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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6986, 26 May 1894, Page 4

Recently Dr B. Schwarzbach delivered a lecture m the hall of the Young Men's Christian Association, Sydney, on " Consumption, and how to avoid it. It has been published m extenso m the Sydney Morning Herald. Dr Schwarzbach points out that m Australia alone over 3000 people die yearly from the effect of pulconsumption. No battle of nations so many victims behind as does the with the tubercular bacillus, an V organism so small as to be seen only with va magnifying power of 300. About the 5ie ver» th part of mankind succumb to its 1 destructive power, a power attacking the rich as well as the poor. After dealing ' with the cause of the disease, hereditary influence, the preservation of health, etc., Dr Schwarzbach treats of the cure. The air treatment he regards as by far the —est important m cases of suspected or developed pulmonary tuberculosis. Air, aud again air, pure air, free from dust and rich m ozone— no matter where we breathe it, as long as we breathe enough of it, and breathe it rationally — will help them better than all the medicines m the world to prevent or cure cases of consumption. Tbe sea oure is also referred to, and the great benefit of the open sea on lung and throat patients, as well as the grape cure, which has been for long successfully used m Europe for consumption m the earlier stages. Dr Schwarzbach suggests m cities the establishment of Fresh Air Leagues, the purely medical treatment of phthisis being indifferently successful. The stress of life, hints upon diet, modern hygiene, are successively dealt, and last of all the duty of the State as to enforcing sanitary measures with respect to buildings, sleeping berths • of steamers and railway carriages, md m watching the public milk supply.- If the Government did this* much it would have done all m its power to check the spread _i 00n ?. ,Maption * The lecture is an able and exhaustive one, and the whole question v treated m a comprehensive style. Mr Justice Williams has b*»en elected Chancellor of the Otago University m the •place of the late Dr. Stuart. **The work of cataloguing the Parliamentary library, which has been m hand more or less £? *_S, c Z ea,n * nas at length been finished. Thi MS., however, has yet to be edited and arrangad, and a vote will be required before .it can be pnnted. Thia will be rather an job, as the catalogue is compiled t. -my minute and extensive form, and probably form several large volumes.

A correspondent to the Hobart Mercury writes :— " You will doubtless have noticed a cablegram to the effect that the London Globe states that H.M.S. Curaooa, of the Australian squadron, is m a disgraceful condition. The reason, I am informed, is that she is a composite ship, and that m them, after a time, galvanic action is spontaneously generated, which destroys the bolts, rivets, and rivet holes by which the iron or, steel walls of the ship are tied to her wooden hull. Vessels of this class actually go into action with their armour lying loose about them, with what results may be imagined. Talking to a naval friend about the criticisms raised upon the vessels of the French navy as being too heavy and liable to turn turtle m the event of being impacted by a ram, he informed me that the shipbuilders took very little heed of whether, the vessels they turned out were top-heavy or not. Their problem, he said, is to compress the engines and magazines into the smallest space possible below water-level, so as to allow plenty of room 'for fighting on the ship, and the fact that the guns, etc. are on the upper decks and some m the crow's nest and tops necessarily tends to exaggerate the tendency of thp vessel to roll over. This is comforting information, though of course known to the experts, who have to chance the risk as they do m&ny others."