The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-07-24
Training the Muscles.


Wilkie Collins and the anti-muscular
school have been waging crusade
against boat.racing and similar pas
times, in which school-boys and under
graduates proverbially take delight.
They urge that the severe exertion and
preliminary training necessary in such
sports undermine the constitutions of
young men, and not only shorten their
lives, but sometimes result in immedi-
ately fatal consequences. They claim
the unanimous endorsement of the
medical profession as supporting their
theory, but it is evident doctors dis
agree on this rs on other points, as the
Lancet, the great medical authority in
London, recently contained an article
opposing their assertions. The Lancet
says:
"To excel in such exercises, regular
system of training is required, involv-
ing temperance if not abstemiousness
in all things, and constant practice
and it is pleasant to find, from the large
body of evidence collected by DIR. Nor
gan in his interesting work entitled
"University Oars" that, in the opinion
of all, or almost all who have pursued
rowing with more ardor than as mere
amusement, no injurious effects can be
attributed to it, provided only that the
men have been properly trained. The
information he has obtained shows that
no less than twelve of the sixteen men
who rowed in the first inter-university
race in 1929 are still living that the
competitors in this, as well as in the
succeeding races, have had as good an
average of life as any corresponding
number of Englishmen who do not row,
and, lastly, that while an extremely
small number of men have suffered any
injury from rowing, many acknowledge
the benefits they have received from it
in health, strength, and spirits. No
doubt there are some men who are Who'll
ly unfit to enter into any competition of
| the kind. The strain of all exertion
| falls primarily on the heart and lungs,
and in secondary degree on the brain.
AS soon as the muscles contract, the
mechanism of the valves in the veins
occasions quicker current and larger
volume of blood to enter the right heart,
which labors to propel its contents
through the capillaries of the lungs.
These become surcharged with blood,
and, for few moments, difficulty of
breathing is experienced. Soon, how
ever, the vigorous movements of respi-
ration introduce the due amount of
oxygen, the left heart is filled, the bal
ance between the venous and arterial
circulation is restored, and the second
wind is obtained. From this time forth
the we'll man is at ease, and his
work is only limited by his nervous and
muscular power. Asound constitutional
youth, with no special proclivity to dis
ease, who begins moderately and works
steadily, gaining strength in his muscles
and heart, and capacity in his lungs,
need fear no danger in a boat race. For
him, rowing would prove a wholesome
exercise. But it is easy to see what
must be the effect of such conditions to
man with unsound lungs or heart IT
matters little which is at fault the re-
suit is nearly the same. In either case,
whether the heart be feeble, or the
lungs, from original conformation OF
disease, be inadequate to transmit the
volume of blood forced into them by O
vigorous heart, the first active move.
ments gorge the light cardiac cavities,
and, as these cannot discharge theil
contents, the entire venous system feels
the effects, and lividity of the surface
and general distress are the immediate
onsequences-conseq that. il
the effort be persisted in, may easily
lead to cardiac dilatation and its at
tendant evils, or, in an extreme case, to
rupture of the walls of the heart, or tc
cerebro hemorrhage or, on the Other
hand, should the lungs be very serious
ly affected, and the heart possess fail
energy, to pulmonary hemorrhage."