The vast majority of people are almost wholly responsible for their
physical condition. Bodily strength and sound health, like mental
accomplishments, are the results of cultivation; and the greater part
of mankind can as easily obtain them, as they can acquire a knowledge
of Mathematics in school or college.
Let any one place, side by side, the closely confined student or clerk,
and the man who has paid special attention to his physical culture.
Compare the pale or sallow face, the flat chest, the narrow, stooping
shoulders of the former, with the development of the latter, whose
vigorous frame defies disease, whose strength gives a consciousness
of power that makes him fearless of danger, and who can exult in that
greatest earthly possession, exuberant health. These two classes of men
will be the fathers of the next generation. The great disparity between
them can be obviated by physical training on the part of the former. If
not, then, merely as a means of happiness to ourselves, is it not a
duty we owe to succeeding generations, that we cultivate these means of
raising man to the summit of his nature, physically as well as mentally?
The condition of civilization (if one avoids its vices), does not
weaken bodily vigor, provided the locomotive system is kept in thorough
activity. The masses should not only have the necessary amount of
exercise in the open air, but a perfect exercise of every muscle in the
body.
A neglect of the powers with which our Creator has endowed us, is
punished by their withdrawal. Allow the intellect to remain idle and it
will become sluggish. All parts of the human organism not sufficiently
worked, are liable to degenerate; the nerve force which should guide
and govern is allowed to sleep; the muscles become inelastic fibre of
but little vitality. Tie up an arm for months and it withers away. Let
the muscles of our young men and delicate young ladies remain idle;
they degenerate and atrophy.
“Everything that prolongs human life, ameliorates human suffering,
elevates and develops the human frame, is an element of progress; an
element that all true men admire and cherish.”
The velocipede is one of the finest inventions of the nineteenth
century. It is a physiologically constructed machine; is an invaluable
means of promoting health, and bids fair to emancipate our youth from
the common muscular lethargy and debility.
Velocipeding is superior to skating, horseback riding, base-ball, and
rowing. While skating is good for the legs, horseback riding for the
chest, base-ball and rowing for the legs and arms, the benefit derived
from exercise on the velocipede is not local. _It gives a natural
exercise and general development to every muscle of the body._ The arms
are the first to feel the effect of the exercise, for the pressure of
the feet upon the stirrups must be met by a corresponding pressure of
the hands on the tiller, necessary to prevent the front wheel from
turning. This pressure of the tiller against the hands puts the rider
in an upright position, with elbows well back and hands well extended,
straightens the stooping shoulders, facilitates respiration, expands
the lungs, and develops the chest. No position can be maintained upon
the velocipede, inconsistent with ease and elegance of motion, or
incompatible with the laws of health.
Some physicians of prominence have pronounced against the velocipede,
and one has issued a pronunciamento advising young men to shun it,
but the majority of the profession give it their hearty and cordial
support. Medical men are among its most eager votaries. One of the
best physicians in our country, who makes diseases of the lungs a
specialty, rides the bicycle two hours a day, and prescribes it for
his patients. He considers it a great preventive of that scourge of
our climate, consumption; and a grand aid to the development and
improvement of the human body. Many busy men of the profession in New
York, Boston, and other large cities, either have their own machines,
or ride daily in the schools and rinks. They regard this preparation of
Iron (the velocipede), as better than any in their Materia Medica.