Essential ones That which I shall take notice of here is the Prevention of the Generation of the Stone because their Pretention that makes them here Competitors is a Propriety of this Kind of Mineral Waters which is explain'd in this History and confirms it and was never before discover'd or understood The Purging Waters owing their Virtues wholly to their Salts are much more various in their Nature and the Ignorance of the different Nature of these Salts has made their different Effects unquestion'd and so hitherto to escape Observation and though the Subtilty and Fluxilness of some of these Salts and not of others may seem to most Men too slight to deserve Consideration and has neither been observ'd nor inquir'd into yet it is most certain that those very Qualities give the Waters a different Capacity Epsom and Acton which both bear only this kind of Salt that neither admits of Christallizing nor abides the Warmth of a Temperate Hand on this Account as they are more Effectual in Grosser Bodies so in Leaner in the very same Cases prevail not nor agree And on the same Score I have found them Effectual in some old Cholicks and Cramps where the Passages and Vessels that wanted cleansing were very small or the Matter glutinous or viscous The same Qualifications which these Waters have for deterging and are conspicuous in the Galling of the Arcus and Urinary Passage that attends often the Operation of these Waters above what is usually observ'd in drinking the others may reasonably enough have an advantageous Use likewise in Ulcers of the Kidneys in a cautious and judicious Hand and they often have been by me observed to be successful in some Obstructions of them which together with the Inconvenience of an Ischuria that sometimes attends their improper or unseasonable Use makes this Consideration to merit our Attention and besides the Softness of the Salt I am speaking of may give rise to a Thought that some emollient or relaxing Quality may be communicated in some cases as in Melancholy for example above what other Waters can be expected to exert But besides the Qualities now consider'd this History will inform us of Differences of the Salts of these Purging Waters in more essential Qualities and that these are almost as many as the Waters whereof some few stand at such a distance as Alkalys and Sea-salt and their Virtues are so proportionably distant that till I consider'd that the Knowledge of the first assisted me in the Observation of the latter I was apt to wonder how so frequent Instances should slip the regard of even the most considerable Men it is familiar for Scorbutick Indispositions to be relievd by one Water and aggravated by another I have known Instances of a Scorbutick Scabies and a Leprous Disease each increas'd by drinking the Water of Brentwood-weal which abated upon the use of Woodham Ferrys And this is the clearer and fairer Example because both these Diseases have been effectually cured by Lambeth Water And I may observe that this makes much for the Validity of this Account that the discoverable Qualities of the Salts of these Waters so justly correspond with their experimented Virtues for which reason in treating of those Waters now nam'd I have oppos'd or compar'd the Qualities of them to each other Indeed though the clear and convincing Detection of their Differences and of the Salts they bear relation to be only subject to nice Essays yet they confess to the bare Taste wide differences some being Bitter more Saline some some Sweet some Insipid or near the Taste of common Water some have a Vitriolick Sweetness some are Austere c. which hitherto has escap'd Observation So that Mineral Waters seem one of the greatest as well as the most useful Branches of the Materia Medica In sum It is by the understanding their Origine and Nature that we can ascertain Rules and distinguish Errors in taking them readily discover their proper Uses and by directing to other Cases and Distempers in which they may be applicable on the same Reason and Account may improve and advance their Virtues And besides the least piece of Service this does in the recording their Uses and giving those Signs that may direct the Discovery of other Wells with the advantage of an Example to direct the proving them is not inconsiderable The Benefit of all this that I may not seem to abound in my own Sense I shall give in the words of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society All which being consider'd we cannot but add That whoever discovers such Healing Waters and publickly prescribes the safe and right Use of them does really distribute larger and nobler Alms than if he built and endow'd a Savoy for this prolongs Life and restores Health which is sometimes better than Life both to Rich and Poor to Natives and Strangers to Neighbours and Travellers According to this Design the History of these Waters will come under these three Heads The General History of them The Essays of the several Waters and then their Uses I shall treat of these two Kinds of Waters distinctly and observe that order that Repetition may be avoided and the former parts of the Discourse may enlighten the latter Of the Nature of Common Water THere are many Questions which seem to lye in my way to be discuss'd as of the Origine of Springs Nature and Origine of Mineral Juyces and Vitriols Of the Causes of the Heat of the Earth c. which the following History makes to disappear I shall therefore avoid the Prolixity caused by such Disputes and only make some Remarks on the Affections and Nature of Simple or Common Water which may help us to the better conceiving of the Nature of Mineral ones 1. Waters receive their Salts of the Earths they wash 2. Common Water holds no Metalline parts nor will receive any Mineral Acids being necessary for Vitriols And though gravelly Waters just at their Eruption will take so much of an Iron as with Galls will make Ink yet that the Acidity belch'd up at those places is a distinct thing and not of the same Original is evident in that the Water looses that Quality a few Yards from the Spring and then ceases to take any discoverable Parts or Qualities from either Iron or Copper or Brass 3. All Waters flow on a Loam or fat heavy Earth such as Tiles are made of and there is a dead heavy sort of it known by its Blackness Weight and Stonyness which is the common Floor of Springs and is therefore call'd in Norfolk the Pan of the Earth beyond which no Pump-maker expects to find Water or attempts to dig for it All the Earth above this approaches to a Nitre being so much the more Nitrous by how much more it is wrought on by the Sun and Air Nitre being receiv'd as a Name for any Native Salt of the Superficial Earth by the Sun and Air produced or separated which is void of
Stones and Sticks they pass over That this stony Matter is precipitated out of other Waters which flow into it by the Virtue of this Water and proceeds not from the Chalybear Water it self beside the Argument that may be drawn from the Lightness in weight of the Chalybeat appears fully demonstrated at many Springs indeed at all where the rill of common Water runs along the side of the Soyl whence the Chalybeat issues especially when it is in a Meadow as it was at Felstead where I first observ'd it no Incrustation or Precipitation of stony Matter being to be found either in the Meadow where the Chalybeat lyes or above before the other Water joyns it The Water I now nam'd is one of the light sort being near ten Grains in seven Ounces lighter than common Water and the Water that joyns it a hard gravelly one which with Tincture of Logwood gave a Rasberry red as Acids which is not amiss to mention The Reason which I intimated above to be from the differing Natures of Nitres and Vitriols may help make this intelligible The Lightness in weight of the Chalybeat Waters that as they are void of Salt may properly enough be said to be more simple is owing to the same Cause and proves the same thing being not from difference of the Season as is usually judg'd which can never make it lighter than even that Rain-water distill'd that must render it so but from the Depuration it has receiv'd by the Precipitation of the Earthy parts And the Property is the same by which these Waters even in Human or Animal Bodies Cure the Stone by removing the Disposition to it as well as early Precipitation of the Matter and this Virtue in the Waters is so constant as to have made them Famous in this particular The last considerable Sign and Attendant of these Waters is the Bituminous Scum appearing on them how far the fatness of the Earth of these Waters is assisting in separating this Spirit or whether it is the Effect of it is not plain nor very material to learn That it is of the Nature of common Salt to assist in the Separation of Oyly parts is evident in pickling Roses and distilling Oyls but whether it be from this or the Putridness of the Soyl and Earth I shall submit and leave These Waters differ not only in Degrees of Hardness and Coldness which is best taken notice of in the Examination of each Water but may be distinguish'd into these two Heads 1. The Light ones which have more of the Spirituous Parts of the Vitrioline Spirit and more Simply 2. The Heavy ones that contain a Salt approaching to a Nitre or is Nitrous Of the Heavy ones first and then I ascend to the Lighter which thereby may be illustrated The First Class Chalybeat Waters that contain a Nitrous Salt and equal at least common Water in weight THE Salt of these Waters I conclude to be owing to the Soyle because it is found to be of the same Nature and has some Differences but those being small I omit and forbear insisting upon them In the general Design of the use of Chalybeats these Nitrous Waters are not so Effectual and the more Nitrous the worse by which I mean the more Alkalisat which is easily prov'd by the early Precipitation of the Black and the change towards a Green which is the Effect of Alkalys with Ink though at first they change the Blew Black into a Purple The Characteristick Notes of these Waters beside the weight are to drop the Inky colour they receive with Gall to take a high colour with Lignum Nephriticum and when the Water has stood to be effete it will not precipitate Silver out of Spirit of Nitre I have not found any of this kind so fully Nitrous or Alkalisat as to trouble a Solution of Sublimate much less to precipitate it Yellow both which indeed are inconsistent with Vitriols nor any that bear a Salt of the Nature of Saltpetre A Water in a Field adjoyning to the Right Honourable the Earl of Manchester's Place at Leez in Essex THis Spring is in a Gravel and is so small as to be considerable only in that it is in a breeding Pond This Water disturbs not a Solution of Sublimate in fair Water it render'd milky a Solution of Sal Saturni by which it distinguish'd it self from Saltpetre but yet not much more than Saltpetres second Salt does With Lignum Nephriticum it gave a pale Yellow and not fine exactly the colour of small Beer which at four days end precipitated so as to leave just the top of the Liquor clear The Water kept till it had lost its Spirit and with that its power of striking black with Gall which was 24 hours essay'd with Gall was thick and dirty white which precipitated in the former Experiment shewing an Affinity with common Salt in this with Nitrous It is much of the weight of common Water and takes a blew black with Galls The Water at Witham in Essex in Sir Edward Southcot's Ground WITH Gall a deep Purple turning to Ink not very clear and with Lignum Nephriticum a faint dull reddish I judged this to have more of the nature of the Salt of common Water and that the Spirit of this Water to be a little finer than the other sort which give a direct Black with Gall because distill'd Acids give this Red. The Red that Alkalys give turns greenish upon standing these Waters are all inclin'd to the same The Chalybeat Water of Knarsborough in Yorkshire KNarsborough Water as Dr. French relates is of a Vitrioline Taste and Odour The Water riseth in a moorish boggy Ground within less than half a Mile from which there is no considerable Ascent and springeth directly up from the Sandy bottom It is of the same weight with common Spring Water The colour with Syrup of Violets is much the same as in the Chalybeat Waters at Islington and Hamstead not so intense as in Tunbridge or the German Spa as the Learned Dr. Tancred Robinson my Informer prov'd it at the Spring And as this colour is not so deep as that made by Vitriols so the residuous dark colour'd Earth after Evaporation was insipid The pitch of the Volatility of the Spirituous part of this Water is observable in that it tinctur'd with Powder of Galls at two days end and suffer'd not by Warming yet lost that Quality wholly in Distilling Neither does this Water coagulate Milk The Redness that this Water takes with Galls is effected by spirituous or distill'd Acids unmix'd with gross Salt of the Soyle of a Forreign Nature which would disturb the Colour and the larger Proportion of the Acid to the Steel or the very small quantity of the last may effect it But the Quantity of the Acid Spirit must be judg'd here to be considerable For the Nature of the Acidity I have before distinguish'd it by the Effects and so need here only observe it to be Vitrioline
or of the Nature of Spirit of Vitriol which is Essential to the Precipitations Marks-Hall Water in Essex THIS Water joyning another in crusts as do the rest it is much the same with the preceding containing little Steel but a large share of an Acid not so Fugitive as where it is in less quantity or ill coupled with a Salt It gave a bright Red a very little purplish not so deep as the preceding The Colour it advanc'd with Gall it lost again two days after without Precipitation of any Ferrugineous parts in which it differs from other Chalybeats It rendred a Solution of Sal Saturni troubled but not very milky much as the rest and it tinctur'd a high Yellow with Lignum Nephriticum as do Nitres and a little clouded It weigh'd likewise as the other just the weight of common Water Ilmington Water in Warwickshire THIS Water of Ilmington being of the same heavy kind and which as I observe above require less Accuracy I shall give the Examination of it out of Dr. Derham's Account of it With Syrup of Violets it turned Green with Galls Purple like Martial Vitrioline Waters It exceeded common Water in weight near half a Dram in a Pint being weigh'd in a dry Season Indeed it is much the heaviest of this kind in England for it purges not as he informs us p. 53. but by Urine However That it cannot vie with the lighter Chalybeats in Virtue I shall explain in treating of their Virtues The Water in an open Bottle drop'd its Ocre and with that its power of Tinging with Galls in twelve hours time that is a great part of it which it did not begin to do in a Bottle well stop'd under a Fortnight p. 88. It yielded a Salt of an irregular shape upon the residue after distilling Acid Spirits wrought with great Effervescence and not Alkalysat p. 82. The Salt was pale and would not flagrate p. 60. nor coagulate Milk p. 77. The Earth like Red Ocar and is contain'd in great quantity a Quart yielding near a Spoonsul It appears hence that the Salt of this Water is of an Alkalisat Nature and that it differs from the Salt of Fat Mellow or Loamy Earths which Purge as we shall find in the latter part of this History Aylesham Water in the County of Norfolk THIS Water is in a Gravel it has prevail'd in Fame and Resort over Oulton Water in the same County which is a lighter and far more effectual Water partly from the more convenient Situation of the place and partly from the wrong Estimate that is made of Chalybeat Waters by those that jndge of their Goodness by the depth of their Tinging with Galls It is heavier a little than ordinary Gravel Water with Galls or Oken leaves takes a blew black and makes a direct Ink as do those Waters whose Salt has somewhat of the Nature of common Salt That the Metalline parts of these Waters are purely Chalybeat I inform'd my self not in all but in some as that at Leez and some other smaller ones by exposing to the Air the subsident Okar lightly calcin'd with Sea-salt which would discover Copper if any were in it and besides by the colour they give upon Tryals with Gall the blew black colour being proper to Vitriol of Iron The lesser Springs of this kind are very numerous in Gravelly Countries scarce a Village without one upon the preceding Instances of them I shall make Observation of their differences and the Classes they must be reduc'd into whereinto yet I did not adventure to digest them lest in the Sense of others the difference should appear only gradual These weighty Waters are either 1. the more pure and simple Acidulae which bear less of the Steel retain their Acidity longer and have not their colour with Gall dark or disturbâ—d as the other sort nor contain any Salt collectible of this sort seems Knaresborough and which is yet the higher of this kind Marks hall Water which gives a thin and bright Red with Gall scarce beyond a Rasberry and loseeh its quality of Tinging without Precipitation of Okar is of a pleasing acid Taste as it were winy and yet gives not the proof with Lignum Nephriticum that Vitriols do or Spirit of Salt but thickish reddish and cloudy as the Seminitrous Salt shot in Cellars Or 2ly Atramentous which give a full Black with Gall and with respect to the colour they give they are either blewish or reddish the reddish as that at Wittham kept a Week will be thickish and turbid with Gall but disturb not a Solution of fine Silver in Spirit of Nitre which the Leez Water which gives a blew black being more related to common Salt did in a great measure precipitate Another difference that is considerable in these Waters is the bulk or quantity of Salt they contain as the Illmington Water proves which is not only much heavier than other Waters but varies in its Effects and equally to the grossness of the Salt neither reaches the recesses of Nature so far nor passes so well To obviate some Objections I shall observe that the Reason why these Waters which are equally with the other sort capacitated to precipitate the earthly parts out of gravelly Water are not likewise equally qualified with Lightness by the same Vitrioline Spirit is because the Salt of these Waters is so far Vitrioline as to be apt to joyn a Chalybeat Acid and consist with it but yet to be separated by Heat and is in some small measure of Nature the same with that which is an Ingredient in Vitriols for the Liquor of Vitriols if boyl'd with too great a Fire will precipitate their Ferrugineous parts which the Boylers cure by adding more Iron to it And these Waters after they have drop'd the Okar and cease to tinge Galls with Iron will become Atramentous again the first Alteration being chiefly perform'd by the Mortification of the Esurine Salt by the Nitrous For besides the Argument drawn from the not abiding of the Steel in these Waters the Nitrous Nature of the Salt is conspicuous in its high colour it takes with Lignum Nephriticum which Vitriols give not nor do the light Chalybeat Waters that proceed from a Ground where the Soyl is Fat and Bituminous as I observ'd that at Felstead to be and which yields little or no Salt Of the Waters that are Light and purely Chalybeat I Have clear'd the Reason of the Lightness of these Waters and with that have asserted the Nature of the Spirit to be Vitrioline since all those Waters are found to be so where these Incrustations are found And as the weighty Waters take a full high yellow Tincture from Lignum Nephriticum so this light sort take no slain with the same Wood but retain their colour only disturb'd with a light white Cloud flying in it Lignum Nephriticum makes no alteration in a Solution of Vitriol nor in Water sharpened with Oyl of Vitriol These Waters do not well conserve
