corrupted and by this he will be in danger of losing his health For it is certain that the wholesomness and unwholesomeness of Places doth much depend upon the Water they are supplied with as might be here made good by many particular Instances And I leave it to the Enquiery of the diligent Observer Whether upon strict Examination it will not be found that those Towns or Places of Habitation which are supplied with such River-water are not generally far more healthful than others SECT II. Of the Original of Fountains HOw Springs or Fountains are perpetually supplied with Waters hath puzzled many Learned Philosophers both of Ancient and Modern Times Aristotle thought they sprang from Vapours in the Air shut up in the Earth and condensed by Cold. Seneca conceited that the Earth was transmuted into Water others that they come of Rain But to enumerate the several Fautores of the several Opinions and to re-count their Reasons would be here in vain and ineffectual since we have here a more certain Guid to follow a surer word of Prophesie viz. The H. Scripture where we find the doubt elegantly cleared by the infallible Pen of the Preacher Eecl 1. 7. All the Rivers run into the Sea and the Sea is not full unto the place from whence the Rivers come thither they return again Rivers which are nothing else but Fontium Concursus a Concourse of Springs Do all says Solomon run into the Sea and the Sea is not full how comes that to pass Because as Rivers run into the Sea so doth the Sea empty it self by Subterranean Passages into Fountains which by their never failing Streams do constantly supply the Rivers which disembogue themselves into the Sea again Whereby it seems as if to Nature at the first there had been assigned a certain bulk of Water perpetually to perform a Circulation in the Macrocosme Analogical to the Circulation of the Blood and Humours in the Microcosme And I have often thought it somewhat strange that amongst all the Learned and Ingenious Worthies who have imployed themselves to give an account of the manifold Resemblances and Analogies between the greater and the lesser World none should hit upon the Application of the before-said Solamons Circulation to the Microcosme till our famous Doct. Harvy How obvious one would think had it been to those that had their thoughts busied on that Subject to apply the Vessels containing the Blood to the Rivers above and under Ground The Vasa attrahentia deferentia to the Subterterranean Channels and Rivers above Ground the former carrying the Water from the Sea the later returning it thither again How answerable for largeness are those Vessels which are near the Fountain of Blood in the Body to the Channels near the Sea their Fountain Again How Analagous are the Branchings and various Distributions of the Vessels in our Bodies from several Trunks subdivided again into Capillary Branches to convey the Blood and Humours for the Nourishment of the Solid Parts to Rivers Brooks Rivolets and those other lesser Conveyances dispersed both above and under Ground for a supply to Nature for the generation of all Bodies And what proportion doth the Pulse hold to the Tyde of the Sea the Systole to the Ebb the Dyastole to the Flood and the Peristole to the space between And that there are Gulphs and Channels under Ground by which the sea-Sea-water is conveyed is evident when we consider the many great Lakes that have no other way to vent themselves What way can the Caspian Sea be supposed to be exonerated For the huge Rivers Volga Jaxiares Ochus and many other disemboguing themselves therein it must needs vent it self some way or other The Mediterranean Sea into which the Ocean by the Straits of Gibralter and the Fxunine Sea by the Thracian Bosphorus with very many great Rives besides do continually run must needs also discharge it self by Subterranean Gulphs How comes it to pass that some Lakes are full of sea-Sea-Fish and yet are of a great distance from the Sea In Bainoa a Province in Hispaniola is a Lake of Salt Water which hath above Twenty Rivers runing into it yet it never increaseth and it is furnished with Sharkes and many other sea-Sea-fish At Cajela in Italy there is a Mountain towards the South under which the Sea runs with a great noise At Apamaea a City in Phrygia which is far distant from the Sea many new Lakes Fountains and Rivers brake forth about the time of the Mithridatical War one of which was Salt and had an infinite plenty of Sea-Fish and Oysters Besides we read of Channels and Rivers in divers Countries which run a great way on the Earth and then ingulph themselves In the Province of Cazcium in Hispaniela there is a great Cave in an hollow Rock at the bottom of a very high Mountain in which divers Rivers after they have run near an hundred miles pass as into an Indraught What can better salve the contrary Currents of one and the same Sea in several parts than Subterranean Channels as of the Atlantick c Or what can give a more propable account of Whirle-pools in many of which