de Jovis arbore malo Gustato imbueret tralucida purpura vultum Vivaces vâ—res rutilantis proderet Orbis Hinc longis seclis latuit vis enthea Nymphae Dum tandem coelo delapsa Hygiaea benigno Secretum invenit miseris quod tradidit aegris Ne Nymphaeque sacris praeclarus Mysta deesset Nomâ—is agnoscens omen radiatus Apollo Signavit lymphae encausto diploma disertum Quo jus augustum Tibi transtulit alme Sacerdos Phaebi tum vires leges mysteria ortum Naiadum conscribere tum specialiter usus Quos Nymphae vestrae Phoebus concredidit olim Felices tribuis latices panacea reclusa est Ingeniose tui sit sostrum fama laboris Lâ—â—ulâ—ent Musae ac jam tota Britannia plaudet Sâ—rò persolvent laudum nostrique Nepotes Languidâ—li vestris sua posthuma pensa favillis THough it be true no Ivy need to tell Where sprightfull Bacchus or the Nymphs do dwel Yet some of th' coyer stomachs must be woo'd With sugred words and Court-ship to their food Tho some look pale yet some mayn't think it strange Hot liver'd Bacchus for a Nymph to change But it 's for their own ends because they think It will impower them lustiler to drink None such are courted hither for th' intent Is to invite for health not complement These draught restore lost health what 's most sure Strange maladies find here their common Cure 'T is th' Summer Hospital where Physick's given To all that come by a propitious Heaven Phoebus it first salutes when 's rest hath caught In Thetis lap and takes his Morning draught Neptune his usefull Physick fetcheth hence For 's feebler watry Subjects to dispence And in requital largely Tribute tells Of Rubies Agars Diamonds and Shells Our Author th' waters Universe doth bring In grand Procession to this healthfull Spring Here Minerals Mount in s Regions Cities Plains Are treated on with such Wittie Remain As may invite the Readers curious stay In such Discoveries his thinks to pay An Ocean joyns to th' Spring and it was fit A cousin German Ocean of wit Should mark its Hydrography but now no more Each River Banks and Ocean must have shore Nath. Johnson Med. Dr. Pontesract June 3. 1160. The Authors Contemplation upon his Water-Works SOme have been wont to entertain Great Princes and their Royal Train With Water-works and did inherit Applause according to their merit If these of mine were so polite That I might hope they would delight Each Letter should due homage bring Upon its knees unto the King And solemnize with jollity This day and year of Jubilee And so while each his present offers In Service from his big-swoln Coffers I 'de imitate that honest Clown That having nothing of his own But 's loyal heart from the next Spring Brought water in his hand to th' King And of this little Book each Page Should lackey him unto old Age With loyaltie And when he dies O cruel word from English eyes 'T will floods of briny tears extract And raise up such a Cataract To make the waters here below Unite with those above that flow And so another sort begin Fie Subject for a better Pen. York May 29. 1660. Scarbrough Spaw OR A description of the Nature and Vertues of the Spaw at Scarbrough IN the South-East Corner of the north-riding of Yorkshire Sect. 1. upon the Coast of the Germane Ocean is situate the ancient Corporation of Scarbrough It seems to have it's name from Scar which signifies a cleft as learned Cambden thinks and Burgh a Town as if it were said Britan a Town in the cleft being environed both on the West North and East with mighty hills and rocks It may be said of this place as of most of our Corporations in England Caput inter nubila condit We know not it's Original The Town is governed by 2 Bayliffs 2 Ceronets 4 Chamberlains and 36 Burgesses consisting of 3 Benches annually chosen dignifyed with a right of electing two Representatives in Parliament It is fortifyed on the North-east with an exceeding high and inaccessible Rock which stretches it self at good distance into the Sea containing about 18 or 20 Acres of good Medow on the top of it although Cambden out of William of Newburgh speaks of above 60 Acres whether the greater part of it be washed away with the Sea or the difference lyes in the various measure of Acres I will not dispute The passage to the Rock is by a narrow neck of Land on which is a draw Bridge over an exceeding deep trench near which is the Castle which hath been accounted very strong although it is now become useless one half of it having fallen from the other through a battery of Guns in the siege that was maintained against it by Sir John Meldram against Sir Hugh Cholmley in the late unhappy Wars The top of the Rock towards the Town from the entrance into the gate to the Sea is further fortifyed and adorned with a very strong stone Wall all the other sides of the Rock are open to the Sea 2 rarities There are two Rarities which I observe on the top of this huge Rock the one is an exceeding deep well made with Hewne stone which seems to be dry at the bottome through which it 's thought there is a secret passage into the Town I had rather believe it then go to see The other is a spring of fresh Water within half a yard of the edge of the Rock towards the Sea which in the most droughty Summers never wanted water and was of singular use to Sir Hugh Ghomley and his Garison in the siege as also to the present Garison Peers of Stone Another observable in this Town is the mighty Peers of stone which have of old been made and are repaired by the Corporation to which some other maritine Towns do contribute knowing the benefit of the harbour for their shipping on occasion consisting of mighty round stones many of them of some tuns weight which are laid loose and yet piled up together in such comely order stretching from the foot of the Castle Hill into the Sea that they become a sure defence against the raging waves of the Sea and make a convenient harbour for their Ships That which adds further to the fame of the place being the main Subject of my present discourse The Spaw-well is the Spaw Well which is a quiâ—k Spring about a quarter of a miâ—e South from the Town at the foot of an exceeding high cliff arising upright out of the Earth like a boyling pot near the level of the Spring tides with which it is often overflown It is of that sort of Springs which Aristot. cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the most droughty years are never dry but run continually affording above twenty four gallons of water in an hour the stones through which it flowes being emptyed every morning containing more then twelve gallons will be full within halfe an
which England doth abound more then any Country such as this at Scarbrough do certainly require more heat and concoction then any ordinary potable waters do of which since England affords so many if not better then others do it is without reason to question the concoction of other waters 6. And lastly the waters of England do agree fully and exactly with that description and those tokens of good water which I find laid down in the writings either of Philosophers or Physicians Grecian Arabian or Latine If any man require further satisfaction concerning this point I referre him to my ever honoured and intimate friend Dr. Primerose his Book of popular Errours lib. 3. c. 1. The sum of what they all say accounts to this Tokens of good water that there must be a concurrence of the Verdict of 3. Senses to prove the Water to be good viz. Sight Taste and Smell I will not trouble the Reader nor my self with many quotations To the Sight it must be exceeding transparent and clear without any sediment when it hath stood long and which being shaken hath no shreds of any shape whatsoever or motes or sand flying about To the Taste it must be void of all qualities neither sweet nor sowre nor salt nor acide nor must it have any other tast that can be discern'd by the tongue the formality thereof consisting in cold and moisture To the Smell it must have no smell at all nor yield any quality that can be discerned by the most accurate nose Paulus Zachias a learned Roman Physician l. 5. Med. leg qu. tit 4. will have the other two Senses to give verdict also even the sense of hearing accounting that bad which being poured from one vessel to another poures like oyle with out noise as being thick and unctuous on which account â—accius discommends the Water of Tiber lib. 1. de Tib. aq as also because it is thick and oyly to the touch To the which I will add one tryal more that which being boyled yields no scumme on the top nor sediment at the bottome but all evaporates into air there are other tokens which I shall reserve for their due place This saith Montanus is the common matter of all those things with which it is mixed And as the Astrologers say of Mercury among the Planets so I may say of water it is good with the good and bad with the bad it heats with hot things and cools with the cold yet it is to be observed it ever dulls the heat of hot things and such as do attenuate Good in many cases Now cold simple water is not only the common drink which the God of Nature hath provided for all his Creatures for the sustentation of them in their being but also it is most healthfull being taken inwardly and is prescribed by Physicians in many cases both to prevent and cure diseases and tends much to preserve us in our well being Concerning which one Hermannus vander Heyden a Dutch-man of very good worth hath writ a peculiar Tractate well worth the reading It tempers our natural heat Meth. med c. 5. which otherwise would scorch and dry up the humours of the body as saith Fernelius and doth excellently correct that preternatural heat which is caused by Fevers as Galen and Avicen do affirm and they both allow it to be drunk in a large quantity especially if there be signs of concoction in the veins which a learned Physician is able to judge of and then it helps the critical evacuations of nature by sweat seige or vomit Aristotle saith that they that use to drink water do see the most clearly which is agreeable to reason because it sends no hot fumes up into the brain but rather allayes them Eubulus commends it to help the invention and saith that such as drink water are the best inventers of new things whereas all strong drinks do dull the understanding lib. 2. din. c. 2. as Athenaeus cites him It is good against vomiting when it proceeds from bilious humours stayes the Hicket when it arises from choler that corrodes and vellicates the Tunicles of the stomach and stayes the flux and being drunk warm it causes vomitting A glass of cold water being drunk after meat is good for an hot stomack that concocts too fast and for such as Hippocrates calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but it is not safe when a man hath been toyling and is hot as Cornelius Celsus saith lib. 1. c. 3. nor can I approve of cold water for such as are old and have very feeble stomacks least it overcome their natural heat and they find the same fate that Aristophanes relates of Tiresias who drinking of the water of Tilphosa a famous Spring in Baeotia when he was very old Ath. lib. 2. cap. 2. dyed immediately the coldness of the water overcoming his feeble natural heat Water furthers procreation of the Species and therefore it is observable in those Countries where they drink altogether water they multiply more then else where and hence was the Law which I read of in Plato Dialog 2. de leg that those that were new marryed were to drink nothing but water They indeed that drink Wine are more salacious yet they are less prolifick Crato in Scoltzius tells of one Cons med 143. that by drinking every night and morning cold water found very much benefit in freeing him from his usual violent tormenting pain of the stone in the morning he swallowed some grains of Pepper in it unbruised to correct it's coldness which may very well be because it tempers the excessive heat of the kidneys and corrects the sharpness of urine Hermannus vander Heyden commends it highly against the Gout as a most soveraign remedy in his Book before cited It tempers the heat of the Liver but it hurts the Spleen being taken in too great a quantity and fills it with serous humours and therefore when we would use it for the hot distemper of the Liver we should have respect to the Spleen to remove it's obstructions as Capivaccius sayes well In Scoâ—t Cons med 156. And let this suffice concerning water in general to beget it a little more credit among us because of it's antiquity and usefulness Sect. 3. I come now to speak concerning the several sorts of water in particular as they lye in the order of nature and are or may be the causes of each other And first of Sea water Of Sea water as that which was first in Nature and very briâ—fly not being of use to be taken inwardly yet falling into our consideration in the subsequent discourse The Sea makes one Globe with the Earth being yet not confused with it but divided from it and gathered together into one place by it self on the third day of the Creation Gen. 1.7 The Earth is the center of the Globe and contains the Sea water as in a vessel there being no water which is
not bottemed by the Earth as naturalists averre The Water being a lighter Element lib. 2. met cap. 3. it 's proper place is to be above the Earth so as the greater part by far of the superfices of the Globe is covered with water notwithstanding which the higher places of the Earth stand out of the Water 2 Pet. 3.5 and appear above it giving bounds to the Water which it cannot pass over as the Scripture saith Psal v. 9. and so are become habitable for men and beasts It 's Nature Sea Water is Salt and hot in operation binds and dryes the body if it be drunk as do all salt waters according to the judgment of Hippocrates De aere aquis locis which he sayes are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De remed l. 2 c. 53. indomicable and hard it rather increases then quenches thirst and hath been found deadly to such as have drunk of it being exceeding thirsty as saith Paulus Aegineta I would not be so understood as if I thought all salt waters were to be râ—jâ—cted from inward use or as if no salt waters would purge the body The Sulphur Well at Knaresbrough a gallon whereof being vaporated away yields two ounces of salt is dayly used inwardly with very good success in many cases and purges the body as I know by experience and as Dr. Dean and Dr. French do both witness in their Books upon that Subject This Spring does the same and hath some salt in it Notwithstanding if salt waters do loose the body it is from other minerals of which they do participate and not from the salt on which account they rather dry up the humours and are singular good even in hydropick constitutions especially in the beginning the truth whereof I have proved by good experience in an Honourable Lady to whom I commended the use of the Sulphur Well before mentioned in the Dropsy with good success Hence it is that Hippocrates in the place afore cited blames them for their ignorance that upon any slight occasion use salt waters inwardly expecting to loose the body with them they having from the salt no such vertue but rather stay the belly and cause the body to break out in Scabs and make the fundament and lower parts troubled with checks De simpl c. 4. as Rasis saith The Sea water hath indeed some sweet parts in it which are thinner and lighter then the substance of the water is from whence it comes to pass that the flesh of those fishes that live in the Sea is as fresh as those that are taken in fresh waters If one distill Sea water in a cold Still it yields fresh water And I have read an experiment in Gamillus Flavius which is worthy a tryal Paraph. in Hip. de aq p. 43. and may be of use to such as go on long voyages and want sometimes fresh water He saith that if a bottle bee made of Wax and the mouth of it be close stopped so as no water can run into it and it be cast into the Sea and made to sink in a few dayes it will be found to have fresh water in it very pleasant and wholsome to be drunk I have inserted this for the Seamens sake to whom it may be beneficial Sect. 4. In the next place I come to treat of Rain water with it's original and qualities Of Rain the product or original is thus The Sun and the rest of the Heavenly bodies do by their heat exhale It s cause and draw forth out of the Sea and other moist bodies that are on the