has
assumed that soda becomes applied to the general purposes of the
internal body before it reaches the kidneys; and that, therefore, it
fails to give relief against stone, and calculous troubles, by coming
to act as an antacid solvent within the bladder, or kidneys.
Nevertheless, a general conclusion has been arrived-at among writers on
drug-actions that soda salts, unlike those of potash, have but little
specific action on the human system. Carbonate of soda is manufactured
at the present time almost entirely from common salt (chloride of
sodium).
It
may prove of advantage to state here (incidentally) that as an article
of food lentils (of the red Egyptian sort) are rich in soda. They also
contain a percentage (infinitesimal in quantity, but nevertheless
appreciable, and of potential blood-making virtue) of iron ; to which
metal, indeed, they owe their ruddy colour. These lentils are highly
nutritious, and, being almost sulphur-less, do not provoke flatulence.
But it is far from wise in most cases of adult life to try and live
almost excluÂsively on any such leguminous foods, whilst rejecting all
animal sustenance.
Dr.
Haig, the well-known apostle of anti-gout diet, which he ordains as
mainly vegetable, says, " It is necessary to know something about
percentages, and values, so as not to replace meat (which has twenty
per cent of albumin) by cabbages, and potatoes (which contain only from
one to two per cent). This is where so many vegetarians make a
mistake." " The fact is, that in some respects vegetarians surfer more
than meat-eaters from uric acid poisoning, seeing that beans, peas,
lentils, and peanuts, contain twice as much of the poison as meat. The
natives of India are much affected
