whether they or your Patients do ever discern aâ— taste or smell of Iron from such Waters Doth no I pray the main reason of Chalybeat Extraction depend upon the reduction of Iron into a Croâ—â— or the acuation or Menstruums by Saline Spirits 〈◊〉 either of which there happens a solution of some the body of Iron into the Chalybeat Liquors which give them a sapor not a vapour It 's true if you â—â— rusty silings of Iron Water upon its affusion â—â— thereby have an Iron taste but this is by reason an acid Salt in the Air which hath fretted the 〈◊〉 and tâ—â—ned it into a Crocus of Iron and theâ— makes it yeeld a solution of some of its parts And now Hydroph by this time I think you and your Apothecaries Boyes have done laughing and may take time to turn your Vapours into Tears and spend them at your leasure Doth not Falopius p. 29 34. who had great experience in Mineral and Metalline Waters say Arbitror non reperiri aquam ferream for certainly if Iron would give it self immediately to Water then should we find frequently those aquae ferreae in places where Waters run through the minera thereof but no such by experience are found therefore our Argument will be strongly inforc'd a majore ad minorem viz. that if in the minera where the parts are more loose it will not yeeld its Vapour or Tincture to Water much less will the compact Body thereof which hath undergone the violence of the melting Forge do any such thing And whereas you cavel at my Philosophical Description of Ink made forth by Colateral Experiments of the Spaw if you could have carpt at any thing therein no question but you would or if you had given a better then you had done like an Artist and so might have passed it over with a joke for though the Subjects sometimes we treat of be but common obvious things yet they require a searching diligence and deep diving Philosophically to solve the abstrusities of the nice Compositions and Commixtures of Bodies to make their Phaenomaena obvious I pray saith my Antagonist p. 35 36. Are Iron and Vitriol all one I think they do as really differ as your Knife and your Ink. Do not all Authors as well Chymical as others that treat of them do it severally And doth not Paracelsus say Natura genorat salem vitriolum dictum c. Do not Gallen Mathiolus Sennertus Pliny Renedeus speak to the same purpose To which I answer That Iron and Vitriol may indeed be two distinct things but then the Vitriol must be such as is made out of some other Metal oâ— Mineral but if you query concerning natural acid Salt Iron as coexistent in the same Concrete theâ— I say they are both one viz. they both together make up that Concrete we call Vitriol from which if you separate the Iron what remains falls short oâ— being a Vitriol and becomes only a Salt which iâ— more simple than Vitriol as being indeed but one Ingredient thereof And out of such a Vitriol oâ— Iron if you be a good Metallurgist and skilful Mechanick you may make as good a Blade as you have a Haft for as to what you urge how that those Authors speak in confirmation of your supposition I am not much sollicitous especially if what they write come in competition with truth as iâ— results from matter of fact besides some of these Authors as they have occasion treat severally oâ— these Concrets as different Subjects and not as they bear any relation to each other in Mineral Solutions and Concretions and so indeed they are different and may be discoursed of as differently And as to what you repeat out of Paracelsus 〈◊〉 am not concern'd seeing he doth not confirm it by matter of fact nor by any evident demonstration I find Paracelsus very incautious in his assertions and as for true Physiology not much to be regarded besides what he there saith doth diametrically oppose what may be made evident by Experiment for he calls that a Salt which after separation of other Ingredients is yet reducible into a more simple Salt witness the Salt of Vitriols which is separable out of any natural Vitriol after the separation of the Mineral or Metalline parts Yea I will tell you Hydroph that if you can produce out of any of the aforesaid Authors so much experiment as to make evident by matter of fact what you would prove yea if you can shew me from any ingenious Chymical Artist to whom you must be beholden if ever it be done such a Vitriol either extracted from this Spaw or elsewhere that is such a simple Salt as from which I cannot separate a Mineral or Metalline Body or if you can separate a Vitriol out of the Spaw after the precipitation of the minera of Iron The Game I assure you shall be upon your side For where you instance what I say p. 47. of my Hydrol. Chym. in p. 105. of your Mamick viz. that I arguing against Vitriol as being inconsistent with that of Iron in the Spaw the reason you blusht not to urge why though Vitriol be in the Water yet it should not vomit was that we used it said you in Juleps and Cordials which doth not cause Vomiting which you confirm and say That the main part of the Vitriol in this Water is the Spirit which is as much yea far more diluted with the Water wherein it is than the force of the Vitriol is corrected by the vehement heat of the fire in the distilling of the Spirit thereof Now to come to the point Hydroph if it were certainly true what you say that the main part of the Vitriol in the Water is the Spirit then it would without controversie demonstrate it self by distillation For seeing according to your own supposition the Vitriol is in Spirits in the Water and these Spirits are also very subtile volatile and penetrative therefore of necessity upon distillation of these Waters fresh from the Spring these Spirits should arise first but that they do not I can assure you by matter of Experiment for I distilled some fresh Water from the Fountain in a Glass Retort at Scarbrough whose joynts was exactly closed up I sav'd the first half ounce yea and in another distillation of fresh Water the first quarter of an ounce of Water which came over supposing that if any volatile vitrioline Spirits would come it would be at the very first whose taste or smell did not I affirm at all resemble the Spirits of Vitriol which according to your Hypothesis they should have done But suppose that what had come off at the first had been of the nature of vitrioline Spirits and had by the sharpness of their taste and sulphureousness of their odour demonstrated themselves to have been such which yet I assure you hapned to the contrary yet would it not thence have followed that these had been Vitriol as you assert for it is if I mistake
here is apparent first because it will strike no tincture with Galls which any Mineral Water that hath but the least participation of Vitriol will readily do but this Spring with the addition of Galls gives no purple at all next because upon evaporation or distillation of this Water no Vitrioline Ocre is found with which such Waters whilst in the vigour of their Operation are constantly impregnated and as certainly let fall to the bottom when effaete in their Vertues Nay further the same is apparent by this following Experiment viz. I took some of the Vitriol Marcasites of which more anon found in the Bog about 240 paces North-west from the Well upon which grosly bruised I poured a strong solution of Sal marinum Hispanicum made in distilled Water and set them in frigido in a long glass body from the commixture of which I found no sulphureous apporrhea to arise but the solution became green which being decanted and evapored or distilled which last as I remember I did to try if it would yeeld any effluvia of Sulphur but found none I obtained a yellow Salt in Chrystals with a Vatrioline Ocre or Sulphur at the bottom which Salt was the Sal-marine ting'd with the vitrioline body of which I have some by me for being dissolv'd again in fresh distilled Water it will with the addition of Galls strike a deep tincture yea the liquamen viz. the Mother as the Vitriol or Alom-workmen call it which shoots not will if diluted with Water give the same colour By which it is plain that as Vitriol gives no odour or effluvia of its Sulphur to a solution of Salt so neither consequently doth it yeeld the same to this Salt Water considered simply as such we will suppose that the Salt Spring in the Earth I mean the Spring impregnated with Salt may in its passage run through these Marcasites of Vitriol which are found not far from thence as I shall afterwards prove it doth it would of necessity if simple Salt make some sleight solution thereof and give its Indications answerable to our Experiment by receiving a tincture from Galls c. But by matter of fact I find it not so to do Ergo Vitriol as such is no Ingredient of this Sulphur-Well Secondly That there is no Nitre is as evident in as much as in the Analysis of this Water no such Ingredient is to be found for neither doth there appear any Salt which shoots into such Styria's nor that hath any inflammable property both which are essential to Nitre as such Thirdly Nor is Sulphur as to the body thereof an Ingredient of this Spring notwithstanding that it hath its denomination therefrom being called the Sulphur-Well and this is evidently apparent because in the genuine resolution of this Spaw Water into its Principles not one grain of a combustible Sulphur is to be found for upon a gentle distillation thereof in Glass Vessels closely stopt the sulphureous odour goes off in much less then the third part of the Water which is first distilled The rest which distils is simple Water without any odour or taste and what remains in the bottom which I filtred though it stood not in much need thereof was a liquamen of Salt which being evaporated a little more shot into a Salt of cubical Figures exactly in taste colour figure c. resembling yea the very same with a Fossil or Marine Salt having an inconsiderable addition of Alom Salt lest after precipitation of the Sulphur so that nothing of Sulphur or any the least inflammable matter can be separated from the Spaw Against what I say hereof I have met with an Objection urg'd by a Physitian of note who grounds it upon this Experiment viz. That upon this Sulphur Water or others of the like nature which break forth higher upon the Bank above the usual Spring I say that upon these Waters restagnating is found a kind of white Cremor which sometimes is of various colours this being skim'd off and dryed will take flame and burn which by matter of fact I have my self upon tryal found true To which I answer That this Sulphur which thus separates from this restagnating Water is the same with that which swims upon other sorts of Mineral Waters upon long standing being a blewish cream or skin which swims as well upon the Sweet-Spaw and any Vitrioline or other Mineral Waters and as Dr. Heer 's saith being put upon the fire is inflamed and yeelds a sulphureous odor The same is also found in an Azure coloured skin swimming upon the restagating Scarbrough Spaw Water Yea the like is frequently to be seen upon Water that stands long upon any Bog This Sulphureous skin which swims upon most Mineral Waters is referrable to a double Original viz. Either they are such as have a bituminous matter swimming upon them which with the Water Spring issues forth joyntly out of the bowels of the Earth from some sulphureous or bituminous source witness the Spring at Pitchford in Shropshire and in Averna in France The Mare Asphaliticum called Mare Mortuum which hath plenty of Naptha and Bitumen issuing from the Shores which have store of bituminous Pits As also that Water in agro Parmensi Falop. 