ought to beware. Others intrude themselves into companies, or resort to the court, and go to see the prince and princess at dinner and supper, to hear and see what is said or done there; and, as soon as they have heard or seen any thing of concern, you see them run like footboys to the French ambassador, who, for a reward, invites them to stay and eat with him, he now entertaining scarce any but such at his table. I could name a dozen of them who, to my knowledge, are employed in this way, besides those that do it more secretly, and go to the offering only at night, and through the stable-door.

Count de Caravas, one of these spies of great note, though, in my judgment, of as little use, was not so cautious, who, coming from court, would go into the ambassador's at the fore-door, in the middle of the day, to communicate to him his collections. Two persons, whom I know to be Jesuits, though in the garb of officers, resort every day to the prince's rising, dinner, and supper, and con tinually attend the court, where they have so many friends, or at least so much cunning, as to be able to procure their Catholick friends some employment, who are all emissaries of France, and wholly devoted to the service of that king. Others have put themselves to serve even in the kitchen, where such sort of cattle are very dangerous. Therefore, I conclude, that both the States and Prince of Orange ought even in all respects, and at all times, to be very cautious of the wicked and unchristian maxims and designs of France, the king himself being a false and perjured person, who, under pretence of establishing the Roman Catholick religion every where (though by his wicked life and breach of faith he denies all religion) has no other aim, but to extend his dominion to the uttermost bounds of Europe, and to that end to destroy first all the protestant princes, and then the Roman Catholick too, that so he may cause himself to be pro claimed not the Emperor of the Romans only, but of all Europe; and certain it is, that nothing can serve him as a bridge to the uni versal monarchy, but Holland, which, from his Versailles, he looks upon with a most envious eye. So that the States and people of those provinces have great reason to mind the advice of our Saviour to the Jews: Watch, for you know not what hour the thief will come.' To which I add : Be ready, therefore, to oppose him when he shall come to break into the house, and usurp his neighbour's territories; and be sure to look upon France as a sworn enemy to republicks, and the plague and scourge of all that will not yield their liberties up to him.'

6

True it is, he fears the States, more than he loves them; care, therefore, must be taken, to be always in such a condition as may still keep him so, and to make him know himself, whenever he shall so far forget himself, as to meddle with what he has nothing to do. All the remonstrances made by Count d'Avaux, as soon as he sees the States putting themselves in a posture of defence, must not be minded, as being merely upon design; for we may be sure that minister would not make them, were it not for the promoting of his master's interests.

PHILOSOPHICAL AND MEDICINAL ESSAY

OF

THE WATERS OF TUNBRIDGE.

WRITTEN TO A PERSON OF HONOUR;

BY PAT. MADAN, M. D.

Temporibus medicina juvat; data tempore prodest,
Et data non apto tempore Lympha nocet.

[From a quarto, containing 26 pages, printed at London, for the Author, in 1687.]

MY LORD,

It was your honour's pleasure to ask my judgment, concerning

Tunbridge waters, because I often recommend my patients to them; which, in my opinion, are not inferior in medicinal vertues to any spaw of that kind; for by their effects, which is an after-demonstration, they are impregnated with a chalcanthous or vitriolate juice; which, with its sulphureous particles, irritates and moves the belly to a blackish excretion, and, by frequent drinking thereof, blackeneth the tongue, because this member, being of a spongy substance, imbibes some sooty sulphureous minims into its porosity, occasioning this tincture.

Thro' its more subtle piercing chalcanthous spirits, it provokes urine in a plentiful manner.

To these is admixed some ferrugineous juice, that contains a great deal of the volatile salt, which is it that is dissolved in the chalybeate wine, now so much in vogue amongst physicians.

His aquis ferrum inesse videtur in principiis solutis unde earum vis chalybeata intimius sanguine permiscetur, & potentius morbos expugnat, quam ferrum quocunque demum artificio nobilitatum.

'These waters seem to contain iron in its unconcrete and seminal principles, whereupon their chalybeate vertue is more intirely mixed with the blood, and more powerfully attacks diseases, than iron prepared to the best advantage can.' Dr. SYDENHAM.

Mars in itself consists chiefly of salt, sulphur, and earth. It has very little of spirit and water, and particles of the former ele. " ments, especially the sulphureous and saline in the mixt are com bined together with earth, remain wholly fixed; but being loosed ' and divided from each other (as in these waters) have a very effica. 'cious energy.' Dr. WILLIS de Chalybeatis.

