this kind that came to my knowledge I shall add only by and by the Product of a more recent Tryal 2. As far as I have hitherto observ'd those Ferruginous Waters that are not heavier than common Water and in most Drinkers prove but diuretick afford but very little Caput Mortuum or dry Substance upon the total Evaporation of the Liquor whereas Mineral Waters that are purging and manifestly more ponderous in Specie than common Water leave upon Evaporation a considerable quantity of residence thô some far less than others 3. At once to explain and partly prove what I have been saying I shall here recite that from a pound of Barnet VVater which is known to be purgative slowly evaporated we obtain'd a Dram of VVhite Powder But from the like quantity of Tunbridge VVater we obtain'd but about one grain of Caput Mortuum And if I misremember not we had but about a grain and a half from 25. Ounces of the German Spaw Water 4. It may seem scarce credible to many that so small a quantity of matter of which perhaps not one half is Saline or Metalline the rest being teresstrial should impart a manifest vertue to so great a proportion of VVater But this difficulty did not much trouble me who have purposely made divers Experiments to discover how small a proportion of Mineral matter may suffice when dissolv'd to impregnate common VVater I remember I took one grain of Iron stone casually found near the Springs at Islington from which Mineral 't is probable those VVaters derive their vertue this being open'd by the fire and dissolv'd as far as it would be in a little Spirit of Salt we let fall a drop or two of the yellowish solution into a great proportion of Infusion of Galls to which it presently gave a deeper colour than Tunbridge Water or even the German Spaw VVater was wont to give here at London with the Powder of Galls So that we guess'd that if we had then had at hand a competent quantity of the infusion the remaining part of the Martial Solution would have been able to colour ten times a greater quantity of the Infusion than our Tryal was made upon This will be easily believ'd by him that shall consider an Experiment we afterwards made to the same purpose which was this VVe dissolv'd a half grain of a good Marcasite taken up not far from London in a small quantity of Spirit of Niter which for a certain Reason I made choice of thô other Acid Menstruums as Aqua-fortis and Spirit of Salt would have dissolved the Mineral This small solution we put into a pound of pretty high Tincture of Galls made by infusing them in common Water and finding as we expected that this mixture grew very dark we fill'd a Vial with it and emptying that Vial into a larger Glass we fill'd the same Vial three times with common Water to dilute it notwithstanding which this new mixture being put into one of our usual Glasses appeared of a colour much deeper than that which the Water of Tunbridge or the German Spaw had formerly given with the Powder of Galls So that probably if another Vial of common Water had been added it would yet have afforded a purple colour if not a deeper so that one part of dissolv'd Marcasite communicated a Tincture to 61440 sixty one thousand four hundred and forty parts of Infusion of Galls And that which makes this Experiment more considerable is that this small quantity of Marcasite was not it self all Martial or Metalline For from our English Marcasites as well as others I have obtain'd a pretty quantity of Sulphur like common Sulphur besides that they afford a not despicable quantity of Terrestrial Substance about whose nature I have not yet satisfy'd my self 5. I shall now add this reflexion that since the Marcasite impregnated so much Water with its corporeal Parts if I may so call them obtain'd by bare dissolution it seems highly probable that the same quantity of Liquor may be impregnated by a far less quantity of Mineral matter attenuated into a kind of Spirituous slate by being rais'd in the form of Fumes or exhalations and that imperfect or embryonated Iron may be so will scarce be deny'd by them that consider the way that I have in another Paper deliver'd to make Iron manifestly emit copious Fumes without the help of external Fire And if it be with some such Spirituous and volatile Exhalations that a Mineral Water as that of Tunbridge or of Islington is impregnated 't is not hard to conceive that they may easily lose their chief vertue by the avolation of most or many of their fugitive Parts upon their being remov'd to a distance from the Spring head And to make it probable that vitriolate Corpuscles may be made to ascend without losing their nature I shall here mention an Experiment that I devis'd to give some light in this matter I had often found by Tryal that a Spirit richly impregnated with volatiliz'd Sulphur would with vitriol whether in the form of a powder or a solution produce in a trice a very dark or blackish colour And guessing that in Mercury turn'd by the addition of Salt and Vitriol into corrosive sublimate many of the Vitriolate Corpuscles might ascend with the Mercurial ones I took such a Volatile Sulphureous Tincture as I have been mentioning which for this purpose ought to be deep and having dropt it upon good Sublimate I found it turn presently of a very opacous colour To show also that to make a great