SIR MORELL MACKENZIE ON HEALTHY EXERCISE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 213, 8 September 1891, Page 4

SIR MORELL MACKENZIE ON HEALTHY EXERCISE.

PASTIMES FOR PEOPLE OF ALL AGES.

Sir Morell Mackenzie contributes to the Philadelphia Weekly Press an article on exeroise in its relation to health, from whion we take the following extracts :— ',-. In the child, the physiological craving for movement shows itself with the unre» Btrained freedom df the natural animal. If a healthy baby ia allowed to have free play for its limbs it will go through a series of improvised aorobatio performanoeß, twißting its limbs and turning them into knots that might excite the envy of a professional •'contortionist." It ia an excellent plan to give an infant perfect muscular freedom for some time every day ; it should be disoumbered of any superfluous olothing and laid on a rag or some soft material on the floor and allowed to kiok.and throw itself about to its heart s content. , tt , How then are children to be made good animals ?" By the fullest possible development of their bodily poweis How is this development to be compaased? Adapting Danton's famous saying, I answer, by exeroiae, by exeroise, and yet again by exeroise. There can be no dispube about this ; the only question is as to the form and amount of the exercise. The period of ohildhood may be taken as extending from the age of two or three Years up to puberty. Now what is wanted at thia stage is not so much the acquisition of musoular strength or skill as a solid foundation of general health. In ohildhood exeroise Bhould be almost exclusively general or hygienic ; indeed I am inclined to think the less purely local or ath* letio exceroise a growing child has the bet--ter'it will be not only for its constitution, but for its future muscular development. Very young children should be encouraged to run about, to trundle hoops, or, if at the seaside, to build castles, etc., on the Band— in short, to play and romp instead of dawdling. Walking about with anursemaid who possibly takes more interest in infantry than iu infants can hardly be amusing and may be extremely fatiguing to her little charges, In ; the way of systematic exeroise lor young children there is nothing better than the kindergarten movements ; the fact that they are done in oompany with other ohildren and often to tne accompaniment of song assimilates Ihese little drills to gamea, and lessen the daager of their being looked upon as iaska. For older childien no methodical exeroise, however eoientifioally arranged, can oompaze with the boisterous outdoor games whioh bring every musole into play, Ibbd. the heart into a gallop, and make the vital bellows—the lungs— blow the fire of life into a glow. The excitement of the game is what dootora would oall Ha ''active principle," for gladness is the best of all tonios. Even the shouting, however it may vex the ears of old fogeys, is in itself an important element Id the exeroise, as it brings the Inn $3 and the xnußoies of the oheßt and throat into vigorous aotion. I need not dwell on the necessity of exercise for women further than to say that competent authorities look upon it as the best safeguard against certain diseases peouliar to their sex, the enormous prevalence of whioh at the present day is no doubt ia great measure due to the physical indolence whioh many of them have been taught to consider as a grace rather than a defect— l had almost said a vice. I may Bay here that I think it a mistake for women to aim direotly at the development of the musole. The Venus of Milo, not the half-masculine Amazon, must always be the type of physical perfection for them. Their exercise should be rather hygienic than athletic. I have already pointed out that riding is 'an excellent " pemmican" or concentrated essence of exerois9, but it is especially in middle life that Sydenham's aphorism holds, that the. outside of a horse is the best thing for the inside of a man. Steady going, however, ought to he the rule, and a bishop's cob is the ideal mount after 50, ex'cept ia the case of hunting men, who are as much at home in the saddle as other folks are in a bath chair. Oliver Wendell ■ Holntea, who, it musb not be forgotten, is a doctor and even an ex professor of anatomy, as well as a charming writer, Bpeaks with almost Pindaric enthusiasm of riding, during whioh the liver " goes up and down like the dasher of a chutn in the midst of the other vital arrangements," while " the brains are also shaken up like coppers in a money-box," Perhaps the mutual collision of brain cells and "higher oentres" may be as stimulating to the intellect as the " shock of minds" in debate. For those who cannot afford horse exeroise there is tho tricycle, which, as a means of exercise for the middleaged, has a great future before it. Dr. Osoar Jennings, an English pbysioian, piaotising in Paris, has written a book (" La Sante par le Trioyole") in whiob he tells how be diminished his circumference, whioh was beginning to give signs of Falstaffian possibilities, and evicted a host of infirmities by cyoling alone without any other forms of exercise, Then there is golf, an ideal game, but with writers like Mr Arthur Balfour and Mr Andrew Lang "to hymn its praises it needs no additional ■vateßßßcer To sum up, middle aged people between, say 35 and 55 or 60, should ride a oycle one hour or walk two hours every day. These exeroises may be varied, if the opportunity offers, by rowing or fencing, but I do not, as a rule, recommend men to praotio9 swimming after 40. I cannot conclude my remarks on middle age without an emphatic wotd of warning as to the mistake that is often made by men who rush off to Wales or Switzerland after a year of exhausting brain work, insufficient exeroise and too probably overfeeding, and and straightway proceed to olimb the first hill side they come to or take long fatiguing walks, thus passing at onca from a long I period of repose to violent exertion, with muscles flabby from disuse and a heart utterly unprepared for any sudden call, Can we wonder at tha result that often follows ? For those over 45 there can be no doubt that the best vi6w of a mountain is from its foot. Of course a practical mountaineer like Professor Tyndal, whose muscles have been hardened by many years of climbing, may continue the exeroise with impunity up to a comparatively advanced age, but euoh cases oannot safely be taken as examples by " men of mould." To sum up the whole subject, the golden rule for exeroise through all the seven ohap« ters of man's Btrange eventful history is to use it that the stream of life shall flow wide and clear, never stagnating like a muddy pond, and on the other hand never dashing itself to pieces in mere foam and fury.