186 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



drawing the thigh bone back and out. The hamstring muscles 

 (H) have a similar action, with addition of flexing or bending the 

 knee joint. As the stroke consists in a straightening of this joint, 

 the skater uses the powerful extensors (E) to counteract this latter 

 action of the hamstrings (H). 



The extensor muscles (E) are tremendously powerful, and from 

 their double origin on the pelvis and along the front of the thigh 

 bone (femur) they are inserted into the knee-cap (patella), which 

 changes the direction of their pull to a right angle by carrying 

 them over the knee joint to their final insertion on the tibia, just 

 as the wire of a door-bell is carried round the corners on its way 

 to the kitchen. As the only function of the calf muscles (C) is to 

 raise the heel and bend the knee, they will hardly be used at all 

 in skating with long, flat racing skates. 



In a speed skater we would look for a strong back and broad 

 neck, due to his attitude while at work. His arms, which are 

 kept idly folded on his back, would be small and weak, as would 

 be his chest muscles. His abdominal muscles would get some 

 work from the constant swaying, and he would have powerful, 

 vigorous gluteal and extensor muscles, with sinewy hamstrings 

 but undersized calves. 



An examination of the measurements of some of our most 

 noted skaters will show this special development even better than 

 their photographs. 



In the accompanying charts each measurement is compared 

 with those of nearly three thousand Yale students, whose average, 

 or more correctly whose *' mean," measurements are inclosed in 

 the two heavy lines, and may be said to fairly represent the pro- 

 portions of the average young man. The variation from this 

 average, or mean, is marked in percentages in the extreme left- 

 hand column of the chart. 



John S. Johnson, of Minneapolis, has had a somewhat meteoric 

 athletic career. Although he has been wheeling and skating for 

 nine years, he has been heard of only about three years, when his 

 phenomenal time was at first scarcely credited. His decisive de- 

 feat of the hitherto invincible Joe Donahue in Montreal, February 

 3, 1894, in all distances up to five miles, brought him up to the top 

 of the tree, where he has remained perched on its topmost branch 

 till the present hour, unquestionably the best man up to five miles 

 on ice. He holds nearly all the records in speed skating. 



His trainer never allows him to tire himself, but starts him 

 with short spurts and an easy pace ; so that, although he had been 

 eighteen months in training when I examined him (February 5, 

 1894), he had in that time gained twenty-six pounds. He was then 

 twenty-two years of age, and weighed one hundred and forty-four 

 pounds. While in his sitting height he is surpassed by forty- 



