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  THE

  HISTORY OF SALT;

  _WITH OBSERVATIONS_

  ON ITS

  GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION,

  GEOLOGICAL FORMATION,

  AND

  MEDICINAL AND DIETETIC PROPERTIES.

  BY

  EVAN MARLETT BODDY, F.R.C.S., F.S.S.,

  LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY;

  ETC., ETC., ETC.

  “Salt is good.”

  [Illustration]

  LONDON:

  BAILLIÈRE, TINDALL, AND COX,

  20, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND.

  1881.

  [_All Rights Reserved._]


  To

  WILLIAM BARNARD BODDY ESQ.,

  _Formerly R.N., SURGEON_;

  THIS

  TREATISE

  IS

  Affectionately Dedicated

  BY HIS SON,

  EVAN MARLETT BODDY




CONTENTS.


  CHAPTER                                                   PAGE

     I. INTRODUCTION                                           7

    II. HISTORY OF SALT                                        9

   III. SALT AS A CHEMICAL, THERAPEUTICAL, AND TOXICOLOGICAL
          AGENT                                               25

    IV. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION                             29

     V. GEOLOGICAL FORMATION OF SALT                          42

    VI. EFFECTS ON ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE                  53

   VII. MEDICINAL AND DIETETIC PROPERTIES                     61

  VIII. PHYSIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES                              87

    IX. CONCLUSION                                            92

        APPENDIX                                              94




THE HISTORY OF SALT.




CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.


How frequently it happens that those natural productions with which we
are to a certain extent superficially familiar, are to a great many
not only uninteresting, but are regarded as subjects more or less
beneath their notice; and by others as deleterious to the human race,
and therefore to be cautiously used or scrupulously avoided. Another
peculiarity is, that the more we are accustomed to them, the more
our interest wanes, and probably at last degenerates into apathetic
indifference.

We can only attribute these ignorant conceits and apparently
unaccountable obliquity of judgment to two causes: an assumption of
wisdom, and an unenlightened mind, unwilling to learn and loath to
improve. Another hindrance which to a considerable extent precludes
the study of what one may truthfully designate every-day subjects, is
the restless _furor_ for artful counterfeits of science, which are
nothing else than the emanations of vain and visionary minds mixing
together, as it were, an amalgam of truth and error. The present age is
wonderfully productive of these eccentric ideas, while at the same time
it is unhappily pregnant with the most unnatural and anti-healthful
habits. The mystified authors take good care to run into the wildest
extremes, so that their marvellous schemes and quaint devices
(fortunately for their fellow-creatures) cause them to be justly
derided by the thoughtful and disregarded by the sensible, though not a
few are caught by the tinsel.

The grotesque aberrations of thought which have so prolifically
generated such an incongruous medley of medico-social phantasmagoria,
though considered by their promoters as wonderful scientific
projections, are rendered more ridiculous than they really are, by
their wild and unreasonable denunciations of those who do not happen
to coincide with their farcical puerilities and whimsical crudities;
and their intolerant followers, with considerable more zeal than
discretion, promulgate their doctrines with voluminous additions and
preposterous assertions—_mentis gratissimus error_.

These parodies of science have exerted as yet no material influence
on modern thought, though there is a visible impress observable
here and there; and they doubtless will ultimately collapse, like
alchemy and other illusions of a bygone age, and in due time will
fall as ignominiously before the resistless onslaughts of true
science and knowledge, as those deceptive will-o’-the-wisps were
finally extinguished, after whisking about for some centuries, by
the calm, dignified, and logical condemnation of philosophical and
scientific investigation. Need I remind my reader that I am referring
to spiritualism, homœopathy, vegetarianism, and various other bastard
distortions of science, though their purblind believers may regard them
as legitimate offspring, and therefore deserving of due respect and
consideration. Such imaginative plerophory is invariably antagonistic
to scientific conclusions and common-sense principles, beside being
redundant of inane folly and trivial hyperbole.

One of the peculiar crazes of the day, though it is not so universal as
those to which I have just referred, is the unhealthful and insensate
antipathy to salt, which has infatuated, in a greater or lesser degree,
the several strata of society: some going so far as to proscribe it
altogether, whilst others use it as if it were destructive to life, or
at least subversive of health, and others assert that it originates
disease! Some time ago I saw a letter in a temperance journal (we
know that the advocates of total abstinence are frequently guilty
of degrading their good cause by descending to frivolity), advising
total abstention from salt; the writer, with amusing self-complacency,
accused it of producing evils of an astounding nature—such is the
latitude of pragmatical ignorance and silly egotism. The palpable
absurdity of such an argument must be apparent even to the most
careless thinker; it is with the view of exposing such a fallacy, both
injurious and irrational, that I have written this treatise, and have
been prompted to do so more especially as I find such ridiculous
notions find great favour with those from whom better things ought to
be expected.

I have laboured under many difficulties, owing to the meagre accounts
concerning the history of this most important article of diet; no doubt
arising from the fact that it has not been studied with that attention
which it manifestly deserves; consequently I have been obliged to
allude to the pages of Holy Writ, not that I wish to base my arguments
on religion, but simply because we find therein the primary mention of
salt, both as a purifying agent and as a condiment to food.

Reverting to the Bible on subjects of scientific import frequently
brings down upon the author ill-timed ridicule, especially from those
who profess a belief in nothing except their own crude notions; a fact
which is surprising, for here we possess a Book which has stood the
test of ages, which has weathered many a storm, which has victoriously
emerged from many a conflict, and which has indeed passed through an
ordeal which no other volume has been called upon to do—all indicative
that it emanated from a mind immeasurably superior to that of man;
and thus I am quite content to bear with any amount of satire,
however pointed and keen, if I have it on my side of the question,
which undoubtedly is the case respecting the medicinal and dietetic
properties of salt: besides, when it is pronounced to be “good” by the
Divine Speaker, one need not care an iota for those who assert that it
is pernicious, however plausible or apparently logically conclusive
their arguments may be.




CHAPTER II.

HISTORY OF SALT.


I am approaching a subject somewhat novel and indeed difficult,
and very probably it may be regarded by some as one far from being
profitable or interesting; therefore I shall endeavour, though with
some degree of diffidence, to consider it not only from a medical point
of view, but to glance at some facts, both historical, geographical,
and geological. By so doing, we shall be touching upon other matters
not only pleasing but instructive, and which to a great many are but
indifferently known; for though salt is to be almost universally
seen on the tables of rich and poor alike, yet few are aware of its
undeniable medicinal virtues, and many are totally ignorant of the
great sustenance they derive from this indispensable and undoubtedly
savoury condiment, besides being but moderately acquainted with its
history. At the present time it is used nearly all over the world,
and is acknowledged to be at least an adjunct necessary for perfect
cookery; it is in requisition in fact everywhere, and even those who do
not use it would be considered as lacking in taste were they to discard
it altogether from their tables.

All, however, are to a certain extent cognisant of the fact of how
insipid the daintiest dishes taste, if salt is omitted in their
preparation, and the cook, however expert he may be in the culinary
art, invariably fails in giving satisfaction (except to those whose
palates are deranged or vitiated) if they are not seasoned with it;
few, I think, will deny that animal food in particular is deprived
of its pleasing flavour if it be eaten without salt. Those who have
an unnatural aversion to it should bear in mind that the ingestion
of improper animal and vegetable food frequently occasions many
severe attacks of illness, and invariably provokes and intensifies
that universal complaint, dyspepsia. George Herbert tells us in his
_Jacula Prudentum_, that “Whatever the father of disease, ill diet is
the mother;” and if food is taken into the stomach without its proper
portion of salt, it is not what one would consider as wholesome; on the
contrary, it is most decidedly “ill diet:” and being such, the system
does not derive that kind of nutriment suitable for the promotion of a
healthy action of the organs of the body, neither are the secretions
in such a condition as is compatible with health. Physiologists
inform us that the saliva[1] holds salt in solution, and that it is
also present in the gastric juice, which indicates at once how highly
necessary it is for the system to be regularly supplied with it; for it
is a physiological fact that the process of deglutition and digestion
is partly due to the disintegrating and solvent action of these two
secretions on the food, especially the latter; and consequently if
the nutritious particles are to be absorbed in a state fit to make up
for the waste of tissue, they ought to contain a sufficient amount of
the chloride of sodium to take the place of that which has passed off
through the media of the skin and the kidneys.

With these self-evident facts and a few physiological data before them
(which really require no great effort to prove, so plain are they in
their simple truth), all indeed must, or should be, convinced of the
necessity of a liberal and judicious use of a substance which plays
such an important part in the animal economy, and into which we shall
enter more fully when we come to consider the relation which salt bears
to food while it is going through the process of digestion.

Owing to the peculiar and incomprehensible prejudices of those who
labour under the false impression that they are wiser and more
discriminating than others, and who become proportionately obstinate in
their notions, we shall endeavour to bring forward undeniable evidence
in support of our arguments, though it is possible they may neither
acknowledge that they are wrong, nor admit that their preconceived
ideas prevent them from arriving at an unbiased conclusion. To such
I have no hesitation in saying that they are much deceived if they
imagine that the habit of abstaining from salt is contributive to
health; such crabbed and confined views, however, are significant of
the fact that human nature is frequently antagonistic to, and at cross
purposes with, that which is ordained by the laws of nature to be
beneficial.

I shall pass over the merits of salt as a seasoning to food, as it is
my object to consider it solely in its relation to the animal economy,
its operation in certain morbid conditions of the system, and its great
importance as a health-preserver. But before proceeding, it will be
as well to give a passing glance at its history and other attractive
matter with which it is indirectly in relation; for though our
investigations will be rather of a tentative character, and in a degree
speculative, they may at least be interesting if not instructive.
Perhaps others may be stimulated to penetrate deeper into the almost
impenetrable obscurity with which the discovery of salt as a condiment
is surrounded; and if they can bring to light who it was that primarily
found out the chloride of sodium and utilised it as an adjunct to
food, they will have solved a geological problem, and a long-standing
historical enigma will be elucidated.

We possess no distinct and reliable data, and in fact no information
of any kind, concerning salt in the early ages of the world as an
article of diet, outside the pages of Scripture: all we really know,
is, that in the infantile period of Europe, when the Indo-Germanic
tribes entered it from Asia, though they were unacquainted with the
sea, they were familiar with salt, as is proved by the recurrence of
its name; yet whether they used it with their food we are by no means
so sure of. The Kitchen-Middeners, who had their miserable dwellings
on the wild shores of Jutland and similar inhospitable localities,
_might_ have been acquainted with it; but when we call to mind the
nature of the food[2] on which they lived, we may, I think, fairly
conclude that they were ignorant of the use to which salt is now put;
here again, however, we have only vague conjecture to fall back upon.
The founder of Buddhism, Arddha Chiddi, a native of Capila near Nepaul,
who subsequently changed his name to Gotama, and afterwards to Chakia
Mouni, in his “Verbal Instructions,” when dealing with his inquiry into
the nature of man, asks us to consider what becomes of a grain of salt
when cast into the ocean. Of the epoch of Gotama, or Chakia Mouni,
there is great diversity of opinion; the Chinese, Mongols, and Japanese
fix it at B.C. 1000; the Cashmerians at B.C. 1332; and the Avars,
Siamese, and Cingalese fix it at B.C. 600.

The reference which Gotama thus makes to salt shows us that he was
familiarly acquainted with it, otherwise he would not have figuratively
mentioned it.

We are completely in the dark regarding salt as a condiment till Moses,
in the Book of Job, asks the pertinent question, “Can anything which is
unsavoury be eaten without salt?” As this book was penned B.C.
1520, we may conclude with a tolerable degree of certainty that it
was so used in the time of the great Jewish Law-giver, and as he was
brought up in the court of Pharaoh, and was skilled in all the wisdom
of the Egyptians, it would point to the probability that salt was in
common use in that ancient country.

The _first_ mention we possess of salt is when Moses refers to the Vale
of Siddim, which is the Salt Sea. This vast reservoir was known as the
Dead Sea,[3] and is so to this day: so the Jews, who were commanded
to use salt in their sacrifices, had a large natural depôt which
afforded them a limitless supply of the necessary material for carrying
on their worship, and likewise for individual consumption: they also
mixed a certain amount of salt with their incense. The second reference
is in relation to one of those extraordinary incidents with which the
first five books of the Old Testament teem, and that is during the
destruction of the “Cities of the Plain,” when Lot’s wife was turned
into a pillar of salt for disobedience.

We also read of salt in the Iliad of Homer, and as he did not flourish
till about B.C. 850,[4] we must give the honour of marking it
indelibly on the pages of history to Moses the Jew, who lived, if the
above date is correct, 670 years anterior to the illustrious Father of
epic poetry, and, if the Cashmerians are correct in their calculation,
188 years before Gotama gave to the world his eight hundred volumes,
pointing out the path towards individual extinction or “Nirwana.”

We may likewise conclude that as it was known to the sagacious
Hebrew, the æsthetic Greek, and the imaginative Asiatic, it was no
doubt equally well known to the Egyptians, and probably amongst the
neighbouring African tribes, long before the arrival of Joseph in the
land of the Pharaohs, and centuries before the Oracle of Delphi was
instituted.[5]

From the following lines we may justly conclude that the Greeks looked
upon salt as sacred, and used it as a thank-offering, and that it even
was an absolute necessity to go through the ceremony of washing their
hands before touching it; such extreme care and scrupulous observance
indicates that it was a substance held in the highest reverence:

  “At this the Sire embraced the maid again,
  So sadly lost, so lately sought in vain.
  Then near the altar of the darting King,
  Dispos’d in rank their hecatomb they bring;       585
  With water purify their hands, and take
  The sacred off’ring of the salted cake;
  While thus with arms devoutly rais’d in air,
  And solemn voice, the Priest directs his pray’r.”

  POPE’S _Homer’s Iliad_, book i.

  “And Menalaus came unbid, the last.               485
  The chiefs surround the destined beast, and take
  The sacred off’ring of the salted cake:
  When thus the King prefers his solemn pray’r.”

  _Ibid._, book ii.

  “Achilles at the genial feast presides,
  The parts transfixes, and with skill divides.
  Meanwhile Patroclus sweats the fire to raise;
  The tent is bright’ned with the rising blaze:
  Then, when the languid flames at length subside,
  He strows a bed of glowing embers wide,            280
  Above the coals the smoking fragments turns,
  And sprinkles sacred salt from lifted urns.”

  _Ibid._, book ix.

At the time of the Exodus, Egypt was the great disseminator of
knowledge, the centre of civilisation, and the emporium of trade, being
then at its zenith of prosperity and power;[6] and the countries which
were conterminous no doubt regarded it with feelings of admiration
and emulation, and were only too desirous to adopt its customs, as
well as to avail themselves of the learning and culture which were
only to be found in the land of obelisks and pyramids. Even the
Greek philosophers were fain to acknowledge that Egypt[7] was their
storehouse of wisdom and æsthetic art; neither Athenian, Spartan,
or Corinthian, ever disavowed his presumed Egyptian descent: and if
history is to be relied on, the first King of Attica was a citizen of
Sais; though this is a disputed point, for not only is the country
of Cecrops a topic for controversy, but even his very existence is
questioned, and by some altogether denied. This legend, if it is such,
however, tends to show that the communication between the two countries
(though of the two, Egypt was much more exclusive) was frequent;
however, it is still a theme upon which classical commentators continue
to exercise their controversial dexterity, some of whom affirm that
there is no foundation for the myth. Yet many philosophical authors
who flourished in Athens believed implicitly in the Egyptian genealogy
of Cecrops; so that there is no reason why it should be stamped as
fictitious, especially when it is verified by those who lived closer
to that period of time than the incredulous moderns, whose great
delight is to hint that many past historical events are incredible,
and therefore apocryphal. I think we may certainly conclude that the
sage discriminating Athenians were acquainted with their Egyptian
descent,[8] for they were the last people to believe in uncertainties,
save such as were connected with their religion; and what nation is
there, I should like to know, which is not similarly imposed upon by
its own strange credulity, and the artful designs of schemers in this
particular?

Cecrops, no doubt, while he introduced Egyptian arts and sciences into
his adopted country, was too wise, and too well conversant with such an
important commodity as salt, to forget both its existence and utility,
on his arrival in the peninsula. Presuming for one moment that the
emigration of Cecrops from Egypt is a fable, it is indicative of the
fact that a perpetual intercourse, though of a modified nature, existed
between that country and Greece. We know, however, that both Egyptian
and Grecian histories, about the period of Cecrops, are involved in
much obscurity and uncertainty (particularly as regards dates); and if,
therefore, Cecrops and his foundation of a Pelasgic colony in Attica
is a mythological tale, we may justly infer that Greece, owing to the
greater antiquity of Egypt, imitated many of the social customs which
were in vogue in the ancient and luxurious cities of the Nile.

We are also aware that at this early age, with a few brilliant
exceptions like Egypt (we possess no reliable records of China, Japan,
or Hindostan[9]) the world was in a state of mental stagnation—chaotic
is more descriptive: the thoughtful and mystical Egyptians were really
the only recipients and parsimonious (if historical accounts are to be
credited) disseminators of knowledge to their neighbours.

Many centuries later, we find a very remarkable instance of this
influence of Egypt, which, though of a religious character, bears
indirectly on our subject, by exemplifying this intellectual supremacy;
the worship of Isis was established even in Imperial Rome herself, and
we are told that the goddess was a most popular divinity amongst the
wealthy citizens, a temple being erected to her honour in the Campus
Martius; while she was designated by her enthusiastic worshippers, Isis
Campensus. Now, though an Egyptian goddess was admitted with so much
apparent readiness to occupy such an exalted position in the capital
of the empire, when the Romans, with supercilious toleration, allowed
the worship of as many gods as the people chose to venerate, yet the
fact of building a temple for her exclusive worship, when all the
other gods and goddesses were mixed and scattered hither and thither,
without the slightest regard to order or attributes, is sufficient
proof to substantiate the truth of my argument; and again if we call
to mind the jealous pride of the Romans, and their disinclination to
conform to the habits and customs of the countries which succumbed to
their iron will, the admission of Isis to such elevated and almost
unprecedented honours, would tend to show that many customs of Egyptian
origin were not only adopted by the haughty Roman, but also by the Jew,
Greek, Assyrian, and Persian, with a willingness in proportion to their
utility, ornamentation, and agreeableness; and in some instances in
deference to the intellectual ascendancy and scientific acquirements of
this ancient people.

The Egyptians, owing to the central position of their country, the
knowledge they were known to possess, their unrivalled skill in
irrigation, the sublimity of their architecture, the abstruse wisdom
of their priests, the mysterious erudition of their astrologers, and
their wonderful agricultural proficiency and renown, caused their
country to be frequently visited (sometimes by stealth, owing to
their stringent laws against the admission of foreigners) by Greeks,
Phœnicians, Assyrians, and Chaldeans, and indeed by all who professed
the study[10] of science, learning, and philosophy; so that we may be
sure they very naturally carried back to their respective countries
many of the domestic customs, as well as the knowledge of their
learned entertainers and instructors. The great city of Thebes stood to
Ethiopia, as well as to Egypt, in the same relation as that occupied
by Rome to mediæval Christendom: the construction of her temples
and palaces, and the vast population of priests and their thousands
of attendants, in addition to the presence of the court, must have
attracted thither multitudes of merchants, artists, artisans, and
indeed travellers from all parts; for it was the centre in those
days of civilisation and commerce; and it was easy of access, for an
opening in the Arabian Sea afforded communication with the port of
Kosseir on the Red Sea; while on the other side, the city was the best
starting-point for the caravan routes across the desert to the three
chief _oases_ (the Greater, the Lesser, and that of Ammon), and to the
interior of Africa. Thus Egypt, through Thebes, commanded the trade
with India, and with the gold, ivory, and aromatic districts; and the
mines of the neighbouring limestone hills added to her enormous wealth,
and gave employment to thousands.

There is another point which we must not overlook, and that is,
the Egyptians did not remain secluded in their own country, though
they were jealous of the entry of strangers. They were a courageous
and seafaring people (though much inferior in that respect to the
adventurous Phœnicians), as far as the times went; for they engaged
in many nautical enterprises after Psammetichus, about B.C.
670, had completely overthrown the ancient system of isolation,
showing their dormant marine proclivities, which had hitherto been
but secretly indulged in.[11] Before these barriers had been broken
down, their expeditions, as far as we know, never extended beyond the
ancient Pillars of Hercules, which was regarded as an extraordinary
exploit in those days (so we are told). One thing we may be practically
certain of—wherever they went they carried with them not only their
learning, but also their own peculiar customs and habits; and doubtless
they experienced a satisfaction and pride in displaying their
superiority not only in matters appertaining to knowledge, but also in
civilisation. May we not justly infer that in their peregrinations they
promulgated the utility and advantages of such a valuable commodity
as salt wherever they went, wherever they settled? And would not the
various peoples whom they visited, after having once experienced
the palatableness of salt, take to it with an eagerness approaching
avidity? The following paragraph, which I have extracted _in extenso_
from the work of a highly gifted American author, and which is, I am
proud to say, confirmatory of my own observations, delineates in a
most forcible and graphic style the wonderful pitch of excellence in
the sciences to which the Egyptians had attained, and their remarkable
approach to the goal of indefectibility.

“The hieroglyphic writing had passed through all its stages of
formation; its principles had become ascertained and settled long
before we gain the first glimpse of it; the decimal and duodecimal
systems of arithmetic were in use; the arts necessary in hydraulic
engineering, massive architecture, and the ascertainment of the
boundaries of land, had reached no insignificant degree of perfection.
Indeed, there would be but very little exaggeration in affirming that
we are practically as near the early Egyptian as was Herodotus himself.
Well might the Egyptian priests say to the earliest Greek philosophers:
‘You Greeks are mere children, talkative and vain; you know nothing at
all of the past.’”[12]

There is another channel which we will now take into consideration: the
Philistines, who are supposed to have been descended from the Hycksos,
or Shepherd Kings of Egypt, must have carried with them not a few of
those customs which were in fashion amongst the sons of the founders
of the gloomy temples of Memphis and Luxor; and on their expulsion by
the regenerated Egyptians they were probably much assimilated with
them, owing to many years’ intercourse, and being located in the same
country, though their nationalities were entirely distinct and their
habits antagonistic, and notwithstanding the dislike the Egyptians
had for, and their abhorrence of all those who were connected with,
the grazing and the breeding of cattle; for whenever two nations mix
promiscuously, however limited it may be, they are sure to adopt more
or less each other’s peculiarities, both in language and customs.
These Philistines, when they emigrated on their defeat, took with them
Egyptian civilisation, and the various tribes surrounding their newly
acquired territory were very soon initiated into customs of which,
perhaps, they were previously ignorant. There is nothing to prove this,
but we may certainly surmise as much, if only by inference.[13]

Though we possess no historical record, we may, owing to the influence
which Egypt doubtless exerted over the civilised parts of Europe, come
to the conclusion that through her instrumentality the use of salt was
made known to the surrounding nations and tribes; the sons of Jacob and
their families were not sufficiently numerous to render them important
in the estimation of their neighbours, nor were they powerful enough to
extort respect or generate emulation.

We learn from Herodotus, who was born B.C. 484, that the
Egyptians eat salted food, but nothing as regards using it in the same
way as we do. He says, “They live on fish, raw, but sun-dried, or
steeped in brine; they eat also raw quails and ducks, and the smaller
birds, salted beforehand.”[14] The climate of Egypt, being remarkably
dry and hot, would soon cause the decomposition of fresh animal food,
and the Egyptians doubtless were aware of the fact that a prolonged
immersion in brine or salt would be a complete deterrent; therefore
there is no reason to doubt but that it was as common a custom amongst
them as it is amongst us at the present day.[15] The “Father of
History” does not mention that salt was used as a condiment; though we
may presume as much.

We might feel inclined at first to ascribe the honour of promulgating
the utility of salt to the Hebrews, owing to the fact of one of their
nation being the first to mention it, and of our possessing no other
record of so early a date. Abraham was very probably cognisant of
the virtues of salt, but though he was the founder of the people
whose mission and chief delight was indiscriminate massacre, he was
not one of them, but a Chaldean, a people famed for their wisdom;
besides, he was the progenitor of two nations, viz. the Hebrews and the
Ishmaelites, so that if Isaac was acquainted with the properties of
salt, his half-brother Ishmael was equally so. Ishmael’s descendants
speedily developed into a free, independent nation, while Isaac’s
became slaves, and were made to construct costly monuments, build
gigantic palaces, and raise majestic temples for their highly-cultured
and imperious oppressors.

Which branch was likely to be imitated? Not the labouring, ignorant
Hebrew, smarting under the lash of servitude, but rather the wandering
Ishmaelite, who roamed at pleasure over the burning solitudes of
Arabia; still, we must remember they were like a drop in the bucket
when compared with their exclusive neighbours over the Red Sea. We are
all aware that to this day the Eastern custom of placing salt before
a guest is a token of amity and goodwill, and is significant enough
to tell the visitor that he is for the time being in perfect safety;
no Arab, even under provocation, would injure his most violent enemy
after having once eaten salt with him under cover of his tent, till he
was out in the desert.[16] This custom has descended from generation
to generation, and perhaps was instituted by the exiled son of Abraham
and Hagar. This fact would seem to corroborate my hypothesis, that if
the Jews, through Abraham, were aware of the properties of salt, their
wild brothers of the desert were also acquainted with it, and from the
same source. Where Abraham obtained the knowledge of salt rests in
obscurity; he may have acquired the secret from the Egyptians, or, as
he is termed the friend of the Founder of the Universe, probably he
learnt it from a higher authority. I think we may dismiss the idea that
we owe the discovery of salt to the Hebrews.

Our speculations on this point are, however, comparatively vain, for
we cannot possibly determine who first discovered it, or who first
utilised it as a condiment to food: all we really know is that it
has become universal, and that from time immemorial; but whether the
Egyptians, Chinese, or Hindoos first made use of it, will be one of
those dark secrets the solution of which may interest the curious and
ingenious, and test the patience and erudition of the profound. Such
an investigation might probably be considered by some as unprofitable,
even if it were attended with success. To such I do not think it will
be unjust or irrelevant to observe that many scientific discussions
which from time to time have occupied the learned world have been, as
far as the results are concerned, not of much moment to humanity at
large. For instance, of what practical utility is the modern theory of
evolution, upon which so much erudition of a minute kind, and thought,
is expended, except as indicative of the ingenuity of the author?
Is science at all advanced when we are gravely told that the human
organism springs from protoplasm, and that plastidules consist of
carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, and that they possess souls? It
is true that these abstruse inquiries have been productive of inciting
a greater desire for studying the workings of nature, and a great
deal of which previous generations were profoundly ignorant has been
ingeniously disclosed, and accurately elucidated, for one is bound to
admit that, though in many instances their researches have failed in
their ultimate results, they have been the indirect cause of giving a
remarkable impetus to scientific investigation. Many recondite subjects
have thus been exhaustively analysed, unintentionally, owing to the
anxiety and eagerness of the authors to arrive at the goal of their
wishes; for while they are seeking for that which probably will never
be found, they discover others which, to all intents and purposes, very
likely would never have been conceived of. Perhaps these remarks may be
considered unjust and hypercritical as regards their researches into
the mysteries of life, and do not appear to give sufficient importance
to those philosophical deductions and enunciations, which the authors
no doubt demand as an imperative right; for scientific physicists
are apt to be tyrannical, and are not over-endued with the virtue of
practicality, and naturally do not like their opinions and metaphysical
reveries relegated to that region which Milton humorously baptized
the “Paradise of Fools,” but prefer their speculations to be regarded
as irrefragable facts. As this is, however, the age for far-fetched
theories, I think we may be allowed with perfect fairness to discuss a
subject which has partially escaped the eyes of the inquisitive; and
if it is not treated so elegantly as the learned theses of the leaders
of science and philosophy of to-day, I cannot help thinking that we
may probably gain considerably more by studying a subject which is
practically of interest to all, than attempting to penetrate into the
invisible and undefinable mechanism of biology.

Notwithstanding the proofs (vague though they be), which I have
already mentioned to show that we are indebted to the Egyptians for
the discovery of this most valuable substance, I nevertheless do so
with diffidence, because they are of a hypothetical tendency, and
consequently refutable.[17] We may endeavour to trace the custom
of using salt as a condiment to several nations, or even to one
particular nation, with as much earnestness as the modern speculatists
attempt to account for unaccountable phenomena appertaining to the
material and spiritual worlds; but, as far as the real evidence goes,
we are as unsuccessful, and our inquiries almost as unsatisfactory, as
theirs have been hitherto.

There is great probability, however, that the Egyptians first made
known to other nations, directly and indirectly, the utility of salt,
and that through their sole agency it was introduced into Europe
through the media of commerce and other channels of communication, and
no doubt, as I have previously stated, in deference to their superior
wisdom. We learn from those scholars who are giving their attention
to Egyptian remains, that Greece was indebted to Egypt for all her
science, architecture, literature, art, and mythology; and, indeed, her
domestic life was derived from that venerable country. “From Egypt, it
now appears, were derived the prototypes of the Greek architectural
orders, and even their monuments and conventional designs; thence came
the models of the Greek and Etruscan vases; thence came many of the
ante-Homeric legends ... thence came the first ritual for the dead,
litanies to the sun, and painted, or illuminated, missals; thence came
the dogma of a queen of heaven!”[18]

In confirmation of this we are told that Moses, as I have before
remarked, was skilled in Egyptian wisdom: this is most emphatic,
and we cannot but conclude that that wisdom was in a high state
of perfection; and their works, which are still the surprise and
admiration of travellers, testify to the truth of Holy Writ. Do not
their monuments, which have set time at defiance, prove that they were
a people highly gifted? Their ruins are more sublime than any other
architectural remains which are extant, excelling, both in magnificence
and magnitude, the classic temples of Greece, and the elegant buildings
which once graced the banks of the golden Tiber. In reference to this
I may quote Dr. Lepsius, who states that “all the principal cities of
Egypt were adorned with temples and palaces.... These temples were
filled with the statues of gods and kings, generally colossal, and hewn
from costly stones.”

Possibly, owing to the fact that salt is valued almost universally,
and is a substance which has been demonstrated by experience to be
necessary to humanity, it may have been, for all we can say, as well
known to the Antediluvians as it is to us; and if so, then we are
indebted to Noah. But these are but surmises; we really possess no
authentic record, except that which we find in Holy Writ: and, with
my reader’s leave, we will now proceed to examine those passages of
Scripture in which salt is mentioned.

