said enough to that point already And whereas he says I blusht not to instance in Spirit of Vitriol that we use it in Juleps and Cordials and t is not Emetick I answer Nor need I since the main part of the Vitriol in this Water is the Spirit as I have now proved which is as much yea and far more diluted with the Water wherein it is imbibed than the force of the Vitriol is corrected by the vehement heat of the Fire in the distilling of the Spirit And what follows in that Section wherein he runs a risque concerning the Vomiting property of Copper is altogether pillaged out of Helment after whose Pipe I find him constantly dancing using his very words as confidently as if he were the Author himself and also nothing to the point in hand P. 50. He returns to our Conference at the Spaw and particularly about the Nitre which I had affirmed in my Book P. 13. to be of all the Minerals the most predominant shooting into Ice-sickles or Stiria which is the peculiar form of Nitre whereby it is distinguisht from all other Minerals whatsoever Of Nitre in the Spaw I queried with the Doctor says he how he came to know that Nitre was an Ingredient and the most predominant Here he forges a confused Narrative which was never in my Heart nor on my Tongue to say but perhaps it may be a lapse of his Memory I made it out from that Analogy and Resemblance that is betwixt the Minerals that remain after the Evaporation of the Water and the Nitre that breaks out of the Cliffe within 6 or 8 yards of the Spaw which is white like a hoar-frost in hot and dry weather but is washt off by every shower of Rain both that and the Minerals extracted out of the Water shooting alike in Stirias and also agreeing in Taste But that this was Nitre at that time he confidently denied He said indeed it was nothing but an Aluminous Salt but when I urged that Alome does not shoot in Stirias and upon that very account that it could be nothing but Nitre then he would have it to come from the Air of the Sea which has Nitre in it I replied that then the whole Sea Coast should abound with it which we see it doth not Hence it follows that it can be nothing but Nitre which proceeds out of the Earth that is exceeding Nitrous Neither yet is this Nitre discernable in every part of the Cliffe throughout but runs in certain Veins and much more plentifully near the Well That this is Nitre several learned Physicians have been abundantly satisfied and those both of London and elsewhere the shooting of Nitre into Stirias being as peculiar to that Mineral as the form of any Plant is to all of the same kind This and the rest of the Minerals which are apparent upon this Cliffe have put many Naturalists into no small amazement which made Dr. Tonstall of Newcastle ☜ an Eminent Physitian and Chymist say He thought it was the most fertile Bank in the World Let him further know that all the Earth about Scarbrough is full of Nitre from whence it is that the Meadows about the Town are more eminently fertile than any other that I have observed upon the Sea-Coast which gave too much encouragement to an Ingenious Gentleman a Friend of mine to begin a Project there of Making Nitre which for his own sake I wish had succeeded according to his expectation but the truth is it proved but an imperfect Nitre especially that which is extracted out of the Water and so in refractis viribus and also joyned with the other Salts which perhaps do enfeeble it more And yet I have observed many years ago this Sediment of the Water having been laid aside in a cool place some dayes to shoot into Stiria's half an Inch long especially after Calcination Filtration and Separation from the grosser parts of the Minerals This I have expresly touched on in my Book and did also sufficiently urge it in our Conference at the Spaw which yet prevailed nothing with this Gentleman though it was abundantly satisfactory to all else that were by and yet it seems ev'n now while he writ this he was of the same mind That these Volatile Nitrous Particles as he calls them which float in the Aire are magnetically attracted by the aluminous Salt that is in the Body of the Minerals extracted from the Water as also by the Mineral Earth of Alome which is upon the Cliffe and consequently that which is in the Water is nothing but an aluminous Salt And this is such a truth as he endeavors to illustrate in Sect. 4. p. 53 in a long Discourse with several Experiments after all which and a large Harangue of hard words fit only to breed admiration in the ignorant and laughter in the learned he gives us his definitive Sentence in short by way of Recapitulation in these words P. 61. The Esurine acid Salt having in its solution got a slight touch of a Vein or Minera of Iron and passing through a rocky Mineral Glebe of Alome becomes specificated in an aluminous Salt with which the Water of the Quick-Spring is impregnate which makes the Spaw we discourse of Now if his Assertion Note which by all those Experiments he endeavors to illustrate be false as I am certain it is and shall prove from his own Concession under his hand then there needs no more to satisfie the World that I was all this while in the right And if so then is not mine Antagonist an able man indeed that can thus draw Quidlibet ex quolibet plainly to prove that which is clearly false One would think almost this Batchelour were playing the Sophister again intending to deceive the World with a Fallacy which yet a Wiseman would have couched more cunningly in the premisses and ta'n care to end with a plausible Conclusion but just thus we have him 20 times in this Book building upon a sandy foundation illustrating by far-fetcht Experiments that which to every mans reason is evidently false and from false and mistaken premisses drawing necessary Conclusions Let me now remind the Reader of ☜ what we have been doing all this while The summe total of what Mr. S. has said He denied all the Principles of the Spaw except Alome and disputed if so it deserve to be called against me with hard and harsh language for asserting them I think I have answered all his Objections and fully proved them all to be there by sufficient Arguments of Demonstration which I willingly submit to the Judicious Reader He severely carps at many of my expressions which I used in my Book which I have plainly made out to be the forms used by Learned Writers upon such Subjects and particularly of the Chymists themselves whom it seems he understood not He throws dirt in my face ever and anon while he argues against the four wayes I mention of a Waters
an excellent Appendix to the Noble Art of Physick and if the Gentlemen had been but good natur'd and modest I do confidently affirm they had in all things found a sutable respect from us all but why they should go about to make Chymistry an Art of its own kind and like a viperous brat to eat through the bowels of its dam in designing to root up the Ancient and Rational Practice of Physick which has in all Ages been successful and continues so to be in our hands as with modesty I hope I may say I see no cause for it Has not the Honourable Society of the Colledge of Physicians of London owned the Art and appointed a multitude of Chymical Medicines in their Pharmacopeia which suit variety of Indications And had not they an Operator whom they encouraged for the making up of those their Remedies till Death came which made a Caput Mortuum of him And had not they a Laboratory in London till the Dreadful Fire made a Calcination of it which now they are preparing to set up again What cause then is there that this man should complain thus or that he should need to rise up in Vindication of that which no man opposes It is well known to the Learned that many Antient Writers have treated of Chymistry as Avicen Rhasis Albumazar Haly c. in Arabick Democritus Myrepsus Zosymus Marcellus Heliodorus c. in Greek and an abundance of Latine Authors that would be tedious to reckon up for these two or three last Centuries no man of learning or worth ever opening his mouth or using his Pen against it although some are more affected towards it than others and truly methink every man should be left to his liberty in that point to use or not use this or that method as he shall see cause without being imposed on or censured by another so long as he is faithful and honest in his business as also learned and rational and willing to give convenient satisfaction to others and able to make it out by success Nay I could make it out if it were needful that the most eminent profest Galenists have spoken honourably in their Writings of this Art of Chymistry and prescribed a number of Medicines so prepâ—red both out of the Vegetables and Minerals and Metals As Sennertus Mercatus Pereda Rodericus a Castro Horstius Freitagius Crato and of our own Nation Dr. Glysson Dr. Primerose Dr. Willis Dr. Wharton and many others eminently learned both who have written and have not whom I know to be Lovers of the Art and the useful discoveries which we have by it Upon all which account Mr. S. might very well have spared this Vindication No difference among the learned And as the Galenists approve both in their Writings and Practice of Chymical Medicines so the most learned among the Chymists do use the Galenical Thus Zwelfer has made his Comment upon the Pharmac Augustana and left one of his own which he calls Pharmacopaeia Regia which are as full of all sorts of Medicines viz. Syrupes Distilled Waters Electuaries Extracts Pills Powders Cordial Species Lohochs Trochisks Oyls Ointments and Cerates as our London Dispensatory and made out of the very same matter viz. the Vegetables though Mr. S. cries them down saying P. 161. That there are not above a score that are good for any thing Thus also Schroderus and Excellent Chymist has writ another after the same Method Likewise Hadrianus a Mynsicht so Libavius Renodaeus Crollius Hartman go this way describing Medicines both out of the Vegetables and Minerals and Metals all which we know and make use of in our Practice at least so many as we approve of to be good and wholesome And why may not this be done without reproaching one another Indeed of late some Controversies have been started betwixt some who call themselves Chymists and others but in those it plainly appears the Chymists have been the Aggressors and the other only defensive Or else they have risen from some personal quarrel in which other ☜ wise and learned men on both sides have not thought fit to interess themselves but have rather privately endeavoured to compose their differences and so to keep the Peace in the Faculty And even in these also if I mistake not the Chymists have begun the Controversie And thus it is betwixt my Adversary and me while I had never disobliged either him or any man else nor meddled with any thing in Controversie save only with the Dispute about the Original of Springs which I modestly carried on by Argument without any the least personal reflexion upon any man that had engaged in it leaving every man to believe as he saw cause and in treating of the ☜ Mineral Ingredients and Vertues of the Spaw was modest in all my Assertions even then and therefore does he flie in my face with uncivil personal reflections and takes thereby occasion to throw dirt in the face of the most Learned Physicians in the World and the Universities as we shall see by and by and then to make a Vindication of Chymical Physick as if it were opposed And all this meerly to carry on a design of over-turning the Rational Practice and advancing his own way of Practice which whether it be so safe or no I shall now examine yet without the least intention to reflect either upon the Chymical Way in general or any Learned and Candid Professor thereof He says P. 158. That till within this ten or a dozen years this Noble Science bath undergone much ignominy I have reckoned up a number of Authors who have writ in Commendation of it and mentioned several in these our own dayes and Nation who are Fautors of it and therefore I judge there is no cause for this complaint But if it has sustained any ignominy it has proceeded either from the ignorance of such as were pretenders to it but did not prepare their Medicines aright or else from those that use them preposterously I grant that this Noble Art which doubtless is more proper than to call it a Science has got more reputation of late than formerly and I wish it may never lose it again by the folly of its Professors P. 159. We see says he that in all Concretes whether Animal Vegetable or Mineral there is a mixture of pure and impure of gross and tenuious parts c. Yet as to medicinal use it s the pure nimble and spirituous parts of Vegetables or Animals or the depurated fixt part or the re-union of both after purification which assists Nature against the Malady First Gross parts not unfit for Medicine I do not think that the gross parts are always impure and the thin parts pure but that even the gross parts may be as pure as the thin and in some drugs are more useful than the thin Thus Water and Earth though they be more gross yet are as pure Elements as Fire and Air and equally joyned with them in the
This it appears to have been the sense of Cardane Marlianus and Fromundus although it pleases not Mr. S. I would also enquire of him whether he thinks Sir Kenelm Digby understood what he writ in his Book of the Cure of Wounds by the Sympâ—thetical Powder where P. 67. of his English Copy he tells a stupendious Story of a Nunne at Rome the truth whereof was confirm'd to him both from her own Relation and the attestation of Petrus Servius who was Pope Vrbane the 8th his Physician and several other Doctors of Physick at Rome that assured him of the truth of it This Nunne by excessive Watching Fâ—sting and Devotion had so heated her Body that she seemed to be all on fire this heat and internal fire drawing the Air so powerfully I use his own words the Air did incorporate within her Body as it uses in Salt of Tartar and the Passages being all open it got to those parts where there is most serosity viz. the Bladder and thence she rendred it in Water among her Vrine and that in an incredible quantity for she voided during some weeks more than 200 Pounds of Water every 24 hours Now as to the Salt of Tartar he had been treating of it in the fore-going Page that being exposed to the open Air it converts the Air into moisture in almost an incredible ☜ proporion to wit a Pound of the Salt well calcined will afford ten Pounds of good Oyl of Tartar by drawing and incorporating with it the Circumjâ—cent Air. Now while so many learned Philosophers do sâ—tisfie themselves and the World in so speaking concerning this Transâ—â—utation of Air into moisture why should Mr. S so severely carp at me for using the same forms of expression I know well enough what he runs at Helmont according to whose Pipe I find him ever dâ—ncing says it is a Vapor which is in the Air that is condensed into Water and not the Air it self to wit not the Element of Air that is turned into Water But is it not more properly called Air which we breath in than Vapor and it is that which we breath in which is turned into Water to wit the grosser parts of it for as to the pure Element of Air we have nothing to do with it in this Dispute nor do any Philosophers or other wise men doubt in the least to call it the Air. Hence the several Expressions in use among them concerning the 3 Regions of the Air and the Atmosphere of the Air c. A Term used by himself in several places of this his Appendix about Springs but he will not allow me to call it so If this be not properly called Air I do not know where we shall find it in the World nor will Mr. S. ever be able to describe its ubi by Ocular Demonstration nor yet Helmont whom he follows For my own part I chuse rather to retain the wholesome Grounds and Terms of Philosophy now used for many Ages than to fall into the new way of Canting in frothy words much in use among some late Writers especially such as go this way who while they have no new matter do yet coyn new terms to obscure truth on purpose to amuse ignorant Readers as if themselves had been Inventors If what now I have said be sufficient in the judgement of wise and learned men to evince a possibility of the transmutation of Air into Water then I need say no more as to Mr. S. in the proof of the Point in hand concerning the Original of Springs from Rain and Snow Nor has he any