The Kenilworth Advertiser. — 1879-09-13 (Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England)

EXTRAORDINARY SCICIDE.-A suicide took place on Monday night, at the Follies Bergere, in Paris, under very peculiar circumstances. The man appears, from a letter found on his corpse, to be a devotee of science. The letter runs thus :—" I desire that my body be given to the Faculty of Medicine to study. I shoot myself because I am suffering from an incurable disease. In spite of that I am as strong as a horse, and cannot die. Let me be very carefully dissected. I shall afford the doctors a very curious study." The Commissioners of Prisons, in their second report, which has just been presented to the Home Secretary, state, with reference to the transfer of the prisons from the local authorities to their management, that, so far as the period of twelve months which has since elapsed enables them to form an opinion of the results of the important changes adopted on their recommendation, they do not think there is any reason to doubt that those results will bear out the expectations on which their recommendations were founded. The most considerable alteration was that by which the number of prisons in use had been reduced from 113 to 68. Considerable astonishment was created in St. Paul's Church, Sheffield, on Sunday, by a very unexpected forbidding of the banns. The vicar, the Rev. W. H. Falloon, read out for the second time of asking the banns between Herbert Mallinder, of Arundel-street, and a young lady named Revill. As soon as the vicar said, "If any of the congregation knJw any just cause or impediment why these persons may not be joined together in holy matrimony ye are now to declare it," a man about forty years of age, rose in one of the pews, and exclaimed in a loud voice, "I forbid the banns of Herbert Mallinder." The announcement caused a great sensation, and the vicar requested the man to explain his reasons for forbidding the banns after the service It was afterwards ascertained that the objector was Malliuder's father, and that he pretested against the marriage because his son was only P 7, and his intended bride only 15 years of age.  A number of gentlemen met at the offices of the Edison Telephone Company, in Queen Victoriastreet, London, on Saturday for the purpose of witnessing a series of practical experiments with the recently perfected instrument of Mr. Edison. Mr. E. H. Johnson, the company's chief engineer, explained the principle by means of which a continuous volume of sound was kept up, thus utilising the invention ot Professor Bell for business purposes. Communications having been affected with the Times office and other establishments to which permanent wires are attached, Mr. Johnson and other gentlemen conversed freely, both in low and high tones of voice, Mr. Parrish giving directions to one of the clerks in his office to bring his letters to the Telephone Exchange for signature. The replies to the communication were distinctly heard, as were also songs which were sung, pieces which were recited, and music which was played upon a cornopean. The difficulty overcome by Mr. Edison is that of maintaining the full volume of sound at any distance by means of improved transmitters and receivers. The experiments gave general satisfaction, and Mr. Johnson stated that there are now upwards of 20,000 of these useful instruments at work in the United States.