THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



165 



consume the greater quantity of soap. This 

 consumption neither depends on fashion nor on 

 the gratification of any sensual appetite, but on 

 the agreeable sensation which is the result of 

 cleanliness, and which is so essential to health 

 and comfort. 



During the middle ages the rich, who were 

 comparatively few in number, made great dis- 

 play in what were then considered the luxuries 

 of the table, in gold and silver, in arms and ar- 

 mor, in horses, in costly apparel ; but the idea 

 of cleanliness had not yet reached them. They 

 were but partially acquainted with the use of 

 linen, and soap was almost a stranger to them ; 

 whereas, at the present day, he must be poor 

 indeed who dispenses with the article of soap. 



The immense capital employed in this branch 

 of industry in the United States, would astonish 

 any person who should make the calculation. 

 It probably is not inferior in amount to that of 

 the whole trade in coffee. Of the article of 

 soda, France alone imports from Spain six mil- 

 lions of dollars worth annually, which is nearly 

 all consumed by the soap boilers of a single city 

 (Marseilles). 



In the time of Napoleon, the chemist Le 

 Blanc discovered the process of obtaining soda 

 from the decomposition of common salt by sul- 

 phuric acid ; this, with the art of separating the 

 sterine or solid part of animal fat from the olein 

 or liquid portion, has formed a new era in this 

 important manufacture. — Brooklyn Eagle, 



WIND MILL, 



In the lower part of Virginia, especially where 

 water is very scarce, we have often thought that 

 power might be advantageously obtained by 

 means of wind mills. It is, however, a subject 

 upon which we are profoundly ignorant, and the 



only reason we have for inclining to them, is 

 that they seem to stand high in the favor of our 

 Northern friends, if we are to judge from the 

 quantity that meets the eye scattered over their 

 country in every direction, 



