one it may exceed the average or normal increment fivefold, and he adds, "I
firmly believe that the now so wonderful performances of most of our strong
men are well within the reach of the majority of healthy men, if such
performances were a serious enough part of their ambition to make them do the
exercises necessary to develop them." Power of the organs to respond to good
training by increased strength probably reaches well into middle life.
It is not encouraging to learn that, according to a recent writer,[2] we now have
seventy times as many physicians in proportion to the general population as
there are physical directors, even for the school population alone considered. We
have twice as many physicians per population as Great Britain, four times a
many as Germany, or 2 physicians, 1.8 ministers, 1.4 lawyers per thousand of
the general population; while even if all male teachers of physical training taught
only males of the military age, we should have but 0.05 of a teacher per
thousand, or if the school population alone be considered, 20 teachers per
million pupils. Hence, it is inferred that the need of wise and classified teachers
in this field is at present greater than in any other. But fortunately while
spontaneous, unsystematic exercise in a well-equipped modern gymnasium may
in rare cases do harm, so far from sharing the prejudice often felt for it by
professional trainers, we believe that free access to it without control or direction
is unquestionably a boon to youth. Even if its use be sporadic and occasional, as
it is likely to be with equal opportunity for out-of-door exercises and especially
sports, practise is sometimes hygienic almost inversely to its amount, while even
lameness from initial excess has its lessons, and the sense of manifoldness of
inferiorities brought home by experiences gives a wholesome self-knowledge
and stimulus.
In this country more than elsewhere, especially in high school and college,
gymnasium work has been brought into healthful connection with field sports
and record competitions for both teams and individuals who aspire to
championship. This has given the former a healthful stimulus although it is felt
only by a picked few. Scores of records have been established for running,
walking, hurdling, throwing, putting, swimming, rowing, skating, etc., each for
various shorter and longer distances and under manifold conditions, and for both
amateurs and professionals, who are easily accessible. These, in general, show a
slow but steady advance in this country since 1876, when athletics were
established here. In that year there was not a single world's best record held by
an American amateur, and high-school boys of to-day could in most, though not
in all lines, have won the American championship twenty-five years ago. Of