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 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 AND 
 
 EXERCISE FOR WOMEN 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 'nnO make an already good thing better, not to 
 -^ lead a forlorn hope for improving incurable 
 invalids, would seem to be the privilege of the 
 American girl as regards her own physique. 
 
 Physically equal, as we believe she is upon the 
 whole, to her traditional great-grandmother, her 
 opportunities to add to her present stock of health 
 are infinitely greater than were accorded to this 
 ancestor. The obstacles to her better physical 
 development are for the most part due to igno- 
 rance and to custom; and these, beginning in her 
 early years and continuing to maturity, largely 
 concern her school-life, the restriction of her body 
 by dress, and its limitation from lack of sufficient 
 exercise. 
 
 Her direct environment, so far as it concerns 
 the essentials of fairly healthy homes, an abundance 
 of food and sleep, and the absence of exhausting 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 toil during the period of growth, is generally 
 favourable to physical development; and for that 
 reason the influence of food and kindred topics 
 have not been included in this little volume. The 
 intention has rather been to lay stress upon the 
 conditions, already alluded to, which aff*ect girls as 
 a class, everywhere, the conviction being absolute 
 that the physical development which might be 
 theirs can only be gained by a reform in these 
 conditions as they now exist. 
 
 The writer seizes this opportunity to express her 
 cordial thanks to the two ladies who kindly posed 
 for the photographs from which the illustrations of 
 the book are mainly taken, as well as to those who 
 allowed her the opportunity of taking some spe- 
 cial measurements here mentioned. 
 
 M. T. B. 
 
X. ^"^'Ols^Sfc. v^.^<^^ 
 
 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT 
 
 AND 
 
 EXERCISE FOR M/OMEN 
 
 BY 
 
 MARY TAYLOR BISSELL, M.D. 
 
 AUTHOR OF *' HOUSEHOLD HYGIENE " 
 
 t 
 
 .---.RV OP Co,v . 
 
 NOV L.. ..„, Ji i 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 
 
 1891 
 
Copyright, 1891, 
 By Dodd, Mead and Company. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 
 
' 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 ♦ 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Symmetry and Health i 
 
 II. How WE Grow , . . . 8 
 
 III. How Environment may Influence Growth i 7 
 
 IV. The Influence of Dress on Physical 
 
 Development 24 
 
 V. The Influence of School on Physical 
 
 Development 41 
 
 VI. The Influence of Exercise on Develop- 
 ment 58 
 
 VII. Some Things that Exercise will do for 
 
 THE Body 67 
 
 VIII. The Ways and Means for Exercise . . 79 
 IX. Practical Suggestions 91 
 
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SYMMETRY AND HEALTH. 
 
 THE ideal of health is that happy condition of un- 
 consciousness of the body which is only possible 
 when every part of it is perfectly developed and equal 
 to the performance of its function. The embodiment 
 of this ideal is, unfortunately, not a common one; and 
 we shall, perhaps, have to turn to that picture of noble 
 young womanhood with which we please our imagina- 
 tions to find the combination of flesh and spirit which 
 satisfies our sense of physical perfection. 
 
 Wherever she is found, this creature of grace and 
 vigour, of health and activity, she will always answer to 
 the one great requirement of harmony of structure, not 
 only in outline but in entity. Graceful she must be, 
 but she will be also something better than this ; hers are 
 the curves that mark a well-knit frame, supple in joint 
 and strong in Umb. Soft colour she will have, but her 
 clear tints are only the visible sign of the active heart and 
 
2 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 the generous lungs which mix this carmine for her cheek ; 
 while the reserve power that animates her pliant but 
 vigorous figure is the power that comes from a well- 
 developed and balanced nervous system which is the 
 competent ruler of this beautiful kingdom. If we try 
 to analyze the secret of her charm, we shall still find 
 that it lies largely in the sense of harmony she gives 
 us ; and this not because we recognize her perfect 
 outlines only (we are accustomed to the art dictum 
 that calls for the proportion of one part to another, that 
 demands a fine relation of shoulders and chest, waist and 
 limbs), but also because we feel that the internal struc- 
 tures, upon whose health and harmony the maintenance 
 of the entire body depends, are equally developed 
 according to their laws of proportion. So that her 
 graceful outlines are but the symbol of the harmony that 
 rules within. 
 
 It should be made plain to all concerned that physical 
 development, in its best sense, depends upon the har- 
 monious growth of the entire organism. As a matter of 
 fact, many of the familiar instances of ill health, deformity, 
 and even disease, that we see about us are the result of 
 the unsymmetrical development of one or another part 
 of the body reacting upon the whole. 
 
 Let us look, for instance, a moment at the possible 
 result to the body, in general, of an unsymmetrical de- 
 velopment of the skeleton. 
 
SYMMETRY AND HEALTH. 3 
 
 The function of the skeleton is to give soHdity to the 
 figure, to offer protective cages for the different vital 
 organs, to form the organs of locomotion, and to afford 
 points of attachment for the muscles which move the 
 body. With all of these functions it is easy to under- 
 stand that a failure of the skeleton to develop properly, 
 either in shape or size or constitution, might have a 
 serious effect both upon the health, vigour, and sym- 
 metry of the individual. 
 
 There is, in fact, a disease of the bones known as 
 rickets, somewhat common among children, especially in 
 foreign countries, which is a striking illustration of this 
 point. In this affection the bones are deficient in lime 
 salts, so that their unnatural softness permits them to be 
 flattened, often seriously changed in shape, and pushed 
 out of place through the weight of the body pressing 
 upon them. The so-called bow-legs of children, some- 
 times seen among the poorer dwellers of a city, are gen- 
 erally due to this affection ; and in severe cases the ribs 
 and the breast bone may be so flattened or distorted and 
 the spinal column may be so bent as seriously to affect 
 the shape and reduce the diameters of the chest. 
 
 It will be easily imagined from what we know of the 
 chest as a capacious cage containing the heart and lungs 
 and blood-vessels which these organs are intended to 
 fill, that anything which by reducing its size interferes 
 with their full activity must have a serious effect upon 
 
4 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 their development, and upon the health of the individ- 
 ual. Nature, we know, abhors a vacuum ; and therefore 
 if the chest cavity or thorax be capacious the lungs will 
 expand and grow to fill it, the heart will be stimulated 
 by their demands to grow to its full size, and the entire 
 body will be the gainer in harmonious development. 
 But if, through disease or lack of proper nurture, the 
 growth of the chest be interfered with, the lungs cannot ex- 
 pand to their full capacity, the heart, lacking their stimulus, 
 will be similarly limited, and the entire body suffers. 
 
 We find, in fact, that children who suffer from rickets 
 have smaller lungs than others not so affected, and that 
 partly owing to the unusual relation of their chest organs 
 they are specially liable to respiratory diseases. 
 
 In marked cases of rickets we also find that the bones 
 of the pelvis are seriously affected, so that this cavity is 
 smaller than normal in some important directions, being 
 flattened or otherwise deformed in shape. Such deform- 
 ity occurring in girls has a most unfortunate result upon 
 the functions of motherhood. 
 
 So that, as we have seen, an affection which at first 
 thought appears to limit the growth of some of the bones 
 of the skeleton only, is found in many cases to i^terfere, 
 through this limitation, with the growth of the most vital 
 organs of the body, and even if no actual deformity be 
 present will seriously curtail the physical powers of the 
 individual. 
 
SYMMETRY AND HEALTH. 5 
 
 Fortunately, these extreme cases of unsymmetrical 
 development of the skeleton are very rare, although the 
 lesser degrees are quite common ; but they serve as 
 illustrations of the fact that health and beauty alike 
 depend upon the law of harmony of structure and pro- 
 portionate development of every part, and that, in the 
 intimate relations that every part of the body bears to 
 every other, deficient development of any one region 
 cannot exist without affecting other regions unfavourably. 
 And that which is true in these marked cases of dis- 
 ease is equally true to a lesser degree wherever bodily 
 development is disproportionate. 
 
 A midget whose organs are all proportionately developed 
 and vigorous, might possibly, in the sense of equalized 
 power and health that results, have more satisfaction and 
 every-day enjoyment out of hfe than a disproportioned 
 giant, whose long legs gave him the locomotive power of 
 a Seven- Leagued Boots, but whose lung development did 
 not support him in their active use. 
 
 The harmonious development of the body has a very 
 practical relation, not only to ideal health but also 
 to our enjoyment of life, and for this reason : We shall 
 find, whether in work or play, that the body is practically 
 only as strong as its weakest part, and that instead of 
 living up to the capacity of enjoyment of the healthiest 
 and finest parts of our organism we are dominated by 
 the vexatious limitations of our weakest ; so that, physi- 
 
6 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 cally, the poorest and not the best of us is the standard 
 for what we can do or become. 
 
 The man with a magnificent frame and splendid mus- 
 cles cannot save himself in a race for his life because way 
 off in a corner of his heart is a tiny valve which has 
 been leaking like a broken dam for years, and at the 
 supreme moment of necessity this imperfection becomes 
 the dominating element of his othenvise superb physique ; 
 so that instead of being able to endure fatigue with the 
 vigour of his best organs, he is vanquished by the weak- 
 ness of his poorest. 
 
 Equally true does the principle hold with the student, 
 the athlete, the society girl, in large or trivial matters. 
 The weakness of an unhappy stomach disorders a great 
 imagination, a tired back ends the tennis game, a pair of 
 weak ankles spoil the dance. Nine tenths of our body 
 may be equal to the effort ; but if the one remaining 
 tenth has collapsed entirely, the sport for us is over. 
 Which truth goes far to teach us how well it may be, 
 for purely selfish reasons if for no other, to give to the 
 growing body every opportunity for developing bone and 
 muscle and brain and vital organs v.o their best capacity 
 and in their most healthful relations, — not only for health's 
 sake, or for art's sake, but also for the sake of the full 
 scope and enjoyment of life. 
 
 If it be true, as it certainly is, that we have it in our 
 power to affect the physical development of the body by 
 
SYMMETRY AND HEALTH. 7 
 
 bringing certain influences to bear upon it, this must be 
 because some of the laws that govern it are susceptible 
 of modification. If we will take the trouble to consider 
 for a moment by what slow degrees and far-reaching 
 processes growth is affected, we shall perhaps more easily 
 see some natural reasons why we are able to influence 
 the body for better or for worse. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 HOW WE GROW. 
 
 ONE of the most fascinating studies for an intelli- 
 gent curiosity is that of the ways and means by 
 which a strong- limbed and conscious human being has 
 been developed from the tiny and insignificant cell which 
 we know to have been his origin. Doubtless some of 
 its fascination lies in the mystery which surrounds it, for 
 in the truest sense we do not know how we grow, nor 
 how to explain the mysterious principle we call life. 
 
 Neither can we explain the miracle of the growth of 
 a single morning-glory that we may have planted in 
 embryo in our summer garden, its tiny black seed unat- 
 tractive and hopeless to the eye ; but we know that in 
 due time, with the wooing of the sun and the dew and 
 the summer wind it will issue from its dark robing-room 
 in a dress of transparent azure or softest pink, to bloom 
 an ethereal messenger from Nature's kingdom, — perfect, 
 but unexplained. However, if we cannot explain the 
 miracle we still enjoy ferreting out what little we can 
 
HOW WE GROW. 9 
 
 about the conditions that favour its recurrence, and 
 learning how we may help to furnish these. So if 
 we cannot truthfully claim to know exactly how a hu- 
 man being grows, we do at least know something about 
 the phenomena that attend its growth, and something 
 about the conditions under which this is possible. 
 
 We have learned from scientific observers a few 
 definite and important things about growth. We know 
 that human beings, like all the rest of created things, 
 originated from a single soft and almost formless cell, 
 called the ovum. That this cell having divided into two, 
 and these divisions still further dividing and subdividing, 
 we have an aggregation of cells that we call the embryo. 
 At first these tiny cells are all alike, and in the beginning 
 of their existence have nothing to mark them as anything 
 different in origin or destiny from the cells of the lowest 
 polyp or the humblest plant. Little by little, however, 
 this company of cells begins to increase in size, and, 
 beginning also to disperse somewhat within the confines 
 of their prison walls, they show at the same time a ten- 
 dency to differ from one another, both in appearance and 
 in function. And here comes in the principle of the 
 division of labour in the body ; for now instead of this 
 aggregation of cells all trying to perform as best they 
 can the same offices of digestion, respiration, and loco- 
 motion and all the other functions necessary to human 
 beings, they become, on the contrary, speciahsts in their 
 
lO PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 community. Some are called to give solidity to this 
 shapeless mass ; these are the cells which are to secrete 
 lime and other salts which help to form the skeleton. 
 Another company is set apart to form the tissues which 
 are eventually to move this skeleton ; these are the mus- 
 cles cells, which in time, along with the other changes tak- 
 ing place in their shape and appearance, develop the prop- 
 erty peculiar to muscles, — namely, contraction. A third 
 company fills the office of oxygen- carrier to the body at 
 large ; these are the red-blood cells, — while still another 
 develops the power to supply fluids of various kinds 
 which are essential to the solution and digestion of the 
 body's food. 
 
 Then there are the cells whose high office it is to take 
 command of all this varied community, to co-ordinate 
 and combine their efforts into a harmonious whole, and 
 to transmit the orders for action from the central gov- 
 erning department to all the different members. These, 
 of course, are the nerve cells. And so we might go on, 
 learning how from the simplest origin, by slow degrees 
 of development, is gradually evolved this complex and 
 complicated being, man. 
 
 It takes about twenty-five years to develop a human 
 being from its original simple cell to the full size and 
 power of a full-grown adult. A woman has generally 
 attained her height before this, more commonly by the 
 age of eighteen, but the complete solidification of all of 
 
HOW WE GROW. II 
 
 the structures and organs is not attained until later, and 
 some regions of the skeleton are in fact not completely 
 ossified until the age of thirty. 
 
 To insure this development, Nature in this period of 
 time has matured over two hundred and eight bones in 
 the skeleton and more than five hundred muscles. She 
 has maintained in unceasing activity an organ which is 
 sending from ten to twelve pounds of blood around the 
 body in less than thirty seconds, and whose energy, at 
 each contraction of its muscular walls, is equivalent to 
 pumping an ounce of blood over fifty feet high. 
 
 In the interior of the body, where foods have been 
 undergoing chemical and other changes to fit them for 
 nourishing the tissues, the fluids necessary for their solu- 
 tion have been manufactured to the amount of twenty to 
 thirty pounds daily. Oxygen has been required by the 
 lungs to the amount of about two pounds every day, 
 and from five to six pounds of food and drink have 
 been required to make this constant activity possible. 
 But all of this growth has not been accomplished by 
 in-taking merely. For just as a well-kept furnace not 
 only consumes fuel and gives out heat, but also produces 
 ashes as a sign of its activity, so in the human body the 
 consumption of food and the in-taking of oxygen give 
 out heat and create new structures ; but in this activity 
 much waste material is also produced which must be 
 constantly removed, like the ashes of the furnace, or 
 
12 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 the life- fire will grow dull and become even fatally 
 choked. 
 
 Some of these waste elements are eliminated through 
 the lungs in the shape of vitiated air to the amount of 
 seven or eight quarts per minute; some through the 
 skin in the shape of water and solid substances, from 
 one to two pounds daily, and in unusual exertion double 
 that amount. The kidneys have carried off from three 
 to five pints of fluid in twenty- four hours, much is elimi- 
 nated through the intestinal canal, and every muscle and 
 gland cell in the body has aided in this effort to purify 
 and cleanse the interior from the waste materials which 
 can only clog its machinery, and Hmit its power for body 
 building. 
 
 And so by the development of some of our original 
 simple cells into higher and more special forms, and by 
 the ceaseless activities of all of the members of this busy 
 human laboratory, adding to its structure little by little 
 and throwing away useless elements, it has become possi- 
 ble for such a beautiful creation as the human form to 
 be consummated. 
 
 Perhaps it will seem that we are even now trying to 
 cover up our ignorance concerning growth with many 
 words about it, but this hasty generalization has perhaps 
 suggested this much to us : That the law of growth 
 seems to be from extreme simplicity to great complexity ; 
 that with the human being this progress is not made in a 
 
HOW WE GROW. 13 
 
 hurry, but that on the contrary, whereas one of the 
 noblest of the lower animals, the horse, attains full 
 maturity in about seven years, it takes a human being 
 three or four times as long to reach even an approximate 
 maturity of his power. 
 
