should thus contradict himself in his Epilogue and so plainly recant what he had said in the fore-going Discourse Mr. S. forced to make this Recantation To which thus Mr. Samuel Johnston of Beverley whom I mention'd before a very ingenious Chymist meeting him shewed him the Red Earth which he mentions in P. 359. and told him it was no other thing than Terra Vitrioli as also the Nitre which had shot in Stiria's above an inch long This being matter of fact he could not deny especially seeing them both so plainly made out Now his Book was then well-nigh printed so as he could not recall it and therefore was forced to bring it in an Appendix at the latter end and study out words to blind the unwary and ignorant Reader This Relation I have from the Gentleman himself when yet Mr. S. is not so ingenuous as to acknowledge his Director for he taught him the whole process that he lays down in the Epilogue but on the contrary falls into a simple Rant P. 361. as if he was the first that has made so many separations of the Minerals Yea and I can say he is the first that ever denied them of the Gentlemen of Art that ever came to the Water and he is the first that ever I met with that canted and recanted at this rate But the very truth is I my self had done enough that way having all the parts by me of several years keeping though I thought it impertinent to make so many separations Mr S. his Opinion whence the Saltness of the Sea P. 54. He undertakes to tell whence the Saltness of the Sea proceeds viz. From the Salt of the Earth which with great dashes of Water passing through the subterraneal Channels becomes dissolved and carried into the Ocean which has its Minera from fossile Salt from which also some Springs are saturate as the Sulphur Well at Knaresbrough Now let us turn to P. 303. and he tells us of a Circulation of the Sea Water from the Sea to the Heads of Springs by subterraneal Channels and these Springs are fresh the salt of the Sea being deposited in the Channels How these two Assertions can stand together I cannot discern A Câ—ntradâ—ction that the same Channels should convey a Salt into the Sea and also convey the Sea Water to the Springs here is a contrary Current in the same Channels for the same conveys Salt from the Earth to the Sea and lays down its Salt in its passage to the Springs I confess this is above my reason to conceive I shall leave it to the Reader to believe as he sees cause For my own part I think both parts of his Assertion are doubtful though indeed it is bravely resolv'd of the Gentleman on the sudden to find out the cause of the Seas Saltness which has in all Ages put the most grave Philosophers to a puzzle I do verily think that all the fossile Salt in the Body of the Earth which we see is very rarely found if it were dissolved will not serve to supply a twentieth part of the Salt that is in the Sea the sixteenth part whereof being a Body of Salt as I have tried at Scarbrough every Pint having about one Ounce in this our Northern Sea and in the Southern Seas it is far more strong of the Salt Besides the Peripateticks thought this came far short of an adaequate cause and thereupon they fly to the torrefaction of the Sun Moreover if the Saltness of the Sea should proceed from the fossile Salt of the Earth then being an extraneous quality to the Sea it would destroy the Fish of the Sea as we see fresh Water made sâ—lt by fossile Salt kills all manner of Sea Fish as well as other Hence it is that the Sea of the Plain called the Salt Sea Josh 12.3 which has its Saltness from the Earth for it was formerly no Sea but the Vale of Siddim and has its Original from Jordan and the Sea of Galilee which are both Fresh Water besides that Commentators and Travailers do unanimously report the Countrey about to be full of Salt-Pits is observed to kill all manner of Fish that fall into it from Jordan and is therefore called Mare Mortuum so that I suspect Mr. S. is much mistaken in his assignment of the Cause of the Seas Saltness Again As to the latter part of his Contradiction viz. That the Sea Water is conveyed to the Heads of Springs by the Subterraneal Channels we must imagine that these Subterraneal Channels must be sometimes 2 or 300 Miles long or more which how that should be Credat Judaeus Apella But this I shall reserve till I come to examine his Original of Springs A Contradiction But there is another thing which here I may not pass by He tells us now That the Sulphur Well at Knaresbrough is saturate from fossile Salt and yet if we turn to P. 143. treating of that Well he determines ☞ That a Salt Marine is the cause of that Sulphureous Spring I wish the Young Man would reconcile these Contradictions In the mean while till we understand the ground of them it may suffice that we understand a little what reason there is in the man Yet this makes me remember the Story that I read in Quintilian of Didymus Chalcenterus the famous Grammarian of Alexandria a man with Bowels of Brass so they named him because of his indefatigable pains in Writing for he writ says Sentca 4000 Books 3500 says Suidas Now one telling him an Historical Relation which he dislik'd and disapprov'd as vain and frivolous the party brougâ—t out one of his own Books and shewed him the Story which made Didymus look blank Truly the Old Man deserved some Indulgence but for a Young Man to be so forgetful and contradict himself so often to become a Didymus or rather a Dithymus double-minded as that one and the same Book nay within a few leaves should bring forth Didymos Twinnes one very unlike the other as if they had not the same Father I am very sorry to see it in any one that pretends to be a Scholar P. 55. He passes on to St. Mungo Well at Cockgrave which though to the touch it be extreamly cold yet by an intrinsick sulphurous warming quality it opens the Pores c. I believe he never saw that Well for if he had he could not have any ground to think it had any thing of Nitre or Sulphur in it but to be a Simple Water and an excellent Spring operating onely by its excessive Coldness whereby it suddenly repels the Blood and inward heat to the inward parts from whence it returns after bathing while the Patient lies in a warm Bed more strongly invigorated with Spirits and so concocting the Crudities that were in the weak parts encreaseth new strength and overcomes the lameness of the Joynts and the Rickets concerning which I have treated more at large in my Second Edition of Scarbrough
seek for a true Original of his Springs And yet to speak out neither is this his own but wholly borrowed from Kircherus de Origine Fontium in his Mundus Subterraneus where he discourses at large upon this Subject making no less than five Suppositions in order to his Design of illustrating the Sea to be the Original of Springs although he differs from others about the manner of Conveyance which with submission to better Judgements seem to me to be no other than the begging of the Question affording very little satisfaction to any man that shall well study the Point But to return to Mr. S. He supposes that the Seas are perforated at the bottom or to have holes through which the Water runs into Subterraneal Channels or as Kircherus calls them Rivers which he fancies to be far larger than those we have above the Barth But how knows he this to be so since no man ever saw them De non apparentibus non existentibus eadem est ratio is a good Rule in Reason I cannot believe there are such holes because they do not appear to the eye of Reason In our Lincolnshire and Norfolk Washes where at every Low Water or Ebbe of the Sea the Water goes out and leaves the Land bare for many miles together no such holes were ever seen nor on the Coast of Holland where the Seas are very shallow at Low Water for some leagues together is there the least Symbole of these holes which probably should be if any such thing were in Nature and so ordinary as is implied in this Hypothesis I speak not here of those Extraordinary Subterraneal Gulphs which some Authors tell of and our Seamen confirm to us as that on the Coast of Norway called the Malstrondt and another at the bottom of the Baltick Sea where the Water runs with a mighty stream into the Earth by which some ships they say have been swallowed up nor yet of the Subterraneal Passages that are supposed to be betwixt some Seas in Asia which I mentioned in my Book of the Spaw Again If the Seas were so perforated and that the Water should pass so plentifully through the Holes as it must necessarily do to give being to so many Springs there would be found Suctions in the Sea whereby Ships especially small Vessels would be in constant hazard which we hear not oâ— Moreover it seems to be repugnant to Reason and our Observations at Land for the motion of the Sea in the Constant Circulation of the Tides and also from Wind and Storms would be in danger to stop up the Holes by washing Earth into them and so choak up the Channels and consequently the Springs As we see in the Roads where sometimes we meet with dangerous Holes in the Latches if there happen a Spowt of Rain so that the Water run in a stream but a day or two over those Latches the holes are closed up and they become passâ—ble and firm Another Branch of Mr. S. his Supposition is this That there are Subterraneal Channels or Rivers as Kircherus has it whereby the Salt Water is conveyed to the Hydrophylacia or Cisterns c. This I cannot in his Sense grant because they appear not For never did any that dig in Mines either near the Sea as at Newcastle and Sunderland in the Coal-Pits or farther off at Land as in the Lead Iron or Tin-Mines make any reports of Streams of Salt Water that they meet withal which they should probably do if this Hypothesis were true They tell us indeed of swift Currents of Fresh Water that sometimes they meet with but not a word of Salt Again Those Subterraneal Channels must be supposed to be sometimes 2 or 300 miles long even in a right line nay perhaps so many thousand in great Continents where the middle parts of the Land are at that distance from the Sea and have their durable Springs and how many hundred or thousand miles long must we suppose them to be if these Channels have such crooked turnings and windings as the small Rivolets have that we observe at land I confess this surpasses my understanding how it can be Moreover This supposes multitudes of his Hydrophylacia or Cisterns of Salt Water in every Countrey and those of an immense Magnitude which as yet never any man found and is in my weak Judgement repugnant to Reason for the Earth and Sea compressing on all sides of this Terrestrial Globe should make it a Solid Body and such as cannot admit of such large Chasmata or Vacuities Furthermore Mr. S. supposes This Water is forced up through those long Channels and from the Hydrophylacia to the Springs by the weight of the Air Clouds Winds Storms and Tydes depressing upon the Surface of the Sea That the Air has a weight and may depress a little upon the Sea I shall not question the Torricellian Experiment evinces the Air to depress by its gravity yet how the Winds Storms and Tides should further that Depression I see not but that their motion being oblique should rather hinder it forasmuch as it interrupts the motion of gravity which is evermore in a right line towards the Center But how it is possible that this depression of all these upon the Sea should hold so strong which yet we discern is very inconsiderable as to force the Water through those Subterraneal Channels so many scores hundreds or thousands of miles long and that by such Crooked Meanders as we have reason to suspect I cannot conceive Indeed Mr. S. P. 318 tells of a Pneumatick Engine like the Wine-Coopers Bellows which will by the pressure of the Air force up Wine or Water into other Vessels that are at distance and on higher grounds and he suposes that after the same manner the pressure of these upon the Sea forces the Water through the Channels to the Springs on Hills or Heaths at distance He has also 2 or 3 more Schemes whereby he endeavours to make out the facility of the conveyance but both the other and these are all fetched out of Kircherus in his Mundus Subterraneus where P. 230 and 231 the Reader may see them all To these I shall say they are only such in Mente Machinantis but here is no proof to make them out to be so in Mundi Machina But lastly If the Springs should be supposed notwithstanding all these difficulties and absurdities to proceed from the Sea-Water there would certainly appear some difference perceptible to the senses betwixt that sort of Spring-Water that comes from this cause and those that assuredly himself confessing proceed from Rain when yet we discern there is none at all And how comes it to pass that those Springs especially such as are near the Sea have not after so many thousand years as the World has continued somewhat of saltness in them and that the Channels are not tainted after so long time Indeed Mr. S. tells us that the sea-Sea-Water lays down its saltness in the Channels of the Earth and so the Water runs fresh out of the Springs But did he not also say in P. 54. That the Salt of the Earth is conveyed through the Subterraneal Channels into the Sea and that thence it has its Saltness and its Minera from Fossile Salt Now how the same Channels should convey Salt to the Sea and also drain the Seas Water from its Salt and become Conveyances of contrary Streams I cannot reconcile to my Reason To conclude all I find that this new and positive Thesis of Mr. Simpson is but a borrowed Hypothesis and so far as he has here endeavored to make it out to have no bottom and therefore I must adhere to my Opinion of Rain and Snow Water to be the Original of Springs which still farther I can defend with more Arguments of Demonstration but those I shall wave till I have further occasion I confess this is an abstruse point in Philosophy and difficult to determine upon But difficulty in finding should not discourage us from seeking but rather whet us on to more diligence in searching so as whatever our Opinions are in things of this Nature provided we assent or dissent according to reason and with readiness to submit when our reason shall be convinced we are out of all danger of Heresie though perhaps we may be subject to error I had here thought to have entertained the Kind Reader with some Animadversions upon another small Book of Mr. Simpsons called Zenexton Antipestilentiale where there are many things worth observing and that may merita Comment but this having far exceeded what at first I intended I shall respit it till a further provocation being also desirous to continue on the defensive hand and so at present I bid Farewel From my House at York May the 28th 1669. FINIS
with me in judging by this Token De Natur. Baln Tract 3. c. 9. Thermae nonnullae sunt quae acetositatem dulcedinem babent Hae si ex nativa constitutione tales sunt ex vitriolo oriuntur Id enim si ex prima sua materia resolvitur acetosas aquas profert To wit There are some sort of Baths or Waters that have an Acidity and Sweetness in them I suppose he means a pleasant Acidity these if from their Natural Constitution they are so do arise from Vitriol for if it happen to be resolved from its first mater in Waters it makes them to become Acide Vnde Vitrioli virtutes illis assignandae sunt and therefore says he the properties of Vitriol are to be ascribed to the Waters P. 189. So Fallopius counts the Acidity to be a sufficient token of the imbibition of Vitriol De Therm Aq. cap. 7. p. 217. who treating of the Spaw in Germany and that at Rome concerning which I have met with several Gentlemen speaking That they are not so Acid as this at Scarbrough He says Arbitror eas esse acidas quia habeant in se Chalcanthum purissimum therefore I think them Acid because they have pure Vitriol in them Another token of Vitriol is that Aporrhaea Mineralis or Vitrioline Vapor which any one of an indifferent smell may observe which is somewhat like that of Ink though more pure A third Argument is that deep Tincture that the Water takes from Gall more than any other I have seen or read of which cannot come from the Alome notwithstanding Mr. Simpson's perswasion as I shall evince in its due place nor any other of the Minerals And lastly There is in this Cliffe within Six score Paces of the Spring a Vitrioline Salt which sweats out of the Cliffe of Dark Yellow Colour very sharp to the Taste even far beyond Nitre or Alome which affords good ground of probability that it is in the Spring Iron in Scarbr Spaw Touching Iron it is me think plain that here it is in its Body which is precipitated to the bottom of the Vessel after it has stood some hours tinctured with Gall there being in every Gallon near a Dram when the Water is evaporated which being calcined yields a scoria like Iron and of Reddish Colour as I shall have occasion to make out by and by Besides that there is a Body of the like Nature and Vertue that falls to the bottom of the Vessels wherein this Water is carried abroad into the Countrey the like to which falls to the bottom of the Vessel wherein the Water is set upon the Fire for Evaporation upon the first approach of the hear Again The Blackish Colour which is imparted to the Excrements of those that drink of these Waters denotes Iron it being peculiar to all the preparations of Iron which we have occasions to use And lastly The Cliffe out of which this Spring flows is plainly Iron which though at the first when it falls it be like ordinary Earth yet at length by the weather it becomes hard as Iron and heavy and is fusible in the Fire To all these I might adde the singular Vertues which are evident in the Water for Hypocondriack Diseases the Stone and advancing the Tone of the Stomach both in point of Appetite and Digestion do sufficiently make out the presence of them both Thus much may suffice to be said concerning the Exceptions made by Mr. S. against the first way I mentioned whereby a Water might imbibe the Vapors of Minerals The second is when some of their Juice is dissolved in the Water and that is while the Minerals are young or in solutis principiis This he passes over Is it not kindness I can please him in any thing Of the Corrosion of the Substance of Metals But he quarrels at my third way and that is by corrosion of the substances of the Minerals mentioned by Galen lib. 1. de Simpl. Med. fac cap ult and this I said is done by the help of the Concrete Juices which extract and corrode Mineral substances Here we find a Galenical way says W. S. of Selution it is out of their road to discourse of these Mineral Solutions for want of Chymical Experiments which they are not at leasure to take notice of Ay! this is the Choak-Pear the very Name of Galen is a Bugbear to W. S. I find him ever running into a rage where I had occasion to name him This is that which frets him that the Galenists meddle with these Notions and I confess I am not at very great leasure now to trouble myself with them save that I am willing to step out of my Road to curb the Cracks of a Thraso Nor is there any Contradiction in what I say in this Assertion viz. That the Concrete Juices corrode and extract Mineral and Metallick Substances For the Concrete Juice of Vitriol which is of a Corrosive property being imbibed in a Spring Water will corrode other Minerals or Metals so says Helmont himself in the place before cited that it passes through as Iron and Alome whose Bodies are firmer especially before Consolidation which is the case of Iron here as now I made out and also of the Alome for the Solvent and Agent is Vitriol the Soluble and Patient is Iron And in this Water upon Evaporation or otherwise as I have newly made out we have the very Substance of Minerals and Metals And to this agrees Fallopius who was Chymist enough de Mâ—tal P. 216. who treating de Balneo Aponitano and that which is at Coâ—sena says In istis Aquis dispersa sunt ramenta minimae particulae lapidis In those Waters are dispersed some Shreds and small Particles of Stone and afterwards in the same Chapter he gives an account how it comes to pass that they imbibe Metals viz. Quia non sunt adeo dura solida ut in hac terrae superficie viz. because they are not so hard and solid within the Earth as they are upon the Superficies And thus also say Galen Vitruvius and Livius In P. 13. he repeats what he said before of his Esurine Salt or Ens Primum P. 3. and how that it cannot imbibe any more Minerals than one which I have there with good reason exploded and sufficiently confuted And these will appear much more frivolous when I shall by and by discover him confessing that This very Water at Scarbrough has imbibed four Minerals or Metals viz. Vitriol Iron Alome and Nitre But he frets at the Example I mention concerning Aquafortis which corrodes the substance of a Metal put into it and converts it to its own nature whereby it is become all liquid the solid Metal being become fluid as its Menstruum This Example does sufficiently illustrate what I am designing it for notwithstanding the Metal upon the Evaporation of the Menstruum may be found in the bottom A thing I no more doubted of then I do the residence of the
