Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
water_n air_n element_n fire_n 13,062 5 7.1789 4 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A46281 A discourse of natural bathes, and mineral waters wherein, the original of fountains in general is declared, the nature and difference of minerals with examples of particular bathes, the generation of minerals in the earth, from whence both the actual heat of bathes, and their virtues proceed, by what means mineral waters are to be discover'd, and lastly, of the nature and uses of bathes, but especially of our bathes at Bathe, in Someerset-shire / by Edw. Jorden, Doctor in Physick. Jorden, Edward, 1569-1632.; Guidott, Thomas, fl. 1698. Appendix concerning Bathe. 1669 (1669) Wing J1074; ESTC R19762 134,265 263

There are 20 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

same Wherefore Aristotle his opinion which attributes all to aerial water and vapours from thence is justly rejected by Agricola and by our Countrey-man Mr. Lydiat So that we must find out some other Originals or else we shall want water for the manifold uses the Earth hath of it From the Earth they make another Original of perpetual Springs and Rivers seeing the first seems to be ordained by Nature only for the irrigation of the superficies of the Earth which else would be in most places destitute of water where Springs are not and so would be barren Plants and Trees wanting due moisture for their nourishment Wherefore for the perpetuity of Fountains and for subterranean generations which cannot proceed without water they have imagined a generation of water within the Earth some holding that the Earth it self is converted into water as Elements are held to b● mutable and convertible the one in the other As Ovid faith of the conversion of Elements Resolutaque tellus In liquidas rarescit aquas c. The Earth likewise when once unty'd Is into Water rarify'd But we must grant Ovid his Poetical liberty and not tye his words to such a strict sense although Scaliger in his Criticks would not pardon a Philosophical errour in the first verse of his Metamorphosis for saying that forms are changed into new bodies But unless there be some reciprocation between water and air the other Elements are not convertible the one into the other For neither Fire will be converted into any other Element being superiour to the rest and not to be mastered by cold which only must be the agent of the conversion of it by condensation neither will the earth be converted into water or any other Element as Pla●● thinks in Timoeo and Aristotle 3. de coelo cap. 7. for either heat or cold must convert it Heat cannot do it although it rarifie and attenuate both for that it consumes moysture and also because water is cold which it should not be if it were made by heat for every natural Agent works to that end that it may make the Patient like it self and heat may convert earth into sume and dry exhalations but not into water for all water which is not eternal is from cold likewise cold cannot convert earth into water because cold doth congeal condense and congregate and indurate and not dissolve and attenuate c. as we see in Amber and Gumms Neither will water be converted into earth For by heat it turns to vapour and air by cold into ice and stone wherefore the Elements are not changed the one into the other unless it be water and air which have more affinity and more neighborhood than the rest And yet it is doubtfull as I have said in the former Chapter but this generation of water from the earth is impossible Others will have great receptacles of air within the earth which flying up and down is congealed by the coldness of Rocks into water to supply all wants Others imagine huge Lakes and Cisterns primarily framed in the earth and supplyed with water either from vapour or air or from the sea which water either by agitation by winds or by impulsion from the Sea or by compression of Rocks is elevated to the superficies of the earth or else vapours from thence made by attenuation either from the Sumand Starrs or from subterranean fire kindled upon Sulphur and Bitumen which was pours ascending to the tops of Mountains are there congealed into water by the coldness of the Rocks where there must be other Cisterns or Castles in the air to feed the inferiour Springs Others will make the earth to be an animal and to suck water by veins to serve his turn for generations and nutritions But why should it suck more than it hath need of and how shall it cast it forth beyond the place of use to the superficies of the earth unless they will say that the Mynes which suck it do puke it up as Infants do when their stomachs are full which is absurd to say These and such like devices are produced for the maintaining of their Original which as they are all insufficient to afford such a proportion of water as is requisite so most of them are so improbable and full of desperate difficulties as I am unwilling to spend time in the rehearsing of them or their Authors much more unwilling in the confuting of them to trouble my self and offend my Reader only the point of subterranean fire which hath taken deepest impression in most mens minds I shall speak of hereafter when I come to shew the causes of the actual heat of Springs The third Original is from the Sea a sufficient storehouse for all uses and whereunto the other two may be referred For that which falls from the air and that which is bred in the earth do proceed principally from the Sea Agricola for fear of wanting water for his Springs is contented to admit of all these Originals although he relyeth least upon the Sea because he knows not how to bring it up to the heads of his fountains but is contented it should serve for lower places near the Sea-cos● As I remember I have seen in Zeland at Westcapell fresh Springs colated from the Sea through banks of sand But I make no doubt but that the Sea-water may serve all other Springs and Rivers whatsoever although both far remote from the Sea and high in situation Neither shall we need to flye for help to those monstrous conceits of Agitation Compulsion Compression Suction Attraction by the Sun c. But holding the sacred Canon of the Scriptures that all Rivers are from the Sea c. I perswade my self that there is a natural reason for the elevating of these waters unto the heads of Fountains and Rivers although it hath not yet been discovered For those opinions formerly mentioned will not hold water My conceit therefore is this that as we see in Siphunculis that water being put in at one end will rise up in the other pipe as high as the level of the water whether by his weight or by the correspondence with his level I will not dispute so it may be in the bowels of the earth considering that the passages there are more firm to maintain the continuitie of the water with the Sea than any leaden pipes can be being compassed on every side with many Rocks as we see in Venis fibris commissuris saxorum Now although perhaps this water enters into the earth very deep yet the level of it must answer to the superficies of the Sea which is likely to be as high as the superficies of the Land seeing the natural place of waters is above the earth And although neer the Coasts it be depressed and lower than the Shore yet there is reason for that because it is terminated by the dry and solid body of the earth as we
dissolved as Aristotle Hypocrates and Galen do affirm So that if the Elements enter into the composition of natural things especially as the principal materials whereof they consist they must needs appear in the dissolution of them This dissolution is either natural or artificial In the natural dissolution of all things Hypocrates observes three distinct substances calidum humidum sive fluidum siccum five solidum according to the three Elements or principles where of they are framed His instance is principally man but he ●ffirms it to hold in other animate and inanimate bodies These Elements he termeth continen●●a contenta impetum facientia as Galen exbounds it Those which he calls continentia 〈◊〉 bones nerves veins arteries and from ●hence muscles c. Contenta are humida or humores blood flegme choller melancholy which after death are cold and congeal being beated as Galen saith from the heart in living bodies Impetum facientia are spirits animal vital and natural These three Elements Galen acknowledgeth to be the nearest but the other which are more remote to be most universal Bat Hypocrates●aith ●aith that heat and cold c. are very powerless Elements and that sharp bitter sweet c. are more powerfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that these are the three Elements whereof ●ll things do consist and into which they are ●aturally resolved and these do seem to re●emble the four Elements but are not the same For heat may resemble fire although this heat be ●●ocured by motion in every thing whilest it liveth and not extrinsecally Moisture may resemble water and air Driness may resemble earth cold appears in them all after the heat or spirit is departed In the artificial Analysis of natural bodies the Alchymists tells us that they find three Elements and no more whereof every thing doth consist and whereinto it is resolved namely Vaporosum inflammabile fixum which they call Mercury Sulphur and Salt and they seem to agree with Hypocrates For their Mercury may well resemble Hypocrates his spirits or impet●● facientia Sulphur his humour or flu dum or ●●tenta and Salt his siccum or densum or coninentia These they say are found in every thing animal vegetable or mineral and no other And as for the four common Elements seeing they are distinct in place and scituation and therefore cannot concurre and meet to the generation of every animal Plant and Mineral c but by violence the earth being someti●● carried upwards and the fire downwards co●trary to their natural motions and this not one for all but daily and hourly it is not likely t●● these substances can be bred of the Elements 〈◊〉 be maintained in a perpetual succession by a vi●lent cause And therefore it is no marvel these Elements be not found in the dissolutions natural bodies Thus much in general conceting all generations that hereby we may the ●●ter judge of the particular generations of Mnerals which differ not from the rest but 〈◊〉 in this that their seeds are not in every indi●●dual as the others are but are contained ●● matricibus in their wombs and there they are furnished with matter to produce their Species not out of the Elements no otherwise than ex matricibus as the child in the mothers womb but have their matter and nourishment from the seeds of things which are agreeable to their species which seeds wanting means to produce their own species do serve others and yield matter and substance unto them Now let us come more particularly to the generation of minerals wherein we will first examine Aristotles opinion as most generally received then I will presume to set down mine own CHAP. XII The generation of Minerals examined the Authors opinion herein A Ristotle makes the humidity of water and the dryness of earth to be the matter of all minerals the dryness of earth to participate with fire and the humidity of water with air as Zabareila interprets it so that to make a perfect mixt body the four Elements do concur and to make the mixture more perfect these must be resolved into vapour or exhalation by the heat of fire or influence from the Sun and other Planets as the efficient cause of their generation but the cause of their congelation to be cold in such bodies as heat will resolve This vapour consisting partly of moysture and partly of dryness if all the moysture be spent turns to earth or salt or concrete juyces which dissolve in moysture if some moysture remain before congelation then it turns to stone if this dry exhalation be unctuous and fat and combustible then Bitumen and Sulphur and Orpiment are bred of it if it be dry and incombustible then concrete juyces c. But if moysture do abound in this vapour then metals are generated which are fusible and malleable And for the perfecting of these generations this exhalation is not sufficient but to give them their due consistence there must be the help of cold from Rocks in the earth to congeal this exhalation So that here must be two efficients heat and cold And for the better effecting of this these exhalations do insinuate themselves into stones in the form of dew o● frost that is in little grains but differing from dew and frost in this that these are generated after that the vapour is converted to water whereas Minerals are generated before this conversi●● into water But there is doubt to be made of frost because that is bred before the conversio● of the exhalation into water as may appear M●teor 1. According to this assertion there must be two places for the generation of minerals the one a matrix where they receive their effence by heat in form of an exhalation and from thence they are sent to a second place to receive the● congelation by the coldness of Rocks and fro● this matrix come our mineral waters and no● from the place of congelation This is the generation of minerals according to Aristotle but it is not so clear but that leaves many scruples both concerning the matter and the efficients For the matter it seems not probable that water and earth should make any thing but mud and dirt for you can expect no more from any thing than is in it the one is cold and dry the other cold and moyst and therefore as fit to be the matter of any other thing as of particular minerals And water whereof principally metals are made to consist is very unfit to make a malleable and extensible substance especially being congealed by cold as we may see in ice But some do add a mineral quality to these materials and that simple water is not the chief matter of metals but such as hath imbibed some mineral quality and so is altered from the nature of pure water This assertion doth presuppose minerals in the earth before they were bred otherwise what should breed them at the first when there was no mineral
