Personal hygiene and physical training for women — John Shaqi
Personal hygiene and physical training for womenGalbraith, Anna M. (Anna Mary)
Science
Personal hygiene and physical training for women
Galbraith, Anna M. (Anna Mary)
Physical education and training; Women -- Health and hygiene
Then, too, one of the results of the present terrible European war
has been to demonstrate that women possess a large amount of latent
powers and endurance which only needed for their development the same
general physical training that the state gives her sons. Women are
now being employed in these countries in all branches of the civil
service, as well as in agriculture and the making of munitions,
engaging in a vast number of employments and trades hitherto
considered unfit for women, because of the great physical strength
and endurance which they demanded.
=Physical Efficiency as an Exact Science.=—Physical efficiency is
growing to be an exact science; it is demonstrable in figures. We
have standardized percentage tables for measuring the capacity of the
lungs, the strength of the heart and muscles, and, added to these,
must be a normal condition of the digestion, kidneys, generative
organs, sight, and hearing. If the sum total of these amounted to
100 per cent., that would mean capacity for the greatest possible
endurance under strain, and so the most effective worker; for there
is a direct relation between the percentage standard of physical
efficiency and the output of work, both as to quantity and quality.
_Marks for Physical Efficiency._—Sir Francis Galton, the great
English scientist, was the first to conceive the idea of assigning
marks for physical qualifications. They were as follows: Breathing
capacity, strength tests, both to be regarded with reference to the
height and weight; quickness of response to a signal, made either to
the eye or ear; the sense of sight and hearing, and the color sense.
Realizing the usefulness of these tests in measuring the physical
efficiency, Professor Sargent included them in the physical
examinations of the Harvard students. The strength tests consist of
that for each forearm, of the back and legs, the dip, the pull-up,
and the lung capacity. The combination of these seven tests is what
is known as the intercollegiate strength test, and is the best means
as yet devised for measuring the general muscular strength and the
respiratory power.
It is obvious that many of these tests would be needed only by men
going into the army or navy, or qualifying for civil engineers or
professional athletes, etc. So it was considered best to modify these
tests to meet the requirements of physical efficiency for women.
For the large number of measurements of the arms, legs, etc.,
included in the Sargent system have been substituted the rating of
the condition of the heart and circulatory system, including the
blood-pressure; lung and chest development; digestive and nervous
system; the kidneys and generative organs; the muscular system;
tests of endurance; ocular and aural tests; with a final impression
of the working efficiency.
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