Physical development and exercise for women

Preface

'nnO make an already good thing better, not to -^ lead a forlorn hope for improving incurable invalids, would seem to be the privilege of the American girl as regards her own physique.

Physically equal, as we believe she is upon the whole, to her traditional great-grandmother, her opportunities to add to her present stock of health are infinitely greater than were accorded to this ancestor. The obstacles to her better physical development are for the most part due to ignorance and to custom; and these, beginning in her early years and continuing to maturity, largely concern her school-life, the restriction of her body by dress, and its limitation from lack of sufficient exercise.

Her direct environment, so far as it concerns the essentials of fairly healthy homes, an abundance of food and sleep, and the absence of exhausting vi PREFACE.

toil during the period of growth, is generally favourable to physical development; and for that reason the influence of food and kindred topics have not been included in this little volume. The intention has rather been to lay stress upon the conditions, already alluded to, which aff*ect girls as a class, everywhere, the conviction being absolute that the physical development which might be theirs can only be gained by a reform in these conditions as they now exist.

The writer seizes this opportunity to express her cordial thanks to the two ladies who kindly posed for the photographs from which the illustrations of the book are mainly taken, as well as to those who allowed her the opportunity of taking some special measurements here mentioned.

M. T. B.

AND

EXERCISE FOR M/OMEN

BY

AUTHOR OF *' HOUSEHOLD HYGIENE "

t

.---.RV OP Co,v .

NOV L.. ..„, Ji i

NEW YORK

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY

Copyright, 1891, By Dodd, Mead and Company.

All rights reserved.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Symmetry and Health i

II. How WE Grow , . . . 8

Chapter I. Symmetry And Health

THE ideal of health is that happy condition of unconsciousness of the body which is only possible when every part of it is perfectly developed and equal to the performance of its function. The embodiment of this ideal is, unfortunately, not a common one; and we shall, perhaps, have to turn to that picture of noble young womanhood with which we please our imaginations to find the combination of flesh and spirit which satisfies our sense of physical perfection.

Wherever she is found, this creature of grace and vigour, of health and activity, she will always answer to the one great requirement of harmony of structure, not only in outline but in entity. Graceful she must be, but she will be also something better than this ; hers are the curves that mark a well-knit frame, supple in joint and strong in Umb. Soft colour she will have, but her clear tints are only the visible sign of the active heart and the generous lungs which mix this carmine for her cheek ; while the reserve power that animates her pliant but vigorous figure is the power that comes from a welldeveloped and balanced nervous system which is the competent ruler of this beautiful kingdom. If we try to analyze the secret of her charm, we shall still find that it lies largely in the sense of harmony she gives us ; and this not because we recognize her perfect outlines only (we are accustomed to the art dictum that calls for the proportion of one part to another, that demands a fine relation of shoulders and chest, waist and limbs), but also because we feel that the internal structures, upon whose health and harmony the maintenance of the entire body depends, are equally developed according to their laws of proportion. So that her graceful outlines are but the symbol of the harmony that rules within.

It should be made plain to all concerned that physical development, in its best sense, depends upon the harmonious growth of the entire organism. As a matter of fact, many of the familiar instances of ill health, deformity, and even disease, that we see about us are the result of the unsymmetrical development of one or another part of the body reacting upon the whole.

Let us look, for instance, a moment at the possible result to the body, in general, of an unsymmetrical development of the skeleton.

SYMMETRY AND HEALTH. 3

The function of the skeleton is to give soHdity to the figure, to offer protective cages for the different vital organs, to form the organs of locomotion, and to afford points of attachment for the muscles which move the body. With all of these functions it is easy to understand that a failure of the skeleton to develop properly, either in shape or size or constitution, might have a serious effect both upon the health, vigour, and symmetry of the individual.

There is, in fact, a disease of the bones known as rickets, somewhat common among children, especially in foreign countries, which is a striking illustration of this point. In this affection the bones are deficient in lime salts, so that their unnatural softness permits them to be flattened, often seriously changed in shape, and pushed out of place through the weight of the body pressing upon them. The so-called bow-legs of children, sometimes seen among the poorer dwellers of a city, are generally due to this affection ; and in severe cases the ribs and the breast bone may be so flattened or distorted and the spinal column may be so bent as seriously to affect the shape and reduce the diameters of the chest.

