254 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



cular system one not only adds to girth of trunk and limbs, and con- 

 sequently to weight as seen in the physical condition of the 300 strong 

 men in Group 5, but increases the functional power of heart, lungs, 

 stomach and viscera — and consequently favors the nutrition and re- 

 cuperation of the brain itself. If to intense or prolonged mental ap- 

 plication are added worry, anxiety, fear of failure, loss of sleep, or 

 great emotional strain — then mental work soon becomes exhausting. 

 Add to prolonged physical effort the same kind of mental and emo- 

 tional harrassments, and we soon have in the individual or athletic 

 team a temporary state of physical and mental impairment which is 

 familiarly attributed to " over-training." No one symptom is more 

 indicative of this approaching collapse than loss of weight, and on 

 the other hand no physical sign presages a return to bodily and mental 

 efficiency more unerringly than a return to normal weight. Normal 

 weight for the average student is about 2.05 pounds for every inch in 

 height, for the university crews 2.17 and for the football teams and 

 strong men 2.20. The army standard during the civil war was 2 

 pounds to the inch for the soldier of medium height. 



The Harvard scholarship men range in weight from 1.87 in the 

 lowest group to 1.99 in the highest. These chronic conditions of 

 underweight on the part of the scholarship men are, in my opinion, 

 largely due to excessive mental activity, accompanied in many cases 

 by nervous anxiety and perpetual worry for fear that they will not 

 come up to the desired standard and fail to receive honors or lose their 

 scholarship stipend. Judicious physical exercise, out-of-door games 

 and recreations, mingled freely with innocent social amusements, all 

 tend to relieve this state of nervous tension and malnutrition, as many 

 a hard-worked student knows from experience. The physical superi- 

 ority of the honor scholarship men over the stipend scholarship men 

 may be largely attributed to the fact that they do devote more time 

 and attention to the care of their physique. When the stipend scholar- 

 ship men are asked why they do not give more attention to their health 

 and the upbuilding of their bodies, the almost invariable answer is : 

 " We have no time for it," or words to that effect. In many cases this 

 is literally true, as there are scholarship men at Harvard who have to 

 do a considerable amount of outside work in addition to their college 

 work in order to earn money enough to meet their expenses. But in 

 the great majority of cases the answer of " no time " means that these 

 men do not regard health and physical vigor of sufficient importance 

 to work for it; or if they do, they fear that while they are taking time 

 for improving their bodies, their nearest rivals are at the everlasting 

 grind that will give them possession of the much-coveted scholarships. 

 Some of the results are shown in the table to which we have referred. 

 Here is an anomalous condition. 



According to our records the physique of athletes and the average 



