GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8670, 12 September 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

GENERAL NEWS.

dipsomania. Hie temperance cause has it EO tamed a valuable ally at last in scien"' good many cos for dipsomania =e. A proposed before now, but mail cently the results have been a I'd"' te re " encouraging. It appears, however"?? but Irencli savant, M. Luton i,, lat * problem. Nitrate of strychniL" T 1 th « tered hypodermic,illy in mi,, 'f n a ' lrni "i>the brick." After ten days of n' * d °-' a merit chronic alcoholics acquire' tre «. loathing or stimulants tint ev™ SUCh u of their once favourite beverS 11 t " iff nausea and headache. Ih-l i? causeand Jergolski have u«ed s'trv ? more than 500 patients, wiu/f''' 1 ' 16 0,1 good results. One suflerer 1 ,Vf i riab! 3' in the habit of taking half to o ,'"'A schnapps a day w .w cured in " 1,0 0I " sitting. Drugs are evidently of sotue'u^

SHOCKING SUICIDE IX A Km A terrible suicide i* , ' Frankfort-on-Main. A serv'.n? • \ fron had lose her situation. climbel '' v ' u over the railings of the Zoological ," f; 21 " undressed herself, and let, heWl 1! I s ' a rope which she had brought «» b , into the bear-pit. The I'olnV bear au- '*'• sprang at her, seized her by th,- i.L U ; KS ; lifted her up. The poor gU in ai "' screamed out and the keeper, hutif"' and tried to drive off the bear 1 !' neu .«i' The girl begged them to shoot, the' but the keepers could minds to this, fearing to shoot' ,| . V* 11 girl, and hoping to get her out „1 ■, the meanwhile the bear be".,,, i,;. ' /'» meal, and tore the flesh from his vi'? 1 face and breast. The keepers u i" # succeeded m driving the beast mu-. r ' the dreadfully mutilated body «■!,;'/ then hauled up. The girl a ,', 7' V ' im occasion told one of the koepm'that'T would throw herself into the "lioi"i „ ' 8 but her remark was taken tor a joke ° e CURIOUS SPJCKCII BY TUB bum; UK ctv IiKIDCIC.

The Duke of Cambridge'i« rptmnri i the World to have made°a curiS S at the Staff College dinner. ]| c "... '' 1 afraid, he said, to be called a "dra"''! no ! t , especially in those days when there So strong a tendency to turn the arniv il debating society. For his part he ,] .!> catcd the public discussion of n-ilii topics, by military men. If UII , J", g advocated chants, the proper course X to submit then- suggestions to the ,4 authorities. The worst; of it, W IS d the authorities could make no publi,'» joinder when taxed with retro-rule vilu! "Why, if lI T was at liberty to" S'% lI.R. 11.', "I could often not only iiMtfV the course wo took, but I could -how'th , those who attacked us were perfect idiot"'" a statement hailed with roars of a|>t)lau»'. "Iso," he went on, "the interests of th'» army were quite safe in his hands, am! those of his gallant friend, Sir Redveri Buller." lb would be a bad day for t!> army he thought, if the olliee of Com-mander-in-Chief were abolished, and ha hoped that when the time came he im„h t bo succeeded by a relative of his 0 « n That time could not be far distant— of "No, no, no")—although he was lint, to say he still felt full of work. Only today I have been at Aldershot reviewing the militia. Now here I am haranguing you and later on I am going to a State concern —not a bad day's work, gentlemen ft- -i man of seventy-two !" The Duke's health was drunk uproariously, with cheer upon cheer. IS GRAPHOLOGY LEGAL?

Charles Stuart was, at Bow-street sentenced to three months' imprisonment' charged with professing to tell fortunes bv handwriting. At the "prisoner's lodging upwards of 212 letters had been seized* with stamps amounting to £0, written bv persons asking for their fortunes to be told. Of these, 205 were from women and seven from men, including some from Constantinople. In a number of instances photographs were enclosed.

