Soaking

“ The water being little short of boiling, our movements were decidedly cautious, and, curling ourselves up on the ledge, we tried to grow accustomed to the temperature by degrees before plunging right in. When, thinking to remove the traces of our journey by a vigorous application of soap, we began to scrub ourselves, it suddenly occurred to us that such a proceeding was not "etiquette," out of consideration [pg 546] to the other bathers. ”

“ To Make Good Soap.—To make matchless soap, take one gallon of soft soap, to which add a gill of common salt, and boil an hour. When cold, separate the ley from the crude. Add to the crude two pounds of sal-soda, and boil in two gallons of soft water till dissolved.26 If you wish it better, slice two pounds of common bar soap and dissolve in the above. If the soft soap makes more than three pounds of crude, add in proportion to the sal-soda and water. ”

“ Perhaps the very acme of luxurious bathing is reached in the Soap-bath, an application of hot water and soap to 4the whole body, followed immediately by a cold plunge, or a sponge-bath. A bath is at once a necessity and a luxury, and in order to obtain the greatest number of benefits, including increased health, appetite, vigour, and good spirits, the Soap-bath is the most effectual, and moreover the pleasantest and least trying to the weakly or over sensitive constitution. ”

“ I poured some very hot tap water into the roaster and shook in the strong soap powder. "This is to saponify the oil," I explained.
"What's saponify?" Lottie asked.
"That means to make soap. Soap is mainly a mixture of some caustic with fat or oil. It makes sudsy soap."
"But we got soap," she said. "Why don't you just use the soap we got?" ”

“ The water used for scouring should be soft and pure, both to save soap and still more because the insoluble lime soap formed in dissolving soap in hard water is deposited on the wool fibres and becomes so fixed that its removal is a matter of extreme difficulty. ”

“ But soap is not the only matter that concerns the washerwoman and her customers. There is labor, also, and the wear and tear; there is a double amount of destruction to our linen, involved in the double time of rubbing and the double soaping, which hard water compels washerwomen to employ. ”

“ Many soaps are positively injurious to the skin. In this, as in other matters, judgment and caution must be exercised. A free use of a good skin soap, with warm or hot water, may be recommended for [109] the weekly or semi-weekly bath when the primary object is cleanliness. The soapy lather should be vigorously rubbed over the body, by the hand or a small coarse towel, so as to remove all excretions from the pores, all greasy deposits of the sebaceous glands, and all dead scales from the cuticle. ”

“ Since the employment of poor soaps works so injuriously upon the skin, many persons never, or rarely ever, use soap, but wash the face in water alone, or with a little almond bran added. Their skins cannot bear the regular application of poor soap. ”

“ By using hot water, chills are avoided, and the body is kept sufficiently warm to avoid the unpleasantness, and often harm, following repeated applications of mere handfuls of cold liquid.
9The soap application may take about three or four minutes at most; the very robust may use tepid water, but most persons will find warm or hot more agreeable; and more delicate persons whose finger-tips have the unpleasant habit of turning numb and white upon the application of cold water, will find in the Soap-bath an agreeable means of bathing otherwise perhaps unattainable. ”

“ Soap follows, warm water after that, until the cold douche, poured out of a wooden bucket, brings one to one’s feet and, transformed and light-hearted, one returns fearless along the dark passage to be massaged with towels till dry. ”

“ I have discovered that the luxurious bath is not actually necessary to life, and, from a hygienic point of view, there's no real drawback to the kind of soap vulgarly known as 'hoss.' Furthermore, the filtration of water for ablutionary purposes is quite unnecessary. ”

“ During the hot weather when one may bathe daily for cleanliness he should guard against an excessive use of soap, as a daily soap bath may have a tendency to remove the oils from the skin so completely as to make the skin rough. With the daily bath for cleanliness it is possible that warm water and soap need not be used more frequently than once or twice a week and that a laving of the whole surface with cold water followed by a vigorous rub down with a coarse towel may serve the double purpose of insuring absolute cleanliness, and at the same time serving as a skin tonic. ”

