should thus contradict himself in his Epilogue and so plainly recant what he had said in the fore-going Discourse Mr. S. forced to make this Recantation To which thus Mr. Samuel Johnston of Beverley whom I mention'd before a very ingenious Chymist meeting him shewed him the Red Earth which he mentions in P. 359. and told him it was no other thing than Terra Vitrioli as also the Nitre which had shot in Stiria's above an inch long This being matter of fact he could not deny especially seeing them both so plainly made out Now his Book was then well-nigh printed so as he could not recall it and therefore was forced to bring it in an Appendix at the latter end and study out words to blind the unwary and ignorant Reader This Relation I have from the Gentleman himself when yet Mr. S. is not so ingenuous as to acknowledge his Director for he taught him the whole process that he lays down in the Epilogue but on the contrary falls into a simple Rant P. 361. as if he was the first that has made so many separations of the Minerals Yea and I can say he is the first that ever denied them of the Gentlemen of Art that ever came to the Water and he is the first that ever I met with that canted and recanted at this rate But the very truth is I my self had done enough that way having all the parts by me of several years keeping though I thought it impertinent to make so many separations Mr S. his Opinion whence the Saltness of the Sea P. 54. He undertakes to tell whence the Saltness of the Sea proceeds viz. From the Salt of the Earth which with great dashes of Water passing through the subterraneal Channels becomes dissolved and carried into the Ocean which has its Minera from fossile Salt from which also some Springs are saturate as the Sulphur Well at Knaresbrough Now let us turn to P. 303. and he tells us of a Circulation of the Sea Water from the Sea to the Heads of Springs by subterraneal Channels and these Springs are fresh the salt of the Sea being deposited in the Channels How these two Assertions can stand together I cannot discern A Câ—ntradâ—ction that the same Channels should convey a Salt into the Sea and also convey the Sea Water to the Springs here is a contrary Current in the same Channels for the same conveys Salt from the Earth to the Sea and lays down its Salt in its passage to the Springs I confess this is above my reason to conceive I shall leave it to the Reader to believe as he sees cause For my own part I think both parts of his Assertion are doubtful though indeed it is bravely resolv'd of the Gentleman on the sudden to find out the cause of the Seas Saltness which has in all Ages put the most grave Philosophers to a puzzle I do verily think that all the fossile Salt in the Body of the Earth which we see is very rarely found if it were dissolved will not serve to supply a twentieth part of the Salt that is in the Sea the sixteenth part whereof being a Body of Salt as I have tried at Scarbrough every Pint having about one Ounce in this our Northern Sea and in the Southern Seas it is far more strong of the Salt Besides the Peripateticks thought this came far short of an adaequate cause and thereupon they fly to the torrefaction of the Sun Moreover if the Saltness of the Sea should proceed from the fossile Salt of the Earth then being an extraneous quality to the Sea it would destroy the Fish of the Sea as we see fresh Water made sâ—lt by fossile Salt kills all manner of Sea Fish as well as other Hence it is that the Sea of the Plain called the Salt Sea Josh 12.3 which has its Saltness from the Earth for it was formerly no Sea but the Vale of Siddim and has its Original from Jordan and the Sea of Galilee which are both Fresh Water besides that Commentators and Travailers do unanimously report the Countrey about to be full of Salt-Pits is observed to kill all manner of Fish that fall into it from Jordan and is therefore called Mare Mortuum so that I suspect Mr. S. is much mistaken in his assignment of the Cause of the Seas Saltness Again As to the latter part of his Contradiction viz. That the Sea Water is conveyed to the Heads of Springs by the Subterraneal Channels we must imagine that these Subterraneal Channels must be sometimes 2 or 300 Miles long or more which how that should be Credat Judaeus Apella But this I shall reserve till I come to examine his Original of Springs A Contradiction But there is another thing which here I may not pass by He tells us now That the Sulphur Well at Knaresbrough is saturate from fossile Salt and yet if we turn to P. 143. treating of that Well he determines ☞ That a Salt Marine is the cause of that Sulphureous Spring I wish the Young Man would reconcile these Contradictions In the mean while till we understand the ground of them it may suffice that we understand a little what reason there is in the man Yet this makes me remember the Story that I read in Quintilian of Didymus Chalcenterus the famous Grammarian of Alexandria a man with Bowels of Brass so they named him because of his indefatigable pains in Writing for he writ says Sentca 4000 Books 3500 says Suidas Now one telling him an Historical Relation which he dislik'd and disapprov'd as vain and frivolous the party brougâ—t out one of his own Books and shewed him the Story which made Didymus look blank Truly the Old Man deserved some Indulgence but for a Young Man to be so forgetful and contradict himself so often to become a Didymus or rather a Dithymus double-minded as that one and the same Book nay within a few leaves should bring forth Didymos Twinnes one very unlike the other as if they had not the same Father I am very sorry to see it in any one that pretends to be a Scholar P. 55. He passes on to St. Mungo Well at Cockgrave which though to the touch it be extreamly cold yet by an intrinsick sulphurous warming quality it opens the Pores c. I believe he never saw that Well for if he had he could not have any ground to think it had any thing of Nitre or Sulphur in it but to be a Simple Water and an excellent Spring operating onely by its excessive Coldness whereby it suddenly repels the Blood and inward heat to the inward parts from whence it returns after bathing while the Patient lies in a warm Bed more strongly invigorated with Spirits and so concocting the Crudities that were in the weak parts encreaseth new strength and overcomes the lameness of the Joynts and the Rickets concerning which I have treated more at large in my Second Edition of Scarbrough
seek for a true Original of his Springs And yet to speak out neither is this his own but wholly borrowed from Kircherus de Origine Fontium in his Mundus Subterraneus where he discourses at large upon this Subject making no less than five Suppositions in order to his Design of illustrating the Sea to be the Original of Springs although he differs from others about the manner of Conveyance which with submission to better Judgements seem to me to be no other than the begging of the Question affording very little satisfaction to any man that shall well study the Point But to return to Mr. S. He supposes that the Seas are perforated at the bottom or to have holes through which the Water runs into Subterraneal Channels or as Kircherus calls them Rivers which he fancies to be far larger than those we have above the Barth But how knows he this to be so since no man ever saw them De non apparentibus non existentibus eadem est ratio is a good Rule in Reason I cannot believe there are such holes because they do not appear to the eye of Reason In our Lincolnshire and Norfolk Washes where at every Low Water or Ebbe of the Sea the Water goes out and leaves the Land bare for many miles together no such holes were ever seen nor on the Coast of Holland where the Seas are very shallow at Low Water for some leagues together is there the least Symbole of these holes which probably should be if any such thing were in Nature and so ordinary as is implied in this Hypothesis I speak not here of those Extraordinary Subterraneal Gulphs which some Authors tell of and our Seamen confirm to us as that on the Coast of Norway called the Malstrondt and another at the bottom of the Baltick Sea where the Water runs with a mighty stream into the Earth by which some ships they say have been swallowed up nor yet of the Subterraneal Passages that are supposed to be betwixt some Seas in Asia which I mentioned in my Book of the Spaw Again If the Seas were so perforated and that the Water should pass so plentifully through the Holes as it must necessarily do to give being to so many Springs there would be found Suctions in the Sea whereby Ships especially small Vessels would be in constant hazard which we hear not oâ— Moreover it seems to be repugnant to Reason and our Observations at Land for the motion of the Sea in the Constant Circulation of the Tides and also from Wind and Storms would be in danger to stop up the Holes by washing Earth into them and so choak up the Channels and consequently the Springs As we see in the Roads where sometimes we meet with dangerous Holes in the Latches if there happen a Spowt of Rain so that the Water run in a stream but a day or two over those Latches the holes are closed up and they become passâ—ble and firm Another Branch of Mr. S. his Supposition is this That there are Subterraneal Channels or Rivers as Kircherus has it whereby the Salt Water is conveyed to the Hydrophylacia or Cisterns c. This I cannot in his Sense grant because they appear not For never did any that dig in Mines either near the Sea as at Newcastle and Sunderland in the Coal-Pits or farther off at Land as in the Lead Iron or Tin-Mines make any reports of Streams of Salt Water that they meet withal which they should probably do if this Hypothesis were true They tell us indeed of swift Currents of Fresh Water that sometimes they meet with but not a word of Salt Again Those Subterraneal Channels must be supposed to be sometimes 2 or 300 miles long even in a right line nay perhaps so many thousand in great Continents where the middle parts of the Land are at that distance from the Sea and have their durable Springs and how many hundred or thousand miles long must we suppose them to be if these Channels have such crooked turnings and windings as the small Rivolets have that we observe at land I confess this surpasses my understanding how it can be Moreover This supposes multitudes of his Hydrophylacia or Cisterns of Salt Water in every Countrey and those of an immense Magnitude which as yet never any man found and is in my weak Judgement repugnant to Reason for the Earth and Sea compressing on all sides of this Terrestrial Globe should make it a Solid Body and such as cannot admit of such large Chasmata or Vacuities Furthermore Mr. S. supposes This Water is forced up through those long Channels and from the Hydrophylacia to the Springs by the weight of the Air Clouds Winds Storms and Tydes depressing upon the Surface of the Sea That the Air has a weight and may depress a little upon the Sea I shall not question the Torricellian Experiment evinces the Air to depress by its gravity yet how the Winds Storms and Tides should further that Depression I see not but that their motion being oblique should rather hinder it forasmuch as it interrupts the motion of gravity which is evermore in a right line towards the Center But how it is possible that this depression of all these upon the Sea should hold so strong which yet we discern is very inconsiderable as to force the Water through those Subterraneal Channels so many scores hundreds or thousands of miles long and that by such Crooked Meanders as we have reason to suspect I cannot conceive Indeed Mr. S. P. 318 tells of a Pneumatick Engine like the Wine-Coopers Bellows which will by the pressure of the Air force up Wine or Water into other Vessels that are at distance and on higher grounds and he suposes that after the same manner the pressure of these upon the Sea forces the Water through the Channels to the Springs on Hills or Heaths at distance He has also 2 or 3 more Schemes whereby he endeavours to make out the facility of the conveyance but both the other and these are all fetched out of Kircherus in his Mundus Subterraneus where P. 230 and 231 the Reader may see them all To these I shall say they are only such in Mente Machinantis but here is no proof to make them out to be so in Mundi Machina But lastly If the Springs should be supposed notwithstanding all these difficulties and absurdities to proceed from the Sea-Water there would certainly appear some difference perceptible to the senses betwixt that sort of spring-Spring-Water that comes from this cause and those that assuredly himself confessing proceed from Rain when yet we discern there is none at all And how comes it to pass that those Springs especially such as are near the Sea have not after so many thousand years as the World has continued somewhat of saltness in them and that the Channels are not tainted after so long time Indeed Mr. S. tells us that the sea-Sea-Water lays down its saltness in the Channels of the Earth and so the Water runs fresh out of the Springs But did he not also say in P. 54. That the Salt of the Earth is conveyed through the Subterraneal Channels into the Sea and that thence it has its Saltness and its Minera from Fossile Salt Now how the same Channels should convey Salt to the Sea and also drain the Seas Water from its Salt and become Conveyances of contrary Streams I cannot reconcile to my Reason To conclude all I find that this new and positive Thesis of Mr. Simpson is but a borrowed Hypothesis and so far as he has here endeavored to make it out to have no bottom and therefore I must adhere to my Opinion of Rain and Snow Water to be the Original of Springs which still farther I can defend with more Arguments of Demonstration but those I shall wave till I have further occasion I confess this is an abstruse point in Philosophy and difficult to determine upon But difficulty in finding should not discourage us from seeking but rather whet us on to more diligence in searching so as whatever our Opinions are in things of this Nature provided we assent or dissent according to reason and with readiness to submit when our reason shall be convinced we are out of all danger of Heresie though perhaps we may be subject to error I had here thought to have entertained the Kind Reader with some Animadversions upon another small Book of Mr. Simpsons called Zenexton Antipestilentiale where there are many things worth observing and that may merita Comment but this having far exceeded what at first I intended I shall respit it till a further provocation being also desirous to continue on the defensive hand and so at present I bid Farewel From my House at York May the 28th 1669. FINIS
