PLATE VIII
Vassar College gymnasium.
VASSAR COLLEGE GYMNASIUM.—RECORD OF PHYSICAL MEASUREMENTS
| Miss | ||||||
| Examinations | ||||||
| First. | Second. | Third. | Fourth. | Fifth. | ||
| Height | Centimeters. | |||||
| Weight | Pounds. | |||||
| Lung capacity | Cubic inches. | |||||
| Girth, chest | Centimeters. | |||||
| Girth, chest, full | ” | |||||
| Girth, chest, ninth rib | ” | |||||
| Girth, chest, ninth rib, full | ” | |||||
| Strength, back | Kilos. | |||||
| Strength, legs | ” | |||||
| Strength, chest | ” | |||||
| Strength, right forearm | ” | |||||
| Strength, left forearm | ” | |||||
The instruments needed for making these tests are the spirometer and two dynamometers, one to test the strength of the muscles of the back and legs and the other to test the muscles of the arms.
Outdoor sports and athletics are begun in the fall, on the opening of the college, and are continued as long as the weather permits. The students then take up the regular gymnastic work until the spring of the year, when athletics are again resumed. Here again three hours a week are obligatory. It should be stated here that during the menstrual period the girls are not only excused from gymnastics and athletics, but absolutely forbidden to take part in these exercises.
The list of games include croquet, lawn-tennis, hockey, and basket-ball. Rowing has always been a favorite outdoor sport at Vassar. In 1909 horseback riding was again taken up; riding lessons were begun in April, and two hundred girls took lessons. With the exception of about twenty, they all rode astride. An ordinary man’s saddle can be used, but a somewhat narrower saddle, with a higher front, is more comfortable.
The Standardized Percentage Table for Physical Efficiency.—The great importance of heredity on the life history of the individual is now so generally recognized that its record becomes almost as important as that of the woman herself.
The attention of medical examiners is called to the fact that more stress must be laid upon the habits of dress in women as a frequently predisposing cause of impaired physical weakness and tendency to disease. This is emphatically so in the case of high French heels and insufficient clothing. About 75 per cent. of the women of to-day wear excessively high heels, and quite that number take practically no exercise.
Because of the great variation in the height of the heel of the shoe, from 1 to 3 inches, it is essential that the height should be taken in the stocking feet; and since the weight of the clothing varies at the different seasons of the year, the weight should be taken with a minimum amount of clothing on. While the chest measurements should be taken with a steel tape with all of the clothing of the chest removed; care being taken that the tape does not slip down in the back.