RIGHT Worshipfull , Demades , an Orator of Athens was wont to say to the people , that they neuer treated of peace , but in their mourning garments , when the enemie had killed their principall kinsemen . So the people of this Realme enter neuer in consideration of their health , but when they are ouerthrowen with diseases . I would haue your Worship to shunne this blame , being so ciuill , so circumspect , so carefull in all your other adoes : it were a blotte to the worth of your many vertues , to neglect the remembrance of your health , euen in the perfect possession of your health , that you may prevent the battell of diseases , when you are in the the other side . First then I diuided so much of the land as I choosed to consider , in High-land and Low-land : and I found the High-land to nourish strong , rude , cruell , long liuing , laborious , and lecherous men : and that by reason of their food : milke , cheese , butter , fleshes , oate bread , much exercise . ( I wil remit the matter of Aqua vitae to another place . ) And as I mused on these Highland men , I remembred that in our historie of Scotland it is reported , that no diseases were knowne to this holy Iland in time of our fathers , but the Grauell , the Cold , which Physicians call Catarrhus . For proofe of which was there neuer a man in Strethspey vexed with the Tertian ague , while the yeere 1613. yeeres : when that disease became in Murray and sundrie other parts of this Realme epidemicall or contagious . But leauing these High-land diseases to their impostors , and barbarous leeches . I returne to our low & ciuill pa●ts : where the inhabitants being more delicatly trained vp , as subject to greater diseases , the situation of the soyle being toward the North & lying open to the East : the ground which they labour , must be colde and moyst : the diseases of their bodies , Catarrhes , Grauels , Diarrhaees , Guts ▪ Colickes , Apoplexies , Paralysies , & such like : and because the winds are boysterous and colde , the maladies of their minds are much worse then the diseases of their bodies , Pride , Anger , Hatred , Enuie , Crueltie , Inhumanitie , Inconstancie : neither will I procede farder in this matter , reseruing without flatterie the true commendation of Aberdene , whose inhabitants beyond the nature of their soyle , & in spight of AEOLVS & all his winds , doe so ciuilize their burgh , with the continuall practise of vertue & learning , & so replenish their hearts with courteous behauiour , that if their soyle were not more barren and barbarous then their soules , euen a French man himselfe might judge Aberdene to be the Lutetiola , or litle Paris of this Septentrionall corner of North Britanne . The third thing which a Physician should consider , is the water , which within the limits that I haue chosen for to examine , is not so farre from the best waters of the world , as it is from the worse : And in most parts of this North , it is wholsome and good , & needeth not to be ashamed to abide the triall of HIPPOCRATES rule . But leauing to treat more largely of this common suall vwater , I will lauell in my discourse , at the medicinall water which not only orneth the towne of Aberdene , but blesseth the territorie about it with a treasure of health , more worth than the wealth of CRAESVS . I will not report the Antiquitie of such Physicke , neither shall I reckon the number of such famous fountaines as haue had vertue to cure innumerable diseases : but I will in few tearmes describe the nature and vertues of the Well which springeth at Aberdene . And before I enter to dye my lippes in that sacred liquour , I will make a sute to that more sauoury water then the poeticall Castalian● fountain : that as I wish all people to haunt & honour thy streams , so Dasecura tui , sit mihi sana suis. and I being preserued by thy vertue from such diseases , as I am perswaded thou canst cure , Tu fueris Musis Pegasus unda meis . Thus hauing premitted my protestation to that Aberdonian Nymphe , I will beginne to reueile the secretes of her birth , and digge vnder that hill , that I may discouer the originall of her spring . I will set downe ( that my discourse may carrie a method ) the true nature of that water , howe to know if that water haue such specificke and magneticall vertues as I alledge : and what are the effects of that water : and lastly , in what maner that water should bee vsed and drunken . I lay then as a ground , that of all liquours , there is none more apt then water to receiue the qualities and vertues of any simple : for which cause the Physicians most ordinarily make their infusions and decoctions in water : the reason of this is , because water of it selfe is voyde of taste , and so much the more fit to receiue both the taste ▪ and all other second qualities from all simples : yea , not onely second qualities , which are manifest and knowne by the senses , but also hidden and occult qualities , of which , some doe alter the taste : as the infusion of Rheubarbe : some doe not alter the taste , as the infusion of Antimonium , or the decoction of golde . Notwithstanding that water be a fitte subject to receiue the impression of diuerse tastes , yet doth it not receiue so commodiously the diuersitie of odours : and in that respect the perfumers doe not infuse their sweete odoriferous drogges in water , but in oyle , which we call oleum Balaninum , which oyle is as voyde it selfe of all odours , as water is of sapours : this is the reason also why the daintie , delicate & sawcie victuallers or cookes in their restoring and Venerian pasties put the roote called Petatos , which of it selfe is tastelesse and vnsauourie to receiue the temper and pickle of all the other spices & nourishing aliments . Hauing then settled as a principle in Physicke that water is a commodious matter to receiue the accidentall formes of all simples , I conclude that this water of the Wel of Aberdene hath receiued qualities & vertues from such minerals as it floweth thorow : which are Iron and Vitriol : for the effects do argue the mixtion of these two . In so much that I dare affirme this Aberdonian Nymphe to be sister Germane to the Well of Forges in Normandie , and may well worke as many worthy cures as it , if it were as wisely vsed , and as frequently . There is no dogmaticke Physician in Europe , which doth not allow the vse of Iron & Vitriol in the cures of many diseases : so that Nature her selfe in this water hauing intermingled so prudently the qualities of these two simples , it standeth with reason that this water beeing embrued with the moste thicke slimie humours , the passages of the liuer ditted with indigest chyle , it were a rash and carelesse boldnesse to hazarde our health , seeing this water runneth through the channell of our veines , with such impetuositie that it carrieth with it , whatsoeuer cruditie it encountreth in the way .

