6 or 7 hours after it because by Supper-time the Stomach will be less relax and be more capacitated to concoct a greater quantity of Meat After the ending of the waters it will be necessary for a month or six weeks to use a very spare Diet to keep out and prevent all Crudities SECT VI. Of the Necessity of the learned and skillfull Physician 's Advice both before at and after the taking of the Waters THough this Water proceeds from such Minerals as make it highly convenient and proper for the several Diseases above-mentioned Yet we are not to imagine it such an absolute Remedy as that of it self it is able to cure Diseases without any rule for the use of it or without any other helps to be sometimes joined with it But it is necessary that the learned and skilful Physician especially such an One as is well acquainted with the water should be advised with both before at and after the taking the water First before you take it as you love your life and health be advised what Preparations are requisite to prevent the great inconveniences which otherwaies may fall out For if you should take this water upon a foul Stomach into a Body replete with gross humours it by carrying them with it with a speedy impetuousness into the veins which being not capacious enough for the reception of such a quantity of collected matter do become thereby obstructed instead of doing good and reserating Obstructions doth for want of due preparation wedge those gross humours into the veins which give rise to many stubborn Diseases before perhaps altogether unknown to the Patient and upon this account it is that many either receiving no benefit or perhaps no small dammage by this Water are apt to complain of it and thereupon do dehort others from the use of it and so ungratefully blaspheme the great blessing of God bestowed upon these Wells Secondly Whilst you are taking it the Physicians advice is also necessary by reason of the unexpected success and unlookt for appearing of Accidents which may fall out As if upon taking of it it pass not freely through the body but is accidentally retained it is to be considered in what part of the body it is at a stand that it may be evacuated by some appropriated means for if it be retained in the belly or Hypochondries which will be apparent by wind rumbling up and down and oppressure a Clyster is convenient for its evacuation if in the Stomach which will appear by a disposition to vomit some opening and cleansing Cathartick will be convenient to make a free passage for it from thence If it be retained in the habit of the body which is evident by a heaviness and chillness over the body without the aforesaid rumbling wind and oppressure some Hydragogall Medicines will be necessary So that as upon the aforesaid Account the Physicians advice is necessary to excite the water to a quicker passage So in other cases he may have reason to hebetate and stop its too active operation or may find it necessary to rectify some other emergent ill Symptoms or perhaps to advise you to desist for a time from drinking it or it may be he may hold it requisite to use with the water some Cathartick Diuretick or Deoppillative Medicament appropriated to the Distemper for which it is drunk So that by reason of the variety of particular Accidents which may happen and the various Circumstances incident in so many several cases it being impossible for any one to intimate particular Directions without dangerous mistakes to the Patient I must referr you as properly appertaining to your skilful Physician Thirdly and lastly the Physicians Counsel and help is as necessary when you have finisht your Water-drinking Course for directing you how to carry off the terrene Sediments and crude serosities which the water must needs have left behind it in your Bodies which would else be carried down into the smaller Vessels and cause obstructions whereby many great inconveniences and Symptoms may follow which if by a right course carried off will perfect the Cure which the water perhaps hath but happily begun and made preparation for but of these things I can say nothing but in general terms and therefore must as before commend you to your Physician for more full and particular Instructions as occasion shall require Since the disposing hand of Providence hath settled me in Lewisham the place which God out of his liberal bounty hath blest with this Medicinal water and there freely dispensed it I look upon it as a Providential intimation to oblige me not only to use my utmost endeavour to investigate its vertues for the general good but also freely to afford my advice for the Direction of such that intending to drink this water shall desire it So that I shall take leave to give notice that if any Persons shall be pleased to conferr with me about taking this water if I am not at the Wells I shall be God willing ready at my house every day till 10 a Clock in the Morning if no more than ordinary occasion intervene to afford my best Advice gratis where also if there shall be found occasion they may be supplied without any further trouble with variety of Medicinal preparations appropriated to the several Distempers this water is to be used for For I am not ashamed to confess that I have met with some Diseases so inveterately fixt so stubborn and difficult to be eradicated that all that I could do by the use of Artificial Medicines have proved succesless till being assisted by this of Natures own preparing and then in no very long time have they given place and been quelled So that I think it no discredit to fight at all lawful Weapons against such inveterate and implacable enemies FINIS