it that the Stone was invested with Gypsum bâ—t not divided by it as the rest and was of a lighter colour near that of ashes not high burnt The Stone of Dulwich again resembled the rest but had many shining Particles appearing as in Marcasites Their differences and different Reasons follow by and by in their Essays and will be found agreeable to the account of the Waters where they will be found to have no Essential difference from any Metalline parts or other besides what the differing nature of their Salts import which from their differing depth and remoteness from Nitre makes the Stone proportionably Marcasitical or vary with the Soile The shining of some of these Stones I referr'd to the Marcasitical Nature of the Juyce and found the same Particles natural to the dead Loam whence this Juyce seems to be deriv'd which seem'd to imply that the difference of this Juyce consisted not in any accession of Mineral parts but difference of Digestion and the Qualities the different Region may give it I observ'd among my other Essays of these Stones that when by Fusion with fine Glass I endeavour'd to discover any Mineral Tincture though I discover'd not any yet the Dullwich Stone in the same Fire and at the same time pierc'd the Vessel it was melted in which was of Tobacco-pipe Clay and made it break smooth and shining like China Earth which the other Stones did not effect The Gellying of these Stones in 〈◊〉 to me imported the same it being the â—â—ture of differing Marcasites to form a Butter with the same Salts from which yet these differ'd in that these afforded it not by Sublimation which I try'd And from the Nature of this Juyce the Dullwich Water seems to derive the unkindliness of its Effects which bears not drinking with the same freedom as others being more cold and heavy on the Stomach The further inquiry into the Nature of these Stones and Juyce informing them and how they have reference to these Waters comes in its place The harmlesness of this Juyce appears in the Epsam Stone which is more lax and open being not harder than a Chalk which shew'd its Original but not the Essence of its Purging to require the unalter'd Juyce That the Epsam Stone is the same with the other appear'd in that some parts of it as well as some parts of the Gypseous Earth would gelly in Aqua fortis as well as the other especially those parts where the Selenites shot Else the Infusion of this Stone gave a Green with Syrup of Violets which the others gave not Having thus found the constant Mineral Qualifications of these Wells and Indicia of the Waters it will be satisfactory now to observe more closely the Waters and in what or how they agree And these power to be the same in Original and Nature further 1. That the Taste is common to the Waters as well the Selenitical or wherein the Selenites are form'd as the other sort which are found in a constant loamy Clay and even and this in all its differences For the smooth Taste of Richmond Waters is match'd by the Colchester the Bitterness of Epsam in Dullwich and a little in Brentwood-weal Besides there is somewhat of a common Taste to all so that may assist us in discovering their Principles 2. The Salt though it differs some being figur'd and some not of the latter sort being Epsam and Acton some melting difficultly some easily with the heat of a temperate Hand as the Salt of the same Waters do yet it agrees in its Nature between a Nitre and a Vitriol joyning with Vitriols and not precipitating them freedom from any Corrosive Qualities and Temper in which is a Union of Acidity and Nitre and working a little both with Acids and Alkalys and having these Qualities the same with the Salts they are affine to 3. In their Virtues not only in the Faculty of Purging but in helping the Appetite allaying Hypochondriack Flatus and the like Effects which are Vitrioline Now the Purging Wells are of two sorts The first affording a Stone call'd by Naturalists the Selenites which is shot in the Clay where the Water issues and these Wells always afford veins of putrid Iron together with the Selenites and some quantities of pleasant Acid Juyce like Spirit of Sulphur or Vitriol in a condens'd coagulated form or mix'd with the Earth and lying in yellow or Ferrugineous Veins Thus both at Epsam and Woodham-Ferrys I found it by examining the Wells when new dug The other sort have no differing face consisting of an uniform Loam to the bottom I shall first give a short view of the proofs by which we may be sure we are rightly fix'd upon the true Ingredients or Principles and then examine their Nature and Reason of their Production That the Matter which these Wells exhibit to our view are the very Principles of the Purging Salt of these Waters and parcels of the Matter is proved by these following Particulars 1. The Nature of the Purging Salts varies as these vary as may be observed by the comparing the Essays of the Waters with the Tryals of the Stones and by softness of the Salt of the Selenitical 2. The same Ingredients and Matter found in all and account for what they differ in and from the preceding Uniformity 3. It is not of a deeper Original because where-ever these Ingredients are found there is likewise the Purging Water but beyond these marks is never any thing found but a dead Loam unpassable to Water and unopen to yield Salt And this is clear in the Selenitical Water at Epsam where neither Water nor Selenites are found lower though attempted some feet lower to enlarge the Spring which proved only common dead Loam 4. Not of a wider Derivation none of the same Waters lying in the neighbouring Earth whence these Springs may be suspected to descend nor any of the Indexes of them nor any Metals or Mineral bodies Nor indeed are these Earths found lying over any Mines constant at least as these Signs are 5. Another most evident sign that the Principles are here rightly fix'd is That the Species of these Waters which afford the Selenites we have a clear and good account of from all Naturalists to proceed only from a mixture of Loam and Chalk-stone and perhaps a little Iron and never to be found over any Mine but over Quarries of Chalk or Stone Which is a sufficient Argument and the more considerable in that they never took notice of the Purging Qualities of the Waters 6. The Signs and Qualifications of these Wells before recited are proper to them only 7. Another Argument is to be drawn from the Disposition of this Earth to produce a Salt as is seen in its Efflorescence 8. From the softness of the Salt of the Selenitical Waters which will be understood and compar'd in the following account 9. Their Innocence regular Variation and that these Principles account for all their Phaenomena
prove the Salt of these Waters to be the genuine and natural Product of these Principles To all which add That the Purging and Medicinal Qualities resides in the Salt and that the open nature of Clays would discover any Mineral or Metal concern'd and not conceal more than we may observe That we may understand whence or to what is this Salt owing the Original of the Salt and nature both of the Earth and Juyces concern'd in the Production of it I proceed now to examine the Principles The Principles or Ingredients that impregnate the Purging Waters examin'd HAving thus traced the Production of this Salt and determin'd it to the Earth through which the Wells are sunk and Mineral Stone or Juyce contain'd in these Stones we come now to examine these their Nature and what parts of these enter the Composition or how they are concern'd in the Production of this Salt And upon due Essays of these Earths and Stones we shall find in general an Earth rich of Salt Chalybeat or Ferreous parts a Mineral Juyce out of which this Salt seems form'd and we may observe the Salt of the upper Soile somewhat concern'd in and that on the Varieties of the two last the Varieties of the Waters do depend And these I shall enquire into as to their Original and Nature The Earth in which these Wells are and which yields this Salt is a Loamy Clay more mellow and more of a Clay toward the Surface but more loamy toward the bottom The inner Earth is such as our Tiles are made of at Richmond at Epsam they dig both Brick and Tyle Earth too as I remember out of the Hill yielding these Springs So I need not describe the Earth it being known that the ponderous close and fat is used for Tiles and the looser for Bricks The colour of these Earths vary a little and though usually Brown yet in some that colour is brightned near a Gray The Earth of these Springs is sound of these two kinds constantly either a meer Clay of the same face to the bottom as are the Wells where the Salt is Christalliz'd or firm and figur'd or the same Clay mix'd with Veins of Iron and pleasantly Acid Juyce like Spirit of Vitriol and interspersed with Selenites which are form'd in it The Wells where they dig only a pure loamy Clay ever toward the bottom which is seldom more than twelve Feet and I think never more than twenty in depth receives the Water from the sides issuing from between the Stones before describ'd and nothing besides is observable in these Wells Now not only the face and figure of the Salt but its Nature likewise acknowledge this Earth as its natural Patent and all is confirm'd in the manner of its Production The form of the Salt of the Wells usually resembles the Salt shot about them upon the Surface of the Earth which at some is in Stiriae at some appears only like a soft mould The Nature of it is middle between a Nitre and a Vitriol which agrees well with the Earth it is form'd of Nitrous Earths requiring slackning in the open Air. And the manner of the Production of this Salt is fully as agreeable to this account for it is not only at these Wells that this sort of Earth shoots this Nitrous Efflorescence but at all other places it is observable as frequently in Ditches and where-ever it is cast up by the Tile makers and which is worth a Remark as discovering the Reason or Manner of its Production it is to be noted That this Efflorescence appears only where the Air is moist or damp and confin'd This I observe not only to account for the Production of this Salt in Subterraneous Channels but also for the difference of the Salt of the Water from that shooting on the Surface that the Salt of the Water is more Fusil and retains more of the Acid part of the Salt which is collected in proportion to the Closeness and the Moistness or Coldness of the place And as a further Illustration and proof of what I assert I shall give the Reader one or two Essays of Loam taken from common Pits for the making of Tiles which prove that this Earth contains a Salt that may be extracted and hint the manner of its Extraction For although no Loam yields any Salt to an Infusion of boyling Water yet I found that Water sharpened with Oyl of Vitriol or common Salt or Spirit of Salt would extract a Salt and which is yet more that Lime water would slacken it and make it yield one I shall give the Examen of Loam opened by Spirit of Nitre and Spirit of Vitriol Loam Water made by Infusion of common Water sharpned with Spirit of Nitre gave with Tincture of Logwood a pale dusky Tawny Gall a faint blewish Black not thick Syrup of Cloves a dusky Red and palish Sal Absynthii a white curdle which easily dissolv'd in washing and left little Earth Syrup of Violets a bright Red. It differ'd little in taste from what the Spirit of Nitre gave Loam Water two Pounds with Spirit of Vitriol two Drams infused a Week had the maâ—kish taste of the Purging Waters With Tincture of Logwood a sooty dusky colour a little reddish Syrup of Cloves a red not bright Sal Absynthii a white Curdle not easily soluble Syr. of Violets a purplish Red. Sublimate Water no alteration Loam Water made with common Salt With Tincture of Logwood a bright Red. The Salts of these Infusions were collected by evaporating I shall note that these Infusions will detect some Ferrugineous parts in Loam and which seem separated in the Selenitical Earth rather than added The Salt that these Loamy Clays yield as it is of a common Origine with that of common Earth or upper Soile so it seems to vary much on that account with the neighbouring Earth but that this should be so very rich in generating it must be from the more Saline Nature of this Earth or from plenty of some Menstruum to extract it the first may be from the continuation of this Earth with the grand Matrix which in others in intercepted by Lays of Gravel or the like The latter may be from Juyce which is in a sort Vitrioline And the closeness of this Clay does much contribute to this Collection as well as the coldness of it But the Nature of this Juyce comes next to be examin'd under the Essay of the Stones which are Parcels of this Loamy Earth The Stones then which are the proper Index of these Wells and which from their Nature are apt to receive Mineral or Metalline parts must be supposed to contain part of the Ingredients at least of this Salt The Stones I prov'd severally from the several Wells whence I took them my self the Hydrostatical weight of which with some other Essays I shall more conveniently place at the end of this Account I proved them by Ustion or Roasting by Calcination by Sublimation by
is a natural Effect of a Plethora yet it must be allowed to be but answerable to the Quality of the Salt Epsam Salt hath a Qualification of softness to penetrate farther than others without Obstruction of the nature of Spirit of Nitre and so can both incide and mellow what it meets with The searching Quality of this Salt I have known universally complain'd of as raking and so heating by lean Persons both Men and Women but upon the same reason it is the most extraordinary Purge for grosser Bodies To know rightly the Intentions these Salts satisfie requires a good Understanding of the Nature of the Disease which here cannot be insisted upon only I shall give you one Instance in the Use of Epsam Water in Melancholy whether natural Melancholy be not produced by the Formation of the Vessels and Complication rather than by the nature of the Juyces I dispute not nor how the Brain is concerned The Disease effectively demonstrates it self to consist in the due Separation or discharge of the Excrements of the Body hindered and through want of that Salt that should be separated with them to promote their Expulsion whence their Spittle is fresh and stinking their Body bound and which is perhaps the Original of all this the Blood allows not of a due Separation of Choler and other parts that Nature alots to be amended In all these Intentions Epsam Water or Salt recommends it self by its calcarious Salt to advance the Heat and florid State of the Blood and mix with it by its Acidity to penetrate and incide yet not of power to precipitate and harden but above all by its Softness and Liquibility in Heat or Moisture it is disposed not only to cleanse but to render the Blood fluid and mellow and leave the Vessels lax And that I am right here and not wide from Experience it may be proper to inform the Reader that I have known this Disease cured by this Water only in those Persons who have taken the other Waters as well as other Medicines ineffectually And as Nitrous or Alkalisate Salts raise the Fermentation of the Blood which is the same Effect which they have on Liquors so Acids correct and suppress it The Effect of one is ever discernable by flushing Heats and the happy Effects they have in Malignant Feavers and the power of the last in correcting the Heat of the Blood and putting the Salt in condition for a Discharge is evident in the use of Acids in those Feavers that are attended with Exanthemata And this I mention because in the Choice of a Purging Water for Prevention of Sickness as they are often drank the Nature of the Feaver on foot ought to be consider'd I wave that and proceed to the Classes of the Waters and their several Virtues The Waters agree in general to create or restore an Appetite suppress Wind and relieve Hypoâ—hondriacism But the Virtues that result from their Specifick Nature both from my Judgment and Experience in many of them stand thus 1. A Water containing a Salt somewhat of the Nature of Salt of Chalk but more resembling the Spirit than body of Nitre and not corrosive Of this kind is Epsam whose Salt is unfigur'd or ungrain'd and melts in the warmth of a hand The Cases a Salt of this Nature is adequate to are Melancholy Cholicks and Cholical Pains in the Stomach Obstructions of the Glands and accordingly Heart-burning Pains in the Sides and any parts of the Body if not too confirm'd Scurvy Vertigo it cleanses gross Bodies and safely lessens Fatness relieves Redness of the Face relaxes a costive Disposition and cleanses the Kidneys and perhaps in Ulcers of the Kidneys or other parts may fitly precede Chalybeats 2. A Water more calcarious and whose Salt is more of the Nature of the Nitre of the Earth than of the Spirit such are Acton Barnet and Stretham Waters these I judge proper in the Stone Gout Diseases of the Lungs without Inflammation and for Heart-burning and where-ever the Intention of Sweetning the Blood is required or raising the warmth and heat of it this may be a suitable Purge and are good in Melancholy wherein Acton claims the next place to Epsam They restore a good Colour to the Face and remove or cure the falling away of the Flesh and promote Fatning 3. A Water whose Salt is Alkalisate and resembles Salt of Tartar and the Sulphurous Salts of Vegetables though not perfectly and as is Vpminster may be supposed to have the power of sweetning Acidities in remoter parts of the Body strengthens the Stomach checks Vomiting and where Alkalies suit is a good Diuretick and is a proper Purge where the Body has a Disposition to Agues or Dropsies only here the Salt is preferable to the Water as it may be taken in a more proper Vehicle 4. A Salt Alkalisate with a very hard coagulating Acidity namely Brentwood-weal hath the advantage of an Alkaly to sweeten the Blood but with Astriction it increases flushing Heats Scurfyness and Leprous Humours but is beneficial in any Fluxes through Coldness and Weakness and to the Hypochondriacal whose natural Temper is such checks the Catamenia and may be good to prevent Abortion back'd with Chalybeats 5. A Salt Alkalisate approaching a Saltpetre is that of the Water of Kensington the Virtues of an Alkaly appear before as relating to Saltpetre it may be more Diuretick it tempers Choler allays Thirst suppresseth inflammatory and putrid Heat and easeth Pain The Earth contained in this Water is so much in quantity and the leafy hard parts so many that I should think the Salt of this Water to be preferable to the Water it self Or else the Water ought to be boyl'd till half be evaporated and then depurated by suffering the grosser parts to subside All the Waters following partake of the Nature of a Vitrioline or common Salt or Sea-salt and so resist Putrifaction make a strong Concoction are proper in Worms may cure a Jaundies when it comes upon a Colick mortifie Scabs and remove Scurfyness and kill several Humours as Tetters and the like Eruptions their particular Natures are as follow 6. Waters which bear a Salt related to common Salt but clear of the Muriatick part are Alford in Somersetshire and Colchester To restore an Appetite for Worms and mortifying Eruptions and Hypochondriack Flatus 7. A Salt more fully of the Nature of common or Sea salt in its power of mortifying preternatural Salts in the Body without the severity of coagulating is found in Lambeth Waters whereof the nearest Well is the most perfect The Virtues see in the Examination of that Water Only observe that these are used outwardly as well as inwardly 8. A Salt of the Nature of that part of common Salt which Christallizes in the cold is found in North-Hall Water and may be beneficial in the Scurvy beyond any others as likewise in Rhumatisms and in what cases soever that are attended with Putrefaction 9. A Salt of the