plentiful exhalations as those must be which procure lightning and thunder and the vanity of their Antiperistasis to kindle these exhalations as hath been she wed before it is a sufficient refutation to take away the subject of the question that is all subterranean fire as I hope I have done and then we need not dispute about the means of kindling it c. these momentary meteors being produced only to kindle and not to maintain this fire From the water no man will derive this fire being a cold and moist Element and apt to quench it unless it be by dilating the seminary spirits of natural species and then they concur with us and renouncing the actual fire do confirm our heat of fermentation From the earth some have imagined an inbred heat ingenitum terrae calorem whereby it seems they had some glimmering of this light which we have given but have left it in as great obscurity as the Antipenstasis or Antipathy and earth being a cold and dry Element cannot be the cause of this heat as it is earth So as it is manifest that naturally the Elements cannot procure this heat of Bathes and by violent motion they can do as little For the earth being immovable cannot be stirred by any violent motion and the other three Elements as Fire Air and Water being thin and liquid substances can procure no heat by any motion or collision either upon themselves or upon the earth especially in the bowels of the earth where all is quiet and no room or scope for any such motion as this must be So that neither the other three Elements nor the earth either in the whole or in the parts can be the cause hereof by any violent motion From mixt bodies if this heat come it must be from animals vegetables or minerals Animals are not so plentiful in the earth as to cause this heat of Bathes either alive or dead We read of subterranean animals which have both motion and sense and understanding in Vincentius in speculo naturali in Lactantius in Agricola de animantibus subterraneis in Bellonius Ortelius Paracelsus c. who calls them Gnomi the Germanes Bergmaenlin the French Rabat the Cornish-men Fairies The Danes are generally perswaded that there are such creatures But if any such living creatures be able to procure this heat it cannot be by their hot complexions but it must be by violence and striking of fire Perhaps Democritus hath hired them to make his lyme there or some other to erect forges for thunder lightning and such like fire-works Brontesque Steropesque nudus membra Pyracmon But these opinions deserve no confutation From dead animals in their putrefaction some heat may appear but such as neither for the degree nor for the continuance can be answerable to our Bathes For vegetables there is the same reason as for dead animals neither doth the earth breed such plenty of these in her bowels as to procure a months heat to a tun of water in one place Wherefore we have nothing to ground upon but mineral substances whereof the earth affords enough For there is no part of the earth but is replenished with mineral seeds And although some may think that because minerals are not found or not wrought in all places and that some waters are also found which do not participate of the virtues of minerals that therefore our hot Bathes proceed not from the fermentation of minerals but from some other cause they are mistaken For although metals are not frequent in some places or at the least not discovered yet a man shall hardly dig ten foot deep in any place but he shall find rocks of stone which have their generation as well as other minerals or some of the Salts or Bitumina or Spirits or mean metals c. And how can Bathes receive mineral qualities but from minerals Therefore where Bathes are there must be Minerals although where Minerals are there are not always Bathes But perhaps they are not so accumulated as by their contiguity they are able to yield any manifest heat their matter being dispersed as grains of corn sown in a field which by reason of their lying single do not shew a sensible heat in their fermentation or most metals breeding between a Hanger and a Lieger which Agricola calls pendens and jacens are seldome above a foot thick and therefore cannot yield much heat to our waters And this is the cause why we have so few Bathes from Gold Silver Tin Lead c. But where much matter is accumulated together the very contiguity one part lying upon another will make a manifest heat untill it grow to a corpus continuum when the generation is perfected and then the heat is extinguished Or perhaps they have not water so plentifull as may yield a living spring although they may have sufficient for the use of their generation Or perhaps where they break forth they meet with desart sands as in Arabia China Africa c. Which drink up the water and hinder the eruption of it And whereas there are some hot springs found which do not shew any mineral quality in them the reason of this may be the want of concrete juice which as I have said before is the medium of communicating mineral qualities and substances with water For without them water is as unapt to imbibe minerals as it is to unite with oyle So as water may of it self receive actual heat from the fermentation of minerals but not their qualities without the mediation of some of the concrete juices as contrariwise we find some Fouutains that receive mineral qualities and yet are cold whereof I have given many examples The reason whereof is either for that they have passed a long way and by many Meanders from the place of generation to the place of their eruption and so have lost their heat or else the concrete juices which will dissolve in water without any heat being impregnated with other minerals do impart them to water and yet without heat But to say that there is any earth without mineral seeds is to make a vacuum in rerum natura and to destroy the use of the Elements It is true that the seeds do do not alwaies meet with opportunity to display themselves and sometimes they are fain to serve under other colours which are more predominant but there is no part of the earth without some seeds or other And from hence we must derive the original of the actual heat of Bathes for nothing else in the world will serve our turn to procure so lasting and so uniform a heat unto them and that not by kindling any actual fire about them for most of our minerals whereof our Bathes consist and from whence they receive both their actual heat and virtues will not burn neither have any actual heat in themselves being all cold to the touch but receive it by a fermenting heat which they have in their generation without which there
leave his old body as it found it that is dust yet so as that water retains with it soo● taste or qualitie which it received from the ear●● Agric●de nat fossil Lib. 1. Cap. 4. This dust is neither a simple body as Elements are nor permanent in one and the sam● kind but as it is thought to participate with an●mates vegetables and minerals so to be tran●muted into any of them being both Mother and Nurse to all terrestrial bodies Simple earth if it be not mixed with other substances is dry and cold and Astringent B●● if it be mixed as commonly it is it altereth h●● qualitie according to the mixture Mine inte● is to write of it as it is simple and so of the rest Simple earth yields but a muddie water of self and of no use in Physick but if it be mixed with other Minerals it makes the water to participate with the qualitie of those Minerals also As if it be mixed with Nitre as in Fullers eart● and Marle it makes the water abstergent like soap If with Allum or Copperass astringer and more desiccative as in all sorts of Boles with Bitumen fattie and Unctuous as in Tu● and Peate c. We have divers examples all sorts The Bath of Mount Otbon in Italy full of clay which is a kind of Bole. The Ba● Caldaria full of Ocre The Bath of Saint Pet● full of a yellow earth tincted belike with som other Minerals Wherefore these are to be judge of according to the several Minerals which the contain But seeing earth it self makes little impression into water neither do we make any Physical use of waters which contain nothing but earth I need not spend any time about them CHAP. V. Of Stone THe second shall be Stone Stone is another Mineral substance concrete and more heavy than earth and our Mineral men confound themselves much in the definition of it Wherefore Fallopius implores the help of Marcus Antonius Janna about it as one of the most difficult points in Philosophie but in the end defines it by his want of dissolution either by heat or moysture And whereas it is manifest that some stones will melt he imputes it to the admixture of some metal among which he reckoneth glass Others define it by his hardness wherein commonly it goeth beyond others Minerals But you shall have some stones softer than some of those and therefore the definition is not good Others by this that being broken or calcin'd they will not be consolidated again into their former consistence or shape But for breaking the reason of that is want of fusion for without fusion or ignition which is a kind or degree of fusion Metals also being broken will not be consolidated into the same Masse again And there is no more difference in nature or essence between a whole stone and a broken than there is between a mass of Metal and the powder or filings of the same As for calcination other minerals may be so far calcin'd and brought to a Crocus by fire as they will be irreducible therefore this is not proper to stone Wherefore I am of Fallopius his opinion in this point and the rather because otherwise there would seem to be a species in nature wanting if there were not Mineral Species wanting dissolution by heat or moysture as well as there are having such dissolution And this vacuum which nature abhors is not only to be understood of a local vacuity but also of a want b● such species as are in natures power to produce for the ornament of the World For if it be a natural passion to be dissolved it is likewise a natural passion not to be dissolved and if some things will be dissolved both by heat and moysture as Salts why should there not be other substances which will be dissolved by neither of them And this must be stone for nature affords none other Moreover according to Aristotle 〈◊〉 Quoe concreverunt a frigido a calido a null●●storum dissolvuntar Those things which come together by heat or cold are dissolved by neither of them Of this kind are stones which could never attain to such purity as many of them have if they were not congealed by heat as well as by cold Also under what species shall we comprehend Diamonds Talcum black-Lead which some think to be pnigitis Magnetis Glymmer Katzensilber pyrimachus amiantus alumen plumosum saxum arenarium mortnum c. if not among Stones yet these are confessed to be invincible by fire or water Also all pretious Stones the more noble and pretious they are the more they resist dissolution either by fire water for this quality sheweth the perfection of their mixture True it is that some stones will be dissolved by fire or water and therefore Pliny and Agricola divide Stones into fusible and infusible but this is in regard of other substances bred in the stone which if it be Metal the fusion will be Metalline If Nitre or mean Minerals it will be Vitrificatory As Pliny reports of the invention of Glass by certain Merchants who melting Nitre upon the Sand in Syria where with Clods of Nitre they had made a Furnace for their necessary use found that clear Metal which we call Glass Ecce liquato nitro oum arenis visi sunt rivi fluxisse nobilis liquoris Behold with the Sand when the Nitre was melted ran streams of a noble liquor If Sulphur as in Pyrite it will likewise melt and strike fire And whereas the striking of fire out of a flint or Pyrites or any other thing that will strike fire is held by all men to proceed from the kindling of air by the collision of two hard substances together they are mistaken For then Diamonds Chrystal Glass c. should strike fire as well as flints but it is the Sulphur contained in them And G. Fabricius in his observations although he observes not the reason of this fire yet he confesseth that out of any Pyrites è quo excutitur ignis etiam ●xcoquitur sulphur Out of which fire is struck Sulphur also is to be had Pliny gives the reason of the name quia inest illi ignis Because fire is in it The like we observe in Indian Canes and some Woods that are unctuous and ●ull of Oyle which yield fire by frication or collision not by kindling the air thereby but inflamable Oyle in them For air being cold and moist as hath been proved before hath no agreement with fire no more then oyle hath with water And therefore flame is not the kindling of air ' slamma non est aer accensus but of fub ginous vapours which have some unctuousness 〈◊〉 them and arise from the mater of fewel and ha● some inflamable parts remaining in them whi●● neer unto the matter of fuel do cause a manife● flame but farther off no flame doth appear y● so as if you hold Flax near unto the flame thou● it touch it not yet
it will kindle by reason t● fire extends further then it is visible being a p● lucide and transparent body and thinner then 〈◊〉 air it self And this is held to be the cause w● it is not visible under the Moon And where without air fire goes out and is extinguished 〈◊〉 reason is because the fuliginous vapours want● evaporation do recoyle upon the fireand cho● it This is evident in cupping-glasses and making of Char-coal where if the air be altog ther excluded the fire goes out if but in p● then although the flaming be hindred yet 〈◊〉 fire doth penetrate the fewel and so conver● to coals which by reason of the fuliginous pours are commonly black Bellonius s● that Char-coals made of the wood of the O● cedar tree are white which must be ascrib as I think to the small quantity of fuligin● vapours which that wood doth yield or 〈◊〉 that those vapours are rather sulphurous then any other combustible substance As wee that Tinby Coals will not black linnen be hanged in the smoak of them but rather whiten it by reason of the drying and penetrating quality of Sulphur which will make red Roses white But what shall we judge of those Lamps which have been found burning in old Sepulchres some of them if we may believe Histories having continued 1500 years together as that which was found in Paulus the third his time of Tullia Ciceroes Daughter and another of Maximus Olibius near unto Padua as Bernardinus Scardco reports It seems here was no air to maintain the Lamps being closely shut up in glasses and therefore they burnt without air and were not extinguished by reason they bred no fuliginous vapours to choak them Now whether these Oyles which fed the Lamps were made by Art out of Gold as some think and I hardly believe or rather out of some pure kind of Naphtha which is most probable I leave to others to judge only I judge it to be the purity of that Oyle which yielded no fuliginous vapours to choak the fire If air had maintained the flame it had not continued two minutes for it would have been spent and wasted by the fire Wheresore ignis non est aer accensus If other concrete juice be mixed with Stone as Salt Allum Vitriol c. it makes them to relent in water or moist air and these Stones are never good to build withal But let us take Stone as it is in it self without the admixture of other Minerals and we shall find it to be indissoluble and invincible either by fire or water Metallurgians Refiners and Assay Masters may make use of this for their Shribs Tiegles Muffels Copels Tests Hearths Crucibles Furnaces c. where they desire a defensible substance against fire But it requires a preparation to cleer it from all combustible and dissoluble admixture as they may easily do after they have powdred their Stone to calcyne 〈◊〉 and wash it well This work being often repeated will make it fit for their purpose an● they may use it either alone in the same manne● as they do bone-ashes or they may mix it with their lome brick-dust gestube c. Also the● may make Bricks of it for their Furnaces which will hardly receive any injury from fire Talcu● also is a Stone invincible of it self by fire and● Bricks made of Clay that is full of it as th● Guendern Clay in Cornwall will hardly mel● with any heat Stones are naturally dry an● cold and astringent like a concrete earth Simple Stones which have no other Mineral mixed with them and are come to their perfection being indissoluble either by fire or water can yield no quality or virtue to Bathes an● therefore he that seeks to draw any virtue fro● stone into water doth lapidem lavare that is labour in vain But by reason of admixtures they may or whilest they are in succo lapidescerte before they are concreted For if it be certain that Metals may yield virtue to Bathes being alike indissoluble by water there is no reason but Stones also may Fallopius is again● it in both but contradicted by Julius Caesar Clandinus and divers others yet he confesse● that Balncum montis Grotti hath Gyps 〈◊〉 and Gesner affirms the same of the Bathes of Eugesta Also he finds ramentd●mdrmoris in Balneo Corsenae Agnatio blit he judgeth that they receive no quality but from the juice and I doubt not but he is in the right And for succus lapidescens we have many examples in Agro Pisano Lucensi in Italy in Avernia in France where this juice is so plentifully brought by a clear Spring that after it is congealed the people dig the stones and have made a great Bridge of them Also neer Vienna in Savoy in a Village called Giret is a clear Fountain which turns to stones as hard as flints Pliny makes Tnention of the like Springs in Eubea which are hot and Vitruvius of the like at Hieropolis in Phrygia Also Josophus Acosta of the like hot Springs in Guaniavilica in Pern which turns to stone whereof they build their houses Anthonio de Herreza cap. 20. tells of the same Spring at Guainia at Velica which turns to stone as it riseth and kills those that drink of it Also this Succus lapidescens is observed in the Bathes of Apono where it is converted into stone upon the sides of the Bath Also in the Bath of Rancolani where this juice is not confused but perfectly mixed with the water and being imbybed by Plants it hardens them like stone Baccius tells us of a Cave by Fileg in Transilvania which turns water into stone The like is found at Glainstayns in Scotland as Hector Boetius reports In England also we have many Fountains which turn wood into stone which must be by reason of this Succus lapidescens mixed with the water Coral also being a Plant and nourished with this juice turns to stone so doth the seed of Lithospermon or Gromel Thus much of Stone CHAP. VI Of Bitumen His kinds qualities Of Campli● in particular That Bitumen is predominan● in the waters of Bathe NExt I come to those Minerals which we cal Bitumina which are mineral substance that burn and waste in the fire without metallin● fusion or ingression The greatest affinity they have is with Sulphur but this hath ingression into metal and therefore I rank it among the Spirits and Bitumen hath none Of this kind some are solid and some liquid Solid as Succinum Gagates Ambra Camphora Terra Ampell● Lithanthrax sive Carbofossilis c. Liquid 〈◊〉 Petroleum and Naphta All these are great fuel to fire especially those that are liquid which are thought to draw fire unto them if it be within their effluvium So Pliny reports that Medl● burnt Creusa by anointing her Garland with Naphtha and Strabo tells how Alexander Bath-master Athenophanes had almost burn● Stephanus a Boy in the Bath by sprinkling Naptha upon him
