252 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



SALT. 



By Professor CHARLES W. SUPER, 



ATHENS, OHIO. 



lj EVERYBODY knows the lines in Lueile in which the author de- 

 -*— ' clares that 'civilized man can not live without cooks.' He also 

 proposes the query whether there is any man in the world who can live 

 without dining. The assertion is true only with important restric- 

 tions; for it will not be contended by anybody that every person who 

 cooks is a cook, any more than it would be affirmed that every one who 

 paints is a painter. The interrogatory may be frankly answered in 

 the negative, since the great majority of mankind does not now dine 

 and never has dined. They eat when they have food, and when they 

 have none they do without. If we call this spasmodic way of supply- 

 ing the interior department with materials for slow combustion, quad- 

 drupeds may be said to dine with as much propriety as homo erectus. 

 If our poet had asked the question, Where is the man, civilized or 

 uncivilized, who can live without salt? every one of his readers would 

 probably have replied unhesitatingly, 'He does not exist.' It is doubt- 

 ful too whether he ever existed. It is asserted by competent authori- 

 ties that terrestrial as well as marine life is conditioned upon the con- 

 sumption of salt. The position is hard to prove or disprove, as experi- 

 ments that would give trustworthy results are almost impossible. It 

 seems, however, fairly well established that man at the present day, 

 no matter what his rank on the staircase of social progress, can not or, 

 at least, does not, live without this substance. What history has to say 

 will be given below. That a historical record and an established fact 

 are not interchangeable terms is, however, to be premised. Not only 

 has this mineral been found in close proximity to almost every locality 

 inhabited by man or at least within his reach ; it is sought with almost 

 equal avidity by brutes. Most domestic animals are particularly fond 

 of it. It is said to be fatal to some kinds of birds, though barn-yard 

 fowls consume it without injury. The herbivora have an especial 

 liking for it, whether in their wild state or domesticated. It is well 

 known that the various salt licks in the United States were favorite 

 places for ambuscades, and that both Indians and whites used them 

 for the purpose of destroying the deer, buffalo and other animals that 

 habitually resorted to them. Probably the most famous of these salt 

 springs, or licks, as they are generally designated, is the Big Bone Lick 



