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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 293, 18 December 1878, Page 2

A queer case is being tried at Edinburgh, where a boy employed as page sues his late employer a surgeon dentist, for £500 damages. The boy claims that his master tried experiments on him with magnets and mesmerism till his health was shattered and his intellect impaired. An observer says that there are a great many men in the world who imagine that they are born with genius, and lie down on the sofa and wait for inspiration, until some other fellow, who thought himself a dunce, rises by hard labour to a competency, buys the sofa and leads the waiting genius out by the ear This is not a joke ;itis a fact. As a hint to those of our townspeople who have been losing flowers lately we extract the following from the Melbourne Daily Telegraph:—"An ingenious mode of detect ing thieves has recently been invented by Mr Sheldon, of the Victoria Hotel, Hoddlestreet, Collingwood. It seems that for some time past Mr Sheldon has been annoyed by his fowls being stolen, and being unable to detect the offenders he stretched a number of strings across his yard, the ends of which were attached to a small spring bell in his bedroom. About 2 o'clock on Saturday morning a man went into the yard, and touching one of the strings the bell rang. Mr Sheldon proceeded down the yard, and finding the man, kept him at bay until a constable arrived, when he was given in charge for being illegally on the premises. The prisoner is said to be identical with a notorious criminal named Jones, who has passed no less than thirty years of his life in gaol." The following resolution is reported hy the local paper to have been carried without dissent by the Manawatu Council at its first meeting after the recent election:—"That this Council desires to place on record its opinion that the return of Mr Francia Loudon to a seat in the Council, after his self-imposed retirement during the last session, in consequence of his having falsified the records of the Council, is an insult to the other members of the Council and the Ridings they epresent." Questions concerning tobacco —What clinical evidence is there of the good or bad effects of tobacco smoking ? There is a general opinion that smoking is harmful for adolescents ; leas harmful—or, as some think, useful as well as agreeable—to adults. Is there anything positively known on the subject, apart from mere loose guessing ? Considering the ruass of loose assertion and vague speculation which has been floating about so long, we are singularly devoid of crisp quotable evidence on the subject. Can any of the nine thousand medical practitioners who weekly read these columns produce, from their reading or their experience, well defined evidence of any sort 83 to the effects of tobacco smoking on average healthy individuals at different periods of development ? We have heard of the smoker's tongue, of tobacco amauroiss, aud of the smoker's dyspepsia. How far is smoking a source of evil, and to whom ? The question is.it appears, entering into the phase of legislation in Germany—What are the facts? —British Medical Journal. A singular occurrence took place at the White Hills, Sandhurst, recently, by which a man named Marten McMahon narrowly escaped loosing hi 3 life. McMahon was lying on the grass, wearing a fur cap. The cap was espied by another man who was on a rabbit shooting excursion and mistaken for a rabbit. The man fired ac the object, but fortunately, for a distance slightly beyond the range of the gun. Some of the shot with which the weapon waa charged, however, struck McMahon on the forehead, and his right eye was so seriously injured that it ia feared he will lose his sight. The unfortunate victim of the extraordinary accident now lies at the hospital. Beyond the injury to his eye the wounds are not considered serious.