Minerals of this Spaw upon the Evaporation of the Water In P. 15. he proceeds to examine the fourth way Minerals joyned to Water by Confusion whereby I say a Water may imbibe the Nature and Vertue of a Mineral or Metal and that is by Confusion changing the Substance of the Mineral into Water and this I say in my Book is when the Mineral is of so liquable a Nature as that 't is capable of being converted into Water ☞ Here W. S. is extreamly severe and abusive calling it a Rustical Notion with a parcel of base language against me unbecoming a Scholar or a Sober Man Indeed in my Second Impression I had thought to have left out this because of its near coincidence with the former but I was out-run by the Printer having been abroad some dayes Nevertheless I can defend it to be agreeable to reason and the expressions of the Learned It 's plain that a Mineral that is dissoluble in Water as Vitriol Nitre Salt may be so sully taken into the Water as that the Water and Mineral are confusedly joyned together every drop of the Water having something of the Mineral Particles and every Particle of them mixed with the Water And thus any sort of Mineral Earth dissolved in Water may be said to be confusedly joyned to it so as one cannot see to the bottom though with standing a while or filtration or evaporation they may be separated And thus a little Gall put into this Spaw Water makes it become confused while yet the Minerals are in it Proved by Authority of Learned Writers Let me now produce the Authority of Learned Writers Fallopius treating of this Subject of Water taking in Metals and Minerals mentions several wayes and one is by Confusion De Therm Aq. cap. 7. p. 212. His words are these ☞ Alter vero est quod quaedam Aquae sunt quae habent quidem Metalla suscepta pariter in Terrae concavitatibus inter fluendum tamen Metalla illa non sunt cum Aquis istis bene commixta sed sunt potius cum Aquis CONFUSA To wit Another way is that there are some Waters which have in them Metals which they have taken in as they pass in the Cavities of the Earth yet those Metals are not well mixed with those Waters but are rather CONFVSED with the Waters then he goes on Aquas autem quae hoc modo non vere mixta sed CONFUSA habent in se Metalla plures habemus inter alias est Aponitana c. And we have many Waters which after this manner have not the Minerals properly mixed but CONFVSED in them of which sort is that which he calls Aqua Aponitana which he says is of great use and esteem and has been so of old and in the same Page Secundus igitur mixtionis modus est quando Metalla non vere commiscentur sed CONFUNDUNTUR cum Aquae substantia To wit The second way says he whereby a Water takes in a Metal is when the Metals are not properly and truly mixed but CONFOVNDED with the Substance of the Water And this way he interprets to be when the Substance of the Metal falls to the bottom of the Vessel wherein the Water is of it self and without any Art Thus the Aqua Aponitana has imbibed Lime Stone and that of Corsena he says has shreds of Marble Yea and the profound Kircherus himself in his Mundus Subter P. 347. speaks to the same purpose and almost in the same words making this one way whereby a Water Spring may take in a Mineral or Metal Nonnullae Aquae medicatae sant quae non perfecta sed CONFUSA mixtura constituuntur id est quae sensibilibus variorum Mineratium corpusculis scatent nullo negorio ab eis separaeri possunt And a little after Sunt quâ—dam Aquae quae partim vera rerum quas continent mixtura partim confusa constant And again Hoc pacto mâ—ltae sunt thermae quae calcarium lapidem a se separant utpoâ—e CONFUSANEA quadam ratione lis iâ—diâ—um And after the very same manner has this Water of Scarbrough imbibed Iron which either by a little Gall or Carriage at distance will fall to the bottom while yet the rest will require Evaporation to separate them from the Water except the Vitrioline Spirits which are so volatile that they soon fly away After the same manner does Dr. Jordan a Learned Chymist discourse in his Natural Baths I can also confirm the use of this term out of Galen if my Antagonist can have patience to hear his Name Lib. 1. de Elem. ad finem where treating of the Four Elements meeting in every Mixt Body Ea tota per se CONFUNDI suis corum substantiis misceri docet He says They are all CONFOVNDED and mixed with one anothers substances which he illustrates by the similitude of the mixture of Wine and Water both whose parts are so confusedly broken into Minute Particles as that there is a mutual action and passion and participation of the qualities of each other By this time I doubt not the Reader sees the weakness of the Young Man in this particular wherein he lays so much stress and how unfit he is to be Judge in matters of this Nature who is so great a stranger to the expressions of Learned Writers and sound reason A severe Censure And because speaking of the solution of Nitre and Salt in Water I said they are of so liquable a Nature as that they are capable of being converted into Water as if they were nothing but Water he would inferr P. 16. That therefore I will have them to be perfectly turned into Water it self Can any man think that I am so void of sense as to intend any such thing however 't is enough for him to fall upon me with base and bitter invectives The Reader may judge my purpose was to speak in all things to Vulgar Capacities and therefore I was necessarily to be plain and to refer them in this thing which is not so material rather to the external senses and outward appearance than to the intrinsick nature of the thing it self I endeavor that I may not return any railing accusation yet cannot but admire at the malitious spirit of the man ☞ I find himself using the very same expression concerning Iron and other Metals which by force of fire become liquid and fluid in the Crucible like Water P. 22. Does not he think that no man that is short of a mad man would believe that he intends the Metals are turned into Water And so when there he says again The Metals flow together with it by the actuation of their Mercurial part as if it were nothing but Mercury does it follow that he intends it is perfectly turned into Mercury Why should Sir S. cavil at my expression and infer that from it which the most ordinary capacity cannot but take in a right sense when he himself
when we meet with stubborn Diseases in robust bodies and are approved of by the Galenists and therefore the Galenists do approve of them and when they see cause use them to wit such as they know to be safe and prepared by a good Artist Nor did ever the Art of Physick want strong and efficacious Medicines such were those I mentioned before which were in ordinary use among the Ancients viz. Colocynthis Peplium Hellebore Elaterium c. That which we glory in and our Patients find benefit by is that in this Age we have more benigne Medicines which operate without ill Symptomes and now it appears Mr. S. condemns these and flies again to such as are more violent than those of the Ancients which we have in a good measure laid aside Well I suspect at length his Patients will experience by the Operation of his Medicines a difference betwixt his and others when they shall have given him leave to make his Experiments upon them and so become competent Judges in this point betwixt him and me and therefore to their decision I will for this tâ—me refer it But here is one thing more I may not pass over that Mr. S. le ts flie sharply against some bragging Chymists that expose their Medicines to sale and thereby are a reproach to the Art If I understand him aright he means such as do post up their Medicines upon the Gates or Corner Posts of the City to call in Customers as the Quacks and Mountebanks use to do Could he ever think that this Book of his would not be read at York where all men know that he himself exposed his Amulet ☜ for the Plague to sale posting up his Bills on every Corner of the Streets and may we not have as good reason to expect the same for the vending of his Ternary Thus I have closely traced Mr. Simpson through the greatest part of his Book and have throughly sifted all his Arguments against my declared Principles of Soarbrough Spaw wherein I have discovered him plainly canting and recanting which I have further established by evident demonstration I have asserted the Terms which I used in my Book concerning a Springs imbibing of Minerals to be those of Art used by the very best Chymical Authors and agreeable to sound Reason I have answered all his Objections against the Rational Practice of Physick which he calls Galenical and confirmed my assertions from the Practice of the most Learned Chymical Writers I have manifested the Congruity that is betwixt the most learned on both sides and made out the Minerals and Metals together with the Animals and Vegetables to belong in common to the Art and to be the matter of Physick wherein both the Galenical and Chymical Physician are equally concerned and do heartily desire that every man in the Faculty would endeavour what in him lies that since they do convenire in eodem tertio they may also convenire inter se and that we may all joyn hand in hand as there shall be occasion for the Peace and Honour of the Faculty and the health of our Friends that employ us Of his Constitutive Principles of all Concretes There are some other Digressions in his Book concerning the Constitutive Principles of all Concretes wherein he carps at the two Principles of Helmont at the three of the Ancient Chymists at the four of the Peripateticks and at the five of Dr. Willis resolving all into one to wit Water But since it may justly be said of that Discourse as once of the young Prophets Axe Master it was borrowed I therefore matter not much whether it sink or swim since the Subject is not of such common concern nor yet relates to me I refer the Reader to Helmont out of whom he fetches what he says on that Subject When I consider what abundance of Experiments borrowed from variety of Authors are patched up together to make up this Book of his as also what a company of impertinent Subjects that relate not at all one to another nor to the general scope of the Book our Author has drawn in by the head and shoulders to make up this Composition it makes me call to mind what I read in Nonius Marcellus concerning an Elogium that old Lucilius that famous Roman Wit gave to such an Author upon the like occasion viz. Sarcinator est summus suit Centonem optume Concerning The Original of Springs I Am now come to this Appendix concerning the Original of Springs where he designs to confute what I have said in my Book of Scarbrough-Spaw concerning that Subject wherein I have examined the variety of Opinions among both Ancient and Modern Philosophers some ascribing it to the Sea the Water whereof they will have conveyed by subterraneal Channels to all the Springs at Land and to that purpose they fancy the Sea to be higher than the Land and consequently the Water to run per-declive in a Natural Motion to any even the highest Springs at Land This I have examined and according to my Model have proved to be but a fancy by several Arguments from Page 55 to Page 76 of my Book of Scarbrough-Spaw Edition 2. too long here to be recited But others that are for the Sea to be the Original of Springs being with me unsatisfied with the former fancy of the Seas altitude above the Land have their various opinions concerning the conveyance of the Water from the Sea to the Springs as there I instance out of their Authors the disagreement of whom among themselves may well save me the labour of refutation Others there are that will have the Water conveyed from the Sea into some large Caverns that are in the Earth and there by heat from Subterraneal Fires kindled by Naphtha and Bitumen will have Water resolved into Vapors which ascending towards the Superficies of the Earth are by a more remisse degree of heat condensed again into Water and so make the Springs which was the Opinion of Empedocles as also Seneca to which Eallâ—piuâ— Mr. Carpenter Mr. Lydiat and Dr. French adhere This I have weighed according to my Cubit and find it of no weight from Page 77. to P. 89. A second Opinion concerning the Original of Springs is that of Seneca lib. 3. Nat. Quest cap. 7. zid by a transmutation of Earth into Water in the Caverns of the Earth which since I discern it has not many Fautors I waved as not needing Confutation and so came to that of Aristotle vid. that the Springs are generated from the transmutation of Air into Water in the Subterraneal Caverns This also I considered of and found invalid from P. 89. to 93. being attended with inextricable difficulties and absurdities I then proceeded to consider of Rain and Snow being the Cause of the Springs of which Opinion I found Albertus Magrus and Georgius Agricola to have been the most eminent Patrons and to them I did with modesty joyn in my judgement I have lately heard that Lessius
his Pilgrimage Page 439. and Mr. Sandys in his Travails Edit 3. P. 222. who relate the same Story And I pray what other means of knowledge have we of matters of fact done before our Times but to take them upon trust of those that commit them down to us And so I find did Doctor Heylin and the rest for they have the substance of it I guess from Mattheaus Quadus his Fasciculus Geographiae and he seems to setch it from Boterus whom as yet I cannot meet withal Quadus his words are Boterus istuc addit Constantini Imperatoris tempore continuis septemdecim annis nullae hic fuere pluviae unde deserta mansit Insula donee D. Helenae beneficio in Olympo Monte Templum aedificaretur c. exinde pluviae redierant ac habitari denuo caepit To wit Boterus adds this that about the time of Constantine the Great for 17 years together here was no Rain at all so as the Island was forsaken by the Inhabitants till the time that Helena the Empress built a Church in Mount Olympus c. about which time the Rain returned and it began again to be inhabited Mr. Sandys and Doctor Heylin do agree in their mention of the number of 36 years but out of whom they had it I discern not for they cite not their Author But it s all one to my purpose the failure of the Rain made the Island unhabitable for want of Water in their Rivers and Springs and consequently the Rain was the Proximal Cause of them I have other Arguments wherewith I did confirm this Opinion in my Book As concerning one of the Fortunate Islands or Canaries called Ombrion now Fierre which I mention P. 98. of my Book where it never rains but the Inhabitants are supplied with Water by an admirable Providence of God from a certain Tree that grows there plentifully which distills from its leaves every Night an abundance of Water enough to supply the Inhabitants and their Cattle with Water Ovetanus and Martyr do both say there are no Springs in the Island nor Rivers But to this Mr. S. gives no return So when P. 118. I deduce an Argument from the full and perfect Agreement that is in all Qualities perceptible to the Senses betwixt Rain and Spring-Water so as its hard to distinguish the one from the other Mr. S. takes no notice of it And when I mention there another from the exact Identity of the Water of those he calls Quick-Springs and of that which flows out of the other which he calls Land-Springs and grants that they proceed wholly from Rain and Snow which if they proceeded from several Causes must probably differ in some respect He leaps over it will you ☜ know the reason even because he could not answer it And yet so dis-ingenuous is he P. 301. as to say That he had run through all that I had offered in order to the confirming of this opinion of Rain and Snow to be the Original of Springs and probably if not demonstratively overturned the Opinion together with my grounds arguments and reasons It 's apparent to many that have read his Book that he had a wrathful design against me which all along he has prosecuted with as much rancour as possibly he could aiming at