thereof dissolved in rain water yields a pure Vitrial and the Colcothar that falls to the bottom of the said water yields upon a refiners tast most pure Copper like to very gold as doth Verdigrease the Metalline parts thereof being purified from their feculencies by means of the foresaid corrosion and dissolution The nativity of Vitrial being thus promised it will most evidently appear what are the true causes of Spaw water viz. Of their Vitrioline tast and odour It will not now be a thing irrational to grant that all Spaw waters partake either of the corporeal or spiritual parts of Vitrial They that partake of the substance of Vitrial are such as when they are evaporated leave behind them a Vitriol at the bottom and such are the Sevenir Paubon and Geronster Springs the two former of which Helmont said he carefully distilled and found nothing in them but the Vitrial of Iron and like to this was a certain Spring within two miles of Knaresborow the water whereof I distilled and found in the bottom a Vitrial of Iron Moreover betwixt these wells which are impregnated with a corporeal Vitrial there is a considerable difference for some work upon the bowels mostly and by stool if not sometimes by vomit and such are they that contain in them much Vitrial whether of Copper Iron or both mixed together as Geronster and are more gross and corpulent and the operation of these is much after the same manner as that of steel which for the most part doth the first dayes it is taken cause a nauseousness in the stomack and passeth away by stool all the time it is taken and by reason of the harshnes it hath is seldom attracted to or passeth through the vessels of the second concoction But they that contain little of the substance but more of the spirit as doth Serenir do pass the stomack Liver and other vessels far sooner and with less disturbance than do the other And they that partake of none of the substance but onely of the spiritual part or vertues such as the Spaw-well at Knaresborow of which particularly in the next Chapter c. are far more efficacious in many cases especially where obstinate humours and confirmed obstructions betwixt the stomack and Liver are not the causes of the distempers for in such cases such a Medicine must be administred which way more strong irritate these vessels to eject those obstructing tartareous and viscous humours or at least dissolve and attenuate them thereby making them to yield to more benigne purgatives Note also that these waters may the more they are impregnated with the said corporeal substances the further be carried without loss of their strength The water of Sevenir is carried many miles and into other Countreys without loss of its vertues but that of Pauhon much further and into further Countreys we have it transported into England very frequently Now the water of the Spaw in York-shire cannot be carried near so far but yet further than most believe as I shall declare in the next Chapter Now these differences or varieties of impregnations arise either from the difference of the quantity of the acide spirit corroding the difference of the fruitfulness of the vein of Copper or rather Iron corroded or the greater or lesser continuance of the course of the water already impregnated through veins of the said Metals whereby it becomes long yet more impregnated if the course be continued Note that the veins of the said impure Metals contain in them more esurine salt and yield more natural spirits than they themselves when melted and therefore communicate far more efficatious vertues than they do I mean in many cases CHAP. VII Of the Spaw-well near Knares-borow ABout a mile and a half from the said Town West-ward in a moorish boggie ground within less than half a mile from which there is no considerable ascent ariseth a Spring of a Vitrioline tast and odour resembling much those ultramarine Spaws The water of this Fountain springeth directly up from the sandy bottom and this is no otherwise than that water doth which passing through pipes in the earth serving for the conveying of water from a Fountain to a house or Town doth break the pipes if they be obstructed or force it self through them if already broken upwards through the superficies of the earth and flows in the manner of a Spring For in this place the subterraneal veins through which the water passeth are either if not there terminated obstructed or too infirm to contain the water of the spring passing forcibly through them and making a vent where it can As for the vitrioline and Ironish tast and odour of this water I need in regard I have in the preceeding Chapter declared more at large the causes of all Spaws speak the less in this place But for more particular satisfaction the aforesaid tast and odour may be imputed partly to those vapours that proceed from the fermentation that is in Iron or Copper mines and thus Aristotle and H. ab Heer 's would have it to be affirming that vapours retain the tast and odours of their minerals