Hydrological Essays: OR, A VINDICATION OF Hydrologia Chymica: Being a further Discovery of the Scarbrough Spa, And of the right use thereof.  
And of the Sweet Spa and Sulphur-Well at Knarsbrough.  
With a brief Account of the Allom Works at Whitby.  
Together with a return to some QUERIES, propounded by the ingenious Dr. Dan. Foot, concerning Mineral Waters.  
To which is annexed, An ANSWER to Dr. Tunstal's Book, concerning the Scarbrough SPA.  
With an Appendix of the Anatomy of the German-Spaw.  
And, lastly, Observations on the Dissection of a Woman who died of the Jaundice.  
All grounded upon Reason and Experiment.  
By WILLIAM SIMPSON, Dr. in Physic, and Practitioner at Wakefield in Yorkshire.  
London, Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel, at the two Angels & Crown in Little-Britain, 1670.   

THE EPISTLE TO THE READER.  
Impartial candid Reader,  
IT is my hap once more to appear in public, being necessitated thereto, in vindication of the truth I have asserted, touching the Scarbrough-Spaw, etc. Were I not constrained, and did not the expectation of many oblige me thereto; I could, I confess, as willingly have laid my Pen aside, as have taken it up. At the first glance upon my Antagonist's Book, I thought he had some colour of Authority on his side, but upon second (and therefore more mature) thoughts, unravelling his Clew, I found his quotations of Authors in general, either impertinent, nothing to the purpose in the main, or their sense perverted and wrested, or their words falsely translated out of the Latin. This he, who gives himself the trouble of reading his Book, will find all along, that where he falls short in strength of Argument, he makes supplies in an over measure of Calumnies, Taunts, Scoffs, and groundless Accusations.  
Unto all which ungentile and unscholar-like usages, I shall only answer, by desiring thee, Reader, to consider, That hereby he hath given me so much the advantage over him, that I could not have wished for more or better; for, first, I will remark that his Morals and his Naturals are much of a scantling; and it seems probable, that he that taught him Physics, read Ethics to him also, and his mind (in which they are implanted) is equally productive of both; measure one by the other, and they differ not a ●airs breadth, and either extends not beyond the dimensions of vulgar and weak Souls and Intellectuals. Next let it be observed, that it is the common guise of persons less fraught with right conceptions of things, to defend them with disingenuous and discourteous Apologeticks; as we see some soils that naturally bear unsavoury Weeds, will amongst them put forth also Nettles and Thistles, which shall prick and sting the fingers of that Weeder that aims at the improvement of that ground.  
Again consider, that thus he hath rendered himself an object of reproof (not to say contempt) and forgiveness; which last I will only take the advantage of, and here publicly give it to him; and though it was his business to throw dirt, mine shall be only to wipe i● off, and calmly to tell thee (Readers ● who threw it, and why. I should entertain thy eye but coarsely enough to repeat his Repartees; suffice i● therefore, that I think them no● worthy a Reply, not that I want sufficient Arguments, or a competent testimony from others to vindicate myself, and invalidate his unjust reproaches, but judge it my concern to employ my time at an other guess rate, then to trifle it away with such impertinencies.  
His Epistle goes off at the wrong end; it was aimed at me that stood before it, but like a foul Gun it strikes the Discharger; Can you (Reader) or I now help it? However I shall prompt thee to carry it with thee to the Spa, for there, both that and the whole Book may be of use to thee.  
I confess I could have wished he had used his silence, not for my sake but his own, for than he might have passed for a wise man, who now hath told you himself what he is; and what he contains, let this dragm of his Ethico-Physical Spirit inform your taste.  
But I injure my assertions, demonstrated by Reason and Experiments, (if I overween not) truly sufficient. Therefore, Reader, take no notice of immoralities, which, I am sure, were once no Ingredients amongst the rest of the Spa, and their existency therein did appear as little as that of Vitriol; yet (oh the riddle!) I find by experience, after all, that they are therein, for my Antagonist first discovered them there, and of this I yield him the glory and triumph, but whisper to him, it was his own infused addition, and shall (for the Drinker's sake) desire him to throw no more such stuff and filth into those Waters, which God and Nature have intended for other purposes.  
Therefore, once for all, I shall desire the Impartial Reader to determine by the eye of his judgement, which Arrow, of the two, stick nearest the mark leveled at, without taking notice which hath the most or greatest Goose-feathers in their other ends; and let his Opinion prevail (of us two) who hath wrote most truth, and least calumny.  
The method that I have observed, is, first, to clear up those difficulties, and to answer the most material Objections which my Antagonist urgeth, and that too as they lay in my way, confirming what I have before said, by undeniable demonstration, grounded upon Experiments, adding new Observations, pro re nata.  
And for a further discovery of the nature of the other Medicinal Waters at Knarsbrough; I have given a particular Discourse both of the Sweet-Spaw, and Sulphur-Water found there; where I have propounded some Experiments, which not only demonstrate the Nature and Essence of their constitutive Ingredients, but also by the same may any simple Spring-Water (plentifully to be found any where) be made an artificial Mineral Water, of the same taste and operation with those made by the wonderful Chemistry of Nature in the bowels of the Earth.  
The Experiments which concern the Sulphur-Water, (& by an analogy) all other the like Sulphur-Springs, are such as no Author (which I have yet met with, who writ upon those Waters) have taken notice of; which may probably yield no very small light for a further advancement of the knowledge of Sulphurous, and other Mineral Waters.  
And because the Essence of the Scarbrough Spa consists most what of an Aluminous Salt, therefore I judged it necessary to give an account of the Alom-Works at Whithy, describing also the difference betwixt the natural and the factitious Alom, comprising the sum of the whole matter, upon that Subject, in a few short corollaries.  
When my Antagonist apprehended that he ran by a wrong bias in his opinion of the existence of Vitriol in the Scarbrough Spa, and that he had spent so many Pages of his Book to so little purpose, endeavouring to prove (right or wrong) that to be in the Water, which was ocularly demonstrated not to be, even before his own face, and in the presence of several Physicians, Scholars, and other ingenious Gentlemen; and after his last refuge to the ipse dixit of Doctor Tunstal, when he had nothing to say for himself, but that Dr. Tunstal told him that Vitriol was in it, last year; was it not a poor (not to say childish) way of Philosophyzing, to ground what a man publisheth to the World upon the bare word (and that but conjectural) of an other man?  
Now when my Antagonist was thus touched to the quick, he called my ingenious Friend (who had made the Experiment before him) aside, and told him, That if I would then lay down the Cudgels, he would not only look upon me as a Brother, but also, when occasion offered, would sooner take me into consultation then any other. By which may be concluded one of these two things, viz. That either my Antagonist has given a wrong Character of me in his Book, drawing my portraiture with as rude, as well as unskilfully handled Pencils, or he is willing to be accounted of as a Bifrons, or else be likened to a Ferryman, who looks one way, and rows another; speaks one thing, and thinks another, and writeth another.  
But after, and notwithstanding all this, if my Antagonist shall at any time make any Experiments to the purpose, and shall thence deduce due observations, whereby the mechanical part of Philosophy may be improved, I should as willingly receive them from him as from any other; till than I advise him to lay aside his undue and improper contentions, and let us love like Brethren; for I do declare to the World, that I have no enmity to his Person, nor hath (what I have done) been, trom any particular prejudice to him, but to contend for the truth in things that respect my Profession, and the public good.  
I must confess, that as he has behaved himself as a Magisterial Browbeater of ingenuity, and has endeavoured to eclipse the Light of Truth made forth by Experiments, discovering his darkness and ignorance in the things he treated of; so far, very probably, I have been as a Remora to his proceeds; yea, and perhaps, by my means, he has reflected upon his high presumption of infallibly curing Diseases, and knocking them down (to use his own expression) with the great Hammer; whereas indeed the more a Physician knows, (daily eyeing the conjectures whereon depends the practice of Physic) the more cautious he is, as to his Prognostics, and that in respect of the ignorance of the causes of things; and whether such presumptuous Prognostics, if I should use them, (as my life for his, he shall recover, he is safe; I wish I had a lease of his life, etc.) in the management of the cure of Diseases, (when yet, notwithstanding all these, the Patient frequently dies) would not be more an Argument that I am a Quack and Empiric, rather than a sober Physician, let the Judicious determine.  
And now I shall appeal to thee, (Reader) whether what I have most-what urged, both in my Hydrol. Chym. as also in this, do not tend rather to an illustration of Truth, in the discoveries of the Nature and Essence of Mineral and Medical Waters, etc. then to any verbal jangling.  
Lastly, Because I find not only my Person, and my Apprehensions, but also my Practice under his censure and contempt, all styled by him as Chemical: I cannot decline that none of the smallest measure of generosity I lay claim to, but will now propose to him, (as a final decision of this matter under debate) that we may measure abilities by that unerring Rule, Dignoscitur Medicus à Medendo. Let us now (opportunely at this Spaw-time) choose by lot such a number (of persons, chronically diseased) not less than twenty, and he of us that shall Citiùs, tutiùs, & jucundiùs, cure his number, or the greater part thereof, let him win both Field & Spring, and the other depart thence as vanquished either only for this year, or for ever. Provided, that if the agreement happen to be made only for this year, that the vanquished may enter the next with new recruits, and attempt afresh then, and as often after as he pleaseth; but every time the conquered shall departed for that year.  
Pardon me (Reader) if herein I seem vainglorious, I can reflect so upon it as well as another; but I submit to thy judgement, whether a better expedient can be proposed to confront a man of words, or whether my own just repute (absit jactanctia verbis) doth require less of me. Or, lastly, whether the matter itself does not naturally lead thereunto. And now to add more words, will ill suit with this effort: Therefore it only remains that I inform thee, I was willing to fill up some vacant Pages of this Tract, (not then finished) with two particular Anatomies freshly made, the first of the Germane Spaw-Water, usually to be had in Amsterdam; the other of a Woman, who recently expired at Leiden of the Yellow-Jaundice; both not so  with inconsiderables, as not to purchase thy favourable acceptance of them, from him, who every way endeavours to exhibit himself  
Thine, W. S.   

Hydrological Essays: OR, A VINDICATION OF Hydrologia Chymica: BEING A further Discovery of the Scarbrough Spa.  
And of the Sweet Spa and Sulphur-Well at Knarsbrough.  
With a brief Account of the Allom Works at Whitby.  
Together with a return to some QUERIES, propounded by the ingenious Dr. Dan. Foot, concerning Mineral Waters.  
To which is annexed, An ANSWER to Dr. Tunstal's Book, concerning the Scarbrough SPA.  
All grounded upon Reason & Experiment.  
By WILLIAM SIMPSON, Dr. in Physic, and Practitioner at Wakefield in Yorkshire.  
London, Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel, at the two Angels & Crown in Little-Britain, 1670.   

Hydrological Essays: OR, A VINDICATION OF Hydrologia Chymica.  
THat I may not be too prolix in ushering in this following Discourse, by any Praeliminaries, nor seem to make flourishes before a pass; I shall therefore (without making him a Leg) forthwith close with my Antagonist at downright Club-Arguments, and my Weapons shall be taken up from his own Authors: Yea, I shall sometimes turn his own Artillery upon him, to the wounding of himself.  
The matter therefore that first and mainly offers itself in Controversy, is this, (viz.)  
Whether Vitriol or Iron are two distinct Ingredients, or constitutive Principles of the Scarbrough-Spaw?  
Now my Antagonist asserts, that they are two distinct Principles of this Spa: I take it (saith he) to be Iron Mineral, with a touch of the Vitriol; or if you please, ferrum vitriolatum, or, vitriolum ferragineum: this is a natural Vitriol generated in the Veins of the Earth, through which the Spring runs, which hath by its acidity or esurine Salt actuated the Waters, which thereby is enabled to corrode a Vein of Iron.  
By which, I perceive, he looks upon Vitriol as a simple Salt, without any dependence upon any Mineral or Metalline Body: And, as such, hath no relation to Iron, being quite another thing, yet calls it ferrum vitriolatum, or vitriolum ferrugineum, hooking the Iron to partake of the Vitriol, and the Vitriol of the Iron, and yet are two distinct things. But, I pray you, will not you allow Vitriol, I mean the natural, to be made of the Principles naturally requisite for the concretion and constitution of that mineral Compage called Vitriol?  
If you do, (as of necessity you must) then if you can demonstrate, by matter of experiment, any natural Vitriol from which by Art I cannot separate a Mineral or Metalline Body; then will I lay down the Cudgels, yea the whole matter, if you please, shall pass upon it.  
Doth not Kircher expressly say, Vitriolum vel ex aerata vel ferrata massa suan originem naucisci: 
Mund. Subter. p. 320.  And further, Aquam quam cunque acido sulphuris spiritu imbutam aeratam glebam exedere; sen quod idem est; corpuscula aerata sua edacitate dissolvere & separare dissoluta vero corpuscula prorsus insensibili●● aquam in se recipere, iisque quadantenus misceri● Yea and annexeth, Magnus aes inter & ferrum intercedit magnetissimus, insignique sympathia ex similitudinem origines pollent, etc.  
From whose words, as also from an experimental, Suffrage of Truth, it is clearly evident, That all sorts of Vitriols consist of an acid sulphureous Salt or Spirit, in whose embraces are always one or other Mineral or Metalline Body couched, which is the main Pillar in the constitution of the Concrete of Vitriol, whether of Iron, Copper or Silver.  
For amongst all kinds of Vitriols, whether Natural or Artificial, if thereon (dissolved first in Water) a lixiviate Liquor, or volatile urinous Spirit be poured, it doth certainly (as I have further illustrated in my Hydrol. Chym.) precipitate the Mineral or Metalline Body therein secretly contained: And therefore such Vitrioline Waters do always, upon the commixture with their contrary Liquors, become so much altered by the loss of their Mineral Bodies, as they are not afterwards capable of altering their Colours, or of becoming an opacous Body of Ink; no nor of ministering their wont helps for the health of Man's Body: to confirm which, we have given many experiments in our late Treatise.  
This Vitriol (saith my Antagonist) is not so properly said to be made by an Esurine Salt, as to have an Enfurine Salt or Spirit in itself: If so, then somewhat else must go to the making up the Compages of Vitriol: and this must be an embryonative mineral Sulphur, whether of Iron or Copper; if of Iron, than it makes the fontes acidi, or vitriolin Spaws frequently to be found in England, Germany, and other Countries: And those differ amongst themselves according to the disposition of the corroded Vein, or the different impregnation of the Preterlabent Water, with the esurine sulphureous Salt. If of Copper, than it makes the Vitriolin Veneres, or Vitriol of Copper; and that whether it be found dissolved in Water, and so boiled up by Fire into the consistence of Vitriol, or it be found spontaniously coagulated within its own Mine, as that called the Cyprian, Hungarian, Goslaricke, etc.  
Yet all Artificial Vitriols are made by an imitation of Nature in the production of the natural, as in those that are made out of Copper, witness that which is made by burning of Sulphur upon glowing or melted Copper; from which, with much labour, is prepared a vitriolin aerngo, or that which Paracelsus commends as the best Artificial Vitriol, being made by a Cementation of Plates of Copper stratisied with common Salt and Sulphur: and others after him perform the same by distilling often Spirit of Sulphur or Vitriol from Plates of Copper, until they be black and friable, then dissolved in Water, is boiled up, and shoots into a blue Vitriol not unlike the Cyprian; So that to the Fabric of all Vitriols, whether natural or artificial, is required necessarily not only an acid sulphureous Spirit or Salt, but also a Mineral or Metalline Body: And therefore we may certainly conclude that natural Vitriol is, Partus immaturus Sulphuris Embryonati, and hath its own mineral and metallic Body in itself.  
My Antagonist should have given us a definition of his Vitriol in the Searbrough Spa. That we might have known what he had meant thereby: he saith indeed, that it is an Esurine Salt, which acuates the Waters, (p. 6.) which is able to corrode a Vein of Iron; and yet saith, (p. 5.) That the Vitriol in the Spa, is not made out of Iron. How to reconcile this contradiction I know not, unless you mean, by Vitriol, a simple Esurine Salt: And then in my judgement you fall far shore of expressing the true essence of Vatriol; which is not Vitriol; but as it hath relation to a Mineral or Metalline Body.  
For the acute Helmont saith, (p. 55.) Seminas●● lium cuncta in aquis sita sunt, attamon nondum saperem induerunt nisi corporum principin consentanca ●●resque terrae debites repererunt, etc. (viz.) That all the Seeds of Salts are placed in Water, yet are not endued with taste, unless they find agreeable principles of Bodies, and suitable matrices of the Earth; then, and not till then, they manifest their saltness, and become determined in a saline Body; in one place into Allom, in another in Salmarine, in a third in Nitre, etc. To which he adds, Quocirca notandum, Sal quoddam existere hermaphreditieum metallorum quod defectu nominis esurinum sine acetosum re & nomine vocari capit, generale equidem & ad emnia metalla accommodabile, (viz.) That there is a certain Hermaphroditical Salt of Metals, which for want of an other name, is called an Esurine or Acid Salt, which is a general sort of Salt, and accommodated to all Metals: So that you see that this Esurine Salt, while such, is no more than Salt, and not a Vitriol; but if it become a Vitriol, it must espouse a Mineral or Metalline Body.  
In as much as Helmont further saith, Vitriolum Prestantissimum naturaliter crescis, fodiris, quibus naturaistud Sal Esurinum poperit, Venam aeris feracem corrodens, & fontis labentis liquore dissolutum, (viz.) That the best Vitriol is most naturally brought forth in those Mines where Nature bathe begot that Esurine Salt, corroding a strong Vein of Copper, becomes dissolved in the gliding current of a Spring.  
But do not you observe (saith my Antag.) that there is a palpable Powder, which when a little Gall is put into the Water, (p. 8, 9) by which it turns black, (which Colour it takes from the Vitriol) there will settle, after some hours, upon agitation of the Vessel, a black Powder near a dragm in a gallon, which hath a styptic and drying taste like Crocus Martis, and after the same manner tingeth the Excrements black.  
Very true, I grant that the dissolved minera of Iron, or an equivalent minera of a strong Concretion, is precipitated either by addition of Galls, or by much agitation, especially in Oaken Vessels, or by long standing, and is that Ingredient in the Water which tingeth the Excrements black. But now look about you; you expressly say, That this precipitated black Powder hath its colour from the Vitriol, and yet is the Iron Ingredient of the Spa; therefore, according to your own words, it should follow that the Vitriol is yet left behind in the Water: which if so, Why doth it not upon a new addition of Galls, give fresh tincture? Why is it that upon the precipitation of this Crocus, by long carriage of the Water, it will give no more tincture by Galls, as we find by experiment.  
For I observe that when the minera of Iron is separated by precipitation out of the Spa Water, that neither Galls, nor solution of Galls, (either of which would have done before) will cause any alteration, either of Red, Purple, or Black Colour; which it would certainly do if the Vitriol were there, which (according to your own words) gives the colour. So that of necessity, either the Vitriol is not in the Water, or what you speak of it, is not true: choose whether you please (Hydroph.) you are pinched; and that no Vitriol remains after the falling down of the minera of Iron, is apparent; because if you then pour a dissolved lixiviate Salt thereon, instead of precipitating a terra vitrioli, (which in all solutions of natural Vitriols will happen) you shall have nothing but a white troubled milky Liquor: which will in a little time, let fall the several contained fabulous Concretions, which had been dissolved before in the Water, and the Esurine together, with the Nitrous Salt, (which acuated the Water, and made it as a menstruum) will be embraced and complicated for the most part with the Lixivial Salts, into a kind of Tartarum Vitriolatum: So that by this it's as plain as the Sun at noon day, that there is an inconsistency of Vitriol and Iron, as two distinct Ingredients of the Spa; The presence of which, as two distinct constitutive principles thereof, was what I opposed with sufficient grounds, and now farther confirm, which I think may bias any unprejudiced Reader.  
All Authors, (saith my Antagonist) whether Chemists or others, account the Esurine Spirit, or Juice of Vitriol, enough to impregnate a Water with an acidity, that shall make it corrode other Minerals or Metals by which it passeth; So as we may very well lay aside this Esurine Salt, or primum eus salium, as wholly precarious.  
How now (Hydroph.) do you accuse me of contradictions, (which I hope e'er long I shall take of for the most part) and yet yourself guilty of the same, even within the compass of half a dozen lines? Can the Esurine Spirit, or Juice of Vitriol, impregnate Water as a menstruum, and yet the same thing, (viz.) the Esurine Salt (for by Esurine Spirit, Esurine Salt, or primum ens salium, the same is understood) be wholly precarious? how doth this hang together?  
I perceive you have imbibed but a very sleight touch of Helmont, otherwise you would have been better impregnated with his Principles, than to have denied the same thing you had before owned in a very little different expression.  
Do not you frequently mention the Esurine Salt, p. 5, 6, 7, 17. (viz.) That by its Esurine Salt, (speaking of the Spa) it more freely corrodes the Iron, and that Vitriol hath an Esurine Salt or Spirit in itself? and yet here you say, It may be laid aside as wholly precarious; this is quidlibet ex quolibet justly retorted. But why do I trouble myself, these are only sudden flashes of your gnis fatum, soon in and soon out, apt to lead the timorous and unwary aside.  
But pray, if Iron be in this Spa, as a distinct Ingredient thereof from Vitriol, What is that which is the menstruum in the Water, to dissolve Iron, (viz.) to make it appear in the form of a Liquor?  
I tell you (saith he) what will do it, besides the Alkahest of the Chemist; Vitriol imbibed at the first, doth by its Esurine Salt make the Water corrosive, and fit to take that or any other Mineral that is in its way: Well, this is a confirmation of your late Contradiction, yet you hover and endeavour to gain the Forts you formerly quitted; for first you own an Esurine Salt, p. 5, 6, 7. and then p. 11. you lay it aside as wholly precarious; and here, (p. 17.) you very fairly take it up again; and p. 96. you say, you have with good reason exploded helmont's primumen.  
I'll refer you (saith my Antagonist) to your grand Master Paraceisus, where treating of Acid Waters, Harum ortus est (inquit) ex resolutione Metallorum, antequam ad maturitatem pervenerint: And presently after saith, Interdum ex vitriolo & a lumine hujusmodi aquae promanant.  
You are mistaken, (Sir) I pretend not to be a Paracelsian in Physiology, not much valuing his Theory; yourself quote him five times, I may say, I think for my once; what I esteem him for, was his Medicinal Arcana's; by which he was enabled to perform great Cures, maugre yours and others malice against him, and other searchers of Nature. As to that first sentence you urge, if you consult a little further, you will find he saith, Aurum & plumbum dant dulcedinem, cuprum ferrumque aciditatem: Now as for Gold, that will give no Vitriol; and for Led, that requires an Acid Salt, either Vegetable or Mineral to make a Saccharine Vitriol thereof; and Copper or Iron, with an additional Acreal or Mineral Acid Salt, gives in a Water Spring an acidity; that is in short, makes a Vitriol either of Iron or Copper.  
But to proceed, There are four ways (saith my Antagonist, p. 21.) whereby Water may imbibe the Nature or Virtue of a Mineral or Metal.  
The first is, By receiving its Vapour; thus Water standing some while in a Brass or Iron Vessel, will taste of the Brass or Iron.  
Not to say (Hydroph.) that those four ways of imbibitions you reckon, are pillaged out of Doctor French his Book of Knarsbrough Spa, and out of Falopius, cap. 8. without taking notice of the Authors, is a crime you can indulge yourself and not another.  
Falopius tells us in that place, where he speaks of the several commixtures of Minerals and Metals in Water, Omnes mixtiones pendent a triplici causa, Scilicet a calors, a mora & ab aptitudine materiae ad Eliquationem. The last of which insinuates an aptitude of the Solvent, solvable or both. Non solum (he goes on) telluris species, said & vapores, & succi, & metalla, in subterraneis cavernis reperiuntur, etc. Amongst those he calls succi, he reckons the Mineral Salts; which (as Basilius Valentinus, who was much conversant amongst Minerals and Metals, saith) are the Keys to unlock the Mineral Kingdom, and that whether naturally in the Bowels of the Earth, or artificially upon solid Minerals or Metals: and amongst the succs Minerales, Falopius reckons the succus Calcanthi, which whether ever it fell in his or some others way that treat cursorily thereof, to anatomize that Mineral, so as to rightly understand its constitutive Ingredients, may be much scrupled.  
But to return to your Vapours, Falopius saith, p. 25. That they are all either maligni or benegni; the malign we will pass, and come to the benign, for those (if any) I hope, breath upon our Spring; These, he saith, are either bituminous or sulphureous. Ego (inquit, speaking of the Vapours) non reperi aliud, non reperiri dico nec scriptum nec experientia, etc. So that although you say he useth the term above forty times in the sense you speak of, even in one leaf side, yet do I not find a word in that place, either that Vitriol communicates itself to Water by a Vapour, or that Iron or Brass will give a Vapour to Water which stands therein: And yet you say he speaks of Vapours in your sense; if he do, it is indeed so in your sense, but I know not that it is in any others: And that I may be very brief, I refer the intelligent Reader to compare what I have writ hereof in p. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. of my Hydrologia Chymica, with what my Antagonist afferts in his three Books, for I love not repetitions: I confess he saith, Aqua Calcant hosa cognoscitur gustu & olfactu. But that those Vitrioline Waters should chief (or eminently, as your own words are) partake of Vitriol by its Vapour; is what I do not find him mention, nor do I understand. It's probable indeed that there are Vapours, but those arise from a fermentation amongst the Mineral Juices, and are themselves scarce sufficient to make up any one Mineral Body, so as to become the efficient of any Acid Water or Spa.  
But to proceed, (p. 28.) Doth not Iron (in effect urgeth my Antagonist) give itself by a Vapour to the Water? for the Iron that is imbibed in this Spring, is not a solid or compact body of Iron, but like an ordinary Earth impregnate with a concrete Juice of Iron.  
To which I answer, That though we suppose Iron in those mineral solutions, to be in its juice or succulent parts; yet do not you explain an agent capable of making this Iron spend itself in Vapours? and since these Vapours must either be corporeal or incorporeal; the last, I hope, you will not grant; if therefore they be corporeal, than these Vapours must of necessity have the essential parts of Iron in them, (viz.) the Mercury and the Sulphur proper thereto: If so, then what difference is there betwixt these Vapours, or minute parts of Iron congregated, and the body of Iron itself? for seeing it is (as I further enlarge in my Hydrolog. Chym.) the union of the Mercury and Sulphur in various degrees, according to the model of the Metalline Seeds, which gives the essence, yea and distinction of Metals amongst themselves. Therefore that which must be the agent or efficient to make a Metal (viz. that hath Metalline Principles, though not throughly maturated) to vapour, must be amongst Fire or Ferments, Salts or Solvents: For in Nature (as far as I can apprehend) there are found no other material Agents than what are comprised in those four.  
Now it would have very much established your Hypothesis of Iron, communicating itself to the Spa by a Vapour; if you had assigned the Agent, by which the Metalline Body should spend itself in a Vapour.  
Well, (quoth my Antagonist, p. 29.) consult Kircher, and he'll tell you that Iron yields a Vapour to the purpose, Observantur (inquit, Lib. 10. Cap. 10. p. 219.) in fornacibus, etc. To wit, In the Iron works, where it is melted, Vapours arise out of the Iron which turn into a downiness, which cleaves to the Walls and Roofs of the House: He also saith, That of all Metals, Iron sends out the most foetid smell.  
Here is indeed an Agent (Hydroph.) with a witness, (viz.) The fire of a Forge, which must needs make Iron, as well as all other imperfect Metals, take Wing, and make the next adjacent places their Receivers; the same doth Led, witness Potter's Houses, where they calcine their Lead to Powder, by frequent agitation upon the fire, where the flowers of Lead are seen to hang round the Roof; so Tin, yea Copper will do the same, witness the flos aris in the melting Forges, etc.  
But what Aequipolleut Fire will you suppose to be near the Scarbrough Spa; Perhaps you may think Vulcau's Forge is near hand, and that the Vapours of calcined Iron are driven into this Spring, and so are somewhat akin to the late Eruptions of Mount Aetna: I confess indeed that Iron and Copper, etc. will not only contract an Aerugo by an Acid Salt or Spirit, which floats in the Air, and so waste themselves away in Vitriols, but also are subject to the same fate of all other mixed Bodies, (viz.) to suffer some parts constantly (though insensibly) to wind off, and so wear away in a tabidness incident to all Elementary Bodies; while some parts, by other active Principles, are wheeled off, and by different Seeds are determined into (and wound on) other bodies; and so in a round, in the Metastasis of bodies, from one form into another, through the whole Fabric of the Creation, and that in a perpetual vicissitude; and unless you will take this constant unhinging the particles of Concretes to be Vapours, I know not how you can possibly make good your assertion of the Vapours of Iron communicable to the Spa.  
