The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-08-17
PHYSICAL CULTURE IN
 THE WORLDS ARMIES

Physical culture drills play an inn portant part in the training of the soldiers and sailors of all the armies and navies of the world. While each country has it's own system, and each system has it's undoubted merits and it's staunch defenders, it is probably in France and Germany that these drills have been brought to the high est state of perfection. The training measures of the United States army and navy are excellent, and in some ways superior, but they have scarcely been brought to that high standard of scientific exactitude which char acterizes the system in training in vogue in the French army and navy.
 The Herbert system, used by Frances soldiers and sailors, is thus described by pr. Francis HeckeI, of Paris:
 Man in a state of nature, and to satisfy the needs of his struggle for existence. is constantly enforced to employ useful forms of exercise. such as walking, running, swimming, climb ing, lifting, and, certain movements of defense. By means of all those exer- cises, primitive man, in all parts of the world, obtains almost automaticaI- ly a complete organic development and absolute functional harmony.
 eThe morphologica1 and aesthetic results are so perfect that one may say that natural man is the most beau tifu1 as we'll as the most vigorous of men, Heredity perfects and fixes these results.
 tsStarting from this, Herbert, on the one hand. has his men go through educational movements consisting of walking, with legs held stiff or bent, and of running, combined with res piratory movements and correct hold ing of the back. This educational part is combined with an entire series of utilitarian exercises which are pro- gressive1y increased in intensity, num- Der and duration.
 sHThese exercises are climbing trees. walls, and obstacles of all sorts, climb ing a rope with or without help from the lower limbs, swimming in every form and for all purposes, obstacle races, lifting stones, sacks and men. with the end in view of helping and sought to inpart to gyrnnastic exer- c ises moral and aItrustic features Herbert bears in mind not only the egoistic side represented by se1f-de- fense, but the altruistic, represented by mutual help.
 ..Thus the military side of this edu- cation is placed in the foreground, for the athfSte developed by Hebert's methods is an athlete remarkable for strength and endurance. The type thus ODta1ned, or a. beauty absolute ly different from that evolved by the Swedish system and akin to the an cient Greek type, seems more perfect and is infinitely better ada pted to the tastes and needs of our race
 Herbert attaches small importance to the lifting of weights, and, in a gen era1 way, to mechanical resistance His lifting exercises are of an essentially utilitarian character and adapted to military education.
 ''The results obtained by him are most remarkable.'
 In no other army of the world are the effects of physical training so min ute1y recorded as in France Each individual soldier and sailor is the subject of a record showing his physi- cal condition and his development These charts. worked out by Lieut. Commander Herbert, enable the phy- sicaI instructor to discover each man. s weak point and develop it.
 As a result of the adoption of this system the soldiers of the French army have become the most graceful and active of any to be found in the world. Tn drills in which large num-