reports of committees and examining boards, of ministers of
instruction, and other officials, throw little or no light upon it.
The matter belongs so much to the domestic economy of the household
and school, that it is not easy to learn much that is definite about
it except by personal inspection and inquiry. The little information
that has been received, however, is important. It indicates, if it
does not demonstrate, an essential difference between the regimen or
organization, using these terms in their broadest sense, of female
education in America and in Europe.

Dr. H. Hagen, an eminent physician and naturalist of Königsburg,
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:--

NUREMBERG, July 23, 1873.

DEAR SIR,--The information, given by two prominent physicians
in Berlin, in answer to the questions in your letter, is
mostly of a negative character. I believe them to prove that
generally girls here are doing very well as to the catamenial
function.

First, most of the girls in North Germany begin this function
in the fifteenth year, or even later; of course some few
sooner, even in the twelfth year or before; but the rule is
after the fifteenth year. Now, nearly all leave the school in
the fifteenth year, and then follow some lectures given at
home at leisure. The school-girls are of course rarely
troubled by the periodical function.