The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-01-09

not SO mature as to have lost any degree
of their elasticity, power and facility for
affording graceful and powerful move
ments. The nervous system has become
well developed, and the senses have
reached to good and healthy action. At
thlrty-six the organs have ceased to in
crea se naturally, and all parts have en-
tered into maturity which stands in the
way of new activity of a permanent char
acter. BY this time the body begins to
feel conclusions and vibrations, which,
exalted, pass easily into shocks affecting
the elastic substance, especially the elias
tic arteries and all strutures that require
to be cushioned by the elastic element.
1t elastic tissue grows in the body in
youth and adolescence, there comes an
early period when it fails to grow; and
as occurs in a piece of India rubber,
there comes another period when it be-
gins to lose its elasticity. The many new
exercises OF an extreme kind become a
mechanical aainjury, which asoon shows
itself in the fact that the man once SO
successful is forced, nolens volens, to
admit that he is beaten by younger COM
petltors. Here are disadvantages of a
striking kind. I have seen them.
have over and over again seen mature
men vitality injured by too prolonged
competition. 1t is hard to know and
feel all this, but it is according to our
mistress, Nature, and she is so strong
and so determined jade she will give
nothing beyond what she has given.
Nobody says no and means it with so
memorable a determination as Mistress
Nature. A man had better be obedient
to her than to his wife or a woman
to her husband. There are certain
organic dangers incident always to what
| is known as the maximum of muscular
exertion. DR.. Kolb. in his admirable
manual. THE Physiology of Sport" has
shown that different muscular exercises
lead to different effects on different parts
and Organs. He points out these effects
on four sets of organs and systems:
(a) on the muscles themselves; (b) on
| the lungs and respiration; (c) on the
heart and circulation; (d) on the nerv-
GUS system. The muscles are most affect
ed by motions when the body is compar
atively steady, as in the use of dumb
bells and in the raising of weights. In
these cases the muscles in certain groups
may grow weary, with the formation
in them of new chemical compounds,
which, being absorbed into the blood,
are dangerous, in fact, toxical, or poison
GUS products, causing feverish condi
tions and much ultimate depression.
The lungs and respiratory functions,
at the maximum OF effort, ale most
disturbed by rowing, and the exhaustion
is almost entirely shown by the breath
lessness and the partial asphyxia witness
ed in roWers after very sharp race. The
heart and circulation are most affected
by three athletic exercises, namely. run
ming, dancing and cycling. kolb seems
surprised to have found that after run
ming the heart rose from the natural
beats-say TITO over 200 beats per min
ute, and even higher, with almost in
slant fall to 100 when the exercise was
over, and with ..momentary casatinon or
iptermittency when the maximum effort
was too prolonged. The change he has
traced out by the pulse-reader or sphyg-
mograph, from athletes themselves, and
l can corroborate ali that he says on these
points as well as on the danger arising
from high pressure of the blood The
nervous system is most seriously injured
by long feats of walking and climbing,
feat which middle-aged men often per-
form from ignorance, and at great risk
to themselves, with the object of remedy
ing nervous exhaustion due to prolonged
mental labor and close application in
confined and badly ventilated libraries
and offices.
All these disadvantages it is right that
members of an association of athletes
should know that they may avoid bring
ing their art into disrepute. They of all
men, as giants on view in the field of
combat, should appreciate the sentence:
THAT never can true wisdom dwell with
those
Who, playing tricks with future dare not
look
At their own vices"
They should protect themselves with
scrupulouss care against all the dangers
of the athletic life incident to maximum
excellence; they should criticise also, as
ungainly as well as unhealthy, all mis-
takes of position of body such, for in
stance as the cyclist bent over the wheel
displays until he runs the risk of becom-
ing distorted. Finally having attained
sound training and atheletic build for
some contest, athletes should, of all
things, avoid falling suddenly back from
strict rules of training into the wanton
luxuries of existence-passing rapidly
from the lean and hungry look of Cassius
into that of the sleek-headed men and
them that sleep O. nights-a transition
that undoes all that training has effect
ed. and lets down the vital clock, well
wound up and strong, into a machine
with a damaged spring, or with works
suddenly loaded with devitalized rust
and dust.-Sir Benjamin Ward Richard
son. MD, FRS, in Longman's Maya
zine.