TOWN EDITION.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 7388, 11 June 1895, Page 3

TOWN EDITION.

THE OUTSIDE WORLD

FitEDmtic Cowen*, whose new opera has been produced at Covont Garden with success, is a remarkable instance of that psychological marvel which science is content to imperfectly describe under the title of " precocity." Paul Morphy, tho great chess player, was an example of this. lie could when still a young child beat easily past masters of tho game, which he seemed to know intuitively. Calculating prodigies furnish other instances. The stories of Handel's displays of musical genius when he was only an infant are well known. Mr Cowen, who was born in Jamaica, at the early ago of four years displayed so much musical talent, both in composition and execution, that he was placed under Sir Juliu3 Benedict and Sir John Goss. At the age of six years he composed a waltz, and this was followed by several other small pieces. When about twelve he wrote an operetta entitled " Garibaldi." At sixteen he wrote a sonata, a trio, a quartet, a concerto for the piano, and a fine symphony in C minor. At eighteen he commenced his now long list of cantatas by composing the " Eose Maiden." One of his symphonies, written at twenty-four —" Scandinavian No. 3 " —made his reputation throughout Europe. The verdict upon his last opera has yet to be pronounced, but that upon " Thorgrim," which was produced at Drury Lane in 1890, has .been described as magnificent. In addition to scores of big compositions, Mr Cowen, who is still only in his forty-third year, has composed about two hundred and fifty songs and ballads.

The bubonic plague continues to claim its victims in the East. This plague has been conclusively shown to be the same fell disease which on moro than one occasion ravaged Europe, and that has been so graphically described for us by Daniel Defoe, Pepys, and others. One result of the recent breaking out of this plague in Hong Kong has been to prove that Daniel Defoe told only the bare truth in relating some of the details which the moderns felt inclined to doubt. In his " Diary of the Plague of London" Defoe stated that in some of the houses that were plague-stricken the rats and mice came out of their holes and died. This was regarded as a stupid exaggeration until a Japanese doctor proved to the contrary. This doctor is a celebrated savant named Kitasito. When the plague broke out in Hong Kong last year Professor Kitasito was sent to that place by the Japanese Government to study the plague in all its aspects according to modern methods of research. He found that dust gathered from infected houses killed rats and mice in nearly every instance when administered to them, and this fact is considered by scientists good proof that Defoe was an accurate observer.

\ But Professor Kitasito did more than that, for he succeeded in discovering the bacillus of tho plague. With exceptional courage and great minuteness of research he studied the plague in the most thorough manner, and clearly established that the disease owes its origin to a bacillus, the presence of which can be detected in the blood, in the glandular swellings, and in the spleen and other internal organs of the victims. In the course of his researches he drew blood from the finger tips of dying victims, and examined it under the microscope, and participated in numerous post mortem examinations, and made experiments on animals with cultivations of tho bacilli thus obtained. In his experiments with animals some of them died from tetanus, others with distinct plague symptoms, and the same bacilli were found in their internal organs as in those of the plague patients who had succumbed. Dr. Kitasito described the bacilli as resembling in some respects the bacilli of chicken cholera. It may here be mentioned that not only Professor Kitasito, but many other Japanese scientists, are laying the world at large under an obligation to them by their studies and researches in chemistry and physiology.

At present the story which comes to us of the cruelties in an asylum at Aix La Chapelle appears very shocking, but it will be better to wait for further particulars before making up one's mind. What the cable calls cruelties may be nothing of the kind, in the strict sense of the word. The sufferers may have been tortured and maltreated, but if they were so treated in pursuance of some theory that they were being cured, then, no matter how ill-founded or barbarous that theory may have been, it removes the wrong acts from the domain of cruelty. By the latter word we can only conceive of pain being inflicted purposely for the sake of inflicting it, or to instil terror. To cause pain and suffering in the attempt to cure disease is not cruelty, or else every surgical operation would be indictable. The controllers of this asylum in France may have been themselves partially demented. They may have thought that they could cure mental, moral, or physical evils by torture, just as the old flagellants used to think that they could drive out sin by lacerating their bodies, and just as at one time it was thought that God could be pleased and the truths of religion inculcated by burning poor devils at the stake.

The fault lies with tho people of Prance. They are enlightened enough to know that it is wrong to allow hospitals or asylums of any description to be conducted by private individuals except under strict public inspection. To allow communities of any kind to shut themselves up behind four walls, and to claim the right to do as they please without let or hindrance, is holding out an inducement for wrongdoing. While human nature is what it ia publicity must ever be the only safeguard against abuses. We do not know what this French asylum waa supposed to be devoted to, whether to the curing of brain diseases or tho restraint of patients suffering from them, or whether it was a kind of so-called " reformatory," where hopelessly ignorant but well-meaning people were allowed to make experiments with unfortunates apart from any scheme of Government supervision, but in any case the evils which have now been brought to light could never have cx- ; isted if the people of France had not I agreed to wink at the ill-advised privacy which has produced them. In law courts, in hospitals, in asylums— in all aspects of human energy involving combined effort and the interests of the community putting forth the effort—the only thing that will prevent corruption is tho salt of publicity. To put it in the Biblical form we may quote the Gospel according to John : —" For every one that doeth evil hateth the light. . . , hut he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be manifest."

Tho district called tho Camaroons, where .Germany has bsen fighting the African aboriginals, is a large territory in West Africa on the Bight of Biafra. It was annexed by Germany in 1884. Last year, it will be remembered, there was a mutiny of the aboriginals in consequence of the cruelty and immorality of the German Governor, Herr Leist, The rebellion was subsequently crushed, with the aid of reinforcements sent out by Germany, but has evidently broken out again. The boundaries of tho Camaroons were settled by treaties made between Germany and England in 18DB, and between Germany and France in 1801. The former fixes the boundary between the Camaroons and the British Niger Company's territory, and gives Germany access to the great inland sea in the Bornu country known | as Lake Chad. The agreement with I Franco diyicjes tbe Camaroons from tbe

French Congo colony, and gives the French a line of communication between her Congo possessions and those she lays claim to in the Soudan. We have consulted three good maps, and cannot find " Yaunda," stated in tho cable message to have been occupied by the Germans. It should probably read " Ifgaunclor," which is a town and district well up to the northern extremity of the Camaroons, and about half-way between tiie coast of the Bight of Biafra and Lake Chad.