 We have also learned that there are two forces always 
 at work in this body building, — the one constructive, 
 building up and adding to the original foundation, the 
 other destructive, throwing off or eliminating materials 
 no longer of any use to the building; and these two 
 forces must be evenly balanced to maintain the health 
 and development of the body. That is, if we take in 
 so many pounds of food and drink daily and so much 
 air, we must also throw off from the body through the 
 different channels mentioned just as many pounds and 
 as much air. When this income of material is greater 
 than the output the activity of the various organs is 
 hindered, the body accumulates fat, certain diseases may 
 be engendered, and health is sure to suffer to a greater or 
 less degree. When the output much exceeds the in- 
 take the body wastes away and its strength is lost, — as 
 is frequently seen during fevers or other exhausting 
 diseases where the patient is unable to take sufficient 
 nourishment. 
 
 The object of our endeavours to develop the body 
 should evidently lie in the direction of offering it such 
 conditions of life as will maintain the proper balance 
 
14 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 between these two processes, and some of these condi- 
 tions will be discussed later on. 
 
 And finally, I think we must have noticed, as we 
 thought how growth was maintained, that one of its great 
 requirements is activity ; not simply the general activity 
 of the body as a whole, — the movement from place to 
 place, the turning of the limbs and the action of the 
 eye and lip and hand, — but that more constant and subtle 
 activity of the cells themselves, which are the component 
 parts of our body. 
 
 The blood cells which are ever carrying from one 
 region of the body to the other their needful supply of 
 oxygen, the muscle cells which are storing up some of 
 this oxygen against the day of sudden exertion or of lack 
 of food, the gland cells eagerly substracting from the 
 passing blood and other currents the elements they 
 require for their special work, the brain cells, still more 
 marvellous, which are quietly elaborating the force which 
 may perchance subdue an empire or electrify a nation, 
 all bear their silent but eager testimony to the fact that 
 only through activity are growth and health, and so life 
 and beauty, possible. 
 
 And now, since we have seen how gradual the devel- 
 opment of a human being must be, and by what elaborate 
 and complex processes it is carried on. we can readily 
 believe that it may easily be influenced for good or for 
 ill according to the conditions of life that surround it. 
 
HOW WE GROW. • 15 
 
 And this is precisely what is happening every day. There 
 is, fortunately, a certain law of growth by which all 
 human beings attain more or less to the standard of the 
 species to which they belong. This is, of course, what 
 we mean by heredity, — the tendency that we all have to 
 reach a certain average height and weight and chest 
 girth and strength and physical likeness to our kind. 
 And this tendency is always helping us to develop, and 
 by it we are predestined to be like what went before us. 
 But with such an impressionable thing as a growing 
 human body, with its myriads of cells, all dependent for 
 existence upon light and air and food and activity, which 
 they may or may not find in due proportion about them, 
 there are many chances that it may be diverted from its 
 straight course toward complete development. And 
 these chances are represented by environment, which is 
 the sum total of all the influences that make up daily 
 life ; the supply of food and fresh air and sunlight, the 
 influences of school-life and of dress and of exercise, 
 the effect of occupation or of a life of leisure, — all have 
 a tremendous effect upon growth and development, as 
 facts and figures are capable of showing ; and some of 
 these influences we intend to speak of somewhat in 
 detail. 
 
 Probably all of the girls who may read this book are 
 liberally supplied with fresh air and nourishing food in 
 their homes ; but since we are convinced that the other 
 
l6 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 conditions which commonly surround girls — of dress, 
 school-life, and lack of proper exercise — are largely 
 responsible for their unsymmetrical and undeveloped 
 bodies, we shall ask them to look more closely at these 
 conditions, and see whether their probable practical 
 influence is likely to be for good or for ill. The outlook 
 need not be depressing, for if these conditions are evil 
 they are all perfectly remediable. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 HOW ENVIRONMENT MAY INPXUENCE GROWTH. 
 
 SINCE we are not at all responsible for having been 
 born either of vigorous or of puny parentage, but, 
 being here, are now mostly concerned in learning how 
 we can help ourselves to better ourselves, and in properly 
 estimating what effect our life conditions have upon us, 
 let us dismiss all questions about the curious transmission 
 of physical perfections and imperfections, as seen in the 
 great fact of heredity, and look at this other great factor 
 in growth, — namely, environment. From such facts as 
 we have, it would seem that surroundings have an im- 
 mense influence upon the physical development of 
 persons all the world over. 
 
 In the first place, since circumstances do not appear 
 to have much influence upon the size of the new-born, 
 — since female infants, for instance, appear to have an 
 average size and weight the world over, regardless of their 
 class or condition, — it would appear that some potent 
 influences must have been at work to result in the enor- 
 mous physical differences we see about us. 
 
1 8 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 Practically speaking, all female infants have the aver- 
 age length of about nineteen inches. But we find that 
 when they have grown to girlhood the girls of different 
 social classes are very far from being equal to one another 
 in height; and we find, too, that these differences are 
 constantly increasing the farther we get away from 
 infancy. An hereditary tendency to low stature, some 
 one will perhaps say. Possibly, to some extent ; but that 
 this is not sufficient explanation facts like the following 
 will show. 
 
 When children who are brought up in large cities, 
 where the population is very dense, are taken to the 
 country where there is more space and Hght and air for 
 each person, they almost invariably show a great increase 
 in height, and one out of all proportion to their previous 
 growth, which would seem to indicate that their previous 
 surroundings of bad air, poor food, lack of exercise, and 
 perhaps too much work were largely responsible for their 
 slew growth. Even among adults a change of residence 
 from a less favourable to a more favourable climate has 
 resulted in a marked increase in height, as was noticed 
 in the case of many of our recruits during the late war. 
 
 The great social classification of rich and poor is, we 
 shall see, a great physical classification as well. In the 
 matter of stature alone it is estimated that the poor have 
 only eighty per cent of the stature of the rich. That is, 
 if the daughter of a well-to-do parent at the age of 
 
ENVIRONMENT MAY INFLUENCE GROWTH. 1 9 
 
 eighteen is five feet two inches tall, her less favoured 
 sister of the poorer classes will probably be two and a 
 half inches shorter. If the well-nurtured girl weighs 
 one hundred and twenty pounds, her poorer neighbour at 
 the same age may weigh anywhere from fifteen to twenty 
 pounds less. If our Hebe boasts a chest measure of 
 thirty inches, the neighbour can only show one of twenty- 
 eight ; and so through all their physical proportions like 
 differences show what nurture has done for one, and 
 what the lack of it has subtracted from the other. 
 
 Then there is the influence that occupation has in 
 favouring or retarding growth. We see the effect of this 
 by comparing children of the same class and surroundings, 
 one of whom works in a factory every day, standing on 
 his feet, the other who goes to school, or who follows 
 other trades not compelling the standing position. 
 
 The factory child, working against gravity all the time, 
 will be found two to three inches shorter than his mate 
 who is differently occupied, although their food <»id 
 housing are practically the same. 
 
 Unfortunately, fewer facts have been accumulated 
 about girls than about boys as regards the effect of occu- 
 pation, exercise, town or country life upon their develop- 
 ment ; but since the principle involved is the same for 
 both, we can accept the evidence for one as evidence for 
 the other, so I shall make no apology for showing in the 
 following table (page 21), by some help from Roberts's 
 
20 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 Statistics, how the height of English boys of the same 
 age may be diminished or increased in direct proportion 
 to their surroundings. 
 
 It is something Hke this : At the top of the scale, as 
 we see, best developed of all, are the sons of the profes- 
 sional men, — the boys who go to Eton and Rugby and 
 Harrow, well-housed, well-fed, and who above all, after 
 the fashion of the best English boys' schools, have 
 hours of healthy sport in the open air. These boys, we 
 see, are fifty- five inches (four feet seven inches) tall. 
 Next come the boys from the first and second " Middle- 
 class Schools," kept in town, where sports are fewer, boys 
 less out of doors, and living in less pure air. Then we 
 have the children of agricultural labourers, only fairly 
 fed, and when not in poorly kept schools probably on 
 their feet working ; these are two inches shorter already 
 than the best-nurtured boy. 
 
 Then there are the children of artisans, town dwellers, 
 constantly employed, breathing impure air, and taking no 
 exercise worth mentioning. Next come the factory 
 children who work in the country, and then those who 
 work in town. No sports, no out-of-doors, always on 
 their feet ; but you see even here that the country-bred 
 factory boy is ahead of the more confined town lad. 
 And last, and shortest of all, as they have been least 
 favoured by circumstances, come the children of asylums, 
 who are generally orphans, with no physical nurture, little 
 
ENVIRONMENT MAY INFLUENCE GROWTH. 21 
 
 exercise, and poor food both before and during their 
 asylum life. 
 
 These boys are all between the ages of eleven and 
 twelve years ; and grading them according to their height, 
 we shall see how this is steadily lessened in direct pro- 
 portion to their physical surroundings and habits of life. 
 
 Influence of Physical Nurture upon Height, 
 
 BOYS. 
 
 Country life, out-door 
 sports, plenty exercise _55 inches. 
 
 Town schools, fewer sports .. J 54 
 Poorer grade of schools, fewer 
 
 sports, poorer air 
 
 Agricultural labourers, poor schools : 
 
 country 
 
 Artisans, harder work : town I 5^-5 
 
 i2 
 
 Factory workers : country. 
 
 Factory workers : towns 
 
 Military Asylums ; orphans (?), early care neglected. 
 Industrial schools ; orphans (?), early care neglected. 
 
 io_ 
 
 So we see that a difference of five inches may exist 
 between two boys who were probably born of the same 
 height, one of whom was favoured with healthful sur- 
 roundings, the other deprived of these conditions of 
 growth. 
 
 The observations among girls, as we have already men- 
 tioned, being less numerous, the diagram is less striking ; 
 
22 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 but because this little book is for girls, we shall add 
 another pair of stairs which will give some results ob- 
 tained among English girls of different social classes, and 
 therefore widely differing physical advantages. 
 
 Like the boys, the first class represents the children 
 of professional men, who live in the same comfort, and 
 with probably about the same physical advantages as to 
 air, exercise, food, and the absence of fatiguing work as 
 do the girls who will read these pages. These girls are 
 ten years of age, and the scale descends in the follow- 
 ing way : — 
 
 Influence of Physical Nurture upon Height, 
 GIRLS. 
 Best physical conditions : town and country 53-4 inches. 
 
 Less favourable conditions : town LiL4 
 
 Labouring class : country I 5Q-4 
 
 Harder worked, more confined to house ; town I 48< 
 
 Industrial schools, most unfavourable I 477 
 
 At the age of fifteen a similar pair of stairs shows the 
 most favoured girl to be about five feet three inches tall 
 (62.9 inches), while the girl who is on the lowest stair, 
 an inmate of the Industrial schools, is, at the same age, 
 seven inches shorter, or only 55.5 inches high ! 
 
 In weight our topmost girl of fifteen years tips the 
 scales at about one hundred and seven pounds, while the 
 girl who has never had enough fresh air or vigorous 
 
ENVIRONMENT MAY INFLUENCE GROWTH. 23 
 
 exercise, and probably not a very ample diet withal, is 
 nearly forty pounds lighter ! 
 
 These and similar figures are only illustrative of facts 
 concerning which we have daily evidence ; for in a gen- 
 eral way we all understand that their surroundings and 
 physical education must make a difference to a nation, 
 or to a family, in proportion to their greater or less 
 healthfulness. 
 
 Probably none of my readers will ever work in fac- 
 tories, and doubtless all of them have liberal suppUes of 
 food, and fresh air in greater or less proportion, but a 
 consideration of these few figures will, I think, tend to 
 show them how seriously the external conditions and 
 habits of life may interfere with symmetrical growth ; and 
 they will therefore not be unprepared to have me claim 
 that certain social and other conditions of life which do 
 concern them may have a most important influence upon 
 the development of a girl's physique. 
 
 There are three distinct conditions in the life of the 
 average young woman which are certainly capable of 
 seriously retarding her physical development, as they now 
 exist, and these concern her habits of dress, habits of 
 school-Ufe, and habit of {noi) taking exercise. And 
 these three conditions, as they now exist, we shall look 
 at a little more carefully in detail. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS ON PHYSICAL 
 DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 IF we observe the outlines of any accredited statue of 
 a beautiful woman we shall be struck with several 
 interesting points of difference between them and those 
 of the modern girl in modem attire. If we take the 
 anterior line from the neck to the centre of the abdo- 
 men, we shall find that in our statue it presents two very 
 gentle curves. The first, from the base of the neck 
 downward, is a gradually swelling curve over the chest 
 until it reaches a point just below the bust ; then we see 
 that the line becomes almost straight for a few inches 
 until it reaches the region of the waist, when it once 
 more curves gently outward and downward over the 
 abdomen. In fact, the contour is such that the actual 
 depths of the two regions, — namely, those of the chest and 
 the abdomen, — are nearly the same, measured from be- 
 fore backward. The same figure gives us a similarly soft 
 curve from under the arm outward and downward over 
 the hip ; and we notice how almost imperceptible is the 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS. 2$ 
 
 point at which these swelling curves begin and end, with 
 no suggestion of sudden transition or sharpness. 
 
 These outlines are characteristic of the figures of all 
 the beautiful women that art has given us in every age ; 
 and from them we see that in the ideal beauty women 
 had no sharply defined waist (which is really a break in 
 the curve), but only a continuous and beautiful curve in 
 that region, and no suggestion of what women sometimes 
 now complain of, — an ^^ abdominous " figure, — but only 
 a gently swelling outline, whose beginning and end were 
 difficult to find. Evidently the same ideal of nature is 
 held in the modern art world, for the artists* models tell 
 the same story. ^' Have you a small waist? ** (that is, a 
 sharply defined curve) an artist's model was asked by 
 one in search of a natural figure. *' No,'* she replied, 
 quickly ; ^^ if I had, the artists would not employ me." 
 
 Now, it is easy to see that our modern girl is not like 
 the accredited statue in one or two important particulars. 
 First, her upper chest curve is somewhat more accentu- 
 ated, while the region below the bust, instead of being 
 either a straight line for a little distance or even a gentle 
 curve outward, is, on the contrary, often deeply indented, 
 forming an actual concavity in the outline at this point, 
 which we call the waist. At all events, there is almost 
 always a sharp arrest in the gradual slope outward which 
 challenges attention, the abdominal curve taking a sud- 
 den leap forward, just below this point, making, even in 
 
26 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 young women, what may be properly termed an abdomi- 
 nous figure. If she is dressed, — the modern model, — 
 these outlines result in the high bust, the stiff indented 
 waist, whose concavity contrasting with the swelling curve 
 below gives the conventional hour-glass figure. 
 
 It can be shown that these differences between the 
 modern and the classic, as well as between the modern 
 and the uncivilized woman, are entirely the result of the 
 constrictions of modern dress. No Greek or Roman 
 maiden possessed this curious outline, nor do we ever see 
 a well-formed Indian or gypsy woman with an hour-glass 
 figure. It has been reserved for modern civilization to 
 invent the brace known as the corset, and to its slow 
 compression women can now boast a figure like which 
 there is nothing in the world of nature or of art. 
 
 One of the first innovations in this line of tight dress- 
 ing was the linen band worn by ancient Greek and other 
 women for the purpose of supporting the bust, but never 
 with the intention of contracting or changing the figure. 
 It is probable, however, that to this simple and legitimate 
 fashion we owe, by slow degrees, the present one of sup- 
 plying a bust supporter, a waist constrictor, and a general 
 body depressor in the one article known as the corset. 
 For as the human body is more than a mere outline, 
 it goes without saying that any systematic compression of 
 its anatomy must affect, not only its contour but also the 
 structures and organs compressed. And briefly, these 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS. 2^ 
 
 are some of the grave charges that we bring against the 
 modern corset, or against any system of compression 
 analogous to it : — 
 
 First, it changes the shape of the chest, by compress- 
 ing the lower and more movable ribs, and exalting the 
 action of the upper chest region. It restricts the free 
 action of the heart and of the lower portions of the 
 lungs. It curtails the freedom of the diaphragm, the 
 most important muscle of respiration. It weakens by 
 its pressure all of the muscles which it constricts, — not- 
 ably the abdominal muscles, whose vigour and tone are 
 specially desirable in women, — while it offers the spinal 
 muscles an artificial support, instead of the cultivation 
 of their natural functions of holding the spine erect. 
 
 It tends to displace abdominal organs, — notably the 
 liver, which is directly within the limits of its seizure, 
 and which is pushed by this compression downward 
 into the pelvic region, where it in turn exerts its pressure 
 upon the pelvic organs. This pressure from above, 
 alUed to the fact that the diaphragm, whose activity 
 greatly assists the pelvic circulation, is seriously crippled 
 by compression, makes tight clothing, with its associated 
 muscular weakness, largely responsible for many of the 
 pelvic complaints which disable women. 
 