if it had not been suddenly quenched And this is that juice or thick water which Plato in Times reckons among fires and which the Egyptians used in their Sacrifices and was hidden by the Jewish Priests in a dty● pit for 70 years and afterwards found by Nebemi●h But whereas it is a common received opinion that some of these Bitumina will burn in water I cannot believe it although Pliny and Agricola and most that have written since out of them do averr it and bring arguments and examples to prove it For although water were a fewel to fire as oyle is yet there can be no fire without air and water excludes air and so doth oyle if the fire be beneath it and covered with it As for their arguments they say that Bitumen being sprinkled with water burns more and therefore water is a fewel to it as wee see that Smiths cast water upon their Sea-cole in their Forges but the reason of this is because their Coal being small like dust the water makes it to cake and bake together where otherwise the blast would blow it way also it hinders the quick burning of it and so makes it continue the longer so in a Vulcano after Rain they find the fire to burn more when the Bitumen is smal and in dust Although this may be a reason of it that the Lyme which hath there been calcined being by Rain dissolved increaseth the fire And whereas they say that water will kindle Bitumen and quench Sulphur it is not so neither doth their example of Wild-fire prove it For in Wild-fire besides Bitumen and Camphir there is a double proportion of quick Lymes which by reason of the sudden dissolution of his Salt by the effusion of water is apt to kindle any combustible matter not by reason of any Bitumen in the Lyme as some imagine nor of any Empyreuma which the fire hath left in it a● Fracasturius thinks for how can there be any Bitumen left in the Lyme if there were any 〈…〉 first after calcination the fire would have consumed that before any thing else And as fo● any Empyreums it is certain that the more any thing is burnt although the fire leave an adustio● in it the less apt it is to burn again especially being burnt and calcin'd ad calcem aut cinere● where all the combustible matter is spe●● Wherefore it must needs be by the violent motion which is in the sudden dissolution of the S● in it as appears by the crackling it makes 〈…〉 ex motu fit calor And motion causeth heat The like we observe in Pyrite sterili where● they make Vitriol which being broken an● laid up in heaps and moistned with water w● gather heat kindle any combustible matter p● to it The like we find also in Allum Mines c where those mineral juices being concrete in th● Mine when they come to sudden dissolution d 〈…〉 grow hot and will kindle fuel And as for th● example of the Salt Lake whereof Agrico● writes between Strapel● and Seburgh which burns the fishermens nets if they be put near th● bottome and of the Lake Sputa in Medi● mentioned by Strabo which burns Cloths put into it I take that to be by reason of th● corr●sive quality of the Salt which frets them being stronger near the bottome and not fro● Bitumen as Agricola thinks The like I judg of the Lake by Denstadt in Turingia And is very probable that Salt being heavier the Water will be most towards the bottome as is reported of the fountain Achilleus in Mileto whose water is very sweet and fresh above and very salt towards the bottom So is the water of Agnano in Italy as M. Sandys reports in his travels And the more heavy and terrestrial any sait is the more corrosive it is and so contratywise the more corrosive the more heavy Aristotle asfirms the Sea-water to be more salt at the bottom than above and so doth Pliny who likewise makes mention of the Lake Ascanius in Chalcide whose top is sweet and bottom nitrous Baccius writes the like of a Well near Toletum in Spain the water whereof is sweet above and corrosive beneath which he judgeth to be from Quick-silver Fallopius is also of opinion that Bitumen doth not only burn in water but is nourished by water because it makes the fire to last longer But I have shewed the reason of that before And for the burning in water he should have said upon the water for there it will burn as long as it swimmeth but dip it under the water and it is presently extinguished And whereas some report that Queen Ann of blessed memory being in our Kings Bath there arose a flame of fire like a candle from the bottom of the Bath to the top near unto her they must give me leave not to believe it but rather to think they were mistaken for I am not bound to believe any thing against reason which God hath given me to be my guide It might have been some bubble of wind which is frequent in our Baths or some bituminous matter not dissolved in the water did arise and being at the top dissolve it self upon the surface in the form of a circle but it could not be kindled And if it might be kindled in the water which were impossible yet in all likelyhood it would have burnt better above the water than within it and not be presently extinct as they report These Bitumina excepting Camphir are potentially hot and dry in the second or third degree but concerning Camphir there are two doubts First whether it be a Bitumen or a Gum. Secondly whether it be hot or cold The Arabians aff●● it to be the gum of a huge tree with white leaves under whose shadow many wild beasts may lye and that after earth-quakes there is great plenty found that it is in quality cold and dry in th● third degree some late writers follow them i● their opinion of a Gum as Mathiolus Amat● Lusitanus Garcias ab borto c. Plateareus hold it to be the juyce of an herb But we must consider that they make two sorts of Camphir th● one of Borneo the other of Chyna For that 〈…〉 Chyna they confess it is adulterated with Bitumen and that is the only Camphir in use with us But that of Borneo to be a simple Gum and that a pound of this is valued as dear as an hundred pound weight of the other So that all th● doubt lieth in this Camphir of Borneo which whether it be a Gum or no is still in controversie For the Arabians not trading into those parts had the notice hereof only from others as Serapio and Avicen do confess and Amatus Lusitanus faith the inhabitants will not suffer stranger to come ashore to see it So as we have been kept in ignorance a long time from the true knowledge of it And Garcias Ab horto tells us that all
meeting and conjunction of these qualities and then the one must dull the other Moreover we see that any thing that is naturally cold as Iron or a Stone if it be made hot accidentally by fire or otherwise it is sooner cold in cold air then in a warm place So that the Antiperistasis doth rather diminish then increase the heat of it Wherefore unless water were naturally hot or the heat maintained by some continual cause this Antiperistasis can do no good but by his opposite quality would rather cool it Nay heat it self cannot make any thing more hot unless it be greater then the heat of the thing it self But to ascribe the generation of heat to cold and so to make it the cause of his contrary is against the law of Nature No quality of it self is increased by his contrary It is true that a pot of water set over the fire will be sooner hot being covered or otherwise the vapours kept in then being open but there must be fire then to heat it and to continue the heat otherwise the Antiperistasis will do nothing unless it make it more cold and congeal it into Ice if the air ambient be more cold then the water Some may object that they find some Fountains warmer in Winter then in Summer and to reak when they break forth into the air as I have seen at Wercksworth and Bakewell in Darbyshire and therefore this doth argue an Antiperistasis Galen thinks that these waters do but seem so to our sense our hands being hot in Summer and cold in Winter as our Urins seem cold in a hot Bath But I will grant with Valesius that many deep Fountains may be so indeed and not in appearance only as partaking with some warm exhalations especially in Mineral Countreys as Darbyshire is Moreover if our Bathes were heated by a● Antiperistasis then they should be hotter in Winter then in Summer but we find them alwayes alike Also if a cold ambient be able to make cold water hot why should not a hot ambient make it more cold especially seeing the vapours are cold which being repelled by heat which doth terminate cold should increase the coldness of the water Also if we should grant this Antiperistasis we must deny the reaction and resistance between the qualities of the Elements and so overthrow all temperaments which arise from thence and also our composition of medicines were in vain Wherefore this Antiperistasis is an idle invention to maintain this purpose Others attribute this actual heat to quick Lyme which doth readily heat any water call upon it and also kindle any combustible substance put into it this is Democritus his opinion To this I answer that Lyme is an artificial thing not natural and is never found in the bowels of the earth Besides if it were found one fusion of water extinguisheth the heat of it and then it lyeth like a dead earth and will yield nor more heat So as this cannot procure a perpetual heat to Bathes neither can the Lymestones without calcination yield any heat to water nor will break and crackle upon the affusion on water as Lyme doth Wherefore this opinion is altogether improbable Others attribute this actual heat to a subterranean fire kindled in the bowels of the earth Let us consider how this may be Fire is a quality and the highest degree of heat which cannot subsist without a subject for I define it to be intensissimus color in corpore cremabili The highest degree of heat in a combustible body And it is received into his subject either by propagation or coition as when one candle lights another or by motion as collision concussion dilatation comprission putrefaction fermentalion reflection c. yet all motion doth not kindle fire although it heat neither are all substances apt to be heated by motion Air and water are rather colder by motion but this rule holds in such things as are apt to receive heat by motion as solid substances combustible substances c. And the heat of animals vegetables and minerals which they have for their generation and nutrition is from motion although this heat is not in so high a degree as fire is for then it would consume them but as the motion is moderate and agreeable to each nature so is the heat This motion in natural things proceeds from their seeds or forms and may be called internal or natural External motions are violent agitations concussions c. which commonly kindle fire in apt matter As for the element of fire which should be pure not shining and therefore invisible and subsisting without a subject or fewel let them find it who know where to seek for it For my part I know no element of fire unless we should make it to be that which is natural to all creatures and their seeds causing their fermenting heat whereof I shall speak anon And this interpretation we may well make of Hypocrates where he faith that all things are made of fire and water and that these two are sufficient for all generations fire giving motion and water nutrition And it is not likely that this fire should be fetched from a remote place and downwards against the nature of fire for every generation but that it be near hand and inbred in the seeds themselves as the principal ingredient into every natural thing whereas if it were remote what should bring it continually and unite it with the other elements in these generations Wherefore this is most likely to be the element of fire Our burning fire is all of one nature not differing in kind but only in degree according to the quality of the fewel Some fewels will make a manifest flame as all thin and light substances Sulphur liquid Bitumen Oyle Fat c. Some only a glowing coal with little or no flame as some forts of Stone-coal Yet all fire doth send forth fuliginous vapours which would choak it if there were not vent for them into the air as we see in the making of Char-coal although they cover their fire with lome yet they must leave some vent for the smoke though not so much as may make it to flame yet enough to maintain the fire Of the first flaming fort there are divers degrees as that of Straw Brimstone Spirit of Wine Naphtha Petroleum c. Some of which will scarcely take hold upon other fewel as one may wet a linnen cloath in Spirit of Wine and being kindled he shall hardly find the cloath scorched The like hath been observed in that exhalation which is called ignis satuus being of a very thin substance for Bitumen or Naphtha Some reckon Comets among these fiery exhalations but I can hardly believe that they are any kindled substances First because their flame is not pyramidal as it is in all kindled substances Secondly because if they be of a thin substance from Sulphur and Bitumen the flame would be greater seeing it
Lightnings can do it For the same reasons that exclude the Beams of the Sun and exhalations will likewise exclude lightnings Thirdly for the fuel there are only two substances in the bowels of the earth which are apt fuels for fire Bitumen and Sulphur Sulphur is in such request with all men as they think there can be no not Bath without it nay many hold that if water do but pass thorow a Mine of Brimstone although it be not kindled but actually cold yet it will contract from thence not only a potential but an actual heat But we do manifestly find that neither all hot waters are sulphurous nor all sulphurous waters hot as is said before in Sulphur The Bathes of Caldaneila and Avinian in agro Senensi de Grotta in Viterbio de aquis in Pisano Divi Johannis in agro Lacenss Balneum Geber suilleri in Halsatia c. are all hot and yet give no signe of Sulphur either by smell or taste or quality or effect Contrariwise that all sulphurous waters are not hot may appear by the Bathes in Zurich in Helvetia of Buda in Pannonia at Cure in Rhetia Celenses in Germany In Campania between Naples and Pateolum are many cold sulphurous Springs At Brandula in agro Carpensi c. All which Bathes shew much Sulphur to be in them and yet are cold And no marvel for if we insuse any simple be it never so hot potentially yet it will not make the liquor actually hot Wherefore this Sulphur must burn before it can give any actual heat to our Bathes and then it must needs be subject to the former difficulties and also must be continually repaired by new generations of matter which actual fire cannot further but rather hinder The fire generates nothing but consumes all things The like we may judge of Bitumen that unless it be kindled it can yield no heat to our Bathes as Solinander reports of a Bituminous Mine in Westfalia in agro Tremonensi where going down into the Grove he found much water having the smell taste and colour of Bitumen and yet cold Agricola imputes the chief cause of the heating of Bathes unto the fuel of Bitumen Baccius on the other side to Sulphur But in my opinion they need not contend about it For as I have shewed before in the examples of mineral waters there are many hot Springs from other minerals where neither Sulphur nor Bitomen have been observed to be John de Dondis and Julius Alexandrinus were much unsatisfied in these opinions and did rather acknowledge their ignorance then that they would subscribe unto them I need not dispute whether this fire be in Alveis or in Canalibus or in vicinis partibus c. because I think it is in neither of them CHAP. XIV The Authors opinion concerning the cause of actual heat and medicinal virtue in Mineral Waters VVHerefore finding all the former opinions to be doubtfull and weakly grounded concerning the causes of the actual heat of Bathes let me presume to propound another which I perswade my self to be more true and certain But because it hath not been mentioned by