The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-09-03
Athletiolsrn in fine senle.

 going astray with regard to 1t, As one of the teachers of the laws of pub lie health, I was taken to task, some years ago, for critlcising the Oxford and Cambridge boat races and Rugby football; now I am occasionally taken to task for speaking too warmly in Support of physical exercises. be- lieve, however, that my views have been consistent throughout, and have never been in favor of vehement com petition, physical or mental, but rather of development of the physical and mental powers in an ample and fair degree. so that body and mind may act healthily together.
 At the same time, setting aside eX- ceptional instances, l should, on phy- siological grounds, put the physical de- velopment in the first place. Mind follows the mould in which it is cast. If there were two living animal forms
 two men for example of precisely the same physical build; if they were of the same weight and structure of body; if all their parts and all their organs were alike-their heart, blood, lungs, brain, and nervous system, organs of sense, muscles, and the rest, including specially the digestive structure-and if their conditions of life or environ ments were also identical their minds would be the same, little or great minds that would think the same thoughts, inspire the same acts, and say the same things.
 What we want, therefore, in the first
 place, is the best bodily substance. con- struction and maintenance. If this
 view be true, everything that tends to regulate physical exercise, and to lead to the perfection of organic form and capacity, should help to produce per- | lection of mental form and capacity. It should not be insisted that all who possess mental powers of the first or der have been trained to use their gifts | by physical exercise, or they will al- ways be few who are naturally en- | dowed with special capacity of mind. | Yet even if some be born with such ad- vantages, it is an additional benefit for them to train themselves to the full | development of their powers. In brief,
 it is best for no one to depend on mere endowment, rich as it may be, but to cultivate the endowment, on the ground that it is unwise to attribute too much
 to that which is a product of few gen erations at the most, and which, like
 an inherited estate, must be kept in or l der that it may continue to be in ac-
 cord with the spirit of the times, duly l fitted for what is required of it under ] the conditions of life which it has to | face, and equal to cope with the new | forces with which it may have to com pete.
 It is clear that we cannot look round
 and take note of our contemporaries
 in any department of life without feel 1 ing certain that many who stand in the ffrst rank are not indebted in any way to any physical powers which they have cultivated for the development of their mental organization, and I
 may include in that observation, also,
 some men of past history. Yet, as a matter of history, the physical develop 1 ment comes first and proves that good physical work should be cultivated. The danger lies not in the cultivation of it, but in the cultivation, and the tendency now is toward the latter I can remember when exercises of a physical kind were limited in number
 when cricket and rowing were almost the only ones, and when rowing was
 the only exercise that led to any con-
 siderable risk of overstrain. Now botf I these exercises are being pushed tc | excess; while others, which are very popular such as football cycling, anC pedestrianism,a are alluring men to ar
 over-cultivation of certain part: of the body that should be summed
 that destroys its own object in so fal
 as bodily perfection is concerned, an6 that certainly when it renders the body
 imperfect injures the mind of the own
 CT and of those who unfortunately
 spring from him.
 The grand natural lesson we have
 to learn is to cultivate health; to over : come the excessive desire of competi
 tion; to be strong and skilful and en during, but not ambitious after tn,
 manner of children who wish to be a , the head or nowhere; and to remembel : when We use violent exertions tha , there are certain, parts of the body
 vital parts, on which the mental worI depends and which are easily ruined , The body can be killed through on organ, and in youth and middle ag
 mortal injury of body and mind come , usually through one organ as the prim
 ary seat of evil; it is an evil of fire
 quent occurrence and greatly on tn
 increase. A man is said to "throv :, himself heart and soul into his work
 Such man is in danger. He ha , four great parts of his body to consid er-his heart and blood system, hi lungs and other organs associated wit breathing, his muscles, his brain an, nervous system. But he does not hee1 ; them at all. He runs or cycles exces T sively, and in much shorter time thai he has the least idea of he makes hi heart too strong for the rest of his or ganism and endangers the finer rami : | fications of the vessels which are un : der the domination of the heart H : rows without studying consequences : and long before he is convinced of in
 jury he has produced an injury of tn . | chest mechanism which may soon b permanently established. He takes t : some muscular training which puts tn . muscular organs to an extreme of ten {. | sion; large and small muscles alik : are exposed to strain, both the stron = muscles that give propulsion and tn delicate muscles that guide and befor