Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-07-01
Walking as an Exercise.

DR. ii. L. BOWDITCH has been writing a
series OF articles for the London iSazastary
Record on Health, and the Means of
Preserving It." In the third paper, which
is devoted to " Exercise, f" after enumerat
ing the principal kinds, as walking, run
ming, dancing, horseback riding, driving,
gymnastics, boxing, bowling, rowing and
| swimming, he goes on as follows:
Of these the most universally applica-
bic and usually the best form of exercise
| is walking. Unfortunately our climate,
| with its SHOWS and Intense cold in winter
| and equally intense and depressing heat
in summer, prevents all of us from walk
ing as much as would be useful, or as
much as can be done in some other coun-
tries throughout the year. Whenever it
is feasible it probably exercises the whole
| body better than any other method 1t be-
comes, however, very uninteresting, even
in large city, if made simply for health
sake
Therefore it is always we'll to combine
with it another object, either of business
or of pleasure. Hence a profession that
will compel out-of-door exercise is the
best prescription one can give. [ have in
recollection now a case of a naturally
| feeble man who had very decided signs of
pulmonary disease, with bleeding from
the lungs. He was a newspaper carrier
when he called to see me after one of his
bleedings. [ feared at that time that ex
pOsure during the winter would be very
pernicious, and perhaps fatal to him.
| Under this exercise, however, taken daily
in rain and storms of all weather. and by
the use of cod liver oil, he wholly re-
covered.
Those of my patients who have most
| frequently recovered are those who, by
| advice, comm enced years since, and still
continue several times daily, their " con-
| stitutional" walks around the g Common"
in Boston (about a mile). They will con-
tinue to do so while they live, because
they know from experience now that not
only their health but their real comfort
depends upon strict attention to that
course. Omission of that exercise for a
single day perceptibly affects them unfa-
vorably. Two more obvious advantages
arise from this course:
1. Every muscle in the body is gently
and uniformly brought into action by the
swing of the legs and the arms, and con
sequently of the trunk in vertical direc-
ton. The undulations made by the head,
chest and abdomen in vertical plane are
| thus not only according to Hog arth 8
| line of beauty" but also in that tending
to perfect health. Every internal organ
is gently stimulated to more robust action.
The circulation goes more freely and uni
| formly.
2. Never, in a common walk, does a
person breathe twice the same air, because
he is constantly changing his position.
This fact alone is of incalculable adj
vantage. Some writers contend that the
rebreathing of air once partially used is
one of the most fertile causes of consump-
| ton.
| The most favorable time for walking is
undoubtedly about midday in winter, and
in the morning and toward evening in the
summer. Late in the evening is less use
| full, because of the liability to dampness
| and GOODNESS, and absence of the SUMS
rays, which of themselves seem sometimes
to put vigor into the animal frame, and
their absence is correspondingly felt in a
| depression of the powers.
Nevertheless, one cannot deny that there
is a great energy sometimes given by a
l
moonlight night, when the atmosphere
seems not only free from all chilling
moisture but absolutely pure and infinite
| ly exhilarating.