It will be easily imagined from what we know of the chest as a capacious cage containing the heart and lungs and blood-vessels which these organs are intended to fill, that anything which by reducing its size interferes with their full activity must have a serious effect upon their development, and upon the health of the individual. Nature, we know, abhors a vacuum ; and therefore if the chest cavity or thorax be capacious the lungs will expand and grow to fill it, the heart will be stimulated by their demands to grow to its full size, and the entire body will be the gainer in harmonious development. But if, through disease or lack of proper nurture, the growth of the chest be interfered with, the lungs cannot expand to their full capacity, the heart, lacking their stimulus, will be similarly limited, and the entire body suffers.

We find, in fact, that children who suffer from rickets have smaller lungs than others not so affected, and that partly owing to the unusual relation of their chest organs they are specially liable to respiratory diseases.

In marked cases of rickets we also find that the bones of the pelvis are seriously affected, so that this cavity is smaller than normal in some important directions, being flattened or otherwise deformed in shape. Such deformity occurring in girls has a most unfortunate result upon the functions of motherhood.

So that, as we have seen, an affection which at first thought appears to limit the growth of some of the bones of the skeleton only, is found in many cases to i^terfere, through this limitation, with the growth of the most vital organs of the body, and even if no actual deformity be present will seriously curtail the physical powers of the individual.

SYMMETRY AND HEALTH. 5

Fortunately, these extreme cases of unsymmetrical development of the skeleton are very rare, although the lesser degrees are quite common ; but they serve as illustrations of the fact that health and beauty alike depend upon the law of harmony of structure and proportionate development of every part, and that, in the intimate relations that every part of the body bears to every other, deficient development of any one region cannot exist without affecting other regions unfavourably. And that which is true in these marked cases of disease is equally true to a lesser degree wherever bodily development is disproportionate.

A midget whose organs are all proportionately developed and vigorous, might possibly, in the sense of equalized power and health that results, have more satisfaction and every-day enjoyment out of hfe than a disproportioned giant, whose long legs gave him the locomotive power of a Seven- Leagued Boots, but whose lung development did not support him in their active use.

The harmonious development of the body has a very practical relation, not only to ideal health but also to our enjoyment of life, and for this reason : We shall find, whether in work or play, that the body is practically only as strong as its weakest part, and that instead of living up to the capacity of enjoyment of the healthiest and finest parts of our organism we are dominated by the vexatious limitations of our weakest ; so that, physically, the poorest and not the best of us is the standard for what we can do or become.

The man with a magnificent frame and splendid muscles cannot save himself in a race for his life because way off in a corner of his heart is a tiny valve which has been leaking like a broken dam for years, and at the supreme moment of necessity this imperfection becomes the dominating element of his othenvise superb physique ; so that instead of being able to endure fatigue with the vigour of his best organs, he is vanquished by the weakness of his poorest.

Equally true does the principle hold with the student, the athlete, the society girl, in large or trivial matters. The weakness of an unhappy stomach disorders a great imagination, a tired back ends the tennis game, a pair of weak ankles spoil the dance. Nine tenths of our body may be equal to the effort ; but if the one remaining tenth has collapsed entirely, the sport for us is over. Which truth goes far to teach us how well it may be, for purely selfish reasons if for no other, to give to the growing body every opportunity for developing bone and muscle and brain and vital organs v.o their best capacity and in their most healthful relations, — not only for health's sake, or for art's sake, but also for the sake of the full scope and enjoyment of life.

If it be true, as it certainly is, that we have it in our power to affect the physical development of the body by

SYMMETRY AND HEALTH. 7

bringing certain influences to bear upon it, this must be because some of the laws that govern it are susceptible of modification. If we will take the trouble to consider for a moment by what slow degrees and far-reaching processes growth is affected, we shall perhaps more easily see some natural reasons why we are able to influence the body for better or for worse.

CHAPTER 11.

HOW WE GROW.

ONE of the most fascinating studies for an intelligent curiosity is that of the ways and means by which a strong- limbed and conscious human being has been developed from the tiny and insignificant cell which we know to have been his origin. Doubtless some of its fascination lies in the mystery which surrounds it, for in the truest sense we do not know how we grow, nor how to explain the mysterious principle we call life.

