Van Helmont's works containing his most excellent philosophy, physick, chirurgery, anatomy : wherein the philosophy of the schools is examined, their errors refuted, and the whole body of physick reformed and rectified : being a new rise and progresse of philosophy and medicine, for the cure of diseases, and lengthening of life / made English by J.C. ...

CHAP. XCVI. A Third Paradox. (Book 96)

1. Concerning a Diet. 2. Seeds, from what things they are free. 3. A proof. 4. The best Fountaines, which, where, and of what sort they are. 5. Rivers from sharpish Springs. 6. A happy keeper of Fountaines. 7. Fountaines ge∣nerating a Stone: From whence are Rocks in Banks. 8. Many Fountaines do make a plurality of Minerals. 9. From an invisible thing, is made a visible thing. 10. A hungry or eating Salt is an Hermophrodite. 11. A twofold Excrement in us. 12. What Tartar is. 13. A manifold hungry Salt. 14. How the best Vitriol is made. 15. Another best Vitriol. 16. Iron is not changed in Fountaines of Brass. 17. A third Vitriol. 18. A fourth Vitriol. 19. There is not a hungry sharpness of Vegetables. 20. The Salt of Sulphur is fixed. 21. That there is a hungry Salt of Fountaines. 22. Why a natural Salt is more noble than an artificial one. The Error of some. 23. The Manna of Alume. 24. From whence the matter of Vitriol is. 25. An error of neglect. Vitriol is in other Mettals.

VVE now approaching nearer unto the Fountains of the Spaw, it is convenient first [unspec 1] of all to re-assume what hath been spoken; To wit, That Mettals, small Stones, Rocky-Stones, Sulphurs, Salts, and so the whole rank of Minerals, do find their Seeds in the Matrix or Womb of the Waters, which contain the Reasons, Gifts, Know∣ledges, Progresses, Appointments, Offices, and Durations of the same: The which, while they have expected the sufficiently digested seasons of their Original or Birth, they break forth under the Day, with the Waters their Wombs, which do lay up by little and little, their Youngs, accustomed to the Air, in the Earth.; no otherwise than as the Earth doth also expose its own Family of Vegetables into the strange Womb of the Air. Therefore Seeds now issuing out of the dark Womb of the Water (which the Voice of the Word hath there deposited as durable unto the end) even as they are the more nigh in their beginning, therefore also the more noble.

Indeed, Nature, Essence, Existence, Gift, Knowledge, Duration, Appointment; were at first connexed in the root of the Seeds, which afterwards, by the unfolding of their Gifts, and necessity of their Functions, being by degrees drawn asunder into a plu∣rality, do become subject unto disorder.

From whence it is, that an Oracle containeth it self in the admirable testimony of Hippocrates: Numbers being increased, to wit, that (in generating) Proportions are dimi∣nished, and likewise that Proportions in decrease, being increased, Numbers are diminished.

From whence it is undoubtedly manifest, that by how much a Body shall be nearer unto its first and seminal Beings, whether in Nature, or by Art, by so much it is more Power∣full, Noble, and Famous.

Wherefore, Seeds entring into the World, are at the first free from the Dimensions of [unspec 2] Colours, Savours, yea and from the dimensions of Quantities: For Example sake,

The same Humane seed doth sometimes beget a simple, sometimes a manifold Young, [unspec 3] received onely through a simplicity, numerousness of places; and so it is not as yet, in its first Moments, subject unto the command of Numbers and Quantities.

From hence indeed it comes to pass, that in the highest Rocks, far from dregs, and

among rockie-stones and sand, sharp Fountaines do arise, which are more excellent than all others; but being so called, not because they bear a tartness before [unspec 4] them (for they are without savour) but because they are healers like unto sharp things, therefore they are more noble than sharpish things, by how much they are more grateful, and potent, containing the seed of an eating or hungry Salt, which is as yet free from the unfolding of Savours: For those Fountaines have joyned in a friendly league with our Nature, because they are drawn in with the sweetness of the pallate of the drinkers, and an intimate good will of the Stomack, although in the greatest quantity. But through the refreshment of Nature, they do so most nearly imitate that universal Me∣dicine, Moly Homericum, to wit, by defending of health, and propagating of the vital Powers, that they have seemed to have ascended as it were unto the top of Medicine. Such a Fountain Paracelsus would have to spring up in Veltin a little Village of Helvetia, in his Book of Tartarous Diseases, as he believed that the whole compass of the World did scarce contain such another in a Valley, for in the highest Rocks there are many.

