the could water be humidissimum medicamentum if it were not humidissimum elementum For the simple qualities are more intense in the Elements then in mixt Bodies caeteris paribus We speake of the proper operation of water according to his natural quality and not as it may work by accident Thinness and levity are two other qualities of simple water which Hypocrates commends and adds this experiment in another place that it is quickly hot and quickly cold Galen adds another experiment in the quick boyling of Peason and Beans And whereas Galen produceth the boyling of Beans as a familiar example to shew the tenuity of water we may gather that the use of Beans was common in those dayes although the Pyâ—hagorean sect did then much flourish which were thought to forbid the use of them But I find that here hath been a great mistake For Aristoxenus who wrote of the Life and Doctrine of Pythagoras affirms that he did delight much in that kind of food and our Physitians commend them for loosing the Belly and drying of Rheums But it seems the cause of this mistake was a Verse of Empedocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O miseri a fabulo miseri subducite dextras Thrice wretched men from Cyams keep your hands As if he had forbidden the use of Beans poor occasion to pronounce them miserable which used them But he meant it of continency and abstinence from venery as Aulus Gellius doth intérpret it where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are understood to be testiculi Cicero mentioneth the the same of the Pythagoreans but in another sense because Beans were thought by their flatulency to disturb our Dreams and so to hinder the divination which might be gathered from them as also Middendorpius judgeth But tâ— return to water And it is requisite that waâ—e should have these qualities in regard of the manifold and necessary uses of it both for Mâ—â— and Beast and Plants insomuch as there is nâ— living for any creature where there is no wateâ— It was our first drink to quench our thirst anâ— to distribute our nourishment as a vehiculuâ— which it doth by his tenuitie and after the invention of Wine it was mixed therewith â— Virgil saith of Bacchus Pocâ—laque inventis Acheloia miscuit â—vis And he that first found out the Vine Mix'd some Water with his Wine Where by Acheloia he means not only tâ— water of the River Achelous in Etolia butâ— other waters as Macrobius proves out of Aâ—â— stophanes and Ephorus and Scaliger saith thâ— the Greeks called all waters by that name froâ— the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And since the planting of Vine yards seeing all Countries could not beâ— Grapes Bacchus also taught the world to make vinum è frugibus with water as Diodorus Siculus reports from whence the Egyptians had their Zithum and Curmi the Spaniards their Cerea the Turks their Cowset and we our Ale and Beer all which are extracted out of Corn by the pureness of and tenuitie of water By means whereof we have our Broths Syrups Apozemes c. extracted with it as a fit menstruum to receive the faculties of all medicaments and nourishments especially the second qualities and therefore it was antiently called Panspermia besides the manifold uses in washing dying c. where that water is accounted hest which lathers most being mix'd with Soap of which I will not discourse farther Levity is another note of pure water alledged by many and serves well to distinguish it from many mixed waters whether we respect the weight of it or the molestation which it breeds in the bowels This difference of weight is hardly discerned by ballance both because simple waters do very little differ in this point and also many mixt waters if they be only infected with Spirits and not corporal substances retain the same proportion of heaviness with simple water and also because it is hard to have great Ballances so exact as a small difference may be discerned by them yet Agricola reports that a cotyle of the water of Pyrene and Euleus did weigh a dram less then the water of Euphrates or Tigris and therefore the Kings of Persia used â—o drink of it and held it in great account as also the water of the River Coaspis Thus much for the qualities which simple water should have for such as it should not have I shall not need to spend time in discourse being either such as the Senses will discover if it be in taste colour smell or touch or the effects if it be purgative vomitory venomous c. CHAP. III. Of the three Originals of Simple Waters NOW it followeth that we shew from whence these waters have their Original which is no other then of the mixt waters saving that the mixt waters do participate with some Minerals which are imbibed in them They haue three several Originals the one from moist vapours congealed by cold in the air the second from the earth the third by percolation from the Sea For the first it is certain that our Springs and Rivers do receive great supply of waters from the Air where vapours being congealed by cold do fall down upon the Earth in Rain or Snow or Hail whereby the ground is not only made fertile but our Springs are revived and our Rivers increased As we see the Rhine and Danubius to swell more in Summer than in Winter because then the Snow which continually lyeth upon the Alpes doth melt by the heat of the Sun and fills those Rivers which have their Originals from thence up to the brinks Also we see daily after much Rain our small Lakes and Rivers to be very high Also upon much dryth our Springs fail us in many places which upon store of Rain do supply us again with water And this is the cause that in most parts of Africa near the Equinoctial where it rains little they have little water and many times in two or three dayes journey can hardly find to quench their thirsts and their Camels Leo Africanus speaks of an Army wherein were many Camels which in their marching coming to a River perhaps it was but a Brook did drink it dry So that we must acknowledge that the Earth receives much water this way But how this should serve the Bowels of the Earth with sufficient for the generations there and for perpetual Springs is very doubtfull whereas Seneca faith that these waters do not pierce above ten foot into the Earth neither if there were passages for it into the Bowels of the Earth can the hundred part of it be imployed this way but is readily conveyed by Rivers into the Sea Wherefore although much water be yielded to the superficies of the Earth by Rain and Snow and Hail from the Air yet not sufficient to maintain perpetual Springs seeing many times and in many Countries these aerial supplies are wanting or very spare and yet the Springs the
same Wherefore Aristotle his opinion which attributes all to aerial water and vapours from thence is justly rejected by Agricola and by our Countrey-man Mr. Lydiat So that we must find out some other Originals or else we shall want water for the manifold uses the Earth hath of it From the Earth they make another Original of perpetual Springs and Rivers seeing the first seems to be ordained by Nature only for the irrigation of the superficies of the Earth which else would be in most places destitute of water where Springs are not and so would be barren Plants and Trees wanting due moisture for their nourishment Wherefore for the perpetuity of Fountains and for subterranean generations which cannot proceed without water they have imagined a generation of water within the Earth some holding that the Earth it self is converted into water as Elements are held to bâ— mutable and convertible the one in the other As Ovid faith of the conversion of Elements Resolutaque tellus In liquidas rarescit aquas c. The Earth likewise when once unty'd Is into Water rarify'd But we must grant Ovid his Poetical liberty and not tye his words to such a strict sense although Scaliger in his Criticks would not pardon a Philosophical errour in the first verse of his Metamorphosis for saying that forms are changed into new bodies But unless there be some reciprocation between water and air the other Elements are not convertible the one into the other For neither Fire will be converted into any other Element being superiour to the rest and not to be mastered by cold which only must be the agent of the conversion of it by condensation neither will the earth be converted into water or any other Element as Plaâ—â— thinks in Timoeo and Aristotle 3. de coelo cap. 7. for either heat or cold must convert it Heat cannot do it although it rarifie and attenuate both for that it consumes moysture and also because water is cold which it should not be if it were made by heat for every natural Agent works to that end that it may make the Patient like it self and heat may convert earth into sume and dry exhalations but not into water for all water which is not eternal is from cold likewise cold cannot convert earth into water because cold doth congeal condense and congregate and indurate and not dissolve and attenuate c. as we see in Amber and Gumms Neither will water be converted into earth For by heat it turns to vapour and air by cold into ice and stone wherefore the Elements are not changed the one into the other unless it be water and air which have more affinity and more neighborhood than the rest And yet it is doubtfull as I have said in the former Chapter but this generation of water from the earth is impossible Others will have great receptacles of air within the earth which flying up and down is congealed by the coldness of Rocks into water to supply all wants Others imagine huge Lakes and Cisterns primarily framed in the earth and supplyed with water either from vapour or air or from the sea which water either by agitation by winds or by impulsion from the Sea or by compression of Rocks is elevated to the superficies of the earth or else vapours from thence made by attenuation either from the Sumand Starrs or from subterranean fire kindled upon Sulphur and Bitumen which was pours ascending to the tops of Mountains are there congealed into water by the coldness of the Rocks where there must be other Cisterns or Castles in the air to feed the inferiour Springs Others will make the earth to be an animal and to suck water by veins to serve his turn for generations and nutritions But why should it suck more than it hath need of and how shall it cast it forth beyond the place of use to the superficies of the earth unless they will say that the Mynes which suck it do puke it up as Infants do when their stomachs are full which is absurd to say These and such like devices are produced for the maintaining of their Original which as they are all insufficient to afford such a proportion of water as is requisite so most of them are so improbable and full of desperate difficulties as I am unwilling to spend time in the rehearsing of them or their Authors much more unwilling in the confuting of them to trouble my self and offend my Reader only the point of subterranean fire which hath taken deepest impression in most mens minds I shall speak of hereafter when I come to shew the causes of the actual heat of Springs The third Original is from the Sea a sufficient storehouse for all uses and whereunto the other two may be referred For that which falls from the air and that which is bred in the earth do proceed principally from the Sea Agricola for fear of wanting water for his Springs is contented to admit of all these Originals although he relyeth least upon the Sea because he knows not how to bring it up to the heads of his fountains but is contented it should serve for lower places near the Sea-cosâ— As I remember I have seen in Zeland at Westcapell fresh Springs colated from the Sea through banks of sand But I make no doubt but that the Sea-water may serve all other Springs and Rivers whatsoever although both far remote from the Sea and high in situation Neither shall we need to flye for help to those monstrous conceits of Agitation Compulsion Compression Suction Attraction by the Sun c. But holding the sacred Canon of the Scriptures that all Rivers are from the Sea c. I perswade my self that there is a natural reason for the elevating of these waters unto the heads of Fountains and Rivers although it hath not yet been discovered For those opinions formerly mentioned will not hold water My conceit therefore is this that as we see in Siphunculis that water being put in at one end will rise up in the other pipe as high as the level of the water whether by his weight or by the correspondence with his level I will not dispute so it may be in the bowels of the earth considering that the passages there are more firm to maintain the continuitie of the water with the Sea than any leaden pipes can be being compassed on every side with many Rocks as we see in Venis fibris commissuris saxorum Now although perhaps this water enters into the earth very deep yet the level of it must answer to the superficies of the Sea which is likely to be as high as the superficies of the Land seeing the natural place of waters is above the earth And although neer the Coasts it be depressed and lower than the Shore yet there is reason for that because it is terminated by the dry and solid body of the earth as we
must be plentiful if it continue so long in burning as we find them to do Or admit that this matter be kindled by succession yet it is incredible that it should continue burning above a year together as that Comet Xiphian which lasted a whole year Another Anno 1572. under the constellation of Cassiopaea lasted a year and a half others six months others three c. If the Sulphurous or Bituminous matter be thick it will melt in burning and rain down Brimstone and Bitumen upon us Thirdly if Comets were kindled substances what entertainment could they find above the Moon and among the spheres where they say no corruptible or elementary substance can be indured But many of our Comets have been observed to have been above the Moon and some among the fixed Starrs as hath been observed by Tycho Brahe and Clavius and upon due observation they could find some of them to admit no Paralaxis or diversity of aspect to any star in different Climats This argumnnt may be good against a Peripatetick but a Platonist or a Pytnagorean who hold the Heavens to be made of elementary matter and subject to generation and corruption will not allow it no more will many of our Divines For glowing fires we have none but they must be kindled and then they must have vent for their fuliginous vapours and they must be kindled either by propagation or coition from some other fire or by violent motion able to kindle them which we shall hardly find in the bowels of the earth where all is quiet and no space for any such perturbation But they say there is an ignis subterraneus which being kindled upon Sulphur and Bitumen disperseth it self among other Mines of the like nature and sets them on fire Now we are come from Heaven to Hell or to Purgatory at the least which Pyhagoras calls materiam vatum falsique pericula mundi The dream of Poets and a forged fear The largest description of it is in Virgil from whence both Divines and Philosophers derive much matter and Beccius doth believe that there is such a thing in the Center of the Earth But if we observe Virgil well we shall find that he propounds it but as a dream for in the end of that Book he saith Sunt gemina somni portae quarum altera fortur Cornea qua veris facilis datur exitus umbris Altera candenti perfecta nitens Elephauto Sed falsa ad Coelum mittunt insomnia manes Dreams have two gates the one is said to be Of Horn through which all true conceits de flee The other framed all of Ivory rare But le ts out none but such as forged are Now saith he when Anchyses had led AEneas and Sibilla through Hell he lets them forth at the Ivory gate Portaque emittit Eburna As if he should say all that I have related of Hell is but a fiction and thus Ludovicus Vives interprets it in his Comment upon this place I hope none will think that I deny a Hell but I approve not of the assignment of it to the center of the earth or that that fire should serve as Baccius would have it to further all generations in the earth and as others to be the cause of Fountains Winds Earth-quakes Vulcanoes Storms Saltness of the Sea c. nor of the actual heat of our Bathes although it be the most common received opinion First for the place it is not likely that the center of the earth whither all heavy things do tend should be hollow but rather more compact then any other part of the earth as likewise Valesius thinks but if there be any concavities they are between the Center and the Superficies and these concavities being receptacles of water from the Sea cannot also receive fire These two will not agree together in one place but the one will expel the other for whereas some hold that Bitumen will burn in water and is nourished by it it is absolutely false as experience shews and I have touched it among the Bitumina Moreover if the heat which warms our Bathes did proceed from hence there must be huge vessels above the fire to contain water whereby the fire might heat it and not be quenched by it Also the vapours arising from hence must be hotter then water can endure or be capable of for as they ascend towards the superficies of the earth they must needs be cooled as they pass by Rocks or else they could not be congealed into water again and after this congelation the water hath lost most of his heat as we find in our ordinary distillations of rose-Rose-water c. where we see our water to descend into the receive almost cold so that they cannot derive our hot Bathes from hence Secondly for the fire it self although water and air may be received into the bowels of the earth yet there is great difficulty for fire For the other two need no nourishment to support them as fire doth If there be not competency of air to nourish the fire by venting his fuligious vapours howsoever there be fewel enough it is suddenly quenched and such huge and flaming fire as this must be will require more air then can there be yielded a great part thereof passing away through the secret creeks of Rocks and little or none entring through the Sea And therefore daily experience shews that our mineral men are fain to sink new Shafts as they call them to admit air to their works otherwise their lights would go out Although one would think that where many men may have room enough to work there would be space enough for air to maintain a few lights The like we see in Cupping-glasses where the light goes out as soon as they are applied Also there are no fires perpetual as hot Bathes are but are either extinct or keep not the same tenor Wherefore fire cannot be the cause of this constant heat of Bathes It must be a continual cause that can make a continual heaâ— Also where fire is there will be smoak for as it breeds exhalations so it sends them forth But in most of our hot Bathes we find none of these dry exhalations Moreover fire is more hardly pend in then air yet we see that air doth break forth wherefore fire should also make his way having fuel enough to maintain it So they say it doth in our Vulcanoes at Hecla in Iseland AEtna in Sicicy Vesuvio in Campania in Enaria AEolia Lipara c. But it is yet unproved that these eruptions of fire do proceed from any deep cause but only are kindled upon or neer the superficies of the earth where there is air enough to feed it and means enough to kindle it by lightnings or other casual means Whereas in the bowels of the earth there is neither air to nourish it nor any means to kindle it seeing neither the beams of the Sun nor Wind or other Exhalations nor any Antiperistasis nor Lyme nor
Mineral Bathes which besides the former uses are also medicinal and very soveraign for many Diseases consisting of wholsome Minerals and approved for many hundred years of many who could not otherwise be recovered At the least wise if we do not beautifie and adorn them yet we should so accommodate them as they might serve for the utmost extent of benefit to such as need them For there is nothing in our Profession of Physick more useful nor in the works of Nature more admirable man only excepted which Plato calls the great miracle then Natural Bathes and Mineral Waters The nature and causes whereof have been so hard to discover as our antient Authors have written little of them holding them to be sacred or holy either for that they judged them to have their virtue immediately from God or at least from the celestial Bodies from whence both their actual heat was thought to be kindled by lightnings or such like impressions and other admirable Virtues and sometimes contrary effects derived which appear in them Also divers miracles have been ascribed unto those Natural Bathes to confirm the opinion of a supernatural power in them as Guaynerius reports of the Bathes of Aque in Italy and Langius out of Athenoeus concerning the Bathes of Edepsus which both lost their vertue for a time The one by the Magistrates prohibiting poor diseased people to use them the other by imposing a taxation upon them but upon the reformation of those abuses were restored to their former virtues again I need not herein averring the opinion of Divinity which was held to be in Bathes make any mention of the Pool of Bethesda written of by Saint John and Nonnus the Poet nor of the River Jordan which cured Naaman the Syrian of his Leprosie being indeed true miracles and done by a supernatural power â— yet it is likely that those and such like examples bred in the minds of men a reverend and divine opinion of all Bathes especially where they saw such strange effects as they could not well reduce to natural Causes And this hath been the cause that in old time these mineral fountains have been consecrated unto certain Deities as Hamon in Lybia unto Jupiter Thermopilae unto Hercules by Pallas among the Troglodites another to the Sun c. And at this day we have divers Bathes which carry the names of the Sun Moon and Saints and many Towns and Cities named from the Bathes in them as Thermae in Macedonia and Sicily Thermidea in Rhodes Aquae in Italy Aquisgraue in Germany Baden in Helvetia and our antient City of Bathe in Somerset-shire in honor whereof I have especially undertaken this labour and I perswade my self that among the infinite number of Bathes and Mineral Waters which are in Europe there are none of more universal use for curing of Diseases nor any more commodious for entertainment of sick persons then these are Besides this sacred conceit of Bathes wherewith in antient times the minds of men were possest we may adde this that the nature of Minerals was not so well discovered by them as it hath been since and therefore we finde very little written of this argument either in Aristotle or Hypocrates or in Galen who wrote most copiously in all other points of Physick yet concerning this hath little and never gave any of these waters to drink inwardly although he acknowledgeth that they were in use and for outward uses held them all to be potentially hot After these Grecians the antient Latines and Arabians succeeded Plinie Celsus Seneca Lucretius Avicen Rhasis Seraphio Averrhoes it whom we finde some small mention of natural Bathes and some use of Salt and nitrous and Aluminous waters but nothing of worth towardâ— the discoverie of the natural causes of them Iâ— is likely they did pass it over slightly either by reason of the difficulty in searching out the cause of them or that they judged them meerly metaphysical But in later times the nature and generation of minerals from whence the Baths proceed and from whence the whole doctrin of them both for their qualities and differences originals and use must be derived being better looked into and observations taken from such as daily labour in the bowels of the earth for the search oâ— Mines or such as afterwards prepare them for ouâ— necessary uses we have attained to better knowledge in this kinde than the Antients could have although in all new discoveries there wilâ— be defects for succeeding ages to supply so falls out in this Dies Diem docet Aipham Bâ—ta corrigit And although Agricola Pallopius Baccius Mathetsious Solinander Libavius c. have added much unto that which was formerly known in this point and reformed many errors and mistakings in former writers yet they have left many things imperfect doubtful obscure controverted and perhaps false as may appear in the discourse following I do reverence all their worths as from whom I have learned many things which else I could hardly have attained unto and I acknowledg them to have been excellent instruments for the advancement of learning yet I hope it may be as free for me without imputation of arrogancie to publish my conceits herein as it hath been for them or may be for any other Hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim We both this leave Give and receive My end and studie is the common good and the bettering of this knowledge and if I shall bring any further light to increase that I shall be glad otherwise my intent being to search out the truth and not to contradict others it will or ought to be a sufficient protection for me wherefore I come to discourse of Mineral waters CHAP. II. Definition of Mineral Waters The nature where of cannot be understood except first consideration be had concerning simple water Of which in this Chapter are shewed the qualities and use MIneral waters are such as besides their own simple nature have received and imbibed some other qualitie or substance from Subterranâ—an Mynes I say besides their own nature because they retain still their liquidness and cold and moysture although for a time they may be actually hot from an external impression of heat which being gone they return to their former cold again I say imbibed to distinguish them from confused waters as earth may be confused with water but not imbibed and will sink to the bottom again whereas such things as are imbibed are so mixed with the water as it retains them and is united with it being either Spirits or dissoluble juyces or tinctures I say from Subterranean Mynes to distinguish them from animal or vegetable substances as infusions or decoctions of herbs flesh c. Seeing then that the Basis of these Bathes or mineral fountains is water we must first consider the nature of simple water and from thence we shall better judge of Mineral Waters and their differences By simple water I do not mean the Element of water
