; while soda in
combination with sulphuric acid as sulphate of soda is _aperient_,
following the law of sulphates, which increase aperient action, as in
sulphate of magnesia, etc.
Thus it would seem that soda holds the scales evenly between potash and
magnesia in this medical sense, and that it is weighed, so to speak, on
either side by the kind of mineral acid with which it may be combined.
With non-poisonous vegetable acids, and these slightly in excess, there
is not such an effect produced.
Sodium is an important constituent of the human body, and citric acid,
from its carbon, almost a food. Although no one would advocate saline
drinks in excess, yet, under especial circumstances, the solution of it
in the form of citrate can hardly be hurtful when used to moisten the
throat and tongue, for it will never be used under circumstances where
it can be taken in large quantities.
In the converted sea water the bulk of the solids is composed of inert
citrate of soda. There is a little citrate of potash, which is a feeble
diuretic; a little citrate and sulphate of magnesia, a slight aperient,
corrected, however, by the constipatory half grain of sulphate of lime;
so that the whole practically is inoperative.
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