Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/146

 138 SNUFF a large snowdrop, its scape, about 12 in. high, bearing a single, large, very fragrant, pure white flower, each division of which is tipped Spring Snowflake (Leucoium vernum), Flower and Bulb. with green. The summer snowflake (L. cesti- vum) has a scape about 2 ft. high, with three to seven flowers about an inch long, blooming in late spring or early summer. The autumnal snowflake (L. autumnak, also called Acis) has narrow leaves and a scape 6 in. high, bearing two to three small flowers, which are pure white or suffused with rose, and appearing before the leaves in September. This is only a greenhouse plant here ; the others are treated like other spring bulbs. (See HYACINTH.) SNUFF. See TOBACCO. SNYDER, a central county of Pennsylvania, bounded E. by the Susquehanna river; area, about 260 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 15,606. The surface is hilly and the soil fertile. Iron ore and coal are found in great abundance. It is traversed by the Pennsylvania railroad, and the Pennsylvania canal passes along the E. border. The chief productions in 1870 were 247,381 bushels of wheat, 12,752 of rye, 255,- 831 of Indian corn, 283,841 of oats, 73,889 of potatoes, 4,762 of clover seed, 18,939 tons of hay, 9,366 Ibs. of wool, and 241,246 of butter. There were 8,964 horses, 3,900 milch cows, 4,489 other cattle, 3,367 sheep, and 9,050 swine ; 8 manufactories of carriages and wagons, 11 of tanned and 10 of curried leather, 21 flour mills, and 8 saw mills. Capital, Middleburg 8XYDERS, Sneyders, or Snyere, Frands, a Flem- ish painter, born in Antwerp in 1579, died there in 1657. He is celebrated for his pic- tures of animals and hunting scenes, excelling in those which represent violent action. He produced many pictures jointly with Rubens, Jordaens, and others, they executing the hu- man figures and Snyders the animals. 801P (Gr. OOTTUV, Lat. sapo), a compound formed by the union of alkalies with oils and SOAP fats. The invention of soap is ascribed by Pliny to the Gauls, and he gives the Germans credit for manufacturing both hard and soft soaps. From them the Romans learned the art, but soap was for a long time principally used by them as a wash for the hair. A com- plete soap-boiling establishment, and soap in a good state of preservation, have been dis- covered at Pompeii. Some natural produc- tions possess the qualities of soap, as the ber- ries of the soap tree (sapindus saponaria) of South America and the West Indies, and the bark of the quillaja saponaria, which has been carried from Peru to Liverpool for washing woollens. The juice of soapwort or bouncing Bet (saponaria officinalis) forms a lather with water, and is used in England for scouring dresses. In California the roots of the pha- langium pomaridianum, which grows there abundantly, and has the odor of brown soap, is much used for washing clothes. Alkaline waters, when used upon greasy fabrics, form soaps similar to those produced in the regular manufacture. Different kinds of oils may be used in soap making, having different pro- portions of the proximate principles of fatty bodies, stearine, palmitine, and oleine (see OILS AND FATS), and also upon the kind of alkali, soda making a harder soap than pot- ash. The hardest soaps are made with stea- rine and soda, the softest with oleine and pot- ash. The natural combination of glycerine with the fatty acids is broken up by the action of the alkali, and the glycerine exists in a free state in the soap, or it may be extracted as a separate product. The principal fats and oils used for making soap are tallow, and palm, cocoanut, rape, poppy, linseed, hempseed, and olive oils ; the last is used in the manufacture of the celebrated Castile, Marseilles, and other marbled and plain soaps of southern Europe. The best oils for marbled soaps come from Naples, and the Spanish oils are also highly esteemed. The oils from the East are not so rich in stearine, and are more or less colored green, which is objectionable. The mottling or marbling of soaps is produced by sprinkling the surface of the newly made body succes- sively with lyes of less and less concentration, by which the soap is again rendered sufficient- ly pasty or semi-fluid to allow of the aggre- gation in different masses of the particles of coloring matter. The ordinary method of sa- ponification, as the conversion of fats into soaps is called, is by boiling them with solu- tions of caustic potash or soda. Most fats quire Ipng continued boiling with excess alkali, but others, as lard, beef marrow, and oil of sweet almonds, may be saponified by agi- tation with caustic alkali at ordinary tempera- tures ; and under increased pressure the alka- line carbonates will readily produce saponifica- tion of fats. Rosin, which is capable of form- ing a soap with either potash or soda, is fre- quently added to soaps. Every kind of soap contains a variable quantity of water, partly