The first kind, caused by gummy or albuminous
substances, which are soluble in cold or
tepid water, will be removed by simple washing.
The second sort of dirt, owing its existence to
oily matters which enter our body-linen by
transpiration, and our table and kitchen-linen by
the grease absorbed during use, can only be
discharged by the application of substances
which either themselves dissolve grease, or
render it soluble in water by altering its nature.
Thirdly, for spots caused by such matters
as ink or iron-rust, water will often be
inefficacious; and the substances which dissolve
or modify grease, not only will not remove them,
but will fix them more permanently. These
spots, also, by their contact, may discolour
other portions of the tissue, so that one spot
may become the parent of many.

It is desirable, therefore, to remove such
stains before sending linen to the wash, by
employing the special means required for each.
Thus, for ink-spots, use oxalic acid, or salts of
sorrel, which discharge the gall-nut contained
in the ink; for iron-moulds, very diluted
sulphuric acid, having about the sourness of
lemonade. Of course, the place will be rinsed
in several waters, and plenty of them, as soon as
the spot has disappeared. For fruit stains,
''eau de javelle" (see infra) may be employed
with great discretion and subsequent rinsings.
Fresh paint, and a few other similar stains, are
removed by essence of turpentine. Lastly,
stains of nitrate of silver, now common since
the spread of amateur photography, had better
be entrusted to a professional chemist, since the
substance often employed to remove them is an
extremely dangerous and violent poison. You
may, however, do it yourself without danger, by
using a solution of iodide of potassium, to which
a few crystals of iodine have been added, and
afterwards washing the spot (which turns deep
black) with a small quantity of concentrated
hyposulphate of soda, which causes it instantly
to disappear. A liberal rinsing with water must
be immediately applied.

If a spot resists your utmost efforts to get rid
of it, what are you to do? Leave it. For if
Neatness say, "A hole is better than a spot,"
Economy urges that "A spot is better than a
hole." And a hole will certainly be the
consequence of violent attempts to eradicate a fast-
stained spot. As all spots are removed much
more easily when they are recent, the wisest
plan is, as far as possible, to take them out as
soon as they are made. The spots once out, all
that remains upon the linen is the soiling
produced by dust, gums, and greases. And as
every day cannot be washing-day, it must remain
in that state till the first opportunity.

When that day arrives, care must be taken
not to put the linen into hot water at first;
because boiling water, which coagulates albumen,
would only fix more firmly in the linen the
impurities with which albumen happens to be
combined.

For greasy matters, substances must be
employed which enable water to carry them off.
If any fatty body, as tallow or oil, remain
in contact with an alkali, as soda or potash,
for a certain time and at a certain temperature,
there is formed by their union another
body, soap, which possesses the remarkable
property not only of being dissolved itself in
water, but also of dissolving greasy bodies in
its own solution. Take this familiar illustration:
You smear your hands with oil. You
wash them in the softest rain-water; in vain.
The oil will not quit your skin by combining
with the water, as syrup, salt, or treacle
would. You therefore take soap. The outer
surface of the soap soon becomes dissolved in the
water; and into this solution the oil will enter,
and your hands come out of their trouble
clean.

Similarly, to remove from linen the greasy
matters which, in spite of the application of
water, retain dirt in it, we must either dissolve
that grease in soapy water, or we must transform
the grease itself into a soap, by means of
an alkali, in order to be able subsequently to
dissolve the new-made soap in water, and so get
rid of all the impurities at once. Soap's
property of forming a solution with which oil and
grease will combine, is shared by a few other
substances; by yolk of egg, for instance, and
certain vegetables. The stems of common
soapwort, Saponaria officinalis, a native plant, if
crushed and beaten up with water, cause it to
froth exactly like soap, and render like service
for washing purposes. There is a double
flowered variety, which is pretty enough to be
encouraged, if it were not so weedy and troublesome.
When once established on a bank or
other spot where there are many matted roots,
it is next to impossible to extirpate it. Besides
this, there is a hothouse plant, the soap-tree,
Sapindus (Sapo-Indus) saponaria, which bears
fruit, the size of a walnut. Crushed upon
linen, it has the same effect as soap, producing
a white thick froth, which takes out grease
wonderfully well; the proof of which is its
success in purifying negro clothing. In default
of genuine and actual soap, these substances,
which give water the power of dissolving grease,
are at least worth bearing in mind for the
removal of grease-spots from tissues and
stuffs.

Soap, therefore, is a peacemaker, a negotiator,
an amalgamator, a means of union between two
antagonistic opposites, oil and water. It is a
neutral ground, on which those very antipathic
substances are able to come to an understanding
and work together. Its value consists in that,
in it, we have a great cleansing power
compressed into a very small space. (Soap is also
used in surgery and medicine, but that employment
is foreign to our purpose.) The application
of soap as a detergent is not of high
antiquity. Like other useful things, electric
communication, for instance, it seems to have been
known, as a fact, for a considerable time before
it was turned to its most serviceable account.
Soap, at first, was merely a cosmetic, for smoothing
the hair and brightening the complexion.