way to evade it but by calling in Question the Credit of the Relators in matter of Fact as he does with Dr. Heylin And I must confess were it not for the Credit of the Relator and his plain and undeniable circumstances of evidence whereby he makes it out a man would very much doubt of the verity of the last But without all peradventure a Person of that Honour Prudence and Learning would take care that he might not be imposed upon As for the former Story of Cardane and Fromundus which is also rare there is less ground of admiration since something extraordinary not much different has been observed among our selves I my self knew a Sergeant belonging to the Garrison at Hull who in a Diabete did void above 6 Quarts to wit about 12 Pounds of Urine every 24 hours for some weeks together till all his musculous parts were dissolved into Urine and he became a Skeleton the measure whereof did far exceed the weight of his whole Body and of his Meat and Drink while yet he drank not 3 Pints of Drink in a day But But P. 296. Mr. S. tell us He meets with two great difficulties which he cannot get through the solving of which he says will prove ominous to my Thesis The first is how the Rain Water shall sink into the Earth by empty Crevices or Clefts and what is that which must bring the intermediate particles of Water which fall betwixt one Crevice or Cleft and another into the distant Crevices Why where is the difficulty Water is thin in substance and also a heavy body and he grants the Crevices or Clefts are empty what then should hinder its sinking Nothing in the World is more plain than that it does so But it seems by what he says P. 297 that he would have been pleased if I had otherwise expressed it Supposing the Earth to imbibe Rain Water as a Sponge where it meeting with capillary Veins or small Pores not Clefts or Crevices which he says are scarce to be found but among Rocks sinks down by degrees into larger Veins and those into Subterraneal Channels where it makes Springs and this he acknowledges would have been truly said Well if this be true in his Judgement then Mr. S. has given up his cause while he is starting a difficulty Only his distinction of Land-Springs and Quick-Springs saves him for he grants the former but is not satisfied in the latter But I wonder Mr S. should observe no better what he is doing than to taxe me for not saying so when in effect he says nothing but my own words in the 94th Page of my Book where treating of the Sinking of Rain and Snow Water into the Earth I express it thus It finks down by secret passages into the Earth with which the Superficies doth abound which are like unto the small fibres of Veins not discernable by the Eye terminating in the Skin in all the parts of our Bodies and in rocky ground it sinks through the Clefts and by them is conveyed to the Subterraneal Channels more or less deep in the Earth where it is concocted by the Earth and moves as Blood in the Veins Now this I having said and he owning it to be truly said the difficulty is vanished and it becomes an Argument of demonstration for the proof of my Opinion I wonder either at his dis-ingenuity in denying me to have
seek for a true Original of his Springs And yet to speak out neither is this his own but wholly borrowed from Kircherus de Origine Fontium in his Mundus Subterraneus where he discourses at large upon this Subject making no less than five Suppositions in order to his Design of illustrating the Sea to be the Original of Springs although he differs from others about the manner of Conveyance which with submission to better Judgements seem to me to be no other than the begging of the Question affording very little satisfaction to any man that shall well study the Point But to return to Mr. S. He supposes that the Seas are perforated at the bottom or to have holes through which the Water runs into Subterraneal Channels or as Kircherus calls them Rivers which he fancies to be far larger than those we have above the Barth But how knows he this to be so since no man ever saw them De non apparentibus non existentibus eadem est ratio is a good Rule in Reason I cannot believe there are such holes because they do not appear to the eye of Reason In our Lincolnshire and Norfolk Washes where at every Low Water or Ebbe of the Sea the Water goes out and leaves the Land bare for many miles together no such holes were ever seen nor on the Coast of Holland where the Seas are very shallow at Low Water for some leagues together is there the least Symbole of these holes which probably should be if any such thing were in Nature and so ordinary as is implied in this Hypothesis I speak not here of those Extraordinary Subterraneal Gulphs which some Authors tell of and our Seamen confirm to us as that on the Coast of Norway called the Malstrondt and another at the bottom of the Baltick Sea where the Water runs with a mighty stream into the Earth by which some ships they say have been swallowed up nor yet of the Subterraneal Passages that are supposed to be betwixt some Seas in Asia which I mentioned in my Book of the Spaw Again If the Seas were so perforated and that the Water should pass so plentifully through the Holes as it must necessarily do to give being to so many Springs there would be found Suctions in the Sea whereby Ships especially small Vessels would be in constant hazard which we hear not oâ— Moreover it seems to be repugnant to Reason and our Observations at Land for the motion of the Sea in the Constant Circulation of the Tides and also from Wind and Storms would be in danger to stop up the Holes by washing Earth into them and so choak up the Channels and consequently the Springs As we see in the Roads where sometimes we meet with dangerous Holes in the Latches if there happen a Spowt of Rain so that the Water run in a stream but a day or two over those Latches the holes are closed up and they become passâ—ble and firm Another Branch of Mr. S. his Supposition is this That there are Subterraneal Channels or Rivers as Kircherus has it whereby the Salt Water is conveyed to the Hydrophylacia or Cisterns c. This I cannot in his Sense grant because they appear not For never did any that dig in Mines either near the Sea as at Newcastle and Sunderland in the Coal-Pits or farther off at Land as in the Lead Iron or Tin-Mines make any reports of Streams of Salt Water that they meet withal which they should probably do if this Hypothesis were true They tell us indeed of swift Currents of Fresh Water that sometimes they meet with but not a word of Salt Again Those Subterraneal Channels must be supposed to be sometimes 2 or 300 miles long even in a right line nay perhaps so many thousand in great Continents where the middle parts of the Land are at that distance from the Sea and have their durable Springs and how many hundred or thousand miles long must we suppose them to be if these Channels have such crooked turnings and windings as the small Rivolets have that we observe at land I confess this surpasses my understanding how it can be Moreover This supposes multitudes of his Hydrophylacia or Cisterns of Salt Water in every Countrey and those of an immense Magnitude which as yet never any man found and is in my weak Judgement repugnant to Reason for the Earth and Sea compressing on all sides of this Terrestrial Globe should make it a Solid Body and such as cannot admit of such large Chasmata or Vacuities Furthermore Mr. S. supposes This Water is forced up through those long Channels and from the Hydrophylacia to the Springs by the weight of the Air Clouds Winds Storms and Tydes depressing upon the Surface of the Sea That the Air has a weight and may depress a little upon the Sea I shall not question the Torricellian Experiment evinces the Air to depress by its gravity yet how the Winds Storms and Tides should further that Depression I see not but that their motion being oblique should rather hinder it forasmuch as it interrupts the motion of gravity which is evermore in a right line towards the Center But how it is possible that this depression of all these upon the Sea should hold so strong which yet we discern is very inconsiderable as to force the Water through those Subterraneal Channels so many scores hundreds or thousands of miles long and that by such Crooked Meanders as we have reason to suspect I cannot conceive Indeed Mr. S. P. 318 tells of a Pneumatick Engine like the Wine-Coopers Bellows which will by the pressure of the Air force up Wine or Water into other Vessels that are at distance and on higher grounds and he suposes that after the same manner the pressure of these upon the Sea forces the Water through the Channels to the Springs on Hills or Heaths at distance He has also 2 or 3 more Schemes whereby he endeavours to make out the facility of the conveyance but both the other and these are all fetched out of Kircherus in his Mundus Subterraneus where P. 230 and 231 the Reader may see them all To these I shall say they are only such in Mente Machinantis but here is no proof to make them out to be so in Mundi Machina But lastly If the Springs should be supposed notwithstanding all these difficulties and absurdities to proceed from the Sea-Water there would certainly appear some difference perceptible to the senses betwixt that sort of Spring-Water that comes from this cause and those that assuredly himself confessing proceed from Rain when yet we discern there is none at all And how comes it to pass that those Springs especially such as are near the Sea have not after so many thousand years as the World has continued somewhat of saltness in them and that the Channels are not tainted after so long time Indeed Mr. S. tells us that the Sea-Water lays down its saltness in the Channels of the Earth and so the Water runs fresh out of the Springs But did he not also say in P. 54. That the Salt of the Earth is conveyed through the Subterraneal Channels into the Sea and that thence it has its Saltness and its Minera from Fossile Salt Now how the same Channels should convey Salt to the Sea and also drain the Seas Water from its Salt and become Conveyances of contrary Streams I cannot reconcile to my Reason To conclude all I find that this new and positive Thesis of Mr. Simpson is but a borrowed Hypothesis and so far as he has here endeavored to make it out to have no bottom and therefore I must adhere to my Opinion of Rain and Snow Water to be the Original of Springs which still farther I can defend with more Arguments of Demonstration but those I shall wave till I have further occasion I confess this is an abstruse point in Philosophy and difficult to determine upon But difficulty in finding should not discourage us from seeking but rather whet us on to more diligence in searching so as whatever our Opinions are in things of this Nature provided we assent or dissent according to reason and with readiness to submit when our reason shall be convinced we are out of all danger of Heresie though perhaps we may be subject to error I had here thought to have entertained the Kind Reader with some Animadversions upon another small Book of Mr. Simpsons called Zenexton Antipestilentiale where there are many things worth observing and that may merita Comment but this having far exceeded what at first I intended I shall respit it till a further provocation being also desirous to continue on the defensive hand and so at present I bid Farewel From my House at York May the 28th 1669. FINIS
be liked being altogether novel and precarious His Candor and Ingenuity less Defamation being the main Topick of all his Discourses I wish for his own sake his Divinity may be better for I have seldom seen any one so Sceptical in Reason but the same has been Heterodox if not Heretical in Religion My Lord Cook says there are two things that marres many a Lawyer to wit Praepostera Lectio praepropera Praxis Give me leave to apply it to Physicians and particularly to this my Antagonist It does appear he fell among ill Books and read unwholsome Authors in Physick or else he began at the wrong end reading the Therapeutick part before he understood Physiology and Pathology otherwise his parts well laid would have rendred him far more useful in his Country than now he is likely to be as for the later viz. Praepropera Praxis he is at leisure enough for that save only in his Laboratory I confess I never saw any man so big with himself that like the Frog in the Fable he is ready to burst either through Pride or Envy if I could now help with a piece of good Midwifery and bring him to a safe Delivery he would have great cause to thank me But as to his Book more expresly thus In the beginning he stiffly denies all the Principles of the Spaw which I mentioned save Alome and disputes against me with Dunghil Language such as the Schools know not and all ingenuos men abhor and yet would you think it before he has done he yields them all to be there viz. Iron P. 39. and P. 44. and 45. So Vitriol P. 359. And Nitre P. 360. and 364. where he is put to a sore pinch to fumble at Expressions on purpose to blind some capacities from discovering his Contradictions To say no more than truth I never met with any Author so unstable in his Writings even to say and unsay as this my Antagonist which I shall point at as I pass along Then he goes on to tell what Diseases the Spaw cures and what not wherein he is altogether Mimical being wholly confined to what I have said in my Book or what in Reason may follow therefrom for otherwise I am assured he is a meer stranger to it almost as he that never saw it to which yet I can adde some eminent Cures that I have not already expressed He next passes on to treat of the Causes of several Diseases which he refers to some Fault in his Five Digestions I wonder he did not make 50. This Notion is purely Helmonts though he curtails his number of which he has a peculiar Tract called Sextuplex Digestio alimenti humani P. 166. But for want of the right understanding of Anatomy Sir S. grosly mistakes which our Modern Authors since the happy Discovery of the Circulation of the Blood and some Vessels lately found out in the Contexture of the Parts by some of our own ingenious Countreymen have more intelligently proposed In his Discourse about the Original of Hot Springs he determines the heat to proceed from a Mine of Vive Calx which Notion he grounds upon a Relation that I made in my Book of a most Ingenuous Observation of a Noble Lord of this Kingdome near the City Bathe though he has not so much ingenuity as to own it To say what I find he is resolved to do me no right Where he undervalues the Rational Method of Physick and extols his own Medicines as more Noble and Successful I shall joyn issue with him in weighing his Arguments and examining his Medicines which he himself has described together with some matters of Fact as they relate to him Here I would not be thought as if I were an Enemy to the Chymical Way or those that are Learned Professors thereof I am serious I account it a singular Additament and Ornament to the Noble Art of Physick and the most useful Part of Experimental Philosophy and such as the Old Princes in Physick would have rejoyced to have known And I do sincerely love and honour those that imploy their Talents in a genuine preparation of wholsom Medicines out of the Minerals and Metals and I have not been idle altogether in those Operations my self having sometimes had a Laboratory of my own wherein a very Learned Gentleman of this Kingdom and my self did imploy some time and money and of late I have not been wanting to make several Experiments out of the Minerals of this Spaw as I have mentioned in several places of my Book though not with such Noyse and Cracks Besides in my Practice near 30 years wherein on this sudden I can scarce think on any Disease which has not been under my Cure I have not been wanting to use them according as I saw cause wherein what my success has been I chuse rather to let my Countrey report only this I may with modesty affirm it has been like others of my Faculty And I must also declare that what ever my success has been I must rather ascribe it to the Blessing of God upon a Rational Method than Chymical Preparations But why any that addict themselves to that Study should go about to make Chymistry an Art of its own kind or like a Viperous Brat to eat through the Bowels of its Dam and so to cry down that wholsome Method and those Medicines that in the hands of Artists have in all Ages proved successful for the good of Mankind I see no reason in the world And I am sure there is no cause why this Man should so magnifie his own Preparations in comparison of others as I shall with satisfaction have occasion to make out anon Touching his Project for an Universal Character which a man would wonder how he should bring into this Discourse save that he would be a Sir Positive-At-all He has all his hints from a very Reverend Person of this Nation who before his Book on that Subject came out was frequently free in discourse concerning the thing and had given out several Essays As to his Discourse about the Constitutive Principles of all Concretes which he fetches from Helmont quarrelling at the Three Ordinary Principles of the Chymists to wit Sal Sulphur and Mercury and the Five of others he resolves all into Water which certainly is a Mixt Body and consists of the Four Elements And I pray may not that again be easily resolved into nothing and so become an Argument to prove the Creation In his Appendix concerning the Original of Springs He is most disingenuous and shews himself to be a man that can blush at nothing pretending to have answered all the Arguments in my Book which I have urged for Rain and Snow Water to be the Original of Springs when he leaps over no less than three or four whereon the stress of the Opinion does most lie and only touches upon something that I brought in by way of Illustration not of Proof I am ashamed that any man that
