when they are mixt by such a kind of confusion the Waters of the Quarry are not all one neither are they truly mixt for one may separate one from another sometimes lastly they are mixt not because of the substance of the Quarry is mixt with Water but only vapors elevated from the matter are permixt And since it happens as you may understand that mixtion is perform'd by these three manner of ways 't is no wonder if Water mixing it self in several Veins shall attract and contract to it self the faculty of one more than another As for example if Water that shall be perfectly mixt in one Quarry with another confusedly only and with another with the vapors only and not with the substance it shall retein much more of the nature of that wherewith it is perfectly mixt than the other CHAP. III. Of the Waters of Bath and their Causes COncerning which there are likewise divers opinions Now these Waters being of so hot a Nature that throw but a Fowl therein and it shall immediately deplume it put Fish and Eggs therein and it will presently concoct them that these Waters are so hot of their own nature I cannot believe for all Water is always and of its own Nature cold in quality and if it become hot by accident take but away the heating cause thereof and it shall return to its prestine cold temper of its own accord without any thing of an altering nature being adhibited For there are Rivers in hot Countries that are not very hot from the heat of the Sun So that I conclude these Waters to be hot in the Caverns of the Earth from an outward cause which that it may be made more plainly manifest we shall briefly inspect into the causes of Baths Concerning their efficient Causes their are likewise various opinions omitting the whimsical frothy conceits of the Chymists let us see what the more sound and solid sort of Learned Philosophers say to the business some ascribe this virtue to the Rays of the Sun with Thermophilus who held that the Sun penetrating the pores of the Earth for certainly the Earth is porous and Spungy was in its bowels there fortified and made more active in heat so that like Fire it heats Water and what ever it meets with and even burns what it meets with combustible but if this were so these Baths would be so hot in Summer only not in Winter or at least it would follow that these Springs would be less hot in Winter than in Summer contrary to all experience for every Idiot can tell you the Springs c. are hotter in Winter than Summer the cause whereof of the Learned Philosophers ascribe to that they call Antiperistasis that is in plain English the Earth is hotter within in Winter when the Sun 's absent than in Summer and so they 'll tell you that their Sellars are hot in Winter and cold in Summer Secondly I cannot conceive how the Sun should penetrate into such deep Caverns of the Earth as by force of its heat to make the Waters therein to become so hot where we see it cannot effect the same on Lakes in any hot Region Then 3ly We know that there are Baths found in the most cold Countrys as Islind c-Some with Mileus will have a Wind or a Spirit vehemently toss'd and mov'd up and down and so penn'd up grows hot and so coming to fall upon the Waters overheats them Democritus says they receive their heat from Ashes and Lime others think these Waters grow hot by reason of vehement motion and beating against the Rocks and not a few there are which say that the matter through which they pass heats them which they say is the reason that some smell so strongly of Sulphur because they flow from Sulphury Veins Others o' th other side will have the cause to be an extream heat within the Earth in those places which overflow with hot Waters and Learned Dr. Jordan our Countryman if I mistake not thinks they derive their heat from the sermentation of Metals in their Generation to which is required an actual heat with a certain humidity and some affirm that Thunder heats the Waters as may be seen from Manlius Suni autem cunctis permixti partibus ignes Qui gravidas habitant fabricantes fulmina nubes Hac penetrant Terras Aethnamque imitantur Olympo Et calidas reddunt ipsis in fontibus undas Lastly the Chymists will have the Waters to wax hot from a mutual combat and conflict of divers Salts or Mineral bodies after the same manner as we see in the conjunction of Spirit of Vitriol or Salt of Tartar as from the two fires the Glass becomes so hot Vt multo accensis fervore exuberat undis Clausus ubi exusto liquor indignatur abeno Now among so many disagreeing opinions when there can be but one i th' right on 't Aristotle the great searcher into the Secrets of Nature in my opinion hit the Nail o' th head who following Empedoeles the Disciple of Pythagoras when he saw these Therm or Baths so call'd from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Calidus to be so hot thought they could become so no other way than from a most fervent cause because all Waters of their own Nature are cold and could think the efficient cause to be no other then Fire