any Author that I know I have no mans steps to follow in it Avia Doctorum peragro loca nullius ante Trita solo I travel where no path is to be seen Of any learned foot that here hath been Which makes me fearfull in the delivery of it But if I do err in it I hope I shall not be blamed seeing I do it in disquisition of the truth I have in the former Chapters set down mine opinion concerning the generation of minerals that they have their seminaries in the earth replenished with spirits and faculties attending them which meeting with convenient matter and adiuvant causes do proceed to the generation of several species according to the nature of the efficient and aptnes of the matter In this work of generation as there is generatio unius so there must be corruptio alterius And this cannot be done without a superiour power which by moisture dilating it self worketh upon the matter like a ferment to bring it to his own purpose This motion between the agent spirit and the patient matter proceedeth from an actual heat ex motu fit calor which serves as an instrument to further this work And this motion being natural and not violent produceth a natural heat which furthers generations not a destructive heat For as cold dulls and benumbs all faculties so heat doth quicken them This I shewed in the example of Malt. It is likewise true in every particular grain of Corn sown in the ground although by reason they lie single their actual heat is not discernable by touch yet we find that external heat and moisture do further their spiring as adiuvant causes where the chief agent is the generative spirit in the seed So I take it to be in minerals with those distinctions before mentioned And in this all generations agree that an actual heat together with moisture is requisite otherwise there can neither be the corruption of the one nor the generation of the other This actual heat is less sensible in small seeds and tender bodies then it is in the great and plentifull generations and in hard and compact matter for hard bodies are not so easily reduced to a new form as tender bodies are but require both more spirit and longer time to be wrought upon And therefore whereas vegetable generations are brought to perfection in a few months these mineral generations do require many years as hath been observed by Mineral men Moreover these generations are not terminated with one production but as the seed gathereth strength by enlarging it self so it continually proceeds to subdue more matter under his government so as where once any generation is begu● it continues many ages and seldome gives over As we see in the Iron Mines of Illua the Tin Mines in Cornwall the Lead Mines at Mendip and the Peak c. which do not only stretch further in extent of ground than hath been observed heretofore but also are renewed in the same groves which have been formerly wrought as our Tinners in Cornwall do acknowledge and the examples of Illua and Saga before mentioned do confirm This is a sufficient means for the perpetuity of our hot Springs that if the actual heat proceed from hence there need be no doubt of the continuance of them nor of their equal tenor or degree of heat Now for the nature of this heat it is not a destructive heat as that of fire is but a generative heat joyned with moysture It needs no air for eventilation as the other doth It is in degree hot enough for the hottest Baths that are if it be not too remote from the place where the water issueth forth It is a means to impart the qualities of minerals to our waters as well as heat by reason the minerals are then in solutis principiis in their liquid
forms and not consolidated into hard bodies For when they are consolidated there are few of them that will yield any quality to water unless they be the concrete juyces or any actual heat because that is procured by the contiguity of bodies when one part lyeth upon another and not when they are grown in corpus continuum as we see in Malt where by turning and changing the contiguity the heat is increased but by suffering it to unite is quenched But before consolidation any of them may yield either spirit or juyce or tincture to the waters which by reason of their tenuity as is said before are apt to imbibe them Now if actual fire kindled in the earth should meet with these minerals whilst they are in generation it would dissipate the spirits and destroy the minerals If it meet with them after consolidation it will never be able to attenuate them so as to make them yield their qualities to water For we never find any metals or minerals melted in the earth which must be if the heat of actual fire were such as is imagined neither do we ever find any flores of metal sublimed in the earth This natural heat is daily found by our Mineral men in the Mines so as oftentimes they are not able to touch them as Agricola testifieth although by opening their groves and admission of air it should be well qualified Whereas on the other side it was never observed that any actual kindled fire was ever seen by workmen in the earth which were likely to be if these fires were so frequent Wherefore seeing we see that Mineral waters do participate with all sorts of Minerals as well metals as other as hath been shewed in the particular examples of all of them seeing also that few of them unless Mineral juyces are able to impart their quality to water as they are consolidated but only as they are in solutis principiis and whilst they are in generation as is agreed upon by all Authors seeing also this natural heat of fermentation must necessarily be present for the perfecting of their generation and is sufficient in regard of the degree of heat to make our Baths as hot as they are seeing also that the other adventitious fire would rather destroy these Minerals than further them seeing also we cannot imagine it either likely or possible without manifold difficulties and absurdities I do conclude that both the actual heat of Baths and the Mineral qualities which they have are derived unto them by means of this fermenting heat Which is still in fieri not in facto esse as the Schoolmen term it and therefore makes the heat continual Examples might be brought from all kind of generations and from some artificial works of this sermenting heat proceeding from the seeds of natural things These seeds containing the species and kinds of natural bodies are not from the Elements but are placed in the Elements where they propagate their species and individuals according to their nature and have their due times and seasons of appearing upon the Stage of the World Animals have their set times when their spermatick spirits are in turgescence some once some twice a year and some oftner especially in the Spring Vere magis quia Vere calor redit ossibus as Virgil speaks of Mares only man in regard of his excellency above other creatures is not so confinde Vegetables have likewise their seasons of setting and planting as they may have the earth and the season most convenient yet at any time if their seeds get moysture and heat to dilate them they will ferment and attempt the production of more individuals but oftentimes the Artist doth abuse this intention of nature and converts it to his ends and oftentimes nature being set in action to proceed a potentia in actum doth want convenient means to maintain her work as when we see a Rick of Hay or Corn which hath received moysture burnt to ashes So in the making of Malt or Woad or Bread or Beer or Wine c. we make use of this generative spirit for our ends that we may stir up and quicken it Otherwise our Bread would not be so favou●y our Beer would be but Wort our Wine would be but Must or Plum-pottage and want those spirits which we desire and which lie dead and benummed in the seeds untill they come to fermentation And in all these there is an actual heat although it appear not in liquid things so well as in dry because it is there quenched by the abundance of moysture yet we may observe active spirits in it by the bubling and hissing and working of it This is evident in artificial Wines which may be made of Figs Da●es dryed Raysing Currants Slows Strawberries Bramble-berries and such like when they are infused in water They will ferment of their own accord by virtue of the seeds which are in them and make as good and as natural Wine as the juice of the green fruit as I have often proved The Turks have a drink which they Call Couset or Posset which is made of Barly after such a manner as Bellonius reports in his observations It seems also that the Scythians drink was made in this manner which Virgil speaks of Hic noctem ludo ducunt pocula laeti Fermento atque acidis imitantur vitea sorbis They dance and quaff by the Moon-shine Fermented juice of Slows like Wine And I perswade my self that we have not yet attained to a perfect artifice of our Beer and Ale which stands upon the same grounds and may be wrought in such a manner if they would take the pains to try some conclusions upon it It might save much fuel and vessel and labour and perhaps with advantage in the product For I see but two points to be observed in the working of it the one is to extract the substance of the Malt into water the other to give it his due fermentation And both of these may be done without boyling But the artifice will differ somewhat from Wine and will require many conclusions to be tryed upon it before it be brought to perfection I do mention these artifices only to shew the power of this seminary and fermenting spirit and how it may be drawn to other uses for our benefit As this is found in vegetables so likewise in Minerals which as they have this generative spirit for the propagation of their species as hath been shewed before so they have this means of fermentation to bring them from a potential quality to an actual existence And as their matter is more plentifull and in consistence more hard and compact so these spirits must be more vigorous and powerfull to subdue it and consequently the heat of their fermentation must be in a higher degree then it is in other generations Now having shewed the erroneous opinions of others concerning this actual heat of Bathes and explain'd our own conceit of
by warming and comforting the cold part And Oribasius doth ingeniously confess that the nature of these Baths was not then perfectly discovered and therefore they were all held to be not only dry but very hot although we find them not all so for Iron waters do cool and so do those of Camphir and Alluminous and Nitrous waters also But for our Bituminous and Sulphurous waters which Galen forbids in hot brains there is no reason to suspect them in cold affects of the brain and nerves in which cases we make especial choice of all things which either in tast or smell do resemble Bitumen as Rue Castorium Valeriana Herba Paralyseos Trifolium Asphaltitis c. which both by his warming quality and by his suppling and mollifying substance is most proper and convenient for those parts The like I may say of Sulphur in which nothing can be excepted against but his sharp spirit which is made by burning and we have none of that in our waters nor I hope any fire to make it withal The other parts of Sulphur are hot and dry and very unctuous As for Nitre it cleanseth purgeth both by stool and urine and helpeth the incorporation of the other Minerals with the water and qualifies the heat of them and gives them better penetration into our bodies In regard of these Minerals together with the actual heat we find that the bathing in our Baths doth warm the whole habit of the body attenuate humors open the pores procure sweat move urine cleanse the matrix provoke womens evacuations dry up unnatural humors strengthen parts weakned comfort the nerves and all neutrous parts cleanse the skin and suck out all salt humours from thence open obstructions if they be not too much impacted case pains of the joynts and nerves and muscles mollifie and discuss hard tumors c. Wherefore this bathing is profitable for all palsies apoplexies caros epilepsies stupidity destuctions gouts sciaticaes contractions cramps aches tumors itches scabs leprosies cholicks windyness whites in women stopping of their courser barrenness abortions scorbuts anasarcaes and generally all cold and phlegmatick diseases which are needless to reckon up In all which cure● our Baths have a great hand being skilfully directed by the Physitian with preparation of the body before and addition of such other helps as are needfull And whereas without the help of such Baths these diseases could not be cured without tormenting the body either by fire of lancing or causticks or long dyets or bitter and ungrateful medicines c. In this course of bathing all is pleasant and comfortable and more effectual than the other courses and therefore it is commonly the last refuge in these cases when all other means fail I will not undertake to reckon up all the benefits which our Baths do promise but if we had a register kept of the manifold cures which have been done by the use of our Baths principally it would appear of what great use they are But as there is a defect in not keeping a Catalogue of rare Cures so many persons of the better sort would be offended if a Physitian should make any mention of their cures or griefs wherefore I must speak but generally CHAP. XIX The manner of bathing chiefly referred to the inspection and ordering of a Physitian Yet some particulars touched concerning the government of the patient in and after bathing the time of day of staying in the Bath of continuing the use of it The time of the year Of covering the Baths NOw for the manner of bathing I will not set down what the Physitian is to do but leave that to his judgement and discretion but what is fit for the patient to know for there are many cautions and observations in the use of bathing drawn from the particular constitutions of bodies from the complication of diseases and from many other circumstances which cannot be comprehended in general rules or applyed to all bodies alike but many times upon the success and the appearing of accidents the Physitian must exre nat a capere consilium and perhaps alter his intended course and perhaps change the Bath either to a hotter or cooler c. In which respect those patients are ill advised which will venture without their Physitian upon any particular Bath or to direct themselves in the use of it And this is a great cause that many go away from hence without benefit and then they are apt to complain of our Baths and blaspheme this great blessing of God bestowed upon us It is fit for the patient when he goeth into the Bath to defend those parts which are apt to be offended by the Bath as to have his head well covered from the air and wind and from the vapours arising from the Bath also his kidneys if they be subject to the Stone anointed with some cooling unguents as Rosatum Comitissae Infrigidans Galeni Santolinum c. Also to begin gently with the Bath till his body be inured to it and to be quiet from swimming or much motion which may offend the head by sending up vapours thither at his coming forth to have his body well dryed and to rest in his bed an hour and sweat c. A morning hour is fittest for bathing after the Sun hath been up an hour or two and if it be thought fit to use it again in the afternoon it is best four or five hours after a light dinner For the time of staying in the Bath it must be according to the quality of the Bath and the toleration of the patient In a hot Bath an hour or less may be sufficient in a temperate Bath two hours For the time of continuing the Bath there can be no certain time set down but it must be according as the patient finds amendment sometimes twenty daies sometimes thirty and in difficult cases much longer And therefore they reckon without their Host which assign themselves a certain time as perhaps their occasions of business will best afford For the time of the year our Italian and Spanish Authors prefer the Spring and Fall and so they may well do in their hot Countreys but with us considering our climate is colder and our Baths are for cold diseases I hold the warmest moneths in the year to be best as May June July and August and I have persivaded many hereunto who have found the benefit of it for both in our Springs and after September our weather is commonly variable and apt to offend weak persons who finding it temperate at noon do not susp ct the coolness of the mornings and evenings Likewise in the Bath it self although the Springs arise as hot as at other times yet the wind and air beating upon them doth do them much harm and also make the surface of the water much cooler than the bottom and therefore Clauidinus wisheth all Baths to be covered and Fall●pius finds great fault with the Lords of Venice that they do not
