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water_n	feed_v	year_n	young_a	49	3	5.7955	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96797	Scarbrough Spaw, or, A description of the nature and vertues of the spaw at Scarbrough in Yorkshire. Also a treatise of the nature and use of water in general, and the several sorts thereof, as sea, rain, snow, pond, lake, spring, and river water, with the original causes and qualities. Where more largely the controversie among learned writers about the original of springs, is discussed. To which is added, a short discourse concerning mineral waters, especially that of the spaw. / By Robert Wittie, Dr. in Physick.	Wittie, Robert, 1613?-1684.	1660 (1660)	Wing W3231; Thomason E1830_2; ESTC R204108	73,129	263

exceedingly keeping it in Earthen Vessels under the Earth and in their coolest Cellers that they may have it alwayes at hand Strabo saith l. 15. Geogr. c. ult that the Kings of Persia drank the water of the River Eulaeus constantly with whom it was in so high esteem that it was forbidden any of his Subjects to drink of the water of that River Lib. 1. Herodotus tells the same Story but calls it Choaspes which saith he flowes by the City Susa where the Kings of Persia were wont to keep their Courts in winter And Agath●eles in Athenaeus further describes it l. 12. Dypn c. 3. although he names not the River it seems to have been a small one whose water was called by the Persians aqua aurea So the Persian King● or the golden water which was fed by 70. Spring-heads of which it was treason and punished with death for any man to drink except the King and his eldest Son Water was accounted by the Ancients the fittest drink for all ages and Sexes However in this age of ours it is fallen under contempt Hence those Laws which Plato mentions that young men should not so much as taste any Wine till they were 18. years of age and women never which was observed by the Roman Matrones with very great devotion as saith Valerius Maximus Lib. 1. they usually drinking nothing but water or sometimes a drink called passum which is made of Raisins boyled in water when they are not well Athenaeus tells of a custome among the Roman women l. 10. Dypn c. 13. that they were wont at the first meeting with any of their husbands kindred to salute thē with a kiss who not knowing how soon they must meet some of them did drink no Wine at all least they should smell of it and so be discovered and have their names set up that woman being accounted to want no fault that would drink Wine And thus also the Italian Women drink nothing but Water Italians Ibid. concerning which I find a pretty Story mentioned by Athenaeus out of Alcuinus Siculus an old Italian Writer He saith that Hereùles as he was once travailing on the way towards Croton being thirsty turned into an House near the way side desiring some Wine to drink to quench his thirst now it happened that there was a Vessel of Wine in the House which the good Wife had broached for her own tooth her husband not knowing of it The Master of the House hearing when Hercules called for Wine bade his wife go and broach the eask and give him some the good Wife not being willing her Husband should know that it was already broached pretending what a deal of trouble it would be to them both did churhshly bid him drink Water Which Hercules standing at theh Door all the while hearing called the Husband to him and commended him for his good will and shewed him the womans deceit and the cask which now was turned into a stone This story is well known among the Italians and the stone is to be seen at this day saith my Author as a warning against the womens drinking of Wine Likewise at this day in France French it is accounted a foul crime for Virgins to drink any thing but water only their ancient women will mix a little wine with it which is called by some although with too much liberty of speech vinum baptizatum It were well if it were more in use in England especially among the younger sort as that drink which nature first assigned it would prevent drunkenness which Athenaeus calls the metropolis of all mischiefs lib. Dypn c. 1. ●5 de invent rev l. 3. c. 3. and Polydorus Virgilius the most filthy debauchment of the life of a man and the original of 600. other vices I suppose he intends a certain number for an uncertain and indeed is the shame of our Nation I know it is objected Ob. that the waters in England in regard of the coldness of the climate are more crude and not so pure and wholsome as those in Spain France and the hot Countries I confess great care ought to be had concerning the goodness of water Sol. of which by and by But certainly there is no cause for the objection since there is no Country but it affords wholesome water The waters of England are good even the most frozen Country of Greenland as I have heard from our Seamen of Hull who yearly continue there m●● moneths and use it wiho●● any the least harm I know the Objection arises from this that they think because of the coldness of our climate the water is not so well concocted with the heat of the Sun and so is hard of digestion 1. But they must know that the Sun by it's heat pierces no● far into the bowels of the earth in the hot Countries where they suppose the best water to be the heat thereof piercing not above 10. foot deep into the earth according to the judgment of the best Philosophers the Springs arising much deeper as we shall shew anon 2. Again the Sun and the Planets have an influence into the bowels of the earth where neither their heat nor their light can penetrate to the concocting of minerals that are above 100. fathome deep as I might manifest at large from the judgement of good Authors and therefore we need not doubt concerning water which perhaps