Earth the vapours which are the more rare and thin part of the water and bodyes these by their heat they do so rarify that through their levity they fly upward towards the upper region of the aire next to the Element of fire the proper place of such light bodies where they continue till according to the ordinary course of Providence by the influence of the Moon or some planetary Aspect out of signs of the watery Triplicity or some other cold and moist constellation they become more gross and moist and so by their weight descend into the middle region of the aire where by the excess of cold they are condensed into waters and now being become an heavy body do fall down upon the Earth in showers making thereby a kind of circulation in Nature through the ascent of vapours and descent of showers This I say is according to the ordinary course of Providence when notwithstanding without any of those previous influences of the Celestial bodies Almighty God who is a most free Agent and doth what he will in the Heavens and the Earth doth sometimes by a special Providence cause it to rain Exod. 9.18 and at other times also he doth so suspend the aforesaid influences Jam. 5.17 that it rains not at all Amos 4.7 as in the use of Elijahs prayer Thus as the Prophet observes he makes it to rain upon one City and not upon another and this he doeth that he may keep us in a constant dependance upon himself as upon the first and primary cause without whose concurrence secondary causes can produce no effects at all No this my judgment concerning the causes of rain is agreeable to what is writ upon that subject by the best Philosophers and Physicians the Scripture also being clear in it Amos 9.6 He calleth for the Waters of the Sea and poureth them out upon the face of the Earth to which add that in Job 36.27 28. He maketh small the drops of water they poure down rain according to the vapour thereof which the clouds do drop And that the rain doth falls or is with-held from us in ordinary providence according to the influence of the celestial bodyes is deducible from another place in Job Chap. 38. v. 25. and so forward where God expostulating with Iob concerning his mighty works of providence reads a Lecture to him concerning the Meteors of Rain Lightening Thunder Dew and Frost with their causes and in the 31. Verse he hath this question to him Canst thou bind or restrain the influence of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion with other expostulatory questions The meaning thereof is this Canst thou stay the rain and hinder it from falling or canst thou loose the frost and make it thaw The Pleiades being a moist constellation in the shoulder of the sign Taurus which brings wet and Orion a dry constellation in the last decade of Gemini arising in the evenings in the beginning of the Winter causing frosts I might enlarge concerning Mazaroth viz. the 12. signs and Arcturus which are mentioned in the 32. vers but I hasten Nor is this my own private interpretation but it 's agreeable to the judgment of the most learned Interpreters upon the place and particularly of those that were Members of the late reverend Assembly of Divines in that their excellent exposition upon the
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies locus declivis or a steep place Yet I deny not but there may bee some Springs which at some small distance have a supply of water from the Sea but this makes nothing for their opinion concerning the supply of Springs at great distance and upon the high mountains lib. 2. c. 56. Pliny tells us of a Spring in the Gades which observes the Seas motion in ebbing and flowing and I am credily informed there is another in the Peak in Derbyshire which ebbs and flowes every twelve hours So the Spring at Giggleswick in Yorkshire ebbs and flowes many times a day even to the admiration whether that of Plinies may have any correspondence with the Sea or no I know not Lib. â— Nat Qâ—â—st I am sure the other two have not and I had rather with Seneca look on such as these as wonders of God then trouble my selfe curiously to enquire into their causes that are too hard for me Seâ—â—â—l concetâ—s But these that are of opinion of the Seas percolation to be the cause of Springs are not all for this way of conveyance they say the water of the Seâ— is conveighed by transcolation into huge Caverns in the body of the earth indeed but then they differ again in finding its passage to the Spring heads each propounding a way according to their fancy Of agitation by subtterraneall winds as Socrates in Plato In Phoed. Compulsion by a Spirit or breath that is in the water as Pliny and Valesius Pl. l. 2. c. 65. of compression De sac phil c. 1. 63. and that either through the weight of the Sea it self Nat. Qu. lib. 3. a great part whereof he supposes to be out of its place in the air as Seneca ib. 2. The at nat Or of the earth as Bodinus and Thales Or rarefaction and condensation as Dr. Fludd and Mr. Carpenter Geograph Or rarefaction and condensation as Dr. Fludd and Mr. Carpenter Or attraction by the heat of the Sun and the heavenly bodies as Thomas Aquinas held Or Belmonts Sabutum or Virgins earth Ag in Sum. p. 1. q. 69. all which as they seem at the very naiming to be nothing more then empty conceits besides the disagreement that is among themselves tenders it the more questionable so they are sufficiently confuâ—ed some of them by Mr. Carpenter in his Geography Lib. 3. Nat. Qu. and the rest by Dr. French in his discourse upon the Spaw of Knaresbrough There is another account given by Empedocles an ancient Greek Philosopher Spaw p. 21. 22. c. as also Seneca for theebullition of Springs to which Gabriell Fallopius lib 1. de aquis medicatis c. 3. Mr. Carpenter Mr. Lydiat and Dr. French adhere the last taking a great deal of pains to make it out and that is by heat wheareby he will have the water which is conveyed from the Sea into the Caverns of the Earth to be elevated to the heads of Springs after the same manner as from the Sea to the middle region of the air and that is by resolving the water into vapors Dr. French opinion nor matters he whether that heat be above or beneath the waters if so be it turneth them into vapours and maketh them ascend as high as is requisite they should And this heat he will have maintained by subterraneall fires that are kindled and fed by Naphtha or some bituminous matter And he makes two degrees of heat one more intense in the deep Caverns to rarefie the waters in the Caverns into vapours the other more remiss nearer the superficies which must condense them again into waters which he illustrates by the head of an Alimbyck and the cover of a boyling pot whose more remisse degree of heat turns the vapours into water Although Aristotle who also will have water to be generated in the Earth L. 1. Meteor c. 11. says it is condensed by cold and the Philosopher seems as much to bee believed especially since its more agreeable to their own parallell of the middle region where certainly the vapours are condensed by cold That there are bituminous fires our own reason besides the testimony of good Authors doth sufficiently evince Sol. they being the efficient cause of hot Springs such as are those mentioned by Plato and Pliny the one in Sicily the other at Somosata and our own at the City Bath in Somersetshire besides many others from whence also are those burning mountains Aetna and Vesuvius besides others that we read of in Athours But first Dr. French supposes great Caverns of waters to be in the earth which come from the Sea pag. 16 17. pag. 23. the heat also to be of like proportion with the water what a conflict this would make in nature wee may easily judge when these two enemies fire and water must be so immured together I wonder the water being of like proportion which the fire doth not quench it or that the fire consumes not the water and so in both cases we should want water in our Springs and the world would be destroyed but it seems they do better agree and combine to bring about his end and he tells us how they both dwell together in the Caverns Secondly L. 1. meteor c. 10. this supposes the earth to be almost nothing but Caverns for if that be true that Aristotle saith concerning Springs that if all water that runs out of them in one year could bee kept in a vessell it would almost equalize the whole bulk of the earth and Dr. French tells us there is a like proportion of fire and water in the Caverns and reason tells us that fire cannot be kept in without a greater quantity of air which it continually consumes then what may wee judge concerning the Caverns Thirdly this implyes the Earth to be almost nothing but bitumen or Naphtha nor will his new generations be enough to maintain the expence Fourthly this supposes all the Earth to be on fire since almost in all places there are Springs and consequently contradicts the whole suffrage of Philosophers who call the Earth Elementum Frigidissimum Fifthly the Earth would in time be consumed by so many fires as saith Agricola it being of a calcinable and combustible matter Sixtly If it were so then the water would have a bituminous taste or smell which we know it hath not ordinarily it not differing in quality from those waters which are wont to break in the manner of Springs after great rains of which sort we have many break out yearly on the Wolds in York-shire commonly called by the name of Gypsies Lastly it s not probable that there are so many fires in the earth because those that dig in Mines in several Countries do meet usually with water which molest them but no fires But to proceed if the percolation of the Sea were the cause of Springs then we should usually have the most
plentifull Springs near the Sea by reason of the nearness to their Fountain when as to the contrary we find that those Towns which are scituate neer the Sea are more destitute of water then others that are more remote Again those Springs that are upon the Sea shore should probably sympathize in their growth or decrease with the Sea and so at the Spring-Tides should flow more plentifully and at Neap-Tides more sparingly as those Springs I just now spake of the Gypsies are more or less according to the rain whereas no such thing is observable in the other Nor is this Spring of which we treat to wit the Spaw which is upon the level of the Spring-tides and sometimes overflow by them in the least wise altered by them The Spaw not altered by the Tides as ever I could observe to flow more freely at the Spring-Tides and slower at the Neap-Tides when the Sea is at somewhat a further distance nor yet is its taste altered in the least or its efficacy in working notwithstanding which I think it hath some Salt in it from the Sea and is thereby exalted in some qualities Whereas it is very observable notwithstanding it breaks out of the ground within three or four yards of the foot of the cliffe which is near 40 yards high within a quarter of a mile there is another hill that is more then as high again above the Cliffe and a descent all the way to the Cliffe so as the rain water cannot lie long upon the ground I say nevertheless it is observable that after a great rain the water is altered in its taste But is altered by rain lessenened in its operation Indeed a rainy day or two will not hurt it all But to return to the ground of the opinion which is built upon the Seas sole sufficiency to afford so great and constant a supply of waters to feed the Springs I easily grant it to be the best Store-house and do only dissent about the manner of conveyance of which I shall have occasion to speak by and by And for the other ground because the Sea is not increased by the multitude of waters that flow into it daily which it must of necessity be if they had not by their subterraneal Channels a recourse to their Founâ—ains Plato indeed hath a ready answer to it telling of I know not what great Abyss which he calls Tartarus and makes it the original Fountain of all waters into which by Caverns of the earth he will have the Sea to empty it self of its superfluity If this Tartarus be Hell he is surely mistaken for Dives found no water De Sac. Phil. c. 63. Valesius indeed interprets it to be the same with Moses his Abysse or else some hidden part of the Sea But this I pass over as one of the Philosophers dreams being also confuted by his Scholar Aristotle who gives a full answer lib. 2. Met. c. 4. which may satisfie any man with whom agrees Freigius in his Hydrographie An immense quantity thereof Hydrog p. 442. they say is spent in vapours which by the Sun and the heavenly bodies are drawn out of it daily and converted into rain snow and hail as also much is dryed up with the wind to which Mr. Lydiat consents Another large quantity is sucked up by the earth In praelect Astron. as is evidently seen neer great Rivers where the adjacent grounds are so much moistened that neer them there is a more signal fertility then in places more remote Ibid. And then again Aristotle saith that the Sea is not so much the end of the waters to which they run and wherein they are spent as the beginning and fountain of them from which they flow and so what was spent in exhalations is but regained by the descent of showers of rain and snow the Springs and Rivers paying Tribute according to their receit and hence it comes to pass that the Sea is neither fuller nor emptier And besides Valesius gives another answer viz. De Sac. Philos c. 63. The Sea is as much extenuated dissipated under the Zodiack by the exceeding heat as it is augmented and increased under the Poles with rain and snow And this may suffice to be said concerning the first opinion of the Original of Springs to wit the percolation of the Sea Sect. 8. The second opinion is That Spring water is generated in the Earth and that either by transmutation of earth into water or of ayr The second Original Liâ— 3 Nat. quaest c. 7. as others Of the former opinion was Seneca the Philosopher who as he was the Author of that fancy so I think he is alone for I finde none of his judgement That the Elements may be transmuted one into another especially those that are placed neerest one another agreeing together more in quality then the rest is the doctrine of Aristotle Lib 2. de gener c. 8. and agreeable with reason and very obvious to the senses I can easily believe that the thinner parts of earth may be turned into water as also the grosser parts of water into earth so the thinner and more subtile parts of water into air and the grosser parts of air into water and therefore it may be true that Seneca saith although it is rejected by Mr. Lydiat de Origin font but that the earth which is a dry body and accounted by Philosophers Elementum Siccissimum should by transmutation afford so much water or the hundred part of what flowes out of Springs is a thing so voyd of reason as it needs no arguments to disprove it and is not likely to gain many followers I therefore pass on to the other of the transmutation of air into water performed in the Caverns of the earth which by cold converts the air into water an opinion much more plausible then the other having also the authority of Aristotle to defend it 〈◊〉 Mâ—â—◠〈◊〉 who will have it made in the earth as it is in the middle region of the air when by condensation of vapors water is made anâ— he is followed by Dr. Fulk in his book of Meteors and H. ab Heer 's But this opinion leads also into inextricable difficulties and absurdities Spadacr And first he told us in the end of the tenth Chapter that so much water runs out of the earth in one year as if it were kept in a vessell it would equalize the bulk of the whole earth notwithstanding he is sufficiently scourged by Agricola Cardane Scaliger and others for it and reason tells that more then ten parts of air will not serve for the making but of one part of water as Scaliger In subt exere 46. de or font and M. Lydiat do both observe I think twenty would be too little then it would follow necessarily from these premises that the earth should be almost nothing but empty Caverns of air when nevertheless those that
