THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1875.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2100, 27 September 1875, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1875.

Mb "R. Thompson was on Saturday last fined ten shillings and costs for poisoning a dog belonging to Mr B. Shardlow. The facts of the case as far as disclosed by the evidetce have been already given in our issue of Saturday, and so it is unneeesiary to repeat them here. Neither should we have deemed it necessary to notice the case in this maQner« notwithstanding the conflicting evidence giv,en by the expertsengaged therein, hut that i» this issue of the Star a letter appears, signed "Martin H. Payne," with 14 letters and ■" &c" attached thereto, which,

while its obvious intcut is to throw discredit on the evidence given by Mr Denby on the occasion, contradicts in effect the evidence of Mr Bishop, and presents to the bewildered mind of the uninitiated reader of the case the spectacle of three men, each presumably well acquainted with the subject, diametrically opposed to eacli other on what we should have thought the not very abstruse subject of the result of strychnine. The case is this. Mr Denby analysed the contents of a dog's stomach and discovered strychnine in small quantities ; not sufficient as he says to'kill the dog. but, taken with the amount which h&considers it probable the dog must have absorbed into his system, calculated to produce death. At all events there was strychnine which Mr Denby discovered in the presence of a witness, having (as we are informed) employed the analytical process described in a work on chemistry by Dr Attfield, Professor of Practical Chemistry to the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Now it must be taken for granted that Dr Attfield thoroughly knew the subject on which he wrote. He has, to be sure, only fire letters attached to his name, and no " &c," but speaking extra muros we should feel disposed to believe that he is at least as eminent a man as Dr Payne, and. he describes the process as " trustworthy " and " very simple in principle," and certainly his explanation given in a/oot note makes it appear so. This process, then, Mr Denby adopted, and discovered what he declared to be strychnine, and probably Mr Denby has not so misspent his time as not to know what strychnine is. However, both Dr Payne and Mr Bishop throw discredit on Mr Denby's evidence, and state the dog could not have died from strychnine; and give their reasons. Now mark the mode of reasoning by which these two wish to upset Mr Denby. Mr Bishop stated that if the dog died from the effect of strychnine all the neighborhood would have been aroused by its agonies and howls ; and as they were not so aroused the dog could not have had strychnine, and therefore Mr Denby was wrong. Dr Payne on the contrary declares that " strychnine causes death by tetanus; " tetanus, or lock jaw (vide Dr Guy on Physic), prevents a dog howling ; and so the dog did not have strychnine administered to it, and therefore Mr Denby was wrong, or, as Dr Payne elegantly puts it, Mr Denby " found what never existed." In plain English, Mr Denby stated what was untrue, because Dr Payne declared that strychnine produces tetanus, which, be it observed, Mr Denby has never denied! Putting aside the question of good taste or rather the want of it which causes a F.C.S., L.E.C.P. M.K.C.S. L.8.A., &c, of England, to make a man out a liar or an idiot (as far his profession is concerned) because he fancies-that man differs from himself, we can hardly, fail to be struck with the fact that though Dr. Payne and Mr Bishop contradict each other pretty freely as to the results of strychnine, yet Dr. Payne does not contradict Mr Denby except in language, neither does Mr Bishop except as to the time necessary to kill a dog when strychnine has been once administered ; for be it observed, Mr Denby did not deny that tetanus had set in, neither did he say that the dog did not suffer great agony. He simply stated that he had found strychnine, and spake as to his own experience of its probable effects, and that experience is borne out by medical works on the subject and by actual personal observation. Thus in the Materia Medica of Dr. Pereira we find that the effect of s try chnine—or, as he calls it,nux-vomica —is different on carnivorous and herbivorous animals, and while " some ounces " may be required to kill a horse which eats grass, a "fewgrains" will suffice for.a dog which eats flesh. As regards the time taken to kill the dog Mr Bishop declares " a quarter of a grain " would only take a quarter of an hour to an hour to produce death, but on looking at the duration of "tetanus" as spoken of by Dr Guy we find that it varies greatly frcm a quarter | of an hour (one known case) to four or \ eight days as far as man is concerned; and we-may presume that if tetanus supervened as the result of strychnine in the case of a dog the time ere fatal results set in would be equally variable in comparison. We ourselves know of. a case in which a dog, to which not a quarter of a grain but sevei'al grains had been administered, lived for some hours and then had to be destroyed by a pistol ball; and we have heard that the experiences of the Sergeant of Police in this Borough will afford additional evidence on this point. Wedo not doubt what Mr Bishop stated that the power of digestion is very quick in a dog, but the fact remains the same« that at the time of the analysis of the dog's stomach, a good deal of food was found in a very far from digested state. So much for this attempt of Dr M. H. Payne to throw discredit on Mr Denby's evidence. Magistrates are not always chemists, though they be sometimes doctors, and perhaps having one chemical witness swearing to one thing, while another chemical witness swore to the contrary, may have been, rather perplexing to our J.P.s as to which to believe. Since, however, Dr Payne has rushed into print, we suppose no doubt can reasonably exist" in any unprejudiced mind. In striving to do one thing he has certainly succeeded in doing the reverse.

