Pat here:
Talk about timing— I was researching the use of antiseptic soap for my doctor hero in my current WIP to make sure I could have him insist on washing hands and what he would have used. And now here we are in the midst of a plague that requires we wash our hands all the time, although the antibiotics my Victorian doc needed aren’t the same as the fatty soaps we need to melt a virus.
But as happens, I fell down the research rabbit hole looking up soap. We have solid evidence that a form of detergent made from animal fats and wood ash was used in Babylonia around 2800 BC. From all accounts, it was used in cleaning wools and textiles, and there is some evidence that it was used medicinally, although no one is telling me if they tried drinking the stuff. Uck ptui.
Apparently Phoenicians preferred animal urine in their soap. Keep in mind that these first smelly soap mixtures weren’t necessarily used for personal hygiene (I almost breathe easier at that) but for cleaning cooking utensils (well. . .) and other goods. This was basic laundry detergent, not perfumed luxury.
A lovely legend claims that soap was named after Mt Sapo, where rain washed the ash and fat from animal sacrifices down the Tiber River. Women washing clothes in the river after a heavy rain noticed their clothes came out much cleaner. Unfortunately, Mt Sapo does not exist, but there could be a germ of truth in the legend. Someone had to learn the unlikely combination somehow, and this makes as much sense as any.
We all know the Romans believed in bathing, hence all those lovely bath houses still standing today. But as the Romans fell into a decline, so did cleanliness. Without aqueducts and plumbing or the wealth to build them, bathing became a thing of the past. And thus the plagues of the Dark Ages followed, which goes to show, Wash Your Hands! is always a timely admonition.
Eventually, after we crawled out of the darkness and people became civilized enough to bathe more often, softer bathing soaps emerged. They were still basically lye—rain water run through hardwood ash—but with fancier fats (no urine!) and oils. France got into some pricey olive oil concoctions, complete with perfume, of course. The royal court officially recognized Marseille soap in 1688. The Spanish had Castile soap, again, made from olive oil. These were not mass manufactured, but created by highly-paid soap makers, so your basic yeoman wasn’t bathing with pretty-smelling soap. He was still using lye and goat tallow or some combination thereof, if anything at all.
England had a soap-makers union by1633. Queen Elizabeth even bragged that she took a bath every four weeks whether she needed it or not! (I can't find an image of QE's bath but this one is Queen Mary's!) Wealthy ladies of the Tudor period (1485-1603) used scented toilet soap for their daily bathing. A household instruction manual written during this period included recipes for soap which suggests that people of all levels of society were interested in personal hygiene, at least every few months or so.
And then in 1791 a Frenchman named LeBlanc found a chemical process that created soda ash which reduced the cost of all those pricey animal fats. In another 20 years, they learned about glycerin, and soap became cheaper yet. But luxury soap was still heavily taxed until the last half of the 19th century, right about the time that laundry soap and bathing soap became separate commodities. None of this qualifies as antiseptic in any way, but if plague viruses melted in soap as Covid-19 does, they were all set.
Finally, though, I found the carbolic soap that my hero needed. It contains disinfectant phenol (carbolic acid), a substance once bought at oil shops along with paraffin and soda ash. Phenol was first discovered in 1834, and its antiseptic qualities were revealed early on. Joseph Lister first started experimenting with antiseptics in 1865, eventually using them in surgeries and putting them into regular practice a few years later. So my guy in 1871 has his very own cake of carbolic soap wrapped in newspaper and tucked inside his medical bag—because the cakes weren’t commercially available, and he had to make them. (His mother is a Malcolm herbalist and healer, so he’s accustomed to experimenting. I like my magic with a scientific basis!)
Not until 1895 when Lever Bros first sold Lifebuoy did antiseptic soap become commercially available. (I couldn't find an image of Lifebuoy but who remembers Ivory soap?)
So, of course, my mind then wandered to whether bar or liquid soap is most effective against a virus. Everyone wants to give us the science of soap, but I had to dig a little deeper to learn that any soap at all works, although one might worry about the plastic container on the liquid soap!
So how are you fighting the virus? Are you staying safe inside or do you have to go out? And if you have to go out, how are you taking care of yourself?