A manual of health science ... / by Andrew Wilson.

  • Andrew Wilson
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of health science ... / by Andrew Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    198/264 (page 178)
    accustomed duties and toils of the day. The schoolboy's games are the antitheses of his school work, just as the walk of the merchant, the rowing or tricycHng expeditions of the sedentary student, or the volunteering practice of the clerk or shopkeeper form an agreeable contrast to his ordinary avocation. It is this feature of alternation of occupation, combined with the brmging into play of a new set of muscles or thoughts, which constitutes the beneficial aspect of all recreation. Even the desire for alternation which prompts the student of science to amuse himself with a novel, is an apt illustration of this truth. Those interested in the wide subject of physical educa- tion may consult with advantage the works of the late Mr. Maclaren of Oxford, in which are detailed very fully and completely the various ^vays and means in which exercise may become subservient to healthy growth and activity. It may be added that special exercises have been devised for the cure of deformities and for the wants of those for whom ordinary recreation is unsuitable. Of such exercises Dr. Zander's system presents the best-known example. At the Enghsh Institute conducted on Zander's system at Soho Square, London, the various machines and appliances em- ployed in the practice of this form of physical education may be inspected; while, as a means of ordinary exercise, there are many features in the Zander system worthy of examination. The question of regularity in the periods of eating and d7'inking is a highly important one. It may safely be said that no condition more forcibly than this contributes to welfare of body ; while, conversely, the neglect of such rules is the most common cause of health-disturbance. The im- portance of regularity of meal hours is only equalled by the dictum that rest and relaxation after food are necessary for the healthy performance of the digestive function. No more common cause of dyspepsia, or indigestion, for example, exists, than the habit of indulging in exertion immediately after taking food. The piocess of digestion, involving as it