Spadacrene Dunelmensis OR A SHORT TREATISE Of an Ancient MEDICINAL FOVNTAIN OR VITRIOLINE SPAW Near the City of DURHAM TOGETHER With the Constituent Principles Virtues and Use thereof By E. W. Doctor of Physick London Printed by W. Godbid 1675. REVERENDO DOMINO D no JOHANNI SUDBURIO Decano Dunelmensi optime merito Nec non amplissimis ejusdem congregationis Prebendariis jugiter observantia colendissimis EXpectabunt fortè nonnulli amplissimi Domini me in hoc proloquio gratiam benevolentiamque vestram aucupaturum vestrae laudis ut moris est encomia texere velle Patet equidem ampla dicendi materia spatiosus dilatandi Campus sed meis ut fateor viribus impar vestris sane virtutibus supervacaneum altius insonuit virtus vestra quam ut tubis indigeat clarius eluxit quam ut facem praeferam Est mihi profectò jubilandi simul ac congratulandi sed non pro meritis vestris collaudandi facultas plus potestis praestatisque opere quam calamo me decet explicare Accedo itaque non tanquam aliquid honoris collaturus sed beneficium postulaturus ut nimirum jugis haec nostra acidula agrorum Dunelmensium irrigua vestro pariter favore ac patrocinio efflorescat Hoc tantum Enimvero posuit Deus morbum simul ac medelam illum nobis peperit peccatum hanc libere profudit mundi piaculum Jacuissemus alioquin in sordibus iniquitatum truculentam adhuc hostium sustinuissemus atrocitatem nisi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 salutiferum nobis itidem conciliasset medicamentum Oh immensam amoris flagrantiam oh inauditum pietatis argumentum Verum enim vero inter tot tantasque rerum creatarum varietates nihil magis cedit in humani generis conservationem quam faecundum illud aquarum seminarium hinc est quod Spiritus Domini ferebatur super aquas Haebraicè Merahepheth incubabat aquas ob insignem vitalitatis virtutem à Spiritu Sancto in aquarum procreatione concessam unde non immerito Chimici jactitant ab aqua sunt omnia in aquam reducuntur omnia Quapropter Colendissimi accipite hunc nostrum libellum votúmque tanquam amoris simul ac debitae venerationis symbolum quo plurimos adhuc semper faelicius invicem succedentes annos tandem sero licèt aeternae faelicitatis gaudium supplicat apprecaturque Humilimus dominationum vestrarum servus ODOARDUS WILSONUS THE PREFACE TO THE READER AS the powerful Hand of God made all things for the use of man so was it His Divine Will and Pleasure that he should be compleatly furnished with all such Remedies as principally concern'd the perfect preservation of his health Hence it is that all things created have their peculiar Medicinal faculty Every particular mixt Body virtually respects one part or other of our human Bodies and by a marvellous strange Character points out that which respectively it is appointed to maintain nay it is as it were with a certain weight carried unto that with which it holds an amical and natural correspondence And because our human constitution consists of many sulphureous nitrous saline vitrioline and oleaginous parts thence it is that Spaw-waters which perfectly partake of those mixtures perform such admirable effects upon disaffected Bodies But some may say and that truly that 't is a great controversie among the Metallascopical Philosophers whether Metals can truely and properly be mixed with water To which I say that the mixture is confusaneous though not perfect as appears in Aqua Regia in which Gold it self is resolved into insensible Atoms and even ordinary water admits of a virtual mixture at least as Experience evidenceth in Chalybiate waters Again Minerals are not so solid and compact in their subterraneous veins nor have they their due perfection but of a more moist soft and glebish consistence so that by a caustick water or spirituous sulphureous liquor even the Metalline Spirits are easily separated and their raments communicated however a specifick virtue is certainly commixed and a vigorous propriety at least imbibed If Metals may be thus incorporated much more may Minerals which are only Metals in fieri And therefore with some probability we may say that Mineral waters may not only be impregnated with a virtual propriety existing in the Spirits but also with the very substantial particles of the said Minerals Now the next and indeed the chief thing to be enquired into is the giving an exact account of Mineral waters since upon this hinge depends the whole safety of such as drink them Therefore I shall as briefly as may be discharge this incumbency First then the virtues and properties of these waters are known from the mixture of their terrestrial Glebes and Minerals and the manner of knowing and distinguishing them is twofold the first depends meerly on the senses the other which Philosophers call à posteriori is gathered from the recrements which their channels leave behind them Now there is an innate faculty in the nature of Man to know things ex evidenter apparentibus sensibilibus and therefore the essence or substance of Mineral waters are to be known how they are differenced in their qualities from simple waters by their colour taste smell and sometimes quality of touch These virtues thus distinguished