burns in the very cavities and caverns of them the cavities themselves consisting of a Bituminous matter For Bitumen and these things which are made of it being kindled burn in water by which also the said fire is cherished This you may see in Naphtha which is a kind of Bitumen for if you put but a drop thereof into water and put fire to it you will see it burn and continue burning so long that you would wonder at it which could not be unless it were fed by the moisture of the water which it did attract and transmutes into its own nature The like you may see in Champhir and other kind of Bitumen Pliny also affirms that these are some certain burnings in the earth which sometimes cast out Bitumen and are increased by raine And Fallopius saith that in the territories of Mutina is a short plat of ground out of which comes fire and smoke and the ground is all like dust which if you kindle you cannot quench again with water so that these kind of fires are perpetual and very long lasting in waters And hath it not been observed that a fiery Bituminous matter doth sometimes flow out of hot Springs Pliny makes mention that in the City Somosata of Comaganes a certain lake sent forth burning mud and Plato makes mention of the like concerning a Spring in Sicilia And Agricola reports another upon his credit Fallopius also saith that in many places where the earth is digged deep there are ashes and calcined stones which are the effects of fire and that in the territories of Modena Bolonia Florence and other places as in Italy c there are found Springs and several places casting out fire But as to Springs this happens onely where the bituminous matter is very near the Spring head and as high and where the veins are more open Now then the manner of Springs being caused by this Bituminous fire is this viz Seeing art doth for the most part imitate nature the thing is even the same in a hot Spring as in a distilling vessell or a seething pot covered with a lid onely there is this difference that to the bottom of these the fire is put on the out side but here the fire is within the cavern it self through which the water passeth and that either lying in the bottom or sticking to the sides thereof As therefore in these artificial vessels the water being by the heat of fire resolved into a vapour is forced upwards to the covers or heads thereof where by reason of some less degree of heat it is condensed into drops and returns to its self and into its own nature again So even after the same manner water in the caverns of the earth being heated by the Bituminous fire with which it is mixed is by the heat thereof forced into a great quantity of vapours which ascending through the cranines veins and fibres of the earth being there for the greatest part turned into water doth with the rest of the vapour yet very hot break forth in fountains viz very hot and very full of spirit so that it seems to boyle if the fountains be near to the caverns or onely warm if more remote And as these Springs differ in their heat according to their nearness or remoteness to their fire so also in their Bituminous odour and tast For as in distilled waters their Empyreuma vanisheth in length of time so in these in length of course So that these fountains which are very remote from this Bituminous fire are neither hot nor have any Bituminous odour And as by this natural distillation water is the best way procolated from its Sea saltness so also doth it become thereby less obnoxious to putrefaction For we know that distilled waters last longest Ob. It may be objected that if the matter preserving this fire were Bitumen then it would follow that almost the whole world should be Bitumen because ever since and before the memory of man these hot baths were and are like to continue for ever and therefore there must be that element for ever which must preserve that fire Sol. It doth not follow that there must at present be so much Bitumen as will maintain the fire so long for it is perpetually generated and as long as there shall be sic city and humidity in the earth there will be Bitumen generated And do not we see that metals are generated a new in the same places out of which they have formerly been digged Witness the profit which Fallopius saith the Duke of Florence hath by it and the testimony of learned Sendivogius who saith that there have been metals found in mountains where formerly there have been none If so then much more may sulphur and Bitumen be generated a new Ob. If it should be granted that Bitumen is generated a new yet if that were the aliment of the fire the fire would change its places because the Bitumen is consumed one part after another and so by consequence the baths would not be so equally hot as before the fire being by this means more remote from the fountains Sol. The flame is fed two ways either when the flame follows the matter as when the fire burns wood or when the matter follows the flame as in a lamp in which the oyle follows the flame not the flame the oyle and so it is in the earth and therefore the fire is always in one place Neither doth that withstand it which we see by experience in sulphur which is burnt part after part the fire following of it for you must know that in the earth where there is a great heat the Bitumen and Sulphur are melted and by this means follow the flame as I said before of Oil. Ob. If Bitumen feed the fire of these baths then the waters thereof would have the odour tast and colour of Bitumen but it appears that they have not Sol. Though all baths are heated by Bitumen yet some immediatly as those which do pass through the place where it burns these onely have the tast and odour of the same and some mediately as those that pass through places as rocks c. heated by Bitumen burning under them as was the opinion of Empedocles and Vitruvius Neither do I by this distinction contradict what I said before concerning the waters being distilled up by that fire onely which burned in the caverns and veins of the earth through which they pass for in this place I speak onely of the waters being heated this mediate heat not being sufficient to distill them to any considerable height Ob. It is very improbable that any subterraneal fire can burn within the bowels of the earth by reason of the want of air as we see in cupping glasses where as soon as they are applyed the fire goeth out besides the fuliginous vapours would recoil and choak the fire for there are few or no vents and exhalation seen Sol. There is not any such great want
becoming to be unbodied for before they were incorporated with the water and by consequence wonderfull spiritual penetrate even the glass it self or the lute and I believe that neither glass or lute can hold them 2. I took two viol glasses and put into them a just equal quantity of the Spaw water I put one of them into a skillet of warm water and just took the cold off from it than I put an equal quantity of the pouder of gals into each of those two viols and that water which was cold received no deeper tincture than the other as I could perceive 3. I filled two viol glasses with this water and stopt one of them very close with wax and the other I stopt not at all and at two dayes end they yielded a tincture with the pouder of gall little less than that which is newly taken out of the well but that less which was left unstopt How much it will loose this tincture by carrying far I do not know it were worth while to trie and thereby to be the better assured how much of its strength is wasted for according to the spending of its spirits the tincture fades 4. A glass of this water stood seven dayes close stopt with wax and than yielded a tincture with gall like to small beer 5. This water doth not coagulate milk as do the German Spaws and another Vitrioline Spring in the same moor which yieldeth a Vitrial of Iron upon evaporation as I said before Now the reason of this is not because it is not acide enough for it is far more acid than the water of the dropping Well which coagulates milk if it be boiled with it but because the acidity thereof is not permanent or fixed enough but so volatile as to evaporate before the milk boils 6. This water kils Worms and Frogs if they be put therein and such kinde of Creatures as these 