4.8 ' The Statural Hijlory 



taft, 1 guefs may be impregnated with fomthing of Vitriol, which 

 though of it felf it be a fmart acid, yet its edge "being rebated 

 with a well concocted fulpbur, turns fweet, and becomes of that 

 more palatable guft. And herein perhaps I have not guefs'd a- 

 mifs, fince we are informed by as eminent, as 'tis a vulgar Expe- 

 riment, that the aufterity that Vitriol gives in the mouth, is cor- 

 rected by the fumes of Tabacco taken quickly after it ; whofe ful- 

 phureous particles, fays the Learned Willis k , mixing with the /aline 

 pontic ones of the Vitriol, create fuch a plea/an t and mellifluous taft. 



6$. There are alfo two fmall and very weak (firings, of a la- 

 fieous colour but no fuch taft, in the way from South-ftokg leading 

 to Goreing, by the River fide ; not many years fince of great re- 

 pute in thofe parts for Medicinal ufe, but now quite deferted ; 

 whether upon account of the ineffectual ufe of them, or becaufe 

 they are but temporary fprings,y/> Judice Ik eft : The people will 

 tell you they were very foveraign, and never ceafed running till 

 fome advantage was made of the water, and that Providence till 

 then with-held them not. This water iffues forth from a fat 

 whitiflh Earth, and has always a kind of unctuous fkin upon it, 

 yet to the taft I thought it feemed dry and ftiptical, as if it pro- 

 ceeded from a kind of Lime-ftone, further within the Earth, and 

 not to be feen. 



66. But however the cafe may have it felf there, it is notfo 

 dubious, that at a Well in Oddington^ there is a water of the 

 talcarious kind,and proceeding furefrom fome neighboring Lime- 

 Jione, which befide its dry and restrictive taft, more fignally evi- 

 dences it felf, in the providential cur e. of a local Difeafe amongft 

 Cattle, frequently catch'd by their grafing on Otmoor, and there- 

 fore by the Inhabitants thereabout commonly called by the name 

 of the Moor-Evil: The Difeafe is a kind of flux of the belly, and 

 correfponds (in a Man) to what we call a Vyfentery, whereby the 

 Cattle fo fpend themfelves, that in little time from well and good 

 liking, they fall in a maner to fkin and bone, and fo dye away un- 

 lefs prevented ; which is certainly done by giving them dry meat, 

 and fuffering them to drink of this water only. 



6j. Befide thefe we have many other waters, not apparently 

 (atleaft to fenfe) of any Mineral virtue, yet without doubt have 

 their tinSiurefrom fomefubterraneous fleam, of a much finer than 



* Dc Arima Brutorurrr 7 cap- 12. De Guftatu, 



ordi- 



