MISCELLANEOUS.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3782, 10 February 1881, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The sixteen prisoners tried with Parn_©ll ■ for sedition were a very miscellaneous party, some say chosen especially on; that account to humiliate Mr Parnell, and make the affair ridiculous.' Mr M. O'Sullivan was described in the information as " Malachy," and refused to accept serrice on this ground. A messenger from the castle arrived in the course of the afternoon! with the Lord Lieutenant's compliments^ and would he. say what his, name really was. Egan is a miller,; Harris, a builder ; Hally, a farmer, and not a member of the Land League at alii All but three of them are under 35, Mr Parnell being only 34.

An investigation which is at present being conducted amongst their patients by several .medical men in New York, where this latest practical development of scientific; knowledge (Edison's wondrous instrument, the telephone) has been utilised to an extent unknown, as yet,, in this country, appears likely- to show that, as the electric telegraph produce^, certain specific unhealthy phenomena in those erigafeed in, working it, sq, : lias the telephone a tendency to affect prejiidioally the health of those who are imucb. connected with its operation. -"For instance, .one of the aforesaid, .medical men has; under* his case a girl who is-em-ployed at one of the New York 1 telephone exchanges. She is one of a number whoso duty it is, in obedience to calls over the wires, to " connect "by means of switches »uch subscribers as may desire to communicate with each other. The duty necessarily entails continuous and attentire listening, and attention to her -task has produced in the patient a nervous disorder, whereof the most prominent is a constant straining of the &£eanng faculty, as if she expected to be \(JSited to from a distance at any moment. Anotteer patient, in charge of another doctoryexhibits the ordinary symptoms of nervous prostration. He is a, subscriber to the Telephone Exchange^ and the doctor thinks his trouble has been brought on Sy over work—over-work which could never have been indulged in if the telephone had not so much facilitated the transaction of business. This case may serve as a warning to commercial men in our own city. A third unpleasant consequence of the use of the telephone is said to be that of making harsh, and incapable of agreeable modulation the voices of the employes at the "exchanges." So that although the. telephone is a wonderful-power for good, it is not without its disadvantages.—Globe.