For truly Danubius, the Rhene, the River Rhoan, Saw, Po, &c. do obtain such a Foun∣tain in their first Spring. [unspec 5]

I will add more: What if the President of the Heavenly Host shall be appointed chief keeper of the Den of Garganus, it shall not be from the matter, to believe that there is a [unspec 6] certain happy Keeper prefixed unto these kind of Fountains; no otherwise than as Anti∣quity placed their Demie-gods, turning or tossing their Pots in the beginning of a River: However it be, those Fountains are nearest unto the Womb of darkness, and are well fur∣nished with the first Beginning of hungry Salts.

On the contrary, there are other Fountains, wherewith a stonifying juyce is co-mixed, the which, through the Waters sliding down by degrees, do here and there sow great Stones, [unspec 7] and Flints, as well in their bottom, as in the sides of their Paunch, and through the blind conduits of Veins, rocks in their Banks: For the River Mose shall be for an Example; for this River, doth from his rise, longly and largly, with his brim imbibing a stonifying juyce, strew the little Hills, from hence, even as far as Visetum:

Which juice being now wasted, and having finished its appointment, Mose afterwards [unspec 8] doth not behold Rocks: For it is not a simple Stone, but here it scatters Coals, there mines of Iron, and as yet nearer, sulphurous Fire-stones, according to the over-flowing of its banks: but elsewhere he shews forth Veins of Lead, either unmixt, or well mixt, with an Hermophroditical birth according to the original of his Fountains: Which dis∣pensation of Mines by a Trival Line, Adeptists do distinguish into their soils of Peroledes or Pavements.

Moreover, it is doubted, why Fountains may be called sharp, and from whence that tartness is to be derived: I will briefly shew it: For all the Seeds of Salts, [unspec 9] as we have said, are scituated in the Waters; Yet they have not as yet put on a Savour, but when they have found the convenient Principles of Bodies, and due Wombs of the Earth: For then, and not before, they express a Saltness, and cloath themselves with Salt: For here they break forth into an Alum, there into a Seay Fountainous Salt, but elsewhere into a Nitre, &c.

Wherefore it is to be noted, That a certain Hermaphroditical Salt of Mettals doth exist, [unspec 10] the which for want of a Name, began in Deed and in Name, to be called, An hungry or sharpish Salt. Indeed it is a general one, and accommodable unto all Mettals, and therefore if it pleaseth thee, not to account it the first, and as it were the remotest matter of the same; at least-wise, it is the secondary matter of Mettals, and co-natural to all Mettals whatsoever.

That Salt therefore being void of a strange co-mixture, is sharp, and acceptable to our Body in a due quantity, because it cleanseth away, and consumeth altogether every Hu∣mour which is not Vital, and which is Tartarous:

For there is a two-fold Excrement in us; [unspec 11]

One there is of ours, which is subject unto putrefaction and stink:

But there is another of things, which being a Traitor, perfects its Tragedy by an hostile coagulation; and by a general Etimology, is called Tartar.

A sharpish Salt therefore, is now and then considered like an Embryo, in order to a Mettal: Also often times, as it were a solitary Individual, but not as yet compleated in [unspec 12] its Ordination.

I will explain the thing by the example of Vitriol or Chalcanthum.

For the best for Medicine, is according to an imitation of Nature, artificially made of Copper; and therefore that is by far the best, which is composed of Copper alone, with∣out [unspec 14]

earthly filths, and a mixture of forreign things; the whidh notwithstanding cannot flow together in the Wombs of Nature: But it is made after this manner.

First, Sulphur is cast upon the melted Brass, until the flame hath consumed the whole; but the Brass being straightway poured forth, is infused in Rain-water, from whence it waxeth green: And that thing is so often repeated, until all the brass shall pass, as be∣ing pierced, into the Water: At length, the Water being exhaled, thou hast thy Vitriol: For that which before was Copper, now moreover, from Sulphur, hath attained a Salt.

