ed, it will not do at
all.

For years we had been seeking for somebody who could make us hard soap
without any mixture of soda. Once, when in Belfast, we spoke of this to
a friend. He took us to a soapmaker, to whom we mentioned our desire.
This gentleman at once saw what we wanted, and told us frankly that he
could not make the soap that would suit us, and that he knew only one
firm in the trade who could do so. But he assured us that that firm
made a pure hard soap which we should find exactly suitable to our
purpose. Thus we were introduced to the manufacturers of M'Clinton's
soap. This firm, we found, made the very soap we had been so long in
search of.

It is made (by a process which is, we believe, a secret in possession
of this firm alone) from the ash of plants, and so it may truly be said
that it is Nature's soap.

There is something in the composition of this soap which makes it
astonishingly curative and most agreeable on the skin. Lather made from
it, instead of drying and so far burning the skin of those using it,
has the most soothing and delightful effect.

As yet we do not feel able to explain this, not being sufficiently
chemical for the work, but we have tried the matter, and feel assured
that this soap is by a long way the best for cleansing and curative
purposes. Even soap which possesses the same chemical composition lacks
the properties of that made from plants, a fact not without parallel,
as chemists know. The substances of the plant ash differ in some
unknown way from even those chemically the same, which have been
artificially produced.

We trust that our noticing the thing in this way will have the effect
of calling attention to the whole question of soap-making and using. It
is one of those questions on which great ignorance prevails. Many
people judge toilet soaps by the perfume and price. If the former is
pleasant, and the latter high, they consider they must be getting
something specially suitable, and yet the soap itself may be very
injurious. Before we had some cases of bad diseases of the skin arising
from the use of certain soaps, it did not occur to us to think much of
the difference between one sort and another. Hence we just said, "use
lather from good soap." Now we see need for care as to the kind of soap
used, and especially to warn against all soaps, however fine-looking,
that burn the tender skin when lather made from them is much applied.

Very especially is it importan