34 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. XVIII. No. 441 



SCIENCE: 



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PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT.' 



Great interest has. I am happy to state, been taken in the 

 results already obtained by the Polytechnic Physical Devel- 

 opment Society. Their publication at the Leeds meeting of 

 the British Association has caused inquries for further infor- 

 mation to be addressed to us from all parts of the kingdom, 

 the continent, India, Africa, and America. I mention this 

 because it shows that the public are beginning to realize that 

 the physique is something more than a matter of great in- 

 terest to scientific observers; that it is, in fact, a subject of 

 practical importance to each one of us; and that the time is 

 ripe for the formation of an organization to deal with it as a 

 science and an art. 



It is, doubtless, pretty generally known that, broadly 

 speaking, the difference in the physique of man in the high- 

 est centres of civilization and that of man in a savage — or, 

 to be more accurate, in a lower state of civilization — is, 

 with the exception of parts of the brain, greatly in the favor 

 of the latter; that is to say, we have obtained the advan- 

 tages of civilization, with the above exception, at the expense 

 of the bod^; and inasmuch as we are continuously making 

 further advances in knowledge, and applying that knowl- 

 edge in the ordinary routine of daily life, the tendency of 

 this progress still is to the further detriment of the body. 

 This is not an agreeable fact to contemplate, and the re- 

 minder that the "fittest" will survive neither affords us 

 compensation for the injury nor points out the means by 

 ■which it may be obviated ; for the class of the fittest for the 

 circumstances of a generation ago is rot the class of the fit- 

 test for the circumstances of to day, and the class of the fittest 

 for the circumstances of to-day will not be the class of the 

 fittest for the circumstances of the next generation. Hence 

 this most important question arises. How can we obtain for 

 civilized man a physique equal at least to that of man in a 

 lower state of civilization, and make the further advances of 



1 Godfrey W. HamblRton. president of the Polytechnic Physical Develop- 

 nmt Society, London, in Physique. 



knowledge tend to the advantage of the body? The answer 

 to this question, I shall show, lies in the ascertainment of 

 the effects of the conditions of our habits and surroundings 

 upon the body, and the application of that knowledge 10 our 

 own protection and advantage. 



Nearly twenty years ago I commenced the investigation 

 of this subject, and the results of that research I laid before 

 the British Association in 1886-87. Then I showed that the 

 size and shape of the chest varied as I varied the conditions 

 to which it was subjected. For example, when I submitted 

 a chest to conditions that tended to develop it, that chest in- 

 creased in size, and its form or type changed accordingly. 

 When I submitted a chest to conditions that tended to de- 

 crease it, that chest decreased in size, and changed its form 

 or type accordingly. I ascertained that those results were 

 absolutely invariable, and could be carried out within such 

 wide limits that, on the one extreme, they embraced the 

 class of the non-survivors, through consumption, and on the 

 other, the finest physique of the class of the survivors or fit- 

 test. I pointed out the fact that we had an example of one 

 type of chest forming a series of types that have varied pre- 

 cisely as the conditions to which it was subjected have va- 

 ried. At birth the male child of all classes has the same 

 type of chest, but at maturity he has that of the class to 

 which he belongs. We have the same relationship between 

 conditions and type; on the one hand, in those who use 

 wind instruments, or who by their occupations require to 

 greatly use their lungs: and on the other, in those who 

 spend a great portion of their time in a stooping position, or 

 who compress their chests either by the instrument thev use 

 in their work or by a corset. The great development of the 

 muscles of the trained athlete and the wasted muscles of the 

 paralytic are due to to the conditions of their use and disuse 

 respectively. We know that the head has been altered in 

 shape by direct pressure, and that the greater size an 1 the 

 more complicated arrangement of the brain of a European 

 to that of an aborigine of Australia is produced by the 

 greater mental training of the former. The difference be- 

 tween the hands and fingers of a pianist and those of a man 

 accustomed to lift heavy weights is produced by the condi- 

 tions of their occupations. Upon the presence and abseace 

 respectively of shoes depends the difference in the siie and 

 shape of the foot of a Chinese lady and that of a woman in 

 the uncivilized state. The color and thickness of thp skin 

 vary according to the conditions to which it is subjected, 

 and there is the same relationship between the size and shape 

 of each part of the body and the conditions to which it is 

 subjected. Therefore, the type of man after birth is solely 

 produced by the conditions to which he is subjected. Hence 

 the formation of race by man's continuance under the same 

 conditions, and its subsequent division into sub races and 

 families by his migrations into new conditions and the minor 

 differences therein. Hence also the difference between the 

 same species of animals under the conditions of nature and 

 of domestication, between the products of the same seeds 

 when sown in different localities, between the same plants 

 when placed under different conditions, and the return of 

 man, animal, or plant to foi'mer types when subjected to 

 the conditions that produce that type. 



It would be difficult to overestimate the immense impor- 

 tance of the facts just briefly referred to. They prove to us 

 beyond the possibility of a doubt that man is what his habits 

 and surroundings make him; that he is a member of the 

 class of the survivors or fittest because the conditions, as a 

 whole, of his habits and surroundings are favorable to him; 



