Account of Three Books

De ORIGINE FONTIUM Tentamen Philosophicum, in Prælectione habita coram Societate Philosophica nuper Oxoniæ instituta ad Scientiam Naturalem promovendam,. Per Rob. Plot LL. D. Cu- stodiae MUSÆI ASHMOLEANI Oxoniæ Præ- positum. & REGIÆ SOCIETATIS Secretarium Oxon. in 8°. 1685. The Author of this Treatise, de Origine Fontium, disliking the old way of handling this subject, as too general and remote; has chose rather to argue for both parts of the Question, from the History of springs; with intent more particularly to satisfy his reader, which springs they are, that wholly come from rains, mists, dews, &c. which from the seas; and which from both. In order hereunto (after a short Proem,) He gives us a Scheme of the several species of springs, to which he thinks all what ever may be reduced: and then pre- frently determines that such intermittent springs as are profluent after rains, and then gradually flacken, and at last are wholly dried up upon heats in the Summer, doe certainly owe their birth to rains. And not only such in- termitting ones, but some perennial springs too, such as we many times find on the tops of Mountains, which we may rather term weeping, than flowing or running springs; which seem to have their Origin from the mists we so frequently see hanging upon the tops of hills. Yet He cannot agree with several worthy Authors he there men- tions, and whose Arguments he recites, that all springs owe their origin to rains, dews, &c. For he thinks not that temporary irregular fountains (whereof he enum- rates many,) can possibly come from rains; much less the the temporary regular ones, such as the fountains of the Loire in France, of Lambs-bourn in England, of the Zirch-nitzer Sea in Carniola, and divers others. Much less still thinks he that such vast perennial springs, as those of Willowbridg in Staffordshire, of the Sorgue in France, can come from rains; since he finds upon computation, that all the waters that fall near them for the space of a year in rains, dews, &c. will not comparably amount to what issues from them. For the better Calculation whereof, he shews to what height rain-water will rise in a year in a Conservatory fitted for that purpose communibus annis; and how many French Muids, Hogsheads and Gallons English, will flow out of a cubick inch bore, in 24 hours, in a year, &c. And then shews that though it may be true (what an Anonymous French Author asserts,) that more water falls in rains near the fountain head of the River Sein, than is needfull for the yearly expence of that River, yet it is not so at Willowbridg, or likely to be so with the fountain head of the River Sorgue, which as Gaffendus tells us is navigable to the springs which are its original. Yet much less still can he imagin that all the rains, mists, dews, snows, &c. that fall upon the surface of the whole Earth for the space of a year, can supply the vast expence of all the Rivers in the World for the same time: when the Volga alone, according to the calculation of Ricciolus, pours forth as much water into the Caspian Sea in a years time; as will suffice to cover or drown the whole Earth: and so the River Canada, or of St. Laurence in the West-Indies. And if these either of them alone expend as much water in a year, as all the rains, mists, &c. seem capable of supplying; much more sure will the Argyropotamus or Rio dela Plata doe it, which says the same Ricciolus is bigger than the Nile, Ganges, and Euphrates, all put together; its Mouth being 90 miles broad, and running with that violence into the Sea, that it makes it fresh 200 miles forward. Or if there these singly will not doe it, certainly all three jointly will; at least these and a thousand others must; which upon a modest conjecture, he computes must needs pour forth into the Sea, at least 500 times as much water in a year as falls upon the whole surface of the Earth in rain, mists, snows, dews, &c. in the same space of time. And as he judges that all fresh-water springs cannot come from rain; neither can he believe either that hot springs or salt springs are maintain'd thence. Nor thinks he it likely that springs, where there falls little or no rain, or where the Conservatories must needs be too small, as in the Isles of Mago, Rotunda, and the Strophades, the Rock whereon stands the maiden Tower in the Thracic Bosphorus, should be supplyed from rains. Then he goes on to prove that there are subterranean communications between the Seas and fountains, by which they are supplyed, and that there are Charybdes which swallow the Sea, which happening sometimes to be stopt, the greatest Rivers have ceased to run, as the Thames, Trent, Medway, in England; the Elve, Motala, and Gulfpang in Sweden; and sometimes being too much open'd, fresh-water springs have turned salt, as Pliny says it once happened in Caria near Neptunes Temple. This subterranean circulation of waters he further evinces from divers springs he there enumerates that ebb and flow with the Sea; and from divers Lakes that have Salt water and sea Fish in them, yet have no superterraneal communication with any sea, such as the Lake Haguygabon in Hispaniola, the Caspian and Mediterranean seas, &c. He also says that 'tis further evident that there are such passages, from divers marine heterogeneous substances that have been