328 On Gymnastic Exerciser, 



young persons practising gymnastics, — the changes which may 

 be produced in the condition of the Hgaraents of the joints. 

 "When muscles are gradually increased in strength, the liga- 

 ments become strong in proportion; but the ligaments are as 

 likely to be hurt from the muscles being suddenly called into 

 violent action and at an early age, as by any accidental twist 

 or strain. They are in this way liable to become spongy and 

 relaxed, so as to produce weakness, or a condition similar to 

 the joints of a young horse which has been galloped hard, or 

 obliged to take great leaps before he has acquired his full 

 strength ; indeed, there is much resemblance in the condition 

 of a joint with the ligaments strained, to that of a horse which 

 is brokeft down or wind-galled*. 



A violent sprain may be guarded against by gradually in- 

 creasing the degree of exertion ; but, however great the care in 

 this respect, the joints may be injured in another way, which it 

 is highly important to understand. 



If any exercise, however good, be continued for a long time, 

 and regularly repeated while a young person is growing, certain 

 ligaments may become unnaturally lengthened and elastic. As, 

 for example, we may observe, that in the bolero dance, upon 

 the stage, some of the performers can nearly touch the floor 

 with the inner ankle, which no person with a fine and strongly 

 formed ankle can do. 



The ligaments of the foot, and especially the lateral liga- 

 ments of the ankle, become so unnaturally long, that the foot 

 can be turned in every direction as easily as the hand. The 

 bad consequences resulting from this looseness of the joints, do 

 not appear when the performer is dancing or strutting along 

 the stage, as the muscles of the leg are then in an artificial 

 state of exertion, and for a time preserve the bones in a proper 

 relation to each other; but the effect is quite obvious when the 

 dancers are walking in the streets, for then, while attempting 

 to walk naturally, they have a shuffling gait. This is particu- 

 larly the case in old dancers, who have retired from the stage ; 

 for the muscles having by disuse lost their tone, the bad effects 



* Small bunyons or ganglions, which are similar to what the farrier cdls 

 wind-galls, are sometimes found about the ankle joints of delicate girls, 

 who have over-exerted themselves in dancings ... 



