EXERCISES WITH AND WITHOUT APPARATUS. 629 
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Apparatus work presents these conditions fully and completely. This 
1s palpably true in all heavy work, but is still true in work with dumb- 
sells, Indian clubs, wands, etc. We have the sensory stimuli appearing 
more or less strongly, acting as guides, and controlling the motor impulses. 
As the Indian club swings about the head it tends to move uniformly and 
mn a true curve; the hand, feeling this, is guided thereby. Consciousness 
's centered in the club, and there is no inhibitory consciousness of the arms 
and their muscles. In case of heavy work, such as pitching hay, this 
guidance is most perfect, unifying the whole effort of the body, and forc- 
.ng the workman into beautiful attitudes. Is not the grace of the gon- 
dolier due to the same perfect interaction of perception and motor 
response ? Give the awkward boy something to do with his hands, and he 
loses his self-consciousness and awkwardness, for the reflex arcs are occu- 
pied, and the motor impulses are guided naturally ; his consciousness is 
projected into the thing to be done, and all goes easily. It is interesting 
to note that the games which have held the activities of youth, such as 
football, baseball, handball, cricket, and a thousand others, bring into 
play the higher reflex processes, involving the perception and interpreta- 
sion of external physical conditions, and the quick, appropriate, motor 
responses. 
Apparatus work may be defined as work which involves reflex stimula- 
;ion and control of motor activity by sensory stimuli. 
Free work is, conversely, such work as does not involve reflex stimula- 
tion and control of the motor activities by sensory stimuli. 
Let us now consider the problem presented in free exercises. The so- 
called order movements for the arms given by the Swedes and the free-arm 
exercises of the Germans are typical examples. The exercises of the trunk 
and legs belong properly to the class of apparatus movements, for here we 
have a distinct guiding by sensory impulses. If the order is given to 
bring the arms to a horizontal position outward at the sides, we have an 
antirely different chain of events from that which we have discussed. 
Here we have a stimulus to the ear, but one that has no direct natural 
relation to motor activity ; it only gives rise to a motor response through 
she complicated process of calling up a concept of the movement demanded. 
The consciousness is immediately introspective, becoming fixed on the 
movement and on the arm itself ; if on the individual muscle, so much 
she worse. Naturally the accuracy of the movement will depend on the 
vividness and accuracy of the remembered concept, for it must duplicate a 
previous movement. Such movements are difficult, but where is the diffi- 
culty ? The small boy who has had no so-called systematic training is 
able to hit a fly on the wall in such a position in relation to his shoulder, 
and to do it instantly ; yet when you order him to execute the aforesaid 
movement, he gets his hand perhaps four or five inches too high, or too 
low, or too far forward, or too far back, usually upward and backward.