7. It being evaporated leaves nothing at all of Vitrial behind but onely an insipid pouder of a darkish colour like unto which pouder will that blewish cream or skin which swims upon the said water after long standing be when it is dried Now note that the aforesaid skin swimmeth upon all such Mineral waters and as saith H ab Heer 's being put upon the fire is inflamed and yields a sulphureous odour It is also called by Hadrianus Mynsicht Anima vitrioli 8. I weighed this water I think exactly to a grain and it weighed neither heavier nor lighter than simple spring water 9. It is observed generally and I tooke especial notice of it that it is almost an infallible signe of an ensuing rain when glasses filled with this water continue not clear but are covered all over as it were with a mist contrary to what is observed in glasses full of simple common water Now the reason of this I conceive is from the Mineral subtile spirits giving as nitre doth activity to the coldness of the water whereby the glasses themselves become more cold and so cold as eminently and apparently to condense the humid vapours of the air with which it abound before the rain To these experiments and observations I shall add this observation also viz. that this Spaw water is strongest viz. with the Mineral spirits in Winters frost by reason of the earth being the more bound up and the said spirits being thereby kept from perspiration and weakest in rainy wet weather by reason the water sinks into the veins of the springs viz. those that lye nearest to the superficies of the earth for it cannot sink above ten feet deep though the rain be never so much Also this water is in Summer-time stronger in the morning than at noon because the coldness of the night doth somewhat bind the earth and the heat of the Sun openeth the same thereby making it the more easie for the Mineral spirits to evaporat out thereby To prevent the inconveniencies of rain it were to be wished that there were a very deep trench yet not so deep as to cut a sunder any of the veins through which the water passeth if any should lye within six eight or ten feet of the superficies of the earth as it is possible some may made round the well and bridges made over some places of the same for as by this means the rain would be carried away so also the water in the boggie ground adjoyning to it which may perhaps sink into the veins of the spring and corrupt the same would be dreyned away and the well by this means much improved for the ground about it is spongious and drinks in water apace the uppermost part thereof to the depth of a foot consisting of that hollow earth of which is made pete and turfe and that beneath it being sandy and also hollow CHAP. VIII Of the vertues of the Spaw-well to whom and in what cases profitable or hurtfull I Shall not stand here to reckon up all and the several vertues of Vitrial as not properly conducing to our present purpose because the varities of its operations depends upon the variety of the forms in which it is administred or used for the Salt thereof hath one operation the Colcothar another the corrosive spirit another and that subtile acide penetrating spirit which Theophrastus cals his great secret or Arcanum against the Epilepsie and other such symptomes because of its wonderfull penetrativenes leaving no part or places of the body unsearched another and with this hath the spirit of the Spaw water great affinity is therefore so much the more excellent as being so much the nearer to it Primum ens as Helmont calls it Now note by the way that although this spirit cannot be by it self extracted out of this water yet it may be extracted out of Vitrial yet by a very expert artist This water according to its first qualities cooles and moistens actually heats and dries potentially And by these four qualities the distempers of the body consisting in the excess either of heat cold driness or moisture are tempered every quality altering its contrary and reducing it into its natural temper And indeed it is worth taking notice of that in such cases a distemper will rather be altered by its contrary than increased by its like As for exemple if the distemper consists in heat the heat will be allayed by the coldness of the water and not be made more intense by the heat thereof although the heat continue longer than the coldness for the water is quickly warmed in the stomack and then the potential heat is reduced into act and continues and so on the contrary I mean If the water be taken regularly and cautiously or otherwise such happy success may not be expected Now according to other qualities viz. second third it cuts dissolves attenuates abstergeth viscous tartarous humours in the stomack messenterie hypochondries reins bladder c and evacuateth them by Urine as being indeed very diuretical and by consequence opens the
it self and naturally cold because dense and heavy but hot accidentally onely Now the great question will be from whence this heat of the earth doth proceed I will first shew from whence it doth not proceed and thereby confute the opinion of some 1. It proceeds not from the Sun as many imagine supposing that all heat in the world comes from thence and that the earth being beat upon by the sun-beames doth thereby receive into it self a certain heating vertue But this is very improbable seeing that they that digg in the bowells of the earth observe that the heating power of the Sun although in most hot seasons doth not penetrate the superficies of the earth above six feet deep do not we see how a thin wall or boughs of trees in an arbour keep off the heat of the sun though never so great to say nothing of the earths being colder two feet deep in Summer than in Winter 2. It proceeds not from an antiperistasis of the cold air in the superficies of the earth for this hath place no further than the heating power of the rayes came Besides the naturall cold of the solid and dense earth must of necessity have greater power to repell upwards than the adventious of the soft thin and light air to force downwards the heat of the sun which indeed in all reason should being generated but a little way within the earth of its own accord being very light ascend upward through the passage made by the Sun and this we know that after a long Summers day it is before the next morning almost vanished though never so great much less will it be preserved till and through the Winter It must then of necessity be another kind of heat it is such that towards the superficies of the earth is colder as being more remote from its original or beginning and is in Summer-time by reason of the Suns opening the earth and making vent easily expired and is therefore less perceived but in Winters frost is restrained from exhaling and is condensed as may easily be perceived in deep wells Now to know from what principle this heat hath its original or rise we must examine whence proceeds the heat in hot baths for there the subterraneal heat offers it self more conspicuous and apparent to our view But concerning the original of the heat of subterraneal waters there is as much doubt as of the generation of those waters themselves And therefore I shall in the first place endeavour to prove how heat doth not come thereby confuting the opnion of some and in the next place to shew which way it may proceed probably 1. It is not caused by the heat of the Sun and that partly for the reasons above mentioned as also because then those waters would be hotter in Summer-time than in Winter 2. It is not from the agitation of winds in the channels of the fountains for if so then they being vented forth the heat would presently be extinguished 3. It comes not from sulphur Calx viva as is the opinion of many learned as Seneca c. and that because neither doth sulphur at all heat unless it be actually hot nor Calx viva unless whilest it is dissolving in water to say nothing of that vast quantity which would in a little time be resolved and the sudden remarkable change that would be in hot springs 4. It proceeds not according to Doctour Jordens opinion from the fermentation that is in the generation of metals and minerals caused by the agent spirit acting upon the patient matter and so producing an actuall heat for ex motu fit Calor say