This water outwardly used is very good for most Cutaneous Distempers as Leprosy Itch Scabbs Pimples Ring-worms Scurvy c. It also dissolves tumoures and cureth old Ulcers if the Parties ill-affected be washt or bathed therewith or if the Curd made by boyling Milk therewith be applied And I am perswaded it being used by way of a warm Bath it would be of great efficacy to consume Hydropical tumoures to ease or Cure Gouty and Rheumatick dolours and far more effectual also in the above said Cutaneous Distempers I have not as yet made any Experiment of it this way but shall not omit the first convenient opportunity because it appears to me highly rational Thus have I enumerated the several Diseases for which the Experience of many hath found this water effectual But for the Reason of its effects which are so various I have adventured to give you a short hint of my own Conceptions only drawn from such observations as the time of mine acquaintance therewith and fitting opportunity hath offered to make and shall take the boldness to engage if time and opportunity shall by real experiments and from conclusions rationally deduced from thence furnish me with grounds for any different Reasons to endeavour to superstruct a more consistent Fabrick For Day unto Day uttereth speech Night unto Night sheweth knowledge Psal 19.2 This Day may be the Disciple of To morrow and To morrow of the next following therefore I shall not be so positive as peremptorily to commend my present Opinion lest Time Truths Touchstone should supply me with a better For it is here as it is with the Art of Physick in general The chiefest of the two Leggs it goes upon is experience and I must confess that it is in this case a surer way of arguing from the Effect to the cause than ècontra Per varios casus Artem experientia fecit Exemplo monstrante viam c. The Art of Physick by experience came Without Examples guide it had been lame But though Experience was the first in order and ought in this case to march in the Front yet effectually to make good the Fight against the strong and numerous Army of our innate Enemies which are dayly drawing up their Forces to storm our frail and decaying Tabernacles we must upon necessity make Reason the Rereward lest trusting to much to Empirical aid we too sadly experiment our folly and irrecoverably become Captives to our merciless Diseases and so I will pass to the time and manner of taking this water SECT V. Of the time and manner of drinking of this Water with the Dyet to be observed and Exercise to be used in drinking of it THE Time for drinking this water is to be understood either in reference to the Season of the Year or to the time of the day As to the Season of the Year I prefer neither Summer nor Winter Spring nor Fall but as Occasions and every Ones particular Circumstances shall require but in general whensoever the Weather is clear and dry then the water is best as well in Winter as in Summer yea in hard frosty weather the water is commonly strongest by reason of the Air 's Antiperistasis keeping its Mineral Spirits from evaporating away and then it is of more quick and speedy passage than in the midst of Summer when the Air by heat is adapted to draw unto it self and deprive it of its volatile Spirits And therefore since heat is so apt to attract those spirits the fittest time of the Day more especially in Summer to drink it is any time between Sun-rising and till it be an hour high or therebouts and so you will be sure to receive it in its strength and to take it oftner than once a day I hold very injurious to Nature and prejudicial to most Constitutions But as to the drinking of it cold which is the general custom I confess I cannot but declare my Dislike unless to strong and very robust Bodies For the stomach being a Nervous part is easily offended by that which is actually cold and is thereby impedited from exercising its functions aright by which errour many must needs be the ill Consequences the Defect of the first not being to be made good by the other Concoctions Cold destroying the faculties of the Stomach which are maintained by heat breeds therein many crudities whereby Gouts Dropsies Rheums Coughs Colicks c. must needs be produced To drink it cold also I hold it mightily inimical to all persons that have or that are inclinable to the Apoplexy Epilepsie Palsie Lethargy Convulsions Tremblings c. For any thing actually cold passing down the Throat must needs affect the Brain the innermost Coat of the Jawes being common with the Membranes of the Brain the cold taken in thereby is easily communicated to them which thing is confirmed by Hippocrates Aphor. Sect. 5.18 Frigidum inimicum ossibus cleatibus Nervis Cerebro Dorsali Medullae Calidum verò amicum i. e. To drink water cold is hurtful to the Bones Teeth Sinews Brain Marrow of the back c. but warm is good and profitable Not to insist any longer upon this matter I take it to be the safest course in all cases to take this Water warm since other waies it cannot rationally be supposed so easily to pass through the small Meanders of the Body we by familiar use do dayly see that warm water externally used will deterge and scour off those filthy adhesions which water actually cold cannot and what hinders the like preeminent effects in our Bodies It certainly insinuates it felt the better through the smallest passages and more powerfully dissolves the Coherence of such clammy tough and sticking substances which like Glew adhere to the walls of the Stomach and Coats of the Intestines preparing them and making them the fitter for expulsion by Seige It also passes the sooner to the Reins and cleansing them by its abstersive quality it carries along with it through the Vrinary Passages whatsoever lyes lurking there as a fit matter to cause Obstructions and doth the better qualify that heat which is so efficacious towards the Coagulation of Gravel and Generation of the Stone But in advising to drink this Water warm I do not mean that it is dangerous and absolutely inconvenient for all Persons whatsoever to drink it cold for they whose Constitutions are strong whose Ventricle and Viscera are firm and robust thereby being the better enabled to undergo the greate exercise may questionless with benefit drink it cold But for those of weak Constitutions c. it is better and safer to drink it warm so that it be done with as little loss of its Spirits as may be For as this water doth consist of preceptible Mineral Vapours so doth it also of subtle and insensible Spirits or Atomes and these by a small heat will easily evaporate and take their flight into the open Air though the other by heating or boyling will not budge which is collective from common