 The strength of all muscles depends upon their action 
 in the line of their function, and for such action they 
 must be free. Now, the corset makes action unnecessary 
 
28 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 and freedom impossible, because it says to the waist 
 muscles and the back and abdominal muscles, '* Come, I 
 will support you; lean on me. Your arms must grow 
 strong with use, your legs become vigorous with action, 
 it is true ; but make no exertion with the muscles of your 
 trunk, for I will support them by this splint." And so 
 the growing girl who was just learning the enjoyment of 
 her body, and beginning to develop its usefulness, is 
 encased in whale-bones and splints ; and after a year or 
 two of artificial support she says very truly that she 
 cannot hold herself up without it. 
 
 It will perhaps be easier to understand the influence 
 of corset pressure by referring to the illustration (Fig. i), 
 which represents the trunk of the body and the regions 
 most affected by tight dressing. We see here the 
 bony cage called the thorax, formed by the ribs, breast- 
 bone, and spine, which contains the heart and lungs. 
 These twelve pairs of slender bones are all attached 
 behind to the spine, but in front they are pieced out with 
 cartilage, by means of which most of them are attached 
 to the breast- bone, directly, or indirectly, varying with 
 their position. The lower ribs, it will be seen, are more 
 indirectly and obliquely connected with the breast-bone 
 in this manner, while the last three are not attached in 
 front at all, but float loosely in the abdominal cavity. 
 It is evident from this arrangement, and it can also be 
 demonstrated by experiment, that the lower part of the 
 
LOWER BORDER LUNGS 
 & REGION OF OlAPHRACn 
 
 REG/ON OF LIVER 
 
 REGION OF STOrVkC^ 
 
 PELV/C ORGANS'^ 
 
 Fig. I. Showing the natural and the artificial 
 
 OUTLINES OF THE TRUNK. 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS. 29 
 
 chest and these floating ribs are easily compressed. 
 The lowest ribs are in fact just at the waist- line, 
 where in all tightly dressed women they are continually 
 squeezed together; so that if they could be seen, they 
 would be found nearly meeting in the centre of the 
 body, instead of showing the natural wide separation 
 indicated in the plate. 
 
 Below the chest walls the plate shows the flaring 
 hip-bones, which form the basin called the pelvis, in 
 which are deeply located the uterus, ovaries, bladder, 
 etc. The outer line gives the actual shape of an un- 
 restricted body, with its gradual and gentle curves. 
 The inner and heavier line gives the familiar shape 
 of a tightly- dressed woman, and has been drawn to in- 
 dicate the line of pressure of a tight corset, and the 
 regions which are most injured by its seizure. It will 
 be seen that in order to produce a small waist, — that is, 
 a marked indentation of the figure, — the corset begins 
 to pull in the ribs at about the lower third of the lung 
 region, and that this compression is increased, as shown 
 by the incurving line, until it cuts sharply across the 
 lower ribs, clearly showing how these, in an artificial 
 waist, must be squeezed into the center of the body, 
 pressing with them the organs which are within their 
 protection. 
 
 Just at this point of waist constriction is the great 
 muscle of respiration, the diaphragm, which forms the 
 
30 
 
 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 partition between the chest and the abdominal organs ; 
 and because it is such an important organ, and withal 
 so Httle understood and so much abused, we shall pay 
 it a little attention just here. 
 
 The name diaphragm means a dividing wall, and it 
 is so called because it cuts off the chest from the ab- 
 dominal cavity. The diaphragm indeed forms the floor 
 
 Fig. 2. The Diaphragm. 
 
 of the chest, and the roof of the abdominal cavity. By 
 referring to the illustration (Fig. 2), which is copied 
 from Kitchen, it will be seen to be irregularly dome- 
 like in shape, some of its fibres also running downward 
 and backward into flattened tail-like ends, which are 
 attached to the spine. The sides are attached to the 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS. 3 1 
 
 ribs, while in front its deeply jagged edges fit into similar 
 digitations in the muscles that close the abdominal cavity. 
 In structure it is part muscle and part tendon, and it 
 is so strong that it is estimated that in certain expul- 
 sive efforts it exerts a pressure upon the abdominal 
 contents equal to over twenty pounds to the square inch. 
 Underneath its two convex surfaces we find the liver 
 and the stomach packed away with the spleen, kidneys, 
 and other digestive organs, the diaphragm fitting down 
 over them almost like a cap ; and from their intimate 
 relation it will readily be understood how the move- 
 ments of this close-fitting cover must influence these 
 and adjacent organs. There are three openings in the 
 diaphragm, two of which permit the passage of blood- 
 vessels from the heart into the abdomen and beyond, 
 while the other transmits the oesophagus as it passes 
 into the stomach. 
 
 Now, the great office of the diaphragm is to pump 
 air into the chest ; it forms the motive power by which 
 not only breathing but all vocalization, — speech, song, 
 coughing, and laughing, — are possible. Other muscles 
 are aids to respiration ; but they could all be spared be- 
 fore the diaphragm, which is the only muscle capable of 
 carrying on abdominal breathing unaided. This alone 
 suggests its importance, and the necessity of giving it 
 ample room for its activity. 
 
 The diaphragm works something like a piston. In 
 
32 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 inspiration its two dome- like surfaces contract, becom- 
 ing flattened out, and so descending somewhat, and 
 pushing downward the abdominal organs they enlarge 
 the chest cavity vertically, while the ribs, at the same 
 time moving outward, enlarge it laterally. This reces- 
 sion of the chest walls having formed a vacuum, air 
 rushes in to fill the space, and so we have inspiration. 
 
 In expiration the diaphragm returns to its original 
 position and dome-like shape, partly by its own elas- 
 ticity, and partly by the recoil of the abdominal organs 
 which push it up as they regain their own position once 
 more. 
 
 This, then, is the first great function of the diaphragm, 
 and it is apparent how it must be limited in its useful- 
 ness if it is squeezed into a smaller space than nature 
 provided for it. 
 
 • The illustration of the diaphragm is intentionally 
 made larger than it normally is in relation to the chest, 
 so that its structure may be more clearly apparent. It 
 is drawn as it would be in a state of expiration, when 
 it has been relaxed somewhat. In inspiration these 
 dome-like surfaces become flattened. 
 
 It can be imagined how the line that has been drawn 
 to represent the compression of the ribs must also cut 
 across the curved borders of these domes, compressing 
 the organ, and restricting it in its ability to expand 
 properly. We find by experiment that tight clothing, 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS. 33 
 
 be it corset, bands, or waists, does seriously affect its 
 oscillations, and interfere with the quantity of air that can 
 be taken into the lungs at any given time. If the dia- 
 phragm is limited in its movements, the chest is not 
 properly enlarged at each inspiration, and there is con- 
 sequently no opportunity for the lungs to expand fully 
 in their lower portions. It will be noticed that about 
 one third of the lungs lie below the point of beginning 
 corset pressure, so that with tight corsets this amount of 
 lung substance must be more or less useless, depending 
 upon the degree of compression. The reason that 
 women support this amount of lung compression as well 
 as they do, is because the upper two thirds of the chest 
 assumes extra work to compensate for the deficiency of 
 the unused portion, which also explains why the upper 
 chest region moves more freely in women than it does 
 in man. 
 
 It has been supposed, indeed, to be the normal type of 
 female breathing to use the upper part of the chest to 
 the practical exclusion of the lower portion; and this 
 type of breathing has been called clavicular, because 
 it is carried on by that portion of the chest in the 
 region of the clavicle or collar bone, while the male 
 type, in which there is more action of the diaphragm 
 and less of the upper chest, is called diaphragmatic. 
 But a sufficient number of experiments by different ob- 
 servers have satisfied the writer that this so-called fe- 
 
 3 
 
34 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 male type of breathing is not the intention of nature, but 
 is the result of corset or other tight dressing, which pre- 
 vents the natural use and development of the diaphragm. 
 It is found that little girls who have never worn corsets 
 breathe with the lower part of the lungs, and use their 
 diaphragm as fully as do boys of the same age. We find 
 too that with civilized women who have never worn cor- 
 sets the diaphragmatic breathing is the type rather than 
 the clavicular, while savage, Chinese, and gypsy women, 
 who are guiltless of any waist constriction, show diaphrag- 
 matic breathing equally with the men of their tribes. 
 
 It has also been shown by Dr. Kellogg that while a 
 woman who wears a corset does exhibit this clavicular 
 type of breathing, making little use of her diaphragm, 
 the same woman when she has dispensed with her cor- 
 set learns gradually to practise diaphragmatic breathing 
 with nearly the same freedom as a man ; and finally, to 
 demonstrate how a constricted waist must affect the dia- 
 phragm of any being, Kellogg shows that the breathing 
 of a man in a corset is almost precisely like that of a 
 corseted woman, — that is, of the clavicular type. 
 
 To ascertain in figures how much ordinarily tight 
 clothing interferes with lung expansion and freedom of 
 the diaphragm, the writer induced ten young ladies to 
 allow themselves to be measured about the chest both 
 with and without a corset or waist, and noted the results. 
 The girth was taken about the ninth rib, or just below 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS. 35 
 
 the lower portion of the lungs, and where the diaphrag- 
 matic action is most visible. The average girth at this 
 point was about 27.50 inches over a gauze shirt. One 
 half of the girls generally wore corsets, the other five 
 wore ^^ reformed waists.'* These being put on, the same 
 measurement was again taken over the corset or waist, 
 when it was found to be from half an inch to an inch 
 and a half smaller than without any clothing, in the case 
 of the corseted girls ; in those with the waists it was 
 generally larger by one or more inches. 
 
 The chest expansion of all being taken at the same 
 level without corsets, was found to amount to two and 
 three inches ; taken with the corset on, it averaged only 
 three-quarters of an inch. One girl, who wore a low 
 riding-corset however, expanded one and one half inches. 
 Those who wore the reformed waists could expand from 
 one and one half to two and one half inches. These 
 figures point their own moral, and make comment need- 
 less. It is idle to hope for a perfect physique or fine 
 development of the body when it is denied its first great 
 right of fresh air and freedom ; and to demand the amount 
 of physical activity requisite for development of girls 
 whose organs are strapped in, and whose supply of oxy- 
 gen is curtailed by many inches, is cruelty. 
 
 Either physical development or tight clothing must 
 go. But the effect of waist constriction is farther reach- 
 ing than the lungs. The corset and all tight clothing 
 
36 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 work their ill eifects upon the abdominal and pelvic 
 organs in quite as serious a manner. 
 
 There is, indeed, as we have seen, some compensation 
 for restriction about the lower chest region in the exag- 
 gerated activity of the upper chest in women, but for the 
 displacement and injuries to the abdominal and pelvic 
 organs that occur from the same compression there can 
 be no compensation. 
 
 The diaphragm has a most important influence upon 
 these lower organs, because its office is not only to pump 
 air into the lungs, but also to pump blood into the heart. 
 For when the vacuum is created in the chest by inspira- 
 tion, the blood from the abdominal and pelvic veins is 
 sucked upward by aspiration into the chest, its naturally 
 slow course being in that way accelerated and encouraged 
 by every breath we draw. The fuller the inspiration the 
 larger the vacuum formed in the chest, and the more 
 profound the effect upon the circulation of the liver and 
 stomach, the uterus, and all adjacent organs. 
 
 In estimating the value of deep inspiration upon the pel- 
 vic circulation one more fact should be noticed, — namely, 
 that nature has not provided the same helps to the return 
 circulation in the pelvis that are found elsewhere in the 
 body. The blood in the lower extremities in returning 
 to the heart is for the most part flowing against gravity ; 
 and in order to assist its upward course the veins are 
 generally provided with tiny valves, which, like locks in 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS. 3/ 
 
 a canal, dam it up for a second's time that it may gain 
 greater force and propelling power later. But the pelvic 
 organs in women are not provided with these helps to 
 circulation, so that with this lack, and with the fact that 
 the erect position tends rather to promote stagnation of 
 blood in these regions, there would seem to be reason 
 why pelvic congestions might easily occur unless every 
 help of nature's providing is used to prevent them. The 
 relaxed abdominal and pelvic muscles of women tend to 
 promote this congestion also, — partly because excess of 
 blood may accumulate in such inactive muscles, and 
 partly because the relaxed muscular fibres permit dis- 
 placements of the pelvic organs. 
 
 All of this interference with the pelvic circulation 
 greatly increases the chances of displacement which 
 tight and heavy clothing inaugurates. 
 
 The liver is probably the first organ to suffer from 
 corset pressure. Normally, this organ does not reach 
 below the border of the ribs ; but under corset constric- 
 tion it is pushed inward and downward, — sometimes so 
 compressed that the markings of the ribs are found upon 
 its surface, — and displaced from one to three inches be- 
 low its normal position. The pressure of so heavy an 
 organ in turn displaces and pushes away the other 
 contents of the abdominal cavity, so there is a con- 
 stant downward pressure maintained upon all of these 
 structures. 
 
38 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 Now, the uterus, which in turn receives this pressure, 
 is held in position by Hgaments which act as mooring 
 ropes to hold it in place. These are formed of mus- 
 cular and other fibres, which are capable of stretching 
 under pressure ; and this stretching actually occurs when 
 waist constriction is present, so that the ligaments no 
 longer sustain the organ in its normal position. 
 
 In fact, the evils of the corset or other waist con- 
 striction appear to the writer to be as serious in their 
 effects upon pelvic health as upon the chest region. 
 Their influence is always recognized by intelligent phy« 
 sicians who are called upon to remedy these pelvic 
 displacements, congestions, and allied difficulties, the 
 lines of preventive and curative treatment always includ- 
 ing rules for such dress as shall permit the free oscilla- 
 tions of the diaphragm as well as for exercises which shall 
 cultivate the vigour and healthy tone of the abdominal 
 and pelvic muscles and uterine supports. 
 
 Nothing has been said regarding the weight of clothing, 
 because the apphcation of the principles of freedom and 
 non- constriction are so obviously applicable to excess 
 of weight as to need no comment. Neither have the 
 discomforts of tight dressing been enlarged upon, because 
 they too are matters of common experience to most 
 corset wearers, many of whom have been frank enough 
 to confess to the writer that they were never comfort- 
 able in corsets and did not suppose any woman could 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF DRESS. . 39 
 
 be, sadly bearing their yoke as part of their debt to 
 civilization. 
 
 The limitation that corsets put upon the natural and 
 graceful movements of the body, most of which depend 
 upon the freedom of the spine and the waist muscles (as 
 in bowing and bending, and all the side and rotating 
 movements of the trunk) , is certainly obvious enough to 
 others, if not always to their wearer. 
 
 Some' one with more force than elegance remarks, 
 ^^ Woman in stays cannot stoop, she must squat." The 
 writer heard an unintentional commentary upon this text 
 recently by one woman who half enviously said to an- 
 other, who bent quickly and gracefully to lift an article 
 from the floor, " You must wear a very loose corset." ^^ I 
 do not wear any," was the quiet rejoinder of the well 
 dressed friend, who preferred a trifling addition to her 
 waist to the awkward immobilization she had found in 
 the conventional corset. 
 
 Indeed, to aspire to grace and flexibility and a fine de- 
 velopment of the trunk, and still to cling to a tight corset, 
 is like requiring activity in a bandaged arm, or looking 
 for the sensitive and vital movements of life in a wooden 
 leg. 
 
 Freedom, space, activity, — these are the necessary en- 
 vironments of the body if we would attain its fullest and 
 most charming development. Fortunately, these are 
 possible, and elegance is possible, by the use of the 
 
40 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 well fitted waists, which are to be found in every city 
 and town. The comfort and pliability of these waists 
 have recommended them to hundreds of corset-lovers 
 all over the country; and with them the introduction 
 of light and well- supported other clothing, details for 
 which can be learned in most of the same shops, offers 
 in this respect the girl who honestly desires health, grace, 
 and freedom to use her body, a hopeful and attractive 
 future. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL ON PHYSICAL 
 DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 FULLY one half of every girPs waking hours are 
 spent either at school or in study preparing for 
 it, and so, approximately under the same conditions. If 
 we admit a five-hour daily session, or the ordinary one 
 from nine until two o'clock, we see by a little multiplying 
 that a girl between the ages of nine and eighteen spends 
 nine thousand hours in the schoolroom, adding a thou- 
 sand more for each year after eighteen that she goes to 
 school. It must be quite evident to any thoughtful person 
 that the influence of such an amount of time for good 
 or for evil upon the physical part of this girPs organism 
 cannot be slight ; and this is the more certain because 
 these school influences are quite unvarying in their char- 
 acter, the physical advantages and disadvantages being 
 fairly balanced in most schools, omitting the poorest 
 grade, and at all periods, until perhaps the closing year 
 or two of school-Hfe, when the sifting of scholars brings 
 
42 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 more space and air to the older classes, and sometimes a 
 relaxation in discipline calls for less immobility. 
 
