SALT. 619 
Broxholme, and Arbuthnot, who neither of them did me the 
least good, but, on the contrary, increased the swelling by 
applying poultices, and emollients. In this condition I remained 
near six months, until, finding the doctors did me no good, 
I resolved to consult Palmer, the most eminent Surgeon of 
St. Thomas’s Hospital. He immediately told me that the 
physicians had pursued a very wrong method, as the swelling 
of my legs proceeded only from a relaxation, and weakness of 
the cutaneous vessels, and he must apply strengtheners instead 
of emollients ; accordingly he ordered me to put my legs up to 
the knees every morning in brine from the salters as hot as I 
could bear it; the brine must have had meat salted in it. I did 
so, and after having thus pickled my legs for about three weeks 
the complaint absolutely ceased, and I have never had the least 
swelling in them since.”” When treating kidney disease dietetic- 
ally the amount of Salt in the food should be diminished as 
much as possible, because the burden of excreting it falls entirely 
on the kidneys. A free use of table Salt in the diet makes the 
urine alkaline, and increases the solubility of gouty‘acid-products 
therein ; for such reason stone in the bladder is rare amongst 
sailors, who consume much Salt. That Salt was customary 
as a condiment in the eighteenth century we may infer from an 
allusion thereto in the Art of Cookery (1790) :-— 
‘* Perhaps no Salt is thrown about the dish ? 
Or no Fry’d Parsley scattered on the Fish ? 
Shall I in passion from my Dinner fly, 
And Hopes of Pardon to my Cook deny ?” 
The explanation of an almost universal desire for common Salt 
is to be found in the fact that this mineral is essential to all the 
fluids of the body,—the blood, the lymph, the chyle, tears, etc. 
It is a remarkable fact that when nutrient injections have to be 
given for support (food not being practicable by the mouth, 
on account of some serious disability) the addition of Salt thereto 
promotes their absorption; why this is so cannot be easily 
explained, but the effect is a matter of the first importance. 
For rheumatic swelling of the joints, and limbs, an application 
of the Salt-pack is to be highly commended. Some flannel 
soaked in a saturated solution of common Salt should be wrapped 
around the affected joints, and covered over with thin waterproot 
tissue (guttapercha, or oiled silk), upon which a bandage is 
bound, the whole appliance being kept on during all night, and 
