PRINCIPLES CONSUMED BY THE ORGANISM. 499 



The process of training, skilfully carried out, is in accordance, with what are now 

 admitted as physiological laws; although it has been practised for years by ignorant 

 persons, and its rules are entirely empirical. It is stated that the athletes of ancient 

 times, while vigorously exercising the muscles, favored by their diet the development of 

 fat, so as to be better able to resist the blows of their antagonists. However this may 

 be, since the English prize-ring has been regularly organized, or since about the middle 

 of the last century, the system of training has been entirely different, and fat has been, 

 as far as possible, removed from every part of the body. Fat is regarded by trainers as 

 inert matter; and they recognize, practically at least, the fact that the characteristic 

 functions of parts depend for their activity upon their nitrogenized constituents. The 

 contraction of a muscle, for example, is powerful in proportion to the amount and condi- 

 tion of its musculine ; and it has been ascertained by experience that the muscular sys- 

 tem can be most thoroughly developed by carefully-graduated exercise and a diet com- 

 posed largely of nitrogenized matter. In the regular system of training, starch, sugar, fat, 

 and liquids are avoided ; and the diet is confined almost entirely to rare meats, eggs, and 

 stale bread or toast, with oatmeal-gruel. The oatmeal has been used from time immemo- 

 rial, and it is supposed to be useful in keeping the bowels in good condition. A very 

 small amount of alcohol and of other nervous stimulants, chiefly in the form of home- 

 brewed ale, sherry win, and tea, is allowed. Sexual intercourse and all unusual nervous 

 excitement are interdicted. 



Those who adopt absolutely the classification of food into plastic, or tissue-forming, 

 and calorific, or respiratory, would regard this course of diet as eminently plastic ; but, 

 during the severe habitual exercise, which is most rigid after the man has been " trained 

 down" so that his fat is reduced to the minimum, the respiratory power and the exhala- 

 tion of carbonic acid are immensely increased, while the proportion of hydro-carbons in 

 the food is very small. 



We do not propose to discuss from a scientific point of view all of the minutiae 

 of training. Many of its traditional rules are trivial and unimportant ; but it is certainly 

 a question of great physiological interest to study the processes by which the muscular 

 strength and endurance of a man may be brought to the highest possible point of 

 development. 



One of the most remarkable of the results of thorough training is the development of 

 immense endurance and " wind." This is accomplished by running and prolonged exer- 

 cise, not so violent as to be exhausting, and always followed by ablutions and frictions, 

 so as to secure a full reaction. The surprising faculty of endurance thus developed must 

 be due in a great measure to nervous power as well as to a gradual, careful, and perfectly 

 physiological development of the muscular system. A man may be brought into the ring 

 in what would appear to be perfect condition ; but, if he be trained down too much or 

 too rapidly, he is liable to give out after comparatively slight exertion. A man who does 

 not possess the required constitutional stamina and nervous power is likely to break down 

 in training, and he cannot be brought to proper condition. On the other hand, a man in 

 perfect condition is capable of the maximum of muscular exertion for an hour, or can 

 easily walk a hundred miles in a day. 



It is a question of great importance, in connection with the subject of nutrition, to 

 determine whether the extraordinary muscular power developed by severe training be, 

 in the end, beneficial or deleterious. This can be answered very easily upon practical as 

 well as theoretical grounds. A fully-grown, well-developed man, in perfect health, may 

 be trained so as to be brought to what is technically called fine condition, and he will 

 present at that time all the animal- functions in their perfection. He is then a model of a 

 physical man ; and the only consequences that can result from such a course are beneficial. 

 The argument that professional pugilists are short-lived is fallacious ; for it is well known 

 that almost all of them, after training for and passing through an encounter, immediately 

 relapse into a course of life in which all physiological laws are habitually violated. 



