GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7270, 7 March 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

An obscure and poverty iW«v to Pall Mall GazetS) of which owes its interest not to fai.teJ*w° a » fiction, is about to disappear f "!^L butt » of London. Bleeding Heart e "** Dickens peopled with hie acters, is now a desolate tract £.S **' empty the yard darted, bnt qSt.^ , ? •» as of old. The name had a nmterv v. iut * which had fascinated the novelist S*? iJ self tells how the inhabitants we're „!• la " variance as to the source of this picff '* and suggestive nomenclature-some Z?Vf confident in an early murder while th' sentimental inhabitants had a v. . Qra legend of a broken-hearted lady £*fi* they clung with desperate unanimity » sometimes happens in London arch : the true solution was suggested by aSI & « It is curious to find publicans uncon.-if* discharging the duties of the Heralds' CVi y bat topography and tavern signs eo O f.' gf, gether. In Charles-street, fiat'S c!V°' there wa3 some yeara ago- sßd it murSh exist—a pnblic-houae, of which the n=r-, 3 the "Bleeding Heart;' The origin * T! 3 sign dates from before the Reformatkn I* related to the Roman Catholic m vr i nd the rosary—the Virgin's heart pierced bv'fir' swords. - 1 c " a

A correspondent writes to the Liv e -rw> Daily Post :—I am verj far from tffi 1 that the North Atlantic can be bridge^ 5 just as far as the people of Europe were faOH believing, some 396 years ago, that th - was auy land or living thing ou the of =» ere western side of this stormy ocean. \V r'* Cr of opinion that a lightship and a telajn*? station might be moored and hid a : d between here and Boston on the greats highway on which the ships of all natlo- 4 "* 17 daily sailing or steaming, and that theilisS ship and postal station might be pc; i QC *""* munication with the whole civilised WmhC means of the electric cable, immeditfely o - which, I assume, the lightship ahanJd" hi anchored. The anchorin;|, I admit" vrcHi be the difficulty. Divers could get at t'-» cable, and effect a communication irithit But might not the weight of the etrting iai necessarily heavy chain to which the fi-C ship rshould be moored be buoyed all aW? its length, to keep it light in the water'aJ on the ship? "What say our nautical ec gineera and scientific seamen ? Hot i: won'j gladden the hearts of thousands to hear the news from this lightship that the crew ot t disabled steamer or a waterlogged timber ship had "put in," and got all the crew iaf. on board the lightship. I assume that anv nautical man—l mean captain or mate--coald find the lightship in the daytime, aai that an electric light, seen at a distance of forty miles, would guide him to it at ai~hC But what say our nautical scientists ? "

