In some other morbid conditions, which we have already noticed, the blood becomes thinner and poorer; and consequently the system degenerates, and we get an anæmic, or chlorotic tendency, especially if there is a scrofulous diathesis. There are other blood diseases, as the reader may suppose, and which are more truly such, than those to which I have just alluded, into the phenomena of which it is not necessary to enter.
In health what a decided difference! the specific gravity of the blood is uniformly equable;[58] it circulates with comparative ease; and the whole system is permeated with the life-giving and health-preserving chloride of sodium, and the coagulation of the fibrine is prevented by nothing else but that mineral and inorganic substance—salt, which at the same time purifies and maintains the equalisation of the constituents of the blood. By it also the hydrochloric acid is supplied to the stomach, enabling that organ to perform its functions of digestion in accordance with the laws of health; and it likewise furnishes the alkaline phosphate “whose presence in the blood appears to serve the most important purpose in the respiratory process.”
What stronger evidence do we require to prove the salutary efficacy of salt? No wonder that it is so frequently reverted to in Holy Writ; neither can it be a source of surprise that it has been so carefully cherished and extensively utilised from time immemorial. What is to be regarded as an extraordinary anomaly is that there are not a few who are entire strangers to its virtues, and who prefer impurity and defilement to the luxury of health and cleanliness.
Those who desire more conclusive proof of the utility of salt, of its necessity in the animal economy, and of the peculiar morbid phenomena to which its absence in the system gives rise, I would refer to two articles which appeared at different times in the Medical Press and Circular, and in the Medical Times and Gazette.[59] The cases I there mention occurred in different localities, and they demonstrate incontestably that parasites, especially the lumbrici (the tæniæ are well known to infest adults of impure habit), are sometimes the origin of strange and incomprehensible symptoms of a deceptive character, rendering diagnosis extremely difficult and unsatisfactory, and frequently endangering the lives of the sufferers. Is it not a blessing to know that nature has munificently provided a means whereby these distressing evils may be checked and definitely eradicated by a daily use of such an enemy to, and destroyer of, disease as the chloride of sodium, universally known as common salt?
[CHAPTER IX.]
CONCLUSION.
It is invariably a relief when one’s task is completed, and more so when it is self-imposed. Putting our thoughts and opinions upon paper for others to peruse and to criticise, is pleasure combined with not a little anxiety; for one cannot with any degree of certainty predict what kind of reception one’s efforts may have from the public, who are frequently led to a choice of books on the recommendation of critics and reviewers; so that an unknown author is placed at a great disadvantage, and at the mercy of those who may laud a book to the skies if they please, satirically criticise another, and pass over a third with a sarcastic smile or a significant shrug of the shoulders. I am afraid that my little volume will unfortunately be found amongst the latter, but I candidly acknowledge that I hope it will be regarded as belonging to the first, or at least to the second.
As I have simply written it in order to point out the virtues of an aliment of the greatest interest in whatever light we may look at it, I trust that if I have not instructed, I have at any rate afforded pleasure to those who have thought it worth their while to glance over its pages; and I shall be quite contented if they have derived as much satisfaction in reading, as I have experienced in writing it.
I have tried to impress upon the reader the advisability, and indeed the necessity, of using the bountiful gifts of nature in a manner consistent with common sense, and not to follow blindly and credulously the whims and conceits of others, but to regard their frantic efforts to indoctrinate the thoughtless, with that dispassionate indifference which is the sign of philosophical complacency and superiority. Lucretius says truly that “nothing is more delightful than to occupy the elevated temples of the wise, well fortified by tranquil learning, whence you may look down upon others and see them straying in every direction, and wandering in search of the path of life.”