for that is no where to be found among mixt bodies but I mean such water as is free from any heterogeneal admixture which may alter either the touch or taste or colour or smell or weight or consistence or any other qualitie which may be discerned either by the senses or by the effects This water therefore must have his proper colour and taste without savour or smell thin light cold and moist if any of these properties be wanting or any redound it is mixed and infected Cold and moisture do abound in water For cold appears by this that being heated by any external cause it soon returns to his cold nature again when the cause of the heat is removed And whereas Air is held by the Stoicks to be most cold and confirmed by Sene●a and Libavius yet the reason they give for it doth seem to prove water to be more cold because they make the matter of air to be water and to have his coldness from thence But Aristotle holds the air to be hot from the efficient cause which ●rarified ●it being of more validity to make it hot than water the material cause to make it cold Galen is of neither side for he doth not judge it to be hot neither doth he ever pronounce it to be cold but by reason of his tenuity apt to be altered either by heat or cold I will not here undertake to determine whether all be bred of water or whether it be not a distinct substance of it self and only receiveth watry vapours into it being agreeable in cold moisture tenuity c. with it and so lets them separate in rain and so exonerate it self of these vapours as also of dry exhalations by winds thunder c. or whether air be only the efflu●●um of the inferiour globe being within the orbe of his virtue as all Dominion hath not only a place of residence and Mansion but also a verg● and territory where it exercifeth his authority and government so the inferior globe of the earth and water hath his dominion beyond his own globe as likewise may be thought of all other globes of the Planets c. But these points are impertinent to my purpose It is enough for me to shew what I judge of the temperature of the air concerning heat or cold And to me it seem● most probable that the air of it self should be cold as may appear by this that it is only heated by external causes which being removed the a● returns to his former coldness again So we se● that within the Tropicks in Zona torrida as long as the Sun is within their Horizon and beats th● air with his perpendicular beams it is exceeding hot especially in the vallies where the reflection is most insomuch as Aristotle held those parts of the World to be inhabitable in regar● of the extremity of heat But after the Sun is set● the air returns to his natural coldness until the Sun arise and heat it again Josephus Acosta ur● geth this argument against Aristotle about the habitableness of the torrid Zone that the daie● and nights being there equal the presence of the Sun in the day-time may well heat the air b●● his absence for twelve hours more in the night reduceth the air to a better temper and upon this and divers other arguments and experiences which cannot be denied concludes that if there be any Paradise upon earth it is under or near the equinoctial The like reason may be drawn from the coldness of mountains which being near to the middle region of the air and wanting that reflection of the beams of the Sun which is in the valleys are continually cold and often covered with snow which would not be if the air were hot As for the conceit that the middle region is made cold by an Antiperistasis the element of fire being above it and the reflection of the beams of the Sun beneath it it is an idle conceit For these heats on both sides would rather heat than cool the middle region by their working upon it Also take away the element of fire from under the Moon which is an opinion now exploded by the best Philosophers and then what becomes of your Antiperistasis But I shall speak more of this Antiperistasis cap. 13. And as for the reflection beneath it is a weak thing and will hardly extend to the top of a steeple wherefore this coldness of the middle region is not from any Antiperistasis but from the nature of the air which there is not altered either by any influence from above or by any vapours or reflection from beneath Neither would it be so cold neer the Poles if the air of it self were hot But the long absence of the Sun in those parts and the oblique beams when it is present do permit the air to enjoy his natural coldness And as the airis of it self and in his own nature cold so is it probable that it is more cold than water seeing it hath a greater power of condensation than water as we see it congeals water into ice snow hail c. which the water cannot do of it self For in the bowels of the earth where the air cannot freely pass water is never found to be congealed unless it b● compasled by some other substance equivalent to air in coldness as Quick-silver Nitre c. where cold is drawn into a greater compendium than in water by reason of the density of their substances and in ice and snow the cold ma● be greater by reason of the admixture of air I● is likewise probable that earth is more cold that water if we consider it as it is in it self and no● mixed with other heterogenities For as motio● causeth heat and levity and rarity so want o● motion which is in earth causeth coldness density and ponderosity But it is enough for o● purpose to prove both air and water to be cold As for moisture Aristotle holds the air to be mos● moist and water most cold Galen holds wate● to be most moist Aristotles reason for the predominance of moisture in Air is because it is mo● hardly contained within his bounds but the termination of things proceeds from their opposite qualities as moisture is terminated by dryness and dryness by moisture and dryness doth a● easily terminate moisture as moisture doth terminate dryness And this difficulty of termination in air may more properly be ascribed to hi● thinness and tenuity of parts than to his moisture For dry exhalations will extend themselves a● well as moist vapours and as it is density that compacts so it is rarity that extends Fire it self is more hardly bounded than air and yet not moist Those that would reconcile these differences do alledge that Galen speaks as a Physitian and meant that water was bumidissimum medicamentum Aristotle as a Philosopher meant it to be humidissimum elementum But this reconciliation gives little satisfaction For how
the could water be humidissimum medicamentum if it were not humidissimum elementum For the simple qualities are more intense in the Elements then in mixt Bodies caeteris paribus We speake of the proper operation of water according to his natural quality and not as it may work by accident Thinness and levity are two other qualities of simple water which Hypocrates commends and adds this experiment in another place that it is quickly hot and quickly cold Galen adds another experiment in the quick boyling of Peason and Beans And whereas Galen produceth the boyling of Beans as a familiar example to shew the tenuity of water we may gather that the use of Beans was common in those dayes although the Py●hagorean sect did then much flourish which were thought to forbid the use of them But I find that here hath been a great mistake For Aristoxenus who wrote of the Life and Doctrine of Pythagoras affirms that he did delight much in that kind of food and our Physitians commend them for loosing the Belly and drying of Rheums But it seems the cause of this mistake was a Verse of Empedocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O miseri a fabulo miseri subducite dextras Thrice wretched men from Cyams keep your hands As if he had forbidden the use of Beans poor occasion to pronounce them miserable which used them But he meant it of continency and abstinence from venery as Aulus Gellius doth intérpret it where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are understood to be testiculi Cicero mentioneth the the same of the Pythagoreans but in another sense because Beans were thought by their flatulency to disturb our Dreams and so to hinder the divination which might be gathered from them as also Middendorpius judgeth But t● return to water And it is requisite that wa●e should have these qualities in regard of the manifold and necessary uses of it both for M●● and Beast and Plants insomuch as there is n● living for any creature where there is no wate● It was our first drink to quench our thirst an● to distribute our nourishment as a vehiculu● which it doth by his tenuitie and after the invention of Wine it was mixed therewith ● Virgil saith of Bacchus Poc●laque inventis Acheloia miscuit ●vis And he that first found out the Vine Mix'd some Water with his Wine Where by Acheloia he means not only t● water of the River Achelous in Etolia but● other waters as Macrobius proves out of A●● stophanes and Ephorus and Scaliger saith th● the Greeks called all waters by that name fro● the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And since the planting of Vine yards seeing all Countries could not be● Grapes Bacchus also taught the world to make vinum è frugibus with water as Diodorus Siculus reports from whence the Egyptians had their Zithum and Curmi the Spaniards their Cerea the Turks their Cowset and we our Ale and Beer all which are extracted out of Corn by the pureness of and tenuitie of water By means whereof we have our Broths Syrups Apozemes c. extracted with it as a fit menstruum to receive the faculties of all medicaments and nourishments especially the second qualities and therefore it was antiently called Panspermia besides the manifold uses in washing dying c. where that water is accounted hest which lathers most being mix'd with Soap of which I will not discourse farther Levity is another note of pure water alledged by many and serves well to distinguish it from many mixed waters whether we respect the weight of it or the molestation which it breeds in the bowels This difference of weight is hardly discerned by ballance both because simple waters do very little differ in this point and also many mixt waters if they be only infected with Spirits and not corporal substances retain the same proportion of heaviness with simple water and also because it is hard to have great Ballances so exact as a small difference may be discerned by them yet Agricola reports that a cotyle of the water of Pyrene and Euleus did weigh a dram less then the water of Euphrates or Tigris and therefore the Kings of Persia used ●o drink of it and held it in great account as also the water of the River Coaspis Thus much for the qualities which simple water should have for such as it should not have I shall not need to spend time in discourse being either such as the Senses will discover if it be in taste colour smell or touch or the effects if it be purgative vomitory venomous c. CHAP. III. Of the three Originals of Simple Waters NOW it followeth that we shew from whence these waters have their Original which is no other then of the mixt waters saving that the mixt waters do participate with some Minerals which are imbibed in them They haue three several Originals the one from moist vapours congealed by cold in the air the second from the earth the third by percolation from the Sea For the first it is certain that our Springs and Rivers do receive great supply of waters from the Air where vapours being congealed by cold do fall down upon the Earth in Rain or Snow or Hail whereby the ground is not only made fertile but our Springs are revived and our Rivers increased As we see the Rhine and Danubius to swell more in Summer than in Winter because then the Snow which continually lyeth upon the Alpes doth melt by the heat of the Sun and fills those Rivers which have their Originals from thence up to the brinks Also we see daily after much Rain our small Lakes and Rivers to be very high Also upon much dryth our Springs fail us in many places which upon store of Rain do supply us again with water And this is the cause that in most parts of Africa near the Equinoctial where it rains little they have little water and many times in two or three dayes journey can hardly find to quench their thirsts and their Camels Leo Africanus speaks of an Army wherein were many Camels which in their marching coming to a River perhaps it was but a Brook did drink it dry So that we must acknowledge that the Earth receives much water this way But how this should serve the Bowels of the Earth with sufficient for the generations there and for perpetual Springs is very doubtfull whereas Seneca faith that these waters do not pierce above ten foot into the Earth neither if there were passages for it into the Bowels of the Earth can the hundred part of it be imployed this way but is readily conveyed by Rivers into the Sea Wherefore although much water be yielded to the superficies of the Earth by Rain and Snow and Hail from the Air yet not sufficient to maintain perpetual Springs seeing many times and in many Countries these aerial supplies are wanting or very spare and yet the Springs the
〈…〉 they have failed in their projects yet this do not prove the impossibility of it And for 〈◊〉 goodness of this metal if it were rightly made would melt as readily as other metal and wo 〈…〉 be tough and not so brittle as it is and wo 〈…〉 not be so apt to rust For these inconvenience happen to it for want of separation of the impurities which are bred with it For Tin we have as good as any in the World although it is not wrought to the best advantage The Countreys where it grows are barren of wood and they are fain to fetch it far off Now if it were wrought as I know it may by many experiments which I have made upon it with stone-coal there would be much saved and the wood might be otherwise employed The Tin also would be as good as now it is and the product not diminished For Lead although for soft Oars the ordinary course of melting at Mondip and the Peak may serve Well and much better than their Baling at Alendale in Hexamshire and at Grass in the Bishoprick of Duresme yet for hard Oars which are commonly rich in silver there might be better courses taken by common or proper Agents Common agents are fire and water proper are dissolvents or additaments By fire they might amend their working if they did roast their Oars well before melting to breath away volatil and combustible substances which are mixed with their Oars By water after calcination or roasting they may separate all dissoluble juyces c. Dissolvents do chiefly serve to separate the silver or gold out of the Oars as in the quick-silver work or by Lyes of Nitre Allum Salts c. Additaments are also of great use whether they be segregatory for separation of spirits or mean metals from our Oars and so to facilitate their fusion or propugnatory to defend the Oares from consuming or vitrifying Segregatory additaments are either such as are more easie of fusion than the Oare and so draw the Oare into fusion with them or such as will not melt at all as Geber saith Cujus intentio non sit fundi which keeps the Oar asunder from clodding and giyes it a greater heat like fire in his bosom By these means well applyed and used all Lead Oares might be wrought be they never so stubborn and none need to be neglected Hitherto I have digressed out of mine intended course through the desire I have to advance mineral works Now I will return to shew the nature and qualities of these metals as I have done of other minerals Gold of all Metals is the most solid and therefore the most heavy as having few impurities or heterogeneal substances mixed with it And therefore it is not subject to corruption as other metals are neither will it lose any of his substance either by fire or water although it should be held in them a long time so as it is an idle and vain perswasion that many have who think by boyling Gold in Broth to get some strength from thence and so to make the Broths more cordial The like I may say of putting Gold into Electuaries or Pills unless it be in case of Quicksilver taken into the body which the Gold by touch may gather to it otherwise it goes out of the body as it came in without any concoction or alteration or diminution And if it be dissolved in