are either elementary and such as perform their operations by the first qualities of hot cold moist and dry or specifick such as some call heavenly as far surpassing both the power of all elements and much transcending the reach of our senses being such in their effects as leave nothing less than wonders in our understanding which unintelligible virtue if it exert it self in any mixt body it 's principally observable in Spaws neither is there any Fountain that is not favourably breathed with some Divine Rays and affected with some singular and peculiar good the finding out of which is so much more difficult as the closet of their causes is inaccessible This infinity of variety congeminates difficulties in so much that Nature enthrones her self in no mixt body so gloriously as in this her Paranymphs Kingdom witness those innumerable different species of waters which are so many as there are different species of terrestrial Glebes Minerals Metals liquid and concrete Juyces which as they exceed Arithmetick so likewise do the waters partaking of them especially if the several combinations with their several mixtures be duly considered Hence it is that Seneca lib. 3. nat quaest de Aquis Ad rem inquit seriam gravem immensam accessimus sustinemus opus nescio an superabile c. And Pliny lib. 31. cap. 1. Plurimas aquarum vires differentiasque conspicatus cunctas exclamat quis mortalium enumerare queat Some honest Philosophers have been affrighted hereat because an infinity cannot be fathom'd others taking heart have said that miscellae quibus aquae tinguntur praedominium qualitatum sensuum officio experimentorumque possunt quidem etiamsi difficultate comperiri Yet notwithstanding all these difficulties
Non ita deterremur saith that Object of the Worlds wonder Kircherus ut proinde nobis hastam abjiciendi animus sit est aliquid prodire tenus si non datur ultra Let us wish therefore we had Pliny's fontem Leontinum cujus aquas qui bibisset scientem evadere medicum recitat and being arm'd with this phantastical conceit take upon us to tell you that all waters are either mixed with different Glebes of terrestrial matter wherein we comprehend all species of Earth or with the different sorts of Salts which are called concrete Juyces and so there will be as many different species of waters as there are different sorts of Salts or they are adjoyned to the different species of liquid juyces such as are unctuous and fat as Bitumen or not unctuous as are all strong caustick waters or they are mixed with the Metalline Bodies and so invest themselves with the same nature they are ting'd withall or lastly they are imbodied with divers kinds of stony Seâ—inalities such as that at Knarsborough Out of the manifold complication of all which ariseth that admirable variety of waters which if you conjugate according to the principles of Art combinatory there will be according to renowned Kircher 479001600 different species that is four hundred seventy nine millions one thousand and six hundred sorts of waters Let none therefore wonder if we be not dogmatically positive in our Assertions concerning the Virtues of waters since no less than an approach to infinity can determin the various complications of Mineral Metalline and Saline Principles with which these are impowred yet so far as sensata experientia and natural Philosophy which is an experimental Chymistry and mechanical knowledge of things can carry us we may safely believe as one well observes Spagyria sola est speculum veri intellectus monstratque tangere videre veritatem I shall not therefore go about to obumbrate the Truth under the veil of obscure Appellations nor attach other Mens Reasonings of weakness nor sing Matins and Evening-song to my own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a sort of big and exotique expressions calling with Basilius Valentinus Hippocrates's Ignis and Aqua Gladiatores and Asa and Phalaia nor with Paracelsus shrowding the same Instruments of Nature under the names of divers Spirits Spiritus alter trahit alter protrudit idem autem uterque facit nor with Helmont stiling the animal vital and natural Spirits of the Ancients by that bugbear name of Archaeus which can be nothing else but the most fine volatile and Aetherial parts of the Blood contained in the Veins Nerves and Arteries But I shall endeavour clearly and spagyrically to demonstrate the true Principles and Constituents of this our Spaw in our following Discourse Soli illi docent qui per causas principia docent In the interim for more clearness sake I shall set down since the first qualities give us but an uncertain and conjectural rule of finding out the true Essences of waters a threefold manner of proceeding for discovering in general the genuine and true mixtures of all Medicinal waters I. The first is by Concoction thus Take a glass vessel or an earthen one glazed and boil therein your Mineral water 'till a third part be wasted afterwards let it settle well for three days space for separating its Faeces then take a gross thick Cloth fit for filtration and shape it in the form of an inverted Pyramis hang the pointed