402 



NA TURE 



{Mar. 26, 1874 



instances are furnished to alarmists of men " fainting by 

 the way," and a highly valuable art is in danger of being 

 brought into disrepute. We have no fear for the men 

 engaged in a great race like that which takes place on 

 Saturday — they have been carefully instructed in the 

 proper method of training — all that experience has taught 

 has been lavished on them, and the result is, as Dr. 

 Morgan's statistics show, that they live as long as other 

 portions of the civil community. 



But on the other hand we do fear for the many persons 

 who assert that they are in training for some race or 

 other physical feat, but from whom on inquiry we learn 

 that their notions and practice are so desultory, and so 

 deficient in anything like scientific detail, that it is an 

 abuse of the word training to apply it to their misdirected 

 proceedings. They forget, or at least do not sufficiently 

 consider, that the feat they are about to attempt will 

 require of them, at some critical moment, a supreme 

 effort ; and that in the making of this effort, a lasting 

 injury may be inflicted upon a frame that is only im- 

 perfectly prepared. 



To them we sa)-, " if a thing is worth doing at all it is 

 worth doing well." Train thoroughly or not at all — you 

 have no right to jeopardise your future by " e.xtreme care- 

 lessness " when all bad results may be avoided by 

 " extreme care." 



In former times Diet was looked upon as of paramount 

 importance among the agents of health in training ; Mr. 

 Maclaren, however, places exercises in the front rank, and 

 justifies himself for doing so in the following logical and 

 telling words :- -" So long as men believe that the qualities 

 which they covet are to be obtained from mere dietary 

 regulations, they will neglect the real agencies which can 

 alone bestow them ; exercise, the one agent which gives, 

 which can give, these qualities, both from, its own nature 

 and from the influence which it exerts upon all other 

 agents of health, is, in a measure, neglected, nay, avoided, 

 and to the imaginary virtues of diet men look for the 

 longed-for acquisitions ; they have yet to learn, they have 

 yet to know, and to themselves realise, that power of 

 muscle in trunk and limb, that freedom and capacity of 

 heart and lung, that energy, stamina, strength and en- 

 durance, are not to be obtained from what they eat, but 

 from what they do!'' 



To each of these subjects, Exercise and Diet, a sepa- 

 rate chapter is devoted ; and each is treated in a mas- 

 terly and exhaustive manner. Our space will not, how- 

 ever, permit of more than an allusion to them. Mr, 

 Maclaren deprecates the error of confining the attention 

 to any one form of exercise, on the ground that it must be 

 insufficient to produce the desired result, that is to say, 

 the increased action, and thereby the fuller development, 

 of all the muscles of the body. He illustrates his mean- 

 ing by the example of the man who, having one favourite 

 author or favourite object of study, fails to cultivate or 

 employ his ik'IioIc mind. On the subject of Diet he is 

 much less stringent and exclusive than is customary, and 

 we think rightly so, recognising the fact that each one 

 must be a law to himself; whence the truth of the trite 

 saying, " What is one man's meat is another man's 

 poison." His views on this point may be summed up in 

 his own words : " I would only advocate the rational sys- 

 tem of not suddenly breaking in upon a man's fixed 



habits, at the time you are asking for an effective display 

 of his greatest bodily energies." 



Another moot point, the question of the amount of 

 sleep required by different persons under the same cir- 

 cumstances, is next discussed. No hard and fast rule is 

 laid down, but the breadth of view that is one of the 

 great charms of the book is again apparent. The opinion 

 is expressed that the time to be devoted to the purpose 

 should vary not only with the individual, but with the 

 same individual at successive periods of life, and that the 

 wants of the system, in this respect, are influenced by 

 various causes, and by the action of the other agents of 

 health, especially by exercise. With reference to this 

 matter, we have frequently observed that tall persons re- 

 quire a longer period of recumbency than short, whose 

 hearts are called upon for less powerful exertion, by 

 reason of the smaller height of the column of blood that 

 they have to sustain and propel. 



The chapters next in order deal with the important 

 but still subsidiary questions of air, bathing, and clothing. 

 We cannot at present enter into detail with regard to any 

 of these subjects, but we would add to Mr. Maclaren's 

 observations on bathing, that one great secret of using a 

 cold bath in the dressing-room without discomfort or 

 injury, is to sit down in the water in the first instance, 

 and to wash the upper part of the body, thus somewhat 

 raising the temperature of the water before the feet are 

 immersed. 



The concluding portion of the book is devoted to very 

 clear and practical directions for self-training for aquatic 

 purposes, and in this, as in all other parts, it will be 

 found a complete and trustworthy guide by those for 

 whose use it is intended. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous 

 commumcations.\ 



Herbert Spencer versus Thomson and Tail 



A FRIEND has lent me a' copy of a pamphlet recently pub- 

 lished by Mr. Herbert Spencer, in which certain statements of 

 mine are most unsparingly deaU with, especially in the way of 

 attempted contrast with others made by Sir \V. Thomson and. 

 myself. I am too busy at the present season to do more than 

 request you to reprint one of the passages objected to (leaving it 

 to your readers todivine to what possible objections it is open), and 

 to ilUistrate by a brief record of my cullege days something 

 closely akin to the mental attitude of the objector. 



" Natural philosophy is an experimental, and not an intuitive 

 science. No <i?/;/<v/ reasoning can conduct us demonstratively 

 to a single physical truth" (Tait, Thermodynamics, § I). 



One of my most intimate friends in Cambridge, who had been 

 an ardent disciple of the late Sir W. Hamilton, Bart., and had 

 adopted the preposterous notions about mathematics inculcated 

 by that master, was consequently in great danger of being plucked. 

 His college tutor took much interest in him, and for a long time 

 gave him private instruction in elementary algebra in addition to 

 the college lectures. After hard Labour on the part of each, 

 some success seemed to have been obtained, as my friend had at 

 last for once been enabled to follow the steps of the solution of a 

 question involving a simple equation. A flush of joy mantled his 

 cheek, he felt his degree assured, and lie warmly thanked his 

 devoted instructor. Alas, this happy phase h.ad but a brief 

 duration ; my friend's early mental bias too soon recovered its 

 sway, and he cried in an agony of doubt and despair, "But wh.it 

 if .r should turn out, after all, not to be the unknown quantity ? " 



Compare this with the following extract from Mr. Spencer's 

 pamphlet : — 



