THE 
VIRTUES
OF 
COMMON WATER:
OR, 
THE ADVANTAGES THEREOF, 
IN 
PREVENTING AND CURING MANY DISTEMPERS. 
GATHERED
From the writings of several eminent Physicians, and also from 
more than forty years experience. 
By JOHN SMITH, C. M. 
To which is added, 
SOME RULES FOR PRESERVING HEALTH BY DIET. 
That's the best physic, which doth cure our ills 
Without the charge of 'pothecaries bills, 
THE TENTH EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS. 
COMMUNICATED BY 
Mr RALPH THORESBY, F. R. S. and Others. 
DUNDEE, 
PRINTED BY T. COLVILL AND SON,
FOR
G. MILLN, BOOKSELLER, 
1799. 



THE 
VIRTUES 
OF 
COMMON WATER. 
FOR the benefit of mankind, in general, I have ta- 
ken pains to give the world an account of what 
I have found written in the works of the most eminent 
physicians, concerning the good that mankind may re- 
ceive from the use of Common Water; and of the infor- 
mations I have had concerning the benefits thereof from 
others by word of mouth; and of what I have discover- 
ed by my own experience, from frequent trials, during 
a time that hath intervened from that of thirty to seven- 
ty-four years of age: which is sufficient to confirm 
the stupendious effects thereof; especially in the many 
particulars that shall be mentioned as my own discovery 
with respect to this excellent remedy, which will per- 
form cures with very little trouble, and without any 
charge, and is also to be had wherever there are any ha- 
bitations, which can hardly be said of any other: So that 
in some sense water may be truly stiled, an universa re- 
medy, since the diseases it either prevents or cures may 
have this remedy applied to all persons, and in all places 
where men inhabit. 
Excellency of water
The first commendation of Common Water I shall 
mention, is that of Dr Manwaring, in his 
Method and means of enjoying health; wherein 
he saith, that water is a wholesome drink,or  
rather the most wholesome being appoint- 
ed for man in his best state; which doth strongly argue 

[4]
that drink to be the most suitable for human nature- an- 
swering all the intentions of common drinks; for it cools, 
moistens, and quencheth thirsts; 'tis clear, thin, and fit 
to convey the nourishment through the smallest vessels 
of the body- and it is a drink that is a rule itself, and 
requires little caution in the use of it, since none will be 
tempted to drink of it more than needs : And that, in 
the primitive ages of the world, water-drinkers, he says, 
were the longest livers by some hundreds of years- not 
so often sick and complaining as we are. 
Digeston to 
help. 
Dr Keill, treating of the stomach, in his Abridgment 
of the anatomy of human bodies, saith, that 
water seems the fittest to promote the diges- 
tion of food; all spirituous liquors having 
a property by which they hurt, rather than 
help digestion; the sad effects of which they are sensible 
of, he saith, who by a long use thereof have lost their 
appetites, hardly ever to be restored without drinking 
water, which seldom faileth of procuring a good appetite 
and a strong digestion. With which Dr. Baynard agrees, 
affirming, “ That water liquifies and concocts our food 
better than any fermented liquor whatever.” Hist. of 
cold bathings p. 440.
Diseases to 
prevent. 
Dr. Prat, in his treatise of mineral waters, shews it to 
be his judgment, that, if people would ac- 
custom themselves to drink water, they 
would be more free from many diseases; 
such as tremblings, palsies, apoplexies, gid-  
diness, pains in the head, gout, stone, dropsy, rheuma- 
tism, piles, and such like: which diseases are most 
common among them that drink strong drinks, and 
which water generally would prevent. Moreover, he 
saith, that water plentifully drank, strengthens the sto- 
mach, causeth an appetite, preserves the fight, maketh 
the senses lively, and cleanseth all the passages of the 
body, especially those of the kidneys and bladder. 
'Tis also said by Dr. Duncan, in his treatise of hot li- 

[5]
qours, that, when men contented themselves with wa- 
ter, they had more health and strength; and 
that at this day those who drink nothing but 
water are more healthy, and live longer, 
than those who drink strong liquors, which 
raise the heat of the stomach to excess, 
Health to 
procure by 
Water. 
whereas water keeps it in a due temper. And he adds 
in another part of the book, that by hot liquor the blood 
is inflamed; and such whole blood is inflamed, live 
not so long as those who are of a cooler temper; a 
hot blood being commonly the cause of fluxes, rheums, 
ill digestion, pains in the limbs, head-ach, dimness of 
sight, and especially of hysteric vapours. He also im- 
putes the cause of ulcers to a hot blood, and declares, 
that if men kept their blood cool and sweet, by a mode- 
rate and cooling diet, they would never be troubled with 
ulcers, or other breakings-out Which coolness of the 
blood will be well attained to by drinking a large draught of 
water in the morning, which also will carry off the bili- 
ous and salt recrements by urine. And, if water is 
drank also after dinner, it will cool a hot stomach, and 
prevent the rising of those fermentations which cause 
wind and belching after meat So that if persons who 
are liable to these disorders will leave off strong liquors 
and a hot diet, and drink water, they will procure bet- 
ter health to themselves than they had before. 
Some of the 
good pro- 
perties of 
Water
Sir John Floyer also, in his treatise of cold baths, p. 109, 
edit. 5, affirms, that water-drinkers are 
temperate in their actions, prudent and in- 
genious; they live safe from those diseases 
which affect the head, such as apoplexies, 
palsies, pain, blindness, deafness, gout, 
convulsions, trembling, madness: And 
the drinking of water cures the hiccough, fætor of the 
mouth, and of the whole body; it resits putrefaction, 
cools burning heats and thirsts, and after dinner it 
helps digestion.— And if the virtues of cold water were 
seriously considered, all persons would value it as a 
great medicine, in preventing the stone, asthma, and 

[6]
hysteric fits; and to the use of this, children ought to be 
bred up from their cradles. And, in page 434, he saith, 
That as water is in chief the universal drink of the 
world—so it is the best, and most salubrious. And, in 
page 434. That he hath known where a regular drink- 
ing of spring-water hath done considerable cures by 
washing off the acrid, scorbutic salts from the blood, 
and strengthning the coats and fibres of the stomach and 
bowels, and hath brought on a good appetite, and 
a strong digestion. And I add, that it will infallibly 
do it in all curable cases. 
Cold Water 
strengthen- 
ing. 
Having read over an old book written by Sir Thomas 
Elliot, intituled, The castle of health, he there 
declared from his own experience, that in 
the county of Cornwall, tho' it was a very 
cold quarter, the poorer sort, which in his 
time did never, or but very seldom, drink 
any other drinks, but water, were strong of body, and 
lived to a very great age. To which relation that of 
Sir Henry Blunt’s is very agreeable, who affirmed, in his 
book of travels into the Levant, (where under the Tur- 
kish government the use of wine was forbid, and where 
the common drink is water) that he then had a better 
stomach to his food, and digested it more kindly than he 
ever did before or since. 
Digestion 
considered.
And in the treatise of the vanity of philosophy, written 
by Dr. Gideon Harvey, it is affirmed, that 
it is not heat that causeth a good digestion, 
but a proper ferment, or liquor provided by 
nature, to dissolve the food into a substance  
like unto pap made with fine flour; which dissolvent, he 
saith, is much depraved by hot spirituous liquors; and 
therefore he commends water above all other drinks to 
promote digestion. 
Water-drinking is also said by Dr. Allen to be good to 
prevent two deplorable distempers, the gout and the hy
dochondriac melancholy; For, says he, the gout is ge- 

[7]
nerally caused by too great drinking of fermented li- 
quors, and is never said to have assaulted 
any drinker of water; and he saith also, that 
melancholy hypochondriac is kept off long- 
est by drinking water instead of strong drink. 
Gout and 
Hypochon- 
driac Me- 
lancholy, 
To which let me add, that I once knew a 
gouty gentleman, who, to avoid his drink- 
ing companions in London, retired to New Brentford, 
where I then lived; in which town, by a very temperate 
diet of one meal a day, and drinking only water, he li- 
ved two whole years free from pain: But being visited 
by one who came that way, and invited to drink but one 
bottle of Claret between them, he fell next day into a 
terrible fit of the gout, which held above a month after; 
of which being recovered, he by the same course conti- 
nued well till I left the place, which was about a year 
and an half after. 
The good properties of water are further manifested 
in preventing the breeding of gravel in 
the kidneys; for Zechias, in Consult. 17. Gravel
as quoted by Salmon, affirms, that nothing 
so much abates the heat of the kidneys, and frees them 
from those recrements which cause pain in the back, one 
great sign of gravel, as water does; but he adviseth to 
drink it warm. By the use of which, he saith, the un- 
natural heat in time will be so extinguished, that no 
more of that matter causing gravel will be produced in 
the body. Which assertion by experience I have found 
to be true; for observing much gravel to be voided by me, 
also abundance of matter floating in the urine like bran; 
with a great number of recrements like cuttings of hair, 
some above an inch long, which substances were found 
in all the water that I made in above twelve months; 
for which I could get no remedy: I was advised to drink 
water, which in about half a year did entirely free me 
from those symptoms, which some out of ignorance im- 
puted to witchcraft, so that from that time to this I ne- 
ver have been troubled with it. 

[8]
Stone in the 
Bladder. 
Water also is commended as efficacious to prevent 
the breeding of the stone in the bladder; 
for it hath been observed, that in some who 
have been cut for the stone, that new stones 
have been engendered, so that some young 
persons have been cut several times. Now, to prevent 
this, the drinking water hath been advised with success; 
for by this that intemperate heat in the body was abated, 
which did occasion the distemper. Some have advised 
to drink it warm, and others cold, particularly Van Hey- 
den, a physician of Ghent in Flanders, in his book in- 
titued, Help for the rich and poor; which, he saith, in 
p 49, is sufficiently insinuated by Piso and Alexander, 
who assure us, that the taking a draught of cold water 
in the morning hath done so good, that several,- 
after the voiding, of a stone, never had any more stones 
grew in them. 
Stone to dis- 
solve. 
Which experiment may give light to the discovery of 
a way to cure the stone without cutting; 
For if the growing of new stones can be 
prevented by drinking water, let it be hot or 
cold, it may prevent a stone from growing 
bigger when begun; and if the adding matter to increase 
a stone when begun, can be prevented, nature in time 
may waste that which is begun, especially if some drops 
of sweet spirit of nitre be added to all the water drank, 
which will powerfully help to cool, and is known to be 
an admirable mover or provoker of urine, and will waste 
a stone, and make it crumble like fuller’s earth, if ap- 
plied to a stone taken from the body. Or the water may 
be sweetened with honey, which is now much in use a- 
mong the gentry, as I am informed by an ingenious apo- 
thecary; who told me, that, among them at present, 
pump-water and honey are in great repute to give ease 
in gravel: And there is so near an affinity between 
gravel and the stone, that what is proper for one, will 
doubtless be suitable for the other, and will prevent the 
growth of both. 

