Tiit LliriAnl OF THE WMYUMTY Vf IkMlMt* THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL INSTRUCTION EDMUND J. JAMES THOMAS A. STOREY Reprinted from The City College Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 2, June, 1909. THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL INSTRUCTION THE Department of Physical Instruction in the College of the City of New York is now two years old. It may not be inappropriate, therefore, at this time to offer to the readers of the Quarterly a description of its building, equip- ment, organization and work. The building is a stone and terra cotta structure conforming in type with the Gothic style of architecture which character- izes the new City College. Externally, it presents a pleasing ensemble of straight lines and right angles, with here and there a decorated arch. It is generously windowed. Sym- bolic grotesque dwarf figures are placed symmetrically here and there in the terra cotta lines and sills. These grotesques are bending the bow, lifting weights, throwing the discus, and performing other feats of strength and skill. 1 The building is one hundred and forty-nine feet long and seventy-seven feet wide. It contains a basement and two stories. The first story is divided by a mezzanine floor, and the second story contains a gallery. The basement, which is on a level with the street at one end and on a part of one side, is well supplied with prism glass windows. These windows face the open so that the basement receives an abundance of direct and indirect sunlight, a fact which makes it a most desirable place for the location of a swimming pool. Visitors are always impressed with the flood of warm sunshine that has such free access to this great room, illuminating all its parts and bringing into view even the white 1 It is most interesting to note that each of the many hundred grotesques that decorate the stone walls of the City College is symbolic of some phase of work done within those walls. I am indebted to Dr. Sickels for access to his original list of themes which these grotesques symbolize. A detailed description of these decorations was published in the Quarterly about a year ago. 67 68 THE CITY COLLEGE QUARTERLY tiled bricks that lie deep in the transparent water. The pool is rectangular, being one hundred feet long and twenty-nine feet wide. It is five feet deep at one end and eight feet deep at the other. The tank is faced and floored throughout with white tile bricks, so carefully laid that the waterproof cement between the bricks forms perfectly parallel lines which give a pleasing effect of order and symmetry when seen through the water or when reflected from its surface. A specially devised overflow carries away the surface water. This overflow is of bronze and lies beneath the overhanging slate coping on the sides of the tank so that there is no danger of injury from falling against it on entering or leaving the pool. It is so arranged that every wave on the surface of the pool will wash its crest into the trough. The trough empties into the tank drain. When the pool is in use this process of surface removal goes on continually. This arrangement has a two-fold value. It diminishes the interference of the waves with the swimmer in competition, and it helps us keep the water clean. The following measures are taken in order to keep the water pure. Each bather is required to be clean before he is per- mitted to use the pool. A shower bath must precede a swim. This rule is carefully enforced. All classes taking work in the department are instructed several times each year concerning the obligation of each student to do his share to maintain the sanitation of his surroundings and particularly the sanitation of the pool. In addition, the pool is supplied day and night with a continuous stream of fresh tempered filtered water, and it is emptied and thoroughly cleaned twice a week. The neces- sity for these precautions becomes evident when one learns that there were over ninety-nine thousand voluntary, and over thirty-five thousand required baths taken in the swimming pool during this last year. The tank is surrounded by a red tiled waterproof floor about eight feet wide which serves as a runway for the swimmers. Surrounding this runway, and about four feet higher, there is EDMUND J. JAMES THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL INSTRUCTION 69 at each end and on both sides of the room a gallery for spec- tators. The side galleries have raised seats. This great room, with its clear pool, white tiled bricks, bright natural light, and fine ventilation, its straight lines, balance, and symmetry, and its easy and attractive utility, must and does have a powerful influence upon the student. Here he receives healthful exercise, and here he learns to swim, possibly for the conservation of his own life or that of another human being; here he meets scores — it may be hundreds — of his fellow students on a basis of social intimacy and equality which is elsewhere attained only in the Exercising Hall of the Gymnasium. And it is all clean. His surroundings are clean. His object in being there is clean. His social inter- course is clean. The habits he cultivates are clean. The floor above the swimming pool is the first or street floor of the building. The main entrance leads by a few stone steps from the terrace of the plaza to this floor. Here are located three fine hand-ball courts, a large student locker room, two student shower rooms, a faculty locker and shower room, a small special exercising room, and a fair sized room for athletic supervision. The hand-ball courts are about thirty feet square. They are well lighted and well used. Hand-ball has become very popular, so that these courts are always busy and there is usually a waiting list. The student locker room on this floor is supplied with steel lockers and