This is strikingly exemplified in the
avidity with which animals in a wild state seek the salt-pans of
Africa and America, and in the difficulties they will encounter to
reach them: this cannot arise from accident or caprice, but from a
powerful instinct, which, beyond control, compels them to seek, at all
risks, that which is salubrious. To those who are anxious to gain
further information upon this curious subject, I would recommend the
perusal of a work entitled "_Thoughts on the Laws relating to Salt_,"
by Samuel Parkes, Esq., and a small volume by my late lamented friend
Sir Thomas Bernard, on the "_Case of the Salt Duties, with Proofs and
Illustrations_." We are all sensible of the effect of salt on the
human body; we know how unpalatable fresh meat and vegetables are
without it. During the course of my professional practice, I have had
frequent opportunities of witnessing the evils which have attended an
abstinance from salt. In my examination before a committee of the
House of Commons in 1818, appointed for the purpose of inquiring into
the laws respecting the salt duties, I stated, from my own experience,
the bad effects of a diet of unsalted fish, and the injury which the
poorer classes, in many districts, sustained in their health from an
inability to procure this essential condiment. I had some years ago a
gentleman of rank and fortune under my care, for a deranged state of
the digestive organs, accompanied with extreme emaciation.
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