24.6 according to Falopius of which Water he saith Est usque aduò bituminosis vaporibus referta ut ex flammâ vix sibi admaeâ accendatur And that likewise in agro Patavino and all other Waters upon which swim Camphire Amber in succo suo soluto both which by Falopius Cardanus Agricola and Casius are accounted è genere bituminis Pisasphaltum Petroleum Balsamus Indicus c. all which are reckoned as various species de genere bituminis in all which the bituminous skin will take fire and burn with a sulphureous flame for as no Oil so neither Sulphur nor the Bitumina will mingle per minima with Water Oyls and Sulphurs consisting of similar parts which bear no proportion with watery Particles unless the watery be subjugated by an oyly Ferment Or Secondly They are such as whilst in the bowels of the Earth are impregnated with Minerals although perhaps not sulphureous but when they come into the open Air presently especially by restagnation let fall their imbibed Ingredients and by continuance of time suffer a sulphureous matter to be generated de novo or rather indeed as I apprehend by long standing suffer the Air by a kind of putrefactive ferment to cause a slow resolution of the very compage of Water and in this gentle Analysis makes the restagnating Water cast its Sulphur which was not preexistent in the Water as a Mineral Sulphur but is as I said either a bituminous Cremor or a Sulphur of Water ingendred by a putrefactive resolution thereof which will being dryed take flame and burn That I might make a sesemblance of this Water the better to inquire into the nature thereof I took one ounce of Hepar Antimonii upon which pulverized I poured some warm Water into which
hardens that Stone and makes it unfit to give any Solution in Water and then the actual Fire loosneth it and makes it yeeld it self more readily to a Solution by moisture To illustrate which we can as easily apprehend that the Air doth harden these natural Lime-stones which while succulent are soft and in the form of a white Earth or Marl by its continual access in a long tract of time as we can imagine the same Air to harden a blew Clay found upon the Banks in Lincolnshire which being exposed to the Air doth in continuance of time harden into a sort of Stone like a blew Marble For Workmen generally observe that all manner of Stone yea even Marble it self which they dig out of the Ground becomes more and more hard by being long exposed to the Air which to me seems to give no small grounds of reason for the possibility of the Liquor Alkahest or Universal Solvent for seeing all bodies are but concretions and as I may say hardnings of their primitive Juyces under various disguises generally performed by the efficiency of Air Therefore to prepare a Menstruum by Art which may work wonders in this kind is no more as I apprehend then to make such a one as may soften these Concretions made by Air and by taking away their hardness may reduce bodies into their first jucy Liquors for what is the shell of an Egg but a soft film or membrane hardned and petrified by the influence of the Air and as easily reduceable into its first membranous softness by being boyled a while in Vinegar What are the Bones of Animals but Spermatick Juyces hardned and consolidated And were it not for the perpetual circulation of the Juyces of the body constantly transpiring through the pores thereof we should either become petrified and walk about like so many movable but sensless Statues or we should be incircled with a Bark and appear like so many Plant-Animals or sensitive Plants What are all Vegetables from the Hysop or Rosemary of the Wall to the tallest Cedar but seminal Juyces congealed into those bulky substances which are presented to our eye Lastly What are all Mineral and Mecalline Marcasites Stones c. but the primitive liquid succulencies concreted into more solid bodies by a hardning ferment or what other name we may call it by aequipollent to the Air And amongst all these what are the Marcasites of Lime-stone but a hardned concretion of its first imbred Juyce or soft marly Earth whose Minera whilst thus in solutis principiis is one of the chiefest Juyces in the Fabrick both of hot Baths and sulphureous Waters That this is the chief cause of hot Baths is confirmed by that Experiment made by that Noble Person the Lord Fairfax of a piece of a white Marcasite found about the place of those hot Springs in Sommersetshire which put into Water gives a heat not but that there may be other causes of hot Waters as from the coincidence of two Springs impregnated with different Mineral Salts and Juyces which before union are probably both actually cold and yet by a fermentation caused by their mutual contact may cause a considerable heat which can no better be resembled then by supposing a current of Water indued with a lix vial or volatile Salt to meet another saturated with an esurine acid Spirit or Salt though these before union are both actually cold yet forthwith upon their mutual contact they make a strong ebullition and fermentation which produceth a heat sufficient to warm those Liquors which are or pass through where the contest is made not to say that an other cause of some hot Baths may be from some Marcasites contracting a heat by moisture let into their Minera by some crevices of the Earth which may give heat to some Springs that pass over them nor to insist upon any other cause viz. of some Salts which in the Minera of Sulphur may cause such a fermentation as may cause hot Springs witness Dr. Rech his Experiment Yea that this natural Lime-stone may be reckoned amongst the chief causes of hot Baths is further confirmed by a lixivial Salt though small in quantity which I have by evaporation of Buxton hot Water found left behind that it is an alkalizate or lixivial Salt appears both by its salty taste its easie solution per deliquium and lastly The Ebullition it makes with an acid Spirit all which are demonstrative Arguments of its alkalizate nature for Buxton Bath consists of Water which by distillation ariseth insipid over the Helm and therefore contains no volatile Minerals and of an inconsiderable quantity of a solution of the Alkali of the natural Lime-stone where plenty of the Lime-stone hardned by the Air is found in the Countrey thereabouts And that this Minera of Calx Vive is the chief if not the sole apperient that opens the body of Sulphur in its Minera for the making sulphurous Waters is evident from our lately proposed Experiment for all sulphureous Waters as I hinted before are either such as have a sulphureous or bituminous matter swimming upon them witness the instance aforesaid or they are such whose bodies being opened by proper Solvents do then easily give forth their volatile odors and sapors to Water which may be made evident by the addition of acid Salt or Liquor And now that we have found out what the first Menstruum is which opens the body of Sulphur in the Marcasites found near the Sulphur Well Let us now consider what these Marcasites are I find them to be a spongy or porous Stone hard and wrought with a kind of Net-work which in it self contains both Vitriol and Sulphur besides a body of Colcothar and that it doth so appears by exposing some of these Marcasites to the Air till they be covered with a hoary sweet vitrioline Floscule which then being washed gives a vitrioline Solution that being filtred and evaporated to a cuticle shoots into a green Vitriol These Marcasites thus washed we set before the fire to dry so long till they began to send forth a sulphurous fume then being pounded grosly we distilled or rather sublimed them in an Earthen Retort what would arise by degrees of fire we so placed a Receiver with Water in it as that the fumes were thrown upon the surface thereof which first swam like Oil upon the Water then by degrees hardening fell down to the bottom which when the sublimation was over we washed dryed and then melted it and in small lead Pipes cast it into Magdaleons in colour and inflammabity exactly resembling the common Sulphur of which at one distillation I got near half a pound That they contain a Colcothar or Metalline Crocus is evident by burning the Sulphur of one of these Stones in the fire and when cold it will be red just like the Colcothar of the Vitriol of Iron The Caput Mortuum left after the sublimation of the Sulphur from the Marcasites is very like those Cinders or Scoria