[9]
Beneficial 
in child- 
bearing. 
Water is also stiled in Senertus' works, The balsam of 
children, the drinking of it by the mother 
being one of those things whereby children 
will be strengthened in the womb, and will 
prevent these injuries that are done them by 
womens drinking strong liquors; which 
Samson's mother was not allowed to do, for she was 
commanded not to drink wine or strong drink, Judg. 
xiii 4. But I will not say, if all women shouid do this, 
their children shall be as strong as Samson was; yet this 
I will say, if they would do this, they would find their 
children more free from distempers and frowardness, 
and to much more easy to nurse and bring up, and be 
less liable to an immature death; the want of which ab- 
stinence from strong drinks, is the cause why so many 
rich people find it hard to bring up children, in compa- 
rison to what is done by the poor: For these last are born 
of mothers who not only are prevented from being glut- 
tons by their want of dainties, which are deceitful meat, 
Prov. xxiii. 3. but they seldom taste wine or strong  
drink; whereas the rich not only feed high, but also 
drink strong drinks, which in most constitutions do o- 
verheat and corrupt the humours of the body, and that 
blood by which their children are nourished during their 
pregnancy: which injury to unborn infants would be 
prevented, if the mother would be temperate in diet, 
and drink water, especially at meals, by which the blood 
of the mother would be kept cool and clean; which must 
needs communicate a healthful substance to the child wi- 
thin her, and prevent all those distempers which infants- 
bring with them into the world. 
Increases 
milk in wo- 
men. 
And here it may be proper to add, what by divers ex- 
periments it hath been found to be true, 
the drinking water by nurses, while 
they give luck to children, will wonderfully 
increase milk in those that want it, as every 
one will find, who can be persuaded to make 
use thereof. I have advised many to use it, who have 
found that, by drinking a large draught of water at bed- 

[10]
time, they have been supplied with milk sufficient for 
that night, when before they wanted it, and could not 
be supplied by any other means: And besides, they 
who have found their children restless, by reason of too 
much heat in their milk do find them much more quiet 
after their milk is cooled by water-drinking. 
Stays hun- 
ger, and 
prevents 
starving.
By drinking water also the want of food for a time 
may be suffered without starving: For I have  
been informed by a credible friend, who 
was an officer at sea, that being sent down 
to Stafford to see some men conveyed on 
shipboard, that had been pressed by act of 
Parliament for the sea-service; he found in 
the prison where they were kept a lusty fellow, who had 
declared he would starve himself rather than go to sea; 
and, taking particular notice thereof, he found upon due 
enquiry, that for twenty days he had refused to eat any 
manner of food, only he drank each day about three 
pints or two quarts of water, hoping thereby to get him- 
self discharged: But when he found his pretensions to 
be in vain, and that in or about two days they should all 
march for London, he condescended to eat some food, 
beginning with a little; and in the march he was obser- 
ved to travel as well as the best man. I find also an ac- 
count in Dr. Car’s letters, of a certain crack-brained per- 
son, who at Leyden, when the doctor resided in that u- 
niversity, pretended he could fast as long as Christ did;
and it was found he held out the time of forty days wi- 
thout eating any food, only he drank water and smoked 
tobacco. And I once had a sad complaint from a poor 
old woman of the greatness of her want, affirming, that 
oftentimes she had not eaten any food for two or three 
days; upon which I asked her, if she did not then suffer 
much uneasiness in her stomach? she said she did; but 
found a way at last to asswage her hunger by drinking 
water, which satistied her appetite. 
Water is also of great use to strengthen weak chil-  


[11]
Strengthens 
weak child- 
dren 
dren: For we are informed by Dr Joseph Brown, in 
his treatise of cures performed by cold baths 
that the Welsh women do preserve their chil- 
dren from the rickets, by washing them 
night and morning in cold water, till they 
are three quarters of a year old, p 79. And 
’tis said by Sir John Floyer, in his treatise on cold baths, 
that a lady in Scotland, who had left several children 
thro’ weakness, did, by the advice of a Highland beggar 
woman, preserve those she had afterwards, by washing 
them daily in cold water. And I myself advised a neigh- 
bour, whose child began to be ricketty: to treat the child 
in the same manner; but she, instead of washing, dip- 
ped it over head and ears every morning, it being then 
in the summer-time: The event of which was, the 
child became strong, and had a good countenance, tho’ 
before it was very pale and wan: Which shews how 
great the power of water is, when used outwardly, to 
invigorate the spirits, and strengthen nature. 
Swellings 
from brui- 
ses. 
It is also a known custom, to prevent the swellings 
that follow bruises in the faces of children, 
by immediately applying thereunto a linen 
cloth four or six times double, dipped in cold 
water, and new dipped as it begins to grow 
warm; for the cold repels or prevents the 
flowing of humours to the part, which otherwise would 
cause great swelling, and after turn blackish: And if 
upon neglecting to do so, a swelling should succeed, it 
may be discussed by fomenting night and morning, for 
an hour at a time, with water as hot as can be endured; 
for that will give vent to the humours to transpire through 
the skin, or dissolve them, so as to make them capable 
of returning back. 
All sickness 
at the stom- 
ach to cure. 
Moreover, by means of water all sickness at the sto- 
mach may be cured, which is done thus: 
Take four quarts of water, make it as hot over 
the fire as you can drink it; of which wa- 
ter let a quart be taken down at several 



[12]
draughts; then wrap a rag round a small piece of stick, 
till it is about the bigness of a man’s thumb; tie it fast 
with some thread; and with this, by endeavouring gent- 
ly to put it a little way down your throat, provoke your- 
self to vomit up again most of the water: then drink 
another quart, and vomit up that, and repeat the same 
the third and fourth time, if once or twice is not suffi- 
cient. You may also provoke vomiting by tickling your 
throat with your finger, or the feather-end of a goose 
quill; but the cloth round a skewer maketh one vomit 
with more ease, which is done with no trouble when 
the stomach is full. And by this way of vomiting, 
which will be all performed in an hour’s time, that vis-
cous and ropy phlegm in the stomach, which causeth the 
sickness, will be cast up, so that the party in that time 
will be free from all that inward disturbance, if you use 
the remedy at first; but, if the sickness hath continued 
for a time, it will require the same course once or twice 
more, which may be done in three or four hours, one 
after another, without any other inconvenience, besides 
that of being a little sore in the breast the next day, 
which will soon go off by the force of nature. Which 
remedy, by forty years experience, I look upon to be in- 
fallible in all sickness at the stomach, from what cause 
soever, and for all pains in the belly which seem to be a- 
bove the navel; for these are all in the stomach, as by 
long experience I have found: Which pains are gene- 
rally counted the cholic; but it is not so; for true cho- 
lics are always below the navel, in the gut colon. And 
by this means I have eased very great pains caused by eat- 
ing mussels that were poisonous; and it it also a certain 
cure for all surfeits or disorders that follow after much 
eating. So that the lives of multitudes might be saved 
by this means, who, for want of expelling what offends, 
often die in misery: For, by thus cleansing the stomach 
at the first, the root of diseases proceeding from sur- 
feiting, or unwholsome food, or any viscous humours 
from a bad digestion, are prevented; the stomach being 
the place in which all distempers at first begin. No man 
was more subject to sickness than myself before thirty 

[13]
years of age; but since I found out the way of vomiting 
with water, which is now above forty years, I never have 
been sick for two days together: For, when I find my- 
self ill to any great degree, I betake myself to this way of 
vomiting, which in an hour’s time restores me to ease, and 
perfectly removes my illness. And the same benefit all 
my family find in it, as do others also whom I can per- 
suade to try the experiment, which is such, that no phy- 
sician whatever can advise a better to the king himself, 
should he fall sick. For, in the first place, it is not a 
nauseous remedy, it does not make the patient sick, as 
the best of all other vomits do; and then it is a vomit 
which is at our own command, since we can leave off 
when we please: And it infallibly works a cure to all 
sick stomachs, from whatever cause. 
Digestion- 
to cause. 
Some few indeed pretend they are not able to vomit 
by this means: Now, if they cannot vo- 
mit, let them take a pint of water when they 
find themselves ill from eating, and do so e- 
very three or four hours, eating no more till 
they are hungry; and they will find the water digest and 
carry off what was offensive. The ingenious Dr. Cheyne, 
in his Treatise of the gout, affirms, that warm water drank 
freely in a morning fasting, and at meals, (and I say cold 
water is as good) hath a sovereign remedy for restoring 
lost appetites, and strengthening weak digestions, when, 
other more pompous medicines have failed. And he ad-
viseth gouty persons, after excess either in meat or drink, 
to swill down as much fair water, as their stomach will 
bear, before they go to bed, whereby they will reap these 
advantages, either the contents of the stomach will be 
thrown up, or both meat and drink will be much dilut- 
ed, and the labour and expence of spirits in digestion 
much saved, p. 44. ed. 4: And indeed I have found by 
long experience, that nothing causeth so good a digestion 
as fair water; but this requires time to free us from the 
uneasiness that an ill digestion causeth, whereas vomit- 
ing is an immediate remedy, and frees a man from it u- 
pon the spot. 
B


[14]
Other bene- 
fits of vo- 
miting with 
water.
We are told by Sir John Floyer, in his Treatise 
bath and mineral springs that vomiting with  
water is very useful in the gout, sciatica, 
wind, shortness of breath, hypochondriac 
melancholy, and falling-sickness; which dis- 
tempers are generally derived from evil matter 
contained in the stomach, as is likewise gid- 
diness in the head, and apoplexies, with which myself 
once seemed to be threatened: For, after eating a plen- 
tiful dinner, I was seized with giddiness, and the fight 
of my eyes became so depraved, that things seemed dou- 
ble, which was accompanied with a strange consternation 
of spirit; and having read, that apoplexies generally 
seize after eating, I immediately called for water, and, 
not daring to stay till it was warmed, I drank it cold, and 
by the help of my finger provoked vomiting: Upon 
which I did immediately overcome the evils I was threat- 
ened with, the symptoms before-mentioned being the same 
as did precede the fit of an apoplexy in another person, 
as himself afterwards told me, who died of it the third 
fit, about a year after. 
Shortness 
of breath. 
As for people who are troubled with shortness of 
breath, it is certain from experience, that 
vomiting with warm water three or four 
times, will afford certain relief. And the 
same may be prevented by drinking nothing 
but water afterwards, either cold or warmed with a toast: 
For, upon doing this, the difficulty of breathing will ap- 
parently abate: which water, if you please, may be boil- 
ed with honey. And I knew one, who by this means, 
as he was advised by me, lived comfortably in this city 
two or three winters, but, having undertaken business 
which did occasion drinking strong drinks, was the next 
winter carried off by the distemper: Wine, ale, or 
brandy, being as bad as poison to people troubled with 
shortness of breath. So that nothing but water ought 
to be drank in that distemper. 
Some people are taken with violent vomiting, and the 

[15]
excess thereof in some hath been so great as to endanger 
their lives, yea, cause death: In which case 
water will be very helpful; for, if a pint of 
it warmed be drank after every vomit, it 
will prevent that violent straining, wherein  
lieth the danger of all vomiting, because to strain violent- 
ly, when but little will come up, endangers the breaking 
of some inward vessel. 
Vomiting 
to cure.
And, besides this, the offending 
matter will be sooner loosened from the internal part of 
the stomach, and cast out, upon which the vomiting will 
sooner cease: For after this manner the famous Syden- 
ham, a most honest writer, did overcome the cholera 
morbus, or vomiting and looseness, so common in his 
time, and was found by the weekly bill to kill more than 
now die of convulsions; for his way was to boil a chick- 
en in four gallons of water, which made a broth not 
much differing from water, of which he ordered large 
draughts to be given, and some of it to be taken by cly- 
ster, till the whole quantity was spent, if the vomiting 
did not stop before; which did so take off the sharpness 
of the matter offending, and wash it out, that the party 
a little time became well. And the same was the 
practice of Sigismundus Grasius, who commends pure 
water in a vomiting or looseness to be drank in large quan- 
tities; for thereby, he saith, the corrosive and sharp hu- 
mours will be so weakened, that they will no more of- 
fend: And he saith, it may be drank cold if the patient 
be strong, otherwise let it be warmed. 
Fluxes.
And in common fluxes without vomiting, a quart or 
more of warm water drank, will so weaken 
the sharpness whereby the distemper is caus- 
ed, that it will soon be overcome, and the  
gripings eased. And in the bloody flux, which is the most
dangerous of all fluxes, the ingenious Cornelius Celsus 
adviseth a large drinking of cold water as the best of re- 
medies: But then no other substance must be taken 
till the disease is cured. And Lusitanus, another great 
physician, affirms, Cent. I, Obser 46. that he knew one, 
who, being in the summertime afflicted with the bloody
B 2