understands how incapable the Man is to judge of what Religion I am by his being wholly unacquainted with me and by being a meer stranger as it appears to all that can rationally pretend to know me for I here declare he never had any Discourse with me tending directly or indirectly to any Religious Purpose or scarce of any other Matter and I am consident at that time whatever he hath had since he never had any Conference with any Person that was of any intimacy with me or of Twelve Months standing Acquaintance So that without Conjuration it is easie to tell that this Calumny must necessarily proceed from no other Source then the malicious Efflaviums of his Sick Brain and therefore upon the same ground he might as well have declared me to be a Turk as a Papist only his Mother-wit was ready to prompt him that the last was the fitter Stigma and as Publick Circumstances then stood might prove most serviceable for his opprobrious Design whereas if he had been so idlely busie as to pry into my Religious Circumstances he being within the smoak of many of their Chymnies who have known me and my Communication all my Life time might thereby without any cost or much pains have been satisfied that I am of the Religion the farthest distant from Popery of any amongst the Reformed of the Church of England as it is now establisht and therein by the gracious Disposal of Gods Providence had the happiness to be Educated for which God make me ever thankful though I do not profess my self otherwise beholding to my Education than to manuduce me into a Truth which my riper Judgment upon wholly devesting it self of that prepossession hath upon free choice consented to To the confirmation of which as far as the nature of the thing will bear I could procure if need were a Testimonial from Persons of such Eminency Religion and Learning that if there was as much shame in him as there was Cowerdise in that Man at the Siege of Spoletto whom Nature dissavowing degraded of his Breeches would Analogically make his May-pole-size shrink into a Pigmy's Stature But as for such like Persons as this who eye more the Quis than the Quid prejudicating the Work out of prejudice to the Author they rather give a Badge of their own deplorable Weakness than any the least blemish to it therefore I value not their Censure As for the Judicious and Learned I know they will judge like themselves of whom I had rather be deservedly controlled than by the other ignorantly commended Since we are all Debtors to Truth the Candid Reader will not think it much that I have Obiter spent a little time to set my Reputation to rights thereby hoping ere long to see my self disabused The whole Design of this Tract is contrary to those Physicians who under pretence that they were supersticious Characters defaced the old Writing over Cicero's Baths which declared the names of those Diseases they Cured to divulge to the World the manifold and admirable Vertues which God out of his Goodness hath particularly bestowed upon this Water Bouum quo communius eo melius That those that never heard of these Wells or at least of their Vertues might by this means receive information and if upon tryal they reap any benefit may be added to the number of those that are particularly obliged to bless God for them I cannot omit the taking notice of a very great abuse occasioned by a rabble of Londoners and others weekly frequenting these Wells on Sundays where under pretence of drinking of the Waters they spend that Holy Day in great Prophaneness who after they have for the most part of them gorged themselves with the Water do drink upon it an excessive quantity of Brandy that Bane of English Men or other strong Liquors thereby many of them becoming greatly prejudiced in their Health to add to their Folly and Crime have not been ashamed to impute their Indisposition to this Water whereas upon a Rational omitting the Religious account the success in such cases cannot be expected otherwise This excellent Water like other choice Remedies is liable to be abused by its undue Administration many and those of a soberer rank than those before spoken of thinking thereby to cure themselves do not only much prejudice but oftentimes destroy themselves For in curing Diseases if it were sufficient to know Medicines and Forms of Receipts the Translator of the London Dispensatory hath to the meanest Person made the Physicians Imployment useless and an Apothecary were then most probable to make the best Physicians being stockt with a number of Receipts communicated by divers Physicians And in the use of all Medicinal Waters as well as this the Physicians Advice by consequence would be needless but there is far more Judgment and Skill requisite to discover the Disease and other necessary Circumstances as Cause Constitution Temperature Age Sex Custom c. than the Remedy and without such Discovery how abundant and frequent mischief do we daily see done even by applying Medicines of themselves safe So that as there is a necessity of Advising with an Able and Learned Physician in all Cases where Remedies are to be applied so in particular about the Drinking of this Water because by manifold Advantages reaped by his many years Study in Natural Philosophy his many happy Discoveries in Nature his Anatomical Knowledge of Mans Body of its Actions Use c. he is able by several Signs to discover the Causes and Nature of Maladies and from thence to know how to apply proper Agents to the Patient OF LEWISHAM WELLS SECT I. Of Water in general SEeing that Water is the Materia Subjecta of this Treatise it is a pardonable Digression to speak somewhat of it in general as of its Creation Nature and various Effects As to its Creation it is generally referred to the first Verse of Genesis which is a brief Description or a Compendious Mapp of the Vniverse of the whole Globe of Matter thereof from the Outmost Circumference to the inmost Center created in the Beginning And since we do not find that any new Matter was afterwards created we may fairly conclude that the Waters were created in the Beginning also to which truth the Original Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated the Heaven methinks gives us some light which receiving its Derivation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fire and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Water intimates to us the Subject Matter of the Elementary Heavens for as for the Super-aether and all other Spiritual created Substances being possibly too Sublime and Metaphysical Notions for that Age to receive it doth not appear that they were any scope of Moses his Design there to treat of but of the visible Works of the Creation only which being obvious and lying level to their Senses were the liklier to receive admittance into the consideration of the besotted and unbelieving World and gradually allure
