NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 March 1924, Page 4

NEWS BY MAIL.

HEALTH DRILL BY GRAMOPHONE

LONDON, Feb. 5,

Being bullied into the most energetic morning drill by an obvious drill sergeant with a real war-time voice was the penalty of attending a countryhouse party from which 1 have just returned, writes a correspondent. Our host produced a number of gramophone records. “Of course,” bo said, “you will all be doing morning exercises?” 1 was for refusing, but everybody else muttered an unwilling “Yes,” and 1 was forced to take part.

The drill instructor of the disc bad one of those violently persuasive voices. With much shouting of “On the command, one,” and “On the command, two,” ho bullied us through half an hour’s stiff exertion. He always ordered and never coaxed. Onex?, when I failed to touch my toes, I expected to he ordered to tho guardroom. ALL! AND SAKARJ. LONDON, Feb. 5. Two coal-black Sudanese, wearing white robes, grew so excited and uoisy during the showing of a film at the Palace Theatre on Sunday night that apologies were made to the audience. But their excitement is not to ho wondered at, for they were Alii and Sakari, tho hunters who accompanied Captain Angus Buchanan, M.C., on his journey of 4,100 miles across the Sahara and they were watching the film of this adventure. The pictures have staggered them and leave them completely mystified and reduced to exclaiming" comprehensively, “Allah!” “Nobody know in Africa wliat work massa do when he turn handle,” said Sakari yesterday. “1 think he take picture like in newspaper, not pictures which move.” AHi and Sakari have come to London at the request of Captain Buchanan, laden with presents for those whom they met during their visit last summer.

RADIUM AND BIRTH MARKS. LONDON, Feb. 5. Radium is being used for tho removal of birthmarks with wonderful success at University College Hospital, Gower-street, W.C. A child of six mouths with a large disfiguring naevus (birth or mother’s mark) on the head was completely cured hv two applications of radium, only a faint trace remaining. A remarkable instance of relieving a case of cancer by the use of X-rays is also reported front the hospital. A middle-aged woman who had had four operations for cancer of the breast

went to tlie hospital in such a condition sjhat ihe prospect of recovery seemed hopeless taiul she -was’- advised to go to the infirmary; to await the end. But she had an'invalid father dependent on her constant care and she pleaded for some treatment. The doctors decided to use X-rays, and after several applications the wound began to heal rapidly. It is not 'claimed that the disease may not recur, but instead of going to the infirmary to die the woman has gone home apparently well. In another case radium was used with equal success: A woman came with a large rodent ulcer (a cancerous ulcer which cats away the soft tissues and bones) on the nose which extended to the eye. She was so disfigured that the was in daily dread of losing her work. After six months’ treatment with •radium the disfiguring growth shrank to a small spot, and a month later disappeared. A KING IN THE KIN EM A. PARIS, January 20.

The other evening, says the “Intransigeant,” the crowds of strollers along tho Grands Boulevards of Paris inlludod a tall, thin, fair man, a girl, much attracted by the shop windows, ami a white-haired man whose face woro a rather anxious look. When they drew near the rue Drouot tho party stopped, consulted their watches, and then entered a large cinema theatre which was near by. They bought three seats at 5 francs (about Is 2d) each. The tall man was the King of tho Belgians, the girl was hi- 18-vear old daughter Princess .Marie, and the whitc-liairod man with the troubled look was .M. Basti.n, the Belgian Con-sul-General in Paris. King Albert and his daughter had just arrived in Paris on their way to enjoy the winter sports in the French Alps, and they bad two hours to wait for a train to ■■South.

NAMESAKES. PARIS, Jan. 243. IVhen the great war broke out a German subject, Jean Indian, of Engwillcr, in the department of Bas-Rliin, Alsace, who was on a visit to England, was interned, and Iris savings, amounting to £SO, were sequestrated. On tho return to Franco after trie war of Alsace and Lorraine. Urban became a French citwen. He immediately took steps to claim his £SO. lint an Austrian subject, also named Jean Urban, had been interned in England at the beginning of tho war, and ids property, amounting to £7,(500, was also sequestrated. Confusing the two men, the British authorities, it is stated, sent the £7,(300 to the Alsatian Joan Urban, who thereupon bougnt himself a house. When recently the Austrian Jean Urban claimed his £7,(500, the mistake was discovered. Ail inquiry lias been opened.