NEWS BY MAIL

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12538, 27 April 1935, Page 11

NEWS BY MAIL

.MUSIC OF 100 YEA US AOO. Haunting Welsh melodies of 1000 or perhaps 2000 years ago were played on the harp and envth at a function of tin* Honorable Society of Cymmrodorion in London recently. Mr Arnold Dohnetsch told the audience that the melodies they were hearing were “the greatest musical discovery ever made.” Mr Dolnietsch, who is 7G years of age, added (according to a report in “The Times”) that he had been deyoting himself for do years to the recovery of ancient music. In Wales in the remote past there were musicians who by their subtle art could affect the minds of the people to a wonderful degree and rouse their emotions as they pleased. “This art would have boon lost for ever,” iio said, s ‘hut for the miraculous preservation of a manuscript which contains some 90 pages of this music. To-day, despite oisteddfodnu and pen ill ion singing, there is not much difference to be seen between the music in Wales and that in any English province. The precious Welsh manuscript will restore the lost national heritage. Through it the Welsh will regain possession of their own incomparable music and its influence will guide the future of their art.” WHERE DOCTORS DIFFER. A doctor, giving evidence at M ostminster County Court, refused to admit “that there was such a thing as neurasthenia.” He said that he dealt, with conditions of the human body and not abstract names. The term had been brought in, and it was time it was dropped. The witness. Dr. W. J. A die, was giving evidence in a case concerning a claim for continued compensation to a workman, regarding whose neurasthenic incapacity to work following an accidentdoctors were at variance. Mr Edgar Dale, barrister, representing the applicant, a tunnel miner, said: “The Legislature has put in the hands or a non-medical man the decision of such a point. Someone lias to decide whether a man is truthful or not. and a doctor cannot decide that on one examination.” Judge Dumas: “L cannot help laughing at- the position thus created.” Air. Dale: “Where doctors disagree what better judge between them can there ire than a nian of common sense and large experience of life?” the judge, wlm sat with a medical assessor, made an order for 30s a week compensation. OLD MAN LUCIUS JULIUS. CURED SORE EYES 1800 YEARS AGO. The first patent medicine advertisement in Britain has been discovered in Moorgate. London E-, and is now in the Guildhall Museum. It consists of the base of a Roman cup. of the bright red ware known as Samian. On it there is a twell no Latin inscription which translated reads: "Old man Lucius Julius saffron salve for sore eyes.” Julius apparently sold his wares in these attractive little pots which when empty, could lie used for various household purposes, and as they boie his imprint, they foormed an excellent advertising medium. He may have been a London druggist. hut his pots must have been made specially for him in Gaul, as this kind of ware was not fashioned in Britain. There is only one other example known, and this is in the British Museum. It was also unearthed in .London many years ago. The cup dates from the second century about 1800 years ago, so that the erase for patent medicines is not quite so modern as many people would have us believe! VICTIM OF “K.K.K.” A man stated by his counsel to have been victimised by the Tvu Kiux Klan, and to have been sent to a chain gang, pleaded for a chance before being sentenced to three years penal servitude at Middlesex Sessions. The man, Arthur Douglas Marlaron, aged 37 .found guilty of pavilion breaking, and of stealing 9-500 cigarettes, said to Sir Thomas Forster, the chairman: “My lord, as X stand before you. as man to man. I ask you to give me a chance so that I will be conscious that I owe it to you, to my people, and my country, to lead a right and houorable life.” A detective said Maclaren had received sentences in the United States and been deported. He was only released, from prison in England in November. Miss Greenwood, his counsel, said: “In 192 S the Ivu Klnx Klan was very active against foreigners of any sort. A charge on which he was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment, he fells me, was a fnr*--up. He was sent to a chain gang in Southern Virginia. After serving one ; year he was liberated, on the instigation of the British Ambassador.”