found in digging deep underground, such as shell fish, &c. Whereby the way he discourses of divers such Indraughts there are in the sea, more particularly of the fluxus Moschonicus, or Maaltroome on the coast of Norway, and believes there must be some such vast Charybdis (beside that on the coast of of Sicily,) in the Mediterranean which must swallow all the water which perpetually flows into it, otherwise it must need overflow the lowland of Egypt. For that an undercurrent (which some have believed,) in the straights-mouth, will not solve this difficulty, unless occasioned by a vast Gulf that must be placed somewhere in the Atlantic near the Mouth of the straight, which though overflown and hidden by that mighty sea, yet may possibly absorb the deeper waters, and so cause a contrary undercurrent. Thus having proved that the greatest perennial springs derive themselves from the sea through subterranean ductus's, from Philosophy and profane History, he next appeals to the Testimony of the Scriptures, where he gives a new Interpretation of Eccl. i. v. 7. and shews how agreeable the doctrine of the Ancient Philosophers is to the scriptures: And then proceeds to answer the chief Arguments of those who hold, that all springs whatever come from rains, &c. Whereby the way he shews, that there are springs upon the very Tops of Mountains, and that others rise in plain Champion Countreys, of both which he gives many instances. Then he shews how many ways water will ascend above its own Level, 1. by the help of Hypogeal heats. 2. by Filtration. 3. by the unequal height of divers seas. 4. by the distance of the Center of Magnitude from the center of Gravity in the Teraqueous Globe, where he indavours to prove, that the superficies of the Pacific sea, is further from the center of Gravity, than the top of the highest Hill on the adverse part of the Globe. 5. by the help of stormes. And 7. he shews that sea water does ascend above its own Level by coming into Wells, whose bottoms ly higher than the surface of the sea next them, at highwater mark. Next he gives the Method Nature uses in making sea water fresh, and whence it comes to pass that the caverns through which the sea water has percolated for so many ages, are not stopt; and proves that the springs are car- ryed in the Earth after the manner of the Blood in the Veins of Animals, from their not being found in all places indifferently. Lastly he shews how it comes to pass that the sea water after so many repeated percolations, for so many years, is not yet become fresh. That it has its saltiness, from the Rocks of Fossil Salt interspersed in its bottome and shores, and how much inferior it is in saltiness to the Mediterranean brines. All which he has treated of with that modesty, that he sincerely professes, he shall readily retract any thing that he has asserted, whenever better informed either by his own or the more nice observations of others. Medicina Sep- Medicina Septentrionalis Collatitia, s. Rei medicae nuperis annis à Medicis Anglis, Germanis & Danis emissae sylloge & syntaxis. Opera Theophili Boneti. D. M. cum Indicibus & figuris necessariis. Genevae. M. DC. LXXXV. in Fol. THIS Author designing a body of the law of Nature, in imitation of that of the Civil Law, to his two former Volumes subjoyns this, the intent of which is to shew how much Physick owes as to its improvement to these Northern nations. The Instruments of which have been the Royal Society of England, afterwards copied by our neighbouring Nations; Paracelsus opened the way, and was followed by Helmont, Harvey, Lower, Bartholin, Malpighius, Wharton, Willis, Betts, Schneider, Steno, Sylvius and others, which are briefly summed up in the preface. The book is divided according to the usual partition of the body of man, into three parts. The first contains the diseases incident to the head, which is taken here entirely with all its parts, the hair not excepted, with observations about which he begins, for that even our hair is not without its diseases and those none of the least troublesome; the Plica Polonica is a sure and a sad instance, the Nature and the cure of which you have here discoursed of at large, as also its division into male and female. He brings instances of Monstrous births born without heads, one of which had its Eyes placed under its armes, on these Schrockius discourses whether they ought to be Baptized or not, bringing Authorities and reasons on both parts of the question, it being difficult to determine whether they have a rational soul or no. These are followed by Monsters in the other extrem, such as have many heads, where another question arises viz. whether such are many Animals, or only one, or whether the soul be multiplied when when the brain is, that being the reputed seat of it. Next come those who have been Monstrous as to the shape of the head, several instances are given of the affectus cornutus, of the defect or excess of the Sutures; of several wounds of the head, some mortal, others beyond all probability of escaping, particularly that of the Hungarian Captain, who though he had a Lance struck through his head, yet lived many years after it, and fought often. In the diseases of the head and Nerves is inserted a discours of Olaus Borrichius concerning the use of Volatile Salts in the distempers of the