and the water with which these vapours are mixed become thereby impregnated though in a more remiss degree with the same qualities partly to the long abiding or continuing of the water with the Iron or Copper mine viz. in some great cavities in the midst of the veins thereof whereby it contracts their odour and tast as we see it doth in Iron or Copper vessels if it stand long there especially if excited by heat or acuated with any acidity and as doth white wine standing long with scales or filings of steel or iron or partly to the water acuated with some subterraneal sulphurious acidity and passing swiftly through some hungry barren vein of Iron which it corrodes lightly resolving thereby some of the spiritual and subtile parts thereof onely which it becomes it self impregnated with And hence it acquires the nature of a Spaw-well Now for the better understanding of the nature of this Spaw I made divers experiments thereof which are these 1. I distilled it supposing that if I could draw off the mineral spirits by themselves I should discover a great secret very advantageous for diseased people but the water yea the two first spoonfuls which were distilled and the rest undistilled that remained utterly lost both the tast and odour which they had before neither would they become any otherwise tinged with galls than common Spring-water although the water undistilled with the mixture of the pouder of galls became as red as a well coloured Clarret wine Now it is hard to conceive the true reason of this especially since I distilled it in a glass still and luted or closed up very carefully the joints thereof so that spirit of wine could not evaporate out thereat I impute it to the subtilty of those spirits which are so volatil that they are sooner sublimed than the water it self therefore
the other and after this manner is the nativity of nitre 2. The process of making artificial Vitrial is manifold I shall speak of onely two and they are these 1. Cast Sulphur into melted Copper and there let it burn till it cease to burn any more then presently cast the melted Copper into rain-water which will thereby become green This do so often till all the Copper be dissolved in the water then evaporate the water and you shall have a good Vitrial Note that it is an acid spirit in the sulphur which opens and resolves the esurine Salt in the Copper whereby the Copper it self is corroded and fit for dissolution in the water 2. Take Copperas stone which is a certain Sulphurious glittering Marcasite break to pieces a good quantity of them and lay them in air and rain upon sticks over wooden vessels and in a certain time the stones will be resolved by an acid spirit in the air and water and washed down into the said vessel with the rain-water which will thereby become green and yield upon evaporation a good green Vitrial and after this manner do we make our Vitrial or Copperas in England Now let it not seem strange to any one that there is such an acidity in water and air for whence else doth Iron and Copper being put into water or standing long in the air especially in a cold Cellar contract such a rust as they do Is not this rust from the aforesaid acid spirit viz. of the air and water resolving the erusine Salt in those metals and making it thereby more corrosive and more powerfull to corrode part of the metals themselves with which it is mixed per Minima And will not this rust being boiled in rain-water yield a Vitrial Ob. But some will object and say that this rust is caused not from the acidity but onely from the humidity of the air and water resolving thereby the said esurine Salt Sol. This I will solve with a relation of two experiments viz. 1. Take the above named Copperas stones broken to pieces weigh them exactly and lay them in a cold moist place but so that no rain come at them to wash away the Salt thereof as it is resolved by the acidity of the air and after some moneths they will by a certain magnetical power attract a certain saline humidity and fall into a black pouder which being well dried and then weighed will prove far more ponderous than before which implies that there is an addition of something else than a meer quality viz. the humidity of air and water 2. Take a pound of Salt of tartar make it red hot and weigh it exactly then put upon it two pints of rain-water distilled and evaporate it then put on more and evaporate that also and then make the Salt red hot again and weigh it and you shall find it far heavier than before which is caused by the said Salts attracting to it self that occult acid saline spirit which was in the water and fixing of it into its own nature and not by assimilating the water it self which will never be converted into Salt any otherwise than as it contains a saline acid spirit which is the onely thing coagulable in it Ob. Some again will object although they do admit of this acid spirit in air and water say that in case the said acid spirit do corrode and dissolve the metals it doth