BOLIVIA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVIII, Issue 81918, 7 February 1907, Page 4

BOLIVIA.

A COUSIKY WliiiiU-: TIIKUJ- IS NO fcIEAUXtI. The following is from (.he lvju.ri ».f ail interview in the Keview «d' die-, views: South AiiKM'ii'a is for lln* liiiti?lt public su uiueli ot' a seul-.'d hmd: \Uwl 1 W.ls glad to welcome to Mowbr.iy House an old who Ims -peiit lte;ir)y hall :i <viilmy in '.hat liitieknown continent. Mr .Moore, insjur-tor-t.ieuei'al of lne National Uauk of Bolivia, eaiU-d U|mii nie ia-d nioulli ;u.d kindly consented to be interviewed lcr the benefit of lus fellow sub*ei il»ev%. 11c has -jH'iu years of hi* life in Mexico, in Chili, in IVru, in the •ind he is at present in P-ondon on fur- . uuh from the responsible po-t whicli. iie occupies in Mulivia. "Tell nie about Bolivia," I said. "Bolivia,"' .said Mr Moure, "ia Ihe Arcadia of Smith America. It is a State which is almost, vut oil' from tl e outer world. Its people live scediiietl. nnd they liavi- the i|iialiiie> and fault • of the ancient Arcadians wlio, if iiivi-k literature he any jiuide, \v>v \ery much like ihe modern l»oli\ian-.' "Let n.- have their virtues lir-l." '■ ihe pre-eminent virtue of the Molivians is their Inmosty in l»<divia is tlie only eouuivy in t« «' worhl in which hankers can pnl .1:1(1.000 o:' -p 'eii' on a mule, and send il without an escort ihron-di a -cant ily-peoplfi] wilderness without < J i-' least t'oar . !ia{ anyoti.' will >tf?U tln* mon««y. Jf i»y any almost ineonceiv aoie clmier» was stolon the Indians would n«'vov rest until they tracked down the thieves and delivered them up to justice." "Are they a* iioneM- in everything; as they arc in this'/" "Alas)! no. In small things, like their predecessors in Greece, they are pilferers. And in the service of the State there is much corruption. it lias been Oitieriy said that in Bolivia all the intelligent men are thieves and all the Inmost men fools. 1 believe that the same was said of the ancient Arcadians." "What about the resources of the country 7" "They are enormous. Bolivia is !simply with minerals. Iler tin mines run deepest in the world. A Bolivian recently sold one half ol one of his tin mines for silver mines arc also faluuouoly rich, but most 'of 'them have been ruined bv bad nuina^ r em:'iil. The country has hardly been tapped. Imagine a vast region of 700,000 square mi served by one railway 700 mile- long, and a groat part of tliiy in foreign territory I" Why, the German Empire only covers 208.000 square miles. So Bolivia is more than thrice the size of Germany, and has only 700 miles of rail"Tkat is the fact, nnd only U3O miles of cart road available for four months in the year. Communications are chicly carried' on by means of pack-mules. What is almost worse than having only one railway is that Bolivia has no s: apori. J lor natural outlet to the ocean was taken from her by Chili at ihe end of the war, and to-day she is shut up and shut off fro. > -he world."

POISON IN PHYSICS,. A few nionlira agoo Dr Herbert Snow, a well-kno,vn London medical man, brought down on his rash head the wrath of his profession.il brethren by writing a series of articles, in whieV), to Use the iaugunge of the ''Clarion," lie gently prodded them in their pet places. Now due, bap crytamitiisJ a 'further* ,im\iseretion by .writing' fco > the Grand Magazine, pointing out the danger that lurks in impure/ drugs, as supplied by the dealer to the chemist, and by i\w. chemist to the public. "Throughout Islam," he says, "a wise from the Koran, written on a piece of paper, rolled into a pill and swallowed, is a sovereign remedy for all dishes. Sometimes is sufficient merely to soak t!ie writt"ii paper in water and drink the water. This answers all v.Ty we'l for mild eases and even in very serious cns.'S "the plan would, whether as eli'ective as our plan or not. certainly be considerably >afcr. The most orthodox medical prescription, compounded by i.he| most conscientious <>f apothecaries, may .a>ily cloak a host of sins, whereof the publie are entirely ignorant, and from {.liich 'there exM- no legal or sanitary protection whatever." The Sal : e of Food and Urn;/; Act, protect- the public to some extent] from wilful fi'lsilleation and fntud in the case of ordinary food. but, according j» Dr Snow, ii; i i - of little value in checking the adulteration of drugs. Out of !)♦; -amp!os of drugs that were recent jy lesteil by an odicial aiia'y-t. no fewer than ."is wen- ('oiui-l to contain more or less arsenic. Tin* doctor quo.es a nunibf-r of very seriou- attacks of the uyc of these drugs, and he has no doiili; that they have frequent y occasioned death. A few years ago a nurse a boy of eight a teaspoonful of ell'orvescing phosphate of soda, and th:* result. was r,o alarming that a doctor was called in to >co the patient. 'At liis investigation the soda was submitted to an analyst, and it wa f > found io contain more than 'i per <- lit of ;ir-i'iiic. Another p;i 1 icnt wto hild lie' '!! given three de,-r.- of the -.Villi' in Uiivly--i\' hnnrs \va.-> found to have imbibed about eight grains of the poiTlii< !>-d to a closer investigation, a--i?l it was discovered that aj large proportion of lb:.' plnvpiiale ot >o(la in common u-e contained arsenic in dangerous cjiiantities. Apparently Lhe vendors of patent medicines are not tire only people among those concerned for our bodily ailiuenis who require supervision.