Notes and Comments . 
5 
over 200 pages, and in addition to the Reports of the Field 
Meetings from 1915, and %e Reports of the Society from 1915 
to 1919, and obituary notices of G. A. L. Lebour and A. M. 
Norman, there are papers on ‘ The Siphonaptera (Fleas) of 
Northumberland and Durham/ by R. S. Bagnall, and an 
admirable and well illustrated memoir on ‘ The Genus Rosa : 
its Hybridology and other Genetical Problems/ by J. W. H. 
Harrison. Altogether, it is a creditable publication, and the 
-.editor adheres to his area. 
THE PEARL’S PECULIARITIES. 
Pearls are easily the most mysterious of all jewels (writes 
The Manchester Guardian— quoted in The Queensland Govern- 
ment Mining Journal). Their method of growth is unique 
among jewels ; their capture involves something more 
romantic than the ordinary ways of procuring precious stones. 
This flavour of the unusual may account for the extravagances 
associated with their history — the great pearl which Cleopatra 
dissolved that she might drink Anthony’s health becomingly, 
and the later imitation told of Sir Thomas Gresham at his 
feast for Queen Elizabeth — ‘Here fifteen thousand pounds 
at one clap goes ; Instead of sugar, Gresham drinks the pearl 
Unto his queen and mistress.’ Curious, too, is the pearl’s 
insistence on light and air ; its demand to be worn by its 
owners. It may be recalled how lovingly Disraeli dwelt 
on this peculiarity in ‘ Lothair ’ when the hero goes to Bond 
Street to look at pearls, and is instructed by Mr. Ruby ; ‘ Pearls 
are troublesome property, my Lord. They require great 
-care ; they want both air and exercise.’ And he goes on to 
explain how he himself looked after the pearls of the Duchess 
of Havant ; how he bids the Duchess wear them whenever 
:she can, even at breakfast ; ‘ and her grace follows my advice ; 
•she does wear them at breakfast.’ But this, it seems, is not 
onough, and Mr. Ruby goes down every year to Havant Castle 
to see the pearls. ‘And I wipe every one myself, and let 
them lie on a sunny bank in the garden in a westerly wind for 
hours and days together. Their complexion would have been 
ruined had it not been for this treatment.’ Whatever the 
value of this advice, Disraeli himself practised what he made 
Mr. Ruby preach. His bringing out of his wife’s pearls and 
laying them on the grass by the terrace at Hughenden was a 
custom well known to his visitors. 
THE RHODESIAN SKULL. 
In Nature, No. 2716, Dr. A. Smith Woodward figures and 
describes the skull of ‘A New Cave Man from Rhodesia/ 
He states that although the new skull from the Rhodesian 
cave so much resembles that of Neanderthal man, the shape 
of the brain-case and the position of the foramen magnum are 
1922 Jan. 1 