there is such rapid Circumgyrations that if a Ship comes over them they are in great danger of being swallowed up Such an one Andreas Moralis in his Dec. 7. c. 8. tells us that he happened into on the Coast of Hispanicla where the Water was drawn into the Earth with that viclence that with all the Toil and Skill he had the Ship could scarce escape sinkink Again To these Vnder-ground Caverns are referrable most of the many strange and seeming unaccountable things that have been found under Ground especially those that have relation to the Sea as Shells Bones of Fishes Masts parrs of Ships c. Ortelius tells us that at Berna in Switzerland Anno Dom. 46. in a Mine Fifty Fathom deep a Ship was digged up in which were Forty Eight Carcases of Men and much Merchandize And in Greenland out of the Top of a Mountain was a Mast dug with a Pully hanging to it Now a more feasable way for the bringing of these and such like things to such places then by Subterranean Passages from the Sea I do confess I am to seek So that I hope by this time the necessary Supposition of Solomans Macrocosmical Circulation is sufficiently made good viz. That there be Subterranean Caverns within the Bowels of the Earth wherein the Sea-water doth make its reciprocal Frisks and Meanders Now though we are thus as abovesaid infallibly informed of the Original of Fountains for though I must confess that it was not the design of the Holy Ghost in Scripture to teach Natural Philosophy yet however when obiter or by the by he is pleased plainly to drop any Physical truth I hold my self obliged to give my assent thereto and otherways priviledged before all other Opinions in that it hath the most Ancient of Ethnick Philosophers as Plato Thales c. for
them into a belief of the Worlds Creation by the Almighty God Hither may be referred that of Rabbi Bechai as translated by Buxtorf in Lexic Accepit Deus Benedictus ignem aquam permiscuit ista invicem ex illis facti sunt Coeli i.e. The blessed God took Fire and Water and mixing them together made the Heavens So that if by the word translated Heaven we have found Fire and Water the next word in the Text being the Earth we have gained the time of the Creation of the Elements Fire Water and Earth answerable to the Hermetick Principles of Sulphur Mercury and Salt And further that Water was signified by Moses to be created in the Beginning is evident by the words of the next Verse where Water is mentioned under the word Deep without any intimation of any new Creation but as it were taken for granted that it was created in the Beginning that the word Deep in Scripture Stile is often used for deep Waters or Seas is very obvious as only to instance in that one place of the Royal Psalmist speaking of the Creation of the Earth Psalm 104.6 Thou coverest it with the Deep as with a Garment From whence it is evident that there was not one Homogeneous Mass of Matter created in the Beginning but one Body expresly distinguisht into several Heterogeneous Members which were distinct and separate in their Scituations and not confounded together It was as Natural for the Water to be every where about the Earth as the Air to be every where about the Terraqueous Globe the Aether to be about the Air and the Super-Aether above all which is elegantly expressed by the Prophet Amos chap. 9.6 It is he that hath builded his Stories in the Heavens c. From which Original Scituation of the Elements we may collect that their several Bodies of Matter were proportionable the Matter of Earth most dense and therefore lowest the Matter of Water less dense and therefore above the Earth the Matter of Air more rare and therefore above the Water the Matter of Aether more rare and therefore above all other Elements next to the Super-Aether which is mo t rare and so fittest for the Habitation of pure Spirits Now the said Elements which were created in the Beginning were then endued with their proper Elementary Spirits pure and unmixt which receiving Disposition by the Holy Spirit did produce their proper Qualities gradually and successively à potentia in actum whereupon the simple Qualities of Driness and Moisture in the Earth and Water did not actually exist till the third day at which time God call'd the Dry Land Earth and the gathering together of the Waters call'd he Seas The Element of Water is elegantly set out by Pliny lib c Hoc Elementum caeteris omnibus imperat terras devorant Aquae flammas necant scandunt in sublime caelum sibi quoque vindicant c. This Element challengeth a kind of rule over all the rest it devours the Earth extinguishes Fire it aspires even unto Heaven and doth as it were not only clime up thither it self alone but it carries with it whole Sholes of Fishes heaps of Stones and divers other heavy Substances which afterwards fall down again with it thus far Pliny This is so necessary an Element that no living Creature can subsist without it How wonderfully are all Vegetables enlivened the Spirits of Animals refresh'd with the vivifying Humidity