THE HISTORY OF SALT; _WITH OBSERVATIONS_ ON ITS GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION, GEOLOGICAL FORMATION, AND MEDICINAL AND DIETETIC PROPERTIES. BY EVAN MARLETT BODDY, F.R.C.S., F.S.S., LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY; ETC., ETC., ETC. “Salt is good.” [Illustration] LONDON: BAILLIÈRE, TINDALL, AND COX, 20, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND. 1881. [_All Rights Reserved._] To WILLIAM BARNARD BODDY ESQ., _Formerly R.N., SURGEON_; THIS TREATISE IS Affectionately Dedicated BY HIS SON, EVAN MARLETT BODDY CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION 7 II. HISTORY OF SALT 9 III. SALT AS A CHEMICAL, THERAPEUTICAL, AND TOXICOLOGICAL AGENT 25 IV. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 29 V. GEOLOGICAL FORMATION OF SALT 42 VI. EFFECTS ON ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE 53 VII. MEDICINAL AND DIETETIC PROPERTIES 61 VIII. PHYSIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES 87 IX. CONCLUSION 92 APPENDIX 94 THE HISTORY OF SALT. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. How frequently it happens that those natural productions with which we are to a certain extent superficially familiar, are to a great many not only uninteresting, but are regarded as subjects more or less beneath their notice; and by others as deleterious to the human race, and therefore to be cautiously used or scrupulously avoided. Another peculiarity is, that the more we are accustomed to them, the more our interest wanes, and probably at last degenerates into apathetic indifference. We can only attribute these ignorant conceits and apparently unaccountable obliquity of judgment to two causes: an assumption of wisdom, and an unenlightened mind, unwilling to learn and loath to improve. Another hindrance which to a considerable extent precludes the study of what one may truthfully designate every-day subjects, is the restless _furor_ for artful counterfeits of science, which are nothing else than the emanations of vain and visionary minds mixing together, as it were, an amalgam of truth and error. The present age is wonderfully productive of these eccentric ideas, while at the same time it is unhappily pregnant with the most unnatural and anti-healthful habits. The mystified authors take good care to run into the wildest extremes, so that their marvellous schemes and quaint devices (fortunately for their fellow-creatures) cause them to be justly derided by the thoughtful and disregarded by the sensible, though not a few are caught by the tinsel.