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 THE DEPARTMENT 
 
 PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND HYGIENE 
 
 AMHERST COLLEGE. 
 
 PROF. EDWARD HITCHCOCK, M.D. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 &ano, Slberg, & Co., ^printers to tlje Commontocaltf), 
 
 117 Franklin Street. 
 1879. 
 
THE DEPARTMENT 
 
 PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND HYGIENE 
 
 AMHERST COLLEGE. 
 
 BT 
 
 PROF. EDWARD HITCHCOCK, M.D. 
 
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 BOSTON: 
 
 &arrtj, libers, & (Co., printers to tfje CTammanfacaltlj, 
 
 117 Franklin Street. 
 1879. 
 
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PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN AMHEEST COLLEGE. 
 
 " There is a Divine Image in the future to which the nation niust aspire. 
 The first step towards it is to improve the health of the present generation." — 
 Dr. "William Fare. 
 
 Not only educators, but too many persons engaged in 
 brain-work, are culpable in that the body is let alone, pre- 
 suming that the physical organization of man will take care 
 of itself, just as water runs down hill, or weeds grow ; not 
 remembering the absolute interdependence of body and 
 brain. The fact is forgotten, that when both body and mind 
 are in a healthy condition they are like sworn friends to each 
 other, but when not in harmonious co-operation, — when 
 either one is diseased or disordered, — they are like bitter 
 enemies acting towards one another with the most destructive 
 malignity. As a gifted author expresses himself, "Neither 
 mental serenity nor mental development can exist with an 
 unhealthy animal organization." The importance of a de- 
 partment caring for bodily health in our schools is well ex- 
 pressed by Dr. Tanner, who says : " What is really desirable 
 is a methodical system of drill and exercise fitted to produce 
 a sound constitution in the average boy. To secure this, 
 every school ought to have a well-fitted gymnasium, attend- 
 ance and work in which should be as regular and system- 
 atic as in the class-room." 
 
 From the beginning of the existence of the department of 
 physical education in Amherst College, it has never been the 
 desire to develop the muscular system at the expense of any 
 other part of the body, as is too often understood to be the 
 meaning of physical education or training. This department 
 was not created, nor has it been developed, for the purpose 
 of extraordinary attention to the muscular system. Its sole 
 object has been to keep the bodily health up to the normal 
 standard, so that the mind may accomplish the most work, 
 
 3 
 
4 STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. [Jan. 
 
 and to preserve the bodily powers in full activity for both the 
 daily duties of college and the promised labor of a long life. 
 Indeed, in that particular, the precept of Cicero has been lit- 
 erally followed ; namely, that bodily exercise should have for 
 its chief object the development of a capacity for rational 
 work. At the same time, it has been equally desired, that 
 the so-called exercises of this department should be men- 
 tally as well as physically enjoyed by the students, and not 
 be made a tedious, mechanical, or heavy drill. 
 
 During the early administration of President Stearns, the 
 apathy in relation to bodily health, the sad deaths of two 
 promising young men, and the breaking down in health of 
 others just at the end of their college courses, impelled him 
 to protest against these failures as unnecessary, and to de- 
 mand that the students should receive discipline in the care 
 of their bodies as well as of their intellects, and that the 
 government of the college should give a proper attention to 
 physical health, as well as to the culture of those powers for 
 which departments were ordinarily created and endowments 
 made. The idea was also impressively set forth by him, that, 
 without the support of well-developed bodily powers and 
 functions, the mental faculties could not reach their full de- 
 velopment. To his mind, there could be no perfect manly 
 character and culture, without the proper blending and har- 
 monious development of the three elements, the bodily, men- 
 tal, and spiritual. In the year 1859, the sixth of his admin- 
 istration, the trustees of the college, by his advice, created a 
 department of physical education and hygiene. In the lan- 
 guage of the catalogue of 1861-2, "Its design is to secure 
 healthful daily exercise and recreation to all the students; to 
 instruct them in the use of the vocal organs, movements of 
 the body, and manners, as connected with oratory; and to 
 teach them, both theoretically and practically, the laws of 
 health. This daily physical training is a part of the regular 
 college course. The professor is an educated physician, and 
 has not only a general oversight of the health of the col- 
 lege, but the students have the privilege of consulting him 
 without charge. While the gymnasium will furnish oppor- 
 tunities for the highest physical training, the required exer- 
 cises will be such as can be performed without undue effort 
 or risk of injury." 
 