dilatation or dispersion of the Martial Corpuscles of an Ore or Mineral there needs no Spirit of Salt or the like distill'd Menstruum I procur'd from a copperas-work or place where vitriol is made by art some of the Liquor they imploy before they cast in Iron that being corroded by it it may increase the weight and give solidity and some other Qualities to the designed Vitriol Now thó this Liquor be made without any Chymical Menstruum barely by Rain or snow-Snow-Water that impregnates it self with Saline or Metalline Particles in its passage through Beds of Marcasites that lye expos'd to the Sun and Air yet in this Water such numbers of Martial Corpuscles are dispers'd that having shaken four drops of it into 12 Ounces and a half of common Water this Liquor as I expected was thereby so impregnated that with powder of Galls it presently produc'd as deep a colour as good Tunbridge Water would have done So that supposing a drop of this Liquor to weigh about a grain as by some Tryals purposely made we found it to do it appears that one part of the vitriolate Water was able manifestly to impregnate 1500 Parts of common water And yet of these 4 drops or Grains of Vitriolate Liquor a considerable part may very probably be concluded from the way of its production to have been Rain Water as will easily be granted when I shall have added that to examine this supposition or
big exactly stop'd by which means I have them alwaies in readiness to mingle with the Mineral Water and alter the colour of it if Galls be able to do it almost in atrice whereas to draw the Tincture of Galls with Simple Water often takes up several hours and the tinging parts are much weakn'd by being diluted by the Menstruum If you would have a Tincture the Powder of Galls ty'd up close in a Ragg and with it hung in the Liquor makes the Infusion less muddy If you be in hast and have none of the Powder at hand you may scrape as much of a Gall-Apple as you need into the Mineral Water 2. I have observ'd those Parts of the Infusion of Galls especially it made by heat that produce the new Colour with Ferruginous Waters to be more apt to fly away than one would think the Infusion becoming often unfit to alter the Colour of the Martial Waters whilst yet it self appears sufficiently high colour'd Upon which account I choose to make a Tincture of Galls not long before I mind to use it And if I imploy dry Galls to take Powder that is not stale 3. 'T is no safe way and may be very erroneous that is usually taken in mixing Galls or their Infusion with the Water to be explor'd so carelesly as is wont to be done For those that are curious to make good Ink will easily believe that much of the deepness of the Colour depends upon the Proportion of Galls to the other Ingredient and accordingly that by putting a much greater or a much lesser quantity of Galls into such a quantity of the Mineral Water the resulting Colour may be more or less intense To obviate which inconvenience I take this course when the occasion deserves it I make my Infusion of Galls with a certain weight of the Powder in a determinate weight of Water As for instance I put about five gr of powder'd Galls to sleep for so many hours in an Ounce of Water But if I make use of the dry Powder then I am wont to put three or four grains into an Ounce of the Liquor to be examin'd which is a way far more certain than the Common wherein the Ingredients are aestimated but by Guess I have have mention'd various proportions of powder'd Galls to the same quantity of Liquor because I have observ'd that there is really a great inequality among the Mineral VVaters in which it may be put and I have found by Tryal that in an Ounce of the German Spaw a single grain of Powder would immediately produce a sufficiently deep purple colour 'T is an inconvenience that not only Galls but the other Drugs hereafter to be mention'd impart a high Tincture of their own to the common VVater they are infus'd in and therefore it were to be wish'd and is fit to be endeavour'd that we had some Drugg that without imparting a colour to the common VVater it impregnates would afford an Infusion fit to strike a blackish or a purple colour with Martial VVaters Though it be useful yet 't is not necessary to imploy Galls to produce a colour in the Mineral VVater propos'd For besides that 't is known that usually tho' not alwayes as I have try'd the same thing may be done but somewhat more faintly with Oaken Leaves we may successfully enough substitute for the same purpose some other astringent vegetables as dry'd Red-Rose Leaves the Peel and as we have try'd the Juice of Pomegranates and what I find to be a notable stiptick the blossoms of the same plant which are vulgarly call'd in the Shops Ballaustium To which may be added Myrobolans Logwood and some others that need not now be mention'd whose strong Infusions have yielded me a Tincture very dark and blackish with some Martial Liquors 6. In regard that the Galls or other Drugs to be infus'd in common VVater are not alwayes of the same goodness or strength 't is adviseable not so to trust to any determinate proportion of the Pigment to the VVater as not to take in the help of the Eye to judge by the Colour of the Tincture whether the Liquor be duely and not too much or too little impregnated 8. Whereas