included in the inmost parts of the Earth and there as it were primogeneally residing of which the Epicurean Poet and Philosopher Principio tâ—llus habet in Corpora prima Unde mare immensum vo ventes flumina fontes Assidur revomunt habet ignes unde oriaâ—tur Nam multis suâ—â—ensa locis ardent sola Terrae Now that there is Fire under the Earth besides the hot fiery water Springs the Lime Ashes c. which are vomited and dug out of the Earth may confirme and persuade us as being the genuine effects of fire to say nothing of Smoak and Soot breaking out of the Earth and in some places fire it self therefore Subterranean fire which Kirkerus calls pyrophylacia i. e. a Prison for Fire is the most certain cause of the heat of the Waters For while those Springs of Waters upon the Mountains are carryed by the Veins and Sinewy bendings of Metalls in manner of Dragons and Chaldrons in the Baths of the Antients writhed and twisted with circles of Brass like a Meander and from thence artract the Virtues and Vices as I may so say of Metalls wherewith the Water is tinctur'd they wax hot from the natural fire Subterraneous to those windings even just as Water in a Pot is heat by Fire and Bartholine says expresly that Fire doth not heat the Water after the manner above related from Aristotle and Empedocles but that the Pipes or Veins of the Earth contein Fire it self within them Now the VVater becomes more or less hot here and there First as the matter is found more or less apt for heat Secondly as that Fire is nigher or farther off the
A SHORT TREATISE OF Metal Mineral WATERS VIZ. Those of the Spaw Bathe Epsom North-hall Barnet Tunbridge and the New-Wells at Islington WHEREIN Is described their bad as well as good Qualities with the danger of Peoples too frequent and unadvisedly Drinking them Mirabilis in aquis Dominus By E.P. M.D. LONDON Printed by T. B. for Randolph Taylor near Stationers-hall 1684. To the Reader Reader I Am not ignorant that the use of Metal and Mineral Waters are often prescribed by Physitians against many Diseases as Palsies Tremblings Ulcers of the Stomach Reins Bladder and Womb Tenesmus deprav'd Months Abortion c. and though I know Sacred Writ says Mirabilis est in aquis Dominus because of wonderful and almost divine virtues given them by the Almighty Physitian for the cure of many rebellious and contumacious Diseases and that as Vitruvius says ther 's seen no more miracles of nature than in Waters yet I would first advise all diseased Persons that they would not be too hasty and run hand over head as they say to drink those Waters because it may be some of their neighbours c. told them they found benefit by them without consulting the Physitian whether they may be proper for them forgetting the old saying One man's Meat may be another's Poyson Next I would have the young Physitian chiefly be prudent and cautious in prescribing them and not as too often to send their Patients after they have put them to great cost and wearied them with multitudes of Medicines to the Wells as their last refuge without considering the nature of the Waters or the Sick and not to send the intemperate and full of foul humours or that have hot entrals or that abound with stinking sharp malignant rebellious dregs and who are full of obstructions the notorious Parent of most Diseases which are scarcely ever to be remov'd For thâ—se Waters are all of hot and dry qualities some more then others as proceeding from hot and poisonous Minerals as you will see in this Book so that 't is impossible but there must remain an Empyreuma or collection of filthy matter which in an intemperate and dispos'd body will beget a new kind of Disease and augment the hot disposition of the Stomach Liver and other Entrals ordain'd for nourishment if there were any and this from Hipp. de aere aquis locis text 13. Aristot lib. 2 Meteor c. 3. Galen l. 1. c. 6. de simple facult They may work miracles in some Diseases but rara non sunt artis and that will not warrant a dogmatical Physitian instituted in the sound safe and Orthod x doctrine of Hipp. and Gal. promiscuously and immethodically to prescribe them almost to all People and Diseases as your Diobolory I had almost said Diabolary Empirics and wretches in Town do their Family Pills their Friendly and Popular Pills Then as for Ulcers of the Stomach I cannot but think them improper being too hot as proceeding from Nitre Sulphur Vitriol the last of which is altogether of a contrary nature to Man as being of a poysonous quality as for Gold Iron c. the Learned Fallopius who understood the nature of Waters certainly as well as any man believes they impart not any of their quality to the Water The same may be said of Ulcers of the Reins and Blader which for the most part will admit of no cure by reason of continual afflux of sharp watrish humours whereby their detersion and desiccation is hindred so for Vlcers in the Womb and preventing Abortion these Waters are not of so drying force to work such effects So that I cannot in reason see