SALIVA 



5173 



SALMON 



aged to maintain peace in the face of difficul- 

 ties. One of the chief events of his administra- 

 tion was the agreement with Germany in 1890 

 by which the British and German spheres of 

 influence in Africa were marked out. The con- 

 duct of the South African War, during Salis- 

 bury's administration, was largely in the hands 

 of Joseph Chamberlain, the colonial secretary. 

 Salisbury resigned in 1902, being succeeded in 

 the Premiership by his nephew, Arthur Bal- 

 four. A.MC c. 



Consult Aitkin's The Marquis of Salisbury; 

 H-.u's Marquis of Salisbury. 



SALIVA, sali'va, a watery fluid secreted by 

 glands in the mouth, which mixes with mucus 

 poured out by the membrane lining the mouth 

 and helps digest the food. (For details of the 

 work of saliva in digestion see MASTICATION; 

 DIGESTION, subhead The Mouth.) Saliva serves 

 also to keep the mouth moist, a very important 

 factor in our physical comfort. There is 

 scarcely anyone who has not experienced the 

 discomfort of a dry mouth brought on by 

 "stage fright" or shock of some sort; this is 

 because the secretion of the fluid is temporarily 

 stopped by nervousness. 



Formerly, in the East Indies, persons ac- 

 cused of crime were compelled to swallow 

 parched rice to prove their innocence. If 

 guilty, the accused would believe that he could 

 not swallow the rice, and his fear tended to 

 check the action of the salivary glands and 

 actually did prevent his swallowing the grain. 

 The falsely accused, on the contrary, would be 

 conscious of his innocence, and his glands would 

 work normally. As the act of chewing tends 

 to stimulate the secretion of saliva, some phy- 

 sicians advise people to chew gum for ten or 

 fifteen minutes after a meal, for the fluid when 

 swallowed promotes digestion in the stomach 

 by stimulating the gastric glands. See STOM- 

 ACH. 



SALLUST, sal'ust (86-34 B.C.), a Roman 

 >rian of plebeian origin. He served as 

 quaestor about 59 B. c., and in 52 as tribune of 

 the people. When the Civil War broke out he 

 took the side of Caoar. whom in 47 he ac- 

 companied on his African campaign. At its 

 close he was appointed proconsul of Numidiu, 

 :iii'l while in this office he made Inn 

 unpopular by hi- \tortions. Returning to 

 ith a great fortune gathered by these 

 oppressions, he withdrew from public life and 

 MS time to writing. Of his Historiarum 



rrmain only n 

 but the accounts of the conspiracy of Catihn. 



and the war against Jugurtha are extant, and 

 form the first Roman examples of what is in 

 modern times known as history. 



SALMON, sam'un, a large fish, living both 

 in fresh and salt water, which belongs to the 

 same family as the trout and the whitefish. All 

 are immensely valuable commercially. There 

 are nearly a hundred species of salmon, but 

 only half a dozen of them are well known to 

 the general public. Nearly all of them live in 

 the ocean, but some species possess one pe- 

 culiar characteristic which has long been known 

 and never has been explained. Those that live 

 in salt water regularly enter the fresh water 

 of rivers to spawn, while some species that live 

 in rivers journey to the sea to spawn. Other 

 species that live in lakes enter running brooks 

 at spawning time. 



Because they possess traits which belong to 

 no other fish salmon have been objects of a 

 great deal of study. It is known that the ma- 

 rine salmon remains in fresh water for nearly 



THE SALMON 



A minor poet named Drayton thus describes 

 the extraordinary ascent of waterfalls by this 

 fish: 



Here when the labouring fish does at the foot 



arrive. 

 And finds that by his strength but vainly he doth 



strive. 



His tail takes in his teeth, and bending like a bow 

 That's to the compass drawn, aloft himself doth 



throw : 

 Then springing at his height, as doth a little 



wand, 

 That, bended end to end, and flerted from the 



hand. 



Far off itself doth cast, so does the salmon vaut. 

 And if at first he fail, his second somersaut 

 Hi- instantly assays: and from his nimble rinp. 

 Still varkinK nt'vrr lr:ives, until himself ln fling 

 Above the streamful top of the surrounded heap. 



its first two years. It then weighs but a few 

 ounces, and following its hereditary trait it 

 finds it way to the sea, where the next two or 

 three years are spent. Here it grows rapidly. 

 but probably does not travel mot. than twenty 

 to forty miles from the mouth of th< river in 

 which its life began. Of its life in the sea 

 littlr is known. ^ 



In the spring, after its fourth year, as soon 

 as waters begin to warm, the salmon M. 

 makes its way up tin n\ . p, It is no\\ 

 strong, gamy fish, and the pn with 



which it fights its way upstream in the face of 



