72 On Scientific Physical Training 
she calls the fashionable Spanish exercises, or by exercises’ 
with the chest expander or any other exercises, the appear- 
ance of what is usually called a good figure. 
The few persons who think about physical education at 
all, believe that climbing on poles, ropes, and ladders, 
leaping, and athletic exertions of any kind, as used in the 
majority of gymmnasia, are all that is necessary for the 
development of the body; the consequence is that gym- 
nastic apparatus are provided on which the pupils may 
hang, swing, or make any four de force at their own option ; 
the principal aim is to produce brute muscular strength: 
all rational instruction is necessarily neglected, because the 
teachers themselves have not even an elementary know- 
ledge of the manner in which the body is formed, and for 
what purpose its various parts are wanted, they do not 
know the injurious influences to be avoided in order not to 
interfere with the free action of the lungs and other organs, 
as well as with the natural growth, development, and 
movements of the body and limbs. 
The non-interference with the natural development of 
the body is one indispensable part of a scientific physical 
training, which can be completed only by rational gym- 
nastics, that is, gymnastics based on anatomical and 
physiological principles. 
There are many systems of gymnastics, but there is and 
can be only one rational system of gymnastics; we owe 
the development of this science to the genius of a country- 
man of Linnzus, the Swedish patriot and poet, Ling. 
The fact that people are much more impressed by what 
they see than what they hear, and that they learn easier 
by what strikes the eye, induced me to form a collection of 
models for the instruction of those who have the care of 
the young—mothers, nurses, governesses, schoolmasters, 
and especially schoolmistresses. I say especially school- 
mistresses, because these most important persons ought to 
be well informed in all matters concerning the health and 
the physical training of the young, of whom at present 40 
per cent. die before the completion of the fifth year, while 
of the remaining sixty, if boys at the age of twenty, at 
least twenty-two are unfit for military service, or railway 
employment ; and if girls, at least thirty are unfit for hard 
* The collection of models, diagrams, books, &c., to which 
reference is made in this paper, belongs to the South Kensington ~ 
Museum. 
