IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND APPLICATION OF SALT STONES OR LUMPS OF SALT FOR CONSUMPTION BY CATTLE, SHEEP, AND OTHER ANIMALS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Gedge at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 27th October 1868.-A communication from abroad by
Charles Louis Weisgerber, Gentleman, and Eusèbe Schilt, Veterinary
Surgeon, both of 37, Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle, Paris, France.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD GEDGE, of the Firm of John Gedge and Son,
of No. 11, Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND APPLICATION OF SALT STONES OR LUMPS OF SALT
FOR CONSUMPTION BY CATTLE, SHEEP, AND OTHER ANIMALS," a communication to
me from abroad by Charles Louis Weisgerber, Gentleman, and Eusèbe
Schilt, Veterinary Surgeon, both of 37, Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle, Paris,
France, to be as follows:-
Salt is one of the most necessary elements to animal life, indispensable
for digestion and the fermentation of the juices. It plays a pre-
ponderating part in every organism, and forms alone 60 per cent. of the
solid substances contained in the blood. All the secretions, such as
sweat, saliva, or urine contain a greater or lesser proportion of salt.
During digestion it increases the secretion of gastric juice, keeps the blood
in a liquid state, and prevents its coagulating.

page_text: It has been remarked by attentive observers that animals grazing in
places where saline substances abounded, as on sea coasts, became
handsomer, stronger, and yielded more milk, and were less subject to
diseases than those debarred therefrom.
The advantages which are obtained by the use of salt are for beasts,
ovine, bovine, and equine, a better appetite, a better digestion, an
improved quality and increased supply of milk, horns, hoofs, and coat
fine and glossy, the skin more supple, the manure of better quality, and
the preservation of excellent health. It also produces an excellent
effect upon sheep, lessening the great mortality to which they are
always subject, the animals appearing young again, and their wool
acquiring an exceeding fineness. Wherever this salt has been used for
animals intended for butchers' meat the flesh has been found more
succulent and becomes very white, an evident sign of health. By its
use many epidemics are escaped, and old beasts generally are re-
invigorated.
The mode of manufacturing these "salignons" or salt stones or cakes
is as follows: The crystals of sal gemma, a mineral salt, are first broken
'or powdered into picces small enough to pass between two cylinders
which reduce them to powder. A certain quantity of water is then mixed
with this pulverized salt and it is put into wooden moulds, in which, by
means of a powerful pressure, all the molecules are reunited. The drying
then takes place, and by the rapid evaporation of the water the salt
crystallizes, and thus regains nearly all the hardness it possessed before
the operation.
The mode of using these "salignons" or salt cakes is as follows:-A
small wooden box is made, into which the salt stone-fits tightly or is
otherwise secured; this box is then nailed or screwed between the rack
and the manger, giving it a horizontal position for horned beasts and a
vertical one for horses, as being that in which these animals may most
readily lick the salt.
A rectangular shape is given to these salt stones, cakes, or "saligons,"
the dimensions varving at pleasure.