Retention of Nutriment doth proceed whereby one Part becomes less another bigger than in proportion it ought to be for some Parts are much emaciated and extenuated as the Legs Thighs Arms c. other Parts are swelled as the Head and Liver There are likewise in this Distemper for the same Reason several Protuberancse of the Bones particularly at the Wrists Ancles and Extremities of the Ribs There is likewise which is another Symptom attending this Disease a Sharpness and Straitness upon the Breast We may likewise add that several Bones are sometimes inflected or bent as the Bones of the Legs and Thighs Arms and Shoulders c. All which Symptoms with several others which might be mentioned if not removed by Art do tend very much to the future Prejudice of Children How many crooked-boned Bandy-legg'd Strait-breasted Jolt-headed Wry-back'd Weak Decrepit Persons do we daily see The Original of all which Infirmities may be attributed in a great measure to the Relicts of the Rickets with which they laboured when they were young Now of Al the Remedies that ever were yet invented for this Malady there 's none like that of Bathing Therefore to prevent the Injury that Children would otherwise necessarily receive by this Disease we have ordered a particular appropriated Bath to be made every Saturday for such as are afflicted with it by the use of which the vitiated Tone of the Parts is rectified the Parts themselves comforted and strengthened equal Distribution of Nourishment promoted and the Causes of the former inequality of Nutrition and Extenuation removed and in fine the whole Habit of Body in those tender Punies reduced to its due Eutaxy and regular Disposition So that among all the Remedies that have hitherto been in vogue for Curing the Rickets as Scarrification of the Ears Issues Leeches Cupping-glasses Blisters Ligatures Rollings Strait Stockins Clisters Purges Vomits Specific Powders Syrups or Electuaries Oyntments c. none can be safer and more effectual than Bathing in this appropriated Bath for by the use of it this Distemper is prevented where there is fear or danger of it its Progress is stopt where it is begun and al its Symptoms in a short time removed where it hath arrived to an Increment and considerable State The Certainty of al which and much more than I have asserted wil appear to such as shal hereafter use it Another very afflicting and somewhat spreading Malady to the Cure of which Bathing may much contribute is the Dropsie and that because it is found by experience that Bathing provokes both Urine and Sweat For a Man shal scarce wel get out of the Bath but he shal be inclinable to make Water and then Sweat doth in some considerable measure succeed which if promoted by some inward Diaphoretic wil help notably to transpire the superfluous Serum or Water in the Blood especially in that sort of Dropsie which is called Anasarca where the Blood is too much diluted and the Limphaducts obstructed in the Habit of the Body So that two grand Symptoms or Effects of a Dropsie and perhaps a third are hereby removed viz. Stopping or Difficulty of Vrine Obstructions of the Pores and lastly Debility of Ferments in their separating Functions For hereby the Reins Ureters and Sphinctor of the Bladder are reminded of their Duty the Pores of the Body are opened the inward and outward Parts rendred Perspirable and the Digestive Ferments fortified So that tho the use of this Bath it self without concurring Means is not sufficient to Cure a Dropsie yet if Bathing be joyned with other Remedies it will certainly prove very useful and beneficial We may here likewise mention another great Convenience of it which is That it is very useful for Corpulent Persons for gross and fat Bodies For by opening the Pores and exciting a new and brisk Ferment in the Blood it assists Nature to emit the superfluous Unctuous Parts of the Blood it likewise wastes and causeth to exhale that Matter that hath already been setled into Fat Thus Fat and Corpulent Persons may in a little time be eased at least in a great measure of that heavy Burden which they generally complain of Nor doth this Bath make Lean Persons become Leaner for the same Reason that it makes Fat Persons Lean because in Lean Bodies there is none of that superfluous and Unctuous Matter which it meets with in grosser Bodies but in Lean Bodies it plumps and corroborates the Fibres of the Muscles We shal in the next place add That this Bath may with very good Success by used to give present Ease in the Fits of the Stone and Gravel for by a kind of an Anodyne Vertue it obtundeth the acute Sensation of those Nervous and Membranous Parts which suffer in this Distemper It likewise causeth a propension to make Water and so either expels the Gravel or Stone if it be smal or else if it be too big to force its exit thro the Meatus Vrinarius or Urinary Passage it often causeth a Removal of it from the top of that Passage and so present Ease ensues But we shal not insist farther on this Head our Mineral Waters the Vertues of which we shal hereafter relate being of exceeding