the longer these Marcasites are exposed to the open Air the more they become fraught with a vitrioline body contracting a Crust which by solution filtration c. will easily resolve into a body of Vitriol Thirdly That these and their connatural and analogous Juyces do increase and suo more vegetate in the Earth as other Minerals do is apparent in that I have observed a piece of Wood invelloped with a vitrioline Crust found in the Earth where other Marcasites of the like nature have been digged which I keep by me Fourthly That these Marcasites the nearer they lie to the surface of the Earth and the more patent the Channels are by which currents of Spring Water glide by them the more readily they give their tincture or yeeld a solution of their substance whence some vitrioline Springs or Spaws become stronger both in taste and operation then others and this is evident because of the facile ingress the Air hath to these places Nor may this contradict what we elsewhere say viz. That an Esurine Acidity preying upon the Minera of Iron gets a sleight touch therefrom and so becomes as Vitriol of the Minera of Iron which gives essence to the Vitrioline or Sweet-Spaw at Knarsbrough for both may be true though in various respects from different Soyls in as much as there are even in these Marcasites a connatural acid Juyce reasolvable by the confluence of Air which seizeth on an embryonative Sulphur of Iron essential to those Concretes which are carried together in their mutual imbraces by a preterlabent Spring of Water unto the place where they break forth called a Spring-head which gives Original to all or most of the Spaws called Fontes acidi So that all Vitrioline Spaws are reducible to one of these two Causes viz. Either to a sulphureous acid Spirit dissolv'd in a Water-Spring passing through the Minera of Iron the acidity dissolving the looser parts thereof and coagulating it self thereon or to the foresaid Vitrioline Marcasites whose acidity being resolv'd by the Air in the bowels of Earth takes along with it the connate immature Sulphur or loose vitrioline Ocre and both in one gives essence to these Mineral Waters and from theâ— two causes singly and joyntly do the Spaws of Knarsbrough Rotheram Oulton Turnbridg Astrap c. take their Original amongst which those that have but sleighter touches of the Minerals and consequently do the more readily suffer a precipitation of their Earth or Ocre fetch their Mineral in a longer line from the place of their Eruption and that too perhaps from Marcasites more penurious and less opened then others which keep their Minerals unprecipitated and consequently their Vertues the longer These Marcasites calcin'd in a Crucible with a blast will melt and flow especially helped with Nitre which melted Mass being poured forth gives no Regulus or metalline body nor is so pondrous as it was before but hath some bright yellow or cuprous sparkles interspers'd This in two dayes time doth almost all fall to a black Pouder much like what I remember hapned to a Scoria of Iron in the making Regulus Martis which being laid open to the Air did in a few dayes fall into a black Pouder Wherefore these Stones are without doubt a Metalline Embryo consisting of a Salt and inflammable Sulphur which hath scarce begun the matrimonial embraces of its Mercury and therefore at the best is but a Mineral in the road to metallization and being plentifully impregnated with an acid sulphureous Salt whose other Ingredients hanging but loosly on makes it the more readily soluble in a preterlabent Spring of Water for I have for experiment sake onely suffered simple distilled Water to slide over one of them and have found thereby that the Water would by so sleight a gliding over strike a purple tincture with Galls which it will do again and again to fresh Water yeelding thereby an inexhaustible treasure to the transient Springs of Water Amongst these Marcasites I have one by me bright and sparkling cut into curious angular forms like so many Diamonds of several sizes set in a Ground as if Nature in this neat peice of work did vie with Art And yet in the very Interstices of these Diamond-like cuts betwixt each other is conspicuous the Mineral Salt which gives Essence and Operation to most of the Vitrioline Spaws Some Mineral Waters may I confess be such as are only acid being only impregnated with the Esurine Salt of the Earth and have no addition in them of Mineral Sulphurs neither of Iron nor Copper of which sort I have tasted one near Chesterfield in Derbyshire which hath a very strong sowrishness but yet with Galls gives no tincture although I found a reddish Ocre to lie along the sides of the Current The like I doubt not may be found in other places all which may notwithstanding prove very good Waters to open Obstructions in the body of man by their penetrative Vertues Lastly A solution of Salt of Iron in Water with Galls gives a deep purple tincture and passeth all other mutations of colours answerable to all natural Mineral Waters But the solution of Roman Vitriol with Galls added gives no purple colour but becomes a muddied Liquor which with Oyl of Tartar assused becomes greenish but with Oyl of Sulphur wholly green The same alterations doth Viride Aeris suffer with the same additions But Roman Vitriol infus'd in a weak Spirit of Urine gives a blew tincture which will not be altered by the addition of Alome The same doth Viride Aeris dissolved in Water Whence by the by I conclude Roman Vitriol to be factitious made up sometimes of Alom with a tincture of Copper taken in a weak Spirit of Wine or the Phlegm thereof and so caused to shoot into Chrystals A further Account of the Sulphur-Well At KNARSBROUGH As also concerning The Original of Hot Baths and Sulphureous Waters WHat I have said in my Hydrolog Chym. concerning the essential cause of this Mineral-Water viz. That it consists as a Spaw of a Sal-marine or fossile Salt which differ not either materially or formally impregnated with an embryonative faetid Sulphur or rather sulphureous odour is I say true and may be illustrated after a double manner And that first by the collateral Experiments I have there inserted concerning an embryonative Sulphur as faetid as this Spaw Water it self close locked up in the body of Sal-marine as at large is made evident by that Experiment which I shall not now insist upon But secondly and now more to the purpose the same will better be discovered by a fresh light let in by some new Experiments only before I proceed to produce what I have to urge herein I shall first taking things as they lie in my way make an inquiery what Ingredients are not though by some supposed to be in this Spring viz. That neither Vitriol Nitre nor Sulphur as to the body thereof are the constitutive Principles hereof First That Vitriol is not
much more of those Minerals then else the Mine would yeeld as the learned Dr. Jorden in his Discourse of Natural Baths and the ingenious Dr. Power in his Micros obs Confirmes yea and that Brass lumps which are a sort of Marcafite being laid in heaps and exposed to the moist Air or sprinkled with Water will smoke and grow exceeding hot and sometimes take fire and burn all that is about it as the foresaid Dr. Power proves So the Mines of Tin-Glass exposed after the same manner to the moist Air will become very hot and Quick-Lime will do the same The like Dr. Jorden observes in those Stone Coals called Metal Coals which are mixed with a Marcasite containing some Mineral Juyce which receiving moisture doth dilate it self and grow so hot as oftentimes great heaps of those Coals are kindled thereby and burnt before their time as hath been seen at Puddle-Wharf in London and at Newcastle although these last I account do not much differ from the aforesaid Coperas Marcasite Now seeing that all combustible Concretes may contract a heat yea may actually take flame and burn from some of the foresaid causes witness the heating and firing of a Coach-Wheel by too rapid a motion the burning of Houses Trees Men c. by Lightning and Thunder the taking flame of one combustible matter by another and lastly the self-inkindling of a Ryck of Hay or Corn which hath been laid up too moist and the taking fire of several Marcasites by being exposed to the moist Air as aforesaid Therefore I see no reason why a Meteor or Comet which suppose brought to that body of sulphurous Exhalations and taking flame from its own motion or from Lightning or from what other cause