Do not Metals (saith my Antagonist) yield an Apporrhea while they are firm? Have you never seen a wise man (for you have lost your smell) put a counterfeit Coin to his nose, and aver that it smelled of Copper? The like may be said of Iron and Brass, and yet you say the compact body of Iron will not impart a Vapour to a Liquor; wherein the Apothecary's Boys will laugh at you, when we prescribe Chalybeate Drinks, which is ordinary to Hypochondriack Maladies; the Liquors receive a Vapour from the Iron, and yet the compact body of Iron still remains.  
Metals do indeed yield an Apporrhea in that ●ence I have lately discoursed on, (viz.) by a continual winding of, or wearing away of the parts of the Bodies, some sooner, some later, and that by the efficiency of active principles always in motion, and so all bodies are subject thereto, more or less, and so you may as well say Gold, Marble, etc. have Vapours; seeing these also escape not in some measure the general mutability of mixed bodies; besides there are many Concretes which have no smell, and consequently no Vapour, (according to the acceptation of the word) and yet are subject to the common vicissitude of Bodies.  
As to the discovering of counterfeit Coin by smelling at one's Nose; in the alleging of which, I perceive you were not very cautious, for Copper is a Metal that doth easily contract an Aerugo, or flos aeris, by the acid menstrual Salt in the Air, (which whether the Solution thereof be facilitated by the Conuate Esurine Salt, (peculiarly natural to Copper or Iron, as Dr. French would affirm, is not much necessary now to determine) and so what taste or smell it hath in coined pieces, or otherwise, is to be ascribed to its Vitriol, and not to the body of Copper: We see where ever Copper or Brass is, whether aloyd with other Metals, (so as it out-proportions the united Metal) or alone, is very apt (unless constantly kept dressed and clean) to gather greenish Rust, which is nothing else but a Vitriol thereof, and this (and not the Metal singly) is that which both gives the taste and smell, both to Liquors that stand long, or are boiled in such Vessels, or to coined pieces: And therefore Paracelsus, and others, together with yourself, not well weighing this considerable circumstance, might easily be deceived, and suppose the bodies of those two Metals, (when it was nothing but the Vitriols thereof) to give that taste & smell which is sometimes found; and therefore the instance (my Antagonist) then brings to confirm that emission of Vapours from Copper, (p. 25.) by putting Carp into a Copper Brewing-Vessel, with fresh Water, to be preserved for one night, were all found dead in the morning, is, I say, invalid; and that first, because the Copper Vessel (for aught you know) had not been used lately before, and perhaps was not carefully cleansed, and thereby might (as we have showed before) easily gather a greenish rustiness or Vitriol, which by the pouring Water therein, might easily dissolve, and as readily kill the Carp, as if so much other natural or artificial Vitriol had been put therein; next to which, the change of the Water, which might very likely have a touch of some Salt (that, many times is not easily discoverable) might prove altogether disagreeable to the Fish. Whether way we take it, you see there is no need to ascribe it, or justly think it ascribable to the Vapours of the Copper: Which suppose we should grant, how absurd and incongruous to our health would it be, to sup our Broth, eat our Meat, and drink our Drink, so constantly made ready by those vessels, whose steams were able to kill Fish? Would it be at all safe to prepare our ordinary Food in such Vessels as have such poisonous Vapours?  
Yea, and that I might confirm what I say by matter of fact, I procured seven or eight small Fish taken in a Net in Colder, which I ordered to be carried to my House in some of the Water they were taten in, which with more of the same Water I put into a bright clean scoured brass brewing Pan, which ● caused to be set into the open Air, (for probably ●●ant of fresh Air might amongst other things, not a little contribute to the destruction of the Fish) and found them not only to be alive the morning following, but to be as lively and brisk in their motions, as when newly put in; where for trial sake, I kept them another night, and found them the morning after, in a manner as brisk and active as at the first.  
And whereas, I say, that all compact Metalline Bodies must have proper and peculiar Menstruums to unlock them, if any Medicinal Arcanum be thence expected. My Antagonist answers, p. 25. Why! I can assure him upon trial, that the filings of Steel (suppose a pound) set to infuse in a quart o● clear Spring Water for a few days, the Water upon evaporation afforded a clear Salt of greenish colour.  
To which I return, That it is my Antagonists hap to be very unfortunate in the proposal of his Experiments, and therefore should not be one entrusted to make those Experiments from whence a well-grounded Hypothesis of natural Philosophy should be deduced; for he is unwary, in the due poising of those concomitant circumstances which make Experiments critical, and from whose management depends the successfulness, or the contrary, of most Experiments. For had he rightly considered that all or most Spring Waters we meet with, have a sleight touch of some one or other Mineral Salt o● Earth, which is that which gives the difference o● tastes Spring Waters have one from another, (distinguishable by curious Palates accustomed to drink Water) he would not have made use of that as h●● Menstruum, for the trial of extracting a Vitriolic Salt out of Iron.  
I did indeed try the like Experiment with Spring Water which we have by us, poured upon clean filings of Steel, (for that's another circumstance which unheeded may also make his Experiment, as ●o what is intended, thereby miscarry) which being decanted (after it had stood some days) and evaporated, gave (as my Antagonist saith) a greenish coloured Salt: which had I not been further inquisitive in weighing the circumstances better, I had concluded, with my Antagonist, that it had been a salt from the Iron: but I considered whether or no indeed this Spring Water might not contain in its self this sort of Salt, which upon trial (by evaporating it away alone in a Jar Glass) I found that it ●est the very same sort of Salt, and as near as could ●e esteemed, the like quantity with that left after the ●●fusion of the Water upon the Iron.  
Therefore, for further satisfaction, I poured some distilled Water upon filings of Steel; which being bured off, after several day's infusion, found no ●●ch Salt at all left behind, nothing being left in ●e bottom that had any Salt: by which I have early demonstrated how easily (for want of due circumspection in circumstances essential to things to 〈◊〉 tried by matter of fact) my Antagonist can impose upon himself and others by fallacious Experiments.  
And as to what you say, that the Apothecary's ●●yes would laugh at me for denying Iron (as a impact body) to impart a vapour to a Liquor; I ●●ght tell you, that if I could spare so much vacant ●●e, I could both laugh at you and them; at you ●●●t, and chief for your ignorance of the very nature of the Metals you treat of, supposing Chalybeat ●●inks (frequently ordered for Hypochondriack Maladies) to be made after such a manner as wherein the Iron gives itself by a Vapour to the Liquor, not Understanding (at least not recollecting) that to make Chalubeat Waters, they most frequently (if no● always) add some Saline or Acid Spirit, to make the Iron capable of being dissolved in part in the affused Liquor, and that either by taking the Crocus, or other preparation of Iron, wherewith to satiate their Liquors, which become so much dissoluble as to give them the name of Chalybeat Waters or Liquors.  
For in all Chalybeat Extractions, you should not (Hydroph.) be ignorant that there is require either that the Iron be reduced into a Crocus, which is done either by Calcination, (and that either p●se, or with Sulphur) or by Acid Spirits, such a distilled Vinegar, Spirit of Salt, Niter, Sulphur, & or else that the Menstruum to be affused, have son innate acidity.  
I would gladly know (Hydroph.) whether yet ever order your merry Apothecary's Boys to ma●● you any Chalybeat Liquors, by barely pouring supple distilled Water upon fresh filings of Steel, a● whether they or your Patients do ever discern a● taste or smell of Iron from such Waters? Doth not I pray, the main reason of Chalybeat Extraction depend upon the reduction of Iron into a Cro●● or the acuation or Menstruums by Saline Spirits, 〈◊〉 either of which there happens a solution of some the body of Iron into the Chalybeat Liquors, which give them a sapor not a vapour? It's true, if you ●● rusty siling of Iron, Water upon its affusion ●● thereby have an Iron taste; but this is by reason an acid Salt in the Air which hath fretted the 〈◊〉 and t●●ned it into a Crocus of Iron, and the● makes it yield a solution of some of its parts.  
And now (Hydroph.) by this time, I think you and your Apothecary's Boys have done laughing, and may take time to turn your Vapours into Tears, and spend them at your leisure.  
Doth not Falopius, p. 29, 34. (who had great experience in Mineral and Metalline Waters) say, Arbitror non reperiri aquam ferream; for certainly if Iron would give itself immediately to Water, than should we find frequently those aquae ferreae, in places where Waters run through the minera thereof: but no such by experience are found, therefore our Argument will be strongly enforced, a majore ad minorem, (viz.) that if in the minera, where the parts are more lose, it will not yield its Vapour or Tincture to Water, much less will the compact Body thereof, (which hath undergone the violence of the melting Forge) do any such thing.  
And whereas you cavel at my Philosophical Description of Ink made forth by collateral Experiments of the Spa, if you could have carped at any thing therein, no question but you would; or if you had given a better, than you had done like an Artist, and so might have passed it over with a joke: for though the Subjects sometimes we treat of be but common obvious things, yet they require a searching diligence and deep diving, Philosophically to solve the abstrusities of the nice Compositions and Commixtures of Bodies, to make their Phaenomaena obvious.  
I pray, (saith my Antagonist, p. 35, 36.) Are Iron and Vitriol all one? I think they do as really differ as your Knife and your Ink. Do not all Authors, as well Chemical as others, that treat of them, do it severally? And doth not Paracelsus say, Natura genorat salem vitriolum dictum, etc. Do not Galen, Mathiolus, Sennertus, Pliny, Renedeus, speak to the same purpose?  
To which I answer, That Iron and Vitriol may indeed be two distinct things, but then the Vitriol must be such as is made out of some other Metal o● Mineral: but if you query concerning natural acid Salt & Iron, as coexistent in the same Concrete, the● I say they are both one, (viz.) they both together make up that Concrete we call Vitriol; from which if you separate the Iron, what remains falls short o● being a Vitriol, and becomes only a Salt, which i● more simple than Vitriol, as being indeed but one Ingredient thereof. And out of such a Vitriol o● Iron, if you be a good Metallurgist, and skilful Mechanic, you may make as good a Blade as you have a Haft; for, as to what you urge, how that those Authors speak in confirmation of your supposition, I am not much solicitous, especially if what they writ come in competition with truth, as i● results from matter of fact; besides some of these Authors, (as they have occasion) treat severally o● these Concrets as different Subjects, and not as they bear any relation to each other in Mineral Solutions and Concretions, and so indeed they are different, and may be discoursed of as differently.  
And as to what you repeat out of Paracelsus, 〈◊〉 am not concerned, seeing he doth not confirm it by matter of fact, nor by any evident demonstration I find Paracelsus very incautious in his assertions and as for true Physiology not much to be regarded; besides, what he there saith doth diametrically oppose what may be made evident by Experiment; for he calls that a Salt, which after separation of other Ingredients, is yet reducible into a more simple Salt, witness the Salt of Vitriols which is separable out of any natural Vitriol, after the separation of the Mineral or Metalline parts.  
Yea, I will tell you, (Hydroph.) that if you can produce out of any of the aforesaid Authors, so much experiment as to make evident, by matter of fact, what you would prove; yea, if you can show me from any ingenious Chemical Artist (to whom you must be beholden, if ever it be done) such a Vitriol either extracted from this Spa or elsewhere, that is such a simple Salt as from which I cannot separate a Mineral or Metalline Body; or if you can separate a Vitriol out of the Spa, after the precipitation of the minera of Iron, The Game I assure you shall be upon your side.  
For where you instance what I say p. 47. of my Hydrol. Chym. in p. 105. of your Mamick, (viz.) that I arguing against Vitriol, as being inconsistent with that of Iron in the Spa; the reason you blushed not to urge, why though Vitriol be in the Water, yet it should not vomit, was that we used it (said you) in Juleps and Cordials, which doth not cause Vomiting; which you confirm and say, That the main part of the Vitriol in this Water is the Spirit; which is as much, yea far more diluted with the Water wherein it is, than the force of the Vitriol is corrected by the vehement heat of the fire in the distilling of the Spirit thereof.  
Now to come to the point, (Hydroph.) if it were certainly true what you say, that the main part of the Vitriol in the Water is the Spirit, than it would without controversy demonstrate itself by distillation: For seeing, according to your own supposition, the Vitriol is in Spirits in the Water, and these Spirits are also very subtle, volatile, and penetrative; therefore of necessity, upon distillation of these Waters fresh from the Spring, these Spirits should arise first; but that they do not, I can assure you, by matter of Experiment; for I distilled some fresh Water from the Fountain in a Glass Retort, at Scarbrough, whose joints was exactly closed up; I saved the first half ounce, yea and in another distillation of fresh Water, the first quarter of an ounce of Water which came over, (supposing that if any volatile, vitrioline Spirits would come, it would be at the very first) whose taste or smell did not (I affirm) at all resemble the Spirits of Vitriol, which according to your Hypothesis they should have done.  
But suppose that what had come off at the first, had been of the nature of vitrioline Spirits, and had, by the sharpness of their taste, and sulphureousness of their odour, demonstrated themselves to have been such, (which yet I assure you happened to the contrary) yet would it not thence have followed that these had been Vitriol, as you assert, for it is (if I mistake not) beyond the bounds of Art and Nature, to make Vitriol out of these Spirits alone; these Spirits indeed may (as I have sometimes seen) be coagulated into a solid dry Salt; but yet is this Salt as far removed from the Essence of Vitriol, as it was, while liquid, and in the form of Spirits; Now that Vitriol should yield itself by Spirits, and these Spirits impregnate the Spa, and yet upon the test to be found to be no such things, argues a fiction from the beginning to the end.  
But if you further urge and say, (as I find you do, p. 104.) that these Spirits are so penetrative, as that they can even pass through the Glass and Lute; than you must erect a new Classis of Spirits, such as never yet have been found in rerum naturâ: For we find that the volatile and most subtle Spirits of Hartshorn, Urine, Blood; yea, and of Sal Armoniac (than which nothing is more penetrative) may be catched in Receivers; (yea, even in such as I used for the taking these supposed Spirits of Vitriol) and may be kept a considerable time in Vials, close stopped, even for a year or more, as I have done, without any great loss of their volatile parts.  
These Spirits, I say, may be received and kept, and yet are the most penetrative of all sorts of Spirits we meet with in Nature, save the flatus incoercibilis, or spiritus sylvestris, which is the common sequel of Fermentations; whether of Minerals, whence proceeds the incoercibleness of the pulvis pyrius, aurum fulminans, etc. Yea, and whence all sulphureous arsenical and malignant damps, or whether of Vegetables, witness the flatus from the fermentation of all potable Liquors, etc. Or lastly, of Animals, from the spurious fermentation of whose Juices, proceed a flatus incoercibilis, the very efficient and agent in Paralytic, Apoplectic, Epileptic, Asthmatick, Hysterick, and other Diseases, as you may further see in our Hydrologia Chymica.  
As to what you say, that Dr. Heers in his Spadacrene saith, That the Germane Spaws consist of Iron, Vitriol, and Ochre, thereby making Iron and Vitriol distinct: if you consult what I say thereof in p. 138, 139. of my Hydrol. Chym. you may find a sufficient resolve thereof, which I shall not now repeat.  
Fallopius (saith my Antagunist) treating of the Spa in Germany, and that at Rome, saith, Arbitror eas 〈…〉 quia habeant calcanthum purissimum.  
I grant indeed that all Acid Waters are chief from Vitriol; but then that Vitriol must have annexed to it the mineral compage of Iron or Copper, or what third you please, yea, and is not factitious neither, but natural; for Scroderus (which Author you also quote) faith plainly, Varia sunt genera Vitrioli, pro naturâ minerae quam in se continent differentia, (as you may see, p. 4. 14. of his Pharmach.) But that Scarbrough Spa Water is as a Vitrioline Acidity, is petitio principii, as I shall afterwards make more evident.  
Another token of Vitriol, (saith he) is that Apporrhea Mineralis, or Vitrioline Vapour, which any of an indifferent smell may observe, which is somewhat like that of Ink, though more pure.  
Indeed (Hydroph.) when I was last at the Spa, I tried several times if I could any way be sensible of that Vapour; but neither I, nor two Physicians more that were by, could at all perceive it: but perhaps we had by consent got cold, and were obstructed in our Nostrils, so as we could not as well perceive that apporrhea as Hydroph. Nor do I discover any thing of Vitriol, either as to the Juice thereof, or apporrhea; which afterwards I shall make good by ocular demonstration.  
But looking back (Hydroph.) to p. 13. of your Mimic, I espy you impeaching me of a contradiction, in that I asserted, that an aluminous Salt, from a mineral acidity, had dissolved a slight touch of the mineral of Iron, etc. Are not here (saith Hydroph.) two Minerals made, (viz.) Iron and Alom by his own confession? To which, I answer, that it's granted. Nay further (saith Hydroph.) I'll see if I cannot find two more, look (p. 359.) and there he saith, upon a further trial of the Spa Water, he found a body of Vitriol, which he calls Terra Vitrioli; then turn over leaf to (p. 360.) and he tells you he found Nitre.  
To which I return, That as to that which I call terra vitrioli, I understand no other than that Crocus Martis, or ramenta ferrea, or terra rubrica, or minera ferri; all which are synonymous, signifying the same thing, (viz.) the mineral or metalline Ingredient dissolved by the Esurine sulphureous Spirit in Vitrioline Spaws, or by the nitro aluminous Salt, in nitro aluminous Spaws, such as Scarbrough Spa. So as you are mistaken (Hydroph.) to think that I intent by terra vitrioli, any other Ingredient than the minera ferri; wherefore all rightly weighed, you find me but to number up (besides the several fabulous Concretions) three mineral Ingredients of that Spa (viz.) Alom, Nitre, and the ramenta ferrea; and those are demonstrably apparent, as elsewhere I may take time further to enlarge upon.  
But now (Hydroph.) that I may not be long in your debt, but may retaliate in specie, I find, as I pass along, that you say, (p. 7.) The Iron is not here (speaking of the Spa) a perfect solid Metal, but in solutis principiis. And (p. 44.) you say, That Iron is here in its body, which being calcined, yields a scoria like Iron: And yet you say, (p. 80.) That the Salt got out of Iron by burning it with a Candle, infusing it in Water or Wine, this is the Ingredient in our Water.  
How will these hang together (Hydroph.) that Iron in the Spa should not be a solid Metal, and yet should be here in its body, yea and not in his body? for you say, The Salt got out of the Iron, (while the Astringent Crocus remains) is that which opens Obstructions, 
pag. 7. pag. 44. pag. 80.  and is the Ingredient of our Water; so that it's this Salt, (it seems, according to those last words) and not the body of the Iron, which is the Ingredient of the Spa; which how contradictory they be, let the impartial Reader judge.  
Also, you say, in the calcination of the Minerals of the Spa, 
pag. 67.  That though they calcine whitish, yet there are (here and there) Laminae ferreae, or flakes of Iron interspersed, broad and thin like those that fly off from Iron while under the Smith's Hammer; and yet you query, (p. 65.) Why we should expect that the Minerals should calcine in Scorias & Crocos, since we had not here to do with perfect Metals or Minerals dissolved in Water? for you acknowledge that there are Laminae ferreae, which you expressly (p. 67.) call the scoria of Iron; and yet you ask, why we should expect these Metals or Minerals should calcine in Scorias & Crocos?  
Again (p. 65.) you instance Snelfer, (viz.) That the firm Metals being calcined with violent fire, (among which he reckons Iron) will not calcine into a Powder, out of which Salt may be extracted. But in scorias & Crocos convertuntur neutiquam in cineres quibus verum Sal eliciend. Thus far you have from Snelfer; here you stay not, but you borrow another's Weapons, and forthwith become liable to have them turned upon yourself; for presently you pass into terms expressly contradictory to what you bring him in to vindicate. Your words run thus, Now if so (quoth Hydroph.) why then should these men expect that these Minerals should calcine in scorias & Crocos. And (p. 67.) speaking of Iron precipitated, This (say you) I calcined in a Crucible, in a very strong sire, and it became 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 dissolved and evaporated it, it afforded a brownish floscule, very sharp and biting upon the tongue.  
Now (Hydroph.) pray you observe the plainness of the contradiction; for first you produce Snelfer, urging that Iron will not calcine into a Powder, out of which Salt may be extracted; and yet you say, you calcined the precipitated Iron of the Spa with a strong fire, and it turned to a gross Powder as hard as a Cinder; out of which, by solution and evaporation, you can get a brownish floscule, very sharp and biting; which you confess to be a Salt, first by saying, p. 67. that the Water where the solution is made, is brackish; next to which you expressly call it a Salt, saying, The Liquor will have a strong taste from the Salt, which opens Obstructions, and is the Ingredient in our Water: So that being incautious of what you lately urged out of this Author, and being byased by collateral experiments, you presently even unwarily fall foul upon the very Author you even now quoted, by contradicting those very words you exposed for the vindicating your own assertions. And whereas you urge the same Author's words, (viz.) Sed in Scorias & Crocos convertuntur; if you proceed you will find him to continue on with these words, Qui Croci tamen nil nisi Scoriae sunt, in minutissimas atomos conversae, & veluti in terram mortuam insipidam, è quibus Sal aquâ affusâ elici nequeat: For the scope of this Author in that place is to answer these three considerable Queries.  
The first, Whether any Metal may be truly calcined and brought into real Ashes, from which a Salt map be extracted? which in his Discourse he determines in the Negative.  
Secondly, Whether an extraction of the same Sugar or Salt of Lead, (and consequently of Vitriol, etc.) be a true extraction, or only a solution? the latter of which he affirms demonstrably.  
The third and last, Whether this or any other Salt or solution may be edulcorated by solution, filtration, and evaporation? which he denies evidently.  
Now as to the first, He denies that any Metal may by force of fire be reduced in Scorias & Crocos, vel Cineres, from whence any Salt may be extracted; and yet you say, (Hydroph. p. 79.) That the deopilative property of Iron lies in a Volatile Salt, with which it abounds; which you say you can extract, and is the Ingredient in the Water; so that it seems it's the Volatile Salt of Iron, and not the body of Iron is the Ingredient of the Spa. Surely (Hydroph.) if there were a Salt in Iron, yea, and that Salt volatile too, (as your own words express) why should not it have taken wing by force of fire at the melting Forge, where the Iron is melted and separated from its drossy earth; by which I conclude you were more taken with the nearness and novelty of the word Volatile Salt, then with the truth of what should be intimated thereby; but your Tyrociny in these abstruse studies plead your excuse; yea, the rawness, or rather lightness of your experiment, (p. 80.) doth upon that account call for some more grains of allowance, where you say, That if filings of Iron and Steel be cast into a flame of a Candle, that they burn like Salt-Peter or Rosin, which you suppose to happen from thevolatile Salt, as if that gave the flamability; whereas amongst the whole Classis of simple volatile Salts, there are none found to be flamable; simple, I said, because in the complication of these, with other volatile Spirits, somewhat sulphurous may arise, as that of the Offa made with other volatile Spirits of Urine, etc. with Spirit of Wine; for it is the essential property of sulphureous Spirits or Bodies to take flame and burn, but not of volatile Salts; and that it is so, appears further, in that we have sometime extracted out of Iron, Aqua Fortis, or Spirit of Vitriol, a combustible Sulphur.  
But to pass to your third Argument, Why Vitriol (as you say) must be in the Spa, and that is by reason of the deep tincture that the Water takes from the Gall, more than any other you have seen or read of, which cannot (you say) come from the Alom.  
To which I answer, That if we can demonstrate by matter of fact that Alom will give this tincture, and that whether calcined or crude, then must this your great Argument fall; but both myself, and my ingenious Friend, have demonstrated before you and the Gentlemen at the Spa, at several times, that both will readily give a Purple tincture (being dissolved in fresh Water) with the addition of Gall; yea, and will both undergo the same mutations of colour with that of the Spa, by the addition of the like Spirits and Liquors; as I have in my Book already, and I may afterwards take occasion further to illustrate.  
Your last Argument is assumed from a vitrioline Salt which (you say) sweats out of the Cliff, of a dark yellow colour, very sharp to the taste, even far beyond Nitre or Alom. My answer is, That you have no ground to suspect that dark yellow coloured Salt to be Vitriol, seeing there are no vitrioline Marcasities to be found all along that Cliff, where that Earth or Salt is found; for I have with much diligence searched the Bank, but could find no vitrioline Stones at all: And seeing (as you may further see in our Hydrol. Chym.) that all Salts reside in their own proper and peculiar mineral Beds, Urpote in toris suis mineralibus; Therefore where Vitriol Stones are found, Vitriol is made: And where the Alom Glebe is found, Alom is made. Now where both Minerals are found, there is both Vitriol and Alom; as I have sometimes seen in a parcel of common Vitriol, where the natural Alom hath also been intermixed, being shot forth in white Crystals amongst the green Cubick Crystals of the Vitriol. So that Vitriol is never made out of the Alom Stone, nor Alom out of the Vitriol Marcasite, but each are got distinctly out of their own Mineral Glebes; otherwise the Vitriol and Alom workers would be grossly mistaken, (viz.) if the Alom-worker should out of Alom Stones make Vitriol, and the Vitriol-worker out of Vitriol Stones should make Alom. Besides, a solution of this yellow Earth or Salt will by Filtration and Evaporation, perfectly become a mineral aluminous Salt, as you may see in my Hydrol. Chym. which yellow Salt will also undergo all the mutations of colours equally with the Spa.  
As to what you say, (Hydroph. p. 45.) That the Cliff out of which this Spring flow, 's plainly Iron, is surely a very gross mistake; for all along that Bank, yea even over the head of the Spring itself, is most-what Alom Stone, as is obvious to all that see it; and as to what you say, that though at 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: I must tell you, that what is fallen down, and you denote to be Iron Stone, is not one of the hundreth, nay (I may say) scarce one of the five hundreth part, either Iron or Iron Stone, for we had much ado amongst it all to procure a few pieces even of that Stone which may (at the best) be suspected to be Iron Stone; for indeed those heaps are most what nothing else but a farraginous mixture of many sorts of Stones, Sand, Earth, etc. fallen off from the Bank, and crusted together with the beating of the Sea, and so hardened by the Salt of the Sea and Wether, into confused heaps. Thus far reacheth your first way or manner of Waters being impregnated with Minerals (viz.) by taking in their Vapours.  
The second is, when some of their Juice is dissolved in the Water, and that whilst the Minerals are in solutis principiis; to which as before, so now we assent.  
But as to the third way, 
Corrosion of the substance of Minerals, pag. 46.  (viz.) By corrosion of the substances of the Minerals, and that by the help of the Concrete Juices, which extract and corrode Mineral Substances; to confirm which (Hydroph.) you tell us that the Concrete Juice of Vitriol, which is of a corrosive property, being imbibed in a Spring Water, will corrode other Minerals or Metals, (so saith Helmont in the place before cited) that it passeth through as Iron and Alom.  
In answer to which, I shall refer the judicious Reader, to what I object against this (in p. 12, 13. of my Hydrol. Chym.) where supposing (in favour to his Doctrine) a Juice of Vitriol to be in the Water; yet how improper a Menstruum would it be for extracting or corroding Mineral Substances, seeing that the Esurine or Sulphureous Salt or Spirit had already coagulated itself upon a mineral or metalline body, thereby to make up a Vitriol, which we have showed before, must necessarily have those essential principles to concur to this constitution: So that if the Esurine Spirit in Vitriol must become a menstruum to extract or corrode any other Minerals, it must first deposit that body it hath already dissolved: And therefore we see that if a strong solution of Vitriol be boiled a long time in an Iron Pot, (which according to your opinion, (Hydroph.) must needs make a considerable corrosion thereof) that no more of the Iron Vessel is dissolved, then is precipitated of the innate cuprous body inherent in the Vitriol, which we find tingeth the superficies thereof. Nay, if I affirm to you, (I shall not say more than I can prove) That Vitriol, whether in fieri, or in facto esse, cannot become a menstruum for mineral bodies, nor menstrual apperients for the humane body, till it lay aside its first dissoluable, whether it be Copper, Iron, etc. As to mineral bodies, it's evident, that after the esurine or sulphureous acid Spirit hath once preyed upon, and coagulated itself upon any mineral or metalline body, it ceaseth to act upon any other, till it be loosened from the first, and then it's at liberty to be married to another, otherwise bodies would be solvents for bodies; whereas it is that Salts are the proper menstruums and apperients for bodies; and as to humane bodies, we see that if those usually prepared Salts of Vitriol, or vitriolum album, be taken inwardly, act not suddenly as apperients; because having in them a colcotarine body, makes them hostile to the ferment of the stomach, which presently throws them up again by Vomis, which indeed is the main reason why Vitrioline Vomits are the most sudden in their operation; for if they should stay so long (as sometimes they do) in the stomach and intestines, till the metalline or mineral body be by the diluting moisture precipitated, than they cease to act as Emetics, and only in part pass away by Stool; while the Salt which was the menstruum in those sorts of Salts called Gilla Theophrasti, or Vitriolum Album, becomes set at liberty, and proves an apperient of (otherwise) obstinate Obstructions; and that these Salts of Vitriol so called, as also the white Vitriol, have in them a metalline body, is apparent, by calcining even these Salts: yea, the Vitriolum Album, though tightly depurated by frequent Solution, Filtration and Distillation, or Evaporation, (as I have often done) will with no very strong fire calcine red; from whence by solution, etc. more of a mineral body may by art be separated.  