how these Waters should be so proper for so many Diseases for which they are extoll'd for they are all famous for their potential as they call it and hidden heat in an eminent degree whereby they destroy the native oeconomy and temper of the Entrals and imprint in them an extraneous heat and so cause Dropsies as Hipp. noted in a peculiar Example of his and a 1000 other dire diseases which prove incurable and hasten death Certain it is some Physitians for private filthy lucre promote the Waters and even discover new ones And though many out of a good intent in Books extol them yet let none precipitate themselves into danger of another and perhaps worse disease but advise with the Learned Physitian TO His ever Honoured Friend The LADY VERE BEAVMONT OF Grace-dieu in Com. Leic. Madam PRay be pleas'd to accept of this small Present but not as any the least requital I beseech you for the almost innumerable favours you have been pleas'd from time to time to conferr upon me since I fear it can scarcely be call'd an Acknowlegment In short Madam this short Treatise is intended for public benefit in general but if it may in the least measure be serviceable or conducible towards the Preserving of your Ladiships Health in particular I have attain'd my Aim and in an happy hour may then subscribe my self Madam Your ever oblig'd Servant E. Prat. OF THE NATURE OF Medicinal Waters CHAP. I. Of the Matter Origine of Fountains in General AND here I shall be brief intending not a speculative Philosophical but a Medico-practical Discourse for information and instructiof the unlearn'd and not for Learned Philosophers and Physitians Now 't is clearly my Opinion with the Divine Plato Aristotle's Master and before him Thales Milesius as also Philo lib. de mundi opificio the great Seneca l. 3. c. 1. quest natural and others that the Original of Fountains is from the Sea from whence through Sinuosities Veins and Meanders of the Earth water is carried to certain places where it breaks forth and continually flows it may very probably be conjectur'd they had this from the greatest of Philosophers Salomon who in Eccles 1.7 says all Rivers run into the Sea and it overflows not unto the place from whence they came thither they flow again and indeed scaree can there be assign'd any other reason why the Sea doth not redound by such a dayly concourse and afflux of Rivers unless because the Rivers do again flow out of the Sea and return and pay only so much to the Sea as they borrowed therefrom Although the Evaporation and Extraction of watry Clouds by the Attractive force of the Sun is no small help and other material helping causes are Rains and Snows which augment though they do not generate the Rivers for these help being withdrawn heat of the Sun approaching they become Rarefied and the neighbour parts of the dry'd Earth drink them off Whence Kings 17.7 the River Careth is said to wax dry by reason of the Sun 's too great heat But we have one Cardanus impiously and Atheistically disputing against Salomon subtil c. 2. de Elementis whom we shall endeavour to satisfactorily answer and enervate though God Almighty's Power and Wisdom might be oppos'd as answer enough and Sacred Scripture ought to be of more Authority than all
humane sagacity First then he says the Sea-water because 't is heavy cannot ascend to such an height as the tops of Mountains but to this have been several refutations some ascribing this motion to the operations of the Celestial bodies and they say this motion is not violent though it be contrary to the private inclination of its proper form if the Potentia obedientialis be considered whereby inferior Bodies are made to obey their Superiors c. Others say there is a certain insite attractive faculty in the Veins of the Earth whereby it sucks Water out of the Sea as the Veins of Animals suck Blood others there are but too long for this place and wholly Philosophical and so not easily to be understood by ordinary capacities and so I omit them Then Secondly he says before the Water could reach the Mountains out of the Sea there 's no reason to be given but it would break forth But the Earth hath passages in some places and in some none Then whatsoever he assigns to be the original of Fountains it may be queried why in some places and Mountains there are Fountains and Rivers and in some none Then Thirdly he says if it were so Rivers would never be less but it may be answered Rivers sometimes grow less from what portion is lost which comes from falls of Showers and Snows and when part is suckt up by the dryness of the Earth and heat of the Sun c. Fourthly he says the Sea would not satisfy so many Rivers when the greatest part of Waters vanish by the heat of the Sun But it may be answered that the Sea receives only as much as it gives forth as Salomon says Rivers flow to the Sea that they may flow out again then if the greatest part of Water should vanish the Sea would long agone have been wasted but the extracted vapors are recondens'd into Water which