Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine Volume 81 July 1988
The chemical death of Lot's wife: discussion paper
I M Klotz PhD Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Road,
Evanston, IL 60208, USA
Keywords: Biblical diseases; Sodaro; calcite; salt pillar
As has been demonstrated in recent publications'r',
it is possible to apply modern medical knowledge to
the recountings ofa Biblical episode and obtain clearer
insights into the sequence of events described. We
have added to the corpus of medical Bibliography-f
by using established biomedical and biochemical
principles to elucidate at the molecular, as well as the
organismic level the sequence of events that very
likely occurred during the sudden seizure that led to
the death of Lot's wife.
According to the Old Testament" 'the Lord caused
to rain upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire
and he overthrew those cities, and all the Plain, and
all the inhabitants of the cities.' However, God had
forewarned Lot, a righteous resident of Sodom, to
'hasten and escape thither [with your family]; for
I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither [to
the nearby small village of Zoar ].' Unfortunately,
during the escape Mrs Lot looked back at the
devastating conflagration and 'she became a pillar of
salt'.
How could such a precipitous transformation have
occurred?
We must recognize first that the ancient ancestors
of the Hebrews did not have access to atomic
absorption spectroscopy to distinguish one salt from
another. Hence we can assume that they used the
word 'salt' in a generic sense to refer to any solid with
mineral character and a salt-like taste. That the
Hebrews meant terms generically is illustrated
unequivocally in their use of the word 'plague' to
represent any form of an epidemic. Thus Exodus-
lists ten different inflictions imposed upon the
Egyptians, each designated a plague.
A particularly likely candidate for the salt that
caused the death of Mrs Lot is calcite. This mineral
is very susceptible to precipitation in the presence of
low concentrations of free Ca 2+ and CO~-, both of
which are present ubiquitously in all human tissues.
For the equilibrium
Ca2+(aqueous)+CO~-(aqueous)=CaC03(calcite) (1)
the free energy change is -11.38 kcal/mol", a very
large driving potential toward' formation of the
insoluble mineral. It is also pertinent to note that an
increase in temperature lowers the solubility" of
CaC03·
From equation (1), one can show" that at 25°C
(2)
where the brackets represent concentrations of the
respective species. Thermodynamic data are also
available for the various equilibria of carbonates:
397
[H+] [CO~-]
10- 10 .3 (3)
[HCO;]
[H+] [HCO;]
10- 6 .4 (4)
[H 2C0 3 ]
(5)
From equations (2)-(5) one can readily show that at
physiological pH
(6)
This equilibrium constant becomes even smaller,
about lO- s, when the temperature rises to 40°C or
higher. Thus, we have the thermodynamic constraint
that couples the CO2 pressure, Pc02 , and free Ca 2+
ion concentration with the precipitous appearance of
the mineral CaC03 •
What conjunction of circumstances led to the cata-
strophic stresses that overwhelmed the homeostatic
systems that maintain calcium and carbonate levels
below critical values for onset of calcite formation?
Again if we turn to Genesis we learn that when
Abraham 'looked out toward Sodom and Gomorrah
[he] beheld ... the smoke of the land went up as the
smoke ofa furnace'. Clearly if the metaphor 'furnace'
was suggested to Abraham, a powerful firestorm must
have been radiating outward from the site of
destruction, and enormous amounts of heat must have
been carried along by radiation and convection from
Sodom. At that time Abraham was living some 50 km
from Sodom and yet he felt the 'furnace'. Lot and his
wife, coming by foot from Sodom, could have distanced
themselves only a few kilometers since Zoar, their
destination, wasclose to Sodom. Looking back into
the firestorm and toward the furnace, Mrs Lot must
have been hit by a powerful blast of hot air with high
CO2 content and exposed to an enormous dose of
heat and radiation from the raging inferno. Thus the
value of Pc0 2 from the combustion of carbonaceous
matter must have rocketed upward (approaching
10-0.7 atrn) and exceeded by orders of magnitude that
of 10-3. 5 atm ordinarily present in air, and Mrs Lot's
body temperature must have zoomed upward.
