Spadacrene Dunelmensis: OR A SHORT TREATISE Of an Ancient MEDICINAL FOUNTAIN OR VITRIOLINE SPA Near the City of DURHAM.  
TOGETHER▪ With the Constituent Principles, Virtues and Use thereof.  
By E. W. Doctor of Physic.  
London, Printed by W. Godbid, 1675.   

REVERENDO DOMINO D no JOHANNI SUDBURIO, Decano Dunelmensi optime merito, Nec non amplissimis ejusdem congregationis Prebendariis jugiter observantia colendissimis.  
EXpectabunt fortè nonnulli (amplissimi Domini) me in hoc proloquio gratiam benevolentiamque vestram aucupaturum vestrae laudis (ut moris est) encomia texere velle. Patet equidem ampla dicendi materia, spatiosus dilatandi Campus, sed meis ut fateor viribus impar, & vestris sane virtutibus supervacaneum; altius insonuit virtus vestra quam ut tubis indigeat, clarius eluxit quam ut facem praeferam. Est mihi profectò jubilandi simul ac congratulandi sed non pro meritis vestris collaudandi facultas, plus potestis praestatisque opere, quam calamo me decet explicare. Accedo itaque non tanquam aliquid honoris collaturus, sed beneficium postulaturus; ut nimirum jugis haec nostra acidula agrorum Dunelmensium irrigua, vestro pariter favore ac patrocinio efflorescat. Hoc tantum Enimvero posuit Deus morbum simul ac medelam, illum nobis peperit peccatum, hanc libere profudit mundi piaculum. Jacuissemus alioquin in sordibus iniquitatum, & truculentam adhuc hostium sustinuissemus atrocitatem, nisi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 salutiferum nobis itidem conciliasset medicamentum. Oh immensam amoris flagrantiam, oh inauditum pietatis argumentum. Verum enim vero inter tot tantasque rerum creatarum varietates nihil magis cedit in humani generis conservationem, quam faecundum illud aquarum seminarium: hinc est quod Spiritus Domini ferebatur super aquas, Haebraicè Merahepheth incubabat aquas, ob insignem vitalitatis virtutem à Spiritu Sancto in aquarum procreatione concessam; unde non immerito Chimici jactitant, ab aqua sunt omnia, & in aquam reducuntur omnia. Quapropter (Colendissimi) accipite hunc nostrum libellum votúmque tanquam amoris simul ac debitae venerationis symbolum, quo plurimos adhuc semper faelicius invicem succedentes annos, & tandem, sero licèt, aeternae faelicitatis gaudium supplicat apprecaturque  
Humilimus dominationum vestrarum servus ODOARDUS WILSONUS.   

THE PREFACE TO THE READER.  
AS the powerful Hand of God made all things for the use of man, so was it His Divine Will and Pleasure, that he should be completely furnished with all such Remedies as principally concerned the perfect preservation of his health. Hence it is, that all things created have their peculiar Medicinal faculty: Every particular mixed Body, virtually respects one part or other of our human Bodies, and by a marvellous strange Character points out that which respectively it is appointed to maintain, nay it is as it were with a certain weight carried unto that with which it holds an amical and natural correspondence. And because our human constitution consists of many sulphureous, nitrous, saline, vitrioline, and oleaginous parts, thence it is that Spaw-waters, which perfectly partake of those mixtures, perform such admirable effects upon disaffected Bodies. But some may say, and that truly, that 'tis a great controversy among the Metallascopical Philosophers, whether Metals can truly and properly be mixed with water? To which I say, that the mixture is confusaneous, though not perfect, as appears in Aqua Regia, in which Gold itself is resolved into insensible Atoms, and even ordinary water admits of a virtual mixture at least, as Experience evidenceth in Chalybiate waters. Again, Minerals are not so solid and compact in their subterraneous veins, nor have they their due perfection, but of a more moist, soft, and glebish consistence, so that by a caustick water, or spirituous sulphureous liquor, even the Metalline Spirits are easily separated, and their raments communicated, however a specific virtue is certainly commixed, and a vigorous propriety at least imbibed. If Metals may be thus incorporated, much more may Minerals, which are only Metals in fieri. And therefore with some probability we may say, that Mineral waters may not only be impregnated with a virtual propriety existing in the Spirits, but also with the very substantial particles of the said Minerals. Now the next, and indeed the chief thing to be enquired into, is the giving an exact account of Mineral waters, since upon this hinge depends the whole safety of such as drink them. Therefore I shall as briefly as may be discharge this incumbency. First then, the virtues and properties of these waters are known from the mixture of their terrestrial Glebes and Minerals, and the manner of knowing and distinguishing them is twofold; the first depends merely on the senses, the other (which Philosophers call à posteriori) is gathered from the recrements which their channels leave behind them. Now there is an innate faculty in the nature of Man, to know things ex evidenter apparentibus & sensibilibus, and therefore the essence or substance of Mineral waters are to be known, how they are differenced in their qualities from simple waters, by their colour, taste, smell, and sometimes quality of touch. These virtues, thus distinguished, are either elementary, and such as perform their operations by the first qualities of hot, cold, moist, and dry; or specific, such as some call heavenly, as far surpassing both the power of all elements, and much transcending the reach of our senses, being such in their effects, as leave nothing less than wonders in our understanding; which unintelligible virtue, if it exert itself in any mixed body, it's principally observable in Spaws; neither is there any Fountain that is not favourably breathed with some Divine Rays, and affected with some singular and peculiar good, the finding out of which, is so much more difficult, as the closet of their causes is inaccessible. This infinity of variety congeminates difficulties, in so much that Nature enthrones herself in no mixed body so gloriously as in this her Paranymphs Kingdom; witness those innumerable different species of waters, which are so many as there are different species of terrestrial Glebes, Minerals, Metals, liquid and concrete Juices, which as they exceed Arithmetic, so likewise do the waters partaking of them, especially if the several combinations with their several mixtures be duly considered. Hence it is that Seneca, lib. 3. nat. quaest. de Aquis, Ad rem inquit seriam, gravem, immensam accessimus, sustinemus & opus nescio an superabile, etc. And Pliny, lib. 31. cap. 1. Plurimas aquarum vires differentiasque conspicatus cunctas, exclamat, quis mortalium enumerare queat? Some honest Philosophers have been affrighted hereat, because an infinity cannot be fathomed; others taking heart have said, that miscellae quibus aquae tinguntur & praedominium qualitatum, sensuum officio experimentorumque possunt quidem (etiamsi difficultate) comperiri. Yet notwithstanding all these difficulties, Non ita deterremur (saith that Object of the World's wonder, Kircherus,) ut proinde nobis hastam abjiciendi animus sit; est aliquid prodire tenus, si non datur ultra. Let us wish therefore we had Pliny's fontem Leontinum cujus aquas qui bibisset scientem evadere medicum recitat, and being armed with this fantastical conceit, take upon us to tell you, that all waters are either mixed with different Glebes of terrestrial matter, wherein we comprehend all species of Earth, or with the different sorts of Salts which are called concrete Juices, and so there will be as many different species of waters, as there are different sorts of Salts; or they are adjoined to the different species of liquid juices, such as are unctuous and fat as Bitumen, or not unctuous, as are all strong caustick waters; or they are mixed with the Metalline Bodies, and so invest themselves with the same nature they are tinged withal; or lastly they are embodied with divers kinds of stony Se●inalities, such as that at Knarsborough. Out of the manifold complication of all which, ariseth that admirable variety of waters, which if you conjugate according to the principles of Art combinatory, there will be according to renowned Kircher, 479001600 different species, that is, four hundred seventy nine millions one thousand and six hundred sorts of waters. Let none therefore wonder, if we be not dogmatically positive in our Assertions concerning the Virtues of waters, since no less than an approach to infinity can determine the various complications of Mineral, Metalline, and Saline Principles, with which these are empowered; yet so far as sensata experientia and natural Philosophy, which is an experimental Chemistry and mechanical knowledge of things, can carry us, we may safely believe, as one well observes, Spagyria sola est speculum veri intellectus, monstratque tangere & videre veritatem. I shall not therefore go about to obumbrate the Truth under the veil of obscure Appellations, nor attach other men's Reasonings of weakness, nor sing Matins and Evening-song to my own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by a sort of big and exotique expressions, calling, with Basilius Valentinus, Hippocrates's Ignis and Aqua, Gladiatores and Asa and Phalaia; nor with Paracelsus, shrouding the same Instruments of Nature under the names of divers Spirits, Spiritus alter trahit, alter protrudit, idem autem uterque facit; nor with Helmont, styling the animal, vital, and natural Spirits of the Ancients by that bugbear name of Archaeus, which can be nothing else but the most fine, volatile, and Aetherial parts of the Blood, contained in the Veins, Nerves, and Arteries. But I shall endeavour clearly and spagyrically to demonstrate the true Principles and Constituents of this our Spa in our following Discourse. Soli illi docent qui per causas & principia docent. In the interim, for more clearness sake, I shall set down (since the first qualities give us but an uncertain and conjectural rule of finding out the true Essences of waters) a threefold manner of proceeding, for discovering in general the genuine and true mixtures of all Medicinal waters.  
I. The first is by Concoction, thus:  
Take a glass vessel, or an earthen one glazed, and boil therein your Mineral water, till a third part be wasted, afterwards let it settle well for three days space for separating its Faeces, then take a gross thick Cloth fit for filtration, and shape it in the form of an inverted Pyramid, hang the pointed pyramidal end in the water, and let the other extremity first being moistened hang down without the vessel; and it will come to pass, that the moistened end hanging without the vessel, shall draw the water in the other extremity of the filter, which was plunged in the water, and thus by little and little all the water, and only the pure water, shall be drawn out, the sediment remaining, which being exposed to the Sun, you may thence discover the mixture of the Minerals.  