not follow that there is any such esurine Salt in those metals as distinct from the pure mercurial or other Sulphureous part of them but say that it corrodes onely the said mercurial and Sulphureous part thereof as we see aqua fortis doth silver and mercury and aqua regia doth gold and so becomes coagulated into a saline nature and consistency Sol. The said acid spirit of the air and water can not corrode or putrifie the pure metalline part of metals for we see that mercurie is not corroded and reduced into a saline nature thereby and that gold doth never rust and that because it is purified from all the said acid saline principle and is not at all corroded but by an aqua regia and silver contracts but little rust and that according to the small quantity there is in it of the said Salt And for the superfluous embrionated Sulphur that neither can be corroded by the said acid spirit any otherwise than it contains in it that esurine Salt for if we put pure Sulphur extracted from Sulpbur vivum into aqua fortis it will not be corroded thereby much less then by the aciditie of air and water nay Theophrastus saith that if woods and cords be smeered over with an unctuous oyl which he prescribes to be made out of Sulphur they will be preserved from putrifaction for ever though they continue in the air water or earth and the truth is nothing can open and resolve Sulphur but oyl being of a like unctuous nature with ' it as I have oftentimes tried There must therefore be another corporeal Principle viz. of a consentaneous suitable and saline nature that is apt for to be corroded and resolved and to coagulate the said spirit 3. Vitrial is made artificial after this manner viz. Take an ounce of spirit of Sulphur or vitrial and put it into a gallon of rain-water stir them well together then put into this acid water half a pound of the filings of Iron or Copper and within a few hours the metal will attract the said acid spirit to it self be dissolved it self thereby and coagulate that This being done decant the water and calcine the said mixture in a crucible and being poudered put it into rain-water seething hot stirring them together and then all that being settled to the bottom that will settle powr off the clear green water and evaporate it and you will have a pure Vitrial Like unto this is the making of Vitrial by sprinkling a considerable quantity of distilled Vinegar upon the pouder of Steel or Copper and letting of them stand till the mixture grow very hot by fermentation and be again cooled and then putting it into rain-water seething hot and proceeding as in the foregoing process Almost after the same manner is Verdigrease made viz. by hanging plates of Copper or Brass over the hot vapours of Vinegar Now these three processes of making artificial vitrial being seriously considered will clearly illustrate the nativity of natural vitrial which is as I conceive after this manner viz by an acid subterraneal spirit whereof there is great quantity in some mines corroding the veins of Iron or rathe Copper which being thus resolved and opened are by the water that passeth through them dissolved after which this liquor is boyled to a Vitrial and thus is made the Vitrial in Dansick Hungarie c. Note that any of the said Vitrials if they be made out of Copper whether natural or artificial being distilled in a forceing furnace yield oyle and spirit and the Caput Mortuum
becoming to be unbodied for before they were incorporated with the water and by consequence wonderfull spiritual penetrate even the glass it self or the lute and I believe that neither glass or lute can hold them 2. I took two viol glasses and put into them a just equal quantity of the Spaw water I put one of them into a skillet of warm water and just took the cold off from it than I put an equal quantity of the pouder of gals into each of those two viols and that water which was cold received no deeper tincture than the other as I could perceive 3. I filled two viol glasses with this water and stopt one of them very close with wax and the other I stopt not at all and at two dayes end they yielded a tincture with the pouder of gall little less than that which is newly taken out of the well but that less which was left unstopt How much it will loose this tincture by carrying far I do not know it were worth while to trie and thereby to be the better assured how much of its strength is wasted for according to the spending of its spirits the tincture fades 4. A glass of this water stood seven dayes close stopt with wax and than yielded a tincture with gall like to small beer 5. This water doth not coagulate milk as do the German Spaws and another Vitrioline Spring in the same moor which yieldeth a Vitrial of Iron upon evaporation as I said before Now the reason of this is not because it is not acide enough for it is far more acid than the water of the dropping Well which coagulates milk if it be boiled with it but because the acidity thereof is not permanent or fixed