Morning journal and courier., 1891-12-25

United States, but it is @ fact. He does not bear the title; in truth, he bears no title, being simply a clerk in the state de- partment; but for forty years he has had sole charge of the great seal of the United States, and the Secretary of State himself cannot induce that faithful old clerk to unlock the doors which guard that en- blem or the country's liberties without formal warrant signed by the President of the United States.
 A Brooklyn storekeeper has the satis- faction of possessing 8 pet peculiarly his own. It is rooster, whose antics attract many people to his owners shop. This bird is oftentimes seen on the sidewalk playing with the children. He will let a stranger pick him up in his arms and stroke him, and enjoys the process with as much apparent delight as would dog or cat. The owner of the bird is particularly attached to him, and appears to be one of the proudest men in the city, going to and returning from his store with the rooster following him as would pet dog. When the owner reaches out his hand the bird jumps up to peck at it, and altogether they attract good deal of attention.
 An inquirer recently asked American Notes and Queries what diseases the American presidents died of and this was the answer: Wasnington's fatal illness was due to cold caught while riding about his farm in a sleet storm. John Adams complaint was old age; that of Jefferson. chronic diarrhes, due to ex- cessive drinking of the waters of White Sulphur Springs, Va; Madison and Mon roe, old age; John Quincy Adams, paraly sis; Andrew Jackson, consumption and dropsy; Van Buren, asthma and catarrh; William Henry Harrison, pleurisy, the result of cold caught at his inauguration; Tyler, unknown; Polk, cholera; Taylor, cholera morbus, caused by the excessive drinking of ice-water followed by the inn moderate eating of cherries: Fillmore, paralysis; Pierce, dropsy, and Buchanan, rheumatic gout. The remaining diseases are fresh in mind, Andrew Johnson's hay ing been due to paralysis.
 The report that the attack of typhoid fever from which Prince George of Wales is now recovering could be traced to some oysters that he had eaten has revived an old discussion concerning the danger that sometimes turks in those tempting nor sells. The British Medical Journal in speaking of the matter says: At the meeting of the British Medical Associ- stion in Cambridge Sir Charles Cameron, the present medical officer of health for Dublin, read paper entitled Sewage in Oysters" in which he pointed out that oysters grow ing in estuaries and other places to which sewage has access must often con- tain sewage in them. Indeed, he found this to be the case in oysters collected in Dublin So lately as September 20 be re- corded series of cases of enteric illness fortunately not fatal - from apparent poisoning by oysters, referring also to four fatal cases of poisoning by mussels, in the case of Mrs. O'Connor and her family, which created a great and painful impress sion earlier in the year; in this case also, the mussels were in contact with sewage water; and he notes that in nearly all the cases of mussel- poisoning on record they were in contact with sewage or stagnant water-although there is tendency to re- fer rHmussel-poisonipp" to other causes