victory rather than verity and particularly in this Dispute about the Springs while he has not the least ground of pretence that he has answered my Arguments wherein the force of the Opinion laid Certainly no man that ever pretended to Learning or Reputation writ at this rate But while I was answering an Objection of Seneca's which he made against this Original I made a Concession that there may be some transmutation of Air into Water in the Earth or above from whence it comes that Churches become wet before Rain falls I find Mr. S. extreamly severe against me I wonder says he P. 299. the Doctors Philosophy in his Second Edition should not come out more maturate than to adhere to this old and long since exploded transmutability of Elementss In so much that he seems willing to hang the point in controversie upon that hinge So sure says he as the Aire is transmuted into Water which moistens the Stone Walls of Buildings so sure is the Air in the Bowels of the Earth transmuted into Water yea and so sure is the Original of Fountains from Rain and Snow Water Well! Let the cause go upon that I desire no more and then I am assured the learnedest men of the World will be of my Opinion about the Original of Springs Is not that Air which we breath in and that Water which we drink under that Notion Now its plain that some of that Air that we breath in within a Church will in a few hours be turned into Water upon the Walls and Floors before Rain which being collected together may be drunk into the Stomach and quench thirst I know where it pinches Mr. S. I do not take this Air and Water to be pure Elements for so we could not live in them it s enough that they are such as all the World câ—ll Air and Water and these we see may be turned one into another the grosser parts of Air into Water and the purer parts of Water into Air. I mentioned just now a Story out of Ovetanus concerning Ombrion where there is a Tree from whâ—se leaves every night doth distill an abundance of Water to the supply of the Inhabitants for all uses the like Story is â—old by Pliny lib. 6. cap. 32 and Mr. Hawkins in his second Voyâ—ge recorded by Mr. Hackluyt tells the like of some frees in Guiny Now I would gladly know of Mr. S. from whence that Water comes if the â—ir be not turned into Water unless he will h ve it to be a Miracle and so a new Creation Again I would ask Mr. S. whether he thinks Fromundus or Cardanus understood a Point of Philosophy or no as well as he in whom I find an admirable Story in Meteor lib. 5. cap. 2. art 3. which he has from Cardanus devar rerum lib. 8. cap. 44. Anno 1481. Quaedam Aegra in Italia In English thus A certain Maid of 18 years of age in Italy did every day void 36 Pints or Pounds of Vrine while yet both in Meat and Drink she did not take in above 7 so as her Vrine exceeded them both every day 29 Pounds and thus she continued for the space of 60 dayes during which time were collected 1740 Pounds of Vrine more than the weight of all her Meat and Drink that she had taken when yet the while body of the Maid did scarce weigh 150 Pounds ☞ It was demanded saâ—y my Authors byMarlianus how it came to pass It was answered That the Air which was contained in the Arteries was converted into a Watery Substance and that being cast out what more came in its place was presently turned again into Water and so was multiplied into that large proportion
said so or at his inadvertency in not observing that which in his own Opinion has so much of truth in it and is so materiâ—l to the point in controversie But this proceeds I suppose from his Combination with others in this Work while one takes one piece in hand and a second another and in the mean time he that undertook to make his inferences did not well discern the state of the Question The next difficulty which Pag. 297. he says is most considerable is How the Rain Water sinking into the Earth should supply the Springs that are in Hills or high Heaths To this I reply That as 't is very râ—re to fiâ—d Springs upon the tops of Hills so where ever they are they are very penurious Springs affording but little Water and break out ordinarily upon the dependant sides of the Hills which they may very well receive from the Rain and Snow that falls above them upon the tops of the Hills which may settle to that dependant part these not suffering such expence of Water from Men or Beasts and being supplied by every Shower and not so much scorched by the heat of the Sun as lower grounds are may very well be supposed to be so caused and perpetuated Besides that Hills are usually even in the dryest seasons kept moist by Clouds and Mists that do encompass them as upon my own Observation I can speak of some Hills that have Springs in them And if it be thus with those Springs that break out upon the Hills much more plain is it in them that break out upon Heaths where the ground being level they receive the Rain and Snow more plentifully and afford Springs accordingly Besides we see that Water is of it self apt to motion for being poured out it doth immediately spread it self which it is well fitted to do by reason of its fluidity and much more it is prone to motion in the Bowels of the Earth where it loses much of its gravity being out of its proper place assigned to it by the Creator viz. the Convex part of the Earth to which it has a natural inclination and tendency not resting till it meets with its natural Correspondent the Air under which it must needs lie by reason of its greater gravity as above the Earth by reason of its levity Hence it is as I conceive that it ceases not to move towards the Superficies of the Earth so long as the Channels have a supply of Water nor is there any difference of site to it as to up or down while it is in its Channels like the Blood in the Veins of our Bodies but it breaks out where ever it finds vent and so makes Springs and that so forcibly too as that it brings out with it the Sabulum or Sand which is a far heavier body than it self from whence we see that the bottoms of Rivers are covered with it And this agrees with what Helmont says P. 47. in contemplation whereof he seems to be rapt up into an admiration and breaks forth into a high Doxology Aqua inquit intra vividum terrae fundum sorbetur trahitur unde communem nacta vitam Regem cui omnia vivunt venite adoremus lecorum situs nescit cacumina montium sine molestia facile adscendit una cum Quellem ut indesinentes inde fontes evertat viz. Water is suckt and drawn into the Vivid Bowels of the Earth whence it being made partaker of common life Come says he let us praise God to whom all things do live it knows no site of place but naturally and easily ascends even to the tops of mountains together with the Sand which he calls Quellem and so makes ever-running Springs Thus I have solved these 2 great difficulties in order to the establishing my assertion concerning Rain Snow Water being the Original of â—prings But will not the Reader wonder if I point out my Adversary himself granting me the facility of Waters rising up â—rom the Subterraneal Channels to the highest Hills or Heaths Turn then to Page 305. where we find these words We see that Blood while circulating in its proper Vessels ☜ knows no such difference as either going up and down c. In like manner Water whilest circulating from Seas c. knows neither up nor down and can as easily while in those Channels climbe up to the tops of Hills and Mountains and there make Springs as break forth in Valleys and in the Level of Plains yea it can as well mount tops of Hills and high Heaths as the Blood in the Arteries can ascend into the Head and all this saith he by the Natural Circulation of Water set on work by the Original Fiat So that upon the whole matter we see Mr. S. is not invincible in his Objections nor yet so fully resolved in this point but that he can change his mind upon a sleight cause and even as his interest carries him assert Contradictions I shall now proceed to examine what he has to say concerning the Establishing of another Original of Springs wherein as in all things else that he has treated of I find him very Positive for so in P. 303. he calls it a new and positive Thesis and that is from a Circulation of Water in the Terraqueous Globe by the mediation of Subterraneal Channels along the Sabulum Bulliens from the Sea to the Heads of Springs and from them into Rivulets and thence into Rivers and so back again into the Ocean thereby making the Sea to be the Original of Springs Thus far it is no new Thesis but as old as Thales and Plato and is followed by Valesius Mr. Lydiat Mr. Carpenter Dr. Jordan and Dr. French What Reasons they have propounded in their Writings to perswade them to this Opinion I have examined in my Book of the Spaw from P. 55. to 89. but could not receive satisfaction from them on the grounds I there laid down besides the great disagreement among themselves in seeking out a passage to the Springs And for the making out of this Positive Thesis Mr. S. makes an Hypothesis in Pag. 317. which certainly is not a sufficient foundation in the Judgement of wise and rational men viz. He supposes That the Seas are perforated at the bottom in many places with Subterraneal Channels and secret Vortices through which the Water of the Sea finds passage into certain Hydrophylacia or common Cisterns of Water where it comes to a Level with the Surface of the Sea and from the pressure of the Atmosphere of the Air and also of the Winds Clouds and Storms and the oblique Motion of the Tides upon the Surface of the Sea the Water is forced up from those Cisterns even to the highest Hills or Plains and so makes Springs Here is much said but nothing proved Indeed a Grand Supposition for so he calls it which he ought necessarily to have proved before he had given his Definitive Sentence against my Thesis lest he be to
to that of Iron Copper and Vitrielum album Why then does he enquire which of the two I meant since possibly I might mean the third or some other Really here is an ill beginning Tiâ—uâ—are in Vestibule malum omen To stumble at the Threshold is a sign of ill luck Did not Mr. S. say P. 1. he had seen my Book I wonder then how he could over-look what I say P. 10. since here is the Cardâ— Controversiae the state of his quarrel turns upon this hinge My words are these I take it to be the Iron Mineral with a Touch of the Vitriol Or if you please Ferrum Vitriolatum or Vitriolum Ferrugineum Here I desire the Reader to take notice that he does frequently leave out my words or matter wherein the main scope of my business consists on purpose to make himself Elbow-room to abuse me Although I intend not hereby as if I meant this Vitriol in the Spaw to be made out of Iron for what have we to do with factitious Vitriol But this is a natural Vitriol generated in the Veins of the Earth through which the Spring runs which has by its â—â—idity or Esurine Salt actuated the Waters which thereby is enabled to corrode a Vein of Iron which is there also and likewise some other Minerals of which more anon Now this Water thus impregnated with a Vitrioline Odour or Vapour since it has no Emetick or Vomiting Quality joyned with it I account it to be of the Nature of that which is made out of Iron not of Copper and therefore I called it Vitriolum Ferrugineum But I do affirm that common Spring-Water it self is a Menstruum proper enough to take in any of the Minerals we are treating of and will not fail to do it if they lie in its way although if it meet with any Acid Salt as this is of Vitriol it will do it the more freely And this a grees with that which Paracelsus himself has said provided the Minerals or Metals be not come to Maturity Lib. 3. de Natur. Aquis cap. de Aq. Gustabilibus Yea and Mr. S. himself confesses it P. 59. Number 10 11 and 12. Dr. Jordane asserts the same concerning Simple Waters that by reason of their tenuity they may imbibe either Spirit or Juice or Tinctures from Metals before their Consolidation Nat. Baths cap. 14 Yea and Kircherus who in his Mundus Subterraneus treats at large of this Subject accounts Simple Spring Water a Menstruum fit enough to imbibe a Mineral or Metal for he mentions not any Primum Ens or other Mineral Acidity I say by its Esurine Salt it more freely corrodes the Iron and carries it in gremio out with it which is the more easily done because the Iron is not here a perfect Solid Metal but in solutis principiis and in some tendency to it being yet of the same nature with Iron And this Vitriol is not so properly said to be made by an Esurine Salt as to have an Esurine Salt or Spirit in it self And this does agree with the general Suffrage of all Learned Writers as well Chymists as others as Libavius in his Syntag. Geber Caesalpinus Dr. Jordan and not only Vitriol but Nitre also they say dissolved in Water will enable it to corrode Metals and to this also consents Fallopius cap. 7. de Thermal Aq. This being premised that Supposition of Vitriol of Copper to be dissolved in the Water is not to be supposed and what follows thereon is altogether impertinent However B. 3. he says This being granted in FAVOUR of his Mineral Ingredients or Principles c. Iron will be found impertinent and insignificant as to the body of it Sir Keep your Favours for others Timeo Danaos etiam dona ferentes I look for none of your Favours nor need them I suspect your very mercies are cruel what I would have in this Dispute I shall by and by force you to grant me and have no cause to return you any thanks But whereas he says Iron is not here in its body What would Sir S. have A Horseshooe Naile It is not here indeed to be found nor will 100 Gallons of the Water afford so much Iron as to make one But here is a palpable Powder which when a little Gall is put into the Water by which it turns black which Colour it takes from the Vitriol there will settle after some hours upon the agitation of the Vessel a black Powder near a Dram in a Gallon which by powring the Water gently from it per inclinationem will be found in the bottom which if you dry in the Sun or over the Fire has a Stiptick or drying taste like Crocus Martis and being taken inwardly in any form whatsoever doth tinge the Excrements with a blackish Colour as all our preparations out of Iron do Besides if this Water be carried abroad to York or Hull which is 30 mile off there will be found in the Vessel a yellowish Sediment according to the quantity of Water which being dried has the same taste with Crocus Martis or prepared Steel and surpassing it in vertue and efficacy and this separation or precipitation of this Metalline Substance is furthered by Agitation in the Carriage especially if in Oaken Vessels although I have also observed the same in Glasse Bottles which were carried abroad But Mr. S. objects as he thinks strongly against these two Minerals Iron and Vitriol to be there imbibed because says he P. 3. The Esurine Salt which goes to the dissolving of Vitriol of what sort soever and he supposes Copper is thereby terminated in its action and though the Water of the Spring so impregnated should afterwards meet with a Vein of Iron yet it can take nothing thence being already satiated and having lost its sting Of Ens Primum To this I reply The Esurine Salt is that which P. 5. he calls Ens Primum out of Helmont which he says gives the Medicinal Vertue to Vitriol I do not at all like the use of that Name Ens Primum in this sense which the Old Philosophers that wanted better light gave to some thing of a higher Nature even to God himself from whom doubtless both Vitriol and all Minerals Metals and Vegetables have received whatever Medicinal Vertue they have in them for it is he that created Medicine out of the Earth Secondly This is Petitio Principii to suppose such a thing to impregnate this Water where we can without any Hypothesis at all directly point at the Water it self as a proper Menstruum as I have made out already and if that will not serve then here is the Esurine Spirit of Vitriol of sufficient Efficacy in the Judgement of Reason to do the work we expect and indeed find to be done and this agrees also with what Helmont himself says in his fourth Paradox where he says That which is volatile viz. a Spirit whether is be Concrete or Liquid may corrode other Mineral Bodies
