The German government has just published the official statistics of the losses in the war with France. The total killed and wounded was 3,919 officers and 60,978 men. The killed and dead of wounds were 1,374 officers and 16,877 men, the proportion being 1 killed to 3.44 wounded among the officers, and 1 to 5 among the men. The infantry lost 57,943, artillery 4,266, and cavalry 2,236. Fighting in line, and at such a distance as modern weapons command, have made the loss by artillery a minimum; 5,084 of the casualties being due to artillery and 55,862 to rifle practice. One noteworthy item is the proportion—12,717 out of the whole number—that were struck about the head and shoulders. This is held to show that the French troops fired high, but it may also be due to the attention now paid to field defences. It is quite possible also that all modern rifles are sighted a trifle too high.
A NEW TREASURY RULE.
The Secretary of the Treasury has lately issued a circular which affects rather uncomfortably the interests of educational, scientific, and literary institutions. They are allowed by law to import books, instruments, and illustrative collections free of duty, and the Secretary now says that the sale or distribution of articles imported in this way will not be allowed. They must be retained in the institutions that bring them into the country. It is quite probable that advantage has sometimes been taken of the law's liberality in this respect, but we fear this circular will really defeat the purpose of the law. Collections of all kinds in colleges and schools are kept up by a system of exchange, which is very necessary to them on account of the small sums of money at their disposal. To break up this system in the case of European specimens would be especially hard, for each institution would then be forced to import single specimens at much greater cost and trouble; or what is more likely, it would be found cheaper to pay the duty; that is, purchase through a dealer. So long as the exchange is confined to the circle of institutions which the law was designed to benefit, we cannot see that its provisions are unduly taken advantage of.
A HYGIENIC SCHOOL.
Dr. Agnew, the celebrated oculist of New York, has indicated his idea of a school for little children, in which health should be a first consideration, as follows: "If we could effect some alterations in the style of school architecture in our school houses, especially the primary departments, it would be a great desideratum. One of the greatest evils at present existing is the method of constructing the school room and of conducting the same. I never could understand why children of the primary age are kept sitting on benches for a large number of hours at a time. School houses ought to be built like the hospital building at the corner of Lexington avenue and Forty-second street, used for cripples, where there is in the upper story a large room, called the solarium, which is in fact a large play room, exposed to the sun, where these little ones are kept the greater part of the time. The upper story of the school houses should be so constructed; and children should be encouraged to bring their toys and playthings with them; and then, instead of changing the age of admission from four years, it might be kept as it is; and instead of shortening the hours of attendance, lengthen them. Of course it should be taken for granted that the school house is constructed for the accommodation of the poor children, and in this light it would be better that such children should spend most of the day in school houses having good sanitary conditions, rather than, as they now do, in tenement houses. Thus you would have these primary schools with plenty of air and light, which you can get in the upper story, and children would be glad to come early, and remain until three or four o'clock, or even later in the afternoon."
MICROSCOPIC COMPARISON OF BLOOD CORPUSCLES.
Dr. J. G. Richardson of Philadelphia, whose views upon the subject of proving blood stains by the use of the microscope have been described in this Miscellany, has lately prepared slides for the microscope so as to show blood corpuscles from two different animals on the same field. He did this by flowing two drops of blood down the slide, and nearly in contact. Dr. C. L. Mees has modified this proceeding. He spreads the blood by Johnston's method, which is to touch a drop of blood to the accurately ground edge of a slide, and then draw it gently over the face of the other slide, leaving a beautifully spread film. In this way one kind of blood is spread upon the slide, and another on the cover. When dry, one half of each is carefully scraped off with a smoothly sharpened knife, and the cover inverted upon the slide in such position as to bring the remaining portions of the film into apposition. When thus prepared the magnified image can be photographed.