The Art of Living in Australia: Together with Three Hundred Australian Cookery Recipes and Accessory Kitchen Information by Mrs. H. WickenMuskett, Philip E.
Science
The Art of Living in Australia: Together with Three Hundred Australian Cookery Recipes and Accessory Kitchen Information by Mrs. H. Wicken
Muskett, Philip E.
Australia -- Social life and customs; Cooking, Australian; Health; Hygiene
Now, in the same way that education develops and increases the power of
the brain, so exercise has a similar effect on the body. When the
muscles are strengthened, the beneficial effect is also participated in
by the heart, lungs, and digestive organs, and thus the removal of
worn-out material from the body is assisted. The effect of exercise is
thus to remove used up products from the system, and so afford an
opportunity for renewed material to take their place. Ceaseless changes
are constantly going on throughout the body, and any part which has
fulfilled its object is no longer necessary for the requirements
of the system, in fact it becomes injurious. Its removal has to take
place by one of the various outlets, and it is by exercise that its
expulsion is greatly assisted. In this way exercise differs altogether
from the part played by food. The latter is the introduction of
nourishment into the system for the renewal of its wants, while
exercise is the principal agent by which DEBRIS is eliminated.
It was well known amongst the Greeks and Romans that the muscles
reached their greatest state of development by means of exercise.
Though, therefore, gymnastics formed a great part of their system of
education, yet the chief aim in their athletic instruction was the
desire to train men to fight their battles, and in those days war was a
matter of personal valour and of individual bravery. On that account,
therefore, the men who were selected as their soldiers were among the
healthiest of the nation. Those who by reason of bodily infirmity or
inherent weakness were unfitted for military prowess were left alone.
But, as Maclaren has well pointed out, the object of systematic and
proper exercise is not for the production of a race of soldiers, though
a certain proportion of the population will always be required for
military service. With the great majority of men the struggle for
existence is keen, and it is simply a question of the survival of the
fittest, and of the weakest going to the wall. The requirements of the
present time are therefore a capacity for endurance and an ability to
withstand the effects of work day after day. We do not require athletes
who are capable of performing wonderful feats of strength; but the
fight of the nineteenth century is brain against brain, and he will be
best equipped for the struggle who has the advantage of good bodily
health. In the higher callings, where brain power is everything, the
necessity for perfect physical condition is all the more imperative,
because the brain is supplied with healthy blood, and the ideas flow
with less effort.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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