We find that whenever salt is named, it is done so in language of a
character stamping it as a most important essential; and especially
do we notice this in the directions for the religious services of the
Israelites. They were commanded in the most explicit language that
in all their offerings they should “offer salt.”[19] There is also
another point which we must not omit, and that is, whenever salt is
referred to in the Inspired Volume, it is invariably in connection
with some important transaction: for example, when Elisha sweetened
the waters of the fountain of Jericho, he cast salt into them; this
act of the prophet illustrates, figuratively, the purifying properties
of salt, for he said, “I have healed these waters.”[20] When Abimelech
captured Shechem, he strewed salt over the ruins;[21] and when Abijah
harangued Jeroboam from the Mount Zemaraim, he speaks of a “covenant of
salt.”[22] We read farther on of this “covenant of salt” in the Book
of Numbers.[23] In fact, in the Old Testament, as well as in the New,
considerable stress is laid on this evidently important substance,
which shows that nothing was considered as thoroughly accomplished if
salt, in some way or other, was not intimately connected with it.

It was also a custom amongst the Hebrews, which was never departed
from, to rub new-born infants with salt:[24] this practice was in every
respect healthy and cleanly, and if we Christians were wise we should,
from a hygienic point of view, strictly follow a custom which is so
conducive to health; for salt hardens the skin of newly-born children
and renders it more firm, and prevents (unless there is an hereditary
taint) any irritation or local eruption of the skin.

The first mention of salt as a condiment is to be found in Job;[25]
and as this beautiful book, which delineates the vicissitudes to which
life is subjected, is supposed to have been written by Moses when he
was dwelling amongst the Midianites, there is no doubt but that it was
in general use not only in Egypt, but also amongst the surrounding
nations. The answer to the question propounded by the persecuted man of
Uz is the same now as it was three thousand years ago—there is nothing
savoury without salt, and to a certainty there is no real permanent
health without salt.

The Jews, like all Asiatic races, were much afflicted with various
forms of leprosy, and as salt is an indirect antidote to cutaneous
eruptions, they used it not so much as a condiment, but as a shield to
ward off and protect them from those repulsive diseases which rendered
those who were attacked obnoxious to their fellow-countrymen, by whom
they were treated as outcasts till they had recovered from their
loathsome maladies. To this day we find that by far the greater number
who suffer from cutaneous diseases hardly ever eat salt with their
food; this is an unquestionable fact, and truly significant of its
inestimable virtue as an anti-morbific agent.

The Great Master says (and who will dispute such an unanswerable
verity?) “salt is good;” and then He adds, “but if the salt has
lost its saltness, wherewith will ye season it?”[26] Addressing His
disciples, He says: “Ye are the salt of the earth,” and also, “Have
salt in yourselves.”[27] These sayings prove in the most unmistakable
language that salt is highly necessary. Our Saviour applies it in a
religious sense, it is true, but He was too much of a philosopher, too
great a logician, to use a metaphor of which the application could
be shaken and disproved in the abstract, if the image or figure were
fundamentally incorrect or inconsistent with the lesson which it was
intended to convey; besides, He never would have declared it “good” had
it been in the slightest degree provocative of anything deleterious to
the human race, neither would He have made use of a figurative mode of
speech if He could not have based it on a physical fact.

We are thus told in three simple words the value of salt, and none save
the shallow, or the sophist, would attempt to prove the contrary. All
must acknowledge the fact that salt is equally pleasant to the gourmand
and the temperate; and that animal and vegetable food is not palatable
without it. As it is pronounced to be “good” by the highest authority,
we must regard it as one of Heaven’s best gifts to man. It would be
a comparatively small matter were it but a condiment rendering food
more pleasant to the taste; but when we know that it is indirectly
a preserver of health, and that it also contravenes the attacks of
disease, its value will, I hope, be considerably increased.

I shall be more than satisfied if I am able to persuade those unwise
people who make it a rule never to use salt, to resort to it at once
without hesitation; for if they wish to be in a fair state of health,
to have clear wholesome skins and fresh complexions, to be free from
intestinal parasites and cutaneous diseases, to have their digestive
organs perform their functions compatible with health and personal
comfort, they must have, practically speaking, salt in themselves.

We have thus, from very scanty records concerning salt, essayed to
clear up, though very inconclusively, and I fear unsatisfactorily,
certain points which have been unnoticed, by reason, I think, of
the dense obtenebration with which the subject is surrounded; for
it has hitherto baffled the researches of the geologist to discover
its pristine source, and neither do we know who first used it as
a condiment. The chemist can experimentalise with this inorganic
substance to detect the presence of other bodies, and he knows its
worth in the laboratory; but as for its origin, he is as much in the
dark as the geologist.




CHAPTER III.

SALT AS A CHEMICAL, THERAPEUTICAL, AND TOXICOLOGICAL AGENT.


As a chemical agent, and from the manufacturing uses to which it is now
put, salt is a most invaluable article from a scientific as well as
from a commercial point of view. I will therefore draw the attention
of my reader to its chemical properties; I will then allude to a few
drugs which are partially derived from salt or the chloride of sodium;
and will cursorily notice one great staple of commerce which owes the
rapidity of manufacture to its sole agency, including some remarks on
it as a poison.

_Chlorine_ gas, which is obtained from the _chloride of sodium_, was
discovered by Scheele in 1777, who named it _dephlogisticated muriatic
acid_. Berthollet in 1785 termed it _oxygenated muriatic acid_. Sir
Humphry Davy called it _chlorine_ (from χλωρὸς, green) on account of
its colour, and it has kept this name ever since. We thus see that salt
is of great use to the chemist, for he not only obtains _chlorine_ gas
from it, but also _hydrochloric acid_, a most useful and efficacious
drug in the treatment of some hepatic diseases. _Chlorine_ also enters
into combination with other chemical substances known as _chlorides_
and _chlorates_, _sub-chlorides_ and _per-chlorides_; for instance, we
have the _chloride of ammonium_ and the _chlorate of potash_; we also
have the _sub-chloride of mercury_, or _calomel_, and the _perchloride
of mercury_, or _corrosive sublimate_, with various others.

According to Pereira, _hydrochloric acid_ was known to Djafar, or
Geber, an Arabian chemist who flourished in the eighth century, and
whom Roger Bacon calls _magister magistrorum_. Everyone is acquainted
with the _chloride of lime_, a substance so generally used for
household and disinfecting purposes, that I need only mention it;
besides this, there are other salts with which _chlorine_ enters into
combination.

Formerly, to bleach cotton it was required to expose the material to
the action of the sun and air, rendering the process long and tedious,
as it took on the average quite six or eight months, and likewise a
large surface of land was necessary for the operation.

Now, owing to _chlorine_ gas, the process is completed in a few hours,
and a comparatively small building is quite sufficient for the purpose;
the fibre is beautifully and permanently whitened, and the manufacturer
experiences the pleasing satisfaction of a more rapid remuneration.

Where would be our delicately white textile fibres were it not for the
abundant and inexhaustible supply of salt? How should we be enabled
to cause vegetable colours to vanish as if touched by the hand of a
magician were it not for the bleaching properties of _chlorine_? And
how should we be able to procure this green-coloured gas which produces
these changes were it not for the _chloride of sodium_?

As a therapeutical agent _chlorine_ possesses some characteristics
peculiar to itself: it is used as a lotion for cancerous growths and
foul ulcers, also for some cutaneous eruptions. It is likewise used
as a vapour-bath; it has also been used in the treatment of chronic
bronchitis and phthisis, and as a gargle in certain morbid conditions
of the mouth. When _chlorine_ is absorbed by the system it is supposed
to possess some antiseptic and alterative action, acting specifically
on the liver.

There is one more fact of a chemical nature in reference to chlorine
which it would be unwise to throw aside, as it possesses some degree of
interest. When the chemist wishes to decompose water, or in other words
to liberate hydrogen from oxygen, he has no better agent to effect
the purpose than this greenish-coloured gas, because it has such a
strong affinity for _hydrogen_, which is one of the most characteristic
properties of _chlorine_. Mix them together, and they combine with
explosive violence if they are exposed to the beams of the sun. By
this process we obtain _hydrochloric acid_ gas, while the _oxygen_ is
liberated.

_Chlorine_ only becomes active when it is associated with moisture;
when dry it is quite inert as regards its bleaching powers, for “when
moist it gradually decomposes the water, combining with its _hydrogen_,
and disengaging its _oxygen_; and it is this _oxygen_, at the moment of
its liberation, which is the really active agent in bleaching.”[28]

Salt, like other inorganic compounds, has been known to act as a poison
when taken in a large quantity, and Dr. Alfred Taylor, the eminent
toxicologist, mentions a case in which a table-spoonful was taken by
mistake for sugar; there was no vomiting or purging, but great pain in
the region of the stomach, with dryness of the fauces, which lasted
several days. Did not the above emanate from so great an authority,
one would feel inclined to question it. Could anyone take such a large
amount and swallow the same without being immediately aware of his
mistake? Surely he would have immediately and spasmodically ejected
it by reason of its extremely pungent character, before it had even
reached the fauces.

Dr. Taylor says that “in a toxicological view it is not easy to
distinguish the effects of common salt in these cases from the
poisonous action of salt of sorrel, or binoxalate of potash, which
it is well known may be taken with impunity in small quantity;” the
symptoms are those of irritant poisoning, causing great pain and
intensely inflaming the stomach and intestines, and in those few cases
which we have on record the vomiting was excessive.

In France, though not hitherto, as far as I am aware, in Great Britain,
several instances have occurred of severe sickness in particular
localities, which have been traced to the adulteration of common salt
with certain deleterious articles. In an investigation conducted by
M. Guibourt some years ago, in consequence of some severe accidents
which were presumed to have been produced apparently by salt in Paris
and at Meaux, oxide of arsenic was detected; and this discovery was
corroborated by MM. Latour and Lefrançois, who ascertained that
the proportion of arsenic was sometimes a quarter of a grain per
ounce. Another peculiar adulteration which was frequent was with the
hydriodate of soda. At a meeting of the Parisian Academy of Medicine,
held in December, 1829, an interesting report was read by MM. Boullay
and Delens, subsequent to the inquiry by M. Sérullas, into the nature
of a sample of salt which occasioned very extensive ravages. In the
year 1829 various epidemic illnesses in several parishes were supposed
to have originated from salt of bad quality, and in one month no less
than 150 people in two parishes were attacked, some with nausea and
pain in the stomach, slimy and bloody purging, some with tension of
the abdomen, puffiness of the face, inflammation of the eyes, and
œdema of the legs; and in some districts of the Marne one-sixth part
of the inhabitants were affected in a similar manner. The salt being
suspected, as it had an unusual odour somewhat like the effluvia of
marsh land, it was analysed by M. Sérullas, and after him by MM.
Boullay and Delens; the experiments of all three indicated the presence
of one hundredth of its weight of hydriodate of soda, besides a small
amount of free iodine. Owing to the discovery of arsenic by other
experts in different samples of suspected salt, M. Sérullas repeated
the analysis, but was unable to detect the slightest trace of that
poison.

“M. Barruel states that he observed the occasional adulteration of salt
with some hydriodate accidentally in 1824, while preparing experiments
for Professor Orfila’s lectures. He also found it in two samples from
different grocers’ shops in Paris. No satisfactory explanation has yet
been given of the source of the adulteration with arsenic; but the
presence of the hydriodate of soda has been traced to the fraudulent
use of impure salt from kelp.”[29]

It will be as well for us to know what pure salt really consists of, to
the composition of which I now draw the reader’s attention:


COMPOSITION OF THE PURE CHLORIDE OF SODIUM.

             Atoms.  Eq. wt.  Per cent.  Ure.    Longchamps.
  Sodium       1      23        39·3     39·98     39·767
  Chlorine     1      35·5      60·7     60·02     60·233
               —      ————    ——————    ——————    ———————
               2      58·5     100·0    100·00    100·000

MM. St. Claire Deville and Fouqué have shown that common salt can be
resolved into its elements by the action of hot steam alone, which
Lussa and other chemists had thought impossible.

Prof. Meyer, of Berne, has lately demonstrated by experiments on
chlorine gas, that the assumption of its elementary character is an
error, and that it is nothing more or less than the oxide of a metal
which he calls _murium_. This discovery opens up an interesting
question for physiological chemists to investigate; for if he is
correct, chlorine is not an element, but is simply the oxide of a
metal.




CHAPTER IV.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.


Salt, fortunately for us, is a commodity remarkably easy to obtain;
almost everyone knows it is in great abundance in the ocean,[30] and
there are inexhaustible supplies of it in the earth; it is also present
in some rivers, and in no inconsiderable quantity. Mr. John Ashley, in
the _Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society_, in his “Analysis of
Thames Water,” tells us the exact amount:

COMPOSITION OF THAMES WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE IN GRAINS PER GALLON
OF 70,000 GRAINS.

  Carbonate of Lime          8·1165
  Chloride of Calcium        6·9741
  Chloride of Magnesium       ·0798
  Chloride of Sodium (salt)  2·3723
  Sulphate of Soda           3·1052
  Sulphate of Potash          ·2695
  Silica                      ·1239
  Insoluble Organic Matter   4·6592
  Soluble Organic Matter     2·3380
                             ——————
                            28·0385

We may account for this great proportion of salts by the fact that
the Thames collects its water from the drainage of comparatively soft
and soluble rocks; we should also remember the vast amount of refuse
organic and inorganic matter which is being continually thrown into
this river; and we must also call to mind that it is nothing more
or less than the main sewer which receives the ordure of the modern
Babylon.[31]

We may naturally suppose that in those rivers which flow through
sparsely inhabited countries, where there is little or no traffic,
the amount of saline matter would be next to nothing, and probably
not a trace would be discovered. In a river like the Thames, owing
to the vast quantity of its shipping, the great percentage which Mr.
John Ashley has given us need not afford the least surprise. Sea-water
is deficient in its proper proportion of salt at the mouths of great
rivers, where the volume of fresh water displaces that which properly
belongs to the sea, and therefore a river does not obtain much saline
matter from that source.

Before we pass on to consider the geographical distribution of salt,
we will just cursorily glance at the position it occupies in the
vegetable world. It is present in all plants growing near the sea,
and in variable quantities in some of those which are in or near
districts where the soil is mixed with salt; though its place is taken
by potash when they grow inland. Dr. Balfour writes as follows: “Soda
and potash occur abundantly in plants. They are taken up with the soil
in combination with acids. Those growing near the sea have a large
proportion of soda in their composition, whilst those growing inland
contain potash. Various species of salsola, salicornia, halimœnenum,
and kochia yield soda for commercial purposes and are called halophites
(ἁλς, salt, and φυτὸν, plant). The young plants, according to Göbel,
furnish more soda than the old ones. There are certain species, as
Armeria maritima, Cochlearia officinalis, and Plantago maritima, which
are found both on the seashore and high on the mountains removed from
the sea. In the former situation they contain much soda and some
iodine; while in the latter, according to Dr. Dickie, potash prevails
and iodine disappears.”

Soda being present in those plants growing near the sea, and potash in
those which are inland, are two points well worthy of notice, and which
we will now discuss. The number of vegetables which are cultivated
near the coast shrink into insignificance when compared with those
which grow inland; and naturally the markets are supplied with inland
produce on account of a larger supply, therefore the consumption of
those vegetables containing potash is in the same ratio. This being
unquestionably the case, we ought, on that account alone, to use
salt freely with our vegetable food in order to supply that which is
absent, arising from the difference of locality and dissimilarity of
the atmosphere. I shall enter fully into the relation salt bears to
vegetable food while it is going through the process of digestion
further on, when we come to consider the effects which food salted
beforehand has upon the system when continued for any length of time,
with little or no variation, which dietary is supposed to be the sole
cause of the attacks of scurvy on board ship.

The sea is that grand reservoir which supplies the earth with its
fertility; and the air and sun are mighty engines which work without
intermission to raise the water from this inexhaustible cistern. The
clouds, as aqueducts, convey the genial stores along the atmosphere,
and distribute them in seasonable and regular proportions through all
the regions of the globe.

With what difficulty do we extract a drop of perfectly sweet water from
this vast pit of brine! Yet the sun draws off, every moment, millions
of tons in vaporous exhalations, which, being securely lodged in the
clouds, are sent abroad sweetened and refined, without the least
brackish tincture or bituminous sediment; sent abroad upon the wings of
the winds to distil in dews and rain, to ooze in fountains, to trickle
along in rivulets, to roll from the sides of mountains, to flow in
copious streams amid burning deserts and populous kingdoms, in order
to refresh and fertilise, to beautify and enrich, every soil in every
clime.

Though the ocean is salt, yet certain seas do not contain so much as
others; my reader must not therefore conclude that the chloride of
sodium, or salt, is equally diffused in sea-water, for the atmosphere
receives a larger or lesser amount by reason of evaporation. Dr. Draper
writes that the “temperature of the Mediterranean is twelve degrees
higher than that of the Atlantic, and since much of the water is
removed by evaporation, it is necessarily more saline than that ocean.”

It is said that the southern seas are slightly more salt than the
northern, the reason for which phenomenon has not been, as yet,
satisfactorily explained.

It is strange that salt should determine the colour of the sea, and
that for centuries the cause of this peculiar natural phenomenon of
the ocean should have been a closed secret even to men of science.
Even from the earliest times, the origin of this marine peculiarity
has attracted the attention and wonder of navigators; yet, strange to
say, it has only been discovered within the last few years. The many
expeditions which have been despatched by the Governments of England,
Germany, and others, for the express purpose of oceanic discovery, have
been the means of solving a question which has perplexed all races of
seamen from the time of the Phœnicians, and which astonished Columbus
on his voyage to the Indies.

These recent scientific investigations have proved that the proportion
of salt held in solution by sea-water determines its blue or green
appearance, and also its specific gravity; consequently, when the water
is blue, we may conclude that it holds a much greater proportion of
salt; when it is green, it is indicative that there is a decrease.

There is one phenomenon which is peculiarly interesting. There are two
kinds of ice floating in the Arctic and Antarctic seas—the flat ice and
the mountain ice. The one is formed of sea-water, the other of fresh.
The flat or driving ice is entirely composed of salt water, which, when
dissolved, is found to be salt, and is readily distinguished from the
mountain or fresh-water ice by its whiteness and want of transparency.
This ice is much more terrible to mariners than that which rises in
lumps. A ship generally can avoid the one, as it is seen at a distance;
but it frequently gets in amongst the other, which, sometimes closing
with resistless force, crushes the doomed vessel to pieces.

The surface of that which is congealed from the sea-water is not only
flat, but quite even, hard, and opaque, resembling white sugar, and
incapable of being slid upon.

Salt is found in variable quantities in different countries, and in
various conditions; in one part it may be found as a huge mountain, in
which there are dark and lofty caverns; in others it is deposited in
marshes and lakes, and in others in deep mines, many hundreds of feet
beneath the surface of the earth.

In some countries there are vast quantities of rock or fossil salt.
Salt has been divided into _three_ kinds: native or rock salt; common
or sea salt, also called white-salt; and bay-salt. Under the title
of bay-salt are ranked all kinds of common salt, extracted from
the water, wherever it is dissolved by means of the sun’s heat and
the operation of the air. If sea-water is evaporated by means of a
gentle heat we also obtain what is known as bay-salt. Common salt, or
sea-salt, or white-salt, which is extracted from the sea, is composed
of hydrochloric acid, saturated with soda, and is found in salt water
and salt-springs, also in coal and gypsum-beds. “The sea itself, if
desiccated, would afford a bed of salt five hundred feet thick, one
hundred for every mile.”

In England, and especially in Cheshire, there are large salt-mines,
at Nantwich and Middlewich, which have existed ever since the Roman
occupation of Britain; and in the year 1670 the Staffordshire
salt-mines were discovered, and accordingly excavated. Those in
Cheshire have been renowned for centuries; their great extent is such
that the surface has subsided on account of its being undermined for so
many miles.

“In England, the Trias is the chief repository of salt, or chloride
of sodium; and brine-springs, which are subterranean streams of water
impregnated with salt from percolating through saliferous strata,
are abundant in the great plain of the red marls and sandstones of
Cheshire. The salt, however, is not uniform in extent, but occupies
limited areas.” The saliferous strata of Northwich present the
following series:

  1. Uppermost calcareous marl      15 feet
  2. Red and blue clays             120  ”
  3. Bed of rock-salt                75  ”
  4. Clay, with veins of rock-salt   31  ”
  5. Second bed of rock-salt        110  ”

Droitwich, in Worcestershire, which is situated nearly in the centre
of the county, has been celebrated for the production of salt from its
brine-springs from the time of the Romans, who imposed a tax on the
Britons, who, it appears, worked the mines; and also made salt a part
of the pay of their soldiers’ _salarium_, or salary.[32] Ever since,
this inexhaustible fountain of saline water has continued flowing up,
and yielding salt in undiminished quantities. It is very likely that
the manufacture is coëval with the town itself; but it was not till
the year 1725 that the strong brine for which it is now celebrated was
discovered. From one spring, even, the enormous amount of one thousand
tons of salt are obtained every week. At the depth of thirty or forty
feet is a bed of hard gypsum, about one hundred and fifty feet in
thickness; through this a small hole is bored to the stream of brine,
which is about twenty-two inches in depth, and beneath this is the
rock-salt. The brine rising quickly through the aperture is pumped into
a capacious reservoir, whence it is conveyed into iron boilers for
evaporation. It is supposed to be much stronger than any other in the
kingdom, containing above one-fourth part its weight of salt. “One of
the shafts is sunk to a depth of nearly five hundred feet, and passes
through four layers of salt, eighty-five feet in aggregate thickness.
Some of the beds of salt in Cheshire are from seventy to one hundred
and twenty feet in thickness;” and it is sometimes so hard that it
requires to be blasted with gunpowder.

In those districts where the marls of the Trias are covered by other
beds, and the salt-springs force their way through the superincumbent
deposits to the surface, these solutions of the chloride of sodium
undergo a chemical change, acquiring other properties, and are then
called mineral waters. The Cheltenham waters originate thus.[33]
Beneath the town of Cheltenham lie the Triassic deposits, the
reservoir of the rock-salt and brine-springs, which generate the
mineral waters, and from which they derive their saline ingredients.
In their passage to the surface they go through various modifications,
by reason of the superincumbent beds of Lias, which are impregnated
with iron pyrites and the sulphate of lime. From the analyses of
these waters, it appears that their principal constituents are the
chloride of sodium (muriate of soda), or sea-salt, and the sulphates of
soda and magnesia. Sulphate of lime, oxide of iron, and the chloride
of magnesium are present in some wells only, and in much smaller
quantities. Besides these ingredients, _iodine_ and _bromine_ have
been detected by Dr. Daubeny, who instituted experiments to ascertain
whether these two active principles, which the French chemists had
recently discovered in modern marine productions, did not exist in
mineral waters issuing from strata formed in the ancient seas. As the
saline springs of the red marls rise up through the Lias they undergo
certain chemical changes. From the decomposition of the sulphate of
iron which takes place, a vast quantity of sulphuric acid must be
generated, which, reacting on the different bases of magnesia, lime,
etc., contained in the strata, forms those sulphates so prevalent in
the higher or pyritous beds of the Lias; the oxide of iron being at the
same time more or less completely separated. By this means the mineral
waters, which are probably mere brine-springs at the greatest depths,
acquire additional medicinal qualities as they ascend to the places
whence they flow. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that fresh
water is continually falling from the atmosphere upon the surface of
the Lias clays, and percolating through the uppermost strata.[34]

The medicinal properties which are peculiar to these mineral waters
will be considered further on, when we come to discuss the action of
salt on the system, in health and disease, and the restorative results
which are due solely to its instrumentality.

The salt district is in the line which joins the Severn, the Dee, and
the Mersey, and doubtless once consisted of lakes flooded at every
tide, which, drying at certain seasons and at low tides, deposited beds
of salt, from Droitwich in Worcestershire, through Nantwich, to the
Mersey; brine-springs flowing over beds of salt, or rock-salt, being
found at different places on the entire line.

In the year 1863 a bed of rock-salt was discovered near the mouth of
the Tees, at Middlesborough, and also on the Durham side of the river.
The boring at Middlesborough showed that it was about 100 feet in
thickness. Of late, borings have been made near Port Clarence, on the
Durham side, but with what result I am not informed.

Scotland, as well as Ireland, is deficient in the more recent
formation; for salt, as well as chalk, does not occur. Both are
entirely absent; but geologists inform us that at one time chalk _did_
exist, judging from the presence of flints in considerable quantities
in Aberdeenshire, which they say affords unequivocal evidence of the
former presence of cretaceous strata now integrated; and they account
for it thus: the soft chalk being exposed to the action of the rain
and storms, has been gradually washed away, while the flints which
were embedded in it still remain. If this hypothesis is correct, that
at one time chalk existed and is now absent, we may by inference,
though we possess no evidence, presume that salt likewise, at some
period or other, was present in this part of the United Kingdom.
Chalk being entirely composed of the accumulation of marine shells
ground to impalpable powder, which has been gradually consolidated,
and being very rich in organic remains of shells, star-fish, sponges,
fishes, and lizards, must have been deposited by sea-water, as its
various ingredients indicate; therefore, during its deposition, salt,
if originating from sea-water, must of necessity have left some marks
characteristic of itself, in conjunction with the chalk; both being,
more or less, intimately connected with sea-water, though the formation
of one may not have been simultaneous with the formation of the
other.[35]

In our lately acquired “gem of the sea,” Cyprus, there have been
found extensive lakes of salt near Larnaca, the capital, so that this
liberally-abused island possesses at least something which may prove
of pecuniary value to its present owners. Being for several centuries
under the benighted rule of the Turk, this staple of commerce has been
entirely neglected, so as not to have been of the slightest use to the
inhabitants or to the greedy pachas.

In the south of Western Australia there are vast salt marshes which
only require to be worked so as to become the means of enriching
the colonists, and indirectly attracting emigrants to this hitherto
unprofitable portion of a dependency of England. The principal, which
is called Lake Austen, is 1400 feet above the level of the sea.

Salt is also to be found in our Indian Empire, in Rajpootana and
elsewhere, and is of considerable value to that country, especially
while it remains in the hands of the enterprising European; according
to Mr. Wynne, there is a salt range which extends from Kalabagh to
a point north of Tank. After acquainting us with its geographical
position, he says: “The coincidence between the physical features and
the geological structure of the ground is intimate, the axial lines
of the mountains carrying on the Salt Range feature being also axes
of anticlinals lying for the most part along the scarped acclivities
presented towards the Indus plains. These plains are part of the great
_quasi-desert_ flat over which the Indus has in past times capriciously
wandered towards the Arabian Sea. Whether they are due in any degree to
marine explosion is uncertain, though the sea may very possibly once
have covered the low ground in question. The ridges of the Salt Range,
as they exist at present, doubtless mark the same great later, or
post-tertiary, period of mountain-forming activity, in which originated
not only the remainder of the Salt Range, but also the Western Himalaya
and the Suliman and Afghan mountains.” When we come to consider the
geological bearings of salt, and its presumed origin, and other points
in connection with it, I shall again revert to this highly interesting
paper of Mr. Wynne’s.

In the Deccan, half-way between Bombay and Nagpur, there is a very
remarkable salt lake. It is a circular hollow, about one mile across,
and from 300 to 400 feet deep, having at the bottom a shallow lake of
salt water without any outlet. This hollow, I must tell my reader, is
ascribed by scientific men to a volcanic explosion.

There are so many lakes of salt, which are completely isolated and
so many miles from the sea, that it is next to impossible to account
for their existence if we do not ascribe them to volcanic action. If
they are situated in low-lying districts, we may justly presume that
at one time the sea must have been present, or that the deposition
must have resulted from occasional, or tidal, overflow of salt water;
but when they are many miles from the coast, and many feet above or
below the sea-level, then they may be due to volcanic agency; and we
shall find further on several other salt lakes of variable depths
or altitudes which would seem to corroborate this hypothesis. The
sea is undoubtedly a most formidable agent in the disintegration of
land, and often destroys whole tracts, forcing its resistless waves
into the interior of continents, and then, owing to some unexplained
cause, retiring to its original boundary. This may take centuries
to complete, for revolutions effected by nature are not accomplished
speedily, unless there is some sudden spasmodic upheaving, arising from
earthquakes or storms. In 1282, the isthmus uniting Friesland with the
north of Holland was totally destroyed by violent storms. In our own
country a similar phenomenon occurred in the year 1475, when a large
tongue of land at the mouth of the Humber was entirely broken up and
carried away by the sea. In 1510 an irruption of the Baltic formed the
Frische-Haff, an opening 6000 feet broad, and from twelve to fifteen
fathoms in depth. The eastern coast of England is continually receding,
owing to the encroachment of the sea. The rate of encroachment of the
sea at Owthorne, in Yorkshire, is reckoned at four yards in every year,
and several villages have been swallowed up by the ocean; and in like
manner the cliffs of Norfolk and Suffolk are suffering a continual
decay.

Though the sea is so destructive an element, it is also an agent in the
reproduction of land. The rocks and sand washed away from one place
are conveyed by tides and currents far into the sea, and are deposited
in strata, and then, in course of time, form shoals and banks, which
subsequently become promontories and islands. Alluvial land has thus
been formed, and in a similar way have many of the stratified rocks
been deposited; and as animals and plants have been carried away and
imbedded in the deposits of rivers, or floods, so at some future
period, though countless ages may elapse during the process, will such
animals and plants be discovered deposited in these newer strata, just
as we find organic remains in the older rocks. The gradual deposition
of strata has been the work of an incalculable period of time, but the
process may be traced every day in the sections of marine estuaries
and lakes. Owing to this continual receding of the land in one part,
and elevation of land in another, there is an incessant change, from
which, though occupying many ages, and proceeding so slowly that it
would be unobservable were it not for accurate investigation, we may
easily conjecture that what is now land may at one time have been the
bed of the ocean, and where the sea now sweeps with overpowering fury,
there may once have been meadows and forests. The salt lakes, if not
originating from volcanic force, no doubt are the remains of the great
ocean, which, when it receded, left here and there, in what once were
luxuriant valleys, large reservoirs, indicating that in bygone ages it
had covered the land.

In Germany, Spain, Italy, Hungary, and Poland, there are extensive
mines of rock-salt, and also in various other parts of Europe.[36]
There are also large mountains wholly composed of this fossil salt,
two of which are in those provinces of Russia known as Astrakhan and
Orenburg; and in the Crimea salt is said to be daily accumulating in
the inland lakes. In Asiatic Russia there are extensive beds of salt,
near Lake Indur, in lat. 48° 30´, long. 69°. The Caspian Sea, called
by the Turks “Cozgoun Denghizi,” “the sea of crows and cormorants,” is
“a great salt-water lake,” according to Dr. William Smith, though Dr.
Lemprière says that “its waters are sweet.”