II. The second way of judging Mineral mixtures in Spa waters is by evaporation, thus:  
Take a glass vessel with a large orifice, place it midway deep in another earthen vessel full of sand, and evaporate all the moisture, and dry the sediment or Faeces in the Sun, and you shall know the mixtures by the diversity of the Mineral particles; the difficulty of this way of trial is, that together with the water the Mineral Spirits fly away, which happeneth not in the former nor in this following way of proceeding.  
III. The third, and indeed the securest way, of finding out the nature of Mineral waters is by distillation, because hereby not only the grosser particles of every Mineral, but even the predominant spirits and vaporous are infallibly made known, and it is thus:  
Prepare a furnace with ventholes, and place therein a proper earthen vessel full of sand, in this sand another vessel filled with water up to the middle, v. g. a Cucurbita, or glass still bottom, with a pretty straight mouth, to this Cucurbita you must fit a Capitellum with a nose or an alembick rostrated, being well luted that nothing can expire, and to this nose of your Capitellum you must adapt another Fistula, or glass pipe, well luted, which pipe must run through a wooden vessel full of cold water, this done, put fire to your furnace, and draw off all the water, and what remains of sediment expose to the Sun to be dried; which done, for dissolving the several species of the Minerals proceed thus: Expose the sediment upon a polished Iron Table red hot, and being mixed with water the Chalk, Marble, and Gypsum▪ or Plaster will not be burnt, but after all the others are burnt, they will remain more shining white than formerly, the Gypsum presently, but the Chalk and Marble require more time. If there be Brimstone, it discovers itself by its accustomed strong sent; Salt and Niter sparkle, Salt with crackling but Niter without any. If Ceruse be there, it is turned into an intense redness, an evident sign of Lead; Alum being melted turns white like Milk, and Vitriol darkly reddish like Colcothar; and this effect had the sediment of this our Spaw-water, without any sulphureous smell at all; the Faeces whereof I gathered both by Coction and Distillation, but less remained of Faeces by Evaporation, an evident sign of the spirituous subtlety of the Mineral mixture.  
Now as to the discovery of Metalline tinctures in waters, they are known by their proper excrements and corruption of their sediments, therefore the manner of proceeding is thus:  
If Metal be in waters, infuse the sediment of the Metalline water in some Chemical corrosive water, or in some generously sharp Vinegar, and if you see an Ironish rust upon the sediment, you may be sure of the mixture of Iron with the water; and so of Brass, Gold, and all others.  
Thus have I given some remarks in general, and hinted only by the by at my greatest concern, the Constituents of our Spa, of which hereafter; I shall now only beg pardon, if I make an useful, though as to my present intention somewhat impertiment digression.  
Raimundus Lullius tells us of an Apparition he had, of Madam Nature's weeping unto him, for men's endeavouring to discover her Secrets, and prostitute them to the hands of her Enemies, meaning the Illiterate. And Beguinus gives advice, and makes it his request, that Physicians would not acquaint Mountebanks, and bold Intruders into the Practice of Physic, with his Antimonial Preparations, Ab usu (says he) horum ut illegitimorum se abstineant. And that great Chemist Libavius, as well as Galenist, complains of that fatal liberty in the Profession of Physic, Illud Cavendum (says he) ne audaculi imperiti in medicando id adhibeant quod est medicorum circumspectissimorum exercitatissimorumque, veluti si essentia ex sublimato & regulo fiat▪ etc. tu qui imperitus es methodi medendi & impudens, nec tibi, nec aliis horum permitte usum cum temeritate. Nam nobiles medicinae in manu temerarii hominis sunt ut culter vel fax ardens in manu pueri aut dementis. And doubtless (saith Dr. Castle) as there is more danger▪ that a Child may do mischief with a knife of steel rather than with one of bone; so the hazard that Men run of their lives in taking Chemical Remedies at the hands of Empirics, is much the greater, by how much the Preparations which they use are of more force and virtue And upon this occasion, it will be no grand presumption (good Reader) especially being backed by authority and truth, to tell you of the strange and shameless impudence that a great many, fanatics especially, assume in the Practice of Physic, holding all Learning unnecessary, and Latin the Language of the Beast. Universities (say they) teach nothing but jejune, notional, and chimerical Conceptions, and their Licence ad practicandum signifies no more than a set form of Prayer does in Devotions. Thus they trample all Learning under foot, and set no greater estimate upon Philosophy, than some make conscience in killing one by inspiration; whilst they by their mysterious and enigmatical canting, hard words, and God knows what unintelligible, and indeed nonsensical expressions, draw their poor Patients, the vulgar Rabble especially, into an admiration of their high parts and knowledge in Physic. Thus they steal though illegally into practice, and cunningly pick men's purses with applause and satisfaction. This promiscuous toleration sharpened Dr. Castle's Pen, telling us, That our Nation is of late grown so fond of enthusiastics in Physic as they are of those in Divinity, and ignorance among some Men is become as necessary a qualification for the practice of Physic, as it is for Preaching. I cannot believe (says he) that the delight which the Vulgar (nay and some wise Men) take in being cheated by Quacks and Mountebanks, proceeds from any principle in Nature which inclines them to it, but rather think it to be caused from Impostors being more industrious in deluding the world, than the true Artists are in undeceiving it. And indeed this growing evil, in rejecting the method of the Ancients, and best endeavours (after a strict examination at the Universities) of graduate Physicians, and following the whimsies and follies of some fantastical Pseudo-Chymists, is like the Americans, who barter Gold and Silver for Beads and Glass. To this purpose I could instance, but am not desirous to make any personal reflection, in a particular passage here in Durham, of one who very seriously said he was a beguifted Apothecary: I imagine he is the same now in Physic and Chirurgery; haud aliquid in ullo. But of this no more, only give me leave to tell such precarious Practitioners, that their petulancy is too saucy, in presuming so magisterially to direct in Cases where life and death are so nearly concerned, especially when as neither Learning nor Reading, nor lawful Authority gives any encouragement thereunto▪ 'Tis not sufficient for a conscientious Physician, to know Receipts, how to purge, vomit, or sweat, neither is it only requisite, that he understand the nature and force of the Remedy, but likewise the constitution and strength of the Patient, and the nature, times, and motion of the Disease, it being certain, that the same Remedy in the same Disease, which advantageously may be given to day, may perniciously destroy tomorrow. Therefore let me admonish thee, good Reader, not to credit too much those touchy headed Chemists, who pretend to Panacaea's, Universal Medicines, Secrets, and such like whimsical Remedies, but let their Materia Medica be wholly founded upon Experience, Crebro singularium tentamine, by a frequent trial of each Medicine: And this was the opinion of the learned▪ Varandaeus to Dr. Primrose, telling him, that those Remedies are the best which are no secrets but best known, as being confirmed by more certain experience, considering that credulity is in no Art of so dangerous a consequence as in Physic. And therefore the learned Mr. boil, in his Sceptical Chemist, warns us not be forward in believing Chemical Experiments; For (says he) as the obscurity of what some Writers deliver makes it difficult to be understood, so the unfaithfulness of too many others makes it unfit to be relied on. What circumspection ought therefore to be used in managing the Cure of a Disease? when the least inadvertency or error in judgement, costs many Men no less than the price of their lives. And to this purpose is the Dialogue betwixt Socrates and Phaedrius: If any one should tell me, (says Socrates) Truly I know how to apply those things to the body, with which I can, when I please, make i● hot or cold, vomit and purge, and cause other evacuations, upon the understanding of which, I profess myself a Physician, and affirm, that any Man instructed with this knowledge may be one; what answer do you think a sober Man would return to him? Truly (said Phaedrius) none at all, but ask him, whether he likewise understands to whom, and when, and in what proportion every one of these Medicines are to be given, of which if he be ignorant, the man must certainly▪ be mad, who upon the score, either of glean from Authors, or for having been present at the Cures of some Physicians, and understanding nothing solidly and rationally of the Art, thinks he is presently become a Physician. Many safe Medicines have been abused by being given by Emperiks', and have killed instead of curing, they not suiting them to the temper, age, sex, and strength of their Patients: This Senner●us witnesseth, telling us of two Children killed by two old Women with Oil ●f Amber; the one broke out all over the body, as if scalding water had been ●oured upon it, and presently died; the other died vomiting and purging. Nay, that very safe Remedy Mercurius dulcis (called by Sir Theodore Meyern Calomelanos, from one Fair-black his man, who prepared it for him) has been to some constitutions accompanied with hazardous symptoms; and no Ptyolismus, or Salivation, can be given, it being from Mercury, without a great deal of circumspection. I therefore hearty advise our new-coined Physicians, since they must be dabbling, not too much to Idolise Monsieur Mercury, nor fond too much of their late skill in Salivation, those that know it full out as well as they must, tell them by way of friendly advice, that it ought to be given to none but such as are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,  
And now, good Reader, I have even wearied thee out, and therefore will hasten to my matter, and conclude this Preface with Hypocrates, Qui vocat medicinam omnium artium nobilissimam, sed propter ignorantiam eorum qui eam male exercent, esse omnium vilissimam; fundamentum enim, quo pedem figunt, non habent, de quibus etiam Seneca, semper distant, nunquam ad veritatem perveniunt; and the reason is, because they have no guide for direction, they are so enthusiastically wise, they scorn a Master to instruct them methodically in the true fundamentals of Physic, but shooting at random, with all their industry nothing is produced but rudis indigestaque moles. And the same Author going on tells us, Ignorantia est quae omne malum in medicina generat, adeo ut medicus nunc passim ludibrio expositus, comicis in facetias & mundo in proverbium ivit. And beside the ignorance of some, the malicious detracti●ns of others, even among ourselves, ●ender us contemptible, which very ●hing occasions a good Galeno-Chymi●al Author to break out into exclamation, thus: Ubi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quam tan●opere commendat Hyp. nostro seculo unus vilipendit alterum, dicta & facta taxat, rixatur à tergo, con●radicit, quae non intelligit, seipsum apud ignaram plebem extollit sordida spe lucelli. Pardon this Parergy, I shall expatiate no more upon ●o sordid a subject; what I am now to say, shall be Observations from Experiments, and therefore aught to force a faith, as to matter of Fact; if the manner be but any way well, it is well, so farewell.  
