TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11690, 17 September 1903, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

A Race f ot a Baby's Life.

Readers of Kipling's book, " Captains Courageous," will remember the exciting dash across the Continent of America made bv the

father of the hero. An incident in some decree resembling that thrilling race*against time lias just taken place in the States. A rich American lady, Mrs Thompson, was .staying -with her seven-months-old baby in the Adirondack region when one day the child began to cry and choke. For some time the mother and nurse were at a loss to discover the cause, until they noticed that one of the-sak-ty pins that play such n mysterious part, in the garb of infancy was missing, ami they cams to the painful conclusion that the baby had swallowed the pin. After some futile efforts to remov.the obstacle, Mrs Thompson made a hurried trip eight miles down the lake to ;> village where lived a doctor. The latter confirmed her fears, but said he had no instruments with which to extricate the pin. All ho could do was to advise the distracted mother to take her child to a throat specialist in <Xew York, 4CO mile away. The only train in the day had gone but a special was ordered at once, and in

a quarter of aa hour the race for life had begum Two doctors accompanied the mother and child, and remedial measures were adopted throughout the trip to allay the sufferings of the choking baby. "It was a terrible ride for the mother," sap a New paper. "Hardly a word was spoken. Not for an instant did her eyes leave the little one's face. Every man along the railroad" Sid his level best to hurry the train along at the greatest speed that had ever been made on the line. Engineer. fireman, station agent, telegraph operator heard that, the special was coming along to save a baby's life, and helped it forward to the best of his ability." As time wen! on another danger threatenecl~t.be little sufferer was becoming seriously, exhausted. But the end of what must have been the longest railway journey the mother had ever talcen was close at hand. Aided by all the sympathetic help that the railway staff could offer the train dashed into New York in record time. There was a rush through the city for the hospital, where the specialist was waiting, and in five minutes the child's life was saved.

Cause of Cancer.

Mr Balfour's recent appeal for another £50,000 for the Cancer Research Fund speedily produced half the sum required, and the news published recently

by the "Daily Express" should soon result in the remainder of the required sum being subscribed. According to guarded statements in our contemporary, "encouraging results have already rewarded the operations of the fund." "We believe," adds the "Express," "that it will be found to be the fact that the eminent specialists, Drs. Bashford and Murray, appointed by the executive committee to prosecute the enquiry, have made a discovery which may eventually lend to the elucidation of the cause of cancer." That' is as much as could be said at that time. It gives some ground for hope, and if skill and hard work can achieve success the investigators, who are working twelve or thirteen hours a day at the problem, should be rewarded by the discover}' to which all look forward with so much anxiety. The death-rate from cancer is increasing with terrible rapidity. Between 1861 and 1855 deaths from cancer in England and Wales numbered 368 per million annually, in 1899 they had reached 829 per million, and this in face of the steady decrease in the death rate from other diseases. The Cancer (Research Fund, established to find, if possible, the cause and cure of this dreaded disease, was founded last year on the initiative of a private gentleman, who offered to raise £IOO,OOO for the purpose. He became very ill, and that part of the idea fell through, but eventually the Royal Colleges of Physicians and of Surgeons consented to "father" the scheme. The sum of £50,000 wae subscribed, and an executive committee of specialists was appointed. The work of research is being carried on apart from any existing hospitals, but many large institutions have promised assistance in the shape of reports on the thousands of cases they have dealt with. There has been some petty-minded carping at the two Colleges retaining the management of the fund in their own hands, but in face of the wide fame of the experts constituting the committee, and of the wish of many subscribers that the investigations should be pursued by a body independent of any existing hospitals, the complaint falls to the ground. The amount required, £IOO,OOO, will provide £3OOO a year, tho sum necessary for the proper prosecution of the researches, if the capital is not to be drawn upon, and if success is achieved it will be the cheapest discovery ever made. In that case the fund will be used for similar researches into other diseases that require investigation.

A Vanished Empire.

The Empire of Troja, the creation of that erratic and wealthy Frenchman, Jacques Lebaudy, has come to an end. It expired like the

closing scenes of an opera bouffe, and by its death the world received further particulars of its birth. It was early in May that Lebandy enlisted twenty men at Brest, giving them £lO a piece down, and promising them £7 7s a month. At Las Palmas, ten of them embanked on board the Frasquita. They were landed at Cape Juby, and armed, and M. Lebaudy told them to make for his capital, Troja. The men set out in two parties. Before long five of them returned, and th*e other five were captured by the Moots. One of the men who returned tells the story of the expedition. M. Lebaudy was with his party, and by-and-bye, in the midst of a sandy desert, they met a caravan of 500 Moors, all armed. "These people axe very numerous," said the Emperor, "but try to parley with them." . The explorers asked for watei 1 , and were given some camel's milk. Next day they returned to the yacht, and armed themselves One had a wretched rifle, two had revolvers, and two had nothing at all. The Eni{>eror then told his men to return to their posts on shore, while he would remain on the yacht. They refused to land, and he became very angry, and threatened to maroon them on a desert island, without, arms or provisions. The party decided to find the five men they had left ashore. They found one man standing up to his knees in sand, facing fifty Moors, who demanded a ransom of £4O. Lebaudy refused to pay the sum, and when the sailors went back with £4O, contributed by themselves, the man had gone. Lebaudy persisted in exploring the coast of Morocco, but, says the sailor, "We hastily consulted together, and, without his suspecting it, we brought him hack to Las Palmas. We thought then that the joke had lasted long enough." W r hen the Frasquita reached Las Palmas it was seized by the Spanish authorities, on the ground that, as a French subject, Lebaudy had no right to fly the Portuguese flag. There was a furious scene. "I come from my own country," cried the Enrperor Lebaudy. "I recognise no flag but that"— pointing the blue burgee with the three gold balls, which was flying at the main. So ended the escapade. The five men who were lost formed the population of the city of Troja, which was planted between Cape Juby and Cape Bojador, and were captured by a tribe of Moors,