THE WATER TREES OF JOGUES VALLEY CONTINUED...

Although well-documented, the psychotropic effects of the fluid secreted from water trees is not well-understood. Chemical analyses of water obtained from water trees reveal high concentrations of a chemical substance known as celtanine. It is theorized that this rare substance acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it alters brain function, resulting in temporary changes in perception, mood, consciousness and behavior. Currently, scientific study is focused on answering the question of whether celtanine has any legitimate medical purpose.

The results of a 1997 study through the University of California at San Diego demonstrated significant behavioral differences tied to brain chemistry between bowl rats bred in captivity at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and their wild relatives in the Jogues Valley. Most notably, those rats exposed to celtanine demonstrated increased sexual activity, sudden changes in temperament, and slept less than the rat population which had not been exposed to celtanine.

Beginning as early as 1862, water from Jogues Valley was finding its way into various “medicines” and “cure-alls” across Europe and the United States. Before the revolution of 1919, more than 600 men were employed in the Jogues valley bottling and shipping the water for western consumption.

Oscar II, King of Sweden and Norway from 1872-1905, was known to import whole barrels of water from Jogues Valley for the purpose of bathing in it. British Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone, was fond of using it to make his tea. The American playwright, Jeremy Allwell, credited the substance with curing his writer’s block and inspiring the critically acclaimed “Far Coast,” a play in which a young man, who was kicked in the head by a horse, enjoys an expansive and satisfying world of new tastes, colors and sensory experiences inside his own mind although he lays unconscious in a Baltimore hospital. Due to its scarcity and high cost, the water from Jogues Valley was only available to the wealthiest strata of society, and remained so until the revolution of 1919 when it became entirely unavailable.