The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-03 00:00:00

THE CAPTAIN RELIEF FUND.

A meeting of the London committee of this fund was
held at the Mansion-house yesterday, the Lord Mayor
presiding. Alderman Sir Thomas Gabriel, Mr. Samuel
Morley, M.P., and Mr. J. P. Gassiott, the sub-committee,
to whom it was referred, to consider the draft scheme of
the Portsmouth Committee, brought up a report in re-
ference to the distribution of the money now being sub-
scribed by the public. The report went at considerable
length into the question of annuities to the relatives of
the seamen and mariners lost in the Captain, and stated
that the exact amount of money that would be required
would have to be ascertained by competent actuaries.
Mr. Gassiott said that taking the sum of £1,314 per
annum as required for pensions to widows, and £l,OOB per
annum as required for pensions to children, the amount
of capital required would be £36,000. The case of
other relatives the committee proposed to be
left to the decision of the Portsmouth Committee,
and the amount that would be required for them would
be £23,000. That was beyond the £36,000. Against that
there was a sum of £30,000 received at Portsmouth, and
£2,340 received in London. He thought now that an
estimate had been given an earnest appeal should be
made, and he believed that money would flow in more
readily than it had done. Some discussion took
place, and in the result the report was approved of.
A statement of the numbers dependent on those lost in
the Captain, drawn up from applications received to the
present date, formed a portion of the report. It was
shown that the officers had left fifty relatives whose means
of existence would partially, if not wholly,. be threatened
by their deaths. The meu had left 102 widows, 88 sons,
80 daughters, and 117 other relations, who were all more
or less receiving money from them when serving on board
the Captain, awl would in consequence be liable to suffer
very severely in a pecuniary sense.

A second anonymous donation of £l,OOO has been
received on behalf of Mrs. Gladstone's Convalescent Home
at Woodford.

THE RESERVE FORCES.—The first course of in-
struction held at Woolwich for the officers of the Reserve
Forces (Artillery) terminated on Monday. Certificates of
efficiency were awarded to the following, viz. :—Lieute-
nant-Colonel Creswick, 4th West York; Major Silver-
thorne, Ist Sussex ; Captain Maywood, 2nd East York ;
Captain Hutton, 4th West York ; Lieutenant Spain, let
Cinque Ports ; Lieutenant Curtis, let Middle;ex ; Lieu-
tenant Millington, 3rd Essex ; Lieutenant Miller, 3rd
Middlesex. The Major-General commanding the district
—Sir David Wood, K.C.B.—inspected the school on
Saturday, and expressed his satisfaction at the progress
made. The staff attached to the school were : Lieutenant-
Colonel Woolsey, R. A. , Commandant ; Captain Nolan,
8.A., Adjutant. Eleven officers of the Reserve Forces
attended.

ARTIFICIAL LIMBS. —Thirty years ago it was con-
sidered an open question whether wood or metal was
preferable as the material for artifical limbs, and during the
Italian and American wars wood was on the,whole pre-
ferred. M. Pfister, of Berlin, however, employs tin and
German silver. He won a prize while still
a young man at an exhibition in Munich, in
the year 1846, and since then ho has been
constantly engaged in endeavouring to perfect the art.
llis own sufferings—he himself is obliged to wear a false
leg—enabled him to judge of what was really required,
and by unwearyinv care and study he has at length
succeeded in establishing a system which satisfies every
demand that can reasonably be made of an
artificial limb. With one or his artificial thighs
it is possible, not only to stand working the
whole day, but also to walk for a considerable distance
without support. Thus ho himself visits his patients
on foot, and ascends three pairs of stairs without diffi-
culty. When the amputation has been favourable, his
artificial feet can scarcely be distinguished from real ones
in quiet movements, and, except in rapidity of action,
almost everything can be done with them, as well as with
a natural foot. The distinguished mechanist is now en-
gaged in perfecting a new system which he hopes will
greatly facilitate writing with artificial hands.
46Tonoz—KINAHAN'S I.L. Whisky. Depot. Kinahan
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Can be obtained all over tho kingdom, in the well-known
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the London Docks. Wholesale Agents to Messrs. Bass,
Guinness, and Younger, and Dealers in Foreign Wines
and Spirits.