and Balsamick Vertue wherewith it is impregnated by its Digestion in the Clouds Hence it was perhaps that Thales Milesius one of the seven Sages of Greece and Empedocles do both agree that Water is the sole Principle of all things the Spagyrick Masters go not quite so far who affirm it to be the material Principle of all Concrete Bodies As to the manifold and wonderous Vertues of Waters which Authors of good Credit do relate it would be an Herculean Labour to recite them all I shall therefore only for the Readers Curiosity and Delight recount the most admirable and unusual of them which for Methods sake I shall speak to in this order 1. Of the Coldness and Heat of some Waters 2. Of their Taste and Smell 3. Of their various Colours 4. Of their divers Currents or Runnings 5. Of their change of Quantity and Quality 6. Of some other Things remarkable in Waters 1. As to the First In Corinth there is a Fountain of Water which is always Colder than Snow Ptol. Com. Lib. 7. Pliny reports that there is a certain Fountain issuing out of the Mountain Nonacris in Arcadia that is of so cold a Quality Vtpote cum profluens ipsa lapidescat i.e. That as it springs out it is converted into Stone Lib. 31. c. 2. There also he tells us of certain Springs call'd Posidianae near the City Baiae in Campania whose Waters are so hot that they boil their Meat commonly therein Near the Sea Banks of Cuba there is a River so large that it is Navigable and yet it is so hot that one cannot endure to touch it Martyr Sum. Ind. And as Ramus relates Tom. 3. There is a Spring near the Province of Tapala which runs so hot that one cannot pass over it here we ought not to omit our hot Baths at the Bath in Somersetshire The hot Spring issuing out of St. Vincents Rock near Bristol and other Instances of this nature which this our Isle doth produce might here be particularized if it were necessary 2. In the Taste and Smell of Waters there is great variety Aristotle writes of a Well in Sicily whose Water is so sowr that the Inhabitants commonly make use of it instead of Vinegar The Waters of Eleus and Chocops for Deliciousness and Sweetness were famous amongst the Persian Rings and of them they much used to drink Johnst Cl. 2. c. 3. The Water of Cardia is sweeter than warm Milk and so is Vinosa near to Paphlagenia where multitudes of Strangers come to drink of it Johnst ibid. The small Fountain Exampeus in Scythia is so bitter that it taints the sweet Streams of the River Hypanus after it hath run sweetly Forty miles Ibid. In the bottom of the Adriatick Sea which turns to Aquelia there be Seven Fountains and Six of them are very Salt Polyb Hist But of the Saltness of Fountains we need no further instance than our Salt Springs at the Witches in Cheshire The wonderous pleasantness of the smell of Cabura a Spring in Mesophtamia hath occasioned the Fable of Juno's bathing her self therein Plinie lib. 31. c. 3. The hot Baths that are distant from Rhegium 26 miles smell of so gallant a Bitumen that they seem to be mingled with Camphire Johnst Cl. 2. c. 2. Where also he tells us of a Pit in Peloponnesus whose Water smells wondrous pleasantly In Hildersham there be two Fountains the one flowing out of Marble smells like the stink of Rotten Eggs the other from Brimstone smells like Gun-powder Agric. de Nat. 3. As for Colours they
which inclines Men very much to Venery that drink of it or bathe in it Pompeius Fest I have heard it reported by creditable Persons in Ireland that in the Province of Vlcester there is a Fountain in which whosoever shall two or three times wash himself shall never become gray Now though I have taken the pains to collect those different Natures and various effects of Waters to shew how capable they are of receiving diversity of Qualifications from the Earth yet possibly they may appear to some as improbable and as much past belief as the most ridiculous Relations in Mandeveile Wherefore to disabuse the Judgments of such I shall endeavour to discuss their seeming impossibilities and make some of those instances which seem most Anomalous to Nature to lie level to Natures Rule and their Understandings and shall leave the rest for the Reader to salve as a Whetstone to actuate his Intellectuals As to those Waters which Pliny Varro and other Authors do relate to change the Colour of those Animals that drink of them What impossibility is in it What hinders but that the Qualities of Waters transfused through their Bodies should do as much in them as the solicitous care of one Night or some sudden surprize of the Mind should with us Camerarius relates of a Noble Youth who having Ravisht a Maid and being to die for it he so deeply resented it that his Vital Heat and Spirits were so much extinguished that all his Beauty vanisht and the Roots of his Hair growing dry for want of Moisture it turned Gray Mem. Med. C. 2. M. 15. The same thing happened saith Scaliger Exer. 212. to Franciscus Gonzaga when he was imprisoned for a Traytor As to the River Nus which makes a