Salt
What substance is essential to life but can damage your health
if taken ∈ excess? What has been used as money and has been
the cause of bitter warfare? What is so important to our culture
that references to it abound ∈ every language around the globe?
[5] Nothing less than salt — that white granular seasoning found on
virtually every dining table.
Although current nutritional advice warns against consuming
too much salt, without it we would die. In addition, salt is one
of the most effective and widely used food preservatives and its
[10] industrial uses are innumerable. Indeed, salt is vitally important to
agriculture, snow and ice control, water conditioning, the chemical
industry, metals production — to name just a few!
Salt has a fascinating history and references to it are common
since writing began. Some 2,700 years BC the Peng-Tzao-Kan-Mu
[15] was published ∈China. This is probably the earliest known treatise
on pharmacology. A major portion of this writing is devoted to
a discussion of more than 40 kinds of salt. The treatise includes
descriptions of two methods of extracting salt and adapting it to a
usable form. The ancient Chinese methods for obtaining salt are
[20] amazingly similar to processes still ∈ use today.
Salt has also been of crucial economic importance. In some
parts of the world, salt was minted into coins and deemed to be as
valuable as gold. The ancient Greeks traded salt for slaves, giving
rise to the phrase “not worth his salt” to describe someone who
[25] is lazy or does not work hard. The beautiful Italian city of Venice
was built on revenue from the salt trade. Roman soldiers were
partially paid ∈ the mineral known as “salarium argentum”, out
of which comes the common English word “salary”. References
to salt abound ∈ languages around the globe, especially where
[30] salt is important to food. From the Latin “sal”, for example, come
such words for preserved foods as “sauce” and “sausage”.
Costin, Helen. Modern English Digest, 2005. v. 3, p. 8-11. (Adapted)
According to the text, the process to obtain salt has been
