what it is if the spirit of Harts-horn be poured on the blood I did so and â— found at this time that it kept my blood from coagulating into such masses as otherwise it would but the blood turned blackishly-red and in it there was observed a crimson gelatine which run off the knife as jelly of red currants would when beginning to cool After two days it continued still fluid but blackish I have sundry times tried that way of putting spirit of Harts-horn into the pottinger first and then caused them to bleed upon it with this success that immediately it spoiles the red giving it a more dirty colour and casts up a mucous phlegme such as I never saw in any blood upon other Essays just like what many spit and blow out of their noses in catarrhs this covers all the pottinger without any mixture of blood in it and would be white but that the subjacent blood gives it another muddy colour The blood under it was always fluid and unequally mixed with parts of a bright and blackish red Whether my journey or distemper prevented that appearance in my blood I know not 9. I had a Patient there which had unknowingly taken much of Mercurius dulcis in pills at Loâ—â—oâ— to her great prejudice several ways and though she had taken golden-bullets and used other means to discharge her body of that troublesome Inmate yet found little benefit At the Bath I let her blood and to try an Experiment I cast a Guinny into one of the middle Pottingers as she bled I could observe no difference betwixt the blood preceding and that therein but in the afternoon I came and went to that pottinger which had the most florid and best coloured blood and searching there found my gold and that stained with white spots from the Mercury on the lower side Whether the separation of the Mercury or some other efficacy in the Gold of whose power in such cases I can give good instances caused that difference in the bloods I cannot tell having never tried it since Being not well at Warwick by reason of a violent defluxion into the Glandules of the Throat I caused my self to bleed Octob. 20. 1. I took six drams of spirit of Harts horn not very well rectified nor clear of colour and put it into a crystal-glass and bled thereupon about half an ounce of blood it turned of a dark red presently inclining much to black though as it stood or as it was held on one side you might perceive a lighter but not florid red at the sides It seemed fluid for two dayes but as I poured it out it appeared to be very Gelatinous and of colour like that which is become sanious and degenerated into blackishness with keeping 2. I bled upon the same liquor of Salt-peter about half an ounce of blood upon four ounces of liquor at first the blood did turn on the surface to a bastard-scarlet which is an effect every thing of Nitre mixt with blood so produceth afterwards the whole blood sunk to the bottom the upper part being all of one colour and consistence such as is observed in the Serum of the blood sometimes when the supernatancy is whitish and not transparent Being poured from the blood I found that coagulated into a mass which was all of a very natural red all over only spotted in many places underneath with black spots The concretion was so brittle that it would not hang together nor endure any light-pressure but as it were melted and seemed gelatinous 3. I bled upon a Solution of the Alcali of Nitre it appeared upon the first mixture like bastard-scarlet then the blood sunk to the bottom the top being transparent yet of the colour of High-countrey-white-wine the bottom seemed redder then that of tâ—e former the limpid liquor being poured out seemed all gelatinous and had incorporated with it the serous part of the blood the red at the bottom was fluid and not tenacious but of the consistence that blood is of when it is hot and newly received in a vessel out of the veins N. B. After I had poured out the blood and mixtures out of the several glasses and that the glasses had stood a while I observed that that of the raw Liquor of Nitre which remained in the bottom did turn of a most beautiful red as ever I saw in any thing but that with the spirit of Harts-horn or Solution of Alcali c. did not vary after two days all the remains of blood in the several glasses turned blackish and sanious only that with the raw liquour altered not 4. I bled upon the liquors of Salt-peter which had passed the ashes and on that which had never passed the ashes both were of the same blackish and sanious colour after the first bastard-scarlet was past both had on the top a certain cremor which being cast into the fire discovered it self to be nitrous both of them though they were of such a dirty red inclining to black yet were they of one consistence from top to bottom all fluid nothing gelatinous nor any one part blacker or redder then the other Which is very much considering the difference of the two Liquors 5. I bled upon the unctuous Mothers of Salt-peter which turned at first to a bastard-scarlet the blood did never mix with the Mothers nor otherwise ting their colour then as it cast a shadow by its innating on the surface of them It coagulated on the top of the Mothers being of colour all thorough exactly like to Ocher the concretion was a quarter of an inch thick a firm