Mabch 26, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



483 



obesity, old heart lesions or joint injuries. 

 These are given on cards and the student 

 taken over each exercise in detail by an 

 instructor who reports at frequent inter- 

 vals. 



The average man may be taken in classes 

 which should begin by exercises of dis- 

 cipline, marching and setting-up move- 

 ments to word of command. They should 

 then be examined to find their ability to 

 perform certain exercises of skill, and 

 classified according to their proficiency. 

 A course of graded exercises should fol- 

 low, closing with a re-examination. This 

 procedure may be repeated three or four 

 times during the college year. 



In designing the exercise to be given to 

 the coUege student, the evolution of the 

 race must be kept in mind and the old 

 co-ordinations that have been responsible 

 for its development must be used as much 

 as possible in a natural manner. 



1. Locomotion: in marching, running, 

 jumping, dancing, tumbling, climbing and 

 swimming. 



2. Throwing large and small balls for 

 distance and accuracy. Catching and 

 dodging. 



3. Fighting: by striking, as in boxing; 

 by grappling, as in wrestling ; by thrusting, 

 as in fencing ; and by striking, as in single 

 stick or saber. 



Some of these are best taught indoors, 

 but where it is possible all exercises should 

 be taken in the open air. 



All the most popular athletic contests 

 can be arranged to apply to the general 

 mass of the students by setting a low 

 standard, by having the whole class try a 

 feat at once, by doing the exercise to 

 word of command, and by stopping short 

 of great fatigue. 



After a certain time there is a tendency 

 to specialize in those who find the general 

 class work too easy, and this may be found 

 on entrance to college in some whose pre- 



liminary training has been obtained in 

 preparatory schools. They naturally drift 

 into competitive athletics, but this in- 

 volves an entirely different kind of train- 

 ing from that already described. 



The distinction between physical train- 

 ing and athletic training must be sharply 

 defined. 



In physical training the object is to 

 bring the standard of health up to its 

 highest level, and all excessive strain or 

 exhaustion is avoided while all the activi- 

 ties are exercised. 



In athletic training the object is to 

 bring the human machine to its highest 

 point of efficiency to perform a definite 

 feat, and everything that is useless or 

 detrimental is sacrificed. The heart is 

 made larger and stronger than is neces- 

 sary for ordinary life if the feat to be per- 

 formed is one of endurance. The nervous 

 system is made irritable and alert if speed 

 is required, the special muscles are de- 

 veloped, and the normal store of fat is 

 lessened if agility is the necessary re- 

 quirement. The object is not primarily 

 health but superlative ability, either in 

 strength, speed or endurance, and the un- 

 due absorption of fat leaves the constitu- 

 tion less able to withstand the siege of a 

 constitutional infection like typhoid fever 

 or pneumonia in which a moderate amount 

 of fat is a valuable asset. 



In deciding the value or harmfulness of 

 athletic training, however, the physiolo- 

 gist has not always the last word to say. 

 The ethical and social sides assume here an 

 importance that overshadows the purely 

 physiological consideration. The athletic 

 class will never exceed ten or fifteen per 

 cent, of a college community, and it is 

 after all for the main body of students 

 whose interests are not primarily athletic 

 that physical instruction must be consid- 

 ered and its details planned so that they 

 may be enabled to graduate stronger, 