Efficacy in this wracking Distemper The last thing I purpose to mention in Commendation of this Bath is That it Beautifies the Skin tho some Natural Baths make it more Tawny and Unhandsom To which end I can commend it to Ladies to smooth and whiten their Skin increase its Plumpness and Lustre and preserve the Body in a good Habit and Disposition It takes away Wrinkles and Shrivellings in the Skin and is very useful to take away Chaps in Womens Breasts and Bellies after Lying-in It fetcheth off Spots and other Cutaneous Deformities It also washeth from the Body that Scurf and Dirt which adheres to it so that the use of it is very neat and cleanly It takes off that yellow and unhandsom Colour of the Skin which remains in the Yellow Jaundies after the Cause is removed These things besides the great Pleasure of Bathing and Washing the Body are al I design at present to mention concerning the great Usefulness and Vertue of this New Mineral Bath of which much more might be said but for brevity sake let what hath been here concisely related suffice til a future Opportunity and more apparent Testimonies of its real Benefit do present themselves We shal therefore now proceed to give an Account of the Nature and Virtues of the New Spaw or Mineral Waters designed for Drinking Having made it part of my Study to dive into the Nature of Waters I must declare my Opinion to be That Mineral Waters are not only of great use in Physic and retain in them very admirable Vertues but also that no other sort of Medicines let them be made up in what Form soever have that Energy in reducing the Blood to its pristine Eucrasie the whole Body to a sound Diathesis and routing the Mineras and Seminalities
And we shall begin with the Use of the Bagnio Amongst the many excellent Helps and useful Inventions wherewith the Industry of Ancient and Modern Physicians hath supported the tottering Fabric of Mens Bodies the Practice of Bagnios deservedly claims an honourable Mention and justly challenges a venerable Esteem And indeed if we consider how long they have been known to the World it cannot be supposed whithout a manifest Reproach to the Judgment of the Learned in so many Ages who having often experienced the great Advantages they have received by them took care to hand them down to our Times and recommended them to the Use of succeeding Generations that their Usefulness is not found to equal the Character which they have always given them and which we now contend for Besides when we remember how nearly Art resembles Nature in this sort of Administration we have no reason to question such considerable Effects from Means so highly probable for as 't is generally acknowledged that by observing the singular Benefit some have received by involuntary Bleeding at Nose some at the Hemorhoids others in other Parts we were first directed to take up the Lancet open a Vein and cal in the Assistance of Phlebotomy so 't is not unlikely that the Ancients taking notice of the great Relief some have found after Critical Sweats by a free Transpiration of the Fuliginous Parts of the Body thorow the Pores received the first hint of attempting the like Evacuations by Artificial Baths or Bagnios thereby powerfully assisting the weakness of sluggish Nature in throwing off the offending Matter We need not look back so far as to the Times in which Rome when Mistris of the World boasted of near 200 beautiful Structures erected for this purpose since the present Practice of the Turks obviously presents it self to our Consideration the Wisdom of whose Governours hath thought fit to provide such Accommodations in all the principal Places of that vast Empire and endow them with large Revenues Nor do they think their Charge and Trouble in erecting these Bagnios lost for they apparently find themselves much recruited and invigorated by the frequent use of them as likewise several Distempers are hereby prevented It 's rare to see any there afflicted either with Gout Dropsie or Rheumatisms the Reason of which can be ascribed to nothing so much as this wholesom Custom of using Bagnios Not only in Turkey but also in several Parts of Europe the use of Bagnios is much esteemed of particularly in several Parts of Hungary Germany Sweedland Denmark c. where they are in great request Now if Bagnios are thus useful the frequent Sweating in them so beneficial if they are so much in request abroad and found to be of such extraordinary Advantage to Kingdoms why should we exclude them 'T is matter of great wonder to me that in this pregnant Age when almost every Art and Science but more particularly the Noble Faculty of Physick hath been more improved than in several preceding Generations and almost al ingenuous useful Inventions whether found out in Europe or any other Parts of the World have been brought into immediate Use and Practice that so admirable and Invention and so publicly known in other Parts was not thought on in England till about four Years ago Certain I am that if the real Vertues and Benefit of frequenting Bagnios were wel known and believed by the