The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1912. THE PUBLIC TELEPHONE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1, 27 April 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1912. THE PUBLIC TELEPHONE.

.t will 'be somewhat of a relief to viany people to learn that, according .o investigations made by direction of Tie British Postmaster-General the ransmission of tuberculosis from one verson to another by using the same telephone is practically impossible, in view of the importance of removing my possible source of infectious disease, the Postmaster-General request'd Dr. Spitta, of St. George’s Hospital and bacteriologist to the King, to undertake a thorough investigation ’o determine the possibility of the communication of tuberculosis tiirongli the use of telephones, and especially )f those in public call offices:. For this purpose a uumbor of telephones which had been in use at busy call iffices in Loudon for various periods, n.d bad received no special cleansing reatment oilier than that normally ivcu to such telephones, were hand'd over to Dr. Spitta for examination. In accordance with the method usually followed in such investigations, washings were prepared from the incutli■.ieeGS of the telephones, and tests, were made in each case by the inoculation of guinea pigs,to ascertain the irssenco of tubercle bacilli. Dr. pitta’s report on those experiments bowed that the results were most itisfactory, and that ■ the mouthFees examined were free from tub•rcle bacilli. The telephones, which vcto used in tliis investigation had sen removed from call offices in post Tices, railway termini, meat markets, vd other places of general resort. In oider to remove any possible doubt .is to the exhaustive nature of these experiments the Postmaster-General, o.i Dr. Spitta’s advice, decided to have further experiments made with telephones which were known to have been exclusively used by persons suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis. For this purpose, it was arranged that telephones should be fitted in the wards of a sanatorium and used only by patients in different stages of pulmonary tuberculosis. It was arranged that too instruments should he used in tins ray for varying periods of time and should not be cleaned or disinfected during the course of their experimental use. These telephones were forwarded to Dr. Spitta at intervals vita all necessary precautions to prevent r.ny alteration in their condition, and wore subjected to the same bacteriological experiments as the telephones provonsfy removed from public call offices. The investigations were continued during the, year 1911, and a final report has now been received from Dr. Spitta showing that the results have been entirely negative.

MADAME STEM HE EL.

V cable message received about ; ;v :ek ago .‘dated that Madame Ston lit;!, the confidant of the late \i i'klix hhiure when ho was IVesiden krauc*.', cad published her memoirs ■' *K i y .should ho received with proa i are rest throughout till rope. i’dadam iI’;; i arecr has been, it is said c; ite as adventurous, prchahly, a that of any living woman; for souk

rears no Frenchwoman's name lias hi'on on so many inis She was tnc conJidant and intimate i'noail nl J'onx Fan re, and had just leit him alien the alarm of Ids sea.nra was raised, and the attendants rushed in to lind him breathing his last. At the end of 1909 when she was on trial in Baris, charged witli murdering her husband, it was hinted that she had poisoned the President of the -Republic. According to one writer, no woman since the Fmpiro lias wielded such political sway in France. 01 quite liumhle origin, Mine. Stenheil was lor many years one of the best known women in French society, her salon being visited by’most of the lending public men, artists and litoratours. .Her liusband was an artist himself, but lie remained always in the distant background. One morning lie was discovered murdered; Mine. Stenheil was gagged and bound. Eventually, after the police had fruitlessly followed clue alter clue, Madame was herself arrested. •1 he accusation was that she was responsible for M. Stenheil’s murder, and that the binding and gagging were “put up.” After an extraordinary trial, she was acquitted, and went to England. As accused, Mine. Stenheil gave a wonderful display of histrionic capacity; her appeals to the jury being striking in their pathos and depth of feeling. To the judge she behaved often like a caged tigress; and the verbal duels between the two, if entirely surprising to the British conception of judicial gravity and dignity, wore masterpieces of their kind. Generally Madame had the last word, and the judge retired crcstfailed from the encounter. After the trial Mme. Stenheil crossed to England, followed by photographers and interviewers. She was subjected to much annoyance until the Horae Secretary, with one brief order, “altered all that.” Since then she .has been able to live in peaceable retirement.