said enough to that point already And whereas he says I blusht not to instance in Spirit of Vitriol that we use it in Juleps and Cordials and t is not Emetick I answer Nor need I since the main part of the Vitriol in this Water is the Spirit as I have now proved which is as much yea and far more diluted with the Water wherein it is imbibed than the force of the Vitriol is corrected by the vehement heat of the Fire in the distilling of the Spirit And what follows in that Section wherein he runs a risque concerning the Vomiting property of Copper is altogether pillaged out of Helment after whose Pipe I find him constantly dancing using his very words as confidently as if he were the Author himself and also nothing to the point in hand P. 50. He returns to our Conference at the Spaw and particularly about the Nitre which I had affirmed in my Book P. 13. to be of all the Minerals the most predominant shooting into Ice-sickles or Stiria which is the peculiar form of Nitre whereby it is distinguisht from all other Minerals whatsoever Of Nitre in the Spaw I queried with the Doctor says he how he came to know that Nitre was an Ingredient and the most predominant Here he forges a confused Narrative which was never in my Heart nor on my Tongue to say but perhaps it may be a lapse of his Memory I made it out from that Analogy and Resemblance that is betwixt the Minerals that remain after the Evaporation of the Water and the Nitre that breaks out of the Cliffe within 6 or 8 yards of the Spaw which is white like a hoar-frost in hot and dry weather but is washt off by every shower of Rain both that and the Minerals extracted out of the Water shooting alike in Stirias and also agreeing in Taste But that this was Nitre at that time he confidently denied He said indeed it was nothing but an Aluminous Salt but when I urged that Alome does not shoot in Stirias and upon that very account that it could be nothing but Nitre then he would have it to come from the Air of the Sea which has Nitre in it I replied that then the whole Sea Coast should abound with it which we see it doth not Hence it follows that it can be nothing but Nitre which proceeds out of the Earth that is exceeding Nitrous Neither yet is this Nitre discernable in every part of the Cliffe throughout but runs in certain Veins and much more plentifully near the Well That this is Nitre several learned Physicians have been abundantly satisfied and those both of London and elsewhere the shooting of Nitre into Stirias being as peculiar to that Mineral as the form of any Plant is to all of the same kind This and the rest of the Minerals which are apparent upon this Cliffe have put many Naturalists into no small amazement which made Dr. Tonstall of Newcastle ☜ an Eminent Physitian and Chymist say He thought it was the most fertile Bank in the World Let him further know that all the Earth about Scarbrough is full of Nitre from whence it is that the Meadows about the Town are more eminently fertile than any other that I have observed upon the Sea-Coast which gave too much encouragement to an Ingenious Gentleman a Friend of mine to begin a Project there of Making Nitre which for his own sake I wish had succeeded according to his expectation but the truth is it proved but an imperfect Nitre especially that which is extracted out of the Water and so in refractis viribus and also joyned with the other Salts which perhaps do enfeeble it more And yet I have observed many years ago this Sediment of the Water having been laid aside in a cool place some dayes to shoot into Stiria's half an Inch long especially after Calcination Filtration and Separation from the grosser parts of the Minerals This I have expresly touched on in my Book and did also sufficiently urge it in our Conference at the Spaw which yet prevailed nothing with this Gentleman though it was abundantly satisfactory to all else that were by and yet it seems ev'n now while he writ this he was of the same mind That these Volatile Nitrous Particles as he calls them which float in the Aire are magnetically attracted by the aluminous Salt that is in the Body of the Minerals extracted from the Water as also by the Mineral Earth of Alome which is upon the Cliffe and consequently that which is in the Water is nothing but an aluminous Salt And this is such a truth as he endeavors to illustrate in Sect. 4. p. 53 in a long Discourse with several Experiments after all which and a large Harangue of hard words fit only to breed admiration in the ignorant and laughter in the learned he gives us his definitive Sentence in short by way of Recapitulation in these words P. 61. The Esurine acid Salt having in its solution got a slight touch of a Vein or Minera of Iron and passing through a rocky Mineral Glebe of Alome becomes specificated in an aluminous Salt with which the Water of the Quick-Spring is impregnate which makes the Spaw we discourse of Now if his Assertion Note which by all those Experiments he endeavors to illustrate be false as I am certain it is and shall prove from his own Concession under his hand then there needs no more to satisfie the World that I was all this while in the right And if so then is not mine Antagonist an able man indeed that can thus draw Quidlibet ex quolibet plainly to prove that which is clearly false One would think almost this Batchelour were playing the Sophister again intending to deceive the World with a Fallacy which yet a Wiseman would have couched more cunningly in the premisses and ta'n care to end with a plausible Conclusion but just thus we have him 20 times in this Book building upon a sandy foundation illustrating by far-fetcht Experiments that which to every mans reason is evidently false and from false and mistaken premisses drawing necessary Conclusions Let me now remind the Reader of ☜ what we have been doing all this while The summe total of what Mr. S. has said He denied all the Principles of the Spaw except Alome and disputed if so it deserve to be called against me with hard and harsh language for asserting them I think I have answered all his Objections and fully proved them all to be there by sufficient Arguments of Demonstration which I willingly submit to the Judicious Reader He severely carps at many of my expressions which I used in my Book which I have plainly made out to be the forms used by Learned Writers upon such Subjects and particularly of the Chymists themselves whom it seems he understood not He throws dirt in my face ever and anon while he argues against the four wayes I mention of a Waters
when we meet with stubborn Diseases in robust bodies and are approved of by the Galenists and therefore the Galenists do approve of them and when they see cause use them to wit such as they know to be safe and prepared by a good Artist Nor did ever the Art of Physick want strong and efficacious Medicines such were those I mentioned before which were in ordinary use among the Ancients viz. Colocynthis Peplium Hellebore Elaterium c. That which we glory in and our Patients find benefit by is that in this Age we have more benigne Medicines which operate without ill Symptomes and now it appears Mr. S. condemns these and flies again to such as are more violent than those of the Ancients which we have in a good measure laid aside Well I suspect at length his Patients will experience by the Operation of his Medicines a difference betwixt his and others when they shall have given him leave to make his Experiments upon them and so become competent Judges in this point betwixt him and me and therefore to their decision I will for this tâ—me refer it But here is one thing more I may not pass over that Mr. S. le ts flie sharply against some bragging Chymists that expose their Medicines to sale and thereby are a reproach to the Art If I understand him aright he means such as do post up their Medicines upon the Gates or Corner Posts of the City to call in Customers as the Quacks and Mountebanks use to do Could he ever think that this Book of his would not be read at York where all men know that he himself exposed his Amulet ☜ for the Plague to sale posting up his Bills on every Corner of the Streets and may we not have as good reason to expect the same for the vending of his Ternary Thus I have closely traced Mr. Simpson through the greatest part of his Book and have throughly sifted all his Arguments against my declared Principles of Soarbrough Spaw wherein I have discovered him plainly canting and recanting which I have further established by evident demonstration I have asserted the Terms which I used in my Book concerning a Springs imbibing of Minerals to be those of Art used by the very best Chymical Authors and agreeable to sound Reason I have answered all his Objections against the Rational Practice of Physick which he calls Galenical and confirmed my assertions from the Practice of the most Learned Chymical Writers I have manifested the Congruity that is betwixt the most learned on both sides and made out the Minerals and Metals together with the Animals and Vegetables to belong in common to the Art and to be the matter of Physick wherein both the Galenical and Chymical Physician are equally concerned and do heartily desire that every man in the Faculty would endeavour what in him lies that since they do convenire in eodem tertio they may also convenire inter se and that we may all joyn hand in hand as there shall be occasion for the Peace and Honour of the Faculty and the health of our Friends that employ us Of his Constitutive Principles of all Concretes There are some other Digressions in his Book concerning the Constitutive Principles of all Concretes wherein he carps at the two Principles of Helmont at the three of the Ancient Chymists at the four of the Peripateticks and at the five of Dr. Willis resolving all into one to wit Water But since it may justly be said of that Discourse as once of the young Prophets Axe Master it was borrowed I therefore matter not much whether it sink or swim since the Subject is not of such common concern nor yet relates to me I refer the Reader to Helmont out of whom he fetches what he says on that Subject When I consider what abundance of Experiments borrowed from variety of Authors are patched up together to make up this Book of his as also what a company of impertinent Subjects that relate not at all one to another nor to the general scope of the Book our Author has drawn in by the head and shoulders to make up this Composition it makes me call to mind what I read in Nonius Marcellus concerning an Elogium that old Lucilius that famous Roman Wit gave to such an Author upon the like occasion viz. Sarcinator est summus suit Centonem optume Concerning The Original of Springs I Am now come to this Appendix concerning the Original of Springs where he designs to confute what I have said in my Book of Scarbrough-Spaw concerning that Subject wherein I have examined the variety of Opinions among both Ancient and Modern Philosophers some ascribing it to the Sea the Water whereof they will have conveyed by subterraneal Channels to all the Springs at Land and to that purpose they fancy the Sea to be higher than the Land and consequently the Water to run per-declive in a Natural Motion to any even the highest Springs at Land This I have examined and according to my Model have proved to be but a fancy by several Arguments from Page 55 to Page 76 of my Book of Scarbrough-Spaw Edition 2. too long here to be recited But others that are for the Sea to be the Original of Springs being with me unsatisfied with the former fancy of the Seas altitude above the Land have their various opinions concerning the conveyance of the Water from the Sea to the Springs as there I instance out of their Authors the disagreement of whom among themselves may well save me the labour of refutation Others there are that will have the Water conveyed from the Sea into some large Caverns that are in the Earth and there by heat from Subterraneal Fires kindled by Naphtha and Bitumen will have Water resolved into Vapors which ascending towards the Superficies of the Earth are by a more remisse degree of heat condensed again into Water and so make the Springs which was the Opinion of Empedocles as also Seneca to which Eallâ—piuâ— Mr. Carpenter Mr. Lydiat and Dr. French adhere This I have weighed according to my Cubit and find it of no weight from Page 77. to P. 89. A second Opinion concerning the Original of Springs is that of Seneca lib. 3. Nat. Quest cap. 7. zid by a transmutation of Earth into Water in the Caverns of the Earth which since I discern it has not many Fautors I waved as not needing Confutation and so came to that of Aristotle vid. that the Springs are generated from the transmutation of Air into Water in the Subterraneal Caverns This also I considered of and found invalid from P. 89. to 93. being attended with inextricable difficulties and absurdities I then proceeded to consider of Rain and Snow being the Cause of the Springs of which Opinion I found Albertus Magrus and Georgius Agricola to have been the most eminent Patrons and to them I did with modesty joyn in my judgement I have lately heard that Lessius
said so or at his inadvertency in not observing that which in his own Opinion has so much of truth in it and is so materiâ—l to the point in controversie But this proceeds I suppose from his Combination with others in this Work while one takes one piece in hand and a second another and in the mean time he that undertook to make his inferences did not well discern the state of the Question The next difficulty which Pag. 297. he says is most considerable is How the Rain Water sinking into the Earth should supply the Springs that are in Hills or high Heaths To this I reply That as 't is very râ—re to fiâ—d Springs upon the tops of Hills so where ever they are they are very penurious Springs affording but little Water and break out ordinarily upon the dependant sides of the Hills which they may very well receive from the Rain and Snow that falls above them upon the tops of the Hills which may settle to that dependant part these not suffering such expence of Water from Men or Beasts and being supplied by every Shower and not so much scorched by the heat of the Sun as lower grounds are may very well be supposed to be so caused and perpetuated Besides that Hills are usually even in the dryest seasons kept moist by Clouds and Mists that do encompass them as upon my own Observation I can speak of some Hills that have Springs in them And if it be thus with those Springs that break out upon the Hills much more plain is it in them that break out upon Heaths where the ground being level they receive the Rain and Snow more plentifully and afford Springs accordingly Besides we see that Water is of it self apt to motion for being poured out it doth immediately spread it self which it is well fitted to do by reason of its fluidity and much more it is prone to motion in the Bowels of the Earth where it loses much of its gravity being out of its proper place assigned to it by the Creator viz. the Convex part of the Earth to which it has a natural inclination and tendency not resting till it meets with its natural Correspondent the Air under which it must needs lie by reason of its greater gravity as above the Earth by reason of its levity Hence it is as I conceive that it ceases not to move towards the Superficies of the Earth so long as the Channels have a supply of Water nor is there any difference of site to it as to up or down while it is in its Channels like the Blood in the Veins of our Bodies but it breaks out where ever it finds vent and so makes Springs and that so forcibly too as that it brings out with it the Sabulum or Sand which is a far heavier body than it self from whence we see that the bottoms of Rivers are covered with it And this agrees with what Helmont says P. 47. in contemplation whereof he seems to be rapt up into an admiration and breaks forth into a high Doxology Aqua inquit intra vividum terrae fundum sorbetur trahitur unde communem nacta vitam Regem cui omnia vivunt venite adoremus lecorum situs nescit cacumina montium sine molestia facile adscendit una cum Quellem ut indesinentes inde fontes evertat viz. Water is suckt and drawn into the Vivid Bowels of the Earth whence it being made partaker of common life Come says he let us praise God to whom all things do live it knows no site of place but naturally and easily ascends even to the tops of mountains together with the Sand which he calls Quellem and so makes ever-running Springs Thus I have solved these 2 great difficulties in order to the establishing my assertion concerning Rain Snow Water being the Original of â—prings But will not the Reader wonder if I point out my Adversary himself granting me the facility of Waters rising up â—rom the Subterraneal Channels to the highest Hills or Heaths Turn then to Page 305. where we find these words We see that Blood while circulating in its proper Vessels ☜ knows no such difference as either going up and down c. In like manner Water whilest circulating from Seas c. knows neither up nor down and can as easily while in those Channels climbe up to the tops of Hills and Mountains and there make Springs as break forth in Valleys and in the Level of Plains yea it can as well mount tops of Hills and high Heaths as the Blood in the Arteries can ascend into the Head and all this saith he by the Natural Circulation of Water set on work by the Original Fiat So that upon the whole matter we see Mr. S. is not invincible in his Objections nor yet so fully resolved in this point but that he can change his mind upon a sleight cause and even as his interest carries him assert Contradictions I shall now proceed to examine what he has to say concerning the Establishing of another Original of Springs wherein as in all things else that he has treated of I find him very Positive for so in P. 303. he calls it a new and positive Thesis and that is from a Circulation of Water in the Terraqueous Globe by the mediation of Subterraneal Channels along the Sabulum Bulliens from the Sea to the Heads of Springs and from them into Rivulets and thence into Rivers and so back again into the Ocean thereby making the Sea to be the Original of Springs Thus far it is no new Thesis but as old as Thales and Plato and is followed by Valesius Mr. Lydiat Mr. Carpenter Dr. Jordan and Dr. French What Reasons they have propounded in their Writings to perswade them to this Opinion I have examined in my Book of the Spaw from P. 55. to 89. but could not receive satisfaction from them on the grounds I there laid down besides the great disagreement among themselves in seeking out a passage to the Springs And for the making out of this Positive Thesis Mr. S. makes an Hypothesis in Pag. 317. which certainly is not a sufficient foundation in the Judgement of wise and rational men viz. He supposes That the Seas are perforated at the bottom in many places with Subterraneal Channels and secret Vortices through which the Water of the Sea finds passage into certain Hydrophylacia or common Cisterns of Water where it comes to a Level with the Surface of the Sea and from the pressure of the Atmosphere of the Air and also of the Winds Clouds and Storms and the oblique Motion of the Tides upon the Surface of the Sea the Water is forced up from those Cisterns even to the highest Hills or Plains and so makes Springs Here is much said but nothing proved Indeed a Grand Supposition for so he calls it which he ought necessarily to have proved before he had given his Definitive Sentence against my Thesis lest he be to