should less be reputed an Elementary Fire sub Concavo Lunae then those subterraneal fires kindled according to all probability occasionally not to say accidentally quoad nos from some of the foresaid causes should be accounted native to the Earth or naturally implanted therein for the production of all Mineral and Metalline bodies so that as the one is irrational and is exploded by our modern Philosophers so consequently the other may seem as irrational if we do but further consider First How impossible it is for actual fire to become the cause of generation of Minerals or Metals as some suppose who imagine the Fire as a Native born in the Earth seeing fire I mean flaming or glowing fire is by the gravest of Philosophers so far rejected from amongst the causes of Generation as it is rather justly to be reputed mors rerum artificiosa the death or destroyer of all things committing actual rapine upon all the Seminary Principles of bodies which fall under its tyranny dispersing and dissipating those Concretions suddenly which Nature helped by a generative heat working upon imbred Seminals had taken a long time to compile together making havock of the neat Structures of Bodies Secondly How unlikely it is for Water to be so disposed in the Earth in what Vessels can it be imagined to lodg Yea how these fancied Hydrophylacia can be so well placed as they may best be capable to receive the fires from the as much fancied Pyrophylacia without danger of the Waters falling upon the fires and quenching them so as to make the heated Hydrophylacia the cause of Hot Baths for cannot Water as easily descend or slip down those small Chinks and Cranies and smother that Demigorgon as the fire could ascend to heat these Cisterns of Water unless we imagine the Water included in some vast Kettles and so was heated by the playing of the flames about and then we must be forced to think of a Vulcan to be before his Fires who must first hammer out these large Caldrons preparing empty Vessels for us to fill with our watery conceits Thirdly If we should grant the possibility of these actual Subterraneal Fires as connatural to the Earth why should we not find Minerals and Metals melted instead of being generated and why we should not where these fires meet with Vitriol and Nitre or Vitriol and Salt find store of Aqua Fortis and meeting with Sulphur should not give us plenty of Oil of Sulphur tanquam per campanam being the winding Crevices of the Earth would do the like as Glass Bells for condenâ—ing the Vapours of fired Sulphur into a Liquor and meeting with Vitriol or Alom-stone should not calcine them to our hand so as instead of Vitriol we should find Colcothar and instead of Antimony we should find either stibium or regulus or the sublim'd flowers and so I could hold on to number up many more absurdities that would necessarily follow Fourthly If we consider how easily combustible Concrets in the bowels of the Earth where plenty of bituminous and sulphurous matter is found may and probably hath been kindled either by Lightning or by catching flame from some burning body or lastly by some of their Marcasites expos'd to the moist Air or to whom a moist Air hath had access for being once fired vires acquirit eundo it burns on as long as it finds Fuel and where store of combustible matter is as without doubt there is in all the Vulcano's there cannot but be plenty of Heterogeneous mixtures as of Stone Gravel Earth c. which together with the combustible matter is thrown up at the mouths of those subterraneous Furnaces which if they as by continuance of time may by constant burning so undermine the ground as at some times a vast quantity of Earth and other Rubbish fall upon it then being forc't to seek another passage forth and cannot suddenly or at least not so much as the force of the fire requires it being obstructed in its passage causeth Earthquakes but at last finding vent makes new Eruptions thrown forth in such abundance of Stones and Earth as sometimes is sufficient if it happen under the Sea to make a new Island witness what Kircher reports hapned Kirch Mund. Subter pag. 77. Anno. 1638. ad insulam Sti. Michaelis in Mari Athlantico Stimulantibus ignibus subterraneis tantum lapidum in medio Maris egestum fuit ut inde insula lapidibus in montes custervatis nata sese ad quinque milliarium latitudinem extenderit As also in Agro Puteolano Novus mons ex Mari unius noctis saevientis naturae subterraneae violentia protuberans also Vulcanus Liparitanus he further adds Tantum cinerum saxorum que ante annos circiter sexaginta speaking from the time his Book was writ ejecisse fertur ut juxta sese in medio Mari quem ideò vulcanellum veluti filium a patre genitum vocant produxerit which he confirms by his own Observation And to confirm further what we say concerning the occasional or accidental inkindling of combustible matter in the intrals of the Earth I shall call in a Testimonial Instance out of Mr. Burton's History of Leicestershire who saith That at Coal-Eaton in that County in the beginning of the
hardens that Stone and makes it unfit to give any Solution in Water and then the actual Fire loosneth it and makes it yeeld it self more readily to a Solution by moisture To illustrate which we can as easily apprehend that the Air doth harden these natural Lime-stones which while succulent are soft and in the form of a white Earth or Marl by its continual access in a long tract of time as we can imagine the same Air to harden a blew Clay found upon the Banks in Lincolnshire which being exposed to the Air doth in continuance of time harden into a sort of Stone like a blew Marble For Workmen generally observe that all manner of Stone yea even Marble it self which they dig out of the Ground becomes more and more hard by being long exposed to the Air which to me seems to give no small grounds of reason for the possibility of the Liquor Alkahest or Universal Solvent for seeing all bodies are but concretions and as I may say hardnings of their primitive Juyces under various disguises generally performed by the efficiency of Air Therefore to prepare a Menstruum by Art which may work wonders in this kind is no more as I apprehend then to make such a one as may soften these Concretions made by Air and by taking away their hardness may reduce bodies into their first jucy Liquors for what is the shell of an Egg but a soft film or membrane hardned and petrified by the influence of the Air and as easily reduceable into its first membranous softness by being boyled a while in Vinegar What are the Bones of Animals but Spermatick Juyces hardned and consolidated And were it not for the perpetual circulation of the Juyces of the body constantly transpiring through the pores thereof we should either become petrified and walk about like so many movable but sensless Statues or we should be incircled with a Bark and appear like so many Plant-Animals or sensitive Plants What are all Vegetables from the Hysop or Rosemary of the Wall to the tallest Cedar but seminal Juyces congealed into those bulky substances which are presented to our eye Lastly What are all Mineral and Mecalline Marcasites Stones c. but the primitive liquid succulencies concreted into more solid bodies by a hardning ferment or what other name we may call it by aequipollent to the Air And amongst all these what are the Marcasites of Lime-stone but a hardned concretion of its first imbred Juyce or soft marly Earth whose Minera whilst thus in solutis principiis is one of the chiefest Juyces in the Fabrick both of hot Baths and sulphureous Waters That this is the chief cause of hot Baths is confirmed by that Experiment made by that Noble Person the Lord Fairfax of a piece of a white Marcasite found about the place of those hot Springs in Sommersetshire which put into Water gives a heat not but that there may be other causes of hot Waters as from the coincidence of two Springs impregnated with different Mineral Salts and Juyces which before union are probably both actually cold and yet by a fermentation caused by their mutual contact may cause a considerable heat which can no better be resembled then by supposing a current of Water indued with a lix vial or volatile Salt to meet another saturated with an esurine acid Spirit or Salt though these before union are both actually cold yet forthwith upon their mutual contact they make a strong ebullition and fermentation which produceth a heat sufficient to warm those Liquors