Seburg in Germany three Lakes in Sicily and besides an infinite number in other Countries the Lake of Lakes the Sea all which as Dr. Jorden saith receive their saltness from Mines of Salt in the Earth which are very frequent and huge in bigness as may appear by the foresaid Rocks of Salt Yea Marcus Paulus Venetus tells of a Rock or Mountain of Salt in Thaican able to furnish all the World with Salt So that it is no marvel saith the ingenious Dr. Jorden that the Sea is salt seeing it pierceth into the bowels of the Earth and discovereth many great Rocks of Salt which dissolve in it and this is the true cause saith he of the saltness of the Sea What is premised will be sufficient without any more adoe to take off his accusation of a second Contradiction p. 122. in that I say in one place the Sulphur-Well at Knarsbrough is saturated from Fossil Salt and in another place that Sal marine is the cause of that Sulphureous Spring seeing it is evident as also witnesseth the learned Dr. Highmore that the Salt of Sea-Water and Salt-Springs are the same with Fossil Salt his objection against the Seas having its saltness from Fossil Salt is frivolous viz. That it should if made by Fossil Salt kill all Fish as well Sea-Fish as Fresh-Fish for so saith he Salt put to fresh Water doth which is even as true as that Fish should being kept over-night in a clean Copper Vessel with the Water they swim in be found dead the next morning by the mortal Steam or Vapour of the Copper both which are found false by matter of fact the one by that Experiment I made of Fish which not only out-lived one but two nights in a Brass Pan the other by that Experiment of Oysters made by Dr. Highmore I shall now conclude with the addition of a few Mechanical Experiments made upon this sulphur-Sulphur-Water thus First It takes no purple or red tincture from infused Galls as having nothing of the praecipitable parts of Vitriol or Alom Oil of Tartar being added it becomes muddied into a white curdled Liquor and with Oil of Vitriol or Oil of Sulphur it becomes clear again but with fresh Oil of Tartar it is presently turn'd to a colour inclining to a red and with the addition of more Oil of Vitriol or such like it becomes transparent and of the colour of Sack or English Beer If upon fresh Sulphur-Water Oil of Vitriol be poured it makes neither a precipitation nor any other alteration and that because of a praevious saturation with an aluminous acidity but by adding Oil of Tartar thereunto and after that Galls then follows an effervescence and it becomes of a reddish colour Lastly By the addition of Oil of Tartar this sulphur-Sulphur-Water turns white and that because it is impregnated with a small quantity of the simple natural Alom-Salt A return to some Reflections and Queries made on the enlarged account of my Antagonists Answer to Hydrologia Chymica in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Numb 51. chiefly concerning the cause of the sudden loss of the Vertues of Mineral-Waters by the Learned Dr. Daniel Foot Philosoph Transact Numb 52. p. 1050. THE Ingenious Publisher of the Philosophical Transactions in his enlarged account of my Antagonists Answer hath these words viz. That these meaning Scarbrough Waters lose all their Vertues yea their quantity and bulk also though in Glasses and under the Hermetick Seal if removed from the Fountain Head and then they become suddenly putrid ill-coloured losing their reste and scent c. doubtless through the loss of the Volatile Spirits What ever saith he further these Sprits be that will neither indure to travel from the place nor will be confined in any Bottle nor under any Seal c. So that the sum of his conjucture as the Doctor concludes p. 1051. is That this loss consists in the avolation of some most subtil and pâ—â—â—trating spirituous parts not to be imprisoned by any inclosure imaginable but will find their way out and leave the Waters bereast of vertue and decreased in quantity too and what is more perhaps of their weight also especially if they lose of their quantity Now to evince whether this be a conjecture or no and to clear up this point of Philosophy in the Mineral Hydrologia which hath gravelled many Writers yea made them run ashore or to cast Anchor in shallow Fords for want of a depth in Mechanical Experiments This ingenious Doctor hath proposed these following Queries First Whether by Chymical Researchers it was ever yet or can be found that such Waters as the abovesaid ever yeelded a vinous or an acid or any other sort of Spirits that was either inflammable or uninflammable or flying over the Helm from the fire Secondly Whether all those sorts of Water when they are most closely stopt up and so let stand or conveyed to some distance do not let fall a Sediment most commonly yellowish or of some such colour when they are become effaete in their Vertues Thirdly Whether when they are let stand onely and not moved by carriage they do not sooner becomes castrated and sooner precipitate an Ocre to the bottom Fourthly Whether such an Ocre is not found in all their Spring-heads and Strenms also but more in the Head than in the Streams especially if issued therefrom to a good distance Fifthly Whether it may not be found upon due observation that two Bottles of the said Waters whereof the one being industriously stopped the other left unstopt and both equally permitted to stand still or equaly moved will not easily â—ose their 〈◊〉 Medical in the same space of time and have the same precipitated Sediment and be of the same taste colour and a like diminished in quantity with divers such like Circumstances Sixthly Whether two Vessels diversified in their matter c. filled with such Waters will not yeeld the like Phaenomena in all circumstances as in the fifth Query are mentioned Seventhly Whether it may be devised how to prevent all precipitation of a Sediment in the Waters vessell'd up and then to observe thereupon whether their Vertues would not be kept entire during such a prevention Eighthly Whether any Observer ever found the Waters enervated but found withal an Ocre let fall to the bottom or sides of the containing Vessel Ninthly Whether the Phaenomenon of loss of vertues in such Waters may by an Hypothesis of an intestine precipitation of their parts wherein those Vertues consisted be as well if not better explicated than by the Hypothesis of an avolation of spirituous parts through all Vessels and Closures whatsoever These Queries I shall by the help of a few Experiments indeavour to resolve As to the first therefore I conclude in the Negative for I have distilled the spaw-Spaw-Waters of Scarbrough and Malton the Sweet as well as the Sulphur-Water at Knarsbrough c. none of which ever did yeeld either a vinous or acid or any other sort
are afflicted with these Diseases upon not being satsfied with the former Method or being at too great a distance to take it accordingly either by procuring this duplicate Salt of the Spaw to dissolve it in some pure Spring Water as aforesaid with the addition of Salt of Steel and so to drink it according to the advise of their Physitians at home or else to dissolve the same Salt in some Vitrioline Water as that of Kuarsbrough Rotheram Olton c. and to drink as large quantities thereof as their Physitian by the indications of their Diseases shall advise Thus from what is premised the three Indications propounded by my candid Friend for the right improvement of the Water are readily and without much ado answered for first by a right management of the Waters according to our Method the suspitious petrifying property of the Scarbrough Waters may very probably be prevented yea and though already begun may as likely be carried off And secondly by the same process the Stone-pouder and faeces of the Alom may be hindred from fixing upon the Bowels and lastly to prevent in tender constitutions that the duplicated Salt corrode not the Entrals may easily be done either by our former Method or by diluting the essential Salt thereof in great plenty of fresh Spring Water or by dissolving it in Vitrioline Spaws as aforesaid An APPENDIX Concerning the Anatomy of the GERMAN Spaw-Water I Took about a quart of the Spaw-Water which is brought out of Germany and exposed to sale in Leiden Amsterdam and other Cities of the Low-Countries in Bottles sealed up into a little of which I put some Pouder of Galls with which it struck a pale Clarret colour the rest I ordered to be put into a Glass Retort with a clean Receiver close luted to it and gave an easie heat distilling off first about one ounce of Water then poured it sorth and found that it had neither taste smell nor any other properties that might distinguish it from ordinary spring-Spring-Water distilled for with Galls it would make no more alteration then common distilled Water Then we distilled off about two or three ounces more of insipid Water after which I ordered the fire to be permitted to extinguish to try what kind of precipitate it would let fall because after the first ounce was come over slacking the fire we found that a little Sediment was fallen which was of a pale reddish colour and upon the second cooling more of the same fell down Then I caused that which remained in the Retort to be filtred and sav'd the Sediment in the Filter Paper which being dryed up was an insipid pale red Calx Then I tryed if the filtred Water after this precipitation would give any tincture with Galls as it did before separation but found it would not after which I poured it into the clean washed Retort and distilled again as before until all was come off except about one half ounce This I brought to London and evaporated in a clean Jar Glass in a gentle heat till it came to a dryness The colour of this Pouder was somewhat white and its taste was pleasantly sharp or piercing with a heat and warmth diffused upon the Tongue but had no Vitrioline taste to this pouring Oil of Sulphur per campanam it did make a manifest ebullition as if it had been poured upon so much Salt of Tartar but Oil of Tartar per deliquium did cause no effervescence at all by which it was evident that the Salt contained in this residence was rather lixivial then acid although in taste it scem'd to be neutral but to partake of both so that probably this Spring in its Original I mean where it is first impregnated with Mineral Juyces is hot but running further through a Colander of Earth or Sand loseth its heat and becomes at its eruption a cold Spring Observations on the dissection of a Woman who dyed of the Jaundice AND here that I may entertain the Reader with some little variety I shall end all with some Observations on the dissection of an antient Woman who dyed at the Hospital in Leyden of the Yellow Jaundice Her Skin before death as well as after was dyed the most deep Yellow that ever I saw in my life she consumed away in a Marasmus not withstanding all the means that could be used and it will be judged impossible that it should otherwise be after I have related what we observed in the dissection of her body