Pyrologia Mimica OR AN ANSWER TO HYDROLOGIA CHYMICA of WILLIAM SYMPSON Phylo-Chymico-Medicus In DEFENCE of SCARBROVGH-SPAW WHEREIN The Five Mineral Principles of the said Spaw are defended against all his Objections by plain Reason and Experiments and further confirmed by a Discovery of Mr. S. his frequent Contradictions and manifest Recantation ALSO A Vindication of the Rational Method and Practice of Physick called Galenical and a Reconciliation betwixt that and the Chymical Likewise a further Discourse about the ORIGINAL of SPRINGS By ROBERT WITTIE Doctor in Physick LONDON Printed by T. N. for J. Martyn Printer to the R. Society at the Bell without Temple-Bar 1669. To the Right Honourable JAMES Earl of Suffolk and JOHN Lord Roos Son and Heir to the Earl of Rutland My Lords BEing necessarily engaged to appear again in Publick in Vindication of what I formerly writ upon the Subject of Scarbrough-Spaw and the asserting of the Mineral Principles thereof it reminds me of my Obligations to Your Lordships to whom of right belongs from me what ever Product that Spring affords What there I had said about the Principles of that Spring I have here further made good by convincing Arguments answering all Objections to the contrary My Lords Here is also a Defence of the Rational Method and Practice of Physick which a fierce Chymical Pretender has designed to blast to which I have added my Endeavors of a Reconciliation between the Galenists and Chymists in Reference to some Differences started up among them through the perversness of some late Upstarts The Honourable Testimony I have heard Both Your Lordships give of your sincere Affection to Your respective Physicians and the Art of Physick doth justly challenge this Acknowledgement and renders Your Lordships most fit Patrons of This that designs the Peace of the Faculty Be pleased to accept this as a Symbole of Thanks and Service due to Both from My Lords Your Lordships Most humble Servant R. Wittie York May 25. 1669. To the Judicious and Impartial READER WHen I published my Book of Scarbrough-Spaw I thought it was the most acceptable service I could do for my Countrey since I found it even in Twenty years experience to be eminently successful in the Cure of very many Diseases which had resisted all Rational Methods that had been used either by my self or others of my Faculty In that Book I treat of the Constituent Principles of that Water viz. Iron Vitriol Alome Nitre and Salt And then for Methods sake I discourse concerning the Original Cause of every sort of Water as Sea Rain Snow Lake Pond Fenne Spring and River Water and more at large I handle the Controversie among Philosophers both Ancient and Modern about the Original of Springs I then proceed to treat of Mineral Waters with the property of the Minerals which that Spring has imbibed and conclude with a Description of the Nature and Vertues of that Spaw and of the Cures done by the Water which I did recite upon my own Reputation in my First Edition And that being sold the Report of the Vertues of the Spaw I thought fit to confirm in the Second Impression by the Attestation of several Persons of Honour and Quality yet living on whom the like Cures were done in their several Cases who for Publique Good did willingly allow the mention of their Names not doubting but it would find acceptance among Ingenuous Persons and indeed so it did for I have had hearty thanks from many of the best Rank both Philosophers Physicians and Others But of late I have met with a Check in a Book called Hydrologia Chymica set forth by William Simpson Philo-Chymico-Medicus which I rather think merits the Title of PYROLOGIA MIMICA since his main business is to treat of Chymical Experiments prepared out of Fire which he borrows from Others besides that he spits Fire in every Page He pretends to deny the said Principles of the Spring though he asserts the Vertues thereof and engages in the Dispute about the Original of Springs All which if he had managed like a Scholar by dint of Argument for the discovery of Truth in each particular it might have been for his Credit and should never have been disgusted by me But instead of that He sets his Wits on the Rack on every account to bespatter me with rude and uncivil Language even without any Ground or Reason wherein I willingly submit to the Judgement of the Reader But who am I that I may not bear it when the most Famous Vniversities in the World and all the Learned Men in Europe do not escape a severe Censure concerning their Studies from the malevolent Pen of this bare Batchelour of Arts and all the Learned Physicians in the World and their Rational Method of Physick must be undervalued as trivial and successless meerly to make way for a few Chymical Medicines of his own I confess I have been advised by several Learned Gentlemen of my Friends to let him alone and not to honour him with an Answer who urged to me that Example of Scaliger who being told that a mean Fellow had writ saucily against him answered Relatum est mihi Scarabaeum quendam contra me scribere cui respondere nec dignitatis est nec Otii I have been told said he that a certain Scarabee has writ against me to whom it doth neither become me nor have I leisure to give Answer But I could not be so satisfied to let the young man go on in such a Carier without a Curb since I have writ nothing but what I am assured to be true and am well able to defend against all his Objections Although I confess I am not at very good leasure to do it in regaâ—d of my other Occasions especially since I am hereby interrupted in my Latine Copy upon the Subject of the Spaw which I thought should have seen the light this year Nor do I know of any one else that is so much concerned to undertake it I therefore took his Book into Consideration concerning which I must say as once Julian did upon a better thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which sunt bona sunt quaedam mediocria sunt mala plura Or as Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Besides his words which are his own stuft with bombaste I see nothing in it but what is vulgar Those indeed are such and so affected wherein I find him constantly incircled as if like Faustus he went about to conjure up Mephistophiles Or as if the Chymical Spirits were like the Infernal that they will not be raised without hard and big words His Experiments which are not a few are pillaged out of Kircher Helmont Zwelfer Sennertus Mr. Boyle Sendivogius and Dr. French his Book of Knaresbrough Spaw and several others though he is rarely so candid as to own them The Inferences which thence he deduces are most what upon mistaken grounds drawing general Conclusions from particular Premises His Philosophy is not at all to
to that of Iron Copper and Vitrielum album Why then does he enquire which of the two I meant since possibly I might mean the third or some other Really here is an ill beginning Tiâ—uâ—are in Vestibule malum omen To stumble at the Threshold is a sign of ill luck Did not Mr. S. say P. 1. he had seen my Book I wonder then how he could over-look what I say P. 10. since here is the Cardâ— Controversiae the state of his quarrel turns upon this hinge My words are these I take it to be the Iron Mineral with a Touch of the Vitriol Or if you please Ferrum Vitriolatum or Vitriolum Ferrugineum Here I desire the Reader to take notice that he does frequently leave out my words or matter wherein the main scope of my business consists on purpose to make himself Elbow-room to abuse me Although I intend not hereby as if I meant this Vitriol in the Spaw to be made out of Iron for what have we to do with factitious Vitriol But this is a natural Vitriol generated in the Veins of the Earth through which the Spring runs which has by its â—â—idity or Esurine Salt actuated the Waters which thereby is enabled to corrode a Vein of Iron which is there also and likewise some other Minerals of which more anon Now this Water thus impregnated with a Vitrioline Odour or Vapour since it has no Emetick or Vomiting Quality joyned with it I account it to be of the Nature of that which is made out of Iron not of Copper and therefore I called it Vitriolum Ferrugineum But I do affirm that common spring-Spring-Water it self is a Menstruum proper enough to take in any of the Minerals we are treating of and will not fail to do it if they lie in its way although if it meet with any Acid Salt as this is of Vitriol it will do it the more freely And this a grees with that which Paracelsus himself has said provided the Minerals or Metals be not come to Maturity Lib. 3. de Natur. Aquis cap. de Aq. Gustabilibus Yea and Mr. S. himself confesses it P. 59. Number 10 11 and 12. Dr. Jordane asserts the same concerning Simple Waters that by reason of their tenuity they may imbibe either Spirit or Juice or Tinctures from Metals before their Consolidation Nat. Baths cap. 14 Yea and Kircherus who in his Mundus Subterraneus treats at large of this Subject accounts Simple Spring Water a Menstruum fit enough to imbibe a Mineral or Metal for he mentions not any Primum Ens or other Mineral Acidity I say by its Esurine Salt it more freely corrodes the Iron and carries it in gremio out with it which is the more easily done because the Iron is not here a perfect Solid Metal but in solutis principiis and in some tendency to it being yet of the same nature with Iron And this Vitriol is not so properly said to be made by an Esurine Salt as to have an Esurine Salt or Spirit in it self And this does agree with the general Suffrage of all Learned Writers as well Chymists as others as Libavius in his Syntag. Geber Caesalpinus Dr. Jordan and not only Vitriol but Nitre also they say dissolved in Water will enable it to corrode Metals and to this also consents Fallopius cap. 7. de Thermal Aq. This being premised that Supposition of Vitriol of Copper to be dissolved in the Water is not to be supposed and what follows thereon is altogether impertinent However B. 3. he says This being granted in FAVOUR of his Mineral Ingredients or Principles c. Iron will be found impertinent and insignificant as to the body of it Sir Keep your Favours for others Timeo Danaos etiam dona ferentes I look for none of your Favours nor need them I suspect your very mercies are cruel what I would have in this Dispute I shall by and by force you to grant me and have no cause to return you any thanks But whereas he says Iron is not here in its body What would Sir S. have A Horseshooe Naile It is not here indeed to be found nor will 100 Gallons of the Water afford so much Iron as to make one But here is a palpable Powder which when a little Gall is put into the Water by which it turns black which Colour it takes from the Vitriol there will settle after some hours upon the agitation of the Vessel a black Powder near a Dram in a Gallon which by powring the Water gently from it per inclinationem will be found in the bottom which if you dry in the Sun or over the Fire has a Stiptick or drying taste like Crocus Martis and being taken inwardly in any form whatsoever doth tinge the Excrements with a blackish Colour as all our preparations out of Iron do Besides if this Water be carried abroad to York or Hull which is 30 mile off there will be found in the Vessel a yellowish Sediment according to the quantity of Water which being dried has the same taste with Crocus Martis or prepared Steel and surpassing it in vertue and efficacy and this separation or precipitation of this Metalline Substance is furthered by Agitation in the Carriage especially if in Oaken Vessels although I have also observed the same in Glasse Bottles which were carried abroad But Mr. S. objects as he thinks strongly against these two Minerals Iron and Vitriol to be there imbibed because says he P. 3. The Esurine Salt which goes to the dissolving of Vitriol of what sort soever and he supposes Copper is thereby terminated in its action and though the Water of the Spring so impregnated should afterwards meet with a Vein of Iron yet it can take nothing thence being already satiated and having lost its sting Of Ens Primum To this I reply The Esurine Salt is that which P. 5. he calls Ens Primum out of Helmont which he says gives the Medicinal Vertue to Vitriol I do not at all like the use of that Name Ens Primum in this sense which the Old Philosophers that wanted better light gave to some thing of a higher Nature even to God himself from whom doubtless both Vitriol and all Minerals Metals and Vegetables have received whatever Medicinal Vertue they have in them for it is he that created Medicine out of the Earth Secondly This is Petitio Principii to suppose such a thing to impregnate this Water where we can without any Hypothesis at all directly point at the Water it self as a proper Menstruum as I have made out already and if that will not serve then here is the Esurine Spirit of Vitriol of sufficient Efficacy in the Judgement of Reason to do the work we expect and indeed find to be done and this agrees also with what Helmont himself says in his fourth Paradox where he says That which is volatile viz. a Spirit whether is be Concrete or Liquid may corrode other Mineral Bodies
Besides the Novelty of the Notion of his Primum Ens gives ground of suspition the whole Current of Learned Authors that have written of Medicinal Waters mentioning no such thing whether Chymists or others All accounting the Esurine Spirit or Juyce of Vitriol enough to impregnate a Water with an Acidity that shall make it to corrode other Minerals or Metals by which it passes So as we may very well lay aside this Esurine Salt or Primum Ens Salium as wholly precarious Entia non sunt multiplicanda nisi ex necessitate Again I answer it is both repugnant to Reason and Experience and the Judgment of all Learned Writers who have treated of these Matters What should hinder but Salts of several kinds will dissolve in Water impregnated with one single kind As suppose a Quart of Sea Water which has two Ounces of Salt in it as I have tried by Evaporation will not this receive Nitre suppose a Dram and after that as much Alâ—ome and after that Vitriol as much and so become an Emetick and last of all Arsenick so as it shall become poison If Mr. S. shall dissolve Vitriol in Water of any kind whatsoever whether Natural or Factitions which he cannot deny must be stronger of Vitriol than any Spaw and then shall pass that Vitrioline Water thorow three or four Cap Papers wherein several sorts of Powders are put the same Vitrioline Water shall receive an alteration or some taste from every of them and after they are so mixed per minima it will be easie to separate the Salts from the grosser parts but one Salt from another will be very difficult But further I reply If this be true infallibly A Contradiction as his confidence does seem to import for he says P. 4. If one of the Principles be made by this Esurine Acidity Nature is not at leasure to make another which were such an Indulgence as she never granted her self How does this agree with that Mr. S. himself says P. 45. in the beginning of the Second Section viz. Thus far I assented viz. That an Aluminous Salt from a Mineral Acidity had dissolved a sleight touch of the Mineral of Iron and both dissolved in the Current Spring of Water makes up the Spaw Are not here two Minerals made viz. Iron and Alome by his own Confession The like Confession he makes P. 61. N. 16. Nay further I le see if I cannot find two more Look P. 359. and there he says Vpon a farther Trial of the Spaw Water he found a Body of Vitriol which he calls Terra Vitrioli Then turn but over leaf to P. 360 and he tells you he found Nitre And so again P. 361. How now Mr. S. how will these things hang together can all your Philosophy reconcile this Contradiction What now will become of your Inference you deduce from the former Assertion in P. 4. viz. So then we find a flaw in the main Timber of his Building an Inconsistency of two of his Chief Principles of the Spaw Iron and Vitriol Certainly an Inference drawn from both ends of a Contradiction â—sinvalid But I must not thus pass it over He has told us here Pag. 3. That the Primum Ens or Esurine Salt having dissolved one Mineral is thereby terminated so as if it should meet with another it can take nothing thence Now let us cast our Eye upon P. 59. where Mr. S. hath quite forgotten what he said here for speaking of this Sulphurious Esurine Salt he says It becomes determined and specificated according to the difference of the Mineral Glebes it meets with into this or that Fossible Salt or Mineral Mixture which he illustrates by an Instance which he has verbatim from Sendivogius Lumen Chym. Trac 2. As suppose several Colours and Salts placed at a distance one from another upon a large Marble and common Simple Water is conveyed to each of them this Water although the same to all yet as it comes to every of them is differently tinged and tasted according to the Colour and Taste of those parcels it meets with So says he this Esurine Sulphureous Spirit meeting With variety of Mineral Earths though the same in it self to every one yet becomes altered and tinctured according to the different property of the Mineral Earth And from this Contradiction he has ☜ other Inferences which he mentions not worthy here to be recited Here is an able Philosopher indeed that can assert Contradictions and draw quidlibet ex quolibet But I shall leave this to the Readers Contemplation because I study to be short and shall only say at present I never found any man so inconsistent with himself only he aimed P. 3. to perswade the unwary Readers that it was impossible that Iron and Vitriol could be both in this Water as I had asserted I could now bring in the Testimony of Learned Writers who tell of several sorts of Springs in Europe that have imbibed two or three sorts of Minerals As at St. Lucas in Italy there is one that has imbibed Iron and Alome Another in Germany which is impregnated with Alome and Nitre so as Ernestus a Chymist can hardly determine which of the two is more predominant So in Sweden one that has both Lead and Copper And thus also the ordinary Spaws in Germany have imbibed Vitriol Iron and Ochre as Dr. Heer 's relates in his Spadacrene And Fallopius mentions several such as have partaked of several Minerals in his Book De Therm Aquis Among all whom yet I find not any mention of this Primum Ens. But above all the profoundly Learned Kircher is most full and plain to our purpose Lib. 5. Sect. 2. ad finem accounting not only Spring Water a proper Menstruum to take in the Vertues of Minerals and Metals but one and the same Current to take in several as they lie in its passage for which purpose he has a Scheme P. 259. whereby ☜ by he demonstrates it to the Eye As suppose upon a Table a Subterraneal Channel of Fresh Water enters at one end and runs out at the other end of the Table in one Spring in its passage from one end to the other it is divided and divaricated into several smaller Channels by crooked turnings in one passage it meets with Salt Vitriol Iron Galx and Silver in another Meander it meets with Sulphur Salt Nitre Ochrâ— Gadmiâ— in another it meets with Alome Bitâ—â—â—an Lead c. By this time these several streams meet in the Spring at the other end this Spring he says shall be repâ—â—â—she with the preperties of them all In some oâ—â—nes canales dicti corrivati ex â—â—â—â—bus per quae transcunt Mineralibus fonteâ—â— istum omnibus Mineralium speciebus viribusque compositum constituunt And therefore we may with very good reason reject his Objection as idle and frivolous But I proceed Of Iron Mr. S. P. 3. cannot find out what is the dissolvent in this Water that should dissolve Mars viz. Iron
