Mineral salt

“ All these mineral waters come from brine-springs, and whether they are called chalybeate, carbonated, saline, or hepatic waters, whether they come from Spa or Tunbridge Wells, from Carlsbad or Ilkestone, from Püllna or Cheltenham, Buxton, Friedrichshall, Droitwich, or Wiesbaden, their common origin is rock-salt, and to that mineral alone their virtues are principally due; the iron, magnesia, lime, and the other salts which they collect on their upward course are merely accessories, and are more useful to the proprietors than to the credulous recipients. ”

“ Nearly 78 per cent of the dissolved matter is common salt. The principal other constituents in solution are chloride and sulphate of magnesia, and the sulphates of lime and potash. All other dissolved mineral substances together make up less than one per cent of the total. It has been estimated that if all the dissolved mineral matter should be brought together, it would form a layer 175 feet thick over the whole sea bottom. The salts of the sea have been mostly supplied by the rivers, which in turn have derived them from the disintegration and chemical decay of the rocks. ”

“ In Case 5 will be seen a collection of salt from various countries.
Minerals in Food.
In Case 4 are examples of some of the principal Mineral Substances, excepting water, in food. They are generally essential to proper nutrition. In the body of a man, weighing 154 lbs., there are about 8 lbs. of mineral matter. Different parts of the body show peculiar affection for particular ingredients to the exclusion of others. The mineral salts contained in plants and animals are indestructible by heat, hence they are called “ashes.” ”

“ From the decomposition of the sulphate of iron which takes place, a vast quantity of sulphuric acid must be generated, which, reacting on the different bases of magnesia, lime, etc., contained in the strata, forms those sulphates so prevalent in the higher or pyritous beds of the Lias; the oxide of iron being at the same time more or less completely separated. By this means the mineral waters, which are probably mere brine-springs at the greatest depths, acquire additional medicinal qualities as they ascend to the places whence they flow. ”

“ In some places the salt is exposed on the surface of the ground in a glittering crust several inches thick; in others, thicker layers have been covered over with other substances, so that salt now requires to be dug for like coal or any other mineral. Salt is found in this last shape in almost every part of the world; though in the vast empire of China it is so scarce that it is smuggled into that country in large quantities.
A SUN-DIAL.
Our young friends would, we doubt not, like to know how to make a sun-dial that will give the time very accurately. ”

“ Salt Waters are so called from containing a predominant amount of chloride of sodium. They also generally contain chlorides of magnesia and of lime, and occasionally small amounts of lithium, bromine and iodine. They further often contain a little iron, which is an important addition. The great majority of the drinking wells have a large supply of carbonic acid. There are cold and hot salt springs. Sometimes they are used for drinking, sometimes for bathing ”

“ As for example, there is a certain salt, and that only, that can coagulate, and turn into a body like to it self, even common water, which can be fixed in a very little time, with, and by one only certain mineral, which is very volatile. Minerals also may be fixed by metals, and metals, (a thing which I never yet tryed) by a certain thing more excellent than metals, without all doubt. But therefore it is needful in the fixation of minerals to begin with the coagulation of water, whereby it is turned into salt ”

“ No mineral substance is perhaps so universally diffused as common salt. It exists in the air, hence in all rain-water; in all soils, hence in all well or spring-water, though often in quantities too minute to be weighed upon the chemist's balance, as is the case in the Hemlock Lake water of this city. Salt being remarkably soluble, it is constantly being washed out of the soil into the streams, and ultimately carried down to its great reservoir, the ocean. We may, therefore, expect to find salt present in all ordinary well-water. ”

“ Physiology has been a boon to humanity and an inexhaustible field of research to the scientific.
In a chemical point of view there is no more important mineral constituent in the human body than the chloride of sodium, for it occurs nearly in every part of the system, both solid and fluid, in close and intimate relation with the organic compounds, and it materially influences their chemical and physical properties; for instance, the albumen partly owes its solubility to the presence of salt, the quantity of which causes the differences which it presents as regards its coagulation ”

“ About six hundred thousand quintals of salt are dug annually out of the mines of Cracow. The worst and cheapest is called green salt, from its greenish color, occasioned by a heterogenous mixture of a grayish mineral, or clay, and entirely consists of salt crystals of different dimensions. A finer sort is dug out in large blocks; and the third kind is the sal gemmæ, or crystal salt, which is found in small pieces interspersed in the rock, and, when detached from it, breaks into cubes of rectangular prisms. ”

“ Common Salt is a chloride of sodium, and exerts an extraordinary influence on animal as well as vegetable life. All marine animals and plants seem to have their existence determined by this substance. It enters into the composition of the human body, and all over the world man uses it, when he can obtain it, in its mineral form, as an addition to his food. ”

“ As all mineral waters originate from rock-salt, and as they all owe their other constituents to superincumbent strata, it would not be unreasonable to suggest that the chloride of sodium is, prima facie, their principal ingredient, and that their beneficial effects are to a certain extent due to it, more than to the presence of those from which their names are derived ”

“ An excess of mineral matter in foods is equally as objectionable as a scant amount, elimination of the excess entailing additional work on the body.
The composition of the ash of different food materials varies widely, both in amount, and form of the individual elements. When for any reason it is necessary to increase the phosphates in a ration, milk and eggs do this to a greater extent than almost any other foods. Common salt, or sodium chloride, is one of the most essential of the mineral constituents of the body. ”