all Philosophers which serves as an instrument to further this work of generation For if it were so then the heat in bathes would in time cease for he himself saith that this fermenting heat continues no longer till the generation of them be finished which is done in some determinate time but we see that the hot baths continue for ever Neither doth it suffice that he saith that generations of metalls are not terminated with one production but the mineral seed gathereth strength by enlarging it self and so it continually proceeds to subdue more matter under its government so as where once a generation is begun it continues many ages and seldom gives over as we see in the Iron mines of Illua the tin mines in Cornwall the lead mines at Mendip and the Peak which do not onely stretch further in extent of ground than hath been observed heretofore but also are renewed in the same ground which hath been formerly wrought I say his saying thus doth not suffice for though it be so as I do not deny but it may yet notwithstanding he doth not say that generation of metals continueth in one place except any ground be digged first and so space and place left for new mattter to come as is not in our baths and so by consequence the flowing of hot water would cease in that place where the said generation is not continued and if that generation be extended further yet so also and accordingly is the heat diminished unless it break forth continually in new places but we see hot springs continue many years together in one place at a constant heat Besides if this opinion were true then where we see metals and minerals generated there also must of necessity be hot baths but we see it is not so I shall now moreover demand of him how that crude metalline matter is before any the said fermentation sublimed from the central parts of the earth towards the superficies thereof if not by a subterraneall fire All these being excluded it remains now that we consider of a subterraneal fire onely for it seems impossible that so great and durable a heat should be caused or preserved by any other power whatsoever than that of fire and of this opinion was Empedocles an ancient Greek Philosopher and also Seneca but both these differ amongst themselves as to the manner of the heats proceeding from this fire and indeed from other Authours that seem to be more Anthentick The one is of opinion that it is sufficient if the fire be under the place through which the waters run and so like fire under a still force up the water by way of a vapour the other that the heat proceeds from some occult remote burning and passed through the veins and fibres of the earth where it meets with the waters and distill them up to the heads of the fountains But Agricola excepts against these two ways as being very impropable the first because the earth where the fire is could not endure the fire so long being of a calcinable cumbustible nature the second because by this way such a quantity of water could not be so heated as to be turned into a vapour so suddenly by so small a degree of heat There can therefore no other reason be given for these hot springs than the fire which
of air in the earth nay there is such a plenty of it there that many learned Philosophers were nay Aristotle himself of opinion that all Springs were generated of subterraneal air 2. Air is not the aliment of fire for saith the Lord Bacon in his Treatise De vita morte Flamma non est aer accensus flame is not kindled air nay but unctuous vapours which arise from the matter that is burnt so that whereas without air fire goeth out and is extinguished the reason is because the fuliginous vapours wanting evaporation do recoil upon the fire and choak it Now this Bituminous fire is not being of a sulphureous nature very fuliginous and besides what smoak or sumes or vapours there come from it are subtile and penetrating and either evaporate through the superficies of the earth insensibly or incorporate themselves with some sutable subject that is in the earth or els are of themselves condensed into some unctuous matter adhearing to the sides of the caverns into which they are elevated So that according to the fuliginousness of vapours more or less recoiling the fire is more or less choaked Nay if we will believe Historians there have been burning Lamps closely shut up in glasses for fiftheen hundred years together in old sepulchres Now they burnt without air were not extinguished by reason the aliment of it was a Naphtha or Bituminous matter which was so pure that it bred no fuliginous vapours to choake the fire thereof 3. Where this fire is very great there is a great vent and exhalation but where but little little is the vent and insensible And in most places the fire is not great extensively but intensively because it is kept within a narrow compass as in small caverns and veins of the earth Q. How comes this Bitumen to be kindled in the earth Sol. It is agreed by all that are of the opinion that Bitumen is the matter of the subterraneal fire that hot and dry exhalations in the bowels of the earth being shut up and not finding any place to break forth are agitated attenuated rarified and so inflamed and being inflamed kindle the Bitumen Now lastly let no man wonder that there should be so great a force of fire conteined in the earth as to be sufficient for the generation of so many Springs that flow from thence daylie seeing Pliny and many other Philosophers wonder so much on the other side when they considered of the subterraneal fire and brake forth into an exclamation saying it is the greatest of all miracles that all things are not every day burnt up And cannot the burnings of the Aetnean Visuvian Nymphean mountains convince us a little of this But for the further confirmation of this opinion let us a little consider whence the winds proceed and what they are And are they not a hot and dry exhalation Now that this proceeds from and out of the earth most agree and that it entered not first into the earth is very probable For how can a hot dry light exhalation whose nature and property is to ascend descend into the earth in such a quantity as to cause such great and lasting winds as many times happen It must therefore be in the earth originally and be stirred up by some great heat in the same And what shall we think of the dry exhalation or spirit which is shut up in the caverns of the earth in great quantities and endeavouring to break forth through obstructed passages causeth great earth-quakes whereby Cities Towns and Countries have been overthrown to say nothing of those dreadfull noyses sometimes in the bowels of the earth Whence I say these great exhalations I say great because I confess that some little quantity of them may be caused by certain fermentations in the earth should be raised if not from some great heat of fire within the earth never any one yet could rationally determine And Caesius affirms that at a certain village called Tripergulus about an hundred and twenty years since after fiftteen dayes earthquake the earth opened and winds smoak and very great fires brake forth out of the same also pumice-stones and abundance of ashes in so much as they made a mountain and about that place were many hot Springs Also in Apulia is a hot bath called Tribulus where there is abundance of ashes and calcined stones and about the lake Lucrinus and Avernus are the same But if any should yet doubt that winds proceed from the earth or from the occult fires of the earth I shall make it yet further to appear by propounding to their consideration some observations concerning the Sea For it is observed that wind doth proceed from the Sea after a more apparent and violent manner than from the land and that more certain signes of an ensueing wind are taken from the Sea than from the land For when a calme Sea makes a murmuring noyse within it self it signifies that then the exhalations which is the matter of the wind are rising out of the earth and bottom of the Sea and this the fishes perceiving and being affraid of it especially Dolphins play above the water and the Sea-urchins fasten themselves to rocks the Sea a little swelling sheweth that the exhalation is endeavouring a vent then boyling sheweth that it hath penetrated to the superficies