TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 11102, 22 October 1901, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

_ London is apparently suffer- • Smallpox ing from one of the periodical in London, epidemic* of smallpox which nowadays, are so much less * sever* than they used to be twenty or thirty * years ago. Last week, w» were told, there ,- were 170 patient* under treatment, near'y _ double as many as the total number of cases treated by the Metropolitan Asylums Board duiing tho three previous* years." This body deals with smallpox So* rigorously'that it is a difficult to.believe the disease can ever again , attain "the decimating power it once pos--3 seesed. Directly a doctor recognises or sus- _. pects a' case he telegraphs to the Board, a telephonic message" is sent to- the nearest ambulance station, and within five minutes x . ah ambulanoe with> a nurse is,on the way io- "' remove the patient to the Board's.receiving . station at Botherhithe. ~ There.the case, is . . inspected by the medical superintendent,'' . . Dr. Bicketts, .whose knowledge of smallpox is of the profouhdest. It is said that- on one. occasion a man was'sent to him, by StC Bar--5 tholomey/'s Hospital.'as suffering from small- " ; ' ..pox. Dr, it'was no such : thing,.ahd.sentftbe mam back. . Again St.- , r Bartholomew's despatched' the patient to . the receiving station, "with a certificate . which, Jby the weight ahd authority of tix* ~ names endorsed, on it, ought to have made ■ the .disease, smallpox, if anything could;"* '. Dr. Bicketts cared nothing for'-fchese names; s h© said-the disease was not and never would ( [ be smallpox, and/the event jproved he/was ■ ( rfghfc "'-It is I-asserted ihai the London \ general.; practitioner has fortunately 1 ' com- t \ paratively so little experience, of smallpox 1 - nowadays, that he often makes; amistake in diagnosing the'disease, in.proof of which ia < * quoted the fact that last'year out of ninety 1 { odd cases sent to the Asylums Board thirty were found hot to.be smallpox at all. In ] the case, however, of _ genuine -Snallpos. i patient, after being; inspected at Kotherhithe * he ia sent by boat to one of two hospital J ships nioored in ttw Thames off Pnrfleet, a" j apot.of which one of the Board's officials en- { thus.B_tica% declared that there could not be 1 a more desolate place, nor one better fitted f for isolation: In the meantime every pos- f sible means has been adopted of finding out , the patient's movements before -he became a t hospital case, witbi the object of learning how he became infected, and to whom he I may hare passed, on the disease., J The district health officer then goes { over the suspicions' that t it • is disinfected, offers re-vaccination to t those .who may be in danger, and, hirat» tip * any other ease which may have developed. \ The present epidemic began during the latter _ part of August,, when in five days the number c of smallpox patient* jumped from fifteen to nearly seventy,, almost all coming from tho c Tottenham Court Boad locality. Last year * there were.sixty-six cases, the year before eighteen, and in 1898 only five- The last * serious outbreak was in 1893, when there i were 2376 eases, previous to that the most n severe epidemic was in 18fM and 1885, when there were more than 6000 cases each year, * The energetic methods of the Asylum, f Board must count for much in mitigating the 1 terrors of present-day outbreaks, and for that reason London can afford to regard the pre- ti sent epidemic with less alarm than on former 8 'occasions. jj : . s Mr Carnegie feta struck a new _} Heroes idee, to help him Jn getting rid Ij of the of bis surplus forty millions dur-. g Mine, ing hi* lifetune, which he £ leads <ts_e .public to believe is his task for. the rest of lv« life. He has taken to recognising that heroism which is * rewarded by no; Victoria Cross or Distjn- _ guis_ed Setvioe Order, but which nererthe- I less demands more real courage than many of © the gaUa«t deeds which have met with offi- t! cial by thenulifcary authoritiec— the faeroiam cc__,___er; who risks his * 1 life a down times over in racuing his fellow- a woike_T. v ' No more glowing page of human j r vatoor. could be written than that which t] would tell, in such language as could be g understood by aU, free from the technical * terms _, that often confuse the non-expert reader, the deeds done by British minsra in h the bowels of the earth: when they iownd P file mine reeking ; with chokedamp or swamped with mud and water on life-saving & errands. Such a deed was that done at then. Donibristle colliery, Bear Dunfermline, a ti

few weeks ago, when a number of miner were imprisoned by the midden sinking of th ground above tho mine. The workings wen ' inundated' by immense quantities of sand peat, and water. An area of some two acre had'sunk, and fresh falls continued to occu from, time to time. Some of the miner. underground at the time managed to sav< themselves, but for the others nothing re ; mained bub to wait until (rescue jmrtie; should come to their assistance. The worl 'was one of enormous difficulty and grea danger, but in such cases there is never an; lack of workers. Tha miners poured fron tha surrounding pita and all worked lik< Trojans'. When, some of the imprisonec men had been released a further area o ground gave way, and for a time it seeme* that some of the rescuers would lose thel: lives, but after a period of anxious waitu.s and feverish labour the brave volunteer, were safely drawn up, and with them all tin men whom it was possible to save. A fevi days later the four rescuers, two of whon had previously been tha means of saving lift in- a similar way, were publicly presented in the main street of their village, with £1G( each, the gift of Mr Carnegie in recognitioi of their bravery, and it is stated that thi lniliionairs will also give £250 to the func for the relief of the widows of those whom m human daring could save. Mr Carnegie wa, probably moved to do this by the fact tha the men were residents of the DunfermJioi district, of which be .is a native, but if In can assume tho larger patriotism that eai «cc beyond Dunfermline he. will find plenty of worthy objects of his generosity among th< heroes of humble life.

America at the preseni Golf in. time is a country al the ; - given to golf. At th« United States, earliest approach. o: spring tho golfers begir playing, and they keep on at it in then leisure hours all through spring, summer, and autumn, From the Atlantic -to the Pacific it is the game of the-hour. Apparently there is no age limit, for children bfgin -when they are not quite as large as their'own clubs, and grey-haired men and women still keep their-place on the links. "Golf,"-says ''Harper* Weekly,*' "bas robbed old age of its regrets, for it can be, played from the cradle to the grave." There aire about a thousand registered clubs in the United States, but numbers more-have-not yet got into the guide, so that 1200, is nearer, the correct total. One.,of the-largest dubs, tho Country Club of Brookline, Massachusetts, has 760 members,, and many others' have over 300. The total number of golfers in America is roughly put down, at 150,000. Truly, it may be called a game which the thousands play. It has had, at least, on© beneficial effect—it has v the American a new idea of how to spend his holiday. Instead of dawdling about hotels in .watering-places, dining and dancing with a crowd] of other people, he now goes into the open air and benefit* .his health at the same time that, he amuses himself. He no longer, takes his annual diversion "in tabloid form," arid dreads the coming holiday. Now, he goes abroad like. a modern knight-errant, with his faithful esquire, the-caddie, bearing his weapons. This infatuation is- quite equal to that of the .Scotch minister, .who replied, when ottered by his congregation the choice, of giving up strong language at golf or giving up the game itself— "But since* I cannot play at golf Unless I.swear a wee, i ; . I'll give it up:" "What, golf?" they cried. Nay, mon—the mimst-cy.''