Why? The Science of Athletics

308 WHY?-THE SCIENCE OF ATHLETICS raw in the morning). Dry biscuits were always kept handy in training quarters and were given to athletes on awakening, "because they are considered excellent for absorption of mucus from the mouth, throat, and also the windpipe". The athlete was allowed only the barest necessities of life in the way of liquid . Beer was the main beverage, because water was anathema to the old-time trainer ; milk was supposed to-curdle on the stomach, warm liquids were feared as likely to relax the stomach, which would be weakened by taking broth or soup, "since these bever– ages require but little digestion". Sweating and blood-letting were common practices, and laxatives and emetics in general use. Here is a nice quotation : "If a man's loose meat be perceived shaking on his sides, breasts, etc., if it lie about the chops, it is seen he is blubber-headed, and his head must be sweated particularly. . . . Dull, heavy eyes, with a great dis– position to sleep, starting in his sleep, or pricking of the skin, demand that he be blooded ; opening physic should ever follow bleeding." By the time Archibald Maclaren wrote his Training in Theory and Practire in r87r, however, the men in training had themselves revolted against such drastic treatment as has been outlined above, and we find this author condemning the use of emetics and purgatives and advocating the inclusion of vegetables in the athlete's training diet. Progress was now being made, and although meat was still the staple part of the athlete's menu, for the sake of its "richness in nitrogen", we find Dr. R. Faries, in his book, Practical Training for Athletics, Health and Pleasure, published in r897, indicating that bananas may be eaten without ill effects, and sug– gesting the use of butter, provided it be replaced by oat– meal if not well digested. The fallacy still obtained,how– ever, that any form of sugar was bad for the athlete's wind. Some of those old-time prejudices ,are still extant, and to them we have added some new fads and fancies of our