which are or pass through where the contest is made not to say that an other cause of some hot Baths may be from some Marcasites contracting a heat by moisture let into their Minera by some crevices of the Earth which may give heat to some Springs that pass over them nor to insist upon any other cause viz. of some Salts which in the Minera of Sulphur may cause such a fermentation as may cause hot Springs witness Dr. Rech his Experiment Yea that this natural Lime-stone may be reckoned amongst the chief causes of hot Baths is further confirmed by a lixivial Salt though small in quantity which I have by evaporation of Buxton hot Water found left behind that it is an alkalizate or lixivial Salt appears both by its salty taste its easie solution per deliquium and lastly The Ebullition it makes with an acid Spirit all which are demonstrative Arguments of its alkalizate nature for Buxton Bath consists of Water which by distillation ariseth insipid over the Helm and therefore contains no volatile Minerals and of an inconsiderable quantity of a solution of the Alkali of the natural Lime-stone where plenty of the Lime-stone hardned by the Air is found in the Countrey thereabouts And that this Minera of Calx Vive is the chief if not the sole apperient that opens the body of Sulphur in its Minera for the making sulphurous Waters is evident from our lately proposed Experiment for all sulphureous Waters as I hinted before are either such as have a sulphureous or bituminous matter swimming upon them witness the instance aforesaid or they are such whose bodies being opened by proper Solvents do then easily give forth their volatile odors and sapors to Water which may be made evident by the addition of acid Salt or Liquor And now that we have found out what the first Menstruum is which opens the body of Sulphur in the Marcasites found near the Sulphur Well Let us now consider what these Marcasites are I find them to be a spongy or porous Stone hard and wrought with a kind of Net-work which in it self contains both Vitriol and Sulphur besides a body of Colcothar and that it doth so appears by exposing some of these Marcasites to the Air till they be covered with a hoary sweet vitrioline Floscule which then being washed gives a vitrioline Solution that being filtred and evaporated to a cuticle shoots into a green Vitriol These Marcasites thus washed we set before the fire to dry so long till they began to send forth a sulphurous fume then being pounded grosly we distilled or rather sublimed them in an Earthen Retort what would arise by degrees of fire we so placed a Receiver with Water in it as that the fumes were thrown upon the surface thereof which first swam like Oil upon the Water then by degrees hardening fell down to the bottom which when the sublimation was over we washed dryed and then melted it and in small lead Pipes cast it into Magdaleons in colour and inflammabity exactly resembling the common Sulphur of which at one distillation I got near half a pound That they contain a Colcothar or Metalline Crocus is evident by burning the Sulphur of one of these Stones in the fire and when cold it will be red just like the Colcothar of the Vitriol of Iron The Caput Mortuum left after the sublimation of the Sulphur from the Marcasites is very like those Cinders or Scoria
I think to prosecute e're long and shall then Deo juvante give a further account thereof The eighth Query I thus solve viz. That in my Tryals and Observations of Mineral Waters I always found that no sooner was the Ocre or Sediment precipitated but they both lose their tinging property with Galls as also their purging faculty and that though the Salts which had dissolv'd these ramenta ferrea were left yet dissolv'd in the Water after the separation of the Ocre by motion heat or air notwithstanding which the Waters are found to have no force in their purging Operation and by how much the more this is precipitated even till it be all fallen by so much the Waters are weaker and weaker in their Operation To the ninth or last Query I thus answer viz. That by what is premised it must necessarily follow that the Phenomenon of loss of Vertues in such Waters may by an Hypothesis of an intestine precipitation of their parts wherein those vertues consisted be much better and more truly explicated then by the Hypothesis of an avolation of spirituous parts through all Vessels and Closures whatsoever By this time these things duly weighed in the opinion of all judicious Persons who ground Science upon the infallible Criterion of Luciferous Experiments I may well suppose the Spirits in the Scarbrough and Kuar â—ugh Spaw-Waters have no existence and that notwithstanding what ever Falopius Dr. Heer 's Dr. French or my Antagonist have said to the contrary And hence it is evident why Dr. French came to be mistaken who supposing Volatile Mineral Spirits to be in the Knarsbrough Spaw-Water and indeavouring by distiliation in a Glass-Still whose Joynts were luted and closed up carefully to get their Spirits failed not onely in his expectation of catching them but also found that the first two spoonfuls which were distilled yea and the rest undistilled that remained utterly lost both the taste and odour which they had before neither would they become any otherwise tinged with Galls then common Spring-Water who not easily conscious of his Error imputes the loss of those Spirits to their subtilty imagining them so volatile as to penetrate even the Glass it self or the Lute neither of which he judgeth could hold them not recollecting that no sooner doth heat work upon Mineral Waters but presently it causeth such an alteration in the texture of their parts as that forthwith the Mineral Ocre precipitates to the bottom leaving both what is distilled and what is undistilled void of tincture and most-what effaete in vertues and that not from the avolation of Spirits but from an intestine precipitation of parts as is evinced beyond dispute by our former Experiments Lastly These Waters do not only being hermetically sealed keep their vertues and tinging qualities but also are not impaired in their quantity and weight being found after six weeks inclosure under the hermetick Seal neither heavier nor lighter and now I give room for the World to judge Whether the authority of my Antagonist be Authentick and whether or no he hath done well to impose both upon himself and others in the delivery of these words viz. That the Searbrough Waters lose all their vertue yea their quantity and bulk also though in Glasses and under the hermetick Seal if removed from the Fountain-head and then they become suddenly putrid c. doubtless through the loss of Volatile Spirits he speaks this so confidently as if he had had it from the Oracle of Experience whereas he never took the pains to make any satisfactory Essayes therein From what is premised may naturally arise these following short Corolaries First That Mineral Waters operate and give their usual Phaenomena by a due contemperature of their Mineral Ingredients Secondly That amongst these if especially the Mineral Ocre becomes once precipitated the Waters lose their purging Vertues and tinging Properties Thirdly So long as these can either by Nature or Art be kept from precipitation so long these Waters retain their proper Vertues Fourthly That to facilitate or indeed cause that these Waters should precipitate their Mineral Ocre is required one of these three viz. Motion Heat or Air by Motion I mean that ab extra for otherwise what Heat and Air perform is by the medium of Motion for Heat or an exposing to the open Air or a quassation of parts by motion doth make such an alteration in the texture of these Mineral Waters as they presently thereby let fall their contained Mineral Earth Fifthly These three being secluded from having any power over them they viz. the Waters may continue their Vertues Weight tinging Qualities Colours and other consequent Phaenomena for some months yea probably for years unalterd Sixthly That to have recourse to a sort of Spirits which are not inrerum naturâ for solving those Phaenomena better and perhaps onely solvable by an intestine alteration and precipitation of Mineral Ingredients will argue no less then an imposing upon our imaginations by a kind of customary fascination But here I am to advertise my Reader That since I committed these Papers to the Press I opportunely had some discourse with the aforesaid Dr. Foot concerning his Queries