lyes nearer the superfices and requires less concoction 3. Moreover water I mean Spring water which is in most ordinary use hath it's concoction and preparation according to the temperature of heat and cold that is in the earth Now if we may believe Philosophy which teaches that the earth is warmer in Winter in the low cavernes of it then in Summer because of the cold aire and frosts that shut the pores of it which is also ratifyed by our own experience that the Springs are warmer in winter frosty weather then in an hot Summer then it follows a pari that in our cold climate the Earth must be warmer then in those hot climates and consesequently the water rather better concocted 4. Besides it is a wrong to the God of nature whose beams of Divine love are equally extended in his common providence for the preservation of mankind throughout the whole universe as if we in England or they in other more Northern Countries had not as good a provision of water a thing so absolutely and generally necessary as they in the more Southern climates have For my own part I believe that our waters are as wholesome for our bodies as theirs are for them in those hot climates and much more then theirs would be for us and I think that fluxes and calentures which happen to Englishmen that travail into those hot climates do proceed rather from the ungreeableness of the waters to our bodies then from any other one cause that can be assigned 5. Again these medicinal waters with

of men And hereby the way I intend nothing concerning distilled waters which are make out of green plants nor to dispute whither they have in them the vertue of the plant out of which they are distilled as Fernelius and Quercitanus think De abdit rer caus l. 2. Pharm restituta or whether they partake nothing of their virtue especia●ly such as have nothing of the sinell or taste of the plant but are onely the flegmatick juyce of them and of the same vertue with our common water and to be used indifferently in stead of it as my learned and intimate friend Doctor Primerose thought it sufficeth that wee have them always ready and at hand in our Apothecarys Shops to be a vehicle to others medicines which we have occasion to use for present indications when wholesom common water would many times bee far to seek Nor do I intend to trouble the Reader or my self with a Phylosophicall discourse concerning the Element of water lib. 2. de gen c. 8. which is one of the four principles which Aristotle saith do necessarily concurre to the making up of every compound body and into which it is to be resolved in it's dissolution whether it be animate or inanimate Neither indeed can that be found any where not being obvious to the externall senses or capable of attaining its qualities of cold and moysture without loosing its form Instead of it we have our common water whose proper place is the superficies or convex part of the earth and is encompassed with the air being also very near of kin to the Elementary water although not the same 1 De Element de simpl med fac l. 1. Parac de Elem. ag as Galen and Paracelsus do assert it being of the number of those bodyes which Aristotle calls imperfect mixed bodyes in his book of Meteors It hath also the same qualities of cold and moisture in which yet it is capable of alteration especially in the former from external causes without any formal diminution This is called by Paracelsus the mother of all generations Param l. 3. de pest tract 1. and the matrix of all the creatures without this there would be no procreation of animalls or vegetables above the earth or of mineralls within the bowells of the earth This perhaps made Empedocles be of the opinion that all things were made of water But water is not only necessary by way of principle and so an ingredient in the constitution of our bodyes but also in Order to nourishment for the conservation of them in their being and growth And therefore Plato called it of all liquors the most precious In Euthydemo although it may be had at a cheap rate Lib. 2. Dypnos c. 2. I know Galen Actuarius and other learned men deny any nutritive quality to be in water although Athenaeus is of a contrary judgment because some creatures feed on nothing else as Grashoppers and so we see Horseleaches that are put into water in our Apothecaryes-shops will grow bigger But as for Grashoppers for ought I know they may feed as other insects do of green plants and it 's probable they do and as touching the growing of the Horseleaches I think the water while it 's new and uncorrupt pines them and makes them hungry not affording them any nourishment till it putrefyes which it doth the sooner by their being in it and so they are nourished aswell as bred by putrefaction which the water hath contracted and not by simple and pure water it self N●t n●urishing Now the reason why it adds nothing to the ●ourishment of our bodyes I conceive to the this That which is to nourish the body is in proximâ potentiâ to be blood and in remotâ a member whereas water because of it's super-abundant coldness as also because it is a simple body is not capable to become either the one or the other and therefore it cannot have any nourishing vertue Yet necessa●y u●to nourishment Notwithstanding there is nothing more necessary unto nourishment it being the best vehicle of nourishment without which those gross meats which we daily eat could not be assimilated and turned into our substance For how should that chyle which the stomack makes by concocting the solid meats which we daily feed on be able to pass into those small veins in the mesentery and from thence to the Liver if it had not a moist watery humidity mixed with it for it's vehicle as saith Galen lib 4. de usu part c. 5. Ob. Sol. If any object that Wine or Beer