Stones and Sticks they pass over That this stony Matter is precipitated out of other Waters which flow into it by the Virtue of this Water and proceeds not from the Chalybear Water it self beside the Argument that may be drawn from the Lightness in weight of the Chalybeat appears fully demonstrated at many Springs indeed at all where the rill of common Water runs along the side of the Soyl whence the Chalybeat issues especially when it is in a Meadow as it was at Felstead where I first observ'd it no Incrustation or Precipitation of stony Matter being to be found either in the Meadow where the Chalybeat lyes or above before the other Water joyns it The Water I now nam'd is one of the light sort being near ten Grains in seven Ounces lighter than common Water and the Water that joyns it a hard gravelly one which with Tincture of Logwood gave a Rasberry red as Acids which is not amiss to mention The Reason which I intimated above to be from the differing Natures of Nitres and Vitriols may help make this intelligible The Lightness in weight of the Chalybeat Waters that as they are void of Salt may properly enough be said to be more simple is owing to the same Cause and proves the same thing being not from difference of the Season as is usually judg'd which can never make it lighter than even that Rain-water distill'd that must render it so but from the Depuration it has receiv'd by the Precipitation of the Earthy parts And the Property is the same by which these Waters even in Human or Animal Bodies Cure the Stone by removing the Disposition to it as well as early Precipitation of the Matter and this Virtue in the Waters is so constant as to have made them Famous in this particular The last considerable Sign and Attendant of these Waters is the Bituminous Scum appearing on them how far the fatness of the Earth of these Waters is assisting in separating this Spirit or whether it is the Effect of it is not plain nor very material to learn That it is of the Nature of common Salt to assist in the Separation of Oyly parts is evident in pickling Roses and distilling Oyls but whether it be from this or the Putridness of the Soyl and Earth I shall submit and leave These Waters differ not only in Degrees of Hardness and Coldness which is best taken notice of in the Examination of each Water but may be distinguish'd into these two Heads 1. The Light ones which have more of the Spirituous Parts of the Vitrioline Spirit and more Simply 2. The Heavy ones that contain a Salt approaching to a Nitre or is Nitrous Of the Heavy ones first and then I ascend to the Lighter which thereby may be illustrated The First Class Chalybeat Waters that contain a Nitrous Salt and equal at least common Water in weight THE Salt of these Waters I conclude to be owing to the Soyle because it is found to be of the same Nature and has some Differences but those being small I omit and forbear insisting upon them In the general Design of the use of Chalybeats these Nitrous Waters are not so Effectual and the more Nitrous the worse by which I mean the more Alkalisat which is easily prov'd by the early Precipitation of the Black and the change towards a Green which is the Effect of Alkalys with Ink though at first they change the Blew Black into a Purple The Characteristick Notes of these Waters beside the weight are to drop the Inky colour they receive with Gall to take a high colour with Lignum Nephriticum and when the Water has stood to be effete it will not precipitate Silver out of Spirit of Nitre I have not found any of this kind so fully Nitrous or Alkalisat as to trouble a Solution of Sublimate much less to precipitate it Yellow both which indeed are inconsistent with Vitriols nor any that bear a Salt of the Nature of Saltpetre A Water in a Field adjoyning to the Right Honourable the Earl of Manchester's Place at Leez in Essex THis Spring is in a Gravel and is so small as to be considerable only in that it is in a breeding Pond This Water disturbs not a Solution of Sublimate in fair Water it render'd milky a Solution of Sal Saturni by which it distinguish'd it self from Saltpetre but yet not much more than Saltpetres second Salt does With Lignum Nephriticum it gave a pale Yellow and not fine exactly the colour of small Beer which at four days end precipitated so as to leave just the top of the Liquor clear The Water kept till it had lost its Spirit and with that its power of striking black with Gall which was 24 hours essay'd with Gall was thick and dirty white which precipitated in the former Experiment shewing an Affinity with common Salt in this with Nitrous It is much of the weight of common Water and takes a blew black with Galls The Water at Witham in Essex in Sir Edward Southcot's Ground WITH Gall a deep Purple turning to Ink not very clear and with Lignum Nephriticum a faint dull reddish I judged this to have more of the nature of the Salt of common Water and that the Spirit of this Water to be a little finer than the other sort which give a direct Black with Gall because distill'd Acids give this Red. The Red that Alkalys give turns greenish upon standing these Waters are all inclin'd to the same The Chalybeat Water of Knarsborough in Yorkshire KNarsborough Water as Dr. French relates is of a Vitrioline Taste and Odour The Water riseth in a moorish boggy Ground within less than half a Mile from which there is no considerable Ascent and springeth directly up from the Sandy bottom It is of the same weight with common Spring Water The colour with Syrup of Violets is much the same as in the Chalybeat Waters at Islington and Hamstead not so intense as in Tunbridge or the German Spa as the Learned Dr. Tancred Robinson my Informer prov'd it at the Spring And as this colour is not so deep as that made by Vitriols so the residuous dark colour'd Earth after Evaporation was insipid The pitch of the Volatility of the Spirituous part of this Water is observable in that it tinctur'd with Powder of Galls at two days end and suffer'd not by Warming yet lost that Quality wholly in Distilling Neither does this Water coagulate Milk The Redness that this Water takes with Galls is effected by spirituous or distill'd Acids unmix'd with gross Salt of the Soyle of a Forreign Nature which would disturb the Colour and the larger Proportion of the Acid to the Steel or the very small quantity of the last may effect it But the Quantity of the Acid Spirit must be judg'd here to be considerable For the Nature of the Acidity I have before distinguish'd it by the Effects and so need here only observe it to be Vitrioline
their Virtue two hours which yet will scarce be lost in ten days if headed with Oyl They all give a purplish Red with Galls which upon standing a while turns to a purplish Black Tunbridge Water in Kent THIS Water gives a deep Green with Syrup of Violets as Vitriols do and in the quantity of about seven Ounces and a quarter weigh'd ten Grains lighter than a River-water near me which was lighter than Spring-water and as much lighter than Rain-water and about four Grains lighter than the German Spaw to which it is preferable on that account The Ground above and about this Spring is a cemented Rock and the Spring is large of long use and much celebrated and frequented Wellenborow VVater in Northampton-shire THIS Water weigh'd at the Spring eighteen Grains lighter than common Water in a quantity of about twelve Ounces with a few drops of Tincture of Logwood gave a Black with Syrup of Violets a deep Green with Syrup of Cloves blackish with Galls a Violet Islington VVater THIS Water as the rest makes no Alteration in a Solution of Sublimate and with Sal Saturni dissolv'd in fair Water became milky a little and a little curdled and not clear as with a Saltpetre with Lignum Nephriticum it remain'd pale but clouded a little with a thickish dusky White near a Rain-water and weigh'd two Grains lighter than Tunbridge Water in the same quantity which I thought might be owing to the difference of the Season Felstead VVater in Essex THIS Water lies in a Moor the bottom whereof is a cemented Rock the Earth where the Spring rises is Fat and Bituminous or Unctuous and very Ferrugineous no Incrustation in the boggy Hole where the Water stands but the Water that passes through the Meadow begins to incrust as it touches this Ground It is of the same weight exactly with Tunbridge it becomes milky with a Solution of Sal Saturni and with Lignum Nephriticum suffer'd no stain but only a milky cloud swimming in it This is but a small Spring scarce more than a Land-drain Of the Virtues of the Chalybeat VVaters THE Virtues of Steel are so very great and large and in many cases so contrary as not to be explain'd by what are grosly call'd the first second or third Qualities but to help us to a Notion of them we must consider the Essence of this Mineral in its Affections that are apparent And thus we may conceive of it as a hard body of the Mineral Kingdom and so qualifi'd with Firmness which is apt to enrich the Blood being easily convertible into Fat or Sulphur the nature of whose Sulphur is to preserve Fluid Bodies and the Temper of whose Acid Spirit is such as raises and yet restrains or rather adjusts the Fermentation of our Stomach Soluble Friendly to our Nature and some-how Correspondent to the Mechanism of the Air we live in by its Magnetism and then we may intelligibly add the more Simple and other evident Qualities as cooling potential Heat Drying Balsamick or Healing Quality c. which I shall take notice of under these Heads in these Waters 1. They Invigorate the Blood and Juyces as a Chalybeat 2. They Astringe 3. They Incide and Attenuate by their Acidity 4. The Acidity is Connatural and agreeable to the Ferment of the Stomach and other Offices which these Waters promote 5. On the same account and partly in that it is Sulphurous it is a Fraenum or Curb to Fermentations and Flatulencies and performs more effectually what Oxycrate does in the Vapours in Women and Spirit of Sulphur or Vitriol in Men whence the Acid seems adjusted to the Temper of our Bodies which can preserve the just Fermentations as it destroys or reduces Exorbitant ones 6. They depurate the Juyces of forreign or grosser parts lodg'd with the Nourishment in the Body as is evident in the Stone which is but the same thing which they effect in gravelly Waters at their Springs 7. The Acid being Spirituous passes where other Medicines cannot and so are Diuretick and Exterminate and discharge the offensive Matter by Urine and the rest it Volatilizes 8. The Vehicle of this Mineral and Spirit is not apt to Elasticity or Fermentation And on the account of these Qualifications the Chalybeat Waters warm strengthen heal open Obstructions absterge invigorate and thus are capacitated to stop Fluxes of all sorts and remove many Diseases among which the Stone and Affectio Hypochondriaca stand at the Head But although all the sorts of Chalybeat Waters have some Qualifications in common as to invigorate the Blood and cleanse the Viscera yet as they differ in their Salt so likewise in their Virtues which I shall particularly treat of The Virtues of the Acidulae Which Name I would make proper to those Waters that are lightly Chalybeat THese have a fine Acidity not collectible into a Salt the residue upon Distilling being an Insipid Ferrugineous Earth and as I said before give only a Claret red with Gall. That which is proper to this sort of the Chalybeat Waters is That they are free of any gross Salt and have plenty of a Vitrioline Acid with little of the body of the Steel and that Acid more fix'd than in the light Chalybeats In order to understand the Benefit of this I shall observe that there are Cases that require a Water so qualifi'd either on the Score of the Distemper or Constitution of the Patient such as we commonly call Complexion in which a quantity of Steel may do more harm than the Vitrioline Spirit can do good And this must be allow'd me to be in all Cases and Persons where the Blood offends in quantity Floridness and Fluxilness by every one that observes the power Steel has to heat and invigorate the Blood in the Chlorosis And when I consider the opposite Nature of Chalybeat Acids and Nitrous Salts as I observed before I fansie I have a clear Reason for all this One Case that the Body of Steel agrees not in is that Indisposition of fresh-colour'd florid-complexion'd Persons about the last grand Climacterick as I call that of 49 who are liable to Fluxes of Blood or great Tumultuations of it It is very easie to discover the Alkalisat state of the Blood in aged Persons by only tasting the Urine which in those grows almost Caustick The Diseases that this sort of Water is a peculiar in are Apoplexies Phrensies and Fluxes of Blood and because the first of these is a Distemper that has strangely rag'd of late and extraordinarily this last Winter beyond what has been observ'd perhaps ever before to explain the reason of it so much as to give light to the Effect of these Waters may be no unacceptable a Digression Of the Apoplexy THE Reason of an Apoplexy and the Cause of so sudden a Deprivation of Life that great Judge the Prince of Physicians Hippocrates resolves into a Stagnation or Station of the Blood whereby all Motion and Action of the Spirits is taken away
have not known these Waters made tryal of But the most common Distemper or rather Symptom of the Stomach diseased is known only by the name of Pain It is necessary to distinguish the kinds of this more nicely than is usual and I shall not inquire here into the particular seats of it but mind the Reader in general that by the name of this Distemper I understand an affection of the Stomach or Ventricle from Matter lodg'd in or near it excepting those Affections of it per consensum from the Head or in acute Diseases and so it includes the primary Distempers of that Region that produce pain in the Ventricle I fansie a Syllabus of all the Affections and Symptoms of this kind would be useful and might be instituted after this manner Though the pit of the Stomach has the greatest sense of the Pain yet this Pain may be all over the Stomach So an obtuse Pain with Faintness and Sickness and an Hemicrania signifies a watry vapid state of the Blood as in a Chlorosis The same with Sickness attends a full Dropsie A rending Pain with weakness follows great Evacuations in weakly Bodies as Suckling Shooting to the Back denote the matter to be windy be it in the Cavity or elsewhere and Cholicks vary To say nothing here of Ulcers Moving a Rheumatism there fix'd and increases immediately upon eating Pain moving and fixing in Spots with most exquisite Pain Coldness and Convulsive Nippings and working off with a Loosness and coming some six or seven hours after eating a nervous Rheumatism or rather Membranous This last again increases or assaults upon Cold taking and is sometimes seated in the Coats of the Stomach and sometimes in the Membranes adjoyning or both so in some I have observ'd it to strike from the Stomach in a Vein as they call it upward side-ways or the like and not to bear a Position of the Body that pents it for the part afflicted always seems pent An obtuse Pain contracting the Stomach such as is usually express'd by knitting attends Hysterick Fits An obtuse Pain without this an Obstruction of the Catamenia or a Plethora sanguinis in hot Weather chiefly The Ventricle may be affected near its upper Orifice at the Pit of the Stomach only with a nipping Pain or a knitting Pain attending the Hypochondriacal and an obtuse Pain with a Sense of weight in Trouble and Melancholly The sense of Pentness accompanies Wind the sense of Fullness Water or Humour So I might proceed to Soreness Coldness and Acuteness Faintness c. There are other Pains near the Stomach as in the Jaundies about the bottom toward the right side so in a distemper'd Spleen or Liver or Pancreas may be known by their Situation Thus Judgment is to be made of the proper use of these Waters from the Cause or Nature of the Disease and of what means may reasonably be used together with them For an Obstruction of the Catamenia may make that Remedy necessary that a Plethora forbids A Chlorosis in a Phlegmatick Constitution is better cured with other Chaiybeats and a Pain from Weakness requires another Intention So that the use of these Waters is to be confin'd chiefly to Pains Convulsive in the Melancholy and Hypochondriacal and to other Collections of Wind or Phlegm from any Obstructions And although these chiefly arise from the Affectio Hypochondriaca and so are curable in the general Intention yet greater Accuracy is necessary both to the Discovery of the Distemper and assigning a Remedy and without which sure Observation can never be made Another Disorder of the Stomach is want or loss of Appetite which though it is restor'd by other Waters and means yet not only is more fully recover'd by these but its cause more perfectly remov'd But there are other Distempers cur'd by these Waters which are less understood and over which these reign alone I shall instance in two The one is a Fistula which though of many Years standing I have known effectually cur'd in six Weeks by the sole drinking of Tunbridge Water The other which appear'd to me as extraordinary was a Periodical Feaver and Cough which I knew a Gentlewoman cur'd of by the same Waters who for many Years had never escaped an Assault about October before she was freed by this Remedy Obstructions of the Pancreas I should have named before The Virtue these have of Chearing the Spirits and relieving a Heart oppress'd with Trouble or tumultuated with any Passions is as extraordinary as any of the former as being indeed the Cause and Producer of the Glandular Obstructions which together with Cephalick Distempers as Giddiness Pain c. come under the Affectio Hypochondriaca which therefore I shall consider now distinctly in all its Symptoms The Affectio Hypochondriaca HAS very numerous Symptoms and counterfeits all Distempers and upon continuance brings almost as many I shall consider the Symptoms and then the reason of them or seat of it The Signs enumerated by Authors are a Flatulent Stomach ill Appetite and Concoction Vomiting glewy petuitose Matter the Stomach Flatulent not well after Food upon which came a rejection of Food by Vomiting Lipothymia Giddiness turbulent Flatus's and Cramps Convulsions Tremors Ructus's Aquositates Flatus inter binas tunicas seu membranos mesenterii Ventriculi dolores vehementes adsunt qui nonnullis ad dorsum usque procedant ab aegris incautisque pro Nephriticis habâ—antur concoctis cibis quiescunt mox aliis ingestis cibis eodem modo revertuntur qui interdum jejunos interdum etiam à caenâ molestant non cessant priusquam aegri evomunt cibos crudos Phlegmata subamara caleda aut acida Alvus adstricta Aestus in Hypochondriis Vrinatenuis Anxietas Ventriculi Pulsus varii Cordis palpitatio Animi deliquium Pulsatio in sinistro Hypochondrio ab intemperie calidâ Palatum lingua os exsiccantur sitis levis excitatur respiratio difficilis dolor quidam constrictio in pectore persentitur Transit quandoque in Melancholiam Epilepsiam aut Apoplexiam abit quandoque caeci evadunt Symptomata Paralysi Convulsioni similia Lassitudo Cerebrum exsiccant vapores vigiliae adsunt Insomnia or vain frightful and Distracting Dreams suddenly and often disturbing the Sleep Night-mare or sense of oppressing weight Tension of the Hypochondries but that is a sign nor constant nor peculiar to their Distemper Obstruction of the Oesophaguâ— or Swallow Periculum suffocationis conqueruâ—â—tir dolor in anteriore parte Pectoris stupor dolor Formicans nunc in dextro nunc in sinistro Caligo Dolor in Brachio vel digito hoc vel illo sudor Frigidus de graviori morbo sibi metuunt And at last the part where the Humour lodges has its Symptoms as Stomach Spleen Liver c. which are then affected most six or seven hours after eating Whence these Flatus's proceed the Sense of Sennertus is Magis consentaneum est istos Flatus contineri in illâ cavitate in
