The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1891-01-20
PHYSICAL EXERCISE.
An Excess of 1t Gauges Heart Disease and
Shnrtans Life.

n EXCESS oil DlStdrc anu
Shortans Life.
In all oh ysical exercise it is the heart
that is most directly affected. and il 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, if the severe exer-
else is continued, is likely to prove
disastrous. DIR. Patton, chef surgeon
of the National Soldiers Home, at Day
ton, o., said in an interview in Pitts
burgh 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 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 NJ. 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 a mortality list
of Oxford rowing men published
few years ago showed that a
comparatively small percentage of
them lived out the allotted lifetime. DR..
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 voca-
tons of life and nearly eight years
longer than men OF action. among whom
are included the athletes. And it is a
noteworthy fact that women, who until
recent years have taken no physical ex-
ercise at all, die at more advanced age
than men. But doubtless their superb
ority in regard to tenure of life will
come TO an end if they follow the advice
of DIR. Richardson. who in lecture be-
fore the Ladies' Sanitary Association of
London is reported 20 have declared it
essential, as a matter of principle. that
eight hours day should be devoted to
1t is curious to note in connection
with the above the various ailments and
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 |
of the chest produces round |
shoulder, makes respiration difficult and |
in some cases induces disease of the i
spine. Too constant a devotion to lawn |
tennis occasions the peculiar and pain |
full tennis elbow" As for rowing, one |
Of the best single scullers in the coun- |
try is man of looping figure with the
signs of consumption in his face. Prof. |
Blaikie says that oarsmen, as rule. |
have fat or even hollow chests, while |
their legs are poorly developed. 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
actually inclines to crsmp
them" And / may add that the most !,
popular of New Iork's instructors in [
athletics, man who has passed his life |
in gymnasiums is a round-shouldered ]
and any thing but prepossessing man
physically.-N. y. Epoch.