The Portland daily press., 1894-11-10
FOR AND AGAINST BICYCLING.
Beneficial Exercise it May Give and
Disease it May Cause.

ties Should Avoid it-Other Disorders
Produced.
The habit and abuse of bicycling has
attracted good deal of attention recent
ly from the medical world. The use of
the bicycle has, during the last few
years, entered completely into our daily
customs but no one appears to have con-
sldered whether this exercise is good or
bad says writer in the European edi-
ton of the New York Herald. This ma
chine, the product of our fin-de-siecle in
ventive genius, appeared to be very use
ful, and was at once accepted without
further question.
But at the present time, when every
pody uses the pedals; when short skirts
and baggy trousers have replaced long
dresses to admit of women mounting the
steel horses, very much to the detriment
of aesthetics and gracefulness; when
even children and old persons are seized
with the contagion of this new means of
locomotion and submit cheerfully to the
hardships of learning to ride, it is time
that the other side of the medal should
be shown and that the disadvantage of
bicycle riding should be opposed to it's
undou bted good points.
This question is now calling for floods
OF controversy, as it has been brought up
before three learned societies, tine Asso
citation Franchise pour advancement
des Sciences, the Hygienic Congress at
pyiI
de Paris.
THE ADVANTAGES OF THE BICY-
Gle.
These are evident to everyone-easy,
rapid riding without much exertion.
The useful and agreeable features in the
case are combined in. this instance. The
trouble is to avoid excess and the ten
dency to neglect the other factors and to
prize only one, speed. In my opinion
rapid riding, IS, 80 and even 40 kilome-
tres an hour,..an fortiori, greater speed
sJill, go and 81 kilometres an hour has
often been done, should carefully be
avoided. am quite aware that an ex-
perienced rider going stato such aapace
feels no respiratory fatigue, whereas this
function is less agreeable In a Carriage
drawn at that speed. but in this article
l am mot dealing with these exceptional
riders, but write for those who use the
bicycle as an amusement and as means
of taking exercise
The bicycle is an apparatus specially
adapted for progression. When human
beings walk they do so at the expense of
considerable effort at each step; the CEN
tire of gravity of the body has to be
raised, and through the friction occurr-
ing when the feet strike the ground a
great part of the force exerted is lost.
The bicycle, on the contrary, makes use
of all the exertion. transforming it into
horizontal work; it only comes in con-
tact with the ground with the smallest
possible surfaces, whereby friction is re-
duced to minimum, and the latest
mechanical inventions, such as the
pneumatic tires and others, have re-
duced this friction still more. 1t is fur
thermore an apparatus with mo equilib-
rum, and the favorable results produced
in the organ is in seeking ITO maintain
equilibrium are quite well known, it
having beer noticed that the clowns and
acrobats in circus are always the best
built men.
deIt lis also in his endeavor to maintain
Ione's self in equilibrium that must be
attri buted5 the charm that the adopts
find in the bicycle; tberesis Especial sort
of fascination in trying to succeed iri9per-
sons seeking to master the difficulties in
the way of their attaining d condition
OF equilibrium, SO much SO that they of
ten forget everything else., to3@
10 work the machine the thigh
muscles are of more service than those
of the calf, and since the bar of the
bicycle is managed by the arms and
shoulders, all the muscles are forced to
work, even those of the chest, by means
of deep inspiration and expiration. The
muscles of the back also come into play
in maintaining ones balance, and there
Is no better proof Of the fact that all the
muscles of the body are used in bicy-
cling than the general fatigue and stiff
ness felt by all who begin to use the
machine. On this account some physi-
clans have felt justified in recommends
ing bicycling in many forms of neurosis
and for all diseases in which physical
exercise and open air life are indicated.
THE DRAWBACK TO BICYCLING.
Their are two drawbacks connected
with this form of exercise. The bicycle
demands an apprenticeship and long
series of efforts to attain sufficient skill
to ride without fatigue.
The variety of accidents that may be
caused by bicycling is great, and they
can be divided into two groups, those
affecting both machine and rider, and
those concerning the latter only; falls,
less dangerous, however, than those
from horseback, extreme and ungovern-
able speed, which must of course be
avoided; accidents to the machine, in
which fragments may wound the rider,
but which can be avoided by carefully in
speeding the bicycle before mounting.
1t is not rare to meet with cases of