which in continuance of time begets a current glib Language so as he is able to express himself when he comes to that ripeness of years readily at a pretty round rate and that without the cumber of any Grammatical Rules Which are indeed the greatest if not the Sole obstacle of Learning a Language so as to speak it fluently As this Method is hinted secretly though to an observing eye openly enough from the natural instinct of Children in Learning the first Language put to them so in our instruction in the knowledge of any other Language as Latin or the like we should in these secondary or artificial Languages attend the same Method as is I say hinted from the Natural And that to begin with words and to lay by for a time all the supposed Rudiments of Accidence and Grammar stocking the Memory of the Scholars only with words which he may use to speak to other Boys as Children use their words to us without any cognizance of the coherence of them and that afterwards when he comes to sutable Years its requisite he should know the Syutax of the Language and then he should have some few pithy Rules given him but such as should not be writ in Latin but in his own familiar Language For it hath been no small hinderance to Children in their ready attaining to the knowledge of the Latin Tongue to have their Rules in Latin and those many of them frivolous and unnecessary burdening their Memories with impertinencies which while they are getting their Rules by heart and before they can understand them a great part of their time is spent wherein they might if proceeded in with a right Method have arriv'd to a great degree of knowledge in the expressing and ready speaking of the Language So that the Rules thereof hath been no less tedious and perhaps more than the Language it self if taught by a facile natural genuine way For by right the Master that teacheth Latin or any other Language should for the most part speak nothing else but that Language he teacheth and should suffer his Scholars to speak nothing else to him or to each other but Latin and that though they be only such words as whereby they can guess at each others meanings as we guess at the meaning of Children when they in short pronounce only a word and that the most significant one for a sentence And thus they should do though they speak false Latin very frequently so as the Master speaking altogether or mostwhat to them in Latin will in time and that not long if compared with that time which is spent in the common way so familiarize the Language to them that they will need very few Rules For by how much the more natural any Language becomes to us the less cognizance we have of Grammar-Rules And therefore it is that Children Twelve Years old in other Countries shall and do speak Latin more familiarly and with abundance more facility than we do at Twenty or above though we have been train'd up in Latin-Schools most of our young time And all this proceeds from the wrong Method we take in the Learning the Latin and that too chiefly from the puzzling intricacies of our Latin Grammars which if we had never known but followed the foresaid Method we had not lost so much of our pretious time in hunting after that Language For they in other Countries by the use of Vocabularies and Dictionaries together with the frequent custom of speaking the Language become furnished with a great stock of significant words which being compos'd by some few general Rules inables them in a little time both to understand and speak the Latin Tongue very fluently Thus also the Universal-Character we are speaking of should be plac'd down in Vocabularies or Dictionaries with the signification thereof in every particular Language which should be taught in all Schools in every Nation viz first to be read chiefly and particularly in the native Language of the place and if any after the through understanding it in their own Language should be desirous thereof may be taught to read it into Latin Greek or what Tongue they please And for the making it Universal it should be so ordered as that no other form of Writing be at all followed not so much as to Write their own Native Language any other wayes than by this Character and that least any other manner of Writing should gain ground and thereby cause a deficiency in the general Character so that let a man learn as many Languages as he pleaseth yet if he would express any thing in any of these Languages he should do it by the Character and by that he may as well express what he hath of experiment or observation to communicate to the World from his own native Language as from any other whatever Also all Books of publick use and of general instruction should be writ or translated in this Character and Children should be train'd up in no other from their Child-hood Thus in a few years the whole Sceen of Writings I mean such as are most proper for the use of Mankind would be transpos'd and put into a new form of this Universal Character so that one Nation may read the various Transactions and rare Inventions of each other in their own