MIDDLE AND DISTANCE RUNNING 35 
highly specialized trainer of to-day was developed, and consequently 
must have trained under more or less imperfect methods. It should 
also be remembered that unlike football and crew men, runners are not 
select specimens of physical manhood, picked because of their strength 
and vigor. On the contrary, track men are fragile in comparison. 
Strip a group of football and crew candidates and place them side by 
side with a group of track men and no one could fail to be impressed 
by the contrast in strength and development. 
Vitality—Whether distance running drains vitality or not can 
not be demonstrated in terms of percentage, as one may speak of the 
number of bodily injuries or of functional heart derangements. A 
conclusion must be reached deductively, if at all, from the statistics 
given by the men; the character of the injuries they have received ; the 
nature of the benefits which accrued from their running; the probable 
effect of these injuries and benefits on their vital organs; the 
state of their health at the present time, etc. Vitality must be de- 
termined by the condition of the blood, and of the organs which main- 
tain life, the heart, lungs, stomach, kidneys, etc. If running has re- 
sulted in strengthening the heart and lungs of these athletes, in im- 
proving their digestion, in stimulating to greater efficiency the func- 
tioning of their vital organs, in endowing them with greater physical 
vigor, it has evidently given them greater vitality, greater resistance to 
disease; if, on the other hand, it has injured their hearts, weakened 
their lungs, injuriously affected their vital organs; if a fair percentage 
of them have become broken down athletes, it has impaired their phys- 
ical vigor and drained vitality. very one admits the value of run- 
ning per se. It is generally recognized as the exercise par excellence 
which develops vital strength, strength of heart and lungs, the kind of 
strength that carries a man to a green old age. No one of our athletic 
teams regularly presents to the eye such evidence of perfect physical 
condition as does the track team. The practical value from a physio- 
logical point of view of all the school and college sports is in direct 
ratio to the amount of running involved. Racing in itself may be 
injurious, ten per cent. of the men believe it is, although their letters 
show that half of these are opposed to it, not because of definite and 
positive injury known to result from it, but from the vague general 
feeling referred to on the first page of this inquiry, namely, the belief 
that it is too great a strain. And this investigation shows that certain 
injuries do result from it, though much less serious than is generally 
believed. On the other hand, a large majority of the men deny that 
racing is necessarily injurious, affirming that injury when incurred is 
caused by poor condition, and that if a man is fit when he toes the mark, 
he is not likely to injure himself, no matter how hard he runs. But it 
is impossible to consider racing alone, since running is inseparably 
connected with it. Boys can not race without training, and will not 
