2 70 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



those modifications of motion, reaction-times, accuracy in eye, ear, 

 voice, decisions, etc., is the game of ball and bat, or mimicries of chase 

 and war, and such like spontaneous impulses to do, to fight, to achieve. 



Many modifications can be made for the extremely young of either 

 sex, e. g., bean-bags, pillow fights, up to the medicine-ball, basket-ball, 

 base-ball and cricket. All exercises of quickness and precision are 

 exhaustive ; hence they can not, or should not be unduly prolonged for 

 the very young. 



One of the best means of motor education is seldom employed in 

 this country. This is training in posing, in imitating classical statues. 

 My friend M. Laussat Geylin told me of an interesting competition he 

 witnessed in a provincial French town. The teacher by this charming 

 device trained a class of young peasants to such a point of physical 

 excellence that they took a national prize. The plan is well worthy of 

 wide imitation. Eeflect for a moment how perfectly the essential con- 

 ditions of balance, precision, full excursus, tension, steadiness, stretch- 

 ing, are thus graphically exemplified. Take the Discus Thrower, the 

 Fighting Gladiator, the group of the Laocoon for extreme types of 

 force; the quieter attitudes even require much of vigorous poising. 

 D. A. Sargeant has written a book advocating the forceful simulation 

 of a variety of common acts — rope pulling, javelin throwing, etc. 



Vanity, always a powerful stimulus, is thus strongly elicited. The 

 simpler Greek exercises were unsurpassed for inducing symmetry, espe- 

 cially when each side of the body was equally employed, e. g., javelin 

 throwing right and left, so too of the discus. 



Always the left hand should be trained equally with the right, at 

 least in educational measures. There is too much one-sidedness 

 encouraged in tennis, golf, baseball, etc. 



There may be objections to little tots attempting boxing or fencing, 

 but it is entirely feasible and distinctly valuable for even young chil- 

 dren to be taught wrestling. By single-stick exercises, symmetrically, 

 I have entirely cured the effects of chorea, descending atrophy from 

 cerebral paralysis, and the disablement of poliomyelitis. 



Then again, the power and precision which follows resisting- 

 exercises as taught by the Swedes (or better, as elaborated by a won- 

 derful mulatto, Jeremiah Davis, who taught me amplifications of this 

 rather tepid procedure) are really marvelous. Closely allied to this is 

 the jiu jitzu of the Japanese (which I learned from a man who was for 

 eight years chief of police in Nagasaki). The principle of the jiu 

 jitzu is a series of tricks of fence and offence, taught the Samurai, to 

 be employed when by any chance they were deprived of their weapons ; 

 and pretty good they are. A friend of mine, a great foot-ball hero in 

 his day, characterized the method as " a series of nasty tricks to do 

 your opponent dirt, which we Anglo-Saxons are taught to regard as 

 unfair." They are not comparable in aggressive power to good boxing. 



