University oars : being a critical enquiry into the after health of the men who rowed in the Oxford and Cambridge boat-race from the year 1829-1869, based on the personal experience of the rowers themselves / by John Ed. Morgan.

  • Morgan, John Edward.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: University oars : being a critical enquiry into the after health of the men who rowed in the Oxford and Cambridge boat-race from the year 1829-1869, based on the personal experience of the rowers themselves / by John Ed. Morgan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    depressing of all pastimes, the reading man’s “ constitu- tional,” he will have laid up for himself a goodly supply of physical vigour wherewith to commence the battle of life. An addition of three inches to the circumference of the chest implies that the lungs instead of containing 250 cubic inches of air as they did before their functional activity was exalted, are now capable of receiving 300 cubic inches within their cells: the value of this aug- mented lung accommodation will readily be admitted. Suppose, for example, that a man is attacked by inflam- mation of the lungs, by pleurisy, or some one of the various forms of consumption, it may readily be con- ceived that in such an emergency the possession of enough lung tissue to admit 40 or 50 additional cubic inches of air will amply suffice to turn the scale on the side of recovery. It assists a patient successfully to tide over the critical stage of his disease; the actual crisis is often short, and during its height the chances of life mainly depend upon the amount of lung available for decarbonizing the blood. I would further submit that from such an increase of chest, depending as it does upon a greater influx of healthy blood, and indicating a higher degree of constitutional vigour, we may reasonably ex- pect more physical capacity for work in after-life, even though that work be brain-work, requiring the exercise of the noblest intellectual faculties; for if the brain is to fulfil its functions in a satisfactory manner, it must be liberally supplied with healthy blood. Indeed brain- work is peculiarly exacting in the demands which it makes on the vascular system. I believe it will gene- rally be found as a matter of daily experience, that although very considerable acuteness of intellect may at times be associated with a slightly formed and puny frame, still in the working of such brains we often ob-