36 
NATURE 
[May 14, 1885 
lectures on literary and scientific subjects, at nominal fees. The 
lecturers are drawn for the most part from the staff of Bedford 
School. Among the scientific subjects included in the course 
are mathematics, geology, physical geography, and botany. 
Bedford is fortuna‘e in having amongst its residents men qualified 
and willing to organise and carry out an excellent plan of this 
nature for its benefit. 
THE British Consul at Leghorn in his report for the past year 
makes some interesting observations on coral in the Mediter- 
ranean. Some centuries back the Mediterranean coral fisheries 
were carried on exclusively by the Spaniards, and the principal 
establishments engaged in the manufacture of coral ornaments 
were in the hands of Jews residing in Spain. Towards the close 
of the sixteenth century, to escape the persecutions to which they 
were exposed, a large number of these merchants removed to 
Leghorn, in order to enjoy the secure asylum afforded by the 
liberal enactments of Ferdinando di Medici. Crews were ob- 
tained from the Neapolitan coast, principally from Torre del 
Greco; hence this place at an early period became the chief 
seat of the coral fishery, and most of the boats enzaged in it 
are still fitted out at that port, although the manufacture of 
coral ornaments and beads is carried on principally at Leghorn 
and Genoa. These ornaments are met with in almost every 
part of the world, and in many countries, even in Europe, 
coral is believed to be possessed of a peculiar charm. In Asia 
and Africa it is regarded with a sort of religious veneration, 
while in India it is largely used for the adornment of corpses 
when prepared for cremation. But the present situation of the 
coral trade is disastrous. In 1889, a coral bank several kilo- 
metres in length was discovered near the island of Sciacca, 
on the coast of Sicily, and consequently the yield of raw material 
has been far in excess of the demand, and the reef is still very 
far from being exhausted. A great depreciation in value has 
ensued, and as a consequence an extensive trade has sprung up 
in coral with Africa, where the natives now purchase coral 
ornaments in place of glass beads of Venetian and German 
manufacture. The raw coral comes from Naples, and is 
worked at Leghorn by women into beads, British India and 
Egypt being the chief customers for them. 
On April 24 Mr. Edward Berdoe, M.R.C.S., read a paper at 
University College, Gower Street, before the Browning Society, 
on “Browning as a Scientific Poet.” The paper, as re- 
ported in the Zancet, opened with an exhaustive argu- 
ment to prove that the progress of science need not, as 
some had said, tend to the destruction of the poetic art ; 
that, in fact, some of the greatest poets had enriched their 
verse by the study of natural phenomena —Lucretius, Haller, 
Milton, and Goethe, and in our own times Tennyson and 
Browning, while students of natural and physical science had 
not found their exact acquaintance with natural laws impede the 
luxuriant growth of their poetic fancy. Many of Browning’s 
most beautiful similes were the result of his intimate acquaint- 
ance with anatomy, physiology, and chemistry ; and the use he 
constantly makes of figures drawn from the science of optics has 
enabled him to illustrate his favourite optimism by much beauti- 
ful imagery. The poet of the future will be denied his former 
“‘power of dealing capriciouslv with facts,” but this restraint, 
Mr. Berdoe argued, would not repress the poetic spirit. Mr 
Berdoe, in conclusion, claimed for Mr. Browning that he is 
essentially the poet for the scientificman : abreast of the highest 
culture of his time, and in close touch with the great aims of 
science. 
HERR SCHWEIGER, writing from Widdin to the Monatsschrift 
fiir den Orient, refers to baldness amongst Orientals. In Europe 
the idea is general that baldness is the prerogative of scholars ; 
| 
in the East, on the other hand, it is the common characteristic 
of two races—the Spanish Jews and the Turks, whose nervous 
system has never been overwrought by any devotion to serious 
studies. In some measure to explain the origin of this pheno- 
menon we must commence at the cradles of the two peoples 
living side by side. The indolence of Oriental women is well 
known and is manifested in sins of omission rather than of com- 
mission. The Oriental mother neglects the principal duties to 
her offspring. During the first eight days of its earthly career 
the infant is sprinkled with a little tepid water once a day by 
some old woman, then wrapped in coloured rags to save the 
trouble of frequent changes, the head being wrapped in a well- 
wadded cap tied under the chin. This process is repeated during 
the succeeding weeks once every two days, until finally it has 
become too toilsome even for this repetition, and is abandoned 
altogether, through fear, it is said, that the child would catch 
cold from frequent washings. Superstition has added its force 
to laziness, for the women believe that the head of an infant 
should never be washed, as the scab produced by the dirt is good 
for the eyes. This dirt, mixed with the secretions from the 
sebaceous and other glands, becomes the home of numerous 
animal and vegetable parasites, which prevent the development 
of hair and destroy that already grown. The open air, which 
might assist in destroying these parasites, is, however, carefully 
excluded by the custom which is imperative among Semitic 
peoples of never, by day or night, or upon any occasion whatso- 
ever, taking off the head-covering. At night the fez is changed 
for a linen cap of similar shape. This perpetual covering natur- 
ally retards the growth of the hair, and transmission and propa- 
gation do their work. Herr Schweiger, who has lived in the 
East for many years, first noticed chronic baldness amongst the 
lower classes of the Turks, especially the so-called Spaniols of 
Salonica. 
THE National Fish Culture Association’s hatchery at South 
Kensington is now gradua'ly becoming depleted of fry, which 
are being transmitted to public waters gratuitously, and to the 
fishery at Delaford belonging to the Association. The spawning 
and hatching season has been very prosperous and successful, 
there being but a very low minimum mortality amongst the fish 
produced. 
Tue Aquarium at the International Inventions Exhibition is 
assuming a more complete aspect, and has been an attractive 
feature with visitors from the first. An Aquarium Handbook is 
now in the press and will be shortly published by Messrs. Clowes 
and Sons, containing a natural history of the fish in captivity 
and a series of articles upon the culture of fish, the management 
of aquaria, &c. 
On April 22 a meteor was seen descending in a straight line 
from the zenith at Fogelsta railway station in Ostergétland, 
Sweden, and fall some distance off. On the station-master pro- 
ceedinz to the spot he found a stone, about the size of a hand, 
and brown in colour, which smelt strongly of phosphorus when 
struck against a hard object. It was split into three pieces, each 
being forwarded to a museum. 
THE Calcutta Gazette has published a resolution of the 
Government directing the institution of an inquiry, under a 
specially selected officer, into the castes and occupations of the 
people of Bengal. The results of this inquiry should be of great 
ethnographical value. 
THE exceptionally heavy rainfall at Bergen on October 25, 
1884, when 74mm. were registered for the twenty-four hours, 
was commented on at the time by the Scandinavian press as 
affording confirmatory evidence of the truth of the popular 
ee eee 
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