saving by accurately closed joints those Vitrioline spirits that he might have tasted them or by other means have brought them upon the test and examined their nature but he very civilly because they are volatile le ts them go 4. If you view the Doctors tools by which he undertakes to hew out the rudiments of this Spaw they are indeed very rude and of a low rank viz. a skellet a culinary fire but not a word of a glass Still which an ingenious Artist supposing volatile spirits would rather have chosen for the satisfaction of himself and the World he tells us almost a wonder viz. that when the water was almost evaporated and spent it riseth up in billows making a bubling noise like the boiling of Allom in the Mines at Whithy which he might see very frequently in the evaporations of most Mineral Metalline nay vegetable solutions but that it may be it is the first he hath seen and therefore excusable 5. I arguing with him against Vitriol as being inconsistent with that of Iron in the Spaw told him that I apprehended that if there were any common Vitriol in it would be emetick or vomitive that it had no such operation constant experience convinc'd as also an example he produc'd of a man that every morning drank Eighteen Quarts for two weeks together without any vomiting at all 6. But the reason he blusht not to urge why though Vitriol be in the water yet it should not vomit you will wonder at it is this viz. we frequently give in our Cordials saith he spirit of Vitriol as also to quench thirst but doth not at all make the Patient vomit saith the Doctor 7. As if according to his account the spirits of Vitriol were nothing else but Vitriol it self and then indeed it would hold good what he saith that when the Vitrioline spirits were gone the Vitriol it self would also take wing to which we return'd that the spirits were but one part or element of Vitriol and the caput mortum or Coltotar another and that the chief vomitive property lay not singly and distinctly in either of these for if the Colcotar should cause vomit yet it is because there remains still some salts or spirits unseparated which when throughly dulcified hath nothing near if at all that emetick property it had when the salts were joyned to it 8. Copper amongst all the Metals if resolv'd into a Viridaeris or Vitriol by any acid salt is the most if not the only emetick Metal excepting Mercury which although mater metallorum yet is reckoned one of the seven which by Aqua fortis or Oyl of Vitriol is brought in to precipitate or turbith Mineral either of which is desperately emetick I say Copper or the Minera of Copper being resolv'd by an acidity becomes emetick these salts being separated either by distillation or otherwise by a Menstruum the Metal or Minera becomes what it was again 9. Now the Quety is whence the vomitive quality of this cuprous solution should proceed It is not surely singly from the Sulphur of that Metal because it being separated from that Metal by the Liquor Alkahest becomes as Helmont saith a sweet fixt anodynous Sulphur and therefore quite contrary to an emetick property nor is it alone from the Mercurial part because then the same would be had from Saturn Jupiter Luna c. inasmuch as they have as great a proportion if not a greater of Mercury than Venus Now the Saccharum Saturni nor the Sal Jovis as far as I understand hath any thing near such if at all Emetick qualities and as for the Sal Lunae or Salt of Silver that is chiefly purgative witness the Pillulae Lunares 10. It is therefore from the Salts preying both upon the mercurial and sulphureous parts jointly considered which together make up so hostile a texture of parts as that they become wholly inimical to nature becoming totally refrectary to the acid ferment of the stomach which not admitting so tyrannical an Enemy gathers all its Forces together rallies them and opposeth with all its might this grand Antagonist 11. But reduce again this
thereof every Plant in its kind to the great and wonderful variety which we see upon the face of the earth so that presentem refert qualibet herba Deum 6. So in like manner the invisible Divine Power hath according to his own beneplacit dispersed variety of Mineral and Metaline seeds in hidden places of the opake body of the earth whence indeed the great and manifold difference of Mineral Glebes or Earths which Mineral seeds as well as all others whether vegetable or animal are indemonstrable a priori taking at first their immediate beginings from the very bosom of the Eternal Being 7. And therefore only demonstrable to us à posteriori viz. to our common sense by appearing in a visible garb upon the Stage of the World Now these dispersed Mineral Seminaries wherewith several parcels of earth become impregnate being set at work by the primitive fiat which is the same to this day as ever in their begining to shape bodies for their ideal essences to become manifest in form to themselves a Mercurial volatile juyce and an embrionate Sulphur as the materia proxima prima to Metalization 8. With these two proximate principles the Mineral Archeal faber operates ripens the elemental crudities and in a