CYCLING.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XVII, 25 April 1896, Page 472

CYCLING.

Aluminum rims for bicycles are said to be the ideal rims for clincher tyres. They are incorrodible and combine the strength of steel with the lightness of wood.

Dr. Albert Abrams, of the Cooper Medical College in America, recently lectured on the interesting subject, 1 The Use and Abuse of the Bicycle.’ In opening he said :

• It is apposite on St. Valentine’s Eve to talk of the object of one’s love, therefore I think it appropriate to talk to lovers of the bicycle. Tom Reed has said that the chief question of the day is, “How to dodge the bicycle.” I have been asked to pronounce the name of the popular means of locomotion, and I replied that it was harmless. That is my attitude toward the use of the bicycle. I mean to cure you of the abuse of the wheel, for only the good Lord can cure you of the use of it. Indeed, it is fully appreciated that the greatest danger from the bicycle is to the pedestrian rather than to the rider.’

The lecturer said that a generation ago a divine would have been excommunicated had he dared to mount a wheel. Resuming, he said : ‘ Wheeling is too healthful and time-saving an exercise to be made light of, so long as the bicyclist keeps his feet where they belong—on the pedals. Coasting is the pernicious phase of riding. The policemen should not permit the practice. The symposium on “ Spinal Meningitis the Result of ’Cycling,” recently published, proved that the physicians who ride advocate the practice, and those who walk oppose it. It is a fact, however, that the vibration generated by the exercise is beneficial. I We hear agood deal about the “ bicycle face.” Don't trouble about that. It is said of Anglo Saxons that they take their pleasures sadly. If a bicyclist’s face does not wear the smiling vacuity that passes in society for amiability, he looks himself, at any rate. The serious expression he wears is the reflection of his thoughts about his neighbour who knows not the bicycle. It is well he wears something in these days of dress reform.’ Dr Abrams spoke of the bicycle foot as an imaginary evil. ‘Cycling,’ he continued, ‘will make the thin fat and the fat thin. It promotes outdoor exercise, which, physicians concede, cures half the ills to which flesh, and especially nervous flesh, is heir to. It is a tonic most constitutions need. The popular rest cure is, in most cases, a misapplication of a law of nature. Nervous prostrates need moderate exercise instead of rest. ‘ A good rule is to dismount and walk uphill when riding is likely to be irksome.

‘ Care in the selection of a saddle in the choice of the right posture will remove the danger of injury to the frame.

‘ The bicycle hump is by no means a necessary result of the exercise. As well criticise horseback riding because of the unnatural posture of the jockey in riding. ‘ And now we come to the absorbing topic of women and the bicycle. If the new woman comes with a tendency to physical perfection let us accord her a royal welcome. Dr. Roosevelt has disposed of the vexed question in the following sententiousmanner: “Bicycling is good for some women all times and all women sometimes, but not for all women all the time.” ’ Dr. Abrams claimed that women have not only a historic and hygienic, but esthetic right to wear pants. Referring to the strong remedial effect of exercise in the open air the professor said : • In Chicago, that city of busy men and restless women, there are 35,000 persons addicted to hypodermic injections of opium or other sedatives affected by many who lead a nervous, overwrought life. Yet the testimony of physicians is that the number is being very much reduced through the prevalence of cycling. “Fiends” find that cycling is a better cure for insomnia than opium.