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Physical Training.
Dudley A. Sargent, M. D., Director of the Hemenway Gymnasium.
In reviewing the material growth and prosperity of a city it is well to consider some of the factors that have contributed to its renown in the best sense.
Although an aggregation of houses and buildings inhabited by a few thousand people may constitute a city, and it may be rated in prosperity in proportion to its increase in buildings and population, and its growth in wealth and industries—may we not look for higher evidences of its comparative rank in its development of principles and men?
Now that our cities are rapidly becoming like so many furnaces where human lives are consumed like coal to meet the demands of our civilization, the question of how to conserve life and add to its capacity for health and enjoyment is rapidly growing in importance.
Perhaps no community has taken hold of this subject with a more comprehensive grasp than the one in which we live.
Cambridge may be said to be the very centre of growth in municipal health and individual hygiene in
America.
1
The effects of a sedentary life, and the close confinement necessarily accompanying the intellectual efforts of the students, must have drawn the attention of the college authorities to the matter of health preservation at an early period in its history, although we have no record of any practical effort in this direction until the first quarter of the present century.
It is interesting to observe that whatever efforts are made by the college towards the maintenance of health must necessarily be supplemented by the city.
The college can teach the elements of hygiene and correct methods of living, and the individual may apply these precepts to his own life, but so long as the physical
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man is ultimately the product of the air he breathes, the food he eats, and the water he drinks, his immediate environments must play an important part in his health and development.
In this respect, a man who undertakes to build himself up mentally or physically becomes for the time being simply an agent of distribution.
That is, by bringing his mental faculties into increased activity he can send nutriment to his brain, or by using his muscles vigorously he can send nutriment to different parts of his body, in this way building up and elaborating material substances into the highest kind of organic faculty.
But the nature of these material substances and the condition in which they are brought to him are often beyond his individual control.
Thus the condition of the soil, the source and nature of the food and drinking water, the presence of stagnant pools and nuisances in the neighborhood, the overgrowth of trees, the prevalence of dust, the state of the sewerage and of the streets, drains, and rivers, are all matters which affect individual health, but unfortunately are matters over which the individual oftentimes can have but little influence.
Here it is that men acting collectively or as a municipality may effect changes and improvements for the common good.
As the individual suffers or prospers in consequence of his environment, so the city prospers or deteriorates as it becomes attractive or otherwise to the individual as a place of residence or a place of business.
Thus it might be maintained that in health matters, as they affect individuals, institutions, or the public, the interest of the college and the city are reciprocal if not identical.
Let us note, therefore, the progress which the college and the city have made in these matters during the past century.
In this review I shall confine myself principally to the health agencies brought into popular service through what is ordinarily termed physical training.
Harvard's first attempt to afford her students physical exercise in addition to that which they obtained in performing the ordinary duties of life seems to have been about 1826.
In this year
Dr. Follen came to
Cambridge and established a gymnasium at Harvard College, in one of the unoccupied Commons halls, which was fitted up with various gymnastic appliances.
Other fixtures were erected on the
Delta, where Memorial Hall now stands, but concerning the working of these gymnasiums we have, unfortunately, very little knowledge.
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Dr. John C. Warren, who for forty years was professor of anatomy and surgery in the Harvard Medical School, and who at that time lectured to the students at
Cambridge on the preservation of health, states that small gymnasiums were established, soon after the opening at
Harvard, at most of the schools, academies, and colleges, male and female, in the vicinity.
Some years later,
Dr. Warren writes: ‘The establishment of gymnasia throughout the country promised at one period the opening of a new era in physical education.
The exercises were pursued with ardor so long as the novelty lasted, but owing to not understanding their importance, or some defect in the institution which adopted them, they have gradually been neglected and forgotten, at least in our own vicinity.
The benefits which resulted from these institutions, within my personal knowledge and experience, far transcended the most sanguine expectations.
The diversions of the gymnasium should constitute a regular part of the duties of all colleges and seminaries of learning.’
The only authentic account of the work done at the
Harvard gymnasium in 1826, that I have been able to find, is that contained in
Dr. Edward Jarvis's work on ‘Physiology and the Laws of Health,’ published thirty years ago. In this treatise he says: ‘The students were invited to go to the playgrounds at twelve, and engage in gymnastic exercises till one o'clock. These were very active, and some of them violent for men and boys of their strength, so that when they left the field for dinner they were generally fatigued, and some were almost exhausted.