for that is no where to be found among mixt bodies but I mean such water as is free from any heterogeneal admixture which may alter either the touch or taste or colour or smell or weight or consistence or any other qualitie which may be discerned either by the senses or by the effects This water therefore must have his proper colour and taste without savour or smell thin light cold and moist if any of these properties be wanting or any redound it is mixed and infected Cold and moisture do abound in water For cold appears by this that being heated by any external cause it soon returns to his cold nature again when the cause of the heat is removed And whereas Air is held by the Stoicks to be most cold and confirmed by Seneâ—a and Libavius yet the reason they give for it doth seem to prove water to be more cold because they make the matter of air to be water and to have his coldness from thence But Aristotle holds the air to be hot from the efficient cause which â—rarified â—it being of more validity to make it hot than water the material cause to make it cold Galen is of neither side for he doth not judge it to be hot neither doth he ever pronounce it to be cold but by reason of his tenuity apt to be altered either by heat or cold I will not here undertake to determine whether all be bred of water or whether it be not a distinct substance of it self and only receiveth watry vapours into it being agreeable in cold moisture tenuity c. with it and so lets them separate in rain and so exonerate it self of these vapours as also of dry exhalations by winds thunder c. or whether air be only the effluâ—â—um of the inferiour globe being within the orbe of his virtue as all Dominion hath not only a place of residence and Mansion but also a vergâ— and territory where it exercifeth his authority and government so the inferior globe of the earth and water hath his dominion beyond his own globe as likewise may be thought of all other globes of the Planets c. But these points are impertinent to my purpose It is enough for me to shew what I judge of the temperature of the air concerning heat or cold And to me it seemâ— most probable that the air of it self should be cold as may appear by this that it is only heated by external causes which being removed the aâ— returns to his former coldness again So we seâ— that within the Tropicks in Zona torrida as long as the Sun is within their Horizon and beats thâ— air with his perpendicular beams it is exceeding hot especially in the vallies where the reflection is most insomuch as Aristotle held those parts of the World to be inhabitable in regarâ— of the extremity of heat But after the Sun is setâ— the air returns to his natural coldness until the Sun arise and heat it again Josephus Acosta urâ— geth this argument against Aristotle about the habitableness of the torrid Zone that the daieâ— and nights being there equal the presence of the Sun in the day-time may well heat the air bâ—â— his absence for twelve hours more in the night reduceth the air to a better temper and upon this and divers other arguments and experiences which cannot be denied concludes that if there be any Paradise upon earth it is under or near the equinoctial The like reason may be drawn from the coldness of mountains which being near to the middle region of the air and wanting that reflection of the beams of the Sun which is in the valleys are continually cold and often covered with snow which would not be if the air were hot As for the conceit that the middle region is made cold by an Antiperistasis the element of fire being above it and the reflection of the beams of the Sun beneath it it is an idle conceit For these heats on both sides would rather heat than cool the middle region by their working upon it Also take away the element of fire from under the Moon which is an opinion now exploded by the best Philosophers and then what becomes of your Antiperistasis But I shall speak more of this Antiperistasis cap. 13. And as for the reflection beneath it is a weak thing and will hardly extend to the top of a steeple wherefore this coldness of the middle region is not from any Antiperistasis but from the nature of the air which there is not altered either by any influence from above or by any vapours or reflection from beneath Neither would it be so cold neer the Poles if the air of it self were hot But the long absence of the Sun in those parts and the oblique beams when it is present do permit the air to enjoy his natural coldness And as the airis of it self and in his own nature cold so is it probable that it is more cold than water seeing it hath a greater power of condensation than water as we see it congeals water into ice snow hail c. which the water cannot do of it self For in the bowels of the earth where the air cannot freely pass water is never found to be congealed unless it bâ— compasled by some other substance equivalent to air in coldness as Quick-silver Nitre c. where cold is drawn into a greater compendium than in water by reason of the density of their substances and in ice and snow the cold maâ— be greater by reason of the admixture of air Iâ— is likewise probable that earth is more cold that water if we consider it as it is in it self and noâ— mixed with other heterogenities For as motioâ— causeth heat and levity and rarity so want oâ— motion which is in earth causeth coldness density and ponderosity But it is enough for oâ— purpose to prove both air and water to be cold As for moisture Aristotle holds the air to be mosâ— moist and water most cold Galen holds wateâ— to be most moist Aristotles reason for the predominance of moisture in Air is because it is moâ— hardly contained within his bounds but the termination of things proceeds from their opposite qualities as moisture is terminated by dryness and dryness by moisture and dryness doth aâ— easily terminate moisture as moisture doth terminate dryness And this difficulty of termination in air may more properly be ascribed to hiâ— thinness and tenuity of parts than to his moisture For dry exhalations will extend themselves aâ— well as moist vapours and as it is density that compacts so it is rarity that extends Fire it self is more hardly bounded than air and yet not moist Those that would reconcile these differences do alledge that Galen speaks as a Physitian and meant that water was bumidissimum medicamentum Aristotle as a Philosopher meant it to be humidissimum elementum But this reconciliation gives little satisfaction For how
see in a cup or bowl of water filled to the top we may put in a great bulk of silver in pieces and yet it will not run over but be heightened above the brims of the bowl The like we see Ãn a drop of water put upon a Table where the edges or extremities of the water being terminated by the dry substance of the Table are depressed and lower than the middle likeâ— half globe but take away the termination by moistening the Table and the drop sinks 〈◊〉 this be evident in so small a proportion we may imagine it to be much more in the vast Ocean and our Springs being commonly at the foot oâ— Hills may well be inferior to the Globe of thâ— Sea if any be higher they may perhaps be feâ— from rain and snow falling upon the Mountains But if Josephus Acosta his assertion be true thâ— the Sea towards the Equinoctial is higher thaâ— towards the Poles then the level of the Sea mâ—â—â— be much higher than the top of our highest Hillâ— but this is a doubtful assertion yet I dare believe that if it were possible to immure a Sprinâ— without admission of air which might break thâ— continuitie with the Sea our Springs might bâ— raised much higher At Saint winifrids Well iâ— Flint-shire though there be no high land neer iâ— yet the Springs rise with such a violence and iâ— plentifully that within a stones cast it drives â—â— Mill. It is likely that this Spring might be raised much higher And whereas we see that Riverâ— do run downwards to the Sea per decline it doth not prove the Sea to be lower than the Land but only near the shore where it is terminated and in lieu of this it hath scope assigned it to fill up the Globe and so to be as high as the Land if not higher For if a measure should be taken of the Globe of the earth it must be taken from the tops of the Mountains and from the highest of the Sea and not from the Valleys nor from the Sea-coasts This conceit of mine I was fearful to publis h and therefore had written unto Master Brigges mine antient friend for his advice in it being a point wherein he was well studied but before my Letter came to Oxford he was dead But now I have adventured to publish it to stir up others to search out the causes hereof better than hath yet been discovered Exorsipse secandi fungor vice cotis Anothers edge though blunt I set And with the Stone that 's dull I whet CHAP. IV. Division of Mineral Waters Minerals descrâ—bed Their kinds recited Of Earth simplâ— and mixed Whether it give any medicinablâ— qualitie to Water And so of the rest in thâ— following Chapters THus much of simple waters and their originals which may serve as Polycletus hiâ— rule to judge mixed and infected waters by Galen in many places speaks of an exact and sound constitution of body as a rule to disceâ—â— distempered and disproportionated bodies Anâ— thus much in explication of the Genâ—s in the definition of Mineral Waters Now I come to Mineral Waters and to the other part of the definition which we call difference c. from Subterranean Mynes by Imbibition These Mineral waters are either simple oâ— compound simple which partake but with some one Subterranean Mineral compound which partake with more than one And theâ—â— waters partake with Minerals either as they aâ— confused with them or as they are perfectly mixed Also these mineral waters whether simple or compound are actually either hot or cold the reason whereof must proceed from some Subterranean cause as shall be shewed hereafter Wherefore we must first know the nature oâ— these Subterranean Minerals and their generation A TABLE OF MINERALS WITH THEIR QVALITIES 1. Earthly Simple Dry Cold Astringent or mixed with Nitre Fullers Earth Marle Abstergent Allum Coperas All sorts of Boles Astringent and Desiccative Turfe Bitumen Pex c. Fat and Unctuous Vid. p. 24 25 26 2. Stone vid. p.27 3. Bitumina Solid Terra â—mpelis Succnum Gaâ—aâ—es Amâ—a Canphora Boneo Châ—a Titantrax five Carbo fosslis Liquid Petroleum Naphtha Potentially Hot and Dry in the 2. or 3. Degree Except Camphir concerning the Nature and Qualities of which Authoâ—sdisagree Vid. pag. 34. 4. Concrete Juyces Salt Astringent Detergent Purging c. Vid. pag.47 Nitre Sal Amnoniacum Borax Altincar Vid. pag. 44.51 Allum Vitriol Very astringent and cold Vid.p. 57 58. 5. Spirits Quicksilver Various in it Qualities vid.p. 61 62. Sulphur Moderately Hot and Dry and somewhat Cooling vid. p.63 Arsenick Auripigmentum Risagalum Sandaracha Rusma c. Venomous vid. p.65 Extreme hot and putrifying p. 66 Cadmia Natural Liquid Dangerous and a strong Corrosive Factitious Moderately hot and cleansing vid. p. 66. 6. Mean or half Metals as Bismutum or Tin-glas Qualities not mentioned vid. p.67 Antimony purgeth vidently upward and downward ib. Bell-metall not used n Physick vid. p.68 7. Metals Perfect Gold Qualities unâ—ertain vid. p. 69. 72. Silver Esteemed Cold Dry Astringent Emollient vid p. 69. 74. Imperfect Hard Iron Opening and Astringent vid. p.70.74 75 76. Copper Temperate in heat less Astringent and morecleansing than Iron vid. p.70.77 Soft Tinn Cold and Dry yet moving Sweat P. 72.77.78 Lead Cold and Dry vid. p.72.78 79. Place this between page 24 and 25 where the 4th Chapter of Minerals begins â—â—â—om whence Mineral waters receive their â—â—â—rence from common simple water before â—â—â—n judge of the nature and quality of them â—er Actual or Potential â—â—â—y Minerals we understand all inanimate â—â—â—ect bodies bred in Mines within the bowels â—â—â—e earth I dare not undertake to muster these â—â—â—ue order by Dichotomies seeing neither â—icola nor Fallopins nor Libavim nor any â—â—â—r that I know have exactly done it nor satisfied either others or themselves in it and seeing there are divers Minerals lately discovered perhaps more may be hereafter which have â—een known in former times and therefore mentioned as Calaem in the East-Indies â—â—â—ma and Terra ghetta in Turkey c. Whereâ—â—â— I will make bold to reckon them up as they â—â—â—e to hand in seven ranks The first shall be earth Earth whether it be bred ab exbalatione sicca Earth â—â—â—igerata or ex mistis per putredinem in fimum â—â—â—versis or ex lapidibus sole aut â—alore cockis â—â—â—de aqua solutis c. It is all inconcrete As â—â—â—tle water gleweth it together in Lutum so a â—â—â—t deal dissolves it But this is no proper disâ—â—â—tion but only a disjoyning of parts by Imâ—â—â—ng the moisture which conjoyned them into greater proportion of water for waters do â—â—â—urally run together like drops of quick-silver melted metal Wherefore seeing the moisture â—â—ch is in the earth is not natural but advenâ—â—â—ous not united essentially but only mixed â—â—â—identally it may well be called an inconcreteâ—â—â—stance â—â—â—stance whose moisture is easily drawn from it being ready to unite it self with other moisture and
But by the same reason the Juices of Lemons Barberries Howsleek c. should be hot for they will carve Iron To bite and eat as a Corrosive are not arguments of heat but of piercing Wherefore Hypocrates saith Frigus ulceribus mordax Cold bites Ulcers and frigus est principium destructivum ut calor generativum Cold is a destructive principle and Heat a generative And therefore it is more probable that these corrosives are more cold then hot These two mineral juices are not so readily dissolved in water as the other two and wil be more easily precipitated by any opposite substance that is more familiar to water I omit the several sorts or these concrete juices and their admixtures with other minerals as impertinent to my purpose wherefore I will shew some examples of each of them in natural Springs For salt Springs Josephus Acosta tells us of a rare Spring at a Farm neer Cusco in Peru which as it runs turns into very white Salt without any fire or art in great abundance In Germany are many salt Fountains at Luneburg Stafford Salt â—burgh Aldondorf Halstat c. In Italy in agro Volaterano c. In Sicily at Solinantia is a salt Well which is hot and so are the Pegasaei Fontes in Caria Also the Fountain by Medon in Traesen is both salt and hot Our Wiches in Cheshire are well known There are also Rivers of salt water by the Caspian Streights and in Spain and Caria and in Bactria Ochus and Oxus Also there are salt Lakes as the Terentine Lake in Italy the Lake between Strapela and Seburgh mentioned before in Germany three Lakes in Sicily and besides an infinite number in other Countreys the Lake of Lakes the Sea All which receive their saltness from Mines of Salt in the Earth which are very frequent and huge in bigness as may appear by the Rocks of Salt in Bohemiâ— in Monte Carpato in Polonia within two miles of Cracovia in Helvetia and Rhetia where they have no other Salt but from the Rock As also by the Caspian Streights are great Rocks of Salt But Marous Paulus Venetus tells us of a Rock or Mountain of Salt in Thaican able to furnish all the world with Salt So that it is no marvail that the Sea is salt seeing it pierceth into the bowels of the earth and discovereth many great Rocks of Salt which dissolve in it And this is the true cause of the saltness of the Sea The other causes alledged for it are very improbable For whereas Aristotle and his followers attribute the saltness of the Sea to the evaporation of the fresh and sweet parts of the water by the Sun and to an adustion procured also thereby I answer that neither the one nor the other can breed a substance in the water which was not there before For qualities can breed no substance and adustion is but a quality imprinted and no substance Neither can evaporation breed any but only discover that which was in it before by taking away the thin parts and leaving the terrestrial behind But we see the Sea water to contain in it the substance of Salt and most of the Salt which we use is made of Sea water and no man will deny that this Salt is differing from water in his substance and generation being a distinct species in it self And whereas they alledge for confirmation of their opinion that under the torrid Zone the Sea is more salt then in other parts the Sun exhaling more there and making a greater adustion I doubt it both for the large plentiful Rivers which those parts afford beyond any other parts of the world and also for that the Sea water there is not hot neither are the beams of the Sun so hot but that men do endure them and therefore not likely to breed an adustion in the Sea water which must first be hot before it be adusted Also it may be that those parts do abound in Rocks of Salt as we read of people in Africa called Ammantes who make them Houses of Rock-Salt and Castles as that in Sinâ— Geraico which is five miles in compass and all of Salt also the Mountain Oromenus in India is all of Salt Moreover if the Sun be able to do this in the Sea which is alwayes in motion whereby it eludes the force of the beams why should it not do the like and much more in standing Lakes as the Lemanus and such like They answer that Lakes are continually supplyed and fed with fresh water from Springs But so is the Sea continually fed with fresh water and in as large a proportion caeteris paribus as Lakes are For as the Sea is not increased by the influx of fresh waters no more are divers Lakes but keep the same fulness and sometimes are lessened And whereas they say that the upper part of the Sea is more salt then the botome they speak against all reason salt being heavier then water and against experience as I have shewed in the former Chapter Also Aristotle in some places confesseth it But if any man will take the pains to vapour away 100. Tun if he will of fresh water I do assure my self he will not find one grain of salt at the bottome if it were not in the water before This may be tryed also in any distilled water which we are sure can have no Salt in it for Salt will not arise in distillation and is as apt to yield Salt as any other water if adustion or evaporation would breed it Wherefore the saltness of the Sea is not from evaporation or adustion but must needs proceed from Rocks of Salt in the Earth which the Sea doth wash and dissolve much of it And considering the great use of Salt both for other uses and for Generations Nature hath provided enough of it especially in the Sea which is more fruitful in that respect the Land Wherefore Venus was called A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Est Venus orta Mari. Nitre is seldome found in Bathes alone but mixt with other minerals which it dissolves and infects the water withall Yet we read of a Nitrous Lake called Letis neer CÄlestria in Macedonia where they use to make Nitre and vent it to all parts So they do at the Nitrarit in Egypt Also the Lake Arethusâ— in Armeniae is full of Nitre At Menis in Phrygia is a Spring of Nitrous water which is hot Also in Leonte is a hot Nitrous Spring Bellonius makes mention of a Nitrous Fountain neer Belba and of abundance of Nitre upon a Plain neer thereunto which seems to be that which Pliny calls Halmariga But he denieth that there is any Mine of Nitre under the earth but that all iâ— bred out of the soyle as an Efftorescens of the earth Baccius saith the same of Salt-peeter Agricola saith that as the true Nitre is gathered upon the Plains of Media above the earth so is Salt-peeter found
above the earth in many places of Saxony That Nitre is gathered upon the Plains of Media are Plinies own words Exiguum fit apud Medos canescentibus sâ—scitate convallibus There is a little to be found among the Medes where the Valleys are white with Drought So that it seemeth his opinion was that Nitre is not bred in a Mine under the earth as Gesner also saith Epist lib. 3. pag. 134. but in the earth it self as the chief fatness it hath to further generations And seeing earth is the mother of all terrestrial bodies it is not left unfurnished with those mineral juices nor ought else that is requisite for the production of Species It hath been observed by some that Nitrous water is the best soyle for ground and brings all Plants to perfection far sooner then any other dung and therefore the Egyptians water their Coleworts with Nitrous water Nitrosa viridis brassica fiet aqua If you a Colewort green would see Then let your water Nitrous be Our Salt-peeter men do find that â—any fat earth be covered from Rain and Sun so as it spendeth not his strength in producing of Herbs or Grass it will breed plenty of Salt-peeter otherwise it will yield none The difference between Salt-peeter and the antient Nitre appears in this that a pound of Nitre being burnt will leave four ounces of ashes Salt-peeter will leave none Salt-peeter is actually so cold as being dissolved in water it is used in Rome and Naples to cool their Wine and doth it as well as Ice or Snow Also we use it inwardly in cooling Juleps and therefore it seems also to be potentially cold as Bellonius judgeth Now I come to Allum Indignum vix ipsa jubet renovare dolorem the greatest debtor I have and I the best benefactor to it as shall appear when I shall think fit to publish the Artifice thereof In Illua a mile from Rio is an Allum Fountain also there are divers in Agro Senensi Volaterano Lucensi in Italy Balneum de villa is full of Allum and with us in Shropshire at â—â—kenyate are Allun springs whereof the Dyers of Shrewsbury make use instead of Allum As for Allum Mines they are frequent almost in all Countreys but the chiefest that are wrought are at Capsylar in Thracia at Telpha neer Civita Vecchia in Italy at Commatoâ— by Aussig in Germany and With us in York-shire In Ireland there have been allum works neer to Armagh as Thurneiser reports also at Metelia in Spain at Mazaron neer Carthage at Hellespont Massa Montrond Piambin Volterra Campiâ—lia c. as Beringaccio Sienese reports Also there are divers earths yielding allum as at Guyder in Carnarvan-shire at Camfurt in Dorset-shire and in the Isle of Wight But I will contract my self for allum and come to Vitriol Vitriol as I have said before doth participate much with allum in the manner of shooting â—â— roching which is in glebas in the hard dissolution and easie congelation in their arising in bullas being burnt and in their precipitation insomuch as it is probable that the basis of Vitriol is nothing but allum It is found in mineral waters of two sorts The one where the very bodâ— and substance is dissolved as in Cyprus which Galen describes where the water is green also at Smolnicium in Hungary in Transilvania alâ— Carpatum montem at Nensola C. In which places Copper is ordinarily made out of Iron by infusing it in these waters I will not determine whether this be transmutation of one species into another as some do hold or rather a precipitation of the Copper which was formerly dissolved in the water by means of the sharp Vitriol which meeting with Iron corrodes it and imbibeth it rather than the Copper and so lets the Copper fall and imbraceth the Iron in place of it We daily see the like in Aqua-sortis which having imbibed one metal will readily embrace another that is more familiar to it and let fall the first So Allum or Copperass-water having some strong Lixivium of Tartar or other calcin'd salt put to it the Allum or Copperass will presently salt to the bottom and precipitate and give place to the Lixivium as a thing more familiar to water and of more easie dissolution But as I said I will not determine this question because it is not much pertinent to our business Yet I will not omit the judgement of Lazarus Ercker the Emperors chief Mine-master in the Kingdom of Behemia who professeth that he was long of this opinion but altered it upon this reason That by exact proof he found more Copper stricken down this way by Iron than the water before did contain and with the Copper some Silver The other kind of Vitriol water is where not the body and substance of Vitriol is dissolved but the spirit or vapour or quality communicated to the water of this sort are our Vitriol Baths for the most part and these are in themselves wholsome and are sour if the Vitriol be predominant Such are most of our Acidulae whereof we have many in Viterbio Volaterano Balneum ad morâ—um dictum Saurbrun by Franckford ad Oderam c. There are sour waters also from Allum but milder also from Sulphur whose spirit or vapour being burnt is little differing from the spirit of Vitriol but somewhat fatter But the most part of our Acidulae are from Vitriol This sour spirit of Allum Vitriol or Sulphur Libavius judgeth with Thomas Jordanus to be in the terrestrial parts of these minerals because it goeth not away by boyling or distillation and therefore to be communicated with water by the corporal substance or juyce of them But that holds not in mineral spirits which are heavier than water as may appear by evaporation of any water made sour with spirit of Vitriol or Sulphur where after long evaporation that which remains will be more sour than before evaporation So it is also in Vinegar being a vegetable juyce The spirit of wine doth certainly arise first in distillation and the first is the best being more volatil than the vapour of water But this spiritus acetosus which is in Sulphur Allum Vitriol and Vinegar ariseth last and the more you distill away from it the sharper it ariseth and the sourer is that which remaineth Thus much for Vitriol and concrete juyces CHAP. VIII Of Mineral Spirits Quick-silver Salphur or Brinsstone Arsenick with his kinds Cadmia AFist kind of Minerals are called Spirits these are volatil in the fire and have ingression into Metals but no metalline fusion These are Quick-silver Sulphur Arsenick Cadmia Rusma c. All which being volatil will easily sublime and being mixed with metals as Cadmia's ordinarily to make Brass will alter the colour of the metal and make it less fusible and less malleable I will briefly run over the examples of these and their virtues or qualities being more obscure and in our Baths less useful than the
