On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 20:40:44 +0000 (UTC), twinblue{at}aol.com (TWINBLUE)
wrote:

>>Well, I have>problems with those salt glands. Can somebody tell
me - do we or
>don't we>have salt glands; and if we do, is some terrestrial mamma (primate?)
>having
>>something similar?
>
>My thinking is that many are confused about human sweat being
"salty". It
>occures to me that I never thought to taste any horse sweat to see if it was
>also. Since other primates don't sweat they have no
>"salt glands". Of course neither do humans
>per se... But humans do lose salt in persperation...
>
This has already been answered.

Every human secretion is salty because human body fluids are salty.
Horse sweat is also necessarily salty, as is every secretion of every
animal.

In order to be considered a "salt gland", a gland must be involved in
regulating the salt content and salt/water  balance (osmotic pressure)
of the body fluids.  That is, the secretion must be noticeably
different from the body fluids in composition and osmotic pressure,
and in sufficient quantity to inflence whole body salt content and
osmotic pressure.  Further, the secretions of the gland must clearly
and primarily be related to imbalances in salt content or osmotic
pressure of the body fluids.

The secretion of tears and sweat fail to qualify as examples of salt
glands regardless of the fact that humans lose salt by tearing and
sweating.
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