Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-07-06
HYPNOSIS BICYCLlSTAROM."


An Evil That is Affecting Many Deyotees
of the Bicycle to an Alarming Extent.
New York Tribune.
There is no canon Of art under which
such name as "Kyphosis bioyclis-
tarum" can be considered beautiful.
Speak it as you will, 1t is an offence to
tongue and ear, But that very fact
demonstrates its fitness for existence
and for use. An ugly thing should have
an ugly name. And if human perversity
has invented anything much uglier than
that for which this verbal cacophony
stands, the fact is not recorded in the
annals OF the closing century. Unhap-
PLY, the thing itself is not as unfamiliar
as its name, but obtrudes its deformity
upon the outraged eye in every hour, at
every turning. 1t is one OF the
characteristic evils of the age, and In
the name of Its multitudinous victims,
subjective and objective, requires i'm
mediate and severe repression.
"Kyphosis bicyclistarum, " then, being
interpreted, Is "bicycle-riders stoop;"
and what that Is, none but the blind
will ask. Many men, we might per-
haps say the majority of men, espec-
tally II they be young, on learning the
graceful and useful art of bicycle
ing, appear to forget that they were
made in the image Of their Maker, and
intended to be physically upright. In
stead, they diligently seek to transform
themselves into the image Of some
creeping thing. The head goes down,
the back is bumped, the arms assume
the position of forelegs and the once
erect and graceful Antinous becomes a
wretched trayesty of Quasimodo.
Upon aesthetic grounds alone, no
reprobation of this attitude can be too
strong. There is no uglier object out
side freak museum than even the
handsomest young man bending in
colicky curvature over the steering-bar.
But other and graver considerations
arise. The chest Ia contracted and the
lungs cramped, the spine is permanently
curved and perhaps otherwise injured,
and thus not only are the good effects
of bicycle riding prevented, but posi-
lively evil effects are brought about.
Physicians OF the highest standing tes-
tify that dorsal curvature posteriorly,
once rare, is now alarmingly common.
especially among young riders of the
wheel. 1t is thus an actual and most
serious fact that this perversion of a
benefcent gift threatens the world with
race of narrow-chested and hump
backed men.
Ugly and pernicious as this habits, 1t
is no less unnecessary. In racing a
wheelman may bend forward so as to
offer the less resistance to the air, as one
walking stoops low when facing furi-
Gus storm. But otherwise there is no ex-
cuse for SO doing. In ordinary wheeling
an erect attitude gives one even bettar
command of the wheel than does stoop-
ing, as the elements of natural philoso-
ply readily prove. Women who ride
wheels do not stoop. They sit erect and
graceful. Yet they ride as securely and,
in due proportion, as strongly and
swiftly as their brothers.
The secret of the evil probably lies in
the general proneness of the masculine
spine toward relaxation. Observe any
number of average men sitting on
benches that have no backs. How many
of them are erect; or, rather, how few I
Their backs are bowed, their shoulders
droop forward, they seem to emulate
the attitude of frogs. And SO they do
when they get upon bicycles, and thus
give to the world "Kyphosis bicycles
tarum"-the name and the disease. BY
all means out upon i'll To squat
bumped up BELTS the tramp on the park
bench. But the energetic young athlete,
riding his steed of steel, should remem-
Der that he has muscles in his back as
we'll as in the calves of his legs. Shout
ders back Chest forward! Eyes front
No "Kyphosis bicyclistarum p