TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9110, 22 May 1895, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Taking everything i ftt a The sideration, the office oft/** Position at a football match is De ,hof the one of the moat, ar duou 8 t«*f Reteree. found in any department 2 football; it i. certainly Z. the most thankloas. The man who R day after Saturday, toils after two teatnsTf footballers, and delivers decisions, based something like a hundred rules, with quickness of thought, and with the certain?' that half the plajers and possibly mow than half the spectators, will regard his dicW as wrong, represents the highest type of self-abnegation to be found throughout ithe world of sport. It is a pity that this ia m more generally recognised by players and public alike. If it were there would be danger than is apparent at present 0 { oar drifting into an imitation of the referee-mobbing crowds which occasion, ally disgrace English football matches! With all his virtues, the referee ia bni human, and, what is more, he is scarce at least the capable leferee. Ih his cap& Q it, aa a human being, he ia liable to make mistakes, but not nearly so muoh so, from his position in the field, as nine-tenths of the spectators, who ought, therefore, to accept his decisions ac the deliverances of* sorely tried, but well meaning, man. Cep. tainly it would b<* better if the Rugby Union, whenever practicable, would so arrange their referees that no one who had be. longed to anyoneClubshouli have to referee in a match in which that Club was engaged, Not because any of the local referees can be suspected, in ever so small a degree of unfairness. But it is possible that the fact of being a past or present member of a Club playing in a match may make the referee—entirely unintentionally —unduly temper justice with mercy when called upon to give a decision which wilt have an important effect upon his Club's prospects of winning the game. It is on the other hand certain that there are referees in Chris.tchurch to-Jay who are noted for being severe upon the Clubs for which they once played, so that no suspicion of partisanship may attach to their rulings. The present system of refereeing, like most other existing institutions, is capable of improvement); in the meantime it is the best that ha 3 been invented, and as Much is entitled to a share of the Tery small amount of respect possessed by the average larrikin for anything. We are willing to believe that loyalty to a particular Club, or the district represented by that Club, is the cause of half the yells, hoots and objurgations of the referee, which can sometimes be heard at football matches, but loyalty, a fine quality in itself, is not best expressed by such means. Spectators at such matchei should remember the old legend posted up above the piano in a Califomian bar-room, " Don't shoot at the pianist; he's doing his best." Suitably adapted, the same request applies to football referees.

A REMARKABLE CSB6 of A Modern what is called dual Case of consciousness, the conJekyll and Hyde. . dition of which R. L.

. . . • •Stevenson made auch powerful use ia his " Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde," was recently reported by a Mr Brace, lately medioal officer to the Derby Lunatic Asylum. The subject was a man named Hugh Parry, who waa suffering from deterioration of the brain, aud the extraordinary feature of the case was that to all intents and pni poses he was two men, just as was the Dr. Jekyll of fiction. Sometimes he talked only Welsh, displayed hardly any interest in life, showing no eagerness or even desire for anything but Sis meals, and at the same time waa also left handed and idiotic. At other times ha spoke very little but English, was very eager for money and tobacco, and rather than go without them would display thievish pro* penalties. At these times he was right* , handed. Between these two diverse conditions were short periods daring whwh Parry used English and Welsh words in* discriminately, used both hands, and showed a disposition which waa a combination of those • under which he alternately acted, being more alive than when he epoke only Welsh, and less so than when he might be considered an Englishman. Further details show that as a Welshman his writing was almost illegible, and appeared to follow Chinese fashion, going from right to left, I while in his other state his writing waa I more legible, and went a* everybody else's does from left to right. In his Welsh state he was inert to a degree, sat crouched together, and cculd hardly be roused into makiDg any effort, while ia Ms ' , English-speaking condition, though restlea and maniacal, he was good humoured and, as we have shown, imbued with a very keefc , desire to obtain money or tobacco, honestly or otherwise. The theory drawn from the , facts published by Mr Brace is that the deterioration of the brain from which Pany was suffering was proceeding at a different rate in the two lobea of the brain,- tbaS sometimes the right side of the brain alone acted, when Parry appeared ie hie WeUh role, and that when the left side of tbs brain took up the running and the other stopped work he became an Englishman*" The period during which he spoke -both languages and used b£th hands is believed - to have resulted from both lobes of the brain acting in concert. The suggestion k made that the little trace of mind wb»h Parry had retained belonged almost entire!? to the time when the left aide of his btiia was at work, daring which he diiplayed perceptions and emotions, and hardly any of it to the Welsh or right lole. under the influence of which he vu, as far as his faculties went, little more than an animal. The disease had apparently made more progress in what has been called the more animal brain, the right lobe, thw it had on the other side, which is nwrt closely connected with thought and speech and general intellectual work. The case U one of deep interest, as much because it - proves how much of our assumed knowledge of the brain is theory, as from the indispet* . able faota from which «uoh theories we drawn.