bituminous vapours Ob. What is the reason that seeing this water hath passed lately through the bituminous burnings as it appears by its fresh odour of the same should be cold and not hot as hot Baths are Sol. 1. It was the opinion of Fallopius that such kind of waters proceed from a remote fire but passing through narrow passages retain their full odour and tast which cannot be vanished by the way any otherwise than smoak through a Chimney or pipe although by the length of its passage it may loose its heat 2. Though the fire be near to the superficies of the earth where this water breaketh forth yet it is very probable that the coldness thereof may proceed from a mixture of a cold spring before the breaking forth thereof Neither let it seem strange to any that cold springs and hot may be so near together in the bowels of the earth for just above the head of this Sulphur-well there arise two cold Springs which meet and run down within a few feet of the head of the same And Mr. Jones in his treatise of Buck-stones Bath in Derbishire saith that the cold Springs and hot Springs are so near that a man may put one finger in the cold and another in the hot Having in some measure declared unto you the cause of this Sulphur-well viz. of its saltness bitterness and sulphurious odour I shall in the next place give an account of some experiments and observations which I made and they are these viz. 1. If Silver be put into this water it is thereby tinged first yellow and then black but Gold is not all discoloured thereby 2. If this water be a little boiled it looseth its tinging property and also stinking odour 3. It coagulates milk if it be boiled therewith 4. The distilled water thereof looseth its odour and doth not coagulate milk 5. If the water be boiled it will still coagulate milk though it looseth its odour 6. Seven gallons yield by evaporation a pound of Salt which though at first black I have made as white as snow 7. This Salt coagulates milk also 8. This water kills worms and such kind of creatures presently if they be put therein 9. I filled two Vial glasses with this water in wet weather and stopt the one but the other I left open The water in that which was stopt within an hour or two became white and thick and within two or three dayes deposited a white sediment and the sides of that glass were furred the water in the other glass altered not 10. I filled two Vial glasses in fair weather whereof the one I stopt but the other left open the water in neither of them turned colour any whit considerably onely a kind of a thin whitish matter after two or three dayes fell to the bottom the water continuing very clear The water of that glass which was stopt retained its odour most 11. A pint of this water weighs two scruples i. e. fourty grains more than a pint of common Spring-water Note that the reason of its tinging white metals is not from any bodily Sulphur or bitumen mixt with it for the substance of them will not mix with water but swim on it as in the Spring at Pitchford in Shropshire and in Avernia in France and in divers other places but from the vapours or the subtile atomes efluvia's thereof which are mixed with the water and in boiling are evaporated The reason of its coagulating property is from some occult acidity in the Salt thereof which to sense is not perceptible onely by effect Out of the Salt is drawn a very good spirit of excellent vertue as I shall declare in the next Chapter Before I conclude this Chapter it will be worth taking notice that about 240 yards above the head of this Sulphur-well is a bog of about twenty yards diameter in which I digged a mineral kind of substance like the finders of Iron but almost rotten being corroded with some acid spirits of which that bog is full as also other places This mineral substance being cast into the fire burns blew and smels like Sulphur It is in tast like Vitrial and out of it Vitrial may be drawn nay in time it will be almost all resolved into Vitrial For I washed it and set it in a Cellar for two or three dayes and it was covered over with a white sweeetish Vitrial which I dissolved in water and set the said substance in a Cellar again and it contracted the like I did as before still reiterating this work till it was almost all turned to Vitrial In the said bog I found three or four sorts of waters viz. a Sulphur and Vitrioline and of each two sorts This was done the last day of my abode there and therefore I had not time to make any further search onely some of that mineral substance I took with me with which I tried the aforesaid experiments If any Gentleman would be pleased to expend some costs in digging up this bog and erecting some new Wels there he would prove an acceptable benefactor to his Countrey and it may be some new kind of water might be discovered hereby having yet more vertues than any of the former Note that the stink of this Sulphur-well is perceived afar off especially in moist and cold weather CHAP. XV Of the vertues and uses of the Sulphur-well together with directions and cautious for the taking of it THe use of this water is either inward or outward It being taken inwardly incideth abstergeth attenuates and resolves viscous thick humours and irritates every vessel of the body to expel whatsoever humours are offensive in them It openeth and removes those strong and obstinate obstructions whether in men or women that would not yield to any other Medicine whatsoever It doth oftentimes evacuate by stool great lumps of viscous slimy matter which was certainly whilest it was in the body the cause of some great distemper oppressure gripings tensions c. and which could hardly any other way be removed It heateth and quickneth the stomack bowels liver spleen bloud veins nerves and indeed the wholy body in so much that it consumes crudities rectifieth all cold distempers in all parts of the body causeth a good digestion cures the Dropsie Spleen Scurvy Green sickness Gout Cramp Epilepsie head-ach Vertigo Kings evil and all such Symptomes as proceed either from crudities cold viscous slimy or corrupt humours which obstruct distemper the stomack Bowels Messentery Liver Veins Brain and Nerves and these though of long continuance It killeth worms infallibly Note that this water must be begun by degrees and the full proportion be taken not at once but at several times exercise intermediating as in the taking of the Spaw The full dose or quantity to be taken must be proportioned according to the constitution strength of the party his bearing of it as also the humour offending the predominancy of the distemper and the aptness of the
enjoy what is attracted and over and above that none or at least not so much as would suffice for the making of Springs 5. Neither are there such veins in the earth through which the water should passe as cloth wine through crooked pipes or cranes which wine-coopers and Vintners use for the drawing of wine out of one vessel into an other through which the wine being once sucked runs continually till all be run forth For the veines in the bowels of the earth are not wholly and throughout full as of necessity they must be before water will ascend through them for preservation of its continuity and the avoyding of a vacuum 6. Neither is the water raised to the superficies of the earth by Helmonts sabulum or virgin-earth which he saith is a certain sand continued from the Center of the earth in divers places even to the superficies of the same and to the tops of some Mountains which sand hath in it a vitality and in which as in a vital abode and natural place the water whilest it remains is living and enjoyes common life and knows neither superiority or inferiority of place any otherwise than the bloud in the veines which flowes upward to the head and downward to the feet But moreover he adds that when this water is let out of its natural abode viz. the virgin earth as bloud out of a veine it then doth like a heavy thing hasten to its Center or iliad viz. the Sea Now for the confirming of this vitality in water he brings in this distich of the Poēt undas Spiritus intus alit vasti quoque marmoris aequor Mens agitat molem totam diffusa per artus And he further adds that the sea hath in it a kind of life because though the winds cease yet it hath its spontaneous motions and observes its tides according to certain observations that it hath of the course of the moon as if it would rise to meet her Now let us observe the weight of Helmonts arguments and that indeed is little or none as I conceive for first he doth not any way demonstrate that continuation of his virgin-earth from the Center to the superficies of the earth much less the vitality thereof Secondly for the vitality of water he onely quotes a poeticall fiction and thirdly for the spontaneous flowing of the sea it is noe more a demonstrative reason for the vitality thereof than the loadstones attracting Iron a reason of the vitality of the same 7 Neither is it rais'd upon that account of condensation rarefaction which the learned Docter Flud endeavours to demonstrate by the experiment of his weather-glass The air water saith he fill up all the cavities of the world so that in what hemispheare the air by reason of cold is condensed there the waters are rarefied and swell as may be seen in the weather-glass where the water is rarified and raised highest when the air is with cold most condensed as also in the swelling of springs in frosty-weather Now although this his experiment of the aforesaid glass doth prettily illustrate the busines of condensation and rarefaction in close vessels yet it doth not demonstrate sufficiently the raising of waters from the deep subterraneall channells to the superficies of the earth for it is apparent as I have shewed in the former part of this chapter that some springs swell more in summer than in winter Secondly if springs do rise higher in time of frost than in hot seasons it is onely either because some subterraneall vapours which could not evaporate by reason of the earth being constringed with cold are condensed into water and so make for the present some small addition to springs or because the subterraneall waters are rarified and swell by that heat which is occasioned through the aforesaid binding of the earth for we see by experience that springs are hotter in frosty weather than in summer And thirdly because the water of that weather-glass if it were open at the top as the veins of fountains are would not observe the nature of the season so as to rise or fall accordingly for that in a close glass it ariseth onely ad evitandum vacuum and now rather than nature should suffer a vacuum by the airs being condensed vapours and fumes would proceed out of the earth nay the next adjacent warm air would come in as a supply to prevent a vacuum sooner than water in the bowels of the earth could be rarified which would not in an open glass be raised at all though the weather were never so cold By these seven negatives it appears how the waters in the earth do not ascend I shall endeavour to demonstrate how they do ascend to the heads of Springs It is absurd to think being the same which Aristotle himself and his followers graunt that the waters should not be elevated from the bottom of Caverns to the heads of Springs after the same manner as water is elevated from the Sea to the midle region of the air Now this elevation is done by the force of heat resolving the water into vapours And if so why then may not the other be done after the same manner viz by heat Neither is it any matter whether that heat be above or beneath the waters if so be it forceth them into vapours and maketh them ascend as high as is requisite they should But it may be said that the middle region of the air is very cold and it is coldness that condenseth vapours into water but now the earth through which these vapours pass is warm as is agreed by most To this I answer that it is not necessary that there must be cold for the condensing of vapours into water it is sufficient if there be a more remiss degree of heat as you may see in the head of an alembick and the cover of a seething pot the interior superficies thereof being full of drops whilest they themselves are warm Now for the making of a vapour of any liquid matter heat is altogether and absolutely necessary according to the opinion of all and for much vapour there is much heat and a considerable proportion of humour required But seeing abundance of water comes from the Sea into the bowels of the earth the subterraneall heat which must be in like proportion being the chiefest cause of the generations of Springs is next and diligently to be inquired into Now that the earth is hot it is known by daylie experience And Lucilius Baldus saith that the earth being newly digged is hot smoketh and that out of deep wells is drawn warm water and especially in winter season by reason of the cold binding the earth and keeping in the heat but how this heat comes to be in the earth he speaks like a Stoick and saith it is in it as naturally as vitall heat is in animals But this opinion is not so probable as that of the Peripateticks who say that the earth is of
