Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/369

Rh GYMNASTICS 349 under competent medical supervision. Among the staunch supporters of the latter view may be named Dr Roth, and Mrs Westlake, a member of the London School Board. The following considerations appear to be of great weight as supporting the views put forward by the advocates of physical education. While the national games may seem to some sufficient for the physical development of the ordinary youth and manhood of a country, it must not be forgotten that there is a vast and rapidly increasing portion of the population, especially in large cities, to whom the &quot; national games &quot; are quite unknown diversions, and that it is among this class that the most marked deteriora tion in physical development is only too apparent. The children of this class dwell cooped up in narrow, ill-lighted, and worse-ventilated courts, from which they are often dragged to undergo a certain amount of mental training, in many cases perhaps too severe to be sustained by their de bilitated and enfeebled bodies. Whilst so much is being done for the mental culture of the rising generation, their physical culture is left very much to inclination or chance. But there is another source of danger put forward by those who advocate the sufficiency of the national games, viz., &quot;the neglect of any classification of games at school, and allowing the weak and strong to engage, in them indiscriminately, to the detriment of the physical wellbeing of the more delicate;&quot; and they proceed to show the injury that may be done by the present system of competitive outdoor sports unregulated by judicious restraint. Important information on this subject will be found in two papers published in the St George s Hospital Reports for 1874-76, by Mr C. Roberts, F.R.C.S.. and by Mr Street, and another in the Tenth Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts, by Professor Edward Hitchcock. Mr Roberts points out that between the ages of fifteen and seventeen the greatest amount of physical development takes place, and that if at this period a boy is subjected to a great strain upon his strength his future growth may be interfered with, or the foundation laid of constitutional disease. Prof. Hitchcock s paper embodies the experience of seventeen years of careful observation. Acting upon the well-grounded opinion that neither mental serenity nor mental development can exist with an unhealthy animal organization, and admonished by &quot; the sad deaths of two promising young men, and the breaking down in health of others just at the end of their college courses,&quot; the authorities of Amherst College were impelled to demand that the college officials should give a proper attention to physical health as well as to the culture of those powers for which departments were ordinarily created and endowments made. In 1859 a department of physical education and hygiene was created, concerning which we read in the catalogue of 1861-62 that &quot; Its design is to secure healthful daily exercise and recreation to all students ; to instruct them in the use of the vocal organs, move ments of the body, and manners, as connected with oratory ; and to teach them, both theoretically and practically, the laws of health. This daily physical training is a part of the regular college course. The professor is an educated physician, and has not only a general oversight of the health of the college, but students have the privi lege of consulting him without charge. While the gymnasium will furnish opportunities for the highest physical training, the required exercises will be such as can be performed without undue effort or risk of injury.&quot; Each class, at a stated hour on four days of the week appears at the gymnasium, and all perform their part in systematic and methodical exercises timed to music. The statistics of this department show some interesting facts in reference to the duration of sickness among students. While the average amount of time lost on account of sick ness by each labourer in Europe is found to be 19 or 20 days each year, the returns of Amherst College sick-list for term time give 2 64 days as an annual average of time lost to every student, and 11 36 days to each sick student for 17 years. A decrease in the amount of sickness during the course is also an important feature in the health of the college. From replies to questions put by Dr Roth to the heads of the educational bodies, and also from the recorded personal experience of his son, Mr B. Roth, F.R.C.S., it appears that considerable attention is now being paid to the best methods for improving the physical education of the people in nearly all the Continental states. The greatest activity is perhaps shown by Sweden, Germany, France, Belgium, and Italy ; and even in Russia the question is attracting much public attention, Dr Bergliud having been ordered to write a special book on the subject. In Hungary also the Government has made physical education an obligatory part of the school curriculum. In Prussia gymnastic instruction was formally recognized by a cabinet order of June 1842, and by a royal order of 1862 a guide book of gymnastic instruction was introduced into the primary schools and into the training colleges for teachers. In Sweden this subject appears to have earlier attracted attention, for in 1813 the Government, under the direction of P. H. Ling, founded the Royal Central Gymnastic Institute at Stockholm, where teachers of both sexes are gratuitously trained for two years, and receive a diploma after undergoing a theoretical and practical examination. In Belgium, under the united efforts of MM. Delcour and Emile Greyson, considerable progress has been made, although much has still to be done, owing to the opposition raised by the municipality of Brussels to the views put forward by the Government. In the girls schools the exercises are accompanied by music, after the example set by Colonel Ameros, who about the beginning of this century introduced into France a series of gymnastic exercises adapted to a jingling rhyme and to music. The chanting governed the movements, marked the intervals of repose, and helped to strengthen the organs of the voice and respira tion. In France the necessity for the physical education of the people began to attract attention about the year 1845, owing probably to the energy displayed by Jahn in Prussia. M. de Salvandy proposed to introduce the teach ing of gymnastics into the Lyce es of Paris and Versailles, and a commission was appointed by him, which, however, never presented a report. In 1850, 1851, 1855, and 1856 several attempts were made to enforce compulsory gymnastic training, but the principle was not accepted till 18G9, when M. V. Duruy took for his basis of action the labours of the commission presided over by Dr Hillairet. After the fall of the empire, M. Jules Simon addressed the head masters of the colleges and schools in France as follows : &quot; I beg you to assist me in introducing gymnastics into our habits in a profitable and earnest manner. This is not only in the interest of public health ; a healthy child is better prepared for study, and especially for the battle of life. Morality gains by this education of the body ; much money is not wanted for the purpose ; and in case of need, exercises can be performed without a trapeze or dumb-bells. Our medical men will help us to do our task ; if the children are once accustomed to, and take pleasure in, these healthy exercises, we may be sure of a prompt amelioration of the race.&quot; In England we find that the first attempt to introduce scientific physical education among the people was made in parliament in 1862 by Lord Elcho. This attempt failed, as also did another made in 1875 by P. A. Taylor, M.P. for Leicester, although supported in an able speech by Mr Butler Johnstone. Lord Sandon, then vice-president of the committee of council on education, told Parliament that &quot; the Government has done all that could be expected of them for physical education by taking steps to substitute military drill for ordinary drill.&quot; The substitution, it may be remarked, does not appear to have any advantage over the drill it displaced, as the military authorities declared the ordinary military drill to be insufficient for the re-