Besides the Novelty of the Notion of his Primum Ens gives ground of suspition the whole Current of Learned Authors that have written of Medicinal Waters mentioning no such thing whether Chymists or others All accounting the Esurine Spirit or Juyce of Vitriol enough to impregnate a Water with an Acidity that shall make it to corrode other Minerals or Metals by which it passes So as we may very well lay aside this Esurine Salt or Primum Ens Salium as wholly precarious Entia non sunt multiplicanda nisi ex necessitate Again I answer it is both repugnant to Reason and Experience and the Judgment of all Learned Writers who have treated of these Matters What should hinder but Salts of several kinds will dissolve in Water impregnated with one single kind As suppose a Quart of Sea Water which has two Ounces of Salt in it as I have tried by Evaporation will not this receive Nitre suppose a Dram and after that as much Alâ—ome and after that Vitriol as much and so become an Emetick and last of all Arsenick so as it shall become poison If Mr. S. shall dissolve Vitriol in Water of any kind whatsoever whether Natural or Factitions which he cannot deny must be stronger of Vitriol than any Spaw and then shall pass that Vitrioline Water thorow three or four Cap Papers wherein several sorts of Powders are put the same Vitrioline Water shall receive an alteration or some taste from every of them and after they are so mixed per minima it will be easie to separate the Salts from the grosser parts but one Salt from another will be very difficult But further I reply If this be true infallibly A Contradiction as his confidence does seem to import for he says P. 4. If one of the Principles be made by this Esurine Acidity Nature is not at leasure to make another which were such an Indulgence as she never granted her self How does this agree with that Mr. S. himself says P. 45. in the beginning of the Second Section viz. Thus far I assented viz. That an Aluminous Salt from a Mineral Acidity had dissolved a sleight touch of the Mineral of Iron and both dissolved in the Current Spring of Water makes up the Spaw Are not here two Minerals made viz. Iron and Alome by his own Confession The like Confession he makes P. 61. N. 16. Nay further I le see if I cannot find two more Look P. 359. and there he says Vpon a farther Trial of the Spaw Water he found a Body of Vitriol which he calls Terra Vitrioli Then turn but over leaf to P. 360 and he tells you he found Nitre And so again P. 361. How now Mr. S. how will these things hang together can all your Philosophy reconcile this Contradiction What now will become of your Inference you deduce from the former Assertion in P. 4. viz. So then we find a flaw in the main Timber of his Building an Inconsistency of two of his Chief Principles of the Spaw Iron and Vitriol Certainly an Inference drawn from both ends of a Contradiction â—sinvalid But I must not thus pass it over He has told us here Pag. 3. That the Primum Ens or Esurine Salt having dissolved one Mineral is thereby terminated so as if it should meet with another it can take nothing thence Now let us cast our Eye upon P. 59. where Mr. S. hath quite forgotten what he said here for speaking of this Sulphurious Esurine Salt he says It becomes determined and specificated according to the difference of the Mineral Glebes it meets with into this or that Fossible Salt or Mineral Mixture which he illustrates by an Instance which he has verbatim from Sendivogius Lumen Chym. Trac 2. As suppose several Colours and Salts placed at a distance one from another upon a large Marble and common Simple Water is conveyed to each of them this Water although the same to all yet as it comes to every of them is differently tinged and tasted according to the Colour and Taste of those parcels it meets with So says he this Esurine Sulphureous Spirit meeting With variety of Mineral Earths though the same in it self to every one yet becomes altered and tinctured according to the different property of the Mineral Earth And from this Contradiction he has ☜ other Inferences which he mentions not worthy here to be recited Here is an able Philosopher indeed that can assert Contradictions and draw quidlibet ex quolibet But I shall leave this to the Readers Contemplation because I study to be short and shall only say at present I never found any man so inconsistent with himself only he aimed P. 3. to perswade the unwary Readers that it was impossible that Iron and Vitriol could be both in this Water as I had asserted I could now bring in the Testimony of Learned Writers who tell of several sorts of Springs in Europe that have imbibed two or three sorts of Minerals As at St. Lucas in Italy there is one that has imbibed Iron and Alome Another in Germany which is impregnated with Alome and Nitre so as Ernestus a Chymist can hardly determine which of the two is more predominant So in Sweden one that has both Lead and Copper And thus also the ordinary Spaws in Germany have imbibed Vitriol Iron and Ochre as Dr. Heer 's relates in his Spadacrene And Fallopius mentions several such as have partaked of several Minerals in his Book De Therm Aquis Among all whom yet I find not any mention of this Primum Ens. But above all the profoundly Learned Kircher is most full and plain to our purpose Lib. 5. Sect. 2. ad finem accounting not only Spring Water a proper Menstruum to take in the Vertues of Minerals and Metals but one and the same Current to take in several as they lie in its passage for which purpose he has a Scheme P. 259. whereby ☜ by he demonstrates it to the Eye As suppose upon a Table a Subterraneal Channel of Fresh Water enters at one end and runs out at the other end of the Table in one Spring in its passage from one end to the other it is divided and divaricated into several smaller Channels by crooked turnings in one passage it meets with Salt Vitriol Iron Galx and Silver in another Meander it meets with Sulphur Salt Nitre Ochrâ— Gadmiâ— in another it meets with Alome Bitâ—â—â—an Lead c. By this time these several streams meet in the Spring at the other end this Spring he says shall be repâ—â—â—she with the preperties of them all In some oâ—â—nes canales dicti corrivati ex â—â—â—â—bus per quae transcunt Mineralibus fonteâ—â— istum omnibus Mineralium speciebus viribusque compositum constituunt And therefore we may with very good reason reject his Objection as idle and frivolous But I proceed Of Iron Mr. S. P. 3. cannot find out what is the dissolvent in this Water that should dissolve Mars viz. Iron
to make it appear in the form of a Liquor Why I 'l tell him what will do it besides the Alkabest of the Chymists Vitriol imbibed at the first does by its Esurine Salt make the Water corrosive and fit to take in that or any other Mineral that is in its way and so will Nitre as I made out before or Aloâ—e If it will please him I'â— refer him to his Grand Master Paracelsus De Nâ—tur Aqâ—is lib. 3. cap. de Aquis Gustatilibâ—â—s whâ—â—â—â—â—ting of Acide Waters Harâ—â—◠〈…〉 â—â—quit ex â—â—solutione 〈…〉 maturitatem 〈…〉 produced by the 〈…〉 before they come to 〈…〉 By which he hints as if simpl◠〈…〉 alone were â—â—â—â—ent to imbibe a Metal as Iroâ—â— while it has not attained to iâ—perfection which is the case of the Trâ—â—â— Scarboâ—â—gh â—s I shall have occasion to point out afterwards And presently after Pâ—â—â—câ—isus adds Interdum ex Vitriâ—â—â— Aluâ—â—nâ— hujus-modi Aquae promanant viz. Sometimes these Waters come from Vitâ—â—ol and Alome And again I find him to the same purpose De Natur. Baln cap. de Thermis treating of Natural Baths Quod sunt resoluta Minera ex corporâ— eo quod simile est Aluminis Vitrioto Sali tamenid non est to wit they are resolved out of that Body which is like unto Alome Vitriol and Salt and yet they are not that As if he would say they are not perfectly Alome Vitriol and Salt but onely initially not instatu perfectione but in Embrione in fieri not in fâ—â—to and this is the case of these Minerals in this Spaw-Water they are but iâ— sâ—lutis principliâ—e and in their Concrete Jâ—â—â—â— and not perfect Minerals or Metals And yet Paâ—acelsus adds that whatsoever Vertue those Baâ—hs had they were to be judged of according to the propdâ—â—es of those Simples Ita Bâ—â—gâ—â—â— ipâ—arâ—â— Virtuâ—â—s secâ—â—duâ—â— horâ—m triâ—â— simplicium â—â—â—â—tias And so may I say â—onâ—erning these Waters of the Spaâ—â— they have the Veâ—â—ned of all those Minerals we have mentioâ—â—d to be in them From what has been said I suppose it will follow that ouâ— Foundation as to these two Minerals Iron and Vâ—trâ—â—l stands sure and the Building 〈◊〉 liâ—â—ly to suffer by such Vapour that canâ—â—â—ther be hot or cold say and unsay as may best suit a present Design 〈◊〉 his second Section P. 4. he says The Doctor undertakes to discourse of Vitriol not such as he had seen but such as he saith Learned Writers name viz. 3 sorts Roman Vitriol or Copperas which two I do not understand to be Synonima's the second Cyprian and the third Ligurian c. He seems to envy that I discourse about Vitriel as if it were a Prerogative of the Pseudochymists and not to be undertaken by me as if I knew not Vitriol as well as himself and have not as much liberty to treat of it as He. Not will he give me leave to cite my Authors that from their own Knowledge and Autopsy discourse of Vitriol I speak of that which is natural such as this at Scarbrough for my own part I have not such a conceit of my self as he has as that I should impose in this thing my own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as sufficient Authority and therefore I cite my Authors as need is He quarrels that I call it Roman Vitriol or Copperas whereas I am warranted by good Authors Weckerus in his Antid spec lib. 1. says That which the Italians call Victriolo the Spaniaras call Copparofa So Adrianus Tol. in Stocker lib. 1. cap. 9. Vitriolum simpliciter inquit aut Vitriolum Romanum nihil aliud est quam Copparosa As for the Romas it s nothing but Natural Vitriol brought for the most part out of Cyprus or Germany which they dissolve and cast into forms to which they add some pleasant Colour usually of Blew which yet diminishes much of its efficacy Of the Vapors of Minerals In his third Section P. 6. He proceeds to examine the four wayes whereby I say Water may imbibe the Nature and Vertue of a Mineral or Metal And the first was by receiving its Vapour Thus Water standing some while in a Brass or Iron Vessel will taste of the Brasse or Iron Here he cavils at the word Vapour as improper which to me does imply that he is little versed in any solid Authors that treat of this Subject It 's needless to spend time to prove to him that the best Writers do rather chuse to express their sense of the imbibition of the Vapours of Minerals than Odors which he rather espouses Fallopius in Ther. Aqu. cap. 8. uses the term Vapour above 40 times in the sense I am speaking of even in one leaf side P. 214 So Kircher lib. 5. de Virt. Aqu. cap. 3. reckons this as one way whereby a Water imbibes Minerals and Metals and says Vitriol is thus imbibed in its Vapour Whence is this Oâ—â—r but from the Offluâ—ium of minute parts out of the odorable body to the Sensorium and what is that but a Vapour I observe P. 46. he allows an Aporrhaea â—â—â—eralis which word either he understands not or must not deny the word Vâ—â—â—ur But to go on he says P. 6. That no Metallick body doth or can give a Vapour to a simple Elementary Water as long as the Water is Homogeneal in its parts I answer This is quite from the point in hand we are not treating here of Simple Elementary Water but of ordinary Water which is neither so Simple nor Elementary ☞ But where is W. S. his Philosophy he calls it Simple and Elemantary and yet says as long as it 's Homogeneal as if Water could be Simple and Elementary and not Homogeneal Really the very Freshmen do not reason at this rate What A BATCHELOVR OF ARTS and reason thâ—â—â— I must let you know in charity to your Degree that you never saw Simple Elementary Water not ever shall while you breath and that it s not indeed capable of receiving a Vapor or Odor from any Mineral or Metal Galen will tell you 8. de placit Hypoc that it is Minima pars â—jus cujus est Elementum quae lynceis cujusvis oculis non est obvia and yet the same Galen will tell you that Elementum per tâ—tum alterabile est lib. de Constit Art Med. Reconcile these Riddâ—es if you can But if he means that no Metallick Body can give a Vapor or Odor or Sapor I matter not which to Spring Water it 's a shrewd Argument he has not much conversed with Ladies in his Practice of Physick whose accurate Tastes are wont frequently to dis-relish their Water if it has stood but a while in a Vessel of Brass or Iron especially if it be at all warm And for that which he says concerning Lâ—ad that if pure Spring Water were boiled a whole Age in it it will not contract any Saturnine Impression from it Fallopius is quite of another Opinion severely declaring against those Waters that have
imbibed Lead least the Nature of the Lead be converted in Litharge or some such thing and so kill a Man and therefore several good Authors particularly Paulus Zachias in Quest Med. Legal forbids to keep Water in Leaden Cisterns because its apt to contract an Impression which disposes the Body to Dysenteries especially such as are Consumptive whose Bodies are subject to Colliquation And whereas he says That Broths and other Liquors are boiled in Iron Copper or Brass Vessels without the least taste of any of the Metals I cannot but wonder to find this assertion it appears he is neither Vir emunctae naris nor exquisiti palati His frequent Contradictions do evince that he is weak in his Memory or Intellect and here I am afraid he has lost two of his Senses Paracelsus was of another mind lib. 3. de Natural Aquis cap. 13. Videmus Aquam in Cupreo vase stantem Cupri saporem asciscere We see says he if Water stand but a while in a Copper Vessel it will taste of Copper and much more certainly if it be boiled in it I am informed by some Persons of undoubted integrity on their own knowledge of some Carps which were taken out of Ponds newly drained these being put with Fresh Water into a Copper Brewing Vessel to be preserved but for one Night they were all found dead in the Morning which must certainly proceed from the Vapors of the Copper which here was communicated to the Cold Water He says further That all compact Metalline Bodies must have proper and peculiar Menstruums to unlock them if any Medicinal Arcanum be thence expected Why I can assure him upon trial that the filings of Steel suppose a Pound set to infuse in a Quart of clear Spring Water for a few dayes the Water upon Evaporation afforded a clear Salt of greenish colour which I suppose he cannot deny to have a Medicinal Vertue As for what he says concerning the boiling of Gold in broth for those that are in Consumptions to make it more cordial and nourishing I think with him 't is in vain since Gold and Silver are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by reason of the compactness of their Bodies they cannot he turned into our Nature so as to nourish And I judge it to be a far better Cordial in the Purse than in the Stomach Of the Vapor of Vitriol That Vitriol may dissolve in Water he says he denies not but that it should give a Vapor he understands not To make a Body resolve it self into Vapors or minute parts of like nature with the whole is required either an intrinsick or extrinsick heat and he apprehends not which way so ever it be done that yet the Carcase of Vitriol should remain P. 7. By this it appears he is a stranger to Scarb. Spaw or else as we have observed even now he has lost one of his Senses that he cannot smell the Vitrioline Vapors thereof there being nothing more ordinary than to hear those that come there at the very first to observe it to smell like Ink. Fallopius tells him that Vitrioline Waters may be discerned by their smell as well as by their taste De Therm Aq. cap. 9. ☞ Aqua chalcanthosa cognoscitur gustu olfactu And so says Kircher too in the place before cited Linguam acredine quadam olfactum vero putentissima mephiti percellunt So again cap. de Thermis Vix acidulae reperiuntur quae ex Vitriolo aliquid non participent non quidem quoad corum esse sensibile sed quoad spirituosam vaporosamque substantiam quae subtiliter perfecte tinguntur If he will but lay his Nose to his Ink-Bottle which I find had Vitriol enough in 't he may easily discern a Vitrioline Vapor while yet upon Evaporation the substance or Carcass of the Vitriol would be found in it And so it is with the Water of this Spring which by the intrinsick heat of the Earth imparted to the Water it doth imbibe more freely And that this may be done by the heat of the Earth alone is agreeable to the Opinion of Aristotle lib. 2. Metor cap. 3. as also of Empedocles as Seneca reports lib. 3. Nat. Quest also of Vitruvius in his Eighth Book and of Fallopius De Therm Aq. cap. 4. Besides that he himself is forced to own it P. 59. where he admires at the Chymistry of Nature which by its own proper Menstruums extracts the Essential innate Vertues of Mineral Glebes and that by intrinsick invisible fire in the digesting Vessels of the Earth Of the the Vapor of Iron But to proceed in P. 8. as he has denied Vitriol to communicate its Vapor to Water which I have sufficiently proved and do refer to the judgement of the Intelligent Reader So he says Iron cannot give it self by a Vapor to the Water because it is a Compact Body for no Solid Body is at all apt to Vapor To this I have answered in part already and shall now further adde The Iron that is imbibed in this Spring of which we discourse is not a Solid or Compact Body of Iron but like an ordinary Earth to look on when it is newly digged or when through the Surges of the Spring Tides in storms it falls from the Cliffe yet it is so strongly impregnated with the Concrete Juice of Iron ☞ that in a short time it turns through the heat of the Sun to an Iron Stone of which within Six score Paces of the Spaw there is as much fallen from the Cliffe as would load four or five Carts some of which I have put into a Smiths Forge where I saw it fusible and melt in the Fire This I have shewn to several Physitians who know it to be true besides that there are Thousands of Gentlemen that have observed it among which one Mr. William Cotton who is Overseer of the Iron Mines in the Edge of Derbyshire was present when Mr Simpson was at Scarbrough and affirmed it to be Iron and that he would undertake to make Solid Iron out of it Now this Earth having the Spring passing through it may very easily be supposed to impart something of its Mineral Essence as also of its Vapor to the Spring If he will but consult profound Kircher he 'l tell him that Iron yields a Vapor to the purpose Observantur says he lib. 10. cap. 10. P. â—19 in fornacibus in quibus ferrum in massâ—s componetur vapores quidam a materia ferrea exhalantes qui in lanuginem parietibus tectis Officina adharentem convertuntur to wit in the Iron works where it is smelted Vapours arise out of the Iron which turn into a Downyness which cleaves to the Walls and Roofs of the House He also says that of all Metals Iron sends out the most fetid smell But to return to Mr. Simpson's Objection wherein he says That Iron or other Metals being Solid Bodies are not at all apt to send forth a Vapor and yet keep their