combination locks. There is another room like it on the floor above. In these two rooms there are at present one thousand and forty lockers. More will have to be sup- plied soon, for there are not enough now to satisfy the demand. The small special exercising room serves several purposes. Wrestling is taught there to some of the regular classes. The punching-bags are in fairly general use. But the most im- portant function of this room is connected with those students who are organically unfitted for the regular required courses in physical exercise given in the department. Some twenty- five young men went through specially assigned exercises in 70 THE CITY COLLEGE QUARTERLY this room last year. They were in this class because of bad hearts, and other abnormalities. The Faculty Athletic Committee room is bright and com- modious. It contains desks for the student team managers, and officials of the Athletic Association, and files for associa- tion records. Two years ago the association was over seven hundred dollars in debt. It had been supported by faculty and graduate subscriptions. Now, without any subscriptions for two years, the association has paid all its bills and all of the seven hundred dollars debt which it inherited, and has a cash balance large enough to meet the initial expenses of the coming athletic season. The instructors' locker and shower room holds seventy odd lockers. It is well lighted, well ventilated, and adequately furnished. It is open for use to the officers of instruction at all times during the day. The next floor above the one I have just described is the Mezzanine floor. This floor contains student locker and shower rooms like those on the floor below. There is also a butler's pantry, staff dressing and shower room, director's office and dressing room, and an examining room. The butler's pantry is supplied with a gas range, dish- washing sinks, warming oven and shelves. It is used for the preparation of refreshments for receptions, dances, meetings of the Faculty Club, and so on. The staff room contains lockers and showers for the departmental staff. The director's office contains the office fixtures and conveniences necessary for the expeditious accomplishment of the great amount of clerical work natural to such an office. During this last year the medical examinations alone furnished over seven thousand records for systematization and filing. The examining room is one of the most important rooms in the building. It is supplied with white enamel steel furnish- ings of the hospital examination room type, and contains all the equipment necessary for the complete general medical examination of the student. It is finished in white so that it may be an object lesson in cleanliness. During this last year THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL INSTRUCTION 71 over seven thousand examinations were made under the plan of medical and hygienic supervision which centers in this room. As a result of these examinations, over a thousand parents acting on our advice, secured treatment for their boys. Our regular examinations cover the skin, hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, throat, lungs, heart, abdomen, and such other special regional or organic examinations as may seem neces- sary. The floor above, like the basement, is really one great room. A half partition separates the exercising hall from the office. The gallery contains a seventeen-lap running track. The whole floor is well ventilated and very well lighted. It is bright, cheerful and attractive. The exercising hall is one hundred and sixteen feet long and sixty-seven feet wide. It will accommodate two hundred and twenty-five men at a time for mass drills. It is supplied with all the apparatus ordi- narily found in a gymnasium. During the past year six classes, about fifteen hundred students, have been in regular attendance in the required courses. The voluntary use of the exercising hall secured an attendance of about twenty thou- sand for the year. These various rooms, with their furnishings and supplies, are the laboratories with which the Department of Physical Instruction is equipped for the purpose of turning out healthy, vigorous, physically efficient men of sound moral character. In furtherance of this purpose the departmental organization includes several related phases of work which are known to influence health and character. This correlation of related influences is concisely presented in the departmental announce- ment contained in the college register for this year. It reads as follows: The organization in this department has been planned pri- marily to give the student such supervision, instruction and experience as will enable him to realize his own peculiar health possibilities and formulate intelligently his own policy of personal health control. In addition instruction is offered in a variety of those motor activities that are known to have a 72 THE CITY COLLEGE QUARTERLY desirable influence on the development of neuro-muscular strength, endurance and co-ordination, and which are also known to develop certain valuable traits of character. It is calculated that these educational influences may, on the one hand, teach the young man how to secure and conserve his own health, and, on the other hand, lead him in his graduate years to become an important factor in the advancement of the public health and character. The following phases of departmental work are combined for the purpose of securing these results : I. Medical and Hygienic Supervision. (a) Medical Examinations. A regular examination is re- quired of all preparatory and collegiate students when they first enter the Institution. (b) Medical Inspection required of all preparatory students and of students in the first two collegiate years. Repeated each half year. (c) Medical Consultation open to all students and applied to students referred by instructors. (d) Treatment. Emergency treatment is the only treat- ment attempted by the Department. All students are required to secure treatment whose physical condition is a menace to their companions. All students with remediable physical defects are required to show cause why appropriate treatment is not secured. Special exercise is prescribed for special cases. II. Hygienic Instruction. (Lectures.) (a) Academic. A i. Ways and means of securing and conserving health. A 2. The influence of certain abnormal conditions and habits on health. (b) Collegiate. 