Athletic Sports (extract)

The Physical Proportions of the Typical Man It frequently happened that answers to these questions would account for some pe­ culiarity ofdevelopment or some deficiency in the size of body or limbs, or for ex­ treme muscular weakness, that could not otherwise be explained. Immediately be­ fore and after the strength-tests the heart and lungs were examined by auscultation and percussions, and anypeculiarities noted. The informationobtained from the physi­ cal examination just described, in connec­ tion with the history ofthe individual and the many facts brought out by personal observation, served as a basis for advice. At the time the system I am now dis­ cussing was inaugurated, the gymnasium was wholly inadequate to meet the de­ mands of at least two-thirds of the pupils who came under my observation. Most of them had discovered this fact for them­ selves, and had let the gymnasium and its apparatus severelyalone. The tendency to specialism already alluded to had served to make the gymnasium distasteful to many who wished touse it, but who hadneither the ability nor inclination to perform the feats usually practised on the old-style ap­ paratus. In order to make the gymna­ sium serviceable to a larger portion of the community, andespecially to those most 22