1879.] PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 5 
 
 The duties of this professorship were established by the 
 trustees, upon the suggestions of one of their number, Dr. 
 Nathan Allen of Lowell, as follows : — 
 
 1. To take charge of the gymnasium and give instruction 
 to the students in gymnastics. 
 
 2. To have a general oversight of the health of the stu- 
 dents, and to give such instruction on the subject as may be 
 deemed expedient, according to the general plan stated by 
 the president in his report, and under the direction of the 
 faculty, like all the other studies. 
 
 3. To teach elocution, so far as it is connected with physi- 
 cal training. 
 
 4. To give lectures, from time to time, on hygiene, physi- 
 cal culture, and other topics pertaining to the laws of life 
 and health, including some general knowledge of anatomy 
 and plrysiology. 
 
 5. The individual appointed to have charge of this depart- 
 ment must be a thoroughly educated physician, a member of 
 the college faculty. It is distinctly understood that the 
 health of the students shall, at all times, be an object of his 
 special watch, care, and counsel. 
 
 At the same time, the faculty believed that the exercises 
 should be conducted according to the following ideas : — 
 
 " 1. The main object shall not be to secure feats of agility 
 and strength, or even powerful muscle, but to keep in good 
 health the whole body. 
 
 " 2. All the students shall be required to attend on its 
 exercises for half an hour, designated for the purpose, at 
 least four days in the week. 
 
 " 3. The instructor shall assign to each individual such ex- 
 ercises as may be best adapted to him, taking special care to 
 prevent the ambitious from violent action and all extremes, 
 endeavoring to work the whole body, and not overwork any 
 part of it. 
 
 " 4. While it may not be expedient to mark the gradation 
 of attainment as in the intellectual branches, yet regularity, 
 attention, and docility should be carefully noted, so as to have 
 their proper weight in the deportment column of the stu- 
 dent's general position. 
 
 " 5. Some time shall be allowed out of study-hours for those 
 volunteer exercises which different men, according to their 
 
6 STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. [Jan. 
 
 tastes, may elect for recreation ; and particularly the bowling- 
 alleys shall not be given up to promiscuous use, but allotted 
 at regular hours to those who wish to make use of them : 
 all these volunteer exercises, of whatever kind, to be under 
 the supervision of the gymnasium-instructor. 
 
 " 6. The building shall always be closed before dark ; no 
 light shall be used in it, and no smoking or irregularities of 
 any kind shall be allowed in it. 
 
 " 7. The instructor ought to be a member of the faculty, 
 and give in to it his marks and occasional accounts, and re- 
 ceive directions as other officers of the college are accustomed 
 to do." 
 
 This department is now in the eighteenth year of its exist- 
 ence. An essential feature of it is, that each student with 
 his class by itself, at a stated hour on four days of the week, 
 appears at the gymnasium, and performs his part in systematic 
 and methodical exercises timed to music. Each class has its 
 own organization of officers and men, and its own monogram 
 on the college uniform dress of Middlesex blue flannel. The 
 exercises are commonly known as those of light gymnastics, 
 which consist of various bodily movements accompanied and 
 guided by music ; the larger part of them with a wooden 
 dumb-bell in each hand. These are so arranged as to give 
 vigorous and active motion to all the muscles of the body. 
 With a temperature of 60° F., nine out of ten persons, at the 
 close of a fifteen-minutes' exercise, with the metronome at 85 
 or 90, will show perspiration over a large part of the body. 
 Especially during the colder season of the year, running is 
 practised by the class on the floor of the gymnasium. A few 
 marching movements are also undertaken by the classes. 
 This amount of exercise is required of every student who is 
 sound in limb. 
 
 The fact that physical education is placed on an equality of 
 position with each of the other departments, and contributes 
 to a recognition of the character and standing of the student 
 in the college records, is probably its most striking feature as 
 an educational measure. It is thus an indication that health 
 and physical exercise are of prime importance. This recog- 
 nition is not merely suggestive ; but the enforcing of attend- 
 ance to these duties tells the student that his character in 
 college will be decided, in part, by the manner in which he 
 
1879.] PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 7 
 
 obeys the laws of his body, and attends to its proper care. 
 Another feature made prominent in the exercises is that they 
 shall not be of so mechanical and inflexible a nature as to 
 destroy a free enjoyment of them. 
 
