Year: 1873

Common salt, common though 1t De, IS one
of the most curious and interesting of substan-
ces. 1t consists of solid and a gas. The
solid is shining metal with such powerful
chemical affinity that it decomposes water
with violence, taking fire in the operation;
and this is combined with an aerial, corrosive,
sufocating, poisonous gas, equally violent in
its chemical energy. These two elements COM
bine with enormous force. Thus twenty -four
parts by measure of common salt contain about
twenty.six of metallic sodium, and thirty by
measure of liquid chlorine. Yet the space
occupied by the whole is less than that of the
metal alone. No known mechanical force
could have produced so great condensation,
and yet chemical energy does it, and at the
same time yields bland and savory substance,
which crystallizes in cubes more transparent
than glass.


This substance is equally remarkable for
its wide dif fusion in nature and its intimate
relation to universal human instincts. 1t
abounds in nature both in liquid and solid
state. Every gallon of sea-water contains
about four ounces of it. Should it rise to the
surface and separate, it would form an icy
layer over all the acres of the world 140 feet
thick on the average. The New York springs
alone furnish six or eight million bushels of it
annually, while one salt bed in Poland is 800
miles long, 20 broad, and 1900 feet thick.


It's physiological Offices seem as important
rs its distribution is extensive. 1t is large
constituent of every one of the secretions, and
forms almost half the total weight of the sa-
line matter of the blood. 1t differs from the
phosphate salts however in this, that it does
not enter into the composition of the tissues.
It seems rather to be the medium Of absorp-
tion and secretion, and SO necessary is it for
these and probably other purposes that it is not
possible to alter to aLy large extent its pro-
portion in the blood. It results from many
experiments, that if we drink water with
little common salt in solution, it does not per-
manently dilute the blood, but passes OFT lp-
mediately by the Kidneys; and if we try to
increase the amount in the blood by drinking
solutions of salt, as sea-water, it refuses to be
absorbed. Hence the normal proportion Of
it in the blood is without doubt physiologi-
cal necessity, and is clearly involved with the
essential processes of absorption and diffusion.
1t is an interesting fact that common salt "has
the faculty of forming crystallizable COM
pounds with most of the unorganized efete
constituents of the body" 1t thus becomes an
active medium Of transference and secretion
and absorptive change. AS albumen and f.
brine, which are colloidal substances, cannot
pass through the walls of the intestines and
blood-vessels, it is highly probable that,
through the agency of common salt and the
free acids of the gastric and muscular juices,
they temporarily take on crystalloid condi-
tion, and are thus enabled to pass the mem.
branes.


We need not be surprised that substance
involving so deeply the processes Of life
should be highly priced by all tribes of men,
and even have its sacred significance and his
tory. DR.. Letheby says "Animals, in fact,
will travel long distances and brave the great
est dangers to obtain it. Men will barter gold
for it; indeed, among the Gallas and on the
coast of Sierra Leone, brothers will sell their
sisters, husbands their wives, and parents their
children, for salt In the district of Accra,
on the Gold Coast of Africa, a handful Of salt
is the most valuable thing upon earth after
gold, and will purchase slave or two. Mum
90 Park tells US that with the Mandingoes
and Bambaras the use Of salt is such luxury
that to say of man that he havors his food
with salt, is to imply that he is rich; and
children will suck piece of rock salt as if it
were sugar. No stronger mark of respect or
affection can be shown in Muscovy than the
sending of salt from the tables Of the rich to
their poorer friends. In point Of fact, the
value of salt in dietetcal and sanitary point
of view has been recognized from the earliest
time. In the book Of Leviticus it is express
ly commanded as one of the ordinances of
Moses, that every oblation of meat upon the
altar shall be seasoned with salt, without lack
ing; and hence it is called the salt Of the COW
enant of God. The Greeks and Romans also
used salt in their sacri6cial cakes and it is
still used in the services of the Latin Church,
the parpa mica, or pinch of salt, being, in the
ceremony of baptism, put into the child's
mouth, while the priest says, Receive the salt
of wisdom, and may it be Precipitation to
thee for eternal life Everywhere, and al
most always indeed, it has been regarded as
emblematical of wisdom, wit and Immortality
To taste of mans salt was to be bound by
the rites of hospitality and no oath was more
solemn than that which was sworn on bread
and salt. To sprinkle the meat with salt was
to drive away the devil, for in the quaint Ian
guage of an old divine, "He loveth no salt on
his meat, for that is sign of immutability !"
and to this day nothing ismore unlucky than
to spill the salt.


ORIGIN OF FAMILIAR WORDS.


The father of the great orator and states
man, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, when lessee