HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18009, 20 November 1926, Page 8

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. Vaccination Before Jenner's Time. Although vaccination is linked with the name of Jenner, there is ample evidence that it was practised by farmers and others in the rural districts of England long before his day. It was common knowledge amongst theso people that an attack of cowpox immunised the sufferer against smallpox, and it was quite usual for farm workers to infect themselves and their children tvith the former complaint to protect them against the latter. Indeed, twenty-two years before Dr Jenner made his first vaccination, a farmer named Benjamin Jesty, of Downshay, openly advocated the practice; but. not being a medical man, he was laughed at for his pains. Time has. however, proved his theory correct. h » Women Crooks of Paris. No city in the world has such a lurid underworld as that of Paris, also no other capital possesses so many crinSnals of the fair sex. It is a fact that the number of women crooks in Paris outnumber those of the male sex. There has always been a halo of romance round the woman lawbreaker, and it is because she is so well represented in the underworld of Paris that it is so particularly interesting. It has been said that Paris was founded by the French and is maintained by the tourists. In a sense this is very true, for Paris is the pleasure mart of the world—the supplying of amusement to the foreign visitor is an industry in Paris, and many of its worst features are a result of this catering for tourists’ pleasure. Glasgow Slum Clearance. Glasgow’s latest slum clearance scheme is estimated to involve a capital outlay of £500,000. This statement was made by Mr A. C. M’Millan. the City Chamberlain, at the resumed hearing of the Board of Health inquiry held in the City Chambers, over which Mr R. 11. Maconochie, advocate, presided. Mr M’Millan said the laige outlay would entail over the period of the next sixty years an annual average loss of about £17,000. Half of that sum, however, fell to be paid by the Government, so that about ££s<H) would have to l>e paid by the Corporation, which was equivalent to ail average charge on the rates of 1.5 d per £l. »: « Brilliant Aurora. A brilliant display of aurora was seen from Fort William, Scotland. At about 9.15 the central point was due west, the shafts reaching from west to east across two-thirds of the sky. spreading in fan shape and including Ursa Major on the right and Aquilia on the left. At 9.30 the northern horizon became active until it lay barred with short shafts forming a great fencing of pearl-white light. A striking feature was a similar curvature of many of the shafts. At II P-ni. and onwards the phenomenon completely changed in character. Tho shaft formations disappeared, and in place of them there began a perfect riot of light, baffling description. Across the starlit sky there would appear suddenly great' clouds of white light that danced wildly, clashing together. separating as swiftly as they had blended, twisting themselves during the process into grotesque shapes, until one was reminded of Nansen's description of the Arctic aurora. Loch Linnhe lay bathed in the reflected light, which cast shadows as from a cloudy moon. “Her Excellency.’* When the big oversea s liners are on the New Zealand coast the stewards’ department generally goes about in :ta shirt sleeves, so to speak (says the Auckland “Star.”). At any rate it feels a bit of relief when the last passenger goes ashore, and then it gets busy, tears down curtains and things and gives the cabins a good scrub out and a brush up. Things were in this state of deshabile with the Ruapehu tbo other day when she was off the Otago coast, and there came a wireless “Pick up Lady Ferguson at Timaru. passenger to New Plymouth." There was mild consternation; the Governor's lady coming and the saloon looking like the morning after a wreck! However, when the steamer got to Timaru everything was spic and span, and the polish had not been spared, for it is not every day that the ship carries an “her Excellency.” At Timaru everyone was in full rig, even to white gloves among the officers. The passenger seemed rather surprised at her impressive reception. Next morning someone discovered that it was the good lady of the famous Dunedin eye specialist that they had on board, and not the lady who spells her name with a double “s.” No one was more amused than Lady Ferguson herself when she found out that she had been elevated to the post of “her Excellency.” It is said that New Plymouth was also thinking of Lady Alice Fergusson and not Lady Ferguson, for the news had got about that there was such a lady on board, and there was quite a littio crowd on the pier to see her Excellency and find out the object of her unexpected visit.