628 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in gain of chest girth, forty-two per cent ; and in gain of lung 

 capacity, seventy- five per cent. It is probable that alcohol and 

 other poisons have similar effects. 



Exercise of the skeletal muscles is contraindicated in haemor- 

 rhage, fever, inflammation, certain toxaemias, and serious injuries. 

 Pain is an uncertain indication ; if it result from inflammation or 

 local injury, exercise is contraindicated, otherwise not necessarily. 

 In acute local inflammation exercise is very injurious, since it 

 increases the local congestion. Severe or sudden exertion should 

 not be permitted in cases of aneurism, atheromatous arteries, 

 cardiac vegetations or extreme cardiac weakness, but systematic 

 training may be beneficial in the latter condition. Severe exer- 

 tion should also be avoided soon after eating and in states of 

 great physical and mental fatigue. Nothing will break down the 

 system more quickly than the combination of mental worry or 

 strain with physical prostration, though gentle exercises are often 

 of value in resting the brain by bringing new centers into play, 

 and thus effecting a better distribution of cerebral activity. It is 

 futile to add to the burden of individuals already overworked, 

 and the proper remedy in such cases is the reduction or proper 

 proportioning of their total work, better hygiene, and provision 

 for adequate periods of rest, repose, and recreation, which are 

 the efficient antidotes for the toxic effects of excessive exercise. 

 Well-chosen exercise may often be made to minister to mental 

 poise, and thus to restful effects. It has been pointed out that the 

 individual patient usually needs not exercise or rest exclusively, 

 but exercise and rest in the proper proportions and in the proper 

 order. The beneficial effects of treatment may often be enhanced 

 by placing the two in sharp contrast. Exercise produces a better 

 impression on a background of rest, and rest on a background 

 of exercise ; and particular attention should be paid to securing 

 variety of action by contrasting one set of exercises with others 

 involving different groups of muscles, or the same groups in a 

 different manner. The level road may be the harder to travel in 

 the long run. Neither its specific effect in any named disease, 

 still less the piling up of enormous masses of muscle, is the thera- 

 peutic object of exercise, but the production of definite local or 

 general physiological effects. Increased muscular power is usual- 

 ly an incidental result, but marked remedial effects are often pro- 

 duced with very moderate muscular development. The too domi- 

 nant idea of "gymnastics" should not make us lose sight of the 

 vast therapeutic importance of the nervous reactions associated 

 with muscular movements, and of the systematic culture and 

 training of the involuntary neuromuscular apparatus, which cei- 

 tainly depends in large degree on the activity of the skeletal 

 muscles, but is often best elicited by massage, passive move- 