will serve for this end as well as water I answer Wine and Beer do it by their watery and thin substance which they have from their abundant participation of water besides water is more generally used in the World both by men and beasts then either Wine or Beer and doth better serve for other inward common ends And as for Wine Beer or Ale the more they do recede from the nature of Water the worse and more unwholsom are they to be used for ordinary drink The use of wat●● By the help of Water or what is made out of it is our natural heat kept in a mean and our radical moisture repaired so as the latter is not exhausted by the excess of the former Also with this nature is satisfyed and refreshed as much when we are thirsty as it is with meat when we are hungry yet without any addition or increase of the substance of our bodyes as I said before The first common drink This was the common drink both of man and beast during the first age of the World from the Creation till the Flood for above 16. hundred years when mens lives were prolonged to almost a thousand years Not that I think the drinking of water was the cause of their so long living but rather the good pleasure of God for the more speedy propagating of mankind upon the earth was the cause and their temperance a great help a vertue almost lost in this declining age of the World yet cert●inly it was the most proper drink which man could use in order to the lengthening of his dayes and preserving his health otherwise God would have shewn him a better And if circumstances be weighed we shall see that after the invention and use of wine which the Scripture attributes to Noah after the Flood the age of man began to be contracted to near a tenth part Psal 90.10 and yet still became shorter so as in Moses his time it was accounted but threescore and ten Nay long after Wine came to be known I find water was in ordinary use The ancient Romans used it Julius Frontinus saith that the Romans were content with water as their only drink for the space of 440. years from the building of Rome Yea even to this day not only the common sort of Citizens drink nothing else but the wealthier also delight in it

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies locus declivis or a steep place Yet I deny not but there may bee some Springs which at some small distance have a supply of water from the Sea but this makes nothing for their opinion concerning the supply of Springs at great distance and upon the high mountains lib. 2. c. 56. Pliny tells us of a Spring in the Gades which observes the Seas motion in ebbing and flowing and I am credily informed there is another in the Peak in Derbyshire which ebbs and flowes every twelve hours So the Spring at Giggleswick in Yorkshire ebbs and flowes many times a day even to the admiration whether that of Plinies may have any correspondence with the Sea or no I know not Lib. ● Nat Q●●st I am sure the other two have not and I had rather with Seneca look on such as these as wonders of God then trouble my selfe curiously to enquire into their causes that are too hard for me Se●●●l concet●s But these that are of opinion of the Seas percolation to be the cause of Springs are not all for this way of conveyance they say the water of the Se● is conveighed by transcolation into huge Caverns in the body of the earth indeed but then they differ again in finding its passage to the Spring heads each propounding a way according to their fancy Of agitation by subtterraneall winds as Socrates in Plato In Phoed. Compulsion by a Spirit or breath that is in the water as Pliny and Valesius Pl. l. 2. c. 65. of compression De sac phil c. 1. 63. and that either through the weight of the Sea it self Nat. Qu. lib. 3. a great part whereof he supposes to be out of its place in the air as Seneca ib. 2. The at nat Or of the earth as Bodinus and Thales Or rarefaction and condensation as Dr. Fludd and Mr. Carpenter Geograph Or rarefaction and condensation as Dr. Fludd and Mr. Carpenter Or attraction by the heat of the Sun and the heavenly bodies as Thomas Aquinas held Or Belmonts Sabutum or Virgins earth Ag in Sum. p. 1. q. 69. all which as they seem at the very naiming to be nothing more then empty conceits besides the disagreement that is among themselves tenders it the more questionable so they are sufficiently confu●ed some of them by Mr. Carpenter in his Geography Lib. 3. Nat. Qu. and the rest by Dr. French in his discourse upon the Spaw of Knaresbrough There is another account given by Empedocles an ancient Greek Philosopher Spaw p. 21. 22. c. as also Seneca for theebullition of Springs to which Gabriell Fallopius lib 1. de aquis medicatis c. 3. Mr. Carpenter Mr. Lydiat and Dr. French adhere the last taking a great deal of pains to make it out and that is by heat wheareby he will have the water which is conveyed from the Sea into the Caverns of the Earth to be elevated to the heads of Springs after the same manner as from the Sea to the middle region of the air and that is by resolving the water into vapors Dr. French opinion nor matters he whether that heat be above or beneath the waters if so be it turneth them into vapours and maketh them ascend as high as is requisite they should And this heat he will have maintained by subterraneall fires that are kindled and fed by Naphtha or some bituminous matter And he makes two degrees of heat one more intense in the deep Caverns to rarefie the waters in the Caverns into vapours the other more remiss nearer the superficies which must condense them again into waters which he illustrates by the head of an Alimbyck and the cover of a boyling pot whose more remisse degree of heat turns the vapours into water Although Aristotle who also will have water to be generated in the Earth L. 1. Meteor