Thine, E. W.   

SPADACRENE Dunelmensis.  

CHAP. I. Of simple Water, its qualities and use.  
THat there is naturally pure simple water to be found, without any heterogenial admixture at all, is paradoxical, therefore by simple water I only mean such as hath a proper colour, taste, smell, weight, and consistence, thin, light, cold, and moist, and no other thing discernible, either by senses or effects: And 'tis requisite that water should have these qualities, in regard of the many and necessary uses of it, both for Men, Beasts, Vegetables, and Minerals; in so much as there is no living for any Creature where there is no water. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gins Pindar's Olymp. Od. 1. It was our first drink to quench thirst, and by its tenuity distributes our nourishment as a Vehicle, nay after the invention of Wine it was usually mixed therewith, as Virgil saith of Bacchus,  Poculaque inventis Acbeloia miscuit uvis. 
I could hearty wish, that even Bacchus himself might herein become our Precedent, especially since in other things he hath taught our too docil world, as v. g. by the same purity and tenuity of the parts of water, how to make Beverages of sundry sorts. The Egyptians have their Zythum, the Spaniards their Cerea, the Turks their Coffee, and we our Ale and Beer; all extracted by water, the fittest Menstruum for receiving the Faculties of all Medicaments and nourishment, especially the second qualities of mixed Bodies, and for this reason was it called Panspermia. That simple water is cold, is without question, for being heated accidentally, it soon returns to its natural coldness, the cause of heat being removed; but whether it be colder than Air is much to be doubted. I shall not now undertake the determining, whether Air be bred of water originally, or whether it be not a distinct substance of itself, and receives only watery vapours, and after mature condensation in the middle Region, exonerates itself by Rain, Hail, Snow, etc. Only thus much I dare affirm, that the Sun beams are of much more force to elevate substances from the Earth, than most imagine, and consequently, those that hold the materiality of the Air to be from water, are not in opinion altogether paradoxical, but verisimilitudinary. And to prove this vigorous extraction of the Sun from sublunary Bodies, give me leave to give you an instance of what Athanasius Kircherus (whose company much honoured me from Marseilles to Rome) most faithfully relates, in Magicae Parastaticae, Parastisi I▪ Naturae, thus:  Morgana Rheginorum. 
In the midst of Summer, when the Sun boils the Tyrrhene Ocean with most fervent rays, then is it that wanton Nature entertains the wondering Eyes of the Inhabitants of Rhegium, (a Town in Calabria, most ancient, and no less famous, for having been the Seat of many Philosophers) with a prodigious Spectacle in the Air. There may you (whether with more delight or wonder is not soon determined) behold a spacious Theatre in the vaporous Air, adorned with great variety of Scenes and Catoptrick Representations, the Images of Castles, Palaces, and other Buildings of excellent Architecture, with sundry ranges of Pillars, presented according to the Rules of Perspective. This Scene withdrawn upon the Sailing by of the Cloud, there succeeds another, wherein by way of excellent Landscape were exhibited spacious Woods, Groves of Cypress, Orchards with variety of Trees, but those artificially planted in uniform rows, like a perfect Phalanx, large Meadows with companies of Men, and herds o● Beasts walking, feeding, and couching upon them: And all these with so great variety of respondent colours, so admirable a commixture of light and darkness and all their motions and gesture● so counterfeited to the life, tha● to draw a Landscape of equal perfection seems to humane Nature altogether impossible.  
Now to our purpose: This parastatical Phantasm was not cause● in the Cloud from any reflected appearance of any such things, either on the shore or adjacent fields, because no such thing was there which indeed increased the ardour of curiosity in renowned Kircher t● cross over from Messina to Rhegiu● at the usual time of the apparition where he detected the Causes of the whole Phaenomenon; observing first, the Shore's subjacent to the Mountain called Tinna, as also the bottom of the Sea, to be covered with shining Sand, being the fragments of Selenites, Antimony, and other pellucid concretions devolved from the eminent parts of the Land and contiguous Hills, that are richly fraught with Veins of those Minerals. Then he observed, that these translucid Sands being, together with Vapours from the Sea and Shore, exhaled into the Air by the intense fervour of the Sun, did coaless into a Cloud, in all points respondent to a perfect polyedrical or multangular Looking-glass, the various superficies of the respondent Granates making a multiplication of the Species; and that these, being opacated behind by gross and impervious Vapours, directly facing the Mountains, did make reflection of the various Images of Objects, respective to their various positions, to the eye. The several rows of Pillars in the Aerial Scene are caused by one single Pillar erected on the Shore, for being by a manifold reflection from the various superficies of the tralucent particles, opacated on the hinder part by dense vapours in the speculary Meteor, it is multiplied even to infinity; no otherwise, than if one single Image, posited betwixt two polyedrical Looking-glasses confrontingly disposed, is so often repercussed or reflected from superficie to superficie, that it exhibiteth to the eye almost an infinite multitude of Images exactly consimilar. Thus also doth one Man standing on the Shore become a whole Army in the Cloud, one Beast a whole Herd, and one Tree à thick set Grove▪ Some perhaps may judge this assertion, of the elevation of those shining Grains of Vitreous Minerals into the Air by the mere attraction of the Sun, and the coalition of them there with the Cloud of Vapours, to be too large a morsel to be swallowed by any throat, but that cormorant one of credulity. If so, all we require of them is only to consider, that Hairs, Straws, grains of Sand, fragments of Wool, and such like festucous Bodies, are frequently found immured in Hailstones, which surely are sufficient arguments, that those things were first elevated by the Beams of the Sun, recoiling from the Earth into the middle Region of the Air, and then coagulated with the Vapours, condensed into a Cloud, and frozen in its descent. The truth hereof is evicted by the conspiring testimonies of many other Authors, whose Pens are not dipped in the fading Ink of an unjustifiable Tradition, nor their Minds deluded with the affectation of fabulous wonders. Now to reassume the debate, I shall only give my judgement of the temperature of the Air, as to heat or cold, and that it is of its own nature cold is most manifest, (though Aristotle concluded the contrary, from its efficient cause which rarified it.) The Stoics were also of this opinion, because they made the matter of Air to be water; and this is also confirmed by its return to coldness (as formerly was said of water) in case it be accidentally heated; and we know that under the Zona torrida, so long as the Sun is within their Horizon and strikes the Air with its perpendicular Beams, 'tis exceeding hot, but after Sunset the Air reassumes its natural coldness till Sun-rise again, nay though Aristotle thought it uninhabitable because of the extremity of heat, yet being the days and nights are there of the same length, Josephus Acosta concludes that the only Paradise upon Earth is under or near the Aequinoctial; neither can there any other reason be given why the Mountains which reach the middle Region of the Air are continually cold, and mostly covered with Snow, but because they wanting the reflection of the Sunbeams, the Air doth then enjoy its natural qualification. As for that whimsy of an Antiperistasis in the middle Region from the Element of Fire above, and the reflection of the Beams beneath, it's an equal phantasm with the Man in the Moon, who would have hot sitting if Elementary Fire were immediately under him. But this opinion is exploded, and if such Fire were, it would rather heat than cool the Air. Is not the Air most cold near the Poles, where the long absence of the Sun, and its obliqne Beams when present, give way to its natural coldness? Nay 'tis very probable that it is colder than water, since we see by a condensative faculty it congeals water into Ice, Snow, Hail, etc. which certainly is from the Air, being that underground, where the water is not freely ventilated with Air, there's no congelation; neither do I think other but the great coldness that's in Ice and Snow, depends merely upon the mixture of Air, which being per minima interwoven with Salnitrous particles, is heightened to such a degree of coldness as makes it vigorous for producing a congelative effect. That water is most moist is the opinion of Galen, and very probably true, notwithstanding Aristotle's reason to the contrary, concluding Air to be most moist, because it's hardly contained within its bounds, which indeed is by reason of its tenuity and incontiguity of parts, being that dry exhalations extend themselves as well as moist vapours, and as density compacts, so rarity causeth extension. I shall need say no more of the qualities which simple water ought to have, being such as are every where obvious in Authors, and the senses will discover either by taste, colour, smell or touch, or else the effects will make manifest.   

CHAP. II. Of the Original of simple Waters and Springs in general.  
