Untitled

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1063, 20 April 1882, Page 4

One of the London hospitals is about to erect a convalescent home near Gravesend, towards which one gentleman has contributed £ll,OOO, and another £5,000, The Officials of the Aldwark Main colliery, -South Yorkshire, having discovered a box of dueifer matches hidden in their pit, have offered a reward of £lO for information that will lead to the detection of the guilty parties. Not Rivals—Oh, no —Said Edith : Mr Squires told me last night when I was out walking with him, that he would never marry.” Said Alice: ‘He said the same to me when I was out with him the night before, but he mentioned your name immediately afterwards.’

| Berthold Auerbach, one of the greatest novelists and poets Germany has produced this century, has just died at Gannes, whither he had resorted to recover his health. It appears that Auebaeh, who is of Jewish origin, had : been much troubled of late by the I Jew-baiting which has become so preI valent in Germany. Auerbach lived J for his country, wrote for his country, i and loved his country, and has now I been helped to his grave by uttscrui pulous German “ Jingoes.” The news has caused great sorrow in the family of the Crown Prince and among all circles of society.

From Hayter’s Year Book, 1881, which has been received it appears that “ boys not uuder 1-1, and girls not under 12 years of age, may, with the consent of their parents or guardians, legally marry in A ictoria, but as a matter of fact, marriages are seldom contracted of such early age*. Five of the men (?) who married in 1880 had not reached their 18th year and two of the females were under 15 and on one of the tables there is shown, ages of husbands, 17-18 years, 2 ; married to girls of 16-17. But on the other hand, there is a steady old man of 75, who marries a lady of /075 (of course her true age could not be ascertained, but if she said 70 75, one could expect that she was, at least, 15 years older). One man of 55 married a girl of 17 1 a A ictorian edition of Auld Rebin Gray ; and another man of 50 married a child of 16. The oldest marrying man in 1880 was 90, and he took a lady just half his age. At what age a man gives up thoughts of marriage in Victoria is not stated, but as regards the softer sex, it is said that the answer of a lady of 80 is, “ Eh 1 ye tnaun gang to ane much aulder than me.”

It is notworthy, the Lancet remarks, as a curious yet easily explicable fact that few persons take cold who are not either selfconsciously careful, or fearful, of the consequenceof exposure. If the attraction be wholly diverted from the existence of danger by' some supreme concentration of thought —as, for example, when escaping from a house on fire or plunging into cold water to save life —the effects of chill are seldom experienced. This alone should serve to suggest that the influence exerted by cold falls on the nervous system. The immediate effects of a displacement of blood from the surface, and its determination to the internal organs, are not, as was once supposed, suflicent to produce the sort of conjestion that issues an inflammation. If it were so, an inflammatory condition would be the common characteristic of our bodily state. When the vascular system is healthy, and that part of the nervous apparatus by which the calibre of the vessels is controlled performs its proper functions normally, and disturbance of equilbrium in” the circulatory system which may 7 have been produced by external cold will be quickly' adjusted. It is, therefore, on the state of the nervous system that everything depends, and it is, as we have said, on the nervous system the stress of a “ chill ” falls. This is one reason why the habit of wrapping-up tends to create a morbid susceptibility. The mind by it fear begetting precaution keeps the nervous system on the alert for impressions of cold, and the centres are, so to say, panic-stricken when even a slight sensaiion occurs.