TRAINING OF THE HUMAN BODY. 623 
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question of movement and the precise effect of each movement upon the 
Juman organism is to be determined by exact laboratory method. 
We are glad to know of the investigators who are working upon these 
problems. We rejoice at the establishment of such workshops as the 
laboratory in the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University, 
jesigned for the experimental study of the physiology of exercise. 
Several new and important pieces of apparatus testify to the early success 
'n this special laboratory. May such institutions be multiplied ! 
The field of deformity, abnormality, and disease is of great importance 
‘or the physical educator, because the conditions named exist in slighter 
orm and complicate the problem of many lives with which the teacher 
has to deal. 
What I have given you will serve to suggest the scientific basis of 
physical education. Here we must have definite knowledge. Whatever 
individual investigators have contributed to our scanty fund of knowledge 
we recognize with gratitude. The history of physical education among 
the different nations offers us much of great value. 
These two thoughts, then, let me emphasize : 
First, That there is a science of physical education, based, with the 
other human sciences, upon a philosophy of human life. This science 
presents problems which are at once most interesting, important, and 
lifficult, whose answers must form part of the foundation of all education. 
Second, That the ever-present, interesting, important, and difficult 
problem in physical, as in all education, is the individual living human 
being. 
TRAINING OF THE HUMAN BODY. 
3Y DR. ANGELO MOSSO, PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF 
TURIN. JTALY. 
MANY people, even so-called experts, think that a physical exercise, to be 
)t use, must be executed with great energy and velocity. Imbued with a 
military spirit, they ask for exercises which consist of jerky motions, 
strong and violent grips and leaps. According to military judgment, a 
sudden motion is preferable to a slow one, because it is apt to be a decisive 
action ; but the characteristic step of a Prussian soldier and the manner 
of his handling the gun are not admired by either physiologist or artist ; 
they are entirely unsuitable for woman’s gymnastics. 
The activity of the muscles consists in their contraction caused by a 
chemical process. The chemical action is, however, useful also to the 
muscle itself. We are reminded of the old usage of the ““ gupper,” who 
asked his patient to hold his instrument case and turn it in his hands, so