Thus far you see (Hydroph.) that though we should grant a Vitrioline Juice to be an Ingredient of the Spa, yet can it not be a competent menstruum to corrode or extract other mineral bodies, and that for Reasons before alleged; yea, and that notwithstanding what you quote out of Helmont's fourth Paradox, where he saith, That that which is volatile (viz.) a Spirit, whether it be concrete or liquid, may corrode other mineral bodies. Pray take in the whole Sentence, and it runs thus, Corpora non corrodunt corpora; quatenus talia neque fixa in invicem agunt: sed duntaxat quatenus alterum corum velatile est, id est spiritus, sive is concreted est sive liquidus: Here you must know that he is treating of the Esurine Salt; where indeed if you had duly weighed what he saith a few lines afore, you might have had light enough to have led you out of your former Errors; which an ingenuous Spirit would own, though it was to the casting down his former wrong apprehension of things; for it's the truth of the matter (we contend about) that we should aim at, and not our prejudicated Opinions.  
He tells you that the natural Vitriol of Iron, is made by an Esurine Salt of an embryonative Sulphur corroding a Vein of Iron; in which act of Corrosion there happens a kind of solution of the Vein, and a coagulation or fixation of the Volatile Salt: Which Salt, saith he, as long as it is Volatile, may be reckoned amongst Spirits: This Spirit (and not bodies one upon another) is this agent (and that whether it be concrete or liquid) that may dissolve bodies. Here (Hydroph.) take notice, that he doth not mean, nor say, that either Vitriol or the Juice of Vitriol is this Spirit which corrodes bodies, but it is the Esurine Salt, whether concrete or liquid, (viz.) whether in the form of a Salt or Liquor, which proves the menstruum in mineral solutions. So that it's plain that either you understand not this Author, (quoting him, because a Chemist, right or wrong) or else you designedly wrist his words from his own, to speak your sense. And now how truly you say, that you have with good reason exploded, and sufficiently confuted, what I say concerning this Esurine Salt, 
pag. 48.  (viz.) that it cannot imbibe, or work upon any other Mineral than one, let the judicious Reader (upon scanning both) determine.  
As to the fourth and last way, how the nature and virtue of Minerals and Metals do impregnate Waters, which is by confusion; I might justly reject it as not worthy further scanning, but that I find you bringing in an instance, how you understand your mixture by confusion, (a term I confess big enough to cause a jangle) and that is, that a Mineral that is dissoluable in Water, as Vitriol, Nitre, or Salt, may be so fully taken into the Water, as that the Water and Mineral are confusedly joined together; every drop of the Water having something of Mineral Particles, and every particle of them mixed with the Water.  
To which I answer, (Hydroph.) that if so you expound your mixture by confusion, as when Vitriol and Salts, as Nitre, Sal marine, etc. are dissolved in Water, I pray you then what mean you by regular or uniform mixtures of bodies? how differs this from the mixture of Juices of Minerals, and amongst them, of the Juice of Vitriol (according to your own judgement) in Water? either this confused mixture is the same with that of the Juice (as you speak) of Minerals, or not? if the same, than it is confusion without jesting, a multiplication of Entities (at least the Entia rationis) without cause: if it be not the same, than you should have done well to have shown us the difference, and so put the matter beyond dispute; as you lay it down, I see no ground of distinction at all: for you say, Every drop of the Water, hath something of the Mineral Particles, and every Particle of them is mixed with the Water; that is in short, they are mixed per minima: How these should be confused, and yet different from the mixture of the succulent parts of Minerals in Water, is (I confess) beyond my understanding in Philosophy. If you had (Hydroph.) brought the matter to a compute, and given the proportions between bodies and their menstruums in other kinds of your supposed mixtures, than your notions had not been so confused but we might have distinguished them. But by the by, I would a little take notice of that instance you bring out o● Galen, treating of the four Elements meeting i● every mixed body, Ea tota per se confundi, & su● eorum substantiis misceri docet; by which it should seem as if the four Elements, in their combination to make up the composition of bodies, were only confounded, and hand over head jumbled togethers me thinks no regular or uniform mixtures should hence arise in the beauteous and wonderful compage of the World; but all would yet remain unhatched out of the first confused Chaos or primitive Hyle● and instead of an uniform mixture of the constivent part in the Genesis of mixed bodies, guided by Spermatick Principles, according to the Mandate o● the Primitive Fiat; all mixed bodies would either appear so confused in their constitutive parts, as w● could not difference them one from another, or else they would be no otherwise intelligible to us, tha● so many blanks upon which confusion was writ. By this time, without doubt, the Reader may discover the dimness (not to say confusedness) o● Galen, 
pag. 53.  and this his Sectators Intellectual in this point of Philosophy.  
Now come we at length to view you Artillery, 
My main Fort yet standing.  and your Cannons, whereby you intent to batter down my main Fo● (yet standing) to the ground. My ch●● Argument therefore, which I urge against the en● stency of Vitriol in the Spa, and at which you levelly your battering force, is no less than what is confirmed by Autopsy; and that is, that my ingenious Friend, the Chemical Apothecary at York, took some of the mineral Ingredients of the Spa, which remained after the evaporation of the Water, which he had from yourself; those he calcined in a Crucible for the space of three hours; and all this while, without the least appearance of any red colour, or the least footsteps of either Colcothar of Vitriol, or Crocus of Iron. Now for certain, if there had been any thing of Vitriol or Iron in it, the discovery would have been made, and it forced to confess its nature, in its yellow, red, or purple colour, by so great a stress of fire.  
Now (saith Hydroph.) if I prove that Vitriol will calcine white, than his Argument is invalid; and this I shall do both by the heat of the fire, as also of the Sun. First, By the heat of the fire, witness that of Swelfer, Vitrioli veneris pulverisati, & ad albedinem parumper calcinati. Secondly, It will calcine white by the heat of the Sun, witness the making of the Sympathetical Powder out of Roman Vitriol calcined white by the Sun.  
To which (Hydroph.) I answer, That had you been so throughly versed in the Chemical Art as you pretend, you had not set your Guns so furiously to work to so little purpose: That Vitriol should by a gentle heat of fire be so altered, as to be dried to a white colour, is a thing I deny not; but that this alteration to a white colour, should be the effect of calcination, is a thing I cannot admit: For if after your supposed Calcination, you suffer your white Powder to be dissolved, filtered and evaporated, you will find it appear Vitriol again as green as at the first, which it would not do, if it had undergone a thorough calcination; so that your great mistake depends upon your supposing that whiteness to proceed from a calcination, when indeed it is only an exiccation, and no more but a degree to calcination, parumper calcinati, as you instance out of Swelfer: For the same degree of heat which will blanche Vitriol, is even requisite for the exiccation of Plants, to make them quickly pulverisable.  
And as to your second Argument from the calcining Vitriol white by the heat of the Sun, drawn from the calcining Roman Vitriol white by the Sun for the Sympathetick Powder. The return is the same as before, being only an exiccation of the superfluous moisture of the Vitriol, and that done by a degree of heat from the Sun equivalent to that exiccation performed by the fire upon the same subject matter.  
Now me thinks (Hydroph.) you have not laid your Argument diametrically against our Autoptical Experiment; for in ours the calcination was truly performed, being urged by force of fire in a Crucible; yours is but a slight exiccation: Now if you had proved that Vitriol by a strong calcination in the fire would have become white and have continued so, you had followed your Argument closely. But this contradicts matter of fact, easily experimented by any person who was willing to be satisfied in the truth thereof, in as much as Vitriol in a gentle degree of heat, whether of fire or the Sun, by an exiccation of the redundant moisture, becomes white; after which if the fire be increased, it turns yellow, then calcines red, and lastly purple, driving away thereby the menstrual Salt, which had incorporated itself with the metallic body.  
Now to prove, that these Minerals, upon their dissolution in this Water-Spring, must necessarily deposit what other colour they had, you quote Paracelsus in these words, Videtis metalla & mineralia similitudinem nullam habere cum corporibus illis, ex quibus generata sunt: In the englishing of which, I perceive you soyst in two or three words of your own: to make him the better to speak your sense, you translate the words thus, (to wit) you see that Metals and Minerals (dissolved in Water) have no resemblance with those bodies out of which they are generated: those words (dissolved in Water) I find not in the Author. But Paracelsus explains more fully what he means, even in his very following words, which you leave out, (viz.) Haec enim aqua sunt, cujus similitudinem metalla non exhibent, sicut autem metallum aqua fuit, sic visissim aqua fit lignum, fit gramen, etc. Here Paracelsus is (as by the scope of his words may be discerned) discoursing of the dissimilitude of bodies amongst themselves, though from the same subject matter, and therefore urgeth that Metals and Minerals, though originally from Water; yet (while such) bear a dissimilitude to their first subject matter, Water, for that Water which was the material principle of those bodies, by the superinduction of metalline and mineral Seeds, was before the determination thereof by such a Seed, as equally alterable into another body, as (for instance) of Trees, or Grass, etc. as into that of metalline or mineral bodies: And this is the genuine sense of Paracelsus in that place, which yet he further illustrates by that next instance you quote, Videtis vitriolum aliud viride, etc. id si in aquam resolvatur, colorem omnem deponit: where again, in your translation thereof, you miss his sense, and wrest it to your own, and that either designedly or ignorantly, for you translate i● thus, (viz.) You see one sort of Vitriol is green, another blue, but if it be resolved in Spring Water, it lays down all its colour; how (it 〈◊〉 in aquam resolvatur) will bear that translation, I do not understand; and here, would I appear Pedantic, I might severely chastise you, as you have endeavoured to lash me for smaller matters; for it is not in aquâ, but in aquam; and how it should bear the interpretation of Spring Water I know not, but let that pass.  
Now as in the former instance Paracelsus urged, That Metals and Minerals have their original from Water, to which (whilst such bodies) they carry no resemblance. So in this latter Example he affirmeth that Minerals (for instance Vitriol) may be resolved again into Water, and then they lose their colour; yea, other properties which (otherwise whilst mineral bodies) are essential to them; and that it was so, I may (Hydroph.) take leave to tell you, that both Paracelsus and Helmont could by their Liquor Alkahest reduce mineral and metalline bodies into simple Water; to confirm which, you have instances enough in my Hydrolog. Chym. In the third instance out of Paracelsus, you are as much (if not more) besides the cushion, as in the two former, it runs thus, Similiter & auri colur flavus est, qui tamen in transmutatione fit purpureus, si per transmutationem hanc resolvatur, tunc aquam nullam tingit amplius nec colorem in se continet. You may remember (Hydroph.) that at our last Discourse before the Gentlemen at the Spa, I pressed you to signify what you meant by that instance, and why you brought it in: you replied very gravely, after a little pause, let Paracelsus speak for himself. A fair return, Paracelsus must speak for himself, truly so he doth, and properly enough, for aught I know, as to what he is there treating of. But indeed (Hydroph.) either he or some else ought to have spoken for you, seeing you had so little to say for yourself why you forced an Author to speak in your sense, when you yourself did not know, nor could give any account of your reason of transcribing that Sentence out of Paracelsus. For first, you make your additions in the translation thereof, the better to colour your pretence, though without reason; you translate it thus, (viz.) In like manner, though the colour of Gold be yellow, and in transmutation it become purple, yet if it be resolved by this transmutation, that is, in Spring Water, it tinges the Water no more, nor does it keep its own colour. Your addition, (to wit) that is, in Spring Watet, is a seeming interpretation; whereas indeed Paracelsus speaks nothing at all in that place of Spring Water, I say, besides your own figmental additions to, and half constructions of this quotation out of Paracelsus, you do not (notwithstanding) make it fadge to your purpose: For what Paracelsus meant by transmutation, (by querying with you) I found you knew not; and what his resolution of Gold by this transmution was, you did as little understand. But that I may give you a little help to what you might possibly mean (even at the best) for your purpose: We will suppose that you imagined Gold dissolved in Aquâ Regiâ, of what sort soever; and that after precipitation with Sal Tartari, or any Alkali, it should come to be purple; which yet it doth not, witness the Aurum Fulminans, which is yellow; or that by edulcoration, let us suppose (at the best) that it may become purple. Now (Hydroph.) if you could produce any such purple coloured Gold, made by what skill or art you can, that would thereby be resolved in Spring Water, and yet would not tinge that Water, nor keep its own colour, Eris mibi magnut Apollo. Here perhaps (Hydroph.) may return, as a French Man once did to the learned Kircher, who having sent him a Scroll of a Character (which he had writ at random) to explain; which when Kircher had undertaken, and with a great deal of pains & dexterity of Art (as he thought) had interpreted it, according to the sense and meaning of the Author, returned him an answer to this purpose. 
pag. 60.61.  Sir, You have explained my Character singularly well, for you have interpreted that of which I knew not the meaning myself, having scribbled it carelesls and at random.  
Had these (saith Hydroph.) been perfect Minerals in their kind, (viz. Vitriol and Iron) they might with good reason have expected they should have calcined of a red or purple colour, etc. but if the Mineral (viz.) Vitriol, or the Iron be imperfect, and only in succo primitivo, no such thing can be expected.  
To which I answer, That if one of these two, which you call imperfect Minerals, (viz.) Iron, may by force of fire be actually brought into the Scoria of Iron, which indeed is Iron itself: Then by a parity of reason, may we conclude that the other imperfect Minerals, Vitriol (if such there be in the Spa) may by force of fire be brought to undergo the like mutations of colours compatible to it as a perfect mineral body: The assumption I shall prove from your own words, (p. 67.) where you say, You calcined the black Sediment precipitated by the stipticity of the Gall, which you call Iron: This you calcined in a Crucible in very strong fire, and it became of a dark brown colour, and turned to a gross Powder hard as a Cinder, and was no other (saith Hydroph.) then the Scoria of Iron; and in the same page you call them laminae ferreae, or flakes of Iron. The consequence is so evident, as needs no further demonstration; for if the Juice of one imperfect Mineral, (viz.) Iron, becomes by force of fire perfect Iron, (viz.) the Scoria of Iron. Then why may not the other imperfect Juice, viz. Vitriol (if such (as I said) there be in this Spring) by the like stress of fire, be also brought to undergo those changes of colour belonging to the actual or perfect (if I may so call it) body of Vitriol.  
And as to what you seem to solve in saying, Vitriol is not imbibed in Scarbrough Water corporally but precolated; we deny it to be there any manner of way, either in Juice or by precolation, perfect or imperfect, in fieri, or in facto esse, or what other way you can name; from all which it appears, that if there be Iron in the Spa, there is no Vitriol, because Iron is apparent, but Vitriol not.  
As to what you report out of Falopius concerning a Mineral Spring near Rome, 
pag. 64.  In Agro voleterano, in illâ aquâ est suctus & albus, & est succus Calcanthi, non Aluminis. Now (quoth Hydroph.) it's very probable that this white Juice would make a white Salt by calcination, after its separation from the menstruum; and truly it's as probable Hydroph. never tried a calcination of a white vitrioline Juice, or of a white Vitriol; if he had, he would certainly have been of another mind, in as much as any white Vitriol being calcined, passeth through all the colours ascribable to other kinds of Vitriol; besides which, what is this white Juice to the Scarbrough Spa, seeing no vitrioline Juice, of what colour soever, is apparent therein? and therefore what ever you quote out of other Authors, may indeed prove Vitriol to be existent in those Springs they treat of; but it's nothing, ad Rhombum, as to prove the existency of such a Mineral in this Spa, unless it could be made demonstrable by matter of Fact, which you neither do nor can; not to say how prettily you confirm what you would aim at by a palpable contradition in p. 65. of your Mimic, which I have gently touched upon p. 22. As for your inference which you draw from your Argumentum ad hominem, (as you call it) where you say, That seeing I grant that this (viz.) the Swear Spa at Knarsbrough hath Vitriol and Iron, and yet calcines white, etc. I answer, You take that for granted, against which I demonstratively argue in the Negative, as the Reader may see, p. 3, 9, 10, 136. of my Hydrol. Chym. where I affirm and demonstrate that a Vitriol which contains Iron, is not Vitriol and Iron distinctly, but jointly make up a Vitriol of Iron; and that the Esurine Acidity preying upon the Minera of Iron in the Knarsbrough Spa, had got a slight touch therefrom, and is as a Vitriol of the Minera of Iron; and hath not both Vitriol and Iron, as I have sufficiently hinted before? And from thence to p 76. is an impertinent Discourse of the properties of Vitriol and Iron, after such a manner indeed as is not worth the time t● bestow a reflection thereon, where the Reader may please to take notice that some Galenical Physician do ordinarily, and perhaps no less learnedly discourse of Simples, whether Vegetables, Minerals, or Animals, according to the four first qualities of heat, cold, dryness and moisture; to each of which they cunningly ascribe four degrees, whereby they strictly judge of the temperature of the simple. Thus they say Vitriol is hot, that is, its heating; Iron is dry, that is, it's drying.  
Now if the temperature of Simples, and their Operation upon the body of man, may be judged according to those four qualities with their degrees: Then might I justly query first, Why two Plants of the same supposed degree of any the four first qualities, are not of the same signature, taste, smell and operation? Why (for instance) the four greater hot Seeds, Cardamons, etc. which are reputed hot and dry in the third degree, should not have the same figure, taste and smell? Why these should not be Emetic or Purgative, as well as Asarum or Hellebor, which are reputed hot and dry in the same degree, seeing the temperature of them, according to the doctrine of qualities, are the same? Why Mandrakes, Hemlock, Henbane, Opium, Solanum, Lethale, should be deadly by being cold in the fourth degree, seeing (for instance) Opium is bitter, sharp, ulcerating and inflammable? the signs of heat, according to the same Doctrine; yea, and is also eminently Diaphoretic in its Operation, which is irrational to conceive, can proceed from a told quality. Why Tobacco, which is the Henbane of Peru, should, according to Monardus, be accounted hot and dry in the second degree, and yet hath a benumbing and stupifying quality, which in it (as well as in the Juice of Poppy called Meconium, or the Stillitidium of the same wounded heads called Opium) proceed from extreme cold, as Galen and his followers do opine? Why one and the same Plant should in its temperature or Crases, harbour two such inimical guests, as heat and cold, without struggling in the Womb. As to that distinction the Galenists make betwixt the temperature of a Concrete, and the property of its whole substance, seems to me too slight to solve the difficulty arising from this Doctrine: For what's the temperature of any Plant, but a specifical modification of its substance? and what is its substance, as to particularities, but a different modification of its par●, according to the variety of Seminal Principles?  
Again, Why is Aconitum and Napellus (too mortal poisons accounted) hot and dry in the fourth degree? and yet white Briony is placed above the third degree of that rank; Why not in the fourth being above the third? and then, why not immortal as the two former? Surely the Galenists forgot to add minutes to their degrees, and to rank every thing in its right Clasis. That the Aconite 〈◊〉 a deadly Poison, is evident, by the remarkable and no less lamentable example at Antwerp, recorded by Gerrard, where those who eat of the Leaves thereof served up in Salads, were forthwith taken with cruel Symptoms, and died. But white Briony i● so far removed from that dangerous toxical property, as that it is sometimes taken inwardly to a ℥ in quantity, as a Hydragogon.  
That Hemlock, Henbane, etc. should, (as ● said) being taken inwardly, perform those strange effects in the humane (or other Animal) body, by being in their temperature cold in the fourth degree, is no less difficult, then irrational to conceit that Hemlock should have such an influence upon the animal powers of the sensitive soul, so much to eclipse them, as to cause an alienation of mind, witness the notable Story Kircher relates of two Seminary Priests of Germany, who eat of Hemlock Roots, (being mistaken by the Cook for Parsley) forthwith, even ere the Roots were well swallowed, they fell into a rage, tore off their , and leapt into an adjacent Pond; out of which being taken, and by Antidotes restored, (save that the toxicum had seized upon the genus nervosum, whereby for three years they remained Paralytic) were asked the reason why in their madness, they had thrown themselves headlong into the Water? answered, That they fancied themselves Geese, and so after the manner of those Creatures, betook themselves to the Water to swim. That Henbane should be so toxical, as that two dragms of the Seed thereof (as Helmont reports) being given to a Lawyer, by a mistake, instead of as much Dil-Seed, (prescribed for the Colic) made him become so mad, as that he could not utter one intelligible word, and spoiled his pleading, Ita insanus (saith he) quod nil stolidius, magisque fatuum viderim.  
But say the Galenists, 
pag. 78.  and with them my Antagonist, There are, besides these four first, other secondary qualities, as mollifying, condensing, rarifying, etc. As also some which they call third qualities, such as are vomiting, purging, expelling the Stone, etc. Yea, and that there are a fourth sort (now to the Point) called, Occult Qualities. These are indeed their Asulum ignorantiae, to which in all Phaenomena of difficult solution they have their refuge; for where their manifest qualities fall short in explicating the powers, and unfolding the secrets of Nature, there must the Occult Qualities bring up the Rear, to the rendering of things rather more unintelligible, after the manner of an ignotum per ignotius.  
Well, but to return to Vitriol, which our Philosopher saith is hot, that is, its heating, yet he tells us not what sort of Vitriol that is, whether of Iron, of Copper, Silver, etc. For we have demonstratively made evident, that there is no Vitriol existent in nature, but hath a mineral or metalline body, as the main Ingredient of its Compages: Yea, if we should know which sort of Vitriol he intended, yet should we be at a loss to find whether it must be the whole compound body of Vitriol, or any of its constitutive Ingredients, or any parts separable therefrom by the fire; whether the Colcothar, Esurine Salt, Spirit, Phlegm, Oil, which is hot, that is, its heating?  
That Iron should be dry, that is, drying; and Vitriol hot, that is, heating, we have no other Argument, than what is purely effeminate (viz.) it is so, because it is so; And what if Jacobus de Partibut, Kircher, Galen, Conciliator, Paracelsus, and a hundred more should say so? It's but yet an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the best; and that will not half go down with the Explorators of the new Philosophy: But it seems my Antagonist knows nothing, or very little of useful Experiments, the very Basis and main Pillars of the true Physiology; but consults rather those Authors, who themselves have frequently taken what they have from others upon trust, subscribing rather to dogmatical Placets, then willing to unravel Nature's Clew of Genuine Experiments.  
But that my Antagonist may not appear altogether barren of Experiments, he end eavours to illustrate the opening and drying, the deopilative and astringent qualities of Iron; the former to lie in a Volatile Salt, the latter in the Crocus or terrestrial part; by this Experiment, of casting filings of Steel or Iron into the flame of a Candle, and it will burn like Saltpetre or Rosin. These filings, when infused three or four times in Water or Wine, (as in making Chalybeat Wines) till the Liquor hath dissolved all the Salt; then dry it, and cast it into the flame, and it shall not burn, but the Liquor shall have a strong taste from the Salt.  
As to the verity in matter of fact of the flagration of filings of Steel cast upon the flame of a Candle, Experto Crede Roberto. But his Philosophic remarks thereon are indeed remarkable, (viz.) That that which gives the flame should be the Volatile Salt of Steel, is no less than a mistake of a Salt for a Sulphur, an incombustible for a combustible; for no Volatile Salt whatever as such, is inflammable, being indeed the essential properties of Sulphurs, whether Vegetable, Animal or Mineral, to take flame and burn; which that it is so, is evident both by a flagrable Sulphur, which we have separated from Steel, as also by this Experiment, (viz.) That if in the making the Saccharum Martis, you hold a Candle at the top of the Glass, while the Oil of Vitriol is working upon it, you will find that as soon as it toucheth the steam, which ascends from the intestine contest of the two Combatants, it will immediately take flame, and burn like as if so much Oil or Spirit of Wine had been fired. Now that Iron should (according to the testimony of those Authors my Antag. 
Two Contradictions  quotes) be cold and dry, and yet according to his own Experiment should take flame, is surely no less than a palpable contradiction: for sulphureous parts are always reputed hot, so that an inch breaks no squares betwixt his Arguments and Experiments; Yea, that Vitriol which he judgeth hot, that is, heating, should be so, and yet the Spirit of Vitriol, (as well as the Spirits thereof in the Spa) which in plain words, (p. 97.) he saith, are both Vitriol (how true we may elsewhere examine) are used frequently in most cooling Juleps, both to cool and quench thirst in Fevers; that the same numerical body of Vitriol should, as such, be both hot & cold, is not a sleight, but a gross contradiction, and argues great inconsistency and unfaithfulness to himself.  
From hence to pag. 90. is nothing but what already hath been said, and already may (without further repetition) be reputed sufficiently answered. Here he quotes what I said, p. 38, 39 of my Hydrol. Chym. (viz.) 
pag. 90.  That I demonstrated to him what he would not otherwise believe, That the bare solution of the Calx of Alom Stone, doth give exactly the same alteration of colour, as the Spa itself, yea and as the solution of Vitriol too.  
My Antagonist returns thus, I said indeed (quoth he) and so I do confidently say still, That it is the Vitriol alone, that being dissolved by its Mineral Juice in this Water, takes the tincture from the Gall.  
Now, I pray, (goes he on) With what Logic can he argue from calcined Alom-Stone, to this aluminous Juice that is here in the Water? 
pag. 91.  Had he tried whether the crude Stone of Alom would qualify simple Spring Water to take a tincture from Gall, or impart any Sapor to Water, he had acted according to reason.  
To which I answer, That to gainsay confidently, yea to persist in the deny all of what is plainly, even ocularly demonstrated, becomes not, yea, is below a Philosopher or lover of Truth. Did not my ingenuous Friend, both before your face, and in the presence of many Gentlemen at the Spa, show you to your astonishment, that the crude Alom Stone (even taken out of that place of the Bank which yourself pointed to) dissolved in fresh Spring Water, would with Gall, give as deep a tincture as the Spa Water itself? Can you deny this? The same have I also showed before other Gentlemen at the Spa, yea, and sent up some of it to be tried before the Virtuosos.  
The circumstances of that transaction about that Experiment, is now too tedious to relate, only in short thus, (viz.) After this Mimic was brought upon the Stage to public view, I made a Journey on purpose to Scarbrough Spa, to make some further Experiments of that Water, where, with much ado, engaging my Antagonist in a Discourse about what he had asserted in his Book, querying with him about the solution of many contradictions therein inserted; which whether he was not almost driven as far as Hercules his Pillars, with the Inscription of a ne plus ultra, I shall appeal to the ingenuous Physicians, Scholars, and other learned Gentlemen who were by; and was so far gravelled, as being pinched about a Sentence he had transcribed out of Paracelsus, which I pressed to know why he made use of, he was glad to refer me to Paracelsus, and bid Paracelsus speak for himself; together with many other circumstances too prolix now to in●st upon, concerning which we have (as occasion hath offered) now and then glanced upon them.  
The next morning we did, descend●re in arenam, without either our Swords or our Seconds, where controverting the matter privately, I asked him, Why he dealt so unworthily with me in his Book? why so many scurrilous invectives, and unhandsome reflections? and why he had endeavoured to cast such an odium upon me as to my Practice, when I was able to make evident, by substantial witness, the falseness and the injustice of the aspersions cast upon me, that an unprejudiced eye might easily discover a vein of fire to run through all his lines, no way grateful to any judicious person? He answered, That I had made him my Enemy, and that he had softened something therein, and had intended to have done more, but that he came more suddenly from the Press than he expected, and that I had dealt severely with him in my reflections. To whom I returned, that mine touched not his personal Practice or Concerns, but his Philosophy; and that if when he had by clearness of Experiment or strength of Argument (as he thought) found me tripping, then to have paid me, in specie, in my own Coin, would have been acceptable to most ingenuous Persons. For saving a few lines (which I confess might have been put into a better dress, and which I told him he might have looked upon as slips of my Pen, or little flourishes of youth) his gravity might have given a better precedent: I cared not if all the World saw the Book; and in short I told him, That though I looked upon myself bound to give a return to his Book; yet I did so much abominate that unchristianlike way of proceeding against each other by calumination, and casting odiums upon each others Practice, as I promised him (though I might possibly have been furnished with a competent stock of matter) never to retaliate upon him in the like kind.  