mass to seâ— to like so much bees wax cast into a cake I took it up in one mass with my knife but trying its tenaciousness I found it as brittle as most short cakes are Upon the surface there was an appearance of certain striae which might be saline All the blood did not coagulate so but underneath there was a quantity which in the glass was of equal dimensions with the other mass it was of the colour of Oker and fluid and would not mix with the Mothers at all I took of the mass and tried to burn it in an arched fire twice or thrice it boyled and bubled up upon the fire-shovel like impure Niter and so burned with a flashing as if it had been most of it Peter it never came to flame as blood doth usually only one blaze as it were always hovered over it for a moment or two not being continued to the body otherwise then by a parcel of smoke issuing out them 6. I took also two pottingers of blood the first and the last of the blood I took away there was no difference in the blood of one and the other the coagulated mass well-coloured of a good consistence less of that black or melancholick crastament then is commonly found the Serum well coloured of tast brinish I placed it in an arched fire it rose up with a globous intumescence but crackled not
not transparent like Tent-wine 2. Into two several Glasses I had dissolved the Salts of Ash and Wormwood half a dram in three ounces of water the solutions of these two Salts shewed no difference at all the top after some space was of a florid red such as is visible in watrish blood for about a quarter of an inch the bottom was of a more dark red and resembled Tent-wine 3. A foutth Glass held Oleum Tartari per deliquium the blood and that liquor did not first mix but were as two distinct liquors notwithstanding that the blood had streamed into the Glass After a while the blood and oyle mixed together and it all became of a deep red from top to bottom the surface only was transparent and of a brighter red as that of the other Alcalisate Liquors but not so far downwards the rest was as Tent-wine 4. I dissolved half a dram of Allom in three ounces of water and upon bleeding thereupon all the crimson of the blood was immediately destroyed and it became almost as black as Ink after a little space towards the surface it cleared up there were certain bubbles on the top that continued the redness 5. Another Glass held a quantity of the Kings-Bath water the blood that did stream into it appeared of a dark red but transparent as deep Bourdeaux wine shews a little below the surface it was deeply red not transparent but like Tent wine 6. The Cross-Bath altered little from the Kings-Bath saving that the transparency of the surface extended it self downwards to a greater profundity then the other 7. A Solution of half a dram of Sal prunellae yielded a blood on the surface like to that of Salt of Wormwood but not to so deep a descent otherwise it was of the colour and consistence of Tent wine After they had stood in the window about five houres I returned and observed these Phaenomena 1. That with the spirit of Sal Armoniack continued like Tent-wine only the uppermost part of it to the thickness of a barley-corn was diaphanous as deep Bourdeaux-wine 2. That with the Sal prunellae coagulated into a Mass shrunk from the sides of the Glass and sunk to the bottom leaving them super-natant water of a pale citrine colour the Mass it self being of a florid red on the surface and of a deep red not blackish to the bottom that I could perceive 3. That with the Cross-Bath water changed not but seemed thick as Tent-wine the upper part being diaphanous and like deep Bourdeaux-wine 4. That with the Kings-Bath water changed not only the diaphanous surface extended not it self downwards so far as the other Bath-water did 5. The Solution of Allom continued all fluid and black no coagulated mass therein but the bubbles had lost their crimson-colour and were become cineritious 6. That with the Salt of Wormwood resembled deep Bourdeaux wine but was less diaphanous a little below the surface The surface extended downwards to the length of a barley corn with a perfect transparency 7. That wherein was the Sal fraxini was diaphanous to the bottom no innatant filaments or coagulated mass in it But the surface to the length of a barley-corn was like decayed Claret made with a mixture of white and red wine the residue was deeper like that of Bourdeaux 8. That with the oleum Tartari per deliquium was diaphanous to the length of a barley-corn and of the colour of Bourdeaux wine the lower part un-coagulated and like Tent wine 9. It is to be noted that the reflexion of the Glasses in all the Liquors they being held up to the light except the spirit of Sal Armoniack did create a corona of several colours mixt with green blew and so as not one resembled the other That with the oleum Tartari per deliquium resembled the blew in Bourdeaux wine with an eye of green I had forgot to relate how I kept some of the blood in a separate Pottinger and it seemed excellently well coloured when it coagulated the top was of a due red the bottom blackish red the serum of a due transparency and proportion and not tinged to citrine colour and coagulated all as the white of an egge over a gentle fire I poured