FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



863 



Cut-offs increase the gradient and speed of 

 the flow, destroying the balance, and the 

 stream rapidly excavates a new bend, restor- 

 ing the former condition. Artificial outlets 

 have as little effect on the height of the 

 stream above as storage reservoirs on that 

 below. The author intimates that the most 

 effective remedy lies in levees properly con- 

 structed. The old levees, the unsoundness 

 of which has cast a prejudice against the 

 system, were hastily and improperly made. 

 Stumps were left in the ground, and logs, 

 rails, etc., were thrown into the bank, which, 

 rotting, left holes, weak spots, that the 

 water was sure to find. Now, all decaying 

 material is carefully kept out, and sound 

 earth is used — " which is a good-enough 

 material, . . . but the bank must be care- 

 fully built of sufficient dimensions, and, es- 

 pecially in the case of a light or treacherous 

 underground, must have its base extended by 

 a banquette. As to cost, it may be briefly 

 said that levees are the least expensive means 

 of reclaiming overflowed lands that have ever 

 been proposed." 



The agency of bacteria in promoting the 

 fermentation or ripening of cheese has been 

 recognized for some time, and has been taken 

 practical advantage of by manufacturers. 

 Messrs. S. M. Babcock and H. L. Russell, of 

 the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion, have, however, become satisfied that 

 profound changes of a physical and chemical 

 nature also occur in milk from which bacterial 

 fermentatives have been excluded. In these 

 experiments the casein of the milk under- 

 went practically the same series of decom- 

 position changes— the conversion of the in- 

 soluble casein into soluble proteids — as are 

 to be found in a riptning cheese. From 

 continued experiments the authors concluded 

 that these changes were of a non-vital 

 character, and were produced by enzymes ; 

 and by the usual physiological methods, 

 proteid-converting (proteolytic) enzymes were 

 separated, which, applied to milk, exercised 

 a curdling as well as a digestive function. 



A Cambodian people called the Pnongs are 

 described by M. Adhemard Leclere, French 

 resident at Kratie, as of the type of the North 

 American Indians, well formed, and of good 

 appearance, but with badly shaped mouths. 

 The women are not so handsome, strong, or 



intelligent as the men. The Pnongs readily 

 learn to read and write. Their costume con- 

 sists of a long shawl, which folds elegantly 

 round the body. The children are never 

 left alone for an instant, but are constantly 

 attended by their father or mother. They 

 recognize a god, whom they call Brah, but 

 their faith seems to resolve itself into a doc- 

 trine of ghosts. They eat everything, in- 

 cluding grasshoppers, snakes, frogs, and the 

 placenta of cows and buffaloes. For a choice 

 drink they make a kind of spirit of rice. 

 They smoke in wooden pipes a mild tobacco, 

 which they dry and cut very fine, and chew 

 various substances. They have a highly 

 developed sense of smell, and profess to be 

 able to distinguish different individuals and 

 animals, metals, and other substances, with 

 their eyes shut. They have no dances or 

 music, but on certain solemn occasions beat 

 gongs ; and they have no funeral ceremonies. 

 They have an art of carving small statues. 

 They keep their promises, and have no pa- 

 tience with a man who breaks his word. 



NOTES 



The United States Life-Saving Service at 

 the close of the fiscal year covered by its 

 latest report, June 30, 189Y, embraced 259 

 stations — 189 on the Atlantic and Gulf 

 coasts, 55 on the coasts of the Great Lakes, 

 14 on the Pacific coast, and one at the Falls 

 of the Ohio. Three hundred and ninety-four 

 disasters were reported as having occurred 

 during the year to documented vessels, in 

 which 3,'73'7 persons were exposed, 42 lives 

 were lost, and $1,998,930 of property out of 

 $7,107,825 was lost. There were also 305 

 casualties to undocumented craft — sail boats, 

 rowboats, etc. — carrying 706 persons, 1 1 of 

 whom perished, and in which $39,405 of 

 property was lost. Five hundred and eighty- 

 seven shipwrecked persons received 1,082 

 days' relief at the stations. The number of 

 disasters is the largest reported in the his- 

 tory of the service, yet the number of ves- 

 sels totally lost is the smallest since 1879, 

 when the scope of the service was much less 

 extended. 



The feat was accomplished on the first 

 day of June, and has now become a part of 

 the daily routine of the shops, of shipping 

 molten iron by the ton on the railway from 

 the blast furnaces at Duquesne to the Home- 

 stead Steel Works, near Pittsburg. The 

 molten iron, as it is tapped from the fur- 

 naces, runs into an immense mixing ladle 

 having a capacity of two hundred and fifty 

 tons, and from this is poured into the twenty- 

 ton ladle cars ; and the cars are then hauled 