[16]
flux, drank a large quantity of cold water, and thereby 
recovered. This large quantity of water, in these fluxes, 
doth so correct the sharpness of the humour offending, 
that it can have no power to cause pain, or corrode the 
vessels, and cause bloody digestions or stools. 
Consumpti- 
ons. 
Water also is a drink that conduceth above all things 
to cure consumptive people; for the digesti- 
on being weakened, is the cause of producing 
a hot fretting nourishment, which is injuri- 
ous to the tender substance of the lungs,
and which constringes and stops up the lymphatic ves- 
sels thro' which the nourishment is to pass to all the parts, 
so that by degrees the body for want of due supplies 
consumes: Which obstructions, and that acrimony 
which causeth them, will be opened and sweetened by 
the plentiful use of water, if taken before the lungs be- 
come ulcerous. Which cure of consumptions by water 
is recommended in the writings of Dr. Couch, who, in 
his Praxis Catholica, tells us, that he knew a man cured 
very soon of a consumption by drinking pure water. And 
it is said by another, that some have been cured of con- 
sumptions by drinking no other drink but water, avoid- 
ing all malt liquors, and sharp wines: For wine or any 
other strong liquor is pernicious in this distemper, whole 
original is affirmed by Dr Coward to be always in the 
stomach, from some intemperance in meat or drink. 
Flushes in 
the face. 
Some there are who are much troubled with flushing 
heat in the face, and others with a heat in 
the back; in both which cases, water used 
as common drink is the best remedy, with a 
spare cooling diet: And it is also excellent 
for such as have red blotches in their face, which proceed 
from a hot fretting blood, which by water-drinking, and 
a moderate diet, will be kept under: For as Dr. Dun-
can, before quoted, doth affirm, those who keep their 
blood cool and clean, are never troubled with breakings- 
out, like many others, who may be known to be drink-

[17]
ers of hot drinks, and to use a hot full diet, by their 
faces being full of blotches. 
Cholic.
Water is also commended by the learned for the cholic; 
large drinking of water hath been found to 
be an excellent remedy. And it is said by 
Fortis, that when he practised at Venice,  
he often gave cold water in the cholic, with good success. 
With whom an English physician, Dr. Wainwright, in 
his Mechanical account of the six non-naturals,  concurs; 
for he saith, that water-drinkers are never troubled with 
the cholic, and that many thereby have been cured, when 
all other remedies failed: But in this case a quart at 
least is required. 
Small Pox. 
And, in the Small Pox, water hath also been proved 
to be an excellent drink. Salmon, in his 
Synopsis Medicine, saith, that in this distem- 
per you may safely give the sick fair water, of 
which, says he, they may drink liberally to quench thirst; the 
want of which plenty of drink, hath been the death of 
many a patient. Which opinion of his was right, as by 
experience I have found in two of my own children, when 
sick of this distemper; to whom, after I had given a 
gentle vomit of emetic tartar, I gave no other drink but 
water, and they both recovered safely, and were not in 
the least light headed, as two others before were in the 
same distemper, when treated otherwise. And I re- 
member that one Dr. Betts, being consulted in a case 
where the eruption did not come out kindly, ordered 
two quarts of cold water to be drank as soon as could 
be, upon which they came out according to expectation, 
and the party did well. 
Burning 
fevers. 
It is also certain, that, in what we call burning fevers, 
water is found to be a safe and effectual re- 
medy. It is said by Dr. Primrose, in his 
Popular Errors, that many great physicians 
have commended the drinking cold water in 
diseases, and they attribute to it the chief place in fevers,
B 3

[18]
where the sick must drink largely; for thus taken it will 
quench all heat, p 374 And Galen is said, by an En- 
glish author, to reprove Crasistratus for denying cold wa- 
ter in burning fevers; and says, that this is a remedy 
for any fever, provided it be drank in great abundance. 
With which opinion I find Dr. Oliver to agree, who, in 
his Essay on Fevers, says, that in fevers we must drink 
oftner than thirst calls for it, and such draughts as are 
plentiful; and the drink he prescribes is either cold wa- 
ter or barley-water. Dr Wainwright affirms also, that 
water is proper in fevers, and that the ancients gave as 
much of it as the patient could drink. And by another 
it is said, that if you give the patient nothing but water 
for three days, that in the third day the fever will be cu- 
red generally; but, if it is not, give for food a little 
barley-broth, and the fever will not exceed the seventh 
day. And by another we are informed, how one in a fe- 
ver, that was past hope, being forbidden to drink water, 
which he greatly desired, did find means, in the absence 
of his nurse, to get a large potfull, which he drank off, 
and lay down again, being well cooled; after which he 
fell into a sweat, and so was cured. Dr. Cook of War- 
wick, in his book of Observations on English bodies, pre- 
scribes for the cure of fevers, first a vomit, and after- 
wards as much cold water as the patient can drink; and 
he saith, that, if he sweat upon it, the sweat must be 
continued as long as can be. And it is said by another, 
that it is an excellent remedy in fevers to drink a quart of 
hot water, and sweat upon it, being covered warm. Dr. 
Quinton, in his book of Observations, writes, that to one in 
a malignant fever, whose pulse was so low it could scarce- 
ly be felt, there were three quarts of water given, at se- 
veral draughts, to make him vomit; but it did not ope- 
rate that way, yet the event was this: It refreshed him 
much, raised his pulse, brought him into a breathing 
sweat, and passed off by urine; which lowness of the 
pulse I have often found to be raised in other cases, by 
drinking water plentifully. And I know a woman, who, 
tho’ she in a fever had the advice of two doctors, yet be- 
came distracted: I bid the nurse give her a pint of cold

[19]
water, which she drank up, and in three or four minutes 
came to her right senses; and desiring to drink more, she 
recovered. And I have observed, that when in fevers 
the patient can relish no other drink, yet water is always 
drank with pleasure, as it also will always be after the 
eating of sweet things, that spoil the relish of other 
drinks; which is one excellence peculiar to water, and 
shows it to be most agreeable to the nature of mankind, 
tho’ now so much slighted. And, besides this, it is a 
drink that will not turn sour in the stomach, as all fer- 
mented drinks will do, so the increase of distempers al- 
ready begun there, by acidity or sourness. 
Gout.
And as for the gout, which Dr Harris saith, in his
Anti Empiric, is gotten either by high feeding 
or dinking much wine, or other strong drink; 
it may be cured, as that author affirms, by a 
very spare diet, and drinking water: According to what  
is said also by Sir Theodore Mayhem, who, in his Me- 
dicinal Counsels, adviseth to leave off all strong drinks in 
this disease, and drink only water And Van Heyden 
saith also, in his Treatise of help for the rich and poor, that 
there is not any greater remedy for the gout than drink- 
ing water, not only by young, but old men; many of 
whom, he saith, have drank cold water for many weeks, 
which hath succeeded so well, though they were far 
gone in years, that they found great ease thereby, with- 
out that offence to the stomach, or hindrance of digesti- 
on, which some did not seem to fear. And he also 
commends the large drinking of water in the sciatica or 
hip-gout, he having often cured that distemper, by this 
means, in less time than could reasonably be expected. 
And the same I have found to be effectual in a pain in 
the shoulder, which had continued very bad for three 
months: For, being taken with a fever, I drank in one 
day about four quarts of water; which tho' it did not 
make me sweat, because I lay not in my bed, yet it cured 
me so that I slept well that night; and, in the morning 
when I rose, the pain in my shoulder was not felt, nei- 
ther did it ever return. And the same success I have had 

[20]
in the pains of other parts; whereby, I judge, that, in all 
pains whatever, the drinking of water is proper, as well 
as in the gout: And accordingly I find cold water advis- 
ed to be drank largely for the cure of the head-ach from 
hard drinking; that pain proceeding from the same cause 
the gout does, namely, from heat, as all pains do, that 
are not from bruises. 
Inflammato- 
ry distemp- 
ers & wind.
It is said also by Dr. Wainwright, that in the itch,  
scurvy, leprosy, and all hot inflammatory 
distempers, such as pleurisies, rheumatisms, 
and St Anthony's fire, water is a proper re- 
medy; but he adviseth to drink it hot in 
some cases, as doubtless it ought to be done 
in pleurisies. He also saith, that water is proper in 
head-achs, catarrhs, vapours, falling sickness, dullness of 
sight, melancholy, shortness of breath, scurvy in the 
mouth, and windiness in the stomach: And for this 
wind in the stomach, I, by long experience, have found 
it the best remedy, who in the former part of my life, 
through a disorderly diet, and drinking strong drink like 
others, was never free from windy belchings, and some- 
times very sickish qualms after meals; from which at 
length I was delivered, by drinking only water at meals; 
so that for above forty years I have been seldom troubled; 
And, if I find myself troubled, a pint or more of cold 
water, in less than half an hour will set me free, by- 
drinking of it. 
Hard drink- 
ing. 
And that water is the best remedy for the mischiefs 
that come by hard drinking, experience 
teacheth; there being nothing that so effec- 
tually frees from these nauseating and reach- 
ing qualms the next morning, as the drink- 
ing a pint or more of fair water; which effectually al- 
lays the inflammation of the bowels, occasioned by strong 
or hot drink, which spoils the strength of the stomach, 
and of all other parts; nothing being a greater enemy 
to the vigour of the nerves and sinews, since by much 
drinking, men make themselves unable to stand or go; 

[21]
which effect would never follow, if liquors that abound 
with spirits were strengthening; nor would the fibres of 
the stomach be so weakened after drinking strong drinks, 
as to make men sick; which sickness will soonest be re- 
covered by the drinking cold water, this being also the 
best remedy, if taken largely, for that heat of urine of- 
ten occasioned by hard drinking. 
Colds and 
bad digesti 
on. 
In colds, water is the best of all drinks to prevent 
floods of rheum from the nose and mouth, 
as my long experience testifies, and therefore 
will prevent coughs; for a cough will sel- 
dom succeed a cold, if water is used from the 
first as common drink: And if, through 
neglect, a cough should become troublesome, the use of 
water, avoiding all wine and strong drink, will contri- 
bute much to the cure. Some order the water to be 
drank warm, but others say, that the drinking it cold 
vastly excells the using it hot in a cough. It is said by 
Van Heydon, that some may think it strange to advise 
water in such diseases, which most account to proceed 
from crudity or indigestion; but he says, that, in any 
disease where the case is dangerous, the use of water 
is the only friend to nature; cold being a preventer ra- 
ther than a cause of crudity; since by all experience it is 
proved to be a promoter of good digestion. And at this 
time I know a woman, seventy-eight years of age, who 
for ten years past hath had a great cough, and spit much 
tough phlegm, that this present winter 1722, hath been 
persuaded to leave off both strong and small fermented 
liquor, and drink only water at meals, and sometimes a 
dish or two of tea; and hath found herself much less 
subject to cough than before, and scarce coughs at all in 
bed, tho’ subject before to cough very much in the night:
She also drinks at bed-time half a pint of cold water, 
and the same quantity first in the morning, and finds 
more comfort by it at so great an age, than 
wine hath at any time afforded. Moreover, Heart burn.
drinking of water is a certain cure for the 
heart-burning; as some affirm. 

