THE WORLD’S NEWS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143980, 24 December 1912, Page 7

THE WORLD’S NEWS.

The following cablegrams have appeared in the Sydney Sun; — LONDON. Dec. 15.

The formal withdrawal of, Mr. Bruce Ismay from the directorship of the ■White Star line is expected. His health is said to have been broken by the criticism to which he was subjected when he escaped from the'wreck of the Titanic. Clerical circles are exercised at a statement made, by the, Bishop of Lincoln to the effect; that clergymen officiating at sacramental services.are, likelv to become intoxicated unless the wine is well diluted with water. Speaking at a temperance meeting, the Bishop confessed that he had often keen practically intoxicated during his 40 years of .priesthood. . ’When he had had to consume the remainder of the consecrated wine; he had. on many ( occasions,' been distressed by ■ symptoms' of giddiness and a, momentary eclipse of his usual strict sobriety. Such experiences ought, to be avoided by the more liberal dilution of the wine-with water. 1 Home Rule members in the House of Commons'are objecting to the appointment of Mr. ElHson-Macartney t;s- Governor of Tasmania on the ground that he is an Orangeman and opposed to Home Rule for Ireland. The question will be brought un in the House. Four great Berlin doctors, have made favourable comments on the Friedmann cure fbr consumption. Professor Schleich, the inventor of local anaesr thesis! was extremely scoptical until he sent one case to Ijr. Friedmann. Now he remarks, “I hqve seen 60 or 70 cases cured.’’ Professor Konrad duster, says: “No American doctor could have been more disbelieving, in this, matter than I was two years ago. But now I have seen. Friedmann’s treatment of 500 cases and I am convinced that he can cure tuberculosis in the bones and in the, lungs if, in the, latter case, the disease is not too far advanced.” Dr. Erich Muller, the chief physician in the Berlin Orphan Asylum, says: “Friedmann treated and cured . three cases in my. hospital, .and t intend to practise his treatment here, as soon as he can give me the culture.” ' Dr." Karfunke! savs, that ho has, seen the treatment of 500 cases, and he, considers that they were all cured.

A boy of fourteen at Birmingham was in the habit of giving himself light electric shocks, in his bath. Usually he_ used a small medical battery, but yesterday he connected the wires with the electric lighting fixings in the room. The strong current could not bo controlled by the instrument, and the charge, distributed by the water in the bath, electrocuted the boy. LONDON, Dec. 16. A startling report, baa been issuedby the chief medical officer of the Board of Education. The general condition of health of the children in the elementary schools, says the report, is so extensively defective as to amount to a serious •national evil. It is added that since 1901, when an Act was passed providing for the medical inspection of school children, 1,500,000 had been examined annually. The evidence obtained by those examinations showed that a vast number of children were deplorably underfed, and disease was rife amongst them. In only, one urban area, Burton-on-Tront, was the percentage of healthv children good. In only five areas was there over 30 per cent, of well-nour-ished' children. In the great majority: of oases the figures were miserably low. At Blackburn, in the East Biding of Gloucestershire, only 5 per cent.-of the children were properly fed, and in Middlesex the percentage was under four. In London 200,000 children had been examined, and half of them were .found to be defective. The examining doctors recommended 78,000 for treatment, over 27,000 were treated in ’ the hospitals. The report shows that 26,000 school children of England and Wales are feebleminded, and a large percentage of them are incapable of being educated. The Times, commenting on the report, that the general causes arise from conditions of feeding, housing and overcrowding, which were universally condemned. Babies’- comforters ought to he prohibited by law. They were responsible for more deaths than any disease.

Sir Herbert Maxwell, president of .the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, has announced the discovery in- a peat hed near Kirkcudbright, in the south-west of Scotland, of. a hoard of gold, silver, agate and other objects and ornaments. Included in the find was a number of coins, some of which had been minted in the ninth century,_ and bore tho stamp of a Mercian King, whilst there were also several issued by the Emperor Charlemagne. The Bishop of Khartoum has received ; from the family of the late General Gordon a prayer mat used by Gordon in the Soudan. It is made of woollen needlework. The mat will be placed in the Khartoum Cathedral.