But it will (perhaps) be objected by some one or other in this manner:
If vitrioll, which as most doe hold, is hote and dry in the third
degree, or beginning of the fourth, nay, of a causticke quality, and
nature (as _Discorides_ is of opinion) should here be predominant, then
the water of this fountaine must needs bee of great heat and acrimony;
and so become not onely unprofitable, but also very hurtfull for mans
use to be drunke, or inwardly taken.
To which objection (not to take any advantage of the answer, which many
learned Physitians doe give, _viz_. that vitrioll is not hot, but cold)
I say:
First, that although all medicinall waters doe participate of those
mineralls, by which they doe passe, yet they have them but weakly
(_viribus refractis_) especially when in their passages they touch, and
meet with divers others minerals of opposite tempers and natures.
Secondly I answer, that in all such medicinall fountaines, as this,
simple water doth farre surpasse and exceed in quantity, whatsoever is
therewith intermixed; by whose coldnesse it commeth to passe, that the
contrary is scarce, or hardly perceived. For example, take one
proportion of any boyling liquor to 100.
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