BALL. Games with balls were amour* the most favorite gymnastic exercises of the ancients. They were played almost daily by all, young and old; by the highest states man equally with the lowest of the people. The Greeks prized the game as a means of giving grace and elasticity to the figure, and erected a statue to one Aristonicus for his skill in it. The effeminate Mtccenits amused himself during a journey by playing B., as we learn from Horace. In the gymnasia of the Greek, and iu the Roman baths there was a special compartment for Ball-playing (splurri-yterium),wlicre certain rules and grada tions of the exercise were to lie observed according to the state of health of the player. The balls were of very various kinds; they were generally of leather, and filled with air; others were stuffed with feathers. Ornamented balls, composed of 12 differently col ored segments (such probably as are to be seen in modern toy shops), are mentioned in Plato's Pluedon. There was also great variety in the kinds of game, each having a name. In one, the B. was thrown up, and the players strove who would catch it as it fell; another was the same as our foot-ball; in a third, a number of persons threw it at one another, either with a view to hit, or for the B. to be caught and returned; in a fourth, the B. was kept rebounding between the earth and the palm of the player's hand as often as possible.
Ball-playing seems to have been of equal antiquit in the west of Europe, and to have come down uninterruptedly to modern times. In the 16th e., it was in great favor in the courts of princes, especially in Italy and France. The French jeu de paume and the English tennis (q.v.). are often mentioned. Houses were built for playingm all weatherS; and in gardens and elsewhere long alleys were laid out for the purpose, the names of which still adhere to many localities. The B. was struck with a mallet—It. snaglia, Fr.
snail or maille, Eng. mall. The mallet was also called by the compound name pail-mil, pell-mell, or pall-mall, from It. palls (Let. plla), a ball. The same names signified also the game or the alley where it was played; hence the English malls and pall-malls. The game is thus described in Blount's Glossographis, quoted inCunningham's Hand Book of London: "Pale maille (Fr.), a game wherein a round bowl is with a mallet struck through high arch of iron (standing at either end of an alley), which he that can do at the fewest blows, or at the number agreed on, wins. This game was heretofore used in the long alley, near St. James', and vulgarly called pell-mell." Towards the end of the 18th c., the game of B. ceased to be played at courts, and at the same time went out of fashion in the higher circles of continental society, though it is still practised by the people in Spain and Italy. The forms of it called cricket (q.v.), go' (q.v.). foot-ball (q.v.), fives (q.v.), lawn tennis, polo, etc., are more or less practised throughout Great Britain.
For cultivating graceful motion, agility, and strength, as well as promoting general health of body and cheerfulness of mind, Ball-playing is one of the best gymnastic exer cises. Ancient physicians were in the habit of prescribing a course of balls to their patients where most modern doctors would likely prescribe pills; and in this point at least the ancient practice might be copied with advantage.