THE PHYSIOLOGY OF EXERCISE. 441 



evidences to be supplied than is usually done in the presentations of 

 the Darwinian theory. In the immense field of research opened by 

 Darwin after the fall of the zoological-paleontological dogma, the cul- 

 tivation of which will employ the plowshares of many generations, we 

 have plainly indicated to us one point where the work is urgent. On 

 the other hand, a surer foundation might now be laid for the determi- 

 nation of one of the practical questions relating to exercise. 



All are agreed as to the importance of bodily exercise for modern 

 civilized mankind. With the knightly tournaments of the middle 

 ages, in which, moreover, only an extremely small minority ever took 

 part, physical training has more and more declined. Jean Jacques 

 Rousseau, by his educational romance, gave the impulse to a move- 

 ment that was fast taken up, especially in Germany, and, borne 

 through the national and military struggles of the war of freedom, has 

 culminated in the German turning. 



Physical exercise had been pursued by us in this form for half a 

 century when doubts were raised as to its fitness. To the German 

 turning was opposed a theoretically devised form of physical training, 

 the so-called Swedish movement, or gymnastics, the ground thought 

 of which was the limitation of the exercises to extremely simple, 

 although varied, motions. Since these movements were performed 

 against resistance, a methodical strengthening of all the individual 

 muscles was thought to result from them, and the true ideal of an 

 athletic muscular system to be reached. 



Again, from another point of view do we hear the superior fitness 

 of the German turning doubted. The European nation which stands 

 foremost in physical accomplishments, and which attaches the highest 

 value to bodily vigor, the English, has till very recently known noth- 

 ing like the German turning. Separated more than ever from the 

 Continent during the French Revolution and the Empire, it was little 

 affected by the movement of which Rousseau was the pioneer. Jahn's 

 arguments, with their somewhat German-chauvinistic coloring, found 

 but little acceptance there. The English, however, had less use for 

 turning than the nations of the Continent. Thanks to the rural life of 

 the wealthy classes and the common training of the youth in public 

 institutions, a number of national games and contests (riding, rowing, 

 games of ball of various kinds) had been formed, which afforded a 

 superior empirical schooling in the various movements called forth in 

 them ;.as the achievements of the English mountain-climber, who has 

 just put Chimborazo under his feet, sufficiently illustrate. The pas- 

 sionate interest felt through the length and breadth of Sir Charles 

 Dilke's " Greater Britain " in the annual contest between the dark- 

 blue Oxford and the light-blue Cambridge oarsmen on the Thames 

 can only be compared with the enthusiasm of the Greeks for their 

 national games of competition, and goads the youth to the most ear- 

 nest exertion. 



