TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14161, 29 September 1911, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Those who haro Chocolate been annoyed fay and people eating One's Neighbour, eweets audibly in the theatre while the car tain is up, will appreciate an article in the "Sydney Horning Herald" by a music-lorer on some aspects of the grand opera season. The writer thinks the taste of Sydney is improving as the season grows older, and he takes chocolate creams as hia barometer. In the eairly days of th« season, "the sanctions of musical comedy were

abroad," and ono of the sanctions is that confectionery may bo eaten. It was no uncommon thing to hear the songs of tho principals "rhythmically punctuated by overt mastication." '"I shall always remember one great singer and ono great song because, owing to a chocolate cream, I heard them only subconsciously. A lady needed a sweet at the very moment. It eluded her, with much rustling of its hiding-place. It was in a paper bag, and hard to come by. She sought it dexterously. The bag strained and crinkled and hissed. Before the pursuit had ended the song was half gone, and even then tho perverted interest of everyone within sight and sound of it watched the bag and listened to its crackling remonstrance." At Covent Garden 0:1 a Wagner night the dark theatre is dotted with tiny electric lights brought by students co that they may follow the score. In Germany the opera audience sits as though it wore at church. In Italy the people roar with' enthusiasm or scream with rage, according as the performance pleases or annoys them. Their expression of feeling is based on close knowledge of the work. .It is said that onco at La Scala, tho great Taccio left out two pages of the overture to "Don Carlos." The crowded gallery, knowing every bar, histantly noticed the omission, and shouted and whistled in expostulation. The orchestra of 150 performers stopped, the conductor signalled to them, and they began again and played the omitted passage. Tho gallery cheered tho conductor. "Those are ways musical centres have of listening to opera. Hero wo eat chocolate creams. There is a difference." But there is not so much eating of chocolate as there was at first; the audience is quieter and attention is more concentrated on the etago. This should please Madame Melba, who is reported to have refused an offer of £20,000 for a two months' tour in America, in order to visit Australia. Some very interestA ing reminiscences Doctor's were contributed to Reminiscences, the Medical Congress in Sydney by Dr. Charles Iredell, who claimed that he had been practising as an ear, nose, and throat specialist longer than any other British doctor. Not -that he knew everything. "Everyone is either a fool or a doctor at the age of 40j" he once said to a lady patient. "I suppose it is possible to be both," she replied quietly. Dr. Iredell gave several proofs of the advancement of surgery during the last thirty years or so. Until 18S4, the treatment of post-nasal growths had not been given much attention. So serious and rare was this kind of operation that a German professor -was specially brought over from Germany to operate on a Harrow boy, at a fee df 500 guineas. Six other medical men were there by invitation. Dr. Iredell describes the scene as seriocomic. The unfortunate boy was lashed by his arms and logs to a chair, and an elaborate gag was fastened to his head. Tho operation is a common one now, and it is a good thing for all ooffcerned that such preparations are not necessary. As a curious illustration of extreme conservatism on the part of patients, Dr. Iredell mentioned that in tho year before he came out to Australia (1885), -when he was taking charge of Mr Dalby's practice in London, in that doctor's absence in Scotland, a " very fine old gentleman" of 80 called, and the usual regrets having been made that Mr Dalby ebould bo away, the patient said:—"My dear sir, you need make no excuses. I don't know Mr Dalby; I never heard of Mr Dalby; but I came to this house 50 years ago as a patient of Mr Toynbee, and I thought it might still bo an aurist'e house." Dr. Iredell said the one great disappointment in aural work was the little advance- made in the construction of instrumental assistance to hearing. The acoustic difficulties seemed at present to be insurmountable. Practically not one deaf person in a thousand would habitually use any known contrivance. They would purchase them, try them, and put them on one side. He knew of deaf people whose homes were stocked" with these things—discarded. The apparently paradoxical thing about it was that the better the instrument enabled the patient to hear the more trying did it become to the user. Plans of a new A type of cub-Cruiser-submarine. marine have been submitted by a Russian naval engineer to hie Government. "It is," says the naval expert of the "Standard," "nothing less than a large sea-going protected cruiser which, while being ordinarily a surfacekeeping vessel, will be capable of submersion in less the space of three minutes." On tihe surface it can be compared to protected cruisers of the Dartmouth class, now running their trials. The speed of twenty-five knots is identical. The British cruiser exceeds slightly in length and beam. The Russian vessel will carry five 4.7 guns, while the other carries eight six-inch weapons. In the matter of torpedo tubes, however, the new submarine is to be unique— carrying no fewer than thirty. Hitherto foreign boats have carried six or seven tubes, but no English vessel has carried more than three. It will be seen that on the surface tho sub-marine-cruiser will not be greatly inferior to our protected cruisers. Taki ing into account, however, her ability to disappear under the water in three ! minutes, to maintain a submerged speed of fourteen knots, and to utilise thirty torpedo tubes, tho superiority of the Russian becomes unquestionable. Comparing the vessel with other submarines, it is seen that while Great Britain, Franc©, and Germany have been building vessels up to 1000 tons displacement, this vessel will bt> on the 5435-toa mark. With an oil capacity of 355 tons, giving a steaming radius of 18,000 miles, and a surface speed of twenty-five knots, it outclasses the present type, which has only an extreme radius of 2000 miles, and has never exceeded a surface speed of sixteen, knote, or a submerged speed of ten knots. A feature of the Russian invention is an apparatus for the sowing of mines while under water. The idea of carrying guns on a submarine is not a new one, but five 4.7 quicufirers is a tremendous advance in armament. The mountings will be collapsible, and the guns -will be stored away between decks when the cruiser is about to submerge. The need for such a vessel may be found in the' faofc that for years the offensiveness of the gun has exceeded the defenexreneee of the

armoured-plate. At the present time

the British Admiralty are said to havo plans of a "semi-submersible battleship " which leaves a very email mark for the gun-fire of the enemy,