Upon the opening of the Abdomen of this Cadaver perform'd by the Professor in the Theatre was first observ'd omitting the less considerable enormities a connexure or knitting together of the Pylorus and the under part of the left Lobe of the Liver close by the Vesica Bilaris by a hard schirrhous tumour for besides that the Stomach was somewhat larger then ordinary and the Spleen lay length wayes in a parallel line with the direct Muscles of the Abdomen being somewhat less then usual and although being cut its Patenchyma was found of a due consistence and not vitiated in substance I say besides these the Liver was found very stiff and hard with several schirrous tumours some lesser some bigger whose consistence was most-what glandulous one or two being as big as Wallnuts and some less but one near as large as a Man's Fist The Cystis Fellea was large and very 〈◊〉 which was found together with those in the 〈◊〉 Ductus near a hundred and twenty Stones soâ—â—â— like little Peas some larger but all of them most-what angular in colour some near bright and not much unlike the ordinary sort of Mother of Pearl others had dark spots intermingled and as it were marbled The Professor distributed to each of the Students who were present one of these Stones as a rarity The liquid part of the Gaul which was not yet petrified most of which was lodged in the Ductus Hepaticus was tenacious and mostwhat of the consistence of a Syrup The common Ductus which reacheth from the Cystis to the Duodenum was so much obstructed as the Professor could not without cutting the Vessel which leads from the Cystis further open make the Style pass from that part into the Intestine and that because the situation of the parts was altered and become different from the natural by reason of that strict connection of the Pylorus with the Liver Then opening the Thorax the Lungs were found scarce vitiated at all but the Heart was less by much then usual yea and that which was the wonder of the whole and which no Author that we know of has yet ever observed was to see a Schirrus upon the right Ventricle of the Heart True the Polypus Cordis has been frequently found in the dissection of Dutch Bodies by the sam'd Sylvius And I saw another Woman dissected there who dyed as was supposed of a Syncope in the right Ventricle of whose heart was found a Polypus several inches long from the Basis to the Cone thereof although it 's more probable she dyed of a complication of other Diseases for in the Abdomen was found a great quantity of a Serum together with plenty of a Pituita floating together in that cavity But that there should be a schirrous tumor upon the Heart is what we never heard of or at least never observed before As to the cause of the Jaundice in this Woman it was variously disputed some supposed that it proceeded onely from an obstruction of the Bile which thereby being mixed with the Blood was dispersed into the whole habit of the Body Others supposed that the Disease proceeded srom a volatility of the Bile which passing up by the Ductus Hepaticus was thence by the Vena Porta sent into the Mass of Blood and so vitiated the whole habit of the Body with that Saffron Dye But upon the dissection it should seem to be evident that the natural Crasis of the Bile was wholly perverted and that that which should have been useful in its due consistence not only as a Balsam to the Blood but also by its volatile Alkali to perform the gentle and natural fermentation in the Intestines together with the subacid ferment of the Pancreatical Juyce was in great part being vitiated in its constituent parts petrified which petrifaction as well in that as in other parts of the body do all most probably proceed from the same efficient causes and that not unlikely from a too great exaltation of the saline and sulphureous parts of the Bile coagulating themselves upon some terrestrial or tartarous matter which by continuance of time hath been precipitated to the bottom or sides of the Vesica Bilis From what is premised I would excite the Ingenious to further improvements that we may the better be capacitated to do good by a right understanding of the causes of things and that by propounding first that several Experiments may be essayed in order to the immitation of these Anomolous Products in Animals which do so often afflict the humane Body in several parts thereof for from a true apprehension of the essential Causes which concur in the Fabrick of these Animal Stony Concretions we may the better be informed how to prepare such Menstruums as may genuinely and without corrosion of other tender adjacent parts resolve such petrified Bodies FINIS
and the Vitriol of the Iron and yet are two distinct things But I pray you will not you allow Vitriol I mean the natural to be made of the Principles naturally requisite for the concretion and constitution of that mineral Compage called Vitriol If you do as of necessity you must then if you can demonstrate by matter of experiment any natural Vitriol from which by Art I cannot separate a Mineral or Metalline Body then will I lay down the Cudgels yea the whole matter if you please shall pass upon it Doth not Kircher expresly say Vitriolum vel ex aerata vel ferrata massa suan originem naucisci Mund. Subter p. 320. And further Aquam quam cunque acido sulphuris spiritu imbutam aeratam glebam exedere sen quod idem est corpuscula aerata sua edacitate dissolvere separare dissoluta vero corpuscula prorsus insensibiliâ—â— aquam in se recipere iisque quadantenus misceriâ— Yea and annexeth Magnus aes inter ferrum intercedit magnetissimus insignique sympathia ex similitudinem origines pollent c. From whose words as also from an experimental Suffrage of Truth it is clearly evident That all sorts of Vitriols consist of an acid sulphureous Salt or Spirit in whose imbraces are alwayes one or other Mineral or Metalline Body couched which is the main Pillar in the constitution of the Concrete of Vitriol whether of Iron Copper or Silver For amongst all kinds of Vitriols whether Natural or Artificial if thereon dissolv'd first in Water a lixiviate Liquor or volatile urinous Spirit be poured it doth certainly as I have further illustrated in my Hydrol. Chym. precipitate the Mineral or Metalline Body therein secretly contained And therefore such Vitrioline Waters do alwayes upon the commixture with their contrary Liquors become so much altered by the loss of their Mineral Bodies as they are not afterwards capable of altering their Colours or of becoming an opacous Body of Ink no nor of ministring their wonted helps for the health of Man's Body to confirm which we have given many experiments in our late Treatise This Vitriol saith my Antagonist is not so properly said to be made by an Esurine Salt as to have an Enfurine Salt or Spirit in it self If so then somewhat else must go to the making up the Compages of Vitriol and this must be an embryonative mineral Sulphur whether of Iron or Copper if of Iron then it makes the fontes acidi or vitriolin Spaws frequently to be found in England Germany and other Countries And those differ amongst themselves according to the disposition of the corroded Vein or the different impregnation of the Preterlabent Water with the esurine sulphureous Salt If of Copper then it makes the Vitriolin Veneres or Vitriol of Copper and that whether it be found dissolv'd in Water and so boyled up by Fire into the consistence of Vitriol or it be found spontaniously coagulated within its own Mine as that called the Cyprian Hungarian Goslaricke c. Yet all Artificial Vitriols are made by an imitation of Nature in the production of the natural as in those that are made out of Copper witness that which is made by burning of Sulphur upon glowing or melted Copper from which with much labour is prepared a vitriolin aerngo or that which Paracelsus commends as the best Artificial Vitriol being made by a Cementation of Plates of Copper stratisied with common Salt and Sulphur and others after him perform the same by distilling often Spirit of Sulphur or Vitriol from Plates of Copper until they be black and friable then dissolv'd in Water is boyled up and shoots into a blew Vitriol not unlike the Cyprian So that to the Fabrick of all Vitriols whether natural or artificial is required necessarily not only an acid sulphureous Spirit or Salt but also a Mineral or Metalline Body And therefore we may certainly conclude that natural Vitriol is Partus immaturus Sulphuris Embryonati and hath its own mineral and metallick Body in it self My Antagonist should have given us a definition of his Vitriol in the Searbrough Spaw That we might have known what he had meant thereby he saith indeed that it is an Esurine Salt which acuates the Waters p. 6. which is able to corrode a Vein of Iron and yet saith p. 5. That the Vitriol in the Spaw is not made out of Iron How to reconcile this contradiction I know not unless you mean by Vitriol a simple Esurine Salt And then in my judgment you fall far shore of expressing the true essence of Vatriol which is not Vitriol but as it hath relation to a Mineral or Metalline Body For the acute Helmont saith p. 55. Seminasâ—â— lium cuncta in aquis sita sunt attamon nondum saperem induerunt nisi corporum principin consentanca â—â—resque terrae debites repererunt c. viz. That all the Seeds of Salts are placed in Water yet are not indued with taste unless they find agreeable principles of Bodies and sutable matrices of the Earth then and not till then they manifest their saltness and become determined in a saline Body in one place into Allom in another in Salmarine in a third in Nitre c. To which he adds Quocirca notandum Sal quoddam existere hermaphreditieum metallorum quod defectu nominis esurinum sine acetosum re nomine vocari capit generale equidem ad emnia metalla accommodabile viz. That there is a certain Hermaphroditical Salt of Metals which for want of an other name is called an Esurine or Acid Salt which is a general sort of Salt and accommodated to all Metals So that you see that this Esurine Salt while such is no more than Salt and not a Vitriol but if it become a Vitriol it must espouse a Mineral or Metalline Body In as much as Helmont further saith Vitriolum Prestantissimum naturaliter crescis fodiris quibus naturaistud Sal Esurinum poperit Venam aeris feracem corrodens fontis labentis liquore dissolutum viz. That the best Vitriol is most naturally brought forth in those Mines where Nature bath begot that Esurine Salt corroding a strong Vein of Copper becomes dissolv'd in the gliding current of a Spring But do not you observe saith my Antag that there is a palpable Pouder which when a little Gall is put into the Water p. 8 9. by which it turns black which Colour it takes from the Vitriol there will settle after some hours upon agitation of the Vessel a black Pouder near a dragm in a gallon which hath a stiptick and drying taste like Crocus Martis and after the same manner tingeth the Excrements black Very true I grant that the dissolved minera of Iron or an equivalent minera of a strong Concretion is precipitated either by addition of Galls or by much agitation especially in Oaken Vessels or by long standing and is that Ingredient in the Water which tingeth the Excrements black But now look about you
