Birmingham state herald., 1897-01-24

lief subscriptions for the famine suffer- CTS, now amounting in London to nearly three-quarters of million dollars, seem more generous. but thus far greater. The criticisms of Lord Hamilton, secre- tary of state for India, and government authorities have generally been so sharp that they at last have been spurred to the greatest activity. The cause and ef- feet are so widely separated in point of time, however, that many thousands will undoubtedly perish before the relief measures will prove adequate. The spread of the plague also continues with out serious check There have been some hopeful reports this week in re- gard to the discovery of means of fight ing the dreadful infection. It is an- nounced that Dr Yersin, the diseoverer of the plague bacillis and of the serum for use against the plague, has ready for immediate use only quantity of the serum taken from a single horse. With this he has already inoculated twenty seven persons, of whom twenty-three were saved He will have in month a supply of serum from a hundred small tonkinez horses. This will be sufficient to inoculate 1S,000 persons, and he can recl- on on obtaining as much every month. He left for Nyah Thran, in Anam, on December 21, and while passing through India was invited to stay in Bombay. He declined. as he had no serum, but he will return after he has obtained some in Nyah Thran.
 Ambassador and Mrs. Bayard drove to St. Pancras, whence they took Q train for visit to the Prince and Princess of Wales at Sandringhan. MT. Bayard is naturally much pleased with this mark of distinction at the hands of the prince, for it has never happened before, so it is Said that an American minister has been entertained as personal guest by the heir to the throne. It is indeed an- other compensation, in addition to those he flxy f1ann Uyh offset the criticisms of those of his coun- trymen who do not fully approve of his attitude as the representative in Great Britain of the American people.
 Preparations serial and otherwise, are now in full swing fer the celebration of the queens sexagesimal. That is the de- signation which a noble peer writes to the Times should be the proper term in which to describe next June's jubilee. Hotel quarters are being already engaged and speculators are buying up rights to windows on the probable routes of the processions. Several big hotels have all ready received intima ton that their best quarters will be required for the use of such of the queens guests as will not be accommodated in Buckingham palace and the other royal establishments. h. quiries were never before so numerous at the United States embassy in behalf Of American women who desire to be pre- scented at what is generally believed will De the ldSC ufaWlHS fOOln llS queeh VIII ever hold.
 There has been quite a budget of dis coveries in connection with the Roentgen ray investigations reported from the con- tinent within a few days. That reported by Prof. Friedrich to the Vienna acade- my of science is the most important. The professor discovered certain black rays that issue from the vacuum tube and pass through the human body. Photo graphs produced by means of these rays, which the professor calls critical rays, are not the same when taken off living body as off a dead body. Photographs of living hands show the skeleton as in the Roentgen photographs, while in pho- tographs of the hand of a dead person the hand appears in full, showing all the fieshy intigument the bones remaining invisible. It is thought that by means of these rays 1t can be ascertained wheth- CT a person Is really dead. The use of the Roentgen rays as a hair exterminator, is also revived. Dr. Freund, also of Vienna, tried them upon a boy whose spine was hidden by an abundant crop of hair Dr. Freund turned the rays upon the boys back and the superfuous hair vanished. roots and all. The boy, no longer an in- fant phenomenon, has been shown to the medical society of Vienna and photo graphs of his condition before and after the experiment are circulating in the city. The Prussian government has appropri- ated SIP 000 for Roentgen ray experiments during the current year.