348 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
to which conditions they formerly had failed to adapt themselves. Our 
facilities were imperfect, and a crudeness of procedure marked our efforts, 
yet there was a decided improvement manifested in the men in physiog- 
nomy, carriage, muscular increment, and general betterment of tissue and 
vegetative functions. But better than these were the evidences presented 
of mental stimulation and quickening. 
The subsequent labor, conduct, and progress of thesc men daring the 
remainder of their prison life was markedly in advance of what it was 
orior to the time of taking them in hand in the manner described, and it 
was demonstrated that the effects of five months of physical education 
vere not ephemeral, even with most unpromising subjects. 
In 1887 other classes were formed, and from this time dates the intro- 
luction of physical training into reformatory measures at Elmira. The 
work was, however, still experimental. Some men were treated in con- 
nection with a special dietary, while others received the ordinary prison 
fare. The value of this year’s work consisted in the demonstration it 
afforded of the value of a special dietary. The men receiving a restricted 
amount of specially prepared food did better and were more responsive 
than those who had an unlimited amount of ordinary prison fare, suffi- 
ciently nutritive for all ordinary purposes, but not apparently meeting 
‘ndividual conditions in a particular class. 
From 1887 the number of men subjected to physical training increased 
yearly. Instead of fools, dullards, and apparent incorrigibles, we began in 
addition to include those whose health declined simply us the result of im- 
prisonment, those who had organic disease, together with those in whom 
shere was functional impairment or perversity. In other words, the 
physical training class, by a process of natural selection, came to supple- 
ment the hospital as it had previously supplemented the school. 
We were embarrassed through a lack of proper quarters. One week, 
with our classes, we occupied the main hall of the prison ; the next we 
were in the end of a shop, where we were disturbed by the vibrations of 
machinery ; and for a time our classes were in the loft of a barn; and 
between times, weather permitting, they used the quadrangle, either in 
‘he heat of the sun or the shadow of the building, according to the time 
of the day. We became accustomed to the order “move on” or “step 
lively,” and acquired the Arab’s facility in folding tents and silently steal- 
ing away. 
The report for 1886, together with those of succeeding years, brought 
50 public notice this phase of prison work. To many it was a novelty in 
prison administration, while to others it was simply the application of an 
educational measure of established value. In 1889 the legislature granted 
an appropriation for a gymnasium and bath-house, to be used in the scien- 
tific treatment of inmates physically and mentally deficient. The work 
of construction was begun early in the summer of that vear and pushed