Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/205

Rh rapidly, eating indigestible food, constant and intemperate use of alcoholic beverages, or excessive use of tobacco—disturb the normal work of the liver. Hence, one of the first aims of the athlete should be to keep this organ in the best possible condition. Any clogging or disturbance of the functional duties of the liver prevents the blood from being in a pure state. All parts of the body will show distressing symptoms of fatigue and exhaustion if the little cells of the liver have become diseased or useless through intemperate living and ignorance of the specific duties belonging to each separate organ of the human body.

The changes which take place in the nerves and brain, the changes in the irritability of the former, and the delicate relations which the latter bears to all forms of muscular work, are of too chemic and technic details to be dealt with in this paper. All forms of violent exercise require that the brain and nervous system should be in assured perfect health; that they possess all their normal attributes.

All neurologists have seen the unfortunate and distressing effects of excessive and violent exercise in persons unfit by training or nature for anything more than moderate exertion. The adolescent, the neurotic, and those who have passed their vigorous days, should exercise only under the advice of a physician. Let those who have entered into the false and foolish idea that "century runs" are an indication of prowess remember the ultimate sad consequences liable to follow in a few years. These misguided individuals should understand that to be an athlete for the time being does not mean that they will be healthy. Athletes are healthy, not because they are athletes, but because healthy individuals are athletes. For the average man past five and forty golf offers the best and safest exercise for the Anglo-Saxon. For those who imagine that this pedestrian and philologic game requires no mental effort, the statement made by a caddie to Professor Sellar will be instructive. When this distinguished Hellenist made his first appearance on the golfing green at St. Andrews, the mature caddie who accompanied him remarked, "Ye may be guid enough, professor, at teaching laddies Greek, but gouf needs a heid" Festina lente is a good rule in most of the concerns of life; it is absolutely indispensable in physical exercise.