OUR MAIL BUDGET.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 9446, 22 June 1891, Page 5

OUR MAIL BUDGET.

[Dates to May 15.] ■ PORTUGAL’S FINANCIAL CRISIS. The long-expected financial crisis in Portugal has come at last, and the Portuguese Government has been called on to take strong measures. On Monday it was officially decreed that there should be a general suspension of payment, of which the Bank of Portugal immediately took advantage by refusing to change notes into coin for the next sixty days. Another decree authorises the coinage and issue of silver to the extent of half a million sterling, and the payment of notes in silver instead of gold. The object of these decrees is to prevent the gold reserves of the country from being drained, but their effect on the credit and trade of the country will be disastrous. It is well known that many people have hoarded their money, and those who have notes are obliged to part with them at ft considerable loss. One Bank has gone to the wall, Portuguese Funds have fallen, and patriotism seems as conspicuous by its absence as capacity on the part of the Government. There is said to ba nothing in the situation which prudence cannot overcome, but it is to be feared that prudence is the one thing wanting in Portugal. Her Budget never balances, her debt is growing, and her intolerant bearing involves her in constant and costly trouble. Portugal is on the road to ruin because her rulers seem quite unable to utilise her undoubted resources. PROFESSOR VIRCHOW AND DE KOCH. In the debate on the Sanitary Budget is the Prussian House of Deputies, the emiuent pathologist. Professor Virchow, said it was premature to speak of Dr Koch’s remedy as nothing more than ft dangerous poison. He continued:—" It would also be going too far to say at this stage that all the hopes built upon it have been annihilated. Still, to speak strictly, there has not been a single case proved of tuberculosis having been cured by the remedy. All statements to the contrary are ill-founded. Moreover, the application of the remedy is attended by numerous dangers, though it would be wrong to regard any physician who wishes to use it as administering poison or as a murderer. My statements written at the beginning of January, however, still hold good. The first hopes have not been fulfilled, but 1 do not feel called upon to predict to-day what the remedy may become in the future. Experience will show.” In reference to the foregoing, the London Standard writes s—-The theory of the cure of tuberculosis rests upon the assumption that tuberculosis is caused by a bacillus. This, we admit, is almost demonstrated, though by no means universally held. The doctrine was that the lymph acted on the diseased tissues, and so killed the septic agent. But as it ia impossible to watch the state of the lungs, this was only an inference from its action on lupus. And if it cored lupus, which ia a tubercle of the skis, ergo —so ran the links of logic—it must cure phthisis, which is tuberculosis of the lungs. But we have the authority of Professor Virchow—and his reputation is so great that no suspicion of professional jealousy on his part can be entertained —for saying that all the conclusions to that effect were premature. Hence we are, as regards "Koohin,” exactly where we were at the start. Creosote, iodoform, terebene, sulphurous acid, menthol, and a soore of other drugs had been proclaimed, each in its day, the coming cure. Cod liver oil, koumiss, glycerine, cheese, batter and cream, had all been prescribed as the diet for consumptive patients. Colorado and Davos Platz had been recommended for their dryness, and Lewis, in spite of its dampness, from tho fact that phthisis ia almost unknown in the Hebrides. But in spite of all these suggestions and theories, this dreadful disease continues to claim its yearly hecatombs of the youngest and fairest of the land. Hence it was natural, and perhaps pardonable, to regard Dr Koch’s discovery with something more than scientific enthusiasm. THE RESCUE OF A WARSHIP. AN ARAB’S SWIMMING POWERS. The Daily Chronicle of May 14 says A private letter from H.M.S. Undaunted, at Jaffa, dated May 4, and received in London yesterday, brings the news of a splendid feat performed by the vessel, the command of which Lord Charles Beresford has had for about sixteen months. Jaffa, the port of Jerusalem, has an evil reputation among mariners. Vessels of any burthen have to lie off the roads, and the coasting steamers are often obliged to carry on their passengers to Beyrout or Port Said according as they northward or southward bound. In these roads arrived and anchored on April 23, the French cruiser Seignelay. On Sunday, April 26, it came on to blow hard from the westward. The Seignelay had no steam up, and the gale increasing, first one anchor parted, then the other, and the gale drove the vessel ashore on a sandbank, about half a mile from the land. The catastrophe, as it appeared to be, took place at nightfall, and the Seignelay’a captain, fearing the worst, lowered a boat, which, before it reached the shore, lost two oars and its rudder. Messrs Cook's chief boatman, Suleiman, who greatly distinguished himself by saving life from a Russian steamer three months before, plunged into the surf with his brothers and brought the boat and men safely ashore. The Arab then swam off to the Seignelay with a letter offering assistance, and got back to the shore at half an hour after midnight, having been. in the water some two and a half hours.' He reported that there was no " hole ” in the ship, so that there were hopes of saving her. But in the morning she seemed so firmly embedded that the attempt was thought desperate. So the brave Suleiman swam off again through the heavy sea and brought ashore, hanging round his neck, the captain’s wife.

In the course of the 27th the Austrian Lloyd steamer tried to render help, hut was obliged to abandon the attempt. Then Captain Lord Charles Beresford appeared on [the scene in the Undaunted, accompanied by the gunboat Melita, Commander King-Hall. They found that the heavy sea had driven the Seignelay into shallow water; and the Melita, which is of 970 tons and 1200 horse-power, could not get nearer than 300 yards from the Frenchman, while the Undaunted, which is of 5600 tons and 8500 horse-power, could not get further in than 450 yards outside the Melita. In other words, the Undaunted was about half a mile from the Seignelay. However, says the letter, “with determined work night and day, a steel-wire hawser, fifteen shackles of chain cable, and the help of God, we floated her in fifty-two hours. The French and English worked like Trojana together.” THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE. - At Marlborough street Police Court, Edward Pinter, described as a merchant,,

Jiving in Down street, Piccadilly, was Inoqght ■: up in custody of Detective In•pectore Swanson and Froeat, charged with attempting to obtain- the sum of 440.000 by means of a trick, with intent to defraud Mr Edward William Streeter, a jeweller, carrying on business in New Bond, street. The circumstances of the ease are of an extraordinary character. Mr ▲woty, in opening the case for the prosecution, said it waa an extraordinary thing that at the end of the nineteenth century they, should find the story of the philosopher's atone again revived. The way the prisoner intended to obtain the 440.000 waa simplicity itself, and he had actually succeeded six or seven years ago in, getting 4500 in Liverpool by a trick similar to this. He had also successfully played the trickin several foreign countries. The modus operamdi of the accused was asfollows.:—He pretended that it was absolutely necessary that the money which he offered to transmute should be left in the’ acid for eighteen days, and while it was-soaking he, with certain chemicals, created, such .an abominable stench that •11 the •persons,:in the room whore the: money was were obliged to leave. When lift alone he coolly decamped with the sovereigns. Dr Dupre had not yet completed his analysis of the chemicals found in the possession of the accused, neither had the contents of the crucible in which twenty sovereigns were put been yet assayed. There could be no doubt that the prisoner made one sovereign that was melted seem to be converted into a piece of gold of the weight of three sovereigns, either by adding a powder which contained gold or by dropping in unperceived a piece of gold along with the coin. The prisoner was remanded.