[22]
Strong 
drinks hurt- 
ful to chil- 
dren. 
It is generally the opinion of most physicians, that  
wine and stong drinks are not proper for 
children; and that the smaller and cooler 
their drink is, the better it will be with 
them; and that nothing conduceth more to 
the health of children than drinking water, 
which will prevent the foundation of those 
diseases that are caused in many by strong drink, and 
show themselves in their more advanced age, wherein 
many also suffer much by the mother's ill custom of mak- 
ing them gluttons, by constantly cramming their stomachs 
with food, many being thereby destroyed among the 
children of the rich, before they come to the years of 
maturity; when the children of poor country people, 
who fare hard, stand their ground till full grown: For 
fewer children die in the country than in great cities, 
where luxury in diet doth more abound; which is one 
reason why so few house-keepers in London were born in 
it, the great supply of inhabitants being from the coun- 
try, children being brought up more hardy there than in 
London, where great numbers are killed by over-eating 
or pleasing their palates. Which mischief would be in 
a great measure prevented by their being accustomed to 
eat less, and drink water; this by experience being 
found to make young children free from that frowardness, 
which is commonly caused by a sharp, and hot, or fever- 
ish blood, which engendereth wind, and causeth pain
and gripes: for there is no pain but is the consequence 
of heat, or inward as well as outward inflammations. 
Fair water 
equal to 
that at 
Tunbridge.
To what hath been said may be added this considerati- 
on, that, when the best physicians are baf- 
fled by some distempers, they advise their 
patients to use the water of some mineral 
spring, tacitly acknowledging thereby, that 
all their prescriptions may be excelled by 
water. They pretend indeed to ascribe its 
effects to some minerals with which the waters are tinc- 
tured: But Dr. Baynard,in p. 438, of Sir John Floyer’s 
Cold bathing, tells of a certain person who used to fre-

[23]
qnent Tunbridge, by which he found much benefit; but, 
being hindered from going thither one season, drank it the 
same quantity of water taken from the pump of a spring 
in his own yard, which did him as much service: where- 
upon he wrote thus upon his pump : 
Steel is a cheat; 
’Tis Water does the feat. 
And, indeed, if we consider how many diseases and 
pains proceed from a sizey, thick blood, which cannot 
pass as it ought to do through the finest pipes that con- 
vey the blood to the parts, pure water, without mi- 
nerals drank to the quantity of a quart or pints in 
a morning, will attenuate or thin the blood sufficiently: 
Nothing, as Boerhaave affirms, being a greater diluter of 
thick blood, than warm water drank in great quantity. 
Which to thin the blood may be best, tho’ to strengthen 
the stomach it is best drank cold, having the same effect 
inwardly, in some cases, as cold bathing hath outwardly; 
its use this way being also great. For 
Burns and 
Scalds. 
Water I have found, by long experience, to be of ex- 
cellent use in burns and scalds; for in all 
burns and scalds, that are slight, if the part 
is plunged immediately into cold water, the 
colder the better, the pain will instantly 
be taken off; and it will fetch out the fire, if continued 
so long as will be required to do it by any other remedy. 
And if the burn be so considerable, that other remedies 
must be applied, none of which will take off the smart 
of themselves in less than two or three hours; yet if 
you apply cold water presently, after other applications 
are made to the part, the pain will immediately cease, 
till the remedy becomes effectual: So that the ease wa- 
ter will give in such cases, makes it of good use. Which 
remedy, as it hath not been discovered till now, appears 
to transcend all ether remedies in this case; because, in 
a moment, the greatest smart will be eased; if the water 
is cold, and will be felt no more, if the part afflicted be

[24]
kept immersed in it till the fire is extinguished, either by 
the water, or the medicine applied. Besides, it is a re- 
medy every-where ready at hand, which cannot be said 
of any other; which generally requires so much time to 
get it ready, that much pain will be endured, if blisters 
do not arise, which do much increase the trouble. If 
the part burnt, or scalded, cannot be dipped in water, 
you may apply water to it, with double linen cloths 
dipped therein, and new dipped as they grow warm; 
by which means I have cured burns and scalds in the 
face without bistering, when applied immediately before 
blisters did arise. 
Ulcers from 
burnings. 
I once knew a large ulcer in the foot, made by the run- 
ning of melted brass into the shoe, that was 
kept in hand by a surgeon nine weeks, with- 
out any probability of healing, because of 
the great inflammation that attended it; 
but the party, being a lover of angling, was persuaded 
to go with some others to Hackney-river: Some of them 
went bare-legged into the water, to come at a certain 
hole where much fish was sometimes found. The sport 
was so good, that the lame man having pulled off his 
stockings and plaisters, went in also, where he staid above 
two hours, and coming out again, the ulcer, which ap- 
peared very red and angry when he went in, looked 
pale; he put on his dressings, and came home, and in 
less than a fortnight his ulcers healed up; which doubt- 
less was occasioned by the abating of the inflammation by 
the coldness of the water. And I have had an account 
also from an acquaintance, that was a surgeon to a mer- 
chant ship, that their gunner, at a time when the cap- 
tain treated some friends on board, going to charge a gun 
that just before had been fired off, the cartridge he was 
ramming down took fire, whereby he was blown into 
the water, and had some of his fingers torn off, and it 
was about an hour before a boat could be got to take him 
up: But they found that the coldness of the water had 
almost stopped the bleeding, and the cure was effected so 
speedily, that other surgeons wondered at it; which he 

[25]
imputed to the water, which kept back the humours, by 
its coldness, from flowing to the part at the first; So 
that there was no impediment, from inflammation, to 
hinder healing; for the chief impediment to healing, is 
inflammation in wounds or ulcers. More- 
over, to bathe with cold water, is affirmed 
by Dr. Lower to be a sovereign remedy for 
any hot swelling, if continued a due time at 
Hot swel- 
lings. 
the first beginning; and it is affirmed also to be a good 
cure for the cramp. 
Sprains 
and hot 
swellings.
And as for strains and sprains in the joints, cold water
affords the best and most speedy remedy, as 
Van Heydon affirms; who saith, that, by 
bathing in cold water, all harm so received 
may by this remedy be cured more safely 
and more speedily than by any other, with-   
out loss of time, cost or trouble; for no more is to be 
done, as I have often found, than, as soon as can be, to 
put the part into a vessel of cold water for about two 
hours, which will prevent all swelling and pain, by re- 
pelling or keeping back the humours that otherwise would 
flow to the part. And if it should be the shoulder, or 
any other part, which is so hurt, that cannot well be 
immersed in water after this manner; water may be ap- 
plied, by dipping towels folded up into it, and laying 
them to the part, as is done, in effect, to the
Sprains in 
horses.  
wrenched joints or horses, about which, if 
you wind oftentimes a thick rope made of 
hay, and then cast upon it divers times a 
pail of cold water, the wrench will be cured; which ex- 
periment is now commonly practised by those concerned 
about horses. 
Weakness of 
the joints. 
Bathing in cold water hath also been found to be a 
good remedy to strengthen weakness in the 
joints, as Sir John Floyer, in his treatise of 
Cold Bathing; hath shewed; and which by 
experience I found to be true on a certain  
woman, who complained of great weakness and pain in
C 

[26]
her ancles: I advised her to dip the part in cold water 
every morning for a quarter of an hour, and do the 
same at night; and in about twenty days she became as 
strong in that part as she was in the other. And Sir 
John tells us of a boy who could not stand, his limbs 
were so weak, that, by bathing in cold water, perfectly 
recovered his strength in a little time. 
Pain in the 
head. 
Great pain in the head hath been also cured by this 
means; for we are told by Van Heydon, 
that Sir Toby Matthews had for twenty 
years been troubled with great pain in one 
side of his head, and a great defluxion of 
rheum from his nose: but he at last was cured, by ap- 
plying cold water to the part every day for about a quar- 
ter of an hour: Upon reading of which, I tried the 
experiment upon myself, who for a long time had been 
troubled with the running of much clear water from my 
nose, with great spitting of thin rheum; for I let a wa- 
ter-cock run upon the mould of my head every morning, 
by which, in about six weeks time, I was eased of my 
trouble. And since that, I had a credible information 
of a certain servant maid, who was afflicted greatly with 
a rheumatism, and an intolerable pain in the head, who 
being put into St. Thomas’s Hospital, her nurse was or- 
dered by the doctor to apply to her head towels four 
times double, dipt in cold water, changing them as they 
became warm, which she was to continue doing four or 
five hours; in which time she was freed from that pain 
in the head, and was afterwards cured of the rheumatism 
by other means. 
Want of 
sleep in 
fevers. 
The want of sleep in fevers, may be cured likewise by 
the application of cold water: For to a 
near relation in a fever, who could not 
sleep for three and three nights, I or- 
dered a towel to be several times folded up, 
then to be dipped in water, and a little 
wrung out, and so laid upon her forehead, and to be 
new dipped as it grew hot; which in about two hours 


[27]
time so cooled her head, that she fell into a sleep, and 
continued in it five hours: And I ordered the same to 
be done the next night, with the same succces Dr. Cock- 
burn, in his treatise of Sea-diseases, orders, for the want 
of sleep in fevers, to dip a towel four times doubled in 
oxycrat, which is six parts water and one part vinegar, 
to be bound about the head and temples; which, he 
saith, will cause sleep with wonderful success. But cold 
water only will have the same effect, as I often have pro- 
ved. 
Swoonings.
And that the use of cold water, in swooning, is of 
great effect, common experience teacheth: 
For, if a dish or cup of cold water is thrown 
strongly upon the face, the person in an in-
stant will recover, tho’ for a time he seemeth dead, and 
perhaps might not have recovered in some cases, if cold 
water had not been so applied; such faintings being some- 
times deadly, which proceed from poisonous vapours as- 
cending up to the brain from a foul stomach; For such 
effects there are, as I have found by experience, who in 
my young days did swoon away twice; at both which 
times I was sensible of a collection of wind in my sto- 
mach, from whence I plainly felt a fume or vapour as- 
cend to the head, that in an instant deprived me of all 
sense: But being both times in the company of a person 
who had seen the thing tried, he dashed some cold water 
against my face, which I remember made me start, as if 
I had been suddenly awaked. And I am apt to think, 
that some die in such a fit, when none are near to help 
them; and especially when so taken in their sleep, which 
I believe none need fear, who live temperately, or that 
eat no suppers; none who have refrained from suppers, 
having been ever found to die in their sleep. 
Bleedings 
at the nose.
Dangerous bleedings at the nose have also been cured 
with cold water largely drank, syringing cold 
water up their nostrils, and applying towels 
round their necks dipt in cold water, chang- 
ing them as they grow warm ; for it is said 
C 2

[28]
by a good writer, that this will so cool the heat of the 
blood, and by the coldness of the water syringed up the 
nose, to contract the mouths of the veins which bleed, 
that it will put a stop to the bleeding. Such bleedings 
have also been stoped by dashing cold water often in the 
face, as a French writer hath affirmed, whose name was 
Flammand; and the same also is affected by Cook, in his 
Marrow of Surgery. 
Small cuts.
Cold water is an absoltue cure for all small cuts, in the  
fingers, or other parts; for if you close the 
cut up with the thumb of your other hand, 
keeping it so closed for a quarter or half an 
hour, this will infallibly stop the bleeding: After which, 
if you double up a linen-rag five or six times, dip it in 
cold water, and apply it to the part, binding it on; this, 
by preventing inflammation and a flux of humours, will 
give nature time soon to heal it without any other appli- 
cation, as is seen in the common practice of surgeons 
when they let a man blood; for all the application they 
make to the vein so cut, is a pledget of linen dipped in 
cold water, and bound on with a fillet: For all wounds, 
without loss of substance, will heal of themselves, if in- 
flammation be prevented, and the lips of the wound are 
kept close together. 
Bitings of a 
mad dog.
We are also informed by Van Heydon, that in his time 
some were of an opinion, that a person bit 
by a mad dog might be preserved from that 
symptom, called, the fear of water, which 
generally follows, and proves so mortal, by 
applying cold water to the place bitten: And this, he says, 
they conceive to be no unlikely thing, if there is any 
credit to be given to what Cornelius Celsus writes, who 
saith, that the only remedy in this case is, to throw the 
party who hath the fear of water upon him, into a pond 
or river, and, when plunged over head and ears, to keep 
him in the water till filled with it, whether he will or 
no; and by this means both his thrist and dread of water 
will be cured. For, if this immersion be of use when