linear process puts on a tincture and weight and at length terminates in the coagulation of a perfect Metal specificated according to the form of the innate seed for the ripening coagulating fire of the embrionate Sulphur is as the Solterrae id quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius which kills the Python viz. exiccates and maturates the radical Mercurial moisture and terminates it in a Metalick species But I digress this being more fit for a Philosophick discourse upon another subject 9. We say therefore that these Mineral Glebes have for the mostpart a Mercury and a Sulphur in solutis principiis and both dissolvable in an essurine salt for salts are the keys that unlock the Mineral Kingdom These are those Menstrual Salts which teach Minerals and Metals how to dissolve in water by breaking them in minima and thereby how to communicate their medicinal virtues for the health of mans body 10. Here the Chymistry of nature is most admirable which by its own peculiar Menstruums extracts the essential innate virtues of Mineral Glebes and that by an intrinsick invisible fire in the digesting vessels of the earth yea and by the help of Art supplying the difficulties of Nature by frequent solutions and coagulations may yet further graduate these mineral virtues into more noble Arcana's whose essential tinctures may the better penetrate the vital ferments of the Microcosm 11. But how this Sulphurious essurine Salt becomes determined and specificated according to the difference of the Mineral Glebes it meets with into this or that fossile Salt or Mineral mixture may perhaps not unaptly be represented by this following instance as suppose several colours and salts placed at a distance one from another upon a large Marble and common simple water is convey'd to each of these this water though the same to all yet as it comes to every of them it becomes differently tincted and tasted according to the colour and taste of those parcels it meets with 12. So this essurine Sulphurous Spirit meeting with variety of Mineral Earths though the same in it self to every one yet becomes altered and tinctured according to the different property of the Mineral Earth and that according to the degree of Sulphur maturating the crude Mercurial juyce Now to confirm this our Thesis we must assume these two considerations first that all the various specificated Mineral Salts as Allom Vicriol Nitre c. have aliquid commune something in common amongst themselves and secondly that thereby all these Salts become transmutable one into another 13. For the first that they have something in common among themselves besides confirmation by our previous discourse is yet further demonstrable by matter of fact upon our second consideration viz. the transmutability of one salt into another by the Chymical Art we can out of sal marine or the spirit thereof make a Vitriol of Iron or Copper and by dissolving Quicksilver in Oyl of Vitriol according to what is done in making turbith Mineral as suppose four Ounces of Oyl of Vitriol to one of Mercury after the phlegm is evaporated and distilled that there remains a white precipitate which edulcorated by washing gives a Citrine powder and being revived as by distilling it from pot-ashes it may gives the same weight of current Quicksilver as it was at first This water which is impregnate with the Vitrioline Salts by being boyled up gives a true Allom here Vitriol salts are transmuted into an allumenish salt and that without the addition of any thing but Quicksilver which is again totally separable and yet salts by the very odour of the Mercury is turn'd into an Allom. 14. And not only Oyl of Vitriol with Mercury but also Oyl of Vitriol with common sal marine gives Alumen for if you put Oyl of Vitriol as we sometimes have done upon common salt and distil it in a glass body or retort with a gentle heat you will find a very volatile spirit of salt will come over the helm which will fume exceedingly the caput mort ' or remaining salt being dissolved gives a salt exactly resembling Allom. 15. Also Allom in its Minera exposed to the air is as a Magnet to Nitre attracting and centring it upon it self and common salt is in the body of Nitre Thus you see a relation or circulation of salts one into another and all this because they have in their Centre that one common Essurine spirit of salt which according to various alterations in Mineral beds admits of different coagulations 16. In short by way of recapitulation it is thus the Essurine acid salt having in its solution got a slight touch of a Vein or Minera of Iron and passing through a Rocky Mineral Glebe of Allom of which along the shore of Scarbrough and Whithy is found great plenty becomes more specificated in an allumenous than any other salt with which the water of the Quick-spring which breaks forth at the foot of the Rock is impregnate which makes that Fountain viz. the Spaw we discourse of SECT 7. 1. HAving thus run through the essential principles of this spring which make up this body of Mineral water which is so frequently and that for the most part not without the expected success drunk for the health of mens bodies I think it not impertinent to speak somewhat of its virtues and that the rather because Dr. Wittie gave forth as I was inform'd that I endevoured to defame the Spaw in that I held it to be an allumenous Spring 2. Let him therefore and the World know that in the Essurine salt of Allom as noble medicinal virtues are to be found as in any other Mineral specificated salt whatever for this salt in its primum ens is volatile and
