principally to supplement deficiencies, to insure men against being warped,
distorted, or deformed by their work in life, to compensate specialties and
perform more exactly what recreation to some extent aims at.
This wholesome but less inspiring endeavor, which combats one of the greatest
evils that under modern civilization threatens man's physical weal, is in some
respects as easy and practical as it is useful. The great majority of city bred men,
as well as all students, are prone to deleterious effects from too much sitting; and
indeed there is anatomical evidence in the structure of the tissues, and especially
the blood-vessels of the groins, that, at his best, man is not yet entirely adjusted
to the upright position. So a method that straightens knees, hips, spine, and
shoulders, or combats the school-desk attitude, is a most salutary contribution to
a great and growing need. In the very act of stretching, and perhaps yawning, for
which much is to be said, nature itself suggests such correctives and preventives.
To save men from being victims of their occupations is often to add a better and
larger half to their motor development. The danger of the system, which now
best represents this ideal, is inflexibility and overscholastic treatment. It needs a
great range of individual variations if it would do more than increase circulation,
respiration, and health, or the normal functions of internal organs and
fundamental physiological activities. To clothe the frame with honest muscles
that are faithful servants of the will adds not only strength, more active habits
and efficiency, but health; and in its material installation this system is
financially economic. Personal faults and shortcomings are constantly pointed
out where this work is best represented, and it has a distinct advantage in inciting
an acquaintance with physiology and inviting the larger fields of medical
knowledge.
D. The fourth gymnastic aim is symmetry and correct proportions.
Anthropometry and average girths and dimensions, strength, etc., of the parts of
the body are first charted in percentile grades; and each individual is referred to
the apparatus and exercises best fitted to correct weaknesses and subnormalities.
The norms here followed are not the canons of Greek art, but those established
by the measurement of the largest numbers properly grouped by age, weight,
height, etc. Young men are found to differ very widely. Some can lift 1,000
pounds, and some not 100; some can lift their weight between twenty and forty
times, and some not once; some are most deficient in legs, others in shoulders,
arms, backs, chests. By photography, tape, and scales, each is interested in his
own bodily condition and incited to overcome his greatest defects; and those best
endowed by nature to attain ideal dimensions and make new records are