same abstemious living with Exercise ought to be continued for two Months in which time the Body may be suppos'd to be a little confirm'd And for the same Reason though some Distempers as Stone Jaundies and Melancholy particularly may require some other Intentions to be satisfied and so make a Course of Physick necessary at the same time yet the use 〈◊〉 the Waters is so much the less beneficial by how much it is disturb'd by Purging or any other Medicines and therefore Reason and Experience place this means last But in Apoplexies and some watry Distempers as Dropsie and Chlorosis an Astringent more potent is very necessary to close and strengthen the Parts The most proper and powerful of this kind I intimated above to be the Ens Veneris of Mr. Boyle which if it succeed the Waters as the other Detersives and Purgers are to precede make an entire Course in the surprizing Distemper that I there apply it to and in the room of it I have sometimes used Chalybs Preparat with equal Success if the Apoplectick Symptoms were mild These Waters as they suffer by warming so are apt to bring some Disorders especially in an ill Season or Constitution as Cold Nauseousness difficulty of Urine and Giddiness which are usually provided against by drinking a Glass of Wine after every three or four Glasses of Water for the first few Mornings But because the two last Symptoms do sometimes prove more considerably obstinate I shall take notice that it is good for those that are obnoxious to Cephalick Diseases to provide against the Giddiness procur'd by these Waters by chewing of Nutmeg and indeed Bisket or a Crust of Bread chew'd do the same the motion of the Jaws seeming as necessary as the warming the Stomach And for the Stoppage of Urine shall acquaint the Drinker that where it is not occasion'd by the Stone though Glysters and Purgers may be requir'd sometimes yet it may soon be remov'd without usually only Ol. Terebinth guttis iij. in umbilicum instillatis And the same I have known done by a plentiful Glass of Rhenish But in all these Rules I must make this reserve for the Heavy Chalybeat Waters That Purging is absolutely necessary during the taking of those which are not so clean nor pass so well and may bind the Body too much I have nothing more to add but for a Conservative of Health to recommend the drinking of Tunbridge Waters with Wine in Winter to the Hypochondriacal which are easier to be had than the German Spaw and are as much better than those by how much they are lighter and which in Flasks headed with Oyl will keep well THE Natural History OF THE Purging Waters OF ENGLAND With their Uses PART II. THE Purging Waters of England for their Pleasantness easiness of Working and extraordinary Effects in many Distempers have been justly celebrated but as their Original hath not been yet prov'd but remains a Question among Learned Men so the Varieties of their Natures not having been examin'd have rendred the differences of them unuseful The due Examination of both I shall therefore propose with their Uses which we shall find great and very distinct The Method I shall use shall be to set apart their Principles and then inquire into them and then make Essays of the Waters In order to this I shall distinguish their Characteristicks and proper Signs and trace their Original And that we may proceed surely I have examin'd the Waters at the Wells and the Earths of the several Wells my self except those that I had as sure a Conveniency of inquiring into by some accurate and unquestion'd Friends The Purging Quality of these Waters then resides in the Salt which is peculiar to Wells that have these Qualifications These Purging Waters are all found above the dead Loam in a Loamy Clay that is the same continued to the Foundation or dead Loam This I have found common to the Selenitical Waters as well as others and in this Loamy Clay the Water hath only a level Spring And though the Waters by the Surface may seem to be in a Gravel as those of Richmond yet the Earth as I was there inform'd by those that sunk the Well proves to be a continu'd Clay and without mixture of Gravel down to the dead Loam The Scarborow Waters by an Exception against this being a running Spring and in a Gravel but the Earth of all others that have had a gravelly Surface proving upon Inquiry a Loamy Clay as that of Richmond and that near Colchester it is reasonable to allow me it here where the Spring is not lyable to enquiry and since in my examination of that Spring I shall prove it a complicated one of a Saline Water as the rest joyn'd with a Chalybeat Water which sort are ever running Springs 2. A Nitre ever appears on the Earth about the Springs where it is expos'd to the Air so at Scarborow Woodham-Ferrys Acton c. at Epsam it shews it self like a white Incrustation yet these Nitres all differ from the Salts contain'd in the Waters 3. The Matter impowering these Waters is a Salt of which they contain a great quantity some in a dry Season affording near a Dram in a Pint The Quantities may be collected from the weights of the Waters and this Salt not Volatile 4. They have universally one common Index that is a Stone form'd out of and bearing the face of Loam within when broken At Epsam it is more mellow from the quantity of Chalk that that Soyle affords else it is naturally hard as I observ'd it in all the other Wells almost to striking of Fire with Steel At Alford my Friend inform'd me the Stone would strike Fire but not strong enough to kindle Tinder This Stone is is a sort of Pyrites as the great Naturalist and Learned Physician Dr. Martin Lister rightly names it but that being a name of a Genus of Marcasites and so too large an Appellative I shall particulary describe this which is peculiar to this sort of Mineral Waters This Stone then which is found in these Wells at the bottom near the dead Loam where the Water ooseth in outward crust resembles a Pibble and as unform'd and as differing in bulk most amounting to the size of a Man's Head and more of them are found bigger than less It is heavy and very hard when broke it appears coated with flakes of Gypsum some white some yellowish some Alabastrine not exceeding in thickness the eighth of an Inch and from its breaking and thready Composition is distinguish'd by Naturalists by the name of Trichitis This Coat invests some wholly some are cased here and there only some this passing into divides into parcels The Matter or Body of these parcels too differ in hardness and some in colour containing Iron either of the natural colour as in most or rushy as in Richmond but most of these Stones are pure Loam hardned Richmond Stone had this peculiar to
alter'd not I essay'd Tinore Cellar-Salt and Lapis Calaminaris which last communicated only a dry â—aste more Corrosive Half the Jelly dissolved in a great quantity of fair Water precipitated not any heavy Powder the dirt flying about in it light The other half distill'd sent over a Liquor near the scent of Spirit of Salt but no Butter The Earth expos'd to the Air had no Efflorescence Dullwich stone melted with Glass did not tinge the Glass but penetrated the Vessel it was melted in which was of Tobacco-pipe Clay which broke smooth like China an effect which the other stones melted at the same time had not Woodhâ—m-Ferrys stones Lixivium tasted sweetish Redded Tincture of Logwood near a Claret but deeper and darker With Gall whitish and turbid as Nitâ—es Note that this was made of the burnt stone but with some Gall flying in it and curdled which is the effect of Salâ—petre Lignum Nephriticum it took a clear Tincture from and of a Canary colour The stone wash'd Jelly'd in Aqua fortis from which nothing could be separated by Sublimation or Precipitation no Efflorescence upon the exposing it to the Air nor was any Metalline Tincture discover'd by Fusion with Glass Epsam stones Lixivium with Oyl of Tartar per deliquium grew white and thick with Gall a fine and clear Yellow With Tincture of Logwood a dull pale Tawny It slack'd not in Water it jelly'd not in Aqua fortis the Powder remaining heavy and close at the bottom I boyl'd some of the Stain in Lye and in Water sharpen'd with Spirit of Nitre I infus'd some but from neither could make any discovery by Colour or Precipitation So now I come to the Essays of the Waters and Nature of the Salts therein contain'd Selenitical Waters Ebbisham commonly Epsam Water in SURRY EPsam Water was the first of the Purging kind discover'd in England viz. 1630 or soon after The Hill is a Clay of a brown colour and reddish and where the Wells are more grey The Well is about twelve foot deep the Earth where the Spring is afforded the Selenites plentifully at a private Well they were Columns the sides and superficies of which were inequilateral Parallelograms posited with their edges downward and their ends meeting in the centre In a Well a few feet distant and at the publick Well they were Rhomboid At both ends of the Town is Châ—lk dug and the Hill here and there hath veins of blew Loam Of the private Well which was newly sunk I inform'd my self by examining the Earth cast out of it which I receiv'd of the Owner Mr. Symonds together with this Account The upper Earth for two Spit deep was the same then they came to a harder and Loamy which lasted about seven feet then to a looser which sparkled with small Selenites as at the publick Well this held for two feet where they came at the Stones and Water together The Water in Summer-time flow'd in at the rate of an Ale-barrel in 24 hours Below the Selenites they came at a dead heavy Earth and black partaking of Iron under which was the common dead Loam or Cortex of the Mineral Region And though they dug three or four feet deeper yet neither was Water or the former signs found As the Selenites had somewhat of the shape of Vitriol of Iron so where they lay were veins of Iron and colour'd Earth the Iron was pure and obey'd the Load-stone the Earth which was either of a Brimstone colour or that of Iron rust I prov'd by washing to be the same only joyn'd by an Acid Juyce like Spirit of Vitriol which in the yellow had no taste of the Iron but a distinct pleasant Acid which with the Jellying of some parts of the Earth in Aqua fortis especially of the whiter part of it where the Selenites lay is what I observed there I shall not therefore repeat my Tryals of the Earths which were fruitless The Water is moderately clear of Taste bitter together with a muakish Saltishness not manifestly Lixiviat but a little of the taste of the second Salt of Salt Marine and of that Cellar Salt that is gather'd by things hanging in the middle of Cellars and not what fixes to the Walls Epsam Water precipitated not Vitriol dissolv'd in it but promoted its atramentous Quality as doth the Salt not precipitating the Colour as Salt of Lime or Chalk nor turning it red as some others particularly Salt of Cellars Notwithstanding this it agreed with that sort of Alkaly particularly which is calcarious in that it restor'd the blew of Tincture of Turnsole sharpen'd it took a Purple with a Tincture of Logwood in common Water lively and full not dull red a little purplish and dusky as Salt of Tartar made with Saltpetre and Alkalys produce nor tawny as Salt of Cellars Further as Salt of Chalk it troubled a Solution of Sublimat in fair Water and sent down a white precipitate which Alum doth not With Syrup of Violets a Grass-green as the same Salt Yet it peculiarly differ'd from the Salt of Chalk and all grosser Salts in taking a high Yellow and clear Tincture from Gall which is peculiar to Spirit of Nitre it being not of the Nature of Saltpetre which is the only Salt that takes a pale but clear Tincture With Syrup of Cloves it became dark â—ooty and greenish as do Alkalys and Fuligo of Vitriol that adheres to places where the Fume of boyl'd Coporas comes ☞ The peculiar Nature of the Salt of this Water is to be Calcarious yet agreeing with Vitriols and particularly to resemble Spirit of Nitre rather than Nitre it self yet to resemble the Salt of Chalk in precipitating a Solution of Sublimate which Spirit of Nitre will not The Acidity that came over in Distilling was little and pleasant The Salt Grey near a White and unfigur'd or uncapable of Christallization but soft like Barbadoes or Lisbon Sugar It did not cast up a Scum till it was near boyled up and the Salt precipitated in boyling This Salt was wrought on by Acids yet it coagulated Salt of Tartar rendred Liquid called Ol. Tartari per diliq it did not inflame with Sulphur but blister'd on a hot Iron and was not Caustick either burnt or unburnt The Earth of this Salt was white and dissolv'd in part in distill'd Vinegar and was about an eighth of the Salt The Salt of the Water which is said to amount in some dry Seasons to the proportion of seven Drams in a Gallon scarce then exceeded the half of that quantity after a wet one when I had it indeed not so much The Salt purged pleasantly in the quantity of half an Ounce as I try'd it but it seems to require a very gentle Evaporation to the due Preparation of it that Acidity of Alkalisatness may be preserved entire This Salt dissolv'd in some of its own Water deepned the yellow colour of Galls to a Pink and at last to a Red or very near as Spirit
after this manner The sides are constituted of the two Sexangular Planes alternately interpos'd to two of the largest Parallelograms each side standing at right Angles with the other The ends are terminated by the four lesser Parallelograms inclining to each other from the Extremities or lesser sides of the lateral Parallelograms as the two Lines mark'd with the points and dash Thus I have described the Form of it as intelligibly as I can in words but because a Figure will help to explain what hath been said and be a means to represent the Idea better to the Understanding I shall endeavour to give you the best Delineation I can Half of the Planes or Surfaces may be represented thus but the other which are opposite must be supplied by the Imagination a exactly represents one of the Sexangular Planes which hath another like it directly opposite c b d do shew the Proportions of the greater and lesser Parallelograms but they cannot be represented Rectangular in the Scheme as indeed they are as was mentioned above the sides a and b do stand at right Angles and so do the sides opposite to them Thus ◠b. Thus far is the Account received in the Gentleman's Letter dated Scarbourgh June 22. 1697. Some Christals of the Salt of this Water with the Earth or stony Powder of it I received since from the same hand The Salt was clear and uniform or single and not an aggregate consisting of Bacilli or Columns nor plected as the Alum there produced appears the Figure was the same now describ'd only one of the ends was not so exact being a little broken and the Christal in bulk hardly amounted to half the measure of the Figure This Salt precipitated not fine Silver out of Spirit of Nitre as Sea-salt and our Rock-salt does do yet disturb'd not a Solution of Sublimate which Alkalies and Nitres do and which Alum thickens and whitens A few drops of this Salt dissolv'd in fair Water rendred a Solution of Sal Saturni white as milk which Saltpetre does not disturb It curdled Ol. Tartari per deliquium but not so strongly as Epsam Salt The Salt inflam'd not upon a hot Iron though with Brimstone added nor was very fluxile ☞ In Sum The Salt partakes not of either Alum or Sea-salt but is Nitrous not of the Nature of Saltpetre or its second Salt nor so Alkalisate as to discover it self in Sublimate Water or to give a deep Green with Syrup of Violets but which allows a mixture with Vitriols and is not so Alkalisate or full of Nitre as to precipitate but near that imperfect one of our common Earth and which is not so fix'd as to keep in one state or Solution of it in Water but hinders not if not promotes the Fermentation or intestine Motion of the Liquor which it clears by throwing up a Scum For as far as appears to me Salts that have a Solidity and yet a disposition to Fermentation that in burning throw up a Scum rather than precipitate as the Salt of Weal Water and that that stagnates on rich common Earth does among the Nitrous sort It would be advantageous to the discovery or distinguishing of the Nature and Virtue of this Salt to put some up in a Bottle with Sack which is a Wine that makes no Tartar to observe whether a Precipitation would result only to Fine it or a Fermentation or disturbance would be renewed The Propriety of this Water consists in the middle nature of the Salt which keeps thick with Galls as the Salts that Vitriols embody with effect which are not purely of the nature of common Salt yet is so familiar to Vitriol as not to disimbrace soon beside the Chalybeat parts and its less volatile Acidity The Chalybeat Purging Water of Woodham-Ferrys in Essex THE Earth cast out of this Well contain'd many discolour'd Parcels of mellower Earth the colours of which were two that of Brimstone and a Ferrugineous and which yielded Iron upon Essay when only well wash'd And as at Epsam these Veins attend the Selenites so the same stone is plentifully found here most of them were in one half resembling the Rhomboid the other had a differing Figure by the declining of the two opposite grand Planes till they determin'd at an edge which was Semicircular as in the Figure In parcels of this Loam inclos'd I found great plenty of Vermicular bodies which were mere Iron of which Metal one Tubulus Marinus and several pieces I brought away with me and reserve The stone or imperfect Marcasite which I call Lapis Lutosovitriolicus here had many shining Particles in it and consisted of Parcels divided by a thin Wall of Gypsum or Trichitis and precipitated some Iron when dissolved in Aqua fortis and diluted with fair Water The Water was clear of Taste Chalybeat but had more of the nauseous sweetish taste of the Purging Waters not void of Bitterness with Gall a thick Purple as Saline Chalybeats In the quantity of nine Ounces five Drams and 24 Grains exceeded common Water in weight thirteen Grains It chang'd not the colour of Syrup of Violets it took not away the colour of Syrup of Cloves which Alkalies do by inducing a sooty or green and common Salt by rendring it pale and cloudy It agreed with Vitriols and common Salt in making no alteration in a Solution of English and German Vitriol nor in a Solution of Mercury Sublimate yet curdled not much or large with Spirit of Sal Armoniack and less with Spirit of Harts-horn and with Spirit of Nitre suffer'd no alteration with Logwood infus'd a Purple but more toward a Red or Murry Note I used in this Experiment the Water when boyl'd high toward a Salt The Salt differ'd from Saltpetre in rendring a Solution of Sal Saturni milky it precipitated a Solution of fine Silver in Spirit of Nitre immediately as common Salt yet made with Liquid Salt of Tartar but a fine curdle with Lignum Nephriticum a pale yellow and thick as common Salt with Iron and Gall infus'd a right blew Ink and which did not precipitate The Kensington Water gave a more red black and which soon fell and with Lignum Nephriticum a clear high yellow near an Orange This Water of Woodham-Ferrys did not precipitate any Ferrugineous parts or Okar upon its losing its power of Tinging with Galls Then the Water with Gall took a yellow tolerably clear but not purely clear of disturbance near the effect of common Salt The Salt of this Water comes near common Salt Bay Salt with Gall giving a reddish cloudiness as the other a Vitrioline or mix'd one The simplicity of the Salt appears in the colour and clearness with Gall. It precipitated a ruddy Earth in boyling which distill'd Vinegar wrought on with great Effervescence The Salt seem'd of two sorts the first being hard not readily flowing in heat and grain'd and crackling a little in the Fire and leaping Some flat shoots like Saltpetres Bacillis The Earth contain'd