but as yet in a little quantity but then the eruptious of the exhalations following upon the waters mounted up aloft make wind and a tempest such as Marriners have often experience of when as they perceive that the wind blows from no other place but ariseth at themselves Now why waves or billows should preceed wind let any man if he can give any other reason Also I have been informed by some Marriners that a little before a great tempest there is seen a great quantity of an unctuous shineing matter floating on the top of the Sea and that this is an infallible signe of an ensuing storme The reason of this is because wind breaking forth out of the earth forceth up with it self that Bituminous matter from the place where it self was generated But now why winds should arise from the Sea more apparently than from the land is because there is more plenty of fire in the gulfes of the Sea for there it hath more aliment or fewel viz. Water which as I said before is the aliment of that Bituminous fire And whence are those great mountains of stones and minerals and those Islands which do sometimes arise up anew from the Sea but from a subterraneal fire which forceth them up from thence according to the judgement of learned Sendivogius and experienced Erker and those chasmes and gapings of the Sea Much more might be alleadged for the confirmation of this opinion as the manner of the generation of minerals and metals and many such like subterraneal operations which can not rationally be ascribed to any other cause than fire within the earth but all the premises being seriously
substance Maginus makes mention of a Lake in Ireland in the bottone whereof if you put a staff it will being pulled out some moneths after be turned into Iron viz. that part which stuck in the mud and that part which was in the water into a whetstone Aristotle mentions a certain Fountain in Sicilia into which if living creatures being before killed were put they would become alive again Athenaeus saith that the fish of the River Clitoris have a certain voyce Solinus speaks of a Fountain that is in Boeotia which helpeth the memory Isidorus saith the like of the River Lethe which causeth forgetfulnes Scaliger saith that the River of Juverna is of that nature that the leaves of a certain tree hanging over falling into it become living fishes Pliny reports that in Agro Carrinensi in Spain is a certain Fountain which makes all the fish that live in the water of it seem to be of a golden colour Agricola affirmes that fishes live in the hot Sulphur-waters of the lower Pannonia neer Buda Varro and Solinus affirm that there is a Fountain in Arabia which if the sheep drink thereof changeth the colour of their fleeces and maketh the white to become black Pliny reports that the water in Falisco maketh the Cattle that drink thereof to become white He also saith that in Pontus the River Astaces watering the fields makes the Mares that feed therein to yield a black milk which feeds the Countrey It is reported that in Ulcester in Ireland there is a Fountain in which he that washeth himself shall never become gray I could recken up many more waters of very strange natures but whether they or these already mentioned be all certainly true I will not undertake to affirm onely thus much I will say that some of them I my self have seen other some I am assured of from those whose unquestionable worth may justly command mine and other mens faith to their indeniable testimony and for the rest we may believe them according to the reputation of the Historian These here I mentioned that it might not seeme strange to us how capable waters are of receiving diversity of qualifications from the earth and although some of them may seem magical and supernatural yet may they upon a profound enquiry be made to appear truely natural CHAP. IV. Of the nature and vertues of simple Waters I It will be necessary for the better conceiveing of the nature and vertue of mineral waters in particular to speak something of the nature and virtues of water in generall or of simple water which is an element as saith Sendivogius most heavy full of unctuous flegme and is more worthy in its kind than the earth it is without volatile but within fixed cold and moist attempered by air It is the Sperm of the world in which the seed of all things is preserved and it is the keeper of every thing It is called by the ancients {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Thales as saith Aristotle called one and the same water the beginning of all things Empedocles also believed that of water were all things made Hippon also saith Aristotle called it the soul of things as if it were the life of them which made Hippocrates say that water and fire were the principles of life and especially water for saith he many animals may want fire but none can well live without water Theophrastus affirms that water is the matter of all things And indeed if water were accurately anotamized you should clearly see that both vegetables minerals and animals are generated of water but of this I have treated more largely elss where I shall not now stand to repeat especially since my purpose here is chiefly to speak of the medicinal virtues of water Now we must know that water is twofold for either it is simple or mineral which we more usually call medicinal Water is called simple not according to its own nature but to our sense or being compared with that which is mineral and of this there are five kinds viz. rain fountain pit river and standing water I shall not here stand to prove whether or no water be nutritive or be onely a vehiculum of aliments as Galen would have it because in another treatise I have cleerly shewed how vegetables animals and minerals are generated of and increased by water which hath such strange dissimilary or heterogeneal parts as can scarce be believed by those who never saw the spagyrical anatomy thereof or curiously examined the production of all natural things I shall insist onely upon the medicinal use thereof as being administred either to prevent or cure the distempers of the body Simple water which cooles and moistens is either taken inwardly or used outwardly It is taken inwardly either warm or cold The vertues of warme-water taken inwardly are these which follow viz. 1. It doth by reason of its warmth cause nauseouseness and it is drank in a greater quantity to cause vomiting in head-ach proceeding from drunkenness and in any other ilness of stomack but with this caution that they that have very cold weak and laxated stomacks must abstain from this kind of vomit because warm water doth moisten very much and so by consequence would laxate tht stomack more than it was before Also it is not to be administred to those that are accustomed to drinking of water for them it will not move to vomit but remain in the body and weaken the vessels upon the aforesaid account of its extream moistening 2. It allayes sharp acid and gnawing humours and cureth such symptoms as proceed from thence as saith Galen also it represseth the ebullition of choller and helps the inflammations of the throat and mouth caused thereby as saith Aetius 3. It cures the inflammation of the reins by altering of them if it be taken before meals Note that if warm water be given to cause vomiting it must be administered to the quantity of a pint or two or of as much as will be sufficient thereunto But if it be used for qualification it must be taken to the quantity of a cup onely which may not cause nauseousnes The use and vertues of cold water are these viz. 1. It conduceth to long life in regard it condenseth the spirits saith the Lord Virulam And indeed water was the usual drink of the ancients who lived long 2. It repels by reason of its coldness and is thefore effectual against divers distempers it forceth crudities out of the stomack and as saith Aetius promotes the operation of any medicine that is taken and works not besides it suppresseth the fuming of vapours to the head as saith Dioscorides and Mesues and being drunk at bed-time causeth quiet rest as saith the Lord Virulam in his learned treatise de vita et morte by suppressing the ascent of vapours to the head 3. It allayes extream hot distempers whether they be in any particular part as in the stomack liver c. or in the
