80 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



these gymnasia was generally so disappointing that they were fast 

 becoming unpopular, when happily the present successful system came 

 in to supersede them. In order thoroughly to understand this new 

 system one must experience its sure beneficent effects, which depend 

 not upon newly-devised apparatus, although great improvements have 

 been made in this respect, but upon the application of scientific prin- 

 ciples in the employment of old methods, thereby combining all the 

 possible advantages of every other system. Its main features are : 

 First, a thorough physical examination of the person in comparison 

 with the normal type, proper allowances being made for race, age, sex, 

 and temperament. Second, carefully prescribed exercise to correct 

 deformities and deficiencies, and to induce symmetrical development. 

 Third, special directions as to proper times for exercise, and for care 

 of the body after exercise. It will readily be understood that such a 

 system requires professional oversight and direction. Before discuss- 

 ing the opportunities for profitable introduction of this system, let us 

 consider its theoretical advantages and its practical results. 



If, as may naturally be supposed, the human body is designed to 

 meet the physical activity of life in simplest conditions, where all the 

 muscles find necessary employment in procuring food and protection, 

 then, in conditions of life where such necessity does not exist, it fol- 

 lows either that the body has unlimited power of adaptability, or that 

 sooner or later in the deviation from primitive conditions the body 

 will not naturally attain its maximum of possible vigor. The latter 

 is, of course, our only conclusion ; and it needs but to be pointed out 

 that, in our present complicated civilization, where the demands upon 

 nervous and mental force are so disproportionally great, this devia- 

 tion is excessive and increasing, in order to emphasize the need of 

 supplying artificially the lost conditions of maximum body strength. 

 Our subject naturally divides, according to purposes, into exercise de- 

 signed for the preservation, and into exercise designed for the devel- 

 opment, of health and strength. Of the two subjects the latter is the 

 more important. Once given a well-developed body in fine condition, 

 and obedience to certain definite rules will keep it so ; while, on the 

 other hand, to bring about this condition is often impossible, and al- 

 ways demands skill and painstaking. No time may safely be wasted : 

 the earlier the start and the more constant the care, the better are the 

 possible results. A month's work in correcting a child's deficiencies 

 or deformities may be worth years of such labor later on, when the 

 skeleton is thoroughly ossified. And yet, although the plastic stage 

 of youth is so much the more favorable time for such work, there is 

 still such a Milling response on Nature's part, that almost at any age 

 our efforts in this direction are liberally rewarded. 



In considering the results that may be expected from exercise 

 directed to certain ends, let us take first the body framework. The 

 shape of the bones most concerns us. When we remember the pliant 