Language without an Interpreter or Translator of one Language into another which would beget a community of correspondence even betwixt the remotest of Kingdomes And by the foresaid Method generally observ'd and that by publick Edict of all Princes within their Dominions Children and others would make such a proficiency in this new way of understanding each other by one simple Universal Character as that the World once in a Dozen or Twenty Years would grow weary of writing their own Language in letters and words at length and finding such a facile ready way of writing by this Character would readily close therewith and willingly make it their sole form of writing The benefit and profit of this Universal Character to Mankind would be no less Universal than the Character it self for by this means Princes might readily understand the Policies of forreign States and if good make them presidents to themselves Philosophers hereby might have a ready intelligence of the most remarkable occurrences and Philosophick Transactions throughout the World to the great improvement of experimental Physiology Also Mechanicks might improve their ingenuity by having fair hints of ingenious contrivances from abroad Mathematicks might also receive no less advantage hereby both by observing from abroad shorter Rules in the two Pillars thereof viz. Arithmetick and Geometrie as also in the branches thereon depending viz. Astronomy Dialling Geography Navigation Architecture Mensuration c. Physicians also might improve their skill by having new Methods and rare observations communicated to them from all parts of the World in order to the more successful Cure of Diseases Merchants hereby might Traffique more readily in all forreign parts of the known
Hydrologia Chymica OR THE CHYMICAL ANATOMY OF THE SCARBROVGH And other SPAWS in YORK-SHIRE Wherein are Interspersed Some ANIMADVERSIONS upon Dr. WITTIE'S lately Published Treatise of the SCARBROUGH-SPAW Also a short Description of the SPAWS at Malton and Knarsbrough And a Discourse concerning the Original of Hot-Springs and other Fountains With the Causes and Cures of most of the stubbornest DISEASES either Chronical or Acute incident to the Body of Man Also a Vindication of CHYMICAL-PHYSICK where a probable way is propounded for the Improvement of Experimental Philosophy With a Digression concerning an Universal Character Likewise a short Account of the Principles of all Concretes whether Vegetable Animal or Mineral Lastly is subjoyned an Appendix of the ORIGINAL of SPRINGS with the Author 's Ternary of Medicines And the Epilogue to the whole of the Essence of the SCARBROUGH-SPAW By W. Simpson Philo-Chymico-Medicus Ex Aqua Omnia London Printed by W. G. for Richard Chiswel at the Two Angels and Crown in Little-Britain 1669. To the READER Candid Friendly Reader HAving made to my self some experimental essayes of the Mineral Ingredients of the Spawâ— of York shire amongst which that of Scarborough I found to be most eminent being better Saturated and more impregnated with Mineral Salts than the rest and meeting with Dr. Wittie's Booke being a description cheifly of that Spaw did not a little wonder to see a draught of such Mineral ingredients most of which I had not observed to be therein I say not being satisfied here with it put me upon bringing his constituent Principles of the Spaw to the Test and to make a further scrutiny into the natural ingredients of that Spring that upon more throughly made experiments I might the better be convinced whether I was in an error or no or whether indeed those five Mineral Ingredients that Dr. Wittie had ascribed to that Spaw were the Essential Principles thereof To which purpose I made some Animadversions upon his deposited Principles The first sheets whereof I shewed to some ingenuous acquaintance of mine who longed to see some Experimental Trial of the Minerals of this Spring with which they seemed to be taken and gave me encouragements to go on and to compleat if I could what I had begun Those few first sheets I let lie dormant by me all the Winter in the Spring I revived them and set down some Experiments I had made the last Summer also I made some fresh Experiments of the Mineral Earth found upon the Bank near the Spaw c. and after I had finished the discourse of the Mineral Ingredients thereof I saw a necessity of treating of Diseases viz. which were curable by the Spaw which not and what observations I have made therein whether they be consonant or not to truth and the late discoveries made by the Experimental Practice of Physick is left to thee Judicious Reader to determine I confess I have not been so large in my discourse of Diseases as I might have been or as a matter of that nature did require not intending to swell this peice into a large volume nor indeed was I willing at present to put down all my Observations thereon reserving many of them to another seasonable opportunity as occasion shall offer and these find acceptance I have I confess in this Treatise made some large digressions and have not wound my self back