The best results of exercise are to be had outdoors from the activity of vigorous games. Some of us are so placed that we cannot have daily recreation outdoors and it becomes necessary to give our bodies some type of activity to keep them normal. More than half the weight of the body is made up of muscular tissue. If this muscle is not used the health of the whole body is affected. Exercise is a necessary condition of health, just as food and sleep are. The body is very responsive to the demands made upon it. In fact, each one of us can mold her own body, very much as a sculptor fashions a statue. This is done by giving the body proper care and the right forms of activity. A weak, infirm physique is nothing less than a crime. It is the duty of each one of us, both for our own sakes, and for the benefit of future generations, to perfect our physical frame. It is a duty to be strong and beautiful in body as well as in mind and spirit.

The Nose

Always breathe through the nose. Fifty years ago Mr. Catlin wrote a book called Shut your Mouth and Save your Life, and he showed how the Red Indians for a long time had adopted that method with their children to the extent of a cruel habit of tying up their jaws at night, to ensure breathing through the nostrils.

Breathing through the nose prevents germs of disease getting from the air into the throat and stomach; it also prevents a growth in the back of the throat called "adenoids," which reduce the breathing capacity of the nostrils, and also cause deafness.

By keeping the mouth shut you prevent yourself from getting thirsty when you are doing hard work. The habit of breathing through the nose prevents snoring. Therefore practice keeping your mouth shut and breathing through your nose.

Ears

A Scout must be able to hear well. The ears are very delicate, and once damaged are apt to become incurably deaf. No sharp or hard instrument should be used in cleaning the ear. The drum of the ear is a very delicate, tightly stretched skin which is easily damaged. Very many children have had the drums of their ears permanently injured by getting a box on the ear.

Eyes

A Scout, of course, must have particularly good eye-sight; she must be able to see anything very quickly, and to see it a long way off. By practicing your eyes in looking at things at a great distance they will grow stronger. While you are young you should save your eyes as much as possible, or they will not be strong when you get older; therefore avoid reading by lamplight or in the dusk, and also sit with your back or side to the light when doing any work during the day; if you sit facing the light it strains your eyes.

The strain of the eyes is a very common failure with growing girls, although very often they do not know it, and headaches come most frequently from the eyes being strained; frowning on the part of a girl is very generally a sign that her eyes are being strained. Reading in bed brings headaches.

Teeth

Bad teeth are troublesome, and are often the cause of neuralgia, indigestion, abscesses, and sleepless nights. Good teeth depend greatly on how you look after them when you are young. Attention to the first set of teeth keeps the mouth healthy for the second teeth, which begin to come when a child is seven and these will last you to the end of your life, if you keep them in order.

If one tooth is allowed to decay, it will spread decay in all the others, and this arises from scraps of food remaining between the teeth and decaying there.

A thorough Scout always brushes her teeth inside and outside and between all, just the last thing at night as well as other times, so that no food remains about them to decay. Scouts in camps or in the wilds of the jungle cannot always buy tooth-brushes, but should a tiger or a crocodile have borrowed yours, you can make your teeth just as bright and white as his are by means of a frayed-out-dry, clean stick.

Learn how to make camp tooth-brushes out of sticks. Slippery elm or "dragonroot" sticks for cleaning teeth can be got at chemists' shops as samples.

Measurement of the Girl

It is of paramount importance to teach the young citizen to assume responsibility for her own development and health.

Physical drill is all very well as a disciplinary means of development, but it does not give the girl any responsibility in the matter.

It is therefore deemed preferable to tell each girl, according to her age, what ought to be her height, weight, and various measurements (such as chest, waist, arm, leg, etc.). She is then measured, and learns in which points she fails to come up to the standard. She can then be shown which exercises to practice for herself in order to develop those particular points. Encouragement must afterwards be given by periodical measurements, say every three months or so.

Cards can be obtained from the "Girl Scouts" Office, which, besides giving the standard measurements for the various ages, give columns to be filled in periodically, showing the girl's remeasurements and progress in development. If each girl has her card it is a great incentive to her to develop herself at odd times when she has a few minutes to spare.

My Physical Development

Fill in this page quarterly, the progress shown should be a useful incentive.

Games to Develop Strength

Skipping, rowing, fencing, swimming, tennis, and handball are all valuable aids to developing strength.

Use also:—

Staff exercises, to music if possible. Maze and spiral; follow-my-leader, done at a jog-trot in the open air. A musical accompaniment when possible. If done indoors, all the windows in the room must be kept open top and bottom. Sing the tune.