substance Maginus makes mention of a Lake in Ireland in the bottone whereof if you put a staff it will being pulled out some moneths after be turned into Iron viz. that part which stuck in the mud and that part which was in the water into a whetstone Aristotle mentions a certain Fountain in Sicilia into which if living creatures being before killed were put they would become alive again Athenaeus saith that the fish of the River Clitoris have a certain voyce Solinus speaks of a Fountain that is in Boeotia which helpeth the memory Isidorus saith the like of the River Lethe which causeth forgetfulnes Scaliger saith that the River of Juverna is of that nature that the leaves of a certain tree hanging over falling into it become living fishes Pliny reports that in Agro Carrinensi in Spain is a certain Fountain which makes all the fish that live in the water of it seem to be of a golden colour Agricola affirmes that fishes live in the hot Sulphur-waters of the lower Pannonia neer Buda Varro and Solinus affirm that there is a Fountain in Arabia which if the sheep drink thereof changeth the colour of their fleeces and maketh the white to become black Pliny reports that the water in Falisco maketh the Cattle that drink thereof to become white He also saith that in Pontus the River Astaces watering the fields makes the Mares that feed therein to yield a black milk which feeds the Countrey It is reported that in Ulcester in Ireland there is a Fountain in which he that washeth himself shall never become gray I could recken up many more waters of very strange natures but whether they or these already mentioned be all certainly true I will not undertake to affirm onely thus much I will say that some of them I my self have seen other some I am assured of from those whose unquestionable worth may justly command mine and other mens faith to their indeniable testimony and for the rest we may believe them according to the reputation of the Historian These here I mentioned that it might not seeme strange to us how capable waters are of receiving diversity of qualifications from the earth and although some of them may seem magical and supernatural yet may they upon a profound enquiry be made to appear truely natural CHAP. IV. Of the nature and vertues of simple Waters I It will be necessary for the better conceiveing of the nature and vertue of mineral waters in particular to speak something of the nature and virtues of water in generall or of simple water which is an element as saith Sendivogius most heavy full of unctuous flegme and is more worthy in its kind than the earth it is without volatile but within fixed cold and moist attempered by air It is the Sperm of the world in which the seed of all things is preserved and it is the keeper of every thing It is called by the ancients {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Thales as saith Aristotle called one and the same water the beginning of all things Empedocles also believed that of water were all things made Hippon also saith Aristotle called it the soul of things as if it were the life of them which made Hippocrates say that water and fire were the principles of life and especially water for saith he many animals may want fire but none can well live without water Theophrastus affirms that water is the matter of all things And indeed if water were accurately anotamized you should clearly see that both vegetables minerals and animals are generated of water but of this I have treated more largely elss where I shall not now stand to repeat especially since my purpose here is chiefly to speak of the medicinal virtues of water Now we must know that water is twofold for either it is simple or mineral which we more usually call medicinal Water is called simple not according to its own nature but to our sense or being compared with that which is mineral and of this there are five kinds viz. rain fountain pit river and standing water I shall not here stand to prove whether or no water be nutritive or be onely a vehiculum of aliments as Galen would have it because in another treatise I have cleerly shewed how vegetables animals and minerals are generated of and increased by water which hath such strange dissimilary or heterogeneal parts as can scarce be believed by those who never saw the spagyrical anatomy thereof or curiously examined the production of all natural things I shall insist onely upon the medicinal use thereof as being administred either to prevent or cure the distempers of the body Simple water which cooles and moistens is either taken inwardly or used outwardly It is taken inwardly either warm or cold The vertues of warm-warme-water taken inwardly are these which follow viz. 1. It doth by reason of its warmth cause nauseouseness and it is drank in a greater quantity to cause vomiting in head-ach proceeding from drunkenness and in any other ilness of stomack but with this caution that they that have very cold weak and laxated stomacks must abstain from this kind of vomit because warm water doth moisten very much and so by consequence would laxate tht stomack more than it was before Also it is not to be administred to those that are accustomed to drinking of water for them it will not move to vomit but remain in the body and weaken the vessels upon the aforesaid account of its extream moistening 2. It allayes sharp acid and gnawing humours and cureth such symptoms as proceed from thence as saith Galen also it represseth the ebullition of choller and helps the inflammations of the throat and mouth caused thereby as saith Aetius 3. It cures the inflammation of the reins by altering of them if it be taken before meals Note that if warm water be given to cause vomiting it must be administered to the quantity of a pint or two or of as much as will be sufficient thereunto But if it be used for qualification it must be taken to the quantity of a cup onely which may not cause nauseousnes The use and vertues of cold water are these viz. 1. It conduceth to long life in regard it condenseth the spirits saith the Lord Virulam And indeed water was the usual drink of the ancients who lived long 2. It repels by reason of its coldness and is thefore effectual against divers distempers it forceth crudities out of the stomack and as saith Aetius promotes the operation of any medicine that is taken and works not besides it suppresseth the fuming of vapours to the head as saith Dioscorides and Mesues and being drunk at bed-time causeth quiet rest as saith the Lord Virulam in his learned treatise de vita et morte by suppressing the ascent of vapours to the head 3. It allayes extream hot distempers whether they be in any particular part as in the stomack liver c. or in the
whole body as in continual and burning feavers It is upon this account commended by Galen against an inward Erisipelas I know some that account it especially rain water as a great secret against ulcers of the reins Note that cold water is prohibited from a cold temper either of the whole or of principal parts also from old age because it is very feeble and from child-hood because it is subject to convulsions as saith Galen and from a thin habit of body extenuated by reason of scarcity of bloud which is a great and the principal safeguard against cold things Winter also and a cold crass slimy morbifick or a hot impact matter as also great obstructions of the vessels and cold inward tumours forbid the use of cold water As for the time when cold water is to be drank note that it is never to be administred in feavers unless concoction do first appear as saith Galen for although it be a remedy for a feaver as it is a feaver yet it is not a remedy against the humours which cause a feaver but as it evacuates them by Urine stool or sweat But these cannot safely be expelled before they be concocted Now we must not notwithstanding expect a perfect and full concoction but it will suffice if it be moderate and in good part performed for else there will be a danger of the feavers turning into a Hectick Also it must not be taken on the critical day for then saith Hippocrates we must not move the humours because we do not certainly know which way nature will attempt an evacuation But for a more particular time of the feaver it is to be taken most conveniently in the fit or in the very hour of the ebullition of the humours because then the inward parts do burn most and need most then to be qualified besides coldness is then least offensive because the greatness of the heat is a safeguard against the offensiveness thereof As for the quantity to be drunke note that if the repelling or suppressing vertue thereof be required it is to be taken to the quantity of half a pint more or less as things may be considered But if the altering or allaying vertue as in a feaver then it is to be taken in such a quantity as may be drunk at one breath or as much at the sick party needs for satisfaction or elss can well bear But the greatness of the distemper the age time of the year custome and strength is also to be considered But it will be demanded which is the best water and most wholsome and for answer hereunto I say that is the best which is void of taste or odour is clear pure most light is soon heated and soon cooled and in which flesh is soonest boyled and in particular as saith Galen rain water is the best but yet not any but such which falls in Summer-time when the heaven is in great part serene and especially with thunder being that which consists of thinner vapours elevated and purified by the heat of the Sun and lightning And next to this is that pit water which flows from the next fountain or river especially through a sandy earth because if the said earth partake of no other quality it is percolated made more thin and becomes more depurated than other water And in defect of these two fountain and river water may be used being indeed very good and wholsome and indeed are by many accounted the best but the worst of all is standing water as lakes pooles Now in case there can be got no good water but onely what is bad than Galen would have that to be boyled and cooled again and so to be used Thus much of the use and vertues of cold and warm water administred in wardly It remaines now that I speak two or three words of the external use of water both warm and cold and of the effects thereof Now water is used outwardly saith Julius Caesar Claudinus first by way of Balneum or bathing the whole body secondly by way of insessus or sitting in water up to the navel thirdly by way of aspersion or affusion i. e. sprinkling or pouring on fourthly by way of stillicidium dropping or distilling Fistly by way of fomentation and lastly by way of lotion or washing any part Bathes are either hot or cold Cold Bathes were by ancient and modern Philosophers and Physitians ordeined for divers uses Many used them onely by way of exercise as for swimming in them which the Lord Verulam in his learned treatise de vitâ morte reckons up as one of those robust exercises as he calls them which makes the flesh hard and compact conducing to long life They are used also for the astringing of the body and condensing the same also as saith the a foresaid Learned Vicount for the closing of the pores of the body that are too open whereby the hot air excluded from preying upon the body besides they unite the Calidum innatum corroborating the same by an antiperistasis wherby by cōsequence it doth beget a good appetite cause a good digestion excite the expulsion of excrements represse a canine appetite other ill symptomes caused by the exolution of the skin stop bleeding the overflowings in women and the gonorrhea cure the Hydrophobia which is a symptome occasioned by the biting of a mad dog and many sorts of seavers both intermitting and continual if the party make use of them when that fit is approaching and there continue an houre or two Note that the use of cold baths is not for youths because they hinder their growth nor for old men because that little heat which they have is thereby suffocated nor for cold and thin women which have delicate bodies because the cold penetrates too much into their solide parts nor to any that be sick unles they be of strong natures for as cold baths doe wōderfully corroborate the Calidum innatum or naturall heat if it be strong so doe they on the contrary overcome it if it be weak and the humours appeare to be concocted and fit for evacuation and no principal part or bones nerves brain ill affected and the body free from convulsions Note also that when the intension is to be formed by cooling onely and there is no need of moistening then as saith the aforesaid authour of the History of life and death the body is to be annointed with oyle with spissaments or thickeners that the quality onely of the cooler be received and not the substance Yet we must in such cases have a care that the pores of the body be not thereby stopt too much for when any extrinsecal cold obstructs the body too much it is so far from cooling it that it stirs up the heat the more by suppressing perspirations Baths also of hot or heated water are of great use but before I declare the uses and effects thereof wee must consider that they are of three sorts for either they are tepid i.
