There is still a lack of properly equipped teachers; but professional training is now being given at such in stitutions as the Y. M. C. A. College at Springfield, (Mass.) and in many of the universities. Many excellent women teachers are also being trained at Dr. Sargent's school in Cambridge.
Physical education is by no means confined to colleges and schools. The public gymnasium for people of all classes is becoming more and more com mon; and in public playgrounds also, par ticularly in the larger cities, there are classes for men and women as well as for boys and girls. In the army and navy much attention is given to setting up exercises and other calisthenic work. Much progress has been made lately in the study of theory not only, but also of practice. There is a society for the Ad vancement of Physical Education which holds annual meetings and which since 1885 has published annually a volume of proceedings. The American Physical Education Review (1896) is published at Springfield (Mass). Among the col leges the interests of physical education are furthered by the National Intercol legiate Athletic Association and by an as sociation of college teachers of physical training. Physical education occupies an important place in all public health pro grams both State and National. With the massing of population in the cities and the substitution of machinery for human labor it is inevitable that more attention must be paid to physical educa tion in the future than in the past; for it is a most direct and vital contribution not only to physical but to intellectual and moral progress.
The study of physical exercises in connection with the anatomy and physi ology of the body has shown that exer cise has an important place in medicine in the restoration of health and the cor rection of deformities. The modern use of massage as a means by passive exer cise of assisting the circulation and the nutrition of the body is closely connected with the Swedish system of physical edu cation and has been most developed in that country. The Zander system of passive exercise by means of apparatus set in motion by power is also an out growth of the Swedish system, and has proved to be of much service.
Physical education has a special place as a part of military training. The ob ject is not the development of muscular strength, but rather agility, endurance and co-ordination. In addition to
marching and setting up drills, boxing, fencing, wrestling, skating, swimming and all sorts of outdoor games are use ful. Marching is regarded as the most important; it is also the most exhausting owing to the weight of the pack, and good marching is attained only by care ful preparation. In the United States physical education has been slow in de velopment and we have adapted the ex ercises and games developed elsewhere. Lacrosse, which was played by the North American Indians, is the only game originating in the United States. Follen and Lieber, who were pupils of Jahn and expelled from Germany in 1825 in the reaction which followed the war of liberation, came to Boston and first introduced the German methods. This primary movement was short-lived, but the introduction of the Swedish sys tem into Boston by Baron Nils Posen had more permanent results. Through the liberality of Mrs. Hemenway the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics was founded in 1889 to provide for the instruction of teachers of physical edu cation for the schools, and the system was introduced into the public schools of the city in 1890. Eight States, Illi nois, New York, New Jersey, Nevada, Rhode Island, California, Maryland and Delaware, have now passed laws making physical education obligatory in all the schools. It has been most developed in the Gary school, where 24 per cent. of the time in the elementary grades is de voted to it, with a proportionately di minished time in the higher grade.
There is great difficulty, owing to the great number of students in the public schools and the inadequacy of the teach ing force in adapting the system to the needs of the individual child, which should be done if the best results are to be attained. Gymnastic drills of great advantage to the bodily development of a vigorous child would be found too strenuous for a weak, imperfectly de veloped child of the same age. As far as possible all school exercises should be out of doors and games should play an important part. Under the proper conditions rational systems of physical education, both for children and adults, will lead to a higher degree of physical perfection and an increase in health and happiness.