1. Some of the common causes of disease. 2. The carriers of disease. 3. Defenses against disease. 4. The nature of some common diseases. III. Instruction in Physical Exercise. (a) Drills. Graded through six terms. (b) Apparatus. Graded through four terms. (c) Swimming. Graded through six terms. (d) Games and outdoor exercise. IV. Written and Practical Examinations. (a) Monthly examinations, both written and practical. (b) Term examinations. Final written examination. THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL INSTRUCTION 73 V. Athletic Control. (a) Under the direction of the Faculty Athletic Committee. (b) Physical Director is chairman of Faculty Athletic Com- mittee. (c) Physical Director as medical examiner passes on all candidates for teams. No candidate is eligible until approved. (d) Members of Faculty Athletic Committee are members of Executive Board of the Athletic Association. (e) No money is paid out by the Athletic Association with- out the approval of the chairman of the Faculty Athletic Committee. (/) Regulations of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association are enforced. Prerequisites Students entering Physical Instruction i must have com- pleted A i and A 2 in the Academic Department or their equivalents. These requirements may be concisely outlined as follows : A 1. (Academic.) (a) Hygiene. " Ways and means of securing and conserv- ing health." These lectures are concerned with such subjects as exercise, rest, food, respiration, care of excretions, bathing, and cleanliness. Sixteen lectures. (b) Physical Exercise. 1. Graded mass drills in floor tactics. These drills are used in order to develop obedience and ready response to com- mand, accurate execution, good form and carriage, and facility of control. 2. Swimming. A 2. (Academic.) (a) Hygiene. " The effects of certain abnormal conditions and habits on health." These lectures deal with various com- mon remediable abnormal conditions such as defective vision, obstructed respiration, adenoids, large tonsils, and bad teeth; with certain habits, such as mouth breathing, rapid eating, in- sufficient mastication, and with stimulants, constipation and certain sexual problems. Sixteen lectures. (b) Physical Exercise. 1. Graded mass drills. Movements are given in these drills in response to command. Strength, endurance and co-ordi- nation are brought into play. Only fundamental and larger accessory movements are utilized. These exercises 74 THE CITY COLLEGE QUARTERLY affect chiefly the larger muscle groups and the organs of circulation and respiration. 2. Swimming. Each student is required to learn how to swim. Collegiate Instruction. i. Elementary Physical Instruction. (a) Hygiene. "Some of the common causes of disease. ,, These lectures deal with bacteria and a few other common causes of disease. Their general morphology, biology, distri- bution, transmission and modes of pathogenic action are dis- cussed simply and without technicality. Sixteen lectures. (b) Physical Exercise. i. Graded mass drills. Two-count movements for the further development of strength, endurance and co-ordination, and for the further exercise of the organs of circulation and respiration. 2. Apparatus work. Graded exercises for squads of five stu- dents each on the track, horizontal ladder, chest weights, rings and horse. These exercises develop speed, strength, endurance and co-ordination ; exercise the organs of circu- lation and respiration; and develop self-control, self- reliance and courage. 3. Swimming. Each student is required to learn to swim with more than one variety of stroke. Prerequisite: A 1 and A 2 (Academic), or their equivalents. Prescribed : Arts and Sci., Fresh. ; first term, two hours a week, counts one-half. 2. Elementary Physical Instruction (continued). (a) Hygiene. " The carriers of disease." A discussion of the agents that may disseminate disease such as food, water, clothing, flies, mosquitoes, other insects, animals and careless human beings. Sixteen lectures. (b) Physical Exercise. 1. Graded mass drills. These drills are continuations of, but more advanced than, those given in the preceding term. 2. Apparatus work. Graded exercises for squads of five men each on the indoor track, horse, vaulting bar, mat and buck. These exercises secure a further development of the anatomical, physiological and psychological objects noted in I. 3. Swimming. Each student is required to develop endur- ance in swimming. THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL INSTRUCTION lb Prerequisite: i. Prescribed : Arts and Sci., Fresh. ; second term, 2 hours a week, counts one-half. 3. Advanced Physical Instruction. (a) Hygiene. " Defenses against disease." These lectures deal with some of the measures utilized by organized society in its campaign against disease, such as the establishment of Boards of Health and Quarantines, and the passage of appro- priate laws. It further deals with the defenses of the indi- vidual, such as cleanliness, avoidance of the carriers of disease, antiseptics, sunshine, fresh air, and immunity. Sixteen lectures. (b) Physical Exercise. 