pyramidal end in the water and let the other extremity first being moistened hang down without the vessel and it will come to pass that the moistened end hanging without the vessel shall draw the water in the other extremity of the filter which was plung'd in the water and thus by little and little all the water and only the pure water shall be drawn out the sediment remaining which being expos'd to the Sun you may thence discover the mixture of the Minerals II. The second way of judging Mineral mixtures in Spaw waters is by evaporation thus Take a glass vessel with a large orifice place it midway deep in another earthen vessel full of sand and evaporate all the moisture and dry the sediment or Faeces in the Sun and you shall know the mixtures by the diversity of the Mineral particles the difficulty of this way of trial is that together with the water the Mineral Spirits flye away which happeneth not in the former nor in this following way of proceeding III. The third and indeed the securest way of finding out the nature of Mineral waters is by distillation because hereby not only the grosser particles of every Mineral but even the predominant spirits and vaporous are infallibly made known and it is thus Prepare a furnace with vent-holes and place therein a proper earthen vessel full of sand in this sand another vessel filled with water up to the middle v. g. a Cucurbita or glass still bottom with a prety strait mouth to this Cucurbita you must fit a Capitellum with a nose or an alembick rostrated being well luted that nothing can expire and to this nose of your Capitellum you must adapt another Fistula or glass pipe well luted which pipe must run through a wooden vessel full of cold water this done put fire to your furnace and draw off all the water and what remains of sediment expose to the Sun to be dryed which done for dissolving the several species of the Minerals proceed thus Expose the sediment upon a polish'd Iron Table red hot and being mixed with water the Chalk Marble and Gypsum or Plaister will not be burnt but after all the others are burnt they will remain more shining white than formerly the Gypsum presently but the Chalk and Marble require more time If there be Brimstone it discovers it self by its accustomed strong sent Salt and Niter sparkle Salt with crackling but Niter without any If Ceruss be there it is turn'd into an intense redness an evident sign of Lead Allum being melted turns white like Milk and Vitriol darkly reddish like Colcothar and this effect had the sediment of this our Spaw-water without any sulphureous smell at all the Faeces whereof I gathered both by Coction and Distillation but less remained of Faeces by Evaporation an evident sign of the spirituous subtilty of the Mineral mixture Now as to the discovery of Metalline tinctures in waters they are known by their proper excrements and corruption of their sediments therefore the manner of proceeding is thus If Metal be in waters infuse the sediment of the Metalline water in some Chymical corrosive water or in some generously sharp Vinegar and if you see an Ironish rust upon the sediment you may be sure of the mixture of Iron with the water and so of Brass Gold and all others Thus have I given some Remarques in general and hinted only by the by at my greatest concern the Constituents of our Spaw of which hereafter I shall now only
Mercury without a great deal of circumspection I therefore heartily advise our new-coyn'd Physitians since they must be dabbling not too much to Idolize Monsieur Mercury nor fond too much of their late skill in Salivation those that know it full out as well as they must tell them by way of friendly advice that it ought to be given to none but such as are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And now good Reader I have even wearied thee out and therefore will hasten to my matter and conclude this Preface with Hippocrates Qui vocat medicinam omnium artium nobilissimam sed propter ignorantiam eorum qui eam male exercent esse omnium vilissimam fundamentum enim quo pedem figunt non habent de quibus etiam Seneca semper distant nunquam ad veritatem perveniunt and the reason is because they have no guide for direction they are so enthusiastically wise they scorn a Master to instruct them methodically in the true fundamentals of Physick but shooting at random with all their industry nothing is produced but rudis indigestaque moles And the same Author going on tells us Ignorantia est quae omne malum in medicina generat adeo ut medicus nunc passim ludibrio expositus comicis in facetias mundo in proverbium ivit And beside the ignorance of some the malicious detractiâ—ns of others even among our selves â—ender us contemptible which very â—hing occasions a good Galeno-Chymiâ—al Author to break out into exclamaâ—ion thus Ubi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quam tanâ—opere commendat Hyp. nostro seculo unus vilipendit alterum dicta facta taxat rixatur à tergo conâ—radicit quae non intelligit seipsum apud ignaram plebem extollit sordida spe lucelli Pardon this Paâ—ergy I shall expatiate no more upon â—o sordid a subject what