The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1914-04-11
USE OF MINERAL WATERS.
Consideration of Interest and External
Application.

The intelligent individual eager to
avail himself of the best aids that mod
ern medical science affords cannot help
being baifled by the conflicting claims
made regarding mineral waters. He sees
numerous cases in which relief has un-
questionably been obtained by patients
who have visited one of the many
springs in this country or Europe; but
when he considers the possibilities-n-
Guiding rest change of diet and environ
ment-the result is hopeless confusion
of ridiculous claims. The added ques-
ton arises of the relative value OF the
different uses of the same waters. At
some of the widely known spas--for ex-
ample, Saratoga internal use OF
waters takes precedence; at Mount
Clemens, White Sulphur Springs and
others the baths are chiefly relied on; at
Hot Springs and French Lick the COM
bned method prevails. In view of the
diversity of practice and the impossible
ity of measuring the consequences in
any precise way, The Journal of the
American Medical Association agrees
with DR.. Guy Hinsdale, secretary of the
American Genealogical association, in
scouting the claims of the specific virtues
of particular mineral ingredients in the
waters, except in such obvious features
as laxative action or the absorption iron
salts. If we assume, writes Hinsdale,
that approximately equal results are
achieved by course of bathing in
waters so dissimilar, we cannot avoid
the inference that the chemical con-
stituents of these different springs are
not per Sc the active therapeutic agents.
That certain baths may be used with
good results in case of govt, ought to
suggest that the hydrotherapeutic meth.
DDS employed are more potent than the
fact that the waters employed have
special chemical composition.
If the cultivation of the rational use
of mineral waters involves an accurate
knowledge of their contents, information
regarding them must have some guaran-
tee Of accuracy. For the past twenty
years it has not been possible in France
to advertise any mineral water as such,
or to exploit mineral-water station,
without the favorable recommendation
of commission under whose direction
the analyses are made. If such rules
were in force in the United States, fake
''lithia" waters would long ago have
been driven out of the market.
The damage to mineral springs re-
sulting from u 'itrolled commercial
ventures is illusi I'd by conditions at
Saratoga. The amount OF mineral mat
ter held in solution by some of the
waters there obtained is dependent on
the quality of carbon dioxide which inn
pregnates the water and the pressure
exerted at the mineral-water vein. For
over twenty years an exhaustive pump
ing of the gas was carried on by a car
bonic gas industry, and a great depletion
of the mineral water basin took place,
depriving the entire area of materials
which nature had furnished for the
maintenance of her natural fountains
Since New York state, through its res
ervation commission, has Undertaken a
protective policy with regard to the
springs, and the pumping operations
have been stopped, the restoration of
the mineral waters to the Saratoga
basin is being accomplished. Examina-
tions by the state hygiene laboratory at
Albany show the return of a steady flow
and fairly constant naturalization vary
ing only with physical disturbances. A
few years must elapse before the springs
will have returned to all the natural con-
ditions which were present before the
gas companies began their operations.
These facts serve to show that scientific
control may sometimes be benefcent
procedure, and that, presumably through
the public health service, it ought to be
applied more widely in the United
States.