e. Luke-warm or moderatly hot or very hot water A Bath that is very hot dryes rather than moistens contracts the skin condenseth the pores thereof so that neither any external humidity can be received in or internal superfluities expelled forth thereby So that there is no great use thereof onely it serves for the contracting of the skin where it needs contraction where the use of a cold Bath may not be admitted safely for that intension A Bath that is moderately hot serves for divers uses and is very necessary in several cases It draws from remote internal parts and causeth hot humours to be digested into vapours and openeth the pores that the offensive humours and vapours may be evacuated by sweat and perspirations It moisteneth a dry body and therefore is very good in a putrid and hectick feaver in the itch and scab c. attracts nourishment to the extreame parts where before by reason of some defect it came not allayeth the sharpnes of humours in the habit of the body and upon all these accoūts serves as effectually if not more for most intensions that almost any Physick is prescribed for I shall onely add to these the great vertues that Columella attributes to Baths of hot water for saith he we do concoct our crudities by the use of Baths And for this end they were much used by the ancient Romanes who used a crude kind of dyet as of hearbs and raw fruits which bred crude humours in their bodies and therefore needed some such help to concoct them and by this meanes they became very healthfull and of delicate bodies But they must be used for the concocting of crudities with this caution viz. that there be no feaver present for then insteed of concocting of them they will become by being stirred more putrid and by being attracted to the habit of the body as of necessity they must by the use of hot Baths obstruct the pores thereof to the increasing of the feaver and in case of a feaver hot Baths must be used in the declining thereof as when concoction appeares and after purging of the grosse humours abound in the first vessels but in other cases Hippocrates commends Bathing as a preparative to purgations A tepid Bath cools as well as heats and heats as well as cools and serves for the same uses as a hot Bath doth but more remisly Note that if the patient that is bathing be subject to faint he must hold cold water constantly in his mouth and drink ever and anon a draught of cold beer or water I might here prescribe many rules and directions for bathing or for the ordering of ones self before in and after bathing but it was not my purpose to make a full and large discourse of this subject onely to touch it by the way referring those that stand in need of bathing to their skilful Physitians for their directions To this kind of bathing viz. with hot water I might add the manner of bathing by vapour which is when a vessel of seething water close covered hath proceeding from it a long pipe which is fastened into a bathing tub into which the hot vapours come upon the patient there sitting but of this I have treated more largely in another discourse and will not now repeat The second way of using water outwardly is called insession or sitting in water up to the navel and this is used when the weakness of the body cannot bear a bathing of the whole body and particularly it is made use of if warm for laxating mollifying the hardness of the belly for provoking of Urine the mitigating of the pains of the stone and chollick c and if cold for the performing of the same intensions for the lower part of the body as a cold Balnenm doth for the whole The four last ways of using water outwardly as aspersion i. e. sprinkling or affusion Stillicidum i. e. dropping or distilling fomenting and lotion respect parts with the like operations upon them although with some kind of variety of application as baths do the whole body They that will understand more these external uses of cold and hot water let them read Claudinus his treatise de Ingressu ad Infirmos and Galen de tuenda Sanitate Note that that water is best for outward uses which will bear sope best and make the greatest some therewith And thus much for the vertues and inward and outward use of simple water whether hot or cold and that in brief for I would not dwell upon this subject as not being the chiefest that I propounded to my self to discourse of in this treatise taking it in onely by the way and for order sake and the better illustrating of that which follows and is principally to be here treated of CHAP. V. Of the several kinds of mixtures in mineral waters IT is graunted by all that there is some kind of mixture in all mineral waters indeed there are four kinds of things that are usually mixed with these kinds of waters viz. Metals Minerals Stones and Earths and of some of these 1. Sometimes the vapours onely are mixed viz. Such as arise from the fermentation and dissolution of Metals and Minerals and are mixed with the water that passeth by them through the veins of the earth And concerning this saith Aristotle that the vapours of Minerals keep the tast and odour of the Minerals from whence they proceed but of this more fully in the Chapter of the Spaw 2. Sometimes the juice onely of them viz. Whilest they are in principiis solutis And indeed gold can be mixed with waters no otherwise because it cannot be corroded with the acid spirits of the earth as other Metals can having in it self when concocted and perfected none of that esurine acid salt which a subterraneal aciditie will resolve and set at liberty to corrode the Metal with which it is per minima together with the embrionated Sulphur of the same conjoyned 3. Sometimes the substances and that after a threefold manner for some are mixed with water so very close together that from the mixture of them there results but one forme neither will they ever or scarcely be seperated and such are those that will not vapour away faster than the water it self is evaporated neither remaines in the bottom but is all evaporated with the water Some are mixed confusedly Such as subside or fall to the bottom if the water be put into any vessel that it may stand still And lastly some are mixed in a way betwixt both as salt for salt and the water continue to be in one and the same form but yet the salt will subside and remain in the bottom after evaporation of the water Now the cause of this variety of mixtion is either the difference of the heat that should unite or of their abode together or else of the aptness of the things to be mixed for mixtion This being premised I shall proceed to relate where these
the other and after this manner is the nativity of nitre 2. The process of making artificial Vitrial is manifold I shall speak of onely two and they are these 1. Cast Sulphur into melted Copper and there let it burn till it cease to burn any more then presently cast the melted Copper into rain-water which will thereby become green This do so often till all the Copper be dissolved in the water then evaporate the water and you shall have a good Vitrial Note that it is an acid spirit in the sulphur which opens and resolves the esurine Salt in the Copper whereby the Copper it self is corroded and fit for dissolution in the water 2. Take Copperas stone which is a certain Sulphurious glittering Marcasite break to pieces a good quantity of them and lay them in air and rain upon sticks over wooden vessels and in a certain time the stones will be resolved by an acid spirit in the air and water and washed down into the said vessel with the rain-water which will thereby become green and yield upon evaporation a good green Vitrial and after this manner do we make our Vitrial or Copperas in England Now let it not seem strange to any one that there is such an acidity in water and air for whence else doth Iron and Copper being put into water or standing long in the air especially in a cold Cellar contract such a rust as they do Is not this rust from the aforesaid acid spirit viz. of the air and water resolving the erusine Salt in those metals and making it thereby more corrosive and more powerfull to corrode part of the metals themselves with which it is mixed per Minima And will not this rust being boiled in rain-water yield a Vitrial Ob. But some will object and say that this rust is caused not from the acidity but onely from the humidity of the air and water resolving thereby the said esurine Salt Sol. This I will solve with a relation of two experiments viz. 1. Take the above named Copperas stones broken to pieces weigh them exactly and lay them in a cold moist place but so that no rain come at them to wash away the Salt thereof as it is resolved by the acidity of the air and after some moneths they will by a certain magnetical power attract a certain saline humidity and fall into a black pouder which being well dried and then weighed will prove far more ponderous than before which implies that there is an addition of something else than a meer quality viz. the humidity of air and water 2. Take a pound of Salt of tartar make it red hot and weigh it exactly then put upon it two pints of rain-water distilled and evaporate it then put on more and evaporate that also and then make the Salt red hot again and weigh it and you shall find it far heavier than before which is caused by the said Salts attracting to it self that occult acid saline spirit which was in the water and fixing of it into its own nature and not by assimilating the water it self which will never be converted into Salt any otherwise than as it contains a saline acid spirit which is the onely thing coagulable in it Ob. Some again will object although they do admit of this acid spirit in air and water say that in case the said acid spirit do corrode and dissolve the metals it doth not follow that there is any such esurine Salt in those metals as distinct from the pure mercurial or other Sulphureous part of them but say that it corrodes onely the said mercurial and Sulphureous part thereof as we see aqua fortis doth silver and mercury and aqua regia doth gold and so becomes coagulated into a saline nature and consistency Sol. The said acid spirit of the air and water can not corrode or putrifie the pure metalline part of metals for we see that mercurie is not corroded and reduced into a saline nature thereby and that gold doth never rust and that because it is purified from all the said acid saline principle and is not at all corroded but by an aqua regia and silver contracts but little rust and that according to the small quantity there is in it of the said Salt And for the superfluous embrionated Sulphur that neither can be corroded by the said acid spirit any otherwise than it contains in it that esurine Salt for if we put pure Sulphur extracted from Sulpbur vivum into aqua fortis it will not be corroded thereby much less then by the aciditie of air and water nay Theophrastus saith that if woods and cords be smeered over with an unctuous oyl which he prescribes to be made out of Sulphur they will be preserved from putrifaction for ever though they continue in the air water or earth and the truth is nothing can open and resolve Sulphur but oyl being of a like unctuous nature with ' it as I have oftentimes tried There must therefore be another corporeal Principle viz. of a consentaneous suitable and saline nature