Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1865-11-09
PHILOSOPHY OF EXERCISE,

We take: this instructive article from
late number Of FaUs Journal Of Health:
All know that the less we exercise the
less health we have, and the more certain
we are to die before our time But compar-
atively few persons are able to explain how
exercise promotes health. Both beast and
bird in a state of nature are exempt from
disease, except in rare cases it is because
the unappeasable instinct Of searching for
their necessary food, impels them to cease
less activities Children, when left to them
selves, eat great deal and have excellent
health, because they will be doing some
thing all the time, until they become so
tired that they fall asleep and as soon as
they wake, they begin right away to run
about again thus their whole existence IS
spent in alternate eating and sleeping, and
exercise, which is interesting and pleasur-
able. The health of childhood would be
enjoyed by those of maturer years, if, like
children, they would eat only when they
are hungry stop VIII n they have done ;
take rest in sleep as soon as they are tired;
and, when not eating or resting, would
spend the time diligently in such muscular
activities as would be interesting, agreeable
and profitable Exercise, without mental
elasticity, without an enlivement Of the
feelings and the mind, is of comparatively
little value
l. Exercise is health-producing, because
it works off and out of the system itsowaste
dead and effete matters these are all con-
verted into liquid form, called by some
" humors," which have exit from the body
through the "pores" of the skin in the shape
of perspiration, which all have seen, and
which all know is the result of exercise,
when the body is in a state of health. Thus
it is. that persons who do not perspire, who
have dry skin, are always either feverish
or chilly, and are never wei, and never can
be as long as that condition exists. So ex-
ercise, by working out of the system its
waste, decayed and useless matter, keeps
the human machine 'free :" otherwise it
it would soon clog up, and the wheels Of
life would stop forever
2 Exercise improves the health, because
every step man takes tends to impart mo-
ton to the bowels proper amount OF ex-
ercise keeps them acting once in every
twenty-four hours; if they have not mo-
ton enough, there is constipation, which
brings on very many fatal diseases hence
exercise, especially that of walking, wards
off innumerable diseases, when it is kept up
to an extent equal to inducing one motion
Of the bowels daily.
g. Exercise is healthful because the more
we exercise the faster we breathe. If we
breathe faster we take that much more air
into the lungs but it is the air we breathe
which puriiies the blood, and the more air
we take in, the more perfectly is that pro-
cess performed the purer the blood and
as everybody knows, the better health must
be. Hence, when PERSONS lungs are i'm
paired he does not take in enough air for
the wants Of the system; that being the
case the air he does breathe should be TIE
purest possible which is outdoor air. Hence,
the more consumptivc stays in the house,
the more certain and more speedy is his
death