1. Graded mass drills. Four-count movements. More ad- vanced work making greater demands on speed, strength, endurance and co-ordination, and on the circulation and respiration, and further developing good carriage and form. 2. Apparatus work. Graded exercises for squads of five on the buck, horizontal bar, parallel bars, and the pieces already covered in the earlier terms. These exercises are planned for the further development of the objects pre- viously outlined. 3. Swimming. Diving, rescue and resuscitation of the drowning. Prerequisite : 2. Prescribed : Arts and Sci., Soph. ; first term, two hours a week, counts one-half. 4. Advanced Physical Instruction (continued). (a) Hygiene. "The nature of some common diseases." These lectures deal with the economic importance, the cause, symptoms, and prophylaxis of such diseases as tuberculosis, pneumonia, malaria, syphilis and gonorrhoea. Sixteen lectures. (b) Physical Exercise. 1. Advanced graded mass drills. Eight-count movements. 2. Advanced graded apparatus w r ork. For squads of five. 3. Games : Handball, wrestling, and swimming (see under 4). 4. Swimming. Aquatic games. The instruction in physical exercise in this term is planned to secure a further development of self-control, self-reliance, self-respect, courage, team work (the appre- ciation of the value of a unity of effort), loyalty, and the courtesy of sport, in addition to those anatomical, physio- 76 THE CITY COLLEGE QUARTERLY logical, and practical hygienic objects that are in view throughout all the instruction. Prerequisite : 3. Prescribed : Arts and Sci., Soph. ; second term, 2 hours a week, counts one-half. Note : In each of the above compulsory courses provision is made for those students whose organic condition may dis- qualify them for the regular scheduled work. Voluntary Classes. These are organized at such times of the day as do not conflict with the required work. They are open to all collegiate students without credit. Opportunity is given in these classes for advanced work and for experience in cer- tain phases of normal work. It will be noted in the above announcement that the work in physical instruction is required of the third-year academic and the first and second year collegiate students. There are, there- fore, six classes taking that instruction. This gave us an enrollment last year of about fifteen hundred students. Of this number about five hundred were academic and about nine hundred collegiate students. The academic classes were in attendance once a week; the collegiate classes, twice. Each student is required to appear in a quarter-sleeved white shirt, a pair of white knee running trousers, and a pair of soft soled shoes. The floor of the exercising hall is marked with two hun- dred and twenty-five numbers. Each student in each class is assigned one of these numbers. When his class is called, the student finds his number on the floor and stands on it. In this way, class order is quickly secured ; the class roll easily taken, and much time saved. A typical class hour for the college classes is divided into three parts. A short talk on " hygiene " is given immediately after the class is called. It is rather unique to see two hundred students dressed in clean white uniforms listening to a discus- sion of the laws of health which they in a few minutes are going to put into practical application. These lectures, as indi- cated above, are carefully graded and are in logical sequence from the first term to the sixth term. A special effort is made THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL INSTRUCTION 11 to present only matters of practical importance, applicable to the surroundings and health problems of the young men of New York City. The lecture is followed by a class drill. These drills are varied at frequent intervals and are graded throughout the six terms. They are all given with certain definite objects in view, such as the physiological effects of rapid respiration, increased heart rate, or local muscular con- traction, or the psychological effects of obedience to command, of successful coordination, or of accurate execution. The drill is followed by squad work on the apparatus. Each squad is made up of five students grouped together with reference to their physical ability. These squads are assigned work on the various pieces of apparatus in the building. Some of them work on the chest-weights, others on the track, others play hand-ball or swim, or work on the bars or mats. This last term we began cross-country running as a part of the work for the " apparatus period." We hope to extend these opportuni- ties for out of door exercises so that we may secure more of the well known psychological benefits common to well directed games, sports and play. In the apparatus period, each group of four or five squads is under the direction of an assistant. The character of exercise given these squads is frequently varied, and is carefully graded throughout the courses. It is selected with reference to its desirable influence upon physical development, and because of its effect on character. We are not interested in teaching "stunts." We are primarily inter- ested in developing healthy bodies and healthy minds. A typical hour, then, consists of a short lecture period, a class drill period, and a period for squad work on the apparatus. Examinations are given for the purpose of testing the stu- dents in these various phases of work. The monthly practical examination covers the mass drills and squad exercises which the student has been taught during the preceding three or four weeks. The monthly written examination covers the subject matter presented in the short lectures. Each term's work is also closed with a final written examination. Those students whose term records and final records are satisfactory are ad- 78 THE CITY COLLEGE QUARTERLY vanced. The others are required to repeat the course. At the end of the second term of last year, out of a total registration of fourteen hundred and fifty-four, only