Science. Salt.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1845, 3 May 1884, Page 5 (Supplement)

Science. Salt.

It is, perhaps, a truism to assert that the heirs of the scientific results of former ages do not always " take "in a direct live. AH knowledge necessarily owes much to collateral branches of tho great family tree, and its advance has. been oftener made by lonely by-ways than by any " royal road." Science, indeed — or at least that rather ambiguous phase of it which, is now known as " popular " — has so filtered into the scheme of a modern scholastic course that we have jiirenile professoi'3 at every breakfast babie, able and willing to instruct their elders upon the chemistry of the teapot and tke , quartern loaf. '

I.'"", the el irv» l!,rai fives, however, hw .' boon of kte y«ar« evolved u class anxious t© " go b:*c!> "upon the iiq,6 of their iiriwsitorJjf ~i The cnviablo simplicity of primitive &}sgfi*\'. tliG ideal whHi thcfpp?r« -"'• before them^" ' and this particular orotchec Jias already developod into several minor whimsies of more or ]e33 atrcngth a-nd significance. The teetotallers, of course, regard themselves as far im advance of any geoVfhaE could proptrly bo comprised in such a deocriptien ; but they have kindred in the vegetarians, the antitobacconisii, and the crtsaders against every denomination of iport; and it would seem that a new division of amiable enthusiasts are now prepared to do battle against tho use of salt a* ap article of diet, and are proposing to themselves and to their neighbours t© abstain from it henceforth. The probable stumbling-block in the way of this new profession will b* tiie difficulty of finding " awful examples." The history and. the science of salt point? convincingly to its almost universal use, and to the benefits which hare as universally resulted from it. Pliny, indeed, goes so far as to say that human nature cannot Mist without salt, whith i» so much an el«merXfc of life that, passing from bodily sensation, lit became from a Tory remote antiquity a metaphorical term for the pleasures of the mimi. Salt is agreeable to the palate, nnd is therefore transferred t© the mental taste. Ifr is synonymous with whatever presents itself *^k piquant, Utolj, or agreeable to our nianUfw faculties. Its symbolical significances is, indeed, almost co-exteosive with its practical use. By tha Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans it was held in such Tenoration tliat it formed an integral part of their sacrificial ceremoni&s, while the almost superstitious regard paid t% \ tho act of setting salt before a stranger b&4i \ oven a wider meaning, and is still regarded a« ~ the enactment of an inviolable pledge by nearly every Eastern nation. In thi* sense salt was tho silent expression of the ntea of hospitality, in which the common instincts of mankind had ever discovered a pecuKau sanctity ; and thus we flad Cassandra aggravating tha crime of Paris in stealing Helen om the ground that he has "contemntd tho, sal*-, and overturned the hospitable table." But it is from the material use* ©f sali that its importance as a symbol has been derived. Some description of sals is almoife universally diffused throughout the whole economy of nature j_ and in those poitw»n« of the globe in which it i» a nsirity it is treasured with a jealous care that affords a sufioioot commentary upon the belief in its value. / In the interior of Africa it is still regarded as one of the greatest luxuries, and a eliild there sucks a piece of rock salt as if ib wenp sugar. Mungo Park sp«aks of the longuse of vegetable food among somo of the tribes visited l»y him as creating " so painful a longing for silt, that no words oould sufficiently describe it." In Abyssinia, likewise, salt was for a long time more expensive than the purest white sugar in Europe; and another traveller suggestively tells us that children there gather round their mother while engaged in any operation in which salt is employed. Among the Western nations salt has from time immemorial been rogarded as so vital a necessity that no controversy an lo its relish or sanita.y value was ever for a moment possible. It was used from the first in some such way as water, quite as a matter of courso, and with a tacit acknowledgment that it T\as absolutely indispensable for man's existence. Mediool scienoe tells u« that is occurs alike in every fluid and ev,ery eohd, and in particular that it is a standing constituent of tho blood, " which will take up s» much, and no more, however much wo may take with our food ; while, if no salt be given, the blood parts with its- normal quantity slowly and unwillingly." This preportion is not, therefore, necessarily sustained by etch individual preference for more or less salt* although even those whoso palates lead them . to reject an appreciably large amount of th» condiment would find it difficult to escape from its administration through the medium of many of the staple foods of civilised life. Thug, every adult ivneensciously consumes abotft two ounces of salt per week in bread alone, and its necessity in tins form may ba appreciated by the light of a rather curious tradition, that the old method of executing criminals in Holland was to confine them solely to the use of br<»d ha which no salt f was contained, r.nd which ultimately occasioned death by engendering a fatal foam of disease. The moral influences and associations o$ salt among she Europeans of tho Midctta Ages were naturally of a less exalted description than those of higher aiatiquity. They still, however, boar eenstant referonee to the sacred rights ©f hospitality. The time-hon-oured custom of placing a massive ,pioc« of plate, called the Jiilt-vat, or " fo*f>," oa the middle of the table was ene that formerly obtained in France as well as ki England a»d Scotland, the gue«ts being seated abovo ay below tho vessel according lo thoir several ranks. " Thou art a caxle of mean decree; Ye salt dofcb. stand twain me and M»««," says an old English ballad, though it is right to add that »«me antiquarian writers hsrve rather questioned atl that is usually implied in the phrase, " bolow the salt." According to these critics, the sitting above or below tho salt meant nothing mo»e than having a placo at the upper er lower «nd of the table, the relation which one's &eat was oaid so bear to the salt teeing merely accideatal, from the fact that the vessel containing ifc wm Vtio center object. Against this view, h«we»er, may be set the eensideration that the folklore pertaining to salt is very various and abundant, while a kind of superstitious i'everence as to its emblematic effioaoy Is still common among the humbler classes of mo/it nations. The Dutch se«'in an overturned salt-cellar the symbol cf ft shipwreck i and when salt.hippens to be spilt at table, they are by no mean* aleae i» the c-astom &f taking up a pinch antd tiwowjnj it over Sue shoulder to avert the ill-luck which -wiH otherwise certainly ensue. In some pwts of England dairymaids -stall threw salt into the fire for luck baf ore beg inning to shurn ; while in not a few pkoes a ]jlafe« of salfe is rove* rently laid upon the breast of a corpso awaiting burial, th« ceremony in some rowote districts preceding doafch, in ordev that the sick person may die moro easily. The various modes sf obtaining and manufacturing salt are too well known to require description. Baife mines are ia existence in Poland which have been worked for over 600 years, and the «alt works of Cheshire were of importance in the time of th,e Saxon Heptarchy. The word a salary," or talnrium, which means salfc-mtmey, is, indeed, deriwttively connected with the salt mines which the Eomans worked at Droifcwieh a»A slsefc where. From whatever point- of view we regard tha commodity known as "common salt," it is full of material for reflection. To go ns higher, its social and symbolioo.l, its mediciaal and culinary virtues, have been approrsd of by tens of eonturies of experience*. Modem, scientific authory certifies to it« naeeasity, «nd to tho evils which w©uld|pertatnly ensue upon abstention from it. S»en considerations har« not, it is turtle, been over strong . ehoagh to break down a determined (f craio,* 5 upon how- , ever feeble, a foundation is may have b.oears| laid. But it is to bo hoped there u enomrfi^ common sense in tko country *© prevail in tfie ' present instance agaistsir 'the tonoi* of tlio sati-'Rli *mMKaiift-i-S*#d»n #»•••.