Chemical Education Today
From Past Issues
Balneology: Spa Science by Kathryn R. Williams
In honor of the Earth Day celebration of water, this month’s From Past Issues focuses on balneology. I first met this word, meaning the study of the therapeutic use of baths and mineral springs, while reading Oskar Baudisch’s, “Magic and Science of Natural Healing Waters” (1). The author first presented the topic at the December 1938 meeting of Sigma Xi in Troy, NY, and the text subsequently appeared in JCE in September 1939. As research director of the Saratoga Spa, Baudisch directs the major part of his paper to the results of his chemical studies of that upstate New York resort. But as his title indicates, the paper provides insights into mineral springs in general. Giving Meaning to the Myths For Baudisch, the “magic” of natural springs takes two forms: (1) the historically unexplained cures, which are eventually understood as the result of scientific investigations, and (2) the psychological aura of the spa and its environs. For example, the reputation of two Bohemian spas (Karlsbad and Franzensbad) to promote conception grew from superstition to justifiable credential when chemists recovered follicular hormones from the muds and showed increased serum levels after bathing. But at any spa, the “generally pleasant ‘magic’ atmosphere” created by the resort amenities and staff enhances the effects of the chemical substituents. Baudisch emphasized the importance of both the chemical and psychological aspects of spa therapy and the need for more scientific studies to add credence to the witnessed effects. In one of his barbs aimed at American physicians, who, in contrast to their European colleagues, placed little reliance on balneotherapy, Baudisch says, “Do you not think we should at least learn something from the magic of these healing waters if we acknowledge their magical merits and try to elucidate their healing action by scientific investigations rather than to ridicule them and remain in the dark? We should easily discredit the natural mineral water if we believed that its medical value is just ‘suggestion’—a term which is used with predilection by many American physicians.” Chemical Studies Serious chemical studies of natural mineral waters, primarily analyses of the solid evaporation residues, date from about 1800. Efforts to use the data to produce artificial healing water met with little success due to several factors. Baudisch notes the importance of 20th century spectral studies showing the presence of numerous trace elements, as well as the results of Thompson and Sella-Pocchettino (2) indicating the presence of radium and its radioactive progeny, especially radon, in several European spas. High radium levels had also been found in Saratoga and many other springs. Again Baudisch emphasized the need for more experimental and clinical investigations to learn “what is the minimal content capable of stimulative action or the upper limit at which harm will be done instead of good.”
Rather than repeat all of Baudisch’s scientific findings, I refer the reader to more up-to-date sources. Details about the hot springs highlighted in Figure 1 can be found at the NOAA Web site (3). Oregon Institute of Technology’s Geo-Heat Center also provides online articles by director John W. Lund (4, 5). For information specifically about the Saratoga Spa, consult the monograph by Grace Swanner (history, photographs, description of facilities) (6) or the recent report of chemical and radiological analyses by Kitto and colleagues (7). Regardless of the extensive analytical data now available, I have no intention of ignoring Baudisch’ scientific discussion. The content may be out-of-date, but it provides us with a window on scientific thinking in the 1930s, especially the recognition of the importance of complexation in the behavior of metal ions and the use of analytical techniques relating to the discovery of isotopes. Addressing his collective audience (listeners and readers), and also referring to previous analytical studies, Baudisch asserts, “We did not consider the natural mineral water as a whole entity… Rather, we interested ourselves only in the various elements present.” Baudisch points to the importance of coordination theory proposed by Werner in the early 20th century. In his professional career, Baudisch published numerous studies of coordination complexes, especially with iron(II), and he emphasized that complexation plays a significant role in the properties of Saratoga waters: “I believe that many reactions taking place with iron or any other heavy metal in natural mineral water depend on or are influenced by the specific nature of the coordinated addenda of the coordination system surrounding the central atom, thus changing the biological significance of the metal ion in solution.” Baudisch’s work represents one of the first applications of coordination chemistry to environmental systems, as indicated by his further remark, “This thought has never been taken into consideration and, in fact, represents an entirely new approach to the therapeutic study of natural healing waters.” Origin of the Saratoga Waters An obvious area of interest to spa visitors then and now is the origin of the water and its mineral solutes. Here again Baudisch demonstrated the importance of modern scientific theories. Geologists had debated the origin of Saratoga waters for several decades. In the early 1930s, viewpoints conflicted, but there was general agreement that Saratoga waters were not of marine origin (8), mainly because of the lack of sulfate (9). Working with Keith Brewer, Baudisch used an entirely new method, isotope ratio analysis, to unravel the mystery (10). As part of his JCE article (1), Baudisch reproduced data on the isotopes of potassium in Saratoga waters and in Cryptozoon limestone, which was secreted in barrier reefs bordering New York’s Adirondack Mountains in the late Cambrian era (11). The K39/K41 ratio in most minerals varies from 14.20 to 14.25, but in Saratoga waters Baudisch and Brewer found 13.85 ±0.1,
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Chemical Education Today
From Past Issues
3. 4. 5. Figure 1. The location of hot springs in the United States. The NOAA Web site (3) provides additional geographical and thermal data.
