THE QUEEN'S WELLS: THAT IS, A Treatise of the Nature and Vertues of Tunbridge Water. Together with an Enumeration of the chiefest Diseases, which it is good for, and against which it may be used, and the Manner and Order of taking it. BY LODOWICK ROWZEE, Doctor of Physick, practising at Ashford, in Kent. London: Printed for Robert Boulter, at the Turk's-Head, in Bishopsgate-street. 1670. Octavo, containing eighty-two Pages. A СНАР. 1. Of Water in General. LTHOUGH main scope my in this following discourse be concerning Tunbridge water, yet will it not be altogether fruitless or unpleasant, I hope, to the reader, if I say something, as it were, by way of preface, touching water in general. Water is a substance so absolutely necessary, that no living creature can subsist without the benefit of it, nor no tree bring forth its leaves and fruit, nor any plant its seed, if they be deprived of that vivifical moisture, which maketh them all to grow and prosper. That this is true, you may observe it in summer, for, if rain be wanting but a few weeks, how backward be all things? How do all plants wither in that season when they should chiefly flourish? For this cause, perhaps, it was, that Hesiod thought water to be the most ancient of all the elements. Of this opinion also was Thales Milesius, one of the seven wise Grecians, who made water the sole principle of all things. Empedocles likewise jumping with them said, that all things were made of water. And Hippon in Aristotle, lib. i. c. 2. de Anima, terms the soul water. Hippocrates goeth not so far, but yet he calleth water and fire the two princi ples of life. True it is, that, by water, Hippon doth understand our seed; and Hippocrates. our radical moisture. The Latins, upon the etymology of the word Aqua, water, do derive it from a et qua, quasi a qua vivimus, vel a qua omnia fiunt, by which we live, or out of which all things are made. Others will have it quasi æqua, because there is nothing more equal and smooth than water, when it is not tossed with the wind. But Julius Cæsar Scaliger, Exercit. 745, disliketh these etymologies, and will derive aqua from the obsolete Greek word doxa, which anciently did signify water. This element seemeth to challenge a kind of rule and dominion over the rest, for it easily transmuteth air into itself, extinguisheth fire, and devoureth earth. And, to go no higher than our grandfathers memory, nor further than our neighbours, the ocean-sea swallowed up above one-hundred-thousand acres of ground at one clap in Holland. Nay, it aspireth even unto the heavens; and, which is strange, it doth not only get up thither in itself alone, but carrieth with it whole shoals of fishes, heaps of stones, and divers other heavy substances, which afterwards fall down with it. Most creatures live without fire; without water, none; and, with water only, without any other suste nance, a Spanish maiden, Cal. Rhod. Lib. xiii. c. 23, is reported to have lived a long time: And Albertus writeth of a melancholy man, who, by the space of seven weeks, lived with water only, one draught of which he took but every other day. The Lord Verulam also hath produced his opinion of late, and holdeth, That trees and plants live, and are nourished merely by water; and that the earth is, as it were, but a stabilimentum unto them to keep them steady, and from being beaten down by the wind. He proveth it by rose-bushes, which, being put into water, without any earth, and kept upright in the same, not only brought forth leaves, but fair roses also; and the royal prophet saith, Psal. i. That a tree, planted by the rivers of water, bringeth forth his fruit in due season,' Much more might be said concerning water, but, because I intend to be brief, let this suffice. CHAP. II. Of the differences of Water. In the creation, God said, Gen. i. 4, 5, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters, which were under the firmament, from the waters which were above the firmament.' And David saith, Psal. xxix. 10, That the Lord sitteth upon the flood;' that is, upon the orb of the waters; and where he exciteth the creatures to laud the Lord, he speaketh thus, Psal. cxlviii. 4, Praise him ye heavens of heavens, and the waters that be above the heavens.' Those waters are likened in another place, Ezek. i. 22, to a terrible chrystal; and said to be, as it were, Exod. xxiv. 10, a paved work of sapphire-stone. And some, Rab. Levi Ben Jarchij in Gen. c. i, go so far, as to define the place and seat of those waters, and say, That they are as much above the primum mobile, as the primum mobile is above the elementary waters; but whether they ever were there to take the just distance, I do not know. That there should be water above the firmament, many men think it strange, and yet the deluge, besides the express word of God, proved it to be true. For, if all the water of all the seas, lakes, ponds, rivers, and fountains in the world, had been drawn up into the heavens in like manner, as we`, do in