ready Wit and that Fountain that causeth Blockishness doth not common Experience teach us that Wine doth the same things Which if moderately taken its Spirits are exalted into the Brain by the Heat of our Bowels where it quickens its Motion and produces a certain Gayety which raises our Fancies and gives us excellent Thoughts But on the other side when it is drunk in Excess the Spiritual part arising in too great abundance doth circulate in the Brain with such celerity that then Objects do appear double and the Walls of places seem to turn round and we are prone to Sleep also which is occasioned by the Pituita which being attenuated by the Spirits of the Wine glides into the small Meanders of the Brain and there condensing doth hinder the Circulation of the Animal Spirits I say What hinders but that the like Effects may follow upon drinking of some Waters which in their Subterranean Passages may imbibe such like Qualities from the diversity of Mineral Vapours As to the Fountain Clytorius in Arcadia which makes them that drink of it loath and abhor Wine it may not improbably be imputed to a certain viscous Quality in that Water which sticking to the Walls and Mouth of the Ventricle may cause such a Nauseousness As to the intoxicating Quality of the River Lyncestius which Pliny calls Acidula from a certain Wine-like Acidity imparted to it it probably receives its Quality from the fumosity of Sulphur which will easily affect the Brain by its Narcotick Vapours As to that Fountain in the Isle of Bonitta which is creditably reported to make Men Young agen to cause the Winter of Old Age to put on the Verdure of the Spring-like Youth that I may not seem to impose impossibilities in Nature upon the belief of the credulous Reader I declare my meaning thus It may by a Natural possibility have a certain Physical Vertue from certain Heterogeneous parts of which it consists whereof some by carring off the Sedement of those Humours which suffocate the Natural Heat and others assimulating their Balsamick Vertue to the Vital parts which may wonderfully restore the Radical Moisture and mightily repair the Humane Fabrick though not in so high a manner as the Juice of that Fruit of the Tree of Life in paradice yet if I should affirm that the Effects of them both were exerted from the same chain of Causes only the later in a more exalted degree I do not see wherefore I should be esteemed Heterodox As to the Fountain of the Sun in Lybia which at Sun Rising and Setting is Warm at Noon Cold and at Midnight Hot Dr. Fulke saith it may be by the same reason that well-Well-Water is colder in Summer than in Winter As to the Lake in Palestine called Asphaltites into which a Man bound Hand and Foot and cast therein cannot sink it is by reason of its Saltness upon which account it is called in H◠Writ the Salt Sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for common Experience teacheth that the Salter any Waters are the heavier Burthen they will bear Our Boyling of Brine till Eggs swim thereon is a confirmation Before I put an end to this Section the curious and inquisitive Reader will not think it impertinent if I spend a little time in answer to those that may demand What Water is best and wholesomest for common use To which Pliny briefly and elegantly answering saves me a labour viz. That which is most like to Air and then it must have the qualities of thin light cold moist tastless smelless and having its proper Colour Rain-water by Galen and others for its lightness is preferred before others especially that which falls in a Thunder-showr yet because it is not clear and by reason of the Exhalations wrapt up together with the Vapours I cannot give it my Suffrage So Hail and Snow-water for the same reason cannot be wholesome to which agrees the Opinion of Hippocrates Aristotle and Pliny Some commend Ice-water affirming it must needs be wholesome and pure it being coagulated of the top and lightest of the Water the terrestial and faeculent part subsiding at the bottom But to this I cannot consent but must condemn it upon the account that Exhalations continually falling down from the Air upon the Earth and Water do light upon the Superficies of the Water and mix themselves with it and by consequence must needs be gross and impure The Rarity and Tenuity of Water saith Hippocrates is known by its waxing soon cold and soon hot and wherein Flesh Pease c. are quickly boiled for that there is therein a difference in Waters every good House-wife knows The worst Water of all is standing Water as Lakes Pools c. But certainly Fountain and River Water are the wholesomest especially the last being percolated or strained through Sandy Earth and partaking of no other quality whose Streams being rapid and running with a swift Current upon an hard gravelly bottom are often broke off by many crooked turnings and meanders therefore Avicenna commends those Cities and places that are so supplied And Plato in his Book De Legibus Prohibites his Citizens to lodge in that City where there is no Laws nor any River-Water by that says he his manners will be