For the better passing of the waters let the first glass be mixed with Sugar Syrrup of Liquorish or de quinque Radicibus or Nitre or Spirit of Salt or Vitrial Salt of Tartar or a glass of white wine in the midst of the water or mixed with three or four of the first glasses or two or three glasses of the Sulphur Well in the midst of the Spaw-water or a good draught of the decoction of Fennel or Parsley-roots be taken half an hour before the water Note that some of the aforesaid things are penetrative and so force their way and some are sweet and therefore are sooner attracted to and by the Liver and so the more speedily evacuated In case of the necessity of any of the aforesaid mixtures it will be convenient and necessary that some experienced Physitian be first consulted withall And if you meet with none at the Spaw that you can confide in York and other places are not far where you shall find such Gentlemen that are able to advise you as concerning this so also in any other case and especially if any unexpected accident should fall out whilest you are drinking the waters In case in the taking of the waters sumes and vapours fly to the head as oftentimes they do even to inebriation let none be disheartned thereat for either they are the spirits of the water themselves alone which will do the head much good or else there is a mixture of wind from the stomack for when that is filled with water the wind that was in it must of necessitie be forced up to the head but there it continues but a very short time And as there is no necessity of preventing it so neither can it be well prevented but yet for some satisfaction let Nutmeg and Coriander seed being beaten together into a gross pouder be taken after every fourth part of the water for the gratefull vapour thereof will also be carried up to the head with the force of the other vapours from the stomack and withall somewhat corroborat and close the mouth of the stomack Q. It may be demanded whether or no the rednes and hot pimples of the face may be cured by the inward use of this water and it is the more questioned because it dries and heats the Liver Sol. It is true that for the most part the rednes of the face is increased by the use of this water but yet notwithstanding it may in a great measure be cured with the help thereof with the observing of certain rules and cautious which do much conduce thereunto The patient that is thus affected his body being well prepared by medicaments phlebotomie must in the first place drink of this water ten or twelve mornings together for by this time it will in some considerable measure remove those obstructions of the messentery Liver which are the chiefest cause of the aforesaid distemper then let him be purged with some cooling lenitive and then because the continual use of the water should not as doth steel heat the bloud too much or rather by its strengthning the inward parts drive outwardly the heated corrupt humours of the body too fast I advise that he do for seven or eight dayes together drink clarified whey made with cooling moist and diuretical herbs and medicaments as Borage Lettuce Seangreen Endive Grasroots Parsly and Fennel-roots Nitre Tamarines Liquorish and such like and withall have a vein breathed if nothing contradict it and then return again to the use of the water for another fortnight and after that again to cooling purges and the cooling and clarified whey as before for a moneths time Note that withall that some topical Medicines are to be applied to the place affected as oyl of the yelks of Eggs oyl of Tartar juice of Lemmon and Salt unguentum alhum but above all flores sulphuris dissolved in oyl or the like By such kind of means with the use of the Spaw-water I would undertake to cure almost any red pimpled face whatsoever CHAP. XI Of the necessity and manner of exercise in the use of the waters EXercise is whilest the water is in the body very necessary as being good to laxate the passages of the body to excite the natural heat for the better digestion of the waters if as I said before we may properly call it a digestion for by this means saith Archigenes as also Aetius the internal vessels being heated will more strongly attract and expell Some kind of exercise is if strength permit to be continued from the first glass to the evacuation of the whole proportion taken Now for exercise in particular riding on a trotting horse or in a Coach are the best because thereby the muscles of the abdomen being pressed do intend the expulsive faculty of the Ureters and bladder And where those cannot conveniently be had and used I commend walking bowling pitching of the bar and leaping and the like all which must be used so moderatly as not to provoke sweat for by sweat the water will be drawn into the habit of the body to the endangering of a dropsy and such like symptomes They that are not able to walk nor have the accommodation for riding must take the waters in their bed for the warmeth of the bed doth as I said before serve very well instead of exercise and answers to the intensions thereof Sleep is very hurtfull because in sleep all exceptions or evacuations of excremently except sweat which is thereby promoted and for the aforesaid reasons to be prevented are suppressed Sitting on the ground is hurtfull and also standing in the Sun and walking late in the evening CHAP. XII Of the time of the year and day when the Spaw is chiefly to be taken IN frosty weather the water is strongest because the mineral spirits thereof are by the binding of the earth suppressed and prevented from evaporating through the superficies thereof as they do at other times by which means the water becomes the more strongly impregnated therewith But by reason of the inconveniency of journying and of the uncertainty of the frost I prefer the Summer viz. from the beginning of May to the end of September and before and after if the season be dry Ob. Some may object against the use of the Spaw in the Canicular or Dog dayes because say they Hippocrates in the fifth of his fourth book of Aphorismes saith {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} forbiding thereby purgations and evacuations and these being forbidden say they how shall we prepare our bodies for the taking of the waters Sol. This aphorisme having been these many years grosly mistaken hath been the occasion of the deaths of thousands I say mistaken because purgations are not here at all forbidden but onely intimation given that in that season by reason of that usual extremity of heat the humours being drawn outwardly towards the habit of the body are not so easily retracted and evacuated by way of purgation as
being more remote from the medicament and also in a contrary motion Besides who is ignorant of the great difference betwixt the climate Hippocrates lived in and ours as also betwixt his medicine and ours which are both far milder and temperate than his And who doth not know being the same also which Heurnius saith of the seasons of his Countrey that May June prove oftentimes far hotter moneths then July and August It is needles to enter upon any long confutation of the Vulgar opinion which is weakly grounded upon the said aphorism and hath a long time been absurdly maintained and the rather because it begins to be generally exploded And indeed it is good for men to grow wise by others harms In extream wet weather the water becomes far weaker than before and the reason is because the rain although it doth not usually sink above ten feet deep yet may into some of the veins of the said spring which lye towards the superficies of the earth In such a season the water may best be omitted as having but little or no strength in at most not enough to qualify the coldnes and moisture thereof unless it be corrected and amended with Sugar of Iron made out of the very Mine of Iron or with spirit of Vitrial for want of the other The fittest time in the morning is betwixt six and seven of the clock for those that be of a strong digestion But as for those that are very sick with a nauseousness in their stomacks in case they rise early I advise that they lye longer in their bed and sleep for the better digestion of those crudities for otherwise they will be carried down with