either flows into the Sea or falls upon the Earth to augment the Rivers which at length unburthen themselves into the Sea Fifthly He says there can be no reason given why it should flow from one Mountain and not from another But the answer to his second Objection solves this Lastly He says Fountains and Rivers would tast saltish and brackish But to this is answer'd that Sea-water whilst it passes through various Veins Sinews and Meanders of the Earth and so being as it were strein'd it sensibly deposes its saltness and bitterness Hence the more remote Fountains are from the Sea the sweeter they are If any shall say that the Water was more likely to contract a bitterness by reason of the Exhalations it receives from the Earth it may be answered that they are not any sort of Exhalations that produce bitterness but only adust ones and all are not such in the intrals the Earth Therefore now Cardan we may conclude I hope hath not got any thing by contradicting Solomon CHAP. II. Of the Division of Fountains and of Mineral and Metal Waters HAving in the former Chapter given the Reader a plain account of the Matter and Origine of Fountains we should in the next place see how many sorts of Fountains there are but because 't is the work of Natural Philosophers and Hydrographers and nothing of an advantage to our present purpose we shall wholly omit it and only speak of Mineral and Metallic Fountains as being the subject of our present Discourse Now those I call Mineral and Metallic Waters which participate of the nature and faculty of that Metall or Mineral through which they pass in the Caverns and Veins of the Earth The which are either 1 Salt 2 Vitriol 3 Allumn 4 Bitumen 5 Naptha 6 Nitre 7 Gypsum 8 Arsenic 9 Cadmia 10 Antimony 11 Chrysocolla 12 Ochre 13 Lime 14 Ashes 15 Pummice-stones 16 Gold 17 Iron 18 Brass 19 Lead 20 Brimstone and 21 Quicksilver Now as I said the Minerals through which Waters pass bestowing upon them in their journey a considerable part and portion of their good and bad qualities I thought it very requisite before I discours'd of the use of the Waters themselves to say somthing of the Natures and Properties of the Metals and Minerals they are mixt with that thereby you may be the better able to judge of the nature of the Waters proceeding from them then we will begin with Salt The faculties of Salt are great many and very useful to man but not so necessary in Physick as many think such as your Quacking Chymists who predicate many wonderful and vain stories of Salt reduced by their Chymical Art for they audaciously assert that their is a Purgative faculty in Medicaments because of Salt and when they have got some Extract from any Medicament then they presently aver that they have got its Salt forsooth but these being things above the vulgar capacity I shall say Salt is very Conservative of an Astringing Absterging Purging Discussing Repressing Extenuating quality and vindicates the Body from Putrefaction yet some Salt is better then others but us'd immoderately produces very bad effects as sharp salt corroding humors all over the Body Scabs Leprosie the Stone and other dire Diseases as Dulness of sight disorderly Fermentations in the Blood rendring it thick and earthy by burning it Schroder thinks thus of the Original of Salts the Macrocosm he says as the other two Kingdoms i. e. the Vegetable and Animal is susteined and lives by its food in this abounds a salt answering to the salt Excrements in the Sweat Urine and Dejections in Animals now the Salt of the greater World congregated into the inferior Glob is of a dverse kind according to the variety of its Matrix even as the salt Excrement in Animals is different hence Common Salt Salt Gem Salt Nitre Alum c. The Greeks call that Calcanthum which the Latines from its blackness call Attramentum Sutorium or Shooe-makers Ink and from its spendent vitreous Nitre Vitriol Dioscorides a man of profound Judgment in the Materia Medica reckons three sorts thereof two Native and one factitious one sort of the Native is found concreted in the bowels of the Earth another is collected in form of a Water out of some Mine which put into a Vessel soon coagulates into Vitriol as for the factitious we have nothing to say to that here the Native or Fossile Vitriol participates of Calcitis Misy and Sory the Native and White is prefer'd in the Medicinal uses which the Metallicolous Alchymists say is produc'd by their Sulphur and Mercury as of Sperm which they indiscriminately exhibit to all affections out of which they draw a certain acid Liquor a few drops whereof mix'd with Syrup of Violets acquire a most elegant colour and taste But Oyl of Sulphur will do the same and a few drops of one or both of them insused in the Syrup of Roses will make the whole Liquor red which they call forsooth Tincture of Roses Now Nature 't is true hath enrich'd Vitriol with eximious faculties which
