TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12934, 14 October 1907, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

To find oui Aether Examinations "there is any •Mud and relatiotiehip between Ability. succ«a» in the UniT*l»ity Wd BUOC6M IB life, Mr Edgar Schuster, M.A., a Research Fellow of the University of London, hea W*de laborious mveifcgv tione into tk# careers <£ men whose names appeared in the different cka*« of Oxford examinations. Hβ tooMwo professions, the Church *n4 the Bar. For the Ohurea it* selected those Oxford men appearing in the clergy list for 1889 who took orders before 1874, on the ground that » man who wee going to ri»e, would have started on hi. ascent before he had been twentyfire year* in the Church. Of the 104 men who obtained first-class honours in the examination. f<* the B.A. degree, 7\, or d 8 per cent., obtained either some clerical distinction or some firafcckes scholastic appointment, while of the 19? eecond-sUse men, 71, only 37 per cent., obtained thie degree of success. The percentage falk to 32 per cent, etnong the thiroVcJaea men, 29 per rent, among the fQurth-cless, 21 per cent. among those who took pace d«ffr«*»> *nd 9 per cent, among those who took no degrees. Of 634 barristers who took the Oxford degree, six obtained first-clew political appointment* (four being Cabinet Ministers), 18 obtained seeond-claaa political appointments, or reached * high rank in the Civil Service, 11 became Judges of the High Court or law officers of the Crown, 17 became County Court Judges, 38 were «ppoin,ted Recorders or Magistrate*, 18 were Indian or ooioniaj Judges, of held political appointments in Greater Britain, 17 were King's Counsel, and 25 held other positions of prominence. These 151, leaving 483 men in the "undiatinguiaihed" elate, many of whom, however, *re diatinguithed members of the junior Bar. Of the 02 men who took fimt-olfes hoßoure at Oxford, 42, or 46 per cent., attained distinction after T warda. Of the 85 seoond-cUse men, 28, or 88 per cent., »ttained the eatne amount of eucoeee, «i»d iha percentage sinks \n 15 per cent, of the men who did not obtain a degree. Mr Schuster draws the concluaion that there is a. well-marked relation 'between aucceea in these professions and success in the Oxford final sohool». «.dniit* that jn aome cases examimtioo aucoeas ia a direct help to preferment in th* Church, but he ohafrree that it doetl not infuesc* those wh.o «naploy b*rriaters. Any aclection. baaed on the r«auHa of a furly searohing examination of men at the age of twenty-one to twenty-three would, heHhinks, prohtbjy on tho whole 4 a ji^dicioun

Doctor Cook, Adams. Foods and now contending tbat Poison. statistics show cancer to be attributable to the {'increased consumption of animal foods/ , 'will scarcely please another Amerioau, M.D., ' wfcq, WTsn.g for "'McClure'a" on fcaio properties in food*, d*vl*res tfc*t net » single steple food of civilised man it to be' fount* in tiie dangerous daestt. "The meats, the floors or meals, tV hutt«rs or oils, fish, eggs, pjilk and sugar*, hare wen their position purely upon their own perite, : first, by possessing adequate fuelivalue in digestible form at a moderate cost; second, by being almost entirely free; from poisonous effects, even in large amount* and after prolouged; use. , ' What he oalls the poison foods are rather the subsidiary and accessory viands, and vegetarians yti\\ regret to hear th#t has» very strong caie tt»* befn, Ail die* reformers are aware that one ah}Uing wi|l purchase, twice ac much proteid m the form of dried peef or beans. Ie in tfce form o| chelae, five times as as. in beef, and eiehii times as much as in eggs, These ''poor man's beefsteaks ,, - ate continually praised se e\ substitute for meat—and yet the every-: day poor man refutes to live, on them. Very wisely, if "coiled up amidst that rich store of proteid and fat, like guardian dragons, lie in •rotmetio oil and a bitter alkaloid,, both 'poisonous to the susceptible stomach in small amounts, tn,3 to the average, one in larger." Nuts contain a decided irritant ; cheese, much vsunted source of vegetable proteid, is only safe when taken in. moderate amounts and with plenty of bread. Shell-fish, crabs., lobsters, and such, searfoods, epa.rt from any dangers as to their place of growth or method of keeping, are to a certain number of people distinctly and essentially poisonous. These casual criminals among foods, nfokp up an interesting part of our eesayist's "rogue's gallery." There js the strawberry, for instance, moat delicious of fruits, with its unexpUjnable habit of acting as an. irritant poison to perhaps one out of twenty person*, while the nineteen would agree with that divine of old who thought the joye of Paradise might consist of eating strawberries to the sound of a trumpet. Cherries come next in risk, and other fruits make occasional victims; but poisoning by oranges will hardly afflict the dwellers in towns, since their toxic powers appear only where the fruit is taken directly from the tree. Ornamental foods, relishes, stimulants to the appetite, are amongst those from which evolved the adage, "One man's meat, another man's poison. , ' There seems no escape from table risks, even if, like the glorious Frenchman, we exclaim, "Give us, the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with its nece*> Baries!"

If there ia. one thing Tbe of jrhich the American is Serioua. certain, it is that his American, eenso. of humour is unrivalled and that American humour, like to many other articles of American, manufacture, "licks creation." • Hβ loves to gird at the British aenee of humour and to U»gh a,t , a way that wouJU noi be considered ntisfactosy in,Bouverje street. In feet it m » truism m America that no Briton can appreciate % joke. Imagme, then, th« indignation tUat h,ae been arouaed by tbe opinion of * Chicago ynhmor tiwt the British are infinitely nrore humouroue ea * nation than the Amerioantr. Tbe Britifh audience v, he far more fpontanequalj quick-witted tha» the American, wfcich often takes five .minutea to ace the

point of joke* f 2jK melancholy dendency » ' *•* Amen cana are «baorbe4 ?n «w* «««J 0 J euoc«e, and ♦Tβ rapidly qualities, lliey h»« gf» ind.fferr ent to eVerytnine that 4o« not b**T directly on the problem of gettinS; <m in lUe, «a 4 thew » W •how that the ability t» <* ■*' Falstalf or eroiio erer "The Autocrat at the BreakfMli T»W©" w iU W? :» man in cornering wheat. But toe professor is not the first to apcuea American audienoea of stolidity, for Europeaq lecturers hare complained of this. Hiere are, on the other hand, innumerable storke of the opacity of English ■ audiences "rben plied with American wit. But the New York "Evening Poaf remarks that Mark Twain's experience* in England do not bear them out. Here is an extract from his speech to the Pilgrims :-r-"Mr Birrell says he doesn't know how he got here. But he will be able to get away all right—for ho hasn't drunK anything since be came here.- (Laughter.) I am glad to know about those two friends of hie, Otwajr and CbatUrtoi}—-fresh, new - names to mc. (Laughter.) lam glad of the disposition he has shown to rescue them from the evils of poverty, and if they are still in London (Laughter), I hope to have a talk with them. (Laughter.) For a while I thought he Wat* going to tell us the effect which my book had upon his growing manhood. (Laughter.) I thought he was going to tell us bow much that effect amounted to, and whether it really made him what he is (Laughter); but with the discretion born of Parliamentary experience, he dodged that, and we do not know whether he read the book or not. (Laughter.)" The "Poet" remarks that seven Isughe in 147 words ought to satisfy any humourist. In a recent speech the Prime Minister received less than one "encouragement" per thirty-nine words, only a little more than half as many as tjie foreign humourist. America ought to be satisfied.