Those who were most fatigued ate their dinner with less relish, and felt neither refreshed nor comfortable afterwards.
Their stomachs could not digest the meal with the usual ease, and consequently they were heavy and indisposed for study in the afternoon.’
Again
Dr. Jarvis writes:
It was supposed several years ago, during the period beginning 1826, that the gymnasium would furnish opportunities and inducements to exercise for all such as were not required by their business or their condition in life to labor.
In these establishments means were provided for using all the limbs and muscles.
There were ropes to climb, parallel bars to walk upon with the hands, and wooden horses to mount upon and leap over.
There were means for climbing, swinging upon the arms, leaping, vaulting, and for performing
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some of the feats of the rope dancer, and some of the labors of the sailor.
These exercises were active and laborious.
Those who engaged in them made, or endeavored to make, the exertions which only strong men could make.
But they were soon fatigued, and left the gymnasium; or, if they persevered, were nearly exhausted.
The error was not adapting the mode to, and measuring the amount of exertion by, the strength of those who needed it.
The students of Cambridge in 1826 complained that they were fatigued and sometimes overcome, rather than invigorated, at the gymnasium, and were unfit for study for some hours afterward.
The final result of this attempt to introduce this system of exercises into our colleges, schools, and cities was a general failure.
Colonel Higginson speaks of this gymnasium on the
Delta as being in existence in 1830, but thinks there was nothing left of it by 1840, and he is sure that when he graduated in 1841 there was nothing like a gymnasium existing in
Cambridge.
In 1843 or 1844, a private gymnasium was established back of
Wyeth's store on Brattle Street, in an old building which formerly stood where Lyceum Hall now is, originally used as a court-house.
2 This private gymnasium was conducted by a man named
T. Belcher Kay, who devoted most of his attention to boxing.
Parkman, the historian, and many of the men in college at that time, were pupils of
Kay, though the gymnasium had no official connection with the university.
During this period considerable interest was awakened in recreative games, football, baseball, and cricket then being played.
College boat-clubs were formed in 1845, and the first boat-house was built in 1846.
From this year on, boating was freely engaged in by the students, partly for exercise, but principally for pleasure.
Although boat races began as early as 1845, there were no contests with
Yale and other colleges until after 1850.
During the next decade the seed sown by
Harvard was beginning to bear fruit in other institutions.
Match ball games and boat races were occasionally arranged, and a renewed interest in gymnastics was awakening.
In 1860, the old
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gymnasium opposite Memorial Hall, now used by the engineering department, was erected.
Immediately after the establishment of the gymnasium at
Harvard in 1860, gymnasiums were built at
Amherst, Dartmouth,
Princeton, Yale, Wesleyan, and several other colleges.
In the early sixties, the present game of baseball was first played at
Harvard, and the
Cambridge city government granted a petition for the use of the Common near the
Washington Elm as a practice ground for the college students.
This was used until the spring of 1864, after which the
Delta was used for baseball games.
In the next decade, beginning 1870, several more college gymnasiums were built, including the
Hemenway Gymnasium at Harvard University.
The Harvard Athletic Association was established in 1874, and the Rugby football game, which seems to have such a hold upon the
American public, was introduced at
Harvard at about this time.
With the completion of the
Hemenway Gymnasium, and its equipment with a new system of apparatus, a new era was introduced in gymnasium construction and in gymnasium methods.
Some of the features which made the
Hemenway Gymnasium unique at the time of its opening may be briefly stated: It was the largest gymnasium in point of floor-room, air space, and the number of its dressing-rooms, lockers, and pieces of apparatus then in the country.
The recent addition given to the university by
Mr. Hemenway has placed the
Harvard Gymnasium again at the head of the list in all of these particulars.
The
Hemenway was the first gymnasium in the country to have special rooms devoted to rowing, baseball, fencing, sparring, trophies, records, photographing, examinations, etc.
In the old-style gymnasium it was necessary for the man to adapt himself to the apparatus; in the new-style gymnasium, the apparatus is adapted to the man. At first, the apparatus was heavy and cumbersome, and the man was obliged to lift his own weight.
In his efforts to do so he was frequently overworked and exhausted, as previously stated by
Dr. Jarvis.
Now most of the apparatus is attached to a weight that he can lift, and this is easily adjusted to the strength of the strong and the weakness of the weak.