“ So I got an idea. For instance, people that just used water to wash in were probably a lot more natural and had fewer diseases, and they kept cleaner, too. I began to think we oughtn't to use so much soap. That's all I was talking about, Muriel. I wasn't telling 'em marriage ought to be put a stop to, but too much soap. ”

“ Compare the dirtiness of the water in which you have washed when it is cold without soap, cold with soap, hot with soap. You will find the first has hardly removed any dirt at all, the second a little more, the third a great deal more. ”

“ IMPORTANCE OF SOAP. Nothing cleans the skin like soap. Wetting the skin every morning with simple water, and wiping it off, will not keep it clean. Such simple water baths contribute to cleanliness, and are useful; but the cleanest condition of the surface cannot be secured by such means.
DETAILS OF THE BATH. Let me tell you just how to manage your daily baths. You must have a bathing mat, which you can procure at any rubber store. It consists of a circular, thin rubber sheet, four or five feet in diameter, with the edge turned up two inches. ”

“ Manipulation.—Shave up the soap, and place it in a vessel that can be heated by steam or water-bath; add to it two or three ounces of rose-water. When the soap is perfectly melted, add the wax and spermaceti, without dividing them more than is necessary to obtain the correct weight; this insures their melting slowly, and allows time for their partial saponification by the fluid soap; occasional stirring is necessary. While this is going on, blanch the almonds, carefully excluding every particle that is in the least way damaged. ”

“ Much labour is saved by putting the articles in soak overnight, which dislodges the dirt and avoids the hard rubbing otherwise necessary. A good soak mixture is an inch cut off a bar of soap to every 4 gal. of water used, and a dessert spoonful of washing powder, allowing both soap and powder to dissolve before introducing the clothes. For body linen the water should be hot, for bed linen it may be cold. Curtains, blinds, fringes, and other articles which harbour dust and smoke should be soaked in plain cold water. Another excellent soak mixture is made as follows:—Dissolve 2 lb. ”

“ Very dirty spots are rubbed in with soap, and brushed with a soft brush. If one washing is not to satisfaction, repeat the process in a weaker soap bath, observing the same cautionary rules, and conclude with rinsing in cold water. ”

“ Why Soap Cleans. The natural oil of the skin catches and retains dust and dirt, and makes a greasy film over the body. This cannot be removed by water alone, but if soap is used and a generous lather is applied to the skin, the dirt is "cut" and passes from the body into the water. ”

“ The person is now thoroughly washed with perfumed soap, again water is poured over him in abundance, and he is finally enveloped in the havlous, or large napped towels, manufactured in the country expressly for the purpose, and admirably adapted to absorb moisture. ”

“ Then Jimmy [75] and I took off our nice jackets, rolled up our shirt sleeves, lugged in three big yellow dishes full of hot water, spilling plenty on the way, found a long bar of brown soap, and helped ourselves to three more of Bridget's clean towels; and then we all three began scrubbing away at the windows!
Such fun as we had! We put on the greatest lot of soap, and paid away with both hands, so as to make them good and clean, laughing and talking all the time ”

“ As the making of soap is the avowed purpose of this Treatise to explain, the doing so, by barely exhibiting the method of treating the materials in a soap-work, preparatory for using; of charging, boiling, and finishing a pan of soap, only, would be doing nothing; would be communicating no more information than any laboring man, with a small degree of attention, in one of those works, may soon be master of. To complete the soap-maker, a far different, and more extensive degree of knowledge is necessary. ”

“ This mode of washing has been adopted for many years in a family of seven persons; the linen is of an excellent color, with only half the assistance formerly required, and the quantity of soap used is much lessened.
N. B. The refuse water is a good manure for fruit trees.
166. Substitutes for Soap.—Put any quantity of pearl-ash or soda into a large jar, cover it lightly, and in a few days it will become liquid; then mix with it an equal quantity of newly-slaked lime, and double its quantity of soft water: boil it half an hour, add as much more hot water, and pour off the liquor. ”