enough but so volatile as to evaporate before the milk boils 6. This water kils Worms and Frogs if they be put therein and such kinde of Creatures as these 7. It being evaporated leaves nothing at all of Vitrial behind but onely an insipid pouder of a darkish colour like unto which pouder will that blewish cream or skin which swims upon the said water after long standing be when it is dried Now note that the aforesaid skin swimmeth upon all such Mineral waters and as saith H ab Heer 's being put upon the fire is inflamed and yields a sulphureous odour It is also called by Hadrianus Mynsicht Anima vitrioli 8. I weighed this water I think exactly to a grain and it weighed neither heavier nor lighter than simple spring water 9. It is observed generally and I tooke especial notice of it that it is almost an infallible signe of an ensuing rain when glasses filled with this water continue not clear but are covered all over as it were with a mist contrary to what is observed in glasses full of simple common water Now the reason of this I conceive is from the Mineral subtile spirits giving as nitre doth activity to the coldness of the water whereby the glasses themselves become more cold and so cold as eminently and apparently to condense the humid vapours of the air with which it abound before the rain To these experiments and observations I shall add this observation also viz. that this Spaw water is strongest viz. with the Mineral spirits in Winters frost by reason of the earth being the more bound up and the said spirits being thereby kept from perspiration and weakest in rainy wet weather by reason the water sinks into the veins of the springs viz. those that lye nearest to the superficies of the earth for it cannot sink above ten feet deep though the rain be never so much Also this water is in Summer-time stronger in the morning than at noon because the coldness of the night doth somewhat bind the earth and the heat of the Sun openeth the same thereby making it the more easie for the Mineral spirits to evaporat out thereby To prevent the inconveniencies of rain it were to be wished that there were a very deep trench yet not so deep as to cut a sunder any of the veins through which the water passeth if any should lye within six eight or ten feet of the superficies of the earth as it is possible some may made round the well and bridges made over some places of the same for as by this means the rain would be carried away so also the water in the boggie ground adjoyning to it which may perhaps sink into the veins of the spring and corrupt the same would be dreyned away and the well by this means much improved for the ground about it is spongious and drinks in water apace the uppermost part thereof to the depth of a foot consisting of that hollow earth of which is made pete and turfe and that beneath it being sandy and also hollow CHAP. VIII Of the vertues of the Spaw-well to whom and in what cases profitable or hurtfull I Shall not stand here to reckon up all and the several vertues of Vitrial as not properly conducing to our present purpose because the varities of its operations depends upon the variety of the forms in which it is administred or used for the Salt thereof hath one operation the Colcothar another the corrosive spirit another and that subtile acide penetrating spirit which Theophrastus cals his great secret or Arcanum against the Epilepsie and other such symptomes because of its wonderfull penetrativenes leaving no part or places of the body unsearched another and with this hath the spirit of the Spaw water great affinity is therefore so much the more excellent as being so much the nearer to it Primum ens as Helmont calls it Now note by the way that although this spirit cannot be by it self extracted out of this water yet it may be extracted out of Vitrial yet by a very expert artist This water according to its first qualities cooles and moistens actually heats and dries potentially And by these four qualities the distempers of the body consisting in the excess either of heat cold driness or moisture are tempered every quality altering its contrary and reducing it into its natural temper And indeed it is worth taking notice of that in such cases a distemper will rather be altered by its contrary than increased by its like As for exemple if the distemper consists in heat the heat will be allayed by the coldness of the water and not be made more intense by the heat thereof although the heat continue longer than the coldness for the water is quickly warmed in the stomack and then the potential heat is reduced into act and continues and so on the contrary I mean If the water be taken regularly and cautiously or otherwise such happy success may not be expected Now according to other qualities viz. second third it cuts dissolves attenuates abstergeth viscous tartarous humours in the stomack messenterie hypochondries reins bladder c and evacuateth them by Urine as being indeed very diuretical and by consequence opens the