to that of Iron Copper and Vitrielum album Why then does he enquire which of the two I meant since possibly I might mean the third or some other Really here is an ill beginning Tiâ—uâ—are in Vestibule malum omen To stumble at the Threshold is a sign of ill luck Did not Mr. S. say P. 1. he had seen my Book I wonder then how he could over-look what I say P. 10. since here is the Cardâ— Controversiae the state of his quarrel turns upon this hinge My words are these I take it to be the Iron Mineral with a Touch of the Vitriol Or if you please Ferrum Vitriolatum or Vitriolum Ferrugineum Here I desire the Reader to take notice that he does frequently leave out my words or matter wherein the main scope of my business consists on purpose to make himself Elbow-room to abuse me Although I intend not hereby as if I meant this Vitriol in the Spaw to be made out of Iron for what have we to do with factitious Vitriol But this is a natural Vitriol generated in the Veins of the Earth through which the Spring runs which has by its â—â—idity or Esurine Salt actuated the Waters which thereby is enabled to corrode a Vein of Iron which is there also and likewise some other Minerals of which more anon Now this Water thus impregnated with a Vitrioline Odour or Vapour since it has no Emetick or Vomiting Quality joyned with it I account it to be of the Nature of that which is made out of Iron not of Copper and therefore I called it Vitriolum Ferrugineum But I do affirm that common Spring-Water it self is a Menstruum proper enough to take in any of the Minerals we are treating of and will not fail to do it if they lie in its way although if it meet with any Acid Salt as this is of Vitriol it will do it the more freely And this a grees with that which Paracelsus himself has said provided the Minerals or Metals be not come to Maturity Lib. 3. de Natur. Aquis cap. de Aq. Gustabilibus Yea and Mr. S. himself confesses it P. 59. Number 10 11 and 12. Dr. Jordane asserts the same concerning Simple Waters that by reason of their tenuity they may imbibe either Spirit or Juice or Tinctures from Metals before their Consolidation Nat. Baths cap. 14 Yea and Kircherus who in his Mundus Subterraneus treats at large of this Subject accounts Simple Spring Water a Menstruum fit enough to imbibe a Mineral or Metal for he mentions not any Primum Ens or other Mineral Acidity I say by its Esurine Salt it more freely corrodes the Iron and carries it in gremio out with it which is the more easily done because the Iron is not here a perfect Solid Metal but in solutis principiis and in some tendency to it being yet of the same nature with Iron And this Vitriol is not so properly said to be made by an Esurine Salt as to have an Esurine Salt or Spirit in it self And this does agree with the general Suffrage of all Learned Writers as well Chymists as others as Libavius in his Syntag. Geber Caesalpinus Dr. Jordan and not only Vitriol but Nitre also they say dissolved in Water will enable it to corrode Metals and to this also consents Fallopius cap. 7. de Thermal Aq. This being premised that Supposition of Vitriol of Copper to be dissolved in the Water is not to be supposed and what follows thereon is altogether impertinent However B. 3. he says This being granted in FAVOUR of his Mineral Ingredients or Principles c. Iron will be found impertinent and insignificant as to the body of it Sir Keep your Favours for others Timeo Danaos etiam dona ferentes I look for none of your Favours nor need them I suspect your very mercies are cruel what I would have in this Dispute I shall by and by force you to grant me and have no cause to return you any thanks But whereas he says Iron is not here in its body What would Sir S. have A Horseshooe Naile It is not here indeed to be found nor will 100 Gallons of the Water afford so much Iron as to make one But here is a palpable Powder which when a little Gall is put into the Water by which it turns black which Colour it takes from the Vitriol there will settle after some hours upon the agitation of the Vessel a black Powder near a Dram in a Gallon which by powring the Water gently from it per inclinationem will be found in the bottom which if you dry in the Sun or over the Fire has a Stiptick or drying taste like Crocus Martis and being taken inwardly in any form whatsoever doth tinge the Excrements with a blackish Colour as all our preparations out of Iron do Besides if this Water be carried abroad to York or Hull which is 30 mile off there will be found in the Vessel a yellowish Sediment according to the quantity of Water which being dried has the same taste with Crocus Martis or prepared Steel and surpassing it in vertue and efficacy and this separation or precipitation of this Metalline Substance is furthered by Agitation in the Carriage especially if in Oaken Vessels although I have also observed the same in Glasse Bottles which were carried abroad But Mr. S. objects as he thinks strongly against these two Minerals Iron and Vitriol to be there imbibed because says he P. 3. The Esurine Salt which goes to the dissolving of Vitriol of what sort soever and he supposes Copper is thereby terminated in its action and though the Water of the Spring so impregnated should afterwards meet with a Vein of Iron yet it can take nothing thence being already satiated and having lost its sting Of Ens Primum To this I reply The Esurine Salt is that which P. 5. he calls Ens Primum out of Helmont which he says gives the Medicinal Vertue to Vitriol I do not at all like the use of that Name Ens Primum in this sense which the Old Philosophers that wanted better light gave to some thing of a higher Nature even to God himself from whom doubtless both Vitriol and all Minerals Metals and Vegetables have received whatever Medicinal Vertue they have in them for it is he that created Medicine out of the Earth Secondly This is Petitio Principii to suppose such a thing to impregnate this Water where we can without any Hypothesis at all directly point at the Water it self as a proper Menstruum as I have made out already and if that will not serve then here is the Esurine Spirit of Vitriol of sufficient Efficacy in the Judgement of Reason to do the work we expect and indeed find to be done and this agrees also with what Helmont himself says in his fourth Paradox where he says That which is volatile viz. a Spirit whether is be Concrete or Liquid may corrode other Mineral Bodies
to make it appear in the form of a Liquor Why I 'l tell him what will do it besides the Alkabest of the Chymists Vitriol imbibed at the first does by its Esurine Salt make the Water corrosive and fit to take in that or any other Mineral that is in its way and so will Nitre as I made out before or Aloâ—e If it will please him I'â— refer him to his Grand Master Paracelsus De Nâ—tur Aqâ—is lib. 3. cap. de Aquis Gustatilibâ—â—s whâ—â—â—â—â—ting of Acide Waters Harâ—â—◠〈…〉 â—â—quit ex â—â—solutione 〈…〉 maturitatem 〈…〉 produced by the 〈…〉 before they come to 〈…〉 By which he hints as if simpl◠〈…〉 alone were â—â—â—â—ent to imbibe a Metal as Iroâ—â— while it has not attained to iâ—perfection which is the case of the Trâ—â—â— Scarboâ—â—gh â—s I shall have occasion to point out afterwards And presently after Pâ—â—â—câ—isus adds Interdum ex Vitriâ—â—â— Aluâ—â—nâ— hujus-modi Aquae promanant viz. Sometimes these Waters come from Vitâ—â—ol and Alome And again I find him to the same purpose De Natur. Baln cap. de Thermis treating of Natural Baths Quod sunt resoluta Minera ex corporâ— eo quod simile est Aluminis Vitrioto Sali tamenid non est to wit they are resolved out of that Body which is like unto Alome Vitriol and Salt and yet they are not that As if he would say they are not perfectly Alome Vitriol and Salt but onely initially not instatu perfectione but in Embrione in fieri not in fâ—â—to and this is the case of these Minerals in this Spaw-Water they are but iâ— sâ—lutis principliâ—e and in their Concrete Jâ—â—â—â— and not perfect Minerals or Metals And yet Paâ—acelsus adds that whatsoever Vertue those Baâ—hs had they were to be judged of according to the propdâ—â—es of those Simples Ita Bâ—â—gâ—â—â— ipâ—arâ—â— Virtuâ—â—s secâ—â—duâ—â— horâ—m triâ—â— simplicium â—â—â—â—tias And so may I say â—onâ—erning these Waters of the Spaâ—â— they have the Veâ—â—ned of all those Minerals we have mentioâ—â—d to be in them From what has been said I suppose it will follow that ouâ— Foundation as to these two Minerals Iron and Vâ—trâ—â—l stands sure and the Building 〈◊〉 liâ—â—ly to suffer by such Vapour that canâ—â—â—ther be hot or cold say and unsay as may best suit a present Design 〈◊〉 his second Section P. 4. he says The Doctor undertakes to discourse of Vitriol not such as he had seen but such as he saith Learned Writers name viz. 3 sorts Roman Vitriol or Copperas which two I do not understand to be Synonima's the second Cyprian and the third Ligurian c. He seems to envy that I discourse about Vitriel as if it were a Prerogative of the Pseudochymists and not to be undertaken by me as if I knew not Vitriol as well as himself and have not as much liberty to treat of it as He. Not will he give me leave to cite my Authors that from their own Knowledge and Autopsy discourse of Vitriol I speak of that which is natural such as this at Scarbrough for my own part I have not such a conceit of my self as he has as that I should impose in this thing my own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as sufficient Authority and therefore I cite my Authors as need is He quarrels that I call it Roman Vitriol or Copperas whereas I am warranted by good Authors Weckerus in his Antid spec lib. 1. says That which the Italians call Victriolo the Spaniaras call Copparofa So Adrianus Tol. in Stocker lib. 1. cap. 9. Vitriolum simpliciter inquit aut Vitriolum Romanum nihil aliud est quam Copparosa As for the Romas it s nothing but Natural Vitriol brought for the most part out of Cyprus or Germany which they dissolve and cast into forms to which they add some pleasant Colour usually of Blew which yet diminishes much of its efficacy Of the Vapors of Minerals In his third Section P. 6. He proceeds to examine the four wayes whereby I say Water may imbibe the Nature and Vertue of a Mineral or Metal And the first was by receiving its Vapour Thus Water standing some while in a Brass or Iron Vessel will taste of the Brasse or Iron Here he cavils at the word Vapour as improper which to me does imply that he is little versed in any solid Authors that treat of this Subject It 's needless to spend time to prove to him that the best Writers do rather chuse to express their sense of the imbibition of the Vapours of Minerals than Odors which he rather espouses Fallopius in Ther. Aqu. cap. 8. uses the term Vapour above 40 times in the sense I am speaking of even in one leaf side P. 214 So Kircher lib. 5. de Virt. Aqu. cap. 3. reckons this as one way whereby a Water imbibes Minerals and Metals and says Vitriol is thus imbibed in its Vapour Whence is this Oâ—â—r but from the Offluâ—ium of minute parts out of the odorable body to the Sensorium and what is that but a Vapour I observe P. 46. he allows an Aporrhaea â—â—â—eralis which word either he understands not or must not deny the word Vâ—â—â—ur But to go on he says P. 6. That no Metallick body doth or can give a Vapour to a simple Elementary Water as long as the Water is Homogeneal in its parts I answer This is quite from the point in hand we are not treating here of Simple Elementary Water but of ordinary Water which is neither so Simple nor Elementary ☞ But where is W. S. his Philosophy he calls it Simple and Elemantary and yet says as long as it 's Homogeneal as if Water could be Simple and Elementary and not Homogeneal Really the very Freshmen do not reason at this rate What A BATCHELOVR OF ARTS and reason thâ—â—â— I must let you know in charity to your Degree that you never saw Simple Elementary Water not ever shall while you breath and that it s not indeed capable of receiving a Vapor or Odor from any Mineral or Metal Galen will tell you 8. de placit Hypoc that it is Minima pars â—jus cujus est Elementum quae lynceis cujusvis oculis non est obvia and yet the same Galen will tell you that Elementum per tâ—tum alterabile est lib. de Constit Art Med. Reconcile these Riddâ—es if you can But if he means that no Metallick Body can give a Vapor or Odor or Sapor I matter not which to Spring Water it 's a shrewd Argument he has not much conversed with Ladies in his Practice of Physick whose accurate Tastes are wont frequently to dis-relish their Water if it has stood but a while in a Vessel of Brass or Iron especially if it be at all warm And for that which he says concerning Lâ—ad that if pure Spring Water were boiled a whole Age in it it will not contract any Saturnine Impression from it Fallopius is quite of another Opinion severely declaring against those Waters that have
