FOUNDATION OF HEALTH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18222, 16 October 1922, Page 9

FOUNDATION OF HEALTH

VALUE OF COLD BATHING. DAILY RE-CREATION ENSURED. SWIMMING THE BEST EXERCISE. Swimming, as the finest of all exercises for child and adult, and from which more benefit could be derived in a given time than from any other exercise, was given especial prominence in a lecture at the Scots Hall last night by Dr. Truby King. The tonic effects, physical, mental and moral, of the cold bath, were emphasised, as providing the stimulus for tho exercise of the involnntary muscles, through which most; of the vital functions sro performed. The lecture, which was the last of Dr. King's health campaign in Auckland, was largely attended. At the conclusion, a largo number of lantern slides were shown illustrating tht right and tho wrong course of life for children and adults. The Mayor, Mr. J. H. Gunson. presided Dr. King said the gospel of his health mission had been described as " back to nature," and this was not far wrong, but it was not all. " Civilised man every where, for thousands of years, has got too far away from primitive Nature to be able to return, even if he wanted to. Man's greatest departure from Nature was made thousands of years ago, when he began putting on garments instead of continuing to grow a natural covering of hair. So long as clothing was limited j to a loin-cloth it did no barm. But now ihat we are. clad from head to foot, cutting off the vitalising stimulation of the skin by wind and water, sunshine and j shade, and the daily and hourly variations of heat and cold, we become slack and feeble, unless wo make special provisions for counteracting this tendency. Even in sub-tropical Auckland, where daily active stimulation of the whole body through the skin and tho nervous system is absolutely necessary for the proper j development, growth and maintenance of; body, mind and morals, next to nothing ! is being done in the homes, the schools I or the community to promote the daily j use of the early-morning cold bath,, j needed for starting the day well; and ; there are no adequate facilities for awim- j ming, or other healthy outdoor exercise ! and recreation. Strenuous competitive games for the few, in the form of cricket or football, etc, are no compensation for the neglect of the great mass of the rising generation, especially the girls. Tha Example of the Maoris. "The mere giving of lessons at school, now to breathe deeply, and the provision of unattractive farms of exercise, such as Swedish games, dots comparatively little . good, if there bo nothing m the lives and daiiy habits of this pupils to encourage and ensure deep-breathing, and active exercise of the whole organism. Before our time the Alaori grew up a perfect specimen of humanity. Without any dull routine, mechanical instructions how to breathe or take exercise, he did both to perfection, as a healthy anima l . does, besides developing jaws and teeth, which make us envious to-day. New Zealand is all right —only tho present-day New Zealanders are wrong. Now, both "■*« a are victims to the same cause, vi.i(., aad nurture, roaring and training of the young; wrong food and feeding habits ; lack of all-round exercise and healthy re<::reaition: and the breaking in on rest and si<ep by frequenting the picture shows. " The value of cold bathing and swimming, in the rearing of the race, is not a matter of mere personal opinion; it is a matter of hard fact. Nothing can compare with this /orm of exercise and recreation, and nothing can take its place. It is the supreme and indispensable form of both exercise and recreation. The Involuntary Muscles. "Nearly half of the body is composed of muscVe. and Bill our muscular tissue may be called involuntary, since even those muscles which can "be put into direct action through (the will are normally kept toned-up from without, and more or less active all. day long, whether we will it or not—indeed, the whole muscular system is driven from without, not from within. That the conscious mind aad the will have very little to do with the tone and fitness of the body, is proved by the superb condition and alertness of animals living in a state of nature. "A great American physician has said that the cold bath provides gymnastics for the whole involuntary muscular system. He might have said that the cold bath was not only capable of setting all our muscles going, but that it is the most efficient • foreman of works ' for every organ and tissue of the body. All our organs, including the thinking and feeling cells of the brain, are kept going by stimuli coming from without, through the skin and the special senses. .The skin, with its myriads of nerve fibres carrying telephone messages to the offices in the spinal cord and brain, and the outgoing directions issued thence to every tissue and organ is the incentive to almost almost all onr bodily activities. Withont more or less stimulation in the way of alternations of temperature playing on ' the skin, circulation, nutrition, and excretion would fail, and body and mind would fall into a state of torpor and lethariry.

