Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/150

138 The wine is racked off into other casks when the fermentation has subsided, and becomes quite clear by the time the December frosts set in. It is then mixed, by bringing together thirty or forty casks of the same growth, and blended. Tannin is added, to neutralize grease and deposits, and as much alcohol as is required. At a later stage a masque or deposit forms on the side of the bottle, the removal of which requires much care and skill and manipulation for several weeks. Afterward a sirup of sugar and alcohol is added, in proportions varying according to the country to which the wine is to be sent. Finally, the bottles arc corked, wired, and set on end.

Changes in the Color of the Hair.—Cases of changes in the color of hair other than to gray are not uncommon. Workers in cobalt-mines and indigo-works sometimes have their hair turned blue, and workers in copper green, by deposition of coloring-matter upon it. This, however, is only a superficial coloring, and can be washed off. Prentiss records a case of a patient to whom muriate of pilocarpine was administered hypodermically whose hair was changed from light blonde to nearly jet-black, and his eyes from light blue to dark blue. These changes were due to increase of normal pigment. Hauptmann relates a case of a body exhumed twenty years after burial, the hair on which had changed from dark brown to red. Leonard cites a case in which, after death, red hair was changed to gray within thirty hours. Other cases have been mentioned in which the color of the hair has been variously changed in consequence of disease.

Decline of Mussulman Industries.—According to a letter in the "Allgemeine Zeitung," art and industry are in a lower stage in Algeria than in any other Mohammedan country, and their progressive decline is perceptible there from day to day. Persons may be seen walking in the streets of Algiers, dressed in Moorish or Arabian costumes, every piece of which is of European origin. Many branches of industry are extinct, others are nearly so, and all show unmistakable signs of decay. Many articles of European production are much cheaper than Mohammedan fabrics of the same kind, and are preferred for that reason; and many which at the first glance seem to be Mohammedan are in fact European imitations. Most of the really Mohammedan articles which are found, such as carpets, cloths, and table-wares, are not Algerian, but of Moroccan or Syrian manufacture. Arms are not made, for the wearing of them is forbidden by the French Government; but the Kabyles make a kind of iron knife, which can hardly be called a weapon. The only native industry still flourishing in the city of Algiers appears to be shoe-making, and this is because the Algerine men refuse to wear European shoes; but the women wear shoes of the prevailing fashion, with Louis XIV. heels. The cause of the depression of Mohammedan industry is the pressure of European population and influence, which has been attended with a corresponding diminution of the Turkish element.

Aryan Origins.—Professor K. Penka, of Vienna, has recently published a work on "Aryan Origins," in which, according to Professor A. H. Sayce, an eminent linguist, he sets out with "the incontrovertible but hitherto neglected doctrine that language alone will not interpret for us the former history of our race. Without the aid of anthropology, it is not only useless, but misleading. The theories built on the assumption that language and race are interchangeable terms, have introduced nothing but confusion into science, and have even left their scar on the politics of the day. It is only the skull in the hands of the anthropologist which can teach him the relationship of a people; the language they speak, or may have spoken, will of itself tell him but little." Professor O. Schrader has published, at Jena, a work regarding the Indo-Germanic race from the linguistic side, "in which," says Professor Sayce again, "for the first time a thoroughly critical method has been employed in determining the character and condition of primitive Aryan society by means of the records of speech; and the results are very different indeed from the idyllic picture of that civilized community to which Pietet and other writers have accustomed us. The early Aryan comes before us as a coarse and uncivilized