Profuse sweating is resorted to as an expedient for removing the superfluities of flesh and fat. Three or four sweats are generally requisite, and they may be considered the severest part of the process.
Emetics are only prescribed if the stomach be disordered, which may sometimes happen, when due care is not taken to proportion the quantity of food to the digestive powers; but, in general, the quantity of aliment is not limited by the trainer, but left entirely to the discretion of the pedestrian, whose appetite should regulate him in this respect. Although the chief parts of the training system depend upon sweating, exercise, and feeding, yet the object to be obtained by the pedestrian would be defeated, if they were not adjusted to each other, and to his constitution. The skilful trainer will, therefore, constantly study the progress of his art, by observing the effects of the processes separately, and in combination.
It is impossible to fix a precise period from the completion of the training process, as it depends upon the condition of the pedestrian; but from two to three months, in most cases, will be sufficient, especially if he be in tolerable condition at the commencement, and possessed of sufficient perseverance and courage to submit cheerfully to the privations and hardships to which he must unavoidably be subjected.
The criterion by which it may be known whether a man be in good condition, or, what is the same thing, has been properly trained, is the state of the skin, which becomes smooth, elastic, and well coloured, or transparent. The flesh is also firm, and the person trained feels himself light and full of spirits. But in the progress of the training, his condition may be as well ascertained by the effect of the sweats, which cease to reduce his weight, and by the manner in which he performs one mile at the top of his speed, as to walk a hundred; and therefore, if he performs this short distance well, it may be concluded that his condition is perfect, or that he has derived all the advantages which can possibly result from the training process.
The manner of training jockeys is different from that which is applicable to pedestrians and pugilists. In regard to jockeys, it is generally wasting with the view to reduce their weight. This is produced by purgatives, emetics, sweats, and starvation. Their bodily strength is of no importance, as they have only to manage the reins of the courser, whose fleetness depends upon the weight he carries; and the muscular power of the rider is of no consequence to the race, provided it be equal to the fatigue of a three or four mile heat.
Training for pugilism is nearly the same as for pedestrianism, the object in both being principally to obtain additional wind and strength. But it will be best illustrated by a detail of the process observed by Cribb, the Champion of England, preparatory to his grand battle with Molineaux, which took place on the 29th of September, 1811.
The champion arrived at Ury on the 7th of July of that year. He weighed sixteen stone; and from his mode of living in London, and the confinement of a crowded city, he had become corpulent, big-bellied, full of gross humours, and short-breathed, and it was with difficulty he could walk ten miles. He first went through a course of physic, which consisted of three doses; but for two weeks he walked about as he pleased, and generally traversed the woods and plantations with a fowling-piece in his hand. The reports of his musket resounded everywhere through the groves and the hollows of that delightful place, to the great terror of the magpies and wood-pigeons.
After amusing himself in this way for about a fortnight, he then commenced his regular walking exercise, which at first was about ten or twelve miles a day. It was soon after increased to eighteen or twenty; and he ran regularly, morning and evening, a quarter of a mile at the top of his speed. In consequence of his physic and exercise, his weight was reduced in the course of five weeks, from sixteen stone to fourteen and nine pounds. At this period he commenced his sweats, and took three during the month he remained at Ury afterwards; and his weight was gradually reduced to thirteen stone and five pounds, which was ascertained to be his pitch of condition, as he could not reduce farther without weakening.
During the course of his training, the champion went twice to the Highlands, and took strong exercise. He walked to Mar Lodge, which is about sixty miles distant from Ury, where he arrived to dinner on the second day, being now able to go thirty miles a day with ease, and probably he could have walked twice as far if it had been necessary. He remained in the Highlands about a week each time, and amused himself with shooting. The principal advantage which he derived from these expeditions, was the severe exercise he was obliged to undergo in following Captain Barclay. He improved more in strength and wind by his journeys to the Highlands, than by any other part of the training process.
His diet and drink were the same as used in the pedestrian regimen, and in other respects the rules previously laid down were generally applied to him. That he was brought to his ultimate pitch of condition, was evident from the high state of health and strength in which he appeared when he mounted the stage to contend with Molineaux, who has since confessed, that when he saw his fine condition he totally despaired of gaining the battle.