[29]
the person is so far gone, why should it not be of great- 
er force in preserving from it, if speediiy applied, and 
repeated? Now, tho’ this is mentioned by him as a pro- 
bable opinion, yet experience in our days shews, that the 
plunging the patient into the salt water, either of the ri- 
ver of Thames about Gravesend, or in the salt springs in 
Cheshire, is the best means to prevent any evil succeeding 
the bite of a mad dog; they must indeed be dipped so of- 
ten, as to be almost drowned before the danger is over: 
But it is a question whether the saltness of the water 
contributes any thing to this cure, since Boerhaave, the 
present professor at Leyden, affirms, that when men bit- 
ten by a mad dog are arrived to the fear of water, called 
an hydrophobia, they may be cured by blinding the pa- 
tient's eyes, and throwing of him into a pond of water 
often, till he seems not to be afraid of it, or but very 
little, and then force him to drink large quantities.
Falling- 
Sickness. 
And we are told by Dr. Edward Browne, that a per- 
son troubled with the falling-sickness, by 
happening to fall into a cold spring, (I sup- 
pose it was in the time of his fit) was freed 
from his distemper all his life after: And 
he saith, there is no need of preparing the body for it in 
this, as in some other cases. But the patient, when plun- 
ged into a cold bath, ought to continue in the bath each 
time about three or four minutes; for, in plunging o- 
ver head and ears at his first entrance into a cold bath, 
the brain will be so sensibly affected, as to be relieved 
from the distemper, which is a kind of convulsion pro- 
ceeding from an inflammation, or some other cause; but 
we want more experiments to confirm this notion: which 
notion may be worth noticing, that the thing may be tri- 
ed in others, to see if it will succeed as it did in this per- 
son. For it is said by the ingenious Dr. Pitcairn, a 
Scotsman, sometime professor at Leyden, that there is no 
such thing as the art of curing, but only the practice; 
remedies were found out by chance, p 264, of his works. 
For when remedies thus happen to be discovered, and 
prove often to be effectual, the remembering that reme- 
C 3

[30]
dy, to apply it in a like case of practice, brings reputa- 
tion to the prescriber; but, if it fails, some other expe- 
riment must be tried, which, were physic an art, need 
not be done, bccause the rules of art are certain, and 
men depend upon them as such. 
Madness & 
melancholy. 
It is also said by the same Dr. Browne, that madness 
and melancholy, with all their retinue, 
may find better effects from the use of bath- 
ing in cold water, than from other violent 
methods, with which people so affected are 
now treated; for, says he, that which will make a drun- 
ken man sober in a minute, will certainly go a great way 
towards the cure of a madman in a month. Now it is 
most certain, to my own knowledge, that, if a drunken 
man be plunged over head and ears in cold water, he will 
come out of it perfectly sober: And some I have known, 
that in such cases have been recovered by barely washing 
their heads in cold water. Which fore mentioned opi- 
nion of Dr. Browne is confirmed by the practice of Dr. 
Blair, who, in a letter to Dr. Baynard, declares, that 
he cured a man raving mad, who being bound in a cart, 
striped off his clothes, and blindfolded, that the surprise 
might be the greater; he on a sudden had a great fall of 
water let down upon him from the height of twenty foot, 
under which he continued so long as his strength would 
permit: And, after his return home, he fell into a 
sleep, and slept twenty-nine hours, and awaked in as 
quiet a state of mind as ever, and so had continued to 
the time of writing that letter, which was twelve months. 
Distraction also in fevers, of which there are divers in- 
stances in the history of Cold Baths, has been cured by 
being plunged in cold water. See p. 226. 
Which relation seems to make that a more probable 
truth, which was related in a letter from Sir John Floyer, 
to Dr. Browne, and printed by that doctor; that in Nor- 
mandy they immerse fools, or dip them in cold water to 
cure them: A hot brain being the cause, perhaps, of 
several disorders in the understanding, and is in great part 

[31]
found to be true in the ridiculous behaviour of some 
drunken men, which, when their heads are become cool, 
abhor what they before did or said. Now, if such dip- 
ping would cure fools among us, great numbers might 
be made more happy than they are by being so dipped, 
before they have beggared themselves by imprudence. 
King's-evil.
Dr. Browne, in his discourse of Cold Baths, affirms, 
that to bathe in cold water hath been found 
to be the quickest, safest, and pleasantest 
cures for the king-evil; and he tells us, in p. 
85 of a Yorkshire gentleman, who was grievously af- 
flicted with this distemper, having great ulcers in the 
glands of his neck, which were so much inflamed, as to 
bring him very low; but, being advised by Dr. Baynard 
to bathe in the cold bath, he in a month’s time was per- 
fectly cured, his ulcers being healed up, contrary to the 
opinion of the most learned physicians. 
Jaundice, 
swelling, 
inflamed 
eyes, and 
pains in 
the joints. 
We also find mention, in the description of the Scot- 
tish Islands, of an odd remedy commonly 
made use of there for the cure of the jaundice; 
which is this: They strip the party naked, 
lay him upon the ground on his belly, and 
pour unawares upon his back a pail of cold 
water. And also pains in the joints, as Dr. 
Curtis tells us, will be cured, by holding 
the part under the stream of a pump or cock;  
and fomenting with cold water, is commended as good 
to assuage hot swellings. And I know a person who had 
often been subject to blood-shot or inflamed eyes, who 
afterwards, upon the beginning of the same distemper, 
took, by advice, a ball of linen rags, dipped them in 
cold water, and applied them to the part, cooling them 
by new-dipping as oft as they grew hot: Which appli- 
cation was continued three hours, in which time the hu- 
mour was so repelled, as to be troublesome no more; 
for the party, to my knowledge, hath had no sign o£ 
that distemper since, tho’ the same had been very trouble-


[32]
some many times before: And the same others have 
tried with the like succces. 
Defluxions 
on the eyes. 
It is also advised by Dr Gideon Harvey to wash the 
eyes well twice a day in cold water, as the 
best remedy to prevent defluxions on them, 
and preserve the eye-sight, which it greatly 
comforts. And this I have found true for 
many years, my eyes being often apt to be dim and stiff, 
so that I could scarce open my eye-lids; which, upon 
washing for a minute with fair water, hath been felt no 
more for a good while after. Besides which benefit to 
the eyes, authors say, it is also good to preserve the me- 
mory, if the whole forehead be washed twice a day; 
and it is also a certain cure for itching in the eyes. And 
indeed, washing with water will free mankind from a 
troublesome itching in any other part of the body, let it 
be never so private; as Cook, in his Observations on En- 
glish bodies, doth expresly declare from experience. And 
Wedelius affirms, that violent itching in a man's cod was 
so cured by him; and, if the other sex would make use 
of it, a single life would be less uneasy than it seems to- 
be to some. 
Callosity &
sore feet.
Some people are troubled with a callosity, or hardness 
of the bottom of their feet, which is so 
troublesome, as to be a hindrance to their 
easy walking; for which a cure is prescribed 
by Dr. Cook, that is, to soak them well in 
warm water, till the hardness is softened, and then 
scrape it off with the edge of a knife: And if the feet 
burn with any unnatural heat, and are tender, it was ad- 
vised by Mr. Rumsey, in his Organon Salutis, to bathe 
them daily in cold water. Others affirm, that to bathe 
tender feet often in hot water will cool them, by giving 
vent to that which is offensive; and it is useful in a 
cough. 
The plentiful drinking of water is commended in the 
scurvy, whether hot or cold, by Dr. Pitcairn, to dissolve 


[33]
Scurvy.
the scorburic salts, and carry them out by urine; but this 
is a distemper that Dr. Cheyne affirms is dif- 
ficult to cure, that nothing but a total absti-  
nence from flesh, fish, and strong liquor, will 
overcome the scurvy, p. 127. whether they are acids or 
alkalies. But tho’ weakness and faintness commonly at- 
tends on this distemper, yet myself, who have been for- 
merly extremely troubled with the scurvy, which often 
made me faint and weak, and my pulse so low as scarce- 
ly to be felt, found at last that the pulse would infallibly 
rise upon drinking a pint or more of cold water, and in 
a little time I should again become brisk and strong: for 
I have often observed, that, upon a disorder of the sto- 
mach, the strength of the bodily members soon would 
fail, and as easily be recovered when the disorder of the 
stomach was removed; which requires temperance and 
cooling diet, when distempered, especially in drink.
Asthma &
consumption.  
To what hath been already said, I will add an account, 
taken from a credible person, of a man in 
the parish of Shoreditch, who was despe- 
lately ill of an asthma, or shortness of breath, 
and deep consumption, for which he had 
tried many remedies to no purpose. At length he was 
advised by a physician, being poor, to drink, no drink but 
water, and eat no other food but water-gruel, without 
salt or sugar; which course of diet he continued for 
three months, finding himself at first to be somewhat 
better, and at the three months end he was perfectly cu- 
red; but, for security's sake, he continued in that diet a 
month longer, and grew fat and strong upon it. But 
his diet he had no mind to till he was thoroughly hungry, 
and then he did eat it with pleasure; in which perhaps 
constisted the best part of his cure, it being an advantage 
to health never to eat till hunger calls for food.
Cough cu- 
red. 
And I remember a young woman, a burnisher of sil- 
ver, who had a desperate cough, for which 
she had taken many things of an apothecary 
to no purpose; at length the journeyman told 
her, his master said, he could do no more: 

[34]
Hoarseness. 
But, said the fellow, I would advise you every morning 
to wash behind your ears, and upon your temples, and 
on the mould of your head, with cold water: Which 
she told me she did, and was perfectly cured 
of her cough by that means. And for a 
hoarseness that comes upon a cold, the dip- 
ping of a handkerchief five times double in very hot wa- 
ter, and holding it to the mouth and nose, new dipping, 
it as it becomes cold, is commended by Dr. Alexander- 
Read as a good remedy. 
Difficuliy 
in making 
water. 
There are divers other cases wherein the use of water 
hath done much good An ancient prac- 
tiser in physic told me, that in many diffi- 
culties of making water, he had advised the 
party to put his yard into water as hot as he 
could endure it, which in a minute did cause 
him to make water; and that women have had the same 
benefit by sitting over hot water. And he 
Costiveness. often had advised them who were costive, 
and went to stool with great difficulty, to 
sit over a pot with hot water in it; which soon was at- 
tended with an early dejection or stool, the body drawing 
up the vapour, which provoked expulsion of the excre- 
ments without much straining. 
Children 
unquiet. 
And it hath been observed, that froward children have 
been made much more quiet, by washing 
their lower parts every morning with water, 
to wash off the salts of their urine, which 
usually stick in the pores of the skin, and 
are fretful and uneasy; and nothing cures their soreness 
about those parts like it. Nor is there any thing more 
effectual to cure men who are gauled by riding, than to 
wash themselves well when they go to bed with cold wa- 
ter; and washing the bare breast every morning with 
cold water, will make those hardy who before were apt 
at every turn to take cold. To which I will 
add what Sir Theodore Mayhern affirms in 
his Medicinal Counsels, that in most diseases
Head dis- 
eases. 

