The history of salt

by Evan Marlett Boddy

As all mineral waters originate from rock-salt, and as they all owe their other constituents to superincumbent strata, it would not be unreasonable to suggest that the chloride of sodium is, prima facie, their principal ingredient, and that their beneficial effects are to a certain extent due to it, more than to the presence of those from which their names are derived; though of course there is no denying the fact that some mineral waters are more suitable for some constitutions than others.

One would not advise individuals of plethoric habits to drink those waters which are termed chalybeate, nor those whose kidneys are affected to drink acidulous or carbonated waters; we should recommend quite the reverse.

Mineral waters have a somewhat evanescent popularity; one is rapidly succeeded by another: one that was highly eulogised is now neglected, and those which are now in favour will be, in all probability, discarded in a few years. At the present time there are many, though not a few holding a very precarious position in public estimation.

Glauber’s Salt Waters, as the name indicates, owe their medicinal properties to the presence of the sulphate of soda, chloride of sodium, and other salts. They are more nauseous than Epsom salts, and slightly more irritating; the first may depend upon the condition of the palate, the other on the weakness or obstinacy of the alimentary canal. These waters contain saline aperients which exercise no little influence on the change of tissue; a result which should make them find great favour with patients who wish to diminish their bulk without affecting their muscles.

These waters contain the chloride of sodium, the presence of which is, in my opinion, of more benefit than all the other salts put together, and which, if absent, would deprive the waters of their efficacy, or at least effect such modifications as would render them practically of but little use.

All these mineral waters come from brine-springs, and whether they are called chalybeate, carbonated, saline, or hepatic waters, whether they come from Spa or Tunbridge Wells, from Carlsbad or Ilkestone, from Püllna or Cheltenham, Buxton, Friedrichshall, Droitwich, or Wiesbaden, their common origin is rock-salt, and to that mineral alone their virtues are principally due; the iron, magnesia, lime, and the other salts which they collect on their upward course are merely accessories, and are more useful to the proprietors than to the credulous recipients. They are purged freely, they are dieted carefully, and the blood is purified, and the result is of course beneficial; they could do the same at home, but then a weak solution of salt and magnesia or iron looks very homely when put side by side with some Carlsbad[56] or Friedrichshall waters: there is a great deal in a name, and the more nauseous a compound is the greater are its medicinal virtues; so think some.

In all fevers, whether epidemic, endemic, or sporadic, the blood is thicker than ordinary, by reason of an increase of the fibrine and a decrease of the chloride of sodium; because the fibrine, which always has a tendency to coagulate, is not kept in check by the solvent properties of the chloride of sodium; this alone accounts for their partiality for salt.

In rheumatic fever the blood is even thicker than it is in other fevers; in acute rheumatism the patient is generally bathed in profuse perspiration night and day, and the sweat contains a good deal of lactic acid. The acid in the gastric juice is supposed by some physiologists to be lactic acid, whilst others affirm that it is hydrochloric acid; there is, however, such a similitude that one acid is barely distinguishable from the other. The blood in this fever therefore loses much more salt than in other febrile conditions, which explains the acute pain in the joints and the desire the patient has for salt. Blood in a thickened condition cannot pass through the blood vessels near joints without giving much pain, owing to the unyielding nature of the parts; and the fibrine also has a tendency to stagnate if the blood does not flow as it should.

In some cases of sickness, when not accompanied with vomiting, half a teaspoonful of salt in a little water is sometimes most effective. Whenever there is a feeling of nausea the stomach is relaxed, there is the usual amount of the gastric juice, but it is deficient of the hydrochloric acid; therefore a small solution of salt takes the place really of the acid, and the sickness is relieved, it likewise supplies the chloride of sodium, which has been abstracted from the gastric fluid.

In violent attacks of colic, if there is no other remedy at hand, a teaspoonful of salt in a pint of cold water, which the patient may sip, is most speedy in relieving the sufferer. The same will also relieve a person who has had a heavy fall and is partly unconscious.