Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/443

Rh, their statement, their condition, and all the possible solutions. The literary faculty, the power of expression, was also of great importance, as it necessitated clear thinking and a grasp of the environment of the question, with a due sense of the proportion of its component parts, and of the forces affecting it.

Arabs of the Hadramaut.—Mr. Theodore Bent read a paper in the British Association on the Natives of the Hadramaut in South Arabia. He began by giving a brief sketch of the ancient history of this valley in the interior of Arabia, and showed how it was the great center from which frankincense and myrrh were exported to Europe by caravan routes across the desert, particulars concerning which are given us by Ptolemy and Pliny. He then went on to describe the modern inhabitants of this district, showing how the Bedouins here were distinct from those of northern Arabia, and in all probability formed an aboriginal race, with curious customs and a religion of their own. He then spoke of the extreme fanaticism of the Arabs in the Hadramaut, a fanaticism fostered by the Sayyids and Sherifs, who claim direct descent from Mohammed and form a sort of hierarchical nobility in the country, and who have hitherto succeeded in keeping foreigners out of their territory. The Arabs not of this noble family could not intermarry with them. The Sayyids never engaged in commerce or industry, but the other Arabs were very commercial, and frequently made fortunes in India and the Straits Settlements. Mr. Bent gave a minute account of the men and women of the Hadramaut and their peculiar customs and dress, stating that he hoped to return again next winter to continue his researches.

Economics as a Branch of Education.—It is highly desirable, said Prof. C. F. Bastable, in his British Association address, that certain professions—law, journalism, and public administration may be mentioned—should have economics as a part of the training necessary for their exercise. To accomplish this object, its combination with jurisprudence, political and administrative science in a common group seems the best way. The strictly professional students would obtain a better and more suitable training, and it might be reasonably expected that some with genuinely scientific tastes would be ready to take up social science as a regular pursuit and contribute to its progress. But it is in dealing with the practical problems that this wider mode of treatment is most essential. Is it not true that commercial policy must largely depend on political and legal conditions.? Even in carrying out the thoroughly wise and sound principle of free trade, the British Government finds itself involved in many curious complications. Treaties and administrative regulations have to be taken into account. The political forces that guide the tariff policies of nations have their decided effects; and whether we desire merely to estimate the actual character of any particular policy, to form a rational forecast of the course that nations will take in the future, or to give advice as to what should be done, we can not limit ourselves to abstract economic theory, or even to economic considerations. This is equally true of the currency question. The weightiest arguments for and against bimetallism are political rather than economic while such social influences as habit and custom powerfully affect the possibilities of action that purely deductive reasoning from economic premises might appear to suggest.

The Insane Kings of the Bible.—In a paper on the Insane Kings of the Bible, Dr. D. R. Burrell publishes a study of the cases of Saul and Nebuchadnezzar, in the light of modern science. Of Saul's case he finds that "his insanity was recognized, but, at a time when secondary causes were ignored, it was called 'an evil spirit from the Lord.' Judged in the light of the present, it was but the natural outcome of his character, a character made up of unstable elements easily and unfavorably affected by attending circumstances. In justice to him, it should be remembered that he was merely a herdsman's son, upon whom were thrust royal dignity, authority, and responsibility, without precedent or guide, for he was 'the first king in Israel.'" Nebuchadnezzar's insanity may have been caused partly by overwork. His treatment, in view of the sacredness of his person, his delusions, the climate and the private parks of Babylon, and the ideas of