The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1875-09-10
Walking as an Exercise.

"0'AtaS 40 oH ShcI Ctocs
DR.. II. |. Bowditch has been writing
a series of articles forthe London Sani-
tary Record on 'sHealth, and the Means
OF Preserving It." In the third paper,
which is devoted to s'Exercise,n after
enumerating the principal kinds, as
walking, running, dancing, horseback
riding, driving, gymnastics. boxing,
bowling, rowing and swimming, he
goes on a. follows:
OF these the most universally applica-
bic and usually the best form of eXer-
else is walking. Unfortunately our eli
mate, with its snow and intense cold
in winter and equally intense and de-
pressing heat i'll summer, prevents all
of us from walking as much as would
be useful, or rs much Is can be done in
some other countries throughout the
year. Wheneverit j. feasible, it proba-
bly, exercises the whole body better than
any other method. 1t becomes, how
ever, very unintcreeting, even i'll a large
city. If made simply for Eealth's sake.
Therefore, it is always we'll 81 COM
binc with it another object, either of
business or of pleasure. Hence Il pro-
fessinn that will compel out-of-door ex-
ercise 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
Il newspaper carrier when he called to
see me, after n of his bleedinGS. |
feared, AT that time, that exposure dur
ing the winter would be very pernicious,
and perhaps fatal to him. Under the
exercise, however, taken daily in rain
and storms of all weather, and by the
Use Of cod liver oil, he wholly recov-
cred.
Those of my patients who have most
frequently recovered are those who, by
advice, commenced years since, and
still continue, several times daily, their
''cOnstitutiOnal'' walks around the
''Common" in Boston (about q mile).
They will continue to do 50 while they
live, because they know from expert
ence now that not only their health, but
their real comfort, depends upon a strict
attention to that course; omission Of
that exercise for a single day, percepti-
bly, affects them mfavorably. Two
more obvious advantages arise from this
course:
/. Every muscle in the bodyi is gently
and uniformly brought into action by
The swing of the legs and the arms, and
consequently OF the trunk in 4 vertical
direction. The undulationS made by
he head, chest and abdomen, in q YER
.ical plane, are thus not only accord
NJ To ''Hogarth'S line of beauty"
Dut also III that tending to perfect
health. Every internal organ is gently
stimulated to more robust action. The
circulation goes more freely and uni
>. Never in Il COMMON walk, does Il
person breathe twice the same air, be-
he is constantly changing his posi-
ion. This fact alone is of incalculable
Some writer's contend that
he ~rebreathin@ of air once partially
Iscd il one of the most fertile causes of
consumption.
The most favorable time for walking
; undoubtedly about midday in winter,
nd in the morning and toward evening
n the summer. Late in the evening is
nss useful, because OF the liability to
ampnc>s and GOODNESS, and absence OF
he suns rays. which Of themselves
Gem sometimes to put yigOr into the
nimal frame, and their absence is cor
cspondiugly felt in q depression of the
overs.
Nevertheless, one cannot deny that
mere is a great energy sometimes given
V a brisk walk in a cold, dry, starlight
+ moonlight night, when the atmos-
here seems not only free from all chill
70 moisture, but absolutely pure and
Ifinitely celebrating.
TIE Norwegian settlement in Bo>quc
oHnty, Texas, is said to look like the
+brif+,- mt &C tb, ,O,n+-