This case is important as proving that proper physical exercise will materially change even the bony structure of the body. What a source of comfort and encouragement to the young man or woman who is hollow-chested, and who considers himself or herself a marked victim of that dread disease, consumption.
=Need of Exercise for Girls.=--If it be conceded that there is need of physical exercise for boys, what must be said of the need of it for girls? Observe the young girls of cities and towns as they pass to and from school. Instead of the high chests, plump arms, comely figures, and graceful and handsome carriage, what do we constantly see? Flat chests, angular and warped shoulders, scrawny necks, slender arms and waists, and a weak and tired gait. Scarcely one in a dozen is thoroughly erect, whether walking, standing, or sitting. There is no elasticity in their steps, and a fresh, blooming complexion is so rare as to attract attention.
The girls of the most favored families often show the poorest physical development. The tyranny of fashion begins at a very early period in life. The quality and fit of the clothing worn by girls from ten to thirteen years of age prevent them from engaging in active, hearty play. The nurse or governess finds a large share of her duty in repressing that superabundance of spirits which should belong to every healthy girl.
As the years increase, the studies multiply, and by the time she is ready to leave school and assume the duties of life, we find a brain-weary, nerve-exhausted, pale creature, with no physical development, no power of endurance, and no ambition to undertake her share of life’s duties.
When the importance of physical culture is as well understood as it should be, there will be a course of training for pupils of all ages in every girls’ school in the land. In the larger cities and towns, provision is now made for physical instruction in many of the High Schools, but in the middle and lower grades, where the foundation should be laid and the work begun, the subject is almost wholly neglected. Bad habits of sitting, standing, walking, and breathing are acquired, and many forms of structural weakness developed which not only unfit the mind for the best work, but which later either become ineradicably fixed, or require much time and labor to correct. The schoolgirl, if systematically trained from early childhood, would show similar fruits of drill, and would develop into a shapely, graceful, well rounded, healthy girl, and would escape much of the weakness and suffering so common to women.