Year: 1875

A writer in Tie Country GenHeHlna
says: Much interest has lately been
manifested ON the highest authority,
m9nifestOes have be- n proclaimed
that man could not live without salt
tnat many who refuse tn Use il OF food
! that contained it hai died victims to
their absurd notiOus. Equally good
authority insists that while it will
kill some animals, other vii lot
thrive without it, while still Others
contend that eating il is a useless
habit, done to please the sense of taste.
know how utterly useless it il to
argue the question yet I am i'm
PEELED to ask Of what possible use any
stimulznt can be aud especially salt,
10 build upon and sustain the system.
| No one will claim any nOu-ishment
from salt, for it is neither more nor
less than 8 mineral poison in large
quantities, in concentrated form,
when taken into the stOms sch, it will
produce infiam nation and death in
small quantities it is called a s.inu-
lant And really what is a stimu-
liant? The medical dictionary says it
is an irritant, and we do not need
medical authority to prove it.


Food gives strength stinulants ir-
ritate, and also cause resistance to
the system, which exhausts until the
last spark Of vitality Is gone. Insult
ing a man, or making him angry,
will excite the same force or action
tnat q stimulant does. Anger pro
vokes the will, and the nervous sys-
tenn is melted action, while q stimu-
lant viii produce the same action by
actual contact with the nerve. Meth
er gives both exhaust. The idea
that salt is a necessity with our food
has been handed down without
thought OF its absurdity. II il well
known that there are tribes Of men in
Central Africa, South Americs and
among the Northern Indians, that
never heard of salt and better sDeci-
mems OF physical manhood cannot be
shown. This alone should settle the
question. But it has been and can be
demonstrated by actual experiment
that both man and beast are at least
as well without. A scientific man of
high authority, not long since, said,
in daily journal, that "the quantity
Of salt that cOw requires varies with
the feed she uses and the qusntity of
milk she gives corn meal requires
much more than wheat or rye bran.
An insufficient supply of salt affects
unfavOrably the quality and quantity
of milk, and that immediately"


Now, the reason Is simply that salt
being poison, or, as elasse !, a stimu-
liant, irritStes the stomach and pro-
ducss heat and thirst, and a sensa-
ton silimar t. hunger is the result, |
and the COW will drink mora water |
and eat more food than she otherwise
would, and for a given time will give |
more milk. But for the entire year
the COW will give more milk and be |
in q better condition every way, |
without salt. This is not guess-work, |
but the result Of experiment during |
The whole year. Any One can find by |
fair, impartial trial just how much |
humbug there is in this much dis
cussed question.


Now, do not war against the nse |
of salt, but the claim for its use yet |
there is no question that for perfect |
health, with proper habits, the less |
used the better; aud there is no |
doubt that many chronic complaints |
in the human family would yield to |
hygienic treatment without salt that |
would not with. But il the cupidity |
of a man demands it. salt given to a |
fattening animal Will, by producing |
an unatural appetite, put on more fat |
In given time than without, but al |
ways at the expense Of the health of |
the animal /; for it must he remem-
bered that increase of fat by forced |
feeding beyond the normal condition
is disease.


But the world moves, and the time |
is not far distant when even medical |
men must see that anything that will |
destroy life according to its potency |
cannot give strength to lengthen it
out.


would not be too progressive, but |
are not professional men too conser- |
vative, or under the influence of old
fOgyism-old theories that will not
stand the light of Investigation q
What enhancing elOquence and weak
arguments have been used of late by
eminent men to sustain the exploded
idea that whisky is food, or in some
mysterious wav takes the place Of or
saves food Yet it ia gratifying to |
know that there are eminent men in |
the medical profession who are free tn |
admit that a stimulant Will not add |





vitality, but that its only Office |
in the sytem is to irritate the
nerves to action--like the wash |
Of water in the face, of a fainting |
person /; but it must be remembered |
tthS while the stimulant, like water,
starts the nervous system, yet, unlike |
the water, the stimulant leaves sting
behind in the shape of poisoned, weak
nnnH chntfarah - -
present day, with our cookbook diree-
tions for preparing food, and our hab-
its of prOmiscuOus indulgence Of our
unnatural, transmitted and perverted
appetites, the use Of salt may be the
least of many evils. But to claim
that with the observance Of the laws
life, salt is a necessity with the food
for man or beast with all the infoF-
nation that may be had on the sub
ject), is too much for even cOnserva-
five men to advocate.