generality of the Inhabitants of London and Westminster 't is not the Royal and the Duke's Bagnio would be able to receive the twentieth part of those that would crowd in upon them But such is the remiss careless and negligent Humour of the Inhabitants of these Ilands that they think not of preventing Distempers til they come upon them and then they smart for 't There is no Part of Physic so much rejected and forgotten as the Prophylactic or Hygieinal which is the Preservative Part tho no one Part of Medicine ought to be more respected To this very end Mr. Boyle the Mirrour of our Age hath prompted us to this Study in his Vsefulness of Natural Philosophy Part 2. Essay 4. Now that Bathing and Sweating is useful in the Prophylactic or Preservative as well as in the Therapeutic or Healing Part of Physic is evidently enough demonstrable For nothing tends more to the preventing of Distempers and so ex consequenti for the preserving of Health than the assisting of Nature in throwing off what is offensive to her and incongruous with her Balsamic Crimson Liquor and other deputrated Juices The Pores of the Body which are the Out-lets of those unwelcome Guests are soon obstructed by the constant and successive thronging forth of Effluviums by insensible Perspiration some of which are glutinous or rather crooked and so hang in their very exit by which others are afterwards stopt in their passage and so in time several Pores of the Body are almost quite clogg'd and Nature many times put to a force to burst them open In the mean time several of these pernicious Corpuscles which the Blood would otherwise transmit thorow those Pores finding no passage into the open Air at the yet too weak repulse of Nature are hurried about again by Circulation and hereby oftentimes such irregular Motions in the Blood created by Natures strenuous endeavour to throw them off by a kind of abhorring violence and impetuosity that the genuine Ferment and slow and moderate Motion of the Blood is exalted to a rapid Motion and furious Ebullition and so many times fatal and destructive Maladies are created all which by the moderate use of Bagnios might be prevented And this is the reason why the Turks and the Natives of other Countries that have the frequent use of Bagnios are seldom sick and live to a prodigious Age because constant Perspiration being hereby promoted the very Seeds of Distempers are thrust out and the Enemies of Nature quite exterminated so that Nature having nothing heterogeneous or contrary to the Principles of Life she performs her proper Functions with the greatest regularity to a competent Old age The Body then resigns not by being overcome by any Distempers but because its Organs are quite worn out and impaired by their long Exercise and so unfit and unable for longer Service We may mention the Use of Bagnios not only in preventing Diseases as we have just now evinced but also in curing and removing some particular Maladies and Infirmities What can be prescribed better for a new-taken Cold than to sweat moderately in a well-tempered Bagnio For as the Sulphureous and sticking Particles of the Blood do sometimes hang together in their Passage from the Body and so obstruct the Pores so it is also undeniable that frigorific and cold Particles which swarm and glide about in the fluid Air especially in Winter darting upon the Body exposed to the Air do often stick in the Pores and so hinder Perspiration and hereby occasion very bad Effects and perplexing Symptoms in the Body Now it
in these Waters dissolves the coagulated Matter in the Reins and makes free passage both for it self and for the exit of the restagnating Water which before floated in the Abdomen and Legs and so caused that Swelling in them In the Dropsie likewise there is a vitiated Ferment in the Stomach and an adust Sordes impacted in the Tunicles thereof whence a Feverish and pressing Thirst constantly attends Dropsical Persons Now this Water doth cleanse the Stomach it looseneth and dissolveth the Sordes of Digestion and so carrieth it off Perhaps it may seem something contradictory and unreasonable that Dropsies are to be helped by Waters because the Blood in this Disease is too much diluted already But if we consider how these Waters remove the Cause of this Malady the strangeness wil be taken away Besides when Dropsical Persons desire these Waters we can by adding to them some Preparations of the Mineral Principles of them make them much stronger and so consequently a smaller quantity of them may be more potent than a much greater and so this Objection quite removed 4. The Yellow Jaundice is curable by these Waters For hereby Obstructions in the Bilary Ducts are opened the regular and genuine Motion of the Choler promoted and the Blood cleansed from that Yellow Liquor which before was mixed with it and hurried about thorow the Veins and Arteries by the Circulation whence the ultmate Fibres and cutaneous Parts are at last discoloured by it 5. These Waters may be drank with admirable Success in Hypochondriac Melancholy and Affects of the Spleen