body to be wrought upon In cold dull bodies more may be taken than otherwise may In general let the proportion to be taken be such as may cause four six or seven stools without auy manifest inconveniency of the fewness or multiplicity thereof Note that in many bodies this water works very quickly and indeed too soon and in such a case my advise is that two or three glasses of the Spaw-water be first drunk for that will somewhat impede the sudden operations thereof cause it to continue longer in the body for the better performing of its operation therein before it pass through it Note also that after the full proportion is taken and in a good measure passed through the body four or six glasses of the Spaw-water may be drunk for the prevention of the excoriation of the bowels and fundament especially in hot cholerick bodies They that cannot drink this water by reason of its stinking odour and yet stand in great need of the effects thereof may boil it a little while till it hath lost its odour and then drink of it for although some vertue vanisheth with the odour thereof yet the greatest and most effectual vertues which are in the Salt and aforesaid subtile acidity thereof do yet continue as I have often tried or if they please put some Salt thereof into the Spaw-water and so drink it for indeed as I said before the chiefest vertue lies in the Salt The Salt also thereof being rightly made put into any common Spring-water doth in good measure perform the same effects The spirit of this salt is of excellent vertue if a drop or two thereof be put into every glass of the Spaw-water for it makes it far more penetrative and indeed far more effecutal against all distempers and diseases as the Dropsie Gravel Stone and suppression of Urine c. I advise that they that have any inflammation or excoriation in their bowels abstain altogether from the taking of this water because it will inflame them more also they that have Ulcers and inflammations in their kidnies and bladder and are troubled with a sharpness of Urine Such directions for exercise and diet as I have prescribed for the Spaw drinkers I prescribe also to Sulphur-water-drinkers for the general onely this liberty I grant them viz. that these may exercise less and feed a little more liberally than Spaw-drinkers This water used outwardly dissolves hard tumours cures old Ulcers the Scab the Itch the Scurff Leprosie and all such breakings out whatsoever if the parts ill affected be washed and bathed therewith for it dries consumes all corrupt humours in the habit of the body and prevents all putrefaction of humours in the same It being used by way of a warm Bath for the whole body is of the same efficacy as Paracelsus saith that his liquamen salis i. e. brine is of and that is to consume all humid distempers whether hot or cold as the Dropsy Gout hard tumours swellings of the legs Leprosy and the like also it makes the falean and reduceth them into a natural dry firm healthy habit of body but it must cautiously be done with the observing of such rules and directions as I prescribed for bathing in warm water as in Chapter the 4. I wish there were more conveniencies as fit vessels for bathing at this Well than are for I believe that after a time Baths with this water would grow more in use and become as famous as those hot Baths in Sommersetshire for many uses The spirit of the Salt rubbed into any parts swelled or pained onely cures them presently And as the waters themselves are outwardly used for cleansing and healing so also there is a kind of slimy bituminous mud below the Sulphur-well which will burn like Sulphur and is of great efficacy for mollifying digesting and resolving hard tumours and for corroborating weak infirm parts and allaying of pains and aches in the limbs of what nature so ever being outwardly applied As I am silent in particularizing cures yet one strange cure I cannot but mention viz. A certain youth came the last year to these waters from the more remore Northern parts having on each finger a horn covering the top thereof and also a horny substance on his wrests and face which with the inward and outward use of this Sulphur-water did in a little time being loosed thereby all fall off If such excrescenices may be loosened and made to fall off thereby then Attendite Cornigeri En vobis medelam CHAP. XVI Of the Dropping or Petrifying-well OVer against the Castle of Knaresborow the River Nide running betwixt ariseth a certain Spring in the manner of other Springs in a high ground which running a little way in an entire stream is at the brow of a descent by a dam of ragged stones divided into several trickling branches whereof some drop and some stream down partly over and partly through a jetting Rock and this Spring is of a petrifying nature for of it was the Rock from which it distils wholly made and is by it daily increased notwithstanding the cutting off great pieces from it This water also generates stones where it fals and likewise where