The most interesting salt-mine is that of Wieliczka, near Cracow, in
Galicia; it has been celebrated for centuries, and has been worked
for the last six hundred years. This wonderful mine is excavated in a
ridge of hills at the northern extremity of the chain which joins the
Carpathian mountains. When the stranger reaches the mine there bursts
upon his view a little world, the beauty of which is scarcely to be
imagined. He beholds a spacious plain containing a kind of subterranean
city, with houses, carriages, and roads, all scooped out of one vast
rock of salt, as bright and glittering as crystal, while the blaze of
the lights continually burning for the general use is reflected from
the dazzling columns which support the lofty arched vaults of the mine,
which are beautifully tinged with all the colours of the rainbow, and
sparkle with the lustre of precious stones, affording a more splendid
and fairy-like aspect than anything above ground can possibly exhibit.
In various parts of this spacious plain stand the huts of the miners
and their families, some single, and others in clusters, like villages.
They have very little communication with the world above them, and many
hundreds of persons are born and pass the whole of their lives here.

Through the midst of this plain lies a road which is always filled with
carriages laden with masses of salt from the furthest part of the mine.
The drivers are generally singing, and the salt looks like a load of
gems. A great number of horses are kept in the mine, and, when once let
down, never see daylight again.

Such is the marvellous salt-mine of Wieliczka, which is more renowned
on account of its magnitude, its age, and the weird and almost
supernatural aspect it presents to the visitor, than any other. Those
subterranean palaces, with their magnificent appurtenances, their
fantastic occupants, and other dreams of the imaginative, are not
more strange or astonishing to the fascinated reader of romance than
this extraordinary, glistening, cavernous, mineral city, with its
numerous lamps, its crystallised walls, its roads, and the plaintive
songs of the drivers as they drive their horses through its sunless
thoroughfares, presents to the eyes of the surprised traveller.

There are valuable mines of salt in France, and in Greece, near
Missolonghi, but these have no special points of interest connected
with them.

In Abyssinia there are extensive and inexhaustible beds of salt, which
is used in quite a different way from what it is in other countries,
for little bars of it are circulated in place of small coin; but it is
only when it reaches the Amhara and Galla districts that it becomes
valuable.[37]

In other parts of the African continent there are large mountains of
rock-salt, and those of Tunis and Algiers are especially notable.

Salt is also to be found in Asia, in large mountains, in marshes,
and in lakes, to some of which I have already alluded. In the north
of Persia there is a large salt desert, and near Ispahan there are
quantities of rock-salt. The island of Ormuz, in the Persian Gulf,
almost consists of fossil salt; it is indeed so very plentiful that the
atmosphere is completely charged with it, so that the dwellings of the
inhabitants are encrusted with a tolerable thick layer, giving them a
peculiar glistening appearance; this phenomenon is owing to the small
particles of salt continually floating in the air and rising from the
ground, much in the same way as we see dew deposited on the top of a
garden wall or on a lawn after a hot summer’s day.

We learn from Herodotus that there was a salt lake in Phrygia, in Asia
Minor. “Having so said, and fulfilled his promise, Xerxes continued
his route onwards. After passing by a city of Phrygia, called Anaua,
and a lake out of which salt is produced, he came to Colossæ, a large
city of Phrygia.”[38] I have previously alluded to the Dead Sea and the
interesting phenomena which it presents; due south of it is the Valley
of Salt.

There are salt springs and springs from inflammable gas in China, in
long. 101° 29´, lat. 29°, near Thibet; and there is a large salt lake
possessing the strange name of Tsomoriri, many feet above the level
of the sea, in Western Thibet.[39] “The Chinese bore well through the
rocks, and prepare the salt by firing the gas of others, so that one
heats 300 kettles by gas-fire.” The celestials, with their habitual
aptitude and industry, have obtained this salt for many centuries, and
simply by this ingenious method.

As a fact illustrating the value of salt in Siberia, I may as well
mention that in our own country a ton of salt is sold for fifteen
shillings, whilst on the Yenesei river as much as fifteen pounds is
given for the same quantity. The Muscovite we thus see is as acutely
alive to the beneficent results of a free use of salt as a dietetic, as
we English, and it would seem as if he were more so.

In some countries remote from the sea, which are devoid of salt-mines,
and where the water is not impregnated with it, the inhabitants, aware
of its usefulness, have a method of extracting it from the ashes of
vegetables. This fact would certainly seem to indicate that salt has
been used by various nations, as if mankind had an intuitive knowledge
of the benefits arising from the use of salt, and that consequently, if
there were no lakes containing it, or mountains from which they could
procure it, they were determined to obtain it if even by artificial
means.

As an illustration of the presence of salt in places distant from the
sea, I need only refer to the Great Salt Lake of Utah, on the shores of
which stand the Mormon city. Long before the founder of the Latter Day
Saints thought of establishing a quasi-religious community, travellers
who had the temerity to wander over the wild prairies of the Oregon,
the home of the bison and the hunting-ground of the Indian, and who
explored the secrets of the then unknown land of the “Far West,” were
struck with amazement at the glistening aspect of the surface; for in
many places it was covered over with an impure kind of salt, apparently
a combination of _muriate and sulphate of soda_,[40] or more probably
an impure form of the _chloride of sodium_. On tasting the water which
had collected in numerous little pools of no more than a few inches
in depth, they found it so bitter and pungent that it acted on the
mucous membrane almost as powerfully as a corrosive poison. This large
tract of country was at that time teeming with life, for they daily
saw vast herds of bisons, and frequently came upon the hidden towns of
the prairie-dog; in fact, wherever they went, they either crossed the
path of these wild denizens of the plain, or else the sky was darkened
by innumerable flocks of birds. The district was wonderfully healthy,
and totally free from malaria or other causes generative of disease;
the Indians, too, were splendid specimens of humanity; they had not as
yet been tainted by too close a proximity with the so-called superior
civilisation of the white man, neither had they been so unfortunate
as to have fallen a prey to the vices and diseases which generally
accompany the humanising European.

On the pampas of La Plata, which is the treeless abode of the wild
horses of South America, there are several salt lakes, not many
miles distant from the river Quinto, and over these boundless wastes
thousands of wild cattle and horses gallop at pleasure, and afford an
inexhaustible stock of game for the lasso of the fearless and expert
Gaucho. Now it is a well-authenticated fact that those diseases which
are so destructive to the horses and cattle of Europe are almost
unknown in these regions. I do not mean to assert that these salt lakes
of La Plata account for the exemption which this district enjoys from
equine diseases; but there is no doubt that the exhalations from them
purify the atmosphere, and that their influence extends for many miles
because of the open nature of the country. As a natural result, the
whole region is constantly kept in a healthy state; for air, charged
with the chloride of sodium, must of necessity act as a preventive to
everything inimical to health, and pure air we know (though how few
really know what that blessing is) is of a paramount importance in
the rearing of cattle. The foot-and-mouth disease, comparatively, has
never played such havoc as it does in Europe, and pneumonia, which is
almost intractable to treatment in this part of the world, and which
is frequently fatal when it is complicated with inflammation of the
pleura, hardly ever appears in these parts, where stables and farms are
not far off from being rudimentary in construction, and would appear
to an English farmer, accustomed to the cosy-looking farmsteads of his
own country, very ill-calculated for successful farming, and not at
all adapted for bringing his cattle and horses to perfection; yet it
is just the reverse, for there is no other part of South America so
well fitted for the breeding of cattle, and there is no other locality,
whether in the Old or New Worlds, so completely free from disease as
the open pampas of La Plata.




CHAPTER V.

GEOLOGICAL FORMATION OF SALT.


Sir Isaac Newton, in his incomparable work upon Optics, likens a
particle of salt to a chaos, because of its “being dense, hard, dry,
earthy in the centre; and rare, soft and moist in the circumference.”
This ingenious definition is what one would expect from such an
observant and profound investigator; and I do not think that we shall
be able to find a better description of a salt-crystal than that which
this great philosopher has bequeathed us.

Regarding the original formation of rock-salt, there are many opinions,
theories and conjectures, and to the present day it is an undecided
question. We are, as I have previously stated, in complete ignorance
of the origin of the chloride of sodium; we must consider it as one of
those geological secrets upon which we shall never be able to enlighten
ourselves, if we cannot obtain stronger evidence than that which we
have at present. Science is at fault in this, as she is in many other
subjects which have perplexed and interested from time to time those
who study and seek to unravel the various obscure and complicated
phenomena of nature.

No satisfactory or elucidatory theory has, as yet, been advanced to
account for the occurrence of the formation of salt. Some geologists
have maintained that it was deposited from the ocean, but in what way
they do not explain; indeed, it is difficult to suppose how it could
have been so, for salt, or rather sea water, holds in solution many
ingredients which are not present in this rock. Besides, the several
strata above it contain organic remains, as do also those below, though
altogether of an entirely different kind; rock-salt itself contains
none whatever; from this fact some have inferred that the formation
took place during the epoch which elapsed between the destruction of
one creation and the calling of another into existence. Others suppose
that it is simply the result of volcanic action: this hypothesis is
correct to a certain extent, as far as isolated salt lakes like that
of Tsomoriri in Western Thibet, and that lake midway between Bombay
and Nagpur, are concerned; or those huge mountains consisting entirely
of fossil salt, like the one near Cardona, fifty miles from Barcelona,
in Spain, or those in Lahore, or in Peru; but it altogether fails as
regards non-isolated salt lakes and salt marshes, or such a large
inland sea as the Caspian. Some light may be thrown upon it by the
recent explorations in the North-Western Provinces of India, for Mr.
Wynne tells us that “the geological structure” (of the Indian Salt
Range) “of the trans-Indus extension of the Salt Range repeats in a
great measure that of the western portion of the Salt Range proper,
but with some considerable differences. The Palœozoic rocks, so far
as presented by the red-marl, rock-salt, and gypsum, are quite the
same, and so are the Carboniferous and Triassic groups, but others
of the sub-Carboniferous beds present themselves with a different
association from those of cis-Indus.” Mr. Wynne also informs us that
the mineral productions of the range are valuable, and consist of the
salt of Kalabagh and the Lun Nullah, the alum of Kalabagh and the
Chichali Pass, the coal or lignite from the Jurassic[41] beds of the
Kalabagh Hills: we also learn that gypsum is present with the salt,
as it is in Poland, Transylvania, and Hungary; for in these three
countries there is a layer of gypsum between the stratum of stone and
the bed of salt. This gypsiferous layer is of various colours; it is
crystallised, striated, and mixed with sea-shells: this admixture would
decidedly lead us to conclude that the salt was originally deposited in
bygone ages from the sea. On the contrary, the salt in Cheshire is not
accompanied by a bed of gypsum, there are no vestiges of marine exuviæ,
nor indeed any organic remains to be detected in any of the strata.

If the formation of salt (I am referring to mountains of rock-salt
such as we see near Cordova, in Spain,[42] and salt-mines as we see
in Galicia, and Cheshire, and also isolated salt lakes, like that
which exists in Western Thibet) is solely due to volcanic action, or
marine explosion, we may easily account for its irregular and unequal
distribution; also for its elevation into mountains, and as beds
beneath the surface of the earth, by reason of the greater or less
force which was employed for its upheaval; and also the thickness
or solidity of those strata of rocks through which it was propelled
in its upward course. If this were so, it is strange that it should
be entirely free from organic remains, whose absence therefore is a
formidable objection to this theory. Being accompanied by gypsum in
some districts and not in others, would decidedly point to the presumed
fact that salt has been the result of some volcanic agency; for were
it not so we should find, on the contrary, owing to gradual formation,
that gypsum would invariably be present with it, in the same way as we
find one stratum of rock either above or below the stratum of another
rock.

From the fact that deposits of salt are not confined to any particular
group of strata—for while the salt-mines of Galicia belong to the
tertiary formations, those in the State of New York are found in the
middle of the Silurian system—we may say that salt is not subject
to geological laws by reason of its somewhat erratic appearances in
different strata. As the chlorides of sodium and gypsum are frequently
sublimed from volcanic vents, an igneous origin has been ascribed to
many of the beds of salt and gypsum; and Mr. Bakewell threw out the
suggestion that the consolidation of both salt and gypsum must have
been effected by heat, because the great deposit of gypsum that occurs
with rock-salt at Bex, in Switzerland, was found by M. Carpentier to
be anhydrous when exposed to the atmosphere. If this hypothesis is
correct, and if salt and gypsum[43] were at some period in a state of
fusion, it is difficult to believe that when consolidated they are so
perfectly distinct and in two different strata, so that one contains
organic remains, whilst the other is altogether free from the slightest
vestige. It may have been possible that one was in a state of fusion
when the other was consolidated, and different degrees of heat might
have been necessary for the purpose.

We also may account for the absence of organic remains in rock-salt to
the following cause: the chloride of sodium, when in a state of fusion,
might have possessed the property of disintegrating, dissolving, and
absorbing within itself, however minute they might be, all particles of
organic matter with which it came into contact. Dr. Mantell writes: “It
cannot, however, be with certainty determined whether the absence or
paucity of fossils in a deposit is owing to the actual reduction of the
amount of life in the seas of a given area, or to the mineral character
of the strata not having been favourable to the preservation of organic
remains.”

A very serious difficulty presents itself in the great thickness of
many strata of salt; which, if regarded as the solid residuum of
sea-water, must have necessarily required a proportionate volume of
water, unless the seas of those distant periods contained a larger
amount of saline ingredients than they do at the present time: an
inference for which there are no reasonable grounds.

Wherever there are deposits of the chloride of sodium, they are almost
always accompanied with layers and intercalations of gypsum; and the
peculiar circumstance of two powerful acids, the sulphuric (in the
gypsum, or sulphate of lime), and the muriatic or hydro-chloric (in
the chloride of sodium), being so abundantly and uniformly present,
seems to point to a common origin; both are productions of volcanic
agency, though of the two I think salt frequently owes its origin more
to the subterranean activity than the gypsum, because we find there
are beds of salt where there is no gypsum, and isolated salt lakes
which might have been elevated into mountains had the process, during
their production, been of the same force as that used in the formation
of rock-salt, owing to an unexplainable interruption and premature
desinence.

The relation between the formation of gypsum and volcanic action seems
to be borne out by the fact that in North America, where the coal
measures are not associated with rocks resulting from volcanic agency,
there are no gypsum-beds; while on the contrary, there are large
deposits of gypsum, where igneous rocks are interpolated beneath the
stratum of coal, in Nova Scotia.[44]

Sir Charles Lyell, after a careful inquiry into the phenomena
exhibited by these strata of gypsum, gives his opinion that the
production of these gypsiferous beds in the carboniferous sea was
closely connected with volcanic agency, whether in the form of heated
vapours or stufas, or of hot mineral springs, or some other effects
resulting from submarine igneous irruptions.

Salt or brine springs occur in various parts of the United States in
the _old transition slate_ rocks. Sir Charles Lyell tells us that,
“in the middle of the horizontal Silurian rocks, in the State of New
York, there is a formation of red, green, and blueish-grey marls, with
beds of gypsum, and occasional salt-springs, the whole being from 800
to 1000 feet, and indistinguishable in mineral character from parts
of the Trias of Europe.” Salt-springs also occur in England in the
coal measures. The rock-salt of Cheshire and the brine-springs of
Worcestershire occur in what is called the _old red sandstone_ group.
The salt of Ischl, in the Austrian Alps, belongs to the _oolitic_, as
does also that found in the Lias of Switzerland. The immense mass or
bed of salt near Cordova occurs in the _cretaceous_ group; while the
salt deposit of Wieliczka belongs to the _supracretaceous_ group.[45]

The reader doubtless remembers, as I stated in the first chapter, that
the origin of salt is one of those enigmas of nature which, as yet, has
completely frustrated the most accomplished and scientific geologists,
and no suggestion has yet been made which will satisfactorily and
conclusively account for its formation; for whatever hypothesis
has been stated, there is sure to be an objection so difficult to
overcome, that the author has been fain to admit that it is thoroughly
impracticable, and therefore inadmissible. That it is decidedly not
amenable to the received laws of geology, is apparent, which all must
admit; therefore one cannot possibly apply them so as to determine the
place it occupies in relation to other strata, or practically fix that
period of time in which it was deposited; for it is erratic, and its
position is anomalous—erratic in the variety of appearances it assumes
in creation, and anomalous because it belongs to no particular strata,
and therefore no exact period of time can be assigned to it as to other
formations.

That salt is either due to volcanic agency, marine explosion, or to
overflow of sea-water and subsequent evaporation, or resilience, and
ultimate deposition, are the only three hypotheses which can with any
credibility be advanced to account for its formation.

That we have it presented to us in _six_ different conformations are
facts which when considered separately seem to point to one common
origin, but when taken as a whole indicate a separate inception.

Is it due to volcanic agency? In some respects it undoubtedly is,
otherwise how can we reasonably account for those gigantic mountains of
fossil or rock salt, which rise up isolated in the midst of a country
perfectly free for miles round of saline deposits, which present not
even the slightest trace of it? How can we account for it by any other
means when we find it in intimate relation with gypsum, which we know
is solely the production of subterranean activity? What reason can
we possibly assign for those salt lakes which are above or below the
sea-level and are perfectly solitary, and which have no communication
with the sea or with rivers, if they are not phenomena resulting from
volcanic agency? And how can we account for those masses of salt below
the earth’s surface which in some countries is of such adamantine
hardness that it requires to be blasted with gunpowder, if it is not
the production of volcanic force? If so, why is it that no remains
of organic matter are found imbedded in it? How comes it, if it is
the result of subterranean agency, that organic remains are found in
the gypsum and none in the salt, when both are caused by volcanic
explosion? Thus we see the theory of volcanic explosion is met with a
most formidable objection.

If marine explosion is the sole cause of the formation of salt, and
if the sea has through rents and crevices of the earth forced up its
superabundant saline constituents wherever there has been a vent for
their egress, and which has in the course of time become condensed
owing to the evaporation of the water or through its percolating into
the lower strata, another difficulty crops up quite as unanswerable
seemingly as that which stands in the way of the volcanic hypothesis:
there are no remains of marine organisms to be found, nor are there any
traces of vegetable matter.

The overflow and evaporation of sea-water and the subsequent deposition
of salt holds good in certain respects as regards salt lakes and salt
marshes when they are in close proximity or in the same locality; but
then those other inorganic constituents which are found as a general
rule in sea-water are not present in those open reservoirs, which is a
difficulty as formidable as the others, and admits of no evasion.

These are the three hypotheses with their obstacles; the hypotheses
feasible, the obstacles apparently unanswerable.

We have salt, or the chloride of sodium, presented to us in six
different conditions, viz.: _sea or salt water, salt or brine springs,
salt lakes, salt mines, mountain or fossil or rock salt, and salt
marshes_. The characteristics of salt are just the same fundamentally,
whether we extract it by evaporation from sea-water or salt lakes;
whether we obtain it from salt-springs; whether we dig it out of the
earth or by the excavation of salt mountains; or whether we acquire it
from salt marshes: there is no alteration in its ingredients, though it
may be impure from the admixture of arsenic or the sulphates of soda
and magnesia, or other impurities, or it may be discoloured red by
the oxide of iron derived from decomposed trap-rocks; still, for all
that, the chloride of sodium remains intact. The properties of salt are
not subject to the slightest change or modification: the acid is the
hydrochloric or muriatic, the base sodium, and the combination, the
chloride of sodium.

We find salt, or the chloride of sodium, in sea-water, the amount
averaging from 4 to 5·7 per cent., so that we see it is present in
no inconsiderable quantity; it is more or less impure from other
salts being held in solution in conjunction: where it comes from no
suggestion has yet been broached. We know that it is present, and we
also know that it can be obtained by adopting certain measures for
extracting it; and we are aware, from recent investigations, that the
colour and density of the sea is dependent on the quantity held in
solution. This is all we really know regarding the presence of the
chloride of sodium in the ocean.

The salt which we obtain from brine-springs contains the same
constituents as that which we extract from the sea, though in their
course upwards they collect on their way soluble salts, and therefore
the water goes through certain modifications, which the reader
doubtless recollects. For instance, the brine-springs of Lancashire and
Worcestershire rise up through strata of sandstone and red marl, which
contain large beds of rock-salt. The origin of the brine, therefore,
may be derived from beds of fossil-salt; but as the muriate of soda is
one of the products in volcanic regions, the original source of salt
may be as deep as that of lava.[46]

We have also seen that the base of all mineral waters is the chloride
of sodium, and that their ingredients are collected and dissolved as
they ascend to the surface; therefore they may probably both have the
same origin as the sea, as regards the chloride of sodium, which they
both hold in solution. We can account for their other characteristics
by the wide expansiveness of the sea, which is perpetually absorbing
and emitting vapours, and by the several strata through which the
mineral waters pass. There may be, though there is nothing that we can
advance as corroborative, a subterranean communication existing between
them, which would imply a common origin, the differences arising from
the physical surroundings, atmospheric influences, and the absorption
of soluble salts from the several strata.

What is the origin of salt lakes and salt marshes? This is, to a
certain extent, more easily explained. One theory as to the origin of
salt lakes (we naturally include inland seas, such as the Caspian and
the Aral) is the overflow and subsequent retirement of the sea-water,
their sites having been originally the bed of the ocean when it receded
to its present limits, leaving in its course depressions of land,
volumes of water of various depths, elevations, and extent of surface,
according to their deepness, altitude, or angles of declivity.[47]
Other ingenious hypotheses have been broached, which, I need hardly
say, are not worth considering, as they are entirely visionary. In
the case of isolated salt lakes, the above theory is not applicable;
and geologists tell us that they are doubtless the result of volcanic
agency, but at what period of time it is impossible to estimate, for
the density of the water found in them is not equable, and neither is
their specific gravity the same as that of sea-water, nor are there any
remains of marine organisms; and as their depth is variable, they are
not confined to any particular strata.

I have hinted previously that these isolated salt lakes are (if I may
venture to designate them as such) geological abortions. Had the power
which forced them into their present situation been accompanied by
that agency which has raised such huge masses as those near Cordova,
in Spain, and by the Dead Sea, and which probably brought about their
present crystalline form, others by reason of some unexplainable and
gradual transition, by chemical means, or decrease of temperature,
which naturally would occur the nearer it approached the earth’s
surface, these lakes might have developed into beds or mountains of
salt.

The salt which is dug out of the earth, and that which is excavated out
of isolated salt-mountains, are alike in every respect, and are much
more probably the result of volcanic explosion than of the deposition
of salt from sea-water, accruing from evaporation while pent up in
confined spaces. It may have been, though incalculable ages ago,
deposited from the sea, and then in course of time forced up while in a
state of fusion by some internal disruption.

We thus see that the six conditions under which we find the chloride
of sodium more or less indicate a common origin from sea-water,
notwithstanding the absence of marine organisms.

If we take salt as a whole, leaving out of the question altogether the
different conditions in which it is found, and with no reference at all
to its existing either in the earth, above the earth, in lakes, or in
the sea, but looking at it simply as it is, a mass of rock, or a volume
of water holding it in solution, it inclines one to the belief that it
possesses a dual inchoation, though the original source of both may
have been connate; but owing to extraneous causes which were brought
to bear, one branch became crystallised rock-salt, while the other,
through immaturity, remains in a state of solution. One is rock-salt,
which has been heaved up by volcanic power, and the other is what is
known as sea-water; the former has produced the mines, and the solitary
mountains, and the Indian Salt Range, and that salt which generates
mineral waters, and, it may be, those saline lakes like that which
exists between Bombay and Nagpur.

According to Sir Charles Lyell, sea-water has access to volcanic
foci. He says: “Although the theory which assumes that water plays a
principal part in volcanic operations does not necessarily imply the
proximity of volcanic vents to the ocean, it seems still to follow
naturally that the superficial outbursts of steam and lava will be
most prevalent where there is an incumbent body of salt water, or
any regions rather than in the interior of a continent, where the
quantity of rain-water is reduced to a minimum. The experiments of the
most eminent chemists have gradually removed, one after another, the
objections which were first offered to the doctrine that the salt water
of the sea plays a leading part in most volcanic eruptions. Sir Humphry
Davy observed that the fumes which escaped from Vesuvian lava deposited
common salt.”

All the principal volcanoes are situated close to the sea, and
therefore the hypothesis that a communication exists between them is
practically certain; their proximity to the sea, and the deposition
of salt from the fumes of lava, as Sir Humphry Davy noticed, are two
strong facts. But for all that, it does not prove satisfactorily that
salt is solely the result of volcanic agency, and indirectly from the
sea, because there is not the slightest trace of the remains of marine
organisms, unless they are totally destroyed and obliterated when it is
in a state of fusion; if so, it is more conclusive that salt such as we
find it is solely due to volcanic force. Salt may have been in times
past, as the observations of Sir Humphry Davy seem to corroborate, and
as confirmed by more recent chemists, deposited by volcanic agency in
the same way that salt is deposited by fumes of hydrochloric acid,
which are emitted with the lava during eruptions of such volcanoes as
Vesuvius and Etna, by reason of some communication with the sea.

As hydrochloric acid is found in the vapours which are disengaged from
red-hot lava, and as magnesia, which is not volatile, is left in the
lava itself, constituting one of its most important elements, it would
certainly lead one to surmise that there is a communication which,
though not always in existence, may be periodically caused by the
action of the volcano.

Both MM. St. Claire Deville and Fouqué have succeeded in demonstrating
the perfect accordance of the chemical composition of the products of
volcanic eruptions, both gaseous and solid, with the doctrine that salt
water has been largely present in volcanic foci. If so, why are there
no salts of magnesia in volcanic fumeroles? These salts are readily
decomposable by hot steam, and when water and heat are present they
produce hydrochloric acid and magnesia. M. Fouqué affirmed that he
witnessed an eruption of Mount Etna in 1865; the gaseous emanations
agreed in kind with those which we might have looked for if large
volumes of sea-water had gained access to reservoirs of subterranean
lava, and if they had been decomposed and expelled with the lava.[48]
We have obtained three facts, viz., that communications probably exist
between volcanic foci and sea-water; that fumes of hydrochloric acid
which accompany the lava deposit common salt; and that the salts of
magnesia are decomposed by heat; and what more probable than that all
living organisms which pass with the sea-water are utterly obliterated?

By the preceding observations, the reader will see that salt is not
subject to geological laws, by reason of its being confined to no
particular strata, and by the absence of organic remains; and that it
is not derived from sea-water, because there are no marine organisms to
be found in it.

That though it may have a pristine source, it has (though it may appear
paradoxical) a dual inchoation—by its being found as rock-salt, and by
its being present in sea-water, and, as I have stated, in a condition
of immaturity.

Rock-salt appears to be the result of volcanic agency, from its being
almost invariably (with but few exceptions) in juxtaposition with
gypsum, which is known to be of volcanic origin; by its being found
forced up independently of other formations, even through the crust
of the earth; by the presence of fumes of hydrochloric acid with lava
during volcanic eruptions.

It has undoubtedly an igneous origin, and the entire absence of organic
remains may be accounted for by the fact that while in a state of
fusion it may have disintegrated, absorbed into itself, or altogether
obliterated all remains of living organisms with which it may have
come into immediate contact. All other formations have preserved the
impress and structure of vegetable and animal life; salt is the sole
exception to the rule; and if while in a state of fusion it possessed
the property of destroying and obliterating all marks of animal and
vegetable remains, we can easily account for their absence.[49]

We have also seen that sea-water has access to volcanic foci, by reason
of fumes of hydrochloric acid, which deposit common salt, and by the
proximity of the volcanoes to the sea.

One question is naturally evolved out of this: does the sea obtain its
saline constituents from vast reservoirs, or beds of salt, through the
medium of communication with volcanic foci?

This question I leave unsolved, for were we to discuss it, we should
probably have to enter into other matters which would be somewhat
foreign to my subject. My opinion is that sea-water (if my hypothesis
that it is nothing else than salt in a state of immaturity is correct)
obtains its chloride of sodium in this way; and, if so, it accounts
at once for the absence of marine organisms, upon which phenomenon
geologists have always laid so much stress. Besides, if salt is
derived from evaporation of sea-water, and subsequent deposition of
salt, we should be able to obtain remains of marine organisms, if
not those of land animals. This one fact alone would tend to prove
that sea-water is the result of some subterranean communication with
reservoirs of salt, through the media of volcanic foci.

We have thus before us certain geological facts relative to salt, which
show that though it has not been discovered in the old stratified
rocks, it is nevertheless met with in nearly all the later formations,
and also that it is in process of formation, and notably so in the
Crimea. This undoubtedly is the case; but still we cannot apply any
of the laws of geology so as to make our conjectures confirmative by
certain facts which support one hypothesis and overthrow another.




CHAPTER VI.

EFFECTS ON ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE.


As salt is one of the principal constituents of the blood, and as it
is present in the various tissues of the body, and as its ingestion is
necessary for the animal economy, for the maintenance of its health,
and consequently for the due development of the several organs, and the
invigorating effects it exerts over their functional activity, we will
now consider it in the relation it holds to animal and vegetable life.

By the great majority of land animals salt is evidently an article
much relished, for in those districts where salt springs and lakes are
prevalent, many quadrupeds and birds are invariably to be seen.[50]
They frequent these spots in great numbers, and very seldom migrate
to those districts which are deficient in salt, or, if they do, very
speedily return; these animal instincts are indicative that they are
aware of its bracing qualities, and experience the salubriousness of
the atmosphere, which naturally is impregnated with a fair amount of
salt, which has risen through the media of exhalations from the water
or evaporation of the same.

In the Ruminantia the beneficial and, indeed, the salutary action of
salt is remarkably observable, for it counteracts in this class of
animals the deleterious effects of rainy weather, damp pasturage,
and damaged fodder. It also imparts a consistency to the fat, and
renders the meat more palatable and wholesome. All cattle, without an
exception, thrive best if they are supplied with salt; and they will
consume no small quantity. Horses will, on the average, consume daily
six ounces; cows, four ounces, and will, it is said, secrete a larger
quantity of milk, and of a much richer quality, than those from which
salt is usually withheld. Sheep will consume half an ounce daily, and
they are not affected with the rot, as is so frequently the case in
low-lying marshy districts where they drink water in which there are
myriads of the fluke-worm, embryonic and developed, especially after
heavy rains or inundations, as, for instance, a river overflowing its
banks. It is a fact which farmers and graziers should by no means
lose sight of, that these worms are totally destroyed by giving sheep
a certain amount of salt during moist and wet seasons, and in those
localities which are generally in a state of humidity.

In marine animals common salt is a necessary constituent of their
drink, and in fact it is the preserver of their life; but it is
injurious, if not certain destruction, to many fresh-water fish, though
some live both in the sea and fresh water—as the salmon, sturgeon, and
some species of lamprey. The male salmon, on entering the mouths of
rivers in order to spawn, follow the females, and fecundate the ova
which they have deposited in little pools, or kinds of nests. They,
therefore, are hatched in rivers. After the first year they remove to
the sea, and, remaining in it for about two months to ten weeks, return
to fresh water. Such is the alternate fresh and salt-water life of the
salmon, showing us that some fish can live in the sea and breed in
fresh water.

