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.