SALTS 



SALUTATIONS 



123 



salts. Common salt appears to have been known 

 from the earliest times, and the fact that the same 

 Greek word hols is used in the feminine, signify- 

 ing the ocean, and in the masculine, signifying 

 salt, would seem to indicate the sea as the source 

 from which common salt was obtained in the first 

 instance. The application of the name salt to 

 substances other than common salt would follow 

 from the more or less general similarity of these 

 to common salt in appearance, and in the more 

 easily observed properties, such as solubility, 

 taste, &c. 



By the term salt chemists now ordinarily under- 

 stand a substance which may be looked upon as 

 derived from an acid by the replacement of part or 

 the whole of the hydrogen of the acid by means of 

 a metal or of a Radical ( q. v. ) capable of playing 

 the part of a metal ; such as, for instance, the 

 radical NH., which is called ammonium. The 

 acids themselves are even looked upon as consti- 

 tuting the hydrogen terms in the various series of 

 salts, and are sometimes called hydrogen salts. 



There are several general modes of formation of 

 salts. One of the most important of these depends 

 upon the mutual action upon each other of an acid 

 and a Base (q.v.), when the typical characters of 

 each of these substances disappear and a salt is 

 produced, usually with the simultaneous produc- 

 tion of water. For example, when nitric acid and 

 the basic oxide of lead act upon each other, lead 

 nitrate and water are produced, thus : 2HNO 3 + 

 PhO = Pb(NOj), + H a O. Salts are also frequently 

 produced when metals are dissolved in acids, the 

 hydrogen of the acid being displaced by the metal 

 Thus, iron dissolves in dilute nydrochloric or sul- 

 phuric acid with the evolution of hydrogen and 

 the formation of a ferrous salt : Fe + H ? SO 4 = 

 H, + FeSO 4 . Strictly analogous to the displace- 

 ment of hydrogen from sulphuric acid by means 

 of iron is the displacement of copper from cupric 

 sulphate by the same metal this action also giving 

 rise to ferrous sulphate while copper is precipitated : 

 Fe + CuSO 4 = Cu + FeSO 4 . In the process called 

 double decomposition (see CHEMISTRY, Vol. III. 

 p. 152) two new salta are frequently produced when 

 the solutions of two salts are mixed together, as, for 

 instance, when sodium chloride and silver nitrate 

 act mutually upon each other, yielding silver 

 chloride and sodium nitrate : NaCl + AgNO s = 

 AgCl + NaNO,. There are other modes of salt 

 formation which are of minor importance. 



Salts are frequently considered as consisting of 

 metal and salt radical, the latter comprising all 

 that portion of a salt which is not metal, as ex- 

 plained in the article RADICAL. In the cases of the 

 so-called haloid salts (fluorides, chlorides, bromides, 

 iodides) the salt radical consists of one element 

 only, while in other salts the salt radical contains 

 two or more different elements. The names given 

 to certain classes of salts may be shortly explained. 

 Normal salts are those resulting from the displace- 

 ment of the whole of the displaceable hydrogen of 

 an acid by means of a metal. Neutral salts are 

 such as do not exhibit either the acid or the 

 alkaline reaction when dissolved. Basic salts and 

 acid salts, as contrasted with the normal salts, are 

 respectively intermediate in composition between 

 the normal salt and the base and between the 

 normal salt and the acid. These salts still possess 

 the respective characters of a base and of an acid. 

 Double salts may contain two or more metals in 

 combination with the same salt radical, or two or 

 more salt radicals in combination with the same 

 metal, or they may contain more than one metal 

 and more than one salt radical. 



SMEMJNG-SALTS are a preparation of carbonate of 

 ammonia with some of the sweet-scented volatile 

 tils, used as a restorative by persons suffering from 



faintness. The pungency of the ammonia is all 

 that is useful, and the oils are added to make it 

 more agreeable. Oils of lavender, lemon, cloves, 

 and bergamot are those chiefly used. The cele- 

 brated Preston smelling-salts are scented with oils 

 of cloves and pimento. The manufacture of orna- 

 mental bottles to contain this preparation is an 

 important branch of the glass and silversmith's 

 trades. 



SaltllS, EDGAR, an American author, born in 

 New York City, 8th June 1858, studied at Paris 

 and in Germany, and in 1880 graduated at Col- 

 umbia College law-school. His writings include a 

 good biography of Balzac (1884); a history of 

 Pessimistic philosophy The Philosophy of Disen- 

 chantment ( 1885), and The Anatomy of Negation 

 both treated with a curious whimsical briskness 

 and humour ; and a series of striking stories, full 

 of an odd passionate materialism and biting cyni- 

 cism, painful, but original and clever, though dis- 

 figured by a fantastic style and eccentric vocabu- 

 lary Mr Incoul's Misadventure (1887), The Truth 

 about Tristrem Varick ( 1888 ) these two the best 

 Eden (1888), A Transaction in Hearts (1889), and 

 The Pace that Kills ( 1889 ). 



Saltwort (Salsola), a genus of plants of the 

 natural order 

 Chen opodiaoese, 

 having herma- 

 phrodite flowers, 

 with 5-parted 

 perianth and a 

 transverse ap- 

 pendage at the 

 base of each of 

 its segments, five 

 stamens and two 

 styles, the seed 

 with a simple in- 

 tegument. The 

 species are nu- 

 merous, mostly 

 natives of salt 

 marshes and sea- 

 shores, widely 

 diffused. One 

 only, the Prickly 

 Saltwort (S. 

 kali), is found 

 in Britain. The 

 plant is annual, 

 with prostrate 

 much - branched 



stems, awl-shaped spine-pointed leaves, and axil- 

 lary solitary greenish flowers. It was formerly col- 

 lected in considerable Quantities on the western 

 shores of Britain, to be burned for the sake of the 

 soda which it thus yields. S. saliva is the chief 

 Barilla (q.v.) plant of the south of Spain. 



Salutations are customary forms of address 

 at meeting or at parting, or of ceremonial on 

 religious or state occasions, including both forms 

 of speech and gestures. Through the influence of 

 heredity and habit many of these have become 

 reflex irrepressible actions, their observance forti- 

 fied with all the sanctity of moral or religious 

 obligation. For although it is true that etiquette 

 is entirely a matter of relative, and not absolute, 

 obligation, and that such a feeling as modesty 

 itself is mainly a question of latitude, yet the aver- 

 age modern European dreads the unfavourable judg- 

 ment of society upon a solecism more than the 

 condemnation of his own conscience on some breach 

 of the weightier matters of the law. And it seems 

 to be a general rule among races of men, not to 

 speak of individuals, that extremes of ceremonious 

 salutation stand in inverse ratio to their moral 



Prickly Saltwort (Salsola kali). 