imbibed Lead least the Nature of the Lead be converted in Litharge or some such thing and so kill a Man and therefore several good Authors particularly Paulus Zachias in Quest Med. Legal forbids to keep Water in Leaden Cisterns because its apt to contract an Impression which disposes the Body to Dysenteries especially such as are Consumptive whose Bodies are subject to Colliquation And whereas he says That Broths and other Liquors are boiled in Iron Copper or Brass Vessels without the least taste of any of the Metals I cannot but wonder to find this assertion it appears he is neither Vir emunctae naris nor exquisiti palati His frequent Contradictions do evince that he is weak in his Memory or Intellect and here I am afraid he has lost two of his Senses Paracelsus was of another mind lib. 3. de Natural Aquis cap. 13. Videmus Aquam in Cupreo vase stantem Cupri saporem asciscere We see says he if Water stand but a while in a Copper Vessel it will taste of Copper and much more certainly if it be boiled in it I am informed by some Persons of undoubted integrity on their own knowledge of some Carps which were taken out of Ponds newly drained these being put with Fresh Water into a Copper Brewing Vessel to be preserved but for one Night they were all found dead in the Morning which must certainly proceed from the Vapors of the Copper which here was communicated to the Cold Water He says further That all compact Metalline Bodies must have proper and peculiar Menstruums to unlock them if any Medicinal Arcanum be thence expected Why I can assure him upon trial that the filings of Steel suppose a Pound set to infuse in a Quart of clear Spring Water for a few dayes the Water upon Evaporation afforded a clear Salt of greenish colour which I suppose he cannot deny to have a Medicinal Vertue As for what he says concerning the boiling of Gold in broth for those that are in Consumptions to make it more cordial and nourishing I think with him 't is in vain since Gold and Silver are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason of the compactness of their Bodies they cannot he turned into our Nature so as to nourish And I judge it to be a far better Cordial in the Purse than in the Stomach Of the Vapor of Vitriol That Vitriol may dissolve in Water he says he denies not but that it should give a Vapor he understands not To make a Body resolve it self into Vapors or minute parts of like nature with the whole is required either an intrinsick or extrinsick heat and he apprehends not which way so ever it be done that yet the Carcase of Vitriol should remain P. 7. By this it appears he is a stranger to Scarb. Spaw or else as we have observed even now he has lost one of his Senses that he cannot smell the Vitrioline Vapors thereof there being nothing more ordinary than to hear those that come there at the very first to observe it to smell like Ink. Fallopius tells him that Vitrioline Waters may be discerned by their smell as well as by their taste De Therm Aq. cap. 9. ☞ Aqua chalcanthosa cognoscitur gustu olfactu And so says Kircher too in the place before cited Linguam acredine quadam olfactum vero putentissima mephiti percellunt So again cap. de Thermis Vix acidulae reperiuntur quae ex Vitriolo aliquid non participent non quidem quoad corum esse sensibile sed quoad spirituosam vaporosamque substantiam quae subtiliter perfecte tinguntur If he will but lay his Nose to his Ink-Bottle which I find had Vitriol enough in 't he may easily discern a Vitrioline Vapor while yet upon Evaporation the substance or Carcass of the Vitriol would be found in it And so it is with the Water of this Spring which by the intrinsick heat of the Earth imparted to the Water it doth imbibe more freely And that this may be done by the heat of the Earth alone is agreeable to the Opinion of Aristotle lib. 2. Metor cap. 3. as also of Empedocles as Seneca reports lib. 3. Nat. Quest also of Vitruvius in his Eighth Book and of Fallopius De Therm Aq. cap. 4. Besides that he himself is forced to own it P. 59. where he admires at the Chymistry of Nature which by its own proper Menstruums extracts the Essential innate Vertues of Mineral Glebes and that by intrinsick invisible fire in the digesting Vessels of the Earth Of the the Vapor of Iron But to proceed in P. 8. as he has denied Vitriol to communicate its Vapor to Water which I have sufficiently proved and do refer to the judgement of the Intelligent Reader So he says Iron cannot give it self by a Vapor to the Water because it is a Compact Body for no Solid Body is at all apt to Vapor To this I have answered in part already and shall now further adde The Iron that is imbibed in this Spring of which we discourse is not a Solid or Compact Body of Iron but like an ordinary Earth to look on when it is newly digged or when through the Surges of the Spring Tides in storms it falls from the Cliffe yet it is so strongly impregnated with the Concrete Juice of Iron ☞ that in a short time it turns through the heat of the Sun to an Iron Stone of which within Six score Paces of the Spaw there is as much fallen from the Cliffe as would load four or five Carts some of which I have put into a Smiths Forge where I saw it fusible and melt in the Fire This I have shewn to several Physitians who know it to be true besides that there are Thousands of Gentlemen that have observed it among which one Mr. William Cotton who is Overseer of the Iron Mines in the Edge of Derbyshire was present when Mr Simpson was at Scarbrough and affirmed it to be Iron and that he would undertake to make Solid Iron out of it Now this Earth having the Spring passing through it may very easily be supposed to impart something of its Mineral Essence as also of its Vapor to the Spring If he will but consult profound Kircher he 'l tell him that Iron yields a Vapor to the purpose Observantur says he lib. 10. cap. 10. P. â—19 in fornacibus in quibus ferrum in massâ—s componetur vapores quidam a materia ferrea exhalantes qui in lanuginem parietibus tectis Officina adharentem convertuntur to wit in the Iron works where it is smelted Vapours arise out of the Iron which turn into a Downyness which cleaves to the Walls and Roofs of the House He also says that of all Metals Iron sends out the most fetid smell But to return to Mr. Simpson's Objection wherein he says That Iron or other Metals being Solid Bodies are not at all apt to send forth a Vapor and yet keep their
with me in judging by this Token De Natur. Baln Tract 3. c. 9. Thermae nonnullae sunt quae acetositatem dulcedinem babent Hae si ex nativa constitutione tales sunt ex vitriolo oriuntur Id enim si ex prima sua materia resolvitur acetosas aquas profert To wit There are some sort of Baths or Waters that have an Acidity and Sweetness in them I suppose he means a pleasant Acidity these if from their Natural Constitution they are so do arise from Vitriol for if it happen to be resolved from its first mater in Waters it makes them to become Acide Vnde Vitrioli virtutes illis assignandae sunt and therefore says he the properties of Vitriol are to be ascribed to the Waters P. 189. So Fallopius counts the Acidity to be a sufficient token of the imbibition of Vitriol De Therm Aq. cap. 7. p. 217. who treating of the Spaw in Germany and that at Rome concerning which I have met with several Gentlemen speaking That they are not so Acid as this at Scarbrough He says Arbitror eas esse acidas quia habeant in se Chalcanthum purissimum therefore I think them Acid because they have pure Vitriol in them Another token of Vitriol is that Aporrhaea Mineralis or Vitrioline Vapor which any one of an indifferent smell may observe which is somewhat like that of Ink though more pure A third Argument is that deep Tincture that the Water takes from Gall more than any other I have seen or read of which cannot come from the Alome notwithstanding Mr. Simpson's perswasion as I shall evince in its due place nor any other of the Minerals And lastly There is in this Cliffe within Six score Paces of the Spring a Vitrioline Salt which sweats out of the Cliffe of Dark Yellow Colour very sharp to the Taste even far beyond Nitre or Alome which affords good ground of probability that it is in the Spring Iron in Scarbr Spaw Touching Iron it is me think plain that here it is in its Body which is precipitated to the bottom of the Vessel after it has stood some hours tinctured with Gall there being in every Gallon near a Dram when the Water is evaporated which being calcined yields a scoria like Iron and of Reddish Colour as I shall have occasion to make out by and by Besides that there is a Body of the like Nature and Vertue that falls to the bottom of the Vessels wherein this Water is carried abroad into the Countrey the like to which falls to the bottom of the Vessel wherein the Water is set upon the Fire for Evaporation upon the first approach of the hear Again The Blackish Colour which is imparted to the Excrements of those that drink of these Waters denotes Iron it being peculiar to all the preparations of Iron which we have occasions to use And lastly The Cliffe out of which this Spring flows is plainly Iron which though at the first when it falls it be like ordinary Earth yet at length by the weather it becomes hard as Iron and heavy and is fusible in the Fire To all these I might adde the singular Vertues which are evident in the Water for Hypocondriack Diseases the Stone and advancing the Tone of the Stomach both in point of Appetite and Digestion do sufficiently make out the presence of them both Thus much may suffice to be said concerning the Exceptions made by Mr. S. against the first way I mentioned whereby a Water might imbibe the Vapors of Minerals The second is when some of their Juice is dissolved in the Water and that is while the Minerals are young or in solutis principiis This he passes over Is it not kindness I can please him in any thing Of the Corrosion of the Substance of Metals But he quarrels at my third way and that is by corrosion of the substances of the Minerals mentioned by Galen lib. 1. de Simpl. Med. fac cap ult and this I said is done by the help of the Concrete Juices which extract and corrode Mineral substances Here we find a Galenical way says W. S. of Selution it is out of their road to discourse of these Mineral Solutions for want of Chymical Experiments which they are not at leasure to take notice of Ay! this is the Choak-Pear the very Name of Galen is a Bugbear to W. S. I find him ever running into a rage where I had occasion to name him This is that which frets him that the Galenists meddle with these Notions and I confess I am not at very great leasure now to trouble myself with them save that I am willing to step out of my Road to curb the Cracks of a Thraso Nor is there any Contradiction in what I say in this Assertion viz. That the Concrete Juices corrode and extract Mineral and Metallick Substances For the Concrete Juice of Vitriol which is of a Corrosive property being imbibed in a Spring Water will corrode other Minerals or Metals so says Helmont himself in the place before cited that it passes through as Iron and Alome whose Bodies are firmer especially before Consolidation which is the case of Iron here as now I made out and also of the Alome for the Solvent and Agent is Vitriol the Soluble and Patient is Iron And in this Water upon Evaporation or otherwise as I have newly made out we have the very Substance of Minerals and Metals And to this agrees Fallopius who was Chymist enough de Mâ—tal P. 216. who treating de Balneo Aponitano and that which is at Coâ—sena says In istis Aquis dispersa sunt ramenta minimae particulae lapidis In those Waters are dispersed some Shreds and small Particles of Stone and afterwards in the same Chapter he gives an account how it comes to pass that they imbibe Metals viz. Quia non sunt adeo dura solida ut in hac terrae superficie viz. because they are not so hard and solid within the Earth as they are upon the Superficies And thus also say Galen Vitruvius and Livius In P. 13. he repeats what he said before of his Esurine Salt or Ens Primum P. 3. and how that it cannot imbibe any more Minerals than one which I have there with good reason exploded and sufficiently confuted And these will appear much more frivolous when I shall by and by discover him confessing that This very Water at Scarbrough has imbibed four Minerals or Metals viz. Vitriol Iron Alome and Nitre But he frets at the Example I mention concerning Aquafortis which corrodes the substance of a Metal put into it and converts it to its own nature whereby it is become all liquid the solid Metal being become fluid as its Menstruum This Example does sufficiently illustrate what I am designing it for notwithstanding the Metal upon the Evaporation of the Menstruum may be found in the bottom A thing I no more doubted of then I do the residence of the
Minerals of this Spaw upon the Evaporation of the Water In P. 15. he proceeds to examine the fourth way Minerals joyned to Water by Confusion whereby I say a Water may imbibe the Nature and Vertue of a Mineral or Metal and that is by Confusion changing the Substance of the Mineral into Water and this I say in my Book is when the Mineral is of so liquable a Nature as that 't is capable of being converted into Water ☞ Here W. S. is extreamly severe and abusive calling it a Rustical Notion with a parcel of base language against me unbecoming a Scholar or a Sober Man Indeed in my Second Impression I had thought to have left out this because of its near coincidence with the former but I was out-run by the Printer having been abroad some dayes Nevertheless I can defend it to be agreeable to reason and the expressions of the Learned It 's plain that a Mineral that is dissoluble in Water as Vitriol Nitre Salt may be so sully taken into the Water as that the Water and Mineral are confusedly joyned together every drop of the Water having something of the Mineral Particles and every Particle of them mixed with the Water And thus any sort of Mineral Earth dissolved in Water may be said to be confusedly joyned to it so as one cannot see to the bottom though with standing a while or filtration or evaporation they may be separated And thus a little Gall put into this Spaw Water makes it become confused while yet the Minerals are in it Proved by Authority of Learned Writers Let me now produce the Authority of Learned Writers Fallopius treating of this Subject of Water taking in Metals and Minerals mentions several wayes and one is by Confusion De Therm Aq. cap. 7. p. 212. His words are these ☞ Alter vero est quod quaedam Aquae sunt quae habent quidem Metalla suscepta pariter in Terrae concavitatibus inter fluendum tamen Metalla illa non sunt cum Aquis istis bene commixta sed sunt potius cum Aquis CONFUSA To wit Another way is that there are some Waters which have in them Metals which they have taken in as they pass in the Cavities of the Earth yet those Metals are not well mixed with those Waters but are rather CONFVSED with the Waters then he goes on Aquas autem quae hoc modo non vere mixta sed CONFUSA habent in se Metalla plures habemus inter alias est Aponitana c. And we have many Waters which after this manner have not the Minerals properly mixed but CONFVSED in them of which sort is that which he calls Aqua Aponitana which he says is of great use and esteem and has been so of old and in the same Page Secundus igitur mixtionis modus est quando Metalla non vere commiscentur sed CONFUNDUNTUR cum Aquae substantia To wit The second way says he whereby a Water takes in a Metal is when the Metals are not properly and truly mixed but CONFOVNDED with the Substance of the Water And this way he interprets to be when the Substance of the Metal falls to the bottom of the Vessel wherein the Water is of it self and without any Art Thus the Aqua Aponitana has imbibed Lime Stone and that of Corsena he says has shreds of Marble Yea and the profound Kircherus himself in his Mundus Subter P. 347. speaks to the same purpose and almost in the same words making this one way whereby a Water Spring may take in a Mineral or Metal Nonnullae Aquae medicatae sant quae non perfecta sed CONFUSA mixtura constituuntur id est quae sensibilibus variorum Mineratium corpusculis scatent nullo negorio ab eis separaeri possunt And a little after Sunt quâ—dam Aquae quae partim vera rerum quas continent mixtura partim confusa constant And again Hoc pacto mâ—ltae sunt thermae quae calcarium lapidem a se separant utpoâ—e CONFUSANEA quadam ratione lis iâ—diâ—um And after the very same manner has this Water of Scarbrough imbibed Iron which either by a little Gall or Carriage at distance will fall to the bottom while yet the rest will require Evaporation to separate them from the Water except the Vitrioline Spirits which are so volatile that they soon fly away After the same manner does Dr. Jordan a Learned Chymist discourse in his Natural Baths I can also confirm the use of this term out of Galen if my Antagonist can have patience to hear his Name Lib. 1. de Elem. ad finem where treating of the Four Elements meeting in every Mixt Body Ea tota per se CONFUNDI suis corum substantiis misceri docet He says They are all CONFOVNDED and mixed with one anothers substances which he illustrates by the similitude of the mixture of Wine and Water both whose parts are so confusedly broken into Minute Particles as that there is a mutual action and passion and participation of the qualities of each other By this time I doubt not the Reader sees the weakness of the Young Man in this particular wherein he lays so much stress and how unfit he is to be Judge in matters of this Nature who is so great a stranger to the expressions of Learned Writers and sound reason A severe Censure And because speaking of the solution of Nitre and Salt in Water I said they are of so liquable a Nature as that they are capable of being converted into Water as if they were nothing but Water he would inferr P. 16. That therefore I will have them to be perfectly turned into Water it self Can any man think that I am so void of sense as to intend any such thing however 't is enough for him to fall upon me with base and bitter invectives The Reader may judge my purpose was to speak in all things to Vulgar Capacities and therefore I was necessarily to be plain and to refer them in this thing which is not so material rather to the external senses and outward appearance than to the intrinsick nature of the thing it self I endeavor that I may not return any railing accusation yet cannot but admire at the malitious spirit of the man ☞ I find himself using the very same expression concerning Iron and other Metals which by force of fire become liquid and fluid in the Crucible like Water P. 22. Does not he think that no man that is short of a mad man would believe that he intends the Metals are turned into Water And so when there he says again The Metals flow together with it by the actuation of their Mercurial part as if it were nothing but Mercury does it follow that he intends it is perfectly turned into Mercury Why should Sir S. cavil at my expression and infer that from it which the most ordinary capacity cannot but take in a right sense when he himself
