Strength And Health

CcPk(jtpnirgns It is quite a oommon idea that hcalth keeps paco with streugth. I know intelligent persons who really tlünk t!iit yot) may determino the comparitivo hcalth of a company of men by measuring their arms-thatho who-;(arin meai ;nvs twelve inches is twico as heajthy as one who iniiisuivï bul sis. rL":!.; strange and thoughtless rfkisapprehensïón has given riso to ne.irly all the mistakes fcbuê far made in the phy sica] culture movement. I have a friend who can lift ninehundred pounds and is au habitual sufferer from ■ torpid livcr, rhuumati-it; ar.d low spirits. There are inany similar c:isi-s. The cartnii'ii ofouroitios, w'io are the atrongest men, ara far f rom the heitb,iejrt class, as pliysicimis will testify. On tho oontrary, T -ve roany friends who would Btagger umler throe hundrod pounds that are in capital trim. But I neod not elaborate.a matter so familiar to physicians and other obaerving people. No test of health wpuld provo moro faulty than a tape line ora lift at tho scalo beam. Suppose two brothers - bank clerks - in bad health. They are measured around the arm. Each mnrks exactly ten inches. They try the sealo boam. Tho bar rists exactlv at three hnndred pounds with each. Both seek health. John goos to the jiyinuasium, lifts heavy duinb bell.s and ki. of n.-iils until he can put up ono huncfred and twenty-five pounds and lift nino hundred, and his arui reaches flfteen luches. Thomas goos totlie mountiiins, fislies, hantB, spends delightful hours with the young Lidies and plays crickot. Upon measuring his arm wo lind it scarccly larger than when he left ton, while he can't put up sixty pounds nor lift ivo hundred. But who doubts Thomas will return to tho bank counter the better man of tho two? John sliould be tho botter man if strength is tila principal or most essentiul conditioñ of hcalth. A circus usually con taina among its perfonr.ers a man who ean lift a oannon ■weighing noarly or quite a half a ton. Then there aro a dozen riders and vaulters,whohaveeompara1ive!ylittlestrejigth. If anybofly supposes that the strong man has botter health than the flexible, olastic ones, he has bnt to make inquines of - circus matragors as have döne, and he will Iearn that the balance is found al ; most unitormly with the latter. Agility and rlexfbility aro far moro important than strength, and that tho fine silken quality ef tho muscular fibro, which ' comes only from au infinite repetition of light and ever varying feats' is far more