Recharging the Batteries. " We all of us know how slack, flabby, and tired we become in body,. mind, and spirit when fully clad in close, warm weather, and we know the joy and sense of fitness which come from stripping off our clotb.es and plunging into cool water. Somehow our exhausted batteries eeem to become recharged—but it> is more than mere ' seeming '; we are really recreated, and this is the true biological meaning of the word ' re-creation.' We need to be re-created and rebuilt every day, not merely ev*ery seven years! " Romanes said: ' Recreation is partial sleep, aud sleep is universal recreation.' The student feeling jaded, and making more and more mistakes after an hour spent in doing sums and other tasks, has his dormant thinking and calculating cells restored and recharged by half-an-hour or so spent joyously in flannels on the playground; or", better still, in and out of a swimming bath. The exhausted cerebral celJs have been virtually sleeping during tho recharging of their batteries, just as almost all tins cells of the body are more or less at rest while being recharged with energy during sleep. " What is the best form of recreation? Undoubtedly swimming in cool water, followed by a good rub down and active exercise, because it ensures the maximum of rebuilding in a minimum of time. In this respect, swimming is far ahead of such admirable games as football, cricket, hockey, or tennis, because of the universality* and intensity of the stimulus and reaction induced by water acting on the whole skin surface. Further, swimming has the great practical advantage that there is no loss of time in preliminaries, and there need be no intervals of idleness. There is room for a swimming pond where adequate space for any other form of play cannot be provided. In spite ot the large primary cost and considerable annual expense in tho way of upkeep, a swimming, bath adapted for use all the year round is the best economic investr ment any community can make, if full account is taken of the value of health to the individual, the community, and the estate, and the costliness of invalidism and disease. "Decline in Physique. " The physique of the rising generation of both sexes has been falling off, not improving, of late years,"' Dr, King continued, " and if ten years hence our youny male adults were medically examined, they would be found inferior, not superior, to tho average tested during the war The standard of health and fitness is not on tho up grade, and every means must be used to raise it—not merely «B military, but on civic grounds.

No school throughout the Dominion should oe without ample playground space, laid out an d adapted for outdoor games, cricket, football, and tennis. Dr. Woods Hutchison said some years ago : 'If it is a question of a school without a playground, or a playground without a school, give me the playground.' Without induJgmg in any Americanism. I would certain.y say : 'If the choice in between an ordinary school playground and a good swimming pond, give me tho pond !" The Daily Gold Bath. "Swimming is the best of all forms of daily recreation for inducing ideal growth and development of boys and girls. But Itill much more than this—it is incomparably tno best means of making their bodies vigorous, hardy and resistive to disease, and for promoting mental and moral discipline and power of control. The daily cold bath, all the year round, on rising, followed by a good rub down, rapid dressing and active exercises—runmag, jumping, skipping, etc.—should be tno rule for all boys and girls, as it it now in the great boarding schools of the world, and has been for half a century or more at Eton, Harrow and Rugbv. When going the round of Jthe Auckland schools nothing has surprised Miss Paterson and myself so much as the fact that, while nearly all the girls and boys bevond 12 years of ago can swim, there are not 5 per cent, who swim 100 times during the vear, and not half that proportion take the morning cold bath. j Indeed, in a number of schools when one put the morning bath up by auction, as it were, there were no responses for even 50 times in the year. The Auckland Climate. " We may not agree that ' life is more secure within the Arctic Circle than beneath tho bluo skies of Italy/ " said Dr. King, in conclusion, "but we know that the children of Otago and Southland tend to be hardier and more vigorous than those of iho North. However, the children of Auckland are not necessarilv handicapped in this way; give them the "priceless daily habit of swimming, or at least the cold bath, followed by active exercise, and they could have almost all the advantages or the South 4 without its rigors, discomforts, and restrictions. ■ "Everywhere, more consideration ought to bo given to the need of the body, and less mental stress should be countenanced by teachers or exacted or allowed bv parents, especially in the way of 'cram' at home for examinations and competitions. Overwork of this kind is as debasing to the mind as it is damaginir to tho body. As John Locke said some 250 years ago, ' the master who caused his vessel to founder would give a poor account to the owners even though the cargo he had taken aboard was gold and silver and precious stones ' Overstrain and cram are unmitigated evils, and ought to be stopped."