Physical Education.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 992, 6 March 1891, Page 5

Physical Education.

* I think every woman should learn to swim, to fence and to hold her weight with her arms,’ said a distinguished member of the medical faculty. ' r More strains probably occur from the inability of women to use the strength of their arms skillfully than from any other cause. The average boy can hang from a bar and lift his weight by bending his arms two or three times in succession, but you never find a girl, unless she has practiced it, who is able to do this once. One of the most valuable exeroises for the acquisition of grace, dexterity, and a fine carriage of the body is fencing, if one learns to use the foils with both right and left hands, and in this form of exercise girls become graceful and skillful as rapidly as men, Horseback riding is less desirable for women, beoauae of the unphysiological position in which Bhe is forced by conventionality to sit. The saddle is ridiculously uncomfortable any way, and from its inability to be adjusted to either side of the horse, is responsible for many cases of spinal curvature. Soma riding schools have introduced saddles for riding on both sides of the horse, and a girl who will learn to ride on either side at will will be a much more expert horsewoman, and the exeroise will be in any way more beneficial and conduotive to symmetrical development. No one exercise, however, either indoors or out, contributes more to the uniform development of the muscles or is more oonductive to health than swimming, and it seems, in the face of all the need that may arise, almost a crime for a woman not to learn. •