SALT 345 



and freed fro'm chaff, which is thrown outside the house ; all 

 these procedures differ but little from those adopted by man. 

 Salt and how it was obtained. According to the teaching 

 of physiology a definite supply of mineral salts is very necessary 

 for the maintenance of the human and animal tissues. The 

 nutrient salts (sodium, potassium and calcium in combination 

 with chlorine and phosphoric acid), which are lost in the urine 

 and partly also in the faeces, have to be replaced by fresh 

 supplies, or else the animal or man will die. This supply is 

 ordinarily provided by the usual articles of diet, among which 

 milk is especially important. There are, indeed, savage races 

 who have no longing for special supplies of salt (sodium 

 chloride) beyond that which is contained in the diet. Civilised 

 man, however, finds salt indispensable, and many races obtain it 

 from great distances by barter. There are also many animals 

 (beasts of prey) 

 which have no 

 need of salt, 

 whereas others 

 (such. as the rumi- 

 nants) take ener- 

 getic measures to 

 satisfy their need 

 for salt ^ IG Z 7 2 Handmill from South Sweden. 



We have no means of knowing whether palaeolithic man 

 took salt with his food, or if so, how he obtained it. It is prob- 

 able that his meat diet provided him with sufficient salt; it 

 is still more probable that he had learned that ashes contain 

 salt, by cooking his meat in hot ashes ; or that he obtained 

 the salt which separated out from the pools near the sea- 

 coast. 



When once the use of salt was fully established, it became 

 a source of activity which at once raised savage man far above 

 the animal kingdom by which he was surrounded. 



In all probability we may assume that the use of salt as a 

 condiment belongs to the much more highly developed civilisa- 

 tion of the neolithic period, when agriculture and stock-raising 

 flourished ; moreover, in cases where there was no salt well in 

 the vicinity, we may further assume that it was obtained from 