afore-mentioned Whereupon we mutually agreed That my Return to the Queries together with the Experiments confirming as well as elucidating the same do chiefly relate to the Mineral Medical Waters which are of that Class or sort which do purge by Stool mostly and also by Urine such are the Scarbrough-Spaw Barnet and Epsham-Waters and divers others the like which are Aluminous and work by Siedge But that the Tunbridge-Waters concerning which he principally proposed his Queries and also perhaps the Astrap and Stallbridge-Waters together with all such as work most-what by Urine ought to have a somewhat different consideration especially in the point of losing their Medical Vertues though they be vessell'd up with all due and needful circumstances and closed and sealed up with all imaginable Art care and industry yea although they are not in the least afterwards moved heated or exposed to the Air and consequently that these close Circumstances in vesselling up and stopping in the tunbridg-Tunbridg-Waters and such like will not prevent this depauperation or amission of their Medical Vertues as otherwise may be done with the Scarbrough and all such like Spaws but as to all the other matters almost both in the Queries and this Answer to them they seem to be applicable indifferently enough to both the sorts of the fore-cited Medicinal Waters Finally Reader The Doctor did thank me for my Return to his Queries though he frankly acknowledged to me he supposed my Answer to be inapposite only to that point afore-noted by reason of my being at the writing my Return a perfect stranger to the Tunbridge or any other Waters of the like properties but further added That he hoped my Example would be a motive to others whose abilities and opportunities amply capacitate them thereunto both from Reason and Experiment conjoyntly to
c. are by the like method made capable of enriching other Soyls Now to confirm besides what is said the existency of Alom as the chief if not sole ingredient of some Spaws I think it not amiss to acquaint the Reader with my Observations on a Spaw of the same nature which I found out the last Summer in Barnsdale upon Blacomore about ten or twelve miles from Whitby in the bottom of which Dale runs a Rivlet fed with several Springs and walled in in some places as it were with Alom-Rocks on both sides but more on one side then on the other out of the Clefts of one large Alom-Bed whose length may by conjectural compute be 50 or 60 paces and the depth 4 6 8 or 10 yards I observ'd several Springs to issue forth with a yellow Sediment along the Chincks and Crevices one of which that had the best current broke forth two or three yards from the foot of the Alom-Rock having more above it This when I tasted I found very much in taste to resemble the Scarbrough Spaw and would with the addition of Galls readily strike a purple tincture being not a little glad hereat I ordered a Bottle thereof to be brought along with me to York which there bringing to the test I found it to contain much-what the same Mineral Ingredients with that of the Scarbrough Spaw but was nothing near so plentifully fraught therewith as the other But however by this it was clearly apparent that a Water-Spring running through an Alom-Bed might and did imbibe the immature Juyce thereof in so much as to give it a taste resembling that of the Scarbrough Spaw and to render it as capable of readily striking a tincture with Galls as the other which was no small confirmation of our Hypothesis asserted in our Hydrol. Chym. concerning the Scarbrough Spaw Had I been at my Antagonists back when he was vindicating the existency of Vitriol in our Spaw I might have cherished him by whispering yet I would first have been sure to have had an answer in promptu this Objection to wit That Dyers in the making of their Blacks use not Alom but Vitriol yea find Alom a great enemy thereto alwayes mortifying the stiptick parts of those Ingredients which are necessarily required for that colour and therefore might seem to argue against Alom and for Vitriol as the cause thereof made by Galls in the Spaw Water To which Objection I thus return viz. That this is done first because Vitriol contains a greater quantity by much of a precipitable Ocre then Alom which should close with the flats of astringent bodies for the better intercepting of the Luminous Rayes whereby that colour becomes made next because factitious Alom having great plenty of Urine the Spirits or Salts thereof doth precipitate the Ocre of Vitriol and also destroys the acidity thereof which should otherwise bind in its Ocre and confirm the stiptick or astringent parts of Galls Sumach Logwood Elder Bark c. frequently used for Blacks A Supplement to the Sweet-Spaw At KNARSBROUGH WHat I have said in my Hydrol. Chym. concerning the Sweet-Spaw at Knarsbrough I find no reason to reclaim notwithstanding the carping of some by the instigation of others for that it hath imbibed but a small quantity from a Minera or Marcasite of Iron is apparent first because upon its evaporation it leaves an insipid dark coloured Pouder arguing that the Vitrioline Marcasite over which this Spring Water glides is very thin and lean of a Vitrioline Acidity and that is the reason it coagulates not Milk as do the German Vitrioline Spaws and some of our own which happens not as Dr. French imagineth from a volatility of its acidity which evaporates before the Milk boyls but rather from the inconsiderableness of the acidity and the easie precipitation of its Ocre Secondly By the great quantity of that Water which is to be drunk before any sensible Operation can be made either by Stool or Urine insomuch as it gives just cause of suspition that it is most-what from the weight of that Water pressing upon those Emunctories which chiefly gives energy to its Operation Thirdly The same is evident from the Mineral Waters which are Springs passing through some Vitrioline Marcasites which are found in Coleground of which I have some by me with these are those Springs drilling through Cole-Mines often impregnated many of which have a Vitrioline taste and will strike a purple tincture with Galls of which sort is Old Town Spaw and some near Leids and Hawton c. some of which have a sleight Iron-like or vitrioline taste and yet are so thin and poor as not to be able to give any tincture with Galls while others of them that are strong give both tincture and taste Fourthly The same is apparent by observing that all these languid vitrioline Waters if they either restagnate being exposed to the Air or by motion be carried to a great distance and if by either way a little yellow Sediment be precipitated then forthwith they become effete in their vertues and have neither any distinguishable taste nor will give any colour with Galls but degenerate again into simple Spring Water So that the supposed Spirits of these Waters are only imaginary and mere Chimera's no where existent but in the brains of those who conceive them For further confirmation of what I have already said and shall now further add concerning this and other the like mineral vitrioline Spaws I will elucidate it by this following Experiment viz. I took a bright Cuprous or Vitrioline Marcasite found about the surface of Cole-Mines and afterwards exposed to the Air upon which without any other preparation I poured simple distilled Water in a Jar Glass which in frigido did immediately receive a vitrioline taste and being forthwith filtred from the Marcasite struck a deep purple tincture with Galls as deep as any vitrioline Spaw I have yet met with its taste was exactly like that of the Sweet-Spaw we are now treating of and would as other the like Vitrioline Spaws be reducible to its pristine clarity by the pouring a few drops of Oyl of Vitriol and became opace by the adding of Oyl of Tartar and so passed those colours found in the Vitrioline Spaws as we have hinted more at large in our Hydrol. Chym. concerning those Mineral Waters from which Experiment may follow these direct and collateral conclusions viz. First That Vitrioline Marcasites are allyed unto and generally found in those Mines where Sulphur is much predominant viz. in the Cole-Mines c. yea themselves are impregnated with an immature Sulphur witness their combustibleness if put upon hot Coles burning with a blew flame and yeelding a sulphureous fume Secondly That these being exposed to the Air become the more readily ingravidated with a Vitrioline Salt by determining the nitrous Particles floating in the Air upon its Body by a peculiar Magnetism if I may so say proper to such bodies and this is evident because
