

SALT AND ITS PHYSIOLOGICAL USES. 57 1 



giderable time. Certainly this is not a generous liquor; the living 

 alimentary particles find in it nothing by which the}' can be nourished 

 and sustained, and they can live in it only as long as their own reserves 

 may last, but at least it does them no harm.' 1 



We may now begin to comprehend what becomes of the salt 

 we consume in obedience to the curious need of which we have 

 spoken. It is easy to predict its destiny. The greater part of it will 

 remain in simple solution; the remainder will enter into combination, 

 more or less intimate, with living matters. The former will penetrate 

 into the circulating liquids, lymph and blood, and will with them pass 

 through all the systems of the body without taking any direct part in 

 the vital changes, but, on the contrary, act merely as a tilling, neutral- 

 izing by the number of its molecules the danger which the cellular 

 community would incur if the medium in which it lives were too much 

 diluted, and it will finally pass out by the natural emunctories, invari- 

 able, unchanged, but having performed the service of removing from 

 the economy the effete products of cell life. This eliminated salt 

 must be replaced. Its loss, reacting upon the organism, is the pri- 

 mary cause of the need for salt. 



The second and smaller portion of the salt taken into the body will 

 penetrate into the elements themselves, will make an integral part of 

 them, will participate in their chemical changes, not only those which 

 give rise to the gastric juice, but also others, finally becoming 

 destro} T ed and lost to the organism. The void left by this continual 

 elimination has doubtless some weight in the sensation of need for 

 salt, which the animal feels. It is a second element of it. 



V. 



The necessity for common salt in the food results from this series 

 of changes. The organism could not be maintained, or, in other 

 words, health would be impaired if that which was lost were not 

 restored. Mineral aliments are therefore a necessity. It is necessary 

 that we should have salt. There are some physiological functions in 

 which common salt may be replaced by another, as we have seen in the 

 case of the gastric secretion, but there are others for which such substi- 

 tution is, probably, impossible. A modicum of chloride of sodium is 

 indispensable to life. 



In truth neither men nor animals have to occupy themselves in 



a A solution of this character, having the proportions of about 6 parts of chemically 

 pure sodium chloride to 1,000 parts of distilled water, rendered aseptic and warmed 

 to 100° F., is in common use in surgery and medicine, being known as the "normal 

 salt solution." Readers will doubtless recall that it was used in the lamentable case 

 of President McKinley, both for the cleansing of the abdominal cavity during the 

 surgical operation and later as a hypodermatic injection. It was also used some 

 months before with good effect in the treatment of Mrs. McKinley, who was suffer- 

 ing from a disorder that had drained the blood of its fluid. — Translator. 