Body A man would have thought he should have shewn some solidity in this point but I find him playing with a Shadow Do not Metals yeeld an Aporrhad while yet they are firm Has he never seen a Wiseman as for himself he has lost his smell put a counterfeit Coyn to his Nose and averr that it smelt of Copper The like may be said of Iron and Brass which a man of an indifferent Nose may distinguish by their Vapor But he says The Compact Body of Iron will not impure a Vapor to a Liquor wherein the Apothecaries Boys will laugh at him when we prescribe Chalybet Drinks which is ordinary in Hypochondriack Maladies the Liquors receive a Vapor from the Iron and yet the Compact Body of Iron still remains I wonder his Chymical Apothecary did not better instruct him in this Of the Concrete Juice of Minerals But when he takes notice P. 9. that I did not onely in my Book assert a Vapor to flow from Vitriol and Iron but also something of their Concrete Juices and Substance to be imparted to the Water Here says he the Dector would almost make us believe that he was inclinable to Philosophise for he is got as far as the Concrete Juices viz. The Metals in solutis principiis or in fieri Why W. S. I was Master of Arts before you were born when doubtless I had been wont to philosophise and yet not at your rate and I have since appeared several times in the Schools according to the Obligation of ☜ thy last Degree and the Statutes and Customs of the University of Cambridge which I suspect you will scarce adventure to do and really I have not been altogether iâ—â—e since then in that Study Had you read Ethicks you would have learned more Manners and Modesty which the difference of our Two Degrees might justly have câ—alenged Let the Ingenious Reader judge betwixt us The truth is my Design was not to amuse the Common Readers with any dark or abstruse Notions in Philosophy but so discourse of that Medicinal Spring as I might best be understood and yet sâ—â—lso 〈◊〉 that I think I have said nothiâ—◠〈◊〉 â—â—â—tineâ—â—â—r absurd in the judgement of true and candid Philosophers I confess when I writ that Book I did not expect such a return as this and yet I shall say if I could have fore-seen it I would not have desisted from that Enterprise for I think it would not have been according to my duty 〈◊〉 have concealed from my Countrey 〈◊〉 thing so generally useful lest wanton wits should trouble me with starting vain and frivolous questions about it nor cerminly should I have found such measure if any well-bred Scholar had through difference from me in any particular undâ—â—â—aken it Notions in Philosophy are but Entia Rationis and so do vary according as men apprehend them and thereupon it is that oftentimes by caâ—illing wits they become Subjects of Dispute yea and sometimes among the Ingenious and Learned Yet it is ever the safest to adhere to the most Learned and Famed Men that treat of those Subjects especially if there be a consent among them and they such as could not conspire to deceive the World nor get advantage by it And this was my care in the compiling of that Book wherein notwithstanding this return I repent NOT ONE Sentence to hold close to the Authority of the most Learned or Right Reason in all things submitting to the more Wise and Learned And in Truth I profess I did not at that time consult these Chymical Authors I have now an occasion to revolve in this Dispute about these Minerals whom yet I find concur with me in all I have said concerning them But to return to my Antagonist who P. 6 and 7. is forced to confess That a Mineral or Metal while young and in solutis principiis or in fieri and in its Concrete Juice may be imbibed by a Current of Water especially if it has been acuated by an Esurine Salt which is the same I have said in my Book and have now again proved concerning this Spring Yet P. 10. where he has been referring to what I say concerning the Vapors of Vitriol and the Acidity which from thence the Water has imbibed he says he cannot pass the Notion over without a smile I am glad W. S. is so merry I suspect by and by he 'l be found to be ridiculous But in truth when he comes in that Page to be serious he appears a Fool in earnest while he will have the addition of Galls to be that which gives the Inky smell to the Water when indeed the Water yeelds that smell while 't is clear and new-drawn out of the Fountain A scrious Definition of Ink. And seeing Mr. Simpson tells us he is serious let us a little more observe what he says for probably we may find somewhat worth hearing Here he gives us a gallant Definition of Ink in these words viz. It is a solution of Vitriol precipitated or made opacous by the addition of Galls whose stipticity makes the DIAPHANEOUS Texture of the Particles in the Vitrioline solution desert their former posture and muster in a confused OPACOUS manner filling those interstices with solid Particles which before were kept transparent by the fluid parts of the Water equally contempered Is not here good sport This brings to my mind the Definition of a Window which another Son of Rhombus gave forth in a Pulpit on occasion of St. Paul's being let down out of the Window in a Basket A Window which he stiled a Fenestre is a Diaphanous part of an Edifice erected by the manual operation of an Architect for the Introduction of Illumination through an Opake Body into the Concavity of the Convex Organ of the Intellestual Animal But that which next disgusts him is That I discourse of Vitriol and Iron apart and have not included one of them in the other which he would have lookt upon as a point of Philosophy in good earnest P. 10. It had not been so in earnest nor do I at all believe him if I had done so neither I think will any rational man that reads him since 't is apparent he was resolved to quarrel right or wrong I pray Sir Simpson are Iron and Vitriol all one I think they do as really differ as your Knife and your Ink Vitriol and Iron not the same thing I speak not of Factitious Vitriol but Natural which is in Scarbrough Spaw or which you saw break out of the Cliffe near the Well having an eminent Acidity whereby it bites the Tongue and never came under the hands of a Chymist or into any furnace save that of Nature Do not all Authors as well Chymical as others that treat of them do it severally It 's needless to cite them and indeed it would be endless And their Vertues are as several and therefore this Water having imbibed them both has Vertues from them both and on that
within three leaves uses the very same liberty of expression which needs the same Candid Interpretation This brings to my mind a merry story which I know to be true A Countrey Wife complained to a Justice of Peace of her Husband that he wasted their Estate in Ale The good man answered the Justice that whereas he spent a Groat his Wife spent two hereupon the Justice sent for her and told her what her Husband had said O Sir said she it never angers me what I do my self but that he should spend any thing it vexes me to the heart Pag. 18. Dissolve Vitriol in Water filtre it so as it becomes a clear solution Then he goes on and after some small process he says The Sediment gives a Terra Vitrioli or Metalline Earth of Vitriol I desire here the Reader to take notice how this Terra Vitrioli comes from Vitriol dissolved in Water Now look into P. 359. and there Sir Simpson tells us that for farther satisfaction he made more Trials of the Water of Scarbrough Spaw and the first precipitation was a Reddish Sediment which he calls Terra Vitrioli and whence that but from Vitriol which is dissolved in the Water the very thing which I had asserted in my Book and which he has all this while been contending against with so much vehemency and bitterness of Spirit against me Now I appeal to the Judicious Reader whether thus far I have not defended these two Principles of the Water viz. Iron and Vitriol against all the allegations Sir S. has brought against them He has P. 19. one Argument more Mr. S. his Main Fort. wherein he thinks he thrusts home the rest probably he might supect would not hold me and therefore he has here one which is worth them all He says it 's instar omnium as being demonstrative and confirmed by Autopsy and this is it His Friend the Chymical Apothecary at York took some Minerals which I had taken out of the Water of Scarbrough after Evaporation and gave him these he put into a Crucible and calcin'd for the space of almost three hours and all this while without the least appearance of any Red Colour or the least foot-step of either Colcotar of Vitriol or Crocus of Iron it became fixt and permanent in the Fire and lost little of its weight it also became whiter in Colour Now for certain says Sir S. if there had been any thing of Vitriol or Iron in it the discovery would have been made and it forc'd to confess its Nature by its Yellow Red or Purple Colour with so great force of Fire Here we see where Sir Simpson's strength lies even in a Hair Battered to the ground which I shall as easily snap and so put this proud Fencer by his best Guard Now if I prove that Vitriol will calcine White then his Argument is invalid and this I shall do both by the heat of the Fire and also of the Sun First By the heat of the Fire it will be found to calcine White if he will believe the Testimony of his own beloved Zwelfer who is indeed one of the Principal Writers in Chymical Matters in his Pharmacopoea Regia ad finem describing the Composition of a Cerate which he calls Ceratum magis durabile ad Hernias he has these words Vitrioli Veneris pulverizati ad albedinem parumper calcinati ʒ 1 β. Secondly It will calcine White by the heat of the Sun if he will believe the Virtuosi of France who in their Conference 238 treating of the making of Sympathetical Powder do say it 's made with Romane Vitriol which they beat not over small and lay it in the Sun upon Papers for the space of fifteen dayes during which time say they it is calcined into an exquisite whiteness If he will not trust them let him ask his Chymical Apothecary if he have not of it in his Shop who I believe can let him see it so as now there is left him no way to evade but by questioning the Authority and Verity of these Authors as afterwards we shall find him in an Argument I pinch him from Doctor Heylin in my Discourse about the Original of Springs But I shall not rest here I do very much wonder that Mr. Simpson or the Chymical Apothecary whom of the two we account the better Chymist could expect that these Minerals being so much diluted with Water should calcine either into a Colcotar or Crocus that they should discover any other colour than White for upon their dissolution in this Water-Spring they must necessarily deposite what other Colour they had if they will believe their Grand Master Paracelsus whose Authority in this matter is Authentick enough He in lib. 4. cap. 1. p. 271. de Aquis crescentibus treating of this very Subject Videtis inquit Metalla Mineralia similitudinem nullam habere cum corporibus illis ex quibus generata sunt You see that Metals and Minerals dissolved in Water have no resemblance with those Bodies out of which they are generated and presently after he explains himself more particularly to my purpose Videtis Vitriolum aliud viride aliud ceruleum ac probe coloratum esse Id si in Aquam resolvatur colorem omnem deponit That is to say You see one sort of Vitriol is Green another Blew but if it be resolved in a Spring Water it lays down all its Colour And he goes on to illustrate this by Gold ☞ Similiter auri color flavus est qui tamen in transmutation fit purpureus si autem per transmutationem hanc resolvatur tunc Aquam nullam tingit amplius nec colorem in se continet In like manner says he though the Colour of Gold be Yellow and in transmutation it becomes Purple yet if it be resolved by this transmutation that is in Spring Water for that is the Subject he is treating of it tinges the Water no more nor does it keep its own Colour Now I wonder these Gentlemen being so great Chymists should not be better read in Paracelsus Had these been perfect Minerals in their kind I mean this Vitriol and Iron they might with good reason have expected they should have calcin'd of a Red or Purple Colour as we see if perfect Vitriol whether White Vitriol or Copperas be dissolved in Water and that Water be filtred never so clear the Water being evaporated leaves a Reddish Sediment and that will calcine Red as I have tried but if the Mineral viz. Vitriol or the Iron be imperfect and onely in succo primitivo no such thing can be expected for they admit thereby of a change both in their Taste and other respects too as if indeed they were a quite other thing And thus says also Paracelsus lib. 3. De Nat. Aq. Tract 2. p. 265. In istiusmodi destructione corporis Mineralium ipse quoque gustus dissipatur Then he goes on to particulars Sic in Aluminis resolutione observatis quae ☜
Alumini non conveniunt Itidem in resolutione Vitrioli decedere videtis quae Vitriolo similia non sunt etsi ejusdem substantiae materiae sunt To wit Thus in the resolution of Alome into Water you observe some things that are not agreeable to Alome And so again in Vitriol you see some digressions that are not like Vitriol while yet they are of the same substance and matter And this is as plain in this case of ours as if Paracelsus had designed it purposely and intended to correcting his followers in this their mistake For these Minerals are not here corporally but percolated as he himself expresses it in the 13th cap. of his 3 d Book De Nat. Aqu. Sic persape accidit ut Minera Vitrioli aut Aluminis aut Sulphuris aut Antimonii concurrat non quidem corporaliter probe tamen percolata Now the eminent Digression that falls out in these two Minerals Vitriol and Iron as imbibed by this Water at Scarbrough is this that since they are not here in their perfect Bodies but exceedingly percolated and diluted they therefore do not calcine into a Colcotar or Crocus not Red but White ☞ And this is the ground of the great puzzle some ingenious Chymists of my acquaintance are put to in judging of the Minerals of the Spaw and particularly Mr. Samuel Johnston a Physitian at Beverley in this Countrey of very good repute concerning whom I shall have farther occasion to speak anon from whom this very day while I write this I received three sorts of preparations out of the Minerals of this Spaw viz. a Chrystalline Sabulum as he calls it Terra Vitrioli which I rather think to be a product of the Iron than the Vitriol and the Essential Salt This last he says he cannot tell what to think of it being such an Anomalous Salt differing so much either from the Natural or Factitious Kinds of Alom Vitriol or Nitre though in some properties it agrees with each of them The reason of the scruple is this which Paracelsus has clearly made out that here they are not corporally but percolated not perfect in their several Kinds but in succo primitivo not single but all mixed together which as yet I could never attain to separate And therefore this Salt is nothing so Acide as Vitriol nor Emetick nor Stiptick as Alome not inflammable as Nitre notwithstanding it doth shoot in Stirias I 'l only adde this that they are all here though in fractis imminutis debilitatis viribus and the vertue of the Water must be judged from them all Paracelsus says cap. 1. De Nat. Balu treating of such Waters Quod sint resoluta Minera ex Corpore to quod simile est Vitriolo Alumini Sali tamen id non est ita emergunt ipsarum virtutes secundum harum crium simplicium potentias P. 186. But to return to my Antagonist who is here managing his best Argument which he calls instar omnium in contradiction to these two Minerals Iron and and Vitriol which he says ought not to be White I shall now refer him to Fallopius de Metall pag. 217. who treating of such like Waters as this tells of one that is near Rome in agro Volaterrano which he says has imbibed a Juice that is white and it is the Juice of Vitriol not of Alome his own words are In illa Aqua est Succus Albus est Succus Calcanthi non autem Aluminis Now it s very probable that this white Juice would make a white Salt by Calcination after its separation from the Menstruum ☞ To the same purpose also speaks the Acute Zuelfer in his Appendix to his Animadversions P. 95. discoursing of Calcin'd Metals whether they yield a Salt or no. He determines that the firm Metals being calcin'd with violent fire among which he reckons Iron will not calcine into a Powder out of which Salt may be extracted but in Scorias Crâ—cos convertuntur neutiquam in Cinerese quibus verum Sal eliciendum Now if so why then should these men expect that these Minerals should calcine in Scorias Crocos since they had not here to do with perfect Metals or Minerals but onely a Concrete Juice of Metals and Minerals dissolv'd in Water which now they discern plainly doth calcine into a Powder out of which may be extracted a Salt of very great vertue in opening Obstructions and correcting the Ferments of the Stomach and other natural parts as I have frequently experienced and have expresly pointed at in my Book of the Spaw P. 152. where I said and I ☜ know that out of these Mineral Salts which are separated from this Water some very useful preparations might be made to be safely joyn'd with other Vehicles to good purpose And thus again Zuelfer in his Animadversions upon the 20th Class of the Augustine Dispensatory treating of the Calcining of Vitriol says It will calcine Red or of a Dark Brown Colour but he blames those Chymists that expecting to make further use of it do use to edulcorate it with Water Sive enim vi astringente sive aperiente polleat ille tota per edulcorationem tollitur quippe utraque vis vi Sale Metallico Vitriolato in aquaresolubili consistit For whatever quality it has whether astringent or aperient it s all lost by edulcoration and all the vertue which was in the Metallick Salt does consist in the Water into which it is resolved And so it is here the Vitriol thus resolved into Water is become in all respects a quite other thing the vertue thereof being imbibed in the Water The Water black with Gall. But I wonder all this while that neither of these Gentlemen have said one word of the calcining of that Black Sediment which I mention'd before that falls to the bottom of the Vessel after it has received a Tincture from the Gall This had they done it would have given them no small light concerning this very Point of these two Minerals we are treating about The Black Tincture is received by the Vitriol that which is precipitated to the bottom by the Stipticity of the Gall is the Iron this I calcined in a Crucible in very strong Fire and it becomes of a Dark Brown Colour and turns to a gross Powder hard as a Cinder and is no other than the Scoria of Iron After Calcination I dissolv'd it in pure Spring Water and let it stand till the next day I also tried whether the Water being very Brackish would take a Tincture from Gall but it did not so as I conclude it has nothing of Vitriol This Water I evaporated away and it afforded a Brownish Floscule very sharp and biting upon the Tongue which Colour since it has it not from the Vitriol for the reason aforesaid so nor from the Gall and therefore I judge it to have it from the Iron Another thing I observed in calcining all the whole Body of the Minerals as they