of the heavy and less effectual sort in the more nice Cases and its Salt approaching to an Alkaly and scarcely curdles with Soap or liquid Salt of Tartar not so much as our gravelly Pump-water nor disturbs a Solution of fine Silver in Spirit of Niter so much And to this agrees the Observation of the French Academists All which I offer to be consider'd and examin'd by Physicians who may get it more fresh than mine were and observe their Use. ERRATA PAge 36. Line 23. Observ'd by add Dr. Lower p. 67. dele quin. p. 69. for pents read pends Where Mr. Simson is mentioned read Symonds p. 113. at the bottom before unacquainted dele not p. 113. l. 12. after at one insert end p. 115. for fessil read Fissil p. 116. l. 15. after hand add except Salts a little more mix'd as those of Kensington and Woodham-Ferrys p. 126. l. 15. after Acidity for of read and. p. 134. l. 15. for Camellae read Lamellae To the Class of North-hall Water where the Nature is determin'd to resemble Spirit of Salt add and to partake of Spirit of Vitriol and may be a peculiar in the Stone and Stoppage of Vrine The Colchester Selenites was found in a Bed of blewish Clay as my Worthy Friend Mr. John Luffkin of that Town since informed me And other escapes may be that the Reader may easily correct THE Natural History OF THE Chalybeat and Purging Waters OF ENGLAND The Introduction THE Method which I thought reasonable to take to get an Account of these Waters and which affords the Minutes of this History was the examining the several Wells and particular Matter of them and tracing their Earths and Springs by the help of their proper Signs and then to add to these the Essays of the Waters And the Universality and Accuracy of this Inquiry have distinguish'd it by the Success of a clear Discovery of their Principles I am not ignorant that this History as it is an exact Examination of the Nature and Origin of Waters so much in use and as it may advance and he helpful to a General History of Mineral Waters needs nothing to recommend it yet Use being the Design of this Treatise and because to give the Reader a View of the Benefits proposed by it may facilitate the understanding of it I shall shew that the Usefulness of this Inquiry is fully proportioned to the Difficulty of attaining it For besides the Satisfaction to the Drinkers of them which ariseth from the Knowledge of their Principles the Effects of the Chalybeat and Purging Waters of England are so great and the Cures perform'd by them in Obstinate and the less understood Distempers are so very extraordinary that were their Natures better understood we must expect no inconsiderable Advantage from the proper Use of so Noble a REmedy Since this would direct us not only to the more certain Use of them but advance our Understanding to the Discovery of other Distempers in which they might succeed and help us to avoid all that ill Success that attends their improper Administration How necessary such Exactness is to the understanding their Natures will appear sufficiently if we consider what vastly different Qualities are found to be in the Waters reputed of the same Species which yet may be owing only to the Variety of the Salts with which they may be impregnate of which Variety I shall give some particular Instances because it is of great Consequence and hath hitherto been unheeded The Vertues of the Chalybeat Waters have been as yet so much attributed to the Metalline parts or Steel that setting aside the Vehicle of Water the Benefit of which is taken notice of by some in the Choice of these nothing usually is consulted but the Quantity of Steele evidenc'd in the depth of its Tinging with Galls and yet in this so uniform a Species it is easie to discern that Variety of Nature and Effects that will oblige him who observes it to allow so much to the Menstruum of it or the Salt that is added either in its Quantity or Quality as is sufficient to constitute Medicines of a quite different Nature Hypochondriacal Cases in which the Intention seems most General the Light sort claim as their Province to relieve and I never knew the Heavy ones used in but with the ill success of aggravating the Distemper with an uneasie Heat and with very little of the good Effects that attend the light ones The Propriety of these Waters in some other Distempers as Obstructions of several Parts upon the account of their lightness and thinness and particular sort of Spirit appears likewise in the Chapter of their Vertues The heavy Waters that have more of the Mineral of Iron but clogg'd with Salt have different references according to the differing Nature of the Salt and quantity of Mineral they bear whereof the Nitrous for such some prove to be regard properly that heavy and black Crasis of the Blood of the Melancholick for I distinguish the Melancholy properly so call'd which hath its Root in the Constitution from the affectio Hypochondriaca The other which have a Salt of the same Vitriolick Nature with the Spirit are a peculiar in those cases which I call Climacteric of elder Persons and some others which require the enriching of the Blood and the help of a Salt more effectual gross and lasting than is the light Spirit And as some cases may require the same Vitriolick Salt to help the Appetite and restrain Flatulencies where the Blood as it needs not so bears not much of the body of the Steele For such is the case in some Persons past Fifty of a florid Complexion and who breed Blood fast so a Water that is thus qualified of which I have given an instance may be reputed another Species and for its real use deserves well to be distinguish'd The Salts which these weighty Waters extract from the Soil it is likely may vary very much yet having not found any of them to contain Salt-petre and the difference of their Virtues depending chiefly on their being more or less Alkalisat I â—ay not so mucâ—â—â—ight on those lesser Qualities as to distinguâ—◠〈◊〉 Waters by them though I take notice of the◠〈◊〉 the Essays of the Waters But there are other Qualities that Waters may derive from the places where they run which are less sensible and may lye in some Motion or Texture rather than in any Accession of Particles that a particular Distemper or Constition besides what a tender one might may receive an Impression from these are Coldness and Hardness And these are so considerable as to be allow'd by some Physicians rationally enough to have been the Cause of an Epilepsie that seiz'd a Gentlewoman whom I knew upon drinking for a Chlorosis a Water that issues from a Stone Quarry Again as the Waters have dâ—â—â—erent Effects from their different Qualifications so they have some Effects in common from their common or general or more
Metalline Parts and Nature and in differing Climates is advanc'd toward an Alkalisat or Urinous Salt in proportion to the Heat of the Country and Situation of the Soil And I never found any Metalline Bodies or Juyces yet but what were embrac'd in Stone or Loam and not in Clays 4. Hence Waters that wash this upper Soil or Rivers and Springs that lye in Clays are Saline Gravelly Waters yield little besides some stony parts unless they have wash'd off some Salt from Neighbouring Soils which discovers its Original in the Essays 5. Not to take notice of the Qualities of Humecting or Moistning c. the most considerable Affection of Water is that it is void of Elasticity and igneous Particles and unapt to Fermentation Yet these Observations of mine I offer not otherwise than to submit them for better Judgment and Experience to inquire into The Waters under Examination are the Saline namely The Purging ones and the Acidulae or Chalybeat ones Of these first PART I. Of the Chalybeat Waters of England THE Chalybeat Waters are preferable not only for Antiquity of Discovery but also for Virtue being an effectual Refuge for many deplorable Diseases that no other Remedy prevails in They are quick Springs ever flowing in a Sand or Gravel I shall first state their Characteristicks or Signs by which they are distinguish'd from other Waters and then explain those Circumstantial Signs and their Reasons in an account of their Nature Their Characteristicks are 1. To shew the Mineral they bear which is Steele in their Taste and with Galls to evidence it in the blew or purplish black Colour proper to Vitriols of Iron as also by dropping a Ferrugineous Ocre at the Spring 2. The second is The Lightness of the Spirit that holds the Tincture which vanishes upon exposing to the Air and leaves the Water without the Mineral Tincture The lightness of this Spirit so affects those Waters of this kind that are more void of Salt as to render them lighter than Rain-water distill'd 3. The Spring ever proceeds from a Rock usually consisting of gravelly Stones cemented together 4. If it joyn any other common Water immediately near the Fountain it thence incrusts the Stones and Sticks which it washeâ— with a Mortar-like crust The notice of this Incrustation has made many Learned Men and particularly Domâ— Panarolus erroneously to entertain an ill Opinion of the Water because as he observed in that four Miles from Rome extra Portam hostiensem vulgo S. Pauli of the stony Matter the Water leaves where it passes and this through the Mistake that this Matter is in the Water at the Spring 5. To bear an Oyly or Bituminous Film on it like a Scum 6. To give a Green upon the Mixture of Syrup of Violets These Waters differ on account of the Salt of the Water in the Quantity or Quality of it or proportion of the Steel they bear and so may not have the second Qualification which is proper to the simple ones For the Nature and Reason of these Waters we must examine these particulars not only since most of them are the Indexes but also are effected by the Essential Properties of these Waters and shew the Metalline parts and the Nature of the Menstruum or Spirit The Metal is evident from the blew black they take with Galls from the Taste and lastly the Okar which it casts out at the opening of the Spring which calcin'd with Salt and expos'd to the Air shews none of the Verdigreese Colour that Hungarian Vitriol gives upon the same Trial. The Menstruum or Spirit is a distinct thing from the Salt of them and of a differing Original being contrary in Nature not held by it and being found in those Waters that want the Salt for the Salt of those that have any is wash'd from the Earth by the Water and the Spirit is only a Steam that comes along with the Gravel The Spirit or Menstruum that bears this Tincture is Volatile and continues not with the Water many hours scarce well one in the light sort though well cork'd up What effect Hermetick Seal might have I never had encouragement to attempt as never believing that a fair Trial where the power of the Fire came so near and so naked and the Chalybeat Waters that abound with Salt are often Nitrous and so may mortifie the Spirituous Acid which may make it in vain look'd for in the Receiver This I mention for caution sake for that this Spirit is Volatile yet that it can be detain'd by a cover of Oyl for ten days I lately try'd with a Light Chalybeat at Felstead The Original of this Vapour is pointed out to be low and to proceed with all Gravel as is evident in free Springs that upon laying Iron at the Eruption of them will Tinge with Galls which power the Water loses at a Rods distance but in these it is less in Quantity The Nature of this Spirit is Vitriolick They disturb not a Solution of Sublimate in fair Water and with Lignum Nephriticum thicken a little with a Cloud but do not the least change yellowish as Pump-water and Nitrous but near that of a Solution of Vitriol or its Spirit upon the same though scarce so clear because all these Waters have a touch of the Salt of the Soyl as appears in the green with Syrup of Violets They all likewise render a Solution of Sal Saturni in fair Water milky by which the Spirit is distinguish'd from Saltpetre or its Spirit Note That though these Tryals are fairly made only in the lighter simpler Waters in order to make a Judgment of them yet they hold in the heavier Waters except that Tryal with Lignum Nephriticum in which they discover their Salt by the yellow colour they give Now the Nature of Salt of Vitriol appears upon examination to differ very little from common Salt if any thing more than in the Qualities impress'd in it by the Metal and it is worth our notice that Vitriols and Nitres precipitate each other being the Product of two several Regions which will enlighten to the Understanding the next Particulars observ'd to attend these Waters The Earth and Soyl of these Springs is ever a Sand or Gravel and the Water issues from or rather makes a Rock of cemented Stones which are never to be found but where the Water is Vitriolick This sort of Rock is open to view at Tunbridge and has never yet fail'd where the Ground in which these Springs are found has been open'd as at Notly Felstead and other lesser Springs I am apt to think that Iron may have a particular Qualification for the cementing of Earth and Stone but that I may follow my subject more closely I shall only consider it as the next Particular illustrates it These Waters when they joyn another Water at least a gravelly one e'er they have ran so far as to lose their Spirit precipitate a Mortar-like substance wherewith they incrust the
Precipitations By Ustion to separate the Salt By the second to open the Body and discover Mineral or Marcasite The third 〈◊〉 discover any sulphurous Body or Steam Lastly By Precipitations both out of a Lixivium and of the wash'd Stone out of Aqua fortis By all which as well as by Fusion with fine Glass the Stones prov'd void of any Metalline or Mineral Mixture But instead of these their particular Nature appear'd to consist in the Juyce or Salt of them saving only a little Iron which Woodham-Ferrys afforded and which will be found to agree well with the Constitution of those Waters which are Chalybeat This particular sort of Juyce or Salt appear'd in their forming a Jelly with Aqua fortis which would not become liquid under some days standing and the parts I prov'd to be in some of the Earth at Epsam that lay among the Selenites though the Stones by the mixture of Chalk did not This Quality not attending Loam suggested somewhat different from that to be concern'd in it and knowing that Antimony Auripigmentum and perhaps some other Marcasites with the mixture of some Salts whence Aqua fortis is made would yield a Butter by Distillation I essay'd this Jelly by Sublimation in like Vessels but fail'd of my Expectation and then consider'd that this Jelly not only differ'd in being produc'd without Heat or Sublimation but had not the least Caustick Qualities of the other Marcasitick Butters but rather mortify'd the Acid Spirit But all these Suggestions and Doubts 〈◊〉 clear'd to me by examining the Originâ—â— of this Stone when I understood it to be form'd of a Loamy Clay in conjunction of a Vitriolick Juyce For this I was first taught at Harwich where I found the same Stones exactly nothing differing either in face when broke or whole and invested with the same Gypsum or Trichitis and with the same mixture of Iron These Stones there lye plentifully on the shore and stuck in the Bank at the bottom of the Cliff and only at the Foot of that Spot of the Cliff that is a continued Loam This Production I refer'd to a Vitrioline Juyce in Conjunction with the Loam because the common Coporas Stones are plentifully found on that shore and I observ'd Children employ'd there to collect them but whereas they lye thick where the Cliff is gravelly where the Cliff was Loamy and the shore floor'd with these Stones I found no Coporas Stones nor did the Children seek there for them though they pick'd close by it where the Bank begins gravelly So that these Stones seem produc'd in the Loam as the other in the Gravel by the same Juyce And since I have understood of several of our Diggers for Tile-Earth that the Coporas Stone is only found in those Clays that have a Gravel mix'd with them So that at Harwich this Bed of Stones was the Foundation of the Loamy Cliff where the Cliff has been wash'd away or cut For the Harbour or Channel there is Artificial and of no old Date the Current having been formerly on the other side of Languard Fort which then stood in Essex The not understanding this made the Gentleman in Cambden to mention them as Petrifactions made by the Sea And from this undoubtedly proceeds that Bed of Shells that covers the Cliff at perhaps fifty feet hight which must be carried thither at the making of the Harbour or clearing of it how else could the petrify'd Clay bed which contains the Shells lye a top and no Petrifaction lower till you come again to the bottom I think that they must originally have been the same lay and that it is inconsistent to suppose otherwise Having thus arriv'd at the Origin of the Stones I shall make one farther Observation which is That these Stones yield the same Salt in a Lixivium which the Waters contain From all which I conclude them Parcels of the Materials whence these Purging Waters have their Salt and wherein the particular Nature and Genius of the concrete Juyce is to be had All this is confirm'd by the Nature of the Salt of these Waters which being a mean Salt between Vitriol and Nitre requires such an Earth and such a Place for its Production for lower it had prov'd Vitrioline and superficial Nitrous which with the difference of the Salt keeping pace with the varying of the Stone and with the corresponding Nature of the Salt produced in moist Cavities as in Cellars to that sort of it which is soft as presently appears confirms fully this Account as agreeable both to Reason and Experience Of the Purging Waters wherein the Selenites is found THis sort of Waters have the same Taste with the other and the like Variety in the Tasts of the several Waters and Purge alike What they agree in is deliver'd above I shall therefore now consider their differences and the difference of the Principles and compare the Reason of these with the Nature of the others These Wells upon inquiry afford no fresh Principles or Mineral Ingredients but what the addition of a Calcarious Salt produces which rather affects these Waters as a Menstruum I proceed to observe the difference and account for it These are ever in a Loam but this Loam partakes of a Lime-stone this is evedent from all accounts of the Selenites and at Epsam the blew Loam lyes in streaks in the Hill and a Quarry of Chalk limits the Town at both ends To this is owing the laxness of the Loam here above the rest and some differences it shews upon tryals as its clearness of Iron which Salt of Chalk and Lime precipitat and where the Chalk is not found as at Woodham-Ferrys the Water there is Chalybeat The Pyrites or hard Stone is to be found here but why it is perfect at Woodham-Ferrys and more lax at Epsam is owing to the same reason For those two Wells were what I could examine being new dug when I visited them to view and examine the Earth cast out The Differences of the Earth of these Waters from the other kind were common to both these Wells At Epsam the Earth cast out of the Well I mean Simpsâ—n's near the Parcels of Selenites had some tenderer or more brittle Earth of several colours but all near a Lemmon colour or of Iron rust All these upon examination both with burning and without by bare washing afforded Iron which obey'd the Loadstone and a Salt or rather Juyce that was pleasingly Acid and not Caustick but the Taste differ'd a little as the Colour differ'd The Lemmon-colour'd was exactly of the taste of Spirit of Vitriol without any odd taste only note that this I first burnt and the same Acidity I discover'd in some white Flakes of the Stone without any Metalline taste I shall not be particular in the Sublimation of these Mineral Earths inasmuch as all the ways I attempted to try them discover'd nothing but pure Earth besides At Woodham-Ferrys I observ'd the same colour'd Earths exactly and