of Sulphur will thereby be so opened as to yeeld both its tincture as red as blood and odour also which last will be made to appear by the addition of any acid Juyce yea its acidity will plainly be evident by burning it under a Glass Bell witness the Oil of Sulphur made after that manner so that where mineral bodies are to be dislolv'd or unlock'd their Menstruums are to be acuated and duly prepared Wherefore in confirmation of what I elsewhere assert in my Hydrol. Chym. concerning an Acid Sulphureous Spirit or Salt which being dissolv'd in a Water Spring becomes a sutable Menstruum to make Solutions or to take in the tinctures of Mineral or Metalline Bodies which lie in their way I say in confirmation hereof I find the ingenuous Swelfer in his Appendix p. 97. saith to the very same purpose thus Etenim vitriolum caerulcum quod me judice nihil aliud est quam cuprum quandoque etiam ex venâ argenteâ ortum ducens in visceribus terrae a spiritu sulphuris solutum quemadmodum viride vitriolum à venis ferri est eodem spiritu sulphuris in terrae autris dissolutum è cupreis venis exortum c. And that this is a sulphureous Salt or Spirit which acuates the Water of this Spaw compatible as well to Alom as Vitriol is evident both by the profound Helmont's definition of this Esutine Salt viz. Est partus immaturus sulphuris embryonati As also by this experimental Observation which confirms both viz. That in the burning or calcining the Alom Stone to make it capable to yeeld its imbred Salt a Sulphur is found thrust forth to the surface of the Stone by the force of fire which will take flame at a Candle and burn with a blew flame with the same sulphureous smell as common Sulphur which lies in a crust driven from the body of the Alom Stone and adheres to it of which I have some by me and have tryed the Experiment therewith by which it appears that that Salt connatural with the Alom Stone hath also espoused to it self an embryonate Sulphur which lies dormant in all mineral acid Spirits whether of Vitriol or Alom this not being able to abide the force of fire in the calcination of the Alom Stone is pressed forth to the superficies thereof chiefly at the outside of the heap and there appears in the real form of Sulphur as combustible as any common one Thus the Legich by which I argue from calciu'd Alom Stone to the crude aluminous Juyce in the Water is no less then by an autoptical induction as apparent as the Sun at noon day and no less demonstrable but indeed more obvious then that three Angles of a Triangle should alwayes be equal to two right Angles or then that the Angles of incidence and reflexion should alwayes be the same But that we may be the more certain whether if there were any such thing as Vitriol in this Spaw Water it might not by tryal be discovered I therefore for better satisfaction made a solution first of Vitriol and Nitre in distilled Water mixed and evaporated them in an easie heat of a Sand Furnace until they did shoot in Chrystals which were plainly distinct each from other so as one might see them severally in the bottom of the Glass Then I took Vitriol and Alom Salt viz. the true Alom of each an anatical proportion whole Solutions in distill'd Water were filtred mixed and evaporated to Chrystals which also were distinct viz. the Chrystals of Vitriol from those of Alom Then I took the Solutions of Vitriol Alom and Nitre of each alike in distilled Water which being filtred mixed and evaporated ad cuticulam gave three distinct sorts of Chrystals viz. long styriate which were of Nitre white Chrystals which were from Alom and green which were from Vitriol every one in their several form distinguishable enough to the bare eye But that I might leave no stone unmoved that might lie in my way or upon which my Antagonist might have the least foundation for his fictious Hypothesis of the existency of Vitriol in this Spaw that I might I say unravel to the very bottom of his Clew whose deepest reserve and by which he thinks he hits the nail o' th head is fetche from a supposition of the presence of Vitriol in this Water by its Juyce or in succo primitivo I therefore took some of the Marcasite Stones of Vitriol which I got out of the black Bog near the Sulphur-Well at Knarsbrough which is the minera of Vitriol in which if any where the Vitriol is in succo upon this pulverised I poured a Solution of Sal marine and let them stand together in a Matrass for several dayes which by standing in stigido extracted a green tincture from the Marcasites This I decanted and filtred which with the addition of Galls would strike a tincture not inferiour to the Solution of the body of Vitriol This yellow green salty Liquor I caused to be evaporated in a gentle heat in a Jar Glace placed in Sand which shot into curious yellow ting'd Chrystals which left in the bottom an Oaker or Terra Vitriolica after the manner as is found upon the like process with other factitious Vitriols That which was very remarkable was That the yellowish Liquor wherein these Chrystals did shoot would not with Galls strike any colour but remain'd clear as before the addition thereof but when I added some more clear Water and thereby diluted it I found that then it gave a purple colour The very like to which I observed to happen to a strong Solution of Dantz-Vitriol brought to an oyly consistence immediately before shooting which with the addition of Galls I found would give no alteration of colour but when I diluted it with more Water it then gave its purple tincture and that the deeper by how much to a certain proportion the more Water I added just as some menstruums may be graduated too highly and made too strong to corrode or dissolve their proper bodies the Solutions of which they cannot perform till they be made weaker Here if I should tell my Antagonist That I know by a menstruum not rare amongst Chymists with the addition of mine or his breath how to calcine a Metal viâ humidâ as the Chymists speak without which or somewhat equivalent thereto the humid calcination of that Metal cannot be performed also how to melt another Metal prepared after a certain manner with the help of one single Lamp unassisted by any blast he would without doubt look upon them as Paradoxes But to confirm yet further the existency and precedency of Alom in the Scarbrough Water I observe that in the very minera of that Stone and Earth found upon the Bank a thin Scale of a bright Chrystalline Marcasite of the very colour and brightness like another which I do by an artifice upon that Water separate therefrom which is indeed a bright clear Talk yea I find other
of Spirits that are either inflammable or uninflammable To the second I answer in the Assirmative as to the first part thereof to confirm which and to illustrate the rest of the Queries with the light of truth I shall propound two or three considerable Experiments First Therefore I advised my ingenious Friend to set by a certain quantity of Scarbrough-Spaw-Water in an open Vessel and found thereby that it did precipitate its Earth or Sediment in about forty eight hours so that it would not give a tincture with Galls Secondly Another quantity of Spaw-Water being set by at the same time with the former but in a Glass Bottle so close stopt that neitheir Air could come in nor ought evaporate and being opened when the other ceased to give a tincture this did yet strike a tincture but within less then twelve hours after it also would give none Thirdly A Glass Bottle and an Egg-Glass being filled with the Spaw-Water the first exactly stopt the other hermetically sealed being both exactly weighed and set by with an other Glass filled and weighed but unstopt at the end of six weeks the stopt Bottle could not be discerned to be heavier or lighter being weighed again after the foresaid time nor could it be perceived that any Sediment was fallen because it gave as perfect a tincture with Galls as Water fresh from the Spaw By which it appears that the second Query is thus far true viz. That these Mineral Waters when most closely stopt and so let stand do not let fall a Sediment but if they do let fall their Ocre to the bottom as in open Glasses we find they do then is this Sediment most-what of a yellow colour and the Waters become effaete as to their solutive Operations The third is answered in the Negative for being let stand and not moved by carriage they do not supposing they be stopt sooner precipitate an Ocre to the bottom nor sooner become castrated thereby witness the third Experiment where in a stopt Glass after six weeks time no Sediment was fallen The fourth Query is found true in the Affirmative by the common Observations of those who view varieties of Spaws for they precipitate their Ocre both at the Spring-head as also in their Current for some distance sub dio but chiefly at the Spring-head for whilst they are kept from the open Air though their Channels under-ground should be stretched out much longer yet would they not let fall their Sediment by which it appears how great an influence the open Air hath upon the texture of Mineral-Waters as well as upon other Bodies The fifth Query is solv'd by our Experiments thus viz. That two Bottles of the said Water whereof the one being industriously stopped the other left unstopt and both equally permitted to stand still do not equally lose their vertues medical in the same space of time nor have the same precipitated