Formerly, in using the gymnasium, a young man was forced to enter into competition with others in
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the performance of difficult feats; now he can avoid the heavy apparatus if he desires to, and enter into competition with himself; that is, with his own condition from time to time, as determined by physical examinations.
The old gymnasium was necessarily restricted to the few on account of the limited nature of its equipment; the modern system of apparatus and developing appliances has opened up the possibilities of the gymnasium to everybody.
Formerly, any kind of material, put together in any way, was thought good enough to ‘make things for boys to play with;’ now, the best material on the market is selected for gymnastic and athletic goods, and the best mechanical skill in the country is engaged in the construction of athletic appliances.
When the history of the rise and spread of the interest in physical exercise is written, it will be surprising to many to know how much of this interest may be attributed to the genius of the inventor, and the skill of the artificer and mechanic.
The introduction of the new apparatus at
Harvard made also a new era in the method or system employed.
Whereas in many institutions attendance upon gymnasium exercises is required by classes, at
Harvard the attendance is voluntary, and the system adopted is one designed to meet the special wants of each individual.
Realizing the great diversity in age, size, and strength, as well as in health, of the students who attend the university, the director makes no attempt to group them into classes which pursue the same course of exercises.
Upon entering the university, each student is entitled to a physical examination by the director, in which his bodily proportions are measured, his strength tested, his heart and lungs examined, and information solicited concerning his health and inherited tendencies.
From the data thus procured a special order of appropriate exercises is made out for each student, with specifications of the movements and apparatus which he may best use. These exercises are marked in outline on cards without charge, or in handbooks accompanied by charts at a small expense.
After working on this prescription for three or six months, the student is entitled to another examination, by which the results of the work are ascertained, and the director enabled to make a further prescription.
Students holding scholarships are expected to be examined twice a year, and those desiring to enter athletic contests are required to be examined by the director, and obtain his permission so to do. In
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addition to the individual prescriptions, there are classes in free movements and light gymnastics, designed to afford an opportunity for general development to all students of the university who are not members of the athletic teams, or who are not in need of specially prescribed exercises.
All students desiring to enter as competitors in athletic contests are required to give evidence of their ability by making a series of strength tests, in addition to the regular physical examinations.
Under this regime the attendance at the gymnasium has grown from about 500 in 1880 to 2000 and over in 1896.
Perhaps the most radical difference between the old and new
Harvard may be illustrated by the position the authorities have taken since 1882 in regard to athletic sports.
In the later sixties, and all through the seventies, the athletic zeal and energies of the students were concentrated upon the production of a successful baseball nine and a winning boat crew.
Given other institutions fired with the same ambition and equally persistent, it was only a question of time when the efforts in this direction would be carried to excess.
The
Harvard faculty concluded that its students had reached this stage in 1882, and appointed a committee to regulate and control athletic sports in the university.
The work and policy of this committee is too familiar to the
Cambridge public to call for any comment here.
In the mean time, another phase of the athletic problem has presented itself.
While some institutions seem much concerned as to what their students are doing for athletics, the authorities of Harvard University are more desirous of knowing what athletics are doing for their students.
In other words, the growing disparity between the number of athletic teams and the increasing number of students is becoming more marked every year, and efforts are being made to extend the athletic facilities of the university so that larger numbers of students can enjoy the advantages of practicing out-door exercises.
Through the munificence of
Mr. Augustus Hemenway,
Colonel H. L. Higginson,
Mr. G. W. Weld, and a few other graduates, the general plant for exercise, physical training, and athletic sports has been greatly augmented within the past few years.
It is doubtful if any institution in the world can surpass the facilities of
Harvard in this department of education.
But how has
Cambridge been affected by this revival of interest in physical training?
some of my readers may ask. The
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Y. M. C. A. gymnasium at Central Square, and the Cambridgeport gymnasium on Prospect Street were among the first to adopt the
Harvard apparatus, which has also recently been introduced into the
Newtowne Club gymnasium at North Cambridge.
Although this new movement in gymnasium construction and equipment got its first footing in
Cambridge, no manufacturer in the city had faith enough in the future growth and demands for gymnasium supplies to embark in it as a business enterprise, though there are several companies in different parts of the
United States making this new style of apparatus.
We shall not attempt to describe the extent to which this new movement in physical education has spread, the number of persons reached, nor the amount of money expended in land, buildings, and equipment.
We know that gymnasiums and athletic clubs have arisen by the hundreds all over the country.
