528 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 744 



peared to need special or corrective de- 

 velopment. 



The instructors selected to handle de- 

 partmental work have been selected with 

 more or less special reference to the chief 

 objects which the departments might have 

 in view. These objects were in some cases 

 predominantly anthropometric. They 

 were rarely widely hygienic or med- 

 ical and they were nearly always narrowly 

 hygienic or purely gymnastic or athletic. 

 For these reasons, the special preparation 

 of the instructor in physical instruction 

 has been occasionally medical, occasionally 

 hygienic, rarely physiological, often an- 

 thropometric and usually g3nnnastic and 

 athletic. 



As a result of these limitations in de- 

 partmental scope and staff equipment, the 

 achievements of physical instruction have 

 been restricted to some of the anatomical, 

 physiological, hygienic and psychological 

 effects of exercise; and because of these 

 same limitations, the faults of physical in- 

 struction have been numerous and de- 

 structive. The instructors have not often 

 been men of academic training or of 

 scientific or of professional training. 

 Such equipment was not asked for, as a 

 rule, and often could not have been paid 

 for had it been offered. With inade- 

 quately trained instructors on the one 

 hand — I wiU not say poorly trained, be- 

 cause many of them were superbly trained 

 for special phases of physical exercise, 

 but not for physical instruction— and on 

 the other hand with the departmental 

 scope limited to one or more phases of 

 physical exercise, it has naturally followed 

 that physical instruction has been judged 

 to be unacademic and that academic men 

 have been reluctant to permit its academic 

 advancement. 



Furthermore, these conditions have 

 made collegiate physical instruction ap- 

 pear to be synonymous with gymnastic 



work, so that the Y. M. C. A. gymnasium, 

 the church gymnasium, the factory gym- 

 nasium, the business man's gymnasium 

 and the athletic club, are all classed pop- 

 ularly with the collegiate department and 

 with each other. (It is not my purpose 

 here to discuss relative merits and I must 

 not be construed as deprecating the value 

 of these gymnasiums, particularly those of 

 the Young Men's Christian Association.) 



Furthermore, this narrow departmental 

 scope with its consequent limiting effect 

 upon staff equipment, not only makes it 

 impossible for the department to realize 

 the broad health influences which we now 

 believe belong to it, but it increases greatly 

 the chances for physical injury to the in- 

 dividual student er pupil. Without a 

 knowledge based upon a medical examina- 

 tion of the organic condition of the indi- 

 vidual, it is impossible to plan his work 

 wisely and safely. Without a sound 

 knowledge of the physiology of exercise — 

 and this includes the major part of aU hu- 

 man physiology— it is unsafe to undertake 

 to administer exercise to large groups of 

 boys or men among whom unsuspected 

 anatomical and consequent physiological 

 weakness or abnormality may be present. 

 Clearly, many of our teachers in physical 

 instruction have not been adequately 

 trained for even the relatively narrow 

 field of physical exercise to which physical 

 instruction has so long been confined. 

 And it is no wonder that complaint has 

 arisen from physician, physiologist, hy- 

 gienist, educator and layman. It is no 

 wonder that concrete examples of medical, 

 hygienic and physiological error may be 

 cited. It is no wonder that positive injury 

 has been done to individuals. It is re- 

 markable, rather, that so little injury has 

 followed in the wake of these conditions. 



On the other hand, there have always 

 been thoughtful men in physical educa- 

 tion who have held that the chief object 