them into a belief of the Worlds Creation by the Almighty God Hither may be referred that of Rabbi Bechai as translated by Buxtorf in Lexic Accepit Deus Benedictus ignem aquam permiscuit ista invicem ex illis facti sunt Coeli i.e. The blessed God took Fire and Water and mixing them together made the Heavens So that if by the word translated Heaven we have found Fire and Water the next word in the Text being the Earth we have gained the time of the Creation of the Elements Fire Water and Earth answerable to the Hermetick Principles of Sulphur Mercury and Salt And further that Water was signified by Moses to be created in the Beginning is evident by the words of the next Verse where Water is mentioned under the word Deep without any intimation of any new Creation but as it were taken for granted that it was created in the Beginning that the word Deep in Scripture Stile is often used for deep Waters or Seas is very obvious as only to instance in that one place of the Royal Psalmist speaking of the Creation of the Earth Psalm 104.6 Thou coverest it with the Deep as with a Garment From whence it is evident that there was not one Homogeneous Mass of Matter created in the Beginning but one Body expresly distinguisht into several Heterogeneous Members which were distinct and separate in their Scituations and not confounded together It was as Natural for the Water to be every where about the Earth as the Air to be every where about the Terraqueous Globe the Aether to be about the Air and the Super-Aether above all which is elegantly expressed by the Prophet Amos chap. 9.6 It is he that hath builded his Stories in the Heavens c. From which Original Scituation of the Elements we may collect that their several Bodies of Matter were proportionable the Matter of Earth most dense and therefore lowest the Matter of Water less dense and therefore above the Earth the Matter of Air more rare and therefore above the Water the Matter of Aether more rare and therefore above all other Elements next to the Super-Aether which is mo t rare and so fittest for the Habitation of pure Spirits Now the said Elements which were created in the Beginning were then endued with their proper Elementary Spirits pure and unmixt which receiving Disposition by the Holy Spirit did produce their proper Qualities gradually and successively à potentia in actum whereupon the simple Qualities of Driness and Moisture in the Earth and Water did not actually exist till the third day at which time God call'd the Dry Land Earth and the gathering together of the Waters call'd he Seas The Element of Water is elegantly set out by Pliny lib c Hoc Elementum caeteris omnibus imperat terras devorant Aquae flammas necant scandunt in sublime caelum sibi quoque vindicant c. This Element challengeth a kind of rule over all the rest it devours the Earth extinguishes Fire it aspires even unto Heaven and doth as it were not only clime up thither it self alone but it carries with it whole Sholes of Fishes heaps of Stones and divers other heavy Substances which afterwards fall down again with it thus far Pliny This is so necessary an Element that no living Creature can subsist without it How wonderfully are all Vegetables enlivened the Spirits of Animals refresh'd with the vivifying Humidity and Balsamick Vertue wherewith it is impregnated by its Digestion in the Clouds Hence it was perhaps that Thales Milesius one of the seven Sages of Greece and Empedocles do both agree that Water is the sole Principle of all things the Spagyrick Masters go not quite so far who affirm it to be the material Principle of all Concrete Bodies As to the manifold and wonderous Vertues of Waters which Authors of good Credit do relate it would be an Herculean Labour to recite them all I shall therefore only for the Readers Curiosity and Delight recount the most admirable and unusual of them which for Methods sake I shall speak to in this order 1. Of the Coldness and Heat of some Waters 2. Of their Taste and Smell 3. Of their various Colours 4. Of their divers Currents or Runnings 5. Of their change of Quantity and Quality 6. Of some other Things remarkable in Waters 1. As to the First In Corinth there is a Fountain of Water which is always Colder than Snow Ptol. Com. Lib. 7. Pliny reports that there is a certain Fountain issuing out of the Mountain Nonacris in Arcadia that is of so cold a Quality Vtpote cum profluens ipsa lapidescat i.e. That as it springs out it is converted into Stone Lib. 31. c. 2. There also he tells us of certain Springs call'd Posidianae near the City Baiae in Campania whose Waters are so hot that they boil their Meat commonly therein Near the Sea Banks of Cuba there is a River so large that it is Navigable and yet it is so hot that one cannot endure to touch it Martyr Sum. Ind. And as Ramus relates Tom. 3. There is a Spring near the Province of Tapala which runs so hot that one cannot pass over it here we ought not to omit our hot Baths at the Bath in Somersetshire The hot Spring issuing out of St. Vincents Rock near Bristol and other Instances of this nature which this our Isle doth produce might here be particularized if it were necessary 2. In the Taste and Smell of Waters there is great variety Aristotle writes of a Well in Sicily whose Water is so sowr that the Inhabitants commonly make use of it instead of Vinegar The Waters of Eleus and Chocops for Deliciousness and Sweetness were famous amongst the Persian Rings and of them they much used to drink Johnst Cl. 2. c. 3. The Water of Cardia is sweeter than warm Milk and so is Vinosa near to Paphlagenia where multitudes of Strangers come to drink of it Johnst ibid. The small Fountain Exampeus in Scythia is so bitter that it taints the sweet Streams of the River Hypanus after it hath run sweetly Forty miles Ibid. In the bottom of the Adriatick Sea which turns to Aquelia there be Seven Fountains and Six of them are very Salt Polyb Hist But of the Saltness of Fountains we need no further instance than our Salt Springs at the Witches in Cheshire The wonderous pleasantness of the smell of Cabura a Spring in Mesophtamia hath occasioned the Fable of Juno's bathing her self therein Plinie lib. 31. c. 3. The hot Baths that are distant from Rhegium 26 miles smell of so gallant a Bitumen that they seem to be mingled with Camphire Johnst Cl. 2. c. 2. Where also he tells us of a Pit in Peloponnesus whose Water smells wondrous pleasantly In Hildersham there be two Fountains the one flowing out of Marble smells like the stink of Rotten Eggs the other from Brimstone smells like Gun-powder Agric. de Nat. 3. As for Colours they
