-I 



CHEMISTRY. 



intended to MT, and thus the judgment U tronblod and 

 confused. Then follow the ebullition* of nn unjii-; 

 pMsrian. and a aensibility to opposition, which U to 

 much the of toner irritated M tha disturbed actiun of tho 

 brain, over-loaded with aluohul, impairs tho corroctnoM 

 . : Ifc |l : m ' ' 



" Kxccssivo indulgence in wine and all other spirituous 

 ra, causes sloop ; if increased to a complete intoxi- 

 cation, the mental functions are disturbed to such a 

 degree, that a condition of temporary insanity supor- 

 TMMS ; the senses become blunted ; the imagination pro- 

 duces the most various and irregular images, which thu 

 judgment U unable to examine, distinguish, or combine ; 

 all self-possession vanishes ; at length even consciousness 

 is lust, the intoxicated man becomes giddy, and finally 

 falls into a profound slumber. 



" But, before this, a sensation of lassitude and exhaus- 

 tion arises ; the muscles lose their elasticity ; the features 

 become flabby ; the angles of the mouth are depressed ; 

 the pupils widen ; and urine and excrements are involun- 

 tarily voided. The muscular coat of the stomach, urged 

 at the same time by a pressure of the diaphragm and the 

 abdominal muscles, often acts in an inverse direction ; 

 violent vomiting is a common phenomenon. Even the 

 ' atory muscles are weakened, and often act irro- 

 .y, occasioning sighs or groans ; the pulse becomes 

 id and slow. In addition to this, an increasing 

 reluctance and uncertainty ill all voluntary movements 

 is observed ; the tongue stammers, or speech entirely 

 ceases ; the head sinks, tho arms hang down, the legs 

 cross each other when walking; the drunken man 

 taggers his paces cannot maintain a steady direction 

 he totters and falls."* 



We hasten from this disgusting picture, to describe, in 

 the words of Hettuer, the condition of a more mode- 

 rate inebriation, intermediate between the former and 

 perfect sobriety. "A beautiful, vigorous, full body," 

 says Hettner, of an ancient work of art, "in the first 

 freshness of a still juvenile manhood, with great, firm, 

 welling limbs ; there he lies at his ease, partly leaning 

 against a rock, his limbs partly outstretched. In this 

 state of happy inebriation he has chosen this place of 

 rest ; now he has fallen asleep arms and legs are hang- 

 ing down ; in his features are the indescribable expres- 

 sion of a half-intoxicated slumber. In a confused 

 dream, the wakeful imagination is still dwelling with 

 delight upon the past hours ; but tho weary, unnerved 

 limbs cannot follow this sweet ecstasy. The eyes closed, 

 the mouth widely open, this sleep is tho state of that 

 ' seedy' half-slumber, in which the internal heat and a 

 thirst panting for water urge to awake ; while the limbs, 

 craving repose, desire to continue sleeping, and the 

 mind is unconsciously apprehensive of the dreary, un- 

 refreshed awakening." 



Ox COKDUWXTS. J 78. Common Salt. When Cook 

 and Forster, in 1772, visited tho island of Otaheite, 

 the natives were astonished, on account of the crew at 

 dinner dipping every piece into "a white powder." At 

 the same time they took their fishes and meat with a 

 sauce of sea-water, containing common salt in abun- 

 dance. It was a similar case to that of the Greeks and 

 Romans, who were well acquainted with the alcohol in 

 wine, but did not know the art of obtaining it pure 

 and concentrated, by tho process of distillation. 



The addition of common salt to tho food, whether in 

 the form of sea-water, as a product from this, or of 

 rock-salt, as dug from tho mines, is usual everywhere. 

 We must not wonder at this, seeing that common salt 

 is contained in our blood in a* great a proportion as it is 

 scarce in the natural aliments ; for in animal food the 

 blood and cartilages are provided with tho greatest pro- 

 portion of common salt, and these are just the parts of 

 flesh-meat which are taken in the smallest comparative 

 quantity. In our vegetable food, potash so generally 

 predominate* over soda, that only a few plants of thr 

 sea-chore form an exception by their largo proportion m, 

 amount of soda. Some vegetable aliments, turnips for 

 instance, often contain no soda at nil. 



