Collected papers on physical and military training / by Sir Lauder Brunton.
- Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
- Date:
- 1915
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Collected papers on physical and military training / by Sir Lauder Brunton. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![after a boat-race or an athlete after running a mile or exerting himself in throwing the hammer or putting the stone, to solve a mathematical problem or do a Greek translation with the same facility that he might possibly be able to show at other times. Now what is the difference between exercise and over- exercise ? This question can only be answered in general terms for the simple reason that what is exercise for one man is over-exercise for another, or may even be over-exercise for the same man under different conditions. Nay more, what is sufficient exercise for the muscles may be over-exercise for the heart, and one of the risks which schoolboys sometimes run is that their athletic power may be judged by their masters or schoolfellows according to their apparent size and strength, and not according to the strength of their heart. To answer the •question how much exercise a boy or a man shall take is like saying how much food he shall take. We can lay down general Tules, but wo cannot be sure that these will apply rightly at all times. But just as appetite regulates the amount of food that ■a person ought to take, so the amount of exercise is regulated by the sensations of fatigue which show that exercise is be- ■coming too much for the muscles, or by pain in the side which .shows that the heart is becoming over-strained. Now sensa- tions of fatigue, like all other sensations, are perceived by the brain, but the condition which gives rise to these sensations is present in the muscles. The energy which enables an express train to rush along from York to London at the rate of fifty miles an hour is supplied by the combustion of coal in the fur- nace, and the energy which enables our muscles to contract is .supplied by the combustion of certain substances in the muscle itself. In both cases the combustion leaves an ash behind which, if not removed, would in the locomotive choke the furnace and put out the fires, and in the muscle first weakens .and then abolishes its power of contraction. This effect of the accumulation of waste in the muscles has been beautifully sliown by my friends Professor Kronecker of Berlin and Pro- fessor Mosso of Turin. I take from Professor ]\Iosso's work on Fatif/ue- a tracing which I will show in the lantern. This was made by putting tlie middle finger into a loop at one end of a](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21358497_0028.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
