Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/303

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PHYSICAL EDUCATION 237 PHYSIOLOGY and the substitution of machinery for human labor it is inevitable that more attention must be paid to physical educa- tion in the future than in the past; for it is a most direct and vital contribution not only to physical but to intellectual and moral progress. The study of physical exercises in connection with the anatomy and physi- ology of the body has shovi^n that exer- cise has an important place in medicine in the restoration of health and the cor- rection of deformities. The modern use of massage as a means by passive exer- cise of assisting the circulation and the nutrition of the body is closely connected with the Swedish system of physical edu- cation and has been most developed in that country. The Zander system of passive exercise by means of apparatus set in motion by power is also an out- growth of the Swedish system, and has proved to be of much service. Physical education has a special place as a part of military training. The ob- ject is not the development of muscular strength, but rather agility, endurance and co-ordination. In addition to marching and setting up drills, boxing, fencing, wrestling, skating, swimming and all sorts of outdoor games are use- ful. Marching is regarded as the most important ; it is also the most exhausting owing to the weight of the pack, and good marching is attained only by care- ful preparation. In the United States physical education has been slow in de- velopment and we have adapted the ex- ercises and games developed elsewhere. Lacrosse, which was played by the North American Indians, is the only game originating in the United States. Follen and Lieber, who were pupils of Jahn and expelled from Germany in 1825 in the reaction which followed the war of liberation, came to Boston and first introduced the German methods. This primary movement was short-lived, but the introduction of the Swedish sys- tem into Boston by Baron Nils Posen had more permanent results. Through the liberality of Mrs. Hemenway the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics was founded in 1889 to provide for the instruction of teachers of physical edu- cation for the schools, and the system was introduced into the public schools of the city in 1890. Eight States, Illi- nois, New York, New Jersey, Nevada, Rhode Island, California, Maryland and Delaware, have now passed laws making physical education obligatory in all the schools. It has been most developed in the Gary school, where 24 per cent, of the time in the elementary grades is de- voted to it, with a proportionately di- minished time in the higher grade. Vol. VII — C70 There is great difficulty, owing to the great number of students in the public schools and the inadequacy of the teach- ing force in adapting the system to the needs of the individual child, which should be done if the best results are to be attained. Gymnastic drills of great advantage to the bodily development of a vigorous child would be found too strenuous for a weak, imperfectly de- veloped child of the same age. As far as possible all school exercises should be out of doors and games should play an important part. Under the proper conditions rational systems of physical education, both for children and adults, will lead to a higher degree of physical perfection and an increase in health and happiness. PHYSICS, a study of the phenomena presented by bodies. It treats of matter, force and motion ; gravitation and molec- ular attraction, liquids, gases, acoustics, heat, light, magnetism, and electricity. It is called also natural or mechanical philosophy. In its broadest acceptance the term physics includes chemistry; spe- cifically it is limited to those phenomena based on the molecule as a unit, whereas the unit of chemistry is the atom. PHYSIOGNOMY, the art or science of judging a person's nature or character by his outward look, especially by his facial features and characteristics. See Lavater. Modern writers consult Sims' "Physiognomy Illustrated" (1891); Fos- brook's "Character Reading Through As- pects of the Features" (1914). Also art of foretelling the future fortunes of individuals by the lineaments of the face. PHYSIOLOGY, the science which treats of the processes which go on in the bodies of living beings under nor- mal conditions, and of the use of their various parts or organs. It is divided into plant physiology, animal physiology, and human physiology. One of the simplest forms of animal life is seen in the amceba of pond water or in the white corpuscle or leucocyte of the blood. These simple organisms are composed each of a single physiological unit, which is termed a cell, that is to say, thei'e are no organs for the carrying on of the various functions of life, but all take place in the same microscopic semi- fluid mass of complex organic nature termed the cell protoplasm. All animals, no matter how complex be their struc- ture, resemble this primitive type,^ for they consist of an aggregation of micro- scopic cells. In the leucocyte or amoeba all kinds of labor proceed in the same cell which imbibes its own food, prepares 16