ENGLISH TEACHERS AND VACCINATION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 142, 16 June 1906, Page 6

ENGLISH TEACHERS AND VACCINATION.

Mr. Birrell (says the Tribune) made an important announcement in the Houso of Commons on the 2nd May with regard to teachers and vaccination. He promised to bring forward an amendment in Committee on the Education Bill which will provide that, %o far as the Education Board is concerned, nonvaccination shall not be a barrier to any intending teacher who may urge "conscientious objections." The lo~,tl authority, however, will still have the optibn of deciding whether it will employ any unvaccinated teacher in its schools Mr. Birrell added that the same discretion will bo given to local authorities in respect of pupils entering training colleges. The Miuistcr's statement was elicited by a question from Mr Macdonald, one of the members for Leicester, a town which will be largely , affected by the decision of the Government. It may be recalled that during the progress of the recent by-election Mr. Birrell was approached by tho Leicester Education Authority, who called atten- j tion _to the difficulty experienced in obtaining teachers because all who wevo unvaccinated were disqualified. Mr. Birroll's reply was not very encouraging, and certainly gave no inkling of the change announced yesterday. Ho did not, ho said, feel justified in relaxing the existing, rules in his Department. The law of the land had laid down vaccination as a precaution against small pox. It was, he admitted,' 1 true that it allowed exemption to conscientious objectors/ but he felt that a distinction was to be drawn between this relaxation I in the caso of a person desiring to enter a profession in which it was inovit. i aDle that he should be in constant in tercourse with large numbers of young children. This letter was characterised by a member of the local education com mittee as "wooden and unsympathetic," and a resolution was passed calling for parliamentary action. Both the candidates expressed themselves against compulsory vaccination, and shortly after his election Mr. Franklin Thomason presented a petition in favour of the repeal of all tho existing Vaccination Acts. Mr. Birrell's promise follows quickly on Mr. John Burns's announcement that the Home Secretary proposed to issue a circular to magistrates on tho subject of their treatment of applicants for exemption certificates.

Sidney Lee writes in the Nineteenth Century on the future of Shakespearean research, a subject respecting which some are prone to believe that the last word has been said until a new light or fact jis discovered. Mr. Lee holds that we have not come to the end yet. There have lately come to -light, he says, no fewer than five coutemporaiy manuscrint notices of Shakespeare which had hitherto eluded attention. He finds ill iJheir accidental emergence from oblivion encouragement to believe that organised search will find more, and he gives his "easons for this in a paper which will interest all students of the personality of the great dramatist. Mr. Andrew Lang (says Public Opinion)/told a curious story the other day about the inclusion in his recenb volume of "Collected Rhymes" of two poems which he supposed were his own, I but which he found to be the work of two j ladies. Apropos, the Westminster Gazette mentions an expeiience of the late Sir Charles Gavan Duffy in respect to one of his early poems. Sir Charles j was on a visit to a trend's house, and his hostess showed him a posm she much J 'admired. She was a young and happily, married woman, the poem was sentimental, and she asked Sir Charles's opinion of it. He glanced at it, shrugged his shoulders, and made a remark which conveyed the idea that his opinion of the poetic effort! was not higli. Then he saw that he had mortally off-.r.ded his kindly hostess, who informed him that she dearly prized the poem, as it was the work of her husband, who had sent it to her before theirymarriage. Rather than dissipate a fona illusion Duffy suffered to remain under the disfavour . » roused by his slighting criticism. 'I he fact was that the poem which the husband had sent Co his future wife was Duffy's own work ! The condemnation ol Fogazzaro's novel, " li Santo," and the insertion of ifc on tho "Index Expurgatorius " have caused a great sensation in Rome. FoJ gazzaro (says Public Opinion) is not only tho most eminent living Italian nove'.ist, but a deeply religious man. It seems that in "II Santo" he made one of his characters suggest reforms in the Church I in its own interest, and intimated that tho Pop© would be willing to make them, but that the Vatican was stronger than he. i While rejecting as incredible the leading allegations in tho American sensation novel "The Jungle," the Melbourne Argus -says tho book may bo indirectly productive of good. It says :— Though the novel and tho magazine article may make for a somewhat hysterical attitude of mind, they at least break down indifference. It is well for the American nation that something has been found to create in it a lively interest in its own public aifairs. For other reasons than at present exercise sway tho great Chicago meat industry hus brought loads of opprobrium on itself. Therefore it has few friends. But ere- long, when excitement has run its course, it may bo found that sensntion-mongering has been carried too far. Self interest alone would prevent the flintiest of companies from doing some of the almost incredible things attributed to them. Gualtor, Dykos, and Co., sharobrokcrs and ostato agents, of Fealhorston-stroet, advortiso tho salo of tho Miramar Golf Terrace Block in this issue. Tho sale is to tako placo at tho Chamber of Commerce, National Mutual Lifo Buildings, Customhouso-quay, on Wodnosday, 4th July, at 8 p.m. Tho sections nro unusually largo, some having frontages of over 300 ft, and fow boiug less than lialf acres ; thoir positions commanding viows of hill, ocoan, and valloy. Tho terms aro liberal. All information, maps, etc., from Messrs. G unite r, Dykes, and Co., Feathorstonstroel. Mossr3. W. H. Turnbull and Co.'s frosh advertisement roforring to city and suburban properties for privato salo appears elsowhcro. Tho firm also insert a special advertisement giving particulars of several subdivisions of tho Hataitai Estate, which land may now bo purchased privately at auction prices' and terms. For plmm apply B^Pftnama.itroet, or 1, Riddi.