its Abettors I say though it be granted that from the Sea through Subterranean Channels yet there remains a knotty Question which hath proved too difficult for many searching Philosophical Brain to unty viz. How the Sea-water should be conveyed to the very tops of Mountains as that Fountain which Curtius relates lib. 3. that feeds the River Marsyas Ex summo mortis cacumine excurrit springeth out on the very top of the Mountain and as that Spring of fresh Water which streams out on the top of a Rock which is in the main Sea near Scotland and St. Winifreds Well in Wales on the top of an high Hill with innumerable other instances of the like nature About the Dihoti of which Philosophers do not a little differ Pliny ascribing the reason of it to the Wind which forces says he the Waters through the Caverns of the Earth Scaliger to the weight of the Sea which pressing upon the Channels forceth the weight of the Sea which pressing upon the Channels forceth the Waters through the Earth's Meanders Some refer it to the attractive Vertue of the Earth drawing Moisture to it like a Sponge or a Fleece of Wooll Others to the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea And if the Poets Conceit may be admitted amongst the variety of Opinions he tells us that Caerulea per stagna agitant liquentia Nymphae Alterius implent undantes roribus urnas Alteriusque simul effundant c. And I hope I shall not abuse Jovianus his meaning if I thus translate The Azure Nymphs i' th' Subterranean Deep Alternately their constant turns do keep To fill and empty their light Pitchers c. so Fountains do never fail to overflow To which Conceit that of Paracelsus and his Followers is not much unlike who would have us believe that there be innumerable Spirits that inhabit within the Earth as well as in the Air and Planets having there their several Offices and Imployments amongst which there be some busied about the Conveyance of Sea-water to the Tops of Hills and Mountains within the Cavities of which they assign their principal Residence to whose Management they also refer all Natural and viclent Motions as Generation Corruption Chasms and Earth quakes Now though we ought not to doubt of Gods Power by Spirits which being his Ministers can at his command effect this and many more Actions that be infinitely more difficut yet to impute all things to them which do not lie open and level with our Senses must needs be but a Sanctuary for Ignorance and prove a mighty Impediment to all Ingenious and Philosophical Disquisition Though amongst the many Phaenomena there are here or possibly may be produced of the Original of Fountains it may be difficult to assure which is the true one Yet if I shall propose one that can give an account of all Appearances and is not contrary to what the Holy Scriptures do any where insinuate I think I have reason to be content and the Reader will have no cause to complain All Philosophers do truly hold that the Earth and Water do make one Globe which they demonstrate by the Moon 's Eclipse which being caused by the said Terraqueous Globe's interposition between her and the Sun and causing what is darkened on the Moon 's Body to be round or globous is an evident Argument that it must needs be round and of a circular form it self of which thing the Holy Ghost in Holy Scripture hath not been wanting to inform us There is but one Body of all the Waters for every part of the Waters as the many Seas Lakes Rivers Brooks and Fountains are joyned unto the whole as Members of one Body So that either above the Earth or under the Earth they are all conjoyned together as the wise King testifies in the before-recited place Eccl. 1.7 which thing the Royal Prophet elegantly describes Psal 104.6.7 The Waters stood above the Mountains at thy rebuke they fled at the Voice of thy Thunder they hasted away agreeable to the Almighty's Ipse dixit at the Creation And God said let the Waters be gathered together unto one place and let the dry Land appear But whither did they fly Whither did they haste Into what place were they gathered together God himself resolves us Job 38.10 I brake up for it my decreed place and set Bars and Doors and said Hitherto shalt thou go and no farther and here shall thy proud Waves be stayed As if he should say I have by my word caused those vast Channels to be cut in the Earth those great Banks huge Rocks and Mountains to be cast up to make way for the gathering together of the Waters that I might as it were marry the Earth and Waters together that so they might be made one Globe Vpon the Circle whereof I might sit and view the Inhabitants thereof as Grashoppers Esai 40.22 which thing viz. That the Water helps to make up the Roundness of the Sublunary World is evident to sense as is proved by the familiar practice of Seamen who when they go about to discover Land send some body up to the Main Mast from whence he can discover it when no body else in