GReat controversies have been betwixt the Stoics and Peripatetics, and are yet amongst the Moderns, concerning the original of true Springs, which are no other than those of mixed waters. All difficulties and arguments touching this grand Debate are reducible into three heads; for either our perpetual and lasting Springs, called Fontes perennes, proceed from vapours congealed by cold in the second Region of the Air, and so fall down upon the Earth in Rain, Snow, or Hail; or they are engendered in the bowels of the Earth; or they are percolated through sandy subterraneal channels from the Sea. For the first, it may be granted that divers Springs and Rivers receive supply of waters from the Rain, as we see our Rivers do; the Rhine and Danubius swell upon the dissolution of Snow, and in much drought our Springs fail us, but those are such as materially depend upon the fall of Rain or Snow, and these surceasing the Springs also become dry, they being principally ordained by Nature for fertilizing and irrigating the Earth in its production of Herbage, Fruit, etc. for the benefit of Mankind; but such are only Land-springs, and in no sort to be called perpetual Springs, which notwithstanding the want of Rain or Snow for a long time are still the same, and though great Rivers may almost be dried up, by a long and lasting discontinuance of wet, by the dryness of the superficies of the Earth imbibing it in its passage, for the satisfaction of its drought, being elementum siccissimum, yet the heads of those Rivers flow plentifully at the same time; so that another causality must be found out than Aerial supplies; and supposing there were (which some wittily contend for) certain commissures, chinks, and hollow veins in the Earth, to receive much Rain that falls, yet what sinks into those clefts and caverns bears no proportion at all with that plenty which hurries headlong into Rivers, and thence conveyed into the Sea, and consequently very improbably proposed to be in a manner the adequate causation of lasting Springs, there being also subterrraneal generations, which for their production require also a continued supply of water. The second opinion seems much less plausible than this, for if the cause be engendered in the bowels of the Earth, than it either proceeds from Earth itself changed into water, as Seneca, which being a thing against all reason and experience, and backed by no other authority than his own, needs no other confutation than pretermission; or which is more probable, these Springs are made of Air penned up in the caverns of the Earth, and by the coldness thereof condensed into water; this likewise, by Master Aristotle's good leave, who here philosophiseth after his manner abstrusely and metaphorically, exceedeth all rational belief; for how is it imaginable, that there are so vast and so many empty spaces in the Earth as to contain so much Air for the making such a quantity of water, and that in a moment, as springs daily out of the Earth; nay how can so much Air be allowed, as to furnish such abundance of water, without exhausting the whole stock, and consequently make a Vacuum, not only disseminatum, which according to some is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and natural, but also coacervatum and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to wit, such as is totally repugnant to the fundamental Constitutions of Nature; this I say cannot be granted, especially being that very many parts of Air serve for the making of one part of water containable in the same place, as Dr. French hath well observed; neither can any such transmutation of Elements be granted, for though according to Helmont water is convertible into vapours, and the same vapours into water again, yet are these vapours nothing else but rarified water materially, and Air will yield no more water that it contains vapours; but Air taking it purely of itself, quatenus Air, is merely Aetherial, without any mixture at all, or the least atoms of vapour, such as is only above the Atmosphere, and wholly unfit for respiration, or a pabulum, for sustaining the flame of Life, which necessarily must have a Niter therein for that intent. The third opinion is most ancient and most true, being also a divine Epiphonema of Ecclesiastes, Omnia flumina intrant in mare, & mare non redundat, ad locum unde exeunt flumina revertuntur ut iterum fluant. All Rivers, saith Solomon, run into the Sea, and yet the Sea overflows not, into the place from whence the Rivers come, thither they return again. Some one Man, desirous to prove all Springs to be from Rain and Snow, puts a strange gloss upon this evident place of Scripture proving all Springs to have their original from the Sea, and he tells us, that the question is not about Rivers but Springs, and therefore Solomon's asserting the Rivers to come from the Sea, makes out nothing for that of Springs; Quasi verò; as if Rivers were not from Springs, and if Rivers, then by necessary consequence Springs also are from the Sea. The same Assertor tells us also, that Solomon speaks of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea in great Rivers, into which the Tide runs, they being near the Sea, which truly is but too great a stress put upon the Text; first, because he tells us, that all Rivers, as well such as admit of Ebb and Flow of the Sea as those where no such thing is, come from the Sea; and secondly, it cannot be imagined that the whole bulk of water, which is running continually into the Sea, comes up again with the Tide, since the fresh is many Miles distant from the Tide, and no more of the River comes back again by tiding than what the Sea forced up at the time of its tiding, which shortly after at ebbing is again by the current of the River hurried back from whence it came. How then is it possible that the wisest of Men should positively affirm all Rivers to come from the Sea, since 'tis evident that the whole River can in no sense be called the Tide, no more than the Tide can be called the whole River? Surely such as venture thus to paraphrase upon so plain Texts, must either conclude the Writers of the Holy Writ endowed only with natural ratiocination and not inspiration, or which is as bad, they must admit in Divinity what's now in Physic, a legality or promiscuous toleration as to Scriptures interpretation. But of this no more. Let us proceed now in proving the Seas sole sufficiency of affording so great and lasting a supply of water for feeding of Springs. This Assertion certainly is of a most indubitable truth▪ being we see in almost innumerable places waters bursting out of the Earth, not after the manner o● boiling Fountains, but like vast impetuous Rivers, which in no probability can be granted to arise either from the condensation of Air or Rain and Snow falling, or any such like imaginary causation. Bu● to make good the truth of this Hypothesis, by evidencing the manne● how the Springs are at such distances deduceable from the Sea, even to the tops of highest Hills; Hi● labour hoc opus est. I imagine the only difficulty herein consists (as I have said) in this, that the adverse party cannot conceive (granting the Sea to be lower than the tops of Mountains) how it should, contrary to its natural propension, be elevated to such a height. For the better solving of which doubt, I will first tell you, that not only Tully and Aristotle, but many solid Divines, hold that the Sea is as high if not higher than the highest Mountains, otherwise the Sea and Land make not up one global figure, and if so, the motion of the Sea to the tops of Hills is natural, and not at all beyond its level; but I go not about to defend this opinion. Granting therefore the Sea to be lower, I then argue thus, that 'tis not unknown to any that this Terrestrial Body, especially the bottom of the Sea, hath innumerable meatuses, and is perforated with sundry voraginous inlets and patent mouths, into which and through which, as so many hydragogical channels, water may freely pass, otherwise why do winds proceed more apparently, and after a more violent manner from the Sea than from the Land they being caused by the eruption of exhalations from those fissures in the bottom of the Sea: which being granted, 'tis no hard matter to allow the afflux and reflux of the Sea pressing the other water with their exceeding great weight, to exalt the same through those subterraneal channels even to the tops of highest Mountains; for the water being thus pressed with the adventitious access of water, either drawn thither by the Moon, or caused as some think by the Earth's motion, must needs force itself downward spontaneously; and finding those patent passages, is (as I may well say) thrust into those hydrophalacia of the highest Mountains, where seeking out an exit, being thus burdened with weight, bursts forth into Springs and Rivers. If it should be objected, that the flux of the Sea and Tides are spent in their course into Rivers; I answer, that these subterranean caverns will be first served, as being more immediately under the weight, and what is to spare only runs into Rivers, it being natural to all heavy bodies, even having no force put upon them, to descend perpendicularly, rather than in an obliqne line. Others may say, that if the flux of the Sea, or weight of accumulated waters, should cause Springs, than would our Springs cease running when the Tide or flux of waters is out from our parts, and so the like of other parts of the world; to which I reply, that the Sea ebbs and flows every twelve hours over the face of the world where ever any such reciprocation is, and therefore little or no time is left for such a surcease of weight, as to alter the current of Springs, and not only those that have the same Meridian as London and Dunbar, though some Degrees different in Latitude, have every twelve hours full Sea at the same time, but also such as have a different Meridian, and not the same in Longitude, have notwithstanding the same returns as to space of time, though not at the same time. If any Seas be without these Tides, as the Baltic Sea is said to be, its being so near the Northern Pole, and some part thereof within the Arctic Circle, where the Air is thick and gross, may supply the want of Tides as to Springs. Which that I may make good, and thereby answer all other imaginable doubts and objections against this assertion, I shall take occasion of producing a second reason persuading to this original, viz. the mighty Tempests and turbinious Winds, the descent of Vapours, and chief the incumbency of the Air itself, by all which the water is both pressed and expressed; and for further manifestation hereof, give me leave to illustrate as a most convincing argument, the great weight of Air upon this terraqueous Globe, which is apparently made out by Torricellius his Experiment in a Vessel of Quicksilver, instanced by that truly Noble and Illustrious Gentleman Mr. boil, thus: Having prepared a Glass Tube, and stopped up one of its extremities with a Seal hermetical, fill it with Quicksilver, and stop the other extreme with your middle finger, then having inverted the Tube, immerge the extreme stopped by your finger into a Vessel filled with Quicksilver, not withdrawing your finger until the end of the Tube be at least three or four Inches deep in the subjacent Quicksilver, for so you prevent all insinuation of Air. This done, and the Tube fixed in a perpendicular position, upon the subduction of your finger from the lower orifice, you may observe almost half the Quicksilver contained in the Tube to descend speedily into the restagnant or subjacent Quicksilver, leaving almost half of the superior part of the Tube, according to all appearance, at least void and empty. Now place this Vessel thus fitted upon the top of an high Hill, for example, where the Air is less weighty and incumbent than at the bottom of the Hill, and you shall perceive the Quicksilver in the Tube to descend, and that in the Vessel made higher; whereas if you remove the Vessel to the bottom of the Hill, where the Air is grosser and more incumbent, that Quicksilver in the Tube will ascend, and the other in the Vessel descend; so that the variety of places where the Air is various, makes a variety of motion higher or lower in the Quicksilver, which cannot be from any other cause than the different gravity of Air in different places; for the Air of its own nature is heavy, and can be said to be light only comparitively, or as it is less ponderous than Water or Earth, nor can there be given any more manifest reasons for the Airs tendency upward from the convexity of the Earth than this, that being in some degree ponderous in all its particles, these descend from the upper Region of the Atmosphere, and bear upon and mutually compel each other until they beat upon the surface of the Earth, and are by reason of the solidity thereof repercussed up again to some distance, so that the motion of the Air upward is properly a resilition not natural but violent. Now whether this gravity be congenial and inherent in the Air, or whether it be caused by a conformity to the magnetic attraction of the Earth, matters not at all as to our present purpose, being we have a depression amongst the particles of the Air, in their tendency from the Atmosphere down to the surface of our Globe, and the diameter of the Sphere of Air being much larger than that of the terraqueous Globe, we have thereupon from the convex to the concave thereof a compressing weight upon the surface of waters equivalent to that upon the restagnant Liquor in the foresaid Vessel. I shall further urge some Arguments de facto, and tell you, that Pliny writes of a Spring which punctually observes the Sea's motion in its ebbing and flowing. Antonius Vasconzello, a Father of the Society, in his Description of Portugal, mentions a strange and remarkable Lake on the top of the Mountain Erminius, whose nature is, saith he, ut aestuante oceano & ipse pariter aestuans sit lacus, that is, punctually to observe the Seas reciprocation, even as to its raging more or less with fourges; luculentum sanè (saith Kircher) occulti cum oceano per hydragogos canales corresponsus signum, an evident sign of the subterraneal correspondence this Lake hath with the Ocean through hydragogical conveyances and caverns. And learned Kircher also assures us hereof when he saith, Aliqui fontes fluxum & refluxum maris aemulantur, and in particular, relates a lepid story of a Fountain, or rather a River in Westphalia, in a sabulous Plain, breaking out with the Tides twice every natural day, with such a violent force and noise (whence 'tis called Bollerbrum) that it overflows all the circumference of that Valley, and decreasing after the same manner as it increased, at last hides itself totally in its head. Bishop Theodorus (saith he) in media hujus superficie mensam opiparè lautéque construxit, etc. made a most magnificent Banquet in the middle of this Valley, and thither invited and brought with him divers Ladies, when on the sudden the River bursting forth, whilst they caressed Nature and made merry, did so wet them, even more than midway up, that they were forced to wade out, when as those that were conscious to the design, withdrew themselves by time, and sufficiently derided the poor Females infortunity. Interdum seria ludis, & è contra. And thus much, as far as we poor haggard Mortals can reach by the Light of Nature, being Moles rather than Men ever since our first Fall, whose weak and narrow Optics lead us only to the inspection of the exterior and obvious parts of Nature, not perspicacious enough to penetrate her interior and abstruse excellencies; nor can we speculate, faith Doctor Charleton, her glorious beauty in the direct and incident Line of Essences and formal Causes, but in that reflected and refracted one of Effects, nor that neither, without so much of obscurity as leaves an incertitude in our apprehensions, and restrains our ambition of an Apodictical Science, to the darksome Region of merely conjectural Speculation. If therefore I have erected any verisimilous conjecture concerning the causation of Springs, and their derivation from their proper Originals, and given but any probable Solution of that abstruse Phaenomenon, I hope others as well as myself will rest contented.   

