Notes and Events.

Manawatu Herald, 24 November 1894, Page 3

Notes and Events.

A London correspondent sends a sensational account of how a certain doctor in Buenos Ayres gave select dinners, to which never more than three guests were invited, and it infrequently happened that the death of one or more of them oocurred within 24 hours of the feast. The mystery was increased by the fact that no trace of poison was ever discoverable in the bodies of the victims. The doctor who examined the bodies attributed death to cholera or yellow fever. When 15 lives had been out off in this fashion it was decided that something must be done, and the professor was accordingly putron trial for murder. There was an adjournment of the trial and the worthy experimentalist departed to strange lands by taking poison he had concealed in a hollow tooth, at least so this correspondent states, the only evidence to corroborate the assertion appears to have been the death of the doctor, who had a hollow tooth. After the doctor's death hu butler described the manner in which the deceased acted, purely in the interests of science. At each dinner given to the parties of three, one of whom died within 24 hours after, the professor excused himself just after the coffee, and going to his laboratory would return to the pantry with a block of ice, crush it into pieces, and fill three of the glasses with it, bidding him pour ■*m creme de menthe, and serve. The professor never drank this mixture, but contented himself with a second cognac. At the last dinner the pro-, fesaor neglected to throw away the ice left over, and, as was his custom, the Spaniard put all that was left in a bottle. As it gave off an offensive smell when it melted he brought it to the prosecuting attorney. A chemist entered the witness-box, and said that the previous day he had examined the melted ice, and found

that it wa3 a living mass of cholera and bacillij originally from active cholera and frozen, without, affecting their activity or .poisonous power. At once, Ujjdri tile iritrodrictidd of , the bacilli came to life and the sutject died in a few hours from Asiatic cholera. The prosecuting attorney said the sources of the deaths had thus been discovered. The reason for the crime could only be that the professor desired to verify hig experiments upon his guests. It is written, somewhere, " Moralists are constantly telling us that we must fight against our evil impulses, and subdue them. This is very well as far as it goes, but no one ever tells us to fight against our good impulses. Now, next to popular education, there is nothing so harmful to mankind as the good impulses to which we are continually yielding." Most probably the Hon. Richard Seddon is now of this opinion, as all the trouble about Samoa seems to have arisen from his good impulse to try and please Mr Coleman Phillips, who wrote to him last June trusting " that the very strongest efforts will be made in bringing pressure to bear upon the different Parliaments, so that this group may be brought under the British Flag." The Wembly Park tower is being built. So far the first landing 150 feet from the ground has been reached. In time another storey will ba built 850 feet higher, and then another 400 feet higher still, and on the top of all a final will be erected leading to a crow's-nest, the elation of which will be 1150 feet. This tower is being constructed at Wembly Park, near London, and the Park has been formed into a public recreation ground, by a company, at a cost of £50,000. The tower is the centre of attraction and much is expected from it. Taking the rise of the ground into con sideration the Tower will be a quarter of a mile above sea-level. It will be three times as high as St. Paul's, and a couple of hundred feet highor than the French Eiffel Tower. The first stage will be nearly tin acre in extent and will bo fitted up with shops, restaurants, promenades, and a concert hall. Mild steel is the material used in its construction and when finished its weight will be no less than 7,000 tons.