School athletics and boys' races / by William Collier.

  • Collier, William.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: School athletics and boys' races / by William Collier. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    20/32 (page 20)
    were they in a position to say what training was ? Did it only mean gradually increased exertion, i.e., running over the course of several miles before the rac-e itself ? Or did it mean certain kinds of diet ? When he was a youngster there were ideas with regard to training, which he thought were now exploded. His predecessor at Eton had a historical theory as to why people were brought up to believe that raw meat was good to train on. 1(K) years ago prize-fighting was taken up and patronised by rich men, who gave the fighters enough money to feed themselves on. But the prize-fighters* wives did not know how to cook, and so raw meat came to be knowTi as the means of getting strong. It was the fashion at Eton in the 70’s to go in for raw beef steaks, and he remem- bered one boy who did not reach any eminence, mental, physical, or spiritual, but who learned to steeplechase, and he would consume nine raw eggs at a sitting. He thought bo^’S did nothing in the way of dieting, but practised by gradual exertion over the course itself. An opinion was wante<l on that point. Again, he supposed the harm from athletics would be greatly more than it is if it were not for the boys’ natural indolence. How far could the selection of boys for long races he left to their own indolence ? Some boys laughed up their sleeves at the exertions put forth by others, taking good care they did not do likewise. Was it known that that inclination was a good guide ? He believed that, on the whole, it was not at all a bad indication. It was said that the “ over-strung ” boy was the most likely to over-exert himself, He had known cases where such boys had done too much, and they generally seemed eager to do too much. He doubted whether the medical profession had yet arrived at a clear and definite opinion on those points But what he was inclined to take away from the afternoon’s interesting talk was, that there could be no harm in making a rule that every boy who went in for a race should be examined medically beforehand. Should that examination be made before the training ? If so, how long before ? Or should it be on the morning of the race, so as to see whether the excitement had l>egun to tell upon him ? And should such races Ix' run at the time of pu^rty. or not ? Sir Morel Mackenzie used to hold, in regard to the human larynx, that it wjvs a mistake to say there should be no exercise of the voice during the time that it was “ breaking,” because the boy did not cease from running at puberty, and therefore wliy cease from singing then ?—supposing the neighbours did not object. The hoy could sing at that age. but the number of notes at