them They so much enfeebled him as that he lost the use of his limbs for a time after and almost weakened him to death The Medicines I ordered him were chiefly volatile Spirits viz. Spiritus Salis Armoniaci to smell at and Spiritus Sanguinis to take inwardly together with a Plaister of Mustard Seed and Vinegar anointed over with the Balsam of Antimony Amber Turpentine c. applyed to the shaved crown of his head The volatile Spirits had a very remarkable operation for so often as he held the bottle to his nostrils which he would do a long time together having an eager desire of receiving benefit by what was ordered him he could after a while feel it run sensibly down the vertcbrae of his back disperse it self into his loyns and upon those parts to bring a fine gentle warmth which before usually were very cold and then run down to his very feet also to run along his arms to his very fingers ends with a dindling and pricking as it run along but he had not this sense of this operation of the volatile Spirits he smelt to at the first till he had several times taken inwardly the Spiritus Sanguinis which usually brought him into a moist sweat thereby opening obstructions of the genus nervosum after the use of these for awhile he found a stiffness in the sinewy parts of his joynts then began the shaking and trembling of his joynts upon endevouring to stand or to go a little which before frequently troubled him to go away and that stiffness brought strength from the sinews into the musculous parts so that he could after the use of these awhile go a little alone upon the house-floor and begun to get the sense and use of his hands so that he can now not only serve himself but cut his own meat which he never could do before since the Distemper seiz'd upon him also can put on his own cloaths From all which duely weighed results these following considerations First hence appears the reason why Patients do not usually reap that expected benefit from volatile Spirits in these and such like Diseases for these Spirits whether inwardly or outwardly administred or both are neither palatable nor pleasant to the smell but being nimble and quick do ferire nares after a smart manner which many people too much indulging their sense and palat will not have the patience to undergoe but boggle and fly back at the first onset of such penetrative Medicines and consequently deny themselves the expected efficacy thereof Secondly That sense and motion are the products of life and not the life it self for this Patient sometimes lay void of any visible sense or motion and that once or twice after he came out of his Baths and yet life was present so that all vital functions whether fermentations heat motion sense c. performed by organical parts are but the sequels and posterior products of the anima sensitiva Thirdly That sense and motion are different modifications of the animal Spirits in the genus nervosum and membranous parts of the body For it is not enough that nervous vessels be replete with so many of the animal Spirits as to give motion to the muscles and those to the joynts I say to have such store of these Spirits in those vessels as to cause motion is not enough also to cause sense unless these Spirits retain their natural sting and acuteness by which they communicate that we call sense to all the membranous parts of the body as happened to this Patient and so vice versâ The Spirits may be acute enough and give their vibration to all the membranous parts so as to cause sense and yet the motion of those Spirits may be so intercepted and dull'd in the nervous vessels of some parts of the body as to cause a defect of motion in the same parts which happens in the generality of paralytick and apoplectick persons only with this difference that the virus cadaverosum viz. the putredinous anodynous circulated recrement which is with the explosive incoercible flatus thence arising the efficient cause of all the Diseases of the genus nervasum whether Palsies Apoplexies Epilepsies Convulsions c. The foresaid anodynous recrement is I say more or less according to whose graduated accumulation the Disease becomes more or less mortal For if this recrement be ultimately carryed and settled in the membranous parts of the body then becomes the sense deprav'd as happened in this Patient but if it seize upon the animal Spirits in their current glidings along their own vessels it becomes their remora mortifies them in some parts thence comes the depravation of motion and all symptomes accompanying the common sort of Palsies Apoplexies c. Fourthly Hence it also appears that the volatile Spirits in the blood are of the same family with those of the genus nervosum and membranous