Ling (1776), the founder of the Swedish system, was an eminent student of anatomy and physiology. He formulated a logical plan of training upon a close and critical knowledge of muscles and the mechanical muscular movements. He had, to all appearances, no knowledge of the child, and little of the intellectual unity that lies back of the body.

The first and most potent influence exercised by Ling's marvelous enthusiasm was to arouse a deep interest on the part of physicians in physical exercise in treatment of disease. The system now used in this country, however, has for its purpose the all-sided development of flexibility and strength of the human body. It fails in the correlation of muscular activities and in the direction of all exercises upon mental power.

The Delsarte system.

The Delsarte system of expression is not a system of gymnastics, although organically related to it. Delsarte, like Gutsmuths, had for his problem the relation of the body to the soul. His most valuable proposition consisted in the laws of reaction,-reaction of physical movements, gesture, poise, bearing, and all forms of expression upon the mind. Or, to state it better, the inter-action of body upon mind and mind upon body. He first stated the doctrine which modern psychologists have worked out as the "organic circuit," the instinctive and organic impulse to expression.

The work under both the German and Swedish systems aims at health, bodily vigor, robustness, strength, and vitality, but in them there is little provision for the direct use of the body in expression, grace, poise, ease, bearing, equilibrium. These are not cultivated. There may be, as everyone knows, great physical strength, flexibility of muscles, and marvelous powers of endurance on the part of the body, and yet failure in its highest and noblest function if it does not readily respond to thought and emotion,-if there is awkwardness and hesitation in the communication of thought.

Both the Swedish and the German plans rely mainly upon concert action, upon drills in mass.

This has a great place in all education, but it is well known that many children are not normal; that there are many defectives, and that concert drills are dangerous to this class of children. Dr. Sargent, of Harvard, is working out a plan for individual treatment

preceded by a careful diagnosis. It is more than evident that concert drills should be supplemented by individual exercises by prescrip tion.

Every system and method should be looked upon as tentative; as contributions to a perfect method-the product of ages yet to come. Every system should be studied from the point of view, first, of its motive; second, its principles. Above all, the spirit of the founder should be taken into account-What was his ideal?

The Dio Lewis movement.

The Dio Lewis movement, which started about thirty-five years ago, splendidly illus trated this point. It was clearly Swedish in its origin, but the movement in Boston was tempered by the fact that Professors Lewis B. Monroe and Stacy Baxter, famous teachers of physical culture, one of Harvard and the other of the Boston University, were deep students of Delsarte and the German methods as well. These three men worked together, elocution coming in as a strong factor of the general movement.

Nearly every teacher in Boston studied physical culture, and the effects of the study were noticeable in the schools. Professor Monroe taught extensively in teachers' institutes and was always anxious to interest teachers. He impressed upon his students the importance of the teacher herself having a good body and understanding how to overcome defects in children. The work of a teacher of physical culture in the past, especially in elocution, was really that of a physician. Hours of valuable time were spent over defects that could have been prevented by parent or teacher in the early part of the child's life, which, hardened into habit, waste months of valuable time, not to speak of the patience of the teacher.

This movement met with great opposition on the part of the people at large, but was persisted in by the teachers, who, thanks to Professor Monroe, grasped the underlying principles of the work. The favorite joke of the parent who had been asked for money for a pair of dumb-bells, and said that he didn't have fifty cents to spare, but would cheerfully send a quarter for a good washboard, has become classic. Also the equally brilliant asservation that if the child didn't have enough exercise the mother would provide plenty in the way of housework.

The factor of play and recreation.

Play is a large factor, especially in the Turner movements. Gradually all forms of relaxation, both for boys and girls, began to creep in. Croquet and bean-bags flourished and the ice skating craze started in a desultory sort of fashion. To be sure there were no rinks with well-frozen surfaces, but the uneven surface of the mill pond or lake, cleared every morning by the boys, did good service. Skating became a fad and was greatly overdone by girls who had taken little or no previous exercise. The physicians as a body condemned skating in toto for women. Ignorant themselves on the subject of physical culture, they made no distinction between an overtaxing of hitherto unused muscles and a gradual and steady strengthening of the same. The press took the matter up and long articles appeared in medical journals and daily papers. The discussion was most

healthful. It called attention to the fact that women had bodies as well as men, and that their muscles were made for use, and that an all-round and all-sided use.

About the same time the pedestrian craze took possession of the public, and women and men ruined health and life in so-called feats of endurance. But walking became the thing of the hour and was naturally followed by improvement in shoes. A narrow, thin-soled shoe had been the only thing that could be found for women. Broad-soled walking shoes made their appearance and, in spite of changing fashion, boots steadily grew more sensible and more adequate for use. Indeed, walking did for the absurd foot-wear of the past what bicycling has done for the absurd skirt of the present.

Rowing came in; first in colleges, and boys trained and overtrained for regattas; boat houses multiplied on river and seashore and it was not long before it was an acknowledged thing that a woman could row, with rosy, tanned cheeks and blistered hands, and still keep her femininity.