c. 11. says it is condensed by cold and the Philosopher seems as much to bee believed especially since its more agreeable to their own parallell of the middle region where certainly the vapours are condensed by cold That there are bituminous fires our own reason besides the testimony of good Authors doth sufficiently evince Sol. they being the efficient cause of hot Springs such as are those mentioned by Plato and Pliny the one in Sicily the other at Somosata and our own at the City Bath in Somersetshire besides many others from whence also are those burning mountains Aetna and Vesuvius besides others that we read of in Athours But first Dr. French supposes great Caverns of waters to be in the earth which come from the Sea pag. 16 17. pag. 23. the heat also to be of like proportion with the water what a conflict this would make in nature wee may easily judge when these two enemies fire and water must be so immured together I wonder the water being of like proportion which the fire doth not quench it or that the fire consumes not the water and so in both cases we should want water in our Springs and the world would be destroyed but it seems they do better agree and combine to bring about his end and he tells us how they both dwell together in the Caverns Secondly L. 1. meteor c. 10. this supposes the earth to be almost nothing but Caverns for if that be true that Aristotle saith concerning Springs that if all water that runs out of them in one year could bee kept in a vessell it would almost equalize the whole bulk of the earth and Dr. French tells us there is a like proportion of fire and water in the Caverns and reason tells us that fire cannot be kept in without a greater quantity of air which it continually consumes then what may wee judge concerning the Caverns Thirdly this implyes the Earth to be almost nothing but bitumen or Naphtha nor will his new generations be enough to maintain the expence Fourthly this supposes all the Earth to be on fire since almost in all places there are Springs and consequently contradicts the whole suffrage of Philosophers who call the Earth Elementum Frigidissimum Fifthly the Earth would in time be consumed by so many fires as saith Agricola it being of a calcinable and combustible matter Sixtly If it were so then the water would have a bituminous taste or smell which we know it hath not ordinarily it not differing in quality from those waters which are wont to break in the manner of Springs after great rains of which sort we have many break out yearly on the Wolds in York-shire commonly called by the name of Gypsies Lastly it s not probable that there are so many fires in the earth because those that dig in Mines in several Countries do meet usually with water which molest them but no fires But to proceed if the percolation of the Sea were the cause of Springs then we should usually have the most

plentifull Springs near the Sea by reason of the nearness to their Fountain when as to the contrary we find that those Towns which are scituate neer the Sea are more destitute of water then others that are more remote Again those Springs that are upon the Sea shore should probably sympathize in their growth or decrease with the Sea and so at the Spring-Tides should flow more plentifully and at Neap-Tides more sparingly as those Springs I just now spake of the Gypsies are more or less according to the rain whereas no such thing is observable in the other Nor is this Spring of which we treat to wit the Spaw which is upon the level of the Spring-tides and sometimes overflow by them in the least wise altered by them The Spaw not altered by the Tides as ever I could observe to flow more freely at the Spring-Tides and slower at the Neap-Tides when the Sea is at somewhat a further distance nor yet is its taste altered in the least or its efficacy in working notwithstanding which I think it hath some Salt in it from the Sea and is thereby exalted in some qualities Whereas it is very observable notwithstanding it breaks out of the ground within three or four yards of the foot of the cliffe which is near 40 yards high within a quarter of a mile there is another hill that is more then as high again above the Cliffe and a descent all the way to the Cliffe so as the rain water cannot lie long upon the ground I say nevertheless it is observable that after a great rain the water is altered in its taste But is altered by rain lessenened in its operation Indeed a rainy day or two will not hurt it all But to return to the ground of the opinion which is built upon the Seas sole sufficiency to afford so great and constant a supply of waters to feed the Springs I easily grant it to be the best Store-house and do only dissent about the manner of conveyance of which I shall have occasion to speak by and by And for the other ground because the Sea is not increased by the multitude of waters that flow into it daily which it must of necessity be if they had not by their subterraneal Channels a recourse to their Foun●ains Plato indeed hath a ready answer to it telling of I know not what great Abyss which he calls Tartarus and makes it the original Fountain of all waters into which by Caverns of the earth he will have the Sea to empty it self of its superfluity If this Tartarus be Hell he is surely mistaken for Dives found no water De Sac. Phil. c. 63. Valesius indeed interprets it to be the same with Moses his Abysse or else some hidden part of the Sea But this I pass over as one of the Philosophers dreams being also confuted by his Scholar Aristotle who gives a full answer lib. 2. Met. c. 4. which may satisfie any man with whom agrees Freigius in his Hydrographie An immense quantity thereof Hydrog p. 442. they say is spent in vapours which by the Sun and the heavenly bodies are