328t Qn Gymnastic Exercises. 



i^ervice receives a wound for which immediate amputation is 

 necessary, or if the same operation be performed on a strong 

 labourer while he is in full health and exercise, the bone is 

 found hard and compact in structure. But if either the sol- 

 dier or the hospital patient should, in consequence of the acci- 

 dent, be confined to bed for some time before the leg is ampu- 

 tated, the bone is found soft and spongy as that of a scrofulous 

 person. Analogous facts may be observed in animals, and it 

 is well known that the bones of the leg of the race-horse when 

 he is in full vigour are as hard as ivory. 



In no part of the system is this law better exemplified than 

 in the history of the curvatures of the Spine. The muscles of 

 the spine, which, with the exception of those of the heart, are 

 most constantly in action, and whose office is to support the 

 vertebrae, may be so weakened by want of exercise as to be- 

 come incapable of performing their function. When they are 

 reduced to this state, the ligaments which bind the vertebrae 

 together yield to the superincumbent weight ; for the liga- 

 ments are affected in a secondary manner by the same causes 

 which produce debility in the muscles ; weakness of the 

 muscles is therefore one of the most frequent forerunners of 

 distortion.* 



together in my box, they acquired here and there the polish of the 

 enamel of the teeth. Out of the charnel-house at Murten, I selected 

 skulls that attested the strength of the stroke by which, as appeared 

 from the marks, the helmet was cleft, and which, being pierced in the 

 orbits by the point of the spear, probably belonged to knights, since the 

 spear would be directed against this as the most vulnerable part. I 

 still possess these specimens, and I consider them as an incontrovertible 

 answer to the question, how these knights could wcjar armour insup- 

 portable by the present race ? They were more hardy and athletic than 

 we are." — Ebell. 



This is a more rational account of the prowess of our ancestors than 

 the incredible histories which would make us believe that we had dege- 

 nerated from their outward appearance and gigantic stature. The truth 

 k, that the bones become closer in their texture, the whole frame of the 

 body is more intimately knitted, and greatly strengthened, by that life of 

 exertion and fatigue which om* forefathers led. 



* This sentence must not be construed to imply that one set of mus- 

 cles becomes weak, and the other so strong as to pull the spine to one 

 side. When the muscles of the back have not been exercised, they be- 

 come equally weak on both sides ; the spine, being consequently not 

 supported, must sink. 