Reptiles and animals of an inferior class are deprived of life by the
action of salt water; and such organisms as the amœba, hydra, rotifer,
and others of a similar grade which we see in stagnant ponds, are
speedily killed if put into water in which salt is dissolved; this is
also the case with earth-worms, snails, and indeed all insects as a
general rule, especially if generated by animal and vegetable decay.

Owing to the antagonism of salt to life produced by putrefaction, it
is frequently rubbed into meat to prevent it from being attacked by
putrescent larvæ; and even if decomposition has commenced, it arrests
for a long time its further progress. We all know what an intense
irritant it is to leeches, and how they immediately vomit if some salt
is sprinkled upon them when they are engorged with blood.

Land shells are rapidly killed by sea-water, and so are their
eggs; this fact has been demonstrated by Darwin, who says: “Their
eggs, at least such as I have tried, sink into it and are killed.”
From experiments performed by Baron Aucapitaine, we find the above
corroborated. He placed in a box, pierced with holes, one hundred land
shells belonging to ten different species, and then immersed it in
sea-water for a fortnight; _only_ twenty-seven recovered.

These experiments are conclusive, and prove that salt destroys life
of an inferior grade, probably owing to the fact that, generally, it
is calculated to produce results of a nature somewhat disposed to
become an annoyance, or even inimical to the vitalisation of superior
organisms, and tends to arrest their progress and due development.
We must remember that these two experiments of Mr. Darwin and Baron
Aucapitaine were with sea-water, consequently the other salts which it
holds in solution (the sulphates of soda and magnesia), and the organic
matter which it contains, very probably hastened the progress.

The Batrachians, a class of animals allied to the reptiles, but
undergoing a peculiar metamorphosis, have an antipathy to salt, and
consequently cannot live in salt water; it is death to them sooner or
later.

We cannot say that reptiles, as a rule, frequent fresh water in
preference to salt, some being found only in sea-water, and in those
parts of the ocean where there is a greater quantity of saline matter
than in others. There is the marine Chelonia, for instance, commonly
known as turtles (Chelones); one sub-group, the common green turtle,
so well known for its palatable qualities, is composed of species
altogether herbivorous, and of gregarious and innocent habits, “These
animals may be seen in herds at the bottom of the sea, quietly browsing
on the weeds growing there. Sometimes they enter the mouths of large
rivers, and are occasionally seen to make their way ashore, apparently
in search of food.”[51] Like the salmon, it is a habitat of both
fresh and sea water, though under different conditions; one frequents
fresh-water for food, the other for breeding. Another sub-group
comprises turtles of carnivorous habits, active, and, when attacked,
fierce; such is the loggerhead turtle and the hawksbill; the latter is
the animal which furnishes the arts with the elegant substance called
tortoise-shell. There is also a genus of carnivorous habits, called the
Sphargis, or coriaceous turtle.

There are likewise the river tortoises (Tryonices), which are
conspicuous tenants of the Ganges, the Euphrates, the Niger, the Nile,
the Mississippi, and the Ohio. These reptiles are next in size to the
turtles, some being three feet long; they are very fierce, and do not
even scruple to attack the young alligators. They live principally on
fresh-water fish and small reptiles; sometimes they will venture into
sea-water in quest of food, though not far, as we may suppose. There
are also the Emydes, which are sometimes called fresh-water tortoises,
sometimes marsh tortoises, which are of many different species. They
haunt lakes, marshes, and small rivers in Asia, Africa, and Australia,
but more particularly America, where the proper habitat is represented.
In the North American rivers there is found the Emysaura serpentina,
which has a large head and crocodilian tail; it feeds on fishes and
small birds. Another species, called Chelys fimbriata, or Matamata,
belongs exclusively to the rivers of Guiana.

We thus see that the Chelonia, which are remarkable for the box-like
case in which most of them are enclosed, are inhabitants of the sea,
while their near relations, the tortoises, are only partially aquatic
in their habits.

Reptiles are therefore neither land, sea-water, nor fresh-water
animals, if we view them as a whole; but if we divide them into orders,
we shall be able to see at once which are fresh-water, which are
terrestrial, and which are inhabitants proper of the sea. Firstly,
there is the Amphibia (doubled-lived), which live and breed in fresh
water, such as rivers, lakes, ponds, and ditches, and which are killed
if put into salt water. Secondly, there is the Ophidia (snake-like
order), which are peculiar to the land, though there is a fresh-water
snake in the East Indies, and which the natives will boldly attack with
sticks. The Sauria (lizards) next claim our attention. The alligator
is a native of North America, and is very abundant in the Mississippi.
It is very seldom seen near the mouths of rivers, and in winter it
buries itself in the mud, and continues in a torpid state till spring.
Then there are the crocodiles, which are natives of Africa, the West
Indies, and America. Their habits are somewhat similar to those of the
alligator, frequenting the creeks of rivers by night in search of food;
they are sometimes seen near the mouths of rivers, but not as a rule.
We have already remarked upon the Testudinata, or the turtle kind.

Reptiles, therefore, either frequent the land or the water; some are
purely aquatic, others purely terrestrial, the remainder are both; one
order is altogether marine, though frequently they are seen on shore,
where they are caught.

Salt water is death to one order, but affords the means of life to
another; to yet another order, with but few exceptions, both salt and
fresh water are deleterious, and, in fact, death; whilst still another
order frequents both elements, just as the chances of obtaining food
may direct them.

Such animals as the hippopotamus, the rhinoceros, the tapir, and the
elephant, and a few others belonging to the Pachydermata, frequent
the banks of rivers and fresh-water lakes, where they wallow in the
mud, and now and then, as fancy takes them, splash about in the water;
but they, like the crocodile, have never been known, as far as I can
gather, to make for salt water, and therefore they are seldom, if ever,
seen near the mouths of rivers, or by the coast.

Salt is therefore not avoided, almost as a rule, either by animals
or birds; and in those districts where salt lakes are situated (to
which interesting fact I have already alluded) are to be invariably
seen, not only great numbers of animals, but large flocks of birds of
different kinds, showing conclusively that they possess an instinctive
preference for those localities where the atmosphere is more or less
filled with saline matter, than for those places where it is entirely
absent. It is but seldom that animals frequent those spots which are
injurious to them; they take good care to avoid them, if possible, and
if they detect anything deleterious, whether it be in the air, soil, or
water, they migrate to more genial quarters; instinct indicates this
necessity, and they accordingly act upon it. It is strange that mere
animal instinct should be superior to human reason, and that animal
sagacity should be more far-seeing than human forethought! Nothing is
more strongly confirmative of this anomaly, if I may call it so, than
the partiality which animals entertain for those districts which abound
with salt lakes, and the antipathy, or utter indifference, with which
some people regard that substance which keeps the body pure, healthy,
and, I may say, clean, and which plays such a highly-important part in
the animal economy.

In the vegetable kingdom salt is by no means an inconsiderable item,
and as an agricultural agent it is most invaluable, though its
operation therein varies in a remarkable degree; in small quantities
it is injurious only to a few plants, while to some it appears to be
beneficial in every way. In moderation it is an excellent manure,
especially if the soil is of a sandy nature; but in large quantities
it is decidedly pernicious to all plants, without an exception, though
unequally so. According to experiments made by Dr. Balfour and other
eminent botanists, it appears that a solution of the chloride of
sodium does not act so deleteriously as solutions of other inorganic
substances, and the same effect is observable with a solution of the
phosphate of soda: the strength of these solutions, we are told, varied
from half a grain to five grains to the ounce of water; the sodium
combined with the chlorine forming the chloride of sodium, and with the
oxygen forming soda; the potassium, combined with the chlorine, forming
the chloride of potassium, and with the oxygen forming potassa. The
combinations take place, according to Johnston, in the living plants
owing to the natural affinities of these inorganic substances.

Darwin writes: “In botanical works, this or that plant is often
stated to be ill-adapted for wide dissemination, but the greater
or less facilities for transport across the sea may be said to be
almost wholly unknown. Until I tried, with Mr. Berkeley’s aid, a few
experiments, it was not even known how far seeds could resist the
injurious action of sea-water. To my surprise I found that out of 87
kinds, 64 germinated after an immersion of 28 days, and a few survived
an immersion of 137 days. It deserves notice that certain orders were
far more injured than others; nine Leguminosæ were tried, and, with
one exception, they resisted the salt-water badly; seven species of
the allied orders, Hydrophyllaceæ and Polemoniaceæ, were all killed
by a month’s immersion. For convenience’ sake, I chiefly tried small
seeds, without the capsules or fruit; and as all these sank in a few
days, they could not have been floated across wide spaces of the sea,
whether or not they were injured by the salt-water. Afterwards I tried
some larger fruits, capsules, etc., and some of these floated for a
long time. It is well known what a difference there is in the buoyancy
of green and seasoned timber; and it occurred to me that floods would
often wash into the sea dried plants or branches with seed capsules or
fruit attached to them. Hence I was led to dry the stems and branches
of 94 plants with ripe fruit, and to place them on sea-water. The
majority sank quickly, but some which, whilst green, floated for a
very short time, when dried floated much longer; for instance, ripe
hazel-nuts sank immediately, but when dried they floated for 90 days,
and afterwards when planted germinated; an asparagus-plant with ripe
berries floated for 23 days, when dried it floated for 85 days, and
the seeds afterwards germinated; the ripe seeds of Helosciadium sank
in 2 days, when dried they floated for above 90 days, and afterwards
germinated. Altogether, out of the 94 dried plants, 18 floated for
above 28 days; and some of the 18 floated for a very much longer
period. So that as 64/87 kinds of seeds germinated after an immersion
of 28 days; and as 18/94 distinct species with ripe fruit (but not all
the same species, as in the foregoing experiment) floated, after being
dried, for above 28 days, we may conclude, as far as anything can be
inferred from these scanty facts, that the seeds of 14/100 kinds of
plants of any country might be floated by sea-currents during 28 days
and would retain their power of germination.”

We have thus sufficient evidence before us to prove that salt or sea
water does not totally destroy the vitality of seeds when they are
in a dry state, that some of them will float for 90 days, and when
planted subsequently will germinate; but that when not dry they will
sink immediately. We may, therefore, justly conclude from the result of
these experiments that salt is not noxious to vegetable life, neither
does it destroy the latent principle of procreation which exists in
them; and that though the process of germination may be retarded, and
kept in a state of abeyance, it is not virtually annihilated, as one
would feel inclined to predict, by the prolonged immersion of seeds in
salt-water, be they dried or fresh.

Darwin’s experiments were afterwards verified, for he states that
subsequently M. Martens tried “similar ones, but in a much better
manner, for he placed the seeds in a box in the actual sea, so that
they were alternately wet and exposed to the air like really floating
plants. He tried 98 seeds, mostly different from mine; but he chose
many large fruits and likewise seeds from plants which live near the
sea; and this would have favoured both the average length of their
flotation, and their resistance to the injurious action of the salt
water. On the other hand, he did not previously dry the plants or
branches with the fruit; and this, as we have seen, would have caused
some of them to have floated much longer. The result was that 18/98
of his seeds of different kinds floated for 42 days, and were then
capable of germination. But I do not doubt that plants exposed to the
waves would float for a less time than those protected from violent
movement as in our experiments. Therefore it would, perhaps, be safe to
assume that the seeds of about 10/100 parts of a flora, after having
been dried, could be floated across a space of 900 miles in width, and
would then germinate. The fact of the larger fruits often floating
longer than the small, is interesting; as plants with large seeds or
fruit which, as Alph. de Candolle has shown, generally have restricted
ranges, could hardly be transported by other means.”

Darwin’s experiments show us that salt or sea water does not entirely
extirpate the life which is dormant in seeds, and those of Martens
prove that seeds may be immersed in sea-water itself and yet retain the
power of germination; and that when dry they may even float for 900
miles, and germinate when planted; developing into plants at the usual
period of time allotted by nature!

In Cheshire it is a custom to let out the water of the salt-springs
after rain, in order to improve the character of the soil and make
it more productive. If we call to mind the preservative properties
of salt and the purifying action which it possesses, with regard to
animal and vegetable substances, we need not at all be surprised at the
above use to which it is put by the agriculturists of Cheshire. The
reader, perhaps, would like to know why it is used after rain. After a
heavy shower, and more especially in the country, every insect leaves
its little secluded habitation: the bee is once more on the wing; the
spider resumes his usual central position in his web; flies of all
sizes buzz here and there in search of food or for more secure homes;
every bush is alive with its usual occupants; the lofty tree is once
more the tenement of song; the caterpillar crawls on his solitary way;
the ant trudges along on the gravel-path; the snail emerges from his
retreat and plods slowly to another home; and the earth-worm raises
itself on the lawn; all with one accord hail the reappearance of
sunshine, and show signs, however feeble, of joy that the rain-cloud
has passed and that the landscape has resumed its beauties, and the sky
its gold and azure. The earth after rain, and particularly in spring
and summer, teems with almost reanimated life, both with that which is
harmless and with that which is hurtful, so that the Cheshire custom
is one which cannot be too highly recommended, for when the soil is
saturated with moisture, a soluble salt like the chloride of sodium,
already in a state of solution, sinks in more rapidly, and permeates
it more thoroughly than if it were merely sprinkled over the surface;
and such insects as are associated with or which live in the earth are
speedily eliminated, or are forced to seek shelter at a greater depth,
where they ultimately die by reason of their inability to obtain their
proper sustenance or the unsuitableness of their new abode.

There is a plant called Halimodendron which only grows in the dry,
naked salt-fields by the river Irtysh, in Siberia; it is a genus
of the Leguminosæ, and has purple flowers. Saltwort, or Salsola,
(_salsus_, salt) is chiefly maritime, and the kelp of our shores is
principally obtained from it. At one time the carbonate of soda was
derived from this kelp or barilla, the ashes being obtained from
burning sea-weeds and a species of Salsola; but now it is almost
invariably made from common salt, by adding sulphuric acid, and so
converting the chloride of sodium into a sulphate, and afterwards, by
combustion with chalk and small coal, resolving it into a sulphide, and
then into a carbonate. It is manufactured on a very large scale, and is
an important staple of commerce. From it is obtained a most important
drug, the bicarbonate of soda, the efficacy of which everyone, more or
less, has once in a lifetime experienced.

This kelp has been put to a fraudulent use, for Sir Robert Christison
tells us that disease has been traced to an impure kind of salt,
in which, when investigated, the hydriodate of soda was detected,
resulting, he says, from an inferior salt obtained from kelp.[52]

In all those districts which are intersected by salt marshes, there is
almost a complete absence of miasmatic effluvia, though, as a natural
consequence, the vegetation is not of that rank luxuriance which is
invariably to be seen in other marsh lands; because, whenever the soil
is in a state of moisture, it is always covered with all kinds of weeds
and useless plants, which altogether stop the growth of those which are
of utility to the agriculturist.

In the case of salt marshes it is the reverse, and the neighbourhood is
perfectly free from those endemic diseases which are prevalent in such
localities as the fen-country, and other similar districts; for the
atmosphere is pure, and the soil comparatively dry, and intermittent
fever is unknown.




CHAPTER VII.

MEDICINAL AND DIETETIC PROPERTIES.


Salt, except by the ignorant, is generally acknowledged to be a
condiment, not only requisite as an adjunct to food, but also for the
animal economy; this fact is not to be lost sight of, and therefore
I lay much stress on it, and in the next chapter we shall see that
physiologically it holds no mean position amongst those other
substances which are found in the human body.

There are a number of facts of physiological import, at which it
is necessary to glance, and which are indissolubly connected with
its medicinal and dietetic properties; and there are various others
illustrative of the absolute necessity of salt, which are self-evident
to those who think and observe, and which we will now proceed to lay
before the reader.

In human blood, salt is a most important constituent; where there is
disease, there is a diminution of salt, with corresponding nervous
depression, and the individual experiences a want of power: if this
want continues for any length of time, the health is gradually
undermined; the blood loses its richness and is deprived of its
vitalising property; various symptoms finally show themselves, and
probably develop into some phenomena of a serious significance—all,
indeed, indicative that the system is deficient of a most important
essential in its economy. These symptoms may prognosticate the
approach of various diseased conditions, partly owing to the habits,
constitution, or surroundings of the patient. In all morbid conditions,
and particularly in those which owe their origin to an unhealthy state
of the blood, we may, to a considerable extent, be certain that there
is a deficiency of the chloride of sodium. In proof of this, patients
never, as a rule, object to salt; they actually relish it. Why? Because
there is a deficiency, and nature intuitively excites the desire. We
often find that patients refuse sugar; indeed the very mention of it
produces a feeling of nausea and extreme disgust: with salt it is
entirely different; they take it, and, in most cases, enjoy it in the
same way that fever-stricken patients long for, and relish, a draught
of cold water, _if_ they are able to obtain it.

Were the human race once deprived of the chloride of sodium, even for
a limited period of time, we should not only lose a natural healthful
incentive for our food, but disease, with all her attendant miseries,
would spread with such relentless impetuosity as would defy, and even
paralyse, the efforts of the most skillful physician, the ingenuity of
the surgeon, and the scientific improvements and hygienic precautions
of the sanitarian.[53] The strength and vigour of manhood would fade
as if blasted by disease, food would act as a poison; the blood would
not be replenished with the salt which it requires, and consequently
our skins would soon be covered with corruption; our cattle would
die, our crops would be nipped in the bud; the air would be full of
offensive insects; the soil would become foul and barren, the sea a
waste of stagnant waters; and all the beautiful productions of nature
would wither and decay, and our glorious earth would degenerate into a
hideous solitude, solely inhabited, very probably, by monsters horrible
to behold, and more repulsive than those gigantic reptiles which once
roamed by the dreary marshes of an incomplete world.

Those who take pleasure in decrying the inimitable works of nature,
and affirm that they are provocative of evil, can only support their
arguments by brazen assertions and subtle paralogisms.

Common salt is considered by most persons as a mere luxury, as if its
use were only to gratify the taste, although it is essential to health
and life, and is indeed as much an aliment or food as either bread or
flesh. It is a constituent of most of our food and drinks, and nature
has kindly furnished us with an appetite for it, though there are
not a few who regard it quite in another light: that quadrupeds and
birds (as I have before stated) should be fully alive to the vivifying
properties of salt, and that mankind should be indifferent to, and
in many instances totally ignorant of them, is somewhat curious and
incomprehensible, but it is so.

Another strange fact is, that savage nations use it freely with but
few exceptions: on the other hand, in civilised life there are a great
number who never touch it; but these abstainers little think that they
carry in their countenances visible signs of ill-health, and their
impurity of skin indicates that at some future time disease, in some
form or other, will cause them to regret, in more ways than one, that
their short-sighted neglect has prepared a soil ready to receive the
seeds of some fever, and other maladies more deadly and obstinate.

Cutaneous eruptions, so distressing to the patient, and so disgusting
to an observer, flourish when they attack those who have abstained from
the use of salt.

Everyone perspires or sweats: the indolent perspire, the laborious
sweat. This distinction will be regarded as too fine by those who
entertain the opinion that perspiration and sweat mean the same thing;
this, however, is a great error; there is a marked difference between
perspiring and sweating, as much difference, indeed, between these
two processes of the elimination of refuse animal matter, as there is
between walking and running. It is true the same laws of nature are
brought into play; but one is a modification of the other. Those of a
spare habit are seldom in a state of general diaphoresis, and are only
so when the weather is sultry, or when they have taken a walk on a hot
summer’s day. The stout or plethoric, on the contrary, sweat copiously,
even on the slightest movement; and it is really a good thing for them
that they do, for otherwise they would very likely be attacked with a
fit of apoplexy, or would fall down from syncope; the former arising
from the flow of too much blood to the brain, or from rupture of an
artery; the latter resulting from an insufficient supply; or the blood
owing to its circulating in an impure state, which is practically
the case if there is a deficiency of salt, would generate, not what
is generally considered disease, but a condition which would render
the system prepared for the reception and development of morbific
influences.

During perspiration the blood is deprived, in proportion as the
diaphoresis continues, not only of the liquor-sanguinis, but of the
chloride of sodium which it holds in solution. Though to a certain
extent perspiration is an act of nature necessary for the continuance
of health, yet, if it goes beyond a point which is consistent with an
equalisation of the several secretions, the individual experiences a
diminution or loss of power, and nervous exhaustion or irritability is
the result. In natural diaphoresis the only way in which the system can
recuperate itself is by quenching the thirst; for free perspiration is
generally or almost invariably succeeded by a corresponding thirst,
varying in intensity according to the peculiar idiosyncrasy of the
individual.

Thin people do not perspire so copiously as those who are more
stoutly built, therefore they do not lose so much and neither do they
require so much fluid. Their blood, by reason of its retaining its
liquor-sanguinis and its chloride of sodium, does not require salt as
an aliment so freely as those who, owing to their profuse perspiration,
are in constant want of it. Stout people, or those who have a
superabundance of adipose tissue (for I must observe there is a great
difference between stoutness and obesity, though in common parlance the
two words are synonymous), require salt in a greater degree than thin
people. Well-developed muscles covering a well-made frame, accompanied
by a proper and due proportion of fat, constitute stoutness of a
healthy standard; but small muscles covered with an overdue amount
of fat, with an abdomen distended to an offensive size (which is so
frequently seen), seem, in my opinion, to determine a habit of a
Vitellian obesity, if I may so apply the name of that Roman epicure.

Owing to the fact that stout and fat people perspire freely and
profusely, and to a much greater extent when undergoing fatigue, they
must necessarily lose a great amount of salt; for as it is held in
solution by the liquor-sanguinis, which passes through the pores of the
skin in the form of sweat (the word perspiration is not sufficiently
emphatic when we are speaking of stout and fat individuals), it must
naturally pass out with it, and thus they experience thirst and a
desire for salt; which desire is strongly indicative of a healthy
state of the secretions. If there is no wish for salt, then we may
conclude that disease in some form or other is lurking unsuspected
in the system, ready to break out, either by an act of indiscretion,
poisoned atmosphere, or because of a taint of an hereditary character.
We may compare this condition of things to a barrel of gunpowder,
ready on the application of the faintest spark to ignite, and spread
confusion and death far and wide, with a fury proportionate to the
amount of the inflammatory material. If these people do not take salt
with their food they allow their blood to become impoverished and more
unhealthy than it already is, and their constitutions materially suffer
in consequence, their skins are ultimately affected, the complexion
frequently becomes sallow, and appears discoloured, and in some severe
cases we have that skin disease called acnæ, indicative of the poor
and unwholesome state of the blood; they are affected with intestinal
parasites, they do not digest their food, their breath has a most
disagreeable odour, very unmistakable, and they are more or less out of
health.

Those of a scrofulous habit require salt to a much greater extent than
even the gross, because the blood of scrofulous or strumous persons
does not possess its due proportion of salt; and the only way to make
up for this deficiency is to use it freely, otherwise the system does
not derive the support and nourishment from that source which vitalises
the whole frame. We may justly infer that if the blood is deficient of
a most important constituent the system must, as a matter of course,
degenerate into a condition not only ready to receive disease, but into
one which reduces the strength and undermines the nerve-power, and this
in a scrofulous habit is fraught with serious consequences.

The chronic inflammation which attacks the joints in scrofula sometimes
occurs, not so much from the unhealthy low state of the system, but
rather from the impure condition of the blood, resulting from the
partial absence of salt. This must be the case, because the sufferer
experiences an increased vitality if salt is used more abundantly;
the change of course is gradual, and therefore we must not expect to
see one’s efforts immediately crowned with success. It is sometimes
necessary to explain to scrofulous patients the unhealthiness of a
persistent avoidance of salt, and to point out to them the benefits
accruing from it, and also to insist upon their using it, because,
owing to their ignorance of its operation and their unwise dislike,
they look upon it in the light of a noxious compound.

I have frequently noticed (and I dare say others have observed the same
thing) the disfiguring eruptions with which many people (and especially
the young) of a scrofulous habit, and even some who are free from
this taint, are afflicted about the face and neck. These pimples and
blotches, when not caused by constipation, are generally accompanied
by a swollen condition of the glands, which are sometimes acutely
sensitive to the slightest pressure.

If we were to question them closely we should find that salt is to them
an almost unknown article of diet, or distasteful to them, though no
doubt it is, in some few instances, used but sparingly and seldom.

The blood, more or less, is always undergoing a change, even in health;
the nitrogenised and non-nitrogenised substances are invariably
variable, and at no two moments are the salts of the same proportion,
its alkalescence always being in a constant state of variation.
Notwithstanding our increased facilities for obtaining a better
acquaintance with disease than formerly, the few facts which have been
satisfactorily made out show us that as yet we have made but little
progress as regards the morbid conditions of the human blood, and that
a great deal remains to be accomplished before we are masters of the
subject.

Amongst the chief diseases in which a pathognomonic condition of the
blood has been discovered is the increase of the fibrine, which always
takes place in inflammatory diseases, such as acute rheumatism and
inflammation of the lungs; in low fevers it is diminished; it is also
subject to variation in other diseases. In typhoid fever the diminution
of salt and the increase of fibrine is very marked; and indeed in
all inflammatory states of the system, especially of a sthenic type,
the partial absence or variation of the amount of the chloride of
sodium is a most important characteristic. No attention has, up to the
present time, been given to the relation which the presence of the
chloride of sodium in the blood bears to disease, at least not that
I am aware of; and from what I have noticed it opens up a question
which in time will be considered of some moment. As the chloride of
sodium obviates the tendency of the fibrine to coagulate, and as its
coagulation or solubility is quite dependent on its normal amount in
the blood, it presents to us many varied points of interest, not only
physiologically, but medicinally, though in this respect it has not yet
been recognised as a curative agent.

Whenever the blood is impoverished we may be tolerably certain that
salt is, in a greater or lesser degree, absent, or below the standard,
and that it is variable.

Now in scrofula the blood is not only vitiated, but poor in the
extreme, and there is a decrease of the fibrine; and that being the
case, the constitution suffers in proportion, the affection showing
itself in various ways, which unmistakably indicate the adynamic state
of that fluid which permeates the whole frame.

Scrofula and her twin sister struma, for there is a difference, are
low forms of chronic inflammatory cachexia, and are never entirely
recovered from. We may justly term them systemic diseases originating
local morbid phenomena, and which are always liable to give rise
to obscure attacks of an apparently serious nature, but which are
considerably modified if the treatment be simply hygienic, judicious,
and practical; scrofula is always tedious and prolonged, and therefore,
as I have said before, we must not anticipate that because salt is
of a nature somewhat antidotal to it and its attendant evils, that
its effects are to be observable instantaneously, or that any very
remarkable results must necessarily be obtained. It is the reverse; the
effects are slow in the extreme, but the benefit is permanent—that is,
if the treatment adopted be calculated to restore to the blood that
constituent so necessary for health.

This is easily explained—the unhealthiness of the system arising
from mal-nutrition, owing to the blood being more or less deficient
of a constituent which is necessary for the promotion of health,
and being solely constitutional, it takes some time to make up for
that deficiency, and to supply that which is lost. A disease of long
standing, and of an hereditary character, is not speedily recovered
from, particularly if the mischief is caused by, or is dependent upon,
an impure state of the blood, and if there is not the normal amount of
the chloride of sodium it must of necessity be corrupt.

Though salted provisions are apt to produce scurvy if continued for too
long a time, yet in the case of those on board ship I do not think it
arises exclusively from the salt itself, but by the unwholesome food
upon which the toilers of the sea are obliged too often to subsist. The
biscuits, which are of the coarsest kind, and sometimes worm-eaten, are
certainly not calculated to keep up the stamina of the men; and the
salt pork which they have three or four times a week is not exactly the
food to promote a healthy condition of the blood; neither is the soup,
which is little better than rice water, capable of even satisfying the
cravings of hunger.

Besides, there is a very miserable custom, and which tends to ruin
the health of our sailors, and that is the drink which is, I may say,
encouraged on board ship, and officially served out to them daily, in
the shape of rum, though of late they can have cocoa if they prefer.
So habituated have they become to this that no captain would think of
suggesting a diminution of the supply. Our sailors, poor fellows! will
stand anything but the deprivation of their “grog;” they do not mind
being crowded like beasts of burden in a close, stifling forecastle,
eating coarse biscuits or unwholesome pickled pork, so long as they are
duly supplied with their “grog” and allowed to go “ashore” and spend
their contemptible pittance on poisonous compounds which burn their
stomachs and sow the seeds of some deadly disease, and especially if
they happen to be in the tropics.

All these inseparable accompaniments of nautical life are, without
doubt, provocative of scurvy to a certain extent, and I am sure do
not help to stave it off. If rum is taken on an empty stomach, day
after day, as regularly as clockwork, we cannot expect that the men
should be in a state of sound health, or that their blood should be
pure; particularly if the voyage is long, the biscuits worm-eaten, the
pickled pork of a questionable condition, sometimes even approaching
putridity, and the rice-soup—upon which I shall abstain from passing
any remarks, further than by saying that it is decidedly not of that
quality tending to act as a substantial sustentation of men who work
hard, and who are exposed to all weathers, both by night and by day.
Indeed it is surprising that they can perform their duties as they do
when we call to mind their irregularities, their daily use of spirits,
and their periodical alcoholic indulgences when ashore, combined with
their abominable diet on board ship.

Though salted provisions solely are not altogether conducive to
health, or contributive towards preserving the due equalisation of the
constituents of the blood, I cannot see that they entirely originate
scurvy, as some assert; I am of an opinion that this disease is caused
principally by seamen’s peculiar habits, and the surroundings belonging
to a seafaring life, joined, much more frequently than some would
like to confess, with the ingestion of animal food just rescued from
putrescence by a timely immersion in brine.

Everything, as is well known, can be used and abused, and salt, like
other natural productions, owing to human avarice, can be put to a
purpose so as to derange and render nugatory the laws of health. We
know full well that salt completely arrests the formation of putrescent
larvæ in meat, if it is rubbed in when fresh, or if it is well soaked
in strong brine; and if the meat is bordering on decomposition, we
may prevent it proceeding to a more advanced stage by immersing it in
brine; still it is not in a condition fit for human consumption. Such
food in my opinion is of a nature calculated to produce disease of a
most virulent type; indeed it is quite sufficient to produce the worse
form of scurvy, let alone the outbreaks of a milder degree.