drawn out of it daily and converted into rain snow and hail as also much is dryed up with the wind to which Mr. Lydiat consents Another large quantity is sucked up by the earth In praelect Astron. as is evidently seen neer great Rivers where the adjacent grounds are so much moistened that neer them there is a more signal fertility then in places more remote Ibid. And then again Aristotle saith that the Sea is not so much the end of the waters to which they run and wherein they are spent as the beginning and fountain of them from which they flow and so what was spent in exhalations is but regained by the descent of showers of rain and snow the Springs and Rivers paying Tribute according to their receit and hence it comes to pass that the Sea is neither fuller nor emptier And besides Valesius gives another answer viz. De Sac. Philos c. 63. The Sea is as much extenuated dissipated under the Zodiack by the exceeding heat as it is augmented and increased under the Poles with rain and snow And this may suffice to be said concerning the first opinion of the Original of Springs to wit the percolation of the Sea Sect. 8. The second opinion is That Spring water is generated in the Earth and that either by transmutation of earth into water or of ayr The second Original Li● 3 Nat. quaest c. 7. as others Of the former opinion was Seneca the Philosopher who as he was the Author of that fancy so I think he is alone for I finde none of his judgement That the Elements may be transmuted one into another especially those that are placed neerest one another agreeing together more in quality then the rest is the doctrine of Aristotle Lib 2. de gener c. 8. and agreeable with reason and very obvious to the senses I can easily believe that the thinner parts of earth may be turned into water as also the grosser parts of water into earth so the thinner and more subtile parts of water into air and the grosser parts of air into water and therefore it may be true that Seneca saith although it is rejected by Mr. Lydiat de Origin font but that the earth which is a dry body and accounted by Philosophers Elementum Siccissimum should by transmutation afford so much water or the hundred part of what flowes out of Springs is a thing so voyd of reason as it needs no arguments to disprove it and is not likely to gain many followers I therefore pass on to the other of the transmutation of air into water performed in the Caverns of the earth which by cold converts the air into water an opinion much more plausible then the other having also the authority of Aristotle to defend it 〈◊〉 M●●● 〈◊〉 who will have it made in the earth as it is in the middle region of the air when by condensation of vapors water is made an● he is followed by Dr. Fulk in his book of Meteors and H. ab Heer 's But this opinion leads also into inextricable difficulties and absurdities Spadacr And first he told us in the end of the tenth Chapter that so much water runs out of the earth in one year as if it were kept in a vessell it would equalize the bulk of the whole earth notwithstanding he is sufficiently scourged by Agricola Cardane Scaliger and others for it and reason tells that more then ten parts of air will not serve for the making but of one part of water as Scaliger In subt exere 46. de or font and M. Lydiat do both observe I think twenty would be too little then it would follow necessarily from these premises that the earth should be almost nothing but empty Caverns of air when nevertheless those that

dig mines in all Countries sometime two or three hundred fathom deep do find no such thing but a solid body all along Secondly this implyes such an expense of air as the whole Element of air would not suffice to feed that gulfe Bodinus saith it would not be sufficient for one day and therefore he laughs at the Philosopher Lib. 2. The. at nat But certainly it had been long since extinct out of the mess of Elements if Aristotle had been in the right in this contrversie Thirdly for a continuall supply of so much air as is requisite to bee converted into water to supply all the Springs there should bee found in severall parts of the earth great and constant in draughts and sucktion of air into the Caverns with exceeding great celerity and violence which no man ever did find nor any Geographer make mention of Fourthly how comes it to passe that any winds break out of the earth as Aristotle teaches in his book de mundo which he terms by the names of Apogei and Encolpiae de mund c. 6. and and that all the air is not rather turned into water to supply his constant generation of Spring water And how can two such violent motions of the air stand together especially seeing he tells us elsewhere that it is contrary to the nature of the wind which is nothing but Aer moius to blow contrary ways at once L. 2. meteor c. 12. I shall therefore passe over this Originall also as not soundly principled and proceed to examine the last opinion Sect. 9. The third and last opinion that I meet withall in the controversie about the Originall of Springs and Fountains is that they are caused by Rain and Snow of which I find Albertus Magnus 〈…〉 and Georgius Agricola the most eminent Patrons The sum of what they say is thus The Snow and rain falling from the clouds in great abundancy upon the earth Lib. 2. de ort cause subter c. 3. do by moistning the superficies cause it to bring forth vegetables whereas otherwise it would be barren through dryness The 3. Originall and consequently not habitable The remaining part except what suddenly runs into Rivers sinks down by secret passages into the earth with which the superficies doth abound which are like unto small sibres of veins not discernable by the eye Rain and Snow the true originall of Springs terminating in the skin in