An essay on salt : containing notices of its origin, formation, geological position and principal localities, embracing a particular description of the American salines : with a view of its uses in the arts, manufactures and agriculture : delivered as a lecture before the New-York Lyceum of Natural History / by Jer. Van Rensselaer.

  • Van Rensselaer, Jeremiah, 1793-1871.
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on salt : containing notices of its origin, formation, geological position and principal localities, embracing a particular description of the American salines : with a view of its uses in the arts, manufactures and agriculture : delivered as a lecture before the New-York Lyceum of Natural History / by Jer. Van Rensselaer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    Reposing on the base of this primary, our seconda- ry runs off to the west, until, interrupted by the Rocky Mountains, it reposes again on the primitive. It is covered on the south by the tertiary and alluvial of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and compo- ses nearly three foiirths of the whole union. In this secondary, as indeed in the secondary of every country where salt exists, is to be found the American salt formation. I use the word formation as it is generally used ; and can only add my unit to the many who uphold the term, while they reprobate its use. Althpugh not absolutely expressive of the idea intended to be conveyed, it is, nevertheless, full as explicit as most of the terms in any modern sci- ence, and should be retained until the unanimous consent of both hemispheres be obtained to the intro- duction of another, wdiich, after all, may be better or Avorse, as chance may direct. As an article, salt has ever contributed much to the comforts and luxuries of man, and has been know'll and used since the earliest ages. The ante- diluvians were acquainted with its properties and uses in an accurate degree, as w’e may judge irom the tneuTic'ii made of it in ihe Old Testament In the iNevv Testament it is used by our Saviour as an emblem of periietuity, as the symbol of Avisclom, of incorruption of mind, and of sincerity.