POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



283 



question for a child to ask, but one which 

 men of science hesitated in answering. When 

 did the moraines come that rise lilie railroad 

 embankments among the orchards and corn- 

 fields of Savoyard valleys ? Was their ma- 

 terial excavated by the moving ice, or did 

 the ice serve as a sledge to transport the 

 rocks that fell from the peaks and ridges 

 around them ? The matter was one capable 

 of direct observation. It was not the largest 

 glaciers that had the greatest moraines, 

 but rather those that lay under lofty ridges, 

 and particularly those where the surround- 

 ing rocks were specially subject to disinte- 

 gration by weather. He agreed with those 

 who regarded glaciers as polishers rather 

 than diggers, and drew a distinction between 

 abrasion and erosion. The formation of lake 

 basins could be accounted for without the 

 agency of ice. In fact, lake basins did not 

 occur where they ought to, if the theory of 

 formation by erosion was correct. Alpine 

 towns occupied basins which had not been 

 dug out by glaciers, but preserved by a 

 frozen covering from being filled up by the 

 action of torrents. Snow and ice protected 

 the ground they covered from disintegration 

 by ice and floods. At the same time sub- 

 glacial torrents performed singular feats in 

 cutting deep and nari'ow rock channels, and 

 thus contributed to the soil they carried. 

 The color of their water was, however, 

 mainly due to the fineness of the particles of 

 the mud derived from the grinding of the 

 bowlders subjected to the glacier mill. In 

 winter the water that flowed out of a glacier 

 was clear. It was supplied, not as had been 

 supposed, by the continual melting of the ice, 

 but was the issue of subterranean springs in 

 the glacier's bed. 



Running Amok. The condition under 

 which the Malays run amok, as described by 

 Dr. Ellis, of the Government Hospital, Singa- 

 pore, in the Journal of Mental Science, seems 

 usually to be preceded by a period of mental 

 depression, sometimes with suspicion, and 

 the patient, when he breaks out, slashes at, 

 stabs, and sometimes mutilates all who come 

 in his way, irrespective of creed or nation- 

 ality. The weapons used are a short spear, 

 a Malay kris, or a chopper, and in the old 

 days even now in the uncivilized parts of 

 the peninsula it was the custom to have 



long, forked sticks, which were used against 

 the man who was running amok, to stop him 

 and pin him to the ground. Such men, when 

 caught, are now tried regularly and sent to 

 an asylum ; but formerly little mercy was 

 shown them, and they were killed at once, as 

 though they were mad dogs. The condition 

 seems to resemble in many particulars the 

 automatic condition which is sometimes left 

 after an epileptic fit ; this, in some cases, 

 takes the form of running, or " procursive 

 epilepsy " ; and, if we imagine such a patient 

 armed with a knife and imbued with a homi- 

 cidal impulse, we have practically all the 

 conditions necessary for the Malayan patho- 

 logical development. The Malayan, in his 

 sound state, professes to have no recollection 

 of the assaults he has committed. The con- 

 dition of running amok is becoming less com- 

 mon than it was a few years ago. 



Leaves and Rain. Mr. E. Stahl, says 

 Garden and Forest, has been making a study 

 of leaf-forms in relation to the rainfall, 

 chiefly in the Botanic Gardens of Buiten- 

 zorg, and he says that while a large leaf- 

 surface partly provides for the removal of 

 water by transpiration, there are other dis- 

 tinct methods by which plants are helped to 

 dispose of any excess of water accumulating 

 upon them as speedily as possible. One of 

 these is the adoption of the sleeping posi- 

 tion by leaves, such as those of the sensitive 

 plant, so that when the horizontal leaves 

 bend upward the raindrops run off by the 

 base of the leaf. Most frequently, however, 

 excessive moisture is drained off by long 

 points to the leaves. These points occur on 

 the lobes of divided leaves, but are most re- 

 markable on long ovate leaves. In some 

 plants the prolonged midrib has the form of 

 a w'ide channel, but generally it is that of a 

 tapering and narrow point, slightly curved 

 ot the end. As the water trickles down the 

 inclined narrow points it passes from the 

 upper to the under surface before dropping 

 from the leaf, and the bent tip accelerates 

 this action. Stahl tested this theory by ex- 

 periments, and found that the leaves of Justi- 

 cia pida which he carefully rounded re- 

 tained moisture for an hour, while those 

 with the dropping points left on were dry in 

 twenty minutes or less. This rapid remova 

 of water from the leaf lightens its weight) 