the water into the narrower passages and cause great obstructions and the water thereby become more impassible As for the taking of the waters in the afternoon I have occasionally declared my judgement with the reasons thereof in the tenth Chapter page 89. CHAP. XIII Of the Dyet to be observed by Spaw-drinkers THe greatest reason why many receive but little benefit and some none by the Spaw is because of their intemperancy in respect of dyet This water for the most part begetteth a very great appetite by reason whereof many forget themselves at Table putting in more than nature can dispose of and hence are crudities the nursery of all diseases And it is true what Galen saith affirming that no man shall be vexed with sicknes that is not oppressed with crudities And whence crudities saith Hippocrates but from fulnes affirming also that to eat without fulnes is the rule of health He also saith that what diseases so ever are cured by evacuation are caused by repletion and do not we see that all diseases are cured by evacuation viz. vomiting purging bleeding sweat and urine When the Chylus is ill concocted or rather corrupted for Aristotle calls it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} corruption not concoction it passeth crude through the whole body for the second concoction doth not amend the first nor the third the second so that hence of necessity great obstructions the occasion of tensions gripings all manner of hypochondriacal distempers stone gravel distemper of the head heart liver stomack bowels limbs and indeed of all parts There is an Italian Proverb that he that will eat much must eat little that is by eating little he shall live long and so eat much A sober dyet as it prevents so also cures many infirmities and distempers by diminishing crudities already bred and reducing all the humours of the body to the government of nature Let such dyet be used as may not hinder the effects of the Spaw being of a good laudable nourishment of easie digestion and may freely pass through the vessels serving for the distribution thereof Let not the meat be dressed or sauced deliciously so as to prolong appetite beyond the satisfaction of natural hunger and thirst thereby causing a greater quantity to be taken in than otherwise would or nature requires or can digest For the most part meat offends more by its quantity than quality In more particular manner I forbid all flesh that is very salt and fat Bacon Pork Neatsfeet Tripes tame Ducks Geese gizards of Poultry all salt Fish Eels and all things that come from milk except Butter Whey Milk Pottage Chees-curds also Leeks Onions Parsnips Cabbage Muskmillions Cucumbers Helmont forbids nothing onely excess saying that Nature hates curiosities I could reckon up divers other things that I should forbid but because they are never used at the Spaw it will be needles to mention them I disapprove not of Beef if it hath been salted but a week especially for those that love it I allow for those whose bloud and Livers are hot Pears Apples Plums Cherries Rasp-berries ripe Goose-berries and raw Sallets but with this caution that they be eaten a little before supper and also sparingly and one glass of white wine drank after them for they do temper the bloud and promote the curing of the distemper thereof I forbid much variety of meats because of the unequalness of their concoction and because nature is although the pallate be not best satisfied with simplicity of dyet And excellently doth Macrobius discuss this point As for drinks I commend beer or ale that is neither too small or too new They whose stomacks are very cold may drink Beer or Ale as strong as can be made and also a glass or two of Sack with a rost put into it which they may eat and these do much further and help concoction I approve of the drinking of pure thin well refined white and Rhenish wine but not at meals unless in a very little quantity because they are very diuretical and penetrative carrying down with them to the Liver and through the narrow vessels the crude juyce of the meat before it be concocted thereby endangering obstructions but let them be drunk a little before supper The time of eating must be considered according to the passing of the water through the body for when the Urine begins to change its colour passing from white to a higher colour then is it a sign that the water is passed through and then something may be eaten and not before unless when good part of the water although not all hath passed through freely and then ceased for an hour or two and then also it is time to eat something for it may be that nature hath disposed of the residue that is left behind retained for some other uses as to moisten some dry parts of the body or the like They that are first ready to eat may stay their stomacks as we call it with a mess of broth which commonly is there made very good and then have so much good fellowship and civility to wait for their dinners till all the good company of the house be ready for the same Let the supper be larger than the dinner because in
the evening the stomack is less laxated and languid than at noon and can therefore concoct a greater quantity of meat Yet the supper must not be very large neither greater than what the stomack can be well able perfectly to concoct before the next morning Let it be ready at six at least if not seven hours after dinner I advise that all whether it be at dinner or supper that they lerve with an appetite eat not half so much as the Spaw drinkers usually do indulging their pallates and gratifying their stomacks according to the measure of their appetites which many times is rather adventious or preternatural then natural I utterly disapprove of mixing of the Spaw water with either Wine or Beer but yet I allow of the drinking of a glass of it self at bed time for the corroborating and closing of the mouth of the stomack and suppressing of vapours which would otherwise disturb the brain from quiet sleep CHAP. XIV Of the Sulphur-well THis is called the Sulphur-well by reason of its Sulphurious odour although besides this it hath two other qualities viz. saltness and bitterness I shall in the first place endeavour to prove whence it contract its saltness and thereby I shall the better make to appear the cause of it stanch and bitterness Now because the Salt which this water yields upon evaporation is of the same nature with cannot be distinguished either in odour or tast the stanch being lost in the evaporation from common black Sea-salt I shall first declare what is the cause of the saltness of the Sea which is no other than that of this water And first I shall shew what is not the cause of it thereby confuting the opinion of many ancient Philosophers and their followers 1. The saleness of the Sea is not caused by the Suns exhaling the sweeter parts out of it as was the opinion of Aristotle for this supposeth that there was the same saltness in the Sea before but was not but upon this account manifested but this can not be for then why are not other waters as Rivers Ponds Lakes c. made saltish also by the Suns exhaling their sweeter vapours 2. The Sun doth not boil into the Sea by the vehemency of its heat that saline tast according to Pliny being almost of the aforesaid opinion for then why doth not the Sun work the same effect upon a Pond or Vessel of water on which it may work more vigorously by heating more vehemently viz. because it is less resisted by reason of the small quantity of water in them than on the Ocean 3. This saltnes is not caused as Scaliger would have it by rain mixt with hot dry and terrene exhalations for the rain it self would also then be saltish which indeed is most sweet and if it were saltish then why are not Pits Rivers c. which are many times filled with Rain-water saltish also Now the weakness of these opinions viz. the chiefest that have usually been embraced being detected I shall shew from whence very probably this saltness of the Sea may proceed We must therefore in the first place consider that the Sea is not simply saltish but saltish and bitter together that is it hath a tast made up of bitterness and saltness for which cause as saith our learned Countrey-man Mr. Lydyat in his disquisitio Physiologica de origine fontiam Chap. 