After a little bicker, and some experiments I made of the Spa Water, my ingenuous Friend, the Chemical Apothecary, for a through-experiment whether of us was in the right, desired my Antagonist to show in what part of the Cliff his supposed Vitriol lay; who pointing to the place, thrust in his Knife, and took out some of the crude Alom Stone which lay under the Floscule. That it was Alom Stone my Antagonist could not deny; but that it should in fresh Water, with the addition of Gall, give a purple tincture, he utterly denied; wherefore that they might not be long in suspense whether it was so or no, it was concluded that an Experiment thereof should be forthwith made, and that the whole matter should hang thereon, (viz.) Whether Vitriol or Alom was the Ingredient in the Water; for it might be easily granted, that if Alom did not give the tincture, than it must be somewhat else, and that could be no other than Vitriol; but if that did give the tincture, than it was not from Vitriol, because Alom hath been separated, but never any Vitriol from the Water.  
Therefore taking a Porringer of fresh Water, in which some of this crude succulent Alom Stone was shaved, with addition of Galls (wherewith my Antag. was well stocked) and in the presence of several Physicians, Scholars, and other ingenuous Gentlemen, it presently struck as deep a tincture as if it had been the Spa Water itself: at which my Antagonist trembled and grew pale, and in a sudden passion told them, That he would take his Oath, that Dr. Tunstal told him that it was Vitriol the last year; which with reiteration he averred: The Physicians being by, asked, Where was his witness? So with an Aposiopesis, they broke up abruptly. Thus my Antagonist was cast upon the Sands with a Hurricane or sudden storm of an unavoidable Experiment; Yea, and not only the succulent Alom Stone, but even any of the hard Alom Stones (of which that Bank is full) we found would give a tincture in fresh Water, acidulated with Spirit or Oil of Sulphur, if thereto Galls were added; for to make a hard compact mineral Stone to give its tincture in fresh Water, cannot easily be expected, according to the uniform Laws of Nature, unless that Water be first made a proper Menstruum, by acidulating it with a singular and mineral Spirit proper for that purpose.  
So that my Antagonist may as equally conclude, that Sulphur has neither tincture nor acidity in it, because being boiled in Spring Water alone, it gives neither, nor doth it yield any acidity to the taste being chewed; and yet let the same Water but be acuated with an Alkalie, or let the same fixed Salt be melted with the Sulphur, and the body of Sulphur will thereby be so opened, as to yield both its tincture as red as blood, and odour also, which last will be made to appear by the addition of any acid Juice; yea, its acidity will plainly be evident by burning it under a Glass Bell, witness the Oil of Sulphur made after that manner: so that where mineral bodies are to be dislolved or unlocked, their Menstruums are to be acuated and duly prepared.  
Wherefore in confirmation of what I elsewhere assert in my Hydrol. Chym. concerning an Acid Sulphureous Spirit or Salt, which being dissolved in a Water Spring, becomes a suitable Menstruum to make Solutions, or to take in the tinctures of Mineral or Metalline Bodies which lie in their way; I say, in confirmation hereof, I find the ingenuous Swelfer in his Appendix, (p. 97.) saith to the very same purpose, thus, Etenim vitriolum caerulcum (quod me judice nihil aliud est quam cuprum, quandoque etiam ex venâ argenteâ ortum ducens in visceribus terrae a spiritu sulphuris solutum, quemadmodum viride vitriolum à venis ferri est; eodem spiritu sulphuris in terrae autris dissolutum) è cupreis venis exortum, etc. And that this is a sulphureous Salt or Spirit which acuates the Water of this Spa compatible, as well to Alom as Vitriol, is evident, both by the profound Helmont's definition of this Esutine Salt, (viz.) Est partus immaturus sulphuris embryonatis. As also by this experimental Observation which confirms both, (viz.) That in the burning or calcining the Alom Stone, to make it capable to yield its imbred Salt, a Sulphur is found thrust forth to the surface of the Stone, by the force of fire, which will take flame at a Candle, and burn with a blue flame, with the same sulphureous smell as common Sulphur, which lies in a crust driven from the body of the Alom Stone, and adheres to it; of which I have some by me, and have tried the Experiment therewith; by which it appears that that Salt, connatural with the Alom Stone, hath also espoused to itself an embryonate Sulphur, which lies dormant in all mineral acid Spirits, whether of Vitriol or Alom, this not being able to abide the force of fire in the calcination of the Alom Stone, is pressed forth to the superficies thereof, chief at the outside of the heap, and there appears in the real form of Sulphur, as combustible as any common one.  
Thus the Legich, by which I argue from calciued Alom Stone, to the crude aluminous Juice in the Water, is no less than by an autoptical induction, as apparent as the Sun at noon day, and no less demonstrable, but indeed more obvious, than that three Angles of a Triangle should always be equal to two right Angles; or than that the Angles of incidence and reflection should always be the same.  
But that we may be the more certain, whether if there were any such thing as Vitriol in this Spa Water, it might not by trial be discovered; I therefore, for better satisfaction, made a solution, first of Vitriol and Nitre in distilled Water, mixed and evaporated them in an easy heat of a Sand Furnace, until they did shoot in Crystals, which were plainly distinct each from other, so as one might see them severally in the bottom of the Glass.  
Then I took Vitriol and Alom Salt, (viz. the true Alom) of each an anatical proportion, whole Solutions in distilled Water were filtered, mixed and evaporated to Crystals, which also were distinct, (viz.) the Crystals of Vitriol from those of Alom; Then I took the Solutions of Vitriol, Alom and Nitre, of each alike in distilled Water, which being filtered, mixed and evaporated, ad cuticulam, gave three distinct sorts of Crystals, (viz.) long styriate, which were of Nitre; white Crystals, which were from Alom; and green, which were from Vitriol, every one, in their several form, distinguishable enough to the bare eye.  
But that I might leave no stone unmoved that might lie in my way, or upon which my Antagonist might have the least foundation for his fictious Hypothesis of the existency of Vitriol in this Spa, that I might (I say) unravel to the very bottom of his Clew, whose deepest reserve (and by which he thinks he hits the nail o'th' head) is fetch from a supposition of the presence of Vitriol in this Water by its Juice, or in succo primitivo; I therefore took some of the Marcasite Stones of Vitriol, which I got out of the black Bog, near the Sulphur-Well at Knarsbrough, which is the minera of Vitriol, in which (if any where) the Vitriol is in succo: upon this pulverised, I poured a Solution of Sal marine, and let them stand together in a Matrass for several days; which by standing in stigido, extracted a green tincture from the Marcasites: This I decanted and filtered, which with the addition of Galls, would strike a tincture not inferior to the Solution of the body of Vitriol. This yellow green salty Liquor I caused to be evaporated, in a gentle heat, in a Jar Glace placed in Sand, which shot into curious yellow tinging Crystals, which left in the bottom an Oaker, or Terra Vitriolica; after the manner as is found upon the like process with other factitious Vitriols.  
That which was very remarkable was, That the yellowish Liquor wherein these Crystals did shoot, would not with Galls strike any colour, but remained clear as before the addition thereof: but when I added some more clear Water, and thereby diluted it, I found that then it gave a purple colour. The very like to which, I observed to happen to a strong Solution of Dantz-Vitriol, brought to an oily consistence immediately before shooting, which with the addition of Galls I found would give no alteration of colour; but when I diluted it with more Water, it than gave its purple tincture, and that the deeper by how much (to a certain proportion) the more Water I added; just as some menstruums may be graduated too highly, and made too strong to corrode or dissolve their proper bodies; the Solutions of which they cannot perform till they be made weaker. Here if I should tell my Antagonist, That I know by a menstruum, (not rare amongst Chemists) with the addition of mine or his breath, how to calcine a Metal, (viâ humidâ, as the Chemists speak) without which (or somewhat equivalent thereto) the humid calcination of that Metal cannot be performed, also how to melt another Metal (prepared after a certain manner) with the help of one single Lamp, unassisted by any blast, he would, without doubt, look upon them as Paradoxes.  
But to confirm yet further the existency and precedency of Alom in the Scarbrough Water; I observe that in the very minera of that Stone and Earth, found upon the Bank, a thin Scale of a bright Crystalline Marcasite, of the very colour and brightness, like another which I do, by an artifice upon that Water, separate therefrom, which is indeed a bright clear Talk; yea, I find other gritty parcels of a sabulous Earth, much-what like the others, separated from the Spa Water by the foresaid Artifice.  
Now from a collation of Experiments, these following Corollaries will naturally result.  
First, That a Mineral, in its crude succulent parts, may easily be dissolved in Spring Water alone, when it's more compact body, whose parts are locked up more strictly, require a sulphureous Menstruum to dissolve it, or take it in pieces; witness the crude succulent Alom Stone, readily giving its tincture with Gall in fresh Water, when the hard slate thereof requires Water acidulated with is sulphureous Spirit, to open the body thereof, to make it give its virtue.  
Secondly, That the Marcasites of Vitriol and Alom, have an embryonative Sulphur connatural with them, produced out of the same Mineral Seed; for instance, the Sulphur crust, separated by Calcination of the Alom Stone; and in the Vitriol Marcasites, I find, that putting them into the fire, they burn of a blue flame, and have a sulphureous smell; in both these the Sulphur is really answerable to the common Sulphur or Brimstone.  
Thirdly, That several Mineral Salts, and other connatural bodies may consist disguised under one liquid Mask; which when taken off by a gentle distillation or evaporation, each shows itself in its own likeness. Thus Alom, Vitriol, and Nitre, being dissolved in Water, and so mixed together, appear in a liquid form, with very little discrimination; but when this Water is taken away by easy distillation or evaporation; then they appear, statu quo prius, (viz.) Alom, Vitriol and Nitre, again, each in their several shapes. Thus the several constitutive Ingredients of the Scarbrough Spa Water, whilst under that liquid Mask, show as one simple limpid transparent body, but take off the Mask, (as aforesaid) and then they appear, each in their own form, such as they were before their Solution in that Spring.  
Fourthly, That the minera or Marcasites of Alom or Vitriol, do as really give their tinctures, or yield their Solutions in Water; yea, do every way answer the operations agreeable to what is expected, or may be performed by their factitious bodies: Thus the solution of the succulent Alom Stone, giveth the same mutation of colours, as the Liquor drawn from the body of the calcined Stone; so in like manner doth the solution of the Vitriol marcasite in Water, give the same tincture by Galls, as the factitious body of Vitriol doth, yea, and precipitates the same Vitriolic Oaker, or yellow Sediment, as the other doth.  
Fifthly, That a mineral or metallic solution, may have its parts so concentred, as it may not admit of that alteration of colours, compatible to the same solution diluted or thin'd. Thus the strong yellowish Liquor made from a solution of Salt, extracting the tincture from the Marcasites of Vitriol, would not with Galls give any alteration of colour, which yet it would do, when diluted, by adding more Water thereto; and thus a strong solution of Vitriol would strike no purple, nor other colour with Gall, when yet the same diluted did so.  
But the truth is, (saith my Antagonist) I have tried it of that sort of Alom-Mine which is in the Cliff near the Well, 
pag. 91.  having broken it to Powder, and infused it in Spring Water some hours, and it received no tincture from Gall: Nay, I calcined that very Stone, and then dissolved it in Spring Water; and yet it received no tincture from Galls.  
Which how true, I shall appeal to those many Gentlemen at the Spa, who saw the Experiment ocularly demonstrated, yea, the Royal Society, to whom I sent up so much as was sufficient to pass the test before them; yea, to those who have seen the Experiment tried at public places and elsewhere in York.  
To confirm his Opinion, That Alom Stone gives no tincture, nor yields any virtues to Water, my Antagonist brings in this instance, p. 29. (viz.) That at the Alom Mine at Whithy, in the middle thereof a Spring of fresh Water breaks forth, having twelve fathom of Mine about it; which yet gives no tincture with Galls, having taken no vapot, odor, or sapor from the Mine.  
To which I answer, First by observing how inconsistent my Antagonist is to what he declares, p. 16. of his Mimic, accounting with Kircher, That Spring Water is a proper menstruum to take in the virtues of Minerals and Metals; witness that at St. Lucas in Italy, which hath imbibed Iron and Alom; another in Germany impregnated with Alom and Nitre; and yet here denies it either to take vapour, odor, or sapor from the Mine it passeth through: Next to which I endeavoured, by climbing that steep Bank at Whithy, to have examined the source of that Spring; but having not time, I procured this account thereof from an ingenuous Friend, (viz.) That it runs not through the Alom Work, but under the bottom of the stony Quarry, full of Cleffs, (about which there are divers Earth's about the height of eight or ten yards to the surface of the ground) underneath which Quarry is a Mine, in colour much resembling that of Alom; but is not the same in nature with it, nor accounted so by the Workmen, but is usually called by them Doggers, or Cats-heads; betwixt which, and the abovesaid Quarry, issues forth that Spring, and therefore no wonder it partakes of no virtues therefrom; in some of these Cats-heads, being broken, are found in the middle thereof, a kind of transparent Talk.  
Thus as he concludes, 
pag. 93.  Alom Stone to give neither vapour, odor, or sapor to spring Water, (which how true let the World judge.) So he further proceeds to tell us, That neither doth Iron give any tincture in Spring Water with Gall, nor yield any Sediment upon evaporation; witness the Spring of fresh Water which runs out of an Iron Mine near Barnsley, upon the edge of Derbyshire; the which my Antagonist contradicts, by closing with what he relates out of Paracelsus, by which he hints (in his own words) as if simple Water alone were sufficient to imbibe a Metal, (as Iron) while it hath not attained its perfection; which in truth is the case of the Iron Mine at Scarbrough, and yet here (according to him) it neither gives tincture with Gall, nor yields any Sediment; but this also contradicts his Experiment of a Vitrioline Salt made out of Iron by an infusion in Water.   

A brief Account of the Anom-Works At WHITBY.  
NOW, because I find that Alom is the chief and essential Ingredient of the Scarbrough Spa Water, I shall (for further illustration) give my Observations concerning the Alom-Works at Whitby, to which place I purposely made a journey, for my own and others satisfaction; where first I observed, that it is not every Alom Mine that the Workmen will employ their labour and time about, as finding some that are unripe, and therefore unfit to extract the Salt therefrom; amongst which that blue Slate or Earth (which they often find near the true ripe Stone) which they call Doggers or Cats-heads; and other slaty Stone mixed therewith, they reject: which I cannot better parallel, then with those unripe Mines which the Cole-miners often upon digging find, and call Smitts, as being an imperfect Cole, whose Sulphur is not brought to maturity, wherefore they reject it as an unprofitable and useless Fuel; and yet these may no less be reputed Coals, than the other unripe Alom Stone may be accounted Alom Minera: so that to expect that these crude Stones or Earth (which are akin to true Alom Stone) should give a tincture with Galls in fresh Water (as some, not very cautiously, have attempted) is no less irrational, then to expect from these Smitts, all the essential qualifications belonging to the true ripe Cole, though both are Cole.  
Next I observe, that when they have pitched upon the right Minera of Alom, they calcine it thus; first, digging great quantities thereof; then heaping it Stratum super Stratum, (viz.) a layer of Coals, and a layer of Stones; piling them up a great height in a vast bulk, like a little Mountain, they fire it below, and so let it burn day and night, till the fire of its own accord ceaseth, or rather till all that is combustible be spent; when the Stone hath throughly taken fire, the whole Mass burns much more intensely then at the first, and that because of a plenteous Sulphur connate with the Stone, which then becomes fired, and is thrust forth to the superficies of the Alom Stone, being a real combustible Sulphur, which as a Crust cleaves to the Minera, of which I have some by me, sent by an ingenious Friend.  
Thirdly, We observe that this Calcination is therefore made of the Minera, that it may the better and more plentifully yield its innate Salt, partly by opening the body thereof by this previous Calcination, and partly by preparing it for a Magnet for the nitrous Particles flowing from the Air to settle thereon; with which, by being the longer exposed to the Air, it becomes the more saturated; plentifully, I said, because the natural Stone, unprepared or calcined, will sometimes separate its connate Salt to the superficies thereof, by the bare solitary heat of the Sun: as I am by an autopsy confirmed, in that I have sometime seen an Alom Slate spontaneously sweat forth its own Salt; which being dissolved in fresh Spring Water with the addition of Galls, I found would immediately strike a deep purple, and with Oil of Sulphur and Vitriol become clear; and then opace again with the addition of Tartar, etc.  
Fourthly, The Minera being thus opened by the Calcination, they make a Lee thereof, in Pirs made within the ground, which run one into another by Pipes or Channels; this Lee or Solution, they pump into Troughs which convey it into leaden Cisterns, which will, with Galls, strike a deep purple colour, whereof they have whole Tuns, which will give that tincture, (as any who pleaseth may try.) This Liquor consists both of a Sulphur, Alom, Salt, and an Oaker, which as it runs along the Troughs, drills in some places through the crevices thereof, and by the heat of the Sun is congealed into Salt, of which I procured a quantity to make Experiments with: This Salt will also (being dissolved in fresh Spring Water, and filtered) give the purple colour with the addition of Galls.  
Fifthly. This Lee boiled up to such a height in leaden Cisterns, is pumped into other Cisterns, and there it precipitates a great quantity of a yellow sulphureous earthy Sediment, and so becomes purged of its dross; then is it conveyed into other Cisterns, where it meets with a decocted Lee of Kelp and Urine, and thence (if I mistake not) is pumped up into the first Cistern and boiled again; then let's fall another Sediment, and then is sent into low Cisterns within the ground, where it in part shoots; what doth not shoot, is pumped up into a boiling Cistern, and therein is brought to its due height; then is it pumped into great Tun Casks, where it shoots into that form we find the factitious Alom of. To the last decoction, in the boiling Cisterns, is always added its Mother, which is a Liquor which always remains after shooting, and contributes much towards the chrystallizing of fresh Alom Liquor.  
But in their last decoction, which is performed in their roaching Pan, they boil up that part which before was shot into grains in the lower Cisterns, together with that which did not shoot, (and all after the mixture with the additional Salts) into a due consistence, and so they let it run into the foresaid Tun-Casks to shoot.  
That this aluminous Salt is esurine and sharp, (as we have said in our Hydrol. Chym.) as well as that of Vitriol, is evident by the Experiment of putting a plate of Iron, suppose of about a quarter of a pound weight, into the last boiling Liquor, (which I caused to be tried) which in a few hours was totally corroded and dissolved, which in longer time would scarcely be touched, when covered with a broad cloth, shred or list; and what is remarkable in this (but common to other mineral menstruum fretting their proper bodies) was, that while the Iron was dissolving, the Liquor did ferment, boil and rage's more than ordinarily; which when the Solution was over, ceased, although I must confess that it's probable, that the addition of the Salts of Kelp and Urine, may promote the corrosiveness of this Liquor, and may make it the more readily dissolve Iron, and perhaps other Metals, if they were tried in it.  
And were these Salts of Kelp totally alkalizate, (after the manner of the fixed Salts of common Vegetables, made by the calcination of Plants, by naked force of fire) would certainly prove destructive to the Alom Work, and that because the last are endued with a saltiness, contrary and quite destructive to all acid Salts, which after a sharp contest would terminate not in Alom, but in a neutrum quid, (viz.) Tartarum Aluminosum. But the Lee made out of the  Sea-wrack or Kelp, is over halanced with a Marine Salt, which (by a continual pressure or agitation of parts) works itself into the texture of those Seafaring Plants, by unhinging some parts of their first composition, whence the brackishness and sulphureous twang of the Lee of Kelp is produced.  
The addition of those Salts, (viz.) of Kelp and Urine, perform two things, (viz.) first, cause a further separation of a Sediment by the precipitation of a kind of Oaker from the Alom Liquor; and next to that they add weight; and a third is not wanting, (viz.) to help the chrystallizing or shooting of Alom: the first of which is evident, because the artificial Alom will not with Galls strike a purple colour, but the natural Alom with its imbred Oaker will: the last is as apparent, because I have observed the natural to shoot in a different form from the Artificial, as I can show. After the shooting of the Alom, those yellow and green sordes, which are rejected, are used as a manure to some grounds; and that because the Alom Earth, together with the Sediment of the Kelp, become as a Magnet, which attracts (if it be proper so to speak) the fertilizing Nitre in the Air, the main efficient of improvements of all soils; the which, doubtless, might be much promoted to a further improvement of grounds, if they were but calcined again, and then exposed to the Air, by being thrown upon ground; for hereby they would become more hungry (if I may so say) of the volatile aëreal Nitre, and make it fall the more plentifully by Rain and Dews, or Snow, and other manner of circulations of that vivifying Aether, which impregnates Grounds for all sorts of vegetation; wherefore I have advised some that live upon Blacomore, (not far from Whitby, being a barren Soil) to burn their Alom Slate Stone, (of which there is store in that Country) after the manner as is done with Limestone in other parts of the Country; and when it is sufficiently burnt, to throw it upon their Fallow Grounds; from whence probably an improvement worth their charge and labour may be made of that Soyl.  
Thus there are few sorts of soils in England, or elsewhere, which are so barren as may not be improved, by being artificially cultivated with what they bring forth, whether Alom-stone, Limestone, Marle, Cole, etc. Nay, there are few barren Soils in the Indies or elsewhere, but have that in their Bowels, whose worth, one way or other, doth compensate their thread bare Coats; the barrenness of their outsides, being well amended by the riches of their inwards. From what is premised, will necessarily result these following conclusions, (viz.)  
First, That to extract or separate Salts or Sulphurs out of Mineral Marcasites, respect must be had to the crudity and maturity of the Mintra, (viz.) That such a Bed is to be chosen, where the Mineral Principles are not too crude, but are brought on to a certain degree of maturity; as for instance, If a Coal-Mine be to be chosen, for burning well, it must be such a one whose Sulphur is plentiful and flagrable, and not a Smitt, which is but an imperfect Cole-Mine: So if plenty of Alom-Salt be intended to be separated from the Marcasite thereof; then must a ripe Stone be chosen, and not that blue Slate or Earth called Doggers.  
Secondly, That to unlock some Mineral Beds to come at their hidden Treasure, is required a foregoing Calcination by the force of fire; witness the burning of Alom-stone, before its Salt can be plentifully separated, and the burning of Vitriol in close or open Vessels before its Spirit, or Salt can be procured.  
Thirdly, That the treasures these unlocked Mineral Bodies afford, consist in a Salt, and an Embryonative Sulphur; for instance, the Salt separable both from Alom and Vitriol, first opened by force of fire, and in both is an apparent Sulphur, viz. In Alom it appears in an inflammable sulphurous Crust, thrust forth to the surface of the Stone; and the same is apparent in Vitriol, both from what Paracelsus and Helmont have wrote thereof; As also by the Experiment of pouring Aqua Regis upon Vitriol, brought by gentle exiccation to a whiteness, by whose humid calcination of that Mineral, an impetuous cloud of sulphurous Vapours arise, which if penned up in a close Vessel, would break it in pieces, though the strongest imaginable, whose plenty of fumes are not inferior to those which arise from the like menstruum poured upon crude Antimony, or the Spirit of Nitre upon the Butter of Antimony, or the like Aqua Regis upon the Caput Mortuum of Viride Aeris; which three metalline and mineral Bodies, viz. Copper, Antimony, and Vitriol, I find by this Experiment to have the greatest plenty of a combustible Sulphur; and it is by the influence of these two, (viz.) Salt and Sulphur, by which mineral and metalline bodies perform their most considerable cures upon the humane body.  
Fourthly, That these acid Salts, thus opened, having their native Sulphurs dissolved with them in a Lee of fresh Water, do by decoctions, and the addition of other Salts, as of Kelp and Urine, suffer the Sulphurs, and other heterogeneous mixtures to separate by precipitation; witness the plenteous separation of the recremental faeces by the foresaid operation from the Alom-Liquor.  
Fifthly, That the Alom-Salt, whether natural or calcined, is esurine and acid equally with the same in Vitriol, and capable of making solutions of other mineral bodies which lie in its way; for instance, the natural succulent Alom Salt dissolves a sleight touch of the Minera of Iron in the Scarbrough Spa Water; and that either as it lies in the same Alom Bed, or at least in a Vein of Iron, through which the acid aluminous Salt dissolved in a Water Spring glides: The same doth the corrosion of the Iron in the Alom Liquor evince, according to our former Experiment.  
Sixthly, That some menstruums may dissolve, or break in pieces the close riveted parts of some (but proper compact) bodies, when they yet leave other bodies of a softer and slighter texture untouched; witness the Alom Liquor corroding the Iron, when the Cloth Lists, which had covered it, was not dissolved, though it had been longer in that Liquor than the naked Iron; which gives light to possibility of finding out by Art and Industry, such menstruums as may dissolve and reduce in minimums, the compact Duelech, or hard stone of the Bladder, and yet leave untouched the tender soft membrane which makes the concave of the Bladder, and other hollow bowels.  
Seventhly, That to make acid menstruums more powerful and more universal (especially as to solid metalline or mineral bodies) is required an addition of other Salts, of such a fabric of parts, as may not by any intestine commotion destroy each other: but may acuate each other with a mutual invigorating ferment. Thus the Salts of Kelp and Urine do that to Alom Liquor, which the addition of Sal Gem, or Shall Armoniac doth to an Aqua Fortis, (viz.) makes them dissolve those bodies, which before they could not; the one forcibly to take in pieces the body of Iron, the other the body of Gold.  
Eighthly, That the Alkalizate Salts of most Vegetables, made by naked force of fire, do differ from the Kali of Kelp, almost toto Coelo, although both be done by the like calcination; the one being acido saline, (viz.) that of the Kelp; the other, (viz.) the fixed Salts of Vegetables are lixiviate; by the difference of whose constituent parts, ariseth the known ebullition made from the mixture of both.  
Lastly, That the faeces remaining after the depuration of the Alom Salt, and incremental addition of other Salts, do still retain a kind of Magnetism of the Aethereal Nitre, or at least become a proper subject for that fructifying Nitre to settle upon; whereby some Grounds may be improved, yea, and gives more than probable hopes that the same recalcined, or the crude Stone once calcined, may well become a medium for the better improvement of some barren soils, as well as Limestone, Marle, faeces of Soap-ashes, etc. are by the like method made capable of enriching other soils.  
Now to confirm (besides what is said) the existency of Alom, as the chief (if not sole) ingredient of some Spaws, I think it not amiss to acquaint the Reader with my Observations on a Spa of the same nature, which I found out the last Summer in Barnsdale upon Blacomore, about ten or twelve miles from Whitby; in the bottom of which Dale runs a Riulet fed with several Springs, and walled in, (in some places) as it were, with Alom-Rocks on both sides, but more on one side then on the other, out of the Clefts of one large Alom-Bed, (whose length may by conjectural compute be 50 or 60 paces, and the depth 4, 6, 8, or 10 yards.) I observed several Springs to issue forth, with a yellow Sediment, along the Chincks and Crevices; one of which that had the best current, broke forth two or three yards from the foot of the Alom-Rock, having more above it. This, when I tasted, I found very much in taste to resemble the Scarbrough Spa, and would with the addition of Galls, readily strike a purple tincture: being not a little glad hereat, I ordered a Bottle thereof to be brought along with me to York; which (there) bringing to the test, I found it to contain much-what the same Mineral Ingredients with that of the Scarbrough Spa, but was nothing near so plentifully fraught therewith as the other. But however by this it was clearly apparent, that a Water-Spring running through an Alom-Bed, might (and did) imbibe the immature Juice thereof, in so much as to give it a taste resembling that of the Scarbrough Spa, and to render it as capable of readily striking a tincture with Galls, as the other, which was no small confirmation of our Hypothesis, asserted in our Hydrol. Chym. concerning the Scarbrough Spa.  