I am acquainted with the fact that a diet consisting exclusively of
salt pork and salt beef, with very little variation or change, would
be, if continued for any length of time, combined with the absence of
fresh vegetables, productive of much mischief, and in the end no doubt
scurvy would be the result; but for us to assert that every outbreak of
this disease is produced by salted provisions, is to run into a very
ridiculous error, and we fall into a trap cunningly laid for us by
those whose interest it is to keep up this preposterous imposition in
the eyes of the not too discerning public. If shipowners took more care
in provisioning their ships with wholesome food, instead of allowing
them to be stored with bad pork, putrid beef, and rotten biscuits,
we should not read the heart-sickening accounts so frequently in the
newspapers. It is all very well for them to assert that the disease
springs from salt, and the absence of vegetable food; it is to their
interest to say so. We can cast their flimsy statements to the winds,
however, and give them an emphatic contradiction, for their proceedings
in this matter will not bear even a partial investigation.

I have gone more fully into this part of my subject than I intended,
for the following reason: the advocates of total abstention from
salt invariably bring forward scurvy as a conclusive proof of their
argument, and as unanswerable; they have not looked at it, I am
afraid, from the above standpoint, and I think if they will take the
trouble to go into the matter more thoroughly, they will find that
scurvy originates, not from wholesome salted provisions and the want
of vegetables, but from impure and putrid food, which too many owners
of ships, from pecuniary motives, prefer to supply, not for the
passengers—that would of course be unwise policy—but for the men who
labour for them on the waters, and who are at the mercy of employers
as insatiable and inexorable in obtaining their pounds of flesh as the
storm-tossed ocean yawning for its victims.

“Digestion is the process by which those parts of our food which may
be employed in the formation and repair of the tissues, or in the
production of heat, are made fit to be absorbed and added to the blood.”

I do not think it will be out of place to make a few cursory
observations on the process of digestion, for as scurvy is the result
of the ingestion of unwholesome food, we cannot do better than consider
the process in relation to salt, and its action on animal and vegetable
food while it is in the stomach.

When this organ is empty it is completely inactive; there is no
secretion of the gastric juice, and the mucus, which is slightly
alkaline or neutral, covers the surface; but immediately food is
introduced, the mucous membrane, which was pale, at once becomes
turgid, owing to the greater influx of blood; because when any organ
has work to perform, it requires an increased supply.

The amount of the gastric juice secreted has been variously estimated
to be from ten to twenty pints a day in a healthy adult, and by
the following table, we find that salt, or rather the chloride of
sodium, is present in a considerable quantity. Looking, then, at the
immense secretion of the gastric juice, salt is really in continual
requisition, making it self-evident that if the supply is not kept
up in the same ratio, digestion is retarded, the food passes out of
the stomach in an undigested state into the duodenum, and the stomach
is consequently overstrained because of the loss of one of its most
important constituents; the supply of salt not being equal to the
demand.


COMPOSITION OF GASTRIC JUICE.

  Water                                         994·40
  Solid Constituents                              5·59
                                                  ————
    Ferment, Pepsine (with a trace of Ammonia)    3·19

  Hydrochloric Acid                               0·20
  Chloride of Calcium                             0·06
  Chloride of Sodium                              1·46
  Chloride of Potassium                           0·55
  Phosphate of Lime, Magnesia, and Iron           0·12

In a sheep’s gastric juice there is to 971·17 of water, 4·36 of
chloride of sodium, showing at once how highly necessary it is for
cattle to be supplied with it; a sheep will consume on the average half
an ounce of salt daily; that it tends to prevent an outbreak of the
rot, I have already drawn the attention of the reader.[54]

There is we see 0.20 of _hydrochloric acid_ to 994.40 of water in the
gastric juice, though some are of an opinion that it is _lactic acid_;
the weight of evidence is decidedly in favour of _free_ hydrochloric
acid.

Food when it is going through the process of digestion is reduced to
a pulp by the solvent properties of the gastric juice, which are due
to the presence of the animal matter or pepsine, and the hydrochloric
acid; neither of these two constituents can digest separately, they
must be together; and they must be in that proportion as we have before
us in the preceding table; to act as complete disintegrators and
solvents.

The general effect of digestion is the conversion of the food into
what is called _chyme_; and though the various materials of a meal are
entirely dissimilar in their composition, whether they are azotised
or nitrogenous, and non-azotised or non-nitrogenous; when they are
once reduced to this condition, viz., _chyme_, they hardly admit of
recognition.

The reader may naturally suppose “that the readiness with which the
gastric fluid acts on the several articles of food, is in some measure
determined by the state of division, and the tenderness and moisture
of the substance presented to it,” and he may also be aware of the
fact, that the readiness with which any substance is acted upon by
the gastric juice, does not necessarily imply that it possesses
nutritive characteristics, for it stands to reason that a substance
may be nutritious, and yet hard to digest; and when this is the case,
the gastric follicles supply a greater quantity of fluid, in order to
effect the conversion of the food into chyme. Pepsine and the
hydrochloric acid, the two indispensable and inseparable solvents,
are consequently secreted in greater abundance in order to meet and
overcome the difficulty, so that the food may be in a condition fit for
assimilation with the various tissues.

Man requires a mixed kind of aliment, therefore he must have animal
as well as vegetable food, though there are many instances of people
who live wholly on animal or vegetable substances; these of course are
anomalies, and therefore their habits are unnatural. Vegetarianism is
a foolish freak of the weak-minded and semi-ignorant; the structure
of the teeth of man points conclusively to the fact that he is both
carnivorous and herbivorous; though these vegetable philosophers would
have us believe that he is destined to feed upon cabbages!

Food is divided into two groups, nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous, or
animal and vegetable; the only non-nitrogenous organic substances of
the animal, or nitrogenous, are furnished by the fat, and in some few
cases by those vegetable matters that may happen to be in the organs of
digestion of those animals who are eaten whole.

Nutritive or plastic, is given to those principles of food which are
converted into fibrine or albumen of blood, and being assimilated
by the various tissues through its medium, and those principles
comprising the major part of the non-nitrogenous food, in the form
of fat, gum, starch, and sugar, and other substances of a similar
nature, are supposed to be utilised in the production of heat, and are
termed calorifaciant, or sometimes respiratory food. The principal
ordinary articles of vegetable food contain identical substances, in
composition, with the fibrine, caseine, and albumen, which constitute
the chief nutritive materials of animal food; for instance, the gluten
which is present in corn is identical in composition with fibrine, and
is therefore called vegetable fibrine; legumen, which exists in beans,
peas, and other seeds of the leguminosæ, is similar to the caseine of
milk; and albumen is most abundant in the seeds and juices of nearly
all vegetables.

On carefully analysing the preceding remarks on food and some of its
uses after it has been digested, and the composition and properties of
the gastric juice, it is obvious that salt is not only a simple adjunct
to food, and therefore not of much importance, but is an article of
diet in every sense of the word, and as necessary, if not more so, than
many aliments which are regarded as essential.

In its relations to animal or nitrogenous, and vegetable or
non-nitrogenous, food, salt is in every respect important.

The hydrochloric acid of the gastric juice, which is so bountifully
secreted by the glands of the stomach, of course drains the whole
system of its salt, and especially does it draw the chloride of sodium
from the blood, which contains 3·6 in 1000, being held in solution by
the liquor-sanguinis.

Animal or nitrogenous food contains only a minimum of salt, which
chiefly exists in the muscular tissue, its principal constituents being
albumen and fibrine; if, therefore, it is eaten as a rule without salt,
digestion is by no means facilitated, because meat being comparatively
tough, the glands have to secrete an increased quantity in order to
break down or disintegrate it, and there is, as I have observed, a
greater drain on the system.

Vegetable or non-nitrogenous food contains potash; only those
vegetables growing near the sea contain soda. The same reasons which
apply to animal food hold good as regards vegetable, with this
difference: the gluten, the legumen, and their other ingredients are
acted upon by the gastric juice more rapidly, and that being the case,
a less amount is required, and as a natural consequence less salt, or
rather chloride of sodium, is abstracted from the blood; because the
more the stomach is called upon to exert itself, a greater flow of
blood to that viscus is the result, which takes place only when the
food to be acted upon is of a harder or tougher material than ordinary,
when the organ is filled to repletion, or when salt is omitted as a
rule.

Another fact should be borne in mind: cellulose is a substance
invariably present in the vegetable kingdom, and is found both in low
and high plants; it is present in the fungus as well as in the palm,
in the lichen as well as in the oak; it is not subject to climatic
influences nor to atmospheric changes, so that its quantity in all
plants is always the same. This cellulose is almost identical in its
composition with starch, which is a substance entirely non-nutritious.
When in the system starch undergoes a transformation, by some process
not as yet clearly defined, into sugar; whether in the stomach or by
some action of the liver, physiologists are uncertain, but it is an
unexplained physiological fact, nevertheless. Sugar, we know, is a very
active agent in the production of fat; therefore it is not desirable
for us to have an overplus, but rather to keep it under. Salt is not a
fat-producer; it has an opposite effect; therefore it should be used
plentifully with vegetable food in order to neutralise the effect of
the starch or cellulose.

We thus see that this substance cellulose is identical with starch;
that starch is turned into sugar, and that sugar promotes the growth of
fat. I have already mentioned that stout and fat persons require more
salt than those who are spare; therefore we may see at a glance how
necessary it is for us to use salt liberally with oleaginous food, and
indeed with all which tends to increase the adipose tissue.

Those who have a predisposition to obesity, and who wish to reduce
their bulk, cannot take better means to obtain the object of their
desire than to use salt at all their meals, and to take care that their
food is of the plainest; then with a proper amount of exercise and
attention to the secretions, they will find that instead of carrying a
distended, cumbersome abdomen about with them, attended with miserable
inconveniences, they will have the felicity of experiencing not only
a diminution of size, but a more easy and expeditious locomotion; and
they will be enabled to

  “Cleanse the stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuff
   Which weighs upon the heart.”

If they wish to effect their purpose more speedily, Glauber’s salt
waters, which contain salt, can be taken with advantage, for they
decrease the fat and assist digestion and assimilation. “In the same
way chloride of sodium may be shown to be a more important ingredient
than is sometimes supposed. It stimulates gently the mucous membrane of
the alimentary canal, and also the muscular fibres of the intestines;
when absorbed it promotes tissue-change, and apparently aids the cell
formation. Its digestive action is well known.”[55]

According to Dr. Rawitz, who has examined microscopically the products
of artificial digestion and the excreta after the same food, cells,
both animal and vegetable, pass through the alimentary canal completely
unchanged, such as cartilage and fibro-cartilage, except that of fish,
which fact is indicative that it is more digestible than any other
aliment; elastic fibre is also unchanged, and fat-cells are frequently
found altogether unaltered; also after eating fat pork, the pabulum
of the lower classes, crystals of cholesterine are invariably to be
obtained from the excreta.

Quantities of cell-membrane of vegetables are found in the alvine
evacuations, likewise starch-cells, with only part of their contents
removed, and the green colouring principle, chlorophylle, is never
changed.

From the foregoing we see at once the kind of food necessary, as
regards its sustentative and nutritious properties, and that which
merely serves as an unimportant adjunct.

Dr. Rawitz does not inform us whether a greater or lesser amount of
salt was used in his experiments; being regarded as an unimportant
item, he probably may have been indifferent as to whether it was used
or not, and took no note of the quantity. As nothing was found in the
excreta belonging to fish, we may regard it as favouring the view, that
being impregnated with salt, and living in salt water, the facility
with which it is digested is mainly owing to the presence of salt.
Fresh-water fish, as is well known, are not digested so easily and
thoroughly as those which live in the sea. Again, Dr. Rawitz does not
tell us whether the fish used in his experiments were salt or fresh; I
conclude that they were salt, because the consumption of fresh-water
fish is considerably below the number of that caught at sea.

Those who believe that man is an organism of vegetable proclivities,
and would have him live upon vegetables exclusively, who point with
a triumphant smile to scurvy as resulting solely from long-continued
abstention from vegetable food, combined with the ingestion of salted
meat, should remember that any kind of food indulged in to the
exclusion of others injures the health, reduces the physical strength,
and deteriorates the blood. They are right as far as their argument
goes, but they lose sight of some very remarkable facts when they
describe scurvy as originating from salt.

Vegetables which are generally used as aliment are young and fresh;
on board ship, and especially in long voyages, they are in nine cases
out of ten old and musty, and those belonging to the compositæ, such
as cabbages, rapidly degenerate into decomposition, generating a very
poisonous gas, viz. sulphuretted hydrogen; while those belonging to the
leguminosæ, as peas and beans, lose their great nutritious principle,
legumen, which is identical with the caseine of milk, and which renders
them such invaluable articles of diet. Besides, if vegetables are kept
for any length of time, even if excluded from the air, they are liable
to rapid decomposition immediately they are exposed to its influences.
I therefore think, as I have asserted already, that salted meat is not
wholly responsible for scurvy, and that it much more frequently arises
from its being salted in the early stages of putrescence.

These vegetable reformers and abstainers from salt are, I am afraid,
ignorant of these facts.

If mankind were to act in accordance with the wishes of visionaries,
and those who are prone to scientific credulity, and who look upon
themselves as philanthropic philosophers, we should speedily be reduced
to the unenviable condition of the Frenchman’s horse; for to some,
animal food is pernicious, salt is in some respects poisonous, water
is to be discarded as worse than useless, stimulants in the hour of
sickness are to be avoided, and are never to be touched; vegetables are
mere woody fibre or starch-cells. They are considerate, however; they
have left us fish! This staple of food is not yet ostracised.

Happy is the man who lives according to the dictates of nature,
temperately and wholesomely, and who does not run like a thoughtless
being into extremes, originating from hare-brained fanatics, and from
unpractical utilitarians.

Salt is a preventive of those disfiguring eruptions which frequently
affect the young about the face and neck, and which in the majority
of cases arise from a defective state of the blood. One need only
take a stroll through a crowded thoroughfare to find that this is the
fact. These young people, instead of possessing complexions which are
indicative of health and purity of blood, carry in their countenances
unmistakable marks which cannot escape the eye of an observant and
discriminating passer-by. If we were to make inquiries, we should find
that they are, with few exceptions, absolute strangers to salt, and
that probably they have been brought up from their infancy by their
parents never to touch it.

This neglect shows the grossest ignorance on the part of these people,
and calls for the most stringent censure; it is almost incredible, to
find so many unaccustomed to the use of salt, and who never impress
upon their children the need of it, and that the continuance of their
health is partly dependent upon a daily use of a substance which is a
highly important constituent of the blood.

I have drawn my reader’s attention to the facts that the blood of
scrofulous persons is deficient in salt, that the amount is variable,
and that the deficiency is at once discernible in the objectionable
condition of the skin of the face and neck; but here we have people
enjoying a fair share of health, who, owing to ignorance or
indifference, are reducing themselves to a state bordering on disease,
and who would otherwise be total strangers to those ailments which only
attack the impure, the luxurious and intemperate.

We have seen that salt is necessary in the animal economy, otherwise it
would not exist as a constituent of the blood. It is equally necessary
for the preservation of health; for in the blood of those people who
are suffering from disease, we detect a visible decrease. In some cases
of fever the diminution is remarkable; if the febrile symptoms increase
in severity, we find that there is a corresponding loss of the chloride
of sodium. This simple fact alone shows that it is the imperative duty
of those who have at heart the well-being of their fellow-creatures,
to impress upon them in emphatic language, that if they wish their
blood to be in a pure healthy condition, and to be able to ward off the
insidious attacks of disease, they must make it a frequent article of
diet.

We are all cognisant that disease will be to the end of time one of
the scourges of humanity; and at the present day certain maladies are
spreading amongst us with the greatest rapidity, all our efforts to
eradicate them having been hitherto altogether futile, and the results
far from promising. All our medicines, our improved modes of treatment,
and our hygienic schemes, ingenious as they undoubtedly are, reflecting
the highest honour on their philanthropic originators, have been,
and still are to a considerable extent, abortive, and we are still
combating with, and succumbing to, this inveterate enemy of mankind.

We do not diet ourselves as we should; in this respect we are far
behind the veriest savage, cannibal though he be: he in his natural
state obeys the laws and dictates of nature, which we in our civilised
state decidedly do not, notwithstanding the assertions of the dreamy
philosophers of the day. He sleeps when nature prompts him, regardless
of the sun’s heat or midnight dews; he eats when he is hungry, and
drinks when he is thirsty; he goes through a certain amount of physical
fatigue; his clothing is of the simplest kind; his food on the average
is the purest; his drink is that natural fluid which we, owing to our
high state of civilisation, so pertinaciously and foolishly discard;
he roams at pleasure either on the desert or in the forest; and his
impulses, though savage, are never at variance with nature; he is, in
fact, as real a child of nature as an average civilised European is the
slave of a falsified nature.

Those who have travelled in the islands of the Pacific Ocean have
informed us that their inhabitants, with but few exceptions, possess
the secret of extracting salt from certain substances, which indicates
that even they are fully alive to its virtues, and proves to us, who
boast of our superiority, that we are deficient of natural acumen, or
that it is marred and stultified by those silly customs arising from
that curse of civilisation, fashion, which makes slaves of us all, at
least of the weak-minded and frivolous.

At the tables of the wealthy it is perfectly absurd to see the small
amount of salt which is placed in the smallest receptacles, as if it
were the most expensive article; and it is equally ridiculous to see
the host and his guests, in the most finical grotesque manner, help
themselves to the almost infinitesimal quantities of salt, as if it
were a mark of good breeding and delicacy. This is how we pervert
nature; our civilisation is a great good, undoubtedly, but at the same
time it is frequently at variance with what is good for us. If the
blind votaries of fashion think that it is polite to use the gifts of
nature in such a way as to render them comparatively useless, let those
who wish to enjoy the blessings of health, pure blood, and a wholesome,
transparent skin, refrain from those stupid customs of “good society,”
which are truly indicative of mental weakness and most profound
ignorance.

I have known people who accustom themselves to the use of salt baths,
and who talk very glibly of the luxury of sea-bathing, who yet are
in complete ignorance of the virtues of salt as a condiment and as
a preserver of health, and who try to prove that salt so used is
obnoxious, and consequently to be avoided. These salt baths are
popular, not because they are beneficial, but by reason of their
comparative novelty; and accordingly, many who would not think of using
salt with their food, plunge headlong into the sea or into a salt-water
bath, with all the vigour possible.

Salt baths are presumed by some to be of great value in gout;
Droitwitch in particular is famous for them; many who were considered
as incurable have alleged that after having used them, they have
returned home cured.

The topical application of salt water to weak joints, etc., has only
just come to the front; and by many it is regarded as quite a new
remedy; and I have heard some very disparaging observations on the
medical profession regarding its negligence to, or indifference of,
the restorative properties of salt water, alleging that it has been
reluctantly forced to advise it, in deference to the popular opinion
in its favour. It is indeed a fact that until a few years ago, medical
men as a rule were utterly unacquainted with salt water as a remedial
agent; and the idea no doubt would have been denounced with as much
asperity and contumely as the hydropathic treatment is at the present
day, and with as much reason. It is a mistake, however, to assume that
it is of recent origin, for my father, Mr. Wm. Barnard Boddy, has been
in the habit of advising it for over the last sixty years, and with
almost uniform success.

Intestinal worms, which so frequently infest the impure, rendering them
somewhat offensive to themselves, generate much more rapidly, and take
a firmer hold on their victims, even if there is but partial absence of
salt in the blood, and particularly if pork is frequently an article
of diet. I have known many instances in which they have been expelled,
and the intestines thoroughly freed from them, on a more liberal use of
salt, for it is certain death to these parasites, helping to root them
out, and destroying them, whether they belong to the tape, the round,
or the thread variety.

Children, we know, are more liable to have these parasites than adults,
with the exception of the tape-worm; particularly is this the case with
those of the labouring and agricultural classes, and with children who
are fed upon rich dainties. With regard to the agricultural class, it
is, I think, easily explained. People who live in the country—I refer,
of course to the poorer sort—allow their children to run about wherever
they please, especially in the spring and summer time; the cottage door
and the small garden are generally the places where they assemble; or
the neighbouring lane or meadow, if the weather is at all favourable;
where they may be seen rolling and tumbling about, picking up what they
can find if at all edible, and soon putting their discoveries into
their mouths with apparent relish. The British cottagers, not being
at all particular as to whether their vegetables are clean or not,
swallow, as well as their children, any insect that may be ensconced
in the half-cooked cabbage, or unwashed celery or water-cress. Another
reason is, I think, of more weight than the preceding two, and that
is, they very seldom think of using salt at meal-time, though it is
sometimes to be seen on their tables. The English working-classes are
nearly, if not altogether, unacquainted with the benefit of salt,
and very few indeed utilise it as they should; so that we can easily
understand why they are so infested with intestinal parasites, which
thrive in such a soil, and increase, in some instances to an enormous
extent.

The embryo of the tape-worm, called the _echino-coccus hominis_, in
such cases finds a fitting and a secure home, and soon develops into
its tape-like form, and with wonderful tenacity keeps firm hold; so
that sometimes it is difficult, or even impossible, to effect its
entire removal, especially if it has existed for any length of time,
and particularly if the individual indulges often in pork; for as its
source is undoubtedly measely pork, such a course of diet nourishes it
and imparts an increased vitality. I have known them to exist in some
people notwithstanding the most energetic and judicious treatment, not
only for many years, but for a lifetime; and in the end to cause the
death of their victim. Sailors, by reason of their wretched diet, are
frequently troubled with this parasite.

Whenever these intestinal parasites exist they are indicative, not only
of foul diet and abstention from salt, but also of impure habit, and
prove conclusively that the individual is more or less a stranger to
salt.

The latter is more commonly the origin of these pests, and shows us how
careful we ought to be as to what we eat; for we may well suppose that
the ingestion of pork, vegetables half-washed, and abstention from salt
is just the kind of diet favourable for the reception of the embryo,
and for its speedy development.

Lord Somerville, in his address to the Board of Agriculture some years
ago, states that the ancient laws of Holland “ordained men to be kept
on bread alone, _unmixed with salt_, as the severest punishment that
could be inflicted upon them in their moist climate: the effect was
horrible; these wretched criminals are said to have been _devoured by
worms_, engendered in their own stomachs.”

In the _Medical and Physical Journal_ (vol. xxxix.) Mr. Marshall tells
us of a lady who had a “natural” (I should say unnatural) aversion
to salt, and who was afflicted with worms during the whole of her
lifetime. Can we imagine anything more horrible or more disgusting than
a person, owing to a foolish prejudice, being in such a foul and impure
condition? The enjoyment of life was out of the question, and there can
be no doubt that she was in a constant state of ill-health; she must
have been, if she had any refined feelings, loathsome to herself, and
yet, at the present time, there are many in the same plight, who would
not touch the smallest particle of salt on any account whatever, or
probably would do so with extreme reluctance.

There is another very interesting parasite called the _cysticercus
cellulosæ_, originating from diseased pork; it is found in subjects of
the leuco-phlegmatic temperament; it is met with in the muscles of the
thigh, in the muscular tissue of the heart, and in the brain and eye.
If the pork containing this parasite is well soaked in strong brine and
thoroughly cooked, no harm will accrue; another fact, I must observe,
showing the great importance of salt as an edible.

The thread-worm, technically termed the _ascaris vermicularis_,
generally met with in children, is speedily got rid of if a solution of
salt is injected into the rectum, combined with the administration of
an anthelmintic and pure diet, with a regular use of salt, and a little
attention to cleanliness.

While we are upon this question of worms we may with some advantage
consider that modern disease—if we may designate parasitical
development in muscular tissue as such—which has for some time riveted
the attention of scientists, and has all but foiled their endeavours
to elucidate; I refer to _trichinosis_, a condition caused by the
introduction of a most minute organism, called the _trichina spiralis_
(from its being coiled up in transparent capsules), in various muscles
of the body, and particularly in the deltoids and other muscles of
the arms. Sporadic outbreaks of this incurable disease have occurred
at various times and of variable intensity, but always with the most
alarming results.

Unfortunately we possess no means of detecting the _trichinæ_ when they
have once been introduced into the system; we may by the symptoms be
led to suspect that they are present, but that is as far as we can go;
and if we are to believe Professors Delpech and Reynal it is utterly
impossible to discover them; they affirm, however, that in cut meat the
larval capsules, or lemon-shaped cases, can only just be seen by the
aid of a powerful lens.

In the outbreak which took place in the year 1863 at Heltstaädt, 28 out
of 153 persons succumbed; sufficiently exemplifying the fatal character
of these infinitesimal organisms; for they may exist in thousands, and
even in millions—some say twenty millions—in their miserable victim.
So virulent is the disease originating from this parasite, and so
insidious in its operation, that in its primary stage it is liable to
be mistaken for rheumatism, on account of the severe muscular pain;
and in fact the sensitiveness of this tissue is so much increased that
those muscles which are concerned in the mechanism of respiration
give rise to such excruciating pain that the sufferer is quite unable
to sleep; indeed, so extreme is the muscular sensibility that the
slightest pressure causes acute suffering.

The latter stages simulate typhoid fever, or more correctly, the
disease drifts into a typhoid condition, for the symptoms are of that
peculiar exceptional character which are presumed to be indicative
of this much misunderstood fever. It has, however, been ascertained
that those attacked are rarely, if ever, able to endure the long and
exhausting course of this disease, but break down, utterly worn out by
the unceasing ravages of these prolific and voracious little parasites.

The French, with that acuteness which is natural to them, soon
discovered that by good and thorough cooking the _trichinæ_ can be
destroyed; and they further ascertained that they cannot survive a
temperature of 167° Fahrenheit, and also discovered that if meat is
_well salted_ the _trichinæ_ are rendered perfectly harmless; in fact,
they are killed by the chloride of sodium quite as effectively as by
the application of heat.

This is another unanswerable argument in favour of a more general use
of salt, quite sufficient to convince the most stubborn disbeliever;
for here we have a parasite which may at any time be introduced into
the stomach, let us be as careful as we may; capable of generating
myriads in an almost incredible short space of time, and which it is
next to impossible to effect the removal of; in the end causing much
physical suffering, and producing symptoms liable to be mistaken for
those of a dangerous disease; and finally disintegrating those muscles
in the fibres of which they live, procreate, and gradually destroy the
life of a human being.

The greatest triumph of engineering skill the world has ever seen,
the St. Gothard railway tunnel, was the cause of a great sacrifice
of life and health owing to a disease engendered by the presence of
intestinal parasites, resembling the _trichinæ_; and we learn from
Professor Calderini, of Parma, and Professors Bozzolo and Pagliani,
of Turin, that from 70 to 80 per cent. of the miners suffered from
this complaint, which they have designated _anæmia ankylostoma_. Among
the men who worked in the tunnel for about one year 95 per cent. were
more or less affected; they likewise discovered that those who are
thus attacked never entirely recover. Many reasons for this enormous
fatality have been assigned, such as the vitiated state of the
atmosphere, the difficulty of ventilation, the continual explosions
of dynamite, the consumption of which was 660 lb. per day, the smoke
and smell from 400 to 500 oil-lamps, and the exhalations from the men
and horses. There was an entire absence of sanitary appliances, and
the temperature was generally between 80° and 95° Fahrenheit. These
surroundings were quite sufficient to account for this great sacrifice
of human life, not to mention other causes.

The diet of these men was probably insufficient and of inferior
quality, and I dare say if more crucial inquiries were instituted we
should find that these miners were as a rule inattentive to personal
cleanliness, and that they never used salt at any of their meals;
if this were so, and I cannot help thinking that my surmises are
correct, we have one great cause all but sufficient for bringing about
a condition of the system favourable for the development of _anæmia
ankylostoma_.

The presence of these parasites in the intestines of the men who worked
in the St. Gothard Tunnel has been proved beyond question by a careful
and prolonged series of microscopic examinations by Dr. Giaccone, a
physician in the employ of the contractors at Airolo. It is stated that
Dr. Sonderreger, of St. Gall, who has been assisting Dr. Giaccone in
his experiments, has discovered a process by which these parasites may
be completely extirpated.

A pestiferous atmosphere is bad enough in itself, but when it is
associated with impure diet—and food I maintain is impure if it is
cooked and eaten without salt—we have a state of things which will
prepare a soil where intestinal parasites will develop to a marvellous
extent.

It is somewhat interesting to know that a similar disease is endemic
in Egypt and Brazil, and that it arises from the presence of the
_ankylostoma_ in the intestines.

Poor diet no doubt is the real cause of this condition, and a great
proportion of the inhabitants, as is well known, of these two countries
subsist principally on food, not only non-nutritious, but impure in
the extreme, which being coupled with the fact of habitual abstention
from salt, brings about, as I have said before, a condition of things
very favourable for the reception, generation, and development of
parasitical organisms.

The outbreak which occurred in the St. Gothard tunnel originated from
the impurity of the food with which the workmen were supplied, and the
absence of salt, could we but fathom the real truth of the matter,
though we must not lose sight of the fact that the surroundings were
every way calculated to facilitate the growth of disease.

The medicinal properties of mineral waters are of great value in
some conditions of the system, especially those resulting from high
living and when associated with habitual indulgence in those alcoholic
beverages which tend to cause congestion of the liver. These people are
not what one would designate as intemperate, but whose partial physical
prostration and irregularity of the secretions have been brought about
by luxurious living and the unnecessary use of stimulants, combined
with unhealthful indolence, and other pernicious habits, which are
considered to be of the highest importance by those unhappy votaries of
fashion.

Thousands of patients, and many who fancy that they are such, flock to
those localities which are famous for their mineral waters; thousands
go and thousands return, some better, some worse, and some in the
same state of health as when they started: all declare that they are
better for their trip, and it may be only a few are acquainted with
the constituents of the water they have been drinking; many, if they
knew that they are all derived from rock-salt, and that the other
constituents to which their curative powers are ascribed are only added
as the brine ascends to the surface, would be not a little amazed at
their inconsistencies: to refuse to eat salt at meal-time because it is
supposed to be deleterious, and then to drink, it may be, tumblerfuls
of the solution, is somewhat curious.

As all mineral waters originate from rock-salt, and as they all owe
their other constituents to superincumbent strata, it would not be
unreasonable to suggest that the chloride of sodium is, _prima facie_,
their principal ingredient, and that their beneficial effects are to a
certain extent due to it, more than to the presence of those from which
their names are derived; though of course there is no denying the fact
that some mineral waters are more suitable for some constitutions than
others.

One would not advise individuals of plethoric habits to drink those
waters which are termed chalybeate, nor those whose kidneys are
affected to drink acidulous or carbonated waters; we should recommend
quite the reverse.

Mineral waters have a somewhat evanescent popularity; one is rapidly
succeeded by another: one that was highly eulogised is now neglected,
and those which are now in favour will be, in all probability,
discarded in a few years. At the present time there are many, though
not a few holding a very precarious position in public estimation.