also upon the blood in two other Pottingers upon the one spirit of Harts-horn on the other spirit of Sal Armoniack but not much perhaps a dram or more that with the spirit of Harts-horn at first seemed more florid then that with the spirit of Sal Armoniack both coagulated into Masses after a while and were then both of one colour on the surface but that with the spirit of Sal Armoniack coagulated its Mass so as to break from the sides that with the spirit of Harts-horn did not break from the sides whether the blood of one and the other might differ I know not but both immediately followed one the other That blood which had nothing mixed with it after coagulation differed not from the other two though they were covered over with the spirits as soon as they were taken and that exposed only to the Air. After a while upon the surface of that with the Kings-Bath-water there was a kind of fatty cremor which covered the whole surface and so on that with the Queens-Bath-water the others had none at all On Munday after dinner the next day after I had bled I came to observe again and found 1. That with the Sal fraxini to be more and more diaphanous resembling Bourdeaux wine that with the Sal abscynthii less diaphanous but red still 2. I observed the Solution of Allom and however it looked black yet being held in a clear light one might discover in it visible appearances of a deep red I poured on it some spirit of Sal Armoniack to see if it would restore the colour but in stead of that the liquor coagulated presently into little massulae or flakes resembling raw flesh when the blood is washed out 3. There was no alteration in that with the spirit of Sal Armoniack 4. That with the Queens-Bath-water continued more diaphanously red towards the top but that with the Kings-Bath water did not lose its redness though it were not diaphanous near the surface 5. Of the two Pottingers in which were the spirits of Harts horn and Sal Armoniack though both were coagulated yet that with the spirit of Sal Armoniack was the most florid 6. That with the Oleum Tartari per deliquium continued red but lost its diaphaneity at the top almost quite 7. That with the Sal prunellae after the coagulated Mass had subsided had on the top of it in the middle of the Glass to the bredth of six-pence a concrete gelly exactly resembling that of the clearest Harts-horn not boyled up to its greatest heighth from hence protended certain filaments with which it was fastned to the mass of blood which was buoyed up thereby so that it touched not the bottom the jelly was insipid and
of a florid red but paler then blood usually is resembling a bastard-scarlet after some days standing I found it of a deeper red from top to bottom one half of it was transparent like to the duller and more decayed sort of Claret the other half seemed like Tent-wine not diaphanous on the surface there was a cremor which extended it self almost all over it Upon pouring it out it appeared all to be of a blood-red only that which ran last was of a deeper dye at the bottom there was a kinde of Gelatine like to that of red Currants which rendred the one half of it opacous it was no way dis coloured nor unequally mixt the spirit of Sal Armoniack being poured on it did render it fluid presently and transparent Having occasion after some weeks stay at the Bath to ride in extream hot weather above 200 miles in a few days and being tired with watching and the journey and being wet very much with a great shower of rain at my return I went immediately into the Cross-Bath for half an hour to prevent any inconveniences that might befal me upon such travel but at my coming out of the Bath I felt so violent a defluxion into my throat and the adjacent Glandules that I apprehended some danger of a Squinoncy which yet I avoided by bleeding purging and other means together with the use of the same Bath after all when I was to bleed I was willing to try some further Experiments in Liquers different from the former and the Observations I made were these 1. I caused two veins to be opened in the left arm at once and received one Pottinger out of the Mediana and the other out of the Cephalica my intent in that was to observe as I had done once before in my self whether the blood of two veins in the same arm would yield different blood if so then I thought that it might not be indifferent in what vein a man bleeds though they all arise from one trunk of the vena cava and that we might justly have regard to those cautions of our observing Ancestors not to bleed those veins promiscuously but some in one case and some in another I was confirmed in those sentiments by the Phaenomena I met with a second time in the trial as other observations have satisfied me about the doctrine of revulsion and its truth Having taken one Pottinger out of the Mediane and another out of the Cephalica I stopped the Mediane and continued to bleed into the liquors out of the Cephalick In the first issuing out of the two bloods I could finde no difference in the colour or consistence but after standing three or four houres that of the Mediane had much less of Serum in it the Serum thereof seemed Limpid in the Pottinger but that of the Cephalick was citrine-coloured that of the Mediane somewhat of a