THE Natural History OF THE Chalybeat and Purging Waters OF ENGLAND With their particular ESSAYS and USES Among which are treated at large THE Apoplexy Hypochondriacism To which are added Some Observations on the Bath Waters in Somersetshire Dedicated to the Right Honourable the Earl of Manchester By Benjamin Allen Med. Bac. LONDON Printed And Sold by S. Smith and B. Walford at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard 1699. TO THE Right Honourable CHARLES Earl of Manchester Baron of Kimbolton Lord Mandevill AND One of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council My Lord THAT this Treatise waited for a share in the Ceremony of receiving your Lordship from Venice Arguments are not wanting for besides the Interest that I bear by living within your Influence There is a common Obligation to appear in the general Train of those that gratefully attend your Return from your Embassy from a just Sense of the Blessings these Kingdoms receive from your Employment and your Country by your Return and Presence But that I inscribe it to your Lordship's Name I am more necessarily induced in that it is not easie to find so fit a Patron and so great a Judge Your Greatness that impowers you to countenance a Book hath a Brightness more than common to your own Quality and hath all the Worth and Beauty that Integrity Virtue and Goodness can give it As a Judge how you are Qualify'd I shall not attempt but only observe your Lordships excellent Temper to be so great a Help as that just Notions of things are not to be had without As a Character is better waved Justice being seldom done in Dedications so I am happy that it is not the least part of your Character that your Excellencies have a Foundation above that of common Applause However you need it not I had the Honour to observe your Lordships first Years possess'd of the Esteem of one who had a Fame for Learning among those that are acknowledged to be the greatest Masters of it in Europe and now your Riper ones in the nearest Imployment of the greatest of Princes The Subject My Lord gives you a Right to it who accounts the noblest Subject is to know a Man's self and who makes the Practise of doing Good your Pleasure And the Touches I have given at Humane Nature your Lordship 's several Travels abroad have given you a particular Palate for I have offer'd somewhat at the two grand Problems the Mechanism of Life and Use of Respiration and at the Distinct Notion of Humane Nature But I own the Thoughts are shatter'd and not exact What your Good Opinion Supports I shall set above the Rate of common Estimation so what your Judgment condemns shall lose all Value and Concern with me However it gives me an Opportunity to signifie that I am My Lord Your Honours Most Humble and Devoted Servant Benjamin Allen. THE PREFACE THE Knowledge of the Specifick Seat and Nature of the Disease and Energy of the Remedy as it gave the Rise and Increase to Medicine so is what the Art of Physick consists in and its Excellency depends on This is evident in 〈◊〉 and appears in every Disease and every Remedy The Jaundies are known to Physicians to admit of a various Cure as Trouble Obstruction of the Catamenia Feavers or an Indisposition of the Intestines may produce them The Exactness requisite to this is further seen in the ill Success that attends the empirical Vse of the Cortex in Pthises and Feavers without distinction of the Nature of the Symptom and Propriety of the Medicine Howfar the best Methodists fall short that sit down short of this Inquiry is experienced in Feavers wherein the taking Indications indiscriminately without respect to the Nature of the Cause could never be made consistent with success by the most judicious and happy Practicer which that Method hath yet produced The present Subject is one of the noblest in Physick not only for its Generosity and Vniversality but for their extraordinary Virtue in some and those very many and various Diseases wherein they are the most constant and sole Remedy And that these Waters are liable to the same Inconvenience I have been induced to believe by their frequently ineffectual and improper Vse and the Neglect of so certain a Remedy which I have observ'd in some Diseases wherein the Patients must be supposed to have drop'd for want of them Instances of which I shall have occasion to glance at presently I shall therefore make no Apology for my advancing somewhat towards so great a Desideratum As to what hath been done on this Subject by the Inquiries which some of our greatest Naturalists who have engaged themselves 〈◊〉 it have made I need only say that neither their Principles have been discover'd nor the Nature of the Salt or Spirit of each Water have been distinctly examin'd whereby as they have been wide from either so they advanced only loose Conjectures at some unknown Principle the most particular Inquiry by the very accomplish'd Physician and industrious Naturalist Dr. Martin Lister to whom the World is obliged for what he hath publish'd and my self what he was pleas'd civilly to communicate to me of the Condition of the Scarburgh Spring takes notice of the Condition of the Wells so far as to observe the Efflorescence of their Earth and their ferreous Stone which he observes to be an attendant on all our Mineral Springs and Baths as I remember without distinction and tho' rightly judging the Salt a Native of the Soyl where it is found yet on the same Account neither arriv'd at the Nature of the Principles of this Salt nor its differences nor traced its reason and Derivation The Chalybeat Waters which were reducible to a few general Heads I have given only Samples of to both I have preserved their experienced Virtues and to the Purging ones suggested some from their Nature and in this Account I find one Benefit that results that besides helping to the distinct Nature of each Water I have discover'd or at least made useful some Waters of the same Virtues with the justly celebrated ones whose distance made them still wanting to other parts of the Kingdom as those of Scarborow and Knaresborow are My account of the reason of the Operation of the Waters is so wild and imperfect as to be nauseous to my self and afford me no other satisfaction than that I have hinted what ought to be done yet because an insight into this promotes the understanding of the Nature of the Diseases and in what their Cure must consist and so the true place of the Vse of the Waters the Hints I give being somewhat informing instead of troubling the Reader with the Reasons of so great Negligence I shall choose to induce him to forgive it by giving them a little light here that may a little clear my sense in this matter Both the Chalybeat and Purging Waters have some Virtues in common to restore the Appetite remove
nauseousness of the Stomach Pains of that and the Head to cool to allay Flatulencies and the Cramps and disorderly Motions in the Body and flatness of the Spirits that attends them And this the Nature of the Principles well accounts which are thus far the same for as Water the common Vehicle in both demands Consideration as being most unfermentative and so a great assistant in suppressing Flatulencies from ill Concoction and other Failings of the parts occasion'd by fermented Liquors so the main Principle of the Purging Waters I have detected to be a Chalybeat Juyce These Waters where they can reach and pass and suit by their grossness seem to answer the Specifick Nature of the Chalybeat in some measure On this account these sometimes succeed in the Cure of a Diabetes as my honoured Friend and learned and compleat Physician Dr. Clopton Havers inform'd me upon a Case I consulted him in and as the Learned Dr. Grew hath recommended them which is 〈◊〉 peculiar Province of the light Chalybeat ones as being a Disease of the Glands which else these are unserviceable in The Purging Waters by their grossness have therefore their Effect chiefly on the Viscera and first ways which their Salt qualifies them to cleanse and exterminate Thus they are found to cure Head-achs Vertigo's Cramps Colicks and the Jaundies when their Cause or Fomes is in the Stomach or Bowels or is Hypochondriacal They are suited to the Diseases likewise that attend the grand Climacterick as I call that of 49 by joyning correcting and exterminating the Faeces of the Chyle which then is grosser and more Alkalisate and wants discharge As to differences of the Salts of these Waters as well of the heavy Chalybeats experience made them of weight with me having beside what I mention in its place observed the Jaundies cur'd more generally by those whose Salt was affine to common Salt and that elder Persons receiv'd most Benefit from those that were Chalybeat and that the particular Constitution requir'd a distinct regard to the Salt Of what power unheeded differences of Salts are in our Bodies besides experience I found it so reasonable in that Viâ—rioline and common Salt and Niters precipitate each other that it farther proved it self by the successful use this directed me to make of it in Fluxes of Blood immoderate Flux of the Catamenia and some other Diseases of this Year which by many reasons I judged to be Nitrous wherein I found Chalybeat Preparations to be the only effectual Remedies which were so unlikely as commonly in the Chlorâ—sis promoting such a Flux that I found it pretty hard to perswade some to the use of it And the proper use of the more Acid Chalybeat Waters in Fluxes of Blood make them a peculiar The Virtues of those and the Atramentous appear in their place The last of these are least efficacious and most numerous the Instances of that at Leez Place and at the much honoured Sir Edward Southcot Bar. his Seat are sufficient for Examples The light Chalybeats are the most abstracted of this kind and so fit to the Recesses of Nature which the others cannot reach and to shew the power of the Mineral The Virtues of these in various affects of Body and Mind and Hypochondriacism which produceth them are constant The Diseases are so odd which these and only these do cure that they ought to be specified and shall be done under these Heads The first drawn from the part affected which is the Glands and this Rule is so extensive as to hold in all Diseases of the Kidneys and Glands of the Joynts Their happy use in the first I receiv'd Information of from the before mentioned Dr. Havers which I found confirmed by this surprizing Effect upon their very first taking that instead of passing they stop'd their Vrin which was little to be expected from so powerful a Diuretick as they else are found to be And the perfect Cures of the Gout by these Waters are frequent and have been well attested to me A second Mark or Head The Diseases they are Specifick in is characterised by the Nature of the Waters and Diseases they Cure as the Waters clear depurate and suppress exorbitant Fermentations and as Diseases are produced by the Luxury of the Feculency of the Chyle and effort of fermented Liquors among which are the Diabetes and the Gout which are often produced by the use of fermented Liquors which by how much the staler the Beer is the more sure the Mischief and are incurable without altering the Drink in great measure To which I may add that the Gout is said never to have assaulted any Drinker of Water and many Indispositions are under this Head which are thus pointed at by the Cause A third Consideration that points at the Cases these Waters are proper in is the Occasion and time of the Disease and brings us all the Diseases at the Climactericks A fourth regards the Spring and part of its Origine which is the Brain and Mind and indicates all Diseases of any kind produced by Trouble and Grief The Cure of the Fistula and Feavers may make other Heads and give a rise to greatly improveable Thoughts Now in order to the just and ready use of these Waters that promptuary of Experience can only be certain that nicely digests Observations and specifies the Cases this only can readily point out the Remedy and hinder their improper Administration and discover Cases wherein they are effectual which may be so remote to our sense of them as never would encourage our attempting the Application of the only proper Remedy And this I insist on the more because I have had reason to believe this escape to have been even from the generality of Physicians This may be particularly instanced in a Dropsie wherein the Waters are very improper and often hasten the end of the Patient and yet in the same Disease when it proceeds from grief of Mind they are a reasonably certain and the only Remedy I say in this I have more than once known a Patient dye under the fruitless Application of a regular Course of Physick for a Dropsie when the successful use of the Waters in the same case oblig'd me to conclude the ill Success to be owing to the want of distinguishing the Disease and knowing the proper Remedy next under that Providence that disposed the Concealment Besides Diseases from this Cause are irregular and various and not bear any other method of Discovery or Cure Distempers of the Climactericks are as numerous and their Cure seems to depend as much on the same Discovery and I have often seen Consumptions at 21 and 49 cur'd by the dexterous Application of Chalybeats the Waters chiefly in the Cure of which by common Methods and Intentions their Physicians had labour'd unsuccessfully And as this helps us to the Knowledge and Cure of many Diseases that else lye conceal'd from us so it assists our Judgment in making due and true Prognosticks And
I have been pleas'd with the evidence of Art when I could not readily cure a Disease viz. an Epilepsie that came on at 27 in the true Prediction of its declining and departure at 30 and of the Diseases that assaulted at 14 superceded at 18. The Apoplexy which is cured by the more acid Chalybeats and reliev'd by the light ones transcends the common Notions of the other glandular Diseases as it is an Affection of the very Root of Life it self and requires a particular Consideration in order to inform us how and where this Remedy is proper for although it is evident that it is an Affection of the medullary part of the Brain whence Sense and Life is distributed yet with submission to better Judgment I conceive the Accounts of this Disease are at a loss about the Production of it when they come to the immediate Cause and the long Excursion this Enquiry demands as it is unavoidable so is so seasonable also by reason of the Increase and Frequency of this Disease here especially in the Country where this Year it has insulted more than ever that I question not but the Acceptableness of the Disquisition will excuse it I shall distinctly view the Nature of an Apoplexy and Disposition it consists in The Causes of it The Differences and lastly The suitable Intentions and Indications The general Phaenomenon upon Dissection of those that dye of this Distemper being an Effusion of Blood upon the Brain Authors do generally agree in placing the Production of this Disease in an Obstruction made at the Brain and must be allow'd to be produced in the Cortical part and conceive this to be made by some Congestion in the Blood-Vessels and which the Learned Dr. Cole supposes may be of viscous or serous Matter as it is either in quantity or freshly excited or else Polypous Concretions or any other obstructing Matter to admit which the Brain is pre-dispos'd by its Laxity or Openness in which likewise the bare Distention of the Arteries may suffice to produce it I shall with all Deference to those great Authors and particularly the last humbly offer my Conception though more grosly yet as it appears to me and best explains the Benefit of the Mineral Waters in this Case thus That an Apoplexy is a Disease of the Cortex cerebri not founded in any Obstruction though often attended by them but consisting in the Ruin of its mechanical Crasis and Temper which is such as Steel restores and Niters destroy the Causes and Nature of which is common to other Glands and produceth a Paroxysm by a Hamorrhage or Admission of Flatulent Parts consequential to this which Distemper the Suicus nutritius may arrive at either by Age or Qualities contracted upon Congestion and grossness of the Chyle or receive by Particles communicated from the Air or all joyntly besides violent Causes and so may truly be said to be seated not in the Sanguinary Vessels but Glandular Ducts But as they wrongfully charge the Blood-Vessels with the cause in that an Apoplexy may be produced without any of this as is clear from Dr. Willis's Instance so they seem incumbred in the explaining the Reason of the Abolition of Sense and Motion and in the place and nature of this Congestion the Mistakes in the Nature of this Distemper seem to me to be owing to the ill Notion of Animal Mechanism and use of the Brain wherein they suppose a Circulation or passage of Animal Spirits so necessary to Life as that the Interruption of them sufficeth to abolish it The Difficulties of which way of Solution are taken notice of by all the Writers on this Subject rather than explain'd My Sense in this Matter I shall give by considering first the Inconveniencies the Brain can suffer without this Deprivation 2ly The Vital Mechanism of the Brain And 3ly The necessary Cause or Reason of its Production as appears in the Brain And to be brief first it appears from the Dissections in Wepfer Willis and others that all the passes of the Animal Spirits at once cannot be obstructed nor a Compression of the Brain and Cerebel nor an Inflammation of the Brain or its Meninges produce it there are as just Exceptions lye against plenty of Blood nor is it from Stones generated Abounding Serum may be without it and Water beap'd within the Cranium and Ventricles And Plater's Instance proves that a Carnous Schirrhous and Fungous Tumour on the Corpus Callosum produced Stupidity and Death without an Apoplexy 2ly I shall consider the grand Design of the Brain and its vital Mechanism of which though it be inextricable in its private and more recluse Motions yet thus much appear Although Animal Mechanism is compound and Respiration is necessary to the Motion of the Blood to which the Lungs are accordingly framed and upon which Motion Life depends yet as the Pulse of the Heart is perform'd by the Nerves so the Air Atmospherical upon whose obstructing or fixing so as to hinder its Elasticity Life so suddenly ceaseth in some Animals seems to act only on the Nerves as in those that have membranous Lungs where no more Blood circulates in their Lungs than is necessary for the supply of the part whereby the Air seems to serve the Circulation in other Animals for greater force and greater Heat for those Animals first nam'd are colder and live long without Food and so both Air and the Niter of it is useful with equal Pace and in equal Degree to the Motion necessary at the Lungs to the fury of the Circulation of the Blood and to the Nourishment to be consum'd and it is observable that the Par vagum and intercostal Nerves which are the Instruments of involuntary Motion serve both Lungs and Ventricle The use then of this Heat in the Blood seems to prepare a due Elasticity in the Chyle that is to serve the Brain or parts of it be it the Spirituous part in what sense soever being accommodated to some Disposition of the Brain for in the external Air there is besides all this but answerable to this a due degree of Elasticity or quantity of elastick parts or compressure of them necessary to Life which is proportion'd to the coldness of the Animal perhaps but certainly adapted to the Spring of Life in the Brain as is seen in Fish which live by the Air yet dye in the open Air and is confirm'd in Whitings which swim deep in the Water aâ—d so with us are not liable to be taken by Nets and dye instantly upon being taken out of it The Brains of Animals are accordingly adapted to this use those who use the greatest force of the Air as Birds have the Cortical part vastly larger in proportion than men no doubt to separate the Air and perhaps corroborate the Brain and their Lungs fix'd accordingly and Fish have least Brain and Cortex too The Nature of Life and use of the Brain being thus stated to consist in the justice of a Spring