CHAP. III. Of the true Essence and constituent Principles of Vitriol.  
GReat, pregnant, and teeming Constitutions, and such as are constellated unto knowledge, think they come short of themselves, if they outgo not others; and indeed they may well think they do nothing, till they outdo all. But my Minerva bids me say, Nos numeri sumus, and I shall think I have done well, if in the disquisition of the true nature of Vitriol, I hold the stirrup to Pyrotechnical Philosophy, and so urge nothing, but what Autoptical experience, reason and authority, shall illustrate. First then, I define▪ Vitriol to be a Mineral Body, generated in the Bowels of the Earth from a sulphureous Spirit, Water, and the Mineral either of Iron or Copper, or both; and that these are the material Ingredients of its composition appears from hence, because its acidity and caustical acrimony it necessarily hath from the Spirit of Sulphur, its clarity and fluidity from Water, and its colour and metalline taste either from the Mineral of Copper or Iron; and of these three, viz. Spirit of Sulphur, Water, and an Ironish or Copper Glebe, is Vitriol composed, which is also called Atramentum Sutorium, and by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Some notwithstanding will have it composed of Alum and Sulphur, because, say they, take a Vitrioline Loam or Day, and dilute it with water, and upon standing in a cold Cellar you may gather thence an aluminous Efflorescence; to which I yield so far, as that there may be a mixture of Alum with Vitriol, in regard of their affinity, but it follows not thereupon, that Alum makes up its composition of parts; for though as all other Minerals have their acidity from Spirit of Sulphur, and are both under that general notion of Salt and Concrete Juices, yet cannot they, Vitriol especially, be called purely and properly Salts, but make up specific differences of such Salts. Others deny Sulphur to be an ingredient, because in the calcination of Vitriol there's no smell of Sulphur, as is when Antimony, Orpin, or Marcasites, are calcined, though these be far more compact solid Bodies; but the reason of this is, because it partakes only of the Spirit and more subtle parts of Sulphur, the others of the grosser substance. Now to show you how Vitriol becomes a specific Salt, I must first premise this general Hypothesis, that there is a common Salt of Nature, and Water, which diffuse themselves throughout all the particles of this Geocosm, and being considered in themselves, are indifferent Subjects for the reception of various forms, accordingly as they meet with diversity of Glebes in the bowels of the Earth; therefore when Water impregnated with Spirit of Sulphur, or a Vapour from that accensed Body of Sulphur, passeth through a salsuginous Glebe, already endowed with the common Salt of Nature, it produceth Salt, when through nitrous Veins Niter, when through aluminous Alum, when through a Copperas white Vitriol, when through a Silver Mine blue Vitriol, and lastly when through an Ironish Glebe it shares of some particles of Iron (more or less according to the proportion of the Water's acidity and the fertility of the Vein) and produceth green Vitriol. So that if Water be thus tinged with this acid Spirit, it becomes the true and proper Menstruum for the dissolving of all sorts of Glebes whatsoever, and this Liquor thus replenished, v. g. with the raments of Iron, is condensed into this Vitriol which now I speak of. And that I may further declare some genuine Effects of this Vitriol, I say that 'tis caustical, and eateth into and corrupts all sorts of Metals, excepting Lead, which it cannot penetrate by reason of its Mercurial parts, which resisteth and represseth its activity. But to analize it more intrinsically, this Vitriol consisting of the aforesaid three sustances yieldeth spagyrically seven several Medicaments; first, there is extracted from it per Balneum vaporosum Water, which is called Ros Vitrioli, because of its Aerial lightness, and partakes least of all of the Spirit of Sulphur; this corroborates the Bowels, mitigates the inflammation of the Blood, and strengthens the Brain with its heat and siccity. Secondly, there's another Water drawn per arenam, and this partakes more of the Spirit of Sulphur, and is called the second Water of Vitriol; it purgeth the Reins, opens obstructions in the passage of Urine, and helpeth all internal corrosions, if taken in Veal Broth fasting. Thirdly, there's extracted another substance of Vitriol, which is the most subtle portion of Sulphur, and called the Spirit of Vitriol, a most admirable Prophylacticon or preservative against all sorts of Diseases, for whatever it finds in the Body putredinous, poisonous, or apparently disposed to any capital Disease, it presently incides, attenuates, and wastes, it purifies the Blood from all fuliginous damps, prevents the Stone, purgeth the Reins and Bladder, consuming all mucilaginous and tartarous viscosity whatever. Fourthly, being tortured with a further degree of Fire it gives a certain Oil, not so safe to be taken inwardly, though some, by reason that it's a Narcotick, use it in Maniacal Distempers; but outwardly it is used for curing Imposthumes. Fifthly, a certain Vitriol is brought over the Helm, which Chemists call Purificatum or Sal Vitrioli, being only the remaining Dregs from the acid Spirit, representing a purplish thin Earth, and good externally used as aforesaid; this is not Sal Vitrioli Vomitivi so much used at present, being a repeated Solution of white Vitriol, with frequent filtrations. Sixthly, all the Spirits being drawn off, there remains a certain Aerial substance, being a most subtle dust of Vitriol, which may be called Ferrum or Aes Vitrioli, being it may be reduced into either of them; this cleanseth rotten Sores, and is an Incarnative. And seventhly and lastly, all Distillation ended, there remains in the bottom of the Retort or Reverberatory a Caput mortuum or Colcotar, or Terra Vitrioli, and inservient for mixing with cicatrizing Plasters.  
Thus have I, to my weak ability, analyzed the whole Body of Vitriol; In quod quid resolvi potest, ex illo necessario debet constare. But before I advance further in my journey homeward, I will instance only in one process of making artificial Vitriol, for the better clearing and understanding the nativity of natural Vitriol, which Dr. Browne, as an Eye-witness, saith in Hungary to be thus: There is (saith he) a Vitriol Mine nigh the Golden Mine, the Earth or Ore whereof is reddish, and sometimes greenish, infuse this Earth in water three days, then pour off the water, and boil it seven days in a leaden Vessel, till it comes to a thick granulated whitish or greenish substance, according as the Ore is either of Brass or Iron, and this is then pure Vitriol, and being reduced to a Calx in an Oven serveth to make Aqua fortis. But there is besides the Ore or Glebe of Vitriol, a natural crystallized Vitriol in a Mine in Paradise-Hill in Hungary, and the same Doctor was conducted by a Mine-man at Schemnitz under ground, till he came where he shown him great quantities of natural Vitriol, it shooting upon the stones and earth, upon the floor and sides of the passages, as it doth by Art in the pans and about the sticks, not hanging from the top, as ordinarily it doth, like Icicles. The Principles and Nativity of Vitriol being thus cleared, I shall now only evidence the great affinity betwixt Iron and Copper, and consequently betwixt the Vitriols of them both, and if you please of their Effects also, and this not only as much conducible to my present purpose, as for the oppugning that received Opinion of Philosophy, which admits no transmutation of Metal. This aforesaid learned Traveller writes of two Vitriol waters in the Copper Mine of Herongrundt, which turns Iron into Copper; these Springs lie very deep in the Mine, and the most useless old Iron is hereby turned into the purest Copper; the Iron being left therein about fourteen days is rendered more ductil, malleable, and easily melted Copper than any other. The miraculous, because universally learned Kircher, and other sound Naturalists, will not have this to be a transmutation of one Metal into another, and their reason is, because this water saturated with a Vitriolum Veneris, and meeting with such a Body, so ready to receive it as Mars, it deposeth Venus, who immediately insinuates herself so far into Mars, that she doth dividere and imperare, and at last substitutes her own Body, and precipitates that of Mars. But Dr. Browne averreth, that though in the changing of Iron into Copper in these Springs, many parts are precipitated and lie at the bottom in powder, yet these parts, saith he, are not Iron but Copper, for that he took of this powder out of the Spring and melted it into excellent Copper, so that if the Iron be not totally changed into Copper, God knows what becomes on it. If this be so, (and we have no reason to think the contrary) why Art, in the imitation of Nature, may not make the same transmutation I know not, and then welcome to Town the Philosopher's Stone. I am sure I saw in the Grand Duke of Florence his Gallery of Rarities, a Horse-shoe, half Gold half Iron, that part which is now Gold having been formerly Iron, as the universally received tradition of that place asserteth. But this is not all, for the same Doctor saith, he drank out of an handsome Cup made out of this sort of Copper, which formerly was Iron, and gilded all over, and had a piece of Silver Over fastened in the middle of it, with this Inscription graved on the outside.  