 Now, the text of this chapter will be based upon the 
 conviction that school-life is responsible for much of 
 the ill health of young girls (the case is practically the 
 same for boys, only we are not here considering their 
 needs), and for many of their physical deficiencies, 
 asymmetries, and lesser deformities. 
 
 If those conditions of school-hfe which retard phys- 
 ical development were unavoidable evils, and indispen- 
 sable to brain- training, it is probable that they would 
 not be discussed here, because the necessity and value 
 of mental training is so absolute, from every point of 
 view, that one might feel called upon to sacrifice some 
 small degree of physical development, if that were ne- 
 cessary, in order to attain it. As a matter of fact, most 
 persons who lead a literary or other sedentary life are 
 obliged to make this sacrifice ; but most of the unfa- 
 vourable conditions of school-life are so obviously avoid- 
 able, and the evils which result are so remediable (some 
 of them being quite in the hands of the girls themselves, 
 to correct or set aside) that they fairly come within the 
 province of our subject. 
 
 It is quite true that the most crying evil of school-life, 
 — namely, the impure air of schoolrooms, and their lack 
 of ventilation, is not one that is within the province of 
 the girls themselves to correct, although they could some- 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL. 43 
 
 times effect something in that direction if they were 
 persuaded of the necessity of plenty of fresh air, both 
 for physical and mental uses. 
 
 It was long ago established by scientists who have 
 made studies of the elements of fresh air and of air that 
 has once been breathed by human beings, that this re- 
 breathed air is totally unfit for their use again. Observa- 
 tions upon the health of people whose ration of fresh air 
 is small daily, show that re-breathed air has a poisonous 
 effect upon them, — partly, of course, from its possessing 
 certain gaseous and other elements, which represent the 
 waste materials of the body thrown off by the lungs, and 
 therefore never intended to be re-absorbed by the lungs 
 in that same condition ; partly, in a negative sense, 
 because such air passing through the lungs has lost much 
 of the oxygen which human beings require for growth 
 and health ; and partly because such " close " air is more 
 liable to retain any germs of disease that may have been 
 carried to it, and which would be dissipated by the 
 admission of fresh currents of air. 
 
 Some of the invariable results that follow from breath- 
 ing impure air are headaches, anemia, or an impover- 
 ished condition of the blood, in which the blood cells 
 lack proper supply of oxygen, as well as iron and other 
 elements, and dyspepsia, with the various discomforts 
 and low state of strength that follow in the train of 
 these disorders. Now, it is a noteworthy fact that 
 
44 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 these and other affections, so common among school- 
 girls, are rare under the age of eight or nine years. 
 Children under that age rarely complain of headache, 
 unless on the verge of illness ; but after her school-days 
 begin, dyspepsia, headaches, and anemia are some of the 
 commonest affections that call for the attention of the 
 family doctor, and by him are too often attributed to 
 overstudy and mental strain. 
 
 We believe school-life to be largely responsible for these 
 and kindred disorders of school-girls, — not, however, 
 because their brains are overtaxed, but rather because 
 the body is under-trained, and especially because it is 
 robbed of its rightful supply of fresh air by confinement 
 in ill-ventilated, or oftener not at all ventilated rooms. 
 
 There is a certain amount of space known as cubic 
 space which every person requires in order to secure not 
 only the first supply of pure air, but in order to obtain 
 renewals of this air often enough to keep it pure without 
 draughts. There is also a certain amount of fresh air 
 that must come into this space every hour, so much for 
 every person according to the age. 
 
 School- children require a cubic space of from two 
 hundred and fifty to six hundred cubic feet per capita, 
 depending upon their age; and the ventilation of the 
 schoolroom should be such as to provide fifteen hundred 
 cubic feet of fresh air every hour, per capita, and to 
 entirely change the air of an occupied room at least 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL. 45 
 
 three times an hour, in order to maintain the proper 
 standard of purity, — a room that is over-crowded need- 
 ing even more frequent changes than this. 
 
 It is a fair statement that these conditions are never 
 supphed in schoolrooms ; for it is a startUng fact that, 
 notwithstanding these requirements of hygiene are known 
 to be true, and that they are expressed with mathemati- 
 cal exactness in text-books and many popular treatises 
 on the subject, our school-girls, whose parents are gen- 
 erally wiUing and able to supply them with the best 
 conditions of Ufe, do not actually receive as adequate 
 an allowance of fresh air daily as do the criminals and 
 lunatics in our best State institutions. 
 
 There are few schools indeed in this country that can 
 offer any such proportion of fresh air per pupil as is 
 oifered by the most modern and best equipped of these 
 charitable and penal institutions, which are for the sole 
 purpose of sheltering lives that are more or less worthless 
 to the State, while in our schoolrooms are being trained 
 what we call the flower of our land ; yet humanita- 
 rian principles have in many cases provided for these 
 paupers and criminals the most approved and scientific 
 system of ventilation, while these darlings of the pros- 
 perous go on poisoning their bodies and dulling their 
 brains by breathing and rebreathing the scanty allowance 
 of air that they find in the majority of schoolrooms. 
 
 This evil can only be remedied by the firmness and 
 
46 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 intelligent co-operation of parents, who should refuse to 
 send their children where the requisite provisions for ven- 
 tilation do not exist, and through the intervention of 
 Boards of Health, who should pass laws forbidding the 
 use of rooms for school purposes which do not permit 
 of proper ventilation, and which shall also limit the 
 number of pupils to be allowed in rooms of given di- 
 mensions. But while it is true that parents and teachers 
 and Boards of Health are the responsible persons in this 
 matter, and that we must look to their intelligence and 
 conscience to make laws that will remedy this evil, it is 
 also true that in many ways the girls can often help 
 themselves for the time being. 
 
 This can be done by assisting the ventilation of the 
 room by opening windows and doors for even a few 
 seconds or minutes, during changes between classes, and 
 also by the pupils withdrawing from the main room dur- 
 ing intermissions and moving about the building, the 
 yard, or if possible out of doors, to gain for themselves a 
 breath of air, as well as the desirable exercise. 
 
 One or two intelligent and sensible girls, by means 
 well known to girls of tact and determination, can create 
 among their fellows what is evidently a necessity, a 
 public sentiment in fevour of fresh air, — a sentiment 
 which would realize that headaches and drowsiness and 
 " nervousness " could often be dismissed by the opening 
 of a schoolroom window or a brisk promenade in pure 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL. 47 
 
 air during recess, and that over-crowding and not over 
 study is the cause of their ills. Some of the influences 
 of school- Hfe which are most unfavourable to physical de- 
 velopment are however of a different nature, and are 
 generally quite within the province of the school-girl to 
 remedy. These are the influences of faulty positions 
 and temporary distortions of the body seen at the school- 
 desk, in writing or drawing or studying, sometimes in 
 standing and sitting as well. These temporary distor- 
 tions might be of small importance if only assumed for 
 the moment ; but where they constitute what we may 
 almost call the normal pose of a school-girl, and where 
 we realize that they are assumed by a most impression- 
 able and easily moulded organism day after day and year 
 after year for nine or ten years, it is impossible to doubt 
 that they have a seriously unfavourable effect upon all of 
 the structures included in the attitude. 
 
 The most important regions which, as we shall see, are 
 liable to be retarded or distorted in their development 
 by these school habits are the chest, or thorax, and the 
 spinal column, — school attitudes tending to induce a flat- 
 tened chest and a spine which is deviated either to the 
 right or to the left of the vertical line, depending upon 
 the direction of the attitude most often assumed. A 
 familiar attitude often taken by girls at the school-desk 
 is illlustrated by the accompanying photograph (Fig. 3) 
 of a girl who was asked to assume the position most 
 
48 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 common with her at school, upon which she dropped at 
 once into the pose here represented. Undesirable as 
 this is, it is actually not as distorted as the attitudes 
 we not infrequently find school-girls assuming. 
 
 It will be evident that such a pose is not only unbeau- 
 tiful, but may be positively deforming. We see how the 
 shoulders are raised and drawn forward, so that the chest 
 must be contracted and flattened, as can easily be de- 
 monstrated by assuming the position. Free respiration is 
 impeded, partly because the diaphragm, which is the 
 principal muscle of respiration, is cramped by this posi- 
 tion, so that its free movements are limited ; and the 
 stomach and other organs of digestion are in like fashion 
 squeezed together, and their circulation doubtless inter- 
 fered with, — a matter of some moment after the hasty 
 meals which generally precede the school-session. But 
 after its effect in flattening the chest, perhaps its most 
 apparent influence is upon the spinal column, in which 
 all one-sided positions that are frequently assumed have 
 the tendency to induce a lateral curvature. 
 
 In the case of our model it will be seen that this one- 
 sided attitude, in which she is resting more upon the 
 right than the left side, curves the spine toward the 
 right in the upper or dorsal region, while there is a slight 
 compensatory curve in the lumbar region. The right 
 shoulder is somewhat elevated, and the right side of the 
 chest becomes more prominent than the left, while the 
 
Fig. 3. The habitual attitude of a school-girl at 
 
 HER DESK. 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL. 49 
 
 left side is made concave, and the left hip is thrown 
 out and becomes more prominent than the right. These 
 two defects — hollow chests and crooked spines — are in 
 fact very common among school-girls ; and like some of 
 the diseases of children, they become vastly more com- 
 mon after the school-age than before. It is compara- 
 tively rare to find a child under seven or eight years 
 of age with a lateral curvature of the spine, but between 
 the ages of ten and eighteen these curvatures become 
 extremely frequent. Out of several hundred young 
 women and school children examined by the writer, 
 from twenty-five to thirty per cent showed some degree 
 of spinal curvature, varying all the way from an insignifi- 
 cant deviation easily recovered from by proper care, to a 
 pronounced and permanent distortion. Almost all of 
 those who were interrogated about their school habits 
 acknowledged their school positions to be similar to 
 or even more distorted than that of Fig. 3. Such posi- 
 tions are perhaps oftener taken in writing than at 
 other times, although they are chronic in many cases ; 
 out of two hundred children whose attitudes in writing 
 were examined by Schenck of Berlin, one hundred and 
 sixty were found seated in a position to induce a curva- 
 ture of the spine. 
 
 It must be understood that lateral curvature of the 
 spine is not a disease, but a distortion, due to the lateral 
 deviation of the spinal vertebrae from their normal verti- 
 
 4 
 
50 
 
 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 cal axis, with the results (varying with the extent of the 
 deviation) that must follow when this twisted structure 
 IS the central supporting column of the body and has 
 many important relations to other struc- 
 tures. 
 
 It is upon the erectness, suppleness, 
 and strength of the spinal column that 
 most of the power and grace of the body 
 depend ; for it is impossible to imagine 
 either one or the other of these quaUties 
 in a weak or distorted spine. The way 
 in which these qualities are favoured by 
 the structure of the spine we shall better 
 understand if we glance at the illustra- 
 tion (Fig. 4), which represents a side 
 view of the spinal column. 
 
 It will be seen from this view that the 
 spine normally exhibits four curvatures, 
 but all from before backward, not from 
 side to side. One, in the neck, forward ; 
 one backward at the shoulders ; the third 
 
 forward again at the waist, or lumbar 
 Fig. 4. — Side view 
 of the normal region : and the fourth, which is in the 
 
 Spinal Column. 
 
 pelvis, sharply backward again. The ob- 
 ject of these curvatures is to give a springiness to the 
 spine which it would not exhibit if it were built like a 
 straight rod ; and this springiness is still further encour- 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL. 51 
 
 aged, as we shall see, by another provision. The entire 
 column is composed of twenty-four separate stout bony 
 bodies, which are rounded in front, and which terminate 
 behind in spines, or projections (from which the column 
 gains its name), which may be distinctly felt all the way 
 down the back, and which, in a normal spine, are in a 
 perfectly vertical line from neck to hips. 
 
 It will also be noticed that each of these vertebrae is 
 cut off from its neighbour by a certain space, differing in 
 size in the different localities. These spaces are filled 
 by elastic cushions or pads of cartilaginous material, 
 which, being quite compressible, aid in giving to the 
 spine its elasticity, and which also add to the effect of 
 the spinal curves in preventing the too severe transmis- 
 sion of a shock to the spinal column from a fall or other 
 sudden jar. 
 
 The compressibility of these cushions is shown by the 
 fact that we are taller early in the morning than at night, 
 because the night^s rest has permitted the cushions to 
 regain the elasticity of which the body's weight had de- 
 prived them during the day. In severe lateral curvatures 
 these elastic disks are compressed and thinned on the 
 side of greatest bending and pressure, some of the verte- 
 brae also being changed in shape, showing how perma- 
 nently maintained distortions, even when they are not 
 the result of disease, cause permanent internal changes 
 which coincide with the external deformity. 
 
52 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 On the sides of the vertebrae we may notice small 
 half-moon depressions. Each of these, with that of its 
 fellow above, forms a pit which receives the end of the 
 rib, which is firmly held there by ligaments. A better 
 idea of the attachment of the ribs may be obtained from 
 the illustration of the thorax, given in the chapter on 
 Dress. 
 
 All of the vertebrae are bound together by shorter or 
 longer ligaments, which hold it strongly, but which per- 
 mit considerable motion between the different bones; 
 and the whole is connected and moved by longer or 
 shorter bands of muscles, forming a structure wonder- 
 fully strong, pliable, and capable of most graceful and 
 sinuous movements. These muscles and ligaments, being 
 precisely alike on both sides, are intended to bear equally 
 the strain of supporting the body ; but when one-sided 
 positions are habitually assumed, the muscles and liga- 
 ments which are constantly exercised upon that side 
 tend to grow stronger and larger than their fellows, and 
 these in turn will weaken and even waste away from 
 disuse, so that such one-sidedness tends to perpetuate 
 itself even when the position is changed, and a school 
 habit, at first only nonchalently assumed, tends from 
 natural causes to settle into a permanent attitude. 
 
 From what we know also of the relation of the ribs to 
 the spine, we can see that anything that deviates these 
 vertebrae sidewise or rotates them on their axes must 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL. S3 
 
 affect the ribs which are fastened to them. Now, as the 
 ribs form the thorax in which are placed the heart and 
 lungs, any influence which deforms or changes this cage 
 may interfere with the functions of the organs it con- 
 tains. Such an interference actually occurs in the more 
 serious cases of curvature, producing shortness of breath, 
 with heart and other functional disturbances. It is 
 partly these considerations, which fortunately do not 
 obtain in many cases, but which are in severe cases quite 
 prominent, over and above those of its effect upon the 
 symmetry of the body which gives special importance to 
 this affection, and to any means for its prevention. 
 
 It should not be supposed that school-life is to be held 
 responsible for the initiation of this affection ; but there 
 can be no doubt that to many girls its unfavourable influ- 
 ences, particularly those of steady confinement and faulty 
 positions assumed for ease or through carelessness, prove 
 to be the predisposing causes. 
 
 The precise and remote cause of spinal curvature is 
 indeed still obscure. There appears to be a tendency to 
 it in some which is absent in others, since two girls of 
 the same age may be subjected to the same conditions, 
 one of whom will exhibit the affection, while the other 
 will escape. Exactly in what this tendency consists we 
 do not know, although there are various theories about it ; 
 but the practical point is, that as it is impossible to tell 
 which of any given number of girls may have this ten- 
 
54 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 dency latent, all influences which favour its occurrence, 
 — such as the ones already commented upon, as well as 
 other bad attitudes, the carrying of heavy weights in 
 childhood, absence of exercise and therefore a lack of 
 muscular vigour, — should be carefully avoided, while 
 all conditions favouring the development of the spinal 
 ligaments and muscles in their natural relations should 
 be courted by girls who desire health and a good 
 figure. 
 
 Certain special exercises, which tend to cultivate the 
 spinal muscles and their general suppleness, will be sug- 
 gested later • but at present we shall point out two or 
 three practical methods of remedying some of the 
 present evils of school-life. 
 
 These remedies are two or three in number, and 
 all simple, and easily applied. First, the conditions of 
 school-study should be made comfortable for the girls by 
 providing them with chairs and desks suitable to their 
 height and development. These differences in height 
 can be adjusted by variations in the chairs, changing the 
 desks being more expensive, besides being more difficult 
 in adjustment. The chair should be of such a height 
 that the girl may rest her feet firmly and easily upon 
 the floor, or upon a firm foot-rest, the seat being deep 
 enough from before backward to accommodate about 
 three fourths of the length of the thigh. Next, the back 
 of the chair should be so curved as to support the spine 
 
Fig. 5. The correct attitude at the desk. 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL. 55 
 
 easily in its natural curves, both at the waist, or lumbar 
 region, and also at the shoulder-blade level. 
 