are different in many Waters At Tungri in France there is a Fountain whose Water when well heated turns of a very red Colour Pliny ibid. Danubius where it divides Noricum and Windelicia from Germany its Water is as white as Milk and Water mixt together equally Agric. ibid. The Water of the Maine especially where it passeth the Franks and is fallen into the Rhyne are of a Yellowish Colour Johnst ibid. In Aethiopia there are Red Waters and in Peru as Red as Blood At Neusola in a Mountain in Carpathus an Island between Rhodes and Candia runs out of an old Passage under Ground Water that is as green as Grass At Ilza the Water that comes out of the Mountains of Bohemia is Black so is Allera in Germany and there be Waters in New Spain that are creditably reported to be as black as Ink. 4. The divers Runnings of Water are wonderful Strabo saith lib. 12. that Pyramus a River of Cappadocia which ariseth from Fountains that break out in very plain Ground that it presently hides it self in a very deep Cave and runs many miles under Ground and afterwards riseth a Navigable River Not far from Pompeopolis in the Town Caricos in the bottom of a Cave of wonderful depth a mighty River ariseth with incredible force and when it hath run with a great violence a short way it sinks into the Earth again Mela. l. 1. c. 6. The Water of Martia after it hath run a long tract from the utmost Mountains of Peligni passing through Martius and the Lake Fucinus it disembogues it self into a Cave then it opens it self again in Tiburtina and is brought Nine miles upon Arches into Rome Pl. lib. 31. c. 3. The River Troclotes in Norway makes such a noise when it runs that it is heard 20 miles Olans lib. 2. c. 28. Beca in Livonia runs forth of a Rock with such a fall that thereby it makes many Men Deaf Ortel in Livonia 5. Waters have sometimes changed their Qualities and altered their Quantities There is a Fountain in the Island Tenedos which always overflows from Three a Clock in the Afternoon till Six at Night from the time Sol enters Cancer to his Entrance into Capricorn and all the rest of the time it cannot be perceived to run at all There is another at Dodon which always stops its course at Noon Tophanus a Fountain of Anagnia in Italy is dry when the Lake Fucinus is frozen and at other times it runs with great quantity of Water Agric ibid. The Waters of the Lake of Babylon turn Red in Summer Borysthenes a River in Scythia at some times of the Year seems to be died with Verdigrease The Waters of the River Caria near Neptune's Temple were formerly sweet and are now salt In Thrace when Georgius Despota ruled a sweet Fountain grew to be intolerable bitter and whole Rivers were changed in Boeotia about the Hill Cytheron as Theophrastus writes In the Province of Cyrene in Lybia there is a Fountain call'd Fons Solis which is very hot at Midnight and as the Sun mounts up in the ascending part of Heaven it grows gradually cooler and cooler but every day when Sol is got to his highest pitch of Altitude it is frozen and as he descends toward the Nocturnal Meridian it by degrees becomes warmer and warmer till he is arrived to the Midnight Circle and then it is as I said very hot so that the Water of this Fountain is always frozen at Noon and very hot at Midnight and every day as it grows cold it grows sweet and as it grows hot it becomes bitter Johnst ibid. 6. There are no greater Miracles saith Pliny in any part of Nature than in Waters therefore if I advance to a step higher and raise your admiration to an higher pitch than I have done yet think me not Hyperbolical The said Author relates that in Hetruria the Water makes the Oxen White that drink of it and that Cephissus and Aleacmon a Fountain in Macedonia have the same effects upon Sheep and on the other side that Pemus and the River Melas make them Black He also tells us that the River Aleos makes Men Hairy that drink of it The River Nus in Cilicia as Marcus Varro relates makes Men Quick-witted and Pliny tells us of a Spring in the Isle Cea which makes them Blockish Ovid says of Lyncestus a River in Macedonia Mel. lib. 5. Quem quicun que parùm moderato gutture traxit Haud aliter titubat quà m si mera vina bibisset He that takes of it but a moderate draught Trips even like him that with New Wine is caught And of Clitorius a Fountain in Arcadia he also asserts Clitorio quicunque sitim de fonte levârit Vina fugit gaudetque meris abstemius amnis Who of Clitorius drinks will Wine disgust And only will after meer Water thirst There be two Fountains in the Fortunate Islands they that drink of one of them will laugh till they die and can have no Remedy unless they drink of the other The Fountain Zama in Africa causes excellent Voices At Bonitta an Isle not far from Hispaniola there is a Fountain that springs out on the very top of a Mountain which makes Men Young again causes Aged Men to be Juvenile and recalls their Youthly Vigour to testifie the truth of which says Cardan we have not only common fame but the testimony of Peter Martyr Angerius of Millane a Privy Counsellour to the King of Spain in his Decades of the New World The Lake Argentinum in Sicily will bear those things that will not swim on common Waters And in the Lake Asphaltites a Man bound Hand and Foot and cast therein cannot sink On the other side there is one in Aethiopia whose Water is so thin that it will not bear the Leaves that fall from the Trees Such like Water there is at a place call'd Cabalus between Padua and Vincentia which is so rare and tenuions that whatsoever is put into it appears at the bottom in the same bulk and figure as if nothing but Air interposed And the River Sylas in India is of such admirable rarity that it will not bear a Ship upon it In which Rank is Boristhenes which when it meets with the River Hypanus its Water swims above it for many miles together Fromond lib. 5. c. 3. There is a Lake in Ireland in which if you stick a Staff or Pole that part which is in the Mud in few moneths time will be turned into Iron and that part which is in the Water into a Whetstone There be not a few Fountains Lakes and Brooks in Great Britain and Ireland that will convert divers Things into Stone whereof some in a short time and some in a longer In the Island Summatra out of the Hill Balâ—lvanus there springs two strange Fountains whereof the one runs pure Balsamum and the other the best Oyl Heylyns Microcos p. 689. In Caria in Asia Minor there is a Fountain called Salmacis
