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vegetable and animal creatures, and the air, that the earth communicates its diseases to man.

Thus, by the volcanic process, the fertility, which is the health of the earth, is restored: where savage and howling sterility before prevailed, profuse vegegation now comes forth, followed by animate creatures, and nature again rejoices in the performance of her functions. It is precisely the same with the animal body; after the subsidence of the disease the due performance of the vital functions is re-established, with restoration of a state of comfort.

The accomplishment of changes in the earth's condition will require perhaps thousands of years, when the corresponding changes in the condition of the animal body will be effected in a few weeks.

CHAPTER VII.

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE CONSEQUENCES RESULT-
ING FROM THE ARTIFICIAL USE OF SALT.

A VAST number of experiments have been tried to ascertain the effects of salt on vegetables, when artificially applied to them as a manure; and from all the observations that have been made, it has appeared that salt, when used in small quantities, promotes their growth, but when in excess, it acts as an absolute poison to vegetation. Thus salt is found utterly to destroy any vegetable on which a small quantity of it has been laid, and it has long been used for that purpose in the destruction of rushes, thistles, and other troublesome weeds. Salt is mentioned in Scripture as a symbol of barrenness and desolation, and spoken of in a manner which is strongly indicative of the dangers of its artificial use. Virgil, in the second book of his Georgics, and Pliny, assert that a salt soil is injurious to vegetation, and that it occasions a degeneration of fruit trees.

of land of

Egypt.

In Egypt, where the soil contains an unusual and Saltness very injurious amount of salt, vegetation rushes on with a precipitation which is speedily destructive to all exotic plants. They have a species of gourd called kara, which, in twenty-four hours, is said to send out shoots four inches long. Exotic plants are found to grow freely and strongly the first year, but if their seeds be sown the following year, they pro

the po

tatoe.

duce degenerate plants, which are diseased by weakness and exhaustion, and so slender as to be of little value. Therefore they send every year to Malta for a new supply of garden-seeds.

In this instance we observe a disease in plants no doubt occasioned by the saltness of the soil; but which disease appears to subside in the absence of the stimulus of salt. It has frequently been observed in England, that on lands usually overflown by the sea, the corn grown immediately after their recovery has run up to five or six feet in height. Disease of I think it very probable that the disease which has lately affected the potatoe plant, has been occasioned by the land having been rendered extremely saline by the improper use of salt manures, which seem of late years to have been much in fashion. This opinion seems to be in some degree supported by the fact, that the potatoe disease has been particularly observed, in many instances, to have been most prevalent in places where most manure had been used. In some parts of Ireland, particularly the northward coasts, where sea-weed exists in great profusion, I have observed that it is much used for manuring the land, which, especially with respect to the potatoe, I suppose to be improper. The potatoe is a succulent and very delicate and tender plant, one which, it appears, would be about the first to show the effects of a salt soil.

The potatoe disease, in its present form, does not appear to be new; it seems to have existed generally throughout Britain, and most probably other countries, during many years, not, however, to such an extent as to have attracted particular attention.

It is a disease which seems extremely likely to be produced by such an agent as salt; to be the effect of an excessive stimulus applied to the plant. A remarkable exuberance has been observed in the growth of the potatoe plant since the disease has so extensively prevailed.

This disease is evidently related to that mentioned by Tacitus and others, as formerly existing near the Dead Sea, that salt region, by which the fruits of the earth, both corn and grapes, were caused to rot away before coming to maturity. Such disease must always prevail in the latter days of the world, as appears by this passage.

11.

“And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, MAL. III. and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field."

Fruits, more particularly apples, the most valuable of our fruits, and pears, are now much diseased; and that corrosive, dirty, or smutty disease commencing in the skin, evidently increases in severity. The oranges and lemons of Spain and Portugal are much affected with this disease, which progresses rapidly after the gathering of the fruit, which is thus destroyed by rottenness. Old trees and their fruit are apt to be most diseased.

All causes which have a tendency to render the land more salt, will certainly be most favourable to the progress of these diseases.

Salt used for the purpose of seasoning and preserving animal and vegetable foods, is evidently foremost in the production of dire disease, developed under a variety of forms, according to the influence

Hurtful

salt.

of habit of body, mode of life, occupation, climate, and other external circumstances.

The flavour of salt cannot be perceived in any fruit of the earth. Substances which appear to man to be deficient in taste, do not require salt; but their insipidity arises from their deficiency in the principles which naturally give flavour to man's food; which consist chiefly of the acid and saccharine principles. Sugar, and the vegetable acids, having passed through the vegetable state, we may with advantage add them to many kinds of food; but we cannot, with safety and propriety, make use of salt for the same purpose, which is a highly corrosive, fossil substance, and a part of the earth which has not been prepared by vegetation.

The use of salt as food, or as a condiment, is a departure from that law of nature which directs animals to derive their nourishment from vegetables, and not directly from the earth. The fossils of the earth are by vegetation so prepared and combined as is required for animal food; and there is no reason to believe that man can, with propriety, employ any part of the earth as food, which has not passed through the vegetable state. History may inform us of the antiquity of the practice of doing so with regard to salt, but we have no proof of its propriety.

Salt is highly charged with a principle which is vapour of most destructive to animal life. The addition of a few drops of oil of vitriol to as much salt as is commonly taken at one meal, occasions it to send forth so noxious a vapour as would kill many individuals if they were forced to inhale the whole of it, as it

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