SOAP.
Sabun, AR., GUJ., HIND. Sapo, 1.1T.
Fan-kien, . . . Cum. Sabun, Sajah, . MALEAL. Saebe, . . . . DAN. Sabao, . . . . PORT. Zeep, . . . . DUT. MU10, RUS.
&NOR, . . . Saip, . . . . SCOTCH.
Seife, . . . . GER. Jabon , SP.
Sapone, IT Tval, Sapa, . . . Sw.
The manufacture of soap has long been practised in India, but the identity of its names in very many regions shows that its manufacture I) as learned almost from one source. Soaps are slightly alkaline, feel soft and slippery, and are detergent. The m atery solution is readily decomposed by acids, also by earthy and many metallic salts; hence, when water holds any of them in solution, instead of dissolving, the soap becomes decomposed. Such waters are called hard, while those which are comparatively pure are called soft waters. Castile soap' is composed of 9 to 10.5 of soda, 75.2 to 76.5 of oleic and margaric acids, and 14.3 to 14.5 of w ater. Common soap is made of tallow and soda, and yellow soap of tallow, resin, and soda. Chinese use the native soda (Fau-kien), or the pods of the Acacia concinna (Fei-tsau-toh).
Soap seems to have been introdu ced by the Muham madans into India, though the Hindus have long used alkaline leys, obtained from the ashes of plants, for many of the purposes of soap ; and they have a substitute for soap in several berries. Soap is made at Dacca, of fine shell lime, 10 maunds ; saji mittee, impure carbonate of soda, 16 maunds ; common salt, 15 'minds ; sesamum oil, 12 maunds ; goats' suet, 15 seers. It is made of good quality at Saharunpur. The soap of Tranyiebar was formerly an export to Mauritius, Penang, Sutnatra, and the islands of the Indian Archipelago. In Oudh, a soap is made from cow's fat and the reh which effloresces on barren land. It sells at' 8 seers the rupee. Soft soap, used in the arts, is made with caustic potash and fish-oil and tallow ; is send-transparent, of the consistence of honey, brownish-coloured, and nauseous.