of the heavy and less effectual sort in the more nice Cases and its Salt approaching to an Alkaly and scarcely curdles with Soap or liquid Salt of Tartar not so much as our gravelly Pump-water nor disturbs a Solution of fine Silver in Spirit of Niter so much And to this agrees the Observation of the French Academists All which I offer to be consider'd and examin'd by Physicians who may get it more fresh than mine were and observe their Use. ERRATA PAge 36. Line 23. Observ'd by add Dr. Lower p. 67. dele quin. p. 69. for pents read pends Where Mr. Simson is mentioned read Symonds p. 113. at the bottom before unacquainted dele not p. 113. l. 12. after at one insert end p. 115. for fessil read Fissil p. 116. l. 15. after hand add except Salts a little more mix'd as those of Kensington and Woodham-Ferrys p. 126. l. 15. after Acidity for of read and. p. 134. l. 15. for Camellae read Lamellae To the Class of North-hall Water where the Nature is determin'd to resemble Spirit of Salt add and to partake of Spirit of Vitriol and may be a peculiar in the Stone and Stoppage of Vrine The Colchester Selenites was found in a Bed of blewish Clay as my Worthy Friend Mr. John Luffkin of that Town since informed me And other escapes may be that the Reader may easily correct THE Natural History OF THE Chalybeat and Purging Waters OF ENGLAND The Introduction THE Method which I thought reasonable to take to get an Account of these Waters and which affords the Minutes of this History was the examining the several Wells and particular Matter of them and tracing their Earths and Springs by the help of their proper Signs and then to add to these the Essays of the Waters And the Universality and Accuracy of this Inquiry have distinguish'd it by the Success of a clear Discovery of their Principles I am not ignorant that this History as it is an exact Examination of the Nature and Origin of Waters so much in use and as it may advance and he helpful to a General History of Mineral Waters needs nothing to recommend it yet Use being the Design of this Treatise and because to give the Reader a View of the Benefits proposed by it may facilitate the understanding of it I shall shew that the Usefulness of this Inquiry is fully proportioned to the Difficulty of attaining it For besides the Satisfaction to the Drinkers of them which ariseth from the Knowledge of their Principles the Effects of the Chalybeat and Purging Waters of England are so great and the Cures perform'd by them in Obstinate and the less understood Distempers are so very extraordinary that were their Natures better understood we must expect no inconsiderable Advantage from the proper Use of so Noble a REmedy Since this would direct us not only to the more certain Use of them but advance our Understanding to the Discovery of other Distempers in which they might succeed and help us to avoid all that ill Success that attends their improper Administration How necessary such Exactness is to the understanding their Natures will appear sufficiently if we consider what vastly different Qualities are found to be in the Waters reputed of the same Species which yet may be owing only to the Variety of the Salts with which they may be impregnate of which Variety I shall give some particular Instances because it is of great Consequence and hath hitherto been unheeded The Vertues of the Chalybeat Waters have been as yet so much attributed to the Metalline parts or Steel that setting aside the Vehicle of Water the Benefit of which is taken notice of by some in the Choice of these nothing usually is consulted but the Quantity of Steele evidenc'd in the depth of its Tinging with Galls and yet in this so uniform a Species it is easie to discern that Variety of Nature and Effects that will oblige him who observes it to allow so much to the Menstruum of it or the Salt that is added either in its Quantity or Quality as is sufficient to constitute Medicines of a quite different Nature Hypochondriacal Cases in which the Intention seems most General the Light sort claim as their Province to relieve and I never knew the Heavy ones used in but with the ill success of aggravating the Distemper with an uneasie Heat and with very little of the good Effects that attend the light ones The Propriety of these Waters in some other Distempers as Obstructions of several Parts upon the account of their lightness and thinness and particular sort of Spirit appears likewise in the Chapter of their Vertues The heavy Waters that have more of the Mineral of Iron but clogg'd with Salt have different references according to the differing Nature of the Salt and quantity of Mineral they bear whereof the Nitrous for such some prove to be regard properly that heavy and black Crasis of the Blood of the Melancholick for I distinguish the Melancholy properly so call'd which hath its Root in the Constitution from the affectio Hypochondriaca The other which have a Salt of the same Vitriolick Nature with the Spirit are a peculiar in those cases which I call Climacteric of elder Persons and some others which require the enriching of the Blood and the help of a Salt more effectual gross and lasting than is the light Spirit And as some cases may require the same Vitriolick Salt to help the Appetite and restrain Flatulencies where the Blood as it needs not so bears not much of the body of the Steele For such is the case in some Persons past Fifty of a florid Complexion and who breed Blood fast so a Water that is thus qualified of which I have given an instance may be reputed another Species and for its real use deserves well to be distinguish'd The Salts which these weighty Waters extract from the Soil it is likely may vary very much yet having not found any of them to contain Salt-petre and the difference of their Virtues depending chiefly on their being more or less Alkalisat I â—ay not so mucâ—â—â—ight on those lesser Qualities as to distinguâ—◠〈◊〉 Waters by them though I take notice of the◠〈◊〉 the Essays of the Waters But there are other Qualities that Waters may derive from the places where they run which are less sensible and may lye in some Motion or Texture rather than in any Accession of Particles that a particular Distemper or Constition besides what a tender one might may receive an Impression from these are Coldness and Hardness And these are so considerable as to be allow'd by some Physicians rationally enough to have been the Cause of an Epilepsie that seiz'd a Gentlewoman whom I knew upon drinking for a Chlorosis a Water that issues from a Stone Quarry Again as the Waters have dâ—â—â—erent Effects from their different Qualifications so they have some Effects in common from their common or general or more
Essential ones That which I shall take notice of here is the Prevention of the Generation of the Stone because their Pretention that makes them here Competitors is a Propriety of this Kind of Mineral Waters which is explain'd in this History and confirms it and was never before discover'd or understood The Purging Waters owing their Virtues wholly to their Salts are much more various in their Nature and the Ignorance of the different Nature of these Salts has made their different Effects unquestion'd and so hitherto to escape Observation and though the Subtilty and Fluxilness of some of these Salts and not of others may seem to most Men too slight to deserve Consideration and has neither been observ'd nor inquir'd into yet it is most certain that those very Qualities give the Waters a different Capacity Epsom and Acton which both bear only this kind of Salt that neither admits of Christallizing nor abides the Warmth of a Temperate Hand on this Account as they are more Effectual in Grosser Bodies so in Leaner in the very same Cases prevail not nor agree And on the same Score I have found them Effectual in some old Cholicks and Cramps where the Passages and Vessels that wanted cleansing were very small or the Matter glutinous or viscous The same Qualifications which these Waters have for deterging and are conspicuous in the Galling of the Arcus and Urinary Passage that attends often the Operation of these Waters above what is usually observ'd in drinking the others may reasonably enough have an advantageous Use likewise in Ulcers of the Kidneys in a cautious and judicious Hand and they often have been by me observed to be successful in some Obstructions of them which together with the Inconvenience of an Ischuria that sometimes attends their improper or unseasonable Use makes this Consideration to merit our Attention and besides the Softness of the Salt I am speaking of may give rise to a Thought that some emollient or relaxing Quality may be communicated in some cases as in Melancholy for example above what other Waters can be expected to exert But besides the Qualities now consider'd this History will inform us of Differences of the Salts of these Purging Waters in more essential Qualities and that these are almost as many as the Waters whereof some few stand at such a distance as Alkalys and Sea-salt and their Virtues are so proportionably distant that till I consider'd that the Knowledge of the first assisted me in the Observation of the latter I was apt to wonder how so frequent Instances should slip the regard of even the most considerable Men it is familiar for Scorbutick Indispositions to be relievd by one Water and aggravated by another I have known Instances of a Scorbutick Scabies and a Leprous Disease each increas'd by drinking the Water of Brentwood-weal which abated upon the use of Woodham Ferrys And this is the clearer and fairer Example because both these Diseases have been effectually cured by Lambeth Water And I may observe that this makes much for the Validity of this Account that the discoverable Qualities of the Salts of these Waters so justly correspond with their experimented Virtues for which reason in treating of those Waters now nam'd I have oppos'd or compar'd the Qualities of them to each other Indeed though the clear and convincing Detection of their Differences and of the Salts they bear relation to be only subject to nice Essays yet they confess to the bare Taste wide differences some being Bitter more Saline some some Sweet some Insipid or near the Taste of common Water some have a Vitriolick Sweetness some are Austere c. which hitherto has escap'd Observation So that Mineral Waters seem one of the greatest as well as the most useful Branches of the Materia Medica In sum It is by the understanding their Origine and Nature that we can ascertain Rules and distinguish Errors in taking them readily discover their proper Uses and by directing to other Cases and Distempers in which they may be applicable on the same Reason and Account may improve and advance their Virtues And besides the least piece of Service this does in the recording their Uses and giving those Signs that may direct the Discovery of other Wells with the advantage of an Example to direct the proving them is not inconsiderable The Benefit of all this that I may not seem to abound in my own Sense I shall give in the words of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society All which being consider'd we cannot but add That whoever discovers such Healing Waters and publickly prescribes the safe and right Use of them does really distribute larger and nobler Alms than if he built and endow'd a Savoy for this prolongs Life and restores Health which is sometimes better than Life both to Rich and Poor to Natives and Strangers to Neighbours and Travellers According to this Design the History of these Waters will come under these three Heads The General History of them The Essays of the several Waters and then their Uses I shall treat of these two Kinds of Waters distinctly and observe that order that Repetition may be avoided and the former parts of the Discourse may enlighten the latter Of the Nature of Common Water THere are many Questions which seem to lye in my way to be discuss'd as of the Origine of Springs Nature and Origine of Mineral Juyces and Vitriols Of the Causes of the Heat of the Earth c. which the following History makes to disappear I shall therefore avoid the Prolixity caused by such Disputes and only make some Remarks on the Affections and Nature of Simple or Common Water which may help us to the better conceiving of the Nature of Mineral ones 1. Waters receive their Salts of the Earths they wash 2. Common Water holds no Metalline parts nor will receive any Mineral Acids being necessary for Vitriols And though gravelly Waters just at their Eruption will take so much of an Iron as with Galls will make Ink yet that the Acidity belch'd up at those places is a distinct thing and not of the same Original is evident in that the Water looses that Quality a few Yards from the Spring and then ceases to take any discoverable Parts or Qualities from either Iron or Copper or Brass 3. All Waters flow on a Loam or fat heavy Earth such as Tiles are made of and there is a dead heavy sort of it known by its Blackness Weight and Stonyness which is the common Floor of Springs and is therefore call'd in Norfolk the Pan of the Earth beyond which no Pump-maker expects to find Water or attempts to dig for it All the Earth above this approaches to a Nitre being so much the more Nitrous by how much more it is wrought on by the Sun and Air Nitre being receiv'd as a Name for any Native Salt of the Superficial Earth by the Sun and Air produced or separated which is void of
or of the Nature of Spirit of Vitriol which is Essential to the Precipitations Marks-Hall Water in Essex THIS Water joyning another in crusts as do the rest it is much the same with the preceding containing little Steel but a large share of an Acid not so Fugitive as where it is in less quantity or ill coupled with a Salt It gave a bright Red a very little purplish not so deep as the preceding The Colour it advanc'd with Gall it lost again two days after without Precipitation of any Ferrugineous parts in which it differs from other Chalybeats It rendred a Solution of Sal Saturni troubled but not very milky much as the rest and it tinctur'd a high Yellow with Lignum Nephriticum as do Nitres and a little clouded It weigh'd likewise as the other just the weight of common Water Ilmington Water in Warwickshire THIS Water of Ilmington being of the same heavy kind and which as I observe above require less Accuracy I shall give the Examination of it out of Dr. Derham's Account of it With Syrup of Violets it turned Green with Galls Purple like Martial Vitrioline Waters It exceeded common Water in weight near half a Dram in a Pint being weigh'd in a dry Season Indeed it is much the heaviest of this kind in England for it purges not as he informs us p. 53. but by Urine However That it cannot vie with the lighter Chalybeats in Virtue I shall explain in treating of their Virtues The Water in an open Bottle drop'd its Ocre and with that its power of Tinging with Galls in twelve hours time that is a great part of it which it did not begin to do in a Bottle well stop'd under a Fortnight p. 88. It yielded a Salt of an irregular shape upon the residue after distilling Acid Spirits wrought with great Effervescence and not Alkalysat p. 82. The Salt was pale and would not flagrate p. 60. nor coagulate Milk p. 77. The Earth like Red Ocar and is contain'd in great quantity a Quart yielding near a Spoonsul It appears hence that the Salt of this Water is of an Alkalisat Nature and that it differs from the Salt of Fat Mellow or Loamy Earths which Purge as we shall find in the latter part of this History Aylesham Water in the County of Norfolk THIS Water is in a Gravel it has prevail'd in Fame and Resort over Oulton Water in the same County which is a lighter and far more effectual Water partly from the more convenient Situation of the place and partly from the wrong Estimate that is made of Chalybeat Waters by those that jndge of their Goodness by the depth of their Tinging with Galls It is heavier a little than ordinary Gravel Water with Galls or Oken leaves takes a blew black and makes a direct Ink as do those Waters whose Salt has somewhat of the Nature of common Salt That the Metalline parts of these Waters are purely Chalybeat I inform'd my self not in all but in some as that at Leez and some other smaller ones by exposing to the Air the subsident Okar lightly calcin'd with Sea-salt which would discover Copper if any were in it and besides by the colour they give upon Tryals with Gall the blew black colour being proper to Vitriol of Iron The lesser Springs of this kind are very numerous in Gravelly Countries scarce a Village without one upon the preceding Instances of them I shall make Observation of their differences