Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-01-09
SALT FOR Mich COWS.
oossity. Not Only For Them, But All
o+hor Farm Animals.

r Not Only For Them, But All
other Farm Animals.
correspondent denounces the pop
.,,or notion that salt is necessary to
%ho health of the animal system, and
vines that salt is an irritant and
@oison; that "without it a weil-de-
fa>loped case of neuralgia or rheuma-
,:.m can not be produced and that
Sundreds of people in the United States
are living without salt and enjoying
Good health. He says it goes into the
Stem as salt and remains salt until it
- eliminated through the skin and
I,;dnevs, when it is discharged as salt,
MD he argues from this and from the
s'nt that very little of it is found in the
nycrcment. that it performs no sort of
,,sof,l function in the animal economy.
This man is evidently a crank, with
.,ly a smattering of information on
thr subject which he writes about. We
nnce owned q copy of a book written
10 prove that men at present might
Two TO be hundreds of years old, if they
wore careful to avoid mineral matters
:, their food, the chief source of which
salt, Yet it is a fact, demonstrated,
.Fh,t animal life can not be sustained
without the presence of the mineral
,s,l,s. the chief of which is chloride of
,odium-common salt. Let us con-
s;dor q few points which he makes and
+. There is litt}e or no salt voidcd in
+ho oycrcment. This he considers evil
1cncc of its usclessness. On the con-
trary. it is evidence that it is not re-
ticcted as worthless, but is taken up bv
.the absorbent vessels and goes into the
general circulation.
-. 1t is voided in the urine as salt.
IT also remains in the serum of the
blood as salt. But this is no evidence
of its usclcssness. On the contrary, it
remains a constant quantity in the
s,lood. whether much or little is eaten,
the surplus going off in the urine and
perspirations. Starving animals do
not eycretc salt, but retain it in the
blood. In some diseases salt is not
cycreted. but MISUNDERSTANDING for
use. Good authorities say that where
1t is retained, for want of a fresh sup
DIV, it is used over and over again
.lecomposed and its ingredients COM
rbincd with others to make salts, these,
in turn decomposing and their elements
uniting again to form common salt, as
khe one or the other is needed by the
system.
3. 1t is as%certained that salt draws
water from other parts of the system
and thus supplies the requisite amount
TO the blood, in the serum of which salt
lis in constant quantity, but not in the
,corpusclcs which float in the serum. 1t
also, by decomposition, furnishes the
chlorine for the hydro-chloric acid in
the stomach which plays so important a
part in digestion. 1t retards the coagu-
1ation of ibrin, and aids in the oxyda-
zion of the blood. Salt is a great, if not
IA neccssary, aid in digesting caseine and
'albumen. 1t destroys some kinds of
parasitic worms-notby their eating it,
but by their coming in contact with it.
4. 1t is asserted that there can be no
neuralgia or rheumatism without salt.
He might about as well have said these
diseases can not exist where there is no
life. 1t would be impossible to find an
animal organism that is destitute of salt.
w Va W pllfS " oSlluS ~ WOUlO DC1lS1.
If salt is in anyway the cause of neu-
lralgia and rheumatism, the fact re-
rlains to be proved, and no one whose
Judgment is of any value would make
such an assertion without the proof.
.. We are told that hundreds of peo-
pie are living without salt. This is an
'mpossibility, as no one can live without
food, and no one a eat food without
getting some amount of salt with it..
Salt Is present everywhere in organic
nature. So are the elements of salt,
which can unite and form salt in the
ANIMAL system as well as out f it. Once
ut was thought that vegetable organisms
>uld exist without soda; but with the
invention OF more delicate instruments,
no one has since been able to find veg
etable life without the presence of
soda. But since nature is SO careful to
retain a fixed amount of salt in the
blood, it may be that some people
maintain health without the addition
OF salt to their food. Yet they do not
live without salt.
b: Experiments have shown that cat
gle kept without feeding them salt had
rough hides, ragged coats and a sickly
look, while others kept in the same
way, but fed salt, looked sleek and
bright; and it is we'll known that wild
ANIMALS Ego long distances and take
great risks to get salt, SO strong is the
ANIMAL instinct, which seldom errs. 1t
Is an irritant, like other things, when
taken in excess.
A French commission, after thor
oosh investigation. recommended for
.the animals named the amounts of salt
mere named:
ruo- Ounces.
;EEoIklng OK or mich cow............2
Tattening stall-fed 2s1 to AZ
fattening to2
HORSE, donkey OF
Farmer and Dairuman.