 While a necessary uniformity and periodicity are main- 
 tained, yet the elasticity of young nature is not so curbed 
 that the student must act with the monotony of a machine, 
 or with the absolute precision of the manual of arms, day by 
 day, week by week, and year by year. For not only is this 
 exercise of value to favor the chemical changes which ac- 
 company muscular activity; but it is desired, at the same 
 time, to give the mind and spirits opportunity to escape, for 
 the half-hour, from scientific and literary restraints and occu- 
 pation, and enjoy the liberty of rational animal life ; to allow 
 the animal powers and sensibilities a chance for " full play ; " 
 to induce the material and social nature to such use and 
 recreation as shall compensate its repression while engaged 
 in the absorbing application of close study ; or, in short, to 
 compel the intellectual to rest while the material shall work. 
 Hence a much greater latitude of noise, shouting, and free- 
 dom is allowed in connection with the exercises than would 
 be expected by a school-teacher of gymnastics, or a drill- 
 master ; and it is allowed as an important element or safety- 
 valve of the system. Professor W. S. Tyler in speaking of 
 this matter says, " If I were asked to specify what I consider 
 to be the most marked characteristic and distinctive excel- 
 lence of the Amherst gymnastics, I should say that it is the 
 union of recreation and amusement with exercise, of the 
 voluntary and spontaneous with the required and the pre- 
 scribed, — in a word, of play with work." 
 
 These exercises apparently satisfy and meet the necessities 
 of probably nine-tenths of the students, as they come and go. 
 Of the remainder, a few need special direction to undertake 
 more muscular exercise in general, or the use of apparatus 
 which shall help special organs or parts of the body. Such 
 young men are generally those not in full development, or 
 possessing an imperfect bodily inheritance, or with a tendency 
 to use the brain at the expense of the bodily powers. 
 
 There are always a few in every class for whom the reg- 
 ular drill and the extra hour of walk, rain or shine, advised 
 to all the college, does not satisfy the muscular energy. For 
 
8 STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. [Jan. 
 
 all such, there is an ample supply of so-called heavy gymnas- 
 tic apparatus, in the form of bowling-alleys, Indian clubs, 
 rowing-weights, bars, poles, boards, ropes, spirometers, and 
 dynamometers, at which a few of them work, perhaps an 
 hour a day, under reasonable requirements. This, with 
 proper caution about excess, is not a compulsory part of the 
 exercise. 
 
 When the plan of required physical exercise was first pro- 
 posed, it was felt that while authority might compel' study 
 and attendance upon recitations, prayers, and lectures, it 
 could not force muscular exercise and recreation upon any- 
 body. The facts, however, in the matter, may be learned by 
 comparing the attendance upon prayers and recitations with 
 the gymnastic exercise. During the year 1877-78, the aver- 
 age daily attendance of all the college upon gymnastic exer- 
 cises was 95.36 per cent. Statistics, secured at four different 
 periods, of the absence from college-prayers, give an average 
 attendance of 84.50 per cent, or over ten per cent in favor 
 of the physical exercises. During the fall term of 1878, the 
 same comparison was made between the President's recita- 
 tions and lectures with the senior class in psychology, and 
 the physical exercises in the gymnasium for all the college ; 
 with a result of 94 per cent for the former, and 94.8 per 
 cent for the latter. The class of 1878, just before their 
 graduation, in making out a series of statistics of opinions 
 on matters reviewed by their course, gave 74 out of 77 
 as "in favor of compulsory attendance at the gymnasium, 
 exercises." 
 
 The system of exercises, as practised at Amherst, brings 
 each student into the presence of the head of the department 
 very frequently, and in such a way as to exhibit his physical 
 condition to good advantage. Every thing in the gymna- 
 sium excites to jubilant muscular activity ; and in no way 
 does a young person show that he feels perfectly well, better 
 than by active bodily — including vocal — movements. It is 
 known that some people counterfeit sickness in order to 
 avoid a duty or effort, but it is a rare occurrence for any one 
 to feign excellent health. The professor in charge is re- 
 quired to know the physical condition of all the students 
 during term-time, as far as possible. No student may be 
 absent more than one day from college duties, without the 
 
1879.] PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 9 
 
 professor's excuse ; though he may employ whatever physi- 
 cian he may choose, if ill or injured. 
 
