MAIL NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 841, 16 March 1903, Page 3

MAIL NEWS.

Paris, Jan. 17.

In an effort to prove that the soul can leavo the body to return to it, Albert Guelle, a man of superior intellect, lost his life —victim to one of the strangest experiments in history. Mr Guelle was widely known as a translator from the Greek, Latin and Hebrew. For a time he filled an appointment at tho Bureau of Publio Assistance, but resigned his position to study occult sciences at Moudon.

The independence of the mind in dreams caused him to conclude that personality is dual, and ho resolved on an experiment that should free his soul ..from his body for a time.

His experiment was based on the feats of the takirs in India, wiio have themselves buried alive, maintaining their body in a lethargic state while their minds are aupposod to journey in the astral world.

He constructed an apparatus consisting of a reservoir fixed to the wall, which would let a mixture of chloroform, sulphuric ether and water fall, drop by drop, on his face. Then, choosing his 'birthday for the experiment, he wrote his will and a letter to a friend. He placed himsolf on a bed beneath the apparatus, having anointed his body with antiseptics that mortification should not Bet in while his soul was absent. The letter to his friend asked him to awaken Guelle at the end of ten days. Immediately on receiving it the friend rushed to the young man’s apartments with Guello’s Mother. They were too late. They found the student stretched on the bed, a calm expression on his face, as if he were sleeping. He had been dead several hours.

In his will he enjoined his mother not to regret him if his experiment should prove fatal. He promised that his soul should continue to communicate with her, Rome, Jan. 17.

Although the excavations at Potnpoii have now been going on for ninety years, the buried city whioh has slept for so many centuries under, the undulating plain at the foot of Mount Vesuvius appears to be an inexhaustible mine of archaeological wealth, for hardly a year passes without important discoveries taking place. , The most recent of these is a magnrncent bronze statue of Perseus, which has just* been placed in the Naples Museum, near a famous place of statuary, the NarAnother interesting find consists in a bas-reliof, representing a sacrifice before the throne of Ashrodite. The excavations, although attended by great difficulty, are being actively continued, and when it is remembered that a considerable part of the ancient oity lies still undisturbed under the lava and a3bes which buried it nearly nineteen centuries ago, it is easy to understand all the extraordinary importance and the possibilities f.Vi<\aA rABParP.ViRR.

01 60036 reaeaiuueo. Paris, Jan. 17. General Andre, Minister of War, is moving to suppress the officers’ mess in the French Army. Ho thinks the officers 'are restricted in their liberty by being forced to mes 3 together, and that each ought to be permitted to eat where he pleases. .

y The~Nationalists are up in arms. They say suppressing the regimental receptions was a blow to the army and banishing the mess would bo another. They argue that the mess unites men as nothing else could do. At the moss there is common faro for all. Without It the poor officer will have to seek some cheap restaurant, while the rioh ones will profit by good choer ‘ Berlin, Jan 17. Bmperor William’s patronising Pro • fessor.Delit7.sch as the exponent of the higher Bibical criticism is causing oonBternation in orthodox ciroles throughout ' Germany. , , , , • It is true there is a school of theologians here who welcomo all enlightened criticism, but they are regarded as perilously broad, and the great bulk of rhe clergy consider that accepting Delitzsch’s Assynological theories tends to destroy belief in the mepiration of the Scriptures. The Emperor is the head of the German Protestant Church, and if ho uses his pontifical power to disseminate ideas of the school which he has now taken up, it would mean a religious upheaval unequalled since the Reformation and a vast secession to Catholicism.