parts only in their own vessels they receive a more natural determination to their proper functions of sense and motion For unless the blood give being to the animal Spirits they are not and unless they were a kin to those saline Spirits in the blood the Patient could not upon the use thereof I mean of the volatile Spirits of blood have perceived his joynts to have become more stiff and strong than before Fifthly That there is a concatenation of the vessels of the genus nervosum and anastomosis of one into another through the texture of the whole body was apparent in that the Patient felt sensibly the volatile Spirits which he strongly smelt at to pass through the processes of the medulla spinalis down the vertebrae into his loyns and so down to his feet also along his arms to his hands and to his very fingers ends Whence also it is more than probable that the springy motion of the animal Spirits in the nervous kind have their original in the brain for as the heart is the spring of all the Arteries the liver of all the Veins so likewise the brain of all the Nerves Which yet doth not infringe our doctrine of the generation of the animal Spirits from the Spirits of the blood being the pure defecate essential parts thereof ingendred from all parts of the Arterial blood becomes exquisitely elaborated in their own vessels and at length receive a determination of motion in the brain Sixthly That the head is not the chief seat of the Palsie was evident in this Patient for all the senses of his head were untouch'd save a weakness as I said of his eyes so that the animal Spirits in what part soever of the body are the subject matter upon which the cadaverous recrement seizing gives being to the Diseases of the genus nervosum And that without respect to the head unless the same efficient cause be there and then indeed it gives original to the Epilepsie Catalepsie Convulsions c. of that part More observations I could make but am not willing to prosecute them to
the full at this time till I am more confirmed by some collateral experiments 16. The Doctor gives us two instances of the Cure of the Asthma by the Water viz. of an Alderman of Hull and of a Gentlewoman As to the first we answer that it is very if not more than probable That the Asthma wherewith the Alderman laboured was from a deuteropathy from a stuffing of the stomach which might compress and streighten the Diaphragm as also from some trivial obstructions in the lungs which together might very well produce a spurious Asthma or Shortness of Breath than which in ordinary foulness and oppressions of uhe stomach nothing is more frequent and upon that account might easily enough be cured by the Water which doth notably cleanse the sordes of the stomach c. But that this was a real Asthma I fear the Doctor mistakes in his diagnosticks 17. And as for the other Cure of the Gentlewoman I cannot otherwise apprehend from his enumeration of concomitant circumstances but that it was from an uterine cause Asthma ex regimine matricis influentiali prognatum and so was not primarily in the Lungs but only secondary and symptomatical depending upon the depraved occonomy of the Womb and that from inordinate obstructions therein which was caus'd as I suppose from cold taken at an unseasonable time when Nature was about its critical evacuation Now the Spaws by reason of the aperient Mineral Salt therein contained was very proper for opening those obstructions sending away what ought to be by those inferior chanels and so consequently the cause being removed the symptomatical Asthma might by degrees cease in which judgment I am further confirm'd in that he saith that not long after she had a Child 18. As for Rheumes or Catarrhs He mentions one that received benefit thereby which Disease according to the Galenists as I apprehend proceeds from vapours ascending from the stomach which being condensed by the coldness of the brain and obstructions in the head distill per foramen palati thorough the small chanel of the palate or by the nosthrils which falling upon the Lungs brings a Cough and sometimes a Consumption and descending in other chanels cause other Diseases all which may indeed be reckoned inter deliramenta Catarrhi 19. The essentials of which Disease we deny viz. any vapours to arise from the digestion of the meat in the stomach after such a manner as vapore terus to reach the head Which suppose we should grant let us see what absurdities would follow first no sooner would the meat and drink be taken into the stomach but the heat and moisture therein would forthwith send up vapors and we should thereupon be constantly troubled with Catarrhs Also the most sound strong stomachs whose heat was lively would certainly always breed Catarrhs because of sending up most powerfull vapours from the liquid parts of food also in cold Winters from the forcible injury of the cold air working upon the brain and causing a cold Distemper there we should never be kept free from a Catarrh not to say what constant droppings there would be at the pipe of the Alembick the Nose enough to fill a Receiver in a little time and to make every one go with