Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1870-03-24
The Abuse of Physical Exercise.

/ The Westn1inster Gdzette, in the
course of an article against too much
physical exercise, observes "Those
who have gone through the severest
training become. In the end; dull,
4 listless and stupid, subject to nume-
4 rous diseases, and in many instances
the ultimate victims of gluttony and
drunkenness. Their unnatural vigor
seldom lasts more than five years.
j It was especially remarked by the
Greeks that no one who in boyhood
4 won the prize of the Olympic games
ever distinguished himself afterward.
The three years Immediately pre-
ceeding seventeen are years of great
/ mental development and nature
cannot, at the same, endure any Sc
i we're taxing of the physical-constitu-
/ ton. Prudence, therefore, especially
| at this critical period of life, must
Lever go hand in hand with vigor /;
/ for the evils of excess outweigh by
far the evils of deficiency"
We are always going to extremi-
! ties in education, as well as in poll
tics and theology; The absolute neg
] lect of physical development in the
1 past generation we see followed in
this by habits of exercise which
threaten to make us a people of
athletes and cripples. Not content
| with rational use of the gymnasium,
under the supervision of q teacher
versed In physiology, developing
pdri pzssu the muscles and the intel
lect, as in the German universities,
our youth aim each to be a Hercules,s .
| willing to be ounces If their arms
| and deloins be strong. Hence the ball,
| and cricket, and boat clubs; hence
the huge dumb-belIs and Indian
| clubs, which strain and fatigue the
muscles, and lay the foundation for
many diseases of the limbs and inter
nal organs. There was time when
hernia, or rupture, was principally
confined to the laboring classes,
among whom it isso common that it
| is safe to say that one in every fifth
you meet is affected with it in some
degree. Now this infirmity is in
| creasing among the students, many
of whom lay the foundation for a
lifelong disease in the iu-judged ex-
ercises of the so-called "manly
sports.n We are not all the same,
either mentally or physically; and
exercise, like food and study, must
be graduated according to the power
of the individual. This distinction
puny boy emulates the strong man,
and subjects himself to Vigous efforts,
and finds himself with distorted
joints, rupture, and incipient disease
of the heart and blood-vessels, while
his more athletic rival becomes bet
ter conditioned animal by the exer-
else. It is time, now that q trained
boat-crew, and an unsuccessful one
at that, Is received with public din
ners and by city delegations-with4
the honors of illustration in pictorial
papers and commendatory letters
from clergymen-with the fulsOme
flattery that their four-mile rowing
match will be a powerful agent in
maintaining the entente coTdioLc be-
tween America and England-to ask
ourselves the question II we are not
carrying to ridiculous extreme the
power of muscle at the expense of
brains and good health? ~
ALI physicians and psychologists
are aware of the effects of rowing, as
an exercise, on the heart and pulse
These effects have been carefully ex-
amined recently by DIR. Fraser, of
Edinburgh. by means of the "sphyg-
mograph," an instrument invented
in France, which produces self
written record of the swellings and
contractions of the arteries. The
delicate movements of these vessels,
which the finger can not detect, are
thus registered in a series of curves
or waves, by q pencil on a strip of
tl
tisphygmogran1s''o of a crew Of healthy
persons before leaving the boat
house, and Immediately after its re-
turn, are very different. The tracings
show clearly that an extremely large
quantity of blood Is, in rowing, circu-
lated with great rapidity, a condition
of the circulation essential for the
continuance of prolonged and severe
muscular exertion. The effect of
such a condition upon persons suffer-
ing from, or liable to functional or
easily conjectured. There can be no
doubt that many incipient diseases
of the heart and blood-vessels are
rendered active and dangerous by the
violent exercise of rowing; and that
much discomfort, and premature
death, are the result of this mania in
judiciously and intemperately in
dulged in. AS boat crews do not,
and can not, here submit themselN 4s
to "spbygmograp.hical" examina-
ton, and thus enable the predispo-
sed to heart-disease to retire in time
to prevent further mischief, it may
be wholesome caution for the
youthful oarsnan to stop and con-
slider, especially if violent exercise
produces an uncomfortable feeling in
the heart and lungs, whether he will
indulge in anything more than a
moderate pull. The effects of rowing
on the circulation do not differ from
those of many other forms of muscu-
lar exercise. 1t is the vioLence of
such exercise, whether with the oar,
the bat, or the Indian club, which is
the dangerous element. While it is
safe to row or play ball simply for
amusement, it may be eminently |
dangerous to engage in boat-race or |
a ball-match.-Erchdn9e.