The masculine sports of cricket; football, quoits, boxing, wrestling, leaping, foot-racing, etc., have been for centuries enjoyed by the boys of England in the playgrounds attached to the schools. In 1848 the political condition of Europe enabled the Turnverein to be reor ganized and the German emigration to the United States has brought these institutions with it. The first society was formed in New York. The organization, as first established, was confined to the practice of bodily exercises, but soon assumed a higher scope. Libraries were collected, schools established, a newspaper (Turnzeitung) founded, and various arrange ments were made for the diffusion of useful knowledge and for mental culture as well as physical training. Much credit must be given to Ling for his efforts to develop educational gymnastics. He has many followers, and his publication on 'Educational and Curative Gym nastics) has much merit. Ling has been severely criticized by English writers for his claims to originality. They go so far as to say that he simply used the works of authors of his time and of an earlier period, and took his holus-bonus from Dr. Francis Fuller in the 'Medicina Gymnastica.) The first edition was ptiblished in 1728, and it ran through eight others. It is also claimed that he borrowed in its entirety, without acknowledgment, the work of one John Pough, 'A Physiological, Theoretic and Practical Treatise on the Utility of the Science of Muscular Exercise for Restoring the Power of the Limbs,' with such materials and German gymnastics as had previously found their way through Denmark and Sweden.
Through the exertions of such men as Salz mann, Jahn and others, together with certain English authorities as Fuller, Pough, Croft, Clias, Thomas and John Graham, it was not difficult to establish a system. In fact Salz mann's gymnastics for youth needs only what Pough supplies to give all that Ling calls his system which is only adapted to beginners. The quality of the Ling exercises is stilted and there is little scope for variety. The fact is, the sys tem sticks too closely to automatic movements, which undoubtedly produce precise and studied monotony in drill.
Turning now to the Dio Lewis period, we see that it marks an epoch in the introduction of an American system of physical training formed in a small measure upon the Swedish and largely upon the German system. This sys tem incorporated free-arm exercises, the use of dumb-bells, clubs, rings, wands, together with what was then called the Pangymnastikon, but which was nothing more or less than a pair of flying rings equipped with a pair of detachable stirrups from wh.ch swinging, jumping and stretching exercises were performed. Dio Lewis' work took up the matter of the school desk, criticized the faulty position of the ordi nary desk and the poor schoolroom ventila tion. In 1861 the Normal Institute for Physi cal Education was incorporated and located in Boston. Its directors included many of the most distinguished educators of New England, and its departments of anatomy, physiology and hygiene were in charge of able teachers. Dr.
Dio Lewis gave the work in gymnastics. The aim of the institute was and is to furnish com petent advocates and teachers of physical training.
Next follows the work of Dr. Sargent, with his American system of gymnastics. Dr. Sar gent was born in Maine. He was fond of all kinds of outdoor sports and physical exercise, and joined a gymnasium club while attending high school; but as he had to work out of school hours to support his family, he could only attend to his exercising at odd moments as time permitted. On one occasion he broke a piece of apparatus and was expelled from the club. Piqued and aroused, he improvised an apparatus of his own in a barn. Shortly after ward the club gave a display and, after the members had finished, Sargent and a friend came forward and easily surpassed the athletic feats performed by the others. This event is said to have been the direct cause that led Dud ley Sargent to become an ardent physical edu cator. He was graduated from high school in 1867, was invited to become teacher of gymnas tics in Bowdoin College in 1869, and entered the college as a freshman in the regular course and conducted the physical work. In an endeavor to arouse the faculty and the public to the neces sity for physical training, he was successful to the extent that, in 1871, gymnastics became a part of the regular curriculum. and Mr. Sargent, though a student only 22 years of age, was placed at the head of the department, and filled the position with credit. About this time he brought out his system of chest-weights. In 1872 he accepted a position as director of the Yale College gymnasium, and for three years had charge of both Yale and Bowdoin, spending part time in each place. It was while at Yale that he fully developed the °individual appa ratus° for which he is so well known. At the solicitation of friends he went to New York and started a gymnasium on Fifth Avenue, which at once sprang into popularity. In 1879 he ac cepted the appointment of director of the Hem enway Gymnasium and assistant professor of physical training at Harvard University. This promotion of the department of physical train ing to a rank equal to the scholastic departments of the university was a great stride forward, and stamped the new system with the mark of public approval. To Dr. Sargent is the credit due for the invention of the chest-weight, the intercostal machine, quarter-circles, leg and finger machine, and other appliances to the num ber of 30 or more. He also elaborated a system of anthropometric measurements which enable an examiner to ascertain at once the physical condition of a student, and which guided a director in prescribing proper exercises for the development of deficient parts. Dr. Sargent be lieves in special work for individuals, and will not allow a man or woman to go into the gym nasium and take the drills and work with the apparatus indiscriminately. Health, harmony and symmetry are the results aimed at.