SOUND BODIES 



(if normal). It is held by anatomists that the fully 

 developed upper arm at the present stage of our racial 

 evolution should be of the same size as the calf of the 

 leg, and this size, it may be added, the same as that of the 

 neck. 



These measurements being taken as the criteria of 

 perfectly symmetrical development, any one may easily 

 find out for himself how far he falls short of such de- 

 velopment. As a rule, the tape-line will show at once 

 that it is the upper extremity which needs attention. It 

 is not to be expected that the person who is merely 

 exercising for health will ever develop his arm till it 

 meets the standard of symmetrical development, nor 

 is it necessary that he should do so. So long as he 

 works in that direction he is on the right track, and if 

 he keeps the muscles of the arms, chest, and shoulders 

 in "tone," so that they tend to keep him erect, and are 

 sufficiently firm to give support to the blood-vessels 

 that penetrate them, he will accomplish all that is 

 absolutely necessary. 



2. How may this be done? Apparently by num- 

 berless methods, but in reality all of these are funda- 

 mentally the same. The one thing that a muscle can 

 do primarily is to contract in the direction of its long 

 axis. Therefore the only way a muscle can be exer- 

 cised is by allowing it to contract. The only way in 

 which the mind of any human being in the world can 

 make itself known and felt objectively is by causing 

 such contraction of some set of muscles. Muscles 

 under normal conditions contract when the mind directs 

 them to do so, and it is by voluntarily directing various 



[49] 