This, as well as other forms of physical culture, ruined the health of many a boy and girl, and provoked condemnation on all sides, and it was hard for many to distinguish between its use and abuse.

showed a deep-felt want that previous education had not satisfied. The cruelty that had condemned the nervous American child to long on unfit hours in the schoolroom, seated benches, to-day can hardly be understood. Another species of cruelty was making children four, five, and six years of age, sit long hours, painfully setting stitch after stitch in a square of patchwork, when the little legs were twitching and the little lungs perishing for the want of active exercise and fresh air. If Stanley Hall had done nothing more than call attention to the fact of the successive development of nerve centers he would have deserved the heartfelt gratitude of every lover of children. Child study and physical culture.

"The development of a human soul,-little latest and best outcome of the conditions under else is worth the cost." Child study is the which and through which the mind acts. Physical culture met by ridicule or distrust.

It is a liberal education to go through a file of illustrated papers of perhaps fifteen or twenty years ago. Every new suggestion is received with the same ridicule, the same smartness, the same witty article, the same caricature. No matter how sound the reasoning that has called forth the innovation, all unite in pouring ridicule on the individual who dares to take one step in advance of the race.

In this matter of physical culture, and more especially on the part of women, every horror was predicted. A woman would become unsexed; she would forget her legitimate function, the bearing of children; she would usurp the place of man;-in fact, she would become everything which she hasn't.

The relation of physical culture to women.

We are dwelling unduly, perhaps on the relation of physical culture to women, but if is well to remember the difficulties which have been thrown in the path of women who are striving for their legitimate right-a healthy body. There is no question but that the children that are born to-day are stronger, healthier, and happier than those born even twenty years ago; and far from making women forget, or careless

The fury with which these things took possession of the public mind, far from showing the unstable condition of the American people,

reverence and they are better and more conscientious mothers because stronger bodies and more developed brains insure wholesome and natural living.

The Boston movement and its effect.

We have selected the movement in Boston as typical. Its history has been repeated with few variations all over the country. Steadily, in spite of all absurd criticism, the idea has grown that children, both boys and girls, must use muscle if they would have muscle. Prejudice against "tom-boys," as girls were called who took to physical culture, has died slowly, but surely, until to-day physical culture, both for girls and boys, is on a strong footing; is recognized as a serious part of education, and is gradually working itself into the life, and that in a rational manner.

With the safety bicycle, tennis and golf, out of door exercise for women is an established and legitimate thing, and is bringing in its train one of the most beneficial reforms, long prayed for by all thinking men and women,— an improved dress.

The short skirt is to-day a decent and accepted thing for bicycling, hunting, walking, mountain-climbing, and boating. We look for a new and better race from this one thing alone. Even the wasp waist is getting to be a thing of the past, and while there is still, and always will be, the idiot who "scorches," and the fool who rides one hundred miles a day, it would be well nigh impossible to abolish physical culture from school or home.

Physical culture is by no means, as yet, allsided. That there must be all round development of muscle; that the exercise must be varied in such a way that no one set of muscles is tired unduly; that exercise must be daily and continuous to be of any benefit, and that a certain amount of exercise in the open air is a necessity, is acknowledged. Other forms of physical culture.

There are other forms of physical culture, however, that are as yet practically ignored. The kindergarten has done much, and is doing much, for the development of rhythm in the body. Every physical act where skill is required in the use of the body should be automatic and rhythmic. In fact, there is no such thing as skill without rhythm. It should come into all movement, whether walking, sitting, rising, jumping, running, writing, playing on the piano. Music is doing much for this, but what is needed is large halls and systematic training in dancing, as well as in the ordinary calisthenics, such as hop-skipping, marching,

etc.

The physical trainer goes just as far as he dares, but the popular prejudice against the abuse of dancing is such that this form of exercise is to some extent barred out. It is as natural for children to dance as it is to breathe. This rhythmic impulse is born in them. They unconsciously respond to music even as early as two months. It is the basis of all movement. It brings harmony. It is economy of effort and nature is always striving to bring it into every movement. The training of the body.

Awkwardness may be analyzed as unrhyth mic movement, and in the light of wasted effort becomes a wrong done the child. No child should be permitted to grow up awkward, and

it is not true that children are born so, and can never be graceful. Just as every child's ear can be trained, so every child's body can be trained.

The training of the voice.

The movement in elocution has not kept pace with that of other forms of physical culture. The American voice is still a reproach. Oral reading in our schools is practically a lost art. It is a disgrace to our system that pupils, after twelve years under faithful teachers, should come, as they do, into our normal schools to prepare themselves for teachers, with husky voices, thick tongues, lisps that have been permitted since childhood, imperfect utterance, and nasality. These things are easily overcome with children, and it is no excuse that this thing is permitted, simply because there have been poor teachers of elocution. I frankly acknowledge all the honors of the elocution of the past, but it had to have its astrology or its alchemy period. The better the method the more skill on the part of the teacher; and because elocution requires so much judgment and so much skill, it was inevitable that there should be failure on the part of some of its teachers.

Teaching of singing in the public schools is steadily on the gain. Children sing more easily and with better taste. The loud singing which was so harmful to the children is now almost entirely a thing of the past. They are trained to use the voice in simple melodies and the æsthetic feeling for good music is cultivated.

