Personal hygiene and physical training for women

by Anna M. Galbraith

A Roman structure, quite as characteristic as the Greek gymnasium, was the public bath or therma, found not only in Rome, but in every important provincial town in the days of the empire. Both made provision for exercise and contained a system of baths, but in the thermæ the baths occupied the greater part of the space, and the rooms and courts for exercise were smaller and fewer.

The Influence of Physical Training on the Health and Life of the Individual.—If we believe, with Spencer, that “Education is preparation for complete living,” we must appreciate that good carriage, bodily control, physical judgment, will power, and courage are an important part of the equipment of every man and woman. These qualities are intimately associated with motor coördination, and they are best developed through physical training.

The power of self-preservation, by which the individual is enabled to handle his body easily under all conditions, and so escape physical injury and death, depends upon physical judgment of time and distance, and the ability to run, jump, vault, climb, and swim. These are all fundamental exercises.

The love of play and the ability to play a number of games contribute very largely to health and happiness. The play habit must be acquired in youth or it will never be developed.

The best qualities of mind and character can only be obtained through physical experience and physical struggle. With stalwart physique comes a vigorous type of womanhood, physical courage; with flabby muscles there is apt to result flabby thinking and flabby acting, superficiality, and inefficiency. Next to hunger the most dominant instinct is the play instinct.

The Effect of Exercise on Brain Development and Character.—The growing interest in preventive medicine, and the very great popularity of the opportunities afforded for athletic training, attest to the value which people are beginning to place upon health as an asset in their social, domestic, business, and professional lives.

But it is not generally or sufficiently understood just how great is the effect of physical training on the development of the brain or upon the mental activities. With a strong, vigorous action of the heart there is a feeling of courage and general exaltation, whereas with a weak heart and enfeebled circulation, fear and impaired mental activity predominate.

The manner in which the organic functions are performed not only determine the health of the body, but the temperament and character as well. There is a conservation of energy in the fashioning of the will—only part of the energy is expended in the outward effort, while the rest goes to lay the foundation of a future will, so that exercise builds up faculty and conduct character.

We cannot perform an act voluntarily unless we know what we are going to do, and we cannot know exactly what we are going to do until we have learned to do it. The very simplest movement brings about a change in the organic structure of the brain, and this change leads to more complex movements and further improvement in brain structure. Most skilled movements give more exercise to the central nervous system than to the muscles. Movements calling for a high degree of skill, correlation of the different senses, sense discrimination, fine coördinations, and a rapid and responsible exercise of judgment, all tend, through the action of the association fibers, to a high degree of brain development.

An essential feature of exercise is that a part of it at least shall afford amusement, diversion, and recreation to the overwearied and harassed brain. Hence, the necessity to introduce dancing, field sports, etc. By these means industrial efficiency, communal morality, and social consciousness are promoted. Public amusements of a proper sort are a public necessity.