Sediment and consequently are not of the same taste colour nor alike diminisht in quantity The sixth Query is involv'd in the fifth only presupposing that the stopt Vessel be of such a figuration or texture of parts as may exclude the ambient Air and then all succeeds as in the fifth The seventh is solv'd thus viz. That these Waters being closed up either in Glasses exactly stopt or hermetically sealed and kept from motion do prevent all precipitation of a Sediment in the Water and this is confirmed by the third Experiment where the Water was kept hermetically sealed for six weeks without any precipitation yea the same is confirmed not onely in these Mineral Medicinal Waters but even in more ordinary Spring-Waters whose Sediments or what else they have imbibed of Mineral Earth will easily precipitate by being exposed in open Vessels to the Air or by being distilled will leave behind their Sediments whereas I found the very same taken fresh from the Fountain which I have kept hermetically sealed for above three months not to give any the least precipitation or alteration of colour which for ought I know may not only keep so unaltered for months but also for years which very experiment is not inconsiderable towards a further improvement of Philosophy and amongst other Phaenomena which I shall not now take time to insist upon that of blood extravasated by Phlebotomy and a while exposed in open Vessels to the Air doth receive no smal alteration therefrom making it separate into such heterogenious parts as are not pre-existent in it whilst running in the Vessels and therefore doth not a little deceive those Physitians who judge of the temperature of the Blood and of the predominancy of this or the other Humour from a prospect of the extravasated Blood separated by an exotick ferment of the Air into Water Phlegm or white Gelly or black congealed Blood when perhaps that Blood whilst in the Body and as I may say hermetically sealed up in the natural Vessels was similar in its parts which if enlivened with due fermentations and separations in the Organical Parts would throw off all Scorbutick Venereal or other Miasms and Impurities and circulate in the form of a pure homogenial rubicund Juyce to confirm which I would propound one or two Queries the resolution of which will infallibly put the matter beyond dispute viz. Whether suppose some few ounces of blood should be taken from a found or if you will from an unhealthful Person and by a Silver Syphon be conveyed part into a clean Glass first warmed and whilst warm be sealed up hermetically and so set in a continued gentle heat whilst presently an other part of the same is conveyed in like manner into a cold Glass and so presently sealed up as aforesaid but set by in a cold place whether I say hereby it will be found that the blood in one or both or neither will keep its pristine form it had whilst circulating in the Vessels or whilst transmitted from one Vessel to the other and whether hereby it may not be preserved in its entire form not onely for one or two but for many months yea perhaps year and whether it will keep its form better in that Glass exposed to the cold or set in a gentle as it were an animal warmth and lastly whether that set in heat may not by continuance of time be graduated to so high an elixerated Liquor as that hereby it may be made capable not onely of preserving it self alterwards from the injury of a separating ferment in the Air but also may become as a fermental Balsam able if given inwardly or at least outwardly applyed to preserve the similar Blood it meets with from all inseâ—tious Diseases yea it would be worth inquiry 〈◊〉 â—ether it may not make the blood by his imbred exalted ferment reject all those impurities contracted by the Scorbute Lues Venerea Feavers and other Diseases even to the performing those cures in the Blood as may probably tender it worthy if any be of the name of a Panacea which Experiments
I think to prosecute e're long and shall then Deo juvante give a further account thereof The eighth Query I thus solve viz. That in my Tryals and Observations of Mineral Waters I always found that no sooner was the Ocre or Sediment precipitated but they both lose their tinging property with Galls as also their purging faculty and that though the Salts which had dissolv'd these ramenta ferrea were left yet dissolv'd in the Water after the separation of the Ocre by motion heat or air notwithstanding which the Waters are found to have no force in their purging Operation and by how much the more this is precipitated even till it be all fallen by so much the Waters are weaker and weaker in their Operation To the ninth or last Query I thus answer viz. That by what is premised it must necessarily follow that the Phenomenon of loss of Vertues in such Waters may by an Hypothesis of an intestine precipitation of their parts wherein those vertues consisted be much better and more truly explicated then by the Hypothesis of an avolation of spirituous parts through all Vessels and Closures whatsoever By this time these things duly weighed in the opinion of all judicious Persons who ground Science upon the infallible Criterion of Luciferous Experiments I may well suppose the Spirits in the Scarbrough and Kuar â—ugh Spaw-Waters have no existence and that notwithstanding what ever Falopius Dr. Heer 's Dr. French or my Antagonist have said to the contrary And hence it is evident why Dr. French came to be mistaken who supposing Volatile Mineral Spirits to be in the Knarsbrough Spaw-Water and indeavouring by distiliation in a Glass-Still whose Joynts were luted and closed up carefully to get their Spirits failed not onely in his expectation of catching them but also found that the first two spoonfuls which were distilled yea and the rest undistilled that remained utterly lost both the taste and odour which they had before neither would they become any otherwise tinged with Galls then common spring-Spring-Water who not easily conscious of his Error imputes the loss of those Spirits to their subtilty imagining them so volatile as to penetrate even the Glass it self or the Lute neither of which he judgeth could hold them not recollecting that no sooner doth heat work upon Mineral Waters but presently it causeth such an alteration in the texture of their parts as that forthwith the Mineral Ocre precipitates to the bottom leaving both what is distilled and what is undistilled void of tincture and most-what effaete in vertues and that not from the avolation of Spirits but from an intestine precipitation of parts as is evinced beyond dispute by our former Experiments Lastly These Waters do not only being hermetically sealed keep their vertues and tinging qualities but also are not impaired in their quantity and weight being found after six weeks inclosure under the hermetick Seal neither heavier nor lighter and now I give room for the World to judge Whether the authority of my Antagonist be Authentick and whether or no he hath done well to impose both upon himself and others in the delivery of these words viz. That the Searbrough Waters lose all their vertue yea their quantity and bulk also though in Glasses and under the hermetick Seal if removed from the Fountain-head and then they become suddenly putrid c. doubtless through the loss of Volatile Spirits he speaks this so confidently as if he had had it from the Oracle of Experience whereas he never took the pains to make any satisfactory Essayes therein From what is premised may naturally arise these following short Corolaries First That Mineral Waters operate and give their usual Phaenomena by a due contemperature of their Mineral Ingredients Secondly That amongst these if especially the Mineral Ocre becomes once precipitated the Waters lose their purging Vertues and tinging Properties Thirdly So long as these can either by Nature or Art be kept from precipitation so long these Waters retain their proper Vertues Fourthly That to facilitate or indeed cause that these Waters should precipitate their Mineral Ocre is required one of these three viz. Motion Heat or Air by Motion I mean that ab extra for otherwise what Heat and Air perform is by the medium of Motion for Heat or an exposing to the open Air or a quassation of parts by motion doth make such an alteration in the texture of these Mineral Waters as they presently thereby let fall their contained Mineral Earth Fifthly These three being secluded from having any power over them they viz. the Waters may continue their Vertues Weight tinging Qualities Colours and other consequent Phaenomena for some months yea probably for years unalterd Sixthly That to have recourse to a sort of Spirits which are not inrerum naturâ for solving those Phaenomena better and perhaps onely solvable by an intestine alteration and precipitation of Mineral Ingredients will argue no less then an imposing upon our imaginations by a kind of customary fascination But here I am to advertise my Reader That since I committed these Papers to the Press I opportunely had some discourse with the aforesaid Dr. Foot concerning his Queries afore-mentioned Whereupon we mutually agreed That my Return to the Queries together with the Experiments confirming as well as elucidating the same do chiefly relate to the Mineral Medical Waters which are of that Class or sort which do purge by Stool mostly and also by Urine such are the Scarbrough-Spaw Barnet and Epsham-Waters and divers others the like which are Aluminous and work by Siedge But that the Tunbridge-Waters concerning which he principally proposed his Queries and also perhaps the Astrap and Stallbridge-Waters together with all such as work most-what by Urine ought to have a somewhat different consideration especially in the point of losing their Medical Vertues though they be vessell'd up with all due and needful circumstances and closed and sealed up with all imaginable Art care and industry yea although they are not in the least afterwards moved heated or exposed to the Air and consequently that these close Circumstances in vesselling up and stopping in the Tunbridg-Waters and such like will not prevent this depauperation or amission of their Medical Vertues as otherwise may be done with the Scarbrough and all such like Spaws but as to all the other matters almost both in the Queries and this Answer to them they seem to be applicable indifferently enough to both the sorts of the fore-cited Medicinal Waters Finally Reader The Doctor did thank me for my Return to his Queries though he frankly acknowledged to me he supposed my Answer to be inapposite only to that point afore-noted by reason of my being at the writing my Return a perfect stranger to the Tunbridge or any other Waters of the like properties but further added That he hoped my Example would be a motive to others whose abilities and opportunities amply capacitate them thereunto both from Reason and Experiment conjoyntly to
