PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 



201 



tages of mind, of rank, of fortune, became void and 

 ineffective, resulted in the establishment of an ideal of 

 physical beauty and excellence which reacted upon 

 their art, their manners, their entire civilization, and 

 made them in certain directions pre-eminently superior 

 to the rest of the world. Personal hygiene, and what 

 we now call physical culture, had already attained with 

 them the dignity of a science. The god of physicians 

 was the presiding deity of the gymnasia, and none 

 were considered so well qualified to regulate this branch 

 of education as those best acquainted with the art of 

 medicine. Their five favorite exercises Constituting 

 the pentathlon running, leaping, wrestling, hurling 

 the lance, and casting the discus, were admirably 

 adapted to supplement one another in developing the 

 body and conferring a high degree of strength and 

 vigor, together with grace, celerity, and accuracy of 

 movement. Whatever was needed in addition was sup- 

 plied by their games of ball, by their practice in lifting 

 and carrying weights, and by swimming, pugilism, and 

 other athletic sports. 



During the middle ages gymnastic and athletic 

 proficiency became the almost exclusive property of the 

 nobility and the professional soldiery, and was dis- 

 played only at tournaments and in actual warfare. 

 Among those comparatively small classes it was, how- 

 ever, brought to a great "degree of perfection, and it 

 has been said that, even after the middle of the four- 

 teenth century, the levy of a small German burgh 

 could turn out more athletes than the combined armies 

 of the empire. 



It was not until the beginning of the present century 

 that gymnastics became systematized or popularized 

 among modern nations. In Germany Jahn established 

 his gymnasium, or Turnplatz, at Berlin, in 1811, intro- 

 duced new apparatus, improved the defective system 

 of exercises, published a celebrated essay on the prin- 

 ciples of gymnastics, and organized the Turni-ereine, 

 gymnastic societies which, apart from their occasional 

 connection with political movements, have been of the 

 greatest practical benefit not only to their members, 

 but, by force of example, to the community. As a 

 system of exercises is now employed for all the armies 

 of the German empire, and as all able-bodied adult 

 male citizens are required to give three years of per- 

 sonal military service, it is evident that nearly the 

 whole male population of Germany enjoys the advan- 

 tages of a systematic physical education at a period of 

 life when training is most valuable and important. In 

 Switzerland, Sweden, and France, societies analogous 

 to the Turnvereine were formed, and finally government 

 action was taken making gymnastic exercises com- 

 pulsory in most of the educational institutions as well 

 as in the army. _ In England, directly after the Crimean 

 war, a commission was appointed to consider the sub- 

 ject, and upon its report a code of instruction in 

 Shysical exercise was prepared by Mr. MacLaren, of 

 xford, which is now in satisfactory operation at all the 

 barracks of the British army. 



In thi> I'ountry, although there are many excellent 

 gymnasia in the large cities, it is only within the last 

 decade, and then at but few of the more important 

 colleges, that gymnastics have been regarded as more 

 than a pastime for the younger males, or a prescribed 

 and unpleasant remedy for some of the ailments of the 

 older members of society. In 1881, in the Northern 

 and Middle States, only three educational institutions 

 in a thousand paid any official attention to gymnastics, 

 athletics, or physical education. That this is not the 

 proper position of athletics in an intelligent community 

 has become evident to all thinking people ; but there 

 are comparatively few who realize the incalculable 

 power for good which physical education, rightly under- 

 encouraged, and applied, could have upon the 

 human race in years to come. 



The excellent work and writings of MacLaren, 

 Unite. Ball, Sargent, Hiirtwell, Blaikie, Oswald, 

 le and others, have done- much to diffuse accu- 

 VOL. IV.-ji 



rate knowledge of its true value, and should be con- 

 sulted by all who desire complete information on the 

 subject. 



Health consists, in a comprehensive sense, in such a 

 condition of growth and development of all the organs 

 of the body as enables them to fulfil their functions 

 easily and completely, respond promptly to occasional 

 unusual demands upon them, and resist effectually the 

 attacks of disease. These unusual demands upon the 

 energies of the body are continually occurring in every- 

 day life, and should be of themselves sufficient induce- 

 ment to all persons to aim at the highest attainable 

 condition of health ; but when we know that on a cer- 

 tain day or during a certain time such an exceptional 

 demand will be made on the organism to put forth all 

 its powers, we aim especially to prepare it to meet that 

 den >and, and such preparation, whether preliminary to 

 the exploration of a continent, the vicissitudes of a 

 campaign, the fatigue of a week's shooting, or the 

 strain of a four-mile boat-race, we call "training." 

 MacLaren has thus well defined training as a "method 

 of putting the body with extreme and exceptional care 

 under the influence of all the agents which promote its 

 health and strength, in order to enable it to meet 

 extreme and exceptional demands upon its energies." 

 Ralfe_definos it as " the art which aims at bringing the 

 body into the most perfect condition of health, making 

 muscular action more vigorous and enduring, and 

 increasing the breathing power." Dr. Parkes says, 

 "Training is simply another word for healthy and 

 vigorous living." 



Of the agents of health which are employed in the 

 process of training, exercise ia the most important, 

 though food, drink,- rest, sleep, air, bathing, and cloth- 

 ing are elements which must be carefully considered. 

 To understand how exercise produces strength and 

 health, we should remember that the life of the body 

 as a whole depends upon the life of numberless atoms 

 which constitute it, and which are continually dying, 

 being cast off and replaced by others. The general 

 health depends directly upon the activity of this pro- 

 cess and the perfection with which it is performed. 

 The pabulum or food which is needed by all the organs 

 and tissues of the body for their repair or for their 

 growth and development is carried to them by the 

 blood. At every moment of our lives, whenever we 

 make a movement, draw a breath, change a muscle of 

 expression, conceive a passing fancy, certain cells die 

 and are disintegrated, as a consequence. They become 

 useless, and must be removed and carried to organs 

 whose function it is to eliminate them from the body : 

 new cells must be supplied to take their place. All 

 this is done by the blood, which in performing this 

 work becomes loaded with effete and useless material, 

 much of which in the shape of carbonic acid is thrown 

 off by the lungs. Now, this process is going on inces- 

 santly at every imaginable point in the human organ- 

 ism. Whether sleeping or waking, sitting or standing, 

 walking or running, the same successive causes and 

 effects continue to follow one another in the same un- 

 broken circle of physiological phenomena motion or 

 activity, temporary and molecular loss of vitality, 

 death "of certain cells or atoms, disintegration of those 

 cells, their removal and ejection from the system by 

 means of the lungs, the skin, and the kidneys, their 

 replacement by others brought by the blood, renewed 

 vital power, and then further motion or activity, with 

 the same succession of events. Taken as a whole, 

 these events make up " life," and, reducing the state- 

 ment to the simplest possible terms, we may say that 

 the health and strength of any individual are in direct 

 proportion to the thoroughness and celerity with which 

 these occurrences take place ; that is, to the speed and 

 accuracy with which the cells or atoms are removed and 

 replaced, or, as MacLaren says, to their newness. 

 Consequently, we are able to understand how an agem 

 of any sort which influences these processes favorably 

 mu>t be one which will promote at the same time the 



