394 Beck on Salt Storms, &c. 
4, [shall devote the remainder of this paper to a few con- 
cise observations on the effects of salt, and a saline atmos- 
phere, upon animal life. 
Upon the more imperfect animals, such as slugs, worms, 
toads, &c. it is well known that salt proves speedily destruc- 
tive of life. It is not my intention to attempt an explanation 
of this singular fact. But it is remarkable that it should not 
have been turned to better account in the treatment of those 
worms, which infest the human body. Although used for that 
purpose by the common people in Ireland as well as in this 
country, I believe it has not, until very lately, claimed the 
aitention of the profession, as an anthelmintic. A late English 
journal* contains a notice of some cases which satisfactorily 
prove its efficacy, when administered with this intention. 
This fact, in addition to numerous others, strikingly illus- 
trates the advantages which the healing art might derive from 
a careful observation of the phenomena daily developed by 
the collateral sciences. 
n cases of hemoptysis or hematemesis, common salt has 
been used with decided success, The public is indebted to 
Dr. Rush, for the introduction of this remedy into general 
practice. 
Dr. Hosack informs me, that he has found sea air extreme- 
ly salutary in remittent fever, cholera infantum, and dyspepsia. 
Among the deleterious effects caused by a saline atmosphere, 
may be mentioned the ophthalmia of Egypt. This disease is 
so common there; “that out of a handred persons,” says Volney, 
‘I have met while walking the streets of Cairo, twenty have 
been quite blind, ten wanting an eye, and twenty others have 
had their eyes red, purulent, or blemished.”{+ Throughout 
the Delta, and at Cairo, this complaint is more prevalent than 
in any other part of Egypt. In Syria it is also common, al- 
though less so than in Egypt, but it is met with only on the 
sea-coast. ‘The reasoning of Volney on this subject, is decisive 
of the position, that the prevalence of this complaint, in these 
* Journal of Science and the Arts, No. X. 
t Volney’s Travels in Syria and in Egypt, Vol. I. p. 167. 
