Aug. 11, 



2.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



181 



readily enable anyone to rig up something which will prac- 

 tically serve as well as the best carpentered construction. 



Another plan, also Dr. Sargent's, deepens the chest as 

 effectively as the preceding expands it. In Fig. 2, B and 

 C are two bars (broom handles, or the sticks for single- 

 stick will serve very well) suspended by a cord which 



^ 



D 



passes over two pulleys PP (but one will serve, or the reels 

 used in the last exercise), to a weight A. When A is on 

 the ground, the bar B is about a foot above the head. The 

 following are Dr. Sargent's directions (unfortunately these 

 body-strengthening folk, drill-sergeants, fencing-masters, et 

 hoc genus omne, write not very clear English) : — Standing, 

 not under B, but about a foot to one side of it, and facing 

 it (he means, of course, a foot in front of B, and facing it), 

 grasp its ends with both hands, and keeping arms and legs 

 straight and stiff, and breathing the chest brimful (!], draw 

 downwards until the bar is about level with the waist ; 

 let the weight run slowly back and repeat, <id libitum. (It 

 will be seen that the contrivance does not require the rod 

 C, any more than it essentially requires two pulleys. ) 



In a former paper, wc remarked that, instead of the 

 cords with weights, elastic extensors could bo used, by 

 attaching them to high nails and hauling upon them. After 

 trial, wc withdraw this statement. The exertion required 

 when extensors are used varies too much to l>c comparable 

 with the steady work of pulling up weights : it is a serious 

 fault, too, of all work with extensors that the pHbrt 

 required increases from beginning to end of the pull. 



Lastly, for chest work, though many of the other exer- 

 cises for obtaining symmetrical development will tell on 

 the chest also, try the following with light — say six pounds' — 

 dumb-bells. Holding the head and neck back so as to look 



at the ceiling, the dumb-bells hanging at the sides, knuckles 

 out, carry the arms, without bending the elbows, outwards 

 and upwards until they are in a horizontal line, then onwards 

 in the same wide sweep until they are vertical, lowering 

 the hands then gradually until the dumb-bells nearly rest 

 on the shoulders ; carry them backwards by the same 

 movements exactly reversed. Repeat this ten or twelve 

 times — twenty or thirty if you conveniently can ; but 

 keep the chest well expanded all the time, holding in the 

 breath during the effort — if possible during the whole 

 series of efforts (only not continuing to hold the breath 

 when actual pain begins to be felt). This exercise has 

 a splendid effect in making the chest full and deep : it also 

 greatly strengthens the lungs. 



THE USE OF DRUNKENNESS.* 

 By W. Mattieu Williams. 



IN the early argumentative struggles between the advo- 

 cates of total abstinence from alcohol and their oppo- 

 nents, the latter believed they settled the question by 

 atiirjning that " these things are sent for our use," and 

 therefore that it was flying in the face cf Providence to 

 refuse a social glass. This and many similar arguments 

 have subsequently been overturned by the abstainers, who 

 have unquestionably been victorious " all along the line," 

 especially since Dr. B. W. Richardson has become their 

 Commander-in-Chief. 



In spite of this, I am about to charge their serried ranks 

 armed with an entirely new weapon forged by myself from 

 material supplied by the late Dr. Darwin, my thesis being 

 that the drunkenness which prevails at the present day 

 is promoting civilisation and the general forward progress 

 of the human race. 



Jlalthus demonstrated long ago that man, like other 

 animals, has a tendency to multiply more rapidly than the 

 means of supporting his increasing numbers can be multi- 

 plied ; he and his followers regarded this tendency as the 

 primary source of poverty and social degradation. Darwin, 

 starting with the same general law, deduces the very 

 opposite conclusion respecting its iniluence on each par- 

 ticular species, though his antagonism to Malthus does not 

 prominently appear, seeing that his inferences were mainly 

 applied to the lower animals. Darwiji shows that the 

 onward progress, the development, or what may be described 

 as the collective prosperity of the species, is brought about 

 by over-multiplication, followed by a necessary struggle for 

 existence, in the course of which the inferior or unsuitable 

 individuals are weeded out, and " the survival of the fittest " 

 necessarily follows ; these superior or more suitable speci- 

 mens transmit more or less of their advantages to their 

 offspring, which still multiplying excessively are again and 

 again similarly sifted and improved or developed in a 

 boundless course of forward evolution. 



In the earlier stages of human existence, the fittest for 

 survival were those whose brutal or physical energies best 

 enabled them to struggle with the physical difficulties of 

 their surroundings, to subjugate the crudities of the 

 primaval plains and forests to human lequirements. The 

 perpetual struggles of the different tribes gave the dominion 

 of the earth to those best able to rule it ; the strongest and 

 most violent human animal was then the fittest, and ho 

 survived accordingly. 



Then came another era of human effort gradually 

 culminating in the present period. In tliis, mere muscular 



From the OtiiCfinon'ji i/oo(iii 



