February ~2,1873.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
GG5 
mines. A French geologist, Eugene Robert, who visited 
Iceland in 1835, and afterwards published a treatise on 
its geology, calls the attention of the Danes to the value 
of the Myvatn mines, and advises them not to lease them 
to the Englishmen (who were then applying for them), 
as the property might become of great consequence in 
the event of the sulphur mines of Sicily falling off, of 
which he affirmed symptoms had shown themselves. 
It will thus be seen that opinions are divided as to the 
productiveness and present richness of these mines, but 
so much is certain, that they have for several centuries 
been "worked at intervals with varying results, at times 
with considerable profit, and the history of the country 
and the experience of so many years points to the con¬ 
clusion that, if properly worked, they would become a 
valuable property. The mines, for instance, at Reykja- 
klidar-Namar are the richest to be found in all Iceland, 
and produce large deposits of the purest sulphur. 
The reproduction is incessantly going on from upwards 
of a thousand small eminences, called solfatarar, which 
are found on the ridge along the sides, and at the foot of 
Namar-fjall. Rich sulphur deposits are also found at 
the Ketill crater (called Fremri-Ndinar), while the least 
rich are the Krafia-Namar, but at all these there is a 
continual deposition of sulphur going on. They all have 
the great advantage of lying in the track of one of the 
few practicable roads in the island, leading to an ac¬ 
cessible shipping port. 
A NEUTRAL SOAP. 
In a recent communication to the French Academy, 
M. Miahle described a soap which he states combines 
the advantages of being prepared without heat, and 
thus avoiding the loss of the glycerine in combina¬ 
tion "with the fatty matters, and of being free from 
that alkalinity generally present in soaps prepared 
in the cold. In its preparation the ordinary toilet 
soap, made without heat, is cut into shavings and 
exposed, in a properly closed chamber, to the action of 
carbonic acid gas. The soap absorbs a quantity of the 
gas proportional to the quantity of caustic soda which 
has escaped saponification, and by the transformation of 
the free alkali into bicarbonate it loses all its causticity. 
It then constitutes a perfectly neutral soap, containing 
all the glycerine of the fatty bodies employed in its 
manufacture, and a certain quantity of bicarbonate of 
soda. 
THE NATIONAL HERBARIA. 
_ The question of the positions which should be occu¬ 
pied^ by the great national herbaria at Kew and at the 
British Museum is one which has of late engaged a large 
share of the attention of the scientific world. The sub¬ 
ject was for a time brought under the notice of the 
general public last year by the attempt at interference 
on the part of Mr. Ayrton, as Chief Commissioner of 
Works, with the internal management of Kew Gardens. 
With the memorial from seven of the foremost scientific 
men in the country, addressed to Mr. Gladstone, in support 
of Dr. Hooker’s administration, and the abortive debate 
at the very close of the Parliamentary session, the dis¬ 
cussion appeared to have died aw r ay; when it was sud¬ 
denly revived by a letter from Professor Owen, pub¬ 
lished in the columns of our contemporary Nature for 
November 7th last, hinting at the desirability of in¬ 
corporating the herbarium with that at the British 
Museum. Though we cannot but regret the personal 
element which has been introduced, yet the controversy 
is one not without its importance, and one which should 
be fairly and impartially discussed. The plans of the 
Science and Art Department of the Privy Council, when 
complete, contemplate the removal of the Natural 
History collections, and with them the herbarium, from 
their present locality in the British Museum to the 
new range of buildings to be erected at South Kensing¬ 
ton ; and the question naturally presents itself whether, 
when these arrangements are carried out, there will still 
be room for a rival establishment at Kew. 
The arguments in favour of the amalgamation of the 
two establishments are sufficiently obvious. The saving 
of expense by the abolition of one or two of the curator- 
sbips or subcuratorships will probably weigh little with 
the public at large, and still less with the scientific 
world, if any compensating disadvantages can be shown. 
A far more forcible line of reasoning is based on the 
gain which would accrue to the student from the incor¬ 
poration of the two herbaria, and the consequent great 
increase in the number of specimens of any one species 
which he could have under examination at one time, and 
the filling up of gaps in one collection which might be 
supplied by the other. In the present state of syste¬ 
matic botany, it is absolutely necessary that any one 
engaged either in referring a plant to its correct species, 
describing a new species or genus, or preparing a mono¬ 
graph of a group, should have as large a series as pos¬ 
sible of specimens before his eyes at a glance. Our best 
colonial floras, as those of Australia, New Zealand, 
Hongkong, British India, the Cape of Good Hope, etc., 
published under the auspices of the colonial Governments, 
are, in fact, not drawn up by colonial botanists, who have 
small series of the living plants before them, but by home 
botanists from large series of dried specimens. Another 
argument of less weight is the desirability of having the 
opportunity of comparing the series of specimens of 
recent plants with those contained in the British Museum 
in a fossil condition. 
That this, however, is not the view adopted by those 
most conversant with the practical uses of herbaria is 
sufficiently shown by a memorial recently presented to 
Mr. Gladstone, bearing the signatures of nearly all the 
scientific botanists in the country, unconnected officially 
with either of the national herbaria, including all 
the botanical professors at the leading universities. 
The principal arguments therein presented in favour of 
the retention, in its integrity, of the magnificent her¬ 
barium now at Kew, are the great importance of keeping 
at least one great herbarium in immediate connection 
with the botanic gardens and library at Kew, and the 
greater facilities for scientific work afforded by such a 
situation as Kew than by one more metropolitan. With 
regard to the first, one of the duties of the officials at 
the Kew herbarium which is daily brought into exercise, 
is the naming, from dried specimens, of plants brought 
to or flowering in the gardens. The series of botanical 
works published under the superintendence of the offi¬ 
cials at Kew, and consisting of descriptions, with draw¬ 
ings, of new or little known species, monographs of 
groups, and scientific accounts of the botanical collec¬ 
tions brought home by different explorers, would of 
themselves form a considerable library of great value 
in systematic botany. Every one also who has 
worked at systematic botany, and especially at pre¬ 
paring monographs of groups, knows the importance 
of being able to compare the dried specimens with the 
nearest allies to be met with in the living state; and still 
more to have the freest access without delay or interrup¬ 
tion to every botanical work which it may be necessary 
to consult—an advantage enjoyed by the student at Kew, 
from the unrivalled library there, and not to nearly the 
same extent anywhere else. On the second point, thpugh 
it is impossible to consider the arrangements at Kew as 
perfect, yet the facilities for dissection and microscopic 
examination of specimens are greater than those afforded 
by any other establishment. There are also some other 
advantages in the separation of the two establishments 
which are alluded to in the memorial; and it is not pro¬ 
bable that so great an agreement among the practical 
scientific men would exist on the subject were not the 
balance very decided in this direction. It is satisfactory 
at all events to find from the reply of the Treasury that 
