GYMNASTICS. 85 



upon the druggist, for particular instructions. It is as likely that one 

 as the other would be able to recognize, for instance, the difference 

 between functional and organic heart-murmurs, which would call for 

 such fundamentally different treatment. If no gymnasium is at hand, 

 the doctor should still be as well able to advise about the use of ex- 

 temporized apparatus and the various forms of exercise without appa- 

 tus as about the use of other domestic remedies. His prescriptions 

 must be both intelligent and intelligible. 



The opportunities for giving this advice are far greater than for 

 giving any drug or all drugs put together. For long before and for 

 long after there is any drug indication, there exists the plain, impera- 

 tive need of physical exercise, even for those in perfect health who 

 desire to keep that blessing. Either physicians must recognize the 

 growing demands for professional advice as to such means of main- 

 taining health or a new profession will arise to keep people out of the 

 doctors' hands. Even now doctors are called upon for this advice, and 

 it is a great mistake to suppose that the call demands little attention. 



The grandest opportunity for the introduction of this new system 

 of gymnastics is in the schools, where succeeding generations are 

 molded. According to statistics, in only three in a thousand of the 

 public schools of this country is any attention paid to physical train- 

 ing. Even a casual inspection of these schools, where entire atten- 

 tion is paid to mental development, reveals sufficient reasons for the 

 abounding deficiencies and deformities which make almost conspicuous 

 any well-formed man or woman. To say nothing of the debilitating 

 influence of their commonly wretched hygienic surroundings, their 

 entire lack of physical exercise as a corrective for the unnatural sed- 

 entary life that is forced upon them is cause sufficient for their poor 

 bodily development. 



It is a popular fallacy that the short recesses and the after-school 

 play-hours can make up for the long school-sessions, during which the 

 children must sit still and too often in a necessarily cramped position. 

 The school-yard is generally so small and crowded that only the bolder 

 boys dare run in it ; the timid, weakly boys and the girls dawdle away 

 the precious minutes. And even the common sports of childhood do 

 not furnish the right sort of exercise. Like that of tramping up the 

 long stair-flights, and of going to and from the school, the exercise is 

 mainly of the lower limbs, which in the unnatural conditions of civili- 

 zation suffer least from disuse, and therefore stand in least need of 

 artificial development. Invaluable as the play-hours are in relief from 

 mental strain, the exercise thus afforded needs to be supplemented by 

 such as will give the child the best possible body. Such exercise can 

 easily be provided in the schools, and will be provided when parents 

 awake to the fact that children's bodies as well as minds suffer from 

 neglect, and become serviceable according to the care taken in their 

 development. 



