44 THE MUSCLES 



colleges. In a few of our schools, however, physical exercises 

 have been introduced, with manifest advantage to the students, 

 and they form a part of the regular curriculum of exercises, 

 as much so as the recitations in geography, grammar, or Greek. 

 The good effect of the experiments, as shown in improved 

 scholarship as well as increased bodily vigor, in the institutions 

 where the plan has been tried, will, it is hoped, lead to its 

 universal adoption. We should then hear less frequently of 

 parents being obliged to withdraw their children from school, 

 because they become exhausted or, perchance, have lost their 

 health from intense and protracted mental application. 



25. Were gymnastics more common in our educational insti- 

 tutions, we should not so often witness the sad spectacle of 

 young men and women leaving our colleges and seminaries, 

 with finished educations it may be, but with constitutions so 

 impaired that the life which should be devoted to the accom- 

 plishment of noble purposes must be spent in search of health. 

 Spinal curvatures, which, according to the experience of phy- 

 sicians, are now extremely frequent, especially among women, 

 would give place to the steady gait and erect carriage which 

 God designed his human creatures should maintain. (Bead 

 Notes 5 and 6.) 



5. Health and Strength are not always Identical. "Health and 

 strength are not synonymous terms. A person may have great strength 

 in his limbs, or in certain muscles about the body, but really not have 

 good health. It is altogether a mistaken idea to suppose that physical 

 exercises have for their sole object the attainment of strength. There 

 are other tissues and organs in the human system besides the muscular ; 

 and the healthy action of the lungs and the stomach is far more important 

 than great strength in the arms, legs, or the back. It is here, in this 

 general exercise of all the muscles and parts of the body, that a well- 

 regulated system of gymnastics has its great excellence. It aims to pro- 

 duce just that development of the human system upon which good health 

 is permanently based, described by a distinguished writer as follows : 

 * Health is the uniform and regular performance of all the functions of 

 the body, arising from the harmonious action of all its parts,' a physical 

 condition implying that all are sound, well-fitting, and well-matched. 

 Some minds do not look far enough into life to see this distinction, or to 

 value it if seen ; they fix their eyes longingly upon strength upon strength 



25. Were gymnastics more common ? To what are spinal curvatures due ? 



