VEGETABLE SUBSTITUTES EOll SOAP 



its virtue as a capital cleansing agent was well un- 

 derstood, and they employed it for scouring clotli 

 and removing stains. They gave it, in monkish 

 fashion, a Latin name, licrhn fiiUinnon, which in 

 English translation, Fuller's herl), is sometimes still 

 assigned it in books; but in every-day speech the 

 rustic English name, Soap wort, is more usual. Tn 

 our Southern States a pretty local name that has 

 come to my notice is ^*My Lady's Wash-bowl." It 

 was in a Saponaria, I believe, that the glucoside 

 saponin — the detergent principle of the soap i)lants 

 — was first discovered and given its name. That 

 was about a century ago, and since then chemists 

 have identified the same substance existing in vary- 

 ing degrees in several hundred species throughout 

 the world.^ In most plants, however, the c|uantity 

 is too small to make a serviceable lather. 



3 N. Kruskal. "Soaps of tlie N'egetable Kingdom," in "The 

 Pharmaceutical Era," Vol. XXXI, Xos. 13, 14. 



183 