is cold and dry Ergo Gold is no Cordial at all and nothing indeed is Cordial but what nourishes a Glass of generous Wine and nourishing Broaths and such Diet are the greatest Cordials under the Sun Iron is an ignoble Metal consisting of Mercury and Sulphur not so meltable cruder or rather of Sulphur and Salt mixed with the Cruder parts of the Earth it binds and opens as the Chymists says the opening Virtue is chiefly in its more Volatile part and so in the Salt the Astringent virtue lyes in the more fixed part and so in the Earthy Brass was formerly dedicated to Venus from her Island Cyprus where great plenty was dug 't is either of a Golden color call'd Aurichalcum or redder and then call'd Brass absolutely Brass was of more use among the Antients than either Gold Silver or Iron for the first money was Brass and hence we meet with Aerarium publicum Aes ali num Questor aerarius their Warlike Arms also were not of Iron or Steel but Brass as also their Statues and Temple doors Load according to the Alchymists is both dedicated to Saturn and called Saturn and in their opinion 't is generated of impure Quicksilver and a little impure Sulphur and 't is thought that not only under the Earth but in the open Air also it angments and therefore Cardanus thinks it endamages houses by its weight for its Virtues it refrigerates binds and thickens c. Fossile or Native Sulphur is naturally generated out of a certain fat portion of Earth much whereof is in Lipara Melos and such like places it is much in quality a kin to fire for if be cast upon Coals it will burn and not be extinguished till all its oleous and fat substance be wasted that Sulphur whereof your Quacking Chymists tell many vain and ridiculous stories is not common Sulphur yet 't is mixed though they assert it to be a principle of mixture But no more of that here It heats cooles resolves cures Coughs and difficulty of breathing taken in an Egg or burnt and its smoak catch'd moves Spittle mixed with Butter or Swines grease it mittigates and kills the Itch over the whole Body and mixed with Turpentine it cures Tetters Mercury or Quicksilver is the prime Idol of the Alchymists which they pronounce to be the principle of things and Sperm of Metals and indeed so true each that nothing more false for if Metalls have any Sperm 't is within themselves not else where to be sought nor will ever mixt bodies naturally resolve themselves into Salt Sulphur and Mercury though these Chymical Vulcans will be hammering them out as the Learned Philosopher and Physitian Riolanus hath proved against them This Quicksilver it s as it were the Monster of Nature which will not be subject to Natures Laws 't is more fluxible than Water more permeable than Vinegar tho it moistens not sometimes cures cold diseases sometimes hot when it seems cold it induces hot effects when hot then cold ones it sometimes hurts in small quantities always in great it easily loses it proper form and easily reassumes it and in this 't is miraculous that it often profits being taken inwardly and often causes Palsie trembling and other sad effects when apply'd outwardly Falop. de Lue Vener 't is such a Beast that can scarce be tam'd by any Art So that Galen the Prince of Physitians next Hippocrates durst not use it having learn'd of Dioscorides that it was Poysonous Its qualities are yet under debate for some from its effects say 't is cold others as Avicen whom Palmarius and others follow say 't is cold and moist Fracastorius Tomitanus and others who attribute a corroding faculty to it contend for its heat But Renodeus with Trajanus thinks it to be of a mixt quality participating of many other faculties but consisting chiefly of subtile parts for it incides attenuates penetrates melts resolves loosens the belly and what is most to be admired partly by an attractive quality attracts humors from the superficies to the Centre and excludes them by stool and partly by an impulsive faculty them from the Centre to the habit and ejects them by salivation and it often works by feige when it should salivate and ofetn salivates when it should move downward Thus much of the nature of all the Metalls and Minerals from whence the Waters proceed now a few words concerning the manner have the Waters acquire their virtues from them Now all these Waters are of a mixt not simple nature for they proceed and pass not from and through one Quarry or Vein of the Earth only but from divers and therefore acquire diverse faculties according to the divers substances which they draw along with them as for Example if a Water arises where is generated a Quarry or Vein of Sulphur from whence it passes where Iron 's generated or Lead this Water more certainly shall acquire mixt faculties to it self and yet it shall attract more of the substance of the one than the other according as any one quality makes more impression than another and many times so comes to pass that the Water proceeds from and passages through passages where the Metall or Mineral is not yet perfectly generated then you must expect it to be of an hot Nature but not so much participating of the Metal or Mineral