6. 7.
closely matching the value of 13.95 ±0.1 in Cryptozoon reefs. In the 1930s these results were the first clear indication of the marine origin of Saratoga waters, although there is still some uncertainty about this theory in more recent literature (6). Regardless of the geological findings, Baudisch and Brewer’s use of isotope ratios in the mid-1930s is quite noteworthy, considering that the existence of isotopes was being debated in the 1920s, and it was not until 1932 that Chadwick discovered the neutron. In concluding his address, Baudisch reemphasized the importance of therapeutic use of natural mineral waters and the need for continued research in balneology. Although Baudisch’s paper predates Earth Day by a half-century, his sentiments reflect the spirit of the annual celebration of our planet: “All attempts to imitate natural medicinal waters or their salts artificially have fallen far short of success… With all his knowledge and power, man is not able to imitate nature perfectly.”(1). Literature Cited 1. Baudisch, Oskar. Magic and Science of Natural Healing Waters. J. Chem. Educ. 1939, 16, 440–448. 2. See Gilman, Daniel C.; Peck, Harry T.; Colby, Frank M. The New International Encyclopædia; Dodd, Mead, & Co.: New
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8 9. 10. 11.
York, 1903; Vol. XIV, p 759; available at http://books.google. com/books?id=TpUMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA759&lpg=PA759& dq=radioactivity+in+mineral+springs+discovered+by+thomp son&source=web&ots=hdP3PEIdPG&sig=2d6cAKq9qIVaub RIMjyaPVBDNg4#PPA759,M1 (accessed Nov 2007). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Geophysical Data Center. Thermal Springs List for the United States, http://map.ngdc.noaa.gov (accessed Nov 2007). Lund, John B. Spas and Balneology in the United States, http:// geoheat.oit.edu/pdf/bulletin/bi034.pdf (accessed Nov 2007). Lund, John B. Balneological Use of Thermal Waters, http:// geoheat.oit.edu/pdf/tp109.pdf (accessed Nov 2007). Swanner, Grace Maguire. Saratoga—Queen of Spas; North Country Books: Utica, NY, 1988. Kitto, Michael E.; Parekh, Pravin P.; Torres, Miguel A.; Schneider, Dominik. Radionuclide and Chemical Concentrations in Mineral Waters at Saratoga Springs, New York. J. Environ. Radioactivity 2005, 80, 327–339. Ruedemann, Rudolf. Different Views Held on the Origin of the Saratoga Mineral Waters. Science (New York, New Series) 1937, 86, 531–532. Baudisch, Oskar. Chemical Clues to the Origin of the Saratoga Mineral Waters. Science (New York, New Series) 1937, 86, 532–533. Brewer, A. Keith; Baudisch, Oskar. The Isotopes of Potassium and Lithium in Saratoga Mineral Water and Cryptozoon. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1937, 59, 1578–1579. Goldring, Winifred. On the Origin of the Saratoga Mineral Waters. Cryptozoon: Plant Nature and Distribution. Science (New York, New Series) 1937, 86, 530–531.
Supporting JCE Online Material
http://www.jce.divched.org/Journal/Issues/2008/Feb/abs179.html Abstract and keywords Full text (PDF) with links to cited URLs and JCE articles
Kathryn R. Williams is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Florida, PO Box 117200, Gainesville, FL 32611-7200;
[email protected].
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 85 No. 2 February 2008 • www.JCE.DivCHED.org • © Division of Chemical Education