that is apt for to be corroded and resolved and to coagulate the said spirit 3. Vitrial is made artificial after this manner viz. Take an ounce of spirit of Sulphur or vitrial and put it into a gallon of rain-water stir them well together then put into this acid water half a pound of the filings of Iron or Copper and within a few hours the metal will attract the said acid spirit to it self be dissolved it self thereby and coagulate that This being done decant the water and calcine the said mixture in a crucible and being poudered put it into rain-water seething hot stirring them together and then all that being settled to the bottom that will settle powr off the clear green water and evaporate it and you will have a pure Vitrial Like unto this is the making of Vitrial by sprinkling a considerable quantity of distilled Vinegar upon the pouder of Steel or Copper and letting of them stand till the mixture grow very hot by fermentation and be again cooled and then putting it into rain-water seething hot and proceeding as in the foregoing process Almost after the same manner is Verdigrease made viz. by hanging plates of Copper or Brass over the hot vapours of Vinegar Now these three processes of making artificial vitrial being seriously considered will clearly illustrate the nativity of natural vitrial which is as I conceive after this manner viz by an acid subterraneal spirit whereof there is great quantity in some mines corroding the veins of Iron or rathe Copper which being thus resolved and opened are by the water that passeth through them dissolved after which this liquor is boyled to a Vitrial and thus is made the Vitrial in Dansick Hungarie c. Note that any of the said Vitrials if they be made out of Copper whether natural or artificial being distilled in a forceing furnace yield oyle and spirit and the Caput Mortuum
it succeeded ill This might be true but what then Might not those Physitians though otherwise knowing enough be ignorant of the right use of the waters themselves and of the preparations requisit for the taking of them with success Or might not they be willing to bring the Spaw out of credit because it might happily cure their patients too soon and thereby be prejudicial to them Or might not their patients be unwilling to drink the water regulary or disorder themselves in respect of diet exercise and the like Now whether either of these or all these might be the cause of the aforesaid unsuccesfulnes I cannot determine onely this I know that the use of Physick is not onely not unsafe but very necessary in the use of the waters nay and in many cases to be mixed with the waters themselves as in the next Chapter I shall more particularly give you to understand Three or four dayes before giving over the waters they must be abated by degrees as at the beginning increased by degrees After the ending of the waters immediatly even before you return from thence some such purging Physick will be necessary as may evacuate all the water that shall remain secretly in the body as oftentimes it doth and withall comfort and strengthen the stomack and Liver and moisten the bowels if there be any feaver of too great astriction of body afterwards Also a very spare diet will be very necessary for a moneth after for by this means nature will become master of the bodily infirmities all crudities being removed and prevented CHAP. X. Of particular directions and cautions in particular cases and of preventing and curing such accidents and symptomes which sometimes happen in the taking of the waters THey that have a very good digestion may in the afternoon about five or six hours after dinner take half the quantity which they did in the morning but with this caution that they eat a very light supper after it and as for those that have a very bad concoction let them altogether forbear it in the afternoon or at most drink but a glass for the diluting and better distributing of the chylus if already perfected If any shall drink of the water for the curing of an ague let them so observe the time for the taking of it that it may be all passed through them before the coming of the fit because otherwise nature will be distracted in her motions viz. evacuating the water by Urine and the morbifick humour by sweat And as for those that have a continual feaver let them forbear it altogether unless the humours be concocted and fit for evacution either by sweat or Urine as I have more at large declared in the fourth Chapter concerning the taking of cold water inwardly in case of a feaver My advise is that they that have very weak and cold stomacks should take the water a little warm'd first i. e. the cold being just taken off The truth is the coldness of the waters doth very little good at all unless it be to allay a very great heat and drought So great a quantity thereof as is usually taken cold must of necessity diminish the natural heat in cold constitutions A glass of cold water cast upon a fire though but small may make it burn the more strongly but if ten or twenty be cast upon it they if they do not quite extinguish it yet will so far check it that it will a long time labour under the destructive contrariety thereof And actual heat is far more suitable to nature if so be the vertue of the water is not dimished thereby as it is not as I have demonstrated by the second experiment in the foregoing Chapter far more effectual the potential heat thereof being sooner reduced into act without any checking or oppressing the natural heat The stomack being a nervous part and of exquisite sense must needs be offended with that which is actually cold This made the ancient Grecians and Romans drink most of their water and wine hot as we find in Salmuths collections The Lord Virulam wonders that calidum bibere is so much grown out of use If to drink an ordinary quantity of drink cold were not approved of by the Ancients with what face shall I commend the taking of gallons of cold water every morning for certain weeks together I do therefore seriously advise those that have cold and effeminate stomacks to take off the cold from the water before they drink it If upon the taking of the water it pass not through the body freely but is retained it is to be considered in what place of the body it is at a stand that accordingly some appropriated means may be administred for the evacuation of it For if it be retained in the belly or hypochondries which will appear by its rumbling wind tension oppressure a glyster will evacuate it if in the stomack which appears by a disposition to vomit hiera picra or Rhabarb will be convenient for the opening and cleansing thereof and making free passage for it from thence If it be retained in the habit of the body and veins which appears by oppressure and a chilness over the body without the aforesaid rumbling tension wind c. I approve of hiera picra with Jollap Mechoacan or the like hydragogal medicaments They that when they have taken the waters cannot evacuate them for want of exercise as being to feeble to stir much or walk and not having the conveniencies of horses may either drink all their proportion of water in the bed or take some part at the Well and then go to bed and there take the residue I have oftentimes observed that the water would freely pass through many when they were in bed but would not otherwise and the reason of it was as I conceived because the passages of their body were contracted by going into the air but more open by the warm'th of the bed Now for the rendering the water more effectual it will be necessary as is the course in Italy to make use of some specificks with the drinking of it H. ab Heer 's allowes of the decoction of Sanicle Pimpernel Scabions c. to be drunk in case of spitting of bloud inward Impostumes Ulcers Wounds and Infirmities of the breast and Lungs the benefit whereof he experienced by many years practise And why may not we do the like in several cases as to allow of a spoonfull or two of the juyce of Saxifrage or the like to be taken in the first glass in case of the stone or gravel or to take Turpentine pills or a bole with Turpentine and Cassia the night before and in case of very great obstructions dropsie and cold moist stomacks or the like to mix some Sugar of steel or steel wine with the first glass But note that in such cases they are to be taken half an hour or a whole hour before the taking of any more of the water
digesting them into perfection The chief vertues of this water are to allay acid gnawing and hot cholerick humours and to stop all fluxes proceeding from thence It is also good against burstness pissing of bloud all overflowings in women and strengthens the back They that take this water except in case of looseness must every other day take a glyster or some lenitive as Cassia Manna c. every other night in case it binds too much This water in many cases is better than the syrup of Coral and the pouder of the Rock or rather the pouder that remains upon evaporation maybe used for Coral for the truth is as is the opinion of many Philosophers that Coral is a certain vegetable fed and nourished with a succus lapidescens The proportion of the water to be taken is from half a pint to half a gallon according to the age constitution distemper and place of the distemper The quantity of the pouder is from ten grains to a dram according to the aforesaid considerations CHAP. XVII Of St. Mugnus Well WHether Magnus or Mugnus be the true and Original name of this Well I could never yet be ascertained It is usually called by the latter Now whether this Well was Sainted from its real vertues or onely supposed vertues attributed to it because first Sainted I will not stand now to dispute but I rather believe the former Dr. Dean will not have any greater vertues attributed to it than to common Springs allowing it onely a bare name and title It seems the Dr. was no Catholick or if he were St. Mugnus must not be his Intercessour Now the reason why he will ascribe no other than common vertues to this water is because as he saith it hath no mineral vertues and faculties I suppose he means perceptible But to this answer might easily be made viz. that waters oftentimes are impregnated with mineral vertues and spirits to although insensibly Who would have thought that the dropping-well would have yielded a stony pouder upon evaporation and coagulate milk Besides if upon experiment nothing could be found perceptible to sense in waters must we alwayes judge of things by sense and not sometimes by effects In many mineral waters the substance of minerales and metals is mixed in other some the gross perceptible vapours onely and in other some the subtile insensible spirits or rather atomes and effluvia's In this well the last onely and they are the effluvia's of either Lead or Tin mines as is the opinion of some Philosophers concerning such kind of Springs which being mixed with the water do not onely give activity to its coldness as do cold atomes of the Northen wind to rain congealing it into snow which will with much handling heat the hands and make them even to burn but also a kind of fermenting nature to it so that when the water hath a little entered into the pores of the body it causeth a kind of light fermentation amongst the humours and by consequence stirs up a heat in the habit of the body and withall draws