BRITISH AND FOREIGN NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 619, 23 September 1909, Page 8

BRITISH AND FOREIGN NEWS.

INTERESTING ITEMS BY. MAI,L. ' . ; SCOTLAND MORI! SOBER. /.; ' London, August 14. j : romarkable figures are given by the ( Solicitor-General for Scotland regarding the aTrests, for drunkenness in Scotland during May • and June of-this year,'as compared with the • corresponding months of •,the two years pre- , ceding. - Thoy. show during the'; current: year a decrease of considerably over one-third. Thus ' the apprehensions last June were 2872, as com-, pared- with 4404 in the same: month last v year, and the committals 1134, as against 1742. The increase in the prico of whisky and the consequent decrease in consumption, is alleged to bb'tlie chief factor in the decrease. ing are tho Solicitor-General's figures;—-

STUNG BY A VIPER, An extraordinary occurrence is reported from the moorland 'district near Chatsworth- House. The medical officer of health for Chesterfield (Dr. Herbert Peek) drove to Kamsley reservoirs in order i> to carry out certain investigations. .Ho'had two of his children with him, and was explaining 1 to them certain botanical specimens which he had secured.' Be saw what he thbiight was a common grass'snako moving through the bilberry bushes," and' attempted to pick it up to show the children. But being an : ardent naturalist as well ; as,a botanist, he immediately noticed that .the-Tcptile was an" English viper. Before l he could get away it fastened itself to\bis wrist,-and struck* him threo times, the virulent poison being injected' into both his ' hands. Dr. Peek at once endeavoured to suck' the, ■ wounds,- ( and applied a ligature. His trap was some.distance .'away, and-.a good'deal of time .elapsed before' he' reached Kamsloy Lodge, near Baslow. " Dr. i Edleston was hastily; summoned. ' He found, > the medical officer in an alarming'and: coli 'lapsed condition, - and . applied all the usual '' remedies, and sucked the wounds himself, .but i ordered the summoning of friends from Chcs- ■ torfieM, where the greatest consternation prei vailed, as the victim is, a popular and able , officer, acting for nearly the .whole of the " surrounding local authorities joining', up to J tn® city of Sheffield; Next day, however, Dr. - Edleston was able to stato : that there. was' a • ■ chance of the doctor's life.being saved. ■ .

DOCTOR'S ALARMING STATEMENT. ■_ In the-"Lancet". Mr.- F. G. .Mackereth refers in a letter to Dr. Imre Doczi's paper on "Alcohol and its Effects upon 'the-Child," which was read at the recent International Congress on Alcoholism, and adds that the data obtained by the Hungarian Government as' to the drinking habits of the*children may. be taken'as valuablo- evidence of the necessity ■ for similar research in England. He proceeds to give the results of his own.research'in this direction:— "Some months ago.l obtained figures from a few of.-the London County Council infant schools, and found-that," iii each, no less than 10 per cent.' of tho infants under eight yearsof age drank alcohol;more or less regularly. There appears to be no doubt that a similar state of things, exists in every, part of.Christian Europe, except in the countries of the farthest north', and it would.be interesting.to find out whether the figures X obtained'from schools ohosen haphazard are truo : 6f the restof.thb country. In one school of some-300 infants I found that 11.8 per cent: drank alcohol daily, 84.1 per cent,,drank ocoaaiohally,' and ,54 per cent, were:' Band of Hope'; but I krfow of one 'Band'of Hope' child in another school who .drinks alcohol .daily.' The medical -inspectors of school children already have power to obtain 1 this information, and it; is .to-'be hoped that during'the course-of the,next few years 'some such inquiry Will be; made into the drinking habits of'the children in this country." ■ ;'•'■ '•.'—■. ■'.."...

PROTECTION.FOR,THE GERMAN FARMER . In many ware ; tho Jandcd. interests in, Germany, are urider-' ; the'" careful protection, of tho Government: Not only is,the farmer practically exempt from outside competition,' but (says the. "Farm- and .Homo") tho. owner of landed-"estates- ist free, from certain' taxation which would fall upon him if the estates were in England.. How long thfe. arrangement may hold good is, The present Goveminent is a combination'of parties which may fall to pieces, at'any time. Thenew Chancellor is-believed to have preferences in favour ' of ' individualism, and against the landed interests or the country. Consequently,' land and sue-, cession duties,'which' havo not| previously'existed in Germany, may shortly bo introduced? Thoro is, liowever, in Germany a powerful organisation known, as tho Agricultural. Union l (Bund doi Landwirte), which is actively resisting any movement to tho,detriment of the farmers and. the landowners, '.