Let us now direct our attention to the [Ca 2+] in
the human body. In blood total calcium is about
10 mg/decilitre, or 0.003 molar", approximately half
of which is bound to plasma albumin. In typical 0141-0768/88/
mammalian cells, the intracellular concentration 070397·021$02.00/0
of calcium is 0.001-0.002 MS, most of it bound to © 1988
enzymes and structural macromolecules. The extra- The Royal
cellular concentration is about twice that of the Society of
intracellular. Lowering of pH has been shown to Medicine
398 Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine Volume 81 July 1988
reduce markedly the binding of calcium by serum
albumin", and similar releases of free Ca 2 + probably
occur from all Ca-protein complexes.
When Mrs Lot was hit by a blast of hot air from
the fire, two powerful factors forced the free Ca 2 +
concentration upward. The increased CO 2 pressure
lowered the pH of the blood and then of the tissues
and released bound Ca 2 +. In addition heat denatures
proteins so that bound ligands are released. Thus the
free Ca2 + must have climbed steeply upward, toward
the total concentration of 0.001-0.005 M. At the same
time the Pc0 2 in the air from the conflagration
would have risen steeply and exceeded the normal
value by orders of magnitude. At a partial pressure
of 10- 1 atm of CO 2 , a free Ca2 + concentration of
10- 4 M, i.e, only 3% of the total available in blood
would have been adequate to initiate calcite formation.
Actually even in normal blood, free Ca2 + is about
50% of the total, and hence at elevated values of
Pc0 2 , a catastrophic surge of calcite should spread
throughout the vascular network. This effect would
have been further amplified by the Ca 2 + released on
protein denaturation. At the same time increased free
Ca 2 + must have triggered muscle contraction, with
resultant spread of rigor. Simultaneously pervasive
diffusion of CO 2 into all organs and tissues initiated
massive formation of calcite within and between all
cells.
Thus by turning around in her direction of flight,
Mrs Lot exposed herself instantly to stresses that
generated immediate enormous escalations in concen-
trations of (Ca 2 + ) and (C0 2 ) , so that the critical
limits specified by equation (6) were exceeded
overwhelmingly and instantaneously. Internal,
massive, pervasive crystallization of calcite followed
immediately. Mrs Lot died instantly of rigor calcium
carbonatus and turned into a rigid block of calcite.
Since the prevailing winds from the Dead Sea always
carry along a spray of salt, which is accumulated on
this pillar, succeeding generations, to modern times,
have testified that the column is a block of salt.
Thus, once again 1•2,1O, we see how modern science
serves to corroborate and elucidate medical events
described in the Bible.
References
1 Edwards WD, Gabel WJ, Hosmer FE. On the physical
death of Jesus Christ. J Am Med Assoc 1986;255:
1455-63
2 Gwilt JR. Biblical ills and remedies. J R Soc Med
1986;79:738-43
3 The Holy Scriptures, According to the Masoretic Text,
Genesis. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of
America, 1955:Ch. 19,Verses 22-28
4 Ibid, Exodus, 9-12
5 Garrels RM, Christ CL. Solutions, minerals and
equilibria. New York: Harper & Row, 1965:11,47-49,
87-89
6 Klotz 1M, Rosenberg RM. Chemical thermodynamics.
4th Edn. MenloPark, California: Benjamin/Cummings
Publishing Co., 1986:353-4
7 White A, Handler P, Smith EL, Stetten D. Principles
of biochemistry. 2nd Edn. New York: McGraw·Hill,
1959:807
8 Alberts B, Bray D, Lewis J, Raff M, Roberts K,
Watson JD. Molecular biology of the cell. New York:
Garland Publishing, 1983:286
9 Katz S, Klotz 1M. Interactions of calcium with serum
albumin. Arch Biochem Biophys 1953;44:351-61
10 Klotz 1M. Diamond dealers and feather merchants.
Boston: Birkhauser, 1986:Ch.5
(Accepted 24 November 1987)