Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/195

Rh we would look for examples of the operation of this law, for nowhere has specialism been carried further than in athletic sports.

Such contests as the Penthalon, a revival of the Greek idea of all-around development, which includes a test in running and jumping and weight-putting, are too rare in our modern athletic meets.

Men systematically train for bicycle racing until the particular set of muscles used in that particular exercise—those of legs and thighs—are in a perfect state of development, while the arms remain poor and the chest flat.

The "bicycle stoop" is now a well-recognized deformity, and few men who have devoted much time or attention to racing are entirely free from it, while in many racers the marked dorsal curvature forward (kyphosis) is permanent, unsightly, and injurious to the health.

Heavy gymnastics were the cause of many round shoulders till a reaction took place in the world of physical education, and now body-building is done by the almost exclusive use of light work. This reaction has extended to the more intelligent athletic trainers, who have given up the old drastic methods and have adopted more rational means of obtaining strength and endurance to their protégés.

Our present method of testing athletic prowess thus encourages the exclusive development of certain groups of muscles and the neglect of others—sometimes, as we will see, to the permanent deformity of its too zealous votaries.

Other instances of anatomical changes brought about by special feats could be cited, such as the flat foot of the broad-jumper or the broad back and flat chest of the oarsman; but one of the best examples of this effect of function on structure is seen in "speed skating," which the international contests of the last few years have done so much to popularize.

Speed skating differs from ordinary skating in several marked particulars. The skate itself—about eighteen inches long has—a flat blade, almost as thin as a knife, set into a light tube supporting two uprights, circular but hollow. These short upright tubes fasten it to the boot by means of a plate, the whole purpose being to combine the greatest strength and lightness. The boot laces tightly, giving firm support to the ankle.

This form has evolved from the original skate, made of the lower jawbones of horses and cattle carved to the proper shape and polished. In the British Museum the visitor can still see a pair of these primitive instruments, and the workmen occasionally disinter them about Moorfields and Finsbury.

Let us take up the strengths and weaknesses of the modern