 The statistics of this department show some interesting 
 facts in reference to the duration of sickness among the stu- 
 dents of the college. Dr. Edward Jar vis says that the aver- 
 age amount of time lost on account of sickness by each 
 laborer in Europe is from 19 to 20 days each year ; and in 
 the Massachusetts Board of Health Report for 1872 it is esti- 
 mated, that, for that year, 13 days' labor was lost by sickness 
 for each productive person in the Commonwealth. The re- 
 turns of Amherst College sick-list for term-time give 2.64 
 days as an annual average of time lost to every student, and 
 of 11.36 days to each sick student, for 17 years. 
 
 The maladies from which the students have suffered are, 
 as would of course be expected, the common, and, to some 
 extent unavoidable, affections of young and vigorous men. 
 Thirty-three per cent have been colds and catarrhal dis- 
 orders. A little more than nine per cent have been from 
 physical injury, though no serious accident has ever happened 
 in the gymnasium. Eye-troubles have constituted five per 
 cent ; boils gave the same proportion. About five per cent 
 were of tonsilitis and sore throat, and there were a few 
 cases of typhoid or enteric fever. No epidemic has visited 
 the college for the past twenty years. 
 
 A decrease in the amount of sickness during the course is 
 an important feature in the health of the college. Taking 
 the number on the sick-list in the Freshman year as 1,000, 
 the number for the Sophomore year is represented by 912 ; 
 for the Junior year, by 759 ; and for the Senior year, by 575. 
 That is, the relative sickness of the different classes in the 
 college is, in the Senior year 1.00 ; in the Junior year, 1.32 ; 
 in the Sophomore year, 1.58; in the Freshman year, 1.74. 
 
 During the past 17 years, of the 1,262 different students 
 in Amherst College, 56, or 4.44 per cent, have left the institu- 
 tion on account of alleged ill health. Of these 56, 36 have 
 never returned ; and 20 have re-entered and graduated, or are 
 now members of the college. This loss amounts to a final 
 giving up of the college-course by 2.85 per cent of all who 
 have entered. 
 
 To secure a series of vital statistics from all the students 
 of the college, is anpther duty belonging to the department 
 
10 STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. [Jan. '79. 
 
 of hygiene. This consists of a record of certain bodily 
 measurements made twice during the Freshman year and 
 annually thereafter. The statistical records are, age, weight, 
 height, girth of chest, girth of arm, girth of fore-arm, capa- 
 city of lungs, finger-reach, and body-lift, or a simple test of 
 muscular strength. Dr. Hasket Derby, of Boston, during 
 the past four years, has personally examined the eyes of 
 every Freshman entering Anthers! College, to ascertain the 
 proportion and increase of near-sight among the students, 
 and if possible to suggest the best preventive measures or 
 treatment therefor. No results as yet have been obtained, 
 as the first class examined is still in college. It is believed 
 that such examinations for eight consecutive years will give 
 much light on this subject so important to students. 
 
 It seems fair to suppose that the life of the student is as 
 healthful as are lives in other occupations, if not more so. 
 The student in the ordinary boarding-house or college dor- 
 mitory is certainly no better cared for than are most young 
 men of the same age 1 of the mercantile and many of the 
 artisan class. His chance for physical exercise and out-door 
 air and sunlight is much below that of a large part of man- 
 kind. There is no evidence that the student, with his in- 
 heritance and early environment, starts in life any better 
 " selected " than do his playmates who enter the store, ma- 
 chine-shop, or the farm. In the matter of vacations, the stu- 
 dent has the advantage, as usually his is distributed through 
 the year over two or three periods, while most persons in- 
 other occupations are obliged to condense theirs into one, and 
 that a period less than the amount enjoyed by the college 
 student. 
 
 The results accomplished by this department in Amherst 
 College lead its government to continue its existence, and 
 sustain it on a par with the others, even though it may not 
 be managed with the system and discipline of the sanitary 
 organization in our army and navy. Even if its methods of 
 management may not be such as can be used in other branch- 
 es of educational work, yet it is certainly valuable to the 
 student if by it he is able to maintain more than an average 
 degree of health and work. 
 
 1 From nineteen to twenty-three years, on an average. 
 
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