discover'd only Iron and the Juyce or Salt mix'd with it and as at Epsam so here the Earth clear'd of these was loose and open and was but common Earth as appear'd by weighing it Hydrostatically The Particulars see in the Account of the Wells Hence I was apt to think from the Nature of the Juyce approaching to that of Spirit of Vitriol and upon the slackness of the Earth of these Wells that the Disposition towards an Alkaly of the admix'd Earth had detected and separated these Juyces which seem lock'd up in the Loam of the other But the Pureness of the Vitrioline Juyce in these make me suspend that opinion and as I intimated before hence Epsam Water remains clear with a mixture of Galls whereas the other gives a dark Purple I shall for clearness sake inquire now into the Origine of the Selenites and determine the Species of them these Waters belong to which are a Species of the Purging Kind For the Salt of these Waters differ from that of the other as well as the Ingredients in that the Salt here is unfigur'd soft and melts in the warmth of a hand In their Operation they are accordingly more penetrating and gall the parts of their Excretion or near it which that it is owing to the softness of the Salt and Calcarious Nature of it appears in that Woodham-Ferrys does it not so as Epsam and Acton The different Virtues shall be taken notice of in their place as the differences of the Salt shall be in the Examen of the Waters Now I observe all Waters that afford the Selenites at least of this Kind and Figure to be Purging and because the Wells that afford them are capable to be proved beyond dispute as at Kettering and in Oxfordshire it will much conduce to the clear proof of the Ingredients and Principles of these Waters to give a good account of these which are a member of them At the places now named the Selenites are found in a blew Loam over a Stone Quarry as I am inform'd by those that have brought me the Account from Kettering and of Oxfordshire by Dr. Plot The Circumstances of which considering the Salt is not volatile do evince That the Ingredients of these Waters do not lye lower since these Stones are so usually found to have the same Foundation and constantly the same Matrix for these Selenites never being found the Index of any Metal or Mineral nor hard enough to be a Spar but being observ'd to agree universally in constant Materials which are the same with the other sort of my Waters that is a Loam And the Mixture of a Lime-stone accounting for the Production of the Selenites I conclude my account genuine and clear of them all The Selenites of these Wells is form'd near the bottom in the Loam at the Water as they ever are and the Spring small some are found of all sizes from the largest to so small as scarce allow their Figure to be observ'd and the Loam I found figur'd like the Stones and lying in clusters in like manner The Figures of them I found much differing Those at Acton Rhomboid At Epsam many Rhomboid many imperfect ones or like Frustula of them but most of them Columns of six sides only each side was a Parallelogram inequilateral with a Pointing which is comprehended under as many Triangles and their Commissure or Origine unequal some of them were more Conical but mostly their Position was as that of those found by Dr. Plot at Cornwell and Hanwell many being fix'd like Radii to one center Thus I found them at Simpson's Well at Epsam with this Note That where-ever they stood thus the Earth adjoyning to it had much Iron in it Fusil and pleasantly Acid mostly At Woodham-Ferrys some â—ew were Rhomboid but most of them at one of the Lozenge Figure and resembling the Rhomboid at the other round and flat and sharp the two larger opposite Surface declining till they meet at an edge which was Semicircular The Selenites found at Colchester were thin and flat and bent a little consisted of Schizâ— or Flakes and are of no distinguishable shape I observe that where I could get a view of any quantity of the Earth cast out of any of these Wells there were some of them always Rhomboid as the more genuine Figure but others to differ with the Salt as I judged and sometimes to be ruled by the quantity of Iron and receive the Figure that Metal usually christallizes into What the Selenites owes its origine to I refer my self to the Sense and Observations of Naturalists who were not unacquainted with this Qualification of the Water in which they are generated That most accurate Learned and curious Naturalist Dr. Plot in his Natural History of Oxfordshire Cap. 5. Par. 9. Speaking of the Selenites Georgius Agricola differs from them all and makes it a product of Lime-stone and Water Gignitur says he Ex saxo calcis cum paucâ aquâ permisto And thus I find it to grow here with us at Heddington in a blew Clay that lyes over the Quarry whose outermost Crust is a hard Lime-stone For clearness sake this Stone may be distinguish'd into these four sorts 1. Those Selenites that are really Fissil into tough flexil Plates which is more properly the Glacies Mariâ— or Lapis Specularis Muscovy Glass 2. Those that consist of brittle Plates or Flakes which are not easily separable at least entire an unform'd sort of these are found in flat Plates not very thick near Colchester at the North end at a Publick-house half a Mile from the Town and in some Wells in the Town The formed ones usually consist of six sides the breadth being more than the thickness make the two level Surfaces broader than the rest In this they generally agree but the Rhomboid have their ends form'd in like manner to make that Figure so as to have ends and sides alike whereas those that are longer and narrower vary in the Figures that the Depressions at the ends make Some are imperfect Rhomboid in one half and of an irregular Figure the other half as at Epsam c. or thinning to an edge as at Woodham-Ferrys All these agree in an uniform glassy Surface 3. Rhomboid and in the Flakes of which it is compos'd resembling the other but the Superficies is divisible into strings the marks or lines of which appear in the Surface Perhaps these may be formed only where they are produced at a Stone-Quarry for of this kind is that at Heddington in Oxfordshire and that of Kettering in Northamptonshire and so may be distinguish'd in its name as a Species of Talc Selenites Talceus A 4th sort have a Cubico-Rhomboideal form these are constantly Hexaedra of equal obliqueangular sides or oblique-angled Parallelepipeds are Fessil into thick Plates or indeed consist of Cubick pieces of the same Figure such as at Slindon in Staffordshire mention'd by the same great Author Natur. Hist. of Staff
Cap. 5. Part 2. dug in Marle pits These are less transparent and as a Species of Gypsum may be called Selenites Gypseus To the second sort which I take only to be the proper Selenites belong those of these Purging Wells This distinction I think necessary to be observed for though I am inclinable to believe that the Waters wherein the others are found may Purge yet the Selenites as they are related to another sort of Stone and have some variety in the Matrix may vary reasonably enough in their Qualities as the Talceus being produced at a Stone-Quarry the Waters can scarce be supposed to want the Coldness or Hardness such Quarries are wont to communicate And so of the rest The Origine of the Salt of these Waters appears most evidently in the Salt of this Species or sort of them which I shall therefore inquire into by examining the Reason of their Production and compare with the Salt that is nearest in resemblance The Salt contain'd in the Waters which I call Selenitical hath these Qualities or Properties peculiar to them To be soft and melt in the warmth of a Hand to be unfigur'd and â—ret the parts of Excretion besides the middle Nature of it and its being void of Corrosiveness which are common to the other sort In its Softness and Fluxilness Nature and Manner of Production it exactly resembles the Salt that damp Cellars produce and is fix'd in the middle to Cobwebs being the steam of the Earth and more liquid part of what is extracted from it and flows in the moist Air there condens'd And no known Salt in Nature hath the Quality of running in so easie a Heat beside the Selenitical but that And as this confirms its Original so the Reason it further complies with this Account For this soft Salt in these Wells is the flowing part of the Matter produced in them the more solid Particles and figurable being detain'd at the Loam and employ'd in forming the Selenites Now that the Lime-stone which is concern'd in this Production naturally effects this separation by shooting the more dense parts is evident in the use of it to precipitate Metalline parts but more plainly in boiling Sugars The slackning quality of this chalky or limy Salt I hinted before to agree with the Earth of these Wells and it is to be noted That the Salt of the Selenitical is accordingly more uniform not so thickning with Gall nor varying so much towards Nitres and Vitriols as the others do but nearer the Spirit So I conclude the Salt of these Purging Waters of a middle Nature between Nitres and Vitriols and form'd out of the Loam by the help of a Vitrioline Juyce or liquid Salt and collected in moist Cavities The Tryal of the Stones THE Stone which I have before describ'd and is common to all the Wells hath when broke the Loam hardned and is invested with a Gypsum or Trichitis Richmond stone is of a light colour and pale near an Ash-colour not divided by the Gypsum but coated with it some Ferrugineous stains were in one piece In the Air weigh'd two Ounces and 50 Grains on the Water one Ounce two Drams and 26 Grains Epsam a more lax stone like a hardned clod incrusted with a grey chalky coat which Acids wrought on with Ebullition but did not slack in the Water weigh'd in the Air two Ounces and 47 Grains in the Water one Ounce one Dram and 26 Grains Dulwich a darker stone and very hard as Flint and inclin'd to a greenish in the body of it in several places and the Cellulae smaller than Woodham-Ferrys or Harwich or any yet observ'd by me where not greenish it had many sparkles of shining small Particles and when beaten fine was whiter than any In the Air two Ounces and 47 Grains in the Water one Ounce two Drams and 39 Grains and a half Woodham-Ferrys Cells as the former but larger the body oft greenish where expos'd to the Air else Loam-like but the Gypsum seem'd to have penetrated the body of the stone In the Air two Ounces and 46 Grains and a half in the Water one Ounce two Drams and 17 Grains Common Loam in the Air weigh'd two Ounces and 49 Grains in the Water one Ounce and 67 Grains Chalk in the Air two Ounces and 47 Grains and in the Water one Ounce one Dram and one Scruple besides four or five Grains lost by its sâ—ackning The Salts extracted from the Stones they all smelt Lixiviat in boyling Richmond stones Lixivium with Lignum Nephriticum took the colour of Rhenish or White-wine or near a Buff-colour With Tincture of Logwood a Red tawnyish Gall a faint Tincture of Red but clear Turnsole Liquor sharpned with Spirit of Vitriol it brightned the Red a little Oyl of Tartar per deliquium no alteration but did not readily mix The Lye of the Roasted Richmond Stone With Tincture of Logwood brighten'd the Red higher than Pump-water With Turnsole preserv'd the Red. With Gall a high Lemmon colour and clear Lignum Nephriticum clear and not colour'd as Spirit of Vitriol does Oyl of Tartar p. d. thick large curdle The Lye exceeded not Pump or common Water in weight Aqua fortis wrought violently on this Stone but extracted no Tincture but jelly'd but not so firmly as the other no Precipitation could be obtain'd from the Jelly No Efflorescence when mix'd with common Salt and expos'd to the Air some time as mineral bodies do Dulwich raw stones Lixivium remain'd thickish white and of taste brackish With Lignum Nephriticum a deep Malaga Sack colour and not very clear as Alkalys Redded the tawny of Tincture of Logwood deep as Alkalys though not so purplish but near that of Acids Gall yellow like small Beer and very thick did not precipitate though it stood a night the cloud gather'd upward and at bottom more clear like common Salt Tunsole it dull'd as Alkalys toward a Blew Liquid Salt of Tartar it curdled large and precipitated as Sal Marine Upon the whole it resembled common Salt especially with a little of the Nature of Sal Gem or withall somewhat Allkalisat The Lye of Dullwich Stone Roasted With Tincture of Logwood a dull Ale-colour as Cellar-Salt and â—laubers Salt Gall a pale Red not more cloudy than the Lye Liquid Salt of Tartar a thick curdle Syrup of Clove Gilliflowers took away the Red and rendred it durty and dark as Alkalys effect With Lignum Nephriticum a pale yellow and clear which grew thicker upon standing six or eight hours like Spirit of Salt Solution of Sublimate no alteration as Vitriols About six Drams with an Ounce and half of Aqua fortis made considerable Effervescence and thickned in two or three hours to a Jelly of a grey dirty colour the powder of the Stone not settling to the bottom Aqua fortis on Chalk wrought thickned a little but not Jelly'd on common Loam did not work Brick Earth only a small Effervescence Cimolia purpurascens
alter'd not I essay'd Tinore Cellar-Salt and Lapis Calaminaris which last communicated only a dry â—aste more Corrosive Half the Jelly dissolved in a great quantity of fair Water precipitated not any heavy Powder the dirt flying about in it light The other half distill'd sent over a Liquor near the scent of Spirit of Salt but no Butter The Earth expos'd to the Air had no Efflorescence Dullwich stone melted with Glass did not tinge the Glass but penetrated the Vessel it was melted in which was of Tobacco-pipe Clay which broke smooth like China an effect which the other stones melted at the same time had not Woodhâ—m-Ferrys stones Lixivium tasted sweetish Redded Tincture of Logwood near a Claret but deeper and darker With Gall whitish and turbid as Nitâ—es Note that this was made of the burnt stone but with some Gall flying in it and curdled which is the effect of Salâ—petre Lignum Nephriticum it took a clear Tincture from and of a Canary colour The stone wash'd Jelly'd in Aqua fortis from which nothing could be separated by Sublimation or Precipitation no Efflorescence upon the exposing it to the Air nor was any Metalline Tincture discover'd by Fusion with Glass Epsam stones Lixivium with Oyl of Tartar per deliquium grew white and thick with Gall a fine and clear Yellow With Tincture of Logwood a dull pale Tawny It slack'd not in Water it jelly'd not in Aqua fortis the Powder remaining heavy and close at the bottom I boyl'd some of the Stain in Lye and in Water sharpen'd with Spirit of Nitre I infus'd some but from neither could make any discovery by Colour or Precipitation So now I come to the Essays of the Waters and Nature of the Salts therein contain'd Selenitical Waters Ebbisham commonly Epsam Water in SURRY EPsam Water was the first of the Purging kind discover'd in England viz. 1630 or soon after The Hill is a Clay of a brown colour and reddish and where the Wells are more grey The Well is about twelve foot deep the Earth where the Spring is afforded the Selenites plentifully at a private Well they were Columns the sides and superficies of which were inequilateral Parallelograms posited with their edges downward and their ends meeting in the centre In a Well a few feet distant and at the publick Well they were Rhomboid At both ends of the Town is Châ—lk dug and the Hill here and there hath veins of blew Loam Of the private Well which was newly sunk I inform'd my self by examining the Earth cast out of it which I receiv'd of the Owner Mr. Symonds together with this Account The upper Earth for two Spit deep was the same then they came to a harder and Loamy which lasted about seven feet then to a looser which sparkled with small Selenites as at the publick Well this held for two feet where they came at the Stones and Water together The Water in Summer-time flow'd in at the rate of an Ale-barrel in 24 hours Below the Selenites they came at a dead heavy Earth and black partaking of Iron under which was the common dead Loam or Cortex of the Mineral Region And though they dug three or four feet deeper yet neither was Water or the former signs found As the Selenites had somewhat of the shape of Vitriol of Iron so where they lay were veins of Iron and colour'd Earth the Iron was pure and obey'd the Load-stone the Earth which was either of a Brimstone colour or that of Iron rust I prov'd by washing to be the same only joyn'd by an Acid Juyce like Spirit of Vitriol which in the yellow had no taste of the Iron but a distinct pleasant Acid which with the Jellying of some parts of the Earth in Aqua fortis especially of the whiter part of it where the Selenites lay is what I observed there I shall not therefore repeat my Tryals of the Earths which were fruitless The Water is moderately clear of Taste bitter together with a muakish Saltishness not manifestly Lixiviat but a little of the taste of the second Salt of Salt Marine and of that Cellar Salt that is gather'd by things hanging in the middle of Cellars and not what fixes to the Walls Epsam Water precipitated not Vitriol dissolv'd in it but promoted its atramentous Quality as doth the Salt not precipitating the Colour as Salt of Lime or Chalk nor turning it red as some others particularly Salt of Cellars Notwithstanding this it agreed with that sort of Alkaly particularly which is calcarious in that it restor'd the blew of Tincture of Turnsole sharpen'd it took a Purple with a Tincture of Logwood in common Water lively and full not dull red a little purplish and dusky as Salt of Tartar made with Saltpetre and Alkalys produce nor tawny as Salt of Cellars Further as Salt of Chalk it troubled a Solution of Sublimat in fair Water and sent down a white precipitate which Alum doth not With Syrup of Violets a Grass-green as the same Salt Yet it peculiarly differ'd from the Salt of Chalk and all grosser Salts in taking a high Yellow and clear Tincture from Gall which is peculiar to Spirit of Nitre it being not of the Nature of Saltpetre which is the only Salt that takes a pale but clear Tincture With Syrup of Cloves it became dark â—ooty and greenish as do Alkalys and Fuligo of Vitriol that adheres to places where the Fume of boyl'd Coporas comes ☞ The peculiar Nature of the Salt of this Water is to be Calcarious yet agreeing with Vitriols and particularly to resemble Spirit of Nitre rather than Nitre it self yet to resemble the Salt of Chalk in precipitating a Solution of Sublimate which Spirit of Nitre will not The Acidity that came over in Distilling was little and pleasant The Salt Grey near a White and unfigur'd or uncapable of Christallization but soft like Barbadoes or Lisbon Sugar It did not cast up a Scum till it was near boyled up and the Salt precipitated in boyling This Salt was wrought on by Acids yet it coagulated Salt of Tartar rendred Liquid called Ol. Tartari per diliq it did not inflame with Sulphur but blister'd on a hot Iron and was not Caustick either burnt or unburnt The Earth of this Salt was white and dissolv'd in part in distill'd Vinegar and was about an eighth of the Salt The Salt of the Water which is said to amount in some dry Seasons to the proportion of seven Drams in a Gallon scarce then exceeded the half of that quantity after a wet one when I had it indeed not so much The Salt purged pleasantly in the quantity of half an Ounce as I try'd it but it seems to require a very gentle Evaporation to the due Preparation of it that Acidity of Alkalisatness may be preserved entire This Salt dissolv'd in some of its own Water deepned the yellow colour of Galls to a Pink and at last to a Red or very near as Spirit
of Nitre does upon long Infusion but thickish as embody'd Salts I saw some Salt boyl'd up in Copper without any Verdigrease Tincture so mild is the Acid. Acton Water in Middlesex THE Earth of this Well afforded Rhomboid Tale as a Gentleman that liv'd at the place and inform'd me express'd it Much Nitrous Efflorescence appears in the Clay about the Well The Spring opens Northerly is reputed one of the strongest Purgers about London It is noted to occasion a great Soreness of the Intestine and Fundament which is reasonably refer'd to the quantity of Salt they wash from the Body but the Penetration of the Salt of the Water may make it more pungent and keen The Water was whitish not so clear as Epsam not saltish but rather to me seem'd sweet with a little of the Bitterness of Epsam It curdled with Soap as do all The Salt of this Water is soft and not christalliz'd wherein it agrees with Epsam Salt though I thought scarce so soft The distinct Nature of this Water or Salt of this Water consists in that this Salt is more Calcarious or of the Nature of Salt of Lime for the Water boyl'd high disturb'd a Solution of Sublimate in fair Water whence it precipitated a yellowish Sediment a little more yellow than the Water which it left white And this Salt is likewise more Nitrous or hath more of the Nature of the Salt of the upper Soyle as appears in that it takes a pale Yellow from Gall but dusky and disturb'd as common Salt doth effect not so dirty nor so apt to precipitate as Sal Calcarium With Syrup of Violets it took a Green with Tincture of Logwood made with Brandy a deep Red and purplish as Nitrous Salts do with cold Tincture of Logwood which hot would give a full Purple The Salt did not precipitate fine Silver out of Spirit of Nitre which common Salt would A Pint and half of the Water yielded forty eight Grains of Salt in which was six Grains and a half of reddish Earth on which Acid Spirits wrought The Earth precipitated in Boyling Colchester Water from the North end in ESSEX THE Water boyl'd Meat without discolouring the Flesh which it rather whiten'd The Water was much the same with Acton giving with Tincture of Logwood a purplish Red a little Tawny and with Gall a clear Yellow and pale but in half an hour grew turbid with a whitish Cloud But with Lignum Nephriticum it became a little darkish but clear a little toward what Spirit of Vitriol does Woodham Ferrys in Essex being a Chalybeat is reserv'd to that Class The Water at 〈◊〉 THis Water claiâ—s the principâ—l Place being made Illustrious 〈…〉 in which His Majesty hath 〈…〉 his Mansion Palace The 〈…〉 at this Well hath much the 〈…〉 cluster'd Columns form'd at 〈…〉 this difference that this at Kensington is depress'd and flat on one side as they are prominent on the other and at the base or flat side are more truly separable than the Sâ—â—â—nites of these Waters usually are and so nearer resemble the â—uscovy Glass The Pyrites which I received from this Well was very hard of a greenish Gray or Hazel colour and 〈◊〉 it differ'd from all in wanting the crust of Gypsum or Trichitis so upon infusion of Aquaâ—ortis it did not coagulate into a Jelly but yet after the working of the Aqua fortis which was very violent the Powder settled not but remain'd of a yellow or Iron rust colour Flâ—ing or turbid though it stood some days The Mineral Matter therefore being reâ—â—iv'd or taken up by the 〈…〉 with fair Water and 〈…〉 and not much 〈…〉 â—â—rrosive Acidity This Liqâ—or which remain'd 〈…〉 the Settlement of the Powder or Dust upon further Diluting sent down no Mineral parts but upon mixing a little powder'd Gall turn'd immediately of a blew Black as is the Property of Iron to produce Distill'd Vinegar on this Stone made no Effervescence yet extracted the Chalybeat parts as appear'd in the Taste The weight of this Stone was one Ounce and one Grain in the Air and just six Drams in the Water which was the weight of the piece which I had The Water was clearer than these usually are and less bitter than Epsam but of a more manifestly Saline Taste In the Quantity of nine Ounces and five Drams and 48 Grains it outweigh'd common Water 37 Grains It s Alkalisate Nature appear'd in giving a Red inâ—lin'd to a Purple with Tincture of Logwâ—â—â— in that Spirit of Nitre did not disturb it in that it troubled and rendred Milky a Solution of Sublimate in fair Water and sent down a white Precipitate as Salt of Chalk doth and in giving the same Green with Syrup of Violets It became dark and sooty with Syrup of Cloves as Alkalys yet not so much Alkalisate as to turn greenish nor indeed to lose all the Red. It had an Acidity in that it curdled Spirit of Harts-horn and the same it produced with the Lixivium of Salt of Plants With Gall it became thick and white as the Salts of Earths that are not perfectly Nitrous but of a mix'd Nature or where the Acid and Salt disturb each other or oppose Earths as they approach to Nitres or are more Alkalisate darken this white With Lignum Nephriticum it took a deep Yellow or Orange and clear as Alkalys produce With Iron and Gall it took a reddish Black and rusty as Alkalys and not apt to hold it without Precipitation I found in two Quarts about 40 Grains of Earth light leafy and gray which Distill'd Vinegar wrought on The Salt was soft and unfigur'd mostly but had some Stiriae form'd in it flat and not pointed at least most of them This Salt melted not easily as Epsam Salt but bore a good Heat and had a much greater quantity of Earth in it the hardness of which was felt on the Tongue in tasting the Salt Much Earth precipitated in boyling as others but it bore not readily a Scum till near boyl'd up at least as in making other Salt till the falling of the Salt I judged this Salt of the Nature of an Alkaly and of kin to Epsam but yet to differ being not so resembling the Spirit of Nitre in the Tryal with Gall and accordingly that Water increas'd Ink-making without turning it Red so that this seems more related to the gross or embody'd Salt which accordingly makes it disturb a Solution of Gall. This Water differs from the rest in that it troubles but very little a Solution of Sal Saturni in common Water in which it resembles more Saltpetres which doth not disturb it at all The Salt of the Water did trouble a Solution of fine Silver in Spirit of Nitre which in a long time precipitated the Precipitation was neither so quick nor so full nor in so large Curdles as common Sea-salt or Rock-salt doth it Puring Waters in an even Loamy Clay more Simple and not variegated Richmond Water in SURRY THis