again by so uniform a clew as I could have wish'd And indeed upon a review I espie some discernable flaws and chinks in the junctures thereof which are now too late to amend nor could it be perform'd unless it were by taking some parts thereof in peices and cementing them afresh which now cannot be done yet they are such as a running eye will not easily discover As to that digression of the improvement of Philosophy by a Universal Character it was I confess done before I had seen any thing of Dr. Wilkins's Book to the same purpose who certainly hath design'd such a clear Methodical draught thereof as that without doubt he hath outdone all that ever we heard of that went before him Which if it take and get footing in the world will without a peradventure prove the most facil direct road to the improvement of the natural parts of man in the true outward Scientifical knowledge of things by this Universal Character For by this invention Children and others will be train'd up not in the knowledg of letters or words alone but in the true Characteristical knowledge of things themselves according to their most External distinguishable Signatures which if it take will save posterity a great deal of time which we have with little fruit spent at the Schools As to the Appendix concerning the Original of Springs when I sent my papers to the press I had then no thoughts to have discours'd thereof at this impression but finding that I had an opportunity given by the necessary delayes of the Press taking more time to do it in than I at first expected I set upon it but coming too late to be inserted in its right place viz. immediately before the discourse of Hot-Springs the Press being gone beyond that part was fore'd to bring it in as an Appendix To which are annexed other little additions which before were omitted and therefore refer to the Page and line of the book where they should follow As to our Ternary of Medicines which answer the general Indications in Physick for the cure of most Diseases as also our Epilogue of the Essence of Scarborough Spaw I shall refer what I have said therein to matter of Experiment it self If any reflections have happen'd they are more then I wish had been but I hope they will not be found immodest for he that writes concerns of this nature had need lay a good foundation of Experiments so that being thereby backed as I may say or strengthned he need not much fear the Counterassaults of others And in as much as it is truth evinced by matter of Experiment that I contend for therein I find satisfaction in what I have done and truly I have meted no other measure than I would expect in case any Writings of mine should be found as equally naked and fenceless and consequently as exposable to future Criticisms For any other hath the liberty of disproving what I have wrote and that by good reason too so he do it fairly by more demonstrable matter of Experiment The same liberty hath Dr. Wittie if he please but to grant himself it in vindication of what he hath Wrote yea and in defence of his Methodical Art too As to this Chymical Practice of Physick of whose vindication I have succinctly wrote many Physicians now at this time and more and more daily do make it their way of administrating help to the Sick so that doubtless in a little time it will gain much ground upon the World and will at length naturally worm out the Galenical Method For an active plodding Genius is now
are most vigorous and active for in the beginnings of Animals the Ferments are very languid especially I say in the Matrix and therefore the Transmutations they make are but very slender and tennious whence is the facil reduction of the minute Embryo into its first Spermatick Juyce or Elementary Liquor In Children the Ferments grow stronger but yet is very weak whence is their aptness to breed worms which proceed from a debilitude of the embalming Ferments as Children grow up in years the Ferments grow more strong and therefore they require stronger meat and the Transmutations of the Ferments are more vigorous whence the bones and flesh of young Men become more solid and firm and that increaseth till the body come to its full stature so that it is the vigour of the Ferments that gives flower and strength to the body and their defects give being to Diseases make the Spirits flag the sinews shrink and the flesh wast away by a lingring Tabes and that too oftentimes in the very spring of Youth even many times whilst we are upon the Meridian of our days occasionally from the assaults of many Diseases When we are once arrived to the Zenith of our Years that the florid strength of our bodies are demonstrable Indexes of the agil vigour of our Ferments and vital Functions we stay not long here but then begin to decline and to go down the hill our strength begins gradually to be impaired and that because our Ferments and Vital Powers when once mounted to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are labil and in continual Flux for so all mortal powers are they begin grow come to their full state decline and