asks to be excused whenever he steps on anybody's toe. Who always lifts his hat when he sees anybody he knows." Thirty-six of the boys and 64 of the girls want a chum that can keep secrets; 91 of the boys and 8 of the girls one that neither uses tobacco nor drinks, and 73 of the boys and 17 of the girls one that don't swear. Dress and neatness influence 22 boys and 65 girls, and wealth 7 boys and 3 girls. Industry is not strong, but 23 boys and 36 girls expressing the desire to have a chum that liked to work. Among the general characteristics were classed "good chum," "respectable chum," and "nice chum." These terms are indefinite, and may mean one or a dozen traits. They are oftenest mentioned by the young children, and the girls seemed to have an almost undisputed monopoly of that much-used word "nice." The fact that both "good" and "nice" diminish with advance in years indicates that they belong to a period when ideas are not well defined.

During the adolescent period there is an apparent struggle between the real, actual self and the ideal self- a pretty strong desire to have a chum that embodies the traits they most desire, but which they are conscious of lacking. This struggle is well expressed by a girl of thirteen, who says: "I cannot tell the kind of a chum I like the best because I like to have two kinds. I like to have a friend to whom I can go and forget everything I would rather not remember in her presence. I mean by that a person who is never serious. I like also to have a friend who is just the opposite. One who is serious and can help me. I like it this way because of my two moods." And several children specify certain persons whom they like best for chums, because they differ from themselves-persons who are what they themselves are not, but what they would be a sort of double that seems to suggest itself to the young mind during this period of inquiry and doubt.

The conclusions of such studies must be regarded as tentative rather than final, but the speaker heartily agrees with Professor Baldwin that "the only way to get a solid basis for social theory, based upon human want or desire, is to work out, first, a descriptive and genetic psychology of desire in its social aspects, on the one hand; and, on the other hand, the only way to get an adequate psychological view of the rise and development of desire in its social aspects is by a patient tracing of the conditions of social environment in which the child and the race have lived, and which they have grown up to reflect."

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL TRAINING

SECRETARY'S MINUTES

FIRST SESSION.-FRIDAY, JULY 8, 1898

The department was called to order at 3 o'clock P. M. in the Universalist Church by the president, Dr. C. E. Ehinger, of West Chester, Penn., Normal School.

The first paper, on the subject “Effect of Exercise on the Vital Organs," was read by Dr. William T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, followed by Dr. Henry Ling Taylor, of New York city, on "Exercise and Vigor."

Dr. Lightner Witmer, of the University of Pennsylvania, spoke on "The Mental Factor in Physical Training." Discussion was led by Dr. Edward M. Hartwell, of Boston, Mass.

The committee on nominations was appointed as follows:

Miss Ellen Le Garde, Providence, R. I.

Miss Ada F. Thayer, Syracuse, N. Y.

Miss Mabel Pray, Toledo, O.

The committee on resolutions was appointed as follows:

Dr. G. W. Fitz, Cambridge, Mass.

Miss Alta Wiggins, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Miss Zue Brockett, Washington, D. C.

SECOND SESSION.- MONDAY, JULY II

President Ehinger called the meeting to order at 3 o'clock, and introduced Dr. R. Tait McKenzie, of the University of Montreal, who read a paper on the "Influence of School Life on Curvature of the Spine." An interesting discussion followed, which was participated in by Dr. Fitz, of Cambridge, Mass.; Mr. G. Lane Taneyhill, of Baltimore, Md.; Miss Thayer, of Syracuse, N. Y.; Miss Le Garde, of Providence, R. I.; Miss Shrieves, of Milwaukee, Wis.; Superintendent Aaron Gove, of Denver, Colo.; Superintendent Edwin P. Seaver, of Boston, Mass.; Superintendent G. W. Johnson, of Andover, Mass.; Mr. Sanford, of New York, and Dr. Ehinger, the president.

"Play in Physical Education" was the subject of the second paper, by Mr. George W. Johnson, superintendent of schools, Andover, Mass. The discussion was opened by Dr. G. W. Fitz, of Harvard University.

The Committee on Nominations reported the following names of persons for officers for the ensuing year :

For President-Dr. George W. Fitz, Cambridge, Mass.

For First Vice-President-Dr. William Krohn, Illinois Hospital for the Insane.

For Second Vice-President - Miss Ellen Le Garde, Providence, R. I.

For Secretary-Miss Rebecca Stoneroad, Washington, D. C.

As advisory board to confer with the local committee at the next annual meeting:

Miss R. Anna Morris, of Cleveland, O.; Miss Mabel Pray, of Toledo, O., and Mr. Robert Krohn, of Portland, Ore.

The report was adopted and the nominees declared unanimously elected as officers for the ensuing year.

Dr. Fitz, chairman of the Committee on Resolutions, then presented the following report:

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS

In view of the kindly shelter we have had in this church, and of the very complete arrangements which have been made in our behalf by the local committee, we offer the following resolutions:

1. That the hearty thanks of the Physical Education Section are due to the trustees of the Universalist Church for their kind hospitality during the meetings of the section;

2. That the Physical Education Section offers to the local committee its heartiest thanks for the unusu ally complete and satisfactory provision made for the comfort and convenience of its members and for the success of the meetings.

H. B. BOYCE,

Secretary.

PAPERS AND DISCUSSIONS

THE EFFECT OF EXERCISE ON THE VITAL ORGANS

BY WILLIAM T. HARRIS, UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION

It is well known that physical exercise affects directly the muscular system, and that the muscular system is not all of the body, nor, indeed, itself directly the generator of what may be called nervous energy. There is a nutritive process of digestion and a distributive process of circulation thru the heart and lungs and liver; the two forming a building-up function which restores, repairs, and increases the organism and removes the waste. There is, besides, a nervous organism which receives impressions from without and conveys impulses that react on the environment.