I am now to say shall be Observations from Experiments and therefore ought to force a faith as to matter of Fact if the manner be but any way well it is well so farewell Thine E. W. SPADACRENE Dunelmensis CHAP. I. Of simple Water its qualities and use THat there is naturally pure simple water to be found without any heterogenial admixture at all is paradoxical therefore by simple water I only mean such as hath a proper colour taste smell weight and consistence thin light cold and moist and no other thing discernable either by senses or effects And 't is requisite that water should have these qualities in regard of the many and necessary uses of it both for Men Beasts Vegetables and Minerals in so much as there is no living for any Creature where there is no water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 begins Pindar's Olymp. Od. 1. It was our first drink to quench thirst and by its tenuity distributes our nourishment as a Vehicle nay after the invention of Wine it was usually mixed therewith as Virgil saith of Bacchus Poculaque inventis Acbeloia miscuit uvis I could heartily wish that even Bacchus himself might herein become our President especially since in other things he hath taught our too docil world as v. g. by the same purity and tenuity of the parts of water how to make Beverages of sundry sorts The Aegyptians have their Zythum the Spaniards their Cerea the Turks their Coffee and we our Ale and Beer all extracted by water the fittest Menstruum for receiving the Faculties of all Medicaments and nourishment especially the second qualities of mixt Bodies and for this reason was it called Panspermia That simple water is cold is without question for being heated accidentally it soon returns to its natural coldness the cause of heat being removed but whether it be colder than Air is much to be doubted I shall not now undertake the determining whether Air be bred of water originally or whether it be not a distinct substance of it self and receives only watery vapours and after mature condensation in the middle Region exonerates it self by Rain Hail Snow c. Only thus much I dare affirm that the Sun beams are of much more force to elevate substances from the Earth than most imagin and consequently those that hold the materiality of the Air to be from water are not in opinion altogether paradoxical but verisimilitudinary And to prove this vigorous extraction of the Sun from sublunary Bodies give me leave to give you an instance of what Athanasius Kircherus whose company much honour'd me from Marseilles to Rome most faithfully relates in Magicae Parastaticae Parastisi I Naturae thus Morgana Rheginorum In the midst of Summer when the Sun boils the Tyrrhene Ocean with most fervent rays then is it that wanton Nature entertains the wondering Eyes of the Inhabitants of Rhegium a Town in Calabria most ancient and no less famous for having been the Seat of many Philosophers with a prodigious Spectacle in the Air. There may you whether with more delight or wonder is not soon determined behold a spatious Theatre in the vaporous Air adorned with great variety of Scenes and Catoptrick Representations the Images of Castles Palaces and other Buildings of excellent Architecture with sundry ranges of Pillars presented according to the Rules of Perspective This Scene withdrawn upon the Sayling by of the Cloud there succeeds another wherein by way of excellent Landskip were exhibited spatious Woods Groves of Cypress Orchards with variety of Trees but those artificially planted in uniform rows like a perfect Phalanx large Meadows with companies of Men and herds oâ— Beasts walking feeding and couching upon them And all these with so great variety of respondent colours so admirable a commixture of light and darkness and all their motions and gestureâ— so counterfeited to the life thaâ— to draw a Landskip of equal perfection seems to humane Naturâ— altogether impossible Now to our purpose This parastatical Phantasm was not causeâ— in the Cloud from any reflected appearance of any such things eitheâ— on the shore or adjacent fields because no such thing was there which indeed increased the ardouâ— of curiosity in renowned Kircher tâ— cross over from Messina to Rhegiuâ— at the usual time of the apparition where he detected the Causes of the whole Phaenomenon observing first the Shores subjacent to the Mountain called Tinna as also the bottom of the Sea to be covered with shining Sand being the fragments of Selenites Antimony and other pellucid concretions devolved from the eminent parts of the Land and contiguous Hills that are richly fraught with Veins of those Minerals Then he observed that these translucid Sands being together with Vapours from the Sea and Shore exhaled into the Air by the intense fervour of the Sun did coaless into a Cloud in all points respondent to a perfect polyedrical or multangular Looking-glass the various superficies of the respondent Granates making a multiplication of the Species and that these being opacated behind by gross and impervious Vapours directly facing the Mountains did make reflection of the various Images of Objects respective to their
