ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 8275, 17 October 1905, Page 7

ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST.

Compiled From Various Sources.

That the common house fly is the greatest for the spread of typhoid fever is ppj belief of the members of the Board of Health in Seattle (Washington). In order

that further infection from this source

be stopped that body has adopted ( - stringent rules for the guidance of hos- •* pitals and private houses where typhoid patients are confined. Hereafter every building in which patients are kept must have its windows well protected with screens and every precaution taken to exclude and destroy the insects. Dr. Ludlow said, " Flies carry the disease germs on their feet and even in their mouths, and leave them in food. Even the most careful sanitary precautions cannot prevent the insects from coming in contact with the matter in which there are germs, providing there are flies in the house, and the insects going to food and alighting on it leave the germs to be taken into the system of uninfected persons." Of all the people in Europe, the French have the fewest children and the Irish the most. The average French family number 3.3 persons and the Irish family 5.2. In l> England the average is 4.8. The Spanish and Russian closely approach the Irish. In contrast to the French in Europe, the French ftCanada are the mcst prolific- in Cliristenom. Sir Robert Ball, the astronomer, is fond of telling an amusing story against himself. He is a round-faced, jovial-looking man. in appearance, not resembling in the least the , ordinary conception of a famous scientist.

Once he was engaged to lecture in a remote part of Ireland, and found no vehicle waiting for him at the station. At last a typical Irish servant came up and said : " Maybe you're Sir Robert Ball?" When he found that he was correct in his surmise, the man said, " Oh, shure, your honor, I am sorry to have kept you waiting, but I was told to look out for an intellectual-looking gentleman.

A press correspondent in New York writes: —" In regard to the age limit of usefulness, a turning of the tide in favor of men of experience seems to have begun, and one at least of the important railways has given evidence of a disposition to abandon its policy of 'young men only.' The Chicago and Alton, one of the first to adopt the idea, has abandoned the age limit of thirty-five years for new employes, after a trial of three years. It announces that hereafter it will employ at least 50 per cent, of its men without regard to age, considering only experience and adaptability. The Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul, and the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy have followed suit. Likowiso the Boston and Maine sensibly announces that it will hire men of any age in any capacity.