Alexander Aphrâ—disiensis for this opinion and saith that he had poysoned our Philosophy herein Venenavâ—â—hanc Philosophiae partem So both he and others derive the sense motion understanding growth and the natural faculties of our souls and the peculiar properties of every thing from this original turpissimo errore as Severinus saith And Scaliger in another place concerning this Dâ— intelleclu ratione ipsaque anima quae â—ontaminarunt istoe nebuloe Aphrodisienses pudet dicere piget meminisse I am ashamed to speak and grieved to think how this Aphrodisiensis hath polluted our reason and understanding and our very souls with his foggy doctrine in ascribing all these unto the Elements By the same reason they may ascribe the barking of Doggs the singing of Birds the laughing and speech of men to the Elements Their opinion is more probable which hold animam ex traduce and to be communicated as one light to another as Timoth. Bright proves in Physicam Scribonii and not to ascribe it to the Elements nor to miracles or new creations But there is far more reason to derive from the Elements the tastes colours smells sigures numbers quantities orders dimensions c. which appear more in corporal substances and yet these are not from the Elements For how can they give these affections to other things when they have them not themselves Si non est ab elementis gustare quare sit gustari What taste have any of these Elements Fire or heat which is the most active Element hath none And whereas it is thought that bittterness proceeds from heat we find that many sharp and tarâ—fruits being also very bitter before they are ripe as Olives for example yet let them hang upon the tree till they be ripe and they lose their bitterness and also their sharpness by reason of their better concoction by heat The like difference wefind between our oleum omphacinum and therpe oyle So likewise opium which is held to be very cold yet it is extream bitter so as the cold parts in it are not able to master the bitterness but this is still predominant wherefore heat can be no cause of bitterness unless it be in excess or defect as Scaliger confesseth Wormwood is very bitter being hot and dry in the second or third degree if heat were the cause of it then all other simples which are hot and dry in the same degree should be also bitter As I have said of tastes so I may say of all the other affections of natural things that they proceed not form the Elements but from the seeds and forms of every thing So for fat and unctuous substances as Sulphur Bitumen Oyle Grease c. unto what Element shall we ascribe them Not unto fire because this is extream hot and dry that is temperate in heat and very moist Moreover fire would rather consume it then generate it and Physitians judge the generation of fat in our bodies to proceed rather from cold then from heat Air if it have any ingenerate quality as some do make doubt out of Aristotle it is cold and moist as I have shewed before cap. 2 5. and therefore as it cannot agree with fire nor be a fuel to it so it cannot be any material cause of fat or oylie substance being more agreeable to water from whence it is thought to be made by rarifaction and into which it is thought to be reduced by condensation Wherefore being of a watry nature it cannot agree with oyle or fatness nor be the matter of it The like we may judge of water which doth terminate both water and air and therefore must be opposite to them both As for earth being cold and dry and solid it cannot be the matter of this which is temperate and moist and liquid Neither can all the Elements together make this substance seeing there is no unctuousness in any of them and they can give no more then they have So as I cannot see how this oylie substance which is very common in all natural things and wherein the chief faculties of every thing doth reside as their humidum radicale should be from the Elements So likewise for the substance wherewith every thing is nourished and increased and into which every thing is resolved it appears not how it should be from the Elements Hypocrates of whom Macrobius saith Nec fallere nec falli pâ—tuit hath two notable axioms for the clearing of this point The one is Vnumquong in id dissolvitur unde compactum est Every thing is dissolved into that whereof it was made The other Iisdem untrimur ex quibus constamus we are nourished by such things as we consist of Aristotle also hath the same If this axiom be true as I hold it to be and I know none that contradict it then we must consist of such things as we are nourished withall But we are not nourished by the Elements and therefore we consist not of them Fire nourisheth nothing water nourisheth not as Physicians conseâ—s Air is too thin a substance and Earth to thick And as they do not nourish them when they are single so being compounded they can do as little Aristotle saith that some Plants are nourished with water alone some with earth alone and some with both together But if earth and water be mixed for our nourishment they making but mud would make us have muddy brains We will grant the Elements to be matrices rerum naturalium the wombs and nurses of natural things but we will not grant them to be material causes Neither can we attribute more dignity unto them then we do to our Mothers who depart from their substance whereof they consist as flesh bones sinews veins arteries c. to the nourishment of their Infants but only prepare blood for them from the nutriments which they receive And all the Elements in the world cannot make this blood neither as the matter nor as the efficient But as the Mother is furnished with blood to nourish the Infant and with convenient heat to foster it withall so are the Elements stored with all manner of matter sit for all generations so as the seeds or forms of natural things will never want matter to nourish them nor will ever want forms So that it is manifest that if natural bodies be not nourished by the Elements they are not compounded of them but being nourished by other substances then the Elements they must be compounded of the like Simile simili nutritur composit a composâ—â— constant nutriuntur Thus much for the Genesis or generation and naration of natural things that thereby we cannot gather that they are either mad or nourished by the Elements Now let us examine whether by the Analysis or dissolution of them we may find the four Elements according to the former axiome that every thing is dissolved into that whereof it was made and is made of than whereinto it is
dissolved as Aristotle Hypocrates and Galen do affirm So that if the Elements enter into the composition of natural things especially as the principal materials whereof they consist they must needs appear in the dissolution of them This dissolution is either natural or artificial In the natural dissolution of all things Hypocrates observes three distinct substances calidum humidum sive fluidum siccum five solidum according to the three Elements or principles where of they are framed His instance is principally man but he â—ffirms it to hold in other animate and inanimate bodies These Elements he termeth continenâ—â—a contenta impetum facientia as Galen exbounds it Those which he calls continentia 〈◊〉 bones nerves veins arteries and from â—hence muscles c. Contenta are humida or humores blood flegme choller melancholy which after death are cold and congeal being beated as Galen saith from the heart in living bodies Impetum facientia are spirits animal vital and natural These three Elements Galen acknowledgeth to be the nearest but the other which are more remote to be most universal Bat Hypocratesâ—aith â—aith that heat and cold c. are very powerless Elements and that sharp bitter sweet c. are more powerfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that these are the three Elements whereof â—ll things do consist and into which they are â—aturally resolved and these do seem to reâ—emble the four Elements but are not the same For heat may resemble fire although this heat be â—â—ocured by motion in every thing whilest it liveth and not extrinsecally Moisture may resemble water and air Driness may resemble earth cold appears in them all after the heat or spirit is departed In the artificial Analysis of natural bodies the Alchymists tells us that they find three Elements and no more whereof every thing doth consist and whereinto it is resolved namely Vaporosum inflammabile fixum which they call Mercury Sulphur and Salt and they seem to agree with Hypocrates For their Mercury may well resemble Hypocrates his spirits or impetâ—â— facientia Sulphur his humour or flu dum or â—â—tenta and Salt his siccum or densum or coninentia These they say are found in every thing animal vegetable or mineral and no other And as for the four common Elements seeing they are distinct in place and scituation and therefore cannot concurre and meet to the generation of every animal Plant and Mineral c but by violence the earth being sometiâ—â— carried upwards and the fire downwards coâ—trary to their natural motions and this not one for all but daily and hourly it is not likely tâ—â— these substances can be bred of the Elements 〈◊〉 be maintained in a perpetual succession by a viâ—lent cause And therefore it is no marvel these Elements be not found in the dissolutions natural bodies Thus much in general conceting all generations that hereby we may the â—â—ter judge of the particular generations of Mnerals which differ not from the rest but 〈◊〉 in this that their seeds are not in every indiâ—â—dual as the others are but are contained â—â— matricibus in their wombs and there they are furnished with matter to produce their Species not out of the Elements no otherwise than ex matricibus as the child in the mothers womb but have their matter and nourishment from the seeds of things which are agreeable to their species which seeds wanting means to produce their own species do serve others and yield matter and substance unto them Now let us come more particularly to the generation of minerals wherein we will first examine Aristotles opinion as most generally received then I will presume to set down mine own CHAP. XII The generation of Minerals examined the Authors opinion herein A Ristotle makes the humidity of water and the dryness of earth to be the matter of all minerals the dryness of earth to participate with fire and the humidity of water with air as Zabareila interprets it so that to make a perfect mixt body the four Elements do concur and to make the mixture more perfect these must be resolved into vapour or exhalation by the heat of fire or influence from the Sun and other Planets as the efficient cause of their generation but the cause of their congelation to be cold in such bodies as heat will resolve This vapour consisting partly of moysture and partly of dryness if all the moysture be spent turns to earth or salt or concrete juyces which dissolve in moysture if some moysture remain before congelation then it turns to stone if this dry exhalation be unctuous and fat and combustible then Bitumen and Sulphur and Orpiment are bred of it if it be dry and incombustible then concrete juyces c. But if moysture do abound in this vapour then metals are generated which are fusible and malleable And for the perfecting of these generations this exhalation is not sufficient but to give them their due consistence there must be the help of cold from Rocks in the earth to congeal this exhalation So that here must be two efficients heat and cold And for the better effecting of this these exhalations do insinuate themselves into stones in the form of dew oâ— frost that is in little grains but differing from dew and frost in this that these are generated after that the vapour is converted to water whereas Minerals are generated before this conversiâ—â— into water But there is doubt to be made of frost because that is bred before the conversioâ— of the exhalation into water as may appear Mâ—teor 1. According to this assertion there must be two places for the generation of minerals the one a matrix where they receive their effence by heat in form of an exhalation and from thence they are sent to a second place to receive theâ— congelation by the coldness of Rocks and froâ— this matrix come our mineral waters and noâ— from the place of congelation This is the generation of minerals according to Aristotle but it is not so clear but that leaves many scruples both concerning the matter and the efficients For the matter it seems not probable that water and earth should make any thing but mud and dirt for you can expect no more from any thing than is in it the one is cold and dry the other cold and moyst and therefore as fit to be the matter of any other thing as of particular minerals And water whereof principally metals are made to consist is very unfit to make a malleable and extensible substance especially being congealed by cold as we may see in ice But some do add a mineral quality to these materials and that simple water is not the chief matter of metals but such as hath imbibed some mineral quality and so is altered from the nature of pure water This assertion doth presuppose minerals in the earth before they were bred otherwise what should breed them at the first when there was no mineral
tastes numbers proportions distempers c. Also from hence proceed the Transplantations which we find in animals vegetables and minerals In animils these Transplantations are not very frequent yet all our monsters may be referred hereunto as also the issue which comes from Dogs and Wolves Horses and Asses Partriges and Hens c. Some do think that the destruction of Sexes is a Transplantation and that all seeds in themselves are hermophroditical and neither masculine nor feminine but as they meet with strong and weak impressions from supervenient causes From hence come our Androgyni or masculine women such as Horace speaks of Sabellis docta ligonibus versare glebas That dig the ground themselves stout Jades Managing well Sabean Spades Among those Animals which we call Insecta these Transplantations are more frequent because their seeds are more equivocal and easily transmuted from one species to another as we may see in Worms and Flies and most evidently in Silk-worms called Cavallieri In Vegetables these Transplantations are very frequent when one species is grafted upon another as Virgil faith Et steriles platani malos gessere valentes Castaneae fagos ornusque incanuit albo Flore pyri glandemque sues fregere sub ulmis The barren Planes did Apples bear The Beeches Chesnuts th' Ash a Pear And Hogs did under Elm-trees Acorns tear Thus by commixtion of several species the first seeds do oftentimes being forth other fruits then their own Miranturque novas frondes non sua poma And stand admiring double mute To see new leaves and stranger fruit But all as Hypocrates saith by divine necessity both that which they would and that which they would not So likewise Wheat is changed into Lolium Basil into Thyme Masterwort into Angelica c. In Minerals we find the like transplantations as Salt into Nitre Copperass into Allum Lead into Tin Iron into Copper Copper into Iron c. And this is the transplantation whereupon the Alchymists ground their Philosophers stone This Seminary Spirit is acknowledged by Aristotle Continent inquit semen in se cujusque faecundit atis suae causam and by most of his Interpreters and Morisinus calls it Elphesteria not knowing how to attribute these generations to the Elements And this is the cause why some places yield some one vegetable or mineral species above another Quippe solo natura subest Non owsnis fert omnia tellus It is the nature of the ground Not in all Soils are all things found This seminary spirit of minerals hath its proper wombs where it resides and is like a Prince or Emperour whose prescripts both the Elements and matter must obey and it is never idle but alwayes in action producing and maintaining natural substances untill they have fulfilled their destiny donec fatum expleverint as Hypocrates saith So as there is a necessity in this depending upon the first benediction crescite multiplicamini and this necessity or fatum is inherent in the seeds and not adventitious from the Planets or any other natural cause And this is the cause of uniformity in every species that they have all their proper figures dimensions numbers of parts colours tastes c. most convenient and agreeable to each nature as Moses saith that God saw that every thing was very good and Galen saith Deus in omnibus optimum eligit And this I take to be the meaning of his Lex Adrastia which he alledgeth against Asclepiades For it he should mean it as commonly it is understood of punishment which alwayes follows sin nemâ— crimen in pectore gestaet qui non idem Nemesiâ— in tergo No man though privately commits a fault but is degg'd by revenge in this sense he could not apply it to the confuting of Asciepiades There are also other laws in nature which cannot be altered both Mathematical in Arithmetick and Geometry and Logical in the consecuting of arguments c. But these serve not for Galens purpose in this place He must mean it of a natural necessity or fatum or predestination that frames every member part of the body to the best use for the creature And therefore where Asclepiades propounds an inconvenient frame of parts he confutes him by this inbred law of nature which he saith no man can alter or avoid nor any subtility elude as also Aristotle saith Thus much for the generation of Minerals and other natural substances CHAP. XIII Of the causes of actual heat and medicinal virtue in Mineral Waters divers opinions of others rejected NOW I come to shew how our mineral waters receive both their actual heat and their virtues I joyn them together because they depend upon one and the same cause unless they be juices which will readily dissolve in water without the help of heat other minerals will not or very hardly This actual heat of waters hath troubled all those that have written of them and many opinions have been held of the causes of them Some attribute it to wind or air or exhalations included in the bowels of the earth which either by their own nature or by their violent motion and agitation and attrition upon rocks and narrow passages do gather heat and impart it to our waters Of their own nature these exhalations cannot be so hot as to make our water hot especially seeing in their passage among cold rocks it would be much allaied having no supply of heat to maintain it Moreover where water hath passage to get forth to the superficies of the earth there these exhalations and winds will easily pass and so their heat gone withall and so our waters left to their natural coldness whereas we see they do continue in the same degree and tenor many generations together If by their agitation and violent motion they get this heat because no violent thing is perpetual or constant this cannot be the cause of the perpetual and constant heat of water Besides this would rather cause earthquakes and storms and noyses in the earth then heat our springs Moreover we daily observe that exhalations and water are never heated by motion or agitation as in the Cataracts of the Rhine by Splug the agitation and fall of water upon rocks is most violent and makes a hideous noyse yet it heats not the water though it be very deep in the earth Neither can any attrition heat either air or water or any soft and liquid thing but rather make it more cold Others attribute this actual heat of Bathes unto the Sun whose beams piercing thorow the pores of the earth do heat our waters If this heat which heats our Bathes be caused by the beams of the Sun then either they bring it intirely from the Sun as a quality proceeding from thence or they make it by their own motion If it come from the nature of the Sun the Sun must be extream hot that can heat these inferiour parts at such a distance especially the
beams which must carry it passing thorow the middle region of the air which is alwayes extream cold and cannot but cool those beams before they come to us And if they were able to pass that region without losing their heat yet they cannot but warm that region being nearer to their fountain of heat as well or better then they can warm our waters in despite of any Antiperistasis But it is doubtfull whether the Sun be hot of his own nature or no. The Peripateticks hold it to be hot and dry moderately yet it must be extream hot if in this manner it do heat our Bathes And if the Sun be capable of heat they must also make it capable of cold elementary qualities and then they make celestial bodies obnoxious to generation and corruption which they are not willing to grant Although in this respect they need not fear the decay of the Sun no more then of the globe of the earth which though it suffer in his parts many alterations yet the whole remains firm and perpetual as Mr. Doctor Hakwell proves in his learned work upon that argument and will so do untill it be dissolved by that omnipotent power which framed it If they make this heat to come from the motion of the Sun we must consider how the Sun by motion may get such a heat The Sun is either moved by his own motion or as he is carried in his Sphear wherein he is fixed If by his own motion it must be either by volutation upon his axis which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by circumgyration which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 round about the globe of the earth and this is the common opinion which if it be so he must be carried more swiftly then a bullet out of a peece of Ordnance I read in the Turkish History at the siege of Scodra of a bullet of twelve hundred weight called the Prince and it seems a great matter But to have such a bullet as the globe of the Sun which is held to be 166 times bigger then the globe of the earth to be carried in a swifter course and that perpetually is a monstrous furious and mad agitation insaâ—â—motus as one termeth it The like may be said of the motion of the Sphears but I will leave the confutation of this to others But admit it to be so and that this violent agitation is not repugnant to the perpetuity of the Heavens and that it is able to breed an extream heat in the Sun and celestial Spheres notwithstanding their tenuity c. which is unapt to breed heat by motion or collision for that is proper to solid substances yet this heat must be conveyed to us by the same beams of the Sun and must be subject to the former impediments Wherefore the beams of the Sun by their motion must make this heat by the collection a many beams together For if they be dispersed no fire will be kindled but only some moderate heat as we see in a burning-glass which will heat a white paper or cloth but not burn it Other things it will burn which are apt fewels but the whiteness of the paper or cloth it seem disperseth the beams But no doubt the Sun by his light and beams do warm these inferiour parts especially where they have free passage and reflection withall and it is to be judged that the heat not being essentially in the Sun is an effect of the light by whose beams it is imparted to us So that where light is excluded heat is also excluded And if we can exclude the heat of the beams of the Sun by the inâ—rposition of a mud wall or by making a Celâ—r fix foot under the ground how is it likely that these beams can pierce so deep into the earth as to heat the water there as Lucretiusâ—aith â—aith Qui queat hic subter tam crass corpore terram Percoquere humorem calido sociare vapori Prasertim cum vix possit per septa domorum lâ—sinuare suum radiâ—s ardentibus aestum Under this massie bulk of earth how shall The Sun boil water and there raise a steam Whereas we see it scarce can pierce a wall And through't into a Chamber dart a beam And if the beams of the Sun be not able to heat a standing Pool in the midst of Summer how should they heat a subterranean water which is alwaies in motion especially in the winter time Again if this heat come from the Sun then in the Summer when the Sun is hottest the waters should be so also and in winter cold because of the absence of the Sun but we find them always alike Also why should the Sun heat some few Fountains and pass over an infinite number of others which are left cold And why should there be hot Fountains in cold Climates where the Sun hath little power to heat either by reason of his oblique beams or by reason of his long absence and yet in hot Climats they should be so â—re wherefore it is very improbable that our Springs are heated by the Sun Others have devised another cause of this actual heat of Bathes more vain then the former which they call Antiperistasis where by reciprocation or compression any quality is intended and exalted to a higher degree As where heat or cold are compassed by their contrary quality so as the vapours or effluvium of it is reflected back again the quality thereof is increased Hypocrates gives us an example of it in our own bodies where he saith ventres hiâ—calidiores our stomachs are hotter in Winter then in Summer by reason the ambient air being then cold doth stop the pores of the skin and repell those fuliginous vapours which nature would breathe forth and so our inward heat is increased whereas in the Summer by reasoned too much eventilation our natural heat is diminished and therefore we concoct better iâ— Winter then in Summer And although it be not simple heat which concocts and makes ebylus in the Stomach Blood in the Liver Seed is the Spermatick Vessels or Milk in the Breast c. as Joubertus saith yet heat attending upon the faculties of those parts doth quicken them as cold doth benumb them But if we examine this example aright we shall find a great difference between this and our hot Bathes For the heat in our bodies is continually fed and maintained from the Heart by his motion that a Bathes hath no such supply according to their doctrine from any cause to make or continue this heat And therefore the repelling of vapours cannot make water hotter then it is and being naturally cold and without any heat where heat is not how can it be pend in or repelled Again in Hypocrates his example there is an interstitium our skin between the fuliginous vapours and the external air which keep them from uniting but in our Bathes there is nothing to hinder the