various positions to the eye The several rows of Pillars in the Aerial Scene are caused by one single Pillar erected on the Shore for being by a manifold reflection from the various superficies of the tralucent particles opacated on the hinder part by dense vapours in the speculary Meteor it is multiplied even to infinity no otherwise than if one single Image posited betwixt two polyedrical Looking-glasses confrontingly disposed is so often repercussed or reflected from superficie to superficie that it exhibiteth to the eye almost an infinite multitude of Images exactly consimilar Thus also doth one Man standing on the Shore become a whole Army in the Cloud one Beast a whole Herd and one Tree à thick set Grove Some perhaps may judge this assertion of the elevation of those shining Grains of Vitreous Minerals into the Air by the meer attraction of the Sun and the coalition of them there with the Cloud of Vapours to be too large a morsel to be swallowed by any throat but that cormorant one of credulity If so all we require of them is only to consider that Hairs Straws grains of Sand fragments of Wool and such like festucous Bodies are frequently found immured in Hailstones which surely are sufficient arguments that those things were first elevated by the Beams of the Sun recoiling from the Earth into the middle Region of the Air and then coagulated with the Vapours condensed into a Cloud and frozen in its descent The truth hereof is evicted by the conspiring testimonies of many other Authors whose Pens are not dipt in the fading Ink of an unjustifiable Tradition nor their Minds deluded with the affectation of fabulous wonders Now to reassume the debate I shall only give my judgment of the temperature of the Air as to heat or cold and that it is of its own nature cold is most manifest though Aristotle concluded the contrary from its efficient cause which rarified it The Stoicks were also of this opinion because they made the matter of Air to be water and this is also confirmed by its return to coldness as formerly was said of water in case it be accidentally heated and we know that under the Zona torrida so long as the Sun is within their Horizon and strikes the Air with its perpendicular Beams 't is exceeding hot but after Sun-set the Air reassumes its natural coldness 'till Sun-rise again nay though Aristotle thought it uninhabitable because of the extremity of heat yet being the days and nights are there of the same length Josephus Acosta concludes that the only Paradise upon Earth is under or near the Aequinoctial neither can there any other reason be given why the Mountains which reach the middle Region of the Air are continually cold and mostly covered with Snow but because they wanting the reflection of the Sun-beams the Air doth then enjoy its natural qualification As for that whimsey of an Antiperistasis in the middle Region from the Element of Fire above and the reflection of the Beams beneath it 's an equal phantasm with the Man in the Moon who would have hot sitting if Elementary Fire were immediately under him But this opinion is exploded and if such Fire were it would rather heat than cool the Air. Is not the Air most cold near the Poles where the long absence of the Sun and its oblique Beams when present give way to its natural coldness Nay 't is very probable that it is colder than water since we see by a condensative faculty it congeals water into Ice Snow Hail c. which certainly is from the Air being that under-ground where the water is not freely ventilated with Air there 's no congelation neither do I think other but the great coldness that 's in Ice and Snow depends meerly upon the mixture of Air which being per minima interwoven with Salnitrous particles is heightened to such a degree of coldness as makes it vigorous for producing a congelative effect That water is most moist is the opinion of Galen and very probably true notwithstanding Aristotle's reason to the contrary concluding Air to be most moist because it 's hardly contained within its bounds which indeed is by reason of its tenuity and incontiguity of parts being that dry exhalations extend themselves as well as moist vapours and as density compacts so rarity causeth extension I shall need say no more of the qualities which simple water ought to have being such as are every where obvious in Authors and the senses will discover either by taste colour smell or touch or else the effects will make manifest CHAP. II. Of the Original of simple Waters and Springs in general GReat controversies have been betwixt the Stoicks and Peripateticks and are yet amongst the Moderns concerning the original of true Springs which are no other than those of mixt waters All difficulties and arguments touching this grand Debate are reducible into three heads for either our perpetual and lasting Springs called Fontes perennes proceed from vapours congealed by cold in the second Region of the Air and so fall down upon the Earth in Rain Snow or Hail or they are ingendred in the bowels of the Earth or they are percolated through sandy subterraneal channels from the Sea For the first it