[35]
Pains in 
the ear. 
of the head, there is nothing better than to bathe it with 
cold water. Which, in a desperate pain of 
the ear upon taking cold, I have found to 
be true; for the pain did vanish upon apply- 
ing to it about 30 minutes a towel doubled 
up often, and wet often in cold water; and tho’ it re- 
turned again, yet ease was soon obtained the same way, 
and the cure perfected in four times doing: Which 
cure of a pain gotten with cold, by a cold application, 
will not seem so strange, when we consider, that, in the 
northern countries, mortifications from cold are nowise
to be cured but by applying cold snow; as travellers into 
Denmark and Sweden do affirm. 
Curtis's opi- 
nion of wa- 
ter. 
In short, water, when rightly made use of, appears, 
from the accounts before-mentioned, very 
effectual to prevent and cure many diseases; 
but more especially the inward use thereof: 
For to use the words of the ingenious Dr. 
Curtis, in his Essay for the preservation and 
recovery of Health; the habitual use of water for common 
drink, preserves the native ferment of the stomach in 
due order, keeps the blood temperate, and helps to spin 
out the thread of life to the longest extent of nature; it 
makes the rest at night more quiet and refreshing, the 
reason and understanding more clear, the passions less 
disorderly; and, in case of eating too much, a large 
draught of cold water vastly exceeds any other cordial to
cause digestion: water being not so cold and lifeless, he 
saith, as many imagine. Besides which commendation 
of it by this doctor, it is certainly a drink that will not 
ferment in the stomach, nor turn sour, as wine and 
strong malt-drinks will, to the hindering of a good di- 
gestion, which all acidity in the stomach certainly doth, 
when it abounds there; and is best corrected by weaken- 
ing or making it less sour, by drinking good store of wa- 
ter, as the experience of above forty years practice hath 
assured myself, and many others. For tho’ water is ac- 
counted a contemptible drink, yet by beginning to make 
use it about thirty years of age, before which I was

[36]
often out of order, and continuing the use of it ever 
since, drinking very little wine or strong drink, I have 
attained to the age of seventy-four years, when thousands 
in the meantime, who delighted only in drinking strong 
beer, wine, and brandy, have not lived half so long; 
which makes good that saying in the| Scriptures, that 
Wine is a mocker, and strong drink is raging, and he who 
is deceived thereby is not wife, Prov. xx. I. since it noway 
contributes to long life, for it is certain, that thousands 
in the world live as long who drink no strong drink, as 
any drinkers of it do. Some indeed, from an extraor- 
dinary strength of nature, have been hard drinkers, and 
yet die old; but for one who does this, perhaps an hun- 
dred are destroyed by it before they come to half the 
time of life; and generally we shall find, that very 
strong and healthy constitutions, at the long-run, are 
ruined by riot and excess, there being no certain safety in 
any way of living, but that of temperance and modera- 
tion. Nature in some may, a long time, withstand the 
abuses offered to it, but at last it will yield to its enemies; 
and those who live the longest in an intemperate course, 
might, from the strength of their constitution, have li- 
ved much longer, had they ate less, and used themselves 
to drink more water; which drink, as it is most friend- 
ly, and longest will preserve the life of a strong consti- 
tution, so it is absolutely necessary for those that are 
weak and sickly, and are naturally subject to the gout, 
the stone, shortness of breath, wind, ill digestion, and 
such like. 
Useful in 
Vomiting.
But the chief use of water, in preserving of health,
is by using of it as a vomit, as before was 
shown, which is an infallible and the most 
speedy remedy that was ever found out for 
any stomach sickness, or pain there; for to  
vomit with warm water, will effectually remove it in one 
hour, and be a means to prevent great fits of sickness, 
and preserve the lives of many thousands to old age, by 
cleansing the stomach from that tough, slimy, or corrupt 
matter that offends, and is the cause of all mortal diseases,

[37]
especially of an apoplexy, which, tho' counted a disease 
of the head, yet hath its original from a foul stomach, 
which nothing doth so effectually cleanse as vomits; ac- 
cording to Dr Curtis, who saith, that vomiting with 
warm water, or carduus-tea, is very beneficial to bring 
up that which fluctuates in the stomach, and that tough, 
ropy phlegm, which sticks fast to the wrinkles and folds 
of that bowel, and which purges do often pass over, and 
cannot remove. Which way of vomiting with warm 
water, is ten times more easy and pleasant than that 
which is effected by the use of nauseous tea made of cardu- 
us, which physicians sometimes advise; and it is also such as 
can do no harm by violence, as other vomits made from 
antimony sometimes do, for want of drinking after each 
vomit a pint or more of water-gruel, or warm water, 
when you vomit with water. 
And here it may not be amiss to relate what I some 
years ago discovered, in order to mens freeing themselves 
from sickness that may happen after eating; for being in- 
vited to dine at a certain table, where there were several 
good dishes of meat, I was over-persuaded to eat more 
than I should, and in a little time after dinner found my- 
self began to be sick. I went out, and in a private place 
attempted to vomit, by tickling my throat with my fin- 
ger, but could not vomit as I desired; only by this 
means I raised up two or three mouthfuls of thick, tough 
phlegm, upon which I found myself better, and my sick 
qualm went off. I took the hint it gave me, and have 
done the same several times since, and find that the get- 
ting up the phlegm, which, like yeast upon beer, works 
up to the mouth of the stomach, a man may free him- 
self from some kinds of sickness after eating. And I 
remember it is an advice given by one Vaughan, in a 
book long since printed, intituled, Directions for Health, 
for men who feed high, to put their finger in their throat 
when they rise in the morning, to make themselves puke, 
or void the phlegm which can be raised, as an excellent 
way to preserve health; and it is said also to be an abso- 
lute preservative from the gout, by a good writer. 
D

[38]
The quan- 
tity of wa- 
ter needful. 
I will conclude with this note, that, in such distemper 
where water drinking will be available for a 
cure, the same must not be drank sparingly, 
but plentifully; as (for instance) to ease the 
gripings in a looseness or flux: for, if but a 
pint of water should be drank, ease would 
hardly succeed; but, drinking in about an hours time a 
quart or three pints, the sharpness and evil quality of 
the humour offending, will be so far diluted or weaken- 
ed, that immediate ease will follow. If the season be 
too cold to drink cold water, you may warm it a little u- 
pon the fire, or put a hot toast of bread into every pint. 
And the same is true in fevers, or in pains from gravel 
or the cholic: A small quantity will not be effectual in 
these cases; for in the cholic a quart is necessary, which 
ought to be carefully noted; and, in a fever, a little wa- 
ter will rather increase the burning, which large draughts, 
often drank, will soon take off. Rest, fasting, and drink- 
ing much water, after a vomit or two, is a course that 
never yet hath failed to cure fevers, by clearing the stom- 
ach of that sordid filthiness which causeth the distemper; 
for a happy issue will certainly follow such a course, if 
the fever is simple, and not complicated with such other 
distempers which will refill all remedies: For in many 
cases nothing can prevent mortality, as is evident by the 
death of the best physicians themselves, and by the death 
of many who consulted with them for a cure, since ma- 
ny die under the hands of the most able doctors, as well 
as quacks. 
Grief and 
frights. 
I will add to what hath been said, one experiment more, 
that is very material: And that is, being 
very hypochondriacal, and of a melancholy 
temper, I have often been strangely dejec- 
ted in mind when under grief for some mis- 
fortunes, which sometimes have been so great, as to 
threaten danger to life; in which fits of grief I always 
found the parts within my breast very uneasy, and some- 
times continued long: But now I have found a good re- 
medy; for, upon drinking a pint or more of cold water, 


[39]
I find ease in two or three minutes, so that no grief 
seems to afflict. Which experience I discover for the 
sake of others in the same circumstances, being certain, 
that the stomach sympathizeth with the mind, and this 
becomes the cause of that uneasy sensation perceived 
there, for which, cold water I have found to be the best; 
remedy in myself, and I believe others may find the same 
benefit, who will make use thereof upon the like occasi- 
on. And it gives also relief to people under frights, 
which sometimes have been very fatal, even unto death. 
Vapours.
There is also another experiment that I have often seen 
of good effect; and that is, that if persons, 
subject to what is called vapours, or that 
are afflicted with fits, commonly called the  
fits of the mother, will but drink water when they find 
their fits approach, it will immediately yield relief. 
There is in this case a mealy julep, prescribed by Dr. 
Bates, which is, to take a spoonful of fine wheat-flour, 
an ounce of fine sugar, and a pint of water, brew them 
together, and drink it off: This is pleasanter than water 
alone; but water of itself will be as effectual, or rather 
better, as hath been often proved upon persons in those 
fits. 
How to dis- 
tinguish 
Water.
Some perhaps may desire to know how to distinguish 
good from bad water. And the way to do 
this is, by the taste and scent; for being 
purely fresh, not salt, nor sweetish, nor ill- 
scented, it is good, provided it be pure and 
clear: Of which kind is the common wa-  
ter used in London, when well settled, or in fair weath- 
er. As for those who are curious, and will be at the 
charge, they may procure the best water for drink by distil- 
ation, either in an alembick, or in a cold still used in draw- 
ing any cold water from herbs; for no earthly or mettalic 
substance, nor any kind of salt will rise in distillation: 
So that the water so distilled will be pure, and admirable 
to drink when cold, and will keep as long from stinking 
as any of the cold distilled water in the apothecaries
D 2 


[40]
shops; according to what Dr. Quincy hath affirmed a- 
bout it in his Dispensatory. 
Those who have not the conveniency of distillation, 
may boil it a little as they do for tea; for then, when 
kept a while after it is cold, it will become more fine, 
by suffering any mixture contained in it to settle to the 
bottom of the vessel, and that will render it still more 
pure: In short, all water that will make a good lather 
with soap, is wholesome to drink without boiling, but 
none else. 
Pains in the 
stomach.
Since the collecting together the fore-mentioned ac-  
counts, I have met with a book written by 
Dr. Boerhaave, the present professor of phy- 
sic at Leyden in Holland, who affirms that 
drinking water, made very warm, is a good 
remedy to pacify griping pains in the stomach; and that 
it is proper to bathe wounds in the face with it, when 
they come to be just healed, so that the place be kept con- 
tinually wet, which I conceive is best done by applying 
often linen cloths wet, and binding them on till they be- 
gin to be dry, for this will prevent scars: And he saith, 
that warm water is better to attenuate or thin the blood 
than cold. 
Fevers. 
There is published lately a book of experiments made 
with water, by Dr. Hancock, a divine, cal- 
led Febrifugum Magnum; wherein he saith, 
that drinking a pint or a quart of cold water 
in bed will raise a copious sweat, and cure all burning 
fevers, which at once taking hath done the business; It 
will raise a sweat without much more covering than ordi- 
nary. And he further affirms, that the same taken at 
the beginning of the cold fit of an ague, and sweating 
upon it, at two or three times taking, will cure that dis- 
temper. A large quantity of hot water, I know, hath 
been advised to take off the cold fit of agues, but the 
party was not ordered to sweat Which discovery of the 
reverend doctor about fevers, is confirmed by the follow- 

[41]
ing accounts, which I received from a worthy gentleman, 
Mr. Ralph Thoresby, F.R.S.* to whom they were 
transmitted by Mr. Lucas, a pious and learned gentle- 
man of Leeds in Yorkshire, who says, that 
‘ One Captain Rosier fell into a violent fever, which 
‘ as soon as he perceived, he said he must have some 
‘ cold water. The gentlewoman, at whose house he 
‘ lodged, not thinking that proper, boiled the water (un- 
‘ known to him) and put some spirits therein, and sent 
‘ it up cold; but he smelt it before it came to his head, 
‘ and refused to drink it, saying, he knew what he did, 
‘ for he had several times tried it. Afterwards, some 
‘ clear water being brought, he drank it, sweat profuse- 
‘ ly, and was well the next day. 
‘ Another captain of a ship also took the same me- 
‘ thod, when he, or any of his men, fell into a fever; 
‘ which had the desired success.’ 
Mr. Lucas adds, in another letter to the same gentle- 
man, ‘ That his own wife fell very ill of a fever; she 
‘ drank water, sweat very much, and thereby recovered.’ 
Colds. 
All which instances corroborate the new way of cur- 
ing fevers, so lately discovered in this city by Dr. Han- 
cock; who also saith, he has had long expe- 
rience of curing common colds with cold wa- 
ter; and this is done by drinking a large 
draught of water at going to bed, another in the night, 
and another in the morning; which, he saith, will soon 
thicken and sweeten, and digest that thin sharp rheum 
that provokes coughing to no purpose; for the rheum, 
when thin, is hard to be brought up; but, when thick- 
ened, it will come up easily, and the cough will soon go 
off. Which agrees with what I before affirmed from my 
own long experience. 
D 3
* Author of Ducatus Leediensis, or Topography of Leeds, which the 
present learned Bishop of London, in his preface to the new edition o£ 
Cambden’s Britannia, stiles, An useful and accurate Treatise. 


