he will be familiar with his history, and constitutional peculiarities. Second, it is best not to engage in violent exercise until one is at least eighteen years of age, and in most cases it would be better for him to postpone his athletic attempts until he is twenty. The heart and lungs do not get their full development until after this age, and if forced in their work before this time, they will be likely to be impaired in their later efficiency and to retard the final development of the whole body. The tables prepared by Drs. Beneké' and Boyd' on this subject should be in the hands of every practicing physician and schoolmaster, for it is in the preparatory schools, that are now fostering highly competitive exercises among growing boys and not physical training in its best sense, that the evils following over-exertion are most likely to occur.

A third source of cardiac disturbance, in connection with. exercise, is the wearing of tight clothing. In an article on "The Physical Training of Women" by the writer, published in Scribner's Magazine, February, 1889, it was shown that the average heart-impulse before and after the same exercise with and without corsets was increased eight beats a minute by contracting the waist from twenty-five to twenty-four inches. A great deal of the heart trouble experienced by young soldiers can be traced to the physical exertion made while. wearing the "regulation uniform," and the exhibitions of complete prostration from the practice of football, so often seen early in the season, would not be so frequent if the jackets were loosened to make room for the increased expansion of the chest and respiratory organs.

Fourth, the strain on the heart and blood vessels is greatly relieved in violent exercises, through getting into a profuse perspiration. The great test of condition is ability to do a good athletic performance on a cold, rainy, or windy day. Many a man has broken down under these conditions who

3 Beneké, Ueber das Volumen des Herzen und die Weite der Arteria in den verschiedenen Lebensaltern, 1879.

* Weight of Internal Organs, by Dr. Boyd. Royal Society Transactions, February 28, 1861.

could have stood the same amount of muscular work on a warm day, It is always advisable, therefore, to get the blood freely circulating, and to be thoroughly warmed throughout from exercise or rubbing, before making any effort that is to test the heart and lungs severely.

Fifth, the habit which some athletes have of eating and drinking before a contest to give them strength and staying power, as they term it, cannot be defended on good physiological grounds. No food can be absorbed into the system inside of thirty minutes, and most foods require three and four hours for digestion. The only purpose that eating can serve is to allay nervous excitement in certain individuals. The slightest fullness or distention of the stomach, on the other hand, interferes with the action of the heart and lungs, and, by imposing extra work upon them, renders the exercise more fatiguing. A person should not undertake to make his greatest physical effort within three hours after a meal, and that meal should not be a very hearty one.

Sixth, the question is often asked as to the advisability of a person's taking a cold bath when very warm from exercise. A vigorous athletic fellow, however warm, can usually take a cold bath with impunity, unless he is tired. As he is most likely to be tired after coming in from the football field, a hard row on the river, or a long siege at tennis, a cold bath at such a time-whether a shower, tub, or plunge-is, in my opinion, not safe for the average athlete, to say nothing of the average man. The shock to the system that follows this practice is fully as exhausting as prolonging the practice of the violent exercise would have been. I have seen more symptoms of temporary cardiac failure following cold bathing after severe exercise than from any other cause. The question has often occurred to me whether our young men do not lose by excessive bathing and the profuse use of strong alkaline soaps, something which the ancients preserved by their practices of oiling and anointing.

Seventh, it is a matter of common observation that persons not accustomed to exercise cannot take the simplest run or

row without getting greatly "out of breath," as it is termed. The difference in the heart's action is sometimes as much as thirty beats to the minute for the same amount of physical work in the same person when not accustomed to exercise and when in good training. This plainly shows how much careful preparation has to do with relieving the distress so often experienced by beginners at any arduous exercise.

It is a want of good physical tone on the part of the great majority of persons that makes them look with so much compassion on, and often condemn so bitterly, the vigorous and dashing sport of a trained athlete. One should not judge the effect of athletics from the standpoint of a semi-invalid.

In my opinion the grand possibilities opened up to the human race, both mentally and physically, by the achievements of men in splendid physical condition, should furnish a source of inspiration to us all. Although the trained athlete can greatly excel the average man in any exhibition of power and endurance, still it must be borne in mind that there is a limit to human capability, and this limit is determined ultimately by the power of the heart, though the condition of all the other organs is correlated. Every pound of energy expended in work, either of mind or body, must be made good by food, rest, and sleep. Hence the fundamental requisites of a man of power are to be a good eater and a good sleeper. The importance of these acquirements to Americans is not well enough understood. Plato tells us that the athletes of ancient Greece were a stupid set of fellows, lounging away their time in eating and sleeping, and yet, if their monuments are correct, they have left us a set of athletic records that have never been equaled. It has never seemed to occur to us that occasional sluggishness or frequent intervals of total inactivity. are essential requisites for great trials of speed, strength, or endurance. One of the most energetic men whom it is my pleasure to know, undresses and goes to bed for an hour in the middle of the day, and no one is allowed to arouse him from his slumber until the hour has expired; and yet this same man turns off more work than two ordinary men,

though he takes time for exercise, and never misses an engagement.

The profound stupor that frequently comes over a hardworked athlete, as he sits bolt upright and tries conscientiously to get out his mental task, will not be likely to secure for him honorable mention in any of his studies, but it will certainly insure him from nervous exhaustion or a general physical breakdown. As I have previously intimated in this article, it is not athletics alone that are likely to injure our young men, but athletics plus dissipation in some cases, plus mental over-application in others. It is not over-study alone in our schools that causes so much feebleness in health, but too much study plus too much society and too enervating amusements. So it is in business; it is not the hard work of the day alone that is increasing the amount of heart and nervous disease in our large cities; it is the work of the day plus the work of the night, that burns the candle at both ends and proves so speedily exhausting.

HEMENWAY GYMNASIUM,

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.

DUDLEY A. SARGENT.

V.

DISCUSSIONS.

THE SEVEN LIBERAL ARTS.

The Greeks originally recognized two branches of liberal education' (1) Gymnastics, for the body, and (2) Music, for the soul. Out of music grew, in process of time, not only the socalled Liberal Arts, that is, the arts that go to constitute the education of every freeman, but also what was regarded as a superfluous luxury (7ɛρiττn), Philosophy. It is the purpose of this paper to trace, as far as possible, this gradual develop

ment.

was.

In doing so, one must bear in mind that originally the term "Music" covered, not only what we call music, but also poetry, and that poetry was the vehicle of all the science that then The Homeric aoidos knows the "works of gods and men." Strictly speaking, therefore, it was out of music and poetry that all the arts and sciences grew. The first step in this direction was taken when Letters were introduced, that is, about the first Olympiad.' But it was long before Letters were regarded as a separate branch of education; they were simply a means of recording poetry. Even as late as the time of Plato, Letters are still usually included under Music. In Aristotle, they are recognized as a separate branch. It follows from this that, when we find Greek writers confining souleducation to Music, or Music and Letters, we must not conclude that these signify only playing and singing, reading and writing. Socrates was saying nothing new or paradoxical, when he affirmed that Philosophy was the "highest music." The Pythagoreans had said the same thing before him, and there can be no doubt that Pythagoras himself included under Music (1) Letters, (2) Arithmetic, (3) Geometry, (4) Astronomy, (5) Music, in our sense, and (6) Philosophy (a term invented by him). Plato did the same thing. He speaks of "the true

1 It must be borne in mind that the Greek réxv, art, corresponds almost exactly to what we mean by "science." It is defined by Aristotle, Metaph., A. 1.; 981 a 5 sqq. Schwegler, in his translation of the Metaphysics, renders it by Wissenschaft. 'Eniorhun is our "philosophy."

2 See Jebb, Homer, pp. 110 sqq.