dig mines in all Countries sometime two or three hundred fathom deep do find no such thing but a solid body all along Secondly this implyes such an expense of air as the whole Element of air would not suffice to feed that gulfe Bodinus saith it would not be sufficient for one day and therefore he laughs at the Philosopher Lib. 2. The. at nat But certainly it had been long since extinct out of the mess of Elements if Aristotle had been in the right in this contrversie Thirdly for a continuall supply of so much air as is requisite to bee converted into water to supply all the Springs there should bee found in severall parts of the earth great and constant in draughts and sucktion of air into the Caverns with exceeding great celerity and violence which no man ever did find nor any Geographer make mention of Fourthly how comes it to passe that any winds break out of the earth as Aristotle teaches in his book de mundo which he terms by the names of Apogei and Encolpiae de mund c. 6. and and that all the air is not rather turned into water to supply his constant generation of Spring water And how can two such violent motions of the air stand together especially seeing he tells us elsewhere that it is contrary to the nature of the wind which is nothing but Aer moius to blow contrary ways at once L. 2. meteor c. 12. I shall therefore passe over this Originall also as not soundly principled and proceed to examine the last opinion Sect. 9. The third and last opinion that I meet withall in the controversie about the Originall of Springs and Fountains is that they are caused by Rain and Snow of which I find Albertus Magnus 〈…〉 and Georgius Agricola the most eminent Patrons The sum of what they say is thus The Snow and rain falling from the clouds in great abundancy upon the earth Lib. 2. de ort cause subter c. 3. do by moistning the superficies cause it to bring forth vegetables whereas otherwise it would be barren through dryness The 3. Originall and consequently not habitable The remaining part except what suddenly runs into Rivers sinks down by secret passages into the earth with which the superficies doth abound which are like unto small sibres of veins not discernable by the eye Rain and Snow the true originall of Springs terminating in the skin in all the parts of our bodies and in rocky ground it runsthrough the clefts and by them is conveighed to the subterraneall channells more or less deep in the earth where it is concocted by the earth and moves as blood in the veins receiving many times a tincture according to the nature of earth and the Mineralls or Metalls by which it passes helping forward also their generation What a Spring is This water at length in its passage through the veins of the earth finds vent and runs forth which place of eruption we call a Spring or Fountain Whence its ebullition And this springing forth or eruption of the water I conceive to bee made not by any forcible Agitation compuâ—sion or violence that is put upon it ab extra within the earth or by suction from the Sun and the heavenly bodies or by heat which which may be in the earth or by any spirits that are in the water it selfe but from its own naturall inclination and tendency towards its proper place assigned to it by the Creator which as I said in the second Section is the convex part of the earth it not resting till it meets with its naturall correspondent the Air. And this I think to be the naturall reason of its ebullition out of the earth and I find scaliger in his subtilities of the same judgement Exere 100. it freeing nature from a violent force which the working fancies of men would put upon it who yet cannot agree among themselves Subterraneall lakes contribute nothing But as for subterraneal lakes that are found in the bottome of great Caverns of the Earth they are standing waters oftentimes of poysonous quality as I hinted in the 6th Section which having room enough and supplyed with air above them I think they incline not to motion and do contribute nothing to Springs nor can any subterraneal heat which Dr. French supposes to be in these Caverns extract a wholesome water out of them And this Rain or Snow water in the Channells where-ever it finds vent it continues to flow so long as the Channells by which such a Spring is fed have any water to supply it and that is more or less according to the wideness or length of the Channells or otherwise according to the number that meet together it not resting till it meets with the air And therefore it is observable in pipes that convey water from one vessell to another the water will flow till all its store bee spent whether the motion bee upward or transverse till it meet with air and then it ceases to flow for if one bore a hole in the pipe and let in air the motion is done These Channells also are furnished according to the quantity of Rain that falls and the advantages they have of receiving it by the small and secret passages that come from the superficies of the earth which concenter in those Channells Now this opinion of Rain and Snow water to bee the Originall of Springs ArgumeÌ„ts to prove is illustrated with many arguments of demonstration by the Authors before mentioned and others of this judgement the principall whereof are these First Because it is found by experience that fountains and consequently rivers are greater and do abound more with water in Winter and moyst weather then in Summer Secondly in those years when great Rain do falls in Summer and great store of Snow in Winter wee find Springs durable whereas in droughty seasons when there is but little or no Rain or snow the Springs dry up A sure proof whereof we had in England in the years 1654 55 and 56. when our climate was dryer then ever any storyes mention so as we had very little Rain in Summer or Snow in Winter most of our Springs were dryed up even such as in the memory of the Eldest men living had never wanted water but were of those sorts Springs which we call fontes perennes or at least were esteemed so which if they had received their supply of water from the Sea or from the air in the earth converted into water they could not have failed of water A third reason which perswades to this Originall is because in those Climates and Countries where little Rain falls few or no Springs and Rivers are seen As in the deserts Aethiopia and in most parts of Africa neer the equinoctial they have little water and many times in two or three days journey can hardly find enough to quench their thirst and their Camells as Historians
relate and so in Egypt where it rains very seldom but they are supplyed instead of it by the overflowing of Nilus there are no Springs at all Whereas in Britain Germany and France and other Northern parts of Europe there are great plenty of Springs and Rivers in regard they do abound in the moysture of the air and great falls of Rain and Snow To the first our Carpenter object Object Georg. lib. 2. c. 9. that the abounding of Rivers with water in Winter is from the store of Rain or Snow water that runs into them from the higher grounds and not from any great quantity of water that falls into them out of Springs and Fountains I deny not but the Rivers are instantly heightned in Winter from Rain Sol. so as on the sudden they will often overflow their banks but that water is soon spent in the Sea It is sufficient for defence of the point in hand if after that water in reason should be spent they be yet maintained more plentifully by the Springs then usually they are in Summer at which season of the year though they be filled with a sudden flood of Rain yet wanting the constant benevolence of the Springs they suddenly fall as low as they were before Another Objection I find started by Seneca Object Lib. 3. Nat. Quest c. 7. as also by M. Carpenter in the place before cited to wit that the greatest Rain that can fall never sinks above ten foot into the ground and Seneca cites his own observation for it in the digging of Vineyards and he gives this reason for it because when the earth is once satisfied with showers it opposes it self against the overplus by shutting its pores I own it thus far Sol. that into the solid earth the Rain sinks not above ten foot although learned Cardane allows it ten paces or fathomes his words being non ultra decem passus descendere De var rev c. 6. But what becomes of that immense quantity of rain which often continues for many weeks together nay oft times some months wherein we have scarce a fair and dry day besides the infinite quantity of wet and Snow that is falling all Winter long causing inundations of water over all the Country round about not only upon higher grounds neer unto rivers into which it may run per declive but in plains from whence it can have no current at all can it be supposed that ten foot of earth will drink up all this water which who so shall dig soon after the water is drunk up shall not find it very moist or muddy which it would assuredly be if it had not some secret passage into the Caverns of the earth much deeper then they speak of And therefore Cardane in the place before cited adds that the earth is sadned with the Rain so as it lyes above unless by some empty crevice or cleft it sink deeper into the earth which is all I contend for and which being granted will be sufficient to quicken and continue the Springs And to Seneca's observation before mentioned let me oppose Albertus his experience Lib. 2 met tract de orig slum who tells us that at the bottome of a solid rock 120 fathome deep he saw drops of water distill from it in a rainy season Another Objâ—ction that Seneca makes against the point in hand is this Object â—ib 3. Nat. quest c. 7. on which he layes much stress That the great mountains of Rock and Stone which have little or no earth on them and on that account not capable of receiving much rain do nevertheless yield great and lasting Springs which are never drawn dry This makes nothing against but rather for the point in controverfie Solut. There are no Rocks but they have their Commissure joints or clefts now the Rain and Snow water can run more plentifully into those joints and clefts of the Rocks and and more speedily then when it falls upon the solid earth And in that he faith they are not covered with much earth they are the less robbed of what falls from the clouds and so are better supplyed To this I 'le further add that Rocks have more large and spacious Caverns that are fit receptacles for the water the solid earth hath Adde to this that Rocks are usually many together covering much ground ordinarily a whole Country is nothing but Rocks and so can receive much wet and their store by their nakedness of earth hath a fresh supply from every shower that falls And therefore on all these accounts as they have advantages of speedy reception of what falls without diminution and ca pacities for admission of greater quantities of wet then other soyles have so they may very well afford more plentiful and durable fountains Besides it is observable that in the solid clay soyles it is very rare to find any eruption of water because such are sad earth and have few or no Caverns or Channells in them but our Springs break out ordinarily in Rocky gravelly ground especially the best water and most lasting Springs such as we call fontes perennes Another Objection that Seneca makes against it is this Object Ibid. that in the dryest soyle where they dig pits two or three hundred foot deep there is often found great plenty of water which no man can suppose to have come from the clouds but he thinks it of that sort which is wont to bee called living water From whence then should it come Solut. from the Sea perhaps the Sea is as many miles from that water as the superficies of the earth is feet from it and may much more bee questioned But we may remember Seneca's judgement concerning the originall of Springs is that they are generated by transumtation of earth into water de Origin font an assertion so ridiculous as he is laughed at by M. Lydiat and never had any as yet to take his part Perhaps it may come from the transmutation of air into water for such transmutation I cannot deny wee see Churches become wet before rain falls from this cause But it s most probable to come from Rain which may possibly peirce by its crannyes much deeper then he speaks of as I have shewen already Our Miners will tell him that in Winter after great inundations of Rain they are much troubled with water in the bottome of their Mines finding it frequently distilling through the solid earth upon their heads by the secret capillar veins as I may call them that come from the supersicies of the earth whereas in Summer or dry seasons they find no interruption at all Touching the terme living water which is used by Seneca I think no more is meant by it then such as flowes from ever-running fountains which therefore in English we commonly call quick Springs But to preceed Object York Spaw p. 4. Dr. French Objects concerning the increasing of Springs in Winter that it s not universally true
distinguish the one from the other Besides that exâ—er identity of the water of ever flowing Springs and of the Gypsies I mentioned before which break out in the Wolds in York-shire and else where after a great inundation of Rain which if they proceeded from several causes must probably differ in their qualities and effects Lastly the two rarities I mentioned in the beginning that are to be found upon the Castle hill in Scarbrough to wit the deep Well that reaches to the bottom of the Rock which hath no water the Spring Well which is within half a yard of the edg of the Rock towards the Sea which never wants water do somewhat illustrate the point in hand For the deep Well being so neer the Sea should probably have water in it if there were any such percolation as is spoken of or if air were so plentifully transmuted in water it should not be dry which yet it is there being no Channells that empty themselves into it while the other which is upon the top of the Rock not many yards deep and also upon the very edge of the cliffe is supplyed which doubtless is done by secret Channells within the ground that convey the Rain and showers into it being placed on a dependant part of the Rock near unto which there are also Cellars under an old ruinated Chappell which after a great rain are full of water but are dryed up in a long drought I now proceed to confider of the nature of Spring water The nature of Spring water De simpl med fac c. 4. which doubtless is the best of all others for general use eminently excelling in the essentiall parts of water viz. cold and moysture as Galen saith Nevertheless some Springs are better then others Hyppocrates prefers such as flow out of Rocksand Hils of gravell or stone as more clear and white then what coms out of other soyls as also such Springs as are cold in summer and warm in Winter which is assuredly sound in them if their fountains be deep in the Rock and this is a sure token whereby wee may distinguish of Well water also And to this of Hyppocrates I might join the whole suffrage of all Philosophers and Physicians that may have writ upon this Subject To sum up all in a word besides what was said in the second Section The principall token of good and wholesome water is that it be simple or unmixed and then it loads not the stomach and easily passes through the Hypechondres being also soon hot and soon cold I find some of the Ancients were wont to weigh their water and accounted that the best which was the lightest and for this cause it seems it was that the Persian Kings would drink of no water but of the River Eulaeus an Attick saucer whereof weighed lesse by a Dram then other waters as Strabo saith Now Pliny tells that an Attick saucer was a measure of fifteen drams Lib 15. Geograph c. ult Lib. 21. c. ult so then it was a fifteenth part lighter then the other waters of Persia And the Parthian Kings on the same account drank of the Rivers Choaspes and Eulaeus as the same Pliny witnesses And thus Athenaeus commends a Spring neer Corinth Lib. 31. N. Hist cap. 3. which he calls Pirenes for its levity above all the waters of Greece Lib. 2. dup c. 2. And there seems to be good reason for it because its levity is a token of its purity and simplicity and that it bath no earthy parts and consequently is easier of concoction Now among the severall sorts of fountains Hyppocrates commends most those that open towards the East Aph. 26. Sect 5. as the lightest and fittest for all ages and constitutions and next to them such as run towards the West but as for those that open towards the North