strong water it will be reduced again to his metalline substance without diminution much less will it be dissolved without corrosive Spirits to make Aurum Potabile as some do undertake Crollius doth acknowledge that there is but one Menstruum in the world that may do it and that he knows not But if we had it dissolved we are yet uncertain what the quality of it would be or what use to make of it in Physick only because it loseth none of his substance we know it can do no hurt and therefore we use it for Cauteries to quench in Beer or Wine c. to warm it or to give it some astriction from the fire Fallopius in these regards disclaims it in all mineral waters as he doth all other metals and will not believe that any metal doth impart any quality unto water Claudinus holds otherwise and so doth Baccius Savanarola Montagnana Venustus Solinander and almost all that have written of Bathes For if we should exclude Metals we must likewise exclude Stones and Bitumina and Sulphur and almost all minerals except concrete juices For none of these after they have attained to their full consistence will of themselves dissolve in water without the help of some concrete juice as a medium to unite them with the water But before they have their full consistence whilst they are in Solutis principiis as Earth Juice or Vapour they may be communicated with water Gold is so sparingly bred in the bowels of the Earth as in that respect it can hardly furnish a perpetual Spring with any quality from it yet some Bathes are held to participate with Gold as Ficuncellenses Fabariae Piperinae de Grottae in Viterbio Sancti Cassiani de Buxo c. Silver comes next in purity to Gold but is inferiour unto it as appears by the dissolution of it and by the blew tincture which it yields and by the fouling of the fingers c. For the qualities of it there is not much discovered But as all other things of price are superssitiously accounted cordia● so is this especially in hot and moist distempers of the heart for it is esteemed to be cold and dry and astringent and yet emollient We have no Bathes which do manifestly participate with it perhaps by reason nature doth hot produce it in sufficient quantity to infect waters John Baubinus thinks there may be Silver in the Bathes at Boll because he faith there was a Pyritis or Marchesit examined by Doctor Cadner and out of fifty pound weight of it he drew two drams of Silver a very small proportion to ground his opinion upon Iron is the most impure of all metals as we have it wrought and will hardly melt as metals should do but with additaments and flusses Neither is it so malleable and ductible as other metals are by reason of his many impurities Yet we see that at Damasco they work and refine it in such sort as it will melt at a Lamp and is so tough as it will hardly break And this is not by reason of any special Mine differing from other Iron Mines for they have no Mines of Iron near to Damascus as Bell●nius reports but have it brought thither from divers other places only their art in working and purifying it is beyond ours So the Spanish Steel and Iron is purer then ours and we do esteem of Bilbo-blades beyond others which are quenched in the River Bilbilis as Turnus his Sword in Virgil was quenched in the River Styx Ensem quem Dauno
Alexander Aphr●disiensis for this opinion and saith that he had poysoned our Philosophy herein Venenav●●hanc Philosophiae partem So both he and others derive the sense motion understanding growth and the natural faculties of our souls and the peculiar properties of every thing from this original turpissimo errore as Severinus saith And Scaliger in another place concerning this D● intelleclu ratione ipsaque anima quae ●ontaminarunt istoe nebuloe Aphrodisienses pudet dicere piget meminisse I am ashamed to speak and grieved to think how this Aphrodisiensis hath polluted our reason and understanding and our very souls with his foggy doctrine in ascribing all these unto the Elements By the same reason they may ascribe the barking of Doggs the singing of Birds the laughing and speech of men to the Elements Their opinion is more probable which hold animam ex traduce and to be communicated as one light to another as Timoth. Bright proves in Physicam Scribonii and not to ascribe it to the Elements nor to miracles or new creations But there is far more reason to derive from the Elements the tastes colours smells sigures numbers quantities orders dimensions c. which appear more in corporal substances and yet these are not from the Elements For how can they give these affections to other things when they have them not themselves Si non est ab elementis gustare quare sit gustari What taste have any of these Elements Fire or heat which is the most active Element hath none And whereas it is thought that bittterness proceeds from heat we find that many sharp and tar●fruits being also very bitter before they are ripe as Olives for example yet let them hang upon the tree till they be ripe and they lose their bitterness and also their sharpness by reason of their better concoction by heat The like difference wefind between our oleum omphacinum and therpe oyle So likewise opium which is held to be very cold yet it is extream bitter so as the cold parts in it are not able to master the bitterness but this is still predominant wherefore heat can be no cause of bitterness unless it be in excess or defect as Scaliger confesseth Wormwood is very bitter being hot and dry in the second or third degree if heat were the cause of it then all other simples which are hot and dry in the same degree should be also bitter As I have said of tastes so I may say of all the other affections of natural things that they proceed not form the Elements but from the seeds and forms of every thing So for fat and unctuous substances as Sulphur Bitumen Oyle Grease c. unto what Element shall we ascribe them Not unto fire because this is extream hot and dry that is temperate in heat and very moist Moreover fire would rather consume it then generate it and Physitians judge the generation of fat in our bodies to proceed rather from cold then from heat Air if it have any ingenerate quality as some do make doubt out of Aristotle it is cold and moist as I have shewed before cap. 2 5. and therefore as it cannot agree with fire nor be a fuel to it so it cannot be any material cause of fat or oylie substance being more agreeable to water from whence it is thought to be made by rarifaction and into which it is thought to be reduced by condensation Wherefore being of a watry nature it cannot agree with oyle or fatness nor be the matter of it The like we may judge of water which doth terminate both water and air and therefore must be opposite to them both As for earth being cold and dry and solid it cannot be the matter of this which is temperate and moist and liquid Neither can all the Elements together make this substance seeing there is no unctuousness in any of them and they can give no more then they have So as I cannot see how this oylie substance which is very common in all natural things and wherein the chief faculties of every thing doth reside as their humidum radicale should be from the Elements So likewise for the substance wherewith every thing is nourished and increased and into which every thing is resolved it appears not how it should be from the Elements Hypocrates of whom Macrobius saith Nec fallere nec falli p●tuit hath two notable axioms for the clearing of this point The one is Vnumquong in id dissolvitur unde compactum est Every thing is dissolved into that whereof it was made The other Iisdem untrimur ex quibus constamus we are nourished by such things as we consist of Aristotle also hath the same If this axiom be true as I hold it to be and I know none that contradict it then we must consist of such things as we are nourished withall But we are not nourished by the Elements and therefore we consist not of them Fire nourisheth nothing water nourisheth not as Physicians conse●s Air is too thin a substance and Earth to thick And as they do not nourish them when they are single so being compounded they can do as little Aristotle saith that some Plants are nourished with water alone some with earth alone and some with both together But if earth and water be mixed for our nourishment they making but mud would make us have muddy brains We will grant the Elements to be matrices rerum naturalium the wombs and nurses of natural things but we will not grant them to be material causes Neither can we attribute more dignity unto them then we do to our Mothers who depart from their substance whereof they consist as flesh bones sinews veins arteries c. to the nourishment of their Infants but only prepare blood for them from the nutriments which they receive And all the Elements in the world cannot make this blood neither as the matter nor as the efficient But as the Mother is furnished with blood to nourish the Infant and with convenient heat to foster it withall so are the Elements stored with all manner of matter sit for all generations so as the seeds or forms of natural things will never want matter to nourish them nor will ever want forms So that it is manifest that if natural bodies be not nourished by the Elements they are not compounded of them but being nourished by other substances then the Elements they must be compounded of the like Simile simili nutritur composit a compos●● constant nutriuntur Thus much for the Genesis or generation and naration of natural things that thereby we cannot gather that they are either mad or nourished by the Elements Now let us examine whether by the Analysis or dissolution of them we may find the four Elements according to the former axiome that every thing is dissolved into that whereof it was made and is made of than whereinto it is
tastes numbers proportions distempers c. Also from hence proceed the Transplantations which we find in animals vegetables and minerals In animils these Transplantations are not very frequent yet all our monsters may be referred hereunto as also the issue which comes from Dogs and Wolves Horses and Asses Partriges and Hens c. Some do think that the destruction of Sexes is a Transplantation and that all seeds in themselves are hermophroditical and neither masculine nor feminine but as they meet with strong and weak impressions from supervenient causes From hence come our Androgyni or masculine women such as Horace speaks of Sabellis docta ligonibus versare glebas That dig the ground themselves stout Jades Managing well Sabean Spades Among those Animals which we call Insecta these Transplantations are more frequent because their seeds are more equivocal and easily transmuted from one species to another as we may see in Worms and Flies and most evidently in Silk-worms called Cavallieri In Vegetables these Transplantations are very frequent when one species is grafted upon another as Virgil faith Et steriles platani malos gessere valentes Castaneae fagos ornusque incanuit albo Flore pyri glandemque sues fregere sub ulmis The barren Planes did Apples bear The Beeches Chesnuts th' Ash a Pear And Hogs did under Elm-trees Acorns tear Thus by commixtion of several species the first seeds do oftentimes being forth other fruits then their own Miranturque novas frondes non sua poma And stand admiring double mute To see new leaves and stranger fruit But all as Hypocrates saith by divine necessity both that which they would and that which they would not So likewise Wheat is changed into Lolium Basil into Thyme Masterwort into Angelica c. In Minerals we find the like transplantations as Salt into Nitre Copperass into Allum Lead into Tin Iron into Copper Copper into Iron c. And this is the transplantation whereupon the Alchymists ground their Philosophers stone This Seminary Spirit is acknowledged by Aristotle Continent inquit semen in se cujusque faecundit atis suae causam and by most of his Interpreters and Morisinus calls it Elphesteria not knowing how to attribute these generations to the Elements And this is the cause why some places yield some one vegetable or mineral species above another Quippe solo natura subest Non owsnis fert omnia tellus It is the nature of the ground Not in all Soils are all things found This seminary spirit of minerals hath its proper wombs where it resides and is like a Prince or Emperour whose prescripts both the Elements and matter must obey and it is never idle but alwayes in action producing and maintaining natural substances untill they have fulfilled their destiny donec fatum expleverint as Hypocrates saith So as there is a necessity in this depending upon the first benediction crescite multiplicamini and this necessity or fatum is inherent in the seeds and not adventitious from the Planets or any other natural cause And this is the cause of uniformity in every species that they have all their proper figures dimensions numbers of parts colours tastes c. most convenient and agreeable to each nature as Moses saith that God saw that every thing was very good and Galen saith Deus in omnibus optimum eligit And this I take to be the meaning of his Lex Adrastia which he alledgeth against Asclepiades For it he should mean it as commonly it is understood of punishment which alwayes follows sin nem● crimen in pectore gestaet qui non idem Nemesi● in tergo No man though privately commits a fault but is degg'd by revenge in this sense he could not apply it to the confuting of Asciepiades There are also other laws in nature which cannot be altered both Mathematical in Arithmetick and Geometry and Logical in the consecuting of arguments c. But these serve not for Galens purpose in this place He must mean it of a natural necessity or fatum or predestination that frames every member part of the body to the best use for the creature And therefore where Asclepiades propounds an inconvenient frame of parts he confutes him by this inbred law of nature which he saith no man can alter or avoid nor any subtility elude as also Aristotle saith Thus much for the generation of Minerals and other natural substances CHAP. XIII Of the causes of actual heat and medicinal virtue in Mineral Waters divers opinions of others rejected NOW I come to shew how our mineral waters receive both their actual heat and their virtues I joyn them together because they depend upon one and the same cause unless they be juices which will readily dissolve in water without the help of heat other minerals will not or very hardly This actual heat of waters hath troubled all those that have written of them and many opinions have been held of the causes of them Some attribute it to wind or air or exhalations included in the bowels of the earth which either by their own nature or by their violent motion and agitation and attrition upon rocks and narrow passages do gather heat and impart it to our waters Of their own nature these exhalations cannot be so hot as to make our water hot especially seeing in their passage among cold rocks it would be much allaied having no supply of heat to maintain it Moreover where water hath passage to get forth to the superficies of the earth there these exhalations and winds will easily pass and so their heat gone withall and so our waters left to their natural coldness whereas we see they do continue in the same degree and tenor many generations together If by their agitation and violent motion they get this heat because no violent thing is perpetual or constant this cannot be the cause of the perpetual and constant heat of water Besides this would rather cause earthquakes and storms and noyses in the earth then heat our springs Moreover we daily observe that exhalations and water are never heated by motion or agitation as in the Cataracts of the Rhine by Splug the agitation and fall of water upon rocks is most violent and makes a hideous noyse yet it heats not the water though it be very deep in the earth Neither can any attrition heat either air or water or any soft and liquid thing but rather make it more cold Others attribute this actual heat of Bathes unto the Sun whose beams piercing thorow the pores of the earth do heat our waters If this heat which heats our Bathes be caused by the beams of the Sun then either they bring it intirely from the Sun as a quality proceeding from thence or they make it by their own motion If it come from the nature of the Sun the Sun must be extream hot that can heat these inferiour parts at such a distance especially the