there is an intimation in the Close of this thirteenth Article of the present Sett of Titles that Animal Liquors may be imploy'd to produce new colours with Mineral VVaters I gave that hint not only because 't is usually observ'd in Martial VVaters such as those of Tunbridge the Spaw c. that the gross excrements of the lower belly are blacken'd by a commixture of their Metalline Parts but in Tunbridge VVaters particularly I have observ'd that after the drinking of larger doses of them the root of the tongue and perhaps some neighbouring parts would also acquire a dark colour by the operation of the transient Liquor Though the way of trying Mineral VVaters by the change of colours that Galls produce in them be useful and recommended by being easy cheap and expeditious yet I do not take it to be either of that extent or of that certainty that 't is vulgarly presum'd to be of For its main if not only considerable use is to discover by striking or not affording a black or blackish or at least a purple or a purplish colour with a Mineral Water to manifest the Liquor to be or not to be either of a vitriolate or a ferruginous nature But there are divers Metalline Ores and other Mineral Bodies which not participating of Iron will not by this way be discoverable and yet may strongly impregnate the VVater propos'd As for example to try whether if Arsenic were mingl'd with VVater Galls would discover it by producing with it a dark colour I put some of the Powder of them into a Decoction of arsenic but did not perceive that it gave the Liquor any deeper colour than it would have done to common VVater And as the extent of this explorer of VVaters is not very great so neither do I find the informations it gives us to be so certain as they are presum'd For if I much misremember not I long since found upon tryal purposely made that another Body of a Metalline nature and that did not partake of Iron would with infusion of Galls afford a very dark colour that might easily among ordinary Beholders pass for the colour produc'd by a Martial VVater and I do somewhat doubt whether so much as all Liquors impregnated with Iron will de discover'd to be so by the colour they afford with Galls for I have sometimes made such a Liquor with no Mineral Substance in it save steel or Iron but I did not find it would turn the Infusion of Galls either blackish or purple which made me suspect that these colours are afforded only by such Martial VVaters as have been wrought upon more or less by some Acid Salts or Fumes 9. Unto these things I shall add that I found that to be a mistake which is generally
that of Fennell seed if it be that by its being or not being able to melt Bodies of somewhat differing dispositions to Fusion as Butte Tallow Bees-was c. Or to coagulate the whites of Eggs or to boyl Eggs in the Shell c. But the best way is to plunge into the Water propos'd or least the whole Ball or globulous part of a good hermetically seal'd Thermoscope whereon the degrees of cold and heat are carefully mark'd Notes on the Second Title II. The knowledge of the specifick Gravity of a Mineral Water may be of great use to him that endeavonrs to discover its nature not only as this knowledge inables him to distinguish the propos'd Water from others but because it may afford him a considerable and double information For by comparing the weight of the propos'd Liquor with that of common Water he may be in case the former be heavier as it usually happens to be assisted to estimate what proportion of Salt or Martial or other Mineral Substance it is impregnated with And if it be very light and much more if it be lighter than common Water he may probably conclude that the Substance that impregnates it is either very small in quantity or proportion or is not near so gross as is to be found in other Mineral Waters but of a Spirituous and Volatile nature which is a discovery of no small moment in this affair And thó that may seem a paradox which I here suppose that a Water impregnated with a Metalline or Mineral Substance should be as light or even lighter than common Water Yet upon Tryal carefully made I have found some Mineral Waters as particularly that of Tunbridge well taken up and thô they be somewhat less light that of the German Spaw and of some of the Islington Springs to be manifestly lighter than common Water and some taken up at Tun bridge I found to be lighter than common Water even purified by Distillation And thô it be very hard to conceive yet I think it not impossible that a Subterreneal Substance that impregnates Water should be lighter in Specie than it but yet I would not refer this surprizing Levity in all cases nor all of it in most cases to the admixture of lighter Corpuscles because some Tryals justify'd the suspicion I had that much of the Comparative Lightness proceeded from this That the Mineral Water was imbued with a smaller quantity of vulgar or culinary Salt than common Water uses to contain But yet these Tryals did not satisfy me that this paucity of common Salt was the sole or adequate cause of the lightness of the mentioned Waters But to discover such minute differences one must have good Instruments and indeed to speak freely there are few upon whose Reports I durst confidently relye for the Specific Gravity of Mineral Waters For to weigh