338 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



for discussion at each of its meetings, ■which subject shall be announced in 

 the call of meetings. ' 



Tenth. Written communications to the Association are to be read by the 

 secretary, unless objection is made; and if objected to, will be read, if it be 

 ordered by a majority of the members present. 



Eleventh. The Polytechnic Association will recommend what papers read 

 before them, or what pa>rt of other transactions they judge worthy of pub- 

 lication, to the committee of arts and sciences, by which the publication 

 naay be ordered in its discretion. 



Twelfth. No person attending the meetings of the Association shall speak 

 more than once on any one subject, nor shall occupy, in such speech, more 

 than fifteen minutes, except by permission of the Association. 



Thirteenth. The chairman may invite any person to address the meeting 

 or to participate in the deliberations, but such person, not a member, shall 

 be announced as a visitor. 



Fourteenth. Topics presented for consideration, or the announcement of 

 a discovery or invention, improvement or novelty, or the exhibition of any 

 machine or part thereof, or any manufacture or article, must be preceded 

 by a statement setting forth tlie point, in writing, to be deliberated upon. 



Fifteenth. Any person desiring to put on record any supposed or real 

 discovery in science, manufacture or arts, may address a communication to 

 the chairman of the Association, under seal and properly indorsed, which 

 shall be preserved in the archives of the American Institute as evidence 

 for the party depositing the same. 



Sixteenth. In all cases not provided for by the rules, Jefferson's Manual 

 shall be taken as a standard. 



Seventeenth. The official reports of the meetings of the Association shall 

 lie upon the desk of the recording secretary until 11 o'clock of the day 

 following the meetings, for the inspection of members, and such corrections 

 as are necessary before going to the public press. 



Eighteenth. The minutes of the previous meeting shall be read at the 

 opening in order for correction, unless otherwise directed by the meeting. 



Nineteenth. No argument is allowed between members. Facts alone are 

 to be stated. 



Twentieth. All questions of order are decided, without appeal, by the 

 presiding oflficer. 



American Institute Polytechnic Association, ) 



May 8, 1862. I 

 The Chairman, Prof Chas. A. Joy, presiding. 



The Manufacture of Soap. 



The Chairman opened the discussion with the following remarks : 

 It is not known when the manufacture of soap was first introduced. We 

 find mention of it in our earliest classical writers, and in the Old Testament ; 

 in Jeremiah, ii. 22, is fcmnd the expression, "Though thou wash thee with 

 niter. and take thee much soap;" and in Malachi, iii. 2, "for he is like a 

 refiner's fire and like fuller's soap:" but it is doubtful whether the soap here 

 alluded to was made of the same materials as are at present employed. 



The niter mentioned in Scripture was not our saltpeter, but an impure 

 sesqui-carbonate of soda, procured from certain lakes in Egypt. Solomon 

 was acquainted with the action of an acid upon this salt, as he says in 

 Prov. XXV. 20: " As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather and as 

 vinegar upon niter, so is he that singeth songs to a heavy heart." Pliny 