Secondly, The most excellent Vitriol, growes naturally in Mines, wherein Nature hath [unspec 15] brought forth that hungry Salt, corroding a fertile Vein of Brass, and being dissolved in the liquor of a licking Fountain, which 〈…〉〈…〉 Cauldrons do boyl into Vitriol. The Cypri∣an, Hungarian, Romane, is praised 〈…〉〈…〉 means that which in its examination hath contributed the most of Brass: 〈…〉〈…〉 juyce of that Vitriol, is thought to change [unspec 16] Iron into Brass; Indeed Metall 〈…〉〈…〉 ••carce acknowledging the delusion: because it consumes the place of Iron, the 〈…〉〈…〉 Atomes of Brass should supply it. No•• ta∣king notice, that as Brasse, renders dissolved Silver beholdable, and corporeal, which else in Aqua Fortis is invisible: So that it is the property of Iron to manifest the Brass dis∣solved in the Vitriol, by snatching it unto it self, and also that by the same Act, the Iron it self is dissolved, and doth vanish away in the Fountain: Fountains are my Witnesses. For truly Vitriolated Waters do become far more poor than themselves, in Copper after that they have received the Iron, the benefit of the recovered Brass. Wherefore also ••eed out of the Fountain (where, and as oft as a continual inundation of new Brass out of he Gulfe, faileth) after another manner the supposed transmutation of the Iron doth not happen.

Thirdly, in the next place, Vitriol is made by Art, of a Brassy-Fire-stone or Marcasite, being begot with childe by Sulphur. Indeed the Sulphur being abstracted from thence, [unspec 17] a sharp or acide Salt, doth in a coursary number of daies, by degrees resolve the remaining Brassy-Body being exposed to the Air, in its marrowes or inmost parts, the which, 〈…〉〈…〉 the same sharpness of resolution, doth dissolve a certain Brassy matter into it self 〈…〉〈…〉 the which being through the help of Water drawn out from thence, being also presently boyled, is made Vitriol: And so that, whatsoever at the first turn, resisted the gnawing of the hungry Salt, the burning of the Sulphur being repeated, doth wholly at last yeild and becomes into a Vitriol.

Lastly, in the Fourth place, the hungry Salt is co-bred, being grown together in the [unspec 18] Fire-Stone, the which by a co-burning, and resolving, brings a certain Brassy matter with it from thence, and is made Vitriol.

From whence it is manifest:

First,

That a hungry Salt, although it be sharp, yet doth very much differ from any other sharp∣ness, [unspec 19] as much as the Vitriol differs from the Rust or Verdigrease, which is made by the Air of Vinegar, and so also by the Salt of the Vinegar being conceived within.

Secondly,

That although the Sulphur be wholly fat, and inflamable, yet in the piercing of the [unspec 20] Brass, it leaves a certain acide Salt, half fixed, which else flies away in time of burning, and by the Campane, is constrained into a juice.

Thirdly,

That the sharp hungry Salt of Fountaines born in the Bowels of the Earth, is the Salt of [unspec 21] any Sulphur embryonated or not perfected: Yet that it is by so much the more noble than an Artificial Salt fetcht out of Sulphur, by how much it is nearer to its first Being, and unto the Seeds of the Illiad or Womb of Darkness: As is read above. Therefore thou [unspec 22] shalt acknowledge, that they do far wander, who esteem of the natural endowments of the Fountains of the Spaw, from the properties of contained Minerals, even as they have now proceeded into their last matter: For truly it is manifest from what hath been said above, that the hungry Salts of Sulphur do most far differ from the property of Sulphur: And moreover, which is more, that the Artificial hungry Salt of Sulphur doth as much differ from that which is natural, as this embryonated Salt is nearer in its Root unto its first Seeds. They erre, I say, in the whole circumference, who compare the hungry Salts of Lead, with Lead, which is hugely distinct there from: For there is a very strange similitude of the perfect Salts, to wit, of Alume, Nitre, Vitriol, and of the same, not perfect. It is [unspec 23]

manifest by an Example: For the hungry Salt of Alume, which is sweeter than any Sugar (it is called the Manna of Alume) knowes no astriction, being like unto its first Being. [unspec 23]

Fourthly.

Seeing therefore the most excellent Vitriol, is materially nothing else but the embry∣onated [unspec 24] hungry Salt of Sulphur, which hath gnawn out a certain part of the Brass, but the Salt of the more base Vitriol, is drawn from a perfect Sulphur; we being therefore led by the proportion of things, have passed over the same Etymology of Vitriol, unto all the co-like Dissolutions of Mettals, which by others who write of the Fountains of the Spaw, I do not find as yet recorded.

For truly Vitriol is dayly made of any Mettal (except Gold) as well in the progress of Art, as of Nature: To wit, as a metallick Liquor, a coagulable Vitriol, I say, is [unspec 25] effected from a Mettal, and the Wedlock of a 〈…〉〈…〉 or eating Salt.