Spas, Mineral Waters, and Hydrological Science in Twentieth-Century France

Bibliographic Data

ID4777176
AuthorsGeorge Weisz (0000-0002-4158-4685, McGill University, corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume92
Issue3
Pages451-483
Publication date2001-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueIsis (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-1753 • E-ISSN: 1545-6994
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/385278
PMID11810892
OpenAlexW2004550272
LanguageEN
Citations received22

This essay examines the survival of waters therapy in twentieth-century France with a view to understanding the conditions that make a therapy convincing in one national context and not in another. Part of the explanation for this survival has to do with the size and power of the spa industry. Where this industry was strong and economically powerful--as it was in France--its survival became a national priority. Of equal importance, however, was the role of the medical elite. In twentieth-century France, a small but influential group of elite physicians served as the chief architects of the continued survival and development of water cures. The primary mechanism for this process was a massive and successful campaign to introduce hydrology into the curriculum of medical schools. Once this was achieved, a large corps of academic hydrologists were in a position to produce significant amounts of convincing hydrological science that seemed to demonstrate the varied physiological effects of mineral waters. By the 1940s mineral waters had enough scientific visibility to ensure their inclusion without controversy in the national health insurance system that was being set up

Archaeology · Context (archaeology · Curriculum · Elite · Environmental ethics · Inclusion (mineral · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Social science · Sociology · Global Healthcare and Medical Tourism · History · Law · Philosophy · Therapeutic Uses of Natural Elements

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