one hung at his Nose 20. Also it would follow that all defluxions of Rheumes should have but one taste and that insipid too because if the vapours suppose in a pot arise from never so many sorts of meats where there is a competent moisture yet that which is sav'd by condensing will have but one taste viz. an elemental simple water whence therefore according to their own doctrine should the variety of consistence and tasts proceed that one should be falt another sharp and fretting one thin and another more thick So that difficulties and absurdities on all hands sit upon the skirts of this doctrin of a Catarrh 21. To be positive We say the stomach no sooner receives food into it but it closeth the upper mouth and the membranous oesophagus claps close together which also happens at every bit that is swallowed down so that no vapours can pass it and though vapours should arise which no doubt in small quantities they do from the lower concave of the stomach where the food lyes to the upper part thereof yet they are carryed up with so easie a digestive heat as that they circulate and fall back upon the digestive mass again like a globe of glass half filled whose neck is close sealed up and set in an easie heat of digestion the steams which arise circulate back again upon the matter without any pressing thorough the neck of the glass or any danger of breaking the glass 22. It is true that from the incongruity of the food in the stomack and from the reluctancy thereof and the indigestion thence following a flatus spiritus sylvestris or incoercible gas may arise which not suddenly finding vent by the opening of the upper mouth of the stomack stretcheth the membranous parts thereof makes one sick and faint but at length getting passage by the upper Portall flaps open the Oesophagus whisks forth with a sudden noise of a ructure or belch This flatin or wind carries with it the odour or taste of that part of the food which is most difficultly digested and this is all the vapour which is carried up which yet is not a vapour but an incoercible wind never condensable as all vapours are into water 23. But it may be objected That if no steams or vapours are carried up from the stomack to the brain as is usually and vulgarly supposed how comes it to pass that after meat we commonly find our selves dull and indisposed and as it were heavy to sleep many times Is it not from the vapours which ascend into the head and incline to heaviness I Answer no. But we are then inclinable to an heaviness and sleepyness from the same cause we are inclinable to the same at any time sleep follows waking as night the day heaviness and dulness are as precursory to sleep as the evening to the night waking is a vigilancy and action of the spirits each standing centinel in the Portalls of the senses sleep is a quiescence of the spirits from their action the animal Spirits are after a time of working wearied and willingly give themselves up to a lassation for a further recruit so that there is no need of vapours to arise into the head to cause sleep For though a man fast 24 hours or longer and consequently hath small matter left on his stomack to cause vapours yet is he nevertheless inclinable to sleep and many can sleep as soundly upon an empty as a foul stomack Employment either in mind or body keeps the Spirits in action and awake once give way by Idleness or solitary sitting after meat or at other times and a dulness begins which is the Harbinger of sleep and the Spirits fair and easily fall to rest 24. Another Objection
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
inward inbred fire viz. the Sulphur of those bodies which ripens and maturates the Minerals and Metals making them more or less pure according to the disposition of the place and graduation of the Sulphur By Salts I mean the Primum Ens salium with its various coagulations into specificated Salts for without these Agents all Mineral and Metalline bodies are at rest There are neither solutions nor coagulations Now there are few sorts of earth through which water in its current passeth saving the Quellem or Arena bulliens but they are impregnate with Mineral juyces of one sort or other which by some sleight touch of a Mineral Salt in the water-Spring becomes dissolv'd in some small proportion enough to give that great difference we find in Spring-water both as to taste which some that have accurate palates and have accustomed themselves to drink water can easily discern an eminent difference in taste of one sort of Spring-water from another as also to the frequent use waters are put to both for boyling meat washing and bleaching cloaths Dying Tanning Brewing c. All which difference I say proceed some small solution of different Mineral juyces by the Medium of a little touch of Salt dissolv'd in the subterraneal chanels of water Here I might expatiate and shew the reasons of the difference of waters both as to taste and also in order to the foresaid uses but least I make these papers swell too much I shall wave it My next work is to shew How Mineral Salts upon the mutual contact of each other or of Mineral bodies are the efficient cause