S24 



On Gymnastic Exercises, 



shoulders*. These muscles, being then called into violent 

 action to raise the body, are necessarily increased in power, 

 and gradually become so much enlarged, as to give a peculiar 

 roundness to the shoulders and back of the neck. This may 

 be exemplified by the accompanying figure. 



The jaws are also firmly clenched by their muscles, which, 

 when increased in size, give the stringiness and harshness to 



* Although it can scarcely be credited that mothers would permit 

 their daughters to perform such an exercise as is represented here, it has 

 of late been often practised, in the expectation that distortion would be 

 cured by it. It is easy to show that such an exercise tends rather to 

 increase than diminish the curve in the upper part of the spine. 

 Although mothers could not be judges of this, they might have seen 

 that there was some danger of the girl falling. About four months ago, 

 a young lady in a family of distinction mounted the rope nearly as high 

 as the ceiling, slipped, and fell on her back. She gradually recovered 

 from the immediate shock, but she now suffers from a peculiar pain and 

 weakness in the spine. Although it is to be hoped that this is merely 

 symptomatic of an injury to the ligaments, still when the cases of the 

 Count Lordat and others are recollected, we cannot help fearing that 

 the membranes of the spinal marrow may become affected. 



