On the Manufacture of Salt in India. 245 



inquiry was partly connected with the manufacture of common 

 salt, and as the observations to which it led on this branch 

 of the subject could not well be introduced in our report to 

 the Medical Board, it is here proposed to notice the subject 

 generally, in the hope, that the inquiry may lead to the im- 

 provement of an article of the greatest importance to all 

 classes. 



The excellent paper by Dr. Henry, on the comparison of 

 Foreign and British salt, in the Philosophical Transactions 

 for 1810, suggested the probability of obtaining sulphate of 

 magnesia in the manufacture of salt here, as described to be 

 the case by that author at Lymington. The question involv- 

 ed that of the manufacture of salt, on which very little infor- 

 mation appears to exist in India, although no subject can 

 be more important in every point of view. As sea-water in 

 every part of the world contains the same saline matters in 

 very nearly the same proportion, any variety in the quality 

 of salts resulting from its evaporation, must depend on the 

 mode in which that process is conducted. 



The Cheshire varieties, as they are made from rock salt, 

 might be omitted ; but as they are very pure, they may here 

 be retained for comparison. 



the Honorable Company's Dispensary, from bittern supplied from the 

 Calcutta Salt Agency. And as these articles are prepared from the im- 

 purities in common salt, their manufacture in conjunction with it, must 

 be attended with a corresponding improvement in the quality of that 

 article itself. 