to make it appear in the form of a Liquor Why I 'l tell him what will do it besides the Alkabest of the Chymists Vitriol imbibed at the first does by its Esurine Salt make the Water corrosive and fit to take in that or any other Mineral that is in its way and so will Nitre as I made out before or Aloâ—e If it will please him I'â— refer him to his Grand Master Paracelsus De Nâ—tur Aqâ—is lib. 3. cap. de Aquis Gustatilibâ—â—s whâ—â—â—â—â—ting of Acide Waters Harâ—â—◠〈…〉 â—â—quit ex â—â—solutione 〈…〉 maturitatem 〈…〉 produced by the 〈…〉 before they come to 〈…〉 By which he hints as if simpl◠〈…〉 alone were â—â—â—â—ent to imbibe a Metal as Iroâ—â— while it has not attained to iâ—perfection which is the case of the Trâ—â—â— Scarboâ—â—gh â—s I shall have occasion to point out afterwards And presently after Pâ—â—â—câ—isus adds Interdum ex Vitriâ—â—â— Aluâ—â—nâ— hujus-modi Aquae promanant viz. Sometimes these Waters come from Vitâ—â—ol and Alome And again I find him to the same purpose De Natur. Baln cap. de Thermis treating of Natural Baths Quod sunt resoluta Minera ex corporâ— eo quod simile est Aluminis Vitrioto Sali tamenid non est to wit they are resolved out of that Body which is like unto Alome Vitriol and Salt and yet they are not that As if he would say they are not perfectly Alome Vitriol and Salt but onely initially not instatu perfectione but in Embrione in fieri not in fâ—â—to and this is the case of these Minerals in this Spaw-Water they are but iâ— sâ—lutis principliâ—e and in their Concrete Jâ—â—â—â— and not perfect Minerals or Metals And yet Paâ—acelsus adds that whatsoever Vertue those Baâ—hs had they were to be judged of according to the propdâ—â—es of those Simples Ita Bâ—â—gâ—â—â— ipâ—arâ—â— Virtuâ—â—s secâ—â—duâ—â— horâ—m triâ—â— simplicium â—â—â—â—tias And so may I say â—onâ—erning these Waters of the Spaâ—â— they have the Veâ—â—ned of all those Minerals we have mentioâ—â—d to be in them From what has been said I suppose it will follow that ouâ— Foundation as to these two Minerals Iron and Vâ—trâ—â—l stands sure and the Building 〈◊〉 liâ—â—ly to suffer by such Vapour that canâ—â—â—ther be hot or cold say and unsay as may best suit a present Design 〈◊〉 his second Section P. 4. he says The Doctor undertakes to discourse of Vitriol not such as he had seen but such as he saith Learned Writers name viz. 3 sorts Roman Vitriol or Copperas which two I do not understand to be Synonima's the second Cyprian and the third Ligurian c. He seems to envy that I discourse about Vitriel as if it were a Prerogative of the Pseudochymists and not to be undertaken by me as if I knew not Vitriol as well as himself and have not as much liberty to treat of it as He. Not will he give me leave to cite my Authors that from their own Knowledge and Autopsy discourse of Vitriol I speak of that which is natural such as this at Scarbrough for my own part I have not such a conceit of my self as he has as that I should impose in this thing my own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as sufficient Authority and therefore I cite my Authors as need is He quarrels that I call it Roman Vitriol or Copperas whereas I am warranted by good Authors Weckerus in his Antid spec lib. 1. says That which the Italians call Victriolo the Spaniaras call Copparofa So Adrianus Tol. in Stocker lib. 1. cap. 9. Vitriolum simpliciter inquit aut Vitriolum Romanum nihil aliud est quam Copparosa As for the Romas it s nothing but Natural Vitriol brought for the most part out of Cyprus or Germany which they dissolve and cast into forms to which they add some pleasant Colour usually of Blew which yet diminishes much of its efficacy Of the Vapors of Minerals In his third Section P. 6. He proceeds to examine the four wayes whereby I say Water may imbibe the Nature and Vertue of a Mineral or Metal And the first was by receiving its Vapour Thus Water standing some while in a Brass or Iron Vessel will taste of the Brasse or Iron Here he cavils at the word Vapour as improper which to me does imply that he is little versed in any solid Authors that treat of this Subject It 's needless to spend time to prove to him that the best Writers do rather chuse to express their sense of the imbibition of the Vapours of Minerals than Odors which he rather espouses Fallopius in Ther. Aqu. cap. 8. uses the term Vapour above 40 times in the sense I am speaking of even in one leaf side P. 214 So Kircher lib. 5. de Virt. Aqu. cap. 3. reckons this as one way whereby a Water imbibes Minerals and Metals and says Vitriol is thus imbibed in its Vapour Whence is this Oâ—â—r but from the Offluâ—ium of minute parts out of the odorable body to the Sensorium and what is that but a Vapour I observe P. 46. he allows an Aporrhaea â—â—â—eralis which word either he understands not or must not deny the word Vâ—â—â—ur But to go on he says P. 6. That no Metallick body doth or can give a Vapour to a simple Elementary Water as long as the Water is Homogeneal in its parts I answer This is quite from the point in hand we are not treating here of Simple Elementary Water but of ordinary Water which is neither so Simple nor Elementary ☞ But where is W. S. his Philosophy he calls it Simple and Elemantary and yet says as long as it 's Homogeneal as if Water could be Simple and Elementary and not Homogeneal Really the very Freshmen do not reason at this rate What A BATCHELOVR OF ARTS and reason thâ—â—â— I must let you know in charity to your Degree that you never saw Simple Elementary Water not ever shall while you breath and that it s not indeed capable of receiving a Vapor or Odor from any Mineral or Metal Galen will tell you 8. de placit Hypoc that it is Minima pars â—jus cujus est Elementum quae lynceis cujusvis oculis non est obvia and yet the same Galen will tell you that Elementum per tâ—tum alterabile est lib. de Constit Art Med. Reconcile these Riddâ—es if you can But if he means that no Metallick Body can give a Vapor or Odor or Sapor I matter not which to Spring Water it 's a shrewd Argument he has not much conversed with Ladies in his Practice of Physick whose accurate Tastes are wont frequently to dis-relish their Water if it has stood but a while in a Vessel of Brass or Iron especially if it be at all warm And for that which he says concerning Lâ—ad that if pure Spring Water were boiled a whole Age in it it will not contract any Saturnine Impression from it Fallopius is quite of another Opinion severely declaring against those Waters that have
within three leaves uses the very same liberty of expression which needs the same Candid Interpretation This brings to my mind a merry story which I know to be true A Countrey Wife complained to a Justice of Peace of her Husband that he wasted their Estate in Ale The good man answered the Justice that whereas he spent a Groat his Wife spent two hereupon the Justice sent for her and told her what her Husband had said O Sir said she it never angers me what I do my self but that he should spend any thing it vexes me to the heart Pag. 18. Dissolve Vitriol in Water filtre it so as it becomes a clear solution Then he goes on and after some small process he says The Sediment gives a Terra Vitrioli or Metalline Earth of Vitriol I desire here the Reader to take notice how this Terra Vitrioli comes from Vitriol dissolved in Water Now look into P. 359. and there Sir Simpson tells us that for farther satisfaction he made more Trials of the Water of Scarbrough Spaw and the first precipitation was a Reddish Sediment which he calls Terra Vitrioli and whence that but from Vitriol which is dissolved in the Water the very thing which I had asserted in my Book and which he has all this while been contending against with so much vehemency and bitterness of Spirit against me Now I appeal to the Judicious Reader whether thus far I have not defended these two Principles of the Water viz. Iron and Vitriol against all the allegations Sir S. has brought against them He has P. 19. one Argument more Mr. S. his Main Fort. wherein he thinks he thrusts home the rest probably he might supect would not hold me and therefore he has here one which is worth them all He says it 's instar omnium as being demonstrative and confirmed by Autopsy and this is it His Friend the Chymical Apothecary at York took some Minerals which I had taken out of the Water of Scarbrough after Evaporation and gave him these he put into a Crucible and calcin'd for the space of almost three hours and all this while without the least appearance of any Red Colour or the least foot-step of either Colcotar of Vitriol or Crocus of Iron it became fixt and permanent in the Fire and lost little of its weight it also became whiter in Colour Now for certain says Sir S. if there had been any thing of Vitriol or Iron in it the discovery would have been made and it forc'd to confess its Nature by its Yellow Red or Purple Colour with so great force of Fire Here we see where Sir Simpson's strength lies even in a Hair Battered to the ground which I shall as easily snap and so put this proud Fencer by his best Guard Now if I prove that Vitriol will calcine White then his Argument is invalid and this I shall do both by the heat of the Fire and also of the Sun First By the heat of the Fire it will be found to calcine White if he will believe the Testimony of his own beloved Zwelfer who is indeed one of the Principal Writers in Chymical Matters in his Pharmacopoea Regia ad finem describing the Composition of a Cerate which he calls Ceratum magis durabile ad Hernias he has these words Vitrioli Veneris pulverizati ad albedinem parumper calcinati ʒ 1 β. Secondly It will calcine White by the heat of the Sun if he will believe the Virtuosi of France who in their Conference 238 treating of the making of Sympathetical Powder do say it 's made with Romane Vitriol which they beat not over small and lay it in the Sun upon Papers for the space of fifteen dayes during which time say they it is calcined into an exquisite whiteness If he will not trust them let him ask his Chymical Apothecary if he have not of it in his Shop who I believe can let him see it so as now there is left him no way to evade but by questioning the Authority and Verity of these Authors as afterwards we shall find him in an Argument I pinch him from Doctor Heylin in my Discourse about the Original of Springs But I shall not rest here I do very much wonder that Mr. Simpson or the Chymical Apothecary whom of the two we account the better Chymist could expect that these Minerals being so much diluted with Water should calcine either into a Colcotar or Crocus that they should discover any other colour than White for upon their dissolution in this Water-Spring they must necessarily deposite what other Colour they had if they will believe their Grand Master Paracelsus whose Authority in this matter is Authentick enough He in lib. 4. cap. 1. p. 271. de Aquis crescentibus treating of this very Subject Videtis inquit Metalla Mineralia similitudinem nullam habere cum corporibus illis ex quibus generata sunt You see that Metals and Minerals dissolved in Water have no resemblance with those Bodies out of which they are generated and presently after he explains himself more particularly to my purpose Videtis Vitriolum aliud viride aliud ceruleum ac probe coloratum esse Id si in Aquam resolvatur colorem omnem deponit That is to say You see one sort of Vitriol is Green another Blew but if it be resolved in a Spring Water it lays down all its Colour And he goes on to illustrate this by Gold ☞ Similiter auri color flavus est qui tamen in transmutation fit purpureus si autem per transmutationem hanc resolvatur tunc Aquam nullam tingit amplius nec colorem in se continet In like manner says he though the Colour of Gold be Yellow and in transmutation it becomes Purple yet if it be resolved by this transmutation that is in Spring Water for that is the Subject he is treating of it tinges the Water no more nor does it keep its own Colour Now I wonder these Gentlemen being so great Chymists should not be better read in Paracelsus Had these been perfect Minerals in their kind I mean this Vitriol and Iron they might with good reason have expected they should have calcin'd of a Red or Purple Colour as we see if perfect Vitriol whether White Vitriol or Copperas be dissolved in Water and that Water be filtred never so clear the Water being evaporated leaves a Reddish Sediment and that will calcine Red as I have tried but if the Mineral viz. Vitriol or the Iron be imperfect and onely in succo primitivo no such thing can be expected for they admit thereby of a change both in their Taste and other respects too as if indeed they were a quite other thing And thus says also Paracelsus lib. 3. De Nat. Aq. Tract 2. p. 265. In istiusmodi destructione corporis Mineralium ipse quoque gustus dissipatur Then he goes on to particulars Sic in Aluminis resolutione observatis quae ☜
