TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9361, 10 March 1896, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Since the beginning of the Lockjaw year caaea of lockjaw have in been of such comparatively Auckland, frequent occurrence as to cause a certain amount of alarm, and in order to learn the real state of affairs, a representative of our Auckland contemporary interviewed the doctor of the local hospital. Dr. Baldwin admitted that it was a fact that there had beeu an increase in lockjaw patients lately, and he looked upon the matter as serious. Since the beginning of the year they had had no less than four cases in the Hospital, of which two had proved fatal and another was not expected to live. Four may not seem a very large number, but when it is understood that they took place in a very little more than two months, aud that the annual average for a number of years past has only been four, a different aspect is put upon the situation. Tetanus, or lockjaw, is said to be more common in New Zealand than in other colonies. " I should say," remarked Dr. Baldwin, "that bad drainage and dirty gutters have something to do with its prevalence." The bacillai is found in, garden soil, in decomposing liquids, in manures, and in the dust of the streets. It throve, Dr. Baldwin said, in old heaps of stable manure that had not been turned for some time, and ifc lost its strength when exposed to pure fresh air; Many of

those who contracted the disease had been disturbing some old .manure heaps .and the bacillus had entered the system through some cut; or abrasion, poesibly very small and unnoticed, on the hands or feet. " The prevalence of the disease," the doctor added, "is, I think, to be traced to the warxn weather combined with accumulations of dirt, add its beet enemy is probably general cleanliness and better sanitation. For instance, one case we bad was that of a man who was thrown from a horse into a gutter and simply got a cut on the nose. Yet he was dead in a few days. It is not the cut that is to be feared, but what gets into the wound; and the fact that tetanus is generally the result of wounds on the haud or foot is explained by the fact that these are the parts of the body which naturally come oftenest in contact with the ground. Three of our cases were children of nine, ten, and eleven years of age respectively." It appears that at Auckland Hospital they have some of the tetanus serum—by whioh presumably people can be inoculated against the disease

—bub so far they have had no opportunity of testing its value under favourable cod* ditions. It has, however/ proved fairly successful in other countries. To avoid the disease, Dr. Baldwin added thac people ought to take care not to get cute, and if they did get them to treat them with rigid cleanliness, by washing them with pure carbolic acid. It ie evident, however, that one of the most effective ohecks upon the disease is to be found in sanitation, and if greater care was taken ia this respect the effect would probably be a marked diminution in the number of cases of other diseases also, which originate and flourish in dirty surroundings. The rumours which have A always existed of a white White Tribe tribe living in the un. in known region lying at the West Africa, back of the Gold Coast of Africa have been revived by the report brought down, at the beginning of the recent Ashantee campaign, from the Korauza Country, by Capt. Larymore, of the Gold Coast Constabulary, who ia now A.D.C. to Colonel Sir Francis Scott, and in that capacity went up to Koranza on a mission. Capt. Larymore, like all residents Ob the West Coast of Africa, had heard traditions of the existence of this white race, and took the opportunity of pursuing investigations as to the truth of the statement. He found, we" are told, that there Was an accepted tradition that there lived, an indefinite number of day's marches to the northeast, a tribe of white men, who dwelt on the skirts of a desert which was difficult and dangerous to cross. Attempts, it was said, had been made to avoid this desert by passing through their ■ country, but they were found to be so fierce and so absolutely devoid of fear that the car a vans preferred the dangers of the desert to the hostility of the white tribe. So circumstantial were the statements made to him and ao certain were Captain Larymore's Informants that the white men were nofcunerely, as had been alleged by sceptics, a tribe of light-coloured Arabs, that the Captain continued his enquiries and at last came serosa a man who had seen a member of this strange raoe. Tkis man was a Mahommedan priest, and a Hadji to bootj that is one who had made the journey to Mecca. It was, io fact, while he was either going there or returning that he bad seen the " white " native. The latter was armed only with a bow and arrow, but the raoe hae earned saoh a reputation for fierceness that the oaravan left the plaoe

W hen p c, P uiu wr o ; e i d tt/;31 as a type of th« fair Si*£ • • t,b * I the stranger miut have bSCr? ""* i Arab, the priest said, ' t at hand, and ho had light X^dfe^ eyes, exactly as you have." The • U * % may ba added, is WeU %££"** »"' ? man of the strictest integrity ai,A v* "• story so impressed Can am f " »' •hat bo took iB doT * The existence of such a race as he dea ?!* is, we are assured, firmly believed in v I most of the Gold Coast traveller. ' I among others by Sir Francis Scott n *"* 3 to the fact that the reckoning o f th 8 $ gress of a caravan is done in the moi ? pr °" $ lees way, the spot cannot ba l °* r *' I exactly. The prieht .aid it Waß m ? from Koranza, which might mean 'nvT , ' * 1000 miles. Here is a puzzle fo " > plorers to unravel. It will be r £ that one of the most graphic of Frede 'i ' Boyle's stories of West African life d f ' with the discovery of a myateriou, whS 3 race. ,w ',;