put it into Spring-Water with Gall but it received no Tincture so that I cannot find either the one or the other to receive a Tincture of Gall. Alome tinctures not with Gall. Now this doth plainly evince that its not from Alome that this Water at Scarbrough takes its Tincture but from some other Mineral and that in all likelihood must be the Vitriol unless we can find how to fix it upon another I shall therefore now enquire whether Iron will suffice to give it this Tincture with Gall If so then another Spring that passes through Iron must receive a Tincture but that it will not Ergo not from Iron does this take its Tincture Nor Iron There is an Iron Mine near Barnsley upon the Edge of Darbyshire where great store of Iron is melted out of which runs a Spring of Fresh Water This I procured Mr. William Cotton who is Overseer of the Iron Work to try if it would change Colour with Gall he writes me that it did not change the Colour at all He sent me also a Glass Bottle of the Water which I tried with Gall but it changed nothing at all neither being evaporated did it yield any Sediment notwithstanding that he writes that he observed it to have something of the Taste of Scarbrough Spaw at the Fountain He writes also that to make a further Trial he staied till they had got a Pit at the bottom of the Mine and so he caused a hole to be made under the bottom Stone for the Water to fall into and stand till it was clear and then took and tried it but it received no alteration from the Gall He sent me also some of the Mine it self which I calcin'd and put into Water to see if that would give any Tincture by the addition of Gall but it did not So then if neither Alome nor Iron will do it then it remains that Vitriol is that that gives the Tincture Nor Nitre unless Nitre will do it which neither he contends for nor any one upon trial shall find to do it and the same may I say of Salt which is the Fifth Ingredient from all which it follows that Mr. S. is in a grand mistake to think that Alome can contribute to this Colour by Gall. Furthermore as I have already made out this Water being carried abroad or left some while to stand in an open Vessel will receive no Tincture from Gall as also it will have laid aside its Acidity which methink is an argument of some force to prove that both these Qualities or Properties come from one and the same Cause to wit Vitriol which I suspect to be in its volatile parts imbibed in the Water and that the Sediment which remains after Evaporation is rather the product of the rest of the Minerals than the Vitriol for else I see no reason but while any thing of the substance of Vitriol is there it should keep its Acidity and also receive a mutation from the Gall. And also I infer that if that Tincture come from Alome then certainly that which he by and by calls the Aluminous Salt which he makes the essence of the Spaw should give the Black Tincture to the Gall so long as it remains in the Water From what has been said it also follows that ordinary Spring-Water takes no Salt at all and but little of Sapor or Vapor or Odor from perfect Mineral of Alome or Iron Indeed what it would do if it were made Corrosive by the participation of Vitrioline Juyce I cannot so easily determine From whence also it follows that if Minerals and Metals be but in Solutis principiis or their Concrete Juyces even Simple Spring-Water will be sufficient to imbibe them without any necessity of Helmonts Primum Ens which therefore I have with good reason exploded before and if any doubt be made of that which yet I proved to be the opinion of good Authors then here is the Juyce of Vitriol which will not fail to do it A bad memory Pag. 44. He tells us That the Medicinal Acidity or Primum Ens Which is the Solvent in the Water has made a flight solution of a Minera of Iron which being contempered together makes up the Body of the Spaw ☞ Is not this a Body of Iron then which becomes the Body of the Spaw and that very thing which he denied totidem verbis P. 20. in the close of the Fifth Section You know who had need of a good memory But yet he minces the matter prettily for he calls it but a slight solution of the Iron and yet 't is the Body of the Spaw Let the wise Reader judge how these things will hang together Well! But he says further That if Spirit of Vitriol be powred upon this Water of the Spaw it makes no alteration in it because of the similariness of parts between the Acid Spirit of Vitriol and the Acid Solvent in the Water no more than fair Water mixed with fair Water Would not any man think from this very Observation alone if there had been nothing else Mr. S. had reason to be perswaded that this Primum Ens or Mineral Acidity was nothing but Vitriol which I have proved to be the true Solvent if we need any in my reply to P. 3. since the spirit of Vitriol is as near of kin to it being powred upon it as Water is to Water that is in plain words they are both Vitriol nor does the Experiment which he mentions make out any thing to the contrary indeed it is nothing at all to the purpose Instability in Writing Pag. 45. Thus farr sâ—ys Mr. S. I assented That an aluminous Salt from a mineral acidity had dissolv'd a slight touch of the Minera of Iron and both dissolv'd in the Current Spring of Water makes up the Spaw What 's here Did he not say just now in the fore-going Page that the Mineral acidity and the Iron made up the Body of the Spaw and now he says there is also an aluminous Salt in it why could not he have said so before ☞ Is not here great instability in his Writing Methinks he seems to write Mente tremula with a trembling heart and hand being very unwilling and afraid to confess what he finds Here it 's plain he has granted Iron and Alome and how farr Vitriol I appeal to the Reader I doubt not but to wrest them all out of him at length Yet notwithstanding his plain confession of Iron here I appeal to all the Gentlemen that were present at the Spaw if he did not absolutely deny it in our Conference there allowing nothing but Alome until we had done that I shewed him the Cliffe which so much of it as is exposed to the Weather is turned into a Cindar as hard almost as Iron and out of which Mr. William Cotton being then by said he would undertake to make Iron at which he seemed to be startled in that he had denied
said enough to that point already And whereas he says I blusht not to instance in Spirit of Vitriol that we use it in Juleps and Cordials and t is not Emetick I answer Nor need I since the main part of the Vitriol in this Water is the Spirit as I have now proved which is as much yea and far more diluted with the Water wherein it is imbibed than the force of the Vitriol is corrected by the vehement heat of the Fire in the distilling of the Spirit And what follows in that Section wherein he runs a risque concerning the Vomiting property of Copper is altogether pillaged out of Helment after whose Pipe I find him constantly dancing using his very words as confidently as if he were the Author himself and also nothing to the point in hand P. 50. He returns to our Conference at the Spaw and particularly about the Nitre which I had affirmed in my Book P. 13. to be of all the Minerals the most predominant shooting into Ice-sickles or Stiria which is the peculiar form of Nitre whereby it is distinguisht from all other Minerals whatsoever Of Nitre in the Spaw I queried with the Doctor says he how he came to know that Nitre was an Ingredient and the most predominant Here he forges a confused Narrative which was never in my Heart nor on my Tongue to say but perhaps it may be a lapse of his Memory I made it out from that Analogy and Resemblance that is betwixt the Minerals that remain after the Evaporation of the Water and the Nitre that breaks out of the Cliffe within 6 or 8 yards of the Spaw which is white like a hoar-frost in hot and dry weather but is washt off by every shower of Rain both that and the Minerals extracted out of the Water shooting alike in Stirias and also agreeing in Taste But that this was Nitre at that time he confidently denied He said indeed it was nothing but an Aluminous Salt but when I urged that Alome does not shoot in Stirias and upon that very account that it could be nothing but Nitre then he would have it to come from the Air of the Sea which has Nitre in it I replied that then the whole Sea Coast should abound with it which we see it doth not Hence it follows that it can be nothing but Nitre which proceeds out of the Earth that is exceeding Nitrous Neither yet is this Nitre discernable in every part of the Cliffe throughout but runs in certain Veins and much more plentifully near the Well That this is Nitre several learned Physicians have been abundantly satisfied and those both of London and elsewhere the shooting of Nitre into Stirias being as peculiar to that Mineral as the form of any Plant is to all of the same kind This and the rest of the Minerals which are apparent upon this Cliffe have put many Naturalists into no small amazement which made Dr. Tonstall of Newcastle ☜ an Eminent Physitian and Chymist say He thought it was the most fertile Bank in the World Let him further know that all the Earth about Scarbrough is full of Nitre from whence it is that the Meadows about the Town are more eminently fertile than any other that I have observed upon the Sea-Coast which gave too much encouragement to an Ingenious Gentleman a Friend of mine to begin a Project there of Making Nitre which for his own sake I wish had succeeded according to his expectation but the truth is it proved but an imperfect Nitre especially that which is extracted out of the Water and so in refractis viribus and also joyned with the other Salts which perhaps do enfeeble it more And yet I have observed many years ago this Sediment of the Water having been laid aside in a cool place some dayes to shoot into Stiria's half an Inch long especially after Calcination Filtration and Separation from the grosser parts of the Minerals This I have expresly touched on in my Book and did also sufficiently urge it in our Conference at the Spaw which yet prevailed nothing with this Gentleman though it was abundantly satisfactory to all else that were by and yet it seems ev'n now while he writ this he was of the same mind That these Volatile Nitrous Particles as he calls them which float in the Aire are magnetically attracted by the aluminous Salt that is in the Body of the Minerals extracted from the Water as also by the Mineral Earth of Alome which is upon the Cliffe and consequently that which is in the Water is nothing but an aluminous Salt And this is such a truth as he endeavors to illustrate in Sect. 4. p. 53 in a long Discourse with several Experiments after all which and a large Harangue of hard words fit only to breed admiration in the ignorant and laughter in the learned he gives us his definitive Sentence in short by way of Recapitulation in these words P. 61. The Esurine acid Salt having in its solution got a slight touch of a Vein or Minera of Iron and passing through a rocky Mineral Glebe of Alome becomes specificated in an aluminous Salt with which the Water of the Quick-Spring is impregnate which makes the Spaw we discourse of Now if his Assertion Note which by all those Experiments he endeavors to illustrate be false as I am certain it is and shall prove from his own Concession under his hand then there needs no more to satisfie the World that I was all this while in the right And if so then is not mine Antagonist an able man indeed that can thus draw Quidlibet ex quolibet plainly to prove that which is clearly false One would think almost this Batchelour were playing the Sophister again intending to deceive the World with a Fallacy which yet a Wiseman would have couched more cunningly in the premisses and ta'n care to end with a plausible Conclusion but just thus we have him 20 times in this Book building upon a sandy foundation illustrating by far-fetcht Experiments that which to every mans reason is evidently false and from false and mistaken premisses drawing necessary Conclusions Let me now remind the Reader of ☜ what we have been doing all this while The summe total of what Mr. S. has said He denied all the Principles of the Spaw except Alome and disputed if so it deserve to be called against me with hard and harsh language for asserting them I think I have answered all his Objections and fully proved them all to be there by sufficient Arguments of Demonstration which I willingly submit to the Judicious Reader He severely carps at many of my expressions which I used in my Book which I have plainly made out to be the forms used by Learned Writers upon such Subjects and particularly of the Chymists themselves whom it seems he understood not He throws dirt in my face ever and anon while he argues against the four wayes I mention of a Waters
imbibition of Minerals or Metals which by the help of the very Chymical Authors themselves who speak the same words I have calmly and clearly wiped off I did not think it fit to call in the Testimony of the Antients and Princes in Physick whom I had cited before in my Book since I see he so insolently spurns at them but rather to convince him with the Verdict of the Chymists whom he ought better to have understood and cannot deny I shall now open the Curtain and let in more light to the Reader that he may the better discern the temper of my Antagonist and on which side is the truth in the Dispute that lies before him and this ex ore suo What needs any more Habemus reum confitentem In P. 20. Thus says Mr. S. we discard these two Pillars of his Spaw Mr. S. his Recantation viz. Vitriol and Iron as to the Body of them Now turn to P. 39. I do not says he deny Iron to be an ingredient So again P. 44. ☞ This Mineral acidity pervading a Minera of Iron makes a slight solution of it and being equally contempered together makes up the Body of the Spaw Now consider this Body of Minerals which is in the Spaw is of an Ounce Weight at least sometimes ten Drams in a dry Summer as this last was viz. 1668. in 5 Quarts of the Water and this is that which he stiles a slight solution And for Vitriol turn to P. 359. That I might says he inform my self more satisfactorily of the true Constituent parts of Scarbrough Spaw I took 3 Gallons and 3 Pints which I let stand whos 's first precipitation was a Reddish Sediment from which I filtred the Water and this dried in the Sun proved to be a Red Earth or kind of Ochre OR RATHER TERRA VITRIOLI ☜ So again he argues against Nitre from P. 50. to P. 61. asserting onely an Aluminous Salt with a slight touch of Iron but turn to P. 360. and we have these words Then I evaporated the clear filtred Water in Glasses to a driness which I found to have an ALUMINO-NITROUS ☜ TASTE or rather indeed MORE NITROUS and would relent in the Air. So P. 364. Where you meet in our Hydrological discourse with the word Aluminous Salt you are to read it ALUMINO-NITROUS SALT ☜ OR NITRO-HERMETICAL SALT this Salt if duly ordered is Crystalline shoots into LONG STIRIAS ☜ Here let the Reader observe in his Hydrological Discourse where he is directly denying Nitre several times and says its only an Aluminous Salt that is in the Water what woful Nonsense it would be to turn the word Aluminous into Nitro-Aluminous or Alumino-Nitrous or Nitro-Hermetical Certainly never any man writ at this rate before Besides if a Galenist should talk of Nitro-Hippocratical or Nitro-Galenical Salt what a comely Canting would it be and yet it would gingle as well as Nitro-Hermetical Risum teneatis amici After all this ranting what a woful case is this POOR GENTLEMAN brought into that he must be forced to crowd in Nonsense But it appears in this and many more things that I have hinted at and I shall find more before I have done with him that to say and unsay is no strange thing with our Author here right or wrong Sense or Nonsense he is not ashamed to tell what is in his heart But yet if we observe him Mr. S. in a strait he would fain sumble out an excuse to blind the unwary Reader that he may not find his contradicting of himself for he says P. 364. Therefore what we said against Nitre in our foregoing discourse is to be understood the Common inflammable Nitre which is vulgarly used But I pray will this go down with any man of ordinary understanding What have we to do here with Common Nitre of the Shops we are treating of Natural Mineral Nitre as it is here in this Water or this Earth never known or taken notice of nor used till I discovered it and brought it into use which indeed will not blaze in the Fire perhaps because it is but in Embryone not in statu perfectione or else so diluted with the Water that it lies down or loses its inflammable property as the Vitriel does the Colcotar Really I am ashamed that a man that pretends to Learning and Reputation should write such palpable Contradictions attended with so many gross circumstances of abuse to another for asserting that which himself is forced to acknowledge for truth upon deliberate consideration and I am as sorry to be put to this unpleasant task of ripping up a weak Brothers Infirmities which I would had I not been forced to the contrary much rather have covered with a Mantle of Love So severely to reject Iron Vitriol and Nitre and before his Book be done to be forced to recant To charge those things upon me as great faults wherein himself can have no plea for it but his rashness contracting thereby a great guilt to himself This is that which it seems the liberty of the Press doth afford an opportunity to do but yet that which no ingenious man or good Christian ought to take to himself The best of us all have our failings and it s well if we live to repent Ev'n Salomon left his Ecclesiastes St. Augustine his Confessions and Retractations and my Antagonist his Epilogue or Recantation However this with the aluminous part he calls in his Epilogue the Essence of Scarbrough Spaw and he undertakes P. 365. to tell what proportion it bears to the Water viz. as 1 is to 128. A rare Arithmetician indeed if you will believe him his Confidence in this is like all the rest deeming himself to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for we must believe him without reason as if all the vertue in the Spaw should lie in this Salt and with this alone he pretends to do wonders especially if we will but take in his Ternary But I wonder why the Vitrioline Spirits which by his own Confession are not here in this Salt or the Terra Vitrioli which he acknowledges he found or the Iron which I proved and he has confessed to be there should be excluded from being of the Essence of the Spaw Two Minerals of the Spaw are lost by Carriage For my own part I do seriously profess I never saw any considerable Cure done by the Water at distance and 't is no marvel since two of the principal Minerals are wanting viz. the Vitriol which loses its volatile parts by Carriage which should help its penetration into the narrow Meanders of the Hypochonders and the Iron which is alwayes found precipitated in the bottom of the Vessels besides that in a few dayes it begins to putrefie and so spoils the Stomach and taints the Blood and lays a foundation for the Jaundies or Cachexia as I have made appear by good Testimony in my Book But here some may wonder how it comes to pass that Mr. S.