Neither can we explain the miracle of the growth of a single morning-glory that we may have planted in embryo in our summer garden, its tiny black seed unattractive and hopeless to the eye ; but we know that in due time, with the wooing of the sun and the dew and the summer wind it will issue from its dark robing-room in a dress of transparent azure or softest pink, to bloom an ethereal messenger from Nature's kingdom, — perfect, but unexplained. However, if we cannot explain the miracle we still enjoy ferreting out what little we can

HOW WE GROW. 9

about the conditions that favour its recurrence, and learning how we may help to furnish these. So if we cannot truthfully claim to know exactly how a human being grows, we do at least know something about the phenomena that attend its growth, and something about the conditions under which this is possible.

We have learned from scientific observers a few definite and important things about growth. We know that human beings, like all the rest of created things, originated from a single soft and almost formless cell, called the ovum. That this cell having divided into two, and these divisions still further dividing and subdividing, we have an aggregation of cells that we call the embryo. At first these tiny cells are all alike, and in the beginning of their existence have nothing to mark them as anything different in origin or destiny from the cells of the lowest polyp or the humblest plant. Little by little, however, this company of cells begins to increase in size, and, beginning also to disperse somewhat within the confines of their prison walls, they show at the same time a tendency to differ from one another, both in appearance and in function. And here comes in the principle of the division of labour in the body ; for now instead of this aggregation of cells all trying to perform as best they can the same offices of digestion, respiration, and locomotion and all the other functions necessary to human beings, they become, on the contrary, speciahsts in their lO PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT.

community. Some are called to give solidity to this shapeless mass ; these are the cells which are to secrete lime and other salts which help to form the skeleton. Another company is set apart to form the tissues which are eventually to move this skeleton ; these are the muscles cells, which in time, along with the other changes taking place in their shape and appearance, develop the property peculiar to muscles, — namely, contraction. A third company fills the office of oxygen- carrier to the body at large ; these are the red-blood cells, — while still another develops the power to supply fluids of various kinds which are essential to the solution and digestion of the body's food.

Then there are the cells whose high office it is to take command of all this varied community, to co-ordinate and combine their efforts into a harmonious whole, and to transmit the orders for action from the central governing department to all the different members. These, of course, are the nerve cells. And so we might go on, learning how from the simplest origin, by slow degrees of development, is gradually evolved this complex and complicated being, man.

It takes about twenty-five years to develop a human being from its original simple cell to the full size and power of a full-grown adult. A woman has generally attained her height before this, more commonly by the age of eighteen, but the complete solidification of all of

HOW WE GROW. II

the structures and organs is not attained until later, and some regions of the skeleton are in fact not completely ossified until the age of thirty.

To insure this development, Nature in this period of time has matured over two hundred and eight bones in the skeleton and more than five hundred muscles. She has maintained in unceasing activity an organ which is sending from ten to twelve pounds of blood around the body in less than thirty seconds, and whose energy, at each contraction of its muscular walls, is equivalent to pumping an ounce of blood over fifty feet high.

In the interior of the body, where foods have been undergoing chemical and other changes to fit them for nourishing the tissues, the fluids necessary for their solution have been manufactured to the amount of twenty to thirty pounds daily. Oxygen has been required by the lungs to the amount of about two pounds every day, and from five to six pounds of food and drink have been required to make this constant activity possible. But all of this growth has not been accomplished by in-taking merely. For just as a well-kept furnace not only consumes fuel and gives out heat, but also produces ashes as a sign of its activity, so in the human body the consumption of food and the in-taking of oxygen give out heat and create new structures ; but in this activity much waste material is also produced which must be constantly removed, like the ashes of the furnace, or the life- fire will grow dull and become even fatally choked.

Some of these waste elements are eliminated through the lungs in the shape of vitiated air to the amount of seven or eight quarts per minute; some through the skin in the shape of water and solid substances, from one to two pounds daily, and in unusual exertion double that amount. The kidneys have carried off from three to five pints of fluid in twenty- four hours, much is eliminated through the intestinal canal, and every muscle and gland cell in the body has aided in this effort to purify and cleanse the interior from the waste materials which can only clog its machinery, and Hmit its power for body building.

And so by the development of some of our original simple cells into higher and more special forms, and by the ceaseless activities of all of the members of this busy human laboratory, adding to its structure little by little and throwing away useless elements, it has become possible for such a beautiful creation as the human form to be consummated.