must be plentiful if it continue so long in burning as we find them to do Or admit that this matter be kindled by succession yet it is incredible that it should continue burning above a year together as that Comet Xiphian which lasted a whole year Another Anno 1572. under the constellation of Cassiopaea lasted a year and a half others six months others three c. If the Sulphurous or Bituminous matter be thick it will melt in burning and rain down Brimstone and Bitumen upon us Thirdly if Comets were kindled substances what entertainment could they find above the Moon and among the spheres where they say no corruptible or elementary substance can be indured But many of our Comets have been observed to have been above the Moon and some among the fixed Starrs as hath been observed by Tycho Brahe and Clavius and upon due observation they could find some of them to admit no Paralaxis or diversity of aspect to any star in different Climats This argumnnt may be good against a Peripatetick but a Platonist or a Pytnagorean who hold the Heavens to be made of elementary matter and subject to generation and corruption will not allow it no more will many of our Divines For glowing fires we have none but they must be kindled and then they must have vent for their fuliginous vapours and they must be kindled either by propagation or coition from some other fire or by violent motion able to kindle them which we shall hardly find in the bowels of the earth where all is quiet and no space for any such perturbation But they say there is an ignis subterraneus which being kindled upon Sulphur and Bitumen disperseth it self among other Mines of the like nature and sets them on fire Now we are come from Heaven to Hell or to Purgatory at the least which Pyhagoras calls materiam vatum falsique pericula mundi The dream of Poets and a forged fear The largest description of it is in Virgil from whence both Divines and Philosophers derive much matter and Beccius doth believe that there is such a thing in the Center of the Earth But if we observe Virgil well we shall find that he propounds it but as a dream for in the end of that Book he saith Sunt gemina somni portae quarum altera fortur Cornea qua veris facilis datur exitus umbris Altera candenti perfecta nitens Elephauto Sed falsa ad Coelum mittunt insomnia manes Dreams have two gates the one is said to be Of Horn through which all true conceits de flee The other framed all of Ivory rare But le ts out none but such as forged are Now saith he when Anchyses had led AEneas and Sibilla through Hell he lets them forth at the Ivory gate Portaque emittit Eburna As if he should say all that I have related of Hell is but a fiction and thus Ludovicus Vives interprets it in his Comment upon this place I hope none will think that I deny a Hell but I approve not of the assignment of it to the center of the earth or that that fire should serve as Baccius would have it to further all generations in the earth and as others to be the cause of Fountains Winds Earth-quakes Vulcanoes Storms Saltness of the Sea c. nor of the actual heat of our Bathes although it be the most common received opinion First for the place it is not likely that the center of the earth whither all heavy things do tend should be hollow but rather more compact then any other part of the earth as likewise Valesius thinks but if there be any concavities they are between the Center and the Superficies and these concavities being receptacles of water from the Sea cannot also receive fire These two will not agree together in one place but the one will expel the other for whereas some hold that Bitumen will burn in water and is nourished by it it is absolutely false as experience shews and I have touched it among the Bitumina Moreover if the heat which warms our Bathes did proceed from hence there must be huge vessels above the fire to contain water whereby the fire might heat it and not be quenched by it Also the vapours arising from hence must be hotter then water can endure or be capable of for as they ascend towards the superficies of the earth they must needs be cooled as they pass by Rocks or else they could not be congealed into water again and after this congelation the water hath lost most of his heat as we find in our ordinary distillations of rose-Rose-water c. where we see our water to descend into the receive almost cold so that they cannot derive our hot Bathes from hence Secondly for the fire it self although water and air may be received into the bowels of the earth yet there is great difficulty for fire For the other two need no nourishment to support them as fire doth If there be not competency of air to nourish the fire by venting his fuligious vapours howsoever there be fewel enough it is suddenly quenched and such huge and flaming fire as this must be will require more air then can there be yielded a great part thereof passing away through the secret creeks of Rocks and little or none entring through the Sea And therefore daily experience shews that our mineral men are fain to sink new Shafts as they call them to admit air to their works otherwise their lights would go out Although one would think that where many men may have room enough to work there would be space enough for air to maintain a few lights The like we see in Cupping-glasses where the light goes out as soon as they are applied Also there are no fires perpetual as hot Bathes are but are either extinct or keep not the same tenor Wherefore fire cannot be the cause of this constant heat of Bathes It must be a continual cause that can make a continual hea● Also where fire is there will be smoak for as it breeds exhalations so it sends them forth But in most of our hot Bathes we find none of these dry exhalations Moreover fire is more hardly pend in then air yet we see that air doth break forth wherefore fire should also make his way having fuel enough to maintain it So they say it doth in our Vulcanoes at Hecla in Iseland AEtna in Sicicy Vesuvio in Campania in Enaria AEolia Lipara c. But it is yet unproved that these eruptions of fire do proceed from any deep cause but only are kindled upon or neer the superficies of the earth where there is air enough to feed it and means enough to kindle it by lightnings or other casual means Whereas in the bowels of the earth there is neither air to nourish it nor any means to kindle it seeing neither the beams of the Sun nor Wind or other Exhalations nor any Antiperistasis nor Lyme nor
the true cause of it let us collect our arguments together the principal whereof are here and there dispersed in this Treatise Quem nos stramineum pro tempore fecimus Which for the present I have made of Straw Hoping that hereafter some worthy pen may handle this argument more accurately and give it a better flourish Et dare perpetuo caelestia fila metallo And on firm metal lasting threads bestow We must not imagine that the government and ordering of the world and nature in a constant course is performed by miracle but that natural effects have natural causes and must be both under the same genus Wherefore following the ordinary distribution seeing it comprehends all and not questioning the celestial bodies whether they be elementary or no that is subject to alterations as intention and remission generation and corruption c. We say that this heat must proceed either from the superiour and celestial bodies as the Spheres and Starrs or from the inferiour or sublunary From the superiour Spheres or Globes it cannot proceed seeing as is shewed before they are neither indowed with such a degree of native heat nor can acquire it accidentally by their motion being thin and liquid bodies neither if they had it can they convey it unto the earth but by their beams which are not able to retain it as they pass thorow the cold region of the air nor able to warm that although it be nearer to their fountain of heat Wherefore if these beams can any way do it it must be by their motion and reflection upon the earth and this is no constant heat but varieth according as the beams are perpendicular or oblique and according as the air is cleer or cloudy c.. And as they are not able to give this constant heat so the earth in her bowels is not capable to receive it being hindered by the density of the earth and rocks and the heat of reflection taken away before it can come three foot deep From the inferiour parts of the world if it proceed it must be either from the Elements or from mixt bodies From the Elements it cannot come but from fire for all the other Elements are cold as I have shewed especially the earth where this heat is ingendred And as for the Element of Fire seeing we know not where to find it neither if it be any where doth it perform the office of an Element in production and nutrition of creatures as Aristotle faith Ignis nil generat and therefore nil nutrit nam nutritio fit ex iisdem ex quibus constat therefore as it begets nothing so it nourisheth nothing and so cannot be an Element nor as an Element maintain this heat of Bathes But contrariwise if it have no power of begetting or nourishing any thing it must have a power of destroying or hindering nature in her proceedings for nature will admit of no vacuum or idle thing Also seeing Nature useth no violent means to maintain her self this elementary fire cannot be pen'd in the center of the earth being of a thin subtilnature and naturally aspiring upwards and if it have any place assigned unto it it must be above the other Elements and then it cannot be drawn downwards against his nature and that continually without breach of the order and course of nature And whereas they place the Element of Fire under the concave of the Moon being in it self lucid and resplendent it is strange that it is not seen by us neither makes our nights light For although by reason of his transparency it doth not terminate our sight yet it should remove the obscurity of our nights much better then the Via lactea Moreover if it were there we must see the Starrs through a double Diaphanum one of air and another of fire and so would make a double refraction which is elegantly confuted by John Pena and Conr●dus Aslacus But there is another thing substituted in the place of this element of fire and maintained by air and by mineral substances in the earth which is neither an Element nor a mixt body nor any substance at all but a meer quality and this is preferred by most to be the cause of the heat of our Bathes And this is our common kitchin-fire which is kindled by violent motion maintained by servel without which it cannot subsist and extinguished by his contrary And although it may be derived by communication or coition as one candle lights another yet originally it is kindled by violent motion and what violent motion can there be in the bowels of the earth to strike fire or who shall be the fueller Exhalations and lightnings cannot do it being aereal meteors and no more penetrable then the beams of the Sun And therefore although they may kindle a Vulcano upon the surface of the earth yet they cannot pierce deep and their very reflection upon the superficies of the earth takes away their strength so as they can neither kindle new fire nor commucate that which is kindled to any other fuel For if it be by communication or coition that must be by touch per contactum and then in the earth it can make but one fire and not many being not distinct in place and must increase in heat and then it will not keep a constant tenor as our Bathes do Secondly for the nourishment of it being a quality it must have a subject that is fuel and it must have means to vent the fuliginous vapours which it breeds in the dissolution of the fuel lest they recoyle and quench the fire as also there must be conveyance for the ashes which will fall down continually upon the fire and quench it Moreover by consuming such great quantities of Sulphur and Bitumen and by mollifying and breaking of Rocks it would cause a great sinking of the earth in those places as we see in our Vulcanoes where whole mountains have been consumed and brought to even ground Thirdly this fire being a quality is subject to intention and remission and to utter extinguishment not only by want of fuel which cannot be regenerated where this actual fire is nor for want of vent or choaking of ashes c. but also by reason of the abundance of water which the earth receiveth for the generations of Minerals which being opposite to fire would quench it Wherefore we cannot rely upon any subterranean fire for the maintenance of our hot Bathes From the air this heat of Bathes cannot proceed seeing it is neither hot in it self as hath been proved nor can get any heat by motion being of a thin liquid substance which no attrition or collision can make hot And as for aereal meteors bred from exhalations and kindled as is imagined by an Antiperistasis if they be bred in the air they are not able to penetrate into the bowels of the earth as hath been said before if in the earth besides the difficulty of finding room enough for such
is no generation for any thing And this heat continues so long as the work of generation continues which being once begun doth not cease in many ages by reason of the plenty of matter which the earth yields and the firmness and solidity thereof And although after that the minerals have attained to their perfection this heat ceaseth yet the generation extends further then where it first began and enlargeth it self every way the works of nature being circular so as the water which was heated by the first generation cannot avoid the other succeeding generations but must meet with them either behind or before beneath or above on the one side or on the other especially seeing no generation can proceed without water and yet keeps the same tenor and degree of heat according to the nature of the minerals fermenting and to the distance from the place of eruption And this is a far more probable cause of the continuance of our Bathes then any subterranean destructive fire can be or any other of the supposed causes can yield I do not deny but that hot Bathes may cease and become cold as Aristotle saith of Salt Fountains which are cold that they were once hot before the original of their heat was extinct which I interpret to be when the work of generation ceased and the Salt brought to his perfection But I do not read of any hot Bathes that have ceased unless near onto some Vulcano where either the sinking of Rocks hath altered the course of them as at Tripergula and Baia or the flaming fire which heated them at their eruption being extinguished as in the AEolian Islands These Vulcanoes are far more subject to decay then our generative heat because they consume their fuel this doth not but increaseth it daily viresque acquirit eundo Of the other Ovid saith Nee quae sulphureis ardet fornacibus AEtna Ignea semper erit neque enim fuit ignea semper AEtna with its sulphureous flames will dy And as a kindling had will want supply But of this we can hardly bring an Instance of any that have decayed because where a generation is begun there seldome or never wants matter to propagate and enlarge it And seeing minerals have not their seeds in their individuals as animals vegetables have but in their wombs as hath been shewed before it were to be feared that there would be a decay of mineral species and so a vacuum left in nature if these generations should be no more durable then the other Animals are propagated by begetting of their species the power whereof is in every individual which no doubt will not give over this trade as long as the world lasteth Vegetables are also fruitfull in their kinds every one producing 100 or perhaps 1000 seeds of individuals yearly to perpetuate their species Minerals have no such means but only have their seeds in their wombs whereby they are propagated and if these generations being longer in perfecting of their species were not supplyed with a larger extent for their productions nature had been defective in not providing sufficient means for their perpetuity as well as for others and might easily suffer a decay and a vacuity of mineral species which agrees not with the providence of nature and the ornament of the world The necessity hereof depends upon the first benediction crescite multiylicamini which no doubt belongs as well to minerals in their kinds as it doth to animals and vegetables and by vertue hereof we see that they are propagated daily as I have proved before Cap. 11. And this is that necessity whereof Hypocrates speaks and that fatum naturale inharens rebus ipsis Natural fate inherent