Water is a level Spring the Wells are on the side of the Hill a few Rod from the River Thames in a brown leamy Clay which are about nine feet deep to the bottom of the Water as the Digger inform'd me there There is a Tile-Kill adjoyning to the Ground where the Wells are This Water was first discover'd about 1686 the account that the Possessor of one of the Wells Mr. Brown gave me was that the Earth was an even Loamy Clay that the Water issued into the Well from the side among the Stones whereof I brought away as many pieces as I could dispose of No Selenites found here The Loam and Clay about the Wellâ— had a Nitrous Efflorescence the Earth above and about Richmond a Gravel This Water purgeth well but I think scarce so much as Epsam and Acton but more smoothly The Water is smooth on the Tongue scarce any appearance of bitterness salutes the Palat with the taste of common Water but leaves a farewel a little nauseous and sharp The Water curdled Milk but not so hard or strong as others with Syrup of Violets a mild Green not so deep as Vitriols make it resembled common Salt or a Vitrioline in that Spirit of Nitre drop'd into it made no Alteration though the Water was boyl'd half away Spirit of Sal Armoniack rendred it thick white and curdled and sent down a large Precipitate Spirit of Harts-horn made a small Curdle and Precipitate Spirit of Salt no Alteration With Galls it grew immediately turbid white and thick not Milk-white like what Salt of Hungarian Vitriol produceth not dark as Alkalys not coloured as common Salt not clear as Saltpetre nor reddish as Chalk nor dark and ready to precipitate the Colour as Spirit of Vitriol The Water standing a while on pieces of Iron with Gall chang'd dark with a reddish cast as Alkalys render Ink In both these it resembled Salt of Cellarsâ— yet differ'd in giving a wan dusky Red with 〈◊〉 of Clove Gilly flowers as common Salt and â—â—â—ding Tincture of Logwood â—s Acids ☞ The Salt of this Water hence appears to be Acid of a Vitrioline Nature yet to be a little Alkalisate or Nitrous â—ot so deeply as Alkalys but resembling the Salt embodying Vitriols or the uniting of Vitrioline Salt with the Salt of common Earth and which our common Water contains Richmond Water distill'd in a Glass retort yielded a Water which was Acid enough to redden a little the colour of Syrup of Violets and to give a faint Red with Tincture of Logwood but took no Quality from Iron and it was very light in weight equal to Tunbridge and the light Chalybeats The Salt was gray and figur'd like the Bacilli of Nitre flat and long and many of the Sâ—iriae were pointed like Needles some Prisms some Camellae it melted not easily yet I thought sooner than Vitriols It chang'd not the colour of Salt of Tartar but curdled its Deliquium inflamed not with Sulphur The Earth was smaller than in most Waters was gray and Acid Spirits as of Salt Aqua fortis and Spirit of Nitre would not touch it It alter'd not in the Fire but made a small Decrepitation or Spitting I judged a little more than Allum The Salt of this Water did not disturb nor change the colour of Sublimate Water which Alkalys and Salt of Cellars does It was a little sweetish and not cold as Saltpetre is The Stone found in this Well resembled Loam The Loam cast up for Tiles in the Ground joyning to this Well had a Nitrous Efflorescence The Stone had a Tincture of Iron The tile-Tile-earth in the Ground adjoyning I infus'd in warm Water sharpned with Oyl of Vitriol This Water gave a Green with Syrup of Violets and with Tincture of Logwood a sooty dusky colour a little reddish Dullwich Water HAS its name from the Town near it but the Wells are in Lewisham Parish in Kent The Wells are in the foot of a Hill about twelve in number The Hill and Ground adjoyning is a stiff Clay with some Wood upon it These are next in Antiquity to Epsam being discover'd about the Year 1640 The Hole dug is about nine feet deep as I judg'd and the Water about half a Yard deep being usually emptied every day The bottom is a Loam as is the Hill and where the Water issues in is found the Lapis Lutoso-Vitriolicus which glitters with Vitriolick sparkles and is divided into Parcels by the Trichitis This Water purgeth very quick and are not to be drank by a Body out of Temper or Heat by walking without inconvenience I was there Iuly 1696 after some wet days This Water is bitter like Epsam it curdled with Soap or Milk much more than Richmond and equal to Epsam Taken the same day with Richmond in the quantity of nine Ounces and near a quarter was 28 Grains heavier than common Water and 12 Grains than Richmond With Gall it turn'd â—st yellow and clear then thick and muddy white and a little yellowish in which it resembled common Salt and with that it agreed in making no alteration in a Solâ—tion of Sublimate and in making an 〈◊〉 with Spirit of Nitre and in not disturbing Spirit of Salt It agreed with Acids in not relieving the Red of Tincture of Turnsole sharpned in curdling Spirit of 〈◊〉 very much but Spirit of Sal Armoniâ—â—◠〈◊〉 little or rather in a more fine Cuâ—â—le In which Trial this resembles common Salt more than Richmond which curdles thâ— last most and in giving a Red with Tinctâ—re of Logwood The particular Nature is somewhat pointed at in that this Water after an Infusion some hours on points of Nails with Gall became dusky and thick of a foot colour which precipitated and left the Liquor yellow in this it differ'd from 〈◊〉 Salts The Stone prov'd it self to have much of the Nature of Rock-salt such as is brought from the West of England near Chester The Salt shot into Stiriae which being heat blister'd and lost much by a hot Fire so as to have only 12 Grains remaining of 40 but this was done in Earth the more fix'd parts remain'd angular and flat like Sea-salt The stone melted pierced the Clay readily and made it break like China The Calx of the Salt remain'd Gray Though I must not adventure to determine the particular Nature of the Salt of this Water which made the stone sparkle yet I may say it is Marcasitical and that it contains no fresh or new Metal or Mineral but that it varies in the Salt as the Gravels and Loams meeting and joyning produce the common Vitriol stone which here seems of kin to that of common Gravels and that it has some cold Nature proportionable to such an Original but fluxile withall being apt to set the Blood flowing The Salt I conclude by the Essays to resemble common Salt and to be of kin to Mineral Salt as is our Rock salt but yet to differ in its being more Penetrative and
Fluxile and not of the Nature of common Salt which precipitates not Vitriols North-Hall Water in Hartfordshire WEigh'd heavier than Epsam and pleasant not so nauseous to taste It preserved the blew of Syrup of Violets which Nitres and Alkalys chang'd to a green It disturbed not a Solution of Sublimate in common Water It was not acid enough nor Alkalisat enough to give either a red or dirty brown with Tincture of Logwood but gave it a yellow which grew paler upon standing as I judged somewhat like Glaubers Salt which is made of common Salt and Spirit of Vitriol and which likewise purgeth It took very little yellowness from Galls and what it took it would not hold but suffer'd to precipitate presently The first being the effect of Spirit of Salt the last of Spirit of Vitriol It curdled soapy Water in large Curdles and Ol. Tartari per deliquium the same and upon shaking this Water rais'd a great Froth which it kept a great while I judged therefore this Water to contain a Salt resembling common Salt and that part of it which is condens'd and christalliz'd through Cold in a Humid as in Cellars the Coagulation with Liquid Salt of Tartar being not so universal as with the other part of common Salt Lambeth nearer Well in Surry THIS Water beside the Virtues which it hath in common with other Purging Waters has the Property of caring Leprosies and cleansing and clearing Scorbutick Scurss and Spots which how the Nature of the Salt accounts for is worth Observation This Water try'd at the Well after a dry Season was clear but not so Limpid as common Spring Water having somewhat of the colour of Rain-water it was of the taste of Saltpetre or nearer Saltpetres second Salt but left a Vitriolick brackish or nauseous taste on the Palat. Half a Pint and half an Ounce of this Water exceeded common Water in weight 24 Grains it made no alteration in a Solution of Sublimate in fair Water which Nitres and Alkalys disturb it agreed with common Salt in changing the Red of Syrup of Clove Gilliflowers into a cloudy pale colour in which the Red upon 24 hours standing was wholly lost but was restored by a drop of Spirit of Nitre it had the Effects of the same Salt in curdling strongly with Ol. Tartar per deliquium in giving a pale yellow not very fine with Gall and with Tincture of Logwood a brown exactly resembling Ale that is not fine a little browner if any thing than what common Salt produceth But in this it agreed with Saltpetres second Salt and it disturb'd a Solution of Sal Saturni in fair Water just to that degree that Saltpetres second Salt does and with Lignum Nephrâ—ticum gave a Whitewine yellow and clear quickly as Saltpetre does common gravelly Spring-water gives near the colour but upon longer standing It agreed besides only with Glaubers Salt in the Essay with Gall and Logwood The Water standing on Iron 24 hours gave with Gall a reddish Purple which turn'd Inky and although the grosser parts precipitated as where there is a mixture of Nitre and in the Vitrioline Waters impregnate with the Salt of the upper Soil yet the colour remain'd in the clear Liquor much deepâ—â— than a Violet though it stood open some days This one drop of Spirit of Nitre turn'd â—â—een as it doth Ink made with English 〈◊〉 A drop or two of this in common 〈◊〉 a Gravel resumed the Red. This Water precipitated fine Silver out of Spirit of Nitre but not so quick and strongly I thought as Rock-salt and Sea-salt This Water accordingly changed not the colour of Syrup of Violets neither doth common Salt Thus the Salt of this Water agreeth with common Salt but comes not up to its power of Precipitating or Coagulating which Properties would rather set and fix the Humour and so promote the Distemper as appears in the Effects of Bay-salt to produce the Scurvy which Property is observ'd to lye in the hardness of the second or less coagulable part and not to be found in the Salt when purified It agrees in some Tryals with Saltpetres second Salt which is not wholly differing from common Salt But because Salts differ I examined the Water more nicely It disturb'd a Solution of Hungarian Vitriol which common Salt did not Rock Salt very little but the second Salt of Saltpetre readily effected likewise but scarce in so high a Degree for this sent down a yellowish Precipitate forthwith yet it did not trouble a Solution of Mercury Sublimate as Sal Gem. nor precipitate it as do the Nitres and Lime-salt of a yellow or as Salt of Chalk and Marle white The Salt was gray near white mostly near Cubes or in thick plates as common Salt some scurfie light parts with it which was the Scum which precipitated in Boyling no Stiriae or pointed parts could I observe The Water did early raise or bear a Scum The Salt readily ran per deliquium and leâ—t a leafie Earth and grey about 24 Grains out of a Quart of Water This leafy Earth was very light and made a very small Effervescence with distill'd Vinegar nor would it wholly take away its Acidity This Salt precipitated fine Silver out of Spirit of Nitre in hard large Curdles Saltpetres second Salt only whitens and disturbs the Solution which at last precipitates it Ol. Partari per deliquium works on it but does not precipitate the Silver But this Salt I thought did scarce so fully precipitate the Silver as Rock Salt ☞ I therefore refer the Nature of the Salt of this Water to that of common Salt whose power it hath even to the depurating a Solution of Vitriol but without either so gross and strong an Earth or so severe and coagulative an Acidity The Diseases that have been cur'd by these Waters as I found them registred in a Table at the Well were as I remember Leprosie Scurvy Vertigo's Jaundies Worms Stone and Colick To understand on what account this Water exerts its power beside Worms which every one knows to be destroy'd and the flatulent putrid matter suppress'd by Sea-salt I think the Leprosie may well illustrate To have a Notion of the Nature of this Disease It is not necessary here to inquire into the particular Juyce it is seated in and Vessels serving it it is sufficient that the Nature and Genius of the Humour or Salt is toward an Alkali exulcerating and dry seated or produced by too thick and luxuriant Chyle in too nitrous or scorching a Climate That the Cure of this Disease consists not only in somâ— Qualities that mortifie it but in some pungent parts that can retain their Nature and are apt to separate the grosser parts we are taught by the success of Vipers in this Disease which have a Faculty of separating Tartar from Canary in which they are infus'd which else yields none On which by the way I must observe the Error in choosing that Wine for the Infusion on which the
fair water Barnet Water in Hartfordshire WAS very clear had much the taste of common Pump water but with an addition of bitterness though less than in the other in the quantity of ten Ounces this Water taken in Summer-time as were the others surmounted common water in weight near a Dram or within a Grain of a Dram. The Salt of this Water exactly answer'd a Salt Alkalisate particularly that of Chalk in all Tryals with Gall it became thick disturb'd and whitish not free of the yellow Tincture with Syrup of Violets a deep Verdigreese green with Syrup of Cloves a sooty dusky colour with Tincture of Logwood cold an Orange tawny with Lignum Nephriticum yellow and clear It rendred a Solution of Sal Saturni in common water milky It rendred a Solution of Mercury Sublimate milky It disturb'd and made thick a clear Solution of Hungarian Vitriol and did not precipitate fine Silver out of Spirit of Nitre The same in all these doth Salt of Chalk only Moreover this curdled the Deliquium of Salt of Tartar and also Spirit of Harts-horn but both fine Stretham VVater in Surry OF Odour sweetish of Taste it was nauseous and Saline not so bitter as Barnet taken at the same time and was lighter by ten Grains in seven Ounces and a half It answered the same Essâ—ys with Barnet water only with Syrup of Cloves a little more blew like common Salt or Saltpetres second Salt when near boyl'd up the Salt on the sides in the cold shot in long and flat Bacilli not ready to melt in heat and had the cold taste of Saltpetre but with a sweetness The bottom had three sorts some being flat broad and grained like common Salt and some soft like Epsam which had flakes in it four Scruples of Salt had about eighteen Grains of Earth the Earth and flakes were white and clearish they burnt white and Distill'd Vinegar wrought on it but did not take up any considerable quantity of it The Purging Chalybeat VVater of Scarbourgh in Yorkshire SCarbourgh Water is Chalybeat and Purges it has Qualifications of a Purging Water the Salt of it is figur'd approaching to a Nitre and which is really Nitrous and the Earth over the Spring shews the Nitrous Efflorescence that at other Purging Waters is an Index of the Earth whence the Salt is derived As Chalybeats it is a running Spring and proceeds from a Gravel and expos'd to the Air some days loses its power of making a black with Gall the Salt remaining being purely Nitrous It has the Virtue of both Waters and is sufficiently celebrated by the Frequenters of it And I hence conclude it to be either two Waters joyn'd or a Chalybeat Water washing a Nitrous Vault The Spring is upon the Sea-shore and flows from or near an Alum Mine It is observable that other Springs that flow over Alum Mines here in England yet differ not the least from common Water the black slaty stone not yielding the least Aluminous Taste before Ustion I shall clear it from partaking of Alum or Sea-salt by Tryals which will confirm my Account of the other Waters since it is clear of participating any thing with the Mine over which it runs and the Mine would probably discover any other Minerals joyn'd if such there were and the same Nitrous Earth here sound that is common to the others makes this more plain The proportion the nature of this Salt bears to the Nitre of common Water and true Nitres is discoverable by the quantity of time the Water retains its Ink-making quality Alkalies and so the true Nitre of the Ancients precipitate their dirty black presently The 〈◊〉 was examin'd at the Spring at my direction by the accurate hand of my worthy Friend and Ingenious Gentleman Mr. Edward Carter of Scarbourgh in whose own words I shall deliver their Tryals of them only adding to each a Corollary of the use I make of them Quest. 1. What Colour Nutgall gives it and whether Turbid or Clear Answ. A Grain of Gall strew'd upon the Surface of eight or ten Ounces of the Water doth without any farther mixing immediately strike a deep reddish purple colour which presently becometh turbid if you let the same stand all night the Water will in a manner recover its pristine clearness and a Powder of the colour of colcothar will precipitate to the bottom in a large quantity Or if a few drops of Spirit or Oyl of Vitriol be instill'd into the foresaid Tincture it will presently be clear as at first without the Precipitation of any Powder The reddish Purple is effected by Alkalisate parts united to the Acid distill'd Acids to the like but that the Salt of this Water is Nitrous is observable in its turbidness but chiefly in the Precipitation of the colour upon standing which Precipitation Spirit of Vitriol prevents though it destroys the colour Quest. 2. Has the Water any Scum or bituminous Film Answ. When it stagnateth in any place or stands a few hours in an open Glass there is an Azure colour'd bituminous Film or Scum upon it and if the same be expos'd to the Air for about a Week there is one riseth up much like that which swims upon Lime-water The first is common to Chalybeat waters which appears upon the separation of the Nitrous and Vitrioline parts by the Air but the latter a peculiar of the Salt which being not calcarious I judge to be of such a Quality as complies with the Corruption of the Water so far as to suffer its grosser parts to be thrown up which Lime-water does by the motion of its own active Salt so far it differs from those of the Nature of common Salt which preserve Liquors Weal water has the same Disposition Quest. 3. What Colour the Water kept three days in an open Glass will take with Nutgall turbid or clear Answ. Galls give it a colour then much as before yet something more remiss but if it stand longer as about a week they cause no such alteration changing it only into a milky colour like Barly water as Salt of common Earth does which is not Alkalisate Quest. 4. What Colour with Syrup of Violets Answ. A light Green which may be turn'd into a reddish Purple by adding some Spirit or Oyl of Vitriol To these Remarks I have added some which perhaps may not be unacceptable touching the quantity of Salt and stone Powder contained in those Waters its Taste Odour and Figure when Christallized According to my nearest Computation it hath about an Ounce in four Gallons and almost as much of the stone Powder which is of the colour of Sand made use of in Hour-glasses I never could discover any of the blew Clay which some pretend to have found The Salt hath a very remarkable Bitterness and when newly made a strong sulphurous Smell The Christals are very clear and transparent comprehended under eight plains two of which are Sexangular and the other six are Rectangular Parallelograms which are disposed