MOTORING FEAT.

.Dr. Douglas Fawcett, the woll-knovrn motorist, recently arrived in his motor-car at-.the top of the. Montanvert, a,peak 6267 feet -high, in the Mont; Blanc range. All the visitors in the Montanvert. Hotel turned out to have a look at. the novelty of a motor-car in the heart of the Alps; He left Chainounix; on Saturday, August 7, arriving at JLes Courbes, about threequarters of the way up, in'the'early evening. The'car :was-left here on account.of the bad. light, for the'night, and Mr:: and' Mrs: Fawcett went'on.to the:'Montanvert'Hotel,, where they passed the night. Descending to 'Los Courbes at dnvbreak, on Sunday morning, the carlwas again''headed up the tortuous, narrow, nnd'stoep track,' flduked-by precipitous parts, and thesuuimitwasreached'that morning before seven o'clock. Mr. - and .Mrs. Fawcett had waited! at'. Chamounix for several weeks to ■attempt this ;feat'in -fine'weather. 1 Hitherto the mule -path has been wet'and too slippery. Last summer Mr. Fawcett tried the same ascent and had to give it up on account of bad weather. He has made several; extraordinary motor climbs.in the Alps during tho past fow years, but this difficult/not lo say very dangerous, feat/is the most astonishing.

THE LATE FATHEn TYRRELL. .'.. 'Lieutenant-General F. H. Tyrrell writes to tho "Churoh, Times" as follow:—Sir,—l'our: correspondent, Mr. C. E! Osborne, in his interesting account'of the late lamented Father'lyri'o;l, in xpur paper of i \ily. 2S, cal'.s luui an Anglo-Celt, anil, moreover, says .tnat ho: was iii many respects a Cell, of-the. Celts. But Father George .Tyrrell, .who .was- .my 'first c6usin, was not of: Ce.tic race, and 1 doubt if he-had even any Celtic' Mood in'his .veins. The Tyrrells of England. and Ireland .are all; descended-from One ancestor, who canio over, with the .Conqueror.'and who.received a grant of land on tho banks of the river Avon, in Hampshire, at a place still - known ~ by., the names of Avon Tyrrell and Tyrrellsford.., His, name in the .roll at. Battle; Abbey, is spelt' Tirel, and that name is still to be'met with in Normandy. .His grandson was Sir Walter Tyrrell, who is credited with the death of-Willi am Rufus. One of his descendants accompanied Strongbow to Ireland, and there, became Baron of Castle' Knock, and founded'the Irish branch of the • family,: of which the .present' head is Garrett Charles Tyrrell, Esq.,- J.P.,- of Bellinderry House and Grange Castle, County Kildare. But Father Gebrgo .was not even an Irish Tyrrell. 'Our grandfather; migrated .from Oxfordshire to Ireland in .the latter part of tho eighteenth century, and'.settlcd in Dublin, where. George's father and my father were born. Our grandfather used the crest of the English Tyrrells, a boar's : head .with a peacock's tail in itsmouth, while the crest of the Irish family is a demi-lionrampant. George's mother itas a Miss Chamney.: ,- . ■ .-' ■■■ ANGLO-RUSSIAN ENTENTE, • Nobody'who bears in mind the past rivalries of the two Powers (England and Russia) in Asia,, and the course of recant, events in Persia, can doubt that, had it'ndt been for.the new understanding between them, their, relations would have Become "dangerously strained in the Middle East long before this. Nothing but perfect good faith and frankness upon both 6ides could havo enabled them to act together as they havo done, throughout this long-drawn and complicated crisis. The .result—and, as the French sec, it is a great result—has' licon that the understanding between them iestronger and closer than before.—'The. Times."

Apprehensions/' > May 1907, 47M; . June .1907. d770 , May 1908, i301; ' June 1908, W04 May 1909,-2965; June l909, 2872 Committals to Prison." Mav 1807, 1664; Juno B07, 1C01 •May 1908, 1578 i, Juno 1908, 1742 . May 1909, 1138 i ■ . June 1909, 1131 ■