which inclines Men very much to Venery that drink of it or bathe in it Pompeius Fest I have heard it reported by creditable Persons in Ireland that in the Province of Vlcester there is a Fountain in which whosoever shall two or three times wash himself shall never become gray Now though I have taken the pains to collect those different Natures and various effects of Waters to shew how capable they are of receiving diversity of Qualifications from the Earth yet possibly they may appear to some as improbable and as much past belief as the most ridiculous Relations in Mandeveile Wherefore to disabuse the Judgments of such I shall endeavour to discuss their seeming impossibilities and make some of those instances which seem most Anomalous to Nature to lie level to Natures Rule and their Understandings and shall leave the rest for the Reader to salve as a Whetstone to actuate his Intellectuals As to those Waters which Pliny Varro and other Authors do relate to change the Colour of those Animals that drink of them What impossibility is in it What hinders but that the Qualities of Waters transfused through their Bodies should do as much in them as the solicitous care of one Night or some sudden surprize of the Mind should with us Camerarius relates of a Noble Youth who having Ravisht a Maid and being to die for it he so deeply resented it that his Vital Heat and Spirits were so much extinguished that all his Beauty vanisht and the Roots of his Hair growing dry for want of Moisture it turned Gray Mem. Med. C. 2. M. 15. The same thing happened saith Scaliger Exer. 212. to Franciscus Gonzaga when he was imprisoned for a Traytor As to the River Nus which makes a ready Wit and that Fountain that causeth Blockishness doth not common Experience teach us that Wine doth the same things Which if moderately taken its Spirits are exalted into the Brain by the Heat of our Bowels where it quickens its Motion and produces a certain Gayety which raises our Fancies and gives us excellent Thoughts But on the other side when it is drunk in Excess the Spiritual part arising in too great abundance doth circulate in the Brain with such celerity that then Objects do appear double and the Walls of places seem to turn round and we are prone to Sleep also which is occasioned by the Pituita which being attenuated by the Spirits of the Wine glides into the small Meanders of the Brain and there condensing doth hinder the Circulation of the Animal Spirits I say What hinders but that the like Effects may follow upon drinking of some Waters which in their Subterranean Passages may imbibe such like Qualities from the diversity of Mineral Vapours As to the Fountain Clytorius in Arcadia which makes them that drink of it loath and abhor Wine it may not improbably be imputed to a certain viscous Quality in that Water which sticking to the Walls and Mouth of the Ventricle may cause such a Nauseousness As to the intoxicating Quality of the River Lyncestius which Pliny calls Acidula from a certain Wine-like Acidity imparted to it it probably receives its Quality from the fumosity of Sulphur which will easily affect the Brain by its Narcotick Vapours As to that Fountain in the Isle of Bonitta which is creditably reported to make Men Young agen to cause the Winter of Old Age to put on the Verdure of the Spring-like Youth that I may not seem to impose impossibilities in Nature upon the belief of the credulous Reader I declare my meaning thus It may by a Natural possibility have a certain Physical Vertue from certain Heterogeneous parts of which it consists whereof some by carring off the Sedement of those Humours which suffocate the Natural Heat and others assimulating their Balsamick Vertue to the Vital parts which may wonderfully restore the Radical Moisture and mightily repair the Humane Fabrick though not in so high a manner as the Juice of that Fruit of the Tree of Life in paradice yet if I should affirm that the Effects of them both were exerted from the same chain of Causes only the later in a more exalted degree I do not see wherefore I should be esteemed Heterodox As to the Fountain of the Sun in Lybia which at Sun Rising and Setting is Warm at Noon Cold and at Midnight Hot Dr. Fulke saith it may be by the same reason that Well-Water is colder in Summer than in Winter As to the Lake in Palestine called Asphaltites into which a Man bound Hand and Foot and cast therein cannot sink it is by reason of its Saltness upon which account it is called in H◠Writ the Salt Sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for common Experience teacheth that the Salter any Waters are the heavier Burthen they will bear Our Boyling of Brine till Eggs swim thereon is a confirmation Before I put an end to this Section the curious and inquisitive Reader will not think it impertinent if I spend a little time in answer to those that may demand What Water is best and wholesomest for common use To which Pliny briefly and elegantly answering saves me a labour viz. That which is most like to Air and then it must have the qualities of thin light cold moist tastless smelless and having its proper Colour Rain-water by Galen and others for its lightness is preferred before others especially that which falls in a Thunder-showr yet because it is not clear and by reason of the Exhalations wrapt up together with the Vapours I cannot give it my Suffrage So Hail and Snow-water for the same reason cannot be wholesome to which agrees the Opinion of Hippocrates Aristotle and Pliny Some commend Ice-water affirming it must needs be wholesome and pure it being coagulated of the top and lightest of the Water the terrestial and faeculent part subsiding at the bottom But to this I cannot consent but must condemn it upon the account that Exhalations continually falling down from the Air upon the Earth and Water do light upon the Superficies of the Water and mix themselves with it and by consequence must needs be gross and impure The Rarity and Tenuity of Water saith Hippocrates is known by its waxing soon cold and soon hot and wherein Flesh Pease c. are quickly boiled for that there is therein a difference in Waters every good House-wife knows The worst Water of all is standing Water as Lakes Pools c. But certainly Fountain and River Water are the wholesomest especially the last being percolated or strained through Sandy Earth and partaking of no other quality whose Streams being rapid and running with a swift Current upon an hard gravelly bottom are often broke off by many crooked turnings and meanders therefore Avicenna commends those Cities and places that are so supplied And Plato in his Book De Legibus Prohibites his Citizens to lodge in that City where there is no Laws nor any River-Water by that says he his manners will be