No water naturall or artificiall can passe more swiftly through mans body to the bladder , where the sea of all our humidities are collected , than doeth this vitriolicall liquour . But hereafter shall be declared by what meanes the patient shal dispose and prepare his body , that is , to craue aide and reliefe at the handes of this courteous and cristaline Aberdonian Nymphe .

For better vnderstanding of the following discourse , I will premit two things . First , that there is no dis●ase that chanceth to mans body , that can receiue any great detriment from the right vse of this water , except it be the diseases of the lights : because this water mooueth the cough , and increaseth the dolor to the pulmonickes .

Secondly , this water is a present and sure remedy against all obstructions , which are the mothers and authors of most part of our diseases . Nowe I call obstruction a ditting or stopping of any passag● of the body , which obstruction commeth most ordinarily in the small veines of the mesentere and liuer , in the passages of the gall , in the vreters or passages of the bladder , in the veines which open towardes the matrix or mother , through which ditted and obstructed wayes this water pierceth without any harme or detriment by a detersiue and penetrant vertue , and taketh away the slimie , thicke , glewie , teugh matter , which sticketh to the banckes of the channels , while this water as another Nilus washeth away those corrupted excrements from this hidden interior Aegypt of our bowels . This water worketh not with euery one after one sort : for if the matter be in the neires , the vreters or bladder , it expelleth the humours by vrines : if the cause of the disease be in the melt , in the mesentere or the liuer , this water worketh by the passage of the stoole : if the matter be in the matrix , the water worketh by the ordinarie purgation of that parte . And yet albeit this water be such a justiciar , as executeth her sentence against the diseases of euery part , by banishing the materiall causes , through their owne passages , yet she disburdeneth the greatest parte of all the morbificke causes by the vrines . I haue seene sundrie men and women cured of great and tedious diseases by vomiting after the drinking of this water .

This Nymphe beyond the custome of all her sexe , refresheth and augmenteth the wearie and dull spirits of any patient , she corroborateth and an arte . I sawe at London in the late Queene ELIZABETHS dayes an impostor hanged , because he auouched that hee was the sonne of God , and had sent his supposed prophets through the countrie , to vaunt of his comming . This Irlandish impostor doeth imitate that pseudochrist , and sendeth through the countrie , his prophets to abuse the people with a false rumor . I protest before God , I enuie not his estate , but I would wish that he could doe the thing that hee sayeth : but I cannot abide such abuse of that arte , wherein I haue spent many yeeres vnder the discipline of the most learned Physicians of France . Yet albeit this water cannot dissolue such a stone , it doeth much good to those that are vexed therewith : for it fortifieth the bladder , and washeth away the slime which is about the stone , the which slime maketh the stone greater then it is indeede , and riueth the wound too much at the cutting .

The second question is , whether this water hath any vertue to cure the hydropsie or not . To which I answere , First that of all remedies this is the surest to preuent the dropsie , and to correct the disposition from whence the Dropsie proceedeth : which ordinarily is weaknes of the liuer , through exorbitant heate : I know that hydropsie floweth at times from a cold liuer also , but the most frequent cause is hote . Doctor MARTINE at Paris , one of the most learned men of Europe , not in Physicke onely , but in languages and all other sort of literature , finding himselfe inclined to hydropsie , postponing all other sort of medicament , hee tooke resolution to passe to the Well of Forges , not farre from Rouvan in Normandie , which Well is sister Germane to our Nymph , with hope to returne from thence in health , or then neuer to see Paris againe , and in this resolution he tooke leaue from threscore of Physicians his collegues , and went to Forges where he recouered his health , and liued many yeeres thereafter , I answere secondly , that a man beeing perfectly hydroped , his hydropsie being caused of an obstruction and hote intemperie of the liuer or melt : this water will cure him , or nothing els will cure him , because it correcteth the intemperie , it openeth the obstructions , and it voydeth water out of the bellie .

