MISCELLANEA.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume V, Issue 239, 15 March 1865, Page 3

MISCELLANEA.

Fatal Affray in Liverpool.— On Sunday morning two dock labourers, named Timothy Bohen and Patrick Mealey, who were under the influence of drink, commenced fighting in Hen-derson-street. A crowd of persons, the majority of whom were also under the influence of drink, soon collected round them. While the fight was going on a man named Robert Irving, at whose house, No. 79, Henderson-street, Bohen lodged, went between the combatants either to separate them or save his lodger from being ill-treated. He had no sooner interfered, however, than he was knocked down by the young man Mealey, who is 24 years of age. While he- was prostrate in the street some one else kicked hsm severely in the abdomen. Irving lay in the street seemingly dead for several minutes, but was afterwards lifted up and carried into his own house. Mr. Carson, surgeon of the South Dispensary, having been sent for, was soon in attendance, but his service were of no avail, life being extinct. The young man Mealey, who lived with his widowed mother, was soon afterwards taken into custody, and locked up on the charge of being concerned in the murder of Irving. .The deceased, who was a dock labourer, was 48 years of age, and has left a widow and five young children, the eldest being only 13 years of age. Captain Collins, of the Wachhsetts. —lt seems that Captain Colli :s, of the Wachusetts, the captor of the Florida, has before performed a similar exploit of making, a capture in neutral waters. This occurred on the 21st of December, 1863, while in command of the Octorora, when he seized the British schooner Mont Blane, a small craft of nine tons, while she was lying at anchor within a mile of Bahama Banks, and took her to Key West. The Prize Court at that place soon released her on the ground that she was clearly within British waters at the time of capture. Lord Lyons brought the matter to the attention of Government, and after a full examination Mr Seward acknowledged the error of Captain Collins, admitted the right of the owner of the schooner to damages, and stated that Captain Collins would be notified that lie had incurred the disapprobation of the President. — Portland Argus.

The Laugh of Woman.—A woman has no natural gift more bewitching than a sweet laugh It is like the sound of flutes on the water. It leads from her in a clear, sparkling rill; and the heart that hears it feels as if bathed in the cool, exhilarating spring. Have you ever pursued an unseen fugitive through trees, led on by a fairy laugh, now here, now there, now lost, now found ? We have. And we are pursuing that wandering voice to this day. Sometimes it comes to us in the midst of care, or sorrow, or. irksome business, and then we turn away and listen, and hear it ringing through the room like a silver bell, with power to scare away the evil spirits of the mind. How much we owe to that sweet laugh! It flings showers. of sunshine over the darksome wood in which we are travelling. Nature has given every one a capacity of being agreeable, though not of shining in company ; and there are hundred of persons sufficiently qualified for both who, by a very few faults that they might correct in half an hour, are not so much as tolerable.

The “ National Anthem” at Coek.—Colonel Muller, commanding the depot battalion at Cork, sent the following reply to a recent application made to him by Mr Maguire, M.P., the mayor of the city ;—“ In reply to your note presented to me by Mr Sexton, 1 have generally, since the formation of the band of this battalion, allowed it to play for the amusement of the public whenever it was asked for; but at the theatre lately the gross insults offered by shouting and hooting whenever the “ National Anthem ” of our Queen and country was played were more than any loyal subject could submit to, and I determined the band should not go there again. At your request, however, I will meet Mr Sexton's’wisfaes and give the theatre one more trial, and trust to your powerful influence as chief magistrate to put a stop to the many annoyances that constantly occur at the only place of public amusement in Cork, by which many are prevented going to the theatre at all, to the loss of the dramatic company then visiting here.” Mr Maguire’s paper, the Corh Examiner, supplemented this protest by a few stinging sentences j but they do not seem to have had much influence with the mob, for on the next evening “ the spirit of blackguardism was again displayed." Hisses—not indeed very numerous, but prolonged—broke out from some of the occupants of the gallerv. The respectable portion of the audience stood up and uncovered while the anthem was being played, and responded to the demonstration of the “ blackguards in the gallery ” by cheering and other signs of applause. At its conclusion the call for an encore was so loud from the pit, boxes, and the large majority in the gallery, that the demand was obliged to be complied with. On this occasion, it is stated, “none of the indecent demonstrations” were repeated—owing, apparently, to the fact that a few policemen had stationed themselves in the pit in positions from which they could survey the gallery. The Ultramontane Morning News is delighted at what has taken place in Cork, which, it considers, would be well rid of “ Colonel Muller, his band, and the ‘ National Anthem.’"

Singular Surgical Case. —On Guy Fawkes’ Day last, while a number of youths were engaged discharging a rudely constructed cannon, made of a piece of old iron piping, at Townend-fold, near Rawtenstall, it burst, and one of them was much injured about the face. The boy grew gradually worse, and his medical attendant," Dr. Green decided upon a surgical operation. Strange to say, instead of finding a fractured bone, he found a half-round oblong piece of iron, a remnant of the cannon, embedded in the cheek of the patient. The piece was two inches long, and weighed more than an ounce, and had been in the unfortunate boy’s cheek for 25 days. If four quarters make a yard, how many will make a garden ?

JDiptheria.—Two physicians write to the Times giving prescriptions for diptheria. Both mentioned bad drains, and other sources of malaria, the want of fresh air, &c, predisposing causes. One Kensington, writes: 11 There is always some slight stiffness aud uneasiness complained of. This ought to draw attention to the throat, when the peculiar appearance of th» ulcer will at once determine its nature. The means I use are extremely simple, and hitherto have been most effectual I give the sesquiearbonate of ammonia dissolved in a little water and sweetened, from two grains to a baby of a year old, to ten grains to an adult, repeating it every hour, together with as much nourishment as can possibly be got down ; at the same time, I rub the outside of the throat with a strong embrocation of camphor aud ammonia. When this treatment is begun early, and judiciously continued, the diptheria or skin from which it takes its name, is rarely seen. As to infection, there is reason to believe that the disease oftener arises from malaria.” The other says :—“ The disease is so fatal because it is mistreated. The local disease is not the beginning but the end ; it grows out of a febrile condition of the whole body, and its source is in the whole brain. Diptheria is a newfangled name for an oldfashioned disease—malignant quinsy—which in the days of our grandmothers was succesfully treatod by emetics and bark. This is the treatment which I have never found fail. Let me give you a case. I was telegraphed to Brighton (Sussex) to see the daughter of a general officer who was suffering from this disease. When I entered the room she was sitting up in bed, breathing with great difficulty; the glands of the neck were hot and tumid ; the tonsils on examination were of the color of red velvet, but an emetic of ipecacuanha in fifteen minutes not only relieved most effectually, but completely changed the color of the tonsils, and in fifteen minutes more the external glands (whose size arrested my eyes on my approach), could not be felt with the fingers. A combination of quinine and prussioacid, with a repetition of the emetic, the next day completed the cure.” A man who had brutally assaulted his wife was lately brought before Justice Cole, of Albany, America, and had a good deal to say about" getting justice. * “Justice?” replied Cole, “you can’t ge*. it here. This Court has no power to hang von.” A physician being sent for to a patient in th* Fens, aud finding the road scarcely passable' though it was the middle of summer, inquired of his conductor, a simple country lad, what the people could possibly do for medical assistance in winter ?—“ Oh, sir,” replied the gawkv, “in winter they die a natural death !” Solomon advises sluggards to go to the ant, but the shiftless in our day generally go to their “ uncle.”