Liquors any thing exactly there is requisite more Heedfulness and more Skill and better Instruments than are easy to be met with together and than we usually imagine And when Physicians and others weigh Mineral Waters they are wont to do it in some Apothecary or other Trades mans Shop where if the Ballances be small the Vessels and the Water are commonly too heavy for them and oftentimes wrong them And if as is usual the Bottles or other vessels be great they require far better Ballances than are usually imploy'd in the Shops of Apothecaries or Grocers whose Ballances a Critical Examiner will too often find to be far from being accurate insomuch that usually without at all altering the weights thô perhaps not great ones he may easily make which Scale he pleases manifestly preponderate and continue in that position and may as easily afterwards give the other Scale the same advantage The diligent and experienced Mathematician Mersennus much complains of the difficulty he found to weigh Liquors exactly even by the help of his Nicer Instruments The accuratest way I know is by comparing the differing weights that the same sinking Body has in common Water and in the Liquor propos'd But this way which I elsewhere circumstantially deliver requiring besides good Instruments skill in Hydrostaticks is practicable but by few And the way of comparing Waters by the greater or lesser sinking of the same Cylinder or other swiming Body into them is scarce accurate enough Wherefore I chose to make a very skilfull Artist blow at the flame of a great Lamp a thin round vial with a flattish bottom that it might stand upright and be very light and this was furnish'd with a neck as large as a Goose quil drawn very even into a hollow Cylinder of above 3 Inches long and fitted at the top with a little Gap that hinder'd the Water from ascending above the due height This Glass contain'd ℥ iiiss and 43 grains of common Water and yet when empty weigh'd but ʒvi+ 42 grains So that I could use it when full of Liquor in such a Ballance that the addition or detraction of half a Grain or less would make either Scale preponderate The length and evenness of the stem was design'd for uses not needful to be mention'd here where it may suffice for my purpose to say that this Glass was judged capable of holding Water enough for not uncurious Tryals and yet not to be thô well fill'd too heavy for a tender Ballance In this Vessel herefore we carefully weighed several Liquors whose Gravity belongs not to this place and among them diverse Mineral Waters some of which at least known here at London were found to be of the annexed weights The Glass being fill'd with several Liquors to the same height and weighed in the same Ballances  Ounces dr gr Common Water was found to weigh 3 4 43 Common Water distill'd 3 4 41 Acton Water 3 4 48 ½ Epsom Water 3 4 51 Dulledge Water 2 4 54 Straton Water 3 4 55 Barnet Water 3 4 52 North-Hall Water 3 4 50 The German Spaw Water 3 4 40 Tunbridge Water 3 4 38 Islington Water from the Musick House 3 4 36 Islington Water from the Vault with Steps 3 4 39 Islington Water from the Cellar 3 4 39 By this short account it may appear that as divers Mineral Waters that contain Salts in them are considerably heavier than Common Water so some especially Ferruginous Waters are impregnated with so fine a substance as to be lighter than common Water Notes on the Fourth Title IV. This Article may in divers cases give some light to the discovery of the kind of Soyl through which the Water has pass'd and is also useful to distinguish the Spontaneous residence if I may so call it that the Liquor le ts fall by meer standing from that which they call the Caput Mortuum that remains after the total evaporation of the Water by which means also the weight of this last residence may be more truly known Besides some other Mineral Waters I found that the German Spaw Waters brought very well stop't to London afforded by
conjecture we slowly evaporated some Ounces of the Vitriolate Liquor and found that the remaining dry Substance did not fully amount to the 4th part of the weight of the whole At which rate 't was easy to conclude that one grain of Vitriolate substance would have been sound capable of so impregnating six thousand times its weight of common Water as to make it sit to produce with Galls a purple tincture We afterwards found upon Tryal purposely and warily made that the experiment will hold thô the proportion of the Water to the grain of tinging substance should exceed that lately mention'd by the weight of some hundreds of grains TITLES For the Natural History of a Mineral water propos'd Consider'd as a Medicine Being the III. Part of the designed work SECT VI. THough the effects of a Mineral Water upon Humane Bodies as well as upon other Subjects may challenge a place in the Natural History of it yet because the Titles of this Third Part of this Scheme for the most part directly regard the cure or prevention of diseases which are held to be the proper Offices of Physicians as such I forbore to make any comments upon the particular Titles of this Part of our Historical Idea contenting my self for the sake of those that are strangers to Platforms of Natural History to have set down a series of Titles which may point out to them what particulars may be