The third question is , whether this water hath any force to helpe those that are subject to the Arthritis or generall or particular gout . For by this discourse it appeareth that this water openeth the passages , and giueth place to the serous and watrie humours , to goe to the joyntes and lithts , where the gout is formed : for it is called the gout , because the watrie humours guttatim cadunt in articulos . I answere that this water openeth the passages of the mesentere , the liuer , the melt , the reines , but I thinke that it taketh no leasure in the body , to goe to the joynts , because it passeth so suddainely through the first and second region of the body , that it stayeth not to goe to the third region , and albeit it did goe , it fortifieth the wayes : for it hath not onely an opening force , but a roborating vertue also , and besides that , draweth water out of the joynts , rather then filleth them with water , and because a hote intemperie of the liuer , is the originall cause of Arthritis , this water curing that intemperie , it must of force cut away the spring of that disease .

At last now I thinke expedient to declare how the patients should behaue themselues towardes this Nymphe , to the effect they haue no just occasion to thinke euill , either of her or me : the meetest time to drinke of this water is , when the weather is hotest and driest , as it is in Iune , Iuly , and a parte of August , because then the water is lightest , and of easiest digestion , the superfluous vapours beeing drawen out of the earth by the heate of the sunne . Before wee enter to drinke of this medicinal water , it is meetest that our bodies bee prepared and purged by the aduise of some learned Physician , and when I say a learned Physician , I seclude barbarous apothecares , Highland leeches , impostors , and montbankes , Mercuriall medicines , that is to say , rubbers with quicke siluer , and all those which can giue no reason of their calling .

Amongst the Lacedemonians he was accounted the most gallant man that could steale most , prouiding that he were not apprehended flagranti delicto . In Brittaine hee is esteemed the best Physician , who killeth most , prouiding that hee bee not accused . But if there were such search heere as is in France or Italie , the people would be better serued , and the King haue more subjects . I sawe a weighty matter pleaded before the court of Parliament at Paris . The historie was this , A Physician had prescribed to a noble man a certaine quantitie of confectio Alchermes , it chanceth that the patient died within a little space . This confectio Alchermes had coloured all the chyle in his stomacke like skarlet , which should be white . The Chirurgian which bowelled the man , alledged that the patient was poysoned , the Parents accused the Physician , so it went to the Barre . And at last both parties heard , and all alledgance ponderate and considered , the Physician was absolued , and the Chirurgian condemned as ignorant , and to pay a Fine , and to restore the Physician to his honour againe .

But returning to our purpose againe : Whosoeuer disposeth himselfe to drink of this water , his body must be prepared by the counsel & aduise of some learned Physician ▪ by taking clysters & some purgatiue medicines : I will not here prescribe the formes , because I will not minister occasion to ignorant leeches to the abuse of mens health . In the meane space that they are drinking this water , it were meete to keepe a good dyet , and eate such meate as leaue no cruditie , and doeth resist melancholy : their drinke at their ordinare may be white wine , moderately drunken , mixed with water , and not with the water of this Well , as sundrie doe to their owne hinder and prejudice : because this water vsed with their meate , helpeth to carrie the meate to the neares and bladder before it be perfectly digested . After dinner and supper it shall not be amisse to vse a digestiue powder for to dissipate the winde , and close the stomacke .

Also it is sufficient to drinke euery day once of this water , and that in the morning some two or three houres after the rising of the sunne . As concerning the quantitie which ought to be drunken , it should be according to the disease and nature of euery one : at the beginning they should vse moderately , and euery day ascend while they arriue at the highest of that which they may drinke , neither hath it bene found , that the drinking of foure or fiue pounds haue done any harme , albeit there be many men and women , that can not reach to that quantitie . Alwayes it is better to drinke longer and lesse , then to drinke a great quantitie in few dayes .

This is the summe of that which may be saide concerning the nature and vse of that water , neither will I wearie the Lector with any longer discourse , beseeching him onely to heare mee patiently in few tearmes rander thankes to God , which for the benefite of our poore diseased persons in this I le hath reuealed this secrecie , and that in such a parte , that the ingine of man could not haue deuised it better : not in the Higlands and Wildernesse , not in some countrie beggerly village , as Spae and Forges are , but amongst the most ciuile , and courteous , and charitable people of this Realme , where the poore may bee assisted with almes , and with Physicians , where the rich may be harboured , according to their estates , and where all sort of ranckes may haue fit companie , honest recreation , good example , great pietie , and all kind of eases and commodities that any man or woman can desire , Blessed and honoured be that Omnipotent and beneficiall Father , Author of all health , and the first of all Physicians .