SCIENCE AND FORGERY.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12765, 5 February 1910, Page 1

SCIENCE AND FORGERY.

A trial' which took place in Vienna on November 20th before a Vienna jury had a curious and quite unprecedented result. A young man and a lady belonging to a good Viennese family were accused, tho one with forging and the other with assisting, in the utterance of 50-kronen bauik notes. Both admitted their guilt but both were acquitted amidst the applause of a large crowd in the court. The principal defendant is a medical student named Ladislaus Hosek, and (his accomplice is Fraulein von Krutz The trial showed that Hosek, who has devoted himself to the study of bacteriology, has made some interesting discoveries with, regard to the sanitary condition prevaSing in Vienna. He traced the malaria bacillus, and proved that some hundreds of cases of tropical malaria existed in the. Vienna district bordering on the Danube. Hosek's discoveries were confirmed in court by the leading scientific authorities, and the importance of his bacteriological studies was admitted. Many witnesses who had been cured of malaria by Hosek gave evidence, and the disgraceful fact was brought to light that the defendant, when in the direst poverty, was refused aid by the sanitary authorities, Uy scientific circles, and official surgeons, who refused to believe that cases of tropical malaria could be found in Vienna. In every quarter Hosek, who needed assistance to his studies in the tropical districts, met with rebuffs, refusals, or indifference. Whan in the deepest indigence, and fearing death from starvation, he photographed, in a remarkably clever manner, some 50---kronen notes, which were distributed by his friend Fraulein von, Krutz. Considering that he had committed the forgery when under tho irresistible pressure of his passion for further discoveries, the jury acquitted him. Now the whole of the press demands that public assistance shall be granted to Hosek to enable ,him to complete his investigations without the fear of starvation.