the reason is because all Metalls and Minerals have heat for their efficient cause and therefore if the Waters pass by while the Metall or Mineral is in generating and where there is the cause of their generation which is heat they will consequently become hot whence they will prove to be actually hot and of a firery quality and this shall be more or less according the more or lesser acting of of the Heat or by reason of the longer or shorter stay of the Water or by reason of the nature quality and substance of the Matter which is more or less permiscible For that the Waters do effectually attract the Virtue of the Quarry or Vein there are three things requisite viz. that heat perfom it parts well that it acts opportunely and those things which ought to be mixt be fit to be mixt So that since these three conditions are required to the compleating the work it comes so to pass that although Water do sometimes participate of more Quarries or Veins yet it shall retain the faculties of one more than another either by reason of one of these causes viz. either because heat was more active or from its longer stay or from the Matters being more apt or lastly from all these causes conjunct Now a Quarry or Vein doth not impart its substance or faculties to the Water one manner of way only but either it so imparts it as its substance is truly and really mixt with its and those Waters and reteins their faculties for a long time and to some purpose or else they are mixt not with a true and real mixture but are only confounded and
VVater whence in some places Fire breaks out together with VVaters in some places VVater without Fire to be seen Thirdly as there is a present quantity and proportion of matter as for example a great quantity of VVater would extinguish a little Fire so that we see no River to be so hot much less a Lake least of all the Sea But since so much and lasting a Fire cannot continue without some food or maintenance therefore it must necessarily have some Matter to nourish and renew it Now this matter must be something that will burn either dry or oleagenous Lands taken from the Fens and dryed they call it roasted cannot be the fires continual matter for it is soon consum'd by the Fire and it burns only by reason of the Roots and Herbs and Grass which it contains wherefore it must be oyly fat matter Now the fatty things which are begot in the Bowels of the Earth are chiefly Marle Bitumen and Brimstone now Marle burns not nor any Earth unless it be Sulphurous or Bituminous so that we may certainly conclude that Bitumen and Brimstone and Oyls are the material cause of the hot Baths hence Baths are call'd Sacred because they abound with Sulphur with which the Ancients us'd to exprate their offences whence the Grecians call it Theion i. e. Divine For whatsoever is annointed with Oyl or Bitumen and Brimstone it presently takes fire For moist and fatty by consent of the Philosophers is the genuine food of Fire As for the nature of our Baths in Somersetshire Physitians are divided among themselves some saying one thing and some another Dr. Turner who hath wrote concerning them says they consist of Sulphur and Copper mixt together Dr. Jorà an and Dr. Venner Practitioners at the Bath will have them impregnated with Sulphur Nitre and Bitumen Dr. Venner because he judges Sulphur to have the dominion but Dr. Jordan is for Bitumen Others will have them consist of neither as Lossius who in his counsel concerning these Baths when he had given his opinion that the material cause of Baths in general was Sulphur Oyl and Bitumen tells you afterwards that the Baths in Somersetshire contein neither Brimstone nor Bitumen as having neither taste nor smell of either and says if you distill them in a Glass Alembec you will not find the least sign of either but a certain substance like Salt such as is found in Pipes through which Water runs into Cysterns and this he takes to he a kind of Nitre wherewith that ground be says doth much abound mixt with a portion of Vitriol and the Learned Dr. Meara in a Letter to Dr. Prujean before Lossius wrote concerning the cause of the Heat in these Waters tells him as a certain person of Quality was riding out of the City one day to take the Air he by chance espies a certain kind of Chalk or Marie as white as Snow springing out of the Earth like Mole-hills brings some of it home and shews it to him and Dr. Maplet which he says was of a crumbling nature and almost turning to Powder of its own accord affording a manifest sharp sowr taste without astriction but biting and begetting an inflammatory choking or stopping in the Throat that he did not doubt but that it abounded with much Vitriol and that it was not altogether void of Arsnic put into cold water it presently produc'd an ebullition as if it had been Quicks Lime and the water by degrees grew vehemently hot and since this Marle or Chalk was found in the neighbouring parts of Bath he very probably was induc'd to believe that the Bath water grew hot from this Fire And