Salt, the forbidden fruit, or food : and the chief cause of diseases of the body and mind of man, and of animals; as taught by the ancient Egyptian priests and wise men, and by scripture ... / by Robert Howard.

  • Howard, Robert, -1854.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Salt, the forbidden fruit, or food : and the chief cause of diseases of the body and mind of man, and of animals; as taught by the ancient Egyptian priests and wise men, and by scripture ... / by Robert Howard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    those seas, having no communication with the shore, should have their crews afflicted with oph- thalmia in so violent a degree, when the wind blows constantly from the northward and west- Avard, at the very period when this complaint is most preA^alent; consequently the exhalations of a southern shore cannot affect people cruising fifty or sixty leagues from it. Others have asserted that small particles of sand, constantly floating in the air, are the principal cause; but this for the same reasons assigned cannot ei^ist.” The solution of this problem, seems to me to be here: Avhilst the ophthalmia of Egyi^t was occasioned by an unusual quantity of s^lt intro- duced into the system by means of the saltness of the soil, with an atmosphere also strongl) impreg- nated with saline matter; the same disease, under the influence of the same climate, also ])revailed, with equal or greater intensity, on board the ships cruising at a distance, from the same cause ; the introduction of salt in uncommonly injurious quantity, into the system ; but in a differpnt way, that is, by salt provisions. \ Trotter, in his Medicina Nautica, gives an account of three hundred cases of ophthalmia which occurred after a cruise during warm weather off Brest, in October, 1795, on board his Majesty’s ship Saturn. Here we have another very remarkable instance of the prevalence of ophthalmia under the influence of a salt diet and warm weather.