the Ship can Thus far I hope we have by this time gained that the Earth and the Water do make one Globe And therefore as to that Question so much bandied amongst Phylosophers Whether the Water be higher then the Earth I thus resolve As we find the Earth in its Superficies to be very much indented with Mountains Vallies Hills and Plains so is also the Surface of the Sea much unequal occasioned by the Motion which God in the beginning by Nature Assigned it in which Motion the Mass or Body of Water forms it self round or Circular according to its Natural Property for the whole is like its parts and every one knows that a drop of Water let fall on a Table will form it self round So that it is not against Reason to conceive how the Sea in the roundness of its Figure may Mount as High if not Higher than any Mountain on land is High nor against the Infallible Oracle which assures us that God gathereth the Waters of the Sea together as an heap Psal 33.7 and that he lifteth up the Waves thereof they Mount up to the Heaven they go down again to the Depths Psalm 107 25 26. and why should this Circular Mounting of the Sea be more Inconsistent with the Globous Constitution of this Terraqueous Globe than the Mountains on Land some whereof o retop the Clouds nay without those Mountains of Water to Ballance as it were those on the Land it puzzles me to conceive how there should be made up a consistent Regular Globe of the Earth and Water So that upon this rational Suposition that the Sea from whence all Fountains are supplied is as high if not higher than the highest Mountain on Earth it cannot rationally be denied but that according to the Rules of Hydrology it may by
the Correspondency of its level Force its Water through the various Conduits Veins and twining Crannies in the Earths Bowels to the top of the highest Mountain answerable to the Experiented Maxim Vna Aqua premit alteram er tantum surssum elevat quantum ipsa est elevata i e. one Water presses another forward and raiseth it as high as its own Level is For that it cannot be ascribed to the conceit of the learned Scaliger who would have the weight of the bulk of the Sea-water-press the Water through the Earths Subterranean Channels till it find away out is Evidently proved by this familliar Example lay an horn on the back that both ends be equally and Horizontally high and then fill it full with Water now though there be much more Water in the thicker end than in the smaller yet the greater Water cannot drive the lesser up higher then it self is elevated There being some seeming Objections to this Hypothesis which I fore-see may possibly arise in the Readers minde it will not be amiss here to anticipate and answer As 1. How comes Fountain-Water to be fresh when the Sea-Water from whence Fountains are Supplied is Salt I answer all Metals and Minerals in the Earth being produced of Salt and the Earth it self having its fatness and fertility from Salt do greedily attract the Saltness out of the Sea-Water as it passes through the Earths Bowels for their Maintenance even as our Flesh draws its nourishment from the Blood in our Bodies by which means being deprived of its Saltness it at length comes out pure and fresh at the Fountains mouth and that the Earth naturally drawes Salt unto it is proved by this Artificial Experiment If you bind a piece of course Linnen Cloth over one end of a bottomless Cask and fill the Cask with Earth and pour thereon a quantity of Salt Water and let it sink through the Earth two or three times the Water at last will come out fresh the Earth having drawn to its self the Salt thereof 2ly It may be objected Whereas we see that all Rivers run into the Sea how can then the Sea be higher than the Land I Answer that onely proves the Sea lower than the Land near the Shore where it is terminated by the dry and solid Body of the Earth as we see in a drop of Water put upon a Table where the edges and extremities of the Water being terminated by the dry substance of the Table are depressed and lower than the middle like an half Globe For if a Measure was to be taken of the Terraqueous Globe it must be taken from the tops of Mountains and from the highest Sea and not from the Vallies nor the Sea-Coasts 4ly If these should fall into the hands of the Readers so over Phylosophical that they would not admit of Scripture Testimonies such as Psal 104.8 9. Jer. 5.22 for a sufficient Answer to those that object that if the Sea were higher then the Land the whole Earth would consequently be overwhelmed therewith Let such consider that the Natural place of Waters is above the Earth as being a Body not so heavy as Earth and being terminated by the dry Land it there willingly receives a Check and being Natureally Propense to a Globous Circulation it flies back from the Shore and betakes it self for that end to its own Homogeneous Mass which according to its Natural Law may sooner and with more facility mount in the roundness of its Figure above the Clouds than out-pass its sandy