[42]
Good for 
the breath.
He also affirms from his own experience, that using 
sometimes to take a walk of eight or ten miles in a  
morning, he found that water gave twice as 
good breath for that purpose as wine or ale; 
and, if it would do this for a man who had 
no asthma, he doubts not but it would do 
the same in a person troubled with one. And he also af- 
firms water to be the best remedy for a surfeit; to the 
truth of which I can testify by long experience. 
Rheuma- 
tism. 
He also affirms, that drinking co1d water hath been 
found good in rheumatisms, and that to one 
so afflicted he had advised to drink it as he 
lay in his bed, and it took off the fit; but if 
hot water attenuates the blood most, as Bo- 
erhaave affirms it is then best to drink of it warm daily 
to a good quantity: For, as Pitcairn observes, it is then 
the best dissolver of all kinds of salts in the body, which 
it will carry off in the urine, if drank plentifully; for 
by urine salts are evacuated, as is evident by the taste. 
Gout in the 
stomach. 
And it is his opinion, from the long experience he 
hath had of the effect of water in keeping 
the stomach in order, and making it tight 
and strong to perform its operations, and 
digest all humours, that it will cure the gout 
in the stomach; and perhaps it may do it better than 
wine, which I have known to fail. And I do not won- 
der that the same liquor, which is the principal cause of 
the gout in other parts, should not be a help in that part, 
but rather kill, as it often is found to do, tho’ the strong- 
est wine is drank. 
What 
sweating 
most natu- 
ral.
In short, he affirms, and that with great reason, that  
sweating in fevers, by drinking cold water. 
is more natural than to do it with hot sudi- 
rifics, which often do harm in the beginning 
of fevers, except good store of cooling moist- 
ning liquor are drank with them, they be- 
ing more apt to inflame than cool and quench 

[43]
heat in the body; and for that reason sweating hath not 
been often advised by physicians, because they were igno- 
rant of this way of sweating to cure fevers, by drinking 
cold water 
Which cure, he said, did succeed in one who was his 
relation, at the fifth day after his falling sick; to whom 
he gave a dose of water after he was in bed, and he 
sweated profusely for twenty-four hours, and thereby was 
cured. Half a pint, he saith, is enough for a grown 
child; a pint to a man or woman, tho’ if they drink a 
quart, it will be better. And in scarlet fevers, small 
pox, or measles, tho’ the water will not cause sweat, yet 
it will so quell and keep under the fever, that the erup- 
tions will come out more kindly; which is a confirmati- 
on of what before was said about Dr. Bett’s prescribing 
two quarts of water, when the small pox did not come 
out kindly; the water afforded matter to fill them up, 
according to what the author observes of a certain per-
son, in the history of Cold Bathing, p. 347. that he 
could give an hundred instances where people of all ages 
have been lost, by being denied drink in the small pox, 
- for it hinders the filling of the pustules. 
Plague. 
And Dr. Hancock sets down an account of the author 
of the Free-thinker, concerning a woman, 
who in the last great plague fell ill of that 
distemper, who got her husband to fetch her 
a pitcher of water from Lambs-conduit; she drank plen- 
tifully of it, but did not avoid the cold, and so did not 
sweat, however she was cured. And he gives us another 
relation of an Englishman, formerly resident at Morocco, 
that fell ill of the plague at that place, and, getting water 
to drink, fell into a violent sweat, and recovered: From 
whence the doctor concludes, that water is good in the 
plague; agreeable to what is related in Sir John Floyer’s 
book of Cold Baths, wherein it is said, that but two died 
of the plague who lived over the water upon London 
bridge, p 223, the coolness of the air being supposed to 
contribute to their health who inhabited on the water in

[44]
that manner, their blood being cooler than others: It 
is said also, the watermen escaped better than others. 
I will here add to what the doctor hath said before, 
concerning the cure of fevers, that if the 
fever be accompanied in the beginning with 
any great illness at the stomach, nauseating 
or vomiting, it will be the surest and safest practice to 
clear the stomach first, by vomiting with warm water, 
as before directed; for I cannot believe it possible for the 
stomach to be cleared from foul humours by sweating - 
It may do, if no great sense of disorder is perceived there; 
but it will certainly be safest to cleanse the stomach first, 
which is the place where all diseases have their original; 
for then sweating with cold water afterwards may turn 
to good account Indeed I have not made any trial of 
it since the doctor’s book was published, but I have a ve- 
ry good opinion of his accounts therein given concerning 
the benefit of water, having had so much experience 
thereof in my own practice for above forty years; for so 
long it is since I first began to collect those accounts, and 
make those experiments, which are herein made public 
for the benefit of all. I will only add, that in a book, 
intituled, Organum Salutis, p. 50. written by Judge 
Rumsey, he saith, he never found any thing more use- 
ful for the health of man, than to drink first in the 
morning half a pint of cold water; and this will contri- 
bute much to the cure of blood-shotten eyes. 
Pag 42, 
43, 44,
Since the last edition of this work, there hath been 
published An Essay of Health and long Life, 
by Dr. Cheyne, wherein this truth is assert- 
ed too, ‘ That water was the primative, ori- 
‘ ginal beverage—(and happy had it been 
‘ for the race of mankind, if other mixt and artificial 
‘ liquors had never been invented) and that water alone 
‘ is suffcient and effectual for all the purposes of human 
‘ wants in drink. Strong liquors were never designed 
‘ for common use, tho’ now we see the better sort scarce 
‘ ever dilute their food with any other liquor: And 

[45]
‘ thereby we see their blood becomes inflamed into gout, 
‘ stone, rheumatisms, raging fevers, and pleurisies; and 
‘ their passions enraged into quarrels, murders, and 
‘ blasphemies; their juices dried up; and their solids 
‘ scorched and shriveled.’ This author, p. 46. exclaims 
against strong drinks, as the root of one half of all the 
human miseries; but finds they are unwilling to leave 
them off, pretending the danger of all sudden changes. 
But he alledgeth, ‘ That he hath known good and con- 
‘ stant effects from leaving off suddenly great quantities 
‘ of wine, and flesh-meats too, by those accustomed to 
‘ both; and never observed any ill consequences from it 
‘ in any case whatsoever; but that broken constitutions 
‘ have thereby lived longer, and grown better, by so 
‘ doing.’ 
Some few, and but very few, have pretended, that by 
leaving off wine and strong drink, and using only water, 
they found their bodies weakened: But this perhaps may 
proceed only from the same fancy which made the lady 
believe her doctor could not cure her, because he did 
not keep a coach. There may be some constitutions that 
water doth not agree with, even as cheese will not agree 
with some: Nay, I once met with an ancient woman, 
who affirmed, she could not, and never did eat bread. 
And there are so few in comparison to them who have 
found benefit by the use of water, to those who have 
not, that no wife man will refrain on their account, till, 
upon trial, he really finds it will not agree with him.
One of the most ingenious watch-makers in London, 
very lately, from a long continued flux, was very much 
weakened, and entirely lost his appetite, so far that he 
could eat no food whatsoever: He had the advice of 
an able physician, his intimate acquaintance, who could 
not give him any relief: He, upon reading my book, 
came to ask me, whether I thought he might venture to 
drink water? I thereupon prevailed with him to drink 
half a pint of cold water going to bed, and half a pint 
in the morning: He, tho’ an immoderate drinker of 


[46]
wine before, was so far from being injured by it, that in 
a fortnight he began to eat, and in about a month reco- 
vered as good a state of health and countenance as he 
had before. 
It hath been objected by some few, that drinking of 
water maketh them costive: which well considered, 
is an argument that it strengthens the bowels; for all 
fluxes proceed from weak bowels, and are an enemy to 
the strength of the bodily members, no persons being in 
health, as Dr Baynard affirms, but those who evacuate 
figured excrements, which weak bowels never do; so 
that firm excrements tend most to strength, provided 
there be an evacuation once in a day, which is enough 
for them who through temperance live wisely, and do 
not destroy themselves by gluttony. 


SOME 
RULES 
FOR 
Preserving Health by DIET, 
Collided from Physical Authors. 
Diet will
cure dis-
eases.
IN a little treatise, intituled, Kitchen-physic, written by 
Dr. Cook, the author declares, he can 
hardly be told of any disease which he can-  
not relieve or cure by a proper diet, p. 39  
And in the same book we find his opinion  
to be this, that all tender sickly people, and 
all aged and decrepid persons, ought to eat often, and 
but a little at a time, because weak and wasted bodies are 
to be restored by little and little; and by moist and liquid 
food also, rather than by solid, because moist and li- 
quid diet does nourish soonest, and digest easiest.
Feeding
much, bad 
for weak 
people.
Those, he saith, that eat much, and get little strength 
by eating, shew, that they have used them- 
selves so too full a diet; and the more you  
cram such bodies, the less they thrive by it, 
but rather grow worse and worse: Because 
by much feeding you do but add to the bad  
humours wherewith the body is already fil- 
led, which should rather be wasted by purging, and us- 
ing a spare diet. 

[48]
A spare di- 
et, what, 
And a spare diet he describes to be this, that we never 
eat at once till the appetite is fully satisfied, 
and never to eat till we have an appetite; 
and men never have a true appetite till they 
can eat any ordinary food: And he advi- 
seth to keep constantly to a plain diet; for those, he says, 
enjoy most health, and live longest, that avoid curiosity 
and variety of meats and drinks, which only serve to en- 
tice to gluttony, and so work our ruin.
Sick, to re- 
cover soon- 
est  
Another saith, that the less food the sick person eats, 
the sooner he will recover; for it is a true 
saying, the more you fill foul bodies, the more 
you hurt them. The stomach being the place 
where diseases have their origin, when that 
part therefore is weak, and out of order, and 
cannot make a good digestion, if much is eaten, raw and 
crude humours must needs be bred, and bad humours 
cannot produce good blood. 
The evil of 
full meals. 
All men find by experience, that, in the morning be- 
fore they have eaten, they are light and 
pleasantly easy in their bodies; but, after 
they have indulged their appetites with plen- 
ty of food, they find themselves heavy and 
dull, and often sleepy; which sufficiently shews, that 
those full meals are prejudicial to the welfare of the bo- 
dy; for a moderate meal would have continued the ease 
and lightsomeness they before found in themselves, and 
would have refreshed any faintness that emptiness might 
occasion. And he certainly, who useth the most simple 
meats and drinks, avoideth the snare of provoking his 
appetite beyond the necessities of nature; whereas vari- 
ety enticeth to a fresh desire of every dainty, till at last 
the stomach is gorged, and made uncapable of perform- 
ing a good digestion; and this produceth those crudities 
which are the cause of all diseases, and of so many sud- 
den deaths. 
It is generally observed, that the most unhealthy are 

[49]
The evil of 
high feed- 
ing.
found among those who feed high upon the most delici- 
ous dainties, and drink nothing but the 
strongest and most spirituous liquors; where- 
as others who want this delicate fare, are 
seldom sick, except they have such unsatia- 
ble appetites as to eat too much; which a man  
may do of the plainest diet, whose belly is his god, as an 
apostle expresses it. Phil. iii 19. But tho' men may 
glut themselves with coarse food, yet coarse food, and 
long life are very consistent, as appears by John Bill, 
mentioned in the history of Cold Baths, p. 408. whose 
food was bread, cheese, and butter; and drink, whey, 
butter-milk, or water; and yet he lived 133 years, and 
was a strong, strait, upright man And the food of 
John Bailes, whose age amounted to 128, was for the 
most part brown bread and cheese; and his drink, water, 
or small beer and milk. Cold Bath, p. 416. He had bu- 
ried the whole town of Northampton twenty times over, 
except three or four, and said, Strong drink killed them 
all.
Small sup- 
pers best.
Dr Pratt adviseth to sup sparingly; for to sup sparing-  
ly, he saith, is most healthful, because of 
the experience of an infinite number of per- 
sons who have received the greatest benefit 
from light suppers. For the stomach being  
not overburdened, the sleep is more pleasant; and from 
sparing suppers the breeding of those humours it preven- 
ted, which cause defluxions, rheumatisms, gouts, drop- 
sies, giddiness, and corruption in the mouth from the 
scurvy: And from light suppers a freedom from sick- 
ness and reaching in the morning is obtained, and con- 
coction is made perfect, which prevents obstructions. 
Fasting, its 
benefit. 
Another saith, it is well known, that many indisposi- 
tions are cured by fasting, or a very spare 
diet; for what is taken into the stomach be- 
ing no more than can be well digested, the 
chylous juice, so rightly prepared is convey- 
ed into the lacteal vessels, and from thence into the blood; 
E

[50]
so that, nature being duly supplied with well-concocted 
nourishment, the corrupted blood will free itself from 
that corruption in time, by throwing it out, through the 
pores of the skin, in perspiration, and supply itself with 
the purer juices; and, in this way, consumptions and 
scurvies, and other chronical distempers, will be over- 
come. Which way of curing diseases by fasting, swine 
do naturally betake themselves to, who, when sick, will 
eat nothing till they recover, as they always do after they 
injure themselves by over-eating; in which over-eating 
they are imitated by all who delight in gluttony, tho’ 
not in using the same means of recovery, by fasting; so 
that hogs are wiser in that particular than such people. 
A rule in 
eating. 
That men in health may prevent diseases, it was ad- 
vised, that one meal should not be eaten, till 
the other, which was eaten before, was pas- 
sed off clean out of the stomach; which ne- 
ver is done till the appetite of hunger is 
found to call for another supply: By means of which 
constant observation, the food will be converted to good 
chyle, and from good chyle, which is a milk-like sub- 
stance, good blood will be bred, and from good blood 
generous spirits will be produced, on which a healthy 
constitution will ensue; but, on the contrary, when too 
great a quantity of food is taken for pleasure only, which 
the stomach cannot well digest, the chyle will be raw and 
corrupt, which will foul the blood, and render the body 
disordered and unhealthy. 
Benefits of 
sobriety. 
Others say, that abstinence and sobriety free from most 
diseases, especially catarrhs, coughs, whee- 
sings, giddiness, pain in the head and stom- 
ach, sudden death, lethargies, gout and sci- 
atica, an ill digestion being the cause of all 
these; it also prevents pains in the spine, stone, and gra- 
vel, and a dry itch; it makes the body vigorous and 
nimble, maintains the five senses in a good state, preser- 
veth the memory, quickens the wit; and quencheth all 
undue lust in mankind; and, in short, all misers, who 
eat and drink but little, do live long. 

