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Dr. Simon Baruch (1840-1921), German-born Jew of Spanish ancestry, graduate of the Medical College of Virginia, was an assistant surgeon in the Confederate Army. While in a Federal war prison he wrote a book on gunshot wounds. Excited by the hydrotherapeutic cures of Vienna's Dr. Wilhelm Winternitz, Dr. Baruch dived into the subject, wrote two text books, got the first U. S. municipal bath houses established in Manhattan in 1901, was hired (1913) to evaluate the medicinal values of Saratoga Springs. The Mohawks venerated the mineral waters of Saratoga Springs. American "Continentals," sickened, wounded and soiled by the Revolutionary War, went there to cleanse and heal themselves. After the Revolution George Washington, whose wife spent considerable part of her wartime grass-widowhood at Virginia's warm springs, tried to buy Saratoga Springs, failed. Gideon Putnam bought 300 acres around the springs, built a hotel, made the place a health resort. In 1825 John Clarke, who started the first soda fountain in Manhattan, began to bottle and sell carbonated water from Saratoga. By 1883 Saratoga hotels had a capacity of 12,500, sheltered 100,000 costive, gouty, giddy visitors a summer season. To entertain the visitors the Saratoga racetrack was built and gambling establishments were opened. To contain a Saratoga season's clothing and finery the huge Saratoga trunk was invented.
Manufacturers of soda water pumped so much water out of Saratoga Springs for the sake of the carbonic acid gas that when Dr. Simon Baruch got there the bathing establishments were in a sorry fix. Dr. Baruch found that to take a carbonated water bath he had to fill the tub from bottles of expensive Seltzer water which had been charged from deep-flowing Saratoga Springs water pumped to the surface by greedy bottlers. The State put a stop to that by buying practically all the mineral springs, letting them idle until the water table rose high enough to spurt water into the air. The State now bottles Saratoga waters, sells 24-pint cases for $4 each, expects to sell 400,000 cases a year and with the profits quickly repay the $3,200,000 R.F.C. loan.
All the Saratoga springs spurt supercharged soda water. The kind named Geyser contains bicarbonates of sodium, calcium, magnesium and iron It is antacid, aids digestion, relieves gastric distress. Other Saratoga waters contain chlorides of sodium (table salt), potassium, lithium, ammonium. The kind called Coesa is a mild laxative; the kind called Hathorn, a vigorous cathartic. Dr. Baruch after drinking "not wisely but too well, learned a lesson which I have often taught others —that these waters must be prescribed with care."
After Governor Lehman and other dignitaries finished reading speeches and telegrams at last week's dedication ceremonies, he led a large party into the Hall of Springs, a big, pillared and arcaded brick & limestone building. It contains three circular yellow marble fountains, from which well Geyser, Hathorn and Coesa waters. Patients and visitors fill glasses at the fountains, stroll through the arcades sipping and gossiping until the waters work. An orchestra plays in a balcony.