it runs but not all the way it runs but near the place onely where it fell the reason of which I shall presently shew If any stick or piece of woodlye in it some weeks it will be can died over with a stony whitish crust the inward part of the wood continuing of the same nature as before But any soft spongie substance as moss leaves of trees c. into the which the water can enter will thereby in time become seemingly to be of a perfect stony nature and hardness Now the cause of this petrifying property is as Philosophers call it succus lapidescens i. e. a stony matter which is in its principiis solutis for indeed the principia soluta of all things whether animals vegetables metals or minerals are in a liquid form and are concreted by degrees by a natural heat separating from them all accidental humidities and fixing them into their proper species When the water with which this succus lapidescens is mixed is in part wasted by the Sun and air it doth then deposite it as being too heavy for it any longer to bear it And when that is deposited or fallen down it doth by a continued addition and concretion in time amount to a considerable stony mass For the better understanding the true nature and causes of this water I made these three experiments 1. I evaporated away the water and in the bottom was left a stony pouder very like to the pouder of the stones of the Rock 2. A pint of it weighs ten grains heavier than a pint of common Spring water 3. It coagulates milk if it be boiled therewith and the reason of this is because for the principiis solutis of all minerals nature hath provided some Sulphurious acidity for the better fermentation and
of air in the earth nay there is such a plenty of it there that many learned Philosophers were nay Aristotle himself of opinion that all Springs were generated of subterraneal air 2. Air is not the aliment of fire for saith the Lord Bacon in his Treatise De vita morte Flamma non est aer accensus flame is not kindled air nay but unctuous vapours which arise from the matter that is burnt so that whereas without air fire goeth out and is extinguished the reason is because the fuliginous vapours wanting evaporation do recoil upon the fire and choak it Now this Bituminous fire is not being of a sulphureous nature very fuliginous and besides what smoak or sumes or vapours there come from it are subtile and penetrating and either evaporate through the superficies of the earth insensibly or incorporate themselves with some sutable subject that is in the earth or els are of themselves condensed into some unctuous matter adhearing to the sides of the caverns into which they are elevated So that according to the fuliginousness of vapours more or less recoiling the fire is more or less choaked Nay if we will believe Historians there have been burning Lamps closely shut up in glasses for fiftheen hundred years together in old sepulchres Now they burnt without air were not extinguished by reason the aliment of it was a Naphtha or Bituminous matter which was so pure that it bred no fuliginous vapours to choake the fire thereof 3. Where this fire is very great there is a great vent and exhalation but where but little little is the vent and insensible And in most places the fire is not great extensively but intensively because it is kept within a narrow compass as in small caverns and veins of the earth Q. How comes this Bitumen to be kindled in the earth Sol. It is agreed by all that are of the opinion that Bitumen is the matter of the subterraneal fire that hot and dry exhalations in the bowels of the earth being shut up and not finding any place to break forth are agitated attenuated rarified and so inflamed and being inflamed kindle the Bitumen Now lastly let no man wonder that there should be so great a force of fire conteined in the earth as to be sufficient for the generation of so many Springs that flow from thence daylie seeing Pliny and many other Philosophers wonder so much on the other side when they considered of the subterraneal fire and brake forth into an exclamation saying it is the greatest of all miracles that all things are not every day burnt up And cannot the burnings of the Aetnean Visuvian Nymphean mountains convince us a little of this But for the further confirmation of this opinion let us a little consider whence the winds proceed and what they are And are they not a hot and dry exhalation Now that this proceeds from and out of the earth most agree and that it entered not first into the earth is very probable For how can a hot dry light exhalation whose nature and property is to ascend descend into the earth in such a quantity as to cause such great and lasting winds as many times happen It must therefore be in the earth originally and be stirred up by some great heat in the same And what shall we think of the dry exhalation or spirit which is shut up in the caverns of the earth in great quantities and endeavouring to break forth through obstructed passages causeth great