here is apparent first because it will strike no tincture with Galls which any Mineral Water that hath but the least participation of Vitriol will readily do but this Spring with the addition of Galls gives no purple at all next because upon evaporation or distillation of this Water no Vitrioline Ocre is found with which such Waters whilst in the vigour of their Operation are constantly impregnated and as certainly let fall to the bottom when effaete in their Vertues Nay further the same is apparent by this following Experiment viz. I took some of the Vitriol Marcasites of which more anon found in the Bog about 240 paces North-west from the Well upon which grosly bruised I poured a strong solution of Sal marinum Hispanicum made in distilled Water and set them in frigido in a long glass body from the commixture of which I found no sulphureous apporrhea to arise but the solution became green which being decanted and evapored or distilled which last as I remember I did to try if it would yeeld any effluvia of Sulphur but found none I obtained a yellow Salt in Chrystals with a Vatrioline Ocre or Sulphur at the bottom which Salt was the Sal-marine ting'd with the vitrioline body of which I have some by me for being dissolv'd again in fresh distilled Water it will with the addition of Galls strike a deep tincture yea the liquamen viz. the Mother as the Vitriol or Alom-workmen call it which shoots not will if diluted with Water give the same colour By which it is plain that as Vitriol gives no odour or effluvia of its Sulphur to a solution of Salt so neither consequently doth it yeeld the same to this Salt Water considered simply as such we will suppose that the Salt Spring in the Earth I mean the Spring impregnated with Salt may in its passage run through these Marcasites of Vitriol which are found not far from thence as I shall afterwards prove it doth it would of necessity if simple Salt make some sleight solution thereof and give its Indications answerable to our Experiment by receiving a tincture from Galls c. But by matter of fact I find it not so to do Ergo Vitriol as such is no Ingredient of this Sulphur-Well Secondly That there is no Nitre is as evident in as much as in the Analysis of this Water no such Ingredient is to be found for neither doth there appear any Salt which shoots into such Styria's nor that hath any inflammable property both which are essential to Nitre as such Thirdly Nor is Sulphur as to the body thereof an Ingredient of this Spring notwithstanding that it hath its denomination therefrom being called the Sulphur-Well and this is evidently apparent because in the genuine resolution of this Spaw Water into its Principles not one grain of a combustible Sulphur is to be found for upon a gentle distillation thereof in Glass Vessels closely stopt the sulphureous odour goes off in much less then the third part of the Water which is first distilled The rest which distils is simple Water without any odour or taste and what remains in the bottom which I filtred though it stood not in much need thereof was a liquamen of Salt which being evaporated a little more shot into a Salt of cubical Figures exactly in taste colour figure c. resembling yea the very same with a Fossil or Marine Salt having an inconsiderable addition of Alom Salt lest after precipitation of the Sulphur so that nothing of Sulphur or any the least inflammable matter can be separated from the Spaw Against what I say hereof I have met with an Objection urg'd by a Physitian of note who grounds it upon this Experiment viz. That upon this Sulphur Water or others of the like nature which break forth higher upon the Bank above the usual Spring I say that upon these Waters restagnating is found a kind of white Cremor which sometimes is of various colours this being skim'd off and dryed will take flame and burn which by matter of fact I have my self upon tryal found true To which I answer That this Sulphur which thus separates from this restagnating Water is the same with that which swims upon other sorts of Mineral Waters upon long standing being a blewish cream or skin which swims as well upon the Sweet-Spaw and any Vitrioline or other Mineral Waters and as Dr. Heer 's saith being put upon the fire is inflamed and yeelds a sulphureous odor The same is also found in an Azure coloured skin swimming upon the restagating Scarbrough Spaw Water Yea the like is frequently to be seen upon Water that stands long upon any Bog This Sulphureous skin which swims upon most Mineral Waters is referrable to a double Original viz. Either they are such as have a bituminous matter swimming upon them which with the Water Spring issues forth joyntly out of the bowels of the Earth from some sulphureous or bituminous source witness the Spring at Pitchford in Shropshire and in Averna in France The Mare Asphaliticum called Mare Mortuum which hath plenty of Naptha and Bitumen issuing from the Shores which have store of bituminous Pits As also that Water in agro Parmensi Falop. 24.6 according to Falopius of which Water he saith Est usque aduò bituminosis vaporibus referta ut ex flammâ vix sibi admaeâ accendatur And that likewise in agro Patavino and all other Waters upon which swim Camphire Amber in succo suo soluto both which by Falopius Cardanus Agricola and Casius are accounted è genere bituminis Pisasphaltum Petroleum Balsamus Indicus c. all which are reckoned as various species de genere bituminis in all which the bituminous skin will take fire and burn with a sulphureous flame for as no Oil so neither Sulphur nor the Bitumina will mingle per minima with Water Oyls and Sulphurs consisting of similar parts which bear no proportion with watery Particles unless the watery be subjugated by an oyly Ferment Or Secondly They are such as whilst in the bowels of the Earth are impregnated with Minerals although perhaps not sulphureous but when they come into the open Air presently especially by restagnation let fall their imbibed Ingredients and by continuance of time suffer a sulphureous matter to be generated de novo or rather indeed as I apprehend by long standing suffer the Air by a kind of putrefactive ferment to cause a slow resolution of the very compage of Water and in this gentle Analysis makes the restagnating Water cast its Sulphur which was not preexistent in the Water as a Mineral Sulphur but is as I said either a bituminous Cremor or a Sulphur of Water ingendred by a putrefactive resolution thereof which will being dryed take flame and burn That I might make a sesemblance of this Water the better to inquire into the nature thereof I took one ounce of Hepar Antimonii upon which pulverized I poured some warm Water into which
the Water in cuniculis propriis passeth according to Falopius yet not a few absurdities would hence follow as how these flames should burn under a Quarry of Stones when thereby intercepted from Air the life of Fire without which it exists not Next how these hot Baths should then become impregnated with the medicinal vertues of Sulphur seeing by this Supposition the Water would want both the flame and fume of Sulphur My second Reason why upon admission that though a flagrable sulphurous matter should be burning in the bowels of the Earth yet should it not be the cause of hot Baths is because then generally all hot Waters would have a strong Brimstone-like smell like the odor of Wine or Ale matched or fumed with Brimstone in Bottles or like the fumes of Sulphur which arise in the distillation of its Oil per campanam of which smell amongst all hot Baths I read of none which yeeld it My third Argument is grounded upon matter of fact in this following Experiment viz. Take a mineral Sulphur whether Vive or in a Marcasite as of Vitriol c. put it in pieces in an Earthen Retort and give degrees of fire under it in a Furnace where because the fire comes not actually to it it flames not urge this so as all the Fumes which are dry ones called Flowers shall pass through the Neck into a Receiver fill'd most-what with Water so placed as that these fumes all fall and condense upon the surface of the Water which they will do in an unctuous substance like Oil of Wax or Amber congealing by degrees and becoming harder they fall down to the bottom in bright flakes of Brimstone by which way I have got a Sulphur out of the Marcasites