The lack of proper muscular exercise is the cause of a large portion of the irritability, nervousness, back-ache and lassitude of the majority of people. Every person has in his bodily organization the means of preserving health and overcoming disease. The failure lies in the individuals refusing to use available means. A few simple gymnastics, practised daily, in a well-ventilated space, and in a light and loose dress, will, with careful diet, and frequent cold baths, preserve health and remove disease. Nor are these exercises complicated, they are within the reach of every one.

“An excellent plan,” says Prof. Hartelius, “is to have two thick vertically hanging ropes fixed to the ceiling, at two feet distance from each other, for all the members of the household to perform daily a hanging or trunk-lifting exercise. The hands grasp the ropes at equal heights above the head, and support, for a short moment, the whole weight of the body, either by simply hanging with straight arms or—if the person be sufficiently strong—by slowly bending the elbows, thus lifting the body. This trunk-lifting should be repeated three to six times, and, when the body is lowered in the intervals between, this should be done slowly, with the toes always touching the ground before the heels, to avoid nervous commotion.” But there are simpler exercises, which may be practised without even apparatus as simple as the above, and nothing on this line can be better than the same author’s series of gymnastic prescriptions for different diseases. If your daily occupation does not afford sufficient exercise, and, in consequence, your blood is thin, you are weak and nervous, or troubled with gout or obesity, he offers a series of exercises, simple and effective. Standing with arms stretched to full length, move them slowly sideways and upward, till they attain a vertical position above the head, hands and fingers well stretched. While moving to this position, the arms are gently rotated outwards, so as to make the palms face each other when stretched overhead; the arms are then lowered through the same plane. This exercise should be repeated eight to sixteen times, remembering that the head and trunk are to be kept straight, chest arched forward and arms kept well back during the movement. The movement may now be changed by moving the stretched arms slowly forward, upward and sideways, so as to describe a circle. Now standing straight, with arms dropped, raise the heels so as to throw the whole weight of the body on the toes, then the heels are lowered simultaneously and the toes raised, thus throwing the weight of the body on the heels. After repeating several times the heel-and-toe raising, move the shoulders so as to describe a circle forward, upward, backward and downward, keeping the head well up and the back stretched. Now stretch the arms and raise them quickly forward and upward, until they reach a vertical position at each side of the head; then they are slowly lowered sideways, downward, close to the side. The next motion, which the author calls by the expressive name of the “wing-stride-standing-trunk-circling,” is performed chiefly by means of the muscles of the trunk situated around the hips. The commencing position is, hands on the hips, feet placed sideways with a distance of two feet between them. The trunk is moved from the waist, describing as large a circle as possible, first to the left, then to the right. The legs should be kept straight, the head and hips steady. Motions with the head follow, and consist simply in bending the head, first slowly forward then raised and bent as far back as possible. Then bent from left to right as far as possible without moving the rest of the body. The head is turned from left to right and followed by the head-circling, in which the head describes slowly as wide a circle as can be done without straining, several times to the left and then as many times to the right. After the exercise with the head come trunk movements, to be performed in the following directions, forward, backward, to the sides, and turning in a circle, the hands being kept on the hips, the chest arched and the legs straight. This is but one prescription, each exercise, of course, being repeated several times. Prof. Hartelius gives a great variety of exercises, a careful use of which will certainly do much for any one. There can be no vigorous, bounding life in the frame which is inert. Motion is the sign of life through all the earth and bodily motion is absolutely necessary to health.