meeting and conjunction of these qualities and then the one must dull the other Moreover we see that any thing that is naturally cold as Iron or a Stone if it be made hot accidentally by fire or otherwise it is sooner cold in cold air then in a warm place So that the Antiperistasis doth rather diminish then increase the heat of it Wherefore unless water were naturally hot or the heat maintained by some continual cause this Antiperistasis can do no good but by his opposite quality would rather cool it Nay heat it self cannot make any thing more hot unless it be greater then the heat of the thing it self But to ascribe the generation of heat to cold and so to make it the cause of his contrary is against the law of Nature No quality of it self is increased by his contrary It is true that a pot of water set over the fire will be sooner hot being covered or otherwise the vapours kept in then being open but there must be fire then to heat it and to continue the heat otherwise the Antiperistasis will do nothing unless it make it more cold and congeal it into Ice if the air ambient be more cold then the water Some may object that they find some Fountains warmer in Winter then in Summer and to reak when they break forth into the air as I have seen at Wercksworth and Bakewell in Darbyshire and therefore this doth argue an Antiperistasis Galen thinks that these waters do but seem so to our sense our hands being hot in Summer and cold in Winter as our Urins seem cold in a hot Bath But I will grant with Valesius that many deep Fountains may be so indeed and not in appearance only as partaking with some warm exhalations especially in Mineral Countreys as Darbyshire is Moreover if our Bathes were heated by aâ— Antiperistasis then they should be hotter in Winter then in Summer but we find them alwayes alike Also if a cold ambient be able to make cold water hot why should not a hot ambient make it more cold especially seeing the vapours are cold which being repelled by heat which doth terminate cold should increase the coldness of the water Also if we should grant this Antiperistasis we must deny the reaction and resistance between the qualities of the Elements and so overthrow all temperaments which arise from thence and also our composition of medicines were in vain Wherefore this Antiperistasis is an idle invention to maintain this purpose Others attribute this actual heat to quick Lyme which doth readily heat any water call upon it and also kindle any combustible substance put into it this is Democritus his opinion To this I answer that Lyme is an artificial thing not natural and is never found in the bowels of the earth Besides if it were found one fusion of water extinguisheth the heat of it and then it lyeth like a dead earth and will yield nor more heat So as this cannot procure a perpetual heat to Bathes neither can the Lymestones without calcination yield any heat to water nor will break and crackle upon the affusion on water as Lyme doth Wherefore this opinion is altogether improbable Others attribute this actual heat to a subterranean fire kindled in the bowels of the earth Let us consider how this may be Fire is a quality and the highest degree of heat which cannot subsist without a subject for I define it to be intensissimus color in corpore cremabili The highest degree of heat in a combustible body And it is received into his subject either by propagation or coition as when one candle lights another or by motion as collision concussion dilatation comprission putrefaction fermentalion reflection c. yet all motion doth not kindle fire although it heat neither are all substances apt to be heated by motion Air and water are rather colder by motion but this rule holds in such things as are apt to receive heat by motion as solid substances combustible substances c. And the heat of animals vegetables and minerals which they have for their generation and nutrition is from motion although this heat is not in so high a degree as fire is for then it would consume them but as the motion is moderate and agreeable to each nature so is the heat This motion in natural things proceeds from their seeds or forms and may be called internal or natural External motions are violent agitations concussions c. which commonly kindle fire in apt matter As for the element of fire which should be pure not shining and therefore invisible and subsisting without a subject or fewel let them find it who know where to seek for it For my part I know no element of fire unless we should make it to be that which is natural to all creatures and their seeds causing their fermenting heat whereof I shall speak anon And this interpretation we may well make of Hypocrates where he faith that all things are made of fire and water and that these two are sufficient for all generations fire giving motion and water nutrition And it is not likely that this fire should be fetched from a remote place and downwards against the nature of fire for every generation but that it be near hand and inbred in the seeds themselves as the principal ingredient into every natural thing whereas if it were remote what should bring it continually and unite it with the other elements in these generations Wherefore this is most likely to be the element of fire Our burning fire is all of one nature not differing in kind but only in degree according to the quality of the fewel Some fewels will make a manifest flame as all thin and light substances Sulphur liquid Bitumen Oyle Fat c. Some only a glowing coal with little or no flame as some forts of Stone-coal Yet all fire doth send forth fuliginous vapours which would choak it if there were not vent for them into the air as we see in the making of Char-coal although they cover their fire with lome yet they must leave some vent for the smoke though not so much as may make it to flame yet enough to maintain the fire Of the first flaming fort there are divers degrees as that of Straw Brimstone Spirit of Wine Naphtha Petroleum c. Some of which will scarcely take hold upon other fewel as one may wet a linnen cloath in Spirit of Wine and being kindled he shall hardly find the cloath scorched The like hath been observed in that exhalation which is called ignis satuus being of a very thin substance for Bitumen or Naphtha Some reckon Comets among these fiery exhalations but I can hardly believe that they are any kindled substances First because their flame is not pyramidal as it is in all kindled substances Secondly because if they be of a thin substance from Sulphur and Bitumen the flame would be greater seeing it
forms and not consolidated into hard bodies For when they are consolidated there are few of them that will yield any quality to water unless they be the concrete juyces or any actual heat because that is procured by the contiguity of bodies when one part lyeth upon another and not when they are grown in corpus continuum as we see in Malt where by turning and changing the contiguity the heat is increased but by suffering it to unite is quenched But before consolidation any of them may yield either spirit or juyce or tincture to the waters which by reason of their tenuity as is said before are apt to imbibe them Now if actual fire kindled in the earth should meet with these minerals whilst they are in generation it would dissipate the spirits and destroy the minerals If it meet with them after consolidation it will never be able to attenuate them so as to make them yield their qualities to water For we never find any metals or minerals melted in the earth which must be if the heat of actual fire were such as is imagined neither do we ever find any flores of metal sublimed in the earth This natural heat is daily found by our Mineral men in the Mines so as oftentimes they are not able to touch them as Agricola testifieth although by opening their groves and admission of air it should be well qualified Whereas on the other side it was never observed that any actual kindled fire was ever seen by workmen in the earth which were likely to be if these fires were so frequent Wherefore seeing we see that Mineral waters do participate with all sorts of Minerals as well metals as other as hath been shewed in the particular examples of all of them seeing also that few of them unless Mineral juyces are able to impart their quality to water as they are consolidated but only as they are in solutis principiis and whilst they are in generation as is agreed upon by all Authors seeing also this natural heat of fermentation must necessarily be present for the perfecting of their generation and is sufficient in regard of the degree of heat to make our Baths as hot as they are seeing also that the other adventitious fire would rather destroy these Minerals than further them seeing also we cannot imagine it either likely or possible without manifold difficulties and absurdities I do conclude that both the actual heat of Baths and the Mineral qualities which they have are derived unto them by means of this fermenting heat Which is still in fieri not in facto esse as the Schoolmen term it and therefore makes the heat continual Examples might be brought from all kind of generations and from some artificial works of this sermenting heat proceeding from the seeds of natural things These seeds containing the species and kinds of natural bodies are not from the Elements but are placed in the Elements where they propagate their species and individuals according to their nature and have their due times and seasons of appearing upon the Stage of the World Animals have their set times when their spermatick spirits are in turgescence some once some twice a year and some oftner especially in the Spring Vere magis quia Vere calor redit ossibus as Virgil speaks of Mares only man in regard of his excellency above other creatures is not so confinde Vegetables have likewise their seasons of setting and planting as they may have the earth and the season most convenient yet at any time if their seeds get moysture and heat to dilate them they will ferment and attempt the production of more individuals but oftentimes the Artist doth abuse this intention of nature and converts it to his ends and oftentimes nature being set in action to proceed a potentia in actum doth want convenient means to maintain her work as when we see a Rick of Hay or Corn which hath received moysture burnt to ashes So in the making of Malt or Woad or Bread or Beer or Wine c. we make use of this generative spirit for our ends that we may stir up and quicken it Otherwise our Bread would not be so favouâ—y our Beer would be but Wort our Wine would be but Must or Plum-pottage and want those spirits which we desire and which lie dead and benummed in the seeds untill they come to fermentation And in all these there is an actual heat although it appear not in liquid things so well as in dry because it is there quenched by the abundance of moysture yet we may observe active spirits in it by the bubling and hissing and working of it This is evident in artificial Wines which may be made of Figs Daâ—es dryed Raysing Currants Slows Strawberries Bramble-berries and such like when they are infused in water They will ferment of their own accord by virtue of the seeds which are in them and make as good and as natural Wine as the juice of the green fruit as I have often proved The Turks have a drink which they Call Couset or Posset which is made of Barly after such a manner as Bellonius reports in his observations It seems also that the Scythians drink was made in this manner which Virgil speaks of Hic noctem ludo ducunt pocula laeti Fermento atque acidis imitantur vitea sorbis They dance and quaff by the Moon-shine Fermented juice of Slows like Wine And I perswade my self that we have not yet attained to a perfect artifice of our Beer and Ale which stands upon the same grounds and may be wrought in such a manner if they would take the pains to try some conclusions upon it It might save much fuel and vessel and labour and perhaps with advantage in the product For I see but two points to be observed in the working of it the one is to extract the substance of the Malt into water the other to give it his due fermentation And both of these may be done without boyling But the artifice will differ somewhat from Wine and will require many conclusions to be tryed upon it before it be brought to perfection I do mention these artifices only to shew the power of this seminary and fermenting spirit and how it may be drawn to other uses for our benefit As this is found in vegetables so likewise in Minerals which as they have this generative spirit for the propagation of their species as hath been shewed before so they have this means of fermentation to bring them from a potential quality to an actual existence And as their matter is more plentifull and in consistence more hard and compact so these spirits must be more vigorous and powerfull to subdue it and consequently the heat of their fermentation must be in a higher degree then it is in other generations Now having shewed the erroneous opinions of others concerning this actual heat of Bathes and explain'd our own conceit of
is no generation for any thing And this heat continues so long as the work of generation continues which being once begun doth not cease in many ages by reason of the plenty of matter which the earth yields and the firmness and solidity thereof And although after that the minerals have attained to their perfection this heat ceaseth yet the generation extends further then where it first began and enlargeth it self every way the works of nature being circular so as the water which was heated by the first generation cannot avoid the other succeeding generations but must meet with them either behind or before beneath or above on the one side or on the other especially seeing no generation can proceed without water and yet keeps the same tenor and degree of heat according to the nature of the minerals fermenting and to the distance from the place of eruption And this is a far more probable cause of the continuance of our Bathes then any subterranean destructive fire can be or any other of the supposed causes can yield I do not deny but that hot Bathes may cease and become cold as Aristotle saith of Salt Fountains which are cold that they were once hot before the original of their heat was extinct which I interpret to be when the work of generation ceased and the Salt brought to his perfection But I do not read of any hot Bathes that have ceased unless near onto some Vulcano where either the sinking of Rocks hath altered the course of them as at Tripergula and Baia or the flaming fire which heated them at their eruption being extinguished as in the AEolian Islands These Vulcanoes are far more subject to decay then our generative heat because they consume their fuel this doth not but increaseth it daily viresque acquirit eundo Of the other Ovid saith Nee quae sulphureis ardet fornacibus AEtna Ignea semper erit neque enim fuit ignea semper AEtna with its sulphureous flames will dy And as a kindling had will want supply But of this we can hardly bring an Instance of any that have decayed because where a generation is begun there seldome or never wants matter to propagate and enlarge it And seeing minerals have not their seeds in their individuals as animals vegetables have but in their wombs as hath been shewed before it were to be feared that there would be a decay of mineral species and so a vacuum left in nature if these generations should be no more durable then the other Animals are propagated by begetting of their species the power whereof is in every individual which no doubt will not give over this trade as long as the world lasteth Vegetables are also fruitfull in their kinds every one producing 100 or perhaps 1000 seeds of individuals yearly to perpetuate their species Minerals have no such means but only have their seeds in their wombs whereby they are propagated and if these generations being longer in perfecting of their species were not supplyed with a larger extent for their productions nature had been defective in not providing sufficient means for their perpetuity as well as for others and might easily suffer a decay and a vacuity of mineral species which agrees not with the providence of nature and the ornament of the world The necessity hereof depends upon the first benediction crescite multiylicamini which no doubt belongs as well to minerals in their kinds as it doth to animals and vegetables and by vertue hereof we see that they are propagated daily as I have proved before Cap. 11. And this is that necessity whereof Hypocrates speaks and that fatum naturale inharens rebus ipsis Natural fate inherent in things themselves as Lipsius faith and that Lex Adrastiae mentioned by Aristotle and Galâ—â— Locis aute citatis so firmly established as nothing can contradict it Arithmetick Geometry and Logick which are but attendants upon nature have their principles so firmly grounded as nothing can shake them and shall we think that nature it self is grounded upon weaker foundations wherefore we need not doubt of the perpetuity of these generations but that as some parts attain to their perfection so other puts will be alwayes in fieri or in via ad generationem whereby our Bathes will never fail of their heat or their virtues This I hope is susficient for the confuting of other opinions and the clearing of mine own from all absurdities concerning the degree of heat which is as much as the nature of water can endure without utter dissipation concerning the equal tenor of the heat the duration of 〈◊〉 the participation of mineral qualities c. The other kind of confirmation which we call Apodeictical is also here and there dispersed in this Discourse as that all minerals have their continual generation that this generation is not without heat and moysture which do necessarily attend all generations that few mineral substances or qualities can be imparted to water but whilst they are in generation and yet we find them much impregnated with them that our Miners do find an actual heat and in a high degree in the digging of Minerals where the fermentation is not throughly extinct that we observe the like course of nature in the generations of animals and vegetables that we are led to the acknowledgement hereof by many artificial conclusions and artifices c. Wherefore I forbear to make any larger repetition hereof And this is in brief though plainly delivered my opinion concerning the actual heat of Baths and of the mineral qualities which we find in them which I refer to the censures of those that be learned There are two other motions which resemble this fermentation The one is Motus dilatationis the Other Antipatheticus Motus dilatationis is evident in Lime in Allum in Copperass and other concrete juyces whereby the affusion of water the Salt in the Lime or the concrete juyces being suddenly dissolved there is by this motion an actual heat procured for a time able to kindle any combustible matter put to it The like we observe in those stone Coals called metal Coals which are mixed with a Marchesit containing some mineral juyce which receiving moysture doth dilate it self and grows so hot as oftentimes great heaps of those Coals are kindled thereby and burnt before their time as hath been seen at Puddle-Wharf in London and at Newcastle But this is much different from out fermentation Another Motus resembling this fermentation is that which is attributed to Antipathy when disagreeing substances being put together do fight and make a manifest actual heat as Antimony and Sublimat oyle of Vitriol and oyle of Tartar Allum liquor and Urine Lees Chalk c. But the reason of this disagreement is in their Salts whereof one is astringent the other relaxing the one of easie dissolution in water the other of hard dissolution c. where one mineral hinders the dissolution or congelation of another
