3 lo THE POPULAR SCIENCE UO.XTHLY. 



men of character and integrity, and only such men, the problem is 

 solved. If this be not practicable, it would seem as if the only alter- 

 native is to go on from bad to worse, until the whole municipal sys- 

 tem breaks down under the weight of evils which are inseparably 

 connected with its present organic form, and makes way for some 

 new system of governmental control. 



And this brings us to the consideration of the ways and means of 

 correcting and preventing the evils which have been referred to, as 

 well as the long, long list of other evils which from time to time force 

 themselves upon the attention of the public. 



\_To be continued.] 



A SCIENTIFIC MISSION TO CAMBODIA. 



By M. MAUREL. 



THE countries now known as Cochin-China, Annam, Cambodia, 

 Laos, and Siam, and probably the whole Indo-Chinese Peninsula, 

 were occupied primitively by a dark-colored race, remnants of which 

 are still to be found in the mountains, on whom their conquerors, all 

 having the same feeling toward them, have imposed names which in 

 their several languages mean savages. At a period in the past which 

 probably answered to the beginning of the Christian era, two con- 

 quering peoples took possession of the richer parts of the country and 

 drove these tribes back into the mountains. They established the 

 kingdom of Thiampa in the south, and that of Cambodia in the central 

 region. Cambodia, now small in extent and weak, was formerly a 

 powerful empire, and held under its allegiance, either directly or as 

 tributary states, more than half of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula. Its 

 splendor is attested by its numerous monuments of grand dimensions 

 and beautiful architecture. Yet this Khmer people, which has left 

 such admirable traces of its power and civilization, is an enigma to 

 the world. We know very little of its origin, and hardly more of the 

 period of its power. Its history, as we have it, prevents various 

 phases of struggle and alliance with its neighbors, China, Siam, Thi- 

 ampa, and Tonquin. It is supposed to have attained its highest state 

 of splendor in the arts in the eleventh century. At the beginning of 

 the eighteenth century it divided Thiampa with Annam and Tonquin. 

 From that time on it suffered a succession of losses of territory till, 

 in 1863, Norodom, its king, placed it under the protectorate of France. 

 ( ambodia is situated between 10° 30' and 14° north latitude and 

 100° 30' and 104° 30' east longitude, and has an area of about 100,000 

 square kilometres, and a population of 1,200,000 souls, of whom 

 700,000 are Klnncis. It is traversed by the great river Me-Kong, 

 which rise* on the eastern skirts of the Thibetan table-land, crosses 



