778 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



chiefly systematic exercise, by promoting a healthy concordant action 

 between the heart and arteries, diminishes the resistance which the 

 latter offer to an unusual flow of blood from the former, and therefore 

 men in training, or men accustomed to bodily exercise, do not easily 

 become distressed by sustained muscular exertion. 



Now it is evident, without comment, how immense must be the 

 benefit of muscular exercise. Not only does it allow time for the 

 brain to rest when exhausted by mental work, but, by increasing the 

 circulation all over the body, it promotes the threefold function of 

 oxygenation, nutrition, and drainage. It thus refreshes the whole or- 

 ganism in all its parts ; it increases by use the strength and endurance 

 of the muscles ; it maintains the heart and the lungs or rather the 

 whole of the circulatory and respiratory mechanisms at the highest 

 point of their natural efficiency ; and, in general, next only to air and 

 food, muscular exercise is of all things most essential to the vitality 

 of the organism. 



So much, then, for the physiology of recreation ; and, having said 

 this much on the abstract principles of our subject, I shall devote the 

 rest of my paper to a consideration of this subject in its more practi- 

 cal aspects. 



The fundamental principle of all recreation consisting, as I have 

 said, in the rest from local exhaustion which is secured by a change of 

 organic activity, it is clear that practical advice with regard to recrea- 

 tion must differ widely according to the class, and even the individual, 

 to which it is given. Thus it would be clearly absurd to recommend 

 a literary man, already jaded with mental work, to adopt as his means 

 of recreation some sedentary form of amusement ; while it would be 

 no less absurd to recommend a workingman, already fatigued with 

 bodily toil, to regale himself with athletics. And, in lower degrees, 

 the kind and amount of recreation which it would be wise to recom- 

 mend must differ with different individuals in the same class of soci- 

 ety, according to their age, sex, temperament, pursuits, and previous 

 habits of life. But, although all matters of detail thus require to be 

 adjusted to individual cases, there is one practical consideration which 

 applies equally to all cases, and which must never be lost sight of if 

 recreation of any kind is to produce its full measure of result. This 

 consideration is the all-important part which is played in recreation 

 by the emotions. It is, I am sure, impossible to over-estimate the 

 value of the emotions in this connection a prolonged flow of happy 

 feelings doing more to brace up the system for work than any other 

 influence operating for a similar length of time. The physiological 

 reasons why this should be so are not apparent ; for, although we 

 know that the emotions have a very powerful influence in stimulating 

 the nerves which act on the various secreting organs of the body, I 

 do not think that this fact alone is sufficient to explain the high value 

 of pleasurable emotions in refreshing the nervous system. There 