head, in which he asserts the difference of volatile salts, and prefers that of Mans Skull as the most proper in such cases; And among several sorts of pains of the head there is an account from Joel Langelot, of one which rose and late with the Sun, observing exactly the same degrees of increase and decrease, as the Sun did in its motion to and from the Meridian, &c. In the affections of the Eyes, the place and manner of vision is determined, together with the relation of the controversy between Pecquet and Mariotte, concerning the termination of the species, and vision the result of it, being performed rather in the Choroeides, than in the Retina. The famous experiment of restoring the humours of the Eyes, was at last resolved into their natural restitution, from the same humour's being replenished those ways they are constantly nourished, and not from their being repaired by the injections of Burrhus, or any other pretender. The second book treats of the diseases of the mouth and breast, where among other things we meet with a discourse concerning an infallible way of preserving a man from infection though he converse constantly with all sorts of those who are infected, the way is no more than forbearing to swallow the Saliva, which at any ill smell is raised by nature, on purpose to be ejected, the suppositions that confirm this opinion are chiefly, the fermenting nature of contagion. This contagion chiefly propagated by effluvia in the Air; these effluvia are readily imbibed by the Saliva, which thus impregnated and swallowed, must needs communicate them to the body; to which may be annexed the observation of a Consumption cur'd by a critical salivation. He treats very largely of the nature and cure of a Peripneumonia, and of its difference from a Pleurisy; of all diseases of the lungs, as Gangrene, Schirrus, Vomica and Stones frequently found in them, a case of which latter is subjoyned of one who expectorating many of different shapes and sizes, was eased from a dyspnea under which he almost mortally laboured. Among pleurisys there is an account of a periodical one returning once in seven weeks. Of another caused by laughing, &c. Among the celebrated remedies for it, you find Antimonium Diaphoreticum; as also a bark in India very powerful, if not a specific in this case. It is called Pavo de portada, of a yellowish colour, bitter taste, and a friable consistence; half an ounce in a glass of Wine is the dose. In his Histories of consumptions he relates an example of the great contagion of it, which was the infection of a senators second Wife, only by wearing the Muff of his first Wife who died of one, though after the distance of above a twelvemonth. He gives a particular account of the famous Cnaffelius's remedies in this as he has done in other cases: Instances how Opium has been very unsuccessfully applied in it, death ensuing the stoppage of the spitting, and the coagulation of the matter there caused by it. In the Section de Respiratione lafa, there is a large dissertation de halitu humano, of its difference, causes, manner, quantity, use, diseases, &c. written by Georgius Traneus. Which discourse is followed by an account of a monster which breathed through an hole in the poles; as also the discourse of Dr. Lomer, how a dog may be made made to breath as an Horse does when broken winded, taken out of the English Philosophical Transactions. In his third book are containd what concern the Abdomen and its parts, of which the Oesophagus being looked upon as the beginning, the preternatural cases of that are first handled; such as its being turned to a Cartilage; being obstructed by different causes, and the like; and after the account of several ways deglutition has been hindered by, the famous Historyes of men swallowing odd substances come in, as mony, frogs, knives, fire, &c. But because twould be endless to enumerate particulars, you have comprized in the whole volume, whatsoever this age and these Climates have produced curious in Medicine. And what are scatter'd and lye confused in Ephemerides, and other tracts, (which the learned now publish their particular observations in,) are here collected into one book, digested into heads, and the Authors name annexed to each relation, to secure the propriety to the first inventor. And though little seems to be wanting in this volume, yet the Author not thinking he can doe too much good, promises a second then in the press, when this was first published. Johannis Nico- Johannis Nicolai Pechlini Med. D. P. Serenissimi Cimbriæ Principis Reg. Archiatri, Theophilus Bibaculus, sive de Potu Theæ Dialogus. Francofurti; Quarto, 1684. This tract, written by the way of Dialogue, gives us an account that Thee, or Tsia, is a shrub growing in most parts of China and Japan; it arises generally to the height and bigness of our Garden Rote and Currant Trees; the Roots are fibrous, and spread into many little filaments, near the surface of the Earth; the flowers are like those of Rosa Sylvestris; the Seeds round, and black; which being sow'd come to perfection in three years time, and then yield an yearly crop; but these are passed by, as not much material; the great and only Vertue of this plant being supposed to consist chiefly in the Leaves; of which there are five sorts, both as to bigness, and Value; for the