out the natural heat into the same And this is apparent for if any one enter into this water to Bathe or wash himself and abide there but a quarter of an hour or little more he will as soon as he comes forth presently become very hot his body being all over red and so continue a long time although he walk in the cold air nay although he put not on his clothes Nay many times tender women who dare scarce wash their hands in cold water will adventure to go into it although it be colder than ordinary water with their linnen about them and when they become forth go to the next houses and lye in their wet linnen all night and towards morning begin to sweat and by this means are cured of many old aches in what part of the body soever they are and of swellings and hard tumours and agues and indeed many outward distempers and symptomes caused either by cold or hot humours the latter being cured by an actual coldness viz. if it be a bare distemper of heat only for which alteratiō onely will be sufficient the former by the heat of the body being drawn outward increased whereby humours offending are digested attenuated discussed or evaporated by sweat Also such distempers as are caused by too much chilness and tenderness are hereby recovered And upon this account it is that they that are very tender in their heads and wear many caps and subject to take cold upon every slight occasion are cured of this tenderness by washing their heads two or three times in a day in cold water for hereby the open pores which let in the cold through which the natural heat did too much transpire are closed and stopt Before any attempt the use of this cold Bath let them first consult with some able Physitian and if they please observe such directions for the ordering of themselves as I have given in the fourth Chapter concerning bathing in cold water This Well is square with a high wall about it and a howse adjoyning to it where people make themselves ready for bathing going immediatly out of it into the Bath This Spring riseth high about May and fals low about September Now if any shall not approve of my hypothesis concerning the nature of this Well let them tell me of one that is more rational and I shall not be ashamed to learn that which I am convinced I did not know or else let them embrace mine The reason inducing me to declare this of mine is because I know it is the unanimous consent of most sound Philosophers that waters running through Tin Lead and Silver mines or minerals of a cold nature may contract some imperceptible medicinal vertues from them and therefore H. ab Heer 's and Helmont say that many Medicinal Springs are called fontes acidi from their effects not sensible acid mineral tast and also because I know that this Countrey yields almost all manner of metals and minerals which an expert Artist assisted with a good purse would easily discover I believe that many other Springs of this nature might in that Countrey and other such mineral Countries be found out upon examination and triall Now for the conclusion of all let not any one judge me to be a Catholick by this my approbation of this Sainted Well for I am none and as none my self so neither do I hate those that are or those of any other heterodox judgement whatsoever Their living according to their own light and within the bounds of civility is a sufficient ground for me to exercise good will and love to them And as I do not out of any superstitious account attribute any medicinal vertues to this Sainted Well so neither do I do it out of any affectedness to contradict D. Deane's judgement The reason of my vindication of it is grounded upon some notable cures which I' have seen effected thereby And the Doctor himself acknowledgeth that it hath formerly been very much frequented by all sorts of infirm people if so then certainly not without some cause Now if it were but their faith in the water and strong imagination as some may say that cured them yet let them use this water or any lawfull means else that may exalt their imagination if that may promote their cures FINIS A TABLE of the Contents of this Treatise 1. THe place together with the Nature of the same where four Famous Medicinal Springs are discovered in Yorkshire pag. 1. 2. Of the Original of Springs in general pag. 2. 3. Of the strange variety of Fountains and other waters pag. 32. 4. Of the nature and vertues of simple waters pag. 39. 5. Of the several kinds of mixtures in mineral waters pag. 50. 6. Of the Original of Vitriol and the causes of Vitrioline waters or Spaws the difference of them the one from the other and the reasons of their different operations pag. 54. 7. Of the Spaw-wel near Knaresborow pag. 65. 8. Of the vertues of the Spaw-well to whom and in what cases profitable or burtfull pag. 71. 9. Of some general directions to be observed before in the time of and after taking of the waters pag. 81. 10. Of particular directions and cautions in particular cases and of preventing and curing such accidents and symptomes which sometimes happen in the taking of the waters pag. 89. 11. Of the necessity and manner of exercise in the use of the waters pag. 96. 12. Of the time of the year and day when the Spaw is chiefly to be taken pag. 97. 13. Of the Dyet to be observed by Spaw-drinkers pag. 100. 14. Of the Sulphur-well pag. 104. 15. Of the vertues and uses of the Sulphur-well together with directions and cautious for the taking of it pag. 112. 16. Of the Dropping or Petrifying-well pag. 117. 17. Of St. Mugnus Well pag. 119. FINIS
to the better understanding of them to premise something concerning the original of them in general and the rather because there have been great controversies betwixt the Stoicks and Peripatetickes about the causes of them Now the several opinions concerning the original of lasting Springs which are called Fontes perennes may be reduced to three heads for either they proceed from rain-water or they are generated in the bowels of the earth or else they must of necessity flow from the Sea through subterraneal channels If any shall object as some have done and say they may come from subterraneal lakes let me demand of them whether those sakes proceed not from some of the three former and whether they would not in time be exhausted if otherwise Arguments for the first opinion alleadgedand answered Arg. They that contend for the first opinion such as are Albertus Magnus Georgius Agricola c. Affirme that in those Countreys where there falls but little rain the Springs are few and small and that in winter time all Springs flow more plentifully than in summer and that by reason of the wetnes of the Season and what becomes say they of all the rain if it sinks not into the earth and there maintains Springs Sol 1. The Assertion concerning the increasing of Springs in winter is not universally true for St. Mugnus Well in York-shire as I was most credibly informed by the Woman that hath looked to it and been the keeper of it for these many years last past begins to rise high about May and to fall low about October besides divers more Springs which in several counties of this Nation are dryed up all the Winter and flow a new towards the Summer And Pliny makes mention of a certain Spring in Cydonia before Lesbon that flows onely at the Spring many more of this nature might be produced if there were occasion 2. If that were granted to be true which they say yet it doth not follow that rain is the material cause of Springs although at that time they break forth which were before dryed up for their drying up was not occasioned for want of rain to supply them but by reason of the dryness of the earth towards its superficies which attracts to it self and drinks in for the satisfaction of its drought the water of the Springs which it doth again let go when it hath drunk plentifully of the showers from Heaven Now that the dry earth will drink a great quantity of water you may see by the drying up of Rivers in a long drougth by the drynes of the earth although the Fountains which are the heads of those Rivers flow plentifully at the same time as some do although others some be dryed up And as for those Springs which break forth onely after great rain they are caused from the rain which is drunk up by some boggie spongious earth and is drained from thence or which is sunk into some caverne or hollow place near the superficies of the earth through some secret passage thither and there being collected in some considerable quantity imitates a Spring as long as it lasts 3. The gratest part of showers of rain falling upon high places run down from thence into plains and from plains through small channels or trenchs into Rivers and that rain which falls upon any place from whence it cannot in some such manner be conveyed away remains upon the superficies of the earth till it be exhaled by the Sun as we see in divers places besides it cannot be imagined that rain sinks so far into the earth as to supply Springs and that because it is generally observed by all that dig in the earth that rain wetts not the earth above ten feet deep And the reason hereof Seneca the Philosopher gives in his third Book Naturalium quaestionum chap. 7. Where he saith that when the earth is satiated with showers it then receives in no more and this we see by dayly experience Besides when wee dig a Well although it be in a soft place wee dig sometimes one two or three hundred feet deep before wee come at quick Springs and that the rain should sink so deep it is no way probable nay although there were hallow veins and chinks in the earth through which many would have it passe to a great depth for who cannot easily conceive that those veins and crannies which yet are not granted to be in every place where there are Springs are easily stopt with dust or dirt which the rain carryes with it when it is fallen on the earth or swelled up and contracted as we see they are in Summer time with rain after a long drougth Arguments for the second opinion Alleadged and answered Arg. They that contend for the second opinion such as Seneca c. affirme that Springs are generated cheifly of earth changed into water and that because all Elements are mutually transmutable into one the other And some as Aristotle and H. ab Heer 's that Springs are generated of the aire shut up in the earth and by the coldnes thereof condensed into water Sol 1. It is more probable according to reason and experience that by reason of the density of the earth water should more easily be converted into earth than the earth into water 2. It is to be wondred at that seeing that ten parts of air if not many more serve for the making of one part of water conteinable in the same space there should be so much space in the earth for the containing of so much air as serves for the making of such a quantity of water as springs dayly out of the earth Besides so much air being spent there would of necessity follow a vacuum for where should there be so many and great crannies or holes to let the air into the earth fast enough But if there were yet how is it possible that so much air can be corrupted in such a moment the whole Elementary air being of its owne nature most subtile and not being sufficient to make such abundance of water as all the Springs of the earth will amount to Now although this answer be according to the sence of common Philosophers and sufficient for the satisfaction of this objection yet Helmont will not admit of any such supposition viz. That air and water can at all be mutually transmuted into one the other It is true saith he that water can easily be turned into a vapour and the said vapour into water again but this vapour is nothing els materially and formally but a congeries of atomes of water sublimed air will not in cold or heat yeild water any more then it contains in it the vapour viz. of rarefied water For saith he if those two Elements were so mutually convertible one species must be transmuted into another and the air that is made out of water may be again reduced into the same numerical waterwhich it was before its rarefaction but this cannot be
