The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1890-09-25
PHYSICAL EXERCISE.


An Excess OF 1t Causes Heart Disease and
shortens Life.
In all MYSTICAL exercise 1t is the heart
that is most directly affected, and It is
On that organ, the pumping station for
the blood vessels, that the consequences
Of muscular exertion are most telling
The tendency, when exercise Is per
sisted in, is for the heart to increase in
size, and in, every athlete it becomes
much larger than in the ordinary man.
Consider then what the result must be
when the tyro begins to take violent
exercise. without long continued pre-
vious training suitable to adapt the
heart to its changed conditions. An
organic weakness is sure to ensue, and
the ultimate result, il the severe exer-
else is continued, is likely to prove
disastrous. DIR. Patton, chief surgeon
Of the National Soldiers Home, at Day
ton, o., said in an interview in Pitts
ourgh only the other day that OF the
5000 soldiers IN the Dayton home
fully so per cent. are suffering from
heart disease in one form or another
due to the forced physical exertion of
their campaigns" And he made the
prediction that as large a percentage
of the athletes of to-day will be found
twenty-five years from now to be victims
of heart disease, resulting from the
muscular strains that they force them
selves to undergo.
As for the likelihood of exercise to
prolong life it may be said that accord
ing to the statistics of M. de Solaiville
there are more people living in France
to-day who have passed the age OF sixty
than there are in Eng and, the home of
athletic sports And there is probably
no nation in Europe more averse to
muscular cultivation for its own sake
than the French. Great athletes
die young, and mortality list
of Oxford rowing men published a
few years ago showed that a
comparatively small percentage of
them lived out the allotted lifetime. DIR.
Jastrow has demonstrated in some very
elaborate statistics that men of thought
! live on an average three and half years
/ longer than men in the ordinary yoca-
tions Of life and nearly eight years
, longer than men OF action, among whom
|
noteworthy fact that women, who until
recent years have taken no ph ysical ex-
ercise at all, die at more advanced age
than men. -Bat-donbtless their superb
-ority in regard to tenure of life will
come to1an end if they follow the advice
of DR.. Richardson, who in a lecture be-
fore the Ladies' Sanitary Association OF
London is reported to have declared it
essential, as a matter. of principle, that
eight hours day should be devoted to
| exercise"
1t is curious to note in connection
with the above the various ailments and
malformations that are caused by many
of the most popular sports. The base.
ball players Charley horse" is nothing
less than muscular rheumatism of the
thigh. Bicycling, according to DIR. B.
| Richardson, makes men bow-legged,
while at the same time it contracts the
muscles Of the chest produces round
shoulder, makes respiration difficult and
| in some cases induces disease of the
| spine. Too constants devotion to lawn
tennis occasions the peculiar and pain
full tennis elbow" AS for rowing, one
of the best single scullers in the eeun
try is man of STOPPING figure with the
signs of consumption in his face. Prof
Blaikie says that oarsmen, as rule
4 have fiat or even hollow chests; while
their legs are poorly developed. 1.-The
very size OF the muscles of the back and
shoulders tends more to weigh the oars
man forward than if he had never
developed them, and instead of benefit
ing his throat and lungs this abnormal
development actually inclines to cramr
them" And ! may add that the mos
popular of New York's instructo il
athletics, a man who has passed his life
in gymnasiums, is a oundshouldered
and any thing but prepossessing man
| physically-N Y Epoch