Perhaps it will seem that we are even now trying to cover up our ignorance concerning growth with many words about it, but this hasty generalization has perhaps suggested this much to us : That the law of growth seems to be from extreme simplicity to great complexity ; that with the human being this progress is not made in a

HOW WE GROW. 13

hurry, but that on the contrary, whereas one of the noblest of the lower animals, the horse, attains full maturity in about seven years, it takes a human being three or four times as long to reach even an approximate maturity of his power.

We have also learned that there are two forces always at work in this body building, — the one constructive, building up and adding to the original foundation, the other destructive, throwing off or eliminating materials no longer of any use to the building; and these two forces must be evenly balanced to maintain the health and development of the body. That is, if we take in so many pounds of food and drink daily and so much air, we must also throw off from the body through the different channels mentioned just as many pounds and as much air. When this income of material is greater than the output the activity of the various organs is hindered, the body accumulates fat, certain diseases may be engendered, and health is sure to suffer to a greater or less degree. When the output much exceeds the intake the body wastes away and its strength is lost, — as is frequently seen during fevers or other exhausting diseases where the patient is unable to take sufficient nourishment.

The object of our endeavours to develop the body should evidently lie in the direction of offering it such conditions of life as will maintain the proper balance between these two processes, and some of these conditions will be discussed later on.

And finally, I think we must have noticed, as we thought how growth was maintained, that one of its great requirements is activity ; not simply the general activity of the body as a whole, — the movement from place to place, the turning of the limbs and the action of the eye and lip and hand, — but that more constant and subtle activity of the cells themselves, which are the component parts of our body.

The blood cells which are ever carrying from one region of the body to the other their needful supply of oxygen, the muscle cells which are storing up some of this oxygen against the day of sudden exertion or of lack of food, the gland cells eagerly substracting from the passing blood and other currents the elements they require for their special work, the brain cells, still more marvellous, which are quietly elaborating the force which may perchance subdue an empire or electrify a nation, all bear their silent but eager testimony to the fact that only through activity are growth and health, and so life and beauty, possible.

And now, since we have seen how gradual the development of a human being must be, and by what elaborate and complex processes it is carried on. we can readily believe that it may easily be influenced for good or for ill according to the conditions of life that surround it.

HOW WE GROW. • 15

And this is precisely what is happening every day. There is, fortunately, a certain law of growth by which all human beings attain more or less to the standard of the species to which they belong. This is, of course, what we mean by heredity, — the tendency that we all have to reach a certain average height and weight and chest girth and strength and physical likeness to our kind. And this tendency is always helping us to develop, and by it we are predestined to be like what went before us. But with such an impressionable thing as a growing human body, with its myriads of cells, all dependent for existence upon light and air and food and activity, which they may or may not find in due proportion about them, there are many chances that it may be diverted from its straight course toward complete development. And these chances are represented by environment, which is the sum total of all the influences that make up daily life ; the supply of food and fresh air and sunlight, the influences of school-life and of dress and of exercise, the effect of occupation or of a life of leisure, — all have a tremendous effect upon growth and development, as facts and figures are capable of showing ; and some of these influences we intend to speak of somewhat in detail.

Probably all of the girls who may read this book are liberally supplied with fresh air and nourishing food in their homes ; but since we are convinced that the other l6 PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT.

conditions which commonly surround girls — of dress, school-life, and lack of proper exercise — are largely responsible for their unsymmetrical and undeveloped bodies, we shall ask them to look more closely at these conditions, and see whether their probable practical influence is likely to be for good or for ill. The outlook need not be depressing, for if these conditions are evil they are all perfectly remediable.

Chapter III. How Environment May Inpxuence Growth

SINCE we are not at all responsible for having been born either of vigorous or of puny parentage, but, being here, are now mostly concerned in learning how we can help ourselves to better ourselves, and in properly estimating what effect our life conditions have upon us, let us dismiss all questions about the curious transmission of physical perfections and imperfections, as seen in the great fact of heredity, and look at this other great factor in growth, — namely, environment. From such facts as we have, it would seem that surroundings have an immense influence upon the physical development of persons all the world over.

In the first place, since circumstances do not appear to have much influence upon the size of the new-born, — since female infants, for instance, appear to have an average size and weight the world over, regardless of their class or condition, — it would appear that some potent influences must have been at work to result in the enormous physical differences we see about us.