earth-quakes whereby Cities Towns and Countries have been overthrown to say nothing of those dreadfull noyses sometimes in the bowels of the earth Whence I say these great exhalations I say great because I confess that some little quantity of them may be caused by certain fermentations in the earth should be raised if not from some great heat of fire within the earth never any one yet could rationally determine And Caesius affirms that at a certain village called Tripergulus about an hundred and twenty years since after fiftteen dayes earthquake the earth opened and winds smoak and very great fires brake forth out of the same also pumice-stones and abundance of ashes in so much as they made a mountain and about that place were many hot Springs Also in Apulia is a hot bath called Tribulus where there is abundance of ashes and calcined stones and about the lake Lucrinus and Avernus are the same But if any should yet doubt that winds proceed from the earth or from the occult fires of the earth I shall make it yet further to appear by propounding to their consideration some observations concerning the Sea For it is observed that wind doth proceed from the Sea after a more apparent and violent manner than from the land and that more certain signes of an ensueing wind are taken from the Sea than from the land For when a calme Sea makes a murmuring noyse within it self it signifies that then the exhalations which is the matter of the wind are rising out of the earth and bottom of the Sea and this the fishes perceiving and being affraid of it especially Dolphins play above the water and the Sea-urchins fasten themselves to rocks the Sea a little swelling sheweth that the exhalation is endeavouring a vent then boyling sheweth that it hath penetrated to the superficies but as yet in a little quantity but then the eruptious of the exhalations following upon the waters mounted up aloft make wind and a tempest such as Marriners have often experience of when as they perceive that the wind blows from no other place but ariseth at themselves Now why waves or billows should preceed wind let any man if he can give any other reason Also I have been informed by some Marriners that a little before a great tempest there is seen a great quantity of an unctuous shineing matter floating on the top of the Sea and that this is an infallible signe of an ensuing storme The reason of this is because wind breaking forth out of the earth forceth up with it self that Bituminous matter from the place where it self was generated But now why winds should arise from the Sea more apparently than from the land is because there is more plenty of fire in the gulfes of the Sea for there it hath more aliment or fewel viz. Water which as I said before is the aliment of that Bituminous fire And whence are those great mountains of stones and minerals and those Islands which do sometimes arise up anew from the Sea but from a subterraneal fire which forceth them up from thence according to the judgement of learned Sendivogius and experienced Erker and those chasmes and gapings of the Sea Much more might be alleadged for the confirmation of this opinion as the manner of the generation of minerals and metals and many such like subterraneal operations which can not rationally be ascribed to any other cause than fire within the earth but all the premises being seriously
Women great with child Sol. 1. As to the first although the heat of children be soon destroyed by cold yet this water may safely be given to children of a year old if the water which they drink exceed not the strength of their stomack or if their stomack can bear it And H. ab Heer 's saith he saw a sucking child drink of the German Spaw with good success and some children very young have taken of ours not without benefit 2. As to the second It is true that their heat also is very little and soon extinguished by cold yet if the strength of their stomacks be able to carry it off without a manifest dejection of the appetite it may safely to them also but not in so large a quantity as to others be administred 3. And as to third It is true it is diuretical and may seem dangerous for them to take it yet it hath been observed that many have taken it securely enough some when they have been very young with child and others when near the time of their bringing forth I shall not give too much liberty neither shall I lay too great a restraint upon them Onely I say it is safest for them to take it in the fourth fifth and sixth moneth and Hippocrates himself will admit of purgation at that time But if any be very defirous to take it before or after by reason of some griefs urging them thereto let them use it cautiously and in less quantity and withall take something every night to prevent the inconveniencies thereof as Pearl Corall pouder of hartshorn or the like 〈◊〉 Q. It may be demanded whence it is that the excrements upon the taking of this water become black Sol. This blackness is not from the mixture of