December 15, 1921] 



NATURE 



505 



in the Food Controller's offices for some time past, 

 and the confusion of thought on the question of 

 what cost of production really is which these dis- 

 cussions have revealed is evidence of the need for 

 study and education in costing processes. Few 

 things can be of greater service to the farmer than 

 scientific book-keeping carried out and interpreted 

 with proper understanding, but few things can 

 deceive him more than costing wrongly conducted 

 or misinterpreted. 



Lastly, I want to urge, and particularly before a 

 gathering such as this, the imp>ortance of agri- 

 cultural economics in agricultural education. The 



fact is realised, no doubt, by many teachers, but 

 until a sufficient body of data bearing on the study 

 of farm management can be made available to 

 them it is impossible for them to give to the teach- 

 ing of practical agriculture that solid economic 

 basis which is fundamental, and the teacher is 

 driven to include in his instruction much to which 

 the economic test has never been applied and to 

 exclude more for which no basis for teaching 

 exists at all. Given the requisite bodv of in- 

 formation it would not only be possible but also 

 necessary to recast the whole foundations upon 

 which the teaching of practical agriculture rests. 



Black Coral as a Charm for Rheumatism. 



By Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner, F.R.S. 



MR. C. H. ROWXALL, of Banjoewangi, 

 Java, has sent to Nature office a letter 

 accompanying three bracelets made from the horny 

 skeletal substance of a soft coral or Gorgonian, 

 known to science as Plexaura. This forms great 

 branched growths which are abundant on the 

 outer or seaward sides of coral reefs at from 10 

 to 40 fathoms, but in protected situations almost 

 reaching the surface. All corals are formed by 

 anemones, and the one in question here possesses 

 eight feathered tentacles round the central mouth. 

 The original anemone of a "colony," as the whole 

 animal is termed, settles on the bottom and buds 

 off other anemones from its sides, these in turn 

 giving birth to further children. All remain at- 

 tached to one another by canals, so that the whole 

 growth forms a single, many-mouthed animal. It 

 takes the form of long branches, the whole simu- 

 lating a broom-like shrub growing upon the 

 bottom of the sea. The skeleton is in the centre 

 of the stems, and consists of an axis of black, 

 horny substance in each branch, surrounded by 

 the living tissues of the anemones, these further 

 strengthened by scattered spicules of carbonate of 

 lime. Generally, the branches are regarded as 

 belonging to some form of submarine plant, to 

 which the name Akar Bahar is given in the 

 Malay Archipelago. 



The 'bracelets, which are the cleaned, horny 

 axes of stems twisted into rings, are "credited 

 with the virtue of curing rheumatism." "There 

 are," says Mr. Pownall, "many doctors in the 

 Malay Archipelago who advise their patients to 

 make use of them. They acknowledge that the 

 bracelets do good, although they cannot account 

 for it. It has been suggested that the substance 

 is radio-active. Personally, I can testify that, 

 during a residence of fort\'-seven years in this 

 part of the world, I have never met a person who 

 has used one of these bracelets without deriving 

 benefit from it. The bracelets are usually worn 

 on the left arm. All natives are firmly convinced 

 of their efficacy, and all seamen and others who 

 are much exposed to the wet make use of them. 

 They maintain that they must be used quite plain ; 

 NO. 2720, VOL. 108] 



any ornamentation of gold or silver renders them 

 useless." 



Rheumatism is, of course, one of those diseases 

 which can have as many causes as there are 

 weeks in the year. Any concretions in any part 

 of the body, however caused, may give the regular 

 symptoms. The close association of rheumatism 

 with malaria is well known to every tropical 

 traveller, and malaria is particularly rife among 

 coast-dwelHng people. In some cases the symp- 

 toms described by the malarial patient are such as 

 are usually associated with rheumatism. The 

 present writer, while living in a small tropical 

 island, Rotuma, ran out of quinine, which he had 

 found quite effective. His reputation, however, 

 had been established by that time, and he then 

 found a mixture of cascara, brown sugar, and 

 methylated spirit equally good. Probably these 

 bracelets, if he had had them, would have been 

 quite effective to produce similar faith cures. 

 They exhibit absolutely no trace of radio-activity, 

 and are not composed of a substance which could 

 produce any direct effect. .A. lady who is a 

 victim to rheumatism has worn one of these 

 bracelets for a month, with considerable 

 comfort and a satisfaction which she herself 

 I laughs at. 



I The association of the bracelets with rheu- 

 matism in the Malay Archipelago is interesting, 

 because the use of similar bracelets merely as 

 articles of adornment seems to be widely spread 

 ! among fisherfolk from Suez to the most distant 

 I islands of the Pacific. They are made either of 

 I the stems of some Gorgonian such as the above, 

 ! or of the true black coral (Antipatharia), in which 

 the central horny rod is slightly hollowed. In 

 the Maldives, growths dredged up by the present 

 writer, after he had taken what he required, were 

 eagerly divided up by his native crew, and a large 

 piece was taken by the Sultan's representative to 

 be presented on his return to court. The orna- 

 ments made were exclusively used bv the women. 

 Other coloured Gorgonians obtained at the same 

 time were quite neglected. One of the Wack 

 sailors, originally recruited at Zanzibar, on 