and the Classes they must be reduc'd into whereinto yet I did not adventure to digest them lest in the Sense of others the difference should appear only gradual These weighty Waters are either 1. the more pure and simple Acidulae which bear less of the Steel retain their Acidity longer and have not their colour with Gall dark or disturbâ—d as the other sort nor contain any Salt collectible of this sort seems Knaresborough and which is yet the higher of this kind Marks hall Water which gives a thin and bright Red with Gall scarce beyond a Rasberry and loseeh its quality of Tinging without Precipitation of Okar is of a pleasing acid Taste as it were winy and yet gives not the proof with Lignum Nephriticum that Vitriols do or Spirit of Salt but thickish reddish and cloudy as the Seminitrous Salt shot in Cellars Or 2ly Atramentous which give a full Black with Gall and with respect to the colour they give they are either blewish or reddish the reddish as that at Wittham kept a Week will be thickish and turbid with Gall but disturb not a Solution of fine Silver in Spirit of Nitre which the Leez Water which gives a blew black being more related to common Salt did in a great measure precipitate Another difference that is considerable in these Waters is the bulk or quantity of Salt they contain as the Illmington Water proves which is not only much heavier than other Waters but varies in its Effects and equally to the grossness of the Salt neither reaches the recesses of Nature so far nor passes so well To obviate some Objections I shall observe that the Reason why these Waters which are equally with the other sort capacitated to precipitate the earthly parts out of gravelly Water are not likewise equally qualified with Lightness by the same Vitrioline Spirit is because the Salt of these Waters is so far Vitrioline as to be apt to joyn a Chalybeat Acid and consist with it but yet to be separated by Heat and is in some small measure of Nature the same with that which is an Ingredient in Vitriols for the Liquor of Vitriols if boyl'd with too great a Fire will precipitate their Ferrugineous parts which the Boylers cure by adding more Iron to it And these Waters after they have drop'd the Okar and cease to tinge Galls with Iron will become Atramentous again the first Alteration being chiefly perform'd by the Mortification of the Esurine Salt by the Nitrous For besides the Argument drawn from the not abiding of the Steel in these Waters the Nitrous Nature of the Salt is conspicuous in its high colour it takes with Lignum Nephriticum which Vitriols give not nor do the light Chalybeat Waters that proceed from a Ground where the Soyl is Fat and Bituminous as I observ'd that at Felstead to be and which yields little or no Salt Of the Waters that are Light and purely Chalybeat I Have clear'd the Reason of the Lightness of these Waters and with that have asserted the Nature of the Spirit to be Vitrioline since all those Waters are found to be so where these Incrustations are found And as the weighty Waters take a full high yellow Tincture from Lignum Nephriticum so this light sort take no slain with the same Wood but retain their colour only disturb'd with a light white Cloud flying in it Lignum Nephriticum makes no alteration in a Solution of Vitriol nor in Water sharpened with Oyl of Vitriol These Waters do not well conserve
understanding the Blood to be Spirituous and as not only supplying Matter to the Animal Spirits but continually Cherishing and Preserving them in their Natural Disposition And he supposes this Station of the Blood in an Apoplexy to be in the Vessels of the Neck and Breast chiefly and that its Motion is stop'd either by sharp Humours or a Plethora or an Afflux of cold Humours the last of which he makes not so sudden The Sense of the Greeks and the Arabians I shall give in the words of Avicenna transcrib'd out of Joh. Jacob. Wepferus Apoplexia reddit membra sensa motu carentia propter angustiam afficientem ventriculos seu medium imum utrumque enim vocabulum Arabicum significat cerebri canales spiritus sensitivi moventis Et Paulo inferius Angusta haec fit vel propter compressionem seu incubationem vel repletionem compressio autem fit si corripiatur eo quod ipsum sc. cerebrum vel dolore afficit vel laedit seu molestia aliqua vexat vel contrahit seu constringit sive sit qualitas ei adjuncta affixave celeriter spissans medicamentorum sive frigus vehemens Repletio autem est vel cum tumore vel sine tumore Repletio cum tumore est si contineatur illic materia occludatque partini extensione partim repletione Haecque est ex speciebus Apoplexiae gravissimae ac ejusdem notae sive illa sc. repletio à materia calida sive frigida eveniat Quae est sine Tumore contingit vel à superfluitate in ipso cerebro aut cavitatibus ejus aut in propinquis canalibus spirituum ex cerebro estque haec superfluitas humor sanguineus subito in ventriculos effusus aut humor Phlegmaticus atque haec superfluitas nempe est frequentior Potior vel accidit in canalibus Spirituum ad cerebrum dum interdum Venae Arteria ex vehementi repletione abundantia sanguinis obstruuntur nec Spiritus sc. vitalis transitum habet noc cunctatur seu cessat indignari seu turgere effervescere acciditque hoc quod in ligatura arteriarum duarum Carotidum seu soporalium cum amissione sensus motus contingit quando 〈◊〉 simile obtingit a causa Primitiva seu interna effectum eundem producit The Physicians for many Ages since then in an Apoplexy accus'd only the Straightness and Coarctation of the Ventricles of the Brain distorting the Sense of the Ancients and cherish'd their Opinion with the Fancy that the Use of the Ventricles was either to generate or collect and distribute the Animal Spirits But after that the Varolian Method in cutting the Brain began to be practis'd the Ventricles were discharg'd from these Uses by Platerus Bauhiâ—â— Spigelius and others but most happily by D. Caspar Hoffmannus and had assign'd to them only the Office of Receptacles of the Excrements Against him the former Uses of them the Famous Anatomist Joh. Riolanus fil endeavour'd to maintain The ground that his Argument proceeds upon is That the Animal Spirit is made out of the Vital and that this is deduced by the Carotid Arteries to the Basis of the Brain and then that the Ventricles are aptly situate to this end to receive and conveigh the Spirits into the fourth Ventricle as a Cistern that thence they may be distributed into the Nerves And so he carries it on At Nervorum septem Conjugationes propagantur ab illis eminentiis quat â—â—r quarum duae majores formant clauduntque latera Ventriculorum anteriorum aliae duae constituunt latera quarti ventriculi cujus tectum partesque anticas posticas efformat duplex Scolicoidis Apophysis And for the conveyance of the Blood thither A reti mirabili numerosam sobolem ramorum arteriosorum undequaque per durum matrem spargi qui sanguinem suum depoâ—ant in sinum tertium ab eo sinu depromi innumeros rivulos qui sparsi per exteriores anfractus cerebri roris instar destillent sanguinem arteriosum superne deorsum praeterea per torcular venam magnam Galeni seu sinum quartum sanguinem Spiritus ad ventriculos deduci But all this with a violent Strain to Reason and Anatomical Truth much Indistinctness and Inconsistency with himself What means the destilling of the Blood the Sponginess of the Eminencies that conveigh the Spirits to the Nerves The Spirits sometimes confin'd to the Ventricles sometimes diffus'd to the whole Brain What else is his allowing the Ventricles to receive the Excrementitious Moisture which he had separated for a nobler use his deriving the Blood into the Plexus Choroideus from the Sinus quartus with the pernicious Consequence that would attend it if it were so With other slips of like nature Et quie praeterea Spirituum Animalium opifex esset in corpore ex minutissiâ—is venulis arteriolis tenuissima membrana exiguis glandulis composito Vnde suppeteret mattria Qua via distribuetur Spiritus in Nervos nullâ— modo ipsi continuous quibus sedibus includetur ubi necessarium huc illucve depromendus But of the Office of the Ventricles and Seat of Animal Spirits we receive better Information from Hoâ—â—mannus who against him argues 1. Ibi fit Spiritus ubi Actio At vero in corpore fit Corpus enim agit non accidens 2. Spiritus si agere debet oportet sub imperit animâ— maneat sc. in vasis 3. Ventriculi cinguntur interius pia matre 4. Ab exitu Spirituum in palatum 5. Ventriculos cum Nervis non esse continuos sed cum corpore 6. Ventriculos habere aliud officium incongrâ—um The Arguments are fairly laid down at large in Wepferus and are nevertheless valid though I see no reason altogether to be satisfied in the Uses here and generally assign'd the Ventricles since as it is observ'd by that Curious Anatomist Dr. Ridley no Water can be express'd from the Glandula Pituitaria nor has it any aperture discoverable into the Palate which confirms this that he never found Water in the Infundibulum either in the Sound or Unsound For besides that there is a Parity in the Reasons of the Use of them by him assign'd or that well can be assign'd the Vesicae found in the Ventricles of vertiginous Cattle and the great quantity of Water In puero integrè mentis munia obeunte mention'd by Tulpius and cited by the foresaid Author evacuate the Nobility of their Office And Galen whose Notion in this Matter is not consistent yet relates Adolescentem Smyrnensem ad alterutrum ventriculorum usque vulneratum semet oculato teste superstitem permansissie And again observes In soporibus Epilepsia ventres magis corpus cerebri minus affici solet in Apoplexia vero corpus magis And this easie to be clear'd in the Formation of Brains of Brutes Wepferus by the help of Dissections detects the Seat of this Disease in the Brain it self considering the whole Compage in Contradistinction only to the ventricles and
known Cause or Occasion the best Deobstruents are such as joyn and mix with the Matter they are to exterminate of this sort is Sapo venet and Vrines humane or perhaps of other Animals and these to be promoted to the use of Chalybeat Astringents where these Waters claim their place Only I must mind the Reader that if such a Relaxation of the Vessels of the Brain attend it as appears by preceding vertiginous Warnings I must after the use of the Waters dismiss the Patient to Mr. Boyle's Ens which in the preceding Distempers of the Membranes of the Brain I have experienc'd to be most Effectual 2. As the other Method is to prevent and restore so for the present Relief in the Assault Emeticks and Catharticks usually distinguish themselves The other general and particular Evacuations fall not under my Cognizance writing a System being not my design yet Sternutatories must not escape my Reflection which I have ever observed to hasten the approaching Death to which the Nature as well as the Violence of the Motion made by Sneezing dispose them and are fit only to put the Patient past Remedy with speed And as this Monition is necessary here so a due Caution about Diet which forbids eating Pork or Eggs 〈◊〉 Meat of thick high and flatulent Nourishment is necessary to be observ'd with respect to Prevention Other Particulars that regard the Constitution of the Patient or Predisposition to this Distemper that the Physician is to judge of lye not here before me Thus much as to the Apoplexy There are many other Distempers wherein a Water of this kind is peculiarly proper to master and remove flatulent and viscous Matter and to curb the Turgescence of a florid Blood as in the Cephalick Disorders of Elder Women c. and that I may not proceed upon Suggestions of Reason only I shall recite the Virtues of Knaresborow Water from the Observation of Dr. French in his words This Water Cools and Moistens actually Heats and Dries potentially and according to other Qualities second and third it cuts dissolves attenuates abstergeth viscous tartarous Humours in the Stomach Mesentery Hypochondries Reins Bladder c. Penetrates Corroborates Astringeth c. It allays all acid gnawing and hot Humours and Cures all such Symptoms as proceed from thence as Agues Consumptions Quinsies Tumours Imposthumes Ulcers Wounds it stops Bleeding the Over-flowing of Choller the Dissentery and such like Fluxes It Corroborates the Brain Nerves c. and prevents or cures the Apoplexy Epilepsie Palsie Vertigo Inveterate Headach and Madness and all such Symptoms as proceed from the Weakness Coldness Heat Dryness or Moisture of the same It Corroborates the Stomach and causeth good Digestion consumes Crudities which are the Causes of Obstructions and breed ill Blood and infirm Flesh or an ill habit of Body it maketh the Fat Lean and the Lean Fleshy cureth and preventeth the Cholick and Worms It strengthneth and openeth the Lungs Liver Spleen Mesentery and cureth difficulty of Breathing the Asthma the Dropsie Melancholly and fearful Passions Hypochondriacal Wind and Vapours offending the Head and Heart which most Women and many Men are afflicted withall It doth also upon this account chear the Heart cure and prevent the Palpitations and Passions thereof as also all Faintings It purifieth the Blood cures the Scurvy even in those whose Teeth are ready to drop out of their Heads by reason of the Extremity thereof also the Foul Venereal Disease Leprosie Jaundies Yellow and Black and for the more perfect effecting of these Cures it doth in many open the Haemorrhoids It provoketh Urine and cureth the Suppression and allays the Sharpness thereof it diminisheth the Stone in the Bladder by dissolving the soft Superficial parts thereof and evacuating that mucous slimy Water in which it is involved and by this means also it prepares it for Cutting for sometimes this Stone cannot be felt by reason of that slimy Mucous which Mucous it self doth also sometimes by its Torments counterfeit the Stone where it is collected in a great quantity being of an acid tartarous Nature It forceth out from the Kidneys and Bladder abundance of Sand and small Stones to a great number and sometimes such as are as big and as long as long Pepper And as it cures all Ulcers and Wounds in the Body so especially and much sooner in the Reins and Bladder suppressing also the Pissing of Blood and the Gonorrhaea It cures the Gout Aches Cramp Convulsion in what part of the Body soever and giveth ease therein suddenly It openeth all Obstructions and suppresseth all manner of Over-flowings in Women strengthneth cureth the Mother maketh the Barren Fruitful and is a great Preventative against Miscarryings and rectifies most Infirmities of the Vterus Note That this Water doth not help all parts cure all these Infirmities after one and the same manner some being reliev'd by consent or by removing Obstructions of other parts It is also used by way of Insession in Griefs of the Womb and by way of Injection into that as also into the Bowels and Bladder where all the Qualities act immediately upon those parts allay the sharp and hot Distempers mitigate the Pains thereof Healing and Corroborating the same It may moreover be used by way of Fomentation and Losson in external Wounds Ulcers Itch or Scabs and being drop'd into Sore Eyes wonderfully cooleth dryeth and cleareth the same In a word If any Intentions in a Medicinal way be to be perform'd by allaying Distempers opening Obstructions evacuating superfluous Morbifick Humours and Corroborating all the parts of the Body those are effected in a very good measure if not fully and perfectly by this Water And I my self have seen many of the aforenam'd Diseases cured by the help thereof and for other Cures effected thereby I have been assur'd by them themselves who receiv'd the Benefit or by others who have been Eye-witnesses of the same Thus far Dr. French To the right understanding and due use of all which I shall observe That the Cure of the Foul Disease can be suppos'd to be put partial unless that Distemper be taken in a less strict Sense and passing the Notion of Diminishing the Stone which I had rather express by the preventing the increase of its growth I shall for the fixing Experience right make this Remark which may be usefully apply'd to all the Waters which is That in some Distempers as Dropsie Convulsions Jaundies and Gout constant Success and entire Cure is not to be expected without regard to the State of the Disease the Age and Firmness of it the Cause of it and the Distempers complicated with it Thus a Dropsie may not submit to this Remedy not only from the Firmness of the Obstruction but also from the Constitution and Laxity of the Patient from the nature of the Disease which I have observ'd sometimes to be from a Weakness of the Membranes by Flatulent Matter contain'd in them or from the Disease inducing it Convulsions here
