PASS THE SALT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 60, 3 June 1942, Page 5

PASS THE SALT

Common salt, generally regarded as merely a seasoning for foods, lias played: an important part in history, and, indeed, the lack of it was actually one of the causes of Napoleon's failure before Moscow. Loss of aalt supply was responsible for the deaths of thousands of French soldiers in the campaign. Lacking sufficient salt in their diet, their wounds refused to heal and their systems were unable to repel disease.

The value of salt for armies was known as: far back as the time of the Roman legions. "Salarium Argentum," the Roman soldier's salt allowance, is the origin of the English word, "salary." Salt, or sodium chloridc, however, ranks high among all the salts in the human body, both in quantity and in its value to the body's nutrition. It was once supposed: that salt increased blood pressure, but this has recently been proved untrue. Salt should not be considered simply as a seasoning, and the craving for salt is not at all like the craving for non-essentials. Salt is necessary l to make gastric juice. Without gastric juice there could be no digestion or nutrition. About six pounds of table and cooking suit are needed annually by: every person, according to medical science, i It is this need which causes a craving for salt. In some sections salt is blasted out, just as coal is mined, and brought to the surface in hoists. This so-called "rock salt" is usually quite impure. When a pure, cdiblei salt is desired, it is brought to the surface in the form of brine. Tills: is done by piping pure water down in the salt bed, allowing it to dissolve as much salt as possible, and: then pumping it to the surface again. The final improvement in the method of procuring salt by evaporation came in the vacuum-pan process. This method made possible the production of a very pure salt of line lustre and close, ever grain. The vacuum process was first introduced in 1 SS(), and this same process, with many improvements, j.s being used to-day.