LOCAL AND GENERAL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2660, 4 January 1916, Page 6

LOCAL AND GENERAL

At the Auckland races Mr. T. H. Lowry's horses won £5820 in stakes.— Press Association.

Tho Defence Department has rejected a. proposal from Waugamri for a route march from that town to Trentham. Lieutenant-Colonel Cosgrove has replied that the scheme is impracticable for the following reasons: (1) Owing to the distance between towns; (2) for tile reason that there are already hon. assistant recruiting officers in every large town who are doing their utmost to get recruits; (3) Territorials and Senior Cadets cannot escort the party into the various toivns,-as suggested; (4) such a march coidd not he undertaken at the expense of the Defence Department. In any case, as no details of cost are given, there is no time to obtain particulars and sanction of headquarters, even if the route march was approvod. It is also considered that tho scheme already in vogue of having the hon. assistant recruiting officers in each town is best, and theso men should be allowed to reap the benefit of their labours; ( During the past year 369 births, 140 marriages, .and 70 deaths, were record-! eel ill i\apier.

Eight-cylinder King cars may now bo inspected at the Dominion Motor Vehicles Garage, just off the Courtcnay Plaeo wood-blocking in Tory Street. Equipment includes Zenith carburettor! Ward Leonard self-starter, cantilever springs, folding steering wheel, etc., etc. Write or. 'phone for a demonstration.— Advt«

The Mayor lias been asked by the Hon. G. W. Russell, -Minister of Internal Affairs, to furnish a balance-sheet of the Wellington War Relief Fund.

Tlio sudden appearance of over 10,000 soldiers from Liverpool Camp on Saturday, December 18, caused the officials at tlio railway l station very great difficulty in handling the crowd (says a Sydney telegram to the Melbourne papers). Colonel llamaciotti (State Commandant) visited the camp in the morning, ana inspected the men on parade, and tliey were dismissed early, to enable them to attend sports at Moorebank, but most of them took advantage of the leave to come to Sydney. Eager to catch tho earliest train, they crowded the carriages to overflowing, and then clambered on to the buffers of the engine and the carriage tops. These men travelled without tickets, and cheered ticket collectors with songs and jokes, but no fares were paid. The soldiers liavo pledged themselves not to pay fares, and they even travel long distances on home leave without tickets. The authorities, view the matter seriously, as there has been a. falling-off in the revenue of about £1500 a mouth.

Tlio ''British Medical Journal" describes an attempt to remove a bullet from one of the chambers of the heart, iWiich brings out very clearly the insensitiveness of the organ to direct stimulation. ■ Operations on the heart are sufficiently rare to be of general interest ; the record of cases is a short one, tlio record of successes shorter still. For this reason the attempt'marks a period in surgical knowledge even though the operation was only partially successful, and the patient died four days later. The operation was performed under a local anaesthetic—eucaine with adrenalin—and the heart was exposed. No _ wound could bo seen, but on examination by the surgeon's linger the bullet was felt at the back of the heart, either in the muscle or in the chamber of the right ventricle. It was noticed that manipulation of the heart caused the patient no pain or discomfort of any kind, though the organ occasionally missed a beat, and this, ,iu spite of the fact that the anaesthetic had been injected only into the skin and muscles of the cliest wall. The bullet was grasped, and was then-felt to be inside the chamber, so an incision half an inch long was made in tho heart wall and tho bullet removed with for.ceps. Stitches were inserted. The heart, was quite strong in action up till the time of death. There is a record of the removal of a bullet from the right ventricle of tho heart—where it had lain five months—by a French surgeon; and this operation was attended by permanent success. Tho point of chief interested elicited by the operation js the insensitiveness of the heart to direct stimulation. The organ was manipulated freely without affecting its contractions or causing the patient, who was conscious throughout, the slightest pain or discomfort.

The committee of the Wellington Rose and Carnation Club have decided to abandon the club's annual Summer Show, which was to bo held on January 15,. and instead will hold a club show of sweet peas, carnations, roses, etc., on Tuesday evening, January 11. During tho evening a short address upon tlio flowers shown will be given by leading members of the club.

Olio or two typographical errors appeared m a news article, published yesterday, dealing with an interesting prehistoric skull of which a cast has lately been_ added to the collections in the Dominion Museum. ' "Veaudertal" ' lave k een "Neandertal," and TSoanthropus dawsoni" was printed in ermr "Evanthropus dawsoni."