9. de salsedine maris the Latines gave these two names to it viz. Mare quasi amarum Salum quasi salsum And this Aristotle himself consents to giving the reason of those two tasts in general and of them in the Sea in particular where he saith that all kinds of tasts arise from a kind of terreness more or less adust but bitterness from a terreness very much elaborated by a fiery heat in the burning bowels of the earth and saltness where that heat is somewhat remitted If so then let us consider whether there be not abundance of terrene adustness in the bowels of the earth and gulfs of the Sea where a bituminous fire is alwayes burning being fed by water as I declared more at large in the 2. Chap. viz. Of the original of Springs in general and that whether we may not probably conclude and especially because bitumen is bitter and very full of Salt that the burning of the bitumen together with the terreness therewith mixed in the gulfs of the Sea be not the cause of the saltness thereof Moreover that bitumen hath a great power to communicate to and beget a bitter and saltish tast in water is confirmed by that which Geographers write concerning the Lake of Palestina which is called in Greek {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. bituminous For say they the Lake is so bitter and saltish that no fishes can live therein and it is called in sacred writ the salt sea {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} And Historians say of it that if a man be cast into it bound hand and foot he cannot be drown'd and the reason of this is the saltness thereof for we see that waters bear the greater burdens by how much the salter they are witness the difference betwixt the Sea and fresh Rivers and our boiling of brine till an Egg swim thereon and will not sink This being premised it will be easie to conclude from whence the saltness and bitterness of the Sulphur-well proceeds And as for the stinking odour thereof that I suppose is caused from the vapours of the burning bitumen and adust terreness mixt therewith which lye not far from the very head of the Well Ob. If there be the same reason for the saltness of this Spring as there is of the Sea then why is there not the same reason for the Sulphurious odour of the Sea as of this and why doth not the Sea receive and retain the same odour as this doth Sol. I do not deny but the same odour may be communicated to the Sea as to this water together with the saltness thereof but because the saltness thereof was communicated to it by degrees viz. from some certain gulfs of the Sea so also this odour for it cannot be rationally conceived that the whole Sea received all its Salt into it self at one time after a natural way and therefore being such a great body must become saltish by little and little even insensibly And accordingly the Sulphurious odour also is imparted to it insensibly and although the saltness may continue by reason that the Salt it self is of a fixed substance yet the odour being of a subtile volatile nature is exhaled by the Sun and so lost But now the case is far otherwise in the water of this Sulphur-well for this is at once fully impregnated with the said saltness and Sulphurious odour and immediatly passeth away through narrow channelsâ— and veins of the earth without any vanishing of the odour by means of the Sun or otherwise which it contracted from the
bituminous vapours Ob. What is the reason that seeing this water hath passed lately through the bituminous burnings as it appears by its fresh odour of the same should be cold and not hot as hot Baths are Sol. 1. It was the opinion of Fallopius that such kind of waters proceed from a remote fire but passing through narrow passages retain their full odour and tast which cannot be vanished by the way any otherwise than smoak through a Chimney or pipe although by the length of its passage it may loose its heat 2. Though the fire be near to the superficies of the earth where this water breaketh forth yet it is very probable that the coldness thereof may proceed from a mixture of a cold spring before the breaking forth thereof Neither let it seem strange to any that cold springs and hot may be so near together in the bowels of the earth for just above the head of this Sulphur-well there arise two cold Springs which meet and run down within a few feet of the head of the same And Mr. Jones in his treatise of Buck-stones Bath in Derbishire saith that the cold Springs and hot Springs are so near that a man may put one finger in the cold and another in the hot Having in some measure declared unto you the cause of this Sulphur-well viz. of its saltness bitterness and sulphurious odour I shall in the next place give an account of some experiments and observations which I made and they are these viz. 1. If Silver be put into this water it is thereby tinged first yellow and then black but Gold is not all discoloured thereby 2. If this water be a little boiled it looseth its tinging property and also stinking odour 3. It coagulates milk if it be boiled therewith 4. The distilled water thereof looseth its odour and doth not coagulate milk 5. If the water be boiled it will still coagulate milk though it looseth its odour 6. Seven gallons yield by evaporation a pound of Salt which though at first black I have made as white as snow 7. This Salt coagulates milk also 8. This water kills worms and such kind of creatures presently if they be put therein 9. I filled two Vial glasses with this water in wet weather and stopt the one but the other I left open The water in that which was stopt within an hour or two became white and thick and within two or three dayes deposited a white sediment and the sides of that glass were furred the water in the other glass altered not 10. I filled two Vial glasses in fair weather whereof the one I stopt but the other left open the water in neither of them turned colour any whit considerably onely a kind of a thin whitish matter after two or three dayes fell to the bottom the water continuing very clear The water of that glass which was stopt retained its odour most 11. A pint of this water weighs two scruples i. e. fourty grains more than a pint of common Spring-water Note that the reason of its tinging white metals is not from any bodily Sulphur or bitumen mixt with it for the substance of them will not mix with water but swim on it as in the Spring at Pitchford in Shropshire and in Avernia in France and in divers other places but from the vapours or the subtile atomes efluvia's thereof which are mixed with the water and in boiling are evaporated The reason of its coagulating property is from some occult acidity in the Salt thereof which to sense is not perceptible onely by effect Out of the Salt is drawn a very good spirit of excellent vertue as I shall declare in the next Chapter Before I conclude this Chapter it will be worth taking notice that about 240 yards above the head of this Sulphur-well is a bog of about twenty yards diameter in which I digged a mineral kind of substance like the finders of Iron but almost rotten being corroded with some acid spirits of which that bog is full as also other places This mineral substance being cast into the fire burns blew and smels like Sulphur It is in tast like Vitrial and out of it Vitrial may be drawn nay in time it will be almost all resolved into Vitrial For I washed it and set it in a Cellar for two or three dayes and it was covered over with a white sweeetish Vitrial which I dissolved in water and set the said substance in a Cellar again and it contracted the like I did as before still reiterating this work till it was almost all turned to Vitrial In the said bog I found three or four sorts of waters viz. a Sulphur and Vitrioline and of each two sorts This was done the last day of my abode there and therefore I had not time to make any further search onely some of that mineral substance I took with me with which I tried the aforesaid experiments If any Gentleman would be pleased to expend some costs in digging up this bog and erecting some new Wels there he would prove an acceptable benefactor to his Countrey and it may be some new kind of water might be discovered hereby having yet more vertues than any of the former Note that the stink of this Sulphur-well