[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Siu,—An answer to some of the questions asked by Dr. Saleeby in his excellent article on " Health and Athletics " may be of interest to some of your readers. Three years ago a Joint Committee on the Physical Education of Girls was formed at the instance of the College of Preceptors, on which representatives were appointed by the College of Physicians, the College of Surgeons, the British Medical Association, the Medical. Woman's Federation, the Ling Association, as well as by various Associations of Women Mistresses and Teachers. This Committee sat for several months and considered an enormous amount of evidence from medical practitioners, school mistresses, female medical students and others having knowledge of and interest in the subject. The unanimous report of that Committee was that athletic games, sports and gymnastics properly carried Jut were not only not injurious to girls as a class but actually extremely beneficial. The evidence showed that any game ar sport in which boys took part was equally fitted for girls, excepting football and perhaps tug-of-war. The opinion formed by the Committee on the evidence submitted to it was that there is no clear proof that strenuous physical exercise has any special influence either upon the prospect of motherhood or upon the difficulty of labour. As a member of that Committee I am in absolute agreement with its findings.
In the whole of the great mass of evidence submitted there were only two or three witnesses who gave any instance ,whatever of damage or mischief to be attributed to athletics, and even in these few cases the cause, .as well as the actual harm done, was extremely doubtful. In my own opinion
consider mixed hockey and cricket, played on serious lines, a mistake. It spoils either the game or the girl. The game, if it be slowed down to the capacity of the girl—the girl, if she strive pluckily to attain and maintain the speed of the man. In addition, the danger of injury from a blow of the ball is increased if it be hit by a strong boy. After the age of thirteen or fourteen boys should play and compete with boys and girls with girls.. The fate of the athlete in after .life depends a great deal on how that after life has been lived. There should be ample opportunity to determine this most important point by investigating the after history and present conditions of the survivors of the great athletic revival of .sixty years ago. I have among my own friends many who competed and played football with me fifty years ago. The great majority of them are still very, well and fit for a large amount of work, and during the War they held their own with many who were years younger than themselves. Last week the Fellowship of Old Time Cyclists, the membership of which is confined to men who rode an ordinary bicycle or tricycle before 1890, held its summer meet. There are about
1,000 members of the Fellowship--the oldest ninety-two years of age. Some hundreds attended the function, and a more healthy and fitter collection of men you could not wish to see. In their ranks were champions and record-holders both on road and path, and their after life had evidently treated them well in every respect. In the Church, at the Bar, and in the medical profession you can still find athletes dating back to the 'seventies and 'eighties of the last century, champions then at every form of sport still working, fit and well. Some doubtless have fallen by the roadside, but often from causes more dependent on " going out of training " than from the stress of competition in their youth.
To turn to another aspect of the question. I am absolutely certain from my own experience, based on a continuous associa- tion in sport with young men, that the great and steady rise in the standard • of practical morality among the youth of this country which was so marked from 1872 until 1914 was due to three important factors, and the greatest of these was the general and universal spread of the cult of athleticism among every class of the community. How far success both in intellectual attainments and physical prowess can be com- bined in the same individual is a moot point, but it can and has been achieved. In 1876 one of the smaller London hospitals held both the challenge shield for athletics and the cup for football, and at the same time the highest average of passes in all the professional examinations. The men who passed the examination and won the scholarships were those who won the races and plaYed in the football fifteen.
But to obtain athletic success and avoid injury, both for young men and young women, careful and gradual preparation is needed. No hard trial or strenuous race should be run or rowed unless the individual be " fit," and no person should be allowed to go in for hard training and competition unless he or she be passed as absolutely sound before commencing work. Many a frail organ can function fairly well •for years in quiet circumstances, but is quite unable to stand the stress of hard competition. Proper food, suitable clothing, un- limited fresh air, and, moderation in everything, including the training work, are essential in all cases. No man who has ever been thoroughly trained for competition, and who has returned for some time to an ordinary normal life, should ever attempt to resume athletic activity without the most careful preparation—a hard, sustained effort when untrained may do him untold damage. The nervous system of a man who has never trained will not allow him to press his efforts too far. Nothing is worse for an athlete' than alternate bouts of hard training and unlimited excess. The man out of training should always try to keep fairly fit, and be moderate in all things. Golf may be his refuge in his declining years. Then he may attain a ripe old age, and rejoicing in the strength left to him bless the effects of a well-spent athletic youth.—I am, Sir, &c.,
E. B. Tintrrea (Vice-President [President, 1913], London Athletic Club ; Vice-President, National Cyclist Union ; late member Rugby Union Committee).
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