Tho addition, therefore, of common salt, consisting 

 .Wine and sodium, is usually an indispensable 

 necessity ; and as the vegetable aliments contain a smaller 

 proportion of common salt than animal, the latter is 

 generally mixed with less salt than the former. II. ;,.-, 

 it becomes possible to some nations, as the Samoyedea, 

 the Kamtschatdales, and some Indian tribes of North 

 America, to eat meat or lish without any addition of 

 salt The greater the proportion of blood oontninril in 

 meat, tho more easily the addition of common salt may 

 bo dispensed with. 



The common salt, however, of our kitchens is not a 

 pure chloride of sodium. Bock-salt is generally the 

 purest, as containing only some traces of chloride of 

 potassium and chloride of magnesium, in addition to a 

 somewhat greater proportion of sulphate of lime. But 

 with bay-salt, a much greater proportion of chloride of 

 magnesium and sulphate of linn>, with a not incon- 

 siderable quantity, besides, of sulphate of magnesia, or 

 Epsom salts, ore mixed. In common salt prepared from 

 sea-water, chloride of potassium is entirely absent, or 

 only small traces of it are found, which sometimes co- 

 exist with as small a proportion of iodine. 



Common salt is as digestible as nutritious ; for water 

 dissolves it with great ease : and while no tissue of tho 

 human body can exist without common salt, the blood 

 and the cartilages cannot keep up their regular composi- 

 tion without a considerable proportion of it. 



If we also bear in mind ml common salt promotes 

 the digestion of the albuminous substances, and that 

 the scantily soluble fats, when salted, become less diffi- 

 cult of digestion, the chloride of sodium appears to be 

 the most important addition to food, rightfully meriting 

 to stand at the head of the series of condiments. On 

 account of its greater proportionate quantity of chloride 

 of magnesium, sea-salt dissolves the albuminous sub- 

 stances more readily than rock-salt ; for tho tempera- 

 ture of the body is of itself sufficient to transform the 

 chloride of magnesium into hydrochloric acid and mag- 

 nesia ; and every diluted mixture of hydrochloric acid 

 and water is able to dissolve the albuminous substances. 



Common salt is very useful for the preservation of 

 aliments, by attracting their water, which more than 

 any other constituent occasions putrefaction ; yet it is 

 important to know, that meat, by being salted, loses a j 

 part of its beat alimentary principles. Together with 

 the water of the flesh, albumen and kreatine, the lactic 

 acid and the salts are extracted by the common salt. 

 The brine thus formed is thrown away, and with it a 

 part of the most soluble and most important substances 

 of the flesh. This loss is somewhat compensated by the 

 fibrine of salted meat being more soluble than fresh 

 muscular fibres, as well as by the use of bread and 

 vegetables containing chloride of potassium and phos- 

 phate of potash, which have been extracted from the 

 meat, and substituted by the common salt. 



By the excretions, common salt is abstracted from 

 the blood. In tho same proportion as the urine and 

 the excrements, the mucus and the perspiration, tho 

 tears and tho horny substances, have deprived the blood 

 of common salt the blood nourishing the nerves of the 

 tongue is poorer in this salt. This is the reason why 

 unsalted food tastes insipid. And even hero the neces- 

 sity of a law governs tho seeming play of arbitrariness. 

 It is the strictest consequence of cause and effect which 

 unites tho taste of the nutriment with tho reception of 

 the right alimentary principles. In former times, it 

 was conceived to bo a result of wise c , th:a just 



those aliments should have a better taste which contain 

 tho matters most requisite for tho blood, and rojpirdrd 

 as an inherent inclination in mau to salt his aliments. 

 "If it be considered more edifying," says CInnKs Snrll, 

 "to conceive of tho Creator, so to speak, to be li! 

 watchmaker who calculates exactly, than to regard Him 

 as tho organic, acting, productive reason of nature, wo 

 will not dispute any more." But then we renounce .-ill 



nity of knowledge; for it can scarcely I 

 that it is part of the original tendency of our buing to 

 supply our blood with common salt ; but tho connection 



