The human body may be regarded as a wonderful machine, the various parts of which are so wonderfully adapted to each other, that if one be disturbed all must suffer. The bones and muscles are the parts of the human frame on which motion depends. There are four hundred muscles in the body; each one has certain functions to perform, which cannot be disturbed without danger to the whole. They assist the tendons in keeping the bones in their places, and put them in motion. Whether we walk or run, sit or stoop, bend the arm or head, or chew our food, we may be said to open and shut a number of hinges, or ball and socket joints. And it is a wise provision of nature, that, to a certain extent, the more the muscles are exercised, the stronger do they become; hence it is that laborers and artisans are stronger and more muscular than those persons whose lives are passed in easy occupations or professional duties.
Besides strengthening the limbs, muscular exercise has a most beneficial influence on respiration and the circulation of the blood. The larger blood-vessels are generally placed deep among the muscles, consequently when the latter are put into motion, the blood is driven through the arteries and veins with much greater rapidity than when there is no exercise; it is more completely purified, as the action of the insensible perspiration is promoted, which relieves the blood of many irritating matters, chiefly carbonic acid and certain salts, taken up in its passage through the system, and a feeling of lightness and cheerfulness is diffused over body and mind.
We have said that a good state of health depends in a great measure on the proper exercise of all the muscles. But on looking at the greater portion of our industrial population,—artisans and workers in factories generally—we find them, in numerous instances, standing or sitting in forced or unnatural positions, using only a few of their muscles, while the others remain, comparatively speaking, unused or inactive. Sawyers, filers, tailors, and many others may be easily recognized as they walk the streets, by the awkward movement and bearing impressed upon them by long habit. The stooping position especially tells most fatally upon the health; weavers, shoemakers, and cotton-spinners have generally a sallow and sickly appearance, very different from that of those whose occupation does not require them to stoop, or to remain long in a hurtful posture. Their common affections are indigestion and dull headache, with giddiness especially during summer. They attribute their complaints to two causes, one of which is the posture of the body, bent for twelve or thirteen hours a day, the other the heat of the working-room.
Besides the trades above enumerated, there are many others productive of similar evils by the position into which they compel workmen, or by the close and confined places in which they are carried on; and others, again, in their very natures injurious. Plumbers and painters suffer from the noxious materials which they are constantly using, grinders and filers from dust, and bakers from extremes of temperature and irregular hours. Wherever there is physical depression, there is a disposition to resort to injurious stimulants; and “the time of relief from work is generally spent, not in invigorating the animal frame, but in aggravating complaints, and converting functional into organic disease.”
But there are others who suffer from artificial poisons and defective exercise as well as artisans and operatives—the numerous class of shopkeepers; the author above quoted says, “Week after week passes without affording them one pure inspiration. Often, also, they have not exercise even in the open air of the town; a furlong’s walk to church on Sunday being the extent of their rambles. When they have the opportunity they want the inclination for exercise. The father is anxious about his trade or his family, the mother is solicitous about her children. Each has little taste for recreation or amusement.” The various disorders, generally known under the name of indigestion, disorders dependant on a want of circulation of blood through the bowels, biliary derangements, and headache, are well known to be the general attendants on trade, closely pursued. Indeed, in almost every individual, this absorbing principle produces one or other of the various maladies to which I have alluded.
The great remedy for the evils here pointed out is bodily exercise, of some kind, every day, and as much as possible in the open air. An opinion prevails that an occasional walk is sufficient to maintain the balance of health; but if the intervals of inaction be too long, the good effect of one walk is lost before another is taken. Regularity and sufficiency are to be as much regarded in exercise as in eating or sleeping. Sir James Clark says, that “the exercise which is to benefit the system generally, must be in the open air, and extend to the whole muscular system. Without regular exercise out of doors, no young person can continue long healthy; and it is the duty of parents in fixing their children at boarding schools to ascertain that sufficient time is occupied daily in this way. They may be assured that attention to this circumstance is quite as essential to the moral and physical health of their children, as any branch of education which they may be taught.”
Exercise, however, must be regulated by certain rules, the principal of which is, to avoid carrying it to excess—to proportion it always to the state of health and habit of the individual. Persons of short breath predisposed to determination of blood to the head, subject to palpitation of the heart, or general weakness, are not to believe that a course of severe exercise will do them good; on the contrary, many serious results often follow over-fatigue. For the same reason it is desirable to avoid active exertion immediately after a full meal, as the foundation of heart diseases is sometimes laid by leaping or running after eating. The great object should be so to blend exercise and repose, as to ensure the highest possible amount of bodily vigor. It must be recollected that exhausted muscles can be restored only by the most perfect rest.
In the next place, it is a mistake to consider the labor of the day as equivalent to exercise. Work, generally speaking, is a mere routine process, carried on with but little variety of circumstances, in a confined atmosphere, and in a temperature frequently more exhaustive than restorative. The workman requires something more than this to keep him in health; he must have exercise as often as possible in the open air,—in fields, parks, or pleasure grounds; but if these are not at his command, the streets of the town are always open to him, and a walk in these is better than no walk at all. The mere change of scene is beneficial, and in walking he generally sets in motion a different set of muscles from those he has used while at work.
To derive the greatest amount of good from exercise, it must be combined with amusement, and be made pleasureable and recreative. This important fact ought never to be lost sight of, since to ignorance of it alone we owe many of the evils which afflict society. And it would be well if those who have been accustomed to look on social amusements as destructive of the morals of the people, would consider how much good may be done by giving the mind a direction which, while promotive of health, would fill it with cheerfulness and wean it from debasing habits. The character of our sports at the present time, partake but little of the robust and boisterous spirit of our forefathers; but with the refinement of amusements, the opportunity for enjoying them has been grievously diminished. Cheering signs of a better state of things are, however, visible in many quarters, and we trust that the good work will be carried on until the whole of our population shall be in possession of the means and leisure for pleasurable recreation.
While indulging in the recreative sports which are to restore and invigorate us, we must be mindful of the many points of etiquette and kindness which will do much, if properly attended to, to promote the enjoyment of our exercise, and we propose to review the principal exercises used among us, and to point out in what places the delicate and gentlemanly attention to our companions will do the most to establish, for the person who practices them, the reputation of a polished gentleman.