have remedy only adequated to the Cause be it a flatulent putrid Matter which usually gives the Distemper the Denomination of Worms from the effect of it or be it from Melancholy Hypoch and Vapours Hysterical But if seated in the Brain or supervening an Ague or in a cold Constitution I think here can scarce have a proper Remedy So the Jaundies I acknowledge have been often cur'd by these Waters and some of the Purging ones when it ow'd its Rise to an Obstruction of the Catamenia a Clog of Phlegm or uncocted Chyle or Melancholy but I must not allow these or any Waters to cure this Disease de Essentia I think this Caution necessary to the understanding the proper Use of these and all Waters which by the help of this may be distinctly known and is of the greater Importance since upon many accounts Empirical Use of these and all other Remedies is found to be of Fatal Consequence The Virtues of the Atramentous Waters THese Waters though they have the same Virtues with other Chalybeat Waters in some degree and create an Appetite and wash the Viscera yet penetrate not so far open not Obstructions so well but are apt to raise a Heat in the Blood disagreeing to the design'd Effect have not that Acidity nor calm Astringence These inrich the Blood and where that is necessary and Obstructions remote do not contraindicate may happily be us'd and in the Stone are Competitors with others Agricola concludes these Effects as in common with other Vitrioline Waters To cure Corroding Ulcers Ulcers of the Bladder and Kidneys in the Mouth Weakness of the Nerves a weak Stomach they help And they may be used Internally and Externally But in Gout Stone or in Obstruction of the Glands and smaller Vessels are not to be used without Danger or Inconvenience so not in Hypochondriacal Cases These are valuable in proportion as they are rich of Steel keep it long and have little bulk of Salt The Virtues of the Light Chalybeat Waters THE Extraordinary Virtue of this sort consists in that as the Chalybeat Principles are in these most clean so the Spirit most thin and the Water both light and thin And so we have their Virtues not only most full here but somewhat differing They invigorate the Blood without Heating penetrate farther without Inconvenience Volatilize Attenuate more and their Acidity goes off without leaving impression behind it preternatural Thus as the heavy Waters that contain less of the Steel and whose Acidity is of a more fix'd Nature have a peculiarity of Astringing without Heating so this sort are extraordinarily qualify'd for opening Obstructions but seem not to have the same power of Astringing in an equal degree And on this account they do not mortifie a Scorbutick Leprous Humour or Itch so well nor are so powerful to stop Fluxes of Blood I think fit to observe these different Effects which being remark'd I refer the Reader for the reputed Virtues of these Chalybeats to the Virtues of the Knaresborow Water I shall therefore pass on to examine what Obstructions they remove which I shall do by exhibiting only Histories of my own Observation and from thence further to enlighten the use of them Among the Cures of this kind none is more familiar than that of the Stone by removing the Disposition to the Generation of it and restoring a good habit as well to the whole Body as to the parts immediately concern'd And although this Cure is perform'd by a timely Precipitation of the earthy parts out of the Latex and Juyces of the parts and restoring their natures and so is owing to the Qualities that these Chalybeat Waters seem to enjoy in common yet the fineness and penetration of this sort of them must be allow'd an extraordinary Qualification But the Obstructions that I principally intend here are such as yield to no other Remedy so constantly at least and whose fatal Consequence gives these Waters an inestimable value Of this sort I reckon first an Obstruction of the Glands of the Mesentery wherein beside the sign of Chylous Excrements and rejection of Food an hour or two after eating the Patient complains not of want of Appetite discernable Feaver or pain or other disorder till Feaver Cough and want of Rest which last often precedes proceed with the Emaciation upon the continuance of this Disease Of this I have found Tunbridge Water an effectual Remedy and most canstant never failing those that I have known to have try'd it who have been not a few And the small Spring at Felstead I find avail with equal success An Obstruction of the Thymus which discovers it self by pain at the Breast chiefly upon the Foods arrival at the place of its seat which upon the increase of the Tumour of this Gland resists the passing of the Food into the Stomach and makes the Patient reject it at least as soon as the Oesophagus is a little fill'd is a Disease of equal consequence with the other and which I have known these Waters speedily cure Another Disease from Glandular Obstructions cured by these Waters is the Dropsie a Cure of which is taken notice of by Mr. Boyle but the Design of these Observations being to form an Experience that may be distinct clear and not fallacious I must add That the Effects of the Waters in this Distemper fall not under so single a consideration as in the other but that there are so many requisites in the Cases where these are proper as make a good Judgment necessary in the use of them and â—orbid the drinking of them without good Advice For although I have reason to believe them to be constantly effectual timely taken by those whose Constitution was broken by trouble and perhaps to be the only Remedy and likewise in a Phlegmatick Constitution yet not only the seasonable and timely taking of them is to be consulted but a Crasis of Blood that needs not invigorating does sometimes receive damage by them And this I speak not by rote but have known some Quin Faeminae quinquagenariae florid and lively that the drinking of these Waters have affected with a beginning Dropsie the nature of these Waters being to invigorate the Blood and produce the Catamenia was so differing in effect And in a Dropsie that proceeds upon an Asthma in a person of a florid sanguine Complexion either a Chalybeat Water of greater astringency as the Knaresborow and that has least Steel or else a Chalybeat that Purges as Scarborow Water is much more proper I proceed to remark next the like extraordinary effect of these light Waters in Distempers of the Stomach the pain by which they discover themselves is most exquisite A painful Tumour of many Months at the pit of the Stomach and reputed Scirrhous I knew reliev'd and quite remov'd by Tunbridge Waters I might instance in other Flatulent Distentions of the Stomach and question not but they might be used with success in Ulcers of the Stomach though in them I
innumerable delirous Fancies that are consequent to it but in the Diseases of the Body as Obstructions of the parts before mention'd with Cephalick Diseases as Convulsions Epilepises Apoplexies c. the last nam'd of which is so often owing to the Pre-disposition of this Distemper as much confirms the account I have before given of it Now although the reason of the Hypochondriac Affection as it gives a reason of the effect of these Waters may make this account satisfactory enough yet it is farther serviceable in discovering the Cure more clearly and perfectly and by giving a right Notion of it may assist in setting the Understanding to rights and help those that are afflicted to make a true Judgment of their Disturbances as well as incourage them to a Cure With respect to a Cure we may observe the Benefit of Exercise and a moderate Diet without fermented Liquors and that Action and Attention are required to Health of Body and Mind That Action is necessary to due Thinking all studious Men may and do observe and the reason is That the Tumults of the Chyle or Stoppages of the Vessels by it are remov'd by the hurry of the Blood which together with steadiness of Mind which I call Attention gives our Engine its free Exercise and Working And as the same thing that Exercise doth with moderate Living is effected artificially by these Waters so the pleasure of an even Life void of these Hurries and Inconveniencies recommend a preventional Method of this way of Living for its Rectitude and Generosity before the Flights and Extreams of the other that must seek for Remedies to Art And it is to be noted That as this Distemper in all its Symptoms and Consequences is effectually cured by these Waters and as it is moderated by the foremention'd means so all that are affected with it find their Error in drinking Wine and strong fermented Liquors as an artificial Support by the great sinking of their Spirits if not other Symptoms likewise about six hours after and by the increase of the Distemper by that means To which I may add what may be no small Information and hath not been taken notice of by Physicians usually That the Distempers that seize the Body at the Climactericks if they be moderated so as to be kept from making any mortal breach will usually in two or three Years time depart of themselves upon moderate living I could give many Instances of Epilepsies themselves as well as Giddinesses Convulsions a beginning Phthisis c. that abated without any means two or three Years after But as this Remedy viz. these Waters relieve variety of Diseases that are induced by the power of distemper'd Chyle or Nourishment and Weakness of Constitution at the Cardines of our Life or Climactericks so the Observation of this may turn to account if we consider That many Distempers that are not usually distinguish'd are of this Original For the enlarging therefore of this Benefit we may observe That the Affectio Hypochondriaca is in this respect but a Species of Distempers which we may call Climacteric or Cardinal For the better understanding of my Sense in this matter I must take notice That though I cannot admit the receiv'd Notion of them fully either as to their Fatality or superstitious Original from Numbers yet that at the Septenaries or near the Body receives its Changes is not to be denied and that then many Diseases have their Original which may execute not fully till some Years after But although every Septenary may be in some sort considerable yet I judge from Experience that some may be reputed Cardinal and that not from the Efficacy of Number which runs the grand Climacteric upon 63. Those that I find reason to name Cardinal are those on which our Life receives a considerable Change of State and though the fourteenth Year on this account cannot be excluded yet Observation of Distempers or Mortality makes me with respect to Diseases to make or name three grand Climactericks and to fix them on those Years when the Body receives its grand Alterations in its Cuspis and declension and these are 21 27 and 49. The Diseases of the first are Hemorrhages and Consumptions which are frequent at that Age to enter the Constitution and not to yield to Remedies till two or three Years after though the Prevention of Exulceration render it curable The Distempers of the second are Cephalick Nervous and Flatulent Those of the third again are Phthises Gouts Stone Hemorhagies Rheumatisms and other Inflammations that proceed from an over Alkalisat Crasis of the Blood as hot burning or smarting running Pains and the like In all which cases these Waters may be expected to be highly serviceable by the same Qualifications that capacitate them to relieve the Hypochondriacal viz. by Astringing Deobstructing Invigorating and taking off either the Orgasm or Degeneracy of the Chyle And I speak not this without some Instances that favour it But from Hypochondriacal Distempers I pass on next to Ulceration of the Kidneys which I have known cured in more than one by Tunbridge Waters which I must make this Remark on That they were Women of the last cardinal or grand Climacterick But yet must not this confine the use of these Waters to that case only or forbid their proper use in like Ulcers in other Ages Thus according to my design I have recited what I have experienced of their Virtues but I must not pass the Cure of Periodical annual Colds and Feavers which I mention above without this useful Observation that as it is the Peccancy of the Chyle or Faeces of it that makes the Body obnoxious to the Effects of the Air so it may be reasonable to expect the use of the same Remedy to be successful in some other Distempers that come under this Consideration Of some general Directions to be observ'd in the Vse of the Chalybeat Waters THE Directions that emerge from the Nature of the Waters and of the Distempers they are used in vary in some measure with the Constitution of the Drinker the State and Nature of the Distemper and Season they are drank in And although the Choice of the Species of Water is directed by the Distemper yet nice or infirm and cold Constitutions make exactness necessary in choosing those that have least Coldness on which account some have found in the light sort Wellenborow and Islington less safe to be drank or to require more caution from their ill Effects on those that have drank them when out of Temper The Season that one would wish to drink these Waters in is a dry Time and Summer the Waters being then strongest and the Season favouring their exerting their Astringency and inspiriting Qualities yet as Distempers do not wait always for the conveniency of the Remedy so the Waters have been found effectual at all Seasons likewise And the incommode of the Season may be help'd by a Glass of somewhat more Generous after the Waters
prove the Salt of these Waters to be the genuine and natural Product of these Principles To all which add That the Purging and Medicinal Qualities resides in the Salt and that the open nature of Clays would discover any Mineral or Metal concern'd and not conceal more than we may observe That we may understand whence or to what is this Salt owing the Original of the Salt and nature both of the Earth and Juyces concern'd in the Production of it I proceed now to examine the Principles The Principles or Ingredients that impregnate the Purging Waters examin'd HAving thus traced the Production of this Salt and determin'd it to the Earth through which the Wells are sunk and Mineral Stone or Juyce contain'd in these Stones we come now to examine these their Nature and what parts of these enter the Composition or how they are concern'd in the Production of this Salt And upon due Essays of these Earths and Stones we shall find in general an Earth rich of Salt Chalybeat or Ferreous parts a Mineral Juyce out of which this Salt seems form'd and we may observe the Salt of the upper Soile somewhat concern'd in and that on the Varieties of the two last the Varieties of the Waters do depend And these I shall enquire into as to their Original and Nature The Earth in which these Wells are and which yields this Salt is a Loamy Clay more mellow and more of a Clay toward the Surface but more loamy toward the bottom The inner Earth is such as our Tiles are made of at Richmond at Epsam they dig both Brick and Tyle Earth too as I remember out of the Hill yielding these Springs So I need not describe the Earth it being known that the ponderous close and fat is used for Tiles and the looser for Bricks The colour of these Earths vary a little and though usually Brown yet in some that colour is brightned near a Gray The Earth of these Springs is sound of these two kinds constantly either a meer Clay of the same face to the bottom as are the Wells where the Salt is Christalliz'd or firm and figur'd or the same Clay mix'd with Veins of Iron and pleasantly Acid Juyce like Spirit of Vitriol and interspersed with Selenites which are form'd in it The Wells where they dig only a pure loamy Clay ever toward the bottom which is seldom more than twelve Feet and I think never more than twenty in depth receives the Water from the sides issuing from between the Stones before describ'd and nothing besides is observable in these Wells Now not only the face and figure of the Salt but its Nature likewise acknowledge this Earth as its natural Patent and all is confirm'd in the manner of its Production The form of the Salt of the Wells usually resembles the Salt shot about them upon the Surface of the Earth which at some is in Stiriae at some appears only like a soft mould The Nature of it is middle between a Nitre and a Vitriol which agrees well with the Earth it is form'd of Nitrous Earths requiring slackning in the open Air. And the manner of the Production of this Salt is fully as agreeable to this account for it is not only at these Wells that this sort of Earth shoots this Nitrous Efflorescence but at all other places it is observable as frequently in Ditches and where-ever it is cast up by the Tile makers and which is worth a Remark as discovering the Reason or Manner of its Production it is to be noted That this Efflorescence appears only where the Air is moist or damp and confin'd This I observe not only to account for the Production of this Salt in Subterraneous Channels but also for the difference of the Salt of the Water from that shooting on the Surface that the Salt of the Water is more Fusil and retains more of the Acid part of the Salt which is collected in proportion to the Closeness and the Moistness or Coldness of the place And as a further Illustration and proof of what I assert I shall give the Reader one or two Essays of Loam taken from common Pits for the making of Tiles which prove that this Earth contains a Salt that may be extracted and hint the manner of its Extraction For although no Loam yields any Salt to an Infusion of boyling Water yet I found that Water sharpened with Oyl of Vitriol or common Salt or Spirit of Salt would extract a Salt and which is yet more that Lime water would slacken it and make it yield one I shall give the Examen of Loam opened by Spirit of Nitre and Spirit of Vitriol Loam Water made by Infusion of common Water sharpned with Spirit of Nitre gave with Tincture of Logwood a pale dusky Tawny Gall a faint blewish Black not thick Syrup of Cloves a dusky Red and palish Sal Absynthii a white curdle which easily dissolv'd in washing and left little Earth Syrup of Violets a bright Red. It differ'd little in taste from what the Spirit of Nitre gave Loam Water two Pounds with Spirit of Vitriol two Drams infused a Week had the maâ—kish taste of the Purging Waters With Tincture of Logwood a sooty dusky colour a little reddish Syrup of Cloves a red not bright Sal Absynthii a white Curdle not easily soluble Syr. of Violets a purplish Red. Sublimate Water no alteration Loam Water made with common Salt With Tincture of Logwood a bright Red. The Salts of these Infusions were collected by evaporating I shall note that these Infusions will detect some Ferrugineous parts in Loam and which seem separated in the Selenitical Earth rather than added The Salt that these Loamy Clays yield as it is of a common Origine with that of common Earth or upper Soile so it seems to vary much on that account with the neighbouring Earth but that this should be so very rich in generating it must be from the more Saline Nature of this Earth or from plenty of some Menstruum to extract it the first may be from the continuation of this Earth with the grand Matrix which in others in intercepted by Lays of Gravel or the like The latter may be from Juyce which is in a sort Vitrioline And the closeness of this Clay does much contribute to this Collection as well as the coldness of it But the Nature of this Juyce comes next to be examin'd under the Essay of the Stones which are Parcels of this Loamy Earth The Stones then which are the proper Index of these Wells and which from their Nature are apt to receive Mineral or Metalline parts must be supposed to contain part of the Ingredients at least of this Salt The Stones I prov'd severally from the several Wells whence I took them my self the Hydrostatical weight of which with some other Essays I shall more conveniently place at the end of this Account I proved them by Ustion or Roasting by Calcination by Sublimation by