Eisen were ich, kupser been ich,  
Silver trag ich, goldt bedecked mich.   

Copper I am, but Iron was of old;  
Silver I carry, covered am with Gold.   
I would willingly beg pardon, and expatiate a little further into this large field of Physiology, and say something of the Seeds of Petrifaction, or lapidifical Principle, which converts all Materials it meets withal into a stony concrete; but I shall only hint at some one precedent, with the definition of the thing itself; whereby you may be more confirmed in that opinion of a corporeal transmutation of of Substances. Succus lapidificus (saith Kircher) nil aliud est quam humor insensibilium corpusculorum ex lapidosis veris nitrosis salinisque locis abrasorum misturá constitutus elaboratusque; and these corpuscula being perfectly mixed together and united, make up this Succus lapidificus, or humour, and being they have a natural tendency of reduction to their own former state and condition, hence is it, that through their spirituous Subtlety they penetrate the most abstruse and most minute fibrous particles of whatever convertible Body they meet withal, and by their acrimonious acidity consume, and as it were eat up their softer parts principally, and in their place substitute themselves, by means whereof they imbody themselves into a stony concretion. This definition thus evidenced, is made good by a Manifesto from the forenamed Doctor: For (saith he) the hot Bath of Eisenbach petrefieth, so as those Trees with which they built the sides of the Bath, next above the water, are entirely turned into Stone, and it's not unpleasant to observe, how Nature doth here assist Art, and out of the Body of a Fir frames a most stately Column of of Stone. I will end this Chapter with a remarkable piece of Difcourse this Doctor had at Buda, the digression I hope is pardonable. One Mortizan Ephendi, (a Turkish Person of Note, and who had been Envoy Extraordinary with our Emperor at Vienna) treated this Doctor very kindly, and amongst other discourses asked him what was the King of Poland's Name, and after he had told him his Name was Michael Wisnowitski, his Reply was, What? Michael, that's a good Name, that's the Name of the greatest Saint in Heaven, excepting Mary. An Expression I must confess no less admirable in a Turk, than commendable in a Christian.   

CHAP. IU. Of our Vitrioline Spa at Durham.  
I Confess I have even shipwrackt your patience, and kept you out too long at Sea. If I have been your faithful Pilot, so far as to land you at the safe harbour of the knowledge of Truth, I have much more than I can deserve, and as much indeed as I can desire; especially since our Voyage hath been full of difficulties, which have cast us upon those inevitable Rocks of incertitude and obscurity; but however, though I have been through those Fogs and Mists of various Opinions so benighted, that I dare not be magisterial in any of my Physiological Disquisitions, yet I can boldly take the confidence to welcome you to Durham, where you shall find the entertainment of a most delightful Field, raised and heightened almost round from its adjacent continents, ventilated with a most sweet and open Air, accommodated naturally with convenient Walks, and neighboured with an useful Wood Out of the midst hereof riseth this our wholesome and plentiful Spring, which as it enricheth our Inhabitants with an inestimable Treasure of Health, so will it compensate the pains of Foreigners in order to the same. And that I may the better evidence the truth hereof, and come directly to the prosecution of our main Design, I will draw a Map or Scheme of the Heads of our intended Inquiries, that so we may prepare the Minds of our Readers to accompany us more smoothly and easily to a right understanding of what we intent to prove. First then, let me demand, what is wanting in this our Vitrioline Spa to make up the true Body of Vitriol, and complete its definition expressly laid down in the foregoing Chapter? That it hath Water in a most plentiful current is evident, that it hath also a Spirit of Sulphur is apparent from the acid taste thereof, for nothing can make this taste in Minerals but Spirit of Sulphur, as the renowned Kircher expressly manifesteth in these words, Basis unica & absoluta origo omnium aciditatum Mineralium est à Spiritu Sulphuris acido; neither need we much doubt of Sulphur and its vaporous Spirit where we have so much Coal. The only doubt than will be, whether this our Water thus impregnated with acidity hath in it a Mineral Glebe of Iron or not? And that this may clearly appear, I first call in the Senses of Smelling and Tasting to attest, it having both a Vitrioline or Ironish taste and odour. Secondly, let our own Experiments witness the same, for having distilled it, both after the manner expressed in the former Chapter and by Retort ex arena, from a Pottle thereof there remained in the bottom a rusty Iron-like powder, in quantity about ten grains, which in taste had a piercing sharp Vitrioline pungency, somewhat harsh. After distillation I tried it by coction, till a third part was consumed, the remainder I let settle for three days, that the contentum might be the better separated, and the sediment was the very same as formerly. Indeed by evaporation I had much less sediment remaining, which makes me more than probably conjecture, that it is impregnated, not so much with the corporeal substance as with the spiritual and subtle particles of the said Vitriol; for the Water being acuated with a sulphureous acidity, and passing swiftly through some hungry Vein of Iron, corrodes lightly its more tenuous and Aerial parts, resolving them so, as the Water imbibes in a manner only the volatile Atoms, with which it becomes thus saturated; I say volatile, because though distilled in a Glass Still and luted hermetically, yet are the Spirits sooner sublimed than the Water, and take wing so swiftly, that before any Water come over they are unbodied and evaporated, no odour nor taste at all remaining in the Water, neither will it then become any otherwise tinged with Gall than common Spring-water, though before distillation, with the mixture of two or three grains of the powder of Galls, an ordinary Glass full becomes as purpureously red as our genuine and best coloured Claret. And hereupon I now come to my third Argument, desumed from the tincture it hath from the powder of Galls, and truly this is a work easily performed upon one leg, notwithstanding a Gyantobjection, or rather Assertion, of a learned, industrious, and Pyrotechnical Physician, to the contrary. I remember the Hyperaspistes of Scarborough-Spaw is highly charged with a Non sequitur, in saying, a small quantity of Gall being put into the Spaw-water doth turn into a dark coloured Claret, Ergò, there is Vitriol in it. I hope I have no great guilt in intermeddling with others Affairs, having, God knows, but but too much to mind at home, but when Justice, Truth, and my own present Concern command, I must though with reluctancy affirm, that his Ergò stands good, and if the unburnt Allum-stone Experiment be the same with that his Antagonist relates of Coal, they neither will hold water, I mean tinctured water. For having followed his own directions, I took a pretty quantity of Coal, powdered it, added Spring-water, sharpened with Spirit of Sulphur for its dissolution, filtered it till 'twas clear, than put powder of Gall thereto, and what thence was the result? truly the adding of the Gall added no more change as to colour, than what was before the Gall was added, that is, the water both before and after had a dark dusky colour, such as is the natural tincture of all Coal, and that was all. Let not my good Friend say, (which was his Answer to the Scarborough-Buckler) that I made only an infusion, and no dissolution, for I sharpened the water to divers degrees for its more intim penetration and dissolution. I am confident this conscientious good Man grounded this position upon some imaginary probability, no autoptical attestation, but I shall excuse him better presently. I have made no trial of the tincture from unburt Allum-stone, but I dare aver, that if it tingeth upon the mixture with Gall, 'tis quatenus there's Vitriol mixed therewith, there being such an analogical agreement 'twixt Alum and Vitriol, both as to sense and sensible operations, that 'tis no hard matter to admit of a combination, they being both under the genus of saline concrete Juices, and whether so differenced as to make a distinct species of Salt I shall not here endeavour to determine; especially since Kircher affirms from experience, in vitriolo alumen continetur, luto enim ejus aqua diluto, alumen ex eo efflorescit; and if in Vitriol Alum, why not in Alum Vitriol? The same also may be said of Coal (to make good my late promise to my Friend) that, it may be, all Coal is not alike, some without, and some with an intermixture of Vitriol, disseminated and interspersed amongst its sulphureous Veins, and therefore it may be our good Brother in his Experiment light casually of a Coal thus vitriolated, but then we must not conclude the Coal, but the Vitriol in the Coal, to give the tincture with Gall. And that this my precarious Hypothesis may have some Pillar to lean upon, I must confess I have seen much, and have divers pieces of a Mineral Marchasite or Pyrites, in which, though doubtless there be much Sulphur, as appears by its scintillation and odour, the powder thereof being cast into the fire, as also from its unctuosity upon distillation; yet may this be only the embryonated Sulphur of Copper or Iron, and the acid water passing through the Coal Mine interspersed therewith, licks up only some corpuscles of the Metalline parts of this Marchasite in its passage, as being its desired Alkali, and being impregnated herewith, renders itself thus enriched for our use; neither can it be rationally said, that the Sulphur is likewise imbibed, for being an unctuous and inflammable ingredient in the compositum, it resists the activity