 To fit the curves of the spine, chairs should be curved 
 slightly forward at the waist region and backward at the 
 point of the shoulder-blades, reaching just above their 
 lower level. Chair and desk should be so close to one 
 another that the student need not lean forward to read 
 from books, which position tends to round the shoulders, 
 and flatten the chest, and often to induce short-sighted- 
 ness. If the desk and chair are properly arranged the 
 girl can easily rest two thirds of her forearm upon the 
 desk, without raising her shoulders by so doing. In 
 writing, students should sit erect, with the body parallel 
 with the horizontal axis of the desk, not twisted to one 
 side or sitting upon one hip, as our first model is seated. 
 The proper position at the desk is illustrated by Fig. 5, 
 the feet resting easily upon the floor, and the back sup- 
 ported in the erect position by the chair. Writing should 
 be taught and practised in this position, which will be 
 found perfectly easy, if no other position has first been 
 taught. The long confinement in the schoolroom may 
 be made less irksome and its ill effects upon muscles 
 practically obviated if two or three short intermissions of 
 from five to ten minutes are given during the four or five 
 hours session, and these utilized for muscular exercise 
 and recreation. The trouble is that many girls use 
 these periods of intermission for extra cramming of 
 
56 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 lessons, while others are either too indolent to move 
 their bodies when they have the opportunity or too ig- 
 norant of the necessity for so doing. A few brief but 
 interesting series of exercises should be planned for these 
 short intermissions which would give exercise to the arms 
 and shoulders, a few bending movements for the waist 
 and back, and some simple but brisk movements for the 
 feet, which recreation would obviate the muscular weari- 
 ness that follows immobihty, and would greatly lessen 
 the tendency of faulty positions temporarily assumed to 
 settle into awkward or distorted figures. 
 
 Such a short series is actually given in several of our 
 best schools in New York and elsewhere to the writer's 
 knowledge, with great benefit to all concerned. Where 
 they are not provided for, girls can easily improvise some 
 active movements themselves, a few suggestions about 
 which we shall give in another chapter. 
 
 The accompanying illustration (Fig. 6), taken from 
 life, of a familiar attitude in standing will be recognized 
 by girls probably in many cases as their own. The 
 attitude was quickly assumed by a girl of fourteen who 
 was asked to stand in the position habitual with her, 
 upon which she immediately assumed the one here illus- 
 trated. Other girls standing near her remarked that this 
 was their own habitual pose. 
 
 We know of course that it is often necessary to rest the 
 body by changing the weight from both to one leg ; and 
 
Fig. 6. How faulty attitudes may tend to 
 
 SPINAL CURVATURES. 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL. 57 
 
 in such a perfectly natural position there will be a tem- 
 porary lateral curvature of the spine as there is in this 
 picture, whose direction will vary with the leg chosen 
 for resting. This actually is the case in many beautiful 
 statues which are modelled in this attitude. The difficulty 
 with school-girls is that they commonly rest always upon 
 the same leg, so that when this leaning pose chances to 
 be always in the same direction laterally, as the one 
 taken at the desk or elsewhere, the tendency toward a 
 spinal distortion is by so much increased. Care should 
 be taken to avoid too frequent resting upon one leg, and 
 where this habit is fixed, to change the pose to the other 
 side when resting is necessary. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF EXERCISE ON DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 " \ A /-^^ should it be necessary," asks one, " to preach 
 ^ ^ exercise to every community in these days? 
 Are we not the same flesh and blood as our fathers and 
 our mothers who did not hear these sermons and were 
 not obhged to know the reason why? Is not the instinct 
 of the body guide enough for each one of us, so that we 
 may rest in peace until we feel like moving, and then be 
 permitted to move in the manner that best pleases us?" 
 Possibly, friend, if our instincts were all educated and 
 to be trusted ; if our people lived more nearly the quiet 
 lives of our ancestors ; if our girls were all vigorous and 
 had strong bones and fine chests and straight backs ; if 
 their muscles were the useful and active servants of their 
 bodies that nature intended them to be, and not the re- 
 laxed structures that we oftener find them ; if the Ameri- 
 can people did not need every offset possible to their 
 eager and worried lives ; and lastly, if it were not as ra- 
 tional and evidently necessary to educate the body as to 
 educate the mind, then we might stop preaching from 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF EXERCISE. 59 
 
 this text. But until this millenium has come, the preach- 
 ing must go on ; and until we cease to be twenty-four 
 hour clocks, we shall need the every-day winding up that 
 can be found only in exercise. 
 
 It is a healthy sign that in this busy-brained country 
 so much thought has been running in the direction of 
 cultivating the body. To love physical activity, to revel 
 in bodily freedom is the natural love of healthy child- 
 hood and the delight of a spirited boy or girl ; and if 
 mature manhood and fashionable young womanhood 
 feel a pride in physical attainments, it is not wholly the 
 remnants of a savage instinct that gives them this de- 
 light. It is a healthy sense of power, and the reflex 
 upon the mind and the influence of a sound body that is 
 of such inestimable value in the sports and athletics of 
 the day. 
 
 To overestimate the importance of this physical activ- 
 ity upon bodily development is difficult. Serious indeed 
 as are the unfavourable influences of dress and the limi- 
 tations and confinement of , school upon young girls, the 
 evils of insufficient exercise upon their healthy develop- 
 ment outweigh them all ; for it seems to the writer that 
 to this lack of proper exercise in girlhood and woman- 
 hood, with its resulting weak muscular system, and all 
 that involves, we must attribute a large proportion of the 
 ill health and much of the unsymmetrical development 
 of the girls of our day. 
 
60 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 The statement that the lack of exercise is responsible 
 for the weak muscles of girls seems at first glance an un- 
 important one, and would certainly be so if it referred 
 only to the size of muscles, and if muscular tissue could 
 not be shown to be of immense importance in the body. 
 Once for all, however, let us disclaim any interest in the 
 development of huge muscles. Enormous muscles are 
 not the aim and object of exercise, they are not what 
 either men or women require for health, and certainly not 
 for beauty. Such undue development is often only local, 
 — as, for instance, the immense arm or over-developed ^ 
 shoulders of the athlete, — and does not necessarily mean 
 fine health or symmetry. But by recalling two or three 
 facts about the body we shall see how the weak muscular 
 system of girls can be shown to necessitate a limitation 
 of most of the great functions. For instance, weak 
 muscles if they affect the heart may result in poor circu- 
 lation; if they include the chest, there is insufficient 
 respiratory power ; if the stomach, some forms of indiges- 
 tion follow, any one or all of which is capable of resulting 
 in impoverished blood, in brain-tire, in overgrowth of 
 fat in the body, and even in severe functional pain. In 
 addition, with weak muscles follow relaxed support to the 
 body, and so come stooping shoulders, the weak back, 
 poor carriage and many other undesirable deficiencies 
 that limit the development and beauty of a girl. These 
 facts give to the muscular system greater importance 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF EXERCISE. 6l 
 
 than it would at first sight appear to deserve, but obser- 
 vation and physiology bear out the important position it 
 holds in the economy of the body. 
 
 There are two great channels through which the body 
 accomplishes its will, either in work or play; these 
 channels are the muscles and the nerves. The whole 
 bony skeleton, strong and complete as it is, is useless 
 without some power which will move it, and, except to 
 an anatomist, is ugly except it is clothed. The moving 
 power and the clothing alike are furnished principally by 
 the muscles, of which over five hundred have been 
 counted on the exterior of the body. These, as we 
 know, have their activity initiated and controlled by the 
 nerves ; and it is when both of these channels are per- 
 fectly smooth and unobstructed, as one may say, that we 
 get grace and control of the body so that we are able to 
 use it in any desired direction. 
 
 It would seem evident that so large a part of the body 
 as is represented by such a mass of material as these five 
 hundred muscles, and which contains one fourth of all 
 the blood in the body, must be intended to play an im- 
 portant part of some kind in the economy, and that the 
 vigour or weakness of such a mass must seriously affect 
 the rest of the organism ; but upon looking closer into 
 the body, we find that these five hundred external mus- 
 cles by no means represent all the muscles of the body. 
 On the contrary, the most important internal organs of 
 
62 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 the body are either wholly or in part composed of mus- 
 cles, and muscular fibres in greater or less profusion are 
 distributed over most of the internal structures. The 
 external muscles are what we call voluntary, and are 
 under the immediate control of the will. They are 
 somewhat different in their intimate structure from the. 
 internal muscles, but the function of both is the same^ 
 and the laws that govern their growth and their useful- 
 ness are identical. 
 
 We are famihar with the wide distribution of the ex- 
 ternal muscles. We know the large masses of muscles 
 that move the thigh and leg, the shorter bundles in the 
 shoulder region; we find tiny strips of muscle in the 
 wings of the nose and in the eyelids ; short bands that 
 run between the ribs to raise and lower them in respira- 
 tion ; longer bands that bind together the spinal vertebrae 
 and hold the back erect ; numerous groups that permit 
 the complex activities of the hand, — in fact, muscle, 
 which is the lean meat of lower animals, covers the entire 
 skeleton, and moves it at our will ; and it is a fact that the 
 growth of the skeleton itself is very dependent upon the 
 amount of exercise or the number of muscular move- 
 ments that the growing girl may indulge in. 
 
 These external muscles have a helpful way of stor- 
 ing in their recesses extra amounts of oxygen, over 
 and above what they require for their own immediate 
 use, which they keep as a reserve material against the 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF EXERCISE. 63 
 
 day of sudden or prolonged exertion and need, and 
 this function they exercise over and above their con- 
 tracting power. 
 
 But look at the wide distribution of muscle in the 
 interior of the body. There is the heart, whose stout 
 walls are all muscle, the incessant and vigorous con- 
 traction of which is the necessity of the body ; there are 
 many of the blood-vessels depending largely upon the 
 muscular fibre contained in their walls to help along the 
 blood-current. There is the entire digestive canal, whose 
 structure is almost entirely composed of different coats 
 of muscles ; and upon the healthful activity of these 
 muscular walls, which move about the food from place 
 to place and bring it into contact with the digestive 
 juices, depends the digestion and nourishment of the 
 owner. 
 
 Muscular tissue also forms an important part of the 
 respiratory apparatus, being found in the wind-pipe and 
 small bronchial tubes, and even in the air-cells of the 
 lungs, where they assist, by their contractions, the respira- 
 tory process. In the abdominal and pelvic organs, mus- 
 cle takes a large part. It is well known that the uterus 
 itself is a solid muscular organ ; and, what is also of very 
 practical importance, the ligaments that support and 
 retain it in the pelvic cavity are also supplied with mus- 
 cles upon which much of their tonic contraction de- 
 pends. The floor of the pelvic cavity, upon whose tone 
 
64 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 the normal position of the uterus depends, is also largely 
 muscular ; and the regions about this locality are gener- 
 ously suppHed with muscular tissue, which gives it firm- 
 ness and support. Muscular tissue is also present in the 
 ovary, and elsewhere in the internal economy it may be 
 found ; but enough has been said to indicate its wide 
 distribution and great importance. 
 
 The other channel through which the body accom- 
 plishes its will is the nerves. It is common knowledge 
 that, in general terms, our external muscles move through 
 our willing them to do so, and that the orders for work 
 are transmitted to them by the nerves ; but perhaps we 
 less commonly think of another important office filled by 
 the nervous system, without which our muscles, even in 
 executing movements, would play us very droll tricks. 
 This is the co-ordinating power exercised by the brain 
 over our muscles, by which it gradually teaches them to 
 execute a movement, as we say, correctly, — so harmoniz- 
 ing the different actions of the muscles called into play at 
 one time that they do not each work for a different end, 
 and so exhibit a motley disturbance (some fibres pulling 
 up, some down, some in, some out), but all, after some 
 education, tend smoothly to execute the one command. 
 How the practice of different movements tends to edu- 
 cate muscles is very easily seen in the infant, who reaches 
 eagerly but vainly for a gaudy toy, now striking out right, 
 now left, now up, now down, but generally all in vain. 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF EXERCISE. 65 
 
 until the nerves of the eye and the others in control of 
 the hand have together calculated the distance and har- 
 monized the contractions of the necessary muscles so 
 that they are just sufficient to reach and seize the desired 
 object. 
 
 What is the reason that a boy who is learning to write 
 finds it such a painful task, or that another climbing a 
 tree for the first time presents such a bewildering confu- 
 sion of sprawling legs and wiggling body? In technical 
 language, it is because the boys have not learned to co- 
 ordinate their muscular movements, — have not, in other 
 words, practised the movement often enough to have 
 made their nerves perfect channels which easily carry the 
 brain's message to the muscles, — not letting some of it 
 spread out into the by-paths of muscles unnecessary for 
 use, but confining it exactly in the legitimate path. Now, 
 this co-ordination is one of the most important results 
 of exercise of any kind. The spine, for instance, is the 
 pivotal point of the body. To maintain it erect is not 
 so much a question of great strength of the spinal mus- 
 cles, as of their proper equilibrium. If the right-side 
 muscles pull more actively than the left, we are no longer 
 erect ; but when the power of both sides is in equilibrium, 
 we are finely upright. The tight-rope dancer is a mar- 
 vel, not because she has such enormously developed 
 muscles in her spinal column which carries itself so per- 
 fectly, but because these muscles are equally developed 
 
66 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 in power and activity, in absolute equilibrium, sensitive 
 to orders and accurate in obeying them, and when they 
 become otherwise, she falls at once. Indeed, the true 
 secret of grace is dependent on this perfect equilibrium 
 of the body. It means that we use those muscles, and 
 those only, that are necessary for the movement; and 
 this fine control, this perfect balance of muscular power 
 and activity which we call co-ordination, may be gained 
 for some one part by special training, but for the whole 
 body only by general exercise. And so by this repeated 
 movement the nerve is improving the muscle's strength, 
 • facility, and health ; and the muscle, bringing fresh blood 
 to nourish the parts and giving by its exertions fresh 
 exercise to the nerves, is also improving the nerve 
 power. The influence for good \ipon both is reciprocal 
 and constant, and this influence is what we mean by 
 training. This is the end and object of the practice of 
 anything, — of ball-playing or tennis or swimming or 
 croquet or walking, as in the case of the infant, who 
 must learn to co-ordinate the right muscles before a step 
 is possible. In each and all of these sports and exercises 
 which call into use the functions of nerve and muscle, 
 and therefore train them imperceptibly to themselves, 
 we are all unpractised, or, as we say, awkward, until the 
 nerve channels which carry the order and the muscle 
 channels which execute it are both perfectly smooth to 
 transmit and quick to respond. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SOME THINGS THAT EXERCISE WILL DO 
 FOR THE BODY. 
 
 WHEN we ask what exercise can do for the 
 human body we put into the word exercise a 
 very definite meaning. We do not mean for instance 
 the occasional walk that a girl may take on the beach, 
 or the single riding or fencing or gymnasium lesson that 
 she takes once or twice a month. The meaning of the 
 word involves the idea of repeated practice, — something, 
 whatever it may be, that we do once and again and 
 again, possibly for pleasure only, but generally with the 
 additional idea of perfecting ourselves in the practice. 
 And it is only when these muscular movements are re- 
 peated and practised that we can dignify them by the 
 name of exercise, or demand of them any results, either 
 in skill or strength or agility or general bodily vigour. 
 So we shall be understood here as speaking of the regu- 
 lar practice of muscular movements in some fashion or 
 another, and muscular movements which, either through 
 design or accident, bring into play a large part of the 
 body, and do it systematically ; for the need for repe- 
 
68 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 tition is as necessary in educating the body as in train- 
 ing the mind. If we want to impress anything upon the 
 brain, that thing has goife- to be repeated until the impres- 
 sion has sunk in ; and if you want to make any definite 
 impression upon these thousands of muscle fibres and 
 train the co-ordinating power of all these nerve centres, 
 and improve the conformation of the skeleton, and de- 
 velop the capacity of all the organs, you will have to keep 
 at it until the physical impression lightly made to-day, 
 repeated to-morrow, has at last become an indelible 
 memory, and the habit of the body, " What can you 
 promise that systematic exercise will do for me? " asks a 
 young girl of fifteen, seeking for some definite answer as 
 to results. Well, it will simply make you more of a 
 woman in every sense than you could possibly be without 
 it. It will do this by improving every organ you use in 
 movement ; it will supple all your joints so that grace and 
 ease will belong to them ; it will make fatigue less fre- 
 quent, and breathlessness uncommon ; it will give you a 
 bigger chest and more supple limbs and some force in 
 your arms ; it will clear away the fog in your brain, and 
 the dyspepsia in your stomach, and bring you a rose for 
 your cheek ; and when your example has been followed 
 by the girls of one or two more generations, it will give 
 the world an idea what a noble creation a physically de- 
 veloped woman can be. Only it must be genuine exer- 
 cise, and it must be systematic, otherwise the body will 
 
SOME THINGS THAT EXERCISE WILL DO. 69 
 
 forget its cunning, and the lesson will not have been 
 learned. 
 
