150 PHYSIOLOGY AND NATIONAL NEEDS 



parts of the body are not exercised adequately, and 

 the only interest is to get the work over and earn 

 the money. A change of work is as good as play, 

 even if it may involve a greater muscular effort. 

 Variety causes a new adjustment of bodily activity 

 and tends towards physical fitness. Even sports 

 and games become labour if they are followed con- 

 tinually as occupations ; the sportsman will pay 

 large sums for ^hooting and fishing rights, but the 

 gamekeeper and the fisherman expect to be paid 

 for their labour. Work in the open air has the 

 advantage thal^ the climate, at least in this country, 

 will introduce some variety from day to day. 



Muscular work is a necessary condition of 

 physical fitness ; those who are not forced to work 

 for their living find salvation in games and sport. 

 There is therefore no hardship if the manual labour 

 is performed under the best conditions. The de- 

 termination of this optimum is a question for 

 physiological itivestigations, for machinery and 

 factory life have introduced disturbing influences. 



If further evidence were needed of the beneficial 

 effects of muscular exercise in the open air, it is 

 only necessary to consider the sick rate of soldiers 

 in barracks compared with that of the same men 

 during manoeuvres ; the open-air treatment of 

 diseases, especially phthisis ; the success of out- 

 door schools for children ; the value of convalescent 

 hospitals in the country and the great progress in 



