The morning call., 1891-06-14
TAKING GOOD CARE
OF OUR BODIES.
Sir MOrGIl Mackenzie, the Great English
Physician, On Exercise.
The Main Thing Is to Begin Right-Let Ba-
bies Kick and Wriggle Ali They Want.
Don't 0verexert the Muscles.


acrobatic performances, twisting its limbs
and turning them into knots that might ex-
cite the envy of a professional ''eontortion-
ist," says the Newark Journal II is an eX-
cellent plan to give an infant perfect muscu-
lar freedom for some time every day; it
should be disincumbered of any super
fuouS clothing and laid on rug Of some
soft material on the floor and allowed to
kick and throw itself about to its hearts
content. On the general principle appar-
emily that every natural tendency is q
prompting of the evil spirit, it used to be
the universal custom to restrain the move
mentS of infants limbs by swathing them
in innumerable bandageS, as if they were
diminutiye mummies. With the eager
life within them thus ''cabin'd, crib
bed. confined" the poor little things
must have been mere bundles of helpless
misery, and in many cases must have been
dwarfed in their growth, if not deformed.
The more enlightened among the doctors
Illuminated against the practice for centu-
ries, but in that, as in most other things.
medical wisdom cried in the street and no
man regarded it. 1t needed the genius Of
Rousseau to persuade the more civilized part
of the world of the senselesS cruelty of tight
Swaddling clothes, and at this day his teach
ingS have not entirely prevailed even in his
Gwn country. ANY traveller in Italy and
Spain can see for himself that the school
master is not abroad as regards infantile
hygiene.
One effect of the "trussing" of the limbs
ia infancy may be observed in the crowds of
CRIPPLES AND MIssHAPEN
Creatures that one sees around the doors of
churches III the South. Nothing strikes the
Intelligent foreigner" in England more
than the high standard of physical devel-
opment and the comparative rarity of de-
f0rmity in the bulk Of our population.
When staying al hotels abroad | have no.
ticed the admiration aroused among the
natives by the superior size and strength of
my juvenile eOuntrymen. One reason Of
this excellence of physique undoubtedly is
that the British baby is from the first al
lowed an amount Of liberty in the use OF his
limbs BETTING the future citizen of free
country.
As the child grows older the boisterous-
ness with which it romps may be taken as
pretty sure index of its state of health.
Herbert Spencer speaks with a sympathetic
insight which was hardly to be expected
from philnsupher-and,m moreover, elieVe
| NAV add baehelOr-of the torture il is
to a healthy child 10 ">lt still" Words
worth is a physioIOgiSt rs well as a poet
when he SAYS that a child feels its life
in ev,rv limb" But hy long continued
confinement and restraint, that is, by
being made To live under totally unnatural
cOnditiOnS-thiS wholesome eXuoerance of
vitality may be lost and give place 10 list
leSsneSS and even positive dislike to play.
DR.. Fernand Lagrange, who has written a
valuable work On exercise in childhood, says
that for years past alarm has been felt by
those charged with the education of the
young in France because children have
lost the taste for exercise" This be at
tributes entirely to the sinister pTedOmi-
nance of the sch0olmaSter ~ modern child
life. The denial Of Natures rights in re-
spect to play is followed by an unfailing
Nemesis in the form of i'll health, or what is
perhaps worse. by gradual adaptation to
circumstances leading to a j)ylesS child
hood, a fiabby, languid youth, a stunted,
stagnant maturity and premature old age.
In the French lyCees the bad effects, moral
and physical. Of insufficient exercise are
writ large SO as TO strike the most Indifferent
eye.
IT WOULD BE WONDERFUL
If it were otherwise, seeing that the only
playground the poor boys have to disport
thems elves in is an Enclosure aboutas cheer
fu as the yard Of prison, and in this for a
few minutes in the day they toll through
the set gvmnastic task as enliVening as the
treadwell.
In English schools OF q corresponding
class things are very different, but as re-
CARDS the lower couches s0ciales is not the
SchOolmRSter too much with US also? In
our devOuring zeal for the gospel of the
three RS we are apt to forget that, as Her
bert Spencer puts it, 'the first requisite for
success in life is to be a good animal" This
is a much more important matter both for
the present rising generation and for the
future Of our race than the precOci0us pass
ing Of Standards" and the earning of cap
itatiOn grants for teachers. To my mind
4 Ia t1eva 81 a1.f L..
is one Of the most urgent questions
of the day, and 1t Is one which
might well engage the attention
of our legislators il they could
spare a little time from their exciting
game of . I'm the King Of the Castle" Ii
a small fraction of the attention that is
given to the rearing of cattle were given TO
the bringing up Of children Walt NalGman's
prophetic version of a nation of four
millions of magnificent persons would be
in fair way of being realized. We have a
Minister of Agriculture whose duty ii is to
see that the fouT-f0Oted commonwealth Sus-
tains no detriment: why should there not be
a Minister Of H0miniculture charged with
the development Of the national resources
in respect of that not altogether valueless
product, man? The ''perfectibility" of the
human race depends much more on physical
than on mental culture, for intellect. energy
of will and strength OF moral fiber are largely
dependent on
SOUND BODILY HEALTH.
how, then, are children tu be made good
anmals?" BY the fullest possible develop
ment of their bodily powers. How is this
development to be comprised? Adapting
Danton's famous saying, | an SweT, by eXer-
else, and vet again by exercise There can
be no dispute about this; the only question
is as to tile form and amount Of the exercise.
The period of childhood may be taken as ex-
tending frun the AGE Of fNyO and thrpt4 VparS
up to puberty. Now, what is wanted at this
stage is not so much the acquisition of mus
cuar strength or skill as a solid foundation
OF general health. In childhood exercise
should be almost exclusively general or
hygienic indeed, | ain inclined to think that
the less purely local or athletic exercise
growing child has the better it will be, not
only for its constitution, but for its future
muscular development. Very young chill
dren should be encouraged to run
about, to trundle hoops, or, If at the sea-
side, to build castles, etc, On the sand
in short, to play and romp, instead
of dawdling. Walking about with nurse
maid who possibly takes more interest in
infantry that in infants can hardly be
amusing and may be extremely fatlguiDg to
her little charges. In the way of SYSTEM
attic exercise for young children there is
nothing better than the kindergarten move
ments: the fact that they are done in COM
paay with other children and often to the
accompaniment of song assimilateS these
little drills to games and lessons the danger
of their being looked upon as tasks. For
older children no meth0dical exercise, how
ever scientifically arranged, can compare
with the boisterous outdoor games which
bring every muscle into play. lash the heart
into a gallOp, and make the vital bellows
the lungs-blow the fire of life into glow.
The excitement Of the game is what doctors
would call its 'active principle" for glad
ness is the best of all tonics. Even the
shouting however it may yex the ears of
old fogies, is in itself an important element
in the exercise, as it brings the lungs and
the muscles of the chest and throat into
vigorous action.
ALASKA'S BOUNDARY.