he thinks them to be cold and hard of digestion in that they want the heat of the Sun and he accounts those the worst that run southerly because their thin parts are exhaled by the heat de aquis and so the water becomes grosse But we need not fear that in this our Climate where the Sun is not so hot nor need those that are healthfull bee so scrupulous concerning their water if it bee Spring water espeâ—ially nor whether it runs East West North or South they being all indifferently good and wholesome Now sometimes it happens that Springs break out where there was never any before The Reasons of the breaking forth of new springs as in great floods of Rain and Snow which the subterraneall channells canâ—ot receive but these are but of short continuance Lib. 3. Nat. qu. c. 11. So after Earthquakes as Seneca mentions and so Theophrastus that in the mountain Corycus after an Earthquake many Springs broke out And thus after the cutting down of Woods and Groves as Pliny tells us in his Nat. Hist Spadac p. 1â— And H. ab Heer 's cites a passage to this purpose out of Ambrosius Perez who writes that in the City Baja a great Tree being torn up to make room for the building of a Colledge for the Jesuites there brake out a Spring of good and wholesome water a channell of water running under it was it seems broken up So also the stopping of the mouth of a Spring in one place may cause it to break out in another as wee see by ordinary experience Of like nature with Springs is Well water onely not so good and among these such as are open to the air are better then those that are shut whose water is fetched up by pumping and the more they are drawn the better and more wholesome is the water Many â—ratities in Springâ— There are also many rarities to be discovered in Springs both in their operations on those that drink them as Dr. French hath observed and I might multiply out of good Authors as also in their motions in ebbing and flowing concerning all which its very hard to give a reason There is a fountain in Idumaea called Job which is every three months of a severall colour to wit duskie red green and clear Another among the Troglodites which is three times a day bitter sweet again The Fountain Silva that flowes out of the foot of Mount Sion runs not continually but on certain days and hours A like to which we have at Giggleswick near a Market Town called Settle in York-shire which I mentioned before that ebbs and flowes many times a day whether such as these proceed from a spongious earth which resists it a while being but a slow Spring till it rally new force and break through the obstruction or it bee from a Spirit in the water whose impulse puts it forward but being a penurious Spring it settles again as Saxo Grammaticus thinks In praefat Daâ—iae suae I will not undertake to drtermine having not seen it till when I will bee content to admire it as a secret
hour It was found out by accident about thirty four years ago and hath by degrees come into use and reputation not only among the inhabitants of the Eastriding and the â—own of Hull among whom I lived and managed my profession near eighteen years observing very much the operation and effects of this water but also it hath of late years been well known to the Citizens of York and the Gentry of the County who do constantly frequent it yea and to severall persons of quallity in the Nation who upon the large commendations of such as knew its opperration have made triall of it with whom it hath gained such credit that they come above an hundred miles to drink of it preferring it before all other medicinal waters they had formerly frequented Nay I have met with some that had been at the Germane Spaws both at Sauvenir and Ponhout who prefer this for its speedy passage both by seige and urine before them I having had a large opportunity for twenty 2. years last past to observe the effects of this medicinall spring not onely in my selfe but very many others whom I have known to drink of it in various cases I shall for the further benefit of my Country make out my experience and will therefore first treat concerning its parts and of what Mineralls it doth participate with the nature of them and then descend to its vertues and effects Galen saith there are two things that do necessarily concur to the finding out of Arts and Sciences Lib. 2. de Simp. med fac or any simple Medicine vid. Experience and Reason From whence did arise two Sects of Physicians in his days Empiricks and Methodists The former observed the operation of Medicines not troubling themselves to pry into the nature of them to find out the reason of those operations and were wont to use them promiscuously whom therefore he frequently chides and charges of folly The other though they had found out the virtue of a Medicine yet were not satisfied with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but proceeded to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diving into the nature of it that they might know from whence it had its virtue consequently the reason of its working These he calls the two leggs of a Physician upon which hee ought to walk and further adds that he that would hope to attain to any competent perfection in the Art of Physick must take care to use them both My design shall bee to follow his advice as well as I may and so to let the Reader know that Experience hath found out that this Medicinall Spring doth work exceeding well both by seige and urine and that it is found to bee effectuall in all diseases that require such evacuations But because I would not have the ingenious to Content himself with this experimeÌ„cal notion let him know that this water hath it's virtue from it's participation of Vitriol Iron allome Its. Mineralls Nitre and Salt the natures of which Mineralls I shall enquire into anon It is very transparent to the sight inclining somewhat to a Skey colour As qualities it hath a pleasant acid taste from the Vitriol and an inky smell If an equall quantity of boyling milk be put to it it coagulates it as do the Germane Spaws and makes a very clear Posset-drink If half a grain of the powder of Gal be put into a quart of this water doth immediately turn it into a Clarret colour or like unto sirrup of Violets mixed with water whereto some drops of spirit of Vitriol hath been put which if it be suffered to stand some hours after it is so turned with the Gall a red sand will settle to the bottome and the water will become clear and bright again I took 3. quarts of the Spaw water evaporated it all away upon the sire in a clean Skellet there remained in the bottom a brown saltish biterish sand to the quantity of three drams or near upon but because I thought the sediment might proceed from the mixture of sand arising with the water although I could not discern any with my eye I therefore took three quarts more which I filtrated through a double thick wollen cloth that I might be sure to have no mixture of sand and set it on the fire as before to evaporate all the water which when I had done there remained the same quantity of brackish sediment as before and of the same colour so as it plainly appeared it was not from any mixture of sand in the water Then I set on three quarts filtrated as before in a clean Skellet which after it had boiled a while I discovered a reddish sand at the bottome the very same that falls to the bottome when it hath been colored by the gall so I took it off the fire and powred it into another vessell the sand remaining behind which I found to be about a dram somewhat soft to the touch not sharp as sand which I take to be no other then Rubrick or Mater ferri or as Dr. French calls it Vitriol of Iron separated by the heat whose property it is according to Phylosophers congregare homogenea separare heterogenea it having a kind of Sâ—iptick taste not saltish at all Then I set on the same water thus separated from the Rubrick to evaporate it as before cleansing off the scumme which arose and at the â—ottome there remained a whitish Sediment somewhat bitter and very sharp in tast to the quantity of two Drams which cleaved to the bottome of the Skellet as if it were parched meat not without difficulty to bee scraped off I observed when the water was almost all evâ—porated and spent it rose up in Bullas making a bubbling noyse like the boyling of Allome in the Mines at Whitby within twelve miles of Scarbrough on the Sea câ—st of which Sir Thomas Gower a very ingenious and learned Gentleman much delighted in Chimicall experiments thinks this Spaw doth eminently participate I think also it is from the Allome that it is so fixed and cleaves to the bottom whereas otherwise the nitre would shoot in stirâ—as and the Salt in tesseras as Naturalists observe and I take the greatest part of this sediment to be Nitre and Salt to be least predominant of all the rest of the Mineralls nor yet can they well be separated concerning all which I shall speak more at large in the twelfth Section There may perhaps be some other Mineralls in it but they are not discoverable however these being most eminently conspicuous I shall content my selfe with them and leave it to others to try experiments and make what new discoveries they can Now since Water is the Vetucle of the Vertues of all the aforesaid minerals Of water in general I think it proper for method sake to speak somewhat concerning Water ingeneral together with its severall sorts in particular and the effects thereof being taken inwardly into the bodies
unmelted it preserves the earth and the vegetables that grow thereon from the nipping piercing cold of the air which it also putrifies and when it melteth it moistens the ground as doth rain although it fattens not so much the superfluity whereof is sucked up by the earth except that which runs into lakes and rivers and is coverted to the same use as Rain to wit to the supply of springs and subterreneall generations being corrected and better concocted by the moderate heat of the earth which in Winter is warmer then in Summer as I said before Sect. 6. The next in order to be spoken to is Fenny pond or lake-maters senne pond or lake water which are made by a superfluity of Rain or melted Snow settling in some low places either above or else in some Caverns of the earth which are to be avoyded from all inward use as most unwholesome and many times deadly and poysonous And first for Fens and Ponds they being made up of melted Snow are upon that account bad enough as I hinted before nor are they amended by the mixtures of rain water unwholesome besides that in their passage they carry along with them slime and flith from which they can never be purged To this adde that they they are standing waters and lye open both to the heat of the Sun in Summer which exhales all their thin parts and leaves them gross and fetid and to the cold in winter which freezes them and makes them stil more grosse and turbulent Rufus in Oribasius indeed tells us that the Fennes in Aegypt Col. Med. lib. 5. cap. above all Other Fenns that ever he met withall are wholesome being bred by the overflowing of Nilus which is not so apt to corrupt and putrefie as other waters are and will keep sweet the longest They that are forced to drink of Pond water are much to be pittyed as I kow some Townes that have no other and those Alewives that brew their Ale with it when they may have better water as I have heard for certain some do because it makes stronger drink then good water are much to be blamed these sorts of water being condemned by Physicians both ancient and modern Hip. de ag Valler lib. 2 oom loc cap. 2. as poysonous and pestelential having in them horse-leeches and other filthy vermine and therefore of all sorts of waters these are most to be avoyded in times of common contagion as Plagues and penitentiall Fevers These being drunk do cause obstructions in the liver De aquis Tetr 1. Serm. 3. De simpl c. 4. hardnesse of the spleen corrupt the blood and spoil the complexion they breed dropsies dysenteries the Stone of the Kidneys shortnesse of breath and rotten and pestilentiall fevers as Hyppocrates Aetius Rasis and others say Besides they corrupt and infect the air Corrupt the air with the noysome vapours which they send forth daily to the breeding of very many deseases and therefore it is observable that most towns that are situate near unto Fens or lakes are more subject to malignant diseases which when Physicians come to meddle with lib. 2. loc com c. 2. they find very rebellious scarcely admitting of a cure as Valleriola had experience of at the City Arles in France Notwithstanding if necessity enforce to the use of this sort of water it may be made much more wholesome if it be boyled before it be used 2. As for lakes that are within the ground in the low cavern of the earth Lakes under ground poysonous they are also unwhole some and somtimes deadly because they are standing waters close not open to the air and so have no enventilation tainted by the filthy damps and fogs that are in the earth and are often found to have in them poysonous vermine I read of some that had fish in them which poysoned those that did eat of them Sen. Nat. qu. l. 3 cig Carp l. 2. geog c. 9. In Caria near about the City Lorus there arose out of the earth suddenly by reason of an Earthquake a great flood of Water bringing out with it a great number of Creatures and fishes which had been fatted under the earth of which whosoever chanced to eat dyed presently I am forced to mention these sorts of waters by the way yet briefly having occasion to refer to them in the following discourse Sect. 7. I now proceed to treat concerning Spring-water Of Spring-water as that which comes closer to the main subject of discourse to wit the Spaw at Scarbrough which is a constant flowing Spring or fountain For the better understanding whereof in its vertues and operation its needfull that I say somthing concerning the spring in generall together with the causes nature and variety of them and that as briefly as the nature of the subject will bear because I would not weary my self or the Reader with a long and tedious discourse It is a great controversie between the Stoicks and Peripateticks concerning the Originall of springs 3. Originals of springs also among severall modern learned Authors and they pitch especially upon 3. original causes viz. the percolation of the Sea the transumtation of aire within the bowels of the Earth and the Rain and Snow The first is the most ancient being the opinion of Thales and Plato with his followers Seas percolation de sacr Philoso Nat. Bath c. 3. as also of Valesias and our learned Countrymen Mr. Lydiat Mr. Carpenter Dr. Iordan and Dr. French York-shire Spaw The reasons of their opinion are principally these because first there is nothing but the vast Ocean that can afford such abundance of waters as do spring from the Earth the Sea being a sufficient store-house for all ends and uses Secondly because the Sea is not encreased by the multitude of Waters which flow into it daily as it must of necessity be if they had not by the subteraneal chanels a recourse to their Fountains And to this opinion Solomon seems to give ground 1 Eccles 7. where he saith All Rivers run into the Sea and yet the Sea is not full unto the place from whence the Rivers come thither they return again But as for the place of Scripture it proves not the point in hand the question being not about Rivers but Springs Solomon speaks of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea in great Rivers into which the Tide runs they being near the Sea and they would interpret it of Springs and Fountains that are perhaps many hundred miles of Not that I deny the Sea to contribute towards the making of Springs the Sea sends up vapours in abundance which being converted into Rain and Snow in their seasons fall down upon the Earth and afford matter for Springs but I cannot believe that there is any such percolation as they speak of whereby the water of the Sea is conveyed by occult cavities through the Earth to the Springs which are many hundred miles