Glauber’s Salt Waters, as the name indicates, owe their medicinal
properties to the presence of the sulphate of soda, chloride of sodium,
and other salts. They are more nauseous than Epsom salts, and slightly
more irritating; the first may depend upon the condition of the palate,
the other on the weakness or obstinacy of the alimentary canal. These
waters contain saline aperients which exercise no little influence on
the change of tissue; a result which should make them find great favour
with patients who wish to diminish their bulk without affecting their
muscles.

These waters contain the chloride of sodium, the presence of which is,
in my opinion, of more benefit than all the other salts put together,
and which, if absent, would deprive the waters of their efficacy, or at
least effect such modifications as would render them practically of but
little use.

All these mineral waters come from brine-springs, and whether they are
called chalybeate, carbonated, saline, or hepatic waters, whether they
come from Spa or Tunbridge Wells, from Carlsbad or Ilkestone, from
Püllna or Cheltenham, Buxton, Friedrichshall, Droitwich, or Wiesbaden,
their common origin is rock-salt, and to that mineral alone their
virtues are principally due; the iron, magnesia, lime, and the other
salts which they collect on their upward course are merely accessories,
and are more useful to the proprietors than to the credulous
recipients. They are purged freely, they are dieted carefully, and the
blood is purified, and the result is of course beneficial; they could
do the same at home, but then a weak solution of salt and magnesia or
iron looks very homely when put side by side with some Carlsbad[56] or
Friedrichshall waters: there is a great deal in a name, and the more
nauseous a compound is the greater are its medicinal virtues; so think
some.

In all fevers, whether epidemic, endemic, or sporadic, the blood is
thicker than ordinary, by reason of an increase of the fibrine and a
decrease of the chloride of sodium; because the fibrine, which always
has a tendency to coagulate, is not kept in check by the solvent
properties of the chloride of sodium; this alone accounts for their
partiality for salt.

In rheumatic fever the blood is even thicker than it is in other
fevers; in acute rheumatism the patient is generally bathed in
profuse perspiration night and day, and the sweat contains a good
deal of lactic acid. The acid in the gastric juice is supposed by
some physiologists to be lactic acid, whilst others affirm that it
is hydrochloric acid; there is, however, such a similitude that one
acid is barely distinguishable from the other. The blood in this fever
therefore loses much more salt than in other febrile conditions, which
explains the acute pain in the joints and the desire the patient has
for salt. Blood in a thickened condition cannot pass through the blood
vessels near joints without giving much pain, owing to the unyielding
nature of the parts; and the fibrine also has a tendency to stagnate if
the blood does not flow as it should.

In some cases of sickness, when not accompanied with vomiting, half
a teaspoonful of salt in a little water is sometimes most effective.
Whenever there is a feeling of nausea the stomach is relaxed, there
is the usual amount of the gastric juice, but it is deficient of the
hydrochloric acid; therefore a small solution of salt takes the place
really of the acid, and the sickness is relieved, it likewise supplies
the chloride of sodium, which has been abstracted from the gastric
fluid.

In violent attacks of colic, if there is no other remedy at hand, a
teaspoonful of salt in a pint of cold water, which the patient may sip,
is most speedy in relieving the sufferer. The same will also relieve a
person who has had a heavy fall and is partly unconscious.

In hæmorrhage from the lungs, when the usual remedies have failed, a
solution of salt will sometimes arrest it. When applied to a cut the
bleeding ceases. These little facts are well worth knowing, because
salt is always to be found in every home, and so may be given or
applied in case there is no medical man at hand; matrons and nurses of
small hospitals, infirmaries, and workhouses should be acquainted with
them in case of an emergency.

We have now before us the properties of salt in a medical and dietetic
sense; that indirectly it is a therapeutical agent of some value cannot
be denied; that it is an important aliment is a fact which cannot be
explained away; and that it is a preserver of health all must allow.

That it is of a deleterious tendency is a mere assertion as
unsubstantial as “thin air,” and as flimsy as gossamer—_magno conatu,
magnas nugas_.




CHAPTER VIII.

PHYSIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES.


Prejudice is the daughter of ignorance; and nothing exemplifies the
truth of this more thoroughly than the senseless repugnance to salt
which is now so remarkably prevalent. Ask these persons for their
reasons, if we can dignify them as such, for disliking salt; their
answers, as a rule, will be trifling platitudes, altogether unworthy of
refutation, or even of moderate attention.

Objections founded on imperfect, or an affectation of knowledge, are
not worth the trouble of confuting, even if they be supported by a
fair amount of intelligence; but when the opponents of salt begin to
base their assertions upon science, and demur on medicinal, dietetic,
and physiological grounds, then we must meet them armed with similar
weapons to those they have chosen, with the handling of which they are
but imperfectly acquainted, and which therefore recoil upon them in
such a way as prove that though they may be shrewd, they are but badly
informed and credulous scientists.

At the present day the science of physiology has arrived at such a
pitch of perfection that there is not a single secretion, tissue, or
organ of the body, with the exception of the spleen, which has not been
investigated, and the functions divulged and made so plain that it is
quite divested of that apparent mystery which formerly enshrouded it;
though our kind friends, the anti-vivisectionists, would willingly
adopt the most unjust measures to prevent the study of life from
being more perfect than it already is: they protest with well-feigned
horror at a frog or a rabbit, under the influence of chloroform, being
experimented upon for the benefit of humanity, while they see, without
allowing a sign of disapprobation to escape from them, an inoffensive
hare chased to death for the amusement of gentility, and probably
gloat over, with pleasure, the dying agonies of a stag: a sight which
gratifies the somewhat questionable proclivities of refined and elegant
ladies, who race their horses out of breath to gaze on the sanguinary
scene.

Had it not been for physiological research we should not have known
that the chloride of sodium was such an important constituent in the
animal economy; we should have been in utter ignorance of the science
of life, and we should never have known how man is begotten, how
developed, or how he dies. With regard to the two processes of decay
and repair, or how the human organism, from a mere cell, gradually
becomes a being highly organised, mentally as well as physically, we
should have known nothing. Physiology has been a boon to humanity and
an inexhaustible field of research to the scientific.

In a chemical point of view there is no more important mineral
constituent in the human body than the chloride of sodium, for it
occurs nearly in every part of the system, both solid and fluid,
in close and intimate relation with the organic compounds, and it
materially influences their chemical and physical properties; for
instance, the albumen partly owes its solubility to the presence of
salt, the quantity of which causes the differences which it presents
as regards its coagulation; pure caseine, which is quite insoluble,
is dissolved at once on the addition of common salt; and if it is
added in increased proportions it impedes the coagulation of the
fibrine. Another remarkable physiological fact is that the chloride of
sodium is not only uniformly present, but its various proportions are
nearly definite and constant, both in the fluids and tissues; and the
existence of a provision for the limitation of the quantity kept in
the system causes the proportions to be little affected, in the way of
excess at least, by the amount of salt the food may contain, that is,
if the diet is wholesome and the individual healthy.

According to Lehmann, who experimentalised on himself, the blood may
contain in a normal state 4·14 parts of the chloride of sodium in
1000, and after a meal of very salty food it may be only increased to
4·15; he says it only rose to 4·18 when two ounces of salt had been
taken an hour before, and two quarts of water had been drunk in the
interval. The blood will not receive more than a certain amount; and
as an over-amount of salt will produce extreme thirst, a quantity
passes through the kidneys with the water that has been drunk; frequent
drinking of course causes frequent micturition. If we take the mean
of numerous observations by several experimenters, the average
quantity of urine voided by healthy adult males is about 52-1/2 fluid
ounces; this quantity may contain urea to the amount of 512·4 grains,
chlorine 105·0 grains, and soda 125·? grains, besides other salts and
extractives. If such an amount passes out with the urine we can easily
account for the slight increase in the blood of Lehmann.

The quantity of the chloride of sodium in the blood is liable to great
variation in different diseases; and there can be little doubt that
this variation is closely connected (though whether in the relation of
cause or in that of effect, we are not exactly entitled to surmise)
with the histological and other transformations of the component
parts of the blood. The proportions of salt greatly differ in several
tissues, and also at different periods of the development of the same
tissue. “Thus in muscle,” according to Enderlin, “100 parts of the ash
left after incineration of ox-flesh yielded nearly 46 per cent. of the
chloride of sodium and potassium; which, as this ash constitutes 4·23
per cent. of the dried flesh, would give 1·94 as the proportion of the
chloride of sodium in 100 parts of the latter; and reckoning this dried
residue to constitute 28 per cent. of the whole substance of the muscle
(the remaining 77 parts being water) the proportion of chloride of
sodium in the latter will be 0·44. These figures, as will be presently
seen, bear a remarkably close correspondence to those which represent
the proportion of chloride of sodium in the ash, solid residue and
entire mass of the blood.”[57]

Next to muscle, cartilage contains the largest amount of the chloride
of sodium, and this especially in the temporary cartilages of the
fœtus, its place being taken by the phosphate of lime as it approaches
the time of birth. The percentage of the chloride of sodium contained
in the ash of the costal cartilage of an adult is about 8·2; in the
laryngeal cartilage 11·2; but as the ash does not constitute above
3·4 per cent. of the entire substance the percentage of the chloride
of sodium in the latter is, at the most, 0·38 of the whole, or less
than that of blood and muscle. Only from 0·7 to 1·5 per cent. could be
extracted from the ash of bone.

Besides the important uses of the chloride of sodium in the blood to
which we have already adverted, it serves the purpose of furnishing the
hydrochloric acid required (by many animals, at least) for the gastric
secretion; and it likewise supplies the soda-base for the alkaline
phosphate, whose presence in the blood appears to serve a most
important purpose in the respiratory process. Moreover, there is reason
to think, from the experiments of Boussingault upon animals, as well
as from other considerations, that the presence of salt in the blood
and excreted fluids facilitates the deportation of excrementitious
substances from the blood. The proportion in which it occurs in
the principal animal fluids is represented by the following table,
constructed by Lehmann chiefly from his own analyses; it is highly
interesting, and shows us at a glance that it is more important in the
economy than any other substance, and is significant of the fact that
health cannot exist long if the chloride of sodium is below the normal
amount.


PERCENTAGE OF CHLORIDE OF SODIUM IN VARIOUS ANIMAL FLUIDS, THEIR
SOLID RESIDUE AND THEIR ASH.

                               Liquid.   Solid Residue.    Ash.

  Human Blood                   0·421        1·931        57·641
  Blood of Horse                0·510        2·750        67·105
  Chyle                         0·531        8·313        67·884
  Lymph (Nasse)                 0·412        8·246        72·902
  Serum of Blood (Nasse)        0·405        5·200        59·090
  Blood of the Cat (Nasse)      0·537        2·826        67·128
  Chyle (Nasse)                 0·710        7·529        62·286
  Human Milk                    0·087        0·726        33·089
  Saliva                        0·153       12·988        62·195
  Gastric Juice of Dog          0·126       12·753        42·089
  Human Bile                    0·364        3·353        30·464
  Mucus (Nasse)                 0·583       13·100        70·000
  Serum of Pus (Nasse)          1·260       11·454        72·330

We have thus proved physiologically that the chloride of sodium holds
a most prominent position among the other constituents of the body;
that it is present in considerable quantities in muscle as well as in
the blood; and that it furnishes the acid, which is necessary for the
stomach to perform its functions of digestion. It holds the albumen
partly in solution, and its coagulation is dependent more or less on
the amount of salt which is present in the blood, and it also possesses
the power of preventing the coagulation of the fibrine. In fevers the
blood is generally thicker, and has a tendency to coagulate by reason
of the partial absence of salt, because a good deal passes off with the
perspiration; and fever patients always prefer salt to sugar, for while
one refreshes them and helps to restore the usual healthy tone of the
palate, by constringing the papillæ of the tongue, the other raises
feelings of disgust.

It is also present in cartilage, though in a lesser degree than in
blood or muscle, because in cartilage there is no disintegration or
waste of tissue, and therefore it does not require such a perpetual
supply; there is, on the contrary, a continual loss going on in muscle,
especially during exertion. Perspiration is to a certain extent the
principal medium which carries off the chloride of sodium, owing to
its being held in solution by the liquor-sanguinis; during fatigue,
particularly if prolonged, a greater quantity passes off, producing
various degrees of thirst. That the normal proportion of the chloride
of sodium should be regularly maintained must be obvious.

In febrile disease the fibrine of the blood is materially increased,
and there is also a marked decrease of salt, which is dependent on a
greater or lesser intensity of the attack, rendering the blood denser,
owing to the fact of the tendency of the fibrine to coagulate by reason
of the diminution of the chloride of sodium, causing the blood to
circulate slowly and with difficulty.

In some other morbid conditions, which we have already noticed,
the blood becomes thinner and poorer; and consequently the system
degenerates, and we get an anæmic, or chlorotic tendency, especially if
there is a scrofulous diathesis. There are other blood diseases, as the
reader may suppose, and which are more truly such, than those to which
I have just alluded, into the phenomena of which it is not necessary to
enter.

In health what a decided difference! the specific gravity of the blood
is uniformly equable;[58] it circulates with comparative ease; and the
whole system is permeated with the life-giving and health-preserving
chloride of sodium, and the coagulation of the fibrine is prevented
by nothing else but that mineral and inorganic substance—salt,
which at the same time purifies and maintains the equalisation of
the constituents of the blood. By it also the hydrochloric acid is
supplied to the stomach, enabling that organ to perform its functions
of digestion in accordance with the laws of health; and it likewise
furnishes the alkaline phosphate “whose presence in the blood appears
to serve the most important purpose in the respiratory process.”

What stronger evidence do we require to prove the salutary efficacy
of salt? No wonder that it is so frequently reverted to in Holy Writ;
neither can it be a source of surprise that it has been so carefully
cherished and extensively utilised from time immemorial. What is to
be regarded as an extraordinary anomaly is that there are not a few
who are entire strangers to its virtues, and who prefer impurity and
defilement to the luxury of health and cleanliness.

Those who desire more conclusive proof of the utility of salt, of its
necessity in the animal economy, and of the peculiar morbid phenomena
to which its absence in the system gives rise, I would refer to two
articles which appeared at different times in the _Medical Press and
Circular_, and in the _Medical Times and Gazette_.[59] The cases I
there mention occurred in different localities, and they demonstrate
incontestably that parasites, especially the _lumbrici_ (the _tæniæ_
are well known to infest adults of impure habit), are sometimes
the origin of strange and incomprehensible symptoms of a deceptive
character, rendering diagnosis extremely difficult and unsatisfactory,
and frequently endangering the lives of the sufferers. Is it not a
blessing to know that nature has munificently provided a means whereby
these distressing evils may be checked and definitely eradicated by
a daily use of such an enemy to, and destroyer of, disease as the
chloride of sodium, universally known as common salt?




CHAPTER IX.

CONCLUSION.


It is invariably a relief when one’s task is completed, and more so
when it is self-imposed. Putting our thoughts and opinions upon paper
for others to peruse and to criticise, is pleasure combined with not
a little anxiety; for one cannot with any degree of certainty predict
what kind of reception one’s efforts may have from the public, who
are frequently led to a choice of books on the recommendation of
critics and reviewers; so that an unknown author is placed at a great
disadvantage, and at the mercy of those who may laud a book to the
skies if they please, satirically criticise another, and pass over a
third with a sarcastic smile or a significant shrug of the shoulders. I
am afraid that my little volume will unfortunately be found amongst the
latter, but I candidly acknowledge that I hope it will be regarded as
belonging to the first, or at least to the second.

As I have simply written it in order to point out the virtues of an
aliment of the greatest interest in whatever light we may look at it,
I trust that if I have not instructed, I have at any rate afforded
pleasure to those who have thought it worth their while to glance over
its pages; and I shall be quite contented if they have derived as much
satisfaction in reading, as I have experienced in writing it.

I have tried to impress upon the reader the advisability, and indeed
the necessity, of using the bountiful gifts of nature in a manner
consistent with common sense, and not to follow blindly and credulously
the whims and conceits of others, but to regard their frantic efforts
to indoctrinate the thoughtless, with that dispassionate indifference
which is the sign of philosophical complacency and superiority.
Lucretius says truly that “nothing is more delightful than to occupy
the elevated temples of the wise, well fortified by tranquil learning,
whence you may look down upon others and see them straying in every
direction, and wandering in search of the path of life.”

Approbation is pleasing, and particularly so when it comes from those
who are more able to judge impartially and correctly than others; and
censure, if deserved, though far from gratifying, is not of a nature to
intimidate or to create discouragement.

With these concluding remarks, and certain misgivings, I now submit my
short work to the indulgent consideration of those who read for the
sake of obtaining information, those who read for amusement only, and
to those who peruse literary productions with the eye of criticism.
Lord Bacon advises us to “Read, not to contradict and confute, nor
to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but
to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be
swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. That is, some books
are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and
some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.”

In conclusion, I must say that I sincerely hope that the candid reader
has reaped improvement where the critic may have found only matter for
censure.




APPENDIX.


A., page 38. “Occasionally lakes are found which have streams flowing
_into_ them, but none flowing _out_. Such lakes are usually salt. The
Caspian Sea in Asia is an example. It is called a sea from its great
extent, but it is in reality an inland lake of salt water.”


B., page 80. Mr. William Barnard Boddy on “Diet and Cholera”: “The
nourishment we derive from the flesh of some animals is not so
compatible with the well-being of our constitutional wants as others,
particularly the swine, which was altogether prohibited by the Jewish
lawgiver, independent of its spiritual enactments, because it produced
‘leprosy.’ Now pork is largely consumed in England, especially by the
poorer classes, and in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred is almost
invariably succeeded by diarrhœa; and we need not be surprised at this
when we look at the filthy habits of this animal; its impure feeding
and liability to the diseases of measles and scarlet-fever. But when we
know that they are often in this state killed and sold as an article of
food, the liability to disease of course is much greater. But this is
not all, as relates to this class of society, for almost—I might say
positively so—every article upon which they subsist is impoverished
by vile adulterations, and worse, putrefactions; their limited means
enabling them to procure only the half-decomposed refuse of the
vegetable market, and the half-tainted meat from the butchers’ shambles.

“The more wealthy command all the luxuries of life in abundance, and,
agreeable to their inclinations and appetites, feast accordingly.
Over-indulgence however, often repeated, at last exhausts the healthy
tone of the stomach, and blunts the keen edge of desire; and in order
to produce a false appetite, condiments of various kinds and degrees
are substituted; so that, in fact, the food becomes nearly as vitiated
by these additions as that of the poor man’s by subtractions—the one of
necessity, the other of choice. Extremes meet, and here ‘the rich and
poor meet together;’ for under both circumstances the animal economy
must severely suffer, and the ‘blood, which is the life,’ becomes weak
and serous; and though for a time, from the great reluctance health has
to depart, the growing evils of an impure and unwholesome diet may not
be perceived or apprehended, yet insensibly, from the perpetual inroads
made upon the constitution, and the delicate seat of life, the efforts
to resist disease become weaker and weaker, till at last the whole mass
is left without any internal active principle of sound health available
to resist or overcome its effects.”


THE END.


BAILLIÈRE, TINDALL & COX, 20, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND.




FOOTNOTES:

[1] The saliva, besides containing water, ptyaline, fatty matter, and
albumen, holds in solution chloride of sodium and potassium, besides
the sulphate of soda and the phosphates of lime and magnesia. The
amount secreted during twenty-four hours has been estimated at from two
to three pints.

[2] Their food, according to geologists, consisted solely of shell-fish.

[3] This sea is called by several names, viz., “The Dead Sea,” “The
Sea of the Plain,” or “of the Arabah,” and “The East Sea.” In the 2nd
Book of Esdras v. 7, it is called the “Sodomish Sea.” Josephus uses a
similar name, ἡ Σοδομύτυς λίμνη—the Sodomite Lake; he also calls it by
the same name as Diodorus Siculus, the “Asphaltic Lake”—ἡ Ἀσφαλτίτις
λίμνη. It contains 26 per cent. of salt, including large quantities of
magnesium compounds; its weight is of course great, a gallon weighing
almost 12-1/2 lb.; and its buoyancy is proportionate to the weight,
being such that the human body cannot sink in it. At the south side
is a mass of crystallised salt, and in it is a very peculiar cavern,
extending at least five miles, varying in height from 200 to 400 feet.
This sea is 1312 feet below the level of the Mediterranean; the river
Jordan, from the Sea of Galilee, flows into it, but no river flows from
it.

[4] According to C. Velleius Paterculus of Rome, Homer flourished B.C.
968; according to Herodotus, B.C. 884; the Arundelian Marbles fix his
era B.C. 907.

[5] To show how acute the Greek mind must have been, and how alive
the philosophers of that classic country were to everything, whether
beautiful or useful, we need only call to mind the quaint observation
of Zeno, the founder of the Stoics, who was born about B.C. 300, and
who says that “a soul was given to the hog instead of salt, to prevent
his body from rotting;” by this we see he was quite cognisant of the
preservative properties of salt.

[6] Between the Nile and the Red Sea there are quarries of white
marble, of porphyry, of basalt, and the beautiful green breccia, known
as _Verde d’Egitto_; in the same locality are found gold, iron, lead,
emerald, and copper.

[7] A learned author states as follows: “We have seen, too, that the
earliest state of Egypt, as seen in the pyramids, and in the tombs of
the same age, reveals an orderly society and civilisation, of which the
origin is unknown.”

[8] No doubt they were proud of their African parentage, and looked
upon the hoary monarchy of the Nile with a sentiment of religious awe
and unfeigned wonder. Baron Bünsen graphically puts it: “Egypt was to
the Greeks a sphinx with an intellectual human countenance.”

[9] Probably owing to the existence of salt in Western Thibet and in
Lahore, a province of Hindostan, also the Indian Salt Range, which
stretches in a sigmoid curve, according to the late researches of Mr.
Wynne, from Kalabagh on the Indus to a point north of Tank, both the
Chinese and Hindoos may have been equally cognisant of its virtues with
the Egyptians, especially when we have it recorded that the Celestials
procured it by a process not only original but in a certain degree
characteristic of Asiatic combination of ingenuity and clumsiness.

[10] Baron Bünsen says that “No nation of the earth has shown so much
zeal and ingenuity, so much method and regularity in recording the
details of private life, as the Egyptians.” They were also most expert
engineers; the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea, which may be called
the canal of Rameses II., being protected at the Suez mouth by a system
of hydraulic appliances to obviate difficulties arising from the
variable levels of the water.

[11] “It is a strange fact that the early Egyptians, like the
Hindoos, had a religious dread of the sea,”(?); and yet in the reign
of Necho, the son of Psammetichus, they actually accomplished the
circumnavigation of Africa: the voyage took three years.

[12] Dr. Draper’s “History of the Intellectual Development of Europe.”

[13] “One momentous consequence of the Shepherd conquest appears to
have been that the expelled Shemites carried back with them into Syria
the arts and letters of Egypt, which were thence diffused by the
maritime Phœnicians over the opposite shores of Greece. Thus Egypt
began at this epoch to come in contact at once with the East and the
West, with Asia and with Europe.”

[14] “Euterpe,” book ii. chap. lxxvii.

[15] Lord Bacon mentions somewhere in his works that the ancients
discovered that salt water will dissolve salt put into it in less time
than fresh water. The same great philosopher also affirms that “salt
water passing through earth through ten vessels, one within another,
hath not lost its saltness; but drained through twenty, becomes fresh.”

[16] The Russians have a custom of presenting bread and salt to the
newly-married bride and bridegroom. In archæology we have salt-silver,
one penny at the feast of St. Martin, given by the tenants of some
manors, as a commutation for the service of carrying their lord’s salt
from market to his larder; an old English custom.

[17] According to the researches of the late Mr. George Smith,
Babylonian literature is of a much more ancient date than the histories
of the Bible; which fact would tend to indicate that the intellectual
development of that Eastern monarchy may have been coëval with that of
the African.

[18] Dr. Draper’s “History of the Intellectual Development of Europe.”

[19] Leviticus ii. 13.

[20] 2 Kings ii. 21.

[21] Judges ix. 45.

[22] 2 Chronicles xiii. 5.

[23] Numbers xviii. 19.

[24] Ezekiel xvi. 4.

[25] Job v. 6.

[26] St. Mark ix. 50.

[27] _Ibid._

[28] Huxley’s “Physiography.”

[29] Sir Robert Christison’s “Treatise on Poisons.”

[30] Sea-water contains 2·5 per cent. of the chloride of sodium; some
say 4 per cent.; according to others, 5·7.

[31] It is well worth remembering that the Thames carries away from its
basin above Kingston 548,230 tons of saline matter annually.

[32] Hence arose the custom of asking for salt at the Eton Montem.

[33] Sir R. S. Murchison, “The Mineral Springs of Gloucestershire and
Worcestershire.”

[34] Dr. Mantell’s “Wonders of Geology.”

[35] There are the noted salt-works near Portobello, Edinburgh, which
have been so truthfully presented to us on canvas by Mr. Edward Duncan.

[36] In Prussia salt is obtained from the brine-springs of that part
of Saxony which is subject to her jurisdiction. It also exists in
abundance in Bavaria and Würtemberg; and it is the chief mineral
production of the Grand Duchy of Baden.

[37] “In one village they only found one earthen pot containing food,
which Bruce took possession of, leaving in its place a wedge of salt,
which, strange to say, is still used as small money in Gondar and all
over Abyssinia.”—Bruce’s “Travels in Abyssinia.”

[38] Polymnia, book vii. chap. xxx.

[39] The geographical features of this almost unknown country are
peculiarly interesting, and are unique when compared with others; the
great height of its mountains, its remarkable elevation, the large
rivers which take their rise here, and the numerous salt lakes, the
altitude of some being from 13,800 to 15,400 feet above the level of
the sea, all combine to excite our curiosity, which is increased by the
fact that we know next to nothing of the interior or of the habits of
the people.

[40] “Many springs in Sicily contain muriate of soda; and the ‘fuime
salso’ in particular is impregnated with so large a quantity that
cattle refuse to drink it. There is a hot spring at St. Nectaire, in
Auvergne, which may be mentioned as one of many, containing a large
proportion of muriate of soda, together with magnesia and other
ingredients.”—Sir Charles Lyell’s “Principles of Geology.”

[41] The Jurassic formation presents a remarkable contrast with that
of the Triassic, in the profusion of organic remains; for while the
latter contains next to none, the former teems with marine fossils, a
proof that the strata were unfavourable for the preservation of organic
structures.—Dr. Mantell’s “Wonders of Geology.”

[42] There is a mountain composed entirely of rock-salt not far from
this old Moorish city; it is 500 feet in height and three miles in
circumference; it is completely isolated, and gypsum is also present.
In other countries there are similar enormous masses, which require to
be dug out and pulverised by machinery on account of their hardness.

[43] Gypsum, or sulphate of lime, consists of sulphuric acid 46·31,
lime 32·90, and water 20·79. The massive gypsum is called _Alabaster_;
the transparent gypsum _Selenite_; powdered calcined gypsum forms
_Plaster of Paris_. The fibrous gypsum has a silken lustre, and is used
for ear-rings, brooches, and other ornaments. Fibrous gypsum of great
beauty occurs in Derbyshire; veins and masses of this substance abound
in the red marls bordering the valley of the Trent.

[44] _Geological Journal_, vol. iii. p. 257.

[45] Pereira’s “Materia Medica,” vol. i. p. 581.

[46] Sir Charles Lyell’s “Principles of Geology.”

[47] In the great desert of Gobi, which is supposed to have been
originally the bed of the sea which communicated through the Caspian
with the Baltic, as confirmatory of this theory, salt is found in
great quantities mixed with the soil. To go a step further, we may
infer that the lake in Western Thibet (called Tsomoriri) may have been
in prehistoric times joined with this vanished sea, and if so would
account for its being saline.

[48] Sir Charles Lyell’s “Principles of Geology.”

[49] In rocks of igneous origin, of which there are many and varied
sorts in Australia, no fossils are found except in those rare cases
where animal or vegetable bodies have become invested in a stream of
lava or overwhelmed by a volcanic shower.

[50] Pigeons are always attracted by a lump of salt, and there is a
kind of bait called a salt-cat which is usually made at salt-works.

[51] “Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation.”

[52] See page 28, chap. iii.

[53] During the famine in Armenia in the year 1880 the people were most
distressed because they had no means to supply themselves with salt,
the want of which they felt even more than the lack of food.

[54] It is an interesting fact that the gastric juice varies in
different classes of animals, according to the food on which they
subsist; thus in birds of prey as kites, hawks, and owls, it only acts
on animal matter, and does not dissolve vegetables; in other birds,
and in all animals feeding on grass, as oxen, sheep, and hares, it
dissolves vegetable matter, as grass, but will not touch flesh of any
kind.

[55] The _Medical Press_ “Analytical Reports on the Principal Bottled
Waters,” by Professor Ticheborne and Dr. Prosser James.

[56] An alkaline spring has just been discovered in Bunhill Row which
possesses most of the constituents of Carlsbad water, but in a dilute
degree. A tube well, 217 feet in depth, has been recently completed on
the premises of Messrs. Le Grand and Sutcliff, artesian well engineers.
From an analysis which has been made of the spring found in the chalk
it appears to be soft water possessing the characteristics which are
peculiar to the above-mentioned famous German Spa. The well, although
artesian, is only so to a partial extent, and a pump of a novel
construction raises the water from 128 feet, and delivers it at the
surface.

[57] Dr. Carpenter’s “Human Physiology.”

[58] Specific gravity of the blood, 1·055.

[59] “Observations on the Symptoms arising from the Ascaris
Lumbricoides,” _Medical Press and Circular_, March 13, 1878; “On a Form
of Pyrosis caused by the Ascaris Lumbricoides,” _Medical Times and
Gazette_, June 7, 1879.




ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF AUTHORS.