Precipitations By Ustion to separate the Salt By the second to open the Body and discover Mineral or Marcasite The third 〈◊〉 discover any sulphurous Body or Steam Lastly By Precipitations both out of a Lixivium and of the wash'd Stone out of Aqua fortis By all which as well as by Fusion with fine Glass the Stones prov'd void of any Metalline or Mineral Mixture But instead of these their particular Nature appear'd to consist in the Juyce or Salt of them saving only a little Iron which Woodham-Ferrys afforded and which will be found to agree well with the Constitution of those Waters which are Chalybeat This particular sort of Juyce or Salt appear'd in their forming a Jelly with Aqua fortis which would not become liquid under some days standing and the parts I prov'd to be in some of the Earth at Epsam that lay among the Selenites though the Stones by the mixture of Chalk did not This Quality not attending Loam suggested somewhat different from that to be concern'd in it and knowing that Antimony Auripigmentum and perhaps some other Marcasites with the mixture of some Salts whence Aqua fortis is made would yield a Butter by Distillation I essay'd this Jelly by Sublimation in like Vessels but fail'd of my Expectation and then consider'd that this Jelly not only differ'd in being produc'd without Heat or Sublimation but had not the least Caustick Qualities of the other Marcasitick Butters but rather mortify'd the Acid Spirit But all these Suggestions and Doubts 〈◊〉 clear'd to me by examining the Originâ—â— of this Stone when I understood it to be form'd of a Loamy Clay in conjunction of a Vitriolick Juyce For this I was first taught at Harwich where I found the same Stones exactly nothing differing either in face when broke or whole and invested with the same Gypsum or Trichitis and with the same mixture of Iron These Stones there lye plentifully on the shore and stuck in the Bank at the bottom of the Cliff and only at the Foot of that Spot of the Cliff that is a continued Loam This Production I refer'd to a Vitrioline Juyce in Conjunction with the Loam because the common Coporas Stones are plentifully found on that shore and I observ'd Children employ'd there to collect them but whereas they lye thick where the Cliff is gravelly where the Cliff was Loamy and the shore floor'd with these Stones I found no Coporas Stones nor did the Children seek there for them though they pick'd close by it where the Bank begins gravelly So that these Stones seem produc'd in the Loam as the other in the Gravel by the same Juyce And since I have understood of several of our Diggers for Tile-Earth that the Coporas Stone is only found in those Clays that have a Gravel mix'd with them So that at Harwich this Bed of Stones was the Foundation of the Loamy Cliff where the Cliff has been wash'd away or cut For the Harbour or Channel there is Artificial and of no old Date the Current having been formerly on the other side of Languard Fort which then stood in Essex The not understanding this made the Gentleman in Cambden to mention them as Petrifactions made by the Sea And from this undoubtedly proceeds that Bed of Shells that covers the Cliff at perhaps fifty feet hight which must be carried thither at the making of the Harbour or clearing of it how else could the petrify'd Clay bed which contains the Shells lye a top and no Petrifaction lower till you come again to the bottom I think that they must originally have been the same lay and that it is inconsistent to suppose otherwise Having thus arriv'd at the Origin of the Stones I shall make one farther Observation which is That these Stones yield the same Salt in a Lixivium which the Waters contain From all which I conclude them Parcels of the Materials whence these Purging Waters have their Salt and wherein the particular Nature and Genius of the concrete Juyce is to be had All this is confirm'd by the Nature of the Salt of these Waters which being a mean Salt between Vitriol and Nitre requires such an Earth and such a Place for its Production for lower it had prov'd Vitrioline and superficial Nitrous which with the difference of the Salt keeping pace with the varying of the Stone and with the corresponding Nature of the Salt produced in moist Cavities as in Cellars to that sort of it which is soft as presently appears confirms fully this Account as agreeable both to Reason and Experience Of the Purging Waters wherein the Selenites is found THis sort of Waters have the same Taste with the other and the like Variety in the Tasts of the several Waters and Purge alike What they agree in is deliver'd above I shall therefore now consider their differences and the difference of the Principles and compare the Reason of these with the Nature of the others These Wells upon inquiry afford no fresh Principles or Mineral Ingredients but what the addition of a Calcarious Salt produces which rather affects these Waters as a Menstruum I proceed to observe the difference and account for it These are ever in a Loam but this Loam partakes of a Lime-stone this is evedent from all accounts of the Selenites and at Epsam the blew Loam lyes in streaks in the Hill and a Quarry of Chalk limits the Town at both ends To this is owing the laxness of the Loam here above the rest and some differences it shews upon tryals as its clearness of Iron which Salt of Chalk and Lime precipitat and where the Chalk is not found as at Woodham-Ferrys the Water there is Chalybeat The Pyrites or hard Stone is to be found here but why it is perfect at Woodham-Ferrys and more lax at Epsam is owing to the same reason For those two Wells were what I could examine being new dug when I visited them to view and examine the Earth cast out The Differences of the Earth of these Waters from the other kind were common to both these Wells At Epsam the Earth cast out of the Well I mean Simpsâ—n's near the Parcels of Selenites had some tenderer or more brittle Earth of several colours but all near a Lemmon colour or of Iron rust All these upon examination both with burning and without by bare washing afforded Iron which obey'd the Loadstone and a Salt or rather Juyce that was pleasingly Acid and not Caustick but the Taste differ'd a little as the Colour differ'd The Lemmon-colour'd was exactly of the taste of Spirit of Vitriol without any odd taste only note that this I first burnt and the same Acidity I discover'd in some white Flakes of the Stone without any Metalline taste I shall not be particular in the Sublimation of these Mineral Earths inasmuch as all the ways I attempted to try them discover'd nothing but pure Earth besides At Woodham-Ferrys I observ'd the same colour'd Earths exactly and
discover'd only Iron and the Juyce or Salt mix'd with it and as at Epsam so here the Earth clear'd of these was loose and open and was but common Earth as appear'd by weighing it Hydrostatically The Particulars see in the Account of the Wells Hence I was apt to think from the Nature of the Juyce approaching to that of Spirit of Vitriol and upon the slackness of the Earth of these Wells that the Disposition towards an Alkaly of the admix'd Earth had detected and separated these Juyces which seem lock'd up in the Loam of the other But the Pureness of the Vitrioline Juyce in these make me suspend that opinion and as I intimated before hence Epsam Water remains clear with a mixture of Galls whereas the other gives a dark Purple I shall for clearness sake inquire now into the Origine of the Selenites and determine the Species of them these Waters belong to which are a Species of the Purging Kind For the Salt of these Waters differ from that of the other as well as the Ingredients in that the Salt here is unfigur'd soft and melts in the warmth of a hand In their Operation they are accordingly more penetrating and gall the parts of their Excretion or near it which that it is owing to the softness of the Salt and Calcarious Nature of it appears in that Woodham-Ferrys does it not so as Epsam and Acton The different Virtues shall be taken notice of in their place as the differences of the Salt shall be in the Examen of the Waters Now I observe all Waters that afford the Selenites at least of this Kind and Figure to be Purging and because the Wells that afford them are capable to be proved beyond dispute as at Kettering and in Oxfordshire it will much conduce to the clear proof of the Ingredients and Principles of these Waters to give a good account of these which are a member of them At the places now named the Selenites are found in a blew Loam over a Stone Quarry as I am inform'd by those that have brought me the Account from Kettering and of Oxfordshire by Dr. Plot The Circumstances of which considering the Salt is not volatile do evince That the Ingredients of these Waters do not lye lower since these Stones are so usually found to have the same Foundation and constantly the same Matrix for these Selenites never being found the Index of any Metal or Mineral nor hard enough to be a Spar but being observ'd to agree universally in constant Materials which are the same with the other sort of my Waters that is a Loam And the Mixture of a Lime-stone accounting for the Production of the Selenites I conclude my account genuine and clear of them all The Selenites of these Wells is form'd near the bottom in the Loam at the Water as they ever are and the Spring small some are found of all sizes from the largest to so small as scarce allow their Figure to be observ'd and the Loam I found figur'd like the Stones and lying in clusters in like manner The Figures of them I found much differing Those at Acton Rhomboid At Epsam many Rhomboid many imperfect ones or like Frustula of them but most of them Columns of six sides only each side was a Parallelogram inequilateral with a Pointing which is comprehended under as many Triangles and their Commissure or Origine unequal some of them were more Conical but mostly their Position was as that of those found by Dr. Plot at Cornwell and Hanwell many being fix'd like Radii to one center Thus I found them at Simpson's Well at Epsam with this Note That where-ever they stood thus the Earth adjoyning to it had much Iron in it Fusil and pleasantly Acid mostly At Woodham-Ferrys some â—ew were Rhomboid but most of them at one of the Lozenge Figure and resembling the Rhomboid at the other round and flat and sharp the two larger opposite Surface declining till they meet at an edge which was Semicircular The Selenites found at Colchester were thin and flat and bent a little consisted of Schizâ— or Flakes and are of no distinguishable shape I observe that where I could get a view of any quantity of the Earth cast out of any of these Wells there were some of them always Rhomboid as the more genuine Figure but others to differ with the Salt as I judged and sometimes to be ruled by the quantity of Iron and receive the Figure that Metal usually christallizes into What the Selenites owes its origine to I refer my self to the Sense and Observations of Naturalists who were not unacquainted with this Qualification of the Water in which they are generated That most accurate Learned and curious Naturalist Dr. Plot in his Natural History of Oxfordshire Cap. 5. Par. 9. Speaking of the Selenites Georgius Agricola differs from them all and makes it a product of Lime-stone and Water Gignitur says he Ex saxo calcis cum paucâ aquâ permisto And thus I find it to grow here with us at Heddington in a blew Clay that lyes over the Quarry whose outermost Crust is a hard Lime-stone For clearness sake this Stone may be distinguish'd into these four sorts 1. Those Selenites that are really Fissil into tough flexil Plates which is more properly the Glacies Mariâ— or Lapis Specularis Muscovy Glass 2. Those that consist of brittle Plates or Flakes which are not easily separable at least entire an unform'd sort of these are found in flat Plates not very thick near Colchester at the North end at a Publick-house half a Mile from the Town and in some Wells in the Town The formed ones usually consist of six sides the breadth being more than the thickness make the two level Surfaces broader than the rest In this they generally agree but the Rhomboid have their ends form'd in like manner to make that Figure so as to have ends and sides alike whereas those that are longer and narrower vary in the Figures that the Depressions at the ends make Some are imperfect Rhomboid in one half and of an irregular Figure the other half as at Epsam c. or thinning to an edge as at Woodham-Ferrys All these agree in an uniform glassy Surface 3. Rhomboid and in the Flakes of which it is compos'd resembling the other but the Superficies is divisible into strings the marks or lines of which appear in the Surface Perhaps these may be formed only where they are produced at a Stone-Quarry for of this kind is that at Heddington in Oxfordshire and that of Kettering in Northamptonshire and so may be distinguish'd in its name as a Species of Talc Selenites Talceus A 4th sort have a Cubico-Rhomboideal form these are constantly Hexaedra of equal obliqueangular sides or oblique-angled Parallelepipeds are Fessil into thick Plates or indeed consist of Cubick pieces of the same Figure such as at Slindon in Staffordshire mention'd by the same great Author Natur. Hist. of Staff
Water is a level Spring the Wells are on the side of the Hill a few Rod from the River Thames in a brown leamy Clay which are about nine feet deep to the bottom of the Water as the Digger inform'd me there There is a Tile-Kill adjoyning to the Ground where the Wells are This Water was first discover'd about 1686 the account that the Possessor of one of the Wells Mr. Brown gave me was that the Earth was an even Loamy Clay that the Water issued into the Well from the side among the Stones whereof I brought away as many pieces as I could dispose of No Selenites found here The Loam and Clay about the Wellâ— had a Nitrous Efflorescence the Earth above and about Richmond a Gravel This Water purgeth well but I think scarce so much as Epsam and Acton but more smoothly The Water is smooth on the Tongue scarce any appearance of bitterness salutes the Palat with the taste of common Water but leaves a farewel a little nauseous and sharp The Water curdled Milk but not so hard or strong as others with Syrup of Violets a mild Green not so deep as Vitriols make it resembled common Salt or a Vitrioline in that Spirit of Nitre drop'd into it made no Alteration though the Water was boyl'd half away Spirit of Sal Armoniack rendred it thick white and curdled and sent down a large Precipitate Spirit of Harts-horn made a small Curdle and Precipitate Spirit of Salt no Alteration With Galls it grew immediately turbid white and thick not Milk-white like what Salt of Hungarian Vitriol produceth not dark as Alkalys not coloured as common Salt not clear as Saltpetre nor reddish as Chalk nor dark and ready to precipitate the Colour as Spirit of Vitriol The Water standing a while on pieces of Iron with Gall chang'd dark with a reddish cast as Alkalys render Ink In both these it resembled Salt of Cellarsâ— yet differ'd in giving a wan dusky Red with 〈◊〉 of Clove Gilly flowers as common Salt and â—â—â—ding Tincture of Logwood â—s Acids ☞ The Salt of this Water hence appears to be Acid of a Vitrioline Nature yet to be a little Alkalisate or Nitrous â—ot so deeply as Alkalys but resembling the Salt embodying Vitriols or the uniting of Vitrioline Salt with the Salt of common Earth and which our common Water contains Richmond Water distill'd in a Glass retort yielded a Water which was Acid enough to redden a little the colour of Syrup of Violets and to give a faint Red with Tincture of Logwood but took no Quality from Iron and it was very light in weight equal to Tunbridge and the light Chalybeats The Salt was gray and figur'd like the Bacilli of Nitre flat and long and many of the Sâ—iriae were pointed like Needles some Prisms some Camellae it melted not easily yet I thought sooner than Vitriols It chang'd not the colour of Salt of Tartar but curdled its Deliquium inflamed not with Sulphur The Earth was smaller than in most Waters was gray and Acid Spirits as of Salt Aqua fortis and Spirit of Nitre would not touch it It alter'd not in the Fire but made a small Decrepitation or Spitting I judged a little more than Allum The Salt of this Water did not disturb nor change the colour of Sublimate Water which Alkalys and Salt of Cellars does It was a little sweetish and not cold as Saltpetre is The Stone found in this Well resembled Loam The Loam cast up for Tiles in the Ground joyning to this Well had a Nitrous Efflorescence The Stone had a Tincture of Iron The Tile-earth in the Ground adjoyning I infus'd in warm Water sharpned with Oyl of Vitriol This Water gave a Green with Syrup of Violets and with Tincture of Logwood a sooty dusky colour a little reddish Dullwich Water HAS its name from the Town near it but the Wells are in Lewisham Parish in Kent The Wells are in the foot of a Hill about twelve in number The Hill and Ground adjoyning is a stiff Clay with some Wood upon it These are next in Antiquity to Epsam being discover'd about the Year 1640 The Hole dug is about nine feet deep as I judg'd and the Water about half a Yard deep being usually emptied every day The bottom is a Loam as is the Hill and where the Water issues in is found the Lapis Lutoso-Vitriolicus which glitters with Vitriolick sparkles and is divided into Parcels by the Trichitis This Water purgeth very quick and are not to be drank by a Body out of Temper or Heat by walking without inconvenience I was there Iuly 1696 after some wet days This Water is bitter like Epsam it curdled with Soap or Milk much more than Richmond and equal to Epsam Taken the same day with Richmond in the quantity of nine Ounces and near a quarter was 28 Grains heavier than common Water and 12 Grains than Richmond With Gall it turn'd â—st yellow and clear then thick and muddy white and a little yellowish in which it resembled common Salt and with that it agreed in making no alteration in a Solâ—tion of Sublimate and in making an 〈◊〉 with Spirit of Nitre and in not disturbing Spirit of Salt It agreed with Acids in not relieving the Red of Tincture of Turnsole sharpned in curdling Spirit of 〈◊〉 very much but Spirit of Sal Armoniâ—â—◠〈◊〉 little or rather in a more fine Cuâ—â—le In which Trial this resembles common Salt more than Richmond which curdles thâ— last most and in giving a Red with Tinctâ—re of Logwood The particular Nature is somewhat pointed at in that this Water after an Infusion some hours on points of Nails with Gall became dusky and thick of a foot colour which precipitated and left the Liquor yellow in this it differ'd from 〈◊〉 Salts The Stone prov'd it self to have much of the Nature of Rock-salt such as is brought from the West of England near Chester The Salt shot into Stiriae which being heat blister'd and lost much by a hot Fire so as to have only 12 Grains remaining of 40 but this was done in Earth the more fix'd parts remain'd angular and flat like Sea-salt The stone melted pierced the Clay readily and made it break like China The Calx of the Salt remain'd Gray Though I must not adventure to determine the particular Nature of the Salt of this Water which made the stone sparkle yet I may say it is Marcasitical and that it contains no fresh or new Metal or Mineral but that it varies in the Salt as the Gravels and Loams meeting and joyning produce the common Vitriol stone which here seems of kin to that of common Gravels and that it has some cold Nature proportionable to such an Original but fluxile withall being apt to set the Blood flowing The Salt I conclude by the Essays to resemble common Salt and to be of kin to Mineral Salt as is our Rock salt but yet to differ in its being more Penetrative and
