Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 11, 1910

— In view of the prevalence of rabies, and the number of persons bitten by mad dogs in the last few weeks, an order was issued on August 4 by the District commissioners that all dogs in the District of Columbia be effectively muzzled for a period of one year. This step is taken with the hope of eradicating the disease.

— Statistics continue to show that insanity is rapidly increasing. In Massachusetts the latest report puts the increase for that State at about 600 a year, a larger number proportionately than for any other New England State except Connecticut. In New York the increase in insanity is such as to demand the erection and equipment of a hospital for the care of insane every three years. Urban centers are declared to be the chief breeding-ground of insanity.

— The French Chamber of Deputies has passed a law forbidding the illustrating in the newspapers, by photograph, engraving, or otherwise, of any crime committed within ten years. In this wise law France sets an example to other countries; for there is no doubt that crime is greatly stimulated by the suggestion which such illustrations make upon minds already depraved, or weakened by intemperance, evil associations, etc. “With our ghastly 9,000 murders a year it is high time to think of preventive measures. Next to closing the drink shop, nothing would help more than bridling the yellow press.”

— At the conclusion of a conference between King Alfonso and Premier Canalejas on July 29, it was officially announced that the Spanish ambassador to the Vatican had been recalled. This rupture with the Vatican was immediately followed by the departure, on August 1, of the king and queen of Spain for a visit to England, and a stop on the way for a few days with the president of the French republic. This step on the part of King Alfonso at this crisis has been attributed to a desire to clear himself of responsibility as far as possible, and to give Canalejas an opportunity to carry out his plans with a free hand. Numerous threats against his life have been received by Premier Canalejas; but he stands firm in the position he has taken for liberty of conscience in priest-ridden Spain. “We are,” he said, in a recent speech, “struggling for liberty of conscience. If we succumb, it is decadence. . . . The struggle we wage is not anti-religious, but anti-clerical.”

— The bill modifying the declaration on religion in the king’s accession oath, passed the House of Commons on July 29 by a vote of 245 to 52. In its accepted form the bill not only eliminates the phrases offensive to the Roman Catholic subjects of the king, but strikes out also the proposed statement of adherence to the established church, the king simply being required to declare that he is a “faithful Protestant.”

— It is stated that of the world’s population of 1,500,000,000 persons, more than 1,000,000 are afflicted with leprosy. The disease is found in every large city east of the Suez Canal, and also, in less degree, throughout the Western world. In Norway the number of lepers has decreased from 1,100 in 1900 to 500 in 1906. The Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, as a result of its investigation, reported 139 lepers in the United States in 1909,—an estimate considered to be much below the actual number. A New York skin specialist declares that he has seen sixteen cases of leprosy in New York City in the last six months.

— Large gains in membership and encouraging victories for temperance were reported at the eighth World’s Convention of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, which was held in Glasgow, Scotland, June 4-11. Since the last World’s Convention, held three and one-half years ago, there has been in the United States alone an increase of 62,000 members; and in 47 cities with a population of 20,000 each, saloons have been entirely abolished. Six States have passed laws prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors. Canada has less drinking per capita to its population than any other country in the world.

— Railway coaches in Germany are now effectively disinfected by a new process. Each coach is run into a specially constructed steel cylinder. The cylinder is then sealed, and heated by steam-coils to a temperature of 140° F. “Air is then pumped out until such a vacuum is formed within the cylinder that water will boil in it at that temperature. Thus all moisture is evaporated from the car without injury from great heat. For special purposes of disinfection the cylinder is then filled with formaldehyde gas, which kills all insects and germ life in the car.” In 24 hours the coach is thoroughly cleansed, and again ready for service.

— The Italians are called “a people without a Bible.” A society for distributing the New Testament was organized some years ago by Italian Catholics; but while at first receiving papal sanction, it was soon ordered to stop circulating other parts than the Gospels. Later, this privilege was withdrawn. An educated Italian, writing of the condition of his people with reference to their need of the Bible, says: “The New Testament is the Book of books, the Book which remakes nations, yet none is less read among us Italians than this. We respect it, but never open it. . . . It is a Book which above all else should be in the hands of our studying youth. It is a veritable scandal that most of such have hardly heard of the Gospels. While they study the history of all nations, they know nothing or little of the most important episode of all history. . . . The women, too, should learn to know the New Testament.”

— The Indianapolis News is authority for the statement that there are at present in cold storage, in four of the large cities, 732,590 tubs of butter, as against 483,600 tubs at the same time last year. Other cold-storage plants, it is estimated, hold 250,000 tubs in excess of their store last year. It is charged by the News that this butter is withdrawn from the market by the manufacturers of oleomargarin, who thus hope to force a demand for that product.