into a tophus-like or nodus-kind of petrifaction in the Synovia of the Joynts transmitting along with it a spurious acid Ferment hostile to those tender parts I shall not I say deny if we together take into our consideration other concomitant and perhaps no less essential circumstances of irregularity in Diet sharpness and hardness of Drink in Exercise and perturbations of the Mind c. which we find often sufficient alone to bring on that Disease yea and to exasperate it in a high measure to those who never drank of this or any other Spaw Water yea and that to many too upon whose seminal Principles the morbid Character of the Gout was never impressed Now I shall proceed first to examine the reason he gives why the Scarbrough Water is not of so petrifying a nature as the Knarsbrough dropping Well which he supposeth to come from a nitrous Rock and next I shall prescribe a Remedy how to prevent petrifaction and also how to carry off what is already contracted where I shall answer I hope to the Patients satisfaction his three Ingredients As to the first the Reason he gives is this viz. That the Alkali of the Alom in Scarbrough Water hath in part imbibed the acidity of the Nitre and therefore it cannot so penetrate the Wood put in it as to leave a Crust of Stone upon it which the other Water having as he saith Nitre alone will do And here I must crave pardon if for truths sake I dissent from my ingenious Friend for the ground-work of his reason is laid upon a wrong supposition viz. That the Salt of Alom is an Alkali whereas in the current of my whole discourse upon this Spaw I have laid it down as an acid Salt which are so contrary as they are never reconciled upon their mutual contact till each destroy other and a third neutral result therefrom The ground of his Reason why he reputes Alom to contain an Alkali is from its saponary property That Alom saith he is an Alkali is plain from its saponary property for the Dyers scour their Cloth from all filth by boyling it in Alom Water which is no less then a palpable mistake for the Dyers use it not for scouring their Cloth but for laying a ground for other Colours as for instance If three pieces of Cloth be put into the Dyers Woad or Glastum one White another Yellow the third Red the White without any previous preparation by Alom shall be Blew the Yellow by being first a few hours in Alom-Water shall be Green and the Red by being also boyled in Alom-Water shall be Tauny So that if they should generally use Alom Water for scouring their Cloth they would thereby be prevented either of making Yellows or Blacks to both which Alom makes Cloth incapable and therefore they onely use it in order to a Ground fitting it to take other colours afterwards it wholly destroys all Blacks yea it is so far from being lixivial as it leaves a harshness upon Cloth whereby it 's made capable of striking other Colours Now that Alom consists chiefly of an acid Salt is further evident by mixing a lixivium of Salt of Tartar or of any Vegetable fixt Salt which the Solution of simple Alom Salt the mixture presently coagulates or curdles into a white Gelly whereas if it was of the same nature they would mix as Spirit of Vitriol with Spirit of Vitriol Lixivium with Lixivium Water with Water like with like Besides he is incautious of what he elsewhere asserts viz. where he saith That the Scarbrough-Water curdles Milk not by any Vitriol but by Alom Who Questions saith he that Alom will curdle Milk as well as Vitriol the more subtil any acid Liquor put to the Milk is the more perfectly doth it separate the thick parts from the thin here he acknowledgeth the Alom to consist of an acid Juyce which is quite contrary to a Lixivial for what the one makes the other destroys Now that the Alkali of the Alom should imbibe the acidity of Nitre this latter assertion is no more true then the former for as the Alom contains no Alkali so neither the Nitre as Nitre any acidity for if you put a little Nitre into boyled Milk it will coagulate it no more then if so much Fossil Salt was put in neither of which two Salts are acid until by force of fire in close Vessels they are brought over in a fluid form in statu Fluoris in close Vessels I said because in open Vessels Nitre will by force of fire with a little addition of Sulphur or Charcoal become an Alkali or fixt Salt which is quite contrary to its acid Spirit got by distillation yea that it is not acid is further evident in that it will cause no ebullition with a Lixivium which all acids certainly do So that hence we may certainly conclude first That the acidity of Nitre is not a cause of petrifaction and that 's evident because it hath no acidity till it be raised by the fire next That the cause of petrifaction in the Scarbrough Spaw compared with Knarsbrough dropping Well is not to be computed from an imbibition of the acidity of Nitre by the Alkali of Alom neither of which as such are in rerum naturâ So that notwithstanding all this we are yet to cast about for the finding out a more probable cause of petrifaction In order to which I would first inquire How many sorts of Mineral Waters will coagulate Milk and amongst them which are the most likely to contribute to petrifaction All Waters therefore which coagulate Milk are either such as are strongly Vitrioline witness the German Spaws or such as are aluminous as for instance Scarbrough Epsham the Sulphur-Well at Knarsbrough which hath an occult aluminous acidity therein contained c. Or lastly Such as contain a Saxum Nitrosum or Raments of Stone with a nitrous Juyce which becomes as a Cement and knits the sabulous matter where the place and other circumstances concur into stony Concretions of this sort is the dropping or petrifying Well at Knarsbrough also at Bruncton near Northallerton and in many places more which will coagulate Milk and in evaporation leave Raments of a bright nitrous Stone Now the subject matter of all stony Concretions are either a sabulous Earth glewed together by the efficiency of a salty Liquor either of Alom Nitre Salt Fossil c. easily coagulable by a spontaneous exiccation of the succulent parts by being long exposed to the Air or else it consists in a peculiar petrifying seminal Juyce implanted in stony Concretions whereby they have their growth and increase Thus all the Rocks in the Sea have had their beginning and growth from a petrifying Seed which hath transmuted the Lympha or common subject matter of all concrete bodies into such stony Concretions Calx in Mediis Aquis sensim petrescit Thus Coral White and Red by an innate petrifying Seed springs out of Rocks and other Stones in the Sea
which grow from the very same Juyce the Stone it vegetates from had its nourishment only it is determined into that form by the imbred plastick power of that stony Plant and becomes like if I may so say a Misletoe of the Rock Yea and from one or both causes aforesaid hath for ought we know all the rocky and stony productions in the bowels of the Earth had their original But to be short Petrifaction as to the Duelech or Calculus humanus the subject we chiefly now have in hand I see no reason to the contrary but look upon it as chiefly seminaly else how comes it that little Children are sometimes grievously tormented with fits and die of the Stone As I have seen a young Child after death opened whose Reins contained one large Stones besides divers other lesser ones by which it should appear that the inclinatio petrifica which is the same with a petrifying Seed was at first impressed upon the Seminals of its constitution and in such where the petrifying Seed is at work the nutritive Juyce can never be so pure nor the Steinors or Colanders of the Vessels be so accurate in their functions but the Stone and Gravel will be increased the Spirit of Urine will coagulate it self upon its innate Earth and so cause a concretion of a sabulous matter although much more from some sorts of Meats and Drinks then from others amongst ordinary Drinks Ale that is hard blenk'd or new thick and unwrought or Wine which is not depurated from its Tartar by due fermentation are very prejudicial somenters of the Stone so is Bread not well baked Meat not well cooked and prepared and in fine what ever contributes to the Fabrick of the nutritive Juyce when through the weakness or error of the ferments reluctancy of that which is taken or injustice of the distributive powers a feculent tartarous or sabulous matter is sequestred and either thrown upon the Vessels or transmitted by the current of the Latex into other more fine Collanders and Streinors of the Body Then the Stone Gout Jaundice Diarrhaeas Dysenteries Feavers c. are in time brought forth especially to such persons whose constitutions or peculiar fabrick of their constituent parts whether Liquid in Vessels or Solids are most inclinable and consequently most susceptable of such Diseases Therefore respect must primarily be had to the inclinatio petrifica podagrica or natural inclination to the Stone or Gout for to such not only the Waters which contain a sabulous matter but also the common nutritive Juyce made from our ordinary food may singly or conjoyntly bring forth or else exasperate the fits of the Stone Gout c. for the sabulous matter of the Waters as well as the tartarous recrements of our food being imbibed by the Latex of the Blood doth the one as well as the other by its various filtratures and percolations leave its precipitate upon the Streinors Bowels and Membranous Parts causing the foresaid Diseases in Bodies inclinable thereunto Now in what my Antagonist glorieth this our Author and Friend accounts no less then the shame of the Scarbrough Water viz. That it contains such a large quantity of the Minerals as he calls them