Springs that supply them The first terminating or setting out of the Bounds of Parishes were not so void of Providential direction or so casual as some may opine Upon which consideration I take it to be a Right due from every one to give these Waters their Proper Names viz. Lewisham Wells As to the time when and manner how the vertue of this Water came to be found out and discovered The more Intelligent of the Antient Parishioners do affirm that they never heard of any peculiar quality it had till about the year 1648 a famous Empirick in London who being tired with the fruitless importunities of a poor Female Patient whose habitation was near this water directed her thereto as to a Remedy nearer home whose effects by outward and inward application were so remarkably manifested in her recovery that thereupon they grew famous and hath ever since become the subject of such Empirical Experiments as any would be pleased to make tryal of The Distemper this Woman whose fortune it was to be the first occasion of the divulging the Medicinalness of this water was afflicted with was the Lues Venerea or French Pox as it is generally reported attended with malignant Symptomes her Nose being ulcerated and her whole Body very much emaciated from all which Symptoms by the use of this water she was delivered in a few Months by washing her Ulcers with it and by dayly taking of it inwardly But it is observable what the Antient Inhabitants thereabouts do inform us viz. that in that very place where now the Wells are there used to be only gushings of water constantly trickling down where multitudes of Pigeons used dayly to frequent which place thereupon had gained amongst the vulgar Swains thereabouts the Name of Pigeons Quillet which haunt of those Creatures was enough to give intelligence to any observing and inquisitive Naturalist that there was something more there than simple ordinary water something wherewith the water was impregnated that did invite and delight them some Saline Aluminous Liquor of which those Fowls naturally love to be tippling As God hath freely bestowed his favours upon this water so is it now dispensed gratis to any that desire it either to themselves or to any they shall send for it every one being left at liberty to gratifie the Poor people that attend there dayly to cleanse the Wells that the water may be taken up fresh and pure as they shall think fit there being no customary usage or fixt gratuity apportioned There is a credible but somewhat unaccountable report that a little after the Medicinalness of this Water was as abovesaid found out that by the instigation of a forward and active person whose habitation by reason of its propinquity was situated very advantagiously for the entertainment of any that would drink the water there was a Collection made of a considerable Sum of Money with a design to inclose and monopolize the water under pretence that the profit thereby accruing should be for the Poors use and to that end a Well was dugg handsomely wrought up with Brick and Stone about which a convenient Plot of ground was design'd to be inclosed with a Brick-wall and such Conveniences added as should be afterwards thought requisite But it is positively affirmed by the most intelligent of the Antient Parishioners who are the most faithful Registers of what was then done that no sooner was the Well finisht though supplied with water very plentifully but it lost its taste its odour and effects which was so manifestly observable that there upon there was immediately a final end put to that specious Project from which undeniable matter of fact give me leave to draw this observation that in behalf of the Poor incapacitated to right themselves God oftentimes immediately steps in for their assistance Of the Truth of which Proposition the Royal Prophet assures us Ps 140.12 Sure I am that the Lord will avenge the Poor and maintain the cause of the helpless Thus in short having given you a Traditional account of the time and manner of the discovery of the Medicinalness of this Water I am now by my Method engaged to give my Opinion of what Minerals it consists of and to ennumerate the several Diseases they are approvedly found good for and succesfully used against offering such Reasons therefore as are fairly deducible from the Natural Energie of the said Minerals The Observation and Experience which I have hitherto made from the Corporal substances which I have found by Evaporation Sublimation Precipitation c. induced me to judge this Water principally to consist of Nitrous Salt Alum and some Sulphur for there not having been as yet any digging nothing can be collected that way though an expert Artist assisted with a good Purse might much dilucidate and further this Discovery and by tracing the known experience of its effects I have found them to be such as aptly and suitably agree with the nature of these Minerals For though I do not altogether dissent from Galen who judged the quality of Waters to be rather discoverable by experience than Reason so making them Remedium Empiricum yet I shall not handle these waters so Empirically as altogther to exclude Reason but shall endeavor to discover the genuine and proper causes of its effects which experience hath already found out The sensible operation of this VVater is mostly by Seige whereby many are as effectually purged as if they had taken a strong Cathartick Potion sometimes by vomit and more seldom by Sweat and sometimes by all three wayes of evacuation the Property of it being to vary its operation according to thematter it meets with in the several Bodies into which it is taken The cause of the Purgative quality of it is not as many vainly and groundlesly affirm ravione ponderis by reason of the great quantity of it being drunk for so any water may purge but it is by reason of son its Nitrous Salt wherewith it is infected which stimulating the expulsive faculty of the stomach and guts provokes to Stoole And the reason of its operating by vomit may be attributed to the foulness of the stomach and the inclination of Nature to help it self that way that it should sometimes move sweat is no marvail since all Niters are naturally apt to do so The Enumeration of this waters Specifick vertues you may take in this Catalogue of Diseases for which daily experience findes it effectual It effectually opens and reserates all obstructions in the Intestines where-ever latent especially those of the Liver Spleen Mesaraick veines Panereas the Biliary Vterine and Vrinary Passages by which means such long lingring and almost incurable Distempers are bred as the Schirrus Hepatis Lienis the hard Tumours of the Liver and Spleen the Flatus Hypochondriacus the Black and Yellow Jaundice the Cholick the stone and gravel in the Kidney and Bladder all obstruction difficulties and sharpness of Urine the Haemorrhoides Cholerick passion Tenasmus