Some interesting statements have been made by a medical man in Hong Kong in respect to Chinese surgery. Alluding to a distinction between internal and external medicine, the external medicine being what we call surgery, he leferred to the fact that several hundred years before the birth of Christ theie was an eminent Chinese surgeon who believed in extensive operations and amputations, but ho was almost alone, as no one e'.se ever attempted even to cut off a Snger. Describing the chief aims of the native doctor in surgery at the present time, he said that they are the use of the needle and counter iiritation, the latter including what is ordinarily termed massage, and burning of the flesh. He had hinisolf seen children treated, by this burning process for diseases of the stomach. Commenting' on the deplorable ignorance of anatomy among the Chinese, ho affirmed that they have an idea that the heart, anJ the stomach are connected, and that the epigastrium is the seal of thought. They also imagine that the gall-bladder is the scat of boldness, and that all schemes originate from it Professor David has propounded an intcre.'.ling theory about prehistoric climatic changes in Australia. "The oldest Australian ice-age, -which dates back many millions of years," he said, "may be termed tl:e Petersburg epoch, us there are certain proofs near tho northern town of tho existence of glacial conditions. The next may be described as the llallett's Cove epoch, and the most recent as the Kosciusko. There ara ccitain indications that Koscm£>l:o once suppoitad huge glaciers, and there ia no possible doubt that a large portion of the centre of Tasmania was covered in snow and ice." Of the numerous causes which have been put forward for these changes Professor D.ivid inclines to tho theory of Dr Arrhenius, whic% has been taken up recently by a Chicago geologist. "They hold," said tho p.-ofcisor, "that changes of dim! tc which, control the rainfall depend largely dn the- variation of tho amount of carbondioxide pieeent in the etutli's atmosphere. Ihia gas adta as a mo.st efficient blanket for the retention of the earth's heat, received chiefly from the s,un. If the picsent amount of carbon-dioxide were doubled a mild climate would prevail even at the- north and Fouth poles, and the polar ice cap* would probably disappear, and the temperature in other parts of the world would be raited. If, on the other hand, the quantity were reduced by a trifle less than half its present amount, conditions like those of the hist great ice ago would return." Tho Dresden Piano Company has a special advertisement in this issue. Tho Ferry Co advertises in another column its Sunday timetable to Day's Bay, Scatoun, and Miramar. Messrs. Sidey, Mcech and Co. call attention to their auction salo of sections and household property to be held at their rooms, Mnnners-«treet, on 1 hursday, 21st June, 1906, at 7.30 p. m. sharp, when' they will submit 21 houses and 22 sections. I