and not by reason of any antipathy for it is not likely that nature would produce two contrary substances mixed like atomes in oâ— subject but that in their very generations the oâ— would be an impediment to the other So in vegetables where one plant sucks away the nourishment from another we call it antipathy Bâ—â— if we examine aright what this sympathy and antipathy is we shall find it to be nothing but a refuge of ignorance when not being able to conceive the true reasons of such actions passions in natural things we fly sometimes to indefinite generalities and sometimes to this inexplicable sympathy and antipathy attributing voluntary and sensitive actions and passions to insensible substances This motus also is much different from fermentation as may easily appear by the former description And thus much for this point of fermentation which I hope will give better satisfaction then any of the former opinions CHAP. XV. By what means it may be discovered what minerals any water containeth THE nature of minerals and their generations being handled and from thence the reasons drawn both of the actual heat of Bathes and of their qualities Now it is fit we should seek out some means how to discover what minerals are in any Bath that thereby we may the better know their qualities and what use to make of them for our benefit Many have attempted this discovery but by such weak means and upon such poor grounds as it is no marvail if they have failed of their purpose for they have contented themselves with a bare distillation or evaporation of the water and observing the sediment have thereby judged of the minerals unless perhaps they find some manifest taste or smell or colour in the water or some unctuous matter swimming above it Some desire no other argument of Sulphur and Bitumen but the actual heat as though no other minerals could yield an actual heat but those two But this point requires better consideration and I have been so large in describing the natures and generations of minerals because without it we cannot discern what minerals we have in our waters nor judge of the qualities and use of them Our Minerals therefore are either confused or mixed with the water If they be confused they are easily discerned for they make the water thick and pudly and will either swim above as Bitumen will do or sink to the bottom as Earth Sulphur and some terrestrial juices for no confused water will remain long unseparated If they are perfectly mixed with the water then their mixture is either corporal where the very body of the Mineral is imbibed in the water or spiritual where either some exhalation or spirit or tincture is imparted to the water Corporally there are no minerals mixed with water but juices either liquid as succus laâ—idescens metallificus c. before they are perfectly congealed into their natural consistence or concrete as Salt Nitre Vitriol and Allum these concrete juices do not dissolve themselves in water but oftentimes bring with them some tincture or spirit from other Minerals For as water is apt to recive juices and tinctures and spirits from animals and vegetables so are concrete juices being dissolved apt to extract tinctures and spirits from minerals and to communicate them with water And there are no Mines but have some of these concrete juices in them to dissolve the materials of them for their better union and mixture and there are few minerals or metals but have some of them incorporated with them as we see in Iron and Copper and Tin and Lead c. And this is the reason that water being long kept in Vessels of any of these metals will receive a taste or smell from them especially if it be attenuated either by heat or by addition of some sour juice and yet more if the metals be fyled into powder as we see in making Chalibeat Wine or Sugar of Lead or Puttie from Tin or Verdegrease from Copper There may be also a mixture of spiritual Substance from minerals whilst they are in generation and in Solutis Principiis the water passing through them and the rather if it be actually hot for then it is more apt to imbibe it and will contain more in it being attenuated by heat then being cold as we see in Urins which though they be full of humours yet make no great shew of them so long as they are warm but being cold do settle then to the bottom These spiritual substances are hardly discerned in our Bathes but by the effects for they leave no residence after evaporation and are commonly as volatile in sublimation as the water it self neither do they increase the weight of the water nor much alter the taste or smell of them unless they be very plentiful Wherefore we have no certain way to discover them but by the effects We may conjecture somewhat of them by the Mines which are found near unto the Bathes and by the mud which is brought with the water But that may deceive as coming from the passages through which the water is conveyed or perhaps from the sweat and strigments of mens bodies which bathe in them The corporal substances are found either by sublimation or by precipitation By sublimation when being brought to the state of congelation and sticks of Wood put into it within a few dayes the concrete juices will shoot upon the wood in Needles if it be Nitre in Squares if be Salt and in Clods and Lumps if it be Allum or Coperass and the other mineral substances which the waters have received will either incorporate a tincture with them or if it be more terrâ—strial will settle and separate from it and by drying it at a gentle fire will shew from what house it comes either by colour taste smell or vertue There is another way by precipitation whereby those mineral substances are stricken down from their concrete juices which held them by addition of some opposite substance And this is of two sorts either Salts as Tartar Soap-ashes Kelps Urine c. Or four juices as Vinegar Lemons oyle of Vitriol Sulphur c. In which I have observed that the Salts are proper to blew colours and the other to red for example take a piece of Scarlet cloath and wet it in oyle of Tartar the strongest of that kind and it presently becomes blew dip it again in oyle of Vitriol and it becomes red again Pâ—notus hath a strange precipitating water from Tin Mercury Alkali c. which separate any minerals Pidrâ—â—it pâ—â—es authorem These are the chief grounds of discovering mineral waters according to which any man may make tryal of what waters he pleaseth I have been desirous heretofore to have attempted some discovery of our Bathes according to these principles but being thought by some either not convenient or not usefull I was willing to save my labour which perhaps might have seemed not to be worth thanks and in these respects am
willing now also to make but a bare mention of them CHAP. XVI Of the use of Mineral Waters inwardly outwardly In this Chapter is shewed the inward use of them first general then particuly of the hot waters of Bathe THE nature and generations of Minerals being handled and how our mineral waters receive their impressions and actual heat from thence and by what means they are to be tried what Minerals are in each of them Now we are to shew the uses of them which must be drawn from the qualities of the Minerals whereof they consist which are seldome one or two but commonly more These qualities are either the first as hot cold moyst and dry or the second as penetrating astringent opening resolving attracting cleansing mollifying c. For the first qualities it is certain and agreed upon by all Authors that all mineral waters do dry exceedingly as proceeding from earth but some of those do cool withall and some do heat Cooling waters are good for hot distempers of the Liver Stomach Kidneys Bladder Womb c. Also for Salt distillations sharp humours light obstructions of the Meseraicks c. Heating waters are good for cold affects of the Stomach Bowels Womb Seminary Vessels cold distillations Palsies c. For the second qualities cleansing waters are good in all Ulcers especially of the Guts Mollifying waters for all hard and schirrous Tumors Astringent waters for all Fluxes c. and so of the rest Now these waters are used either inwardly or outwardly Inwardly either by mouth or by injection By mouth either in potion or in Broths Juleps c. Galen never used them imwardly because he judged their qualities to be discovered by experience rather then by reason And seeing we find many of them to be venomous and deadly as proceeding from Arsenick Sandaracha Cadmia c. We had need be very wary in the inward use of them Neptunes Well in Tarracina was found to be so deadly as it was therefore stopped up By Monpellier at Perant is a Well which kills all the Fowls that drink of it the lake Avernus kills the Fowls that fly over it so doth the vapour arising from Charons Den between Naples and Puteolum So there are divers waters in Savoy and Rhetia which breed swellings in the throâ—â— Others proceeding from Gipsum do strang 〈◊〉 But where we find waters to proceed from wholsome Minerals and such as are convenient and proper for our intents there we may be bold to use them as well inwardly as outwardly yet so as we do not imagine them to be such absolute remedies as that they are of themselves able to cure diseases without either rules for the use of them or without other helps adjoyned to them For as it is not enough for a man to get a good Damasco or Bilbo-blade to defend himself withall unless he learn the right use of it from a Fencer so it is not enough to get a medicine and remedy for any disease unless it be rightly used and this right use must come from the Physitian who knows how to apply it and how to prepare the body for it what to add and joyn with it how to govern and order the use of it how to prevent such inconveniences as may happen by it c. Wherefore where we speak of any Mineral water or of any other medicine that is proper for such and such a grief we must be so understood that the medicine is not wise enough to cure the disease of it self no more than a sword is able of it self to defend a man or to offend his enemie but according to the right and skilfull use of it And as it is not possible for a Fencer to set down absolute rules in writing for hâ—â— Art whereby a man may be able in reading them to defend himself no more is the Physitian possibly able to direct the particular uses of his remedy whereby a patient may cure himself without demonstration and the particular direction of the Physitian It is true that we have general rules to guide us in the cure of diseases which are very true and certain yet when we come to apply them to particular persons and several constitutions these general rules are not sufficient to make a cure but it must be varied according to substance Hereupon we daily find that those patients which think to cure themselves out of a little reading of some rules or remedies are oftentimes dangerously deceived And this is enough to intimate generally concerning the uses of our Mineral waters Inwardly we find great and profitable use of such waters as proceed from Nitre Allum Vitriol Sulphur Bitumen Iron Copper c. Examples whereof I have set down before in the several Minerals referring the particular uses of each to such Authors as have purposely described them My intent is chiefly to apply my self to those Baths of Bath in Summerset-shire which consisting as I judge principally of Bitumen with Nitre and some Sulphur I hold to be of great use both inwardly and outwardly And I am sorry that I dare not commend the inward use of them as they deserve in regard I can hardly be perswaded that we have the water pure as the springs yield them but do fear lest where we take them they may be mixt with the water of the Bath If this doubt were cleared I should not doubt to commend them inwardly to hear dry mollifie discuss glutinate dissolve open obstractions cleanse the kidneys and bladder ease cholicks comfort the matrix mitigate fits of the mother help barrenness proceeding from cold humors c. as Tabernomoutanus affirms of other Bituminous Baths Also in regard of the Nitre they cut and dissolve gross humors and cleanse by urine In regard of the Sulphur they dry and resolve and mollifie and attract and are especially good for uterine affects proceeding from cold and windy humours And I would wish these waters to be drunk hot as they are for better penetration and less offence to the stomach The antient Grecians and Romans did drink most of their water and wine hot as we find in many Authors which Salmuth hath diligently collected and Anthonius Percius hath purposely written a book of it entitaled Dei bever caldo castumato da gli Antichi We find also that it is in use at this day both in the East-Indies and in Turkey where they have a drink called Capha sold ordinarily in Taverns and drunk hot although in the Summer Verulamius doth marvel that it is so much grown out of use and adviseth to drink our first draught at our meals hot There is great reason for it both for preservation of health and for cure of many diseases The stomach being a nervous part must needs be offended by that which is actually cold and being the seat of natural appetite and of the first concoction whose errors and defects are not amended in the other concoctions had need to be preserved
lib. 3. cap. 7. 2 Meteorol 1. 3. Deortu causissubt l. 1. â— 6. De orig font cap. 1. a. From the Earth Metam 15. Aristotel 4 meteor cap. 10. ultimo Valesius de sacra Philosoph passim 3 From the Sea 〈…〉 ortu causissâ—â—ter lib. 1. cap. â— 9. Ecclesiastes 1. Arist metroyol cap. ultimo lib. 3 * This way of arguing is questioned by Dr. French who supposeth the many great Rivers terminated in the Sea to be a sufficient moisture for the taking away the termination of the water made by the dryness of the earth and so to make the globous Sea sink to an evenness vid. French Yorksh Spaw p.10 11 12. Minerals reduced to seven heads Earth Agric. de nat fossil lib. 1. cap. 4. Baccius lib. 5 Cap. 1. De metallis cap. 6 Verulamius de vita morte pag. 418. 453. Do neglecta stirpium culturâ problem 13. Erastus disput part 2. p. 105. In ingressu ad infirmos p. 373 Venustus in consilio pro Petro Picardo Baccius â—tym Lib. 6. â— 14. Machab. 2. 1. De sympath antipath Câ—. 10 De nat â—â—y q. efslu è teâ—â—a l. 4. â— 22. Metcor 2. Lib. 2. â— II. De Thermis c.5 Of Camphir Seyaphio de â—imp m. d.c. 344. Avicen lib I. tract 1 c.z. Item l.2 tract 2 cap 133. Item de med cordial tract z. cap. 3. In Dioscoridem cap. de mastich Lib. I. cap. 9. De nat fossil lib. 4. cap. 2 Thesaur aqu lib. I. cap. z. Co 〈…〉 Divs 1.3 Tha. Nemico De simpl med facult l.4.c.22 Lib. I. tract c. 2 Bellonius de Naphtha c. 7. Agric. de nat cor quoe cfflu è terra l. 2.c.7 Bitumen predominant in the Bathes of Bath De thermis Boll L. 3.c.6 1. Libavius in Syntagm p. 221 In lib. de plantis Aristoteli ascriptum lib. 2. passim Caesalpinus de metallisc 3.l.1 Salt Diosc l. 5.c.84 De simpl med saâ—ult l.4.c.20 l. 11.c.50 Three wayes to make Vegetable Salts to retain the taste of the herbs from whence they are drawn 1. Three wayes to make Vegetable Salts to retain the taste of the herbs from whence they are drawn 2. Three wayes to make Vegetable Salts to retain the taste of the herbs from whence they are drawn 3. Nitre Sal Ammoniack In pestis Alexic Dariot de praparat med Tract 2. cap. 23 24. lib. de Humiâ—orum usu Salt Springs Lib. 3. The true cause of the saltness of the Sea Aliquid aquae admixtum Arist 2. Meteorol cap. 3. Meteor 2 c.3 Nitrous Wateys Observat l. 3. c. 76 77. Lib. 5 c.7 Lib. 31. c. 10. Martial Allum Springâ— Pyrotech l. 2. c. 6. Vitrioline waters Simp. med.facul l. 9. c. 61. Libav in Symag 3. part l. 7 Item singularium part 1. Lib. 3. Von Kupffer ertz 10. Baubinus de thâ—r nis l. 2.c.2 De judicio aqu niner p.26.36 Simpl. med facult 1. 5. 0. 59. Vidus Vidius turat generat p. 2. sect 2.1.3 C. 13. Fallopius de petallis 6. 37. Quick-silver not reducible to the Elementary Qualities Sulphur Arsenick Cadmia Bismutum or Tin-glass Part 3 pag.72 Fallop de metallis cap. 10. Libav de nat metall part 3. cap. 5. Gold Silver Copper Iron Tin Lead Nature and qualities of Gold Bascius lib. 6. cap. 8. Basilica chimia Pag. 204. De Thermis cap. 8. In ingressu ad infermo pap 373 Of Silver Theod Tabernomontaâ—us p. 2. cap. 8. Of Iron and Steel AEnead 12. Simpl. lib. 9. Libs 16. Epist 5. De motallis cap. 20. Simpl. l. 7.c.4 Two distinct qualities in Steel Solinander pag. 193. Veâ—ustus pag. 159. Bâ—â—cius lib. 6. cap. 3. S 〈…〉 rola Rea 〈…〉 eus pag. 305. Quality of Copper Libav de nat metall c. 10. Of Tin Of Lead Pag. 90. Fallop de metallis cap. 11. Libav de nat metal cap. 12. Agricola de ortu causis Subâ— lib 5 c.1 Lib. 3 c.19 〈◊〉 lib 10. In Sarept coâ—â—â— 3. II. c. In Alchimia magna De metallis pag. 17. 19. Von probierâ—ng der crtze In Sareptâ—â— Sebast Forâ—â—â— l. 3.c.6 Scverinus c. 8. P. 125. Caesalpinus de metal lib. 1. C. 2. Cap. 2. Erast disput part 2. p. 261. The principal Efficient Cause of the Generation of Minerals not the Sun Dorn phisica Geresis Gal. de Maraes De catore Neither the Elements 1 De anima Item 2. cap. 4. Trismegistus in Asclepio cap. 1. Plato In Timco in Dialogo de natura In vita Apolloâ—ci Elcoga 6. Desacra Philosoph cap. 51. Cap. de mixtieâ—â— 1 Mâ—teoâ—ol 4. Item de mundo ubi dicit aerens comparatum esse ad aliam aliam â—â—turam inducedam In som Scipionis cap. 6. De nat hominis 2 De gen cap. 8. Item libde sâ—â—su sensibile 3 De gen animal cap. ultimo Ifagoge cap. 8. 1 de Elementis cap. 15. De veteri mediâ—ina Erastus Carerius Casalâ—inus Martiâ—uâ— Moâ—istaâ— Foxias Magyrus Libaâ—ius 3 Metâ—or c.ult. Caesalp l.3.0.1 Libav de nat metall c 14. carerius 178. Septal. in Hipp. de aëre aqu c. Valcsius sacra Philosophâ—â— 49. Singularium lib. 1. part 1. De nat metall Cap. 10. The Authors opinion concerning the manner of the Generation of Minerals Mussetus in dialogo apologetics Carm. lib. 3. od 6. Georg. 2. De Dieta 1. De gen animal lib. 2. Foxius Mâ—rtinus Morisâ—aus Magyrus Libavius Velâ—uriâ— Valesius Carerists Erastus c. De Dieta lib. 1. 6 De usu partium â— 12. 13. Erasmus in Adagiâ—s De mundâ— c. ult Causes of heat in mineral waters not Wind Air Exhalations in the Earth Agitation and violent motion Valeseus centre lib. 4. cap. 3. Solinand l. 1. cap. 4. The Sun †It may be so in former times but few I think do doubt it now I am sure not those who hold the Sun to be a Flame His Apology Gilbertus de magnete lib. 6. Taurellus de primis rerum principiis Conrad Aslacus de triplici coelo Lib. 6. Antiperistasis In Paradoxis 3 Simpl. medic facult cap. 7. Valesius contro lib. 1. cap. 5. Magyrus lib. 3. cap. 3. Quick Lyme Subterraneaâ— Fire D ditca lib. 1. Comets probably not kâ—ndled substances Metamorph. 15. AEntaâ— 6. Agricola Bacciusl 1. cap. 19. Douatus de aquis Lucensibus lib. 1. cap. 18. Gesaer Epist lib. 3. pag. 90. Lib. 1. cap. ult * What Dr. French hath said against this opinion may be seen if the 19 20 21. pages of his Yorkshire Spaw Thurneiser Alchimia magna lib. 4 c.8 * The cause of the heat in Bath assigned by Dr. Rouzee is their motion and agitation in the bowels of the Earth falling from Cataracts and broken Concavities in the same But afterwards lighting on this opinion of Dr. Jordens he is so far from disliking that he apdeservedly plauds it and callls this work learned and elaborate Vid. Lud. Rouz Tr. of Tunbr water p. 20 21. 22. in margine Martin de prima generations Lib. 2 cap. 98. Georg. 3. A brief
A DISCOURSE OF Natural Bathes AND Mineral Waters WHEREIN The Original of Fountains in general is declared The nature and difference of Minerals with Examples of particular Bathes The Generation of Minerals in the Earth from whence both the Actual Heat of Bathes and their Virtues proceed By what means Mineral Waters are to be discover'd And lastly of the Nature and Uses of Bathes but especially of our Bathes at Bathe in Somerset-shire By EDW. JORDEN Doctor in Physick The Third Edition revised and enlarged with some Particulars of the Authors Life To which is added An Appendix concerning Bathe wherein the Antiquity both of the Bathes and City is more fully discours'd with a Brief Account of the Nature and the Virtues of the Hot Waters there By THOMAS GUIDOTT M B. Imprinted at London and are to be sold by Thomas Salmon Bookseller in Bathe 1669. Imprimatur Sam. Parker RRmo Domino ac D no Gilberto Archi-Ep Cantuar. a sacris domesticis Ex aedib Lambeth Novemb. 7 1668 TO THE Right Honourable FRANCIS Lord COTTINGTON Baron of Hanworth Chancellour of the Exchequer and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council THE profitable use of Bathes both for necessity and comfort is such and so well confirmed from all antiquity as I need not labour to illustrate it more only it hath been the ill hap of Our Countrey Bathes to lie more obscure then any other throughout Christendome although they deserve as well as the best because very few have written any thing of them and they either have not mentioned or but slightly passed over the main points concerning their causes and originals contenting themselves with an emperical use of them This hath made me through the instigation also of some of my worthy friends to attempt somewhat of this kind which if it give not satisfaction according to my desire yet may be a provocation to some others to perfect that which I have begun And seeing I do it for the use of my Country I have neglected curious ornaments to garnish it withall but have clad it in a plain Sute of our Country Cloath without welt or gard not desiring it should shew it self in forain parts Mea cymba legat littus But in this mine undertaking I find my self exposed to many censures both concerning some Paradoxical Opinions in Philosophy which notwithstanding I deliver not gratis but confirmed with good grounds of reason and authorities as also concerning the reformation of our Bathes which do daily suffer many indignities more wayes then I have mentioned under the tyranny of ignorance imposture private respects wants factions disorder c. so as they are not able to display their virtues and do that good for which God hath sent them to us and all for want of such good government as other Bathes do enjoy I blame not our City herein unto whose care the ordering of these Bathes is committed the disorders and effects being such as are out of their verge and neither in their power nor in their knowledge to redress For they have sufficiently testified their desire of reforming all such abuses when they voluntarily did joyn in Petitioning the late King James of blessed memory to that end by whose death this Petition also died And they knew well that it must be a superior power that must effect it In these respects I have need of some noble and eminent Patron to protect both me and my Bathes whose cause I take upon we to plead and to advance according to their due desert but especially for the Bathes sake which I desire may flourish to the utmost extent of benefit to the people and to have all impediments removed out of their way which may hinder them in the progress of their virtues This is the cause Sir why I presume to dedicate these my labours to your Honour who having observed in forrain parts the uses and governments of all sorts and being both by the favour of his Majesty well able and by your noble disposition well inclined and willing to maintain good order and discipline will I doubt not excuse this boldness and pardon my presumption Consider Sir that this is your native Countrey which naturally every man doth affect to advance and these Bathes are the principal Jewels of your Countrey and able to make it more famous then any other parts of this Kingdom and in advancing them to advance your Name to all posterity wherefore howsoever my self deserve but small respect from you yet I beseech you respect the Bathes of your Countrey and me as a wellwisher unto them And as the common opinion of your great worth and abilities have moved me to this boldness so the particular favours of your Noble Lady and the encouragement of your learned Physitian Doctor Baskervill mine especial Friend who hath spurred me on to this work have removed out of my mind all suspition of misconstruction But that as mine intent hath been meerly the enlarging of the knowledge of those points concerning Bathes and more especially of our Bathes in Somerset-shire so you will be pleased to accept of this publick invitation by me to do your Countrey good and your self honour which I wish may never be disjoyned And to me it will be no small encouragement to devote my self and my best endeavours to your service So I humbly take my leave this 23. Aprilis 1632. Your Lordships most humble servant ED. JORDEN A Preface TO THE READER THE ensuing Discourse of Natural Bathes and Mineral Waters of the learned Author Dr. Jorden having found so kind an entertainment in the World as to have passed the Press twice in a Year and the Copies of both Impressions at this time so few as not to answer the Enquiries of persons desirous to peruse them a third Edition was necessary the Care of which together with some Additional Enlargements being requested of me I thought it might be a thing acceptable to many to view the Work and revive the memory of so worthy a Person Especially in this loose and quaking age of ours in which Empericks and juggling Medicasters do so much abound that t is almost as hard a matter to meet with a regular and well accomplish'd Physitian now as it was in former times for Diogenes to find an honest man The great occasion of this general abuse of Physick I observe to be mens beginning usually at the wrong end For the most supposing the Practice of Physick to be a mere Trade and Medicines the Ware to furnish themselves withall make what haste they can to get though upon Credit a Pack of Receits which they cry up as the most effectual and Triarian Remedies and having made a shift to truss up with the former fardle of Common Receits some few Specificks presently set up for eminent Physitians when to give them their due they deserve nothing less then that Honourable Name being indeed but Pedlers in the Faculty For there are besides the use of Medicines which in its proper