bounds Though as I have endeavoured to make out all Springs or Fountains do receive their Original from the Sea whose Water by its secret Passages and various Percolations through the Earth is made fresh and clear yet I would not be accounted so unphylosophical as not to admit of some secondary and adadjuvant Causes such as these 1. Great Rains may be a Cause of the increase of their Currents for 't is observable that in Rainy Weather there is a greater flush of Waters out of Springs than in a dry time nay sometimes some Springs are dry and yield no Water as in a long time of drought And these things happen by reason of the Harmony that is between the Air and the Earth for when the Air is resolved into Moisture the Earth and Minerals are then affected as may be seen on Stone-Walls Glass-Windows c. and being moistened by the Air they suck from the Sea-water in its Subterranean Passage nothing but Salt but when the Air is a long time dry the Earth and all the furniture of its Caverns in the most secret Recesses of which the Air will have admittance are so likewise and being thirsty they eagerly suck in not only the Salt but the Water also whence it is that little Springs are dried up in long Droughts but where there are great Veins of Water the Water is diminisht but not quite dried up 2ly Fountains may receive augmentation from the Vapours of Subterranean waters which lighting in their passage upon Earth repleated with Mineral Seeds and receiving actual heat from the fermentation of Minerals in soluris principiis whilst they are in generation by the force of which heat Vapours are raised up in the Caverns of the Earth which fly upwards to the tops of Mountains as water in distillation to the heads of Alimbicks where being refrigerated by the air included within the Cavities of the invironing Rocks they are reduced to the natural density of water First into drops then after the manner of Rain they unite into one Torrent and so by a longer passage collecting their forces they break out into a full stream Our Catarrhs and Rheumes do bear herewith a great Analogie for they by the heat of our Viscera being evaporated into the head and there condenst by the coldness of the brain do fall down into the body again in Rheumatick and gouty humours Our Tears also do the like Whereunto the Prophet Jeremy alludes making our Heads as the Hills and our Eyes as the mouths of Fountains and the saltness thereof may be ascribed to their short Ambages from the Head to the Eyes like as the saltness of some Springs to their vicinity their short and strait passage from the Sea St. Clement hath a pretty Allusion concerning Springs in his Epistle to the Corinthians which Cyrill Patriark of Constantinople presented to our Royal Martyr King Charles the First which was annext as Schedule to a Manuscript of the Bible fairly writ in Parchment by Theca a noble Egyptian Woman about the year 320 p. 50. Edit Oxon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The perpetual Fountains do hold forth their never failing Breasts to sustain the life of man being made for his use and health Thereby methinks intimating as if the Subterranean Abyss was as the Liver the Subterranean heat it 's Native heat the Vapours thence arising the Blood the Conduits through which it passes to the Fountain's Mouth the Veines which lead
to the two Hills the Breasts And as the Blood by the quality of the Breasts is changed into Milk so the Subterranean Vapours by the density they receive from their various Meanders through the Hills and Mountains are converted into Fountain-water Whereupon 3ly Something also may be asscribed to Aristotle's Opinion of Air included in the Caverns of the Earth which being condensed by Cold is converted into water Though by no means it is to be allowed as a principal Cause by reason that the Air cannot rationally be supposed to undergo so quick and sudden a Corruption as is requisite neither can so many Vapours be any waies afforded for so vast and perpetual a supply of Waters yet we may not on the other hand totally exclude it but must admit it as an adjuvant cause as may Analogically nalogically be collected from that Example of Cardan lib. Variet 8. c. 44. where he tells us of a certain Sick man in Italy who in the year of our Lord 1481 did vent by Urine for 60 days together 36 pounds of water every day when as the Meat and Drink he dayly took exceeded not 7 pounds So that the over-plus which he voided by Urine was 29 pounds a day which in that space of time amounted to 1740 pounds and the weight of the mans whole Body was not quite 150 pounds Now the Reason hereof is supposed to be the Air contained in his Arteries which being converted into a watery substance was emitted by the Urinary passages and so being ejected there was a successive Supply of Air and by consequence of water Though there be these and possibly many more secondary and accidental causes of the Supply of Fountains with water yet the primary constant and never-failing cause is from