Posted by Lou Pilder on February 21, 2005, at 17:24:25
In reply to Lou request to Dr. Hsiung-grnofnacl2, posted by Lou Pilder on February 21, 2005, at 10:10:03
Friend,
In the first post in this thread I wrote [...going back {200} years. That is corrected to {2000} years, for I left out a zero. My apologies.
The original expression[...take with a grain of salt...], was used by those in the Roman Period time when people were afriad of being poisoned. So there was a chemists in that time that took small amounts of different poisons with "a grain" of salt and he thought that the grain of salt was an antidote to the poison. Now a grain was a measurable amount, not what we sometimes think of as like a grain of sand on the beach. I am not familiar with the size of a grain in that time though, for a grain in the weight of gold, for instance, may not be the same as the "grain" in Roman times.
Lou
poster:Lou Pilder
thread:461232
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20050219/msgs/461454.html