                                                                     PAGE

  ABERCROMBIE (J.) On Tetany in Young Children                         14

  ADAMS (W.) Deformities (in Gant’s Surgery)                           26

  AMORY (R.) Translation of Kuss’ and Duval’s Physiology               25

  ANDERSON (M. F.) Phosphates in Nutrition                             15

  ANNANDALE (Thos.) Abstracts of Surgical Principles                   27

  ATKINSON (W. B.) Therapeutics of Gynæcology and Obstetrics           24


  BAKER (Benson) How to Feed an Infant                                 24

  BARNES (Robt.) Diseases of Women (in Gant’s Surgery)                 24

  BARTLEY (R. T. H.) Companion to the Visiting List                    25

  BELL (J.) Manual of Surgical Operations                              27

  BELLAMY (E.) Text-book of Anatomical Plates                           9

  BERNARD (Claude) and HUETTE’S Text-book of Operative Surgery         26

  BLACK (C.) Atlas of the Organs of Generation (Male)                  11

  BLACKLEY (C. H.) Hay Fever, its Causes and Treatment                 19

  BLAKE (Carter) Translation of Fau’s Anatomy for Artists              11

  BROCHARD (J.) Practical Guide for the Young Mother                   24

  BROWN (George) The Student’s Case-book                               13

  —— Aids to Anatomy                                                    9

  —— Aids to Surgery                                                   26

  BROWNE (Balfour) Mental Responsibility and Disease                   13

  BROWNE (Lennox) The Throat and its Diseases                          28

  —— Forms for taking Throat and Aural Cases                           13

  —— Movable Atlas of the Throat and Tongue                            10

  —— Movable Atlas of the Ear and Teeth                                17

  BURNESS (A. G.) The Specific Action of Drugs                         17

  BURNETT (S. M.) The Examination of the Eyes                          17


  CAMERON (Chas. A.) Manual of Hygiene and Public Health               20

  —— On Disease Prevention                                             20

  CARTER (R. Brudenell) Training of the Mind                           22

  CASSELLS (J. Patterson) Translation of Politzer’s Diseases
    of the Ear                                                         17

  —— The Auriscope, a Handbook of Aural Diagnosis                      17

  —— Clinical Aural Surgery                                            17

  —— Deafmutism and the Education of the Deaf mute                     16

  CHARCOT (J. M.) Bright’s Disease of the Kidneys                      20

  CLARKE (E. H.) The Building of a Brain                               12

  COCKLE (John) Contributions to Cardiac Pathology                     19

  —— Insufficiency of the Aortic Valves                                19

  COHNHEIM (Prof.) On the Contagiousness of Consumption                15

  COLES (Oakley) The Dental Student’s Note Book                        27

  COLLENETTE (C.) Chemical Tables                                      13

  CULLIMORE (D. H.) Consumption as a Contagious Disease                15

  CUNNINGHAM (D. J.) The Dissector’s Guide                             17


  DARLING (W.) Anatomography, or Graphic Anatomy                        9

  —— The Essentials of Anatomy                                          9

  DELAFIELD (F.) Handbook of Post Mortems                              26

  DENNIS (Hy. J.) Second-Grade Perspective Drawing                     11

  —— Third-Grade Perspective Drawing                                   11

  DICKINSON (J.) The Tonic Treatment of Gout                           19

  —— Suppressed Gout                                                   19

  —— Tropical Debility                                                 16

  DOLAN (T. M.) Nature and Treatment of Hydrophobia                    19

  DOWNES (A. H.) Typhoid Fever and Allied Diseases                     18

  DOWSE (T. Stretch) Neuralgia; its Nature and Treatment               23

  —— Syphilis of the Brain and Spinal Cord                             12

  —— Skin Diseases from Nervous Affections                             26

  —— Brain Exhaustion                                                  12

  —— Movable Atlas of the Brain                                        10

  DRYSDALE (John) The Protoplasmic Theory of Life                      27

  —— Life and the Equivalence of Force                                 27

  —— Germ Theories of Infectious Diseases                              27

  DUFFEY (G. F.) Text-book of Materia Medica and Pharmacy              21

  DUVAL (M.) Text-book of Physiology                                   25


  EVANS (C. W. De Lacy) Can We Prolong Life?                           27


  FAU (J.) Artistic Anatomy of the Human Body                          11

  —— Anatomy of the External forms of Man                              11

  FEARNLEY (W.) Text-book for the Examination of Horses                29

  —— Lessons in Horse Judging                                          29

  FISHER. Hints for Hospital Nurses                                    23

  FLAXMAN (J.) Elementary Anatomical Studies for Artists               11

  FLEMING (G.) Text-book of Veterinary Obstetrics                      29

  —— Text-book of Veterinary Pathology                                 29

  —— Veterinary Sanitary Science and Police                            29

  —— Practical Horse-Shoeing                                           29

  —— Animal Plagues, their History, Nature and Treatment               29

  —— Contagious Diseases of Animals                                    29

  —— Manual of Veterinary Surgery                                      29

  —— Nature and Treatment of Hydrophobia                               19

  FLINT (Austin) Essays on Conservative Medicine                       22

  FOTHERGILL (Milner) Aids to Diagnosis (Semeiological)                16

  —— Aids to Rational Therapeutics                                     28

  —— The Physiologist in the Household                                 28


  GANT (F. J.) Text-book of the Science and Practice of Surgery        26

  —— Guide to the Examinations at the College of Surgeons              17

  GOODELL (Wm.) Lessons in Gynæcology and Obstetrics                   24

  GORDON (Chas.) Our Trip to Burmah                                    13

  —— Life on the Gold Coast                                             9

  —— Lessons in Military Hygiene and Surgery                           19

  —— Experiences of an Army Surgeon in India                           20

  —— Notes on the Hygiene of Cholera                                   15

  —— A Manual of Sanitation                                            20

  GORE (Albert A.) Our Services Under the Crown                        23

  —— Medical History of African Campaigns                               9

  GRAY. The Pocket Gray, or Anatomist’s Vade-Mecum                      9

  GRIFFITHS (W. H.) Text-book of Materia Medica and Pharmacy           21

  —— Posological Tables                                                25

  —— A System of Botanical Analysis                                    12


  HALTON (R. J.) Short Lectures on Sanitary Subjects                   20

  HARRIS (C. J.) The Physiology of Intestinal Obstruction              25

  HARRIS (Vincent) Manual for the Physiological Laboratory             25

  HARTMANN (Prof.) On Deafmutism, Translation by Dr. Cassells          17

  HEMMING (W. D.) Aids to Examinations                                 17

  —— Aids to Forensic Medicine                                         18

  —— Tinnitus Aurium                                                   17

  —— Otorrhœa                                                          17

  HILL (J. W.) Management and Diseases of the Dog                      30

  HILL (J.) The Diseases of the Ox, Causes, Symptoms and Treatment     30

  HIME (T. W.) Cholera: How to Prevent and Resist It                   15

  HOGG (Jabez) The Cure of Cataract                                    18

  —— The Impairment of Vision from Shock                               18

  HOGG (Jabez) Parasitic, or Germ Theory of Disease                    27

  HOWE (J. W.) The Breath, and Diseases which give it a Fœtid Odour    13

  HUETTE (Chas.) Text-book of Operative Surgery                        26

  HYSLOP (W.) Sermons for Hospitals, Gaols, Asylums, etc.              23


  JACOB (A. H.) The General Medical Council                            22

  JAMES (M. P.) Laryngoscopy and Rhinoscopy in Throat Diseases         28

  JUKES-BROWNE (A. J.) Palæontology (in Penning’s Field Geology)       18


  KENNEDY (Hy.) An Essay on Fatty Heart                                19

  KINGZETT (C. T.) Nature’s Hygiene                                    20

  KUSS (E.) Manual of Physiology                                       25


  LAFFAN (T.) The Medical Profession of the United Kingdom
   (Second Carmichael Prize Essay)                                     22

  LANDOLT (Prof.) The Examination of the Eyes                          17

  LEONARD (H. C.) The Hair in Health and Disease                       19

  LETHEBY (Hy.) A Treatise on Food                                     18

  —— The Sewage Question                                               26

  LOWNE (B. T.) Aids to Physiology                                     25

  LUNN (C.) The Philosophy of Voice                                    30


  MACBRIDE (J. A.) Anatomical Outlines of the Horse                    30

  MACDONALD (Angus) Materia Medica and Therapeutics                    21

  MACKENZIE (M.) Diseases of the Throat (in Gant’s Surgery)            28

  MAHOMED (F. A.) The Sphygmograph (in Gant’s Surgery)                 26

  MASSE (J. N.) Text-book of Anatomical Plates                          9

  MAYER (T. W.) Anatomical Outlines of the Horse                       30

  MILLARD (H. B.) Bright’s Disease of the Kidneys                      20

  MILNE (Alex.) The Child, and How to Nurse it                         24

  MOORE (E. H.) Clinical Chart for Hospital and Private Practice       15

  MUCKLEY (W. J.) Student’s Manual of Artistic Anatomy                 11

  —— A Handbook for Painters and Art Students on the Use of Colours    11

  MUTER (J.) Key to Organic Materia Medica                             21

  —— Introduction to Analytical Chemistry                              14

  —— Introduction to Pharmaceutical Chemistry                          14

  MURRAY (R. Milne) Chemical Notes and Equations                       14


  NAPHEYS (G. H.) Modern Medical Therapeutics                          27

  —— Modern Surgical Therapeutics                                      28

  —— Handbook of Popular Medicine                                      23

  NORTON (A. T.) Text-book of Operative Surgery                        26

  —— Osteology for Students                                            24

  —— Affections of the Throat and Larynx                               28


  ORMSBY (L. H.) Deformities of the Human Body                         16

  OWEN (Lloyd) Translation of Giraud-Teulon’s (Anomalies of Vision)
    Eye                                                                17


  PAINTER (J. T.) Ethnology                                            17

  PALFREY (J.) Atlas of the Female Organs of Generation                10

  PALMER (J. F.) How to Bring up Young Children by Hand                24

  PARRISH (Ed.) A Treatise on Pharmacy                                 25

  PENNING (W. H.) Text-book of Field Geology                           18

  —— Engineering Geology                                               18

  —— Notes on Nuisances, Drains, and Dwellings

  PETTENKOFER (Von) Cholera: How to Prevent and Resist it              15

  POLITZER (Prof.) The Ear and its Diseases (in the Press)             17

  POWER (Hy.) Movable Atlas of the Eye, and the Mechanism of Vision    18

  —— (Hy.) Diseases of the Eye (in Gant’s Surgery)                     26

  POWER (D’Arcy) Handbook for the Physiological Laboratory             25

  PRATT (W.) A Physician’s Sermon to Young Men                         23

  PROCTOR (Richd.) The Stars and the Earth                             12

  PURVES (L.) Aural Diseases (in Gant’s Surgery)                       17


  REMSEN (Ira) The Principles of Theoretical Chemistry                 15

  REYNOLDS (J. Emerson) Lectures on Experimental Chemistry             14

  RICHARDS (J. M.) A Chronology of Medicine                            22

  RICHARDSON (Thos.) Chemistry in its Application to the Arts
    and Manufactures                                                   21

  RIVINGTON (W.) The Medical Profession (First Carmichael Prize
    Essay)                                                             22

  —— Medical Education and Medical Organisation                        22

  ROTH (M.) Works on Deformities, Exercises, etc.                      16

  ROUTH (C. H. F.) Overwork and Premature Mental Decay                 24

  —— On Fibrous Tumours of the Womb                                    24

  —— On Checks to Population                                           25


  SCORESBY-JACKSON (R. E.) Note-Book of Materia Medica                 23

  SEMPLE (R. H.) Diphtheria, Its Causes and Treatment                  16

  —— Movable Atlas of the Human Body (Neck and Trunk)                  10

  SEMPLE (C. E. A.) Aids to Botany                                     12

  —— Aids to Chemistry                                                 13

  —— Aids to Materia Medica                                            11

  —— Aids to Medicine                                                  22

  SEWILL (Hy.) Movable Atlas of the Teeth                              10

  SIMSON (J.) Contributions to Natural History                         23

  SMITH (C.) Mental Capacity in Relation to Insanity, Crime, etc.      13

  SPARKES (J.) Artistic Anatomy                                        11

  STARTIN (J.) Lectures on Ringworm                                    26

  STEAVENSON (W. E.) The Medical Acts and Medical Reform               22

  STRANGEWAYS (Thos.) Text Book of Veterinary Anatomy                  29


  TELLOR (L. V.) The Diseases of Live Stock                            30

  THIN (George) Introduction to Practical Histology                    19

  THOROWGOOD (J. C.) Consumption; its Treatment by the Hypophosphites  15

  —— Aids to Physical Diagnosis                                        16

  TIDY (Meymott) On Vitiated Air                                       20

  TIMMS (G.) Consumption; its Nature and Treatment                     15

  —— Alcohol in some Clinical Aspects, a Remedy, a Poison               9

  TOMES (C. S.) Dental Surgery (in Gant’s Surgery)                     27

  TYSON (J.) The Urine, a Guide to its Practical Examination           28


  VAUGHAN (J.) Strangeways’ Veterinary Anatomy                         30


  WALLEY (Thos.) The Four Bovine Scourges                              30

  WATTS (Hy.) Chemistry in its Application to the Arts
    and Manufactures                                                   14

  WILLIAMS (R.) Hints for Hospital Nurses                              23

  WILLIAMS (W.) The Principles and Practice of Veterinary Surgery      29

  WILLSON (A. Rivers) Chemical Notes for Pharmaceutical Students       14

  WILSON The Principles and Practice of Veterinary Medicine            29

  WILSON (Erasmus) Diseases of the Skin (in Gant’s Surgery)            26

  WILSON (J.) A Manual of Naval Hygiene                                20

  WINSLOW (L. S. Forbes) Manual of Lunacy                              21

  —— Chart of the Lunacy Acts                                          21

  —— Handbook for Attendants on the Insane                             21

  —— Spiritualistic Madness                                            21

  WITKOWSKI (G. J.) Movable Atlases of the Human Body                  10




AN

ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF SUBJECTS,

WITH

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  Description of the Inhabitants, their Modes and Habits of Life;
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  +Alcohol+, in some Clinical Aspects: A Remedy, a Poison. By
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  +Chemistry.+ Chemical Tables: Oxides, Sulphides, and Chlorides, with
  Forms for other Compounds. For the use of Teachers and Students. By
  Prof. COLLENETTE. Price 6d.

  +Chemistry.+ Chemical Notes for Pharmaceutical Students,
  including the Chemistry of the Additions to the Pharmacopœia. By
  A. RIVERS WILLSON. Price 2s. 6d.

  +Chemistry.+ Short Lectures on Experimental Chemistry.
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  F.R.S., F.C.S., Professor of Chemistry, Royal College of Surgeons,
  Professor of Analytical Chemistry, and Keeper of the Minerals, Royal
  Dublin Society. Price 3s. 6d.

  +Chemistry.+ An Introduction to Analytical Chemistry for
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  President of the Society of Public Analysts. Third edition, price 7s.
  6d.

  +Chemistry.+ An Introduction to Pharmaceutical and Medical
  Chemistry, Theoretical and Practical. With Analytical Tables and
  copious Index. By the same Author. Price 10s. 6d.

    “The book is one of a very useful and original kind, and is brought
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  +Chemistry.+ Chemical Notes and Equations: for the use of Students.
  By R. MILNE MURRAY, M.A., M.B., C.M. Edin. Price 2s.

  +Chemistry.+ Chemistry in its Application to the Arts and
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  Vol. I.: Parts 1 and 2.—Fuel and its Applications. 433 engravings,
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  Part 5.—Prussiate of Potash, Oxalic Acid, Tartaric Acid, many tables,
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  +Chemistry.+ Practical Treatise on Acids, Alkalies, and Salts: their
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  +Chemistry.+ The Principles of Theoretical Chemistry, with special
  reference to the constitution of Chemical Compounds. By IRA REMSEN,
  M.D., Ph.D. Price 6s.

    “Worthy of careful perusal.”—_New York Medical Record._

  +Children.+ On Tetany in Young Children. By J. ABERCROMBIE, M.D.,
  M.R.C.P. Lond., Medical Registrar to the Hospital for Sick Children.
  Price 2s.


  +Children.+ The Feeding and Nursing of. (See Nursing.)

  +Cholera.+ Cholera: how to Prevent and Resist it. By Professor
  VON PETTENKOFER, University of Munich, President of the Sanitary
  Department of the German Empire; and THOMAS WHITESIDE HIME, A.B.,
  M.B., Medical Officer of Health for Sheffield, Lecturer on Medicine
  at the Sheffield School of Medicine. Illustrated with woodcuts and
  diagram, price 3s. 6d.

  +Cholera.+ Notes on the Hygiene of Cholera, for ready reference.
  Prepared from Official Returns, for the use of Army Medical Officers,
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  Hon. Physician to the Queen. Price 5s.

  +Clinical Charts+ for Recording the Range of Temperature, Pulse,
  Respiration, History, Progress, and Treatment of Cases, for use in
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  Price 1d. each, 9d. per dozen, or mounted, similar to a blotting-pad,
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  +Colours.+ A Hand-book for Painters and Art Students, on the use of
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  +Consumption.+ Consumption, as a Contagious Disease, with Treatment:
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  Pamphlet. By D. H. CULLIMORE, M.K.Q.C.P., F.R.C.S.I., Physician
  North-West London Hospital, formerly Consulting Physician to the King
  of Burmah; Surgeon H.M. Indian Army. Price 5s.

  +Consumption.+ Consumption and its Treatment by the Hypophosphites.
  By JOHN C. THOROWGOOD, M.D., F.R.C.P. Lond., Physician to the City
  of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, Victoria Park. Third
  edition, price 2s. 6d.

  +Consumption.+ Consumption, its True Nature and Successful Treatment,
  with Appendix of Cases. By GODWIN TIMMS, M.D. Lond., M.R.C.P., Senior
  Physician to the North London Consumption Hospital, Consulting
  Physician to the Western City Dispensary, etc. Second edition, price
  10s. 6d.

  +Consumption.+ Phosphates in Nutrition: the Mineral Theory of
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    “Characterised by a considerable degree of original and painstaking
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    “Certainly deserves the serious attention of all.”—_Chemist and
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  +Debility+. On Tropical Debility, its Causes and Treatment. By JAS. C.
  DICKINSON, M.R.C.S., late of Her Majesty’s Bengal Army. Price 1s. 6d.

  +Deafmutism+. On the Education of the Deafmute. By Professor HARTMANN.
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  +Deafness+. (See Ear.)

  +Deformities+. The Nature and Treatment of Deformities of the Human
  Body. By LAMBERT H. ORMSBY, M.B. Univ. Dub., Surgeon to the Meath
  Hospital and County Dublin Infirmary. Crown 8vo., illustrated, price 5s.

  +Deformities+. 1. A Short Sketch of Rational Medical Gymnastics; or,
  the Movement-Cure. By B. M. ROTH, M.D., F.R.C.S. Eng. With thirty-eight
  engravings, price 1s.

  2. The Prevention and Cure of Many Chronic Diseases by Movements. By
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  3. The Hand-book of the Movement-Cure. By the same Author. With 155
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  4. Contribution to the Hygienic Treatment of Paralysis, and of
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  5. On Paralysis in Infancy, Childhood, and Youth, and on the Prevention
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  6. The Prevention of Spinal Deformities, especially of Lateral
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  With 53 engravings, price 3s. 6d.

  DIAGNOSIS. Aids to Physical Diagnosis, for the use of Practitioners
  and Students. By J. C. THOROWGOOD, M.D., F.R.C.P. Lond., Physician to
  the City of London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, and to the West
  London Hospital, Lecturer on Materia Medica at Middlesex Hospital.
  Price 1s. and 1s. 6d.

  +Diagnosis+. Aids to Semeiological Diagnosis, for the use of
  Practitioners and Students. By J. MILNER FOTHERGILL, M.D., M.R.C.P.
  Lond., Assistant Physician to the City of London Hospital for Diseases
  of the Chest, and to the West London Hospital. Price 1s. and 1s. 6d.

  +Diphtheria+. Diphtheria, its Causes, Pathology, Diagnosis, and
  Treatment. By R. HUNTER SEMPLE, M.D., F.R.C.P. Lond., Physician to the
  Hospital for Diseases of the Throat and Chest. Second edition, price
  2s. 6d.

    “It is satisfactory to know that the doctrines laid down by the
    author, many years ago, do not need negation in any sort of way in
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  +Dissections+. The Dissector’s Guide, a Manual for the use of Students.
  By D. J. CUNNINGHAM, M.D., Senior Demonstrator of Anatomy, University
  of Edinburgh. Part I. Upper Limb, Lower Limb, Thorax. Illustrated,
  price 4s. 6d.

  +Drugs+. The Specific Action of Drugs. An Index to their Therapeutic
  Value, as deduced from experiments on man and animals. By ALEXANDER G.
  BURNESS, M.D., and F. MAVOR, President of the Central Lond. Veterinary
  Society. Price 10s. 6d.

  +Ear+. Aural Surgery. By W. LAIDLAW PURVES, M.D., Aural Surgeon to
  Guy’s Hospital. (See chapters in Gant’s Surgery.)

  +Ear+. Movable Atlas of the Ear. Superposed Coloured Plates. By Prof.
  G. J. WITKOWSKI, Text by LENNOX BROWNE, F.R.C.S. Ed. Price 7s. 6d. (See
  Anatomy.)

  +Ear+. Otorrhœa; or, Discharge from the Ears: its Varieties, Causes,
  Complications, and Treatment. By W. DOUGLAS HEMMING, F.R.C.S. Ed. Price
  1s.

  +Ear+. Tinnitus Aurium; or, Singing in the Ears: remarks on its Causes
  and Treatment. By the same Author. Price 1s.

  +Ear+. Text-book of the Diseases of the Ear and adjacent Organs. By
  Professor POLITZER, of Vienna. Translated by JAMES PATTERSON CASSELLS,
  Fellow of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow, M.D.,
  and Consulting Physician to the Glasgow Ear Infirmary. Profusely
  illustrated with coloured plates and woodcuts. (In the Press.)

  +Ear+. The Auriscope, a Hand-book of Aural Diagnosis. By J. PATTERSON
  CASSELLS, M.D. _Shortly._

  +Ear+. Clinical Aural Surgery, a Practical Treatise on Diseases of the
  Ear in Infancy, Childhood and Adult Life. _Shortly_.

  +Ethnology+. The History and Genealogy of the Human Race from the
  Creation; showing how the nations of the world can be traced from the
  sons and grandsons of Noah. By J. T. PAINTER. Price 3s. 6d.

  +Examinations+. A Guide to the Examinations at the Royal College
  of Surgeons of England for the Diplomas of Member and Fellow, with
  Examination Papers. Third edition, revised and enlarged, price 3s. 6d.

    “In truth a most useful Guide to the Examinations.”—_Guy’s Hospital
    Gazette._

  +Examinations+. Aids to Examinations. By W. DOUGLAS HEMMING, F.R.C.S.
  Ed. Being Questions and Answers on Materia Medica, Medicine, Midwifery,
  Pathology, and Forensic Medicine. Price 1s. 6d. cloth, 1s. paper
  wrapper.

  +Eye+. A Manual of Examination of the Eyes. By Professor C. LANDOLT, of
  Paris. Translated, with the Author’s permission and revision, by SWAN
  M. BURNETT, M.D. Price 12s. 6d.

    “For those who have a taste for examining Eyes, this will prove
    most helpful.”—_Lancet._

    “The author gives with the greatest care and minuteness his methods
    and results, which render the book an eminently valuable one for
    practitioners.”—_Medical Press._

  +Eye+. The Cure of Cataract and other Eye Affections. By JABEZ HOGG,
  M.R.C.S., Consulting Surgeon to the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic
  Hospital, Ophthalmic Surgeon to the Royal Masonic Institutions. Price
  2s. 6d.

  +Eye+. On Impairment or Loss of Vision from Spinal Concussion or Shock.
  By the same Author. Price 1s. 6d.

  +Eye+. The Functions of Vision and its Anomalies. By Dr. GIRAUD-TEULON,
  Member of the Academie de Medicine. Translated from the Second French
  Edition, by LLOYD OWEN, F.R.C.S.I., Surgeon to the Birmingham and
  Midland Eye Hospital, Ophthalmic Surgeon to the Free Hospital for Sick
  Children, Birmingham. Illustrated, price 5s.

  +Eye+. Movable Atlas of the Eye and the Mechanism of Vision. By Prof.
  G. J. WITKOWSKI. Text by HY. POWER, M.B., F.R.C.S., Senior Ophthalmic
  Surgeon to, and Lecturer on Ophthalmic Surgery at, St. Bartholomew’s
  Hospital, Senior Surgeon to the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital.
  Price 7s. 6d. (See Anatomy.)

  +Fever+. How to Avoid Typhoid Fever and Allied Diseases, with Plain
  Rules on House Drainage, etc. By ARTHUR H. DOWNES, M.B., M.D., Medical
  Officer of Health for the Chelmsford District. Price 1s.

  +Food+. Food; its Varieties, Chemical Composition, Nutritive Value,
  Comparative Digestibility, Physical Functions and Uses, Preparation,
  Preservation, Adulterations, etc. By the late HENRY LETHEBY, M.B.,
  M.A., Ph.D., etc. Second edition, enlarged, price 5s.

    “Dr. Letheby’s position and authority on the subject of food is so
    pre-eminent, that a book from his pen is above criticism.”—_Lancet._

    “Either as a text-book for schools or as a household guide, it is
    excellently adapted.”—_Public Opinion._

  +Forensic Medicine+. Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology. By W.
  DOUGLAS HEMMING, F.R.C.S. Ed. Second thousand, price 1s. 6d. cloth, 1s.
  paper wrapper.

    “We have no hesitation in recommending Mr. Hemming’s
    book.”—_Lancet._

  +Geology+. Field Geology, with a Section on Palæontology. By W. HY.
  PENNING, F.G.S., of H.M. Geological Survey, and A. J. JUKES-BROWNE,
  B.A., F.G.S., of H.M. Geological Survey. Illustrated with woodcuts and
  coloured map. Second edition, revised and enlarged, price 7s. 6d.

    “Satisfies a want which has long been felt and frequently
    expressed.”—_Nature._

    “Others have taught us the principles of the science, but Mr.
    Penning, as an accomplished field-geologist, introduces us to the
    practice.”—_The Academy._

  +Geology+. Engineering Geology. By the same Author. Illustrated with
  coloured map and woodcuts, price 3s. 6d.

  “A full and lucid description of surveying and mapping, the diagnosing
  of the various minerals met with, the value of sites and rocks for
  engineering operations, etc.”—_Popular Science Review._


  +Gout.+ On the Tonic Treatment of Gout. With Cases. By JAMES C.
  DICKINSON, M.R.C.S., late of H.M.’s Bengal Army. Second edition, price
  3s. 6d.

  “A thorough and practical work.”—_Public Opinion._

  +Gout.+ Suppressed Gout: its Dangers and Treatment; with an Appendix on
  the Uses of the Vals Waters. By the same Author. Price 2s.

  +Hair.+ The Hair: its Growth, Care, Diseases, and Treatment; with
  Historical Chapters on Fashions in Hair and Beards from the Assyrian to
  Modern Times. By C. H. LEONARD, M.A., M.D. With 116 engravings, price
  7s. 6d.

    “Is entertaining reading, will afford many useful hints to the
    practitioner, and be much appreciated by the public, especially the
    fashionable portion of it.”—_Lancet._

  +Hay Fever+: Its Causes, Treatment, and Effective Prevention;
  Experimental Researches. By CHAS. HARRISON BLACKLEY, M.D.

  Second edition, revised and enlarged, price 10s. 6d.

    “A piece of real honest work, original and instructive, and will
    well repay perusal.”—_Lancet._

    “The treatise before us is one of the fullest that we are
    acquainted with on this subject; we recommend it cordially to
    all who may wish for a practical work on this once mysterious
    disease.”—_Medical Times._

  +Heart.+ On Insufficiency of Aortic Valves in Connection with Sudden
  Death: with Notes, Historical and Critical. By JOHN COCKLE, A.M., M.D.,
  F.R.C.P., Physician to the Royal Free Hospital, late President of the
  Medical Society of London. Second edition, price 2s. 6d.

  +Heart.+ Contributions to Cardiac Pathology. By the same Author. Price
  2s. 6d.

  +Heart.+ An Essay on Fatty Heart. By HENRY KENNEDY, A.B., M.B. Dub.
  Univ., Physician to the Whitworth Hospitals. Price 3s. 6d.

    “We have no hesitation in recommending it as a most valuable
    contribution to the literature of the all-important subject of
    which it treats.”—_Medical Press and Circular._

  +Histology.+ Introduction to Practical Histology. By GEORGE THIN, M.D.
  Price 5s.

    “No more valuable text-book for the student will be found, nor one
    containing a greater amount of useful information.”—_Medical Press._

  +Hydrophobia.+ The Nature and Treatment of Rabies or Hydrophobia,
  and those Diseases resembling it. Report of the Special Commission
  appointed by the _Medical Press and Circular_, with valuable additions.
  By T. M. DOLAN, L.R.C.P., F.R.C.S. Ed., and GEORGE FLEMING, F.R.C.V.S.
  Second edition, price 5s.

    “The most valuable and complete treatise on the subject; one which
    we can highly recommend.”—_Veterinary Journal._

    “This laborious work is a credit alike to the writers, and the
    journal which first published it.”—_The Doctor._

  +Hygiene.+ Lessons in Military Hygiene and Surgery, from the
  Franco-Prussian War. Reports prepared while on Special Service with
  the French Army in Paris, on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government. By
  Surgeon-General GORDON, M.D., C.B., Hon. Physician to the Queen.
  Illustrated, price 10s. 6d.

    “A treatise of exceptional merit, drawn from personal experiences
    in the greatest war of modern times.”—_Army and Navy Gazette._

  +Hygiene+. A Manual of Sanitation; or, First Help in Sickness and when
  Wounded. A pocket companion for officers and privates in the army
  or volunteer forces in peace and in war. By the same Author. Second
  edition, price, cloth 2s. 6d., or cheap edition, paper wrapper 1s.

    “It is a most useful and practical manual, and, as the instructions
    are simple and reliable, it should be placed in the hands of
    officers and men alike.”—_Medical Press._

  +Hygiene+. A Manual of Hygiene, Public and Private, and Compendium
  of Sanitary Laws, for the information and guidance of Public Health
  Authorities and Sanitarians generally. By CHAS. A. CAMERON, M.D.,
  F.R.C.S., Professor of Hygiene, Royal College of Surgeons, Medical
  Officer of Health and Public Analyst, Dublin. Price 10s. 6d.

    “By far the most comprehensive work on hygiene for health officers
    and others, which we have met with.”—_Pharmaceutical Journal._

  +Hygiene+. On Disease Prevention. A Practical Treatise on Disinfection.
  By the same Author. Price 6d.

    “Contains practical directions for disinfecting rooms, clothing,
    bedding, etc., with chapters on vaccination, water impurities, and
    other important sanitary matters.”—_Sanitary Review._

  +Hygiene+. On Vitiated Air. A Paper read before the Association of
  Medical Officers of Health. By C. MEYMOTT TIDY, M.B., F.C.S., Professor
  of Chemistry and Medical Jurisprudence in the London Hospital. Price 6d.

  +Hygiene+. Short Lectures on Sanitary Subjects. By RICHARD J. HALTON,
  L.K.Q.C.P., L.R.C.P. Ed., L.R.C.S.I., etc., Medical Officer of Health
  to Kells. Price 5s.

