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♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Aug. 24, 1883. 



such as we used in the beginning of these papers (in June, 

 1882) should be repeated. To any one who is thoroughly 

 out of condition, especially if he has long been so, running 

 is rather a dangerous exercise. To run a couple of hundred 

 yards at a moderate rate might do serious injury to a man 

 well advanced in middle age who has long been fat and 

 unwieldy. But even a man of forty not very much out of 

 condition, who has for several years taken little active 

 exercise, ought to be careful how he starts to run more 

 than a few hundred yards, except at a very moderate pace. 

 The best plan is to begin for a week or two with about two 

 hundred yards (unless very heavy) run steadily, but each 

 day a little more sharply. By the time that distance is 

 run at a good sharp pace, the second wind will come easily. 

 Then the distance can be safely increased, until after awhile 

 the morning and evening run is from half-amile to a mile 

 in length. It is well to walk out whatever distance one 

 proposes to run (pacing 200 yards for instance at about a 

 yard a pace) and to run home, going then to bedroom or 

 dressing-room to make any necessary changes of dress and 

 to rub down. Although no man should consider himself 

 in decently good condition if he cannot run half-a-raile at a 

 moderate pace without being obliged to change his inside 

 clothing (on account of the freedom with which he has 

 perspired), yet a fat-reducing man is not likely to get 

 through his morning or evening runs without freely 

 perspiring over his work. He should never suffer his wet 

 flannels to remain on him to dry. 



Riding and rowing are both good exercises for reducing 

 fat, and tricycling is even better. Boxing, fencing, and 

 single-stick, are also excellent. Bowling and quoits are 

 good, and skittles first-rate. Paterfamilias will find bowling 

 for an hour or two to his boys at their cricket practice, 

 very good exercise for reducing fat, and very pleasant if 

 he chances to have any bowling skill. If he has not, then 

 it would be perhaps rather wearisome. Capital exercise 

 can be obtained by removing from a good-sized room all 

 easily breakable objects, and then playing with a light elastic 

 ball, thrown in such a way against the wall that some 

 activity is necessary to take it, either by catching or with 

 stroke of hand or racket. In an open air court this is of 

 course much better. And it is hardly necessary to say 

 that lawn-tennis, racquets, and all such exercises are ex- 

 cellent for reducing undue weight. But I am here specially 

 considering those who, being unwieldy, are not particularly 

 anxious to exhibit their unwieldiness before the eyes of 

 friends and acquaintances by taking part publicly in such 

 games as lawn-tennis or cricket. Even rowing is not a 

 very soothing exercise to the obese if the ubiquitous 'Arry 

 welcomes the athlete's exertions with cries of " well rowed 

 fatty " or other uncomplimentary comments on his volume. 

 Taking too much exercise is a ready way of increasing 

 fat, — paradoxical though it may sound to say so. A man 

 not in good condition will perhaps take two or three days 

 of very active or even violent exercise, drinking so much 

 more than is necessary, on account of the unusual solicita- 

 tions of thirst, that he can register very little loss of 

 weight. Then he " caves in " for several days, being used 

 up and feverish. During these days he eats drinks and 

 sleeps more than usual, takes less exorcise even than he had 

 taken before he thus suddenly roused himself to exertion ; 

 and ere he is quite himself again, he finds, on weighing, 

 that he has added to his bulk instead of diminishing 

 therefrom. 



In regard then to exercise as to all other methods for 

 reducing undue fat, we advocate moderation on the one 

 hand and steady perseverance in well-doing on the other. 

 Do not go in for great feats of strength or endurance to be 

 followed by. long spells of rest, but for steady exercise, con- 



tinued systematically. If the other methods for reducing 

 weight (all but the medicinal one which is only to be 

 adopted, and tl at cautiously and with medical advice, at 

 the beginning) be followed steadily and moderately, for 

 weeks and months, not for a few days only, the weight will 

 be reduced safelj' to its proper amount, the breath and 

 spirits improved, and the value of life notably increased. 



(To he continued.) 



THE COMMA. 

 By Richard A Proctoe. 



THE BricjMon Herald, in a kindly notice of Knowledge, 

 makes the following remarks on my remark that one of 

 my own favourite hetes noires is the constant custom among 

 compositors of adding a comma after " and " in sentences 

 beginning, "And therefore," "and because," and the 

 like :— 



We think Mr. Proctor is in the wrong. The "therefore" really 

 stands in a parenthesis, which the commas very properly denote. 

 Take as an example the following sentence : — " He called for help, 

 and, therefore, I went to him." It is perfectly clear that the 

 " therefore " is equivalent to an explanatory subsidiary sentence ; 

 the full sentence being, " He called for help, and, because he called 

 for help, I went to him." The elision of the explanatory paren- 

 thetical sentence is indicated by the " therefore," and for that 

 reason, if for no others, the use of the comma is perfectly justifiable. 

 Mr. Proctor's appreciation of that useful point, the comma, seems 

 to be on a par with that of the sign-writer who, being asked 

 why he put a comma in tlie middle of a name, declared that 

 he always supposed that "those little curly-cues" were put 

 in for ornament ! If otherwise, we would like to know 

 how he justifies the presence of a comma in this sentence, 

 "A few strong-minded women, may try the new dress" (p. 362). 

 We suppose the printers are to be blamed ; and the same with regard 

 to the remarkable statement on p. 328 that " The farmer who was 

 with us had several times turned up with the plough large pieces of 

 camel ! " These eccentricities are scarcely worth notice, but, when 

 Mr. Proctor goes out of his way to assail respectable usages sanc- 

 tioned by general custom (which, we take it, is the chief standard 

 for testing good or bad grammar), he ought to be twice certain that 

 he has no holes in his own coat. There is enough slovenly writing 

 sent out, without Mr. Proctor using his influence on the wrong side. 

 Let Mr. Proctor say what he likes about the moon, the stars, the 

 earth, or even the sun itself, as to which an error of a few thousand 

 or millions of yeai-s make little difference to anybody, but do pray 

 let him leave the humble comma in the enjoyment of its rights and 

 privileges ! 



Of course the errata referred to in the latter half of 

 this paragraph are no faults of mine, — " camel " for 

 " cannel " occurs in an article by my friend, Mr. W. M. 

 "Williams, and was overlooked by him no doubt in correct- 

 ing proof. But I must confess to some little amusement 

 at the way in which the writer of the above paragraph 

 quietly assumes that my remarks on the use of the comma 

 are the outcome of a careless disregard of the principles of 

 punctuation. Twenty years of careful writing, every 

 sentence penned with the thought of my readers and of 

 their possibly misapprehending my meaning ever present 

 before me, have not, let me assure my friendly critic, re- 

 sulted in any such feeling about the " humble comma." 

 On the contrary my objection to the set customs of com- 

 positors have had their origin in the recognition of the 

 extreme importance of those "little curly-cues." Long 

 experience and attentive oVjservation have satisfied me that 

 of all the marks of punctuation the comma is the most 

 important. 



So much might have been recognised from the parts of 

 my Gossip note which the writer in the Brighton Herald 

 has not noticed. The constant custom of putting a 

 comma before " which " leads to constant alterations of a 

 writer's real meaning. One writes : " the stars which are of 



