TOPICS OF THE TIME.

Hastings Standard, Issue 23, 22 May 1896, Page 2

TOPICS OF THE TIME.

Lord Kelvin has been making experiments to discover what the effect of a cannonade of quick-firing guns would be on board the vessel firing and the ship subject to the lire. He believes that after fifteen minutes' firing the survivors of the crews of both vessels would be reduced to a state of mental if not physical incapacity, owing to the concussion of the projectiles on the sides of the vecsel and the noise of the guns.

llokriblk stories of the mutilation of the Italian wounded arc told by the survivors of the Adowa defeat who are arriving at Naples. The Daily News correspondent send" a note of some of those :—" A man, who had received a lance cut across the face and two on the head, lay on the field of battle from three in the afternoon until midnight, remaining perfectly motionless, even when the enemy, believing him to be dead, stripped him naked. In the middle of the night he set off on a painful march, which lasted for five days. On the way Lieutenant Sacconi, who was horribly mutilated, begged him to put an end to his sufferings. The poor officer, when already wounded, had continued to defend himself as well as he could with his sword, when the Galla cavalry arrived 011 the spot, and cut off both his legs and arms. The Archbishop of Naples remarked, when visiting the sufferers in hospital, that almost all were wounded in the legs, and a soldier answered him, ' Just so.' Those who were wounded in the body remained on the field,"

The Hospital draws attention to the rate of mortality among medical men, which is, it declares, becoming seriously high. Dr. Kortright has made an analysis of the ages and causes of death of 450 medical men who had spent their professional lives in New York and its vicinity. Those men, practising the healing and lifesaving art upon others, only themselves reached an average of 54-6 years. Whereas among lawyers the mortality figures stood at 20-23, and among clergymen were so low as 15-93, it stood at 25-53 among the doctors. In short, according to Dr. Kortright's figures, doctors are the least long-lived of all classes except publicans, butchers, factory operatives, and quarrymen. An appalling fact to be added to these is that suicide is four times as common among doctors as among other full-grown men. The reasons for this state of things are well known to medical men, and chief among them all is the worrying and anxious nature of the profession. The worry and anxiety of the doctor, combined with his too often miserable remuneration, produce sleeplessness, brain weariness, mental incapacity, and too often a depression and anguish of mind which can hardly be paralleled in any other calling.

An important find in Asia Minor is chronicled by the Constantinople correspondent of the Daily News, who details how the discovery occasioned a friendly rivalry between England, the United States and Russia, the latter Power has won. It has been known during the last three years that a MS. Gospel existed somewhere in Turkey which dates back to the sixth or early seventh century. From the single leaf of it which was first shown, hopes were raised that the manuscript was a famous one known as Codex N., of which six folios are in the Vatican, four in the British Museum, two. in "Vienna, and 88 in the island of Patmos, but of which the other folios are missing. These hopes will soon be con-

firmed or dispelled by actual comparison. All that can now be said is that the MS., like what remains of Codex N., is not only ancient, but a very beautiful one, written upon the finest and thinnest vellum, which has been dyed a deep red purple. The letters are in silver, and are square upright uncials ; the abbreviations of the sacred names are in gold. The pages are 32 centimetres by 26, and the writing on each page is in two columns. A representative of an English Universary and another of an American one have been negotiation with the ephorie of the village church where this treasure has been kept, but these negotiations have been sloav and tedious on account of the remoteness of the village, which is in the neighbourhood of Cfesarea, and the recent troubled condition of the district. Recently the prize was taken from both competitors by a representative of Russia, and it is said that the actual purchaser was the Czar himself. The price reputed to have been paid is £IOOO, a sum which is probably the minimum, since one of the other competitors offered that amount. Though one may regret that the MS. has not found its way to England, it is satisfactory to know that it will now be properly cared for and be accessible to scholars, instead of being under risk of fire, theft, and the hundred accidents to which ignorance of its real value exposed it so long as it was in the keeping of the village ephorie.

It may still be noticed that there are voices cautioning the British public against Western Australian mining properties. The Economist, which is generally fair to Australia, says that about 800 companies have been formed, mainly in England, for conducting mining operations in " Westralia," with a nominal capitalisation of about £80,600,000. It is impossible to ascertain exactly how much of the capital has been allotted, but the purchase considerations agreed to be paid in cash and shares amount to £2K,5-10,000. From this it appears that the provision of working capital had been at the most about £11,000,000. On an average, therefore, over 70 per cent, of the nominal capitalisations of the mining companies proper had passed directly into the pockets of the promoters and series of vendors. With reason our London contemporary observes that this " is a distinctly ' tall' proportion, especially as in nine cases out of ten extremely little development work has been done to properties, while in fewer instances has there been any plant or machinery at the time of purchase." This means of course that the outside shareholders, who have practically to run all the risks, will have to content themselves with about 30 per cent, of the profits on an average, if profits result from the employment of their capital." Besides the 800 mining companies there are said to be 128 companies with an aggregate nominal capital of £14,800,000 for exploiting Western Australia. Taking both concerns together, Western Australian companies represent a nominal capitalisation of close upon £54,000,000, or about the same aggregate as the capitalisation of the whole of the Transvaal, including the Rand, which in each of several months last year produced almost as much gold as the whole of Western Australia in 12 months. The total production of gold in Western Australia to date amounts to rather less than £8,000,000. Unfortunately the tendency does not seem to be to increase very much, as the export from Perth for April, amounting to 16,7720z., was 23530z. less than for April, 1895.