Alumini non conveniunt Itidem in resolutione Vitrioli decedere videtis quae Vitriolo similia non sunt etsi ejusdem substantiae materiae sunt To wit Thus in the resolution of Alome into Water you observe some things that are not agreeable to Alome And so again in Vitriol you see some digressions that are not like Vitriol while yet they are of the same substance and matter And this is as plain in this case of ours as if Paracelsus had designed it purposely and intended to correcting his followers in this their mistake For these Minerals are not here corporally but percolated as he himself expresses it in the 13th cap. of his 3 d Book De Nat. Aqu. Sic persape accidit ut Minera Vitrioli aut Aluminis aut Sulphuris aut Antimonii concurrat non quidem corporaliter probe tamen percolata Now the eminent Digression that falls out in these two Minerals Vitriol and Iron as imbibed by this Water at Scarbrough is this that since they are not here in their perfect Bodies but exceedingly percolated and diluted they therefore do not calcine into a Colcotar or Crocus not Red but White ☞ And this is the ground of the great puzzle some ingenious Chymists of my acquaintance are put to in judging of the Minerals of the Spaw and particularly Mr. Samuel Johnston a Physitian at Beverley in this Countrey of very good repute concerning whom I shall have farther occasion to speak anon from whom this very day while I write this I received three sorts of preparations out of the Minerals of this Spaw viz. a Chrystalline Sabulum as he calls it Terra Vitrioli which I rather think to be a product of the Iron than the Vitriol and the Essential Salt This last he says he cannot tell what to think of it being such an Anomalous Salt differing so much either from the Natural or Factitious Kinds of Alom Vitriol or Nitre though in some properties it agrees with each of them The reason of the scruple is this which Paracelsus has clearly made out that here they are not corporally but percolated not perfect in their several Kinds but in succo primitivo not single but all mixed together which as yet I could never attain to separate And therefore this Salt is nothing so Acide as Vitriol nor Emetick nor Stiptick as Alome not inflammable as Nitre notwithstanding it doth shoot in Stirias I 'l only adde this that they are all here though in fractis imminutis debilitatis viribus and the vertue of the Water must be judged from them all Paracelsus says cap. 1. De Nat. Balu treating of such Waters Quod sint resoluta Minera ex Corpore to quod simile est Vitriolo Alumini Sali tamen id non est ita emergunt ipsarum virtutes secundum harum crium simplicium potentias P. 186. But to return to my Antagonist who is here managing his best Argument which he calls instar omnium in contradiction to these two Minerals Iron and and Vitriol which he says ought not to be White I shall now refer him to Fallopius de Metall pag. 217. who treating of such like Waters as this tells of one that is near Rome in agro Volaterrano which he says has imbibed a Juice that is white and it is the Juice of Vitriol not of Alome his own words are In illa Aqua est Succus Albus est Succus Calcanthi non autem Aluminis Now it s very probable that this white Juice would make a white Salt by Calcination after its separation from the Menstruum ☞ To the same purpose also speaks the Acute Zuelfer in his Appendix to his Animadversions P. 95. discoursing of Calcin'd Metals whether they yield a Salt or no. He determines that the firm Metals being calcin'd with violent fire among which he reckons Iron will not calcine into a Powder out of which Salt may be extracted but in Scorias Crâ—cos convertuntur neutiquam in Cinerese quibus verum Sal eliciendum Now if so why then should these men expect that these Minerals should calcine in Scorias Crocos since they had not here to do with perfect Metals or Minerals but onely a Concrete Juice of Metals and Minerals dissolv'd in Water which now they discern plainly doth calcine into a Powder out of which may be extracted a Salt of very great vertue in opening Obstructions and correcting the Ferments of the Stomach and other natural parts as I have frequently experienced and have expresly pointed at in my Book of the Spaw P. 152. where I said and I ☜ know that out of these Mineral Salts which are separated from this Water some very useful preparations might be made to be safely joyn'd with other Vehicles to good purpose And thus again Zuelfer in his Animadversions upon the 20th Class of the Augustine Dispensatory treating of the Calcining of Vitriol says It will calcine Red or of a Dark Brown Colour but he blames those Chymists that expecting to make further use of it do use to edulcorate it with Water Sive enim vi astringente sive aperiente polleat ille tota per edulcorationem tollitur quippe utraque vis vi Sale Metallico Vitriolato in aquaresolubili consistit For whatever quality it has whether astringent or aperient it s all lost by edulcoration and all the vertue which was in the Metallick Salt does consist in the Water into which it is resolved And so it is here the Vitriol thus resolved into Water is become in all respects a quite other thing the vertue thereof being imbibed in the Water The Water black with Gall. But I wonder all this while that neither of these Gentlemen have said one word of the calcining of that Black Sediment which I mention'd before that falls to the bottom of the Vessel after it has received a Tincture from the Gall This had they done it would have given them no small light concerning this very Point of these two Minerals we are treating about The Black Tincture is received by the Vitriol that which is precipitated to the bottom by the Stipticity of the Gall is the Iron this I calcined in a Crucible in very strong Fire and it becomes of a Dark Brown Colour and turns to a gross Powder hard as a Cinder and is no other than the Scoria of Iron After Calcination I dissolv'd it in pure Spring Water and let it stand till the next day I also tried whether the Water being very Brackish would take a Tincture from Gall but it did not so as I conclude it has nothing of Vitriol This Water I evaporated away and it afforded a Brownish Floscule very sharp and biting upon the Tongue which Colour since it has it not from the Vitriol for the reason aforesaid so nor from the Gall and therefore I judge it to have it from the Iron Another thing I observed in calcining all the whole Body of the Minerals as they
which also it doth partake I have reckoned up many other vertues that are in Iron in P. 142. of my Second Edition which if he had duly weighed he might well have spared those many Scurrilous Invectives which most unjustly he lets flie in the face of those learned and most worthy Gentlemen which he calls Galenists and my self ☞ But I shall spare him since he takes sufficient revenge upon himself in a Foolish and Nonsensical Discourse and a company of fond Boyish Quibbles P. 23. wherein he makes himself ridiculous which I wonder a man of reason should not blush to have done and a man of Learning would have scorn'd to have left so many shreds of false Latine as here and there we meet with in his Book but I suspect he takes Priscian for a Galenist in that he breaks his head so often I hope next time he 'l take some care to provide him a plaister Here I declare I do not twit him with the Printers faults I suspect my own will not be without his I have a Copy of the Printer's Errata which I receiv'd from himself the other day with a most uncivil Letter wherein he mentions not the grossest lapses in Latine making them thereby his own having by his Letter provok'd me to put this thorn in his heel which otherwise for his Degrees sake I had passed by in civility In P. 33. he quarrels at me because in treating of several properties that are ascribed by Learned Writers to Iron I tell what Dioscorides says that it looses the Belly especially when it is joyned with a Vitrioline Juyce as here it is and he says If so it should be Emetick and constantly provoke Vomit concerning which I have already proved by the Testimony of Chymical Authors that Vitrioline Waters such as we are speaking of which have in them an immature Vitrioline Juyce do not at all provoke to vomit and therefore all his Objections concerning the Emetick property of perfect Vitriol are nothing to the purpose nor do those that imbibe Iron but do rather strengthen a relaxed Stomach according to the suffrage of our best Authors wherein I refer him to Fallopius who delivers both his own verdict and others too concerning this thing de Therm Aqu. cap. 11. p. 233. Aptae quoque sunt aquae ferreae prosunt stomacho lieni renibus vesicaeque ut Antyllus Seribonius Marcellus dicunt And for what he says concerning taking the Flowers or Filings of Brass inwardly it is nothing to the purpose save to fill up the design of invectives since no such thing meant by me I have wholsomer Medicines than those which he himself does frequently use if we may believe himself in this Book It is enough for the present that I have proved Vitriol and Iron to be two Ingredients in this Spring and that notwithstanding it is strengthening to the Stomach and other parts and not onely answered all his Arguments to the contrary while he dissented but have also discovered him to have changed his mind and granted them both to be there Of Alome in the Spaw P. 34. He proceeds to another Principle of the Spaw viz. Alome of which I mentioned three sorts according to the Opinion of Galen and the Princes in Physick that treat of it viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all which are of gross parts and very stiptick c. Which no doubt says Mr. Simpson must be a simple Mineral Salt centred in the Bowels of the Mineral Stone of Alome without any superadditionary additaments of Vrine or Salt of Kelp I wonder he could not as well judge of Vitriol in the Water to be a Simple Mineral of its own kind and not factitious as made out of Iron or Copper as well as he does Alome without Urine or Kelp whereas the Alome that is vulgarly used is so made and then he had judged aright and saved himself and me a great deal of trouble But still he queries which of these sorts it is and accounts himself in a mist till he know truly 't is easie for any man that resolves to be Sceptical to raise more impertinent doubts than the Sages of the World can tell how to clear All the three sorts I mention are of one and the same property or at least not much different and therefore it s altogether needless for me to enquire how to determine I find Fallopius gravell'd about this very Question cap. 7. de Therm Aq. p. 217. Some may aske says he since there are several sorts of Alome of which sort is it that Waters do imbibe the juyce ☞ Dico inquit quod est admodum difficile hoc scire quoniam succus aluminosus non concrescit at ubi sit facile cognoscitur I say 't is very hard to determine it says he because an Aluminous Juyce does not harden or rock but where it is its easie to be discerned If I must give my opinion I think of the three it is the last to wit the Liquid sort which is here mixed with the Water and this is the onely Mineral which Sir S. has some time thought to be in the Spaw Of Nitre in the Spaw P. 35. He passes on to consider of the 4th Ingredient viz. Nitre concerning which I mentioned two sorts One inclining to a Reddish Colour according to Serapio and another mentioned by Galen which is White of which later sort this is which is mixed with the Spaw and this is that which in my Book P. 13. I asserted to be of all the Minerals the most predominant the body of them all extracted out of the Water being laid some dayes in a cool place I have discerned Stiriae or little icicles among them which is the peculiar form of Nitre But we shall find Mr. S. peremptorily denying all this by and by As for the properties of Natural Nitre which is that sort imbibed by the Water I have laid down there a short description out of several of the Princes in Physick but of this more anon Of Salt in the Spaw Next he hastens to the 5th and last Ingredient of the Water-Spring viz. Salt concerning which I have said P. 146. of my Book there is not much in it though some Ingenious Naturalists of my acquaintance are otherwise minded in regard of its level with the Sea with which in Spring-Tides it is sometimes overflown as also because of the brackishness of the Mineral Body that resides after Evaporation of the Water which yet I rather think proceeds from the other Salts for so they may be all properly called although Kircher would not have found fault with me for saying there is Salt in it for he says there are none of these sorts of Waters without Salt And truly I am glad I have pleased the more Wise and Learned But Mr. S. is very severe against it and since I have said in my Book there is not much in it I will not fall out with him for a trifle But
put it into Spring-Water with Gall but it received no Tincture so that I cannot find either the one or the other to receive a Tincture of Gall. Alome tinctures not with Gall. Now this doth plainly evince that its not from Alome that this Water at Scarbrough takes its Tincture but from some other Mineral and that in all likelihood must be the Vitriol unless we can find how to fix it upon another I shall therefore now enquire whether Iron will suffice to give it this Tincture with Gall If so then another Spring that passes through Iron must receive a Tincture but that it will not Ergo not from Iron does this take its Tincture Nor Iron There is an Iron Mine near Barnsley upon the Edge of Darbyshire where great store of Iron is melted out of which runs a Spring of Fresh Water This I procured Mr. William Cotton who is Overseer of the Iron Work to try if it would change Colour with Gall he writes me that it did not change the Colour at all He sent me also a Glass Bottle of the Water which I tried with Gall but it changed nothing at all neither being evaporated did it yield any Sediment notwithstanding that he writes that he observed it to have something of the Taste of Scarbrough Spaw at the Fountain He writes also that to make a further Trial he staied till they had got a Pit at the bottom of the Mine and so he caused a hole to be made under the bottom Stone for the Water to fall into and stand till it was clear and then took and tried it but it received no alteration from the Gall He sent me also some of the Mine it self which I calcin'd and put into Water to see if that would give any Tincture by the addition of Gall but it did not So then if neither Alome nor Iron will do it then it remains that Vitriol is that that gives the Tincture Nor Nitre unless Nitre will do it which neither he contends for nor any one upon trial shall find to do it and the same may I say of Salt which is the Fifth Ingredient from all which it follows that Mr. S. is in a grand mistake to think that Alome can contribute to this Colour by Gall. Furthermore as I have already made out this Water being carried abroad or left some while to stand in an open Vessel will receive no Tincture from Gall as also it will have laid aside its Acidity which methink is an argument of some force to prove that both these Qualities or Properties come from one and the same Cause to wit Vitriol which I suspect to be in its volatile parts imbibed in the Water and that the Sediment which remains after Evaporation is rather the product of the rest of the Minerals than the Vitriol for else I see no reason but while any thing of the substance of Vitriol is there it should keep its Acidity and also receive a mutation from the Gall. And also I infer that if that Tincture come from Alome then certainly that which he by and by calls the Aluminous Salt which he makes the essence of the Spaw should give the Black Tincture to the Gall so long as it remains in the Water From what has been said it also follows that ordinary Spring-Water takes no Salt at all and but little of Sapor or Vapor or Odor from perfect Mineral of Alome or Iron Indeed what it would do if it were made Corrosive by the participation of Vitrioline Juyce I cannot so easily determine From whence also it follows that if Minerals and Metals be but in Solutis principiis or their Concrete Juyces even Simple Spring-Water will be sufficient to imbibe them without any necessity of Helmonts Primum Ens which therefore I have with good reason exploded before and if any doubt be made of that which yet I proved to be the opinion of good Authors then here is the Juyce of Vitriol which will not fail to do it A bad memory Pag. 44. He tells us That the Medicinal Acidity or Primum Ens Which is the Solvent in the Water has made a flight solution of a Minera of Iron which being contempered together makes up the Body of the Spaw ☞ Is not this a Body of Iron then which becomes the Body of the Spaw and that very thing which he denied totidem verbis P. 20. in the close of the Fifth Section You know who had need of a good memory But yet he minces the matter prettily for he calls it but a slight solution of the Iron and yet 't is the Body of the Spaw Let the wise Reader judge how these things will hang together Well! But he says further That if Spirit of Vitriol be powred upon this Water of the Spaw it makes no alteration in it because of the similariness of parts between the Acid Spirit of Vitriol and the Acid Solvent in the Water no more than fair Water mixed with fair Water Would not any man think from this very Observation alone if there had been nothing else Mr. S. had reason to be perswaded that this Primum Ens or Mineral Acidity was nothing but Vitriol which I have proved to be the true Solvent if we need any in my reply to P. 3. since the spirit of Vitriol is as near of kin to it being powred upon it as Water is to Water that is in plain words they are both Vitriol nor does the Experiment which he mentions make out any thing to the contrary indeed it is nothing at all to the purpose Instability in Writing Pag. 45. Thus farr sâ—ys Mr. S. I assented That an aluminous Salt from a mineral acidity had dissolv'd a slight touch of the Minera of Iron and both dissolv'd in the Current Spring of Water makes up the Spaw What 's here Did he not say just now in the fore-going Page that the Mineral acidity and the Iron made up the Body of the Spaw and now he says there is also an aluminous Salt in it why could not he have said so before ☞ Is not here great instability in his Writing Methinks he seems to write Mente tremula with a trembling heart and hand being very unwilling and afraid to confess what he finds Here it 's plain he has granted Iron and Alome and how farr Vitriol I appeal to the Reader I doubt not but to wrest them all out of him at length Yet notwithstanding his plain confession of Iron here I appeal to all the Gentlemen that were present at the Spaw if he did not absolutely deny it in our Conference there allowing nothing but Alome until we had done that I shewed him the Cliffe which so much of it as is exposed to the Weather is turned into a Cindar as hard almost as Iron and out of which Mr. William Cotton being then by said he would undertake to make Iron at which he seemed to be startled in that he had denied
