624 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



partment is well organized, but is not under medical direction. Few 

 of the other colleges of recognized standing are without a director 

 of the gymnasium, but too often they have been content with the 

 erection of a showy building, instead of looking to the organization 

 of an efficient department; it has not been put upon an equal footing 

 with other departments of instruction and expected to do the same 

 quality of work; the same grade of general culture and special 

 preparation has not been exacted from its head. 



Of the colleges for women, Smith, Vassar, Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, 

 and Mount Holyoke all have college physicians, in most cases giving 

 instruction in physiology or hygiene, or both. Each has in addition 

 a director of the gymnasium, but only at Bryn Mawr is she a medical 

 graduate. None of these directors is given the rank of professor 

 in the faculty, but they are better qualified for their positions than 

 are many of the male directors. The Woman's College of Balti- 

 more is the best organized, with a professor of anatomy, physiology, 

 hygiene, and physical training, and two instructors in physical 

 training. 



The completion of the Hemenway Gymnasium at Cambridge, 

 Massachusetts, in 1879, marked the beginning of the present era of 

 gymnasium building in American colleges and universities. The 

 example of Harvard was followed during the next decade by Am- 

 herst, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Bowdoin, "Williams, Lehigh, Bryn 

 Mawr, Vassar, and some others; and among the large number added 

 to the list since 1890 are Yale, Wesleyan, Brown, Kutgers, Colgate, 

 the Universities of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Leland Stan- 

 ford, Smith College, and the Woman's College of Baltimore. The 

 cost of the better class of these buildings ranges from ten thousand 

 dollars to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the average being 

 not far from fifty thousand dollars. 



A typical gymnasium of the period may be described somewhat 

 as follows: It is built of brick or stone, several stories high, with a 

 basement. The large main hall, containing the bulk of the apparatus, 

 is open to the roof, unobstructed by posts or pillars, surrounded by 

 a suspended gallery for the running track, and crossed above by iron 

 beams to which the swinging apparatus is attached. On the floor 

 below, or in the basement, are lockers in which the clothing worn 

 during exercise is stored between times. Here, too, is a very impor- 

 tant feature, the bathing equipment, consisting commonly of a plunge 

 bath, tubs, and a considerable number of shower and spray baths. 

 There are also the director's office and examining rooms, rooms for 

 special developing appliances, or for boxing, wrestling, and fencing, 

 perhaps bowling alleys in the basement, a " cage " for indoor base- 

 ball or tennis, an athletic trophy room, and others for the use of 



