The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-26 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE—This Day.

COURT OF PROBATE AND DIVORCE.
(Before Sir J. P. Wilde.)
ARGENT V. ARGENT-ITYDGMENT.

This ♦►as a case of probate, in which the plaintiff prayed
for administration as the administrator of the estate of her
deceased husband, who was a soldier in her Majesty's
army, and for some time in the Cape Mounted Rifles, and
who was resident at the Cape of Good Hope for many
years, and died there. It appeared that in 1850 the
deceased married a woman of the name of Amelia Adams,
and that marriage was dissolved in 1852 by the courts at
the Cape in consequence of the adultery of the wife some
time after ; and while still resident at the Cape the deceased
contracted a second marriage with Selina rudmore, who is
the plaintiff in the present case, and who claims administra-
tion. The plaintiff's claim was opposed by the defendant
as next of kin of the deceased, on the ground that the second
marriage was illegal according to the laws of England.
the courts at the Cape having had no authority to dissolve
the first marriage, the deceased being a domiciled English-
man.

The learned Judge, in giving judgment, said he did not
think it necessary to go into the question of domicil, so
ably discussed by the Scotch lawyers, who seemed to hold
that the law of the country where the parties were married
was the law of the domicile, no matter to what country
they might belong. In this case the deceased had been
for many years resident at the Cape. The first marriage
had been regularly contracted and dissolved there by the
'competent tribunals. The second marriage had also been
contracted there, and he was not inclined to hold that
marriage to be invalid. He should therefore decree ad-
ministration to the plaintiff as administrator to the testator
Decree of administration accordingly.

SHERIFFS' COURT.
CHLOROFORMING A PATIENT AND PULLING OUT THE
WRONG TOOTH.-WAINWRIGHT T. GALPIN.

This was an action to recover a sum of money for per-
forming a surgical operation upon the defendant, for whom
Mr. Beard appeared.

His Honour—Do you owe this money, defendant?

Defendant—lndeed, Ido not. He administered chloro-
form to me and pulled out the wrong tooth. (Laughter.)
Plaintiff—l deny it. He asked me to extract a tooth
which gave him pain, and I did so.
Mr. Beard—What are you ?

Plaintiff—A surgeon dentist. I did not attend upon de-
fendant as a friend, though we were both living in the
same house at the time the operation was performed. I
did not pull out the wrong tooth. lam quite sure.
•

Mr. Beard—Now, defendant, just tell his Honour what
occurred.

Defendant—l had a tooth which pained me very much,
and plaintiff agreed to extract it. He gave me chloroform,
and then pulled out the wrong tooth.
His Honour—Did he pull out a sound tooth ?
Defendant—lndeed, he did.

His Honour—And left the unsound tooth in your head ?
Defendant—Yes, and it is there now.
Mr. Beard—The loss of the sound tooth was serious to
the defendant. _ _ _

His Honour—You cannot recover in this case, plaintiff,
as it is very clear you have made a blunder. You must be
non-suited.

Plaintiff non-suited, and costs granted to defendant.

