A way to health, long life and happiness, or, A discourse of temperance and the particular nature of all things requisite for the life of man as all sorts of meats, drinks, air, exercise &c., with special directions how to use each of them to the best advantage of the body and mind : shewing from the true ground of nature whence most diseases proceed and how to prevent them : to which is added a treatise of most sorts of English herbs ... the whole treatise displaying the most hidden secrets of philosophy ... / communicated to the world for the general good by Thomas Tryon.

Of Ponds or Standing VVaters.

Such standing-Waters as are in a kind of springy Grounds are the best, but still much inferior to running-Waters, because they have not the benefit of Motion, nor the like advantage of passing through various Soils. Such Pools or Waters as are chiefly maintained by Rain or Land floods are better or worse, according as the season is wet or dry; for in dry seasons they not only become thick and slimy, but awaken a gross fulsome Saturnine Quality in the muddy Earth, that suffocates the pure thin spirituous parts; so that such Waters become of a strong gross Earthy taste and smell, which is altogether contrary to the Nature of Water, and such Waters are not wholsome for Men nor Beasts. Some Husband-men do suppose these Waters to be very good for Cattle to drink, having no other reason but that they will rather drink them than others; which is no reason at all; for this came through Custom and Use, which makes any sort of Water familiar to nature; and those Cattle that are used to drink Pond-Water, will refuse better Water for that, for two Reasons; 1st. Be∣cause their Stomachs and Pallates are adulterated, and made familiar to it, so that they cannot distinguish the evil taste from the good; 2dly. Because such Pond-Waters are of an hotter warmer Nature than o••hers, and Cattle used to them will for that very cause refuse others, just as men that accustom themselves to warm Beer cannot drink cold without some trouble to the Mouth and Teeth, though cold Beer and Ale is warm∣er in operation, and will more cheer the Stomach, and make the Spirits more brisk than the hot, because no fermented Liquors, whether they be Beer, Ale, Syder or Wine, will admit of the heat of fires, with∣out violence to the pure spirituous parts; they are so

volatile, that they will presently evaporate; therefore warm Beer or Ale will sooner become flat than that which has not been warmed; for when the spirituous parts are evaporated or suffocated, the sweet brisk Balsamick Vertue dyes.

But this hot sulpherous Quality in Pond-Water, which through custom most Cattle like, is of an evil nature and operation, because the spirituous vapours of the Air cannot so easily penetrate through its gross thickness, whence it dulls the edge of the Appetite and Stomach, breeds gross thick Blood, often is the occasion of many Diseases, and very injurious to the Milk of Cows. Besides, do not Pools and standing Waters generate various sorts of Vermin and Insects, which is caused through the Contraction of gross thick fulsom Matter for want of Motion, all which running Waters are not subject to.

But although Water be Natures common drink for Man as well as Beasts, yet since now a-days Men ge∣nerally betake themselves to other Liquors, we shall briefly treat of them likewise.