imbibition of Minerals or Metals which by the help of the very Chymical Authors themselves who speak the same words I have calmly and clearly wiped off I did not think it fit to call in the Testimony of the Antients and Princes in Physick whom I had cited before in my Book since I see he so insolently spurns at them but rather to convince him with the Verdict of the Chymists whom he ought better to have understood and cannot deny I shall now open the Curtain and let in more light to the Reader that he may the better discern the temper of my Antagonist and on which side is the truth in the Dispute that lies before him and this ex ore suo What needs any more Habemus reum confitentem In P. 20. Thus says Mr. S. we discard these two Pillars of his Spaw Mr. S. his Recantation viz. Vitriol and Iron as to the Body of them Now turn to P. 39. I do not says he deny Iron to be an ingredient So again P. 44. ☞ This Mineral acidity pervading a Minera of Iron makes a slight solution of it and being equally contempered together makes up the Body of the Spaw Now consider this Body of Minerals which is in the Spaw is of an Ounce Weight at least sometimes ten Drams in a dry Summer as this last was viz. 1668. in 5 Quarts of the Water and this is that which he stiles a slight solution And for Vitriol turn to P. 359. That I might says he inform my self more satisfactorily of the true Constituent parts of Scarbrough Spaw I took 3 Gallons and 3 Pints which I let stand whos 's first precipitation was a Reddish Sediment from which I filtred the Water and this dried in the Sun proved to be a Red Earth or kind of Ochre OR RATHER TERRA VITRIOLI ☜ So again he argues against Nitre from P. 50. to P. 61. asserting onely an Aluminous Salt with a slight touch of Iron but turn to P. 360. and we have these words Then I evaporated the clear filtred Water in Glasses to a driness which I found to have an ALUMINO-NITROUS ☜ TASTE or rather indeed MORE NITROUS and would relent in the Air. So P. 364. Where you meet in our Hydrological discourse with the word Aluminous Salt you are to read it ALUMINO-NITROUS SALT ☜ OR NITRO-HERMETICAL SALT this Salt if duly ordered is Crystalline shoots into LONG STIRIAS ☜ Here let the Reader observe in his Hydrological Discourse where he is directly denying Nitre several times and says its only an Aluminous Salt that is in the Water what woful Nonsense it would be to turn the word Aluminous into Nitro-Aluminous or Alumino-Nitrous or Nitro-Hermetical Certainly never any man writ at this rate before Besides if a Galenist should talk of Nitro-Hippocratical or Nitro-Galenical Salt what a comely Canting would it be and yet it would gingle as well as Nitro-Hermetical Risum teneatis amici After all this ranting what a woful case is this POOR GENTLEMAN brought into that he must be forced to crowd in Nonsense But it appears in this and many more things that I have hinted at and I shall find more before I have done with him that to say and unsay is no strange thing with our Author here right or wrong Sense or Nonsense he is not ashamed to tell what is in his heart But yet if we observe him Mr. S. in a strait he would fain sumble out an excuse to blind the unwary Reader that he may not find his contradicting of himself for he says P. 364. Therefore what we said against Nitre in our foregoing discourse is to be understood the Common inflammable Nitre which is vulgarly used But I pray will this go down with any man of ordinary understanding What have we to do here with Common Nitre of the Shops we are treating of Natural Mineral Nitre as it is here in this Water or this Earth never known or taken notice of nor used till I discovered it and brought it into use which indeed will not blaze in the Fire perhaps because it is but in Embryone not in statu perfectione or else so diluted with the Water that it lies down or loses its inflammable property as the Vitriel does the Colcotar Really I am ashamed that a man that pretends to Learning and Reputation should write such palpable Contradictions attended with so many gross circumstances of abuse to another for asserting that which himself is forced to acknowledge for truth upon deliberate consideration and I am as sorry to be put to this unpleasant task of ripping up a weak Brothers Infirmities which I would had I not been forced to the contrary much rather have covered with a Mantle of Love So severely to reject Iron Vitriol and Nitre and before his Book be done to be forced to recant To charge those things upon me as great faults wherein himself can have no plea for it but his rashness contracting thereby a great guilt to himself This is that which it seems the liberty of the Press doth afford an opportunity to do but yet that which no ingenious man or good Christian ought to take to himself The best of us all have our failings and it s well if we live to repent Ev'n Salomon left his Ecclesiastes St. Augustine his Confessions and Retractations and my Antagonist his Epilogue or Recantation However this with the aluminous part he calls in his Epilogue the Essence of Scarbrough Spaw and he undertakes P. 365. to tell what proportion it bears to the Water viz. as 1 is to 128. A rare Arithmetician indeed if you will believe him his Confidence in this is like all the rest deeming himself to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for we must believe him without reason as if all the vertue in the Spaw should lie in this Salt and with this alone he pretends to do wonders especially if we will but take in his Ternary But I wonder why the Vitrioline Spirits which by his own Confession are not here in this Salt or the Terra Vitrioli which he acknowledges he found or the Iron which I proved and he has confessed to be there should be excluded from being of the Essence of the Spaw Two Minerals of the Spaw are lost by Carriage For my own part I do seriously profess I never saw any considerable Cure done by the Water at distance and 't is no marvel since two of the principal Minerals are wanting viz. the Vitriol which loses its volatile parts by Carriage which should help its penetration into the narrow Meanders of the Hypochonders and the Iron which is alwayes found precipitated in the bottom of the Vessels besides that in a few dayes it begins to putrefie and so spoils the Stomach and taints the Blood and lays a foundation for the Jaundies or Cachexia as I have made appear by good Testimony in my Book But here some may wonder how it comes to pass that Mr. S.
reperirentur quia melius ageretur cum iis qui laborant affectibus renum vesicae i. e. Because it would be very well for them that are subject to the Diseases of the Reins and the Bladder To which I 'l onely adde the Judgement of Kircher Aquae ferreae five Chalybeatae virtutibus ferri seu Chalybis imbuantur ad obstructiones hypochondriacas saluberrimis i. e. Iron or Chalybeate Waters have in them the vertues of Iron or Steel and so are most excellent against the Obstructions of the Hypochondres and the hardness or schirrhus of those parts and the beginning of a Dropsie as also they strengthen a relaxed and debilitated Stomach Of Vitrioline Springs And since this is a Vitrioline Water as I have prov'd sufficiently against all his Objections and at last brought him confessing as much it were but proper to lay down the Vertues and Properties of those sorts of Waters but that being done in part already I shall therefore be very brief I have prov'd already out of Fallopius and Paracelsus c. that a Water may imbibe Vitriol and yet not become Emetick or provoking to vomit and constant experience shews that it s verified in this Water besides hereby 't is become of a penetrating quality and so attenuating and cutting gross flegmatick humors being also drying and leaving a moderate astriction behind it and therefore good in all cold and moist Constitutions and for expelling of Worms Much of the same nature are such Waters as have imbibed Salt save that they are not so piercing but these having but little Salt in them I shall pass it over without more words Of Nitrous Springs But because Nitre is of all the rest the most predominant in this Water and himself has confessed it I shall therefore bring in the Testimony of the profound Kircher in Cap. de Aq. Nitrosis Praedominium dominium Nitri Aquas potentes facit c. i. e. When Nitre is predominant it makes the Water that has imbibed it powerful in operation inables it to correct an ill habit of body which such as are flegmatick are prone to it looses the Belly is good in the Diseases of the Nerves and for such as are subject to Defluxions upon the Lungs heals the Itch and other Diseases of the Skin Cures the ringing of the Ears being dropped into them and in a word makes it to be of an eminent abstergent property So far Kircher Now this Spaw having imbibed all these five Minerals must take its vertue from them all according to reason and the Testimony of Learned Writers as I have made out already and I am assured it suits full well with the Experimental Cures I have mentioned in my Book to which I refer the Reader and shall say no more at present ☞ Next P. 62. he falls to treat of his five Digestions which he pillages from Helmont verbatim though he curtails the number and corrects his Master for Helmont makes six vidâ— Helm P. 167. from the pravity or deficiency of every one of which proceed several Diseases whereas the whole Classiâ— of Physicians make but three viz. in the Stomach the Liver and the Solid Parts I wonder indeed he did not make 50 for there is not any the least part of the Body but if it be depraved in the Concoctive or Digestive faculty so as it cannot separate the serous part of the Blood from that which is for its nourishment Diseases may arise from it which may disturbe the whole Oeconomy of Nature and breed Aposthumations and Tumors according to the Nature of the Humor and the Constitution of the Parts Thus in the Breast may breed a Schirrhus or a Cancer in the Hands and Feet a Ganglion in other parts an Oedema or a Phlegmon and from thence a Feaver in the Joynts a Gowt or some other Lameness or Rheumatismes c but I may not digress upon this Subject The truth is in his describing of these Diseases he erres very much through a defect in the understanding of Pathology and Anatomy frequently confounding such as are nothing of kinne and all this in a canting form of Expressions that all the Learned Men I have met with that have seen the Book do laugh at These Spaws are found out by chance Then he undertakes P. 83. to tell what Diseases the Spaw cures and what not and cites Helmont but what I pray is Helmont's Judgement concerning this Water which he never saw Fallopius says that the properties of all those sorts of Springs are found out by Observation and doubtless he is in the right now since he could have no observation or experience of this Water his Verdict cannot be very Authentick I have in my Book made out my Observations and Experience for near Thirty years and that under the hands of the Persons themselves on whom such Cures were made which give better ground of satisfaction to wise men than all that Mr. S. can say who can have nothing of his own Experience as being upon my knowledge not much more acquainted with it than Helmont whom he cites Notwithstanding he takes upon him to give his Opinion of some of the matters of fact Of an Alderman of Hull in the Asthma and particularly of an Alderman of Hull whom I mention to have found Cure in an Asthma But that this was a real Asthma says he P. 94. I fear the Doctor mistakes in his Diagnosticks How civil this is in the young man to make himself a Judge of that which he never saw and thus severely to become a Cato Censorius over me I refer it to the wise Reader to judge The truth is this Alderman had joyned Dr. Primrose and my self in this his Disease to whom we prescribed Remedies according to Indications which yet the Malady did in a great measure resist so as after due prepâ—ration we thought fit to send him to the Spaw where after a few dayes he found cure and returned well This being about 15 years agoe and the Gentleman now alive and in health and by his leave we both thought fit to call a Spade a Spade and that Disease an Asthma If it would conduce any thing to teach W. S. that best point of Diagnosticks viz. to know himself I could every day let him see some that have found exceeding much benefit by this Vitrioline Water in the Asthma without his Arcana's Of a Gentlewoman in great Debility cured by the Spaw Then he undertakes to judge of the Case of a Gentlewoman whom I mention in a very Critical Point who had been long in a wasting condition bolstred up with Pillows through constant difficulty of breathing which he calls an Asthma from the Obstructions of the Womb and though he never saw her yet he undertakes to tell what was also the Procatarctick Cause of her Malady viz. a Cold c. Was ever any man so bold to be thus positive without ground I wonder what W. S. sees by the
enumeration of the Symptomes that can perswade him to think this was an Asthma for be may observe it did not seize on her per periodos but a difficulty of breathing held her for a Moneth or five Weeks together but it may be he thinks every difficulty of breathing to be an Asthma It was indeed a violent Dyspnaea which oft-times is a Symptome of a Consumption and great Debility and indeed that was the thing I most feared for she was in a Hectick in which Case purging is not safe although not only she but many others that have been eminently Hectical have found benefit by these Waters and I can make it out with good reason too if here it were my task and I had time to enlarge Of a Cataâ—â—he He next takes upon him to descant of a Cure I mention in an Inveterate Catarrhe which had resisted all other Methods and here he takes occasion to let flie against the Galenists for some Assertions which Helmont fancies them to make concerning the Causes of that Disease from whom he pillages all he says out of a Tract of his called Catarrhi Deliramenta after whose Pipe in every thing he dances throughout all the Book without farther Enquiry As for himself it appears that he is a meer stranger to their Writings and to say the truth I believe he never read Galen or any sound Writer that follows him it is plain that he forges things frequently out of his own brain to impose upon the credulous Vulgar on purpose to abuse them dealing with the Galenists as the Heathen Persecutors of Old did with the Primitive Christians put Bear-Skins upon them on purpose to bait them He ought to remember the Ninth Commandment and not thus ordinarily to bear false witness against his Neighbours I find in Pet. Faber's Agonistic That there were certain Laws to be observed in the Olympian and Isthmian Games which they ever sware to observe among others That they would not seek for Mastery by fraud or deceit but deal fairly not bite not kill otherwise it was not a lawful striving but was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use soul play as being belluine and bruitish and against these Laws does Mr. S. constantly transgress I could set him right as to their Opinions concerning a Catarrhe wherein they speak a great deal more reason than Helmont who deals not fairly in that he cites not his Authors endeavoring to raze well-laid Foundations but builds nothing himself But it s far from my design to write a Pathology or to discourse in this place concerning the nature of Diseases And it is also plain in Experience that the Medicines which the Galenists use in the Cures of Catarrhes and their Method they go in upon their own Hypothesis are eminently successful P. 101. He takes upon him to discourse concerning the Essence of Fevers together with their Cures declaring against the use of Water or other cooling Drinks in Fevers which he says are so far from abating as they rather increase their heat and exasperate their Symptomes wherein he discovers that he is a meer Stranger to their Writings Yea even the Cooling Juleps says he prescribed by the Galenists yield very small help if they do not actually prejudice Nature in the purifying work of Fermentations Alas poor man he understands not the use and end of the Galenists prescribing these Cooling Juleps Of Cooling Juleps in which are not onely to cool and to quench that intemperate heat of the Stomach a thing most necessary to be done and wherein the Patients find much relief but also to correct as they are fitted by good Artists the Putrefaction and Ebullition of the Blood and to help Nature to evacuate the Morbous Humors by Sweat Siege or Urine and also to fortifie the Digestions and refresh the Spirits being constantly found to do all this better than his Hot and Corrosive Diaphoreticks made most what out of Poysons yea and frequently to correct the scorching heat and intemperies they have caused as upon mine own knowledge I can speak Here we may see plainly an Emblem of Hell for if any man fâ—ll into a Fever and be at this Physitians ordering ☞ his Case is like that of Dives for he will not allow him a drop of Cold Water to cool his Tongue though he be tormented in those flames It 's also very likely from what he saith that Mr. S. is of opinion that Dives was mistaken in calling for Cold Water to cool his Tongue but that it would have inflamed him the more Here I would not be mis-understood I commend Cooling Drinks in Fevers as Juleps Emulsions or Water but not excessively Cold as these possibly may be in Winter for the Stomach being a Nervous Part may be offended with that which is intensely Cold its Concoctive Faculty being debilitated notwithstanding it may seem to be refreshed by it at the present by dulling the Appetite and Sense of Thirst and therefore in my Practice I order that these be aired a little to be made less cold and so the moisture will penetrate the better and the Eventilation by insensible Transpiration or Sweat furthered as also they will pass down more speedily by Urine and this is according to the advice of Hippocrates lib. de Vsu Humidorum lib. 3. de Ratione victus acut Of 〈◊〉 As for what he says concerning Juleps and Cordials P. 102. That they are made up with Syrupes which clogg the Stomach by their sweetness This is a false Charge wherein I may appeal to any that have occasion in Fevers to experience them Syrupes in themselves are alterative and prepared for several Indications which we use pro re nata joyned to our Juleps with several other things as Spirit of Vitriol or Sulphur which do both give a grateful Acidity to the Palate and Stomach and resist Putrefaction and all these according to the intention I admire that in all things Mr. S. should be so meer a Stranger to the Writings of his own Authors the Chymists Zuelfer in his Pharmacop Regia describes above ☞ 50 sorts of Syrupes which are made up with Sugar or Honey whose Vertues he also commends even twice as many as any of our Apothecaries have or need to have in their Shops And Schroderus mentions three times as many in his Pharm Med. Chymica Yea no good Chymical Author that has writ de Re Medica but he describes them and commends them Besides I know that he himself doth constantly use them and more of late than formerly having had sufficient experience of the mischiefs done by his other hot Medicines and the frequent Complaints of his Patients than which nothing is more ordinary in our Ears Of Emulsions Moreover It is an usual thing in Fevers for Patients to complain of Acid Humors in their Stomachâ— and sharpness of Urine which are exceeding well corrected by Emulsions yea and Syrupes too the Sugar allaying their Acrimony and hindring the
