The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-06-17
PHYSICAL
EXERCISE
Director Coates on
Its Value to
Men.
SPIRITUAL AND
MORAL BENEFITS
An Able Paper by the Retiring
Physical instructor of the
Y. M. c. A.

has had its ups and downs. When Greece
and Rome had the upper hand, the phys
ical was most cultivated. In the seven
teenth century things physical had a
downfall. The reaction towards physical
inactivity was as great as was formerly
its strivings after an ideal. It was early
in the eighteenth century when more in
terest was taken in these things; this in
terest increased until now physical edu-
cation is recognized in the school, college
and university as an essential part in the
education and all-around development of
the youth.
Since it is through the physical that we
come in contact with and influence our
fellow-b beings. and as SO much depends
upon physical conditions, it is not entire
ly out OF, place to discuss such a subject
before a body of this kind.
Development and an approach toward
perfection are results of exercise. If a
growing nerve cell never sends an i'm
efficient nerve cell. A growing muscle
fiber which never contracts, fails TO de-
velop into healthy adult fiber. A grow
ing gland which never secretes its fluid
does not become a perfect gland. With
out exercise there is no true growth, and
when exercise ceases degeneration sets
in. Activity is the law of growth
Development is the result of three fac
tors - heredity, environment, activity.
These terms hardly need defining here,
yet for our purpose we will say a word
concerning each.
Heredity is the expression of the struc-
ture and character of the fertiiized oyum
from which all the cells of the body are
derived. 1t gives US the living material
upon which TO work, and at once deter
mines the possibilities, the limitations
and to a certain extent the course OF
training.
Environment. both of the body a
whole ard of each of it's units, the living
cells This includes the external condi-
lions Of 1ife as wen as the chemical and
physical character of the blood. Under it
are included the food supply, surrounding
Temperature, clothing, the care of the
young by parents, hygienic condition OF
the dwelling, etc.
! Activity of the individual cell of the
( body as whole. BY activity is meant
not simply muscular activity; that is
merely activity of one kind of cell-the
muscle fiber a nervous impulse from a
nerve cell is another case of activity. a
gland cell performing its function nor
mally is still another case.
Within certain limits the efficiency OF
an adult fiber cell is proportional to the
amount of ACTIVITY il has had during de
velopment: the muscle fiber which was
often used is capable of greater work
than the fabby unused fiber of the same
! age. You cannot teach an old dog new
tricks" is simply another way of saying
that training belongs TO the age of de
velopment and for the physical mar
more can be done before he is p years
OF age than is possible after that. Yet
by the setting up drills in the United
States Army large gains have been made
among the soldiers; this is proven by
measurements of thousands of mel
monthly,
Now as to the moral and spiritual as
poets of our subject. It is a well-knowr
fact that for some years physical educa
ton has been used largely in the reform
school asylum and penitentiary, and th'
results have been marvellous. AT the Ma
tional Prison Congress, held in New forl
city in 1876, the Gloucester prison report:
as a matter of history that in 1872 "Eaci
prisoner attended chapel daily and tool
exercise in the prison yard Thus earl!
recognizing the moral results of physica
exercise. Mr. f. H. Wines, in his book
Punishment and Reform in the chap
ter on prevention of Crime" adds
testimony in behalf of physical culture
He says, ''Also the Industrial education
which both preserves the balance betweel
the culture OF the physical and the psy
chical elements IN its subject, thus fur
nishing him (the criminaD with a pow
erful protection against the temptation
to pauperism and to theft"
Statistics without number could be pro
duced showing Ihe moral results obtain
ed through cultivation OF the physical.
The individual with a weak body !
greatly handicapped, mentally. mcrall
and spiritually He is incapacitated; h
cannot put into execution those thing
which his mind dictates.
n. D. Hills says, He who rules an
leads must have mind and will, but h
must have chest and stomach also!
Beecher said, ''Tbe gun carriage must b
in proportion to the gun il carries Whe
health is gone the gun Is spiked. Idea
are arrows, and the body is the bow tina
sends them home. The mind aims, tn
body fires
Let us for a moment consider the bod
les of some of the great men, those Wn
have brought things 10 pass and hay
helped to make history, and see II VI
cannot trace as an aid to their lofty a.
tainments their welI-developed phystcs
beings.
Moses-God's chosen captain, leade
legislator, commander, lberator, law
giver. historian, has left name gres
and inperishable. He surely was ma
Of great physical force, for he oyerpov
cred an Egyptian overseer who was smi
ing a fellow Hebrew. For forty year
Moses tended Jethro's flock, a professio
which no weakling dared undertake
those days. For another forty years
led over desert, sea and mountain
mighty multitude of fractions, ignoran
mutinous men; yet when by Nebo
lonely mountain he was laid to rest
was said. Moses was an hundred ar
twenty years old when he died; his EYE
were not Dim nor his natural force aba
ed"