It is very interesting to watch the development of this form of physical culture. I can remember well Luther Mason bringing his vio

lin into a primary school for the children. It was looked upon with the same horror that the bringing of a bass viol into the church choir provoked, and there were not wise men and women to protest against the innovation.

He was the father of better methods in this country. Enough cannot be said of him and such teachers as William L. Tomlins and Miss Eleanor Smith, who have stood steadily for the point that children's voices should be used; that they should hear good voices; that whatever melodies are given should be of the best; that they should not be too early forced to analyze that which is not in the mind; that the most careful training should be with the early beginners; that they should never be left to raw, untrained, and unthinking instructors. Child study and physical culture.

The study of expression, and the necessity for development of the use of the body, finds a strong advocate in child study. The expres sion of the child is taken into account. This is also true of medicine. Physicians call attention to the expressions of the body as a means of determining disease, many well-known forms carrying with them certain expressions that

are known and noted.

Child study is also emphasizing the necessity of the study of emotion. The part that emotion plays in the development of the being is no longer ignored or underrated. I can readily see that which has been the worst feature of

physical culture slowly breaking down, namely, its disconnectedness with every other subject. It has been a special subject within itself, and for itself, too long, but it is already affiliating with manual training on the one hand, and finding its relation to child study on the other. When this becomes an accomplished fact, while it may change somewhat many so-called systems of physical culture, it will have come to its own at last.

The body should have the strength and suppleness of a Damascus blade elegance as well as endurance. Too many of our athletes in the past have sat like frogs, and walked like coal-heavers, with brawny shoulders and beefy legs. That is not the highest outcome of a rational physical culture. "The highest art is to conceal art," and rational education along this line will have for its end and aim,

"strength at the center, and freedom at the

surface."

The systems of physical training here briefly noted, like all other educational systems and methods, are merely tentatives, steps on the road to something infinitely higher and better.

The real renaissance of education has come to us through the kindergarten and child study. The dictum of the modern psychologist, "There is no psychosis without neurosis," points the way to the education of the body as a perfect instrument of the mind and the soul. FRANCIS W. AND FRANCES STUART PARKER, Chicago. Chicago Normal School.

HIS subject, as at first assigned me, had reference to the physical defects of students and on that basis some material was

collected. Since, however, the student is but the development of the child in school, the two are very closely connected and the physical defects of students will be briefly reviewed.

Excepting, then, the results of accident, there is no physical defect found in the student which is not begun, or at least foreshadowed, in the child at school. The fact that student physical defects are not more numerous is due partly to the fact that in many cases the unimpeded development of defects in early years eventually disqualifies for further study, thus actually diminishing the student ranks; and partly to the increased attention which is now being given to the physical habits of students.

On the other hand, the frequency of physical defects should bring all educators to realize the urgent need of appreciating the beginnings of these defects and of intelligence in dealing with them.

Lack of data on the subject.

The subject is a difficult one, because a new one. Statistics are not yet available and conditions vary widely in different sections. Dr. Edward Hitchcock, of Amherst College, in a personal letter to the writer, says: "We do not find more than one student in twelve who is defective when he enters, save in sight, or hearing, or smoking. Some measures are below the average, but these we calculate to change in a year's work in the gymnasium.”

In a similar letter, Dr. Edward M. Hartwell, of Boston, says: "General defects, i. e., deformities, arrested development,-stunting, have not been comprehensively studied as regards the student class, so far as I know. As yet, we scarcely know how heavy, tall, strong, or enduring the normal boy or girl should be, and much less what proportion of defectives and delinquents as regards physique are in our schools and colleges."

This paper will, therefore, deal only with the better known defects, their beginnings, and the

means of preventing them, leaving for another time the discussion of more abstract details.

What the defects are.

In the course of physical examinations in the University of Nebraska and elsewhere, and by consultation with others in the same line of work, the following defects have presented themselves. Those most frequent are mentioned first: Deviations of the spine from normal, laterally or antero-posteriorly, round or uneven shoulders, a chest that is either too round, flat, depressed, or uneven; defects of sight, hearing, or speech, varicose veins of legs or scrotum, hernia, defects of digestion, circulation, or respiration.

Classification of defects.

These fall naturally into groups, namely: (1.) Defects due to faulty muscular habit, whether of posture or action.

(2.) Defects of special sense.
(3.) Defects of vital functions.

(4.) Others due to accidents or to unfavorable conditions.

Some illustrations.

Dr. Delphine Hanna, of Oberlin College, reported at the '94 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education, that of the last 198 examinations made by her there were nineteen students with lateral curvature who habitually sat on one foot. Not one of these was aware that such a habit had any power to produce asymmetry of the body. (See 12; 1894, page 119.)

University of Nebraska.

Here, at the University of Nebraska, about 25% of all the young women examined in the last two years had a well-marked spinal curvature, in most cases lateral. The percentage of young men thus affected is very small, due, no doubt, to the fact that the students come largely from the farming class. Nearly 7% have been found with varicocele, and 21% with hernia.