Practically speaking, all female infants have the average length of about nineteen inches. But we find that when they have grown to girlhood the girls of different social classes are very far from being equal to one another in height; and we find, too, that these differences are constantly increasing the farther we get away from infancy. An hereditary tendency to low stature, some one will perhaps say. Possibly, to some extent ; but that this is not sufficient explanation facts like the following will show.

When children who are brought up in large cities, where the population is very dense, are taken to the country where there is more space and Hght and air for each person, they almost invariably show a great increase in height, and one out of all proportion to their previous growth, which would seem to indicate that their previous surroundings of bad air, poor food, lack of exercise, and perhaps too much work were largely responsible for their slew growth. Even among adults a change of residence from a less favourable to a more favourable climate has resulted in a marked increase in height, as was noticed in the case of many of our recruits during the late war.

The great social classification of rich and poor is, we shall see, a great physical classification as well. In the matter of stature alone it is estimated that the poor have only eighty per cent of the stature of the rich. That is, if the daughter of a well-to-do parent at the age of

ENVIRONMENT MAY INFLUENCE GROWTH. 1 9

eighteen is five feet two inches tall, her less favoured sister of the poorer classes will probably be two and a half inches shorter. If the well-nurtured girl weighs one hundred and twenty pounds, her poorer neighbour at the same age may weigh anywhere from fifteen to twenty pounds less. If our Hebe boasts a chest measure of thirty inches, the neighbour can only show one of twentyeight ; and so through all their physical proportions like differences show what nurture has done for one, and what the lack of it has subtracted from the other.

Then there is the influence that occupation has in favouring or retarding growth. We see the effect of this by comparing children of the same class and surroundings, one of whom works in a factory every day, standing on his feet, the other who goes to school, or who follows other trades not compelling the standing position.

The factory child, working against gravity all the time, will be found two to three inches shorter than his mate who is differently occupied, although their food <»id housing are practically the same.

Unfortunately, fewer facts have been accumulated about girls than about boys as regards the effect of occupation, exercise, town or country life upon their development ; but since the principle involved is the same for both, we can accept the evidence for one as evidence for the other, so I shall make no apology for showing in the following table (page 21), by some help from Roberts's

Statistics, how the height of English boys of the same age may be diminished or increased in direct proportion to their surroundings.

It is something Hke this : At the top of the scale, as we see, best developed of all, are the sons of the professional men, — the boys who go to Eton and Rugby and Harrow, well-housed, well-fed, and who above all, after the fashion of the best English boys' schools, have hours of healthy sport in the open air. These boys, we see, are fifty- five inches (four feet seven inches) tall. Next come the boys from the first and second " Middleclass Schools," kept in town, where sports are fewer, boys less out of doors, and living in less pure air. Then we have the children of agricultural labourers, only fairly fed, and when not in poorly kept schools probably on their feet working ; these are two inches shorter already than the best-nurtured boy.

Then there are the children of artisans, town dwellers, constantly employed, breathing impure air, and taking no exercise worth mentioning. Next come the factory children who work in the country, and then those who work in town. No sports, no out-of-doors, always on their feet ; but you see even here that the country-bred factory boy is ahead of the more confined town lad. And last, and shortest of all, as they have been least favoured by circumstances, come the children of asylums, who are generally orphans, with no physical nurture, little

ENVIRONMENT MAY INFLUENCE GROWTH. 21

exercise, and poor food both before and during their asylum life.

These boys are all between the ages of eleven and twelve years ; and grading them according to their height, we shall see how this is steadily lessened in direct proportion to their physical surroundings and habits of life.

Influence of Physical Nurture upon Height,

BOYS.

Country life, out-door sports, plenty exercise _55 inches.

Town schools, fewer sports .. J 54 Poorer grade of schools, fewer

sports, poorer air

Agricultural labourers, poor schools :

country

Artisans, harder work : town I 5^-5 i2

Factory workers : country.

Factory workers : towns

Military Asylums ; orphans (?), early care neglected. Industrial schools ; orphans (?), early care neglected.

io_

So we see that a difference of five inches may exist between two boys who were probably born of the same height, one of whom was favoured with healthful surroundings, the other deprived of these conditions of growth.

The observations among girls, as we have already mentioned, being less numerous, the diagram is less striking ;

but because this little book is for girls, we shall add another pair of stairs which will give some results obtained among English girls of different social classes, and therefore widely differing physical advantages.