are come from the Water after Evaporation That though they do calcine Whitish yet there are here and there Laminea ferrea or Flakes of Iron interspersed among the Calcined Powder broad and thin and like those that fly off from Iron while under the Smiths Hammer From all which it does plainly appear that here is both Iron and Vitriol notwithstanding this Man's Denials hitherto ☞ I shall for the determining this Dispute about the Minerals calcining White produce but one Argument more which to him is Argumentum ad hominem I sent for 10 Gallons of the sweet Spaw at Knaresbrough which by his own Confession P. 136 and 137. has imbibed a Vitriol of the Minera of Iron This Water I evaporated away having first cleared it from all fabulous earthly mixture what remained in the bottom I put into a Crucible and calcined it and it did not differ from the Colour of the Scarbrough Minerals nor had it any Colcotar of Vitriol or Crocus of Iron nor any such Laminae as those other afforded I weighed the Powder after Calcination which was about a Dram and an half Then I dissolv'd it in a little Spring Water that it might imbibe what Salt it had in it which upon Evaporation I found to be White and not above 17 Grains in Weight Where by the way let me observe to the Reader that Three Pints of the Spaw at Scarbrough has imbibed more of the Mineral and Metalline Juices than Ten Gallons of that of Knaresbrough and hence it is that it is far more operative and yet every whit as pleasant to the Palate and as safe to be drunk Now that which I infer from hence is that since Mr. Sympson grants that this has Vitriol and Iron and yet calcines White the other may as well have them notwithstanding it doth calcine White and so his main Argument is altogether invalid I have been longer in this Argument than at first I intended because this is his main Bulwark which I thought fit to level to the ground whereby I think it appears to the Intelligent Reader that it had but a Sandy Foundation and all the noise we have from it was but as the blurt of a Paper-Gun charged with White Powder Mr. S his contradiction Well! Notwithstanding all this Mr. S. concludes the Section Thus we discard these two Minerals of his Spaw viz. Vitriol and Iron as to the Body of them ☞ To which I reply I have one Argumentum ad hominem still left If I point out Mr. S. CONTRADICTING himself in this Assertion and confessing both these Minerals to be there then I hope the Reader will be satisfied that what I affirm'd in my Book concerning them is true and all this ill language ought to have been spared Habemus reum confitentem Turn to P. 39. his words are Nor is this variation of Colour by Galls a sufficient argument of the presence of the Minera of Iron He confesses Iron although I do not deny it to be an Ingredient Now turn to P. 44. where he grant that there is a Solution of the Minera of Iron in this Spaw his words are For this Mineral Acidity is the very Solvent in the Water which pervading a Minera of Iron makes a slight solution of it and being equally contempered together makes up the Body of the Spaw c. So concerning Vitriol P. 359. where he says â—nd Vitriol That he might inform himself more satisfactorily of the true Constituent parts of the Water at Scarbrough he ☜ sent for 3 Gallons and 3 Pintes which he let stand a while to settle whose first precipitation was a Reddish Sediment from which I filter'd the Water says he and this dried in the Sun proved to be a Red Earth or kind of Ochre or rather Terra Vitrioli By this time the Reader discerns the folly of the YOVNG GENTLEMAN and the injustice of his quarrel against me thus farr I suppose wherever I find him disputing any more as I pass against these two Minerals I may spare to rehearse what has already been said by me to prove them unless his Expressions do administer new matter Of the properties of Vitriol P. 20. The Doctor proceeds to tell us the Nature and Vertues of these Minerals First Of Vitriol he says 't is eminently hot of a biting and adust quality c. according to the account he receives from Galen Dioscorides Mr S. impatient to hear of Galen should c. c. enough to tire one in the reading c. but methinks the Doctors long experience in re medica should e'r this have furnisht him with plenty of Observations of the Worth and Vertue of so Noble a Mineral Would not a little more modesty well become this Young Man than thus to fly in my Face without a Cause I have already declared my design in writing that Book was not to make long Discourses either Philosophical or Medicinal since it would not have suited Vulgar Readers to whom I was to write and therefore it would have been abs re to have discoursed concerning the Analytical parts of Vitriol or any other of the Materials found in the Water or their preparations He cannot but think my experience in re medica might minister to me some Observations concerning the Nature of them all but I thought it most proper briefly as I could to give the sence of our Principal Authors that treat of them and particularly of Vitriol as Galen Dioscorides Serapio c. whom he has not the patience to hear named I know Paracelsus in many places of his Works extolls it to the Stars and counts all the Medicines in the World in ordinary use trifles in comparison of it but such rancor does he shew in all his Writings where he treats of it that I did not think it worth the while to trouble the Reader with what he says nor to put him in the same Rank with those Princes in Physick that I here mention especially since I did in that short rehearsal of its qualities comprise all the eminent properties of Natural Vitriol concerning which I was to speak referring the Learned Readers to the Authors themselves concerning their further satisfaction Yet because I will please Mr. Simpson ☜ Ill now refer him to Paracelsus who will tell him that I have done but as I ought I mention'd this before Consult him therefore lib. 3. de Aq. Medicin Summum ergo studium esse debet ut Natura Lapidum Metallicorum similium exacte teneatur fic enim fiet ut Aquarum ex illis genitarum conditio ac vis probe cognita sit Great care ought to be had that the Nature of Stones Metals and such like be exactly observed for so the condition and vertue of the Waters that have imbibed them will be best understood And in what parts or respect soever the vertue of Vitriol consists it matters not much it s enough that we are sure that though full
which also it doth partake I have reckoned up many other vertues that are in Iron in P. 142. of my Second Edition which if he had duly weighed he might well have spared those many Scurrilous Invectives which most unjustly he lets flie in the face of those learned and most worthy Gentlemen which he calls Galenists and my self ☞ But I shall spare him since he takes sufficient revenge upon himself in a Foolish and Nonsensical Discourse and a company of fond Boyish Quibbles P. 23. wherein he makes himself ridiculous which I wonder a man of reason should not blush to have done and a man of Learning would have scorn'd to have left so many shreds of false Latine as here and there we meet with in his Book but I suspect he takes Priscian for a Galenist in that he breaks his head so often I hope next time he 'l take some care to provide him a plaister Here I declare I do not twit him with the Printers faults I suspect my own will not be without his I have a Copy of the Printer's Errata which I receiv'd from himself the other day with a most uncivil Letter wherein he mentions not the grossest lapses in Latine making them thereby his own having by his Letter provok'd me to put this thorn in his heel which otherwise for his Degrees sake I had passed by in civility In P. 33. he quarrels at me because in treating of several properties that are ascribed by Learned Writers to Iron I tell what Dioscorides says that it looses the Belly especially when it is joyned with a Vitrioline Juyce as here it is and he says If so it should be Emetick and constantly provoke Vomit concerning which I have already proved by the Testimony of Chymical Authors that Vitrioline Waters such as we are speaking of which have in them an immature Vitrioline Juyce do not at all provoke to vomit and therefore all his Objections concerning the Emetick property of perfect Vitriol are nothing to the purpose nor do those that imbibe Iron but do rather strengthen a relaxed Stomach according to the suffrage of our best Authors wherein I refer him to Fallopius who delivers both his own verdict and others too concerning this thing de Therm Aqu. cap. 11. p. 233. Aptae quoque sunt aquae ferreae prosunt stomacho lieni renibus vesicaeque ut Antyllus Seribonius Marcellus dicunt And for what he says concerning taking the Flowers or Filings of Brass inwardly it is nothing to the purpose save to fill up the design of invectives since no such thing meant by me I have wholsomer Medicines than those which he himself does frequently use if we may believe himself in this Book It is enough for the present that I have proved Vitriol and Iron to be two Ingredients in this Spring and that notwithstanding it is strengthening to the Stomach and other parts and not onely answered all his Arguments to the contrary while he dissented but have also discovered him to have changed his mind and granted them both to be there Of Alome in the Spaw P. 34. He proceeds to another Principle of the Spaw viz. Alome of which I mentioned three sorts according to the Opinion of Galen and the Princes in Physick that treat of it viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all which are of gross parts and very stiptick c. Which no doubt says Mr. Simpson must be a simple Mineral Salt centred in the Bowels of the Mineral Stone of Alome without any superadditionary additaments of Vrine or Salt of Kelp I wonder he could not as well judge of Vitriol in the Water to be a Simple Mineral of its own kind and not factitious as made out of Iron or Copper as well as he does Alome without Urine or Kelp whereas the Alome that is vulgarly used is so made and then he had judged aright and saved himself and me a great deal of trouble But still he queries which of these sorts it is and accounts himself in a mist till he know truly 't is easie for any man that resolves to be Sceptical to raise more impertinent doubts than the Sages of the World can tell how to clear All the three sorts I mention are of one and the same property or at least not much different and therefore it s altogether needless for me to enquire how to determine I find Fallopius gravell'd about this very Question cap. 7. de Therm Aq. p. 217. Some may aske says he since there are several sorts of Alome of which sort is it that Waters do imbibe the juyce ☞ Dico inquit quod est admodum difficile hoc scire quoniam succus aluminosus non concrescit at ubi sit facile cognoscitur I say 't is very hard to determine it says he because an Aluminous Juyce does not harden or rock but where it is its easie to be discerned If I must give my opinion I think of the three it is the last to wit the Liquid sort which is here mixed with the Water and this is the onely Mineral which Sir S. has some time thought to be in the Spaw Of Nitre in the Spaw P. 35. He passes on to consider of the 4th Ingredient viz. Nitre concerning which I mentioned two sorts One inclining to a Reddish Colour according to Serapio and another mentioned by Galen which is White of which later sort this is which is mixed with the Spaw and this is that which in my Book P. 13. I asserted to be of all the Minerals the most predominant the body of them all extracted out of the Water being laid some dayes in a cool place I have discerned Stiriae or little icicles among them which is the peculiar form of Nitre But we shall find Mr. S. peremptorily denying all this by and by As for the properties of Natural Nitre which is that sort imbibed by the Water I have laid down there a short description out of several of the Princes in Physick but of this more anon Of Salt in the Spaw Next he hastens to the 5th and last Ingredient of the Water-Spring viz. Salt concerning which I have said P. 146. of my Book there is not much in it though some Ingenious Naturalists of my acquaintance are otherwise minded in regard of its level with the Sea with which in Spring-Tides it is sometimes overflown as also because of the brackishness of the Mineral Body that resides after Evaporation of the Water which yet I rather think proceeds from the other Salts for so they may be all properly called although Kircher would not have found fault with me for saying there is Salt in it for he says there are none of these sorts of Waters without Salt And truly I am glad I have pleased the more Wise and Learned But Mr. S. is very severe against it and since I have said in my Book there is not much in it I will not fall out with him for a trifle But
put it into Spring-Water with Gall but it received no Tincture so that I cannot find either the one or the other to receive a Tincture of Gall. Alome tinctures not with Gall. Now this doth plainly evince that its not from Alome that this Water at Scarbrough takes its Tincture but from some other Mineral and that in all likelihood must be the Vitriol unless we can find how to fix it upon another I shall therefore now enquire whether Iron will suffice to give it this Tincture with Gall If so then another Spring that passes through Iron must receive a Tincture but that it will not Ergo not from Iron does this take its Tincture Nor Iron There is an Iron Mine near Barnsley upon the Edge of Darbyshire where great store of Iron is melted out of which runs a Spring of Fresh Water This I procured Mr. William Cotton who is Overseer of the Iron Work to try if it would change Colour with Gall he writes me that it did not change the Colour at all He sent me also a Glass Bottle of the Water which I tried with Gall but it changed nothing at all neither being evaporated did it yield any Sediment notwithstanding that he writes that he observed it to have something of the Taste of Scarbrough Spaw at the Fountain He writes also that to make a further Trial he staied till they had got a Pit at the bottom of the Mine and so he caused a hole to be made under the bottom Stone for the Water to fall into and stand till it was clear and then took and tried it but it received no alteration from the Gall He sent me also some of the Mine it self which I calcin'd and put into Water to see if that would give any Tincture by the addition of Gall but it did not So then if neither Alome nor Iron will do it then it remains that Vitriol is that that gives the Tincture Nor Nitre unless Nitre will do it which neither he contends for nor any one upon trial shall find to do it and the same may I say of Salt which is the Fifth Ingredient from all which it follows that Mr. S. is in a grand mistake to think that Alome can contribute to this Colour by Gall. Furthermore as I have already made out this Water being carried abroad or left some while to stand in an open Vessel will receive no Tincture from Gall as also it will have laid aside its Acidity which methink is an argument of some force to prove that both these Qualities or Properties come from one and the same Cause to wit Vitriol which I suspect to be in its volatile parts imbibed in the Water and that the Sediment which remains after Evaporation is rather the product of the rest of the Minerals than the Vitriol for else I see no reason but while any thing of the substance of Vitriol is there it should keep its Acidity and also receive a mutation from the Gall. And also I infer that if that