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mental faculties require for their fullest exercise a basis of bodily health remains as a solid residue of Charles Kingsley's teaching. Other things being equal, the race that is strongest in muscle will also be most powerful in brain. The intellectual predominance of the Greeks was, I am convinced, largely due to their almost religious care of the body. The Germans were mere Dryasdust pedants and unprofitable dreamers till the institution of compulsory military service by Stein, after the crushing defeat of the Prussians. at Jena, wrought a physical regeneration which speedily enabled them to take their place in the forefront of intellectual progress. In like manner, under the energising influence of the drill sergeant, a. physical renaissance has within our own memory taken place in Italy, whereby the subtle brains of her sons are being rapidly weaned from concetti and dilettante trifling to manlier objects.

That proper exercise of the body is a powerful factor in the development of the mind is no paradox, but a plain physiological. truth. Without a sufficient supply of pure blood the brain can no more do its work efficiently than a steam engine without coal; and without muscular exercise purification of the blood is incomplete and inadequate for the needs of the intellectual machine when it is. subjected to any extraordinary strain. A nation of laggards in the flesh will also be sluggish in spirit, and brains half asphyxiated by imperfectly aërated blood will breed nothing but unwholesomemysticism, criticism of life in Count Tolstoi's later style, and schemes for the regeneration of society akin to that by which Medea. tried to renew the youth of her father. The "long-haired men and the short-haired women," whose chief notion of social reform seems. to be the abolition of self-restraint, would be healthier in mind as well as in body if they would ventilate the close chambers of their brains by regular outdoor exercise. If, amidst the hysterical sentimentalism which is one of the "notes" of these fin de siècle days, the English mind yet retains a good deal of its old robust virility, this is principally due to the healthy love of field sports which is still the "badge of all our tribe."

Our zeal for physical culture is not, however, always according to knowledge, and while our enthusiasm for exercise is often at fever heat when we are "juvenile and curly," it is apt to fall to zero.

when the waist has become simply a "geographical expression." From excess as well as from insufficiency of bodily movement much harm may result, and it may therefore be of some use to explain in ordinary language the general principles which should govern the exercise of the muscles at different periods of life. The application of these principles in particular cases must be left to each individual's own judgment, but I hope to be able to furnish some hints for guidance. The reader need hardly be reminded that I speak from the medical rather than the athletic point of view.

Before going further, a few words must be said as to the physiology of exercise-that is to say, its effects on the body generally and on its various parts and organs individually. There is a natural craving in the muscles for movement, as there is in the stomach for food and in the lungs for air. This feeling is the expression of a physiological need which can only be disregarded at the expense of health. Want of exercise means disuse of the muscles, and disuse is inevitably followed by wasting. Anyone who has seen a broken limb that has been kept motionless in splints even for a few weeks must have noticed how lean and shrivelled it appears-how "fall'n its muscles' brawny vaunt" by the side of its fellow-member.

The effects of exercise are twofold-first, local, on the muscles themselves, and secondly, general, on the body as a whole. The former produces muscular strength, the latter the state of functional perfection of the vital organs and harmonious co-operation of their several activities which constitutes health. Muscular strength and vigour of constitution are not at all the same thing, though they are often confounded by ignorant athletes and their trainers. A firstrate athlete may have within him the germs of consumption or be otherwise unsound, and muscular power may even be developed at the expense of the rest of the system, as the memory may be cultivated to the detriment of the other mental faculties.

The local effects of exercise consist in an increase in bulk and a hardening of the substance of the muscles brought directly or indirectly into play by the movements executed. These effects are well exemplified in persons whose occupation involves the constant use of one set of muscles, and the experienced eye can often read

a man's trade in the peculiarities of his muscular development. Muscular specialism, in fact, leaves its mark on the body as clearly as intellectual specialism, when not corrected by general culture, does on the mind. It is the frequent contraction of the muscles, even more than the force employed, that produces such remarkable effects; the musical conductor's biceps is developed by the light rod he wields as certainly as the blacksmith's by his hammer, and the late Sir Michael Costa had a right arm which many a brawny son of Vulcan might have envied. The overgrown calves of premières danseuses may also be cited as instances in point. Balzac in La Dernière Incarnation de Vautrin mentions "the formidable breadth and thickness of the hands" which was the only thing about Sanson, the son of the executioner of Louis XVI., that betrayed his descent from an unbroken line of public headsmen extending over six centuries. In most persons the right hand is bigger than the left, because it is more used, and a friend who, like Cato, has begun to play the violoncello in mature age, has just shown me that the fingers of his left hand are already about an eighth of an inch broader than those of his right from manipulation of the strings. In the lame the sound leg is disproportionately large, owing to its having to do double work. I have often been struck when abroad by the relatively enormous development of the arms and shoulders in beggars whose lower limbs were disabled and who had therefore to drag themselves along with their hands.

