SALSOLA KALI. ORD. XL. Oleraceee. 653 
of chemistry. It is in common use in the manufacture of glass 
and soap, and as the latter is an artical of the Materia Medica, we 
shall proceed to consider its medicinal effects. 
All the Soaps, of which there are several kinds, are composed of 
expressed vegetable oils, or animal fats, united with alkaline 
laxivia.t. The Sapo-ex oleo olive et natro confectus of the London 
Pharm. or the Sapo albus hispanus of the Edinb. Pharm. ( white 
Spanish soap) being made of the finer kinds of olive oil, is the best, 
and therefore preferred for internal use. 
Soap was imperfectly known to the ancients. It is mentioned 
by Pliny as made of fat and ashes, and as an invention of the 
Galls.. Aretzus, and others, inform us, that the Greeks obtained 
their knowledge of its medical use from the Romans. Its virtues, 
according to Bergius, are detergent, resolvent, and aperient, and 
its use recommended in jaundice, gout, calculous complaints, and 
in obstructions of the viscera. The efficacy of soap, in the first of 
these diseases, was experienced by Sylvius,* and since recom- 
mended very generally by various authors who have written on 
this complaint; and it has also been thought of use in supplying 
the place of bile in the prime vie‘ The-utility of this a, 
in icterical cases, was inferred chiefly from its su of 
dissolving biliary concretions, but this*meédicine has lost much of 
its reputation in jaundice, since it is now known that gallstones 
have been found in many, after death, who had been daily taking 
soap for several months and even years.* Of its good effects. in 
urinary calculous affections, we have the testimonies of several, 
4 The acid soap of Cornette. Mem, de la Soc. de Med. de Paris, t. 3, p.189. 
is so little known as scarcely to be considered an exception, 
* Lib. 28, c. 12. 
* Oper. Med. lib. 1. cap. 46. RS oa 
© Heberden, Med. Trans. vol. 2. P- 166. 
* Dr. Heberden, 7. c. Phil. Trans. vol. 47. p.. 472, id BES Works, p, 433. 
$99. =e Vet. Acad. Handl. 1777. p. 309. ; 
