The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1914-04-09
Mineral Waters.

The intelligent individual eager to
ayail himself of the best aids thaI
modern medical science affords cannot
helm being baf1ed by the confiictns
claims made regarding mineral wat
ers He sees numerous cases In Whlch
relief has unquestionably been OBJ
famed by patients who have visited
oue OF the many springs in this coun-
tTy or Europe; but when he considers
the possibilities - including resi-
change OF diet and environment-the
result is hopeless confusion OF rldlc-
u1ous claims. -
relative value of the different uses 10, o.
the same waters. At some OF the
widely known spas-for example, Sar-
atoRa-the internal use OF waters takes
precedence; at Mount Clemens, White
Sulphur Springs and French LICK the
combined methods prevails.
In view of the diversity OF practice
and the impossibilfty of measuring the
consequences in any precise way the
journal OF the American Medical AS
sociation agrees with DR. Guy Hins-
dale. secretary of the American Oh
matological Association, in scouting
+he claims of the specific virtues OF
particular mineral ingredients in the
waters. EXCEPT in such obvious teat-
ures as laxative action or the absorp-
ton of dissolved iron salts II we
assume, writes Hinsdale, that approx
mately equal results are achleVed by
a course of bathing in waters so DIS
similar. we cannot avoid the inference
that the chemical constituents of these
different springs are not per Sc the
active therapeutic agents That Ger
tain baths may be used with good re-
suits in a case of govt, ought to sug-
gest that the Interchangeable methoas
employed are more potent than the
fact that the waters employed nave
special chemical composition.
II the cultivation of the rational use
of mineral waters involves an accur-
ate knowledge of their contents, IN
Formation regarding them must have
some guarantee of accuracy. For the
last twenty years it has not been pos
sibIe for France to advertise any min
eral water as such, or to exploit
mineral water station, without lne
favorable Recommendation of COM
mission under whose direction the
analyses are made. II 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-
suIting from uncontrolled commercial
ventures is illustrated by conditions
at Saratoga The amount of mineral
waters there obtained is dependent on
the quantity of carbon dioxide which
Inpregnates the water and the pres
sure exerted at the mineral water vein.
For over twenty years an exhaustive
pumping OF the gas was carried on by
3 carbon gas industry, and great de-
pletion of the mineral water basin
took place, depriving the entire area
az materials which Nature had fur
nfshed for the maintenance of her
natural fountains.
since New York, through its Reser-
vatfon Commission, has undertaken
protective policy with regard to the
springs, and the pumping operations
have been stopRed, the restoration of
the mineral waters to the Saratoga
basin is being accomplished. Exam
nations by the State Hyglenic Labor
atory at Albany show the return OF
4 steady flow and fairly constant
naturalization varying only with
physical disturbances. A few years
must elapse before the springs will
have returned to eli the natural con-
ditions which were present before the
gas companies began thaiT operations.
These facts serve to show that
scientific control may sometimes be
beneficient procedure, and that, pre-
sunably through the Public Health
Service, it ought to be applied more
widely in the United States.
--llaz-s----------.