better to be assured whether it did partake with Vitrioll, the
prime ingredient in the natural Spa, they mixed in a glasse the
powder of Galls with this water, knowing by experience if this
Minerall had any acquaintance with the Spring, the powder would
discolour the water and turne it to a Claret die; wherein they were
not deceived, for presently (to their both wonder and joy) the
water changed colour, and seemed to blush in behalf of the Country,
who had amongst them so great a jewell and made no reckoning of
it.... You may suppose (being met together at our Inne, where we
found ourselves very well accomodated for our provision) we could
finde no other talke but of this our new Spa.... Three days after
our return to York, Dr. Deane (whose thirst for knowledge is not
superficially to be satisfied) by the consent of his
fellow-physitians sent for a great quantity of the water in large
violl glasses, entending partly by evaporation and partly by some
other chimical means to experiment it...."

It would certainly appear from a perusal of the above, that at the
latter end of the year 1625, Deane knew little of the medicinal value
of the English Spaw. But such a conclusion is entirely opposed to the
dedication and text of "Spadacrene Anglica," which clearly indicates
that Deane was a close personal friend of the eminent physicians Dr.
Timothy Bright, and Dr. Anthony Hunton of Newark-upon-Trent, who for
years had been recommending the waters to their friends and patients.
Moreover Deane himself had paid many visits to the English Spaw with the
physicians of York, and had been at last induced to commit his knowledge
to print. Is it permissible to use imaginative license and see in Deane
a humorist who persuaded Stanhope "of taking the aire" while professing
no intimate knowledge of the spring, yet going the length of taking the
powder of Galls in his pocket to produce a stage effect, which he had