Spaw P. 104. In P. 55. He proceeds to speak a little of Knaresbrough Sweet Spaw which he says is but languid of Mineral Principles having but a slight touch of the Minera of Iron c. How the Doctors that frequent that Spring will resent this that the ancient reputation of that Spaw should be so blasted I know not I leave it to themselves to consider their own Obligation In Sect. 5. P. 59. He falls to a Point of Philosophy as he calls it which if any intelligent man reads it will make him merry doubtless especially in P. 58. Numb 8. where a man would think he were a conjuring if not killing the Pythoâ— with a company of hard words I refer the Reader to the Book its self rather than make my own swell with Impertinencies This brings to my mind that Epigram of Antonius Muretus upon a Pretender to Philosophy who appeared to him to have an affectation rather of bombasting words than any solid or grave matter whom he calls a PHILOSOMPHER rather than Philosopher from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fungus or some empty frothy thing Philosophum te vocas hoc te nomine jactas Prae te omnes reliquos ut nihil esse pâ—tes Nec tamen aut rerum causas pondera nosti Aut aliud nomen quo mere are Sophi Vna tuis titulis addenda est litera recte Nec mihi Philosophus sed PHILOSOMPHVS eris In P. 59. He contradâ—cts expresly what ☜ before P. 4. he had said concerning his Ens Primum that it can take in but one Mineral for here it will take in as many as he pleases this Experiment he has verbatim from Sendivogius Tract 2 concerning which I have there treated more at large onely I cannot but observe his frequent Contradictions He tells of the Vertues of the Spaw In P. 61. He undertakes to discourse of the Vertues of Scarbrough Spaw thus many a man talks of Robin Hood that never shot in his Bow I dare boldly say he knows no more how to manage that Water in Critical Cases than he that lives at Rome and never saw it In this particular he is altogether Mimical being confin'd to what I have said in my Book or what necessarily may follow there-from He commends it indeed as very successful in the cure of many diseases which yet cannot be upon his grounds he owning as yet nothing but Alome and a small touch of the Minera of Iron I think it not impertinent says he to speak somewhat of its Vertues and that the rather because Dr. Wittie gave out that I endeavour'd to defame the Spaw in that I held it to be an Aluminous Spring I think it no Defamation to say its an Aluminous Spring but to call it so exclusive as to the rest of the Minerals or Metals as if it were onely so and had not imbibed also Vitriol Iron and Nitre is certainly to defame it since first the rest are in it as well as Alome and secondly it cannot do such Cures from Alome alone as we find it to do now where they are all conjoyn'd together by which it is become an excellent Composition that suits various Indications And this his Grand Master Paracelsus lib. 3. cap. ult de Nat Aq. treating of these sorts of Waters says Virtutibus as dotibus admirandis praeditae sunt pro natura Mineralium quae in eis resolvuntur Vos igitur ex quo ortu principio enascantur sedulo examinate summum ergo studium esse debet ut natura Lapidum Metallorum similium exacte teneatur sic enim fiet ut Aquarum ex illis Genitarum conditio ac vis probe cognita sit i. e. They are endued with admirable Qualities according to the Nature of the Minerals resolv'd in them be ye therefore careful diligently to examine from what Principle they come for says he there is nothing more necessary than that the Nature or Property of the Stones Metals or Mineral Glebes be exactly retained for so may the condition and vertue of the Waters that proceed from them be rightly understood Of Aluminous Springs Now the properties and vertues that are ascribed by Learned Naturalists to Aluminous Waters as such do come far short of what we find in Scarbrough-Spaw Let us take measure from what profound Kircherus says of them Sect. 5 He tells that they are very astringent and of an exceeding drying quality whereas this Water at Scarbrough is purging hence it comes to pass says he that the places where those Aluminous Springs are be usually barren which Theophrastus also observed Now the grounds hereabouts are more than ordinary fruitful as I exprest before Vnde morbis inquit qui ex nimia humiditate sive frigiditate originem ducunt sanandis mirum in modum conducunt i. e. Whence it comes to pass that they wonderfully conduce to the cure of those Diseases that proceed from the excess of Cold and Moisture This is very well and true of the Spaw but yet far short of what Cures are done by it which I am not now willing to dilate upon having treated at large in my Book upon that Subject ☞ And therefore it is certainly a disparagement to it to say it is an Aluminous Spring intending thereby to exclude all the rest which are in it as eminently and undeniably as Alome is If any man should say that Mr. S. is a Grammarian he does not defame him at all but if he intend it exclusively to the other Arts that be professes as if he were not also a Philosopher and a Physician I suspect Mr. S. would look upon it as a defamation and not thank him for it for being a Grammarian one may expect Elegant Latine from him at least true but it s his being a Philosopher that makes him reason thus strongly and a skilful Physician which enables him to make many admirable Cures in Physick and with wholsome Remedies which in time we may expect and shall be glad to see But Mr. S. comes on with his Noverint universi per praesentes Let him and the World know that in the Esurine Salt of Alome as noble medicinal Vertues are to be found as in any other Mineral specificated Salt whatever Bate me an Ace quoth Bolton In truth I see no Obligation wherein I am bound to believe him I am sure Paracelsus gives Vitriol the preheminence by far nor is this comparable being imbibed alone in a Spring to that which has taken in either Vitriol or Nitre nor do I think that any Aluminous Spring as such onely is to be compared to the Sweet Well at Knaresbrough which himself says has onely imbibed a slight touch of Vitriol of Iron Chalybeate Waters rare And now while I speak of Iron it brings to my mind what Fallopius says who it appears in all his Observations never found a Water that had imbibed Iron though he does not think it impossible but he heartily wishes for such Waters Vtinam tales
reperirentur quia melius ageretur cum iis qui laborant affectibus renum vesicae i. e. Because it would be very well for them that are subject to the Diseases of the Reins and the Bladder To which I 'l onely adde the Judgement of Kircher Aquae ferreae five Chalybeatae virtutibus ferri seu Chalybis imbuantur ad obstructiones hypochondriacas saluberrimis i. e. Iron or Chalybeate Waters have in them the vertues of Iron or Steel and so are most excellent against the Obstructions of the Hypochondres and the hardness or schirrhus of those parts and the beginning of a Dropsie as also they strengthen a relaxed and debilitated Stomach Of Vitrioline Springs And since this is a Vitrioline Water as I have prov'd sufficiently against all his Objections and at last brought him confessing as much it were but proper to lay down the Vertues and Properties of those sorts of Waters but that being done in part already I shall therefore be very brief I have prov'd already out of Fallopius and Paracelsus c. that a Water may imbibe Vitriol and yet not become Emetick or provoking to vomit and constant experience shews that it s verified in this Water besides hereby 't is become of a penetrating quality and so attenuating and cutting gross flegmatick humors being also drying and leaving a moderate astriction behind it and therefore good in all cold and moist Constitutions and for expelling of Worms Much of the same nature are such Waters as have imbibed Salt save that they are not so piercing but these having but little Salt in them I shall pass it over without more words Of Nitrous Springs But because Nitre is of all the rest the most predominant in this Water and himself has confessed it I shall therefore bring in the Testimony of the profound Kircher in Cap. de Aq. Nitrosis Praedominium dominium Nitri Aquas potentes facit c. i. e. When Nitre is predominant it makes the Water that has imbibed it powerful in operation inables it to correct an ill habit of body which such as are flegmatick are prone to it looses the Belly is good in the Diseases of the Nerves and for such as are subject to Defluxions upon the Lungs heals the Itch and other Diseases of the Skin Cures the ringing of the Ears being dropped into them and in a word makes it to be of an eminent abstergent property So far Kircher Now this Spaw having imbibed all these five Minerals must take its vertue from them all according to reason and the Testimony of Learned Writers as I have made out already and I am assured it suits full well with the Experimental Cures I have mentioned in my Book to which I refer the Reader and shall say no more at present ☞ Next P. 62. he falls to treat of his five Digestions which he pillages from Helmont verbatim though he curtails the number and corrects his Master for Helmont makes six vidâ— Helm P. 167. from the pravity or deficiency of every one of which proceed several Diseases whereas the whole Classiâ— of Physicians make but three viz. in the Stomach the Liver and the Solid Parts I wonder indeed he did not make 50 for there is not any the least part of the Body but if it be depraved in the Concoctive or Digestive faculty so as it cannot separate the serous part of the Blood from that which is for its nourishment Diseases may arise from it which may disturbe the whole Oeconomy of Nature and breed Aposthumations and Tumors according to the Nature of the Humor and the Constitution of the Parts Thus in the Breast may breed a Schirrhus or a Cancer in the Hands and Feet a Ganglion in other parts an Oedema or a Phlegmon and from thence a Feaver in the Joynts a Gowt or some other Lameness or Rheumatismes c but I may not digress upon this Subject The truth is in his describing of these Diseases he erres very much through a defect in the understanding of Pathology and Anatomy frequently confounding such as are nothing of kinne and all this in a canting form of Expressions that all the Learned Men I have met with that have seen the Book do laugh at These Spaws are found out by chance Then he undertakes P. 83. to tell what Diseases the Spaw cures and what not and cites Helmont but what I pray is Helmont's Judgement concerning this Water which he never saw Fallopius says that the properties of all those sorts of Springs are found out by Observation and doubtless he is in the right now since he could have no observation or experience of this Water his Verdict cannot be very Authentick I have in my Book made out my Observations and Experience for near Thirty years and that under the hands of the Persons themselves on whom such Cures were made which give better ground of satisfaction to wise men than all that Mr. S. can say who can have nothing of his own Experience as being upon my knowledge not much more acquainted with it than Helmont whom he cites Notwithstanding he takes upon him to give his Opinion of some of the matters of fact Of an Alderman of Hull in the Asthma and particularly of an Alderman of Hull whom I mention to have found Cure in an Asthma But that this was a real Asthma says he P. 94. I fear the Doctor mistakes in his Diagnosticks How civil this is in the young man to make himself a Judge of that which he never saw and thus severely to become a Cato Censorius over me I refer it to the wise Reader to judge The truth is this Alderman had joyned Dr. Primrose and my self in this his Disease to whom we prescribed Remedies according to Indications which yet the Malady did in a great measure resist so as after due prepâ—ration we thought fit to send him to the Spaw where after a few dayes he found cure and returned well This being about 15 years agoe and the Gentleman now alive and in health and by his leave we both thought fit to call a Spade a Spade and that Disease an Asthma If it would conduce any thing to teach W. S. that best point of Diagnosticks viz. to know himself I could every day let him see some that have found exceeding much benefit by this Vitrioline Water in the Asthma without his Arcana's Of a Gentlewoman in great Debility cured by the Spaw Then he undertakes to judge of the Case of a Gentlewoman whom I mention in a very Critical Point who had been long in a wasting condition bolstred up with Pillows through constant difficulty of breathing which he calls an Asthma from the Obstructions of the Womb and though he never saw her yet he undertakes to tell what was also the Procatarctick Cause of her Malady viz. a Cold c. Was ever any man so bold to be thus positive without ground I wonder what W. S. sees by the
by all means so to do it as it may be safe and yet successful Now this Medicine is used in Malignant Fevers or otherwise when we would provoke Sweat but if it be not well prepared and purged from its Arsenical Sulphur what woful work would there be if instead of sweating the Patient should fall into vomiting or purging Ay but says he it is of my own preparation and therefore I dare more confide in it Therefore indeed he may the better give it but the main Question is Whether the Patient may the better take it Besides if Antim Diaph may contract a malignant quality from the Air were it not safer to give it in a less quantity and may not there also be danger lest the Acid Humors in the Body should make it resume its Malignity as well as the Air Upon the account of all which let wise men judge whether acts more prudently he that gives 60 Grains or he that gives 8 or 10. For further satisfaction concerning this thing I refer the Reader to what I have to say in my Animadversions on the 195th Page of this his Book P. 115. He proceeds to treat of what Diseases the Spaw at Scarbrough cures viz. The Scurvy Dropsie Stone Strangury Jaundice Hypochondriack Melancholy Cachexia Womens Diseases c. I confess I cannot but wonder to see the confidence of Mr. S. who knows nothing at all of these things but by my Book no more than he that lives at Constantinople and has read my Book there Indeed this is the onely thing wherein I am beholden to him in that he gives me Credit although sometimes he makes Comments which the Text will not bear and by a multiplicity of foolish new-coyn'd words doth obscure that even to some wise and learned men which was plain and obvious to Common Understandings ☞ But upon the grounds he yet goes on I declare it impossible that the Spaw should have such Vertue as to cure these Diseases for if we observe he owns nothing of a Mineral property to be in it but an Esurine Aluminous Salt P. 116. Numb 3. Now whether we consider the properties of Alome as I have instanced in the 145. Page of Scarb. Spaw 2d Edition or the Verdict of the most profound Authors concerning Aluminous Springs we shall find it impossible that the Spaw should have any such Vertue upon his Principle he rests on as I have already made out in my animadversions on P. 61. But to amend the matter He would have it seconded by other penetrating Medicines of his own preparation Why I can assure him the Cures I mention were done without any of his preparations and the like probably may be done again although not without some other helps sometimes as the Cases may require P. 118. He tells of a sort of Dropsie which he stiles Anasarcasis which is a word I guess of his own coyning for he means Anasarca He says They that are tapp'd for the Dropsie viz. the Tympany for he is speaking of it in which Case doubtless he never saw any man tapp'd they let forth an almest insipid liquor so that water which passeth from those that drink plentifully of the Spaw has no Vrinous Salt and so neither Tincture nor Sapour Sure he never saw any tapp'd for the Dropsie in that he says it is insipid I have several times found it of a brown Colour and a brackish Taste And if he will distill or evaporate away the water of those that drink of the Spaw as I have done he shall find a slimy Sediment highly impregnated with an Urinous Salt P. 119. He tells That There are some Causes of a Dropsie which will resist all Medicines except the noblest of Chymical Arcana's Really it 's great pity he had not found those Chymical Arcana's when Robert Beford was in his hands in this Disease of whom I made mention before whom if he had let alone he might probably have seen cured without Chymical Arcana's Lunar Pills P. 120 He reckons up several of his Chymical Arcana's which he counts highly of for the Cure of the Dropsie among which are the Pilulae Lunares of which he confesses he never found any considerable success and for the sake of the Aqua Fortial he rather advises against ☞ I am much afraid poor Beford had of these his Lunar Pills which he took for Chymical Arcana's for his Complaint was of such an Heat and Corrosion in his Stomach and Bowels as if he had taken his Aqua Fortial Spirits But it 's well he does confess his fault and I wish he may reform and not make Experiments of Poysonous Medicines upon the Bodies of Men to the hazard of their Lives in an Empirical use of unsafe and ill-corrected Mineral Medicines imperfectly described in Paracelsus and Helmont which he knows not either how to make or use Of Hysterical Fits P. 128. He proceeds to treat of the Hysterical Fits in Women where he runs as almost in all things such a riot in an unwholsome form of words peculiar to himself alone as who so will have the patience to read shall find matter enough for laughter but nothing that merits the least line of reply Satis est nominasse refelli A False Charge Only I observe he forges a Figment upon the Galenists as if they should say that the Fits of the Mother do proceed from a Windiness of the Matrix which he most scurrilously fancies to be charged like a Gun and ramm'd c. which I wonder he is not ashamed to have said and exposed to publick view in unsavory words which a regular Scholar or Physician or a good Christian would abhor to have written and every modest Person especially those of the Female Sex do abominate to read But besides this its utterly false for no such thing was ever said or writ by any man that deserves the name of a Galenist nor if you mark does he cite any of their Writings in the Case neither indeed in any thing that he objects against them but frames Arguments out of his own Brain on purpose to traduce them In this business I 'l refer the Learned and Judicious Reader to my late intimate Friend and Collegue Doctor Primerose in that excellent Treatise of his de Morbis Mulierum where he treats in lib. 3. cap. 11. of this Disease he reckons up the Opinions both of the Ancients and Modern Writers concerning the Causes of these Hysterical Fits but not one syllable of Windiness in the Matrix to be the cause of them At last he concludes of two principal Causes from whence they proceed ordinarily P. 207. Frequenter itaque causa est seminis corruptio ut in viduis libidinosis Mulieribus si Viri amplexibus fraudentur contingit And this he shews to agree with what Hippocrates Galen Epicurus Democritus Rondeletius and others have writtten Another cause which he assigns P. 209. is Quilibet humor in utero putrescens tetrum venenatumque vaporem
