on some other task-a careful observation of a picture or the likeand they assumed that the mental strain of the latter checked the consolidation process necessary for a permanent memory. This result strongly suggests also that interference of association occurred, due to the task requiring attention.

That interference of association is especially likely to occur in the first few minutes after anything has been learned seems to be most strikingly illustrated by these experiments of Muller and Pilzecker. After learning a series of nonsense syllables by the method of paired associates, they gave the observer a task requiring concentration of attention a few seconds after the learning of the original series was completed. Again in another series the task requiring attention was given six minutes after the original series was learned. In the first series there was not time for organization before the distraction was given; hence less was remembered, probably on account of the greater interference of association.

The practical bearing of this is obvious on a moment's reflection. Haste in learning defeats its own end, and a short rest may frequently be distinctly more advantageous than continued work. For the organization of permanent memory, and to avoid confusion, it is especially necessary that suitable periods of rest should occur between the learning of disparate topics. In the schoolroom, for example, from purely pedagogical reasons, not to mention hygiene, it is usually wise to give a rest of 5 or 10 minutes, at least after one recitation or the study of one subject, before taking up a different one. Especially after the learning of a fact or principle of prime importance, a rest of a few minutes to give time for the organization of the memory may be a distinct advantage. The hurry from one topic to another in the ordinary class drill does not usually mean efficiency. The teacher crowds as many points as possible into the recitation, has little time for drill and application, and one minute before the close of the hour assigns the lesson for the next day without explanation or illustration.

From the point of view of hygiene such methods mean interference of association, confusion, and worry. It is not a matter of indifference to health whether five or six hours a day for a long period of school life be spent in hurry, attitudes of nervousness, and confusion, or in developing habits of concentrated attention and orderly association. It is precisely such conditions in the schoolroom and often in the home that have developed the nervous irritability and instability proverbial among Americans. It is the disgrace of the school that its graduates have to be reeducated in the hospital and the sanitarium.

A wise and successful superintendent told me some years ago that he sometimes thought his best teachers were doing the least for their

children, because they were doing too much for them, and gave them little opportunity for self-assertion and self-activity. This is typical of many schools, and so it has come to pass from the point of view of hygiene and these recent experimental studies that often those who teach least instruct the most, and the poorest teachers do the most for the children. The oft quoted and frequently resented words of Kraepelin, that the inattention of children is their salvation, and uninteresting teachers a hygienic necessity, have assumed a new significance. Kraepelin might have added that uninteresting teachers are often a pedagogical necessity, because they alone give children the periods of idleness necessary for the organization of permanent memories and of what may happen to be learned.

The business of the school is supposed to be learning, but learning means the acquisition of new material, its assimilation, its organization as a part of permanent memory. The essential conditions of this process, however, are concentration of attention, orderly association, freedom from hurry and nervousness, mental poise, and an attitude of leisure.

X. ATHLETICS AND HEALTH.

A. EFFECTS OF ATHLETICS UPON HEALTH.

C. F. STOKES, M. D.,

Surgeon-Gencral, United States Navy.

In 1911 the medical records of 625 star or specialized athletes of the classes of 1892 to 1911, inclusive, at the Naval Academy were carefully examined and the results of this investigation published. In 1912 the records of 580 nonathletes of the same classes were examined, not so much in the expectation that the physiological question involved was susceptible of being answered definitely by mathematics alone, as in response to the general request for further information.

The results obtained show that 22 casualties (retirements and deaths) occurred among the nonathletes as compared with 21 among the athletes. Further, it was found that from those diseases selected, to which athletics have a possible or probable causative relation, there has been but 1 death among nonathletes as compared with 6 for the athletic group. The number still in the service whose medical records show the listed abnormal physical conditions is 187 for nonathletes, as against 198 for athletes. The following conditions or disabilities show an excess amounting to 50 per cent or more among athletes: Arteriosclerosis, valvular disease of the heart, cardiac irregularity, cardiac dilatation, cardiac hypertrophy, gastric disturb

ances, albuminuria, general poor health, obesity, tuberculosis, and various traumatic lesions as well.

This bare statement of fact shows that in casualties and in the listed abnormal physical conditions the nonathletes and the athletes are about equal, but this is misleading without due consideration of other factors involved. It must be remembered that the athletic group consists of a body of "twice-picked" men, yet, despite the bandicap of supposedly better physical material, the casualty list of the athletes about equals that of the nonathletes. Another element in this consideration which must carry great weight is the fact that those who attempted to enter the athletic list and failed are counted among the nonathletes. Further, the records naturally fail to show those whose physical disabilities are of such a character as not to cause their admission to the sick list, yet whose efficiency has been impaired by them. There are many such officers in the service who consult medical officers for cardiac irregularities, obesity, or physical staleness, in other words, for conditions that may be attributed to excessive physical development followed by periods of physical quietude exacted by service conditions. These causes do not become matters of record unless they are of such moment as to render the officers wholly unfit for duty, yet such influences in many instances materially affect the military efficiency of the individual and should be averted, if possible.