expirat Id ostendit inquit quod vetulas etiam quasdam infestat quibus nec seminis nec sanguinis superfluitas colligitur tum etiam eas quae bene purgantur Viri consuetudine fruuntur And this also he shews to be agreeable to the Doctrine both of the Antient Princes in Physick and Modern Writers too I shall need to say no more but refer ☜ it to the Ingenuous Reader to judge of the Spirit of this Man and who can be safe from blasting while such a malevolent breath as this blows upon him P. 132. Mr. S. treating of the Green Sickness in Maids says it will not bend to the single help of this Spaw c. where little or no body of a Mineral is found Let the wise Reader judge whether this man understands what he treats of that says this Spaw has little or no Body of Minerals in it when five Quarts contain at the least an Ounce of Minerals and in dry years ten Drams while the usual Dose for Women in this Case is three Quarts of Water and sometimes more And thus having examined what he has said concerning Scarbrough Spaw together with several Discourses that hang thereupon and particularly his Objections against the Rational Method of Physick or the Galenical Way as he calls it I am content to submit all I have said to the Judgement of the Learned and Impartial Reader I shall now follow him as close as I can through what remains and that with what brevity I may because I would not swell into a Volume Pyrologia Mimica The Second Part. Malton Spaw PAg. 134. He takes occasion to discourse concerning Malton Spaw which I mention P. 194. in my Book of Scarbrough Spaw The plain truth is this Spaw he has as little experimental knowledge of as the other having only saluted it in Transitu ceu Canis ad Nilum and therefore he is but very short referring to what he has said of the other wherein if he had observed the like brevity I believe he would have come off with more credit What difference there is betwixt these two Waters I have in few words expressed in my Book Knaresbrough Spaw Pag. 136. He proceeds to speak of the Sweet Well at Knaresbrough concerning which Doctor French has writ a ☞ very ingenious Discourse at large which he has illustrated with very many pretty Experiments out of which our Author hath drawn abundance of his which here we have crowded together oft times confusedly enough and yet he owns not his Author in any of them Pag. 137. He says its but a poor lean Water and thin of Minerals and therefore perswades to intermix Salt of Steel with it and he gives some directions about the drinking of it all which might well have been spared since Doctor Dean and Doctor French have writ copiously of that Subject and laid open the Nature of that Water and several Cures it has wrought and given better directions to help the slowness of the Water who both of them did a hundred times better understand that Water than he Sulphur Well Pag. 142. He passes on to the Sulphur Well at Knaresbrough which he saith hath a strong body of Sal Marine in it now if we look back to what he said P. 55. ☞ he tells us this Well is saturate with Fossile Salt I wish he would reconcile these Contradictions But how is it probable that this Spring should partake so plentifully of Sal Marine of which there is the quantity of two Ounces in a Gallon of the Water as I have found upon trial what communication has this Well with the Sea more than other Springs it being 40 miles from the Sea and how can he suppose that the Subterraneal Channels should convey the Salt of the Sea in puris naturalibus 40 miles and yet others be purged and defecated of the Salt that are nearer the Sea for my own part I see no reason to believe it and shall leave it to others to believe as they find cause Besides if it should proceed from such a plentiful Fountain as the Sea since the Salt is not left behind it in the passage it should necessarily have a larger Channel than other Springs and so be a very plentiful Spring whereas it is a very penurious one and if I mistake not voids not a Gallon in an hour I therefore rather think it receives its Salt from the Nature of the Soil where it bubbles and that it has also imbibed Sulphur and Bitumen Methink he might have contented himself with what the Authors a foresaid have said concerning this Well to whom he has added nothing save only an Harangue of impertinent discourse as his constant way is whereby he confounds both himself and the Reader and disparages that Spring Affirming it not to be of much more efficacy than so much Trencher Salt dissolved in such a proportion of ordinary Water in P. 146. In opposition to which I could joyn issue with him but I shall rather leave that to others more concerned to assert their Experiences who probably will think themselves concerned to maintain the Ancient Reputation both of this and the Sweet Spaw which he has not a little blasted Of Hot Springs In P. 148. He treats of the Original of Hot Springs where he borrows largely from Kircher in his Mund. Subter together with his Experiments as also Monsieur de Rochas at last he determines that they proceed from Calx vive which Notion he has from a Relation I make in my Book P. 80. of an Observation made by a Noble Lord of this Nation viz. the Lord Thomas Fairfax of some heaps of a White Powder which he found sweat out of the Earth near Bath which being put into Water makes it hot as I my self did experience five or six years after his Lorship had taken it up some of which I had from his Lordship A false Charge on the Galenists P. 158. He falls to make a Vindication of Chymical Physick which he says lies under an Odium by the Galenists In my Judgment he might very well have spared his pains herein there being no cause in the World for a Vindication nor do I know of any man in these parts that ever opened his mouth against it Indeed he and others stepping into the Practice of Physick four or five years ago had a design to turn all the Practice of Physick in the City and County of York to the Chymical way exclaiming in all Companies they came in against the Medicines of the Shops which are prepared according to the London Dispensatory establisht by the Law of the Land after the same rate as here is exprest in his Book This both my self and others of my faculty thought fit to oppose not condemning Chymical Medicines well prepared which we all daily use but maintaining the Ancient Honour Reputation and successfulness of the Rational Practice which he calls Galenical The Chymical Way we own as
an excellent Appendix to the Noble Art of Physick and if the Gentlemen had been but good natur'd and modest I do confidently affirm they had in all things found a sutable respect from us all but why they should go about to make Chymistry an Art of its own kind and like a viperous brat to eat through the bowels of its dam in designing to root up the Ancient and Rational Practice of Physick which has in all Ages been successful and continues so to be in our hands as with modesty I hope I may say I see no cause for it Has not the Honourable Society of the Colledge of Physicians of London owned the Art and appointed a multitude of Chymical Medicines in their Pharmacopeia which suit variety of Indications And had not they an Operator whom they encouraged for the making up of those their Remedies till Death came which made a Caput Mortuum of him And had not they a Laboratory in London till the Dreadful Fire made a Calcination of it which now they are preparing to set up again What cause then is there that this man should complain thus or that he should need to rise up in Vindication of that which no man opposes It is well known to the Learned that many Antient Writers have treated of Chymistry as Avicen Rhasis Albumazar Haly c. in Arabick Democritus Myrepsus Zosymus Marcellus Heliodorus c. in Greek and an abundance of Latine Authors that would be tedious to reckon up for these two or three last Centuries no man of learning or worth ever opening his mouth or using his Pen against it although some are more affected towards it than others and truly methink every man should be left to his liberty in that point to use or not use this or that method as he shall see cause without being imposed on or censured by another so long as he is faithful and honest in his business as also learned and rational and willing to give convenient satisfaction to others and able to make it out by success Nay I could make it out if it were needful that the most eminent profest Galenists have spoken honourably in their Writings of this Art of Chymistry and prescribed a number of Medicines so prepâ—red both out of the Vegetables and Minerals and Metals As Sennertus Mercatus Pereda Rodericus a Castro Horstius Freitagius Crato and of our own Nation Dr. Glysson Dr. Primerose Dr. Willis Dr. Wharton and many others eminently learned both who have written and have not whom I know to be Lovers of the Art and the useful discoveries which we have by it Upon all which account Mr. S. might very well have spared this Vindication No difference among the learned And as the Galenists approve both in their Writings and Practice of Chymical Medicines so the most learned among the Chymists do use the Galenical Thus Zwelfer has made his Comment upon the Pharmac Augustana and left one of his own which he calls Pharmacopaeia Regia which are as full of all sorts of Medicines viz. Syrupes Distilled Waters Electuaries Extracts Pills Powders Cordial Species Lohochs Trochisks Oyls Ointments and Cerates as our London Dispensatory and made out of the very same matter viz. the Vegetables though Mr. S. cries them down saying P. 161. That there are not above a score that are good for any thing Thus also Schroderus and Excellent Chymist has writ another after the same Method Likewise Hadrianus a Mynsicht so Libavius Renodaeus Crollius Hartman go this way describing Medicines both out of the Vegetables and Minerals and Metals all which we know and make use of in our Practice at least so many as we approve of to be good and wholesome And why may not this be done without reproaching one another Indeed of late some Controversies have been started betwixt some who call themselves Chymists and others but in those it plainly appears the Chymists have been the Aggressors and the other only defensive Or else they have risen from some personal quarrel in which other ☜ wise and learned men on both sides have not thought fit to interess themselves but have rather privately endeavoured to compose their differences and so to keep the Peace in the Faculty And even in these also if I mistake not the Chymists have begun the Controversie And thus it is betwixt my Adversary and me while I had never disobliged either him or any man else nor meddled with any thing in Controversie save only with the Dispute about the Original of Springs which I modestly carried on by Argument without any the least personal reflexion upon any man that had engaged in it leaving every man to believe as he saw cause and in treating of the ☜ Mineral Ingredients and Vertues of the Spaw was modest in all my Assertions even then and therefore does he flie in my face with uncivil personal reflections and takes thereby occasion to throw dirt in the face of the most Learned Physicians in the World and the Universities as we shall see by and by and then to make a Vindication of Chymical Physick as if it were opposed And all this meerly to carry on a design of over-turning the Rational Practice and advancing his own way of Practice which whether it be so safe or no I shall now examine yet without the least intention to reflect either upon the Chymical Way in general or any Learned and Candid Professor thereof He says P. 158. That till within this ten or a dozen years this Noble Science bath undergone much ignominy I have reckoned up a number of Authors who have writ in Commendation of it and mentioned several in these our own dayes and Nation who are Fautors of it and therefore I judge there is no cause for this complaint But if it has sustained any ignominy it has proceeded either from the ignorance of such as were pretenders to it but did not prepare their Medicines aright or else from those that use them preposterously I grant that this Noble Art which doubtless is more proper than to call it a Science has got more reputation of late than formerly and I wish it may never lose it again by the folly of its Professors P. 159. We see says he that in all Concretes whether Animal Vegetable or Mineral there is a mixture of pure and impure of gross and tenuious parts c. Yet as to medicinal use it s the pure nimble and spirituous parts of Vegetables or Animals or the depurated fixt part or the re-union of both after purification which assists Nature against the Malady First Gross parts not unfit for Medicine I do not think that the gross parts are always impure and the thin parts pure but that even the gross parts may be as pure as the thin and in some drugs are more useful than the thin Thus Water and Earth though they be more gross yet are as pure Elements as Fire and Air and equally joyned with them in the
