MIND AND BODY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3071, 16 December 1908, Page 4

MIND AND BODY.

"If there is any truth in statistics, the world's work and the greatest achievements are to be attained by the men as a class who have the best brains in the bebt bodies." This is the conclusion a v rived at, after exhaustive investigations, by Professor Sargent, of Harvard. Fifteen years ago an American doctor reported, after having examined 30,000 public school children, that the pupils in the higher grades were, on the average, taller and heavier than those in the lower. In other words, the brightest children were the strongest physically. Many people doubtad ths doctor's conclusions, but these have been confirmed by observations made in other parts of the United States, England and Austria. Professor Sargent therefore regrets the common divorce of athletics from study in American colleges and universities. His observations show that the physique of American scholarship holders is below that of the average student. They have to work so hard that they have no time to develop their bodies. There are attracted to the college and university two types of student, the athlete and the scholar, and the consequence is that in one class are found superior physique and mediocre mental ability, and in the other inferior physique and fine mental equipment. Professor Sargent suggests that colleges should require all scholarship men to reach a certain standard in athletics before allowing them to compete in certain examinations. The improvement in the physique of the average Harvard student in the last twenty-eight years has been remarkable. He is an inch taller and from four to eight pounds heavier than the student of ISSO, while his strength has increased from 490 points to 650. In 1880 only 50 per cent, of the students would have passed the Army tests; to-day 65 per cent, would pass. Apparently this is the result ot physical culture in various forms.