may be granted that divers Springs and Rivers receive supply of waters from the Rain as we see our Rivers do the Rhine and Danubius swell upon the dissolution of Snow and in much drought our Springs fail us but those are such as materially depend upon the fall of Rain or Snow and these surceasing the Springs also become dry they being principally ordained by Nature for fertilizing and irrigating the Earth in its production of Herbage Fruit c. for the benefit of Mankind but such are only Land-springs and in no sort to be called perpetual Springs which notwithstanding the want of Rain or Snow for a long time are still the same and though great Rivers may almost be dried up by a long and lasting discontinuance of wet by the driness of the superficies of the Earth imbibing it in its passage for the satisfaction of its drought being elementum siccissimum yet the heads of those Rivers flow plentifully at the same time so that another causality must be found out than Aerial supplies and supposing there were which some wittily contend for certain commissures chinks and hollow veins in the Earth to receive much Rain that falls yet what sinks into those clefts and caverns bears no proportion at all with that plenty which hurries headlong into Rivers and thence conveyed into the Sea and consequently very improbably proposed to be in a manner the adaequate causation of lasting Springs there being also subterrraneal generations which for their production require also a continued supply of water The second opinion seems much less plausible than this for if the cause be ingendred in the bowels of the Earth then it either proceeds from Earth it self changed into water as Seneca
you to Dr. French and Dr. Wittie's Books of the Spaws and others Animadversions thereon Only I will say briefly for Children and old Men that if their temper and constitutions be otherwise good they may safely drink thereof proportionably to their vigour and strength of natural heat but for Women with child for some important reasons I would advise them to forbear CHAP. VI. Directions concerning the rational and methodical use of this Spaw 'T Is a vulgar and unpardonable errour to drink these waters without a due preparation of the Body therefore let every one who expects the true benefit thereof consult some honest and able Physitian for their instruction such an one as can judge aright of the age and constitution of the Patient the nature of the Disease its motion and the strength both of the Party and the Medicine Such an one will surely direct some gentle Vomit in case the Stomack be fowl and the Patient hath an inclination and be apt to Vomit otherwise some Cathartick such at least as may disburden the primas vias and remove such viscous and vitious matter as may either hinder the waters journey into the parts affected or that may be carried along therewith into the narrower passages and nobler parts and there produce stronger and more dangerous obstructions Dropsies Tensions Gripings c. yet if any Purgation in general may be recommended I dare prefer the use of chewing Rubarb before any other or in case this disgust then those delicious hydragogical Tablets which are to be had at Mr. Dents an Apothecary of Durham together with the true Dose and manner of using the same The Body thus prepared let him drink cheerfully about three half pint glasses at a time more or less as his Stomach can bear it then exercise according to strength for a quarter of an hour or thereabout avoiding all such exercise as may cause them to sweat for by sweating the water may be drawn into the habit of the body and produce that Dropsie called Anasarca whilst he walks or rides c. he must eat some Orange Chips Caraway Confects Citron or Limon Pills or chiefly Elicampane Roots candied for these comfort the Stomach promote the waters passage and make its operation more effectual when he finds his Stomach somewhat emptied then three or four more glasses exercising as formerly and so on 'till he hath taken his full Dose which will be when his Stomach cannot conveniently receive any more without vomiting oppression and naufeating the same Next day he may advance to one two or three glasses more than he took the first day and so every day more 'till he arrive unto a pottle or three quarts more or less according as his Disease requires and his Stomach can pass it off and then stand at that quantity 'till he thinks of giving it over and then as he encreased daily at the beginning so must he decrease and lessen his Dose 'till he come to the same quantity he began withall The time of continuing its drinking must be proportion'd to the nature of the Disease for some two weeks some three others a month or more may be necessary during all which time 't will be requisite to take something to keep your Body soluble If any one by reason of his weakness can neither exercise nor come to the Spaw let him drink it in bed the natural warmth thereof compensates the benefit receiv'd by exercise Now though this water may of it self in some good measure help most Diseases yet can it not be thought but for rendering it more successful in