The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-18
NEW HAVEN MORNING JOURNAL AND COURIER FRIDAY OCTOBER 1a

lar though many of them are; but they do not use their muscles any more than necessary. Indeed many of them have been noted for their dislike for exercise and have, therefore, never suffered from high arterial tension, and though lazy have attained advanced age in health and comfort. Some of these factors of success are mental and congenital, and no amount of train ing" will create them. Though there can be no denial of the good accom- plished by proper exercises for the de- fective, yet 1t should be recognized
 that the real development is during childhood, and is a matter of proper living as well as congenital endow- ment. Boys may therefore, be taught that wolesome living will be of more benefit than piles of parasitic muscles. Physical culture is not muscle culture. The neglect of college faculties to control student athletics is the alarm i ing state of affairs brought out in the minority report of Moorfield Storey, appended to the majority report of the Harvard joint committee on the regulation of athletic sports (Febru- l ary 27, 1907). It seems that time and again the faculty called attention to the harm done and recommended changes, even forbidding football and other Intercollegiate abominations, but was repeatedly ignored. This is amazing, as fathers are under the i'm
 pression that college faculty acts in | loco parentis There seems to be a serious neglect of duty to guard the | boys against their mistaken enthusi- asms. To claim lack of power will not do for every faculty can expel a student who defies them by playing any forbidden gameS~--gambling or athletic. In view of the fact that the brutalizing exhibitions of heefness arc harmwul and that the men who
 need developmental exercise do not get it on the bleachers and the furth-
 CT medical fact that severe training in youth is extremely prejudicial to health and longevity, 1t is a severe
 condemnation of American college faculties that they have so neglected
 the boys who have been confided' to
 their care. It is an axiom of the rac- ing world that Derby colt is ruin 1 ed for fife by overstraining while inn
 mature, and never does much after
 ward The same law holds as to boys. Mir. Storey should receive the
 cordial support of the medical pro- lfesslon.
 The stupidity of college athletes is
 a popular impression, because of the fact that great athletes are in the limelight and their failures in studies attract undue attention. It has gen
 erally been said that athletics tends
 to diminish scholarship, whereas it is possible that great intellectual power
 may not be in the possession of the
 athlete. Sports may have had no-
 thing to do with the matter. What ever the cause may be 1t is certainly
 a popular impression that scholarship
 and athletics are Incompatible. This is confirmed by some remarkable sta-
 tistics collected by Prof. Foster of ! DOWQplA OuAlS6C' Wflil lCW CACVp- tions, the athletes show poorer re-
 suits in studies than the non-athletes, Econsidering the average of the two Iclasses, though the differences are not
 nearly as great as generally assumed. lEIe claims that college sports are not
 excessively injurious, though he seems
 ito acknowledge they are somewhat harmful.
 1 College sports should benefit schol- Earship, and it is time to inquire why Ithey are harmful even in the Hsast de- Egree. If they were resulateS so that
 they would serve the purpose for (which they exist, the statistics would
 Joe reversed. Sensible men will wei
 come the time when the class honors Iwill be taken by those who are also
 excellent in sports. At present, a lstudent who desires to excel in schol- Iarship is compelled to shun the lsports-and this Is a hygienic blunder lfor which we may blame the college Ifaculties. If 1t is true that the ath- Ilete tends to be less intelligent 1t cer- tainly is a great blunder to allow him Ito set the pace, which the more mentally gifted cannot endure, Nc
 matter what the cause or the effect Iimay be, there is something wrong to
 produce the figures published by Prof lFoster. Medicine.
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