CHAPTEK V. 



SALT. 



It may seem curious to the reader that we 

 should care to discuss a subject seemingly so 

 simple as common salt. But it is a very 

 usual thing for us to live and move in the 

 presence of things that are very common to 

 our everyday experience, and yet know 

 scarcely anything about them, beyond the fact 

 that they in some way serve our purpose. 



Salt is one of the commonest articles used 

 In the preparation of our food. It has been 

 questioned by some people whether salt was 

 a real necessity as an animal food, or whether 

 the taste for it is merely an acquired one. All 

 peoples in all ages seem to have used salt, and 

 reference to it is made in the earliest his- 

 tories. Travelers tell us that savage tribes, 

 wherever they exist, are as much addicted to 

 the use of salt as civilized people. One of the 

 early African travelers, Mungo Park, tells us 

 that the children of central Africa will suck 

 a piece of rock salt with the same avidity and 