Had I been at my Antagonists back, when he was vindicating the existency of Vitriol in our Spa, I might have cherished him, by whispering (yet I would first have been sure to have had an answer in promptu) this Objection, to wit, That Dyers in the making of their Blacks, use not Alom but Vitriol, yea find Alom a great enemy thereto, always mortifying the styptic parts of those Ingredients, which are necessarily required for that colour, and therefore might seem to argue against Alom, and for Vitriol as the cause thereof, made by Galls in the Spa Water.  
To which Objection I thus return, (viz.) That this is done, first, because Vitriol contains a greater quantity, by much of a precipitable Ochre, than Alom, which should close with the flats of astringent bodies, for the better intercepting of the Luminous Rays, whereby that colour becomes made; next, because factitious Alom having great plenty of Urine, the Spirits or Salts thereof doth precipitate the Ochre of Vitriol, and also destroys the acidity thereof, which should otherwise bind in its Ochre, and confirm the styptic or astringent parts of Galls, Sumach, Logwood, Elder Bark, etc. frequently used for Blacks.   

A Supplement to the Sweet-Spaw At KNARSBROUGH.  
WHat I have said in my Hydrol. Chym. concerning the Sweet-Spaw at Knarsbrough, I find no reason to reclaim, notwithstanding the carping of some, by the instigation of others; for that it hath imbibed but a small quantity from a Minera or Marcasite of Iron, is apparent; first, because upon its evaporation it leaves an insipid dark coloured Powder, arguing that the Vitrioline Marcasite, over which this Spring Water glides, is very thin and lean, of a Vitrioline Acidity, and that is the reason it coagulates not Milk, as do the Germane Vitrioline Spaws, and some of our own: which happens not as Dr. French imagineth, from a volatility of its acidity, which evaporates before the Milk boils, but rather from the inconsiderableness of the acidity, and the easy precipitation of its Ochre.  
Secondly, By the great quantity of that Water which is to be drunk, before any sensible Operation can be made, either by Stool or Urine; insomuch as it gives just cause of suspicion that it is most-what from the weight of that Water pressing upon those Emunctories, which chief gives energy to its Operation.  
Thirdly, The same is evident from the Mineral Waters, which are Springs, passing through some Vitrioline Marcasites, which are found in Coleground, of which I have some by me; with these are those Springs, drilling through Cole-Mines, often impregnated, many of which have a Vitrioline taste, and will strike a purple tincture with Galls, of which sort is Old Town Spa, and some near Leids and Hawton, etc. some of which have a sleight Iron-like, or vitrioline taste, and yet are so thin and poor, as not to be able to give any tincture with Galls, while others of them that are strong, give both tincture and taste.  
Fourthly, The same is apparent by observing, that all these languid vitrioline Waters, if they either restagnate, being exposed to the Air, or by motion be carried to a great distance, and if by either way, a little yellow Sediment be precipitated, then forthwith they become effete in their virtues, and have neither any distinguishable taste, nor will give any colour with Galls, but degenerate again into simple Spring Water. So that the supposed Spirits of these Waters are only imaginary and mere Chimeras, no where existent, but in the brains of those who conceive them.  
For further confirmation of what I have already said, and shall now further add concerning this and other the like mineral vitrioline Spaws, I will elucidate it by this following Experiment, (viz.) I took a bright Cuprous, or Vitrioline Marcasite, found about the surface of Cole-Mines, and afterwards exposed to the Air, upon which (without any other preparation) I poured simple distilled Water in a Jar Glass, which, in frigido, did immediately receive a vitrioline taste; and being forthwith filtered from the Marcasite, struck a deep purple tincture with Galls, as deep as any vitrioline Spa I have yet met with; its taste was exactly like that of the Sweet-Spaw, we are now treating of, and would, as other the like Vitrioline Spaws, be reducible to its pristine clarity, by the pouring a few drops of Oil of Vitriol; and became opace, by the adding of Oil of Tartar, and so passed those colours found in the Vitrioline Spaws, as we have hinted more at large in our Hydrol. Chym. concerning those Mineral Waters; from which Experiment may follow these direct and collateral conclusions, viz.  
First, That Vitrioline Marcasites are allied unto, and generally found in those Mines where Sulphur is much predominant, viz. in the Cole-Mines, etc. yea themselves are impregnated with an immature Sulphur, witness their combustibleness, if put upon hot Coals, burning with a blue flame, and yielding a sulphureous fume.  
Secondly, That these being exposed to the Air, become the more readily ingravidated with a Vitrioline Salt, by determining the nitrous Particles, floating in the Air upon its Body, by a peculiar Magnetism (if I may so say) proper to such bodies; and this is evident, because the longer these Marcasites are exposed to the open Air, the more they become fraught with a vitrioline body, contracting a Crust, which by solution, filtration, etc. will easily resolve into a body of Vitriol.  
Thirdly, That these, and their connatural and analogous Juices do increase, and (suo more) vegetate in the Earth as other Minerals do, is apparent in that I have observed a piece of Wood enveloped with a vitrioline Crust found in the Earth, where other Marcasites of the like nature have been digged, which I keep by me.  
Fourthly, That these Marcasites, the nearer they lie to the surface of the Earth, and the more patent the Channels are, by which currents of Spring Water glide by them; the more readily they give their tincture, or yield a solution of their substance, whence some vitrioline Springs or Spaws become stronger, both in taste and operation, than others; and this is evident, because of the facile ingress the Air hath to these places.  
Nor may this contradict what we elsewhere say, viz. That an Esurine Acidity, preying upon the Minera of Iron, gets a sleight touch therefrom, and so becomes as Vitriol of the Minera of Iron, which gives essence to the Vitrioline or Sweet-Spaw at Knarsbrough; for both may be true, though in various respects, from different soils; in as much as there are even in these Marcasites a connatural acid Juice, reasolvable by the confluence of Air, which seizeth on an embryonative Sulphur of Iron, essential to those Concretes, which are carried together in their mutual embraces, by a preterlabent Spring of Water, unto the place where they break forth, called a Springhead, which gives Original to all or most of the Spaws called Fontes acidi.  
So that all Vitrioline Spaws are reducible to one of these two Causes, viz. Either to a sulphureous acid Spirit, dissolved in a Water-Spring, passing through the Minera of Iron, the acidity dissolving the loser parts thereof, and coagulating itself thereon; or to the foresaid Vitrioline Marcasites, whose acidity being resolved by the Air in the bowels of Earth, takes along with it the connate immature Sulphur, or lose vitrioline Ochre; and both in one gives essence to these Mineral Waters, and from the● two causes singly and jointly, do the Spaws of Knarsbrough, Rotheram, Oulton, Turnbridg, Astrap, etc. take their Original; amongst which those that have but slighter touches of the Minerals, and consequently do the more readily suffer a precipitation of their Earth or Ochre, fetch their Mineral in a longer line from the place of their Eruption, and that too perhaps from Marcasites more penurious, and less opened than others which keep their Minerals unprecipitated, and consequently their Virtues the longer.  
These Marcasites, calcined in a Crucible with a blast, will melt and flow, especially helped with Nitre; which melted Mass being poured forth, gives no Regulus or metalline body, nor is so ponderous as it was before, but hath some bright yellow, or cuprous sparkles interspersed. This in two day's time, doth almost all fall to a black Powder, much like what I remember happened to a Scoria of Iron in the making Regulus Martis; which being laid open to the Air, did in a few days fall into a black Powder.  
Wherefore these Stones are without doubt a Metalline Embryo, consisting of a Salt and inflammable Sulphur, which hath scarce begun the matrimonial embraces of its Mercury, and therefore at the best is but a Mineral in the road to metallization; and being plentifully impregnated with an acid sulphureous Salt, whose other Ingredients hanging but loosely on, makes it the more readily soluble in a preterlabent Spring of Water; for I have, for experiment sake, only suffered simple distilled Water to slide over one of them, and have found thereby that the Water would by so slight a gliding over, strike a purple tincture with Galls, which it will do again and again to fresh Water, yielding thereby an inexhaustible treasure to the transient Springs of Water.  
Amongst these Marcasites, I have one by me bright and sparkling, cut into curious angular forms, like so many Diamonds of several sizes set in a Ground, as if Nature in this neat piece of work, did vie with Art. And yet in the very Interstices of these Diamond-like cuts, (betwixt each other) is conspicuous the Mineral Salt which gives Essence and Operation to most of the Vitrioline Spaws.  
Some Mineral Waters may (I confess) be such as are only acid, being only impregnated with the Esurine Salt of the Earth, and have no addition in them of Mineral Sulphurs, neither of Iron nor Copper; of which sort I have tasted one near Chesterfield in Derbyshire, which hath a very strong sowrishness, but yet, with Galls, gives no tincture, although I found a reddish Ochre to lie along the sides of the Current.  
The like (I doubt not) may be found in other places; all which may notwithstanding prove very good Waters to open Obstructions in the body of man, by their penetrative Virtues.  
Lastly, A solution of Salt of Iron in Water, with Galls, gives a deep purple tincture, and passeth all other mutations of colours answerable to all natural Mineral Waters. But the solution of Roman Vitriol, (with Galls added) gives no purple colour, but becomes a muddied Liquor, which, with Oil of Tartar assused, becomes greenish, but with Oil of Sulphur wholly green. The same alterations doth Viride Aeris suffer with the same additions. But Roman Vitriol infused in a weak Spirit of Urine, gives a blue tincture, which will not be altered by the addition of Alum. The same doth Viride Aeris dissolved in Water.  
Whence (by the by) I conclude, Roman Vitriol to be factitious, made up (sometimes) of Alom, with a tincture of Copper, taken in a weak Spirit of Wine, or the Phlegm thereof, and so caused to shoot into Crystals.   

A further Account of the Sulphur-Well At KNARSBROUGH.  
As also concerning The Original of Hot Baths and Sulphureous Waters.  
WHat I have said in my Hydrolog. Chym. concerning the essential cause of this Mineral-Water, (viz.) That it consists (as a Spa) of a Salmarine or fossil Salt (which differ not either materially or formally) impregnated with an embryonative faetid Sulphur, or rather sulphureous odour, is (I say) true, and may be illustrated after a double manner; And that first, by the collateral Experiments I have there inserted, concerning an embryonative Sulphur, as  as this Spa Water itself, close locked up in the body of Salmarine; as at large is made evident by that Experiment, which I shall not now insist upon.  
But secondly, (and now more to the purpose) the same will better be discovered by a fresh light; let in by some new Experiments: only before I proceed to produce what I have to urge herein, I shall first (taking things as they lie in my way) make an inquiery what Ingredients are not (though by some supposed to be) in this Spring, (viz.) That neither Vitriol, Nitre, nor Sulphur, (as to the body thereof) are the constitutive Principles hereof.  
First, That Vitriol is not here, is apparent; first, because it will strike no tincture with Galls, which any Mineral Water, that hath but the least participation of Vitriol will readily do; but this Spring, with the addition of Galls, gives no purple at all; next, because upon evaporation or distillation of this Water, no Vitrioline Ochre is found, with which such Waters (whilst in the vigour of their Operation) are constantly impregnated, and as certainly let fall to the bottom, when effaete in their Virtues.  
Nay further, the same is apparent by this following Experiment, (viz.) I took some of the Vitriol Marcasites (of which more anon) found in the Bog, about 240 paces Northwest from the Well, upon which, grossly bruised, I poured a strong solution of Sal marinum Hispanicum, made in distilled Water, and set them in frigido in a long glass body; from the commixture of which, I found no sulphureous apporrhea to arise, but the solution became green; which being decanted, and evapored, or distilled, (which last, as I remember, I did to try if it would yield any effluvia of Sulphur, but found none) I obtained a yellow Salt in Crystals, with a Vatrioline Ochre or Sulphur at the bottom; which Salt was the Salmarine, tinged with the vitrioline body, (of which I have some by me): for being dissolved again in fresh distilled Water, it will, with the addition of Galls, strike a deep tincture; yea, the liquamen (viz. the Mother, as the Vitriol or Alom-workmen call it) which shoots not, will (if diluted with Water) give the same colour.  
By which it is plain, that as Vitriol gives no odour or effluvia of its Sulphur, to a solution of Salt; so neither consequently doth it yield the same to this Salt Water, considered simply as such: we will suppose that the Salt Spring in the Earth (I mean the Spring impregnated with Salt) may in its passage run through these Marcasites of Vitriol, which are found not far from thence, (as I shall afterwards prove it doth) it would of necessity (if simple Salt) make some sleight solution thereof, and give its Indications answerable to our Experiment, by receiving a tincture from Galls, etc. But by matter of fact, I find it not so to do; Ergo, Vitriol, as such, is no Ingredient of this Sulphur-Well.  
Secondly, That there is no Nitre, is as evident, in as much as, in the Analysis of this Water, no such Ingredient is to be found; for neither doth there appear any Salt which shoots into such Styria's, nor that hath any inflammable property; both which are essential to Nitre, as such.  
Thirdly, Nor is Sulphur (as to the body thereof) an Ingredient of this Spring, notwithstanding that it hath its denomination therefrom, being called the Sulphur-Well; and this is evidently apparent, because in the genuine resolution of this Spa Water into its Principles, not one grain of a combustible Sulphur is to be found; for upon a gentle distillation thereof, in Glass Vessels closely stopped, the sulphureous odour goes off in much less than the third part of the Water, which is first distilled. The rest which distils, is simple Water without any odour or taste; and what remains in the bottom, (which I filtered, though it stood not in much need thereof) was a liquamen of Salt, which being evaporated a little more, shot into a Salt of cubical Figures; exactly in taste, colour, figure, etc. resembling, yea, the very same with a Fossil, or Marine Salt, having an inconsiderable addition of Alom Salt lest after precipitation of the Sulphur; so that nothing of Sulphur, or any the least inflammable matter can be separated from the Spa.  
Against what I say hereof, I have met with an Objection, urged by a Physician of note, who grounds it upon this Experiment, (viz.) That upon this Sulphur Water, or others of the like nature, which break forth higher upon the Bank, above the usual Spring: I say, that upon these Waters restagnating, is found a kind of white Cremor, (which sometimes is of various colours) this being skimed off, and dried, will take flame and burn; which by matter of fact I have myself upon trial found true.  
To which I answer, That this Sulphur which thus separates from this restagnating Water, is the same with that which swims upon other sorts of Mineral Waters upon long standing, being a bluish cream or skin, which swims as well upon the Sweet-Spaw, and any Vitrioline, or other Mineral Waters; and (as Dr. Heer's saith) being put upon the fire, is inflamed, and yields a sulphureous odor: The same is also found in an Azure coloured skin, swimming upon the restagating Scarbrough Spa Water: Yea, the like is frequently to be seen upon Water that stands long upon any Bog.  
This Sulphureous skin which swims upon most Mineral Waters, is referrable to a double Original, (viz.) Either they are such as have a bituminous matter swimming upon them; which with the Water Spring, issues forth jointly out of the bowels of the Earth, from some sulphureous or bituminous source; witness the Spring at Pitchford in Shropshire, and in Averna in France: The Mare Asphaliticum, called Mare Mortuum, which hath plenty of Naptha and Bitumen issuing from the Shores, which have store of bituminous Pits.  
As also that Water, in agro Parmensi, 
Falop. 24.6.  according to Falopius, of which Water he saith, Est usque aduò bituminosis vaporibus referta; ut ex flammâ vix sibi admaeâ accendatur: And that likewise, in agro Patavino; and all other Waters, upon which swim Camphire, Amber, in succo suo soluto, (both which by Falopius Cardanus, Agricola and Casius, are accounted, è genere bituminis) Pisasphaltum, Petroleum, Balsamus Indicus, etc. all which are reckoned as various species de genere bituminis; in all which the bituminous skin will take fire and burn with a sulphureous flame; for as no Oil, so neither Sulphur, nor the Bitumina, will mingle, per minima, with Water, Oils, and Sulphurs, consisting of similar parts, which bear no proportion with watery Particles, unless the watery be subjugated by an oily Ferment. Or,  
Secondly, They are such as (whilst in the bowels of the Earth) are impregnated with Minerals, (although perhaps not sulphureous) but when they come into the open Air, presently (especially by restagnation) let fall their imbibed Ingredients, and by continuance of time suffer a sulphureous matter to be generated de novo; or rather indeed, as I apprehend, by long standing, suffer the Air, by a kind of putrefactive ferment, to cause a slow resolution of the very compage of Water; and in this gentle Analysis, makes the restagnating Water cast its Sulphur, which was not preexistent in the Water, as a Mineral Sulphur; but is (as I said) either a bituminous Cremor, or a Sulphur of Water engendered by a putrefactive resolution thereof; which will, being dried, take flame and burn.  
That I might make a sesemblance of this Water, the better to inquire into the nature thereof, I took one ounce of Hepar Antimonii, upon which, pulverised, I poured some warm Water; into which, filtered, we dropped some little solution of Alom Salt, (for I knew Vinegar would do it, as is usual in the making of Sulphur Auratum Antimonii) and it forthwith separated the Sulphur of Antimony with a strong sulphureous odor, not unlike that of the Sulphur-Well; and being filtered, was the same in taste and smell: by which I learned what that was which precipitated the body of Sulphur after its first solution in the Water from its native Minera, viz. That it was an Alom Juice, in which I am confirmed, in as much as I find a Bed of Alom, within the space of ten yards from the breaking forth of that Well; from the surface of whose Stones, I have taken a Salt, which (dissolved in fresh Water) I found would strike a deep tincture with Galls; yea, the very Stone itself, being put into fresh Water, will, with Galls, give the very same colour; of which very thing I have not met with any that have taken notice, either those who have wrote of, or others who have frequented the Spaws; and though I found hereby, what was the second Juice which precipitated the body of Sulphur, and had made its Apporrhea or volatile odor to appear, yet was I still at a loss what this Sulphur was, or from what body, and by what solvent it first became loosened or prepared; for all Sulphurs, whether in their own Earth, or wrapped up in mineral or metallic Veins, till they be opened by some particular and proper Solvents, are not fit to give forth their volatile parts, nor to strike the nostrils with their odor.  
And that Water impregnated with Sal marine, is not sufficient to open the body of a mineral Sulphur, and consequently not adapted for a Menstruum, is apparent by this following Experiment, (viz.) I took a pint of Spring Water, and dissolved two or three dragms of Sal marine therein, (which is the quantity, at the most, which the Sulphur-Well contains of the body of Salt) into which I poured three ounces of the Marcasites of Vitriol aforesaid; then stirred the mixture very well; after that I poured off some of the Liquor, and filtered it, which would neither tinge Silver, nor yield a sulphureous odor; but to try whether Shall marine would at all open the body of Sulphur in the Marcasites, as some supposed, I added to the filtered Liquor, a solution of Alom Salt, as I had done for the precipitation of the Sulphur of Antimony, out of the solution of Hepar, but found no precipitation, coagulation, nor alteration of that Sulphur, either in colour or smell, nor would it at all tinge Silver; all which it would have done to an opened and prepared Mineral Sulphur.  
This Menstruum of the Shall marine, had indeed made such a solution of the Vitrioline parts of the Marcasites, as rendered it capable of receiving a tincture from Galls, but had not at all touched the sulphureous parts thereof.  
But before I deposit my own Thesis of the true native Ingredients of this Spa, which shall be clearly demonstrated by Experiment. I would first take off what Dr. French opinionates thereon, who saith thus, As for the stinking odour thereof, (speaking of the Sulphur-Well) that I suppose is caused from the vapours of the burning Bitumen, and adust terreness therewith; and therefore he judgeth it to be hot in its original source, in the manner of Hot Baths, who supposeth subterrestrial fires, said with a bituminous or sulphureous matter, not only to cause hot Springs or Baths, but also to give being to the fetidness of such sulphur. ous Waters.  
Now this is (I confess) an Opinion that not only he, but Falopius, Empedocles, Agricola, Casius, Kircher and others hold; for by two ways they did suppose all Waters to be heated, Nam aquarum (according to Empedocles) aliae calefiunt quia transeant per saxosa loca, quibus subjectus fit ignis ardens in metallo sulphureo vel bituminoso; aliae incaloseunt quia transeant per ipsum metallum ignitum & arden's, as thought Agricola. Nor was Falopius much otherwise minded, who treating the aquis Patavinis, whose sulphureous odour is not much unlike that of our Sulphur-Well, saith, Ques halitus sulphuris Patavinis, iste aqua habent non ideo quia bullient in metallo ipso sulphureo; sed quoniam transeant supra loca, sub quibus ebullit sulphuri, ex quo efferuntur vapores ad cuniculos, & cum aquâ miscentur; from whence he grounds his Opinion, that the difference of Hot Baths, (viz.) That some are intensely hot, others moderately; some tepid and subtepid, others cold; proceed from these two, (viz.) Paucitas & distantia ignis, The scarcity and distance of the fire.  
In answer to which Opinions, I thus return, viz, That although I cannot deny but that there are Subterraneal Fires, which being once enkindled, feed upon sulphureous Minerals, witness the Eruptions of Aetna, Vesuvius, Strongilo, and other Vulcanian Mountains; yet do not I see causes sufficient to convince me, that these give being to all our Hot Baths, or that their Vapours gives fetidness to sulphurous Waters. That there may be some hot Baths adjacent to those sulphurous burn, which probably may be heated by passing over those places in cuniculis, under which a bituminous matter burns, I shall not deny; witness that in Apulia, called Tribulus, where is plenty of Ashes and calcined Stones; and those about the Lake Lucrinus and Avernus; and that in Agro Valaterano, according to Falopius; Yet we scarce read of any in in Campania, where is the Hill Vesuvius; nor in Sicily, where Mont Gibello belcheth forth flames; nor in other places where these Eruptions are, do Hot Baths more frequently appear, then in those places where there is found not the least suspicion of any Forge of Vulcan.  
That these Subterranean Fires are not the causes of our hot Mineral Waters, or sulphureous Springs in general, will be evident; if we consider, first, that it's more than probable, that a subterraneal fire is no more naturally implanted in the bowels of the Earth, than the imaginary elementary fire is to be found sub concavo Lunae; which, though it may seem as a Paradox to some, yet duly considered, it will not appear irrational; for the materia substrata of all inflammable concretions, whether in the Cavities of the Earth, or upon the supersicies thereof, or in the common expausum of the Air, must be a combustible matter common to them all, and that must be bituminous, unctuous, or sulphureous; al● which, whether in Subterraneal Caverns, or upon the Surface of the Earth, or in the Aereal Region, may (I say) take flame, and burn from some one of these three Causes, (viz.) either from Motion, Corruscation, or Lightning; or flamma de flammâ, one fire enkindling another; to which we may add a fourth, (which yet may be included in one of the three) (viz.) from some Mineral Marcasites acuated by air and moisture, instance Alom and Coperous Mines, being in parcels broken, exposed and moistened, will gather an actual heat, and produce much more of those Minerals, than else the Mine would yield; as the learned Dr. Jorden, in his Discourse of Natural Baths; and the ingenious Dr. Power, in his Micros. obs. Confirms; yea, and that Brass lumps (which are a sort of Marcafite) being laid in heaps, and exposed to the moist Air, or sprinkled with Water, will smoke and grow exceeding hot, and sometimes take fire, and burn all that is about it, as the foresaid Dr. Power proves: So the Mines of Tinglass, exposed after the same manner, to the moist Air, will become very hot; and Quicklime will do the same.  
The like Dr. Jorden observes in those Stone Coals called Metal Coals, which are mixed with a Marcasite, containing some Mineral Juice, which receiving moisture, doth dilate itself, and grow so hot, as oftentimes great heaps of those Coals are kindled thereby, and burnt before their time, as hath been seen at Puddle-Wharf in London, and at Newcastle: although these last I account do not much differ from the aforesaid Coperas Marcasite.  
Now seeing that all combustible Concretes may contract a heat, yea, may actually take flame, and burn from some of the foresaid causes; witness the heating and firing of a Coach-Wheel, by too rapid a motion; the burning of Houses, Trees, Men, etc. by Lightning and Thunder; the taking flame of one combustible matter by another; and lastly, the self-inkindling of a Ryck of Hay or Corn, which hath been laid up too moist; and the taking fire of several Marcasites, by being exposed to the moist Air, as aforesaid: Therefore I see no reason why a Meteor or Comet, which suppose brought to that body of sulphurous Exhalations, and taking flame from its own motion, or from Lightning, or from what other cause, should less be reputed an Elementary Fire, sub Concavo Lunae; then those subterraneal fires kindled (according to all probability) occasionally (not to say accidentally, quoad nos) from some of the foresaid causes, should be accounted native to the Earth, or naturally implanted therein, for the production of all Mineral and Metalline bodies: so that as the one is irrational, and is exploded by our modern Philosophers; so consequently the other may seem as irrational, if we do but further consider,  
First, How impossible it is for actual fire to become the cause of generation of Minerals or Metals, as some suppose, who imagine the Fire as a Native born in the Earth; seeing fire, I mean, flaming or glowing fire, is by the gravest of Philosophers so far rejected from amongst the causes of Generation, as it is rather justly to be reputed mors rerum artificiosa, the death or destroyer of all things, committing actual rapine upon all the Seminary Principles of bodies, which fall under its tyranny, dispersing and dissipating those Concretions suddenly, which Nature (helped by a generative heat working upon imbred Seminals) had taken a long time to compile together, making havoc of the neat Structures of Bodies.  
Secondly, How unlikely it is for Water to be so disposed in the Earth; in what Vessels can it be imagined to lodge? Yea, how these fancied Hydrophylacia can be so well placed, as they may best be capable to receive the fires, from the as much fancied Pyrophylacia, without danger of the Waters falling upon the fires and quenching them, so as to make the heated Hydrophylacia the cause of Hot Baths; for cannot Water as easily descend or slip down those small Chinks and Crannies, and smother that Demigorgon, as the fire could ascend to heat these Cisterns of Water? unless we imagine the Water included in some vast Kettles, (and so was heated by the playing of the flames about) and then we must be forced to think of a Vulcan to be before his Fires; who must first hammer out these large Caldrons, preparing empty Vessels for us to fill with our watery conceits.  
Thirdly, If we should grant the possibility of these actual Subterraneal Fires, as connatural to the Earth, why should we not find Minerals and Metals melted instead of being generated? and why we should not, where these fires meet with Vitriol and Nitre, or Vitriol and Salt, find store of Aqua Fortis? and meeting with Sulphur, should not give us plenty of Oil of Sulphur, tanquam per campanam, being the winding Crevices of the Earth would do the like as Glass Bells for condensing the Vapours of fired Sulphur into a Liquor, and meeting with Vitriol or Alom-stone, should not calcine them to our hand; so as instead of Vitriol, we should find Colcothar; and instead of Antimony, we should find either stibium or regulus, or the sublimed flowers; and so I could hold on to number up many more absurdities that would necessarily follow.  
Fourthly, If we consider how easily combustible Concrets in the bowels of the Earth, where plenty of bituminous and sulphurous matter is found, may, and probably hath been kindled, either by Lightning, or by catching flame from some burning body; or lastly, by some of their Marcasites, exposed to the moist Air, or to whom a moist Air hath had access; for being once fired, vires acquirit eundo, it burns on as long as it finds Fuel; and where store of combustible matter is, (as without doubt there is in all the Vulcano's) there cannot but be plenty of Heterogeneous mixtures, as of Stone, Gravel, Earth, etc. which together with the combustible matter, is thrown up at the mouths of those subterraneous Furnaces; which if they (as by continuance of time) may by constant burning so undermine the ground, as at some times a vast quantity of Earth and other Rubbish fall upon it; then being forced to seek another passage forth, and cannot suddenly, or at least, not so much as the force of the fire requires, it being obstructed in its passage, causeth Earthquakes; but at last finding vent, makes new Eruptions, thrown forth in such abundance of Stones and Earth, as sometimes is sufficient (if it happen under the Sea) to make a new Island; witness what Kircher reports happened, 
Kirch. Mund. Subter. pag. 77.  Anno. 1638. ad insulam Sti. Michaelis in Mari Athlantico, Stimulantibus ignibus subterraneis tantum lapidum in medio Maris egestum fuit, ut inde insula lapidibus in montes custervatis nata, sese ad quinque milliarium latitudinem extenderit: As also in Agro Puteolano, Novus mons ex Mari, unius noctis saevientis naturae subterraneae violentia protuberans; also, Vulcanus Liparitanus (he further adds) Tantum cinerum saxorum. que ante annos circiter sexaginta (speaking from the time his Book was writ) ejecisse fertur; ut juxta sese in medio Mari, quem & ideò vulcanellum, veluti filium a patre genitum vocant, produxerit; which he confirms by his own Observation.  