fit for their Inquiry and furnish them with heads whereto they may refer and Receptacles wherein they may lodge what upon Tryals or otherwise they shall meet with worthy of observation And so the accounts that shall be given on these Subjects may be somewhat more distinct and less incompleat To what Temperaments and constitutions the Mineral Water propos'd is the most proper to what less proper and to what noxious or inconvenient In what stated Diseases and in what particular cases the Mineral Water is proper or to be suspected of being dangerous if not certainly hurtful What difference there is if any between the Water taken up and presently drunk at the Spring it self or other receptacle and that which is carryed to some distance off whether in open or in well stop'd Vessels Of the manifest Operations of the Water in those that take it whether it be by vomit by seige by Urine by several or by two or all of these waves Whether any occult vertues or other hidden Qualities can be discovered in the Mineral Water And if any what What variation in the effects of the Mineral Water proceeds from its being drunk all of it quite cold or hot or lukewarm or one part when 't is in one of those tempers and the rest when in another Of promoting or facilitating the operation of the Water in some by taking it in Bed and in others by Moderate exercise What assistance may be given to the operation of the Water by giving with it especially in the first draught something to make it pass the better or to correct its Crudity or to strengthen the stomach and Bowels What advantages may accrue from preparing the Patients Body before he enters upon his course of drinking the Waters And what inconveniences may attend the neglect of such preparation especially in gross foul or much obstructed Bodies Of the assistance the Water may receive by gently purging Medicines discreetly given from time to time Of the best Dose or quantity of the Water to be taken at once of the compass of time wherein it should be all drunk and of the gradual increasing and lessening the Dose at the beginning and sometimes before the end of the whole space of time appointed for the taking it How much the greater or lesser length of time spent in taking the Water conduces to its good Effects and what is the fittest measure of time to continue the drinking of it respect being had to the Patients strength Disease the time of the year the accidental temperature of the Air and other considerable circumstances Whether the drinking of the Mineral Water for several years together be found almost necessary or more beneficial than to intermit it sometimes for a year or two or perhaps longer and then to return to the use of it Of the Diet as to meat drink exercise sleep c. That ought to be observ'd by those that take the Water and of the inconveniences that are wont to follow the neglect of it Of the signes that declare the Water to work kindly and effectually and of the Tokens of not doing so and those of its being already hurtful or likely to prove so Of the Inconveniences or unwelcome accidents if there be any as usually there is that have been observ'd to happen during or some time after the drinking of the Mineral Water especially to Persons of such constitutions or that are in such and such circumstances and of the waies to prevent or remedy such inconveniences Whether there be any necessity or great use of taking Physick after one has done drinking the Water And if there be what are the fittest times and medicines to be imploy'd for the prevention of any bad effects of it and what is the danger of neglect to make use of them VVhether and how the Mineral VVater may be usefully given by being simply commix'd with other Liquors or Bodies as by boiling meat in it or by receiving together with the Additament a further preparation as when the VVater is mingled with VVine or some other Drink when with Milk 't is made into Posset drink when brewed with Mault alone or with that and hopps 't is turn'd into Ale or Beer VVhether any such saline or other substance may by evaporation Inspissation Calcination c. be extracted or obtained from the Mineral VVater as being given in a small Dose may be substituted as a Succedaneum to large quantities of the Water as nature affords it Of what uses if of any the Mineral VVater is when outwardly apply'd as by washing sore Eyes or Ulcers bathing in it c. And whether the mud or Sediment it leaves where it passes or stagnates being externally apply'd have the same or other Medicinal vertues and if so how the mud is to be administred to make it exert them Of some Mechanico-Medical Trials that may be made upon Animals to help us to guess at the Qualities of the Mineral VVaters as by injecting it into the veins of a Dog to try whether it will coagulate his Blood or make it more fluid or operate powerfully by Vomit Siege or Urine as also by keeping a Dog very long without allowing him any other Drink at all than the Mineral VVater But I propose such Particulars as are mention'd in this Article but as Analogous Experiments or Succedaneums to Tryals that should but cannot well because of the worthiness of the Subject be try'd in living Humane Bodies And indeed all the Titles of this third part of our design'd History belong porperly to Physicians many of whom