CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXIX, Issue 9985, 14 March 1893, Page 5

CURRENT TOPICS.

An extraordinary case has been investigated by the Nottinghamshire Coroner. Dr Campbell, o? Badciiffe, had two patients named William Wright. For one, a carrier, ha dispensed aconite liniment for a sprained hand ; to the other, a platelayer, he had given a cough mixture. The latter sent his bottle to bo refilled. The doctor was away, and on returning he filled the bottle, thinking it was for the carrier. The platelayer took the liniment and died the same night. A verdict of “ Death by misadventure ” was returned. The doctor undertook to provide for the deceased’s widow and children.

A young lady may have a nice taste in miscellaneous kissing; but, according to a jury of the Queen’s Bench Division, her lover is not thereby Justified in breaking off the engagement. When a young person is, f ‘ heard ” to kiss a gentleman other than the one who has acquired rights of osculation over her ho is entitled to feel annoyed; but his annoyance must not take the serious form of Jilting her. That is the law, as expounded by a Jury of indignant fathers; and the unlucky defendant in the breach of promise case which occupied Mr Justice Lawrence for two days last month had to pay £125 for attaching such ridiculous importance to a few kisses. The case points once more the eternal moral, that a breach of promise case ia almost invariably decided in favour of the fair plaintiff.

The police officers detailed for the special duty of affording protection to Major Le Caron, a London contemporary says, have recently had increased anxiety as to the safety of their charge, many apparently well - founded hints haying reached the authorities that, especially since the publication of his reminiscences, the dangers known to’ surround him since his revelations during the Parnell Commission have greatly increased. It has long been known that his assumed name was no longer a secret to his enemies. A few days ago Major Le Caron, after an operation for tumour, went to Hastings for the benefit of his health, hut his protectors soon found that his change of address was known, and that his correspondence was being tampered with. Concluding that their precautions ia a strange place might prove ineffective, the detectives advised the sudden termination of his visit, and the Major acted promptly upon their recommendation.

A frightful disaster occurred in Russia on Jan. 16, on the Slatoust-Samara railway. A train, filled with recruits on their way to join their regiments, caught fire as it was going full speed. The flames burst forth first in the foremost car, and, fanned into £ury by the rush of the train, spread from one carriage to another with terrible rapidity. The train was brought to a standstill as quickly aa possible, and the car which was enveloped in fire was uncoupled from the rest of the train. The young soldiers immediately made a frantic rush for the door and windows, and most of them succeeded in escaping from the blazing car; but, in the baste and confusion a number of them got wedged tightly together in the passage leading to the door, and nothing could move them. Seven were dragged out of the mass of struggling human beings, but not until they had sustained severe burns, from the effects of which one died later in the day. The rest, to the number of forty, wore simply roasted to death. Eight others met with a more merciful death, being suffocated by the smoke.

People who have been accustomed to eat their game in the condition which is euphemistically known aa “high,” will not find the remarks on this subject of Dr Wynter Blyth, the official analyst of the parish of Matylebone, very pleasant reading. While noting the circumstance that a Marylebone poulterer has been successfully prosecuted for exposing for sale a number of rabbits in a semi-putrid state, it has occurred to this gentleman that somebody may ask whether the sanitary officers are prepared in like manner to seize and condemn “high” game. The answer is clear, and to the point. The sanitary officers are not prepared to do so, for the reason that the purchaser is not deceived, and that the majority of English people have acquired “ the filthy and disgusting habit” of eating various wild animals in a decomposed state. On the other hand, that this “acquired habit” is really injurious to health, Dr Blyth has no manner of doubt. There never was, he tells us, a putrid bird brought to table from which a chemist might not extract some very active toxic principle, though, of course, the action of poison is a question of dose. “ Game ” (continues Dr Blyth) “is usually but an incident in a dinner and not the dinner itself; each therefore eats but a small portion, and when he suffers from diarrhoea or headache the following day ascribes the illness to mixing liquors or some quite innocent bits of pastry. It is only when the illness is sudden and severe that advice is sought or that public attention is directed to the matter.”

Thoae who value their necks in the hunting field, whether they be men or women, should take the advice of " A Lady,” who writes in Baily’s Magazine, and lay to heart the immense importance of beginning their equestrian practice by learning to ride without reins. Without this they are almost certain, though unconsciously, to interfere with the horse’s mouth whan he is in the act of jumping, in which case the horse, if he is going at a fence, will “ get his head up,” and will not see where ho is going. Apart from this, the reinless rider acquires a firmer seat. Who, it is asked, has not seen youths —> when anxious to cut a dash in the hunting-field—gallop their horses at a fence, sawing their mouths, end ramming their spurs into their flanks? Very brave they are apparently; but, if horses could speak, they would, in the opinion of this writer, tell a pitiable tale of how their mouths are wrenched when in the act of jumping; how they were thrown out of their stride; and how horse and rider landed, by little short of a miracle, on the far side of a fence. Another error which ladies are especially apt to be guilty of is abuse of the spur. Very few of us, says " A Lady,” are physically able to wear one without risk of pricking the horse inadvertently. In tho excitement of a run with hounds, it is almost impossible to avoid doing this; but to take more out of your horss than is necessary is both foolish and dangerous; inasmuch as it may make him rush at his fences, or exhaust his staying powers too soon.