Tincture come from Alome then certainly that which he by and by calls the Aluminous Salt which he makes the essence of the Spaw should give the Black Tincture to the Gall so long as it remains in the Water From what has been said it also follows that ordinary Spring-Water takes no Salt at all and but little of Sapor or Vapor or Odor from perfect Mineral of Alome or Iron Indeed what it would do if it were made Corrosive by the participation of Vitrioline Juyce I cannot so easily determine From whence also it follows that if Minerals and Metals be but in Solutis principiis or their Concrete Juyces even Simple Spring-Water will be sufficient to imbibe them without any necessity of Helmonts Primum Ens which therefore I have with good reason exploded before and if any doubt be made of that which yet I proved to be the opinion of good Authors then here is the Juyce of Vitriol which will not fail to do it A bad memory Pag. 44. He tells us That the Medicinal Acidity or Primum Ens Which is the Solvent in the Water has made a flight solution of a Minera of Iron which being contempered together makes up the Body of the Spaw ☞ Is not this a Body of Iron then which becomes the Body of the Spaw and that very thing which he denied totidem verbis P. 20. in the close of the Fifth Section You know who had need of a good memory But yet he minces the matter prettily for he calls it but a slight solution of the Iron and yet 't is the Body of the Spaw Let the wise Reader judge how these things will hang together Well! But he says further That if Spirit of Vitriol be powred upon this Water of the Spaw it makes no alteration in it because of the similariness of parts between the Acid Spirit of Vitriol and the Acid Solvent in the Water no more than fair Water mixed with fair Water Would not any man think from this very Observation alone if there had been nothing else Mr. S. had reason to be perswaded that this Primum Ens or Mineral Acidity was nothing but Vitriol which I have proved to be the true Solvent if we need any in my reply to P. 3. since the spirit of Vitriol is as near of kin to it being powred upon it as Water is to Water that is in plain words they are both Vitriol nor does the Experiment which he mentions make out any thing to the contrary indeed it is nothing at all to the purpose Instability in Writing Pag. 45. Thus farr sâ—ys Mr. S. I assented That an aluminous Salt from a mineral acidity had dissolv'd a slight touch of the Minera of Iron and both dissolv'd in the Current Spring of Water makes up the Spaw What 's here Did he not say just now in the fore-going Page that the Mineral acidity and the Iron made up the Body of the Spaw and now he says there is also an aluminous Salt in it why could not he have said so before ☞ Is not here great instability in his Writing Methinks he seems to write Mente tremula with a trembling heart and hand being very unwilling and afraid to confess what he finds Here it 's plain he has granted Iron and Alome and how farr Vitriol I appeal to the Reader I doubt not but to wrest them all out of him at length Yet notwithstanding his plain confession of Iron here I appeal to all the Gentlemen that were present at the Spaw if he did not absolutely deny it in our Conference there allowing nothing but Alome until we had done that I shewed him the Cliffe which so much of it as is exposed to the Weather is turned into a Cindar as hard almost as Iron and out of which Mr. William Cotton being then by said he would undertake to make Iron at which he seemed to be startled in that he had denied
it Concerning his Quaerie How I would demonstate those to be Vitrioline Spirits which were lost in the Waters carrying at distance I returned the same Answer which here I have already laid down and need not to repeat onely to that which I urged out of Fallopius I 'l subjoyn the Opinion of Dr Heer 's in his Spadacrene cap. 6. p. 44. where he is proving the German Spaws to have imbibed Vitriol Conjecturam hanc duae rationes firmant utraque nifallor evidentissima c. These two reasons says he do evidently confirm this Opinion One is because where such acid Waters are found there is usually found something of the Minera of Vitriol near at hand and thus it is at Scarbrough within Sixscore Paces of the Spaw where Vitriol sweats out of the Cliffe His other reason is from the eminent acidity that is in Vitriol sutable to that which such Waters have imbibed wherein he appeals to the Chymists themselves and declares that no man but he that has a snotty Nose will presume to deny it Cujus nasum pituita obstruxerit c. P. 46. But an ingenious Person being by asked the Doctor Whether if the Water was sealed up in a Glass Bottle hermetically and so carried abroad it would be altered by carriage or no He answered he thought it would If so says Mr. S. then it was not from any volatility of parts because it was sealed up and so not from the loss of the Vitrioline Spirits It is very true I said so and now upon trial I am sure it is so Vitrioline Spirits in the Spaw nor is his consequence of any validity but rather the contrary for if there be any loss it must be of the volatile parts there being nothing else that can be lost since it is supposed to be sealed yet says Mr. S. it is not from the loss of Vitrioline Spirits but it is an Aporrhaea Mineralis whether Vitrioline or Aluminous It seems hereby that he is in doubt which of the two but certainly I judge it from Vitriol since both the acidity and the Vitrioline smell and the tinging quality will be all lost together Notwithstanding they will all keep longer being sealed up in Glass Bottles than in Woodden Vessels and therefore I did advise in my Book that it should rather be carried in Bottles well stopt although in these also it will not keep long but be subject to Putrefaction and become whitish in Colour Nor let any man think it strange that though stopped it should yet lose its Spirits since Frambesarius reports as much of the Sauvenir in Germany for causing 12 Lagena to be carried but two dayes journey which is near so many Gallons of English Measure taking a Lagena to contain 6 Sextaries and a Sextary to be 20 Ounces and that in Bottles well sealed up there wanted to every Lagena one Glass of its measure which probably might be half a Pint through the loss of the Volatile Spirits and the Water became like Common Spring Water Dr. Heer 's his words are Has nihil a communibus discrepasse ut quibus ☜ singulis lagenis aquae vitrum decesserat cum tamen apud fontem picatae subere obseratae lagenae fuissent Spad cap. 5. And Dr. Heer 's affirms the same on his own Observation in the same Chapter Decedit etiam inquit quantitati aquae nam vase optime obturato nec ulla gutta dilabente si fons hic alio transferatur minuitur quia spiritu turgentia plus loci quam eo privata occupare amant ☞ Thus it appears my assertion is no Paradox and indeed I do really think the main part of the Vitriol in this Water is its spirits rather than any body of the Mineral it self yet do think it has also something of the untipe juyce While I in my Book discoursed concerning the extracting the Minerals that are in the Water I said P. 10 they may be found either by DISTILLING off the Water or otherwise by evaporating the Water away in a Skellit over the Fire Mr. S. very disingenuous He exclaims P. 47 of my Tools that they are very rude und of a low rank to wit a Skellit a Culinary Fire but not a word of a Glass still which an Ingenious Artist would have chosen c. Here I find constantly the young man in the same temper owning nothing of Modesty and knowing as little of Moderation ☞ Is it not enough that I say they may be extracted BY DISTILLATION but must I needs tell what Metal my Still is made of I designing to speak to the capacity of all men mention both wayes and do particularly point out such Tools for trial of the truth of what I say as are most ready at hand however any thing will serve this man to rail on me who walks excentrick to all the Rules of Reason If the Reader ☜ please but to look into P. 360. he shall find him using the very same Tools viz. A Skellit and a Culinary Fire Of the said quantity of Spaw Water I took about 2 Quarts which having filtred I put it in a SKELLIT and boil'd away two thirds What a strange spirit is this man of especially to me that he will not allow me that liberty of expression which he takes to himself Yet let him do what he can by Distillation so volatile are these spirits that they will yet be gone as upon trial I have often observed The same did Doctor French discover in his Distilling of the Sweet Spaw at Knareshrough which though he did it in a Glass still luted and closed up carefully in the ioynts thereof so as the spirit of Wine could not evaporate out thereat yet so subtil were the Vitrioline Spirits and so volatile that he says they are sooner sublim'd than the Water and do penetrate even the Glass it self or the Lute and he believes that neither Glass nor Lute can hold them P. 67 So again he lets flie because I say â—â—e Minerals when the Water is almost gone do rise up in Bulla's making a bubbling noise like the boiling of Alome c. Our Naturalists observe that of all Minerals or Vegetables Alome makes the greatest noise when it is boiling as I have observed in those Mines at Whitby which a Stranger would wonder at and there being Alome in these Minerals hence they bubble with more noise than ordinarily Minerals use to do where that is away ☞ Doctor Jordan a very learned Chymist speaking in Chap. 7. of the boiling of Vitriol has this very Expression It ariseth up in Bulla's like Alome Had I to deal with any Man of Reason or Ingenuity who being unsatisfied had undertaken this task against me I had not met with such measure nor to my knowledge did I ever read any man of the like temper As for what he saith concerning the Emetick or Vomiting Property of Common Vitriol it is altogether extraneous to our Subject and I have
imbibition of Minerals or Metals which by the help of the very Chymical Authors themselves who speak the same words I have calmly and clearly wiped off I did not think it fit to call in the Testimony of the Antients and Princes in Physick whom I had cited before in my Book since I see he so insolently spurns at them but rather to convince him with the Verdict of the Chymists whom he ought better to have understood and cannot deny I shall now open the Curtain and let in more light to the Reader that he may the better discern the temper of my Antagonist and on which side is the truth in the Dispute that lies before him and this ex ore suo What needs any more Habemus reum confitentem In P. 20. Thus says Mr. S. we discard these two Pillars of his Spaw Mr. S. his Recantation viz. Vitriol and Iron as to the Body of them Now turn to P. 39. I do not says he deny Iron to be an ingredient So again P. 44. ☞ This Mineral acidity pervading a Minera of Iron makes a slight solution of it and being equally contempered together makes up the Body of the Spaw Now consider this Body of Minerals which is in the Spaw is of an Ounce Weight at least sometimes ten Drams in a dry Summer as this last was viz. 1668. in 5 Quarts of the Water and this is that which he stiles a slight solution And for Vitriol turn to P. 359. That I might says he inform my self more satisfactorily of the true Constituent parts of Scarbrough Spaw I took 3 Gallons and 3 Pints which I let stand whos 's first precipitation was a Reddish Sediment from which I filtred the Water and this dried in the Sun proved to be a Red Earth or kind of Ochre OR RATHER TERRA VITRIOLI ☜ So again he argues against Nitre from P. 50. to P. 61. asserting onely an Aluminous Salt with a slight touch of Iron but turn to P. 360. and we have these words Then I evaporated the clear filtred Water in Glasses to a driness which I found to have an ALUMINO-NITROUS ☜ TASTE or rather indeed MORE NITROUS and would relent in the Air. So P. 364. Where you meet in our Hydrological discourse with the word Aluminous Salt you are to read it ALUMINO-NITROUS SALT ☜ OR NITRO-HERMETICAL SALT this Salt if duly ordered is Crystalline shoots into LONG STIRIAS ☜ Here let the Reader observe in his Hydrological Discourse where he is directly denying Nitre several times and says its only an Aluminous Salt that is in the Water what woful Nonsense it would be to turn the word Aluminous into Nitro-Aluminous or Alumino-Nitrous or Nitro-Hermetical Certainly never any man writ at this rate before Besides if a Galenist should talk of Nitro-Hippocratical or Nitro-Galenical Salt what a comely Canting would it be and yet it would gingle as well as Nitro-Hermetical Risum teneatis amici After all this ranting what a woful case is this POOR GENTLEMAN brought into that he must be forced to crowd in Nonsense But it appears in this and many more things that I have hinted at and I shall find more before I have done with him that to say and unsay is no strange thing with our Author here right or wrong Sense or Nonsense he is not ashamed to tell what is in his heart But yet if we observe him Mr. S. in a strait he would fain sumble out an excuse to blind the unwary Reader that he may not find his contradicting of himself for he says P. 364. Therefore what we said against Nitre in our foregoing discourse is to be understood the Common inflammable Nitre which is vulgarly used But I pray will this go down with any man of ordinary understanding What have we to do here with Common Nitre of the Shops we are treating of Natural Mineral Nitre as it is here in this Water or this Earth never known or taken notice of nor used till I discovered it and brought it into use which indeed will not blaze in the Fire perhaps because it is but in Embryone not in statu perfectione or else so diluted with the Water that it lies down or loses its inflammable property as the Vitriel does the Colcotar Really I am ashamed that a man that pretends to Learning and Reputation should write such palpable Contradictions attended with so many gross circumstances of abuse to another for asserting that which himself is forced to acknowledge for truth upon deliberate consideration and I am as sorry to be put to this unpleasant task of ripping up a weak Brothers Infirmities which I would had I not been forced to the contrary much rather have covered with a Mantle of Love So severely to reject Iron Vitriol and Nitre and before his Book be done to be forced to recant To charge those things upon me as great faults wherein himself can have no plea for it but his rashness contracting thereby a great guilt to himself This is that which it seems the liberty of the Press doth afford an opportunity to do but yet that which no ingenious man or good Christian ought to take to himself The best of us all have our failings and it s well if we live to repent Ev'n Salomon left his Ecclesiastes St. Augustine his Confessions and Retractations and my Antagonist his Epilogue or Recantation However this with the aluminous part he calls in his Epilogue the Essence of Scarbrough Spaw and he undertakes P. 365. to tell what proportion it bears to the Water viz. as 1 is to 128. A rare Arithmetician indeed if you will believe him his Confidence in this is like all the rest deeming himself to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for we must believe him without reason as if all the vertue in the Spaw should lie in this Salt and with this alone he pretends to do wonders especially if we will but take in his Ternary But I wonder why the Vitrioline Spirits which by his own Confession are not here in this Salt or the Terra Vitrioli which he acknowledges he found or the Iron which I proved and he has confessed to be there should be excluded from being of the Essence of the Spaw Two Minerals of the Spaw are lost by Carriage For my own part I do seriously profess I never saw any considerable Cure done by the Water at distance and 't is no marvel since two of the principal Minerals are wanting viz. the Vitriol which loses its volatile parts by Carriage which should help its penetration into the narrow Meanders of the Hypochonders and the Iron which is alwayes found precipitated in the bottom of the Vessels besides that in a few dayes it begins to putrefie and so spoils the Stomach and taints the Blood and lays a foundation for the Jaundies or Cachexia as I have made appear by good Testimony in my Book But here some may wonder how it comes to pass that Mr. S.
