“…THE phase rule in its usual form applies, strictly, to equilibria in soap systems (2,9). This has been carefully demonstrated for a number of binary systems containing water with pure and commercial soaps, and for the ternary system sodium palmitate-sodium chloride-water (3, 5,6,11). In general, the data for commercial soaps in the presence of electrolytes and water rather closely conform to the behavior calculable from their constituents (4).…”