The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-08-24
Nit9munn qispatrb.
FRIDAY MORNING. -. AUG. "a. 1890.

G'ty a1u'Iu Q'3P"tty+
FRIDAY MORNING........ AUG. "A. 1860.
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Physical Educatiea..The Strsng Man and
How He became Such
The public have been not little in terested.
Tor few years, in occasional accounts of DR..
Winship, the "strong Yankees ;" experiments
in physical self-education. He IL but about
twenty six years old, five feet seven inches Ia
height and weighs one hundred and forty
eight pounds. He can lift sierex hundred pounds.
and is now the best example of physical edu-
| cation In the United States. He was seven teen
years of age before he began his experiments,
and was then buf i've feet high, and weighed
only one hundred pounds; his health was OF
good, for he already suffered from the usual
dyspeptical troubles of American youth. So
great have been his improvements, that he
now declares IT to be his opinion that 10 one,
having "an atom of strength and life" need
despair of the benefits of q right system of
training. He instances Mr.. Warrens testi.
mony respecting veteran invalid. who began
gymnastics in his seven tieth year, with very
| salutary effects; and, OF course, old Cornaro
| famous in Addison's Spectator J is rot forgot
ten, who. though no gymnast, began in his for
tieth year TO restore a broken constitution,
and lived a life of health and of enviable
cheerfuIness till his hundredth year. But
what has been the efficacious theory of the
strong Yankee He has given it in the Mas
sachusetts Teacher, but, unfortunately, in an
article of too great length to be read much
We give the most essential particulars, pre-.
senting them, however, with our own numer-
alton:
L. He has breathed an abundance of fresh
air 'almost constantly :" praetisi we sup.
pose, imitation of the lungs.
2. He has drank no ardent spirits, and used
no tobacco The English "traiping for the
ring" 1t is well known, prohibits these arti-
cles.
g. He has taken, nearly every day. about a.
nay hoars gymHdstie exercise, in the open air,
and MS Is an example OF the surprising mode
ration with which he has accom- plished sur,
prising results.
T. He has eaten heartily of such food, animal
and vegetable, as agreed with his stomach
scouting the maxim that "you should leave
the table hungry" He began not to recover
from his dyspeI sia till he escaped this non
sense.
s. He has taken at least ten hours, rest daily.
including sleep, and appears 10 have devoted
as much OF 1t TO sleep as nature would allow
6. He has worn every article of his dress As
loose and as easy as the freest action Of his
muscles and limbs would demand
Z. lie mas used the bath once week in win
ter, and twice week in summer. He de-
nounces the daily use of cold baths
he has pursued this course for nine wears
and 1t has, during this long period, afforded
him some important observations, if not dis
coveries. Here are Il few Of them
l. That II is as easy to increase the strength
of the human body as it is that of a magnetic.
:. That whatever increased his strength in
SicdsSu MS kcucIdl Heditn. he enlOVS now the
maximum of the latter as he pro Dably does of
the former; for his force is now eq ual TO that
o. two ordinary men.
g. That by developing his body harmoniously,
ne could preclude the possibility of hernia or
any similar injury that o. otherwise might result
from an extremely violent exercise of the
muscles
4. That lifting is the safest and surest method
OF producing harmonious " development as
also the most strengthening of all EXERCISES
fact not generally supposed.
5. That the performance of twenty different
gymnastic feats once is better than the per-
formance of one feat twenty times.
6. That he gained more by forty minutes
exercise once in two days, than by twenty
minutes once day.
7. Twenty or fifteen minutes gymnastics
sufiiced for each day.
s. That as strength increases, more intense
but less protracted exercise should be the rule
9. That increase of muscular power is at
tended with a proportionate increase of diges-
tive organs.
10. That great physical strength may be ac-
quired independently of hereditary tendency
to ii, and, indeed in spite of hereditary weak
ness of constitution.
IL. That increased strength cannot long con =
time on purely vegetable diet.
H. That increasing the siren tn makes excre-
ton take place less by The skin, and more by
the lungs and other emunctories
13. That long before he could raise eleven
hundred pounds with the hands or shoulder a
barrel of flour, he had put to flight the whole
brood OF ailments-sick headaches, nervous
ness, indigestion, &c., which are the familiar
companions of American health, or rather i'll
health.
The Sampsonian doctor proceeds to give
some very Judicious rules, deduced from his
experience, Tor all aspirants to good health
and manly vigor. He advises that
]. You should select for your sleeping room
an apartment on the "sunny side ;" and let the
sun play into II at least six hours a day if the
clouds will allow him to show his face
. Keep it ventilated all the time and espe.
cially keep the windows partially open nj
night butavoid draughts.
3. Practice general abution once a week in
cold weather, twice week in warm Too
mueh bathing ne asserts, defeats every in
tention for which water is externally ap.
piled"
4. Take not less than eight hours rest per
day.
5. Use no food which has been prepared in a
copper, brass or bell metal utensil Use NO
water that has come in contact with lead
3. Use such food as your appetite prefers in
spite of Liebig or any other authority
Z. Practice lifting as the best of gymnastics /;
but begin cautiously, and be careful of too
mucn fatigue: Dumb bells he considers next
desirable to lifting.
g. Never exceed half an hour in any gym.
nastic exercise.
9. Never rise early unless you retire early.
Be sure to get sleep enough
10. Gradually wear less and less clotbinp
about the neck, till you can keep it entirely
exposed without taking cold.
Such is an outline of DIR. Winship,s system.
1t is singularly sensible; it is almost uniyer-
sally practicable, except perhaps, the pre-
scription about sleep. Gould it be generally
adopted in the United States we doubt not
that. in one generation, it would reduce the
medical faculty fifty per cent, and the rates of
life assurance correspondingly, and render us
the most vigorous and most long lived nation
on the globe, as we are now decidedly the
"smartest." "