Exercise not only causes an increase in the size of the muscles but betters the quality of their tissue. The fibres gain in elasticity as well as in strength, and become at once freer and more accurate in their action; they are less easily fatigued, and recover their tone more quickly. In a word, the functional efficiency as well as the structure of muscle is improved by exercise, and, as Helmholtz has pointed out, practice creates a habit whereby in any given act only the muscles necessary for the required movements contract. The maximum of work is done with the minimum expenditure of energy.

The general effects of exercise are produced mainly through the agency of the heart and lungs. The stress of violent exertion, as everyone knows, makes the breathing more rapid, and the beat of

the heart quicker and stronger, than under ordinary conditions. The greater rapidity of respiration means that more oxygen is taken into the lungs, and therefore more blood is cleansed of the physiological sewage thrown into it by the tissues through which it has passed in its circulation through the body; while by the increased activity of the heart this purified blood is distributed in greater abundance to every part of the economy. The lungs and the heart themselves share in the good effects of exercise, and thus become still more able to do their appointed work; the chest grows more capacious, the lungs larger and more elastic, the heart firmer in structure and more vigorous in action. The little muscles which encircle the stomach and the intestinal tube are quickened into greater activity, while their contractile power is increased, a matter which, trifling as it may seem, is of incalculable importance for the health of the mind as well as of the body. The other internal organs, those secret laboratories where Nature performs feats of chemical transmutation beyond the dreams of alchemy, and the glands of various kinds, any derangement of whose functions may give rise to seas of trouble against which medicine takes arms in vain, are enabled to work to better advantage by being supplied with better raw material in the shape of more generous blood. The body is at once better nourished and kept more free from the burdensome accumulation of superfluous tissue by the more rapid and complete removal of waste matters. The nerves, too, and the brain, which is, as it were, the sun of the nervous system, are maintained in the highest state of functional efficiency in the same way as the other organs. The general effects of exercise are therefore, briefly, a more abundant supply of better blood to all tissues and organs; hence all the component elements of the body are better nourished, so that each is able to play its allotted part to the best possible advantage. In fact, the effects of exercise may be summed up in half a dozen words: Better fuel, and more of it, for the vital engine.

It must not be supposed that all forms of exercise produce exactly the same effects. Some develop particular groups of muscles, while the others, together with the great physiological centres-the heart, the lungs, and the brain-have, as it were, to

"stand out." Thus, in lifting weights or executing movements of any kind with one arm, though the limb may become tired out, one does not become hot or "blown"; the exercise is almost purely local. If all the limbs, however, are thrown into rapid and violent movement, as in running, boxing, or swimming, the heart and the lungs join in the dance, and the whole stream of life is for the moment quickened and broadened and deepened. Local exercise, though of course beneficial to the muscles involved, has little or no influence on the health, because its effects are merely local. For hygienic purposes it is not so much the muscles as the internal organs that need to be exercised, but this can only be done by movements which bring them into rapid play. Hence chamber gymnastics and the highly elaborate acrobatic movements which require complicated arrangements of ropes and bars and pulleys (though I am far from wishing to deny their value) can never take the place of old-fashioned games for the young, and riding and walking for those declined into the vale of years.

The manifold evils arising from deficient exercise need not be dwelt upon here. I need only say that if a proper amount of exercise is not taken, not only do the muscles become weak and flabby but the functions of every organ and the soundness of every tissue must suffer. There is imperfect elimination of waste matters, the muscles and the internal organs become encumbered with superfluous fat, the heart becomes weak, the lungs are never thoroughly emptied and gradually lose their elasticity, appetite dwindles to vanishing point, digestion becomes a burden only to be borne with wailing and gnashing of teeth, and the joy and brightness of health give place to incapacity for either work or pleasure, irritability and "leaden-eyed despair." In the young particularly exercise is necessary for moral as well as for physical health; in violent movement in the open air their superabundant nervous energy finds free vent; if pent up it is too likely to force a way out in wrong directions.

In the next article I shall apply the principles now laid down, and shall explain the amount and kind of exercise required at different ages.

MORELL MACKENZIE.

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