of the acid Vehicle, as is manifest from the very Essence of Sulphur, out of which is made an Ointment for preserving Cables and such like from corrosion, and makes them live, (speaking metaphorically,) in the water everlastingly. But admit this water should participate of the Sulphur, is it therefore to be rejected? Pray how many wholesome Preparations of Sulphur are taken inwardly and successfully in Phthysical Disaffections? But however it be, as to this, here we certainly have a Vitriol yielding a proper tincture upon the access of Gall, which is all I contend for. I will yet argue further for this our Vitrioline Spa. Let any one drink Vitrioline of Iron dissolved in water, and he shall see his Excrements tinctured either black or greenish, from the precipitation of the Vitriol by the internal Alkali, and the very same effect is produced by drinking of this our Spa: This cannot be from the Vitriol of Copper, because this Metal makes white Vitriol, not green as Iron doth, neither will any say we have any Copper Mine, as we have Iron, in these parts. Moreover, writ what you please with the Solution of ferrugineous Vitriol, and after it is dry there shall nothing appear, but besmear what is written with a simple Infusion of Gall, and in a moment the Alkali of the Gall makes the Letters black; and again by any potent acidity, as v. g. Aqua fortis, they are quite deleted; and yet again by any fixed Alkali, they become black as before: By which foundation of Cryptography 'tis apparent, not only that the acidity of Vitriol tingeth not black, without it be imbibed and absumpted with an Alkali, but also that no Alkali tingeth black without a vitrioline acidity. This my positive Assertion is sufficiently backed by that inquisitive Chemist and experienced Philosopher Ot. Tachenius, who after much pains taken in this Disquisition concludes thus: Unde liquet (saith he) quod Sal volatile vel Alkali gallarum vel corticum granatorum vel herbarum vulnerariarum, non tingunt colore▪ nigro, nisi cum ferro in minerali acido soluto. But why is not our Urine tinged black as well as the Excrements? This I say is because the Colcothar is precipitated before the Liquor comes into the Miseraicks, so as it necessarily remains in the Guts. Cyprus' Vitriol indeed, being much from Copper, turns black with Galls, but this is by reason of its intermixture with Iron, for Vitriolum Veneris purely without Mars turns not black with Galls, as that of Mars without Venus' will, though they being as Man and Wife joined together, cannot well be found the one without some mixture of the other. White Vitriol of Corinth partakes of both, but more of Venus, for which cause, as being also not enriched much with the Acidum naturale, it slowly becomes black with Galls. But Roman Vitriol, which partakes most of Iron, presently tingeth black; so doth artificial Vitriol that is made of the shave of Steel and Spirit of Vitriol, the Vitriol corrodes and resolves the shave and becomes sweet; and hence it is indeed, that all chalybiate Medicines are so powerful in all cochectical and obstinate Diseases, the Alkali of the Steel imbibing the acidity and sourness of the Blood, and consequently dulcifies the same. And this is the principal reason our Spa, being impregnated with Vitriol of Iron, produceth such rare effects. If it be demanded, why these ferruginous or vitrioline acid Fountains make not the Tongue and Mouth black, as it doth the Excrements? I answer, that this happens, because the acid Spirit, mixed with the water, corroding the immature Vein of Iron, or whilst it is in principiis solutis, is not as yet saturated, we drinking it whilst it is in the very action of corrosion, and hath not yet time to precipitate in the Tongue, but so soon as this grateful acidity is snatched into the Stomach, the Colcothar being precipitated gives the tincture, the acidity being then perfectly coagulated with its Alkali, and whatever mucilaginous matter it meets withal in that coagulation, it turns all into its own nature of constriction, as we may see in the nativity and concretion of that Herculean Disease the Stone, and this coagulum is that which ordinarily Physicians call Oppilation or Obstruction, a noted hard word amongst our Water-casters, those pedantic Pretenders to Science, who if they can but shake an Urinal, and gravely tell you of crudities and obstructions, or that the Archaeus is enraged, etc. believe themselves wise enough to rival Solomon, when indeed they are as truly ignorant of the original of those words as their deluded Patients, who even gape with admiration of their profound Physiology. But to return home from the country, this our water is therefore to be drunk at the Fountainhead, for if it be let stand and settle any long time, the action, and consequently the benefit and virtue ceaseth, the acid Spirit being imbibed and drunk up by the immature Iron or Vitriol thereof, enfeebled and disarmed of its acidity, and together with the resolved Mineral is precipitated into Ochre, which lies at the bottom in a yellowish, not a black colour, as it is seen in all Vitrioline Spaws, it having then no other proper Alkali that it meets withal, as it doth in the Stomach or elsewhere, to cause a blackish precipitation; neither is its acidity so disarmed by the corrosion of the Iron Vein, that it quite loseth its resolving and coagulating force, with other Alkalies in the Stomach, etc. for the acidity is yet predominant, and after it hath spent part of its virtue upon the Iron raments, there is yet sufficient remaining for resolution and coagulation elsewhere, accordingly as it shall meet with other Alkalies for that purpose; for if this were not so, we should not have that acidity which sensibly we perceive and taste in this water, and then divites dimittuntur manes. Besides this sulphureous acidity in the water, there are unspecificated acids in the humours of our Body, which run headlong with a natural propensity to the Vitriol or Esurine Salt of Iron, and therewith coagulated and ejected, together with the obstructive humours, upon a strong irritation of Nature to expel her Ironish Enemy, and upon this account it is, that Iron and Steel, or rather their Vitriol, are said to open Obstructions. I would not have any think, that because Nature riseth in arms against all that's offensive, as Iron is, and endeavours its expulsion, that therefore Purgatives are not convenient, for even then are they most fitting, when the coagulation after fermentation is most prevalent; Nature can but do her utmost endeavour, and when that is not sufficient, than the Physician takes up the Cudgels for her assistance. And here, to rectify the misapprehensions of some, I must beg pardon to tell them, that what Purgatives we administer work not by attraction or election (unless we of that freedom to Drugs which some deny to ourselves) but by irritation in the primis viis and Bowels, and by fermentation in the Blood and Humours, and this purgative power by irritation depends not of the five Principles, Salt, Sulphur, Water, Earth, and Spirits, disjunctim and singly, but of most or all of them conjunctim, though I confess the fermentation is almost only from the Salts. I fear I have spoken Enigmatically and in the dark to sums understanding, in so often repeating the word Alkali, I will therefore briefly explain the Etymology and signification thereof. By Alkali therefore, or Sal Alkali, is meant all such Salts as mortify whatsoever acidities they meet withal, not only in the Vegetable, but also in the Animal and Mineral Kingdom; I say, whatsoever imbibes or sucks up the acid Salts, and consequently sweetens the Blood and Humours, is called by the name of Alkali, whether it be a fixed Salt or volatile, manifest or occult. This Alkali is made of the Herb Kali, brought to us out of Egypt, being there burnt into ashes, and so transported: Some call it Soda, others Alumen catinum, but properly 'tis called Sal Kali or Alkali. I will now hasten to speak of the Virtues of this our Spa, which indeed was my main Design proposed in this trifling Treatise.   

CHAP. V Of the Virtues of this Spa.  
I Must confess the subtle and penetrating Spirit, called by Theophrastus his Arcanum, and by Helmont primum ens Salium, Spiritus esuriens, by Paracelsus Sal circulatum, which indeed is his Albahest or universal embrionative Solvent; this Spirit I say cannot be extracted out of this water, neither can it scarce be found in its pure spirituality, but as enfolded and locked up in the arms of some Mineral after coagulation, yet by a skilful Artist it may be extracted out of the totum mixtum or entire Body of Vitriol, without being any way corrosive at all. And with this Spirit it is, that our Spa hath its great affinity, and consequently its excellency, penetrating by its tenuity of parts the most secret and secluse parts of our Bodies. This being premised, 'twill be obvious to every one's capacity, to know and acknowledge the great advantages which are accrued, as well for preventing as curing most stubborn and lasting Diseases. However for the better satisfaction, of the Vulgar principally, I shall briefly say something in general, and not omit in particular what autoptical Observations I have made these two or three last Summers bypast. Having in the precedent Chapter expressly demonstrated the manifold Operations of Vitriol, and consequently not a few of this our Spa, my Province now will be of an easy charge, and therefore I will briefly acquaint you, that the first qualities of this water, quatenus water, actually moistens and cools, but as it is befriended with a Mineral mixture it heats and dries, so that it becomes hereby effectually prevalent for the accomplishing of different indications, and reducing even contrary Distempers to their natural tone and constitution; Nature herself being more prone to help on, being accompanied with an Assistant, her own welfare and restitution to her beloved enjoyments, than to yield to the assaults of a destructive Enemy.  