in some places of the World distant from it and many of them placed upon exceeding high Land and Mountains much above the Sea I know some of them for the making out of their opinion will have the Sea to be as high Sea not higher then the earth if not higher them the highest Mountains depressed only upon the shore as saith Aristotle lib. 1. de Meteor because terminated by the dry Land This Doctrine of the Sea's elevation above the Land being also defended by Tully de nat deorum where he saith that the Sea being placed above the Earth yet coveting the place of the Earth is congregated and collected so as it cannot redouned or flow abroad Scripture urged as also by many learned Divines both ancient and moderne who reducing most things to the supernatural and first cause do many times neglect and overlook second causes And they seem to be warranted by some Scriptures Psal 33. vers 7. He gathered the Waters thereof together as an heap Ps 33.7 As also that place in Iob where God himself professeth that he hath bounded the Waters of the Sea in these words Iob 38.11 Hitherto shalt thou go but no further Job 38.11 and there shall thy proud waves be stayed And having thus resolved they fancy a natural motion of the water from the top of the Sea to the tops of the Hills although they are not all of this mind as we shall examine by and by But we must know de caelo l. 2. c. 4. De Geogr. p. 489 the Earth and the Sea according to Aristotle and a concurrence of Freigius and all Geographers make up but one body of a global figures the Sea being a moist fluid body keeps the figure exactly its superficies being alwayes equidistant to the Center of the Earth so as in what part of the Sea soever a man can suppose himself to be he must needs be in the highest part of the Globe whether he be in the middle of the Sea or near the Shore and out of this figure it cannot go without force Whereas the Earth is not so exact in the figure that part of it which appears above the Water of the Sea being extuberant every Mountain and Valley still further breaking the figure Now if the water of the Sea should so pass from the Sea to the tops of the Springs as they affirm it should arise beyond it's level to wit the Natural Sphericall figure which is absurd to be supposed without an extraneous force It is most certain that Ships at Sea will at some leagues distance loose the sight of one another so as they that are upon the deck in the one can make no discovery of the other but if they go up to the shrowds they may discern one another and still the higher they climbe the better discovery they make The reason of this is the Sphericall figure of the Sea which terminates their sight while they are upon the deck untill over-topping the bank by climbing higher they have a clear view And our Seamen observe no difference supposing the same distants from what quarter soever the Ships lie from one another whither towards the Land or off at Sea For exampel Suppose on the Eastern coast of England which stretches North and South three Ships signed A. B. C. of equal size A. lyes under the shore B. lies off at Sea full East from A. towards the Coast of Holland C. rides Southerly from B. towards the Downs and A. and C. at equal distance from B Our best Navigators tell me that f B. lose the sight of C. that she cannot be discerned without climbing into the Shrowds A. shall in like manner lose the sight of B. which should not be so Lib. 1. Mâ—t. Nat. Baths p. 18. if according as Aristotle and Dr. Jordan tells us the Sea were depressed at the shore and elevated at distance but rather B. should appear clearly unto A. as if it were placed on a high Bank at full view They say indeed that B. shall sooner lose the sight of A. because of the dark shore under which A. lyes Now if it be thus as peritis in arte suâ credendum est then is that conceit of the Seas elevation above the highest Land but a fancy Nat. Baths c. 3. p. 18. And that also of Dr. Jordans will hold no water when he saith as in Siphunculis the water being put in at one end will rise up in the other Pipe as high as the level of the water so he will have it to be in the bowels of the earth between the superficies of the Sea and the heads of the Springs Nor is their reason for the depression of the Sea neer the shore of any validity to wit because it is terminated by the dry land the Argument of Demonstration which they use to illustrate the thing being of sufficient validity for confutation of the Position Cap. 3. p. 19 For saith Dr. Jordan if a drop of water be put upon a dry Table you shall lâ—e it depressed on the sides elevated in the middle like an half Gâ—obe but take away the termination by moistening the Table and the drop sinks and he further â—dds if this be evident in so smâ—ll a proportion we may imagine it to be much more in the vast Ocean What! is not the sand of the Sea moistened by every wave as much as the Table which makes the drop fall and run out of its Global figure why doth not then the Sea as well dilate it self as the drop upon the Table and consequently leaving its Spherical Figure drown the world We see the dry Land does not so terminate the Sea but it rises according to the Tides still more and more till the Spring be at the heighth and notwithstanding the moistening of the Shore it returns again to its lowest Ebb Nor do the Scriptures beforecited make out any thing for their purpose Psa 33.7 cleared As for that in Psal 33.7 He gathereth the waters together as an heap The Prophet is speaking of the admirable power and wisdom of GOD in the Creation of the world as is evident in the 6. ver By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth And then follows v. 7. He gathereth c. The best way therefore to interpret this is to have recourse to the story of the Creation and to see there what God did with the waters Gen. 1.7 and 9. Aâ—ter GOD had divided the waters that were under the Firmament from those that were above He said ver 9. Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear So that it lows the gathering of the waters together as an heap is no more then the putting them into one place and the words that follow in that 7th verse of the Psalm hint as much which seem to be
exegeticall and interpretative to the former to wit He layeth up the deep in store-houses Unless they will have the Prophet to hint also at the Spherical Figure of the Sea to which I can easily assent Besides the words themselves are worthy our considering he doth not say on an heap but as an heap 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 congregans sicut acervum aquas maris Whereas in the story of the Israelites passing over Jordan when the waters were divided before them stood up in an heap the same word in Hebrew for a heap is used to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iosh 3 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 steterunt acervo uno The Septuagint Translating that in the Psalm according to this sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gathering as in a vessel the water of the Sea Job 38.11 clâ—aâ—â—d As touching that place in Iob I conceive it makes nothing for their opinion of the Seas elevation above the earth I deny not Gods miraculous and extraordinary working in some things to manifest the glory of his wisdom power yet I suppose the Sea to be confined by his providence within the ordinary bounds of nature for it were very strange to imagine that God in the first institution of nature should impose a perpetual violence upon nature seeing we see the Creator in other things to use nature as his ordinary servant to administer the regiments of matters by second causes I conceive no more is meant in that Scripture but that Almighty God hath set certain limits bounds which the waters should not pass these bounds and limits I take not to be supernatural as if the water restrain'd by a miraculous word of coÌ„mand should be forced to contain it self within its circuit prescribed to it but natural as cliffs hils within which the water seems to be intrenched for we may see there is no such force put upon it but if the natural bounds of the Sea to wit the cliffs be removed the Sea overruns the Land and turns all into it self But the Authors of this opinion urge further Object that according to the order of the Elements among themselves the earth should be lowest and the water above it I Answer if we consider these Elements among themselves Sol. we must give the height to the water for as much as the greatest part by far of the Earth lyes drowned for that which is above bears no sensible proportion with that which lyes under the water But here we are not comparing the two Elements intirely betwixt themselves but the superficies of the water with the parts of the earth that are uncovered and are habitable which supersicies of the Earth notwithstanding this reason may be higher then the water But they object further because Marriners coming from the main Ocean to the Land Object seem to see the Land far lower then the water This may easily be made out of Opticall principles Sol. that it must appear so by reason that the Sphericall sigure and convexity of the Sea interposed betwixt our sight and the lower part of the Land doth hide some parts from our sight whence it must needs appear lower being couched almost under water The like is discernable in another Ship at Sea which seems to be depressed underwater at som Leagues distance so as nothing appears but her top Sails Besides at distance all things seem lower even upon a levell at Land which when we draw nigh unto do better discover their height I read that in Noahs Flood God brake open the springs of the deep and opened the Cataracts of heaven to pour down rain continually many days together upon the Earth of which there had been no necessity at all had the Sea been heaped up in such sort as they imagine for the only withdrawing of his hand and letting loose the reins that the water might have run to an evenness would have been sufficient to have overwhelmed the whole earth Again we find by experience and our Mariners do all agree in it that a like gale of Wind will serve to carry a Ship out of the Port to the open Sea as from the Sea into the Port which could not be if the Sea were higher then the Land for they would need a great and stiffe gale to carry them up the bank of the Sea and none at all to run into the Land And thus I conceive wee are free'd from that absurd consequence which their Doctrine of the Seas Elevation at distance and depression on the shore doth necessarily infer to wit that the water which runs out of Rivers in the ebbe as soon as it reaches to the Sea must run up the hill in its own naturall motion which is against the nature of heavy bodies whose motion is ever downward to the Center of the Earth as also Aristotle's own Doctrine else where Lib. c. de coelo c. 4. Besides as Dr. French well observes a man would think so many great Rivers terminated in the Sea might be a sufficient moysture for the taking away of the termination made by the dryness of the Earth and to make the Globus Sea sink to an evenness Moreover tht manner of conveyance of the Sea water to the heads of Springs fancied by Dr. Jordan through the secret channells of the Earth requires a man of much credulity to believe him to wit that the water in those his subterraneall crannyes should without any force upon it leave its naturall figure and correspond with its levell and yet the same water being exposed to the open air near the shore should both make and abide in a valley It further implies much easiness of peâ—swasion in him that can believe that those Springs which are two or three hundred miles from the Sea as some are in great continents must yet be supplyed with water from the Sea by Channells of that length Besides if there were such Channells from the Sea to the Springs as he fancyes that are hollow like pipes the water of the Springs would certainly be brackish according to the nature of the Sea water which in such length of time would have tainted the Channells through which it passes Nat. Hist cent 9. exp 882. as the Lord Bacon observes that although pits digged near the Sea will bee found in time to have fresh water in them yet afterwards they will become salt the sand through which the water is transcolated coÌ„tracting saltness so as new ones must be made and so I think of Dr. Jordan's subterraneall Channells As for Divines who are of the opinion of the Seas height above the Land I desire them to consider of that place in Psal 107. ver 23. where it is called going down to the Sea in Ships the words being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 descendentes ad mare Psal 107.23 coming from the same root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 descendit with that word which is used Micha 1.4 〈◊〉
Rain that falls on high places runs into plains and from thence into Rivers and where it cannot so run it remains upon the superficies till it be exhaled by the Sun I answer we see a great quantity of water runs into Rivers after great Rains when they are nigh at hand but what becomes of all that which falls in a whole Country far from Rivers and of the infinite quantity of Snow which covered the surface of the ground and sets all the Country in a flood when it melts so as a man would think it could not be dryed up in many months and this where there is no current at all into Rivers The moderate heat of the Sun in rainy weather especially in the Winter months is such as it cannot be thought to exhale the tenth part of it into vapours and yet in a few days its all gone and no footsteps of it left save in the roads whereby the continual beating of the horses it is so sadned that it cannot sink of a long time As for that place of Seneca which he urges I have answered it already in this Section And for the digging of the Well where sometimes no water can be got two or three hundred foot deep before we come at Springs That may be and yet make nothing against the waters sinking much deeper since though there be many Channells of water in the earth yet it is possible to miss them in such a narrow compass as a Well and yet there may be store of water near hand Nor can the dust or dirt which he saith may be conveyed by the water into the veins or crannyes by which it should pass down into the earth hinder it any more then the excrementitious humors that are in the bowels do hinder the chyle from passing into the Lactaea or Mesentery veins and so to the Liver both which may be thereby hindered in part so as they cannot pass so speedily yet it is not so in all bodies nor all over the ground only in some places it lyes above the earth a while before it can finde passage down Another Objection which some make against this opinion of the Original of Springs by Rain and Snow is this Object that although all this should be granted yet they think there doth not so much Rain and Snow fall as may suffice to supply them with such abundance of water as they vent I would have such to consider what hath been already said concerning the immense quantity of wet that falls in Winter besides the great Spouts of Rain that ordinarily every year at some time or other are falling in Summer which often sets the whole Country in a Flood together with other frequent showers and whether there is not a reasonable proportion of wet for supply of the Springs especially while we consider the paucity of great Springs and the distance that is betwixt one Spring another sometimes two or three miles of ground affording but a few Springs and those perhaps of very smal currents most Towns being supplied with Well water of which very little is lost Again it is very observable that a great quantity of that water which runs out of Springs that are placed on high ground neer hillâ— is in its passage sucked up by the earth as is also the waters of Rivers and so is conveyed by secret veins into the subterraneal chanels and serves to give being to nether Springs that break out in lower grounds Nor need this assertion seem strange to any seeing we read of great Rivers that hide their channels in the earth for many miles together sometimes and break out again as the Rhine in Germany cited by Seneca Lib. 3. Nat. Quest Erasenus in Argâ—lica Padus in the Alps but more remarkable Grimston States and Empires is that of the river Guadiana in Spain which runs under the ground for the space of thirteen leagues neer to a Town called Villa Horta breaks up again which gives occasion to that brag of the Spaniards concerning a bridge in Spain on which is daily fed ten thousand sheep Nor doth