the Sea which being as high if not higher than the highest Mountain as is before intimated easily and naturally raiseth its water through the subterranean Channels to the tops of the highest Hills Rocks or Mountains which Hypothesis is not a little strengthned by the examples of many Fountains and Lakes on the tops of Mountains which have ordinary ebb and flow with the Sea as the Fountain Inopos in the Island Delos which Pliny reports to keep its course with Nilus also he mentions lib. 2. c. 103 a little Isle over the River Timavus in Italy which hath certain Fountains in it which increase and decrease with the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea which doubtless must have larger Conduits than other ordinary Veins of water that so they may uninterruptedly keep touch with the Rise and Fall of the Sea SECT III. From whence it is that Medicinal Waters do receive their various Qualities with the manner how WAter is either Simple or mixt and seeing the simple qualities of the first may serve as a Rule to discern and judge the last by it will not be amiss towards the furtherance of our search after contaminated Waters to define what simple water is Simple water is thin light cold moist tasteless smelless and having its proper colour Now where any of these Properties be wanting or redound it is then mixt and stain'd by receiving and imbibing some other quality or substance from some one or more Subterranean Mines Pliny saith lib. 31. c. 4. Tales sunt Aquae qualis terra per quam fluunt Waters do partake of the quality of the Earth they run through But the manner how they should be impregnated with such various properties hath been so hard to discover that the Antients have wrote little of it holding them to be sacred and holy as judging them to have their vertues immediately from God having possibly retained that Notion from the fame of the River Jordan or of the Pool of Bethesda being indeed real Miracles having in them a supernatural power But we who acknowledge with St. Austin Civit. Dei lib. 7. c. 30 Sic Deus administrat omnia quae creavit ut etiam ipsa proprios motus exercere agere sinat i. e. that God so orders all things which he hath created that he leaves them to exercise their own Natural powers I say we discarding such Phanaticism in Philosophy ought to look out amongst the Treasures of Nature for a Rational account That all Medicinal Waters receive vertues from Subterranean Mines is granted by all Modern Philosophers but the difference amongst them lyes in the manner how Minerals do impart their said vertues to water which thing that we may the better and more methodically discuss we will in brief give a touch of the Generation of Minerals As to their Creation it is greatly probable that they were created at the same time with the Plants seeing there is no particular mention of it in Mosés What fitter time for the Inside of the Earth to be stockt with Mineral Seed than when its outside or superficies was first furnisht with vegetable and as by Gen. 2.5 vegetables do not seem to be created perfect so neither is it probable that Minerals were but that their seminary Spirits were so disposed of in the Bowels of the Earth that they might perpetuate themselves in their several kinds And that they are dayly generated is confirmed by common experience our Tinners in Cornwall filling up their Pits with Earth after they had wrought out all they could and within 30 years after opening the same again have found more Tin generated the same is observed in our Lead-Mines in Darby-shire and for many generations it hath been observed in Ilva an Island in the Adriatick Sea that Iron continually breeds as fast as they can work it out nay the Tools of Miners in no very long time have been oftentimes observed to have been converted into the substance of those Mines in which they have been left In treating of the manner how the divers sorts of Minerals do impart their qualities to subterranean Waters we will for Methods sake rank all Minerals under three heads 1 Earths under which we comprize Chalk Ocre Bole Sulphur Bitumen c. 2. Concrete Juices as Salt Nitre Alam Vitriol Mercury Arsnicks c. 3. Metals as Gold Silver Iron Copper Tin Lead c. how the first and second sort do it it is not difficult to conceive Those Earths lying in the way where those waters have their current are washed away therewith by which means the waters become confused and thick and by reason of the corporal substances of those Earths they carry along with them after a little standing they will have either a setling at the bottom Sulphurea Nar albus Aqua It is the Sulphureus Water That doth make White the streams of Nar. as Sulphur Earth c. or swim at top as Bitumen The Concrete Juices as Salt Nitre c. they will either dissolve and so mix themselves corporally also with water or else by their infusion they will tinge the waters with a spiritual quality and so Quick-Silver Arsnick may doe and not so only but oftentimes like the following Menstruums bring