Inasmuch as the colors for soap have been carefully tested by most of the dyestuff manufacturers, and their information, usually reliable, is open to any one desiring to know about a color for soap, it is better to depend upon their experience with colors after having satisfied one's self that a color is what it is represented for a particular shade, than to experiment with the numerous colors one's self. MEDICINAL SOAPS. Soap is often used for the conveyance of various medicants, antiseptics or other material presumably beneficial for treatment of skin diseases. While soap is an ideal medium for the carrying of such materials, it is an unfortunate condition that when incorporated with the soap, all but a very few of the numerous substances thus employed lose their medicinal properties and effectiveness for curing skin disorders, as well as any antiseptic value the substance may have. Soap is of such a nature chemically that many of the substances used for skin troubles are either entirely decomposed or altered to such an extent so as to impair their therapeutic value. Thus many of the claims made for various medicated soaps fall flat, and really have no more antiseptic or therapeutic merit than ordinary soap which in itself has certain germicidal and cleaning value. In medicating a soap the material used for this purpose is usually added at the mill. A tallow and cocoanut oil base is best adapted for a soap of this type. The public have been educated more or less to the use of colored soap to accentuate its medicinal value, and green is undoubtedly the most popular shade. This inference, however, is by no means true for all soaps of this character. Possibly the best method of arranging these soaps is briefly to outline some medicinal soaps. SULPHUR SOAPS. The best known sulphur soaps contain anywhere from one to 20 per cent. of flowers of sulphur. Other soaps contain either organic or inorganic sulphur compounds. TAR SOAP. The tar used in the manufacturing of tar soap is obtained by the destructive distillation of wood, the pine tar being the most extensively employed. While the different wood tars contain numerous aromatic compounds, such as phenols, phenyl oxides, terpenes and organic acids, these are present in such a slight proportion so as to render their effectiveness practically useless. It has, therefore, been tried to use these various compounds contained in the tar themselves to make tar soap really effective, yet tar is so cheap a substance that it is usually the substance used for medicating a tar soap. About 10 per cent. of tar is usually added to the soap with 2 ounces of lamp black per hundred pounds of soap. SOAPS CONTAINING PHENOLS. Phenol (Carbolic Acid) is most extensively used in soaps of this kind, which are called carbolic soaps. Carbolic soaps are generally colored green and contain from 1 to 5 per cent. phenol crystals.