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April 17, 1873| 
of the ordeal(/) of training as of a trial as greatif not 
greater than the effort itself for which the training was 
instituted. Thus one of Dr. Morgan’s correspondents who 
rowed bow at Putney in 1849, Rev. D, Wauchop, Wadham 
College, Oxford, and a friend of our own of long standing, 
writes ; “A curious circumstance with regard to training 
I would mention, and that is that one of the most sinewy 
and lasting men of my friends, who had been accustomed 
to rowing since he was little more than a child, and who 
was a particularly steady and temperate man, and so 
good an oar as to be chosen stroke for a time, never 
could stand training. After a few days of it he in- 
variably broke down, and therefore never rowed in a 
race.” 
It will therefore be easily seen how great must be the 
advantages to rowing of clearing up what we have called 
the first misconception, in the light of its effects upon the 
health of the men engaged in it—the only light which 
would justify our having entered upon the subject at such 
length in the columns of a purely scientific journal. 
Thus while it was imagined that rowing entailed tre- 
mendous muscular’ exertions upon the oarsman, rules 
as to dict, sleep, and exercise were laid down to meet 
such exertions, one authority recommending men to be 
in bed ten or eleven hours; for diet underdone meat 
in vast quantities, and without vegetab'es—“not even 
a potato ”—was prescribed, while exercise of any or all 
kinds put together was cut down to less than one hour 
in the twenty-four. Thus did the first misconception 
sustain and prolong the existence of, if it did not give 
origin to, the second. 
The errors in s/eep and in det are being rapidly cleared 
away. They are destined soon to be numbered among 
the vagaries of the past, and in this place we may already 
pronounce them undeserving of serious exposure or con- 
demnation. With the other agent of health named above, 
however, as affected by a want of true knowledge of the 
exertion undergone in rowing, namely, exercise, the case 
is different. The errors on this head are still many and 
grave, and to the correction of them we must look before 
we can expect to see any material improvement in the 
hygienic value of rowing; it is to exercise we must look to 
restore the lost equilibrium of rowing on the several sys- 
tems of the body ; to exercise we must look to equalise 
the partial developments of the frame now caused by 
rowing as exclusive of muscular exertion ; to exercise we 
must look for that increase in vigour and power and 
functional capacity generally, now wanted to enable the 
organs of circulation and evaporation to sustain the ex- 
treme effort which they are called upon to fill during a 
boat-race. 
We will assume that we have established that in rowing 
the chest and upper limbs receive an inadequate share of 
the exercise, and therefore in accordance with the organic 
law regulating material development and functional capa- 
city,—that “these will be in relation to employment,” 
—an advancement in these respects will be shown in 
those regions, inferior to what is observable in other 
parts of the body when the employment is greater. 
This assumption being admitted, it will also be admitted 
that any want of development or capacity experienced in 
these regions—whether in the power of the muscles aiding 
reSpiration, in the size or conformation of the thoracic 
NATURE 
459 
cavity, or in the size, conformation or capacity of the 
organs which they contain,—would affect, and affect in 
an increasing ratio with its extent, the respiratory effort 
during a boat-race, 
We admit that we are somewhat at issue with Dr, 
Morgan, inasmuch as he does not go with us so far as to 
acknowledge this partial division of the labour, and con- 
sequently of the reward to the parts engaged, in the act 
of rowing ; but he does acknowledge that if it did exist, 
the right way to its rectification would be to supply to the 
parts found wanting, employment elsewhere and in other 
form. This is nearly all that we can desire—perhaps 
more than at this date we have yet a right to expect from 
a devoted oarsman, jealous of his craft. His language is 
emphatic and significant :— 
“In examining patients for insurance companies, I 
have frequently refused the lives of young persons on the 
ground that their chests were narrow and shallow. In 
several instances, however, these thoracic defects have 
been corrected by a systematic course of gymnastic exer- 
cises, justifying me at a later period in recommending 
theiracceptance. At no time and in no place could every 
useful variety of exercise be more advantageously carried 
out than at Oxford and Cambridge; they might, for the 
class by which they are frequented, serve as valuable 
national gymnasia.” 
Dr. Morgan might have taken a wider base for his con- 
gratulations on the establishment of gymnasia than Oxford 
and Cambridge; the greater number now of our “public 
schools are also so provided, namely, Uppingham, 
Radley, Cheltenham, Clifton, Marlborough, and Rugby. 
We place them here in the order in which they 
have been carried out, Rugby being our last or- 
ganisation, From all these schools men are coming 
up to the Universities, after having continuously, during 
the most important period of their growing time, re- 
ceived a course of carefully systematised bodily train- 
ing, carried out in buildings specially designed for this 
purpose, and conducted by teachers duly prepared, and 
bearing certificates of qualification. All the youths will 
bring with them not only chests “larger and deeper,” 
with hearts and lungs stronger, ampler, and more vigor- 
ous, but the knowledge of what a good strong, or well- 
formed chest is, how it is got, and how it may be lost; 
and this with the similar advantages of the Universities, 
and shared in by University men, will surely in time 
enable us to overcome the evil of rowing, the danger to 
rowing men: for the whole question is now narrowed to 
one point. Give to men who now take ro wing as exclu- 
sive exercise such other exercise as will develope the 
parts of the body which rowing but imperfectly employs, 
namely the chest, and you at once endow with vigour 
and strength the parts that are dangerously taxed in the 
boat-race. We have known men standing 5 ft. gin., 
with chests measuring 32 in. only, rowing in their 
college eights! And men standing over 6ft. in their 
stockings, with chests measuring 35 in., rowing in the 
inter-University race at Putney! To what end can these 
lead? to what but danger to the men, alarm to their 
friends, and injury to the name and to the interests of the 
art to which they affect to be devoted. We repeat here 
what we uttered years ago— “ No man of ordinary stature 
and fair growth should be allowed to put hand upon an 
oar in a racing boat until his chest has the minimum 