Fluxile and not of the Nature of common Salt which precipitates not Vitriols North-Hall Water in Hartfordshire WEigh'd heavier than Epsam and pleasant not so nauseous to taste It preserved the blew of Syrup of Violets which Nitres and Alkalys chang'd to a green It disturbed not a Solution of Sublimate in common Water It was not acid enough nor Alkalisat enough to give either a red or dirty brown with Tincture of Logwood but gave it a yellow which grew paler upon standing as I judged somewhat like Glaubers Salt which is made of common Salt and Spirit of Vitriol and which likewise purgeth It took very little yellowness from Galls and what it took it would not hold but suffer'd to precipitate presently The first being the effect of Spirit of Salt the last of Spirit of Vitriol It curdled soapy Water in large Curdles and Ol. Tartari per deliquium the same and upon shaking this Water rais'd a great Froth which it kept a great while I judged therefore this Water to contain a Salt resembling common Salt and that part of it which is condens'd and christalliz'd through Cold in a Humid as in Cellars the Coagulation with Liquid Salt of Tartar being not so universal as with the other part of common Salt Lambeth nearer Well in Surry THIS Water beside the Virtues which it hath in common with other Purging Waters has the Property of caring Leprosies and cleansing and clearing Scorbutick Scurss and Spots which how the Nature of the Salt accounts for is worth Observation This Water try'd at the Well after a dry Season was clear but not so Limpid as common Spring Water having somewhat of the colour of Rain-water it was of the taste of Saltpetre or nearer Saltpetres second Salt but left a Vitriolick brackish or nauseous taste on the Palat. Half a Pint and half an Ounce of this Water exceeded common Water in weight 24 Grains it made no alteration in a Solution of Sublimate in fair Water which Nitres and Alkalys disturb it agreed with common Salt in changing the Red of Syrup of Clove Gilliflowers into a cloudy pale colour in which the Red upon 24 hours standing was wholly lost but was restored by a drop of Spirit of Nitre it had the Effects of the same Salt in curdling strongly with Ol. Tartar per deliquium in giving a pale yellow not very fine with Gall and with Tincture of Logwood a brown exactly resembling Ale that is not fine a little browner if any thing than what common Salt produceth But in this it agreed with Saltpetres second Salt and it disturb'd a Solution of Sal Saturni in fair Water just to that degree that Saltpetres second Salt does and with Lignum Nephrâ—ticum gave a Whitewine yellow and clear quickly as Saltpetre does common gravelly Spring-water gives near the colour but upon longer standing It agreed besides only with Glaubers Salt in the Essay with Gall and Logwood The Water standing on Iron 24 hours gave with Gall a reddish Purple which turn'd Inky and although the grosser parts precipitated as where there is a mixture of Nitre and in the Vitrioline Waters impregnate with the Salt of the upper Soil yet the colour remain'd in the clear Liquor much deepâ—â— than a Violet though it stood open some days This one drop of Spirit of Nitre turn'd â—â—een as it doth Ink made with English 〈◊〉 A drop or two of this in common 〈◊〉 a Gravel resumed the Red. This Water precipitated fine Silver out of Spirit of Nitre but not so quick and strongly I thought as Rock-salt and Sea-salt This Water accordingly changed not the colour of Syrup of Violets neither doth common Salt Thus the Salt of this Water agreeth with common Salt but comes not up to its power of Precipitating or Coagulating which Properties would rather set and fix the Humour and so promote the Distemper as appears in the Effects of Bay-salt to produce the Scurvy which Property is observ'd to lye in the hardness of the second or less coagulable part and not to be found in the Salt when purified It agrees in some Tryals with Saltpetres second Salt which is not wholly differing from common Salt But because Salts differ I examined the Water more nicely It disturb'd a Solution of Hungarian Vitriol which common Salt did not Rock Salt very little but the second Salt of Saltpetre readily effected likewise but scarce in so high a Degree for this sent down a yellowish Precipitate forthwith yet it did not trouble a Solution of Mercury Sublimate as Sal Gem. nor precipitate it as do the Nitres and Lime-salt of a yellow or as Salt of Chalk and Marle white The Salt was gray near white mostly near Cubes or in thick plates as common Salt some scurfie light parts with it which was the Scum which precipitated in Boyling no Stiriae or pointed parts could I observe The Water did early raise or bear a Scum The Salt readily ran per deliquium and leâ—t a leafie Earth and grey about 24 Grains out of a Quart of Water This leafy Earth was very light and made a very small Effervescence with distill'd Vinegar nor would it wholly take away its Acidity This Salt precipitated fine Silver out of Spirit of Nitre in hard large Curdles Saltpetres second Salt only whitens and disturbs the Solution which at last precipitates it Ol. Partari per deliquium works on it but does not precipitate the Silver But this Salt I thought did scarce so fully precipitate the Silver as Rock Salt ☞ I therefore refer the Nature of the Salt of this Water to that of common Salt whose power it hath even to the depurating a Solution of Vitriol but without either so gross and strong an Earth or so severe and coagulative an Acidity The Diseases that have been cur'd by these Waters as I found them registred in a Table at the Well were as I remember Leprosie Scurvy Vertigo's Jaundies Worms Stone and Colick To understand on what account this Water exerts its power beside Worms which every one knows to be destroy'd and the flatulent putrid matter suppress'd by Sea-salt I think the Leprosie may well illustrate To have a Notion of the Nature of this Disease It is not necessary here to inquire into the particular Juyce it is seated in and Vessels serving it it is sufficient that the Nature and Genius of the Humour or Salt is toward an Alkali exulcerating and dry seated or produced by too thick and luxuriant Chyle in too nitrous or scorching a Climate That the Cure of this Disease consists not only in somâ— Qualities that mortifie it but in some pungent parts that can retain their Nature and are apt to separate the grosser parts we are taught by the success of Vipers in this Disease which have a Faculty of separating Tartar from Canary in which they are infus'd which else yields none On which by the way I must observe the Error in choosing that Wine for the Infusion on which the
Virtue of the Vipers is in so much measure lost proportionably to the demand of the thickness of the Liquor If this be conceded I think it must be allow'd that as the Nature of this Salt is disposed to mortifie Alkalys and to penetrate without Corruption so its being void of that severe Coagulum may qualifie it to separate and discharge And that I beg not much in this Notion will appear in the opposite Salt of Brentwood-Weale which I have experienced to encourage and increase this Disease The Water of the farther Well at Lambeth THIS Water in Taste came nearer common Pump Water agreed with the other Water in every Tryal as well by weight as otherwise only Syrup of Cloves did not wholly lose its Red neither did a drop of Spirit of Nitre restore it as it did in the other Whence it appears to be of a less Vitrioline Nature or not so affine to Sea-salt and so may be more fit for general drinking though not so satisfactory to the particular Intention The Purging Water of Alford in Somersetshire THIS Water is of kin to the other The Acidity not Volatile or alterable Gall and Lignum Nephâ—â—ticum gave it a very pale yellow but the Lignum Nephriticum somewhat deeper than the Gall or Saltpetre does With Tincture of Logwood an Amber colour like Glaubers Salt and Salt of Cellars and not far from that of Saltpetre With Gall and Iron it gave a right Purple colour as Mineral Acids and which Saltpetre does It differ'd from Saltpetre and seem'd between that and common Salt The Water of Brentwood-Weal in Essex AS Lambeth Water and Woodhamâ—Ferrys I have experienced specifically proper and effectual in Leprous Diseases so this is considerable in its opposite Nature which I have likewise experienced This Water is of Taste Lixiviate with a little Bitterness and not free of the maukish taste of the rest but not so nauseous as Epsam With Syrup of Violets it gave a full green as Alkalys with which it agreed in giving a dusky Gold colour near that or Malaga Sack with Lignum Nephriticum in turâ—ing thick and dark with Iron and Gall not black or blewish as Vitriols common Salt and Salt-petre and which precipitated as the blaâ—ks made with Alkalies And lastly in not precipitating fine Silver out of Spirit of Nitre more than fair Water will It distinguish'd it self from Vitriol and Alum in growing thick and whitish with Gall as Nitres of a mix'd nature do or Vitriols and common Water the same standing became a pale yellow which precipitated as it would in a Solution of Saltpetres second Salt or near the effect of common Salt It gave a Red with Tincture of Logwood as Cellar-salt but more red which Vitriol blackens and Alum purples With Syrup of Cloves it gave a dull pale with a blewish cast as Alkalies do but more like to Saltpetres second Salt With a Solution of Sublimate no alteration nor any change or Precipitation or disturbance in a Solution of Hungarian Vitriol in both which it agreed with a Vitriolick Salt as almost if not altogether all these do With a Deliquium of Salt of Tartar it coagulated extreamly hard like stone as the second Salt of Salt-Marine A Solution of Salt Saturni this Salt rendred white and thick like Milk in which it differ'd from Saltpetre which doth not disturb it and from Saltpetres second Salt which disturbs it but a little This Water in boyling threw up much of the Salt in the Scum as Sal Gem. doth and had some gross earthy white Flakes precipitated The Salt was white and shot in very small Stiriae or flat Bacilli most of them pointed some not these did not readily melt The Earth too was white and in great quantity being near a fourth part Some part of the Salt was stain'd yellow having some of the Soyl in it Some part of the Salt which was the last was not shot so discernably but was in hard lumps and seem'd to consist of a second Salt that is of a somewhat differing Nature This did differ from the other in making a greater Precipitation of fine Silver out of Spirit of Nitre and a greater Coagulation of the Liquor of Salt of Tartar The Salt wherewith this Water is impregnate appears to be a full Alkali and the deep red with Tincture of Logwood made with Spirit of Wine does not contradict it Alkalies giving not much deeper with that Tincture joyn'd with a hard coagulating Acid not of the Nature of common Salt but rather of Saltpetres second Salt And according to this Nature of it this Water will not keep sweet four days whereas the others will near three times that time That this should be injurious in Leprous cases is very 〈◊〉 telligible from its Alkalifateness to raise the Blood and ulcerate and its coagulative Acidity And it is observable that the Lambeth Water is exactly of the contrary Nature containing a Salt affine to Sea-salt but without the Severity of the Acid or coagulative Quality This Water of Brentwood I have experienced beneficial in Hypochondriacal cases particularly at the beginning But the difference of the Constitution of the Patient is necessaâ—â— to be consulted in order to the due Prescription of these as well as other Waters since either the different Nature of the Salt of the Blood or a peculiar Mechanism of the Body may make it lyable to receive great Alterations according to the Nature of the Salt This is clear in the present instance for whereas the Melancholy and dull Crasis of this Patients Blood made this a suitable Remedy yet I observed in another Gentlewoman of the same Years but of a Florid Sanguine Complexion this Water to be of so differing an Effect as to cause Violent Flushings of the Body and Face and an Obstruction of the Catamenia all which the Nature of the Salt accounts for Upminster Water in Essex WAS very clear of taste bitter with a sweetish nauseous taste In the quantity of nine Ounces six Drams and six Grains out-weigh'd common Water 55 Grains The Water curdled Oleum Tartari per deliquium but not very large nor very quickly curdled Spirit of Harts-horn strongly its Alkalisate nature appear'd in thickning a Depurated Solution of English Vitriol and much sooner a Solution of Hungarian and making a large Precipitation In taking a high yellow Tincture with Lignum Nephriticum near an Orange with Gall a Turbid dark and greenish which precipitated leaving the Liquor yellow in making an Effervescence with Oyl of Vitriol in giving a Claret-red with a Tincture of Logwood in fair water mix'd without heat in taking a dark sooty thick colour with Syrup of Cloves In the Verdigreese green with Syrup of Violets and in troubling a Solution of Silver in Spirit of Nitre not so effectually as common Salt It differ'd from Saltpetre in rendring a Solution of Sal Saturni milky It differs from Alkalies in that it makes no alteration in a Solution of Sublimate made in
Nature of common or Sea-salt yet not having an Acidity agreeing with Iron but Fluxile Penetrative and Marcasitical is that of Dullwich it mortifieth Scabby Humours and such as are the Effects of Luxury but promotes the Flux of the Menses and Haemoâ—rhoids These require regular Drinking work very mâ—ch and that churlishly on those that either Drinking or Walking hath put out of Temper 10. Salt of the Nature of Salt of English Vitriol that is of Iron and seem a result of the uniting of Vitriol and Nitre or Salt of common Earth whose Characteristick is to give a white clouded Liquor with Gall and not so high a colour with Lignum Nephriticum as Alkalies give This is the Salt of Richmond Water and the two Chalybeats and recommends the Use of these Waters in the Cure of Scurfs is most safe in Dropsies in Ulcers in any part in Hypochondriacal Cases exceed the rest And the benefit of a Purging Water that is Chalybeat is extraordinary great it not only answering the design of both Waters but under the consideration of a Purging Water is made thereby specifically proper in Asthma's and beginning Dropsies and without which Qualification it could be administred neither so safely nor with so good Effect According to my Method before I shall deliver the Virtues of the Chalybeat Purging Waters from Observation of the Learned Dr. Witty at the Spring at Scarbourgh the happy Successes of which make him lift it above all the Waters in Europe he recommends in it these Qualities Crassos lentosque humores attenuat incidit dissolvit in Ventriculo Mesenterio Intestinis Renibus Vesicâ diluendi item detergendi virtutem nacta eos per Vesicam intestina promptissimè expellit prout ab eorum positione videantur magis inclinari And presently names the Venae lacteae the Portae and Liver and he makes a Remark at the Diuretick Quality that notwithstanding two thirds presently run off by Urine it purges so much and at both in their lessening the bulk and weight of the Body He enters his Observations with a Cure of a Scurvy attended among other Symptoms with Pains in the Joynts and difficulty of Breathing and of a Gout in the same Gentleman so considerable abated by it that in a Letter he there acknowledges he never after that suffered any Symptom of moment The Diseases further recorded by Dr. Witty to have been cured by the same Water and of which he produceth instances are diverse Distempers of the Head chiefly arising from the consent of the Stomach and Hypochondries Affections of the Nerves and Spasm vellicating the Coats and Nerves of the Stomach or caused by Worms or sharp and bilious Humours Palsies that from their accompanying Scurvy are called Scorbutick A Vertigo assaulting upon the least motion or heating of the Body A Vertigo with a Cold Sweat intermitting Pulse and Stiffness of the Neck remaining after the Cure of a Spasmus Cynicus and which he judg'd to be Scorbutical A Spontaneous Weariness and Weakness of the Nerves especially upon going forth in Cold Weather remaining after the Cure of a Scorbutick Palsie that at first had seiz'd the Patient upon a Journey and taken away Reason Sight Strength and Motion An Epilepsie from a hot Vapour which the Patient felt to rise from the Hypochondries and suddenly to strike his Head and Joynts and which had frustrated many Remedies In Stoppages of the Breast he observed it to promote Expectorating Spontaneous Weariness and Difficulty or Shortness of Breath A Phthisical Asthma that suffered not the Patient to lye down or sleep or keep his Food and scarce allow'd him to drink mended in ten days time and at last cured so as to recover his Flesh and vanquish the Symptoms An Obstinate Catarrh Gout a Fit of which he freed himself from by drinking the Waters two days as soon as he felt it certainly coming in which too he practised Bathing in Salt Water and Sweating upon it In morbis Ventriculi Anorexia Cardialgia Eructatione perpetua Nauseâ Singultu Hypochondriaâ—ism with Pains of the Stomach after eating Flesh Distention and Hardness of the Stomach and Torsions of his right side in one Patient and with a joyn'd Pain of Back and Stomach with a Schirrous Tension of the Ventricle and Liver continual Disposition to Vomit and a Jaundies supervening every Fit in another Patient who could not lye on the right side nor bear the Region of the Liver to be touch'd Oppilations of the Mesentery Liver and Spleen preventing a Dropsie Another instance of its power in reducing the Belly after Child-birth which remained Tumid Scurvy Hypochondriack Melancholy and Worms Fluxes Dysenterick and Lienterick Hot Intemper of the Kidneys in wearing a new Stone and expelling it with the Tartareous Matter Also in a fresh Lues Venerea safely and quickly stopping a Gonorrhaea and carrying off the Relicks after the Cure of an old one In Morbis uterinis Suffocatione Matricis Chlorosi Fluore albo Mensium fluxu inordinato Abortionem praevertit conceptionem promovet And strengthens the Natural Parts I affix this Register exactly because when so nicely done is the only true way of adjusting their Virtues and is so much the more useful as it is equally applicable to Scarbourgh and Woodham-Ferrys which are both the same Rule of Drinking these Waters in general is the same which the Chalybeats require viz. Chearfulness and Exercise and a mild Diet they are not to be slept upon without danger nor doth the benefit of them consist with a Temper disordered by Drinking either in the use of them or immediately before The Repetition of drinking Purging Waters three or four times sufficiently answers the general Design of washing the Body though the more stubborn disorders of some Bodies make a longer use of them necessary But when the Nature of the Distemper or its Obstinacy require the use of them specifically they ought to be continued as other Remedies for many Weeks though with Intermissions at Discretion The Use of the Salts of the Purging Waters is very advantageous for Persons that are distanced from them and in the Winter especially in cases wherein the Milk which is usually added to make them agreeable by turning them into Posset clarified is not allowable as in Itches and Salt Eruptions The Use of which both in Glysters and Purges when dissolved in Water or convenient Apozems is most kindly and may be properly applied as the Learned Dr. Grew hath introduced it Some Observations on the Bath Water in Somersetshire THE smallness of the Quantity of the Bath Water which I could procure at so great a distance did not allow me Scope to try the earthy and Saline parts collectible by Evaporation The Water was clear and coldish to taste not wide of the taste of common Water It did not gild Silver or make it yellow as it doth at the Spring I could discover little Alkalisate in it It thickned and became milky with Oyl of Tartar and