eighty-three failed, and twenty-five were deficient. A careful medical 'and hygienic supervision has been insti- tuted for the purpose of informing the boy and his parents con- cerning physical and hygienic defects and for the purpose of protecting the student from dangerous hygienic and disease contacts. All entering pupils in the Academic Department (Townsend Harris Hall) and all entering freshmen are ex- amined thoroughly. All students taking work in physical instruction are inspected at least twice a year. It is also planned to give all pupils in the Academic Department a short medical examination twice a year. Medical consultations may be secured when desired by the student or recommended by his instructor. These various medical examinations are also hygienic examinations, and the advice given the student is as largely hygienic as it is medical. During the past year we made sixteen hundred and twenty-eight regular medical exami- nations; one hundred and seventy-three examinations of athletes ; five hundred and ninety consultations were held, and there were five thousand five hundred and sixty-seven in- spections. The total number of opportunities given us to be of medical or hygienic benefit to the student through personal examination (these influences from the stand-point of the modern physician are inseparable) reached a total of seven thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight. Wherever needed, advice was given. This advice was followed up during the second term of last year and it was found that in more than one thousand cases parents were influenced to secure some form of medical treatment for their boys in conformity with our advice. In addition, every student registered for work in the department fell under the influence of our hygienic advice. Finally, the work of the department may be summarized as follows : The compact, well-equipped building provided for this department by the trustees of the College has been in use for two years; its various subdivisions are under the super- Q < C/0 THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL INSTRUCTION 7'.) vision of a staff of sixteen instructors ; two academic and four collegiate classes are in required attendance, aggregating- four- teen hundred and fifty-four students ; during the past year the total required attendance in the exercising hall was over sixty- nine thousand; the total required attendance in the swimming pool was over thirty-five thousand; the total voluntary at- tendance in the exercising hall was over twenty thousand ; the total voluntary attendance in the swimming pool was over ninety-nine thousand; the voluntary use of other parts of the building has been conservatively estimated as being over ten thousand ; the sum total or gross attendance in the various departments of the building amounted to over two hundred thousand ; and further, seven thousand nine hundred and fifty- eight medical and hygienic examinations were given. Out of two thousand three hundred and ninety-one more complete medical examinations, there were four thousand five hundred and seventy-five diagnoses which secured treatment through the parents in one thousand and ninety-one cases. Out of twenty-six hundred students examined over twenty-one hun- dred were American born, the remaining five hundred students came from twenty-seven different foreign countries. Twenty- five per cent, of these boys were of American-born parentage, the remaining seventy-five per cent, having a parentage from thirty-five different foreign countries. These statistics further show one hundred and fifty-one different varieties of parental occupation, such as those of the banker, the pedler, the barber, the contractor, the cleaner, the lawyer, the watchman, the physician, the clerk, and the real estate agent. These statistics show the cosmopolitan derivation and social status of the college boy in New York City. They indicate the need for those mixing, socializing, Americanizing influ- ences that are peculiar to the exercising hall, the swimming pool and the play-ground. They also make plain the reason for the existing necessity for medical and hygienic super- vision, and for careful instruction concerning the simple fundamental laws of human health. And finally, they explain the reason for the fact that the City College boy is more in 80 THE CITY COLLEGE QUARTERLY need of physical exercise than any other American college boy. Two years ago we found many boys who had not the strength in their arms to lift their weight from the floor. Two years ago when the indoor track was first used, it was a common daily occurrence to find two or three boys sick at the stomach after an ordinary easy run. Two years ago, sixty-four per cent, of our boys could not swim. These facts are significant of the pernicious influence of crowded urban life. We believe that this departmental organization which secures a combination of a medical and hygienic supervision with instruction concerning the simple fundamental laws of health, and with experience in the more important health habits, is logical and well balanced. We know that under such combined influences physiological and hygienic and, therefore, health improvement is inevitable. Each student should leave us knowing how to secure and conserve his own health. He must leave us in better condition than that in which we re- ceived him. We hope and plan each year to furnish better nourished and healthier brains for the academic purposes of the College. We hope and plan each year to turn out a group of healthier, stronger, more rugged and more efficient young men, who, because of our influences, will be of greater academic, social, economic and political value as American citizens. We hope and plan to join with the other departments in this great College in developing character and in making men. Thomas A. Storey.