he says though he is not ignorant that Authors every where ascribe the heat of the Bath waters to Brimstone and Bitumen and though it cannot be deny'd but that there is great plenty of Bitumen in those Springs and that they are abundantly impregnated therewith as the Cure of Scabs Leprosy Ulcers c. may convince yet he doubts whether either of them has the nature of a Ferment apt to heat the Waters since both are destitute of Acidity the chief promoter of Fermentation neither can either of them cast into water produce Fermentation or Heat and whenas they are of a clammy consistence and especially the Bitumen so that the Water cannot insinuate or penetrate it self into their particles it must be concluded that they are unapt for such a Fermentation whenas the contrary is seen in that crumbly powdry and not gummy consistence of the Marle and so concludes leaving it wholly to Dr. Prujean to be judge in so obscure a case And I likewise shall not trouble the Reader with tedious Philosophical disputes upon this subject being as I told thee at first I intended a plain and practical and not an hard difficult contemplative discourse and so shall pass on in the next Chapter to shew you the use of these and other Waters or as I may say their Virtues and Vices But something first of the preparing the Body CHAP. IV. Of the manner of preparing the Body of such as intend to drink the Waters BUt most Peoples intention of going to the Waters being as I suppose to cleanse their Bodies and free them from Obstructions Stone and Gravel c. and put their Bodies in good temper and order I would advise them by all means to Prepare and Purge their Bodies before they take any of these Waters either Tunbridge Empsom Dullege or any other hereabouts or at other places as likewise at the Bath c. for if they go thither with gross foul Bodies and gorge themselves with the VVaters before they have unloaden themselves of their overfulness of Blood or bad humours they had better stay at home than to make work for the Physitian and damnifie themselves in Body and Purse Now if thou art troubled with too much blood which thou mayst know by the fulness of the Veins and heaviness and dulness of thy Body thou hadst best take away some blood to the quantity of 6 9 12 ounces according to the strengh of thy body age sex c. or thou mayst do it at twice then Purge with this or the like Take from half an ounce to an ounce of the best Sena and from a Scruple to a dram of Cream of Tartar infuse them all night in some White-wine or Ale Posset-drink strein it drink it off early in the morning or thou mayst have Electuaries or Pills at the Apothecaries if thou hadst rather a Scruple of Stomach Pills taken at night going to bed or after thy first sleep will work finely the next morning made into three or four Pills and you may go about your lawful occasions or Lenitive Electuary Catholicon and Diaprunes of each two drams taken after the same manner then you may venture to drink the VVaters any of these taken twice first If thou beest of a Choleric nature prepare thy body by boyling some Sorrel Borage Bugloss Chichory Dandelion Endive
skilful Physitians have both experienc'd and left describ'd as Galen Dioscorides Paulus Aegineta Aetius Oribasius c. who have very much nobilitated it it heats binds drys kills broad Worms helps against Toad poyson preserves moist flesh and drys up humors drives away Putrifaction roborates the inward parts outwardly it binds purges Ulcers causes Wrincles like Alum with whom it hath relation But besides these excellent qualities Vitriol hath also its bad ones for it is ill for the Stomach acrimonious corrosive and vomitous and therefore ignorant Quacksalvers and Women give it sometimes in Wine and sometimes in Rose-water in uncertain weight against Quotidian and Quartane Agues and many other Diseases and indeed the Fever is often resolv'd by vehement Vomiting but this Medicine being unskilfully Administred proves most often more formidable than the Disease Alum is as it were the Brine of the Earth whereof Dioscorides makes three sorts the Round the Liquid and the Jagged or Scissile the last is often call'd Plumeous for they are so like in form that they can scarse be distinguish'd yet they differ both in nature and qualities for the Scissile is manifestly binding and may be burnt but the other is Acrimonious and suffers not by fire Mathiolus says he saw and tasted a Liquid Alum of which he asserts that he never found any thing more Astrictive Now when Alum is simply mention'd we mean Roch-Alum which is a saltness of a Mineral Earth of a Leadish nature consisting of an acid spirit and a caustick Earthy salt and all Alum is of Crass parts binds much whence 't is call'd Stypterion in Greek because it is Styptical it heats cleanses amends putrid Ulcers dryes humid ones absumes superfluous flesh takes away itching cures the Scab and very useful in many Medicaments made for the Cure of Ulcers Bitumen which the Greeks call Asphaltes is as it were the fatness of