SCIENTIFIC HOAX.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 30, 1 March 1909, Page 4

SCIENTIFIC HOAX.

|:Tricks played on unsuspecting savants Siay be harmless, but it is a different Shatter wiien the scientists who are liken in by the hoax paid down a round turn in cash, as the widow and sou of a |ate Egytian scholar have (says the Pari, SSorreapondent of the Daily Telegraph on Sjth January) learned to their grief, if jjitat is alleged agaiast them is true. SThe Crown of Saitapharnes, which was ■given a place of honor in the Louvrelaving been bought for something like gSOOO or £lo,ooo—and which was afterwards found to be the work of an honest »Jttd poor, but clever, modern Russian jrtist, instead of having been made 2000 tears ago, is still fresh in many people's binds. A somewhat similar trick has (Seen played on the keeper of the Guimet Museum'" Par' 9; and the artists in this tase is as innocent as in that of Saitafjharnes' crown. But this time the perjSpas who, it is alleged, are responsible for the fraud are known. They arc the Kidow and son of the late Egyptian fcolar, M. Urbain Bourriaut, who, during his life, held a very high and honourId position among Egyptologists. ffi The widow of this scientist called one Scorning at the Musee Guimet, and ask§l to see M. Guimet himself. She was Kcconvpanied by a servant, who carried a eavy block of granite cut in the form iff a shield or scorabaeus, and covered Hith hieroglyphics which related the reOption given by the Egyptian King jNechao, son of Psammeticus, to one of phis envoys who had made a long voyage Ijpag the coast of Africa. The stone piftts supposed to have been found in Egypt by her husband shortly before his death. As it referred to an incident jncntioned by Herodotus and a voyage controverted by him, the discovery of ithis inscription was at once looked upon ?as very important, and M. Guimet paid a sum of £l3O for the stone. Later on hjladame Bourriant communicated 'with LM. Capart, the curator of the Egyptian in Belgium, proposing the sale [•of a second scarabaeus, which supplemented the story of the first one. M. jCapart offered £4OO, on the condition :that he should have both stones, and 'SSL Guimet very agreeably dispossessed of the one he had already pur-3-Tchased. ;' Great interest was taken in the two ''Stones by Egyptian scholars, and two »very learned lectures were delivered conicerning them before the Academy of in Paris last July. What was, the surprise of all these learned gentlemen when on the stones being presented before the Berlin Congress of they were declared to be spurious. Heated discussions followed, ■some being partisans of their authenticity, and others proving that they were r false. The question has now been settled by the mother and son both admittiing, it is stated, that they had had the ■i stones cut and shaped by a sculptor in Paris living in the Rue Amelot, 11. fleauk bien. M. Bcaubien himself is astonished .'to learn that the two blocks of granite 7,-whicu he had been asked to shape ac"r cording to drawings were used to hoax "■ such distinguished Egyptian scholars. f iWhen the two blocks of granite left his i atelier there was no hieroglyphic inscripfr lion on them. These were cut in them |l afterwards, and the stones given an I antique appearance. The son of Madame * Bourriant, who is a fairly good Egyptian j; scholar himself, and who is studying law B;i)i Paris, has, it is said, admitted that ' he put together the legend himself out tot some fragments traced by his father. fßut the mother and son were summon-' iei to answer a few days ago a charge fof fraud, and the case is being enquired =-into by an examining magistrate.