[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1
have read with much interest the letters of your correspondents, "A Victim to Exercise" and "W. W." The former doe i not say what kind of " invalidism " he suffers from, so we cannot judge of his special case ; he may be altogether mistaken as to its cause, or it may be a result of excessive bodily exertion alone. Over-exertion of any kind is injurious, and over-exercise is not less injurious to hard brain-workers than to idlers,—perhaps it is more so. But none the less, suitable exercise is of paramount importance to the brain-workers. That exercise is most suitable, from this point of view, which produces the most complete and pleasurable 'change of thought and scene.
The muscular exercise is important, the action of the skin and other organs is important, but it is the change which is most important, meaning, as it does, the most complete rest to the over-worked parts of the brain. This is why horse exercise, bicycling and tricycling, &c., are superior to walking, and mere physical labour, as modes of exercise. Every one knows that the value of walking as exercise depends mainly on the interest of the scenes passed through. This interest depends much on the walker, some people finding as much interest in a walk along any high road with hedges on each side, as others would in the loveliest parts of the Lake District. And here, I think, lies the secret of the varying dependence of different people on exercise. There are many who have the faculty of fixing their minds on whatever scene is presented to them, and find so much " pleasurable " change in this way that they need none of what is usually called exercise. Others, like your correspondent, "W. W." and myself, whose minds have a habit of dwelling on subjects which have recently occupied their attention, unless quite a new scene is presented to them, are sure to get the head- aches "W. W." suffered from, unless they take suitable exercise. My own experience fully agrees with that of "W. W." An hour's bicycling often enables me to do a good evening's work, which I am sure loitering in the garden for the same time would not do. " Change " is the medical treatment for the form of headache called "megrim," and I should advise all brain- workers who suffer from headache to try riding a tricycle, if they cannot bicycle.
Several hours of hard exercise daily is certainly not to be recommended to girls, whether students or not. In the students, as in most people, it would produce so much sleepiness as to render study impracticable in the evening. But it is indispens- able that they should, as a rule, have at least one hour of some thoroughly good form of exercise every day, and every week several additional hours' "change." And though the over- exercise is injurious in other ways, I do not at all think it would add to the amount of brain disease. Apologising for the length of my letter, on the ground of the importance of the subject,— I am, Sir, ttc.,
Tottenham. SIDNEY DAVIES, B.A. (Oxon.), M.R.C.S.
Previous page