distillations, yet would not their quantity have increased, but there would have returned back again, by rain, no more, than was ascended up, nor so such neither, perhaps; because, though you be never so careful in your distillations, and use glass vessels ne, ver so well luted, yet will you still receive some loss; and so the flood had not gone fifteen cubits above the highest mountains. But, why this should be stranger than all the rest of the wonder. ful works of God, there is no reason. The massy and heavy globe of the earth and water standeth, as it were, in æquilibrio in the center of the world, suspended by the omnipotency of God. Nay, all his works are universally so admirable, that there is no less wonder in the smallest Gnat, than in the biggest Elephant; in the least weed, that creepeth upon the ground, than in the tallest cedar. But of those waters, which are above the firmament, and of · those, which were gathered together under the firmament, namely, the sea, we speak here but by the way; though, concerning the seas, divers curious and pleasant questions might be handled, as touching the saltness of it, the ebbing and flowing of the same, why it can endure no impure things, and the like. These things, I say, might bring some delight to the reader, but they are beyond our scope; and, therefore, I will only speak briefly of those was ters which are potabiles, and in common use amongst us, either for diet or physick. They are commonly divided into fountain-water, river-water, well-water, rain-water, and pond-water. The pre-eminence thereof is commonly given to spring-water; but, in general, that water is accounted best and wholesomest for diet, which is pure, and without any taste, but such as water should have. For most water retaineth some savour of the ground through which it runneth; and although to those, who do not use to drink water, it be imperceptible, yet divers of those, who drink nothing but water, will as easily perceive a difference betwixt water and water, as we do betwixt beer and beer, or wine and wine. The best water also is lightest, but that lightness is not to be considered by weight (for snow water is most light, and yet unwholesome) but by the thinness of the parts thereof, and by the speedy heating and cooling of the same, as Hippocrates well observeth. Let this suffice to have been briefly touched concerning the differences of waters in general, and let us now say something, with like brevity, concerning the original of springs and rivers. CHAP. III. Of the Original of Springs and Rivers. It is a common received opinion, derived from Aristotle, that the generation of water proceedeth from the air condensed into the same, in the bowels of the earth and distilling, as water doth with us, from a limbeck. But it is hard to imagine, how the nature of air should be so speedily corrupted, and turned into water, and in that quantity too, that should maintain the continual course of so many springs, and so great a number of rivers as are in the world, divers of which are of such vastness, and of so swift a course, that a man might justly think, that the whole element of air, which, in its own nature, is but very thin, should scarcely suffice to maintain the course of that abundance of water one only day. And, as for the reason they alledge, that air is retained within the concavities and porosities of the earth, ad vitandum vacuum, which nature doth abhor, and afterwards is converted into water, it is but a very weak one; for those concavities are still full of air, as well elsewhere, as where springs and rivers do flow. But, if the transmutation of air into water was the only cause of the flowing of all springs and rivers, surely their streams must needs be but narrow, and their course slow, and of small continuance. Besides, if this was true, How could the sea, think you, contain that excessive abundance of water, which perpetually runneth into the same? The ancient opinion then is the truer, that all fountains and rivers come from the sea, and are transcolated through the veins and porosities of the earth, where, in their passage, they leave their saltness. Plato, Aristotle's master, was of this opinion; and, before him, Thales Milesius; as also Philo, in Lib. de mundi opificio ; Seneca, Lib. iii. c. 9. Nat. Quæst. and Georgius Agricola, Lib. i. de ortu subterran. which, without question, they had learned from the Hebrews; for thus speaketh the preacher, Eccles. i. