454 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mitting a greater display of muscular force, exacting more com- 

 plicated motions and a longer apprenticeship. It is sometimes 

 hard to draw a clear line between sport and play. Fencing, 

 equitation, and canoeing are varieties of sport. Cricket is as much 

 a play for children as an exercise of si)ort ; in short, in the hygi- 

 enic view, sports are half-way between gymnastics and play, and 

 are therefore more suitable to youth than to children. 



Plays give the form of gymnastics most congenial to the con- 

 ditions of social life, for they are at the same time hygienic and 

 recreative, and are as well adapted to the physical requirements 

 of the child as^to his moral needs. Physically regarded, they de- 

 mand neither very intense efforts nor localized muscular contrac- 

 tions. Even the most complicated of them call out nothing more 

 than combinations of simple movements and natural attitudes; 

 while gymnastics necessitates abnormal combinations in the asso- 

 ciation of the muscles, with movements which the child, having 

 never practiced, has to learn laboriously. Play presents no diffi- 

 culties comparable to those offered by gymnastics. If the child 

 has not yet become adept in the game, he will play badly and lose 

 his part ; but he will play, and will at least gain the physical 

 advantages of exercise. But when he is dealing with the abnor- 

 mal motions or " turns " of gymnastics, if he has not yet learned 

 the way of executing them, or acquired the knack, which it often 

 takes a long time to gain, he only makes a pretense of exercising, 

 and his effort is limited to a fruitless tentative, without any effect- 

 ive activity. 



Besides the support of reason and observation, the method of 

 exercise by playing has the sanction of acquired facts. It was the 

 only children's gymnastics at the beginning of this century, and 

 even now some nations have no other settled method of physical 

 exercise. The English have never taken to gymnastics with ap- 

 paratiis ; and the Belgians, after having tried it, are abandoning it 

 and returning to play. No one can question the excellence of the 

 results of the English method ; the vigor and endurance of Eng- 

 lish youth are universally recognized, and their school-games con- 

 stitute their whole gymnastics. — Translated for the Popular Sci- 

 ence Monthly from the Revue Scientifique, 



The subject of mental overwork was discussed in the Anthropological Society 

 some time ago, in the light of the recorded observations of school-teachers. Weari- 

 ness of mind, it was said, is marked by irritability, as manifested in sleeplessness 

 and in nervous laughter ; and by fatigue, exhibiting itself in sleepiness and inca- 

 pacity for task-work. Headache suggests overstrain in study, defective ventilation, 

 or, perhaps, a too sparing diet. Sometimes the perception of particular colors is 

 obliterated for a time, and this may suggest an explanation of some forms of color- 

 blindness. In some cases a form of somnambulism was originated. 



