The history of salt

by Evan Marlett Boddy

This is another unanswerable argument in favour of a more general use of salt, quite sufficient to convince the most stubborn disbeliever; for here we have a parasite which may at any time be introduced into the stomach, let us be as careful as we may; capable of generating myriads in an almost incredible short space of time, and which it is next to impossible to effect the removal of; in the end causing much physical suffering, and producing symptoms liable to be mistaken for those of a dangerous disease; and finally disintegrating those muscles in the fibres of which they live, procreate, and gradually destroy the life of a human being.

The greatest triumph of engineering skill the world has ever seen, the St. Gothard railway tunnel, was the cause of a great sacrifice of life and health owing to a disease engendered by the presence of intestinal parasites, resembling the trichinæ; and we learn from Professor Calderini, of Parma, and Professors Bozzolo and Pagliani, of Turin, that from 70 to 80 per cent. of the miners suffered from this complaint, which they have designated anæmia ankylostoma. Among the men who worked in the tunnel for about one year 95 per cent. were more or less affected; they likewise discovered that those who are thus attacked never entirely recover. Many reasons for this enormous fatality have been assigned, such as the vitiated state of the atmosphere, the difficulty of ventilation, the continual explosions of dynamite, the consumption of which was 660 lb. per day, the smoke and smell from 400 to 500 oil-lamps, and the exhalations from the men and horses. There was an entire absence of sanitary appliances, and the temperature was generally between 80° and 95° Fahrenheit. These surroundings were quite sufficient to account for this great sacrifice of human life, not to mention other causes.

The diet of these men was probably insufficient and of inferior quality, and I dare say if more crucial inquiries were instituted we should find that these miners were as a rule inattentive to personal cleanliness, and that they never used salt at any of their meals; if this were so, and I cannot help thinking that my surmises are correct, we have one great cause all but sufficient for bringing about a condition of the system favourable for the development of anæmia ankylostoma.

The presence of these parasites in the intestines of the men who worked in the St. Gothard Tunnel has been proved beyond question by a careful and prolonged series of microscopic examinations by Dr. Giaccone, a physician in the employ of the contractors at Airolo. It is stated that Dr. Sonderreger, of St. Gall, who has been assisting Dr. Giaccone in his experiments, has discovered a process by which these parasites may be completely extirpated.

A pestiferous atmosphere is bad enough in itself, but when it is associated with impure diet—and food I maintain is impure if it is cooked and eaten without salt—we have a state of things which will prepare a soil where intestinal parasites will develop to a marvellous extent.

It is somewhat interesting to know that a similar disease is endemic in Egypt and Brazil, and that it arises from the presence of the ankylostoma in the intestines.

Poor diet no doubt is the real cause of this condition, and a great proportion of the inhabitants, as is well known, of these two countries subsist principally on food, not only non-nutritious, but impure in the extreme, which being coupled with the fact of habitual abstention from salt, brings about, as I have said before, a condition of things very favourable for the reception, generation, and development of parasitical organisms.

The outbreak which occurred in the St. Gothard tunnel originated from the impurity of the food with which the workmen were supplied, and the absence of salt, could we but fathom the real truth of the matter, though we must not lose sight of the fact that the surroundings were every way calculated to facilitate the growth of disease.

The medicinal properties of mineral waters are of great value in some conditions of the system, especially those resulting from high living and when associated with habitual indulgence in those alcoholic beverages which tend to cause congestion of the liver. These people are not what one would designate as intemperate, but whose partial physical prostration and irregularity of the secretions have been brought about by luxurious living and the unnecessary use of stimulants, combined with unhealthful indolence, and other pernicious habits, which are considered to be of the highest importance by those unhappy votaries of fashion.

Thousands of patients, and many who fancy that they are such, flock to those localities which are famous for their mineral waters; thousands go and thousands return, some better, some worse, and some in the same state of health as when they started: all declare that they are better for their trip, and it may be only a few are acquainted with the constituents of the water they have been drinking; many, if they knew that they are all derived from rock-salt, and that the other constituents to which their curative powers are ascribed are only added as the brine ascends to the surface, would be not a little amazed at their inconsistencies: to refuse to eat salt at meal-time because it is supposed to be deleterious, and then to drink, it may be, tumblerfuls of the solution, is somewhat curious.