experience for if Beer be made of this as of ordinary water it is commonly known to operate effectually by stool which is occasioned by a fixt Salt disguised therein remaining after ebullition which excites the expulsive faculty of the Guts For this kind of Salt cannot be evaporated by the strongest Fire but is the last substance that remains therein being incombustible and inevaporable So that in some cases you may make Posset-drink of it with Milk which the Poor People which constantly attend at the Wells will easily procure you after the usual way But in other cases were it is not safe to drink it cold and yet requisite to retain as much of the above-mentioned subtle spirits as may be I take it to be the best way to get some Milk which the Poor People that constantly attend at the Wells will easily procure you and to 3 Pints of Water put about a quarter of a Pint of Scalding hot or Boyling Milk whereby it will become of a convenient warmth to be drank and so you may proportion the Milk to what quantity of water you please But I instance in that quantity because for a Body of middle Age and competent strength I hold it a fit proportion to begin with and so increasing every day gradually till he rises to 8 or 9 Pints more or less as he shall be able to bear it and so again to decrease by degrees ending where he began As suppose such a person should design to allott himself 20 days to drink the water and the first day he should begin with 3 pints then to that proportion I would have him add half a pint daily for the next six days 3 quarters of a pint for the eighth day almost a pint for the ninth day and a whole pint for the tenth day which being your greatest Rise will amount to eight pints and an half and so for the remaining ten days daily to drink the same proportions backwards as what quantity you drank the tenth day you are to drink the eleventh and what proportion you drank the ninth day you are to take the twelfth c. which brings you to the same Proportion for the twentieth and last day with which you began the first day But the just and convenient quantity of water to be taken at one time is a thing that cannot possibly be justly ascertained in regard of the several Differences of Age Sex Strength and other manifold Circumstances yet generally they reap the greatest benefit by it that can drink most and throughly concoct it And since by drinking the water too fast by allotting too short a time for taking the full proportion divers symptoms are caused through the over-charging and compressing the Vessels as Gripings Cold Sweats Tensions Giddiness in the head and the like I would advise to take at first a third part of the proportion and then exercise half an hour then another third part and exercise the same time and then the last or remaining part with exercise till all be past out of the Body or till Dinner-time It is good before the taking of the Water to excite the Natural heat by walking yet not as to Sweat for thereby the water will find the quicker and better passage Whilst the water is taking the properest exercise to be used is also Walking or bowling pitching of the Barr or leaping as strength shall permit so they be used moderately And when all the Proportion of Water is in the Body the like exercise is necessary also for the better digestion thereof by stirring up the Natural heat whereby the internal Vessels being heated the water will be more forcibly attracted and excited for expulsion but a great care ought to be taken that the exercise be not so violent as to provoke Sweat for thereby many inconveniences may accrue And that you sleep not till it is digested and wrought off standing still in the Sun and sitting on the ground are very injurous and hurtful For those that have the conveniency of Coach or Horse it will not be amiss for such to alight about a mile before they come unto the Wells and walk it thither and so exercising after every proportion of Water the time and manner before mentioned and when they have taken the whole proportion for that time they may walk homewards about a Mile or better and then take Coach or Horse agen For when by thus walking the Passages of the Body are by the excitation of the Natural heat laxated Riding in Coach or on Horseback by compressing the Muscles of the Abdomen will very much further its operation After every Draught or two of water it may be convenient to take a few Carroway-Comfits Coriander-Seed prepared Elicampane or Angelico preserved c. to help the digestion of the Water to promote its passage and to comfort all the Vessels through which the water passes And above all temperance in respect of Diet is to be observed all the time of drinking it The Italian Proverb is to be taken notice of viz. He that will eat much must eat little Meat for the most part offends more by its Quantity than Quality a sober Dyet as it prevents many Infirmities so it is able to cure many Diseases by diminishing the Crudities which intemperance hath bred already and to reduce all the humours of the Body to its true Natural temperature And on the other side Excess in Diet to take in more meat and drink than Nature requires or can digest by hindring the Concoction of the Chyle doth cause it to pass crude through the whole Body from whence of necessity great Obstructions and all manner of Hypochondriacal distempers are caused As for the Quality of Meat let such be used as may not hinder the effects of the water such as be of good nourishment of easie digestion and may freely pass through the vessels which serve for its distribution In more particular manner all salt meats Ducks Geese Bacon Tripes all salt Fish Eeles old Cheese Leeks Onions Cabbage Muskmillions Cucumbers c. are to be avoided And good young succulent Beef Mutton Lamb Veal Chickens Pullets Turkeys Partridges Phesants young Conies c. are to be used Also Apples Pears Plums Cherries ripe Gooseberries Rasp-berries c. are allowable if sparingly eaten and that a little before supper and then they help to temper the Blood As for Drinks I commend Beer or Ale that is neither too stale nor too small I approve also that those whose Stomachs are used thereunto may use Spanish French or Rhenish Wines since it may prove of very ill consequence to thwart and cross Custome all on a sudden But I am of an Opinion that the custome of drinking so much white and Rhenish wines at meals occasions multitudes of Distempers because they being Diureticall and very penetrative do carry down with them the raw and crude juice of the meate to the Liver before it be concocted Let the Supper be larger than the Dinner