our own Country want such presidents the river Rye in York-shire runs under ground a quarter of a mile together and breaks out again neer Helmsley and I am informed of the like neer Grantham in Lincolnshire Yea and those great Seas in Asia are thought to have subterraneal passages from one to another the Caspian into the black Sea that into the Aegean and this into the Mediterranean Sect. 10. Having thus weighed and answered the most material exceptions that are made against this Original by learned men I cannot but joyn in judgement with Albertus and Agricola yet not altogether excluding the other two especially that of the percolation of the Sea to Springs neer adjoyning but how such as break out on high Lands and at great distance from the Sea can be thought to be supplied from thence or otherwise then by the showers that fall from heaven I confess I see not notwithstanding the Arguments they produce to make it out And therefore learned Dr. Jordan notwithstanding hee inclines strongly to the Seas Originall pag. 19. nat Baths as wee have heard already yet is forced to grant at length that if any Springs bee higher then the Sea and I have proved they art all so they may then proceed from Rain and Snow Nevertheless we must not forget from whence Rain Snow do naturally proceed that the Sea is the principal storehouse for the generation of vapours out of which they are made by condensation the Earth and the moyst bodies thereon not affording any proportionable quantity to the wet that falls from the clouds I shall now hasten to a period of this dispute being only willing to illustrate what hath been said by a quotation out of learned and laboborious Dr. Heylin Cosmog p. 677. in his Cosmography the second Edition p. 667. where treating of Cyprus an Island in the Mediterranean Sea in length two hundred miles and sixty miles broad he tells that in the days of Constantine the great there was an exceeding long drought so as for thirty six years they had no rain in so much as all the Springs and torrents or Rivers were dryed up so as the inhabitants were forced to forsake the Island and seek for new habitations for want of fresh water Now if the Sea had been the Originall of the Springs they could not have wanted water it being an Island and not very great or if the transmutation of air into water in the Caverns of the Earth there could have been no defect since the Caverns were the same so that its evident the Springs proceeded from the Rain which failing they were dryed up Likewise whosoever shall compare the water which flowes out of Springs with that which immediately falls from the clouds shall find such a full and perfect agreement betwixt them in all qualities perceptible to the senses as its hard to
I read also of a Fountain in Judaea which flowes six dayes and rests on the Sabbath and is therefore called fons Sâ—bbâ—ticus Also of a Fountain in Epyrus which will quench a lighted torch and light one whose flame is out So among the Garamantes there is a Spring which is so cold in the day time that one cannot drink of it and in the night so hot that it cannot bee touched Catal glâ—r mund p. 12 In inst rei pub l. 7. tit 9. These and many more of like natâ—te I meet withall in good Authors especially in Cassanaeus and Patricius where the learned Reader may abundantly satisfie his curiosity like wise in D. Fulks book of Meteors concerning which no reason can be given so as I think it better silently to admire the power and wisedome of Almighty God in them then too curiously to pry into the causes of these deep mysteries in nature which are wrought in the lower parts of the earth It being the Prophe Dâ—vids expression in his contemplation upon the secret mystery of his forming in the womb Psal 139.15 Sect. 11. Of River Waters The next sort of water which falâ—under our consideration is River water First therefore concerning the Originall of Rivers and then of the nature of that sort of water In Original The Scripture tells us that all Rivers come from the Sea Eccles 17. so as we need not go further to search out their Original nevertheless they consisting of two sorts of water to wit salt and fresh we may distinguish and call the Sea the original of the Salt water and trace the fresh up to its Springs and Fountains and determine that the fresh water in Rivers comes from the Springs and in this we are not without a president in Scripture Gen. 2.10 Where it s said a River went out of Eden which divided it selfe into four streams which intimates that the Spring from whence those sour Rivers had their Original was in Eden Notwithstanding Rivers have also an additional supply from Rain and Snow which falling from higher places do carry down with them the water that is in Lakes Ponds and Ditches and fills their Danks Hippocrates will have River water to be altogether unwholsom It s natuâ—â— being made up of so many several sorts of water and most of them bad as also mixt with mud dirt and slime De aquis locis breeding diseases of various kinds according to the nature of the waters and therefore it is very observable that those Cities and Towns that are forced to drink of the water of Rivers are more pestered with Epidemical sickness then others that have better water which Valleriola observed at the City of Arles in France Lib 2. loc com c. 7. which stands in a low and Fenny soyl having no Springs at all but the inhabitants are forced to drink the water of Rhone Notwithstanding I finde some Rivers commended to have wholsom water as Eulaeus and Choaspes which I mentioned before which the Kings of Persia and Parthia preferred before any other sort whatsoever But above all other the water of Nilus is commended by Aetius Tetrab 1. c. 165. as having all the properties of the best sort of water And hence it was that Philadelphus the second King of Egypt having married his daughter Berenice to Antiochus King of Assyria caused the water of Nilus to be carried to her into Assyria that she might drink of no other water but that Lib. 2. dypn cap. 2. as Athenaeus saith out of Polybius Yea the water of Nilus seems to be equalized with wine if not preferred before it for Scaliger relates out of Spartianus that when the Egyptian Army was ready to mutiny because they had no Wine De subt exerc 48. Pescenninae Niger their General appeased them with this answer what do you grumble for wine and have the River Nilus at hand But I must not wade too far into this stream least I lose my self and my Subject especially since River water contributes nothing to the Spaw at Scarborough there being none acer it Nor have we the water of Nilus here our Rivers in England are compounded of several sorts of waters and therefore not so wholsom and yet it is the best or only water that some Towne have for their ordinary use the water of Owse being also most commonly used by this City of York for whose cause especially I will say something more concerning it River water is not so good as Rain or Spring Water the Sun having exhaled the thin parts it is become more gross yet it will keep longer then either of the other and will make stronger Bear then either of them it being more easily impregnated with the strength of the Malt by reason of its gross parts but it is not so good for Medicines as the other Now the reason why it will keep longer then Rain or Spring water is because it hath passed already some degrees of fermentation by the heat of the Sun yet the water of some Rivers will keep longer then other Baccius saith the water of Tiber wil keep an hundred years and not corrupt Lib. 1. de ag teber c. 2. the reason is because it is grosse and thick like Oyle on which account its unwholesome to be drunk River water is not to be used after rain till it hath purged it selfe and doth become clear and its the best when it is taken out of the middle of the River which if that cannot bee done then let it be taken out of some deep place and not where it is shallow also above the Cities and Towns before the filth of the channels run into it Great care likewise should be taken by the Governours of Cities that no Carrion be cast into Rivers both because it corrupts the water and destroyes the fishes likewise that no cloaths be washed or boyes bathe or horses be watered above those places where the water is taken up especially in times of common contagion and pestilential diseases In which particulars the Antient Law-makers were exceeding carefull appointing certain Officers for the preserving of their waters whom they called Hydrophylaces which were persons of the best quality and had great immunities conferred on them and were to see to the putting of the Laws in execution concerning waters Cat. glor muud par 12. p. 259. as Cassanaeus relates out of Franciscus de Ripa This water being taken up should be kept in large Stone Cesterns not leaden which are apt to breed dysenterie fluxes and those very clean into which if some gravell stones gathered out of a fresh River were put it would preserve it longer and cooler Lib. 2. loc com c. 7. Valleriola would have also some little fishes put in to keep in motion and when it is first put in the Cesterns it should be poured through a thick woollen cloth that no sandy or slimy substance may pass through River water being very
Scarbrough Spaw OR A DESCRIPTION OF THE Nature and Vertues OF THE Spaw at Scarbrough in Yorkshire Also a Treatise of the Nature and Use of Water in general and the several sorts thereof as Sea Rain Snow Pond Lake Spring and River Water with their Original Causes and Qualities Where more largely the Controversie among Learned Writers about the Original of Springs is discussed To which is added A short Discourse concerning Mineral Waters especially that of the SPAW By Robert Wittie Dr. in Physick London Printed for and are to be sold by Charles Tyus at the three Bibles on London Bridge and by Richard Lambert in York neer the Minster 1660. Universis ac Singulis Medicinae Doctoribus nec non coeteris Generâ—sis â—à m in Urbe qâ—à nin Comitatu Eboracensi in Re Medicâ versantibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 TRactatiunculam hanc de Aquis Scarburgensibus Vobis Doctissimi Colendissimâ—que Viri qui virium Fontis hujus celeberrimi Testes estis oculâ—ti inter aquas Spadanas Europaeas palmam facilè merentis apprimà dico In directionibus ad aquarum usum ad calcem libelli medicaminum paradigmata omisi de industriâ non modo propter rationes illic allegatas sea quia nollem ut instruantur Medicâ—stri isti Scioli quos unusquisque ferè Pagus tenet qui morborum Aegrorumque naturam fontis vires ignorantos meo forsam telo aliorum animas transfigereni vel saltem propositum meum non tenentes uno eodemque omnes calciarent calopodio Nostis etenim quantam nobis Molestiam a praeposterâ Medicimentorum exhibitione quotidâ—è aâ—ferunt undè eodem telo quo Samson in Sacrâ Historiâ â—hilasiâ—â—â—s asinina Scilicet maxilla Aegrorum mâ—llâ—a miserrimè trucidare solent Vestram 〈◊〉 â—ruditionem sat scio Celeberrimi Viri â—â—a quos â—deo Aegros ablegando censui ut tam 〈◊〉 pâ—catâ freti Cynosurâ recto cursu per has â—quas procedant ac tandem salutis portum feâ—â—cater appellant optatâ arenâ potianturâ—â—nod ad reliquun de Aquis discursum praecipuè de fontium origine â—iatribam attinet sub judice Lectore Scilireâ— lis est nec me unicuâ—que placiturum aut singulis Jâ—ve ipso acceptiorem arbitror de quo Theognis suaviter cecinit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quem satis appositè vertit Erasmus in Chiliad Non etenim cunctis placeat vel Jupiter ipse Seu mitteus pluviam scucohibens pluviam Doctis ut spero me voluisse sat est etiamst adhuc in Origine Nâ—â—â—au Demoâ—â—â—taeo puteo Veritas ipsa lateret Inâ—â—uce rerum tam tenni homines caligamus in in subâ—â—râ—arets nil mirum si Talpae sunius Quicquia sii vobis Ornatissimi Viri in singularis amâ—â—â—â—ae objervanâ— traeque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 porrâ—go quea si unanâ—ma approbetis caâ—â—ulo eoaem animo accepium â—â—iquo datum contigerit manus mentisque precium habeo neque erit quod Theoâ—â—â—â—entis rosionem metuam i Valete Dat. Eboraci ex musaeo meo Maij 29. 1660. R. Wittie Encomiasticon in Scriptorem doctum Scriptum WIttodios olim Germanis nomine dictos Ingenio celebres pristina Scripta docent Wittaeos nobis tam re quà m nomine habere Contigerit si Anglis â—am sumus ergo pares En tibi Lector hâ—bes specimen quod pagina doctâ—m Exhibet pleni fontis ab ore fluens Scriptum fons lymphae Scriptor sons artis altae Naturae mystes ambo perennis aquae Scarbu gi haurit aquas cerebri sua dulcin vina Miscet gustâ—to sume librum â—t calicem Non opus huic hederam doctae applicuisse tabernae Tu vinum ac hederam perlege invenies REader who dost peruse these Lines with thirst Start not to meet Aquarius at the first The Title speaks of Water yet in fine Though 't promise water it will sill thee Wine T. C. Mag. Art A Rapsodie on the learned work of my worthy and much honoured friend R.W. Dr. in Physick a Omne malum ab Aquilone ALl ill from th' North nay that 's not so For here the wholesome waters slow b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a saying ascribed to Demetrius a Greck Poet Erasm Adag No good by drinking waters rare Language for drunken Poets Are All of this mind No Pindar says c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Piud Olymp. Od. 1. Water's best Let him wear the bayes d Lacian Demosth Encom Demosthenes drank water sure Hence his Orations run so pure e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oppposed by Plato in Euthyd Nought precious but what 's rare how then said Plato cheif of wisest men Can Water be the Commonest Of other things and yet the best You see that Fame 's a lyar and they must Run into vulgar Errours who will trust Before they triall make For Water may Be wholesome drink whatever people say This learned Author proves it if you look On th' Witty water-works within his Book Read and you 'l call him Skilfull Doctor when You have tryall made the honest Doctor then For here you 'l find a way to cure your ills Without profound Apothecaries bills Let Epsam Tunbridge Barnet Knaresbrough be In what request they will Scarbrough for me P. W. In sui nominis Viri Doctoris Wittie de aquis Scarburgensibus claboratam tractatiunculam Carmen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SObrius sanns fieres haec pagina docta Edocet est mentis corporis atq dosis Vinum si sitias agrotas est medâ—â— amen Sospita Scarburgi fons saltentis aquae Vilius ut nihil est hâc nil pretiosius undâ Hac purgat ventrem fistet alitqua sitim Nune Galene vale catapotiae amara valete Utque magis valeam Pharmacopaee vale Searburgensis aqua est medicina sed ingeniosus Sit Doctor Medicus sit libâ—r ingenium Your papers I have view'd and think Your waters are most pleasant drink Yet my good Doctor tell me why That waters nourish you deny I read your papers and do find Your waters nourish corps and mind Farewell wine or Hull-ale rather Who reads your book will drink water This only fault I fear you made That you have spoyld the Vintners trade Your matters good yet I can tell Your art the matter doth excell Here labour art and learning sweet Do all within your papers meet I think it fit those papers live That to so many health may give But what needs this my labour wast Here 's Scarbrough warning I 'am in hast Your Scrabrough Spaw I have drunk on But never drank of Helicon And 't is no matter for I think Your Scrabrough Spaw far better drink Tuissimus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 J.S. Mag. Art C.C. Cantab. In opus utilissinum R. Wittie Med. Doctoris de Spadacrene Scarburgensi CAsta Napaearum cùm Phoebus Aquagia laetie Lustrabat radiis tùm de temone cadentes Stricturas gremio excepit Scarburgia Nympha Hâc lege ut nunquam nisi