PHOSPHATE OF LlME.—Thelle Illedicale
publishes a paper by M. Collas, a chemist of Paris,
in which he shows that, while the attention of scientific
men has been chiefly turned to the subject of finding
agents capable of preventing or suspending the putrefac-
tion of animal substances, it may not be uninteresting to
take up the contrary question, and endeavour to find out
those agents that favour putrefaction. Gelatinous phos-
phate of lime, ho informs us, is of this class, as the follow-
ing experiments show :—Having made a solution of isin-
glass in distilled water, and strained it through a cloth,
he poured it into two porcelain basins, one of which con-
tained a small quantity of the gelatinous phosphate, while
the other was empty. Both vessels, on cooling, were
found to contain a jelly, the former an opaque and the
other quite a transparent one. They wore both put into a
room, the temperature of which ranged between 10 and 15
deg. centigrade. At the end of 36 hours, the isinglass
containing phosphate of lime was in a state of putrefac-
tion, emitting an intolerable stench, while the other con-
tinued for six whole days in a sound state. M. Collas has
made similar experiments with beef and other kinds of
butcher's meat, and obtained similar results. Examin-
ing the question theoretically, our author is of opinion that
phosphate of lime, so extensively used for manure in agri-
culture, acts as a powerful stimulant of vegetation ; that,
if the flesh of fish is much more corruptible than that of
mammalia, it is because the former contains much phosphate
of lime; but that, on the other hand, if a fish diet is recom-
mended to patients on account of itsbeing easy of digestion,
it is on account of the same ingredient, and that therefore
a small quantity of phosphate of limo added to butcher's
meat would render it much more tender and easy of diges-
tion.—Galignani.
LIFE IN THE Busll.—The following is an ex-
tract from a letter dated 300 miles south-west of
Brisbane, Queensland, in which the writer gives a sketch
of his experience, and a picture of squatter life in the Aus-
tralian bush :—" As you have already learned, growing
cabbages or anything else in the bush is a delusion and
a snare ; but in this country, more than at home, one must
buy one's wit; the only question is, whether what is called
`colonial experience' is not dear at any price. It consists
in being a good rider, having the digestion of an ostrich,
an utter disregard for comfort and cleanliness, a brutal
manner, and being a thoroughly accomplished blas-
phemer, cum multis aliis, and similar accomplishments.
The yarns told about this country are lies, and the dto-
vernment emigration agent ought to be hanged. He is sent
co England to get a poor lot of people out by the govern-
ing power here, the squatters, i.e., men who keep stations,'
and rear flocks and herds, and their object is to get men at
low wages. I have lately walked some 400 miles through
the country, and met no end of men seeking employment,
which they could not get in certain seasons. At ' lamb-
ing' and `shearing' men are in great .request.; but these
aro but a small portion of the year. It is the same with
the land, so much vaunted. A small proportion is good,
and they talk of it to people at home as if this were the
rule, and not the exception. They write accounts of what
a farmer can do, and it looks well on paper ; but evtn if he
gets good land, if he is not near a town (and all cannot
be in fact very near), he cannot get a market for his crops.
He must get them to market by a dray and ten bullocks,
with some five or six to spare, two or three men, and a
horse or two, and men he will get along at the rate of
ten or twelve miles a day. Such are a farmer's prospects.
And to take a station one must have £5,000 or £6,000 at
I least, and credit for more. This is the only game which
will ever do here. Putting the above agricultural diffi-
culties on one side, there is another you can never depend
on—the weather. As a rule you are either flooded out
or dried up. Last year we were nearly drowned at this
time ; this we have not had a shower for weeks and
weeks. I forget when I last wrote to you. I have had
severe trials since I did so. I was breaking stones on
a railway. I had to give up that. I could not make
my salt at it. I then turned `bum' for a bit, but could
not get my money from the sheriff's officer. I then went
down to Brisbane, amid tried to got a berth again.
Then I determined to go up country and seek my
fortune there ; so on I went to a place called Too-
woomba, some ninety miles from Brisbane, and here I got
work on the Government roads, at £1 per week and
rations. When the job was ended, and the gang was
broken up into three or four smaller ones, I got the sack ;
but to show how men are treated here I was discharged,
but got no money, only two bits of paper, showing what
was due to me ; no cash until the cashier came along, and i
it might be two or three months ere he'came. I was told
to do as others did, and found one dodge was to get the
butcher who supplied the meat to cash my paper, which
he did, modestly deducting one-eighth, or 75 per cent. per
annum f-T the accommodation. This is your Government
employment. I must either have done this or walked 96
miles back again to get my money in person."
Several accidents from lightning occurred three
days back during a storm which passed over Ant-
werp and the neighbourhood. In the town a youngnd lad,bad
aged 12, was•killed, and a man was also st.ruc
his right side paralysed. The electrid fluid
entered the
Conti& railway station by the electric wires, amid ;
set_ fire
t
to some papers, but no great damage was done but at
Bazel the church was struck and almost entirely burnt ,
down.
CHINESE SHOPS.—The Chinese shopkeepers are
fat, comfortable-looking fellows, with pleasant
good-humoured faces. They showed me their curiosities
Tory willingly, and none the less courteously exchanged a
smiling " chin-chin" with me, if I left the shop without
purchasing anything. Tea-shops are numberless. They
are piled up with chests such as we see in England, and
with open baskets of coarse and inferior tea for the poor. Tho
cheapest kind is made in thin round cakes or large wafers,
strung upon slips of bamboo. It partially dissolves in hot
water, and is flavoured with salt by those who drink it.
Of this form of brick tea I have never seen any mention in
the books published by travellers. There are poulterers'
shops with fowls roasted and raw, and vegetable sellers'
stalls, and fish in baskets, dead and not over fresh, or alive
in large tubs of water. They were all of the carp family,
including r6hoos, mirgals, and kutlas, so familiarly known
in India, also several species of the Eiiluroids, called vul-
garly " catfish." The fish brought from the sea are salted
and sun-dried, and, with strong aid from immense festoons
of of sharks' fins, set up a stench that it is not easy to walk
through.—Diekens' "All the Year Round."
Late on Sunday night, or early on Monday
morning, the mansion house of Bower-house, in the vici-
nity of Dunbar, was broken into, and silver plate to the
value of at least £l3O carried off. There is a good deal of
mystery attached to the robbery, inasmuch as there. does
not appear as yet to be any clue as to how the entrance
was effected. The thieves, however, had made their exit
by the front door, as it was found open in the morning.
The robbery is the more remarkable as the family of Mr
Dalmahoy, the proprietor, were living in the house at the
time.—Scotsnm.