Physical education : being an article contributed to an encyclopedic work on hygiene / by Frederick Treves.
- Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet
- Date:
- 1892
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Physical education : being an article contributed to an encyclopedic work on hygiene / by Frederick Treves. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![regulation of the functions and movements of the entire body. With such as concern the supply of suitable food and wholesome air, and the observation of what are known as simple hygienic conditions, the present paper has no concern. It is necessary here to deal only with that most conspicuous factor in physical culture which concerns the due and proportionate exercise of the muscles of the body. In the following article we shall first consider the general effects of exercise, including the subjects of fatigue, overwork, and want of exercise, and secondly the effects of specific exercises. THE GENERAL EFFECTS OF EXERCISE. t. The Effect of Exercise upon the Development and Proportions of the Body. Exercise, as here understood, may be represented by such natural, sys- tematic, and well-regulated exercises as enter into the life of every healthy public schoolboy, together with such special gymnastics which may be con- sidered to be necessary in particular cases. It must be understood that the object of exercise—as here intended—is not to develop athletes, acrobats, and phenomenally strong men, but to encourage and maintain the highest and most equable development of the body. The secret of the size and proportions of the future man lies buried in the ovum from which the individual is developed. It may be said, indeed, that there are two proportions possible in every human body—first, that which is congenita], inherited, and predetermined ; and, secondly, such an increase or modification of these proportions as may be effected by proper exercise. The child of short and stunted parents will probably also be short and stunted, and may remain so in spite of an elaborate physical training. An infant Bushman, transported suddenly to a cotter’s home in Scotland, could never be expected to attain the proportions of the young Highlanders with whom his lot had been cast. In estimating the effect of exercise and in speculating upon its possible powers in this direction, a constant reference must be made to those inherited factors which are quite beyond control. Exercise cannot make a man a giant, nor can it with any certainty develop a modern Hercules. It can, however, influence the growth and structural per- fection of the body in a manner which is definite and to some extent re- markable.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2805877x_0018.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