of men And hereby the way I intend nothing concerning distilled waters which are make out of green plants nor to dispute whither they have in them the vertue of the plant out of which they are distilled as Fernelius and Quercitanus think De abdit rer caus l. 2. Pharm restituta or whether they partake nothing of their virtue especiaâ—ly such as have nothing of the sinell or taste of the plant but are onely the flegmatick juyce of them and of the same vertue with our common water and to be used indifferently in stead of it as my learned and intimate friend Doctor Primerose thought it sufficeth that wee have them always ready and at hand in our Apothecarys Shops to be a vehicle to others medicines which we have occasion to use for present indications when wholesom common water would many times bee far to seek Nor do I intend to trouble the Reader or my self with a Phylosophicall discourse concerning the Element of water lib. 2. de gen c. 8. which is one of the four principles which Aristotle saith do necessarily concurre to the making up of every compound body and into which it is to be resolved in it's dissolution whether it be animate or inanimate Neither indeed can that be found any where not being obvious to the externall senses or capable of attaining its qualities of cold and moysture without loosing its form Instead of it we have our common water whose proper place is the superficies or convex part of the earth and is encompassed with the air being also very near of kin to the Elementary water although not the same 1 De Element de simpl med fac l. 1. Parac de Elem. ag as Galen and Paracelsus do assert it being of the number of those bodyes which Aristotle calls imperfect mixed bodyes in his book of Meteors It hath also the same qualities of cold and moisture in which yet it is capable of alteration especially in the former from external causes without any formal diminution This is called by Paracelsus the mother of all generations Param l. 3. de pest tract 1. and the matrix of all the creatures without this there would be no procreation of animalls or vegetables above the earth or of mineralls within the bowells of the earth This perhaps made Empedocles be of the opinion that all things were made of water But water is not only necessary by way of principle and so an ingredient in the constitution of our bodyes but also in Order to nourishment for the conservation of them in their being and growth And therefore Plato called it of all liquors the most precious In Euthydemo although it may be had at a cheap rate Lib. 2. Dypnos c. 2. I know Galen Actuarius and other learned men deny any nutritive quality to be in water although Athenaeus is of a contrary judgment because some creatures feed on nothing else as Grashoppers and so we see Horseleaches that are put into water in our Apothecaryes-shops will grow bigger But as for Grashoppers for ought I know they may feed as other insects do of green plants and it 's probable they do and as touching the growing of the Horseleaches I think the water while it 's new and uncorrupt pines them and makes them hungry not affording them any nourishment till it putrefyes which it doth the sooner by their being in it and so they are nourished aswell as bred by putrefaction which the water hath contracted and not by simple and pure water it self Nâ—t nâ—urishing Now the reason why it adds nothing to the â—ourishment of our bodyes I conceive to the this That which is to nourish the body is in proximâ potentiâ to be blood and in remotâ a member whereas water because of it's super-abundant coldness as also because it is a simple body is not capable to become either the one or the other and therefore it cannot have any nourishing vertue Yet necessaâ—y uâ—to nourishment Notwithstanding there is nothing more necessary unto nourishment it being the best vehicle of nourishment without which those gross meats which we daily eat could not be assimilated and turned into our substance For how should that chyle which the stomack makes by concocting the solid meats which we daily feed on be able to pass into those small veins in the mesentery and from thence to the Liver if it had not a moist watery humidity mixed with it for it's vehicle as saith Galen lib 4. de usu part c. 5. Ob. Sol. If any object that Wine or Beer will serve for this end as well as water I answer Wine and Beer do it by their watery and thin substance which they have from their abundant participation of water besides water is more generally used in the World both by men and beasts then either Wine or Beer and doth better serve for other inward common ends And as for Wine Beer or Ale the more they do recede from the nature of Water the worse and more unwholsom are they to be used for ordinary drink The use of watâ—â— By the help of Water or what is made out of it is our natural heat kept in a mean and our radical moisture repaired so as the latter is not exhausted by the excess of the former Also with this nature is satisfyed and refreshed as much when we are thirsty as it is with meat when we are hungry yet without any addition or increase of the substance of our bodyes as I said before The first common drink This was the common drink both of man and beast during the first age of the World from the Creation till the Flood for above 16. hundred years when mens lives were prolonged to almost a thousand years Not that I think the drinking of water was the cause of their so long living but rather the good pleasure of God for the more speedy propagating of mankind upon the earth was the cause and their temperance a great help a vertue almost lost in this declining age of the World yet certâ—inly it was the most proper drink which man could use in order to the lengthening of his dayes and preserving his health otherwise God would have shewn him a better And if circumstances be weighed we shall see that after the invention and use of wine which the Scripture attributes to Noah after the Flood the age of man began to be contracted to near a tenth part Psal 90.10 and yet still became shorter so as in Moses his time it was accounted but threescore and ten Nay long after Wine came to be known I find water was in ordinary use The ancient Romans used it Julius Frontinus saith that the Romans were content with water as their only drink for the space of 440. years from the building of Rome Yea even to this day not only the common sort of Citizens drink nothing else but the wealthier also delight in it
exceedingly keeping it in Earthen Vessels under the Earth and in their coolest Cellers that they may have it alwayes at hand Strabo saith l. 15. Geogr. c. ult that the Kings of Persia drank the water of the River Eulaeus constantly with whom it was in so high esteem that it was forbidden any of his Subjects to drink of the water of that River Lib. 1. Herodotus tells the same Story but calls it Choaspes which saith he flowes by the City Susa where the Kings of Persia were wont to keep their Courts in winter And Agathâ—eles in Athenaeus further describes it l. 12. Dypn c. 3. although he names not the River it seems to have been a small one whose water was called by the Persians aqua aurea So the Persian Kingâ— or the golden water which was fed by 70. Spring-heads of which it was treason and punished with death for any man to drink except the King and his eldest Son Water was accounted by the Ancients the fittest drink for all ages and Sexes However in this age of ours it is fallen under contempt Hence those Laws which Plato mentions that young men should not so much as taste any Wine till they were 18. years of age and women never which was observed by the Roman Matrones with very great devotion as saith Valerius Maximus Lib. 1. they usually drinking nothing but water or sometimes a drink called passum which is made of Raisins boyled in water when they are not well Athenaeus tells of a custome among the Roman women l. 10. Dypn c. 13. that they were wont at the first meeting with any of their husbands kindred to salute theÌ„ with a kiss who not knowing how soon they must meet some of them did drink no Wine at all least they should smell of it and so be discovered and have their names set up that woman being accounted to want no fault that would drink Wine And thus also the Italian Women drink nothing but Water Italians Ibid. concerning which I find a pretty Story mentioned by Athenaeus out of Alcuinus Siculus an old Italian Writer He saith that Hereùles as he was once travailing on the way towards Croton being thirsty turned into an House near the way side desiring some Wine to drink to quench his thirst now it happened that there was a Vessel of Wine in the House which the good Wife had broached for her own tooth her husband not knowing of it The Master of the House hearing when Hercules called for Wine bade his wife go and broach the eask and give him some the good Wife not being willing her Husband should know that it was already broached pretending what a deal of trouble it would be to them both did churhshly bid him drink Water Which Hercules standing at theh Door all the while hearing called the Husband to him and commended him for his good will and shewed him the womans deceit and the cask which now was turned into a stone This story is well known among the Italians and the stone is to be seen at this day saith my Author as a warning against the womens drinking of Wine Likewise at this day in France French it is accounted a foul crime for Virgins to drink any thing but water only their ancient women will mix a little wine with it which is called by some although with too much liberty of speech vinum baptizatum It were well if it were more in use in England especially among the younger sort as that drink which nature first assigned it would prevent drunkenness which Athenaeus calls the metropolis of all mischiefs lib. Dypn c. 1. â—5 de invent rev l. 3. c. 3. and Polydorus Virgilius the most filthy debauchment of the life of a man and the original of 600. other vices I suppose he intends a certain number for an uncertain and indeed is the shame of our Nation I know it is objected Ob. that the waters in England in regard of the coldness of the climate are more crude and not so pure and wholsome as those in Spain France and the hot Countries I confess great care ought to be had concerning the goodness of water Sol. of which by and by But certainly there is no cause for the objection since there is no Country but it affords wholesome water The waters of England are good even the most frozen Country of Greenland as I have heard from our Seamen of Hull who yearly continue there mâ—â— moneths and use it wihoâ—â— any the least harm I know the Objection arises from this that they think because of the coldness of our climate the water is not so well concocted with the heat of the Sun and so is hard of digestion 1. But they must know that the Sun by it's heat pierces noâ— far into the bowels of the earth in the hot Countries where they suppose the best water to be the heat thereof piercing not above 10. foot deep into the earth according to the judgment of the best Philosophers the Springs arising much deeper as we shall shew anon 2. Again the Sun and the Planets have an influence into the bowels of the earth where neither their heat nor their light can penetrate to the concocting of minerals that are above 100. fathome deep as I might manifest at large from the judgement of good Authors and therefore we need not doubt concerning water which perhaps lyes nearer the superfices and requires less concoction 3. Moreover water I mean Spring water which is in most ordinary use hath it's concoction and preparation according to the temperature of heat and cold that is in the earth Now if we may believe Philosophy which teaches that the earth is warmer in Winter in the low cavernes of it then in Summer because of the cold aire and frosts that shut the pores of it which is also ratifyed by our own experience that the Springs are warmer in winter frosty weather then in an hot Summer then it follows a pari that in our cold climate the Earth must be warmer then in those hot climates and consesequently the water rather better concocted 4. Besides it is a wrong to the God of nature whose beams of Divine love are equally extended in his common providence for the preservation of mankind throughout the whole universe as if we in England or they in other more Northern Countries had not as good a provision of water a thing so absolutely and generally necessary as they in the more Southern climates have For my own part I believe that our waters are as wholesome for our bodies as theirs are for them in those hot climates and much more then theirs would be for us and I think that fluxes and calentures which happen to Englishmen that travail into those hot climates do proceed rather from the ungreeableness of the waters to our bodies then from any other one cause that can be assigned 5. Again these medicinal waters with
Copperas And so of Iron Gaudentius Merula reports of Ilva an Island in the Adriatick Sea where Iron breeds as fast as they work it which is confirmed by Agricola and Baccius and by Virgil who saith of it Ilva inexhâ—ustis Chalybum generosa metallis Lib. 10 Aâ—â—id The like we see confirmed in our own Mines both of Iron and Lead yea and coâ—l too at least in some places as I have heard the Miners affirm Only the difference is the plants are increased by an extension of the parts generated in all proportions by the ingress of nourishment and the Mineralls are augmented externally upon the superficies as naturalists say juxta positionem by superaddition of new matter concocted by the same vertue and spirits into the same species If any demand of me which of these ways this water comes to be impregnated with the vertues of these Mineralls How the Spaw hath imbibed the Mineralls I answer by them all according to the nature and capacity of each Minerall Of Vitriol it partakes by the first way eminently to wit by receiving its vapour and so of Iron yet so as it hath also something of the concrete juyces and substance of them both From the vapours of Vitriol it hath its inky smell and acid taste which after it hath been heated by the fire are gone at least in some degree for it is not so strong as before From the concrete juyces of Vitriol Iron and Allome I think it hath its colour being something of a bright azure or sky colour And that it wants not the substance of Iron is apparent in that after it hath been boyled a while there appears a reddish sand which is nothing else but mater ferri or rubrick or as Dr. French calls it a Vitriol of Iron which is also discoverable by putting a little powder of Gall to iâ— as I hinted in the first Section Lastly Nitre and Salt being apt to dissolvâ— and turn to water as also Allome are mixed and confounded with it as hath been already made out I now proceed to speak something concerning the nature of all these Mineralls which I find in the water Vitriol Vitriol is a name used by modern writers De temp simp c. 376 Lib. 5. cap. 74. whereas the Ancients called it Atramentum Sutorium Serapio and Dioscorides reckon two sorts of Vitriol which they call by an Arabick name Zeg to wit Babylonian which being broken hath white specks in it And Cyprian which is of the colour of brasse But our later writers name three sorts Toll in Stock pr. c. 9. to wit Romane Vitriol or Copperas Cyprian which is that of blew colour found in Mines in Germany partaking of the nature of brasse which they call Calcanthum and another sort which is found in Liguria somewhat black by which Iron may be turned in Brasse or copper called Colcotar Vadianus in his Commentaries upon Pomponius Mela saith Lib. 3. this sort was found in Poland not far from Cracovia in which he says if Iron be infused and so melted once and again it turns it into Cyprian brass Galen found them all together in a Cave at Cyprus Vitriol is eminently hot Lib. 4. de simpl med facult and of a biting and adustive quality and yet is also Stiptick and astrictive and therefore dryes up superfluous humidity and is used in diseases of the eyes being good in all moyst diseases it stays bleeding provokes vomit kills all manner of worms and expells them but when it is mixed with water it is much more moderate in all its qualities This is the account given by Galen Dioscorides Serapio Paulus Oribasius Aeetius Actuarius Fernelius and others as I could cite at large out of their writings Iron called by Averrhoes Veffaf Iron and Nadid by Serapio is dry in the third degree It is also Stiptick drying up the superfluous humidities of the body somewhat like to Vitriol many preparations being made of it against the moyst distempers of several parts and particularly of the belly and womb and strengthens the seminal vessels It is also opening and good against the obstructions of the Liver and Spleen and is commended against the hard