Chap. 41.] 
VAEIOrS PEOPERTIES OF SALT. 
505 
the Acanthian salt — so called from the town^^ where it is 
found — will decrepitate or crackle in the fire ; nor will the 
froth of salt do so, or the outside scrapings, or refined salt. 
The salt of Agrig-entuoi resists fire, but decrepitates in 
water. 
There are differences, too, in the colour of salt : at Memphis 
it is deep red, russet-coloured in the vicinity of the Oxus, 
purple at Centuripa, and so remarkably bright at Gela, situate 
also^^ in Sicily, as to reflect the image of objects. In Cappa- 
docia there is a saffron- coloured fossil salt, transparent and 
remarkably odoriferous. For medicinal purposes, the ancients 
esteemed the salt of Tarentum in particular, and next to that 
all the marine salts, those collected from sea- foam more espe- 
cially. Por maladies of the eyes in cattle and beasts of burden, 
the salt of Tragasa and that of Bsetica are employed. Por 
made dishes^^and ordinary food, the more easily a salt liquefies 
and the moister it is, the more highly it is esteemed ; there 
being less bitterness in salt of this description, that of Attica 
and of Euboea, for example. For keeping meat, a pungent, 
dry, salt, like that of Megara, is best. A conserve of salt is also 
made, with the addition of various odoriferous substances, 
which answers all the purpose of a choice sauce,^^ sharpening 
the appetite, and imparting a relish to all kinds of food : in- 
deed, among the innumerable condiments which we use, the 
flavour of salt is always distinctly perceptible ; and when 
we take garum with our food, it is its salt flavour that is 
considered so exquisite. And not only this, but sheep even, 
cattle, and beasts of burden, are induced to graze all the bet- 
ter by giving them salt ; it having the effect, also, of con- 
siderably augmenting the milk, and imparting a superior flavour 
to the cheese. 
We may conclude, then, by Hercules ! that the higher en- 
joyments of life could not exist without the use of salt : indeed, 
so highly necessary is this substance to mankind, that the 
pleasures of the mind, even, can be expressed by no better 
term than the word salt,"^® such being the name given to 
19 See B. iv. c. 17. 
20 St. Augustin mentions this marvelloas kind of salt. De Civit. Dei, 
B. xxi. cc. 5, 7. 
21 As well as Centuripa. 22 Opsonium.'* 
23 Pulraentarii." 24 gee c. 43 of this Book. 
25 This is consistent with modern experience. '^^ '* Sales." 
