GENEEAL HEALTH HINTS 665 



ing their mothers in laundry work. Such exercise is 

 light, varied, oft changing, and answers all the re- 

 quirements for health most admirably. We can heart- 

 ily recommend it, and from personal experience, too. 

 We advise all young men who can possibly get a chance 

 to adopt this form of exercise as being the most certain 

 of bringing back the largest returns for a given ex- 

 penditure of force. There is no gymnasium in the world 

 which is better calculated to secure excellent results 

 from exercise than the kitchen, the wash-room, the 

 workshop, the woodyard, the barn, and the garden. 

 These are nature's gymnasia. They require no outlay 

 for special appliances, and are always fitted up for use. 



Deficient Exercise by Students. —The common 

 idea that study and brain work are harmful has chiefly 

 grown out of the fact that students usually confine 

 themselves too closely to their books, keep late hours, 

 and take as little as possible of active out-of-door exer- 

 cise. There is no doubt but that the majority of stu- 

 dents could do more work and better if they would 

 devote at least two hours of each day to purely physical 

 exercise. In ancient Greece, in the palmy days of that 

 empire, physical training was considered as much a 

 part of the necessary education of young men as their 

 mental culture. Every inducement was offered to them 

 to make themselves strong, vigorous, and athletic. 

 Their schools were called gymnasia, on account of the 

 attention given to gymnastics. 



The young women, too, were trained in physical 

 exercises as well as the young men. Small waists and 

 delicate forms, white, soft, helpless hands and tiny feet 

 were not prized among the pioneers of modern civili- 

 zation. The mothers of heroes and philosophers were 

 not pampered and petted and spoiled by indulgence. 