volatile saline pungency upon the tongue different from the taste which the other Serum had that being very salt that of the Mediane had a blewish Gelatine gathered upon the top of the condensed mass of blood the other had none but was of a florid red on the top After two days I came to look on them again and upon turning the coagulated mass of blood in the pottinger that of the Mediana had much more of black towards the bottom then the other and also a thinner surface of red then that of the Cephalick 2. To carry on the Experiment of mixing several liquors with blood I bled into some ounces of Aqua mirabilis which grew deep coloured almost unto the top which was transparent and of the colour of Mant-wine almost after some houres the Liquor became of a bright beautiful Claret-colour almost unto the bottom where there was an opacous darkned setling with an enaeorema of contexed filaments pretended to the top The Wasps flocked to that glass in great numbers and drowned themselves in it not medling with any other of the subsequent glasses After two days was little changed only the beautiful Claret was somewhat darkned 3. I bled upon some ounces of Treacle-water which turned as black as Ink presently but continued the blood perfectly fluid The red was so destroyed that the Aluminous Solution did not equal it there not being upon inclination of the glass the least sign of any incarnadine and so it continued for two days no variation happening 4. I bled upon some ounces of Cinnamon-water which turned of a pale red iâ— I held up the glass to the light it seemed almost to the top opacously red as Tent wine but if viewed otherwise it seemed of a paler red approaching to bastard-scarlet After a while it seemed as if all the blood were coagulated into one mass from top to bottom subsiding a little within the tinged Cinnamon-water Upon agitation and stirring with a knife it appeared that the fibres of the blood were so destroyed that this mass was no coherent thing but broken into little massulae or parcels of a pale red such as the subsiding curds are in whey After two days I viewed it and found the Phaenomenon of the whole Glass to look cherry-coloured but the incoherent massulae were of a pale red 5. I bled into some ounces of Aqua Bezoarticae that did coagulate with the blood so that it all fell in one incoherent mass towards the bottom but whether there hapned to be a greater proportion of blood in the glass or for some other cause the coagulated blood filled almost all the water much beyond what we observed in the Cinnamon-water the consistence of the one and the other massulae were like the curds in whey these were of a pale red retaining to whitishness and so it continued two days the small quantity of water appearing in it giving no opportunity for further Observations 6. I bled upon some ounces of Nantes-Brandy it gave us a more tenacious curd then the former of a pale red but the mass and liquour was opacous towards the bottom so as to appear like Tent-wine in what light soever I placed it After two days that of the Brandy which was fluid the curd not being answerable to the Aqua Bezoartica was of a pretty florid red the coagulated mass was of a brick colour 7. I bled upon some ounces of Anise seed water drawn from the grounds of beer it yielded a mixture of a deep blood red from top to bottom somewhat transparent The mass coagulated from top to bottom the curd was of a deeper red then the others and of such a tenaciousness as is to be sound in the soft curd of possets After two days it turned blackish the coherent curd being of a little lighter red 8. My indisposition and other cares permitted me not to prosecute these Experiments as I did the other but one curiosity more possessed me to put two drams of spirit of Harts-horn into a pottinger and to bleed thereupon to see if it would alter the Phaenomenon from
the Scurvey them the Cross-Bath regularly pursued and as it might be I cannot say is commonly practised yet have not our Experimental Philosophers made any Inquiries into its nature and qualitiâ—s not a man of them ever so much as tried the mixing of several liquors and spirits with the water as I did and found no change upon the mixture of Acid spirits but the urinous and volatile spirits of Sal Armoniack drawn the Leiden-way and Harts-horn did change the water of the Pump in the Cross-Bath which ariseth from the hot Bath into a lacteous colour and opacity insomuch that it represented an Almond-milk and after a time there precipitated to the bottom an insipid Magistery resembling Burnt Harts-horn finely powdered the precipitated powder was more copious in the affusion of the spirit of Sal Armoniack then that of spirit of Harts-horn and the former in that mixture lost its urinous smell and made no unpleasant but an unctuous soft emulsion-like drink which the other retained Not a man of them ever tried whether the several Bath-water would coagulate milk which I tried first and found that the Kings-Bath-water makes Posset with a soft curd and whitish posset-drink which will not become clear the Cross-Bath makes an hard eurd a clean but whitish-posset-drink the Pump-water of the Cross-Bath which ariseth from the neighbouring hot Bath yields an hard curd a clear and very green