of Vitriol found in the Bog near the Sulphur-Well Now the Fire as I said drives forth the dry fumes or flowers these coming in a vapor condense upon the surface of the Water in the Receiver and yet which is what I aim at this Water hath neither taste nor smell like that of our Sulphur Well at Knarsbrough So that neither an actual or immediate firing of Sulphur as is done in the making its Oil nor a distilling or subliming of it by a Fire ab extra whereby Sulphur becomes separated from a Vitrioline Marcasite will give to Water either the like taste or odour with the Sulphur-Well and therefore we must conclude that it s faetid odour is not caused from any Vapors of burning Bitumen or Sulphur whether imagined to be done in open passages or close Caverns of the Earth Having thus far refuted and that I hope demonstratively the Opinions of Hot Baths and Sulphur Waters taking their Original from imbred subterraneal Fires I shall now propound my own Observation in the fabrick of the like Waters artificially performed in imitation of the natural I tryed therefore whether Sal Armoniack mixed with a Mineral Sulphur and so dissolv'd together in a distilled Water would at all open the body of Sulphur into which when filtred I poured some Solution of Alom-stone but it caused no precipitation nor made any discovery of any dissolv'd Sulphur also into a little of the clear Solution I poured some Oil of Tartar per deliquium and thereby found it raised a volatile Spirit out of the Armoniack which would smite the Nose but perceived not the least odor of Sulphur So that I observed that neither Sal marine alone or joyned with Nitre nor Sal Armoniack compounded of a Sal marine and Volatile Salts would any of them be sufficient to open the body of Sulphur in its Mineral Marcasites At length after various Experiments I hit upon that which answered my expectation and satisfied my curiosity and for the further improvement of ingenuity and as a Spur to the greater advancement of Mechanical Experiments shall communicate that to the World which all the Writers of those Sulphurous Waters which I have yet met with have been deficient in I took therefore a pint of Spring-water in which I dissolv'd betwixt one and two dragms of Sal marine in frigido for about that quantity the Sulphur Water contains of common Salt into which Solution of Salt in Water I added of Calx Vive and the Marcasites of Vitriol found near the Sulphur-Well grosly pulverised about two or three ounces which presently contracted a considerable heat I poured off some of the Water into which filtred I poured a little Solution of the simple Alom-Salt and it immediately caused a precipitation of a Sulphur and sent forth the very smell yea had the exact taste of the Sulphur-Well This Experiment thus succeeding gratified me for my pains in others less successful for that which I long'd to know was What that Menstruum should be which might so open the body of Sulphur in the Marcasites as might render it capable of a precipitation or coagulation by another second Menstruum or Acid Liquor seeing we could imagine no lixivial Salts could be found in the bowels of the Earth which commonly is used for the opening the body of Sulphur Therefore I thought it might possibly be from some natural Calx Vive seeing there are plenty of Lime-stones upon that Forrest which at Knarsbrough are burnt in Pits and so it proved for the Salt-Water passing through some natural Stone or soft Marcasite of Calx Vive becomes acuated thereby and then running over the Vitrioline Marcasites or passing through a Sulphureous Earth congeneal to those Marcasites opens the body of their Embryonative Sulphur which it carries along with it till it come on further to an Alom-Bed which I observed to be within ten yards of the breaking forth of that Spaw where the acid Juyce precipitates the Sulphur and sends forth the odour which being percolated through a streiner of Sand comes forth pretty clear That this Artificial Water is an exact resemblance and imitation of the natural is evident because it answers the natural in every circumstance for it hath the very smell and taste undergoes the very same precipitations by lixivial Liquors yea and lastly tingeth Silver yellow as readily as the Sulphur-Well and therefore without doubt the Operation of the Artificial would be found upon tryal equivalent to the Natural in other properties also The main Objection that offers it self against the identity or similarness of this Artificial with the Natural Sulphur Water is by querying how Calx Vive which is an artificial product of the Fire actually calcining those Lime-stones should be imagined to be naturally in the Earth or how Nature should find such a Stone calcined to its hand in the Entrals of the Earth as may be sufficient to open the body of these sulphurous Marcasites To which I Answer That it 's more then probable there is a natural soft Stone of Calx Vive where this Marcasite is in succo primitivo retaining the same Seminals and essential Properties in a remiss degree with that Stone brought on to maturity by Air and Fire for the Air first
's likely that Water had not penetrated them for it gave no tincture with Galls The Spring towards the South had plenty of a black spongy Marcasite out of which we took several pieces yea all about that place is full thereof round about the sides and in one place where the Air had wrought upon the Marcasite it did shoot by the heat of the Sun into green Chrystals like Vitriol as indeed being nothing but Vitriol it self of which I have some by me The Water that stagnates there for it hath no current will with Galls give a deep purple tincture being very acid in taste and so undergoes the other mutation of colours like other Vitrioline Waters And now I have shown how Mineral Juyces by their coincidence and mutual contact with their various fermentations become the original efficients of Hot Baths and Sulphurous Waters in the secret Meanders of the Earth where Metals and Minerals are in solutis principiis in their primitive spermatick Juyces from whence proceeds the great variety of tastes smells alterations of colours fermentations and different operations of all Mineral Waters and as these are the true causes from whence the most natural Phaenomena of Concrets peculiarly belonging to the Mineral Kingdom are deducible so in like manner the various fermental Juyces which circulate in the Channels of the bodies of Animals and Vegetables are the causes of those manifold Phaenomena proper and incident to all Concrets belonging thereto For what is Heat Fermentation Motion Nutrition c. with all the concomitants thereof but products from the coincidence and combination of Seminal with adventitious Juyces of the bodies of Animals What are the Juyces of the Body undergoing various fermentations but such as thereby are made capable by a natural symetry of performing the functions of Life And what are the acid Juyces scituate in their proper places but actual Ferments which macerate prepare dissolve and digest the food we take in which being altered by its passage through other subsequent ferments undergoes various transmutations and diversifications which succeeding in a constant circulation upholds the fabrick of the body Doth not the natural heat of the body proceed from a due fermentation of the Juyces as when the nutritive Juyce undergoes such alterations by praevious preparations as when in the form of a milky Liquor it coincides with the blood in the subclavial Vessels and both carried by the Vaena Cava into the Heart doth there strike up a vital heat in the taper of life the vital Spirits but if it come raw for want of a due preparation by a defect of previous ferments then it produceth a spurious febrile heat which rather dissipates the natural heat and destroyes then binds up the right tone and texture of the parts And lastly Doth not the acid Juyce of the first digession of the Stomach dissolve loosening the Vinculum of our nutritive Juyce and so open the body thereof as to make it become one similar milky Cremer and doth not this dissolv'd and opened Chyle receive a second Menstruum coming from the Gaul that Balsam of the Body by the ductus communis inserted into the duodenum and there besides the peristaltick motion it gives to the intestines in part precipitates the opened body of the Sulphur of the nutritive Juyce and causeth a volatile faetid flatus peculiar to those parts which not finding vent per