“ The efficiency of soap depends upon the fact that in the presence of an abundance of water the saponified fat is decomposed into acid and basic salts, in which the impurities of the skin are dissolved and are washed away by the further application of water. Good soap exerts its effects on the outer layer of the skin, the so-called horny (epithelial) layer, which in soapy water swells up and is, in fact, partially dissolved in the medium and washed away. This fact, however, is unimportant, since the superficial skin cells are reproduced with extraordinary rapidity and ease. ”

“ Let it soak in the water for about an hour, occasionally stirring it in the bath, kneading and squeezing it so as to loosen the dirt. When you think it is clean, empty the bath and refill with hotter water, but no soap. ”

“ Usually soap and warm water is sufficient to remove dirt and stains, but occasionally a particularly hard case calls for the addition of a little washing soda in the water. The last washing, however, should always be in clear water. ”

“ For keeping clean, soap and water must always be had. The soap loves to wrestle with grease. The water softens and rinses away both dirt and soap. You will use a scouring soap or powder to clean stained or dirty metal or glass; and you should cover water-closets and other out-of-door places for refuse with clean slaked lime now and then to keep them clean. ”

“ Foremost in consideration must be the subject of cleanliness. Dirty and coarse hands are no less marks of slothfulness and lowbreeding than clean and delicate hands are of refinement and gentility. To promote softness and whiteness of the skin, mild emollient soaps, or those abounding in oil or fat, should alone be adopted for common use; by which means the tendency to contract chaps and chilblains, and roughness from drying winds, will also be lessened. The coarse, strong kinds of soap, those abounding in alkali, should be rejected, as they tend to render the skin rough, dry and brittle. ”

“ Pure curd soap. Water is so fresh. Nice smell these soaps have. Time to get a bath round the corner. Hammam. Turkish. Massage. Dirt gets rolled up in your navel. Nicer if a nice girl did it. Also I think I. Yes I. Do it in the bath. Curious longing I. Water to water. Combine business with pleasure. Pity no time for massage. Feel fresh then all day. Funeral be rather glum.
—Yes, sir, the chemist said. That was two and nine. Have you brought a bottle?
—No, Mr Bloom said. Make it up, please. I’ll call later in the day and I’ll take one of those soaps. How much are they?
—Fourpence, sir. ”

“ When the body is simply sponged over with tepid water it makes one of the mildest baths that can be taken; but those who are in ordinary health can well lather them selves over with soap and cold water, and then wash it off with some squeezes of the sponge copiously wetted with the water. ”

“ Among the necessities of life there is one to which few people pay the attention they ought, and that is Soap. Yet it is undoubtedly a most important matter, for the skin is a very delicate and sensitive organ, and the constant application of impure or inferior Soaps injures its texture, and gives rise to numerous cutaneous troubles. Most people are content, so long as it appeals to the eye and the sense of smell, without stopping to consider that perfumes may be employed to hide defects. ”

“ Soap made from cocoa-nut oil and palm-kernel oil will admit of the incorporation of large quantities of a solution of either salt, carbonate of soda, or silicate of soda, without separation, and will retain its firmness. These materials are, therefore, particularly adapted for the manufacture of marine soaps, which often contain as much as 80 per cent. of water, and, being soluble in brine, are capable of use in sea-water. ”

“ Some persons use strong soap and water, instead.
When the wainscot requires scouring, it should be done from the top downwards, and the water be prevented from running on the unclean parts as much as possible, or marks will be made which will appear after the whole is finished. One person should dry with old linen, as fast as the other has scoured off the dirt, and washed off the soap.
12. To give to Boards a beautiful appearance.—After washing them very nicely with soda and warm water and a brush, wash them with a very large sponge and clean water. ”

“ After the friction with soap, the body should be thoroughly rinsed by means of the warm shower-bath; and after the warm shower-bath follows a shower of cold water, or a cold douche. The idea of a douse of cold water upon a fully perspiring skin suggests a feeling of alarm in the minds of those who have not experienced it, or have not thought upon the matter ”