THE USE AND ABUSE OF EXERCISE.
By David Paulson, M.D.
THE life of the human system depends upon its activity. "Activity" is written upon everything—even upon the "fixed stars" and the "eternal hills." Man is the only creature who tries to disregard this universal law of nature. No one can successfully carry on their business and retain their health, and at the same time be indifferent to this law of exercise. Many need never to have been ill had they always obeyed that great law, which we see obeyed by the kitten and the lambs and the children. Exercise tends to break down tissues and carry off waste substances. Bouchard, an eminent French medical authority and investigator, has found out that after a hard day's work, the secretion of the kidneys is not nearly so poisonous as when the individual has done little or no work, showing that exercise destroys a great many poisons which would otherwise float around in the system. Exercise must be systematic. In the different lines of labor, we have grown away from the natural order of physical development, and some of the muscles are strong and some are weak. For instance, in a large audience of farmers most of them will be found in a bending forward position. How did they get that position? The farmer drives to town with his farm produce, and he sits with his chin resting on his hands and his elbows resting on his knees. He is sitting in this position because it is the most comfortable for him. And this position is the most comfortable because in his farm labor he has not strengthened the muscles of his back, but has strengthened those in front, and so he is gradually being drawn over. While I was examining a dentist the other day, I found that he had a curvature of the spinal column. I asked him how he got that, and he said by the position he maintained in drilling teeth. Children acquire these deformities while sitting at their desks in the schoolroom. It is wicked to permit children to become deformed in this manner. This practise is not so bad now as it used to be, but the mischief has not yet wholly disappeared. Now suppose I was sitting at a low desk and high seat, I must tilt over in order to reach it. There are thousands of children to-day who have to sit at that kind of desks. It does not take a growing cucumber very long to assume the shape of the bottle in which it is confined, and so it does not take a child a long time to become deformed by these bad positions. All should use their influence as far as it is possible to prevent this state of things. Exercise must be properly graded and systematic. When a patient comes to us for advice, we don't tell him to go to the drug store and get something that will relieve his trouble; we first ascertain his condition, and then we know how to apply our remedies. So, in order to prescribe exercise in the gymnasium with benefit, a dynamometer has been devised by means of which we can determine the strength or weakness of all the groups of muscles. This system has been adopted all over the world wherever any scientific work of this kind has been conducted. Those are fortunate who have opportunities for exercise in the open air. Walking is a good exercise, if one walks vigorously; but sauntering along is good for nothing as exercise; there must be snap and vim put into the muscles, the shoulders being back, the chest forward, and the chin drawn in, and then walking is a good exercise. I want to say something in this connection about bicycle riding; I believe this form of exercise may be a great blessing to many; it has,13however, been much abused, and many persons have been greatly injured, and some have been ruined, by bicycle riding. The limbs of many persons are not strong enough to walk any distance, and by riding the bicycle and working its pedals, the strength of their weak muscles is much improved, and they derive much benefit from this form of exercise in the open air. There are many, however, who could not avail themselves of this means of exercise; but, fortunately, it is not necessary to have bicycles in order to get exercise. Yet we should take exercise just as religiously as we would pay our debts. If this is not done, many will drop into an early grave. Thousands die prematurely because they did not take sufficient exercise while attending school.