CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVIII, Issue 12934, 30 September 1902, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

BEWARE OF THE DOG.

At the last monthly meeting of the Otago Institute, Dr Barnett read » paper, in which he gave some start-

ling particulars concerning tire prevalence of hydatid disease. In the public hospitals alone, it stems, during the five years ended 1896 there were 146 cases and 22 deaths, while during the five years ended 1901 there were 226 cases and 40 deaths. The increase of the disease, as the doctor said, is truly alarming, and there is every reason to fear that it is going on faster than ever. In Iceland, where the people, besides being extremely filthy in other respects, allow their dogs to sleep with them in their huts, The disseise is responsible for at least oneUenth of the deaths that occur, and in some of the Australian States its victims are numbered by hundreds. Hydatids, as is pretty generally known, present the intermediary stage in- the development of tnf© tapeworm of the dog. The ova accidentally swallowed by a ruminant or by man, as when drinking from a stream, develop the encysted form' of the tapeworm, causing in some cases the well-known hydat.d cysts. The embryonic tapeworms, cr hydatids, consist of little more than the head portion oi the worm, and arc provided with thx-ee pairs of silicious spines. , " Armed with these,” says Dr Nicholson m his “ Manual of Zoology,” “ the proscolex perforates the wall ol the stomacu, and may either penetrate some contiguous organ, or may gain access to some blood vessel, and be conveyed by the blood to some part of the body, the liver being the one most likely.” In most cases of hydatid disease the liver is the organ in. which- cysts are formed, and these are sometimes of considerable size, constituting the well-known hydatid tumours. At times, however, the hydatids find lodgment in the brain, when, of course, the conseqences are even more serious. Sheep and cattle are also the intermediary hosts of the dog tapeworm, and the ” OtagoDaily Times,” in noticing Dr Barnett’s paper, says, that anyone visiting a pub.ic abattoir may see scores oi hydatids in the offal of the slaughtered animals. In this stage, ’ however, they are harmless to man, since this particular form of tapeworm cam further develop only in the intestines of a, dog that has feasted upon the cffal. , Dogs are, indeed, the active agents in the dissemination of the disease, and cautious people will see that they are rigorously excluded from human habitations.

VELDT-LORE.

There' is a brief, but very interesting, article: in the

" Spectator," of August 23, on " The Folk-lore of the Yeldt." South African lore is native on the one hand, and European, on the other, and the combination of native traditions and myths with European superstition has produced some very curious results. The Boer boy practically begins his life on the veldt under the care of a native nurse. He learns that a mottled sky -indicates that "someone is dead." Some day the nurse' Trill tome across ' a couple of bleached bones of a dead buck. She -will preserve them carefully, " for mad oxen," as she tells the boy. ' These " mad oxen " bones are thrown, into the air to fall on a piece of ground that has been, brushed with scented thyme, and, from the'way they fall, one can tell how future events will happen. The Boers are strong believers in, magic, their European superstitions being, doubtless,. strengthened by with stories of native witch doctors. A general belief is that madness may be produced by giving the victim a pinch of powdered spider in his tea. The species of spider employed belongs to the genus mygale, one of the trap-door making kind ; and though at is ■exceedingly hairy and ugly looking, its bite is not poisonous, nor does it" seem to possess any marked toxic properties when db has been dried and jpowdered. The herbalists, both Boer amd native, employ a large number of plants and animals, and. allege that they 1 have cured cancer by the use of a decoction of amaryllis bulbs. "No doubt many of these plants possess powerful virtues of which both Boer and native know the use," says the writer, " bub it is more difficult to understand for whab reason goats'dung and the excrementa of the rock coney are given a place in the pharrnacopceia. . The former is used in cases of measles and scarlet fever, and is only valuable as a diuretic, while there axe other and less disgusting remedies equally efficacious." On the veldt,, fairy tales are left to | children, and are chiefly native in,origin. The adult Boers dwell more, on morbid subjl jects, and their superstitions mainly con- j cern disease and death. But there is said to be a. raally wonderful field waiting in i South Africa for the investigations of a | Grimm. .. ■ I

POSTAL PXGLRES.

The forty-eighth annual report of the British Post-master-General shows- that

./ however- the art of letterwriting may have declined the practice of letter-sending grows by leaps ajid bounds. The total number of letters delivered in.

the United Kingdom last year was 2,451,500,000, an increase of 5.5 per cent,' and an average number to each; person of 58.9. The post-cards totalled 444,900,000,. book packets and circulars 766,200,000, newspapers 169,800,000, and parcels 86,600,000, making a grand total of 3,919,000,000, an increase of 5.2 per cent, and an average of 94.2 to each person. The letters have increased at a higher rate than for many years past, and the 6.2 per cent increase in post-cards was no doubt in a large measure due to the popularity of pictorial post-cards. The' total number of express services was 941,906, an increase of 17.09 per cent, and services performed by "special messenger throughout " have shown a rapid growth, the in--' crease in London being 18.6 per cent. The letters undelivered numbered 10,183,866, which total is larger by 3,500,000 than 1 the figures for five years ago. Out of tea million letters undelivered nearly nine millions were re-issued to corrected.addresses or returned to senders. The property found in undelivered letters included £18,231 in cash, and bank notes, and £650,298 in bills, cheques, money and postal orders, and stamps. The articles T found loose in the post numbered 85,640, and included coin to the amount of more than £IOOO, and cheques to the value of more than £6OOO. The Postmaster-General mentions one case in which a stray half-, sovereign came into the. possession of the Post Office. It had evidently been used to stamp the sealing wax on a small ; j parcel, and was found 'still adhering to the wax on the arrival of the parcel in London. It is not stated whether the regular registration fee was charged' for this conveyance of money. .The telegrams for the year numbered 90,432,041, an increase of 0.95 per cent, 'and included 75,721,194 ordinary , inland and 6,216,116 Press inland. The number of Press telegrams declined by nearly 750,000 in the year, and the average weekly number of words telegraphed to newspapers declined by nearly 2,000,000. On the evening of June 2 the Press telegrams transmitted from London in connection with the declaration, of peace contained 740,000 words.