nauseousness of the Stomach Pains of that and the Head to cool to allay Flatulencies and the Cramps and disorderly Motions in the Body and flatness of the Spirits that attends them And this the Nature of the Principles well accounts which are thus far the same for as Water the common Vehicle in both demands Consideration as being most unfermentative and so a great assistant in suppressing Flatulencies from ill Concoction and other Failings of the parts occasion'd by fermented Liquors so the main Principle of the Purging Waters I have detected to be a Chalybeat Juyce These Waters where they can reach and pass and suit by their grossness seem to answer the Specifick Nature of the Chalybeat in some measure On this account these sometimes succeed in the Cure of a Diabetes as my honoured Friend and learned and compleat Physician Dr. Clopton Havers inform'd me upon a Case I consulted him in and as the Learned Dr. Grew hath recommended them which is 〈◊〉 peculiar Province of the light Chalybeat ones as being a Disease of the Glands which else these are unserviceable in The Purging Waters by their grossness have therefore their Effect chiefly on the Viscera and first ways which their Salt qualifies them to cleanse and exterminate Thus they are found to cure Head-achs Vertigo's Cramps Colicks and the Jaundies when their Cause or Fomes is in the Stomach or Bowels or is Hypochondriacal They are suited to the Diseases likewise that attend the grand Climacterick as I call that of 49 by joyning correcting and exterminating the Faeces of the Chyle which then is grosser and more Alkalisate and wants discharge As to differences of the Salts of these Waters as well of the heavy Chalybeats experience made them of weight with me having beside what I mention in its place observed the Jaundies cur'd more generally by those whose Salt was affine to common Salt and that elder Persons receiv'd most Benefit from those that were Chalybeat and that the particular Constitution requir'd a distinct regard to the Salt Of what power unheeded differences of Salts are in our Bodies besides experience I found it so reasonable in that Viâ—rioline and common Salt and Niters precipitate each other that it farther proved it self by the successful use this directed me to make of it in Fluxes of Blood immoderate Flux of the Catamenia and some other Diseases of this Year which by many reasons I judged to be Nitrous wherein I found Chalybeat Preparations to be the only effectual Remedies which were so unlikely as commonly in the Chlorâ—sis promoting such a Flux that I found it pretty hard to perswade some to the use of it And the proper use of the more Acid Chalybeat Waters in Fluxes of Blood make them a peculiar The Virtues of those and the Atramentous appear in their place The last of these are least efficacious and most numerous the Instances of that at Leez Place and at the much honoured Sir Edward Southcot Bar. his Seat are sufficient for Examples The light Chalybeats are the most abstracted of this kind and so fit to the Recesses of Nature which the others cannot reach and to shew the power of the Mineral The Virtues of these in various affects of Body and Mind and Hypochondriacism which produceth them are constant The Diseases are so odd which these and only these do cure that they ought to be specified and shall be done under these Heads The first drawn from the part affected which is the Glands and this Rule is so extensive as to hold in all Diseases of the Kidneys and Glands of the Joynts Their happy use in the first I receiv'd Information of from the before mentioned Dr. Havers which I found confirmed by this surprizing Effect upon their very first taking that instead of passing they stop'd their Vrin which was little to be expected from so powerful a Diuretick as they else are found to be And the perfect Cures of the Gout by these Waters are frequent and have been well attested to me A second Mark or Head The Diseases they are Specifick in is characterised by the Nature of the Waters and Diseases they Cure as the Waters clear depurate and suppress exorbitant Fermentations and as Diseases are produced by the Luxury of the Feculency of the Chyle and effort of fermented Liquors among which are the Diabetes and the Gout which are often produced by the use of fermented Liquors which by how much the staler the Beer is the more sure the Mischief and are incurable without altering the Drink in great measure To which I may add that the Gout is said never to have assaulted any Drinker of Water and many Indispositions are under this Head which are thus pointed at by the Cause A third Consideration that points at the Cases these Waters are proper in is the Occasion and time of the Disease and brings us all the Diseases at the Climactericks A fourth regards the Spring and part of its Origine which is the Brain and Mind and indicates all Diseases of any kind produced by Trouble and Grief The Cure of the Fistula and Feavers may make other Heads and give a rise to greatly improveable Thoughts Now in order to the just and ready use of these Waters that promptuary of Experience can only be certain that nicely digests Observations and specifies the Cases this only can readily point out the Remedy and hinder their improper Administration and discover Cases wherein they are effectual which may be so remote to our sense of them as never would encourage our attempting the Application of the only proper Remedy And this I insist on the more because I have had reason to believe this escape to have been even from the generality of Physicians This may be particularly instanced in a Dropsie wherein the Waters are very improper and often hasten the end of the Patient and yet in the same Disease when it proceeds from grief of Mind they are a reasonably certain and the only Remedy I say in this I have more than once known a Patient dye under the fruitless Application of a regular Course of Physick for a Dropsie when the successful use of the Waters in the same case oblig'd me to conclude the ill Success to be owing to the want of distinguishing the Disease and knowing the proper Remedy next under that Providence that disposed the Concealment Besides Diseases from this Cause are irregular and various and not bear any other method of Discovery or Cure Distempers of the Climactericks are as numerous and their Cure seems to depend as much on the same Discovery and I have often seen Consumptions at 21 and 49 cur'd by the dexterous Application of Chalybeats the Waters chiefly in the Cure of which by common Methods and Intentions their Physicians had labour'd unsuccessfully And as this helps us to the Knowledge and Cure of many Diseases that else lye conceal'd from us so it assists our Judgment in making due and true Prognosticks And
Sanguinary Plethora as likewise in a total Intemperature producing them yet a preparatory Course or Medicines conjunctly applied may be necessary First In old Age by warming Cephalick Medicines or moisture of the Brain in which astringent Chalybeats as Crocus Martis astringens recommended by Dr. Cole or Ens Veneris which I more use Secondly If inveterate or from confirm'd Hypochondriacism where the Brain may be calculous by a previous course of the Light Chalybeat Waters Thirdly The Matter may be Cold and Flatulent as the Case recited by Sennertus in which rotulae of Ol. Carui and nuc moschat succeeded if we consult the genius of the Humour in the advanced degree of it of this present Time it may be proper to take off the Acidity by Alkalys in which Coral ought to have a share joyn'd with Carminatives and Discussers of Flatus and to back these with Astringents and Purgers interpos'd Which I may confirm by an Observation I have made in some that I have cured that upon the first removal of the Fit the Humour remov'd into some other part as the Feet and appear'd in a puffy cold Humour And in others I have found an Apoplexy to proceed from the bare translated Matter of the Rheumatick Pains and thus in most of those that are taken and as this accounts well why Cold should increase them so that the Cause is the same appears in that this Catarrhal Matter when it falls on the Lungs or Bowels hath usually produced Blood as I find daily And this I observe the rather because it clears my proof of the Matter to be Natural and that the increase of this Disease is owing to an increase of the same Matter in the Air it s Subtilly Coldness Flatulency and Corrosiveness which the Coldness and Moisture of this and the preceding Years favour The last regard is to the Causes concurring to the Production of it as the Chlorosis stopping of wonted Flux or Haemorrhages The Course to be applied in all these appears in Authors and need here only to be intimated Where none of these are coincident besides general Evacuation to be premitted only good Detersives may be recommended the most successful of which that I have observ'd I have nam'd afterwards The Affectio Hypochondriaca which I have observ'd to be reliev'd by them all but when confirm'd to be cured by the light Chalybeats and secur'd by the more acid to which the Purging Waters elected according to the requisite Qualities ought to precede needs no Address to shew their place beside the reciting their Symptoms What is necessary to contribute to the Cure or Continuance of it being a change of the Course of Living to a more natural one instead of particularizing I choose to illustrate by shewing the antecedent Causes of it and that it is a Disorder of the Recrements of the Chyle As this is a Cardinal Distemper of them I have enlarg'd the thought not unusefully to the other turns these receive at the several grand Points of Man's Life and the Diseases thereon depending And though I could not be particular in the Explication of this yet the mistakes about Humane Nature are such even of seemingly sound Persons but are very unhappy in the Hypochondriacal I have offer'd somewhat notwithstanding at the general Reason of the Distemperature of Body and Mind and the universal Efficacy of this congested Matter I am of Opinion that by this thought more of a just Notion of our Nature may be retrieved and of the Efficacy of Mineral Acids in contradistinction from others how they confirm our Nature and particularly why Steel and how and on what Account and what the Temper of the Glands and so of the Brain consists in The Nature and Qualities of the Air prov'd by its Effects both ought and might be I fancy better clear'd and the Truth and Excellency of this Method be prov'd in the Acute Diseases likewise wherein I have found it of happy Vse which I hint to encourage the Prosecution of it because I have observ'd Feavers themselves to have enough of their reasons appear to distinguish the Success of the Observer of them but as these either want place or room here so instead I am oblig'd to excuse the whole discoursive part of this Book and particularly the Impertinencies and Imperfections of it being only casual and written raptim and much of it never read over by me till printed and were design'd but as Hints and beside the design of the History so that the great Precipitation with the Impediments made much or all of it so far from being exact as to be thoughtless almost In which part I reckon the Enumeration of the Sentiments of Authors of Apoplexies and the distinction of soms Symptoms And in what I offer to the Learned Dr. Cole of the Seat of the Disease it is Oscitanter and is submitted to his Judgment my Intent being to explain and carry on the Inquiry not to oppose In my examining the Waters I was exact to the best of my Skill and had it perform'd at the Springs trusting only to the procuring Barnet Stretham and Upminster the last of which was sent me by the unquestion'd hand of Mr. Jefferys of Brentwood And least an Objection should lye against the cleanness of my account of the Pyrites found in the Purging Wells in that the common Copperas stone should be found mix'd with them at Harwich at the base of the Loamy Cliff I must observe that they are only found among the gravelly lays that fall from the top and that be it however it sufficeth to my purpose that these Stones are only a common Base of this sort of Earth as well where are no Purging Springs as where there are and so not of a forreign Original Lastly Why I publish any thing so loose and unaccurate I can only say that the Discourses which were written off hand had not the leisure for Thought that the experimental part had which was in good measure done before I left Cambridge and so before I enter'd on Practise neither had I a prospect of an Opportunity to perfect And all my Thoughts I offer no otherwise than with Submission to better Judgment to correct A Supplement to Page 90. FOR particularly besides the Arguments drawn from the Excellency of our own Mineral Waters and their more distinct appositeness to several Cases which recommend the Use of our Waters in their lieu as being more abundantly useful to us so there are some Objections that lye against the use of the German Spa with us which it is not amiss to advise the Reader of For not only the Waters suffer so much by their long passage as at best to retain but a diminish'd Proportion of their Virtue equal to their Tincture of Steel but also that Water which by reason of its long retaining the Tincture is sent abroad and is medicinally drank with us if it did retain its Chalybeat Power which it seldom doth till it is used is
their Virtue two hours which yet will scarce be lost in ten days if headed with Oyl They all give a purplish Red with Galls which upon standing a while turns to a purplish Black Tunbridge Water in Kent THIS Water gives a deep Green with Syrup of Violets as Vitriols do and in the quantity of about seven Ounces and a quarter weigh'd ten Grains lighter than a River-water near me which was lighter than Spring-water and as much lighter than Rain-water and about four Grains lighter than the German Spaw to which it is preferable on that account The Ground above and about this Spring is a cemented Rock and the Spring is large of long use and much celebrated and frequented Wellenborow VVater in Northampton-shire THIS Water weigh'd at the Spring eighteen Grains lighter than common Water in a quantity of about twelve Ounces with a few drops of Tincture of Logwood gave a Black with Syrup of Violets a deep Green with Syrup of Cloves blackish with Galls a Violet Islington VVater THIS Water as the rest makes no Alteration in a Solution of Sublimate and with Sal Saturni dissolv'd in fair Water became milky a little and a little curdled and not clear as with a Saltpetre with Lignum Nephriticum it remain'd pale but clouded a little with a thickish dusky White near a Rain-water and weigh'd two Grains lighter than Tunbridge Water in the same quantity which I thought might be owing to the difference of the Season Felstead VVater in Essex THIS Water lies in a Moor the bottom whereof is a cemented Rock the Earth where the Spring rises is Fat and Bituminous or Unctuous and very Ferrugineous no Incrustation in the boggy Hole where the Water stands but the Water that passes through the Meadow begins to incrust as it touches this Ground It is of the same weight exactly with Tunbridge it becomes milky with a Solution of Sal Saturni and with Lignum Nephriticum suffer'd no stain but only a milky cloud swimming in it This is but a small Spring scarce more than a Land-drain Of the Virtues of the Chalybeat VVaters THE Virtues of Steel are so very great and large and in many cases so contrary as not to be explain'd by what are grosly call'd the first second or third Qualities but to help us to a Notion of them we must consider the Essence of this Mineral in its Affections that are apparent And thus we may conceive of it as a hard body of the Mineral Kingdom and so qualifi'd with Firmness which is apt to enrich the Blood being easily convertible into Fat or Sulphur the nature of whose Sulphur is to preserve Fluid Bodies and the Temper of whose Acid Spirit is such as raises and yet restrains or rather adjusts the Fermentation of our Stomach Soluble Friendly to our Nature and some-how Correspondent to the Mechanism of the Air we live in by its Magnetism and then we may intelligibly add the more Simple and other evident Qualities as cooling potential Heat Drying Balsamick or Healing Quality c. which I shall take notice of under these Heads in these Waters 1. They Invigorate the Blood and Juyces as a Chalybeat 2. They Astringe 3. They Incide and Attenuate by their Acidity 4. The Acidity is Connatural and agreeable to the Ferment of the Stomach and other Offices which these Waters promote 5. On the same account and partly in that it is Sulphurous it is a Fraenum or Curb to Fermentations and Flatulencies and performs more effectually what Oxycrate does in the Vapours in Women and Spirit of Sulphur or Vitriol in Men whence the Acid seems adjusted to the Temper of our Bodies which can preserve the just Fermentations as it destroys or reduces Exorbitant ones 6. They depurate the Juyces of forreign or grosser parts lodg'd with the Nourishment in the Body as is evident in the Stone which is but the same thing which they effect in gravelly Waters at their Springs 7. The Acid being Spirituous passes where other Medicines cannot and so are Diuretick and Exterminate and discharge the offensive Matter by Urine and the rest it Volatilizes 8. The Vehicle of this Mineral and Spirit is not apt to Elasticity or Fermentation And on the account of these Qualifications the Chalybeat Waters warm strengthen heal open Obstructions absterge invigorate and thus are capacitated to stop Fluxes of all sorts and remove many Diseases among which the Stone and Affectio Hypochondriaca stand at the Head But although all the sorts of Chalybeat Waters have some Qualifications in common as to invigorate the Blood and cleanse the Viscera yet as they differ in their Salt so likewise in their Virtues which I shall particularly treat of The Virtues of the Acidulae Which Name I would make proper to those Waters that are lightly Chalybeat THese have a fine Acidity not collectible into a Salt the residue upon Distilling being an Insipid Ferrugineous Earth and as I said before give only a Claret red with Gall. That which is proper to this sort of the Chalybeat Waters is That they are free of any gross Salt and have plenty of a Vitrioline Acid with little of the body of the Steel and that Acid more fix'd than in the light Chalybeats In order to understand the Benefit of this I shall observe that there are Cases that require a Water so qualifi'd either on the Score of the Distemper or Constitution of the Patient such as we commonly call Complexion in which a quantity of Steel may do more harm than the Vitrioline Spirit can do good And this must be allow'd me to be in all Cases and Persons where the Blood offends in quantity Floridness and Fluxilness by every one that observes the power Steel has to heat and invigorate the Blood in the Chlorosis And when I consider the opposite Nature of Chalybeat Acids and Nitrous Salts as I observed before I fansie I have a clear Reason for all this One Case that the Body of Steel agrees not in is that Indisposition of fresh-colour'd florid-complexion'd Persons about the last grand Climacterick as I call that of 49 who are liable to Fluxes of Blood or great Tumultuations of it It is very easie to discover the Alkalisat state of the Blood in aged Persons by only tasting the Urine which in those grows almost Caustick The Diseases that this sort of Water is a peculiar in are Apoplexies Phrensies and Fluxes of Blood and because the first of these is a Distemper that has strangely rag'd of late and extraordinarily this last Winter beyond what has been observ'd perhaps ever before to explain the reason of it so much as to give light to the Effect of these Waters may be no unacceptable a Digression Of the Apoplexy THE Reason of an Apoplexy and the Cause of so sudden a Deprivation of Life that great Judge the Prince of Physicians Hippocrates resolves into a Stagnation or Station of the Blood whereby all Motion and Action of the Spirits is taken away