expirat Id ostendit inquit quod vetulas etiam quasdam infestat quibus nec seminis nec sanguinis superfluitas colligitur tum etiam eas quae bene purgantur Viri consuetudine fruuntur And this also he shews to be agreeable to the Doctrine both of the Antient Princes in Physick and Modern Writers too I shall need to say no more but refer ☜ it to the Ingenuous Reader to judge of the Spirit of this Man and who can be safe from blasting while such a malevolent breath as this blows upon him P. 132. Mr. S. treating of the Green Sickness in Maids says it will not bend to the single help of this Spaw c. where little or no body of a Mineral is found Let the wise Reader judge whether this man understands what he treats of that says this Spaw has little or no Body of Minerals in it when five Quarts contain at the least an Ounce of Minerals and in dry years ten Drams while the usual Dose for Women in this Case is three Quarts of Water and sometimes more And thus having examined what he has said concerning Scarbrough Spaw together with several Discourses that hang thereupon and particularly his Objections against the Rational Method of Physick or the Galenical Way as he calls it I am content to submit all I have said to the Judgement of the Learned and Impartial Reader I shall now follow him as close as I can through what remains and that with what brevity I may because I would not swell into a Volume Pyrologia Mimica The Second Part. Malton Spaw PAg. 134. He takes occasion to discourse concerning Malton Spaw which I mention P. 194. in my Book of Scarbrough Spaw The plain truth is this Spaw he has as little experimental knowledge of as the other having only saluted it in Transitu ceu Canis ad Nilum and therefore he is but very short referring to what he has said of the other wherein if he had observed the like brevity I believe he would have come off with more credit What difference there is betwixt these two Waters I have in few words expressed in my Book Knaresbrough Spaw Pag. 136. He proceeds to speak of the Sweet Well at Knaresbrough concerning which Doctor French has writ a ☞ very ingenious Discourse at large which he has illustrated with very many pretty Experiments out of which our Author hath drawn abundance of his which here we have crowded together oft times confusedly enough and yet he owns not his Author in any of them Pag. 137. He says its but a poor lean Water and thin of Minerals and therefore perswades to intermix Salt of Steel with it and he gives some directions about the drinking of it all which might well have been spared since Doctor Dean and Doctor French have writ copiously of that Subject and laid open the Nature of that Water and several Cures it has wrought and given better directions to help the slowness of the Water who both of them did a hundred times better understand that Water than he Sulphur Well Pag. 142. He passes on to the Sulphur Well at Knaresbrough which he saith hath a strong body of Sal Marine in it now if we look back to what he said P. 55. ☞ he tells us this Well is saturate with Fossile Salt I wish he would reconcile these Contradictions But how is it probable that this Spring should partake so plentifully of Sal Marine of which there is the quantity of two Ounces in a Gallon of the Water as I have found upon trial what communication has this Well with the Sea more than other Springs it being 40 miles from the Sea and how can he suppose that the Subterraneal Channels should convey the Salt of the Sea in puris naturalibus 40 miles and yet others be purged and defecated of the Salt that are nearer the Sea for my own part I see no reason to believe it and shall leave it to others to believe as they find cause Besides if it should proceed from such a plentiful Fountain as the Sea since the Salt is not left behind it in the passage it should necessarily have a larger Channel than other Springs and so be a very plentiful Spring whereas it is a very penurious one and if I mistake not voids not a Gallon in an hour I therefore rather think it receives its Salt from the Nature of the Soil where it bubbles and that it has also imbibed Sulphur and Bitumen Methink he might have contented himself with what the Authors a foresaid have said concerning this Well to whom he has added nothing save only an Harangue of impertinent discourse as his constant way is whereby he confounds both himself and the Reader and disparages that Spring Affirming it not to be of much more efficacy than so much Trencher Salt dissolved in such a proportion of ordinary Water in P. 146. In opposition to which I could joyn issue with him but I shall rather leave that to others more concerned to assert their Experiences who probably will think themselves concerned to maintain the Ancient Reputation both of this and the Sweet Spaw which he has not a little blasted Of Hot Springs In P. 148. He treats of the Original of Hot Springs where he borrows largely from Kircher in his Mund. Subter together with his Experiments as also Monsieur de Rochas at last he determines that they proceed from Calx vive which Notion he has from a Relation I make in my Book P. 80. of an Observation made by a Noble Lord of this Nation viz. the Lord Thomas Fairfax of some heaps of a White Powder which he found sweat out of the Earth near Bath which being put into Water makes it hot as I my self did experience five or six years after his Lorship had taken it up some of which I had from his Lordship A false Charge on the Galenists P. 158. He falls to make a Vindication of Chymical Physick which he says lies under an Odium by the Galenists In my Judgment he might very well have spared his pains herein there being no cause in the World for a Vindication nor do I know of any man in these parts that ever opened his mouth against it Indeed he and others stepping into the Practice of Physick four or five years ago had a design to turn all the Practice of Physick in the City and County of York to the Chymical way exclaiming in all Companies they came in against the Medicines of the Shops which are prepared according to the London Dispensatory establisht by the Law of the Land after the same rate as here is exprest in his Book This both my self and others of my faculty thought fit to oppose not condemning Chymical Medicines well prepared which we all daily use but maintaining the Ancient Honour Reputation and successfulness of the Rational Practice which he calls Galenical The Chymical Way we own as
his Pilgrimage Page 439. and Mr. Sandys in his Travails Edit 3. P. 222. who relate the same Story And I pray what other means of knowledge have we of matters of fact done before our Times but to take them upon trust of those that commit them down to us And so I find did Doctor Heylin and the rest for they have the substance of it I guess from Mattheaus Quadus his Fasciculus Geographiae and he seems to setch it from Boterus whom as yet I cannot meet withal Quadus his words are Boterus istuc addit Constantini Imperatoris tempore continuis septemdecim annis nullae hic fuere pluviae unde deserta mansit Insula donee D. Helenae beneficio in Olympo Monte Templum aedificaretur c. exinde pluviae redierant ac habitari denuo caepit To wit Boterus adds this that about the time of Constantine the Great for 17 years together here was no Rain at all so as the Island was forsaken by the Inhabitants till the time that Helena the Empress built a Church in Mount Olympus c. about which time the Rain returned and it began again to be inhabited Mr. Sandys and Doctor Heylin do agree in their mention of the number of 36 years but out of whom they had it I discern not for they cite not their Author But it s all one to my purpose the failure of the Rain made the Island unhabitable for want of Water in their Rivers and Springs and consequently the Rain was the Proximal Cause of them I have other Arguments wherewith I did confirm this Opinion in my Book As concerning one of the Fortunate Islands or Canaries called Ombrion now Fierre which I mention P. 98. of my Book where it never rains but the Inhabitants are supplied with Water by an admirable Providence of God from a certain Tree that grows there plentifully which distills from its leaves every Night an abundance of Water enough to supply the Inhabitants and their Cattle with Water Ovetanus and Martyr do both say there are no Springs in the Island nor Rivers But to this Mr. S. gives no return So when P. 118. I deduce an Argument from the full and perfect Agreement that is in all Qualities perceptible to the Senses betwixt Rain and Spring-Water so as its hard to distinguish the one from the other Mr. S. takes no notice of it And when I mention there another from the exact Identity of the Water of those he calls Quick-Springs and of that which flows out of the other which he calls Land-Springs and grants that they proceed wholly from Rain and Snow which if they proceeded from several Causes must probably differ in some respect He leaps over it will you ☜ know the reason even because he could not answer it And yet so dis-ingenuous is he P. 301. as to say That he had run through all that I had offered in order to the confirming of this opinion of Rain and Snow to be the Original of Springs and probably if not demonstratively overturned the Opinion together with my grounds arguments and reasons It 's apparent to many that have read his Book that he had a wrathful design against me which all along he has prosecuted with as much rancour as possibly he could aiming at victory rather than verity and particularly in this Dispute about the Springs while he has not the least ground of pretence that he has answered my Arguments wherein the force of the Opinion laid Certainly no man that ever pretended to Learning or Reputation writ at this rate But while I was answering an Objection of Seneca's which he made against this Original I made a Concession that there may be some transmutation of Air into Water in the Earth or above from whence it comes that Churches become wet before Rain falls I find Mr. S. extreamly severe against me I wonder says he P. 299. the Doctors Philosophy in his Second Edition should not come out more maturate than to adhere to this old and long since exploded transmutability of Elementss In so much that he seems willing to hang the point in controversie upon that hinge So sure says he as the Aire is transmuted into Water which moistens the Stone Walls of Buildings so sure is the Air in the Bowels of the Earth transmuted into Water yea and so sure is the Original of Fountains from Rain and Snow Water Well! Let the cause go upon that I desire no more and then I am assured the learnedest men of the World will be of my Opinion about the Original of Springs Is not that Air which we breath in and that Water which we drink under that Notion Now its plain that some of that Air that we breath in within a Church will in a few hours be turned into Water upon the Walls and Floors before Rain which being collected together may be drunk into the Stomach and quench thirst I know where it pinches Mr. S. I do not take this Air and Water to be pure Elements for so we could not live in them it s enough that they are such as all the World câ—ll Air and Water and these we see may be turned one into another the grosser parts of Air into Water and the purer parts of Water into Air. I mentioned just now a Story out of Ovetanus concerning Ombrion where there is a Tree from whâ—se leaves every night doth distill an abundance of Water to the supply of the Inhabitants for all uses the like Story is â—old by Pliny lib. 6. cap. 32 and Mr. Hawkins in his second Voyâ—ge recorded by Mr. Hackluyt tells the like of some frees in Guiny Now I would gladly know of Mr. S. from whence that Water comes if the â—ir be not turned into Water unless he will h ve it to be a Miracle and so a new Creation Again I would ask Mr. S. whether he thinks Fromundus or Cardanus understood a Point of Philosophy or no as well as he in whom I find an admirable Story in Meteor lib. 5. cap. 2. art 3. which he has from Cardanus devar rerum lib. 8. cap. 44. Anno 1481. Quaedam Aegra in Italia In English thus A certain Maid of 18 years of age in Italy did every day void 36 Pints or Pounds of Vrine while yet both in Meat and Drink she did not take in above 7 so as her Vrine exceeded them both every day 29 Pounds and thus she continued for the space of 60 dayes during which time were collected 1740 Pounds of Vrine more than the weight of all her Meat and Drink that she had taken when yet the while body of the Maid did scarce weigh 150 Pounds ☞ It was demanded saâ—y my Authors byMarlianus how it came to pass It was answered That the Air which was contained in the Arteries was converted into a Watery Substance and that being cast out what more came in its place was presently turned again into Water and so was multiplied into that large proportion
Besides the Novelty of the Notion of his Primum Ens gives ground of suspition the whole Current of Learned Authors that have written of Medicinal Waters mentioning no such thing whether Chymists or others All accounting the Esurine Spirit or Juyce of Vitriol enough to impregnate a Water with an Acidity that shall make it to corrode other Minerals or Metals by which it passes So as we may very well lay aside this Esurine Salt or Primum Ens Salium as wholly precarious Entia non sunt multiplicanda nisi ex necessitate Again I answer it is both repugnant to Reason and Experience and the Judgment of all Learned Writers who have treated of these Matters What should hinder but Salts of several kinds will dissolve in Water impregnated with one single kind As suppose a Quart of Sea Water which has two Ounces of Salt in it as I have tried by Evaporation will not this receive Nitre suppose a Dram and after that as much Alâ—ome and after that Vitriol as much and so become an Emetick and last of all Arsenick so as it shall become poison If Mr. S. shall dissolve Vitriol in Water of any kind whatsoever whether Natural or Factitions which he cannot deny must be stronger of Vitriol than any Spaw and then shall pass that Vitrioline Water thorow three or four Cap Papers wherein several sorts of Powders are put the same Vitrioline Water shall receive an alteration or some taste from every of them and after they are so mixed per minima it will be easie to separate the Salts from the grosser parts but one Salt from another will be very difficult But further I reply If this be true infallibly A Contradiction as his confidence does seem to import for he says P. 4. If one of the Principles be made by this Esurine Acidity Nature is not at leasure to make another which were such an Indulgence as she never granted her self How does this agree with that Mr. S. himself says P. 45. in the beginning of the Second Section viz. Thus far I assented viz. That an Aluminous Salt from a Mineral Acidity had dissolved a sleight touch of the Mineral of Iron and both dissolved in the Current Spring of Water makes up the Spaw Are not here two Minerals made viz. Iron and Alome by his own Confession The like Confession he makes P. 61. N. 16. Nay further I le see if I cannot find two more Look P. 359. and there he says Vpon a farther Trial of the Spaw Water he found a Body of Vitriol which he calls Terra Vitrioli Then turn but over leaf to P. 360 and he tells you he found Nitre And so again P. 361. How now Mr. S. how will these things hang together can all your Philosophy reconcile this Contradiction What now will become of your Inference you deduce from the former Assertion in P. 4. viz. So then we find a flaw in the main Timber of his Building an Inconsistency of two of his Chief Principles of the Spaw Iron and Vitriol Certainly an Inference drawn from both ends of a Contradiction â—sinvalid But I must not thus pass it over He has told us here Pag. 3. That the Primum Ens or Esurine Salt having dissolved one Mineral is thereby terminated so as if it should meet with another it can take nothing thence Now let us cast our Eye upon P. 59. where Mr. S. hath quite forgotten what he said here for speaking of this Sulphurious Esurine Salt he says It becomes determined and specificated according to the difference of the Mineral Glebes it meets with into this or that Fossible Salt or Mineral Mixture which he illustrates by an Instance which he has