including together with the noble Salt also the dirty faeces and stony matter which without doubt if any thing is its greatest disparagement But here as we shall accuse the one of vanity and to have done it not for want of ignorance in the critical Analysis of that Water So the other we shall no less impeach of too tart a reflection upon the same and of raising a theoretick Fabrick from too sandy a foundation But before we prescribe our Remedy to prevent petrifaction c. I shall first bring the matter in controversie to the test by propounding onely this following Experiment which I have not yet but may God willing take the opportunity of trying at this Spaw-time which will certaiuly answer this querie viz. whether the Scarborew water doth leave any considerable quantity of its sabulous matter in the body whereby it may give just cause of suspition of furthering or increasing the Stone Gout Jaundice c. the Experiment is this viz. To save the Urin of a calculous gouty or other such like Patient after he hath drank plentifully of the Spaw which is onely to be saved after the Urin comes untinged from him to the quantity of two or three quarts and to distil that in a Glass Body or Retort or barely to evaporate it in a Jar Glass and so to try whether indeed it hath or no left any considerable quantity of its sabulous matter in the body which may truly be computed from the more or less quantity of the stony matter left behind after evaporation or distillation compared with the residence of the same quantity of the Spaw Water distilled or evaporated fresh from the Fountain A Method Prescribed For the right use of the scarbiough-Scarbiough-Water NOW come I to give my Receipt how to prevent petrifaction by propounding a Method for the right use and improvement of the Water where first I advise all Patients who would take this Water for their best advantage and help for the prevention or cure of the Stone Gout Scurvy Jaundice Palsies Epilepsies Asthma or other chronical Diseases to begin with a gentle Vitrioline Vomit the Dose to be ordered according to the discretion of the advising Physitian which may be done although the Patient hath for some time drunk of the Water for this sort of Vonrit which is surely the safest in the World doth not onely carry off plenty of a depraved matter involved in the Tunicles of the Stomach the fomenter of most Diseases whether Acute or Chronical but also strengthens the Fibres of the Stomach and other Membranes through the whole body reducing them to their proper Tone which the generality of Solutions yea the too frequent use of this Spaw Water is apt to relax and to make them flag and hang the depravation of whose oeconomy makes them forgetful of their offices and renders them susceptible of a stony incrustation from the sabulum of the Water and hereby they become the cause of all those Diseases which happen upon those who incautiously drink and that long and plentifully of this Spaw Water and hence it is that after a months drinking of the Water it sometimes happens that the Appetite or Concoction decayes which my Antagonist acknow ledgeth or the Waters pass not so well but cause distention in the Belly or Veins and so brings on a difficulty of breathing pain in the head c. All which may be now remedyed by the method we are now propounding for this kind of Vomit which may as occasion shall require be safely repeated doth fortifie the membranous parts notably and makes them mindful of their duties after which the Patient may for two or three mornings drink pretty freely of the Waters using moderate exercise after as walking upon the Sands or in their
Chamber and about two hours after the last Glass of Water let them drink a Glass or two of the best White Wine well refined from its Tartar and about one hour after that take some warm Broth then to eat of a few Dishes of Meat and those to be as well ordered as may be nor is it a little respect that is to be had to the Drink at Meats viz. that it neither be new thick or unwrought nor that it be hard or tart So that four things are to be regarded in the drinking of the Waters First Moderate exercise after drinking the Water Secondly To drink a Glass or two of Wine two hours after the Water to help the passage thereof Thirdly Not to eat too soon after the Waters for either by too immoderat exercise that which should pass away by Urine by the short way is preposterously carried into the habit of the body or by eating too suddenly before the Waters have passed the like disorder may happen viz. That the Latax wherein the sabulous matter is dissolved is thereby in danger to be carried by the Thoracical Vessels into the fourth digestion of the heart and thence into the habit of the body where it may lay a foundation for the Gout Stone Scurvy Feavers c. Fourthly A moderation in Dyet having good Meat well ordered and to keep a restraint upon the Stomach not overcharging it with too much nor with too great variety of food for sometimes what the Water builds in order to health the irregularity of dyet in some persons pulls down Fifthly Good wholsome Drink is to be chosen at Meats which should neither be very small nor hard or tart nor lastly new thick or unwrought but should be soft clear and healing Ale or a middle sort of Beer fresh and lively all botled Ale especially that which flies is to be avoided in short it should be kindly Ale such as may well dilute our other solid Food and be a sutable Vehicle of our nutritive Juyce for from a due contemperature of our Drink and Meat by the efficiency of the ferments ariseth the wholsomness of our nourishment When the Patient hath drank for two or three dayes of the Spaw Water after the former directions then is he to take a Dose of Solutive Pills viz. one over-night and two the next morning observing much what the former instructions and to omit taking any Water for that day These Pills ought to be so contrived by the Physitian as to contain in them such Ingredients as may chiefly respect the Scurvy and that because the Scurvy is most-what the ground to other Diseases and next that they may be such as may give the Patient four or five stools without griping as his strength and the indications of his Disease may require not neglecting in the interim other specificks seasonably to be exhibited as the Physitian shall think meet from the indications of the Disease Then if the Physitian think fit is the Patient to rest a day or two from taking the Spaw-Water and that to prevent a sudden precipitation of the stony matter upon the Tunicles of the Intestines after their abstersion or cleansing by the former Solutive and after that to begin again observing the former instructions and so on in a round with such diversifications as the Physitian from a critical observation of the Symptoms and Indications shall judge requisite until the Patient be cured at least in so hopeful a way towards it as that Nature may without much stress tug through the rest And by this means will all the inconveniencies which happen as afore-said to incautious Spaw-Drinkers be prevented hereby Patients will not miss of their aim viz. their desired health c. This course being taken I see no cause of suspition of any harm from the Waters for supposing at the worst a precipitation should happen which cannot be much the next Dose of Antiscorbutick Pills together with a good Diuretick and a glass or two of Wine will absterge it off and carry it câ—â— verly away Nor need we be altogether so fearful of harm from the stony Concretions in the Water if we confider That Physicians often prescribe Coral Crabs-eyes Pearl Crabs-claws Hyacinth Smaragde Saphire Bezoar c. which are the Ingredients of several compound Species as of Pulv. è chel cancrorum species Cordiales c. frequently ordered by them for the cure of Diseases which sometimes dulcifie the Blood and other essential Juyces of the body by coagulating their acidities which otherwise cause obstructions in the bowels and give beginning to Apostemations c. being frequently carried off by Siedge Yea I know a Gentlewoman who being troubled with a spurious and therefore superfluous acidity upon her Stomach amongst the hundred of Remedies she hath used finds nothing comparable to the eating plenty of Chalk which is a stony Concretion This more powerfully then any other thing she has yet met with dints the overflowing acidity sweetens it which otherwise with an acid flatus afflicts her Intestines causing unufual tormina or griping of the Guts Of this she has eaten as I remember she told me some pecks in some late years and yet is no more afflicted with the Stone or Gout then she was before the taking thereof So that all those who are not originally inclined to the Stone or Gout may very safely drink of the Waters and that with very good success for the cure of most other inflrmities by the due management of the Spaw according to our prescribed Method where we are not so magisterial in our advices but do leave the judicious Physitian to vary as he seeth cause I giving only hints and opening a Casement for more light for the better discovery of the improvement of this Noble Spaw in order to the cure of many Diseases for Art is not only to imitate Nature but also help and supply its deficiencies separating what is superfluous and adding what is necessary But if any who are inclined originally to the Stone or Gout shall upon the consideration that the Scarbrough-Water is so esurine or acid by its imbibed Nitro-aluminous or duplicate Salt as to dissolve and carry along in its bowels the several Raiments of Stone shall I say thereupon become jealous of drinking the Water To those I shall first advise the drinking the Water according to our prescribed Method which if it do not answer their expectation upon tryal at least doth not satisfie then would I thus farther add viz. That doubtless when these stony Concretions are separated by Art or Nature the foresaid Salt being dissolved in fresh Water which upon evaporation yeelds no sabulous Sediment must needs I say become very powerful against all those Diseases whose seminaries consist in a sabulous petrifying property as the Stone Gout Jaundice c. especially if dissolved with the addition of Salt of Steel and drunk with great plenty of Spring-Water so acuated And therefore lastly would I propound to all those who