Physiology of bodily exercise / by Fernand Lagrange, M. D.

  • Lagrange, Fernand, 1846-1909.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physiology of bodily exercise / by Fernand Lagrange, M. D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    CHAPTER I. THE ORGANS OF MOVEMENT. Exercise and Work—Muscle—Nerve : Avalanche Theory. The Spinal Cord ; Reflex Actions ; Unconscious Movements—The Brain ; Reflex Movements ; Voluntary Movements—The ]\Iotor Centres ; associated Muscular Actions. The Will, Agent of Work. Muscular Contraction—Course of a Volun- tary Stimulus ; IMode of Transmission—Nervous Vibration and the Muscular Wave—Time of Transmission; Latent Period. By bodily exercise, we mean work done with the object of perfecting the human organism from ths point of view of strength, skill, or health. Scientifically speaking, there is no difference between the professional labour which circumstances demand from the peasant or workman, and the more or less refined exercise to which a sportman devotes himself. The manual labourer who chops wood, and the gentle- man who fences, both perform muscular work. But the gentleman has his exercise at his own hours, regulates to his own taste the time he allots to it, following the calls of hygiene, diet and rest, while the poor man works too much, feeds badly, and sleeps little. This is why work wears out the one, while exercise strengthens the other. But what the workman does of necessity, the man en- amoured of violent exercises can do by excessive ardour. In the two cases the result is the same, and the abuse of athletic exercise causes exhaustion and overwork as surely as does excessive labour. Bodily exercise and labour are then synonymous