CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5871, 13 May 1897, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

The faith in stellar anil the stabs planetary influence upon and the the affairs of the Earthweather, survives in. a really re-

- markable way, and in Zadkid's Almanac for 1897 we find the usual predictions set forth, all based apparently on the so-called "science" of astrology. The prophet has already scored a partial success, in that he predicted that this year the King of Greece "would do something for the good of his country." The good may not yet be apparent, but the King has certainly done " something " of vast importance to Greece. Another prophecy is even more remarkable. Zadkiel said that New Zealand would be visited by drought, which would prove very destructive to crops. A drought in the autumn may not be particularly destructive to crops, but there is no doubt that they will be affected to some extent by the recent striking absence of rain. If the prophet had indicated Australia as the place for the visitation he would have made a decided hit. Telegrams published in the Sydney papers state that at Deniliquin the country is in a fearful state, not a vestige of grass being visible anywhere, and many of the oldest residents aver that they have never experienced anything like it before. On many stations the sheep are dying in thousands, although every effort is being made to keep them alive ' by cutting scrub, and numbers of men are employed on the different holdings skinning the dead sheep for the wool. In the Wilcannia district things are, if anything, worse. On one holding alone the manager estimated that the sheep were dying at the rate of a thousand a day, and within a radius of one hundred miles of Wilcannia the country has the appearance of a desert. It requires a great stretch of credulity, surely, to enable one to believe that stars, the nearest of which is sixty millions of miles away, can influence terrestrial weather or anything else here . and yet Old Moore's astrological almanac used to have a circulation of forty thousand a year among English people.

London to-day has its astrology Astrological Society, and and its the first annual meeting of votaries, that body was held a few

months ago. A writer in the Forum lately maintained that the upper Classes of England were the principal supporters of the revived superstition of astrology. A decade since, he says, there were no astrological publications in England ; now there are three, and the chief subscribers are the aristocracy, the wealthy middle classes, the county families and tfce Jews. There is scarcely a well-to-do Jewish family in London which has not the horoscope of its chief members. The writer declares tllat he has been deluged with as many as five hundred letters a day from people in England, 20 per cent of whom were advanced students of astrology. He says that the Prince Consort, Lord Beaconsfield and George Eliot were regular patrons of a certain " seer of Charing Cross Road," who, for forty years past, has made remarkable predictions, verified by the event. All this is a sad declension from the teaching of the poet Fletcher,! that —

Man is his own sar, and the soul that can Be honest is the only perfect man. Our acts our angels ate, or good or ill, Our fatal, shadows that walk by us still. The present Emperor of Germany is, by the way, stated to have as firm a faith in his "star" as had that man of destiny, Napoleon I. It is even more curious to find that many Christian festivals are associated with astrological periods. The feast Of the Virgin Mary is on the day the sun enters Aries, that of John the Baptist on his entering Cancer, that of Michael on his entering Libra, and that of Jesus on his entering Capricorn. The feasts of Saints Paul, Matthew, Mark, James, Bartholomew and Simon and Jude are respectively fixed with reference to the sun entering Aquarius, Pisces, Taurus, Leo, Virgo and Scorpio. Many a devout person, too, who would not use an oath on any account, occasionally exclaims, " Bless my stars !"

The Medico-Chirurgical professional Society of Montreal has secrets. lately been discussing the

duty of medical men in regard to professional secrets. Naturally the Kitson-Playfair case was considered a good deal in connection with the subject, and it doubtless helped the Montreal Society in coining to definite conclusions of general value. What the Society held was that a physician was at all times bound to observe the confidences of his patient, except (1) when he had been expressly relieved of his obligation by his patient ; (2) when he was ordered by the Court to answer as a witness ; (3) when the rules of the Board of Health demanded it ; (4) when it was necessary to free himself from the danger of being held to be an aider and abettor of a crime or an accessoiy after the fact; (5) when an ordinarily prudent man might, in good faith, without malice or exaggeration, consider it to be" his duty to society or to himself. It was pointed out that the exception under which the physician found the greatest difficulty was the last. When might he consider it his duty to society or to himself to divulge his patient's secret ? To this it was answered that the circumstances alone could be his guide. There was, however, no question that the duty of the doctor was to disclose the nature of an illness if it was of a pontagious nature, for that came within the exception as to the rules of the Board of Health. The whole question is surrounded by most perplexing difficulties, and it is very much to the credit of the medical profession that these have, as a general rule,

been surmounted .with the closest regard to the best interests of society.

; About forty years ago an kussia's eminent Frenchman said; forward "There are only two movement, nations in Europe who

have a political future; England and Russia." This epigram, .like many other epigrams, may not be scientifically true, but some who keep a wide lookout on the affairs of the world believe that Alfred Maurz, the author of the aaying, was not far wrong 1 . It is certain that apart from hgr traditional policy of territorial extension— a policy which is also in a pre-eminent degree England's also — Russia is now preparing her people to play a great part in the world by devoting herself systematically to their education. It is well known that during the latter days of Alexander 11. and the whole of the reign of Alexander 111. a persistent war was waged by the officials against all who tried to further the cause of learning. At the present time, however, Count Delianoff, the Minister of Education, and his assistants, are working day and night organising schools, technical colloges, and even polytechnics. The state of things they have to face is so bad — only one woman in five hundred in Russia can read and write— that it will be years before much real progress can be expected ; but at least a beginning has been made. If this foiward movement should be carried on for a number of years, a natively-intelligent people will . find splendid scope in turning to account all the advantages derivable from their country's policy of territorial extension. This is what England is doing now, and what she will probably continue to do indefinitely; and, looking at the map of the world and at the internal movements in Russia itself, that country is apparently the only other European nation that will be in a position to do the same thing on a grand scale. Thus we see that, after all, M. Maurz's saying was not without substantial practical justification.