“About one year ago the Massachusetts General Hospital started to make its own soap. I have endeavored to make a comparison of the cost to the hospital of buying soap for the seven months, February to August, 1904, and making it for the seven months, February to August, 1905. “We formerly used in the laundry a soap chip for which we paid about 4¾ cents a pound. We used a common yellow bar soap for which we paid 5 to 5½ cents per pound. Savogran for the floors, etc., at 6 cents a pound, and soft soap for ward use at 3½ cents. All these have been nearly or quite replaced by our homemade soft soap, which we find answers all these purposes in a satisfactory manner. We still use a small amount of Savogran on the white tile floors of our surgical building, and a little bar of yellow soap here and there. This latter we shall make ourselves as soon as our stock on hand is used up. But soft soap practically replaces everything except sand soap, toilet soap, soap polish, etc., which we buy as before. “In the seven months of 1904 under consideration, we paid $535.26 more for Savogran than in the seven months of 1905; $108.48 more for yellow bar soap; $24.99 more for soft soap, and $300.65 more for soap chips, a total of $969.38 more paid for soap effected by our home soap making in seven months of 1904 than in the seven months of 1905. “To counterbalance this we received in the seven months of 1905, $255.15 less for grease. Soap making takes about a third of the time of one man, estimated at $177.25 for seven months. Potash cost $293.91. Steam used in cooking soap estimated at $5 per month, $35. A total saving of $268.07 in seven months. “We have less trouble with our washers in the laundry because of the larger amount of free alkali in the soap made by our recipe, which is practically the same as that used at the McLean Hospital and the State Hospital. It is as follows: “Dissolve twenty-two pounds of potash in six nine-quart pails of water, add thirty-four pounds of grease and boil very slowly six hours. Then fill a 100-gallon tank half full of water and let it come to a boil again. When it becomes stringy turn off the steam and fill the tank with water. “The soap has been tested by the hospital apothecary and is found to correspond to the maximum of free alkali allowed by the 1900 United States Pharmacopia. Various fabrics have been allowed to soak in this soap for several days and have shown no detriment. The practical test of a year’s use shows no injury to clothing.” [Sidenote: Drugs]