220 MINERAL WATERS AND MEDICINAL SPRINGS OF ESSEX.
day-labourers, or others, afflicted with a looseness, to recommend to them the
drinking of that water ; which, being done accordingly, they found that it
generally answer'd the expectation of those who made use of it.
" After this, another experiment was accidentally hit upon, confirming the
water's efficacy in curing diarrhaeas, which put this matter beyond all doubt, as it
came from the Brute Creation, who have not craft enough to impose on our
senses by dissembling. The case was thus :—Mr. Kellaway bred a great
number of calves at his farm. To stop the looseness which they are subject to
and often proves mortal, the keepers usually made them drink a decoction of
oak-bark and water ; but, as they knew that the water had cured looseness, they
gave it to the calves and found that it made them well, and [the keepers]
observ'd, further, that not near so many of them dy'd whilst they drank that
water as when the oak-bark drink had been given them.
" A cure which was, about that time, performed upon a neighbour's child,
about five years old, who had been, as I was informed, near three years afflicted
with an ague, a swelled belly, and a looseness, added considerably to establish
the reputation of the well. . . . Mr. Kellaway also observ'd that his asthma
was relieved so far that, the last two winters before he died, he was not obliged
to lie out of town, as he had been for five winters before, on account of his
difficulty of breathing in London ; which he attributed to the constant drinking
of the water.
" Thus the Tilbury water made its way, by slow and obscure steps, for want
of proper assistance to usher it methodically into the world. For, as Mr.
Kellaway was not conversant in analysing Mineral Waters and forming a proper
judgment from thence of their vertues himself or had not the opportunity of
making experiments upon sick persons, he apply'd to some of the Faculty ; but,
being coldly told that there were more Mineral Waters already in use than are
necessary, he declined making any further attempts that way, his business
engaging his attention to other affairs, and contented himself with distributing
the water gratis among his acquaintance in Town, as also to the people at and
about Tilbury, who began to drink it for various complaints.
" In the year 1736, the water began to be talk'd of pretty much, on account
of its extraordinary vertues, which induced me to make some enquiry about it ;
and, after Mr. Kellaway had given me the foregoing historical account, and Mr.
Deputy P——86 having assured me that his spouse had been cured by it of an
obstinate diarrhoea, after all the advice she had taken had proved ineffectual, and
that some of his acquaintance had also experienc'd the same good effect, I
undertook to examine the water by various experiments. Mr. White, . . .
[late Chemist at Apothecary's Hall], at the request of some Gentlemen of the
Royal Society, did the same. . . ."
Andree goes on to state that, on the two comparing notes,
they arrived at certain conclusions, which are detailed87 in the
form of eighteen "Experiments," to which Andree afterwards
added fifteen more.88 Describing the water, he says89 that it
86 Mr. Deputy Pott (the full name appears in the later editions).
87 Op. cit., first ed., pp. 9-13 (1737) ; second ed., pp. 12-15 (1740) ; &c.
88 Op. cit., second ed., pp. 15-19 (1740), and later editions.
89. Op. cit., second ed., pp. 22-23. The same appears (but less fully) in the first edition.