The weekly Shasta courier. [volume] (Shasta, Calif.) 1872-190?, 1873-06-28
About Salt.

age, from fourteen to twenty pounds OF
= salt per year. A few years ago would
be philosopher propounded and jealous
ly defended the theory that salt is a
slow poison, and that it should not be
eaten. Total abstinence from salt
meats and fish, and from salt in every
form he maintained, would restore the
race to longevity. He even limited
that it might bring back mankind to
their paradisaical condition, but this
g even his most ardent disciples took cum
grano sails. When told that the Great
Teacher said 'salt is good, he explain
ed by saying that salt is good for some
things, but not to be eaten.
Were this theory correct very gre t
saving to the world might be effected,
Nss&s "a for whether the need Of salt be a de-
% fusion or not, mankind consume annual
Ell ly seven millions of tons. If the food
~ s of man and beast did not need to be
"a sailed, the people of many countrif s
might laugh to scorn the Uectigal sati,s-
gS9is1E ar1um, or salt tax, which from ancient
times till the present has been favor
lite instrument of oppression Medical
authorities affirm the abstinence from
salt is likely to end in blindness The
fountain of tears, when its supply is
not needed, for the expression of grief,
is intended wash for the eye, and
and what would tears be without salt ?
We can afford to pay tax upon salt
rather than have good cry.
Whence came such quantities of salt
in the crust of the earth, and far
40 ss@~-'.-beneath its surfaces Its presence must
be accounted for in the same way as
we account for the springs at Salina and
wgoqkr u Syracuse, which contain so much salt
in solution that it takes nearly ten times
'14' 'n@' much sea-water to produce given
asfs..s quantity of salt water obtained by
boring at these springs. We account
for salt in geological formations of the
earth by the fact that the shallow basins
into which the water OF the was
from time to time admitted were grad
ually filled with salt by evaporation,
and tie slow subsistence of the basin
or fiat, through vast periods of time,
- would secure the deposit of thick beds
of saline matter The salt formation of
New York belongs to the Upper Salu-
rian period, that of England to the
Ooltic, and that of the continent to the
Trias.
.y...- ., Then follows the question. whence
the sadness of the ocean, This is one
of the puzzling questions OF science.
1t comes from beds of salt at the bot
tom OF the ocean, some say. This can
not be proved, nor is it probable. All
the dry land was the bottom of
s@ta it the sea, and no beds of salt occur which
.r+ssE were not themselves deposited by the
1t is not easy for to
sign cause which he locates at the
'- bottom of the ocean, for philosoph-
,stss7 S. to affirm that the sea and air of the
moon have all retreated to its farthest
side, which never see. Anoth-
er explanation of the sadness of the
t. .....- ocean, is the salt which fresh water
streams ever carrying thither from
soils and disintegrated rocks. The
PLANTATION fails, for these soils and rocks
are themselves ocean-made This is
like the little boy answer to the ques-
ton, What the sadness of the
ocean = the codfsh-for it substitutes
'---a an effect for a cause. Thereason which
others have given that the
z.,-ss- originally created in salt state, is not
far from correct; for who does not see
that in the stage of the earth's progress
when, as it gradually cooled, such sub
stances as chlorine, sodium. and oxy-
gen could freely combine, and the salt
thus formed would naturally become
mixed with the water which then envel-
oped the world either as vapor or as a
g universal sea? Why does the sea con-
tain three and half per cent. of COM
salt? As-well ask why the atmos-
phere is composed of three gases, in
MOI the proportions in which find them
Our Monthly.