is perceived afar off especially in moist and cold weather CHAP. XV Of the vertues and uses of the Sulphur-well together with directions and cautious for the taking of it THe use of this water is either inward or outward It being taken inwardly incideth abstergeth attenuates and resolves viscous thick humours and irritates every vessel of the body to expel whatsoever humours are offensive in them It openeth and removes those strong and obstinate obstructions whether in men or women that would not yield to any other Medicine whatsoever It doth oftentimes evacuate by stool great lumps of viscous slimy matter which was certainly whilest it was in the body the cause of some great distemper oppressure gripings tensions c. and which could hardly any other way be removed It heateth and quickneth the stomack bowels liver spleen bloud veins nerves and indeed the wholy body in so much that it consumes crudities rectifieth all cold distempers in all parts of the body causeth a good digestion cures the Dropsie Spleen Scurvy Green sickness Gout Cramp Epilepsie head-ach Vertigo Kings evil and all such Symptomes as proceed either from crudities cold viscous slimy or corrupt humours which obstruct distemper the stomack Bowels Messentery Liver Veins Brain and Nerves and these though of long continuance It killeth worms infallibly Note that this water must be begun by degrees and the full proportion be taken not at once but at several times exercise intermediating as in the taking of the Spaw The full dose or quantity to be taken must be proportioned according to the constitution strength of the party his bearing of it as also the humour offending the predominancy of the distemper and the aptness of the
it succeeded ill This might be true but what then Might not those Physitians though otherwise knowing enough be ignorant of the right use of the waters themselves and of the preparations requisit for the taking of them with success Or might not they be willing to bring the Spaw out of credit because it might happily cure their patients too soon and thereby be prejudicial to them Or might not their patients be unwilling to drink the water regulary or disorder themselves in respect of diet exercise and the like Now whether either of these or all these might be the cause of the aforesaid unsuccesfulnes I cannot determine onely this I know that the use of Physick is not onely not unsafe but very necessary in the use of the waters nay and in many cases to be mixed with the waters themselves as in the next Chapter I shall more particularly give you to understand Three or four dayes before giving over the waters they must be abated by degrees as at the beginning increased by degrees After the ending of the waters immediatly even before you return from thence some such purging Physick will be necessary as may evacuate all the water that shall remain secretly in the body as oftentimes it doth and withall comfort and strengthen the stomack and Liver and moisten the bowels if there be any feaver of too great astriction of body afterwards Also a very spare diet will be very necessary for a moneth after for by this means nature will become master of the bodily infirmities all crudities being removed and prevented CHAP. X. Of particular directions and cautions in particular cases and of preventing and curing such accidents and symptomes which sometimes happen in the taking of the waters THey that have a very good digestion may in the afternoon about five or six hours after dinner take half the quantity which they did in the morning but with this caution that they eat a very light supper after it and as for those that have a very bad concoction let them altogether forbear it in the afternoon or at most drink but a glass for the diluting and better distributing of the chylus if already perfected If any shall drink of the water for the curing of an ague let them so observe the time for the taking of it that it may be all passed through them before the coming of the fit because otherwise nature will be distracted in her motions viz. evacuating the water by Urine and the morbifick humour by sweat And as for those that have a continual feaver let them forbear it altogether unless the humours be concocted and fit for evacution either by sweat or Urine as I have more at large declared in the fourth Chapter concerning the taking of cold water inwardly in case of a feaver My advise is that they that have very weak and cold stomacks should take the water a little warm'd first i. e. the cold being just taken off The truth is the coldness of the waters doth very little good at all unless it be to allay a very great heat and drought So great a quantity thereof as is usually taken cold must of necessity diminish the natural heat in cold constitutions A glass of cold water cast upon a fire though but small may make it burn the more strongly but if ten or twenty be cast upon it they if they do not quite extinguish it yet will so far check it that it will a long time labour under the destructive contrariety thereof And actual heat is far more suitable to nature if so be the vertue of the water is not dimished thereby as it is not as I have demonstrated by the second experiment in the foregoing Chapter far more effectual the potential heat thereof being sooner reduced into act without any checking or oppressing the natural heat The stomack being a nervous part and of exquisite sense must needs be offended with that which is actually cold This made the ancient Grecians and Romans drink most of their water and wine hot as we find in Salmuths collections The Lord Virulam wonders that calidum bibere is so much grown out of use If to drink an ordinary quantity of drink cold were not approved of by the Ancients with what face shall I commend the taking of gallons of cold water every morning for certain weeks together I do therefore seriously advise those that have cold and effeminate stomacks to take off the cold from the water before they drink it If upon the taking of the water it pass not through the body freely but is retained it is to be considered in what place of the body it is at a stand that accordingly some appropriated means may be administred for the evacuation of it For if it be retained in the belly or hypochondries which will appear by its rumbling wind tension oppressure a glyster will evacuate it if in the stomack which appears by a disposition to vomit hiera picra or Rhabarb will be convenient for the opening and cleansing thereof and making free passage for it from thence If it be retained in the habit of the body and veins which appears by oppressure and a chilness over the body without the aforesaid rumbling tension wind c. I approve of hiera picra with Jollap Mechoacan or the like hydragogal medicaments They that when they have taken the waters cannot evacuate them for want of exercise as being to feeble to stir much or walk and not having the conveniencies of horses may either drink all their proportion of water in the bed or take some part at the Well and then go to bed and there take the residue I have oftentimes observed that the water would freely pass through many when they were in bed but would not otherwise and the reason of it was as I conceived because the passages of their body were contracted by going into the air but more open by the warm'th of the bed Now for the rendering the water more effectual it will be necessary as is the course in Italy to make use of some specificks with the drinking of it H. ab Heer 's allowes of the decoction of Sanicle Pimpernel Scabions c. to be drunk in case of spitting of bloud inward Impostumes Ulcers Wounds and Infirmities of the breast and Lungs the benefit whereof he experienced by many years practise And why may not we do the like in several cases as to allow of a spoonfull or two of the juyce of Saxifrage or the like to be taken in the first glass in case of the stone or gravel or to take Turpentine pills or a bole with Turpentine and Cassia the night before and in case of very great obstructions dropsie and cold moist stomacks or the like to mix some Sugar of steel or steel wine with the first glass But note that in such cases they are to be taken half an hour or a whole hour before the taking of any more of the water