BONES, MUSCLES, EXERCISE, AND REST. 291 



670. For the same purpose, and with the same mistake 

 of means and ends, young men in ill health are sometimes 

 sent to sea as sailors, and engage to do the work of the com- 

 mon and practised seamen. They err in their estimate of 

 the effect of hard labor on the weakened frame, and are 

 obliged to give up their purpose or alter their plans. But 

 a much better and more successful method is, to enlist 

 as weak sailors, without wages, and without responsibility. 

 This allows them to work only so much as their strength 

 gains upon them ; and, if this be judiciously expended, they 

 will add to it daily, and accomplish all they desire, and 

 return, after some months, in more vigorous health. 



671. It was supposed, several years ago, that the gym- 

 nasium would furnish opportunities and inducements to ex- 

 ercise for all such as were not required, by their business 

 or their condition in life, to labor. In these establishments 

 means were provided for using all the limbs and muscles. 

 There were ropes to climb, parallel bars to walk upon with 

 the hands, and wooden horses to mount upon or leap over. 

 There were means for climbing, swinging upon the arms, 

 leaping, vaulting, and for performing some of the feats of 

 the rope-dancer, and some of the labors of the sailor. These 

 exercises were active, and even laborious. Those who 

 engaged in them made, or endeavored to make, the exer- 

 tions which only strong men could make. But they were 

 soon fatigued, and left the gymnasium ; or, if they perse- 

 vered, were nearly exhausted. The error was in not adapt- 

 ing the mode to, and measuring the amount of exertion by, 

 the strength of those who needed it. The students of Cam- 

 bridge, in 1826, ( 165, p. 78,) complained that they were 

 fatigued, and sometimes overcome, rather than invigorated, 

 at the gymnasium, and were unfit for study for some hours 

 afterwards. The final result of this attempt to introduce 

 this system of exercises into our colleges, schools, and 

 cities, was a general failure. But, if they had been arranged 

 and measured so as to correspond with the little strength of 

 sedentary men, they might have still been in general use, 

 and productive of great advantage to health. 



