Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/221

DIETETICS proportion, for these aliments are the most direct con tributors of force. 1 " Training " for athletic sports is based on the principles above enunciated. The usual time allotted to it is six weeks, and the objects to be attained in this period may be described as (1.) The removal of superfluous fat and water; (2.) The increase of contractile power iu the muscles; (3.) Increased endurance ; (4.) " Wind," that is to say, a power of breathing and circulating the blood steadily in spite of exertion. The first is aimed at by considerably adding to the daily amount of nitrogenous and by diminishing farinaceous and liquid food, and providing that it should be so consumed as to be fully digested. The second and third are secured by gradually increasing the demands made upon the muscles, till they have learnt to exert at will all the powers of which they are capable, and for as long a period as the natural structure of the individual frame permits. " Wind" is improved by choosing as part of the training an exercise, such as running, which can be sustained only when the respiratory and circulating organs do their duty fairly. As an example, the Oxford system of training for the summer boat-races may be cited. It may be considered a typical regimen for fully developing a young man s corporeal powers to fulfil the demands of an extraordinary exertion, a standard which may be modified according to the circumstances for which the training is required. It is as follows : A Day s Training. Rise about 7 A.M. Exercise ... Breakfast at 8.30 Exercise in forenoon A short walk or run. Of tea, Meat, beef or mutton Bread or dry toast... None. Meat, much the same as for breakfast. Dinner at 2 P.M ; ! | Bread . Exercise , Supper at 8.30 or 9 P.M ............ . Bed about 10. Vegetables, none Beer, one pint About 5 o clock start for the river, and row twice over the course, the speed increasing with the strength of the crew. Meat, cold. Bread, and perhaps a little jelly or water- cresses. Beer, one pint. Not compulsory. As little as possible. Underdone. Crust only recom mended Crust only recom mended. Not always adhered to. 1 This is well iilustratrated by a remarkable feat performed on the Great Western Kailway in the summer of 1872. It was neces sary to shift the rails from the broad to the narrow gauge on upwards of 500 miles of permanent way within a fortnight. The task was enormous, for the Great Western is one of the few English lines whose rails are held down by bolts screwed into nuts. All these had to be unscrewed and replaced after removing the heavy rail two feet. About 3000 men were employed, working double time, some times from 4 in the morning till 9 at night ; and, without one being sick or drunk, they accomplished the work in the prescribed time. The scheme for generating muscular power was this. The men were hutted along the line, so as not to waste their strength by coining and going, and they brought with them bacon, bread, cheese, cocoa, &c. , to provide their usual meals at usual times. But they had no beer, nor alcohol iu any form. A pound and a half of oatmeal and half a pound of sugar was allowed extra to each man daily, and for every gang of 21 a cock was provided. The first thing done iu the morning was to breakfast ; and then the cook and his caldron started along the line till water was found convenient ; a fireplace of stones was built, aud the pot boiled. Oatmeal was then sprinkled into it with sugar, The Cambridge system differs very slightly, and in neither is any exaggerated severity of discipline enforced, while some latitude is permitted to peculiarities and a wish for variety, and plenty of time is left for business and social intercourse. Other plans are objectionable, from involving, without any corresponding advantage, a complete departure from the usual habits of the educated classes. For instance, according to Clasper, dinner is to be at noon, with only a light tea afterwards, aud no supper. Then a country walk of four or five miles is to be taken before breakfast, and two hours row afterwards, and another hard row between dinner and tea. 3 " Stonehenge," again, requires the time between breakfast and dinner to be spent entirely on billiards, skittles, quoits, rowing, and running, in spite of another hour s row being prescribed at 6 P.M. He also requires the aspirant for athletic honours to sleep between 10 and 11 hours. 4 Only professionals will carry out such rules, and even they do not either benefit their health or lengthen their lives by the sacrifice. For it is notorious that " over-training " leads to a condition of system iu which the sufferers describe themselves as " fallen to pieces." The most peculiar symptom is a sudden loss of voluntary power after exertion. It is sometimes called " fainting," but there is no loss of sense, and it is quickly relieved by liquid food. It is to the pathologist a timely warning of that consequence of overstrained muscle which constitutes paralysis scriptorum, turner s palsy, and blacksmith s palsy, and which results in fatty degeneration of the red muscular fibre. To get and to keep its health a muscle needs a constant alternation of active contraction and rest, and an enforced protraction of either one or the other leads to the loss of vital properties. The limbs of an Indian fakir, voluntarily held in a strained posture, or those of a bed-ridden invalid, are equally apt to become useless. Overtrained persons are also liable to a languor and apparent weakness, which is found on examination to depend on an excessive secretion of urea by the kidneys. Such are not the results, however, of the training adopted at the universities, by which it would appear that the con stitution is strengthened, the intellect sharpened, and life lengthened. Dr John Morgan (University Oars, 1873), has collected statistics of the subsequent health of those who have rowed in the university races since 1829, and he finds that, whereas at twenty years of age, according to Farr s life tables, average expectation of survival is forty years, for these carmen it_is forty-two years. Moreover, in the cases of death, inquiry into its causes exhibits evidence of good constitutions rather than the contrary, the causes consisting largely of fevers and accidents, to which the vigorous and active are more exposed than the sick. And aud thoroughly well boiled till thin gruel was made. As soon as the shout for drink " was heard, buckets were filled and carried round with small pannikins to convey the liquid to the panting mouths. The men liked it exceedingly, and learned by experience the impor tance of having it well cooked. The incident may remind the reader of classical medicine of Hippo crates, who considers the culinary preparation of oatmeal ptisan su im portant that in a short treatise On the Treatment of A cute Disease he devotes to it the only cookery recipe he has inserted in his works. He describes how it is to be boiled till it can swell no longer (so that it may swell no more in the stomach), how it is to be settled and strained (through a coarse cullender). He prescribes it indeed for sick people but he would have been the first to agree with our advanced physiologists in the opinion that overstrained muscular effort produces the same effects as continued fever (es irvperbv Ka.Qiff-ra.Tai paxpor epov), its chief dangers lying in rise 01 tempera ture and arrested cutaneous action, and that its true antagonist is nutriment capable of rapid absorption, dissolved in that most essential nutriment, water. 2 See Maclaren s Training in Theory and Practice, appendix to i edition 1866. 3 Rowing Almanac, 1863.

1 4 Article " Boat-Racing," i n British Rural Sports, 1861.