272 EASTERTIDE, SHAMROCKS, SPERMACETI 



not the original national colour of Ireland, but light blue 

 — Cambridge blue ! 



This chapter is one of varied material, and I now pass 

 abruptly from fresh emerald leaflets to the waxy crystals 

 stewed out of the fat of a monster's head. There has 

 seldom been a controversy so entertaining as that between 

 Dr. Bode (the talented director of the Art Gallery of 

 Berlin) and his opponents, in regard to the age of the wax- 

 bust which he purchased not long ago for ;£^8ooo in Bond- 

 street in the belief that it was the work of Leonardo da 

 Vinci. Science has had its share in the examination of 

 the bust. The last scientific contribution to the matter 

 was the discovery by an analytical chemist, Dr. Pinkus, 

 that the waxy mixture of which the bust is composed 

 consists in definite proportion of spermaceti. Now since 

 spermaceti was not used before the year 1 700, the bust 

 cannot (say Dr. Bode's opponents) have been made by 

 Leonardo da Vinci, who died in the early part of the six- 

 teenth century. " Nonsense 1 " reply Dr. Bode's supporters, 

 " Shakespeare makes Hotspur speak of ' parmaceti,' and 

 it was well known to the doctors of Salerno in 1 100 A.D., 

 and probably used by the ancients." 



Nevertheless, the opponents of Dr. Bode are right. I 

 am sorry, because Dr. Bode is, in regard to " works of 

 art," a most able expert, and I think it is better that' 

 experts should always be right. Spermaceti was known, 

 probably from classical times onwards, as a rare and 

 precious unguent, " resolutive and mollifying," as M. Pomel, 

 " chief druggist to the late French King Louis XIV," says 

 in his treatise on drugs, translated into English in 1737. 

 It was applied as a liniment for hardness of the skin and 

 breasts, and was also taken internally. Shakespeare's 

 reference to it is " parmaceti for an inward bruise." The 

 fact is it was known and used in small quantity before 



