PHYSICAL EXERCISE. 181 



ments together. This united action leads to a desire on the 

 part of each to excel, or at least to do as well as others, 

 and eventually every member of the class has developed in 

 him a desire to remedy his defects, to carry himself erect, be 

 graceful in figure, and move with ease and facility. 



Very little apparatus is necessary. Motions and move- 

 ments of the body may be made without anything in the way 

 of appliances. Wooden dumb-bells are as good as metal ones. 

 The muscles of the arm can be exercised just as well without 

 the actual weight in the fist. By effort the same tension can 

 be put upon the muscles of the arm to raise a pen-handle as 

 to raise a ten-pound dumb-bell. The weight of a body is 

 measured by the amount of muscular force it is necessary 

 to use in order to lift it. If we use the same muscular force 

 to raise the pen-handle as the ten-pound weight, the muscles 

 have done the same amount of work. But these various 

 movements should not be made at any great expense of 

 muscular force. They may be carried to the extent of slight 

 fatigue, but not beyond. An exercise of fifteen minutes is 

 quite long enough at any one time, and if during the practice 

 it produces a feeling of dizziness or discomfort, it should be 

 at once discontinued. 



Physical culture in schools is intended not so much to 

 promote growth as to correct false positions and habits of 

 sitting, standing or walking, and thus guard against deform- 

 ities of the body and lack of symmetry in its development. 

 Keeping these objects in view, that form of physical training 

 which is necessary in any particular case can be selected 

 from the following exercises, compiled and rearranged from 

 Lucy B. Hunt's " Handbook of Light Gymnastics," by Dr. 

 A. F. Blaisdell, for his estimable little work, " Our Bodies 

 and How We Live": 



