THE PHYSIQUE OF SCHOLARS 255 



student during the past 25 years has greatly improved, while the 

 physique of all the scholarship men of to-day is not only below the 

 average student of the present time, but the physique of the stipend 

 scholarship men is actually below that of the average student of 1880, 

 and Group II. below the average of the stipend men in the early 

 eighties. As the records we have quoted give for the most part the 

 first-year measurements and tests of the students, they may be said to 

 reflect the conditions that have acted upon them at their homes and 

 preparatory schools rather than at the college. These formative influ- 

 ences, whatever they may have been, have affected the scholarship men 

 as well as the athletes, but in a different way. The great interest that 

 has been awakened during the past quarter century in health, hygiene, 

 sanitation and physical education has begun to make itself felt through- 

 out the country at large, and students are coming to the college now in 

 better physical condition than ever before. This improved physical 

 well-being has undoubtedly been greatly intensified by the time and 

 attention given to athletics in the preparatory schools. The public 

 interest awakened and the extensive advertising that athletes have 

 received through the press have fired a considerable portion of our 

 youth with an ambition to become large, strong and athletic. On the 

 other hand, the intense mental and nervous activity of the age, the 

 universal demand for a higher and broader intelligence, the great 

 rewards for professional knowledge and skill, the prestige and tra- 

 ditions of the institutions of learning, have all combined to stimulate 

 another set of our youth to great mental efforts. If athletics adver- 

 tise the college, as so many persons affirm, they will tend to draw to 

 its halls the young men who are fond of participating in athletic sports 

 or of witnessing the athletic performances of others. Young men of 

 a more studious frame of mind, who care little about athletics, would 

 be attracted by the reputation of the individual professors, the academic 

 standing of the institution, and the eminence of the positions held by 

 its graduates. 



It is very evident that a process of selection has been going on in 

 the community during the past half century by which these two dis- 

 tinct types of young men, whom we may term scholars and athletes, 

 have been attracted to the colleges and universities. Is this process of 

 selection a natural one, or such a one as should exist in an institution 

 of learning? Both classes have ideals and aims which are essentially 

 different. Both classes are naturally antagonistic, and both classes 

 are pursuing the means of education and training as though they were 

 ends in themselves. The consequence is superior physiques with 

 mediocre mental ability according to the college rank-book in one class, 

 and inferior physiques with fine mental attainments in the other. 

 Moreover, this want of harmony or sense of proportion between mental 

 and physical efforts on the part of our students, which we all recognize, 