And to confirm further what we say concerning the occasional or accidental enkindling of combustible matter, in the entrails of the Earth, I shall call in a Testimonial Instance, out of Mr. Burton's History of Leicestershire, who saith, That at Coal-Eaton in that County, in the beginning of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth, the Coal-Mines there did burn for many years together, and could not be quenched, until the sulphurous and brimstony matter (whereupon it wrought) was utterly exhausted and consumed. The like fire in Coal-Mines, was in the year 1622. burning near Willingsworth and Weddesbury, in the County of Stafford; not unlike which was a sudden eruption of fire in the Coal-Mines at Sunderland, in the County of Durham, (as I was informed by my learned Friend Mr. J. H. who had it confirmed by a Gentleman of that County, who had been Page to King James) where by a sudden eruption of fire, to the number of about five persons working in the bottom of the Pit, were consumed and destroyed; several of their Members, as Arms, Legs, etc. were found torn from their bodies.  
The last instance might be a sulphureous Damp; or arsenical malignant Steam, arising from the commixture of heterogeneal mineral Juices or Spirits, which by the flame of a Candle (which the Miners frequently have to work by day and night) might very probably take fire, and so by its unimaginable force, might easily act that Tragical Scene.  
The other Instances evidence the possibility of Subterraneal Fires from occasional and accidental Causes, which may, not unlikely, be transferred (I mean from the like causes) to those Ignivomous Mountains, Aetna, Vesuvius, Strongilo, etc. So that as a Subterraneal Fire was enkindled in Coal-Mines, which continued for many years; during which time it was as real subterraneal Fire (and as probable from the same causes) as those fired Mountains aforesaid.  
Only the main Objection I meet with, is the perpetuation of those bituminous and sulphurous Fires of the flaming Furnaces of Aetna, Vesuvius, etc. which those other fires in coal-mines do not; therefore, as some suppose, are said by a large-Central or Abyssal Fire; witness Kircher, Abyssorum omnium pyrophylacticarum maximam sancti patres in centro terrae non incongrue statuerint, eternum improbis ad penam destinatum carcerem: which (as he supposeth) is no less than Hell Fire, and the Confines thereof to be his other Pyrophylacia, which heat the Hydrophylacia, and gives Original to all Hot Baths: which being a figment from the Centre to the Circumference, from the beginning to the end, I shall not take so much liberty now as to insist upon it.  
The Reason, I would say, why the Vulcano's are kept burning with a perpetual Fire, is the vast quantities of bituminous and sulphureous matter lodged in those great Hills; which having once taken fire, burn on, and then comes about in a great round; and as it hath consumed the combustible matter on one side, it goes further on to consume the other; which whilst it's doing, that vacant part retaining yet (especially in the Earth thereabouts) the Seeds of those sulphurous mineral Concretes, produceth the like de novo, which becomes fresh Fuel when the Fire wheels about again, still the Mineral Seeds being at work, produceth fresh Minerals in the deserted spaces, where the Earth yet retains the seminal Juices of those combustible Bodies; and thus may the Circle of those Subterraneal Fires be perpetuated, and not fed from any Central or Hell Fire implanted in the Earth; which may well be confirmed, in as much as it is observed, that Minerals and Metals are generated anew in the same places out of which they have been formerly digged; witness the profit (Falopius saith) the Duke of Florence hath by it; and what Sandiv. saith, That there have been Metals found in Mountains, where formerly there have been none left.  
Thus not only Nitre is afresh to be got out of the same Earth it was formerly extracted from; but the like is observed in the Minerals of Vitriol and Alom; yea, the Generation of Metals, are not terminated with one production, it ceaseth not there, but the Mineral Seed gathereth strength by enlarging itself, continually proceeds to subjugate more matter under its Government; so as where once a Generation is begun, it continues many Ages, and seldom gives over: Thus Dr. Jordan hath observed from the Tinners in Cornwall, That they have, after thirty years, found Tin generated de novo, where it hath been formerly all digged up and filled with Earth. The like hath been observed of Iron, in the Mines of Ilva, an Island in the Adriatic Sea, under the Venetians, where the Iron breeds continually as fast as they can work it, which is confirmed by Agricola and Baccius. The like at Saga in Ligiis, where they (as the same Dr. Jordan observeth) dig again their Iron-Mines every tenth year. Mothesius gives examples of almost all sorts of Minerals and Metals, which he hath observed to grow and regenerate. Erastus (as Dr. J. notes) affirms that he saw in S. Joachims' Dale, Silver grown upon a Beam of Wood, which was placed in the Pit to support the works. The like of reproductions of Metals, is also observed in the Lead-Mines at Mendip and the Peak, which do not only stretch further in extent of ground, then hath been observed heretofore, but also are renewed in the same ground which hath been formerly wrought. But to return.  
Now as these Subterraneal Fires are not (for reasons aforesaid) native to the Earth, nor are Elementary in Centro Terrae, more than sub Concavo Lunae; so consequently, neither are they causes in general of our Hot Baths, or sulphureous Springs; for as there are no Subterraneal Fires found either near our Hot Baths, or our Sulphur Waters; witness the digging to the Source of a hot Water, by the charge and industry of M. de Rochas, (which in our Hydrol. Chym. we further insist upon) where the Earth was digged beyond the original of the Water's heating, and yet not the least specimen of any actual or Elementary Fire, being only produced from a vivid nitrous or hermetick Salt, (as he calls it) frequently engendered de novo, touching upon a Mineral Bed of Sulphur Vive, from whose mutual contact that Hot Bath proceeded: Nay, besides this, suppose we should (for indulgence sake) admit of a Central or Elementary Subterraneal Fire, kept burning by a sulphureous Matter, yet would it not even hence follow that our hot Baths or sulphureous Matters, should frequently have their original thence; and that, first, because suppose Sulphur burning actually, and that whether set on fire by any of the aforesaid causes, or by Central Fire, or as you will, yet shall this Sulphur heat no further than the enkindled flames reach, no more than Sulphur burning under a Glass Campane, (for the making its Oil) doth heat further than the Glass it toucheth, so that the actual flame heats, but so doth not the fume thereof; for, suppose that the actual flames of Sulphur should touch upon, and heat the Water; why might we not as easily imagine the Water to quench the Fire, as the Fire to heat the Water? Nay further, Suppose we should grant that the flame should not heat Water immediately, but mediately by heating other bodies, as Stones, etc. over which the Water in cuniculis propriis passeth, according to Falopius, yet not a few absurdities would hence follow; as how these flames should burn under a Quarry of Stones, when thereby intercepted from Air (the life of Fire) without which it exists not? Next, how these hot Baths should then become impregnated with the medicinal virtues of Sulphur, seeing, by this Supposition, the Water would want both the flame and fume of Sulphur?  
My second Reason (why upon admission, that though a flagrable sulphurous matter should be burning in the bowels of the Earth, yet should it not be the cause of hot Baths) is, because then generally all hot Waters would have a strong Brimstone-like smell, like the odor of Wine or Ale matched or fumed with Brimstone in Bottles, or like the fumes of Sulphur which arise in the distillation of its Oil per campanam, of which smell, amongst all hot Baths, I read of none which yield it.  
My third Argument is grounded upon matter of fact in this following Experiment, (viz.) Take a mineral Sulphur, whether Vive, or in a Marcasite, (as of Vitriol etc.) put it (in pieces) in an Earthen Retort, and give degrees of fire under it, in a Furnace; where, because the fire comes not actually to it, it flames not; urge this so, as all the Fumes (which are dry ones, called Flowers) shall pass through the Neck into a Receiver, filled most-what with Water, & so placed, as that these fumes all fall and condense upon the surface of the Water; which they will do in an unctuous substance like Oil of Wax or Amber, congealing by degrees, and becoming harder, they fall down to the bottom in bright flakes of Brimstone; by which way I have got a Sulphur out of the Marcasites of Vitriol found in the Bog near the Sulphur-Well. Now the Fire (as I said) drives forth the dry fumes or flowers; these coming in a vapour, condense upon the surface of the Water in the Receiver; and yet (which is what I aim at) this Water hath neither taste nor smell like that of our Sulphur Well at Knarsbrough. So that neither an actual or immediate firing of Sulphur, as is done in the making its Oil, nor a distilling or subliming of it by a Fire ab extra, whereby Sulphur becomes separated from a Vitrioline Marcasite, will give to Water either the like taste or odour with the Sulphur-Well; and therefore we must conclude, that it's  odour, is not caused from any Vapours of burning Bitumen or Sulphur, whether imagined to be done in open passages, or close Caverns of the Earth.  
Having thus far refuted (and that I hope demonstratively) the Opinions of Hot Baths and Sulphur Waters, taking their Original from imbred subterraneal Fires; I shall now propound my own Observation, in the fabric of the like Waters, artificially performed in imitation of the natural. I tried therefore whether Shall Armoniac, mixed with a Mineral Sulphur, and so dissolved together in a distilled Water, would at all open the body of Sulphur; into which, when filtered, I poured some Solution of Alom-stone; but it caused no precipitation, nor made any discovery of any dissolved Sulphur; also into a little of the clear Solution, I poured some Oil of Tartar per deliquium, and thereby found it raised a volatile Spirit out of the Armoniac, which would smite the Nose, but perceived not the least odor of Sulphur. So that I observed that neither Sal marine alone, or joined with Nitre, nor Shall Armoniac (compounded of a Shall marine and Volatile Salts) would any of them be sufficient to open the body of Sulphur in its Mineral Marcasites.  
At length, after various Experiments, I hit upon that which answered my expectation, and satisfied my curiosity; and for the further improvement of ingenuity, and as a Spur to the greater advancement of Mechanical Experiments, shall communicate that to the World, which all the Writers of those Sulphurous Waters (which I have yet met with) have been deficient in.  
I took therefore a pint of Spring-water, in which I dissolved betwixt one and two dragms of Sal marine in frigido; for about that quantity the Sulphur Water contains of common Salt; into which Solution of Salt, in Water, I added of Calx Vive, and the Marcasites of Vitriol, (found near the Sulphur-Well) grossly pulverised, about two or three ounces, which presently contracted a considerable heat; I poured off some of the Water, into which, filtered, I poured a little Solution of the simple Alom-Salt, and it immediately caused a precipitation of a Sulphur, and sent forth the very smell; yea, had the exact taste of the Sulphur-Well.  
This Experiment, thus succeeding, gratified me for my pains in others less successful; for that which I longed to know, was, What that Menstruum should be, which might so open the body of Sulphur in the Marcasites, as might render it capable of a precipitation or coagulation by another second Menstruum or Acid Liquor; seeing we could imagine no lixivial Salts could be found in the bowels of the Earth, (which commonly is used for the opening the body of Sulphur); Therefore I thought it might possibly be from some natural Calx Vive, seeing there are plenty of Lime-stones upon that Forest, which at Knarsbrough are burnt in Pits; and so it proved, for the Salt-Water passing through some natural Stone, or soft Marcasite of Calx Vive, becomes acuated thereby; and then running over the Vitrioline Marcasites, or passing through a Sulphureous Earth, congeneal to those Marcasites, opens the body of their Embryonative Sulphur, which it carries along with it, till it come on further to an Alom-Bed (which I observed to be within ten yards of the breaking forth of that Spa) where the acid Juice precipitates the Sulphur, and sends forth the odour; which being percolated through a streiner of Sand, comes forth pretty clear.  
That this Artificial Water is an exact resemblance and imitation of the natural, is evident, because it answers the natural in every circumstance; for it hath the very smell and taste, undergoes the very same precipitations by lixivial Liquors; yea, and lastly, tingeth Silver yellow, as readily as the Sulphur-Well; and therefore, without doubt, the Operation of the Artificial would be found (upon trial) equivalent to the Natural in other properties also.  
The main Objection that offers itself against the identity or similarness of this Artificial, with the Natural Sulphur Water, is by querying how Calx Vive, which is an artificial product of the Fire, actually calcining those Lime-stones, should be imagined to be naturally in the Earth, or how Nature should find such a Stone calcined to its hand, in the Entrails of the Earth, as may be sufficient to open the body of these sulphurous Marcasites.  
To which I Answer, That it's more than probable there is a natural soft Stone of Calx Vive, where this Marcasite is in succo primitivo, retaining the same Seminals and essential Properties, in a remiss degree, with that Stone brought on to maturity by Air and Fire; for the Air first hardens that Stone, (and makes it unfit to give any Solution in Water) and then the actual Fire loosneth it, and makes it yield itself more readily to a Solution by moisture.  
To illustrate which, we can as easily apprehend that the Air doth harden these natural Lime-stones (which, while succulent, are soft, and in the form of a white Earth or Marle) by its continual access in a long tract of time; as we can imagine the same Air to harden a blue Clay, found upon the Banks in Lincolnshire; which being exposed to the Air, doth, in continuance of time, harden into a sort of Stone like a blue Marble. For Workmen generally observe, that all manner of Stone (yea even Marble itself) which they dig out of the Ground, becomes more and more hard, by being long exposed to the Air; which, to me, seems to give no small grounds of reason for the possibility of the Liquor Alkahest, or Universal Solvent; for seeing all bodies are but concretions, and (as I may say) hardenings of their primitive Juices, under various disguises, generally performed by the efficiency of Air: Therefore to prepare a Menstruum by Art, which may work wonders in this kind, is no more (as I apprehend) then to make such a one as may soften these Concretions, (made by Air) and by taking away their hardness, may reduce bodies into their first jucy Liquors; for what is the shell of an Egg, but a soft film or membrane, hardened and petrified by the influence of the Air, and as easily reduceable into its first membranous softness, by being boiled a while in Vinegar? What are the Bones of Animals, but Spermatick Juices hardened and consolidated? And were it not for the perpetual circulation of the Juices of the body, constantly transpiring through the pores thereof, we should either become petrified, and walk about like so many movable, but senseless Statues; or we should be encircled with a Bark, and appear like so many Plant-Animals, or sensitive Plants. What are all Vegetables from the Hyssop or Rosemary of the Wall, to the tallest Cedar, but seminal Juices congealed into those bulky substances which are presented to our eye? Lastly, What are all Mineral and Mecalline Marcasites, Stones, etc. but the primitive liquid succulencies concreted into more solid bodies by a hardening ferment (or what other name we may call it by) aequipollent to the Air?  
And amongst all these, what are the Marcasites of Limestone, but a hardened concretion of its first imbred Juice, or soft marly Earth? whose Minera, whilst thus in solutis principiis, is one of the chiefest Juices in the Fabric, both of hot Baths and sulphureous Waters.  
That this is the chief cause of hot Baths, is confirmed by that Experiment made by that Noble Person, the Lord Fairfax, of a piece of a white Marcasite found about the place of those hot Springs in Sommersetshire, which put into Water, gives a heat; not but that there may be other causes of hot Waters, as from the coincidence of two Springs impregnated with different Mineral Salts and Juices, which before union are probably both actually cold, and yet by a fermentation caused by their mutual contact, may cause a considerable heat; which can no better be resembled, then by supposing a current of Water, endued with a lix vial or volatile Salt, to meet another saturated with an esurine acid Spirit or Salt; though these before union are both actually cold, yet forthwith, upon their mutual contact, they make a strong ebullition and fermentation, which produceth a heat sufficient to warm those Liquors, which are, or pass through where the contest is made; not to say that an other cause of some hot Baths, may be from some Marcasites contracting a heat by moisture, let into their Minera by some crevices of the Earth, which may give heat to some Springs that pass over them, nor to insist upon any other cause (viz.) of some Salts, which in the Minera of Sulphur, may cause such a fermentation, as may cause hot Springs; witness Dr. reach. his Experiment.  
Yea, that this natural Limestone may be reckoned amongst the chief causes of hot Baths, is further confirmed by a lixivial Salt, (though small in quantity) which I have, by evaporation of Buxton hot Water, found left behind: that it is an alkalizate or lixivial Salt, appears both by its salty taste, its easy solution per deliquium; and lastly, The Ebullition it makes with an acid Spirit; all which are demonstrative Arguments of its alkalizate nature: for Buxton Bath consists of Water, which by distillation ariseth insipid over the Helm, and therefore contains no volatile Minerals, and of an inconsiderable quantity of a solution of the Alkali of the natural Limestone, (where plenty of the Limestone hardened by the Air, is found in the Country thereabouts).  
And that this Minera of Calx Vive, is the chief (if not the sole) apperient, that opens the body of Sulphur in its Minera, for the making sulphurous Waters, is evident from our lately proposed Experiment; for all sulphureous Waters (as I hinted before) are either such as have a sulphureous or bituminous matter swimming upon them, (witness the instance aforesaid) or they are such whose bodies being opened by proper Solvents, do then easily give forth their volatile odours and sapours to Water, which may be made evident by the addition of acid Salt or Liquor.  
And now that we have found out what the first Menstruum is, which opens the body of Sulphur in the Marcasites found near the Sulphur Well; Let us now consider what these Marcasites are, I find them to be a spongy or porous Stone, hard, and wrought with a kind of Network, which in itself contains both Vitriol and Sulphur, besides a body of Colcothar; and that it doth so, appears by exposing some of these Marcasites to the Air, till they be covered with a hoary sweet vitrioline Floscule, which then being washed, gives a vitrioline Solution, that being filtered and evaporated to a cuticle, shoots into a green Vitriol.  
These Marcasites, thus washed, we set before the fire to dry so long, till they began to send forth a sulphurous fume; then being pounded grossly, we distilled, or rather sublimed them in an Earthen Retort; what would arise by degrees of fire, we so placed a Receiver, with Water in it, as that the fumes were thrown upon the surface thereof, which first swum like Oil upon the Water, then by degrees hardening, fell down to the bottom; which when the sublimation was over, we washed, dried, and then melted it, and in small lead Pipes cast it into Magdaleons; in colour and inflammabity, exactly resembling the common Sulphur, of which at one distillation I got near half a pound.  
That they contain a Colcothar or Metalline Crocus, is evident, by burning the Sulphur of one of these Stones in the fire; and when cold, it will be red just like the Colcothar of the Vitriol of Iron.  
The Caput Mortuum, left after the sublimation of the Sulphur from the Marcasites, is very like those Cinders, or Scoria of Iron, which is melted from the Iron-Mass in the Forge, where Iron is made out of its Minera.  
From what hath been already said, there seems to be no small encouragement towards prosecuting a further discovery of the nature of this Water, by digging the Spring, and following it to the fource, or original, where it receives the first impregnation with Sulphur; for I see nothing yet to the contrary, that may persuade, why it should not be found to be a hot Spring at that place where the first imbibition of Sulphur is, especially if the succus La●●is calcari, or Minera of Calx Vive be found with it, which (for aught I know) might be found quivalent in virtue to the Aqua Aponensis, that ●●m●d hot Bath near Milan, so much discoursed by ●●lopius, whom I find to enumerate the very same mineral Ingredients, in that which I find by Experiment aforesaid to be in ours, before its precipitation by an aluminous acid Juice; for he saith, Certò tellegi illa tantum tria (i. e) Sal copiosum, succum lapidis calcarii, & vaporem sulphureum in illâ Apounsi aquâ conteneri; and saith further, Est aqua ferventissima, & dum calida est, sapit sulphur & bitumen, refrigerata neutrum per se fert; and speaking on of hot Waters, saith, Aquae Thermales quae actu frigidae scatent, in suâ origine esse ferventes; and that only happens from the distance of space betwixt the impregnation of Waters first with their Minerals, and their place of breaking forth.  
And as Dr. Jordan saith, That all hot Waters are not Sulphurous, witness the Baths of Caldenella and Avenian, etc. which are all hot, and yet give no sign of Sulphur, proceeding rather from the Minera of Calx Vive, or from other the like causes of hot Waters, as aforesaid; nor are all sulphurous Waters hot, and that because of the distance of the Minera, where the Water first receives heat from the eruption of the Springhead.  
Amongst these sulphurous Springs, as some are replenished with a common Fossil Salt; witness the Sulphur-Well we discourse of: So there are found others no less sulphurous in taste and smell, which yet have not the least specimen of any such Salt; for instance, One of the Springs which is in the black Bog, where the Marcasites are got; and one at Braughton, not far from Skipton in Craven; as also one I found in Ferndale upon Blacomore; all which are caused by a combination of a mineral Sulphur and a natural Limestone, the one opening the body of the other, without the addition of any common Salt; only these Springs having imbibed these Minerals, meeting afterwards with an acid Juice of the Alom-Salt, make a precipitation of the body of Sulphur, and only leaves the Water perfumed with the odor thereof.  
That this Sulphur Water should coagulate Milk, if boiled therewith, proceeds from a sleight touch of the acid Juice of Alom; which although in the coagulation of the Sulphur, it also precipitates a great part of its own body, yet so much thereof remains, as doth make it capable of curdling Milk; for the Sulphur doth not, in as much as it retains that coagulating property, after the sulphurous odour being evaporated; yea, the very Salt left after distillation or evaporation will do the same; nor may the common Salt, (the chief Ingredient of that Water) do it, because we see the contrary in putting Salt to Water and Milk, which doth not curdle it; therefore it must be from some small imbibition of the Alom-Salt, which yet is so little in quantity, as doth not alter the cubical figure of the common Salt.  
And to try whether we could separate the common Salt, from the body of the Sulphur Water, and the Water only to retain the odour thereof; I took of the sandy Earth, which lies upon the Bank opposite to the Well; wherewith I caused a tapped Vessel to be filled, upon which I ordered the Sulphur Water to be poured; and about two hours and a half after, (during which time I was digging in the Bog above) I caused some of it to be let forth at the Tap into a Glass, and found its brackishness not only much diminished, but that also it lost its sulphurous odor quite, having not the least smell or taste thereof.  
From which experiment may probably be confirmed these two Suppositions; first, That the breaking forth of this Spring, is not far from the place of its imbibed Minerals; for although it be so far, as the first contracted heat is lost in its passage, yet it's not so far, but that it retains its odor after the precipitation of the most part of the Sulphur, by the acid aluminous Juice. Next, That if this Sulphur Water had been carried through a longer tract of a supposed Strainer, before its eruption, it would not only have been diminished in its Salt, but also its sulphurous odor would have been very weak, if not wholly spent.  
That the Earth, about the Sulphur Well, is replenished with variety of Mineral Glebes, is evident from the diversity of Waters found thereabouts; for near the Sulphur-Well, there is not more than ten or twelve yards distant, (upon the Bank on the other side of the current of Water) a Spring which drills out of a small Alom Rock, which leaves a red Sediment behind it, and runs forth with so great a disadvantage, as to the saving any of it clear, that I could not (that little time I had to stay) procure any clear Water to make trial thereof, but it promiseth much for an Alom Spa.  
And in the black Bog, about two hundred and forty yards above the head of this Well, where the Marcasites are chief found, are several slow Springs, all which I have caused to be digged further; that which lies on the North side of the Bog, is that which the Water-women call (improperly) an Alomwater; this, with a little Gall, strikes a deep purple, and in taste is very strong of the Vitrioline Marcasites; yea, the most of the Earth digged up, is Vitrioline.  
That Spring towards the West, hath a both sulphurous odor and taste also, but not very brackish; this I caused to be digged a little depth, to find out the Marcasites; where we found many little metalline Stones, perforated and corroded into Shells or Scales, and worn (as I may say) into Sceletons: I found in the Earth, lying along the current of the Spring, a bright Floscule, which runs in streaks very thin, and almost impalpable; which lay much in Veins; I look upon it as a crude mercurial Juice, which with its connate embryonative Sulphur, was as a Seed, laying a foundation for a mineral or metalline production; the Spring, by digging, proved more large and fluent; the Earth about it, was a black soft marly Ground, very unctuous, and appeared as if it were much impregnated with Mineral Juices; the Earth grained, dried, and burnt, gives a Brimstone-like smell. Those Marcasites we found, were below the current of the Spring; and therefore it's likely that Water had not penetrated them, for it gave no tincture with Galls.  
The Spring towards the South, had plenty of a black spongy Marcasite, out of which we took several pieces; yea, all about that place is full thereof round about the sides, and in one place, where the Air had wrought upon the Marcasite, it did shoot, by the heat of the Sun, into green Crystals like Vitriol; as indeed being nothing but Vitriol itself, of which I have some by me: The Water that stagnates there (for it hath no current) will with Galls give a deep purple tincture, being very acid in taste, and so undergoes the other mutation of colours like other Vitrioline Waters.  
And now I have shown, how Mineral Juices, by their coincidence and mutual contact, with their various fermentations, become the original efficients of Hot Baths and Sulphurous Waters, in the secret Meanders of the Earth, where Metals and Minerals are in solutis principiis, in their primitive spermatick Juices, from whence proceeds the great variety of tastes, smells, alterations of colours, fermentations, and different operations of all Mineral Waters; and as these are the true causes, from whence the most natural Phaenomena of Concrets, peculiarly belonging to the Mineral Kingdom, are deducible; so in like manner, the various fermental Juices, which circulate in the Channels of the bodies of Animals and Vegetables, are the causes of those manifold Phaenomena, proper and incident to all Concrets belonging thereto.  
For what is Heat, Fermentation, Motion, Nutrition, etc. with all the concomitants thereof, but products from the coincidence and combination of Seminal, with adventitious Juices of the bodies of Animals? What are the Juices of the Body, undergoing various fermentations, but such as thereby are made capable (by a natural symmetry) of performing the functions of Life? And what are the acid Juices, situate in their proper places, but actual Ferments, which macerate, prepare, dissolve, and digest the food we take in; which being altered by its passage through other subsequent ferments, undergoes various transmutations and diversifications, which succeeding in a constant circulation, upholds the fabric of the body? Doth not the natural heat of the body, proceed from a due fermentation of the Juices? as when the nutritive Juice undergoes such alterations, by praevious preparations; as when in the form of a milky Liquor, it coincides with the blood in the subclavial Vessels; and both carried by the Vaena Cava into the Heart, doth there strike up a vital heat in the taper of life, (the vital Spirits) but if it come raw, for want of a due preparation, by a defect of previous ferments, than it produceth a spurious febrile heat, which rather dissipates the natural heat, and destroys (than binds up) the right tone and texture of the parts. And lastly, Doth not the acid Juice of the first digession of the Stomach, dissolve (loosening the Vinculum of) our nutritive Juice, and so open the body thereof, as to make it become one similar milky Cremer? and doth not this dissolved and opened Chyle, receive a second Menstruum coming from the Gaul (that Balsam of the Body) by the ductus communis, inserted into the duodenum, and there (besides the peristaltic motion it gives to the intestines) in part precipitates the opened body of the Sulphur of the nutritive Juice, and causeth a volatile  flatus peculiar to those parts, which not finding vent per inferiora, sometimes works into the Stomach, and (by the mediation of the Nerves of the sixth conjugation) into the Head, and other parts; is not this faetid flatus (native to the intestines) caused by a commixture of a saline Ferment dismissed (I say) from the Gaul, which precipitates the opened body of the Sulphur in our nutritive Juice, which before such precipitation, is a similar Cremor?  
And to conclude; is not the growth, budding, hearing, and specifical endowments of Vegetables, the product of fermenting Juices? And is not the changing of Fruits by grafting and inoculating one sort into another (as that a pleasant Apple should grow from a Crab-stock, and a Pear from a Thorn) caused otherwise then by different fermentations, and specifications of the nutritive Juice, which no sooner undergoes any different ferments, or passeth various Strainers, but forthwith becomes metamorphosed thereby; so that the metastasis of all bodies in the whole triplicity of nature, depends upon the variety of fermenting Juices, and their mutual complications, implanted in the Seminal Principles of all Concretes.  
But to return, to treat a little of another Ingredient of this Well, and that is Sal marine, or Fossil Salt, both are one, that of the Sea having its original (according to all probability) from Fossil Salt; concerning which, I find my Antagonist, p. 119.122. of his Mimic, about to impeach me of two Contradictions; the first is, in that I say, The saltness of the Sea proceeds from Fossil Salt, which being dissolved in Water, is carried into the Ocean, and yet maintains a circulation of the Sea-Water, from the Sea, to the heads of Springs by Subterraneal Channels: Now the force of the Contradiction, as he supposeth, lieth in this; that he imagineth, that I would assert that the same Channels should convey a Salt into the Sea, and also convey the Sea-Water to the Springs, two contrary Currents in the same Channels.  