inferiora sometimes works into the Stomach and by the mediation of the Nerves of the sixth conjugation into the Head and other parts is not this faetid flatus native to the intestines caused by a commixture of a saline Ferment dismis'd I say from the Gaul which precipitates the opened body of the Sulphur in our nutritive Juyce which before such precipitation is a similar Cremor And to conclude is not the growth budding hearing and specifical endowments of Vegetables the product of fermenting Juyces And is not the changing of Fruits by grafting and inoculating one sort into another as that a pleasant Apple should grow from a Crab-stock and a Pear from a Thorn caused otherwise then by different fermentations and specifications of the nutritive Juyce which no sooner undergoes any different ferments or passeth various Strainers but forthwith becomes metamorphosed thereby so that the metastasis of all bodies in the whole triplicity of nature depends upon the variety of fermenting Juyces and their mutual complications implanted in the Seminal Principles of all Concretes But to return to treat a little of another Ingredient of this Well and that is Sal marine or Fossil Salt both are one that of the Sea having its original according to all probability from Fossil Salt concerning which I find my Antagonist p. 119.122 of his Mimick about to impeach me of two Contradictions the first is in that I say The saltness of the Sea proceeds from Fossil Salt which being dissolv'd in Water is carried into the Ocean and yet maintains a circulation of the Sea-Water from the Sea to the heads of Springs by Subterraneal Channels Now the force of the Contradiction as he supposeth lieth in this that he imagineth that I would assert that the same Channels should convey a Salt into the Sea and also convey the Sea-Water to the Springs two contrary Currents in the same Channels To which I answer That there is no need in that Hypothesis of the Springs having their original from the Sea and the Sea 's having its saltness from the Earth to assert two contrary Currents in the same Channels and that first because of some Rocks and Bodies of Salt which are often found in the Sea and next because of the saltness dispersed throughout the whole body of the Earth easily imbibed by Waters as the Learned Dr. Highmore notes upon the Controversie Philosophical Transactions Numb 56. P. 1129 c. and may as easily be conveighed into the Sea by Subterraneal Channels passing through Salt Beds in their passage from one Sea to another which Subterraneal Channels by which Seas communicate we have demonstratively illustrated in the Appendix to our Hydrol. Chym. p. 307 c. But I find my Antagonist taking sanctuary at his wonted Asylum of Putationary Philosophy comming in with his I do verily think that all the Fossil Salt in the body of the Earth which we see is very rarely found if it were dissolved would not serve to supply a twentieth part of the Salt that is in the Sea whom I answer That surely he is either ignorant or at least oblivious of what is writ concerning Rocks of Salt in Bohemia in Monte Carpato in Polonia within two miles of Cracovia in Helvetia and Rhetia where they have no other Salt but from the Rock as also by the Caspian Straights are great Rocks of Salt there are also many Rivers of Salt Water by the Caspian Straights and in Spain and Caria and in Bactria Ochus and Oxius also there are Salt Lakes as the Tarentine Lakes in Italy the Lake between Strapela and
of Spirits that are either inflammable or uninflammable To the second I answer in the Assirmative as to the first part thereof to confirm which and to illustrate the rest of the Queries with the light of truth I shall propound two or three considerable Experiments First Therefore I advised my ingenious Friend to set by a certain quantity of Scarbrough-Spaw-Water in an open Vessel and found thereby that it did precipitate its Earth or Sediment in about forty eight hours so that it would not give a tincture with Galls Secondly Another quantity of Spaw-Water being set by at the same time with the former but in a Glass Bottle so close stopt that neitheir Air could come in nor ought evaporate and being opened when the other ceased to give a tincture this did yet strike a tincture but within less then twelve hours after it also would give none Thirdly A Glass Bottle and an Egg-Glass being filled with the spaw-Spaw-Water the first exactly stopt the other hermetically sealed being both exactly weighed and set by with an other Glass filled and weighed but unstopt at the end of six weeks the stopt Bottle could not be discerned to be heavier or lighter being weighed again after the foresaid time nor could it be perceived that any Sediment was fallen because it gave as perfect a tincture with Galls as Water fresh from the Spaw By which it appears that the second Query is thus far true viz. That these Mineral Waters when most closely stopt and so let stand do not let fall a Sediment but if they do let fall their Ocre to the bottom as in open Glasses we find they do then is this Sediment most-what of a yellow colour and the Waters become effaete as to their solutive Operations The third is answered in the Negative for being let stand and not moved by carriage they do not supposing they be stopt sooner precipitate an Ocre to the bottom nor sooner become castrated thereby witness the third Experiment where in a stopt Glass after six weeks time no Sediment was fallen The fourth Query is found true in the Affirmative by the common Observations of those who view varieties of Spaws for they precipitate their Ocre both at the Spring-head as also in their Current for some distance sub dio but chiefly at the Spring-head for whilst they are kept from the open Air though their Channels under-ground should be stretched out much longer yet would they not let fall their Sediment by which it appears how great an influence the open Air hath upon the texture of mineral-Mineral-Waters as well as upon other Bodies The fifth Query is solv'd by our Experiments thus viz. That two Bottles of the said Water whereof the one being industriously stopped the other left unstopt and both equally permitted to stand still do not equally lose their vertues medical in the same space of time nor have the same precipitated Sediment and consequently are not of the same taste colour nor alike diminisht in quantity The sixth Query is involv'd in the fifth only presupposing that the stopt Vessel be of such a figuration or texture of parts as may exclude the ambient Air and then all succeeds as in the fifth The seventh is solv'd thus viz. That these Waters being closed up either in Glasses exactly stopt or hermetically sealed and kept from motion do prevent all precipitation of a Sediment in the Water and this is confirmed by the third Experiment where the Water was kept hermetically sealed for six weeks without any precipitation yea the same is confirmed not onely in these Mineral Medicinal Waters but even in more ordinary Spring-Waters whose Sediments or what else they have imbibed of Mineral Earth will easily precipitate by being exposed in open Vessels to the Air or by being distilled will leave behind their Sediments whereas I found the very same taken fresh from the Fountain which I have kept hermetically sealed for above three months not to give any the least precipitation or alteration of colour which for ought I know may not only keep so unaltered for months but also for years which very experiment is not inconsiderable towards a further improvement of Philosophy and amongst other Phaenomena which I shall not now take time to insist upon that of blood extravasated by Phlebotomy and a while exposed in open Vessels to the Air doth receive no smal alteration therefrom making it separate into such heterogenious parts as are not pre-existent in it whilst running in the Vessels and therefore doth not a little deceive those Physitians who judge of the temperature of the Blood and of the predominancy of this or the other Humour from a prospect of the extravasated Blood separated by an exotick ferment of the Air into Water Phlegm or white Gelly or black congealed Blood when perhaps that Blood whilst in the Body and as I may say hermetically sealed up in the natural Vessels was similar in its parts which if enlivened with due fermentations and separations in the Organical Parts would throw off all Scorbutick Venereal or other Miasms and Impurities and circulate