the Earth swiming above the Waters which being cast upon the shoar thickens and becomes hard tenacious and inflamable As long as it swims on the water 't is soft but when 't is off it becomes thicker and harder and resembles dry Pitch yet easily melted at the fire Many Lakes are bituminous but especially one in India thence call'd Asphalites and the dead Sea because of its vastness and because its Water remains almost immoveable not stormy but heavy salt thick and stinking wherein neither Plants nor Animals breed neither doth it nourish such as are put into it or admit them into its bowels All Bitumen is not solid and hard but some is perpetually fluid and liquid call'd Naptha which is the streining of Babylonian Bitumen white of colour and most capacious of Fire for Fire and this are so near a kin that it will presently leap into it when near it There is also black Bitumen For its Virtues all Bitumen discusses mollifies glutinates defends from inflammation by olfaction suffumigation or imposition mends the strangling of the Womb. Naptha extenuates incides digests penetrates absumes frigid and thick humors in all parts of the Body and cures the Resolution of the Norues Palsies and diseases in the Veins and Arteries from cold cause Nitre of the same nature with the Salts Gypsum is a kind of Talk of the nature of Lime whose hot fiery caustic quality every one knows Ratsbane or Arsenic is between a Salt and a Sulphur 't is of such an acrimonious corroding hot quality that it will burn to a crust dissolving destroying and preying upon the Principles of Life malignant and an Enemy to all Natural parts and to the Radidical moisture and innate heat and therefore was very ill advis'd of Nich. Alexanarinus to prescribe it for an Ingredient in the great Athanasia says the great man of skill in the Materia Medica Johannes Renodeus for by permixtion with other Medicaments it doth not depose its malignity The Learned Schroder says 't is one of the highest Poysons for besides its acrimony it is an Enemy to our Natural Balsam of Life so that it brings strange symptoms not only tataken inwardly but apply'd outwardly as Convulsions numness of Hands and Feet cold Sweats Palpitations Faintings Vomitings Corrosions and Torments Thirst c. Cadmia Metallic 't is the Stone out of which Brass is drawn and is call'd Brass-Ore which Artificers use in making Yellow Brass which the Shopmen call Aurichalcum or Orichalcum and 't is probable this is the Stone which Albertus Magnus calls Didachos or the Devils-stone Cadmia disiccates gently absterges and helps humid and putrid Ulcers and draws them to scars Schroder says 't is Caustic and that it ulcerates the Hands and Feet of the Miners and taken inwardly kills all Creatures Antimony or Stibium or the seventh Metall which some say is Mercury others Ambar but neither of these are more than in a potency to be Metalls a grand Alchymistical Quacksalving Idol the sole Empyrical Chymical Cathartic whereby they boast to cure all Diseases but it most devilshly disturbs mens Ventricles by moving upwards and downwards others it miserably torments by vigorous Purging some it kills and restores very few to perfect health One Cornelius Gemma a Physitian of Lovain relates how a Paracelsian English Quacksalver being himself and his Wife sick of a Fever took himself and gave to his Wife that which they call prepared Antimony whereupon she fell quickly distracted and changed her Life yet valid with death and he complaining of Dreams and continual Watchings seven days after his Dejection began to Rave from that he became Epileptical from his Epilepsie he fell into a Lethargy being therewithal somewhat Apoplectical when he had been three days in that sopor he fell again to his raving and was so agitated with fury that not long after he expir'd and pass'd from his conjugal Bed to his conjugal Tomb and howsoever the Chymists cry up their Preparations of Antimony yet as able Physitians as any in the World forbear to exhibit them because they have much better Medicaments wherewith they may more securely cure any Disease And I could give a large account of the dismal Accidents that I have known happen by the administring of Antimony and my ever honoured Master Dr. Patin Regins Professor in Physick in the Famous University of Paris wrote a Book which he call'd the Martyrology of Antimony Chrysocolle which the Shopmen following the Barbarous Mauritanian Idiome call it Borax is found in the Golden Silver and sometimes Brazen Mines in Armenia Macedonia and Cyprus it heats checks supersluous flesh and is mordacious it produces Ulcers to sanity but taken at the Mouth 't is perillous says Renodeus Ochre is a kind of Yellow Earth much commended in Affrica not lapideous but friable clayey and sinooth it binds corrodes discusses Tumors and represses Excrescences Gold is the greatest Cordial in the Pocket most certainly for omne cordiacum debet esse Bumidum Calidum aurum autem est frigidum sicum i.e. every Cordial ought to be moist and hot but Gold