in things themselves as Lipsius faith and that Lex Adrastiae mentioned by Aristotle and Gal●● Locis aute citatis so firmly established as nothing can contradict it Arithmetick Geometry and Logick which are but attendants upon nature have their principles so firmly grounded as nothing can shake them and shall we think that nature it self is grounded upon weaker foundations wherefore we need not doubt of the perpetuity of these generations but that as some parts attain to their perfection so other puts will be alwayes in fieri or in via ad generationem whereby our Bathes will never fail of their heat or their virtues This I hope is susficient for the confuting of other opinions and the clearing of mine own from all absurdities concerning the degree of heat which is as much as the nature of water can endure without utter dissipation concerning the equal tenor of the heat the duration of 〈◊〉 the participation of mineral qualities c. The other kind of confirmation which we call Apodeictical is also here and there dispersed in this Discourse as that all minerals have their continual generation that this generation is not without heat and moysture which do necessarily attend all generations that few mineral substances or qualities can be imparted to water but whilst they are in generation and yet we find them much impregnated with them that our Miners do find an actual heat and in a high degree in the digging of Minerals where the fermentation is not throughly extinct that we observe the like course of nature in the generations of animals and vegetables that we are led to the acknowledgement hereof by many artificial conclusions and artifices c. Wherefore I forbear to make any larger repetition hereof And this is in brief though plainly delivered my opinion concerning the actual heat of Baths and of the mineral qualities which we find in them which I refer to the censures of those that be learned There are two other motions which resemble this fermentation The one is Motus dilatationis the Other Antipatheticus Motus dilatationis is evident in Lime in Allum in Copperass and other concrete juyces whereby the affusion of water the Salt in the Lime or the concrete juyces being suddenly dissolved there is by this motion an actual heat procured for a time able to kindle any combustible matter put to it The like we observe in those stone Coals called metal Coals which are mixed with a Marchesit containing some mineral juyce which receiving moysture doth dilate it self and grows so hot as oftentimes great heaps of those Coals are kindled thereby and burnt before their time as hath been seen at Puddle-Wharf in London and at Newcastle But this is much different from out fermentation Another Motus resembling this fermentation is that which is attributed to Antipathy when disagreeing substances being put together do fight and make a manifest actual heat as Antimony and Sublimat oyle of Vitriol and oyle of Tartar Allum liquor and Urine Lees Chalk c. But the reason of this disagreement is in their Salts whereof one is astringent the other relaxing the one of easie dissolution in water the other of hard dissolution c. where one mineral hinders the dissolution or congelation of another
and not by reason of any antipathy for it is not likely that nature would produce two contrary substances mixed like atomes in o● subject but that in their very generations the o● would be an impediment to the other So in vegetables where one plant sucks away the nourishment from another we call it antipathy B●● if we examine aright what this sympathy and antipathy is we shall find it to be nothing but a refuge of ignorance when not being able to conceive the true reasons of such actions passions in natural things we fly sometimes to indefinite generalities and sometimes to this inexplicable sympathy and antipathy attributing voluntary and sensitive actions and passions to insensible substances This motus also is much different from fermentation as may easily appear by the former description And thus much for this point of fermentation which I hope will give better satisfaction then any of the former opinions CHAP. XV. By what means it may be discovered what minerals any water containeth THE nature of minerals and their generations being handled and from thence the reasons drawn both of the actual heat of Bathes and of their qualities Now it is fit we should seek out some means how to discover what minerals are in any Bath that thereby we may the better know their qualities and what use to make of them for our benefit Many have attempted this discovery but by such weak means and upon such poor grounds as it is no marvail if they have failed of their purpose for they have contented themselves with a bare distillation or evaporation of the water and observing the sediment have thereby judged of the minerals unless perhaps they find some manifest taste or smell or colour in the water or some unctuous matter swimming above it Some desire no other argument of Sulphur and Bitumen but the actual heat as though no other minerals could yield an actual heat but those two But this point requires better consideration and I have been so large in describing the natures and generations of minerals because without it we cannot discern what minerals we have in our waters nor judge of the qualities and use of them Our Minerals therefore are either confused or mixed with the water If they be confused they are easily discerned for they make the water thick and pudly and will either swim above as Bitumen will do or sink to the bottom as Earth Sulphur and some terrestrial juices for no confused water will remain long unseparated If they are perfectly mixed with the water then their mixture is either corporal where the very body of the Mineral is imbibed in the water or spiritual where either some exhalation or spirit or tincture is imparted to the water Corporally there are no minerals mixed with water but juices either liquid as succus la●idescens metallificus c. before they are perfectly congealed into their natural consistence or concrete as Salt Nitre Vitriol and Allum these concrete juices do not dissolve themselves in water but oftentimes bring with them some tincture or spirit from other Minerals For as water is apt to recive juices and tinctures and spirits from animals and vegetables so are concrete juices being dissolved apt to extract tinctures and spirits from minerals and to communicate them with water And there are no Mines but have some of these concrete juices in them to dissolve the materials of them for their better union and mixture and there are few minerals or metals but have some of them incorporated with them as we see in Iron and Copper and Tin and Lead c. And this is the reason that water being long kept in Vessels of any of these metals will receive a taste or smell from them especially if it be attenuated either by heat or by addition of some sour juice and yet more if the metals be fyled into powder as we see in making Chalibeat Wine or Sugar of Lead or Puttie from Tin or Verdegrease from Copper There may be also a mixture of spiritual Substance from minerals whilst they are in generation and in Solutis Principiis the water passing through them and the rather if it be actually hot for then it is more apt to imbibe it and will contain more in it being attenuated by heat then being cold as we see in Urins which though they be full of humours yet make no great shew of them so long as they are warm but being cold do settle then to the bottom These spiritual substances are hardly discerned in our Bathes but by the effects for they leave no residence after evaporation and are commonly as volatile in sublimation as the water it self neither do they increase the weight of the water nor much alter the taste or smell of them unless they be very plentiful Wherefore we have no certain way to discover them but by the effects We may conjecture somewhat of them by the Mines which are found near unto the Bathes and by the mud which is brought with the water But that may deceive as coming from the passages through which the water is conveyed or perhaps from the sweat and strigments of mens bodies which bathe in them The corporal substances are found either by sublimation or by precipitation By sublimation when being brought to the state of congelation and sticks of Wood put into it within a few dayes the concrete juices will shoot upon the wood in Needles if it be Nitre in Squares if be Salt and in Clods and Lumps if it be Allum or Coperass and the other mineral substances which the waters have received will either incorporate a tincture with them or if it be more terr●strial will settle and separate from it and by drying it at a gentle fire will shew from what house it comes either by colour taste smell or vertue There is another way by precipitation whereby those mineral substances are stricken down from their concrete juices which held them by addition of some opposite substance And this is of two sorts either Salts as Tartar Soap-ashes Kelps Urine c. Or four juices as Vinegar Lemons oyle of Vitriol Sulphur c. In which I have observed that the Salts are proper to blew colours and the other to red for example take a piece of Scarlet cloath and wet it in oyle of Tartar the strongest of that kind and it presently becomes blew dip it again in oyle of Vitriol and it becomes red again P●notus hath a strange precipitating water from Tin Mercury Alkali c. which separate any minerals Pidr●●it p●●es authorem These are the chief grounds of discovering mineral waters according to which any man may make tryal of what waters he pleaseth I have been desirous heretofore to have attempted some discovery of our Bathes according to these principles but being thought by some either not convenient or not usefull I was willing to save my labour which perhaps might have seemed not to be worth thanks and in these respects am
it hath no Hot Springs of its own but is supplyed by the Overplus of Water coming from the Kings Bath And whereas it is recorded That these Bathes are not wholsome at all hours being from 8 of the Clock in the morning to three in the Afternoon Scalding Hot. It is clear that the inequality of the heat proceeds not so much from the Waters which in themselves are observed to vary very little from a constant and equal degree of heat both Winter and Summer as from the beating of the Beams of the Sun in hot weather on the Surface of them which being more troublesom to the Bathes and Mornings and Evenings more convenient for Bathing the middle part of the day is not made use of though the Waters then are as wholsome as ever But we may well pardon this learned and industrious person if he hath not in this and some other particulars done the Bathes right in regard the vastness of his designe and urgency of his occasions might hasten him hence so that haply he could not throughly inform himself in things of this Nature To conclude this Chapter I shall mention some parts of the description of that City mentioned before in the Authors own words and compare them with what Description Dr. Venner hath given of this of Bathe Aquae Grani appellatae sunt ab incolis cum Thermae tum locus ipse deducto scilicet nomine ab Aquis Calidis c. Haec urbs tametsi in valle sita montibus circumquaque septa sit incredibili tamen gaudet aeris salubritate In proximo urbis ambitu lata fere planities est in qua pascua sunt alendo pecori commodissima agri pingues Nec desunt funtes tam feris pascua irrigantes quam intus diversis urbis locis publice in plateis scaturientes Ad Orientem Rhenum ad occidentem habet Mosam Sed alias dotes ●mnes meo quidem judicio vincunt Aquarum Calidarum uterrimi simul ac Saiuberrimi fontes The words of Dr. Venner as neer the English of the former as may be are these Bathe so called from the Bathes in it is a little well compacted City c. Although the site thereof by reason of the Vici●ity of Hills may to some seem not pleasant being almost environed with them yet for goodness of Air neerness of great and delectable Rivers pleasant Meadows and plenty of excellent Water brought down from the adjacent Hills into the Streets it is pleasant and happy enough But for the Hot Waters that boyl up even in the midst thereof is more delectable and happier then any other of the Kingdom CHAP. IV Of the Bathes in particular here Of the three Hotter Bathes viz. The Kings Queens and Hot Bathe But chiefly of the Kings and in what Distempers Bathing therein is profitable HAving thus far drawn the Parallel between Bathe and Akin which as they cannot be conceived to agree in every punctilio no Comparison as they say running on four feet so it seems they cannot correspond in some of those particulars before recited without a Communication also in the Waters of many of the same Medicinal Vertues Having done this I proceed to a light gast and relish of the Vertues and usefulness of every Bath in particular And here taking it for granted till better information what the very learned and incomparable Doctor Jorden hath observed That there is very little difference in the Nature of the Bathes of Bathe but in the degree of heat they all proceeding from the same Mine which according to the intenseness or remissness of its heat in divers parts and the directness or indirectness of the passages from it may cause this Variation and also that the Minerals impregnating the Bathes in general are Bitumen Nitre and Sulphur I shall run the Parallel a little further and speak something in particular of all the Bathes and first of the Kings The Kings Bathe exceeds the rest in Heat and Dimensions being the hottest and largest of all And whereas there is another that for some time hath I know not how apprepriated the name that is common to them all and therefore gives most people occasionto imagine the heat to be more intense there then any where else I conceive at present the heat of that Bath to come as much short of that of the Kings as the Cross Bath in that instance yields to the Queens This Bath as to its vertues much resembles the Kings Bath at Akin that is consists of the same Minerals though probably not in the same proportion the German Kings Bath being accounted chiefly Sulphurous This of Bath Bituminous Which yet notwithstanding considering the great affinity Bitumen hath with Sulphur and the slender difference in their qualities being bothsupposed moderately hot and dry and therefore must both according to the common notion attract resolve mollisie and discuss will not alter much the Case not to mention that Baccius and Bauhinus and what is more natural two of our own Countreymen Doctor Turner and Doctor Venner do all agree That they are chiefly Sulphurous And whereas Rurem faith of the Kings Bath at Akin Refert haec aqua modis omnibus naturam Sulphuris cum admissione Nitri modici making mention of Sulphur and Nitre but omitting Bitumen I question not but upon Examination it would be found that Bitumen also was concern'd in that Bath as well as the Cornelian in the same City And the Catalogue of Diseases for which this Bath is profitable suggests as much bituminous waters being of a heating drying nature and suppling the nerves The Encomium he gives of this Bath and the Diseases he affirms it to do good in which for the most part agree to this of Bath also are as fellows This Bath is profitable for many distempers especially cold and moist for it heats powerfully dries drives the humors from the inward parts to the outward discusses attenuates abstergeth and that I may speak more particularly good chiefly in affections of the Nerves as Convulsions Palsies as well alone as accompanying an Apoplexie in defect of sense or motion or both It helps stiff benumm'd and trembling limbs does good in the several sorts of Gouts especially Hip and Hand-gout Discusseth Tumors Relieveth those that are streightened about the Midriff those that have a Cachexy or ill habit of body The Dropsie especially the Anasarca and Jaundice Those that are troubled with a cold distemper of the Stomach Liver or Spleen Excites and restores Appetite Easeth pains in the sides without a favour Bowess or Loins Helps cold and moist distempers of the Womb furthers Conception provokes the Terms giveth ease in uterine pains takes off weariness as well spontaneous as by excessive labour and travel c. most proper for those of a cold Constitution and somewhat corpulent and not so convenient for dry and entenuated persons To which may be added Lethargies Epilepfies Cramps Deafness Forgetfulness Aches and many