• Demonstrativo a posteriori.

In them galls shaven, or oak-leaves added; or, by pouring to them some infusion of tea made in water, they will become of an atro-purpureous colour; to which, instilling some drops of spirit of vitriol, or pouring thereunto some sherry, they become clear again and redintegrate their pristine colour. On the surface of these waters there is a grey film in the morning; they have a roughness in the mouth; with them no arsenical vapours are intermixed, but, void of all noxious quality, are limpid and salutiferous; many do daily receive benefit by the use of them, wherefore, by the concurrence of these appearances, they have the characteristick of a good and whole.

some spaw.

As for their vertues and properties in physick, I believe, if there be any such remedy in being as a panpharmacon, or universal reme dy, it is here; for even as soap, put to foul linnen with water, purgeth and cleanseth all filth, and maketh them to become white again; so these waters with their saponary and detersive quality clean all the whole microcosm or body of man from all feculency and impurities. Vid. the first region, by stool; the second, by urine; the third, by transpiration, sending forth from the center to the circumference many sooty and fetid effluviums, which, in some, colour their shirts blackish; + an observable quantity of this liquid substance, gliding through the inner passages of the bowels, brushes off the peccant humours that stagnate in their proper channels, and roots out the cause and origin of diseases. The acidule also dissolve tartarous and viscous matter, and correct the hot indisposition of the liver and kidnies. See the author Fridericus Lossius in Conciliis Medicis.

Wherefore the use of these waters have deservedly gained a great esteem and reputation in curing many chronick and rebellious diseases, which are accounted the shame of physicians; for they cure, even to a miracle, such as are quite given over by doctors; they may well be called aquæ vitæ, or waters of life, because they restore men to life, and make them live twice; to enjoy their former health is to live again, for sickness, and neutrality of health, as the Greeks say, is but Bios aßialos, to live without life;' wherefore § life is not only to live and breathe, but also to have perfect health; and that is got here by drinking.

Physicians, when they have tired their miserable afflicted pa tients with tedious and chargeable courses of physick (finding all ways else unsuccessful) at last send them to these waters, which they lay hold of, as a sacred anchor, for they are the most efficacious and powerful remedy against the greatest and most inveterate diseases, by

Syndrome phainomenon.

† Harum enim substantia liquida notanda quantitas, per intimos viscerum recessus præterAuens, peccantes et in propriis cuniculis stagnantes succos egregie everrit morborumque causam averruncat, materiam iartaream et viscosam dissolvit: hepatis quoque et renum calidam intemperiem corrigit.

Quia vita priori posse frui est bis vivere.

Non est vivere, sed bene valere, Vita. Martial.

Ad has aquas medici, postquam ægros magno et sumptuoso medicamentorum apparatų longo tempore defatigarunt, cum vident res sibi ex voto non succedere, miseros relegant, tan quam ad sacram anchoram; sunt enim efficacissimum et potentissimum remedium ad profii gandos gravissimos morbos a Deo concessum, si dextra manu porrigantur, quod poeta ex primit his versibus,

VOL. IX.

N

the appointment of Almighty God, provided they are made use of in a due and right manner; which the poet expresses in these words: Publica morborum requies, commune medentum Auxilium, præsens numen, inemptaque salus, Amissum reparant lymphis impune vigorem, Pacaturque ægro luxuriante dolor. 'Diseases publick ease; a common heal, A free.cost health; a God does never fail, Vigour to men restore with ease, avail, All pain in wanton patients does assail.'

But if you take them in the left hand, or by the wrong handle, they cause thousands of diseases, and hasten even death itself.'

Fredericus Lossius in Conciliis de Morbis Hypochondriacis.

* Chalybeates cure not so much by opening obstructions of the viscera, as by depressing the exaltations of sulphur and fixed salts, and by volatilising the blood much depauperated and made effete as. in cachectick bodies; for they communicate a volatile sort of ferment, as a spur to the effete and languid mass of blood, by which, the spirits, that before lay gasping, as it were, and pressed down, with their own weight, are excited and made more lively, by in-. vigorating the blood, and renewing the ferment; for, as soon as chalybeate medicines are made use of in the green-sickness, the pulse becomes suddenly greater and quicker; the external parts of the. body grow hot; the face is no longer pale and dead coloured, but. fresh and purpled with blood itself.