black melancholy humours as many will have it for if the soundest healthiest body in the world who can in no wise be suspected to have any adust black choller in him his excremēts will also be tinged black therewith Besides we do not find that one mans body in twenty that are dissected have any such black humours in it nay although he were the most melancholly man in the World therefore to impute it to a mixture of this is a great errour Neither do I impute it to Iron onely as H. ab Heer 's who because Iron did the like would not ascribe it to any thing else But it seems he had not as it appears by his own words observed that Vitrial would do the like and that either of Iron or Copper and that although Iron being taken inwardly the excrenents are tinged black it was by the Vitrial which was made in the body by the acid spirits thereof resolving the esurine Salt of the Iron and corroding it into a Copperas he I do suppose never considered and the reason he gives to prove that Vitrial doth not discolour the excrements is because oyl or spirit of Vitrial will not But herein he argues a conjunctis ad disjuncta and therefore his argument is of no force For here is but a part of the Vitrial viz. one part abstracted from the other and that not without the destruction of the species Now if the species could be conserved it might be done although it were volatile and more spiritual as the Vitrial is in this Spaw for the truth is the same species may be fixed and yet become volatile and more spiritual and yet all this while the species be conserved Note here by the way upon what account it is that Iron or Steel opens obstructions and it is this viz. There being a great affinity betwixt the esurine Salt in Iron and all acid unspecificated spirits the acid spirits in the body which are the cause of fermentation and coagulation and by consequence of obstructions do presently forsake those parts and humours where they are seated and betake themselves to the Iron which they endeavour to dissolve and so be united to the aforesaid Salt that is in it to which union they have a natural propensity and so being therewith united are with the same ejected together with the obstructive humours which at the same time are ejected viz. when nature is strongly irritated to expel the Iron as being very offensive to her CHAP. IX Of some general directions to be observed before in the time of and after the taking of the Waters THere are seldom any distempers or diseases that occasion people to go to the Spaw that are without peccant excrementitious obstructing humours which must of necessity be removed before the drinking of the waters attempted and that either because those crude gross humours in the greater vessels will be by the force of the waters carried down into the narrower passages and there cause greater obstructions and by consequence Feavers Dropsies Gripings c. and also hinder the free passage of the waters to the endangering of many unthought of inconveniences and symptomes as also because nature being thereby disburdened of the load of grosser humours will be the better able with the assistance of the waters to overcome digest and evacuate the thinner and those that are left behind and the sooner recover its natural vigour and sanitude Now for the Medicines to be administred they must be elected suitable to the humour offending and proportioned to the strength and constitution of the patient I do in most cases very much approve of vomits because they do effectually cleanse the stomack and the primas vias and instead of them where they cannot be safely and conveniently used biera picra comes next in place for absterging and cleansing the stomack bowels messentery and making free passage for the water to pass to the Liver And after either of these some proper lenitive for the opening the passages through the Liver Ureters Kidnies and into the Bladder Phlebotomy also or letting of bloud is in many cases to be considered of viz. if the veins and other adjacent vessels be oppressed with bloud or any peccant humours for thereby they will be made more fit for the waters to pass through them and the virtues thereof into them Also in case of very obstinate obstructions I advise that a chalybiate course of Physick be run through for a certain time that thereby the waters may with the less resistance act their parts and sooner easier and more perfectly effect the intended cures Now after such preparation is made and the patient come to the Spaw let him also then take some easie vomit as of Oxymel or wine of Squils or the like or some hiera picra the first day after he is come thither and the next morning after that some Lenitive as Lenitive Electuary Cassia Manna Tamarines infusion of Sene Rhabarb syrop of Roses or the like according to the humour that is to be evacuated and then let him cheerfully and confidently begin to drink these waters with a resolvedness to observe all such rational directions as he shall find in this and the next