12 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



where my plan of operation involved a ten hours' march across a 

 snow-covered mountain-range. I reached the camp foot-sore and al- 

 most feverish with exhaustion ; but the catarrh, too, had exhausted its 

 resources, and the next morning I awakened with half-healed feet and 

 wholly-cured bronchi. One day of pedestrian fatigues had saved me 

 two weeks of pulmonary distress. 



Next to fresh air, active exercise is the best prophylactic : 



"Deru Athleten wird vergeben 

 Was der Schwachling theuer busst." 



By stimulating the action of the circulatory system, gymnastics pro- 

 mote the elimination of morbific matter ; disease- germs are removed be- 

 fore they have time to take root. Every gymnastic apparatus is worth 

 dozens of patent medicines ; the beneficial effect of the "movement- 

 cure " is permanent, as well as safe and prompt. The five gymnastic spe- 

 cifics for pulmonary disorders are dumb-bells, Indian-clubs, long-handled 

 oars, spears, and a grapple-swing. Ger-werfen, or spear-throwing, is a 

 popular pastime of the Turner-Hall. The missile is a javelin of some 

 tough wood, about ten feet long and as thick as a common axe-handle. 

 It terminates either in an iron lance-head, or in a brass knob, to keep 

 the wood from splintering. A rough-hewed log-man, with a movable 

 head, forms the target, and the problem is to decapitate the figure 

 from a distance of about twenty paces for tyros and forty for veteran 

 lancers. The shock of the throw expands the chest, and has a mag- 

 ical influence on the stitch-like pains of a lingering pleuritic affection. 

 It is a mechanical anaesthetic for all kinds of pulmonary disorders. 

 The grapple-swing consists of a pair of iron (leather-covered) rings, 

 suspended at a height of about four feet from the floor, and affords 

 opportunities if not facilities for a great variety of acrobatic exer- 

 cises. The complex evolutions are somewhat arduous, but even the 

 simplest use of the contrivance swinging to and fro like a pendulum 

 exerts a mitigating influence on the strictures of the respiratory 

 organs, dyspnoea, and asthmatic troubles. Faute de mieux, trundling 

 a wheelbarrow, with a gradual increase of the load, chopping or saw- 

 ing wood, or grubbing out stumps with a mattock, is worth ship-loads 

 of cough-sirup, though it is doubtful in what degree the individual 

 predilections of the patient might bias his choice. 



But people of means and leisure can remove that doubt by making 

 out-door exercise pleasant enough to be preferable to any drug ; and 

 the following plan would combine, under the most favorable condi- 

 tions, the best atmospheric, gymnastic, and dietetic remedies for the 

 disorders of the respiratory organs.* 



* The treatise on consumption will be concluded in our next issue, as the first of a 

 series of articles on the hygienic treatment of the prevalent disorders of the human or- 

 ganization, including dyspepsia, pulmonary diseases, the alcohol-habit, rheumatism, and 



climatic fevers. 



[To be concluded.] 