leave his old body as it found it that is dust yet so as that water retains with it sooâ— taste or qualitie which it received from the earâ—â— Agricâ—de nat fossil Lib. 1. Cap. 4. This dust is neither a simple body as Elements are nor permanent in one and the samâ— kind but as it is thought to participate with anâ—mates vegetables and minerals so to be tranâ—muted into any of them being both Mother and Nurse to all terrestrial bodies Simple earth if it be not mixed with other substances is dry and cold and Astringent Bâ—â— if it be mixed as commonly it is it altereth hâ—â— qualitie according to the mixture Mine inteâ— is to write of it as it is simple and so of the rest Simple earth yields but a muddie water of self and of no use in Physick but if it be mixed with other Minerals it makes the water to participate with the qualitie of those Minerals also As if it be mixed with Nitre as in Fullers eartâ— and Marle it makes the water abstergent like soap If with Allum or Copperass astringer and more desiccative as in all sorts of Boles with Bitumen fattie and Unctuous as in Tuâ— and Peate c. We have divers examples all sorts The Bath of Mount Otbon in Italy full of clay which is a kind of Bole. The Baâ— Caldaria full of Ocre The Bath of Saint Petâ— full of a yellow earth tincted belike with som other Minerals Wherefore these are to be judge of according to the several Minerals which the contain But seeing earth it self makes little impression into water neither do we make any Physical use of waters which contain nothing but earth I need not spend any time about them CHAP. V. Of Stone THe second shall be Stone Stone is another Mineral substance concrete and more heavy than earth and our Mineral men confound themselves much in the definition of it Wherefore Fallopius implores the help of Marcus Antonius Janna about it as one of the most difficult points in Philosophie but in the end defines it by his want of dissolution either by heat or moysture And whereas it is manifest that some stones will melt he imputes it to the admixture of some metal among which he reckoneth glass Others define it by his hardness wherein commonly it goeth beyond others Minerals But you shall have some stones softer than some of those and therefore the definition is not good Others by this that being broken or calcin'd they will not be consolidated again into their former consistence or shape But for breaking the reason of that is want of fusion for without fusion or ignition which is a kind or degree of fusion Metals also being broken will not be consolidated into the same Masse again And there is no more difference in nature or essence between a whole stone and a broken than there is between a mass of Metal and the powder or filings of the same As for calcination other minerals may be so far calcin'd and brought to a Crocus by fire as they will be irreducible therefore this is not proper to stone Wherefore I am of Fallopius his opinion in this point and the rather because otherwise there would seem to be a species in nature wanting if there were not Mineral Species wanting dissolution by heat or moysture as well as there are having such dissolution And this vacuum which nature abhors is not only to be understood of a local vacuity but also of a want bâ— such species as are in natures power to produce for the ornament of the World For if it be a natural passion to be dissolved it is likewise a natural passion not to be dissolved and if some things will be dissolved both by heat and moysture as Salts why should there not be other substances which will be dissolved by neither of them And this must be stone for nature affords none other Moreover according to Aristotle 〈◊〉 Quoe concreverunt a frigido a calido a nullâ—â—storum dissolvuntar Those things which come together by heat or cold are dissolved by neither of them Of this kind are stones which could never attain to such purity as many of them have if they were not congealed by heat as well as by cold Also under what species shall we comprehend Diamonds Talcum black-Lead which some think to be pnigitis Magnetis Glymmer Katzensilber pyrimachus amiantus alumen plumosum saxum arenarium mortnum c. if not among Stones yet these are confessed to be invincible by fire or water Also all pretious Stones the more noble and pretious they are the more they resist dissolution either by fire water for this quality sheweth the perfection of their mixture True it is that some stones will be dissolved by fire or water and therefore Pliny and Agricola divide Stones into fusible and infusible but this is in regard of other substances bred in the stone which if it be Metal the fusion will be Metalline If Nitre or mean Minerals it will be Vitrificatory As Pliny reports of the invention of Glass by certain Merchants who melting Nitre upon the Sand in Syria where with Clods of Nitre they had made a Furnace for their necessary use found that clear Metal which we call Glass Ecce liquato nitro oum arenis visi sunt rivi fluxisse nobilis liquoris Behold with the Sand when the Nitre was melted ran streams of a noble liquor If Sulphur as in Pyrite it will likewise melt and strike fire And whereas the striking of fire out of a flint or Pyrites or any other thing that will strike fire is held by all men to proceed from the kindling of air by the collision of two hard substances together they are mistaken For then Diamonds Chrystal Glass c. should strike fire as well as flints but it is the Sulphur contained in them And G. Fabricius in his observations although he observes not the reason of this fire yet he confesseth that out of any Pyrites è quo excutitur ignis etiam â—xcoquitur sulphur Out of which fire is struck Sulphur also is to be had Pliny gives the reason of the name quia inest illi ignis Because fire is in it The like we observe in Indian Canes and some Woods that are unctuous and â—ull of Oyle which yield fire by frication or collision not by kindling the air thereby but inflamable Oyle in them For air being cold and moist as hath been proved before hath no agreement with fire no more then oyle hath with water And therefore flame is not the kindling of air ' slamma non est aer accensus but of fub ginous vapours which have some unctuousness 〈◊〉 them and arise from the mater of fewel and haâ— some inflamable parts remaining in them whiâ—â— neer unto the matter of fuel do cause a manifeâ— flame but farther off no flame doth appear yâ— so as if you hold Flax near unto the flame thouâ— it touch it not yet
it will kindle by reason tâ— fire extends further then it is visible being a pâ— lucide and transparent body and thinner then 〈◊〉 air it self And this is held to be the cause wâ— it is not visible under the Moon And where without air fire goes out and is extinguished 〈◊〉 reason is because the fuliginous vapours wantâ— evaporation do recoyle upon the fireand choâ— it This is evident in cupping-glasses and making of Char-coal where if the air be altog ther excluded the fire goes out if but in pâ— then although the flaming be hindred yet 〈◊〉 fire doth penetrate the fewel and so converâ— to coals which by reason of the fuliginous pours are commonly black Bellonius sâ— that Char-coals made of the wood of the Oâ— cedar tree are white which must be ascrib as I think to the small quantity of fuliginâ— vapours which that wood doth yield or 〈◊〉 that those vapours are rather sulphurous then any other combustible substance As wee that Tinby Coals will not black linnen be hanged in the smoak of them but rather whiten it by reason of the drying and penetrating quality of Sulphur which will make red Roses white But what shall we judge of those Lamps which have been found burning in old Sepulchres some of them if we may believe Histories having continued 1500 years together as that which was found in Paulus the third his time of Tullia Ciceroes Daughter and another of Maximus Olibius near unto Padua as Bernardinus Scardco reports It seems here was no air to maintain the Lamps being closely shut up in glasses and therefore they burnt without air and were not extinguished by reason they bred no fuliginous vapours to choak them Now whether these Oyles which fed the Lamps were made by Art out of Gold as some think and I hardly believe or rather out of some pure kind of Naphtha which is most probable I leave to others to judge only I judge it to be the purity of that Oyle which yielded no fuliginous vapours to choak the fire If air had maintained the flame it had not continued two minutes for it would have been spent and wasted by the fire Wheresore ignis non est aer accensus If other concrete juice be mixed with Stone as Salt Allum Vitriol c. it makes them to relent in water or moist air and these Stones are never good to build withal But let us take Stone as it is in it self without the admixture of other Minerals and we shall find it to be indissoluble and invincible either by fire or water Metallurgians Refiners and Assay Masters may make use of this for their Shribs Tiegles Muffels Copels Tests Hearths Crucibles Furnaces c. where they desire a defensible substance against fire But it requires a preparation to cleer it from all combustible and dissoluble admixture as they may easily do after they have powdred their Stone to calcyne 〈◊〉 and wash it well This work being often repeated will make it fit for their purpose anâ— they may use it either alone in the same manneâ— as they do bone-ashes or they may mix it with their lome brick-dust gestube c. Also theâ— may make Bricks of it for their Furnaces which will hardly receive any injury from fire Talcuâ— also is a Stone invincible of it self by fire andâ— Bricks made of Clay that is full of it as thâ— Guendern Clay in Cornwall will hardly melâ— with any heat Stones are naturally dry anâ— cold and astringent like a concrete earth Simple Stones which have no other Mineral mixed with them and are come to their perfection being indissoluble either by fire or water can yield no quality or virtue to Bathes anâ— therefore he that seeks to draw any virtue froâ— stone into water doth lapidem lavare that is labour in vain But by reason of admixtures they may or whilest they are in succo lapidescerte before they are concreted For if it be certain that Metals may yield virtue to Bathes being alike indissoluble by water there is no reason but Stones also may Fallopius is againâ— it in both but contradicted by Julius Caesar Clandinus and divers others yet he confesseâ— that Balncum montis Grotti hath Gyps 〈◊〉 and Gesner affirms the same of the Bathes of Eugesta Also he finds ramentdâ—mdrmoris in Balneo Corsenae Agnatio blit he judgeth that they receive no quality but from the juice and I doubt not but he is in the right And for succus lapidescens we have many examples in Agro Pisano Lucensi in Italy in Avernia in France where this juice is so plentifully brought by a clear Spring that after it is congealed the people dig the stones and have made a great Bridge of them Also neer Vienna in Savoy in a Village called Giret is a clear Fountain which turns to stones as hard as flints Pliny makes Tnention of the like Springs in Eubea which are hot and Vitruvius of the like at Hieropolis in Phrygia Also Josophus Acosta of the like hot Springs in Guaniavilica in Pern which turns to stone whereof they build their houses Anthonio de Herreza cap. 20. tells of the same Spring at Guainia at Velica which turns to stone as it riseth and kills those that drink of it Also this Succus lapidescens is observed in the Bathes of Apono where it is converted into stone upon the sides of the Bath Also in the Bath of Rancolani where this juice is not confused but perfectly mixed with the water and being imbybed by Plants it hardens them like stone Baccius tells us of a Cave by Fileg in Transilvania which turns water into stone The like is found at Glainstayns in Scotland as Hector Boetius reports In England also we have many Fountains which turn wood into stone which must be by reason of this Succus lapidescens mixed with the water Coral also being a Plant and nourished with this juice turns to stone so doth the seed of Lithospermon or Gromel Thus much of Stone CHAP. VI Of Bitumen His kinds qualities Of Campliâ— in particular That Bitumen is predominanâ— in the waters of Bathe NExt I come to those Minerals which we cal Bitumina which are mineral substance that burn and waste in the fire without metallinâ— fusion or ingression The greatest affinity they have is with Sulphur but this hath ingression into metal and therefore I rank it among the Spirits and Bitumen hath none Of this kind some are solid and some liquid Solid as Succinum Gagates Ambra Camphora Terra Ampellâ— Lithanthrax sive Carbofossilis c. Liquid 〈◊〉 Petroleum and Naphta All these are great fuel to fire especially those that are liquid which are thought to draw fire unto them if it be within their effluvium So Pliny reports that Medlâ— burnt Creusa by anointing her Garland with Naphtha and Strabo tells how Alexander Bath-master Athenophanes had almost burnâ— Stephanus a Boy in the Bath by sprinkling Naptha upon him
if it had not been suddenly quenched And this is that juice or thick water which Plato in Times reckons among fires and which the Egyptians used in their Sacrifices and was hidden by the Jewish Priests in a dtyâ— pit for 70 years and afterwards found by Nebemiâ—h But whereas it is a common received opinion that some of these Bitumina will burn in water I cannot believe it although Pliny and Agricola and most that have written since out of them do averr it and bring arguments and examples to prove it For although water were a fewel to fire as oyle is yet there can be no fire without air and water excludes air and so doth oyle if the fire be beneath it and covered with it As for their arguments they say that Bitumen being sprinkled with water burns more and therefore water is a fewel to it as wee see that Smiths cast water upon their Sea-cole in their Forges but the reason of this is because their Coal being small like dust the water makes it to cake and bake together where otherwise the blast would blow it way also it hinders the quick burning of it and so makes it continue the longer so in a Vulcano after Rain they find the fire to burn more when the Bitumen is smal and in dust Although this may be a reason of it that the Lyme which hath there been calcined being by Rain dissolved increaseth the fire And whereas they say that water will kindle Bitumen and quench Sulphur it is not so neither doth their example of Wild-fire prove it For in Wild-fire besides Bitumen and Camphir there is a double proportion of quick Lymes which by reason of the sudden dissolution of his Salt by the effusion of water is apt to kindle any combustible matter not by reason of any Bitumen in the Lyme as some imagine nor of any Empyreuma which the fire hath left in it aâ— Fracasturius thinks for how can there be any Bitumen left in the Lyme if there were any 〈…〉 first after calcination the fire would have consumed that before any thing else And as foâ— any Empyreums it is certain that the more any thing is burnt although the fire leave an adustioâ— in it the less apt it is to burn again especially being burnt and calcin'd ad calcem aut cinereâ— where all the combustible matter is speâ—â— Wherefore it must needs be by the violent motion which is in the sudden dissolution of the Sâ— in it as appears by the crackling it makes 〈…〉 ex motu fit calor And motion causeth heat The like we observe in Pyrite sterili whereâ— they make Vitriol which being broken anâ— laid up in heaps and moistned with water wâ— gather heat kindle any combustible matter pâ— to it The like we find also in Allum Mines c where those mineral juices being concrete in thâ— Mine when they come to sudden dissolution d 〈…〉 grow hot and will kindle fuel And as for thâ— example of the Salt Lake whereof Agricoâ— writes between Strapelâ— and Seburgh which burns the fishermens nets if they be put near thâ— bottome and of the Lake Sputa in Mediâ— mentioned by Strabo which burns Cloths put into it I take that to be by reason of thâ— corrâ—sive quality of the Salt which frets them being stronger near the bottome and not froâ— Bitumen as Agricola thinks The like I judg of the Lake by Denstadt in Turingia And is very probable that Salt being heavier the Water will be most towards the bottome as is reported of the fountain Achilleus in Mileto whose water is very sweet and fresh above and very salt towards the bottom So is the water of Agnano in Italy as M. Sandys reports in his travels And the more heavy and terrestrial any sait is the more corrosive it is and so contratywise the more corrosive the more heavy Aristotle asfirms the Sea-water to be more salt at the bottom than above and so doth Pliny who likewise makes mention of the Lake Ascanius in Chalcide whose top is sweet and bottom nitrous Baccius writes the like of a Well near Toletum in Spain the water whereof is sweet above and corrosive beneath which he judgeth to be from Quick-silver Fallopius is also of opinion that Bitumen doth not only burn in water but is nourished by water because it makes the fire to last longer But I have shewed the reason of that before And for the burning in water he should have said upon the water for there it will burn as long as it swimmeth but dip it under the water and it is presently extinguished And whereas some report that Queen Ann of blessed memory being in our Kings Bath there arose a flame of fire like a candle from the bottom of the Bath to the top near unto her they must give me leave not to believe it but rather to think they were mistaken for I am not bound to believe any thing against reason which God hath given me to be my guide It might have been some bubble of wind which is frequent in our Baths or some bituminous matter not dissolved in the water did arise and being at the top dissolve it self upon the surface in the form of a circle but it could not be kindled And if it might be kindled in the water which were impossible yet in all likelyhood it would have burnt better above the water than within it and not be presently extinct as they report These Bitumina excepting Camphir are potentially hot and dry in the second or third degree but concerning Camphir there are two doubts First whether it be a Bitumen or a Gum. Secondly whether it be hot or cold The Arabians affâ—â— it to be the gum of a huge tree with white leaves under whose shadow many wild beasts may lye and that after earth-quakes there is great plenty found that it is in quality cold and dry in thâ— third degree some late writers follow them iâ— their opinion of a Gum as Mathiolus Amatâ— Lusitanus Garcias ab borto c. Plateareus hold it to be the juyce of an herb But we must consider that they make two sorts of Camphir thâ— one of Borneo the other of Chyna For that 〈…〉 Chyna they confess it is adulterated with Bitumen and that is the only Camphir in use with us But that of Borneo to be a simple Gum and that a pound of this is valued as dear as an hundred pound weight of the other So that all thâ— doubt lieth in this Camphir of Borneo which whether it be a Gum or no is still in controversie For the Arabians not trading into those parts had the notice hereof only from others as Serapio and Avicen do confess and Amatus Lusitanus faith the inhabitants will not suffer stranger to come ashore to see it So as we have been kept in ignorance a long time from the true knowledge of it And Garcias Ab horto tells us that all
of Brimstone as shall be shewed when I come to that point neither doth the favour bewray it But his reason for Copper is very weak He found a Marchesit upon one of the Hills which he thought to hold Copper But Marchesits although they shew yellow yet they seldom hold Copper or any other Metal But his discourse hath perswaded John Bauhinus to publish it confidently to the World I shall have occasion to speak more of this hereafter And thus much of Bitumina CHAP. VII Of Mineral juyces concrete called by the Alchymists Salts The four principal sorts of them Salt Nitre Allum Vitriol A Fourth sort of minerals are concrete juyceâ— which are mineral substances dissoluble in water These the Alchymists call Salts and are the means of communicating all other minerals with water For as water is apt to dissolve and extract vegetables so are these concrete juyceâ— apt to dissolve and extract mineral substances And although they are found sometimes liquid being dissolved by moysture yet we call theâ— concrete because they will be concrete wheâ—â— the adventitious moysture is removed Our mineral Authors do make many sorts of these according to the several minerals which they imbibe but in truth they may be all reduced to four heads Salt Nitre Allum and Vitriol And each of these hath divers species as Gebeâ— and Casalpinus say of Salt quot genera calcium tot genera salium Concerning Vitriol there may be some doubt whether it be a distinct specieâ— from Allum and have received only some tincture from Copper or Iron or from some of their brood which are called excrements For in distilling oyle of Vitriol the lute wherewith the glasses are joyned will yield perfect Allum And Vitriol being boyl'd ariseth in bullas as Allum doth and shoots like Allum in glebas as Salt doth in tesseras and Nitre in stirias The shooting or roching of concrete juyces is worthy to be observed seeing every kind hath his several manner or fashion of shooting whereby a man may see the perfection of each kind For example if Salt-peeter be brought you to examine whether it be perfect good or not dissolve it in water and set it to shoot in a wooden-dish or with sticks of Ash or other porons wood and if it shoot in needles in stirias it is right But if any of it shoot in squares or angles or lumps it is mixt and unfit either for Medicine or Gunpowder The common Salt-peeter being prepared and cleansed with ashes hath commonly much of the salt of the ashes mixt with it in the liquors which being brought to shoot will settle first upon the wood in squares in tesseras and then the Salt-peeter will shoot upon it in needles These needles are good Salt-peeter but the squares are other salt and weaken the Saltpeeter in his operation the like you may judge of other concrete juyces There are also certain stones which we call fluores which do naturally shoot in divers forms as Christal into fix squares in sexagulos Sparr which the Dutch call Sput or Querts shoots into points like Diamonds as we see in those Cornish or Bristol-stones Osteocolla found by Darmstadt in the Palatinat like bones others like Oyster or Muscle-shells c. The reason of this several shooting in concrete juyces and other minerals is hard to give For if it did lye in the thinness or thickness or clamminess of the matter whereof they were made that difference were taken away when divers sorts are dissolved together in the same water for one would qualifie the other But we find that this mixt water will yield his several salts distinctly and all at once So that it seems for the ornament of the universe that nature hath so distinguished these species as it doth plants among which some have thick leaves some thin some long round jagged c. some have bulbous-rootâ— some long stringy c. So in their flowers fruits colours smells c. every kind hath his own fashion The reason hereof Scaliger saith cannot be drawn from the Elements nor from the thinness thickness clammÃness heat cold dryness moysture plenty scarsity c. of the matter but only from the form anima seed c. which frames every species to his own figure order number quantity colour taste smell c. according to the science as Severinus terms it which every seed hath of his own form So alsâ— it is in minerals which have their several and diâ—stinct species in nature and their seeds to maintain and perpetuate the Species Now that thesâ— concrete juyces are not bred commonly in thesâ— forms in the earth the reason may be either because they are often intermixt with other minerals in their generation or that their matter being plentiful and room scanty they have nâ— scope to display themselves in their proper forms or perhaps they want water to dissolve then But by artificial preparations we find these dâ—stinctions in which it is doubtful whether hot or cold or dryness do procure this shooting â— roching in concrete juyces and whether the samâ— causes procure it in all For dryness it is certain that as moysture dissolves them so dryness coâ—geals them but dryness being a passive quality is not sufficient it must be the action either of heat or cold or both and the right ordering of these will open a door to the artifice of Bay-Salt here in England as well as in France or Spain or the Isle of Mayo Among these concrete juices Agricola reckons Sulphur Bitumen Auripigmentum Sandaracha Chusocola AErugo Myfi Sori Melanteria c. But if we examine them aright we shall find that either they are not dissoluble in water as concrete juices should be or they are some of those juices tincted or incorporated with other minerals All these mineral juices are accounted hot and dry and astringent and detergent some more some less and we take it so upon trust But this point requires further consideration and distinction Salt is a fixed substance not volatile in the fire astringent detergent purging dispersing repelling attenuating makes an escar and preserves from putrifaction as Dioscorides informs us and Galen confirms the same adding that it is hot But we must understand Galen with his limitation lib. 6. cap. 30. That the more it is detersory the less it is astringent And all astringent things are cold as he avoucheth lib. 4. cap. 6. Acida acerba astringenâ—ia omnia frigida Now if Salt be astringent it must be cold by Galens own rule and it is not enough to say it hath warm parts in it but being an uniform substance we must determine of it expredominio Also Galen lib. 1. Sympt cap. 4. comparing pure water with sea water seems to affirm that sea waters before it have received any great adventitious cold may cool our bodies And so this place is understood by Anthonius Maria Venustus in consilio pro Petro picardo The repelling quality and the making