“ The salt-mines of Cheshire, and the brine-pits of Worcestershire, according to the best authority, not only supply salt sufficient for the consumption of nearly the whole of England, but also upward of half a million of tons for exportation. Rock-salt is by no means confined to England, it is found in many countries, especially where strata of more recent date than those of the coal measures abound. Though in some instances the mineral is pure and sparkling in its native state, it is generally dull and dirty, owing to the matter with which it is associated. ”

“ Grind the sulphureous Mineral in a Mill, mix it with the Salt, and heat it red-hot by well torrifying or calcining them for two hours (in Furnaces serving for such a work,) either upon a Grate, or else without a Grate, upon Hearths; that so, during this Candefaction, the Sulphur may have ingress into the Salt, and may alter it. This Salt being washt out of the sulphureous Minera with water, and boiled till a skin gathers at top of the water, it shoots into long Stria’s or Crystals, like Salt-peter, and tasts like it, but falls into Powder in a warmish Air. ”

“ The more common of the substances present are common salt and compounds of calcium, magnesium, and iron. One liter of the average river water contains about 175 mg. of mineral matter. Water from deep wells naturally contains more mineral matter than river water, generally two or three times as much, while sea water contains as much as 35,000 mg. to the liter.
Effect of impurities on health. The mineral matter in water does not, save in very exceptional cases, render the water injurious to the human system. ”

“ Foods containing mineral salts All natural food products, whether of vegetable or animal origin, contain a limited but ever-present amount of mineral salts. This is especially true of milk, eggs, and the seeds and green portion of plants. The amount of salts in the human body is considerable, especially the calcium phosphates of the bones, but the salts that need to be supplied daily in food is small because the salts are not consumed as rapidly as are other elements of nutrition. ”

“ The mineral compound of greatest importance perhaps is sodium chloride, or common salt.52 This is a natural constituent of most of our foods, and is also added to food in its preparation for the table. When it is withheld from animals for a considerable length of time, they suffer intensely and finally die. It is necessary in the blood and lymph to keep their constituents in solution, and is thought to play an important rôle in the chemical changes of the cells. It is constantly leaving the body as a waste product and must be constantly supplied in small quantities in the foods. ”

“ In the old cliff dwellings are found peculiar little bags containing salt; and at the present time a certain amount of the mineral, when brought to the villages, is set aside as sacred and preserved in little bags almost identical with those found in the ancient dwellings.
Where men live on milk and raw or roasted flesh, sodium chloride is an unnecessary addition. Thus the Numidian nomads in the past did not, and the Bedouins of Hadramant of the present do not, eat salt with their food. On the other hand, a cereal, vegetable, and boiled meat diet calls for salt. ”

“ Of course the burning process used in preparing the bone ash may have destroyed some of the valuable qualities of the mineral salts. Practically, we do not care whether the value of animal meal be due to protein, mineral salts or both. ”

“ Where the salt deposits are composed of a mineral that is white, odourless, and practically pure, as in the Wieliezka system and the mines of Rumania, and particularly if labour is abundant and cheap, and the industry is a monopoly of the State, rock-salt mining will always hold its own. ”

“ Common salt forms no small portion of the mineral wealth of England, and has become an important article of commerce in every part of the known world. The principal portion of the salt consumed in this country is procured by the evaporation of the water of brine springs. ”

“ Salt of the very finest quality is now manufactured at Onondaga, by the Ohio and Kanawha salt companies, and in Michigan.—Uses and Statistics. Salt is the only mineral substance universally employed as an article of food by man and the higher orders of animals. Besides its direct consumption as food, enormous quantities are needed for preserving meats and fish, much is consumed for agricultural purposes and given to cattle and sheep, and a very large amount is used in chemical operations, particularly in the manufacture of soda. ”

“ On the other hand, we include in the rock category high purity sandstone that is composed almost entirely of one mineral (quartz) and high purity limestone that is composed largely of the mineral calcite.
MINERALS
A few minerals are composed of only one element, such as diamond (carbon) and native copper, but most minerals are chemical compounds that contain several elements.
Most minerals grow into distinctive shapes if they are free to grow. A familiar example is the formation of salt crystals that grow on a saucer of evaporating salt water. ”

“ In health what a decided difference! the specific gravity of the blood is uniformly equable;58 it circulates with comparative ease; and the whole system is permeated with the life-giving and health-preserving chloride of sodium, and the coagulation of the fibrine is prevented by nothing else but that mineral and inorganic substance—salt, which at the same time purifies and maintains the equalisation of the constituents of the blood. By it also the hydrochloric acid is supplied to the stomach, enabling that organ to perform its functions of digestion in accordance with the laws of health ”

“ The classification in the following table, which is that usually adopted in Germany, has the merit of comparative simplicity, and of freedom from theoretical considerations Which in this matter influence the French much more than the German writers. The more important constituents only are given. The amount of solid constituents is the number of parts to one thousand parts of the water; the temperature of thermal springs is added. The waters are classified as indifferent, earthy, salt, sulphuretted, iron, alkaline, alkaline-saline—with subvarieties of table waters and purging waters. ”

“ A further benefit which man derives from the disposition of the mineral ingredients of the secondary strata, results from the extensive diffusion of muriate of soda, or common salt, throughout certain portions of these strata, especially those of the new red sandstone formation. ”

“ Mineral waters have a somewhat evanescent popularity; one is85 rapidly succeeded by another: one that was highly eulogised is now neglected, and those which are now in favour will be, in all probability, discarded in a few years. At the present time there are many, though not a few holding a very precarious position in public estimation.
Glauber’s Salt Waters, as the name indicates, owe their medicinal properties to the presence of the sulphate of soda, chloride of sodium, and other salts. ”