swellings of them and against the Dropsie also it strengthens a relaxed and debilitated stomach especially if it arise from Choler as Galen Paulus Aegineta Oribasius Averrhoes Ser. de temp simpl c 393. and Serapio do witness to whom especially I refer the learned Reader Dioscorides will have it also to loose the belly but especially he commends the flower or filings of Brass to that purpose Now Iron being joyned with Vitriol in this water partakes of the nature of Brass as I said before and is therefore the more purging and opeâ—ing from which conjunction I think â—t is that most of our vitrioline waters in England do loose the belly Allom is called by the Arabians Sceb Allom. Dioscorides â—eckons up many sorts of it Galen but three to wit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and saith they are all of grosâ— parts and very Stiptick abstersive heating and something corrosive iâ— hinders the generation of ulcers in the body and stays womens fluxes and is usâ—d in many sorts of Medicines to dry up superfluous humidity good against fretting Ulcers and Imposthumes of the Gums Matrix and testicles as say Galen Oribasius Paulus Aetius Serapio Fernelius and others Nitre or Baurach as the Arabians called it Nitre is thought by some to be nothing more then efflorescentia terrae or a certain fatness in the earth tending to the production of vegetables Lib. 3. observat cap. 76.77 Lib. 3. N. H. c. x. and that there are no Mines of it in the earth of which opinion Bellonius seems to have bin as also Pliny But Serapio and Dioscorides make out better experiences telling of Mines of Nitre in Armenia and Arcadia I think Bellonius and Pliny meant rather Aphronitrum or the spume of Nitre then Nitre it self I also think this Spaw of ours proceeds from a Nitrous Mineral within the earth as else I see not how it should imbibe so great a quantity as it doth three quarts affording above a dram of Nitre when it is evaporated the rest being Allom and Salt Our best writers say there are two sorts of Nitre Natural and Artificial the Natural tends to a reddish colour as saith Serapio Galen saith there is also a white sort but all agree in this that it is of a drying digestive abstersive and resolving quality cutting gross and clammy humours very strongly its taste is a mean betwixt salt and sowre inclining to bitter It is commended for such as have eaten poysonous Mushrums and cures them presently Being mixed with water Dioscorides saith it corrects the sharpnesse of Urine and ulceration of the bladder caused by Cantharides It is wont also to be mixed in other Medicines when we would attenuate and deterge it s added to Cerats and Plaisters in
distempers of the Nerves as the Palsie and Convulsion and is good to be put into the Bread of such as are troubled with the Palsie of the tongue If any require further satisfaction concerning the vertue of Nitre let them consult Galen Dioscorides P. Aegineta Oribasius Aetius and Serapio Salt or Melch as the Arabians call it is of two sorts â—alt viz. Fossile such as is digged out of Mines and Marine such as is made of the sea-Sea-water or other brackish water the former is of a more gross earthy and compact substance then the latter yet they are both of one nature of a detersive cleansing resolving purging quality drying up superfluous humours and preserving from putrefaction kills all manner of worms and being heated becomes bitter in taste Many other vertues are reckoned up by Galen Serapio Dioscorides and others to be in Salt to whom I will rather â—efer the learned Reader then trouble him with a large recital at present because there is not much Salt in our Spring yet some there is which I think it receives from the Sea rather then from any salt Mineral It sufficeth to have said somwhat concerning the nature of these Minerals severally doubtless there must some qualities arise from their mixture and that with water which was not before in any one particular I shall now therefore hasten to Treat concerning the nature effects of this most excellent compound Mineral water and then say something concerning preparation to it and right ordering of the body in drinking and so conclude Sect. 13. Of the Spaw THe Spaw water according to its manifest qualities is cold moist and being drunk doth immediatly cool and moysten the body and quench thirst having those qualities which simple water hath as I have reckoned up at large in the second Section may indifferently be used for it Although having imbibed the aforesaid Minerals of Vitriol Iron Alom Nitre Salt it is impregnated with the qualities natures of the said Minerals consequently is hot and dry in operation being found by due and daily use thereof to correct cold moist bodies and cure such diseases as proceed from the excess of cold and moysture It s nature Nor let any startle at this assertion that I affirm this Spaw water to be cold and moist and also hot dry which are contrary qualities since it is cold moist actually in the instantaneous use of it but doth heat and dry virtually in process of time Who knows not that wine though it be cold moist actually yet is potentially hot dry the ordinary use whereof doth heat dry the body Now as all bodies incline to a preedominancy of these four qualities and most diseases consist in the excess of some one or more of them each quality so exceeding is tempered by its contrary in the water so as nature which is ever sollicitous for its own preservation closes with those qualities in the water as also in all other remedies which correct its own excess and arms it self unless it be very feeble against those other qualities that might increase its malady hence it is as D. French well observes that a distemper will rather be altered by its contrary then increased by its like But because these four first qualities are found in this water but in a remiss degree the heat and dryness being so corrected with cold moisture and the contrary that a forcible operation in respect of any of them cannot be expected from it I think sitter means may be found out for those intentions As if a man would only cool and moysten it may be better done with simple water which has no potential heat or dryness in it and may be found in every village or if he would only heat and dry up humors it may better be performed by other Medicines that are more eminently hot and dry then by this cold moyst water so as no man need goto Scarbrough for these intentions I therefore pass on to the other qualities of this water in which it doth eminently excell through its participation of the aforesaid Minerals An operation It is of thin parts peircing into the most narrow and secret passages of the body is excellent in opening obstructions which are the causes of most diseases It doth attenuate cut and dissolve viscous lentous clammy flegm in the stomack bowells mesentery reins and bladder and is also cleansing and deterging casting them forth both by siege and urine as it findes them by their position most to encline For such humours as are in primis viis in the bowells it purges out by siege and such as lye in the mesentery veins or venae lacteae porta liver reins or bladder it cleanses by urine and both ways so plentifully as if all the humours went but one way for it purges so well as if it would leave nothing to pass by urine and yet passes so plentifully by the bladder as if it found no vent by stool performing these two operations the more plentifully by reason of the quantity that is to be drunk And of such working it doth very rarely fail nor scarce ever unless in exceedingly constipated bodies although it be taken without any preparation as very many do though not so safely as shall be said in the next Section and this it doth without any griping at all casting forth plentifully both it selfe and the excrementitious humours wch I have often experimented both in my self and others An inâ—â—ance I drank one morning without taking any preparative at all three quarts of the water factâ prius retrogradatione matutinâ pro solito having also weighed my self before I drank that I might discern what alteration it would make in my weight I drunk a pint every halfe hour walking about betwixt one draught and another till I had taken all the three quarts After I had taken three pints it began to work and so continued an evacuation both ways viz. seven times by siege liberally within eight hours I also measured the quantity of Urine which I had kept by it self so as within the space of five hours I had made a pottle of Urine within less then halfe a gill as clear as the Spaw Water it selfe having neither smel nor tast like Urine I took the Urine and evaporated it all away that I might try whether it had yet remaining in it any of the substance of the Minerals but it afforded nothing but a filthy slimy Sediment of a sandy colour Hence it may appear how diuretick this water is when two third parts or near hand should in so short a space passe through those secret crannyes of nature by Urine and yet at the same time work by siege so freely as I could not have expected from Pil. Coch. dram one Herein exceeding if I mistake not most of the waters of Europe not excepting the German Spaws some of which passe very well and
of their acquaintance and lead a more chearfull active life which will help to refresh their spirits and promote the more speedy passage of the water But as for such as through feebleness of body or estate are not able to travel It may be carried abroad they may get it brought to them into the Country having been incouraged to the use of it by some able Physician and they need not doubt its operation it being impregnated not only with the spirits of the Minerals which being carried far are subject to evaporation but with the substance of them or concrete juyce which will continue as long as the Water it self remaines sweet Compared with the Germane And this seems to be of like nature with the principal Spaw in Germany called by the name of Powhont which is wont to be carried into several Countries and was brought into England to Count Bellemont when he was sent Embassador from France to King James and was found as good as at the Fountain which might well be supposed to be done in less then ten days And they both arise out of the bottom of a great Rock having imbibed almost the very same Minerals only I think this has no lead and I suppose is not the worse for it having also more strength of the Minerals then the Powhont For when Doctor Paddy our Countrymen and Doctor Heer 's distilled it they found nothing but Rubrich Ocher and a little Vitriol as Doctor Heer 's himself relates whereas three quarts of this affords when the Rubrick is separated from it well nigh two drams of other Minerals The other which they call Sauvenir partakes much of the spirits of the Minerals but hath very little of their juyce or substance so as it is good at the Fountain but looses its spirits and vertue being carried abroad in as much as Frambesarius after two days journey found it like common water whereas that of Powhont was strong and quick There are two other Spaws in Germany not long since discovered viz. Geronster and Tonnelet but they are short of the other in vertue the former causing vomit often and dizzyness in the head as if a man were drunk and the other muddy and slimy and nauseous to the Palate yet they do each of them also purge the belly These do the inhabitants of the Towns neer adjoining make use of inwardly both for the preparing of their meat and drink as ordinary water especially the two first and it s observed by the German Writers that in no place of Germany are there to be found older and more healthfull people then thereabouts It is observable that the Stones by which this water passes at the Fountains as also in all other Spaws I read of are of a reddish colour as also it turns the execrements of such as drink of it into a sad green or blackish colour both which Doctor Heer 's thinks to proceed from Rubrick or mater ferri because all chalybeat Medicines after what manner soever they be taken inwardly do the like Cap. 8. p. 79. But Doctor French though he grants Iron may and doth cause a black tincture yet he seems rather to impute it to the Vitrioll For better satisfaction in this scruple both to my self and others I made a separation of the Rubrick from the test of the Minerals with gall and drank the clear water which though I find it purges not a whit the less yet the excretions were not changed at all which is an experiment observed by neither of them so as it plainly appears that change of color proceeds from the Rubrick or Iron And I also think it is the colour which receives the Tincture which if it be awanting the excrements are not tinged at all as in those that have the Jaunders whose Choler by reason of obstructions doth not passe into the guts they do find their excrements black till after they have drunk a day or two the obstructions begin to open and the choler is sent down into the bowells So also they that tarry long at the waters observe their excrements that before were blackish to become more pale which arises from the greatest part of the choler which hath been purged away except what is daily generated which being but little cannot give so deep a tincture Leave off by degrees My advice to them that drink long of it is that they leave by degrees as they began taking a lesse quantity every day then other for two or three days and to purge watry humours as soon as they have done either at Scarbrough or when they come at home It any after the use there of find a watry moysture upon his stomack more then ordinary Wine and Water correct each other or some other moyst distemper which happens to those whose stomacks and concective faculty are feeble it may easily be corrected by drinking a glasse or two of Wine more then ordinary at meals for some little while Wine and water fitly amending the distempers that proceed from a more then usual drinking of each other as Herilacus observes well De vinor qd effect 2. so as he that is inflamed with Wine may be cooled with water and all cold distempers that come by the immoderate use of water may bee amended with Wine And whereas perhaps there may be some that think it an empiricall thing and to exceed belief that this Spaw water should cure so many maladies as I have reckoned up and severall of them of contrary qualities I refer such to the writings of Fallowpius Solenander Geringus Ryetius Bezansonius H. ab Heer 's who have treated of the Waters of Germany and else where as also to several of our own Country men as Dr. Dean Mr. Stanhope Dr. Fiend and many others who have writ of severall Spaws in England moreover let them inform themselves well concernig the cures that have been done by the waters at Epsam Tunbridge Barnet Bristol Knaresbrough c. This of ours coming not short of if not much exceeding the best of them all either Germane or English Felix qui potuit boni Fontem visere lucidum Boeth de consolat Philos metr 12. l. 4. READER Through the Authors great distance from the Press some gross Errours have escabed the Printer which do break the sense He begs so much ingenuity that these following being some of the principall may be corrected by thy pen before thou begin to read PAge 2. l. 12. read Coroners p. 5. l. 10. r. having the p. 11. l. 14. r. skie p. 12. l. 2. r. it doth p. 16. l. 21. in the marg r. Sect. 2. p. 18. l. 8. r. other p. 19. l. 5 r. altering p. 34. l. 13.1 superfices p. 38. l. 2. c amounts p. 39. l. 14. r. Baccius p. 48 l. 2. r. indomitable p. 67. l. 3. r. purifies p. 67. l. 10. r. converted p. 15. l. 4. r. meal p. l. last r. vehicle p. p. 69. l. 14. r. know p. 70. l. 9. r. pestileutiall p. 72. l. 13. r. up with it p. 73. l. 4. r. of my discourse l. 10. r. concerning Springs p. 74. l. 4. r. transmutation p. 77. l. 15. r. redound p. 78. l. ult r. figure p. 90. l. ult r. distance p. 106. l. dele the p. 108. l. ult r. renders p 112. l. 19. r with the frre p 113. l. 12. r. all the water p. 115. l. 7. r. break out p. 117. l. 1. r. overflown p. 123. l. 21. r. where p. 127. l. 3. r. aboundance l. ult r. of the Earth p. 128. l. 15. del which p. 130. l. 3. r. suppply them p. 131. l. 15. r. Rains do falls p. 132. l. 5. r. sorts of Springs l. 16. r. of Athiopia p. 133. l. 11. r. M. Carpenter p. 137. l. 7. r. Commissure l. 18. r. thee solid