becoming to be unbodied for before they were incorporated with the water and by consequence wonderfull spiritual penetrate even the glass it self or the lute and I believe that neither glass or lute can hold them 2. I took two viol glasses and put into them a just equal quantity of the Spaw water I put one of them into a skillet of warm water and just took the cold off from it than I put an equal quantity of the pouder of gals into each of those two viols and that water which was cold received no deeper tincture than the other as I could perceive 3. I filled two viol glasses with this water and stopt one of them very close with wax and the other I stopt not at all and at two dayes end they yielded a tincture with the pouder of gall little less than that which is newly taken out of the well but that less which was left unstopt How much it will loose this tincture by carrying far I do not know it were worth while to trie and thereby to be the better assured how much of its strength is wasted for according to the spending of its spirits the tincture fades 4. A glass of this water stood seven dayes close stopt with wax and than yielded a tincture with gall like to small beer 5. This water doth not coagulate milk as do the German Spaws and another Vitrioline Spring in the same moor which yieldeth a Vitrial of Iron upon evaporation as I said before Now the reason of this is not because it is not acide enough for it is far more acid than the water of the dropping Well which coagulates milk if it be boiled with it but because the acidity thereof is not permanent or fixed enough but so volatile as to evaporate before the milk boils 6. This water kils Worms and Frogs if they be put therein and such kinde of Creatures as these 7. It being evaporated leaves nothing at all of Vitrial behind but onely an insipid pouder of a darkish colour like unto which pouder will that blewish cream or skin which swims upon the said water after long standing be when it is dried Now note that the aforesaid skin swimmeth upon all such Mineral waters and as saith H ab Heer 's being put upon the fire is inflamed and yields a sulphureous odour It is also called by Hadrianus Mynsicht Anima vitrioli 8. I weighed this water I think exactly to a grain and it weighed neither heavier nor lighter than simple spring water 9. It is observed generally and I tooke especial notice of it that it is almost an infallible signe of an ensuing rain when glasses filled with this water continue not clear but are covered all over as it were with a mist contrary to what is observed in glasses full of simple common water Now the reason of this I conceive is from the Mineral subtile spirits giving as nitre doth activity to the coldness of the water whereby the glasses themselves become more cold and so cold as eminently and apparently to condense the humid vapours of the air with which it abound before the rain To these experiments and observations I shall add this observation also viz. that this Spaw water is strongest viz. with the Mineral spirits in Winters frost by reason of the earth being the more bound up and the said spirits being thereby kept from perspiration and weakest in rainy wet weather by reason the water sinks into the veins of the springs viz. those that lye nearest to the superficies of the earth for it cannot sink above ten feet deep though the rain be never so much Also this water is in Summer-time stronger in the morning than at noon because the coldness of the night doth somewhat bind the earth and the heat of the Sun openeth the same thereby making it the more easie for the Mineral spirits to evaporat out thereby To prevent the inconveniencies of rain it were to be wished that there were a very deep trench yet not so deep as to cut a sunder any of the veins through which the water passeth if any should lye within six eight or ten feet of the superficies of the earth as it is possible some may made round the well and bridges made over some places of the same for as by this means the rain would be carried away so also the water in the boggie ground adjoyning to it which may perhaps sink into the veins of the spring and corrupt the same would be dreyned away and the well by this means much improved for the ground about it is spongious and drinks in water apace the uppermost part thereof to the depth of a foot consisting of that hollow earth of which is made pete and turfe and that beneath it being sandy and also hollow CHAP. VIII Of the vertues of the Spaw-well to whom and in what cases profitable or hurtfull I Shall not stand here to reckon up all and the several vertues of Vitrial as not properly conducing to our present purpose because the varities of its operations depends upon the variety of the forms in which it is administred or used for the Salt thereof hath one operation the Colcothar another the corrosive spirit another and that subtile acide penetrating spirit which Theophrastus cals his great secret or Arcanum against the Epilepsie and other such symptomes because of its wonderfull penetrativenes leaving no part or places of the body unsearched another and with this hath the spirit of the Spaw water great affinity is therefore so much the more excellent as being so much the nearer to it Primum ens as Helmont calls it Now note by the way that although this spirit cannot be by it self extracted out of this water yet it may be extracted out of Vitrial yet by a very expert artist This water according to its first qualities cooles and moistens actually heats and dries potentially And by these four qualities the distempers of the body consisting in the excess either of heat cold driness or moisture are tempered every quality altering its contrary and reducing it into its natural temper And indeed it is worth taking notice of that in such cases a distemper will rather be altered by its contrary than increased by its like As for exemple if the distemper consists in heat the heat will be allayed by the coldness of the water and not be made more intense by the heat thereof although the heat continue longer than the coldness for the water is quickly warmed in the stomack and then the potential heat is reduced into act and continues and so on the contrary I mean If the water be taken regularly and cautiously or otherwise such happy success may not be expected Now according to other qualities viz. second third it cuts dissolves attenuates abstergeth viscous tartarous humours in the stomack messenterie hypochondries reins bladder c and evacuateth them by Urine as being indeed very diuretical and by consequence opens the
Women great with child Sol. 1. As to the first although the heat of children be soon destroyed by cold yet this water may safely be given to children of a year old if the water which they drink exceed not the strength of their stomack or if their stomack can bear it And H. ab Heer 's saith he saw a sucking child drink of the German Spaw with good success and some children very young have taken of ours not without benefit 2. As to the second It is true that their heat also is very little and soon extinguished by cold yet if the strength of their stomacks be able to carry it off without a manifest dejection of the appetite it may safely to them also but not in so large a quantity as to others be administred 3. And as to third It is true it is diuretical and may seem dangerous for them to take it yet it hath been observed that many have taken it securely enough some when they have been very young with child and others when near the time of their bringing forth I shall not give too much liberty neither shall I lay too great a restraint upon them Onely I say it is safest for them to take it in the fourth fifth and sixth moneth and Hippocrates himself will admit of purgation at that time But if any be very defirous to take it before or after by reason of some griefs urging them thereto let them use it cautiously and in less quantity and withall take something every night to prevent the inconveniencies thereof as Pearl Corall pouder of hartshorn or the like 〈◊〉 Q. It may be demanded whence it is that the excrements upon the taking of this water become black Sol. This blackness is not from the mixture of black melancholy humours as many will have it for if the soundest healthiest body in the world who can in no wise be suspected to have any adust black choller in him his excremēts will also be tinged black therewith Besides we do not find that one mans body in twenty that are dissected have any such black humours in it nay although he were the most melancholly man in the World therefore to impute it to a mixture of this is a great errour Neither do I impute it to Iron onely as H. ab Heer 's who because Iron did the like would not ascribe it to any thing else But it seems he had not as it appears by his own words observed that Vitrial would do the like and that either of Iron or Copper and that although Iron being taken inwardly the excrenents are tinged black it was by the Vitrial which was made in the body by the acid spirits thereof resolving the esurine Salt of the Iron and corroding it into a Copperas he I do suppose never considered and the reason he gives to prove that Vitrial doth not discolour the excrements is because oyl or spirit of Vitrial will not But herein he argues a conjunctis ad disjuncta and therefore his argument is of no force For here is but a part of the Vitrial viz. one part abstracted from the other and that not without the destruction of the species Now if the species could be conserved it might be done although it were volatile and more spiritual as the Vitrial is in this Spaw for the truth is the same species may be fixed and yet become volatile and more spiritual and yet all this while the species be conserved Note here by the way upon what account it is that Iron or Steel opens obstructions and it is this viz. There being a great affinity betwixt the esurine Salt in Iron and all acid unspecificated spirits the acid spirits in the body which are the cause of fermentation and coagulation and by consequence of obstructions do presently forsake those parts and humours where they are seated and betake themselves to the Iron which they endeavour to dissolve and so be united to the aforesaid Salt that is in it to which union they have a natural propensity and so being therewith united are with the same ejected together with the obstructive humours which at the same time are ejected viz. when nature is strongly irritated to expel the Iron as being very offensive to her CHAP. IX Of some general