 The way that exercise can actually change the struc- 
 tures of the body, so that they will be different not only 
 as to power, but to touch and appearance and intimate 
 constitution, is well seen in an exercised muscle. 
 
 A muscle that is exercised has evidently been pro- 
 foundly changed in its quahties, — its fibres have become 
 firmer and harder ; it has lost its superfluous fat ; it is 
 evidently less liable to fatigue than before its training ; it 
 does not suffer the pains common to unused muscles 
 after exertion. It has become, in fact, not only a more 
 enduring instrument, but one much more competent to 
 execute our pleasure ; it is swifter and more graceful 
 because more exact in its execution of our commands. 
 Exactly what has gone on in its interior we do not see, 
 but we know by certain experiments that by its exertions 
 it has helped to throw off waste products in the body, 
 burning them up by its internal heat, and so helping to 
 free the body of these hindrances, and that its activity 
 has also quickened the circulation and the respiration, 
 so that heart and lungs are engaged simultaneously in 
 eliminating worn-out material and bringing new to 
 refresh the body. 
 
 The feeling of fatigue from which delicate persons 
 suffer greatly, after even slight exertion, is probably bet- 
 ter endured by one who exercises constantly, because. 
 
^0 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 among other reasons, the nerve which supplies the muscle 
 has become hardened by the repeated contractions of 
 the muscle, so that its covering is rendered more resist- 
 ant to pressure, and it becomes less sensitive to the buf- 
 fetings of the muscle-bed in which it Ues. 
 
 Since we see this process of improvement gradually 
 going on in an external muscle under exercise, there is 
 no reason why we should doubt that the same results are 
 brought about in the internal organs and structures that 
 we have learned are largely composed of muscle ; and ex- 
 perience shows us that exercise does actually strengthen 
 the muscle of the heart so that its contractions become 
 more energetic with its increasing firmness of fibre, and 
 it performs its work more vigorously, and at the same 
 time more easily, than when it was less strong. 
 
 A soft and flabby heart muscle, such as sometimes 
 occurs after a long illness, is indeed in no better condi- 
 tion to work wisely than is the rest of a convalescent's 
 body, which is trembling with weakness, and unable to 
 direct its steps. The nerves that should control such a 
 heart are evidently sharers in its weakness, and so are 
 unable to guide it with a steady hand. Tonics and nu- 
 trition are what these convalescents need for the body in 
 general ; and for girls as well as for their elders, exercise 
 is the tonic that the heart requires in health, under which 
 it gains the steady control and the muscular power that 
 the body requires for perfect development. 
 
SOME THINGS THAT EXERCISE WILL DO. /I 
 
 Breathlessness, that disagreeable foe to exertion, is 
 always lessened by exercise, for two or three reasons. 
 In all unusual exertion the heart pumps blood so quickly 
 to the lungs as oftentimes to embarrass them; being 
 unaccustomed to the sudden demand for more air, they 
 are confused, as we may say, and hardly know how to 
 adjust their machinery to the demand. And besides that 
 fact, they have been unaccustomed to make use of their 
 whole territory, many of their air-cells being under ordi- 
 nary circumstances quite unexpanded and idle. It is 
 this confusion that we call breathlessness ; and like similar 
 unexpected incidents elsewhere in life, if we can only know 
 of it beforehand we can be prepared for the emergency, 
 and avert the confusion incident to the surprise. Now, 
 exercise acts upon the lungs as moral training does upon 
 the character, — gradually accustoming them to prepare 
 for and meet the emergencies of sudden exertion with 
 calmness; so that they really learn to breathe more 
 deeply and more evenly under this efficient teacher, and 
 to make less ado about it at the same time. The ascent 
 of two stairs at once, to one accustomed to mount only 
 one at a time, will at first make a girl " out of breath ; '' 
 but constant repetition of the exercise will make it as 
 easy to ascend two as one, while breathing with ease 
 and comfort. So will a run down a gymnasium hall, 
 or swinging of Indian clubs, mean breathlessness to 
 one who tries it for a first time ; but the ease with 
 
y2 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 which one in training can perform these trifling exercises, 
 and many more considerable, shows how the lungs are 
 trained by exercise to adjust themselves to work, so that 
 they take in more breath and take it in more easily than 
 before. The experience of mountain climbers corrobo- 
 rates this ; and that is the secret of " training " in 
 running, or other rapid exercises. 
 
 The joints are immensely improved by exercise ; and 
 this is a direction that needs cultivation and repays the 
 training. 
 
 It is really upon the ease with which we move our 
 joints that most of our grace and skill in movements de- 
 pends. And perhaps some of the most noticeable regions 
 of improvement through exercise are the joints. By 
 movements they rapidly become more Hmber, more sup- 
 ple and easy in their movements. Piano-practice is a 
 proof of the influence of constant exercise upon the joints 
 in the hands and wrists, as well as an excellent one of 
 what training will do to strengthen and educate muscles. 
 The acrobat, too, and the contortionist show the result 
 of constantly exercising the joints of the body, while or- 
 dinary gymnasium practice soon shows its results in the 
 increased pliability of the shoulder and arm joints. The 
 fluid that lubricates these regions is probably increased 
 in quantity by exercise, so increasing the smoothness 
 of their action ; and we know, too, that constant exercise 
 tends to delay the changes in the joints that come with 
 
SOME THINGS THAT EXERCISE WILL DO. 73 
 
 old age, when concretions form, and the fluid is appar- 
 ently less in quantity, with the result that the joints be- 
 come stiff, and are moved even with pain. 
 
 It is not a gracious thing to refer to the age of ladies, 
 but it is well known that the most famous and charming 
 women actors are no longer in their girlhood ; yet who 
 would fancy from the grace of motion and the supple at- 
 titudes, and the succession of rapid changes in position, 
 involving sometimes the larger proportion of the impor- 
 tant muscles and joints of the body, that these women 
 were beyond their earliest youth. In fact these queens 
 of the stage put to shame, in their physical accomplish- 
 ments, the average girl of sixteen or twenty, and this by 
 no means because they were born graceful and supple ; 
 on the contrary most of them have attained this skill 
 through persistent exercise, carried on systematically for 
 many years. In the sense of the bodily changes that 
 mean old age, such people will remain young long be- 
 yond the natural period, and are generally physically 
 fresh to the end. 
 
 The muscular structure of the uterus and the adjacent 
 organs would lead us to the presumption that, like the 
 heart, exercise might have a specific effect upon its de- 
 velopment and its functions, and experience confirms 
 this presumption. 
 
 It should be distinctly understood by girls that there 
 are many forms of pelvic pain, especially in young girls, 
 
74 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 which are attended by and are believed by physicians to 
 be due to the lack of muscular development of these 
 organs, to the fact that they have not really attained 
 their normal size, and consequently they perform with 
 difficulty functions which they were intended to per- 
 form with ease. The general weak muscular develop- 
 ment found in many such girls, commonly accom- 
 panied as it is by a poor circulation and poor res- 
 piratory capacity, generally means that the muscular 
 structure of the pelvic organs is similarly weak and un- 
 able to perform its duty. The poor respiration means 
 an unoxygenated quaHty of blood. Not only is the 
 heart muscle weak, but the nerves which control the 
 blood-vessels may be more or less paralyzed, so that they 
 permit stagnation or congestion of the blood in this 
 region, and hence may arise severe cramps and other 
 distressing symptoms. It should be noticed that in such 
 cases these symptoms do not arise from disease of the 
 organs, but from non-development of its structure, the 
 infantine organs not being equal to the functions of adult 
 Ufe. The beneficial effect of exercise upon these condi- 
 tions is continually being shown by the fact that such 
 girls during a course of systematic exercise, along with 
 the development of other muscular structures, evidently 
 develop the muscular fibre of the uterus so that it be- 
 comes competent for its function ; and by this means, and 
 by the coincident improvement of their general and local 
 
SOME THINGS THAT EXERCISE WILL DO. 75 
 
 circulation, they may lose the habit of pain, generally 
 forever. It is quite true that there is another class of 
 such neuralgiac affections that owe their origin to actual 
 disease ; but the more frequent and therefore the most 
 encouraging class of cases among young girls is this 
 variety that is evidently due to a failure in development, 
 and which only adds a new argument for that physical 
 education which shall result in the complete develop- 
 ment of a girl. 
 
 The effects demonstrated by exercise upon the diges- 
 tive canal, composed, as that is, so largely of muscu- 
 lar fibre, are very evident. Anything that develops 
 the natural powers of organs improves their structure. 
 Since digestion depends partly upon the movements 
 of food all about the stomach, which are effected by 
 its muscular coats, and intestinal digestion also partly 
 upon the vigour of the muscular coats of that canal, we 
 can readily beHeve that a better digestion and more reg- 
 ularity of the intestinal functions, and consequently better 
 health and vigour will follow strengthening of this mus- 
 cular structure. Practically we find this true, dyspepsia 
 and constipation being often relieved by the prescription 
 of muscular exertion when medicine has failed. 
 
 Exercise will also undoubtedly reduce fat in the body. 
 While a certain amount of this tissue is indispensable, 
 and many girls need more instead of less, many individ- 
 uals suffer from an excess, which is really undesirable for 
 
76 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 various reasons. Such excess is a dead weight upon the 
 body. Now, it appears to be so partly from its actual 
 mechanical weight, and partly because it absorbs a large 
 quantity of oxygen which would otherwise go to support 
 more useful parts of the body, so that very stout persons 
 easily become breathless because the supply of oxygen 
 which should belong to the body in general is largely 
 appropriated for the benefit of adipose tissue alone. 
 Exercise reduces fat evidently by increasing perspiration, 
 which subtracts water from the fatty tissue, and also by 
 increasing the combustion and destruction of its con- 
 stituents. 
 
 So through all the different machinery of the body 
 we can trace the benefits of regular exercise in invigor- 
 ating and developing organs and making their working 
 power greater and easier ; and we can see how we have 
 by exercise really improved upon ourselves as we came 
 from nature (not as we were intended to come, however), 
 and have, seeing the changes that we can effect at will 
 in this way, demonstrated to ourselves once more that 
 heredity, powerful as it is, is by no means all powerful 
 and conclusive. 
 
 Suppose we look for a moment at the record of 
 *' gains" that can be shown in a girl's gymnasium. It 
 is not a small thing that a young woman should have all 
 of her body machinery so improved and stimulated to 
 growth by twelve months' practice in a gymnasium that 
 
SOME THINGS THAT EXERCISE WILL DO. T^ 
 
 she should add two inches to her narrow chest, the same 
 to her stature, and increase her lung capacity by thirty 
 per cent. It is not unimportant, when we remember the 
 small strength of her arms when she entered, and how 
 tired her back, that she should find many of her strength 
 tests doubled in actual figures, and that she can look 
 with a pardonable pride upon the erect spine and the 
 vigorous arm that she has gained for herself in these 
 few months, while the consciousness of controlling her 
 body instead of having it control her, the knowledge 
 that skill and agiUty and courage and a dozen other 
 longed-for qualities have come to her through these few 
 months of systematic but pleasurable practice, make the 
 benefits of exercise seem very real to her, and to many 
 others such as she. For this is not a fancy sketch, but 
 has been repeated once and once again within the 
 writer's knowledge, and I doubt not is being happily 
 repeated in every well-organized gymnasium in the land, 
 where the city girl is having an opportunity to recover 
 her birthright. 
 
 Figures have been printed in every recent book that 
 has been written upon any one's experience in the direc- 
 tion of physical training, to prove what wonderful gains 
 can be made in a few weeks or months of systematic 
 exercise. It is nothing unusual to find much more 
 startling records than the simple case that has just been 
 quoted. Every one of experience knows that a chest 
 
78 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 can be developed, and arms can be increased in size, and 
 backs can be strengthened and straightened, and muscu- 
 lar strength even trebled. But once more, desirable as 
 these things are, it must be remembered that they are 
 only the external signs and token of the many complex 
 changes for good that have been simultaneously going on 
 within the body, by which the whole economy has been 
 stimulated to better growth, quicker life, and higher 
 activity, improving its chances for life and doubling its 
 capacity for enjoyment. 
 
 These results of exercise prove its importance for the 
 adult and the mature as well as for the child and the 
 young girl who has yet to perfect her physical powers ; 
 they help to persuade us that even after physical training 
 has helped to develop us in youth there is still a large 
 sphere for it in maintaining the good work it has begun, 
 so that exercise is part of the privilege of the mature 
 young woman as well as of the undeveloped girl. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE WAYS AND MEANS FOR EXERCISE. 
 
 THAT we should be obliged to sit down and seri- 
 ously consider how our girls can find sufficient 
 exercise to promote their development and to gratify 
 their natural love for physical sport is a commentary 
 upon our distance from nature. Fancy a gypsy mother 
 or an ItaHan peasant devising a ^^ system " for develop- 
 ing the muscles and bones of their hearty offspring ! 
 • The gypsy, it is true, gives her baby a species of mas- 
 sage, with frequent baths and rubbings, and plenty of 
 exposure to the sun ; but her list is a simple one, and 
 very like Dame Nature's own nursing. While the system 
 of the Italian peasant, who herself is perhaps driving her 
 mule or bringing wood, consists in putting the little girl 
 to goat- ten ding, where she can develop sturdy legs in 
 running after the household stock, until later, she too 
 may rise to the dignity of mule-driving or crop-tending, 
 or kindred offices performed for the benefit of the mas- 
 culine member of the household. 
 
 But the march of civilization and the inrush of emi- 
 grants have long ago made field-labour, and in fact much 
 
80 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 of any so-called manual labour, an unknown factor in the 
 life of the American girl, — even in the humbler walks of 
 Hfe, making buttons or polishing pin-points having long 
 ago taken the place of hay-making or reaping in our free 
 country ; and this curtailing of out-door life, which gives 
 bodily exercise in what we call the " natural " way, 
 has increased with schools and social culture and con- 
 ventionalities until it has become for the average girl a 
 serious question as to how she may regain some of that 
 physical activity which in primitive Hfe is the price paid 
 for existence. 
 
 When objectors decry to-day, as they constantly do, 
 any " systems " of exercise, they must remember that the 
 place is America, with its climate and its national tem- 
 perament, variable, nervous, active, and that the time is 
 now, not in idyllic days when Maud Mullers, spent whole 
 mornings in the hay-field or Grace Darlings lived conve- 
 niently near to a row-boat, but when school-life absorbs 
 most of a young girl's vitality, and society (even for the 
 tiniest) what remnant remains, and that there are no 
 hay-fields convenient to most cities, and row-boats are 
 useless when the river is frozen, while horses and riding 
 are not for the moderate many. Still the muscles cry 
 out for activity, and the nerves play their pranks in 
 sheer desperation ; and our girls are often thin-limbed 
 and hollow-chested, and in a word lack robustness. 
 But civilization has come to stay; and we must meet 
 
WAYS AND MEANS FOR EXERCISE. 8l 
 
 its evils with its advantages, and invent a way for this as 
 for other American needs, by which the necessities can 
 be satisfied. 
 
 What has it left us, then, for use and for pleasure in 
 the line of physical activities for girls ? And what is the 
 attraction and the value of these employments? So 
 short is the summer season of out-of-doors life that the 
 sports peculiar to it are necessarily Hmited as means 
 either for constant pleasure or development. Yet we 
 must herald the popularity of tennis and archery and 
 (girls') cricket as exercises which fill the demand for 
 pleasurable activity in the open air, with plenty of exer- 
 cise that is for the most part unobjectionable. It is the 
 opinion of some physicians that tennis offers too violent 
 exercise for the majority of girls, and that it can be held 
 responsible for many serious pelvic difficulties that would 
 never have occurred without it ; and there is no reason 
 to doubt that accidents, possibly otherwise avoidable, 
 have occurred in some cases after imprudent devotion to 
 the game. 
 
