7* ATHLETIC EXEHCISES. 



water the best mode of averting the injurious effectis of a 

 boxing match. 



That this regimen and exercise would have the same ef- 

 fects in former times, as in the present day, cannot be 

 doubted; The ancient cce^fTW, v.'hich consisted of leathern 

 thongs, studded with knots of lead or copper, and con- 

 torted round the hand, must have added greatly to the force 

 of a blow. Th^se straps were indeed carried up to the elbow, 

 by which the arm was in some measure protected. I doubt, 

 however, whether any of our modern pugilists would venture 

 *the athletic to encounter such additional mtians of offence. By the 



was^'not'^confi- P^vsicians of antiquity the athletic temperament was by no 



dcred healthy, means recltoned a healthy state of the constitution. Hip- 

 pocrates considered this condition of extreme bodily health 

 a!i peculiarly prone to disease. Galen, who, as has beea 

 already stated, was practically acquainted with the subject, 

 asserts that besides the various accidents to which they 

 were necessarily exposed in the course of their exercises, 

 and combats, tKe Athletes were liable to rupture of blood- 

 vessels in the lungs, to apoplexy, and to lethargic com- 

 plaints. To obviate the last of which, they were permitted 

 ,. occasionally to have intercourse with the female sex,* He' 

 not'^iong *^y^ ^^^y ^^arely preserved their vigour so as to be fit to ap- 



lived. pear in public for a longer period than five years ; and he 



particularly mentions that they were considered as a short- 

 lived race of men. These circumstances are perhaps chiefly 

 to be attributed to their moral conduct. For when not 



d/ffoluteiy. under a course of discipline to fit them for the combat, they 

 indulged themselves in every kind of drunkenness and de- 

 bauchery ; so that by all the authors of antiquity who men- 

 tion them, their manners are reprobated as being extremely 

 dissolute. 



Although that state of extreme fulness of blood and high 

 tension of fibre, which is calculated to enable a man to 



'^« ^'^^l™''^^ e.Yert his full strength for a short period may not be that 

 might te bene- ^ ^ / 



licial u judici- condition of the body most consistent with permanent 



«u«iy aflopied. jj^allb, or with duration of life, yet I think you have great 



merit in drawiag che attention of the public to the effects 



of 



