Salt appears to be a necessary and universal stimulus to animated
beings; and its effects upon the vegetable as well as animal kingdom
have furnished objects of the most interesting inquiry to the
physiologist, the chemist, the physician, and the agriculturist. It
appears to be a natural stimulant to the digestive organs of all
warm-blooded animals, and that they are instinctively led to immense
distances in pursuit of it. This is strikingly exemplified in the
avidity with which animals in a wild state seek the salt-pans of
Africa and America, and in the difficulties they will encounter to
reach them: this cannot arise from accident or caprice, but from a
powerful instinct, which, beyond control, compels them to seek, at all
risks, that which is salubrious. To those who are anxious to gain
further information upon this curious subject, I would recommend the
perusal of a work entitled "_Thoughts on the Laws relating to Salt_,"
by Samuel Parkes, Esq., and a small volume by my late lamented friend
Sir Thomas Bernard, on the "_Case of the Salt Duties, with Proofs and
Illustrations_." We are all sensible of the effect of salt on the
human body; we know how unpalatable fresh meat and vegetables are
without it. During the course of my professional practice, I have had
frequent opportunities of witnessing the evils which have attended an
abstinance from salt. In my examination before a committee of the
House of Commons in 1818, appointed for the purpose of inquiring into
the laws respecting the salt duties, I stated, from my own experience,
the bad effects of a diet of unsalted fish, and the injury which the
poorer classes, in many districts, sustained in their health from an
inability to procure this essential condiment. I had some years ago a
gentleman of rank and fortune under my care, for a deranged state of
the digestive organs, accompanied with extreme emaciation. I found
that, from some cause which he could not explain, he had never eaten
any salt with his meals: I enforced the necessity of his taking it in
moderate quantities, and the recovery of his digestive powers was soon
evinced in the increase of his strength and condition. One of the ill
effects produced by an unsalted diet is the generation of worms. Mr.
Marshall has published the case of a lady who had a natural antipathy
to salt, and was in consequence most dreadfully infested with worms
during the whole of her life.--(_London Medical and Physical Journal_,
vol. xxix. No. 231.) In Ireland, where, from the bad quality of the
food, the lower classes are greatly infested with worms, a draught of
salt and water is a popular and efficacious anthelmintic. Lord
Somerville, in his Address to the Board of Agriculture, gave an
interesting account of the effects of a punishment which formerly
existed in Holland. "The ancient laws of the country 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." The wholesomeness and
digestibility of our bread are undoubtedly much promoted by the
addition of salt which it so universally receives.
_Dr. Paris--quoted in the Doctor._
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