an escar and the preserving from putrifaction are arguments of driness and not of heat For as heat and moisture are principal agents in generation and corruption so cold and driness in preservation Also I should impute the purgative and detersory qualities in Salt rather to the tenuity of parts and the stimulation which iâ— hath from thence then to any heat for then 〈◊〉 Sennertus faith all hot things should purge Instit lil 5. part 1. cap. 11. Vuleriala in Gâ—â— de constit artis pag. 447. And Mesne Canâ— universal cap. 1. rejects all elementary qualities temperaments similitudes or contrarietioâ— of substances c. in purging thedicines All Tamarinds Myrabolans and Antimony 〈◊〉 purge and yet are cold Venustus pag. 13â— But the purgative faculty of Medicines is froâ— stimulation of the expulsive faculty of the stomach and guts and not from attraction bâ— heat of peculiar humours as hath been imagined Heat may serve as an instrument to actuâ— stimulation as cold doth dull and benumb 〈◊〉 faculties but neither heat nor cold are principal agents in this work And whereas Rhubâ— is thought to purge choller only Sena and Polipody melancholy Agarick flegme c. because we see the excrements tincted with the same colours it is a deceit for these purgation do colour humours in that manner Yet I do not deny a distinction to be made of Purgations in other respects And our antient Physitians through long experience have found out the right use of purging medicines and their true distinctions for several uses for mens bodies as that some do purge gross humours and some thin some are strong and some weak some are comfortable to the Stomach or Liver or Spleen c. and some hurtfull to some of those parts some are too hot in some cases and some temperate c. but they have not discovered the true cause of this purging quality some attributing it to a celestial influence some to a hidden quality which is as much as if they bad said nothing some to a Sympathy Antipathy c. For my part I hold the purgative quality of mixt bodies to lie principally in the terrestrial part of them which is their Salt and therefore the Chymists use to acuate their purging extracts with their proper Salts It were much better if they could make their Salts without calcination for then they should retain the taste of the Simples which lyeth in the Salt and much other virtue which the fire consumes in calcination It were a delicate thing to have all our vegetable salts to retain the taste of the herbs and simples from whence they are drawn as of Wormwood bitter of Sorel sour of Licoris sweet c. There are in mine opinion three several wayes for it although they be laborious The one is by precipitation when the juice or strong decoction of any simple is precipitated by the addition of some appropriate liquor which will strike down all other parts in the juice or decoction but the Salt which is in it will not easily precipitate but will remain in the liquor and must be severed either by evaporation or by roching But in this work we must make choice of such a precipitator as may not infect our Salt with any strange quality Another way it to make an extract of the simple which we desire to work upon and when we have made it so dry as it will be powdred then pour upon it pure spirit of Wine which will dissolve no Salt if it be without flegme By this means throngh often repetitions of new infusions untill the extract will yield no more tincture unto the spirit of Wine you shall find the Salt in the bottome as a substance which the Spirit of Wine will not work upon nor dissolve A third way as I conceive may be in manner of the working of Salt-Peeter by putrifying great quantities oâ— the herbs untill they become earth and theâ— by infusions with water to extract the Salt which will not putrifie with the herb but will remain in the earth The second course I have tryed the other wayes are very probable In these salts do lie the chief virtues of many simples either for purging by stool or urine or for cleansing cooling drying stimulating opening oâ— obstructions attenuating of gross humours astriction corroboration c. according to the nature of the simples whereas the other Salt which are made by calcination have lost these virtues by the violence of fire and cannot be distinguished the one from the other Nitre is a volatile substance which doth dry and attenuate more then Salt and although it hath not so much astriction as Salt is said to have yet it seems to cool more then Salt perhaps because it is of thinner parts and penetrates more and that is the reason that it serves better for the dissolution of Metals In Physick we find our Sal Nitrum which is a kind of it to cool the body mightily and therefore used in Juleps These Nitres also are apt to move sweat especially those that are drawn artificially from mixed bodies as from Boles Cordial Herbs Bones Horns Teeth Claws Hoofs c. which are drawn by sublimation And these parts of Animals are found to be very soveraign against venome and maligne humours The reason of it I take to be not only the drying quality they have whereby they resist corruption of humours but also principally by reason of their volatile Salt or Nitre whereby they move sweat and expell from the center of the body For all their Salt is volatile as may appear by this that you can never make any lixivium out of any of these animal Medicines by calcination as you do out of vegetables their Salt being altogether evaporated by the fire This volatile salt being taken into our bodies and actuated by our natural heat is commonly very Diaphoretick and this is it which makes our Bezoar Stones Contrae-yerva Ungula del Bado and supposed Unicorns Horn to be in such esteem SAl Ammoniacum is also a kind of Nitre and volatile and so is Borax and Altincar but these are commonly mixed with Sal Alcali and Urin or Vinegar and so made more fix There is also a natural Fix Borax found in the Isle of Lamlay neer Dublin in Ireland which perhaps the Sea water hath fixt Allum and Vitriol are much alike but that Vitriol hath a garb from Copper or Iron These are very astringent and without doubt cold whatsoever hath been held of them The waters or slegms distilled from them do exceedingly cool in Juleps as Quercitan and Claudius Dariot have observed and we also by daily experience do find true by reason of the intense acidity they have being distilled from their Terrestrial parts Also those Acidula which the Germans call Saurbrun proceeding from these Juices are much used to quench the heat of fevers It may be objected that they are corrosives and will eat into metal and therefore must be hot
〈…〉 they have failed in their projects yet this do not prove the impossibility of it And for 〈◊〉 goodness of this metal if it were rightly made would melt as readily as other metal and wo 〈…〉 be tough and not so brittle as it is and wo 〈…〉 not be so apt to rust For these inconvenience happen to it for want of separation of the impurities which are bred with it For Tin we have as good as any in the World although it is not wrought to the best advantage The Countreys where it grows are barren of wood and they are fain to fetch it far off Now if it were wrought as I know it may by many experiments which I have made upon it with stone-coal there would be much saved and the wood might be otherwise employed The Tin also would be as good as now it is and the product not diminished For Lead although for soft Oars the ordinary course of melting at Mondip and the Peak may serve Well and much better than their Baling at Alendale in Hexamshire and at Grass in the Bishoprick of Duresme yet for hard Oars which are commonly rich in silver there might be better courses taken by common or proper Agents Common agents are fire and water proper are dissolvents or additaments By fire they might amend their working if they did roast their Oars well before melting to breath away volatil and combustible substances which are mixed with their Oars By water after calcination or roasting they may separate all dissoluble juyces c. Dissolvents do chiefly serve to separate the silver or gold out of the Oars as in the quick-silver work or by Lyes of Nitre Allum Salts c. Additaments are also of great use whether they be segregatory for separation of spirits or mean metals from our Oars and so to facilitate their fusion or propugnatory to defend the Oares from consuming or vitrifying Segregatory additaments are either such as are more easie of fusion than the Oare and so draw the Oare into fusion with them or such as will not melt at all as Geber saith Cujus intentio non sit fundi which keeps the Oar asunder from clodding and giyes it a greater heat like fire in his bosom By these means well applyed and used all Lead Oares might be wrought be they never so stubborn and none need to be neglected Hitherto I have digressed out of mine intended course through the desire I have to advance mineral works Now I will return to shew the nature and qualities of these metals as I have done of other minerals Gold of all Metals is the most solid and therefore the most heavy as having few impurities or heterogeneal substances mixed with it And therefore it is not subject to corruption as other metals are neither will it lose any of his substance either by fire or water although it should be held in them a long time so as it is an idle and vain perswasion that many have who think by boyling Gold in Broth to get some strength from thence and so to make the Broths more cordial The like I may say of putting Gold into Electuaries or Pills unless it be in case of Quicksilver taken into the body which the Gold by touch may gather to it otherwise it goes out of the body as it came in without any concoction or alteration or diminution And if it be dissolved in strong water it will be reduced again to his metalline substance without diminution much less will it be dissolved without corrosive Spirits to make Aurum Potabile as some do undertake Crollius doth acknowledge that there is but one Menstruum in the world that may do it and that he knows not But if we had it dissolved we are yet uncertain what the quality of it would be or what use to make of it in Physick only because it loseth none of his substance we know it can do no hurt and therefore we use it for Cauteries to quench in Beer or Wine c. to warm it or to give it some astriction from the fire Fallopius in these regards disclaims it in all mineral waters as he doth all other metals and will not believe that any metal doth impart any quality unto water Claudinus holds otherwise and so doth Baccius Savanarola Montagnana Venustus Solinander and almost all that have written of Bathes For if we should exclude Metals we must likewise exclude Stones and Bitumina and Sulphur and almost all minerals except concrete juices For none of these after they have attained to their full consistence will of themselves dissolve in water without the help of some concrete juice as a medium to unite them with the water But before they have their full consistence whilst they are in Solutis principiis as Earth Juice or Vapour they may be communicated with water Gold is so sparingly bred in the bowels of the Earth as in that respect it can hardly furnish a perpetual Spring with any quality from it yet some Bathes are held to participate with Gold as Ficuncellenses Fabariae Piperinae de Grottae in Viterbio Sancti Cassiani de Buxo c. Silver comes next in purity to Gold but is inferiour unto it as appears by the dissolution of it and by the blew tincture which it yields and by the fouling of the fingers c. For the qualities of it there is not much discovered But as all other things of price are superssitiously accounted cordiaâ— so is this especially in hot and moist distempers of the heart for it is esteemed to be cold and dry and astringent and yet emollient We have no Bathes which do manifestly participate with it perhaps by reason nature doth hot produce it in sufficient quantity to infect waters John Baubinus thinks there may be Silver in the Bathes at Boll because he faith there was a Pyritis or Marchesit examined by Doctor Cadner and out of fifty pound weight of it he drew two drams of Silver a very small proportion to ground his opinion upon Iron is the most impure of all metals as we have it wrought and will hardly melt as metals should do but with additaments and flusses Neither is it so malleable and ductible as other metals are by reason of his many impurities Yet we see that at Damasco they work and refine it in such sort as it will melt at a Lamp and is so tough as it will hardly break And this is not by reason of any special Mine differing from other Iron Mines for they have no Mines of Iron near to Damascus as Bellâ—nius reports but have it brought thither from divers other places only their art in working and purifying it is beyond ours So the Spanish Steel and Iron is purer then ours and we do esteem of Bilbo-blades beyond others which are quenched in the River Bilbilis as Turnus his Sword in Virgil was quenched in the River Styx Ensem quem Dauno
Lightnings can do it For the same reasons that exclude the Beams of the Sun and exhalations will likewise exclude lightnings Thirdly for the fuel there are only two substances in the bowels of the earth which are apt fuels for fire Bitumen and Sulphur Sulphur is in such request with all men as they think there can be no not Bath without it nay many hold that if water do but pass thorow a Mine of Brimstone although it be not kindled but actually cold yet it will contract from thence not only a potential but an actual heat But we do manifestly find that neither all hot waters are sulphurous nor all sulphurous waters hot as is said before in Sulphur The Bathes of Caldaneila and Avinian in agro Senensi de Grotta in Viterbio de aquis in Pisano Divi Johannis in agro Lacenss Balneum Geber suilleri in Halsatia c. are all hot and yet give no signe of Sulphur either by smell or taste or quality or effect Contrariwise that all sulphurous waters are not hot may appear by the Bathes in Zurich in Helvetia of Buda in Pannonia at Cure in Rhetia Celenses in Germany In Campania between Naples and Pateolum are many cold sulphurous Springs At Brandula in agro Carpensi c. All which Bathes shew much Sulphur to be in them and yet are cold And no marvel for if we insuse any simple be it never so hot potentially yet it will not make the liquor actually hot Wherefore this Sulphur must burn before it can give any actual heat to our Bathes and then it must needs be subject to the former difficulties and also must be continually repaired by new generations of matter which actual fire cannot further but rather hinder The fire generates nothing but consumes all things The like we may judge of Bitumen that unless it be kindled it can yield no heat to our Bathes as Solinander reports of a Bituminous Mine in Westfalia in agro Tremonensi where going down into the Grove he found much water having the smell taste and colour of Bitumen and yet cold Agricola imputes the chief cause of the heating of Bathes unto the fuel of Bitumen Baccius on the other side to Sulphur But in my opinion they need not contend about it For as I have shewed before in the examples of mineral waters there are many hot Springs from other minerals where neither Sulphur nor Bitomen have been observed to be John de Dondis and Julius Alexandrinus were much unsatisfied in these opinions and did rather acknowledge their ignorance then that they would subscribe unto them I need not dispute whether this fire be in Alveis or in Canalibus or in vicinis partibus c. because I think it is in neither of them CHAP. XIV The Authors opinion concerning the cause of actual heat and medicinal virtue in Mineral Waters VVHerefore finding all the former opinions to be doubtfull and weakly grounded concerning the causes of the actual heat of Bathes let me presume to propound another which I perswade my self to be more true and certain But because it hath not been mentioned by any Author that I know I have no mans steps to follow in it Avia Doctorum peragro loca nullius ante Trita solo I travel where no path is to be seen Of any learned foot that here hath been Which makes me fearfull in the delivery of it But if I do err in it I hope I shall not be blamed seeing I do it in disquisition of the truth I have in the former Chapters set down mine opinion concerning the generation of minerals that they have their seminaries in the earth replenished with spirits and faculties attending them which meeting with convenient matter and adiuvant causes do proceed to the generation of several species according to the nature of the efficient and aptnes of the matter In this work of generation as there is generatio unius so there must be corruptio alterius And this cannot be done without a superiour power which by moisture dilating it self worketh upon the matter like a ferment to bring it to his own purpose This motion between the agent spirit and the patient matter proceedeth from an actual heat ex motu fit calor which serves as an instrument to further this work And this motion being natural and not violent produceth a natural heat which furthers generations not a destructive heat For as cold dulls and benumbs all faculties so heat doth quicken them This I shewed in the example of Malt. It is likewise true in every particular grain of Corn sown in the ground although by reason they lie single their actual heat is not discernable by touch yet we find that external heat and moisture do further their spiring as adiuvant causes where the chief agent is the generative spirit in the seed So I take it to be in minerals with those distinctions before mentioned And in this all generations agree that an actual heat together with moisture is requisite otherwise there can neither be the corruption of the one nor the generation of the other This actual heat is less sensible in small seeds and tender bodies then it is in the great and plentifull generations and in hard and compact matter for hard bodies are not so easily reduced to a new form as tender bodies are but require both more spirit and longer time to be wrought upon And therefore whereas vegetable generations are brought to perfection in a few months these mineral generations do require many years as hath been observed by Mineral men Moreover these generations are not terminated with one production but as the seed gathereth strength by enlarging it self so it continually proceeds to subdue more matter under his government so as where once any generation is beguâ— it continues many ages and seldome gives over As we see in the Iron Mines of Illua the Tin Mines in Cornwall the Lead Mines at Mendip and the Peak c. which do not only stretch further in extent of ground than hath been observed heretofore but also are renewed in the same groves which have been formerly wrought as our Tinners in Cornwall do acknowledge and the examples of Illua and Saga before mentioned do confirm This is a sufficient means for the perpetuity of our hot Springs that if the actual heat proceed from hence there need be no doubt of the continuance of them nor of their equal tenor or degree of heat Now for the nature of this heat it is not a destructive heat as that of fire is but a generative heat joyned with moysture It needs no air for eventilation as the other doth It is in degree hot enough for the hottest Baths that are if it be not too remote from the place where the water issueth forth It is a means to impart the qualities of minerals to our waters as well as heat by reason the minerals are then in solutis principiis in their liquid
the true cause of it let us collect our arguments together the principal whereof are here and there dispersed in this Treatise Quem nos stramineum pro tempore fecimus Which for the present I have made of Straw Hoping that hereafter some worthy pen may handle this argument more accurately and give it a better flourish Et dare perpetuo caelestia fila metallo And on firm metal lasting threads bestow We must not imagine that the government and ordering of the world and nature in a constant course is performed by miracle but that natural effects have natural causes and must be both under the same genus Wherefore following the ordinary distribution seeing it comprehends all and not questioning the celestial bodies whether they be elementary or no that is subject to alterations as intention and remission generation and corruption c. We say that this heat must proceed either from the superiour and celestial bodies as the Spheres and Starrs or from the inferiour or sublunary From the superiour Spheres or Globes it cannot proceed seeing as is shewed before they are neither indowed with such a degree of native heat nor can acquire it accidentally by their motion being thin and liquid bodies neither if they had it can they convey it unto the earth but by their beams which are not able to retain it as they pass thorow the cold region of the air nor able to warm that although it be nearer to their fountain of heat Wherefore if these beams can any way do it it must be by their motion and reflection upon the earth and this is no constant heat but varieth according as the beams are perpendicular or oblique and according as the air is cleer or cloudy c.. And as they are not able to give this constant heat so the earth in her bowels is not capable to receive it being hindered by the density of the earth and rocks and the heat of reflection taken away before it can come three foot deep From the inferiour parts of the world if it proceed it must be either from the Elements or from mixt bodies From the Elements it cannot come but from fire for all the other Elements are cold as I have shewed especially the earth where this heat is ingendred And as for the Element of Fire seeing we know not where to find it neither if it be any where doth it perform the office of an Element in production and nutrition of creatures as Aristotle faith Ignis nil generat and therefore nil nutrit nam nutritio fit ex iisdem ex quibus constat therefore as it begets nothing so it nourisheth nothing and so cannot be an Element nor as an Element maintain this heat of Bathes But contrariwise if it have no power of begetting or nourishing any thing it must have a power of destroying or hindering nature in her proceedings for nature will admit of no vacuum or idle thing Also seeing Nature useth no violent means to maintain her self this elementary fire cannot be pen'd in the center of the earth being of a thin subtilnature and naturally aspiring upwards and if it have any place assigned unto it it must be above the other Elements and then it cannot be drawn downwards against his nature and that continually without breach of the order and course of nature And whereas they place the Element of Fire under the concave of the Moon being in it self lucid and resplendent it is strange that it is not seen by us neither makes our nights light For although by reason of his transparency it doth not terminate our sight yet it should remove the obscurity of our nights much better then the Via lactea Moreover if it were there we must see the Starrs through a double Diaphanum one of air and another of fire and so would make a double refraction which is elegantly confuted by John Pena and Conrâ—dus Aslacus But there is another thing substituted in the place of this element of fire and maintained by air and by mineral substances in the earth which is neither an Element nor a mixt body nor any substance at all but a meer quality and this is preferred by most to be the cause of the heat of our Bathes And this is our common kitchin-fire which is kindled by violent motion maintained by servel without which it cannot subsist and extinguished by his contrary And although it may be derived by communication or coition as one candle lights another yet originally it is kindled by violent motion and what violent motion can there be in the bowels of the earth to strike fire or who shall be the fueller Exhalations and lightnings cannot do it being aereal meteors and no more penetrable then the beams of the Sun And therefore although they may kindle a Vulcano upon the surface of the earth yet they cannot pierce deep and their very reflection upon the superficies of the earth takes away their strength so as they can neither kindle new fire nor commucate that which is kindled to any other fuel For if it be by communication or coition that must be by touch per contactum and then in the earth it can make but one fire and not many being not distinct in place and must increase in heat and then it will not keep a constant tenor as our Bathes do Secondly for the nourishment of it being a quality it must have a subject that is fuel and it must have means to vent the fuliginous vapours which it breeds in the dissolution of the fuel lest they recoyle and quench the fire as also there must be conveyance for the ashes which will fall down continually upon the fire and quench it Moreover by consuming such great quantities of Sulphur and Bitumen and by mollifying and breaking of Rocks it would cause a great sinking of the earth in those places as we see in our Vulcanoes where whole mountains have been consumed and brought to even ground Thirdly this fire being a quality is subject to intention and remission and to utter extinguishment not only by want of fuel which cannot be regenerated where this actual fire is nor for want of vent or choaking of ashes c. but also by reason of the abundance of water which the earth receiveth for the generations of Minerals which being opposite to fire would quench it Wherefore we cannot rely upon any subterranean fire for the maintenance of our hot Bathes From the air this heat of Bathes cannot proceed seeing it is neither hot in it self as hath been proved nor can get any heat by motion being of a thin liquid substance which no attrition or collision can make hot And as for aereal meteors bred from exhalations and kindled as is imagined by an Antiperistasis if they be bred in the air they are not able to penetrate into the bowels of the earth as hath been said before if in the earth besides the difficulty of finding room enough for such