The Causes and Nature of this Distemper I have related in a little Tract which I published several Years ago called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or A Philosophic Discourse concerning Man which the Reader may peruse at his leisure 6. In al manner of Uterine Affects or Diseases of the Womb these Waters may be recommended I shal not dispute whether Hysteric Passions or Fits of the Mother proceed from the Womb as Sennertus Riverius and other famous Authors tel us or from the Explosion of the Animal Spirits in the Nerves as the Renowned Willis wil have it or else from the more than ordinary Effervescence or Ebullition of the thinner and more flatulent Blood in the Heart and Lungs as Dr. Highmore asserts whence he saith the Heart and the Pneumatic Vessels are apprest and straitned difficulty of Breathing caused and a kind of Rising in the Throat But whatever the primary and original Cause of it is we find by experience that by these Waters it may be removed They are likewise proper in al those Distempers peculiar to Women as Obstructions of the Courses immoderate Fluxes Whites Suffocations of the Womb the raging and unbridled Furor Vlterinus Inflammations of the Womb Barrenness c. 7. Nothing more proper and beneficial in great Surfeits than to dilute the Blood and separate from it those impure Mixtures wherewith 't was surfeited by drinking of these wholesom Medicinal Waters 8. In the beginning of a Hectic See the Cause of a Consumption in a Discourse of that Distemper which I lately published and a tendency to a Consumption nothing can be safer than these Waters Where a Consumption is feared and the Body inclinable to it these Waters if drank in a sufficient quantity every day for some Weeks wil in al probability prevent it 9. In a Cachexy or il Habit of Body proceeding from undue and depraved Concoctions these Waters are certainly effectual For by being often drank they assist Concoction by taking away what was injurious to it and whet the Appetite by correcting the vitiated Acid in the Stomach purifie the Blood by separating from it what is heterogenious and leaving some of its wholesom Particles with it and so in a short time the whole Body is reduced to a regular Crasis and Eutaxy We might here add several other Maladies for which these Waters are of great use and efficacy as Preternatural Vomitings Pains at the Stomach Heats of the Liver and Bowels Thirst and Bitter Tastes in the Mouth Obstructions of the Mesentery and other Bowels Sarpness of Vrine and Difficulty of making Water Vlcers of the Reins Bladder and Yard Tumours of the Hemorrhoids or the Piles Colics both Bilose and Nephritic Dysenteries or Bloody-flux Worms Headach Meagrim Giddiness Bleedings at Nose Palpitations of the Heart the Itch Bastard-Leprosie Scabs or other Breakings-out or Eruptions in the Skin In fine we may safely say of these Waters Petr. Givrius Arcanum Acâ—dulaâ—um c. 10. as a very late Author writeth in praise of the Spaw-waters in Germany Non arbitror omnes Medicos tam Antiquos quam Modernos ullum unquam remedium adinvenisse adeo proficium adeoque amicum humanae naturae quod uno eodemque tempore purgat deterget temper at corrobor at omnia viscera tot tamque diversis morbis auxiliatur I do not think saith he that the Ancient or Modern Physicians have ever yet found out a Remedy so beneficial so agreeable to Humane Nature which at one and the same time purgeth detergeth temperates and corroborates al the Bowels and is helpful in so many and so differing Distempers To apply this I would not be understood that I think no Physicians can by their Endeavours make Waters Artificially which may be as good as these but my Opinion is as I have already asserted That no Form of Medicines do in any respect equal that of Mineral Water Much more might be said in Commendation of these Waters but I have already exceeded my limited Bounds These Waters may be drank from One Quart to Two and Three in a Morning The Person that drinks them is to use moderate Exercise as Walking Playing at Bowls Ninepins c. after them About two Hours after he may drink a Glass of Wine which wil help their Passage He must not eat til two or three Hours after he hath drank them nor use any violent Motion He must use a moderate Diet during the whole time of his drinking them not overcharging the Stomach with too much or too great Variety of Food His constant Drink is to be clear fresh and not too strong neither new nor too stale He may now and then rest a day or two and then drink again It 's convenient to purge gently after he hath drank them a fortnight or three weeks Such as please may have them made stronger by adding some of the Essence of these Waters to them and so may drink them in lesser Quantities What I have farther to add concerning these Waters I shal reserve til a Treatise of Observations that may be made upon the Bath and Spaw which we hope to finish by next Summer shal be published FINIS ERRATA Page 98. line 1. read Scorvey p. 99. l. 1. r. cariate p. 102. l. 14. r. Endemic p. 111. l. 4. r. opprest l. 17. r. Vterinus