The second qualities indeed are such as conquer our greatest Antagonists, and give a total rout to the most obstinate Diseases; for being most powerfully diuretical, after they have attenuated, cut, resolved, and so altered the mucous and tartarous humours of the Body, and prepared them for excretion, they then carry them off by urine, which is the most safe and effectual conveyance (for all sharp and saline juices especially) of all other sorts of evacuation whatsoever. This water also thus enriched, ferrets out such latent passages and abstruse retirements of the Bowels and other parts, as other Medicines cannot reach, and after a discovery made, doth not only dispossess what is preternatural of its usurped jurisdiction, but also by a corroborative and reinforcive power, entitles Nature to her former right of inheritance, so firmly, that scarce any other than an act of old age can cut off the entail. 'Tis an easy thing for Critics to raise doubts, make objections, and lavish out there censures against these Encomiums; but that work needs not smell of Oil that answers them: Some may say, Oh I drunk it so long that it swelled me all over, whose fault was that? even so may the best Purgative, not finding a Body duly prepared, either naturally or by Art, fall short of its performance, and in stead of relieving, poison the Body, swell it, and often times break out (an accidental good turn) into Scabs, and other sordid impurities of the skin. For preventing of this, and the like inconveniences, I shall give directions in the ensuing Chapter. In the interim I will set down such Diseases as it both prevents and cures, as Apoplexy, Epilpsie, Carus, Vertigo, Cephalalgia, and Cephalaea, but this only if they be symptomatical and depend upon the disaffections of the Stomach, Hypochonders, Womb, or other Bowels, as most of them do. It is good against Diseases of the Nerves, as Convulsions, Cramps, Scorbutic Palsy, etc. especially if they proceed, as generally they do, from Salnitrous vellicating and twitching humours. It specifically respects the Stomach, because there the water partakes both of its grosser and more spiritualised particles, dissolves all crudities, the true original of all obstructions, restores a decayed, and advanceth a present Appetite to meat, and by that means begets much more acquaintance with the Kitchen than the Buttery; it openeth and strengtheneth the Lungs, and consequently is good against Astma's and difficulty of breathing, provided they be not consumptive that drink it. The like it doth to the Liver, Spleen, Mesentery, and Pancraeas, dispersing thereupon all Hypocondriacal Winds and Melancholy Vapours, which are now become our Epidemical Disease; as also the Palpitation of the Heart, being ordinarily a result from the aforesaid flatulencies and winds. It helps the Dropsy, Black and Yellow Jaundice, Rickets, and Scurvy, by being briskly operative, purging and purifying the Blood by urine. It cures the Gonorrhoea, Diarrhea, Disenteria, and such like Fluxes of the Abdomen. It openeth the suppression of Urinal, and carries off the conjunct cause thereof, allays its sharpness, and expels such gravel and stones, as either the Ureters or Uretra can discharge; and when any Exuleration happens in the passage of Urine, causing pissing of blood, it consolidates and heals it perfectly. It is exceeding good against most of the Distempers of the Womb, suppressing all overflowings thereof, as well the white as the red, procures the menstruous purgations; and by its tenuity of parts, and penetrating Faculty, cures the Chlorosis or Green-sickness, and consequently changeth that chachectical colour in the habit of the body into a florid and rosy complexion: It helpeth much the Mother, makes often the barren fruitful, and in divers cases may successfully be used by way of insession or injection, for than it acts more immediately upon the parts affected. It is good for such as bleed often, and whoever are troubled with a pricking and itching in the skin, with certain lumps arising thence, it infallibly remedies them by urine and insensible transpiration also, in case you exercise whilst you drink it, ad ruborem only, not ad sudorem, till you be pretty warm but not sweat; and this I have often experienced. If you drop it into the Eyes, it quells their inflammation and strengthens the sight. Moreover it is peculiarly good for all Wounds, Ulcers, Itch, Sores, and Scabs, being both drank and outwardly applied, in so much as I have known divers inveterate and malign Ulcers in the Legs and elsewhere cured, nay even the King's Evil itself much relieved thereby.  
Briefly, I know no Distemper in the Body, which depends on obstructions or acid sharp griping humours, but it much helps it, and which is most praiseworthy it strengthens the parts after the morbific matter is removed. How far and how safely this Water may be used by Children, old Men, and Women with child, I shall refer you to Dr. French and Dr. witty's Books of the Spaws, and others Animadversions thereon. Only I will say briefly, for Children and old Men, that if their temper and constitutions be otherwise good, they may safely drink thereof, proportionably to their vigour and strength of natural heat; but for Women with child, for some important reasons I would advise them to forbear.   

CHAP. VI Directions concerning the rational and methodical use of this Spa.  
'TIs a vulgar and unpardonable error to drink these waters without a due preparation of the Body, therefore let every one, who expects the true benefit thereof, consult some honest and able Physician for their instruction, such an one as can judge aright of the age and constitution of the Patient, the nature of the Disease, its motion, and the strength both of the Party and the Medicine. Such an one will surely direct some gentle Vomit, in case the Stomach be fowl, and the Patient hath an inclination and be apt to Vomit; otherwise some Cathartick, such at least as may disburden the primas vias, and remove such viscous and vicious matter, as may either hinder the water's journey into the parts affected, or that may be carried along therewith into the narrower passages and nobler parts, and there produce stronger and more dangerous obstructions, Dropsies, Tensions, Gripe, etc. yet if any Purgation in general may be recommended, I dare prefer the use of chewing Rhubarb before any other, or in case this disgust, than those delicious hydragogical Tablets, which are to be had at Mr. Dents an Apothecary of Durham, together with the true Dose and manner of using the same. The Body thus prepared, let him drink cheerfully about three half pint glasses at a time, more or less, as his Stomach can bear it, than exercise according to strength for a quarter of an hour or thereabout, avoiding all such exercise as may cause them to sweat, for by sweeting the water may be drawn into the habit of the body, and produce that Dropsy called Anasarca; whilst he walks or rides, etc. he must eat some Orange Chips, Caraway Confects, Citron or Limon Pills, or chief Elicampane Roots candied, for these comfort the Stomach, promote the water's passage, and make its operation more effectual; when he finds his Stomach somewhat emptied, than three or four more glasses, exercising as formerly, and so on till he hath taken his full Doses, which will be when his Stomach cannot conveniently receive any more without vomiting, oppression, and naufeating the same. Next day he may advance to one, two, or three glasses more than he took the first day, and so every day more, till he arrive unto a pottle or three quarts, more or less, according as his Disease requires, and his Stomach can pass it off, and then stand at that quantity till he thinks of giving it over, and then, as he increased daily at the beginning, so must he decrease and lessen his Doses, till he come to the same quantity he began withal. The time of continuing its drinking must be proportioned to the nature of the Disease, for some two weeks, some three, others a month or more, may be necessary; during all which time, 'twill be requisite to take something to keep your Body soluble. If any one, by reason of his weakness, can neither exercise nor come to the Spa, let him drink it in bed, the natural warmth thereof compensates the benefit received by exercise. Now, though this water may of itself in some good measure help most Diseases, yet can it not be thought, but for rendering it more successful in some particular cases, 'twill be convenient to take such other things often times as the Disease specifically requires, and these may be intermixed with the first two or three glasses, v. g. some Steel-wine, or other Preparations thereof, in case of great obstructions or other Diseases of the Liver, but then no more water for about half an hour after; nay I altogether admit of Sugar, or some opening Syrup, in the first glass, it being thereby the better accelerated to the Liver, as also a glass of White or Rhenish-wine mixed with three or four glasses of the water, or some drops of Spirit of Salt or Vitriol, or Crystals of Tartar, so that the Crystals be made of Tartar and not of Alum, as some do, for having with less labour the greater quantity of Crystals. All these I say, and such like, being piercing and attenuating, make way for the speedy and free conveyance of the water, and of themselves contribute much to some Cures.  
After you have drunk all you intent, you must then necessarily use some hydragogical Medicine, or such as evacuateth waterish humours, which for the most part remain in the abstruse crannies of the Body, as likewise such things as cool and moisten the Bowels, otherwise they may partake too much of the potential virtue of this chalybiate water, being hot and dry, and thence incur the prejudice of Sore Eyes, and other Inflammations, as I myself have experienced. Before you drink the water, every morning, disburden Nature of her ordinary excrements, either naturally or by Art. Those who have strong digestions may drink half the quantity in the Afternoon, about four or five hours after Dinner, but then they must eat little or nothing at Supper, others had better forbear.  
If any one find himself, after due preparation and several trials, not able to drink the water, without reluctancy and oppression thereupon, let him forbear, and address himself to other Remedies more agreeable to his constitution.   

CHAP. VII. Directions in order to Diet, and time for drinking it.  
THe truth is, though a regular Diet be commendable, and of great concern at all times, especially when we run any course of Physic for repairing health, yet I approve not so much of being so sceptically scrupulous, as many are, either in directing or observing so precise and narrow compass of Diet. The only great fear is that of excess, the quantity is much more considerable than the quality, and the rather, because the water in most, if not in all, begetteth appetitum caninum, a devouring appetite, so as Men are apt to receive more than they can well digest, and thence arise crudities and corruption, in stead of concoction and chylification. A temperate Diet both prevents and cures many Diseases, and is the chiefest medium we have for a lasting and possibly an everlasting life; hence it is that Italians say, Manger molto è manger poro, who desires to eat much must eat little, for by eating little he lives long, and consequently eats much.  
All things that are of laudable juice, and of easy digestion, may be admitted; I shall only forbid Meats too much salted, Geese, Eels, Salmon, all sorts of fat, and in fine such things as are found disagreeable to the temper and constitution of the party; but if otherwise Nature takes delight in a Meat, though not at all proper for the Disease, yet is it allowable; and therefore Hipp. l. 2. Aphorism. 38. affirmeth, Paulo pejor sed suavior cibus & potus meliori quidem sed ingrato praeferendus. Sometimes we must permit Meat and Drink, though something worse for the Disease, if otherwise it be grateful. Your Drink also must be suited to your Stomach and temper, cold Stomaches may drink strong Ale or Sack, hotter and stronger Stomaches must be content with smaller Beverage and Wine diluted.  
'Tis not good to eat any thing till the water be most, if not all, passed through your Body, which is known best by the colour of your Urinal, changing from a pale to a higher tincture. To close all, as to Diet, I advife all never to eat so much as their appetite may crave, but, as we commonly say, to leave off with a stomach.  
As to the time and season of the year, 'tis certainly then best (generally speaking) when the weather is hottest and driest, which happens most commonly in June, July, and August; though we have by no little cost and labour; (having the benefit of a declivity) so ordered the adjacent parts thereof, that the Rain glides off without sinking any wise considerably into the ground, and consequently it may be drank in rainy weather without any apparent diminution of its virtue. I have observed it before Sun-rise to be inclined to lukewarmness, which after two or three hours of a Solar influence, becomes briskly cold, which alteration is doubtless from the constriction and dilatation of the pores of the earth, locking up or ventilating the fuliginous Vapours, accordingly as the coldness of the night or heat of the Sun disposeth them, and therefore 'tis fittest to drink) it after the Sun hath by its lustre and beams dissipated those Vapours, and enlivened the Mineral Spirits.  
What further may be said (in imitation of the Rabbins Revealments by Elias) rescrvetur in adventum alterius.  
Sit laus Dei Patri, summo Christo decus,  
Spiritui Sancto, tribus honor unus, Amen.   
FINIS.