 But in most of these tennis victims inquiry will often 
 reveal the fact that the tendency to these complaints 
 pre-existed with, probably, a weak muscular system, and 
 was only manifested, as is natural, after imprudence in 
 this exercise ; and second, that these girls often played in 
 most unhygienic costume, — the tight corset fitting snugly 
 around a figure that required perfect freedom and space 
 
 6 
 
82 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 in order to make the rapid and energetic movements 
 sometimes required, without strain or undue pressure. 
 All that has been said about the corset with its perni- 
 cious downward pressure and constriction of chest space 
 applies with double force to its use under these circum- 
 stances, the design of the tennis costume itself being 
 sufficient evidence of the style that is held to be correct 
 and comfortable. Played in any other than a loose and 
 light dress its tendency might be considered hurtful, 
 played in excess it deserves the same reprobation that 
 immoderation of all kinds should receive ; and as it is 
 very active exercise, it should not be indulged in by those 
 who have pelvic difficulties of a nature to be harmed by 
 such exercise. Such girls should receive the advice of 
 their physician before attempting it. It is quite evident 
 that in this, or any other active game, a girl should use 
 some discretion in estimating her own powers. One 
 who has never been accustomed to much muscular exer- 
 cise, and whose muscles are consequently relaxed and 
 weak, would far better strengthen her muscular system 
 first by gentler methods, developing their supporting 
 and resisting qualities by degrees, after which this more 
 vigorous exercise would be only pleasure, instead of an 
 actual pain or possibly even detriment. (The caution 
 applies equally to all new games which may be intro- 
 duced by fashion or chance to persons whose previous 
 muscular education and capacity are entirely unprepared 
 
WAYS AND MEANS FOR EXERCISE. 83 
 
 for them.) The general body exercise obtained through 
 this game is so much more comprehensive than that 
 afforded by most sports enjoyed by girls that it would 
 certainly be desirable that moderation and personal dis- 
 cretion should so guide as to make it possible to 
 popularize it everywhere. 
 
 In its call upon the legs for activity, its exercise for 
 the hand and eye in aiming and placing the ball, in the 
 demand for agility and skill, it offers most of the qualities 
 required both for pleasurable activity and for bodily train- 
 ing. It has in common with most other sports the one- 
 armed element, which prevents its being the absolutely 
 perfect exercise for the entire body that we could de- 
 sire, — for the ideal exercise is that which calls in play 
 every member of the body, and gives harmonious activity 
 to all. 
 
 Of all the out-door sports swimming is the only one 
 which answers this requirement, — and this is an exercise 
 which for pleasure, activity, and health, and for its almost 
 perfect balance of bodily powers, should receive more 
 attention from girls, and become a part of their physical 
 education. The loose dress and the contact with nature, 
 the absolute freedom of Hmb and the expansion of chest 
 and extension and support of the spine, combined with 
 the zest of a daring accomplishment, make it one of the 
 most perfect and desirable of exercises for girls. It has 
 the drawback of being for the most part possible only 
 
84 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 during a very short season of the year ; but we must seize 
 the goods the gods allow in this respect, and the courage 
 and vigour and development that are gained through the 
 short summer season may prove the roots of larger 
 growth, and are certainly useful in forming the taste for 
 activity and physical freedom which once it is embued 
 is a life-long possession of priceless value. 
 
 With the water comes the rower, and rowing can be 
 recommended for almost all girls of any size who are 
 strong enough to handle even one oar. The one arm 
 gains steadiness with practice, and when two are used 
 there is plenty of exercise for the back and the legs, and 
 a certain steadiness and pliability gained at the waist that 
 help to strengthen these generally undeveloped muscles 
 of a girl. 
 
 Archery, which stretches the arm and chest muscles 
 well and trains the eye to precision, and cricket, which 
 has not become a well-naturalized game for girls as 
 yet in our country, but which even when badly played 
 offers plenty of exercise for arms and legs and heart 
 and lungs, may help to swell the list of the out-door 
 sports ; and every one is an accession, for the girls' list 
 is always too small. 
 
 Skating, like walking, is an exercise which makes large 
 demands upon the lower part of the body principally, 
 although the bracing air and the exhilarating sport are a 
 tonic to the heart and stimulate respiration. 
 
WAYS AND MEANS FOR EXERCISE. 85 
 
 Not less exhilarating, and oftener obtainable, is riding, 
 — an accomplishment which with all nations has held 
 something of the repute it sustained with the Persians, 
 who required of their sons only to ride, to shoot, and to 
 speak the truth. 
 
 Although much less easy for women than for men, 
 with their more constrained position, and too often 
 fashionably restricted dress, we must allow that with all 
 its limitations it is an exercise most wholesome and 
 desirable. Young girls with tendencies to crooked 
 spines may find it sometimes increases that difficulty, 
 and those with pronounced deviations may be obliged to 
 relinquish it temporarily. In some cases changing the 
 saddle to the other side will relieve the tendency to one- 
 sidedness, and many women habitually use two saddles to 
 prevent any such danger. But this tendency aside, it is 
 an exercise which takes one so continuously and joy- 
 ously into the open air, and its activity is so fraught with 
 helpful results to the digestive, thoracic, and abdominal 
 organs, that, especially in cities where exercise is so 
 difficult to obtain as an unmixed good, it should be 
 warmly recommended. 
 
 But the summer months are only three in number, the 
 streams become frozen in time, the snow covers the 
 tennis ground, and even riding with a great coat becomes 
 impossible. Where, then, shall the girls seek the daily 
 bread which comes to their bodies through exercise ? 
 
86 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 There are days of snow and rain, when even walking 
 is a burden, and, perhaps unfortunately, when the younger 
 children are not allowed to try their fortunes in the parks 
 or even on the sidewalk. Still the muscles cry for activ- 
 ity, and the bad tempers of the little ones, and the ner- 
 vous irritability of their elders, and the returning head- 
 aches that summer's air and exercise had dissipated are 
 upon them, and the girls do not know that the best 
 prescription that their doctor could leave them would 
 be an hour's shaking up in a well-aired gymnasium 
 with dumb-bells for medicine ; for we believe the well- 
 appointed, carefully supervised gymnasium is to be the 
 answer to the general call for opportunities for exercise 
 in our cities. The life of a small country town or vil- 
 lage or suburb offers out-door sports through the entire 
 winter that are totally inaccessible to the city girl. 
 Coasting and skating, sleigh-riding, tramps in the snow, 
 and games on the spacious playgrounds may suffice if 
 they are taken advantage of, for the dwellers out of 
 town, although even there the schools need to introduce 
 some muscular exercises into their curriculum, and 
 parents cannot afford to entirely neglect the physical 
 education of their children at home ; but the average 
 city girl or young woman has actually no resource in the 
 direction of exercise during the winter months except a 
 walk or a dance. Riding and driving are limited to the 
 comparatively few, and even then, as we have seen, are 
 
WAYS AND MEANS FOR EXERCISE. 87 
 
 not possible in a large proportion of the days of winter. 
 Walking is generally, but not always, possible. The day 
 is lowering, or the object is lacking, and the exercise 
 is neglected. In fact there are some reasons why walk- 
 ing is less useful for an all-round exercise for girls than 
 gymnasium practice, although it has the great advantage 
 of taking them out to seek their own oxygen first hand. 
 But the aversion of whole boarding-schools full of girls 
 to their hour's promenade, albeit the days may be fine 
 and their company tolerable, shows how needful is some 
 allurement, some object ahead, be it only, as one humour- 
 ist suggests, a confectioner's shop, to give zest to this 
 exercise, which in itself has little variety. " A real fur 
 cape " says our same T. W. H. '^ maybe counted as good 
 for three miles," or any other innocent inducement for 
 being abroad. 
 
 For walking one should have time in abundance (for 
 every girl requires an amount of daily exercise not to 
 be gained by less than a two to four mile walk), besides 
 an object, and not too much immobihty in the pose. 
 Even then the muscles of the chest get little movement, 
 and those of the abdomen and spine even less; and 
 actual movement and activity are what we must furnish 
 if we are developing chests and beautifying bodies in 
 nature's way. 
 
 If our American girls could be trained in walking as we 
 hear their duskier sisters in warmer climates are trained, 
 
88 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 the exercise would indeed bring elasticity and vigour 
 and endurance ; but here again civilization interferes. 
 These lemon-coloured girls of the West Indies, who " have 
 figures to make you dream of Atalanta," begin at the age 
 of five to carry small articles on their heads as they walk, 
 a bowl of rice, a decanter full of water, an orange on a 
 plate, — something that will compel an erect attitude and 
 a steady pose of the head. These children are destined 
 to become the porteuses of the island, carrying bread and 
 fruit supphes far into the interior. When one of these is 
 nine or ten she can carry a basket weighing from twenty 
 to thirty pounds, and walks perhaps twelve miles a day, 
 always bare-foot. At sixteen or seventeen she is a tall, 
 robust girl, lithe, vigorous, carrying her tray weighing 
 from one hundred pounds and upward, and traversing a 
 daily route varying from thirty to fifty miles a day. With 
 this wonderful specimen of what training will do, we may 
 believe there is not a muscle unexercised in her body. 
 The object, which with her is a necessity, the time, the 
 freedom of movement, and the regularity of exercise are 
 all present in this case, and the result is this specimen of 
 litheness and vigour which for general physical perfection 
 is the wonder and delight of travellers. One reason why 
 walking is not the complete exercise it should be for 
 girls lies in just this secret of lack of time. Mary Lamb 
 and Miss Wordsworth could still walk their fifteen miles 
 per day when they were nearing sixty, while few of our 
 
WAYS AND MEANS FOR EXERCISE. 89 
 
 city girls can walk a daily ten miles at twenty ; but Mary 
 Lamb and her friend had leisure for this exercise, and 
 were not limited to the one, or at most two hours, that 
 are allotted for out-door diversion in town Hfe. 
 
 Wherefore, since the time for exercise is somewhat 
 Hmited, there is the more reason for increasing the variety. 
 So let the girls ride and drive and play tennis and row 
 and swim and learn every sport possible out of doors, 
 both winter and summer, but do not imagine that three 
 months of this treatment will suffice to cure the ills of 
 the other nine, nor lay the flattering unction to your soul 
 that in an hour's graceful saunter down the avenue with 
 her hands in a muff and her figure in a corset your young 
 daughter will develop into that picture of ideal health 
 and symmetry and physical perfection which you would 
 fondly see. 
 
 She will get more general exercise in the ideal gymna- 
 sium in an hour, more life in her blood and colour in her 
 cheek and strength in her limbs, than these city walks 
 can give her in a week. Keep up the walking but culti- 
 vate a better style, and add the gymnasium practice to 
 it at least three times per week. Provide a room of 
 ample size, thoroughly lighted and ventilated, and with 
 cleanliness absolute. The apparatus should be suited to 
 two or three different ages and strength. Heavy dumb- 
 bells and phenomenal Indian clubs • are unnecessary, and 
 generally deforming. Both bells and clubs should only 
 
90 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 vary between one and two pounds, — the former giving 
 the best results for the majority. Ladders and ropes are 
 as good for a girl as for a boy, to whose early education 
 they are considered indispensable, and are fraught with 
 no more danger to one than to the other. By twisting 
 and pirouetting, swinging clubs and shouldering bells and 
 balancing wands in an easy costume with skilful and in- 
 telligent instruction from teachers who understand the 
 mechanism and the capacity of the human body, the 
 girls will develop chest and arms and heart and lung 
 power as it cannot be developed under the conditions 
 of city Ufe elsewhere. 
 
> 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 
 
 IN the well conducted gymnasium for girls, personal 
 instruction, either in class or in private drill, antici- 
 pates individual need, so that the pupil learns not only 
 the variety of exercises calculated to improve and de- 
 velop womankind in general, but the special order that 
 will improve herself in particular. But as many who 
 desire to exercise systematically do not have gymnasium 
 advantages, and many who have them have not learned 
 to fit the exercise to the need, we shall offer a few sug- 
 gestions in this chapter as to the regions which most 
 require exercise in girls, and some details as to how 
 they may be improved. The accompanying figure 
 (Fig. 7) represents in her darker outlines the regions 
 in which the majority of girls need special muscular 
 development. It will be noticed that the dark line is 
 principally confined to the region of the trunk. This 
 has been done, not because the muscles of the legs do not 
 also require regular exercise, but rather because with the 
 majority of girls dancing and walking have already fairly 
 
92 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 developed this part of the body, which is much less defi- 
 cient than the upper region. 
 
 This figure represents in a general way our experi- 
 ence as to the actual deficiencies existing in the de- 
 velopment of girls, and the regions where they most 
 require development and muscular vigour, both for its in- 
 fluence upon internal organs and for the prevention of 
 possible deformities, as well as for the cultivation of that 
 balance and bodily self-possession that give erectness 
 and harmony to the figure. The important relations 
 these regions bear to health as well as to physical beauty 
 have already been touched upon in the chapters on 
 School-Life and Dress, as well as elsewhere. 
 
 No attempt will be made to give any long series of 
 exercises for these different regions, but only to suggest a 
 few that may easily be carried out either at home or in 
 the gymnasium, with or without apparatus, which will 
 themselves be suggestive of additional simple and com- 
 plex movements which the pupil can improvise herself. 
 
 It is not the variety or complexity of the exercises that 
 necessarily work changes in the body, although both of 
 these qualities have their place in systematic training, 
 but rather their application to the needs and ability of 
 the individual and her persistence in their use. Miracles 
 cannot be worked by desultory practice, but many re- 
 markable and desirable changes in the figure and in the 
 organs of the body can be brought about by degrees. 
 
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 93 
 
 Medical gymnastics will not be touched upon in this 
 chapter, as the subject involves too many considerations 
 to be included here. Indeed, the best hope of physical 
 training, is to anticipate the need for medicine. ^' The 
 wise for cure on exercise depend." 
 
 Let us first consider how we may improve Region C, 
 which, as we see, includes the upper chest region and the 
 front shoulder muscles, as well as the bust, and is con- 
 cerned, therefore, with arm development, because genu- 
 ine arm-exercise always influences this region. 
 
 In all attempts to enlarge or develop the chest, how- 
 ever, we must work first from within outward. Our 
 training should aim to increase the actual size of the 
 lungs, or more properly to expand their unused por- 
 tions, so that the motive power to increase may come 
 from within. 
 
 When the lungs expand fully they press the ribs and 
 the breast-bone outward, carrying, of course, the muscu- 
 lar walls of the chest with them ; and consequently in an 
 undeveloped person exercises that call for perfect and 
 repeated lung expansion will inevitably tend to expand 
 the chest, even if no special attention is given to its ex- 
 ternal muscular coverings. This is seen in singers as well 
 as in some players upon some wind instruments, who are 
 continually filling their lungs to the utmost, and whose 
 chests are uniformly larger than those of a non-singing 
 individual of the same age and general development. 
 
94 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 Therefore, singing lessons under a scientific instructor 
 offer one of the best methods for developing the chest in 
 girls who have any vocal talent. If no such talent exists, 
 at least every girl may have some lessons in voice cul- 
 ture, which, if given under a thoroughly competent 
 teacher who understands the control of the larynx and 
 the diaphragm will give her the vocal gymnastics which 
 will assist development in the natural way. 
 
 Next, young children, and girls under fourteen who 
 have flat chests should be encouraged to play skipping 
 and hopping games, and girls over fourteen should train 
 themselves in short distance and moderate running. 
 "Why cultivate leg exercises,'* you naturally inquire, 
 "when you wish to improve the chest?'* Because the 
 movements of such large masses of muscles as those of 
 the legs and thighs demand large supplies of blood and 
 consequent quick action on the part of the heart to sup- 
 ply it ; and this blood pouring swiftly back to the lungs 
 for purification requires frequent and deeper inspirations 
 on their part to effect this purification. So the lungs are 
 always stimulated to activity, as we have seen, by exercise, 
 but more especially by exercises that call into play a large 
 number of muscles at the same time. We see this in 
 mountain climbing, where most of the muscles of the 
 body are called into action, and we breathe deeply and 
 often to supply this call for oxygen. 
 
 In running always begin slowly, running moderately. 
 
\ 
 
 Fig. 8. 
 
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 95 
 
 for instance, fifty feet, then increase the speed gradually ; 
 but when running for exercise simply, never speed to the 
 utmost, as this is not necessary for the benefits of the 
 exercise. Always close the run with the same modera- 
 tion with which it was commenced, — that is, never stop 
 short, as this sudden arrest of action gives a most un- 
 desirable shock to the heart. The movement of running 
 may easily be imitated in the house, while standing in one 
 place, and simply lifting the feet in the same quick alter- 
 nation from the floor. 
 
