The Sentinel=record. (Hot Springs, Ark.) 1900-current, 1914-10-02
SPRING WATER IS
FIRST OF HONOR
AND ARKANSAS HOT SPRINGS
MOST CURATIVE, SAYS Fred
ERlcK HAsKlNS IN ARTICLE.
AS High a Tribute as It Is Possible
to Pay Resort Gratuitousy Made
by Well Known Chicago Writer.

! sound solid articles for many papers, |
and in the Chicago Daily News he dis
cusses WARS Effect on Mineral Wa
! ters' and pays the highest possible
compliment to the Arkansas Hot
Springs radioactive curative proper
ties in the following:
In the whole history OF the curative
art the first and most ancient place
Of honor Is occupied by spring water.
Thousands of years before man ever
dreamed of pathogenic germs he had a
firm belief that copious drafts of
spring water would cure almost any
! disease, and the only special qualfi
cation he required was that the spring
water should taste as bad as possible
With our refinements we have come
to insist upon the curative qualities OF
more palatable and more potable wa
ters, but these we use for the table,
and still cling to the smelly bad
tasting waters for actual medicinal
use.
/ Thousands of Americans go every
year to the great European spas to
take the cure" The war has chang
ed this. Carlsbad is closed to us,
Marienbad is impossible for Ameri-
cans just now, and Wiesbaden is en-
tirely too near the great battlefieds
Of western Europe for psychological
comfort. Those who have been in the
habit of going to Europe to drink the
waters must stay at home and cult
vate a taste for Saratoga and Hot
Springs.
The United States IMPORTS from
Europe each year more than 100000
dozen quarts of European mineral wa
ters. The value of these imports is
more than s1000.000 at the ports, and
this is probably increased to more
than $2,000,000 at the retail price. Do
nestle mineral waters, bottled and
sold from commercial springs in the
United States, have a value five times
as great.
These figures represent only frac.
ton of the money spent in drinking
spring waters, since those who go to
the springs and use the baths that ac-
company many of them necessarily
spend a great deal more money. The
total expenses of those Americans
who have been in the habit Of visit,
ing European spas must amount to
many millions of dollars year.
The medicinal virtues Of mineral
waters depend, first, upon their min
eral content, and second, upon their
newly discovered property of radio
activity Many spring waters have an
appreciable amount of radiOactivity.
| few, II any of them, have an actual
content of radium, but in flowing
through the earth they have come in
contact with radium bearing ores and
have absorbed from them the amana-
tons and none of the actual mineral
is demonstrated by the fact that such
waters lose their radiOactivity very
rapidly when taken from the springs.
The strongest radioactive waters in
Europe are found at Joachimstahl in
Bohemia Bad-Gastein, in Austria; Ba-
den, in Germany, and Carlsbad. The
famous Celestins spring of Vichy, in
France, also produces radioactive wa
ters
None OF the European springs, how
ever, compares in radioactivity with
the Imperial spring of Hot Springs,
Ark, while other Arkansas springs are
quite as strong as those of Europe.
Other radioactive springs in the
United States are found at Saratoga,
n Y; French Lick, Ind. and in Vel
lowstone park. The survey with re-
spect TO American springs is incOm
plete, and it may be that other olo
springs will prove to be radioactive
just as have those at Hot Springs and
Saratoga. The virtues of these wa
tiers were known and appreciated
many years before radium was discov
cred.
Nearly every state in the union
boasts of springs from which mineral
water is sold, either for table or me-
dicinal use. A great many of the
waters are used both for table and
| for medicinal purposes, while soma
are confined to one or the other OF
the Two classes. In the value Of min
eral waters sold, Wisconsin leads all
the states with the record of 1878
600 a year The Wisconsin output o,
more than 100000 gallons is second
| to that of New York, which produces
nearly 100000 gallons, but the total
value of the New York production |
| is slightly less than that of Wiscon |
sin In all Of the states except In |
diana Texas and Arkansas, the table |
waters represent a much greater value |
than the medicinal waters, Indiana |
leads in medicinal waters, with the |
value of nearly 100000
Undoubtedly efforts that will be
made to restore American springs to |
public favor will be supplemented by |
physicians. who now. when they can
not send a patient to Carlsbad, may |
send him to Hot Springs TIE min |
eral waters Of Hot Springs are under |
control of the United States govern |
ment. and in the last few years ac /
commodations for visitors who drink
the waters and take the baths have