known Cause or Occasion the best Deobstruents are such as joyn and mix with the Matter they are to exterminate of this sort is Sapo venet and Vrines humane or perhaps of other Animals and these to be promoted to the use of Chalybeat Astringents where these Waters claim their place Only I must mind the Reader that if such a Relaxation of the Vessels of the Brain attend it as appears by preceding vertiginous Warnings I must after the use of the Waters dismiss the Patient to Mr. Boyle's Ens which in the preceding Distempers of the Membranes of the Brain I have experienc'd to be most Effectual 2. As the other Method is to prevent and restore so for the present Relief in the Assault Emeticks and Catharticks usually distinguish themselves The other general and particular Evacuations fall not under my Cognizance writing a System being not my design yet Sternutatories must not escape my Reflection which I have ever observed to hasten the approaching Death to which the Nature as well as the Violence of the Motion made by Sneezing dispose them and are fit only to put the Patient past Remedy with speed And as this Monition is necessary here so a due Caution about Diet which forbids eating Pork or Eggs 〈◊〉 Meat of thick high and flatulent Nourishment is necessary to be observ'd with respect to Prevention Other Particulars that regard the Constitution of the Patient or Predisposition to this Distemper that the Physician is to judge of lye not here before me Thus much as to the Apoplexy There are many other Distempers wherein a Water of this kind is peculiarly proper to master and remove flatulent and viscous Matter and to curb the Turgescence of a florid Blood as in the Cephalick Disorders of Elder Women c. and that I may not proceed upon Suggestions of Reason only I shall recite the Virtues of Knaresborow Water from the Observation of Dr. French in his words This Water Cools and Moistens actually Heats and Dries potentially and according to other Qualities second and third it cuts dissolves attenuates abstergeth viscous tartarous Humours in the Stomach Mesentery Hypochondries Reins Bladder c. Penetrates Corroborates Astringeth c. It allays all acid gnawing and hot Humours and Cures all such Symptoms as proceed from thence as Agues Consumptions Quinsies Tumours Imposthumes Ulcers Wounds it stops Bleeding the Over-flowing of Choller the Dissentery and such like Fluxes It Corroborates the Brain Nerves c. and prevents or cures the Apoplexy Epilepsie Palsie Vertigo Inveterate Headach and Madness and all such Symptoms as proceed from the Weakness Coldness Heat Dryness or Moisture of the same It Corroborates the Stomach and causeth good Digestion consumes Crudities which are the Causes of Obstructions and breed ill Blood and infirm Flesh or an ill habit of Body it maketh the Fat Lean and the Lean Fleshy cureth and preventeth the Cholick and Worms It strengthneth and openeth the Lungs Liver Spleen Mesentery and cureth difficulty of Breathing the Asthma the Dropsie Melancholly and fearful Passions Hypochondriacal Wind and Vapours offending the Head and Heart which most Women and many Men are afflicted withall It doth also upon this account chear the Heart cure and prevent the Palpitations and Passions thereof as also all Faintings It purifieth the Blood cures the Scurvy even in those whose Teeth are ready to drop out of their Heads by reason of the Extremity thereof also the Foul Venereal Disease Leprosie Jaundies Yellow and Black and for the more perfect effecting of these Cures it doth in many open the Haemorrhoids It provoketh Urine and cureth the Suppression and allays the Sharpness thereof it diminisheth the Stone in the Bladder by dissolving the soft Superficial parts thereof and evacuating that mucous slimy Water in which it is involved and by this means also it prepares it for Cutting for sometimes this Stone cannot be felt by reason of that slimy Mucous which Mucous it self doth also sometimes by its Torments counterfeit the Stone where it is collected in a great quantity being of an acid tartarous Nature It forceth out from the Kidneys and Bladder abundance of Sand and small Stones to a great number and sometimes such as are as big and as long as long Pepper And as it cures all Ulcers and Wounds in the Body so especially and much sooner in the Reins and Bladder suppressing also the Pissing of Blood and the Gonorrhaea It cures the Gout Aches Cramp Convulsion in what part of the Body soever and giveth ease therein suddenly It openeth all Obstructions and suppresseth all manner of Over-flowings in Women strengthneth cureth the Mother maketh the Barren Fruitful and is a great Preventative against Miscarryings and rectifies most Infirmities of the Vterus Note That this Water doth not help all parts cure all these Infirmities after one and the same manner some being reliev'd by consent or by removing Obstructions of other parts It is also used by way of Insession in Griefs of the Womb and by way of Injection into that as also into the Bowels and Bladder where all the Qualities act immediately upon those parts allay the sharp and hot Distempers mitigate the Pains thereof Healing and Corroborating the same It may moreover be used by way of Fomentation and Losson in external Wounds Ulcers Itch or Scabs and being drop'd into Sore Eyes wonderfully cooleth dryeth and cleareth the same In a word If any Intentions in a Medicinal way be to be perform'd by allaying Distempers opening Obstructions evacuating superfluous Morbifick Humours and Corroborating all the parts of the Body those are effected in a very good measure if not fully and perfectly by this Water And I my self have seen many of the aforenam'd Diseases cured by the help thereof and for other Cures effected thereby I have been assur'd by them themselves who receiv'd the Benefit or by others who have been Eye-witnesses of the same Thus far Dr. French To the right understanding and due use of all which I shall observe That the Cure of the Foul Disease can be suppos'd to be put partial unless that Distemper be taken in a less strict Sense and passing the Notion of Diminishing the Stone which I had rather express by the preventing the increase of its growth I shall for the fixing Experience right make this Remark which may be usefully apply'd to all the Waters which is That in some Distempers as Dropsie Convulsions Jaundies and Gout constant Success and entire Cure is not to be expected without regard to the State of the Disease the Age and Firmness of it the Cause of it and the Distempers complicated with it Thus a Dropsie may not submit to this Remedy not only from the Firmness of the Obstruction but also from the Constitution and Laxity of the Patient from the nature of the Disease which I have observ'd sometimes to be from a Weakness of the Membranes by Flatulent Matter contain'd in them or from the Disease inducing it Convulsions here
are run off as Gentian Wine or the like or Chalybeat Wine in the Afternoon which I have â—ound to be very Helpful where the Moisture of the Season or Weakness of the Constitution made it necessary but not to be continued longer than it was so The difference of the Water makes some difference in the rule of Drinking the Heavy ones not allowing so long a Continuation of Drinking and often admitting if not requiring Purging during the Course which six Weeks may well determine whereas the light sort may safely and ought to be continued longer to prevent return of the Disease and establish the Constitution Else the Chalybeat Waters require the same common Rule which is to be observ'd before in the time of and after the drinking Before the drinking that the foulness of the first ways may not be carried farther and at least clog the Remedy and that Nature may be more light and easie that must be removed before the drinking of the Waters is entred upon And although it cannot be supposed that the proper Purges for particular cases can here be consulted yet that Emeticks in Cephalick Diseases are best and fittest to answer all the ends necessary is an Intimation I cannot allow my self to pass Catharticks ought to be doubled at about two days distance the first to regard the cleansing the first ways may be by a Bole of Lenitive Electuary and as much Resina Jallopii as may quicken it to desire or Pills or Draughts of Infusion of Sena and Rhubarb in both which forms I admire the additions of Salts either of Wormwood or Tartar that may make them more detersive and occur any unnatural or exorbitant Acid. The latter Purgation ought to regard the Disease as Lenitive Electuary with P. Diasenae and Dialtheae or Manna for Gravel In Colicks and where the Wind afflicts the Bowels Hiera Picra In Cephalick Distempers or where there is a Disposition to be Aguish gentle Emeticks Where Wind afflicts the more remote Passages or in the Blood afflicting the Muscular parts Infusions of Purging Ingredients as Sena and Rhubarb with a handful of Chamomel Flowers or the Weakness of the Stomach may require the Decotum amarum made Purging or Pills of Rudii and Ruffii mix'd and two or three drops of Oyl of Cinnamon The Dropsical Succus Ebuli in the quantity of Cochl 2 vel 3 is most proper for in my Judgment In the Melancholick Constitutions an Infusion of Sena and Salt of Tartar among others is one of the first rate The Scurvy bitter Decoctions The three last Diseases these Waters as other Chalybeats serve by strengthning invigorating and carrying off the offending Matter and therefore those need a due preparatory Course as is sufficient to bring the Blood and Vessels into such a state as may be fit for these Waters But yet beginning Dropsies and other Obstructions from Trouble of Mind admit these Waters as the only Remedy and require no course but this general Preparation Excepting Dropsies and Distempers that are attended with old Obstructions and Apoplectick Dispositions in Phlegmatick Brains I say setting aside these the Purging Waters are the best Preparative washing more universally and leaving the Body in the Temper that is most fit and sometimes prevents the necessity of these Chalybeat Waters the Proprieties of which will appear in a Table at the end of their History But because Pains of the Stomach often happen to be so violent as not to allow the use of these Waters before they are abated and sometimes require a particular Evacuation it seems incumbent on me to give some information how that Symptom may be reliev'd They are usually one of these three sorts First a Convulsive Nipping Pain at the pit of the Stomach that holds for some Weeks and soon upon eating is exacerbated This usually readily gives way either to an Infusion of Baccae Juniperi in Whitewine or Ol. Terebinth taken inwardly the last 16 drops at a time in Beer Another is a Pain all over the Stomach though sometimes gathering more to one part of it and is more violent and racking and goes off with a Looseness being from a Congestion of Watry Matter This yields to the common Domestick Glysters often repeated and is check'd by Ens Veneris and sometimes by Chalybeat Wine The Pain that attends a Chlorosis by Ol. Caryophyllorum taken in Sugar if from a depauperate Blood by Vinum Chalybeatum Phlebotomy here comes under consideration which although some Asthma's and other cases may render it necessary yet where not necessary is to be avoided as an ill Preparaâ—ivee for drinking of Water and must be referr'd together with other Preparations in particâ—â—â— Distempers to the Judgment of the Physician that knows the Distemper and consults the Constitution Of drinking I purpose not to prescribe either time or quantity which vary with the Disease and Constitution of the Drinker but only shall note that as rising gradually to a full quantity is required not only by the body that it may the better bear it but by the distemper'd part too So the Vessels that they may be cleansed and strengthned in their own Tone and Tension require a gradual decrease But though the continuation of this Remedy must be prescrib'd by the Nature of the Disease yet that a Caution is necessary that the drinking them be not left off too soon appears in that in my own Observation many having suffer'd a Relapse for want of continuing the Remedy some time after the Cure And this is so general that I may peremptorily assert that less than three Months is not generally sufficient to the drinking of them though they take effect in half the time It is not convenient to drink these Waters too early nor without some preceding walking to empty the Body neither is it safe to lye down upon them especially in Cephalick Distempers nor to allow any business to take place in the Thoughts on which score the distance of the Wells and the Resort recommends the drinking these Waters at their Springs But the most material Rule which the very design of them require is That during the Course the Drinker use Exercise avoid all Flatulent Diet and that of Gross and much Nourishment and drink as little fermented Liquor as he may And here especially drinking much Wine is to be condemned on a double account for beside that the inconvenient Temper that the Wine gives renders them unfit for drinking the Waters the Morning following it opposes the Remedy and renders it ineffectual by supporting the Morbid State and for this Reason as generous Liquors are not to be omitted at the beginning of the drinking so they ought wholly to be set aside when the Course is well enter'd without which Hypochondriacism which is the most general Case will not admit of any entire Conquest Neither is the Course of Living to be ended with the Course of drinking the Waters but that the use of them may be effectual a spare Diet and the
same abstemious living with Exercise ought to be continued for two Months in which time the Body may be suppos'd to be a little confirm'd And for the same Reason though some Distempers as Stone Jaundies and Melancholy particularly may require some other Intentions to be satisfied and so make a Course of Physick necessary at the same time yet the use 〈◊〉 the Waters is so much the less beneficial by how much it is disturb'd by Purging or any other Medicines and therefore Reason and Experience place this means last But in Apoplexies and some watry Distempers as Dropsie and Chlorosis an Astringent more potent is very necessary to close and strengthen the Parts The most proper and powerful of this kind I intimated above to be the Ens Veneris of Mr. Boyle which if it succeed the Waters as the other Detersives and Purgers are to precede make an entire Course in the surprizing Distemper that I there apply it to and in the room of it I have sometimes used Chalybs Preparat with equal Success if the Apoplectick Symptoms were mild These Waters as they suffer by warming so are apt to bring some Disorders especially in an ill Season or Constitution as Cold Nauseousness difficulty of Urine and Giddiness which are usually provided against by drinking a Glass of Wine after every three or four Glasses of Water for the first few Mornings But because the two last Symptoms do sometimes prove more considerably obstinate I shall take notice that it is good for those that are obnoxious to Cephalick Diseases to provide against the Giddiness procur'd by these Waters by chewing of Nutmeg and indeed Bisket or a Crust of Bread chew'd do the same the motion of the Jaws seeming as necessary as the warming the Stomach And for the Stoppage of Urine shall acquaint the Drinker that where it is not occasion'd by the Stone though Glysters and Purgers may be requir'd sometimes yet it may soon be remov'd without usually only Ol. Terebinth guttis iij. in umbilicum instillatis And the same I have known done by a plentiful Glass of Rhenish But in all these Rules I must make this reserve for the Heavy Chalybeat Waters That Purging is absolutely necessary during the taking of those which are not so clean nor pass so well and may bind the Body too much I have nothing more to add but for a Conservative of Health to recommend the drinking of Tunbridge Waters with Wine in Winter to the Hypochondriacal which are easier to be had than the German Spaw and are as much better than those by how much they are lighter and which in Flasks headed with Oyl will keep well THE Natural History OF THE Purging Waters OF ENGLAND With their Uses PART II. THE Purging Waters of England for their Pleasantness easiness of Working and extraordinary Effects in many Distempers have been justly celebrated but as their Original hath not been yet prov'd but remains a Question among Learned Men so the Varieties of their Natures not having been examin'd have rendred the differences of them unuseful The due Examination of both I shall therefore propose with their Uses which we shall find great and very distinct The Method I shall use shall be to set apart their Principles and then inquire into them and then make Essays of the Waters In order to this I shall distinguish their Characteristicks and proper Signs and trace their Original And that we may proceed surely I have examin'd the Waters at the Wells and the Earths of the several Wells my self except those that I had as sure a Conveniency of inquiring into by some accurate and unquestion'd Friends The Purging Quality of these Waters then resides in the Salt which is peculiar to Wells that have these Qualifications These Purging Waters are all found above the dead Loam in a Loamy Clay that is the same continued to the Foundation or dead Loam This I have found common to the Selenitical Waters as well as others and in this Loamy Clay the Water hath only a level Spring And though the Waters by the Surface may seem to be in a Gravel as those of Richmond yet the Earth as I was there inform'd by those that sunk the Well proves to be a continu'd Clay and without mixture of Gravel down to the dead Loam The Scarborow Waters by an Exception against this being a running Spring and in a Gravel but the Earth of all others that have had a gravelly Surface proving upon Inquiry a Loamy Clay as that of Richmond and that near Colchester it is reasonable to allow me it here where the Spring is not lyable to enquiry and since in my examination of that Spring I shall prove it a complicated one of a Saline Water as the rest joyn'd with a Chalybeat Water which sort are ever running Springs 2. A Nitre ever appears on the Earth about the Springs where it is expos'd to the Air so at Scarborow Woodham-Ferrys Acton c. at Epsam it shews it self like a white Incrustation yet these Nitres all differ from the Salts contain'd in the Waters 3. The Matter impowering these Waters is a Salt of which they contain a great quantity some in a dry Season affording near a Dram in a Pint The Quantities may be collected from the weights of the Waters and this Salt not Volatile 4. They have universally one common Index that is a Stone form'd out of and bearing the face of Loam within when broken At Epsam it is more mellow from the quantity of Chalk that that Soyle affords else it is naturally hard as I observ'd it in all the other Wells almost to striking of Fire with Steel At Alford my Friend inform'd me the Stone would strike Fire but not strong enough to kindle Tinder This Stone is is a sort of Pyrites as the great Naturalist and Learned Physician Dr. Martin Lister rightly names it but that being a name of a Genus of Marcasites and so too large an Appellative I shall particulary describe this which is peculiar to this sort of Mineral Waters This Stone then which is found in these Wells at the bottom near the dead Loam where the Water ooseth in outward crust resembles a Pibble and as unform'd and as differing in bulk most amounting to the size of a Man's Head and more of them are found bigger than less It is heavy and very hard when broke it appears coated with flakes of Gypsum some white some yellowish some Alabastrine not exceeding in thickness the eighth of an Inch and from its breaking and thready Composition is distinguish'd by Naturalists by the name of Trichitis This Coat invests some wholly some are cased here and there only some this passing into divides into parcels The Matter or Body of these parcels too differ in hardness and some in colour containing Iron either of the natural colour as in most or rushy as in Richmond but most of these Stones are pure Loam hardned Richmond Stone had this peculiar to