 Breathing exercises may also be practised with benefit. 
 Lie on the floor, or flat on a couch, extend the arms 
 upward over the head ; take in as much breath as pos- 
 sible while counting twelve ; hold it while counting five, 
 and then slowly and gently expel it with an audible hiss- 
 ing sound through the teeth. This exercise can best be 
 taken in the morning before rising, or when retiring at 
 night, if exercising before breakfast is unpleasant. 
 
 Another breathing exercise which has some additional 
 good effects upon the muscles of the sides of the waist 
 may be taken according to Fig. 8. Raise the arms 
 slowly from the sides to the position above the head, 
 palms forward, inhaling deeply but gently while so doing ; 
 lower arms slowly to sides, palms still forward, while 
 expelling the breath. This exercise is also well taken in 
 a gymnasium by means of the piece of apparatus known 
 as the chest developer. It may be taken once as a 
 
96 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 breathing exercise, a second time without special atten- 
 tion to breathing, and the third time as a breathing ex- 
 ercise. Almost all movements that exercise the arms 
 freely also assist chest development. This is because 
 the chest muscles, after covering the chest wall in an 
 expanded form, converge into a compact mass that 
 passes over to the inside of the upper arm, and is in- 
 serted there, so that when we move the arm we are 
 stretching and exercising these chest muscles also. For 
 this reason, and because all free exercise promotes lung 
 development, the arms should be freely thrown about, 
 and the shoulder joints exercised every day. 
 
 The following circle exercise (Fig. 9) will be found 
 to combine development for chest, shoulders, and arms 
 also. It may be taken with one arm at a time, or with 
 both together, or alternating first right, and then left. 
 Taken with one arm it is more purely an arm exercise ; 
 with both it affords considerable exercise to the chest 
 and shoulder muscles. Raise both arms from the side to 
 highest position of figure, or until they reach an angle of 
 about eighty degrees, thumb pointing backward, palms 
 turned inward; then carry arms slowly backward and 
 down, at the same time turning palm, so that the thumb, 
 instead of pointing backward, points forward and down, 
 and then backward and down as the arms describe the 
 circle of the movement, coming to rest once more at the 
 side, with palms in. 
 
Fig. 9. 
 
Fig. 10. 
 
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 9/ 
 
 Another excellent arm movement, useful also for 
 broadening shoulders, and stretching the chest muscles, 
 is shown in Fig. lo. It may be taken with one-pound 
 (or lighter) dumb-bells in the hand, or with a lightly 
 weighted bean-bag, or without any apparatus. 
 
 Standing with feet together, stretch both arms horizon- 
 tally outward, as far as possible, palms up. Bend the 
 arm at elbow, bringing the palm back with a vigorous 
 movement to the shoulder, resting the bell, if used, 
 across the top of shoulder, as per figure. When the 
 emphasis of this movement is given as above (that is, on 
 the return to shoulder), the exercise brings the anterior 
 muscles of the upper arm (and chest muscles) most into 
 play, — namely, those which flex the arms, — and also 
 gives exercise to the elbow-joint. It can be turned 
 into an exercise for the back of the arm, where most 
 girls are equally weak, by reversing the accent, — that 
 is, starting from the shoulders, and vigorously extending 
 the arms fully, the emphasis of the movement being in 
 this case changed with the starting position. This may 
 be used at first with one arm, then alternately, and 
 finally with both together. 
 
 Thrusting with the arms is also excellent exercise, 
 which can be taken without any apparatus. Clutch the 
 hands, and bending the elbows, rest the hands on chest ; 
 then thrust the arm vigorously downward, then outward, 
 then upward, half a dozen movements to each arm, with 
 
 7 
 
98 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 vigorous thrusts in each, returning each time to the chest 
 position. The movement is similar in effect to that of 
 a washerwoman, or of a bread-maker kneading her dough, 
 and in a gymnasium is carried on more vigorously by 
 punching an inflated rubber bag ; but neither wash-board, 
 bread-board, nor rubber bag are convenient in the boudoir 
 of the girl who may be reading these directions, but her 
 arms and sufficient space she always has at command. 
 
 Exercise for Region S. 
 
 Round or stooping shoulders, with the muscles of that 
 region, may be corrected, and the back of the arm also 
 strengthened by the following exercise, which when 
 taken correctly will be distinctly felt in these regions, as 
 well as in stretching the chest muscles. The pose is not 
 attractive, the first position of the arm resembling some- 
 what that of the bent wing of a dressed fowl as it lies 
 close to the chest ; but it will be found to be an effective 
 exercise for the purpose. Standing with feet together, 
 raise the arms, bent at the elbows, bringing the palms 
 together in front of the face (See Fig. ii). Then with 
 elbows still bent, swing both arms vigorously backward 
 as far as possible, to a position even with the shoulders, 
 both palms looking forward, as indicated by the dotted 
 arm. The exercise should be repeated a number of 
 times, the hands returning each time to position in front 
 of face. 
 
t 
 
 \ 
 
 Fug. II. 
 
^? 
 
 
 Fig. 12. 
 
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 99 
 
 The simple swinging of the arms loosely in circles 
 from the shoulder- joint, the alternate flexing and extend- 
 ing of fore-arm upon the arm, and the rotating movements 
 of the wrist which are also beautifully cultivated by light 
 club swinging, are excellent and simple methods of in- 
 creasing the suppleness of these joints and the general 
 freedom of these muscles. Club swinging is much more 
 easily and satisfactorily learned in a few lessons from a 
 teacher than from printed instructions ; but those who 
 cannot have such an opportunity of so learning can still 
 cultivate grace and suppleness by these simple move- 
 ments without apparatus. As a complex exercise that 
 calls into play most of the muscles of the arm with those 
 of the back of the shoulders, and that exercises the chest 
 muscles, the lumbar and the leg region at the same time, 
 the movement of Fig. 1 2 may be recommended. The 
 illustration sufficiently explains the positions and the 
 method. The pupil stands at first with feet together, 
 and hands at side. The charge forward is then made, 
 first with the right foot, the left being placed behind and 
 at right angles, as shown in figure, the arms being brought 
 forward, level with shoulder, palms in, from which position 
 they are thrown backward as widely as possible (as per 
 dotted line), and held in that position a moment, falling 
 to the sides once more as the original erect attitude, with 
 feet together, is resumed. The second charge should be 
 made to the left, the hands and arms performing the 
 same evolutions as before. 
 
100 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 Region B, 
 
 All that we know of the functions of the spinal column, 
 and all that we learn from observation of the deficiencies 
 and weaknesses of girls show us how needful is the cul- 
 tivation of its function as the central support of the body. 
 For grace and suppleness of the body, its. thirty-four 
 joints should be constantly exercised, and all the muscles 
 which hold it erect, which support the head upon it, and 
 which in turn attach the shoulders and hips and arms 
 and legs more or less closely to it, need varied and reg- 
 ular exercise. 
 
 Therefore, from childhood special attention should be 
 given to developing this region of the body. It should 
 be trained both for strength and for suppleness ; and all 
 the curious tricks of the contortionists, and the graceful 
 and supple movements of the performers in a cir- 
 cus, show how training and exercise can develop the 
 many powers of the spine. All movements that bend 
 the head or the body backward, or that sway it from 
 side to side, maintaining meanwhile its balance, or even 
 that hold it perfectly erect, as in elegant walking, tend 
 more or less to cultivate a greater or less number of the 
 spinal muscles ; but to reach all the long spinal muscles 
 in its whole extent I know of nothing more search- 
 ing and complete than the movement represented by 
 Fig. 13, which in this case is given on a long bench. 
 
Fig. 14. 
 
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. lOI 
 
 with a cross-bar to hold the feet, but which may be 
 taken lying on a rug, or simply supported at the waist 
 on a chair, the feet being caught under a lounge or 
 dressing-case. 
 
 From the prone position, the feet being firmly held 
 down, the hands clasped behind at the waist, the body 
 is slowly raised and carried backward to the half-sitting 
 pose shown in the plate, and then lowered once more 
 to position. 
 
 In the case of girls or children whose shoulders are 
 round or stooping, the hands may be clasped at the 
 back of the neck. This movement may seem severe, 
 or difficult; the illustration is however taken from life 
 (the position being taken, in this case, by a young girl 
 of fourteen), and can easily be accomplished by any one 
 not an invalid or otherwise incapacitated. It should be 
 taken slowly, and not more than three or four times at 
 first. 
 
 Another excellent method -of cultivating the spinal 
 functions is by the simple movement represented in 
 Fig. 14, which should be done with exactness to ob- 
 tain the desired effec*-. Standing erect, feet together, 
 rise upon toes, then sink the body to the ground, bend- 
 ing the knees until the thigh and leg are literally doubled 
 upon each other. The trunk however must be main- 
 tained perfectly erect, the object of the exercise being 
 to train the spinal muscles to perfect equilibrium, so 
 
I02 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 that the body shall not deviate a particle from the 
 perpendicular. 
 
 The perfection of such graceful equilibrium is seen 
 in the tight-rope dancer, whose attitudes in this respect 
 might be partially imitated by girls in seeking the de- 
 velopment of this region of the body. Young children 
 might be trained to walk upon tip- toe with a lightly- 
 loaded article upon the head, such as a tiny basket 
 with iron jack-straws. The displacement of the irons 
 would of course precipitate the basket, so that perfect 
 balance of the head and all spinal muscles below it 
 would be necessary. 
 
 Later, the experiment should be tried upon a wooden 
 bar or log, still on tip-toe, with arms above the head, 
 holding a light bar or cane. Such practice is repre- 
 sented in Fig. 15, and is perhaps most easily carried on 
 in the gymnasium, but can also be attempted at home, — 
 the deUcate adjustment of spinal muscles that is ne- 
 cessary receiving in this way excellent exercise, and 
 offering admirable training for an erect and graceful car- 
 riage. Movements similar to those performed by reap- 
 ers or hewers may be imitated with or without dumb-bells, 
 for the benefit of the sides of the waist and lumbar re- 
 gion. A reaper gets much exercise for his arms also 
 at the same time. The reaping movement may be imi- 
 tated by doubling one arm upon the chest, and extend- 
 ing the other outward as far as possible from the shoulder. 
 
Fig. 15. 
 
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 103 
 
 Bend slightly at the hips, and twist the body from side 
 to side in stooping to wield an imaginary scythe. The 
 arm positions should be alternated, — th is, contrary 
 to the real reaping, it should be performed first with one 
 and then with the other arm. 
 Region A, 
 
 The dark line, however, has not yet been exhausted, 
 for there still remain exercises for the abdomen. The 
 abdominal muscles are used first in bending, in stooping 
 forward, somewhat in climbing, in raising ourselves from 
 recumbent positions, and many other movements. There- 
 fore any exercises taken in this position will favour their 
 development. Abdominal exercises are also very useful 
 in reducing the undue deposit of fat in this region, from 
 which many suffer. Trunk bending, therefore, both 
 forward and sideways, exercises these muscles ; and al- 
 though these may not appear very attractive, they are 
 certainly very effectual movements. To practise them, 
 stand in erect position and bend from the waist and hip 
 (not from knees) forward, dropping the head easily as the 
 body drops forward. Returning to position this move- 
 menw should be repeated three or four times, when the 
 side movement may be begun. 
 
 The side bending may be taken with one arm over 
 the head, in the sidewise position, and when bending 
 forward both arms may be raised and carried forward 
 with the body. 
 
I04 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 These bending movements should be slowly practised ; 
 but the bending should be a genuine flexion of the trunk, 
 not simply an inclination of the head or shoulders. Sup- 
 pleness of the waist muscles will be still further obtained 
 by gently swinging the body in a circle around an imag- 
 inary centre, the head dropping easily with the revolv- 
 ing trunk. 
 
 Another purely abdominal exercise is taken lying on a 
 rug, the feet held down under a piece of furniture. 
 The body is raised from a recumbent to the upright po- 
 sition without assistance from the arms, drawn only by 
 the contraction of the muscles we are strengthening. 
 This is an old ^* trick ^' among children, but none the 
 less useful. 
 
 A more composite and active exercise that calls in 
 play many other muscles besides those of the abdominal 
 region, may be taken according to Fig. 1 6 ; consisting 
 of a quick diagonal movement on the part of legs, called 
 a " charge " in gymnasium parlance, and a sweeping 
 bend of the body with arms outstretched to pick up a 
 pair of dumb-bells from the floor. The bells secured, they 
 should be held against the chest while resting ; the body 
 resumes its original upright position a moment, with feet 
 together, when the charge may be renewed toward the 
 opposite direction. It will be noticed that in charging 
 to the right the right leg and foot are in advance, the 
 body weight resting upon them, the knee slightly bent, 
 
Fig. i6. 
 
Fia 17. 
 
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. lOS 
 
 while the left foot is raised at the heel, the trunk, 
 pliant and unresisting, bending at the waist. 
 
 Composite exercises such as these are very useful, not 
 only because of their local effect upon a large number 
 of muscles at one time, but because they necessitate co- 
 ordination and supervision of these muscles by the ner- 
 vous system which governs them ; and hence a composite 
 exercise is admirable training for the nervous system, and 
 improves its capacity to control the muscles themselves. 
 
 Two more complex exercises may be added which 
 may be performed, the one with and the other without 
 apparatus, and which involve exercise for many muscles, 
 — notably the spine and the legs, as well as the arms, — 
 but are given here more for their influence upon the ab- 
 dominal circulation and adjacent regions. 
 
 Fig. 1 7 is tak^n without apparatus. First position : 
 kneel on the left knee, the face looking straight for- 
 ward, the right arm extended above head, the left at 
 the waist. The head and entire trunk are then slowly 
 turned to the left, the right arm following, this second 
 position being the one shown in the figure. This is held 
 for a moment, when the original pose is resumed. After 
 three or four of these movements to the left side, the 
 knee- position should be shifted to the other leg and the 
 turning be made to the right. The effects of this simple 
 exercise will be distinctly felt in the sides of the waist, the 
 abdominal and groin muscles, and assist the circulation 
 of these parts. 
 
I06 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 The second exercise (Fig. i8) is given with a chest 
 weight, since these machines are, we are pleased to see, 
 very commonly found in many houses. 
 
 The figure very well illustrates the position in which 
 the handles of the chest weight are to be seized, after 
 which the person rises to the upright, carrying the 
 weights with her, returning again to the bent-leg position, 
 and alternately raising and lowering the body in this way 
 a dozen or more times. The weights should be light at 
 first, perhaps only one (which equals two and a half 
 pounds) being used ; later, from five to ten pounds or 
 more may be used, according to the ability of the 
 person. 
 
 It would be an easy matter to add indefinitely to the 
 number of these exercises, and to include in the selec- 
 tion many admirable movements that may be taken on 
 machines specially adapted to develop each region of the 
 body. Chest weights have become so common a piece 
 of property, and each maker so enterprising with sugges- 
 tions as to the use of his machine, that it seems unneces- 
 sary to add anything in this direction. That apparatus 
 is useful, and often adds greatly to the interest of 
 classes exercising, the writer knows, both from theory 
 and from experience ; but chest weights cannot always 
 be found where books are read. Arms and legs and un- 
 developed bodies, however, may always be found ; and 
 where these are brought together, we would remind our 
 
Fig. i8. 
 
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 107 
 
 readers that development need never suffer because of 
 the lack of a perfect gymnasium, desirable as the latter 
 is for the complete physical training of young people. 
 
 Every girl who has a will to do it can improve the 
 body she has, if it needs improvement, either in the 
 line of strength and health, or of suppleness and ease, 
 by persevering practice of even such a simple and in- 
 complete list as here given, although we would once more 
 remind the reader that the exercises here given are only 
 suggestive of means by which she may accomplish much 
 for her physical development. 
 
 As to the use of apparatus, one or two general cautions 
 might not be out of place. Foreign books, or transla- 
 tions of the same, advise much heavier weights for the 
 use of women and girls than is either customary or held 
 desirable in America. It is the practice of the writer to 
 recommend very light dumb-bells and clubs to all women, 
 except a few highly advanced or otherwise exceptional 
 pupils. A one-pound weight for both dumb-bell and 
 club will be found sufficient for the average girl from 
 twelve upward, and chest weights in proportion. 
 
 Most of the simpler exercises here suggested can be 
 used with or without dumb-bells. 
 
 As to the amount of exercise necessary for health, it 
 is estimated that a young woman of twenty should take 
 exercise sufficient to be equal a walk of about five miles, 
 daily ; but if much less distance than this can be accom- 
 
I08 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 plished, the required amount should be gained by home 
 gymnastics or gymnasium practice. The best hour for 
 vigorous persons is before breakfast ; for the more deli- 
 cate two hours after breakfast, or between four and five 
 in the afternoon. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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