Of the Army Board only I remain

Of the Army Board only I remain. Lazear, as reported, died
during the early part of our investigations; Reed left us in
1902 and Carroll only five years later. The reader may wonder
of what benefit was it to us, this painstaking and remarkable
accomplishment which has been such a blessing to humanity! See
what the late Surgeon General of the U. S. Army had to say in
his report (Senate Document No. 520, Sixty-first Congress,
second session):

There should be a keen sense of enjoyment of all life"s activities

There should be a keen sense of enjoyment of all life"s activities. As
William James once said, simply to live, breathe and move should be a
delight. The thoroughly healthy person is full of optimism; 'he
rejoiceth like a strong man to run a race.' We seldom see such
overflowing vitality except among children. When middle life is reached,
or before, our vital surplus has usually been squandered. Yet it is in
this vital surplus that the secret of personal magnetism lies. Vital
surplus should not only be safeguarded, but accumulated. It is the
balance in the savings bank of life. Our health ideals must not stop at
the avoidance of invalidism, but should aim at exuberant and exultant
health. They should savor not of valetudinarianism, but of athletic
development. Our aim should be not to see how much strain our strength
can stand, but how great we can make that strength. With such an aim we
shall, incidentally and naturally, find ourselves accomplishing more
work than if we aimed directly at the work itself. Moreover, when such
ideals are attained, work instead of turning into drudgery tends to
turn into play, and the hue of life seems to turn from dull gray to the
bright tints of well-remembered childhood. In short, our health ideals
should rise from the mere wish to keep out of a sick bed to an eagerness
to become a well-spring of energy. Only then can we realize the
intrinsic wholesomeness and beauty of human life.

Dr

Dr. H. Hagen, an eminent physician and naturalist of Koenigsburg,
Prussia, now connected with the Museum of Comparative Zoology at
Cambridge, writes from Germany, where he has been lately, in reply to
these inquiries, as follows:--

His life was devoted with passion to art

His life was devoted with passion to art. He had from the start
no time for frivolity. Art became his religion--and required of
him the sacrifice of all that might keep him below his highest
level of power for work. His father early warned him to have a
care for his health, 'for,' said he, 'in your profession, if
once you were to fall ill you would be a ruined man.' To one so
intent on perfection and so keenly alive to imperfection such
advice must have been nearly superfluous, for the artist could
not but observe the effect upon his work of any depression of
his bodily well-being. He was, besides, too thrifty in all
respects to think of lapsing into bodily neglect or abuse. He
was severely temperate, but not ascetic, save in those times
when devotion to work caused him to sleep with his clothes on,
that he might not lose time in seizing the chisel when he
awoke. He ate to live and to labor, and was pleased with a
present of 'fifteen marzolino cheeses and fourteen pounds of
sausage--the latter very welcome, as was also the cheese.' Over
a gift of choice wines he is not so enthusiastic and the
bottles found their way mostly to the tables of his friends and
patrons. When intent on some work he usually 'confined his diet
to a piece of bread which he ate in the middle of his labors.'
Few hours (we have no accurate statement in the matter) were
devoted to sleep. He ate comparatively little because he worked
better: he slept less than many men because he worked better in
consequence. Partly for protection against cold, partly perhaps
for economy of time, he sometimes left his high dog-skin boots
on for so long that when he removed them the scarf skin came
away like the skin of a moulting serpent.

The returns received furnish a series of interesting facts for the year

1826
The returns received furnish a series of interesting facts for the year
1826. There were one thousand seven hundred and twenty-six district
schools, supported at an expense of two hundred and twenty-six thousand
two hundred and nineteen dollars and ninety cents ($226,219.90), while
there were nine hundred and fifty-three academies and private schools
maintained at a cost of $192,455.10. The whole number of children
attending public schools was 117,186, and the number educated in
private schools and academies was 25,083. The expense, therefore, was
$7.67 per pupil in the private schools, and only $1.93 each in the
public schools. These facts are indicative of the condition of public
sentiment. About one-sixth of the children of the state were educated in
academies and private schools, at a cost equal to about six-sevenths of
the amount paid for the education of the remaining five-sixths, who
attended the public schools. The returns also showed that there were
2,974 children between the ages of seven and fourteen years who did not
attend school, and 530 persons over fourteen years of age who were
unable to read and write. The incompleteness of these returns detracts
from their value; but, as those towns where the greatest interest
existed were more likely to respond to the call of the Legislature, it
is probable that the actual condition of the whole state was below that
of the two hundred and eighty-eight towns. The interest which the law of
1826 had called forth was temporary; and in March, 1832, the Committee
on Education, to whom was referred an order with instructions to inquire
into the expediency of providing a fund to furnish, in certain cases,
common schools with apparatus, books, and such other aid as may be
necessary to raise the standard of common school education, say that
they desire more accurate knowledge than could then be obtained. The
returns required by law were in many cases wholly neglected, and in
others they were inaccurately made. In the year 1831 returns were
received from only eighty-six towns. In order to obtain the desired
information, a special movement was made by the Legislature. The report
of the committee was printed in all the newspapers that published the
laws of the commonwealth, and the Secretary was directed to prepare and
present to the Legislature an abstract of the returns which should be
received from the several towns for the year 1832. The result of this
extraordinary effort was seen in returns from only ninety-nine of three
hundred and five towns, and even a large part of these were confessedly
inaccurate or incomplete. They present, however, some remarkable facts.