Use your Muscles.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13432, 2 November 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

Use your Muscles.

Dr Henry Davy, of Teeter y, in del.yerig the presidential address before the British Medical Association' on July AJ, 'dealt, savs "The 'Times" report, wit i the influence* upon medicine of the work or Darwin, and claimed for it a great practical utility for having shown "that the only wav to maintain any. organ or structure of the body in its proper condition of. health and development is by a. proper and adequate use of it." The. value of this axiom had not, he declared, been suiliciently recognised in relation to -physical deterioration, especially of the muscular syoterh, "as illustrated by the number ot would-be recruits for the ,army, who were found to fall short of the requisite standard. Many changes had occurred, m the environment of the individual and of the nation,-all' tending to reduce the muscular'.work done by the people; ,and this result had been mainly due to the extended use of machinery. In every department of industry each' succeeding. ■ y,ear,. forind us depending more and more upon "labqur saying "..machines,'' every new, machine tending more and more to take; the place of muscular work, until at last in some manufactures the .'operative had little of no work for his muscles and was only required...to,, attend, to a ■machine driven by steam ". or' by .electricity. Many. ■ • other causes had contributed to the same result. Villages and .-, country towns, with their facilities healthy ,muscular .work inthe open air, had '"diminished;, big centres of trade /and manufacture had .increased .in population. Railroads had extended networks of lines' in 'every, direction, , so that; travelling" was; made easy: without any exertion, and;.the.,ihhabi]tants of. our. towns ''■'".. liad, in addition; tramways, and omnibuses to take them; from their, houses to their work .without the necessity'even of the exercise of a' long walk.' We" had,; i.peThaps, as! great, a love of games as ever, but much of the muscular, work .liad been taken from .them. , .The. rich man sat. or ; stood while the grouse or pheasants were. driven to, him, instead of_:.-. walking the moors or woods to,find them;; the poorer man paid ..his" entrance money to see a> few experts playing cricket or- football, instead of exercising his muscles by playing the game himself; and - some of the most manly and best exerckesy such as wrestling; .boxing,... and fencing: had almost, •become extinct throughout the country. The subject of the. deficient use of muscles was ,a; very, wide; one^.affecting: the work of every, other.'organ of the body, and it w r ag needful - that the medical profession . should recognise, ..its?-:; importance. For- a large part: of .'the metabolism; of food took place :in the "muscular system, so that the amount of, food required by the body, the amount of animal heat to be produced and.got. rid.of, the amount of excretory products to bey. eliminated, should all depend on the .amount., of muscular work done; arid much disease would be jn'evented, . and in many cases, much better .health, enjoyed, if this; fact- were more thoroughly understood and.acted upon. It was a reflection'on their profession that they Often treated their patients with drugs when all that they required was more exercise or less food; as also that they were leaving it to various professors of exercises to teach them how much could be. done to restore health, and to keep people-'.ingood health, by properly, regulated muscular work; "Physical culture Avas one of the most pressing questions of the day, for it was the only means .of, jtroviding a remedy for, the state of muscular' degeneration ■.'.■ which was prevalent. It ought to be considered by every educational 'authority, /for .by its means dwellers in city and country alike could,-'have their muscular systems built up, and developed to a healthy.standard. There was no need that".any, collection .of , children who were not diseased should; become a class of; muscular degenerates.' It was a very serious matter, that aeonsiderable. number of healthy, well-fed hoys from some of our: public schools were too physically undeveloped; -to.? join the army as officers until they-liad undergone a.,, course of physical 1 culture after leaving school,", and that; large numbers of children in the eiernehtary,schools :were diseased and' physically undeveloped.