The age-herald., 1898-11-06
HEALTH Ih
 HE DANCE.

HE DANCE. "Medicina gymnastica has in all ages justly been of great esteem in the cure | of chronical diseases and still contin- ues it's reputation, as it's usefulness is confirmed by daily experience" So wrote that ingenious musical apothe- cary, Richard Browne, more than a | century and a half ago. These nieth- l ods, however, died out soon after his | time, to be revived in modified form | in our days. But as a matter of fact, | Browne here refers to one particular form of physical exercise--dancing. It 1 is to the goddess Terpsichore that this lIdisciple of AGsculapius bends his knee | and asks for assistance. Dancing was | to be a powerful auxiliary in the cure laof disease and the maintenance of good 1 latnd lusty health.
 | This was by no means a new idea. I As Browne states, dancing had been l advocated in the earliest ages for the l cure of diseases. Lycurgus had brought l back to Lacedemonia notions of medico lreligious dances from India and Egypt,
 and, adapting these customs to his rul- ing idea, enacted that the Spartan 1 youth should be brought up to dance | -sgmmetrically and gracefully, even in l heavy armor. Thus he cOntrived to ltcbmbine martial training with phys liieal exercise which was to make the l young men agile and graceful, confer bring on them great physiological bene- lifts. In the rival state We find Socrates | commenting dancing, with view to 1 educating the mind and body; he, too, l looking on dancing as. a health giving l,exercise. In primitive medicine we find ledafcing taking no mean part in the Eoccult practices. We may Still see il liworking wonders in many a savage land, the dancing being performed now by the patient, now by the medicine man, according to the more or less ex- act notions Sof scientific truth existing in the region.
 Dancing was, and is, used chiefly as
 means of expelling devils and evil
 spirits, or, as we now more accurately put it, as a means of "accelerating the elimination of effete and deleterious se-
 cretions in the vessels and tissues by physiological action" These notions are not new, even with us Richard Mulcaster, celebrated schoolmaster under Queen Elizabeth, recommended
 that dancing should be taught as a branch of physical training, resulting in the improvement of polite carriage and department and means of keep ing the bodies of young children in a healthy condition.
 But what has happened since Richard
 Brownes days? The hours of saltatory enjoyment have been receding steadily,
 until surely we must have at last ar
 rived at the furthest extremity, or otherwise we shall soon be beginning to
 dance by daylight again. Of course it is no use railing against fashion. New ertheless we cannot help acknowledg- ing that Richard Browne was substan-
 tially right in his protest.
 These old world physicians were the
 friends of carpet dances" and what are sometimes called "bread and butter
 balls" He goes as far as the most en-
 thusiastic could desire: q believe, in
 deed, that to dance an hour or more at a convenient time after any meal, &C.,
 cording as we find ourselves in a ca
 pacity, would be most beneficial" So here we have strong support for our practice of getting up impromptu Gin
 derella dances on the occasion of Q friendly dinner or evening party.
 Exercise of any kind is always good, and dancing, bringing as it does most muscles into play, may safely be ac- knowledged, if not a specific for the cure of disease, at least means of keeping body and mind in a healthy condition. On one point, at all events, there can be no dispute-the ancients were perfectly right when they declared dancing to be a good educator. It cer- tainly lends grace to movements and general department and gives agility and lightness to it's devotees. It is a mild form of gymnastics in which all may join, with pleasure to themselves and their companions.
 We cannot do better than conclude with the sensible words of Browne
 "As for dancing, to persons in health, by no means ought to make toll of our diversion by making it one con- tinued scene of action, lest we exhaust the spirits and enervate the body, but to sweeten and relieve the active pleas- ure by frequent intervals of refresh- ment, by which not only the bad effects which must of necessity be the conse- quence of long, uninterrupted success sion of motion will be entirely pre- vented, but the body, by such agreeable exercise, will gain strength and vigor in it's actions and be more enabled to preserve and keep up its economy"
 Jndeneudeuce Of Rusaian Wivea