A mute's ACTION- FOK breach OF PROMISE,

Mr. Lewis Williams and a jury sat in the Sheriff's Court at the Manchester Assize Buildings a few days ago to assess the damages in an action in which .Miss Catherine Nightingale, a deaf and dumb lady residing at Eccles, sought to recover damages for breach of promise of marriage from P. F. Hodgson, a banker's clerk, at Oldham. It was announced, however, that the case had been settled by the defendant agreeing to pay to the plaintiff the sura ot £250. Judgment, was given accordingly. -Mil. AND MRS. I'ARSKMj. Messrs. Wontner, the solicitors, write to say that Mr. Parnell has not paid Captain O'Shea's costs in the divorce suit. He was ordered to pay the money into court mi the decree nisi, but he never did so ; but shortly before the time came for making it absolute —on May 10 last—he wrote offering to pay half the amount down, and asked that the balance might stand over for a month. On May 28 they offered to accept this proposal. " Since this time we have not heard anything from him, and have had the greatest difficulty in serving him with a notice in bankruptcy ; and, now that it is served, he is moving the court to set it aside on the ground that he is nob domiciled in England." A coronkr's jury.

An amusing incident is reported to have occurrcd at a coroner's inquest in Beecles the other day. There were 13 jurymen sworn, and as the council of the county lias decided to pay fees to coroners'juries, the coroner gravely handed the sum of 1 '2s to the foreman at the close of the inquest, But here came in the necessity for a curious arithmetical arrangement. At first sight it would seem by no means easy to divide 1-' individual shillings among 13 individual jurymen. Bub the foreman heroically cut the knot, and, with a noble self-effacement, he gave a shilling each to his 12 companions, and remained shillingless himself. 1 hey, however, were not to be outdone in generosity. With true huge heartedne.-s they each contributed Id, and handed »"c: 12d to the foreman, whose virtue was thurewarded by getting Id more than any lithe rest, for he had a whole Is, while they remained with only lid each.

NEW TREATMENT OK TI-*JI KUCi;IA>"?IS. Professor Lannelongue has presented « long report to the French Academy Oi Mwlieiiio on the treatment of tubercle by injections of chloride of zinc. Out of *2: patients to whom the new remedy has been applied, 0110 litis been, to nil appearance:, completely cured, while remarkable nilprovement lias been manifested in ue condition of others. The effect of the <i"|~ is to produce a fibrous transformation U' the healthy tissues immediately surroundm;! the tubercle, with the result that 1 1 ®: bacilli are walled in by a sclerous and prevented from spreading. _ This is '• 'J imitation of Nature's process in die ran. cases of .spontaneous cure. It is not u \ ascertained what becomes of the iiupnaJiiej bacilli, whether they are .starved to ilea or remain 'dormant, so that in cases . apparent cure all danger of relapse '"J 5 "' 1 'been definitely removed. The l"', , admits that this main point can only., settled satisfactorily after a consiaeu lapse of time. COMMUNICATING WITH TIIK I'I.ANtT>M. Camille Flammnrion has • been for his opinion of the strange legaev le • an old lady at Pan to the .Academy ™ Sciences, to be given as prize to - astronomer who, within the next . years, may find some means of co,n ... eating with a star or a planet, aim ' ie . that she must have j,ot the idea from i • ing his books. He has touched 011 ( ■subject once or twice when writing a the planet Mars, and he sticks _« hce „ original idea that signals have act ual!) made by its inhabitants from tnno r U ' T out for the express purpose of attention. Naturally M. Cainil.e t * t he marion is not inclined to poke tun i., whim of the old lady, but he ie«w frankly that 0110 thing is certain-- \ of at the present moment, no possible 111. - communicating with any of the «o | IQVV . which wo are surrounded. Whe a ble ever, this will always be nnprac j,i« is another matter altogether ~0 ))) to Popular Astronomy"/; declared that it would be absurd to"' n that the chemical composition ot • _ and planets could ever be asccrt.i" t. i . f few years after his death spectii •_ ji){ solved this problem. Some day c 0 1„. thing might happen with rega h it miirucation between the planei-. S||V would be perfectly idle to invent' 011 attempt of the sort now. Aot liest j o " s might furnish some clue to the q - g to whether our world is the only peopled by intelligent beings.