Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/472

440 also cultivated. The backward state of agriculture is caused principally by the minute subdivision of the land, a system which perpetuates the social evils of hereditary feuds and jealousies, by which Corsica has long been distracted. A large proportion of the exports of the island consists of honey and wax, which are procured from the forests. The former of these has a somewhat bitter flavour, from the yew and box trees on which the bees feed. Beyond the making of oil, wine, soap, bricks, and coarse glass, the Corsicans are entirely destitute of manufacturing industry, and their commerce consists for the most part of the spontaneous produce of the island. The fisheries of tunny, pilchard, and anchovy are extensively prosecuted for the supply of the Italian markets ; but comparatively few of the native Corsicans are engaged in this department of industry. The Government have constructed 700 miles of excellent roads (Routes Rationales), round the entire island, and crossing it at various points, by which regular com munication is maintained by means of diligences. Corsica, which forms a department of France, is divided into five arrondissements, subdivided and peopled as follows:—

Arromlissements. Cantons. Communes. Population (1872). 1. Ajaccio 12 72 66,701 2. Sartene 8 46 33,495 3. Bastia 20 93 74,124 4. Calvi 6 34 24,516 5. Corte 16 110 59,671 Total 62 355 258,507

Of this number 130,406 were males and 128,101 females; and compared with the census of 1851, the total population has increased by 22,256 souls, or nearly 9 per cent, in twenty-one years. The principal towns are Ajaccio (pop. 16,545), the capital and the seat of the bishop of the island (who is under the archbishop of Aix), the prefect, and the com mander of the forces; Bastia (pop. 17,850), Corte (5430), and Sartene (4166). Education is very backward among the islanders, about 40 per cent, being returned as unable to read or write. There are, however, several colleges, such as the lyceum of Bastia, the College Fesch of Ajaccio, the College de Calvi, and the Ecole Paoli de Corte. The people are sober in their habits, but not enterprizing and without much knowledge of sanitary laws. Their prone- ness to agrarian outrages has brought upon them an evil repute, but thanks to the strenuous efforts of the French Government this spirit of lawlessness has been greatly curbed. A great part of the agricultural labour is per formed by labourers from Tuscany and Lucca, who perio di c.ally visit the island for that purpose.

1em 1em  CORSSEN, (1820-1875), a distin guished German philologist, was born at Bremen, January 20, 1820, and received his school education in the Prussian town of Schwedt, to which his father, a merchant, had removed. After spending some time at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium in Berlin, where his interest in philological pur suits was awakened by the Rector Meinike, he proceeded to the university, and there came especially under the in fluence of Boeckh and Lachmann. His first important appearance in literature was as the author of Origines Puesis Romance, by which he had obtained the prize offered by the &quot; philosophical &quot; or &quot; arts &quot; faculty of the university. In 1846 he was called from Stettin, where he had for nearly two years held a post in the gymnasium, to occupy the position of lecturer in the royal academy at Pi orta (near Naumburg), and there he continued to labour for the next twenty years. The philosophico-historical class of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences having, in 1854, offered a prize for the best work on the pronunciation and accent of Latin, he gained the day by means of a treatise which at once took rank, on its publication under the title of Ueber Ausspracfie, Vokalismus, itnd Bttonung der Lateinischen Sprache (2 vols. Leipsic, 1858-59), as one of the most erudite and masterly works in its department. This was followed in 1863 by his Kritische Beitrage zur Lat. Formenlehre, which were supplemented in 1866 by Kritische Nachtrage zur Lat. Formenlehre. In. the discus sion of the pronunciation of Latin he was naturally led to consider the various old Italian dialects, and the results of his investigations appeared in miscellaneous communications to Kuhn s Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Schriftforschung. The state of his health obliged him to give up his pro fessorship at Pforta, and return to Berlin, in 1866 ; but it produced almost no diminution of his literary activity. In 1867 he published an elaborate archaeological study entitled the Alterthiimer und KwrntdenTcmale des Cister denser- klosters St Marien und der Landcsschule Pforta, in which lie gathers together all that can be discovered about the history of the establishment where he had taught so long ; and in 1868-69 he brought out a new edition of his work on Latin pronunciation. From a very early period lie had been attracted to the special study of Etruscan remains, and had at various times given occasional expression to his opinions on individual points ; but it was not till 1870 that he had the opportunity of visiting Italy and completing his equipment for a formal treatment of the whole subject by personal inspection of the monuments. In 1874 appeared the first volume of Uelcr die Sprache der trusker, in which with great ingenuity and erudition he endeavours, it cannot be said with complete success, to prove that the Etruscan language was cognate with that of the Romans. Before the second volume had received the last touches of his hand lie was cut off by a comparatively early death, which had in all probability been hastened by those Ion., hours which he had spent in &quot;damp grave-chambers,&quot; painfully deciphering by candle-light the f.uled and fragmentary inscriptions of forgotten days. Whatever n:ay be the ultimate decision of criticism on the great question at issue, 