324 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
that the blood should flow better ; and we see from this that a very gentle 
muscular activity suffices to accelerate the flow of blood. 
Kven without eontraction of the muscle we may make it stronger and 
nore massive by means of massage. Concerning this phenomenon, im- 
oortant investigations have been made which prove unquestionably that 
gymnastics owe their greatest usefulness to the fact that the muscles in 
their activity ‘‘knead” themselves, and that light motion aids the con- 
stant flow of lymph and blood better than strong and sudden motion. 
In the gymnastic exercises used at present, the tests of strength nearly 
always consist in lifting the weight of the body by means of arms and 
legs. Many believe that in order to increase muscular strength great 
feats are necessary. This is an error. I believe that muscular contrac- 
sions of short duration, involving less than one-tenth of the body’s weight, 
are far more effective in strengthening and enlarging the muscles. Such 
movements may be made with dumb-bells or clubs. Experiments proved 
that girls between eight and thirteen years of age doubled and trebled the 
strength of their arms in fourteen days. I do not believe that the efforts of 
>xercising on the horizontal ladder and bars can have a similar result, 
oecause the muscles, in lifting the whole weight of the body, work less 
ander physiological conditions. 
It is remarkable, also, that slow physical exercises not only crease the 
strength of the muscles, but make them more economical in their per- 
formances—that is to say, decrease secretion by means of respiratory 
action, hence decrease the amount of nourishment required. Female 
gymnastics never aim at extraordinary performances of strength ; they are 
‘ntended to facilitate mobility and gracefulness. 
Instead of given instructions, concerning every single movement, a series 
of movements should be practiced with a physiological purpose. How 
hard it is for mothers to teach their daughters to walk gracefully! It is 
a complicated study to learn the combination of movements necessary for 
‘he girls to know how to carry themselves well. 
it is an error of gymnastic teachers to apply the same method and the 
same apparatus for both sexes. To women, the muscles used in respira- 
fion and those of the abdomen are much more important than for men. 
Those are terrible moments in which the contractive power of these 
muscles is so feeble that the labor in giving birth is prolonged, and may 
even cause death. German gymnastics, invented for soldiers, have not 
saken woman into consideration, and have done nothing for the develop- 
ment of the muscles of the diaphragm and the abdomen, although a long 
ine of exercises for these purposes lies near at hand and seems absolutely 
aecessary. 
Moreover, the present method of gymnastics does not seem to be favor- 
able to the training of soldiers for the field. The Swiss Monthly for 
Army Officers, of November, 1892, contains an instructive report: <I