Senile decay is by no means only a matter of years, but the manner of life led. And very many people over forty years of age fall into a condition of senile decay, merely because they do not take a sufficient amount of active exercise. In consequence the joints stiffen, the muscles relax, and the arteries harden prematurely. The prime of life would be very greatly extended, and old age delayed, if women only continued their active interest in work and systematically kept up gymnastic exercises and outdoor sports. For all classes of women provision must be made, and sufficient time afforded, to be devoted to some form of mental and physical recuperation and systematic physical training. =Gymnastic versus Athletic Training.=—The actual experience of the past few decades has proved that the most effective way of developing the mental and physical powers and the constitutional vigor is through a judicious system of gymnastics, athletics, and carefully supervised plays, sports, and games. To show which of the two contestants was the “better man” was the primary object of all contests, and this is the fundamental source of the love of games and athletics. England has relied for her physical training upon a large variety of games and sports, instead of an elaborate system of gymnastics. The Englishwomen live an outdoor life, are great walkers, horseback riders, and go in for athletics and sports, and we find that the English women have a much more vigorous physique and healthy and ruddy appearance than their American sisters. In Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, and Italy more stress is laid on the gymnastic training, and in the Olympic contests, held in London in 1908, the twenty-five women from Denmark afforded a revelation to many of the Americans present. Medical gymnastics had their origin in Sweden, and are practised largely in that country and on the Continent. In gymnastic exercises the work done on each piece of apparatus must be tried repeatedly, in order to be learned, and then must be practised assiduously, in order to be well performed. This is what makes gymnastics so valuable as a means of physical training and development. The first essential is to learn to handle one’s own weight, and to have the muscles of the body under complete control, and much of the interest and fascination found in practising heavy gymnastics come from this acquired power over one’s own body, and the ability to make it do the feats and stunts which one desires it to do. This is one reason why children love to climb fences, trees, etc., and test their ability to handle and master themselves in new and untried situations.