plentiful exhalations as those must be which procure lightning and thunder and the vanity of their Antiperistasis to kindle these exhalations as hath been she wed before it is a sufficient refutation to take away the subject of the question that is all subterranean fire as I hope I have done and then we need not dispute about the means of kindling it c. these momentary meteors being produced only to kindle and not to maintain this fire From the water no man will derive this fire being a cold and moist Element and apt to quench it unless it be by dilating the seminary spirits of natural species and then they concur with us and renouncing the actual fire do confirm our heat of fermentation From the earth some have imagined an inbred heat ingenitum terrae calorem whereby it seems they had some glimmering of this light which we have given but have left it in as great obscurity as the Antipenstasis or Antipathy and earth being a cold and dry Element cannot be the cause of this heat as it is earth So as it is manifest that naturally the Elements cannot procure this heat of Bathes and by violent motion they can do as little For the earth being immovable cannot be stirred by any violent motion and the other three Elements as Fire Air and Water being thin and liquid substances can procure no heat by any motion or collision either upon themselves or upon the earth especially in the bowels of the earth where all is quiet and no room or scope for any such motion as this must be So that neither the other three Elements nor the earth either in the whole or in the parts can be the cause hereof by any violent motion From mixt bodies if this heat come it must be from animals vegetables or minerals Animals are not so plentiful in the earth as to cause this heat of Bathes either alive or dead We read of subterranean animals which have both motion and sense and understanding in Vincentius in speculo naturali in Lactantius in Agricola de animantibus subterraneis in Bellonius Ortelius Paracelsus c. who calls them Gnomi the Germanes Bergmaenlin the French Rabat the Cornish-men Fairies The Danes are generally perswaded that there are such creatures But if any such living creatures be able to procure this heat it cannot be by their hot complexions but it must be by violence and striking of fire Perhaps Democritus hath hired them to make his lyme there or some other to erect forges for thunder lightning and such like fire-works Brontesque Steropesque nudus membra Pyracmon But these opinions deserve no confutation From dead animals in their putrefaction some heat may appear but such as neither for the degree nor for the continuance can be answerable to our Bathes For vegetables there is the same reason as for dead animals neither doth the earth breed such plenty of these in her bowels as to procure a months heat to a tun of water in one place Wherefore we have nothing to ground upon but mineral substances whereof the earth affords enough For there is no part of the earth but is replenished with mineral seeds And although some may think that because minerals are not found or not wrought in all places and that some waters are also found which do not participate of the virtues of minerals that therefore our hot Bathes proceed not from the fermentation of minerals but from some other cause they are mistaken For although metals are not frequent in some places or at the least not discovered yet a man shall hardly dig ten foot deep in any place but he shall find rocks of stone which have their generation as well as other minerals or some of the Salts or Bitumina or Spirits or mean metals c. And how can Bathes receive mineral qualities but from minerals Therefore where Bathes are there must be Minerals although where Minerals are there are not always Bathes But perhaps they are not so accumulated as by their contiguity they are able to yield any manifest heat their matter being dispersed as grains of corn sown in a field which by reason of their lying single do not shew a sensible heat in their fermentation or most metals breeding between a Hanger and a Lieger which Agricola calls pendens and jacens are seldome above a foot thick and therefore cannot yield much heat to our waters And this is the cause why we have so few Bathes from Gold Silver Tin Lead c. But where much matter is accumulated together the very contiguity one part lying upon another will make a manifest heat untill it grow to a corpus continuum when the generation is perfected and then the heat is extinguished Or perhaps they have not water so plentifull as may yield a living spring although they may have sufficient for the use of their generation Or perhaps where they break forth they meet with desart sands as in Arabia China Africa c. Which drink up the water and hinder the eruption of it And whereas there are some hot springs found which do not shew any mineral quality in them the reason of this may be the want of concrete juice which as I have said before is the medium of communicating mineral qualities and substances with water For without them water is as unapt to imbibe minerals as it is to unite with oyle So as water may of it self receive actual heat from the fermentation of minerals but not their qualities without the mediation of some of the concrete juices as contrariwise we find some Fouutains that receive mineral qualities and yet are cold whereof I have given many examples The reason whereof is either for that they have passed a long way and by many Meanders from the place of generation to the place of their eruption and so have lost their heat or else the concrete juices which will dissolve in water without any heat being impregnated with other minerals do impart them to water and yet without heat But to say that there is any earth without mineral seeds is to make a vacuum in rerum natura and to destroy the use of the Elements It is true that the seeds do do not alwaies meet with opportunity to display themselves and sometimes they are fain to serve under other colours which are more predominant but there is no part of the earth without some seeds or other And from hence we must derive the original of the actual heat of Bathes for nothing else in the world will serve our turn to procure so lasting and so uniform a heat unto them and that not by kindling any actual fire about them for most of our minerals whereof our Bathes consist and from whence they receive both their actual heat and virtues will not burn neither have any actual heat in themselves being all cold to the touch but receive it by a fermenting heat which they have in their generation without which there
quality to be imparted to water Again this mineral quality either gives the water or the vapour of it the effence of the mineral and then it is not the effect of water but of the mineral quality or the potential facâ—â—lty to breed it If the effence then this metall 〈◊〉 water or vapour must have the form of the metal and so be fusible and malleable If it have only the power and potential faculty then the generation is not perfected but must expect further concoction This concoction is said to be partly by heat and partly by cold if by heat it must be in the passages of the exhalation as it is carried in the bowels of the earth for afterwards when the exhalation is setled in the stones the heat is gone Now if the concoction be perfected before the exhalation be insinuated into the Stones as it must be if it be like dew then it is perfect metal and neither is able to penetrate the Stones nor hath any need of the cold of them to perfect the generation If by cold it is strange that cold should be made the principal agent in the generation of metals which generates nothing neither can heat be the efficient of these generations Simple qualities can have but simple effects as heat can but make hot cold can but cool c. But they say cold doth congeal metals because heat doth dissolve them I answer that the rule is true if it be rightly applyed as we see ice which is congealed by cold is readily dissolved by heat But the fusion of metals cannot properly be called a dissolution by heat because it is neither reduced to water or vapour as it was before the congelation by cold nor is it permanent in that kind of dissolution although after fusion it should be kept in a greater heat than the cold could be which congealed it For the cold in the bowels of the earth cannot be so great as it is upon the superficies of the earth seeing it was never observed that 〈◊〉 was any ice bred there Also this dissolution which is by fusion tends not to the destruction of the metal but doth rather make it more perfect as it should do according to the former rule rightly applyed And therefore this dissolution by fusion doth not argue a congelation by cold which being in the passive elements doth rather attend the matter than the efficient of generations for it is apt to dull and hebetate all faculties and motions in nature and so to hinder generations rather than to further any It is heat and moysture that further generations as Ovid faith Quippe ubi temperieâ—â— sumpsere humorque calorque Concipiunt When heat with moysture's temper'd well Then 't is their bellies 'gin to swell And thus much for Aristotles generation of minerals where his vapours or exhalations do rather serve for the collection or congregation of matter in the Mines than for the generation of them as Libavius doth rightly judge Agricola makes the matter of minerals to be Succus Lapidescens Metallificus c. and with more reason because they are found liquid in the earth Gilgill would have it Ashes Democritus Lime but these two being artificial matters are no where found in the earth The Alchymists make Sulphur and Mercurie the matter of metals Libavius Sulphur and Vitriol But I will not stand upon discoursing of these materials because it makes little to my purpose It is enough for my purpose to shew the manner of these generations which I take to be this There is a Seminarie Spirit of all minerals in the bowels of the earth which meeting with convenient matter and adjuvant causes is not idle but doth proceed to produce minerals according to the nature of it and the matter which it meets withal which matter it works upon like a ferment and by his motion procures an actual heat as an instrument to further his work which actual heat is increased by the fermentation of the matter The like we see in making of Malt where the grains of Barley being moistned with water the generative Spirit in them is dilated and put in action and the superfluity of water being removed which might choak it and the Barley laid up in heaps the seeds gather heat which is increased by the contiguity of many grains lying one upon another In this work natures intent is to produce more individuals according to the nature of the Seed and therefore it shoots forth in spires but the Artist abuses the intention of Nature and converts it to his end that is to increase the spirits of his Malt. The like we find in mineral substances where this spirit or ferment is resident as in Allum and Copperas Mines which being broken exposed and moistened will gather an actual heat and produce much more of those minerals then else the mine would yield as Agricola and Thurneiser do affirm and is proved by common experience The like is generally observed in Mines as Agricola Erastus Libavius c. do avouch out of the daily experience of mineral men who affirm that in many places they find their Mines so hot as they can hardly touch them although it is likely that where they work for perfect Minerals the heat which was in fermentation whilst they were yet breeding is now much abated the Minerals being now grown to their perfection And for this heat we need not call for the help of the Sun which a little could will take away from us much more the body of the earth and rocks not for subterranean fire this inbred heat is sufficient as may appear also by the Mines of Tinglass which being digged and laid in the moist air will become very hot So Antimony and Sublimat being mixed together will grow so hot as they are not able to be touched If this be so in little quantities it is likely to be much more in great quantities and huge rocks Heat of it self differs not in kind but only in degree and therefore is inclined no more to one Species then to another but as it doth attend and serve a more worthy and superiour power such as this generative spirit is And this spirit doth convert any apt matter it meets withall to his own species by the help of heat and the earth is full of such matter which attends upon the species of things and oftentimes for want of fit opportunity and adiuvant causes lies idle without producing any species but is apt to be transmuted by any mechanical and generative spirit into them And this matter is not the Elements themselves but subterranean seeds placed in the Elements which not being able to live to themselves do live to others Sic Roma crescit Albae ruinis the Death of one is the life of another From this confluence of seeds arise all the varieties and differences and alterations which are observed in the generation or nutrition of natural things as in their colours
by warming and comforting the cold part And Oribasius doth ingeniously confess that the nature of these Baths was not then perfectly discovered and therefore they were all held to be not only dry but very hot although we find them not all so for Iron waters do cool and so do those of Camphir and Alluminous and Nitrous waters also But for our Bituminous and Sulphurous waters which Galen forbids in hot brains there is no reason to suspect them in cold affects of the brain and nerves in which cases we make especial choice of all things which either in tast or smell do resemble Bitumen as Rue Castorium Valeriana Herba Paralyseos Trifolium Asphaltitis c. which both by his warming quality and by his suppling and mollifying substance is most proper and convenient for those parts The like I may say of Sulphur in which nothing can be excepted against but his sharp spirit which is made by burning and we have none of that in our waters nor I hope any fire to make it withal The other parts of Sulphur are hot and dry and very unctuous As for Nitre it cleanseth purgeth both by stool and urine and helpeth the incorporation of the other Minerals with the water and qualifies the heat of them and gives them better penetration into our bodies In regard of these Minerals together with the actual heat we find that the bathing in our Baths doth warm the whole habit of the body attenuate humors open the pores procure sweat move urine cleanse the matrix provoke womens evacuations dry up unnatural humors strengthen parts weakned comfort the nerves and all neutrous parts cleanse the skin and suck out all salt humours from thence open obstructions if they be not too much impacted case pains of the joynts and nerves and muscles mollifie and discuss hard tumors c. Wherefore this bathing is profitable for all palsies apoplexies caros epilepsies stupidity destuctions gouts sciaticaes contractions cramps aches tumors itches scabs leprosies cholicks windyness whites in women stopping of their courser barrenness abortions scorbuts anasarcaes and generally all cold and phlegmatick diseases which are needless to reckon up In all which cureâ— our Baths have a great hand being skilfully directed by the Physitian with preparation of the body before and addition of such other helps as are needfull And whereas without the help of such Baths these diseases could not be cured without tormenting the body either by fire of lancing or causticks or long dyets or bitter and ungrateful medicines c. In this course of bathing all is pleasant and comfortable and more effectual than the other courses and therefore it is commonly the last refuge in these cases when all other means fail I will not undertake to reckon up all the benefits which our Baths do promise but if we had a register kept of the manifold cures which have been done by the use of our Baths principally it would appear of what great use they are But as there is a defect in not keeping a Catalogue of rare Cures so many persons of the better sort would be offended if a Physitian should make any mention of their cures or griefs wherefore I must speak but generally CHAP. XIX The manner of bathing chiefly referred to the inspection and ordering of a Physitian Yet some particulars touched concerning the government of the patient in and after bathing the time of day of staying in the Bath of continuing the use of it The time of the year Of covering the Baths NOw for the manner of bathing I will not set down what the Physitian is to do but leave that to his judgement and discretion but what is fit for the patient to know for there are many cautions and observations in the use of bathing drawn from the particular constitutions of bodies from the complication of diseases and from many other circumstances which cannot be comprehended in general rules or applyed to all bodies alike but many times upon the success and the appearing of accidents the Physitian must exre nat a capere consilium and perhaps alter his intended course and perhaps change the Bath either to a hotter or cooler c. In which respect those patients are ill advised which will venture without their Physitian upon any particular Bath or to direct themselves in the use of it And this is a great cause that many go away from hence without benefit and then they are apt to complain of our Baths and blaspheme this great blessing of God bestowed upon us It is fit for the patient when he goeth into the Bath to defend those parts which are apt to be offended by the Bath as to have his head well covered from the air and wind and from the vapours arising from the Bath also his kidneys if they be subject to the Stone anointed with some cooling unguents as Rosatum Comitissae Infrigidans Galeni Santolinum c. Also to begin gently with the Bath till his body be inured to it and to be quiet from swimming or much motion which may offend the head by sending up vapours thither at his coming forth to have his body well dryed and to rest in his bed an hour and sweat c. A morning hour is fittest for bathing after the Sun hath been up an hour or two and if it be thought fit to use it again in the afternoon it is best four or five hours after a light dinner For the time of staying in the Bath it must be according to the quality of the Bath and the toleration of the patient In a hot Bath an hour or less may be sufficient in a temperate Bath two hours For the time of continuing the Bath there can be no certain time set down but it must be according as the patient finds amendment sometimes twenty daies sometimes thirty and in difficult cases much longer And therefore they reckon without their Host which assign themselves a certain time as perhaps their occasions of business will best afford For the time of the year our Italian and Spanish Authors prefer the Spring and Fall and so they may well do in their hot Countreys but with us considering our climate is colder and our Baths are for cold diseases I hold the warmest moneths in the year to be best as May June July and August and I have persivaded many hereunto who have found the benefit of it for both in our Springs and after September our weather is commonly variable and apt to offend weak persons who finding it temperate at noon do not susp ct the coolness of the mornings and evenings Likewise in the Bath it self although the Springs arise as hot as at other times yet the wind and air beating upon them doth do them much harm and also make the surface of the water much cooler than the bottom and therefore Clauidinus wisheth all Baths to be covered and Fallâ—pius finds great fault with the Lords of Venice that they do not
cover their Bath at Apono We see also that most of the Baths in Europe are covered whereby they retain the same temperature at all times And it were to be wished that our Queens Bath and Cross-Bath being small Baths were covered and their Slips made close and warm By this means our Baths would be useful all the year whâ—â— neither wind and cold air in Winter nor the Sun in Summer should hinder our bathing Moreover for want of this benefit many who have indifferently well recovered in the Fall do fall back again in the winter before the Cure be perfectly finished and as this would be a great benefit to many weak persons so it would be no harm to this City if it may be a means of procuring more resort hither in the Winter time or more early in the Spring or more late at the Fall I desire not novelties or to bring in innovations but I propound these things upon good grounds and examples of the best Baths in Europe and so I desire to have them considered of referring both this point and whatsoever else I have said in this Discourse to the censure of those who are able to judge I do purposely omit many things about the virtues and uses of our Baths which belong properly to the Physitian and cannot well be intimated to the patient without dangerous mistaking For as Galen faith our Art of Physick goes upon two legs Reason and Experience and if either of these be defective our Physick must needs be lame Experience was first in order Per varios usus artem experientia socit Exemplo monstrante viam From much Experience th' Art of Physick â—â—â—e Directed by Example to the same Reason followed which without Experience makes a meer contemplative and theorical Physitian Experience without Reason makes a meer Emperick no better than a Nurse or an attendant upon sick persons who is not able out of all the experience he hath to gather rules for the cure of others Wherefore they must be both joyned together and therefore I refer Physitians works unto Physitians themselves FINIS AN APPENDIX CONCERNING BATHE Wherein The ANTIQUITY Both of The Bathes and City Is more fully discours'd with a brief account of the Nature and Vertues of the HOT WATERS there By THO. GUIDOTT M. B. Practising at BATH 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pythag. apud Stob. Serm. 34. Nunc Te marmoreum protempore fecimus at Tu Si fatura gregem suppleverit aureus esto Virg. Ecl. London Printed for Thomas Salmon Book-seller living in Bath 1669. TO MY HONOURED AND Learned Friend JOHN MAPLETT Doctor in PHYSICK SIR HAving bad the happiness in a strange place to light on so good an acquainance as your self whose Sober Candid and â—npassionate temper receives an Additional â— its native lustre from the perfunctory disbliging and illiterate Genius of others I â—ould not but take the first opportunity to teâ—ifie my Respects and the rather because having fallen on a Subject in which you may claim some right I thought it not safe to enter your ground without your leave Besides we are told by Solinus whose Assertion admits a further probability from the Epithetes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. given her by Pausanias Plutarch Aristides mentioned also in Hesychius Suidas Harpocration and others of which I have elsewhere more largely treated in another Language that Minerva was formerly the Patroness of these Baths and what fitter person could I find out to address this brief Discourse of Baths unto than him Tritonia Pallas Quem docuit multaque insignem reddidit arte I have joyntly discours'd of the Baths and City which seem to me to resemble the two parts of a Compositum Body and Soul And as there is a more than ordinary respect due to the body on the account of its being the Case and Cabinet of that pearl of great price out more noble and diviner part the Soul So I thought it my Concern to make some reflections on the City also as well as the waters by which I think it doth in some measure appear that it cannot justly be said of the Baths what was once of the wit of Galba the Roman Emperour lodg'd in a deformd body that they have a bad habitation If I have not here drawn the Baths to the life it may be considered that it was intended only for a rough draught and what is more that I had not your Pensil The thing it self as to the Composure of it is the hasty product of less than 14 daies and those too in the middest of and stollen from my other Employments what therefore is wanting now I hope hereafter to supply In the mean time Sir I humbly offer to your kind acceptance this small acknowledgement of my real respects as to one whose higher seâ—soâ— with Academical Studies together with the helps and advantages of Travel hath made a Pillar of your faculty which your courteous disposâ—ion and civil Deportment hath so nearly polish'd that you seem to have attain'd if we believe the Poet the utmost perfection having in you that which doth at once both delight and profit As for those that are meer husks and outsides of Physitians that desire to be thought to be what they are not and are nothing less than what they seem to be whose empty heads serve for no other use than Rattles only to make a pretty noise to please children whose mouths also are open Sepulchres and they themselves little better than painted ones Non tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis c. We may well spare or rather not spare them as being not the true Sons but the By-blows of AEsculapius Sir I beg your pardon for giving you this trouble and assure you That I Am Your very Affectionate Friend and Humble Servant THOMAS GUIDOTT Bath Oct. 24. 1668 THE Contents CHAP. I. Of the Antiquity of the Bathes of Bathâ— GEnealogie of Bladud and Time when he liv'd Contemporary to the Prophet Elias These Baths not discovered by Julius Caesar Names of Bath Bathancester Hat Bathan Akmanchester 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aquae Solis Badiza examind Brittish names Yr Ennaint Caer Badon Caer Palladdur Minerva Patroness of Bath Nechams Verses CHAP. II. Of the Antiquity of the City of Bath and things relating thereunto BAth called first Caer Blaeidin afterwards Caer Bath and Badon when inhabited Coill and Edgar whose Statues stand at the end of the Council house who and when they flourish'd Bath besieged by the Saxons Relieved by King Arthur Offa's Church Hospitals Free-School The Author of the History of the Worthies of England censured and some of his mistakes discovered CHAP. III. Of the Church of Saint Peter and Paul AN account of the Church of Saint Peter and Paul in Bath from its first foundation to the time it was finish'd a Latin Poem on the same Subject written to Bishop Mountague with the answer of the Bishop CHAP. IV. Of the Roman Antiquity of Bath ROman