Betwixt the ferment of the stomach and chalybeates, there is a mutual conflict, as appears by the nidorolent belches and eructa, tions after taking them, as if one had eaten hard fried eggs; in this re-action chalybeates undergo a dissolution within the viscera of concoction, and the active particles, both sulphureous and saline, dis-, play themselves, and, mixing with the nutritive juice, are carried into the blood which they inactuate.

Chalybeate waters, by their many and divers seminary principles with which they are embryonated, are very powerful and effica cious in curing of many and divers diseases, though they be of a contrary nature and disposition; for they serve not only as a bridle, but also as a spur; yet, I would not advise them to be drank indif ferently by all constitutions and sexes, without the advice of a physician, who, by his prudent conduct and management, weighing all indications, contra-indications, and co-indications according to discretion, may obviate all symptoms that may arise, and thereby render them more useful and effectual; the potation of waters, thus eircumstantiated, may deserve to be called the most powerful hand of God; and keep their reputation untainted; but, without this cau

Etenim massæ sanguineæ effætæ et languescenti volatile quoddam fermentum, seu calcaria, subdit, a quo excitantur et quasi eriguntur spiritus antea jacentes et suo pondere pressi: sanguinem vigorat ejusque vim Evoquév redintegrat: nam, quoties chalybeata in chlorosi seu febre alba vel amatoria propinantur, pulsus derepente major fit et celerior: exteriora corporis incalescunt, facies nou amplius pallida et morti concolor, sed vivida cerni tur et sanguine purpurata. Fridericus Lossins.

+ Κατ' ἄγχινοίαν.

tion, they may prove a sword in a madman's hand, and not at all auxiliary, but pernicious and hurtful; hence comes the saying,* That steel is the worst instrument of death, and best of life;' where. fore our learned and well-experienced doctors now-a-days abbrevi ate the tedious and various theraupeutick method of physick, and in lieu of it prescribe their patients only a chalybeate course, to satisfy all intentions, judging it to be instar omnium, or equivalent to all other prescriptions, † and, as a learned physician was wont to say; 'As true as steel.'

In

The sanative vertues and energies of those waters are beyond any polypharmacon prescription imaginable, being very prevalent against frequent giddiness and scotomia, passions of the heart, and fainting of spirits, with a fear and dread, as it were, of present death. hypochondriacal and hysterick fits, by suppressing the anathymia sis of ill vapours, and hindering damps to exhale to the head and heart, no remedy more effectual. In scurvy, which is an endemick disease, it is an appropriated and specifick remedy, by correcting the depraved ferments, and dulcifying the blood. In hemorrhages, taken with advice, it is of great strength and force; in both obstruc tions and overflowing of the terms also, an excellent remedy. It is good against all obstructions of the liver, spleen, and mesentery: leucophlegmatia, febris alba, seu amatoria, or green-sickness, stone, and gravel; nay, it cures hydrophobia, or the disease, called the fear of water,' commonly contracted by the bite of a mad dog, methodically drank.

Moreover, these waters are endowed with an admirable and pow erful faculty, in rendering those who drink of them fruitful and prolifick; by reason of their spirituous ferment, they enliven, invigorate, and actuate the whole mass of blood, the nobler parts of the body and spirits thereof: Likewise reduce them from a saline or sulphu reous dyscrasy, and sometimes from both, to a sweet balsamick, spirituous, and sanguineous temperament, ‡ which naturally incites and inspires men and women to amorous emotions and titillations, being previous dispositions, enabling them to procreation. This may be the aitiology of this product in some sense.

Venus comes from the salt sea, through many crannies, interstices, pores of the earth, and dangerous precipices, foaming to meet her beloved Mars in the bowels of the earth; whom she no sooner embraces, but she is impregnated and big with a valiant hero, in the bed of honour, with no insipid delight: from thence, soon after this di gression, she rises triumphing in our hemisphere at Tunbridge, gener. ously imparting and distributing this impregnative faculty to her vo taries, in order to preserve and perpetuate mankind.§

To her, Mars, in a poetical rhapsody, speaks:

Tu Dea! tu rerum naturam sola gubernas,
Nec sine te quidquam, dias in luminis oras,
Exoritur: nec sit lætum nec amabile quicquam.

Pessimum mortis sed optimum vitæ instrumentum.

Ut hujus veluti panaceae usus cætera possit excusare medicamenta.

Actiones sequuntur temperamentum corporis. Omne bonum sui communicativum