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.' This is a most clear and express text, and which alone shall suffice to prove this point, especially seeing the rule and law of nature doth suffragate unto the same; for, wheresoever there is a repletion, there must needs an evacuation be. But some, perhaps, may say, We see, indeed, all rivers run into the sea, but we do not see how they come from it? True, but when we see that, for all the abundance of water which runneth continually into the seas, the same are not increased thereby, but remain still the same, we must needs imagine that they disburden themselves somewhere. For, otherwise, the waters had, long ago, overwhelmed the world, and reached up even unto heaven, seeing that the flood, Gen. vii, caused but by rain of forty days, ascended fifteen cubits above the highest mountains. Besides, our very senses may persuade us, that the original of springs and rivers is from the sea; for divers springs of fresh water are in sundry places, which seem to sympathise with the sea, and to imitate the motion thereof by a kind of ebullition. And, which is strange, and yet a thing vouched by divers good authors, those things, which were cast into the river of Alpheus in Græcia, were afterwards found in the fountain called Arethusa, near Syra cusa in Sicily, though there be a great distance of sea and land betwixt them; which gave occasion to the ancient poets (who did use to involve all the secrets of nature in their fables) to feign, that Alpheus and Arethusa were a couple of lovers, which were transformed, the one into a river, and the other into a fountain; and of them speaketh Ovid, Lib. v, Metam. saying: In latices mutor, sed enim cognoscit amatas But whereas I said before, that, for all the water, which runneth into the seas, they remain still the same, I would not be mistaken; for I know, that the seas have sometimes gone beyond their ordinary bounds and limits; but it hath been when they were, as it were, commanded so to do by their creator, for the punishment of men's wickedness, or whensoever men have gone about to alter the natural seat and state of the same, and the ordinary course of rivers. Of God's judgments there are divers examples, as * Olenus and Helice, two of the twelve cities, which made the commonwealth of the Achæans, which, a little before the battle of Leuctra, were drowned by the sea. Antissa, Tyndaris, and Burrha had the like fortune also, being 'swallowed up by the sea, together with all their inhabitants. And that it might the better appear, that the finger of God was in it, all such, as thought to have escaped by shipping, perished as well as the rest, being drowned and overwhelmed by the waves. And of those, who have endeavoured to contract and pin up the sea into narrower limits, by rills, dikes, and other works, divers of them have often sustained great damage by the same; as for example, the Hollanders, who, as we said before, lost above a hundred-thousand acres of ground by such means, which the sea, after the overthrow of all their dikes and strong works, took away from them, as it were by letters of reprisal. This were enough to teach men, that it is but in vain to go against the order established by God, and the ordinary course of nature; yet it is worth the noting also, and a thing not to be considered, without admiration, that all those princes, who purposed to cut the Isthmus of Peloponnesus, which is a neck of land betwixt two seas, containing according to Mercator, in his Atlas major, some five miles in breadth, died all before the work was be gun, as Caligula, C. Cæsar, Demetrius, Nero, and Domitian. * Lib. ii. Of Polybius, that excellent Greek Author, whose works I lately finished, to translate into English, my translation being ready for the press, if it can find any room there. And as for Polybius, I dare boldly say here, by the way, that there is not any better, or more necessary author extant in his kind; especially, for three sons of men, princés, statesmen, and soldiers. And whereas the Emperor Charles the Fifth was wont to say, That there were but three books necessary for a prince: Polybius, for wars; Machiavel, for state-matters and policy; and Castiglio, for behaviour; if he aimed at a compendium, he might very well have left out the second, seeing for state-matters, and honest policy, enough of it may be found in Polybius, who, for judgment, sufficiency, virtue, and honesty (though but an heathen) went far beyond Machiavel; and far more for employment and experience, having been in great places of authority, both in civil and martial affairs, and familiarly acquainted with that great Roman, Scipio Africanus, and with Caius Lælius. Whereas Machiavel was but a petty secretary or town-clerk of the city of Florence, grown famous only through the wicked maxims and positions contained in his wri. tings, and especially in his Prince, where he setteth forth that monster of men, Cæsar Borgia, bastard son to the like father, Alexander the Sixth, Pope of Rome, as a pattern to be imitated by such, as desire to get rule and dominion to themselves. And it seemeth, by a passage of the seventh chapter of his Prince, that he was acquainted with him, and perhaps a counsellor of his, in his murders, poisonings, and other devilish exploits. But Polybius is so far from doing the like, that there are infinite digressions in his works, in which he reprehendeth the vicious ac tions of men more sharply, than some other authors, which profess themselves christians. |