largest at bottom are sold for about penny half a penny the pound; the smallest at the top for 50, sometimes 150 Crowns. As to their figure, they are thin, narrow, sharp pointed, and indented on each side, which some have compared to the Confolida, the Bellis; Others to the Palurus, and some again to the Myrtus Brabantica, or Chamaleagnus Dodonæi; But our Author not liking the comparisons, nor much solicitous about them, comes presently to the Vertue of Thee, and endeavours to shew how far it agrees with some plants of our own growth, as to the effects it produceth. Thee then is hot and dry; of a bitter adstringent Quality; Quality; the Infusion of it gives a green Colour; but upon the mixture of the solution of Vitriol, it turns black; whereas Chamædrys tho' bitter, is not astringent; and upon such mixture grows green, rather than black. Cardiaca, and Marrubium give a very deep Tincture, but grow not black with Vitriol. Sanguisorba well enough resembles the Colour, but the taste is by no means so smart, and brisk. The Myrtus Brabantica gives a lively yellow Colour, but changes very little with Vitriol. Veronica comes nearest to it, for it gives a good tolerable Tincture; and tho' the taste be not bitter, yet 'tis extremely astringent; and not only soe but it turns black alsoe, like Thee, when mixt with the solution of Vitriol; neither doe it's effects come far short, since it cleanses the Kidnies, and very much strengthens the head, and stomack. This Plant abounds with a brisk Volatile salt, which he adjudges very agreeable to our Northern Constitutions, whose blood is naturally very heavy, and sluggish; it carries alsoe with it a fine thinner sort of Oyl; but soe admirably well temper'd, that as this hinders the spirit from Evaporating, soe that corrects the Inflammabily of this; from whence results the very agreeable bitter astringent: All which together, as they rectifie the ferment of the blood, and at the same time strengthen, and confirm the tone of the parts, contribute so much to the assisting of Nature in her Operations, as to prevent, if not to Cure, most Chronical Distempers. But because the discreet choice of a proper Vehicle or Menstruum, for this great Panacea, may be very material, he thinks good to shew his dislike of Broath, and Milk; in that they obtund, and obstruct it's more lively and quicker parts; but the latter more especially; as all ways leaving behind it much acidity, which how prejudicial to Hypochondriacal driacal persons, is left to the Learned to determine. He dislikes the custom they use in Japan, of drinking the leaves powdered, supposing that it may dry the body too much, &c. He concludes warm water to be the most natural, and effectual Vehicle, as being pure, and void of all saline or otherways pernicious particles, and being more ready to absorb, and be impregnated with the Vertue hereof; which when armed with this powerful Vegetable, Nature easily admits into its obscure channels, and dark recesses; and by this means it is, that it subdues those stubborn Humours, which are never more effectually rooted out, then (as they came in,) by degrees, by Custom, and Habit. He approves well enough of the use of Sugar; as it serves not only to qualify the bitter taste, by its sweetness which at the same time is Corrected by the Heat; but as being good alsoe for the Kidneys, and Lungs. He thinks the difference of constitutions too great to be insisted on, and therefore only says this viz. that those of a dryer Habit may take it more diluted, because their faults may more easily be carried off: and for the Moister and Hydropical temper He supposes this Water, if more strongly impregnated may make way for the Evacuation of the other. As to the times of taking it, the more empty the Stomack, the passage will be the more easy, and therefore in such the more effectual: He condemns the use of it after meals; because the Volatile part flies off, before the meat is any ways digested; after which the Concoction is difficultly performed; because the ferment, as well as the Volatility of the Chyle, is suppressed by the Astringent Quality; which in those Circumstances oft proves a thing of very ill consequence. To conclude, our Author notwithstanding all his Encomium's of this Exotic, can be content to think, we might receive as much Benefit from some plants of our own growth; were People Industrious to search after them; some of which are Veronica, Lingua Cervina, Marrhubium, Hepatica, Cichoreum, &c. FINIS Errata in the Transaction of December last. Pag. 814, line 8, within the Parenthesis read thus (which, with the other small Guts, and Stomach, was very much distended with the matter of the last meal;) pag. 815, lin 14, for musculofe Veins, read musculofe and membranofe Tunics. pag. 816 line 21, for Meat read Meal. Pag. 217, line 21 read Musculofe and membranofe Tunics. Errata in the Transaction of January. Pag. 840, line 5, for command, read command. pag 841, line 2, for Designed, read Designed line 10, read thus 1694, they. pag 145 line 6, for g g g there ought to be G G G G; line 9, for b b b there should be H H H H. pag 848, line 1, read upside: line 2 read A A Fig. 6th. pag 855, lines 3 and 4, for over, read over: line 4 read driven: line 22 dele after. Printed at the Theatre in Oxford for Henry Clements Bookseller in Oxford.