Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 77.djvu/40

34, so that at the close of his college career, instead of cumulative abnormal development, as in the case of the professional strong man, he has built up an evenly-balanced physical machine.

Expert Opinions.—The athletes are nearly unanimous in endorsing cross-country running (as distinguished from cross-country racing), as a safe and valuable form of exercise, but the same unanimity is not shown when we come to the consideration of distance racing—880 yards to two miles. Ten per cent, of the men oppose racing of any kind, on the ground that it involves too much strain. Eighty per cent, of them approve it, nearly one third of these, however, qualifying their approval by saying, "if not overdone, if under proper training, if sound at the start, if sufficiently mature, etc." These various qualifications, insisted upon by so many of the athletes, indicate a pretty general feeling by men who know the game, a feeling arising from their own personal experience or through observation of others, that distance racing is not free from risk except under competent supervision. Their letters indicate that without such supervision immature boys, and men physically and constitutionally weak, will take up the game; that they, as well as those who are fit to run, will train improperly and will be likely to overdo it. They insist upon a preliminary examination by a competent physician; they are opposed to the practise of running more than one hard race on the same day, a practise common among school boys, who, as a rule, have no competent trainer to advise them; they are opposed to boys taking up the game until they are seventeen or eighteen years of age, although recognizing the difficulty of setting any fixed age limit, since the strength and development of an individual must determine his fitness. Many believe that one mile should be the limit for schoolboy contests. There is a very pronounced feeling among them that school-boys generally overwork. These opinions, held by men who know, can not be disregarded in an effort to discover and set forth the facts. They point to the dangers which lie in the path of the inexperienced athlete, and which bring adverse criticism upon the sport. And yet, notwithstanding these dangers, all avoidable, it will be apparent to any one who reads their letters that they approve the sport if properly supervised, considering it in that case not only safe but of great benefit. Almost all of the men, even those who are opposed to racing, even those who sustained injury while at it, claim to have been benefited by their athletic experience. This can mean but one thing, namely, as one of them expresses it, "the increased health and vigor resulting from training more than compensated for any injury due to racing." The exceedingly small number of permanent injuries revealed by this investigation, and the vigorous health enjoyed to-day by the athletes almost without exception, sustain this view especially since it must be borne in mind that a large proportion of the men quit running years ago, before the