ee es 
SOAPBERRY. 
in Britain, —and of vegetable oils and refined 
alkalies, with sometimes modifying substances, 
in some parts of the south of Europe. Hard 
soap owes its distinctive characters to soda; soft 
soap, to potash; white soap, to comparatively 
pure tallow; yellow or brown soap, to a mixture 
of tallow and resin; and mottled soap, to the 
dispersion of ley throughout it in the last stage 
of its manufacture, or to the admixture of sul- 
phate of iron, oxide of manganese, and other 
colouring substances. The desirable properties 
and the detergent uses of all common soaps are 
so universally known as not to require any re- 
mark. Well-made, hard soap, fit for internal 
| administration as a medicine, should be made of 
olive oil or almond oil and soda; and is generally 
imported from Spain and Italy and the South of 
France ; and has a white colour, a firm consist- 
ence, a marble-like surface, an alkalescent. taste, 
and very little odour,—makes an opaque milky 
solution with water,—and is decomposed by all 
the acids, by acidulous salts, by all the earths, 
and by most of the metallic salts. It is used, in 
human pharmacy, as a lithontriptic, a mild ape- 
rient, a diuretic, and an antidote to metallic 
poisons ; and in veterinary pharmacy, as a diu- 
retic, and sometimes, though quite improperly, 
as an ingredient in physic balls. Soap of various 
kinds and in various ways is also used externally 
as a remedy for tumefactions, sprains, and bruises. 
SOAPBERRY,—botanically Sapindus. A genus 
of ornamental, tropical, thalamiflorous, evergreen, 
ligneous plants, constituting the type of the na- 
tural order Sapindaceee. The petals of this order 
have either an additional lobe inside or a tuft of 
hairs instead ; the flowers of most are white and 
grow in bunches; and the leaves of nearly all 
| are compound. A few of the species are twining 
herbs; but most are shrubs or trees; and nearly 
all are natives of the tropical or subtropical 
|| regions of the old world. The entire fruit of a 
few is deliciously esculent; and parts of the fruit 
of one or two others is also excellent eating. 
One hardy species, nearly twenty greenhouse 
species, and about eighty hothouse species have 
been introduced to Britain, and are distributed 
among three tribes and about twenty genera. 
The soapberry genus. comprises about a dozen 
of the introduced species, and nearly as many 
more known unintroduced species. All the in- 
troduced species are hothouse, evergreen small 
‘trees or tall shrubs, varying in natural height 
from 10 to 30 feet, carrying either white or 
| herbaceous-coloured flowers, and, with some ex- 
ceptions, loving a soil of peaty loam and pro- 
pagable from cuttings—The common species, 
Sapindus saponaria, was introduced about 250 
“years ago, and is a native of the West Indies. 
Its stem naturally attains a height of from 20 to 
30 feet, and sends out many branches toward 
the top; its leaves are pinnate, and comprise 
each a midrib with a leafy border and from three 
to five pairs of leaflets ; its leaflets are pale green, 
EE Ee ee 
SOAPER'S WASTE. 
247 
pretty stiff, from 3 to 4 inches long, pointed at 
both ends, and about 1} inch broad in the mid-_ 
dle; its flowers come out in loose spikes at the 
ends of the branches, and are small, white, and 
inconspicuous ; and its fruit are oval berries, 
about as large as middle-sized cherries, growing 
singly or in twos or threes or fours, each com- 
prising a saponaceous skin and an enclosed, hard 
nut. The skin of the fruit is used in America 
for washing linen, but, when employed often, is 
very apt to burn and destroy it; and the nuts 
are very smooth and of a shining black colour, 
and were formerly imported to England, and 
manufactured into buttons, which were sometimes 
tipped with silver, and always very durable.— 
The emarginated soapberry, Sapindusemarginatus. 
was introduced about 26 years ago, and is a na- 
tive of India. It has naturally a height of about 
15 feet. The skin of its fruit is used by the 
Hindoos for the same purposes as soap, and pre- 
scribed by their physicians as a remedy for 
humoral asthma.—The rusty soapberry, Sapin- 
dus rubiginosus, is also a native of India, and has 
naturally a height of about 15 or 20 feet; and 
its timber is straight, strong, and durable, and 
is found very useful for a great variety of pur- 
poses. 
SOAPER’S WASTE. The refuse of soap manu- | 
factories. It varies in composition according to 
the kind of soap from which it comes, and the 
qualities and condition of the alkali employed ; 
but, in all its varieties, it acts as a powerful fer- 
tilizer. One specimen or coarse kind of it is 
stated, in a crudely reported analysis, to com- 
prise 57 per cent. of mild calx, 11 of magnesia, 6 
of argil, and 21 of silex; but sucha kind as this, 
which comes from soap made with lime and the 
crude varieties of kelp and barilla, is less valu- 
able than kinds from soap made with good kelp 
and barilla; and these latter, again, are less 
valuable than kinds from good or best common 
white soaps. ‘“ Soaper’s waste,” says Donaldson, 
“has been applied on almost every description 
of soil, and generally with good success. On 
cold wet soils, on sour meadows, and on moss, 
the effects have been great with 60 bushels to 
an acre; while in some instances, the quantity 
applied to an acre has been as much as 40 tons, 
and the average allowance may be stated at 150 
bushels. The hot caustic quality will be harm- 
less on wet strong soils; on all light lands, the 
safer mode of application will be by mixing the 
soap with four times the bulk of good earth, 
which will make a fine compost for grass-lands and 
young crops. The caustic quality of such sub- 
stances requires correction, which is well accom- 
plished by exposure, and by mixing with cool 
materials in a greater quantity. Great results 
have been published as having been derived from 
using soaper’s waste; and in experiments with 
other manures the unmixed substance seems to 
have yielded most produce, while in another 
instance an application to wheat showed no per- 