Flags.—Choose sides; each player lays down a flag or a handkerchief at her own goal, and each side tries to capture the flags of the other; once she touches the opponent's flag she cannot be taken prisoner, but goes back with the flag to her side.

Players can rescue a prisoner by touching her in prison. Players should keep moving as much as possible all the time, and try to evade being captured.

Practice throwing at a mark. Put a pebble on the top of a staff and stand at a certain line so many paces off.

Morris dances (old English country dances) and the folk-songs.

Endurance is Useful

Have you not often heard of accidents on the ice? In the winter of 1895 some schoolgirls were sliding on a frozen canal, when one girl twelve years old ventured into the middle. Then there was an ominous cracking, and in a moment she was struggling in water many feet deep.

Miss Alice White, a teacher, happened to witness the accident. Notwithstanding the warnings of several persons standing on the towing-path, who assured her it was most dangerous, she at once went on the ice and approached as close to the hole as she dared with safety. She then lay down at full length, so as to more equally distribute her weight, and tried to seize the struggling child. But under her weight the ice broke, and the brave girl was precipitated into the cold water. The bystanders shouted to her to forsake the child, and at least save her own life, but she did nothing of the kind. She held on to her precious burden, and literally fought her way out. Piece after piece of the ice broke off, but she at length reached the bank in a state of great exhaustion. Her hands were cut in many places by the sharp ice, but they were wounds of which any one might well have been proud. Miss White was only sixteen years old, and it was the second time she had saved a life.

Laying a pole or a branch across the hole is a good plan.

An Easy Way to Grow Strong

It is possible for any girl, even though she may be small and weak, to make herself into a strong and healthy woman if she takes the trouble to do a few body exercises every day. They take only about ten minutes, and do not require any kind of apparatus.

This should be practiced every morning, the first thing on getting up, and every evening before going to bed. A girl of ten years should weigh at least fifty pounds, the average height at that age being forty-nine inches. The value of this exercise is much increased if you think of the object of each move while you are doing it, and if you are very particular to breathe the air in through your nose. A great many people who are pale and ill are made so by living in rooms where the windows are seldom opened and the air is full of poisonous gases or germs. Open your windows, especially at the top, every day to let the foul air out.

Do not exercise immediately after eating; let your meal be digested.

Girls who have not done these exercises before should begin them gradually with care, bit by bit, doing more every day. Brush your hair, clean your teeth, wash out your mouth and nose, drink a cup of cold water, and then go on with the following exercises.

It is best to carry these out with as few clothes on as possible, either in the open air or close to an open window. The movements should be executed vigorously.

First Series

Exercise I.

Stand erect, hands at side.

Count 1. Bend knees deeply with trunk held vertical.

Count 2. Straighten knees and return to an erect position.

Count 3. Let the body fall directly forward until it reaches an angle of 45 degrees, advancing the left foot a long stride to catch the weight of the body, and bringing the closed hands to shoulders, palms forward, elbows close at side, shoulders drawn back and chest out.

Count 4. Bend at the waist without moving the legs and touch the floor with both hands.

Count 5. Return to the third position.

Count 6. Stand erect.

Repeat ten times, using first one foot, then the other. At the end of one week use this exercise fifteen times. Continue to increase the repetitions by fives each week until you can do thirty.

Exercise II.

Take five deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling, filling the lower part of the chest, and at the end of the breath expelling all the air you can.

Second Series

Exercise I.

Run in place, that is go through the movements of running without gaining ground, twenty steps, rest a minute and do fifty counts.

Exercise II.

Lying on the back, hands at side, raise the body and touch the toes with both hands, ten times.

Exercise III.

Count 1. Charge sideways, raising the arms sideways to a vertical position.

Count 2. Bend and twist to the left, touching the floor with both hands on the left side of the foot.

Counts 3 and 4. Make the return movements.

Repeat ten times in each direction.

Exercise IV.

Deep breathing eight times.

Third Series

Exercise I.

Bend knees deeply, fifteen times.

Exercise II.

Lying face downward, hands at side, raise the head and chest from the floor as far as possible.

Exercise III.

Lying face downward, head resting on the folded arms, raise each leg upward and backward from the hip with straight knee, ten times.

Exercise IV.

Lying on the back, hands under head, raise both legs with straight knees to a vertical position, toes pointed upward, ten times.

Exercise V.

Charge obliquely forward left, arms in line with the body and rear leg; touch the floor and return, making it a four-count exercise.

Repeat ten times in each direction.

Exercise VI.

Run in place for one minute, rest and repeat.

Exercise VII.

Take ten deep breaths.