Physical training, as we understand it, deals directly and chiefly with the muscular system and with that part of the nervous system which conveys impulses from the brain outward thru the limbs to the environment. Physical exercise indirectly acts on the digestion and the circulatory system and on the nerves of sensation; and its relation to those other bodily functions is nearly or quite as important as the direct relation of exercise to the muscles and the acquiring of strength.

During the first fifty years of agitation on the subject of bodily training, connected with the rise of turner societies in Germany and the preaching of the gospel of bodily culture as auxiliary to intellect and will by Spurzheim, his disciple George Comb, and their numerous followers, we may say, without hesitation, that the doctrine of physical exercise was passing thru its stage of superstition and quackery. There was a sharp dividing line between the believers in hygiene and the old school of physicians, and this separation led quite naturally to dismal results. The doctors opposed, with blind conservatism, the new apostles; and the

latter justified the attitude of the former by a radicalism equally blind and fanatical.

It is the glory of the present revival of physical exercise that it is led by educated physicians. It is a new movement of the highest importancethe establishment of a resident physician in each of our colleges as supervisor of gymnastics and recording inspector of physical development among the students. It means a synthesis of science with reform and the end of the era of quackery in hygiene.

Our civilization is so bent on the conquest of nature and the production of wealth that it perpetually strains its supply of nervous energy and produces disaster along this line. Here is the special problem of our time for hygiene to meet: how to restore and conserve nervous energy. There are three factors here: first, the one of food and its proper assimilation; second, the factor of rest and sleep; third, the factor of exercise, muscular and mental. It is obvious enough that digestion requires nervous energy, just as muscular and mental labor do. Hence, digestion must be given time. It must not be encroached on by bodily exercise or by mental exercise. But what is the average amount of time required for this, and should it be total cessation from bodily and mental labor, or is light labor of both or either best for the digestive progress?

Besides the mistake of cutting off the sleeping hours at the beginning or at the end for the sake of physical exercise, there is an equally harmful mistake of bringing the hour of exercise close to the hours for meals. Just preceding or just succeeding a meal, any exercise of sufficiently. energetic a character to cause the blood to leave the organs of digestion and fill the muscles of the body or the brain is injurious and tends to produce dyspepsia. The stomach needs the greater share of the nervous energy, and likewise of the arterial circulation. Dr. Sargent thinks that violent exercise should not be taken at a period so long as three hours after a meal, on account of the danger of faintness, which neutralizes the good results of such exercise. Provided the person has just taken violent exercise, the blood is diverted to the muscles and brain, and away from the stomach. The taking of food at this time, when the nervous system is depleted of its vitality, is considered unfavorable to the best action of the digestive functions.

The object of gymnastic training, it has been said often enough, is to put the will into the muscles. It is to give one such control over all his muscles that each act performed by the body is performed by the use of all the muscles which nature has provided for the purpose. The farmer or the blacksmith develops a few muscles and neglects others. The gymnasium is supposed to cultivate many muscles which remain rudimentary in the original man; and here, I think, is an item of compensation which makes up for a great deal of the deleterious results coming to the imprudent gymnast who is careless about the hygienic precautions just now

mentioned in relation to eating and sleeping. The gymnast-and I mean by the gymnast one who has taken sufficiently violent exercise to develop to a considerable degree the muscles of the chest, back, arms, and the other limbs - the gymnast, I say, has acquired the power of putting his will into his muscles by a slight effort, The gymnast performs all slight bodily actions, such as rising from a chair, sitting down, walking, climbing stairs, swinging his arms, turning his head, everything, in short, that he does with his body, by using many more muscles than the untrained person uses. Hence it happens that one who has taken gym. nastic exercise retains till old age the power of getting a maximum of exercise out of a minimum of bodily movement. Walking a few rods and running up and down stairs two or three times a day gives him as much exercise as the average farmer gets from two hours of farm work.

The great physical need of the pupil is relaxation; the pupil needs to stretch his cramped muscles and send the blood in torrents thru his limbs, which become torpid with unuse. The pupil is in want of fresh air and of the deep inflation of the lungs that exercise in the open air gives. He ought to use his voice, too. The reformers propose to substitute calisthenics for the purpose of supplying all these wants. They will throw open the windows and let in fresh air; they will have a system of well-devised movements which will give the needed circulation of the blood, etc.

Calisthenic exercise serves a good place in the schoolroom, but its most important function is not a physiological one. It is true that the blood is caused to circulate more vigorously thru the limbs and those parts of the body that have become partly torpid with sitting or standing still. But the chief demand upon the pupil in calisthenics is a requirement of him to strain his attention and exercise his will. It is a will training to a greater extent than a physiological training. The great distinction between work and play is this one: in play the mind is spontaneous, governed entirely by its own individuality; in work the will power is exercised to conform its individuality to some externally prescribed course of action. Calisthenic exercise is severe work, and not by any means a relaxation. But the child needs relaxation, and not merely a change of work, altho the change is of some benefit. Exercise of the limbs, in accordance with a prescribed formula, is not the thing that nature requires.

Our medical advisers who supervise gymnastic exercises are in process of correcting the evils and extending the benefits of physical education. Their best service is to be along the line of enlightening the student who is on the verge or beyond the verge of nervous prostration how to build anew his nerves. For they will teach him the function of sleep and amusement; of rest before and after meals; of the danger of following a mental strain of the will by another strain of the will directed