Sic (xEDEGE Gbey's attempt to have the repeal of the gojd duty embodied in the Abolition of Provinces' IJJH *3 Jus'; now the'subject of considerable discussion, and the Cross and Advertiser have come to the conclusion that Sir George's proposal is undesirable. Why or wherefore does not appeal-, further than that these

two journals affirm it, and each copies from the other in a way which would seem to indicate that if they agree Auckland and the Thames must be unanimous. It is no doubt excessively flattering for the Advertiser editor to have his views copied into a journal that is only too anxious to copy anything which savors of opposition to Sir George Grey, but it would not be difficult to prove that both the Cross aud Advertiser are " ratting" when they oppose the abolition of the export duty on gold. We have not, however, set ourselves to this task at present. The consideration of such a subject would involve a lengthy argument of the case, to which we plead indisposition. But what we wanted to call attention to was, not so much the Jim Crow proclivities of our local contemporary as the child-like confidence which the Cross places in the Advertiser's utterances. For instance, on Saturday, after previous references to the Advertiser's opinions—which no one could object to so long as they were regarded only as the Advertiser's—the Cross says :— " Exactly as we predicted it would be, the Thames is strenuously opposed to the attempt made by the member for City West to effect a repeal of the gold duty." The Cross then goes on to quote further opinions from the Advertiser without the. slightest consideration as to what the Thames'may think or feel on the matter. We might retort and say that the only expression of opinion from the Thames regarding the gold duty had appeared in our own columns from the pen of " A Miner;" and we wager that the writer of that letter (which approved of Sir George Grey's action) represented the feeling of, the Thames more correctly than the Thames Advertiser. No doubt before the session is ended we shall hear more of this question, and we shall have occasion to recur to it in all its bearings; but meantime we wish the Cross and other Auckland journals to note that the Advertiser does not represent the feeling of the Thames on the gold duty questioa ; for no public expression of opinion has been obtained since Sir George Grey's proposals were made, and when last the Thames pronounced upon the principle it was decidedly in favor of repealing the duty.

Since we wrote urging upon the manager of the Press Agency the necessity which exists for ndopting precautions \,o ensure the genuineness of the information disseminated by that association, another instance has occurred which confirms our view of the situation, and points to the absolute demand for measures being taken by which the manager will be able to distinguish between messages wired to him by his- sub-agents and telegrams sent by interested parties to serve purposes of their own, the latter hitherto escaping by adopting the signature of recognised agents, namely "Press Agency." The latest instance'of what appears to be an impudent forgery as well as a scandalous libel on a shipload of immigrants is that of a message which purported to have been sent from Napier by the Press Agent regarding the arrival of immigrants by the Friedburg, as follows: —"Napier, September 4.-srThe ship Friedburg, from Hamburgh, arrived in Hawke's Bay, with j 289 assisted immigrants—at least that was the number of souls which left Europe; but on the voyage two unfor&een ' contingencies' made their appearance in the single girls' compartment, and had the voyage been prolonged, the original 24 occupants of. that compartment would probably have increased by 13 souls in all. The colony is by this importation likely, almost immediately, to add 37 units to its population at the cost of the passage of only 24" The authenticity of this telegram has been denied by the Press Agents at Napier, and the malicious nature of the message has been commented upon in several quarters. It appears that on the. voyage of the Friedburg two single females were confined, but the Surgeon Superintendent explains that in one instance tho girl was married the day after arrival, and in the other that the death of the child only prevented a marriage between the mother and the -father. The Surgeon further explains that it is more than probable legal and financial disabilities which existed in the countries from which these immigrants camo were the prevailing circumstances which led to thee irregulari. ties. At the same time the Doctor indignantly denies the statement which reflects so seriously upon the other " single" girls, and asserts that it is "a gross and aWminable falsehood," besides which, he pays a tribute to the character of the girls as a whole. The two Napier papers have been considerably agitated over this matter, but as yet it does not appear that the real sender of the telegram has hsen discovered, or how it came to be sent through the Colony under the authority of the Press Agency. We believe the Press Agency Manager has had his attention called to this matter privately, and in some instances he has taken means which will enable him to judge of the value of messages received, but, without some more perfect arrangement, the agenpy will always be open to imposition by the underhand practices of persons unauthorised to send messages, but who presume upon their former immunity from detection, and wire messages which only serve to bring the agency into disrepute, and lessen the Value which should attach to telegrams published under such an authority.