Some of the most expensive of the gymnasiums have cost over two hundred thousand dollars, and one of the athletic associations in New York has property valued at little less than a million dollars. The memberships of the gymnasiums range from fifty to three thousand each, and the number of individuals reached in the clubs and schools combined must aggregate several hundred thousand.
Some idea of the growth of interest in physical development in the
United States, and the special directions it is taking may be inferred from the following lists of gymnasiums that have been built, reconstructed, or equipped, to the writer's knowledge, since the
World's Fair in 1893.
The past fifteen years may fairly be said to represent the era of gymnasium construction, and the next few years will witness a marked improvement in gymnasium intructions.
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It is natural that individuals desiring to acquaint themselves more fully with the
Harvard methods of physical training should be attracted to
Cambridge as the centre from which the new movement has largely radiated.
Harvard began to feel the demand for instructors in this branch of education soon after the completion of the
Hemenway Gymnasium.
Since 1887 there has been a considerable number of teachers from all parts of the country who have repaired to
Cambridge during the summer months to study and practice the methods of physical training taught at the
Harvard Summer School.
In this department alone we have had since the school opened 584 different pupils, 206 of whom were men, and 378 women.
Of these, 225 have come from
New England, 192 from the
Middle Eastern States, 111 from the
Middle or Central States, 19 from the extreme Western States and Pacific slope, and 13 from
England and the Provinces.
In all, 43 different States and countries have been represented.
Last summer the school had 90 pupils and 32 instructors.
These pupils are for the most part engaged in teaching gymnastics or athletics in schools, colleges, universities, athletic clubs, Christian associations, sanitariums, hospitals, and asylums all over the country.
Many of these teachers who come to
Cambridge during the college vacation time are accompanied by friends and relatives, who make the city their temporary camping ground, from which they make daily pilgrimages to the places of historical interest in this locality and the immediate vicinity.
In addition to the gymnasium teachers who frequent our Summer School, we have army officers, school superintendents and principals, instructors and college professors in other departments, and many persons who take the course for their personal improvement.
Thus it will be seen that
Cambridge as the seat of the great university is not only building up hardy and vigorous bodies for its regular students, but through its courses for teachers is helping to advance the cause of physical education throughout the land.
The athletic organizations of the university have undoubtedly exerted a great influence over the youth of
Cambridge.
The regularity of living while in training for the great games and contests, the daily regime as to diet, sleep, bathing, etc., and the voluntary discipline under which the students place themselves in order to reach the coveted goal, are all great moral lessons in their way, and lessons which the boy often accepts
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from his hero in the field rather than from his Sunday-school teacher.
The stimulus afforded by the athletic life of the students is felt by all classes of
Cambridge people, from the boy who crawls under the fence to see a game to the merchant prince who fills a palace car with his friends, and takes them a hundred miles to see a similar exhibition.
Some of the best amateur and professional athletes of the country in various branches of sport have been natives or residents of
Cambridge, and few will question the source of their aspirations.
In this connection it has often occurred to the writer that the city might avail itself to a greater extent of many of the advantages that the university extends to it. In June, 1890, the college authorities addressed the following communication to the City Council of
Cambridge:—
The President and Fellows of Harvard College hereby offer to the City of Cambridge for the use and enjoyment of the public, in common with the President and Fellows, all their grounds lying northerly from Harvard Street and easterly from North Avenue, for twelve weeks from the Monday following the last Wednesday in June, in each and every year, until further notice, provided that the city restore the grounds to the university at the expiration of the twelve weeks in the same condition, as nearly as may be, in which it received them.
This offer includes the use of the running track and baseball ground on Holmes Field, and some thirty or more tennis courts on Jarvis Field, and in a city where over a hundred teachers are being trained every year as instructors of gymnastics and athletics, and as directors of the physical training in the public schools of other cities, the acceptance of such an offer might prove of great utility.
The city need not hesitate on grounds of economy, as the amount of instruction necessary could be obtained for a small sum compared to what other cities pay, and the normal pupils who are brought to
Cambridge, when preparing for the work, are desirous of opportunities to teach as a matter of experience.
Similar service will be rendered as the city supplies itself with public parks and open-air playgrounds and gymnasiums like those in
Boston, in accordance with the plans of the present Park Commission.
With these additions to its fine natural facilities,
Cambridge will be unsurpassed as a place of residence, not only for the rich and well-to-do, but also for the poor.