posset-drink which being drunk by a woman that gave suck bred a great deal of milk more then fennel posset-drink and made her break abundance of winde which those usually do that drink the Bath-waters And I believe this way of giving the Bath-waters might be no small improvement of Physick were those courses taken there and that method which those that understnad the ancient and modern Bathes and waters that are drunk might easily pitch upon but this is above the reading of our Comical Wits I could find no grounds to believe there was any sulphur or bitumen in the Baths but rather some odd Alcali mixed with the vitriol of Iron I extracted the Salts by evaporation of two gallons of the Cross-Bath-water and having reduced them to three quarts I set it to shoot but there was no appearance of salt-peter at all then I evaporated it to three-pints but still neither salt-peter or any other salt appeared then I evaporated it quite away and then I had about two ounces of a dark coloured salt which at first resembled cream of Tartar somewhat in taste but having lien longer on the tongue it resembled very much the Vitriolum Mortis with some more Alcalisate taste I performed the Operation both in Iron and Glass vessels with little difference of the taste or quantity of salt some of the said salt dissolving into a moisture in the air did eat off the writing upon such papers as it fell and turned the paper yellow all over and rotted it I made a Lixivium with the Cross-Bath water and evaporated that thinking that if there were any unctuous matter in the water it might hinder the discovery of the Nitre in its shooting but neither could I finde any thing of Nitre this way but still there was a taste of the Vitriolum Mortis in the salt and one Mr. Berenclaw a Practitioner there assured me that he had known the Bath-water drunk and to have tinged the Excrements black but I cannot avow the truth of that I inquired about the truth of what Dr. Mearn had writ about the Stone he took up upon Lands-down which being infused in water produced a resembling heat and taste to what is in the Bath But Dr. Maplet an inquisitive and learned Physician there who was with Dr. Mearn then and had some of the mineral stone assured me it was a lime-stone so did Mr. Chapman an observing Apothecary there who likewise saw the Stone and tasted the infusion In fine where Dr. Meâ—ra took up that Stone any man may take up a thousand they not being cast out of the Earth but dropped out of the lime-carts which pass that way into Bathe the Kills being thereabouts The stones in the bottom of the Cross-Bath many are of reddish rusty colour others green but concerning the Bathe I may next Summer during my stay there in the midst of June and July if God give me life and health make a further Narrative I only mention this to prevent the Virtuosi from usurping upon my discoveries and intendments Yet to do them some justice I was told that in some of their Transactions they have this observation about Bathe that if any person that is drunk go in there the Bath will make him sober If any that is in the Bath drink freely there it will cause him to be presently drunk with less drink by far then if he were cut of it This report is worthy of our Philosophers and advanceth their intelligence above the credit that Aristotle and his Hunters deserve The first part is defective for it should have been added that the drunk person must sit still and sweat soundly if he stir up and down or swim he shall be more sick then if he had never come in The second part is notoriously fâ—lse and all the Bath-Guides and others that have tried it avow that 't is usual for the Townsmen to sit some hours and drink in the Parlour of the Queens-Bath and never be drunk and they say a man that sweats there shall bear much more drink then if he were out of the Bath which I thought rational and agreeable to what I had observ'd in the Indies where men sweat and have more drink then in England and stronger But I come now to that Case for which I adde this Discourse and that is Observations upon the mixture of the Bath-water and other Liquors with blood and the Phaenomena thereupon which though I might reserve for that other discourse of mine about Phlebotomy yet I will oblige my Reader with some of those Curiosities here especially since it will give him occasion to reflect how facile it is to multiply such Experiments and how negligent they are who pretend to be the grand Observators of this Age. When I went to make use of the Bath amongst other Preparatives thereto which are better taken upon the place then at a distance I caused my self to be let blood and being willing to improve that occasion as well for my instruction as health I caused several Venice-Glasses to be filled with several liquors each liquor amounting to some three ounces and into each glass I suffered to run as much as half an ounce of blood or little more taking no other measure then that the whole liquor seemed of a deep blood red The Phaenomena thereupon were these ensuing being observed presently after I had bound up my arm and was in condition to write 1. That Glass which contained the spirit of Sal Armoniack drawn the Leiden-way kept of an equal consistence from top to bottom being of a deep red and