TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16487, 28 February 1914, Page 5

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

[From Our Correspondent.] LONDON. January 16. “NO SICH PERSON.” What satisfaction any human being in possession of his senses can find in manufacturing messages purporting to be from people in dire peril of their lives at sea, and setting such messages adrift in bottles or cans, is beyond the comprehension of the average man or woman. But there are creatures in every civilised land who appear to get some pleasure out of this anserine pastime. The loss of the ill-fated Lund .liner Waratah has produced quite a crop of these bogus bottled .messages from the dead. The latest to be noted by the papers came by cable from the Cape, it was stated that a bottle containing a message from a passenger on the Waratah had been picked up off Bird Island. The message, dated September 6,1909. was to tho effect that the ship was rolling so badly that she was in imminent danger of capsizing, and that tho captain was going to heave to, and the finder of tlia bottle was requested to send the message to; the writer’s wife, Mrs John N. Hughes, at 4, lledcliffe Street, South Kensington, London. . Whether there was, or was not, any such person as John N. Hughes bn board the Waratah on her fatal vbyage is not known for certain, but the fact that no person of the name of Hughes has lived at 4, Redcliffe Street during the past twelve years has been proved beyond all reasonable doubt. The present occupant of No. 4 has lived there for three years. Prior to that the house stood empty for two years, after having been, occupied by a Lady Fitzgerald for about seven years, and a Mr Cox, who stayed at the house during the whole period of Lady Fitzgerald’s tenancy, states most positively that no one of'the, name of Hughes was known there at that time. Moreover, a member of the firm of Mesrs > Rogers, the agents who have the letting of the property, states that the-firm -have no record at all of any person of the name of Hughes having any connection with the house. „ **

The tenant of No. 6 stated that she had a vague recollection of a Madame Hughes, in, business some years- ago in tho West End as a dressmaker, who lived at 2, Redcliffe Street, but inquiries at that number disclose the fact that the present tenant came there several years before the loss of the Waratah, and had never heard of Mrs Hughes, and the previous tenant of No. 2 certainly did not bear that name. Inquiries at other houses in, the street and from local tradesmen also failed to produce any facts in support of Mrs Hughes’s residence in Redcliffe Street.

Moreover, in spite of the wide publicity given to the Cape Town story no person has come forward to claim relationship with John N. Hughes, so doubts as to the genuineness of the message may be reasonably entertained by the most credulous persons. The rest of us will probably decide off-band that the message is a bogus one, aud allow ourselves to entertain for a few minutes a desire to kick the • person responsible for it, hard.

THE KNIFE FOR. TUBERCULOSIS. The interest excited in medical and lay circles by recent reports upon the effects secured by the radium treatment of cancer, appears likely to be overshadowed at an early date by the publication of the results of certain operations which have been performed at Guy’s Hospital upon tuberculous subjects. So far as is at present known outside the hospital the principle of the treatment of certain forms of tuberculosis is the removal of a portion of the larger intestine. For long, it it has been recognised by medical men that the excessive multiplication of noxious bacteria in the larger intestine and the inability of tho body to eliminate them was the predisposing cause of many diseases. The Metchnikoff sour milk treatment, which pi:rported to purify this organ, was based on this view. A certain school of surgery has taught for a considerable time that if the large intestine could be safely removed tho result would be a tendency to healthy longevity in the individual ; hut they were deterred from the obvious operation by a , knowledge of other functions performed by this part of the body. The main function of the large intestine is the absorption of water, and at Guy’s Hospital was conceived the idea that if a small portion of tho intestine were left it would carry on all the necessary processes till the smaller intestine and the stomach wore able to adapt themselves to the altered conditions.

Accordingly, a child who appeared, to be in the final stages of what was believed to bo an inourablo form of tubercular joint disease was operated on as a' last resource. The lower intestine, with tho exception of nine inches, was removed, and the portion left was joined to the smaller intestine. The result is said to have been astonishing. In a week’s time the internal organs had resumed all their normal functions, and a marked improvement bad-taken place in the tuberculous condition, and in a few weeks the patient was apparently on tho way to perfect health.

The operation has been repeated—in all cases with similar success—and it is about to be adapted to other forms of disease'known to arise from intestinal poisoning. If the authoritative reports bear out tho claims made in tho unofficial statements which are finding their way. into the papers, the news from Guy’s will be “ brave tidings ” indeed, for they will mark one of the epoch-making discoveries in the annals of surgery, and will bring comfort and hope to untold thousands of sufferers under what has aptly

been called the " »hite Man'll Scourge,” and thousands more who ara victims of diseases .arising from thu presence of noxious intestinal bacteria. NEWSPAPER INSURANCE.

The insurance schemes with whioil so many of the Home newspapers now.adays attempt to bribe new readers art} mainly of the “nothing for nothin®. As a rule the conditions under which readers are insured really amount to the proprietors laying very short odds against the buyer! of their papers being killed or' injured under such circumstance! that m . reality it is, in most cases> some millions to one against the insured meeting with an accident that will entitle him to claim under Ilia paper policy. As the saying goes “There are others,” but as a general rule these newspaper coupon insurance schemes represent really very small risks indeed to the insurance companies accepting the premium paid by the papers. So far as the “ insured ” reader is concerned the value of the majority of these newspaper insurances is small indeed, for they oover only to a very limited extent the numerous risks to which the public is daily exposed, . and there are usually so many restrictive conditions to he observed that it is an odds on chance that an “ insured” person meeting with an accident within the scope or his newspaper policy would invalidate his claim. by failing to comply with them. “ Punch ” has this week some vory happy prose caricatures of these “ nothing for nothing ” newspaper policies in other insurance schemes which, we are assured, are “ not yet contemplated ” by the newspapers mentioned. Here are a few of the schemes:— IS “ Votes for Women.”—A copy of the current issue nailed to your front door insures you absolutely against arson. “ The Star.”—All regular subscribers to the “Star” are insured . . .

for £IOOO in the event of being welshed on any racecourse. “The National Review.”—Annual subscribers to the “National Review” are guaranteed £IO,OOO in the event of being (a). robbed on the highway by a member of the present Ministry; (b) defrauded by a member of the present Ministry; (c) having house burgled by member of the present Ministry; (d) having pocket picked by member of the present Ministry; always excluding any acts or acts done by the Chancellor of the. Exchequer in a strictly official capacity. “ The Daily Express.”—You can sleep soundly in your bed, you can sleep 'soundly in your train, if the current issue of the “Daily Express” be on your person. All purchasers are insured for £IO.OOO against any conflagration or explosion caused by bombs or combustibles dropped from German “tL British Weeklv.”—All readers of the “ British Weekly ” are insured for £IOOO in the event of heart-failure caused by shock while reading the thrilling stories provided by Silas, Joseph, Timothy and Jeremiah Hocking. ..“The Criccicth Chronicle.”—£3 a week for life, together with a poultry farm on a Sutherland deer-forest to the owner of any shorthorn lamb which. is found dead in a snow drift with a copy of the current issue wrapt round it, to keep it warm.