all the parts of our bodies and in rocky ground it runsthrough the clefts and by them is conveighed to the subterraneall channells more or less deep in the earth where it is concocted by the earth and moves as blood in the veins receiving many times a tincture according to the nature of earth and the Mineralls or Metalls by which it passes helping forward also their generation What a Spring is This water at length in its passage through the veins of the earth finds vent and runs forth which place of eruption we call a Spring or Fountain Whence its ebullition And this springing forth or eruption of the water I conceive to bee made not by any forcible Agitation compu●sion or violence that is put upon it ab extra within the earth or by suction from the Sun and the heavenly bodies or by heat which which may be in the earth or by any spirits that are in the water it selfe but from its own naturall inclination and tendency towards its proper place assigned to it by the Creator which as I said in the second Section is the convex part of the earth it not resting till it meets with its naturall correspondent the Air. And this I think to be the naturall reason of its ebullition out of the earth and I find scaliger in his subtilities of the same judgement Exere 100. it freeing nature from a violent force which the working fancies of men would put upon it who yet cannot agree among themselves Subterraneall lakes contribute nothing But as for subterraneal lakes that are found in the bottome of great Caverns of the Earth they are standing waters oftentimes of poysonous quality as I hinted in the 6th Section which having room enough and supplyed with air above them I think they incline not to motion and do contribute nothing to Springs nor can any subterraneal heat which Dr. French supposes to be in these Caverns extract a wholesome water out of them And this Rain or Snow water in the Channells where-ever it finds vent it continues to flow so long as the Channells by which such a Spring is fed have any water to supply it and that is more or less according to the wideness or length of the Channells or otherwise according to the number that meet together it not resting till it meets with the air And therefore it is observable in pipes that convey water from one vessell to another the water will flow till all its store bee spent whether the motion bee upward or transverse till it meet with air and then it ceases to flow for if one bore a hole in the pipe and let in air the motion is done These Channells also are furnished according to the quantity of Rain that falls and the advantages they have of receiving it by the small and secret passages that come from the superficies of the earth which concenter in those Channells Now this opinion of Rain and Snow water to bee the Originall of Springs Argumēts to prove is illustrated with many arguments of demonstration by the Authors before mentioned and others of this judgement the principall whereof are these First Because it is found by experience that fountains and consequently rivers are greater and do abound more with water in Winter and moyst weather then in Summer Secondly in those years when great Rain do falls in Summer and great store of Snow in Winter wee find Springs durable whereas in droughty seasons when there is but little or no Rain or snow the Springs dry up A sure proof whereof we had in England in the years 1654 55 and 56. when our climate was dryer then ever any storyes mention so as we had very little Rain in Summer or Snow in Winter most of our Springs were dryed up even such as in the memory of the Eldest men living had never wanted water but were of those sorts Springs which we call fontes perennes or at least were esteemed so which if they had received their supply of water from the Sea or from the air in the earth converted into water they could not have failed of water A third reason which perswades to this Originall is because in those Climates and Countries where little Rain falls few or no Springs and Rivers are seen As in the deserts Aethiopia and in most parts of Africa neer the equinoctial they have little water and many times in two or three days journey can hardly find enough to quench their thirst and their Camells as Historians

subject to have sediment more then other sorts Paulus Zachias a famous Roman Physician tells of a pretty device which was used by Cardinall Francisco Maria de Monte L. 5. quaest med leg tit 4. q. 2. one much delighted in Chymicall experiments whereby he puryfied the water of Tyber and made it wholesome to be drunk He had two large Cesterns of an Hollands sort of Stone that was of a porous substance which would hold fifteen gallons a piece these were so placed that the water that was put into the one might in some convenient space of time distil through the stone into the other under which he had a third which received what dropped through the second Neither of the uppermost was perforated at all but the water passed through the pores of them in the bottoms of both which there was ever found such sediment This water so transcolated was so pure and thin that it would easily passe through the Hypochondres and the Cardinall told my Author that he found much benefit in it against the stone and that it provoked urine quickly I conceive this to be very rationall and a neat way easie to be experimented and very proper for such as have weak bodies and yet are forced to make use of some of the grosser sorts of water whereby they may so purifie them as they may become much more wholsome for whose sakes I have thought fit to insert the experiment Sect. 12. Of Minerall waters HAving thus as briefly as I could run through the severall sorts of ordinary waters with thei● Originall causes natures and eff●cts being