ATHLETICS AND HEALTH.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 77, 30 March 1912, Page 10

ATHLETICS AND HEALTH.

» -- In his report for 1911, Dr. Charles F. Stokes, Surgeon-General of the United States Navy, made the rather- sweeping statement that, in the opinion of the Bureau, "competitive and spectacular athletics are undesirable in the service." This is particularly true for "midshipmen who aro prone to overtrain for, or hazard too much in, a contest." Moreover, while he has football in mind, he is thinking not so much of its hazards under present conditions of ulay as of ite "disabling after-effects"; and he does not criticise it alone. Indeed, h.is concern is less with actual contests, whether of football, boat-racing, or long-distance running, than with the training that they necessitate: It is the "prolonged rigorous course of physical exercises necessary to excellence in physical sports" that is believed to be dangerous, for the rpaeon that^ under the conditions of service at sea, it ie impossible to continue rigorous exercise, and hence one who- has been accustomed to it tends to lose stamina, to fall a prey to degenerative changes, and in the end "fails to render as many years ot efficient service under service conditions as does his less athletic, but symmetricaly developed, classmate." The figures which Dr. Stokes furnishes in support of his contention are (remarks the New York Evening Post), rather suggestive than conclusive. A recent examination of the medical records of 625 former athletes of the classes from 1891 .to 1911 shows two deaths "directly attributable to ( track and crew racing," and one to an injury received.in, a. -football game. Of the 604 remaining in the service, over and above those dead or retired, 198 "have disabilities or abnormal conditions of sufficient moment to be of official record, and- to which their record as athletes bears a possible or probable causative relation." This inference is cautious enough,' and it is to be noted thai statements regarding the physical, conditions of the 406 non-athletes are wanting.