To which I answer, That there is no need (in that Hypothesis of the Springs, having their original from the Sea, and the Sea's having its saltness from the Earth) to assert two contrary Currents in the same Channels; and that, first, because of some Rocks and Bodies of Salt which are often found in the Sea; and next, because of the saltness, dispersed throughout the whole body of the Earth, easily imbibed by Waters, (as the Learned Dr. Highmore notes upon the Controversy, Philosophical Transactions, Numb. 56. P. 1129, etc.) and may as easily be conveyed into the Sea by Subterraneal Channels, passing through Salt Beds, in their passage from one Sea to another; which Subterraneal Channels (by which Seas communicate) we have demonstratively illustrated in the Appendix to our Hydrol. Chym. p. 307, etc.  
But I find my Antagonist taking sanctuary at his wont Asylum of Putationary Philosophy, coming in with his, I do verily think that all the Fossil Salt in the body of the Earth, (which we see is very rarely found) if it were dissolved, would not serve to supply a twentieth part of the Salt that is in the Sea; whom I answer, That surely he is either ignorant, or at least oblivious of what is writ concerning Rocks of Salt in Bohemia, in Monte Carpato, in Polonia, within two miles of Cracovia, in Helvetia and Rhetia, where they have no other Salt but from the Rock; as also by the Caspian straits are great Rocks of Salt; there are also many Rivers of Salt Water by the Caspian straits, and in Spain, and Caria, and in Bactria, Ochus and Oxius; also there are Salt Lakes, as the Tarentine Lakes in Italy, the Lake between Strapela and Seburg; in Germany three Lakes; in Sicily, (and besides an infinite number in other Countries) the Lake of Lakes, the Sea, all which (as Dr. Jorden saith) receive their saltness from Mines of Salt in the Earth, which are very frequent and huge in bigness, as may appear by the foresaid Rocks of Salt; Yea, Marcus Paulus Venetus tells of a Rock or Mountain of Salt in Thaican, able to furnish all the World with Salt: So that it is no marvel (saith the ingenious Dr. Jorden) that the Sea is salt seeing it pierceth into the bowels of the Earth, and discovereth many great Rocks of Salt which dissolve in it; and this is the true cause (saith he) of the saltness of the Sea. What is premised, will be sufficient (without any more ado) to take off his accusation of a second Contradiction, (p. 122.) in that I say, in one place the Sulphur-Well at Knarsbrough is saturated from Fossil Salt; and in another place, that Shall marine is the cause of that Sulphureous Spring, seeing it is evident (as also witnesseth the learned Dr. Highmore) that the Salt of Sea-Water and Salt-Springs are the same with Fossil Salt; his objection against the Seas having its saltness from Fossil Salt, is frivolous, (viz.) That it should (if made by Fossil Salt) kill all Fish, as well Sea-Fish as Fresh-Fish; for so (saith he) Salt put to fresh Water doth; which is even as true, as that Fish should, being kept overnight in a clean Copper Vessel with the Water they swim in, be found dead the next morning, by the mortal Steam or Vapour of the Copper; both which are found false by matter of fact, the one by that Experiment I made of Fish, which not only outlived one, but two nights in a Brass Pan; the other by that Experiment of Oysters made by Dr. Highmore.  
I shall now conclude with the addition of a few Mechanical Experiments made upon this Sulphur-Water, thus:  
First, It takes no purple or red tincture from infused Galls, as having nothing of the praecipitable parts of Vitriol or Alom; Oil of Tartar being added, it becomes muddied into a white curdled Liquor; and with Oil of Vitriol, or Oil of Sulphur, it becomes clear again; but with fresh Oil of Tartar, it is presently turned to a colour inclining to a red; and with the addition of more Oil of Vitriol, or such like, it becomes transparent, and of the colour of Sack, or English Beer.  
If upon fresh Sulphur-Water, Oil of Vitriol be poured, it makes neither a precipitation, nor any other alteration, and that because of a praevious saturation with an aluminous acidity; but by adding Oil of Tartar thereunto, and after that Galls, then follows an effervescence, and it becomes of a reddish colour.  
Lastly, By the addition of Oil of Tartar, this Sulphur-Water turns white, and that because it is impregnated with a small quantity of the simple natural Alom-Salt.   

A return to some Reflections and Queries, made on the enlarged account of my Antagonists Answer to Hydrologia Chymica, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Numb. 51. chief concerning the cause of the sudden loss of the Virtues of Mineral-Waters; by the Learned Dr. Daniel Foot.  
Philosoph. Transact. Numb. 52. p. 1050.  
THE Ingenious Publisher of the Philosophical Transactions, in his enlarged account of my Antagonists Answer, hath these words, viz. That these (meaning Scarbrough) Waters lose all their Virtues, yea, their quantity and bulk also, though in Glasses, and under the Hermetick Seal, if removed from the Fountain Head; and then they become suddenly putrid, ill-coloured, losing their rest and scent, etc. doubtless through the loss of the Volatile Spirits: What ever (saith he further) these Spirits be, that will neither endure to travel from the place, nor will be confined in any Bottle, nor under any Seal, etc.  
So that the sum of his conjucture (as the Doctor concludes, p. 1051.) is, That this loss consists in the avolation of some most subtle and p●●●trating spirituous parts, not to be imprisoned by any enclosure imaginable, but will find their way out, and leave the Water's bereast of virtue, and decreased in quantity too; and (what is more) perhaps of their weight also, especially if they lose of their quantity.  
Now to evince whether this be a conjecture, or no, and to clear up this point of Philosophy, in the Mineral Hydrologia, which hath gravelled many Writers, yea, made them run ashore, or to cast Anchor in shallow Fords, for want of a depth in Mechanical Experiments. This ingenious Doctor hath proposed these following Queries.  
First, Whether by Chemical Researchers, it was ever yet, or can be found, that such Waters, as the abovesaid, ever yielded a vinous or an acid, or any other sort of Spirits, that was either inflammable or uninflammable, or flying over the Helm from the fire?  
Secondly, Whether all those sorts of Water, when they are most closely stopped up, and so let stand, or conveyed to some distance, do not let fall a Sediment (most commonly) yellowish, or of some such colour, when they are become effaete in their Virtues?  
Thirdly, Whether when they are let stand only, and not moved by carriage, they do not sooner becomes castrated, and sooner precipitate an Ochre to the bottom?  
Fourthly, Whether such an Ochre is not found in all their Spring-heads and Strenms also, but more in the Head than in the Streams, especially if issued therefrom to a good distance?  
Fifthly, Whether it may not be found upon due observation, that two Bottles of the said Waters, whereof the one being industriously stopped, the other left unstopped, and both equally permitted to stand still, or equally moved, will not easily ●ose their 〈◊〉 Medical, in the same space of time, and have the same precipitated Sediment, and be of the same taste, colour, and a like diminished in quantity, with divers such like Circumstances?  
Sixthly, Whether two Vessels diversified in their matter, etc. filled with such Waters, will not yield the like Phaenomena in all circumstances, as in the fifth Query are mentioned?  
Seventhly, Whether it may be devised, how to prevent all precipitation of a Sediment in the Waters vesselled up? and then to observe thereupon whether their Virtues would not be kept entire during such a prevention?  
Eighthly, Whether any Observer ever found the Waters enervated, but found withal an Ochre let fall to the bottom, or sides of the containing Vessel?  
Ninthly, Whether the Phaenomenon of loss of virtues in such Waters may by an Hypothesis of an intestine precipitation of their parts, wherein those Virtues, consisted, be as well (if not better) explicated, than by the Hypothesis of an avolation of spirituous parts through all Vessels and Closures whatsoever?  
These Queries I shall (by the help of a few Experiments) endeavour to resolve. As to the first therefore I conclude in the Negative, for I have distilled the Spaw-Waters of Scarbrough and Malton; the Sweet as well as the Sulphur-Water at Knarsbrough, etc. none of which ever did yield either a vinous or acid, or any other sort of Spirits that are either inflammable or uninflammable.  
To the second I answer in the Assirmative, as to the first part thereof; to confirm which, and to illustrate the rest of the Queries with the light of truth, I shall propound two or three considerable Experiments.  
First, Therefore I advised my ingenious Friend to set by a certain quantity of Scarbrough-Spaw-Water, in an open Vessel, and found thereby that it did precipitate its Earth or Sediment in about forty eight hours, so that it would not give a tincture with Galls.  
Secondly, Another quantity of Spaw-Water being set by at the same time with the former, but in a Glass Bottle so close stopped, that neither Air could come in, nor ought evaporate; and being opened, when the other ceased to give a tincture, this did yet strike a tincture, but within less than twelve hours after, it also would give none.  
Thirdly, A Glass Bottle, and an Egg-Glass, being filled with the Spaw-Water, the first exactly stopped, the other hermetically sealed, being both exactly weighed and set by, with an other Glass filled and weighed, but unstopped, at the end of six weeks, the stopped Bottle could not be discerned to be heavier or lighter, being weighed again after the foresaid time; nor could it be perceived that any Sediment was fallen, because it gave as perfect a tincture with Galls, as Water fresh from the Spa.  
By which it appears, that the second Query is thus far true, viz. That these Mineral Waters, when most closely stopped, and so let stand, do not let fall a Sediment; but if they do let fall their Ochre to the bottom, (as in open Glasses we find they do) then is this Sediment most-what of a yellow colour, and the Waters become effaete, as to their solutive Operations.  
The third is answered in the Negative; for being let stand, and not moved by carriage, they do not (supposing they be stopped) sooner precipitate an Ochre to the bottom, nor sooner become castrated thereby; witness the third Experiment, where, in a stopped Glass, after six week's time, no Sediment was fallen.  
The fourth Query is found true in the Affirmative, by the common Observations of those who view varieties of Spaws, for they precipitate their Ochre both at the Springhead, as also in their Current (for some distance) sub dio, but chief at the Springhead; for whilst they are kept from the open Air, though their Channels underground should be stretched out much longer, yet would they not let fall their Sediment; by which it appears how great an influence the open Air hath upon the texture of Mineral-Waters, as well as upon other Bodies.  
The fifth Query is solved by our Experiments thus, viz. That two Bottles of the said Water, whereof the one being industriously stopped, the other left unstopped, and both equally permitted to stand still, do not equally lose their virtues medical, in the same space of time, nor have the same precipitated Sediment, and consequently are not of the same taste, colour, nor alike diminished in quantity.  
The sixth Query is involved in the fifth, only presupposing that the stopped Vessel be of such a figuration or texture of parts, as may exclude the ambient Air, and then all succeeds as in the fifth.  
The seventh is solved thus, viz. That these Waters being closed up either in Glasses exactly stopped, or hermetically sealed, and kept from motion, do prevent all precipitation of a Sediment in the Water; and this is confirmed by the third Experiment, where the Water was kept, hermetically sealed, for six weeks, without any precipitation; yea, the same is confirmed not only in these Mineral Medicinal Waters, but even in more ordinary Spring-Waters, whose Sediments, or what else they have imbibed of Mineral Earth, will easily precipitate, by being exposed in open Vessels to the Air, or by being distilled, will leave behind their Sediments; whereas I found the very same, taken fresh from the Fountain, which I have kept hermetically sealed for above three months, not to give any the least precipitation or alteration of colour, which (for aught I know) may not only keep so unaltered for months, but also for years; which very experiment is not inconsiderable towards a further improvement of Philosophy, and amongst other Phaenomena, which I shall not now take time to insist upon; that of blood extravasated by Phlebotomy, and a while exposed in open Vessels to the Air, doth receive no small alteration therefrom, making it separate into such heterogeneous parts, as are not pre-existent in it, whilst running in the Vessels, and therefore doth not a little deceive those Physicians who judge of the temperature of the Blood, and of the predominancy of this or the other Humour, from a prospect of the extravasated Blood, separated by an exotic ferment of the Air, into Water, Phlegm, or white Jelly, or black congealed Blood; when (perhaps) that Blood, whilst in the Body, and (as I may say) hermetically sealed up in the natural Vessels, was similar in its parts; which (if enlivened with due fermentations and separations in the Organical Parts) would throw off all Scorbutic, Venereal, or other Miasms and Impurities, and circulate in the form of a pure homogenial rubicund Juice: to confirm which, I would propound one or two Queries, the resolution of which will infallibly put the matter beyond dispute, viz. Whether suppose some few ounces of blood should be taken from a found (or if you will, from an unhealthful) Person, and by a Silver Syphon be conveyed part into a clean Glass, first warmed, and whilst warm, be sealed up hermetically, and so set in a continued gentle heat; whilst presently an other part of the same is conveyed, in like manner, into a cold Glass, and so presently sealed up as aforesaid, but set by in a cold place; whether, I say, hereby it will be found, that the blood (in one, or both, or neither) will keep its pristine form it had, whilst circulating in the Vessels, or whilst transmitted from one Vessel to the other? and whether hereby it may not be preserved in its entire form, not only for one, or two, but for many months, yea perhaps year; and whether it will keep its form better in that Glass exposed to the cold, or set in a gentle (as it were an) animal warmth? and lastly, whether that set in heat may not, by continuance of time, be graduated to so high an elixirated Liquor, as that hereby it may be made capable, not only of preserving itself alterwards from the injury of a separating ferment in the Air, but also may become as a fermental Balsam, able, if given inwardly (or at least outwardly applied) to preserve the similar Blood it meets with, from all incestuous Diseases? yea, it would be worth inquiry, 〈◊〉 ●ether it may not make the blood, by his imbred exalted ferment, reject all those impurities contracted by the Scorbute, Lues Venerea, Fevers, and other Diseases, even to the performing those cures in the Blood as may probably tender it worthy (if any be) of the name of a Panacea? which Experiments I think to prosecute e'er long, and shall then (Deo juvante) give a further account thereof.  
The eighth Query I thus solve, (viz.) That in my Trials and Observations of Mineral Waters, I always found that no sooner was the Ochre or Sediment precipitated, but they both lose their ting property with Galls, as also their purging faculty; and that though the Salts which had dissolved these ramenta ferrea, were left yet dissolved in the Water, (after the separation of the Ochre by motion, heat, or air) notwithstanding which, the Waters are found to have no force in their purging Operation; and by how much the more this is precipitated, (even till it be all fallen) by so much the Waters are weaker and weaker in their Operation.  
To the ninth, or last Query, I thus answer, (viz.) That by what is premised, it must necessarily follow, that the Phenomenon of loss of Virtues in such Waters, may by an Hypothesis of an intestine precipitation of their parts wherein those virtues consisted, be much better, and more truly explicated, then by the Hypothesis of an avolation of spirituous parts, through all Vessels and Closures whatsoever.  
By this time, these things duly weighed, in the opinion of all judicious Persons, (who ground Science upon the infallible Criterion of Luciferous Experiments) I may well suppose the Spirits in the Scarbrough and Kuar ●ugh Spaw-Waters, have no existence; and that notwithstanding what ever Falopius, Dr. Heers, Dr. French, or my Antagonist have said to the contrary.  
And hence it is evident why Dr. French came to be mistaken, who supposing Volatile Mineral Spirits to be in the Knarsbrough Spaw-Water, and endeavouring by distiliation (in a Glass-Still, whose Joints were luted and closed up carefully) to get their Spirits, failed not only in his expectation of catching them, but also found that the first two spoonfuls which were distilled; yea, and the rest undistilled that remained, utterly lost both the taste and odour which they had before; neither would they become any otherwise tinged with Galls, then common Spring-Water: who not easily conscious of his Error, imputes the loss of those Spirits to their subtlety, imagining them so volatile, as to penetrate even the Glass itself, or the Lute, neither of which (he judgeth) could hold them; not recollecting, that no sooner doth heat work upon Mineral Waters, but presently it causeth such an alteration in the texture of their parts, as that forthwith the Mineral Ochre precipitates to the bottom, leaving both what is distilled, and what is undistilled void of tincture, and most-what effaete in virtues, and that not from the avolation of Spirits, but from an intestine precipitation of parts, as is evinced beyond dispute by our former Experiments.  
Lastly, These Waters do not only (being hermetically sealed) keep their virtues and ting qualities, but also are not impaired in their quantity and weight, being found (after six week's enclosure under the hermetick Seal) neither heavier nor lighter; and now I give room for the World to judge, Whether the authority of my Antagonist be Authentic, and whether or no he hath done well to impose both upon himself and others in the delivery of these words, (viz.) That the Searbrough Waters lose all their virtue, yea, their quantity and bulk also, though in Glasses, and under the hermetick Seal, if removed from the Fountainhead, and then they become suddenly putrid, etc. doubtless through the loss of Volatile Spirits: he speaks this so confidently, as if he had had it from the Oracle of Experience, whereas he never took the pains to make any satisfactory Essays therein.  
From what is premised, may naturally arise these following short corollaries.  
First, That Mineral. Waters operate and give their usual Phaenomena, by a due contemperature of their Mineral Ingredients.  
Secondly, That amongst these, (if especially the Mineral Ochre becomes once precipitated) the Waters lose their purging Virtues and ting Properties.  
Thirdly, So long as these can (either by Nature or Art) be kept from precipitation, so long these Waters retain their proper Virtues.  
Fourthly, That to facilitate (or indeed cause) that these Waters should precipitate their Mineral Ochre, is required one of these three, (viz.) Motion, Heat, or Air; by Motion, I mean that ab extra, for otherwise what Heat and Air perform, is by the medium of Motion; for Heat, or an exposing to the open Air, or a quassation of parts by motion, doth make such an alteration in the texture of these Mineral Waters, as they presently thereby let fall their contained Mineral Earth.  
Fifthly, These three being secluded from having any power over them, they (viz. the Waters) may continue their Virtues, Weight, ting Qualities, Colours, and other consequent Phaenomena, for some months (yea probably for years) unalterd.  
Sixthly, That to have recourse to a sort of Spirits (which are not inrerum naturâ) for solving those Phaenomena, better (and perhaps only) solvable by an intestine alteration and precipitation of Mineral Ingredients, will argue no less than an imposing upon our imaginations, by a kind of customary fascination.  
But here I am to advertise my Reader, That since I committed these Papers to the Press, I opportunely had some discourse with the aforesaid Dr. Foot, concerning his Queries . Whereupon we mutually agreed, That my Return to the Queries, together with the Experiments, confirming as well as elucidating the same, do chief relate to the Mineral Medical Waters, which are of that Class or sort, which do purge by Stool mostly, and also by Urine; such are the Scarbrough-Spaw, Barnet and Epsham-Waters, and divers others the like, which are Aluminous, and work by Siege. But that the Tunbridge-Waters, (concerning which he principally proposed his Queries) and also (perhaps) the Astrap, and Stallbridge-Waters, together with all such as work most-what by Urine, aught to have a somewhat different consideration; especially in the point of losing their Medical Virtues, though they be vesselled up with all due and needful circumstances, and closed and sealed up with all imaginable Art, care, and industry; yea, although they are not in the least afterwards moved, heated, or exposed to the Air; and consequently, that these close Circumstances, in vesselling up, and stopping in the Tunbridg-Waters, and such like, will not prevent this depauperation or amission of their Medical Virtues; as otherwise may be done with the Scarbrough, and all such like Spaws: but as to all the other matters almost, both in the Queries, and this Answer to them, they seem to be applicable indifferently enough to both the sorts of the forecited Medicinal Waters. Finally, Reader, The Doctor did thank me for my Return to his Queries, though he (frankly) acknowledged to me, he supposed my Answer to be inapposite only to that point afore-noted, by reason of my being (at the writing my Return) a perfect stranger to the Tunbridge, or any other Waters of the like properties: but further added, That he hoped my Example would be a motive to others, (whose abilities and opportunities amply capacitate them thereunto) both from Reason and Experiment conjointly, to acquaint the World with the knowledge and usefulness of all sorts of Medical Waters, which Nature hath prepared by her Chemistry, or rather the God of Nature hath bountifully bestowed on Mankind for its relief and comfort.   

THE Epilogue, or Conclusion, BEING Some Reflections upon the most material Passages, and considerable Experiments, in a late Treatise writ by Dr. Tunstal, concerning the Scarbrough-Spaw, being an Extract thereof, with a return thereto: where a way is propounded for preventing all inconveniencies which may happen to those who drink of the Scarbrough-Spaw.  
BY that time I had finished the foregoing Sheets of this second Piece, I met with a Book written upon the same Subject, by an other Chemical Physician; which coming so opportunely to my hand, before the conclusion of the whole, I could not let slip some reflections upon the most remarkable passages thereof; and that, first, because I find him in his Chemical Analysis of this Water, to join issue with me in the main, by finding out and asserting the same true essential constitutive Principles thereof; next, because I perceive him impeaching this Spaw-Water of the grand crime of Petrifaction, and thereby of being guilty of causing the Stone, Gout, and Jaundice, to persons inclinable thereto; and for want of due ordering at the Spa, in danger thereof.  
As to the first, (he saith) it consists of three Ingredients, (viz.) the Nitroaluminous Salt; secondly, the Raments of Stone; and lastly, the Glebe of Alom; all which coincide with what we assert as the Principles thereof, as may be further seen, both in our Hydrol. Chym. and in this its Vindication; save that what he calls the Glebe, or blue Clay of Alom, I have described as the Particles of the Minera of Iron.  
Which difficulty will be easily taken away by solving this Query, (viz.) Whether indeed those Particles enclosed in that Alom Glebe, be not Iron, in succo soluto, or in minimis particulis, Atoms, or at least somewhat equivalent thereto, bearing an analogical proportion of texture of parts to each other; which will not be a little facilitated, if we consider, that as in the Vegetable Family, not only Galls will strike a purple tincture with the Alom Salt (got before the addition Kelp and Urine) dissolved in distilled, or fresh Spring-Water, but also the same may be done by other bodies, whose texture of parts are congeneal; as for example, the inner Bark of the Oak, the Roots of Tormentile, Avens, Bistort, Clove-gilly flowers, and the Flowers called Balaustia; all which, like Galls, will strike a purple with Water wherein the Alom Salt is dissolved; yea, and will also become clear again by the instilling a few drops of Oil of Vitriol, and with the Oil of Tartar, will become turbid and muddied, etc.  
So in like manner, in the Mineral Family, are found several Stones, even in that heap which is fallen off the Scarbrough Bank; which would, with Water acidulated with Oil of Sulphur, (as upon ●●al I found) strike a tincture with Galls, and yet all those stony Concretions, which gave the Ph●●●menon, could not precisely be determined to be either Alom Glebe, or Iron Stone, (though both would do it) but were such as consisted of similar parts with both.  
The tincture from the Galls in Scarbrough Water, he saith, is from unburnt Alom-stone: which suppose we grant, yet I see no reason why my ingenious Friend should conclude, that what is precipitated without the addition of Galls, should not be any thing of Chalybs, or the Minera of Iron; notwithstanding his two Reasons, the first of which is, because the Vitrioline Spirit and Iron are too great Friends (being once met together) to be so easily separated; any that hath (saith he) prepared the Vitriolum Martis hath learned.  
Why? what difficulty is there in their separation? seeing the Ochre, as well in Acid as Nitroaluminous Spaws, doth so easily precipitate, either by being exposed to the Air, (witness the yellow Sediment at the Fountainhead of all such Spaws) or by heat, (as for instance) any of these Mineral Waters being heated, boiled, or distilled, will precipirate their hidden Ochre; yea, the Solution of a Vitriol of Iron, or of any common Vitriol will in heat (as I have found by trial) do the same; or lastly, by motion, ab extra, whereby also a precipition of the same mineral body happens.  
His second reason is, When the Vitrioline Water, by passing in the open Air, doth settle its Colcothar at the bottom, without any mixture of Galls, it is always of a yellow colour; which is also answered in my Return to the first Reason: for the Sediment of all Spaws, whether Vitrioline from Sows, or aluminous, are always yellow; witness both that at Scarbrough, and that in Bransdals, Knarsbrough, and the Spring that runs through an Alom-Work near the Sulphur-Well at Knarsbrough, etc.  
His last Argument against any thing of the Minora of Iron in the Spa, is, That whereas in the taking all Chalybeat Medicines, the Excrements are tinged black; but by drinking this Water, he saith, they become blue; to which I answer, That blue, or purple, is black in a remiss degree; towards which difference, the crudity of the Minera may probably not a little contribute. But had I now the opportunity of prosecuting one Experiment, I question not but to put the matter beyond dispute; I will now only propound it, and (as I have leisure) shall afterwards try it, and that is this, (viz.) To take a good quantity of the succulent Alom-stone, etc. dissolve as much thereof, as will, in a competent quantity of fresh Spring Water, when (for trial sake) it will tinge with Galls readily; pour it off clear, or filter it, let it stand in open Glasses, or glazed earthen Basins, when it hath precipitated what it will of a Sediment, which will be done in two or three day's time; then pour off the Water gently, and dry it up slowly by the heat of the Sun, and compare that and the yellow Ochre precipitated from Vitrioline Waters together, and that either with a Microscope, or melt them down severally with a blast, to try if the result of both will not be the same.  
His proportions of the Ingredients are thus, viz. Stone-pouder one ounce three dragms, of Nitroaluminous Salt one ounce six dragms, of the blue Clay, which is (as he supposeth) the Glebe of Alom three dragms; the active Principles, and the Caput Mortuum, are equal.  
He Queries hence, from what cause it is, that after you have drunk a month of the Water, then, if not before, it takes a resty fit, will neither go forward or backward; upon which my Antagonist adviseth, p. 211. that if the Appetite or Concoction decay, and the Water pass not so well as formerly, but cause distension either in the Belly or Veins, and so bring on a difficulty of breathing, or pain in the Head, or the like, it is then time (he adviseth) to desist and proceed no further.  
Is there not therefore, saith Dr. T. a sting in the tail of Scarbrough Water? Is not the Stone Feces plastered upon the inner coat of the Bowels, disturbing their peristaltic motion, and obstructing the attraction of the lacteal Veins.  
His conclusion therefore is, That Scarbrough-Water is petrifying; which he endeavours to confirm with four Reasons?  
First, By Authority, as that of Kircher, Queritur quid propriè sit succus lapidificus dico, esse saxum introrsum aquâ eliquatum.  
Secondly, By Experiment, in that the Spa is mostly a nitrous Stone, melted in Water, besides the Alom stone imbibed in it.  
Thirdly, By the Apporrheâ Spiritûs Lapidisici; there are found on the Cl●ff near the Spa, Muscle-shels, and such like things, petrified.  
Fourthly, By the effects the Spa produceth primarily on those inclinable to the Stone; he instanceth himself, and my Antagonist acknowledgeth it, p. 150. concerning which the Reader may please to consult what I have said in the Epilogue of my Hydrol. Chym. p. 360, 361, etc. which in effect amounts to little less than a concurrence with this ingenious Physicians Observations.  
As to the difference betwixt Scarbrough and Knarsbrough Spaws in this particular of the petrifying property, he urgeth the instance of Mr. Hen. Proctor of Fernly, who was brought very low with a Hectic Fever, and Asthma, who by drinking of Knarsbrough Water, (after a due preparation of his body by Dr. N.) coughed up several Stones daily, till he was perfectly cured: the account of which he had from Dr. N. By what is premised it appears, that as the one Water lays a stony Foundation for a Fabric of Sabulous Diseases, to such as take the Water incautiously, and without circumspection of the Nature and Symptoms of their Diseases, by the advice of a judicious Physician: So the other Water of Knarsbrough, being devoid of all those stony Concretions, and endued with a deopilative, and (if I may so say) antipetrifick property, is more proper for such persons inclinable to such Diseases, unless diligent care be taken, by the advice of the Physician, to remove, and at due seasons, carry off those sabulous products.  
And as the Stone, so the Jaundice, and the Gout (saith he) hath their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from a petrifying Spirit; he instanceth the Lord Erwin's case, who died of the Jaundice, whereby (as he supposeth) the Scarbrough Water did petrify the Sulphur-Saline humour in the Vesicâ Biliariâ into Stones, too great to pass through the common ductus.  
