Athletic Sports (extract)

Physical Characteristicsof the Athlete parts of the body, while the girth of the neck, waist, and calves, the depth of chest and the abdomen, the breadth of neck, waist, and hips, seem to respond more slowly. The total height is slightly in­ creased, through increasein length of the lower extremities; but the sitting height, the girth of head, knees, insteps, wrist, and the length of upper arm and foot, are at first hardly altered. In the athletic class, the excess in devel­ opment of the right arm tends to establish the fact that our popular games give more employment to the right arm than to the left. The great showing of strength in the forearm of athletes is probably due to the number of tennis-players, boating and base-ball men that belonged to the class measured. The slight difference between the two classes in the girth of the waist and the calf, and the consequent ten­ dency of the lines to approach at these points, may be easily accounted for. In persons who engage in very active exer­ cise, the girth of the waist will at first diminish, while in persons of less active habit the size of the waist increases. The muscles of the lower leg are generally well developed in the non-athletic class, being the principal muscles brought intoplay in 56