History
Smelling salts have been used since Roman times, and are mentioned in the writings of Pliny as 'Hammonicus sal'. Evidence exists of use in the 13th century by alchemists as 'sal ammoniac'.
In the 17th century, an ammonia solution was distilled from shavings of harts' (deer) horns and hooves, which led to the alternative name for smelling salts as spirit or salt of hartshorn.
Smelling salts have also been known as 'sal volatile', for their ability to produce a reaction.
They were widely used in Victorian Britain to revive fainting women, and in some areas constables would carry a container of them for the purpose.
The use of smelling salts was widely recommended during the Second World War, with all workplaces advised by the British Red Cross and St. John Ambulance to keep 'sal volatile' in their first aid boxes. Nowadays, their use and prevalence has dramatically decreased.
Read more about this topic: Smelling Salts
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of mankind interests us only as it exhibits a steady gain of truth and right, in the incessant conflict which it records between the material and the moral nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“There is a history in all men’s lives,
Figuring the natures of the times deceased,
The which observed, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)