That this Lord did die of the Jaundice, together probably with a complication of some other Diseases, might be true; but that the liquid Balsamic Juice of the Gaul was petrified, was but only conjectural, although (I confess) the conjecture is not irrational, but may give some ground of probability, and that because (as he further saith) that Stones are as usually concreted in the Gaul, as in the Kidneys, in Men as well as in Beasts; whereupon he citeth the Professor at a Physic Lecture, in a discovery of the Jaundice, who brought forth three or four little Stones of the Gaul, separated from a Gentlewoman (afflicted with that Disease) by a Dose of sharp working Physic, by which she was cured: Which he further confirms by the opinion of Helmont and Silvius, (viz.) That the second fermentation made by the Succus Pancreaticus, and the Gaul, is as necessary for the preservation of life, as the first fermentation in the Stomach; for according to the eucrasy & fluidness, or the contrary (I mean obstructions in the Vessels) of this balsamic ferment of the Gaul, depends not only the Regiment of the second digestion, and the fluidness and obdurateness of the Excrements, within the peculiar peristaltic conatus of the Intestines, but also of all the Diseases thence resulting, (viz.) the Jaundice, Diarrhaeas, Dysenteries, Colic, Iliack Passions, Tenasmus, etc. in as much as, by its Sulphuro-saline Balsam, it doth not only (in a regular course of Nature) become as a ferment to prepare the saline milky Juice, before it be conveyed away by the lacteal Vessels; but also it promotes a separation by a kind of precipitation of the faeculencies of the nutritive Juice; in which precipitation, the most exuberant and untamed sulphurous parts of the alimentary Juice, first opened and prepared by the stomachial ferment, go off in a saetid Flatus, peculiar to the Intestines, (which is that which Helmont otherwise calls a Stercorary Ferment) and that it is so, appears hence, because the posterior flatus or crepitus, will take flame of a Candle, and blaze like an Occidental Meteor; the obstruction, and consequently the regurgitation of which flatus upon the stomach, and other parts, causeth many disturbances of Nature, which now I shall not take time to discourse upon.  
So that indeed, amongst the efficient causes of the Jaundice, a petrification of part of that Juice, or a plastering the intestines over with a tartarous or sandy matter, where the ductus communis is inserted, may most frequently happen; whereby this Sulphuro-saline Juice, destined for uses aforesaid, may preposterously be carried (extra lares proprios) into the Mass of Blood, or rather indeed the blood, not undergoing that due separation by the ferment of the Gaul, from causes aforesaid, retains yet in its bosom that which should be separated; which circulating along with it in the habit of the body, vitiates the last ferment, or assimulative digestion, whereby the skin becomes tinged yellow, and shines forth in a Saffron colour.  
That the Water may sometimes happen (through the incautiousness of the Patient) to cause this Disease; my ingenious Friend instanceth in the case of an Alderman of Newcastle, and a Merchant's Wife, who after their return from the Scarbrough Spa, were both afflicted with the Jaundice; as also Sir. John Anderson and his Lady, who both drinking the Water at home, were afterwards troubled with the Jaundice; all which might indeed very probably happen to these, who without due caution had drank liberally of the Scarbrough Water, and that either at two great a distance from the Fountain, or did not at least use such skilful means, as at due seasons might carry off the gritty sabulous residence of the Water; concerning which ere long we shall prescribe a Remedy.  
That the Gout also may be promoted by the Scarbrough Water, (arising from a petrifying property of its acid Spirit) he instanceth in himself, who never had the least touch thereof, before he drank that Water; the which also my Antagonist acknowledgeth, p. 149. Others (saith he) drinking without due preparation, as was necessary, have fallen into the Gout, the Water contracting heat for want of speedy passage, being thrown by nature upon the weak Joints, and have hence inferred, that these Water's cause the Gout.  
That the drinking of this Water may to some Patients, at some times, occasionally cause the Gout, through the debilitude of the separating Emunctories, carrying the sabulous matter along with the nutritive Juice, through the Lacteal, into the Venal and Atterial Vessels, in the liquamen of the Latex, where, in the habit of the body, this sabulous matter may be precipitated into a tophus-like, or nodus-kind of petrifaction, in the Synovia of the Joints, transmitting along with it a spurious acid Ferment, hostile to those tender parts: I shall not (I say) deny, if we together take into our consideration other concomitant, and perhaps no less essential circumstances, of irregularity in Diet, sharpness and hardness of Drink, in Exercise and perturbations of the Mind, etc. which we find often sufficient alone to bring on that Disease, yea, and to exasperate it in a high measure to those who never drank of this or any other Spa Water; yea, and that to many too, upon whose seminal Principles the morbid Character of the Gout was never impressed.  
Now I shall proceed first, to examine the reason he gives why the Scarbrough Water is not of so petrifying a nature as the Knarsbrough dropping Well, (which he supposeth to come from a nitrous Rock) and next I shall prescribe a Remedy how to prevent petrifaction, and also how to carry off what is already contracted; where I shall answer (I hope to the Patient's satisfaction) his three Ingredients.  
As to the first, the Reason he gives is this, (viz.) That the Alkali of the Alom in Scarbrough Water, hath in part imbibed the acidity of the Nitre, and therefore it cannot so penetrate the Wood put in it, as to leave a Crust of Stone upon it, which the other Water having (as he saith) Nitre alone, will do; And here I must crave pardon, if for truth's sake I descent from my ingenious Friend; for the groundwork of his reason is laid upon a wrong supposition, (viz.) That the Salt of Alom is an Alkali, whereas in the current of my whole discourse upon this Spa, I have laid it down as an acid Salt, which are so contrary, as they are never reconciled (upon their mutual contact) till each destroy other, and a third neutral result therefrom. The ground of his Reason, why he reputes Alom to contain an Alkali, is from its saponary property. That Alom (saith he) is an Alkali, is plain from its saponary property, for the Dyers scour their Cloth from all filth, by boiling it in Alom Water; which is no less than a palpable mistake, for the Dyers use it not for scouring their Cloth, but for laying a ground for other Colours; as for instance, If three pieces of Cloth be put into the Dyers Woad or Glastum, one White, another Yellow, the third Red; the White, without any previous preparation by Alom, shall be Blue; the Yellow, by being first a few hours in Alomwater, shall be Green; and the Red, by being also boiled in Alomwater, shall be Tawny. So that if they should generally use Alom Water for scouring their Cloth, they would thereby be prevented either of making Yellows or Blacks; to both which, Alom makes Cloth incapable, and therefore they only use it in order to a Ground, fitting it to take other colours afterwards; it wholly destroys all Blacks, yea, it is so far from being lixivial, as it leaves a harshness upon Cloth, whereby it's made capable of striking other Colours.  
Now that Alom consists chief of an acid Salt, is further evident by mixing a lixivium of Salt of Tartar, or of any Vegetable fixed Salt, which the Solution of simple Alom Salt, the mixture presently coagulates or curdles into a white Jelly; whereas if it was of the same nature, they would mix, as Spirit of Vitriol with Spirit of Vitriol, Lixivium with Lixivium, Water with Water, like with like.  
Besides, he is incautious of what he elsewhere asserts, viz. where he saith, That the Scarbrough-Water curdles Milk, not by any Vitriol, but by Alom; Who Questions (saith he) that Alom will curdle Milk as well as Vitriol? the more subtle any acid Liquor, put to the Milk is, the more perfectly doth it separate the thick parts from the thin; here he acknowledgeth the Alom to consist of an acid Juice, which is quite contrary to a Lixivial, for what the one makes, the other destroys.  
Now that the Alkali of the Alom should imbibe the acidity of Nitre; this latter assertion is no more true than the former: for as the Alom contains no Alkali, so neither the Nitre, as Nitre, any acidity; for if you put a little Nitre into boiled Milk, it will coagulate it no more, then if so much Fossil Salt was put in, neither of which two Salts are acid, until by force of fire in close Vessels; they are brought over in a fluid form, in statu Fluoris; in close Vessels, (I said) because in open Vessels, Nitre will by force of fire, with a little addition of Sulphur, or Charcoal, become an Alkali or fixed Salt; which is quite contrary to its acid Spirit, got by distillation; yea, that it is not acid, is further evident, in that it will cause no ebullition with a Lixivium, which all acids certainly do: So that hence we may certainly conclude, first, That the acidity of Nitre is not a cause of petrifaction; and that's evident, because it hath no acidity, till it be raised by the fire; next, That the cause of petrifaction in the Scarbrough Spa, (compared with Knarsbrough dropping Well) is not to be computed from an imbibition of the acidity of Nitre, by the Alkali of Alom, neither of which, as such, are in rerum naturâ: So that (notwithstanding all this) we are yet to cast about for the finding out a more probable cause of petrifaction. In order to which, I would first inquire, How many sorts of Mineral Waters will coagulate Milk? and amongst them, which are the most likely to contribute to petrifaction?  
All Waters therefore which coagulate Milk, are either such as are strongly Vitrioline; witness the Germane Spaws, or such as are aluminous; as for instance, Scarbrough, Epsham, the Sulphur-Well at Knarsbrough, (which hath an occult aluminous acidity therein contained) etc. Or lastly, Such as contain a Saxum Nitrosum, or Raments of Stone with a nitrous Juice, which becomes as a Cement, and knits the sabulous matter (where the place and other circumstances concur) into stony Concretions; of this sort is the dropping or petrifying Well at Knarsbrough, also at Bruncton near Northallerton, and in many places more, which will coagulate Milk, and in evaporation leave Raments of a bright nitrous Stone.  
Now the subject matter of all stony Concretions, are either a sabulous Earth, glued together by the efficiency of a salty Liquor, either of Alom, Nitre, Salt Fossil, etc. easily coagulable by a spontaneous exiccation of the succulent parts, by being long exposed to the Air, or else it consists in a peculiar petrifying seminal Juice, implanted in stony Concretions, whereby they have their growth, and increase.  
Thus all the Rocks in the Sea, have had their beginning and growth, from a petrifying Seed, which hath transmuted the Lympha, or common subject matter of all concrete bodies, into such stony Concretions, Calx in Mediis Aquis sensim petrescit: Thus Coral, White and Red, by an innate petrifying Seed, springs out of Rocks, and other Stones in the Sea, which grow from the very same Juice, the Stone (it vegetates from) had its nourishment; only it is determined into that form, by the imbred plastic power of that stony Plant, and becomes like (if I may so say) a Misletoe of the Rock; Yea, and from one or both causes aforesaid, hath (for aught we know) all the rocky and stony productions in the bowels of the Earth, had their original.  
But to be short, Petrifaction, as to the Duelech, or Calculus humanus, (the subject we chief now have in hand) I see no reason to the contrary, but look upon it as chief seminaly; else how comes it, that little Children are sometimes grievously tormented with fits, and die of the Stone; As I have seen a young Child, after death, opened, whose Reins contained one large Stones, besides divers other lesser ones; by which it should appear, that the inclinatio petrifica, which is the same with a petrifying Seed, was at first impressed upon the Seminals of its constitution; and in such, where the petrifying Seed is at work, the nutritive Juice can never be so pure, nor the Steinors or Colanders of the Vessels be so accurate in their functions, but the Stone and Gravel will be increased, the Spirit of Urine will coagulate itself upon its innate Earth, and so cause a concretion of a sabulous matter; although much more from some sorts of Meats and Drinks, then from others; amongst ordinary Drinks, Ale that is hard, blenked, or new, thick and unwrought, or Wine which is not depurated from its Tartar by due fermentation, are very prejudicial somenters of the Stone; so is Bread not well baked, Meat not well cooked and prepared; and in fine, what ever contributes to the Fabric of the nutritive Juice, when through the weakness or error of the ferments, reluctancy of that which is taken, or injustice of the distributive powers, a feculent tartarous or sabulous matter is sequestered, and either thrown upon the Vessels, or transmitted by the current of the Latex, into other more fine Collanders and Streinors of the Body.  
Then the Stone, Gout, Jaundice, Diarrhaeas, Dysenteries, Fevers; etc. are in time brought forth, especially to such persons whose constitutions, or peculiar fabric of their constituent parts (whether Liquid in Vessels, or Solids) are most inclinable, and consequently most susceptable of such Diseases.  
Therefore respect must primarily be had to the inclinatio petrifica & podagrica, or natural inclination to the Stone or Gout; for to such, not only the Waters which contain a sabulous matter, but also the common nutritive Juice made from our ordinary food, may singly or conjointly bring forth, or else exasperate the fits of the Stone, Gout, etc. for the sabulous matter of the Waters, as well as the tartarous recrements of our food, being imbibed by the Latex of the Blood, doth (the one as well as the other) by its various filtratures and percolations, leave its precipitate upon the Streinors, Bowels, and Membranous Parts, causing the foresaid Diseases in Bodies inclinable thereunto.  
Now in what my Antagonist glorieth, this our Author and Friend accounts no less than the shame of the Scarbrough Water, (viz.) That it contains such a large quantity of the Minerals (as he calls them) including together with the noble Salt, also the dirty faeces and stony matter, which without doubt (if any thing) is its greatest disparagement: But here, as we shall accuse the one of vanity, and to have done it, not for want of ignorance in the critical Analysis of that Water; So the other we shall no less impeach of too tart a reflection upon the same, and of raising a theoretic Fabric from too sandy a foundation.  
But before we prescribe our Remedy to prevent petrifaction, etc. I shall first bring the matter in controversy to the test, by propounding only this following Experiment, which I have not yet, but may (God willing) take the opportunity of trying at this Spaw-time, which will certaiuly answer this query, viz. whether the Scarborew water doth leave any considerable quantity of its sabulous matter in the body, whereby it may give just cause of suspicion of furthering or increasing the Stone, Gout, Jaundice, etc. the Experiment is this, viz. To save the Urinal of a calculous, gouty, or other such like Patient, after he hath drank plentifully of the Spa, which is only to be saved after the Urinal comes untinged from him, to the quantity of two or three quarts, and to distil that in a Glass Body or Retort, or barely to evaporate it in a Jar Glass, and so to try whether indeed it hath or no, left any considerable quantity of its sabulous matter in the body; which may truly be computed from the more or less quantity of the stony matter left behind after evaporation or distillation, compared with the residence of the same quantity of the Spa Water, distilled or evaporated fresh from the Fountain.   

A Method Prescribed For the right use of the Scarbiough-Water.  
NOW come I to give my Receipt how to prevent petrifaction, by propounding a Method for the right use and improvement of the Water; where, first, I advise all Patients, who would take this Water for their best advantage and help, for the prevention or cure of the Stone, Gout, Scurvy, Jaundice, Palsies, Epilepsies, Asthma, or other chronical Diseases; to begin with a gentle Vitrioline Vomit, the Dose to be ordered according to the discretion of the advising Physician, which may be done, although the Patient hath for some time drunk of the Water; for this sort of Vonrit (which is surely the safest in the World) doth not only carry off plenty of a depraved matter, involved in the Tunicles of the Stomach, the fomenter of most Diseases, whether Acute or Chronical, but also strengthens the Fibres of the Stomach, and other Membranes, through the whole body, reducing them to their proper Tone; which the generality of Solutions, yea, the too frequent use of this Spa Water, is apt to relax, and to make them flag and hang; the depravation of whose oeconomy, makes them forgetful of their offices, and renders them susceptible of a stony incrustation, from the sabulum of the Water; and hereby they become the cause of all those Diseases, which happen upon those who incautiously drink, and that long and plentifully of this Spa Water: and hence it is, that after a months drinking of the Water, it sometimes happens that the Appetite or Concoction decays, (which my Antagonist acknow ledgeth) or the Waters pass not so well, but cause distension in the Belly or Veins, and so brings on a difficulty of breathing, pain in the head, etc.  
All which may be now remedied, by the method we are now propounding; for this kind of Vomit (which may, as occasion shall require, be safely repeated) doth fortify the membranous parts notably, and makes them mindful of their duties; after which the Patient may, for two or three mornings, drink pretty freely of the Waters, using moderate exercise after, as walking upon the Sands, or in their Chamber; and about two hours after the last Glass of Water, let them drink a Glass or two of the best White Wine, (well refined from its Tartar) and about one hour after that, take some warm Broth; then to eat of a few Dishes of Meat, and those to be as well ordered as may be: nor is it a little respect that is to be had to the Drink at Meats, viz. that it neither be new, thick, or unwrought, nor that it be hard or tart.  
So that four things are to be regarded in the drinking of the Waters.  
First, Moderate exercise after drinking the Water.  
Secondly, To drink a Glass or two of Wine, two hours after the Water, to help the passage thereof.  
Thirdly, Not to eat too soon after the Waters; for either by too immoderate exercise, that which should pass away by Urine, (by the short way) is preposterously carried into the habit of the body, or by eating too suddenly before the Waters have passed; the like disorder may happen, (viz.) That the Latax wherein the sabulous matter is dissolved, is thereby in danger to be carried by the Thoracical Vessels, into the fourth digestion of the heart, and thence into the habit of the body, where it may lay a foundation for the Gout, Stone, Scurvy, Fevers, etc.  
Fourthly, A moderation in Diet, having good Meat well ordered, and to keep a restraint upon the Stomach, not overcharging it with too much, nor with too great variety of food, for sometimes what the Water builds, in order to health, the irregularity of diet in some persons pulls down.  
Fifthly, Good wholesome Drink is to be chosen at Meats, which should neither be very small, nor hard or tart, nor, lastly, new, thick, or unwrought, but should be soft, clear, and healing Ale; or a middle sort of Beer, fresh and lively; all bottled Ale (especially that which flies) is to be avoided; in short, it should be kindly Ale, such as may well dilute our other solid Food, and be a suitable Vehicle of our nutritive Juice; for from a due contemperature of our Drink and Meat (by the efficiency of the ferments) ariseth the wholsomness of our nourishment.  
When the Patient hath drank for two or three days of the Spa Water, after the former directions, then is he to take a Dose of Solutive Pills, viz. one overnight, and two the next morning; observing much what the former instructions, and to omit taking any Water for that day.  
These Pills ought to be so contrived by the Physician, as to contain in them such Ingredients as may chief respect the Scurvy, and that because the Scurvy is most-what the ground to other Diseases; and next, that they may be such as may give the Patient four or five stools, (without griping) as his strength, and the indications of his Disease may require; not neglecting, in the interim, other specificks seasonably to be exhibited, as the Physician shall think meet, from the indications of the Disease.  
Then (if the Physician think fit) is the Patient to rest a day or two from taking the Spaw-Water, and that to prevent a sudden precipitation of the stony matter upon the Tunicles of the Intestines, after their abstersion or cleansing by the former Solutive; and after that to begin again, observing the former instructions, and so on in a round, with such diversifications as the Physician, from a critical observation of the Symptoms and Indications, shall judge requisite, until the Patient be cured, at least in so hopeful a way towards it, as that Nature may, without much stress, tug through the rest.  
And by this means, will all the inconveniencies which happen, as aforesaid, to incautious Spaw-Drinkers, be prevented; hereby Patients will not miss of their aim, viz. their desired health, etc. This course being taken, I see no cause of suspicion of any harm from the Waters; for supposing (at the worst) a precipitation should happen, which cannot be much; the next Dose of Antiscorbutic Pills, together with a good Diuretic, and a glass or two of Wine, will absterge it off, and carry it c●● verly away.  
Nor need we be altogether so fearful of harm from the stony Concretions in the Water, if we consider, That Physicians often prescribe Coral, Crabs-eyes, Pearl, Crabs-claws, Hyacinth, smaragd, Saphire, Bezoar, etc. which are the Ingredients of several compound Species, as of Pulu. è chel. cancrorum, species Cordiales, etc. frequently ordered by them for the cure of Diseases; which sometimes dulcify the Blood, and other essential Juices of the body, by coagulating their acidities, which otherwise cause obstructions in the bowels, and give beginning to Apostemations, etc. being frequently carried off by Siege.  
Yea, I know a Gentlewoman, who being troubled with a spurious (and therefore superfluous) acidity upon her Stomach, amongst the hundred of Remedies she hath used, finds nothing comparable to the eating plenty of Chalk, which is a stony Concretion: This more powerfully, than any other thing she has yet met with, dints the overflowing acidity, sweetens it, which otherwise, with an acid flatus, afflicts her Intestines, causing unufual tormina, or gripping of the Guts; Of this she has eaten (as I remember she told me) some pecks in some late years, and yet is no more afflicted with the Stone or Gout, than she was before the taking thereof.  
So that all those who are not originally inclined to the Stone or Gout, may very safely drink of the Waters, and that with very good success, for the cure of most other inflrmities, by the due management of the Spa, according to our prescribed Method, where we are not so magisterial in our advices, but do leave the judicious Physician to vary, as he seethe cause, I giving only hints, and opening a Casement for more light, for the better discovery of the improvement of this Noble Spa, in order to the cure of many Diseases; for Art is not only to imitate Nature, but also help and supply its deficiencies, separating what is superfluous, and adding what is necessary.  
But if any, who are inclined originally to the Stone or Gout, shall upon the consideration that the Scarbrough-Water is so esurine or acid, by its imbibed Nitroaluminous, or duplicate Salt, as to dissolve and carry along in its bowels the several Raiments of Stone, shall, I say, thereupon become jealous of drinking the Water:  
To those I shall first advise, the drinking the Water according to our prescribed Method; which if it do not answer their expectation upon trial, at least doth not satisfy, than would I thus farther add, viz. That doubtless when these stony Concretions are separated by Art or Nature, the foresaid Salt being dissolved in fresh Water, (which upon evaporation yields no sabulous Sediment) must needs, I say, become very powerful against all those Diseases, whose seminaries consist in a sabulous petrifying property, as the Stone, Gout, Jaundice, etc. especially if dissolved with the addition of Salt of Steel, and drunk with great plenty of Spring-Water so acuated.  
And therefore, lastly, would I propound to all those who are afflicted with these Diseases, upon not being satisfied with the former Method, or being at too great a distance, to take it accordingly, either (by procuring this duplicate Salt of the Spa) to dissolve it in some pure Spring Water, as aforesaid, with the addition of Salt of Steel, and so to drink it (according to the advice of their Physicians) at home; or else, to dissolve the same Salt in some Vitrioline Water, as that of Kuarsbrough, Rotheram, Olton, etc. and to drink as large quantities thereof, as their Physician, by the indications of their Diseases, shall advise.  
Thus, from what is premised, the three Indications (propounded by my candid Friend) for the right improvement of the Water, are readily, and without much ado, answered: for, first, by a right management of the Waters, according to our Method, the suspicious petrifying property of the Scarbrough Waters may very probably be prevented, yea and though already begun, may as likely be carried off; And, secondly, by the same process, the Stone-pouder, and faeces of the Alom, may be hindered from fixing upon the Bowels; and, lastly, to prevent (in tender constitutions) that the duplicated Salt corrode not the Entrails, may easily be done, either by our former Method, or by diluting the essential Salt thereof in great plenty of fresh Spring Water, or by dissolving it in Vitrioline Spaws, as aforesaid.   

An APPENDIX Concerning the Anatomy of the GERMANE Spaw-Water.  
I Took about a quart of the Spaw-Water, (which is brought out of Germany, and exposed to sale in Leiden, Amsterdam, and other Cities of the Low-Countries, in Bottles sealed up) into a little of which I put some Powder of Galls, with which it struck a pale Claret colour; the rest I ordered to be put into a Glass Retort, with a clean Receiver close luted to it, and gave an easy heat, distilling off first about one ounce of Water, than poured it forth, and found that it had neither taste, smell, nor any other properties that might distinguish it from ordinary Spring-Water distilled, for with Galls it would make no more alteration then common distilled Water: Then we distilled off about two or three ounces more of insipid Water; after which, I ordered the fire to be permitted to extinguish, to try what kind of precipitate it would let fall; because, after the first ounce was come over, slacking the fire, we found that a little Sediment was fallen, which was of a pale reddish colour; and upon the second cooling, more of the same fell down: Then I caused that which remained in the Retort to be filtered, and saved the Sediment in the Filter Paper; which being dried up, was an insipid pale red Calx.  
Then I tried if the filtered Water, after this precipitation, would give any tincture with Galls, as it did before separation, but found it would not; after which I poured it into the clean washed Retort, and distilled again, as before, until all was come off, except about one half ounce: This I brought to London, and evaporated in a clean Jar Glass, in a gentle heat, till it came to a dryness. The colour of this Powder was somewhat white, and its taste was pleasantly sharp or piercing, with a heat and warmth diffused upon the Tongue, but had no Vitrioline taste: to this, pouring Oil of Sulphur per campanam, it did make a manifest ebullition, as if it had been poured upon so much Salt of Tartar; but Oil of Tartar per deliquium, did cause no effervescence at all; by which it was evident, that the Salt contained in this residence, was rather lixivial than acid, although in taste it scemed to be neutral, but to partake of both; so that probably this Spring in its Original (I mean where it is first impregnated with Mineral Juices) is hot, but running further through a Colander of Earth or Sand, loseth its heat, and becomes at its eruption a cold Spring.   

Observations on the dissection of a Woman who died of the Jaundice.  
AND here, that I may entertain the Reader with some little variety, I shall end all with some Observations on the dissection of an ancient Woman, who died at the Hospital in Leyden, of the Yellow Jaundice; Her Skin (before death, as well as after) was died the most deep Yellow that ever I saw in my life; she consumed away in a Marasmus, not withstanding all the means that could be used, and it will be judged impossible that it should otherwise be, after I have related what we observed in the dissection of her body: Upon the opening of the Abdomen of this Cadaver, (performed by the Professor in the Theatre) was first observed (omitting the less considerable enormities) a connexure or knitting together of the Pylorus, and the under part of the left Lobe of the Liver, close by the Vesica Bilaris, by a hard schirrhous tumour; for besides that, the Stomach was somewhat larger than ordinary, and the Spleen lay length ways, in a parallel line with the direct Muscles of the Abdomen, being somewhat less than usual; and although being cut, its Patenchyma was found of a due consistence, and not vitiated in substance; I say, besides these, the Liver was found very stiff and hard, with several schirrous tumors, some lesser, some bigger, whose consistence was most-what glandulous, one or two being as big as walnuts, and some less, but one near as large as a Man's Fist.  
The Cystis Fellea was large and very 〈◊〉 which was found (together with those in the 〈◊〉 Ductus) near a hundred and twenty Stones, so●●● like little Peas, some larger, but all of them most-what angular; in colour some near bright, and not much unlike the ordinary sort of Mother of Pearl; others had dark spots intermingled, and, as it were, marbled: The Professor distributed to each of the Students, who were present, one of these Stones as a rarity. The liquid part of the Gaul, which was not yet petrified, most of which was lodged in the Ductus Hepaticus, was tenacious, and mostwhat of the consistence of a Syrup.  
The common Ductus, which reacheth from the Cystis to the Duodenum, was so much obstructed, as the Professor could not (without cutting the Vessel which leads from the Cystis further open) make the Style pass from that part into the Intestine; and that because the situation of the parts was altered, and become different from the natural, by reason of that strict connection of the Pylorus with the Liver.  
Then opening the Thorax, the Lungs were found scarce vitiated at all, but the Heart was less by much then usual; yea, and that which was the wonder of the whole, (and which no Author (that we know of) has yet ever observed) was, to see a Schirrus upon the right Ventricle of the Heart. True, the Polypus Cordis has been frequently found in the dissection of Dutch Bodies, by the famed Silvius.  
And I saw another Woman dissected there, who died (as was supposed) of a Syncope; in the right Ventricle of whose heart was found a Polypus, several inches long, from the Basis to the Cone thereof; although it's more probable she died of a complication of other Diseases; for in the Abdomen was found a great quantity of a Serum, together with plenty of a Pituita floating together in that cavity. But that there should be a schirrous tumour upon the Heart, is what we never heard of, or at least never observed before.  
As to the cause of the Jaundice in this Woman, it was variously disputed; some supposed that it proceeded only from an obstruction of the Bile, which thereby being mixed with the Blood, was dispersed into the whole habit of the Body: Others supposed that the Disease proceeded srom a volatility of the Bile, which passing up by the Ductus Hepaticus, was thence, by the Vena Porta, sent into the Mass of Blood, and so vitiated the whole habit of the Body with that Saffron Dye: But upon the dissection, it should seem to be evident that the natural Crasis of the Bile was wholly perverted, and that that which should have been useful in its due consistence, not only as a Balsam to the Blood, but also by its volatile Alkali, to perform the gentle and natural fermentation in the Intestines, together with the subacid ferment of the Pancreatical Juice, was in great part (being vitiated in its constituent parts) petrified; which petrifaction, as well in that as in other parts of the body, do all, most probably, proceed from the same efficient causes; and that (not unlikely) from a too great exaltation of the saline and sulphureous parts of the Bile, coagulating themselves upon some terrestrial or tartarous matter, which, by continuance of time, hath been precipitated to the bottom or sides of the Vesica Bilis.  
From what is premised, I would excite the Ingenious to further improvements, that we may the better be capacitated to do good by a right understanding of the causes of things; and that by propounding, first, that several Experiments may be essayed, in order to the imitation of these Anomolous Products in Animals, which do so often afflict the humane Body, in several parts thereof; for from a true apprehension of the essential Causes which concur in the Fabric of these Animal Stony Concretions, we may the better be informed, how to prepare such Menstruums, as may genuinely (and without corrosion of other tender adjacent parts) resolve such petrified Bodies.  
FINIS.