after this manner The sides are constituted of the two Sexangular Planes alternately interpos'd to two of the largest Parallelograms each side standing at right Angles with the other The ends are terminated by the four lesser Parallelograms inclining to each other from the Extremities or lesser sides of the lateral Parallelograms as the two Lines mark'd with the points and dash Thus I have described the Form of it as intelligibly as I can in words but because a Figure will help to explain what hath been said and be a means to represent the Idea better to the Understanding I shall endeavour to give you the best Delineation I can Half of the Planes or Surfaces may be represented thus but the other which are opposite must be supplied by the Imagination a exactly represents one of the Sexangular Planes which hath another like it directly opposite c b d do shew the Proportions of the greater and lesser Parallelograms but they cannot be represented Rectangular in the Scheme as indeed they are as was mentioned above the sides a and b do stand at right Angles and so do the sides opposite to them Thus ◠b. Thus far is the Account received in the Gentleman's Letter dated Scarbourgh June 22. 1697. Some Christals of the Salt of this Water with the Earth or stony Powder of it I received since from the same hand The Salt was clear and uniform or single and not an aggregate consisting of Bacilli or Columns nor plected as the Alum there produced appears the Figure was the same now describ'd only one of the ends was not so exact being a little broken and the Christal in bulk hardly amounted to half the measure of the Figure This Salt precipitated not fine Silver out of Spirit of Nitre as Sea-salt and our Rock-salt does do yet disturb'd not a Solution of Sublimate which Alkalies and Nitres do and which Alum thickens and whitens A few drops of this Salt dissolv'd in fair Water rendred a Solution of Sal Saturni white as milk which Saltpetre does not disturb It curdled Ol. Tartari per deliquium but not so strongly as Epsam Salt The Salt inflam'd not upon a hot Iron though with Brimstone added nor was very fluxile ☞ In Sum The Salt partakes not of either Alum or Sea-salt but is Nitrous not of the Nature of Saltpetre or its second Salt nor so Alkalisate as to discover it self in Sublimate Water or to give a deep Green with Syrup of Violets but which allows a mixture with Vitriols and is not so Alkalisate or full of Nitre as to precipitate but near that imperfect one of our common Earth and which is not so fix'd as to keep in one state or Solution of it in Water but hinders not if not promotes the Fermentation or intestine Motion of the Liquor which it clears by throwing up a Scum For as far as appears to me Salts that have a Solidity and yet a disposition to Fermentation that in burning throw up a Scum rather than precipitate as the Salt of Weal Water and that that stagnates on rich common Earth does among the Nitrous sort It would be advantageous to the discovery or distinguishing of the Nature and Virtue of this Salt to put some up in a Bottle with Sack which is a Wine that makes no Tartar to observe whether a Precipitation would result only to Fine it or a Fermentation or disturbance would be renewed The Propriety of this Water consists in the middle nature of the Salt which keeps thick with Galls as the Salts that Vitriols embody with effect which are not purely of the nature of common Salt yet is so familiar to Vitriol as not to disimbrace soon beside the Chalybeat parts and its less volatile Acidity The Chalybeat Purging Water of Woodham-Ferrys in Essex THE Earth cast out of this Well contain'd many discolour'd Parcels of mellower Earth the colours of which were two that of Brimstone and a Ferrugineous and which yielded Iron upon Essay when only well wash'd And as at Epsam these Veins attend the Selenites so the same stone is plentifully found here most of them were in one half resembling the Rhomboid the other had a differing Figure by the declining of the two opposite grand Planes till they determin'd at an edge which was Semicircular as in the Figure In parcels of this Loam inclos'd I found great plenty of Vermicular bodies which were mere Iron of which Metal one Tubulus Marinus and several pieces I brought away with me and reserve The stone or imperfect Marcasite which I call Lapis Lutosovitriolicus here had many shining Particles in it and consisted of Parcels divided by a thin Wall of Gypsum or Trichitis and precipitated some Iron when dissolved in Aqua fortis and diluted with fair Water The Water was clear of Taste Chalybeat but had more of the nauseous sweetish taste of the Purging Waters not void of Bitterness with Gall a thick Purple as Saline Chalybeats In the quantity of nine Ounces five Drams and 24 Grains exceeded common Water in weight thirteen Grains It chang'd not the colour of Syrup of Violets it took not away the colour of Syrup of Cloves which Alkalies do by inducing a sooty or green and common Salt by rendring it pale and cloudy It agreed with Vitriols and common Salt in making no alteration in a Solution of English and German Vitriol nor in a Solution of Mercury Sublimate yet curdled not much or large with Spirit of Sal Armoniack and less with Spirit of Harts-horn and with Spirit of Nitre suffer'd no alteration with Logwood infus'd a Purple but more toward a Red or Murry Note I used in this Experiment the Water when boyl'd high toward a Salt The Salt differ'd from Saltpetre in rendring a Solution of Sal Saturni milky it precipitated a Solution of fine Silver in Spirit of Nitre immediately as common Salt yet made with Liquid Salt of Tartar but a fine curdle with Lignum Nephriticum a pale yellow and thick as common Salt with Iron and Gall infus'd a right blew Ink and which did not precipitate The Kensington Water gave a more red black and which soon fell and with Lignum Nephriticum a clear high yellow near an Orange This Water of Woodham-Ferrys did not precipitate any Ferrugineous parts or Okar upon its losing its power of Tinging with Galls Then the Water with Gall took a yellow tolerably clear but not purely clear of disturbance near the effect of common Salt The Salt of this Water comes near common Salt Bay Salt with Gall giving a reddish cloudiness as the other a Vitrioline or mix'd one The simplicity of the Salt appears in the colour and clearness with Gall. It precipitated a ruddy Earth in boyling which distill'd Vinegar wrought on with great Effervescence The Salt seem'd of two sorts the first being hard not readily flowing in heat and grain'd and crackling a little in the Fire and leaping Some flat shoots like Saltpetres Bacillis The Earth contain'd
in two Quarts was about forty Grains The Water retain'd its power of Tinging with Galls many days in Glass-bottles only cork'd It did not readily raise and bear a Scum in boyling The Virtues and Vse of the Purging Waters THE Original and Genius of the Salt of these Waters being thus arrived at their successful Effects in Distempers and how these are agreeable to the Nature of the Salt comes now under consideration that hence we may be directed to the right and proper use of them Diseases or more truly Symptoms are so various in their Causes that without the Knowledge of these Observation and Experience it self will be uncertain and unserviceable Now the Diseases which are observed to be help'd by Purging Waters as ill Concoction Pain at the Stomach Heart-burning lost Appetite Vomitings Cholical Pain of the Stomach Cholick Iliaca Passio Worms Nephritick Pain Gout Rhumatism Heat of Urine or Suppression of it Scurvy and its Symptoms as Itching Pustles and the like Jaundies Vertigo Headachs Hysteriâ—k and Hypochondriacal Passions are all cured by the Waters only as they fall under this Notion and consideration That they proceed from a vitiated or delinquent Chyle and want of due Ferment of the parts and that the Matter is seated in the first ways or larger Secretory Vessels It is so very material to observe this as not only to improve the use of them in other Cases but may likewise help us to avoid the Misfortune of the Empirical use of them in cases where they are ineffectual Errors of which kind I have observed in the use of the Waters and indeed of all other Medicines as the Jesuits Bark and the like That the Matter ought to be fit for exterminating I might prove in almost all the Distempers these are proper in The Jaundies are often cured by the Waters when they have proceeded from Melancholy or have been otherwise produced by the foulness of the Viscera or are a Symptom of obstructed Menses or a Plethora but when Essential can be as little expected to have a Cure from these Waters as when it is Symptomatical of a Feaver or a Venenate Disease Vertigo again may proceed from Melancholy a flatulent foul Stomach or tough Flegm in the Blood as in the Rhumatism or from the nature of the Salt of the Blood as in Scurvies and in that Crasis which attends Women chiefly at the grand Climacterick of 50 or from a Plethora and so may be subject to the reach of these Waters else in Cephalick Distempers such as Apoplexies Dispositions to Lethargies Palsies and even in Dropsies Purging Waters in a general consideration can never be supposed to be applicable From the same Chylous Recrements Convulsions often take origine and may have place among Cures of this kind and Pains in the Head but ought to be mark'd with the same Proviso Accordingly Cautions against the use of them in a Chlorosis Feavers Cholera morbus and Suppression of Urine from Stone or confirm'd Obstruction our Reason readily suggests which too forbids the use of them in Women with Child The Qualifications that give these Waters an extraordinary capacity for these Cures are their Acidity agreeable to that of the Stomach and which indeed is Vitrioline their abstersive Salt of a middle nature between Vitriol and Nitre quantity of Liquor and not only their Purgin but as it is easie without Sickness or Griping or other flatulent Disturbances raised usually by other Purgers and which hinder those calm Effects that are necessary to the relief of some Distempers to which some would add Coldness and agreeable bitterness but this holds not in all From all which we may reasonably expect success when a preternatural Salt is to be wash'd away the Ferment of the Stomach to be restored Viscera to be cleansed or cooling is necessary Indeed the Purging Waters or their Salts are much the finest Purgers in Nature and in many of the preceding Cases often perform Cures alone They are the best Preparatives to the Chalybeat Waters and the only Purge proper to intervene in the use of them where Purging is expedient because these do it without disorder and are of like nature Of what general use these Qualities make this Purge I need not discourse especially for prevention since so near all Diseases are owing to the Vice of the Stomach or Recrements of the Chyle But besides this general nature of the Salt of these Waters it is found of some Specifick Qualities in many of them which frequently differ from each other and to have distinct Virtues accordingly That besides the Purging Quality and what that can contribute there is so much in the Nature of the Salt as may give the Waters the force of a Medicine may be very easily believ'd by any who will consider of what Energy the Qualities are that these Salts differ in The second part of Sal Marine is known by Sea-men to produce the Scurvy and a Salt nearly affine to Nitre the Itch. It is known that Nitre and Vitrioline or common Salt precipitate each other and must be allow'd to do as much in the Body and may be observed in the reason of the different Cures wrought by these Waters Alkalisate Salts and Nitrous produce a fluor of the Blood and in the present State of the Air which I intimated to be Nitrous or Alkalisate I have found Fluxes frequent I mean Sanguinary and have as certainly found Chalybeats and Vitrioline Salts effectual and observed Sal Prunellae to increase them when used by the less thinking Administrer You may observe in Lambeth Water a common Salt without the severe Coagulum which accounts for the Virtues In Weal a particularly opposite Nitrous one In Kensington near a Saltpetre In Dullwich a Salt related to common Salt but very penetrative and fluxile fit to command a Stubborn Antagonist but mischievous to a tender and over-heat Body and accordingly I have observed it I might go through all the Waters The good Effects of the Chalybeat Purgers in Asthma's a Dropsie make them a Peculiar over and above what their Salt would And in Salts of the same nature as Nitres some we shall here find of a more open nature approaching a calcarious one and so more apt to correct Acidities in the first ways some more lock'd and so fit to reach them when digested and remote In Weal Water I find an Alkaly joyn'd with a severe coagulating Acid the first raising the Floridness of the Blood the last apt to fix the Humour and obstruct and may have a good use to those Complexions that need both these Qualities as those do that are pale and inclinable to be loose body'd And although in passing of right Judgment the Consideration of the Constitution and Complexion of the Patient is necessary and as Tunbridge Water doth in some provoke the Menses in some stop them so this Water might produce the Obstruction before named in a Person of a Sanguine Complexion on that account which
Nature of common or Sea-salt yet not having an Acidity agreeing with Iron but Fluxile Penetrative and Marcasitical is that of Dullwich it mortifieth Scabby Humours and such as are the Effects of Luxury but promotes the Flux of the Menses and Haemoâ—rhoids These require regular Drinking work very mâ—ch and that churlishly on those that either Drinking or Walking hath put out of Temper 10. Salt of the Nature of Salt of English Vitriol that is of Iron and seem a result of the uniting of Vitriol and Nitre or Salt of common Earth whose Characteristick is to give a white clouded Liquor with Gall and not so high a colour with Lignum Nephriticum as Alkalies give This is the Salt of Richmond Water and the two Chalybeats and recommends the Use of these Waters in the Cure of Scurfs is most safe in Dropsies in Ulcers in any part in Hypochondriacal Cases exceed the rest And the benefit of a Purging Water that is Chalybeat is extraordinary great it not only answering the design of both Waters but under the consideration of a Purging Water is made thereby specifically proper in Asthma's and beginning Dropsies and without which Qualification it could be administred neither so safely nor with so good Effect According to my Method before I shall deliver the Virtues of the Chalybeat Purging Waters from Observation of the Learned Dr. Witty at the Spring at Scarbourgh the happy Successes of which make him lift it above all the Waters in Europe he recommends in it these Qualities Crassos lentosque humores attenuat incidit dissolvit in Ventriculo Mesenterio Intestinis Renibus Vesicâ diluendi item detergendi virtutem nacta eos per Vesicam intestina promptissimè expellit prout ab eorum positione videantur magis inclinari And presently names the Venae lacteae the Portae and Liver and he makes a Remark at the Diuretick Quality that notwithstanding two thirds presently run off by Urine it purges so much and at both in their lessening the bulk and weight of the Body He enters his Observations with a Cure of a Scurvy attended among other Symptoms with Pains in the Joynts and difficulty of Breathing and of a Gout in the same Gentleman so considerable abated by it that in a Letter he there acknowledges he never after that suffered any Symptom of moment The Diseases further recorded by Dr. Witty to have been cured by the same Water and of which he produceth instances are diverse Distempers of the Head chiefly arising from the consent of the Stomach and Hypochondries Affections of the Nerves and Spasm vellicating the Coats and Nerves of the Stomach or caused by Worms or sharp and bilious Humours Palsies that from their accompanying Scurvy are called Scorbutick A Vertigo assaulting upon the least motion or heating of the Body A Vertigo with a Cold Sweat intermitting Pulse and Stiffness of the Neck remaining after the Cure of a Spasmus Cynicus and which he judg'd to be Scorbutical A Spontaneous Weariness and Weakness of the Nerves especially upon going forth in Cold Weather remaining after the Cure of a Scorbutick Palsie that at first had seiz'd the Patient upon a Journey and taken away Reason Sight Strength and Motion An Epilepsie from a hot Vapour which the Patient felt to rise from the Hypochondries and suddenly to strike his Head and Joynts and which had frustrated many Remedies In Stoppages of the Breast he observed it to promote Expectorating Spontaneous Weariness and Difficulty or Shortness of Breath A Phthisical Asthma that suffered not the Patient to lye down or sleep or keep his Food and scarce allow'd him to drink mended in ten days time and at last cured so as to recover his Flesh and vanquish the Symptoms An Obstinate Catarrh Gout a Fit of which he freed himself from by drinking the Waters two days as soon as he felt it certainly coming in which too he practised Bathing in Salt Water and Sweating upon it In morbis Ventriculi Anorexia Cardialgia Eructatione perpetua Nauseâ Singultu Hypochondriaâ—ism with Pains of the Stomach after eating Flesh Distention and Hardness of the Stomach and Torsions of his right side in one Patient and with a joyn'd Pain of Back and Stomach with a Schirrous Tension of the Ventricle and Liver continual Disposition to Vomit and a Jaundies supervening every Fit in another Patient who could not lye on the right side nor bear the Region of the Liver to be touch'd Oppilations of the Mesentery Liver and Spleen preventing a Dropsie Another instance of its power in reducing the Belly after Child-birth which remained Tumid Scurvy Hypochondriack Melancholy and Worms Fluxes Dysenterick and Lienterick Hot Intemper of the Kidneys in wearing a new Stone and expelling it with the Tartareous Matter Also in a fresh Lues Venerea safely and quickly stopping a Gonorrhaea and carrying off the Relicks after the Cure of an old one In Morbis uterinis Suffocatione Matricis Chlorosi Fluore albo Mensium fluxu inordinato Abortionem praevertit conceptionem promovet And strengthens the Natural Parts I affix this Register exactly because when so nicely done is the only true way of adjusting their Virtues and is so much the more useful as it is equally applicable to Scarbourgh and Woodham-Ferrys which are both the same Rule of Drinking these Waters in general is the same which the Chalybeats require viz. Chearfulness and Exercise and a mild Diet they are not to be slept upon without danger nor doth the benefit of them consist with a Temper disordered by Drinking either in the use of them or immediately before The Repetition of drinking Purging Waters three or four times sufficiently answers the general Design of washing the Body though the more stubborn disorders of some Bodies make a longer use of them necessary But when the Nature of the Distemper or its Obstinacy require the use of them specifically they ought to be continued as other Remedies for many Weeks though with Intermissions at Discretion The Use of the Salts of the Purging Waters is very advantageous for Persons that are distanced from them and in the Winter especially in cases wherein the Milk which is usually added to make them agreeable by turning them into Posset clarified is not allowable as in Itches and Salt Eruptions The Use of which both in Glysters and Purges when dissolved in Water or convenient Apozems is most kindly and may be properly applied as the Learned Dr. Grew hath introduced it Some Observations on the Bath Water in Somersetshire THE smallness of the Quantity of the Bath Water which I could procure at so great a distance did not allow me Scope to try the earthy and Saline parts collectible by Evaporation The Water was clear and coldish to taste not wide of the taste of common Water It did not gild Silver or make it yellow as it doth at the Spring I could discover little Alkalisate in it It thickned and became milky with Oyl of Tartar and