PHYSICAL TRAINING.
PART I.
To most persons, probably, the words "Physical Training" suggest ideas of the drill-sergeant, or of gymnastic or other extraordinary exercises; and, truly, such exercises may form a part of physical training, but only a part, and that a small one, of this most important department of human education. We must endeavor to give our readers wider and better views than are usually entertained upon the subject.
Physical training in its proper sense involves: 1. The cultivation and preservation of physical health. 2. The development of the physical strength, powers, and mechanical capabilities of the body to such a pitch as the individual requires to perform well the duties of life. 3. The cultivation, within certain limits, of the graces and beauties of the body. 4. The cultivation and development of the mind, through and by means of the bodily powers and senses.
Thus, whatever the means employed, the chief end of all physical training must be the perfect working of a healthy mind, by means of a healthy body, in the performance of life's duties, the enjoyment of life's pleasures, and the avoidance, as far as permitted, of life's pains.
In this life, God has linked together our bodies and our minds, and man cannot with impunity disregard their union or divide their interests; act and react they will, and do, upon one another. Their Creator has made the one the instrument of the other; and as well might we look for harmony from an unstrung harp, be the player ever so skilful, as for perfect working from a mind, however good and powerful, through the means of a sickly body. True, there have been many possessors of sickly bodies, many sufferers from permanent "bad health," who have not only done much active good, but who have worked well and successfully with their minds; yet may we not justly suppose that, had the same minds dwelt in healthy frames, had they not been clogged and clouded by the frequent "infirmities of the flesh," their good deeds would have been still more widely spread, their intellectual exertions still more powerfully manifested? Even in the more ordinary business of life, in the counting-house or in the work-shop, how often is work too slowly or imperfectly executed, because of minds hampered by bodies in bad working order; because the physical training of the body has been, and is, day by day neglected! Few there are whose individual experience cannot revert to hours, days, lost to them, simply from derangements of health which might have been avoided, and which, though not amounting to illness, were yet sufficient to render either duty or amusement a labor or a "bore." How few are there who do not know the difference between the irritability, the nervous fears, the indolence and despondency of illness, and that cheerful activity of good health which laughs at trifles, looks forward with hope, and finds work a pleasure! How strong the reasons, then, for training the health and powers of the body to their highest pitch, seeing that upon their perfection depends the more or less complete fulfilment of our duty to God, our neighbors, and ourselves!
We return to the rule No. 1, of Physical Training.—The cultivation and preservation of physical health.
Health is a comprehensive term, including the perfect and harmonious working of the organs generally of which the body is composed; but this perfect, this healthy working of many parts, chiefly depends upon the integrity and health of the one all-pervading fluid, the blood—the life. In all physical training, the condition of the blood must be the foundation—the centre point of our thoughts and endeavors. This, to an unlearned reader, may appear a somewhat startling proposition; nevertheless, by means of it we shall gain the simplest, most intelligible, and, at the same time, most comprehensive views of our subject. The condition of the blood depends, first, on its nourishment; secondly, on its purification. The effect of the blood upon the body depends, thirdly, upon its circulation or distribution. The first involves the nature, quantity, and digestion of the food which nourishes; the second, the ventilation, cleanliness, &c., which purify; the third, the various exercises which aid to distribute.
As the blood is continually being expended in the nourishment of the body, so it must as constantly be renovated by supplies from without—by food. Evidently, then, this food must supply to the blood every material required by the body; otherwise there can be no proper nourishment. Thus, if the diet be deficient in the bone-earths, the bones—as they do in badly-nourished children—become soft and yielding; if the diet is too exclusively composed of such farinaceous articles as rice, potatoes, &c., or with too much fat, it is incapable of yielding the elements of muscular flesh, and the strength declines; if vegetable food is wanting, scurvy is the result. Here, then, we have the first element of Physical Training: the real supply of nourishment calculated to afford every material required by the body. This of course takes in a wider range of subject—no less than that of diet generally—than our space will permit us to enter into here. Suffice it to remark that the diet of the infant and growing child, of the youth and the adult man, must, under a proper system of training, be varied according to the constitution of the individual, and accommodated not only to the climate, but also to the changes of the seasons. For instance, we will suppose two young children; one is fair, light-haired, with delicate skin, through which the blue veins show conspicuously, but fat and plump withal; the other is a ruddy-faced rogue, whose rich red blood seems ready to start from his cheeks. Give these two nurslings equal treatment in every way, the same air, the same everything, and the same food, consisting chiefly of milk and grain materials, puddings, and the like, with perhaps a little meat; the rosy face will lose none of its healthy hue; the fair, fat child will become no thinner, perhaps fatter, but, at the same time, pale and puffy, or pasty-looking, and if the diet be unchanged, finally unhealthy. Reverse matters; let each have fresh animal food every day, and what is the consequence? Our little pale friend brightens up amazingly; there comes a tinge of red in the cheek, the puffiness is gone, and the flesh has become more solid—he is more active and sprightly; but our other little fellow is evidently not benefited; the healthy rose hue looks more like a feverish flush, and suspicious spots, that will soon break out into little pimples or small boils, are perhaps showing themselves. This will never do, so we keep the little fair one to his beef and mutton, and reduce his companion, who soon shows the benefit of the change, to his milk-puddings and vegetables, and give him his treat of meat only twice or thrice a week. This one example—we might give many more—will serve to show how many considerations are involved in this first department of physical training—the management of the food: how that which gives health and strength to one will be too little for another, and vice versâ. Then, again, we might show how the variation of climate, even such as takes place between winter and summer in our land, requires variation in the amount and kind of food; how also this should be influenced by exercise. These minutiæ cannot be separately discussed in the compass of a short paper; but the information is such that no intelligent man, either for his own sake or that of others, should be entirely unfurnished with. As a general rule, let it be kept in mind, especially in the case of the young and growing, that the habitual food ought to be calculated to yield the requisite nourishment for every portion of the frame; that it ought, while adapted to the constitution, to be sufficient in quantity and quality. Rarely, indeed, if food be wholesome, and at the same time not calculated to tempt the appetite artificially, can it be necessary, or even right, to stint its allowance to young people? Lastly, as far as possible, the application of a well-directed cookery, by which the digestibility of food is improved, ought not to be lost sight of, as an important element in the physical training of the young, or of the physical preservation of the adult.