Foot-ball and the physique of its devotees, from the point of view of physical training / by Henry G. Beyer.

  • Beyer, Henry Gustav, 1850-1918.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Foot-ball and the physique of its devotees, from the point of view of physical training / by Henry G. Beyer. 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.

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    Reprinted from The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, September, 1894. FOOT-BALL AND THE PHYSIQUE OF ITS DEVOTEES, FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF PHYSICAL TRAINING.1 By Henry G. Beyer, M.D., Ph.D. (johns hopkins univ. ), SURGEON, U. S. NAVY. The object of physical training, as understood at the present day, is the normal symmetrical growth and development of the human body by means of a carefully selected system of graded and progressive exercise. The exercises may be divided into general and special, the former being applicable to classes 'and the latter to individuals according to their special individual needs. In the smaller colleges and schools the instructor in gymnastics superintends both forms of exercise, but in the larger ones a medical director takes charge of the special exercises, which are pre- scribed only after a most careful examination, such as only a well- educated physician can make. The exercises themselves are, for the most part, done in a gymnasium ; certain games for children are played in the open air, as in the German system of gymnastics. It seems to me that no two things are so often confounded as this system of regular exercises, taken in the gymnasium, and the practice of athletic sports. The drills in the gymnasium compare with athletic training about as the undergraduate course at a college compares with the post-graduate course. The management of the former is in the hands of a responsible medical superintendent, that of the latter in the hands of an irresponsible (medically speaking) athletic committee com- posed mainly of ex-champions of the field. Systematized and super- vised gymnasium exercise treats the body as a whole, and is perhaps less interesting to the partakers of it; athletic sports develop special parts to a high degree of perfection and are to some very attractive, but need corrective exercises to re-establish perfect symmetry of development, which is the object of systematized physical training. History shows that the one great danger of all athletic sports is in their being carried too far, and a reaction in public opinion is the natural and inevitable result. Thus, some of our most prominent men and educators, as well as physicians of America and England, have quite recently placed their names on record as being very much against the present tendencies of some of our athletic sports, notably those of foot- ball.