CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



Kinds of Bodily Exercise. 



Exercise is usually considered as of two kinds 

 active and passive. The active consists in walking, 

 running, leaping, riding, fencing, rowing, skating, 

 swimming, dancing, and various exercises, such as 

 those with the poles, ropes, &c. prescribed in 

 gymnastic institutions. The passive consists in 

 carriage-riding, sailing, friction, swinging, &c. 

 (For various modes of agreeable recreation, see 

 articles on INDOOR and OUTDOOR AMUSEMENTS, 

 vol. ii.) 



Walking is perhaps the readiest mode of taking 

 exercise, and the one most extensively resorted to. 

 If it brought the upper part of the body as thor- 

 oughly into exertion as the lower, it would be per- 

 fect, for it is gentle and safe with nearly all except 

 the much debilitated. To render it the more 

 effectual in the upper part of the body, it were well 

 to walk at all times, when convenient, singly, and 

 allow the arms and trunk free play. It is best to 

 walk with a companion, or for some definite object, 

 as the flow of nervous energy will be by these 

 means promoted, and the exercise be rendered, as 

 has been already explained, the more serviceable. 



Very long or rapid walks should not be attempted 

 by individuals of sedentary habits, nor by weakly 

 persons. Their frames are totally unprepared for 

 such violent exertion. When a person who has 

 been long confined at still employments, finds 

 himself at liberty to indulge his inclination for a 

 ramble of a few days in the country, he should 

 begin with slow and short marches, and be content 

 therewith till his body is hardened for greater 

 efforts. This is a rule followed in the army with 

 respect to regiments which are about to undertake 

 long marches. Every summer, many youths, from 

 ignorance, do themselves great injury, by under- 

 taking pedestrian excursions much beyond their 

 strength. Jaded to the last degree, and incapable 

 of enjoying anything presented to their observa- 

 tion, they nevertheless .persist in making out some 

 appointed number of miles per day, never once 

 thinking of the outrage they are committing upon 

 themselves, and only looking to the glory of exe- 

 cuting their task, the only pleasure they find in 

 the journey. Serious consequences consump- 

 tion not unfrequently follow such ill-advised 

 efforts. 



Running. Although this and other gymnastic ex- 

 ercises such as leaping, wrestling, throwing heavy 

 weights, &c. may, when judiciously had recourse 

 to, invigorate the body, yet, from apprehension of 

 the evils and accidents which may be so occasioned, 

 young persons ought not to be permitted to engage 

 extensively in such exercises, except under the 

 care of some one well acquainted with gymnastics. 

 Fencing is, of all active exercises, that which is 

 the most commendable, inasmuch as it throws 

 open the chest, and at the same time calls into 

 action the muscles both of the upper and lower 

 extremities. Add to this that it improves very 

 much the carriage of the body ; for which reason 

 it may be reckoned a branch of polite education. 

 The salutary effects of the other exercises which 

 are taught in gymnastic institutions such as 

 exercise with the ropes, poles, pulleys, &c. have 

 been demonstrated by the marked increase in the 

 weight and strength of the body which takes 

 place in a given time during the employment of 

 these exercises. 



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Dancing is exhilarating and healthful, and 

 seems to be almost the only active exercise which 

 the despotic laws of conventionality permit younc 

 ladies to enjoy. We can scarcely consider moder 

 quadrilles, elegant though they be, as exercis 

 seeing that they differ little from the most cor 

 mon walking movements. But country-dance 

 reels, and hornpipes are genuine exercise, anc 

 their less refinement may be considered as amply 

 compensated by the superior benefit which they 

 are calculated to confer upon health. 



Riding is generally classed among the passive 

 exercises, but in reality it is one which involves 

 much action of the whole frame, and as such is 

 very useful. Pursued solitarily, it has the draw- 

 back of being somewhat dull ; but when two or 

 three ride in company, a sufficient flow of the 

 nervous energy may be obtained. 



The amount of bodily exercise which should be 

 taken must vary according to the habits, strength, 

 and general health of the individual. It was an 

 aphorism of Boerhaave, that every person should 

 take at least two hours' exercise in the day ; and 

 this may be regarded as a good general rule. 



Mental Exercise. 



Having thus explained the laws and regulations 

 by which exercise may be serviceable to the 

 physical system, we shall proceed to shew that the 

 same rules hold good respecting the mental facul- 

 ties. These, as is generally allowed, however 

 immaterial in one sense, are connected organically 

 with the brain a portion of the animal system 

 nourished by the same blood, and regulated by the 

 same vital laws, as the muscles, bones, and nerves. 

 As, by disuse, muscle becomes emaciated, bone 

 softens, blood-vessels are obliterated, and nerves 

 lose their natural structure ; so by disuse does the 

 brain fall out of its proper state and create misery 

 to its possessor ; and as, by over-exertion, the waste 

 of the animal system exceeds the supply, and 

 debility and unsoundness are produced, so by over- 

 exertion are the functions of the brain liable to 

 be deranged and destroyed. The processes are 

 physiologically the same, and the effects bear an 

 exact relation to each other. As with the bodily 

 powers, the mental are to be increased in magni- 

 tude and energy by a degree of exercise measured 

 with a just regard to their ordinary health and 

 native or habitual energies. Corresponding, more- 

 over, to the influence which the mind has in giving 

 the nervous stimulus so useful in bodily exercise 

 is the dependence of the mind upon the body for 

 supplies of healthy nutriment. And, in like man- 

 ner with the bodily functions, each mental faculty 

 is only to be strengthened by the exercise of itself 

 in particular. Every part of our intellectual anc 

 moral nature stands, in this respect, exactly in the 

 same situation with the blacksmith's right arm- 

 each must be exercised for its own sake. 



The fatal effects of the disuse of the menta 

 faculties are strikingly observable in persons who 

 have the misfortune to be solitarily confined, many 

 of whom become insane, or at least weak in their 

 intellects. It is also observable in the deaf and 

 blind, among whom, from the non-employment of 

 a number of the faculties, weakness of mind and 

 idiocy are more prevalent than among other people. 

 This is indeed a frequent predisposing cause of 

 every form of nervous disease. 



