22 SCIENCE IK SHORT CHAPTERS. 



ranee, of the habits of antique savages, indicate that solid 

 soap, such as we commonly use, is a comparatively modern 

 luxury ; but it does not follow that they had no substitute. 

 To learn what that substitute may probably have been we may 

 observe the habits of modern savages, or primitive people at 

 home and abroad. 



This will teach us that clay, especially where it is found hav- 

 ing some of the unctuous properties of fuller's earth, is freely 

 used for lavatory purposes, and was probably used by the 

 Romans, who were by no means remarkable for anything 

 approaching to true refinement. They were essentially a nasty 

 people, the habits of the poor being 4< cheap and nasty" ; of 

 the rich, luxurious and nasty. The Roman nobleman did not 

 sit down to dinner, but sprawled with his face downward, and 

 took his food as modern swine take theirs. At grand banquets, 

 after gorging to repletion, he tickled his throat in order to 

 vomit and make room for more. He took baths occasionally, 

 and was probably scoured and shampooed as well as oiled, but 

 it is doubtful whether he performed any intermediate domestic 

 ablutions worth naming. 



A refinement upon washing with clay is to be found in the 

 practice once common in England, and still largely used where 

 wood fires prevail. It is the old-fashioned practice of pouring 

 water on the wood ashes, and using the " lees" thus obtained. 

 These lees are a solution of alkaline carbonate of potash, the 

 modern name of potash being derived from the fact that it was 

 originally obtained from the ashes under the pot. In like 

 manner soda was obtained from the ashes of seaweeds and of 

 the plants that grow near the sea-shore, such as the salsover 

 soda, etc. 



The potashes or pearlashes being so universal as a domestic 

 by-product, it was but natural that they should be commonly 

 used, especially for the washing of greasy clothes, as they are 

 to the present day. Upon these facts we may build up a 

 theory of the origin of soap. 



It is a compound of oil or fat with soda or potash, and 

 would be formed accidentally if the fat on the surface of the 

 pot should boil over and fall into the ashes under the pot. 

 The solution of such a mixture if boiled down would give us 

 soft soap. 



If oil or fat became mixed with the ashes of soda plants, it 

 would produce hard soap. Such a mixture would most easily 

 be formed accidentally in regions where the olive flourishes 



