384 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tend to the formation of the compounds 

 that give the flavor to cheese. In 

 normal cheese tyrosin, oxyphenylethy- 

 lamin, arginin, histidin, lysin, giianidin, 

 putrescin and ammonia were found as 

 end products of the proteolysis. The 

 investigations indicate that the forma- 

 tion of secondary amido compounds and 

 ammonia are due to the action of a 

 biological factor, not yet determined. 

 The conditions affecting the chemical 

 changes in the ripening process have 

 been worked out in detail, and among 

 these the favorable effect of low tem- 

 peratures has been demonstrated. The 

 latter is entirely opposed to the views 

 heretofore held by practical cheese 

 makers, who have avoided too great 

 cold, believing it to result in a bitter, 

 inferior product. The advantages of 

 cold curing are shown by an extensive 

 experiment recently concluded by the 

 National Department of Agriculture in 

 cooperation with the experiment sta- 

 tions in Wisconsin and New York. 

 About 500 cheeses representing a great 

 variety of makes were cured at temper- 

 atures of 40°, 50° and 60° F., whereas 

 the temperature of ordinary curing 

 rooms runs up to 70° and often higher 

 in summer. The improvement in 

 quality of the cold-cured product was 

 evident in the flavor and texture and in 

 its higher market value. The loss of 

 moisture in cold curing was very much 

 less, resulting in diminished loss from 

 shrinkage; moreover, the cheese can be 

 held a long time at low temperatures 

 without impairment of quality. These 

 investigations will tend to revolutionize 

 cheese making in several respects, by 

 furnishing a scientific basis for it in 

 place of the purely empirical rules and 

 traditions which formerly prevailed, 

 and will simplify the process, rendering 

 possible a more uniform product of 

 improved quality. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS. 



We regret to record the death of 

 Professor Karl Alfred von Zittel, the 

 eminent paleontologist of the Univer- 

 sity of Munich ; of M. Proust, professor 

 of hygiene of the University of Paris 



and inspector general of the Sanitary 

 Service; of Dr. Eugene Askenasy, hon- 

 orary professor of plant physiology at 

 the University of Heidelberg; and of 

 Mr. Gurdon Trumbull, the artist and 

 ornithologist, of Hartford, Conn. 



Mr. John Morley will deliver the 

 principal address at the opening of the 

 Technical Institution, founded at Pitts- 

 burg by Mr. Carnegie, in the autumn 

 of 1904. — Sir William Ramsay, of Lon- 

 don, will give a course of lectures dur- 

 ing the summer session at the Uni- 

 versity of California on ' The Con- 

 stituents of the Atmosphere and the 

 Emanations from Radium.' 



Dr. G. W. Hill, of Nyack, N. Y., 

 has been elected a corresponding mem- 

 ber in the section of astronomy of the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences. — Professor 

 George W. Hough, of Northwestern 

 University, has been elected an asso- 

 ciate member of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society. — The sixtieth birthday of Dr. 

 Robert Koch was celebrated on Decem- 

 ber 11. A portrait bust was unveiled 

 in the Institute for Infectious Diseases, 

 Berlin, a museum for bacteriology was 

 established and a Festschrift is in 

 press. 



Mr. Shyama-ji Krishnavarma, of 

 India, has offered $5,000 to Oxford Uni- 

 versity to establish a lectureship in 

 honor of Herbert Spencer to be known 

 as the Spencer Lectureship. 



The Nobel prizes, each of the value 

 of about $40,000, were awarded in 

 Christiania, on December 10. The prize 

 in physics was divided between M. 

 Becquerel and M. and Mme. Curie, of 

 Paris. The prize in chemistry was 

 awarded to Professor Arrhenius, of 

 Stockholm; the prize in medicine to 

 Dr. Finsen, of Copenhagen, and the 

 prize in literature to Dr. Bjornstjerne 

 Bjornsen, of Christiania. — The prize for 

 French contributions to science given 

 by M. Osiris through the Paris Press 

 Association has been divided between 

 Mme. Curie and M. Branly. Mme. 

 Curie receives 60,000 francs for her 

 work on radium and M. Branly 40,000 

 francs for his work in connection with 

 wireless telegraphy. 



