A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 1 : $b Pathology and general diseases
History
A system of practical medicine. By American authors. Vol. 1 : $b Pathology and general diseases
Medicine -- Practice
The amount of exercise which is necessary for health varies with the
individual and with age, season, etc., so that it is difficult to
state any general rule upon this subject; but if stated in terms of
muscular force only, the estimate of Dr. Parkes seems a fair
approximation--viz. that every healthy man ought to take daily an
amount of exercise equivalent to 150 tons lifted 1 foot, or a walk of
about nine miles. The majority of trades and bodily occupations demand
at least this amount of work, but in some of them the greater part of
the exertion is made only by certain groups of muscles, and they are
carried on in crowded and {199} ill-ventilated shops. Such workmen, as
well as all who are engaged in sedentary pursuits, require exercise in
the open air--exercise which will bring into play the unused muscles
and will break the train of thought of the professional man.
One of the most important questions with regard to physical exercise
is the extent to, and manner in, which it should be provided for in a
proper system of education. One of the latest and most instructive
articles on this subject is that by Du Bois Reymond in the "Physiology
of Exercise," a translation of which is given in the _Popular Science
Monthly_ for July and August, 1882. He divides the physical training
which is more and more becoming a part of modern systematic education
into three classes: The first, the turning, or gymnastics of the
Germans; the second, the Swedish system, in which the exercises are
limited to very simple though varied movements; and the English
system, or rather want of system, consisting largely of athletic games
and contests of various kinds. His objection to the Swedish system is
that, while it strengthens the muscles, it does not increase the power
over composite movements; in other words, it does not exercise the
nervous system. Naturally, he prefers the German system to any other,
although admitting that the English meets better the demands arising
from our structure. "Were the end masterhood in running, jumping,
climbing, in dancing, fencing, riding, in swimming, rowing, or
skating, then nothing could be more advisable than to practise equally
the necessary concatenations in the actions of the ganglion cells,
without pausing at the not practically applicable preliminary and
intermediate steps of the German turning."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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