in the form of a pure homogenial rubicund Juyce to confirm which I would propound one or two Queries the resolution of which will infallibly put the matter beyond dispute viz. Whether suppose some few ounces of blood should be taken from a found or if you will from an unhealthful Person and by a Silver Syphon be conveyed part into a clean Glass first warmed and whilst warm be sealed up hermetically and so set in a continued gentle heat whilst presently an other part of the same is conveyed in like manner into a cold Glass and so presently sealed up as aforesaid but set by in a cold place whether I say hereby it will be found that the blood in one or both or neither will keep its pristine form it had whilst circulating in the Vessels or whilst transmitted from one Vessel to the other and whether hereby it may not be preserved in its entire form not onely for one or two but for many months yea perhaps year and whether it will keep its form better in that Glass exposed to the cold or set in a gentle as it were an animal warmth and lastly whether that set in heat may not by continuance of time be graduated to so high an elixerated Liquor as that hereby it may be made capable not onely of preserving it self alterwards from the injury of a separating ferment in the Air but also may become as a fermental Balsam able if given inwardly or at least outwardly applyed to preserve the similar Blood it meets with from all inseâ—tious Diseases yea it would be worth inquiry 〈◊〉 â—ether it may not make the blood by his imbred exalted ferment reject all those impurities contracted by the Scorbute Lues Venerea Feavers and other Diseases even to the performing those cures in the Blood as may probably tender it worthy if any be of the name of a Panacea which Experiments
acquaint the World with the knowledge and usefulness of all sorts of Medical Waters which Nature hath prepared by her Chymistry or rather the God of Nature hath bountifully bestowed on Mankind for its relief and comfort THE Epilogue or Conclusion BEING Some Reflections upon the most material Passages and considerable Experiments in a late Treatise writ by Dr. Tunstal concerning the Scarbrough-Spaw being an Extract thereof with a return thereto where a way is propounded for preventing all inconveniencies which may happen to those who drink of the Scarbrough-Spaw BY that time I had finished the fore-going Sheets of this second Piece I met with a Book written upon the same Subject by an other Chymical Physitian which coming so opportunely to my hand before the conclusion of the whole I could not let slip some reflections upon the most remarkable passages thereof and that first because I find him in his Chymical Analysis of this Water to joyn issue with me in the main by finding out and asserting the same true essential constitutive Principles thereof next because I perceive him impeaching this Spaw-Water of the grand crime of Petrifaction and thereby of being guilty of causing the Stone Gout and Jaundice to persons inclinable thereto and for want of due ordering at the Spaw in danger thereof As to the first he saith it consists of three Ingredients viz. the Nitroaluminous Salt secondly the Raments of Stone and lastly the Glebe of Alom all which coincide with what we assert as the Principles thereof as may be further seen both in our Hydrol. Chym. and in this its Vindication save that what he calls the Glebe or blew Clay of Alom I have described as the Particles of the Minera of Iron Which difficulty will be easily taken away by solving this Query viz. Whether indeed those Particles inclosed in that Alom Glebe be not Iron in succo soluto or in minimis particulis Atomes or at least somewhat equivalent thereto bearing an analogical proportion of texture of parts to each other which will not be a little facilitated if we consider that as in the Vegetable Family not only Galls will strike a purple tincture with the Alom Salt got before the addition Kelp and Urine dissolv'd in distilled or fresh Spring-Water but also the same may be done by other bodies whose texture of parts are congeneal as for example the inner Bark of the Oak the Roots of Tormentile Avens Bistort Clove-gilly flowers and the Flowers called Balaustia all which like Galls will strike a purple with Water wherein the Alom Salt is dissolved yea and will also become clear again by the instilling a few drops of Oil of Vitriol and with the Oil of Tartar will become turbid and muddied c. So in like manner in the Mineral Family are found several Stones even in that heap which is fallen off the Scarbrough Bank which would with Water acidulated with Oil of Sulphur as upon â—â—al I found strike a tincture with Galls and yet all those stony Concretions which gave the Phâ—â—â—menon could not precisely be determined to be either Alom Glebe or Iron Stone though both would do it but were such as consisted of similar parts with both The tincture from the Galls in Scarbrough Water he saith is from unburnt Alom-stone which suppose we grant yet I see no reason why my ingenious Friend should conclude that what is precipitated without the addition of Galls should not be any thing of Chalybs or the Minera of Iron notwithstanding his two Reasons the first of which is because the Vitrioline Spirit and Iron are too great Friends being once met together to be so easily separated any that hath saith he prepared the Vitriolum Martis hath learned Why what difficulty is there in their separation seeing the Ocre as well in Acid as Nitro-aluminous Spaws doth so easily precipitate either by being exposed to the Air witness the yellow Sediment at the Fountain-head of all such Spaws or by heat as for instance any of these Mineral Waters being heated boyled or distilled will precipirate their hidden Ocre yea the Solution of a Vitriol of Iron or of any common Vitriol will in heat as I have found by tryal do the same or lastly by motion ab extra whereby also a precipition of the same mineral body happens His second reason is When the Vitrioline Water by passing in the open Air doth settle its Colcothar at the bottom without any mixture of Galls it is alwayes of a yellow colour which is also answered in my Return to the first Reason for the Sediment of all Spaws whether Vitrioline from Sowes or aluminous are alwayes yellow witness both that at Scarbrough and that in Bransdals Knarsbrough and the Spring that runs through an Alom-Work near the Sulphur-Well at Knarsbrough c. His last Argument against any thing of the Minora of Iron in the Spaw is That whereas in the taking all Chalybeat Medicines the Excrements are tinged black but by drinking this Water he saith they become blew to which I answer That blew or purple is black in a remiss degree towards which difference the crudity of the Minera may probably not a little contribute But had I now the opportunity of prosecuting one Experiment I question not but to put the matter beyond dispute I will now onely propound it and as I have leasure shall afterwards try it and that is this viz. To take a good quantity of the succulent Alom-stone c. dissolve as much thereof as will in a competent quantity of fresh Spring Water when for tryal sake it will tinge with Galls readily pour it off clear or filter it let it stand in open Glasses or glased earthen Basons when it hath precipitated what it will of a Sediment which will be done in two or three dayes time then pour off the Water gently and dry it up slowly by the heat of the Sun and compare that and the yellow Ocre precipitated from Vitrioline Waters together and that either with a Microscope or melt them down severally with a blast to try if the result of both will not be the same His proportions of the Ingredients are thus viz. Stone-pouder one ounce three dragms of Nitroaluminous Salt one ounce six dragms of the blew Clay which is as he supposeth the Glebe of Alom three dragms the active Principles and the Caput Mortuum are equal He Queries hence from what cause it is that after you have drunk a month of the Water then if not before it takes a resty fit will neither go forward or backward upon which my Antagonist adviseth p. 211. that if the Appetite or Concoction decay and the Water pass not so well as formerly but cause distention either in the Belly or Veins and so bring on a difficulty of breathing or pain in the Head or the like it is then time he adviseth to desist and proceed no further Is there not therefore saith Dr. T. a sting in the tail of Scarbrough Water