some particular cases 't will be convenient to take such other things often times as the Disease specifically requires and these may be intermixed with the first two or three glasses v. g. some Steel-wine or other Preparations thereof in case of great obstructions or other Diseases of the Liver but then no more water for about half an hour after nay I altogether admit of Sugar or some opening Syrup in the first glass it being thereby the better accelerated to the Liver as also a glass of White or Rhenish-wine mixed with three or four glasses of the water or some drops of Spirit of Salt or Vitriol or Crystals of Tartar so that the Crystals be made of Tartar and not of Allum as some do for having with less labour the greater quantity of Crystals All these I say and such like being piercing and attenuating make way for the speedy and free conveyance of the water and of themselves contribute much to some Cures After you have drunk all you intend you must then necessarily use some hydragogical Medicine or such as evacuateth waterish humours which for the most part remain in the abstruse crannies of the Body as likewise such things as cool and moisten the Bowels otherwise they may partake too much of the potential virtue of this chalybiate water being hot and dry and thence incur the prejudice of Sore Eyes and other Inflammations as I my self have experienced Before you drink the water every morning disburden Nature of her ordinary excrements either naturally or by Art Those who have strong digestions may drink half the quantity in the Afternoon about four or five hours after Dinner but then they must eat little or nothing at Supper others had better forbear If any one find himself after due preparation and several tryals not able to drink the water without reluctancy and oppression thereupon let him forbear and address himself to other Remedies more agreeable to his constitution CHAP. VII Directions in order to Diet and time for drinking it THe truth is though a regular Diet be commendable and of great concern at all times especially when we run any course of Physick for repairing health yet I approve not so much of being so sceptically scrupulous as many are either in directing or observing so precise and narrow compass of Diet. The only great fear is that of excess the quantity is much more considerable than the quality and the rather because the water in most if not in all begetteth appetitum caninum a devouring appetite so as Men are apt to receive more than they can well digest and thence arise crudities and corruption in stead of concoction and chylification A temperate Diet both prevents and cures many Diseases and is the chiefest medium we have for a lasting and possibly an everlasting life hence it is that Italians say Manger molto è manger poro who desires to eat much must eat little for by eating little he lives long and consequently eats much All things that are of laudable juyce and of easie digestion may be admitted I shall only forbid Meats too much salted Geese Eels Salmon all sorts of fat and in fine such things as are found disagreeable to the temper and constitution of the party but if otherwise Nature takes delight in a Meat though not at all proper for the Disease yet is it allowable and therefore Hipp. l. 2. Aphorism 38. affirmeth Paulo pejor sed suavior cibus potus meliori quidem sed ingrato praeferendus Sometimes we must permit Meat and Drink though something worse for the Disease if otherwise it be grateful Your Drink also must be suited to your Stomach and temper cold Stomachs may drink strong Ale or Sack hotter and stronger Stomachs must be content with smaller Beverage and Wine diluted 'T is not good to eat any thing 'till the water be most if not all passed thorough your Body which is known best by the colour of your Urin changing from a pale to a higher tincture To close all as to Diet I advife all never to eat so much as their appetite may crave but as we commonly say to leave off with a stomach As to the time and season of the year 't is certainly then best generally speaking when the weather is hottest and dryest which happens most commonly in June July and August though we have by no little cost and labour having the benefit of a declivity so ordered the adjacent parts thereof that the Rain glides off without sinking any wise considerably into the ground and consequently it may be drank in rainy weather without any apparent diminution of its virtue I have observed it before Sun-rise to be inclined to luke-warmness which after two or three hours of a Solar influence becomes briskly cold which alteration is doubtless from the constriction and dilatation of the pores of the earth locking up or ventilating the fuliginous Vapours accordingly as the coldness of the night or heat of the Sun disposeth them and therefore 't is fittest to drink it after the Sun hath by its lustre and beams dissipated those Vapours and enlivened the Mineral Spirits What further may be said in imitation of the Rabbins Revealments by Elias rescrvetur in adventum alterius Sit laus Dei Patri summo Christo decus Spiritui Sancto tribus honor unus Amen FINIS