directions to be observed before in the time of and after the taking of the Waters THere are seldom any distempers or diseases that occasion people to go to the Spaw that are without peccant excrementitious obstructing humours which must of necessity be removed before the drinking of the waters attempted and that either because those crude gross humours in the greater vessels will be by the force of the waters carried down into the narrower passages and there cause greater obstructions and by consequence Feavers Dropsies Gripings c. and also hinder the free passage of the waters to the endangering of many unthought of inconveniences and symptomes as also because nature being thereby disburdened of the load of grosser humours will be the better able with the assistance of the waters to overcome digest and evacuate the thinner and those that are left behind and the sooner recover its natural vigour and sanitude Now for the Medicines to be administred they must be elected suitable to the humour offending and proportioned to the strength and constitution of the patient I do in most cases very much approve of vomits because they do effectually cleanse the stomack and the primas vias and instead of them where they cannot be safely and conveniently used biera picra comes next in place for absterging and cleansing the stomack bowels messentery and making free passage for the water to pass to the Liver And after either of these some proper lenitive for the opening the passages through the Liver Ureters Kidnies and into the Bladder Phlebotomy also or letting of bloud is in many cases to be considered of viz. if the veins and other adjacent vessels be oppressed with bloud or any peccant humours for thereby they will be made more fit for the waters to pass through them and the virtues thereof into them Also in case of very obstinate obstructions I advise that a chalybiate course of Physick be run through for a certain time that thereby the waters may with the less resistance act their parts and sooner easier and more perfectly effect the intended cures Now after such preparation is made and the patient come to the Spaw let him also then take some easie vomit as of Oxymel or wine of Squils or the like or some hiera picra the first day after he is come thither and the next morning after that some Lenitive as Lenitive Electuary Cassia Manna Tamarines infusion of Sene Rhabarb syrop of Roses or the like according to the humour that is to be evacuated and then let him cheerfully and confidently begin to drink these waters with a resolvedness to observe all such rational directions as he shall find in this and the next
ensuing Chapters prescribed But for poor people or they that loath all that bears the name of Physick drink three or four mornings of the Sulphur-well for that will in a good measure effect the same When any one is resolved for the Spaw let him then first apply himself to some experienced Physitian who shall be able to understand his constitution distemper and the nature and use of the waters themselves that accordingly as cause shall require the more succesfull preparatives may be administred and the more effectual directions given This I advise the rather because there be divers Physitians in the Nation who never saw tasted scarce read of the waters or conversed with those that know them yet send their patients such as they account incurable and desperate thither giving them such directions for the drinking the waters as the very Spaw-women themselves laugh at A due preparation being premised let him that drinks the waters begin with four or five or six half pint glasses more or less as his stomack can well bear and so by degrees proceed to two or three glasses more every day until he come to the height and his full dose which will be when he can take no more without a manifest oppression and nauseousness Some will drink twenty some thirty of these glasses in a morning and some can not take half so many In the morning before the water be drunk let first all excrements be evacuated either by nature or art as by glysters suppositories or some pills or lenitive taken the night before at bed-time for the retaining of the excrements hinders the concoction of the waters if I may call it a concoction and by consequence their passage through the body whereby are caused pressures fluctuations tensions gripings and sometimes cold sweat Betwixt every two or three or four or five glasses let some exercise be used of which more largely in the Chapter of exercise And for the better passing of the waters comforting the stomack and preventing of nauseousness let some good cordial stomachical spices seeds and roots be taken betwixt while as Annisseed Caryoway and Coriander confects Citron or Lymon pilled candied or dried Pepper lossenges Cardamums but above all I prefer Elecampany root candied or for want thereof Angelica root or seeds for they especially Elecampany as the Lord Virulam saith breed a robust heat and I am sure promote the passage of the water most eminently and comfort all the vessels through which the water passeth and withall make the water more effectual for the opening of obstructions and corroborating infirm parts I approve not of taking the waters too fast or alloting too short a time for the drinking of the full dose or proportion I conceive that for the generality it will be most convenient for to take at first a quarter of the proportion and then exercise half an hour and then another quarter and exercise till the water begins to be evacuated and then a third quarter with exercise half an hour more and then the last part with exercise till it be all passed out of the body But if any cannot bear the drinking of a fourth part at a time then let them take the eighth part with a quarter of an hours exercise betwixt every while To drink the waters too fast causeth for the most part nauseousnes oppresseth the natural heat and compresseth the passages and vessels that the water cannot pass so freely through them as otherwise it would do and also causeth divers symptoms as tensions gripings cold sweats dejection of appetite and the like If a great quantity of water be cast upon a fire at once it extinguisheth it but if by degrees it maketh it burn the more furiously and intends the flame thereof Ryetius is therefore in my judgement very erroneous as to this point who would have the whole proportion be taken in half an hours time The time for the continuing the taking of the waters must be proportioned according to the greatness of the disease and profit received by it In case any one after a due preparation and upon a carefull observation of such directions as are required shall not be able to bear the waters and drink them without a manifest and eminent oppression and nauseousness after several assayes let him cease presently from the taking of them but if upon the taking of them he can take them without any such inconveniency as should cause him to desist yet perceive no benefit thereby let him not presently give over the use of them as despairing of any further benefit but continue the use of them a moneth or two or longer if the disease require it In Germany they drink of the Spaw not onely a quarter of a year together but sometimes half a year and sometimes a whole year if it be requisite and at last they receive the benefit thereof by being cured of most desperate diseases which otherwise were in the vulgar account incureable It is a great errour amongst us English to allot but two or three weeks time or a moneth at the most for the taking of the Spaw let the disease be what it will and hence it is that many miss of those happy cures which by a longer continuance might have been effected and this to the prolonging of their own misery and defamation of the Spaw it self I do admit of the use of purging Physick to be taken every eight or tenth day for the evacuating of crudities which for the most part are bred in that time also some grosser humour loosened by the water or those which become crass or thick by the waters themselves carrying away the thinner part first for these remaining in the body would else be carried down into the smaller vessels and cause obstructions and thereby many other great inconveniences and symptomes retarding also if not utterly preventing the intended cure Now the Medicaments I approve of most in these cases are Hiera picra simplex Galeni Rhabarb with Crystal of Tartar and such like to be taken one or two dayes together as there shall be occasion and some Lenitive as Cassia or Lenitive electuary or the like to be taken the next day after that for the moistning of the bowels and the better preparing the passages betwixt the stomack and bladder against the next repeating the use of the waters which I advise may begin the next morning after And in some cases Physick may be taken every day nay mixt with the waters themselves as in Germany Now I know it is a common though absurd opinion that Physick is very prejudicial to those that take it whilest they are in a course of drinking the waters and therefore is most irrationally decried Now the chief ground of this errour as far as I ever could understand is this viz. Some certain years since some famous Doctors attending upon persons of great quality their patients to the Spaw did prescribe them the use of some Physick with the waters and
For the better passing of the waters let the first glass be mixed with Sugar Syrrup of Liquorish or de quinque Radicibus or Nitre or Spirit of Salt or Vitrial Salt of Tartar or a glass of white wine in the midst of the water or mixed with three or four of the first glasses or two or three glasses of the Sulphur Well in the midst of the Spaw-water or a good draught of the decoction of Fennel or Parsley-roots be taken half an hour before the water Note that some of the aforesaid things are penetrative and so force their way and some are sweet and therefore are sooner attracted to and by the Liver and so the more speedily evacuated In case of the necessity of any of the aforesaid mixtures it will be convenient and necessary that some experienced Physitian be first consulted withall And if you meet with none at the Spaw that you can confide in York and other places are not far where you shall find such Gentlemen that are able to advise you as concerning this so also in any other case and especially if any unexpected accident should fall out whilest you are drinking the waters In case in the taking of the waters sumes and vapours fly to the head as oftentimes they do even to inebriation let none be disheartned thereat for either they are the spirits of the water themselves alone which will do the head much good or else there is a mixture of wind from the stomack for when that is filled with water the wind that was in it must of necessitie be forced up to the head but there it continues but a very short time And as there is no necessity of preventing it so neither can it be well prevented but yet for some satisfaction let Nutmeg and Coriander seed being beaten together into a gross pouder be taken after every fourth part of the water for the gratefull vapour thereof will also be carried up to the head with the force of the other vapours from the stomack and withall somewhat corroborat and close the mouth of the stomack Q. It may be demanded whether