It is interesting to note that among the 625 athletes there were 15 individuals who developed hernia and this disability appears to be associated particularly with a football record. This game, though somewhat hazardous as played, is considered dangerous by reason of the disabling after effects that, in my opinion, make it questionable as a sport to be encouraged, at least where future naval officers are being trained. Long-distance crew or foot racing appears to throw the greatest strain on the organism, since the effort is severe as well as long continued.

It seems reasonable to suppose that the disabilities among the athletic list are largely due to spectacular athleticism among young men who are prone to overtrain or hazard too much and would not have been acquired had the overstraining and overtraining not been indulged in. The prolonged, rigorous course of physical exercises necessary in physical sports is believed to be dangerous in its after effects upon those who indulge in athletic sports sufficiently to excel therein and I wish to emphasize the fact that we ought to look for the after effects of athletics among those who tried to excel and failed; it is here, I am convinced, that we shall find a high degree of damage.

Aside from the injuries produced the test of modern college athletics lies in the question as to whether or not they help the business

or professional man in his after life. Personally, I am convinced that this function is not fulfilled. I feel sure that those who are in a position to judge will agree with me. Not only does the modern method of physical training turn out men who easily fall prey to degenerative changes, but it wholly neglects the bulk of the young men in college life, they (the "nonathletes ") being left to gain what physical development their own initiative inspires, unguided and unrecorded. The tendency is to select those already well developed. train them and grind them until the "unfit" are weeded out, and then overtrain the remainder.

I am not arguing for less athletics. In fact, I believe we should have more athletics, but they should be of a character to produce a well-rounded development of all rather than an excessive development of a few who are already well equipped physically. Such physical training should be compulsory, marked upon a basis of standards, and be as much required for graduation as excellence in Greek. Latin, or mathematics. It should produce a supple, agile, all-round, well-developed individual, not a muscle-bound mass of brawn. Clear minds and developed muscles are conducive to prompt, welldirected action in emergency and it is this mental and muscular balance and resulting self-reliance for which one should strive.

B. SCHOOL ATHLETICS FROM A MEDICAL STANDPOINT.

J. W. KIME, M. D., Fort Dodge. Iowa.

There are athletic events, especially those of the track, that are too strenuous for the boy; they are unreasonable, inhuman, brutal. Every track-event race above the 220-yard dash belongs to this class; the quarter-mile, which calls for the highest speed, the last ounce of effort the boy can command from start to finish; the half-mile: the mile race; the two-mile; and everything of this class or kind. These things are not educational, not developmental; they are foolish, injurious, inhuman.

In all these races above the 220, many boys reach the line completely exhausted; every cell and fiber of every tissue in their bodies has been called upon to give its last unit of strength; heart and lungs have been driven to the extreme limit of their endurance; the vessels are at the point of bursting under the mighty pressure of the heart, and frequently these vessels do give way and hemorrhages occur. Many fall across the line and are carried from the field struggling for breath.

Would I abolish athletics? No; but I would make athletics sane. I would not force the boy as I would not drive a horse or abuse a dog. I would make every feature of school athletics fall within the

reach of the boy. I would safeguard it at every point by thorough medical guidance.

I would eliminate all that is harmful, and utilize that which will develop the physical body of every boy and every girl regardless of ability to compete on track or field.

Physical culture and development for all, rather than the pace which kills for the few should be the aim.

C. ATHLETICS FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBOYS IN BOSTON.

EDGAR L. RAUB.

Submaster, John A. Andrews School, Boston, Mass.

In Boston the elementary school sports are under bona fide school organization, under school regulations and school rules. These are untouched by outside interests. No trophies are given, neither cups, medals, nor buttons. Winners of events in the spring meet, and winners of division league schedules in baseball and soccer, receive certificates testifying to the fact. These, like graduation diplomas, bear the signatures of the chairman of the school committee and of the master of the school attended by the winner.

Exclusive authority over school athletics, including the appropriation of money for playground work, has been vested in the Boston school committee by State legislative enactment. The department of school hygiene has from the beginning managed the sports of the boys with hygienic and educational ends in view.

Boston is conservative in the range of athletic sports followed, and while providing for a variety of athletic interests, affording exercises for different groups of muscles, avoids the elaborate program of events followed in some cities. Besides baseball and soccer, the principal games for team play, there are short dashes, the shorter runs, and relay races-classified as track sports; standing broad and running broad jump; running high jump; running hop, step, and jump; and shot put--classified as field sports. There are no long runs, no hurdle races, and no heavy shot.

No boy is allowed to compete in more than one event, relay races not excepted. This provision has a twofold usefulness: It is a preventive hygienic measure primarily, and at the same time it allows the competition of an increased number of boys. No boy is allowed to compete in the meet unless certified by the school physician as being in fit physical condition. At the meet held in June, 1913, there were no accidents and no cases of overexertion among 1,000 entries.

The chief features of the present state of Boston's plan are: Entire separation of school athletics from outside interests; close connection with the regular school work; type of athletic sports chosen; hygienic restrictions upon these; spirit of the training given; type of