expirat Id ostendit inquit quod vetulas etiam quasdam infestat quibus nec seminis nec sanguinis superfluitas colligitur tum etiam eas quae bene purgantur Viri consuetudine fruuntur And this also he shews to be agreeable to the Doctrine both of the Antient Princes in Physick and Modern Writers too I shall need to say no more but refer ☜ it to the Ingenuous Reader to judge of the Spirit of this Man and who can be safe from blasting while such a malevolent breath as this blows upon him P. 132. Mr. S. treating of the Green Sickness in Maids says it will not bend to the single help of this Spaw c. where little or no body of a Mineral is found Let the wise Reader judge whether this man understands what he treats of that says this Spaw has little or no Body of Minerals in it when five Quarts contain at the least an Ounce of Minerals and in dry years ten Drams while the usual Dose for Women in this Case is three Quarts of Water and sometimes more And thus having examined what he has said concerning Scarbrough Spaw together with several Discourses that hang thereupon and particularly his Objections against the Rational Method of Physick or the Galenical Way as he calls it I am content to submit all I have said to the Judgement of the Learned and Impartial Reader I shall now follow him as close as I can through what remains and that with what brevity I may because I would not swell into a Volume Pyrologia Mimica The Second Part. Malton Spaw PAg. 134. He takes occasion to discourse concerning Malton Spaw which I mention P. 194. in my Book of Scarbrough Spaw The plain truth is this Spaw he has as little experimental knowledge of as the other having only saluted it in Transitu ceu Canis ad Nilum and therefore he is but very short referring to what he has said of the other wherein if he had observed the like brevity I believe he would have come off with more credit What difference there is betwixt these two Waters I have in few words expressed in my Book Knaresbrough Spaw Pag. 136. He proceeds to speak of the Sweet Well at Knaresbrough concerning which Doctor French has writ a ☞ very ingenious Discourse at large which he has illustrated with very many pretty Experiments out of which our Author hath drawn abundance of his which here we have crowded together oft times confusedly enough and yet he owns not his Author in any of them Pag. 137. He says its but a poor lean Water and thin of Minerals and therefore perswades to intermix Salt of Steel with it and he gives some directions about the drinking of it all which might well have been spared since Doctor Dean and Doctor French have writ copiously of that Subject and laid open the Nature of that Water and several Cures it has wrought and given better directions to help the slowness of the Water who both of them did a hundred times better understand that Water than he Sulphur Well Pag. 142. He passes on to the Sulphur Well at Knaresbrough which he saith hath a strong body of Sal Marine in it now if we look back to what he said P. 55. ☞ he tells us this Well is saturate with Fossile Salt I wish he would reconcile these Contradictions But how is it probable that this Spring should partake so plentifully of Sal Marine of which there is the quantity of two Ounces in a Gallon of the Water as I have found upon trial what communication has this Well with the Sea more than other Springs it being 40 miles from the Sea and how can he suppose that the Subterraneal Channels should convey the Salt of the Sea in puris naturalibus 40 miles and yet others be purged and defecated of the Salt that are nearer the Sea for my own part I see no reason to believe it and shall leave it to others to believe as they find cause Besides if it should proceed from such a plentiful Fountain as the Sea since the Salt is not left behind it in the passage it should necessarily have a larger Channel than other Springs and so be a very plentiful Spring whereas it is a very penurious one and if I mistake not voids not a Gallon in an hour I therefore rather think it receives its Salt from the Nature of the Soil where it bubbles and that it has also imbibed Sulphur and Bitumen Methink he might have contented himself with what the Authors a foresaid have said concerning this Well to whom he has added nothing save only an Harangue of impertinent discourse as his constant way is whereby he confounds both himself and the Reader and disparages that Spring Affirming it not to be of much more efficacy than so much Trencher Salt dissolved in such a proportion of ordinary Water in P. 146. In opposition to which I could joyn issue with him but I shall rather leave that to others more concerned to assert their Experiences who probably will think themselves concerned to maintain the Ancient Reputation both of this and the Sweet Spaw which he has not a little blasted Of Hot Springs In P. 148. He treats of the Original of Hot Springs where he borrows largely from Kircher in his Mund. Subter together with his Experiments as also Monsieur de Rochas at last he determines that they proceed from Calx vive which Notion he has from a Relation I make in my Book P. 80. of an Observation made by a Noble Lord of this Nation viz. the Lord Thomas Fairfax of some heaps of a White Powder which he found sweat out of the Earth near Bath which being put into Water makes it hot as I my self did experience five or six years after his Lorship had taken it up some of which I had from his Lordship A false Charge on the Galenists P. 158. He falls to make a Vindication of Chymical Physick which he says lies under an Odium by the Galenists In my Judgment he might very well have spared his pains herein there being no cause in the World for a Vindication nor do I know of any man in these parts that ever opened his mouth against it Indeed he and others stepping into the Practice of Physick four or five years ago had a design to turn all the Practice of Physick in the City and County of York to the Chymical way exclaiming in all Companies they came in against the Medicines of the Shops which are prepared according to the London Dispensatory establisht by the Law of the Land after the same rate as here is exprest in his Book This both my self and others of my faculty thought fit to oppose not condemning Chymical Medicines well prepared which we all daily use but maintaining the Ancient Honour Reputation and successfulness of the Rational Practice which he calls Galenical The Chymical Way we own as
has writ something upon this Argument and also that learned Frenchman Gassendus has newly set forth a peculiar Tractate in defence of it but it has not been my hap as yet to meet with either of them What grounds Albertus and Agricola had laid down for their asserting this Opinion I declared together with various Objections against them made by learned men who since have treated upon the Subject To these I replied according to my talent having not pretermitted the mention of any Argument that seemed to have any thing of weight or reason in it that ever I had met with in any Ancient or Modern Writers against the Opinion which as I went along in answer to them I backed with new Arguments of Demonstration of my own grounded on Reason and Observations both of my own and others in our own Nation or abroad from Pag. 93. to 110. modestly submitting all to the judgement of the more learned and considerate And truly I have had thanks from several very learned Gentlemen for that Discourse who declared themselves to have become Proselytes to the Opinion upon my grounds But Mr. S. it appears is not satisfied and gives some Reasons against it which being for their Substance no other then what I have there mentioned to be objected by others and have also replied to though he takes no notice of it I judge needless to repeat here but do rather refer both him and the Reader to what I have said there this being swelled into a bigger Volume already than at first I intended Indeed he has a distinction of Land-Springs and Quick-Springs mentioned P. 286. which runs through all he has to say against the Opinion granting that Land-Springs may proceed from Rain and Snow but denying it as to the Quick Springs and yielding that the failing of Rain and Snow may be the cause of the drying up of the former but not of the latter But is not this plainly the begging of the Question while I have proved that there is no real difference in this distinction but that they are both one both in their Cause and in the Quality of the Water and that where there is never any Rain or Snow as in Egypt and Ombrion there are no Springs where there is little Rain there are few Springs as in Aethiopia and Arabia in so much as for many miles together there is not a Spring to be found as Travailers tell us to quench their thirst or their Camels And in Countries where there uses to be great plenty of Rain there are great plenty of Springs yet if for some good space of time there be a failure of them most of the Springs that ordinarily were not wont to fail do dry up as it happened in this Kingdome in the years 1654 55 and 56 And when there is a total failure for many years together as it happened to Cyprus in the dayes of Constantine for 36 years together which I proved from Dr. Heylin's Cosmography there they are wholly dried up as there it fell out so as the Inhabitants were forced to leave the place and seek for a new Habitation elsewhere for want of Water Besides are not all sorts of Springs at Land and so to be called Land-Springs I see no difference save only in their Continuation and I have sufficiently proved that to depend upon the Continuation of Rain and Snow while being withdrawn in any proportion the Springs fail accordingly even such as all men thought to have been Perennes or everlasting which are those that he calls Quick-Springs Indeed as to that of the three dry years 1654 55 56 during which space we had very little Rain or Snow in York shire either in Winter or Summer when I observed very many of our Springs upon the high Wolds were dried up which in the memory of man had never failed before so as they were forc'd to drive their Cattle many miles for Water This he says he enquired of the Countrey people and they testified it was not so To this I answer it is matter of fact of which I was an Eye-witness and I doubt not but my Affirmative will find Credit with the Ingenuous Men of the World before those Countrey peoples negative who either might live in Low-grounds where the failing of the Springs was not so signal or possibly after so many years they may have forgotten But this I took the more notice of because it was a Confirmation to me of this Opinion of the Original of Springs with which I did abound ever since I was at the University and considered that Point of Philosophy All that Mr. S. replies to it P. 291. is that those Springs that did so dry up were not Perennes or everlasting or such as he calls Quick-Springs Why I say so too and that indeed there are no Springs so Perennes but from the deficiency of Rain they will be dried up and many of those were such as in all the Story of the Wolds never failed before and those that did yet flow were so slow in their Streams as that the nearest Inhabitants began to be very scrupulous to supply their Neighbors for fear they should lack for themselves But further to return to my Argument I draw from Dr. Heylin's Story of Cyprus I would know from Mr. S. whether there were in Cyprus these two sorts of Springs according to his distinction or no If not then it was only the Quick-Springs that were awanting and why should Cyprus alone be defective in such a necessary thing If they were both there then the Quick-Springs failed as well as the other and so his distinction is invalid the reason of all is that they all came from the same Cause to wit the Rain which failing totally for many years together they were dried up so as it necessarily follows that the Quick-Springs at Cyprus came from the Rain and the like we may judge of all the Springs elsewhere But Mr. S. finding himself pinched with this Argument has a very ready Answer even almost the same that the Countrey-Parson used in the Pulpit in Confutation of Bellarmine when he cried out Bellarmine thou liest For he calls in Question the Honour and Honesty of Reverend Dr. Heylin saying P. 301. That like as Historians use to do he might probably take it upon trust And because he knows not how to evade the force of the Argument he denies the verity of the matter of fact and cries out in these words That an I sland so near the Mediterranean Sea should want Rain for 36 years together would certainly put an ordinary credulity upon the Tenter-hooks and stretch a Thomas beyond his ordinary pitch And thus Mr. S. has turned over his thumb two of my Arguments viz. that of the three dry years mentioned last and this of Cyprus by denying the verity of the matters of fact an easie way of Answer indeed As for Doctor Heylin he did certainly take it upon trust and so did Mr. Purchas in
This it appears to have been the sense of Cardane Marlianus and Fromundus although it pleases not Mr. S. I would also enquire of him whether he thinks Sir Kenelm Digby understood what he writ in his Book of the Cure of Wounds by the Sympâ—thetical Powder where P. 67. of his English Copy he tells a stupendious Story of a Nunne at Rome the truth whereof was confirm'd to him both from her own Relation and the attestation of Petrus Servius who was Pope Vrbane the 8th his Physician and several other Doctors of Physick at Rome that assured him of the truth of it This Nunne by excessive Watching Fâ—sting and Devotion had so heated her Body that she seemed to be all on fire this heat and internal fire drawing the Air so powerfully I use his own words the Air did incorporate within her Body as it uses in Salt of Tartar and the Passages being all open it got to those parts where there is most serosity viz. the Bladder and thence she rendred it in Water among her Vrine and that in an incredible quantity for she voided during some weeks more than 200 Pounds of Water every 24 hours Now as to the Salt of Tartar he had been treating of it in the fore-going Page that being exposed to the open Air it converts the Air into moisture in almost an incredible ☜ proporion to wit a Pound of the Salt well calcined will afford ten Pounds of good Oyl of Tartar by drawing and incorporating with it the Circumjâ—cent Air. Now while so many learned Philosophers do sâ—tisfie themselves and the World in so speaking concerning this Transâ—â—utation of Air into moisture why should Mr. S so severely carp at me for using the same forms of expression I know well enough what he runs at Helmont according to whose Pipe I find him ever dâ—ncing says it is a Vapor which is in the Air that is condensed into Water and not the Air it self to wit not the Element of Air that is turned into Water But is it not more properly called Air which we breath in than Vapor and it is that which we breath in which is turned into Water to wit the grosser parts of it for as to the pure Element of Air we have nothing to do with it in this Dispute nor do any Philosophers or other wise men doubt in the least to call it the Air. Hence the several Expressions in use among them concerning the 3 Regions of the Air and the Atmosphere of the Air c. A Term used by himself in several places of this his Appendix about Springs but he will not allow me to call it so If this be not properly called Air I do not know where we shall find it in the World nor will Mr. S. ever be able to describe its ubi by Ocular Demonstration nor yet Helmont whom he follows For my own part I chuse rather to retain the wholesome Grounds and Terms of Philosophy now used for many Ages than to fall into the new way of Canting in frothy words much in use among some late Writers especially such as go this way who while they have no new matter do yet coyn new terms to obscure truth on purpose to amuse ignorant Readers as if themselves had been Inventors If what now I have said be sufficient in the judgement of wise and learned men to evince a possibility of the transmutation of Air into Water then I need say no more as to Mr. S. in the proof of the Point in hand concerning the Original of Springs from Rain and Snow Nor has he any way to evade it but by calling in Question the Credit of the Relators in matter of Fact as he does with Dr. Heylin And I must confess were it not for the Credit of the Relator and his plain and undeniable circumstances of evidence whereby he makes it out a man would very much doubt of the verity of the last But without all peradventure a Person of that Honour Prudence and Learning would take care that he might not be imposed upon As for the former Story of Cardane and Fromundus which is also rare there is less ground of admiration since something extraordinary not much different has been observed among our selves I my self knew a Sergeant belonging to the Garrison at Hull who in a Diabete did void above 6 Quarts to wit about 12 Pounds of Urine every 24 hours for some weeks together till all his musculous parts were dissolved into Urine and he became a Skeleton the measure whereof did far exceed the weight of his whole Body and of his Meat and Drink while yet he drank not 3 Pints of Drink in a day But But P. 296. Mr. S. tell us He meets with two great difficulties which he cannot get through the solving of which he says will prove ominous to my Thesis The first is how the Rain Water shall sink into the Earth by empty Crevices or Clefts and what is that which must bring the intermediate particles of Water which fall betwixt one Crevice or Cleft and another into the distant Crevices Why where is the difficulty Water is thin in substance and also a heavy body and he grants the Crevices or Clefts are empty what then should hinder its sinking Nothing in the World is more plain than that it does so But it seems by what he says P. 297 that he would have been pleased if I had otherwise expressed it Supposing the Earth to imbibe Rain Water as a Sponge where it meeting with capillary Veins or small Pores not Clefts or Crevices which he says are scarce to be found but among Rocks sinks down by degrees into larger Veins and those into Subterraneal Channels where it makes Springs and this he acknowledges would have been truly said Well if this be true in his Judgement then Mr. S. has given up his cause while he is starting a difficulty Only his distinction of Land-Springs and Quick-Springs saves him for he grants the former but is not satisfied in the latter But I wonder Mr S. should observe no better what he is doing than to taxe me for not saying so when in effect he says nothing but my own words in the 94th Page of my Book where treating of the Sinking of Rain and Snow Water into the Earth I express it thus It finks down by secret passages into the Earth with which the Superficies doth abound which are like unto the small fibres of Veins not discernable by the Eye terminating in the Skin in all the parts of our Bodies and in rocky ground it sinks through the Clefts and by them is conveyed to the Subterraneal Channels more or less deep in the Earth where it is concocted by the Earth and moves as Blood in the Veins Now this I having said and he owning it to be truly said the difficulty is vanished and it becomes an Argument of demonstration for the proof of my Opinion I wonder either at his dis-ingenuity in denying me to have