Ihe special correspondent cf the Daily News with the Nile Expedition Eays that tt» lot of the newspaper correspondents in thia expedition has been rather harder than that of the soldiers. "A commandingoScernuy select a spot for camping on where his mea are not likely to be affected by troublesome neighbours or noisome odours. We, 1«3 fortunate, have to make the beet: of such accommodation a3 the natives choose to provide for us. The best house we can hire for money is bad enough ; and we can only make one stipulation—that is, when we come in they go out and trouble us no more nntii the term of tenancy expires. What they may chance to leave behind them we cannot guard ourselves against. .No doubt it is pleasant enough to feel the breath of heaven playing freely about your temples throcgh open windows, and to see the stars shining through holes in a roof of palm-branches overlaid with mud ; but when every gust stirs clouds of dust from the floor, bats come in as freely as the breeze, and scorpions find refuge ia crannies innumerable, one begins to feel that the pleasure has some alloy. Every morainj long before daybreak, too, one's slumbers are distnrbed by the weird discord of bugles and drums eounding the reveille for natire troops. On the whole, our hut would mate very tolerable stabling for an impoverished farm of fifty acres. Its only recommendation is it peaceful seclusion and privacy. Except by the bats and some bright little red finches —called by some people Java sparrows—this come to breakfast with us and twitter pleasantly all the whiie, we get no nativu visiton from without. Within our enclosure we lire with our camels and horses, like a happy Irish family wild its pigs." A curious commentary (says Knowledge) oa the hysterical shrieking of the (happily inuli) band of fanatics who are monomariiaal ca the subject of vivisection, was afforded by u operation which. wa3 performed some in weeks ago by Mr. Rickman J. Godlet, rurgeon to University College Hospital. Physiologists are familiar with the experiments by Profe3ior Ferrier on rabbit* and monkeys, by the aid cf which he was enabled to localise the sensory and motor f mictions ia the cerebrum. Now, it came to pass that there was a patient in the Regent's Park Hospital for Epilepsy and Paralytis, a married man, with a family, stricken with that, heretofore, fatal malady, tumour on the brain—a malady of the mere existeacs of which the diagnosis had not presented much difficulty, though, prior to Ferrier'i splendid researches, it was simply impossible to localise the seat of the tumour. Guided, however, by the unerring hand of Ecience, Dr. Hughes Bennett was so successful in the interpretation of this poor creature's conmlsions as to be able to say definitely that the tumour was situated in the ascending frontal convolution of the right hemisphere of the brain. Down through the scalp, th-3 skull, and the dura mater did Mr. Godlee cut to the point indicated by Dr.- Becnett—and there was the tumour, the size of » walnut, which was removed without difficulty! Surely the moral of this story needs bat 1 little insisting on. Here was a man, who, but for the flood of light cast in hi 3 case Dy the experiments in vivisection of Dr. Ferrter, must infallibly have perished miserably, IM left a widow and orphans to the cold chanty of the world. Thanks, however, to thow experiments, he has been restored to he*ta, strength, and usefulness ; and who shall a? that the lives of a thousand rabbits haw been wasted in the attainment of so gloricta a result ?

Under the name of pclemos a gamejui been devised which might be made to *so« some useful and instructive exercises n tactics and much of the interest of chess ft) either military or non-professional players. For the field, a green cloth, about the s:zs cl a billiard-table, which is ruled into sqaarei with red lines, represents a tract of country ten miles long by five broad, the size of eaca square being counted as 400 yards. Tries i» is easy to estimate at a gknee the distance by which the opposing forces are separata in different parts of the field. The piece are small leaden figures, each group representing a regiment set on a squire base wnicn just fits over one of the ruled squares, ana according to the character of the a™"**" tiilery, cavalry or infantry—is the abu? ** move irore or fewer squares at a tun-. Reserves of single men, coloured to correspond to the regiments on the field, are «i>. in a tray, and wch player before beginning the game must take oat 20 men from nis own reserve. He must select some from eacn arm, but as he is not compelled to take them trow each regiment his antagonist i> ' eII ignorance of the exact strength clujFj ticular regiment opposed to him. i^ 53 * 8 shown by scattering single men lro ™t! reserve on the field near the spot occnpiec.»7 the particular regiment to which they Artillery opening fire at a distance of n™ squares kills one, two at a dis, i ance r ° v 2r7 squares, and so on proportionately. *-* Snnotfire. When a regiment has epg in the execution of which "°_ mb one square is deducted from th« >**<** fora move, a flag is displayed, in* \ H have been carefully arranged to n»»t• • conditions of these mimic engagement* m£.ncEU\Tes resemble as far a≤ P° SSI °' a restrictions under which actual wan ' ■<„ carried on. It is intended to pro™ stacks, such as mountains, rivers, tranchments, still further to coegej" problems. The game is btooght Messrs. John Jacques and Son, «

Garden, ~v jjeld is At a vegetarian banquet recent*, n tive England, after the usual amount_ot afood had been consumed, a ma ; c ° a / lef: d the courage to observe that; U: « feSJ rearing animals for food it with clothes. He was instantly con in the most practical manner ■ by he vegetarian, who arose and "» B «f?j ffb irfi to completely dressed l \^^ U t had involved no blood-gmltine* «» A cotton velveteen coat, a *"% ffnt ens» waistcoat, corduroy trousers, and W shoes constituted the array ei th« food in all his lite. ' . _