or no the rednes and hot pimples of the face may be cured by the inward use of this water and it is the more questioned because it dries and heats the Liver Sol. It is true that for the most part the rednes of the face is increased by the use of this water but yet notwithstanding it may in a great measure be cured with the help thereof with the observing of certain rules and cautious which do much conduce thereunto The patient that is thus affected his body being well prepared by medicaments phlebotomie must in the first place drink of this water ten or twelve mornings together for by this time it will in some considerable measure remove those obstructions of the messentery Liver which are the chiefest cause of the aforesaid distemper then let him be purged with some cooling lenitive and then because the continual use of the water should not as doth steel heat the bloud too much or rather by its strengthning the inward parts drive outwardly the heated corrupt humours of the body too fast I advise that he do for seven or eight dayes together drink clarified whey made with cooling moist and diuretical herbs and medicaments as Borage Lettuce Seangreen Endive Grasroots Parsly and Fennel-roots Nitre Tamarines Liquorish and such like and withall have a vein breathed if nothing contradict it and then return again to the use of the water for another fortnight and after that again to cooling purges and the cooling and clarified whey as before for a moneths time Note that withall that some topical Medicines are to be applied to the place affected as oyl of the yelks of Eggs oyl of Tartar juice of Lemmon and Salt unguentum alhum but above all flores sulphuris dissolved in oyl or the like By such kind of means with the use of the Spaw-water I would undertake to cure almost any red pimpled face whatsoever CHAP. XI Of the necessity and manner of exercise in the use of the waters EXercise is whilest the water is in the body very necessary as being good to laxate the passages of the body to excite the natural heat for the better digestion of the waters if as I said before we may properly call it a digestion for by this means saith Archigenes as also Aetius the internal vessels being heated will more strongly attract and expell Some kind of exercise is if strength permit to be continued from the first glass to the evacuation of the whole proportion taken Now for exercise in particular riding on a trotting horse or in a Coach are the best because thereby the muscles of the abdomen being pressed do intend the expulsive faculty of the Ureters and bladder And where those cannot conveniently be had and used I commend walking bowling pitching of the bar and leaping and the like all which must be used so moderatly as not to provoke sweat for by sweat the water will be drawn into the habit of the body to the endangering of a dropsy and such like symptomes They that are not able to walk nor have the accommodation for riding must take the waters in their bed for the warmeth of the bed doth as I said before serve very well instead of exercise and answers to the intensions thereof Sleep is very hurtfull because in sleep all exceptions or evacuations of excremently except sweat which is thereby promoted and for the aforesaid reasons to be prevented are suppressed Sitting on the ground is hurtfull and also standing in the Sun and walking late in the evening CHAP. XII Of the time of the year and day when the Spaw is chiefly to be taken IN frosty weather the water is strongest because the mineral spirits thereof are by the binding of the earth suppressed and prevented from evaporating through the superficies thereof as they do at other times by which means the water becomes the more strongly impregnated therewith But by reason of the inconveniency of journying and of the uncertainty of the frost I prefer the Summer viz. from the beginning of May to the end of September and before and after if the season be dry Ob. Some may object against the use of the Spaw in the Canicular or Dog dayes because say they Hippocrates in the fifth of his fourth book of Aphorismes saith {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} forbiding thereby purgations and evacuations and these being forbidden say they how shall we prepare our bodies for the taking of the waters Sol. This aphorisme having been these many years grosly mistaken hath been the occasion of the deaths of thousands I say mistaken because purgations are not here at all forbidden but onely intimation given that in that season by reason of that usual extremity of heat the humours being drawn outwardly towards the habit of the body are not so easily retracted and evacuated by way of purgation as
body to be wrought upon In cold dull bodies more may be taken than otherwise may In general let the proportion to be taken be such as may cause four six or seven stools without auy manifest inconveniency of the fewness or multiplicity thereof Note that in many bodies this water works very quickly and indeed too soon and in such a case my advise is that two or three glasses of the Spaw-water be first drunk for that will somewhat impede the sudden operations thereof cause it to continue longer in the body for the better performing of its operation therein before it pass through it Note also that after the full proportion is taken and in a good measure passed through the body four or six glasses of the Spaw-water may be drunk for the prevention of the excoriation of the bowels and fundament especially in hot cholerick bodies They that cannot drink this water by reason of its stinking odour and yet stand in great need of the effects thereof may boil it a little while till it hath lost its odour and then drink of it for although some vertue vanisheth with the odour thereof yet the greatest and most effectual vertues which are in the Salt and aforesaid subtile acidity thereof do yet continue as I have often tried or if they please put some Salt thereof into the Spaw-water and so drink it for indeed as I said before the chiefest vertue lies in the Salt The Salt also thereof being rightly made put into any common Spring-water doth in good measure perform the same effects The spirit of this salt is of excellent vertue if a drop or two thereof be put into every glass of the Spaw-water for it makes it far more penetrative and indeed far more effecutal against all distempers and diseases as the Dropsie Gravel Stone and suppression of Urine c. I advise that they that have any inflammation or excoriation in their bowels abstain altogether from the taking of this water because it will inflame them more also they that have Ulcers and inflammations in their kidnies and bladder and are troubled with a sharpness of Urine Such directions for exercise and diet as I have prescribed for the Spaw drinkers I prescribe also to Sulphur-water-drinkers for the general onely this liberty I grant them viz. that these may exercise less and feed a little more liberally than Spaw-drinkers This water used outwardly dissolves hard tumours cures old Ulcers the Scab the Itch the Scurff Leprosie and all such breakings out whatsoever if the parts ill affected be washed and bathed therewith for it dries consumes all corrupt humours in the habit of the body and prevents all putrefaction of humours in the same It being used by way of a warm Bath for the whole body is of the same efficacy as Paracelsus saith that his liquamen salis i. e. brine is of and that is to consume all humid distempers whether hot or cold as the Dropsy Gout hard tumours swellings of the legs Leprosy and the like also it makes the falean and reduceth them into a natural dry firm healthy habit of body but it must cautiously be done with the observing of such rules and directions as I prescribed for bathing in warm water as in Chapter the 4. I wish there were more conveniencies as fit vessels for bathing at this Well than are for I believe that after a time Baths with this water would grow more in use and become as famous as those hot Baths in Sommersetshire for many uses The spirit of the Salt rubbed into any parts swelled or pained onely cures them presently And as the waters themselves are outwardly used for cleansing and healing so also there is a kind of slimy bituminous mud below the Sulphur-well which will burn like Sulphur and is of great efficacy for mollifying digesting and resolving hard tumours and for corroborating weak infirm parts and allaying of pains and aches in the limbs of what nature so ever being outwardly applied As I am silent in particularizing cures yet one strange cure I cannot but mention viz. A certain youth came the last year to these waters from the more remore Northern parts having on each finger a horn covering the top thereof and also a horny substance on his wrests and face which with the inward and outward use of this Sulphur-water did in a little time being loosed thereby all fall off If such excrescenices may be loosened and made to fall off thereby then Attendite Cornigeri En vobis medelam CHAP. XVI Of the Dropping or Petrifying-well OVer against the Castle of Knaresborow the River Nide running betwixt ariseth a certain Spring in the manner of other Springs in a high ground which running a little way in an entire stream is at the brow of a descent by a dam of ragged stones divided into several trickling branches whereof some drop and some stream down partly over and partly through a jetting Rock and this Spring is of a petrifying nature for of it was the Rock from which it distils wholly made and is by it daily increased notwithstanding the cutting off great pieces from it This water also generates stones where it fals and likewise where it runs but not all the way it runs but near the place onely where it fell the reason of which I shall presently shew If any stick or piece of woodlye in it some weeks it will be can died over with a stony whitish crust the inward part of the wood continuing of the same nature as before But any soft spongie substance as moss leaves of trees c. into the which the water can enter will thereby in time become seemingly to be of a perfect stony nature and hardness Now the cause of this petrifying property is as Philosophers call it succus lapidescens i. e. a stony matter which is in its principiis solutis for indeed the principia soluta of all things whether animals vegetables metals or minerals are in a liquid form and are concreted by degrees by a natural heat separating from them all accidental humidities and fixing them into their proper species When the water with which this succus lapidescens is mixed is in part wasted by the Sun and air it doth then deposite it as being too heavy for it any longer to bear it And when that is deposited or fallen down it doth by a continued addition and concretion in time amount to a considerable stony mass For the better understanding the true nature and causes of this water I made these three experiments 1. I evaporated away the water and in the bottom was left a stony pouder very like to the pouder of the stones of the Rock 2. A pint of it weighs ten grains heavier than a pint of common Spring water 3. It coagulates milk if it be boiled therewith and the reason of this is because for the principiis solutis of all minerals nature hath provided some Sulphurious acidity for the better fermentation and