[51]
Rule for 
diet after 
fifty 
Two meals a day is said to be sufficient for all persons 
after fifty years of age, and all weak people; 
and the omitting of suppers does always con- 
duce much to the health of the weak and a- 
ged: since, if no supper be eaten, the stom- 
ach will soon free itfelf from all tough, sli- 
my humours wherewith it is slabbered over on the inside, 
and thereby the appetite will be renewed, and digestion 
made more strong. Moreover, all that are troubled with 
sweating in the night, any ill taste in their mouths, bel- 
ching and troublesome dreams, must avoid suppers; for 
in sleep the fibres of the stomach relax, and are not able 
to contract themselves so strongly, as when awake, to 
embrace the food, and by situtation reduce it into a pap 
fit to pass into the intestines, out of which the nourish- 
event is sent to other parts. 
Temperance 
prolongs life. 
It was said by Dr. Curtis, that tho' those who use a 
spare diet cannot well beat long labour; yet 
such people, when their exercise is suitable 
to their strength, do live longer than those 
of a robust constitution, that think large 
feeding adds strength; especially such as; being strong, 
use no exercise proportionable to it, to consume the su- 
perfluities which a full feeding doth occasion: So that 
the only way for those to live long, who have much 
wealth, and need not labour for a livelihood, is to live 
temperately, and this temperance doth consist in not let- 
ting the common custom of meals invite you to eat, ex- 
cept your appetite concur with those times. We must 
not indulge the cravings of a depraved appetite, as those 
do who eat to please their fancy, and not the necessities 
of nature; and, when we do eat, we must not think 
that the more plentifully we eat, we shall be the more 
stengthened; for it will not prove so: A little well 
digested will make the body stronger then the being glut- 
ted with superfluity, most of which will be turned into 
a corrupt juice, and must be cast out by physic, or else
sickness will ensue. The easiest physic is that which the 
Germans call the Hunger-cure, if continued a due time.
E 2

[52]
Children, 
when ill 
managed. 
It is the opinion of learned men, that the early dis- 
temper of the bodies of children, called the 
rickets, proceeds from the faults of their 
mothers, in making them gluttons from 
their cradles, gorging them with food till 
they lothe it, out of a mistaken opinion, 
that this is the way to make them thrive and grow strong; 
which excess is not only the cause of this disease, but of 
the immature death of many; and in others it lays the 
foundation of many distempers, which afflict those af- 
terwards who live to years of maturity. And as they 
gorge them with food, so they vainly think to cherish 
them with strong drink, than which nothing can be more 
pernicious to the health of children, whose diet should 
be little and often, and their drink cooling. As it also 
should be when men arrive at the time of becoming 
children again in old age, that is, in an helpless state, 
which should be prevented as much as can be, by a cool- 
ing, moistening diet, in opposition to the hot, dry, and 
withered state of age; for it is heat and dryness that are 
the cause of most old mens miseries, especially the waft- 
ing of the substance that fills the parts with moisture, 
and keeps the body plump and smooth; they who stile 
wine the old man's milk, being greatly mistaken, for milk 
cools and wine heats. 
Rules for 
sickness. 
It was the opinion of Dr Pitt, who was formerly phy- 
sician to St. Bartholomew's hospital, that 
fasting, rest, and drinking water, would 
cure most diseases. And there seemeth to 
be a great deal of reason in what he asserts: 
for fasting will give time to the stomach to unload it- 
self of the cause of distempers, the cause of all diseas- 
es being begun in that bowel only: to which cleansing, 
the drinking of water plentifully will much contribute; 
which also will keep the action of the stomach upon the 
hinges, by filling of it when empty, at which time there 
will be need of rest, for thereby the body will be less 
fit for business: Tho' the mere drinking of water, which 
affords nourishment sufficient for the growth and support 

[53]
of all vegetable, will, in some measure, supply the want 
of food; as hath been shewn in the example of two, 
who were supported a long time by nothing else. In 
short, the best way for a sick man to recover, is to eat 
little or no food till he finds an appetite, according to 
that saying, 
Spare diet will the most diseases cure. 
If a due time the same you can endure. 
And fasting from food may be continued long enough to 
be a remedy for many diseases, with the assistance of 
common water; by the drinking of which warm, in a 
due quantity, without a total fasting, two persons, I am 
informed, were recovered cut of consumptions, with 
which they were extremely weakened, and that in about 
six weeks time; as another by drinking milk and whey, 
equal parts, made blood hot, without using any other 
diet, which is thought to be far more effectual than as- 
ses milk, whose virtue consists in being thinner than o- 
ther milk. 
Air, its be- 
nefit. 
But, besides a spare diet, cool dry air is also very help- 
ful to preserve men in health, who are not 
sick; for it mixes with the blood, and with- 
out it the motion of the blood and spirits 
can never be preserved; as appears by div- 
ing vessels, in which men cannot live when the air there- 
in is made hot by their own body and breath: And is 
proved also by an experiment of Dr. Croone’s, who stifled 
a chicken till it seemed quite dead; and yet, by blowing 
cool air into the lungs with a small pair of bellows, it re- 
vived. Hence it appears, that the common custom of 
managing sick people is very pernicious, and so far from 
helping them to recover, that it is sufficient to make a 
healthy person sick: For were a person, who was not 
sick, confined for three or four weeks in a room made 
hot like a stove, and kept in his bed, with the curtains 
drawn, and all the windows close shut, and the room 
made unpleasant with the nauseous fumes of physic and a 
E 3

[54]
close-stool, which will almost make a healthy man sick 
when he enters into it; we can never think that this is 
the way to recover one that really is sick, and wants the 
fresh air and reviving scents to cherish his blood; a fresh, 
open, sweet air being one principal means to strengthen 
the body, make a good appetite and digestion, and ren- 
der the spirits brisk and lively: which advantage should 
be allowed to all but childbed women, and those who 
are afflicted with the small pox: for the fresh air can be 
prejudicial to no other, whose bodies are clothed warm,
either in bed, or sitting in a chair in their chamber. 
A fever sud- 
denly cured. 
Some years since, a neighbour became very feverish, 
and his wife persuaded him to go to bed; and 
hearing of it soon after, I gave him a visit, 
where I found the windows close shut, the 
curtains of the bed drawn, and the room 
very hot, for it was in July: He was burning hot, and 
complained for want of breath. I drew open the cur- 
tains, covered him warm, and then opened the windows, 
and the wind blew into the room; upon which he soon 
told me, his shortness of breath had left him. I persua- 
ded him to drink water, which he found did much re- 
fresh him; and, after I had taken my leave of him, he 
called for more water: and, while he had the cup in his 
hand, an apothecary came in, whom his wife had sent 
for, who, finding him about to drink the water, told 
him, if he did it, he was a dead man; but, instead of 
forbearing, he drank it up in his presence; upon which 
the other took his leave, and told him, he would say no 
more to him. However, before night, the person got 
up, went abroad, and was cured of his fever. Which is 
one instance, among many others that might be given,
of the benefit of fresh air to a person who is kept warm 
in his bed; for thereby his body was cooled inwardly, 
and his breathing made more free, by the air which was 
drawn into his lungs to refresh and comfort the blood as 
it passed through them. 
I shall only add, that by keeping the blood cool as well 

[55]
as clean, is to be understood, not only moderation in di- 
et, but to feed most on cooling food made 
of wheat, barley, oat-meal, rice, and ripe ap- 
ples, as also on milk, which, joined with oat- 
meal, is the chief food of those lusty and strong 
A cool and 
low diet. 
men, the Highlanders of Scotland, who abound in 
children, as Dr Cheyne tells us in his Treatise of the 
Gout, p. 108. edit. 4. which demonstrates milk-and oat- 
meal to be a most strengthening food, and such as keeps 
the blood in due order; so that therewith men may sub- 
ject, tho’ they abstain from beef, pork and venison, and 
all other meats hard to digest, and drink water as the 
highlanders do: Of the efficacy of which cooling milk- 
diet the said Dr. Cheyne gives a notable instance in a doc- 
or that lived at Croydon, p. 103. who had long been af- 
flicted with the falling-evil; for, by slow observation, he 
found the lighter his meals were, the lighter were his fits. 
At last he also cast off all liquids but water, and found 
his fits weaker, and the intervals longer; and finding 
his disease mend, as its fewel was withdrawn, he took 
to vegetable food, and water only, which put an entire 
period to his fits without any relapse: But finding that 
food windy to him, he took to milk, of which he drank a 
pint for a breakfast, a quart at dinner, and a pint for 
supper, without fish, flesh, bread, or any strong or spi- 
rituous liquor, or any drink but water, with which he 
lived afterwards for fourteen years, without the least in- 
terruption in his health, strength or vigour, but died af- 
terwards of a pleurisy. Which is a confirmation of what 
Dr Cook did affirm, of the possibiiity of curing diseases 
by a diet only, that is temperate and cooling; of which 
milk is a part, as are also the roots and feeds of vegeta- 
bles, such as potatoes, turnips, wheat, rice, bailey, oat- 
meal, and full ripe fruit. 
In short, temperance or a spare diet, void of dainties, 
never was injurious to the strongest constitution; and, 
without it, such as are weak and sickly cannot long sub- 
sist; for the more such persons eat and drink, the more 
weak and disordered they will still find themselves to be: 

[56]
so that if the strong despise temperance, yet the comfort 
of weak, sickly and pining people, does depend entirely 
upon their constantly observing it; which, when they 
are accustomed to it, will be easy to do: So that they 
will deny all intemperate desires with as great pleasure, 
as they before delighted in what is falsely stiled good eat- 
ing and drinking; for nothing of that is good, which is 
injurious to health. It is custom only that makes men 
hanker after gluttony and drunkenness, and a contrary 
custom will make men abhor it as much: And therefore 
it is a wonder the rich do not strive to attain to it; for 
A fatal error ’tis in men of wealth, 
To feed so high as will destroy their health. 
Temperance being that which will enable them to live 
most at ease, and enjoy their wealth the longest; this, 
and water drinking, being the surest way to bring men 
to old age, tho’ it hath not power to make these young 
who are aged, yet it will make the aged more free from 
decripedness, and die with most ease, if the deathbed 
hath been well prepared for by a good life. 
FINIS
PRICE EIGHTPENCE.