THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. [February 22, 1873. 
661 
forgiven. It would have been mentioned before had 
I not supposed it was more generally recognized. 
One other point is more generally known—it is this, 
an ejm-piece of low power (that known as “ A ”) 
should be employed, and in doubtful cases the 
analyser used above the eye-piece. A very thin 
film of mica, too thin to give colour with the help of 
the starch, is sometimes useful. 
Cascahilue Cortex. —This hark requires a some¬ 
what more prolonged maceration than the last 
named, and care must he taken not to place it in an 
iron or imperfectly tinned iron vessel. Commencing 
with the exterior, we have cells closely similar to the 
corresponding cells in Cusparia and not calling for 
special notice. The laj^er within this consists of small, 
somewhat regularly shaped cells, far less angular 
than the cells usually found in this position, and 
containing, besides colouring matter, starch. Within 
this layer are the larger parenchymatous cells, the 
liber cells, and certain well-defined latex vessels. 
All of these require careful treatment in order to see 
them properly. The best plan is to allow a properly- 
cut vertical section to remain for a considerable time 
in warm alcohol, then in ether, back to alcohol, and 
finally stain it in an alcoholic solution of magenta, 
and having well washed it in alcohol, transfer it to 
oil of anise and mount in dammar or balsam. In 
such a section the ramification of the latex vessels 
can easily be made out, and certain other features 
distinguished that are not easily seen in an ordinary 
section. The inn er layers of cells are chiefly more 
or less cubic or oblong cells, many of them contain¬ 
ing colouring matter, and becoming black on the 
addition of solution of an iron salt, whence the ne¬ 
cessity for not soaking the specimens in water con- 
tamed within an iron vessesl. Besides starch, these 
cells contain an interesting form of raphide, large 
rhombic prisms intensely and beautifully doubly re¬ 
fractive, but not easily seen excepting in well-pre¬ 
pared specimens by the aid of polarized light. These 
crystals appear to be situate always in ordinary cells 
with various other cell contents, and not in special 
cells, as in cusparia and many other barks, etc. 
The starch granules are small, doubly refractive, 
and give a well-defined cross by polarized light. 
The most interesting feature of the bark un¬ 
doubtedly is the system of latex vessels, or resinoid 
canals, situate between the two layers of cells just 
mentioned. These are apparently true vessels 
formed by adhesion end to end of cylindrical cells 
and absorption, not always complete, of the thin cellu¬ 
lose septa. They are always thin walled, and con¬ 
tain various substances coloured and otherwise. 
Lying side by side with these vessels are considerable 
quantities of the rapliides, frequently minute and 
agglomerated into spliaerapliides. These vessels are 
best seen in a section cut parallel with the surface 
and vertical. The sections had better be cut succes¬ 
sively, and each examined until the right one is 
found. Magenta and Tinct. Ferri Perchloridi are 
the best reagents for then* demonstration, and may 
be used together or singly, the section being 
thoroughly washed after the application of each. 
[To be continued .) 
Indelible Writing Ink .—The Pharmaceutische 
Zeitung states that an indelible writing ink may be pre¬ 
pared by adding fcrrocyanide of potassium to ordinary 
ink. The attempt to remove such an ink by use of an 
acid would cause the formation of prussian blue. 
SULPHUR MINES IN ICELAND. 
In a recent report upon the trade and fisheries of Ice¬ 
land, drawn up by Arthur de Capel Crowe, Esq., Her 
Majesty’s Consul at Copenhagen, he states that large 
deposits of sulphur exist in some districts, which at dif¬ 
ferent times have been the object of commercial specula¬ 
tion. The sulphur mines at Krusavik in the south are 
at present worked for foreign account, but, owing pro¬ 
bably to their partial inaccessibility and difficulty of 
transport, without much success. 
The right of working sulphur mines at Myvatn, in the 
northern portion of the island, has recently been conceded 
by the Danish Government to an Englishman on a fifty 
years’ lease. They were worked some years ago for ac¬ 
count of a Copenhagen house, but were abandoned in 1851, 
since which time they have remained closed. Many 
causes contributed to this result, the chief of which, 
doubtless, were ignorance of the proper method of gain¬ 
ing the sulphur, the cost of transport on horseback to 
the seaboard, and the want of remunerative demand. 
Since then these conditions have changed, and there 
exists no reason why these mines should not be worked 
profitably. They extend over a large tract of country, 
and their position is most advantageous in the middle of 
a flat country within an easy distance of Husavik, a con¬ 
venient shipping port, and during the many years they 
have been closed the deposits must have very greatly ac¬ 
cumulated, and should yield abundantly; indeed, so 
strong was this conviction in the minds of the natives 
that they long opposed the leasing except on very onerous 
terms, although quite unable themselves to work them. 
As these mines are now likely to remain in English 
hands for many years, a short account of their former 
history may be read with some interest. 
They are situated between 65° 20' north latitude and 
the Arctic Sea, or more definitely speaking, lying in the 
tract between Myvatn (Great Lake) on the east, and 
Iokulsa (Glacier River) on the west. The right of work¬ 
ing them was bought from private owners by the Danish 
King Frederick the Second, in 1563, and this right has 
ever since been in the possession of the Danish Crown 
(now the State). During the reign of this king a con¬ 
siderable quantity of sulphur was extracted, amounting 
to as much as 400 tons annually. In the reign of his 
son and successor, Christian the Fourth, the produce ap¬ 
pears to have fallen off, and his Majesty was unsuccess¬ 
ful in his endeavours to lease them to foreigners. To 
the falling off of their supply of sulphur in this reign, 
and the consequent scarcity of gunpowder, the Danes 
attribute their defeat by the Swedes in Holstein in 1644. 
In 1665 the Crown granted a concession for “ digging 
sulphur” to a foreigner, who is stated to have exported 
large quantities up to the year 1676 ; since which date 
no special mention appears to have been made of them 
until the early part of the eighteenth century, when two 
foreigners, apparently Germans, acquired in 1724 the 
right of exporting sulphur from Iceland of which they 
also shipped considerable quantities during the succeed¬ 
ing five years, when the death of the lessees put a stop 
to this commerce. 
After this date, and up to the beginning of the present 
century the Danish Government worked the mines for 
their own account, at times it appears with considerable 
profit, until 1806, when they were again leased to a 
foreigner, and subsequently have at times been worked 
by private speculators up to 1851, since which date, as 
already mentioned, they have remained untouched. 
In 1840 they were visited by some scientific travellers, 
who calculated that these northern mines might easily 
yield an annual net profit of £1000 or £1200; but ten 
years later they were specially examined by a Danish 
mineralogist, who discredited this statement, and re¬ 
ported them to be less valuable; but in speaking of the 
Krusavik mines in the south, he says, “these might 
easily be made to yield 200 tons annuallyand yet 
they have always been considered inferior to the northern 