of heat in those Springs I am now speaking of To which purpose I shall propound several mechanical experiments of the productions of heat as first from the mixing acid and alkalizate Liquors as for instance of Oyl of Vitriol with Oyl of Tartar which upon mixing give a great heat making a strong ebullition which when over the heat wasteth and that is either when the one by its greater proportion over-acts or overcomes the other or when both proportionable they are reduc'd to an Equilibrium or neutral Salt called Tartarum Vitriolatum Which heat is caus'd not only by Oyl of Vitriol upon the Alkali of Tartar but also by any other acid Spirit as Spirit of Nitre Spirit of Salt Aqua fortis Spirit of Vinegar or the like which after the ebullition is over give a Tartarum nitrosum salinum acetosum c. And as Salts mutually acting upon each other cause heat so in like manner do some Liquors or Spirits affus'd upon Salts effect the same as Spirit of Wine poured upon drie Salt of Tartar will make a great heat so that in mixing them to rectifie Spirit of Wine therefrom we usually do it per vices or by sprinkling the Salt leisurely therein least we should indanger the glass by heating it too much The like heat happens by pouring the Spirit of Wine upon Arsenick fixt upon Nitre which as from the same cause with that of Spirit of Wine upon Salt of Tartar for the Nitre by the open calcination with Arsenick is partly turned into a fixed Alkali which that it is so appears because if to the dulcified Arsenical powder after the washing away the Salts Spirit of Wine be poured no heat is contracted So water poured upon Calx vive gives a considerable heat which it doth by resolving the acid and alkalizate Salts contained therein who by their mutual contest cause an heat As Salts acting one upon another and the affusion of some Liquors also upon them cause heat so also Salts acting upon Minerals or Metalline bodies by corrosion and dissolution are the efficients of heat Thus any corrosive Menstruum fretting Mineral or Metalline bodies cause the same as for instance in the solution of any Metal in Aqua fortis during the ebullition there is an heat so in making the Vitriolum Martis upon the affusion of the Menstrum the heat is so very strong as that I have not been able to hold the glass in my hand Which proceeds from the agile Spirits of Salts fretting upon the Metalline compage taking it in pieces and reducing it in minima in whose forcible not natural Analysis through the agility of motion the heat is caused But in the pouring Aqua Regia upon Antimony or Spirit of Nitre upon Butyrum Antimonii for the making Bezoardicum Minerale there an heat is caused by an actual humid calcination of the Sulphur of that Mineral where the Sulphur by those corrosive Spirits almost takes flame passeth off with a strong stifling Arsenical vapour Also the motion of bodies one upon or against another by concussion or frication cause heat so fermentation gives quickness of motion and that produceth heat which is sensibly perceived in some fermenting liquors in others not Now the Query pertinent to my purpose is Which of all these several causes of heats may probably be the efficient of hot Springs To which I answer That it is most likely to proceed from Mineral Salts one acting upon another that is from the Essurine Salt which alone with a slight touch of a Mineral give being to those Fontes Acidi viz. Vitrioline Spaws which meeting in the chanels of the Earth with some lixivial Marcasites are by the current of a water-Spring dissolv'd and set a boyling one working and fretting upon another give that heat to the water which dissolves them Which two Salts viz. Acid and Alkalizate are sometimes embryonative in the same Marcasite which may happen in some natural stone or middle Mineral of Calx Vive into which a current of water being opened presently dissolves the two Salts makes them contest and struggle by reason of the antipathy of their natures and thereby cause the heat in hot Baths So that in short It is very probable that it is from a natural stone of Calx Vive which being plentiful in the Minera thereof may give cause for the perpetuation of heat To confirm which Some have found a white Marcasite about the place of those hot oprings in Sommerset-shire which put into water give an heat Now that two such opposite Salts should be embryonate in the same Mineral stone is an argument that the seminal principles of Nature are at work in all places according to the capacity and manner of the matters reception viz. ad modum recipientis Calx Vive distill'd with fresh Urine makes the Spirit thereof arise at the first with that difference also from soliary Spirit of Urine as that it gives cause to think that some volatile Alkali of the Calx ariseth up with it which hinders the coagulation of the Spirit into an Offa with Spirit of Wine usually happening from simple Spirit of Urine and Spirit of Wine mixed together Which very thing argues the difference of Salts of Calx Vive That it hath an Alkali in it is demonstrable enough from its inriching of grounds for which purpose it is frequently used in barren Soyls which the