verbatim from Sendivogius Lumen Chym. Trac 2. As suppose several Colours and Salts placed at a distance one from another upon a large Marble and common Simple Water is conveyed to each of them this Water although the same to all yet as it comes to every of them is differently tinged and tasted according to the Colour and Taste of those parcels it meets with So says he this Esurine Sulphureous Spirit meeting With variety of Mineral Earths though the same in it self to every one yet becomes altered and tinctured according to the different property of the Mineral Earth And from this Contradiction he has ☜ other Inferences which he mentions not worthy here to be recited Here is an able Philosopher indeed that can assert Contradictions and draw quidlibet ex quolibet But I shall leave this to the Readers Contemplation because I study to be short and shall only say at present I never found any man so inconsistent with himself only he aimed P. 3. to perswade the unwary Readers that it was impossible that Iron and Vitriol could be both in this Water as I had asserted I could now bring in the Testimony of Learned Writers who tell of several sorts of Springs in Europe that have imbibed two or three sorts of Minerals As at St. Lucas in Italy there is one that has imbibed Iron and Alome Another in Germany which is impregnated with Alome and Nitre so as Ernestus a Chymist can hardly determine which of the two is more predominant So in Sweden one that has both Lead and Copper And thus also the ordinary Spaws in Germany have imbibed Vitriol Iron and Ochre as Dr. Heer 's relates in his Spadacrene And Fallopius mentions several such as have partaked of several Minerals in his Book De Therm Aquis Among all whom yet I find not any mention of this Primum Ens. But above all the profoundly Learned Kircher is most full and plain to our purpose Lib. 5. Sect. 2. ad finem accounting not only Spring Water a proper Menstruum to take in the Vertues of Minerals and Metals but one and the same Current to take in several as they lie in its passage for which purpose he has a Scheme P. 259. whereby ☜ by he demonstrates it to the Eye As suppose upon a Table a Subterraneal Channel of Fresh Water enters at one end and runs out at the other end of the Table in one Spring in its passage from one end to the other it is divided and divaricated into several smaller Channels by crooked turnings in one passage it meets with Salt Vitriol Iron Galx and Silver in another Meander it meets with Sulphur Salt Nitre Ochrâ— Gadmiâ— in another it meets with Alome Bitâ—â—â—an Lead c. By this time these several streams meet in the Spring at the other end this Spring he says shall be repâ—â—â—she with the preperties of them all In some oâ—â—nes canales dicti corrivati ex â—â—â—â—bus per quae transcunt Mineralibus fonteâ—â— istum omnibus Mineralium speciebus viribusque compositum constituunt And therefore we may with very good reason reject his Objection as idle and frivolous But I proceed Of Iron Mr. S. P. 3. cannot find out what is the dissolvent in this Water that should dissolve Mars viz. Iron
Alumini non conveniunt Itidem in resolutione Vitrioli decedere videtis quae Vitriolo similia non sunt etsi ejusdem substantiae materiae sunt To wit Thus in the resolution of Alome into Water you observe some things that are not agreeable to Alome And so again in Vitriol you see some digressions that are not like Vitriol while yet they are of the same substance and matter And this is as plain in this case of ours as if Paracelsus had designed it purposely and intended to correcting his followers in this their mistake For these Minerals are not here corporally but percolated as he himself expresses it in the 13th cap. of his 3 d Book De Nat. Aqu. Sic persape accidit ut Minera Vitrioli aut Aluminis aut Sulphuris aut Antimonii concurrat non quidem corporaliter probe tamen percolata Now the eminent Digression that falls out in these two Minerals Vitriol and Iron as imbibed by this Water at Scarbrough is this that since they are not here in their perfect Bodies but exceedingly percolated and diluted they therefore do not calcine into a Colcotar or Crocus not Red but White ☞ And this is the ground of the great puzzle some ingenious Chymists of my acquaintance are put to in judging of the Minerals of the Spaw and particularly Mr. Samuel Johnston a Physitian at Beverley in this Countrey of very good repute concerning whom I shall have farther occasion to speak anon from whom this very day while I write this I received three sorts of preparations out of the Minerals of this Spaw viz. a Chrystalline Sabulum as he calls it Terra Vitrioli which I rather think to be a product of the Iron than the Vitriol and the Essential Salt This last he says he cannot tell what to think of it being such an Anomalous Salt differing so much either from the Natural or Factitious Kinds of Alom Vitriol or Nitre though in some properties it agrees with each of them The reason of the scruple is this which Paracelsus has clearly made out that here they are not corporally but percolated not perfect in their several Kinds but in succo primitivo not single but all mixed together which as yet I could never attain to separate And therefore this Salt is nothing so Acide as Vitriol nor Emetick nor Stiptick as Alome not inflammable as Nitre notwithstanding it doth shoot in Stirias I 'l only adde this that they are all here though in fractis imminutis debilitatis viribus and the vertue of the Water must be judged from them all Paracelsus says cap. 1. De Nat. Balu treating of such Waters Quod sint resoluta Minera ex Corpore to quod simile est Vitriolo Alumini Sali tamen id non est ita emergunt ipsarum virtutes secundum harum crium simplicium potentias P. 186. But to return to my Antagonist who is here managing his best Argument which he calls instar omnium in contradiction to these two Minerals Iron and and Vitriol which he says ought not to be White I shall now refer him to Fallopius de Metall pag. 217. who treating of such like Waters as this tells of one that is near Rome in agro Volaterrano which he says has imbibed a Juice that is white and it is the Juice of Vitriol not of Alome his own words are In illa Aqua est Succus Albus est Succus Calcanthi non autem Aluminis Now it s very probable that this white Juice would make a white Salt by Calcination after its separation from the Menstruum ☞ To the same purpose also speaks the Acute Zuelfer in his Appendix to his Animadversions P. 95. discoursing of Calcin'd Metals whether they yield a Salt or no. He determines that the firm Metals being calcin'd with violent fire among which he reckons Iron will not calcine into a Powder out of which Salt may be extracted but in Scorias Crâ—cos convertuntur neutiquam in Cinerese quibus verum Sal eliciendum Now if so why then should these men expect that these Minerals should calcine in Scorias Crocos since they had not here to do with perfect Metals or Minerals but onely a Concrete Juice of Metals and Minerals dissolv'd in Water which now they discern plainly doth calcine into a Powder out of which may be extracted a Salt of very great vertue in opening Obstructions and correcting the Ferments of the Stomach and other natural parts as I have frequently experienced and have expresly pointed at in my Book of the Spaw P. 152. where I said and I ☜ know that out of these Mineral Salts which are separated from this Water some very useful preparations might be made to be safely joyn'd with other Vehicles to good purpose And thus again Zuelfer in his Animadversions upon the 20th Class of the Augustine Dispensatory treating of the Calcining of Vitriol says It will calcine Red or of a Dark Brown Colour but he blames those Chymists that expecting to make further use of it do use to edulcorate it with Water Sive enim vi astringente sive aperiente polleat ille tota per edulcorationem tollitur quippe utraque vis vi Sale Metallico Vitriolato in aquaresolubili consistit For whatever quality it has whether astringent or aperient it s all lost by edulcoration and all the vertue which was in the Metallick Salt does consist in the Water into which it is resolved And so it is here the Vitriol thus resolved into Water is become in all respects a quite other thing the vertue thereof being imbibed in the Water The Water black with Gall. But I wonder all this while that neither of these Gentlemen have said one word of the calcining of that Black Sediment which I mention'd before that falls to the bottom of the Vessel after it has received a Tincture from the Gall This had they done it would have given them no small light concerning this very Point of these two Minerals we are treating about The Black Tincture is received by the Vitriol that which is precipitated to the bottom by the Stipticity of the Gall is the Iron this I calcined in a Crucible in very strong Fire and it becomes of a Dark Brown Colour and turns to a gross Powder hard as a Cinder and is no other than the Scoria of Iron After Calcination I dissolv'd it in pure Spring Water and let it stand till the next day I also tried whether the Water being very Brackish would take a Tincture from Gall but it did not so as I conclude it has nothing of Vitriol This Water I evaporated away and it afforded a Brownish Floscule very sharp and biting upon the Tongue which Colour since it has it not from the Vitriol for the reason aforesaid so nor from the Gall and therefore I judge it to have it from the Iron Another thing I observed in calcining all the whole Body of the Minerals as they
Composition of mixed Bodies Had God Almighty made Man meerly a spiritual substance I should have thought that he had been best fed and physickt with pure spirituous parts and quintessences but having also a gross Body and a capacious Stomach and Bowels fitted to receive gross parts and furnisht with Concoctive Faculties whereby the Vertue of them for Diet or Physick are commodiously drawn out I think the gross parts were as well let alone and not taken from the thin parts only a little fitted for Natures more easie extraction as we use to do by Fire Thus we see our Bodies are well nourished with Flesh and Corn and Vegetables in their gross Bodies whereas the Chymical Extracts and Spirits or Quintessences of these would soon feed a Man to death And the like reason there is for Physick wherein the gross parts are sometimes to be preferred far before their Spirits Rubarb is an excellent Purge for Choler and also astrictive the Chymical Spirit or Oil not so Thus Pepper grosly beaten is better against Wind and also the Decoction of Anise seeds than their Chymical Spirits by the consent of many Learned Writers And the Acute Zwelfer in his Mantissa Hermetiâ—a P. 782. prefers the Powders of Pearl Coral Harts-horn c. far before the Magisteries Of Magistery of Pearl c. Not so safe as when â—nprepared and concludes with this Expression Hinc reliqua Magisteria ex Coralliis Perlis consimilibus Gemmis parvi pendo imo penitus rejicio and Platerus says That some things are better suited to our Natures when unprepared than when they have undergone the Chymists Fire Thus Crato in his Epistle to Monavius cited by Scholtzius Ep. 163. who was himself a great friend to Chymistry taxes the Pseudochymists for spoiling many good Medicines in extracting their Quintessences too long here to recite and particularly concerning the making of their Magistery of Pearl or extracting its Spirits with Acetum Radicatum whereby the whole substance of the Pearl is corrupted and becomes corrosive And he tells of one Casparus Logus who by taking this Magistery from a Paracelsian died and being opened the Tunicles of his Stomach were found black and corrupted and the like he says happened to a Marquess his Lady whose Stomach was eaten through with the poyson thereof And yet this we know is an excellent Cordial as it s used by the Galenists in substance And of the same mind is the ingenious Mr. Boyle in several places of his Sceptical Chymist as also in many other places of his Writings particularly in his Experimental Philosophy 2 Part. cap. 6. p. 148. Methinks says he those that practice as if Nature presented us nothing worth the accepting unless it be cooked and perfected by Vulcan might consider that Paracelsus himself oftentimes imployeth Simples for the cure even of formidable Diseases Besides the success that we have in the use of Conserves Condites Powders and Compositions made of these might satisfie any rational person which is done with much more safety and gratefulness than with Spirits and Chymical Oyls And whereas Mr. S. will have these Spirits and purer parts as he calls them to be re-united after separation and put into other Vehicles I think their own parts are the most proper Vehicles they can be joyned to as being connatural to them I speak of Vegetables Indeed as for Minerals and Metals which are most what virulent and venemous or else whose grossness renders them indomitable and uneasie to Nature to extract their Vertues doubtless a separation of their useful and thin parts by Fire or Salts is of great use in them and not at all to be rejected Page 161. Mr. S. acknowledges There may be about a Score of Choice Plants Mr. S. a great Herbalist which well managed with a skilful hand may by their singular Vertues produce considerable effects the rest are not that we know of of much use If we take his Parenthesis in the singular number perhaps he says truly for it may be he knows not a Score I hope he will not hinder others from knowing more than he perhaps as many hundreds as he does Units and how to use them when occasion serves P. 162. What heaps of Plants says he by some Physitians are ordered to stuffe Diet-bags withal whereas a few choice good ones might probably be more effectual I confess I do not at all approve of the Practise of some who make such laborious Of heaping up â—imples Bills which are ever so to the Apothecaries and oft times to the Patients Usually they are such as do least understand Materiam Medicam Certainly Physicians should never put any Medicine into a Composition which does not answer some indication Besides some Simples are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and have such a dissonancy betwixt themselves as that they will not grow together but the one destroys the other and so it may be too in their conjunction in a Composition of Physick I read in Ernestus Burgravius his Achilles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Redivivus a Story which he has Pag. 94. out of Barthol Carichterius that if a Figge and the Berry of Alkekengi which we know are both innocent being used apart be joyned in a Composition they become a deadly poyson quod Cani propinatum eum faciet crepare medium which would burst a Dog And he lays it down as a Caution to those that use to stuffe so many simples together which are oft times of contrary qualities when perhaps a Simple well known or a small Composition would better suit the Case I confess I tried this but it did not kill the Dog only he purged extreamly perhaps they should be both new and then probably it might succeed Then he goes on and for several Pages together tells of the great use of Fire for the extracting of several parts as a Phlegma Spirit Oyl and Salt out of Vegetables Animals Minerals and Metals which no man ever doubted of for Art will easily separate all these parts but to what purpose concerning which we have treated already But he says P. 166. that all Middle Minerals or Marcasites and Metals are actually poysonous Minerals and Metals poysonous And again Antimony the Mineral Stone of Vitriol Bismuth c. have venemous properties that unless they be corrected by Fire and good Solvents they do deny us their Medicinal Vertues and rather actually impress their virulency upon our Vital Principles Who can have a worse Friend than he brings from home Is not this enough to make men startle at Chymical Medicines for fear all his Art cannot correct their poyson I acknowledge in the hands of a good Artist some Medicines may be made out of these that are safe but then they are to be discreetly used since I have already shewn out of Zwelfer the danger that is in them of resuming their virulency even after a due preparation P. 167. He undertakes to answer the Objections which are made against this