This I shall do with respect to a great Abuse, committed in this kind about the City; and that is, In the chusing of stagnating impure _Well-Water_ for the _Brewing_ of _Beer_, and making other Drinks. Such a Fluid indeed has oftentimes a greater Force and Aptness to extract the Tincture out of _Malt_, than is to be had in the more innocent and soft Liquor of Rivers; but for this very Reason it ought not, unless upon meer Necessity, to be made use of; this quality being owing to the _Mineral_ Particles and _Aluminous_ Salts with which it is impregnated. A late _Author_ (182) by searching into the first Accounts of the Distemper we call the _Scurvy_, describ’d by _Pliny_ (183) and _Strabo_ (184), under the promiscuous Names of _Stomacace_ and _Scelotyrbe_; and examining the Authentick Histories of It in later Years, made by the most observing Physicians in those Countries where it was unhappily revived, as _Olaus Magnus_, _Balduinus Ronseus_, _J. Wierus_, _Solomon Albertus_, &c. finds that the Origine of It was in all times and places charged upon the use of unwholesome stagnating _Waters_. Then by comparing together the _Clayie Strata_ of the Earth about the Cities of _London_, _Paris_, and _Amsterdam_, He shews that where the Water is worst, there this Malady is most rife. So that He has put it out of all doubt, that most of the perplex’d and complicated Symptoms which are ranged under this one general Name, if they do not entirely owe their Birth to the Malignity of this Element, do however acknowledge it to be their main and principal Cause. And indeed _Hippocrates_ himself, as He has very plainly decipher’d this Disease (185), by the Title of σπλῆνες μέγαλοι, or _great Milts_; so he does very particularly in another _Treatise_ (186), take notice, that Drinking of _Stagnating Well-Waters_ must necessarily induce an ill Disposition both of the _Milt_ and Belly. If we enquire into the Reason of such ill Effects, we must consider, that _Clay_ is a _Mineral Glebe_, and that the gross Particles and Metallick Salts with which Waters passing thro’ such a Bottom do abound, are, as Dr. _Lister_ (187) observes, not to be mastered, that is, indigestible in the Humane Body. Not only therefore will these Cause, as He very well Argues, calculous Concretions in the _Kidneys_, _Bladder_, and _Joints_; and as _Hippocrates_ experienced, hard Swellings in the _Spleen_; but they must necessarily oftentimes by their Corrosive quality twitch and irritate the sensible Membranes of the Stomach and Bowels, and thus hinder and interrupt the Digestion of our Food. Nay, besides all this, when they come into the Blood, it is no wonder if the small Canals of insensible Perspiration are frequently stopt and obstructed by ’em; for it is upon this Score that _Sanctorius_ (188) teaches Us, that _heavy Water converts the Matter of Transpiration into an_ Ichor, _which being retained, induces a_ Cachexy.