taking inwardly which may serve as Polycletus his rule the better to judge of Minerall waters this being as Mathematicians say of linea recta index sui obliqui I must again resume the subject which is the principall occasion of this discourse viz. The Spaw at Scarbrough which though it be a quick Spring or Fountain yet differs in quality and operation from our ordinary springs in regard it hath imbibed the vertues of certain Mineralls through which it passes as I hinted in the first Section to wit Vitriol Iron Allome Nitre and Salt Concerning the nature of which Mineralls I shall say something and then proceed to the nature and vertures of the Spaw it selfe Agricola De re metall 2. a learned Germane and very judicious in the nature of Mineralls and Metalls reckons up six sorts of simple Minerall waters to wit Salt Nitrous Aluminous Atramentarious Sulphureous and Bituminous this which we treat of is mixed or compound partaking of severall of these together Water may imbibe the nature of Mineralls Now there are severall wayes whereby water may imbibe the nature and vertue of a Minerall or Metall First by receiving its vapour and thus let water stand some while in a brasse skellet or some other Metall as Iron and it will taste of brass or Iron and the sooner if it bee warm when yet the skellet hath lost nothing of its substance and that water would all evaporate into Air. Secondly when some of their juyce is dissolved in the water and that is while the Mineralls are but yet young in fieri or as Chymists speak in solutis principiis for at that time their concrete juyces are dissoluble in water In syntag p. 221. as Libavius saith Thirdly another way is by Corrosion of the substance of the Mineralls mentioned by Galen Lib. 1 de simpl med fac and this is performed by the help of the concrete juyces we now mentioned dissolved in the water which corrode and extract Mineral substances And this commonly is done by such waters as have imbibed Vitrioll at the first for they do thereby become hungry and corrosive and so the fitter to take in to them any other Minerall that lyes in their way an example whereof we see in aqua fortis which will corrode the substance of another Metall and convert it into its own nature the difference only lyes in a magis and minus The like we see in vegetable acide juyces as vinegar as juice of Lemmons which will corrode Iron and cause a rustinses to grow upon it which will soon wast its substance at least make it more easie to dissolve Fourthly and lastly by confusion changing the substance of the Minerall into water and this is when the Minerall is of such a nature and that it is capable of being converted into water as Salt and Nitre will both so perfectly turn into water and Allom also although it s not so fusible as the other a little being put to them as if they were nothing else And this they wil do the more quickly if the water hath imbibed a vitrioline juyce but then take the water and evaporate it away and the Mineralls will be found remaining in the bottome An example whereof we have in this our Spaw water three quarts whereof being evaporated over the fire there will be found in the bottome three Drams of a brown brackish sediment which being separated as was said in the first Section two Drams will be found to be Allome Nitre and Salt the rest the substance of an Iron Minerall But because I spake now of Minerall juyces while the Mineralls are but young and in fieri its requisite I say something concerning their production Some have imagined that Mineralls and Metalls were created perfect at the first Fallop de met c. 11. seeing there appears not any seed of them manifestly as there doth of animalls and vegetables Lib●v de nat met c. 12 and because their substances are not so fluxible but firm and permanent But as they are subject to corruption in time by reason of many impurities and differing parts in them besides other accidentall decays so they have need to be repaired and preserved by generation as learned Dr. Jordan observes Nat. 〈◊〉 It appears in Genesis that plants were not created perfect at first but onely in their seminaries for in the 2. of Gen. 5. Moses gives a reason why plants were not come forth of the earth to wit because as Tremelius translates it there had as yet neither any rain fallen nor any dew ascended from the earth whereby they might be produced The like we may judge of Minerals that they were not at first created perfect but in their Seminaries also for the same reason moysture being as necessary for the production of Mineralls within the earth as of vegetables above as I said in the second Section Deort subt 5. c. 1. l. ib. and to this do consent Agricola and Dr. Jordan And therefofe it hath been always a received maxime among Philosophers that Mineralls are generated and our own daily experience confirms it Our Salt Petermen when they have extracted Salt Peter out of a floor of earth one year within three or four years after do find more generated there and do work it over again The like is observed of Allome