Rivers Danubius and the Rhine which water all Germany you that live in all Lands that are encompassed by the Sea Also thou Italy thou Dalmatia you Athenians thou Grecian thou Arabian thou Israelite I will not follow you but you shall follow me nor shall any of you lurk in the darkest corners of the World whom the Dogs shall not piss upon Ego Monarcha sum c. I am the Monarch and the Monarchy shall be mine This I manage and will gird all your Loyns Is it not I whom you nickname Cacophrastus Haec vobis MERDA edenda est I 'l leave this to Mr. Simpson to construe But that I may yet further satisfie the World and Mr. S. concerning Paracelsus I shall cire one place more of his own in his Preface to Paragranum whereby we shall see what Christian temper he was of where he insolently triumphs over Galen and all his Followers and sends them all to Hell and says that he had received Letters from Galen's Soul dated from Hell His words are notorious viz. Si Galenus in Medicina immortalis fuisset manes ejus in abysso Inferni unde ad me literas amandarunt quarum datum erat in Inferno non essent sepulti Nunquam nunquam putassem equidem tantum Medicorum Principem in Podicem Diaboli involare debuisse Huc ipsum ejus quoque Discipuli insequuntur Was ever any thing said like this in the World and yet after this Pipe do some men dance ☞ Notwithstanding if we may trust Kircherus who was certainly a hundred times more prosoundly learned than he he tells us in his Mund. Subterran Tom. 2. P. 279. That partly out of curiosity and partly out of his desire of sound knowledg he read all his Writings with a scrutinous eye that he might understand what was in them that some men do so much admire and dote on and he protests after he had well observed all things he treats of he found nothing save a few things which were not his own but meer trifles affected forms of words airy conjectures and that upon trial all his Experiments were false And he further adds that all that he has writ which has any thing of worth in it was stollen partly out of Raymundus Lullius and Arnoldus Villanovanus and partly out of Isaac Hollandus and Basilius Valentinus whom yet he rails on with most opprobrious language as if all they said had not been worth regarding Upon the whole matter Kircher says he was Impudentissimus Nebulo Scurra trivialis Thraso insolentissimus furiis infernalibus agitatus c. These things I would not have instanced but to clear it to the World that as there is no infallibility pretended to by the Galenists so neither is it to be found among the Chymists Let it suffice that we all do endeavour to understand the rational ground and Method of our Profession and manage it with good Consciences and then all wisemen will be pleased what ever the event be But Mr. S. says P. 194. I am apt to question whether any Methodist can give a solid satisfactory reason of the Operation of any one Medicine he gives c. Indeed I think he says truly for I never met with any man more apt to question It were more becoming for every man to endeavour after a well-grounded resolution to act in his own Sphere then thus to trouble the World with needless and impertinent questions Further every thing is received ad Modum Recipientis It's possible a Methodist may give a Solid Reason for what he does but whether that shall he satisfactory to every one that has a mind to cavil or to Mr. S. I much doubt since some men are of that temper that they will never be satisfied with what another man says nor approve of what he does Of Mineral Vomits P. 195. If I should query says he why the Infusion of Stibium or Crocus Metallorum should operate by Vomit and Stool and why the same if further prepared by Fire and Salts should operate by Sweat and then he further supposes the answer would be given as to the emetick quality That it arises from Antipathy I observe it's Mr. S. his constant way to frame both the Question and the Answer and then to make his severe Inferences upon his own Hypothesis whereas he ought in all reason to cite the Testimony of some solid Author concerning the received Opinion of the whole Party before he gives his Verdict Or rather he should read the Principal Authors themselves and then make his Comment Nevertheless as to this Query I 'l tell him my Opinion yet not as the Judgement of all the Galenists I leave every man to abound in his own sense I take Antimony out of which the Stibium and Crocus are made by Calcination to have in it an Arsenical poysonous or malignant property which discovers it self if it be unlockt by Fire otherwise it 's innocent as also several other of the Minerals and Metals and to be abhorrent to Nature but being calcined with Salts it loses much of its Venome or Malignity while yet it retains some property which is hostile to the Stomach Now the liquor wherein these are infused after Calcination imbibing the Odor and Vapor of the Antimony becomes troublesome to the Stomach by which Nature is roused up to expel it and so casts out the Medicine and the bad Humors together both upward and downward as it best can get passage and by its position enclines Thus the vomiting and purging are not so much the proper effect of the Medicine as of the Natural Faculties of the Stomach and Bowels by the Chymists called Archaeus imitated by the Medicine which is performed by the help of the transverse Fibres in the parts And of these two I take the Crocus to be the better which is prepared with Nitre now this Calcination being soon over to wit but a blaze does not take away the Toxical property of the Antimony but leaves enough to hold up its hostility to Nature and so to expel it through the Body After the same manner out of other of the Minerals which are not so safe to be given inwardly in substance without some correction are Emeticks made as out of Vitriol is made the Sal Vitrioli so highly extolled by Angelus Sala with Calcination Dilution and frequent Edulcoration As also the Gilla Theophrasti and others of that name mentioned by Schroderus in all which the poysonous property of the Vitriol is cotrected by the Fire and only a vomiting and purging quality remains So we see in Mercury which though being vive it may be taken inwardly because through the fluidity and weight of it no stay is made by it in the Bowels whereby it can put forth its Arsenical property yet if it be killed and so become fix'd it is not so safe Even out of it with a preparation of Antimony is made by Distillation c. Mercurius vitae which is a
his Pilgrimage Page 439. and Mr. Sandys in his Travails Edit 3. P. 222. who relate the same Story And I pray what other means of knowledge have we of matters of fact done before our Times but to take them upon trust of those that commit them down to us And so I find did Doctor Heylin and the rest for they have the substance of it I guess from Mattheaus Quadus his Fasciculus Geographiae and he seems to setch it from Boterus whom as yet I cannot meet withal Quadus his words are Boterus istuc addit Constantini Imperatoris tempore continuis septemdecim annis nullae hic fuere pluviae unde deserta mansit Insula donee D. Helenae beneficio in Olympo Monte Templum aedificaretur c. exinde pluviae redierant ac habitari denuo caepit To wit Boterus adds this that about the time of Constantine the Great for 17 years together here was no Rain at all so as the Island was forsaken by the Inhabitants till the time that Helena the Empress built a Church in Mount Olympus c. about which time the Rain returned and it began again to be inhabited Mr. Sandys and Doctor Heylin do agree in their mention of the number of 36 years but out of whom they had it I discern not for they cite not their Author But it s all one to my purpose the failure of the Rain made the Island unhabitable for want of Water in their Rivers and Springs and consequently the Rain was the Proximal Cause of them I have other Arguments wherewith I did confirm this Opinion in my Book As concerning one of the Fortunate Islands or Canaries called Ombrion now Fierre which I mention P. 98. of my Book where it never rains but the Inhabitants are supplied with Water by an admirable Providence of God from a certain Tree that grows there plentifully which distills from its leaves every Night an abundance of Water enough to supply the Inhabitants and their Cattle with Water Ovetanus and Martyr do both say there are no Springs in the Island nor Rivers But to this Mr. S. gives no return So when P. 118. I deduce an Argument from the full and perfect Agreement that is in all Qualities perceptible to the Senses betwixt Rain and Spring-Water so as its hard to distinguish the one from the other Mr. S. takes no notice of it And when I mention there another from the exact Identity of the Water of those he calls Quick-Springs and of that which flows out of the other which he calls Land-Springs and grants that they proceed wholly from Rain and Snow which if they proceeded from several Causes must probably differ in some respect He leaps over it will you ☜ know the reason even because he could not answer it And yet so dis-ingenuous is he P. 301. as to say That he had run through all that I had offered in order to the confirming of this opinion of Rain and Snow to be the Original of Springs and probably if not demonstratively overturned the Opinion together with my grounds arguments and reasons It 's apparent to many that have read his Book that he had a wrathful design against me which all along he has prosecuted with as much rancour as possibly he could aiming at victory rather than verity and particularly in this Dispute about the Springs while he has not the least ground of pretence that he has answered my Arguments wherein the force of the Opinion laid Certainly no man that ever pretended to Learning or Reputation writ at this rate But while I was answering an Objection of Seneca's which he made against this Original I made a Concession that there may be some transmutation of Air into Water in the Earth or above from whence it comes that Churches become wet before Rain falls I find Mr. S. extreamly severe against me I wonder says he P. 299. the Doctors Philosophy in his Second Edition should not come out more maturate than to adhere to this old and long since exploded transmutability of Elementss In so much that he seems willing to hang the point in controversie upon that hinge So sure says he as the Aire is transmuted into Water which moistens the Stone Walls of Buildings so sure is the Air in the Bowels of the Earth transmuted into Water yea and so sure is the Original of Fountains from Rain and Snow Water Well! Let the cause go upon that I desire no more and then I am assured the learnedest men of the World will be of my Opinion about the Original of Springs Is not that Air which we breath in and that Water which we drink under that Notion Now its plain that some of that Air that we breath in within a Church will in a few hours be turned into Water upon the Walls and Floors before Rain which being collected together may be drunk into the Stomach and quench thirst I know where it pinches Mr. S. I do not take this Air and Water to be pure Elements for so we could not live in them it s enough that they are such as all the World câ—ll Air and Water and these we see may be turned one into another the grosser parts of Air into Water and the purer parts of Water into Air. I mentioned just now a Story out of Ovetanus concerning Ombrion where there is a Tree from whâ—se leaves every night doth distill an abundance of Water to the supply of the Inhabitants for all uses the like Story is â—old by Pliny lib. 6. cap. 32 and Mr. Hawkins in his second Voyâ—ge recorded by Mr. Hackluyt tells the like of some frees in Guiny Now I would gladly know of Mr. S. from whence that Water comes if the â—ir be not turned into Water unless he will h ve it to be a Miracle and so a new Creation Again I would ask Mr. S. whether he thinks Fromundus or Cardanus understood a Point of Philosophy or no as well as he in whom I find an admirable Story in Meteor lib. 5. cap. 2. art 3. which he has from Cardanus devar rerum lib. 8. cap. 44. Anno 1481. Quaedam Aegra in Italia In English thus A certain Maid of 18 years of age in Italy did every day void 36 Pints or Pounds of Vrine while yet both in Meat and Drink she did not take in above 7 so as her Vrine exceeded them both every day 29 Pounds and thus she continued for the space of 60 dayes during which time were collected 1740 Pounds of Vrine more than the weight of all her Meat and Drink that she had taken when yet the while body of the Maid did scarce weigh 150 Pounds ☞ It was demanded saâ—y my Authors byMarlianus how it came to pass It was answered That the Air which was contained in the Arteries was converted into a Watery Substance and that being cast out what more came in its place was presently turned again into Water and so was multiplied into that large proportion
This it appears to have been the sense of Cardane Marlianus and Fromundus although it pleases not Mr. S. I would also enquire of him whether he thinks Sir Kenelm Digby understood what he writ in his Book of the Cure of Wounds by the Sympâ—thetical Powder where P. 67. of his English Copy he tells a stupendious Story of a Nunne at Rome the truth whereof was confirm'd to him both from her own Relation and the attestation of Petrus Servius who was Pope Vrbane the 8th his Physician and several other Doctors of Physick at Rome that assured him of the truth of it This Nunne by excessive Watching Fâ—sting and Devotion had so heated her Body that she seemed to be all on fire this heat and internal fire drawing the Air so powerfully I use his own words the Air did incorporate within her Body as it uses in Salt of Tartar and the Passages being all open it got to those parts where there is most serosity viz. the Bladder and thence she rendred it in Water among her Vrine and that in an incredible quantity for she voided during some weeks more than 200 Pounds of Water every 24 hours Now as to the Salt of Tartar he had been treating of it in the fore-going Page that being exposed to the open Air it converts the Air into moisture in almost an incredible ☜ proporion to wit a Pound of the Salt well calcined will afford ten Pounds of good Oyl of Tartar by drawing and incorporating with it the Circumjâ—cent Air. Now while so many learned Philosophers do sâ—tisfie themselves and the World in so speaking concerning this Transâ—â—utation of Air into moisture why should Mr. S so severely carp at me for using the same forms of expression I know well enough what he runs at Helmont according to whose Pipe I find him ever dâ—ncing says it is a Vapor which is in the Air that is condensed into Water and not the Air it self to wit not the Element of Air that is turned into Water But is it not more properly called Air which we breath in than Vapor and it is that which we breath in which is turned into Water to wit the grosser parts of it for as to the pure Element of Air we have nothing to do with it in this Dispute nor do any Philosophers or other wise men doubt in the least to call it the Air. Hence the several Expressions in use among them concerning the 3 Regions of the Air and the Atmosphere of the Air c. A Term used by himself in several places of this his Appendix about Springs but he will not allow me to call it so If this be not properly called Air I do not know where we shall find it in the World nor will Mr. S. ever be able to describe its ubi by Ocular Demonstration nor yet Helmont whom he follows For my own part I chuse rather to retain the wholesome Grounds and Terms of Philosophy now used for many Ages than to fall into the new way of Canting in frothy words much in use among some late Writers especially such as go this way who while they have no new matter do yet coyn new terms to obscure truth on purpose to amuse ignorant Readers as if themselves had been Inventors If what now I have said be sufficient in the judgement of wise and learned men to evince a possibility of the transmutation of Air into Water then I need say no more as to Mr. S. in the proof of the Point in hand concerning the Original of Springs from Rain and Snow Nor has he any way to evade it but by calling in Question the Credit of the Relators in matter of Fact as he does with Dr. Heylin And I must confess were it not for the Credit of the Relator and his plain and undeniable circumstances of evidence whereby he makes it out a man would very much doubt of the verity of the last But without all peradventure a Person of that Honour Prudence and Learning would take care that he might not be imposed upon As for the former Story of Cardane and Fromundus which is also rare there is less ground of admiration since something extraordinary not much different has been observed among our selves I my self knew a Sergeant belonging to the Garrison at Hull who in a Diabete did void above 6 Quarts to wit about 12 Pounds of Urine every 24 hours for some weeks together till all his musculous parts were dissolved into Urine and he became a Skeleton the measure whereof did far exceed the weight of his whole Body and of his Meat and Drink while yet he drank not 3 Pints of Drink in a day But But P. 296. Mr. S. tell us He meets with two great difficulties which he cannot get through the solving of which he says will prove ominous to my Thesis The first is how the Rain Water shall sink into the Earth by empty Crevices or Clefts and what is that which must bring the intermediate particles of Water which fall betwixt one Crevice or Cleft and another into the distant Crevices Why where is the difficulty Water is thin in substance and also a heavy body and he grants the Crevices or Clefts are empty what then should hinder its sinking Nothing in the World is more plain than that it does so But it seems by what he says P. 297 that he would have been pleased if I had otherwise expressed it Supposing the Earth to imbibe Rain Water as a Sponge where it meeting with capillary Veins or small Pores not Clefts or Crevices which he says are scarce to be found but among Rocks sinks down by degrees into larger Veins and those into Subterraneal Channels where it makes Springs and this he acknowledges would have been truly said Well if this be true in his Judgement then Mr. S. has given up his cause while he is starting a difficulty Only his distinction of Land-Springs and Quick-Springs saves him for he grants the former but is not satisfied in the latter But I wonder Mr S. should observe no better what he is doing than to taxe me for not saying so when in effect he says nothing but my own words in the 94th Page of my Book where treating of the Sinking of Rain and Snow Water into the Earth I express it thus It finks down by secret passages into the Earth with which the Superficies doth abound which are like unto the small fibres of Veins not discernable by the Eye terminating in the Skin in all the parts of our Bodies and in rocky ground it sinks through the Clefts and by them is conveyed to the Subterraneal Channels more or less deep in the Earth where it is concocted by the Earth and moves as Blood in the Veins Now this I having said and he owning it to be truly said the difficulty is vanished and it becomes an Argument of demonstration for the proof of my Opinion I wonder either at his dis-ingenuity in denying me to have