    “A book well adapted to popular reading, and replete with sound
    knowledge promotive of good health and long life.”—_Sanitarian._

  +Hygiene+. Nature’s Hygiene: A Series of Essays on Popular Scientific
  Subjects, with special reference to the Eucalyptus and the Pine. By C.
  T. KINGZETT, F.I.C., F.C.S. Demy 8vo., price 7s. 6d.

    “These highly interesting and instructive pages.”—_Standard._

    “Scientific, yet withal most interesting reading. It were well if
    the public would study it themselves.”—_Graphic._

  +Hygiene+. A Manual of Naval Hygiene, with Instructions and Hints on
  the Preservation of Health and the Prevention of Disease on board Ship.
  By JOSEPH WILSON, M.D., Medical Director of the United States Navy.
  Second edition, price 10s. 6d.

    “No ship should be allowed to leave port without this valuable
    manual; yachtsmen will also find it a most readable and useful
    companion.”—_Medical Press._

  +India+. Experiences of an Army Surgeon in India. By Surgeon-General
  GORDON, M.D., C.B., Hon. Physician to the Queen, A Concise Account of
  the Treatment of the Wounds, Injuries, and Diseases incidental to a
  Residence in that Country. Price 3s. 6d.

  +Kidneys+. Bright’s Disease of the Kidneys. By J. M. CHARCOT, Professor
  in the Faculty of Medicine, Paris. Translated by H. B. MILLARD, M.D.,
  A.M. Revised by the Author, with coloured plates, price 7s. 6d.

    “We doubt very much if there exists in the English language
    any monograph in which the various forms are so accurately and
    concisely described.”—_Medical Press._

  +Life.+ (See Theories of Life.)

  +Lunacy.+ Handbook for Attendants on the Insane, their duties and
  liabilities; instructions for the management, artificial feeding,
  and mechanical restraint of the insane; legal documents required for
  their confinement, etc. By L. S. FORBES WINSLOW, M.B., D.C.L. Oxon.;
  M.R.C.P.; Lecturer on Mental Diseases, Charing Cross Hospital (Editor
  of _The Journal of Psychological Medicine_). Price 1s.

  +Lunacy.+ Manual of Lunacy. A Handbook relating to the Legal care and
  treatment of the Insane. By the same Author. Price 12s. 6d.

    “A comprehensive digest of every subject connected with the legal
    care of the insane.”—_Medical Times._

  +Lunacy.+ A Lunacy Chart: being a Synopsis of the Lunacy Acts, and
  having special reference to the management and care of persons of
  Unsound Mind. By the same Author. Price 1s. 6d., varnished and mounted
  on canvas and rollers, 4s. 6d.

  +Lunacy.+ Spiritualistic Madness. By the same Author. Price 1s.

  +Materia Medica.+ Aids to Materia Medica and Therapeutics. Part
  I.—The Non-metallic and Metallic Elements, Alcoholic and Ethereal
  Preparations, etc. By C. E. ARMAND SEMPLE, B.A., M.B. Cantab., M.R.C.P.
  Lond., Examiner in Arts at the Apothecaries’ Hall. Price, cloth 1s.
  6d., paper wrapper 1s.

  Part II.—The Vegetable and Animal Substances. Double Part, price, cloth
  2s. 6d., paper 2s.

  +Materia Medica.+ Note-Book of Materia Medica and Therapeutics. By R.
  E. SCORESBY-JACKSON, M.D., F.R.S. Revised by ANGUS MACDONALD, M.A.,
  F.R.S. (New edition, in the Press.)

    “A work we can recommend with the utmost confidence.”—_Students’
    Journal._

  +Materia Medica.+ A Key to Organic Materia Medica. By JOHN MUTER,
  Ph.D., M.A., F.C.S., President of the Society of Public Analysts. Third
  edition, price 12s. 6d.

  +Materia Medica and Pharmacy.+ A Text-Book for Medical and
  Pharmaceutical Students preparing for Examination. By W. HANDSEL
  GRIFFITHS, Ph.D., F.C.S., F.R.C.P. Ed. Edited, and in part written, by
  GEORGE F. DUFFEY, M.D. Dub., Fellow and Examiner K.Q.C.P., Examiner
  in Materia Medica, Queen’s University of Ireland, Lecturer on Materia
  Medica in the Carmichael College of Medicine, etc. Price 9s.

    “A book of great value to the profession.... Will undoubtedly
    become a standard text-book on Materia Medica.”—_Edinburgh Medical
    Journal._

    “Conveys a large amount of reliable information in a clear and
    attractive form.”—_Dublin Journal of Medical Science._

    “One of the ablest, if not the best, work on the subject in the
    English language.”—_Medical Press and Circular._

  +Medical Education.+ Medical Education and Medical Organization. The
  Hunterian Oration for 1880. By WALTER RIVINGTON, B.A., M.B., F.R.C.S.,
  Surgeon to the London Hospital, Examiner in Anatomy and Physiology,
  Royal College of Surgeons, England. Price 1s.

  +Medical Profession.+ The Medical Profession: being the Essay to which
  was awarded the First Carmichael Prize of £200 by the Council of the
  Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, 1879. By WALTER RIVINGTON, B.A.,
  M.B., F.R.C.S., Surgeon to the London Hospital, Examiner in Anatomy and
  Physiology, Royal College of Surgeons, England. Price 6s.

  +Medical Profession.+ The Medical Profession in the Three Kingdoms in
  1879: being the Essay to which was awarded the Second Carmichael Prize
  of £100. By THOMAS LAFFAN, L.K.Q.C.P.I., M.R.C.S. Ed., Physician to the
  Cashel Union and Fever Hospitals. Price 4s.

  +Medical Profession.+ Medical Men and Manners of the Nineteenth
  Century. By a Physician. Third Thousand, price 3s.

    “At times scathing, at others amusing, the author is never dull,
    and writes withal, as one who knows from experience the many blots
    on our system, and honestly tries to remedy them.”—_Medical Press._

    “A most amusing satire, brimful of humour even when dealing with
    unpleasant facts.”—_Students’ Journal._

  +Medical Reform.+ The General Medical Council: Whom it represents, and
  How it should be re-constructed. By ARCHIBALD HAMILTON JACOB, M.D.
  Dub., F.R.C.S., Member of Council in the Royal College of Surgeons,
  Ireland, Surgeon-Oculist to His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant of
  Ireland. Price 1s.

  +Medical Reform.+ The Medical Acts Amendment Bill and Medical Reform.
  A Paper read before the Abernethian Society at St. Bartholomew’s
  Hospital. By W. E. STEAVENSON, M.B. Cantab., M.R.C.S. Ed. Price 1s.

  +Medicine.+ Aids to Medicine. Part I.—General Diseases. Diseases of the
  Lungs, Heart, and Liver. By C. E. ARMAND SEMPLE, B.A., M.B. Cantab.,
  M.R.C.P. Lond. Price 1s. 6d.

  Part II.—Pathology of the Urine, Diseases of the Kidneys, Pancreas,
  Spleen, Stomach, Peritoneum, Throat, and Œsophagus. Price 1s. 6d.
  cloth, 1s. paper wrapper.

  +Medicine.+ A Chronology of Medicine from the Earliest Times. By J.
  MORGAN RICHARDS. Price 10s. 6d.

  +Medicine.+ Essays on Conservative Medicine, and kindred topics.
  By AUSTIN FLINT, M.D., Professor of the Principles and Practice of
  Medicine in Bellevue Hosp. Medical College, New York. Price 5s.

  +Medicine>/b>. Handbook of Popular Medicine for family instruction
  and reference; for colonists, travellers and others out of reach of
  medical aid. By G. H. NAPHEYS, A.M., M.D. With movable plate and 100
  illustrations. Price 6s.

    “We have rarely read any form of domestic medicine so simple, yet
    reliable.”—_Public Opinion._

  +Medico-Military Services+. A Contribution to the Medical History of
  our West African Campaigns, by Surgeon-Major ALBERT A. GORE, M.D.,
  Sanitary Officer on the Staff. Price 10s. 6d.

    “Dr. Gore has given us a most interesting record of a series of
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    precautions for the maintenance of health.”—_Medical Press._

  +Medico-Military Services+. Our Services under the Crown. A Historical
  Sketch of the Army Medical Staff. By the same author. Price 6s.

  +Military Surgery+. Lessons in Hygiene and Surgery, from the
  Franco-Prussian War. Prepared while on Special Service with the
  French Army in Paris, on behalf of Her Majesty’s Government. By
  Surgeon-General C. GORDON, M.D., C.B., Physician to Her Majesty the
  Queen. Illustrated, price 10s. 6d.

  +Mind+. The Training of the Mind for the Study of Medicine. A Lecture
  delivered at St. George’s Hospital. By ROBERT BRUDENELL CARTER,
  F.R.C.S., Surgeon to the Hospital. Price 1s.

    “A remarkable address.”—_The Lancet._

    “No one can read it without learning and profiting
    much.”—_Students’ Journal._

  +Morals+. Cheerful Words: Short Sermons for Asylums, Hospitals,
  Gaols, and other Public Institutions. By Dignitaries of the Church,
  and Clergymen. Edited by WM. HYSLOP, Superintendent of Stretton House
  Asylum. Vols. I., II., price 5s. each.

  +Morals+. A Physician’s Sermon to Young Men. By WILLIAM PRATT, M.A.,
  M.D., etc. Second thousand, price 1s.

    “The delicate topic is handled wisely, judiciously, and
    religiously, as well as very plainly.”—_The Guardian._

  +Morals+. Revelations of Quacks and Quackery. A Directory of the London
  and Provincial Quack Doctors; with Facts and Cases in Illustration of
  their Nefarious Practices. By “DETECTOR.” Twenty-fifth thousand, price
  1s. 6d.

  +Natural History+. Contributions to Natural History, and papers on
  other subjects. By JAS. SIMSON (Author of “History of the Gipsies”).
  Second edition, price 6s.

  +Neuralgia+. Its Nature, Causes, and Curative Treatment. By THOS.
  STRETCH DOWSE, M.D., F.R.C.P. Ed., Physician to the Hospital for
  Epilepsy and Paralysis, formerly Medical Superintendent of the Central
  London Sick Asylum. Price 7s. 6d.

  +Nursing+. Hints for Hospital Nurses. By RACHEL WILLIAMS, of St. Mary’s
  Hospital, London, and the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, and ALICE FISHER,
  of the Newcastle-on-Tyne Fever Hospital. Price 2s. 6d.

  +Nursing.+ How to Feed an Infant. With an Appendix on the Common
  Ailments of Infancy, with their Hygienic and Curative Treatment. By
  BENSON BAKER, M.D. Price 1s. 6d.

    “Popularly written, and sensible in the highest degree, its
    widespread perusal would help to bring about a more rational system
    of bringing up infants.”—_Graphic._

    “Based upon the wide and practical experience of the
    Author.”—_Society._

  +Nursing.+ How to bring up Children by Hand. By J. FOSTER PALMER,
  L.R.C.P. Price 6d.

  +Nursing.+ Practical Guide for the Young Mother. From the French of Dr.
  BROCHARD, Director-General of Nurseries and Crêches, with Notes and
  Hints by a London Physician. Price 2s.

  +Nursing.+ The Child, and How to Nurse it. By ALEX. MILNE, M.D.,
  Vice-President of the Obstetrical Society of Edinburgh. Price 2s. 6d.

  +Obstetrics.+ Lessons in Gynæcology and Obstetrics. By WILLIAM GOODELL,
  A.M., M.D., Professor of Clinical Gynæcology in the University of
  Pennsylvania. Second edition, with ninety-two illustrations, price 18s.

  +Obstetrics.+ The Therapeutics of Gynæcology and Obstetrics, comprising
  the Medical, Dietetic and Hygienic Treatment of Diseases of Women, as
  set forth by distinguished contemporary Specialists. Edited by WILLIAM
  B. ATKINSON, A.M., M.D. Price 15s.

  +Obstetrics.+ Obstetrics and Diseases of Women. By ROBERT BARNES, M.D.,
  F.R.C.P. Lond., Obstetric Physician and Lecturer on Diseases of Women,
  St. George’s Hospital (see chapters in Gant’s Surgery).

  +Obstetrics.+ On Fibrous Tumours of the Womb: Points connected with
  their Pathology, Diagnosis and Treatment. Being the Lettsomian Lectures
  delivered before the Medical Society of London. By C. H. F. ROUTH,
  M.D., M.R.C.P. Lond., Senior Physician to the Samaritan Hospital for
  Women. Price 3s. 6d.

  +Osteology.+ Osteology for Students, with Atlas of Plates. By ARTHUR
  TREHERN NORTON, F.R.C.S., Surgeon to, and Lecturer on Surgery at, St.
  Mary’s Hospital. Atlas and Text in one volume, 7s. 6d.; in two volumes,
  8s. 6d.

    “The handiest and most complete handbook of Osteology.”—_The
    Lancet._

  +Overwork.+ Overwork and Premature Mental Decay: its Treatment. By C.
  H. F. ROUTH, M.D., M.R.C.P. Lond., Senior Physician to the Samaritan
  Hospital for Women and Children. Third edition, price 2s. 6d.

  +Palæontology.+ A Treatise on Palæontology. By A. J. JUKES-BROWNE,
  B.A., F.G.S., of Her Majesty’s Geological Survey (see Field Geology and
  Palæontology, by PENNING and JUKES-BROWNE).


  +Pharmacy.+ A Treatise on Pharmacy. A Text-book for Students, and a
  Guide for the Physician and Pharmacist. By EDWARD PARRISH. Fourth
  edition, enlarged and revised by T. S. WIEGAND, F.C.S. With 280
  illustrations, half-bound morocco, price 30s.

    “There is nothing to equal Parrish’s Pharmacy in this on any other
    language.”—_Pharmaceutical Journal._

  +Physiological Laboratory.+ A Manual for the Physiological Laboratory.
  By VINCENT HARRIS, M.D., M.R.C.P. Lond., Demonstrator of Physiology at
  St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, and D’ARCY POWER, B.A. Oxon., Assistant
  Demonstrator. Price 3s. 6d.

    “A book which should be in every student’s hands.”—_Medical Press._

  +Physiology.+ Aids to Physiology. By B. THOMPSON LOWNE, F.R.C.S., Arris
  and Gale Lecturer and Examiner in Physiology, Royal College of Surgeons
  of England. Price 2s. 6d. cloth, 2s. paper wrapper.

    “As ‘aids’ and not substitutes, they will prove of real value to
    students.”—_Medical Press._

    “Certainly one of the best of the now popular ‘Aid
    Series.’”—_Students’ Journal._

  +Physiology.+ Manual of Physiology. By Professors KUSS and DUVAL, of
  Strasbourg. Translated by Professor AMORY, M.D. Illustrated with 150
  engravings, price 10s. 6d.

    “The best Students’ Manual we have seen.”—_Medico-Chirurgical
    Review._

    “One of the best in the English language.”—_Medical Press._

  +Physiology.+ Movable Atlases of Anatomy and Physiology. Superposed
  coloured plates. By Prof. G. J. WITKOWSKI. A Companion and Supplement
  to every work on the subject. (See Anatomy.)

  +Physiology.+ The Physiology of Intestinal Obstruction and
  Constipation. By C. J. HARRIS, M.R.C.S. Price 1s.

  +Physiology.+ The Physiologist in the Household. By J. MILNER
  FOTHERGILL, M.D., M.R.C.P., Lond. Part I. Adolescence. Price 1s.

  +Population.+ On the Evils, Moral and Physical, likely to follow, if
  practices, intended to act as checks to population, be not strongly
  discouraged and condemned. Read at the Annual Meeting of the British
  Medical Association, with the discussion thereon. Second thousand,
  price 1s.

  +Posology.+ Posological Tables: a Classified Chart of Diseases, showing
  at a glance the Dose of every Officinal Substance and Preparation.
  For the use of Practitioners and Students. By HANDSEL GRIFFITHS,
  Ph.D., L.R.C.P., etc., late Professor of Chemistry, Ledwich School of
  Medicine. Fourth edition, price 1s.

  +Posology.+ The Pharmacopœial Companion to the Visiting List. A
  Posological Table of all the Medicines of the British Pharmacopœia,
  arranged according to their action. By R. T. H. BARTLEY, M.D., M.B.
  Lond., Surgeon to the Bristol Eye Hospital. Second edition, price 6d.

  +Post-Mortems.+ Hand-book of Post-Mortem Examinations, and of Morbid
  Anatomy. By FRANCIS DELAFIELD, M.D., Curator to Bellevue Hospital, New
  York. Price 15s.

  +Protoplasm.+ See Theories of Life.

  +Sewage.+ The Sewage Question: Reports upon the Principal Sewage Farms
  and Works of the Kingdom, with Notes and Chemical Analyses. By the late
  Dr. LETHEBY. Price 4s. 6d.

    “These Reports will dissipate obscurity, and, by placing the
    subject in a proper light, will enable local authorities, and
    others interested in the matter, to perceive the actual truths of
    the question, and to apply them practically.”

  +Skin.+ Diseases of the Skin. By ERASMUS WILSON, F.R.S., F.R.C.S.,
  Vice-President of the Royal College of Surgeons, England. (See chapters
  in Gant’s “Surgery”).

  +Skin.+ Some Diseases of the Skin which are produced by derangements of
  the Nervous System. By T. STRETCH DOWSE, M.D., F.R.C.P. Ed., Physician
  to the Hospital for Paralysis and Epilepsy, and Physician, Skin
  Department, Charing Cross Hospital. Price 2s.

  +Skin.+ Lectures on Ring-worm and other Diseases of the Skin, due to
  Vegetoid Parasites. By JAS. STARTIN, M.R.C.S. Price 1s.

  +Sphygmograph.+ The Use of the Sphygmograph in Surgery. By F. A.
  MAHOMED, M.D., M.R.C.P. Lond., Medical Registrar, Guy’s Hospital. (See
  chapter in Gant’s “Surgery.”)

  +Surgery.+ The Science and Practice of Surgery, being a Complete
  Text-book. With special chapters by
    Wm. Adams, F.R.C.S., Deformities.
    Robt. Barnes, M.D., F.R.C.P., Obstetrics.
    Morell Mackenzie, M.D., The Throat.
    F. A. Mahomed, M.D., The Sphygmograph.
    Hy. Power, F.R.C.S., Ophthalmic Surgery.
    Laidlaw Purves, M.D., Aural Surgery.
    C. S. Tomes, M.A., Oxon, F.R.S., Dental Surgery
    Prof. Erasmus Wilson, F.R.S., The Skin.

  By FREDERICK J. GANT, F.R.C.S., President of the Medical Society of
  London, Senior Surgeon to the Royal Free Hospital. Second edition,
  illustrated by nearly 1000 engravings, new and original, in 2 vols.,
  price 31s. 6d.

    “Gant’s able and laborious work must be commended.”—_The Lancet._

    “Does credit to the author’s thorough surgical knowledge.”—_British
    Medical Journal._

    “Will become one of the most popular Surgical Text-books in the
    English language.”—_Medical Press._

    “A very complete and trustworthy guide to practice.”—_Medical
    Times._

  +Surgery.+ Aids to Surgery. By GEORGE BROWN, M.R.C.S., Gold Medalist,
  Charing Cross Hospital, Author of “Aids to Anatomy.” Price 1s. 6d.
  cloth, 1s. paper wrapper.

  +Surgery.+ The Text-book of Operative Surgery. From the French of
  Professors CLAUDE BERNARD and HUETTE. With 88 plates. Text edited
  and re-written, by ARTHUR TREHERN NORTON, F.R.C.S., Surgeon to, and
  Lecturer on Surgery at, St, Mary’s Hospital. Price, plain, 25s.;
  coloured, half-calf, 50s.

    “Of the highest merit as a guide to operative surgery.”—_Students’
    Journal._

  +Surgery.+ Abstracts of Surgical Principles for Medical Students. By
  THOS. ANNANDALE, F.R.C.S., F.R.S., Surgeon to, and Lecturer on Surgery
  at, Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh. Price 7s. 6d.

  +Surgery.+ A Manual of the Operations of Surgery, for the use of Senior
  Students, etc. By JOSEPH BELL, F.R.C.S., Lecturer on Surgery, Royal
  Infirmary, Edinburgh. Third edition, price 6s,

  +Teeth.+ Dental Surgery. By CHAS. S. TOMES, M.A. Oxon, E.R.S. (See
  chapters in Gant’s “Surgery.”)

  +Teeth.+ Movable Atlas of the Teeth and Ear. By Professor WITKOWSKI.
  (See Anatomy.)

  +Teeth.+ The Dental Student’s Note-Book. By OAKLEY COLES, L.D.S. Second
  thousand, price 2s. 6d.

  +Theories of Disease.+ The Germ Theories of Infectious Diseases. By
  JOHN DRYSDALE, M.D., F.R.M.S., President of the Liverpool Microscopical
  Society. Price 1s.

  +Theories of Disease.+ A Parasitic or Germ Theory of Disease: the Skin,
  Eye, and other affections. By JABEZ HOGG, M.R.C.S., Consulting Surgeon
  to the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital. Second edition, price 2s.
  6d.

  +Theories of Life.+ The Protoplasmic Theory of Life. Containing the
  Latest Researches on the subject. By JOHN DRYSDALE, M.D., F.R.M.S.,
  President of the Liverpool Microscopical Society. Price 5s.

    “Subjects beyond the pale of precise knowledge are treated of in a
    manner which will quite repay perusal.”—_Nature._

  +Theories of Life.+ Life and the Equivalence of Force. By the same
  Author.

  Part I. Historical Notice of the Discovery of the Law of Equivalence of
  Force. Price 1s.

  Part II. Nature of Force and Life: containing the Harmony of Fletcher
  and Beale. Price 1s. 6d.

    “We cannot part from this work without praising the calm and
    excellent spirit in which the subject is bandied.”—_The Examiner._

  +Theories Of Life.+ Can we Prolong Life? An Enquiry into the Causes of
  Premature Old Age and Death. By C. W. DE LACY EVANS, M.R.C.S. Price 5s.

    “A good account of the somatic changes which occur with the advance
    of age.”—_The Lancet._

    “This is a very ingenious and interesting book.”—_Chemist and
    Druggist._

  +Therapeutics.+ Modern Medical Therapeutics. A compendium of recent
  Formula and Specific Therapeutical directions, from the practice of
  eminent Contemporary Physicians, English, American, and Foreign. Edited
  by G. H. NAPHEYS, A.M., M.D. Seventh edition, price 18s.

    “No one who carefully peruses this work can feel surprised
    at the demand for it; edition after edition sells with great
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    “A summary of the best modes of treatment.”—_Practitioner._

    “The volume will supply what many practitioners are often anxious
    to possess for reference in the practice of their art.”—_Glasgow
    Medical Journal._

  +Therapeutics.+ Modern Surgical Therapeutics. A Compendium of the
  most recent Formulæ, and specific Therapeutical directions; from the
  Practice of eminent contemporary Physicians and Surgeons, English,
  American, and Foreign. Edited by G. H. NAPHEYS, A.M., M.D. Sixth
  edition, price 18s.

    “Of much value to the surgeon and general practitioner.”—_New York
    Medical Journal._

    “Invaluable to every practising physician.”—_New York Medical
    Record._

    “All that is in the book is good.”—_Philadelphia Medical Times._

  +Therapeutics.+ Aids to Rational Therapeutics, for the guidance of
  Practitioners and Senior Students. By J. MILNER FOTHERGILL, M.D. Price
  2s., paper wrapper; 2s. 6d., cloth.

  +Therapeutics.+ The Therapeutics of Gynæcology and Obstetrics,
  comprising the Medical, Dietetic and Hygienic Treatment of Diseases
  of Women as set forth by Contemporary Specialists. Edited by W. B.
  ATKINSON, A.M., M.D. Price 15s. (See Obstetrics.)

  +Throat.+ Movable Atlas of the Throat, and the Mechanism of Voice,
  Speech, and Taste. By Prof. WITKOWSKI. (See Anatomy.)

  +Throat.+ Diseases of the Throat. By MORELL MACKENZIE, M.D. (See
  chapters in Gant’s “Surgery.”)

  +Throat.+ The Throat and its Diseases. A Practical Guide to Diagnosis
  and Treatment. With 100 typical illustrations in chromo-lithography
  (seven colours) and 50 wood engravings, designed and executed by the
  Author, LENNOX BROWNE, F.R.C.S. Ed., Senior Surgeon to the Central
  London Throat and Ear Hospital, Surgeon and Aural Surgeon to the Royal
  Society of Musicians, etc. Second Edition, price 18s.

  +Throat.+ Affections of the Throat and Larynx. By ARTHUR TREHERN
  NORTON, F.R.C.S., Surgeon to St. Mary’s Hospital. Second edition,
  illustrated, price 6s.

    “Short, simple, and thoroughly practical instruction.”—_Medical
    Times._

  +Throat.+ Lessons in Laryngoscopy and Rhinoscopy: including the
  Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases of the Throat and Nose. Illustrated
  with hand-coloured plates and woodcuts. By PROSSER JAMES, M.D.,
  M.R.C.P., Lecturer on Materia Medica and Therapeutics at the London
  Hospital, Physician to the Hospital for Diseases of the Throat, etc.
  Third edition, price 5s. 6d.

  +Urine.+ The Urine. A Guide to its Practical Examination. By Prof.
  J. TYSON, M.D., Professor of Morbid Anatomy in the University
  of Pennsylvania, and President of the Pathological Society of
  Philadelphia. With numerous illustrations, price 5s.

  +Veterinary.+ A Text-book of Veterinary Obstetrics, including the
  diseases and accidents incidental to pregnancy, parturition, and early
  age in the Domesticated Animals. By GEORGE FLEMING, F.R.C.V.S., F.G.S.,
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    any other member of his profession could have done.”—_The Field._

    “No man who makes any pretensions to Veterinary Science or
    Stock-breeding can dispense with this work.”—_Live Stock Journal._

  +Veterinary.+ A Text-book of Veterinary Pathology and Practical
  Therapeutics. By the same Author. (In preparation.)

  +Veterinary.+ Animal Plagues, their History, Nature, and Treatment. By
  the same Author. Price 15s.

  +Veterinary.+ The Contagious Diseases of Animals: their influence on
  the wealth and health of the nation. Read before the Society of Arts.
  By the same Author. Price 6d.

  +Veterinary.+ A Manual of Veterinary Sanitary Science and Police,
  embracing the nature, causes, and symptoms of Diseases in Cattle, their
  prevention, treatment, etc. By the same Author. 2 vols., price 36s.

  +Veterinary.+ Practical Horse-Shoeing. By the same Author. Third
  edition, price 2s.

  +Veterinary.+ A Manual of Operative Veterinary Surgery. By the same
  Author. _Shortly._

  +Veterinary.+ The Principles and Practice of Veterinary Surgery;
  embracing the Surgical Pathology of all the Domesticated Animals.
  By WM. WILLIAMS, F.R.C.V.S., Principal and Professor of Veterinary
  Medicine and Surgery at the New Veterinary College, Edinburgh. With 140
  illustrations. Third edition, price 30s.

  +Veterinary.+ The Principles and Practice of Veterinary Medicine. By
  the same Author. Second edition, with plates, price 30s.

  +Veterinary.+ A Text-book on the Examination of Horses as to Soundness.
  A course of Lectures delivered at the Royal Veterinary College,
  Edinburgh. By Professor FEARNLEY. With an Appendix on the Law of Horses
  and Warranty. Illustrated, price 7s. 6d.

  +Veterinary.+ Lessons in Horse-Judging, with instructions on the
  Summering of Hunters. By the same Author. Illustrated, price 4s.

  +Veterinary.+ The Four Bovine Scourges: Pleuroneumonia, Foot and
  Mouth Disease, Cattle Plague, and Tubercle; with an Appendix on the
  Inspection of Live Animals and Meat. By THOS. WALLEY, Principal
  and Professor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, Edinburgh Royal
  Veterinary College. Price 16s.

  +Veterinary.+ The Management and Diseases of the Dog. By J. W. HILL,
  F.R.C.V.S. Copiously illustrated, price 10s. 6d.

  “Contains much valuable information.”—_The Field._

    “An excellent and complete manual.”—_The Standard._

  +Veterinary.+ Principles and Practice of Bovine Medicine and Surgery.
  By the same Author. Copiously illustrated. (In the Press.)

  +Veterinary.+ The Diseases of Live Stock, and their most Efficient
  Remedies; including Horses, Cattle, Sheep, and Swine: being a
  Popular Treatise, giving in brief and plain language a description
  of all the usual diseases to which these animals are liable, and
  the most successful treatment of English, American, and Continental
  Veterinarians. By LLOYD V. TELLOR, M.D., V.S. Price 10s. 6d.

  +Veterinary.+ Strangeway’s Veterinary Anatomy. Revised and Edited by J.
  VAUGHAN, F.L.S., F.Z.S. Second edition, price 24s.

  +Veterinary.+ Anatomical Outlines of the Horse. By J. A. MCBRIDE,
  Ph.D., M.R.C.V.S. Second edition. Revised and enlarged by T. WALTER
  MAYER, F.R.C.V.S., Examiner at the Royal Veterinary College.
  Illustrated, price 8s. 6d.

  +Veterinary.+ Horses: their Rational Treatment, and the Causes of their
  Premature Decay. By “Amateur.” Price 5s.

  +Veterinary.+ An Abridgment of the Above. By the same Author. Price 1s.

  +The Philosophy of Voice.+ Showing the right and wrong Action of the
  Breath and Vocal Cords in the Production of Articulate Speech and Song.
  By CHARLES LUNN. Fourth Edition. Price 1s. 6d.

  PERIODICAL PUBLICATIONS.

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  +The Student’s Journal and Hospital Gazette.+ A Fortnightly Review of
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  +The Veterinary Journal, and Annals of Comparative Pathology.+ Edited
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  Veterinary Surgeons. Monthly, price 1s. 6d.; 18s. per annum, prepaid.

  +The Analyst.+ The Official Organ of “The Society of Public Analysts.”
  The best Journal for Medical Officers of Health, Sanitarians, and those
  interested in the purity of Food, Drugs, &c., monthly. Price 6d. 5s.
  per annum, if paid in advance.

  +Quarterly Journal of Inebriety.+ Published under the auspices of The
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  +The Journal of Psychological Medicine and Mental Pathology.+ Edited
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  Diseases. Charing Cross Hospital. Half-yearly, April and October, price
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  +The Medical Register and Directory of the United States of America.+
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  Revue Scientifique de la France et de l’Etranger. Revue Politique et
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THE FOLLOWING VALUABLE SCIENTIFIC DICTIONARIES ARE IN COURSE OF
PUBLICATION IN FRENCH.

                                                                 £  s. d.
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End of Project Gutenberg's The History of Salt, by Evan Martlett Boddy

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