frequent Fluxes of the belly and strengthens the bowells expells all sorts of worms and vermine out of the body and the matter of which they breed It is very good against diseases of the skin cures the Itch and the Scab and helps such as are wont to break out into Botches It it peculiar against the Inflammation and Vlcer of the Reins corrects the heat Sharpness of Vrine dissolveth the Stone in the Kidneys expelling it in gravell and the mucous matter of which it is bred by Urine cleanses all the passages of Urine It furthers expulsion of the Stone in the Bladder without pain if it be not too big for the passage and the tartarous matter of which it is bred which of times causeth the same symptomes with the stone in the bladder when yet there is no stone at all it helpeth the pissing of blood and the Gonorrhaea and strengthens the seminall vessells It is good against many disea of the Womb opening the obstructions thereof and cures the Green Sickness in Maids it cures the overflowings thereof both white and red and helps those that are subject to abortions and Fits of the Mother takes away some causes of barrenness and strengtheneth the Womb amends the complexions of Women making them look with a ruddy fresh colour In some of these distempers it should be used by way of incession or injection according to the nature of the malady and the judgment and advice of some learned and prudent Physician and then all i●s qualities act more immediately upon the parts and so it better corrects hot and sharp humours and is more cleansing and healing It is good for such as are wont to Bleed often and for the inflamations of the eyes an● sudden flushings in the face correcting the heat and acrimony of the blood It is very beneficiall to be used by such as through obstructions or abundance of viscous humours have incorrigible bodies that will not be moved by anordinary Dose of Physick as also for such as have been long detained in a course of Physick for the cure of some rebellious and Chronicall disease to consummate the cure In a word if any intentions be to be performed in a medicinall way by allaying or mitigating some hot distemper opening obstructions evacuating morbifick humours by Urine or Seige and strengthening the inward parts of the body it may be fully and compleatly effected by this water wherein it operates so safely as I have very rarely observed any ill Symptomes to arise nor have I scarce named any distemper of which I have not made particular observation and most of them many times over or been certainly informed by credible Authors Spaw at Malton Of like vertue with this is the Spaw at Malton within fourteen miles North East from York but it is not so pleasant to the Palate and also nauseous to the stomack by reason of a muddy taste it hath being a very flow Spring not affording water enough for many drinkers although in operation it is as quick and strong as this If it be demanded whether Children old people Quest and women with child may drink of this Spaw water or no. To the first I know H. ab Heer 's saith he saw a sucking child drink of the Germane Spaw with good success Solut. and Dr. French allowes that at Knaresbrough to bee given to children of a year old but I think it to no purpose to trouble them with it so young Children since either they wil not drink at al or not above a spoonfull or two which can make no operation at all more then by cooling and moystning which may be done as wel by other Spring water But if a child be of four or five years be troubled with the stone or gravell or some such distemper and will be perswaded to drink of it it may be very beneficiall as I know by experience in several that at four or five years old have been enticed to drink a quart of it in a morning with good success and so continued for severall days Nevertheless if a younger child will drink of it it will do no harm at all Old peple 2 As for old people they are to be judged of according to the temper constitution of their bodies especially the stomack and bowells for some are more vigorous then others that are younger by much and of such there needs no scruple but if any old people do labour under a very feeble stomack and a cold distemper of the bowells and that upon triall made they find their stomack not able to receive it without a manifest dejection of appetite or some other ill Symptome they shal do well to refrain but for such as find no inconvenience they may go on to drink onely in a lesse quantity and somewhat warm But as for those that labour under the incurable Symptomes of decrepit old age whose naturall heat is small let them not meddle with it but content themselvs with a good dyet and a warm bed and such cordialls or Kitchin Physick as may help to repair their feeble Nature Women with child Touching women with child difference is to be made according to the time they are gone with childe as also according to the constitution of their bodies For the water being both purgative and diuretick it seems not to be so safe for them yet it is well known that many have drunk of it without the least detriment some of whom have been young with child and others many moneths gone even neer the time of their delivery I intend not here to enter into the controversie whither at all or how far women with child may be purged Aph. 1. Sect. 4. Aph. 29. Sect. 5. Hippocrates forbids it in the three first and three last moneths but allows it in the three middle moneths And elsewhere he says Aph. 34. Sect. 5 that if a great Lask happen to a woman with child it puts her in danger of miscarrying which we find true in our daily experience Now I conceive purging must hurt them because of the great agitation of the humors which is caused thereby and the expulsive faculty of Nature which is then irritated especially if it be caused by a Medicine that hath an acrimonious or malignant quality and thus Hippocrates tells of one that in her second moneth having taken a Pill of Elaterium fell into a violent Flux and died But this water makes no such agitation of the humours nor causes griping nor hath any acrimonious or Malignant quality to give any ground for such fears Nevertheless because in the first moneths of gravidity Natures cords are tender and so easily broken and in the last moneths the motions of the childe are more strong frequent and violent and like fruit that is neer ripe which soon f●lls if the Tree be but a little shaken I conceive it safest in the middle months to wit in the fourth fifth and sixth