come to a Period either by a further transmutation or reduction into the first Hyle or primitive Chaos therefore they spontaneously decay and with them the Fabrick of the solid parts of the body so that old Men that live out the full number of days do but spin forth a longer consumptive thread than others they wear away with an insensible Tabes having their succulent parts dried up by the exiccating Blass of the Air and that through the deficiencies of the vital Ferments And thus Old Age performs that at the long run which a lingring Disease whose Seminals are deeply seated in any principal part as stomach lungs liver veins c. vitiating the Ferment thereof doth in a less time as perhaps in a year half a year three months or less viz. wear away the body by a continual wasting or Consumption until the parts are reduced to a Skeleton which being after entombed in the earth doth as all other bodies by the fracedinous odour thereof Fatiscere in succum suum primitivum legesque aquae subire turns into a sort of Leffas and that by a further reduction is nothing else but water not to say what a great quantity of effluvia or vapours which for the most part are materially water pass continually through the pores of our bodies perhaps if duly computed not much less than the one half of the weight of the food we take in and yet is nothing but water circulated in our bodies through various Fermentations and at length reduced to its primitive simplicity Thus we begin we grow we come to our full stature from the operation of Seed and Ferments upon water whose degrees of vigour upon the material stage thereof gives the various Stadiums of Life Then we bend to Diseases we decline we die when the vital Powers and formal Ferments march off the stage and have their exit into their primitive Hyle and the body then ultimately reducible into water by the Fracedo of the Grave Hence I conclude all bodies in the Mundane System whether Vegetable Animal or Mineral from water as the material Element and by Seed as the efficient Agent have not only the Beginning But THE END AN APPENDIX Concerning the ORIGINAL of SPRINGS 1. IT is not the least part of Dr. Wittie's Book to Discourse of the Original of Springs and therein to assert their original to be from Rain and Snow-water from the confluence of which two he supposeth all Springs to flow and that after this manner viz. the Snow and Rain falling from the Clouds in great abundance upon the Earth do by moistening the Superficies cause it to bring forth Vegetables which we grant viz. That the moisture exhal'd from the Sea and Earth carryed up into the Clouds becomes impregnated with an influential Nitrous Salt or Sal Hermeticum floting to and again in the Atmosphere And circulated or cohobated upon its Caput mortuum the Earth gives fertility to the ground and makes it apt to bring forth Vegetables 2. The remaining part saith he except what suddenly runs into Rivers sinks down by secret passages into the earth with which the Superficies doth abound and in rocky ground it runs through the clefts and by them is conveyed to the Subterraneal Chanels more or less deep in the earth where it is concocted by the earth and moves as blood in the veins c. We shall indeed admit thus far of what he saith viz. That Rain and Snow-water are the proximate cause of all Land-Springs and sudden Flouds silling the Porosities and Chanels of the Superficies of the Earth the remaining part restagnates till it find declive Currents out of Brooks and Ditches into other Rivulets and those again by further passages swell into Rivers and thereby cause inundations of low grounds till those Rivers empty themselves by other intermediate ones into the Sea it self But that the same should be the cause of the Fontes perennes viz. of Living Springs I altogether deny as shall afterwards be evinc'd more clearly 3. This Water saith he at length in its passage through the veins of the Earth finds vent and runs forth which place of eruption we call a Spring or Fountain And this springing forth or eruption of the water I conceive saith he to be made from its own natural inclination and tendency towards its proper place assigned to it by the Creator which is the convex part of the earth it not resting till it meets with its natural correspondent the Air under which it must needs lie because of its greater gravity as above the Earth by reason of its levity And this I think saith he to be the natural reason of its ebullition out of the Earth 4. Here the Doctor hath at once conceiv'd and brought forth the causes as he supposeth of all manner of Springs and their manner of issuing out of the Earth viz. from rain and Snow-Water and their tendency in the Channels of the Earth to their proper place the convex part thereof For he having numbred three general Opinions concerning the Original of Springs viz. first by percolation of the Sea secondly by transmutation of Earth or Air into Water within the Bowels of the Earth Or lastly by Rain or Snow with the last of which he closeth As for the second viz. the Opinion of the